- Table View
- List View
The Kidult Handbook: From Blanket Forts to Capture the Flag, a Grownup's Guide to Playing Like a Kid
by Nicole BoozAdulting is hard! But “kidulting”— engaging in nostalgic childhood activities to relieve stress, like playing with your old favorite toys, participating in games and activities from your youth, and even snacking on the foods you enjoyed as a kid— isn’t. Let this book be your guide to indulging your inner child.“Kidulting” is a thing, and it’s growing! Especially popular among millennials, the term “kidulting” refers to engaging in activities from your childhood, sometimes with a grown-up twist. Psychology Today points out that playing like a kid helps you look at the world with fresh eyes—or “beginner’s mind”—which allows you to slow down and focus. The Kidult Handbook is a fun and informative guide to healthy escapism through play. Much like adult coloring books, kidulting is a way of focusing your mind on something fun and creative to relieve stress. But this book goes way beyond just coloring—it includes 160 ideas for fun, from timeless classics like building blanket and pillow forts, to generation-specific ideas, from millennials to boomers. Interspersed throughout are fun facts and trivia about games through the ages. Most activities are unplugged and screen-free, and range from solitary pursuits to ones you can share with a friend or two. Feeling young again has never been so easy!
Kierkegaard and the Staging of Desire: Rhetoric and Performance in a Theology of Eros
by Carl S. HughesTheology in the modern era often assumes that the consummate form of theological discourse is objective prose—ignoring or condemning apophatic traditions and the spiritual eros that drives them. For too long, Kierkegaard has been read along these lines as a progenitor of twentieth-century neo-orthodoxy and a stern critic of the erotic in all its forms. In contrast, Hughes argues that Kierkegaard envisions faith fundamentally as a form of infinite, insatiable eros. He depicts the essential purpose of Kierkegaard’s writing as to elicit ever-greater spiritual desire, not to provide the satisfactions of doctrine or knowledge. Hughes’s argument revolves around close readings of provocative, disparate, and (in many cases) little-known Kierkegaardian texts. The thread connecting all of these texts is that they each conjure up some sort of performative “stage setting,” which they invite readers to enter. By analyzing the theological function of these texts, the book sheds new light on the role of the aesthetic in Kierkegaard’s authorship, his surprising affinity for liturgy and sacrament, and his overarching effort to conjoin eros for God with this-worldly love.
Kilgore Rangerettes
by O. Rufus LovettWhether she knows it or not, every girl who has ever dreamed of taking her place in a line of high-kicking dancers on a football field at halftime has been inspired by the Kilgore College Rangerettes, the world's first precision dance drill team. Founded in Kilgore, Texas, in 1939-1940 by the incomparable Gussie Nell Davis, the Rangerettes have performed for national and international audiences, appearing frequently at events such as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and major football bowl games across the nation, including the New Year's Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas each year since 1951. An icon of Americana, the red-white-and-blue clad Rangerettes have drawn the attention of numerous photographers and writers seeking to understand the enduring appeal of a group that some might view as anachronistic. O. Rufus Lovett, a fine art photographer who has taught at Kilgore College for more than thirty years, began photographing the 'Rettes in 1989. His interpretive photo essay in this book expresses his fascination with "the glamour of the Rangerettes' performances juxtaposed with the small-town atmosphere, football turf, metal bleachers, chain-link fences, and asphalt and concrete environment. " In Lovett's masterfully composed photographs, the Rangerette performances captivate with their multiplicity of "shapes, patterns, and designs. " While Lovett treats the 'Rettes as an artistic subject, he also captures the esprit de corps that keeps the girls smiling even when they have to march on icy pavement and prompts their mothers to wear T-shirts that proudly proclaim "Rette Mom. " An affectionate, yet unsentimental and occasionally irreverent portrait, Kilgore Rangerettes beautifully conveys the timeless quality of this unique subculture of young American womanhood.
The Kill Bill Diary: The Making of a Tarantino Classic as Seen Through the Eyes of a Screen Legend
by David CarradineDavid Carradine is Bill—the complex, charismatic master assassin from the critically acclaimed, monstrously successful Kill Bill films. Throughout the filming of Quentin Tarantino's brilliant, violent epic, Carradine kept a daily diary—capturing all the action, the genius, the madness, and the magic that combined to make a masterpiece. More than simply an insider's close-up look at the filmmaking process and the astonishing cast and crew—director Tarantino, star Uma Thurman, and all the other artists whose extraordinary skills helped create something glorious—The Kill Bill Diary illuminates the fine points of the serious actor's craft, as a truly unique talent takes us along with him on a quirky, breathtaking, no-holds-barred, and altogether miraculous journey. It is a must-own volume for anyone who loves the movies.
Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for the Real James Brown
by James McBride'A formidable free-style book that isn't straight biography but a mix of history, street-level investigative reporting, hagiography, Deep South sociology, music criticism, memoir and some fiery preaching' Rolling Stone magazineA Guardian best music book of 2016The music of James Brown was almost a genre in its own right, and he was one of the biggest and most influential cultural figures of the twentieth century. But the singer known as the 'Hardest Working Man in Show Business' was also an immensely troubled, misunderstood and complicated man. Award-winning writer James McBride, himself a professional musician, has undertaken a journey of discovery in search of the 'real' James Brown, delving into the heartbreaking saga of Brown's childhood and destroyed estate, and uncovering the hidden history of Brown's early years.
Kill the Boy Band (Point Ser.)
by Goldy MoldavskyThe New York Times–bestselling debut story of four superfan friends whose devotion to their favorite band has darkly comical and deadly results.Just know from the start that it wasn’t supposed to go like this. All we wanted was to get near them. That’s why we got a room in the hotel where they were staying.We were not planning to kidnap one of them. Especially not the most useless one. But we had him—his room key, his cell phone, and his secrets.We were not planning on what happened next. We swear.Praise for Kill the Boy Band“Moldavsky’s sharp, shocking debut is like no other.” —Entertainment Weekly“Fiercely entertaining . . . One of the smartest YA releases of the year.” —New York Daily News“Misery for the Belieber generation.” —Observer.com“Boy bands gets the Heathers treatment in this madcap macabre . . . A sendup of the artificiality of the fame-making machine from both sides, the novel’s humor is mercilessly black, and no one comes up smelling like roses.” —Kirkus Reviews“Wickedly funny.” —NPR.org“Bitingly satirical.” —Publishers Weekly“[For] anyone who’s ever had the fortune-or misfortune-of being a fan.” —Booklist “Hilarious . . . A must-have.” —School Library Journal
Kill the Documentary: A Letter to Filmmakers, Students, and Scholars (Investigating Visible Evidence: New Challenges for Documentary)
by Jill GodmilowCan the documentary be useful? Can a film change how its viewers think about the world and their potential role in it? In Kill the Documentary, the award-winning director Jill Godmilow issues an urgent call for a new kind of nonfiction filmmaking. She critiques documentary films from Nanook of the North to the recent Ken Burns/Lynn Novick series The Vietnam War. Tethered to what Godmilow calls the “pedigree of the real” and the “pornography of the real,” they fail to activate their viewers’ engagement with historical or present-day problems. Whether depicting the hardships of poverty or the horrors of war, conventional documentaries produce an “us-watching-them” mode that ultimately reinforces self-satisfaction and self-absorption.In place of the conventional documentary, Godmilow advocates for a “postrealist” cinema. Instead of offering the faux empathy and sentimental spectacle of mainstream documentaries, postrealist nonfiction films are acts of resistance. They are experimental, interventionist, performative, and transformative. Godmilow demonstrates how a film can produce meaningful, useful experience by forcefully challenging ways of knowing and how viewers come to understand the world. She considers her own career as a filmmaker as well as the formal and political strategies of artists such as Luis Buñuel, Georges Franju, Harun Farocki, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Rithy Panh, and other directors. Both manifesto and guidebook, Kill the Documentary proposes provocative new ways of making and watching films.
Killer B's: The 237 Best Movies on Video You've (Probably) Never Seen
by D. Scott ApelVideo columnist Scott Apel compiles a list of the best B movies as a helpful guide for frequent movie renters.
