The On The Bookshelf Podcast

Legends-Russ Tamblyn, Mama Cass' girl Owen, and Steve Gaines with the Beatles

We had the opportunity thanks to Premiere Networks to interview stories of or with three show-biz legends: Russ Tamblyn of West Side Story, Mama Cass' daughter Owen Elliott-Kugell with a sweet and poignant bio, and Steve Gaines, rock journalist, who interviewed the Beatles and their wives (and ex's) and business insiders.

Mafia Insider tells the true story of the Mob's early history in America

Borgata: Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia Part 1 (Pegasus Books) by Louis Ferrante—a former Mafia associate who served eight years in prison after refusing to incriminate his fellow Gambino family members—is the first book in a three-volume epic history of the Mafia that reveals exactly how and why this infamous secret society formed inside Sicilian culture. 

The culmination of Ferrante’s exhaustive research delving deep into Sicily’s socio-economic-political roots, Borgata: Rise of Empire picks up in places like New York and New Orleans, where the clannish Sicilians quickly realize the importance of diversity as they forge new alliances with other recently arrived ethnic groups as the borgata becomes the premier organized criminal network in the country.

In this first volume, Ferrante traces the mafia’s phenomenal “rise of empire” through larger-than-life characters such as Lucky Luciano, Vito Genovese, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Seigel, Albert Anastasia, and other legendary mobsters as they provide alcohol to the American public during Prohibition, penetrate industrial labor unions, practically take over the island of Cuba and, with extraordinary vision, create the gambling mecca of Las Vegas.

About the author: Louis Ferrante is a former Mafia associate and heist expert who served eight years in prison after refusing to incriminate his fellow Gambino family members. His last book, Mob Rules (HarperCollins), was an international bestseller, and his Discovery Channel Series, Inside the Gangsters Code, earned him a Grierson Award nomination for Presenter of the Year.

 

 

Andy Summers of The Police has a new solo tour, new photography book too!

when you've won Grammys as part of one of the most iconic bands in Rock history, traveled the world and seen so much, what do you do? If you're Andy Summers of the Police, you don't just sit around: you find something else creative to do. And he has!

ABOUT ANDY SUMMERS AND HIS TOUR THE CRACKED LENS + A MISSING STRING

 

Legendary guitar virtuoso, Rock Hall of Fame Inductee, and multiple Grammy®-winning artist, Andy Summers, continues his North American run with The Cracked Lens + A Missing String theatre tour this summer beginning May 30 in Fairfield, Connecticut - routing below. Summers began visiting intimate theatres in 2023 incorporating his collective works into an insightful evening spanning his career where plays guitar and improvises to several sequences of his photography shot worldwide, reads excerpts from his book of short stories Fretted and Moaning, shares insights on his music and photography, including his most recent photography book A Series of Glances, and performs selections from his extensive solo catalog. "I'm thrilled to be going out with his show again," says Summers - "let the light shine. after all we went through." For more information visit AndySummers.com.

 

 

John Walton brings a fresh way of reading and studying the Prophet of the Bible

“The Lost World of the Prophets: Old Testament Prophecy and Apocalyptic Literature in Ancient Context” by John H. Walton (IVP Academic)

 

When you read and study the Bible, context is absolutely critical. Otherwise you are “proof-texting”, finding a sentence that supports your opinion, whether or not that passage actually anything to do with your premise. That’s true in general, but especially important when we read the words of ancient prophets and try to understand them. The author warns, “When we neglect the message of the text in context, we miss out on God’s message for us. The problem is that people today often fail to understand the role of the prophet, the nature of prophetic literature, and the significance of prophecy. Ethical reading respects the author’s intentions. Only Scripture carries communal authority.

 

“To understand the message of the prophetic oracles and that of the compiler (when it is not the prophet), we depend on an analysis of context-literary, historical, theological, and cultural. The Old Testament is understood best in the context of its world, which is so different from ours.” What was it saying to the original hearers of the Word?

