The Disaster Artist

Author: Greg Sestero
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476730407
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
"In 2003, an independent film called The room ... made its disastrous debut in Los Angeles. Described by one reviewer as 'like getting stabbed in the head,' the six-million-dollar film earned a grand total of $1800 at the box office and closed after two weeks. Ten years later, The room is an international cult phenomenon ... In [this book], actor Greg Sestero, Tommy's costar and longtime best friend, recounts the film's long, strange journey to infamy, unraveling mysteries for fans ... as well as the question that plagues the uninitiated: how the hell did a movie this awful ever get made?"--

A Boy Named Shel

Author: Lisa Rogak
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
ISBN: 1429980567
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Book Description
Few authors are as beloved as Shel Silverstein. His inimitable drawings and comic poems have become the bedtime staples of millions of children and their parents, but few readers know much about the man behind that wild-eyed, bearded face peering out from the backs of dust jackets. In A Boy Named Shel, Lisa Rogak tells the full story of a life as antic and adventurous as any of his creations. A man with an incurable case of wanderlust, Shel kept homes on both coasts and many places in between---and enjoyed regular stays in the Playboy Mansion. Everywhere he went he charmed neighbors, made countless friends, and romanced almost as many women with his unstoppable energy and never-ending wit. His boundless creativity brought him fame and fortune---neither of which changed his down-to-earth way of life---and his children's books sold millions of copies. But he was much more than "just" a children's writer. He collaborated with anyone who crossed his path, and found success in a wider range of genres than most artists could ever hope to master. He penned hit songs like "A Boy Named Sue" and "The Unicorn." He drew cartoons for Stars & Stripes and got his big break with Playboy. He wrote experimental plays and collaborated on scripts with David Mamet. With a seemingly unending stream of fresh ideas, he worked compulsively and enthusiastically on a wide array of projects up until his death, in 1999. Drawing on wide-ranging interviews and in-depth research, Rogak gives fans a warm, enlightening portrait of an artist whose imaginative spirit created the poems, songs, and drawings that have touched the lives of so many children---and adults.

Accepting the Disaster

Author: Joshua Mehigan
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374713375
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 97

Book Description
One of The New York Times' 10 Favorite Poetry Books of 2014 An astonishing new collection from one of our finest emerging poets A shark's tooth, the shape-shifting cloud drifting from a smokestack, the smoke detectors that hang, ominous but disregarded, overhead—very little escapes the watchful eye of Joshua Mehigan. The poems in Accepting the Disaster range from lyric miniatures like "The Crossroads," a six-line sketch of an accident scene, to "The Orange Bottle," an expansive narrative page-turner whose main character suffers a psychotic episode after quitting medication. Mehigan blends the naturalistic milieu of such great chroniclers of American life as Stephen Crane and Studs Terkel with the cinematic menace and wonder of Fritz Lang. Balanced by the music of his verse, this unusual combination brings an eerie resonance to the real lives and institutions it evokes. These poems capture with equal tact the sinister quiet of a deserted Main Street, the tragic grandiosity of Michael Jackson, the loneliness of a self-loathing professor, the din of a cement factory, and the saving grandeur of the natural world. This much-anticipated second collection is the work of a nearly unrivaled craftsman, whose first book was called by Poetry "a work of some poise and finish, by turns delicate and robust."

