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American author Pat Conroy has passed away; see, for example, William Grimes' obituary in The New York Times.
None of his books are under review at the complete review (and honestly, I don't see myself ever getting to them), but he wrote some very popular ones -- including two that were also the basis of popular films, The Great Santini (get your copy at Amazon.com) and The Prince of Tides (get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).
More than fifty years ago, Gabriel García Márquez visited the Soviet Union -- and at Russia Beyond the Headlines Oleg Krasnov now helpfully offers: "10 of the writer's most vivid observations about the country", in What did Gabriel Garcia Marquez say after visiting the USSR ?
Get your free tickets to the 2016 Arbuthnot Lecture featuring Pat Mora (image courtesy of Pat Mora)
ALSC and the Santa Barbara Public Library System announced that tickets for the 2016 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture featuring Pat Mora are now available.
The lecture, titled “Bookjoy! ¡Alegría en los libros!,” will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 15, 2016 at the Santa Barbara City College’s Garvin theatre. Required tickets are free for the lecture and must be obtained through the Santa Barbara Public Library System. To learn more about acquiring tickets and event details, please visit the 2016 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture website. Hotel information is available on the Arbuthnot website.
About Pat Mora
Pioneering author and literacy advocate Pat Mora has written more than three dozen books for young people that represent the Mexican American experience. Born and raised in El Paso, Texas, Mora grew up bilingual and bicultural. With degrees in English and speech, she was a teacher and university administrator before writing children’s books. Known for her lyrical style, Mora’s poetry and prose have won numerous awards, including a 2005 Belpré Honor Medal for text for “Doña Flor: A Tall Tale of a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart,” published by Knopf Books for Young Readers, and illustrated by Raul Colón. Her generosity for sharing “bookjoy,” the phrase she coined for the power and pleasure of words, led Mora to launch El día de los niños/ El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), or “Día,” which will observe its 20th anniversary in 2016.
Arbuthnot History
The May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture is sponsored by ALSC. The lecture title honors May Hill Arbuthnot, distinguished writer, editor and children’s literature scholar. Each year, an author, artist, critic, librarian, historian or teacher of children’s literature is selected to prepare a paper considered to be a significant contribution to the field of children’s literature.
We are just under a week away from the sixth annual Ontario Teen Book Fest! Today, I'm spotlighting young adult and middle grade author Elana K. Arnold. Make sure you read on for a Q&A as well as a giveaway for a signed poster.
Before we get to that, here's the important stuff to know about the festival so you can plan and find your way there.
Important Stuff
When: Saturday March 12th, 9 am to 5 pm
Where: Colony High School 3850 E. Riverside Drive, Ontario, CA 91761
Side note, if you attend, you will be fed. Panera sandwiches and water/sodas are provided for attendees (since it's kind of hard to leave campus real quick to get some food--you might miss a panel!). I usually bring snacks anyway (and sandwiches are verboten on the anti-inflammatory diet I am currently on, so I do have to bring my own grub this time).
Books will be sold by Once Upon a Time. There will be t-shirts and posters as well.
At the end of the post, make sure you enter on the Rafflecopter for a poster signed by all of the authors!
Also, please share details about the fest on social media, and use the hashtag #OntarioTBF.
Last but not least, show the event bloggers some love by heading over to their websites, reading their posts, and leaving a comment! Not mandatory but it would be super nice of you. And you can see by the schedule who this year's authors are!
Elana K. Arnold is a Southern California native, and author of Sacred (RH/Delacorte, 2012), Splendor (RH/Delacorte, 2013), and Burning (RH/Delacorte, 2013). Her latest book about young adults, Infandous, was released by Carolrhoda Books in March 2015. She holds an M.A. in Creative Writing/Fiction from the University of California, Davis.
"Once there was a mermaid who dared to love a wolf. Her love for him was so sudden and so fierce that it tore her tail into legs."
Sephora Golding lives in the shadow of her unbelievably beautiful mother. Even though they scrape by in the seedier part of Venice Beach, she's always felt lucky. As a child, she imagined she was a minor but beloved character in her mother's fairy tale. But now, at sixteen, the fairy tale is less Disney and more Grimm. And she wants the story to be her own. Then she meets Felix, and the fairy tale takes a turn she never imagined.
"Things don't really turn out the way they do in fairy tales. I'm telling you that right up front, so you're not disappointed later."
Sometimes, a story is just a way to hide the unspeakable in plain sight.
More books by Elana K. Arnold:
Q&A with Elana K. Arnold
Read Now Sleep Later: What was the seed that grew into your latest YA novel, Infandous?
