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Performing Arts
In his memoir Anyone Who Had a Heart, Burt Bacharach, one of the greatest songwriters of all time, offers a frank and riveting account of his unparalleled life.
From his tumultuous marriages and the tragic suicide of his daughter, to his collaborations with Hal David, Carole Bayer Sager, Neil Diamond, Elvis Costello, and others, Bacharach details his long-lasting success as well as the never-before-told stories behind the hits.
Candid and emotional, and with 16 pages of color photographs, Anyone Who Had a Heart: My Life and Music is Burt Bacharach in his own words--a powerful and personal look at the award-winning songwriter and composer.
As a young man from Meridian, Mississippi, Steve Forbert managed to carve out a niche in New York City's vibrant club scene, playing now-iconic venues like Gerde's Folk City and CBGB's during a time when rootsy rock was fading out and the Ramones, Talking Heads, and other New Wave and punk acts were moving in. That heady period was captured on his first album, Alive on Arrival.
"Now or then," writes Rolling Stone contributing editor David Wild, "you would be hard-pressed to find a debut effort that was simultaneously as fresh and accomplished as Alive on Arrival . . . it was like a great first novel by a young author who somehow managed to split the difference between Mark Twain and J.D. Salinger."
Forbert's next LP, Jackrabbit Slim, introduced the hit song "Romeo's Tune" to the world. Since then he's produced studio albums (19 and counting) full of perceptive, critically acclaimed songs in his eclectic pop-rock-folk Americana style. Keith Urban, Rosanne Cash, and Marty Stuart, among others, have recorded his songs. Forbert's 2003 tribute to Jimmie Rodgers, Any Old Time, was nominated for a Grammy and he even made a cameo appearance in Cyndi Lauper's music video for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."
Big City Cat: My Life in Folk-Rock focuses on Forbert's early NYC days but also covers his career up to the present day. Interspersed with his narrative are interviews with notables such as Danny Fields, Garry Tallent, and John Simon. This insightful and humorous memoir is not simply the tale of a talented survivor, but also a glimpse into a musician's life and the challenges faced--as well as the lessons learned--in a changing industry during the last forty years.
In "Billy Joel, "acclaimed music journalist Fred Schruers draws upon more than one hundred hours of exclusive interviews with Joel to present an unprecedented look at the life, career, and legacy of the pint-sized kid from Long Island who became a rock icon.
Exhibiting unparalleled intimate knowledge, Schruers chronicles Joel s rise to the top of the charts, from his working-class origins in Levittown and early days spent in boxing rings and sweaty clubs to his monumental success in the seventies and eighties. He also explores Joel s creative transformation in the nineties, his dream performance with Paul McCartney at Shea Stadium in 2008, and beyond.
Along the way, Schruers reveals the stories behind all the key events and relationships including Joel s high-profile marriages and legal battles that defined his path to stardom and inspired his signature songs, such as Piano Man, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, New York State of Mind, and She s Always a Woman. Throughout, he captures the spirit of a restless artist determined to break through by sharing, in his deeply personal lyrics, the dreams and heartbreaks of suburban American life.
Comprehensive, vibrantly written, and filled with Joel s memories and reflections as well as those of the family, friends, and band members who have formed his inner circle, including Christie Brinkley, Alexa Ray Joel, Jon Small, and Steve Cohen this is the definitive account of a beloved rock star s epic American journey."
In Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry, Clinton Heylin examines the entire modern history of this underground culture: from what defines a bootleg and its complex and protean legal status, to a full history of bootlegs' production and distribution, to what's contained on some of the most notorious bootlegs and how to find them. Along with many illustrations of the creative packages, this is the whole story of the $250 million industry that sustains itself on the great figures of rock music and their biggest admirers.
Veronica Roth's #1 New York Times bestselling novel Divergent is now a major motion picture starring Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Kate Winslet!
With never-before-seen photos; personal interviews with the directors, actors, and writers; and exclusive extras, this lush, oversize volume is a true behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Divergent.
And don't miss The Fates Divide, Veronica Roth's powerful sequel to the bestselling Carve the Mark!
A unique collection of more than 100 never-before-seen letters, notes, and jottings both by and to the Doctor--correspondence by turns entertaining and inspiring, funny and flippant, brilliant and incredible drawn from all fifty-two years of the show.
No one could travel through history--past present and future--as much as the Doctor does without leaving an impression. Much of what we know about this mysterious figure comes from what he does-- the planets he saves and the monsters he defeats. But until now we've had little knowledge of his writings.
These rich and diverse documents paint an extraordinarily detailed picture of the Doctor and include his plea to the Time Lords to help end the War Games, an extract from the written defense he submitted at his subsequent trial, his application for the post of Caretaker at Coal Hill School, his apology to the Queen for missing dinner, even telepathic messages to the High Council on Gallifrey and his famous letter to Santa Claus. Like the Doctor himself, the mood can change in an instant.
The Time Lord Letters captures the best and most dramatic moments of an impossible life. You'll never see the Doctor in quite the same way again.
