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Humor / Pop Culture
From former Vanity Fair magazine's celebrity interviewer George Wayne comes a collection of piquant, poignant, and nostalgic interviews with some of the iconic personalities of our time, curated from his legendary magazine career.
The man behind some of the most notorious celebrity interviews, George Wayne, has redefined, reimagined, and remastered the modern art of the conversation. For over twenty years, he documented pop culture with the George Wayne Questionnaire, his patented question and answer column, which has been one of Vanity Fair's most iconic and intriguing features. In each issue, he posed a series of offbeat questions to some the most captivating people in the world.
Refreshingly unafraid to ask anything and everything, GW has perfected what he calls--the probe and parry--to break down protective facades and get inside the heads and hearts of his interviewees. The results have been humorous, often surprising, sometimes shocking, and always revealing.
Beautifully designed with illustrations, Anyone Who's Anyone is a collection of some of his most fascinating conversations with the world's famous and infamous, highlighted with introductory annotations and memories of each interview--first published in his own R.O.M.E., Vanity Fair, and The Daily Front Row.
Cultural icons, royalty, and superstars of all kinds--including Kate Moss, Ivanka Trump, Ivana Trump, Martha Stewart, Joan Rivers, Farrah Fawcett, Fabio, Graydon Carter, and many more--spill their secrets, candidly sharing their hopes and fears.
With social media increasingly dominating our personal interactions, Anyone Who's Anyone demonstrates that nothing can replace an engaging and authentic tête-à-tête.
Step behind the velvet rope for a masterclass in the art of the interview.
A completely revised and updated edition of the best book written on one of the world's greatest, and most explosive, rock bands: The Who. Organized by year, it has all the most current information, and will coincide with the release of the band's first new album in 32 years.
The Who put on one of the most astounding stage shows ever seen (culminating in a blaze of smashed-up instruments) and took popular music to new heights with the first rock opera. Together, songwriter Pete Townshend, sexy lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist John Entwhistle, and drumming wild man Keith Moon redefined rock. Here, in a series of day-to-day diaries brimming with enthusiasm, thoroughness, and fresh information, is the tale of their performing career. The authors gained rare access to various official archives, many not viewed before; to friends and associates (some of whom had never spoken publicly about their relationship with the group); and to Pete, Roger, and John themselves. Three hundred photos capture the charismatic band, Daltrey has contributed a foreword, and the diaries recount club dates, TV appearances, auditions, and recordings. No Who fan can do without this unprecedented and engrossing look at the band.
650 images...capture The Who's journey from raucous r&b interpreters to roiling rockers...--The Washington Post
The Who put on one of the most astounding stage shows ever seen (culminating in a blaze of smashed-up instruments) and took popular music to new heights with the first rock opera. Together, songwriter Pete Townshend, sexy lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist John Entwhistle, and drumming wild man Keith Moon redefined rock. Here, in a series of day-to-day diaries brimming with enthusiasm, thoroughness, and fresh information, is the tale of their performing career. The authors gained rare access to various official archives, many not viewed before; to friends and associates (some of whom had never spoken publicly about their relationship with the group); and to Pete, Roger, and John themselves. Three hundred photos capture the charismatic band, Daltrey has contributed a foreword, and the diaries recount club dates, TV appearances, auditions, and recordings. No Who fan can do without this unprecedented and engrossing look at the band.
