Click the links to order from Amazon.
It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: The Berlin Wall fell and the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, one presidential election was allegedly decided by Ross Perot while another was plausibly decided by Ralph Nader. In the beginning, almost every name and address was listed in a phone book, and everyone answered their landlines because you didn’t know who it was. By the end, exposing someone’s address was an act of emotional violence, and nobody picked up their new cell phone if they didn’t know who it was. The 90s brought about a revolution in the human condition we’re still groping to understand. Happily, Chuck Klosterman is more than up to the job.
Beyond epiphenomena like "Cop Killer" and Titanic and Zima, there were wholesale shifts in how society was perceived: the rise of the internet, pre-9/11 politics, and the paradoxical belief that nothing was more humiliating than trying too hard. Pop culture accelerated without the aid of a machine that remembered everything, generating an odd comfort in never being certain about anything. On a 90’s Thursday night, more people watched any random episode of Seinfeld than the finale of Game of Thrones. But nobody thought that was important; if you missed it, you simply missed it. It was the last era that held to the idea of a true, hegemonic mainstream before it all began to fracture, whether you found a home in it or defined yourself against it.
In The Nineties, Chuck Klosterman makes a home in all of it: the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the politics, the changes regarding race and class and sexuality, the yin/yang of Oprah and Alan Greenspan. In perhaps no other book ever written would a sentence like, “The video for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was not more consequential than the reunification of Germany” make complete sense. Chuck Klosterman has written a multi-dimensional masterpiece, a work of synthesis so smart and delightful that future historians might well refer to this entire period as Klostermanian.
The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two) takes fans behind the scenes of the second season of the Emmy Award–winning Disney+ live-action Star Wars television series. Filled with concept art, character, vehicle, weapon, and creature designs, and interviews with key crew and creatives, including executive producer/showrunner/ writer Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Lion King) and executive producer/ director Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels), The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two) will provide readers with an exclusive look at the stunning art and design work that helped bring new and returning characters and locations to life.
Season two of The Mandalorian tracks the continuing adventures of Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and the Child as they explore the far reaches of the Star Wars galaxy in an effort to return Grogu to his people and stay one step ahead of Moff Gideon’s (Giancarlo Esposito) Imperial remnant and squad of dark troopers. Alongside comrades from the first season, the duo encounters a cadre of new allies and forms tenuous alliances with former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), frontier marshal Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant), fellow Mandalorians Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and Koska Reeves (Mercedes Varnado aka Sasha Banks), and fan-favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison). In The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two), readers will encounter early visual and conceptual ideas for these new characters and their arsenal of weapons, ships, and armor, as well as the icy, lush, war-torn, and razed planets that serve as crucial stepping stones in Djarin and Grogu’s quest.
Returning for The Mandalorian season two, executive creative director Doug Chiang (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and the incomparable group of artists, designers, and dreamers known as the Lucasfilm art department “visualists” undertook the challenge of continuing to push the boundaries of Star Wars storytelling while also translating Ahsoka Tano from animation to live action and updating the look of the legendary Boba Fett. The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two) is the only book to explore the artistic vision for this groundbreaking sophomore season, taking readers on a deep dive into the development of the next chapter of Din Djarin and Grogu’s story. Exclusive interviews with the filmmakers and the Lucasfilm visualists provide a running commentary on The Mandalorian’s innovative art and design, revealing the inspiration behind the look and feel of the series.
On stage and screen, we know a great performance when we see it. But how do actors draw from their bodies and minds to turn their selves into art? What is the craft of being an authentic fake? More than a century ago, amid tsarist Russia's crushing repression, one of the most talented actors ever, Konstantin Stanislavski, asked these very questions, reached deep into himself, and emerged with an answer. How his “system” remade itself into the Method and forever transformed American theater and film is an unlikely saga that has never before been fully told.
Now, critic and theater director Isaac Butler chronicles the history of the Method in a narrative that transports readers from Moscow to New York to Los Angeles, from The Seagull to A Streetcar Named Desire to Raging Bull. He traces how a cohort of American mavericks--including Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, and the storied Group Theatre--refashioned Stanislavski's ideas for a Depression-plagued nation that had yet to find its place as an artistic powerhouse. The Group's feuds and rivalries would, in turn, shape generations of actors who enabled Hollywood to become the global dream-factory it is today. Some of these performers the Method would uplift; others, it would destroy. Long after its midcentury heyday, the Method lives on as one of the most influential--and misunderstood--ideas in American culture.
