What're you waiting for—a better Jersey Shore-themed novelty single?!
Oh, really? Oh—nevermind, then. You'll just be waiting a long time.
[For more on Owen Schumacher, visit his blog, Winning the Polyglottery!]
In response to my Apostrophe Society post, Bob Beckley commented:
I agree. If you want to hear my “Apostrophe Apostasy” song, click here.
Fun song.
July 10 marks two occasions: first, it is my "little" bro's birthday. (I'll not tell his age, but he's two years younger than me...and I'm thirty-eight.) Second, July 10th is Teddy Bear's Picnic Day. And that means it's time to brush up on a little bit of furry history (about the bears, not the brother...)
I think of Powells, the biggest bookstore west of Mississippi, as my hometown bookstore. And it’s even kind of true. I was born in Portland, even though I grew up in tiny Medford, OR, where the closest thing to a bookstore was JK Gills, which more was a stationery store.
Anyway, a Publishers Weekly blogger fell in love with these clever kid's lit water bottles they carry. Powells, with its INDIEspensible program, and its unusual events, can always be counted on to do something eye-catching, thought-provoking, and just plain fun.
[And for the record, I don’t even know any one who works there any more, although I used to.]
PW reports that Portland’s very own Powell's Books will begin a new subscription service called IndieSpensable. For $39.95, subscribers will get a new package every six weeks. It will include a signed first edition of a new title plus other materials that could range from a DVD, a zine or sample chapters from a work-in-progress. It will begin in with Lydia Millet's How the Dead Dream, published by Counterpoint Press, which is doing a custom cover of the title.
IF- 100% !!
About the Annette Funicello and the Beach Boys "Monkeys Uncle", humming it, and it will brighten your day..
Yeah, yeah, She loves the monkey's uncle, Whoa, whoa, She loves the monkey's uncle....
Yesterday, Robert Mack, the editor of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, wrote about the many incarnations of the tale. Today Mack looks at Sondheim’s version. This post first appeared on Powell’s.
Stephen Sondheim first came across the Todd story on a visit to London in 1973, when he saw Christopher Bond’s version on stage. Bond had made the story darker and less melodramatic than previous versions, in which Todd was portrayed as an increasingly paranoid homicidal maniac, who murdered simply out of greed. Bond was the first dramatist to provide Todd with a convincing, well thought-out, and fully integrated ‘back story’. At the beginning of the play, Todd’s anger is explained: it is directed exclusively at the local judge and beadle who together, many years before, had destroyed his career, transported him for life as a convicted felon, and (he believes) killed his beloved wife. Todd’s aim is revenge, pure and simple. Only after his initial attempts to do away with the judge and beadle are frustrated does he come to the conclusion that ‘the work’s its own reward’, and decides that until he has another shot at his enemies he will ‘practice on less honoured throats’. (more…)
The Oregonian used to have a saying, "If it matters to Oregonians, it's in the Oregonian." When the Bob Packwood scandal broke (the lecherous senator who had groped and kissed dozens of women), it was via the Washington Post, although his womanizing (not even the right word, since he usually picked on women who had a lot less social status and sometimes they weren't even women at all, but girls) had been well known to the local media for years. So then there was a bumper sticker that read "If it matters to Oregonians, it's in the Washington Post."
Now the LA Times has run a lengthy piece looking at the succession plans Michael Powell has for Portland's Powell's Books, the biggest bookstore west of the Mississippi. There are actually several bookstores, including an airport outlet and a bookstore just for cooks, but the flagship store takes up a full city block in the middle of downtown Portland. They've been selling books online since 1994, and they sell new and used right next to each. Every night you can go to Powells and expect to see a big name author. But now the LA Times says their business is flat, when it should be growing, and there are some questions about whether Michael's daughter, 29 year old Emily, can successfully take over the business.
Read more here.
Remember when I told you that Maureen Johnson’s book The Bermudez Triangle was being banned from an
Mrs. Janet Vernon, Executive Director of Secondary Instruction
UPDATE: Mrs. Vernon’s email box is full, but you can email her assistant, Becky Brubaker, and ask her to pass your thoughts along to Mrs. Vernon
Dr. Richard Rosenberger, Executive Director of Human Resources
Mr. Chuck McCauley, Principal of Bartlesville High School
And could this be the next new thing your agents and publishers do for you, fooling around with iMovie until they’ve made a trailer for your signing?
Are you ready for some “polished prose and raw lust?”
Thanks to Powells this little possible controversy caught my eye. It seems that this guy thinks someone at Nike might owe Chuck Palahniuk some money for this commercial. It’s a little too similar to Fight Club, in his opinion. What do you think?
And finally, the best for last. How far would you go to satisfy that “I must have the next book in the series NOW!” craving? Jennie of Jennie’s B(ook)log gives us one example with “Olive’s Bold Ascent.”
If you’re interested in Olive’s first adventure, you can find it here. You can also read an excellent interview with Jennie about being a copywriter here.
I was going to wait to post these all on Friday when I know half of you aren’t really working at your jobs, but I have to be up at six am for a thirteen hour shift. If anything gets posted on Friday it will be a miracle.
And by the way, how mad am I that the Kentucky Derby is on my birthday on Saturday? Now I’ll never have the energy to go out afterwards and pretend that all of
*But, hey, they’re all book related in some way, so claim it is work!
What made you pick this (beautiful but sad) video?
Are you going through a broken relationship?