Elana K. Arnold: When I began working on the book that grew into Infandous, the first thing that came to me was Sephora’s voice. She was the loudest, clearest character I had ever heard. And it was clear from her art and her obsession with the goriest, most awful fairy tales and myths that she had a secret. I, however, literally had no idea what that secret might be. So I wrote to find out. About fifty pages into the book’s first draft, I was fooling around online and came across a list of 26 real words that we don't use anymore; “I” was for “Infandous,” which, I learned, means “that which is too terrible to be spoken of aloud.” At once, like a sickening wave, I was overwhelmed by the truth of Sephora’s secret. In that moment, I had found a title and direction... and a terrible sense of dread.
RNSL: In Infandous, Sephora is seeing "beyond the veil" that some popular fairytales wear (i.e. Disneyfication). I assume you had a revelation about this at some point, since you wrote a character with this point of view. What did you think when you first came to realize that fairytales aren't the euphemistic, sanitized versions served up in the mainstream?
EKA: I was fortunate to have been raised in households full of books, with no restrictions prescribed because of our age. If we found it and picked it up, and if we were capable of decoding the information, the book belonged in our hands. We had both at home and at my grandparents’ house (where I spent a lot of time) collections of fairy tales, fables, and mythology—the original stuff. I actually met a lot of the characters that star in Disney movies first in their source material. When I later re-met them, sanitized for the screen, I was put off by their transformations.
RNSL: Why do you write for young people? Did you choose the audience, or did it choose you?
EKA: Adolescence for me was terrifying, often lonely, and overwhelming. But sometimes it was also ecstatically free and dangerously exciting. I don’t write books for teens, particularly; I’m firmly in the “about, not for” camp, more and more as my career progresses. It’s up for publishers to decide if my books are YA… and, honestly, with both Infandous and my forthcoming YA, What Girls Are Made Of, I was pleasantly surprised that they found homes as such.
RNSL: Were you a writer and/or a reader as a child? If not, when did your road to becoming an author begin? Do you have a particular author, relative, or teacher who helped you on this path?
EKA: I was a myopic, dreamy, constant reader. My dad was a huge reader, too, as is my paternal grandmother who has a “real” library in her home—a room dedicated entirely to books. I spent long swaths of time there, happily following the patch of sunlight on carpet, reading indiscriminately and eating bowls of fruit.
RNSL: In general, people think of fiction as made-up stories, tales about things that are not real--however, fiction often exposes greater truths. For you, does the truth come first and have the story grow into being around it, or does the story lead you there?
EKA: For me, truth and fiction are always tightly paired, sometimes in ways that, when I’ve gotten some distance, shock and embarrass me. It’s most often in unconscious ways that truth seeps into my fiction, forming the emotional landscape of the book. The events may be fictional, but the heart is real.
RNSL: Do you write on schedule, or do you find that you have to carve bits and pieces of time out to write in the midst of your day-to-day activities?
EKA: I tend to write in big chunks sometimes, and in bits and pieces other times, and also, sometimes, not at all. Growing up, well-meaning adults loved to tell me that “writers write,” and yes, sometimes this is true. But writing is only part of the craft of being a storyteller. Living, and loving, and failing and hurting and all the other mess of life counts, too. When I finally released myself from the “butt in the chair every day” prescription, the stories began to demand space and time. Different approaches work for different writers, but as someone who struggled with eating disorders, I find that an all-or-none dictum usually leaves me self-flagellating and miserable. Which leads me to your next question…
RNSL: Do you have a favorite piece of writing advice you've received from or given to someone else? What is it?
EKA: Be gentle with yourself. There is time.
Be gentle with yourself. There is time.
Elana K. Arnold lives in Huntington Beach, California, with her husband, two children, and a menagerie of animals. Her latest middle grade novel, Far from Fair, will be out this week, and if you're lucky enough to be in Long Beach, California, check out Gatsby Books at 7 pm on Tuesday, March 8 for her launch party! Her next YA novel, What Girls Are Made Of, is due out in Spring 2017 from Carolrhoda Books. You can find more information about her and all of her books at elanakarnold.com/home.html and tweet her @elanakarnold
ब्लॉगिग की दुनिया और मिसेज सेठी टवीटर, गूगल प्लस, फेसबुक के बीच ब्लॉगिंग अपना अलग ही स्थान बनाती जा रही है और बहुत महिलाए ब्लॉगिंग में आगे आ रही है..!! ब्लॉग बनवाने के सिलसिले में एक अपरिचित महिला ने सम्पर्क किया. महिला ने बताया उनका एक बेटा है. अभी वो कालिज में है और सारा […]
Ack! Too many good videos, too little time! We’ve an embarrassment of riches today. The only question really is where to start. And the only natural answer is with Obama’s nominee for the Librarian of Congress. Not much of a question there, really.
