Download or read book Life Is Like a Musical written by Tim Federle and published by Running Press Adult. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Self-Help Guide--with Jazz Hands! Life is Like a Musical features 50 wry, witty tips on getting ahead in life and love--all learned in the showbiz trenches. "Hilarious, wise, and one-of-a-kind. This book is so damn brilliant I'm surprised it didn't already exist." -- Sarah Knight, bestselling author of The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck Before Tim Federle became a bestselling author and a Broadway playwright, he worked as a back-up dancer at the Super Bowl, a polar bear at Radio City, and a card-carrying chorus boy on Broadway. Life is Life a Musical features 50 tips learned backstage, onstage, and in between gigs, with chapters such as "Dance Like Everyone's Watching" and "Save the Drama for the Stage." This charming and clever guide will appeal to all ages and inspire readers to step into the lead role of their own life, even if they're not a recovering theater major.

Download or read book The Secret Life of the American Musical written by Jack Viertel and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller: “Both revelatory and entertaining . . . Along the way, Viertel provides some fascinating Broadway history.” —The New York Times Book Review Americans invented musicals—and have a longstanding love affair with them. But what, exactly, is a musical? In this book, longtime theatrical producer and writer Jack Viertel takes them apart, puts them back together, sings their praises, and occasionally despairs over their more embarrassing shortcomings. In the process, he shows us how musicals happen, what makes them work, how they captivate audiences, and how one landmark show leads to the next—by design or by accident, by emulation or by rebellion—from Oklahoma! to Hamilton and onward. Beginning with an overture and concluding with a curtain call, with stops in between for “I Want” songs, “conditional” love songs, production numbers, star turns, and finales, Viertel shows us patterns in the architecture of classic shows and charts the inevitable evolution that has taken place in musical theater as America itself has evolved socially and politically. The Secret Life of the American Musical makes you feel like you’re there in the rehearsal room, the front row, and the offices of theater owners and producers as they pursue their own love affair with that rare and elusive beast—the Broadway hit. “A valuable addition to the theater lover’s bookshelf. . . . fans will appreciate the dips into memoir and Viertel’s takes on original cast albums.” —Publishers Weekly “Even seasoned hands will come away with a clearer understanding of why some shows work while others flop.” —Commentary “A showstopper . . . infectiously entertaining.” —John Lahr, author of Notes on a Cowardly Lion “Thoroughly interesting.” —The A.V. Club “The best general-audience analysis of musical theater I have read in many years.” —The Charlotte Observer “Delightful . . . a little bit history, a little bit memoir, a little bit criticism and, for any theater fan, a whole lot of fun.” —The Dallas Morning News

Download or read book The Musical Life written by W. A. Mathieu and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 1994-05-24 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone, according to W.A. Mathieu, is musical by nature—it goes right along with being human. And if you don't believe it, this book will convince you. In a series of interrelated short essays, Mathieu takes the reader on a journey through ordinary experiences to open our ears to the rich variety of music that surrounds us but that we are trained to ignore; such as the variety of pitches produced by different objects, like glassware, furniture, drums—anything you can tap; or sounds that hover on the border of music, like laughter, the clinking of glasses in a toast, or the unintentional falsetto produced by yawning. Along the way the author teaches aspects of music theory that nonmusicians might ordinarily shy away from. He reveals the way of music to be a profoundly spiritual path—one that is everyone's birthright.

Download or read book Sounds Like Me written by Sara Bareilles and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Check out Little Voice on Apple TV+! Little Voice is inspired by a lost song from Sara Bareilles’s first studio album. This updated New York Times bestselling collection of essays by seven-time Grammy nominated singer songwriter Sara Bareilles “resonates with authentic and hard-won truths” (Publishers Weekly)—and features new material on the hit Broadway musical, Waitress. Sara Bareilles “pours her heart and soul into these essays” (Associated Press), sharing the joys and the struggles that come with creating great work, all while staying true to yourself. Imbued with humor and marked by Sara’s confessional writing style, this essay collection tells the inside story behind some of her most popular songs. Well known for her chart-topper “Brave,” Sara first broke through in 2007 with her multi-platinum single “Love Song.” She has since released seven albums that have sold millions of copies and spawned several hits. “A breezy, upbeat, and honest reflection of this multitalented artist” (Kirkus Reviews), Sounds Like Me reveals Sara Bareilles, the artist—and the woman—on songwriting, soul searching, and what’s discovered along the way.

