Performing Arts

Join the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the wizard and the Company of Dwarves on their Quest to recover treasure stolen by the Dragon, Smaug the Magnificent. Leaving the comfort of Bilbo's home they must face many perils before they can claim their long-lost gold -- Trolls, Elves, Goblins, Wargs, and worse...
Richly illustrated with more than 100 color photos from the film, and featuring a brand new fold-out map charting the journey from Bag End to Wilderland, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Visual Companion begins the Quest for the Lonely Mountain in spectacular style.

Rock stars and rap gods. Comedy legends and A-list actors. Supermodels and centerfolds. Moguls and mobsters. A president.

Over his unrivaled four-decade career in radio, Howard Stern has interviewed thousands of personalities--discussing sex, relationships, money, fame, spirituality, and success with the boldest of bold-faced names. But which interviews are his favorites? It's one of the questions he gets asked most frequently. Howard Stern Comes Again delivers his answer.

This book is a feast of conversation and more, as between the lines Stern offers his definitive autobiography--a magnum opus of confession and personal exploration. Tracy Morgan opens up about his near-fatal car crash. Lady Gaga divulges her history with cocaine. Madonna reminisces on her relationship with Tupac Shakur. Bill Murray waxes philosophical on the purpose of life. Jerry Seinfeld offers a master class on comedy. Harvey Weinstein denies the existence of the so-called casting couch. An impressive array of creative visionaries weigh in on what Stern calls "the climb"--the stories of how they struggled and eventually prevailed. As he writes in the introduction, "If you're having trouble finding motivation in life and you're looking for that extra kick in the ass, you will find it in these pages."

Interspersed throughout are rare selections from the Howard Stern Show archives with Donald Trump that depict his own climb: transforming from Manhattan tabloid fixture to reality TV star to president of the United States. Stern also tells of his Moby Dick-like quest to land an interview with Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the 2016 election--one of many newly written revelations from the author. He speaks with extraordinary candor about a variety of subjects, including his overwhelming insecurity early in his career, his revolutionary move from terrestrial radio to SiriusXM, and his belief in the power of psychotherapy.

As Stern insightfully notes in the introduction: "The interviews collected here represent my best work and show my personal evolution. But they don't just show my evolution. Gathered together like this, they show the evolution of popular culture over the past quarter century."

Though Joss Whedon's television show Dollhouse ended in January 2010 after its second season, its small but devoted cult following is still reeling from not only from its mind-blowing plot twists but also its challenging, dystopic look at the ethics of new technology.

Inside Joss' Dollhouse is a fitting tribute to this complex, engaging show. The anthology's 18 sometimes funny, always insightful pieces cover Dollhouse from anticipated start to explosive finish. Drawn from an international contest judged by fan favorite Whedon screenwriter Jane Espenson, its essays get right to heart of what Dollhouse viewers loved most about the show.

Espenson also acts as the book's editor, offering context and extra insight on its topics and the show--a role she played in previous anthologies Finding Serenity and Serenity Found, also on Joss Whedon creations.

From programmer Topher's amorality to the accuracy of the show's neurobiology, Inside Joss' Dollhouse brings Dollhouse back to life with a depth sure to satisfy its many still-mourning fans.

Nirvana, the immortal grunge Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, is as relevant and influential as ever.

Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, and Krist Novoselic comprised Nirvana, the band that unintentionally tore the music world asunder with the 1991 album Nevermind. The record that includes hits such as "Smells like Teen Spirit," "Come as You Are," and "Lithium" continues to rattle speakers with grunge that truly rocks. Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, Updated Edition tells the fully illustrated story of the band that spoke for Generation X in the '90s.

Here we are, a quarter century after Nirvana irrevocably changed rock and roll, and the band continues to make headlines and influence music lovers. A documentary about the band and Cobain's solo album Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings were released last year, demanding a closer look at one of rock and roll's geniuses. Kurt Cobain and Nirvana reveals the band's history with fresh eyes, telling the story of a group that instigated a return to punk-inspired rock. This updated edition of the first-ever complete illustrated history of Nirvana features the writing of a sparkling team of grunge-rock experts and word slingers. The book also includes performance and backstage photography, as well as handbills, singles, ticket stubs, gig posters, and other memorabilia that complement the narrative. You'll also find album reviews, gear breakdowns, and mini synopses of Cobain's fifty all-time favorite albums. Nirvana's ride was a wild one - and all too brief.