The Disaster Days

Author: Rebecca Behrens
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1492673323
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Book Description
Hatchet meets The Babysitters Club in this epic and thrilling survival story about pushing oneself to the limit in the face of a crisis. We were all alone, in a shaken and shattered house, in the dark. And I was in charge. Hannah Steele loves living on Pelling, a tiny island near Seattle. She's always felt totally safe there. So when she's asked to babysit after school one day, it's no big deal. Zoe and Oscar are her next-door neighbors, and Hannah just took a babysitting class, which she's pretty sure makes her an expert. She isn't even worried that she left her inhaler at home. Then the shaking begins. The terrifying earthquake only lasts four minutes, but it changes everything—damaging the house, knocking out the power, and making cell service nonexistent. Even worse, the ferry and the bridge connecting the kids to help—and their parents—are both blocked, which means they're stranded alone. And Hannah's in charge as things go from bad to worse. Praise for The Disaster Days: "A realistic, engrossing survival story that's perfect for aspiring babysitters and fans of John Macfarlane's Stormstruck!, Sherry Shahan's Ice Island, or Wesley King's A World Below."—School Library Journal "The strength of this steadily paced novel that stretches over four days of a scary disaster scenario is that Hannah doesn't figure everything out; she stumbles, doubts, and struggles throughout it all."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books "Fans of survival thrillers in the vein of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet will enjoy this tense, honest tale of bravery...an excellent (and refreshingly not didactic) teaching tool on natural-disaster preparedness."—Booklist "The relentless progression of a variety of disaster scenarios will keep readers turning pages...equally suspenseful and informative."—School Library Connection "Behrens uses immersive details and situations effectively viewed from Hannah's perspective to create a suspenseful, vivid story filled with lessons about responsibility and overcoming adversity."—Publishers Weekly The Disaster Days is a perfect... gift for preteen survival story fans earthquake fiction chapter book for tween girls ages 11-14 survivalist fiction book for middle grade girls summer reading book for preteens preteen gift for girls

The Room

Author: Ryan Finnigan
Publisher: Applause Theatere & Cinema Books
ISBN: 9781480390966
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
(Applause Books). Oh Hai! The Room: The Definitive Guide is the ultimate key to the biggest pop culture phenomenon of the 21st century, Tommy Wiseau's The Room . Arguably the worst film of all time and certainly one of the most beguiling, the masterpiece of so-bad-it's-good filmmaking has grown since its release in 2003 to become one of the most popular theatrical releases of all time, with an extremely loyal and vocal fan base. Within the book, readers will find everything required to step into The Room for the first time and understand the traditions, characters, and (lack of) logic at play within the ultimate cult film. Favorite customers of the film will also find a dozen red roses as the book takes a look back at the history of the phenomenon, features extensive and in-depth analysis of the film, includes extensive interviews with the cast and crew, and, of course, studies the film's enigmatic and visionary auteur, Tommy Wiseau. This is the first available book guide to The Room . And an added bonus is the graphic design from cult film artist Mute, which will give the book an eye-catching and distinctive look. So get your tuxedo on, grab your football, have your spoons at the ready, and prepare to shout, "You're tearing me apart, Lisa!" for the first or thousandth time, as we enter The Room .

Creative Types

Author: Tom Bissell
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 152474915X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
From the best-selling coauthor of The Disaster Artist and “one of America's best and most interesting writers" (Stephen King), a new collection of stories that range from laugh-out-loud funny to disturbingly dark—unflinching portraits of women and men struggling to bridge the gap between art and life A young and ingratiating assistant to a movie star makes a blunder that puts his boss and a major studio at grave risk. A long-married couple hires an escort for a threesome in order to rejuvenate their relationship. An assistant at a prestigious literary journal reconnects with a middle school frenemy and finds that his carefully constructed world of refinement cannot protect him from his past. A Bush administration lawyer wakes up on an abandoned airplane, trapped in a nightmare of his own making. In these and other stories, Tom Bissell vividly renders the complex worlds of characters on the brink of artistic and personal crises—writers, video-game developers, actors, and other creative types who see things slightly differently from the rest of us. With its surreal, poignant, and sometimes squirm-inducing stories, Creative Types is a brilliant new offering from one the most versatile and talented writers working in America today.

Yes, I Directed "The Room"

Author: Schklair Sandy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781775175582
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 156

Book Description
In September 2002, Tommy Wiseau produced a film called The Room. He was the Producer, Writer and lead actor of this film. For 14 years, he has claimed to be the Director as well. Nothing could be further from the truth! The events leading up to my writing this book may not be so funny to me personally; but the story itself is hilarious.

