The 1960s in the United States saw the peak of the Tiki craze, the fascination with physical products of Polynesia and, more important than that, the easy and happy way of life, as it was glorified by the American public. There actually was a very strong influence of Tiki culture on American everyday life then, […]
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Author: Dr. A. Ebert
The Occult Arts of Music: An Esoteric Survey… by David Huckvale (2013)
To start with: there are very, very few books that deal with this subject-matter. So finding literature about the music linked to the unspeakable, mysterious, secret and hidden (hence: lat. occultus) is interesting enough. But David Huckvale is not a novice when it comes to exotic topics, he is a writer and journalist who has […]
Working Class Heroes: Rock Music and British Society… by David Simonelli (2012)
David Simonelli, associate professor of history at Youngstown State University, must have plundered archive after archive, at least the ones of the NME, Melody Maker, Billboard and the BBC as well. At the center of his study is the approach to the shifting image of a young generation of musicians and their fans, by then […]
The Silver Age of DC Comics by Paul Levitz (2013)
If this is your first book of Taschen’s DC chronicles of the comic ages you may feel comfortably transported back in time. To the years between 1956 and 1970 to be exact, when after some stagnation in the Super Hero “business” new impulses started a fresh age. And with another BANG! this hardcover book continues […]
Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946-1962… by Chris and Rafiel York (eds.) (2012)
The comic books of the post WWII years differ in many respects from their predecessors. For one reason, they (generally) invented new dangers, new villains and new challenges for the keepers of the peace, fighters for freedom and justice, aka the Superheroes and the Federal Agents, the T-Men, a moniker for government agents of the […]
Sex, Politics, and Religion in Star Wars by Douglas Brode and Leah Deyneka (eds.) (2012)
Director George Lucas must have sensed something of the future success of his space saga when in 1977, he presented the first episode to the public; wisely, he established a deal with 20th Century Fox, which would grant him full rights to licensing and merchandising. Reproductions of his characters could be found on almost any […]
Pulp Fiction to Film Noir by William Hare (2012)
With the advent of the Great Depression, Hollywood discovered new characters and fresh labels of films that displayed the effects of the economic struggle on various types of individuals, be it the small-time crook, the innocent and wrongly accused businessman, the farmer or the simple secretary. All of them had to face new obstacles in […]
The Myth of the Superhero by Marco Arnaudo (2013)
When the comic artists of Marvel, DC Comics and other inventors of superheroes, avengers and their allies equipped with supernatural powers or technical gadgets designed their unique subjects, they had – willingly or not – a number of models to build a legend around: Greek, Jewish, Roman, or Nordic mythology. While each superhero is equipped […]
The Starday Story. The House That Country Music Built by Nathan D. Gibson (2011)
Starday Records, one of the most influential, if not the American ‘roots’ label has a long and detailed story to tell. It took Nathan D. Gibson, a scholar, musician and country music fan, to collect all the details, numbers, personal histories, legends and private accounts of the many artists and the few executives at Starday […]