This E2 Media (UK) award is the second this year for Travis Edward Pike's Otherworld Cottage Industries.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA, November 13, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- At the end of last year, Otherworld Cottage Industries released "Changeling’s Return, a novel approach to the music" in paperback and digital download versions, and "Changeling’s Return, a novel musical concept" in a 53-minute CD, downloadable album and its 18 singles featuring all the music composed for Travis Edward Pike’s original, unsold screenplay.

In its January 2020, Midwest Book Review, Small Press Bookwatch, The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Shelf Critique reported: "A unique literary and musical experience, the paperback edition of "Changeling's Return" can be significantly augmented by an accompanying CD of the same title . . . unreservedly recommended for community and academic library collections...also available in a digital book format.”

In March, 2020, the eLit book version won a "2020 Bronze Medal Award for Fine and Performing Arts (Music / Dance / Cinema / Theater / Photography)," and Mike Stax, in his review in the Spring 2020 issue of "Ugly Things" magazine reported "'Changeling's Return' is [Pike's] newest gift to the world, a novel that draws on his experiences as a musician and also stirs in elements of fantasy and the supernatural. It's a compelling story with many surprising turns, and a powerful message about mankind's impact on the environment and the urgency of changing course."

A few weeks ago, we were pleased to confirm that the book and CD combination had won an E2 Media (UK), "Award of Excellence." Now, we’re proud to announce that E2 Media (UK), has also awarded Otherworld Cottage Industries its prestigious "2020 Production and Creative Content Company of the Year Award," based in part on "Changeling’s Return," but including reference to Otherworld Cottage’s publications of Terry Hagerty’s "Last of the San Patricios," and Harvey Kubernik’s "Docs That Rock, Music That Matters."

Travis Pike, Chairman Emeritus of the New Playwrights Foundation, was first introduced to Hagerty’s "Last of the San Patricios" at a regularly scheduled reading by foundation members and guests, where Terry presented it as a screenplay. Hagerty’s history-based Western adventure revealed a little-known period in U.S. history, telling the tale of two Irish Catholic immigrants who fled to America to escape the potato famine, but unable to find work here, joined the U.S Army and were sent west to the Mexican border in 1845, shortly before the outbreak of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). There, Irish recruits were regularly singled out for punishment for minor, or imaginary infractions by sadistic American junior officers, and some were tortured to death. It’s little wonder that many deserted and being offered asylum, land and citizenship, fled to Catholic Mexico where they were warmly received.

Two of the Irish deserters, Sean Mulcahy and Michael Lonergan, ended up joining the elite San Patricios Artillery Battalion, made up primarily of Irish Catholic deserters and defectors from the US Army, who fought for Mexico in the Mexican-American War. After the war, captured deserters who changed sides before war was declared had their faces branded with a large D, but defectors, who went over to Mexico after war was declared, were summarily hanged.

But that’s just the beginning of Hagerty’s adventure story. "Last of the San Patricios" may open with the Mexican-American War, but the story goes on to tell the further adventures of the two Irishmen who grew up in Ireland, hundreds of years after St. Patrick expelled all the snakes, and find themselves in a part of the world, which to them seems to be the place where all the banished reptiles resettled, thrived, and unabated, retained particularly nasty attitudes toward Irishmen, who were themselves merely trying to survive as they worked their way north from Mexico, exploring whatever opportunities they might chance upon in the American West. What they finally do chance upon, in 1879, is an 8-year-old Chinese girl, left on a sand dune south of the crumbling Spanish mission situated by the Carmel River. Not able, in good conscience, to abandon her to her fate, they instead take her to nearby Monterey, California, where they learn that the prejudice-of-the-day is against the Chinese, and the Irishmen's colorful past makes their own futures uncertain.

Travis found the story new and exciting, with as great a potential for humor as for the obligatory bar brawls, gunfights, and the sorts of shenanigans that make Western adventures popular to this day, and when Terry turned his screenplay into a novel, Travis was happy to publish it through Otherworld Cottage Industries. Even with a half-dozen four and five star reviews on Amazon, "Last of the San Patricios" is not yet a best seller, but the novel is a page turner, and Travis believes it may still end up on film.

As for the author, Terry Hagerty is a writer by vocation, an actor by inclination, and because of an abundance of curiosity, a lifelong student of history. Now a novelist, he is also a prolific screenwriter, playwright, short story writer and sometimes poet, as well as the author of a collection of children’s stories, called "Rosemary Potatoes and her Three Bears."

There is no better introduction to Harvey Kubernik’s "Docs That Rock, Music That Matters" (Otherworld Cottage Industries, 2020; 508 pages), than the Mike Stax review on page 28 of "Ugly Things" magazine’s issue #55, included here with the publisher’s gracious permission.

