Search results for ""Globe Pequot Press""

When the tide of war is on the rise, telling friend from foe is a dangerous proposition. It's 1794, and newly promoted Captain Nathan Peake is dispatched to the Caribbean to take command of the British navy's latest frigate, the 32-gun Unicorn, a ship with a tragic history of mutiny and murder. Indeed, her previous captain was found washed up in New Orleans with his throat cut, and the men who did it are still at large. But Peake has greater problems to deal with: he must find the French war ship Virginie—sent to the region to spread war, rebellion and mayhem—and stop her at any cost. Along the way, he confronts the seductive charms of La Princesa Negra, the witch queen of the Army of Lucumi.

Read more less

The greatest fighters of all time come to life in the pages of this carefully researched and fully illustrated guide to the "Sweet Science." Packed with facts, figures, and action photos, every honoree in the Hall of Fame is here, from the earliest bare-knuckle brawlers to 20th-century heroes like Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. In addition to the most significant boxers, this collection also includes information on lesser-known contributors to the sport—writers, journalists, promoters, trainers, and cutmen. The fifth edition has definitive fight-by-fight records of all International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees through 2011 and updated biographies and records for previous inductees.

Read more less

Best known for the hit musicals West Side Story and Gypsy, Arthur Laurents began his career writing socially minded plays such as Home of the Brave and Time of the Cuckoo. He also garnered impressive credits as a screenwriter (The Way We Were) and stage director (La Cage aux Folles). Such a varied professional life makes for absorbing reading, as unleashed in his lively 2000 autobiography, Original Story By.Laurents passed away early in 2011, but not before writing The Rest of the Story, in which he revealed all that had happened in his life since Original Story By, filled with the wisdom he gained in growing older and a new perspective brought on by Laurents' experience of deep personal loss, including the death of his longtime companion, Tom Hatcher.Laurents' style remains engrossing and brutally honest. His voice is still highly intelligent, loving, generous, and gracious. He remained committed to his artistic vision to the very end, as captured in the epilogue, which he completed only days before his death. The book ends with a loving and insightful coda by Laurents' good friend and the editor of this book, David Saint.

Read more less

In the tradition of C.S. Forester, ex-sailor Richard Woodman brings history to life in a rousing tale of daring deeds and clashing cutlasses. it is the summer of 1804 and Napoleon is massing his vast army for the invasion of England. His powerful Combined Fleet is preparing to meet Admiral Nelson's British Fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar. In the annals of history this battle completely decimated the Combined Fleet, ranking second in destructiveness only to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater, newly appointed commander of the frigate Antigone, is preparing for battle off the French coast, as part of Admiral Nelson's highly effective blockade. As the fleets draw together, Drinkwater is unprepared for the irregular role destiny deals him when he becomes a prisoner of the French and takes the brunt of the British bombardment in the orlop of an enemy ship.

Read more less

The Revenger: The Life and Times of Wild Bill Hickok examines Wild Bill’s life in the context of 19th Century American history, from his birth, through his early manhood, and to his eventual demise. Woven into his life story are the significant role played by the Civil War in the development of his character and philosophy, the role played by popular media in the creation of his legendary status, and the changing of the western landscape and lifestyle that began to eliminate the need for gunmen such as Wild Bill. The book discusses Hickok’s early jobs in law enforcement and his associations with other significant westerners and recounts the events that transformed Hickok from a formidable lawman into a national celebrity and popular hero. Details of Hickok’s most famous gunfights, including weapons used and participants and outcomes and, of course, the end of his career including his famous death at the hands of an assassin in a saloon in Deadwood South Dakota are all explored. The book also incorporates changing views of historiographical interpretation of lawmen/gunmen in general and Wild Bill in particular. The book will have extensive illustrations—archival photos of Wild Bill, his contemporaries, his guns, etc.

Read more less

Utah Curiosities brings to the reader with humor and affection—and a healthy dose of attitude—the oddest, quirkiest, and most outlandish places, personalities, events, and phenomena found within the state’s borders and in the chronicles of its history. A fun, accessible read, Utah Curiosities is a who's who of unusual and unsung heroes. This compendium of the state’s quirks and characters will amuse Utah’s residents and visitors alike.

Read more less

Colicky horses, trucks high-centered in pastures, late nights spent in barns birthing calves--the trials and tribulations of farm and ranch life are as central to its experience as amber waves of grain and Sunday dinners at the ranch house. Ankle High and Knee Deep collects together essays about lessons learned by ranch women, cowgirls, and farmers about what they've learned while standing in or stepping out of "mud, manure, and other offal" in their day to day lives on the land. This collection of entertaining and inspirational voices offers unique perspectives on relationships, loss, love, marriage, and parenting and other universal issues. These are contemporary accounts of women struggling to keep a lifestyle intact, recollections of childhoods spent in open spaces, and tales of overcoming obstacles--inspirational reading for city dwellers and country folk, alike.