650 images...capture The Who's journey from raucous r&b interpreters to roiling rockers...--The Washington Post
People have been predicting the end of the world since...well, the beginning of it. Oh, the form it takes may vary-firestorm, earthquake, plague, new ice age, alien invasion, nuclear cloud, or the rise of our machines-but everyone who survives will be starting over at Square One. Your needs won't be that different from today's: food, shelter, work, finances, relationships, 24-hour cable.... But you'll have more raw materials to deal with. Apocalypse How is the humorous how-to-guide to living your best life possible (after the Apocalypse renders your current quality of life null and void.) Organized like a travel or lifestyle guide, the book tells you all you need to know in order to fend off zombies, forge for non-radioactive food, and make the most of your new dwelling (while ignoring the ash outline of its previous occupants on the far wall.)This handy volume includes such essential sections as: What to Expect When We're Exploding Before We Blow: Your Essential To-Hoard List Should You Stay or Should You Flee? Questionnaire Sex, Love, and Dating: What if You Are the Last Man on Earth? The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Petty Tyrants The Apocalyptic Aptitude Test Apocalypse How is guaranteed to be of use in the world to come. It also makes a handy defense weapon if thrown, and firestarter if needed.
From its indefinite beginnings through its broad commercialization and endless reinterpretation, American rock-and-roll music has been preoccupied with an end-of-the-world mentality that extends through the whole of American popular music. In Apocalypse Jukebox, Edward Whitelock and David Janssen trace these connections through American music genres, uncovering a mix of paranoia and hope that characterizes so much of the nation's history.
From the book's opening scene, set in the American South during a terrifying 1833 meteor shower, the sense of doom is both palpable and inescapable; a deep foreboding that shadows every subsequent development in American popular music and, as Whitelock and Janssen contend, stands as a key to understanding and explicating America itself.
Whitelock and Janssen examine the diversity of apocalyptic influences within North American recorded music, focusing in particular upon a number of influential performers, including Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, John Coltrane, Devo, R.E.M., Sleater-Kinney, and Green Day. In Apocalypse Jukebox, Whitelock and Janssen reveal apocalypse as a permanent and central part of the American character while establishing rock-and-roll as a true reflection of that character.
From the book's opening scene, set in the American South during a terrifying 1833 meteor shower, the sense of doom is both palpable and inescapable; a deep foreboding that shadows every subsequent development in American popular music and, as Whitelock and Janssen contend, stands as a key to understanding and explicating America itself.
Whitelock and Janssen examine the diversity of apocalyptic influences within North American recorded music, focusing in particular upon a number of influential performers, including Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, John Coltrane, Devo, R.E.M., Sleater-Kinney, and Green Day. In Apocalypse Jukebox, Whitelock and Janssen reveal apocalypse as a permanent and central part of the American character while establishing rock-and-roll as a true reflection of that character.
Mark Russell & Shannon Wheeler's faithful-yet-irreverent approach to the Bible made their book GOD IS DISAPPOINTED IN YOU a modern cult classic. Now, by popular demand, they turn their attention to the best parts left out of the canonical Bible, including the Midrash, the Apocrypha, Gnostic Gospels, and more! And if you thought the BIBLE had some weird stuff in it...
From first-day-of-class primping (in Juicy Couture, of course!), dating anxiety, and back-stabbing chick cliques, to teachers, gym class, and other hallmarks of school life, these ingenious photographic scenes starring SloaneTanen's signature yellow chicks bring the teen experience to life with hilarious results. Training her razor sharp sense of humor on seven typical teenagers, Sloane follows Caitlin, Edgar, Marissa, Joey, Annalise, Helen, and Andrew as they navigate a world plagued by unrequited love, pop quizzes, and parents. This birds-eye view of the blunder years is a perfect gift for back-to-schoolers or graduates, and a wickedly funny trip down memory lane for many an adult as well.
