Book Review: Marie Osmond: Behind The Smile

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:54

Direct link: http://tinyurl.com/behindthesmile

Monday, June 25, 2001 11:47 AM

Title: Marie Osmond, Behind The Smile - My Journey out of Postpartum Depression

Author: Osmond, Marie; Wilkie, Marcia; Moore, Dr. Judith

Publisher: Warner Books

ISBN: 0446527769

Year: 2001

Marie Osmond still has star power and Behind The Smile will do much for women suffering from "Postpartum Depression," even if it just explains something people hear from time to time but might not fully understand. Unlike her brother and business associate Donny Osmond's Life Is Just What You Make It: My Story So Far, Marie's book almost reads like the biography of Karen Carpenter had Karen not met an untimely demise. This, however, is not really a biography.

There are those types of details, for sure, however Behind The Smile reveals much more about Marie Osmond than even she may realize. Where Donny Osmond's book had the skillful help of Patricia Romanowski, there's a balance that is missing here. Romanowski's experience with so many stars, exemplary work on the bios of Annette Funicello and Mary Wilson just two examples, gives her great insight on how to tell a story. Despite the help of television writer Marcia Wilkie and Dr. Judith Moore, this book really feels like it was written, first hand, by Marie Osmond. It also gives hints towards her depression. Flip to any page and count the number of times she employs the word "I".

Twenty-five on page 151, Sixteen on page 86, Twenty-two on page 117, gee only eight on page 87. Let's estimate the use of the word twenty times per page times three hundred and four pages, that's a whopping six thousand eighty times she may have referred to herself! It can wear on the reader. Where Romanowski tells Donny's story so well, this painful saga shows the root of the problem may be Marie Osmond's obsession with herself. She certainly suffered from depression, and if she wasn't born an Osmond, she probably would have led a very nice life with a very nice home and there would not be this book - an important book. She might have been just another obscure individual going through a private hell. That the book flew out of libraries with "high demand" shows that this is a more than necessary lifeline for women who may have never had an easily accessible resource guide to describe the symptoms of PPD, or a place to find help. It is here. And on that level it gets Five stars. A chapter called "Marie's List of PPD Symptoms" is hilarious, and she injects subtle humor throughout the book, clever digs at her family which fans will find fun. Dr. Judith Moore's contributions are very substantial, and very well written - there are hardly any "I's", and the discussion of potential treatments is impressive.

The appendix contains a suicide hotline as its first entry, and many, many websites, addresses and phone numbers for women to find help.

It is a remarkable book containing beautiful photos, and adds to the legacy which the Donny Osmond/Patricia Romanowski book began chronicling. Dennis Miller said on a radio interview in Boston that no one invites you to be in the music business, and he elaborated in his funny way how tough it truly is. Like other child stars, Judy Garland as a prime example, Marie Osmond became a commodity. She realizes it. One cannot fault her for her being so absorbed with herself, performing onstage with Olivia Newton-John and Raquel Welch and other superstars can certainly intimidate, as well as build an ego. One gets the sense that Marie Osmond learned her lesson, that she survived an industry which destroyed so many others. That her disease was quite real is a given, but she comes off almost like a spoiled brat, and that may have been a factor as to why her needs were many. However, she does emerge as a real, very human, and very flawed survivor. That can only enhance her image.

behindthesmile

Another Marie Osmond Book

Last Updated on Monday, 05 October 2009 00:47

Book Review: How To Promote Your Book On The Web

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 17 September 2009 06:04

"Author David Nevue has created a direct and easy to understand roadmap for marketing your music on the world wide web. This book contains fundamentals that major artists, as well as those on independent labels, should read and absorb....David goes to the heart of the matter: Music Marketing Strategies That Bring Results!...It is a very well rounded catalogue of ideas, and the serious musician will find it an excellent starting point. Nevue's practical guide will get you thinking beyond the immediate gratification of hearing your song played a few times on Internet radio, to the more substantial art of selling records via the Internet."
- Joe Viglione

