Poor Superstar. All the money and fame in the world won't prevent him from having a bad hair day. Or stepping in gum. Or not being able to fit into skinny jeans, or watching helplessly as a scoop of ice cream falls from its cone.Or so an unnamed Superstar's life is ingeniously imagined in this very funny book. Inspired by but not based on Jay Z's monster hit "99 Problems," illustrator Ali Graham riffs on what might be the real problems afflicting a world-famous music mogul who also ...

The sensational true tale that inspired the major motion picture Belle starring Tom Wilkinson, Miranda Richardson, Emily Watson, Penelope Wilton, and Matthew Goode—a stunning story of the first mixed-race girl introduced to high society England and raised as a lady.The illegitimate daughter of a captain in the Royal Navy and an enslaved African woman, Dido Belle was sent to live with her great-uncle, the Earl of Mansfield, one of the most powerful men of the time a...

In the mid-1980s, Emmanuel Jal was a seven year old Sudanese boy, living in a small village with his parents, aunts, uncles, and siblings. But as Sudan's civil war moved closer—with the Islamic government seizing tribal lands for water, oil, and other resources—Jal's family moved again and again, seeking peace. Then, on one terrible day, Jal was separated from his mother, and later learned she had been killed; his father Simon rose to become a powerful commander in the Christian Sudanese L...

The New York Times bestselling memoir from legendary rapper Gucci Mane spares no detail in this “cautionary tale that ends in triumph” (GQ).For the first time, Gucci Mane tells his extraordinary life story in his own words. It’s “as wild, unpredictable, and fascinating as the man himself” (Complex).The platinum-selling trap pioneer began writing this remarkable autobiography while serving time in a federal maximum-security prison....

Using step-by-step instruction on how to draw Japanese manga and anime zombies, vampires, and monsters, best-selling author Christopher Hart teaches artists how they can create their own spooky manga characters.With the occult running rampant in today's television, movies, and other media, it's no wonder that the scary, monstrous, and dark characters of manga have become so popular. From drawing monster eyes to goth boys, Manga for the Beginner Midnight Monsters teaches ar...

Who knew that Paul McCartney originally referred to Yesterday as 'Scrambled Eggs' because he couldn't think of any lyrics for his heart-breaking tune? Or that Patti LaBelle didn't know what 'Voulez-vous couches avec moi ce soir?' actually meant?These and countless other fascinating back stories of some of our best-known and best-loved songs fill this book, a collection of the highly successful weekly The Life of a Song columns that appear in the FT Weekend every Saturday.

The language of contemporary cultural theory shows remarkable similarities with the patterns of thought which characterised Victorian racial theory. Far from being marked by a separation from the racialised thinking of the past, Colonial Desire shows we are operating in complicity with historical ways of viewing 'the other', both sexually and racially.Colonial Desire is a controversial and bracing study of the history of Englishness and 'culture'. Robert ...

Pretentiousness is the engine oil of culture; the essential lubricant in the development of all arts, high, low, or middle.Pretentiousness is for anyone who has braved being different, whether that’s making a stand against artistic consensus or running the gauntlet of the last bus home dressed differently from everyone else. It’s an essential ingredient in pop music and high art. Why do we choose accusations of elitism over open-mindedness? What d...

In his first book, National Post columnist Scott Feschuk offers a hilarious, satirical take on trends in television and our peculiar obsession with the famous, the infamous, and the nature of Tom Cruise’s sexuality. Searching for Michael Jackson’s Nose romps through the birth and the future of reality television, takes readers to the all-star parties thrown each summer by the major American television networks, and makes the case that what the world needs now is more – ye...

Attention would-be paesans: Can’t distinguish “gabagool” from “pasta fazool”? Not sure how to properly accessorize your track suit with gold chains? Does the phrase “go to the mattresses” make you sleepy? Now Steven R. Schirripa, The Sopranos’ own Bobby Bacala, exposes the inner mysteries of this unique Italian-American hybrid in A Goomba’s Guide to Life so that anyone can walk, talk, and live like a guy “from the neighborhood.”Über-goomba Steve S...

Every August, tens of thousands of participants gather to celebrate artistic expression in Nevada's barren Black Rock Desert. This vastly inhospitable location, called the playa, is the site of Burning Man, where, within a 9-mile fence, artists called Burners create a temporary city devoted to art and participation. Braving extreme elements, over two hundred wildly ambitious works of art are created and intended to delight, provoke, involve, or amaze. In 2013, over 68,000 people attended -...

THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION OF GIG POSTERS FROM TODAY’S TOP ROCK AND INDIE BANDSLaunched in 2007, OMGPosters.com has become one of the world’s favorite art blogs, showcasing thousands of handmade prints by independent artists and printmakers. OMG Posters: A Decade of Rock Art features works by forty different artists who have sparked the explosive growth of the gig poster scene—creating stunning works of art to commemorate local appearances by touring bands. A...