Next up, there is beginning to be a bit of a tradition of authors and illustrators recording videos of how they got “the call” when they won the Caldecott or Newbery (I almost wrote and/or Newbery, which is an interesting near flub). Last year we had Dan Santat’s video. This year, Sophie Blackall’s:
At this rate it may behoove us to just give the medals to people who are good at making videos. And the Newbery Medal goes to . . . Tyler Oakley!
Now let’s get down to brass tacks. People, there are awards out there that go beyond the mere borders of this great nation of ours. And the Hans Christian Andersen Award is the greatest of these (though the Astrid Lindgren Award gives it a run for its money). Now they’ve made a video for us that goes through the 2016 nominees. I adore this. I just want to meet all these people. Suzy Lee!!! Now, weirdly, I want her to adopt me. And Iran! How cool is that?
This next book trailer seemingly has an international flavor to it, but is homegrown Americana through and through. It may also be the most beautiful trailer of 2016 thus far.
Earlier this week, Phil Nel posted a killer post called Seuss on Film. The piece is “a brief (but far from complete) collection of Seuss on film!” Turns out, it was somewhat tricky getting Mr. Geisel on the old camera. Phil’s a trooper, though. He found newsreel after newsreel and has posted them on YouTube for our collective enjoyment. You should really read his posting yourself. In fact, I insist upon it. And just to whet your whistle, here’s a jaw-dropping 1964 discussion with Seuss in New Zealand where he improvises answers to kids’ questions.
As for our Off-Topic Video of the week, I give this to you because I love you. Really, truly, deeply love you.
6 Comments on Video Sunday: Great Scott!, last added: 3/7/2016
I so want 1.21 Gigawatts to be a real movie. Can anybody out there make it happen?
Denis Markell said, on 3/6/2016 12:57:00 PM
Omigosh, those Anderson finalists are so inspiring. I did look online and couldn’t find out if personal fave Marc Boutavant has ever been nominated or won. If not, get ON THAT.
Also agree The Secret Subway is the most beautiful and imaginative trailer I’ve seen.
It would be lovely if many of these nominees’ work could be translated into English, or at least available here. Certainly a high spot of the weekend!
Denis
Elizabeth Bird said, on 3/6/2016 7:38:00 PM
He’s probably too old these days, but technology being what it is I think we can conjure it up from scratch.
Jeanne Birdsall said, on 3/7/2016 3:24:00 PM
Christopher Lloyd is a mere 12 years older than I am. Just saying’, Betsy, as you yourself would say.
Elizabeth Bird said, on 3/7/2016 7:03:00 PM
Ah, but you, Jeanne, appear to somehow elude time itself. Mr. Lloyd, if he is human, could not possibly be so blessed.
Matt Lewis has been keeping busy since his Potter days. He is currently working on several projects, including the BBC1 TV crime drama, Happy Valley, and the spring-break romantic comedy flick, Me Before You.
The Mirror sat down with Matt and talked about his acting journey from playing the heroic Neville Longbottom to Happy Valley’s villainous Sean. It is quite the transition. Matt Lewis talked about the process he goes through to act the part, and get into the troubled character’s mind set. The Mirror reported:
Sean admits he picks up prostitutes and has memory black-outs after binge-drinking. Is he the murderer without even knowing it?
‘Sean goes to dark places and makes mistakes after he’s been drinking,’ says Matthew, 26.
‘He can’t escape the ghosts of his past and all these pent-up emotions explode in bursts of fury…Playing Sean is the biggest challenge of my acting career,’ adds Matthew.
‘It’s hard to get into his mindset as some of the things he does can’t be justified at all.’
Matthew is best known as bumbling Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films.
‘Neville and Sean are wildly different,’ he laughs. ‘Younger Harry Potter fans may want to wait a few years before watching me in Happy Valley.’
Moving from a dark and troublesome character to a workout-crazed boyfriend in this summer, Me Before You, Pop Sugar has put together a slide show of a few photos from behind the scenes on the set of Matt’s new film. A couple of pics can be seen below, the rest can be seen here.
You can catch Happy Valley on Tuesdays at 9pm on BBC One. The film Me Before You premieres June 3, 2016 in the US.
Last week, Evanna Lynch accepted a Burke Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Discourse Through the Arts in Dublin. At the ceremony, Evanna gave a speech on being vegan, catching the attention of many foodies around the world, even VegNews.