Killer Camera Rigs That You Can Build: How to Build Your Own Camera Cranes, Car Mounts, Stabilizers, Dollies, and More!
by Dan SelakovichThe singular beauty of this book is that Mr. Selakovich has successfully dedicated himself to producing clarity with every page." - Michael Ferris, Camera Operator/DP (Die Hard) For filmmakers who like to shoot their films with a mobile camera withough spending a fortune on equipment rentals, this book is a great gift indeed. I highly recommend it for its clarity and common sense." - Kris Malkiewica, Cinematographer/Author Don't buy or rent your fillm equipment-build it! Construct professional-quality camera rigs on your own with this comprehensive, step-by-step guide and stop wasting your money on overpriced equipment rentals and purchases! Dan Selakovich guides you through the creation of jibs, dollies, cranes, car-mounts, sandbags, tripods, and more. Features include: Build inexpensive but reliable and sturdy rigs-including cranes, dollies, stabilizers, car-mounts, and more; most for much less than $100!Includes over 2,000 photographs with clear step-by-step instructions, safety guidelines, material lists, and tool lists for each rig. American standard and meric measurements included. Includes a companion web site: http://dvcamerarigs.com/
Killer Images
by Joram Ten Brink Joshua OppenheimerCinema has long shaped not only how mass violence is perceived but also how it is performed. Today, when media coverage is central to the execution of terror campaigns and news anchormen serve as embedded journalists, a critical understanding of how the moving image is implicated in the imaginations and actions of perpetrators and survivors of violence is all the more urgent. If the cinematic image and mass violence are among the defining features of modernity, the former is significantly implicated in the latter, and the nature of this implication is the book's central focus. This edited anthology brings together a range of newly commissioned essays and interviews from the world's leading academics and documentary filmmakers, including Ben Anderson, Errol Morris, Harun Farocki, Rithy Phan, Avi Mograbi, Brian Winston, and Michael Chanan. Contributors explore such topics as the tension between remembrance and performance, the function of moving images in the execution of political violence, and nonfiction filmmaking methods that facilitate communities of survivors to respond to, recover, and redeem a history that sought to physically and symbolically annihilate them
Killer Images: Documentary Film, Memory, and the Performance of Violence (Nonfictions)
by Ten Brink Joram Oppenheimer JoshuaCinema has long shaped not only how mass violence is perceived but also how it is performed. Today, when media coverage is central to the execution of terror campaigns and news anchormen serve as embedded journalists, a critical understanding of how the moving image is implicated in the imaginations and actions of perpetrators and survivors of violence is all the more urgent. If the cinematic image and mass violence are among the defining features of modernity, the former is significantly implicated in the latter, and the nature of this implication is the book's central focus. This book brings together a range of newly commissioned essays and interviews from the world's leading academics and documentary filmmakers, including Ben Anderson, Errol Morris, Harun Farocki, Rithy Phan, Avi Mograbi, Brian Winston, and Michael Chanan. Contributors explore such topics as the tension between remembrance and performance, the function of moving images in the execution of political violence, and nonfiction filmmaking methods that facilitate communities of survivors to respond to, recover, and redeem a history that sought to physically and symbolically annihilate them
Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens
by Caetlin Benson-AllottSince the mid-1980s, US audiences have watched the majority of movies they see on a video platform, be it VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, Video On Demand, or streaming media. Annual video revenues have exceeded box office returns for over twenty-five years. In short, video has become the structuring discourse of US movie culture. Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens examines how prerecorded video reframes the premises and promises of motion picture spectatorship. But instead of offering a history of video technology or reception, Caetlin Benson-Allott analyzes how the movies themselves understand and represent the symbiosis of platform and spectator. Through case studies and close readings that blend industry history with apparatus theory, psychoanalysis with platform studies, and production history with postmodern philosophy, Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens unearths a genealogy of post-cinematic spectatorship in horror movies, thrillers, and other exploitation genres. From Night of the Living Dead (1968) through Paranormal Activity (2009), these movies pursue their spectator from one platform to another, adapting to suit new exhibition norms and cultural concerns in the evolution of the video subject.
Killers Caught: True Stories of Extraordinary Murder Hunts
by Emily G. ThompsonThey thought they had gotten away with murder. They were wrong.Discover the vital clues, the crucial evidence, the lucky breaks, the chases, the painstaking detective work, the unlikely heroes that led to the capture of serial killers such as &“The Good Nurse&” poisoner Charles Cullen, finally detected by a young colleague; Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, revealed by false license plates; Night Stalker Richard Ramirez, spotted by a 13-year-old boy; Hotelier of Death H. H. Holmes, apprehended selling his victims&’ skeletons…Killers Caught reveals the downfall of these ruthless individuals, as well as the stories of how many more of crime&’s most notorious and prolific murderers were brought to justice.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
by David GrannThe New York Times bestseller and the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime winner Killers of the Flower Moon is now adapted for young readers.**KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON IS SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE STARRING LEONARDO DICAPRIO AND ROBERT DE NIRO** This book is an essential resource for young readers to learn about the Reign of Terror against the Osage people – one of history's most ruthless and shocking crimes. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, thanks to the oil that was discovered beneath their land. Then, one by one, the Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances, and anyone who tried to investigate met the same end. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created Bureau of Investigation, which became the FBI, took up the case, one of the organization's first major homicide investigations. An undercover team infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection. Working with the Osage, they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.In this adaptation of the adult bestseller, David Grann revisits his gripping investigation into the shocking crimes against the Osage people.
