As many of you know, today is the
Super Bowl, when America (as well as many other countries) comes together to watch two of the season's best NFL teams battle for the coveted title and prestige of Super Bowl champion. Halftime is put in the hands of The Who,
and I'm praying
they don't have any wardrobe malfunctions! For those of us without the right connections or who opt not to pay $1000+ for tickets (I checked!) we get to watch the game from our living rooms, neighborhood sports bars, or friends' homes and see a plethora of TV commercials.
Whether you're giving your full attention to The Big Game or despise football, it's hard to ignore the commercials that air during it. At a reported $2.8 million for a 30 second spot, there's no doubt that the advertisers want to make the most of their money. (I used to work for an ad agency and it was a huge deal when our biggest client decided to jump on the Super Bowl commercial boat.) These ads not only reach a HUGE audience at once (95 million? Whoa!); it's one of the most diverse audiences ever--with all ages, both sexes, and a variety of occupations from housewives to doctors to teachers to celebs. Plus, let's face it, lots of us don't even watch commercials nowadays thanks to Tivo and DVR technology, but since we love to watch the Super Bowl live and the ads are almost always entertaining, we make an exception today and happily sit through the commercials. Another pro of advertising during the Super Bowl is the ads get play-time before and after the Super Bowl airing, either on TV or on the internet, and the best ones show up on all sorts of lists, whether in magazines, newspapers (like The USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter) on the local news, or on nationally syndicated shows for added punch.
Pop Secret, GoDaddy, Dodge, Doritos, movies Ironman 2 and The Last Airbender, Anheuser-Busch, and Mars Candies are among those we'll be seeing again this year, while we won't be seeing Pepsi, FedEx, GM, or Ford.
Many of these ads push the envelope, but some have to be reworked or are turned down.
Here is the ad by KGB that was banned this year because it didn't adhere to CBS's standards. There were some others that were turned away or modified because of controversial content or questionable language.
My favorite ads are usually the really funny ones, like the ones for beer, but I also like the ones for new cars and ones made by everyday people (instead of professional advertising agencies), like Doritos. What are your favorites, and why?
Greetings from Santa Fe, New Mexico! The first few days we spent in recovery mode: recovery from sickness, financial stress, the long lists of things we have to do, plus the long months of soggy coldness that have pervaded Seattle (though the last week of school was quite warm). We've gone to a birthday party and a potluck. Sunday, we went to Mass at the beautiful St. Francis Cathedral, which so
As we celebrate this holy day and reflect on Christ's death, we take time to remember special people in our lives who are no longer with us. Our dear family members and friends who have passed on. And, perhaps, some special saints in heaven whom we admire.
I have been reading many of the writings of
Blessed Mother Teresa lately. She stresses that we need to see Christ in everyone--and to treat each person as Christ. The little things we do for others become big things in God's eyes.
Whatever you do to the least of them, that you do to me.
If you would like to read about another of my favorite saints, click on this link to
MY LIGHT magazine. There you will find an article I wrote on
St. Catherine of Siena--a very interesting and amazing saint from the 14th century.
Happy Valentine's Day! As I said in last year's post, I try to use this month to catch up on correspondence, as St. Valentine was a deliverer of letters. I've managed to do that once this month. I'd also meant to have a recorded version of my revised song "Green is the Color of My Merman's Hair" (to the tune of "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair). I'll post the lyrics and chords now and
A few days ago, Lucia drew a picture of St. Zita, finder of lost keys, St. Anthony, finder of lost objects, and God:
Bede said, "I wonder how God feels about being smaller than Zita and Anthony."
I replied, "God likes to keep a low profile."
Bede sent me an interesting blog post from Making Light about St. Barbara, whose feast day was December 4. Teresa, the author of the blog, writes,
I recently started a satellite blog called A Storytelling of Crows. As of now, I plan for it to be primarily a site for me to share audio and video outside the scope of Saints and Spinners. Yesterday, I recorded Lucia's teacher singing "I Go Outside With My Candle," and "Glimmer, Lantern, Glimmer," and so that the parents of my daughter's classmates could learn the tunes in time for Martinmas, a
Last night, we had some family and friends over for dinner. At one point, Lucia took her napkin and dipped it into my brother's girlfriend's wine. I was shocked. "That was mean and rude, "I said. "Why did you do it?"
Lucia replied, "I was being Veronica wiping the face of Jesus."
"Oh," I said. "I'm glad you weren't being mean-- you were just being... interesting." I asked her apologize to my
I do love books by Julius Lester.
Day of Tears? Fantastic! I had to read it for a lit conference and was extremely disappointed by the discussion we had on it. No one could get beyond "Gee, Slavery really sucked" to discuss why Lester's tale of it was such a powerful stand out in a sea of stories about the same general subject. No one brought up that it was one of the few stories to really explore the emotional impact instead of the physical one... powerful stuff.
In the hands of a lesser storyteller, The Old African would have been absolutely dreadful instead of being as wonderful as it is.
Most recently, I read
Cupid: A Tale of Love and Desire. This is classic Greek Myth, but told in a vernacular, Southern African American story telling style.
Because of Lester's great skill, it totally worked and I loved it.
Psyche is beautiful to the point of it being a burden. Cupid is the son of Venus and a total mama's boy. When Venus (who is aging) is jealous of Pysche's incredible beauty, she orders Cupid to poison her with destructive love. (I have to say I was reminded of that exchange in
Love Actually "I have say I'm a bit relieved, I thought it was something worse." "Worse than the total agony of being in love?!")
Anyway, of course, Cupid falls in love with her. He enlists Apollo's help. Apollo is not a fan of Cupid, so tells Psyche's father that she will marry a great monster.
