Download or read book Confessions of a Serial Entertainer written by Steven Stolman and published by Gibbs Smith. This book was released on 2015-03-09 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Menus and anecdotes give away one man’s secrets for entertaining in style. Steven Stolman has a gregarious personality. He loves to entertain: cocktail parties in Palm Beach, football game-day gatherings in Wisconsin, family Passover Sedars in Connecticut, and dinner parties in his New York apartment. “Of all our friends, we have the smallest places, yet we seem to do more entertaining than anyone.” It’s about the people and the food, he says. He also loves old community and church cookbooks from the 1950s to the ’70s. And these are his inspirations for party food: dips and cheese spreads with crackers, family recipes for delicious roasts, breakfast casseroles, and desserts. What Stolman confesses is that he hates hostess gifts and isn’t afraid to say so. He advises women not to take a purse to a party and just “tuck it behind here” to avoid holding it—thanks for ruining my furniture arrangement! He advises about the importance of having silver serving pieces and how to dress for a cocktail party or a dinner party (at least try!). And he confesses that even when he has hired servers to pass hors d’oeuvres, he can’t help but carry a tray around himself! This book will give any novice party host ideas and confidence, and it will inspire seasoned hosts to simplify and enjoy the party. Steven Stolman is the author of 40 Years of Fabulous and Scalamandré: Haute Décor. He divides his time among homes in Palm Beach, New York, and Milwaukee.
Download or read book Scalamandre written by Steven Stolman and published by Gibbs Smith. This book was released on 2013-10-16 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A formidable textiles house and decorative tastemaker for more than 80 years in the world of high-end interior design. Scalamandré is revered for its comprehensive offerings of fabrics, wallcoverings and trims available to-the-trade through design centers across the United States, Europe, and Asia. The Scalamandré touch has also been applied to compelling collections of china, crystal, flatware and gifts along with ultra-luxury bedding and related decorative accessories showcased in fine stores worldwide. Scalamandré: Haute Décor celebrates the world of Scalamandré as seen through the eyes of the international design elite while paying homage to the people, places and events that contributed to the nearly cinematic Scalamandré story. All those who appreciate and cultivate beauty in their lives will enjoy this insider’s look at this interior design treasure. Steven Stolman, designer, writer and all-around style provocateur, was born in Boston, raised in West Hartford and attended Carnegie Mellon and Northwestern Universities before graduating from New York’s Parsons School of Design. Known for his lighthearted use of decorative fabrics in apparel design, he now serves as president of Scalamandré, bringing the legendary American textiles house into its future. He divides his time between homes in Florida, New York, and Wisconsin.
Download or read book The Serial Entertainer s Passion for Parties written by Steven Stolman and published by Gibbs Smith. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Raise your entertaining ante with Steven Stolman, and make every party an affair to remember. You’re invited as everyone’s favorite “serial entertainer” returns to share memories, recipes, and photographs from his favorite parties over the years in The Serial Entertainer’s Passion for Parties. Playful yet elegant in scope, these extravagant celebrations leave nothing to be desired, and you’ll take it all in from a front row seat. With Stolman’s engaging storytelling and signature sense of humor, learn ideas and tips you can integrate into the most meaningful occasions in life: dinner parties, fundraising galas, weddings, and birthdays and the like. New recipes, artful flower arranging, and more is revealed as Stolman divulges the wisdom he has gleaned from party planning over the years. Allow The Serial Entertainer's Passion for Parties to inspire you. There are get-togethers, and there are parties. If you ask Steven Stolman, the former should always become the latter. Steven Stolman was born in Boston, raised in West Hartford, and now divides his time among homes in Florida, New York and Wisconsin. He graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York, he had a career as a fashion designer and was president of Scalamandré textiles house for a time. He is now a designer and a brand strategist. His published works include Scalamandré: Haute Décor, 40 Years of Fabulous, and Confessions of A Serial Entertainer.
