It was a magical romance... From the very moment these two souls united, a unique and radiant harmony was captured between them. Each and every enchanted day they shared with one another, ended in an array of beautiful memories, filled with song, laughter, and playful dreams. This love, so perfect and true, could have only been a gift from above. But with heaven comes hell... And when the demons of Capri Spectro's past refused to release their wicked grip from her life, it slowly suffocated this angelic love. Those dark shadows would ultimately consume the light in Gentry's eyes, casting Capri's angel away into a mysterious realm of uncertainty. He would escape with her heart in his hands, and leave behind only one hope...That he may one day return... What would become of Capri in the days that followed is where this twisted journey unfolds, for with this loss also came an unbearable reality. The burden of a painful past now weighed more heavily upon her than ever before. In a world where punishment looms in the dark storm clouds above and tears have a way of flooding the imagination, those who are sinking, may instead feel, like they are sailing. During this slow downward spiral into madness, Capri transformed into Eve, and believed wholeheartedly in her life or death pact with the Big Man upstairs. Fueled by her childhood dream of marrying John Lennon, and chasing after what appeared to be an impossible miracle, Capri began walking the tightrope of insanity, in pure certainty. Trapped in this bizarre and brokenhearted world of illusion, would the long and winding road to freedom ever reveal itself...or would Capri die trying to find it...

In his memoir, Dr. George E. Allen looks back at a career spanning more than five decades of teaching music to Philadelphia students. Early on in life, he learned about many styles of music, and he took his love of the art to college, where he earned multiple degrees before joining the Philadelphia School District. There, he earned the respect of students, fellow music teachers, and music administrators. It wasn't easy, but he did it his way and enjoyed positive results. He inspired the same type of dogged effort in his students, relying on a phrase that he placed at the beginning of all his syllabi: "It is better to know than to think you know." He first heard that on the phone from Ellis Marsalis, the father of jazz musician Wynton and a well-known musician in his own right. Allen adopted the phrase as one of his own mantras, never allowing his students to say "I think" or "I can't." Whether you are someone who loves music, an education professional, or someone thinking about becoming a teacher, you can find inspiration in Allen's love for music, education, and his students. It was time for me to begin serious work on writing about my experience as a music educator in Philadelphia because I did it differently with satisfying results.

Folk singer and folk music collector, writer, painter, journalist, art critic, whalerman, sheep station roustabout, Marxist, and much more - this is the story of A. L. (Bert) Lloyd's extraordinary life. A. L. Lloyd played a key part in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 60s, but that is only part of his story. Dave Arthur documents how Lloyd became a member of the Communist Party, forceful antifascist, trade unionist and an important part of left-wing culture from the early 1930s to his death in 1982. Following his return from Australia as a 21-year-old, self-educated agricultural labourer, he was at the heart of the most important left-wing movements and highly respected for his knowledge in various fields. Dave Arthur recounts the life of a creative, passionate and life-loving Marxist, and in so doing provides a social history of a turbulent twentieth century.

Drawing on primary documents as well as interviews and letters, the authors have created a fascinating portrait of one of America's most distinguished and prolific composers whose creative output spans more than half a century. With its well organized, carefully annotated and indexed bibliography, the book is not only a pleasure to read, but a valuable research tool. Read's notable accomplishments include an extensive catalog of 150 opus numbers that run the gamut of instrumental combinations and musical genres, plus nine scholarly books dealing with various aspects of notation, orchestral devices, and instrumental techniques.

The biography describes Read's family background, his early years growing up in Evanston, Illinois, his high school education, his years at the Eastman School of Music, his Cromwell fellowship to Europe, and his marriage to accomplished teacher/pianist, Margaret Vail Payne. Major events are highlighted during his years at St. Louis, Kansas City, Cleveland, and, finally, Boston. Interlochen, Tanglewood, the MacDowell Colony, the Huntington Hartford Foundation, as well as official visits to Mexico, are explored in terms of the role they played in the creative life of the composer. A major portion of the biography is devoted to Read's opera, DEGREESIVillon DEGREESR. Readers will be interested in the completely annotated bibliography, which includes a complete listing of works, performances, reviews, discography, and literary writings. Appendixes include classified lists of instrumentation, commissions, awards, honors, positions, text sources, dedications, and manuscript locations.

