Aron Ralston Movie Trailer Now Online!
08.26.2010
Gotham ArtistsCheck out the trailer for 127 Hours, the biopic based on the amazing story of Aron Ralston. > View article
Vizzini Book Selected for OK! Mag Book Club
08.19.2010
Ned Vizzini > View profile
Reading a great book is always more fun when you’ve got some pals to gab about it with — the high points, the low points, the tear-jerking moments and everything in between. That’s why OK! is continuing our book club, and the book you chose next is It’s Kind of a Funny Story!
The votes are in! OK!’s reader have chosen It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini to read next for OK!’s Online Book Club.
Every Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET, starting Sept. 6, we’ll be live-blogging our book club up until the Sept. 27 release of the It’s Kind of a Funny Story film starring Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, Lauren Graham, Viola Davis, Zoë Kravitz, Daniel London and Keir Gilchrist. > View article
Shawn Achor's New Book: The Happiness Advantage
08.09.2010
Shawn Achor > View profile
Our most commonly held formula for success is broken.
Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. This isn’t just an empty mantra. This discovery has been repeatedly borne out by rigorous research in psychology and neuroscience, management studies, and the bottom lines of organizations around the globe.
In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor, who spent over a decade living, researching, and lecturing at Harvard University, draws on his own research—including one of the largest studies of happiness and potential at Harvard and others at companies like UBS and KPMG—to fix this broken formula. Using stories and case studies from his work with thousands of Fortune 500 executives in 42 countries, Achor explains how we can reprogram our brains to become more positive in order to gain a competitive edge at work.
Isolating seven practical, actionable principles that have been tried and tested everywhere from classrooms to boardrooms, stretching from Argentina to Zimbabwe, he shows us how we can capitalize on the Happiness Advantage to improve our performance and maximize our potential. Among the principles he outlines:
• The Tetris Effect: how to retrain our brains to spot patterns of possibility, so we can see—and seize—opportunities wherever we look.
• The Zorro Circle: how to channel our efforts on small, manageable goals, to gain the leverage to gradually conquer bigger and bigger ones.
• Social Investment: how to reap the dividends of investing in one of the greatest predictors of success and happiness—our social support network
A must-read for everyone trying to excel in a world of increasing workloads, stress, and negativity, The Happiness Advantage isn’t only about how to become happier at work. It’s about how to reap the benefits of a happier and more positive mind-set to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives. > View article
Lt. Choi Honorably Discharged over DADT
07.22.2010
Lt. Dan Choi > View profileMost people who’ve been following the civil-disobedience efforts of Lt. Dan Choi may have thought he was already discharged by the Army under “don’t ask, don’t tell”—the military’s 17-year-old ban on gays and lesbians serving openly. After all, he had come out as gay on The Rachel Maddow Show more than a year ago, and his discharge process began shortly after. But Choi had always been in bureaucratic limbo and had yet to receive any official, conclusive word that his days in the military were over. (Newsweek) > View article
Lt. Choi Cleared of Charges in DADT Protest
07.14.2010
Lt. Dan Choi > View profile
Prosecutors have dropped all charges against an openly gay Iraq War veteran who twice chained himself to a White House fence to protest the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Lt. Dan Choi and James Pietrangelo, a gay army captain honorably discharged for disclosing his sexual orientation, were in court Wednesday on charges of failure to obey police orders during the March and April protests. All charges were dropped against them.
Choi and his attorney had subpoenaed President Barack Obama to appear, but an attorney for the prosecution said the subpoena wasn't served.
Prosecutor Christine Chang declined to comment on why the government dropped the case.
Choi said he believes Obama administration officials didn't want to draw attention to the policy. > View article
Author Ned Vizzini joins Gotham Artists
07.12.2010
Ned Vizzini > View profile
Gotham Artists, a New York-based speaker agency and talent management company, is honored to announce the signing of author Ned Vizzini as an exclusive speaker effective immediately.
Vizzini is the author of several books, including It’s Kind of a Funny Story,Teen Angst? Naaah…, and Be More Chill. The major motion picture based on It’s Kind of a Funny Story, starring Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts and Keir Gilchrist, will be released on September 24, 2010 by Focus Features.
Vizzini will be available for lectures and personal appearances for high schools, colleges, libraries and associations. His most popular lecture programs, based on his books, include How Not to Go Crazy in College, which teaches students how to maintain mental health in high school and college, and From Personal to Published, a how-to discussion for students who wish to get their own work published.
“I have been privileged to speak to students and teachers about writing and mental health for the last ten years,” Vizzini said. “It has put me in touch with so many unforgettable people. I am eager to move forward with my experience at Gotham Artists.”
“We are delighted that Ned has joined our growing roster of fascinating and inspirational artists,” Gotham Artists Partner Alec Melman said. “He’s an absolutely wonderful writer with a great message, and we look forward to bringing that message to as many schools as possible.”
Please contact Gotham Artists to inquire about having Ned Vizzini speak at your next event.
About Ned Vizzini:
Ned Vizzini is the author of three acclaimed young adult books: It's Kind of a Funny Story (movie to be released by Focus Features, 9/24/10), Teen Angst? Naaah..., and Be More Chill. Ned speaks to students and teachers at schools, universities, and libraries about writing and mental health. He also reviews books for the New York Times and the L Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. His work has been translated into seven languages. > View article
Lt. Choi is NYC Pride Grand Marshal
06.25.2010
Lt. Dan Choi > View profile
Lt. Dan Choi had no idea how much his life would change after March 19, 2009, when he appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” in order to break the military code of “don’t ask, don’t tell” by admitting that he was a serviceman who is gay.
