Download or read book Killing Bono written by Neil McCormick and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-10-19 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Longtime friend and reporter, Neil McCormick, reveals childhood and present day stories about Bono and his band, U2. Some are born great. Some achieve greatness. Some have greatness thrust upon them. And some have the misfortune to go to school with Bono. Everyone wants to be famous. But as a young punk in Dublin in the 1970s, Neil McCormick's ambitions went way beyond mere pop stardom. It was his destiny to be a veritable Rock God. He had it all worked out: the albums, the concerts, the quest for world peace. There was only one thing he hadn't counted on. The boy sitting on the other side of the classroom had plans of his own. Killing Bono is a story of divergent lives. As Bono and his band U2 ascended to global superstardom, his school friend Neil scorched a burning path in quite the opposite direction. Bad drugs, weird sex, bizarre haircuts: Neil experienced it all in his elusive quest for fame. But sometimes it is life's losers who have the most interesting tales to tell. Featuring guest appearances by the Pope, Bob Dylan, and a galaxy of stars, Killing Bono offers an extremely funny, startlingly candid, and strangely moving account of a life lived in the shadows of superstardom. “The problem with knowing you is that you've done everything I ever wanted to,” Neil once complained to his famous friend. “I'm your doppelganger,” Bono replied. “If you want your life back, you'll have to kill me.” Now there was a thought...

Download or read book I was Bono s Doppelg nger written by Neil McCormick and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The phone rings: 'Neil, it's Bono, I've just recorded a duet with Frank Sinatra!' 'Aaarrrgghh! Leave me alone. You're living the life I wanted' It's every boy's dream: to be a Rock God. Most of us leave the dream behind when reality bites, but that's not so easy when your mate's the lead singer in the biggest band in the world. Neil McCormick and Bono first met at school. Their continued friendship only highlights Neil's failure to live the dream. Self-deprecating, charming and very, very funny, this is a memoir for anyone who's ever gurned in front of the mirror as they hit the high notes on their air guitar . . .

Download or read book Zero written by Neil McCormick and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2019-04-18 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zero is the latest craze. Young, sexy and brilliant, he is a multi-hyphenated (singer-songwriter-rapper-producer) superstar for the digital generation. According to his publicist at least. He’s also a narcissistic, insecure, hyperactive, coke-snorting, pill-popping, loud-mouthed maelstrom of contradictions skating over the thin ice of terminal self-loathing. He has touched down in New York with his sycophantic entourage for the launch of a new single/album/movie/tour. It is countdown to Year Zero. But the boy at the centre of the media feeding frenzy is cracking up. Inside the echo chamber of his own skull, he isn't sure he deserves all the attention, doesn’t even know if he wants it anymore and is being driven half-mad by the mysterious absence of the love of his life. As the crucial hour approaches the young star cuts and runs, setting off on a wild trip across America pursued by paparazzi, fans, fortune hunters and his Mephistophelian manager, Beasley. He’s about to find out that when you have the most famous face in the world, you can run... but you can't hide.

Download or read book Nina Simone s Gum written by Warren Ellis and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2021-08-31 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLERA GUARDIAN, TELEGRAPH, THE TIMES, IRISH TIMES, ROUGH TRADE, MOJO, CLASH, ROLLING STONE, UNCUT BOOK OF THE YEARFrom award-winning musician and composer Warren Ellis comes the unexpected and inspiring story of a piece of chewing gum. FEATURING AN INTRODUCTION BY NICK CAVE'Warren has turned this memento, snatched from his idol's piano in a moment of rapture, into a genuine religious artefact.'NICK CAVE'Such a mad, happy book about art and music and obsession. I'm so glad I got to read it. It made the world feel lighter.'NEIL GAIMAN'In praise of meaning-rich relics and magical things. Totally heartwarming project.'MAX PORTER'A unique study of a fan's devotion, of transcendence and of the artistic vocation - it's got depth and great warmth. It's a beautiful piece of work.'KEVIN BARRYI hadn't opened the towel that contained her gum since 2013. The last person to touch it was Nina Simone, her saliva and fingerprints unsullied. The idea that it was still in her towel was something I had drawn strength from. I thought each time I opened it some of Nina Simone's spirit would vanish. In many ways that thought was more important than the gum itself.On Thursday 1 July, 1999, Dr Nina Simone gave a rare performance as part of Nick Cave's Meltdown Festival. After the show, in a state of awe, Warren Ellis crept onto the stage, took Dr Simone's piece of chewed gum from the piano, wrapped it in her stage towel and put it in a Tower Records bag. The gum remained with him for twenty years; a sacred totem, his creative muse, a conduit that would eventually take Ellis back to his childhood and his relationship with found objects, growing in significance with every passing year.Nina Simone's Gum is about how something so small can form beautiful connections between people. It is a story about the meaning we place on things, on experiences, and how they become imbued with spirituality. It is a celebration of artistic process, friendship, understanding and love. 'This is such a beautiful f*@king book. Thank you, Warren. I highly recommend this motherf*@ker.'FLEA'A beautifully written book about the power of music and objects. I powered through it in two days.'COURTNEY BARNETT'A moving, inspiration insight into a beautiful mind.'JIM JARMUSCH'The year's most eccentric and joyful musical memoir.'DAILY TELEGRAPH (Books of the year)'[Nina Simone's Gum] is a metaphor for [Ellis'] creativity - the blossoming of a small idea into something bigger and bolder - but also a journey inside the impulsive, improvisatory mind of Warren Ellis, his passions, obsessions and superstitions.' OBSERVER'[A] beautiful, strikingly idiosyncratic book - part memoir, part essay, part conceptual art project, all testament to humans at their strangest and best . . . [Ellis] sees signifiance where others might not.'MOJO'A glorious piece of object fetishism . . . Marvel as Ellis' collection of eccentric personal mementos morphs into a celebration of the intangible wonder of music.'UNCUT'Wonderful.' THE TIMES'The most peculiar book I've ever read.' CRAIG BROWN, MAIL ON SUNDAY'Delightful . . . A joy from start to finish.' BIG ISSUE'A joyous work full of love, connection, creativity and gratitude.' THE SPECTATOR'Completely charming and joyful . . . glorious.' LA REVIEW OF BOOKS'Beautiful . . . remarkable.' NEW EUROPEAN

