Featured Reviews:
DVD:
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Various Artists - B4MD: Before The Music Dies
Narrated By: Forest Whitaker
B-Side Entertainment |
 Is original music drowning in the wake big label marketing? Will radio ever again be the influential force it once was? Does the "next big thing" in music even have a chance to be heard? Filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen traveled the country to uncover how American music arrived at this moment of truth. The answers they found - and the promise the future holds - make B4MD both riveting and exhilarating.
Revealing interviews with musicians, industry insiders, music writers, and fans shed intense light on the issues. Featured performances ranging from The Dave Matthews Band and Erykah Badu to Seattle street performers and Mississippi gospel singers prove that great music is always out there - as long as you know where to look. Before The Music Dies will renew your passion for great music and inspire you to fight for its future.
Including perfomrances by: Dave Matthews, North Mississippi Allstars, Elvis Costello, Erykah Badu, Calexico, Bonnie Raitt, Branford Marsalis, Eric Clapton, Les Paul,Widespread Panic, Hubert Sumlin, My Morning Jacket, Billy Preston, Questlove and Doyle Bramhall II.
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Marvin Gaye: What's Going On?
Creator and Executive Producer: Susan Lacy
Writter, Director and Producer: Sam Pollard
Thirteen/WNET/PBS/American Masters/Isis |
His standing among the most enduring 20th century American musical artists is without question, yet Marvin Gaye's story is rarely told beyond the tragic circumstances of his death - shot the day before this 45th birthday on April 1, 1984 by his own father, Reverend Marvin Gay, Sr. Enormously talented and equally complicated, Gaye created an intimate style - full of honesty, integrity, and vulnerability. He was creative and brilliant, conflicted and troubled always torn between his religious upbringing and his secular aspirations. His music was politically and sexually charged, yet personally, he could be distant and aloof. American Masters Marvin Gaye: What's Going On reveleas his autobiography in lyrics and melody - the discord, confusion and depression behind the Motown star who challenged and transformed black music, leaving an indelible mark on our cultural landscape.
Features interviews with: Mos Def, Michael Eric Dyson, Berry Gordy, Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, and many more!
Program includes archival Interview with Marvin Gaye; extensive performance footage; and insights from sister Jeanne Gay, sister-in law Irene Gaye and ex-wife Jan Gaye.
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In Search of the Blues
By: MaryBeth Hamilton
Basic/Perseus |
What gives authenticity to the Delta blues? For many listeners, it's simply the music - those dangerous, raw vocals of Son House and Robert Johnson, the tales of tormented drifters meeting the devil at the crossroads at midnight, and the surrounding mythology of the American south in the first half of the twentieth century. But when we move beyond caricature and oral legends, what do we really know about this history, this supposed Southern sanctuary of grizzled men uncorrupted by the city, commerce, and modernity? In her provocative new history, In Search Of The Blues, Marybeth hamilton radically challenges the defining elements of the "Delta blues," creating a drastic re-understanding of this most American form of music.
As Hamilton tells it, the story begins not with musicians, but instead with an obsessive group of white men and women who spent their days combing the remote backroads of Mississippi, seeking out obscene melodies of vagrants and field hands and recording these songs onto portable phonographs. Or in the case of Texan banker John Lomax and his son Alan, it meant prowling Southern penitentiaries to unearth a double murder, Leadbelly, whose rough and ragged vocals evoked the anguish of the chain gang. But besides these collectors of sound, what ties this music together?
Yet this is grater than the story of how a particular genre of music was invented, In Search Of The Blues situates the blues within the wider American culture, exploring its exclusion of women and its romance with outsider manhood. Written with exquisite grace and sensitivity, at once historically accurate and hauntingly poetic, this is an extraordinary excavation of the blues mystique.
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Neil Diamond - The Thank You Australia Concert Live 1976
Eagle Rock |
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Roger Hodgson - Take The Long Way Home
Eagle Rock |
As the voice of Supertramp, Roger Hodgson thrilled fans the world over with songs like Breakfast In America, Dreamer, Take The Long Way Home and many others. One of the most gifted songwriters to have ever put pen to paper, his dulcet tones and beautifully crafted lyrics helped sell in excess of 60 million records for Supertramp and transformed them into a worldwide phenomenon.