Lauded by his peers, Van Heflin won a place in the hearts of cinemagoers with his portrayal of a resolute homesteader in George Stevens' timeless classic Shane. But there was far more to this superlative actor than one role. He impressed in all genres and could convincingly portray every kind of character from a heel to a hero and each shade in between. This first full-length work about him provides a full commentary of all his films with insights into his life as a sailor and his stage career. The aim is to restore him to his rightful place among the gallery of stars of Hollywood's Golden Age to whose luster he added a stage craftsman's unique talent. He first caught the public attention as the sensitive drink-addicted friend of gangster Johnny Eager for which he won the Academy Award and contributed notable performances in a string of terrific noirs, dramas and westerns. He was especially memorable as the psychotic cop in Joseph Losey's masterpiece The Prowler but equally at home as the doubtful executive in Negulesco's smart satire Woman's World. A restless spirit whose heart never left the sea he learned early on about life and human motivations sailing the oceans of the world; this undoubtedly informed his natural acting instinct. A versatile risk-taking actor he was never concerned with popularity or comfortable with the trappings of stardom. However he brought to every role a rare emotional intensity which made all his portrayals real and ensured they should live for all time.

Miami, 1963. A young boy from Louisville, Kentucky, is on the path to becoming the greatest sportsman of all time. Cassius Clay is training in the 5th Street Gym for his heavyweight title clash against the formidable Sonny Liston. He is beginning to embrace the ideas and attitudes of Black Power, and firebrand preacher Malcolm X will soon become his spiritual adviser. Thus Cassius Clay will become 'Cassius X' as he awaits his induction into the Nation of Islam. Cassius also befriends the legendary soul singer Sam Cooke, falls in love with soul singer Dee Dee Sharp and becomes a remarkable witness to the first days of soul music. As with his award-winning soul trilogy, Stuart Cosgrove's intensive research and sweeping storytelling shines a new light on how black music lit up the sixties against a backdrop of social and political turmoil - and how Cassius Clay made his remarkable transformation into Muhammad Ali.

For the last 25 years, Sunday nights at 8pm on C-SPAN has been appointment television for many Americans. During that time, host Brian Lamb has invited people to his Capitol Hill studio for hour-long conversations about contemporary society and history. In today's soundbite culture that hour remains one of television's last vestiges of in-depth, civil conversation.
First came C-SPAN's "Booknotes" in 1989, which by the time it ended in December 2004, was the longest-running author-interview program in American broadcast history. Many of the most notable nonfiction authors of its era were featured over the course of 800 episodes, and the conversations became a defining hour for the network and for nonfiction writers.
In January 2005, C-SPAN embarked on a new chapter with the launch of Q and A. Again one hour of uninterrupted conversation but the focus was expanded to include documentary film makers, entrepreneurs, social workers, political leaders and just about anyone with a story to tell.
To mark this anniversary Lamb and his team at C-SPAN have assembled "Sundays at Eight," a collection of the best unpublished interviews and stories from the last 25 years. Featured in this collection are historians like David McCullough, Ron Chernow and Robert Caro, reporters including April Witt, John Burns and Michael Weisskopf, and numerous others, including Christopher Hitchens, Brit Hume and Kenneth Feinberg.
In a March 2001 "Booknotes" interview "60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt described the show's success this way: "All you have to do is tell me a story." This collection attests to the success of that principle, which has guided Lamb for decades. And his guests have not disappointed, from the dramatic escape of a lifelong resident of a North Korean prison camp, to the heavy price paid by one successful West Virginia businessman when he won $314 million in the lottery, or the heroic stories of recovery from the most horrific injuries in modern-day warfare. Told in the series' signature conversational manner, these stories come to life again on the page. "Sundays at Eight" is not merely a token for fans of C-SPAN's interview programs, but a collection of significant stories that have helped us understand the world for a quarter-century.

This, the second edition, was significantly revised and expanded. It incorporates a substantial amount of new material - notably three sections on the operas Hugh the Drover, Sir John in Love and The Poisoned Kiss. Also Wilfrid inserted into the final chapter A Double Man's Last Harvest, an account of the late A minor sonata for violin and piano.

In the minds of today's audiences, George Burns was a solo act. But in the history of show business, he will long be remembered for his work with Gracie Allen. Few performers have enjoyed so much popular and critical acclaim. Together they enjoyed phenomenal success in vaudeville, radio, television, and film. Although they were celebrities, the two performers enjoyed a life remarkably free of scandal. After the death of Allen in 1964, Burns made commercials, a music video, and an exercise video. He wrote books and won numerous awards, and his nightclub and convention appearances did not stop until shortly before his death.

