Go n-eírí an bóthar leat.
May the road rise with you.
Although St. Patrick's Day has passed, the Irish language is facinating. There are so many parts of the language connecting to history that people don't even realize. There is a great, detailed overview at:
http://www.irishlanguage.net/irish/history.asp
I took Gaelic for a semester at Harvard. It was very difficult. Those in the class who had studied German had an easier time. Truly what I remember most is "God be with you". Friends of mine took Scottish Gaelic when we were studying at the University of Edinburgh but I couldn't take it because it didn't meet my graduation requirements. You can get Irish Gaelic CDs from the library. To find books, you have to use speciality bookstores or the library. There is a great one in Cambridge, Mass.
This is a blessing that I like:
May the blessing of the rain be on you—the soft sweet rain.
May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up,
and shed their sweetness on the air.
May the blessing of the great rains be on you,
may they beat upon your spiritand wash it fair and clean,
and leave there many a shining pool
where the blue of heaven shines,and sometimes a star.
Here are some phrases. Some of these I actually remember from class and tapes.
Irish phrases: Meeting People
Dia duit: Hello. (Literally: God to you.)
Dia's Muire duit: Reply to hello.(Literally: God and Mary to you.)
*They do this with the Saints too, especially St. Patrick
Cén t-ainm atá ort?: What is your name?
Éamonn atá orm: Éamonn is my name.
Conas tá tú? How are you?
Tá mé go maith: I am good.
Go raibh maith agat: Thank you.
Tá fáilte romhat: You're welcome.
Go n'éirí an t-ádh leat: Good luck.
Here is some history from http://www.irishlanguage.net/
The Irish Language Movement
The Irish language was the most widely spoken language on the island of Ireland until the 19th century. The first Bible in Irish was translated by William Bedell, Church of Ireland Bishop of Kilmore in the 17th century.
A combination of the introduction of a primary education system (the 'National Schools'), in which Irish was prohibited and only English taught by order of the British Government in Ireland, and the Great Famine (An Drochshaol) which hit a disportionately high number of Irish language speakers (who lived in the poorer areas heavily hit by famine deaths and emigration), hastened its rapid decline. Irish political leaders, such as Daniel O'Connell (Dónall Ó Conaill), too were critical of the language, seeing it as 'backward', with English the language of the future. Contemporary reports spoke of Irish-speaking parents actively discouraging their children from speaking the language, and encouraging the use of English instead. This practice continued long after independence, as the stigma of speaking Irish remained very strong.
Some, however, thought differently. The initial moves to save the language were championed by Irish Protestants, such as the linguist and clergyman William Neilson, in the end of the eighteenth century; the major push occurred with the foundation by Douglas Hyde, the son of a Church of Ireland rector, of the Gaelic League (known in Irish as Conradh na Gaeilge) which started the Gaelic Revival. Leading supporters of Conradh included Pádraig Mac Piarais and Éamon de Valera. The revival of interest in the language coincided with other cultural revivals, such as the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association and the growth in the performance of plays about Ireland in English, by such luminaries as William Butler Yeats, J.M. Synge, Sean O'Casey and Lady Gregory, with their launch of the Abbey Theatre.
Even though the Abbey Theatre playwrights wrote in English (and indeed some disliked Irish) the Irish language affected them, as it did all Irish English speakers. The version of English spoken in Ireland, known as Hiberno-English bears striking similarities in some grammatical idioms with Irish. Some have speculated that even after the vast majority of Irish people stopped speaking Irish, they perhaps subconsciously used its grammatical flair in the manner in which they spoke English. This fluency is reflected in the writings of Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and more recently in the writings of Seamus Heaney, Paul Durkan, Dermot Bolger and many others. (It may also in part explain the appeal in Britain of Irish-born broadcasters like Terry Wogan, Eamonn Andrews, Graham Norton, Desmond Lynam, etc.)
Independent Ireland & the language
The independent Irish state from 1922 (The Irish Free State 1922-37; Éire from 1937, also known since 1949 as the Republic of Ireland) launched a major push to promote the Irish language, with some of its leaders hoping that the state would become predominantly Irish-speaking within a generation. In fact, many of these initiatives, notably compulsory Irish at school and the requirement that one must know Irish to be employed in the civil service, proved counter-productive with generations of school-children alienated by what was often heavily-handed attempts at indoctrination, which created a cultural backlash. Demands that children learn seventeenth century Irish poetry, or study the life of Peig Sayers (a Gaelic speaker from the Blasket Islands) whose accounts of her life, as recounted in Irish language books, though fascinating, were taught in a poor manner, left a cultural legacy of negative reactions among generations, all too many of whom deliberately refused to use the language once they left school.
In an effort to address the half-committed attitude of Irish language use by the State, the Official Languages Act was passed in 2003. This act ensures that every publication made by a governmental body must be published in both official languages, Irish and English. In addition, the office of Official Languages Commissioner has been set up to act as an ombudsman with regard to equal treatment in both languages.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Tim Gunn's Fantastical Verbal Dictionary
With the fourth season of Project Runway just having ended, there was a run of past episodes including the reunion shows. Of course my favorite montages always feature Tim Gunn. The reuinion show for season three had a special tribute to Tim Gunn's verbal skills. There are a few that I couldn't even spell!
I bet he scored perfect on the SAT verbal portion. Here are just a few of his top $10 words...
I bet he scored perfect on the SAT verbal portion. Here are just a few of his top $10 words...
- mitigate: to make less severe
- faux bois: fake wood
- consternation: horror that confounds the faculties, dismay
- sturm und drang: storm and stress
- caucus: meeting of persons belonging to a party
- ambivalent-uncertainty or fluctuation
- misapprehension-misunderstand
- egregious-extraordinary in some bad way
- placate-to appease or pacify
- anemic-lacking power, vigor, vitality, or colorfulness
Check out more at http://www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway//index.php.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The Power of Libraries
I think you will find this interesting. Remember to vote FOR local library services!
As economy struggles, more people rely on libraries
Published: February 19, 2008
By Terry Date Staff writer
SALEM (NH)— Librarians have long thought that the demand for library services leaps when the economy limps.
It's not just books that the belt-tightening public wants more of in tough times, but museum passes, children's programs and Internet access.
That's been the case at the Kelley Library in Salem over the past year, coinciding with the economic slowdown, according to Director Eleanor Strang. She said Salem, a border town highly dependent on the Massachusetts economy, is an early indicator of library trends elsewhere in New Hampshire.
"We see it first," she said of the increased library use in tough economic times.
Reference librarian Deb Berlin expects more people will use the library's high-speed Internet access, seeking work online after dumping Internet access at home to save money.
The library's nine public Internet computer stations have seen an 11 percent increase in usage in the last year, with bookings of 30 or 60 minutes rising from 6,341 to 7.041.
One afternoon last week, the stations were full.
Joe Pacheco, 37, of Salem sat at one of the computers researching natural medicine. He has used the stations to look for jobs in tough times, and has witnessed others doing the same.
Why? "It's free," he said.
Also at Kelley, book and CD reservations jumped by 11 percent in 2007, from 9,618 to 10,642. Interlibrary loan requests jumped 24 percent. Story-time attendance for children rose 15 percent. And museum pass requests increased 2 percent.
"I think that is a good bellwether of people wanting to save money, because the passes will get you in for free or discounted admission," Strang said.
The anticipation of greater library usage during tough times has some town library trustees and advocates defending spending requests to meet the demand.
Sandown library trustee Tina Owens did this recently at the town deliberative session.
Derry Public Library Assistant Director Jack Robillard has noticed more people coming in and asking for help navigating computers in their job searches. The library may include this observation in its budget narrative, he said.
"We were just talking about this the other day," he said.
