RARWRITER PUBLISHING GROUP PRESENTS

CREATIVE CULTURE JOURNAL

at www.RARWRITER.com      

--------------------"The best source on the web for what's real in arts and entertainment" ---------------------------

Volume 1-2016

MUSIC    BOOKS    FINE ARTS   FILM   THE WORLD

ARTIST NEWS    THIS EDITION   ABOUT   MUSIC   MUSIC REVIEWS  BOOKS  CINEMA   FASHION   FINE ARTS  FEATURES   SERIES  MEDIA  ESSAY  RESOURCES  WRITTEN ARTS POETRY  CONTACT  ARCHIVES  MUSIC LINKS

                                 

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Use this link to add your email address to the RARWRITER Publishing Group mailing list for updates on activities associated with the Creative Culture and Revolution Culture journals, and other RARWRITER Publishing Group interests.

 

ABOUT RAR: For those of you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites. Use this link to visit the RAR music page, which features original music compositions and other.

Use this link to visit Rick Alan Rice's publications page, which features excerpts from novels and other.

RARADIO

(Click here)

Currently on RARadio:

"On to the Next One" by Jacqueline Van Bierk

"I See You Tiger" by Via Tania

"Lost the Plot" by Amoureux"

Bright Eyes, Black Soul" by The Lovers Key

"Cool Thing" by Sassparilla

"These Halls I Dwell" by Michael Butler

"St. Francis"by Tom Russell & Gretchen Peters, performance by Gretchen Peters and Barry Walsh; 

"Who Do You Love?"by Elizabeth Kay; 

"Rebirth"by Caterpillars; 

"Monica's Frock" by Signel-Z; 

"Natural Disasters" by Corey Landis; 

"1,000 Leather Tassels" by The Blank Tapes; 

"We Are All Stone" and "Those Machines" by Outer Minds; 

"Another Dream" by MMOSS; "Susannah" by Woolen Kits; 

Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and other dead celebrities / news by A SECRET PARTY;

"I Miss the Day" by My Secret Island,  

"Carriers of Light" by Brendan James;

"The Last Time" by Model Stranger;

"Last Call" by Jay;

"Darkness" by Leonard Cohen; 

"Sweetbread" by Simian Mobile Disco and "Keep You" fromActress off the Chronicle movie soundtrack; 

"Goodbye to Love" from October Dawn; 

Trouble in Mind 2011 label sampler; 

Black Box Revelation Live on Minnesota Public Radio;

Apteka "Striking Violet"; 

Mikal Cronin's "Apathy" and "Get Along";

Dana deChaby's progressive rock

 

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Rick Alan Rice (RAR) Literature Page

ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance" -AVAILABLE NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM AMAZON.COM. Use this link.

CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects the building of America in a trilogy of novels collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores the development of the American West through the lens of public policy, land planning, municipal development, and governance as it played out in one of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious and cultural traditions that imbued the American Midwest with a special character that continues to have a profound effect on American politics to this day. Book One creates an understanding about America's cultural foundations that is further explored in books two and three that further trace the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as an icon in the development of a certain brand of American character. That's the serious stuff viewed from high altitude. The story itself gets down and dirty with the supernatural, which in ATWOOD - A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the monumental to the sublime. The book features the epic poem "The Toiler" as well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard Padilla.

Elmore Leonard Meets Larry McMurtry

Western Crime Novel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am offering another novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service. Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado, 1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.

It is a ripping good yarn, filled with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950, when the story is set. Richard Padilla has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns. Use this link.

 

EXPLORE THE KINDLE BOOK LIBRARY

If you have not explored the books available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You will find classic literature there, as well as tons of privately published books of every kind. A lot of it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published books are awful, but some are truly classics. You can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works for two bucks.

You do not need to buy a Kindle to take advantage of this low-cost library. Use this link to go to an Amazon.com page from which you can download for free a Kindle App for your computer, tablet, or phone.