A remarkable number of Wisconsin towns and cities were home to an opera house in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some were freestanding structures built by local benefactors, industrialists, and capitalists. Others were located within a city hall building and financed by local tax dollars with the support of government officials who believed in the value of the arts for their community
In "Encore! The Renaissance of Wisconsin Opera Houses," Brian Leahy Doyle chronicles the histories of ten Wisconsin opera houses and theaters, from their construction to their heydays as live performance spaces and through the periods when many of these stages went dark. But what makes these stories so compelling is that all but one of the featured theaters has been restored to its original splendor. Just as the beginnings of these theaters were often the result of the efforts of local citizens, Doyle discovers that their restoration is due to the commitment of dedicated and passionate people. More than one of these revived theaters has spurred the revitalization of its surrounding downtown business district as well.
"Encore!" is the second book in the Places along the Way series. Richly illustrated with historic and contemporary photos, the Places along the Way series links Wisconsin's past with its present, exploring the state's history through its architecture.
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A total departure from previous writing about television, this book is the first ever to advocate that the medium is not reformable. Its problems are inherent in the technology itself and are so dangerous -- to personal health and sanity, to the environment, and to democratic processes -- that TV ought to be eliminated forever.
Weaving personal experiences through meticulous research, the author ranges widely over aspects of television that have rarely been examined and never before joined together, allowing an entirely new, frightening image to emerge. The idea that all technologies are "neutral," benign instruments that can be used well or badly, is thrown open to profound doubt. Speaking of TV reform is, in the words of the author, "as absurd as speaking of the reform of a technology such as guns."
The Harry Potter Books Were Just The Beginning of the Story...
During the brief span of just one decade, hundreds of millions of perfectly ordinary people made history: they became the only ones who would remember what it was like when the Harry Potter saga was still unfinished. What it was like to seek out friends, families, online forums, fan fiction, and podcasts to get a fix between novels. When the potential death of a character was a hotter bet than the World Series. When the unfolding story of a boy wizard changed the way books are read for all time. And as webmistress of the Leaky Cauldron, one of the most popular Harry Potter sites on the Internet, Melissa Anelli had a front row seat to it all. Whether it was helping Scholastic stop leaks and track down counterfeiters, hosting live PotterCasts at bookstores across the country, touring with the wizard rock band Harry and the Potters, or traveling to Edinburgh to interview J. K. Rowling personally, Melissa was at the center of the Harry Potter tornado, and nothing about her life would ever be the same. The Harry Potter books are a triumph of the imagination that did far more than break sales records for all time. They restored the world's sense of wonder and took on a magical life of their own. Now the series has ended, but the story is not over. With remembrances from J. K. Rowling's editors, agents, publicists, fans, and Rowling herself, Melissa Anelli takes us on a personal journey through every aspect of the Harry Potter phenomenon -- from his very first spell to his lasting impact on the way we live and dream.
Return to the wizarding world and discover how director David Yates and producer David Heyman brought J.K. Rowling's all new adventure, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to the big screen.
Inside the Magic: The Making of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them introduces filmmaking fans to Newt Scamander, Magizoologist, and the principal characters, locations, artifacts and beasts that he encounters in 1920s New York. Explore the filmmaking magic behind MACUSA, the secretive American counterpart of the Ministry of Magic; and the magical secrets of Newt's case.
Each section contains profiles of the key characters, with revealing insights from Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell, and many others, together with sections on set design, costumes, make-up, special effects, art department & props (especially wands!), which are illuminated by interviews with David Heyman, David Yates, Stuart Craig, Colleen Atwood and a magical army of other crew. Packed with exciting photos that reveal the filmmaking process in discerning detail, and officially licensed by Warner Bros. Consumer Products, this is the definitive adult companion book to the film, and perfect introduction to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
With never-before-seen images, exclusive interviews and personal stories, renowned author Mark Cotta Vaz takes you behind the scenes with cast and crew, uncovering intimate details of the filmmaking process.
When Bob Dylan, age twenty-five, wrecked his motorcycle on the side of a road near Woodstock in 1966 and dropped out of the public eye, he was recognized as a genius, a youth idol, and the authentic voice of the counterculture: and Greenwich Village, where he first made his mark as a protest singer with an acid wit and a barbwire throat, was unquestionably the center of youth culture.
So embedded are Dylan and the Village in the legend of the Sixties--one of the most powerful legends we have these days--that it is easy to forget how it all came about. In "Positively Fourth Street," David Hajdu, whose 1995 biography of jazz composer Billy Strayhorn was the best and most popular music book in many seasons, tells the story of the emergence of folk music from cult practice to popular and enduring art form as the story of a colorful foursome: not only Dylan but his part-time lover Joan Baez - the first voice of the new generation; her sister Mimi - beautiful, haunted, and an artist in her own right; and her husband Richard Farina, a comic novelist ("Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me") who invented the worldliwise bohemian persona that Dylan adopted--some say stole--and made as his own.
The story begins in the plain Baez split-level house in a Boston suburb, moves to the Cambridge folk scene, Cornell University (where Farina ran with Thomas Pynchon), and the University of Minnesota (where Robert Zimmerman christened himself Bob Dylan and swapped his electric guitar for an acoustic and a harmonica rack) before the four protagonists converge in New York.
Based on extensive new interviews and full of surprising revelations, "Positively Fourth Street" is that rare book with a new story to tell about the 1960s. It is, in a sense, a book about the Sixties before they were the Sixties--about how the decade and all that it is now associated with it were created in a fit of collective inspiration, with an energy and creativity that David Hajdu captures on the page as if for the first time.