http://www.musicbizacademy.com/bookstore/htpromotemusic.htm

Book Review: Swing It:An Annotated History Of Jive

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 17 September 2009 09:01

Title: SWING IT! An Annotated History Of Jive

Author: Milkowski, Bill

Publisher: Billboard Books/Watson-Guptill Publications

Year: 2001

ISBN: 0823076717

The two hundred and eighty-eight pages that make up {-Swing It!} by jazz critic {$Bill Milkowski} are a fascinating look into another world of music, a world which overlaps into the realms of pop, jazz, blues, and other genres. To see names like
{$Bing Crosby}, {$Bette Midler}, {$The Andrews Sisters}, {$Elvis Costello} and similar artists even marginally associated with this "quintessentially American sound"
is an eye opener. Perhaps the foreword by
{$Manhattan Transfer} founder {$Tim Hauser} would serve better as the epilogue, it throws the neophyte reader into these waters
without a paddle and is a very tough read, though cleverly amusing. The rest of the book is much more accessible, informative and invaluable. As {$Kris Engelhardt's} {-Beatles Undercover} took us on a journey giving insight on performers who had the honor of having a {$Beatle} play on his or her recording, {$Milkowski} gives the reader mini-biographies of the men and women who were "a highly specialized group of musicians who were a compound of jazz and comedy, of improvisation and clowning" as he tells us jazz critic {$Whitney Balliet} described one "jivestress", Nellie Lutcher. The author also says in the preface that he wants to give praise due to
"those figures who have historically fallen
through the cracks." He does this with a vengeance, from the eight pages including a brilliant photo of "the grand high exalted mystic ruler of jive" {$Louis Jordan} through the influential world of flamboyant guitarist {$T-Bone Walker}, it is clear the author is passionate about his subject matter. For those not as interested in this art form, there is a wealth of information on musicians who matter, from {$Fats Waller}, {$Cab Calloway} and {$The Andrew Sisters to Dr. John and {$Roomful Of Blues}, naming just a few. The "A-Z Jive Dictionary" and listing of "Jive expressions" in the back of the book aren't
necessary to read this work (though they may help decipher Tim Hauser's foreword),
but they are mind boggling components of a vernacular indigenous to the members of this exclusive society. Milkowski's efforts are a key for those who wish to enter that world. For those who don't, Swing It! is an amazing resource including an invaluable bibliography and even websites.

Joe Viglione

Book Review: The Doors - No One Gets out Of Here Alive

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 17 September 2009 09:01

Show Biz From Vaude to Video

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 17 September 2009 10:02

Joe Laurie, Jr. on Wikipedia

Title: Show Biz From Vaude To Video

Authors: Green, Abel and Laurie Jr., Joe

Publisher: Henry Holt & Company

Date: 1951

ISBN: n/a

In the preface written September, 1951, the authors make it clear this is partly the biography of Variety magazine founder Sime Silverman, and part theatrical history. They claim 230,000 words in the 613 pages written in "Varietyese", and that is the probable flaw in what otherwise is a very good look at stage and screen showbusiness up to and during the advent of television, and a little beyond.

There is a six page glossary at the back of the book which is mandatory when attempting to decipher some of the jargon, for example, a "Foldee" is a show that folded, one that "Flivved" means it flopped, and "Flopped" means "performance that didn't get over." This tends to get in the way of the rich history, though some can look at it as an authentic picture of not only what was going on but how it was written about. At least one of the authors was a Variety reporter, so there is little objectivity when it comes to their commentary on the magazine itself, but the discussion of politics, the plethora of wonderful names - the struggles of those stars and their successes - is very informative, highly entertaining, and perhaps, most important, is of tremendous value historically.