Eagle Vision, the leading independent source of high quality audio/visual music programming, is proud to announce the release of Take The Long Way Home, the first ever live DVD from Roger Hodgson. Filmed in front of a sold out crowd in Montreal, Canada, Take The Long Way Home captures the enigmatic Hodgson at his absolute best.
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Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost
By: Joe Allen
Haymarket |
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Stuff - Live at Montreux 1976 CD & DVD SET
Eagle Rock |
They were the most in-demand of all the session players. Guitarist Cornell Dupree, bassist Gordon Edwards, drummer Steve Gadd, guitarist Eric Gale and keyboardist Richard Tee probably played on most of the albums you bought in the 1970s and beyond. Yet when they convened as Stuff, an all-instrumental funk-jazz-pop-rock-soul machine, they had an inherent chemistry all their own. They could stop on a dime, wheel it around and churn off in another direction that was as dizzying and satisfying as it was thrilling and syncopated. Their only Montreux Jazz Festival appearance came in 1976 and they did not disappoint.
The Legendary vocalist Odetta contributes vocals to "Oh Happy Day." Bassist edwards writes the liner notes. Singer/songwriter Chris Rea contributes an essay. "The purity of what's on this video," says Rea, "is the true history of modern music. It's as good as it ever got and ever will get."
Eric Clapton, who knows a little something about guitar, calls the Stuff groove, "one of the best groove zones ever, every player a genius."
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Albert Collins - Live at Montreux 1992 CD & DVD SET
Eagle Rock |
Eagle Rock entertainment released both the CD of Albert Collins Live At Montreux 1992 and its companion 102-minute DVD . These stunning documents mark one of the last concerts that the late bluesman (1932-1993) performed before the succumbed to cancer on November 24, 1993).
Collins was known throughout the blues world as "The Ice Man." With his trademark Fender Telecaster and his distinctive fingerpicking style, Collins, on this night, delivered a career-spanning set of originals and covers.
Collins was a Texan, a distant relative of Lightnin' Hopkins, who, as a kid, soaked up the regional blues styles of Chicago and Mississippi. His first band, in 1952, played Houston bars. His first independent album, in 1965, The Cool Sounds of Albert Collins, came after he relocated to Kansas City and included the instrumental "Frosty." In '67, he moved to San Francisco, a mecca for exploding rock'n'roll of the hippie subculture, where he foud national fame playing alongside some of the biggest bands in the country. One such band, Canned Heat, helped him get a major label deal. The 1968 Imperial result was one of the great '60s blues album, Love Can Be Found Anywhere (Even In A Guitar).
He moved back home to Texas as a star in 1973. In 1978, he signed to Alligator for that year's Ice Pickin', the first of seven albums for the Chicago blues label. The '80s and '90s saw him tour around th world, influencing generations of blues and rock performers. He won the 1983 WC Handy Award for Don't Lose Your Cool (Blues Album Of The Year). His 1985 Showdown album with Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland won a Grammy Award.
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Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroot Resistance from the Heartland
By: Joshua Frank and Jeffery St. Clair
AK Press |
Out here there are no fixed blueprints for resistance. No organizational flow charts for how to plot a rebellion. No focus groups or pulse polls or field-tested PR strategies or genteel formalities for grant applications. Marx would be confused. The human spirit is the best guide. When Peabody Coal announces its intention to evict your grandmother, dynamite her hogan and strip-mine the family sheep pasture, you don't have time to consult Weiden and Kennedy for how to spin it to your advantage or wait around for a year on the infinitesimal chance that Pew Charitable Trusts might drop you a few bucks. You must act. As a group if you can, unilaterally if necessary - militantly if you must.
This book offers just a few snapshots of grassroots resistance that is taking place in the forgotten heartland of America. These are tales of rebellion and courage. Out here activism isn't for the faint of heart. Be thankful someone is will to do the dirty work.
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Doreen Cronin - Diary Of A Spider...and More Cute Critter Stories
Scholastic Storybook Treasures |
Walk and talk with the animals as Scholastic Storybook Treasures presents stories about creatures both large and small, in the latest release in the recently re-launched DVD collection with Diary Of A Spider...And More Cute Critter Stories.
The titled story, adapted from the best-selling picture book by Doreen Cronin, is a sequel to "Diary of a Worm", but this time, spider is the star! Kids will learn abuot the events in the life of a young arachnid: school (where they have vacuum drills, not fire drills), web-spinning and wind-catching lessons and sleepovers at worm's house, where spider is concerned that he'll have to eat leaves and rotten tomatoes.
