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I’ve spent the last week neck-deep in revisions and in a coffee-induced state of mania. It’s exciting to be on deadline, but also a little nerve wracking. Realizing I might go crazy and turn into Jack Nicholson from The Shining, my fiance was kind enough to force me to take a break.
“There’s a hilarious new Weird Al Yankovicvideo, you have to see,” he told me. I was skeptical. I love Weird Al, but I had work to do!
I conceded, and I’m so glad I did. I can’t get this song out of my head! All you grammar nerds are about to pee your pants with excitement at how brilliant and fun this is.
Even if you’re busy, take a quick break from all your hard work and enjoy this awesomeness. You’ll be glad you did.
I had the pleasure of seeing just the most delightful show the other day. The Snow Queen’s run is ending, but you can at least enjoy this little number from it. It’s been caught in my head all week. I bestow that honor now upon you.
And the award for best set design in a book trailer goes to . . .
Mildly miffed that this trailer came out in February but that I only found it now, though.
And now the Weird Al video that shall outlive him thanks to English teachers around the world. They shall play it from now until the internet burns down to a dark, black piece of coal.
Just when you think they’ve done absolutely everything one can do with the physical book, they turn around and come up with something COMPLETELY NEW! Trust the Japanese to come up with something this lovey. More information can be found here.
Finally, I was shocked that some friends of mine had forgotten this old Italian video where a fellow performs fake English. So here we go. Fake English for one and all. Love this.
3 Comments on Video Sunday: “Leave out that Oxford comma”, last added: 7/22/2014
You know, I kept checking your Video Sundays earlier in the year, hoping you’d feature it. But I didn’t send it to you myself because that felt needy.
Elizabeth Bird said, on 7/21/2014 11:19:00 AM
See now you’re giving me a swelled head. You need minions to pass along these things. For my part, I’m too unobservant to be relied upon to find the good stuff.
Meg said, on 7/21/2014 8:36:00 PM
I saved Video Sunday for Monday night. Monday was grueling. Thanks, Adam and Elizabeth, for making me laugh at the end of my Monday.
Okay, The Beatrix is on her way back from Sunny California, so we’re restocking the refrigerator, refilling liquor bottles, and covering the strawberry stains on the ceiling with a fresh coat of paint.
So, what’s still floating around in our data banks? All sorts of interesting stuff which seems to have been overlooked while Hollywood was in town!
There are just four cards in each pack, but they all pack a punch! First fans will receive a premium base card on thick card stock from the 50-card base set numbered to just 99 copies. Next they will receive a one-of-one sketch card from top Marvel artists. The third card is an industry first where collectors will find a dual, triple or quadruple hinged sketch card. These are really remarkable trading cards and we will be releasing images of them soon. The fourth card will be either a “Classic Corners” card, a Shadowbox card or an “Emotion” booklet card by Jason Adams and NAR!
Are those cards worth $50 each? $10,000 to collect the whole set (if you don’t get duplicates!) What would an unopened pack (one of a calculated 5000) be worth years from now? Basically, Upper Deck is offering nothing but premiums in each pack, which isn’t a bad marketing ploy. Of course, the only way to surpass this would be to offer a single card set of 5000 cards, and let someone try to acquire the entire set (or subsets). Maybe take that sixteen-square-foot “Marvel Universe” poster and cut it into cards. Or commission a newer version, perhaps done on art boards, and cut those up into smaller squares… sort of a sketch card and collector card all in one. Print the art in blue pencil, and have artists finish the artwork, signing the back of each card.
Hmmm…. I wonder what the empty wrapper will be worth?
