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Hip-Hop and rap are experiencing a strong resurgence of late (don’t call it a comeback!). After years of indie rock and pop ruling the airwaves, young people are looking for a new sound to call their own, branching out into electronic and... Read the rest of this post

‘Charlotte’s Web’ tops the list of the 100 best books for kids (according to Scholastic’s Parent & Child magazine. Many of our favorites made the list, including the classics “Goodnight Moon” and “A Wrinkle In Time.” Did your... Read the rest of this post

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By Alex McGinn, Publicity Intern

It’s no secret that East Coasters are skeptical of the West Coast. Southern California seems particularly peculiar to most inhabitants of the northeastern seaboard; perhaps its picturesque landscape, balmy weather, and laid back lifestyle seem out of touch with the realities of fast-paced East Coast cities. But what some of these West Coast cynics may not know is that SoCal’s most influential “boosters” were refugees of the northeast.

Thinking about this, I turned to The Frontier of Leisure: Southern California and the Shaping of Modern America by Lawrence Culver. Here are a few important Yankees who escaped their overworked and seemingly miserable East Coast fates to become the earliest developers of some of Southern California’s most iconic getaways.

Charles Lummis known as a booster of Los Angeles and Palm Springs was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1859. The son of a Methodist minister, Lummis attended Harvard, but devoted less time to his studies than to romantic pursuits. He enjoyed his summers hiking, mountain climbing, and writing poetry while employed at a relative’s resort hotel in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. After failing out of school, Lummis married Dorothea Rhodes, a medical student he had met while at Harvard. After fleeing New England for Ohio, the two’s marriage faltered as did Lummis’s career as a newspaper editor. To make matters worse, Lummis had contracted malaria. He decided that he needed a fresh start and found it in Los Angeles. Chronic overwork, too little sleep, too much alcohol, and continuing marital problems resulted in a stroke that paralyzed his left side at the age of 29. After his recovery in Iseleta Pueblo, New Mexico, Lummis published several books that glorified the Southwest. This glorification tremendously aided the city of Los Angeles and granted it its allure.

Charles Frederick Holder known as a founding booster of Catalina Island began his career as a scientist and author. Interestingly enough, Holder was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the same birthplace of Charles Lummis, in 1851. He attended the prestigious United States Naval Academy, but left before graduating. He served for several years as the assistant curator of zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and authored a number of books. He came to Southern California to recuperate from a lung infection aggravated by overwork. Like Lummis, Holder published several books about Southern California focusing on Catalina Island, which he believed encapsulated the region’s healthfulness and distinctive flora and fauna. Holder’s accounts of swimming, hunting and other recreational activities attracted tourists to the Southern Californian getaway.

John C. Van Dyke known as the first booster of Coachella Valley was the art critic for Century Magazine and one of the best-known and widely read public intellectuals in the nation. While he frequented Charles Lummis’s salon at El Alisal, he remained firmly entrenched on the East Coast, where he was librarian at New Brunswick Theological Seminary and the first professor of art history at Rutgers University. However, the deserts of California, to his eyes, contained the most delicate palette of colors imaginable. Van Dyke narrated his book <

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Today's Ypulse Guest post is from Richard Cox, a pop culture enthusiast who works in the fashion industry. Below Richard reports back from the California desert where he braved the heat for Coachella. If you work in youth media or marketing and have... Read the rest of this post

MLB bats for Disney's 'G-Force' (with ties to the All-Star Game. Plus, Salon reviews Disneynature's first documentary "Earth") (AdAge.com, reg. required) (Salon, daypass required) - Coachella (Trendcentral lists the top trends spotted at the... Read the rest of this post

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Fashion



The Steam Punk Treehouse



The Big Rig Jig



The Bamboo Waves

Number six: Our new friend Kyle

Being so sore I couldn’t move, I found relief in a Bloody Mary, searing heat, swimming laps and meeting a guy named Kyle. Now, Kyle was loud, foul-mouthed but very friendly. Trouble was, no one around the pool was showing Kyle any love. Maybe it was because he was drinking and smoking at 10 in the morning. Maybe it was because he was picking on people for vacationing at Rancho Mirage and not going to Coachella. Maybe it was that every other word out of his mouth was the F-word. But Joe and I liked Kyle anyway and we hung out with him. Kyle told us he was from Venice Beach and bought 11 30-pks of Tecate for the weekend for him and his three other friends. The guy at his liquor store threw in one 30-pk. for free. Word. Do the math, that’s 27.777 beers/day/dude. That’s a lot of Tecate. Kyle had a few tattoos. He traded an oz. of pot for a sleeve. It was awesome, a green devil-like guy blew fire down his arm and it extinguished in some wild waves around his wrist. He's a surfer. Tecate. I raked my brain trying to think of anyone I ever knew who liked Tecate, or even ordered it. Came up empty.

