James Bond is the late twentieth century's first and longest-lasting pop culture myth. Nothing solidified the franchise's place in our culture and our imagination than the songs accompanying each film. Kronengold and Daub's book looks at the good ("Live & Let Die", "Skyfall", "You Only Live Twice"), the bad ("Goldeneye", "Moonraker") and the ugly ("Die Another Day", "View to a kill"). The James Bond Songs places each track in its cultural context alongside its film, its structure, lyrics, and what that has to say about Bond and Bond in the culture at-large. This is an important, but above-all fun, piece of cultural criticism and a must for any Bond fan or pop culture junkie.
How do you and your collaborators utterly and irrevocably change an art form? How do you breathe new life into something familiar to make it shockingly new? Well, for starters you need to be as distinctly gifted in your craft as Bertol Brecht and Kurt Weill. The rest of the equation lies within the pages of Pamela Katz's fascinating book.
The longest, most exhausting, most grueling, and most enviable job in the television industry is that of showrunner. In addition to overseeing every department (and often creating and leading the writing of the show) the showrunner guides the show thematically and narratively all the while ensuring it all runs on scheduling. Featuring such industry vets like Joss Whedon and Terence Winter this is a fascinating insight into the creation of the shows we so love deeply and vociferously consume.