From the Cakewalk craze, jazz and the interest in dance bands, to the behind the scenes shenanigans of once huge names like "the most powerful man in Vaudeville" B.F. Keith, the documentation by the authors is commendable. There is info on Oscar Hammerstein I, Oscar Hammerstein 2nd, Willie Hammerstein and Arthur Hammerstein; great material about Mae West's} exploits and the "blue" plays of 1927, the forming of United Artists by "the big five", Mary Pickford, William S. Hart, Douglas Fairbanks, D.W.Griffith and Charlie Chaplin - and that "it took a total of 10 lawyers to draw up ironclad contracts" between the stars who formed this alliance. Upon Variety founder Sime Silverman's death in 1933 the authors go out on a limb calling him "possibly the most influential and the best-loved man in the amusement industry", one wonders how many acts that got panned (a word not in the glossary!) would be as glowing in their praise? What is riveting about this book is the impact of the various entertainment entities which arrived to fight for the dollar, and how one industry might fear the next (say radio's dismay over television arriving on the scene), but how these mediums often ended up complementing each other. It is the stars, though, from stageshows to silent pictures to "Talkers" (sound films, rarely called "talkies" in Variety according to the glossary) which drive each industry, and since they say history repeats itself, this is quite a valuable guide to what attracts an audience, what drives the press, and the maneuvers of the moguls, artists, and characters in between.

A modernized edition of this book, updating the language while expanding the material, could serve as an indispensible guide to what went on in the early days of the entertainment industry, and how so many make the same mistakes decades later. The 1940 battle of ASCAP with radio over music fees, the Federal Radio Commission "pressing for FM" (that other radio band), Vaudeville's decline, film on the rise, circuses and carnivals, the passing of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and its impact on show business, the rise of what "show biz" called the "monster" (television), early subscription television, color tv, the status of radio, all these elements are brought to the table as the book concludes "at midcentury." Indeed, the description of television as "video", and the fright felt by the "legit" stages of Broadway, radio, and the the entertainment industry as a whole when the new Technology was on the horizon, reflect how decades after this book was written and published, TV itself feared people owning films on VHS and BETA tapes - those formats themselves causing as much controversy as the medium they contained. Authors Abel Green and Joe Laurie Jr. do a good job of documenting the drama of it all, while allowing the reader to feel like they - as the audience - are part of it all.

Joe Viglione

Monday, August 6, 2001 11:37 AM

Last Updated on Friday, 18 September 2009 05:48

Book Review: Dusty Springfield

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 17 September 2009 10:10

Authors: Valentine, Penny and Wickham, Vicki

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Year: 2001

ISBN: 0312282028

Looking at the cover photo of {@Hip O Records} {^Dusty Springfield: Ultimate Collection} one gets the image that accompanied those classic hits from the sixties, {&"I Only Want To Be With You"}, {&"Wishin' & Hopin'"}, {&"The Look Of Love"}, {&"A Brand New Me"}, all the way up to her '80's hit with {$The Pet Shop Boys}, {&"What Have I Done To Deserve This?"}. A glance at the cover of the authorized biography, {-Dancing With Demons}, brings the vacant stare of another personality, bared in this tome written by the singer's close friends, journalist {$Penny Valentine} and former manager {$Vicki Wickham}. Despite the obvious care and difficult balancing act by the authors, the book is a frustrating read for fans of {$Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien}, the woman who transformed herself into the legendary {$Dusty Springfield}. Difficult because the book spends more time dealing with {$Springfield's} personality than
the making of the music, the one thing that is so identifiable to the fans who hear her songs on the radio, who relish the memories Dusty made for them. The image that was crafted and constructed with meticulous care is exposed, the flaws magnified. The strength of this intriguing biography is that it gathers the rich history of early British music and chronicles the days when {$The Beatles}, {$The Animals}, {$The Rolling Stones} and so many others were creating something that would change the world. The book notes that it was {$Dusty's} hit with {$The Springfields}, {&"Silver Threads And Golden Needles"}, which opened the door for the British Invasion in America - and how essential the TV show the singer hosted, {#Ready, Steady, Go!}, would be to musicians, the public, as well as to Dusty herself. Co-author {$Wickham} was involved in {#Ready,Steady, Go!} and more information on
the program which had {$Dusty Springfield} and
{$Jimi Hendrix} performing on a now classic segment, more emphasis on the recording sessions that made such magical 45s, more vital statistics regarding the singer and her concerts, would fulfill the need fans of the late singer have. Instead the book puts the emphasis on "the demons", and the focus is on Dusty's battles with alcohol, pills, and her gay lovers. The late {$Tony Secunda}, manager of {$The Moody Blues}, said "It's a business of rejections", as he rejected the opportunity to sell a biography of a record producer, his former partner {$Jimmy Miller}, without "scandal" involving {$The Rolling Stones}. It's like taking all the bad aspects of {$Judy Garland's} life and mentioning for a few pages that she did some movie, {#The Wizard Of Oz}. Reading about the relationship between {$Springfield} and folksinger/artist
{$Norma Tanega}, who hit in 1966 with {&"Walkin' My Cat Named Dog"}, is a revelation, and is fun stuff, but thoroughly exposing the insane side of a gifted artist is what will unsettle the true Dusty devotee. It also begs the question: how could those who loved this woman allow all this to happen? {$Oscar Levant} said "there is a thin line between genius and insanity...and I have erased that line." In this book the lines get blurred and the {$Dusty Springfield} genius, the enormous talent, is not quantified. The exquisite photo collection
inside a completely different picture than what
the reader comes away with after absorbing the
printed words. The book gives one of the best definitions of that nebulous term, "diva", on record, and has some great moments despite the descent into the depths. {$Dusty Springfield's} rock hard stance against
apartheid is one of them, her sharing the joy of her "Order Of The British Empire" award with
patients of the Royal Marsden Hospital towards the end of her life is another.
But one wishes that there was more in-depth
information on the musical fun had with
{$Madeline Bell}, {$Doris Troy}, {$Nona Hendryx}, more exploration of the work that
went into the album {^Dusty In Memphis},
a discography, and a list of all the {#Ready, Steady, Go!} shows. Now that would've been something. {$Dusty Springfield's} life
to her fans was all about songs like {&"I Only Want To Be With You"}. The demons are something the fans knew nothing about, and are, perhaps, something Dusty would rather them not meet.

Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 17 September 2009 10:11

Direct link to this article: http://tinyurl.com/hendrixblackgold

Title: Black Gold: The Lost Archives Of Jimi Hendrix

Author: Roby, Steven

Publisher: Billboard Books / Watson-Guptill

Publications ISBN:082307854 X

Year: 2002

With an interesting and enlightening Foreword by Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding, former Straight Ahead fan magazine publisher/editor Steven Roby has written an indispensable guide to the music of the genius of the electric guitar, Jimi Hendrix, including the early and unreleased recordings that have had so many question marks surrounding them for so many years. That expression "When you love something enough it gives itself to you" applies here as the book is lovingly packaged with a regal photo of the guitarist on a slick black / off-gold cover.

Black Gold: The Lost Archives Of Jimi Hendrix helps puts a focus on material that has flooded both the commercial and the underground market in the decades since the guitarist's passing. Roby goes to great lengths to give the reader information on how many tracks were recorded with Curtis Knight, what place in time the infamous Mike Ephron jams were taped, and detailed information on sessions with The Isley Brothers, Little Richard, Don Covay And The Goodtimers, the numerous musicians Jimi jammed with as well as the roads Hendrix traveled - making for a true biography of the man's musical journey.

The research is intense, and for Hendrix fans or scholars, it is a relentless accumulation of dates and facts told in a captivating manner. The story of these audio and video recordings and the people who made them, and how they've survived over the years, makes for a great detective novel. This isn't the Elvis Presley catalog with the diligence of RCA Records keeping near perfect files and metal parts as well as masters - on the contrary - a figure who is the "king" of the guitar as Elvis was the "king" of rock and roll had his material thrown to the four winds - be it manager Michael Jeffery losing the contents of his office by not paying his rent in 1972 - leaving behind 20 Band Of Gypsys' master reels or producer Alan Douglas overdubbing musicians onto the original recordings - there is no doubt that the Jimi Hendrix catalog of music is one of the messiest in rock and roll history. The book is 278 pages with small print, but the layout is almost perfect with bold type for the status of the tapes or jams discussed. What is missing, though, is a complete discography of all the recordings that have been released with Hendrix performing on them, as well as those discs which have his name but none of his artistry.

That is a job in itself and might require two full books. Just going through the Ed Chalpin tapes and the release of the Curtis Knight material over the years is another huge task, and Roby does a good job of providing the pivotal information on what is known to exist. As more tapes are bound to surface, this book will, no doubt, be updated, and that is good news for the fans of the guitar legend. Roby has done here what Warner Brothers and Capitol Records should have joined forces to do when the artist still alive: detailed his every recording, his every move.