Killin' Generals: The Making of The Dirty Dozen, the Most Iconic WW II Movie of All Time
by Dwayne EpsteinAn explosive inside look at The Dirty Dozen, the star-studded war film that broke the rules, shocked the critics, thrilled audiences, and became an all-time, cult-movie classic . . . The year was 1967. A cinematic blockbuster exploded across American popular culture. The Dirty Dozen didn&’t just reinvent the &“men on a mission&” war story, it blew the genre to pieces. Like its ragtag team of crazies, murderers, and misfits, it defied authority, mocked the military, and still managed to deliver action, adventure, and no-holds-barred Nazi-killing. It also received four Oscar nominations, launched the careers of many Hollywood legends, and inspired generations of filmmakers like Sam Peckinpah, Quentin Tarantino, and James Gunn. Based on exclusive interviews with the surviving cast and crew, friends and families of the stars, and other Hollywood insiders, Killing Generals is a riveting must-read for film buffs, military fans, and anyone who loves a down-and-dirty adventure tale. To quote the character played by Charles Bronson, &“Boy oh boy—killing generals could get to be a habit with me.&” Detailed, insightful, and gossipy, Epstein&’s homage spotlights the movie&’s endless barrage of cinematic gold. During a time when America was reeling from turmoil—the Vietnam War, civil rights protests, social upheaval—Hollywood held an indelible mirror up to a changing society. Films like Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Guess Who&’s Coming to Dinner, Cool Hand Luke, and In the Heat of the Night would define the era. But it was a gritty, violent, darkly comic World War II movie called The Dirty Dozen that would really strike a chord with audiences—and become the year&’s biggest box office success. Heading up the all-star cast were Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, John Cassavettes, Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Jim Brown, Robert Ryan, Clint Walker, and at his most terrifying best, Telly Savalas, propelling many of them to stardom. More than a viewing companion to an iconic film, Killin&’ Generals brings to vivid life a pivotal epic in American history and pop culture, when going to the movies—in person—was a way of life shared by millions.
Killing Children in British Fiction: Thatcherism to Brexit
by Dominic DeanThis book stems from a simple yet disturbing observation: contemporary British fiction is full of children killing or being killed. Thoughtfully considering novels and films, alongside actual murder cases and moral panics, Dominic Dean develops this insight into a complex account of British cultural history, from the Thatcher to Brexit eras. Killing Children in British Fiction argues that the figure of the child provides means for negotiating, and hence for understanding, recent crises in Britain and their intersections with broader transnational conflicts. The book explores works from major British authors such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Doris Lessing, Sarah Waters, Alan Hollinghurst, and Peter Ackroyd; emerging writers such as David Szalay and Melissa Harrison; and filmmakers, including Stanley Kubrick, Nicholas Roeg, Robin Hardy, Derek Jarman, and Remi Weekes. Bridging and often challenging existing scholarship in childhood studies, literary studies, psychoanalysis, and critical and queer theory, Dean shows how the child, at once materially present and representative of an insecure future, can provoke relentless fantasies, fears, and, most troublingly, acts of real violence by adults.
Killing Willis: From Diff'rent Strokes to the Mean Streets to the Life I Always Wanted
by Todd BridgesIt Was a Hard Choice. Suicide by cop was easy compared to what I had in front of me. I had gone from being a teen idol to a tabloid joke. I was broke, and I didn't have any prospects of getting my career back. I had been to rehab five times. I usually didn't last more than a few days. It never once stuck for longer than a few months. I had spent almost a year in jail while awaiting trial and vowed I would never go back. I had tried, and failed, to block out all of the things that had been written about me in the press before. I had felt pain and self-hatred so deep and raw that the only way to silence it was with drugs.
