No comments about Corbin Bleu (Blue Banner Biographies) (Blue Banner Biographies).

1 comments about Change the Game.

1. one of the best written book i`ve read that takes you throught the ins and out of how to equipt your self for the music business,this book tells you that is not only about the music but about the music business....

5 comments about Live at the Fillmore East: A Photographic Memoir.

1. The Fillmore East was not only the Mecca of Rock Music in the late sixties and early seventies, it was also the epicenter of all Rock Music, as well as jazz and performance art from the era. Live at the Fillmore East captures the ambience of the era by capturing not only the acts performing on stage, but the audience's exuberance and the backstage scene in wonderful photography by Amalie R. Rothschild. I'd highly recommend this book to all music lovers, like myself, who have an appreciation for the music of Jimi Hendrix, Janis, The Who, The Grateful Dead (many great pictures of the band on stage), Miles Davis, etc.
   A special portion of the book is dedicated to the light shows that were so valuable in those days in highlighting the music as it was being performed. If you ever attended a show at the Fillmore East, this book is a must! If you know the reputation of Bill Graham and the Fillmore East and never attended a show there: this book is a must also! Great forward by Mickey Hart and great text by the author. Buy this book and treasure it for the testament of a great, historical era in music.



2. This book provides a list of the bands playing each night the Fillmore was open! Great historical insight!



3. I love this book. I frequented the Fillmore East 18 times between 1970 until it closed in June of 71. This book brought back so many memories. The Fillmore East was without a doubt the greatest place to see and hear a concert and I miss it. I am glad that I was able to be a part of the Fillmore East - even got to speak to Bill Graham the night of the last public concert. I am very glad this book was put together and anyone who was there will enjoy it. I sure do miss those days - Thanks Amalie!!! Got anymore tidbits - any chance of a Fillmore East Late Show edition?



4. Kind of essential lookback to something we'll never see again. All the messiness, sloppiness & amateurism that had me and my pals going all the time to the FE (Friday Night Late Show Only please!). One of few worthwhile rock books.



5. I'm sure I'll love this book. Once I receive it. It's been nearly 3 months since I ordered this...Amazon will no longer be the beneficiary of my internet commerce.

4 comments about Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban Present.

1. costello and wallace examine rap culture and rappers as they influence our society. although at times it seems like they are being narrow minded, this book examines what shapes society and how society can react to these things. the book goes well beyond merely rap music and examines how society is influenced and how it influences. anyone who reads this and sees it as simply a look at rap music is missing the entire point of the book.



2. David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello are too cute by half in this book, and it is horribly out of date. (Just to give an idea, A Tribe Called Quest, who were considered an elder statesman group when they broke up two years ago, had not yet released an album when this book was published.) But most of the analysis of rap's place within popular culture remains somehow applicable to the current scene if you are willing to do a bunch of critical work along the same lines and ignore the dumber flights of fancy. Still a fun book to read and a fun book to debate. Not to be missed if you remember when LL Cool J was good and you have read anything by a master of postmodern philosophy.



3. i am actually doing a report on rap and selected this book expecting some insight...i was surprised. it seems like some of this was even just put here to take up space; i was dissapointed, expecting something better from costello. a point of view not needed in most situations. of course, ten years ago it might have been close to adequate--now it seems totally inadequate to use in my report.



4. Yes this book is outdated, and yes this book is wordy, but thats what makes it so great. This is an exploration of two nerdy white guys resting on the cusp of what we now know was an cultural explosion, and one which they seem to have known, though at the time it had nothing to do with them that it soon would have eveything to do with them and us too. Furthermore some of the forecasting that they do is so right on its scary..
   These guys are taliking agbout NWA like its current because it was current! Take this book as an opportunity to view one of those rare historical accounts that happens before the storm and seems to have something good to say about why it started raining in the first place..

3 comments about The Skills to Pay the Bills: The Story of the Beastie Boys.