Evanna talked of the reasons why she is vegan, siting facts on the environment and animal treatment to back her speech. She addressed the different moral perspectives of the diet, those commonly heard and others not as well discussed. University Time reported:
In her speech, Lynch presented an argument for going vegan. She began her talk by explaining the environmental reasons for veganism. She cited animal agriculture as being the primary contributor to “greenhouse gas emissions, world hunger, deforestation, species extinction,” as well as others. She believes this is an issue “you cannot afford not to address” due to the adverse effects of over consuming meat and animal products. She then went on to explain the reasons she went vegan.
She explained that the environment is not the reason she made the decision to cut meat and animal products from her diet. Instead, simply put, she believes that “killing and eating animals is a betrayal of our own core humanity” and that “killing an innocent goes against our nature”. From this point, her argument looked at history, evolution and the reasons consuming meat and animal products continue to be the norm in our society. Finally, she urged the audience to “check [that their] practices align with [their] principles”.
At the end of her speech, she half-jokingly mentioned that her father warned her that she would probably be heckled and booed when speaking on this topic. This was not the case, as the crowd listened cautiously and subsequently asked insightful questions during the Q&A session.
Evanna addressed the crowd, ready to be booed and mocked for her views on food, but found that her speech opened up a polite discussion and well-mannered Q&A. Fans asked about her food journey, where her turning point was, if she had any tips for healthy eating and more.
During the Q&A the conversation made an abrupt transition to the unavoidable topic of her role in Harry Potter, and her thoughts on the new Harry Potter projects.
Lynch was also questioned regarding the newest addition to the Harry Potterfranchise, the stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The session finished with Lynch answering one final question about the positive impact Lovegood has on fans and readers in terms of being proud of who they are and accepting themselves. She ended the session by saying: “That lovely message of ‘I’m weird but I’m ok’, you know. I’m happy to spread that, and I’m glad she’s such an advocate.”
I received this last year, in time for Christmas...along with a lot of other books. Sorry this has taken so long, but do consider buying and putting it away for next Yuletide! Your kids will love you for it, and you'll have less worrying to do in the last minute.
Here is yet another gorgeous Christmas Press publication for children. This time, it's mostly written and illustrated by the staff of Christmas Press - Fiona McDonald, Sophie Masson and Beattie Alvarez pen two stories and a poem, regular artist David Allan is ably supported by Lisa Stewart, who illustrates Sophie Masson's story, "The Christmas Dragon," in which a young dragon, Fiery, dreams of pulling Santa's sleigh. Signing herself "Frosty the Fabulous Flyer" she manages to get a job interview at the North Pole, only to be told that on Christmas Eve Santa has all the sleigh pullers he needs. Can Fiery help in another way? Read and find out!
Meanwhile, here is a sample page of Ms Stewart's art for the story.
Even if you didn't have the inimitable Sophie Masson writing the story the book would be worth buying just for the art.
David Allan contributes the delightful cover and some gorgeous internal art interspersed between the stories.
Artist Fiona McDonald shows she can write too, writing and illustrating "Dragon Market" in which a mother and daughter toymaking team who had nearly been driven out of business by the competition find that an act of kindness to an old woman, as in the best fairytales, and a handcrafted dragon, help them get back into business. Even though it's for children I couldn't help thinking of the real world in which small businesses can lose out to big ones.
Finally, we have "The Dragon's Pet", Beattie Alvarez's tribute to Clement Clarke Moore's "A Visit From St Nicholas" aka "The night before Christmas". This time the family is a family of dragons whose pet bunny has messed up their Christmas dinner. Needless to say, St Nick helps out and even washes the batter-covered rabbit! Ms Alvarez, who edited 2014's Christmas annual, in which I had a story, shows she can draw too, illustrating her own work.
0 Comments on Three Dragons For Christmas: Sydney, Christmas Press, 2015 - A MuchBelated Review! as of 1/1/1900
I plan on rereading all the Anne series this year. And I'll be watching the first TWO Anne movies. Or, in other words, the only two Anne movies in this series that actually exist. (Don't try telling me there are two more in the series. I won't listen.) I first watched this series in the late 80s. It was LOVE. Serious, love. I have been swooning over Gilbert Blythe for almost as long as I can remember. Almost. I do think this adaptation is quite good. Not that it's 100% faithful in every single detail. I noticed that this past time because I'd just finished the book the day before. But I think it is faithful in spirit to the book.
Mr. Holmes
I enjoyed this one. I do think that it should come with a message for viewers: YOU CAN BREATHE. THIS MOVIE DOES NOT KILL OFF SHERLOCK HOLMES. I can't honestly decide if this is a "love" or a "like" for me. But it held my attention, and, I found it charming. Though charming isn't quite the right word for it. I liked the developing friendship between Sherlock and the housekeeper's young son. It was an interesting framework and premise. I'd recommend it.
