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  Cosimo de' Medici: The Life and...

  Charles River Editors

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  Most historians credit the city-state of Florence as the place that started and developed the Italian Renaissance, a process carried out through the patronage and commission of artists during the late 12th century. If Florence has received its due credit, much of it belongs to the House of Medici, the family dynasty of Florence that ruled at the height of the Renaissance. The dynasty held such influence that some of its family members even became pope, and it all started with a banker colloquially known as Cosimo the Elder.  
  	Cosimo’s trajectory was nothing short of incredible. In the spring of 1433, he sat in a small stone cell high in the tower of the Palazzo della Signoria, listening to the bells of the city he had spent his life serving and waiting to learn whether he was to be beheaded. He was 43 and held no public title of consequence, commanded no army, and had taken pains for most of his life to appear as one prosperous citizen among many. Nonetheless, the men who then governed Florence had decided that he was too dangerous to leave at liberty, and for several days the question before the city was not whether Cosimo possessed power but whether the republic dared to kill him for it.  
  	Instead of being executed, within 18 months, he returned from exile to a city that received him as a deliverer, and for the 30 years that followed, he ruled Florence more completely than any king ruled a kingdom, despite never assuming a crown, a permanent office, or a public claim to authority. He governed through a network of friendships, debts, favors, and quiet arrangements so subtly that foreign observers struggled to describe it, but what they saw was plain enough even when the mechanisms by which Cosimo maintained control were not. The peace and the wars of Italy answered to his judgment, and the powerful leaders across the peninsula carried their business to his house, settling across a banker’s table the questions other cities settled in council chambers and throne rooms.

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  Local Hero - Making a Scottish...

  Jonathan Melville

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  It's not a high concept movie, there's actually no story there really. It’s what happens in between the story that’s important' – Bill Forsyth  The story of an American businessman sent to buy the Scottish village of Ferness with the aim of turning it into an oil refinery, Local Hero is one of Scotland’s most beloved, and most misunderstood, films.  When Bill Forsyth’s incredible success with the low-budget That Sinking Feeling and Gregory’s Girl found him collaborating with Britain’s best-known film producer, David Puttnam, he soon found his independent ethos clashing with Hollywood’s desire for superstar actors and a happy ending.  Jonathan Melville checks into the MacAskill Arms and looks back at Bill Forsyth’s career with the help of new and archive interviews, before spending time with the cast and crew, including stars Peter Riegert and Denis Lawson, who made Local Hero on location in Houston and Scotland in 1982.  With access to early drafts of the Local Hero script (including hand-written notes) that reveal more about Mac and mermaids, excerpts from a previously unpublished interview in which Bill Forsyth explains why he refuses to call his film 'feel-good', and a look at long-lost deleted scenes with exclusive commentary from those involved, this is the definitive history of the Scottish classic.  ‘Genuine fairy tales are rare; so is film-making that is thoroughly original in an unobtrusive way. Bill Forsyth's quirky disarming Local Hero is both . . . it demonstrates Mr. Forsyth's uncanny ability for making an audience sense that something magical is going on, even if that something isn't easily explained’ – Janet Maslin, The New York Times  'Local Hero is kind of transcendent. It's poetic in a way that most films can't hope to be' – Frank Cottrell-Boyce  'Local Hero is one my favourite films of all time . . .  A timeless masterpiece' – Mark Kermode

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  Can You Hear Me

  Anna Lyse Erikson

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  Before Guglielmo Marconi came along, there was no practical way to transmit telegraphic messages without wires. But when he harnessed the power of radio waves to send signals over long distances, what had once seemed impossible became a world-changing reality.  
   
  In this original L.A. Theatre Works commission, we’ll get a firsthand, intimate view of the precocious Italian inventor, and what he had to overcome in his quest to revolutionize the way we communicate. 
   
  Can You Hear Me is available as part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series of science-themed plays, sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. 
   
  Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood in April, 2024. 
   
