Publisher: Tales of Terror
This book contains 66 reviews of horror films written and ranked by critic and blogger Steve Hutchison. Each description includes five ratings (stars, story, creativity, acting, quality), a synopsis and a review. All 66 movies present a surreal threat. How many have you seen?
Whenever a person engages with music―when a piano student practices a scale, a jazz saxophonist riffs on a melody, a teenager sobs to a sad song, or a wedding guest gets down on the dance floor—countless neurons are firing. Playing an instrument requires all of the resources of the nervous system, including cognitive, sensory, and motor functions. Composition and improvisation are remarkable demonstrations of the brain's capacity for creativity. Something as seemingly simple as listening to a tune involves mental faculties most of us don't even realize we have. Larry S. Sherman, a neuroscientist and lifelong musician, and Dennis Plies, a professional musician and teacher, collaborate to show how our brains and music work in harmony. They consider music in all the ways we encounter it—teaching, learning, practicing, listening, composing, improvising, and performing—in terms of neuroscience as well as music pedagogy, showing how the brain functions and even changes in the process. Every Brain Needs Music draws on leading behavioral, cellular, and molecular neuroscience research as well as surveys of more than a hundred musical people. It provides new perspectives on learning to play, teaching, how to practice and perform, the ways we react to music, and why the brain benefits from musical experiences.Show book
In "Searching for Harry Chapin’s America: Remember When the Music," journalist Pat Fenton describes his road trips to the towns and people that inspired Harry Chapin’s most renowned songs. While Fenton’s account includes exclusive interviews with Chapin’s family and associates, and an excerpt from Chapin’s unpublished writings, the audio adaptation includes actual cuts from Chapin's best-known songs. Composer and multi-instrumentalist David Amram, who narrates Fenton's chronicle, performs his own brief interludes of "incidental music," where he was inspired to do so.Harry Chapin (1942-1981) was a legendary top-charting American songwriter in the 1970s and ’80s. During his lifetime, Chapin was nominated twice for a Grammy Award: in 1972 for Best New Artist, and in 1974 for Best Pop Male Vocal Performance. In 2011, thirty years after his untimely death, Chapin’s Number One-charting song, “Cat’s In the Cradle,” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. "Searching for Harry Chapin’s America" was published on July 16, 2021, and is a fortieth-year commemoration of this musical icon’s tragic death in a car crash on July 16, 1981. The audio adaptation follows a year later, in July, 2022, and extends the tribute to Chapin's legacy of songs and philanthropy."Like 'Don Quixote,' or 'On the Road,' Pat Fenton’s classic book takes you on an unforgettable series of journeys and makes you feel that you are now welcome to be with the people and places that Harry Chapin memorialized in his timeless songs."—David Amram, composer/multi-instrumentalist/author “A portrait of an age as well as an artist. Chapin was an American original who combined Walt Whitman’s lyric realism with Woody Guthrie’s passionate truth-telling. Fenton’s blend of sympathy, honesty, and insight gives us the man in full. Fenton’s talents as a master storyteller have never been on better display.” —Peter Quinn, novelist/political historianShow book
Based on very real and practical commentary, life experience, and occasionally, tongue-in-cheek-misfortunes of horror legends, Necessary Death explores how the horror genre offers individuals a unique opportunity for insight and understanding of their own lives. Using some of the most quintessential movies in the genre, Chris Grosso and Preston Fassel invite listeners to an in-depth examination of the human condition—its fears, anxieties, hopes, joys, sorrows, and everything in-between—and how it's all grist for our personal and collective evolutionary mill. A hallmark of the genre is how horror films force their characters to find some semblance of inner strength and wherewithal in order to stand up to the monster, ghost, or villain that is trying to take their lives. Through fascinating discussion of this and other elements, Fassel and Grosso relate these films' dark subject matter and characters to real world issues people face every day. This sharp analysis is complemented by exercises that prompt listeners to consider gratitude, forgiveness, determination, and bravery in the face of adversity. An unusual mix of film study and self-help, Necessary Death might surprise or even shock listeners, but it will also enlighten, educate, and most importantly hearten those looking for an unexpected source of inspiration.Show book
An ironically upbeat book that asks some of today's most inimitable musicians which song they would choose to be the last one they ever hear If you could choose the last song you'd hear before you died, what would it be and why? Your favorite song of all time? Perhaps the one you danced to at your wedding? The song from that time you got super stoned and just let the chords speak to you? It's a hard question that Mike Ayers has thought about for years. In One Last Song, Ayers invites thirty musicians to consider what song they would each want to accompany them to those pearly white gates. Weaving together their explanations with evocative illustrations and poignant interludes—what your song to die to says about you, what songs famous people have died to, and more. The book offers insight into the minds of famous artists and provides an entry point for considering how integral music is to our own personal narratives.Show book
For Bob Dylan enthusiasts and anyone with an interest in the early life, places and roots of Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota, grew up in nearby Hibbing, and cut his musical teeth in the folk scene of Dinkytown. This travel guide brings together wonderful stories from these key locations and the roots and early life of Bob Dylan. We also introduce you to four great contributors who live in Dylan's homeland and play an active part in promoting everything Dylan. Ed Newman - writer, artist and promoter of the Duluth Dylan Fest and lives in Duluth. Marc Percansky - concert, music and event promoter based in the Minneapolis Saint Paul. Matt Steichen - journalist, publicist, presenter and big Dylan fan living in Lakeville. And Paul Metsa - musician, songwriter, author, radio and TV host. The Huffington Post called him, 'The other great folksinger from Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range.' We travel back in time to hear stories from his early teacher, tales of the mysterious wandering rabbi, eye-witness accounts from early Dinkytown musical collaborators, as well as being privy to secrets from behind the scenes of the classic 'Blood On The Tracks' album. Fascinating insights into the early life of one of the most important songwriters in music history – and told with Minnesota voices.Show book
If you think Joan Rivers said funny, outrageous, and ridiculous things ONSTAGE, wait ’til you read the funny, outrageous, and ridiculous things she said OFFSTAGE … things that will make you laugh out loud … and keep Melissa in therapy for the foreseeable future. The only thing my mother loved more than making people laugh was lying … or as she’d say, “embellishing.” Her motto was: “Why let the truth ruin a good story?” This book contains some of those stories.Show book
