Other books that might interest you

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  Coming to the Stage: Season 4

  Andy Kindler, Various Various

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  In Season 4 of Coming to the Stage, Comedy Dynamics’ first original series, host Andy Kindler introduces a new group of up-and-coming comedians who people WILL be talking about tomorrow. This season features: Anto Chan, Kyle Clark, Barbara Gray, Kelly Landry, Jamie Loftus, Cory Loykasek, Emily Maya Mills, Feraz Ozel, Neel Nanda, Erica Rhodes, Danny Soloman, Yedoye Travis and Comedy Dynamics' very own, Mr. Microphone!

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  Abbott and Costello: Making a...

  Bud Abbott, Lou Costello

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  Abbott and Costello make a movie with the Andrews Sisters

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  Whistler

  Jp. A. Calosse

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  Whistler suddenly shot to fame like a meteor at a crucial moment in the history of art, a field in which he was a pioneer. Like the impressionists, with whom he sided, he wanted to impose his own ideas. Whistler’s work can be divided into four periods. The first may be called a period of research in which he was influenced by the Realism of Gustave Courbet and by Japanese art. Whistler then discovered his own originality in the Nocturnes and the Cremorne Gardens series, thereby coming into conflict with the academics who wanted a work of art to tell a story. When he painted the portrait of his mother, Whistler entitled it Arrangement in Grey and Black and this is symbolic of his aesthetic theories. When painting the Cremorne Pleasure Gardens it was not to depict identifiable figures, as did Renoir in his work on similar themes, but to capture an atmosphere. He loved the mists that hovered over the banks of the Thames, the pale light, and the factory chimneys which at night turned into magical minarets. Night redrew landscapes, effacing the details. This was the period in which he became an adventurer in art; his work, which verged on abstraction, shocked his contemporaries. The third period is dominated by the full-length portraits that brought him his fame. He was able to imbue this traditional genre with his profound originality. He tried to capture part of the souls of his models and placed the characters in their natural habitats. This gave his models a strange presence so that they seem about to walk out of the picture to physically encounter the viewer. By extracting the poetic substance from individuals he created portraits described as “mediums” by his contemporaries, and which were the inspiration for Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Towards the end of his life, the artist began painting landscapes and portraits in the classical tradition, strongly influenced by Velázquez. Whistler proved to be extremely rigorous in ensuring his paintings coincided with his theories. He never hesitated in crossing swords with the most famous art theoreticians of his day. His personality, his outbursts, and his elegance were a perfect focus for curiosity and admiration. He was a close friend of Stéphane Mallarmé, and admired by Marcel Proust, who rendered homage to him in A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. He was also a provocative dandy, a prickly socialite, a demanding artist, and a daring innovator.

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  Painting as a Pastime

  Winston S. Churchill

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  The first volume in a collection essays and journalism from the legendary politician and Nobel Prize–winning author explores his artistic pursuits.   Legendary politician and military strategist Winston S. Churchill was a master not only of the battlefield, but of the page and the podium. Over the course of forty books and countless speeches, broadcasts, news items and more, he addressed a country at war and at peace, thrilling with victory but uneasy with its shifting role on the global stage. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for “his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.” During his lifetime, he enthralled readers and brought crowds roaring to their feet; in the years since his death, his skilled writing has inspired generations of eager history buffs.   Best known for his political genius and keen eye for military tactics, Churchill was a man of many talents—not the least of which was painting. Throughout his life, Churchill painted to relieve his mind from the demands of leadership and to keep the “black dog” of depression at bay.   Included in this volume are Churchill’s meditations on painting as a salve for the spirit and an essential creative pursuit. His love for the craft comes to life in this concise yet impassioned work. This volume includes eighteen reprints of Churchill’s original work in oil, giving the reader a window into the little-known creative and artistic skill of this prominent figure in twentieth century history.

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  Intrepid Laughter - Preston...

  Andrew Dickos

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  The life and career of the pioneering writer-director whose name is synonymous with sophisticated screwball comedies. 
   
  Preston Sturges was known for bringing sophistication and wit to the genre of comedy, establishing himself as one of the most valuable writer-directors in 1940s Hollywood. Today, more than a half century after they were originally produced, his films have lost little of their edge and remain extremely popular. 
   
  Intrepid Laughter is an essential guide to the life and work of this luminary of the stage and screen, following Sturges from his unusual childhood, to his early success as a Broadway playwright, to his whirlwind career in Hollywood.

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  Paranormal State - My Journey...

  Stefan Petrucha, Ryan Buell

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  Paranormal State: My Journey Into the Unknown is the official companion book to A&E’s hit series. 
   
  On every episode of Paranormal State, Ryan Buell and his team of investigators delve deep into the mysterious world of ghosts, demonic disturbances, and sixth-sense sightings that shadows our everyday reality. Now, in this guide to the series, Buell takes fans one step further, revealing the secrets of the show’s most intense cases—as well as some that were never broadcast—and the shocking, never-before-told story of his own brush with the supernatural—the otherworldly experience that first inspired him to found the Paranormal Research Society. 
   
  And with each case of unexplained phenomena, Ryan shares how the events forced him to confront his own beliefs, the workings of his rational mind, and the very nature of reality.

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