Empirically proving that -- no matter where you are -- kids wanna rock, this is Chuck Klosterman's hilrious memoir of growing up as a shameless metalhead in Wyndmere, North Dakotoa (population: 498). With a voice like Ace Frehley's guitar, Klosterman hacks his way through hair-band history, beginning with that fateful day in 1983 when his older brother brought home Mötley Crüe's Shout at the Devil. The fifth-grade Chuck wasn't quite ready to rock -- his hair was too short and his farm was too quiet -- but he still found a way to bang his nappy little head. Before the journey was over, he would slow-dance to Poison, sleep innocently beneath satanic pentagrams, lust for Lita Ford, and get ridiculously intellectual about Guns N' Roses. C'mon and feel his noize.
Winner of the Academy Award as the best Original Screenplay of 1996.
Set in the midst of the bleak midwinter snow drifts of the American Midwest, Fargo is a story of murder and mayhem.
Stylistically, Fargo-in its observation of a specific Minnesota community-is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the post-modernism of The Hudsucker Proxy and the baroque hallucinations of Barton Fink. Fargo exposes the dark side of existence, but the grimness of the tale is alleviated by the laconic humor with which the characters greet their fates. The plot is executed with brilliance, and yet the writing also reveals a humanity at its core.
About this product: The most commercially and critically successful film of Ethan and Joel Coen, Fargo was nominated for five Academy Awards and received two, an exceptional achievement for a low budget, independently produced film. This volume explores Fargo from a variety of perspectives. Providing a detailed account of the film's production, reception and place within the career of the Coen brothers, it covers issues and themes significant to current film discourse, including genre, gender and sexuality, race, history, culture and myth.
About this product: Today, most of us know the iconic red and yellow image of the Wells Fargo stagecoach only as the omnipresent logo of a huge national financial institution. Philip L. Fradkin's Stagecoach reminds us of the far more complex and colorful history of the 150-year-old enterprise it symbolizes, beginning with its heyday as an unpolished but honorable "express company" that dependably linked, by means of the stagecoach, an upstart West Coast and roughshod Rockies with everything else back East. Fradkin, author of eight books on the American West, ties the company's and region's fates together as mining, agriculture, and then more contemporary commercial interests (with help from the federal government) indelibly shaped them both. From the time of the dusty stage driver to the era of the wing-tipped banker, the book recounts it all but wisely focuses on the period from 1852 to 1918, a time when the firm "served as the principal communications conduit between East and West ... contributed to the Union victory in the Civil War ... and shipped fresh vegetables and fruits via fast refrigerated express." After reading it, you'll be hard-pressed to look at the enduring stagecoach imagery in quite the same way ever again. --Howard Rothman
About this product: Any baseball book beginning with a descriptive list of characters that includes a Benedictine nun, the hold-out college player of the year, a woman pitcher, a 300-pound pig, a seemingly washed-up Darryl Strawberry, a blind announcer, comedian Bill Murray, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, and the spirit of Bill Veeck--the game's greatest showman--hovering over it all as the holy ghost, is a book that swings for the fences. Slouching Toward Fargo does go deep, even off the deep end at times. The really amazing thing is that it's all true.
A resourceful veteran writer, Karlen spends the summers of 1996 and 1997 following the mismatched misfits who mold themselves into the St. Paul Saints of the unaffiliated A-level Northern League, one of the strangest clubs in one of the oddest leagues in the history of organized baseball. On one level, his chronicle is a certified hoot; the presence of team owners Murray and Mike Veeck, who inherited his father's gene for baseball theatrics, ensures that Fargo flirts with the unpredictable. But this is also a circumspect tale filled with second chances--not the least of which is Karlen's own redemption as a journalist, which resonates in counterpoint throughout. His adventure begins at a personal crisis point when he accepts an assignment from Wenner, who's had a longstanding grudge against Murray, to follow the comedian and do a hatchet-job on him for Rolling Stone. Karlen needs the check, sure, but he needs a reality check too. "It was time to put my scorecard in order," he admits; after all, this isn't his grudge. Can you hear the bass chord of conscience beginning to thrum? "As I followed the team, I would be searching for some clue to my own battered spirit." By the end of his journey, both the clues and the Saints entertainingly add up to a winning volume and a winning team. --Jeff Silverman
