Inside Pee-Wee's Playhouse


Book Description

On the 25th anniversary of the show "Pee-wee's Playhouse," the behind-the-scenes story is being told for the first time by those who experienced it. Complete with an episode guide, biographical information about the cast and key members of the show's creative team, never-before-told anecdotes, and previously unpublished photos.




A Christmas Story


Book Description

The definitive guide to everything fans want to know about A Christmas Story shares the inside story behind the film’s production, release, and unlikely ascent to the top of popular culture. From Jean Shepherd’s original radio broadcasts to Bob Clark’s 1983 sleeper hit film and beyond, A Christmas Story has become a beloved Yuletide tradition over the last three decades. In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of its theatrical release, this is the untold story of the making of the film, and what happened afterwards. Ralphie Parker’s quest for a Red Ryder air rifle didn’t end with the movie’s release; the tale inspired massive VHS sales, a Broadway production, and a mountain of merchandise. Complete with rare and previously unreleased photographs, now fans of the movie and film buffs alike can lean all they didn’t know about the timeless classic.




Prince


Book Description

Featuring a foreword by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. When Prince wanted to document his One Nite Alone tour in 2002, he turned to Afshin Shahidi. Again in 2004, he went along on Prince’s record breaking Musicology Tour. Afshin met Prince in 1989 and became his cinematographer and later his photographer. He was the photographer closest to Prince for the last fifteen years of Prince’s life. Afshin is the only photographer to shoot the legendary 3121 private parties in Los Angeles that became the most sought after invitations in Hollywood. Prince: A Private View compiles his work into a journey through Prince's extraordinary life. With many never-before-seen photos, this is the ultimate collection of – some intimate, some candid, some in concert – shots of Prince, but all are carefully directed in the artist-as-art style that we associate with him. Deep photo captions are brief, but complete stories about Prince's life at that moment - some are incisive, others are personal and even funny.




Televisuality


Book Description

Although the "decline" of network television in the face of cable programming was an institutional crisis of television history, John Caldwell's classic volume Televisuality reveals that this decline spawned a flurry of new production initiatives to reassert network authority. Television in the 1980s hyped an extensive array of exhibitionist practices to raise the prime-time marquee above the multi-channel flow. Televisuality demonstrates the cultural logic of stylistic exhibitionism in everything from prestige series (Northern Exposure) and "loss-leader" event-status programming (War and Remembrance) to lower "trash" and "tabloid" forms (Pee-Wee's Playhouse and reality TV). Caldwell shows how "import-auteurs" like Oliver Stone and David Lynch were stylized for prime time as videographics packaged and tamed crisis news coverage. By drawing on production experience and critical and cultural analysis, and by tying technologies to aesthetics and ideology, Televisuality is a powerful call for desegregation of theory and practice in media scholarship and an end to the willful blindness of "high theory."




We Don't Need Roads


Book Description

A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the iconic Back to the Future trilogy—the perfect movie gift for fans of the franchise, actors, writers, and filmmakers who contributed to this beloved pop culture phenomenon. Long before Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled through time in a flying DeLorean, director Robert Zemeckis, and his friend and writing partner Bob Gale, worked tirelessly to break into the industry with a hit. During their journey to realize their dream, they encountered unprecedented challenges and regularly took the difficult way out. For the first time ever, the story of how these two young filmmakers struck lightning is being told by those who witnessed it. We Don’t Need Roads draws from over 500 hours of interviews, including original interviews with Zemeckis, Gale, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Huey Lewis, and over fifty others who contributed to one of the most popular and profitable film trilogies of all time. The book includes a 16-page color photo insert with behind-the-scenes pictures, concept art, and more. With a focus not only on the movies, but also the lasting impact of the franchise and its fandom, We Don’t Need Roads is the ultimate read for anyone who has ever wanted to ride a Hoverboard, hang from the top of a clock tower, travel through the space-time continuum, or find out what really happened to Eric Stoltz after the first six weeks of filming. So, why don’t you make like a tree and get outta here—and start reading! We Don’t Need Roads is your density. “What fun! Deeply researched and engagingly written...the book Back to the Future fans have been craving for decades. Geekily enthusiastic and chock full of never-before-heard tales of what went on both on and off the screen, We Don't Need Roads is a book worthy of the beloved trilogy itself.”—Brian Jay Jones, author of the national bestseller Jim Henson: The Biography “A very compelling and enjoyable history of our trilogy. For me, reading it was like going back in time. And—Great Scott—there were even a few anecdotes that I'd never heard!”—Bob Gale, co-creator, co-producer, and co-writer of the Back to the Future trilogy




I Hate Picture Books!