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER

Like Fire & Fury, the gossipy real-life soap opera behind a serious show.

When Barbara Walters launched The View, network executives told her that hosting it would tarnish her reputation. Instead, within ten years, she'd revolutionized morning TV and made household names of her co-hosts: Joy Behar, Star Jones, Meredith Vieira and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. But the daily chatfest didn't just comment on the news. It became the news. And the headlines barely scratched the surface.

Based on unprecedented access, including stunning interviews with nearly every host, award-winning journalist Ramin Setoodeh takes you backstage where the stars really spoke their minds. Here's the full story of how Star, then Rosie, then Whoopi tried to take over the show, while Barbara struggled to maintain control of it all, a modern-day Lear with her media-savvy daughters. You'll read about how so many co-hosts had a tough time fitting in, suffered humiliations at the table, then pushed themselves away, feeling betrayed--one nearly quitting during a commercial. Meanwhile, the director was being driven insane, especially by Rosie.

Setoodeh uncovers the truth about Star's weight loss and wedding madness. Rosie's feud with Trump. Whoopi's toxic relationship with Rosie. Barbara's difficulty stepping away. Plus, all the unseen hugs, snubs, tears--and one dead rodent.

Ladies Who Punch shows why The View can be mimicked and mocked, but it can never be matched.

THE FEARLESS ... VIVID ... FAST-PACED ... AND INSPIRING* NATIONAL BESTSELLER (*ROLLING STONE)

"Heavy metal's leading female rocker (Rolling Stone) bares all, opening up about the Runaways, the glory days of the punk and hard-rock scenes, and the highs and lows of her trailblazing career

Wielding her signature black guitar, Lita Ford shredded stereotypes of female musicians throughout the 1970s and '80s. Then followed more than a decade of silence and darkness--until rock and roll repaid the debt it owed this pioneer, helped Lita reclaim her soul, and restored the Queen of Metal to her throne.

In 1975, Lita Ford left home at age sixteen to join the world's first major all-female rock group, the Runaways--a "pioneering band" (New York Times) that became the subject of a Hollywood movie starring Kristen Stewart ad Dakota Fanning. Lita went on to become "heavy rock's first female guitar hero" (Washington Post), a platinum-selling solo star who shared the bill with the Ramones, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Poison, and others and who gave Ozzy Osbourne his first Top 10 hit. She was a bare-ass, leather-clad babe whose hair was bigger and whose guitar licks were hotter than any of the guys'.

Hailed by Elle as "one of the greatest female electric guitar players to ever pick up the instrument," Lita spurred the meteoric rise of Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, and the rest of the Runaways. Her phenomenal talent on the fret board also carried her to tremendous individual success after the group's 1979 disbandment, when she established herself as a "legendary metal icon" (Guitar World) and a fixture of the 1980s music scene who held her own after hours with Nikki Sixx, Jon Bon Jovi, Eddie Van Halen, Tommy Lee, Motorhead's Lemmy, Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi (to whom she was engaged), and others.

Featuring a foreword by Dee Snider, Living Like a Runaway also provides never-before-told details of Lita's dramatic personal story. For Lita, life as a woman in the male-dominated rock scene was never easy, a constant battle with the music establishment. But then, at a low point in her career, came a tumultuous marriage that left her feeling trapped, isolated from the rock-and-roll scene for more than a decade, and--most tragically--alienated from her two sons. And yet, after a dramatic and emotional personal odyssey, Lita picked up her guitar and stormed back to the stage. As Guitar Player hailed in 2014 when they inducted her into their hall of fame of guitar greats: "She is as badass as ever."

Fearless, revealing, and compulsively readable, Lita Ford's Living Like a Runaway is the long-awaited memoir from one of rock's greatest pioneers--and fiercest survivors.