Home Fires
Did I enjoy this one? I honestly don't know the answer to that. There were characters that I absolutely loathed. There were characters that I absolutely enjoyed getting to know. There were times I was shouting at the TV. There were scenes that I found uncomfortable, that, I quite simply didn't want to watch. And the theme song, well, I hated it.
Pollyanna
Ever since reading the book, I have a hard time doing much more than "liking" the movie. I need to find the movie adaptation I do remember liking and giving it a try next.
January Tag Questions: 1. What period dramas did you view in January? Pollyanna, Home Fires, Mr. Holmes, and Anne of Green Gables 2. What is your favorite Charles Dickens film adaptation? Our Mutual Friend, I think. Though I enjoyed Bleak House and Little Dorrit too. 3. Would you rather visit Pemberley (Mr. Darcy's residence) or Downton Abbey (Crawley family residence)? Why? Pemberley. 4. If you could be any character in a Jane Austen novel for a whole day who would you be and why would you want to be that character? Probably Anne. 5. What period dramas are you looking forward to viewing in February 2016? Downton Abbey! What I Watched in February
Downton Abbey, series 6
I have been watching Downton Abbey for several years now. I think the third season was getting ready to air when I began the show. One thing I know is that I do better binge-watching Downton Abbey than I do watching it as it airs one episode at a time. This is also a show that when I'm in the middle of watching I tend to think is amazing and wonderful and gush-worthy, and then in the long-long months waiting months between seasons, dare I admit that I forget it almost completely? I don't think I'll be forgetting season six anytime soon, though!!!! What a FANTASTIC end to a sometimes great, sometimes frustrating series!!!! I was really so pleased with how things ended up for all the characters.
February Tag Questions:
1. What period dramas did you view in February? Downton Abbey; I also viewed the first episode of When Calls The Heart, season three, but would prefer to review it as a whole season than as an individual episode. I also started Dr. Quinn, season one, but didn't finish it up until March. So I'll be writing a review of it in its own post. 2. What is your favorite period drama musical? So hard!!!! The Music Man, maybe. I adore that one. But then again there is Sound of Music. And then there's The King and I...or My Fair Lady...or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. How could I possibly pick a favorite???? 3. If you could order up an adaptation of your favorite classic book, what would it be and who would star? I'd love to see GEORGETTE HEYER get adapted. I'm not sure which I'd like to see adapted first...but my guess is that if one was adapted....there would be a demand for even more! 4. If you could be a famous royal from history, who would you be and why? I'm not sure I'd want to be royal! Being royal often came at the cost of personal happiness. But I like to read about royals :) 5. What period dramas are you looking forward to viewing in March 2016? I have Far From the Madding Crowd checked out and then there is the second Anne movie coming up soon.
One of the two authors most responsible for the Emerging Writers Network (the other was Elwood Reid), Alyson Hagy, won the Lawrence Foundation Prize for the best short story published in the Michigan Quarterly Review during 2015. This was a great story, "Switchback", from the Spring 2015 issue.
The wonderfully worn down and hand-decorated chair J.K. Rowling sat in to write the first two Harry Potter books will be auctioned in New York next month.
The auction will be held by Heritage Auctions at their 445 Park Avenue gallery, and will open at $45,000 on March 18th, with the live auction itself taking place on April 6th.
“You may not / find me pretty ~ / but don’t judge / on what you see,” Rowling wrote across its wooden slats and sides. “I wrote / Harry Potter / while sitting / on this chair.”
The chair also features Rowling’s signature and multiple lightning ‘scars’.
“For me, what’s important about the chair is that [Rowling] basically created a unique artwork that’s self-reflexive. It’s all about her creation,” said James Gannon, director of rare books at Heritage Auctions. “There’s not that much in Harry Potter world that’s very valuable or very rare because the books were so big so quickly, so after the first couple of books, the first editions were quite large, and I think, by the end, they were printing like 8m or 10m copies of the first edition.”
The chair comes with a typed and signed letter, “Dear new-owner-of-my-chair,” composed by Rowling before the 2002 auction. Written on “Owl Post” stationery, Rowling briefly relates the history of the chair before adding this parting line: “My nostalgic side is quite sad to see it go, but my back isn’t.”
Fancy placing a bid? Gannon suspects the chair will sell for ‘at least $75,000′, and could easily best $100,000, so we’d best get saving!
For the Period Drama Challenge I watched Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, season 1. That's mostly true anyway. I started watching--rewatching the show--a good two weeks before I discovered the challenge existed! If I'd known about the challenge earlier, I would have joined it immediately.