Download or read book If Chins Could Kill written by Bruce Campbell and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor Here we are together in the digital universe. Somehow, you've clicked yourself to this page. If you came here of your own free will and desire, you and I are going to get along just fine. Life is full of choices. Right now, yours is whether or not to download the autobiography of a mid-grade, kind of hammy actor. Am I supposed to know this guy? you think to yourself. No-and that's exactly the point. You can download a terabyte of books about famous actors and their high-falootin' shenanigans. I don't want to be a spoilsport, but we've all been down that road before. Scroll down to that Judy Garland biography. You know plenty about her already-great voice, troubled life. Scroll down a little further to the Charlton Heston book. Same deal. You know his story too-great voice, troubled toupee. The truth is that though you might not have a clue who I am-unless you watch cable very late at night-there are countless working stiffs like me out there, grinding away every day at the wheel of fortune. If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor documents my time in blue-collar Hollywood, where movies are cheap, the hours are long, and the filmmaking process can be very personal. To keep up with the times, I've digitized Chins. It was originally published in hardcover/analog fifteen years ago, which is a vast amount of time in the evolution of books and technology, and it was time to get current. The advance of technology is great for a book like this, which is jammed full of pictures. When it came out originally, the photographs all had to be black and white and moderately sized on the page. Now, any photo that was originally taken in color can strut its stuff. Overall, the resolution of the images is off-the-charts better than the first go-around. This is one "sequel" that I'm happy to be a part of, since we could make so many technical improvements. The process was very similar to restoring an old movie. Since I knew that it was going to be reissued, I also had a look at the story being told and decided to condense, move, or clarify some chapters, all or in part. I also tried to add a hint of historical context, since it has been a decade and a half since Chins first came out. I hope you enjoy it. Regards, Bruce Campbell
Download or read book DYING FOR A LIVING written by Patrick Kilpatrick and published by . This book was released on 2018-11-07 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the finest screen and television character actors of his generation, Patrick Kilpatrick has played against a broad spectrum of superstars including Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Pam Grier, and Naomi Watts, to name a few. With an entertainment career spanning more than 170 credits as lead actor, producer, screenwriter, director, and global entertainment teacher, Kilpatrick is now sharing his life in his much-anticipated two-volume memoir. Revealing details of a volatile, yet privileged upbringing, and a searing, often hilarious and scandalous literate look behind three decades of working with Hollywood's elite, Kilpatrick tells a rollicking tale that will keep you up at night turning the pages!
Download or read book The Green Ripper written by John Dann MacDonald and published by Fawcett. This book was released on 1996 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A man seeks revenge on a group of terrorists responsible for the death of his girlfriend.
Download or read book Killer Material written by Dan Barton and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2000-04-11 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stand-up comic Biff Kincaid puts his career and his life on the line when he sets out to discover the mystery behind Ned Lando, a lackluster performer who steals material from other comics yet has the money to rent a Los Angeles theater and fill it with a paid audience for his professional debut.
Download or read book See You on Sunday written by Sam Sifton and published by Random House. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the New York Times food editor and former restaurant critic comes a cookbook to help us rediscover the art of Sunday supper and the joy of gathering with friends and family “A book to make home cooks, and those they feed, very happy indeed.”—Nigella Lawson NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Town & Country • Garden & Gun “People are lonely,” Sam Sifton writes. “They want to be part of something, even when they can’t identify that longing as a need. They show up. Feed them. It isn’t much more complicated than that.” Regular dinners with family and friends, he argues, are a metaphor for connection, a space where memories can be shared as easily as salt or hot sauce, where deliciousness reigns. The point of Sunday supper is to gather around a table with good company and eat. From years spent talking to restaurant chefs, cookbook authors, and home cooks in connection with his daily work at The New York Times, Sam Sifton’s See You on Sunday is a book to make those dinners possible. It is a guide to preparing meals for groups larger than the average American family (though everything here can be scaled down, or up). The 200 recipes are mostly simple and inexpensive (“You are not a feudal landowner entertaining the serfs”), and they derive from decades spent cooking for family and groups ranging from six to sixty. From big meats to big pots, with a few words on salad, and a diatribe on the needless complexity of desserts, See You on Sunday is an indispensable addition to any home cook’s library. From how to shuck an oyster to the perfection of Mallomars with flutes of milk, from the joys of grilled eggplant to those of gumbo and bog, this book is devoted to the preparation of delicious proteins and grains, vegetables and desserts, taco nights and pizza parties.
Download or read book 40 Years of Fabulous written by Steven Stolman and published by Gibbs Smith. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than four decades, the Kips Bay Decorator Show House has presented the creations of a stellar roster of interior designers in what is regarded as one of the finest decorator show houses in the world. A fixture on the New York City scene, this glittering expression of high design continues to set the standard for the world of decor. Forty Years of Fabulous provides an insider’s look at the history of this much-loved convention of society while revisiting the spectacular rooms by star decorators past and present—rooms that truly defined interior design while setting trends still evident in today’s homes. Steven Stolman is the author of Scalamandré: Haute Décor. He divides his time among homes in Palm Beach, New York and Milwaukee.
Download or read book The Friedkin Connection written by William Friedkin and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Friedkin’s book does the unthinkable: It relates the behind-the-scenes stories of his triumphs like The French Connection and The Exorcist, but also sees Friedkin take responsibility (brutally so) for his wrong calls. . . . In doing so, he captures the gut-wrenching shifts of a filmmaker’s life—the bizarre whipsaw from success to disaster.” —Variety An acclaimed memoir from William Friedkin, a maverick of American cinema and Academy Award–winning director of such legendary films as The French Connection, The Exorcist, and To Live and Die in LA.The Friedkin Connection takes readers from the streets of Chicago to the suites of Hollywood and from the sixties to today, with autobiographical storytelling as fast-paced and intense as any of the auteur's films. Friedkin’s 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 to film, displaying a versatile stylistic range. In 1971, The French Connection was released and 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. In this fascinating and candid story, he has much to say about the world of moviemaking and his place within it.
