Billy The Egomaniac

In a time when rock might have taken itself a bit too seriously, a teenaged fan took up her pen and tore down the walls. With gentle, biting humor and an enormous quantity of love Kate Fuller brought her favorite band to life - flaws and all. Collected here for the first time in print, her comic remains an incisive commentary on the absurdity of fame and a bittersweet glimpse into a shared past. For anyone who enjoyed the Pumpkins at their height, Billy the Egomaniac is a must-read.

A central character in legends and histories of the Old West, Billy the Kid rivals such western icons as Jesse James and General George Armstrong Custer for the number of books and movies his brief, violent life inspired. Billy the Kid: A Reader’s Guide introduces readers to the most significant of these written and filmed works. Compiled and written by a respected historian of the Old West and author of a masterful new biography of Billy the Kid, this reader’s guide includes summaries and evaluations of biographies, histories, novels, and movies, as well as archival sources and research collections. Surveying newspaper articles, books, pamphlets, essays, and book chapters, Richard W. Etulain traces the shifting views of Billy the Kid from his own era to the present. Etulain’s discussion of novels and movies reveals a similar shift, even as it points out both the historical inaccuracies and the literary and cinematic achievements of these works. A brief section on the authentic and supposed photographs of the Kid demonstrates the difficulties specialists and collectors have encountered in locating dependable photographic sources. This discerning overview will guide readers through the plethora of words and images generated by Billy the Kid’s life and legend over more than a century. It will prove invaluable to those interested in the demigods of the Old West—and in the ever-changing cultural landscape in which they appear to us.

There will never be another Billy Hill - Reggie Kray. Bill had a great brain. There's no two ways about it - Frankie Fraser. I made Billy Hill. Then he got over the top of me. I should have shot Billy Hill. I really should. I'd have got ten years for it but it would have made me happy and I'd be out now - laughing - Jack Spot. I have no doubt that during his career Hill had some very senior officers in his pocket - Leonard 'Nipper' Read, legendary Scotland Yard detective. Billy Hill was Britain's first celebrity gangster. Born in London's impoverished Seven Dials, by the early 1950's he had control of the city's gambling rackets and masterminded a heist that set the template for the Great Train Robbery. He ruled the roost in the bloody era when the underworld's choice of weapon was the open razor. His violent clashes with onetime ally turned enemy Jack Spot became the stuff of legend, as Hill and his henchmen left the streets of Soho running red. But Hill was astute enough to choose his moment to get out, abdicating in favour of his gun-toting young protégés, the Kray twins . . . In this fast-moving biography, Wensley Clarkson charts the life of the only post-war British villain to truly make crime pay.

As early as 1920, US Army General Billy Mitchell began sounding alarm bells about an inevitable Japanese invasion from sea-based aircraft. Through the press and in person he lobbied naval brass about America's woefully unprepared defensive air power but his talk of dogfights over the Pacific with superior planes was laughed at and dismissed by all. Mitchell's vision of a US 'Air Arm' would have meant massive, costly upgrades to the nation's dated flying machines owned by private firms holding patents on aircraft machinery. Old guard soldiers, like John J. Pershing, dismissed as delusional ravings Mitchell's belief that a battleship could be destroyed by a bomber. Mitchell's outspoken press conferences about an airplane trust supported by corrupt government officials led to his court-martial for insubordination in 1925. He died in 1936, a man ahead of his times - and hated for it.

Billy Wilder’s work remains a masterful combination of incisive social commentary, skilled writing and directing, and unashamed entertainment value. One of Hollywood’s foremost émigré filmmakers, Wilder holds a key position in film history via films that represent a complex reflection of his European roots and American cultural influences. This wide-ranging collection of essays by an international group of scholars examines the significance of Wilder’s filmmaking from a variety of original perspectives. Engaging with issues of genre, industry, representation and national culture, the volume provides fresh insights into Wilder’s films and opens up his work to further exploration.

the river runs south/thru barrios and ghettoes and starched neighborhood squares and everywhere the dogs howl I don’t even trust the sound of my own voice here my own impermanence haunts me, but this thought alone relieves the pressure from the mirror to the gutter, gutter tongued my heart speaks to the silence in me let me walk alone/home as the dead stoplights wave goodnight —from "The River Runs Foul" Having risen to fame during the grunge era in the early 90s, Billy Corgan is among the most respected figures of the alternative rock world—a visionary artist who, over a decade later, still commands a devoted following. Long admired for his evocative songwriting, Corgan here embarks on a deeper exploration of literary terrain as a poet. Full of “the regretful melancholy of his music [and] the rhythmic, angular wordplay of his best Pumpkins lyrics" (Jeff Vrabel, Chicago Sun-Times), the poems in this collection form an imagistic journey through the intensely personal as Corgan throws into sharp relief issues of love, loss, identity, and loyalty. Crafted with a thoughtful and cadenced approach that shares the same allegiance to thunder and quiet found in his music, these writings further solidify Corgan’s place as the voice of a generation.

Set in a world where clocks melt and gentlemen rain from the sky, The Mating Rituals Of The Burning Giraffe is a grown-ups fable, inspired by the surrealist paintings, sculptures, and sketches of Magritte, Dal, and Monty Python. Its a brightly colored delirium, dedicated to the indomitable child. The story follows Billy Dada, a young man about to enter a state of higher learning where he will be taught the principles of categorizing biological diversity, from smelly wolves to cats with heads like mushrooms, from hares with fangs to enormous clams, but who, midst the books and lectures, nurtures a fascination with the giraffa infernalis, a pyring obsession thats about to turn into a scathefire. So begins a black-and-blue excursion into the brushstrokes on lifes canvas. Its a slab of confusion and desperation, a swirl of hardships and sorrowsinside a frame of meaning. The Mating Rituals of the Burning Giraffe is an adult fairytale about how fate tears us apart unless we move with it. Its a way to move with it. Move with it.

When a retired cop is murdered on a remote Scottish Isle, DI Alec McKay must dig into the man’s corrupt past in this British crime thriller series. Twenty years ago, Jackie Galloway was a senior cop with a bad reputation. But after crossing the wrong people, his career was ruined. He eked out his last days succumbing to dementia on Scotland's Black Isle, supported by his long-suffering wife, Bridie. When he’s found dead, the police assume it’s an accident—until Bridie reveals that he’s been receiving mysterious letters containing only the phrase: “NOT FORGOTTEN. NOT FORGIVEN.” Struggling to come to terms with the loss of his estranged wife Chrissie, DI Alec McKay is living in isolation on the Black Isle. McKay had once worked for Galloway as a junior officer and has bad memories of the man and his methods. Now he finds himself investigating Galloway's death. But when suspicion falls on him and more police officers are murdered, the pressure is on for McKay to solve the case.