In Windham, patronage at the Nesmith Library has consistently risen each year, with book, DVD and other borrowings rising consistently between 2001, at 111,480, and 2007, at 181,349.
Nesmith Library Director Carl Heidenblad doesn't attribute that increase to tough times, but he has heard librarians in Massachusetts say their business picks up during tougher economic times.
"It makes sense, when times are good, people don't mind one-click shopping at Amazon, but when times get tighter it makes good sense to come to the library to borrow books or DVDs," he said.
Strang remembers how out-of-work men in the early 1990s gathered in the reference section and exchanged newspaper classified sections looking for work during the region's recession.
"Library use skyrocketed in the early 1990s because of the profound recession we were in," she said.
In fact, Strang said that 1992, a low point in the economic downturn in this area, was the first year Salem's circulation eclipsed the 300,000 mark. It would be another 12 years before the library broke 300,000 again.
As economy struggles, more people rely on libraries
Published: February 19, 2008
By Terry Date Staff writer
SALEM (NH)— Librarians have long thought that the demand for library services leaps when the economy limps.
It's not just books that the belt-tightening public wants more of in tough times, but museum passes, children's programs and Internet access.
That's been the case at the Kelley Library in Salem over the past year, coinciding with the economic slowdown, according to Director Eleanor Strang. She said Salem, a border town highly dependent on the Massachusetts economy, is an early indicator of library trends elsewhere in New Hampshire.
"We see it first," she said of the increased library use in tough economic times.
Reference librarian Deb Berlin expects more people will use the library's high-speed Internet access, seeking work online after dumping Internet access at home to save money.
The library's nine public Internet computer stations have seen an 11 percent increase in usage in the last year, with bookings of 30 or 60 minutes rising from 6,341 to 7.041.
One afternoon last week, the stations were full.
Joe Pacheco, 37, of Salem sat at one of the computers researching natural medicine. He has used the stations to look for jobs in tough times, and has witnessed others doing the same.
Why? "It's free," he said.
Also at Kelley, book and CD reservations jumped by 11 percent in 2007, from 9,618 to 10,642. Interlibrary loan requests jumped 24 percent. Story-time attendance for children rose 15 percent. And museum pass requests increased 2 percent.
"I think that is a good bellwether of people wanting to save money, because the passes will get you in for free or discounted admission," Strang said.
The anticipation of greater library usage during tough times has some town library trustees and advocates defending spending requests to meet the demand.
Sandown library trustee Tina Owens did this recently at the town deliberative session.
Derry Public Library Assistant Director Jack Robillard has noticed more people coming in and asking for help navigating computers in their job searches. The library may include this observation in its budget narrative, he said.
"We were just talking about this the other day," he said.
In Windham, patronage at the Nesmith Library has consistently risen each year, with book, DVD and other borrowings rising consistently between 2001, at 111,480, and 2007, at 181,349.
Nesmith Library Director Carl Heidenblad doesn't attribute that increase to tough times, but he has heard librarians in Massachusetts say their business picks up during tougher economic times.
"It makes sense, when times are good, people don't mind one-click shopping at Amazon, but when times get tighter it makes good sense to come to the library to borrow books or DVDs," he said.
Strang remembers how out-of-work men in the early 1990s gathered in the reference section and exchanged newspaper classified sections looking for work during the region's recession.
"Library use skyrocketed in the early 1990s because of the profound recession we were in," she said.
In fact, Strang said that 1992, a low point in the economic downturn in this area, was the first year Salem's circulation eclipsed the 300,000 mark. It would be another 12 years before the library broke 300,000 again.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
October Road: I'm Late to the Party
"October Road" on ABC
About the Show
Can you ever really go home again? That's the question that confronts acclaimed novelist Nick Garrett when he returns home after being away for ten years. Once back home on October Road, he quickly discovers that the circle of friends whose teenaged lives he wrote about have since settled into blue collar careers and started families.
Nick became a New York literary success by writing about those early years, and he had Hollywood heavyweights lining up for roles. With his editor putting pressure on him for a follow-up, he finds himself at a crossroads... and with serious writer's block. Then comes an offer to teach a one-day course at Dufresne College, the small liberal arts school in his hometown of Knights Ridge, Massachusetts. Hoping to tap back into that which initially inspired him, he decides to head back. Nick has had no contact with his family or the close-knit group of friends he said goodbye to shortly after high school graduation. He burned that connection when he used them as characters in his successful novel and, in the process, cast their lives in a less than flattering light. Consequently, the hometown response to his return is less than festive.
Nick's friends include best friend Eddie Latekka, who is disappointed that Nick abandoned their dream of starting a business together; there's also the good-hearted and straightforward Owen Rowan, whose family life appears the picture of perfection; the well-meaning but sometimes obnoxious Ikey; and Physical Phil, a lovable recluse since 9/11 who has adapted to living his life indoors. Before he left town, Nick told his high school girlfriend, Hannah Daniels, that he'd be back in six weeks. Now ten years later, the jilted but never-married Hannah has decided to forget Nick's unfulfilled promise and moved on with her life. She is a single mom raising her nine-year-old son, the bright and charming Sam. Hannah is involved with Ray "Big Cat" Cataldo, the former high school bully whose mission in life has been to bestow misery on the lives of Nick and his friends. Nick makes a new friend when he meets Aubrey, a pretty college student and fledgling writer whose Bohemian style intrigues him. While he sorts things out, he moves into his childhood home with his father, a widower affectionately referred to as The Commander. Nick realizes he has several reasons for staying in Knights Ridge. He wants to apologize to everyone for whatever broken promises he may have made, and to make up for how he portrayed them in his book. He also sees coincidences indicating that Hannah's son, Sam, might be his.Although Nick doesn't regret fulfilling his mother's dying wish of experiencing life outside of Knights Ridge, he finds himself oddly wanting to tie up loose ends at home, but realizes the path ahead of him is a rocky one. In spite of any love bruised or lost between his friends and family, Nick embraces the familiarity of his former life and struggles to be included again among those he let down.
I'm loving the fact that October Road also has some wonderful actors...I love Bryan Greenberg (s Nick Garrett) and it's great to see Tom Berenger as The Commander with his great Bahstin accent and you'll recognize character actor Brad William Henke who you may remember from "Must Love Dogs." Laura Prepon, from that 70s show, is Hannah Daniels and other cast members who have various parts in movies, TV and on stage include Warren Christie as Ray "Big Cat" Cataldo, Texas Native Evan Jones as Ikey, Jay Paulson as Physical Phil, Slade Pearce as Sam Daniels, Geoff Stults as Eddie Latekka and Odette Yustman as Aubrey.
But the BEST thing about this show...the music! It's like a show for the music geek in all of us. Each episode has a lot of indie type songwriter songs weaving in and out between commercials but there is also a "hot button" song for each episode.
Here are a few favorites!
Kiss: "Rock and Roll All Night"
Bay City Rollers: "Saturday Night"
Meatloaf - "Paradise By The Dashboard Lights"
Three Dog Night - "Shambala"
Poison - "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"
Jackson Browne - "The Pretender"
Goo Goo Dolls - "Name"
Liz Phair - "Why Can't I?"
Boston - "Amanda"
Hootie & the Blowfish - "Hannah Jane"
So set your TIVO or your VCR and get ready to lip synch along with Nick and his pals!
About the Show
Can you ever really go home again? That's the question that confronts acclaimed novelist Nick Garrett when he returns home after being away for ten years. Once back home on October Road, he quickly discovers that the circle of friends whose teenaged lives he wrote about have since settled into blue collar careers and started families.