Download or read book Home Stretch written by Graham Norton and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this “compelling, bighearted, emotionally precise page-turner” (Sunday Times), the New York Times bestselling writer and acclaimed television host explores the aftermath of a tragedy on a small-town to illuminate the shame and longing that can flow through generations—and how the secrets of the heart cannot stay be buried forever. It is 1987 and a small Irish community is preparing for a wedding. The day before the ceremony, a group of young friends, including the bride and groom, are involved in an accident. Three survive. Three are killed. The lives of the families are shattered and the rifts between them ripple throughout the small town. Connor survived, but living among the angry and the mourning is almost as hard as carrying the shame of having been the driver. He leaves the only place he knows for another life, taking his secrets with him. Travelling first to Liverpool, then London, he eventually makes a home—of sorts—for himself in New York, where he finds shelter and the possibility of forging a new life. But the secrets—the unspoken longings and regrets that have come to haunt those left behind—will not be silenced. Before long, Connor will have to confront his past. A powerful and timely novel of emigration and return, Home Stretch demonstrates Norton’s keen understanding of the power of stigma and secrecy—and their devastating effect on ordinary lives.
Download or read book The Final Girl Support Group written by Grady Hendrix and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-07-13 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER VOTED GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD BEST HORROR NOVEL OF 2021 A Good Morning America Buzz Pick “The horror master…puts his unique spin on slasher movie tropes.”-USA Today A can't-miss summer read, selected by The New York Times, Oprah Daily, Time, USA Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer, CNN, LitHub, BookRiot, Bustle, Popsugar and the New York Public Library In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives…but what happens after? Like his bestselling novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix’s latest is a fast-paced, frightening, and wickedly humorous thriller. From chain saws to summer camp slayers, The Final Girl Support Group pays tribute to and slyly subverts our most popular horror films—movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream. Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece. But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.
Download or read book Hollywood Enigma written by Carl Rollyson and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2012-07-16 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dana Andrews (1909–1992) worked with distinguished directors such as John Ford, Lewis Milestone, Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang, William Wyler, William A. Wellman, Mervyn Le Roy, Jean Renoir, and Elia Kazan. He played romantic leads alongside the great beauties of the modern screen, including Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Greer Garson, Merle Oberon, Linda Darnell, Susan Hayward, Maureen O'Hara, and most important of all, Gene Tierney, with whom he did five films. Retrospectives of his work often elicit high praise for an underrated actor, a master of the minimalist style. His image personified the “male mask” of the 1940s in classic films such as Laura, Fallen Angel, and Where the Sidewalk Ends, in which he played the “masculine ideal of steely impassivity.” No comprehensive discussion of film noir can neglect his performances. He was an “actor's actor.” Here at last is the complete story of a great actor, his difficult struggle to overcome alcoholism while enjoying the accolades of his contemporaries, a successful term as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and the love of family and friends that never deserted him. Based on diaries, letters, home movies, and other documents, this biography explores the mystery of a poor boy from Texas who made his Hollywood dream come true even as he sought a life apart from the limelight and the backbiting of contemporaries jockeying for prizes and prestige. Called “one of nature's noblemen” by his fellow actor Norman Lloyd, Dana Andrews emerges from Hollywood Enigma as an admirable American success story, fighting his inner demons and ultimately winning.
