Anyone living or visiting Tucson holds a fascination for this eclectic southwestern city that offers up so much in the way of natural beauty and an interesting history. Tucson is a city that reflects a diverse cultural past that is much more than the pretty mountains ringing the city, so time for locals and visitors to take a fanciful trip down memory lane using a unique medium of the picture postcard. This colorful book contains over 150 postcard images covering some of the Old Pueblo's most loved tourist destinations, the University of Arizona, cultural institutions, Native Americans, cowboy history, lodging and even a section on the plants and animals of the region.

A coming-of-age story with true love at its core, Greetings from Tucson tells the story of four sisters' lives through the lens of handwritten letters. These long lost letters, found decades after they were penned, once formed a lifeline that held them together when their worlds were otherwise falling apart. In June of 1945, tragedy struck, and Cookie, Frankie, Dottie, and Connie were torn from everything they knew-their parents, their home, and, most importantly, each other. Forced to live thousands of miles apart, they feared their bond would be broken. The sisters began writing letters to each other to celebrate their milestones and mourn every heartbreak. Through those letters, they found a way to strengthen their sisterhood when the odds were so stacked against them. The letters were like prisms, reflecting their lives from childhood into adulthood, as they fell in love or fulfilled their lifelong dreams. That is, until one sister's secret from the past changed everything. Would she break the fragile bond they worked so hard to nurture after their fateful split so many years ago?

The history of Latina/o participation and representation in American television Whose stories are told on television? Who are the heroes and heroines, held up as intriguing, lovable, and compelling? Which characters are fully realized, rather than being cardboard villains and sidekicks? And who are our storytellers? The first-ever account of Latino/a participation and representation in US English-language television, Latino TV: A History offers a sweeping study of key moments of Chicano/a and Latino/a representation and authorship since the 1950s. Drawing on archival research, interviews with dozens of media professionals who worked on or performed in these series, textual analysis of episodes and promotional materials, and analysis of news media coverage, Mary Beltrán examines Latina/o representation in everything from children’s television Westerns of the 1950s, Chicana/o and Puerto Rican activist-led public affairs series of the 1970s, and sitcoms that spanned half a century, to Latina and Latino-led series in the 2000s and 2010s on broadcast, cable, and streaming outlets, including George Lopez, Ugly Betty, One Day at a Time, and Vida. Through the exploration of the histories of Latina/o television narratives and the authors of those narratives, Mary Beltrán sheds important light on how Latina/os have been included—and, more often, not—in the television industry and in the stories of the country writ large.

The first unauthorized look at the inner workings—and ultimate breakdown—of the Disney Channel machine For many kids growing up in the 2000s, there was no cultural touchstone more powerful than Disney Channel, the most-watched cable channel in primetime at its peak. Today, it might best be known for introducing the world to talents like Hilary Duff, Raven-Symoné, Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, the Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, and Zendaya. It wasn't always destined for greatness: when The Disney Channel launched in 1983, it was a forgotten stepchild within the Walt Disney Company, forever in the shadow of Disney’s more profitable movies and theme parks. But after letting the stars of their Mickey Mouse Club revival—among them Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Ryan Gosling—slip through their fingers, Disney Channel reinvented itself as a powerhouse tween network. In the new millennium, it churned out billions of dollars in original content and triple-threat stars whose careers were almost entirely controlled by the corporation. Suddenly, everyone wanted a piece of the pie—and there were constant clashes between the studio, network, labels, and creatives as Disney Channel became a pressure cooker of perfection for its stars. From private feuds and on-set disasters, to fanfare that swept the nation and the realities of child stardom, culture journalist Ashley Spencer offers the inside story of the heyday of TV’s House of Mouse, featuring hundreds of exclusive new interviews with former Disney executives, creatives, and celebrities to explore the highs, lows, and everything in between.