Three more cute critter stories feature the Read-Along option: Roberto the Insect Architect, Norman the Doorman and The Mysterious Tadpole. The DVD also includes the bonus tale, The Story of the Dancing Frog.
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Beverly Cleary - The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Scholastic Storybook Treasures |
This summer, with school on hiatus, families are in for a thrill with the latest DVD release from Scholastic Storybook Treasures - The Mouse and the Motorcycle. based on the best-selling, Peabody Award-winning book by Beverly Cleary ("Ramona the Pest," "Henry Huggins"), this exciting adaptation employs a mix of live action and stop-motion to bring the madcap adventures of Ralph S. Mouse to life. Featuring more than an hour of vibrantly-animated adventures and an innovative Read-Along function, The Mouse and the MOtorcycle will be available to add to every family's home entertainment library.
The title tale on The Mouse and the Motorcycle, also selected as a Notalbe Video for Children by the American Library Association, features Cleary's lovable Ralph S. Mouse, a lively rodent with a nose for trouble who lives with his family in a run-down Californian mountain inn. But his adventures are just beginning when the learns to ride a toy motorcycle. And by simply going "out for a splin" to help his human friend Keith get medicine, Ralph embarks on an unforgettable road trip that will surely set the stage for fun-filled summer travel adventures! The DVD also includes Wee Gillis, an adaptation of Munro Leaf's book about a Scottish orphan who must decide whether he wants to tend the cattle in the lowlands or hunt stags in the highlands.
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Together Alone: Lennon and McCartney
By: John Blaney
Jaw Bone |
The Beatles remain the most enduringly popular of all rock groups, and the Lennon/McCartney songwritting partnership that was at the band's core is the most successful in music history. Together Alone tells, for the first time, the story of what John Lennon and Paul McCartney did as the bonds of that partnership began to weaken, then finally and irrevocably broke apart. It begins with their first work outside The Beatles: McCartney's soundtrack for The Family Way film and Lennon's Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins with Yoko Ono, before moving right through each of their careers as they unfold.
Author John Blaney details Lennon and McCartney's creative highs and lows in an authoritative, complete, and engagingly critical fashion. Information for collectors includes release dates, catalogue numbers, composer credits, recording personnel, recording studio, and producer credits, and there is a keyed index to help trace each song and the albums it appears on. Blaney's perceptive style makes this a fascinating read as well as work of reference, and the book includes illuminating archive quotes from Lennon, McCartney, and others. Together Alone tells the stories behind the songs of two giants of modern music.
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Fred Anderson - Timeless: Live At The Velvet Lounge
Delmark |
It's dusk in late winter on South Indiana Avenue in Chicago, on one of the final nights at the ld Velvet Lounge. A few hours from now the club is going to be throbbing to live jazz. Right now, though, the Hawk is whipping north winds and icy rain and the Velvet, squeezed between two shuttered, debris-strewn storefronts, looks especially forlorn. But there's a light on inside, and warmth - a wonderful artist, Fred Anderson, is here practicing his tenor sax, as he does here every day. He's a generous, soft-spoken man who owns the Velvet Lounge and who is also probably the most rewarding of all of today's fine free/underground/outside tenorists, in America and around the world.
After years of creating excellent music and inspiring others, Fred has finally become recognized as a major figure in the free-jazz, free-improvisation world. He now plays frequently in Europe and at festivals in North America, and his discography is steadily growing. In 2005 he was guest of honor at the Vision Festival in New York City, this country's leading exploratory-music annual event.
The old Velvet Lounge, which has been the central spot in a long, happy era in Chicago jazz, will probably vanish under the wrecker's ball by the time you hear this album. By then it will be summer, and as the turning earth is reawakening, the new Velvet Lounge will be opening on Cermak Road, a block away, and a new era in Chicago jazz will begin. Again, Fred Anderson, already a veteran of a half century in jazz, is going to be the generous and generously creative father to another new era. Timeless, indeed, and much more than timeless.
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Minton Sparks - Open Casket
Directed by: Coke Sams
Ruckus Films |
Minton Spark's Southern accent, razor-sharp observations on the human condition and collaborations with some of the finest musicians in the world have set the spoken word community on its ear. Now, after a series of audio CD offerings, she releases her debut DVD. The release gives fans an up-close and personal glimpse of her down-home, countrified brand of storytelling.
