#Ben Greenman

[theblackestofsuns]

Superworse: The Novel (2004)

Ben Greenman

Soft Skull Press

[judgingbooksbycovers]

Hip-Hop Is History

By Questlove with Ben Greenman.

[c-o-v-e-r-s]

I Am Brian Wilson, Brian Wilson with Ben Greenman

[krispyweiss]

Book Review: Sly Stone with Ben Greenman - “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir”

There have been plenty of bookings - in concert halls, festivals, jails and prisons - for Sly Stone. But now he’s throwing the book at his fans.

Co-written with Ben Greenman and featuring a forward by Questlove, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir” finds Stone unspooling his life, his music, his reputation for being tardy and/or missing gigs and his herculean drug use across 320 wittily written pages of memories - it’s remarkable he has any - non-sequiturs and good humor. Even if it wasn’t the belated telling of one of popular music’s most-underreported stories, “Thank You” would be easy to devour for the prose alone.

And the contemporary Stone proves himself an introspective guy. He finally cleaned up in 2019 after four trips to the hospital - The Four Visits, he calls them - and a series of aborted comeback attempts, shambolic and embarrassing public appearances, unstable living conditions and stints in court-ordered rehab and jails.

“Alone, I could remember packed houses, those where I lived and those where I played,” Stone recalls of doing time. “In silence, I could remember the music I wasn’t able to make.”

It’s an interesting confession, in that Stone spends a good portion of the book writing about how he continued to create new music during his fallow decades. Yet the discography at book’s end reveals a paltry number of unreleased compositions among his relatively small output (12 albums) between 1967’s A Whole New Thing and 2011’s I’m Back! Family & Friends.

Born Sylvester Stewart to musical parents in Texas in 1943, Stone was raised in California and was a deejay and producer before forming the Family Stone - a band of siblings, pals, black and white and men and women - that blazed brightly before burning out nearly as quickly. The mixed makeup of the band was a deliberate decision in keeping with Stone’s desire to consistently “generate a glow of goodwill,” even as the Black Panthers pressured him to replace the white members of the group.

From clubs to theaters to Woodstock to Madison Square Garden, the Family Stone was an unstoppable force, scoring hits like “I Want to Take You Higher,” “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” “Family Affair” “Dance to the Music” and the titular track for this memoir until Stone’s unreliability - he blames it partly on himself but mostly on tour routing - and drug use derailed the group after less than a decade.

“I should have stopped sooner,” Stone writes of his drug consumption, which, he says, made his party buddy George Clinton look tame by comparison. “Much sooner: less dust and powder, fewer rocks and pipes, enough days given back that they might have added up to years.”

Stone was turning 80 as he neared the end of the book. Home “most of most days,” he spends time with his children and grandchildren, reminisces about the good old days, wishes more friends came around to see him in person and continues to espouse his “glow of goodwill.”

“The point is to care about all living beings,” Stone says of life’s big picture. “That’s the bottom line. There’s got to be room for all of us to live, to move, to breathe, to say what we mean, to argue, to not argue.”

Grade card: Sly Stone with Ben Greenman - “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir” - A-

12/14/23

[ovoniaxosims2gameplay]

The next family is The Greenman family. Little back story: I had issues with the original Greenman family, so I had to remake them. This Version of Rose Greenman is a Plantsims, but this is Plant custom skin, and the daughter has Plantsims skin, too. I was going to make her a plantsim, but I wanted to do something different, so I gave them plant skin. Now they can age. I played a little off-screen before I started this blog, and they have a second child that I named Ben. I don't know why I chose that name, but he's cute. He has his dad's skin tone. I was shocked to see that, and he is a toddler now. So little backstory on my Greenman family.

Some family time and Ben learning his toddler skills

Cute Ben Sleeping and Jason and Rose cuddling

Our maid is so pretty.The Pleasantview run is coming up. I can see Don going after her, lol

Someone attracted to their wife 🥰

So Daisy, in private school, I got a default replacement for the uniform. She doing so well in school so proud of her, and she is friends with Xander Roth.

So Ben finally aged up to child, and I was done with him being a toddler. Sims 2 toddler problems, lol 😂 . Thank God both kids will be out of the house during the day.

Ben as a kid now 😊

Overall summary, I'm glad Ben is a kid now, thank god. Rose rolls the want to have a baby why😭.I kinda like it just these two kids I don't know why I'm not feeling for them to have another kid. Jason hasn't rolled the want yet, but I have ACR, so anything can happen. Overall, it was a good run. Hopefully, you will like my version of the Greenman.

