Let's Spock 'N' Roll! I'm proud to announce the release of a new book I helped research and write. It's called The Musical Touch of Leonard Nimoy and is available as a paperback and Kindle eBook on Amazon! I also did the book design and cover illustration. Back in 2006, my wife Darlene and I began the research that would lead to the creation of our popular website Maiden Wine. The site told the tale of when Leonard was a teen idol and recording star, singing as both himself and his dual identity, the highly logical Mr. Spock. After many years of hosting it online, we retired the website, but still had all this great material. We finally decided to go for it and update and expand the story into a groovy full-color history, musical scrapbook, and discography. If you have a love of Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock, and/or the 60s pop scene, you will dig this far out book! He's groovy! He's sexy! He's a hit with all the kids! Who's that? Paul McCartney ? Davy Jones? NO! It's Mr. Spock - WAIT! It's Leonard Nimoy! The two are inseparable and both are cultural icons. This book captures the moment in time in the far out 60s when Leonard Nimoy was signed to a five album record deal for Dot Records, signed a universe of autographs, and toured the country to promote his singing career to throngs of adoring fans. Highly illogical? You be the judge in this one hundred page book filled with full color photos, press clippings, historical essay, and collectors discography. Find out the story behind the viral Malibu U video "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" and how Leonard Nimoy in his inimitable fashion survived the bumps and bruises from his infamous Golden Throats recordings to live long and prosper as a man of many talents.
The story of Leonard Nimoy's music is showcased with full color photos, press clippings, historical essay, and discography. Available on Amazon as a 108 page full color 8.5" x 8.5" paperback and 169 page Kindle eBook. Published by Diner Mighty Graphics. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Darlene Lacey is a writer, researcher, and appreciator of things of the past. She is a candy historian; the author of Classic Candy: America's Favorite Sweets, 1950-80 (Shire Books), and curator of the Candy Wrapper Museum, where candy wrappers are enjoyed as art, nostalgia, and humor. Follow her on GoodReads. Joe Lacey is a creative consultant, illustrator and designer for toys, packaging, and publication art for such companies as Crayola, (most notably, the Coloring Songbook: Lyrics by Lennon & McCartney), Avon, Fisher-Price, Mattel, and PEZ. Follow him on GoodReads. It's not just a coloring book, it's a full experience! The Crayola Signature Coloring Songbook: Lyrics by Lennon & McCartney includes a "4-panel wall art piece". Each page is perforated and can be pulled out and taped together to measure 32" wide, or 40" tall (if you stack it top to bottom) when assembled! My first idea for the pull-out poster sections was to create a globe image in four sections with All You Need Is Love circling the earth. The border was to be the word "love" repeated in twenty different languages. I took this idea directly from the "Our World" press event in which the Beatles wore sandwich boards hand painted with All You Need Is Love in multiple languages to promote the event. The following day, on June 25th, 1967 the Beatles performed All You Need Is Love as part of the "Our World" satellite broadcast. Unfortunately, the foreign languages were omitted from my designs due to too many translation issues. The globe looked good as a single image, but I just couldn't get it to break down nicely into the four segments and still have each page stand nicely on its own. So, I was back to the drawing board. My second idea, and the one that you see here, was to make it look like a blacklight hippie poster from the '60s. The style is a bit different from the rest of the coloring book, but I felt that was the right way to approach it — make it something unique and special. Also, what if someone would like to put it above a door, or down the wall like a full length mirror? To do this, the poster needed to fit together in as many ways as possible — horizontally, vertically, square, or staggered. This was easy enough, given that each section was a single letter, but they needed to work as a unit as well, so with the addition of a decorative border, the mural can connect at the corners. Each letter also had its own color scheme and theme: "L" hearts — "O" musical notes — "V" flowers — "E" peace signs. The added touch that I like the most is the inclusion of the incidental background lyrics — "It's Easy!", "All Together Now!", "Everybody!", and "She Loves You Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!". A fun way to get two more song references into the book and stick to the supplied list of approved songs.* In the end, this new design captured the feel from the "Our World" event better than my first idea. I hope kids are taping this poster on their walls! You can read more about my work for The Crayola Coloring Songbook: Lyrics by Lennon and McCartney here. *Neither All Together Now, nor She Loves You were included in the official licensing list of approved Lennon & McCartney songs, but since both these songs' lyrics were included in All You Need Is Love, I was able to put them on the poster. Bling It On!, is the adult coloring book that I designed and illustrated for Crayola. It's the second in the Art With Edge—Just Sayin' series. Some of the pages have really cool gold foil and gold ink. Each page of the book has an inspirational message or affirmation. I wanted to tie these phrases into the glamour aspect of the book by including lots of jewels and diamond shapes - you know, BLING! The book has a fun high school vibe to it with quite a bit of visual variety. Whenever I work on any project, I can't help but try to include a few characters here and there. That's what made it really fun to work on. It's out now, so go get one!
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