Ram Dass

Paul Gorman

Compiles the experiences of American volunteers to provide inspiration for the thousands of Americans who serve their neighbors or communities

Stories and Reflections on Service

How Can I Help?

Haunted for thirty years by a dream of a female friend's death eight years before she died in a skydiving accident, Filmmaker Paul Gorman hopes to unlock the mystery of his dream by making a film about her.Gorman's memoir tells the remarkably true story about the making of his 2014 award winning documentary film, "Ride The Sky". Gorman retraces pioneering skydiver Joan Carson's nomadic life from the time of her death in 1981 back to her childhood. His journey captures the spirit of the Seventies, the recklessness of youthful skydivers, and what drove some to risk their lives for the 'rush' of jumping from an airplane. Along the way, Gorman discovers what he believes was the underlying motive for Carson's addiction to the sport; a motive couched in a painful secret past. In the end, it's a past that reconnects with the present in a most surprising and emotional way. This memoir is a must read.

The Making of a Film

Running Down a Dream

INTO TROUBLE tells the true story of Paul Gorman's 1969 backpacking trip to Spain. As a shy nineteen year old teenager, he sets off on a trip to Europe. As a harbinger of things to come, on his flight to NYC, he meets future author of Midnight Express, Billy Hayes, and spends the night at his folks' place. Several weeks after landing in Luxembourg, Gorman heads south in search of sunshine, bikini clad Scandinavian girls and cheap prices. He winds up in Franco's Spain: the Canary Islands. While there, he gets into trouble, so much so that the U.S. Department of State gets involved in his case, using him as a pawn in an arms agreement between the Nixon administration and Spain.Gorman's tale is the dramatic and sometimes humorous story of a young man searching for his place in the world, coming to terms with his relationship with his autocratic father, chasing after romance, avoiding the draft, and lessons he learned from his travels. Along the lines of Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, Midnight Express by Billy Hayes and Catch Me If You Can by Frank Abagnale, this riveting memoir will entertain and intrigue you. It's honest and authentic and, simply, an amazing story.

Into Trouble

The Rise and Fall of the Music Press

Totally Wired

A notable monograph on British artist Derek Boshier, covering his extensive collection of work from the mid-1950s to the present day Derek Boshier’s art has journeyed through a number of different phases, from films and painting to album covers, photography, and book making. He was a contemporary of Pauline Boty, Peter Blake, and David Hockney at the Royal College of Art and first achieved fame as part of the British Pop Art generation of the early 1960s. He then progressed to making wholly abstract illusionistic paintings with brash colors and strong patterns in shapes that broke playfully free of conventional rectangular formats. At the beginning of the 1970s, Boshier gave up painting for more than a decade and turned to book making, drawing, collage, printmaking, photography, posters, and filmmaking. His work included album covers and stage-sets for David Bowie and a songbook for The Clash. Boshier’s work has always conveyed an abiding political and social engagement—reflecting upon themes from apartheid in South Africa to the anxieties provoked by Al Qaeda—and has a profound sense of place, responding to those he has visited and lived in, from Houston, Texas to England and Los Angeles.

Re-think/Re-entry

Derek Boshier

A raucous yet detailed look back at the evolution of the music press and the passionate rock and pop journalists who documented the sounds that changed our culture. Totally Wired charts the coming of age of music publications covering the contemporary bands, trends, and scene. This book offers a history of the journalists who described the wild landscape of the rise of rock and its evolution from the 1950s to the 2000s, through R&B, pop, the Summer of Love, punk, and beyond. Author Paul Gorman chronicles the emergence of trailblazing music magazines in New York, Los Angeles, and London and their transformation into essential reading for anyone who cared about popular culture. Gorman captures the extraordinary rise of the inkies on the back of rock and roll’s explosion into the postwar American and British youth culture. He recounts the development of individual magazines from their Tin Pan Alley beginnings to Creem, Blender, and Crawdaddy! followed by the foundation of Rolling Stone, NME, Melody Maker, and Sounds—as well as the emergence of dedicated monthlies such as Q, The Face, and Mojo. Evoking the golden age of the music press, the book is illustrated with iconic magazine artwork and archival photography throughout. Writers such as Charles Shaar Murray, Greil Marcus, Nick Kent, and Tony Parsons not only documented the wild excesses of Led Zeppelin, the Who, and the Clash but also played an integral part in the development of the success of the bands themselves. Painting a complete picture of the scene, Gorman also tackles the entrenched sexism and racism faced by women and people from marginalized backgrounds as they tried to make it in the music industry, whether as musicians or journalists. An incisive and entertaining ride, this volume is perfect for anyone interested in popular culture, magazines, and underground cultural history.