1993 is when Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman premiered. I was in high school. I remember watching it every week, with or without friends around. Some things never change: the swoon-worthiness of Sully. My memory has treated the show quite kindly: forgetting the silly, squirmish, embarrassing, awkward moments of certain episodes. I didn't remember for example how quickly the whole town can become a mob and lose all sanity and reason within seconds. And just how quickly the town-mob can be talked back into reason--usually by Dr. Quinn or another main character speaking sense.
Nor did I remember how EVERYONE drops everything that they're doing to go wait outside Dr. Quinn's clinic whenever she's seeing a patient! This would make sense if it was a handful of people, say the family of the patient, or if it was just when Dr. Quinn was performing surgery. I've also noticed that the inside of the clinic seems to look different depending on the episode. And I noticed in one episode--when she was doing a very personal exam of Dorothy, I believe, though it might have been Myra?--that anyone who would have opened the door would have SEEN a sight. And with the usual crowd probably gathered outside--after all Dr. Quinn has a patient!!!--that could have been a disaster.
What I remember most--and like best upon rewatching--are the characters and the relationships. Namely Dr. Quinn with her three "adopted" children: Matthew, Colleen, and Brian. And, of course, Dr. Quinn with Byron Sully!!!! I like the friendship Dr. Quinn has with Grace, Myra, and Dorothy. And the side-romances of Grace and Robert E, and Horace and Myra.
That being said, I don't "like" all the characters/residents of the town. Some things never change. I remember Hank annoying and disgusting me from the very start. Jake could also be super-annoying, but, he had a handful of redeemable moments.
Stand-Out Episodes:
Epidemic: Almost everyone in town gets sick; Myra nurses Horace; Sully "saves" Dr. Quinn by getting Cloud Dancing to treat her just in time; he also kisses her forehead when she's asleep. The Visitor: Dr. Quinn's mother comes to visit, and, Brian bonds with her and softens her up a bit! Father's Day: I believe this is the episode when Sully overcomes his fear of riding horses; plenty of learning-to-ride-a-horse-shirtless scenes. Happy Birthday: This episode makes me smile and cringe at the same time. The kids decide to do some matchmaking, and they are not subtle. Poor Dr. Quinn! That being said, Sully and Dr. Mike kiss for the first time. And later--many, many episodes later she says that was her best birthday gift. Hank also "tries" to court Dr. Mike in this one. Heroes: This episode had me cringing the whole time. Colleen has a BIG crush on Sully, and, acts ridiculous. Poor Sully! The Operation: I'm not sure how believable this episode really is, at, how successful a brain operation could be performed by someone who knows nothing--or very, very little about the brain or neurosurgeon. But convenient or not, this one does have Loren acting human and quite kind actually to Brian. The Secret: This one has a VERY young Joseph Gordon-Levitt making an appearance. This would have meant nothing to me then, but, within seconds of my rewatch I was like WAIT, IS THAT WHO I THINK IT IS?!?!
Guest stars in season one: Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers, Jane Wyman, and John Schneider.
Rumours are flying about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando hosting a Yule Ball, amongst other exciting potential holiday additions.
The Orlando Informer started the hype, with reports of a research survey revealing plans to add to or modify holiday offerings at the park, specifically around the Christmas period (a Yule Ball, therefore, would be perfect!):
“The special holiday party, which the survey explains would hypothetically take place on select December nights, would include special performances, ride access, a delicious holiday treat, and non-alcoholic beverages. Pricing was a large topic when surveying about this event, with the survey asking how much is too expensive and too low.”
Specific ideas relating to the Wizarding World are as follows:
A nighttime show at Hogwarts Castle using 3D projection, lights, and more (included with park admission)
Holiday party in both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley on select nights in December, including delicious holiday treats and beverages (separately ticketed event)
Yule Ball and Great Dance Hall Dinner – “guests wear dress robes and dine/dance at a festive holiday Yule Ball with themed music, dancing, food and beverages.” (separately ticketed event)
Special holiday performances by the Frog Choir, London Street Buskers, and other holiday themed surprises in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Whilst these (*very exciting*) proposed ideas aren’t set in stone in the slightest, the mere presence of the surveys suggests that Universal want to know what guests are interested in the most. Getting the word out and encouraging them to make it happens seems the least we could do to get us all a fantastic Yule Ball, as a US alternative to the amazing events held at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour in London.
We’d love to attend, and I bet you would too!
Read more about ideas proposed by the guests here, and let us know any ideas you have via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!
They bake the bagels fresh in Fairway* In the public eye. I rarely pay attention Even when I'm passing by. The pumpernickel bin was bare, though; Nothing else would do. I asked the baker rolling dough If, possibly, he knew... When there would be another batch; He checked and told me - wait! In just 3 minutes they'll be done. Though I was running late... I followed his advice and yes, Within 3 minutes' time, I filled a bag with bagels That were worthy of a rhyme. *local supermarket
Universal Hollywood’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter have just announced a very exciting competition, called TheHogsmeade Hunt!
