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Readers!

 

My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

No matter. I am here, and here I intend to stay. If you like what I do and have not yet donated or subscribed, please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


John Williams – Theme from Jaws

An evening pause: Performed by the Boston Pops orchestra.

Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime. As Phil noted to me, “The audience seems to love it.” I think many of them had seen the film, and when they heard that first note couldn’t help feeling a deep down bit of squeamish nervousness about what it signified.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

2 comments

  • Edward

    As Jack Black’s character noted in the movie “The Holliday”:

    “Two notes, and you’ve got a villain.”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSHuVnL-ghw#t=86

  • Phil Berardelli

    Thanks, Bob. Spielberg has told two stories about the creation of the “Jaws” theme. In the first, he described the first conference he had with Williams about the possible music for the movie. He said he had in mind something sinister and creepy, such as the score Williams had composed for Robert Altman’s “Images” in 1972 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIBTp56cdBY). Williams reacted to the suggestion by saying, “No, no, no, dear boy! This is a pirate movie!” He meant that his concept for “Jaws” would convey a sense of high adventure, particularly in the second half of the movie, where it’s three men in a boat against the shark. Spielberg’s second story was about the day Williams invited him to hear what he had composed. Sitting in Williams’s living room, Spielberg heard Williams play the now-famous shark theme with two fingers on the piano, including the pauses. When Williams finished, Spielberg said he laughed and thought it was a joke. “No, no,” Williams said, again, “this is it.” I think we can safely say Williams was right on both counts. And as Spielberg eventually wrote about Williams for the movie score’s album cover, “He has made our movie more adventurous, gripping and phobic than I ever thought possible.” Indeed!

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