The Ballad Of Johnny Something Else

Blood, jazz, money, lies, Shakespeare, nipples dark as coffee stains, a cop named Ortuzo, night and love and sometimes you aren't sure you're alive until you're out of skin and the ocean and sky are the blues.

Somedays you aren't sure you're alive until you're out of skin.

Includes an interview with Martin Roach, originally published in Roach's 1994 book, 'The right to imagination and madness.'

Katherine is a strange Bronx girl who hears the voices of the constellations. Abetted by a building super and a disgraced NASA administrator, she becomes a revered faith healer, only to be betrayed by her inner voice, when it tells her to have a child. Set in eras ranging from the sixties to the near future, Simons stories blend sexual tension, religious feeling, intellect and madness into a compelling brew. In a senior-living facility, a man plots murder with a woman he believes to be a famous author. A philosophy professor and her boyfriend contemplate suicide. Their every move followed by cameras, the contestants in a reality show need to complete a main task, but no one knows what it is. After years on the run from the F.B.I., a bank robber enters a monastery, while his lover/accomplice stews in boredom. In the words of one of Simons characters: The sacred and the profane lie close together, separated by the thinnest membrane, almost nothing. Breeching this boundary, The Ballad of St. Katherine presents a fascinating set of personalities, some slain by their obsessions, others able to come to terms with their lives, or their deaths.

This laugh-filled musical based on the legendary Joan Crawford cult western embraces and sends up fifties-style movie acting, melodramatic romance and rough-and-tumble cowboy action. Featuring a sensational score with echoes of doo-wop and steamy southwestern ballads, Johnny Guitar tells the story of a sultry saloon keeper and her jealous nemesis, the town's tycoon. When a handsome stranger with a secret past rides into town, the stage is set for a hilarious showdown unike anything the Old West -or the theatre- has ever seen!

What You See Is What You Hear develops a unique model of analysis that helps students and advanced scholars alike to look at audiovisual texts from a fresh perspective. Adopting an engaging writing style, the author draws an accessible picture of the field, offering several analytical tools, historical background, and numerous case studies. Divided into five main sections, the monograph covers problems of definitions, history, and most of all analysis. The first part raises the main problems related to audiovisuality, including taxonomical and historical questions. The second part provides the bases for the understanding of audiovisual creative communication as a whole, introducing a novel theoretical model for its analysis. The next three part focus elaborate on the model in all its constituents and with plenty of case studies taken from the field of cinema, TV, music videos, advertising and other forms of audiovisuality. Methodologically, the book is informed by different paradigms of film and media studies, multimodality studies, structuralism, narratology, “auteur theory” in the broad sense, communication studies, semiotics, and the so-called “Numanities.” What You See Is What You Hear enables readers to better understand how to analyze the structure and content of diverse audiovisual texts, to discuss their different idioms, and to approach them with curiosity and critical spirit.

A question about your school days, elementary, high school, and college: Good times? Bad times? A mix of both? Small schools? Large schools? Did size matter? Were some years more enjoyable, more memorable than others? Your teachers? How many did you have? Do you remember their names? Did you have a favorite? What made your favorite(s) special? "Teach Me Something, Mister" is a follow-up to "Throw Me Something, Mister" but quite different. "Throw Me..." is fiction. "Teach Me..." is real! The stories were sent to the author from teachers and friends recalling their school life. They are mostly fun; regret and sadness in a few. It's not all good, no matter how much we would like it to be. The stories are about teachers, students and school secretaries, cooks and custodians, parents and principals. They will remind you of your school days, and hopefully prompt a few thanksgivings. The author welcomes your shared stories and feedback. Maybe you should write your own school stories, for your family to remember and cherish? The young mother asked her five-year-old "What did you learn in school today?" The kid replied, "I guess not enough. Miss Banks said she'd see me again tomorrow."

Bob Dylan: Outlaw Blues by Spencer Leigh is a fresh take on this famous yet elusive personality, a one-man hall of mirrors who continues to intrigue his followers worldwide. It is an in-depth account with new information and fascinating opinions, both from the author and his interviewees. Whether you are a Dylan fan or not, you will be gripped by this remarkable tale. Most performers create their work for public approval, but at the centre of this book is a mercurial man who doesn't trust his own audience. If he feels he is getting too much acclaim, he tends to veer off in another direction. Despite his age, Bob Dylan still tours extensively. Famously known for not looking happy, the author looks at what motivates him. 'Journalists are very fond of saying Bob Dylan is an enigma,' says Spencer Leigh, 'but that word is flawed. It's as good as saying you don't know... I have not called Bob Dylan an enigma at any point in the book as I have tried to find answers.' Spencer Leigh has spoken to over 300 musicians, friends and acquaintances of Bob Dylan in his research for this book.