Nick became a New York literary success by writing about those early years, and he had Hollywood heavyweights lining up for roles. With his editor putting pressure on him for a follow-up, he finds himself at a crossroads... and with serious writer's block. Then comes an offer to teach a one-day course at Dufresne College, the small liberal arts school in his hometown of Knights Ridge, Massachusetts. Hoping to tap back into that which initially inspired him, he decides to head back. Nick has had no contact with his family or the close-knit group of friends he said goodbye to shortly after high school graduation. He burned that connection when he used them as characters in his successful novel and, in the process, cast their lives in a less than flattering light. Consequently, the hometown response to his return is less than festive.
Nick's friends include best friend Eddie Latekka, who is disappointed that Nick abandoned their dream of starting a business together; there's also the good-hearted and straightforward Owen Rowan, whose family life appears the picture of perfection; the well-meaning but sometimes obnoxious Ikey; and Physical Phil, a lovable recluse since 9/11 who has adapted to living his life indoors. Before he left town, Nick told his high school girlfriend, Hannah Daniels, that he'd be back in six weeks. Now ten years later, the jilted but never-married Hannah has decided to forget Nick's unfulfilled promise and moved on with her life. She is a single mom raising her nine-year-old son, the bright and charming Sam. Hannah is involved with Ray "Big Cat" Cataldo, the former high school bully whose mission in life has been to bestow misery on the lives of Nick and his friends. Nick makes a new friend when he meets Aubrey, a pretty college student and fledgling writer whose Bohemian style intrigues him. While he sorts things out, he moves into his childhood home with his father, a widower affectionately referred to as The Commander. Nick realizes he has several reasons for staying in Knights Ridge. He wants to apologize to everyone for whatever broken promises he may have made, and to make up for how he portrayed them in his book. He also sees coincidences indicating that Hannah's son, Sam, might be his.Although Nick doesn't regret fulfilling his mother's dying wish of experiencing life outside of Knights Ridge, he finds himself oddly wanting to tie up loose ends at home, but realizes the path ahead of him is a rocky one. In spite of any love bruised or lost between his friends and family, Nick embraces the familiarity of his former life and struggles to be included again among those he let down.
I'm loving the fact that October Road also has some wonderful actors...I love Bryan Greenberg (s Nick Garrett) and it's great to see Tom Berenger as The Commander with his great Bahstin accent and you'll recognize character actor Brad William Henke who you may remember from "Must Love Dogs." Laura Prepon, from that 70s show, is Hannah Daniels and other cast members who have various parts in movies, TV and on stage include Warren Christie as Ray "Big Cat" Cataldo, Texas Native Evan Jones as Ikey, Jay Paulson as Physical Phil, Slade Pearce as Sam Daniels, Geoff Stults as Eddie Latekka and Odette Yustman as Aubrey.
But the BEST thing about this show...the music! It's like a show for the music geek in all of us. Each episode has a lot of indie type songwriter songs weaving in and out between commercials but there is also a "hot button" song for each episode.
Here are a few favorites!
Kiss: "Rock and Roll All Night"
Bay City Rollers: "Saturday Night"
Meatloaf - "Paradise By The Dashboard Lights"
Three Dog Night - "Shambala"
Poison - "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"
Jackson Browne - "The Pretender"
Goo Goo Dolls - "Name"
Liz Phair - "Why Can't I?"
Boston - "Amanda"
Hootie & the Blowfish - "Hannah Jane"
So set your TIVO or your VCR and get ready to lip synch along with Nick and his pals!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
This Day in History: Frisbees!
Thank you History Channel! If you would like to test your history knowledge, the History Channel has a game on their site so see how well you do...
http://www.history.com/genericContent.do?id=56082
and...
Toy company Wham-O produces first Frisbees
January 23, 1957
On this day in 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs--now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.
The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling "Frisbie!" as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the "Flying Saucer" that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the "Pluto Platter"--an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
In 1958, a year after the toy's first release, Wham-O--the company behind such top-sellers as the Hula-Hoop, the Super Ball and the Water Wiggle--changed its name to the Frisbee disc, misspelling the name of the historic pie company. A company designer, Ed Headrick, patented the design for the modern Frisbee in December 1967, adding a band of raised ridges on the disc's surface--called the Rings--to stabilize flight. By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O sold over 100 million units of its famous toy by 1977.
High school students in Maplewood, New Jersey, invented Ultimate Frisbee, a cross between football, soccer and basketball, in 1967. In the 1970s, Headrick himself invented Frisbee Golf, in which discs are tossed into metal baskets; there are now hundreds of courses in the U.S., with millions of devotees. There is also Freestyle Frisbee, with choreographed routines set to music and multiple discs in play, and various Frisbee competitions for both humans and dogs--the best natural Frisbee players.
Today, at least 60 manufacturers produce the flying discs--generally made out of plastic and measuring roughly 20-25 centimeters (8-10 inches) in diameter with a curved lip. The official Frisbee is owned by Mattel Toy Manufacturers, who bought the toy from Wham-O in 1994.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do
http://www.history.com/genericContent.do?id=56082
and...
Toy company Wham-O produces first Frisbees
January 23, 1957
On this day in 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs--now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.
The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling "Frisbie!" as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the "Flying Saucer" that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the "Pluto Platter"--an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
In 1958, a year after the toy's first release, Wham-O--the company behind such top-sellers as the Hula-Hoop, the Super Ball and the Water Wiggle--changed its name to the Frisbee disc, misspelling the name of the historic pie company. A company designer, Ed Headrick, patented the design for the modern Frisbee in December 1967, adding a band of raised ridges on the disc's surface--called the Rings--to stabilize flight. By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O sold over 100 million units of its famous toy by 1977.
High school students in Maplewood, New Jersey, invented Ultimate Frisbee, a cross between football, soccer and basketball, in 1967. In the 1970s, Headrick himself invented Frisbee Golf, in which discs are tossed into metal baskets; there are now hundreds of courses in the U.S., with millions of devotees. There is also Freestyle Frisbee, with choreographed routines set to music and multiple discs in play, and various Frisbee competitions for both humans and dogs--the best natural Frisbee players.
Today, at least 60 manufacturers produce the flying discs--generally made out of plastic and measuring roughly 20-25 centimeters (8-10 inches) in diameter with a curved lip. The official Frisbee is owned by Mattel Toy Manufacturers, who bought the toy from Wham-O in 1994.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do
Saturday, January 19, 2008
ALA's Notable Books Council announces 2008 top picks
PHILADELPHIA - The Notable Books Council of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division American Library Association (ALA), today released its 2008 list of outstanding books for the general reader. The titles are selected for their significant contribution to the expansion of knowledge and for the pleasure they can provide to adult readers.
Since 1944, the goal of the Notable Books Council has been to make available to the nation's readers a list of 25 very good, very readable, and at times very important fiction, nonfiction and poetry books for the adult reader. The Council consists of members selected from the membership of RUSA's Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES).
Since 1944, the goal of the Notable Books Council has been to make available to the nation's readers a list of 25 very good, very readable, and at times very important fiction, nonfiction and poetry books for the adult reader. The Council consists of members selected from the membership of RUSA's Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES).
