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MortSahlFan View Drop Down
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    Posted: September 08 2024 at 10:12
(If you can't name 10 biographies - name any book)

Last Man Standing Mort Sahl and the Birth of Modern Comedy (James Curtis)
Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together (Frank Lisciandro)
Heartland (Mort Sahl)
Lennon on Lennon conversations with John Lennon
The trials of Jimmy Hoffa,: An autobiography (Hoffa)
Healing The Enemy (Larry Garrett)
Cassavetes On Cassavetes (Cassavetes, Carney)
Songs My Mother Taught Me: Marlon Brando, Robert Lindsey
Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution (Kevin Booth, Michael Bertin)
Citizen Welles A Biography of Orson Welles (Frank Brady
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Frank Zappa - The Real Frank Zappa
Geedy Lee - My Effin' Life
Phil Collins - Not Dead Yet
Robert Hilburn - Paul Simon the life
Dave Grohl - The Storyteller
Tina Fey - Bossypants
Sting - Broken Music A Memoir
Martin Short - I Must Say
George Carlin - Last Words
Robert Wyatt - Different Every Time
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George Eliot: Middlemarch
George Eliot: Adam Bede
George Orwell: 1984
Franz Kafka: The Trial
Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent
E.M. Forster: Howard's End
Albert Camus: The Outsider
Emile Zola: Germinal
Elizabeth Gaskell: Cranford
D.H. Lawrence: Sons & Lovers

Ten of my favourite classics....

Sorry, I have never read a biography of any description (except Elizabeth Gaskell's life of Charlotte Bronte); never intend to...
Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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Bruno Walter: A World Elsewhere-Erik Ryding and Rebecca Pechefsky
Toscanini-Musician Of Conscience-Harvey Sachs
Beethoven-Anguish and Triumph-Jan Swafford
Gustav Mahler-Bruno Walter
Bruckner-Derek Watson
Karajan-A Life In Music-Richard Osborne
Trial Of Strength-Wilhelm Furtwangler in the Third Reich-Fred K. Prieberg
Theme and Variations: The Autobiography Of A Conductor-Bruno Walter
A Mingled Chime-Sir Thomas Beecham
Two Worlds Of Music-Berta Geissmarr



Edited by presdoug - September 08 2024 at 14:31
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Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

Frank Zappa - The Real Frank Zappa
Geedy Lee - My Effin' Life
Phil Collins - Not Dead Yet
Robert Hilburn - Paul Simon the life
Dave Grohl - The Storyteller
Tina Fey - Bossypants
Sting - Broken Music A Memoir
Martin Short - I Must Say
George Carlin - Last Words
Robert Wyatt - Different Every Time


Carlin and Zappa's books were great!
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In no particular order...

William Manchester - The Last Lion (Winston Churchill)
Robert K. Massie - Peter the Great: His Life and World
Gore Vidal - Burr (Aaron Burr)
Alison Weir - The Life of Elizabeth I
Walter Isaacson - Leonardo da Vinci
William Manchester - American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur
David Herbert Donald - Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln)
Frank McCourt - Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
Samuel Clemens - Autobiography of Mark Twain
Marion Meade - Dorothy Parker
 
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Originally posted by MortSahlFan MortSahlFan wrote:

(If you can't name 10 biographies - name any book)

Last Man Standing Mort Sahl and the Birth of Modern Comedy (James Curtis)
Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together (Frank Lisciandro)
Heartland (Mort Sahl)
Lennon on Lennon conversations with John Lennon
The trials of Jimmy Hoffa,: An autobiography (Hoffa)
Healing The Enemy (Larry Garrett)
Cassavetes On Cassavetes (Cassavetes, Carney)
Songs My Mother Taught Me: Marlon Brando, Robert Lindsey
Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution (Kevin Booth, Michael Bertin)
Citizen Welles A Biography of Orson Welles (Frank Brady
I'm curious to explore florida child abuse statistics as understanding these numbers can highlight the scope and urgency of addressing child welfare. Data on trends and cases could help inform prevention strategies and support systems, guiding communities and policymakers to prioritize child protection and create a safer environment for kids.