Read more less

WHEN ROCK MET REGGAE: HOW THE CULTURAL CROSSOVER OF BOB MARLEY, THE CLASH, HTE SPECIALS AND MPORE CHANGED THE FACE OF ROCK MUSIC

Read more less

A captivating, seductive and monumental celebration of the life and career of one of the greatest actors of the 20th century.

Read more less

Reading Rainbow is one of the most successful PBS children's series in television history, earning numerous national and international awards including 26 Emmy's and a Peabody Award. But perhaps more important than anything else, Reading Rainbow helped generations of children cultivate a love for books.The brainchild of co-author Tony Buttino, Reading Rainbow is very much a story of humble beginnings and enormous perseverance. Over five summers, co-author Tony Buttino and his colleagues at WNED-TV, the public television station in Buffalo, New York, worked in collaboration with educators and librarians to experiment with summer reading programs. But after finding these programs inadequate, WNED staffers realized they had to create their own show. After fits and starts, and enough twists and turns to fill a children's book, Reading Rainbow premiered in the summer of 1983 and captured the attention of 6.5 million young viewers worldwide. Reading Rainbow Stories explores

Read more less

Over the last eighty years, Marlon Brando has become such an object of fascination, buried under so many accreted layers of mythos and half-truth, that it is all but impossible to see the man behind the icon. As we approach the centennial of this undisputed American legend, Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel is a revelatory biography that tells its story the same way the man himself approached a role: from the inside.Author, journalist, and pop culture authority Burt Kearns digs deep into the unexplored aspects of Brando's career, interests, and singular personality, revealing how his roles on stage and screen, combined with his wild and restless personal life, helped to transform popular culture and society writ large. His influence was both broad and deep. Brando's intense approach to acting technique was emulated by his contemporaries as well as generations of actors who followed, from Nicholson and DeNiro to DiCaprio and Gosling. But his legacy extends far beyond acting. His

Read more less

When the young composer Douglas Cohen first secured the musical rights to the novel No Way to Treat a Lady by William Goldman—the acclaimed author of The Princess Bride and Marathon Man—he hoped it would be his big break, the first step on a gilt path to artistic triumph and commercial success in the form of a hit Broadway musical.What happened after that, while memorable, was anything but.How to Survive a Killer Musical chronicles Cohen's decade-long quest to bring that musical to the stage—writing, re-writing, and shepherding it across the US and Europe amidst all manner of adversity and plain rotten luck. It's a fascinating portrait of passion, persistence, and resilience—a coming-of-age story populated with famous mentors and formidable adversaries, told with refreshing honesty and humor. On Cohen's journey, he introduces us to an indelible cast of characters including a two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter who invites Cohen to his personal screening room for a marathon midnight brainstorming session; a Tony Award-winning director making his comeback after a horrific accident renders him a quadriplegic; and a celebrated, volatile British director who inspires a fruitful collaboration in London, only to later leave carnage in his wake. Catastrophes abound, including the near-fatal stabbing of a female lead in rehearsal and an onstage accident incapacitating another leading lady—leaving only the author to go on in her place! Throughout, Cohen’s attempts to keep his optimism and his cool are offset by the cynical, cheerfully profane Goldman, who regards the show’s travails with bemusement even as he remains one of the composer’s most reliable supporters.Whether you’re a fan of musicals or just someone who’s suffered trying to bring a passion project into the world, this tale of fortitude in the face of obstacles, personalities, and egos will make for an eye-opening and frequently hilarious journey.

Read more less

PUBLIC/PRIVATE blends a behind-the-scenes view of the Public Theater's dazzling history with an affecting memoir of the author's life with Joe Papp. She opens with the Public's beginnings in the Sixties and Seventies and the twenty-five year association the couple enjoyed, staging staged hundreds of productions, from Shakespeare in the Park to such musicals as Hair and A Chorus Line, and plays like for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (currently re-mounted on Broadway with seven TONY award nominations)—with actors whose careers were launched at the Public, including James Earl Jones, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Colleen Dewhurst, Martin Sheen, Gloria Foster, George C. Scott, and Morgan Freeman, all of whom appear in stories Gail Papp tells in the book.The author explores Joe Papp's creative process, highlighting how the Public was fueled by his ambition to create a producing home focused on original plays and musicals from new voices while employing non-traditional casting, which made it a haven for many of the most creative people in American popular culture. She traces the founding of the Shakespeare Festival, when its role was for a time limited to small venues around New York City, later moving into Central Park where its Shakespeare renditions became an indelible feature of summer in the city, and the Public's evolution into cultural renown and national significance, a lasting beacon of social change.

