With appropriate extraordinary skill, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones can teach anyone about the art of music production. Dave Grohl — along with some of his rock counterparts — wonders when perfection became so important.
https://youtu.be/7iZqRbHrlzE
Ewan McGregor learned the title of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones on the red carpet. His reaction is awesome.
Go into any bookstore, and you’ll be amazed at the amount of different colouring books are on display – for kids and adults. Sugoi Books has released a new, unofficial Drake coloring book, while you’re waiting for your hotline to bling. Did I use that right?
In 2013, David Bowie shared his 100 favorite books on his official website, ranging from classic novels to biographies of musicians and everything in between. How many have you read?
Interviews With Francis Bacon by David Sylvester
Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
Room At The Top by John Braine
On Having No Head by Douglass Harding
Kafka Was The Rage by Anatole Broyard
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
City Of Night by John Rechy
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Iliad by Homer
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Tadanori Yokoo by Tadanori Yokoo
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
Inside The Whale And Other Essays by George Orwell
Mr. Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Halls Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art by James A. Hall
David Bomberg by Richard Cork
Blast by Wyndham Lewis
Passing by Nella Larson
Beyond The Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto
The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
In Bluebeard’s Castle by George Steiner
Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
The Divided Self by R. D. Laing
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Infants Of The Spring by Wallace Thurman
The Quest For Christa T by Christa Wolf
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter
The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodieby Muriel Spark
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Puckoon by Spike Milligan
Black Boy by Richard Wright
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima
Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler
The Waste Land by T.S. Elliot
McTeague by Frank Norris
Money by Martin Amis
The Outsider by Colin Wilson
Strange People by Frank Edwards
English Journey by J.B. Priestley
A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Day Of The Locust by Nathanael West
1984 by George Orwell
The Life And Times Of Little Richard by Charles White
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock by Nik Cohn
Mystery Train by Greil Marcus
Beano (comic, ’50s)
Raw (comic, ’80s)
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom by Peter Guralnick
Silence: Lectures And Writing by John Cage
Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews edited by Malcolm Cowley
The Sound Of The City: The Rise Of Rock And Roll by Charlie Gillete
Octobriana And The Russian Underground by Peter Sadecky
The Street by Ann Petry
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Last Exit To Brooklyn By Hubert Selby, Jr.
A People’s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn
The Age Of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby
Metropolitan Life by Fran Lebowitz
The Coast Of Utopia by Tom Stoppard
The Bridge by Hart Crane
All The Emperor’s Horses by David Kidd
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos
Tales Of Beatnik Glory by Ed Saunders
The Bird Artist by Howard Norman
Nowhere To Run The Story Of Soul Music by Gerri Hirshey
Before The Deluge by Otto Friedrich
Sexual Personae: Art And Decadence From Nefertiti To Emily Dickinson by Camille Paglia
The American Way Of Death by Jessica Mitford
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Teenage by Jon Savage
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Viz (comic, early ’80s)
Private Eye (satirical magazine, ’60s – ’80s)
Selected Poems by Frank O’Hara
The Trial Of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
Maldodor by Comte de Lautréamont
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders by Lawrence Weschler
Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Transcendental Magic, Its Doctine and Ritual by Eliphas Lévi
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Leopard by Giusseppe Di Lampedusa
Inferno by Dante Alighieri
A Grave For A Dolphin by Alberto Denti di Pirajno
The Insult by Rupert Thomson
In Between The Sheets by Ian McEwan
A People’s Tragedy by Orlando Figes
Journey Into The Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg
Rock icon Iggy Pop and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age recorded an album in secret and announced it for the first time tonight on The Late Show With Stphen Cobert.
Joshua tree. …It’s lovely because you have a chance to sort of make mistakes and figure things out and find your own path. When you make a record, nobody is aware you’re doing it, you’re kind of making it for each other and you’re kind of there to excite and dazzle each other.
The pair later debuted the song “Gardenia” from the new album, which will be available March 18, 2016.
https://youtu.be/DngIWkQVPgU
“Except for a few guitar chords, everything I’ve learned in my life that is of any value I’ve learned from women.”
– Glenn Frey
Everyone’s friends from Sesame Street are inviting kids to join their band. TheSesame Street Makes Music app, now available in the App Store, welcomes kids to discover musical instruments and play some of their favorite songs with Abby, Cookie Monster, Elmo and Ernie. Created by Sesame Workshop and IDEO with the NAMM Foundation,Sesame Street Makes Music provides fun ways for kids to explore tempo and beat and hear a variety of music genres.
Sesame Street Makes Music features six classic songs kids can play including a reggae version of “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” and a jug band rendition of “Old MacDonald.” Kids can play songs with the band in the Sesame Street concert hall or explore a variety of instruments on their own.
“Music has such a powerful connection to helping kids learn. Sesame Street Makes Music is an exciting, interactive way for kids to engage in the fun of expressing themselves through music and discovering the wide world of music with the characters and songs they love,” said Jennifer A. Perry, Vice President, North America Media Products and Publishing.
“Research continues to show that music learning may have profound health, social and cognitive development benefits even at the youngest ages,” said Mary Luehrsen, executive director of the NAMM Foundation. “But most of all, music is a fun way for kids to be creative and engage with the world around them. We hope that this app helps place the power of music and creativity into more kids’ hands, while kicking off a lifetime of music making!”
Sesame Street Makes Music is available for iPhone and iPad through the App Store for $2.99.
Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street which reaches 156 million children across more than 150 countries. The Workshop’s mission is to help kids grow smarter, stronger and kinder. Delivered through a variety of platforms, including television programs, digital experiences, books and community engagement, its research-based programs are tailored to the needs of the communities and countries they serve. For more information, visit us at www.sesameworkshop.org.
The NAMM Foundation is a nonprofit organization with the mission to advance active participation in music making across the lifespan by supporting scientific research, philanthropic giving and public service programs. For more information about the NAMM Foundation, please visit www.nammfoundation.org.
IDEO is a human-centered design and innovation firm ranked independently among the ten most innovative companies in the world. Learn how our team of child-development experts, veteran toy designers and interaction designers approach the creation of award-winning kid apps at www.ideotoylab.com.
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Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.
Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com
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