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  Glenn Miller: The Life and...

  Charles River Editors

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  Though it may be hard to fathom in the wake of Elvis Presley and popular rock bands like the Beatles, the early 20th century featured a burgeoning music sales industry that was dominated in ways that nobody would ever reach again, including the Fab 4. While Elvis and the Beatles had a combined 71 Top 10 hits over their lengthy careers, Glenn Miller had 16 records reach #1, and he compiled 69 Top 10 hits, all in the span of four years before he had turned 40. Like any music pioneer, Miller and his band were often criticized for not being true to the roots of the music they performed, even as they perfected a sound that captivated the country. In short order, Miller and his music influenced legends ranging from Benny Goodman to Louis Armstrong. 
  	Miller was the most popular big band leader in the United States when he walked away from his orchestra to enlist in the U.S. Army. World War II was raging, and Miller was determined to fulfill his patriotic duty, so he assembled a military orchestra to give fellow American servicemen a little taste of the homes they were missing. While based in the United Kingdom in 1944, the military orchestra was granted clearance to perform in Paris, which had been liberated from the Nazis just months before.  
  	Miller planned his own trip across the English Channel to prepare for a few days ahead of the orchestra’s arrival. Miller’s trip had already been postponed by cold, foggy and drizzly weather, but on December 15, 1944 the pilot chose not to let similar conditions delay it again. The plane took off at about 2:00 p.m. from the airstrip at Twinwood Farm, but it never made it to Paris. As Miller himself had once prophetically put it, “I don’t know why I spend my time making plans like this…. I have an awful feeling you guys are going to go home without me, and I’m going to get mine in some goddamn beat-up old plane!”  

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  Sketch Comedy - Identity...

  Nick Marx

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  A history of sketch comedy on American television and analysis of what it says about American culture and society. 
   
  In Sketch Comedy: Identity, Reflexivity, and American Television, Nick Marx examines some of the genre’s most memorable?and controversial?moments from the early days of television to the contemporary line-up. Through explorations of sketches from well-known shows such as Saturday Night Live, The State, Inside Amy Schumer, Key & Peele, and more, Marx argues that the genre has served as a battleground for the struggle between comedians who are pushing the limits of what is possible on television and network executives who are more mindful of the financial bottom line. Whether creating new catchphrases or transgressing cultural taboos, sketch comedies give voice to marginalized performers and audiences, providing comedians and viewers opportunities to test their own ideas about their place in society, while simultaneously echoing mainstream cultural trends. The result, Marx suggests, is a hilarious and flexible form of identity play unlike anything else in American popular culture and media. 
   
  “An excellent study of a long-neglected area in television/media studies and is part of a larger turn toward the centrality of comedy in post-war U.S. culture.” —Jeffrey Sconce, Northwestern University 
   
  “A stalwart of television . . . sketch comedy finally gets the in-depth critical attention it deserves . . . Marx shows how sketch comedy has fit (and been constrained by) TV’s industrial contexts, from live variety shows in its earliest days to movement across media in the era of multiple platforms. These case studies not only chart sketch comedy’s past, they provide the theoretical and analytical tools to consider its future.” —Ethan Thompson, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi

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  Laughing to America

  Gina Yashere

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  Filmed live in San Francisco, CA, UK's premier black female comedian, Gina Yashere, has come to America! Her unique take on being a cultural insider and outsider never fails to raise the roof as she gives us her take on the news gripping the nation.

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  Scott Stapp

  Steve Black

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  Steve Black interviewed former Creed vocalist, and current member of Art of Anarchy, Scott Stapp in 2017.

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  Escape: The Man Who Could Work...

  Les Crutchfield, John Dunkel

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  The classic story about the bloke who could. In this tale you are crouched in the middle of an immense hurricane. Houses, animals, trees sweeping past you, and you suddenly realize that you have tampered with the Universe, that you are bringing about the destruction of the World. Lovely British accents in this tale with a message. A delightful little story that is far from the typical Escape style of thriller. Escape with us now to a placid English village in the company of an equally placid little man who one day shook the world as HG Wells told it in his story - The Man Who Could Work Miracles.

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  The Universe of Peter Max

  Peter Max

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  An in-depth look at the personal and artistic life of renowned artist Peter Max...in his own wordsIn this intimate visual memoir, artist Peter Max details his life journey as an artist, providing a stirring account of himself as a young boy and as a successful artist eager to return to the days of wonderment and inspiration found only in dreams and childhood. Max charts his ascension in the art world and pauses to reflect on the nature of creativity, the universe at large, his many loves, and his ability to see beauty in the everyday. Vibrantly illustrated with Max's signature work, including some never-before-seen pieces, this colorful memoir reveals the personal inspiration behind the work of one of the world's most popular artists.With 200 full-color photographs

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