Scour participating websites for wizarding items, and for each item found, you’ll be automatically entered to win a VIP trip for 4 to Universal Studios Hollywood (where you can see the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter), and daily instant giveaways of Harry Potter Collectible Hero Wands!
The competition is unfortunately only open to residents of the US and District of Colombia. It ends on the 21st March, so get playing! Partner websites to find the ‘wizarding items’ on are listed below:
The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski. Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers. 2014. Library audiobook and publisher review copy. Book 1 of The Winner's Trilogy.
The Plot: Kestrel, the 17 year old daughter of General Trajan, buys a slave on a whim.
Kestrel's father had conquered the Herran peninsula a decade before; it's people where enslaved. Kestrel has grown up in a world of wealth and privilege, because of her father's success.
Still, she feels trapped by Valorian society. Yes, they are the winners, as their repeated conquests and world building proves. But there are strict rules for its citizens, and one is that Kestrel, like other citizens, must give value to the Valorian Empire by either being a soldier or producing future soldiers by marrying. She wants to do neither, but her wants don't matter.
Kestrel loves her father, and he wants her to enter the military. She may not have fighting skills, but she's already a good strategist. He indulges her music, even though everyone knows that music is something to be appreciated -- not made. That is below Valorians.
The slave she buys is named Smith, for the job he has been trained to do. He is a Herrani, about her age. And she wonders about him, about the temper and pride she sees in him, about what he was before his country was defeated.
His name wasn't always Smith. It was Arin. And he wasn't born into service or slavery. But those are his secrets, and he has many. And one of them is that he finds himself falling for, and caring for, the daughter of his enemy.
The Good: Can I do this book justice? I don't know. I'll start with I loved, loved, loved it, and the only reason I'm glad I didn't read it when it first came out two years ago is that now I can rush to read the second book.
I had heard good buzz, yes, but the initial cover, while beautiful, was too "girl in pretty dress." (And I'm still not sure about the current cover.) Plus the "she buys a slave and they fall for each other" didn't appeal to me.
I'm glad that I put both those aside. Because, wow. What a book. And yes Kestrel wears beautiful dresses, as her role in society demands. And yes, she buys a slave. And they fall for each other. But it is so much more than that; and so much more nuanced than that.
This is the slavery of the conquered; and while I'll avoid spoilers, it's only been about ten years. So memories of the conquest and the brutality are fresh; dreams of independence and autonomy are born not in wishes but in memory.
The Valorian culture struck me as a mix of Roman and Regency (but the Regency may be because I'm in quite a reading binge of Regency Romance). Roman for the military and the conquest; Regency for the dresses and outfits and the way society interacts with each other. The modern twist is that the demand for military service applies to both men and women, and there is a certain level of gender equality.
Much as I liked Kestrel and her friends and even her father, my sympathies were always with Arin and his people. A reader like me will assume or infer rape or sexual assault on those who are conquered, enslaved, and owned, but The Winner's Curse never explicitly addresses this type of violence. Part of me wishes it did; part of me was glad it didn't. Since this is the first in the series, and The Hunger Games didn't explicitly address this type of abuse until the third book, I'm going to wait and see how it plays out and how it is addressed.
My sympathies meant that, much as I liked Kestrel, I kept waiting for Arin and the Herrani to go all Spartacus. I kept wanting that. And how this played out -- was very satisfying, and it kept me to the edge of my seat, and I look forward to how the series addresses the continuing issue of the conquered and the conquering and Empire building. Because that is the Winner's Curse, the curse of being the person who wins the war and takes the territory and the supplies and everything else you want: now you have to manage. To rule. To control. (OK, technically, as explained in the book, it's more an economic theory but this is how I view it, in terms of this book.)
Also, much as I liked Kestrel, at times I wanted more from her than her station could give. I wanted her to realize, truly realize, what it meant for the Valorians to have enslaved the Herrani. I wanted her to realize that her safe at home strategies had flesh and blood consequence. I wanted her to realize that the loss and outrage and anger she felt when her loved ones were in danger, or killed, or hurt, was the same as the Herrani felt a decade before, for the decade since, and in the present. Of course, I had to realize that type of understanding and empathy takes time. And that it becomes a thornier question when atrocities happen on both sides of the war.
The strength of the writing is that despite Kestrel's privilege, despite her family owning others, despite her family being responsible by being the winners -- I liked her. Found her sympathetic. Found her needs, her desires, her dreams, important.