Download or read book Libba written by Laura Veirs and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2018-01-16 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elizabeth Cotten was only a little girl when she picked up a guitar for the first time. It wasn't hers (it was her big brother's), and it wasn't strung right for her (she was left-handed). But she flipped that guitar upside down and backwards and taught herself how to play it anyway. By age eleven, she'd written "Freight Train," one of the most famous folk songs of the twentieth century. And by the end of her life, people everywhere—from the sunny beaches of California to the rolling hills of England—knew her music. This lyrical, loving picture book from popular singer-songwriter Laura Veirs and debut illustrator Tatyana Fazlalizadeh tells the story of the determined, gifted, daring Elizabeth Cotten—one of the most celebrated American folk musicians of all time.

Download or read book The Intelligent Leader written by John Mattone and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grow Your Leadership. Enrich Your Life. Leave a Lasting Legacy. What is great leadership? What separates the merely competent leaders from those rare individuals who leave a lasting impression on everyone around them? As one of the world’s most in-demand CEO coaches and top leadership gurus, John Mattone has worked with some of our brightest business minds—Apple’s Steve Jobs, Pepsi’s Roger Enrico, and Nielsen’s Armando Uriegas—and he’s identified the key qualities that, together, make up the mindset of great leadership. In The Intelligent Leader, Mattone lays out an accessible, practical, and compelling path that anyone can take to become the kind of leader that brings enrichment to the lives of others, enjoys a more fulfilling life, and leaves a lasting legacy. Each chapter uses a variety of real-world examples, tools, and assessments to explore one of Mattone’s 7 dimensions of Intelligent Leadership, including: • Thinking differently, thinking big • Having a mindset of duty vs. a mindset of entitlement • Leveraging your gifts and addressing your gaps • Having the courage to execute with pride, passion, and precision Readers will have complimentary online access to the Mattone Leadership Enneagram Inventory ($110 value), which offers a personalized assessment of your leadership style and maturity.

Download or read book Tequila Mockingbird written by Tim Federle and published by Running Press Adult. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pour yourself a drink and brush up on your literary knowledge with this clever guidebook that pairs cherished novels with both classic and cutting-edge cocktails. No B.A. in English required! From barflies to book clubs, Tequila Mockingbird is the world's bestselling cocktail book for the literary obsessed. Featuring sixty-five delicious drink recipes paired with wry commentary on history's most beloved novels, Tequila Mockingbird also includes bar bites, drinking games, and whimsical illustrations throughout. Drinks include: The Pitcher of Dorian Grey Goose The Last of the Mojitos Love in the Time of Kahlua Romeo and Julep A Rum of One's Own Are You There, God? It's Me, Margarita Vermouth the Bell Tolls and more! 2013 Goodreads Choice Award (Food & Cookbooks) Entertainment Weekly Great Gifts for Book Lovers BookPage Best of 2013 Clue on Jeopardy

Download or read book Go Go Live written by Natalie Hopkinson and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-22 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Go-go is the conga drum–inflected black popular music that emerged in Washington, D.C., during the 1970s. The guitarist Chuck Brown, the "Godfather of Go-Go," created the music by mixing sounds borrowed from church and the blues with the funk and flavor that he picked up playing for a local Latino band. Born in the inner city, amid the charred ruins of the 1968 race riots, go-go generated a distinct culture and an economy of independent, almost exclusively black-owned businesses that sold tickets to shows and recordings of live go-gos. At the peak of its popularity, in the 1980s, go-go could be heard around the capital every night of the week, on college campuses and in crumbling historic theaters, hole-in-the-wall nightclubs, backyards, and city parks. Go-Go Live is a social history of black Washington told through its go-go music and culture. Encompassing dance moves, nightclubs, and fashion, as well as the voices of artists, fans, business owners, and politicians, Natalie Hopkinson's Washington-based narrative reflects the broader history of race in urban America in the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first. In the 1990s, the middle class that had left the city for the suburbs in the postwar years began to return. Gentrification drove up property values and pushed go-go into D.C.'s suburbs. The Chocolate City is in decline, but its heart, D.C.'s distinctive go-go musical culture, continues to beat. On any given night, there's live go-go in the D.C. metro area.