Killing Willis: From Diff'rent Strokes to the Mean Streets to the Life I Always Wanted
by Todd BridgesThe former child star—best known as Willis Jackson on Diff’rent Strokes—shares the shocking but inspirational details of his struggles with addiction, brushes with the law, and fierce fight to carve a path through the darkness and find his true identity. For Todd Bridges early stardom was no protection from painful childhood events that paved the road to his own personal hell. One of the first African-American child actors on shows like Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, and Roots, Bridges burst to the national forefront on the hit sitcom Diff’rent Strokes as the subject of the popular catchphrase, "What’chu Talkin About Willis?" When the show ended, Bridges was overwhelmed by the off-camera traumas he had faced. Turning to drugs as an escape, he soon lost control. Now, for the first time, Bridges opens up about his life before and after Diff’rent Strokes: the incredible reversals of fortune brought on by fame and the precipitous—and very public—descent that followed; the persecution from police; the drug addiction that nearly consumed him; the criminal charges that almost earned him a life sentence; and his successful legal defense led by Johnnie Cochran. Through it all, Bridges never relented in his quest to fight his way back from the abyss, establish his own identity—separate from Willis Jackson—and offer his ordeal as a positive example for those struggling to overcome similar challenges. His triumphant story of recovery and redemption is recounted here as well. Todd Bridges has lived a life of remarkable twists and turns—from the greatest heights to the lowest lows imaginable. In this shocking but ultimately hopeful memoir, he proves that what he was really talking about was survival.
A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power
by Paul FischerBefore becoming the world's most notorious dictator, Kim Jong-Il ran North Korea's Ministry for Propaganda and its film studios. Conceiving every movie made, he acted as producer and screenwriter. Despite this control, he was underwhelmed by the available talent and took drastic steps, ordering the kidnapping of Choi Eun-Hee (Madam Choi)—South Korea's most famous actress—and her ex-husband Shin Sang-Ok, the country's most famous filmmaker.Madam Choi vanished first. When Shin went to Hong Kong to investigate, he was attacked and woke up wrapped in plastic sheeting aboard a ship bound for North Korea. Madam Choi lived in isolated luxury, allowed only to attend the Dear Leader's dinner parties. Shin, meanwhile, tried to escape, was sent to prison camp, and "re-educated." After four years he cracked, pledging loyalty. Reunited with Choi at the first party he attends, it is announced that the couple will remarry and act as the Dear Leader's film advisors. Together they made seven films, in the process gaining Kim Jong-Il's trust. While pretending to research a film in Vienna, they flee to the U.S. embassy and are swept to safety.A nonfiction thriller packed with tension, passion, and politics, author Paul Fischer's A Kim Jong-Il Production offers a rare glimpse into a secretive world, illuminating a fascinating chapter of North Korea's history that helps explain how it became the hermetically sealed, intensely stage-managed country it remains today.
Kim Ki-duk (Contemporary Film Directors)
by Hye Seung ChungThis study investigates the controversial motion pictures written and directed by the independent filmmaker Kim Ki-duk, one of the most acclaimed Korean auteurs in the English-speaking world. Propelled by underdog protagonists who can only communicate through shared corporeal pain and extreme violence, Kim's graphic films have been classified by Western audiences as belonging to sensationalist East Asian "extreme" cinema, and Kim has been labeled a "psychopath" and "misogynist" in South Korea. Drawing upon both Korean-language and English-language sources, Hye Seung Chung challenges these misunderstandings, recuperating Kim's oeuvre as a therapeutic, yet brutal cinema of Nietzschean ressentiment (political anger and resentment deriving from subordination and oppression). Chung argues that the power of Kim's cinema lies precisely in its ability to capture, channel, and convey the raw emotions of protagonists who live on the bottom rungs of Korean society. She provides historical and postcolonial readings of victimization and violence in Kim's cinema, which tackles such socially relevant topics as national division in Wild Animals and The Coast Guard and U.S. military occupation in Address Unknown. She also explores the religious and spiritual themes in Kim's most recent works, which suggest possibilities of reconciliation and transcendence.
Kim Newman's Video Dungeon
by Kim NewmanRipped from the pages of Empire magazine, the first collection of film critic, film historian and novelist Kim Newman’s reviews of the best and worst B movies. Some of the cheapest, trashiest, goriest and, occasionally, unexpectedly good films from the past 25 years are here, torn apart and stitched back together again in Kim’s unique style. Everything you want to know about DTV hell is here. Enter if you dare.