1. I really looked forward to reading this book, figuring that someone with as much access as Alan Light would give me more of an insiders look into a great band. But he remains on the outside like the rest of us, instead relying on first hand accounts of the band members themselves as well as many others in or around hip-hop. At first it's kind of cool to get some of the early stories about the punk scene in NYC, which really branched out from the hardcore D.C. bands like Bad Brains. You just never really get to be in the studio, or at the writing sessions, or on the tour bus. It's more fitting for liner notes. Let's tackle this subject head on and get some good stories in a collection. These guys are legends, and have toured and recorded with and around some of the core players in hip-hop history. I found this book to be a shallow take on a complex and genre bending crew. Disappointing.



2. A first-person account of this unlikely trio of rappers who rock. At first it is jarring to have an entire book of quotations from the actual players in this saga, but it is great to hear them all telling it. One guy is taking credit for the name Beastie Boys, then the ousted woman is telling how she was pushed out of the band so they could go big-time. Riveting stuff! A fun read. Pull out your Beasties CDs and crank them as you read this blast of a book.



3. I was indeed satisfied by this book. Of course it isn't a complete, in-depth Beasties biography, which it doesn't claim to be anyway, and it's clearly not something that you should expect from a small paperback.
   
   What it is however, is a fascinating read, it doesn't give you any conclusions, ramblings or whatever - only stories from people who knew the Beasties firsthand, most of whom are amazing talents in their own right.
   
   The book might not be ideal for people who barely know the Beasties, but you dont' have to be a hardcore fan to enjoy it. If you know more that one or two of their songs, and/or have interest for hip-hop and pop culture in general - you gotta read this.

5 comments about How Do You Know He's Real?: God Unplugged.

1. Truly, this, and the book before this, are really awesome books!
   ** Why?
   Because they give some very good insights into other peoples way to God. Not only that, if you don't know the Bible inside and out (and even if you do, actually!), there are quotations from the Bible explaining the why and hows, depending on the story of the person interviewed.
   All this, with Amy Hagbergs very nice way of writing (down to earth serious mixed with a nice blend of humor) makes this book a pleasure to read!
   Personally, I strongly recommend this book to everyone. It might be those who Seek, or those who have found, it doesn't matter, in my opinion! :)



2. 
   God Unplugged by Ammy Hagberg was very interesting. It is 403 pages long and was published in 2006 by Destiny Image. In the story top athletes, musicians, and also stars tell how god helped them get where they wanted to be and changed their lives.
   In the story there were 44 celebrity reflections on true life experiences with god. Many of these celebrities have been extremely low in their lives and god has pulled them out of them. Also in some cases they have had no luck in there lives and finally achieved their goals after they gave there lives god. All of these people believe that god has either given them opportunities or even the strength to work through where they were to get to where they want to be.
   I thought that this was a good book. I enjoyed reading it and seeing how god has changed all of these people's lives. The strengths of this book are that it has top named celebrities that people actually want to read about. The weakness of this book is that there is nothing to find out nest so you don't have a reason to keep reading. I did like how god actually gave them the strength to continue and succeed in life. The writing was very boring to me, but I liked the idea.
   The book gave a lasting effect on me because I have a saint Christopher necklace that my grandma gave to me before she passed away and that keeps me safe when I race motorcross. So, I think that god has a great power on us. I would recommend this book, it will make you think.



3. This is an ideal book to give to people who have questions about becoming a Christian, and who love sports and music celebrities.
   
   44 extreme sports and music celebrities tell their stories in this book, from Jonny Lang (recording artist), to Barlow Girl (rock group), Kimiko Soldati (Olympic diving), CJ Hobgood (surfer), Dwight Howard (NBA player, Orlando Magic), Mick Hannah (downhill mountain bike racer), Jimmie McGuire (professional motocross rider) and more.
   
   They share hard times they faced, how they became Christians and how their paths are more joyful due to their faith. Being a Green Bay Packer fan I turned to Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila's story of growing up in South Central Los Angeles with a tough background, a Muslim dad and a Christian mom, and how his becoming a Christian led to his current happy family life and NFL career. Christian Hosoi, professional skateboarder, after serious drug problems, is now leading a skateboarding ministry.
   