 

The author makes a number of propositions for more accurately understanding the prophets. Among them: 1.Prophecy is a subset of divination (that is, trying to hear what God had to say to the original hearers.” 2. Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East manifest similarities and differences when compared to Israel.(All agreed in the ancient world that the exercise of prophetic speech did not serve to tell the future but indicated how the gods (or in Israel’s case, God, was thinking and what they (of He) was doing.” In Israel’s case, it was always about The Covenant. 3. A prophet is a spokesperson for God, not a predictor of the future.(It is a communication from God about His pans and purposes, not a display of foreknowledge. 4. Prophecy in the Old Testament is not monolithic but developing.(Their primary goal was call the people to repent.) 5. The classical prophets are champions of the Covenant in Times of Crisis. 7. Recognition of those categories of prophetic message help us to be more informed readers. 8. Prophets were typically not authors (but their compilers were, and both were led by the same Spirit.) 9. The Implied audience of the Prophetic Books is not necessarily the audience of the Prophet. 10. Distinction between message and fulfillment provides clear understanding of prophetic literature. 11. When people change their course, projected fulfillment can be forestalled or eliminated. 12. The New Testament use of Old Testament prophecy focuses on fulfillment, not message. 13. Prophecy carries important implications for understanding God and the future, but our ability to forge a detailed eschatology with confidence is limited (indeed, Jesus Himself denies that one can build a definitive timeline of the future.) 14. Apocalyptic should be differentiated from Classical Prophecy. It does not foretell the future, but project a pattern. 15. Visions are not the message but the occasion for the Message. 16. NT Apocalytpic operates by the same principle as that of OT apocalyptic. In Christ’s list of woes to the Pharisees in Matt 23, the failure to recognize prophetic signs is NOT among them.

 

So stop trying to create the timeline of Last Days events. It wastes time and can reflect on the integrity of Christian teaching when it makes claims it cannot support. Instead, read the OT and NT through the eyes of those who heard it first and what it would have meant to them. Again, context is critical.

 

(The author has a wonderful series that analyzes how the ancient would have read and understood the words of Genesis One, the stories of Adam and Eve, the story of the Great Flood, and so forth.)

Ken Grossinger discusses how various types of artistic endeavor can help promote worthy causes

 

Hi Doc,

 

Just wanted to establish that Art Works arrived safely? Happy to discuss April dates if and when:)

Good weekend,

Peter

 

From: Doc Kirby <wtbfdoc@yahoo.com>
Date: Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 3:19 PM
To: Peter Bermudes <peter@glprbooks.com>
Subject: Re: New from glpr: Art's impact on social change movements & Philip Berrigan's peacemaking at a time of war

 

I like the Art Works book! Please send a copy and I'll come up with some dates in April. Thanks, Peter.

 

Dave (Doc) Kirby

Operations & Program Manager

WTBF-AM/FM

67 West Court Square

Troy,AL. 36081

 

 

 

On Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 11:29:55 AM CDT, Peter Bermudes <peter@glprbooks.com> wrote:

 

 

Art Works: How Organizers and Artists are Creating a Better World Together

                        Author: Ken Grossinger

When artists and organizers combine forces—think of a George Floyd mural becoming the emblem of a renewed movement for racial equality, or a documentary film injecting energy into a popular effort to oust a Central American dictator—new forms of political mobilization follow, often shaping lasting social change. In Art Works, noted movement leader Ken Grossinger chronicles such efforts for the first time, distilling lessons and insights from grassroots leaders and luminaries such as Ai Weiwei, Courtland Cox, Jackson Browne, Shepard Fairey, Jane Fonda, Bill McKibben, Jose Antonio Vargas, and more. (I must admit, my favorite chapter talked about the powerful influence of the Folk Movement in popular music of the early 1960s, with Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Peter Paul & Mary.)

Drawing from historical and present-day examples—including Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, the Hip Hop Caucus, the Legacy Museum, and the Art for Justice Fund—Grossinger offers a rich tapestry of tactics and successes that speak directly to the challenges and needs of today’s activists and of this political moment. Named one of the The Progressive magazine’s ‘Favorite Books of the Year.’