Number seven: Band-Names-Slash-Song-Titles

Coming up with random band-names-slash-song-titles. Definitely inspired by King Dork by Frank Portman. Here’s my favorites:

1. 27.777 beers a day
2. Thong on the asphalt
3. I’ll shave in the toilet

Number eight: New Discoveries & Festival Food

Nothing better than finding new music you love. Here are my new faves:

Cut Copy
Rogue Wave
Tagan and Sara
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
Bond Do Role

OK, I know this is lame, but I love festival food. I do! But since I’m now 3.2 lbs lighter [and believe me it’s been SO hard to lose, Drs. orders and so forth….] I passed on my absolute faves–beer-battered garlic fries–and stuck to a steady diet of Os: tacos, gyros and churros. My favorite food group.

Number Nine: Relief

Getting soaked in the Dolab. I have no words for the total triple-digit-heat-relief I felt under the water gun of the Dolab soaker. Most Excellent.

Art a fantasy writer loves. The Bamboo Waves, The Steam Punk Treehouse and The Big Rig Jig gave my imagination a little something-something to ponder.

Number Ten: Fashion

You need to have a lot of self-confidence, comfort in your own skinny skin, or maybe be an exhibitionist to wear a scanty-leather-strapped outfit complete with a flowing cape. That’s hot. Props to that gal! BTW she was with a guy in jeans and no shirt. Guys get off so easy. Coachella had bikini-to-Goth fashion and pretty much everything in between. A few must have accessories included short red furry boots and hats with short shorts and bikini tops. One girl wore gold lame short shorts that looked painted on. Sundresses, a few tie dyes, anything that sparkles, painted hearts and stars on pretty much any part of the body, tattoos the more the better, flowers and scarves were also must haves. I bought an awesome Brazilian beaded necklace from a place called Cocoloco. Their bone and horn earrings are fabulous.

Selecting ten top moments was more difficult than deciding which tent to go to during Coachella. No it was harder. It was more like leaving the parking lot on Friday night but we won’t go there. The moments that didn’t make the top ten I fully expect to blog about all week. Have to say it was a MG/YA fantasy writer’s paradise, right down to the couple sometaneous [a new word I invented combining sometimes and spontaneous] versions of “Pure Imagination” from favorite author Roald Dahl’s book-turned-movie Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.

On a side note: Why do I have so many bruises? I keep bangin’ the heck out of myself. Maybe that comes from being a wanderer lately. Had ‘em even before the festival. I have no idea why…but there they are. I guess maybe we all go through bruised phases.

Coachella 2008 gallery of pics here. I am very happy that, as a notably awful photographer, I actually snapped a few decent concert shots.

So here goes…the Coachella 2008 Top Ten Moments [first five of the ten anyway]



Number 1: Prince on Saturday Night

I am convinced that Jimi Hendrix died and came back as Prince. BLOWN AWAY. Hands down the best guitarist I’ve even seen live, ever, including but not limited to all the blues I’ve seen over the years at Kingston Mines and Chicago Blues and Buddy Guy’s. Prince’s sick heart-felt cover of Radiohead’s CREEP riveted the audience and spoke to every person who has found themselves on the not-good-enough side of love, in short, everyone. Seven was amazing, took me to another planet entirely. Funk, funk, funk….



Number 2: Dancing with Joe to Bond Do Role

Fresh from a soak at the DoLab we boogied hard in the triple-digit heat to the Brazilian beat. Julia Cameron call’s this “filling your cup” in The Artist’s Way. Way too tame an expression for what happened to my cup at Coachella. My cup boogied, expanded, filled, spilled over, vibrated to amazing bass riffs and learned a lot about letting go.

Number 3: Joe and I almost got swept up in the mosh for Flogging Molly

I had to move back ‘cause the bass vibrated my chest so bad I thought it might explode. Joe handed me his hat and the backpack and joined the mosh where he swirled around and around with the other moshers to the Guiness-infused rock, the recently-wed lead singer Dave King confessed he’s more of a marathoner these days that a chugger. Joe left the mosh with the biggest smile I’ve seen this year.

Number 4: Venturing into the Sahara Tent and discovering Aphex Twin

I’ve never been to a rave before [read: I’m old] but this is what it would be like, less the ecstasy buzz of course. Here’s the scene. Lasers paint the crowd and tent in circles of green light and strobes flicker sometaneously. Humans dressed as giant plushies dance on stage. Yes, I said giant plushies. On a total side note, have you ever heard of plushie love?Kinda strange. But anyway, Aphex Twin was all good, dancing pandas, Dalmatians and techo, Oh my!