PS: One more family to go in Riverblossom. There is no Lead Mcgreggor, Catherine Viejo, or Betty Goldstein; let's just say a massive fire took some characters out in Pleasantview. I will go into more detail in the Pleasantview run

[hitchell-mope]

Descendants celebrity au

Benjamin LeRoi. The latest in a long line of French born Australian family of Shakespearean actors. Wanting to get out of the pigeonhole he was raised in he auditions for and wins the role of dashing rogue Balthazar Buckingham in Persey Pantheon’s directorial debut Reincarnate next the highly sexually intriguing Mallory Perrault as Emmeline Atkinson.

Mallory Perrault. A rockstar whose act would make the Pussycat Dolls look like the nuns from The Sound Of Music. Her first acting role is alongside Ben in her half sibling Persey’s directorial debut Reincarnate as the ingenue Emmeline Atkinson and Ben as the dashing rogue Balthazar Buckingham.

Evangeline Grimhilde. An accomplished singer known for her sugary sweet stage persona which she hopes to break out of with her boyfriends latest movie Baby It’s Cold Outside as the seductive demon Seraphina

Douglas Greenman. An EGOT winning director, actor and dancer. He’s been reluctant to cast Evie in his works for fear of nepotism accusations. But she’s finally persuaded him to cast her as Seraphina in Baby It’s Cold Outside alongside him as Reverend Oliver Bentley after a very spirited late night talk.

Carlos De Vil. A sitcom actor known for his role in The Isolation Room as the nerdy technology teacher Miles Carp who has a long winded relationship going with the rebellious art teach Allen Qasim that he oversees detention with. Unfortunately this has led to a rather rabid fan base who insist he and Jay are dating in real life despite the both of them being in very stable relationships with other people.

Jane Babineaux. A rather mousy Broadway actress with a very powerful voice. Carlos’s girlfriend. Currently cross cast in a revival of The Phantom Of The Opera as Erika the Phantom. Tries to be okay with Carlos’s TIR fans. But the invasion of privacy is starting to affect her performance

Jay Tahan. Carlos costar in The Isolation Room. Dating Gil. Decidedly less kind to the fans than Carlos and Jane are to the point that he’s disabled all of his social media accounts except for the shows official twitter account. Sadly no amount of flaunting his and Gil’s relationship has quelled the fandom yet.

Gil Legume. A lead on the adult fantasy epic The Norseland Empress as Viking Chieftain Sigurd Nordling alongside Lonnie as Ancient Chinese Empress Liu Cheng. Dating Jay. The fanbase is for TNE is just as bad if not worse than the TIR fanbase due to all the contractually obligated love scenes that Gil and Lonnie are required to do which the fanbase uses as “proof” of an offscreen romance.

Li Lonnie. Gil’s leading lady in The Norseland Empress. Liu Cheng is her first leading role in a drama show. Her background is Janeane Garofalo type standup comedy. As such. She wasn’t ready for how rabid the fanbase became. But fortunately for her, she’s got Jay on her side to tell the fans where to shove it.

Nedahk Thatch. Singer, dancer, choreographer and actor. Playing Patrick Swayze’s role in a musical adaptation of Dirty Dancing alongside his girlfriend Uma. They’re celebrated for their chemistry. But a favour for her father threatens to overhaul the movie.

Uma Facillier. Actress and singer. The Dirty Dancing musical is her first leading role. Before this her biggest role was one of the muses in an off-off-broadway production of Hercules. She’s enjoying the newfound recognition. If only her dad hadn’t begged her to play act at dating a volatile train wreck.

Harold Hook. A punk rock singer. Wants to be the next Sid Vicious. He doesn’t have a single talented bone in his body. Well. Unless you count his almost prodigious ability to cause scandal and ruin everywhere he goes. It’s gotten so bad that his father and Uma’s dad had to set them up in a fake relationship in the hope he gains some good will from the press. It’s not working.

Persey Pantheon. Actor and director. Reincarnate is their prospective comeback after losing over half of their fanbase when they came out as non-binary. They didn’t plan on Reincarnate being political. But it’s an occupational hazard when you make a movie set throughout and beyond human history

Maddox Hatter. Persey’s girlfriend. Recently played Margaret White in a revival of Carrie but had to be let go after an on stage psychotic break led her to fall to pieces during “And Eve Was Weak” at the start of the eight performance. She’s on medication now and is the researcher on Reincarnate

Hadie Pantheon. Persey’s twin brother. Harry, Mal and Evie’s half brother. Aspires to be the next Johnny Cash. Only he can’t play guitar. He can however play the piano. So he’s settled for being a mix between Johnny Cash and Ray Charles. He’s also a gifted song writer and serves as the lyricist on Reincarnate.