And also at the Con: Rust, My Friend Dahmer, Creepy are in development. No. REALLY. I keep hoping for “The Cowboy Wally Show” and “Proposition Player”… both could be made for less than $20 Million, easy. Heck, shoot “Wally” on video, to make it seem even more a
1 Comments on SDCC12: Watchtower Wrap-Up, last added: 7/18/2012
I thought I’d hate it. It’s not a book. And I love books, with their fusion of author and illustrator’s visions into a carefully crafted whole, results showcased on the printed page. An app, I considered, is an intangible electronic thing, a jumped-up computer program whose relationship to books is dubious. Tasked with creating one, I wondered what, as a book editor, I could even contribute to the effort.
Turns out, the answer is everything—everything I know and value about making picture books goes into creating an app.
“Memo to Bean Creative: The last time I was cutting-edge, I was in Tenth Grade Computer Science, learning BASIC.”
I’m not a programmer. But neither am I an author or an illustrator, and every day I work with people whose skills differ from my own. I quickly realized that an app developer is only one more artist to understand, encourage, and question: What happens to the narrative arc if we highlight this piece of text? How is the art impacted if we collapse two scenes into one dynamic screen? Does this animation or that interaction serve the storyline; is it in character; does it deepen the world? What if we try this instead…?
Soon I faced the obvious—the editorial habit of scrutinizing each component, for its own merit and for its impact on the whole, transcends the printed page.
“Excellent narration, Al. Now I’d like you to scream like an enraged gorilla.”
Picture books are not meant for silence—they live when read aloud. Maybe none of my books have talked to me before, but I certainly talk to them, sounding their cadences, feeling the rhythms, and hearing theambient noiseemanating from the art. Incorporating audio files into the app felt surprisingly natural. Indeed, step after step of the app’s creation felt unexpectedly familiar, much more a simple and direct continuation of bookmaking than I’d ever imagined.
“Dear Wes: Please draw five (5) game screens, two (2) new classroom scenes, and one (1) naked, shorn spider.”
Weird Al’s parody (of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” is spot-on. Too bad the diva doesn’t have a sense of humor — she apparently did not sanction the parody for Weird Al’s next album, despite his plan to donate... Read the rest of this post
After posting a video from the episode of Community where Troy meets his hero LeVar Burton I got a penchant for a little Reading Rainbow. The universe, it appears, was happy to oblige. First off you have a woman that I would love to meet one day. If the name Twila Liggett fails to ring any bells, know only that amongst her many accomplishments she was the founder and executive producer of Reading Rainbow back in the day. In the article Just Read Anything! she writes a message to parents and teachers that’s pretty self-explanatory. If you can’t think of Reading Rainbow without the aforementioned LeVar, however, the same website Happy Reading has a lovely interview with the man. I’d love to meet LeVar myself, but I think my reaction would be a shade too similar to Troy’s.
Mmm. Critical reviews. They’re important. I don’t do as many of them these days as I used to, but I try to work in at least a couple per year. Some bloggers don’t do them at all, and while I understand that I think it’s important to have a critical dialogue in the children’s literary blogosphere. That nice Justine Larbalestier author recently wrote a post called I Love Bad Reviews that covers this. She’s a gutsy gal, that one. I hope she writes a middle grade book one of these days (How to Ditch Your Fairy came close but wasn’t quite there). And if the research author Elizabeth Fama found in the Sept/Oct 2010 issue of Marketing Science is true, then “negative reviews of books of relatively unknown authors raised sales 45%.” So there you go, oh first time authors. It’s win-win!
Along similar lines is this other snarky link. Personally I’ve nothing against Cassandra Clare. She was a lovely person that I got to meet at a Simon & Schuster preview once. Of course, I’ve never read a one of her books (she’s a YA writer) but bookshelves of doom gave a positive review to her City of Bones and I trust Leila. That said, I enjoyed Part One of the podcast Read It and Weep’s series on that same book (Part Two isn’t out as of this posting). Read It and Weep is a couple dudes and their guest host talking about books and various pop culture icons they dislike. I wouldn’t recommend the podcast for fans of the series, but if you’re curious about the book it can be amusing. Particularly since they will mention things they enjoyed, like the cat-related paging system. I think I’ll have to seek out their thoughts on Percy Jackson soon. Not Twilight, though. It’s been done.
