Download or read book Scary Monsters and Super Freaks written by Mike Sager and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2003-12-24 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mike Sager is to drugs, porn, and crimes of desperate delusion what Dominic Dunne is to the society murder. In addition to his long-classic Rolling Stone story "The Devil and John Holmes" (which helped inspire the upcoming Val Kilmer film, Wonderland) and his groundbreaking GQ piece about murdered Irish investigative reporter Veronica Guerin (also the subject of a major film starring Cate Blanchett), Scary Monsters and Super Freaks is a wonderful rogue's gallery of up-close pieces about the most public failures of the American dream. From Rick James and his drug-fueled detour into white slavery to the life and suicide of porn starlet Savannah, from deep inside the beating of Rodney King and the Heaven's Gate cult suicides to Chuck Berry's sexual predilections, this book brings to high-profile true crime a highly identifiable voice and style. Currently Esquire's Writer-at-Large, Sager takes us along for the ride with a raft of other figures including the late NWA Rapper Easy E. Winner, the FBI agent who fell in love with his informant, and the highest ranking DEA agent to be busted for drug trafficking. This is a brilliant debut collection by one of America's most respected and stylish crime writers.
Download or read book Scary Monsters and Super Creeps written by Dom Joly and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-08-30 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dom Joly sets off round the world again, but this time he's not looking to holiday in a danger zone - he's monster hunting. Ever since he was given a copy of Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Worldfor his ninth birthday Dom has been obsessed with the world of cryptozoology (monster hunting), and in Scary Monsters and Super Creepshe heads to six completely different destinations to investigate local monster sightings. He explores the Redwood Curtain in northern California in search of Sasquatch; in Canada he visits Lake Okanagan hoping to catch a glimpse of a thirty-foot snake-like creature called Ogopogo; and near Lake Télé in Congo he risks his life tracking the vegetarian sauropod Mokèlé-mbèmbé. Naturally he heads to Loch Ness - but for this hunt he has his family in tow; he treks across the Khumbu Valley in Nepal looking for Yeti; and in the hills above Hiroshima in Japan he enlists the help of a local man to find the Hibagon, a terribly smelly 'caveman ape'. In typically hilarious and irreverent fashion, Dom explores the cultures that gave rise to these monster myths and ends up in some pretty hairy situations with people even stranger than the monsters they are hunting. Are the monsters all the product of fevered minds, or is there a sliver of truth somewhere in the madness? Either way, the search gives Dom an excuse to dive into six fascinating destinations on a gloriously nutty adventure.
Download or read book Super Freak written by Peter Benjaminson and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rick James played with Neil Young, self-produced his first album (later picked up by Motown), crossed rock and funk to come up with one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s, became one of the biggest pop stars of the era, turned a young white woman named Teena Marie into an R&B superstar, displayed an outrageously sex- and drug-filled lifestyle, was tried and found guilty of assaulting and imprisoning a young woman, went on to record new music that was compared to the Beatles' White Album, and ended his life as a punch line for Dave Chappelle. James attempted to tell his own story—in two different books—but left out many incidents that reflected badly on his character. Now, based on court records, newspaper archives, and extensive interviews with dozens of family members, band members, friends, and lovers, here is the definitive biography of Motown's most controversial superstar.
Download or read book Silhouettes And Shadows written by Adam Steiner and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-07-15 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An avant-garde pop album rich with tension and fear, 1980’s Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) marked a pivotal point in David Bowie’s career. Standing at the bleeding edge of the new decade between the experimental Berlin Trilogy (Low, Heroes, and Lodger) and 1983’s wildly successful Let’s Dance, it was here Bowie sought to bury the ghosts of his past and the golden decade of the 1970s to become a global superstar reaching millions of new fans. Featuring fresh insights and exclusive interviews with close collaborators, Adam Steiner’s Silhouettes and Shadows uncovers the studio stories, meanings behind, and secret history of Scary Monsters. Steiner gives a nuanced, memorable portrait of Bowie at a personal and professional crossroads, drawing on his own struggle with addiction, growing paranoia, and political turmoil. Despite the album’s confrontational themes, it included the hit singles “Fashion” and “Ashes to Ashes,” with Bowie riding a new wave of inspiration, from the post-punk of Joy Division, The Specials’ two-tone revolution, and the stadium synth-pop of Gary Numan. Most importantly, it marked a final goodbye to Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust, and The Thin White Duke, characters and personas that had defined his career: in this rare moment, David Bowie, the costumed clown of romance, suffering, and song, let his mask slip to reveal David Jones, the man within.