Antony Tremaine. Hadie’s boyfriend and singing partner. Guitarist. Serves as the composer for Reincarnate. Gave Persey the idea for the movie by gifting them The Time Traveller’s Wife for their birthday. He’s also giving Mallory elocution lessons in preparation for the Regency and Victorian segments of the movie.

[bookjubilee]

Book Review: ‘Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),’ by Sly Stone with Ben Greenman

bookjubilee.com http://dlvr.it/SyKk2C

[musicblogwales]

Green Man Festival 2023

Green Man Festival - 17th - 20th August 2023

Eve Appleton Band is this year’s Green Man Rising Winner!

Cardiff band Hyll will also claim their spot on the Rising Stage as finalists too, congratultions to them.

Green Man is thrilled to announce that Eve Appleton Band is its Green Man Rising winner for 2023, and will bag a slot on its Mountain Stage this August.

The Bristol-based act beat off competition from a record-breaking 3,000 hopefuls and over 30,000 votes to claim the annual award after they were announced as the judges favourite at the virtual final.

The Dorset born songwriter’s brand of progressive folk music won over a panel of industry experts including Hayley Morrison, Ivano Maggiulli, Kate French-Morris, Liam Keightly, Nuha Ruby Ra, Steve Nickols, Tom Baker and Ben Coleman.

Following a rise to prominence on the UK live music scene, Eve is now set to claim her place on the biggest stage at Wales’ largest music festival alongside the likes of First Aid Kit and Self Esteem.

Eve is herself a lifelong Green Man fan, having attended regularly as a child from its beginnings as a much smaller event held at the Baskerville Hall Hotel, just outside Hay-on-Wye

She said: “I knew music was my life because of Green Man - I cannot believe I now get to set foot on the mountain stage with my best friends. To everyone at Green Man Festival, the judges board of GM Rising and Green Man trust for providing musicians like us this amazing opportunity, we are forever grateful.”

Delighted to be announcing this year’s Green Man Rising winner, Managing Director and festival owner Fiona Stewart said: "I want to thank all those involved in Green Man Rising. The judges all agreed that the standard of entries was so incredibly high this year, and I’m so pleased for Eve Appleton Band! They really will make a spectacular addition to our line-up.”

The Green Man Rising competition celebrates the best emerging talent every year. Each entry is listened to by the Green Man team before a long list is put out to public vote in order to find the final five, which this year attracted more than 30,000 votes.

Cardiff band Hyll and other finalists will also get play at the festival on Green Man’s Rising Stage as a result of their success in the competition too. Other Welsh acts confirmed for the 2023 event include Cardiff duo, Rogue Jones, who will be performing at the Walled Garden stage on Thursday as part of an all Welsh language day in the Walled Garden, alongside acts such as Aisha Vaughan and Caldicot’s The Bug Club. 

The magic of Green Man lies not just in its scenery and music. Made up of 10 individual areas, the festival also offers a diverse range of events to accompany its incredible line-up, boasting art installations spread throughout the tranquil valley, a beer and cider tent to enjoy a crisp Welsh pint, an Ancient Egypt-themed area of discovery and exploration for the little folk, a relaxation and workshop space for the teenagers, plus science engagement area Einstein’s Garden. Further line ups of music, science, film, comedy & literature will be revealed in the coming months.

The Settlement Stage

This years Greenman Settlement Stage has been carefully curated by Libertino Records Gruff Owen with Angel Hotel, Angharad, Cynefin, Edie Bens, Elin Grace, Gille, Half Happy, Ivan Moult, Joe Kelly & The Royal Pharmacy, Mari Mathias, Red Telephone, Siula, Sonny Winnebego, Spencer Segelov And The Great Paintings, The Family Battenberg, Voya and YNYS all gracing the stage.

Festival goers who have purchased a Settler’s Pass, a special ticket which includes discounts on local heritage sites, galleries, castles and more, will arrive on Monday 14th August for a week in the Welsh valleys as part of their Green Man 2023 experience. Tickets for this year’s festival sold out in just four hours in September 2022, following a fantastic 20th anniversary celebration in the Welsh Mountains just weeks before.