The Highs and Lows of the Music Press

Inky Fingers

"Death, drugs, drink, divorce, infidelity, jail, sex, celebrity, fame, obsession, jealousy, nervous breakdowns, industrial action, one or two fist-fights, typewriters flying through windows, back-biting, bitching and score-setting - oh, and Nick Kent's pink underpants - the real history of the music press is much more than just a dust-dry account of publishing launches and circulation fluctuations." "In Their Own Write is an oral history celebrating five decades of the "champs, chumps and charlatans" - as Charles Shaar Murray describes them in his foreword - who populated this most fertile of media breeding grounds. Featuring the inside take on Rolling Stone, Q, Melody Maker, Spin, NME, Creem, Mojo, Zigzag, Blender and Smash Hits from the likes of former music hacks Cameron Crowe, Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill and Chrissie Hynde, it leaves no page unturned."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Adventures in the Music Press

In Their Own Write

Totally Wired is the definitive story of the music press on both sides of the Atlantic, tracing the rise and fall of the creatively fertile media sector which grew from humble beginnings nearly 100 years ago to become a multi-billion business which tested the limits of journalistic endeavour. Covering the music presss evolution from the 1950s to the 2000s, through rock & roll, Mod, the Summer of Love, Glam, Punk, Pop, Reggae, R&B and Hip Hop, Paul Gorman chronicles the development of individual magazines from Tin Pan Alley beginnings and the countercultural foundation of Rolling Stone, the underground press and the 70s heyday of NME, Melody Maker and Sounds. Illuminated by the authors first hand interviews, Gorman paints a complete picture of the scene exploring the role played by such writers as Lester Bangs, Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent in the development of the careers of the likes of David Bowie, The Clash and Led Zeppelin, and tackling head on the entrenched sexism and racism faced by women and people from marginalized backgrounds by shining a spotlight on those publications and individuals whose contributions have often been unfairly overlooked. Evoking the music presss kaleidoscopic visual identities, Totally Wired is illustrated with rare and legendary magazine artwork throughout. What emerges is a compelling narrative containing conflicting stories of unbound talent, blind ambition and sometimes bitter rivalries which make Totally Wired a rollercoaster and riveting read.

A facinating look at the changing fashions that have paralleled every new movement in pop and rock music, from Elvis's suits to today's street fashions.

Adventures in Pop and Rock Fashion

The Look

The Ending of the Human Era

Mysteries, Prophecies, and the Hollow Earth

Discover how giving of yourself can lead to some of the most joyous moments in your life—in a book that “deserves a special place on that shelf reserved for truly practical wisdom" (Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People). Not a day goes by without our being called upon to help one another--at home, at work, on the street, on the phone…. We do what we can. Yet so much comes up to complicate this natural response: "Will I have what it takes?" "How much is enough?" "How can I deal with suffering?" "And what really helps, anyway?" In this practical helper's companion, the authors explore a path through these confusions, and provide support and inspiration for us in our efforts as members of the helping professions, as volunteers, as community activists, or simply as friends and family trying to meet each other's needs. Here too are deeply moving personal accounts: A housewife brings zoo animals to lift the spirits of nursing home residents; a nun tends the wounded on the first night of the Nicaraguan revolution; a police officer talks a desperate father out of leaping from a roof with his child; a nurse allows an infant to spend its last moments of life in her arms rather than on a hospital machine. From many such stories and the authors' reflections, we can find strength, clarity, and wisdom for those times when we are called on to care for one another.

Small and tightly focused. Herb Lesters guides are concise city tours in a handy fold-out format that slips neatly into an intrepid travellers pocket.

In the City, 1975-78

Punk London

Lawrence Zeegen

Michael Gillette

Justine Frischmann

Inspired by experience in the music industry and origins as an aspiring pop star, British artist Michael Gillette delivers his greatest hits, demos, and rare cuts of the past three decades in DRAWN IN STEREO. Showcasing pieces produced for Beastie Boys, Paul McCartney, MGMT, and Beck among many others DRAWN IN STEREO focuses on Gillette s ability to channel music into compelling visual art. Gillette shares a curated collection of artistic approaches, including installations, fashion sketches, music video animation stills, and magazine contributions for Spin and The New Yorker. Filled with selections from more than 20 years of work created in Britain and America, DRAWN IN STEREO encompasses a wide spectrum of visual directions and celebrates many key projects. Featuring a foreword by Fred Deakin and interview by Elastica s Justine Frischmann, DRAWN IN STEREO reveals an inspired life, ranging from Britpop London and rooming with the Aphex Twin to a decade of creativity in San Francisco. Life needs a backbeat, and that rhythm needs some visuals. So, I ll keep sharpening the pencils, listening for the muse to sing me a new song. Michael Gillette"

Drawn in Stereo

A landmark publication offering a definitive overview of one of the most influential transatlantic magazines produced in the 1980s and 1990s