--Elle

What better way to recognize and honor America's funniest moments and greatest laugh artists than an insightful, anecdote-laden multimedia presentation that allows readers and viewers to fully experience the sharpest comedians throughout broadcast and film history. That's exactly what Made You Laugh! offers, as author Joe Garner applies his magic touch to one of America's most treasured forms of entertainment.Joe's insightful text, original videotaped interviews, and choicest clips from radio, comedy variety shows, sitcoms, stand-up routines, and classic films instantly remind readers of some of the most fun-filled times of their lives. It shows why they love to laugh-and why a great joke is a thing of lasting beauty, at least until the next side-splitter comes along. The book is divided into three main sections: The Funniest Moments from Radio and Television, The Funniest Stand-up Moments, and The Funniest Movie Moments. Chapters throughout give readers a hearty chuckle while providing rare behind-the-scenes glimpses into favorite entertainers and their work, complete with firsthand memories from the comedians, writers, and producers who were there. The accompanying DVD, hosted by a major comedy talent, includes the actual audio/film clips of the particular memorable moment along with original videotaped and archival interviews. It all adds up to one seriously successful look at the world of laughs!

This is Morrissey as you've never seen him before. Featuring many previously unpublished photographs, Morrissey: Alone and Palely Loitering is a portrait of Morrissey at his creative peak. Journey through hundreds of Kevin Cummins' renowned, era-defining images, taken over a ten-year period in locations all over the world, accompanied by recollections from the author on his time with Morrissey and the artistic process of collaborating with him. Intimate, creative and surprising, this is a document of an artist at the height of his powers.

Ranging from unseen intimate portraits and on-tour reportage to boisterous on-stage pictures taken during live performances around the world, the photographs in this book were taken between 1983 and 1994, when Morrissey was creating some of his best-loved work.

An illustrated history of musical thought in the nineteenth century and its relationship to the Romantic movement.

Both a primer on how, when and why to listen to music, and a lyrical exploration of how music mirrors the impulses of our minds, psyches, bodies, and souls -- our physical and emotional rhythms. Maureen Draper writes about the ways in which music can help us cope with grief, give dimension to the mysteries of beauty and faith, inspire us to create, help us know ourselves better, or just give us a boost of energy. She walks us easily through the basics, building our confidence in hearing the color, line, and rhythm we are used to seeing in the visual arts, or coaxing us to trust that we can feel the inner movement of our outer lives in a Wagner aria or a Beethoven sonata. And she gives us an amazing musical bibliography of over 170 works at the end of the book if we are needing guidance on what to listen to and when. From it we can compose our own listening list for work, play, sex, or meditation. "The best music carries within it important communication about the nature of our inward lives and common humanity", Maureen Draper writes. "When we listen with our imagination and with an engaged heart, music, literally, brings us more alive".

Jeanne Cooper, the Emmy Award-winning American actress best known for her portrayal of Katherine Chancellor on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, recounts the steps and missteps of her eight-decade career in Not Young, Still Restless. Exploring a career that began with the birth of a phenomenon called television, Cooper's life story co-stars a cast of characters that reads like a who's-who of Hollywood's Golden Age: Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, and Shelley Winters, to name just a few. Intimate, honest, and inspiring, Not Young, Still Restless is a fascinating memoir of a life in daytime drama--and proof positive that that growing older doesn't have to mean giving up.

Finally! A step-by-step guide to the keys that unlock the doors to Hollywood.
Opening the Doors to Hollywood has all the information you'll ever need in order to tap into the $500 million spent yearly in Hollywood on acquiring and developing projects.
Discover how to:
Find a story
Rewrite it
Option it
Package it
Pitch it
Write it
Sell it
to film and television companies
Complete with a reference section that includes guilds/unions, libraries, sample contracts, seminars and workshops, trade publications, and writers' organizations, Opening the Doors to Hollywood is invaluable to any writer.