  Directed by Rosalind Ayres 
  Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg 
   
  An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast recording, starring: 
   
  Lucy DeVito as Degna Marconi 
  Martin Jarvis as Mr. Preece, King Edward, Captain Smith 
  Kurt Kanazawa as Alfonso Marconi, George Parkin 
  Henri Lubatti as Giuseppe Marconi, Teddy Roosevelt 
  Moira Quirk as Annie Jameson 
  Darren Richardson as George Kemp, Jack Phillips 
  André Sogliuzzo as Guglielmo Marconi and Older Marconi 
  Mark Jude Sullivan as Luigi Solari, Harold Bride, Pagent 
   
  Senior Producer: Anna Lyse Erikson 
  Prepared for Audio by Mark Holden 
  Recorded and edited by Neil Wogenson 
  Designed by Neil Wogenson, Charles Carroll and Mark Holden, and mixed by Charles Carroll for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. 
  Technical Advisor and Morse Code Performer: Mark Holden. 
  Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin 
  Foley Artist: Stacey Martinez 
  Antique Morse Code and radio equipment provided by Ken Holden

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  From Under the Truck - A Memoir

  Josh Brolin

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  “Josh Brolin’s out to catch his breath between the slant-eyed suggestions and irrefutable evidence of his past. He hears voices, and he listens, reminding us with brutal honesty that our surroundings were never there to be carried, rather woven into the fabric of the freedom to be who we are.”—Matthew McConaughey 
  From Josh Brolin, a unique and decidedly un-celebrity memoir, by turns affecting, funny, uncanny, and unforgettable—read by the author, this edition features exclusive intro and outro music by Chris Stapleton. 
  Weaving a latticework of different strands, moving back and forth through time, Josh Brolin captures a life marked by curiosity, pain, devotion, kindness, humor. He recounts an unconventional childhood far from Hollywood. Raised on a ranch in Paso Robles, California, he was surrounded as a child by the wolves, cougars, and other wild animals gathered by his fearless and explosive mother, Jane Agee Brolin. Her tragic, early death haunts this book, and the force of her unforgettable personality is felt throughout. Brolin also brings to life his career in the film industry—from his breakout role in The Goonies to the set of No Country for Old Men—and the professional and personal ups and downs in between and since. With unflinching honesty but also great humor, he shares insights into relationships, addiction, love, and fatherhood, while letting the white space in between words speak for itself. Grappling with the mysteries of life and death in a way that will catch readers by surprise, From Under the Truck is an audacious and riveting memoir from a born writer.

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  Innocent When You Dream

  Ken Narasaki

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  80-something Dan Yamada has been rendered speechless after a stroke, and as he lies in bed, he vividly recalls his life, from his days in the World War 2-era internment camps, to serving in the US Army, to his one true love. At his bedside in the present, his adult children fight over his care and legacy, all while Dan tries to communicate his poignant final wish.  
   
  Includes an interview with playwright Ken Narasaki. 
   
  This play is sponsored by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, a state-funded grant project of the California State Library. 
   
  Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood in January 2024. 
   
  Directed by Anna Lyse Erikson 
  Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg 
   
  An L.A. Theatre Works full cast recording, starring: 
   
  Kurt Kanazawa as Frank Fujiyama  
  John Miyasaki as Young Dan Yamada  
  Suzy Nakamura as Joy Yamada-Hanke  
  Ken Narasaki as Dr. Park  
  Rosie Narasaki as Young Grace Hamamoto Sharon Omi as Adult Grace Hamamoto  
  Sab Shimono as Dan Yamada  
  Greg Watanabe as Merv Yamada 
   
  Senior Producer: Anna Lyse Erikson 
  Prepared for audio by Mark Holden 
  Recorded and edited by Neil Wogenson 
  Designed and mixed by Charles Carroll for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. 
  Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin 
  Foley Artist: Stacey Martinez 
   
  “Blue Skies” performed by Kurt Kanazawa

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  Say Hello to My Little Friend -...

  Nat Segaloff

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  When Brian DePalma's operatically violent and profane Scarface debuted in 1983, the film drew almost as much fire as the relentless gunfire in the film itself. The movie was a remake of 1932's Scarface—revamped for a new era of drugs, sex, and graphic violence. Attacked as both a celebration of cocaine-fueled excess and a condemnation of it, the film's reputation only grew as the years went by. But the real story of its success started nearly a century ago—when Hollywood first fell in love with the American gangster . . . 
   
   
   
  Hollywood's infatuation with money, power, and organized crime has captured the public's imagination and made Scarface one of its most enduring modern myths. From a 1912 gangster film by D. W. Griffith to the 1932 hit Scarface starring Paul Muni, to Brian DePalma's 1983 shocker, the antihero's rise and fall exposes the dark side of the American Dream—whether it's Prohibition Era bootleggers or modern-day drug dealers. When actor Al Pacino got the idea of doing a remake of Scarface after screening the original, a legend was (re)born—and the rest is history. With guns blazing and chainsaws whirring, movie biz writer Nat Segaloff tears into this pop culture phenomenon with fascinating insights, stunning revelations, and a true fan's glee. This is a must-listen book for movie buffs, crime lovers, and culture vultures everywhere.

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