Now reading...

[Dr. Rat]

Well, Richard Horsely's books may be quite interesting to you . . . he deals with the Jesus movement within the political and religious cauldron of the time, which was boiling fiercely and spilling over the edges.

Hugh Schoenfeld also has a number of books that would be along the lines of what you are after, "The Incredible Christians," "The Easter Rebellion" and a few others, but harder to find these days.

And the Burton Mack would be a good read.

Thanks a lot!

--eric

[jazzbo]

You're welcome.

I'm still slowly savoring the Pagel's book, and nearing the end . . . my one caveat and nit to pick about this one is that there isn't much specifically about Thomas in it! But I'm learning some about John and Iraneus that I didn't know as fully before. Interesting read!

[Matthew]

I happened to see that this is coming out in the Library of America series, and it sounds like one of the more interesting books to come out in a while. Imagine reading Animal Crackers or The Royal Family. This is from the Library of America website:

Broadway Comedies

Kaufman, George S. & Co.

Nine classic comedies from Broadway's Golden Age

If Eugene O'Neill represents the tragic mask of American drama, then George S. Kaufman can easily lay claim to its smiling counterpart. No other comic dramatist in America has enjoyed more popular success and perennial influence or been more fortunate in his choice of collaborators, who included George and Ira Gershwin, Moss Hart, Irving Berlin, and the Marx Brothers.

Here, in the most comprehensive collection of his plays ever assembled, are nine classics: his uproarious "backstage" play The Royal Family (1927, written with Edna Ferber); the Marx Brothers-inspired mayhem of Animal Crackers (1928, with Morrie Ryskind), in a version discovered in Groucho Marx's papers and published here for the first time; June Moon (1929, with Ring Lardner), a hilarious look at a young composer trying to make it big on Tin Pan Alley; Once in a Lifetime (1930, with Moss Hart), one of the first and best satires of Hollywood; Pulitzer Prize-winners Of Thee I Sing (1931, with Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin) and You Can't Take It with You (1936, with Moss Hart); Dinner at Eight (1932, with Edna Ferber), a tart ensemble piece that mixes comedy and melodrama; Stage Door (1936, with Edna Ferber), his much-loved story about young actresses trying to make it big in New York City; and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939, with Moss Hart), an unforgettable burlesque of America's cult of celebrity.

Bursting with vernacular wit, farcical ingenuity, and theatrical panache, these plays have remained beloved favorites and exuberant reminders of Broadway in its glory days.

Edited September 30, 2004 by Matthew

[1ngram]

I've been reading "The Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490-1700" by

Diarmaid MacCulloch. Fascinating stuff! Now I know it was all St. Augustine's fault!

Seriously though its a good read and tells you a lot about what happened. Unfortunately it completely fails to tell us why any of it happened giving us no inkling of the economic and social underpinnings of the period. But certainly worth a read now it has appeared in paperback for less that £10.00.

[Dr. Rat]

I've been reading "The Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490-1700" by

Diarmaid MacCulloch. Fascinating stuff! Now I know it was all St. Augustine's fault!

Seriously though its a good read and tells you a lot about what happened. Unfortunately it completely fails to tell us why any of it happened giving us no inkling of the economic and social underpinnings of the period. But certainly worth a read now it has appeared in paperback for less that £10.00.

Well, with all that ideological, military and dynastic action, I suppose its hard to get to the economics unless you make a special point of it.

I'm thinking Braudel does a decent job on this score?

--eric

[1ngram]

Certainly Braudel is a good place to start and that's what makes Reformation so disappointing. Braudel doesnt even get a namecheck in the book let alone any other historian of the period dealing with the social issues. You get statements like - a town council of rich burghers ousted the bishop and ruled the city and were sympathetic to Calvin -(I paraphrase of course) but no attempt to determine whether these things were connected or in what way. But even with these enormous limitations its a fascinating read - especially when you can see the source of so many of the crazy religious positions still around today.

Edited October 1, 2004 by 1ngram

[paul secor]

John Gregory Brown: Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery

Having read this, I want to find out if he's published anything else.

[paul secor]

I've been reading Notes & Queries Volumes 1 & 2 - collections of questions and answers from the British newspaper, The Guardian.

The questions (and the responses to them) range from profound to inane, but almost all are interesting.

If you want to find out:

Why does Mickey Mouse wear gloves?

Why is water wet?

Why precisely, 78, 45, 33, and 16? (The questioner wasn't precise - leaving off 1/3 and 2/3, but you get the idea.)

