By Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! “Significantly, no matter how seemingly esoteric Python’s subject matter may have initially appeared to viewers, [Monty Python’s Flying Circus] always mixed an underlying erudition with surrealistic but ultimately accessible comedy, thus appealing to a legion of fans who – to this day – strive to ‘get’ Python’s myriad […]
Books
Let’s Just Say it Wasn’t Pretty by Diane Keaton (Random House, $31)
By Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! “I’m a performer who chose my profession because I wanted to be loved by large groups of people. This sort of choice-actually, more an impulse than a choice-has led me here, right where I am today.” -Diane Keaton (from Let’s Just Say it Wasn’t Pretty) Few people in the […]
I Don’t Know What You Know Me From: *Confessions of a Co-Star by Judy Greer (DoubleDay, $28.95)
By Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! “Shooting a movie on location is like summer camp, at least my experience of summer camp. You don’t know anyone when you get there, then you become fast friends with almost everyone and wonder how you survived without them in your life…and then it’s over as quickly as it […]
Lou Reed: The Life by Mick Wall (Orion Books, $34.99)
By Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! “…nothing Lou Reed ever did was fully embraced first time around.” -Mick Wall It is said that the Velvet Underground never sold more than a dozen albums, but everyone who bought one started their own band. Described as “…the most significant cult band in the world,” they influenced every […]
Jimmy Stewart: The Truth Behind the Legend by Michael Munn (Skyhorse Publishing, $31.95)
by Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! “He’s really a non-judgemental kind of guy, and that’s because he knows he is not a perfect man. He doesn’t pretend to be.” -Henry Fonda When I was young my mother worked nights at a bakery, and her first shift of the week started Sunday evening at seven. […]
The $11 Billion Year by Anne Thompson (Newmarket Press, $33.50)
by Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! “You taste bottom in this business. When you fail, you pick yourself up and get yourself back, whether with one movie or two. It’s not over, just keep going.” -Harvey Weinstein Growing up the movies were one of the few things my father, mother, brother and I did […]
Song of Spider-Man by Glen Berger (Simon & Schuster, $28.99)
by Andreas Kessaris for Curtians Up! “…this whole book is a story about storytelling – the story of an epic attempt by earnest human beings to tell a story and tell it brilliantly.” -Glen Berger Anyone who knows me well is aware that live theater is not my favorite form of entertainment. And that […]
The Greatest Movies You’ll Never See by Simon Braund (Cassel Illustrated, $27.99)
by Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’” -John Greenleaf Whittier There have been innumerable books about the greatest films ever made, (my personal favorites are Roger Ebert’s The Great Movies Volumes I, II and III; a series that will […]
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson (Berkley Trade, $17)
by Andreas Kessaris for Curtains up! The following is an open letter to Jenny Lawson a.k.a. The Blogess: Dear Ms. Lawson, Recently a co-worker strongly recommended your book Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) to me claiming it is the funniest book she has ever read. So imagine my surprise when your […]
Beatles vs. Stones by John McMillian (Simon and Schuster, $29.99)
By Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! “Whenever one group displaced the other at the top of the music charts, the news ran under a screeching headline, as if the Beatles and the Stones were football rivals or opposing candidates in a high-stakes election.” -John McMillian Coke or Pepsi? Mac or PC? Maple Leafs or […]