A comprehensive look at how today's Hollywood works -- who has the power and how deals are made. Drawing on interviews with more than 200 Hollywood insiders -- writers, directors, performers, agents, producers and journalists -- Litwak leads us through the maze of Hollywood politics. Well written and filled with case histories of specific films, Reel Power ears down myths and reveals the inner workings of the Hollywood film business.

In the weeks just before carnival, a kind of fevered delirium seizes Santiago. Massive papier-ma che figures known as mun econes must be readied, masks made, costumes and capes created with feathers, rabbit skins, beads, and glass. Songs have to be rehearsed, dances perfected, complex choreography synchronized, for carnival, an explosion of rhythm, song, and spirit meant to lure every sentient being into its swirling vortex, is a fierce competition as well as an unfolding of sensual dementia.
-- from "Rites of Rhythm

The music of Cuba is primordial and poetic: steeped in sex, drenched in mysticism, and at once exotic and familiar. Jory Farr, whose articles about Cuban music earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 1990, has carried on a love affair with the culture and the country for over a decade, returning again and again to research and experience firsthand Cuba's musical heritage as both a journalist and a musician in his own right.

Part listener's guide, part memoir, "Rites of Rhythm is a musical journey through Cuba and its cultural outposts in the United States.

The Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon gave many listeners their first taste of Cuban music, but Farr takes us further, initiating the reader in the deeper mysteries of the music by interviewing the masters of Cuban music, from Chucho Valde s and Eliades Ochoa to Los Mun equitos de Matanzas and Papi Oviedo. Along the way, he profiles such legends as Benny More and Arsenio Rodri guez.

Farr also takes us on a historical journey through Cuba, locating the roots of the music in the country's extraordinary confluence of religions, ethnicities, and cultures. Cuban music'sinfluences include African drums and chants, gypsy melodies, Afro-Haitian rhythms, Andalusian folk songs, and the spiraling melodies from Moorish regions. Yet contemporary Cuban music often sounds familiar to American ears because it also contains the jazz and blues licks that we have grown up with.

This is the first comprehensive exploration of Cuba's rich musical and mythological heritage and the extraordinary impact it has had on American popular culture. Jory Farr's travels to Cuba's Old Havana, Santiago, the Sierra Maestra mountains, and the Cuban music scenes in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles will give music aficionados everywhere the key to understanding the music they love.

Announcing the definitive guide not only to the second Austin Powers movie, but to the whole Austin Powers craze. Find out what Austin thinks of life in the '90s versus the '60s; his thoughts on world leaders, from Moses to Margaret Thatcher; the history of the shag-pad, and more. 50 photos.

Stan Getz's life in jazz was amazingly long and prodigiously prolific: Over the course of forty-nine years as a professional, he performed in every major jazz idiom - from Dixieland to swing to bebop to free jazz. Though he is most famous for "The Girl From Ipanema, " Stan Getz was already by then firmly ensconced in the pantheon of jazz greats. As a teenager just off the mean streets of the Bronx, Getz received the equivalent of a Ph.D. in jazz when he performed with the big bands of Jack Teagarden, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, and Woody Herman. Stan Getz contains rich portraits of these seminal bandleaders, as well as other jazz giants who influenced Getz's art: Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and his fellow bop pioneers, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman. Getz's recording of "Early Autumn" with the Woody Herman band catapulted him to stardom at age twenty-two in 1949. During the next forty-two years, Getz produced an astounding body of beautiful music, recording over three hundred records, including the great big band work, culminating with "Apasianado" in 1990; the 1961 jazz/classical masterpiece "Focus"; the wildly popular partnerships with Jobim, the Gilbertos, and Charlie Byrd, which brought Brazilian bossa nova to a world audience; the brilliant collaborations with Jimmy Raney, Bob Brookmeyer, Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Jimmy Rowles, and Albert Dailey; and the magnificent, poignant quartet and duet recordings with Kenny Barron during his last years. Getz's legendary career is all the more impressive given the excesses of his personal life: He was a heroin addict until age twenty-seven, then a violent alcoholic until he achieved sobriety five years before his death. Hisaddictions severely marred his relationships with his family and friends, brought him into trouble with the law, led to two suicide attempts, and constantly threatened to obliterate his livelihood and his artistry. Yet, despite being so furiously self-destructive that few bet he

