iN Poochie’s favorite foods were red beans and rice, neck bones, gumbo with potato salad, and almost always, anytime, fried chicken. His favorite musical selections were “Tenderly”, by Nat King Cole and “When A Man Loves A Woman”, by Percy Sledge. His favorite past time was taking care of his dogs or getting someone else to take care of them. Either way, as long as the dogs had someone to look after them; he enjoyed having more than one at a time. Poochie was a quiet man who kept to himself most of the time. And the rest of the time you never knew what he was thinking, even if you asked him. He could look you dead in the face, without batting an eye, and tell you the biggest lie, while he held a wide smile on his face. This was not so bad. The bad part was that he was able to make you think that you should believe him. Many adults were very reserved about their opinions of Poochie, but the love he had for children was known by adults and children, alike.
A portrait of a woman who spent more than ten years fighting for her freedom tells how she was wrongly convicted for the murder of her husband's ex-wife
A smart, accessible and funny cultural analysis of The Simpsons, its inside stories and the world it reflects. From Bart Simpson to Monty Burns, the Internet boom to the slow drowning of Tuvalu, Planet Simpson explores how one of the most popular shows in television history has changed the way we look at our bewildering times. Award-winning journalist Chris Turner delves into the most esoteric of Simpsons fansites and on-line subcultures, the show’s inside jokes, its sharpest parodies and its ongoing love-hate relationship with celebrity to reveal a rarity of literary accomplishment and pop-cultural import — something never before achieved by a cartoon. Complementing its satirical brilliance, The Simpsons boasts a beloved cast of characters, examined here in playful and scrupulous detail: Homer, selfish, tyrannical and not too bright, but always contentedly beholden to his family; Bart, pre-teen nihilist and punk icon; Lisa, junior feminist crusader; and Marge, archetypical middle-American mother, perpetually dragging her family kicking and screaming to higher moral ground. And while the voice actors behind the regular cast have eschewed celebrity, Turner considers why a stunning host of guests — Hollywood icons and has-beens, politicians, professional athletes, poets and pop stars — have submitted themselves to the parodic whims of the Simpsons’ writers. Intelligent and rambunctious, absorbing and comic, Planet Simpson mines this modern cultural institution for its imaginative, hilarious, but always dead-on, reflections on our world. Excerpt from Planet Simpson Three Fun Facts About “D’ oh!” 1. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “d’oh” as “Expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out badly or not as planned, or that one has just said or done something foolish.” 2. The origins of “D’oh!” A Tracey Ullman– era Simpsons script called for Homer to respond to an unfortunate turn of events thus: “[annoyed grunt].” Dan Castellaneta, the voice-actor who plays Homer, improvised the exclamation, “D’oh!” It stuck. 3. The godfather of “D’oh!” Dan Castellaneta freely admits that he lifted Homer’s famous yelp from James Finlayson, a Scottish actor who played a bald, cross-eyed villain in a number of Laurel & Hardy films in the 1930s. Finlayson’s annoyed grunt was a more drawn-out groan — Doooohhh! Castellaneta sped it up to create Homer’s trademark.
A journalist’s story of corruption in the LAPD and hip-hop’s most infamous murders—“the most thorough examination of these much-publicized events” (Renée Graham, The Boston Globe). Acclaimed journalist Randall Sullivan follows Russell Poole, a highly decorated LAPD detective who, in 1997, was called to investigate a controversial cop-on-cop shooting, eventually to discover that the officer killed was tied to Marion “Suge” Knight’s notorious gangsta rap label, Death Row Records. During his investigation, Poole came to realize that a growing cadre of outlaw officers were allied not only with Death Row, but with the murderous Bloods street gang. And incredibly, Poole began to uncover evidence that at least some of these “gangsta cops” may have been involved in the murders of rap superstars Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. Igniting a firestorm of controversy in the music industry and the Los Angeles media, the release of LAbyrinth helped to prompt two lawsuits against the LAPD (one brought by the widow and mother of Notorious B.I.G., the other brought by Poole himself) that may finally bring this story completely out of the shadows.
THIS TITLE HAS BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT THE 2016 MLA UPDATE. The classic reader that has introduced millions of students to the essay as a genre--available in a concise edition.
"Contains material originally published in magazine form as Fantastic four #150 and annual #3; Incredible Haulk Ŀ Avengers #59-60 and Amazing Spider-man annual #21 and X-men #30"--P. 2 of cover.
The author of LAbyrinth exposes the cover-up surrounding Biggie Smalls’ murder with exclusive material from the FBI and his estate’s wrongful death suit. In his 2002 book LAbyrinth, acclaimed music journalist Randall Sullivan revealed the story of “gangsta cops” tied to Marion “Suge” Knight’s rap label, Death Row Records—and allegedly to the murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. Now in Dead Wrong, Sullivan chronicles more than a decade in the B.I.G. investigations, and uncovers the conspiracy of silence blocking the wrongful death suit against the City. In 2001, an eyewitness identified the man who shot Biggie as Amir Muhammad, a former college roommate of LAPD officer, Death Row associate, and convicted bank robber David Mack. Yet LAPD Detective Russell Poole found his investigation repeatedly directed away from Mack and Muhammad. Biggie’s estate then sued the city to find out why. But instead, investigators encountered a disturbing pattern of selective investigation, hidden evidence, and possible witness tampering. Exclusive interviews with the FBI’s lead investigator of the Biggie murder demonstrate a conspiracy that went to the top, and which implicates some of the most powerful men in law enforcement nationally. Dead Wrong is a gripping investigation into murder, police corruption, and the corridors of power in Los Angeles.
In the wake of the remarkable success of Film Noir Reader, this new collection further explores a genre of limitless fascination -- and one that continues to inspire and galvanise the latest generation of film-makers. Again heavily illustrated, with close to 150 stills, Film Noir Reader 2 is organised much like the earlier volume.