This is "The List for America's Readers:"
FICTION
--Bloom, Amy, Away, Random House
--Carlson, Ron, Five Skies, Penguin-Viking
--Chabon, Michael, The Yiddish Policeman's Union, HarperCollins
--Clarke, Brock, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, Algonquin
--Clinch, John, Finn: a novel, Random House
--Englander, Nathan, The Ministry of Special Cases, Knopf
--Holthe, Tess Uriza, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, Crown
--Jones, Lloyd, Mister Pip, Dell
--McEwan, Ian, On Chesil Beach, Nan A. Talese
--Malouf, David, Complete Stories, Pantheon
--Pettersen, Per, Out Stealing Horses, Graywolf
--Trevor, William, Cheating at Canasta, Penguin/Viking
NONFICTION
--Ackerman, Diane, The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story, W.W. Norton
--Angier, Natalie, The Canon, Houghton Mifflin
--Ayres, Ian, Super Crunchers, Bantam Books
--Godwin, Peter, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, Little Brown
--Groopman, Jerome, How Doctors Think, Houghton Mifflin Company
--Howell, Georgina, Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations; FSG
--Isaacson, Walter, Einstein: His Life and Universe, S & S
--Kingsolver, Barbara, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, HarperCollins
--Margonelli, Lisa, Oil on the Brain, Doubleday-Nan Talese
--Weisman, Alan, The World Without Us, St. Martins
POETRY
--Bosselaar, Laure-Anne, A New Hunger, Ausable Press
--Kennedy, X.J., In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus, Johns Hopkins
This list will be available on the Notable Books Web page on the RUSA/ALA Web site(http://www.ala.org/rusa/notable.html) with annotations at a later date.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Did You Know?
The Social Security online site is a very user friendly tool. Besides the regular forms and bits of information, you can also see some trivia! Check out... http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/ssa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=341
What are the most popular names given to babies?
Answer:
Every year, SSA's Office of the Actuary does a study of the most popular names given to applicants who were born in the current year.
The top ten boys names in 2006 are:
Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Ethan, Matthew, Daniel, Christopher, Andrew, Anthony, and William.
The top ten girls names for 2006 are:
Emily, Emma, Madison, Isabella, Ava, Abigail, Olivia, Hannah, Sophia, and Samantha.
The most popular names of twins born in 2006 are:
Jacob and Joshua; Matthew and Michael; Daniel and David; Ella and Emma; Isaac and Isaiah; Madison and Morgan; Landon and Logan; Taylor and Tyler; Brandon and Bryan; and Christian and Christopher.
You can actually even see the Popularity of a Name. How they explain it is "To see how the popularity of a name has changed over time, enter the name and, optionally, the sex and number of years. Please note that the name you select must be in the top 1000 most popular names in order for the name to appear in the table produced by your request."
You can also see Popular Names by Birth Year (any year after 1879). So in 1960, you would find that David and Mary topped the list while 1970 and 1980 had Michael and Jennifer at the top of the list. By 1990, Michael was still the most popular boy's name while Jessica took the top spot for girls names. Michael was the most popular name from 1954 to 1998 except for one year, 1960 when David took the lead. Jennifer was the most girls popular name from 1970-1984. Thinking about how many Jennifer's you know, does this surprise you?
You can also see by state. In 2006 in Texas, Emma and Mia took the top spots. Michigan had Ava and Emma; South Carolina had Madison and Emma and New Mexico had Isabella and Alyssa. For boys, Alaska had James while Arizona had Angel; Michigan had Jacob, South Carolina had William; and Massachusetts had Matthew.
There is even a game!
Is there a trend to name children after cities? Just a few years ago, the name "London" was not in the top 1000 baby names, but in 2006 the rank was 353 (for girls). Similarly, the name "Paris" has become popular. These 2 examples are European cities that have become popular baby names in the United States.
But what about U. S. cities?
Play the City Name Quiz!
From the list of United States cities with populations of 100,000 or more (as provided by the U. S. Census Bureau), we have drawn those names that are in the top 1000 names for births in 2006.
Can you guess 5 of them?
I had three correct: Dallas, Austin and Madison. There are 20 possible correct answers and let me tell you that not all of them are of the modern variety (i.e. Dakota, Georgia if you were to use states).
You try...http://www.socialsecurity.gov/cgi-bin/citynames.cgi
Just a little fun from the Office of Social Security!
What are the most popular names given to babies?
Answer:
Every year, SSA's Office of the Actuary does a study of the most popular names given to applicants who were born in the current year.
The top ten boys names in 2006 are:
Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Ethan, Matthew, Daniel, Christopher, Andrew, Anthony, and William.
The top ten girls names for 2006 are:
Emily, Emma, Madison, Isabella, Ava, Abigail, Olivia, Hannah, Sophia, and Samantha.
The most popular names of twins born in 2006 are:
Jacob and Joshua; Matthew and Michael; Daniel and David; Ella and Emma; Isaac and Isaiah; Madison and Morgan; Landon and Logan; Taylor and Tyler; Brandon and Bryan; and Christian and Christopher.
You can actually even see the Popularity of a Name. How they explain it is "To see how the popularity of a name has changed over time, enter the name and, optionally, the sex and number of years. Please note that the name you select must be in the top 1000 most popular names in order for the name to appear in the table produced by your request."
You can also see Popular Names by Birth Year (any year after 1879). So in 1960, you would find that David and Mary topped the list while 1970 and 1980 had Michael and Jennifer at the top of the list. By 1990, Michael was still the most popular boy's name while Jessica took the top spot for girls names. Michael was the most popular name from 1954 to 1998 except for one year, 1960 when David took the lead. Jennifer was the most girls popular name from 1970-1984. Thinking about how many Jennifer's you know, does this surprise you?
You can also see by state. In 2006 in Texas, Emma and Mia took the top spots. Michigan had Ava and Emma; South Carolina had Madison and Emma and New Mexico had Isabella and Alyssa. For boys, Alaska had James while Arizona had Angel; Michigan had Jacob, South Carolina had William; and Massachusetts had Matthew.
There is even a game!
Is there a trend to name children after cities? Just a few years ago, the name "London" was not in the top 1000 baby names, but in 2006 the rank was 353 (for girls). Similarly, the name "Paris" has become popular. These 2 examples are European cities that have become popular baby names in the United States.
But what about U. S. cities?
Play the City Name Quiz!
From the list of United States cities with populations of 100,000 or more (as provided by the U. S. Census Bureau), we have drawn those names that are in the top 1000 names for births in 2006.
Can you guess 5 of them?
I had three correct: Dallas, Austin and Madison. There are 20 possible correct answers and let me tell you that not all of them are of the modern variety (i.e. Dakota, Georgia if you were to use states).
You try...http://www.socialsecurity.gov/cgi-bin/citynames.cgi
Just a little fun from the Office of Social Security!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
The Art Thief
Don't miss this chance to read "The Art Thief" by Noah Charney. I'm listening to it on audio right now and the lilt of Simon Vance's voice is captivating. Slow and steady, the story is coming to life with the beauty of his British accent that makes me not want to turn off the CD!(Can I also tell you that I'm totally taken in by the reference to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, tragic, which happened during my junior year at BU in Boston. Check this out...
In March 1990, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, was robbed by two unknown men. The thieves removed works of art whose value has been estimated as high as $300 million. These include: Vermeer, The Concert; Rembrandt, A Lady and Gentleman in Black; Rembrandt, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee; Rembrandt, Self-Portrait; Govaert Flinck, Landscape with Obelisk; Manet, Chez Tortoni.
and http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/northamerica/us/isabella/isabella.htm)
Here is the synopsis...
Rome: In the small Baroque church of Santa Giuliana, a magnificent Caravaggio altarpiece disappears without a trace in the middle of the night.
Paris: In the basement vault of the Malevich Society, curator Geneviéve Delacloche is shocked to discover the disappearance of the Society's greatest treasure, White-on-White by Suprematist painter Kasimir Malevich.
London: At the National Gallery of Modern Art, the museum's latest acquisition is stolen just hours after it was purchased for more than six million pounds.