Everyone and their mother emailed me the amazing Aaron Renier
I love photos of Karl Lagerfeld’s bookshelves. I hear he even owns the bookstore next door to where he lives!
Animated Books said, on 3/8/2011 9:39:00 PM
[...] Hat tip to Bookshelf Porn, which I found via Betsy Bird’s Fuse #8. [...]
Jarrett J. Krosoczka said, on 3/9/2011 1:44:00 PM
Betsy,
You know LaVar is making a special appearance at the Children’s Choice Book Awards, right? I’m currenly working on all of my introductions for the evening… Yeah. I KNOW!
=)
JJK
Shelley Moore Thomas said, on 3/9/2011 5:50:00 PM
I hadn’t seen the Matilda strip. Loved it!
The first song my daughter ever sung was the theme to Reading Rainbow!
“Butterfly in the sky, I can fly twice as high…….”
I really miss it.
Shelley
Elizabeth Bird said, on 3/9/2011 6:00:00 PM
Woah, Jarrett!! I knew you were hosting but I had no IDEA that he’d be there. Aw, man. Slip me a $300 ticket, wontcha? Failing that I’ll just do a nice little write-up on it for Monday.
When I first started to work for New York Public Library I was placed at an amazing near 150-year-old part of the system called the Jefferson Market Branch in Greenwich Village. My husband once shot a fantastic short film there in the clocktower, and I believe a Law & Order episode took place there once involving a man and a sword. This little PSA is also set there and takes advantage not only of the architecture (gorgeous, right?) but also my former boss Frank who takes great glee in his role as Library Ghoul. Love you, Frank!
I’m not entirely certain the universe is big enough for me to imagine Weird Al and Shel Silverstein having a conversation with one another. But huge thanks to Mr. Schu for this amazing piece of info.
I would have watched Uncle Shelby’s Corner. Absolutely, you bet!
Recently I was asked to blurb a new edition of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant. Now normally I’d think twice about that kind of request because, let’s face it, Oscar Wilde was one weird children’s author. We sometimes think of Hans Christian Andersen as an odd duck (Red Shoes, anyone?) but I doubt he ever created much of anything to compare to The Happy Prince and its ilk. The Selfish Giant has always been way too didactic for my tastes (too much of an allegory) but there is a way to make it palatable. First off, you give the book great art. Then, if possible, you hire an orchestra and turn the book into a kind of Peter and the Wolf type gig. Here’s a taste.
Cool, eh?
I wouldn’t call this next video of a jazzed up version of The Three Bears any real threat to Hey There, Little Red Riding Hood, but it’s still interesting.
This week I was pleased to be asked to come up with a list of great Black History Month titles for our local channel NY1’s coverage of what to read with your kids. Fellow librarian Robyn Mutnick did a top notch job of presenting the books themselves.
I should note that there was one change made to the books I recommended
0 Comments on Video Sunday: Uncle Shelby’s Corner as of 1/1/1900
Which is to say, it’s 12:06 a.m. and I haven’t the strength to do a full post. In brief!
Seems to me that Weird Al is missing the obvious here. If he’s going to suddenly decide to become a children’s author then he should at the very least have the decency to become a children’s book parodist. The world of children’s book parodies pretty much come down to Michael Rex (Goodnight Good, Runaway Mummy, etc.) and the guy who did that awful Where the Mild Things Are. Clearly the field is still pretty open. MamaPop knows what I’m talking about. Even came up with a list of potential parody titles. Instead, Al went dull. His book now looks like every other celebrity’s out there. *snore!* Thanks to Sarah Stevenson for the link.
Well the big news of the week is that I have a new neighbor. A new neighbor who’s smart and shared a cover with me way back in November. Yes indeed, A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy has moved to SLJ. Liz Burns shall now reside alongside me, upping the number of folks here with the initials of EB to two. Interestingly, her sidebar shows commenters and those who have commenting most recently whereas mine does not. Fascinating.