Download or read book The Storyteller written by Dave Grohl and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The #1 New York Times Bestseller * Named one of Variety's Best Music Books of 2021 * Included in Audible's Best of The Year list * A Business Insider Best Memoirs of 2021 * One of NME's Best Music Books of 2021 So, I've written a book. Having entertained the idea for years, and even offered a few questionable opportunities ("It's a piece of cake! Just do 4 hours of interviews, find someone else to write it, put your face on the cover, and voila!") I have decided to write these stories just as I have always done, in my own hand. The joy that I have felt from chronicling these tales is not unlike listening back to a song that I've recorded and can't wait to share with the world, or reading a primitive journal entry from a stained notebook, or even hearing my voice bounce between the Kiss posters on my wall as a child. This certainly doesn't mean that I'm quitting my day job, but it does give me a place to shed a little light on what it's like to be a kid from Springfield, Virginia, walking through life while living out the crazy dreams I had as young musician. From hitting the road with Scream at 18 years old, to my time in Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, jamming with Iggy Pop or playing at the Academy Awards or dancing with AC/DC and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, drumming for Tom Petty or meeting Sir Paul McCartney at Royal Albert Hall, bedtime stories with Joan Jett or a chance meeting with Little Richard, to flying halfway around the world for one epic night with my daughters…the list goes on. I look forward to focusing the lens through which I see these memories a little sharper for you with much excitement.

Download or read book Mormons Musical Theater and Belonging in America written by Jake Johnson and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2019-06-30 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints adopted the vocal and theatrical traditions of American musical theater as important theological tenets. As Church membership grew, leaders saw how the genre could help define the faith and wove musical theater into many aspects of Mormon life. Jake Johnson merges the study of belonging in America with scholarship on voice and popular music to explore the surprising yet profound link between two quintessentially American institutions. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Mormons gravitated toward musicals as a common platform for transmitting political and theological ideas. Johnson sees Mormons using musical theater as a medium for theology of voice--a religious practice that suggests how vicariously voicing another person can bring one closer to godliness. This sounding, Johnson suggests, created new opportunities for living. Voice and the musical theater tradition provided a site for Mormons to negotiate their way into middle-class respectability. At the same time, musical theater became a unique expressive tool of Mormon culture.

Download or read book Soul Mining written by Daniel Lanois and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2010-11-09 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, U2, Peter Gabriel, and the Neville Brothers all have something in common: some of their best albums were produced by Daniel Lanois. A French-speaking kid from Canada, Lanois was driven by his innate curiosity and intense love of music to transcend his small-town origins and become one of the world's most prolific and successful record producers, as well as a brilliant musician in his own right. Lanois takes us through his childhood, from being one of four kids raised by a single mother on a hairdresser's salary, to his discovery by Brian Eno, to his work on albums such as U2's The Joshua Tree, Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind, and Emmylou Harris's Wrecking Ball. Revealing for the first time ever his unique recording secrets and innovations, Lanois delves into the ongoing evolution of technology, discussing his earliest sonic experiments with reel-to-reel decks, the birth of the microchip, the death of discrete circuitry, and the arrival of the download era. Part technological treatise, part philosophical manifesto on the nature of artistic excellence and the overwhelming need for music, Soul Mining brings the reader viscerally inside the recording studio, where the surrounding forces have always been just as important as the resulting albums. Beyond skill, beyond record budgets, beyond image and ego, Lanois's work and music show the value of dedication and soul. His lifelong quest to find the perfect mixture of tradition and innovation is inimitable and unforgettable.

Download or read book Musical Chairs written by Amy Poeppel and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A novel about modern family life with all of its discord and harmony"--

Download or read book Without You written by Anthony Rapp and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-10-31 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthony Rapp's first audition for the workshop production of Rent begins a journey that takes him all the way to Broadway as the star of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, experiencing tragedy, loss, and enlightenment along the way. When Rent's brilliant young creator, Jonathan Larson, dies suddenly of an aneurysm the night before the show's first performance, Anthony and the rest of the cast are devastated and open the show that night only to friends and family, performing a tribute to their dear friend and gifted artist. Shortly thereafter, Anthony's mom receives a devastating cancer diagnosis and during the Anthony's first year on Broadway as Mark in Rent, he makes frequent trips to visit her, hoping for her to come to terms with his being gay, as he comes to terms with her impending death. With atmospheric, nostalgic flashbacks to his childhood in small-town Joliet, Illinois, he shares his first experiences discovering his sexuality, the tension it created with his mother, and his struggle into adulthood to gain her acceptance. This is a beautiful, haunting memoir of the world of theatre, the love of son for his mother, sexual awakening, and maturity won at far too early an age.