In The Art Thief, three thefts are simultaneously investigated in three cities, but these apparently isolated crimes have much more in common than anyone imagines. In Rome, the police enlist the help of renowned art investigator Gabriel Coffin when tracking down the stolen masterpiece. In Paris, Geneviéve Delacloche is aided by Police Inspector Jean-Jacques Bizot, who finds a trail of bizarre clues and puzzles that leads him ever deeper into a baffling conspiracy. In London, Inspector Harry Wickenden of Scotland Yard oversees the museum's attempts to ransom back its stolen painting, only to have the masterpiece's recovery deepen the mystery even further. A dizzying array of forgeries, overpaintings, and double-crosses unfolds as the story races through auction houses, museums, and private galleries -- and the secret places where priceless works of art are made available to collectors who will stop at nothing to satisfy their hearts' desires. Full of fascinating art-historical detail, crackling dialogue, and a brain-teasing plot, Noah Charney's debut novel is a sophisticated, stylishthriller, as irresistible and multifaceted as a great work of art.
Read more...
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9781433203732&z=y
Monday, January 07, 2008
Ben Schott
If you happened to see CBS Sunday Morning then you probably heard about Ben Schott. They called him the Indiana Jones of the library, looking up tomes instead of tombs. He is the master of the miscellaneous.
http://www.benschott.com/en/index2.html
"If you haven't a clue... Ben Schott is your man. He's the king of carefully marshalled facts, published in quaintly antiquarian form to enormous success. Decca Aitkenhead presses him for a few details that don't appear in the books." Read more of the article at http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/referenceandlanguages/story/0,,1640631,00.html#article_continue.
Ever wonder how to say 'I love you' in Hindi? Whether blondes win more often than brunettes in the Miss America pageant? The answers lie in Schott's Original Miscellany. Part encyclopedia, part anthology, part lexicon, the book is a collection of inconsequential tidbits that you never knew, never thought to ask, but will love knowing. As hilarious as it is addictive."
Newsweek (USA)
Curious? See more at...http://www.miscellanies.info/author.asp
Now Mr. Schott is writing almanacs filled with the best of the last, as in the last year. If you are interested be sure to "check them out." Maybe at your library!
http://www.benschott.com/en/index2.html
"If you haven't a clue... Ben Schott is your man. He's the king of carefully marshalled facts, published in quaintly antiquarian form to enormous success. Decca Aitkenhead presses him for a few details that don't appear in the books." Read more of the article at http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/referenceandlanguages/story/0,,1640631,00.html#article_continue.
Ever wonder how to say 'I love you' in Hindi? Whether blondes win more often than brunettes in the Miss America pageant? The answers lie in Schott's Original Miscellany. Part encyclopedia, part anthology, part lexicon, the book is a collection of inconsequential tidbits that you never knew, never thought to ask, but will love knowing. As hilarious as it is addictive."
Newsweek (USA)
Curious? See more at...http://www.miscellanies.info/author.asp
Now Mr. Schott is writing almanacs filled with the best of the last, as in the last year. If you are interested be sure to "check them out." Maybe at your library!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
With the humor of Bridget Jones and the vitality of Augusten Burroughs, Julie Powell recounts how she conquered every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and saved her soul.
Julie Powell is 30 years old, living in a tiny apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that's going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother's worn, dog-eared copy of Julia Child's 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes -- in the span of one year.
At first she thinks it will be easy. But as she moves from the simple Potage Parmentier (potato soup) into the more complicated realm of aspics and crepes, she realizes there's more to Mastering the Art of French Cooking than meets the eye.
And somewhere along the line she realizes she has turned her outer-borough kitchen into a miracle of creation and cuisine. She has eclipsed her life's ordinariness through spectacular humor, hysteria, and perseverance.
Julie Powell is 30 years old, living in a tiny apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that's going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother's worn, dog-eared copy of Julia Child's 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes -- in the span of one year.
At first she thinks it will be easy. But as she moves from the simple Potage Parmentier (potato soup) into the more complicated realm of aspics and crepes, she realizes there's more to Mastering the Art of French Cooking than meets the eye.
And somewhere along the line she realizes she has turned her outer-borough kitchen into a miracle of creation and cuisine. She has eclipsed her life's ordinariness through spectacular humor, hysteria, and perseverance.
To the Big Screen!
Norah Ephron adapts Julie Powell's autobiographical book Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen with this Columbia Pictures production starring Amy Adams as an amateur chef that decides to cook every recipe in a cookbook from acclaimed celebrity chef Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) in order to chronicle it in a blog over the course of a year. Streep's Devil Wears Prada co-star Stanley Tucci reteams with the actress as Child's husband.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Best of TV You're Not Watching
It was a very busy fall. There were some shows you probably missed. I know I had a long queue in my Tivo. Before the football season ends, make sure you check some of these out. I've sat down to watch them and really enjoying them.
Life--on USA
Damien Lewis stars as a former police officer who, after years of false imprisonment, returns to the force with a decidedly different philosophy. You can see how the prison years give Det. Charlie Crewes a whole different insight. He's working on cases with his new partner, who also has some demons, but is secretly trying to solve the case of the person who framed him.
Aliens in America--CW
A Wisconsin mom arranges to host a foreign exchange student, believing the visitor will help her shy son become more popular. When the student turns out to be a Muslim teenager from Pakistan, her plans go awry - and everyone is likely to learn a little lesson about life. If you are missing the Gilmore Girls cast, you'll find former GG'er Luke playing the dad.
Dirty Sexy Money--ABC
At first, I couldn't figure out where this was going but it totally grows on you. When idealistic attorney Nick George's (Peter Krause) father dies, he ends up taking his father's clients, the Darlings, led by patriarch Tripp (Donald Sutherland). It's not always easy for Nick handling both legal and sometimes illegal matters. The Darling family is downright hilarious!
Big Shots--ABC
Big Shots is a drama about four friends who are up and coming executives. However there are plenty of things to also laugh about. Dylan McDermott is Duncan is a cosmetics CEO trying to outgrow his playboy image. His pal Brody is a crisis manager who spends more time placating a demanding wife. Karl is the "geek" CEO whose wife and former mistress become best friends, and Michael Vartan--who couldn't be any cuter playing the business Golden Boy--is the newly appointed "Wal-Mart" type CEO who is trying to deal with a broken marriage and a new company.
Gossip Girl--CW
It's like teen people "lite" , with cocktails, I'll admit it. But this show based on the popular Young Adult novel series is chock full of beautiful, wealthy and angst ridden upper East side Manhattanites and it's as addicting as chocolate.
Pushing Daisies-ABC
This romantic drama shows us the strange world of a man, Ned, who can bring dead people back to life through the power of his touch. The people he touches, however, can only stay alive for one minute, and if they don't die again, someone else nearby will die. Ned decides to use his ability to solve crime. Fanciful and clever!
Criminal Minds--CBS
The Behaviorial Analysis Unit is composed of an elite team of FBI profilers who analyze the country's most twisted criminal minds and anticipate their next moves before they strike again. Joe Mantagna is the newest addition replacing my fav Mandy Patinkin but I think he'll bring some interesting twists to the show.
Shark--CBS
Sebastian Stark, a charismatic, supremely self-confident defense attorney who, after a shocking outcome in one of his cases and a personal epiphany, brings his cutthroat tactics to the prosecutor's office as the head of the Los Angeles District Attorney's High Profile Crime Unit. James Woods is perfect leading a group of new DAs including the latest addition, the brother in law from Ugly Betty.
House--Fox
Dr. Gregory House puts bad bedside manner to shame. As an infectious disease specialist with a knack for diagnostics, he fights the worst of all maladies with a team of various specialists, some who are too caring for their own good and others too irreverent. He'd prefer not to deal with patients at all but as he deals with his constant physical pain, his unconventional thinking and flawless instincts have afforded him a great deal of respect. It's THE best show on television right now.
Men In Trees--ABC
After breaking off her engagement when she learns of her fiance's infidelity, Marin Frist, a relationship expert, finds herself living in Elmo, Alaska, surrounded by men and attracted to one in particular. She now has to forget everything she has learned about men and gain new knowledge about love and relationships. This show is remarkably fresh and makes you want to head up to the great white north.
