Biographien

Jeff Bridges is one of the world's most popular actors and his unforgettable performance as The Dude in Coen Brothers film, The Big Lebowski, made him a cult hero. Away from the spotlight, Bridges is a dedicated practitioner of Zen Buddhism and for more than a decade has been close friends with Zen leader Bernie Glassman.

Drawing heavily on their 15-year correspondence, this book is the first English-language biography of Carlos Kleiber ever written. Charles Barber offers unique insights into how Kleiber worked. This biography considers Kleiber's singular aesthetic, his playful and often erudite sense of humor, his reputation for perfectionism, his much-studied baton technique, and the famous concert and opera performances he conducted. It explores the great conductor's musical lineage and the contemporary contexts in which he worked, and it repudiates myths that inevitably crop up around genius and reflects on Kleiber's contribution to modern musical performance.

Finally in paperback comes Mo' Meta Blues Questlove's New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed psychedelic, punch-drunk memoir

Translated by Audie E. Bock."A first rate book and a joy to read.... It''s doubtful that a complete understanding of the director''s artistry can be obtained without reading this book.... Also indispensable for budding directors are the addenda, in which Kurosawa lays out his beliefs on the primacy of a good script, on scriptwriting as an essential tool for directors, on directing actors, on camera placement, and on the value of steeping oneself in literature, from great novels to detective fiction."--Variety"For the lover of Kurosawa''s movies...this is nothing short of must reading...a fitting companion piece to his many dynamic and absorbing screen entertainments."--Washington Post Book World

Victor Bockris's much admired biography of Keith Richards has been constantly revised since its original publication, now with an additional 12,000 words for a new edition of the Omnibus Press paperback that brings the story up to the present day.

Agatha Christie's personal memoirs about her travels to Syria and Iraq in the 1930s with her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan, where she worked on the digs and wrote some of her most evocative novels.

Famous for his venturesome spirit and advocacy of a self-supporting existence, John Seymour was thus a natural and sympathetic editor for this remarkable book, first published in 1970, which offers the authentic voice of a Romany gypsy (a scrap metal merchant and horse trader) describing the life he has led and the longer lineage of his family.

The very first book about the Anglo-American metal band Tool explores not only their uncompromising music but also their unsettling, self-made image based on mythological symbols and arcane theories. Now available in paperback.

This in-depth and affectionate biography paints a complete picture of this respected actor, presenter, producer, director, dog lover, animal rights campaigner, patron of the Born Free Foundation, and devoted family man.

Frida Kahlo was born in 1907 to parents of German and Spanish descent, in Coyoacan, outside Mexico City. After contracting polio at age six, Frida also suffered severe injuries in a bus accident. Her time spent in recovery turned her toward a painting career. These experiences, combined with a difficult marriage to the artist Diego Rivera, generated vibrant works depicting Frida's experiences with pain as well as the symbolism and spirit of Mexican culture. Though she died in 1954, interest in her work continues to grow, with museum exhibitions and publications around the world. This biography will introduce art students and adult readers to one of the Latino culture's most beloved artists.In 2002, the film Frida introduced the artist and her works to a new audience. In 2007, the 100th anniversary of Kahlo's birth, a major exhibition of her work was held at the Museum of the Fine Arts Palace in Mexico. In 2007 through 2008, another major exhibition began its journey to museums throughout the United States.

Cleopatra VII (69-30 BC) is the most famous woman from classical antiquity. Yet her modern reputation is based largely on her post-antique representation in drama, art, and other media. The current study is the first to examine the queen solely from the source material from the Greco-Roman period: literary sources, Egyptian documents including those of the queen herself, her own writings, and her representations in art.

Alice could be anyone - she could be someone you know, or someone you love - and Alice is in trouble ... Being fifteen is hard, but Alice seems fine. But the big difference between Alice and a lot of other kids on drugs is that Alice kept a diary .

In November 1929, Christopher Isherwood - determined to become a 'permanent foreigner' - packed a rucksack and two suitcases and left England on a one-way ticket for Berlin. With incredible candour and wit, Isherwood recalls the decadence of Berlin's night scene and his route to sexual liberation.

Set in a world where crime and government coexist, American Made is the jaw-dropping true story of CIA pilot Barry Seal that the Hollywood movie starring Tom Cruise was afraid to tell.Barry Seal flew cocaine and weapons worth billions of dollars into and out of America in the 1980s. After he became a government informant, Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel offered a million for him alive and half a million dead. But his real trouble began after he threatened to expose the dirty dealings of George HW Bush.