Amazon is the largest, but far from the only digital publisher. You can find similar treasure troves atNOOK Press (the Barnes & Noble site), Lulu, and others.


 

 

BOOKS AND REVIEWS

Publisher's Weekly

Italian Hit Makes Splash in Germany

The two-part Italian novel Summer, by Elisa Sabatinelli, has sold in a two-book deal to German publisher Blanvalet. Rights to the novel are controlled by Rizzoli. Volume 1 (Summer: On My Skin) was published in June, and Volume 2 (Summer: Straight to the Heart) will be released in Italy this month. Rizzoli is comparing the novel to works by Elizabeth Gilbert and Milena Busquets; the books are about a woman who decides to have a carefree summer in Italy, under less-than-carefree circumstances: knowing that breast cancer runs in her family (the disease killed her mother) she is awaiting the results from a breast cancer scan.

Li's 'Dark Chapter' Lands More Deals

Rights to Dark Chapter by Winnie Li, a Taiwanese-American author based in London, have sold to Jason Pinter of Polis Books (for U.S. and Canada) and to Lauren Parsons at Legend Press (for U.K. and Commonwealth). Both houses will publish in 2017. Additionally, Swedish rights have sold to Norstedts. The book is about the rape of a 29-year-old journalist by an Irish teenager. Barcelona based Pontas Agency controls all rights.

Nonfiction Book on Nazis' Children Draws Interest

Enfants de Nazis by Tania Crasnianski, a nonfiction title controlled by French house Grasset, has sold to seven international publishers, including Bompiani in Italy and Skyhorse for world English rights. The book looks at the lives of the children of top Nazi leaders, including Himmler, Göring, Hess, Frank, Bormann, Höss, Speer, and Mengele. It examines how these children dealt with learning about their fathers' atrocities.

Italian Bestseller Attracts European Pubs

Bitter Coffee by Simonetta Agnello Hornby, which has been on bestseller lists in Italy since it was published there in April, and sold to a number of foreign publishers. Deals have closed with houses in Germany, Spain and Albania. And, at press time, a deal was pending with a publisher in Sweden. Feltrinelli published the novel in Italy and Alrerj e Prestia Literary controls rights. Hornby is the author of several books, and Bitter Coffee follows a 15-year-old girl who marries a 34-year-old man. She is also grappling with the affections of another man, who was raised by her father.

French Debut Heats Up

Gaël Faye’s novel, Petit Pays (in English, Little Country), is taking the global marketplace by storm. To date, the novel has sold in 14 countries, including Piper Verlag in Germany and Hayakawa in Japan. Faye, who is Rwandan-French, writes about the Rwandan genocide in the book; the work is told from the perspective of a 10-year-old boy who watches his parents' marriage, and his country, crumble. All rights to the book, which was published in France in April, are controlled by French house Grasset.

Chinese Award-Winner Sells to Slovenia

Cao WenXuan's 2015 Hans Christian Andersen award winner, Bronze and Sunflower, sold to Slovenska 29 in Slovenia. The first edition of the book was published in China in 2005 by Phoenix Juvenile and Children’s Publishing Ltd. (which controls rights); according to Phoenix, the title has, to date, sold 2.5 million copies in mainland China. Additionally, foreign sales on the title have closed with houses in, among other countries, Korea, the U.K. and Germany. The book explores the friendship between a boy from the countryside, called Bronze, and a girl from the city, called Sunflower.

 

Publisher Weekly

The 10 Best Music Books

Doesn't the world work in mysterious ways? Publisher Weekly is promoting an essay collection by Hanif Abdurraqib, and so they tasked him with picking what he considers to be the ten essential books having to do with music - pretty good circular marketing. Certainly his selections say more about him than about the interests of any average reader, but for what it's worth here is what he chose and said about each.

1. Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs

I have more copies of this book of collected essays and columns than I do of any other book. Every page is bent, highlighted, or heavily annotated. Bangs did it best: making criticism a conversation and leaving the door open to his own flaws. Putting enough of himself into his criticism to make sure people knew he was touchable, flawed. A music fan above all else.