The full lineup is as follows

Devo | First Aid Kit | Self Esteem | Spiritualized |  Amyl & The Sniffers | Young Fathers | Slowdive | The Walkmen | Confidence Man | Goat | The Comet Is Coming | Squid | Lankum | Horace Andy ft. Dub Asante Band | Sudan Archives | Snail Mail | Warmduscher | The Delgados | Les Savy Fav | Beth Orton | Daniel Avery (live) | Gilla Band | Jockstrap | Obongjayar | James Holden | Bob Vylan | PVA | Dur-Dur Band Int. | The Wedding Present | Courtney Marie Andrews | Billy Nomates | Sorry | Lost Map presents Weird Wave | Rozi Plain | Buck Meek | Julie Byrne | Clipping. | Special Interest | Alabaster Deplume | Gina Birch | Cory Hanson | Girl Ray | Etran D’el Air | Anna B Savage | Jake Xerxes Fussell | Sarah Jarosz | H Hawkline | Eddie Chacon | Kanda Bongo Man | Melin Melyn | The Bug Club | Josephine Foster | Crows | Marie Davidson (DJ) | Arushi Jain | Say She She | Alice Boman | Water From Your Eyes | Thus Love | Julie | Salami Rose Joe Louis | Nuha Ruby Ra | Floodlights | James Ellis Ford | Spencer Cullum | deathcrash | Yasmin Williams | Oscar Lang | Mega Bog | Σtella | Gently Tender | Aoife Nessa Frances | Fat Dog | MADMADMAD | Deptford Northern Soul Club | Hagop Tchaparian | 4am Kru | Drahla | The Gentle Good | Etta Marcus | Sister Wives | Sam Akpro | Brad Stank | Bricknasty | Juni Habel | Clara Mann | DD Darillo | Aisha Vaughan | Rogue Jones | The Social | Dutty Disco | Postmen DJs | Popperz - Spank DJs - Belinduh belinduh belinduh - Babymorocco - Joanie - Kuntessa Butch Kassidy | Cumgirl8 | Freak Slug | Island of Love | Lady Maisery | The Last Dinner Party | Lilo | Mandy, Indiana | Mary in the Junkyard | Minor Conflict | Morgon Noise | Sans Soucis | Seb Lowe | Spielmann | Suep | Uh | University | Yabba | And many more ........

Now in its 21st year, Green Man Festival is an award-winning, independent music, arts, comedy and science festival held in the breathtaking surroundings of the Bannau Brycheiniog. Uniquely, Green Man refuses sponsorship so that independent Welsh food & beverage producers can be offered and curational freedom retained. The festival is comprised of ten unique areas – from comedy, literature, theatre, film and art, and is the only large UK festival where a woman has majority ownership.

Green Man Festival is a melting pot of Welsh, national and international artistic talent and a creator of opportunities. The Green Man Trust charity extends the festival’s artistic, educational, and cultural ambitions by cultivating creative development, showcase and training opportunities within the arts, sciences and local communities. Over the last three years, 10,000+ people have been supported by Green Man Trust, £16,000 donated to Welsh food banks in 2022 in response to cost of living crisis, £3,000 donated for Ukrainian war relief, £16,000 has been raised for Welsh vulnerable people affected by storm Dennis flood, £100,000 was spent to commission 223 artists during the pandemic and over 100 community projects have been supported.

www.greenman.net/

[biglisbonnews]

‘It’s been a wild ride’: funk legend Sly Stone announces memoir Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) will ‘cover all aspects’ of the musician’s life, including his battles with drug use, and is set for release this SeptemberSly Stone, the indefatigable frontman, songwriter and producer of funk progenitors Sly and the Family Stone, has announced that his memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) will be released this October via White Rabbit.Written with Ben Greenman, who has co-written celebrity memoirs for Gene Simmons, Brian Wilson and George Clinton among others, Thank You will also include a foreword from Questlove, whose new publishing imprint AUWA Books, part of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, will release the book in the US. Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/mar/22/funk-legend-sly-stone-announces-memoir-thank-you-falettinme-be-mice-elf-agin

[musicpromoapp]

Sly Stone Announces Memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

Sly Stone, the elusive soul icon behind Sly and the Family Stone, has announced his memoir. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) is out October 17 via Questlove’s new publishing imprint in the U.S. and White Rabbit Books in the UK. The book will include a foreword from Questlove and was written with Ben Greenman, who has previously written memoirs with George Clinton and Brian Wilson.  “For as…

[universitybookstore]

From Henry Holt and New Yorker critic Ben Greenman, Dig If You Will the Picture: Funk, Sex, God, & Genius in the Music of Prince. Don’t make me chase you.

[nprbooks]

Image: Throughout his career, Prince played around with constructions of race, gender and sexuality. (Rico D'Rozario/Redferns via Getty Images)

The way Prince worked to dissolve categories is one of the central themes of Ben Greenman’s new book, Dig If You Will The Picture. Greenman says combining multiple, often conflicting identities was integral to Prince's work -- and race wasn't the only way Prince stirred things up.

Prince Contained Multitudes, New Book Confirms

[theblackestofsuns]

Please Step Back by Ben Greenman (2009)

Melville House Publishing