A poetic meditation on life and death, by one of the most renowned and respected film-makers and intellectuals of our time. It is a remarkable narrative - part pilgrimage, part meditation, and a confrontation between a great German Romantic imagination and the contemporary world.

Join the journey-discover burlesque when it was part of a large theatrical world filled with dance, comedy, and live music. BURLESQUE: A Living History captures the spirit of this unique art form through hundreds of photographs and stories from many who were a part of America's most colorful past.This book highlights the careers and contributions of selected artists, many of whom were the nuts and bolts of burlesque. It also acknowledges just some of the young performers of today who are diligently working to remember the days of old.When burlesque theatres and clubs went dark, a whole world went dark with them. This book is a journey preserving just some of the history and memories of those who worked on a variety of those burlesque stages.

When commercial air services were launched in 1976, Concorde was hailed as one of the wonders of the technological world. Lavishly illustrated throughout, this edition documents the early difficulties encountered on the way to commercial success as well as examining the tragic event at Gonesse in 2000.

Maverick movie producer Jerry Weintraub's hilarious, autobiographical account of what it takes to make it to the top, in life and business: a de facto primer in the Art of Persuasion.

On the afternoon of August 15, 1969, Richie Havens took the stage at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, welcoming a crowd of several hundred thousand to the green fields of Max Yasgur's farm. Havens was the first act - the legendary festival, years in the making, was finally beginning. This title tells the story from inspiration to celebration.

Together for the first time in one volume: the bestselling Love Letters of Great Men and Love Letters of Great Women

Keith Haring is synonymous with the downtown New York art scene of the 1980's. His artwork - with its simple, bold lines and dynamic figures in motion - filtered in to the world's consciousness. This title features ninety black-and-white images of his classic artwork and Polaroid images.

While climbing in the Peruvian Andes, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates came face to face with disaster. Simpson fell and broke his leg and then was lost. As his partner Yates was starting to break camp four days later, Simpson crawled in through a blizzard. How both men overcame those four harrowing days is an epic chronicle of fear and friendship.

"A wonderful collection that gives Mozart a voice as a son, husband, brother and friend." -New York Times Book Review

Here is one of the great biographies of Alexander, in its original form, brought fully up to date with findings of modern research and criticism.

MAKE MINE MUSIC

Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) was an exceptional woman in an age rich in strong personalities. A feminist, intrepid traveller and sportswoman, she wrote nine volumes of autobiography, recounting a life packed with incident. Her writings, abridged by Ronald Crichton, and including a catalogue of her music, are full of brilliant portraits.

The story of molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn and her groundbreaking research on telomeres and what it reveals about the resourceful opportunism that characterizes the best scientific thinking.Molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn—one of Time magazine's 100 “Most Influential People in the World” in 2007—made headlines in 2004 when she was dismissed from the President's Council on Bioethics after objecting to the council's call for a moratorium on stem cell research and protesting the suppression of relevant scientific evidence in its final report. But it is Blackburn's groundbreaking work on telomeric DNA, which launched the field of telomere research, that will have the more profound and long-lasting effect on science and society. In this compelling biography, Catherine Brady tells the story of Elizabeth Blackburn's life and work and the emergence of a new field of scientific research on the specialized ends of chromosomes and the enzyme, telomerase, that extends them. In the early stages of telomere research, telomerase, heralded as a potential cure for cancer and diseases related to aging, attracted the voracious interest of biotech companies. The surrounding hype succeeded in confusing the role of telemorase in extending the life of a cell with a mechanism that might extend the lifespan of an entire organism. In Brady's hands, Blackburn's story reveals much about the tension between pure and applied science, the politicking that makes research science such a competitive field, and the resourceful opportunism that characterizes the best scientific thinking.Brady describes the science accessibly and compellingly. She explores Blackburn's struggle to break down barriers in an elite, male-dominated profession, her role as a mentor to other women scientists (many of whom have made their mark in telomere research), and the collaborative nature of scientific work. This book gives us a vivid portrait of an exceptional woman and a new understanding of the combination of curiosity, imaginative speculation, and aesthetic delight that powers scientific discovery.

The astounding yet true rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who raised and cared for his son on the mean streets of San Francisco and went on to become a crown prince of Wall StreetAt the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as part of the city's working homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year moving among shelters, "e;HO-tels,"e; soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station. Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city's invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district. More than a memoir of Gardner's financial success, this is the story of a man who breaks his own family's cycle of men abandoning their children. Mythic, triumphant, and unstintingly honest, The Pursuit of Happyness conjures heroes like Horatio Alger and Antwone Fisher, and appeals to the very essence of the American Dream.