2. Rip It Up: The Black Experience in Rock ‘N’ Roll by Kandia Crazy Horse

I admired this book for years when looking for a language with which to explain the roots of black music. Kandia Crazy Horse traces rock and roll to black music, of course. But then takes a step further into blues, into soul, into gospel. The book leans on black rock musicians like Lenny Kravitz, Venetta Fields, and Slash, and it presents them matter-of-factly. Black people playing the music they were born into.

3. The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic by Jessica Hopper

These are essays, interviews, and reviews–criticism spanning nearly 20 years of Hopper’s brilliant career as a critic. But there’s also prose and edges of poetry here, like in an open letter to Sufjan Stevens, which has my favorite opening of all time:

4. Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'N' Roll Music by Greil Marcus

I think any book by Greil Marcus could have been here, but I like Mystery Train for how wide it stretches, and how easy Marcus makes his connections between music and culture look. There are songs, and then there’s Greil Marcus’s America, and he never fails to pull the two together with his bare hands.

5. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

This is here largely for the ride it takes you on. The great thing about Oral Histories is that you only have the words of the players, and nothing else. No author coloring the narrative. Please Kill Me is kind of a whirlwind of stories from Punk’s history from about 1975 until the early '90s, charting a path from London to the New York scene. It is at times comical, but largely heartbreaking–particularly in the moments (and there are a few) when it details the mourning of someone like Johnny Thunders, a brilliant light put out too soon.

6. Never Mind the Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock by Amy Raphael

I found this book in a bargain bin at a bookstore in maybe 2002, and I needed it then, when rock in my particular corner of the world felt like something that was only a boys' club. The book is a series of interviews and oral histories that read more as monologues with '90s icons like Courtney Love, Kim Gordon, Liz Phair, and The Raincoats. Because Raphael is so scarcely present in the interviews, the book reads as if all of the brilliance is in the room together at once, having some kind of rock and roll reunion.

7. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop by Jeff Chang

This portrait of early-era hip-hop does well to consider all angles. Beyond the musicians, the book is populated with graffiti artists, and dancers, and activists, and even gang members. Chang not only deeply researched this project but was unafraid to task hip-hop with what it is: a political force–an object in the musical universe wielding a lot of power. It’s a thorough book and a long read, but one that is worthwhile as both an entry point to the genre and also a constant refresher.

8. Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011 by Lizzy Goodman

I’m partial to this book, not only because Goodman charts a brilliant map through indie rock in New York City after the post-9/11 music scene shifted, but also because of the recent timing of it. A book that I can remember living through, and don’t feel like I’m reaching back towards. I lived this era from afar, and through her outstanding crafting of this book, Goodman makes me feel like I was there the whole time.

9. Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements by Bob Mehr

There is a lot to get wrong when tackling the massiveness of a large biographical project. Though I’m not opposed to it, the writer who allows themselves to be the center of the biography has to do it with a smart touch, and that sometimes goes awry. Here, Mehr lets the massive amount of research and all-new interviews (and brilliant new photos) do the work. The Replacements were an enigma, and this book doesn’t crack their code. But it isn’t meant to. If anything, Mehr does the work of making them both more puzzling and more enticing.

10. Gunshots in My Cook-Up: Bits and Bites from a Hip-Hop Caribbean Life by Selwyn Seyfu Hinds

Growing up, the Source magazine was pretty much the only magazine that came to my home, courtesy of my older brother’s subscription. The Source was an effective way for me to keep up on hip-hop’s ever-changing world from the comfort of the Midwest, where I lived. In this book, Hinds–who served as editor-in-chief of the magazine during its '90s heyday–writes about how he fell in love with hip-hop and the places it took him. It is deeply candid and sometimes sharp and bitter in its honesty, not sparing the magazine or the genre itself. But underneath its thorough critical lens is a simple love story: a person falling in love with music over a lifetime, and learning to not let it go.

 

 

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Copyright © November, 2018 Rick Alan Rice (RARWRITER)