Prince Rupert Lowenstein

A Prince Among Stones: That Business With the Rolling Stones and Other Adventures, Prince Rupert Lowenstein (Bloomsbury)

One of the most unlikely pairings in rock and roll is a titled prince taking over the finances of the Rolling Stones. In this breezy autobiography, Prince Rupert Lowenstein tells that ... Continue Reading →
Johnny Crawford,  photo by Margie Barron

Spotlight on Big Band Music with the Sportsmen’s Lodge fun-loving Johnny Holiday Program

The Johnny Holiday Program at the Sportsmen’s Lodge Events Center in Studio City, California, was off to a great start with two shows over the past two months. Music lovers who were ... Continue Reading →

LIFE IN COLOR: National Geographic Photographs, curated by Annie Griffiths

With a veritable treasure trove of photography in its vaults from decades of devoted collecting, National Geographic has taken a clever approach in this lush coffee table book. The ... Continue Reading →
marywellsbookcover

Book Review: Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motown’s First Superstar

Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motown’s First Superstar By Peter Benjaminson Chicago Review Press Mary Wells, best known for her 1964 hit My Guy, was Motown’s first female ... Continue Reading →
Stephen Stills and Neil Young on their Long May You Run tour, July 4, 1976 in Niagara Falls: shortly after this show, the muse left Young and he abandoned the tour.  Photo by Brad Auerbach

WAGING HEAVY PEACE by Neil Young (Blue Rider Press)

If anyone was going to place a bet several decades ago whether the era’s popular musicians would be writing intriguing autobiographies many years later, the odds would have been rather ... Continue Reading →
Riverhead / Penguin Books

FUTURE PERFECT: The Case For Progress in a Networked Age, by Steven Johnson

The first book I read by Johnson (“Everything Bad for You is Good”) turned my head 180 degrees about everything from video games to TV.  The next book I read by him (“Where Good ... Continue Reading →
Bright Lights. No City (Hyperion Books)

BRIGHT LIGHTS, NO CITY: An African Adventure on Bad Roads With a Brother and a Very Weird Business Plan, by Max Alexander

This book tells the amusing tale of two brothers who venture to one of the poorest countries on the planet in an effort to apply some Yankee entrepreneurship to a crippling problem. ... Continue Reading →
07.01.2011bookbig

“Fall Hard”

Fall Hard Rough hewn and about as well lived in a book as you’re ever going to read, Tanya Schroeder’s aptly described ‘surf memoir’ Fall Hard is an inspiring, self-published ... Continue Reading →