The House That George Built

Download or read book The House That George Built written by Wilfrid Sheed and published by Random House. This book was released on 2008-05-13 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Irving Berlin to Cy Coleman, from “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” to “Big Spender,” from Tin Pan Alley to the MGM soundstages, the Golden Age of the American song embodied all that was cool, sexy, and sophisticated in popular culture. For four glittering decades, geniuses like Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Harold Arlen ran their fingers over piano keys, enticing unforgettable melodies out of thin air. Critically acclaimed writer Wilfrid Sheed uncovered the legends, mingled with the greats, and gossiped with the insiders. Now he’s crafted a dazzling, authoritative history of the era that “tripled the world’s total supply of singable tunes.” It began when immigrants in New York’s Lower East Side heard black jazz and blues–and it surged into an artistic torrent nothing short of miraculous. Broke but eager, Izzy Baline transformed himself into Irving Berlin, married an heiress, and embarked on a string of hits from “Always” to “Cheek to Cheek.” Berlin’s spiritual godson George Gershwin, in his brief but incandescent career, straddled Tin Pan Alley and Carnegie Hall, charming everyone in his orbit. Possessed of a world-class ego, Gershwin was also generous, exciting, and utterly original. Half a century later, Gershwin love songs like “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “The Man I Love,” and “Love Is Here to Stay” are as tender and moving as ever. Sheed also illuminates the unique gifts of the great jazz songsters Hoagy Carmichael and Duke Ellington, conjuring up the circumstances of their creativity and bringing back the thrill of what it was like to hear “Georgia on My Mind” or “Mood Indigo” for the first time. The Golden Age of song sparked creative breakthroughs in both Broadway musicals and splashy Hollywood extravaganzas. Sheed vividly recounts how Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, and Johnny Mercer spread the melodic wealth to stage and screen. Popular music was, writes Sheed, “far and away our greatest contribution to the world’s art supply in the so-called American Century.” Sheed hung out with some of the great artists while they were still writing–and better than anyone, he knows great music, its shimmer, bite, and exuberance. Sparkling with wit, insight, and the grace notes of wonderful songs, The House That George Built is a heartfelt, intensely personal portrait of an unforgettable era. A delightfully charming, funny, and most illuminating portrait of songwriters and the Golden Age of American Popular Song. Mr. Sheed’s carefully chosen depictions and anecdotes recapture that amazingly creative period, a moment in time in which I was so fortunate to be surrounded by all that magic.” –Margaret Whiting

Download or read book The House That George Built written by Suzanne Slade and published by Charlesbridge Publishing. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE HOUSE THAT GEORGE BUILT takes readers through the process of how the president’s house came to be—starting with the contest George held to choose the perfect design for this legendary landmark, all the way to President John Adams’s move into the grandiose home. Cleverly written in the familiar format of "The House That Jack Built," author Suzanne Slade supplements her rhyming verse with lively conversational prose, describing how George was involved in this project from beginning to end, from selecting the location to figuring out how to get the thousands of heavy bricks to the construction site. Rebecca Bond’s watercolor illustrations help readers follow the steps to what became the White House as we know it today.

Download or read book The Big House written by George Howe Colt and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faced with the sale of the century-old family summer house on Cape Cod where he had spent forty-two summers, George Howe Colt recounts returning for one last stay with his wife and children in this stunning memoir that was a National Book Award Finalist and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. This poignant tribute to the eleven-bedroom jumble of gables, bays, and dormers that watched over weddings, divorces, deaths, anniversaries, birthdays, breakdowns, and love affairs for five generations interweaves Colt’s final visit with memories of a lifetime of summers. Run-down yet romantic, The Big House stands not only as a cherished reminder of summer’s ephemeral pleasures but also as a powerful symbol of a vanishing way of life.

Download or read book How to Build a House written by George Michael Rentz and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2011-02-18 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In How to Build a House, author and professional engineer George Michael Rentz, PE is informative and entertaining while taking the mystery out of residential construction. With more than thirty-five years in the construction industry, Rentz provides an overview of the information necessary when you are considering buying or building a new home. From the basics of site selection and design to cost estimates and construction, How to Build a House describes all of the steps integral to residential construction from the ground up. Through personal anecdotes, Rentz shows how developing good plans and selecting the right contractor are key to enjoying the process of watching your new home being constructed. How to Build a House provides insight into the construction process in order to avoid the struggles and hassles often associated with home building.

Download or read book Curious George Builds a Home written by H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2006-12-11 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Curious George meets a homing pigeon, he decides that his home, with im-provements, would be perfect for his new friend. This paperback picture book explores the concepts of planning and design.

Download or read book Curious George Builds a Home written by H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2006 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George's new pigeon friend needs a place to roost. George has a great idea on how to get a tree up to his apartment--he'd build one! When Curious George meets a homing pigeon, he decides that his home, with improvements, would be perfect for his new friend. This paperback picture book explores the concepts of planning and design.

Download or read book Building Our House written by Jonathan Bean and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A family of four builds a house, back, away from the road, down a dirt lane, in the middle of an old, weedy field.