Download or read book Roman and Jewel written by Dana L. Davis and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If Romeo and Juliet got the Hamilton treatment...who would play the leads? This vividly funny, honest, and charming romantic novel by Dana L. Davis is the story of a girl who thinks she has what it takes...and the world thinks so, too. Jerzie Jhames will do anything to land the lead role in Broadway’s hottest new show, Roman and Jewel, a Romeo and Juliet inspired hip-hopera featuring a diverse cast and modern twists on the play. But her hopes are crushed when she learns mega-star Cinny won the lead...and Jerzie is her understudy. Falling for male lead Zeppelin Reid is a terrible idea—especially once Jerzie learns Cinny wants him for herself. Star-crossed love always ends badly. But when a video of Jerzie and Zepp practicing goes viral and the entire world weighs in on who should play Jewel, Jerzie learns that while the price of fame is high, friendship, family, and love are priceless. Books by Dana L. Davis: Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now The Voice in My Head Roman and Jewel

Download or read book Richard Strauss written by Raymond Holden and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned as the gifted composer of a string of masterworks, Richard Strauss (1864-1949) is less often remembered for his achievement as a major conductor. This book considers Strauss' career as a conductor and places it in relation to his life as a composer.

Download or read book The Musical Human written by Michael Spitzer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Full of delightful nuggets' Guardian online 'Entertaining, informative and philosphical ... An essential read' All About History 'Extraordinary range ... All the world and more is here' Evening Standard 165 million years ago saw the birth of rhythm. 66 million years ago came the first melody. 40 thousand years ago Homo sapiens created the first musical instrument. Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet it is an overlooked part of our origin story. The Musical Human takes us on an exhilarating journey across the ages – from Bach to BTS and back – to explore the vibrant relationship between music and the human species. With insights from a wealth of disciplines, world-leading musicologist Michael Spitzer renders a global history of music on the widest possible canvas, from global history to our everyday lives, from insects to apes, humans to artificial intelligence. 'Michael Spitzer has pulled off the impossible: a Guns, Germs and Steel for music' Daniel Levitin 'A thrilling exploration of what music has meant and means to humankind' Ian Bostridge

Download or read book A Dream About Lightning Bugs written by Ben Folds and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the genre-defying icon Ben Folds comes a memoir that is as nuanced, witty, and relatable as his cult-classic songs. “A Dream About Lightning Bugs reads like its author: intelligent, curious, unapologetically punk, and funny as hell.”—Sara Bareilles NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND PASTE Ben Folds is a celebrated American singer-songwriter, beloved for songs such as “Brick,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” and “The Luckiest,” and is the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. But Folds will be the first to tell you he’s an unconventional icon, more normcore than hardcore. Now, in his first book, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller. In the title chapter, “A Dream About Lightning Bugs,” Folds recalls his earliest childhood dream—and realizes how much it influenced his understanding of what it means to be an artist. In “Measure Twice, Cut Once” he learns to resist the urge to skip steps during the creative process. In “Hall Pass” he recounts his 1970s North Carolina working-class childhood, and in “Cheap Lessons” he returns to the painful life lessons he learned the hard way—but that luckily didn’t kill him. In his inimitable voice, both relatable and thought-provoking, Folds digs deep into the life experiences that shaped him, imparting hard-earned wisdom about both art and life. Collectively, these stories embody the message Folds has been singing about for years: Smile like you’ve got nothing to prove, because it hurts to grow up, and life flies by in seconds. Praise for A Dream About Lightning Bugs “Besides being super talented, and an incredibly poignant and multifaceted musician, Ben Folds is a fantastic author. I couldn’t put this book down—and not just because I taped it to my hand. Ben takes us into his mind and into his process from the very beginnings of his childhood to where he is today—one of the greatest musicians and writers that has ever graced the art.”—Bob Saget