With a legacy as important as that of Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Elvis, it is only now through the efforts of Experience Hendrix, and authors like Steven Roby that the work is finally getting the attention and appreciation it deserves. That Jimi Hendrix recorded with Jayne Mansfield is a little known fact; that his appearance with Dusty Springfield on television has been repaired by a fan matching a home audio tape with the only known remaining silent film footage of that performance is the kind of thing that only proves how vital the fans are in preserving music by our icons and heroes. This book is an extraordinary work that will hopefully foster more interest in the music of Jimi Hendrix. Post Script: The author notes that "a live performance of Little Richard and Hendrix surfaced in 2000" on page 38. Actually, the tape became known in 1996 when this writer interviewed mastering engineer Little Walter DeVenne for the program Visual Radio-Television.

DeVenne recorded Hendrix and Little Richard in a city outside of Boston in 1964 and this writer brought Experience Hendrix and Little Walter DeVenne together in 2000.

Joe Viglione

Monday, March 25, 2002 10:23 AM

Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 October 2009 02:48

Book Review: Rolling Stones 40 x 20

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 17 September 2009 10:14

Remember to click on the book covers to go directly into Gemm.com

Direct link to this article here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/rollingstones40x20

Title: Rolling Stones 40x20

Editor: Murray, Chris

Publisher: Billboard

Books (Watson-Guptill)

ISBN: 0823084167

Year: 2002

The title is a take-off on The Rolling Stones' 1964 record releases 12 x 5 and 5 x 5, where the five musicians released a dozen songs on an album and five tunes on an EP. In this book, the founder and director of the Govinda Gallery in Washington D.C., Chris Murray, edits the work of "20 world class photographers" to commemorate the 40th anniversary tour by "The Greatest Rock & Roll Band in The World." For Stones fans it is an absolute must. Printed and bound by Palace Press International of Hong Kong the text stock is "140 gsm Japanese matte art paper and printed four color with spot gloss varnish" which, in lay man's terms, makes this book itself a real work of art. Each photographer's work is pretty much in chronological order which gives a startling glimpse of this band so many grew up with spanning forty years of aging and immortality.

The cover photo, titled "Eleven Hands", is by Michael Cooper and is a gatefold cover with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts looking straight at you off the bookshelf, Bill Wyman and Brian Jones, the two Stones not on the 40th Anniversary Tour, tucked inside until you expand the page out. Instead of a play on words it is a very clever play on picture, a print which also forms the centerfold of the book on pages 56 and 57. This work is from 1967's photo session for the Satanic Majesties Request album and the text by Adam Cooper, the photographer's son, adds much to the legend. Baron Wolman's capturing Mick Jagger on the set of the film Performance is quite telling, as are the frozen moments of Mick in Oakland, 1969 set next to Keith Richards in Oakland, 1978.

Wolman's essay shines a light on the time, as do all the photographers' memories, words which open their mini portfolios included here. When William Coupon shot the Rolling Stone cover photo of Mick Jagger in 1983 (when his solo disc, She's The Boss, came out), he was photographing Elie Weisel the same day; so too Baron Wolman was taking photos of The Who and George Harrison the same week he was doing the Performance session, while Michael Cooper worked on The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album as well as Satanic Majesties. These professionals were capturing a special moment in time and capturing the artists who were The Stones' peers. Engineer Eddie Kramer gets a positive nod for including a photo of Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger at Madison Square Garden in 1969, and for including anecdotes about the late producer for The Stones, Jimmy Miller. But Eddie has to be chastised for claiming to have co-produced Miller's work with Traffic in these pages. Bob Gruen gives us Andy Warhol with Mick 1967 in New York, while Michael Joseph and Barry Feinstein unleash more of the notorious Beggar's Banquet photo sessions. The book is a trip, literally and figuratively, and for fans of The Rolling Stones who may be a bit jaded because so much is out there already on this group, Rolling Stones 40 x 20 will surprise.

