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Books
The Kinks and Their Bad-Mannered English Decency
Mark Doyles biography of the Kinks might complement a seminar in British culture. Its tone and research prove its intent to articulate social critique through music for the masses.
26 May 2020
Books
'Chasing Chopin' from the Concert Hall to the Jazz Club
Annik LaFarge's Chasing Chopin is a slim book but it stands out because it's a hybrid work—biography and journalism—with utterly lovely, vivid descriptions of Chopin's music.
20 May 2020
Film
'Camille Claudel' Features an Electrifying Performance by Isabelle Adjani
Through a brazen performance, one to obliterate all performances that came before, Isabelle Adjani gives her Claudel a true body in which to house all her drive and desire in Bruno Nuytten's Camille Claudel.
24 Apr 2020
Film
Bhogwan Singh: Hollywood's Longest-Serving 'Turban Wrapper'
Bhogwan Singh performed with snakes for a beach sideshow in Los Angeles before he got his chance with Universal Studios to fix Rudolf Valentino's turban.
23 Apr 2020
Books
'Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar' (excerpt)
Ravi Shankar was bemused by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds and other bands using the sitar in rock music. Enjoy this excerpt from biography Indian Sun, by Oliver Craske (who worked with Shankar on his 1997 autobiography), courtesy of Hachette Books.
Oliver Craske
10 Apr 2020
Books
Wendy Carlos: Musical Pioneer, Reluctant Icon
Amanda Sewell's vastly informative new biography on musical trailblazer Wendy Carlos is both reverent and honest.
08 Apr 2020
Books
When You Discover Your Father Had an Affair with Frida Kahlo...
The story of one of Frida Kahlo's short affairs, captured in Marc Petitjean's excellent book, The Heart, offers an inspired glimpse into the surreal Parisian art scene of 1939.
26 Mar 2020
Books
Blues Everywhere She Goes: Odetta
Ian Zack's biography gives the often-overlooked Odetta a chance to keeping shining that little light of hers.
23 Mar 2020
Books
Optimism and the Inquisition: The Extraordinary Life of Girolamo Cardano
Polymath Girolamo Cardano was beaten, imprisoned, survived a plague, and was banned by the church. Yet his work in medicine, engineering, mathematics and more is present in our lives today.
03 Mar 2020
Books
Ted Templeman Biography Casts a Wide, Deep Net
Producer Ted Templeman and biographer Greg Renoff successfully capture a wide-ranging career in Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer's Life in Music.
26 Feb 2020
Books
On the Socially Conscious Filmmaker, Sidney Lumet
Maura Spiegel's biography provides a thorough and compelling look at the life and films of the progressive New York icon filmmaker, Sidney Lumet.
24 Feb 2020
Books
The Rolling Stones Go to College
The Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones, the first book of academic essays about the band, considers not only what the band accomplished, but why, 60 years since they formed, the Rolling Stones still matter.
13 Jan 2020
Books
The Curmudgeonly King of Noir Chronicled in 'Notes From the Velvet Underground: The Life of Lou Reed'
Howard Sounes' Notes From the Velvet Underground is a beautifully considered book, with enough detail about the life and career of Lou Reed for the geeks, enough context for the historians, and just enough juicy stuff for everyone else.
11 Dec 2019
Books
Chavisa Woods: 100 Times (A Memoir of Sexism)
Chavis Woods' 100 Times (A Memoir of Sexism) is the ideal tool for inciting the collective rage needed to subvert gender-based harassment and violence.
19 Nov 2019
Film
Ludicrous Irony in Scorsese's 'The Irishman'
With its big performances and stellar script, The Irishman is the glorious culmination of Scorsese's lifelong fascination with mobsters and their built-in self-destruction.
15 Nov 2019
Books
Irving Berlin: New York Genius (By the Book)
Exploring the interplay of Irving Berlin's life with the life of New York City, noted biographer James Kaplan offers a visceral narrative of Berlin as self-made man and witty, wily, tough Jewish immigrant. Enjoy this excerpt of Kaplan's book, Irving Berlin: New York Genius.
James Kaplan
05 Nov 2019
Film
Cynthia Erivo's Performance Carries Kasi Lemmons' 'Harriet'
Cynthia Erivo's transcendent turn as Union spy, escaped slave, and Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman shines through Kasi Lemmons' heroic but oversimplified biopic, Harriet.
31 Oct 2019
Film
Rupert Goold's 'Judy' and the Queer-ing of the Biopic
Recent queer icon films Judy, Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman tease their key audience while keeping one foot solidly in straight land. Is this progress?