Master of Disaster

Author: Lois T. Hauck
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 147598507X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Book Description
Ed Pusick was a quiet and eccentric man, a bachelor all his life, whose passion was his artwork. After his time in the Navy when an accident disabled his legs for the rest of his life, Ed became a source of many inventive designs as a professional but apparently never took the trouble to seek patents, recognition, nor much gratitude for his work. Ed later drew sketches as an illustrator for an architectural firm in Grand Rapids, where he met a co-worker who encouraged him to begin drawings of Great Lakes shipwrecks. Eds shipwreck art became prolific. He created a series of drawings of the most famous vessels of the Great Lakes shipwreck coasts. Many of these have been published over the years in the Shipwreck Journal, featured on the History Channel, displayed in museums, and used to illustrate history books and other publications. Many of these drawings from Pusick, known as the Master of Disaster, were produced as limited edition prints. Lois Hauck, Eds caregiver during the last years of his life explains, Ed frequently said he would take his secret of drawing angry waves to his grave. And he did. This narrative describes the stories and works that were passed on to Lois.

Donald Sultan

Author: Alison Hearst
Publisher: Prestel
ISBN: 9783791355740
Category : Disasters in art
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A critically important series in the oeuvre of American painter, sculptor, and printmaker Donald Sultan, The Disaster Paintings were created between 1984 and 1990. These works feature imposing, man-made structures, whose industrial qualities are reinforced by Sultan's preferred media, Masonite tiles and tar. The paintings' resulting sense of robust permanence is offset by the catastrophes Sultan includes therein, which provoke a jarring sense of fragility, impermanence, and transience. Such unexpected juxtapositions are privileged by the artist's process itself, which merges the industrial materials of Minimalism with representational painting, stylistically combining figuration and abstraction and making simultaneous reference to high and low culture. Painted on a large scale (the majority of the works in this series measure 8' x 8'), The Disaster Paintings embody great physicality in their process, subject matter, and finished form. They also reify the modern experience of industrialized societies with images of fire, accidents, and industrial mishaps, daring us to forget that calamities and adversity are woven into the very fabric of our existence. It is a timely moment in history to reconsider and reassess The Disaster Paintings. - Published to accompany the exhibition of the same name held at Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, Florida, 29th September-23rd December 2016; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, February-April 2017; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, May 26-September 4, 2017.

You Are an Artist

Author: Sarah Urist Green
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525505857
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
“There are more than 50 creative prompts for the artist (or artist at heart) to explore. Take the title of this book as affirmation, and get started.” —Fast Company More than 50 assignments, ideas, and prompts to expand your world and help you make outstanding new things to put into it Curator Sarah Urist Green left her office in the basement of an art museum to travel and visit a diverse range of artists, asking them to share prompts that relate to their own ways of working. The result is You Are an Artist, a journey of creation through which you'll invent imaginary friends, sort books, declare a cause, construct a landscape, find your band, and become someone else (or at least try). Your challenge is to filter these assignments through the lens of your own experience and make art that reflects the world as you see it. You don't have to know how to draw well, stretch a canvas, or mix a paint color that perfectly matches that of a mountain stream. This book is for anyone who wants to make art, regardless of experience level. The only materials you'll need are what you already have on hand or can source for free. Full of insights, techniques, and inspiration from art history, this book opens up the processes and practices of artists and proves that you, too, have what it takes to call yourself one. You Are an Artist brings together more than 50 assignments gathered from some of the most innovative creators working today, including Sonya Clark, Michelle Grabner, The Guerrilla Girls, Fritz Haeg, Pablo Helguera, Nina Katchadourian, Toyin Ojih Odutola, J. Morgan Puett, Dread Scott, Alec Soth, Gillian Wearing, and many others.