“When we went on ‘Rachel Maddow,’ we were only talking about West Point, and about [the common] knowledge that there are West Point graduates who are gay,” Choi explains about his controversial appearance. “I was just saying, ‘Hey, they can say whatever bad things they want about us. As long as they say ‘gay’ and ‘West Point’ in the same sentence, it was a culture shock that needed to be put out there for people.’”
Following that appearance, Choi was put on military trial in June of the same year. The military board recommended his discharge for the violation of “don’t ask, don’t tell” — but today, a year later, the case has not been finalized and Choi continues to serve. (Metro) > View article
Lessons from oil spill must be learned
06.16.2010
Donna Brazile > View profile
When I see the pelicans covered in goop and each dying alone, with no living creature to comfort them, I realize that Louisiana chose its state bird wisely. For the pelican is an old symbol of protection. But the protection that ought to be there — for the people, the land and the wildlife — has been clogged with the gunk of greed, negligence and spin.
The images of ruined marshes, tar-balled beaches, oil-soaked fish and birds, strangling and starving, are dramatic and heartrending. Just as dramatic and heartrending, though, are the pictures you don't see: lives ruined and livelihoods suffocated. The despairing anger and desperate defiance — we survived Katrina and we'll survive this — rarely make the national news. (Green Bay Gazette) > View article
New Ray Kurzweil Video!
06.14.2010
Ray Kurzweil > View profile
If you haven’t already downloaded the article into your brain, the Times blew the cover on the trans-humanist movement this weekend, just as a bunch of the devoted were gathering at Harvard for the H+ Summit, to hear from the movement’s de facto leader, inventor Ray Kurzweil.
Last year, Motherboard visited the man who gave the world text-to-speech technology and the musical synthesizer to talk about his vision of the post-Singularity future – a world in which humans will remake their own biology by filling their bodies with nanoscale machines that can repair cells and meld their minds with super-intelligent computers. The eventual goal is to become immortal, and perhaps resurrect the dead. (Motherboard.tv) > View article
Kurzweil’s Next Book: Creating An Artificial Mind
05.28.2010
Ray Kurzweil > View profileRay Kurzweil is working on another book, this one to explore the principles of human level intelligence in machines. Titled How the Mind Works and How to Build One, the new book will explore all the amazing developments in reverse engineering the brain that have come along since his last book, the Singularity is Near was released in 2005. Whether or not you agree with Ray Kurzweil’s predictions, the inventor and author stands out as one of the foremost futurists of our time. What inspiration or controversy will this next book bring? > View article
"Post-American Presidency" to hit shelves this July
05.11.2010
Gotham ArtistsPamela Geller's debut book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America, is set to hit stores July 27, 2010. > View article
Vizzini rated in Top 9 for Young Adult Lit
05.09.2010
Ned Vizzini > View profile
Want to try some YA lit?
It's a fairly easy genre to break into, but, admittedly, there are more bad titles than good.
Here are nine good places to start, which range from historical fiction to rip-roaring sci-fi action. The only common thread: All the books have a teen or tween protagonist...
"It's Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini: Teenager Craig is seriously depressed and off his medication. He decides to kill himself but not before calling a suicide hotline, which convinces him to seek care. He ends up in a psych ward (one for both adults and teens since the teen wing is under renovation) and meets and a cast of predictably quirky characters. The best thing about the book is that it's not depressing at all. It's more a comedy of observation. (JournalStar.com) > View article
Video: Lt. Choi Speaks at Harvard
04.30.2010
Lt. Dan Choi > View profileLt. Dan Choi spoke last night at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in a program called Truth and Consequences: One Man's Quest to Openly Serve His Country. (Towelroad) > View article
Gotham Hires New VP of College Division
04.21.2010
Gotham Artists
Gotham Artists, a New York-based speaker agency and talent management company, is honored to announce the hiring of Michael Gottesman as the new vice president of the College Division, effective immediately.
Gottesman, formerly of CEG Talent, Scott Rudin Productions and the Paradigm Talent Agency, will be responsible for booking comedians, high-profile speakers, bands and other talent for colleges nationwide. He brings more than three years of talent booking experience to Gotham Artists, and at 26 years of age, has a unique understanding of what makes for great programming at colleges and universities.
“I am excited to be joining the team at Gotham Artists,” Gottesman said. “I look forward to working closely with Alec and Daniel as we expand the reach of the company.”
“We are delighted that Mike has joined our team,” Co-founder Alec Melman said. “We really envision this as a family company, and we think Mike is a great addition to the family. His previous experience in this industry makes him a natural fit for us. We are excited to grow together.”
About Gotham Artists:
Gotham Artists is a New York-based speaker agency and talent management company, headquartered in the heart of New York’s Flatiron District.
The company matches the world’s most interesting speakers with corporations, colleges and associations for keynote speeches, distinguished lecture series, commencements, debates, seminars and training sessions.
Alec Melman and Daniel Ymar co-founded Gotham Artists. They met while working for one of the largest speakers' bureaus in the country, and have a combined 10 years of experience handling big name talent and major events. (i-newswire) > View article
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