Number 5: Fatboy Slim took us on a tour of our imagination a la Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory



Fatboy [who is really skinny] started his set with an image of a clock on crack and said “Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls hold your breath make a wish and count to three” and went into a dance mix of Pure Imagination all the while flashing images of OOOmpah-Loompahs behind him.

Like the song says: "Want to change the world….there’s nothing to it.”

He lit into a chest exploding bass-heavy dance party that I still feel as I type that included PraiseYou.

More manana amigos.

Party on!

Off to a pit stop at home before we head to the desert for Coachella.

Candy is in flight to Hong Kong as I type. We talked about her trip as she got ready to go last night. Her flight left at 1AM this morning. It’s a 16-hour flight.

I have traditions for when my kids fly far away from home. One is lighting candles for the duration of the flight [when I’m not sleeping]. Another is attaching a string to a globe and marking the string in hour increments so I'll know exactly where in the world they will be. And yet another is a sleepless night and a sort of otherwordly awareness of everything around me until I know my kids have landed OK.

I thought about all the sleepless nights I have had over the years thinking about Candy as I lie awake in bed last night. Most of them were because I was so excited. I remember sitting on the sofa in the wee hours before she was born watching the moonlight stream through our French doors in the kitchen and bathe our carpet in long white square-ish patches. I remember the night before her high school graduation when she and her friends were at Disneyland riding the rides all night, and I remember the night before she left for college. I’ll probably be up the night before she graduates college next month too.

I thought about Asia and how no one in our immediate family had been there yet, she’ll be the first. I thought about how my dad grew up in Indonesia and how there is a pull to places and parts of the world and how natural it is for Candy to gravitate there. No surprise in the midst of many surprises.

I thought about how overwhelmed I was when Joe dropped me off at the airport to go to Romania. It was the first time I had flown alone without kids or Joe in about twenty years. I was nervous and a little scared about how I’d handle traveling so far away. He looked at me and said, “Laura, adventure is always a good thing.” And I stared at him through watery eyes, wiped a few tears away and knew he was right. How is it that when I am so utterly stressed he manages to say exactly the right thing. Candy needed a little reassuring last night and I told her what Joe told me.

So now I wait until around 5PM our time when her flight touches down and her boyfriend picks her up and they begin their great adventure.

My guest author today is Heather Ingemar

Heather S. Ingemar has loved to play with words since she was little, and it wasn’t long until she started writing her own stories. A musician since the age of five (piano, saxophone, violin, pennywhistle and Irish flute), she completed a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature in December of 2006. She and her husband reside on the family cattle ranch, where she takes great delight in thinking up new stories to tell.

Mary: Welcome, Heather. Your latest story, A Slip of Wormwood, has a very intriguing title. Would you tell us a little about it?

Heather: Thank you, Mary, for having me here! "A Slip of Wormwood" is a dark little tale about what happens when sibling rivalries go too far. Dr. Edgar -- he's "Frog" -- has recently lost his brother, Hamilton -- "Toad" -- and is now in charge of taking care of the family estate. Through the course of the story, we find out that Toad was the family favorite and that Frog had terrible jealousy issues, to put it mildly. "Wormwood" details the brothers' relationship, and things quickly become not as they appear. I had a lot of fun writing "Wormwood." It's a delightfully twisted little tale; I think it's my best work yet.
Mary: Sounds very reptilian and the storyline sounds fascinating, Heather. In Darkness Cornered, two of your characters are a mad scientist, and a vampire named King Lear. Where did you come up with the story and the characters?
Heather: I don't know. They just came to me, as most of my stories do.

Mary: Your imagination must be as active as mine! What do you think is your most successful marketing tool? Do you find it more difficult to market e-books?

Heather: I think my most successful marketing tool has been my website. For authors, having a website is crucial in this day of internet searching for information. If a reader can't find you on the web, they immediately think you aren't worth reading, or that you're a small-time fish. Yes, having a website is very important for marketing. As for marketing ebooks, yes it's difficult, well, at least in my area. I live in an area where few people have even heard of ebooks. Many of them who have are very suspicious about them. They're leery. That makes it difficult to market face-to face, because you see in their eyes that they're doubting every word that comes out of your mouth. They may be excited to meet a published person, but they are also more likely to discredit you, write you off because you aren't in print. It makes it hard. In the online community, however, marketing is wonderfully easy! There, people know about ebooks, they like technology. It's a much easier sell online.

Heather Ingemar's website

A Slip of Wormwood is available through Echelon Press, LLC or Fictionwise