Download or read book Monstrous Forms written by Adam Charles Hart and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It makes us jump. It makes us scream. It haunts our nightmares. So why do we watch horror? Why do we play it? What could possibly appealing about a genre that tries to terrify us? Why would we subject ourselves to shriek-inducing shocks, or spend dozens of hours watching a television show about grotesque flesh-eating monsters? Monstrous Forms offers a theory of horror that works through the genre across a broad range of contemporary moving-image media: film, television, video games, YouTube, gifs, streaming, virtual reality. This book analyzes our experience of and engagement with horror by focusing on its form, paying special attention to the common ground, the styles and forms that move between mediums. It looks at the ways that moving-image horror addresses its audiences, the ways that it elicits, or demands, responses from its viewers, players, browsers. Camera movement (or "camera" movement), jump scares, offscreen monsters-horror innovates and perfects styles that directly provoke and stimulate the bodies in front of the screen. Analyzing films including Paranormal Activity, It Follows, and Get Out, video games including Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Layers of Fear, and Until Dawn, and TV shows including The Walking Dead and American Horror Story, Monstrous Forms argues for understanding horror through its sensational address, and dissects the forms that make that address so effective.
Download or read book Lethal Secrets written by Pete Earley and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-05-02 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley sets the stage for this shocking thriller with an actual security threat the CIA secretly investigated during the peak of the Cold War: that the Soviet Union's KGB had cleverly smuggled a nuclear bomb into the very heart of Washington, D.C. In Lethal Secrets, the bomb is now in the hands of a band of Chechen rebels, led by Movladi "the Viper" Islamov, who's threatening to detonate the device unless his demands are met. The fate of the city rests in the hands of a disgraced deputy U.S. marshal, Wyatt Conway, who is reluctantly called into action by his FBI and CIA rivals because he was once a friend of Islamov's, before the freedom fighter turned into an international terrorist. His only hope at getting to Islamov lies with Vladimir Khrenkov, a possibly corrupt Russian intelligence agent. Conway suspects Khrenkov of being the man who executed a top Russian mobster whom Conway was protecting in the federal witness protection program. Kept on short leash by Kimberly Lodge, a skeptical CIA beauty who finds him incompetent and foolish, Conway must find a way to manipulate and expose Khrenkov, keep Lodge and her bureaucratic cronies off his back, and prevent Islamov from igniting the spark for Armageddon.
Download or read book The Great Monster Magazines written by Robert Michael “Bobb” Cotter and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-04-16 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a critical overview of monster magazines from the 1950s through the 1970s. "Monster magazine" is a blanket term to describe both magazines that focus primarily on popular horror movies and magazines that contain stories featuring monsters, both of which are illustrated in comic book style and printed in black and white. The book describes the rise and fall of these magazines, examining the contributions of Marvel Comics and several other well-known companies, as well as evaluating the effect of the Comics Code Authority on both present and future efforts in the field. It identifies several sub-genres, including monster movies, zombies, vampires, sword-and-sorcery, and pulp-style fiction. The work includes several indexes and technical credits.
Download or read book The Beholder s Eye written by Scott Anderson and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of the very best in contemporary first-person journalism compiled by the award-winning former Washington Post reporter and author. Great journalists, at one time or another, have all been characters in their own stories: people with personalities that shaped what they saw and reported, and were touched and changed by the experiences about which they wrote; and innovators who borrowed the storytelling techniques of fiction. The Beholder’s Eye showcases the very best of an increasing trend toward personal narrative: Mike Sager stalking Marlon Brando in the Tahitian jungle; J. R. Moehringer’s quest to discover the true identity of an old boxer; Bill Plaschke’s story about a woman with cerebral palsy who runs an obscure Los Angeles Dodgers Web site; Scott Anderson’s story of his lifetime of covering war after war; Harrington’s own tale of his interracial family’s struggle to persevere; and many others. Written by reporters who were willing to reveal themselves in order to bring readers insights that were deeper than supposedly objective third-person stories, their articles are an invaluable resource for aspiring journalists, students, and teachers of the craft of writing, and any reader with an appreciation for masterful storytelling. “Aims to dispel the old journalistic cliché: that a journalist writing about him/herself is always ‘self-indulgent and, quite likely, narcissistic.’ He couldn’t have put together a better lineup of writers to make the point that it doesn’t have to be . . . Not just some of the country’s finest personal journalism, but some of its finest journalism, period.”—Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book The Heroin Chronicles written by Jerry Stahl and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-02-26 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of heroin stories from Eric Bogosian, Jerry Stahl, Lydia Lunch, and more “will satisfy devotees of noir fiction and outsider art alike” (Publishers Weekly). On the heels of The Speed Chronicles (Sherman Alexie, William T. Vollmann, Megan Abbott, James Franco, Beth Lisick, etc.) and The Cocaine Chronicles (Lee Child, Laura Lippman, etc.) comes The Heroin Chronicles, a volume sure to frighten and delight. The literary styles of these stories are as diverse as the moral quandaries they explore. From the groundbreaking novels of William S. Burroughs to the mind-altering music of The Velvet Underground, heroin—in all its ecstasy and tragedy—has been the subject of many an underground masterpiece. Collected here are all-new short stories about the infamous drug by some of today’s most celebrated and provocative writers, including Eric Bogosian, Lydia Lunch, Jerry Stahl, Nathan Larson, Ava Stander, Antonia Crane, Gary Phillips, Jervey Tervalon, John Albert, Michael Albo, Sophia Langdon, Tony O’Neill, and L.Z. Hansen.