About this product: Within the last twenty-five years, an enormous burst of creative production has emerged from American "independent" filmmakers. From "Stranger than Paradise" (1984) and "Slacker" (1991) to Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" (2003) and Miranda July's "Me and You and Everyone We Know" (2005), indie cinema has become part of mainstream American culture. But what makes these films independent? Is it simply a matter of budget and production values? Or are there aesthetic qualities which set them apart from ordinary Hollywood entertainment? "Me and You and Memento and Fargo" argues that the American independent feature film from the 1980s to the present has developed a distinct approach to filmmaking, centering on new and different conceptions of cinematic storytelling. The film script is the heart of the creative originality to be found in the independent movement. Even directors noted for idiosyncratic visual style or the handling of performers typically originate their material and write their own scripts. By studying the principles underlying the independent screenplay, we gain a direct sense of the originality of this new trend in American cinema. There are many screenwriting manuals and guidebooks on the market, but they pose many problems for the aspiring independent filmmaker. First, they all rely on formulas believed to generate salable Hollywood films. For instance, most writers, including Syd Field ("Screenplay"), Richard Walter ("Screenwriting"), and Linda Seger ("Making a Good Script Great"), present a "three-act paradigm" as gospel and proceed to lay down very stringent rules for characterization, plotting, the timing of climaxes and so on. Some writers, notably Field and Seger, even go so far as to demand that the screenwriter present a dramatic turning point within specific pages. Even advice books that appear to be more open about such rules (e.g. Robert McKee's "Story") turn out to be just as inflexible in their advice. But the screenwriting manuals tend to ignore the fact that Hollywood companies do not want only the formula; they also want novelty (which is hard to teach as a set of rules). The independent filmmaker is usually aware of the rules but treats them as flexible guidelines, to be used as necessary but also to be rejected or reworked if it will be of creative benefit. The screenplay manuals have a second fault. On the rare occasions when they deal with independent films, they tend not to appreciate the genuine innovations that the films introduce. This is partly due to the fact that the manuals' authors are unaware of the historical tradition of independent cinema. Thus, McKee treats "Stranger than Paradise" as an "anti-plot" film. This category, however, cannot adequately analyse what the film does positively; it does not lack a plot, but rather has a different kind of plot. Ironically, it has a three-act structure, but the structure becomes geographical rather than plotted as a dramatic arc. Moreover, "Stranger than Paradise" derives its approach to storytelling from 1970s minimalist cinema, punk subculture, and the Beat tradition of "Shadows" and "Pull My Daisy". The fullest understanding of the independent film's innovations comes from an awareness of the historical tradition it continues. "Me and You and Memento and Fargo" offers a positive account of the various options open to the independent screenwriter. The book shows the broad range of creative principles that have been used in the narrative construction of independent films. One consequence of this is to show the uniqueness of this phenomenon by positioning it as a hybrid form that exists somewhere between the classical Hollywood tradition and "art cinema."
About this product: Wells, Fargo's detectives James B. Hume and John N. Thacker compiled a report of company losses between 1870 and 1884, but the report had another purpose. Within the pages, listing the exploits of 206 road agents, was a detailed physical description of each thus creating a textual mug book of potential recidivist robbers likely to victimize the company again. The report contained no details of the thrilling events which earned each robber a place in the report, but this work is intended to correct that shortcoming by giving all the details of over 400 stagecoach and train robberies, and a few burglaries, committed in half a dozen western states and territories.
About this product: The story of Wells Fargo from its earliest days told with great detail and illustrated with numerous black and white photos, drawings, maps, and an extensive index.
About this product: A daughter is forever. No matter how old she is, in your heart she’ll always be that little girl full of imagination, dreams, and fantastic potential -- the one who captured your heart the day she came into your life...
Bestselling poet Susan Polis Schutz and Grammy Award-winning songwriter Donna Fargo, along with many other authors, have contributed to this book some of the most eloquent words any daughter could ever receive. This is a beautiful, lasting way to convey your love for your daughter, your confidence in her, and your promise to always be there for her no matter where life takes her…
"My day always becomes wonderful when I see your pretty face smiling so sweetly. There is such warmth and intelligence radiating from you. It seems that every day you grow smarter and more beautiful." - Susan Polis Schutz
About this product: Those striking images of stagecoaches traversing rugged mountain terrain are no mere marketing gimmick, but part and parcel of Wells Fargo's storied past. When Henry Wells and William Fargo founded the company in 1852, the gold rush had already brought thousands of people to California and uncovered the largest amount of wealth then known to the world. Wells Fargo served a unique role as a banking, express or transporting, and mail-delivery agency. In 1857, the company helped establish the Overland Mail Company; in 1861, it operated the Pony Express; and in 1866, it put together a 3,000-mile network of stagecoaches running between California and Nebraska. Three decades later, Wells Fargo covered the nation over a web of iron rails. Miners and merchants, ranchers and farmers alike depended on Wells Fargo. The company always used the fastest means possible for its deliveries and fund transfers, whether by riverboat, ocean steamer, pony express, stagecoach, railroad, or the fastest method of all, the telegraph.
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