Love and Consequences – Consequences of a White Lie?
March 14, 2008 by S C
Upon receiving media praise and rave reviews within the literary world for her ‘memoir’ “In Love and Consequences” – a tale of growing up as a foster child and gang member in South Central Los Angeles – author Margaret B.Jones has since had her “ghetto pass” revoked. Margaret B.Jones depicts herself as being a half-white, half Indian youngster brought up by a black foster mother she refers to as “Big Mom”. She jots down the moment in which her brother was shot and killed by members of the notorious L.A. street gang, the Crips while she transported weapons and moonlighted as a drug aficionado for the Crip’s block rivals, the Bloods. But alas, it appears that Margaret B. Jones – I mean, Margaret Seltzer might have had a bit too much 40 oz. in the system to pull off the Girl In The Hood routine and make the clean getaway. Seltzer attended private schools growing up as a well off suburbanite and couldn’t hold a joint let alone last a few seconds in one. Seltzer, a Caucasian in her early 30’s, went on record by admitting that she is not a product of the environment that she depicts in her book. As a result, she is being found accountable for fraudulence and pleads guilty on all counts of legitimacy, her memoir of “hope and survival” has being recalled by the publisher and her book tour cancelled. Case Closed.
Tower Book Club, March Selection: Lush Life by Richard Price
March 14, 2008 by Romy
After 5 years, Richard Price has finally delivered his latest masterpiece of detective fiction in Lush Life. If you’ve been following the hit shows on HBO lately, you’ll know that the urban gritty reality of cities is something worth paying attention to – just check out The Sopranos or The Wire. In fact, Price has been a writer for The Wire, so can just imagine the setting for Lush Life.
Set in New York, actually in Manhattan’s Lower East Side to be more specific. Where a murder has just taken place early one morning in a dive bar. What unfolds is a masterful detective story, devoid of the classic clichés and full of the suspense and character richness that we have come to expect from Price. We are invited into understanding the dialogues and relationship found in big cities between cops and criminals, bartenders and their alcoholics, disenfranchised artists and their successful counterparts, and so forth. For a truly filmic experience while reading a novel, check out Richard Price’s novel Lush Life. For a unique experience – try a copy of the audio Lush Life and listen to it in your car as you drive through your own city.
What We’re Watching: Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest
March 14, 2008 by S C
The Force is strong with this episode of Family Guy that devotes an entire hour to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Seth McFarlane’s spoof-happy animated sitcom casts the Griffin family and other Quahog residents as characters from George Lucas’s sci-fi classic: patriarch Peter is Han Solo, wife Lois is Princess Leia, son Chris is Luke Skywalker, family dog Brian is Chewbacca, and baby Stewie continues his quest to kill Lois as the evil Darth Vader. From Mos Eisley to the Millennium Falcon, no element of Lucas’s beloved universe is safe from McFarlane’s hilarious satire. Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest includes four minutes of new material and interviews with MacFarlane and the Jedi Master himself, Lucas.
This Week’s NEXT BIG THING
March 14, 2008 by Romy
Who would have guessed that Starbucks is the place to start a band? For The Afters, who are four former Starbucks employees, without this coffee chain, they would have never met or started their band nearly eight years ago. This month, The Afters released their catchy CCM sophomoric album Never Going Back to OK. Maybe you’ve heard their melodic superhit “Beautiful Melody” on MTV’s show 8th & Ocean, but click here to listen to their title track, “Never Going Back to OK” to get a taste for what this new album has in store for us.
Go Digital with Scott Kelby
March 14, 2008 by S C
Scott Kelby, the man who changed the “digital darkroom” forever with his groundbreaking, #1 bestselling, award-winning book The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers, now tackles the most important side of digital photography–how to take pro-quality shots using the same tricks today’s top digital pros use (and it’s easier than you’d think). This entire book is written with a brilliant premise, and here’s how Scott describes it: “If you and I were out on a shoot, and you asked me, ‘Hey, how do I get this flower to be in focus, but I want the background out of focus?’ I wouldn’t stand there and give you a lecture about aperture, exposure, and depth of field. In real life, I’d just say, ‘Get out your telephoto lens, set your f/stop to f/2.8, focus on the flower, and fire away.’ You d say, ‘OK,’ and you’d get the shot. That’s what this book is all about. A book of you and I shooting, and I answer the questions, give you advice, and share the secrets I’ve learned just like I would with a friend, without all the technical explanations and without all the techno-photo-speak.” This isn’t a book of theory—it isn’t full of confusing jargon and detailed concepts: this is a book of which button to push, which setting to use, when to use them, and nearly two hundred of the most closely guarded photographic “tricks of the trade” to get you shooting dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos with your digital camera every time you press the shutter button. Here’s another thing that makes this book different: each page covers just one trick, just one single concept that makes your photography better. Every time you turn the page, you’ll learn another pro setting, another pro tool, another pro trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. There’s never been a book like it, and if you’re tired of taking shots that look “OK,” and if you’re tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, “Why don’t my shots look like that?” then this is the book for you.