Download or read book The Basketball Diaries written by Jim Carroll and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1987-07-07 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The urban classic coming-of-age story about sex, drugs, and basketball Jim Carroll grew up to become a renowned poet and punk rocker. But in this memoir of the mid-1960s, set during his coming-of-age from 12 to 15, he was a rebellious teenager making a place and a name for himself on the unforgiving streets of New York City. During these years, he chronicled his experiences, and the result is a diary of unparalleled candor that conveys his alternately hilarious and terrifying teenage existence. Here is Carroll prowling New York City--playing basketball, hustling, stealing, getting high, getting hooked, and searching for something pure. The Basketball Diaries was the basis for the film of the same name starring Leonardo DiCaprio. "I met him in 1970, and already he was pretty much universally recognized as the best poet of his generation. . . . The work was sophisticated and elegant. He had beauty." -- Patti Smith

Download or read book She Come By It Natural written by Sarah Smarsh and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this Time Top 100 Book of the Year, the National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Heartland “analyzes how Dolly Parton’s songs—and success—have embodied feminism for working-class women” (People). Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Sarah Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular vulnerabilities—and strengths—of women in working poverty. Meanwhile, country songs by female artists played in the background, telling powerful stories about life, men, hard times, and surviving. In her family, she writes, “country music was foremost a language among women. It’s how we talked to each other in a place where feelings aren’t discussed.” And no one provided that language better than Dolly Parton. In this “tribute to the woman who continues to demonstrate that feminism comes in coats of many colors,” Smarsh tells readers how Parton’s songs have validated women who go unheard: the poor woman, the pregnant teenager, the struggling mother disparaged as “trailer trash.” Parton’s broader career—from singing on the front porch of her family’s cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains to achieving stardom in Nashville and Hollywood, from “girl singer” managed by powerful men to self-made mogul of business and philanthropy—offers a springboard to examining the intersections of gender, class, and culture. Infused with Smarsh’s trademark insight, intelligence, and humanity, this is “an ambitious book” (The New Republic) about the icon Dolly Parton and an “in-depth examination into gender and class and what it means to be a woman and a working-class hero that feels particularly important right now” (Refinery29).

Download or read book Enough written by Roger Thurow and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than thirty years, humankind has known how to grow enough food to end chronic hunger worldwide. Yet while the ''Green Revolution'' succeeded in South America and Asia, it never got to Africa. More than 9 million people every year die of hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases every year - most of them in Africa and most of them children. More die of hunger in Africa than from AIDS and malaria combined. Now, an impending global food crisis threatens to make things worse. In the west we think of famine as a natural disaster, brought about by drought; or as the legacy of brutal dictators. But in this powerful investigative narrative, Thurow & Kilman show exactly how, in the past few decades, American, British, and European policies conspired to keep Africa hungry and unable to feed itself. As a new generation of activists work to keep famine from spreading, Enough is essential reading on a humanitarian issue of utmost urgency.

Download or read book The Poetics of Rock written by Albin Zak and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2001-11-20 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title provides a fascinating exploration of recording consciousness and compositional process from the perspective of those who make records.

Download or read book Freedom of Expression written by Kembrew McLeod and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1998 the author, a professional prankster, trademarked the phrase "freedom of expression" to show how the expression of ideas was being restricted. Now he uses intellectual property law as the focal point to show how economic concerns are seriously eroding creativity and free speech.