The DVD follows a trio of critically acclaimed audio CDs - Middlin' Sisters, This Dress and Sin Sick - that brought Sparks to the attention of an incredibly diverse audience. Her keen intelligence coupled with a down-home, southern, common sensibility has made her a favorite of educated audiences in small theaters, art centers, and on college campuses.
Punctuated by a keen eye for detail, she interprets the world with a flair for humor and pathos. It's a trait that often has her audiences laughing and crying at nearly the same time.
Open Casket marks a watershed moment in Spark's career. It will introduce a new legion of fans to the integral visual aspect of her spoken word performance.
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Born Under A Bad Sky
By: Jeffrey St. Clair
AK Press |
These urgent dispatches are from the frontlines of the war on the Earth. Gird yourself for a visit to a glowing nuclear plant in the backwoods of North Carolina, to the heart of Cancer Alley where chemical companies hide their toxic enterprise behind the dark veil of Homeland Security, and from familiar demons like James Watt and Dick Cheney to more surprising figures, including Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer (father of the cancer bond) and the Nobel laureate Al Gore, whose pieties on global warming are sponsored by the nuclear power industry. The mainstream environmental movement doesn't escape indictment:
The environmental movement didn't so much go awry as
it simply flatlined, cruise-controlled right into an entropic
colldown - the ultimate thermodynamic fate of all closed
systems. The Group of Ten (a.k.a. Gang Green) now mani-
fests all the intensity ofan insurance cartel; their executives
and administrative underlings are much more likely to own
dog-eared copies of Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal
or Kissinger's Diplomacy, than Donal Worster's Rivers of
Empire, Bill Kittredge's Hole in the Sky, or Doug Pea-
cock's The Grizzly Years. Forget the eyes, a person's book-
shelf is the real window to their soul.
All is not lost. From the wreckage of New Orleans to the imperiled canyons of the Colorado, a new green resistance is taking root. The fate of the grizzly and the ancient forests of Oregon hinge on the courage of these green defenders. This book is also a salute to them.
EDITOR'S NOTE: AK Press is by far the most important Anarchist book company. You might not know what Anarchism is, but my understanding is that all the wealth is shared by the people, and there is no state to control our behavior. It is the end of all hierarchy. If you like Howard Zinn or Noam Chomsky, or many others, check the AK Press catalogue.
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John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band
Eagle Rock |
John Lennon was a tortured individual. When he recorded his 1970 solo debut album, Plastic Ono Band, he had been in therapy with Dr. Arthur Janov whose controversial "primal scream" psychiatric techniques were raising eyebrows within the medical establishment. Lennon took the black hole of his depression and poured it into his music via such personalized mantras as "Mother," "Isolation," "God," "My Mummy's Dead" and nine others. Intense and shocking, Lennon spared no expense in skewering longheld beloved beliefs ("I don't believe in Beatles") while openly seething over his own lost childhood ("Mother, you had me but I never had you").
For its latest "Classic Albums" DVD, Eagle Rock Entertainment has explored the creation of this painful masterpiece via archival footage, detailed analysis and new interviews with Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr and bassist Klaus Voorman, a longtime Lennon friend and confidant. Interview sections are entitled "Remember Remember," "Working Klaus Hero," "Well Well Well," "Well Well Well Hidden Praise," "Class Divide," "Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band," "God Is Alive And Living In The Eiffel Tower."
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Mink DeVille - Live At Montreux 1982
Eagle Rock |
Mink DeVille, fronted by the enigmatic Willy DeVille, burst out of the same 1977 CBGB's punk explosion that gave the world Blondie, The Ramones and Talking Heads. But Willy and his boys were never a punk band. They harkened back to an earlier era, an era when the saxaphone was the primary instrument in rock'n'roll. Willy was, and is, the kind of frontman that captured the imagination, a larger-than-life figure who always had the knack to blend streetcorner soul, that Latin clave, visceral rock'n'roll and showmanship smarts into a uniquely idiosyncratic vision.
In 1982, after four albums, the band had established itself as a sponge of assimilated cultures...Puerto Rico to Paris...New Orleans to the Bowery. Its very strength lay in its diversification.
On a hot July night in Switzerland, Willy sang his heart out, played lead and rhythm guitar and blew some harmonica. During the course of 18 songs, the band traversed the terrain of Pop Culture topography, starting with Earle Hagen's 1939 "Harlem Nocturne" and ending with Ben E. King's "Stand By Me."
