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Dylan, Young, Fleetwood: Music publishing sector booming with high-profile sales
New York (AFP) - The pandemic has left the performance industry reeling but music publishing, a normally under-the-radar side of the business, is roaring thanks to a frenzy of high-profile music catalog sales. The royalty streams of songwriting copyright portfolios can prove lucrative for the long haul, and increasingly are enticing investors even as other industries tank under the pandemic's weight. In many cases, the transactions have come at staggering prices: Bob Dylan sold his full publishing catalog for a reported sum of $300 million to Universal Music Publishing Group, while Stevie Nic...
AFP
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Publishing company cancels upcoming book by Sen. Josh Hawley
KANSAS CITY, Mo.— Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley called Simon & Schuster a “woke mob” for canceling his upcoming book Thursday, the day after an actual mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. Simon & Schuster said in a statement it had decided not to release the Republican senator’s book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech.” The company added that it didn’t come to the decision lightly. Hawley was the first senator to sign on to an objection to the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, joining a challenge to Pennsylvania’s results that ensured Congress would debate the e...
The Kansas City Star
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Rick Kogan: The story behind 'The Queen's Gambit' and other tales from author Walter Tevis
I just finished “The Queen’s Gambit.” Big deal, you’re thinking. Big deal, because that would make me just one of an estimated 62 million people and counting who have seen/are watching/will see the captivating and lavishly praised seven-episode Netflix series that has become a cultural phenomenon. The story follows the 1950s and 1960s life of Beth Harmon (a soon to be major star Anya Taylor-Joy) from the time she is orphaned and institutionalized until she becomes — yes, it’s quite a ride, featuring troubles, triumphs and a compelling cast of characters — the chess champion of the planet. Not ...
Chicago Tribune
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Rick Kogan: The story behind 'The Queen's Gambit' and other tales from author Walter Tevis
I just finished “The Queen’s Gambit.” Big deal, you’re thinking. Big deal, because that would make me just one of an estimated 62 million people and counting who have seen/are watching/will see the captivating and lavishly praised seven-episode Netflix series that has become a cultural phenomenon. The story follows the 1950s and 1960s life of Beth Harmon (a soon to be major star Anya Taylor-Joy) from the time she is orphaned and institutionalized until she becomes — yes, it’s quite a ride, featuring troubles, triumphs and a compelling cast of characters — the chess champion of the planet. Not ...
Chicago Tribune
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BC-BOOK-BEST-ADVISORY:MCT
EDITORS: Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, both Publishers Weekly bestsellers lists, BOOK-BEST:MCT and BOOK-BEST-ABBREVIATED:MCT, will not move Thursday. Instead, they will move Monday, Nov. 30.———
Tribune News Service
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Online marketplace fuels fringe movements
ATLANTA — Social networks are banning them and government agencies and watchdog groups have called them domestic terrorists. But extremist groups still have a vibrant internet life thanks to online retailers.Looking for a book evangelizing the baseless and far-out QAnon conspiracy theory? Amazon has a variety of titles. How about a T-shirt with the Three Percenters militia logo? Custom shirt company TeeSpring has many styles and colors. EBay and Etsy can provide shirts, hats and stickers bearing the slogan “ACAB,” short for “All Cops Are Bastards,” popular with far-left anarchist groups. The l...
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Renowned Minnesota writer Charles Baxter retires from the U of M, but his work continues with a new novel
MINNEAPOLIS — A couple of years ago, over dinner, Charles Baxter told his friend Louise Erdrich about a book he was reading on the 1918 flu epidemic. One passage described a folkloric cure that involved placing a mirror into flowing water and then washing the reflected face.“And I told Louise about that, and she said, ‘Well, if you don’t use that, I’m going to,’” Baxter recalled.He didn’t give her the chance — the mirror cure now appears in Baxter’s new novel, “The Sun Collective,” in one of the strangest and most magical scenes in a novel filled with strangeness and magic.The novel — his sixt...
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
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If you're holiday shopping at indie bookstores, you'd better start now. Here's why
SEATTLE — If you typically do some of your holiday shopping at an independent bookstore, it’s time to start that shopping. Now.The holiday season is typically a highlight of the year for bookstores, with customers swarming in to support local businesses and check off the names on their shopping lists. But this year will be different. Booksellers are anticipating shortages of popular books, and delays in getting shipments. And pandemic restrictions mean that very few customers can enter a bookstore at a time — which might mean that if you show up at the last minute, you’ll be waiting in line ou...
The Seattle Times
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Diane Lane hopes 'Let Him Go' movie captures book the way readers envisioned it
Diane Lane — star of this week’s “Let Him Go” — is a reader, so she knows how nervous-making it can be when the movies reimagine a book you love.Reading “is a personal, intimate experience, just between your ears. No words are spoken. You have an experience in your imagination,” said Lane, whose current read is related to the comic book adaptation she’s shooting in Toronto for the FX network, “Y: The Last Man.”She speaks of the infinite possibilities of a book, which become limited by choices filmmakers make.“It’s your own personal poem, so how dare somebody try to interpret the things I pictu...
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
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Captain Comics: Check out these graphic novels
Ready to curl up with a good graphic novel? Here are some options:BASKETFUL OF HEADSDC Comics has launched a horror line called Hill House Comics, starring writer Joe Hill, beginning with “Basketful of Heads” ($24.99). You might wonder why this Hill fella rates his own line of comics, but you can stop wondering when I whisper that he’s the son of Stephen King, which he does not advertise.Nor should he, as he can clearly stand on his own. “Basketful of Heads” is not only scary, it’s a thrill ride full of memorable characters and plot twists that even this veteran didn’t see coming.Or to quote H...
Tribune News Service