Do the living now outnumber the dead?

Who was the Bill Bailey who kept being urged to come home?

In the gents where I work, there is both a hot-air hand drier and a supply of paper towels. On ecological grounds which should I use?

Who first faded out at the end of a record, rather than having a proper ending?

Are scientists any closer to answering the question: which came first, the chicken or the egg?

and - How can I weigh my head?

You'll find the answer (in some cases - many answers) in these 2 books.

Recommended.

[Matthew]

Bob Dylan: Chronicles, Vol. 1. Pure crap. Don't bother. Writing is terrible; no insight into anything, and HUGE gaps. Should've know that Zimmy wasn't going to reveal anything about his life this side of the grave

[jazzbo]

John A. Wilson, "The Culture of Ancient Egypt" (also published as "The Burden of Egypt.") Quite a good read. This is the sort of material from the University of Chicago that made me choose that school to go to. . . . I made a big mistake. I should have gone there for GRADUATE work in archaeology. Undergraduate programs at U of C BITE. Or bit. . . back in the first half of the seventies I should say.

[Dr. Rat]

John A. Wilson, "The Culture of Ancient Egypt" (also published as "The Burden of Egypt.") Quite a good read. This is the sort of material from the University of Chicago that made me choose that school to go to. . . . I made a big mistake. I should have gone there for GRADUATE work in archaeology. Undergraduate programs at U of C BITE. Or bit. . . back in the first half of the seventies I should say.

Oddly enough, I recently picked this book up used from a faculty member here who dumps a lot of used books just outside our studios.

And, my English mentors were both Chicago guys--one was smart and went to Wake Forest as an undergrad. The other wasn't nearly as smart and was born into the place (he's Richard McKeon's son).

But I've always had a lot of respect for Chicago. It surprises me that the world headquaters for the middle-brow should ahve let itself become a place where undergraduates are/were neglected.

My dad, in a way, was a Chicago man, too: he taught himself out of the Encyclopedia Britannica!

--eric

[jazzbo]

Well all I can say is that in the period of time that I was associated with the University they didn't seem to know how to motivate undergraduates, and their programs needed a lot of attention that they didn't receive because the glory was in the graduate programs.

I have a lot of respect for various aspects of the place. And I did meet my wife there (though we were just friends, and became romantic about 17 years later!) and some good friends. BUT all those I was close to there either failed to be inspired to continue there, or completed their education there and were pretty soured by the process. Too bad!

[paul secor]

The Obituary Writer by Porter Shreve

[BruceH]

The Witches of Karres, by James H. Schmitz.

[Leeway]

I've gotten a stronginterest in reading about an era I lived throug- the Sixties-- and the music I grew up with-- rock and roll. So I got a stack of books from the library and have been surfing through them:

"Highway 61 revisited : the tangled roots of American jazz, blues, folk, rock, & country music"-- Gene Santoro

"A long strange trip : the inside history of the Grateful Dead"-- Dennis McNally.

"The Grateful Dead reader" - David Dodd

"Beat culture and the New America, 1950-1965" Lisa Phillips

"Hippie" - Barry Miles

"Hell bent for leather : confessions of a heavy metal addict"- Seb Hunter

"The Rolling stone illustrated history of rock & roll : the definitive history of the most important artists and their music"- Anthony DeCurtis

"From the velvets to the voidoids : a pre-punk history for a post-punk world" - Clinton Heylin

"Unsung heroes of rock 'n' roll"--Nick Tosches

I feel like a fell into a time warp but am enjoying it. I haven't dipped into the Heylin yet, but have been through most of all the others and they are all recommendable. Tosches is a particularly engaging writer. The Santoro is essentially a collection of his essays, articles and reviews, dressed up in a larger socio-political framework. Sometimes this extra scaffolding gets to be a bit much, but he has many worthwhile insights.

[Leeway]

Bob Dylan: Chronicles, Vol. 1. Pure crap. Don't bother. Writing is terrible; no insight into anything, and HUGE gaps. Should've know that Zimmy wasn't going to reveal anything about his life this side of the grave

From the excerpts I read, it almost seems as if Dylan is trying to be his own iconoclast, smashing the image of his greatness.

As always, trust the art, not the artist.

[BruceH]

it almost seems as if Dylan is trying to be his own iconoclast, smashing the image of his greatness.

...And for me, he succeeded beautifully! Way to go, Bob!