EDITOR'S NOTE: I saw Willy at a great club called "The Lone Star Cafe" on 13th Street in New York City, where his first set was amazing. Then I saw him take a break, downing a quart of bourban, and believe or not, his second set was even better. The cat is one of a kind.
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The Musicians Handbook (Revised Edition): A Practical Guide To Understanding the Music Business
By: Bobby Borg
Billboard Books/Watson-Guptill |
The musician who wrote the book for musicians, Bobby Borg, is back with The Musician's Handbook, Revised Edition: A Practical Guide to Understanding the Music Business. This edition contains even more exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes information on what really happens behind the curtains and closed doors, and sheds light on what life is like for musicians in front of the bright lights and in the back rooms of the industry.
The Musician's Handbook provides thirteen revised and updated chapters covering every aspect of the music industry, including publishing and recording royalties, attorney fees, the costs and benefits of managers and bookkeepers and much more! Bobby Borg uses his experience both as a touring artist, producing consultant, and UCLA music business educator to deliver the latest in new royalty rates, structures for the digital age, new industry contacts, addresses, and websites.
Whether read cover-to-cover or used as a reference for certain aspects of the music industry, such as understanding copyright law in today's new music business or knowing how to avoid the hidden pitfalls throughout the industry, Bobby Borg's The Musician's Handbook is a must-have for every aspiring, up-and-coming, and veteran musician in the business!
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My Guitar
My Music/eMedia |
My Guitar, a fun and unique program that offers an exciting new way for kids ages 6 and up to learn how to play acoustic guitar. The program features multimedia lessons that guide children with video demonstrations, while creatively using interactive games to help with learning chords. eMedia's "My Music" series proves that "edutainment" is a great way to make learning fun and easy for kids!
The program stars a playful animated character named Gary the Guitar, who guides children through lessons written by professional instructor Kevin Garry, Ph. D. My Guitar features an easy-to-use interface and begins with the basics, such as holding and tuning the guitar, and moves on to strumming chords, reading tablature, and playing songs. The new games are both fun and educational, helping kids memorize specific chords with keeping them entertained. My Guitar's innovative teaching approach keeps children excited about learning music and gives them a chance to build confidence. With over 50 lessons featuring more than twenty popular songs, My Guitar is a great new way for kids to get started on learning to play guitar!
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My Piano
My Music/eMedia |
My Piano, a fun and innovative program that offers an exciting new way for kids ages 6 and up to learn how to play piano. The title features large-screen video demonstrations that guide children through the material, and uses interactive games and quizzes to help teach music notation and other basic concepts. My Piano shows kids that learning music can be fun and easy!
My Piano stars a playful animated character named Pam the Piano, who guides them through lessons written by former Juliard School of Music instructor Irma Justicia, M.A. The program starts with the basics, such as going over proper hand position and names of notes, and moves on to playing songs and reading music. Games get children excited about learning while giving them a chance to build confidence by practicing their new musical skills. With over 100 lessons featuring dozens of popular songs, My Piano is the perfect way to introduce children to playing music!
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Free Comrades: Anarchism and Homosexuality in the United States, 1895-1917
By: Terence Kissack
AK Press |
By defending the right to enter into same-sex partnerships free from social and governmental restraints, the anarchists posed a challenge to society still not met today.
By investigating public records, journals, and books published between 1895 and 1917, Terence Kissack expands the scope of LGBT politics in the US. The anarchists Kissack examines - such as Emma Goldman, Benjamin Tucker, and Alexander Berkman - defended the right of individuals to enter into same-sex relations, often challenging the conservative beliefs of their fellow anarchists, as well as those outside the movement - police, clergy, and medical authorities - who condemned LGBT people.
In his book, Kissack examines the trial and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde, the life and work of Walt Whitman, periodicals including Tucker's Liberty and Leonard Abbott's The Free Comrade, and the frank treatment of homosexual relations in Berkman's Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist.
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Pucca: Kung Fu Kisses" & "Pucca: Ninjas Love Noodles
Shout! Factory |
Serving up fun Kung Fu kicks and loads of laugh-out-loud antics, the international animation sensation Pucca and her group of pals including Garu, Tobe, Ring Ring, Abyo, Ching, Uncle Dumpling, Ho, Linguini venture onto two DVD releases with Pucca: Kung Fu Kisses and Pucca: Ninjas Love Noodles this spring! Featuring colorful animation and humorous action adventures, each DVD contains English and Spanish language tracks, special features and a limited edition collectible item inside - Ninja license or Pucca sticker! These two U.S. releases are the first of a series of DVDs forthcoming from the award-winning animated series.