So: bottom line. Loved it. Can't wait to read the next one. So it's a Favorite Book of 2016.
The very dictionary definition of a cult artist, Freedy Johnston has been making great records for nearly 25 years now, starting with 1992’s Can You Fly, one of the best albums in one of my favorite years of music.
The legend surrounding Can You Fly is that Freedy Johnston sold his inheritance in order to finance the recording of the album, and the reason it’s a legend is that Freedy turned around and wrote his best song about that decision.
Well I sold the dirt to feed the band
Falling right through my hands
Yes I sold the map up to the sky
Falling down always
That’s how “Trying to Tell You Don’t Know” starts, just Freedy’s unique Neil-Young-as-a-baritone voice over his chugging electric guitar, but as the band — featuring Joe Jackson’s crack bassist Graham Maby, and secret guitar hero Kevin Salem — kicks in, the tempo ups, and the song gets tougher, along with the circumstances:
Well I sold the dirt and bought the road
Let me tell you right where we’re going
Yeah I sold the house where I Iearned to walk
Falling down always trying
(Trying, trying)
Fifty bucks to use the van
(Trying, trying)
Trying to find your city man
(Trying, trying)
Trying to get back my guitars
(Trying, trying)
Trying to tell you I don’t knowwwwwwwwwwww
Yeah, technically, this is singer-songwriter stuff, but as Salem’s guitar solo kicks in, it feels like they’ve been playing together for centuries, and in the end, drummer Brian Doherty kicks the song into double-time and with organist Knut Bohn continually helping out with “trying trying,” Freedy sings the title over and over and over until he can get across just how much the decision to sell the farm took out of him.
Can You Fly was also an album that I got the exact same used copy two different times. I don’t even remember where the first time was, but it had a very distinct “Used” sticker, as well as someone had punched a hole in the cover in the shape of a spade.
You can see it at the top of this post.
Anyways, at some point after I bought it, someone broke into my apartment in the Tower District and stole a whole shelf of CDs. Like they came in, grabbed the CDs and just booked. One of them was Can You Fly. I knew who the thief was and reported it to the police, of course, but there really wasn’t much I could do about it, as petty theft isn’t high on the list of things that the Fresno PD worried about in the Tower in the early 1990s.
So I wrote those CDs off and figured that I would replace the ones I really loved eventually.
A few days later, I was shopping at Ragin’ Records, as I did, and lo and behold, there was my copy of Can You Fly sitting on the shelf. The thief had sold it there.
Of course, when I pointed this out to Paul, he just let me have it, because of course he did.
“Trying To Tell You I Don’t Know”
Every Certain Song Ever
A filterable, searchable & sortable database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.
Posted on 3/6/2016
By: Dan Bostrom,
on 3/6/2016
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By: Alethea Allarey,
on 3/6/2016
By: Monica Gupta,
on 3/5/2016
By: Dana Murphy,
on 3/5/2016
By: Betsy Bird,
on 3/5/2016
By: Catherine,
on 3/5/2016
By: Becky Laney,
on 3/5/2016
Period Drama Challenge
Anne of Green Gables
Mr. Holmes
Home Fires
Pollyanna
Downton Abbey, series 6
By: Dan Wickett,
on 3/5/2016
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By: LAURIE WALLMARK,
on 3/5/2016
By: Jerry Beck,
on 3/5/2016
For the Period Drama Challenge I watched Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, season 1. That's mostly true anyway. I started watching--rewatching the show--a good two weeks before I discovered the challenge existed! If I'd known about the challenge earlier, I would have joined it immediately..jpg?picon=107)
By: Lizzy Burns,
on 3/5/2016
By: Terry Hooper-Scharf,
on 3/5/2016
By: Kassia Krozser,
on 3/5/2016
The Plot: Kestrel, the 17 year old daughter of General Trajan, buys a slave on a whim.
Album: Can You Fly
Oh, that someone would make that movie!
I so want 1.21 Gigawatts to be a real movie. Can anybody out there make it happen?
Omigosh, those Anderson finalists are so inspiring. I did look online and couldn’t find out if personal fave Marc Boutavant has ever been nominated or won. If not, get ON THAT.
Also agree The Secret Subway is the most beautiful and imaginative trailer I’ve seen.
It would be lovely if many of these nominees’ work could be translated into English, or at least available here. Certainly a high spot of the weekend!
Denis
He’s probably too old these days, but technology being what it is I think we can conjure it up from scratch.
Christopher Lloyd is a mere 12 years older than I am. Just saying’, Betsy, as you yourself would say.
Ah, but you, Jeanne, appear to somehow elude time itself. Mr. Lloyd, if he is human, could not possibly be so blessed.
Just sayin’.