"THAT'S NO MOON! IT'S A SPACE STATION."
But it wasn't just any space station--it was the most famous battle station in movie history, the Death Star, just one of the dozens of high-tech marvels that are found in the movies, the books, the comics, the games, and everywhere the Star Wars epic continues.
STAR WARS(c): THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS
* Features detailed data on the most important spaceships, vehicles, and
battle machines in the Star Wars universe.
* Describes the development and historical importance of each vehicle.
* Includes detailed illustrations with each entry for instant visual reference.
* Brings you up-to-date on the latest starcraft technology used by the New
Republic, its allies, and its enemies.
THESE ARE THE SHIPS USED TO TRAVEL, EXPLORE, AND CONQUER THE LENGTH AND BREADTH OF THE STAR WARS GALAXY.

Seventy-five years after he came to life, Superman remains one of America's most adored and enduring heroes. Now Larry Tye, the prize-winning journalist and "New York Times" bestselling author of "Satchel, " has written the first full-fledged history not just of the Man of Steel but of the creators, designers, owners, and performers who made him the icon he is today.
Legions of fans from Boston to Buenos Aires can recite the story of the child born Kal-El, scion of the doomed planet Krypton, who was rocketed to Earth as an infant, raised by humble Kansas farmers, and rechristened Clark Kent. Known to law-abiders and evildoers alike as Superman, he was destined to become the invincible champion of all that is good and just--and a star in every medium from comic books and comic strips to radio, TV, and film.
But behind the high-flying legend lies a true-to-life saga every bit as compelling, one that begins not in the far reaches of outer space but in the middle of America's heartland. During the depths of the Great Depression, Jerry Siegel was a shy, awkward teenager in Cleveland. Raised on adventure tales and robbed of his father at a young age, Jerry dreamed of a hero for a boy and a world that desperately needed one. Together with neighborhood chum and kindred spirit Joe Shuster, young Siegel conjured a human-sized god who was everything his creators yearned to be: handsome, stalwart, and brave, able to protect the innocent, punish the wicked, save the day, and win the girl. It was on Superman's muscle-bound back that the comic book and the very idea of the superhero took flight.
Tye chronicles the adventures of the men and women who kept Siegel and Shuster's "Man of Tomorrow" aloft and vitally alive through seven decades and counting. Here are the savvy publishers and visionary writers and artists of comics' Golden Age who ushered the red-and-blue-clad titan through changing eras and evolving incarnations; and the actors--including George Reeves and Christopher Reeve--who brought the Man of Steel to life on screen, only to succumb themselves to all-too-human tragedy in the mortal world. Here too is the poignant and compelling history of Siegel and Shuster's lifelong struggle for the recognition and rewards rightly due to the architects of a genuine cultural phenomenon.
From two-fisted crimebuster to Uber-patriot, social crusader to spiritual savior, Superman--perhaps like no other mythical character before or since--has evolved in a way that offers a Rorschach test of his times and our aspirations. In this deftly realized appreciation, Larry Tye reveals a portrait of America over seventy years through the lens of that otherworldly hero who continues to embody our best selves.
Praise for "Superman"
" "
"Engaging, fun, inspiring--like the Man of Steel."--The Huffington Post
"Powerful . . . wonderfully readable."--"The Plain Dealer"
"A story as American as Superman himself . . . The best origin story pulsing through "Superman" is not the one about the Krypton-to-Kansas alien baby, but rather the one about the superhero's mortal and sometimes star-crossed creators."--"The Washington Post"
" "
"Fun, enlightening pop-cultural history."--"Kirkus Reviews"
"A rich history full of lively heroes and villains' much like a comic book. Essential for Superman fans.""--Library Journal "(starred review)
"[A] comprehensive, definitive history.""--Publishers Weekly"

The best collection of swing music on the market. Titles in this 50-song folio include: It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) * Jumpin' at the Woodside * Pennsylvania 6-5000 * Stompin' at the Savoy * Bob White (Whatcha Gonna Swing Tonight) *