Geared towards kids 7-12, Pucca follows the adventures of Picca, the daughter of a Chinese restaurant owner, and her comical and single-minded pursuit of her one true love, Garu. Unfortunately for Pucca, Garu is more interested in becoming a ninja than in Pucca and her sole mission is to win the heart of her intended either by her knowledge and expertise of martial arts or by her girlish charms.
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Hip Hop Harry - "Move Those Feet"
Allumination Film Works |
Each of the three episodes included in this DVD - "Fancy Footwork," "You Can Dance!" and "I Like to Move" - encourages children to exercise and express themselves the fun way, through dance. Each episode is bursting with music, merriment and the hip-hop flavor that has made Hip Hop Harry a family phenomenon.
Hip Hop Harry is the lovable, huggable, rapping teddy bear whose favorite them is "I Love To Learn!" 100% multicultural, positive and always fun, Hip Hop Harry uses music, dance and rhyme to teach youngsters about language, social skills and problem solving while he gets them up on their feet and out of their seats to exercise both mind and body!
Hip Hop Harry has all the hallmarks of classic children's programming: The show teaches learning and social skills, encourages creativity, and - thanks to Harry's hipper moves - promotes exercise and physical fitness. It was always the intent of the creators to combine those important facets into one entertaining show.
Harry's fast moves were also born of the global popularity of HIp-Hop dance and music - a creative and engaging cultural form of expression, which appeals to children of all backgrouns and ages. Education is never more enjoyable (and easy) when it's entertaining and fun, and that's the prime component of the successful Hip Hop Harry formula.
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Young J. Edgar: Hoover, The Red Scare, and the Assault on Civil Liberties
By: Kenneth D. Ackerman
Da Capo/Perseus |
J. Edgar Hoover, an aspiring politician who rose to power in the 1920s, would eventually become the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations for forty-eight years. but the menas by which he became influential were highly controversial. Kenneth Ackerman's biography of Hoover, Young J. Edgar, ponders the question: how far can a government go in protecting its country from terrorism
When bombs exploded in nine American cities in 1919, J. Edgar Hoover was just twenty four years old, the youngest assistant of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Yet he was assigned the task to lead a crackdown on "communists" throughout America, a set of raids taht would become notorious for their brutality. The Palmer Raids resulted in 5,000 to 10,000 arrests of mostly immigrants who were held for weeks or months, beaten and denied access to family or lawyers.
Young J. Edgar not only profiles Hoover, a young prodigy who would do anything for his job, but also tells the story of an American situation eerily similar to post-9/11 America. During the communist scares of Hoover's time, legal safeguards were questioned, even disregarded by government officials in an effort to suppress threatening forces. Ackerman also recounts the actions of a small circle of opposing individuals, including lawyer Felix Frankfurter and anarchist Emma Goldman, who brough these abuses to light. Provocative and engaging, Young J. Edgar studies Hoover's rise to power while evaluating the right to personal freedom in times of war.
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Ari Brown - Live at the Green Mill
Delmark |
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John Gorka - The Gypsy Life Double DVD
AIX Records |
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Black Comedians on Black Comedy: How African-Americans Taught Us To Laugh
By: Darryl Littleton
Applause Theatre & Cinema Books |
In Black Comedians on Black Comedy, Littleton turns back the clock of time to the days of vaudeville, ragtime, minstrel shows, traveling road shows, the chitlin' circuit, and the beginnings of stand-up, spotlighting the trailblazers and movers and shakers in all of black comedy's many aspects. He looks at the emergence of black stars in movies, on the stage, in radio and on television, and the growing list of superstars and role models for new comics on the horizon.
As he traces the jouney of black comedy in United States of America, he rekindles memories of such hit shows as Amos 'n' Andy, Beulah, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, The Cosby Show, Good Times, and Different Strokes. He discusses the influence of such television programs as Showtime at the Apollo, Def Comedy Jam, and Comic View, and brings alive today's comedy club scene and its impact on American entertainment.
