This is not a typical self help book. This is a book of action. This is a book that is going to light a fire under your ass. In this refreshingly entertaining do it yourself-self help book, life coach, podcaster and inspirational speaker, Jessica Jeboult, will show you how to save your own damn life. By upholding the 4 commitments outlined in this book, you will track where your life needs improvement and learn the tools and strategies to successfully implement a solution immediately. Through hilariously inspiring stories, sage advice and simple, user friendly exercises, you will learn how to: -improve your health-override self doubt-live a life you're proud of-cultivate fulfilling relationships-build an endless source of confidence-love your job and career -take action You will get the cheat codes to living a happy, healthy, productive life filled with love. "Anything I can do, you can do too. If you want to take control of your life, let's get to work!

Lloyd Kaufman, the writer/producer/director of such cult-classic films as The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke 'Em High, and Tromeo and Juliet, offers a guide to movie-making unlike any other available anywhere. In 25 years, Kaufman, along with partner Michael Herz, has built Troma Studios up from a company struggling to find its voice in a field crowded with competitors to its current--and legendary--status as a lone survivor, a bastion of true cinematic independence, and the world's greatest collection of camp on film. As entertaining and funny as it is informative and insightful, Make Your Own Damn Movie! places Kaufman's radically low-budget, independent-studio style of filmaking directly in the reader's hands. Thus we learn how to: develop and write a knock-out screenplay; raise funding; find locations and cast actors; hire a crew; obtain equipment, permits, and music rights (all for little or no money); make incredible special effects for $0.79 each; charm, schmooze, and network while on the film-festival circuit; and, finally, make a bad actor act so bad it's actually good. From scriptwriting and directing to financing and marketing, this book is brimming with utterly off-the-wall, decidedly maverick, yet consistently proven advice on how to fully develop one's idea for an independent film.

A riveting account of life as a closeted professional athlete from gay NFL player O’Callaghan, against the backdrop of depression, opioid addiction, and the threat of suicide. “[O’Callaghan’s] story is one of beautiful vulnerability, and it further shows the importance of knowing you aren’t alone.” —Oprah Daily, recommended by Gayle King Ryan O’Callaghan’s plan was always to play football and then, when his career was over, kill himself. Growing up in a politically conservative corner of California, the not-so-subtle messages he heard as a young man from his family and from TV and film routinely equated being gay with disease and death. Letting people in on the darkest secret he kept buried inside was not an option: better death with a secret than life as a gay man. As a kid , Ryan never envisioned just how far his football career would take him. He was recruited by the University of California, Berkeley, where he spent five seasons, playing alongside his friend Aaron Rodgers. Then it was on to the NFL for stints with the almost-undefeated New England Patriots and the often-defeated Kansas City Chiefs. Bubbling under the surface of Ryan’s entire NFL career was a collision course between his secret sexuality and his hidden drug use. When the league caught him smoking pot, he turned to NFL-sanctioned prescription painkillers that quickly sent his life into a tailspin. As injuries mounted and his daily intake of opioids reached a near-lethal level, he wrote his suicide note to his parents and plotted his death. Yet someone had been watching. A member of the Chiefs organization stepped in, recognizing the signs of drug addiction. Ryan reluctantly sought psychological help, and it was there that he revealed his lifelong secret for the very first time. Nearing the twilight of his career, Ryan faced the ultimate decision: end it all, or find out if his family and football friends could ever accept a gay man in their lives.

Drawing on the experiences of his life, traditional wisdom stories, poetic and metaphoric language, etymology, and his personal brand of scholarship, Michael Meade leads us to an undeniable truth: that the only story we came here to live is our own. Often called "an instant classic," in this newly revised and expanded edition of Fate and Destiny, Meade has taken his original message of the uniqueness of each life to new levels of meaning and inspiration. By elaborating key themes and polishing the gems of wisdom, Meade gives us an even more powerful opportunity to change ourselves and the world. Meade shows how the limitations of family and fate form the inner threads from which our individual destiny must emerge. He explains how our wounds can become doorways to our deepest gifts and how our greatest obstacles are intended to lead us to a treasure divinely seeded within us before birth. Amidst the current turmoil of the world, Fate and Destiny speaks directly to young people seeking to find a genuine path in life and trying to awaken to the dream they carry inside. At the same time, stories of the elders help older people find new ways to value their lives and touch the threads of their own destiny. Fate and Destiny offers everyone penetrating insights for those caught in life's inevitable struggles and shows the wisdom of elders depends upon remembering the spirit of eternal youth. -- Provided by publisher.

Drooling fanatic, n. 1. One who drools in the presence of beloved rock stars. 2. Any of a genus of rock-and-roll wannabes/geeks who walk around with songs constantly ringing in their ears, own more than 3,000 albums, and fall in love with at least one record per week. With a life that’s spanned the phonographic era and the digital age, Steve Almond lives to Rawk. Like you, he’s secretly longed to live the life of a rock star, complete with insane talent, famous friends, and hotel rooms to be trashed. Also like you, he’s content (sort of) to live the life of a rabid fan, one who has converted his unrequited desires into a (sort of) noble obsession. Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life traces Almond’s passion from his earliest (and most wretched) rock criticism to his eventual discovery of a music-crazed soul mate and their subsequent production of two little superfans. Along the way, Almond reflects on the delusional power of songs, the awkward mating habits of drooling fanatics, and why Depression Songs actually make us feel so much better. The book also includes: • sometimes drunken interviews with America’s finest songwriters • a recap of the author’s terrifying visit to Graceland while stoned • a vigorous and credibility-shattering endorsement of Styx’s Paradise Theater • recommendations you will often choose to ignore • a reluctant exegesis of the Toto song “Africa” • obnoxious lists sure to piss off rock critics But wait, there’s more. Readers will also be able to listen to a special free mix designed by the author, available online at www.stevenalmond.com, for the express purpose of eliciting your drool. For those about to rock—we salute you!

