Why has Serge Gainsbourg crossed over to the English-speaking world when so many of his contemporaries have remained largely confined to the Francosphere? What is it about this unshaven provocateur that so appeals to us? And who was the real Serge Gainsbourg anyway? Was he the sensitive seducer and songwriting colossus of the 60s and 70s? Was he Lucien Ginsburg, the son of Russian Jewish refugees who had to wear a yellow star during the Nazi Occupation of Paris? Or was he Gainsbarre, the deplorable, attention-seeking drunk who shamelessly propositioned Whitney Houston on live TV? Gainsbourg s cult has only grown since his death in 1991, and Histoire de Melody Nelson is now regarded as a classic in France and internationally. The 1971 album had only sold eighty thousand copies by 1986 when it finally went gold fifteen years after its release; its canonical elevation is a remarkable story, and there are many more remarkable stories attached to all of Gainsbourg s genre-defying, transgressive long-players. In Relax Baby Be Cool, writer Jeremy Allen takes each studio album in turn while exploring themes pertinent to Gainsbourg s life and music: jazz, performance, provocation, appropriation, postmodernism, aesthetics, metamorphosis, muses, Nazis, film and TV, Surrealism, fame, and decline. French pop music is more popular than it s been since the mid-90s, when the French touch was breaking. Gainsbourg s influence has also been huge on alternative music: from Pulp to Massive Attack, De La Soul to Danger Mouse, Black Grape to Iggy Pop, Luke Vibert to Die Antwoord, Air to Kylie Minogue. This book is full of new interviews from people who knew him, as well as younger artists who ve discovered him long after his death. Contributors include Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jacqueline Ginsburg (Gainsbourg s sister), Anna Karina, Mike Patton, Etienne Daho, Sly Dunbar, Alan Hawkshaw, Alan Parker, Jean-Claude Vannier, Tony Frank, Tony Allen, Mick Harvey, Bertrand Burgalat, Acid Arab, Jehnny Beth, Alain Chamfort, Metronomy, David Holmes, Blonde Redhead, Air, Sparks, Will Oldham, and many more.

When Tamara James, a curious adolescent suffering from incurable heart disease, gives away the flower of her youth, she intends to mother a child for her dysfunctional parents. Now, four years, no baby, and countless guys later, Tamara has become the shame of her neighborhood and the disgrace of her family. And after graduating high school with honors...biggest slut of class 96...she flees Chicago for what should be a routine summer stint with her grandmother in Savannah, Tennessee. This summer proves anything but routine as Tamara crosses paths with Maurice Harding, a mystical poet from 'the stars.' Harding is handsome and charismatic. More importantly, he is only weeks away from tying the knot with his fiancee in California. Tamara intends to seduce Maurice into a night of passion before he leaves town, expecting him to then go home to his woman, like all the other taken men she has borrowed. However, Maurice refuses to take advantage of Tamara's lack of guidance. With sincerity of heart and the gift of word he penetrates the depths of Tamara's core and causes her to believe that she is worth more than what she has become. Sparks fly between the two as they enjoy a bordering inappropriate friendship which includes flirtatious phone calls, night time rendezvous by the Tennessee River and an unforgettable dance on the Fourth of July. As their summer comes to a close, Tamara realizes that the pursuit of his body has become the battle for his heart. In an emotional rollercoaster set against sunny days and starry nights, the unlovable Tamara James falls in love. However, by falling in love with Maurice Harding Tamara James undergoes a transformation in which she now believes she is entitled to love and worthy to be loved. This change of heart brings her full circle and at odds with the 'slut' of her past. And considering her failing health, Tamara is forced to choose between pursuing love and a possible happy ending or stepping out the way and letting Maurice return to California and wed his fiancee.

Few philosophers have devoted such sustained, almost obsessive attention to the topic of death as Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard and Death brings together new work on Kierkegaard's multifaceted discussions of death and provides a thorough guide to the development, in various texts and contexts, of Kierkegaard s ideas concerning death. Essays by an international group of scholars take up essential topics such as dying to the world, living death, immortality, suicide, mortality and subjectivity, death and the meaning of life, remembrance of the dead, and the question of the afterlife. While bringing Kierkegaard's philosophy of death into focus, this volume connects Kierkegaard with important debates in contemporary philosophy."