Through the pages of the book walk familiar personalities past and present: Pigmeat Markham, Stepin Fetchit, Nipsey Russell, Hattie McDaniel, Sammy Davis Jr., Redd Foxx, "Moms" Mabley, Richard Pryor, Flip Wilson, Bill Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx, Paul Mooney, Steve Harvey, Dave Chappelle, and many, many more.
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The Jimi Hendrix Experience at Monterey
Experience Hendrix/Geffen/UMG |
Forty years ago Jimi Hendrix returned to his native country and, in one fell swoop changed the musical landscape for all time. It was the galvanizing, US debut performance of The Jimi Hendrix Experience at The Monterey International Pop Festival that propelled Hendrix and his band mates, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, to the top ranks of international rock royalty. It's a remarkable visual and aural document that reconfirms what the Monterey audience bore witness to on June 18, 1967: Hendrix's unbridled talent and flair for showmanship are unparalleled in the annals of music.
Beyond the performance of the band's set, The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live At Monterey offers numerous bonus features. A Second Look, a unique interactive feature allows the viewer to switch between multiple, previously unseen camera angles to view several of the performances as never before.
In addition, American Landing, a new documentary that includes previously unreleased interviews with Mitchell and Redding - and Jimi Hendrix, himself - is included. There's also Music, Love and Flowers, an inside look at the Monterey International Pop Festival with co-founder Lou Adler. Live performances of "Stone Free" and "Like A Rolling Stone," the two earliest known unreleased Jimi Hendrix Experience performances, shot Febuary 25, 1967 at Chelmsford, England are also part of the package.
DVD includes Jimi Hendrix Experience performing: Killing Floor, Foxy Lady, Like A Rolling Stone, Rock Me Baby, Hey Joe, The Wind Cries Mary, Purple Haze, and Wild Thing.
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Pete Seeger - The Power Of Song
American Masters |
As early as August 18, 1955, folk singer Pete Seeger set himself apart as a "true American" when he appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee and refused to name names, stating, "I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this." As a target of the communist witch hunt of the 1950s, Seeger was picketed, protested, blacklisted and, in spite of his enormous popularity, banned from American commercial television for more than 17 years. Throughout his ordeal, and his life, he never stopped singing out - and speaking up. "I look upon myself as a planter of seeds," the legendary artist and political activist says in American Masters Pete Seeger: The Power Of Song. It is the first and only authorized biography of Seeger
The 90-minute film illuminates Seeger's belief in the ultimate power of song and his conviction that individuals can make a difference. While a member of the American Communist Party, he used music to organize labor unions and was blacklisted as a result. Musicians such as Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen and Bonnie Raitt appear in the film to discuss Seeger's numerous contributions.
The film is also a love story, an homage to his wife, for whom he wrote "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine." While on leave from the Army during World War II, Seeger married Toshi Ohta, a Japanese activist, and their marriage has endured for more than 60 years. The Power of Song includes first-ever family interviews and remarkable personal footage of the Seegers and their three young children shot in the early 1960s during a world tour to document music in such far-flung locales as Ghana, Tanzania and Czechoslovakia. The Seegers continue to live simply, in the woods, in a cabin Pete built himself.
Features: Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Natalie Maines, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, rarely-seen clips, personal footage from a 1960s around-the-world tour, and numerous classic songs.
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A Guitar And A Pen
Edited By: Robert Hicks
AK Press |
This unique collection presents, for the first time, the literary work of some of the best storytellers in the world: the songwriters who cut and polish tales down to sparkling three minute gems. A blend of fiction and nonfiction, humor and poignancy, these tales cover a wide range of styles and country artists.
Nashville, Music City USA, is a city whose entertainment and artistic fortune is built on the bedrock of songwriters. It has been said in Nashville over and over that "It all begins with a song." Country music's wordsmiths have shaped and molded some of the greatest stories ever told into three and a half minutes that fit nearly on the radio. The editors of A Guitar and a Pen set out to answer the question, "If they can put all that into three minutes, what could and would they do with a blank piece of paper and a pen?" The answer lies in this remarkable collection of creativity and insight.
A Guitar and a Pen features a stunning array of talent. This collections features contributions by Charlie Daniels ("The Devil Went Down To Georgia"), Tom T. Hall ("Harper Valley P.T.A."), Kris Kristofferson ("Me and Bobby McGee"), Bobby Braddock ("He Stopped Loving Her Today"), and Janis Ian ("Society's Child") to name a few. The forewards are insightful and humorous and written by Vince Gill and Kris Kristofferson.
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