   The two page "God's Road Map" at the end of each celebrity's story contains perceptive questions and Scriptures. Sports and music lovers will enjoy this book, and it can even be a "past watchful dragons book" that will steer doubting people on a new clear path.



4. Author Amy Hammond Hagberg wanted to help teens--her own and others--answer questions about God, including the big question: "How do you know he's real?"
   
   Hagberg wrote to sports stars, recording artists and other celebrities, asking them to reflect on their life experiences and share how the reality of God was making a difference to them personally and professionally. The responses she received--from NBA players, Christian musicians, 'American Idol' contestants and others--are honest, revealing, and often compelling.
   
   The resulting book is a collection of celebrity essays: mini-bios that focus on the reality of God in the midst of media attention, success and failure, and broken relationships. Contributors include Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic basketball team, quarterback David Carr of the Houston Texans, and popular Christian recording artist Clay Crosse.
   
   Some of the interviews are especially helpful for Hagberg's original target readers: teens. Among these, Chrissy Conway of 'Zoe Girl' talks about her parents' divorce, the party scene, and the twists and turns along her personal career path in ways that connect with teens and with anyone who has ever considered attempting a career in music.
   
   Hagberg is a gifted and skilled writer who keeps readers turning the pages as she unpacks celebrity affirmations of the presence of God in their lives. A great gift book for readers from teens through Gen X, but the stories here will interest readers of any age!
   
   Note: Reviewer Dr. David Frisbie is an author and Executive Director of The Center for Marriage & Family Studies in Del Mar, California.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Anything that can help teens understand their role in living a good life is good.



5. Fantastic read. Amy, this is excellent for those who need to know that others go through what they go through --- and are VICTORIOUS. God is REAL!

4 comments about Working Musicians: Defining Moments from the Road, the Studio, and the Stage.

1. A must read!! Goes deep into the heart of the working musicians, as told by the entertainers in there own words. Enjoyed every readable momemt of this book.



2. Most people, even if they've been living in Siberia, have heard of Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Garcia and Peter Tork - all famous and respected musicians. However, there are just as many unknowns profiled in this book, which makes identifying with their careers and music more difficult. (Just where does one find recordings by Julia Darling?) Other than that gripe, Bruce Pollock has broken his work into logical chapters - the first album, gigging, etc. If one is serious about making a living as a 'working musician,' then I could see how this book would be valuable.



3. In short, "Working Musicians" is a lot like sitting down at a dinner party with Paul Simon, James Hetfield, Jerry Garcia, and Bruce Springsteen, plus a hundred or so other career musicians, and listening to them shop-talk with each other. Since an invitation to that dinner party has not yet been extended to me, I enjoyed the heck out of this book. It's a wonderful resource both for aspiring musicians and for those who simply seek to understand how the professionals think. The anecdotes and stories from the road are pure pleasure to read. I've named a few of the rock icons whose interviews appear, but Pollock has managed to gather within these pages a very diverse, cross-genre crowd: jazz, country, rap, folk, broadway, you name it. The overall effect: it's a gem.



4. You don't have to be limousine famous to be a respected musician, I think that's the point of Bruce Pollocks copilation: "Working musicians", after all, only a lucky few can make it that big.
   Working musicians, or people who make a living out of their talent and ear, can be a good definition of Keith Richards work (even my 7 year old knows who Keith is), and to the likes of Richie Pollock who used to wake up before the sun came out in the late 80's to secure his place at the metro in Montreal. Performing hits of the 60's and 70's at the metro station was a noble way to make a few bucks.
   In this book we can find first person testimonies of more than 100 working musicians from the ones who filled the Madison Square Garden to those who dedicated their talents to make people dance in weddings and Bar Mizvahs. From those who felt that their fame and career had an expiration date to the blessed who will play their music till their last breath. From the big rock and roll star to those who choose to stay true to their art and could never make the commercial jump. Even Paul Simon has a humble history to tale.
   The different testimonies are divided by Pollock in themes: starting out, first albums, first gigs, the studios, the bussines, songwritters... I found the first chapters the best for the non musicians readers, the ones to take you to the soul of the craft. The chapters about the studio process were somehow boring for the nonmusician, but I really loved the book, it gave me an open window to the jazz, rock and pop musicians lives.

