The Eccentropedia

The Eccentropedia

Author: Chris Mikul

Publisher: SCB Distributors

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 557

ISBN-13: 1909394017

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An A-Z of eccentrics! 250 true stories of the most original and outrageous people on earth, from bad poets to transsexual evolutionary theorists this encyclopedic guide covering ancient times to the present, includes reams of material never seen in book form before. Famous eccentrics like King Ludwig, Salvador Dalí and Howard Hughes rub shoulders with a host of lesser-known, but equally colorful, characters in these -- mostly -- life-affirming stories. There are unsuspected parallels and connections throughout creating an alternative, off-kilter history of the world.


My Favourite Dictators

My Favourite Dictators

Author: Chris Mikul

Publisher: SCB Distributors

Published: 2020-07-21

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1909394718

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“I’m personally against seeing my pictures and statues in the streets, but it’s what the people want.” — Saparmurat Niyazov, dictator of Turkmenistan Dictators may be among the worst people in history, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t laugh at them. In My Favourite Dictators, Chris Mikul tells the stories of eleven of the twentieth century’s most colourful and reviled human beings, including Benito Mussolini, Mao Zedong, Muammar Gaddafi, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-il. In each case, he examines the political backgrounds to their rise to power and eventual downfall, but the focus here is on the personalities, peculiarities and private lives of these very strange men. You’ll be amazed and appalled by their effortless cruelties, voracious sexual appetites, absurd personality cults, ostentatious uniforms, promotion of dreadful art and pretensions to being great writers – not to mention their terrible taste in interior decoration.


Are You In The House Alone?

Are You In The House Alone?

Author: Amanda Reyes

Publisher: SCB Distributors

Published: 2017-04-05

Total Pages: 583

ISBN-13: 1909394459

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Beginning in the 1960s through its heyday in the 1970s and beyond, the telefilm remains an important cultural artefact masquerading as disposable entertainment. Made specifically for the small screen, within the tight constraints of broadcasting standards, what these humble movies lacked in budget and star appeal, they made up for in other ways. Often they served as an introduction to genre films, particularly horror, mirroring their theatrical counterparts with a focus on sinister cults, women in prison, haunted houses and even animals in revolt. They were also a place to address serious contemporary issues—drugs, prostitution, sexual violence and justice—albeit in a cosy domestic environment. Production of telefilms continues to this day, but their significance within the history of mass media remains under-discussed. Are You in the House Alone? seeks to address this imbalance in a series of reviews and essays by fans and critics alike. It looks at many of the films, the networks and names behind them, and also specific genres—everything from Stephen King adaptations to superheroes to true-life dramas. So, kickback and crack open the TV guide once more for the event that is the Movie of the Week!


Bizarrism II

Bizarrism II

Author: Chris Mikul

Publisher: SCB Distributors

Published: 2018-07-09

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1909394491

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Bizarrism II collects further tales of high weirdness from around the world, including: • The curious death of Sherlock Holmes scholar Richard Lancelyn Green. • Baroness Eloise de Bosquet and the mystery of Floreana • The strange odyssey of William Seabrook – writer, adventurer, cannibal. • JLB Smith’s obsessive search for the coelacanth. • The cult that promised eternal life. • The unexpectedly appalling story of Madalyn Murray O’Hair and the American Atheists. • Leonard Lawson – comic book artist and killer. • Padre Pio, Italy’s celebrity stigmatic. • The strange fate of Napoleon’s penis and other illustrious male members. • Ferdinand Sauerbruch – the senile surgeon. • Murder and mayhem among the Hare Krishnas. • The enduring enigma of ‘Somerton Man’. Mikul brings these stories to life in meticulously researched accounts that will amuse, appal and intrigue, and leave you marvelling at the infinite strangeness of human beings.


Never Be Sane

Never Be Sane

Author: Hannah Hightman

Publisher: Blurb Inc.

Published: 2018-01-11

Total Pages: 28

ISBN-13: 1389027074

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Never Be Sane is a monograph focusing on young people who did something different with their youth, despite adolescence usually being the time when people begin to become what society wants them to be. This book profiles the antics and accomplishments of 18 people during their teens/youth (including Tavi Gevinson, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Aaron Swartz, Elizabeth Cochran Seaman, and Akiane Kramarik) in an effort to promote individuality in the face of conformity. It features brief excerpts on each person with accompanying visuals and ink sketches.