Studded with marquee names--from Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, and Elia Kazan, to James Baldwin, Ellen Burstyn, and Dustin Hoffman--The Method is a spirited history of ideas and a must-read for any fan of Broadway or American film.
Born the same year as the film industry in 1895, Buster Keaton began his career as the child star of a family slapstick act reputed to be the most violent in vaudeville. Beginning in his early twenties, he enjoyed a decade-long stretch as the director, star, stuntman, editor, and all-around mastermind of some of the greatest silent comedies ever made, including Sherlock Jr., The General, and The Cameraman.
Even through his dark middle years as a severely depressed alcoholic finding work on the margins of show business, Keaton’s life had a way of reflecting the changes going on in the world around him. He found success in three different mediums at their creative peak: first vaudeville, then silent film, and finally the experimental early years of television. Over the course of his action-packed seventy years on earth, his life trajectory intersected with those of such influential figures as the escape artist Harry Houdini, the pioneering Black stage comedian Bert Williams, the television legend Lucille Ball, and literary innovators like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Samuel Beckett.
In Camera Man, film critic Dana Stevens pulls the lens out from Keaton’s life and work to look at concurrent developments in entertainment, journalism, law, technology, the political and social status of women, and the popular understanding of addiction. With erudition and sparkling humor, Stevens hopscotches among disciplines to bring us up to the present day, when Keaton’s breathtaking (and sometimes life-threatening) stunts remain more popular than ever as they circulate on the internet in the form of viral gifs. Far more than a biography or a work of film history, Camera Man is a wide-ranging meditation on modernity that paints a complex portrait of a one-of-a-kind artist.
Bob Dylan: All the Songs focuses on Dylan's creative process and his organic, unencumbered style of recording. It is the only book to tell the stories, many unfamiliar even to his most fervent fans, behind the more than 500 songs he has released over the span of his career. Organized chronologically by album, and updated to include all of his most recent work including the 2020 release of his 39th album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Margotin and Guesdon detail the origins of his melodies and lyrics, his process in the recording studio, the instruments he used, and the contribution of a myriad of musicians and producers to his canon.
The artistic mastery of John Buscema is apparent on every page of this book—an incredible selection of stories, covers, splashes, and interior pages. Viewing these pages, it’s easy to see why Buscema has been called the Michelangelo of comics.
Like all Artist’s Editions, each page in this book has been scanned from the original art, allowing the reader a rare glimpse of a true "artist's artist" work. As you peruse this book you will see editorial notations, white out, blue pencils, and so much more--all the subtle nuances that make original art so unique. The only way to better view these pages is if you were in John Buscema’s art studio as he was drawing them!
2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the first Electric Light Orchestra album. The ELO story is one of continued success for over 50 years. From inauspicious beginnings in 1971, where live audiences barely reached double figures, ELO would become one of the most popular bands in the world by the end of the decade, thanks largely to the songwriting and production talents of Jeff Lynne; hits such as ‘Evil Woman’, ‘Mr. Blue Sky and ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’; multi-platinum albums like Out Of The Blue and Discovery, and, of course, their spectacular stage shows. Although ELO finally called it a day in 1986, they re-emerged in 2014 as Jeff Lynne’s ELO, playing a triumphant comeback concert at London’s Hyde Park. Since then, they haven’t looked back, releasing further albums to critical and public acclaim, culminating in ELO’s biggest ever live show in front of 70,000 fans, at Wembley Stadium and 2019’s chart topping album, From Out Of Nowhere. As well as examining all of ELO’s recorded catalogue, the author has spoken to many people who have been involved with the band over the decades, uncovering along the way previously unseen photographs and new information about the group and their recordings, making this one of the most comprehensive guides to ELO ever published.
Since 1963, The Rolling Stones have been recording and touring, selling more than 200 million records worldwide. While much is known about this iconic group, few books provide a comprehensive history of their time in the studio. In The Rolling Stones All the Songs, authors Margotin and Guesdon describe the origin of their 340 released songs, details from the recording studio, what instruments were used, and behind-the-scenes stories of the great artists who contributed to their tracks.
Organized chronologically by album, this massive, 704-page hardcover begins with their 1963 eponymous debut album recorded over five days at the Regent Studio in London; through their collaboration with legendary producer Jimmy Miller in the ground-breaking albums from 1968 to 1973; to their later work with Don Was, who has produced every album since Voodoo Lounge. Packed with more than 500 photos, All the Songs is also filled with stories fans treasure, such as how the mobile studio they pioneered was featured in Deep Purple's classic song "Smoke on the Water" or how Keith Richards used a cassette recording of an acoustic guitar to get the unique riff on "Street Fighting Man."