The Story of the Face

'I couldn't put this book down. Malcolm inspired us to make art out of our boredom and anger. He set us free' Bobby Gillespie, Primal ScreamIncluded in the Guardian 10 best music biographies'Excellent . . . With this book, Gorman convincingly moves away from the ossified image of McLaren as a great rock'n'roll swindler, a morally bankrupt punk Mephistopheles, and closer towards his art-school roots, his love of ideas. Tiresome, unpleasant, even cruel - he was, this book underlines, never boring' Sunday Times'Exhaustive . . . compelling' Observer'Definitive . . . epic' The Times'Gobsmacker of a biography' Telegraph'This masterful and painstaking biography opens its doorway to an era of fluorescent disenchantment and outlandish possibility' Alan MooreMalcolm McLaren was one of the most culturally significant but misunderstood figures of the modern era. Ten years after his life was cruelly cut short by cancer, The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren sheds fascinating new light on the public achievements and private life of this cultural iconoclast and architect of punk, whose championing of street culture movements including hip-hop and Voguing reverberates to this day. With exclusive contributions from friends and intimates and access to private papers and family documents, this biography uncovers the true story behind this complicated figure.McLaren first achieved public prominence as a rebellious art student by making the news in 1966 after being arrested for burning the US flag in front of the American Embassy in London. He maintained this incendiary reputation by fast-tracking vanguard and left-field ideas to the centre of the media glare, via his creation and stewardship of the Sex Pistols and work with Adam Ant, Boy George and Bow Wow Wow. Meanwhile McLaren's ground-breaking design partnership with Vivienne Westwood and his creation of their visionary series of boutiques in the 1970s and early '80s sent shockwaves through the fashion industry.The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren also essays McLaren's exasperating Hollywood years when he broke bread with the likes of Steven Spielberg though his slate of projects, which included the controversial Heavy Metal Surf Nazis and Wilde West, in which Oscar Wilde introduced rock'n'roll to the American mid-west in the 1880s, proved too rich for the play-it-safe film business.With a preface by Alan Moore, who collaborated with McLaren on the unrealised film project Fashion Beast, and an essay by Lou Stoppard casting a twenty-first-century perspective over his achievements, The Life & Times Of Malcolm McLaren is the explosive and definit

The Biography

The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren

'Excellent . . . With this book, Gorman convincingly moves away from the ossified image of McLaren as a great rock'n'roll swindler, a morally bankrupt punk Mephistopheles, and closer towards his art-school roots, his love of ideas. Tiresome, unpleasant, even cruel - he was, this book underlines, never boring' Sunday Times 'Exhaustive . . . compelling' Observer 'Definitive . . . epic' The Times 'Gobsmacker of a biography' Telegraph 'This masterful and painstaking biography opens its doorway to an era of fluorescent disenchantment and outlandish possibility' Alan Moore Malcolm McLaren was one of the most culturally significant but misunderstood figures of the modern era. Ten years after his life was cruelly cut short by cancer, The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren sheds fascinating new light on the public achievements and private life of this cultural iconoclast and architect of punk, whose championing of street culture movements including hip-hop and Voguing reverberates to this day. With exclusive contributions from friends and intimates and access to private papers and family documents, this biography uncovers the true story behind this complicated figure. McLaren first achieved public prominence as a rebellious art student by making the news in 1966 after being arrested for burning the US flag in front of the American Embassy in London. He maintained this incendiary reputation by fast-tracking vanguard and left-field ideas to the centre of the media glare, via his creation and stewardship of the Sex Pistols and work with Adam Ant, Boy George and Bow Wow Wow. Meanwhile McLaren's ground-breaking design partnership with Vivienne Westwood and his creation of their visionary series of boutiques in the 1970s and early '80s sent shockwaves through the fashion industry. The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren also essays McLaren's exasperating Hollywood years when he broke bread with the likes of Steven Spielberg though his slate of projects, which included the controversial Heavy Metal Surf Nazis and Wilde West, in which Oscar Wilde introduced rock'n'roll to the American mid-west in the 1880s, proved too rich for the play-it-safe film business. With a preface by Alan Moore, who collaborated with McLaren on the unrealised film project Fashion Beast, and an essay by Lou Stoppard casting a twenty-first-century perspective over his achievements, The Life & Times Of Malcolm McLaren is the explosive and definitive account of the man dubbed by Melvyn Bragg 'the Diaghilev of punk'.

Goldie

The inspirational autobiography by one of the most fascinating figures in the music industry. This is the unconventional and inspirational autobiography reflecting the many facets of Goldie's life. Cult-status graffiti artist, hip-hop icon, DJ, actor and producer, Goldie is a total original who succeeded in nurturing an extraordinary talent despite a highly damaged childhood. Brought up in a series of foster homes and institutions in the west Midlands, Goldie was neglected and abused for years. He turned to a life of crime in his teenage years, and became a burglar and safe-cracker with a serious drug problem. But he was also an artist on the rise, instinctively tapping into his unrestrained creativity. Through his own label he has produced and mixed bands such as the Fugees, Garbage, the Stone Roses and Pat Metheny. Madonna chose him to DJ at her comeback gig in London in November 1999. Goldie is now also an actor, appearing in a Bond film, Guy Ritchie's 'Snatch' and 'EastEnders'. This book is written in collaboration with Paul Gorman, a highly respected music journalist.

Paul Gorman

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