Download or read book Innocent Until Interrogated written by Gary L. Stuart and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2012-08-12 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a sweltering August morning, a woman walked into a Buddhist temple near Phoenix and discovered the most horrific crime in Arizona history. Nine Buddhist temple members—six of them monks committed to lives of non-violence—lay dead in a pool of blood, shot execution style. The massive manhunt that followed turned up no leads until a tip from a psychiatric patient led to the arrest of five suspects. Each initially denied their involvement in the crime, yet one by one, under intense interrogation, they confessed. Soon after, all five men recanted, saying their confessions had been coerced. One was freed after providing an alibi, but the remaining suspects—dubbed “The Tucson Four” by the media—remained in custody even though no physical evidence linked them to the crime. Seven weeks later, investigators discovered—almost by chance—physical evidence that implicated two entirely new suspects. The Tucson Four were finally freed on November 22 after two teenage boys confessed to the crime, yet troubling questions remained. Why were confessions forced out of innocent suspects? Why and how did legal authorities build a case without evidence? And, ultimately, how did so much go so wrong? In this first book-length treatment of the Buddhist Temple Massacre, Gary L. Stuart explores the unspeakable crime, the inexplicable confessions, and the troubling behavior of police officials. Stuart’s impeccable research for the book included a review of the complete legal records of the case, an examination of all the physical evidence, a survey of three years of print and broadcast news, and more than fifty personal interviews related to the case. Like In Cold Blood, and The Executioner’s Song, Innocent Until Interrogated is a riveting read that provides not only a striking account of the crime and the investigation but also a disturbing look at the American justice system at its very worst.
Download or read book SPIN written by and published by . This book was released on 1999-06 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the concert stage to the dressing room, from the recording studio to the digital realm, SPIN surveys the modern musical landscape and the culture around it with authoritative reporting, provocative interviews, and a discerning critical ear. With dynamic photography, bold graphic design, and informed irreverence, the pages of SPIN pulsate with the energy of today's most innovative sounds. Whether covering what's new or what's next, SPIN is your monthly VIP pass to all that rocks.
Download or read book True Stories written by Norman Sims and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journalism in the twentieth century was marked by the rise of literary journalism. Sims traces more than a century of its history, examining the cultural connections, competing journalistic schools of thought, and innovative writers that have given literary journalism its power. Seminal exmples of the genre provide ample context and background for the study of this style of journalism.
Download or read book Whore Stories written by Tyler Stoddard Smith and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-06-18 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Working History of Working Girls (and Guys) Have you ever wondered how Heidi Fleiss came to be the face of upscale prostitution or if Casanova really was the world's greatest lover? How about why Latin playboy Rubi Rubirosa got the nickname "The Ding Dong Daddy"? Anything but judgmental, Whore Stories sheds light on one of our more stigmatized icons: The Prostitute. Featuring the true stories of famous streetwalkers, call girls, rent boys, and go-go dancers, this book offers a revealing look at the men and women who have blazed the bawdy trail of prostitution since the dawn of time. While you may think that you know everything about this occupation, Whore Stories includes plenty of details and even celebrities, such as Maya Angelou and Bob Dylan, that will leave you in awe. From private schools and child preachers to mime fantasies and unfortunate amputations, this book uncovers the truth behind the world's oldest profession.
Download or read book The Road Through Wonderland written by Dawn Schiller and published by Medallion Media Group. This book was released on 2010-08-01 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Painstakingly honest, this chilling memoir reveals how a teenager became immersed in the bizarre life of legendary porn star John Holmes. Starting with a childhood that molded her perfectly to fall for the seduction of “the king of porn,” this autobiography recounts the perilous road that Dawn Schiller traveled—from drugs and addiction to beatings, arrests, forced prostitution, and being sold to the drug underworld. After living through the horrific Wonderland murders of 1981, she entered protective custody, ran from the FBI, and turned in John Holmes to the police. This is the true story of a young girl’s harrowing escape from one of the most infamous public figures, her struggle to survive, and her recovery from unthinkable abuse.
