It may sound crazy, but Elvis Presley - that god-fearing, gospel-singing American pop icon - was a Jew; these maverick journalists and filmmakers have proven it. A behind-the-scenes account of their irreverent and witty film documentary, in which Wallace and Goldstein took a Hasidic Jewish Elvis impersonator and an Orthodox Rabbi on a trek to trace Elvis's roots all the way to Israel and then bring the good news home to Graceland, this book compiles production logs, selections from the script, trivia and the investigator's official report on Elvis's roots.
A hilarious re-imagining of the heroes of the Old Testament for a modern world-and the neurotic, demanding reader. In the beginning...there was humor. Sure, it's the foundation for much of Western morality and the cornerstone of world literature. But let's face it: the Bible always needed punching up. Plus, it raised quite a few questions that a modern world refuses to ignore any longer: wouldn't it be boring to live inside a whale? How did Joseph explain Mary's pregnancy to the guys at work? Who exactly was the megalomaniacal foreman who oversaw the construction of the Tower of Babel? And honestly, what was Cain's problem? In Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible!, Jonathan Goldstein re-imagines and recasts the greatest heroes of the Bible with depth, wit, and snappy dialogue. This is the Bible populated by angry loners, hypochondriacs, and reluctant prophets who fear for their sanity, for readers of Sarah Vowell and the books of David Sedaris. Basically, a Bible that readers can finally, genuinely relate to. Jonathan Goldstein's new book, I'll Seize the Day Tomorrow, will be available May 2013.
With sharp humor and fascinating insight, this memoir of the Canadian publishing industry travels from the boom years of the 1970s to the changing world of books today. Readers are invited along for the ride as Lecker's turn in academia gives way to pop culture publishing, running a journal, and facing the real business challenges of selling books.
Gerald Ziedenberg was born in Toronto on October 22, 1939. He had a serious arm defect called Erb’s palsy. His immigrant parents provided a foundation for his life, but school and upper-level education were not encouraged. Despite his weight and arm defect, Gerald Ziedenberg struggled and managed to get through pharmacy school. He went on to have a highly successful career with Shoppers Drug Mart, where he eventually simultaneously had three very profitable downtown drug stores. He efficiently managed these three stores with twelve full-time pharmacists, two hundred employees, and sales in excess of 35 million dollars annually. Gerald completed several marathons and frequently bicycled more than 100 miles a day. As he approached retirement, he was struck down by extremely severe osteoarthritis, and this completely curtailed all his physical activities. His arm defect compounded his problems. After six major surgeries, he was finally approaching a complete cure. During these nine long years of pain and frustration, Gerald returned to the University of Toronto, where he graduated with high distinction in 2003, with a BA in modern history. This was upgraded to an Honors BA in modern history in 2005 (also with high distinction). Gerald won a scholarship for being the “best part-time graduate history student” in 2008. Gerald is now approaching the finalization of his master’s degree in modern history at the University of Toronto. In addition, Gerald has made himself into a public speaker and consultant. He frequently speaks and organizes programs at Beth Tikvah Synagogue. He has appeared on nine different cruises, lecturing on historical people and events of interest as well as destination ports. Gerald also spent large amounts of time lecturing and consulting to Superpharm, a large Israeli drugstore chain and sister company to Shoppers Drug Mart. In the face of severe pain and lack of mobility, Gerald still has made significant contributions to the Jewish community of Toronto and his synagogue. In spite of all the pain, which was excruciating at times, Jerry managed to travel to almost all the places he dreamt of as a child. After a long and successful career as an entrepreneurial pharmacist, Gerald truly managed inspiration through the adversity of his senior years, when he virtually lost a decade of his life.
Drawing on personal experience as well as all kinds of artifacts from Israeli popular cultureshopping malls, fast food, public art, television, religious kitschhe puts forward his controversial view that the sweeping Americanization of the country, rued by most, has had an extraordinarily beneficial influence, bringing not only McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts but the virtues of pragmatism, tolerance, and individualism.
“When it comes to seeing depth and lateral connections in the development of popular culture, nobody exceeds Marshall Fishwick.” -Canadian Psychology In Probing Popular Culture: On and Off the Internet, one of the leading authorities in American and popular culture studies presents an eye-opening examination o
A stunning and groundbreaking investigation into the death of one of the great rock icons of our times -- revealing new evidence that points to a terrible conclusion. On Friday, April 8, 1994, a body was discovered in a room above a garage in Seattle. For the attending authorities, it was an open-and-shut case of suicide. What no one knew then, however, and which is only being revealed here for the very first time, is that the person found dead that day -- Kurt Cobain, the superstar frontman of Nirvana -- was murdered. In early April 1994, Cobain went missing for days, or so it seemed; in fact, some people knew where he was, and one of them was Courtney Love. Now a star in Hollywood and rock music, in early 1994 she was preparing to release her major label debut with her band, Hole, and what she knew then, though few others did, was that Cobain was planning to divorce her. Love & Death paints a critical portrait of Courtney Love; it also reveals for the first time the case tapes made by Love's own P.I., Tom Grant, a man on a mission to find the truth about Kurt Cobain's demise; and introduces us to a number of characters who feature in various theories about plots to kill Cobain. In addition, Cobain's grandfather goes public, charging that his grandson was murdered. Drawing on new forensic evidence and police reports obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the book explodes the myths that have long convinced the world that Cobain took his own life, and reveals that the official scenario was scientifically impossible. Against a background of at least sixty-eight copycat suicides since 1994, award-winning investigative journalists Max Wallace and Ian Halperin have conducted a ten-year crusade for the truth, and in Love & Death they are finally able to present a chilling and convincing case that each and every one of these suicides was preventable -- and in doing so, they call for this case to be reopened and properly investigated.
How have American writers written about jazz, and how has jazz influenced American literature? In Fascinating Rhythm, David Yaffe explores the relationship and interplay between jazz and literature, looking at jazz musicians and the themes literature has garnered from them by appropriating the style, tones, and innovations of jazz, and demonstrating that the poetics of jazz has both been assimilated into, and deeply affected, the development of twentieth-century American literature. Yaffe explores how Jewish novelists such as Norman Mailer, J. D. Salinger, and Philip Roth engaged issues of racial, ethnic, and American authenticity by way of jazz; how Ralph Ellison's descriptions of Louis Armstrong led to a "neoconservative" movement in contemporary jazz; how poets such as Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane, Langston Hughes, and Frank O'Hara were variously inspired by the music; and how memoirs by Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis both reinforced and redeemed the red light origins of jazz. The book confronts the current jazz discourse and shows how poets and novelists can be placed in it--often with problematic results. Fascinating Rhythm stops to listen for the music, demonstrating how jazz continues to speak for the American writer.