Download or read book What Girls Are Made Of written by Cora Bissett and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-03 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's 1992. In a small town in Fife, a girl is busting to get out into the world and see what's on offer. And an ad in the local paper declares: Band Seeks Singer. Grunge has just gone global, scruffy indie kids are inheriting the earth, and a schoolgirl from Glenrothes is catapulted to a rock star lifestyle as the singer in a hot new indie band. Touring with Radiohead, partying with Blur, she was living the dream. Until she wasn't. What Girls Are Made Of is the true story of Bissett's teenage years, based on her meticulously detailed, pull-no-punches diaries, which she found after the death of her father. It's a rollercoaster journey from the girl she was to the woman she wanted to be: rocketed into teenage stardom, suddenly dropped by their manager, and then the following of years of becoming an actor, writer and director. Described by Miro Magazine as "a glorious mixture of harrowing and life-affirming messages", the script also includes a play list of female-led soundtracks, that were played in the production.

Download or read book Unruly Media written by Carol Vernallis and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unruly Media is the first book to account for the current audiovisual landscape across media and platform. It includes new theoretical models and close readings of current media as well as the oeuvre of popular and influential directors.

Download or read book Homer Simpson Marches on Washington written by Timothy M. Dale and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2010-03-19 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A volume of enlightening essays on how TV shows, movies, and music can change hearts and minds. Amid all its frenetic humor, the long-running animated hit The Simpsons has often questioned what is culturally acceptable, wading into controversial subjects like gay rights, the war on terror, religion, and animal rights. This subtle form of political analysis is effective in changing opinions and attitudes on a large scale. Homer Simpson Marches on Washington explores the transformative power that enables popular culture to influence political agendas, frame the consciousness of audiences, and create profound shifts in values and ideals. To investigate the full spectrum of popular culture in a democratic society, editors Timothy M. Dale and Joseph J. Foy gather a top-notch team of scholars who use television shows such as Star Trek, The X-Files, All in the Family, The View, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report, as well as movies and popular music, to investigate contemporary issues in American popular culture.

Download or read book The Practice of Diplomacy written by Keith Hamilton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the unstable international conditions of the post Cold War world, the role of diplomacy has taken on increasing importance with the greater complexity of relationships between international power centres. The Practice of Diplomacy tracks the historical development of diplomatic relations and methods from the earliest period up to their current transformations in the late twentieth century, showing how they have changed to encompass new technological advances and the needs of modern international environments. This coherent and accessible text brings the history of diplomacy fully up to date, exploring altered perspectives and newly emerging practices resulting from United Nations diplomacy and recent political developments in Eastern and central Europe, including the former Yugoslavia.

Download or read book Hollywood s Indian written by Peter Rollins and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2011-01-23 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering both in-depth analyses of specific films and overviews of the industry's output, Hollywood's Indian provides insightful characterizations of the depiction of the Native Americans in film. This updated edition includes a new chapter on Smoke Signals , the groundbreaking independent film written by Sherman Alexie and directed by Chris Eyre. Taken as a whole the essays explore the many ways in which these portrayals have made an impact on our collective cultural life.

Download or read book I Was Bono s Doppelganger written by Neil Mccormick and published by Michael Joseph. This book was released on 2005-02 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neil McCormick went to school with Bono. In fact, his brother was in the original version of the band that would turn out to be U2. McCormick was with them every step of the way, jealous of their steady rise to rock stardom while he became a music journalist hanging on to their coattails. But friendship with the band endured and this humourous book is the story of that relationship, as well as telling the author's own fascinating story.

Download or read book The Theosophical Glossary written by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and published by . This book was released on 1892 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Heal the Earth written by Julian Lennon and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take a journey to help the Earth in the second book of the New York Times bestselling trilogy by Julian Lennon! Jump aboard the White Feather Flier, a magical plane that can go wherever you want. This time, Lennon’s interactive book immerses children in a fun and unique journey where they can: Bring medicine to people in need! Dive below the ocean to bleached coral reefs! Visit the city to cultivate green spaces! Help the rain forest return and give its animals a home! Explore the planet, meet new people, and help make the world a better place! The Flier's mission is to transport readers around the world, to engage them in helping to save the environment, and to teach one and all to love our planet. Just press a button printed on the page, and point the plane up in the air to fly, or down to land it! An inspiring, lyrical story, rooted in Lennon's life and work, Heal the Earth is filled with beautiful illustrations that bring the faraway world closer to young children. The book includes words to a new, special poem written by Julian Lennon, specifically for Heal the Earth. A portion of the proceeds from book sales will go to support the environmental and humanitarian efforts of the White Feather Foundation, the global environmental and humanitarian organization that Lennon founded to promote education, health, conservation, and the protection of indigenous culture.