Through a thoughtful biography and detailed entries, this book serves as a comprehensive reference to the careers of Burns and Allen together and individually. The biography summarizes their rise as vaudeville performers, their work in a range of media, and Burns' continued achievements after Allen's death. Sections of the book cover their work on the stage, on radio, on television, and in films. Each section provides detailed entries for their performances, including cast and credit information, plot synoposes, and review excerpts. Appendices list their awards, personal appearances, and archives; and an extensive annotated bibliography cites and discusses sources of additional information.

From the Jim Crow world of 1920s Greenville, South Carolina, to Greenwich Village's Café Society in the '40s, to their 1974 Grammy-winning collaboration on "Loves Me Like a Rock," the Dixie Hummingbirds have been one of gospel's most durable and inspiring groups. Now, Jerry Zolten tells the Hummingbirds' fascinating story and with it the story of a changing music industry and a changing nation. When James Davis and his high-school friends starting singing together in a rural South Carolina church they could not have foreseen the road that was about to unfold before them. They began a ten-year jaunt of "wildcatting," traveling from town to town, working local radio stations, schools, and churches, struggling to make a name for themselves. By 1939 the a cappella singers were recording their four-part harmony spirituals on the prestigious Decca label. By 1942 they had moved north to Philadelphia and then New York where, backed by Lester Young's band, they regularly brought the house down at the city's first integrated nightclub, Café Society. From there the group rode a wave of popularity that would propel them to nation-wide tours, major record contracts, collaborations with Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon, and a career still vibrant today as they approach their seventy-fifth anniversary. Drawing generously on interviews with Hank Ballard, Otis Williams, and other artists who worked with the Hummingbirds, as well as with members James Davis, Ira Tucker, Howard Carroll, and many others, The Dixie Hummingbirds brings vividly to life the growth of a gospel group and of gospel music itself.

It was never easy for Professor Green. Born into a tough Hackney estate and raised by his grandmother, the rapper was always learning the hard way - whether at school, on the streets of east London or on stage during impromptu freestyle battles. Indeed, life and music have always been intertwined for the young rapper, but it wasn't until he was 24 that the two were brought into focus by the suicide of his father - and his emotions, ever since, have been reflected in the raw and often passionate lines of his lyrics. In this wonderful autobiography, Professor Green - a.k.a. Stephen Manderson - reflects on his life so far and how his upbringing and encounters - both good and bad - shaped the person and musician he is today. Passionate, raw and totally open, Lucky is the story of a boy's journey, from life close to the streets, all the while working towards becoming a successful musician, achieving that dream and eventually gaining that success, only to realise it wouldn't quite solve all of his problems...Lucky is accompanied by the exclusive Mix Tape app, which takes you closer to Professor Green and his story.With exclusive digital content for readers to enjoy, this is a rare insight into one of the most exciting and controversial musicians working in music today.

Allen Sapp's multifaceted career as a gifted composer, influential teacher, and innovative administrator is presented in this first book-length study of his life and works. The biography chronicles his studies with Aaron Copland, Walter Piston, and Nadia Boulanger; his service as Chief Cryptanalyst for the U.S. Army in Europe at the close of WWII; his early career on the faculty at Harvard; his formation of a highly influential center for avant-garde music at Buffalo in the 1960s; and his dramatic explosion of creativity in the 1980s. Musical examples from the biography are supplemented by corresponding sound files available via the World Wide Web (http://muslib.lib.ohio-state.edu/sapp/index.htm). Following the biography is a listing of Sapp's works and performances, featuring excerpts from performance reviews. This is followed by a Discography/Webography, which lists all commercially produced recordings as well as all known noncommercial recordings available in libraries, archives, or on the World Wide Web. The final two sections of the book present an annotated bibliography of writings by and about Allen Sapp. The book is supplemented by appendices providing a listing of academic and nonacademic positions held by Sapp, and chronological and alphabetical listings of his compositions.

One of the most significant contributors to the early years of the motion picture industry, Harold Lloyd was also a shrewd businessman and became the wealthiest man in Hollywood at the peak of his career. Perhaps more than any other major star of the silent era, his characters mirrored his times and captivated his contemporaries. His experiments with camera placement and motion were vital to the evolution of filmmaking techniques. This book includes a short biography of Lloyd and detailed information about all of his performances. The biography overviews his childhood, his adolescent stage career, his work in silent and talking pictures, his family life, and the work of his major contemporaries. A chapter on his film work includes entries for all of his shorts and features, including cameo roles and newsreels. Other chapters describe Lloyd's radio and television work, sheet music and recordings inspired by his films, and his many awards and honors. An annotated bibliography cites books, magazines, newspapers, oral histories, and interviews. Eleven photographs illustrate his work.