In "Docs That Rock, Music That Matters," Harvey Kubernik has tapped into his deep archive of interviews—some from as long ago as 1975, others as recent as last year—to present a substantial, authoritative exploration of music documentaries and rock-related film and television. The hefty 500-plus page book compiles essays and multi-voice interview pieces, illustrated with photos, including some rarely-seen pics by the great Henry Diltz.

Among the subjects, filmmaker DA Pennebaker sheds light on the making of his acclaimed documentaries "Don’t Look Back," " Eat the Document," "Monterey Pop," "Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders From Mars," and "Only the Strong Survive." There’s an interesting conversation with Murray Lerner, who the author calls “The Godfather of Live Outdoor Music Cinema,” about his groundbreaking documentary "Festival," which documented the Newport Folk Festival in the mid-sixties, and his later work like "Message of Love: The Isle of Wight Festival" and "The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Festival 1963-1965." Albert Maysles discusses the filming of "Gimme Shelter," Andrew Loog Oldham talks about "Charlie is My Darling," and Allan Arkush takes us behind the scenes on the set of "Rock ‘n’ Roll High School" (fun fact: Harvey handclaps on the record along with Rodney Bingenheimer). A chapter about "The Concert for Bangladesh" draws on Harvey’s interviews with George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, and Jim Keltner, who describes how he drummed alongside Ringo Starr at the concert.

Travis Edward Pike’s adventures in the movie industry are also covered at length, starting in the mid-sixties when he worked alongside his father on films like "Demo Derby" and "Feelin’ Good," and moving through his subsequent career as a screenwriter and in multiple other roles, including sound and music production and a memorable assignment recording an Orson Welles voiceover for a 1983 documentary about Richard Wagner.

As Kubernik points out, the 21st century has been something of a “golden age” for documentaries, and music-themed docs in particular. Many of the best of them are covered here, backed up by interviews with the filmmakers and some of the subjects and participants including "The Wrecking Crew," "20 Feet From Stardom," "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," "Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World," "Bang! The Bert Berns Story," "Once We Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band," the Tower Records documentary "All Things Must Pass," "Melody Makers," and "Horn From the Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story."

Some of these chapters are quite expansive: in covering "Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time," the author includes excerpts from interviews with Graham Nash, Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, Richie Furay, Micky Dolenz, Mark Volman, Michelle Phillips, Ray Manzarek, Nurit Wilde, and Johnny Echols. Another standout chapter is a lengthy interview with writer/filmmaker David Leaf, who talks at length about his fine documentaries, which include "The US vs John Lennon," "Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of SMiLE," "The Bee Gees: This is Where I Came In," and "The Night James Brown Saved Boston."

Selected rock ‘n’ roll DVD releases are also discussed including "Dreams to Remember: The Legacy of Otis Redding," "The Best of the Johnny Cash Show," "Jimi: All is By My Side," and "The Doors: Live at the Bowl ’68" and "Live at the Isle of Wight."

There are also insider stories about the making of "The TAMI Show," "The Big TNT Show," and "Elvis Presley’s ’68 Comeback" television special, including interviews with some of the musicians involved. Other TV-related chapters include coverage of "Ready Steady Go!," "Shindig!," "Shebang!", and "Upbeat," as well as interviews with Dick Clark about "American Bandstand" and "Where the Action Is."

There’s a huge amount of information packed into these pages, making this book an invaluable reference source for anyone interested in how documentaries and television have chronicled and celebrated music that matters. (Mike Stax)

Harvey Kubernik’s "Docs That Rock, Music That Matters," contains more than 500 pages of interviews with award-winning motion picture documentarians, music super stars, and the people whose combined efforts brought their talent home. Rejected by a host of other publishers, the project appealed to Travis Edward Pike, who not only recognized its commercial appeal. but whose own career encompassed musical performances, feature motion pictures, made for TV and documentary film production, and a number of related specialties like post production dialogue replacement, Foley, musical scoring, writing, editing, and directing.

The size of the project was daunting, but as Travis explains, he was on the East Coast during "Monterey Pop" in 1987, and on the West Coast during "Woodstock" in 1969 (and was never asked to perform at either of them). By 1985, he was no longer doing live music performances, so he wasn’t on the card for "The Concert for Bangladesh" or "Live Aid," either. But by writing the last 60 page chapter for "Docs That Rock, Music That Matters," and publishing the book through Otherworld Cottage Industries, he is finally in the same program with many of the biggest stars and starmakers of his era.

This just in: It has just been confirmed that on November 30th, 2020, at 9:20 a.m. EST, that hosts Nik Carter and Lori Majewski will interview Harvey Kubernik on their SiriusXM show, "Feedback." Tune in to learn more about "Docs That Rock, Music That Matters."

Travis Pike
Otherworld Cottage Industries
+1 323-733-0710
travpike@morningstone.com
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