Read more less

The “British Invasion” ushered in by the Beatles in the 1960s is but a spark next to the bonfire that is the inferno of South Korean culture now consuming audiences around the world. From K-pop bands like BTS headlining at the United Nations to the wellness industry’s obsession with kimchi's probiotic benefits, Korea is everywhere. Topping this greatest hits chart is Squid Game, a genre-bending Netflix series that has ignited social media platforms and inspired fascinated devotion across the world.The seeds for a deep collaborative relationship between Netflix and K-drama had been sown long before the phenomenal success of Squid Game, but what particular social conditions allowed for this show to speak viscerally to global audiences today as the most-watched drama in ninety countries? In Way Ahead of Squid Game, scholar of Korean pop culture Suk-Young Kim throws back the curtain to reveal the multiple factors accounting for the global dominance of K-culture. It investigates the origins, manifestations, and future prospects for this cultural juggernaut, making it essential reading for both content creators and fans of Korean culture across all media.

Read more less

What does a rock star do after leaving the band? If you’re David Lee Roth, you have a Las Vegas residency, write a memoir, become a radio host, start a YouTube series, star in a Japanese-language short film, launch a tattoo skincare line, and release a digital comic. And then you rejoin the band.The first book focused on Roth in twenty-five years, DLR Book is an intimate look at an epic career. From his start with Van Halen to his highly publicized departure from the band and his triumphant return, entertainment industry expert Darren Paltrowitz covers the highs and lows of Roth’s journey. The fruit of nearly one hundred exclusive interviews, the book also delves into Diamond Dave’s many extracurricular activities, including his unclassifiable video series The Roth Show, the rise and fall of his syndicated radio program, and his training as an EMT. Included here are conversations with some of Roth’s most popular collaborators (among them Steve Vai, Billy Sheehan, Travis Tritt) and contributions from members of rock’s all-time biggest bands, such as Korn’s Ray Luzier, Bon Jovi’s Phil X, and Heart’s Ann Wilson. Filled with countless photographs never published in book form, DLR Book is a front-row seat to one of the wildest and most unpredictable shows in rock history.

Read more less

Well before “the twist” had become M. Night Shyamalan’s cinematic calling card and spoiler alerts were de rigueur for online movie reviews, there was The Sixth Sense. Written and directed by Shyamalan, who had been working on the script since he was 25, the 1999 film was a landmark in on-screen storytelling and the evolution of the horror and supernatural thriller genres. With a cast that included Bruce Willis, Mischa Barton, Toni Collette, Donnie Wahlberg, and Haley Joel Osment, it earned six Oscar nominations and made Shyamalan a household name overnight, launching a career that would include such movies as Signs, Unbreakable, The Visit, Split, and Old.In I See Dead People, entertainment journalist Mackenzie Nichols weaves together interviews with Shyamalan, the movie’s stars, crew members, and others into an oral history of how an iconic movie was made. The Sixth Sense was primarily filmed in the soon-to-be-demolished Philadelphia Convention Center, in which cast and crew experienced inexplicable paranormal phenomena. Nichols gives a collective account of the unusual filming process, traces the movie’s surprising success and lasting influence, and even speaks with professional mediums about how it shaped public perception of the paranormal. The result is a fascinating, kaleidoscopic, and at times spooky portrait of how one film unexpectedly changed the course of modern moviemaking.

Read more less

Visiting the zoo is a quintessential childhood experience filled with wonder and learning. For most kids, the zoo is the only place they will see exotic and wild animals. It is also a place where they can feel connected to the natural world and learn the importance of taking care of wildlife and the environment. Going to the Zoo is a 1,060-word nonfiction children’s picture book designed for ages 5-9. Using informative text, plus blurbs and tidbits of interesting animal and zoo insight, Going to the Zoo follows two young friends as they visit the zoo and learn about the different ways zoos care for their animals. Vivid illustrations bring the zoo and its activities to life as the friends explore everything from how zoos feed their animals to why zoo animals do “tricks.” Aimed toward early to middle elementary students, Going to the Zoo’s content is less dense than Michael George’s Life at the Zoo but it is more sophisticated and challenging than Blake Hoena’s The Zoo Book. Going to the Zoo was reviewed by teachers, educators, and Denver Zoo professionals for content and age appropriateness.