SLOANE TANEN is the author of several books for adults, including the bestselling Bitter with Baggage Seeks Same, Going for the Bronze, and Hatched! She is also the creator of several books for young readers. Appetite for Detention marks her first book for teenagers, and one she is ideally-perhaps even genetically-suited to write. (Sloane is the daughter of Ned Tanen, who produced such teen cult hits as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and St. Elmo's Fire.) Sloane lives in New York City with her husband and young son. www.sloanetanen.com
From comedian and journalist Faith Salie, of NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! and CBS News Sunday Morning, a collection of daring, funny essays chronicling the author's adventures during her lifelong quest for approval Faith Salie has done it all in the name of validation. Whether she's trying to impress her parents with a perfect GPA, undergoing an exorcism to save her toxic marriage, or baking a 3D excavator cake for her son's birthday, Salie is the ultimate approval seeker--an "approval junkie, " if you will. In this collection of daring, honest essays, Salie shares stories from her lifelong quest for gold stars, recounting her strategy for winning (very Southern) high school beauty pageant; her struggle to pick the perfect outfit to wear to her divorce; and her difficulty falling in love again, and then conceiving, in the years following her mother's death. With thoughtful irreverence, Salie reflects on why she tries so hard to please others, and herself, highlighting a phenomenon that many people--especially women--experience at home and in the workplace. Equal parts laugh-out loud funny and poignant, Approval Junkie is one woman's journey to realizing that seeking approval from others is more than just getting them to like you--it's challenging yourself to achieve, and survive, more than you ever thought you could.
What happens when the quirky critters created by Aranzi Aronzo get together and gallivant about town? Aranzi Machine Gun! Discover the world your favorite crafty characters inhabit; follow their adventures and enjoy every whimsical moment. Plus, each volume features new crafts presented by Miss Applique.
What happens when the quirky critters created by Aranzi Aronzo get together and gallivant about town? Aranzi Machine Gun! Discover the world your favorite crafty characters inhabit; follow their adventures and enjoy every whimsical moment. Plus, each volume features new crafts presented by Miss Applique.
Archie Andrews and his calamitous crew of screwball schoolmates are some of the best-known and most beloved characters in the history of comics. Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Jughead, and the rest of the Riverdale gang have seen seventy years of teenage antics, filtered through the lenses of generation after generation of readers. Now Archie fans of all ages can return to the beginning of it all with Archie Archives from Dark Horse Comics. This beautifully reproduced collection includes over 200 pages of hilarious high-school high jinks and the cartooning greats who brought Archie to life! Collects Pep Comics #46-#50 and Archie Comics #7-#10! "It is truly fascinating to go back and read the Archie Archives. These anthologies are time capsules in themselves."
--New York Journal of Books
--New York Journal of Books
You know him from his breakout role as Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show, his outrageous turn as George and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development, and his Emmy Award-winning performance as Maura Pfefferman on Transparent. A Broadway star, a television legend, an accomplished screen actor whose singular wit and heartrending performances have been entertaining audiences for more than four decades, but the question remains: Who the hell is Jeffrey Tambor? In his illuminating, often hilarious, and always honest memoir, Tambor looks back at the key moments in his life that taught him about creativity and play and pain and fear. The son of what you might call "eccentric" Russian and Hungarian Jewish parents, Tambor grew up in San Francisco a husy kid with a lisp, who suffered in his "otherness" and found salvation in the theater. While he learned his art from the best of the best--Al Pacino, George C. Scott, Garry Shandling, Mitch Hurwitz, Jill Soloway--he also introduces his many unexpected teachers, from the nameless man in a Detroit bookstore who gave him the love of reading, to his young children who (at this ridiculously late stage in his life) have reintroduced him to play, bravery, and the simple joy of not giving a shit. Tambor shares the triumph of landing his first Broadway role, but not before experiencing the humbling that is commercial work (and how even saying "my socks don't cling" can prove a challenge). He invites you behind the scenes of his wildly successful television shows, but he doesn't leave out the pit stops he made at addiction, Scientology, and what it feels like to get fourth billing after Sylvia the Seal on The Love Boat.
At last, Tambor answers the question "Are you anybody?" with a promise that success doesn't mean perfection and failure most definitely is an option.
At last, Tambor answers the question "Are you anybody?" with a promise that success doesn't mean perfection and failure most definitely is an option.