It is a sweeping history of the ensemble in words and pictures which doesn't let those who appreciate the band down. In fact, it is one of the best books available on The Rolling Stones. 118 pages chock full of memories and insight placed in a very classy setting.

Joe Viglione

Monday, October 28, 2002 10:20 AM

Edited Sunday, September 20, 2009, 1:17 AM

Huge archive of Rolling Stones books here:

Last Updated on Sunday, 20 September 2009 01:38

Book Review: Beatles Gear

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 17 September 2009 10:16

Andy Babiuk's new book

Beatles Gear -

All The

Fab Four's Instruments, From

Stage To Studio

is out now and the book's new web site is up.

Just click http://www.beatlesfabgear.com

to find out the latest on the book including a George Harrison

Tribute article in Rolling Stone and about Playboy's book pick for

the holiday season. Enter to win the Fab Gear Giveaway!
--
Beatles Gear:
All The Fab Four's Instruments, From Stage To Studio
c/o Fab Gear Ltd.
Living Eye Studios
PO Box 12956
Rochester, New York 14612
USA
email; beatlesgear@att.net
website; http://www.beatlesfabgear.com

Book Review: Station to Station

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 17 September 2009 10:18

Station To Station

Title: Station To Station:The History of
Rock 'n' Roll on Television

Author: Weingarten, Mike

Publisher: Pocket Books / Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 0671034448

Year: 2000

{-Station To Station - The History Of Rock 'n'
Roll On Television} covers important dynamics between
tv and the music industry - and gives a handle on why
the perfect on paper marriage was such a difficult
courtship. From {$Perry Como} to {$Elvis Presley},
{$Dick Clark} and the original {$Ozzy}, {$Ozzie
Nelson}, the author lays a good foundation for the
watershed event: {$The Beatles} on {#The Ed Sullivan
Show}. This chapter alone is worth reading and
re-reading for lessons on how to score and negotiate
a coup. The psychology behind {$Ed Sullivan}, the
problems with recording the event during the
pandemonium, and tragically, how it demolished the
comedy career of {$Charlie Brill} and {$Mitzi McCall},
the married couple whose "big break" bombed in front
of {$Beatles'} fans, the clashing of the cultures, is
gripping no matter how many times you've heard the
story. Author {$Weingarten} brings important insight
regarding this moment to the readers, and naturally
follows it up with {$The Monkees}, including a
precious quote from {$Brian Epstein} on "the Prefab
Four".
From {$John Lennon} and {$Yoko Ono} on {#The Mike
Douglas Show} to the creation of {$David Cassidy} and
other teen idols, the evolution of the mediums merging
culminates when {$Michael Jackson} conquers {@MTV} and
the {#Motown 25} special establishing himself by using
TV as a
tool. {$Jackson's} having been brought up in the TV
environment readied him for his moment and
{-Station To Station} explains how {$Madonna}
and {$Michael} used their instincts to manipulate the
box in our homes to their advantage. {$Weingarten}
gives his overview of the seven
decades of television, from {#The Grand Ole Opry} to
{@VH1's} {#Behind The Music} and his predictions for
the future. It's a powerful
three hundred and twenty one pages that is highly
entertaining for fans of music and TV, but on an
entirely different level, it's a great textbook
worthy of classroom study.

Amalie R, Rothschild LIVE AT THE FILLMORE EAST

Written by Joe Viglione

Saturday, 19 September 2009 20:58

Remember to click on the album to go directly into Gemm.com itself to find copies of this book

http://tinyurl.com/liveatthefillmoreeast is the direct link to this article

TITLE: Live At The Fillmore East
Author: Amalie R. Rothschild with Ruth Ellen Gruber
Published by Thundersmouth Press (An Acid Test Productions Book)
Foreword by Mickey Hart

Amalie R. Rothschild appeared on our TV program, Visual Radio-Television, #136, to discuss this incredible collection of photographs from Bill Graham's legendary Fillmore East. The Bill Graham Presents list of shows (page 141-150) dates from 3/8/68 - 6-27-71 is the Holy Grail for rock historians and fans alike: Buddy Guy opens for The Who, Fleetwood Mac opens for Country Joe & The Fish, Led Zeppelin open for Iron Butterfly (1-31-69, 2-1-69) - 31 years ago in a time when the music really and truly mattered. Simply amazing stuff. Page 64 has a photo of Janis Joplin as well as a photo of Ray Charles, but it's page 118 with perhaps the rarest shot of all, November 27, 1969, Tina Turner singing with Janis Joplin at Madison Square Garden, opening for The Rolling Stones.