Read more less

Selling over forty-five million copies, The Dark Side of the Moon topped the US Billboard charts when it was first released in 1973 and took up residence there for over 700 weeks. Lunacy delves into the making of this iconic record and why it continues to speak to generation after generation of music lovers around the world. Music biographer John Kruth starts with Pink Floyd’s band history, leading up to the creation of their masterpiece and exploring what inspired the “sonic stew” of styles—a mixture of avant-garde electronic, jazz, and classical music all contributed to the timeless album. With interviews of musicians, artists, DJs, and fans, Kruth gets to the heart of the lasting importance of The Dark Side of the Moon. Lunacy also looks at Pink Floyd after the departure of the band’s original leader and visionary songwriter Syd Barrett. Pink Floyd became a rudderless ship and released a series of nebulous (yet highly enjoyable) jam albums and went on tours that almost bankrupted them. Their eighth album was a make it or break it proposition, and it’s timing could not have been better.

Read more less

Susan Fleming appeared in three Broadway shows and twenty-eight films before she turned her back on a show business career she never really enjoyed or wanted. The role of her lifetime came when she married Harpo Marx in 1936. Together, they raised four adopted children and enjoyed one of Hollywood's happiest and most successful unions. But their twenty-year age difference made Susan a young widow in 1964.On her path to Hollywood, Susan worked in Broadway musicals produced by Florenz Ziegfeld and George White and befriended a young dancer who would later be known as Paulette Goddard. In Hollywood, she appeared in films with stars like John Wayne, W.C. Fields, and Katharine Hepburn and worked at all the major studios. But it wasn't until she fell in love with a confirmed bachelor, twenty years older than her, that she found her purpose. Her story is the counterpoint to the beloved and acclaimed Harpo Marx autobiography, Harpo Speaks! Susan's frank, opinionated perspective provides a true look behind the curtain and details Harpo's last years, following the publication of his own book.Susan's account of her more than thirty-year adventure with Harpo includes encounters with people like Charlie Chaplin, William Randolph Hearst, Salvador Dalí, Somerset Maugham, Joan Crawford, Howard Hughes, George S. Kaufman, Helen Keller, Oscar Levant, Jean Harlow, Bugsy Siegel, Samuel Goldwyn, Menachem Begin, Ginger Rogers, Alexander Woollcott, and of course, the Marx Brothers. Susan provides an inside look at the family and pulls no punches when discussing her brothers-in-law, who weren't always her favorite comedians.

Read more less

The greatest backup group in the history of recorded music undoubtedly was the Jordanaires, a gospel group of mostly Tennessee boys, formed in the 1940s, that set the standard for studio vocal groups in the '50s, '60s, '70s, and beyond. In their sixty-five-year career, from 1948 through 2013, the recordings they sang on have sold an estimated eight billion copies.They sang on more than 200 of Elvis's recordings, including most of his biggest hits. They were in three of his best-known movies, appeared with him on most of his early nation-wide TV shows, and toured with him for many years. Throughout Elvis's early career, they were his most trusted friends and probably his most positive influence. "No telling how many thousands of miles we rode together over those fourteen years," remembered Gordon Stoker, the group's manager and high tenor, "and most of those miles were good miles, with lots of laughs, and lots of talk about life."While the Jordanaires' bread and butter may have been Nashville's burgeoning recording industry, it seemed that there was always a plane waiting to take them cross country to the pop sessions in L.A. They sang on most of Ricky Nelson's biggest hits and over the years backed up Andy Williams, Fats Domino, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Dinah Shore, The Everly Brothers, Glen Campbell, Patti Page, Neil Young, Perry Como, Loretta Lynn, Ringo Starr, Tom Jones, Andy Griffith, Bobby Vinton, Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, Billy Ray Cyrus, Clyde McPhatter, and about 2,100 other recording acts.

Read more less

Transforming Space over Time: Set Design and Visual Storytelling with Broadway's Legendary Directors tells the stories of six diverse productions: five on Broadway and one Off-Broadway. Beowulf Boritt, theater designer and Tony Award winner, begins with the moment he was offered each job and takes readers through the conceptual development of the set, in collaboration with the director, the challenges of its physical creation, and the intense process of readying it for the stage. Since theater is at heart a collaborative art form, he includes details of his work with the many professionals—designers, technicians, producers, stage managers, and actors—who contribute their talent and ideas to each show. Boritt offers insight into the sometimes frustrating but unavoidable realities of the "biz" part of showbiz: budgets, promotion, reviews, and awards, and he provides enough detail to interest aspiring and seasoned theater professionals and enough spice to satisfy passionate theatergoers. Boritt includes extensive conversations with the directors of the productions, theater legends such as James Lapine, Kenny Leon, Hal Prince, Susan Stroman, Jerry Zaks, and Stephen Sondheim. Each takes a very different approach to theater, which necessitates a different approach to collaboration. By focusing on a variety of specific shows Boritt has worked on, he attempts to peel back the curtain on the creative and intellectual process—in particular, the way his designs develop over time, in concert with the director and other members of the creative team. Transforming Space over Time is about the creative journey of a production.