24 Oct 2019
Film
Eddie Murphy Returns to Form (and Fun) in 'Dolemite Is My Name'
Director Craig Brewer helms his breezy tribute to Rudy Ray Moore, the '70s Blaxploitation icon who influenced an entire generation of young Black performers, with Dolemite Is My Name.
18 Oct 2019
Books
William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll
Critic Casey Rae depicts William S. Burroughs as a wise sage whom the wild creatives seek out for his wisdom... well, almost.
17 Sep 2019
Books
Joanna Russ, the First Minister of Feminist Science Fiction
Gwyneth Jones's masterly account of the life and times of Joanna Russ serves as a timely reminder of the strides made in visibility and diversity in science fiction literature —and the distance still left to traverse.
11 Sep 2019
Film
'Official Secrets' Is a Devastating Reminder of the Power of Deception
Gavin Hood's thriller about British whistleblower Katharine Gun's attempt to stop the Iraq War, Official Secrets, is nothing special artistically, but its intense relevance burns the screen.
29 Aug 2019
Books
A Biography Worthy of 'Hiroshima' Author John Hersey
John Hersey covered Hiroshima and America's race riots with empathy, courage, and profound humility. Jeremy Treglown's biography, Mr. Straight Arrow, should bring a new generation of readers to Hersey's work.
19 Jul 2019
Film
Chanya Button's 'Vita & Virginia' Imprisons and Cages Virginia Woolf
Looking upon Virginia Woolf with an immature and childish creative lust, writer/director Chanya Button and co-writer Eileen Atkins reduce her to a bland literary figure in Vita & Virginia, leaving us to remember the contrarian truth.
15 Jul 2019
Books
Could Marion Turner's Book on Chaucer Alter Future Scholarly Work?
From Marion Turner's work, Chaucer: A European Life, Chaucer emerges as a man who lived through intrigue, rebellions, a peasant's rising, and above all, a determination to translate.
11 Jun 2019
Books
When Harper Lee Came up Short: 'Furious Hours'
Casey Cep traces Harper Lee's winding road to defeat in Furious Hours.
10 Jun 2019
Film
Lanthimos' 'The Favourite' Plays with History and Our Emotional Impulsivity
Stylistically risqué, The Favourite relates to a certain type of subversive British cinema from filmmakers such as Peter Greenaway, although it is not an imitation.
03 Jun 2019
Books
On Warren Zevon, the "Kurt Vonnegut of Rock Music"
Author C. M. Kushins talks with PopMatters about the complicated legacy of Warren Zevon, from crack-up to recovery and back again, and his research for Nothing's Bad Luck: The Lives of Warren Zevon.
07 May 2019
Books
'Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom' Is as Monumental as the Man It Chronicles
Noted historian David W. Blight offers readers the fullest portrait of Frederick Douglass yet in this "biography of a voice".
04 Apr 2019
Books
'All the Lives We Ever Lived' Finds Comfort in Mourning with Virginia Woolf
These days, when personal grief becomes a public performance on social media, it's heartening to have a book such as Katharine Smyth's All the Lives We Ever Lived, wherein deep introspection is given space and literature provides both solace and inspiration.
28 Feb 2019
Books
'The Song Is You' Is the Sinatra Biography That’s Not a Biography
The revised and expanded version of Will Friedwald's acclaimed Sinatra book, The Song Is You, is about the music and nothing but the music.
27 Feb 2019
Books
Edward Gorey, Agent of Chaos
Two recent books on screenwriter, illustrator and author Edward Gorey, Born to Be Posthumous and Gorey's Worlds, are engaging works that show that Gorey's mystique remains safely impenetrable.
19 Feb 2019
Books
On 'Love and Strife', but Mostly the Strife, of Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow has won many literary awards, including the Nobel, Pulitzer, and National Book Award. Yet Zachary Leader's thorough work, The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife, 1965-2005, a PopMatters pick, begins with Below asking himself, "Was I a man or was I a jerk?"
23 Jan 2019
Books
Townes Van Zandt: 'Music, Genius, and Rage'
Townes Van Zandt's longtime road manager and producer, Harold F. Eggers, Jr., looks back on road-life with the haunted songwriter. He has more stories than most.
21 Jan 2019
Books
John Berger was a Lifelong Cultural Agitator with a Valuable Point of View
Joshua Sperling's biography of John Berger is more of an art history text that's focused on specific social and political elements as they are connected through Berger's perspective.
14 Jan 2019
Film
'Vice', Dick Cheney, and the Satisfaction of the Deed Itself
Adam McKay's gonzo Dick Cheney biopic satire, Vice, won't be compared to Shakespeare, but it shares the Bard's disinterest in supervillains' motivations.
21 Dec 2018
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