Best Selling Books by Michael Townsend

For anyone who feels overwhelmed by the demands and anxieties of daily life, Do Breathe provides practices for fostering relaxation, awareness, and focus. This book features sections on breath work, mindfulness, energy, and courage, and is brimming with practical advice—including the three keys to breathing well and a how-to for decluttering the mind. With simple exercises and daily practices from yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, these inspiring pages will help readers cultivate a balanced mindset and build a foundation for a joyful, peaceful life.

Monkey thought Elephant was his best friend. He was even bringing him some surprise cupcakes—and found a party going on that he wasn''t invited to! Elephant thought Monkey was his best friend. He was even planning a surprise wrestling party for him—but then Monkey put all his favorite toys in the freezer! From there the war of revenge is on, and life on their small island is becoming dangerous! Until the townsfolk find a creative way to make Monkey and Elephant talk out their problems (cement shoes, a boat, and a chisel are involved . . .). Happily, Monkey and Elephant realize their fight was based on a misundersanding. But if only they had talked sooner, innocent teddies wouldn''t need defrosting. This is a laugh-out-loud comedy of a book with the helpful message that "using your words" is infinitely better than, say, painting a mean face on their butt.

Cute kittens, cute puppies, and more! An explosion of cuteness tailor-made for "I Can Has Cheezburger" fans. Janie Jane''s life takes a turn for the cute when she receives an adorable puppy as a birthday present. She and Sir Yips-a-lot do everything together. But before you know it, it''s Janie''s birthday again and she''s got a new, potentially cuter present to unwrap: Lady Meow-meow, "The World''s Cutest Kitty." Wait! Sir Yips-a-lot has always been the cute one in Janie Jane''s life. What if she doesn''t need him anymore? Michael Townsend has crafted a lighthearted romp that will help children--especially those with new siblings--recognize and overcome feelings of jealousy.

John P. Dodd, the light man at the legendary Caffe Cino in Greenwich Village in the early sixties, assisted at the birth of Off-Off-Broadway and collaborated with key figures in New York''s downtown world of theatre and dance. This book, illustrated with rare period photographs, recounts Dodd''s colorful life and career from the unique perspective of playwright and director Michael Smith, drama critic of The Village Voice and his intimate companion in that transformative decade. Smith''s personal narrative, thoughtful recollections by friends and colleagues, and Dodd''s own words attest to his originality and unusual force of character. A year-by-year record of his wide-ranging work as a lighting designer confirms the importance of his theatrical art.

MICHAEL SMITH won a Brandeis University Creative Arts Citation for criticism, a Rockefeller Foundation Award for playwriting, an Obie Award for directing, and two Indie Awards for stage lighting. As theatre critic for the Village Voice in the 1960s, he was instrumental in the growth of Off-Off-Broadway. This first of two volumes of his plays contains "More! More! I Want More!" (1965), "The Next Thing" (1966), "A Dog''s Love" (1966), "Captain Jack''s Revenge" (1970), "Country Music" (1971), "Denver Trilogy" (1971-74), "Point Blank" (1972), "Prussian Suite" (1974), and "Cowgirl Ecsstasy" (1976).

Aphoristic, quasi-poetic meditation on humor as key to life''s complexities.

Mr. Ball is back in this latest installment of the popular series. Mr. Ball sets out for his best friend''s birthday party with a VERY large cake. Hilarity ensues as he encounters one hiccup after another, and his cake gets increasingly smaller! Will the party be ruined?

As theatre critic for the Village Voice in the 1960s, and as a director and playwright, Michael Smith was a key player in the Off-Off-Broadway movement in New York. Since 1990 he has been active on the West Coast as a playwright, director, lighting designer, and producer. This volume contains eleven of his dramatically varied plays, dating from 1974 to 2010: "The Dinner Show," "Heavy Pockets," "Turnip Family Secrets," "Half Life," "Trouble," "Life Before Death," "Fast Forward," "Dogs Bark All Night," "Bad Dog," "Summer Lightning," and "Hamlet in Love."

Memoir of a life in theatre by Michael Smith, playwright, critic, producer, lighting designer, a key player in the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement of the 1960s and beyond.

Writing theatre criticism for The Village Voice from 1957 to 1974, Michael Smith lucked into an extraordinarily dynamic period in American theatre. Broadway-style commercialism was stifling innovation in the early sixties. In response, a new alternative theatre emerged in lofts, storefronts, churches, and coffeehouses radiating out from Greenwich Village. This generous selection of reviews from Smith''s "theatre journal" columns in The Voice gives a sense of the range, seriousness, and energy of the brilliantly imaginative artists he encountered in more than a decade of intensive theatre-going,

These mostly poem-like artifacts were published as they were written at http://michaeltownsendsmith.blogspot.com. A log of course is a record of a journey-in a ship''s log, location, weather, and daily events. The macrotext of this weblog tracks seasons, moods, happenings, and the national temper; but its real concern is less with external circumstances and more with inner action. The writer''s minimalist, allusive diction skips the mechanics of language and attempts to project mental movement directly, the sense arising with the words.

This dissertation examines the development of digital network infrastructure in the world''s great cities at the turn of the 20th century. Drawing upon the concept of cities as information systems and techniques of communications geography, it analyzes how the physical components of digital networks were deployed in major urban areas during the 1990s. It finds that historical processes and pre-existing differences between places shaped the evolution of this infrastructure at multiple spatial scales; global, metropolitan, and neighborhood. As a result, rather than bringing about the "death of distance", digital network infrastructure actually reinforced many of the pre-existing differences between connected and disconnected places. With the telecom bust of 2000-2002, these differences were likely to persist for a decade or more. Yet just as the development of wired digital network infrastructure slowed, wireless technologies emerged as a more flexible, intuitive, and efficient form of connecting users to networks in everyday urban settings. As a result, an untethered model for digital networks emerged which combining the capacity and security of wired networks over long distances with the flexibility and mobility of wireless networks over short distances. This new hybrid infrastructure provided the technology needed to begin widespread experimentation with the creation of digitally mediated spaces, such as New York City''s Bryant Park Wireless Network.

While preparing for his move, Kit Feeny recalls all the special and crazy things he and his best friend did together and suddenly starts to worry about what is to come when his friend is no longer in his life. Simultaneous.