Stephen King’s Musical: Ghost Brothers of Darkland County

Aside from "Under the Dome", another project of Stephen King that I did not know about is the musical "Ghost Brothers"

John Mellencamp has virtually completed recording and “assembling” the “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County” musical theater collaboration with Stephen King.

John and King have edited the initial three-hour program down to two hours and 10 minutes—with a bit more editing still to come before producer T-Bone Burnett completes the tracks. When finished, the recording will be available in a novel book package containing the full text, two discs featuring the entire production of the spoken word script and songs performed by the cast, and a third CD of the songs only.

The story involves domestic turmoil, and is played by a stellar cast led by Kris Kristofferson, in the role of Joe, the father, and Elvis Costello, as the satanic character The Shape. Rosanne Cash plays Monique, the mother, with the sons enacted by Will Daily (Frank), Dave Alvin (Jack), Alvin’s real-life brother Phil Alvin (Andy) and John (Drake).

Sheryl Crow stars as Jenna and Neko Case is Anna, with boxing legend Joe Frazier playing caretaker Dan Coker and Stephen King himself in the role of Uncle Steve. The narrator is “24” star Glenn Morshower.

John stressed that the three-disc package is not a traditional audio book, but offers an experience more akin to listening to an old radio show with music; he further emphasized the challenge inherent in making such a project work.

John characterized the music as “down-home,” with the earthiness and feeling of the acoustic folk-country blues of the 1930s. He hopes to have the book/CD set out before the musical opens next September at Atlanta’s Alliance Theater.

Under the Dome, by Stephen King

I am not updated with Mr. Stephen King's latest work. I just checked my email alerts about Mr. King and found out this "Under the Dome" novel.


http://bfgb.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/under-the-dome-by-stephen-king/


Two dogs die in this story. Also people — the human body count starts a few pages in and becomes astronomical by the end — but on top of the graphic depictions of murder, rape, suicide, police brutality, angry mobs, and riots, a German Shepherd and a Golden Retriever come to bad ends. Killing off people is one thing, but killing puppies takes everything to a whole new level. This is Stephen King at his most violent.

This is also Stephen King at his best. Speaking as a passionate fan, I feel confident in declaring Under the Dome as King’s best stand-alone novel since The Stand. (The Dark Tower series also ranks up there.) King’s detractors have many legitimate criticisms of his writing, but when all is said and done, he is a master storyteller. In particular, King excels at developing believable characters, typically by placing ordinary folks in extraordinary situations; by stretching the mind to consider fantastic What If? scenarios; and by teasing out the nuances of good versus evil. Under the Dome delivers all of this. Oh, does it deliver.

On a sunny day in October, a globe materializes around the small Maine town of Chester’s Mill. Invisible, nearly impermeable, and absolutely impenetrable (nuclear weapons just bounce off), the dome surpasses all human technology. It is alien.

But aliens play only a tiny role in the book. The real focus is on the two thousand people trapped inside the dome, including our hero Dale Barbara, a short-order cook, and our antihero Jim Rennie, a town selectman. It’s bad enough that the town is utterly barricaded from the rest of the world (food, energy, and medical supplies can’t last forever); making everything worse is Selectman Rennie, who sees the chaos of the Dome as his opportunity to grab power. Quicker than you can say “fascism,” Rennie has placed guns into the hands of his cronies and turned Chester’s Mill into a police state. Instant dystopia!

Watching the dynamics of corrupted power at play is what makes the book worth reading. King’s exploration of the best and worst of human nature — heroism and honor, greed and violence — is at its finest in this microcosm of society. (Would it be too obvious to call it a fishbowl?) The book is over a thousand pages long, so some folks will wish that King hadn’t spent quite so much time developing his world; my advice is to neglect your chores for the weekend, kick back with blanket and a kitty cat, and immerse yourself in this battle of good and evil.

TOP 5 PSYCHOTIC LINES FROM 'THE SHINING' FILM:

And since we're talking about The Shinning, here's the Top 5 Psychotic Lines from The Shinning Film starring Jack Nicholson:

5. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

4. "Hello Danny. Come and play with us. Come and play with us, Danny. Forever... and ever... and ever."

3. "Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in."

2. "Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in. Not by the hair of your chiny-chin-chin? Well then I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."

1. "Heeere's Johnny!"

People Hates Stephen King

It made me sad to think that not all literary fans love Stephen King.

Yes, that's true, I have been a big fan of Stephen King way during the college years, and I just found out that there are some people who hates Stephen King

I recently been using twitter (looking for Stephen King's account) and one day I search for "STephen King" and there are tons of search results saying bad things about him. The last bad incident/news that I heard of about him is his comment about soldiers being illiterate.... but apparenly people sees more hate that love of the man

24 Dollhouse

24 dollhouse, kind a like a title of a new Stephen King novel huh? well, its not... as embarrashed as I am posting this, I haven't read any Stephen King Books lately.. or posted any Stephen King related news here... im sorry.

Watch Dollhouse Online Man on The Street Streaming Video


Watch 24 Episode 15 Online in Streaming Video

Search All About Stephen King

Alright Stephen King fans, both old and new, would you like to know everything about Mr. King? Same goes if you're a fan of any author, artist or political figure, would it be nice if by a single click of a mouse you can read all the information about that particular person? Of course you would.

There are websites that is specially dedicated in people search. One of which is Spock.com - the best people search on the Web

What is Spock?

Spock is a free people and information search engine that takes information on people from all across the Web and organizes it in an easy to search format.

Searching people using Spock will give a number of links for more information about that person. Users can search by name, e-email or just by putting "tags" - a more personal piece of information (e.g. lawyer, web developer, blind, curly hair, etc).

By the way, one of the plus of Spock is that it loads very fast (just like Google) since it only has a Spock logo and a text box... A big plus on a website.

Let take this people search service to the test... Let's do a simple search

Let say I want to know more about my favorite writer (yes, he's Stephen King..) I would put in that keyword on Spock's text box and click on search.

If you tried that, the first hit would be "Stephen Edward King". You'll also notice that there are links about 'tags', 'pictures', 'related people' and others, which is also a great help if you're researching related topics aside from Stephen King.

Anyway, clicking on that link (the first search result) will present you bunch of information about Mr. King. There are links from other websites and news website.

It's real helpful. Go try it out yourself.

My Stephen King Books

I think it's about time to post my collections of Stephen King books (and anyway, that is the title of my blog, so why not post it huh)?

As much as possible I list it by date, i.e. from the first book I book to the most recent. Also if available the date I finished reading it.

Here it is:

• Firestarter - 1996
• The Shining - 7/7/97 fin
• Carrie - 9/4/97
• The Tommyknockers
• Dolores Claireborn - 9/3/97
• Cujo - 5/15/98
• Night Shift - 12/5/99
• Thinner
• Rose Madder - 2/2/00
• Desperation
• Gunslinger
• Bag of Bones -- (read this 3 times!)
  
• Eyes of the dragon 9/13/00
• Insomia - 12/16/01
• Gerald's Game
• Drawing of the three - 1/29/02
• The waste land --02
• Four Past Midnight - 01
• Tom Gordon -- 10/30/01
• It
• Dreamcather
• From Buick 8 - 05/29/05
• Black House
• Wolves of The Calla
  
• Songs of Sussanah
• The Dark Tower (book 7)

There you go. It's a short list compared to some die hard Stephen King fans out there but I'm not sure if I listed em all. These books are the ones in my shelves. I might have lend a book or two to some of my friends. :)

So, from here we'll post a short summary of review of each book that I read.. (I haven't finish The Talisman andn Black House yet)

Till next time!

Cheers!