Bizarrism Vol 1

Bizarrism Vol 1

Author: Chris Mikul

Publisher: SCB Distributors

Published: 2016-09-22

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 1909394335

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Bizarrism is a collection of strange-but-true tales, featuring a grand parade of eccentrics, visionaries, crackpots, cult leaders, artists, theorists and outsiders of every stripe. First published in 1999, this new, fully revised and expanded edition revisits a host of unique individuals, including: William Chidley, who believed that, when it comes to sex, we’ve all been making a terrible mistake; Arthur Cravan, who combined poetry with boxing; Slim Gaillard, jazz singer and dispenser of ‘vout’; William Lindsay Gresham, author of the classic noir novel Nightmare Alley; Rosaleen Norton, Australia’s most notorious witch; Harry Crosby, poet, sun worshipper and the best looking corpse of 1929; Reginal Levgiac, author of the mysterious pamphlet Drugs Virus Germs. In writing their stories, Mikul does not judge, but instead celebrates these characters for their fabulous weirdness. For him, they are the “beacons of shining if erratic brilliance in a world of sensible conformity”. The world would be a poorer place without them.


Bizarrism

Bizarrism

Author: Chris Mikul

Publisher: Headpress

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 9781900486064

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A funny and entertaining look at outlandish ideas, wacky religious cults and the extremes of human beliefs, both in Australia and overseas. It is a celebration of strange and eccentric lives, with an emphasis on unsung Australian eccentrics, bringing together the best ten years of "Bizarrism" magazine.


Masterpiece

Masterpiece

Author: Nancy West

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-11-27

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1538134489

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"The definitive guide for scholars and fans alike to all things Masterpiece and Mystery!" Library Journal, Starred Review On a wintry night in 1971, Masterpiece Theatre debuted on PBS. Fifty years later, America’s appetite for British drama has never been bigger. The classic television program has brought its fans protagonists such as The Dowager Countess and Ross Poldark and series that include Downton Abbey and Prime Suspect. In Masterpiece: America's 50-Year-Old Love Affair with British Television Drama, Nancy West provides a fascinating history of the acclaimed program. West combines excerpts from original interviews, thoughtful commentary, and lush photography to deliver a deep exploration of the television drama. Vibrant stories and anecdotes about Masterpiece’s most colorful shows are peppered throughout, such as why Benedict Cumberbatch hates Downton Abbey and how screenwriter Daisy Goodwin created a teenage portrait of Queen Victoria after fighting with her daughter about homework. Featuring an array of color photos from Masterpiece’s best-loved dramas, this book offers a penetrating look into the program’s influence on television, publishing, fashion, and its millions of fans.


Bobby In Naziland

Bobby In Naziland

Author: Robert Rosen

Publisher: SCB Distributors

Published: 2019-09-01

Total Pages: 165

ISBN-13: 1909394696

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A Darkly Comic and Deeply Moving Memoir of a New York City Lost to Time, from the Author of the Bestselling John Lennon Bio Nowhere Man From the final days of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the mid-1950s to the arrival of the Beatles in 1964, Bobby in Naziland is an unsentimental journey through one Brooklyn neighborhood. Though a 20 minute and 15-cent subway ride from the skyscrapers of Manhattan, Flatbush remained provincial and working-class?a place where Auschwitz survivors and WWII vets lived side by side and the war lingered like a mass hallucination. Meet Bobby, a local kid who shares a shabby apartment with his status-conscious mother and bigoted father, a soda jerk haunted by memories of the Nazi death camp he helped liberate. Flatbush, to Bobby, is a world of brawls with neighborhood "punks," Hebrew-school tales of Adolf Eichmann's daring capture, and grade-school duck-and-cover drills. Drawn to images of mushroom clouds and books about executions, Bobby ultimately turns the seething hatred he senses everywhere against himself. From a perch in his father's candy store, Bobby provides a child's-eye view of the mid-20th-century American experience?a poignant intertwining of the personal and historical.


The Town Slowly Empties

The Town Slowly Empties

Author: Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee

Publisher: SCB Distributors

Published: 2020-01-01

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 1909394769

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How does one record an extraordinary time? Confined to his Delhi apartment, Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee unravels the intimate paradoxes of life he encounters in the first weeks of a global pandemic. His stories about local fish sellers, gardeners, barbers and lovers merge with his concerns for the exodus of migrant labourers, the challenges faced by health workers, and a mother braving checkposts to bring her son home. Drawing inspiration from contemporary literature and cinema, The Town Slowly Empties is a unique window on a world desperate for love, care and hope. Manash is our Everyman, urging us to slow down and mend our broken ties with nature. Written with rare candour and elegance, this meditative book is a compelling account of the human condition that soars high above the empty streets.