Welcome to Chelsea Handler's world--a place where absurdity reigns supreme and a quick wit is the best line of defense. When Chelsea Handler needs to get a few things off her chest, she appeals to a higher power--vodka. Seems reasonable, when considering that she discovered her boyfriend was having an affair with a Peekapoo and she had to pretend to be honeymooning with her father in order to upgrade to first class. In this highly entertaining, deliciously skewed collection, Chelsea mines her past for stories about her family, relationships, and career that are at once singular and ridiculous. Whether she's convincing her third-grade class that she has been chosen to play Goldie Hawn's daughter in the sequel to Private Benjamin, deciding to be more egalitarian by dating a redhead, or looking out for a foulmouthed, rum-swilling little person who looks just like her...only smaller, Chelsea has a knack for getting herself into the most outrageous situations. Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea showcases the candor and irresistible turns of phrase that have made her one of the freshest voices in comedy today.
In the great tradition of the American almanac, The "Areas of My Expertise" is a brilliant and hilarious compendium of handy reference tables, fascinating trivia, and sage wisdom on all topics large and small. Although bestsellers such as "Poor Richard s Almanack" and "The Book of Lists" were certainly valuable, they also were largely true. Here is a different kind of handy desk reference, one in which all of the historical oddities and amazing true facts are sifted through the singular, illuminating imagination of John Hodgman which is the nice way of saying: He made it all up.
John Hodgman brings his considerable expertise to bear in answering all of the questions book buyers have been asking:
-What are the mottoes of the 51 United States?
THE ANSWER IS PROVIDED
-Who were the U.S. presidents who had hooks for hands?
THE ANSWER IS PROVIDED
-What role does the Yale secret society Skull and Bones play in the secret world government?
THERE IS NO SECRET WORLD GOVERNMENT
-What was the menu at the first Thanksgiving, and did it include eels?
Technically, that is two questions, but do not apologize, for John Hodgman shall answer them both... LATER.
-Aside from a compendium of fake trivia, what is the best kind of book to write?
A SIMPLE TABLE OF THE 55 MOST DRAMATIC LITERARY SITUATIONS PROVIDES THE ANSWER, and John Hodgman is the author of that table.
Imagine if "The Book of Lists" had been rewritten by Peter Cook and Jorge Luis Borges under the pseudonym of John Hodgman and then renamed "The Areas of My Expertise," and you will only begin to have a sense of the dizzying, uproarious, sublimely weird, and strangely wise journey that is contained within this book (along with all the pages and words).
Perfect for anyone who thirsts for knowledge, and especially for collectors of books of fake trivia, The "Areas of My Expertise" offers through absurdity a better understanding of the world we share and recognizes that while the truth may be stranger than fiction, it is never as strange as lies...or as true.Watch a QuickTime trailer for this book."
The Areas of My Expertise is a lavish compendium of handy reference tables, fascinating trivia, and sage wisdom--all of it completely unresearched, completely undocumented and (presumably) completely untrue, fabricated by the illuminating, prodigious imagination of John Hodgman, certifiable genius. In an age when fake facts are all the rage, John Hodgman proves he is a man ahead of his time. Look out for John Hodgman's latest book, Vacationland, available from Viking in Fall 2017.
There was money in that banana stand! Arrested Development Mad Libs includes 21 original stories inspired by all the memorable moments, characters, and lines from the cult TV series. Our book makes a great gift for all your Arrested Development-obsessed friends who have watched the DVDs so many times they have every hilarious line memorized.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt's creative collaborative community HITRECORD looks at love from both sides in this ingenious flippable book.
So, you just got dumped, huh? Or did you just dump someone? Doesn't matter who ended it. Either way, you're sleeping alone tonight.
But don't worry, you're not really alone. HITRECORD's global community of over 750,000 active artists is here to help with The Art of Breaking Up, a new book designed to get you through this trying time.
That's over 750,000 people who know the soul-crushing pain of a broken heart. But instead of wallowing forever in vats of unproductive (but delicious) cookie dough, they've channeled all that misery into an insightful, funny, and smart compendium of musings, photography, drawings, collages, puzzles, recipes, games, and more--designed to explore (and distract from) the mind-numbing agony of a romantic breakup. You'll laugh, you'll smile, and you'll probably cry.
