This is Spinal Tap
This is Spinal Tap

Author: Karl French

Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA

Published: 2000-09-30

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1582341257

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The companion to the funniest film ever made about rock bands. Rob Reiner's hilarious "rockumentary" about an aging British heavy-metal group has reached legendary status since its release in 1984. Largely ad-libbed by lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer)-as well as a succession of drummers whose careers were cut short by spontaneously combusting, drowning in somebody else's vomit, or other untimely deaths- This Is Spinal Tap chronicles the band's latest American tour in a cunning satire of rock and roll culture. Now, just in time for the theatrical re-release of This is Spinal Tap, as well as the ensuing video and DVD release, comes The Official Companion, featuring: Fully illustrated text A complete transcript of the film (much of the film was ad-libbed, so an ordinary screenplay can lack entire scenes) Never-before-seen stills from cut footage A comprehensive A-to-Z Guide featuring everything you've ever wanted to know about This Is Spinal Tap Don't miss the chance to see behind the scenes of one of the most riotous and memorable satires of our time!

This Is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap

Author: John Kenneth Muir

Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation

Published: 2010-09-01

Total Pages: 99

ISBN-13: 0879107790

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

(Music On Filments). In 1984, four comedians Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Rob Reiner, and Harry Shearer unleashed This Is Spinal Tap , the world's first "mock-rockumentary" and a joke that has lasted into the 21st century and inspired a generation of imitations. Now, award-winning film journalist John Kenneth Muir ( An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith ) escorts the reader through a quarter-century of heavy metal laughs, offering a detailed history of the film's genesis and an up-close look at the reasons why this beloved rock-and-roll movie comedy has endured for so long, and even met acceptance in the rock-and-roll culture it lampoons. Features interview material with the cinematographer, editor, and some supporting cast members of This Is Spinal Tap as well as "King of Nostalgia" Joe Franklin.

Best in Show
Best in Show

Author: John Kenneth Muir

Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9781557836090

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

(Applause Books). Best in Show is the first in-depth look at the method behind film director and actor Christopher Guest's madness and genius. John Kenneth Muir focuses his attention on the acclaimed Guest-directed trilogy of what some call "mockumentaries": Waiting for Guffman , Best in Show and A Mighty Wind . In these films Guest has escorted rapt audiences into the purportedly real worlds of a small-town theatrical company, dog show competition, and folk music festival. Muir also details the events that lead to Rob Reiner's influential and legendary This Is Spinal Tap , which Rolling Stone called the best rock and roll movie of all time, and in which Guest played the part of guitarist Nigel Tufnel. Much of Best in Show exemplifies the unique process by which Guest directs films. He employs a common repertory company, improvises scenes often without any rehearsal, and does not use any screenplay with dialogue, instead following a detailed outline often co-authored with his ace actor/writer Eugene Levy. Company members that have been interviewed for this book include Fred Willard, Harry Shearer, Bob Balaban and Michael Hitchcock. Guest's influences Saturday Night Live , National Lampoon as well as his more conventional comedies, such as The Big Picture and Almost Heroes , are studied. Best in Show is general enough to bring new fans to the table, yet detailed enough to satisfy the most in-the-know Guest fan and film student. A complete filmography with Guest's directing, acting and writing credits is included, as is the appendix, "You Know You're in a Christopher Guest Film When ..." Guest once commented, "I am drawn to people who have dreams that are slightly out of reach." Now, thanks to John Kenneth Muir, the fascinating world of Christopher Guest and company is substantially more within reach.

Mockumentary Comedy
Mockumentary Comedy

Author: Richard Wallace

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-07-13

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 331977848X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book is the first to take comedy seriously as an important aspect of the popular mockumentary form of film and television fiction. It examines the ways in which mockumentary films and television programmes make visible—through comedy—the performances that underpin straight documentaries and many of our public figures. Mockumentary Comedy focuses on the rock star and the politician, two figures that regularly feature as mockumentary subjects. These public figures are explored through detailed textual analyses of a range of film and television comedies, including A Hard Day’s Night, This is Spinal Tap, The Thick of It, Veep and the works of Christopher Guest and Alison Jackson. This book broadens the scope of existing mockumentary scholarship by taking comedy seriously in a sustained way for the first time. It ultimately argues that the comedic performances—by performers and of documentary conventions—are central to the form’s critical significance and popular appeal.

You're on an Airplane
You're on an Airplane

Author: Parker Posey

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2018-07-24

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0735218196

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A National Bestseller Have you ever wondered what it would be like talk to Parker Posey? On an airplane, with Parker as your seat companion, perhaps? Parker’s irreverent, hilarious, and enchanting memoir gives you the opportunity. Full of personal stories, whimsical how-tos, recipes, and beautiful handmade collages created by the author herself, You’re On an Airplane is a delight in every way. In her first book, actress and star of movies such as Dazed and Confused, Party Girl, You’ve Got Mail, The House of Yes, and so many more, Posey opens up about the art of acting, life on the set, and the realities of its accompanying fame. A funny and colorful southern childhood prepared Posey for a life of creating and entertaining, which not only extends to acting but to the craft of pottery, sewing, collage, yoga, and cooking, all of which readers will find in this whimsical, hilarious, always entertaining book. Parker takes us into her childhood home, behind the scenes of the indie film revolution in the 90s, the delightful absurdity of the big-budget genre thrillers she’s turned into art in a whole new way, and the creativity that will always be part of both her acting and her personal life. With Posey’s memorable, hilarious, and poignant voice, her book gives the reader a feeling of traveling through not only a memoir, but an exploration, meditation, and celebration of what it means to be an artist. Buckle up and enjoy the journey.