Book Description

The 10th anniversary of the humorous children's read-aloud story that celebrates (and lightly pokes fun at) many of the classic children's story books we know and love—now with bonus content. Max hates his picture books. His room never turns into a forest or a boat, or anything wild! Green ham tastes BAD! Drawing on the walls with a purple crayon lands him in trouble. Nope, every last book has to go in the trash. But wait. What about the one where the little bird returned safely to its nest? That book was the best. And the one with the flying snowman? Or the big stack of turtles? Also good. Just then, Max learns how invaluable the power of magic and his own imagination is, and has a BIG change of heart. Now go away, so Max can read his picture books! Join writer and illustrator Timothy Young as he masterfully blends humor and irreverence, poking fun at, and celebrating, the classics of children's literature. I Hate Picture Books! celebrates the joy of reading, reminding the reader of the immeasurable treasures found within the pages of a book. This 10th anniversary edition of I Hate Picture Books! features an additional 50 famous children's book stories illustrated in the background of the depicted scenes, serving both as Easter eggs for discovery and as a source for new great picture books to put on a reading list.




The 30 Rock Book


Book Description

The hilarious true story of the making of the cult classic hit show 30 Rock It’s hard to remember a time when Tina Fey wasn’t a star, but back in the early 2000s, she was an SNL writer who was far from a household name. It’s even harder to remember when Fey’s sitcom 30 Rock was tanking, but it was—it premiered in the fall of 2006, and by November, the New York Times wrote that 30 Rock was “perilously close to a flop.” But despite all expectations (including those of some of the cast and crew), Tina Fey’s eccentric buddy comedy lasted 138 episodes, spanning seven seasons. It resurrected the career of Alec Baldwin, survived an extended absence by Tracy Morgan, and permeated the culture— its breakneck pacing, oddball characters, and extremely rich joke writing are deeply beloved by millions of fans. Through more than fifty original interviews with cast, crew, critics, and more, culture writer Mike Roe brings to life the history of the gloriously goofy show that became an all-time classic. The 30 Rock Book has everything in it, from tales of the amazing music still stuck in our heads, to the iconic bit characters that make the show, to all the love and drama of the backstage crew . . . and the creative failures and successes along the way. So grab your night cheese and muffin tops, cuddle up with your slanket against your Japanese body pillow, and settle in for the story of one of the funniest shows in television history.




Big Top Pee-wee


Book Description




Mark Mothersbaugh


Book Description

Mark Mothersbaugh is a legendary figure for fans of both street art and music culture. Cofounder of the seminal New Wave band DEVO, he was a prolific visual artist before the band's inception moving seamlessly between multiple mediums creating bold, cartoonish, strangely disturbed works of pop surrealism that playfully explore the relationship between technology and individuality. In the most comprehensive presentation of his work to date, Mark Mothersbaugh: Myopia features a lifetime of his creative inventions from the beginning of his artistic career in the 1970s to his most recent work, including early postcards, screen prints, decals, and DEVO ephemera as well as later paintings, photographs (such as the celebrated Beautiful Mutants series), sculpture, and rugs. Accompanied by a major six city traveling exhibition, this richly illustrated catalog positions Mothersbaugh as a pivitol figure in the history of both contemporary art and indie culture.




Do Not Open the Box


Book Description

Benny spots a big cardboard box with a note taped to it saying, "Do Not Open." His imagination runs wild, and it's almost too much for a curious boy to bear. He thinks about all of the things, good and bad, that could be inside that box. A birthday robot? A wolverine? An entrance to another world? What should he do? This endearingly illustrated tale of a classic childhood dilemma has a surprise ending and offers a peek into a young boy's mind as he weighs tantalizing possibilities against the risks of breaking the rules.