Download or read book Hail to the Chin written by Bruce Campbell and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestseller Introduction by New York Times bestselling author and famous minor television personality John Hodgman One of my dad’s favorite jokes about getting older was: “I went out for coffee when I was twenty-one and when I got back I was fifty-eight!” I get what he meant now. Time flies. My first book, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a "B" Movie Actor, was published back in 2001 and it chronicles the adventures of a “mid-grade, kind of hammy actor" (my words), cutting his teeth on exploitation movies far removed from mainstream Hollywood. This next book, an “Act II” if you will, could be considered my “maturing years” in show business, when I began to say “no” more often and gravitated toward self-generated material. Taking stock in the overall quality of my life, I fled Los Angeles and moved to a remote part of Oregon to renew, regroup and reload. If that sounds tame, the journey from Evil Dead to Spider-Man to Burn Notice was long, with plenty of adventures/mishaps along the way. I never pictured myself hovering above Baghdad in a Blackhawk helicopter, facing a pack of wild dogs in Bulgaria, or playing an aging Elvis Presley with cancer on his penis - how can you predict this stuff? The sheer lunacy of show business is part of the fun for me and I hope you'll come along for the ride. – Bruce “Don’t Call Me Ash” Campbell
Download or read book Room 1219 written by Greg Merritt and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part biography, part true-crime narrative, this painstakingly researched book chronicles the improbable rise and stunning fall of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle from his early big screen success to his involvement in actress Virginia Rappe’s death, and the resulting irreparable damage to his career. It describes how during the course of a rowdy party hosted by the comedian in a San Francisco hotel, Rappe became fatally ill, and Arbuckle was subsequently charged with manslaughter. Ultimately acquitted after three trials, neither his career nor his reputation ever recovered from this devastating incident. Relying on a careful examination of documents, the book finally reveals what most likely occurred that Labor Day weekend in 1921 in that fateful hotel room. In addition, it covers the evolution of the film industry—from the first silent experiments to the connection between Arbuckle’s scandal and the implementation of industry-wide censorship that altered the course of Hollywood filmmaking for five decades.
Download or read book Everyone Loves You When You re Dead written by Neil Strauss and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neil Strauss can uncover the naked truth like nobody else. With his groundbreaking book The Game, Strauss penetrated the secret society of pickup artists. Now, in Everyone Loves You When You're Dead, the Rolling Stone journalist collects the greatest moments from the most insane music interviews of all time. Join Neil Strauss, "The Mike Tyson of interviewers," (Dave Pirner, Soul Asylum), as he Makes Lady Gaga cry, tries to keep Mötley Crüe out of jail & is asked to smoke Kurt Cobain's ashes by Courtney Love Shoots guns with Ludacris, takes a ride with Neil Young & goes to church with Tom Cruise and his mother Spends the night with Trent Reznor, reads the mind of Britney Spears & finds religion with Stephen Colbert Gets picked on by Led Zeppelin, threatened by the mafia & serenaded by Leonard Cohen Picks up psychic clues with the CIA, diapers with Snoop Dog & prison survival tips from Rick James Goes drinking with Bruce Springsteen, dining with Gwen Stefani & hot tubbing with Marilyn Manson Talks glam with David Bowie, drugs with Madonna, death with Johnny Cash & sex with Chuck Berry Gets molested by the Strokes, in trouble with Prince & in bed with . . . you'll find out who inside. Enjoy many, many more awkward moments and accidental adventures with the world's number one stars in Everyone Love You When You're Dead.
Download or read book Confessions of a Puppetmaster written by Charles Band and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Confessions of a Puppetmaster is a fast, funny, wild ride through some wild times. Plus, Charlie compares me to Harrison Ford, so I’m all in!” —Bill Maher Renowned producer, director, and “B movie” showman Charles Band takes readers on a wild romp through Hollywood’s decidedly un-Oscar-worthy underbelly, where mayhem and zombies reign supreme, and cheap thrills and entertainment are king "This book is a blast. It made me want to stay up all night and watch terrible movies." —Peter Sagal "One of the most entertaining film bios ever." —Larry Karaszewski "Reads like a Tarantino film written by Hunter S. Thompson." —Booklist Zombies, aliens, a little skin, lots of gore—and even more laughs—the cinematic universe of Charles Band is legendary. From the toilet-invading creatures of Ghoulies to the time-travelling bounty hunter in Trancers to the pandemic-crashed Corona Zombies, Band has spent four decades giving B-movie lovers exactly what they love. In Confessions of a Puppetmaster, this congenial master of Grindhouse cinema tells his own story, uncut. Born into a family of artists, Band spent much of his childhood in Rome where his father worked in the film industry. Early visits to movie sets sealed young Charlie’s fate. By his twenties he had plunged into moviemaking himself and found his calling in exploitation movies—quick, low-budget efforts that exploit the zeitgeist and feed people’s desire for clever, low-brow entertainment. His films crossed genres, from vampire flicks to sci fi to erotic musical adaptations of fairy tales. As he came into his own as a director, he was the first to give starring roles to household names like Demi Moore, Helen Hunt, and Bill Maher. Off set, Band’s life has been equally epic. Returning to his beloved Italy, he bought both Dino De Laurentiis’s movie studio and a medieval castle. After Romania’s oppressive communist regime fell, he circumvented the U.S. State Department to shoot films in Dracula’s homeland. He made—and then lost—a moviemaking fortune. A visionary, Band was also at the vanguard of the transition to home video and streaming, making and distributing direct-to-video movies long before the major studios caught on. In this revealing tell-all, Band details the dizzying heights and catastrophic depths of his four decades in showbiz. A candid and engaging glimpse at Hollywood’s wild side, Confessions of a Puppetmaster is as entertaining as the movies that made this consummate schlockmeister famous.