Inside Spinal Tap
Inside Spinal Tap

Author: Peter Occhiogrosso

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 9780349104591

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The film This is Spinal Tap rescued Spinal Tap from oblivion - or was it Bolivia? Inside Spinal Tap is the story the film didn't dare tell. It is the story of a three-way love-hate relationship of these giant (or at least tall) talents and their views on heaven, hell and having a bite to eat.

Movies (And Other Things)
Movies (And Other Things)

Author: Shea Serrano

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 2019-10-08

Total Pages: 867

ISBN-13: 1538730200

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER BARNES & NOBLE BESTSELLER AMAZON BESTSELLER "Paging through Serrano's Movies (and Other Things) is like taking a long drive at night with a friend; there's that warmth and familiarity where the chat is more important than the fastest route from Point A to Point B...It's like a textbook gone right; your attention couldn't wander if it tried." -- Elisabeth Egan, New York Times Book Review Shea Serrano is back, and his new book, Movies (And Other Things),combines the fury of a John Wick shootout, the sly brilliance of Regina George holding court at a cafeteria table, and the sheer power of a Denzel monologue, all into one. Movies (And Other Things) is a book about, quite frankly, movies (and other things). One of the chapters, for example, answers which race Kevin Costner was able to white savior the best, because did you know that he white saviors Mexicans in McFarland, USA, and white saviors Native Americans in Dances with Wolves, and white saviors Black people in Black or White, and white saviors the Cleveland Browns in Draft Day? Another of the chapters, for a second example, answers what other high school movie characters would be in Regina George's circle of friends if we opened up the Mean Girls universe to include other movies (Johnny Lawrence is temporarily in, Claire from The Breakfast Club is in, Ferris Bueller is out, Isis from Bring It On is out...). Another of the chapters, for a third example, creates a special version of the Academy Awards specifically for rom-coms, the most underrated movie genre of all. And another of the chapters, for a final example, is actually a triple chapter that serves as an NBA-style draft of the very best and most memorable moments in gangster movies. Many, many things happen in Movies (And Other Things), some of which funny, others of which are sad, a few of which are insightful, and all of which are handled with the type of care and dedication to the smallest details and pockets of pop culture that only a book by Shea Serrano can provide.

Still Lives
Still Lives

Author: Jonathan Cole

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2006-02-17

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9780262262170

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An examination, through personal narratives and reflective commentary, of life without sensation or movement in the body. In writing Still Lives, Jonathan Cole wanted to find out about living in a wheelchair, without having what he calls "the doctor/patient thing" intervene. He has done this by asking people with spinal cord injuries the simple question of what it is like to live without sensation and movement in the body. If the body has absented itself, where does the person reside? He describes his method in the first chapter: "I have gone to people, not with a white coat or a stethoscope...[but] to listen to their lives as they express them," and it is the candid and powerful narratives of twelve people with spinal cord injuries that form the heart of the book.Asking his simple question, Cole discovers that there is no single or simple answer. The twelve people with tetraplegia (known as quadriplegia in the US) or paraplegia whose stories he tells testify to similar impairments but widely differing experiences. Cole employs their individual responses to shape the book into six main sections: "Enduring," "Exploring," "Experimenting," "Observing," "Empowering," and, finally, "Continuing." Each concludes with a commentary on the broader issues raised. Still Lives moves from a view of impairment as tragedy to reveal the possibilities and richness of experience available to those living with spinal injuries. More universally, it offers new perspectives on our relation to our bodies. In exploring the creative and imaginative adjustments required to construct a "still life," it makes a plea for the able-bodied to adjust their view of this most profound of impairments.

I Wonder
I Wonder

Author: Marian Bantjes

Publisher: The Monacelli Press, LLC

Published: 2018-09-25

Total Pages: 117

ISBN-13: 1580935192

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From typographic illustrator Marian Bantjes, I Wonder will make you think in new ways about art, design, beauty, and popular culture. This unique presentation features the elaborately crafted word pictures of Marian Bantjes, the most inventive and creative typographic illustrator of our time. Whether intricately hand-drawn or using computer illustration software, Bantjes's work crosses the boundaries of time, style, and technology. There is, however, another side to Bantjes's visual work: her thoughtful treatises on art, design, beauty, and popular culture that add a deeper dimension to the decorative nature of her best-known work. These reflections cover the cult of Santa, road-side advertising, photography and memory, the alphabet's letterforms, heraldry, and stars. Bantjes's writing style ranges from the playful to the confrontational, but it is always imbued with perspicacity, insight, and a sense of fun. Intended to inspire creatives of any persuasion, this is more than a collection of ideas: Bantjes has meticulously illustrated every page of the book in her inimitable style to create an accessible work of art that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Quirky, poignant, astute, funny--this beautiful book presents a compelling collection of observations on visual culture and design. In Stefan Sagmeister's telling words, Bantjes's work is his "favorite example of beauty facilitating the communication of meaning." This paperback edition is expanded with a new essay from the author.

The Boys in the Boat (Movie Tie-In)
The Boys in the Boat (Movie Tie-In)

Author: Daniel James Brown

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2023-12-05

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0593512308

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The inspiration for the Major Motion Picture Directed by George Clooney—exclusively in theaters December 25, 2023! The #1 New York Times bestselling true story about the American rowing triumph of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin—from the author of Facing the Mountain For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.