How to Write Comedy: The Danny Simon Notes (Short Subjects With Big Impact)


James Scott Bell - 2012
    Not a bad recommendation.Danny Simon made his bones in the golden age of TV, on shows like Make Room for Daddy and Sid Caesar’s Show of Shows.Then he taught a legendary comedy writing class in L.A. for many years. A young writer named James Scott Bell took the course, and copious notes. These notes have never before been published. Bell is revealing these comedy secrets now for the first time.This booklet (4500 words) also includes an analysis of a legendary comedy show that Danny Simon had his students study. If you are serious about comedy . . . or if you just want to put more humor in your writing, this booklet will give you the tools. “I loved this booklet! So many great points. Terrific examples too. When I teach comedy, it is so challenging to really outline how to write a joke, all the setup that is involved, all the word play, all the reversals and the word choices. This is so well articulated. I will definitely reference it and promote it when I teach!” – Rene Gutteridge, author of Escapement and Never the BrideJames Scott Bell is one of the #1 bestselling writing coach of Plot & Structure and The Art of War for Writers. He is an award winning thriller author and seminar teacher.

The Film Buff's Bucket List


Chris Stuckmann - 2016
    It’s clear that cinema is as healthy as ever. Oscar-worthy directors, indie geniuses and foreign artists are creating stunning, boundary-pushing work. Since the turn of the century, movie lovers have been enjoying a second golden age. But which films are the best of the best? What are the top movies since 2000 to see before you die? Chris Stuckmann, one of YouTube’s most popular film reviewers (70+ million views) gives us his best of the best! In his book debut, Stuckmann delivers his list of the very best 50 Movies since 2000 – with that style and punch that YouTube viewers have come to love. These are the films you must see before you die.

Hey Doc!: The Battle of Okinawa As Remembered by a Marine Corpsman


Ed Wells - 2017
    This is the wartime memories of a Marine Corpsman who served in Company B, of the 6th Battalion of the 4th Regiment. He saw 100 days of continuous combat during the Battle of Okinawa, including the Battle for Sugar Loaf, and was part of the landing force that was headed to Japan when the atomic bomb dropped. These were recorded after 60 years of reflection, and are presented to honor all veterans.

Astrology Superstition Blind Faith or a Door to the Essential?


Osho - 2013
    From ancient India to the lost civilization of Sumeria, from Pythagoras to Paracelsus to Piccardi, we discover that for thousands of years there has been a thread of awareness of how all things in the universe are interconnected – an awareness that modern physics is still struggling to define in scientific terms today.As Osho says: The universe is a living body, an organic unity. In it, nothing is isolated, all is connected. Whatever is far away is connected to that which is near; nothing is separate. So no one should remain in the fallacy that he is an island: isolated, separate, aloof. Everything is connected to the whole, and everything is all the time affecting others and being affected by others.Astrology aficionados and skeptics alike will find something in this small volume to provoke a new way of looking at what really “makes the world go round.”

Fatal Descent: Andreas Lubitz and the Crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 (Kindle Single)


Jeff Wise - 2015
    All 144 passengers and six crew members were killed. In the ensuing days, a picture of the flight’s harrowing final moments began to emerge. Shortly after reaching cruise altitude, a 27-year-old first officer named Andreas Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit, took control of the plane and deliberately caused its descent. In Fatal Descent, journalist and aviation expert Jeff Wise travels to Lubitz’s hometown in Germany and pieces together a definitive and haunting portrait of the killer and the system he betrayed, revealing in heart-pounding detail how a lifelong super-achiever like Lubitz could have committed such an unthinkable act, what actually happened inside the cockpit, and whether current airline regulations leave us vulnerable to similar attacks in the future.Jeff Wise is a science journalist specializing in aviation and psychology. He is the author of the bestselling Kindle Single The Plane That Wasn’t There, about the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. A licensed pilot of gliders and light airplanes, he also has stick time in powered paragliders, trikes, World War II fighter planes, Soviet jet fighters, gyroplanes, and zeppelins, as well as submarines, tanks, hovercraft, dog sleds, and swamp buggies. A contributing editor at Travel + Leisure magazine, he has written for New York, the New York Times, Time, Businessweek, Esquire, Details, and many others. His Popular Mechanics story on the fate of Air France 447 was named one of the Top 10 Longreads of 2011. His last book was Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger. A native of Massachusetts, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree at Harvard and now lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.Cover design by Kerry Ellis.

Where Is She?: Travel to Trauma: One Woman's Journey To Completely Losing Herself


Alyshia Ford - 2018
    Little did she know that her journey down under would take a dark turn which left her stranded 10,000 miles from home trying to piece back together the fragments of her now broken life. After working hard towards her dreams of becoming a clinical psychologist, Aly had a sudden realisation that there must be something more out there away from the books she had been burying her head into for the past 3 years. She decided to hang her degree on the wall and book a one-way ticket to Australia, a decision which would change her entire life. Through the relationships she made, the jobs she took and the landscapes she wandered, Aly reveals her full story for the first time. Behind her YouTube videos and blog posts remained a deep dark secret that she was never ready to share, until now.

