Ilija Dürhammer: Geheime Botschaften

Ö/D 2006, 567 S., geb., € 39.00
Kostenloser Versand innerhalb Europas.
Wer Ilija Dürhammers spritzigen Vortrag im Schubert-Haus Anfang Mai versäumt hat, kann seine Erkenntnisse über die Homoerotik in Leben und Werk so verschiedener österreichischen kulturellen Größen wie Franz Schubert, Hugo von Hofmannsthal und Thomas Bernhard hier nachlesen. Dürhammer zeigt besonderes Interesse an den größeren Zusammenhängen, in denen die Homosexualität der drei Männer umso deutlicher ans Tageslicht tritt: er beleuchtet die Querverstrebungen zu Zeitgenossen, deren Homosexualität als gesichert angesehen werden kann, beleuchtet die Freundeskreise, in denen homoerotische Bindungen zum einigenden Band wurden, und klopft einschlägige Texte auf homoerotische Subtexte ab. Denn explizite Homosexualität (sozusagen schwules Selbstbewusstsein) war angesichts der Zensur sowohl im Biedermeier als auch im Fin de Siècle als auch in der Nachkriegszeit undenkbar.

Charlotte Chandler: Bette Davis

USA 2006, 348 pp., hardback, € 24.89
Kostenloser Versand innerhalb Europas.
Bette Davis was a major force in Hollywood. Her distinctive voice, her remarkable eyes, her astonishing range and depth of caharcterization were qualities to make her one of the finest performers in film history. Drawing on extensive conversations with Bette Davis during the last decade of her life, the biographer let the great actress speak for herself. Though she owed everything to her mother, Ruthie, Bette Davis remained fascinated all her life by her hard-to-please father, who walked out on his family. She remembered the disappointment - which never left - over her father's lack of interest in her, and she believed that her resentment of him was probably a major factor in her four failed marriages. She kept putting her men in a position where they would eventually disappoint her.

Tim Riley: Fever

USA 2005, 237 pp., brochure, € 13.89
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
Tim Riley lives in New York and is the author of »Tell Me Why« and »Hard Rain«. His commentary on pop culture appeared in »The Washington Post«, »Boston Magazine«, »The Boston Phoenix«, »Salon« and »Feed«. He is currently the pop critic for NPR's »Here and Now«. In »Fever«, the music critic agues that while political and athletic role models have let us down, rock and roll has provided enduring role models for men and women. From Elvis Presley to Tina Turner to Bruce Springsteen to Madonna to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, Riley makes a persuasive case that rock and roll, far from the corrosive force that conservative critics make it out to be, has instead been a positive influence in people's lives, laying out gender-defying role models far more enduringly than movies, TV, or »real life«.

Kera Bolonik: The L-Word

Welcome to Our Planet, USA 2005, 242 pp., brochure, € 15.49
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
The popular series about a group of lesbians living and loving in LA has become a genuine phenomenon since its spectacular debut in the year of 2004. The cast is wonderful, the writing impressive, and it has a lure that is undeniable. The L Word is simply hot! Now, here is the official guide to this groundbreaking show, featuring more than 250 behind-the-scenes photos and interviews with the show's cast, crew and creators. With sections focusing the main characters, the episodes, the styles and loaded with fun sidebars that decode the show's trademark teaser openers and rank the hottest sex scenes. »The L Word: Welcome to Our Planet« is a no-holds-barred look at the groundbreaking show and the world behind it. An absolute must-have for fans of The L Word everywhere.

Joshua Gamson: The Fabulous Sylvester

USA 2005, 306 pp., brochure, € 14.79
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
In the world of that most disparaged of musical genres - disco - the subject of this biography commanded respect. By conventional standards, Sylvester James was an outsider - he was an out, gay, African-American who dressed in drag and sang with a thundering falsetto but he found mainstream success in the late 1970s and early '80s with three Top 40 hits. In his short life, Disco sensation Sylvester led the young people of the nation to San Francisco and on to a liberation that was real, mighty real, where nothing was straitlaced or old-fashioned. Sociologist Joshua Gamson uses Sylvester's story to take us through the 1970s, when a generation took off its shame. He also uses firsthand conversations with virtually everyone who knew or worked with Sylvester, from his youth in L.A. through his successful music career, to his death from AIDS in 1988 at 41

du: Ang Lee und sein Kino

CH 2006, 90 S., mag., € 12.34
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
Der Filmemacher Ang Lee begibt sich immer wieder in Lebenswelten, die nicht seine eigenen sind. »Das macht mir Spaß, denn dabei kann ich immer etwas lernen.« Stets sind es die »großen Themen« des Films – Liebe, Schmerz, Verwirrung – die seine Filme bestimmen. Sie sorgten stets für Aufsehen und waren immer wieder unerreichte Auslöser eines ganzen Genres. Die Schweizer Kulturzeitschrift »du« präsentiert in ihrem 763. Heft in zahlreichen Essays und über mehrere Fotostrecken Ang Lees Filme, seine Themen und Techniken, und was ihn persönlich tief bewegt.

Ulrich Michael Heissig: Irmgard, Knef und ich

D 2005, 195 S., geb., € 24.67
Kostenloser Versand innerhalb Europas.
1948 - so beginnt Uli Heissig gern seine Auftritte als Irmgard Knef - planten die beiden Knefs (Hildegard und Irmgard) eine Karriere als Knef-Schwestern. Doch Hildegard wiegelte ab: »Irmgard, vergiss es! Der Markt ist voll. Ich mach 'ne Solokarriere!« Und damit - so Uli Heissig - begann die wenig steile, unfreiwillig solistische Karriere der sorella non grata Irmgard Knef. Die bisherigen Programme kämpfen dagegen an, als Schwester der großen Diva verkannt, verleugnet und vergessen zu werden. Nun rechnet Irmgard mit der berühmt gewordenen Schwester ab, in deren Schatten sie Jahrzehnte lang gestanden hatte. »Irmgard, Knef und ich« ist für Chanson-Liebhaber, Anhänger von geistesreichem Kabarett und Knef-Fans werden dieses Buch gleichermaßen lieben.

Claude J. Summers (ed.): The Queer Encyclopedia of Film and Television

USA 2006, 316 pp., brochure, € 28.49
Kostenloser Versand innerhalb Europas.
How did Liberace's costumes almost kill him? Which lesbian comedian spent her high school years as »the best white cheerleader in Detroit«? For these answers and more, dip into »The Queer Encyclopedia of Film & Television«. Drawn from glbtq.com—dubbed the »Encyclopedia Britanniqueer« by The Advocate - this is the only reference book in which Tallulah Bankhead, Jean Cocteau, Judy Garland, Gus Van Sant, and Christine Vachon jostle for space. From Dorothy Arzner to John Waters, from Alla Nazimova to Divine, and from Paul Lynde to Ellen DeGeneres, it's a queer, queer world. »The Queer Encyclopedia of Film & Television« is your indispensable guide: entertaining, authoritative, and concise. Film and TV aficionados will relish this volume celebrating the actors, directors, screenwriters, and producers whose queer sensibilities infuse our popular culture with brilliance, drama, and wit.