Women's Murder Club--ABC
Based on the James Patterson novel series, the Women's Murder Club tells the story of four friends from different walks of life who come together to form a unique murder investigation team. Their jobs as a homicide detective, a medical examiner, a newspaper reporter and an assistant district attorney give them a formidable range of skills, and friendship to sustain them through tough times. TV welcomes back Angie Harmon.
Bones--Fox
This series is based on stories from real-life forensic anthropologist and novelist Kathy Reichs. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperence Brennan--played by Emily Deschanel, Zooey's sister, who works at the Jeffersonian Institute and writes novels as a sideline, has an uncanny ability to read clues left behind in a victim's bones. Her partner from the FBI is former Buffy and Angel star David Boreanaz, as Special Agent Booth, who is all grown up and does a great job in this role.
Chuck--NBC
After Chuck got kicked out of Stanford, he is meandering through life as a computer tech at a Best-Buy type superstore called BuyMore when he is sent an email from a former college buddy. As a last save before he died, Chuck inherits the email which makes him now the recipient of a database of government secrets in his brain. Chuck is a now an unwilling participant as a special agent to the CIA and NSA. Zachary Levi is great as Chuck and his other cast mates are just as funny, including his sister's boyfriend he calls "Awesome" and the high strung assistant manager at the BuyMore.
Numb3rs--CBS
We all use math every day ... Inspired by actual cases and experiences, Numb3rs depicts the confluence of police work and mathematics in solving crime. An FBI agent recruits his mathematical genius brother to help solve a wide range of challenging crimes in Los Angeles from a very different perspective. Numb3rs stars David Krumholtz as Charlie Eppes, Rob Morrow as Don Eppes, Judd Hirsch as their father.
Not on now, but hopefully they'll start up again:
The Closer--Kyra Sedgwick is fantastic in her very smart and bumbling sort of way
Saving Grace--Holly Hunter is rough around the edges but she is really good and the cast is solid
Burn Notice--CIA spy got burned and now lives in Miami as he is trying to find out who put him there
Side Order of Life--LA thirtysomethings battle--with humor--growing up
Life--on USA
Damien Lewis stars as a former police officer who, after years of false imprisonment, returns to the force with a decidedly different philosophy. You can see how the prison years give Det. Charlie Crewes a whole different insight. He's working on cases with his new partner, who also has some demons, but is secretly trying to solve the case of the person who framed him.
Aliens in America--CW
A Wisconsin mom arranges to host a foreign exchange student, believing the visitor will help her shy son become more popular. When the student turns out to be a Muslim teenager from Pakistan, her plans go awry - and everyone is likely to learn a little lesson about life. If you are missing the Gilmore Girls cast, you'll find former GG'er Luke playing the dad.
Dirty Sexy Money--ABC
At first, I couldn't figure out where this was going but it totally grows on you. When idealistic attorney Nick George's (Peter Krause) father dies, he ends up taking his father's clients, the Darlings, led by patriarch Tripp (Donald Sutherland). It's not always easy for Nick handling both legal and sometimes illegal matters. The Darling family is downright hilarious!
Big Shots--ABC
Big Shots is a drama about four friends who are up and coming executives. However there are plenty of things to also laugh about. Dylan McDermott is Duncan is a cosmetics CEO trying to outgrow his playboy image. His pal Brody is a crisis manager who spends more time placating a demanding wife. Karl is the "geek" CEO whose wife and former mistress become best friends, and Michael Vartan--who couldn't be any cuter playing the business Golden Boy--is the newly appointed "Wal-Mart" type CEO who is trying to deal with a broken marriage and a new company.
Gossip Girl--CW
It's like teen people "lite" , with cocktails, I'll admit it. But this show based on the popular Young Adult novel series is chock full of beautiful, wealthy and angst ridden upper East side Manhattanites and it's as addicting as chocolate.
Pushing Daisies-ABC
This romantic drama shows us the strange world of a man, Ned, who can bring dead people back to life through the power of his touch. The people he touches, however, can only stay alive for one minute, and if they don't die again, someone else nearby will die. Ned decides to use his ability to solve crime. Fanciful and clever!
Criminal Minds--CBS
The Behaviorial Analysis Unit is composed of an elite team of FBI profilers who analyze the country's most twisted criminal minds and anticipate their next moves before they strike again. Joe Mantagna is the newest addition replacing my fav Mandy Patinkin but I think he'll bring some interesting twists to the show.
Shark--CBS
Sebastian Stark, a charismatic, supremely self-confident defense attorney who, after a shocking outcome in one of his cases and a personal epiphany, brings his cutthroat tactics to the prosecutor's office as the head of the Los Angeles District Attorney's High Profile Crime Unit. James Woods is perfect leading a group of new DAs including the latest addition, the brother in law from Ugly Betty.
House--Fox
Dr. Gregory House puts bad bedside manner to shame. As an infectious disease specialist with a knack for diagnostics, he fights the worst of all maladies with a team of various specialists, some who are too caring for their own good and others too irreverent. He'd prefer not to deal with patients at all but as he deals with his constant physical pain, his unconventional thinking and flawless instincts have afforded him a great deal of respect. It's THE best show on television right now.
Men In Trees--ABC
After breaking off her engagement when she learns of her fiance's infidelity, Marin Frist, a relationship expert, finds herself living in Elmo, Alaska, surrounded by men and attracted to one in particular. She now has to forget everything she has learned about men and gain new knowledge about love and relationships. This show is remarkably fresh and makes you want to head up to the great white north.
Women's Murder Club--ABC
Based on the James Patterson novel series, the Women's Murder Club tells the story of four friends from different walks of life who come together to form a unique murder investigation team. Their jobs as a homicide detective, a medical examiner, a newspaper reporter and an assistant district attorney give them a formidable range of skills, and friendship to sustain them through tough times. TV welcomes back Angie Harmon.
Bones--Fox
This series is based on stories from real-life forensic anthropologist and novelist Kathy Reichs. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperence Brennan--played by Emily Deschanel, Zooey's sister, who works at the Jeffersonian Institute and writes novels as a sideline, has an uncanny ability to read clues left behind in a victim's bones. Her partner from the FBI is former Buffy and Angel star David Boreanaz, as Special Agent Booth, who is all grown up and does a great job in this role.
Chuck--NBC
After Chuck got kicked out of Stanford, he is meandering through life as a computer tech at a Best-Buy type superstore called BuyMore when he is sent an email from a former college buddy. As a last save before he died, Chuck inherits the email which makes him now the recipient of a database of government secrets in his brain. Chuck is a now an unwilling participant as a special agent to the CIA and NSA. Zachary Levi is great as Chuck and his other cast mates are just as funny, including his sister's boyfriend he calls "Awesome" and the high strung assistant manager at the BuyMore.
Numb3rs--CBS
We all use math every day ... Inspired by actual cases and experiences, Numb3rs depicts the confluence of police work and mathematics in solving crime. An FBI agent recruits his mathematical genius brother to help solve a wide range of challenging crimes in Los Angeles from a very different perspective. Numb3rs stars David Krumholtz as Charlie Eppes, Rob Morrow as Don Eppes, Judd Hirsch as their father.
Not on now, but hopefully they'll start up again:
The Closer--Kyra Sedgwick is fantastic in her very smart and bumbling sort of way
Saving Grace--Holly Hunter is rough around the edges but she is really good and the cast is solid
Burn Notice--CIA spy got burned and now lives in Miami as he is trying to find out who put him there
Side Order of Life--LA thirtysomethings battle--with humor--growing up
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Don't Dismiss All of Oprah's Choices
It had gotten to be almost the thing to do to purposefully not read the Oprah book selections. However I want to plug a few of them and you can check out more reviews on Amazon or BN. While they are often exceedingly depressing, they are also remarkably poignant. You might want to go back and reread a few...
Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
A sprawling saga about five generations of a family from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Fall on Your Knees is the impressive first fiction from Canadian playwright and actor Ann-Marie MacDonald. This epic tale of family history, family secrets, and music centers on four sisters and their relationships with each other and with their father. Set in the coal-mining communities of Nova Scotia in the early part of this century, the story also shifts to the battlefields of World War I and the jazz scene of New York City in the 1920s.
Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman**
When March Murray travels East with her teenage daughter to attend the funeral of the beloved housekeeper who looked after her when she was growing up, March's past comes rushing up to meet her. The present is quickly dominated by the lurking presence of her former lover, Hollis, who has patiently awaited her long overdue return. The tale is populated by those for whom love brings more sorrow than happiness: a woman afraid to commit to a relationship, a husband in love with someone other than his wife, two young people who fall for each other only to find they are close relatives, and the self-destructing love of Hollis and March. While love has the power to transform those who fall under its spell--devotion to an old racehorse turns March's daughter, a sullen teenager, into a strong young woman--the love March herself suffers robs her of nearly all sense and goodness. Hoffman deftly weaves her characters' stories against a vivid New England landscape where the past always has a grip on the present. And the listener is left at the end both satisfied and longing to hear more.
Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
A funny thing happens to Novalee Nation on her way to Bakersfield, California. Her ne'er-do-well boyfriend, Willie Jack Pickens, abandons her in an Oklahoma Wal-Mart and takes off on his own, leaving her with just 10 dollars and the clothes on her back. Not that hard luck is anything new to Novalee, who is "seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds overweight--and superstitious about sevens.... For most people, sevens were lucky. But not for her," Billie Letts writes. "She'd had a bad history with them, starting with her seventh birthday, the day Momma Nell ran away with a baseball umpire named Fred..."Still, finding herself alone and penniless in Sequoyah, Oklahoma is enough to make even someone as inured to ill fortune as Novalee want to give up and die. Fortunately, the Wal-Mart parking lot is the Sequoyah equivalent of a town square, and within hours Novalee has met three people who will change her life: Sister Thelma Husband, a kindly eccentric; Benny Goodluck, a young Native American boy; and Moses Whitecotton, an elderly African American photographer. For the next two months, Novalee surreptitiously makes her home in the Wal-Mart, sleeping there at night, exploring the town by day. When she goes into labor and delivers her baby there, however, Novalee learns that sometimes it's not so bad to depend on the kindness of strangers--especially if one of them happens to be Sam Walton, the superchain's founder.Where the Heart Is oddly mixes heart-warming vignettes and surprising, brutal violence. Novalee's story is juxtaposed with occasional chapters chronicling Willy Jack's downward spiral into prison, disappointment, and degradation. And even in Sequoyah, sudden storms, domestic violence, kidnapping, and deadly fires punctuate Novalee's progress from homeless, unwed teen mom to successful, happy member of the community. This is not a subtle book; there's never any doubt that our heroine will make a home for herself and her baby or that Willy Jack will get what he deserves for abandoning them. Still, Billie Letts has created several memorable characters, and there's always room for another novel that celebrates the life-affirming qualities of reading, the importance of education, and the power of love to change lives.
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
Everyone knows the Mulvaneys: Dad the successful businessman, Mike the football star, Marianne the cheerleader, Patrick the brain, Judd the runt, and Mom dedicated to running the family. But after what sometime narrator Judd calls the events of Valentine's Day 1976, this ideal family falls apart and is not reunited until 1993. The novel explores this disintegration with an eye to the nature of changing relationships and recovering from the fractures that occur. Through vivid imagery of a calm upstate New York landscape that any moment can be transformed by a blinding blizzard into a near-death experience, Oates demonstrates how faith and hope can help us endure. At another level, the process of becoming the Mulvaneys again investigates the philosophical and spiritual aspects of a family's survival and restoration.
**I highly recommend anything written by Alice Hoffman. Her stories are really something, they unfold with an uncanny grace.
Check out the The New York Times Book Review by David Gates: "We Were the Mulvaneys works not simply because of its meticulous details and gestures.... What keeps us coming back to Oates Country is something stronger and spookier: her uncanny gift of making the page a window, with something on the other side that we'd swear was life itself."
Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
A sprawling saga about five generations of a family from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Fall on Your Knees is the impressive first fiction from Canadian playwright and actor Ann-Marie MacDonald. This epic tale of family history, family secrets, and music centers on four sisters and their relationships with each other and with their father. Set in the coal-mining communities of Nova Scotia in the early part of this century, the story also shifts to the battlefields of World War I and the jazz scene of New York City in the 1920s.
Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman**
When March Murray travels East with her teenage daughter to attend the funeral of the beloved housekeeper who looked after her when she was growing up, March's past comes rushing up to meet her. The present is quickly dominated by the lurking presence of her former lover, Hollis, who has patiently awaited her long overdue return. The tale is populated by those for whom love brings more sorrow than happiness: a woman afraid to commit to a relationship, a husband in love with someone other than his wife, two young people who fall for each other only to find they are close relatives, and the self-destructing love of Hollis and March. While love has the power to transform those who fall under its spell--devotion to an old racehorse turns March's daughter, a sullen teenager, into a strong young woman--the love March herself suffers robs her of nearly all sense and goodness. Hoffman deftly weaves her characters' stories against a vivid New England landscape where the past always has a grip on the present. And the listener is left at the end both satisfied and longing to hear more.
Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
A funny thing happens to Novalee Nation on her way to Bakersfield, California. Her ne'er-do-well boyfriend, Willie Jack Pickens, abandons her in an Oklahoma Wal-Mart and takes off on his own, leaving her with just 10 dollars and the clothes on her back. Not that hard luck is anything new to Novalee, who is "seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds overweight--and superstitious about sevens.... For most people, sevens were lucky. But not for her," Billie Letts writes. "She'd had a bad history with them, starting with her seventh birthday, the day Momma Nell ran away with a baseball umpire named Fred..."Still, finding herself alone and penniless in Sequoyah, Oklahoma is enough to make even someone as inured to ill fortune as Novalee want to give up and die. Fortunately, the Wal-Mart parking lot is the Sequoyah equivalent of a town square, and within hours Novalee has met three people who will change her life: Sister Thelma Husband, a kindly eccentric; Benny Goodluck, a young Native American boy; and Moses Whitecotton, an elderly African American photographer. For the next two months, Novalee surreptitiously makes her home in the Wal-Mart, sleeping there at night, exploring the town by day. When she goes into labor and delivers her baby there, however, Novalee learns that sometimes it's not so bad to depend on the kindness of strangers--especially if one of them happens to be Sam Walton, the superchain's founder.Where the Heart Is oddly mixes heart-warming vignettes and surprising, brutal violence. Novalee's story is juxtaposed with occasional chapters chronicling Willy Jack's downward spiral into prison, disappointment, and degradation. And even in Sequoyah, sudden storms, domestic violence, kidnapping, and deadly fires punctuate Novalee's progress from homeless, unwed teen mom to successful, happy member of the community. This is not a subtle book; there's never any doubt that our heroine will make a home for herself and her baby or that Willy Jack will get what he deserves for abandoning them. Still, Billie Letts has created several memorable characters, and there's always room for another novel that celebrates the life-affirming qualities of reading, the importance of education, and the power of love to change lives.
