The show must go on—and it’s up to Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew to track down a missing performer in this musical mystery! It’s opening day of the first Broadway musical to hit River Heights, and Nancy, Bess, and George are thrilled that they get to sit in the front row! The famed production of Francie is the talk of the town, especially because it stars a very talented pooch named Sammy! But on the day of the show it’s clear that the Sammy onstage is an imposter—who ends up ruining the performance. It’s up to the Clue Crew to find the real doggy star before the show leaves town. But with a long list of suspects and a practical jokester wreaking havoc around River Heights, this is an especially tough case to crack. Can the Clue Crew find the missing star before the curtain comes down for good? Or will this be a real musical mess?
Bestselling author Tom Lichtenheld brings a mad-cap mess ALIVE in this lightly animated interactive format -- perfect for young readers of all ages! Fans are sure to delight in What Mess? Story Synopsis: Why is this room such a mess all the time?What's with that smell, and what's with the grime? What Mess? is a hilarious conversation between a boy and his parents about a room that's such a disaster zone, he'd have to clean it just to call it a mess.
What Duke Ellington and Miles Davis teach us about leadership How do you cope when faced with complexity and constant change at work? Here’s what the world’s best leaders and teams do: they improvise. They invent novel responses and take calculated risks without a scripted plan or a safety net that guarantees specific outcomes. They negotiate with each other as they proceed, and they don’t dwell on mistakes or stifle each other’s ideas. In short, they say “yes to the mess” that is today’s hurried, harried, yet enormously innovative and fertile world of work. This is exactly what great jazz musicians do. In this revelatory book, accomplished jazz pianist and management scholar Frank Barrett shows how this improvisational “jazz mind-set” and the skills that go along with it are essential for effective leadership today. With fascinating stories of the insights and innovations of jazz greats such as Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, as well as probing accounts of the wisdom gleaned from his own experience as a jazz musician, Barrett introduces a new model for leading and collaborating in organizations. He describes how, like skilled jazz players, leaders need to master the art of unlearning, perform and experiment simultaneously, and take turns soloing and supporting each other. And with examples that range from manufacturing to the military to high-tech, he illustrates how organizations must take an inventive approach to crisis management, economic volatility, and all the rapidly evolving realities of our globally connected world. Leaders today need to be expert improvisers. Yes to the Mess vividly shows how the principles of jazz thinking and jazz performance can help anyone who leads teams or works with them to develop these critical skills, wherever they sit in the organization. Engaging and insightful, Yes to the Mess is a seminar on collaboration and complexity, against the soulful backdrop of jazz.
Can a band comprised of six very talented but very different musicians make a difference with their music? What made it possible for Diamond Rio to weather the storms inherent in the fickle world of fame and fortune and go more than two decades without a single lineup change? Any reader in search of transparency and a behind-the-scenes look into the life of the band as a unit as well as the individual lives of the players and singers will be well satisfied. Can true loyalty exist within the competitive, seemingly unforgiving music industry? In Beautiful Mess Marty Roe, Dan Truman, Jimmy Olander, Brian Prout, Gene Johnson, and Dana Williams each has an entire chapter devoted to his personal and professional life. The book’s tone is a welcome rarity—not written from one player’s perspective, but from all six as they “meet in the middle.” Beautiful Mess is a wild ride from the edge of disaster and a little-known secret to an ongoing heart-warming revival.
From the internationally bestselling creator of Wreck This Journal, a book that celebrates mistake- and mess-making like never before... Your whole life, you’ve been taught to avoid making a mess: try to keep everything under control, color inside the lines, make it perfect, and at all costs, avoid contact with things that stain. This book asks you to do the opposite of what you have been taught. Think of it as your own personal rumpus room. A place to let loose, to trash, to spew, to do the things you are not allowed to do in the “real world.” There are only three rules you will find in this book: 1. Do not try to make something beautiful. 2. Do not think too much. (There is no “wrong.”) 3. Continue under all circumstances. It's time to make a mess.
With a pajama-clad President Reagan refusing to leave the White House on his successor’s Inauguration Day, Buckley has given this farce of Oval Office politics a nearly perfect beginning. Parodying the familiar form of the White House memoir, Buckley recounts the turbulent years of the Democratic Tucker administration, as told by loyalist Herbert Wadlough. Through this former accountant’s eyes, we see the infighting that plagues the White House, the President’s faltering marriage to a former starlet, and his ongoing crises.
A young monk keeps getting in trouble with the head of the monastery who thinks the boy can't do anything right. Finally, the young boy decides to turn the tables with the help of a red rooster and a little bit of a sticky snack called mieng. What happens next has become the stuff of legend for hundreds of years! This is the hilarious tale of cleverness and ingenuity for children ages four and up.
"The show must go on--and it's up to Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew to track down a missing performer in this musical mystery! It's opening day of the first Broadway musical to hit River Heights, and Nancy, Bess, and George are thrilled that they get to sit in the front row! The famed production of Francie is the talk of the town, especially because it stars a very talented pooch named Sammy! But on the day of the show it's clear that the Sammy onstage is an imposter--who ends up ruining the performance. It's up to the Clue Crew to find the real doggy star before the show leaves town. But with a long list of suspects and a practical jokester wreaking havoc around River Heights, this is an especially tough case to crack. Can the Clue Crew find the missing star before the curtain comes down for good? Or will this be a real musical mess?" -- from publisher's web site.
Charlie Chaplin. Buster Keaton. The Marx Brothers. Billy Wilder. Woody Allen. The Coen brothers. Where would the American film be without them? Yet the cinematic genre these artists represent--comedy--has perennially received short shrift from critics, film buffs, and the Academy Awards. Saul Austerlitz’s Another Fine Mess is an attempt to right that wrong. Running the gamut of film history from City Lights to Knocked Up, Another Fine Mess retells the story of American film from the perspective of its unwanted stepbrother--the comedy. In 30 long chapters and 100 shorter entries, each devoted primarily to a single performer or director, Another Fine Mess retraces the steps of the American comedy film, filling in the gaps and following the connections that link Mae West to Doris Day, or W. C. Fields to Will Ferrell. The first book of its kind in more than a generation, Another Fine Mess is an eye-opening, entertaining, and enlightening tour of the American comedy, encompassing the masterpieces, the box-office smashes, and all the little-known gems in between.
Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter has made quite the mess in this classic, funny, and heartwarming book. Whether he’s shoving junk under the bed, cramming toys in the closet, or overstuffing drawers with clothes, both parents and children alike will relate to this beloved story. A perfect way to teach kids about picking up after themselves!