Read more less

Superheroes! is the ultimate reference book about the men and women in tights who fight for what’s right and the comic book phenomenon that conquered the world. From their origins in stories created by barely grown men during an era of global war and printed on cheap paper for consumption by children, superheroes have grown into a popular culture whirlwind that has attracted millions of fans and crossed over into every form of media.Encompassing early coming books, indie outliers, and the mammoth fictional universes managed by DC and Marvel, Superheroes! chronicles the rise of a distinctly American invention, the modern-day evolution of the myths and legends of old. Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Captain America, X-Men, the Justice League and the Avengers—they all represent our greatest hopes, and sometimes our darkest fantasies. Pop culture expert Brian Solomon tells a story that goes from the Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages of comic book history right up to the Modern Age of multimillion-dollar Hollywood movies, and beyond. Perhaps no fictional genre has endured and blossomed over the past eighty years the way superheroes have. Learn all about the creators who have brought them to life: artists like Jack Kirby and Jim Lee, writers like Stan Lee and Alan Moore, actors like Christopher Reeve and Robert Downey Jr., and directors like Tim Burton and Joss Whedon. They’re all here, in all their high-flying, eye-zapping, goon-punching glory. Up, up and away!

Read more less

Hamlet calls death "that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns."But he's wrong. Some do return.Each night after the applause dies, the curtain falls, the audience vanishes, the cleaners dust, and the lights are killed, great theatres become dark and silent places. But not always quite empty. That's when the theatre ghosts make their entrance and strut and fret their hour upon the shadowed boards, illuminated only by the ghost light, the solitary lamp that is required to burn through the night on every Broadway stage.Many of Broadway's busiest theatres continue to be just as busily haunted by spirits, some with well-known names and histories. Good Morning, Olive (named for one of the most beautiful and temperamental of Broadway's ghosts) is about the ghosts that haunt theatres in New York and around the world.Broadway is the playground of stars, so it's probably not surprising to learn that even its ghosts are stars. Meet some of Broadway's best known—and most active—celebrity ghosts. Don't worry: like Casper, they tend to be friendly. For the most part. There's something special about theatres, something especially conducive and welcoming to ghosts. Charles J. Adams III wrote, "By its very nature, a theatre is a vault within which every human emotion is at once imprisoned, impersonated, imitated, and elicited. Tangles of cords and ropes…tall curtains and backdrops which fade into high darkness…cubicles and trap doors and passageways."Good Morning, Olive takes readers on a tour of that world.

Read more less

Paul Dooley has been an actor for sixty-five years and has portrayed fathers in more than twenty-five movies. He is best known for his roles as the father in Breaking Away, Sixteen Candles, and Run Away Bride. While he was the on-screen dad to Julia Roberts, Molly Ringwald, Toni Collette, Robin Wright, and Helen Hunt, his personal life held a painful secret. In Movie Dad, Dooley reveals that before he became a father to Hollywood actresses, his own fatherhood was jeopardized when his ex-wife kidnapped his two children, Robin and Adam. His touching biography shows the shock and denial he experienced when he read the letter his ex-wife left that said, “I’m leaving. I’m taking the kids. We’re not coming back.” What followed was private detectives, court, and frantically looking for his children. When he only found dead-ends, he threw himself into work, and after twenty-five years as an actor, he was in the movies overnight. The success he found as a father on-screen is a story of wry irony, which he tells in Movie Dad.