Today's music cannot even begin to compare with the early days of psychedelic and acid rock...page 65 has April 3, 1971, the suddenly Chic Carlos Santana, hip 29 years ago, the #1 album in the country this week, 1/22/2000 ... think about it. This book is an absolute must have and a true treasure.

We will be posting some of the interview with Amalie R. Rothschild on YouTube.com/Gemmzine in the coming months.

Review edited September 20, 2009 9 years and 8 months after the book was released.

Originally published Jan 22 2000, 4:00 am

Newsgroups: alt.books

Date: 2000/01/22

Joe Vig talks to Hendrix photographer Amalie Rothschild

Last Updated on Sunday, 20 September 2009 00:29

Kate Genovese reviewed by Robert Francos

Written by Review by Robert Barry Francos; other materials Official Press Release

Wednesday, 23 September 2009 23:48

Direct link to this page is here: http://tinyurl.com/twoweekssincemy

Robert Barry Francos:

"Definitely a quick and enjoyable read, that makes me want to seek out her other works."

Book Review: Two Weeks Since My Last Confession, by Kate Genovese

Two Weeks Since My Last Confession
By Kate Genovese
Mountain Valley Publishing, 2009
368 pages, $17.95
ISBN: 978-1-934940-63-1

But first I digress… The central character of this book, Molly O’Brien, was born on October 19. Not only is that my mom’s birthday, but it’s also the day I started reading this! How much of a portent is that?

The focus of the novel is the large, Boston-based Irish-Catholic O’Brien family, who smacks of a Kennedy political mien. As the siblings grow up from the 1950s through the mid-‘80s, this story pinpoints mostly on three of them: Molly, Susan, and their brother Sean, highlighting their relationships, interaction with each other, the power of their family, and their participation with Catholic Church.

In this, Genovese’s third release, she uses her background in nursing to cover a multitude of sins including a large number of social ills, such as teen pregnancy, prostitution, PTSD, and abuse, such as drug, physical and sexual. As we meet Molly, it is the late ‘70s and she is in rough shape. She wonders how her life came to this point, and so we begin a flashback to her birth.

Growing up, she was one of eight kids, and the one with the strongest will. And yet, her mother’s ferverant religious zeal tears at her and wears her down. She acts out again and again, and a memory of an uncomfortable series of nights at home keeps her out of the house, leading her into more and more trouble. Genovese shows the reader step by step, making us desire to help and yet feel powerless.

This is also a story of its time. The effects of teen pregnancy or spousal abuse then would not have the same effect on a political family now. Also, with the present technology and celebrity family media fixation, there would be less chance for the political head of a family to be able to pull as many strings to keep family laundry more secretive.

While very little of the story takes place within the Church proper, its pull is felt on nearly every page, hence the title. The shunning led through the Church’s influence on its parishioners to unwed mothers through the pressures of confession and supposed forgiveness, is only conceded on the parish’s terms. This is its form of abuse most prevalent throughout these pages.

As a storyteller, Genovese knows how to keep the reader interested in what happens to the people this story revolves around, and in fact, I wouldn’t mind a second book about the rest of the clan that gets more of a peripheral glance. For example, two of the sisters see beyond what troubles Molly, and stand by her. What makes them tick, I wondered, since they were raised by this same intense family?

Despite the good storytelling, there are a few concerns that plagued me. First of all, the ending seems just a little too feel-good and pat. Also, by placing the time of the novel, Genovese avoids HIV/AIDS, though I doubt this was meant intentionally.

My biggest problem with the book though, and I realize this may be nit-picking, is that like many self-published works (it can be bought on-line though, from numerous sources), it needs more solid editing and proofreading, as it’s rife with grammatical errors (for example, the word “seen” is used rather than “scene”). There is also the occasional clumsy sentence structure that could easily be picked up by a dedicated line-editor. The story and author deserve that, especially in this instance, when the narrative is so solid.