Kinaesthesia and Visual Self-Reflection in Contemporary Dance (Cognitive Studies in Literature and Performance)
by Shantel EhrenbergKinaesthesia and Visual Self-reflection in Contemporary Dance features interviews with UK-based professional-level contemporary, ballet, hip hop, and breaking dancers and cross-disciplinary explication of kinaesthesia and visual self-reflection discourses. Expanding on the concept of a ‘kinaesthetic mode of attention’ leads to discussion of some of the key values and practices which nurture and develop this mode in contemporary dance. Zooming in on entanglements with video self-images in dance practice provides further insights regarding kinaesthesia’s historicised polarisation with the visual. It thus provides opportunities to dwell on and reconsider reflections, opening up to a set of playful yet disruptive diffractions inherent in the process of becoming a contemporary dancer, particularly amongst an increasingly complex landscape of visual and theoretical technologies.
Kind is the New Classy: The Power of Living Graciously
by Candace Cameron Bure Ami McConnellIn today's culture of outrage, how can you stand your ground with grace? Join bestselling author and actress Candace Cameron Bure as she reveals the countercultural thought patterns and practices that have enabled her to stay centered in who she is while practicing radical graciousness toward others.As a woman in today's world, you know what it's like to feel pressure on all sides from clashing cultural expectations. How can you stay true to who God has uniquely created you to be in the face of the script you've been given? What's more, how can you stand your ground with grace?The classy confidence you know and love--whether it's on the set of Full House, Fuller House, Dancing with the Stars, The View, or your favorite Hallmark movies--is no act. But it hasn't come easily. Candace's secret? Kindness. It's timeless, unexpected, and even countercultural--and best of all, it never goes out of style.Whether you're navigating major life choices, questions of calling and career, relationships, or personal goals, this book will show you how to:Keep your cool under pressureRespond to criticism with graceStay grounded but still go places in lifeStay true to who you are despite the expectations of othersStay centered in what ultimately matters the mostLet this book help you say goodbye to society's "shoulds" and find a new way to shine.Praise for Kind Is the New Classy:"Candace has always been the epitome of kind and classy. We need more grace-filled women like her in this world."--Kathie Lee Gifford, New York Times bestselling author and former cohost of the TODAY show"No one ever killed anyone with kindness--only the dark is killed by kindness. The rest of us are resurrected by it. Read with joy: you are holding a kind of resurrection in your hands."--Ann Voskamp, bestselling author, The Broken Way and One Thousand Gifts
Kind of a Big Deal: How Anchorman Stayed Classy and Became the Most Iconic Comedy of the Twenty-First Century
by Saul AusterlitzFrom the author of Generation Friends, featuring brand-new interviews with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, a surprising, incisive, and often hilarious book about the film that changed comedy, Anchorman. It&’s been nearly twenty years since Ron Burgundy burst into movie fans&’ lives, reminding San Diego to &“stay classy&” while lampooning a time gone by—although maybe not as far gone as we might think? In Kind of a Big Deal, comedy historian Saul Austerlitz tells the history of how Anchorman was developed, written, and cast, and how it launched the careers of future superstars like Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, and Paul Rudd, also setting the stage for a whole decade of comedy to come and influencing films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, Knocked Up, Superbad, and so many more. But Kind of a Big Deal isn&’t only a celebration of Anchorman—it&’s also a cultural analysis of the film&’s significance as a sly commentary on feminism, the media, fragile masculinity, 1970s nostalgia, and more. Featuring brand-new interviews with stars such as Will Ferrell, director Adam McKay, and other key players, the book includes insider commentary alongside updated pop-culture analysis. And it also shares surprising stories and facts: from the film&’s original conception as a plane crash/cannibal comedy mashup to the surprising, real-life newscaster who inspired the character of Veronica. Overall, this is a celebration of a movie that millions love—but it&’s also an unsparing look back at what has and hasn&’t changed, since the 1970s and since 2004. Perfect for fans of the film and anyone who cares about comedy today, Kind of a Big Deal proves that the movie was, and is, exactly that.
Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece
by Ashley Kahn Jimmy CobbAn account of the creation, recording, and selling of Kind of Blue, a jazz classic. Many photos are described and have captions.