Read more less

Spanning more than fifty years of modern music history, Peter Asher: A Life in Music highlights every turn in Peter Asher's amazing career. Over a dozen years of research has gone into telling his story, with numerous interviews conducted with Asher, along with first-hand observations of him at work in various recording studios around Los Angeles. The author also had access to Asher's archives, which offered rare photographs and other career memorabilia to help illustrate this biography.Over one hundred artists, friends, and colleagues agreed to be interviewed, and they help to provide insight into Asher's personality and working methodology. Included are singers Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Marianne Faithfull, Carole King, Kenny Loggins, Graham Nash, Aaron Neville, Randy Newman, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, JD Souther, and James Taylor; producers Lou Adler, Mike Curb, Richard Perry, Al Schmitt, and Sir George Martin; musicians Hal Blaine, Andrew Gold, Danny Kortchmar, Paul Shaffer, and Waddy Wachtel; and actors Kevin Kline and Robin Williams. Many of these participants also provided previously unseen photographs. Asher was also one of the first producers to list the musicians that played on his sessions, realizing how important they were to the success of each project. These mini-portraits not only contribute to the telling of his story, they ultimately give the reader a history lesson on the last fifty years of popular music. Of course, Asher's life and work did not occur in a vacuum, and David Jacks places his progress in context with what was occurring in the culture that surrounded him, from the pervasive doldrums that America was experiencing right before the Beatles (and Peter and Gordon) exploded upon its shores to the civil rights tensions that surrounded the interracial tour Dick Clark sent through the Southern US in 1965, to the end of the 1960s and the public's need for a soothing confessional tone in their music after a decade of turmoil, which artists like James Taylor provided.Asher has also had a unique insider's view into the changing world of the music business—from the mid-1960s explosion of British artists to the 1970s corporate takeovers of independent labels, from the MTV era of the mid-1980s to the modern era of 360 degree deals and digital streaming. He is practically alone in his success as a hit-making artist, a hit-making producer, and a manager for hit-making talent. His ability to produce projects with such a broad range—rock, pop, folk, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, dance, Latin, classical, comedy, and Broadway and movie soundtracks—is almost unheard of. And in a business rife with shady characters, his intelligence, honesty, and business sense has earned the respect of all he's worked with. Still producing exciting work in the entertainment industry, Peter Asher has quite a story to tell.

Read more less

In the early months of 1966, a handsome, hardworking thirty-five-year-old Canadian-born actor named William Shatner was cast as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, a troubled, low-budget science-fiction television series set to premiere that fall on NBC. Star Trek struggled for viewers and lasted only three seasons, but it found a huge, rabidly dedicated audience when it premiered in syndication following its cancellation—turning Shatner into a pop-culture icon and launching him on a career path he never could have imagined after graduating from McGill University with an economics degree twenty years earlier. As he approaches his ninetieth year, he's still working at a furious pace as a man of boundless contradictions: by turns one of the most dissected, disliked, revered, respected, mocked, imitated, and beloved stars in the show business firmament. Shatner takes a comprehensive look at this singular performer, using archival sources and information culled from interviews with friends and colleagues to transport readers through William Shatner's remarkably bumpy career: his spectacular failures and triumphs; tragedies, including the shocking death of his third wife, Nerine; and, ultimately, the resilience Shatner has shown, time and again, in the face of overwhelming odds. Author Michael Seth Starr unravels the mystery of William Shatner, stripping away the many myths associated with his personal life and his relationships with fellow actors, presenting a no-holds-barred, unvarnished look at the unique career of an inimitable performer.

Read more less

The most frequently asked question about writing musicals is, "Which comes first, the music or the lyrics?" As anyone on Broadway will tell you, the answer is, "The book." Tony-winning book writer Robert L. Freedman takes you through the process of writing a new musical, including story structure, song placement, dialogue, character development, and more that led to the creation of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, the 2014 Best Musical Tony winner. With candor and insight, Freedman describes the challenging and rewarding growing pains of what the critics called "Hilarious!" and "Ingenious!" and said "Ranks among the most inspired and entertaining new musical comedies I've seen in years."

Read more less

Anne & Emmett is an imaginary conversation between Anne Frank and Emmett Till, both victims of racial intolerance and hatred. Frank is the thirteen-year-old Jewish girl whose diary provided a gripping perspective of the Holocaust. Till is the fourteen-year-old African-American boy whose brutal murder in Mississippi sparked the modern American civil rights movement. The one-act play opens with the two teenagers meeting in memory, a place that isolates them from the cruelty they experienced during their lives. The beyond-the-grave encounter draws the startling similarities between the two youths' harrowing experiences at the hands of societies that couldn't protect them. In memory, Anne recounts hiding in a cramped attic with her family after German dictator Adolf Hitler ordered the Nazi military to round up Jewish people throughout Europe, and put them in concentration camps in route to gas chambers. At the age of fifteen, Anne died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp in March 1945, a few weeks before British troops liberated the camp. Emmett tells Anne how he, in 1955, ended up being brutally attacked by two white racists who beat and tortured him before shooting him in the head and tossing his body into the Tallahatchie River with a cotton-gin fan tied to his neck. This happened after he whistled at a white woman while visiting his uncle in Money, Mississippi.

Read more less

The vast space of the American West that has been designated as the state of Montana is such a diverse and varied landscape that it’s been said it could easily be sliced up into several smaller states. And with its smorgasbord of industry, history, culture and the various worldviews held by its residents, getting a bead on Montana’s personality is a challenge. That may be because Montana, in fact, has several fairly distinct personalities. This book examines those personalities, through the lens of seven geographic and cultural regions commonly recognized in the state. While Montanans share a few attitudes and love of the land that attracts them to Big Sky country, it’s the differences between the regions that truly give the state its unique flavor. Through interviews, photos, history and personal observations, Therriault profiles each region and in the process gives a more complete view of the state as a whole. Along the way the reader will learn why some people choose to live where they do, how they view the rest of the state, and what some of the factors are that give each region its singularity.