I do like that while the abuse is aplenty, much of the physical stuff is left kind of vague, thereby relying more on story than on mere shock value. This seems to give the tale more validity, as life is vague, especially when one looks at memories many years later.

Despite the high drama, there is a good and firm story here that is enjoyable to follow, and I must admit it was enough of a page turner that I kept reading more often than most books I’ve read recently. Definitely a quick and enjoyable read, that makes me want to seek out her other works.

Posted by Robert Barry Francos

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASES FROM KATEGENOVESE.COM

When Molly O’Brien comes into the world in 1951, she never imagines that her life will turn out the way it does. Born into a wealthy family in which her father is a senator and her mother a devout Catholic, Molly receives a good upbringing and has all the reason in the world to be happy. Yet somehow, at the age of thirty, she is addicted to heroin and hasn’t been employed for years. Her father believes that the corrupting influences of society are at fault, while her mother is convinced it’s Molly’s own depravity that has caused her ruin and her failure to stay in the Catholic church. Her older brother Sean, however, knows who is really to blame: he holds the family secrets that have caused all of his sister’s problems and are leading her down the harrowing road to drug addiction. And ultimately he knows that he and his parents are the only ones who can lead her out.

A dramatically written family saga, Two Weeks Since my Last Confession is the story of one woman’s survival in the face of serious childhood abuse and addiction. More than this, it is a tale which chronicles the triumph of the human spirit over its enemies — not only external enemies but also the ones we find within ourselves.

Love between a man and a woman is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and spiritual exchanges between two human beings. It is also one of the most tragic, particularly when alcohol, drugs, dysfunctional families, and a life-threatening liver disease are thrown into the mix. LOVING JOE GALLUCCI is one such love affair. It is the poignant romantic tale of Meg Flaherty, daughter of an eminent Massachusetts senator, and Jimmy Romano, a blue-collar boy always trying to prove himself to the imperious Flaherty clan. Taking place over a period of thirty years, the novel chronicles the tumultuous courtship and marriage of the couple as they progress from heavy drinkers and IV drug users to sober and respectable members of their community who must nonetheless pay the price for the reckless acts of their younger years. When Jimmy reaches middle age, he goes to the doctors one day and discovers that he has Hepatitis C, a deadly inflammation of the liver caused by an HCV virus that drug users often get through needle use. Now, with a family and a wife whose fidelity to and love for him are extraordinary, Jimmy is forced to fight the last and biggest battle of his life, or else die a death caused by the destructive demons of a past he thought he'd conquered many years before.

More than anything, LOVING JOE GALLUCCI is a story of redemption and resurrection of the Romano family through the triumph over adversity, and through faith, hope, and unconditional love. In its final analysis, this book is a call to arms against a liver disease so subtle and yet so damaging that it could perhaps be called the AIDS epidemic of the twenty-first century.

When sixteen year old Kate Genovese went to visit her sister Denise in the hospital in 1968, she claims "something clicked that very moment, I wanted to make Denise better again, heal her shattered body and make her laugh... I couldn't put words to my feelings, but I knew I wanted to do more then just visit" That day Kate discovered her calling in life, nursing, and spent the next thirty years on an adventure that has been at once rewarding and devastating, tumultuous and spiritual. Her memoir poignantly describes the adventures of her nursing career, beginning with her trialsome days as an LPN, where she lost her nursing license because of a drug addiction, her recovery, and going back to school once again to obtain her RN. The memoir meanders through the eighties and nineties, where she writes about her experiences with insurance companies and federal medicare systems, which have proven to be somewhat flawed in the method in which they fund patients. Interspersed within the memoir are hilarious anecdotes about nursing "mishaps" magical accounts of patients having near death experiences, and tales of strength, hope, and courage in a world of sickness and death.

Direct link to this page is here: http://tinyurl.com/twoweekssincemy

Talk to author Kate Genovese: http://kategenovese.com/contact.html

Publisher: http://www.mountainvalleypublishing.com/twoweeks.asp

Last Updated on Sunday, 22 November 2009 18:55