Cut To The Monkey

Cut to the Monkey is the story of a filmmaker's journey through Hollywood—revealing the techniques behind how the experts find the funny in any project—by a filmmaker who has worked with some of the funniest people in the business and has edited Emmy-nominated episodes from series such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Veep, and Who Is America? Nobody knows who first said, "Dying is easy, comedy is hard." But almost everyone in the film business agrees it's true. Roger Nygard shares his anecdotal experiences in television, features, and documentaries as a filmmaker and editor—struggles and successes any filmmaker can identify with. Nygard also includes tips for Hollywood professionals and fans alike on how to successfully navigate the business of being funny. Along with a major focus on film editing, the author shares filmmaking stories that will leave readers feeling inspired and better prepared to deal with their own struggles. The book also features contributions about writing, creating, and editing comedy from some of the biggest names in the comedy business, including Judd Apatow (Girls, The 40-Year-Old Virgin), Alec Berg (Silicon Valley, Barry), Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Who Is America?), Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger, Black or White), Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld, Veep), David Mandel (Veep, The White House Plumbers), Jeff Schaffer (The League, Dave), Krista Vernoff (Shameless, Grey's Anatomy), and others.

Discover how dangerous an animal can be when it feels threatened or trapped.

Hear that voice inside your head? The one that nitpicks all your new ideas? That's your monkey. This hypercritical little critter loves to make you second-guess yourself. It stirs up doubt. It kills your creativity. But it can be stopped. And acclaimed author Danny Gregory is here to show you how. After battling it out with his own monkey, he knows how to shut yours down. Gregory provides insight into the inner workings of your inner critic and teaches you how to put it in its place. Soon you'll be able to silence that voice and do what you want to do—create. Now follow his lead and Shut Your Monkey.

A monkey decides to try to be something else but discovers that nothing is better than being yourself.

From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train, a profound, beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year. Following a run of New Year's concerts at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland with no design, yet heeding signs--including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat. In February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger's words, "Anything is possible: after all, it's the Year of the Monkey." For Smith--inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing--the year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life's gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America. Smith melds the western landscape with her own dreamscape. Taking us from California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places, this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery. The unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment set in. But as Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope for a better world. Riveting, elegant, often humorous, illustrated by Smith's signature Polaroids, Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times.

Monkey Ono is not exactly a real monkey, but he really, really wants to go to the beach! So when Beach Day arrives, and the children who own him forget the bag he's in, Monkey Ono does not take this lying down, like most stuffed animals would. Oh no, he's got a plan. In fact he's got many, many plans. From riding the family dog to ricocheting through the sky to diving down the water pipes. All end with hilarious results, but not exactly according to plan. Will Monkey Ono ever get to the beach?? Only if the beach comes to him... J.C. Phillipps’s spirited text and stunning illustrations, done in colorful cut paper collage, deliver a humorous story with a great message—try and try again!

The people in a village in the Amazon rain forest grow so lazy that they eagerly allow a strange man to create monkeys from leaves to do everything for them.