About Writing


Gareth L. Powell - 2019
    His passion for the genre, along with a refreshingly open and honest relationship with his fans, shows why he is such a unique talent.In About Writing, Powell shares his insights and tips from the world of fiction. More than just an instructional how-to, this is a practical, inspirational field guide, and a unique, invaluable insight into what it takes to be a successful author.

The Gross: The Hits, the Flops: The Summer That Ate Hollywood


Peter Bart - 1999
    A backstage glimpse of the realities of the new Hollywood focuses on the film releases and strategies of the summer of 1998, showing why Godzilla was fated to fail and how Spielberg triumphed.

Secret Hollywood: Crazy and Interesting Stories about the Rich and Famous


Bill O'Neill - 2021
    Grab your copy of Secret Hollywood and start gossiping!

The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers


Mark T. Conard - 2008
    They had already made films that redefined the gangster movie, the screwball comedy, the fable, and the film noir, among others. No Country is just one of many Coen brothers films to center on the struggles of complex characters to understand themselves and their places in the strange worlds they inhabit. To

Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film


Peter Biskind - 2004
    Peter Biskind profiles the people who took the independent movement from obscurity to the Oscars, most notably Sundance founder Robert Redford and Harvey Weinstein, who with his brother, Bob, made Miramax an indie powerhouse. Candid, penetrating and controversial, DOWN AND DIRTY PICTURES is a must read for anyone interested in the film world."In DOWN AND DIRTY PICTURES, Biskind takes on the movie industry of the 1990s and again gets the story....Peter Biskind captures his era as John Dunne did that of the Zanucks." Frank Rich, The New York Times"Dishy, teeming, superbly reported and packed with lively inside anecdotes...[a] juicy and fascinating expose." - Entertainment Weekly

Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade


William Goldman - 2000
    Goldman opens his long-awaited sequel by writing about his years of exile before he found himself--again--as a valuable writer in Hollywood. Fans of the two-time Oscar-winning writer (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men) have anxiously waited for this follow-up since his career serpentined into a variety of big hits and critical bombs in the '80s and '90s. Here Goldman scoops on The Princess Bride (his own favorite), Misery, Maverick, Absolute Power, and others. Goldman's conversational style makes him easy to read for the film novice but meaty enough for the detail-oriented pro. His tendency to ramble into other subjects may be maddening (he suddenly switches from being on set with Eastwood to anecdotes about Newman and Garbo), but we can excuse him because of one fact alone: he is so darn entertaining. Like most sequels, Which Lie follows the structure of the original. Both Goldman books have three parts: stories about his movies, a deconstruction of Hollywood (here the focus is on great movie scenes), and a workshop for screenwriters. (The paperback version of the first book also comes with his full-length screenplay of Butch; his collected works are also worth checking out). This final segment is another gift--a toolbox--for the aspiring screenwriter. Goldman takes newspaper clippings and other ideas and asks the reader to diagnose their cinematic possibilities. Goldman also gives us a new screenplay he's written (The Big A), which is analyzed--with brutal honesty--by other top writers. With its juicy facts and valuable sidebars on what makes good screenwriting, this is another entertaining must-read from the man who coined what has to be the most-quoted adage about movie-business success: "Nobody knows anything." --Doug Thomas

Facts the Historians Leave Out


John S. Tilley - 1951
    Lee and Jefferson Davis, and much more.

The Essence of Reiki 2 -Usui Reiki Level 2 Advanced Practitioner Manual


Adele Malone - 2012
    The Essence of Reiki 2 is the second Reiki manual in our series of 3 Reiki manuals that cover everything you need to know about the Usui method of natural healing.The Usui Reiki Level 2 Advanced Practitioner Manual is a wonderful guide for those Reiki students who have already completed Reiki Level 1 and are now ready to move on to the more advanced Reiki techniques taught is the second degree.There are 17 lessons which will guide you and mentor you through the three pillars of reiki and introduce you to the sacred reiki symbols and show you how to use these symbols to boost your reiki energy vibration and how to perform distant or absent healing.Reiki 2 opens up a new pathway to healing with unlimited possibilities and applications.Show More Show Less

Trier on Von Trier


Stig Björkman - 2000
    His own brilliant directing career has been marked by similarly grand ambitions, and he is unique in having premiered all of his features - from the highly styled The Element of Crime to the digital-video-originated The Idiots - at the Cannes Film Festival. Trier is a rare item in contemporary cinema, a restless innovator and polemicist, as his participation in the back-to-basics Dogme95 movement attests; and these conversations with Stig Bjorkman, author of Bergman on Bergman and Woody Allen on Woody Allen, trace the evolution of his career and thought in a manner that is both astonishingly detailed and engagingly humorous.