In the end, Venus attempts to seek revenge and true love--both Psyche's love for Venus and various other deities' love for Psyche is put to the test.
I know some readers will (and are) annoyed by the storyteller's voice and his meditations on story, beauty, love, and lust, but I really really enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed the comments on how much work love is. You don't get that truth a lot in YA literature.
Shout out to
Bookshelves of Doom for bringing it to my attention.
Now, to catch up on something I read last year, I didn't like
Time's Memory nearly as much.
And here's where Lester's genius is more of a burden than a blessing-- I simply expected more from him.
The
nyama spirit embodies Nat, a young man who is a slave on a Virginia plantation. He's in love with the Ellen, the plantation owner's daughter. Nat's father is the leader of a bloody slave revolt.
Highly mystical and spiritual, it just didn't work as well as it should have and ultimately left me dissatisfied. However, there is a lot going on in the book, so I would highly recommend it for book discussions.
Another I read at the same time, which won the Coretta Scott King Award is Sharon Draper's
Copper Sun.
This is another fantastically written story about slavery. There isn't as much under the surface, but it tells the story of Amari, from her time in Africa through the middle passage and slavery. It also tells of her friendship with Polly, an indentured servant. The two run away--but instead of going North, they go South, to Spanish controlled Florida.
What I really liked about this book was the unflinching look at many things we usually don't see. We usually don't read of the coastal slave castle before being put on the boats, or how other Africans helped round people up to be sold.
We know of, but usually don't see in fiction, the rape of women by lonely sailors every night.
I also really appreciated how nuanced the characters were--there were good people and and bad people and people who were good and bad. Some of the good people where white, some of the bad people were black. Many authors, when telling a story of slavery, go the understandable route of making all white people bad. Or really, really good. Draper writes people as she knows them. No one's all good or all bad. And goodness doesn't fall on color lines.
By doing so, she writes a very accurate and incredible tale of slavery that covers what we learned in history class, and a whole lot more.
I have been a fan of Sharon M. Draper for some time. She is a master at writing realistic fiction. COPPER SUN is her first historical fiction and it is amazing -- as well as frighteningly authentic.
This book follows the trials and tribulations of Amari, a fifteen-year-old African maiden. After witnessing the slaughter of both the old and young in her African village, including her parents and her young brother, she is chained, by feet, hands, and neck, lined up, and herded miles on foot to the ocean by pale skinned visitors with fire sticks. She watches her fellow Africans suffer incomprehensible humiliation and death at the hands of their captors as they are shipped like animal cargo across the ocean. The life that awaits her is nothing like she could have ever imagined.
Amari must adapt to life as a purchased slave on a rice plantation, a life that includes atrocities committed upon her by her white owners. She meets Polly, an indentured servant who has dreams of making it to the big house and being a fine lady of standing. Instead, Polly lives in the slave quarters and finds she’s given the chore of civilizing Amari, now called Myna, and teaching her enough English to work. After witnessing murder, the two girls find themselves thrown together in a desperate run for freedom.
This is not just another book about slavery. This is a book about something real and tangible. Ms. Draper’s writing is so vivid that you can smell the rank odors beneath ship. You can feel the pain of being lashed with a whip. Your throat will constrict at the heart-wrenching pain of a mother and child being forced apart. You will also celebrate the strength and spirit of Amari and those she inspires.
COPPER SUN won the Coretta Scott King Award. This is a book I will make sure goes on my classroom shelves.
This review can also be read here at Teens Read Too.
Jump on over to ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
whimsybooks to read her post. Come on. Everybody play!
I hand wrote thank you notes to Sharon Draper and Joan Bauer. As they are enormously successful, I don't expect they needed the boost, but they are two authors who hooked me on YA literature. There were others, and I may write more letters. I've already commented on Laurie Halse Andersons page about her incredible books, and how my students devour them. I may send a note to Joyce Sweeney, except I see her twice a year, and it's much more fun to praise her work in person. Same with Alex Flinn, Dorian Cirrone, Edward Bloor, Gaby Triana, and Laurie Friedman. Amazing Florida writers, all of them. I probably shouldn't have started listing names, because I'm sure I left someone off. I should go browse my bookshelf. Oh my gosh, I could go on and on. But I can't write them all thank you notes. See? That's why you have to play, too! We have to spread the joy! Have fun.
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These sound yummy, Farida! Will have to try making some now that Fall is here with cooler days and it'll be nice to turn the oven on more often :).
Yum.
Ah! My (kinda) Saint! He's called Kentigern in England and Wales, and Mungo here in Scotland, from the bastardized (aka Brythonic) Welsh for fy nghu meaning "my dear(one)." He was apparently the sixth apostle (whose?) and started the church in Scotland.
He's lovely, and depicted like St. Francis with a bird and a fish (and a bell and a ring and a tree, DO NOT ASK) and isn't penitential and dry at all, normally, so well done to you and your friend to making the muffins a bit better!!!
I have a fresh root of ginger in the fridge and (now that I've blown off the Yolen Luncheon I was supposed to attend) nothing but time....
Every time I hear St. Ninian's, I think of the church in the Redwall series...come to think of it, I'm sure the abbey mice would've loved these ginger muffins too!
Jama: I'm feeling the same way about the oven. Let me know if you add something fun to the muffins. I am a fan of muffins. They are quite forgiving of my various experiments and blunders, and don't require as much commitment as, say, cake.
LSM: They certainly were yummy. I wish you could have had some.
Tanita: I'm glad Ninnian/Mungo/Kentigern gets so much STUFF. He'd make a great action figure. Speaking of fresh ginger root, that's what the muffins need... a triple-ginger onslaught.
Lisa: Hello! Thanks for stopping by. I enjoyed meeting you at KidLitCon. Those abbey mice had a whole cookbook, did they not?