[ghost of miles]

I happened to see that this is coming out in the Library of America series, and it sounds like one of the more interesting books to come out in a while. Imagine reading Animal Crackers or The Royal Family. This is from the Library of America website:

Broadway Comedies

Kaufman, George S. & Co.

Nine classic comedies from Broadway's Golden Age

If Eugene O'Neill represents the tragic mask of American drama, then George S. Kaufman can easily lay claim to its smiling counterpart. No other comic dramatist in America has enjoyed more popular success and perennial influence or been more fortunate in his choice of collaborators, who included George and Ira Gershwin, Moss Hart, Irving Berlin, and the Marx Brothers.

Here, in the most comprehensive collection of his plays ever assembled, are nine classics: his uproarious "backstage" play The Royal Family (1927, written with Edna Ferber); the Marx Brothers-inspired mayhem of Animal Crackers (1928, with Morrie Ryskind), in a version discovered in Groucho Marx's papers and published here for the first time; June Moon (1929, with Ring Lardner), a hilarious look at a young composer trying to make it big on Tin Pan Alley; Once in a Lifetime (1930, with Moss Hart), one of the first and best satires of Hollywood; Pulitzer Prize-winners Of Thee I Sing (1931, with Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin) and You Can't Take It with You (1936, with Moss Hart); Dinner at Eight (1932, with Edna Ferber), a tart ensemble piece that mixes comedy and melodrama; Stage Door (1936, with Edna Ferber), his much-loved story about young actresses trying to make it big in New York City; and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939, with Moss Hart), an unforgettable burlesque of America's cult of celebrity.

Bursting with vernacular wit, farcical ingenuity, and theatrical panache, these plays have remained beloved favorites and exuberant reminders of Broadway in its glory days.

Yeah, I've wanted to check that one out. It just got a front-page review on the NY Times Book Review from Woody Allen.

Now reading Graham Greene's ORIENT EXPRESS, also known as STAMBOUL TRAIN.

[Matthew]

Bob Dylan: Chronicles, Vol. 1.  Pure crap.  Don't bother.  Writing is terrible; no insight into anything, and HUGE gaps.  Should've know that Zimmy wasn't going to reveal anything about his life this side of the grave

From the excerpts I read, it almost seems as if Dylan is trying to be his own iconoclast, smashing the image of his greatness.

As always, trust the art, not the artist.

Reading this a second time, and I finally figured out that this book is really a comedy, written by Dylan with tongue, feet, and hands in cheek.

[Gary]

I hired 'A new History of Jazz' by Alan Shipton from the library at the weekend.

Initially I was a bit concerned that it will take nearly 500 pages to reach the periods I'm more interested in , but the first chapter on the origins of jazz is fascinating.

[Late]

But I've always had a lot of respect for Chicago.

They have a good Poetry Series.

[Leeway]

Bob Dylan: Chronicles, Vol. 1.  Pure crap.  Don't bother.  Writing is terrible; no insight into anything, and HUGE gaps.  Should've know that Zimmy wasn't going to reveal anything about his life this side of the grave

From the excerpts I read, it almost seems as if Dylan is trying to be his own iconoclast, smashing the image of his greatness.

As always, trust the art, not the artist.

Reading this a second time, and I finally figured out that this book is really a comedy, written by Dylan with tongue, feet, and hands in cheek.

Just finished reading:

A well-written, very revealing look at Dylan, Joan and Mimi Baez, and Richard Farina (whom I had only heard about). I think it does a good job of revealing the contradictions, convolutions, complexities (lot of C's here) and more than occasional meanness of Dylan's character. OTOH, I don't think it gives enough credit to what Dylan actually achieved as a songwriter. The art (and it was art) transcended the man, as it does almost alway.

[ghost of miles]

Some recent reading:

Larry Kart's JAZZ IN SEARCH OF ITSELF

Dan Morgenstern, LIVING WITH JAZZ

Gene Lees, SINGERS AND THE SONG II

Ira Wolfert, TUCKER'S PEOPLE

Gunther Schuller, THE SWING ERA

Jonathan Lethem, THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE

Only one I've actually finished is the Lees... the others all still in progress. Time, give me more time!

[couw]

my computer is reading some *very* big file right now and I am seeing how much it can take. heheheheh.

[TheMusicalMarine]

Just finished Shirer's The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich. Mammoth, but essential to any student of that era.

Reading Maugham's Of Human Bondage. Excellent, excellent, excellent.

You people have good taste in books.