There are undercurrents and peripheral taste preferences that are a defining part of our individual and collective cultural experience. Music is no exception. George Plasketes adapts the iconic "A-side/B-side" dichotomy from the 45 r.p.m. for use as a unique conceptual, critical, historical, and cultural framework for exploring and threading together a variety of popular music and media texts. The profiles and perspectives focus on the peripheries; on texts which might be considered "B-sides"”overlooked, underappreciated, and unsung cases, creators, patterns and productions that have unassumingly, but significantly, marked popular culture, music and media during the past 40 years. The underappreciated yet enduring contributions of a variety of creative individuals in music, television and film are a centerpiece of this volume: actress Doris Day's son, Terry Melcher, a 1960s music producer whose imprint is on the surf, country blues, garage pop and most importantly the folk rock genre; Hans Fenger's kid chorus cover project, a musical variation of "outsider art" that became representative of the tribute wave that began in the 1990s and continues today; versatile guitarist virtuoso Ry Cooder's extensive film soundtrack work; World Music "missionary efforts" of American artists beyond Paul Simon's Graceland, including Neil Diamond's precursor with Tap Root Manuscript in the 1970s and the exotic adventures of Henry Kaiser and David Lindley in Madagascar and Norway”to name just a few examples. These B-sides represent undercurrents, but they resonate as overtones in the mainstream of music and culture, many as historical hinges. Collectively, these B-sides are an A-side antidote of outskirt observations, individual snapshots of artists, artifacts and rituals, genres and generations, producers and musical productions in television, film and video. They constitute an important connect-the-dots cultural chronicle with a multi-layered context”social, legal, historic, economic, technological, generational, aesthetic”for interpreting the interrelations between creators and institutions, the music market place, the production of culture and important connections between the peripheral and the popular.

"Latinx TV in the Twenty-First Century offers an expansive and critical look at contemporary TV by and about U.S. Latinx communities. This volume unpacks the negative implications of older representation and celebrates the progress of new representation all while recognizing that television still has a long way to go"--

Despite their wealth, fame, and power, celebrities are ultimately just flesh and blood like all of us. Their status or accomplishments are not a magical shield of protection when it comes to death. In fact, in some cases, celebrities are more vulnerable than your averge person. As we shall see in this book, a number of celebrities have been murdered by their own fans. A number of celebrities have also been murdered in cases that remain unsolved. Fame can be a fickle and fleeting phenomenon and Hollywood is awash with former child stars who died in tragic circumstances when the phone stopped ringing and the money rang out. In this book we will look at a number of celebrity deaths and murders. The cases that follow are eclectic and all darkly fascinating. Drug overdoses, murders, suicides, crazed fans, unsolved deaths, autoerotic asphyxiation, car crashes, freak accidents, drownings, disease, and so on...

This story depicts a biker and his experiences of becoming involved with people in a small Oklahoma community in the mideighties. Set in a time before the custom-bike craze with its TV shows and celebrity riders, this tale tries to present real situations because they are based on things that either happened to me or around me (or I just made up a good lie). This man, injured in the Vietnam War, medically discharged, having to relearn to walk and being labeled an outsider upon his return, becomes involved with a violent streetwise motorcycle gang and their drug- and alcohol-induced law-breaking ways. Becoming unhappy with the hard-core biker lifestyle he is living in California, he is miraculously freed from his club ties and takes on a new identity. With help from other helpful nonpatched bikers, bound only by their love of the freedom of the road, he works his way across the western states, doing heavy equipment work, winding up in the little town of Stigler, Oklahoma. There he meets various characters who make his life interesting. He befriends an old rancher with a secret and eventually goes to a bike rally near Wilburton, Oklahoma, where he meets and falls in love with a redhead who also has a biker-related past. Together, they forge a life involving motorcycles, a local bar and its denizens, fellow construction workers, the local law, run-ins with a former gang member, and help to make an old mans dreams come true.

This book describes the ways a person can make ticket reservations to be a member of a studio audience, or become a contestant or guest on a show. Each of these shows is in an easy to read, comprehensive format in which a person can see at a glance the ways one can obtain tickets or be a participant on a show by telephone, mail, or website. An important feature of this book is that all tickets are free for the TV shows listed. Studio locations are given, as well as rules and regulations for participation by a contestant or guest. Also included is an easy to use geographic index that can be used for vacation planning.