Showing titles in Entertainment & Performing Arts

Al Roker’s aha! moment came a decade ago. He was closing in on 350 pounds when he promised his dying father that he wasn’t going to keep living as he was. That led to his decision for a stomach bypass - and his life-changing drop to 190. But 50 of those pounds gradually crept back until he finally devised a plan, stuck to it, and got his life back. Never Going Back is Roker’s inspiring, candid, and often hilarious story of self-discovery, revealing a (now slimmer) side of his life that no one knows.

For more than 400 years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. A ballerina dancing The Sleeping Beauty today is a link in a long chain of dancers stretching back to 16th-century Italy and France: Her graceful movements recall a lost world of courts, kings, and aristocracy, but her steps and gestures are also marked by the dramatic changes in dance and culture that followed.

The original Star Trek series debuted in 1966 and has spawned five TV series spin-offs and a dozen feature films, with an upcoming one from Paramount arriving in 2016. The Fifty-Year Mission is a no-holds-barred oral history of five decades of Star Trek, told by the people who were there. Hear from the hundreds of television and film executives, programmers, writers, creators, and cast as they unveil the oftentimes shocking story of Star Trek's ongoing 50-year mission.

It's anything but Grimm when the Tell 'Em Steve Dave crew gives their hilarious takes on some of the best and least known fairy tales. Join Bryan Johnson, Brian Quinn and Walt Flanagan with special guest Sunday Jeff as they create a magical world of fantasy and wonder, trolls, living plants, and sinful dwarves. It doesn't get any better than this...or funnier.

Yunte Huang ingeniously traces Charlie Chan from his real beginnings as a bullwhip-wielding detective in territorial Hawaii to his reinvention as a literary sleuth and Hollywood film icon. Huang finally resurrects the "honorable detective" from the graveyard of detested postmodern symbols and reclaims him as the embodiment of America’s rich cultural diversity. The result is one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year and a "deeply personal...voyage into racial stereotyping and the humanizing force of storytelling" (Donna Seaman, Los Angeles Times).

Screen Acting Trade Secrets is the definitive guide for the screen actor in the 21st century. From your first awakening as an actor to the end of your first day on a movie set, Screen Acting Trade Secrets walks you through it all with humor, priceless information, eye-opening revelations, helpful exercises, real-world examples, tales from the trenches, insider secrets, and a boat load of genuine inspiration. You won’t be able to put it down. Then, you’ll start again with a highlighter.

The story of how The Godfather was made is as dramatic, operatic, and entertaining as the film itself. Over the years, many versions of various aspects of the movie’s fiery creation have been told - sometimes conflicting, but always compelling. Mark Seal sifts through the evidence, has extensive new conversations with director Francis Ford Coppola and several heretofore silent sources, and complements them with colorful interviews with key players including actors Al Pacino, James Caan, Talia Shire, and others.

In Chasing Down the Dawn, recording artist, actress, and best-selling author jewel opens her intimate journals to create a vivid montage of the people, places, and relationships that colored the life she came from and have marked this past magical, turbulent, and ultimately transformational year of her life.

It is Christmas Eve, and the air outside is as cold as Scrooge’s heart. Come nightfall, Scrooge receives three visitors: the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Each spirit takes him on a hair-raising journey through time, yielding glimpses of Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit—and even Scrooge’s painfully hopeful younger self. Will Scrooge’s heart be opened? Can he escape his cursed fate?

Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress, and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese, and David Bowie are just a few of his celebrity alumni. Writers, producers, development executives, and agents all flock to his lecture series, praising it as a mesmerizing and intense learning experience.

Henry Winkler, launched into prominence by his role as “The Fonz” in the beloved Happy Days, has transcended the role that made him who he is. Brilliant, funny, and widely-regarded as the nicest man in Hollywood (though he would be the first to tell you that it’s simply not the case, he’s really just grateful to be here), Henry shares in this achingly vulnerable memoir the disheartening truth of his childhood, the difficulties of a life with severe dyslexia, the pressures of a role that takes on a life of its own, and the path forward once your wildest dream seems behind you.

Is We Dumb? is a weekly, comedic podcast where Dan Cummins and Joe Paisley explore some of the worst/best/dumbest content the internet has to offer, and laugh at the possible collapse of society.

As part of the legendary comedy team known as Nichols and May, May revolutionized sketch comedy before striking out on her own to make history as the third woman to be admitted into the Directors Guild of America when she wrote, directed, and starred in 1971’s A New Leaf. Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, May was one of Hollywood’s top screenwriters and script doctors and one of the only women directing within the studio system. After a box-office bomb, May never directed a feature again, though she continued to write films.

With intimate detail, author Maria Riva reveals the rich life of her mother, Marlene Dietrich, the charismatic star of stage and screen whose career spanned much of the 20th century. Opening with Dietrich's childhood in Schöneberg, Riva's biography introduces us to an energetic, disciplined, and ambitious young actress whose own mother equated show business with a world of vagabonds and thieves.

All six volumes of The Essential Letters from America, brought together for the first time in this definitive chronological collection of Alistair Cooke's finest broadcasts. Alistair Cooke was the doyen of foreign correspondents and a radio legend, entertaining millions of listeners for over 50 years in his weekly Letter from America. It was the longest-running show in radio history, and every show was a virtuoso performance.

This podcast features free audio guitar lessons taught by Desi Serna, author of Fretboard Theory and Guitar Theory For Dummies. Learn how scales, chords, progressions, modes, and more get applied to the fretboard and familiar songs. Hear how to best get your playing skills in order. Begin to improvise and compose. Understand why your favorite songs sound so good. ➝ What do you specifically need to do in order to play guitar better? Visit the GuitarMusicTheory.com website to get FREE custom video instruction calibrated to your current level. Discover how to progressively play and sound ...

WARNING: The M&I Department has designated the content of this channel as a memetic attentional infohazard. The release of the content of this channel into the general public would likely cascade into an AK-Class end-of-the-world scenario. Therefore, sharing the content of this channel with memetically uninoculated persons is classified as a containment breach and warrants immediate termination. Do not handle firearms, operate machinery, or make eye contact with animals or small children while listening to the content of this channel. By proceeding beyond this point, you agree to listen at ...

Jim Gaffigan is in top form for his seventh comedy special. The four-time Grammy nominated comedian doesn’t understand why we aren’t more honest about the reasons we don’t want to attend events, while at the same time embraces lying to kids. From horses and dog birthdays to traveling and museums, Jim continues to impress. Get ready to sit back and enjoy some Quality Time with Jim Gaffigan!

Dr. Peter Blood is arrested and sentenced to hang for treating a wounded rebel. Instead of death, he is sent to Barbados as a slave. When the Spanish attack the port city of Bridgetown, he and his fellow slaves capture the Spanish ship and set out to sea, where he becomes the notorious pirate, Captain Blood. With battles on sea and on land, daring escapes, sword duels to the death, a touch of romance, and a magnificent score by Jeffrey Gage, Captain Blood is a swashbuckling adventure on a very grand scale!

ALL OF IT is a show about culture and its consumers. ALL OF IT is a show about culture and context. ALL OF IT is a show about culture and the culture. Our aim is to engage the thinkers, doers, makers, and creators, about the what and why of their work. People make the culture and we hope, need, and want the WNYC community to be a part of our show. As we build a community around ALL OF IT, we know that every guest and listener has an opinion. We won’t always agree, but our varied perspectives and diversity of experience is what makes New York City great. ALL OF IT will be both...