Gossip Girl creating fashion designers?

Beda Day 4

So I'm sure you've heard the phrase "art imitating life" but what about the other way around?

Much like her character on Gossip Girl, Jenny Humphry, Taylor Momsen is apparently going to be launching her own fashion line in the very near future. I can't help but ask the question, if she wasn't one of the stars of a fashion forward TV show, would she even be interested in being a designer? And if her character didn't design such stellar stuff, would we be interested in her line? I'm the first to admit that I get a lot of my fashion advice from trash TV like everything on the CW and reality shows, but I don't for a second think that the actors are the people who make these decisions. It was really just a fluke that Sarah Jessica Parker had her own sense of style pre-SATC, and because of that I find myself going to the show stylist pages rather then the stars when I want to know what color is in or if I should wear headbands.

But who knows, maybe Taylor knows her stuff. I usually see her on the what to do lists instead of the what to don'ts. I guess it doesn't really matter whose making it as long as GG keeps showing it. Lets just hope Momsen doesn't become a funkified diva like Little J...

Rapunzel's Revenge

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale

Welcome to the Wild Wild West of Fairy Tales and day 3 of BEDA.

If you know me at all, you know there are three things that I love: music, fractured fairy tales, and Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby Ice Cream. And while I tend to go on and on about how great the ice cream is, (Come on! Peanut butter filled chocolate covered pretzels in chocolate ice cream! What's not to love?) nothing is more delicious then taking a story you know and love and changing it to something almost unrecognizable.

That's what we have with this stellar graphic novel. I've been having this long standing debate with friend of mine about whether or not graphic novels should be considered quality reading. She has some doubt. So all of you doubters out there, you need to check out this book. Forget everything you know about fair maidens waiting for a man to stumble against some random tower and save the day. This princess is the key to her own success.

Normally I hate westerns. There's something about all that sand and sun and sweat that instantly makes me head for the showers, and possibly the ice cream isle. But as soon as I saw Rapunzel lasso her braids around a tree in this book to plan her escape, my skin started crawling in the best way. That's right, a hair lasso. James Bond was never so clever. And while it is great to read about it, seeing it beautifully illustrated adds a level of cool that no regular book can.

So in some ways, graphic novels are the fractured fairy tales of the novel world. I'll never get enough of taking something expected and making it cooler. Now if only I could grow out my hair...

Lemony Snicket-isms

Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid by Lemony Snicket

Day 2 of BEDA.

I love books that are supposed to impart some wonderful words of wisdom or some little anecdotes that are apparently there to make life wonderful. I love them because they are ludicrous. Lemony Snicket gets it right. Instead of writing about the wonderfulness that is right around the corner, he, in is very Snickety way, tells you how to push past the rubbish and keep on trucking. That life doesn't need to be a bed full of roses to get something good out of it. That's the sort of wisdom I can get behind.

Don't believe Snicket is an untapped source of wisdom? Check out this witticism:

"Having a personal philosophyis like having a pet marmoset,

because it may be very attractive when you acquire it,

but there may be situations when it will not come in handy at all."

Genius! So maybe it isn't a witticism, but I think it's safe to say a Snicketism.

30 days of blogging

I've been catching up on my favorite blogs when I saw the coolest thing from Maureen Johnson. She has committed to blogging every day in the month of April. How awesome is that? So, in a complete groupie movement, I decided I would be a follower and join the BEDA movement. So here it is:

THE RULES OF BLOG EVERY DAY APRIL (BEDA)

1. Blog every day in April.

THE BLOG EVERY DAY IN APRIL MANIFESTO:

I commit to this idea and am determined to create something EVERY DAY in April, including weekends. Every day, I will find something to say. I embrace the reality that there is always something to talk about, if you are willing to take the time to look for it. I, Tina H., from Mentor Public Library, promise to blog every day in April.

Now, in true Tina fashion, I started a little late, so I will actually blog every day until May 3. So I guess I'm taking the BEDAPTED challenge (Blog Every Day in April Plus Three Extra Days).

For information on my bogarted mission, visit: http://maureenjohnson.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-every-day-april.html

The Reformed Vampire Support Group

The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks

No doubt about it, the best part about working for a library is seeing stuff before everybody else does. I'd like to say it's being around people, or the free exchange of information and technology, and while all that's well and good, it's really the new stuff. We get paid to be on the cutting edge. In fact, people ship us stuff early, before it's even officially on the market, before they even do the final spell check, so we can get a taste of what's hot before the riots start at the check out counters. Bet you didn't know being a librarian instantly makes you VIP.

I just finished the coolest book of 2009 because of this pseudo-celeb status; The Reformed Vampire Support Group. It's due to come out mid-April. If you think you know vampires, you need to read this book. While Twilight makes the land of the undead seem intriguing, stealth, and sexy, Jinks shows you the side of vampires that won't make it to the romance section. Senior citizen vampires with walkers, vampires with mothers, and vampires with anxiety disorders entertain you from cover to cover as these characters are brought together through group therapy to thwart their desire to kill. No vampire book is complete without a little lycanthrope, and the werewolves in this book are just as hilarious and demented as the blood suckers. Throw in a little accidental staking and a spontaneous road trip and you have a recipe for success, along with a new found thirst for mortality.

Ready for some therapy? Get on the request list today!

Seether crawls out from under the covers

This week I have been laid up with some HORRIBLE sinus disgustingness. (Oh, haven't you heard? When you're sick you can make up words). I don't know about the rest of you, but I hate being so sick that you can't do anything but watch daytime law shows who all have some sort of "shocking" DNA baby-momma-drama revelations. It causes a person's mind to wander in circles like a stationary bike.

Speaking of going around in circles, is anyone else a little done with the Flo Rida cover "Right Round"? It totally rips off that 80's song "You Spin Me Round" by Dead or Alive. Great groovin' tune, but really, who are you fooling? Nothing original there except the scandalous lyrics.

Don't me wrong, I love a good cover, but call it what it is; somone else's. I firmly believe you can make a remake special and sometimes re-doing something is neccessary. When I shoot pool I call it the red-head-re-do, which I suppose really only applies to me, but there people who can do it right. There are bands who really know how to apply a fresh sound. Take "Careless Whisper". Seether, who I have loved way before that Amy Lee girl ever did, recreated a George Michael classic. I sort of wish that I could have heard this version first because it is so, so good. I can actually see them never dancing again, just standing there like melancholy wall flowers *sigh*. Mediocre song retold by a fantastic artist = great cover.

Sometimes really great songs are redone by even better artists. There is nothing like a music icon paying homage to a not-so-distant masterpiece. Think about the Johnny Cash remake of the Nine Inch Nails song, "Hurt". If his version doesn't make your heart ache, then no loss ever will. And I will never forget when I went to a Motely Crew concert and they opened up their show with System of a Down's "Suite-Pee". Midgets and clowns never seemed so right.

So here's for not covering up the good stuff, but for reinventing it, making "Careless Whisper" the song of the week.

It’s History, only not…..

April brings rain and history. Well, history in story form. It’s Historical fiction month here at MPL and of course we have suggestions for you. Did you really need to ask?


Novels:
Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbel Bartoletti
Miss Spitfire by Sarah Elizabeth Miller
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Al Capone Does my Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
In darkness, Death by Dorothy Hoobler
My brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier

Graphic Novels:

Maus : A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman
Peace Maker by Nanae Chrono
Laika by Mick Abadzis
300 by Frank Miller
Ruse by Mark Waid
Samurai Champloo by Masaru Gotsubo