Download or read book In the Time of Madness written by Richard Lloyd Parry and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of People Who Eat Darkness comes this “deeply felt” account of Indonesia at the crossroads of freedom and terror (Time, Asia). In the last years of the twentieth century, foreign correspondent Richard Lloyd Parry found himself in the vast island nation of Indonesia, one of the most alluring, mysterious, and violent countries in the world. For thirty-two years, it had been paralyzed by the grip of the dictator and mystic General Suharto, but now the age of Suharto was coming to an end. Would freedom prevail, or was the “time of madness” predicted centuries before now at hand? On the island of Borneo, tribesmen embarked on a rampage of headhunting and cannibalism. Vast jungles burned uncontrollably; money lost its value; there were plane crashes and volcanic eruptions. Then, after Suharto’s tumultuous fall, came the vote on East Timor’s independence from Indonesia. And it was here, trapped in the besieged compound of the United Nations, that Richard reached his own breaking point. A book of hair-raising immediacy and psychological unravelling, In the Time of Madness is an accomplishment in the great tradition of Conrad, Orwell, and Ryszard Kapuściński.
Download or read book Killing Monsters written by Gerard Jones and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-08-04 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children choose their heroes more carefully than we think. From Pokemon to the rapper Eminem, pop-culture icons are not simply commercial pied pipers who practice mass hypnosis on our youth. Indeed, argues the author of this lively and persuasive paean to the power of popular culture, even violent and trashy entertainment gives children something they need, something that can help both boys and girls develop in a healthy way. Drawing on a wealth of true stories, many gleaned from the fascinating workshops he conducts, and basing his claims on extensive research, including interviews with psychologists and educators, Gerard Jones explains why validating our children's fantasies teaches them to trust their own emotions, helps them build stronger selves, leaves them less at the mercy of the pop-culture industry, and strengthens parent-child bonds. Jones has written for the Spider-Man, Superman, and X-Men comic books and created the Haunted Man series for the Web. He has also explored the cultural meanings of comic books and sitcoms in two well-received books. In Killing Monsters he presents a fresh look at children's fantasies, the entertainment industry, and violence in the modern imagination. This reassuring book, as entertaining as it is provocative, offers all of us-parents, teachers, policymakers, media critics-new ways to understand the challenges and rewards of explosive material. News From Killing Monsters: Packing a toy gun can be good for your son-or daughter. Contrary to public opinion, research shows that make-believe violence actually helps kids cope with fears. Explosive entertainment should be a family affair. Scary TV shows can have a bad effect when children have no chance to discuss them openly with adults. It's crucial to trust kids' desires. What excites them is usually a sign of what they need emotionally. Violent fantasy is one of the best ways for kids to deal with the violence they see in real life.
Download or read book The Drug Chronicles written by Gary Phillips and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2018-07-10 with total page 677 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wide range of bestselling and acclaimed writers—from masters of noir to literary lights—explore the milieu of drug culture in this “eye-opening series” (New York Journal of Books). From Lee Child to William T. Vollmann, Joyce Carol Oates to Sherman Alexie, Eric Bogosian to actor James Franco, many of the finest contemporary writers of fiction weigh in on the lure and destruction of drug use, society’s ambiguous relationship to drug culture, and criminal behavior with short stories that are alternately harrowing, funny, sad, or scary—but always original and gripping. The Cocaine Chronicles edited by Gary Phillips and Jervey Tervalon Contributors include Lee Child, Laura Lippman, Ken Bruen, and Susan Straight “Urban, gritty, and raw noir.” —Harlan Coben The Speed Chronicles edited by Joseph Mattson Contributors include William T. Vollmann, Sherman Alexie, James Franco, and Megan Abbott “Deserves great praise for the audacity of the topic, the depth of the discussion, the diversity of voices, and plain, old, good storytelling.” —New York Journal of Books The Heroin Chronicles edited by Jerry Stahl Contributors include Eric Bogosian, Lydia Lunch, Ava Stander, and Gary Phillips “[An] impressive array of writers . . . these tales of chasing the dragon, with corollaries often violent and savage, will satisfy devotees of noir fiction and outsider are alike.” —Publishers Weekly The Marijuana Chronicles edited by Jonathan Santlofer Contributors include Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Child, Raymond Mungo, and Rachel Shteir “Joyce Carol Oates is in a rare class of her own . . . So, too, are other contributors to this collection, including Lee Child and the always enjoyable Raymond Mungo.” —Kirkus Reviews