Everyone knows there are two sides to every break-up, so this book features a double-sided, flippable structure. One side eases the tortured consciences of the HEARTBREAKERS. Flip the book, and the other side considers the plight of the BROKEN-HEARTED.
Both sides are organized chronologically with chapters that correspond to the emotional trajectory of both the HEARTBREAKER and BROKEN-HEARTED. Chapters include: Early Warning Signs, Exit Strategy, The Break Up, Acceptance, Depression, Bargaining, Anger, and Denial. Where the two sections meet in the middle there is a compelling, heart-wrenching moment where the HEARTBREAKER and BROKEN-HEARTED connect again, but we're not giving that away.
Inside this book you'll find plenty of art, stories, comics, and other amusements, such as a Post-Break-Up Relationship Survey, Denial Yoga, Candy Hearts for Assholes, Breakup Greeting Cards, Hex Your Ex Voodoo Doll, The Free Bird Word Search Game, and a playlist or two, including "Right Back at Ya," a collection of songs to stoke the burning rage in your heart.
Everything you'll find in this book was made collaboratively by people from around the world on HITRECORD-an online creative platform for collaborative art and media projects founded and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
With its universal, all-inclusive approach to the subject, The Art of Breaking Up is an acute observation of love and heartbreak in modern times, and maybe-just maybe-a salve for anyone with a broken heart.
The Art Of Downloading Music is the first definitive guide to downloading music from the Internet. Written by renowned record producer and technical wizard Steve Levine, the book is aimed at beginners as well as already committed enthusiasts. The pocket-sized manual aims to help enable users to make the most of the ultimate and most sought after personal music system the iPod. Apple's revolutionary web based music shop iTunes has now passed the 50 million-download milestone, and with users now downloading 2.5 million songs a week will see the total at the end of the year reach 150 million. With over 2 million iPods sold worldwide and the launch of the mini iPod, and iTunes due for launch in Europe this summer, this guide will be an essential purchase to guide enthusiasts through this new and exciting technology. In clear and concise terms, the book also aims to give readers a guide to making the most of the potential the web offers to music devotees for legally downloading their favourite music. the concept of copyright and recent legal disputes, and gives tips on how to get started and where and how to obtain music from the web. There are even hints how to avoid getting mugged and dispossessed of your favourite toy. As a special bonus Sanctuary will make available a free download from one of their major artists to all purchasers.
A gaming academic offers a "fascinating" exploration of why we play video games--despite the unhappiness we feel when we fail at them (Boston Globe) We may think of video games as being "fun," but in The Art of Failure, Jesper Juul claims that this is almost entirely mistaken. When we play video games, our facial expressions are rarely those of happiness or bliss. Instead, we frown, grimace, and shout in frustration as we lose, or die, or fail to advance to the next level. Humans may have a fundamental desire to succeed and feel competent, but game players choose to engage in an activity in which they are nearly certain to fail and feel incompetent. So why do we play video games even though they make us unhappy? Juul examines this paradox. In video games, as in tragic works of art, literature, theater, and cinema, it seems that we want to experience unpleasantness even if we also dislike it. Reader or audience reaction to tragedy is often explained as catharsis, as a purging of negative emotions. But, Juul points out, this doesn't seem to be the case for video game players. Games do not purge us of unpleasant emotions; they produce them in the first place. What, then, does failure in video game playing do? Juul argues that failure in a game is unique in that when you fail in a game, you (not a character) are in some way inadequate. Yet games also motivate us to play more, in order to escape that inadequacy, and the feeling of escaping failure (often by improving skills) is a central enjoyment of games. Games, writes Juul, are the art of failure: the singular art form that sets us up for failure and allows us to experience it and experiment with it. The Art of Failure is essential reading for anyone interested in video games, whether as entertainment, art, or education.