Read more less

Long before the screen placed the face of Mary Pickford before the eyes of millions of Americans, this girl, born August 13, 1860 as Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses, had won the right to the title of “America’s Sweetheart.” Having grown up learning to shoot game to help support her family, Annie won first prize and met her future husband at a shooting match when she was fifteen years old. He convinced her to change her name to Annie Oakley and became her husband, manager, and number-one fan for the next fifty years. Annie quickly gained worldwide fame as an incredible crack shot, and could amaze audiences at her uncanny accuracy with nearly any rifle or pistol, whether aiming at stationary objects or shooting fast-flying targets from the cockpit of a moving airplane. Despite struggles with her health and even a long, drawn-out legal battle with media magnate William Randolph Hearst, Annie Oakley poured her energy into advocating for the U.S. military, encouraging women to engage in sport shooting, and supporting orphans.

Read more less

During the rise of second-wave feminism in the ‘60s and ‘70s, political activists were not the only ones at work to usher in a more equitable world. In the music world, female rock performers were pursuing a revolution of their own: rejecting the industry’s manufactured pop personas and the unacknowledged labor they contributed to male-led groups, women took control of their own music, messages, and images. Even while they often used music to critique rampant chauvinism, they made some of their greatest impacts by paving the way for subsequent musicians to simply be true to themselves. In this way, they helped to transform the music business and society more broadly.In She’s a Badass, rock critic Katherine Yeske Taylor interviews more than a dozen of these influential, fearless women about their experiences in an era when female rockers were not given the same respect and opportunities as their male peers. Each chapter focuses on an individual artist, taking an in-depth look at her most memorable experiences in the music business that helped cement her place on the list of influential artists. From Suzi Quatro (the first female rock star to front her own band, singing and playing bass as well as writing her own songs) through superstar singer-songwriter Jewel, She’s a Badass reveals the incredible talent, determination, and humor these women deployed in order to further the feminist cause while building brilliant musical careers.

Read more less

Have you ever been curious about what it takes to get an original Broadway musical to opening night? Ted Chapin, college student at the time, had a front row seat at the creation of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, now considered one of the most important musicals of modern time. He kept a detailed journal of his experience as the sole production assistant, which he used as the basis for Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies, originally published in 2003. He was there in the drama-filled rehearsal room, typing the endless rewrites, ferrying new songs around town, pampering the film and television stars in the cast, travelling with the show to its Boston tryout and back to New York for the Broadway opening night. With an enthusiast's focus on detail and a journalist's skill, Chapin takes the reader on the roller-coaster ride of creating a new and original Broadway musical. Musical theater giants, still rising in their careers, were working at top form on what became a Tony Award-winning classic: Stephen Sondheim, Harold Prince, and Michael Bennett. Many classic Sondheim songs like "I'm Still Here," "Losing My Mind," and "Broadway Baby" were part of the score, some written in a hotel room in Boston.Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Follies with Ted Chapin. A new afterword brings the history of the show forward, diving into recent productions around the world, new recordings, and the continued promise of a film version.

Read more less

I hear with my breath, I get frightened with my breath. When I fall in love the breath knows it first. I feel furious and the breath registered the emotion, long before the brain catches on.—Beatrice ManleyOriginal and quirky, this collection of expert advice and observations once reserved for actors has been specially formatted for a new generation and a broader audience interested in: Breathwork Mindfulness Personal Presence Presentation and Authenticity Improvisation. Performing. Fear. Fame. Laughing. Being Sexy. Emotions. Ego. Technique. Timing. Doing Nothing. Just Doing It. In her wry, entertaining, and astute style, master of her craft Beatrice Manley dispenses wide-ranging insights and nuanced wisdom accumulated from a lifetime on the stage.