3 comments about Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises.

1. In movie-pitch terms, this 1st book by Miles Marshall Lewis is a cross betweeen Antwoine Fisher's Finding Fish and Charlie Ahearn's Yes Yes Y'all, with a little Best American Essays flavor. Lewis's details about his dad's bout with heroin, his birds-eye view of hip-hop bubbling outside the South Bronx neighborhoods he grew up in, and the book's "hip-hop is dead" thesis make for an engaging and often hilarious reading experience. If that little kid from The Boondocks cartoon grows up to become a music journalist, he'll be Miles Marshall Lewis. Strongly recommended for those who feel like hip-hop has gone down the toilet and wonder what happened, as well as people who dig memoirs like Richard Wright's Black Boy.



2. Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises is divided in two: Memory Lanes and Gun Hill Roads (Part I), and The Def of Hip-Hop (Part II). In Part I, author Miles Marshall Lewis takes a hip-hop Slouching Towards Bethlehem approach, explaining his own life in terms of hip-hop culture. Before breaking down his dad's addiction to cocaine and heroin in "The Suckerpunch of My Childhood Files," Lewis alludes to the fact that the fathers of Nas and Jay-Z both struggled with coke and heroin, and that a greater understanding of MCs and men of the hip-hop generation in general can be reached when we understand the fathers' influence (a brilliant observation).
   
   Like Woody Allen in Zelig, Lewis seems to be present at many key moments of the golden age of hip-hop: waving his hands in the air at the Krush Groove X-Mas Party concert; dancing in a Doug E. Fresh video; smoking herb with Erykah Badu in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; signing the Hip-Hop Declaration of Peace at the United Nations alongside hip-hop's pioneers. These details were fascinating to me, particularly because 1) my first hip-hop album was Doggystyle by Snoop Dogg, 2) I'm white, and 3) I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, nowhere near the birthplace of hip-hop. Scars is highbrow, researched, and really quite witty.



3. Scars is great on several different levels. First, it's one of the first hip-hop memoirs (certain not to be the last). It reminded me of last year's Random Family but told from the perspective of Miles Marshall Lewis, a Bronx-born "bohemian B-boy" (his words) who also happens to have a Sociology degree. Any readers interested in books that chart what the young black man in America goes through will dig this, the same as Black Boy, Makes Me Wanna Holler, Finding Fish, Manchild in the Promised Land, etc. Hip-hop was bound to produce its own and here it is. Straight outta da Bronx, Miles Marshall Lewis sprung out of the same place and time as hip-hop did and he lays out the correlations well.
   
   Then, it reminds me of the plot to "Brown Sugar" as well: a XXL magazine editor (MML was once one, like Sanaa Lathan's character) gets fed up with hip-hop (aren't we all?) and writes a book about it. Scars is that book. As music journalism, Lewis digs a little deeper than the magazines he's known for writing for by taking KRS-One's popular "I am hip-hop" perspective and injecting personal tidbits of Bronx flashbacks.
   
   Finally, his few insights on spirituality (the "Soul" in the title is no accident) and independent thinking are also noteworthy, above and beyond hip-hop. Scars was a good one. I expected maybe yet another "hip-hop rules! take us seriously!" book, and was pleasantly surprised.

2 comments about Sean "Diddy" Combs (Hip Hop) (Hip-Hop).

1. Personally I hate the cover for the whole series. It makes all the artists look like they are selling bubble gum. I think they deserve much much better. I am most offended by this one because I am a creative director for a graphics company and Diddy is like my personal hero. He's one of the best creative directors on earth. Look at him, look at what he is wearing and look at the fonts and the treatments. Diddy brings art to the world, not bubble gum.



2. This book is so disrespectful to the excellence demanded by Mr. Combs! I wonder if he knows this even exist? He should sue for defamation of character...Tisk, Tisk!

No comments about Rap Music (Introducing Issues With Opposing Viewpoints).