After seeing my post yesterday about children’s books in dire need of new illustrations and covers, Peter Sieruta noted my McKillip cover for The Changeling Sea and upped the challenge. He says his terrible McKillip cover can beat my terrible McKillip cover. And you wanna know what? He’s right. Boy oh boy oh boy is he right.
From future Children’s Poet Laureate Lee Bennett Hopkins (oh, you know I’m right) I received this very good point. I had just mentioned in a post that I wanted an ALA award for a graphic novel. Said Lee: “RE: Your plea for a new ALA Award. Are you aware that there never has been an ALA award for POETRY? Methinks that should happen before a Graphic Novel Award.” Zut alors! He is correct. About our need for a poetry award, certainly. This is deserving of a longer post. Anon, kids. Anon.
Daily Image:
I blogged about how raccoons have made their way into the main branch of Brooklyn the other day. In the course of the post I say that they don’t really reside in Manhattan so my workplace is safe. Well count on Ann Baybrooks to show me how wrong I could be. No library is safe from the threat of raccoons. Particularly when they’re a mere seventeen blocks north of my location, residing in Central Park. The article Shakespeare in the Park Plagued by Bad Weather, Raccoons says it all . . . as does this accompanying photograph.
Lee has a great point! Would love to see an ALA award for poetry. Lee’s certainly put tremendous effort into promoting poetry, including creating/sponsoring poetry awards. It would be wonderful to see ALA support poetry, too. I was so thrilled when Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! won a couple of years ago.
JMyersbook said, on 7/22/2010 8:38:00 AM
Oops — small typo. In the opening paragraph, you want “Good Night Goon” (not “Good Night Good”).
Signed,
Your Neighborhood (and Well-Read) Raccoons
Elizabeth Bird said, on 7/22/2010 9:09:00 AM
Oh ah. Good catch. Methinks post-midnight writing is not the most spellcheck friendly time of night. Tip of the hat.
Richard West said, on 7/22/2010 1:27:00 PM
It is impossible to believe ALA has not sponsored an award for poetry. Impossible.
As for Lee Bennett Hopkins? Has ANYONE in the country done more for poetry than
he? My research shows he has done more anthology than any one else in the history
of children’s literature in the US. A recent blog called him Poet of Poets. He is Poet of and for All Children. How come no one ever brought up this fact before re: ALA’s slight?
Liz B said, on 7/22/2010 3:33:00 PM
It’s such a lovely neighborhood! (And I cannot figure out how to get the picture on this changed. Oh well, old photo of me)
Elizabeth Bird said, on 7/22/2010 5:32:00 PM
True. And when I comment I don’t get a picture at all. I’m just glad I switched my pic on the old format for this blog. I like looking at the little yellow fuse. My own head tends to bug me.
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater said, on 7/22/2010 6:35:00 PM
How can it be that there is not an ALA poetry award? It is high time for ALA to sponsor a poetry award, high time to honor this genre. In the words of Samuel Coleridge, “Prose is words in their best order; Poetry is the best words in their best order.” I look forward to reading your longer post on this.
Betsy Franco said, on 7/23/2010 7:04:00 AM
Lee Bennett Hopkins has a good point, as he always does. A poetry ALA award would be magnificent…and is overdue.
Elizabeth Bird said, on 7/23/2010 7:36:00 AM
Betsy Franco reads my blog?
Betsy Franco reads my blog.
Awesome.
9 Comments on Fusenews: Itty Bitty Edition, last added: 7/23/2010
It is so hard to remember to pace ourselves and relax. I’m glad that you took the time for yourself.
Too funny. I watched the Weird Al video ten minutes ago!
Right! I adore it.
Thanks Mel. Make sure you take some time for yourself as well. :)