Publisher: Luath Press
A book for actors, for would-be actors and for everyone who has a curiosity about theatre as it is on the inside. The bareback performance of the histrionic art as it has been since the Greeks. This is one actor's experience over 60 years as a professional, including roles in The Avengers, Dr Finlay's Casebook, Jason and the Argonauts and This Man Craig.
The Twilight Zone Haiku explores the essence of Rod Serling’s iconic, uncanny 1960s television show through haiku, giving us dazzling, spot-on snapshots of each episode. In seventeen syllables, Boykin captures the show's main objective: to deliver a keen jolt of existential awareness. As you read, you find yourself marooned on an alien planet, lost in time, trapped inside a mannequin, surrounded by the debris of a nuclear attack, and always, always powerless to forces beyond your control. The Twilight Zone Haiku conjures the trappings of each haunting plot of the series, but more astutely, its scalpel-edged soul. Special audiobook bonus content includes: an interview by Tom Elliot with Earl Holliman, the first actor to ever step into The Twilight Zone, a special conversation between the author, Chad Ellis Boykin and audiobook producer and narrator, Tom Elliot, host of The Twilight Zone Podcast, an interview with haiku poet, artist, author, publisher, and Weirdo Poetry webmaster Jason McBride, and a special behind the scenes interview by audio engineer Christopher Sadler with the author, including new Twilight Zone Haiku poems exclusive to the audiobook.“Fans of The Twilight Zone will love this wonderful collection of haiku based on episodes of the classic series. Like Rod Serling’s doppelganger, Chad Ellis Boykin distills the theme of each episode into seventeen perfect syllables. Even if you’ve never seen an episode, the haiku can be enjoyed for the precision of the language and the lessons they share about the human condition. This book is smart, playful, and a joy to read. Be warned: once you step into that slippery dimension between time, space, and the open page, you’ll have a hard time leaving The Twilight Zone Haiku.”-Chuck Augello, author of Talking Vonnegut: Centennial Interviews and Essays and The Revolving Heart, a Best Books of 2020 Selection by Kirkus Reviews.Show book
The hands-down highlight of many a Car Talk episode, Daniel Pinkwater is responsible for some of the all-time greatest moments of the program’s storied history on public radio. Whether discussing man’s best friend (but worst passenger) or searching for the perfect vehicle for those who are “horizontally challenged,” Pinkwater keeps Tom and Ray in stitches, along with the show’s far-flung audience. The latest time-wasting Car Talk collection features the official designation of the Pinkwater seating standard, the strange case of the motorhead boyfriend, the presentation of the first Car Talk Peace Prize, Stump the Chumps, a puzzler from the Lying Used Car Salesman series, a stirring recitation from a BMW owner’s manual, a discussion of puking pooches, and more. It’s four perfectly good hours of laughter and conversation.Show book
The Symposium is a philosophical book written by Plato sometime after 385 BCE. On one level the book deals with the genealogy, nature and purpose of love, on another level the book deals with the topic of knowledge, specifically how does one know what one knows. The topic of love is taken up in the form of a group of speeches, given by a group of men at a symposium or a wine drinking party at the house of the tragedian Agathon at Athens. Plato constructed the Symposium as a story within a story within a story. This architecture creates the space for Plato to build his philosophy of knowledge. The speech of Socrates points out that the highest purpose of Love is to become a Philosopher, or Lover of Wisdom. (Summary from Wikipedia)Show book
Philip Marlowe was the most hard-boiled of gumshoes, a Private Investigator who could smell a ruse, taste a betrayal and track down anyone hiding in the shadows. The radio series was so successful but by 1949 it had the largest audience of any radio show. That’s quite a claim, and even if not absolutely accurate it’s near the mark. Marlowe, created by Raymond Chandler, is someone we all seem to know, a door who’s door we would knock on in times of trial. His methods might not be totally within the law but hey, these were bad people he was up against and as anyone in the law business knows – needs must. Van Heflin is Philip Marlowe. And he’s ready for his next case.Show book
Ray Conniff got his start arranging and conducting for other recording artists. His success working for others eventually led to Columbia allowing him to record an album under his own name which was released to great success and acclaim. Conniff was the first artist to use voices and vocal arrangements as part of the instrumentation. In a conversation with host Wink Martindale, Conniff discusses his unique sound, evolving his style and his passion for creating music.Show book
“A tour de force . . . Crouch has given us a bone-deep understanding of Parker’s music and the world that produced it. In his pages, Bird still lives.” —Washington Post A stunning portrait of Charlie Parker, one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century, from Stanley Crouch, one of the foremost authorities on jazz and culture in America. Throughout his life, Charlie Parker personified the tortured American artist: a revolutionary performer who used his alto saxophone to create a new music known as bebop even as he wrestled with a drug addiction that would lead to his death at the age of thirty-four. Drawing on interviews with peers, collaborators, and family members, Stanley Crouch recreates Parker’s childhood; his early days navigating the Kansas City nightlife, inspired by lions like Lester Young and Count Basie; and on to New York, where he began to transcend the music he had mastered. Crouch reveals an ambitious young man torn between music and drugs, between his domineering mother and his impressionable young wife, whose teenage romance with Charlie lies at the bittersweet heart of this story. With the wisdom of a jazz scholar, the cultural insights of an acclaimed social critic, and the narrative skill of a literary novelist, Stanley Crouch illuminates this American master as never before. “A virtuous performance.” —David Hajdu, New York Times Book Review “A magnificent achievement; I could hardly put it down.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr. “Insightful, profound, and wholly original.” —Wynton Marsalis “A jazz biography that ranks with the very best.” —Booklist, starred review “In prose that veers toward lyrical rapture, [Crouch] conjures the inner life of the improvising artist.” —The New YorkerShow book