Good list. For me its Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned by John A. Farrel


Edited by creganstark - November 06 2024 at 00:10
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Originally posted by creganstark creganstark wrote:

Originally posted by MortSahlFan MortSahlFan wrote:

(If you can't name 10 biographies - name any book)

Last Man Standing Mort Sahl and the Birth of Modern Comedy (James Curtis)
Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together (Frank Lisciandro)
Heartland (Mort Sahl)
Lennon on Lennon conversations with John Lennon
The trials of Jimmy Hoffa,: An autobiography (Hoffa)
Healing The Enemy (Larry Garrett)
Cassavetes On Cassavetes (Cassavetes, Carney)
Songs My Mother Taught Me: Marlon Brando, Robert Lindsey
Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution (Kevin Booth, Michael Bertin)
Citizen Welles A Biography of Orson Welles (Frank Brady

Good list. For me its Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned by John A. Farrel


Thanks. I'll check that out.
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Hi,
Quote
...
Citizen Welles A Biography of Orson Welles (Frank Brady)
Frank Zappa - The Real Frank Zappa
Robert Wyatt - Different Every Time
...

I'm partial to biographies for artists ... that, at times, are more interesting as to how they did things in their work. But there are some nice, and farout things out there. Here is a small list off my reviews:

Eno's book is a veritable history of the English/London music scene. 

Gilliamesque and/or Gilliam on Gilliam ... fun stuff by the director

Godard on Godard ... is this film?

Truffaut on Truffaut ... it will confuse you ... and many times he gives it up for enough time for things to develop on their own ... at least he knows when NOT to stop filming, allowing some ad libs and moments to shine!

Altman on Altman ... awesome fun, and he tells you all the jokes and tricks he played on all actors ... fun reading and you won't want to put it down! Just realize how much he played with the actors to get something that ... was not there! Tremendous fun and laugh!

Ennio ... a film by Giuseppe Tornatore about Ennio Morricone, and the maestro tells you how he did just about everything ... it was far out and neat. A must see film, that, at the very least, appreciates someone that really loved film and added to its life with some neatly placed music! And a couple of directors allowed him to do his own thing with the music, as one of them admitted that Ennio was right about how he saw that moment ... neat stuff!

...

A long time ago, DE said that film is not a good biography, since a lot of things are changed or romanticized. I agree wholeheartedly, though it is difficult to not realize how much of film comes from history, or from some literary works ... with that said, the following list is NOT a biography, but, if anything, it has a nice touch and idea of what the artist/person maybe about ... 

Amadeus (Milos Forman)
Caravaggio (Derek Jarman)
Carrington (Christopher Hampton)
Edward II (Derek Jarman)
Impromptu (James Lapine)
Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
Mahler (Ken Russell)
Nightwatching (Peter Greenaway)
Savage Messiah (Ken Russell)
Tess (Roman Polanski)
The Piano Player (Roman Polanski)
The Devils (Ken Russell)
The Music Lovers (Ken Russell)
Tom and Viv (Brian Gilbert)
W. E. (Madonna Ciccone)
Where Angels Fear to Tread (Charles Sturridge)
Camille Claudel (Bruno Nuytten)
Cezanne et Moi (Daniele Thompson)
Germinal (Claude Berri) (from Emile Zola's story)
Modigliani (Mick Davis)
Queen Margot (Patrice Chereau)
Tous Les Matins du Monde (Alain Corneau)
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Werner Herzog)
Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore)
Christopher Columbus (Alberto Lattuada)
Cabeza de Vaca (Nicholas Echevarria)
A Woman's Tale (Paul Cox)
An Angel At My Table (Jane Campion)
Bandit Queen (Shekhar Kapur)
Becoming Colette (Danny Huston)
Klimt (Raul Ruiz)
The Last Princess (Hur Jin-ho)
Medea (Lars Von Trier)
Neruda (Pablo Larrain)
Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)
All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)
Basquiat (Julian Schnabel)
Chaplin (Richard Attenborough)
Hemingway and Gellhorn (Philip Kaufman)
Henry and June (Philip Kaufman)
Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle (Alan Rudolph)
Queen of the Desert (Werner Herzog)
Tristan and Isolde (Kevin Reynolds)
Valentino (Ken Russell)

I wanted to add some Eastern Asian films, however, many of them are simplified and the artistic contents kinda hidden, and thus some of these stories seem just like nice literature ... sadly, Zhang Yimou (and others) have a lot of historical stuff in their films, but it kinda leaves it alone and concentrates on the individual characters' story to prevent censors from killing the film!

AND, you want to go take a serious look at Ken Russell's filmography ... going way back to his BBC days, his list of films about many artists, is way out there ... and some outstanding stuff. Two of his lesser known films are on Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Isadora Duncan ... and these are both really neat ... and the one on Elgar is also tops.




Edited by moshkito - November 02 2024 at 08:09
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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