The Independent Directing Bible that will fit in your back pocket! (If you have an extremely large pocket ...) Have you always wanted to direct a movie, but don't know how to start? Want to know how to get your first directing job? What do directors even do, anyway? Legendary director Lloyd Kaufman, creator of The Toxic Avenger, reveals 40 years worth of maverick cinematic know-how! Direct Your Own Damn Movie! will be your step-by-step roadmap on the journey through: * Scriptwriting * Pre-production * Casting * Managing your set * Post-production * Distribution Master the art of directing the easy way! There is no better way to become a director than by following the instruction and wisdom of an actual successful film director, not someone who just talks about it. Featuring expert advice from: Eli Roth (Grindhouse, Hostel) Jenna Fischer (LolliLove) Stan Lee (co-writer Spider-Man, Fantastic Four) Ron Jeremy (credits cannot be printed here) Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) James Gunn (Dawn of the Dead, Slither) ... and many more! WARNING! Do not read this book if you suffer from motion sickness, or are about to operate heavy machinery. This book is not for the faint of heart, the good of taste, or those who might be pregnant. * There's more to directing than a cool-looking chair. Renegade director Lloyd Kaufman reveals all! * Includes interviews with a host of luminaries on mistakes and disasters from their early film careers * Learn the ten directing commandments of Lloyd Kaufman, plus the all-important 11th: forget the first 10 and direct your own damn movie!

This is the 3rd volume in Mr. Kaufman's hilarious, how-to series for hard-working self-starters and hard-laughing, cheeky filmmakers. "Sell Your Own Damn Movie!" covers everything you need to do to get your finished film seen by festival-goers, movie-goers, DVD-buyers and web-goers around the world. You will be lead through a primer on the history of film distribution to a discussion of the many ways you can get your film out there, either through a reputable distributor or all on your own. From the realities of distribution, to utilizing the internet to self-distribution, Mr. Kaufman tells you in his habitually lucid and off-the-wall way. Inserts include interviews and pointers from veteran distribution pros as well as directors and producers who share their own front-line stories. Mr. Kaufman recounts his own raucous stories of marketing pleasures and nightmares from 35 years of movie-making experience, creating a uniquely useful and entertaining read. Or, in Lloyd's inimitable words. The most asked question at my worldwide popular, legendary, renowned master class is, "How do I get my no-budget, zombie giraffe flick distributed?†Well, have no fear, because the 3rd volume in Uncle Lloydie's how-to series of go-to guides for filmmakers reveals the secrets, methods and tricks (short of prostituting yourself and selling bodily organs) to getting your film distributed. With Troma, our legendary 35-year-old independent studio, Michael Herz and I have developed a low cost, high-impact method for low-budget film distribution, which has lead to a high-profile brand name and a catalog of over 800 titles! Now you can learn to get you movie out there, too. I will be your busty tour guide, sharing with you my hard-earned cinematic distribution know-how! -LEARN! How I achieved box office success with my fowl chicken zombie masterpiece Poultrygeist, and everyone's favorite super-human hero from New Jersey, the Toxic Avenger, for practically no money! -SMELL! The sewer that is mainstream distribution as I drag you through the muck, be-farting upon you the real scoop behind "indie†and mainstream distribution deals. -MASTICATE! (No, not that kind of masticating) On the knowledge of DVD distribution as I es-chew the fat and get to the skinny of Do-It-Yourself DVD distribution. I will teach you the fundamentals of having a good website (like www.Troma.com) to boost your sales! -FEAST! On my golden brown chicken puns as I cleverly cluck your brain out with the irrefutable knowledge of how I sold over 10,000 units of the 3-disc limited-edition Poultrygeist DVD in a matter of months! YES! If you have any doubt that I will not be able turn your no-budget zombie giraffe opus into box-office gold, then put down this book proposal! No wait, pick it back up, pick it back up! This is a recession damnit, Troma needs all the money we can, er... I need to educate you filmmakers looking for distribution gold (brown)! After reading my book, any damn filmmaker will be able to "Sell Your Own Damn Movie!†Featuring expert advice from those who have successfully sold their films: * David Cronenberg (Director of The Fly, Crash, A History of Violence) * Oren Peli (Director/Producer of Paranormal Activity) * Ted Hope (Producer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, In the Bedroom, Happiness) * Brad Kembel (Executive Vice President of International Distribution at Summit Films; Twilight) * James Gunn (Writer/Director of Super, Dawn of the Dead, Slither) * Jonathan Wolf (Executive Vice President, Independent Film and Television Alliance and Managing Director, American Film Market) ... and many more who have sold their own damn movies!