In this remarkable, inspiring collection of essays, acclaimed writer and critic Olivia Laing makes a brilliant case for why art matters, especially in the turbulent political weather of the twenty-first century. Funny Weather brings together a career's worth of Laing's writing about art and culture, examining their role in our political and emotional lives. She profiles Jean-Michel Basquiat and Georgia O'Keeffe, reads Maggie Nelson and Sally Rooney, writes love letters to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, and explores loneliness and technology, women and alcohol, sex and the body. With characteristic originality and compassion, she celebrates art as a force of resistance and repair, an antidote to a frightening political time. We're often told that art can't change anything. Laing argues that it can. Art changes how we see the world. It makes plain inequalities and it offers fertile new ways of living.

The seven rules to follow to realize your true purpose in life-distilled by Arnold Schwarzenegger from his own journey of ceaseless reinvention and extraordinary achievement, and available for absolutely anyone.

The world's greatest bodybuilder. The world's highest paid movie star. The leader of the world's sixth largest economy. That these are the same person sounds like the setup to a joke. But this is no joke. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this did not happen by accident.

Arnold's stratospheric success happened as part of a process. As the result of clear vision, big thinking, hard work, direct communication, resilient problem-solving, open-minded curiosity, and a commitment to giving back. All of it guided by the one lesson Arnold's father hammered into him above all: be useful. As Arnold conquered every realm he entered, he kept his father's adage close to his heart. Written with his uniquely earnest, blunt, powerful voice, BE USEFUL takes readers on an inspirational tour through Arnold's toolkit for a meaningful life. Arnold shows us how to put those tools to work, in service of whatever fulfilling future we can dream up for ourselves. He brings his insights to vivid life with compelling personal stories, life-changing successes and life-threatening failures alike--some of them famous, some told here for the first time ever.

Too many of us struggle to disconnect from our self-pity and connect to our purpose. At an early age, Arnold forged the mental tools to build the ladder out of the poverty and narrow-mindedness of his rural Austrian hometown, tools he used to add rung after rung from there. Now he has shared that wisdom with all of us.

As he puts it, no one is going to come rescue you -- you only have yourself. The good news, it turns out, is that you are all you need.

Ann Sheridan came to Hollywood in 1933 as a finalist in a beauty contest, a publicity stunt for Paramount's "Search for Beauty." Of the 30 contestants who appeared in the picture and the 6 finalists whom Paramount put under contract, she was the only one to achieve stardom. Her films included "Angels with Dirty Faces" (1938), "They Drive by Night" (1940), "Kings RoW" (1942), and "Come Next Spring" (1956). Through the years, she appeared on stage and on many radio and television programs. As with her film career, her broadcasting work was diverse, including appearances in dramas, comedies, talk shows, variety revues, and game shows. In 1965 she joined the cast of "Another World," thus becoming one of the first movie stars to appear in a soap opera. Her role led to a prime time series, the situation comedy "Pistols 'n' Petticoats" (1966-1967). She died during production.

This reference book chronicles Ann Sheridan's fascinating life and career. The volume begins with a biography that traces her rise to stardom and her many successes in the entertainment world. A chronology then summarizes the most important events in her life. The chapters that follow provide detailed information for her work in films, radio, and television. Entries are provided for each of her performances, with each entry giving cast and credit information, a plot summary, excerpts from reviews, and critical commentary. The book also includes information about recordings of Sheridan's songs, the various awards and honors that she won, and magazine covers on which she appeared. The volume also presents an extensive annotated bibliography of works about Sheridan and lists sources of archival material.

With such seminal movies as The Exorcist and The French Connection, Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin secured his place as a great filmmaker. But his own success story has the makings of classic American film. He was born in Chicago, the son of Russian immigrants. Immediately after high school, he found work in the mailroom of a local television station, and patiently worked his way into the directing booth during the heyday of live TV.

An award-winning documentary brought him attention as a talented new filmmaker and an advocate for justice, and it caught the eye of producer David L. Wolper, who brought Friedkin to Los Angeles. There he moved from television (one of the last episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour) to film (The Birthday Party, The Boys in the Band), displaying a versatile stylistic range. Released in 1971, The French Connection won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and two years later The Exorcist received ten Oscar nominations and catapulted Friedkin's career to stardom.

Penned by the director himself, The Friedkin Connection takes readers on a journey through the numerous chance encounters and unplanned occurrences that led a young man from a poor urban neighborhood to success in one of the most competitive industries and art forms in the world. From the streets of Chicago to the executive suites of Hollywood, from a passionate new artistic life as a renowned director of operas to his most recent tour de force, Killer Joe, William Friedkin has much to say about the world of moviemaking and his place within it.