Other books that might interest you

• 

  Fela - Kalakuta Notes

  John Collins

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “A vibrant and multifaceted portrait of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti . . . and his role as a giant of modern African music.” —Michael E. Veal, author of Dub 
   
  Fela: Kalakuta Notes is an evocative account of Fela Kuti—the Afrobeat superstar who took African music into the arena of direct action. With his antiestablishment songs, he dedicated himself to Pan-Africanism and the down-trodden Nigerian masses, or “sufferheads.” In the 1970s, the British/Ghanaian musician and author John Collins met and worked with Fela in Ghana and Nigeria. Kalakuta Notes includes a diary that Collins kept in 1977 when he acted in Fela’s autobiographical film, Black President. The book offers revealing interviews with Fela by the author, as well as with band members, friends, and colleagues. 
   
  For this second edition, Collins has expanded the original introduction by providing needed context for popular music in Africa in the 1960s and the influences on the artist’s music and politics. In a new concluding chapter, Collins reflects on the legacy of Fela: the spread of Afrobeat, Fela’s musical children, Fela’s Shrine and Kalakuta House, and the annual Felabration. As the dust settles over Fela’s fiery, creative, and controversial career, his Afrobeat groove and political message live on in Kalakuta Notes. A new foreword by Banning Eyre, an up-to-date discography by Ronnie Graham, a timeline, historical photographs, and snapshots by the author are also featured. 
   
  “As multilayered and significant a document as the singer’s musical contributions. It is a crucial testament about one of the world’s most outspoken and radical artists, and gives deep insight into his life, music and struggles against oppression and mediocrity.” —Journal of World Popular Music

  Show book

• 

  Black Heart Fades Blue - Volume One

  Jerry A. Lang

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  If you're looking for the events that inspired the lyrics to all my songs? Those stories are in this book. If you're looking for what I did when I was younger? That's in here. What changed me, made me stop hating and hurting? It's all here. This is my story and I'm sticking to it. That's the one thing I have, the truth.Volume one of Black Heart Fades Blue, a three-part memoir by the founder and frontman for one of punk rock's most notorious acts, Poison IdeaIn 1980, Jerry A. formed Poison Idea, a Portland-based punk band that gave voice to disaffected and disenfranchised youth for over thirty years. As happened to so many punk bands, Jerry A. and Poison Idea also went all in on drugs and drinking as they toured the country, spiraling out of control and blowing both the band and their lives apart.Black Heart Fades Blue is not an apology or a nostalgic catalog of events, but a true reckoning with one's past and present. A memoir of a time and a place and a movement, as well as a deep conversation about the memories and moments we leave behind, Black Heart Fades Blue is a deep exploration of an unconventional life.

  Show book

• 

  Roberts & Kitchener in South...

  Rodney Atwood

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The British Army was shocked by three military defeats in a week in South Africa in late 1899. The commanding General Sir Redvers Buller lost his nerve. Something must be done was the cry across the Empire. Britain sent forth not one, but two military heroes. Field Marshal Lord Roberts and Major General Lord Kitchener spent their first five weeks in South Africa restoring morale, reorganising their forces and deceiving the enemy as to their intentions. In the next four weeks their offensive transformed the war: Kimberley and Ladysmith were relieved from Boer sieges and an enemy force of 4000 under General Cronje was captured on the Modder River. A long and bitter guerrilla war ensured in a terrain ideally suited to fast-moving Boer commandoes. On the dark side, deeds were committed of which no civilised empire priding itself on justice and fair play could be proud. The comradeship-in-arms of Roberts and Kitchener, their differing yet complementary personalities, their strategic and tactical decisions are described and assessed using a wide variety of sources including, personal papers and official correspondence. By these mens resourcefulness the British Army, despite its unpreparedness and poor leadership at many levels, won a remarkable victory in the first of the twentieth century Peoples Wars.

  Show book

• 

  Nor Fish Nor Fowl: From Deckhand...

  Colin Yorke

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In 1934, after five years travelling the world as a Merchant Seaman, my father, aged 21, enlisted in the British Royal Air Force to escape the Depression. Entering the Marine Branch, he swapped big ships for small fast boats - Seaplane Tenders, Armoured Target Boats and High Speed Launches. 
  In 1940, when the Air Sea Rescue service was formed, he joined the crew of High Speed Launch 102 (now fully restored and based at Portsmouth) as a Coxswain, stationed at Blyth. Three busy years on the "Spitfires of the Sea" followed, before his leg was "smashed" in heavy seas. 
  On recovery, he spent time in the Faroe Islands and in the English Channel, after "D-Day", and before being commissioned. The war's end found him in West Africa. After VJ Day he was demobbed, then recalled and posted to Egypt. 
  After a brief unhappy spell in "Civvy Street", he re-enlisted in the RAF as an acting corporal. First on the scene when HSL 2555 blew up, he was commended and subsequently carried the RAF ensign at the 1950 Battle of Britain celebrations in Paris, France. On return to the UK he was once again commissioned. 
  In Malta, during the Suez Crisis, he supervised a flying boat airlift of families and service personnel through Malta as the Canal Zone was evacuated. Later, serving in Cold War Germany, he skippered German boats with mixed German/British crews and was present when the Unit was handed back to the Germans. 
  In 1961, aged just 48, injuries forced his retirement from the RAF. 
  Now, fittingly narrated by my actor daughter, this book reveals a great deal of the little known story of the RAF Marine Branch, its boats and the life of a British serviceman's family in war and peace.

  Show book

• 

  Cooking As Fast As I Can - A...

  Cat Cora

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Before she became a celebrated chef, Cathy Cora was just a girl from Jackson, Mississippi, where days were slow and every meal was made from scratch. Her passion for the kitchen started in her home, where she spent her days internalizing the dishes that would form the cornerstone of her cooking philosophy incorporating her Greek heritage and Southern upbringing—from crispy fried chicken and honey-drenched biscuits to spanakopita. But outside the kitchen, Cat's life was volatile.In Cooking as Fast as I Can, Cat Cora reveals, for the first time, coming-of-age experiences from early childhood sexual abuse to the realities of life as a lesbian in the deep South. She shares how she found her passion in the kitchen and went on to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America and apprentice under Michelin star chefs in France. After her big break as a cohost on the Food Network's Melting Pot, Cat broke barriers by becoming the first-ever female Iron Chef.

  Show book

• 

  Always Wear Joy - My Mother Bold...

  Susan Fales-Hill

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  From an inside peek at the inner workings of Hollywood to the backstage drama of Broadway, from a poignant look at the black upper class to an honest look at the WASP elite, this elegantly wrought memoir of an extraordinary family has something for everyone.Growing up with a black Auntie Mame-like mother (who performed with the likes of Lena Horne) and an Anglo sea-faring father, Susan Fales-Hill moved seamlessly between many worlds. But it was from her mother -- a woman who was dressed by Givenchy and sculpted by Alexander Calder, yet rejected by many a casting agent for her "dark," unconventional looks -- that Susan drew inspiration, particularly when she faced challenges in her own career as a television writer in Hollywood, a town that wasn't always receptive to positive images of people of color. As a result the two developed a bond that mothers and daughters everywhere will find inspiring. Both a universally touching mother-daughter story and a portrait of a dazzling American family, Always Wear Joy is a memoir readers won't soon forget.

  Show book