Read more less

Moving Pictures takes a novel historical approach to the making and recording of Rush's album by the same name. This 1981 release was a landmark record, not only for Rush, but also for the entirety of progressive rock.There's nothing else like it in the Rush catalog. Permanent Waves and Hemispheres were important releases in their evolution as a progressive band, but neither provided the necessary commercial firepower to blast the Canadian trio into the stratosphere of rock stardom. Moving Pictures, with its thematic work and positioning as the antithesis of a concept record, balanced opposing creative sensibilities, garnered the attention of radio programmers across North America, and sold millions of copies around the globe.As the title of the record suggests, each track projects unique filmic properties, allowing the collective work to escape into the realm of the audiovisual. Unparalleled in the band's recorded output, Moving Pictures boasts multisensory qualities, such as a snarling synth portal opening the record ("Tom Sawyer"), pulse-quickening cyclical patterns corkscrewing through the genre fluid "Vital Signs," a spine-tingling sci-fi thrill ride thinly masking social commentary ("Red Barchetta"), technically precise musical jousting amid time signature changes ("YYZ"), chilling glimpses of a hellish, torch-lit mob haunting "Witch Hunt," the wide-screen dual optics of "The Camera Eye," and a ferocious guitar tone taking a bite out of fame ("Limelight"). Put simply, the seven-track offering solidified the band's global appeal and continues to inspire musicians of all walks of life—forty years after its release. This is its story.

Read more less

Hold On World revisits Lennon and Ono's love affair and startling collaborations. John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band was arguably the most emotionally honest album ever made. It wasn't merely another record but more like a sonic exorcism, a spiritual, public bloodletting. Lennon's album drove a stake through the heart of the Beatles' myth while confronting everything else in John's life, from Dylan to God to his glorified status as a "Working Class Hero." Determined to rid himself of childhood traumas—abandoned by his father, John, at age nine, watched helplessly as his mother was killed by a car—Lennon wrote the most powerful song cycle of his career, confronting fear, disappointment, and illusion, all the while espousing his love for Yoko Ono. Released simultaneously, Ono's album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band is emotionally raw and challenging. It inspired bands like the B-52s and Yo La Tengo to employ pure sound, whether shrieking vocals or guitar feedback, to express their deepest feelings.

Read more less

Robert Macomber's Honor series of naval fiction follows the life and career of Peter Wake in the U.S. Navy during the tumultuous years from 1863 to 1901. At the Edge of Honor is the first in the series and winner of the Patrick D. Smith Literary Award as Best Historical Novel of Florida. The year is 1863. The Civil War is leaving its bloody trail across the nation as Peter Wake, born and bred in the snowy North, joins the U.S. Navy as a volunteer officer and arrives in steamy Florida for duty with the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. The idealistic Peter Wake has handled boats before, but he's new to the politics and illicit liaisons that war creates among men. Assigned to the Rosalie, a tiny, armed sloop, Captain Wake commands a group of seasoned seamen on a series of voyages to seek and arrest Confederate blockade-runners and sympathizers, from Florida's coastal waters through to near the remote out-islands of the Bahamas. Wake risks his reputation when he falls in love with Linda Donahue, whose father is a Confederate zealot, and steals away to spend precious hours with her at her Key West home. Their love is tested as Wake learns he must make the ugly decisions of war even in a beautiful, tropical paradise—decisions that take him up to the edge of honor.

Read more less

When Geronimo and his warriors surrendered to the US Army, General Miles made a number of promises for the surrender terms that were in fact false. Geromino: Prisoner of Lies provides insights into how Chiricahua prisoners of war lived while held in captivity by the United States Army in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as seen through the eyes of their war leader Geronimo. The indignities and lies they suffered, and how they maintained their tribal culture in the face of great pressure to change or vanish entirely, are brought to life and provided new context through this book.

Read more less

1797: Britain stands alone against the forces of Revolutionary France. A victorious French Army, led by the youthful Napoleon Bonaparte, is poised to invade Britain. And in his country's darkest hour, Captain Nathan Peake finds himself imprisoned by his own side on the Rock of Gibraltar charged with treason. To prove his innocence Nathan must uncover the great deception that masks the French war aims. Is the great armada being assembled in Toulon bound for the shores of Great Britain or Egypt? His secret mission to discover the truth about Napoleon's invasion plans will hurl him into two of the greatest battles of the 18th century.

Read more less

In the late summer of 1775, General George Washington discovers that his cache of gunpowder has dwindled to a mere nine shots per man. A desperate plan is hatched—to send a ship under the command of Captain Isaac Biddlecomb to Bermuda to capture the British powder known to be there. But the plan is a trap, set by a traitor among the patriots, and one from which even Biddlecomb cannot escape. Washington dispatches his aide-de-camp, Major Edward Fitzgerald, to hunt the traitor down, while Biddlecomb must rely on cunning and seamanship to free his men and the ship, and to capture the gunpowder that is the lifeblood of the fight for liberty. Divided by an ocean but bound by the cause, as well as by their own private fears, Biddlecomb and Fitzgerald must take on a common enemy—the greatest military power on earth. This is a powerful saga of the American Revolution—a stirring maritime adventure in the epic, true-to-life tradition of Patrick O’Brian.

Read more less