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
Everyone knows the Mulvaneys: Dad the successful businessman, Mike the football star, Marianne the cheerleader, Patrick the brain, Judd the runt, and Mom dedicated to running the family. But after what sometime narrator Judd calls the events of Valentine's Day 1976, this ideal family falls apart and is not reunited until 1993. The novel explores this disintegration with an eye to the nature of changing relationships and recovering from the fractures that occur. Through vivid imagery of a calm upstate New York landscape that any moment can be transformed by a blinding blizzard into a near-death experience, Oates demonstrates how faith and hope can help us endure. At another level, the process of becoming the Mulvaneys again investigates the philosophical and spiritual aspects of a family's survival and restoration.
**I highly recommend anything written by Alice Hoffman. Her stories are really something, they unfold with an uncanny grace.
Check out the The New York Times Book Review by David Gates: "We Were the Mulvaneys works not simply because of its meticulous details and gestures.... What keeps us coming back to Oates Country is something stronger and spookier: her uncanny gift of making the page a window, with something on the other side that we'd swear was life itself."
Thursday, November 01, 2007
A Few Favorite Reads
There is NEVER enough time and ALWAYS too many books to read. Here are a few selections that I really enjoyed. All can be found at a local library or you can follow the link to a bookstore.
- Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable by Mark Dunn
- The Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes: A Novel by Cathy Holton
- A Girl Could Stand Up by Leslie Marshall
- Peter and the Starcatchers by Ridley Pearson and Greg Call
- Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
- Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison
- Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook
- Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
- A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Commercial Tunes
In June, I mentioned a great singer-songwriter named Ingrid Michaelson. Well she has done it again and this time, she is the voice of the new Old Navy commercial. Such a sweet song called "The Way I Am." I'm totally loving it! Here are the lyrics from her site (www.ingridmichaelson.com) and she has some video links there too. I think she is definitely on her way!
If you were falling, then I would catch you.
You need a light, I'd find a match.
Cuz I love the way you say good morning.
And you take me the way I am.
If you are chilly, here take my sweater.
Your head is aching, I'll make it better.
Cuz I love the way you call me baby.
And you take me the way I am.
I'd buy you Rogaine if you start losing all your hair.
Sew on patches to all you tear.
Cuz I love you more than I could ever promise.
And you take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.
My mom also pointed out another sweet commercial song, this one from JC Penney (sense a theme here...TV and shopping!). The band is Forever Thursday which is really Melanie Hornsnell and producer Elliot Wheeler. There are lyrics and a video link on their myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/foreverthursdaymusic. Although Australian, Melanie has a 1950s style sweetness and bounce to her song.
HP used The Kinks' song "Picture Book" for their campaign for digital photography products back in mid-2004 (Wow...has it been that long?). "Picture Book" is from the Kinks' 1968 album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society. The campaign won "Campaign of the Year" in the February 7, 2005 issue of Adweek magazine.
My dad a field day with the Wiseguys' song "Start the Commotion" from a Mitsubishi ad a while back. Mitsubishi is all about making bands famous...they gave some mainstream notoriety to Groove Armada and their song "I See You Baby" but I have a song of theirs on a Pottery Barn CD that I like better because its more mellow. I'm also a fan of the Dirty Vegas song "As Days Go By" (and you'll find a funny video on utube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKUlY9S_OW0) and the import single offers a cool acoustic version. I'm sad to say that I don't know which car it is for but Mitsubishi also has an that has a great song by Telepopmusik called "Just Breathe." If you are a fan of Kanye West (I'm not) they use his song "Stronger." Art of the mix has a whole list of Mitsubishi advertisement songs at http://www.artofthemix.org/FindAMix/getcontents.asp?strmixid=35408.
I don't even want to go about the Gap ads...they are so cute. Patrick Wilson and Claire Danes doing the "I can do better" theme in the ad for the boyfriend trouser, the Gap ad for khaki's featuring "Jump, Jive and Wail," and of course, the holiday Gap ads using "Sleigh Ride" and (especially the combo with "Cool It Now"). Fantastic.
Finally, the new Ipod Nano commercial features "1234" by Feist, who is Canadian Leslie Feist. On September 28th, you may have caught her on World Cafe, NPR's daily interview and in-studio performance broadcast (http://worldcafe.org) or you can check out her page (http://www.listentofeist.com) and hear "1234" at http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1156010133/bclid756025629/bctid751384420.
If you were falling, then I would catch you.
You need a light, I'd find a match.
Cuz I love the way you say good morning.
And you take me the way I am.
If you are chilly, here take my sweater.
Your head is aching, I'll make it better.
Cuz I love the way you call me baby.
And you take me the way I am.
I'd buy you Rogaine if you start losing all your hair.
Sew on patches to all you tear.
Cuz I love you more than I could ever promise.
And you take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.
My mom also pointed out another sweet commercial song, this one from JC Penney (sense a theme here...TV and shopping!). The band is Forever Thursday which is really Melanie Hornsnell and producer Elliot Wheeler. There are lyrics and a video link on their myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/foreverthursdaymusic. Although Australian, Melanie has a 1950s style sweetness and bounce to her song.
HP used The Kinks' song "Picture Book" for their campaign for digital photography products back in mid-2004 (Wow...has it been that long?). "Picture Book" is from the Kinks' 1968 album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society. The campaign won "Campaign of the Year" in the February 7, 2005 issue of Adweek magazine.
My dad a field day with the Wiseguys' song "Start the Commotion" from a Mitsubishi ad a while back. Mitsubishi is all about making bands famous...they gave some mainstream notoriety to Groove Armada and their song "I See You Baby" but I have a song of theirs on a Pottery Barn CD that I like better because its more mellow. I'm also a fan of the Dirty Vegas song "As Days Go By" (and you'll find a funny video on utube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKUlY9S_OW0) and the import single offers a cool acoustic version. I'm sad to say that I don't know which car it is for but Mitsubishi also has an that has a great song by Telepopmusik called "Just Breathe." If you are a fan of Kanye West (I'm not) they use his song "Stronger." Art of the mix has a whole list of Mitsubishi advertisement songs at http://www.artofthemix.org/FindAMix/getcontents.asp?strmixid=35408.
I don't even want to go about the Gap ads...they are so cute. Patrick Wilson and Claire Danes doing the "I can do better" theme in the ad for the boyfriend trouser, the Gap ad for khaki's featuring "Jump, Jive and Wail," and of course, the holiday Gap ads using "Sleigh Ride" and (especially the combo with "Cool It Now"). Fantastic.
Finally, the new Ipod Nano commercial features "1234" by Feist, who is Canadian Leslie Feist. On September 28th, you may have caught her on World Cafe, NPR's daily interview and in-studio performance broadcast (http://worldcafe.org) or you can check out her page (http://www.listentofeist.com) and hear "1234" at http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1156010133/bclid756025629/bctid751384420.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Soundtracks
This is the kind of post that could go on forever but I'm going to just take a minute now here to highlight a few favorite motion picture soundtracks, after having just borrowed "The Last Kiss". Zach Braff thinks him a connoisseur of music and this one is good. It's not great, but good.
Here's some of my favs:
“Thirtysomething”
1. Main Title (Extended Version)
2. Begging For Sex, Part 2
3. Michael And Hope's New Baby
4. Another Country (Nancy's Illness)
5. Post Op
6. It Must Be Love - Rickie Lee Jones
7. Nancy And Elliot Take A Train
8. Michael's Dilemma
9. Elyn's Wedding
10. Come Rain Or Come Shine - Ray Charles
11. Life Class (Nancy's Museum Fantasy)
12. Second Look
13. Hot Butter (Miles Comes To Dinner)
14. Melissa And Men
15. The Go Between
16. Gary's Funeral
17. The Water Is Wide - Karla Bonoff
18. Main Title (Air Version)
“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”
1. Skylark - K. D. Lang
2. Too Marvelous For Words - Joe Williams
3. Autumn Leaves - Paula Cole
4. Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear To Tread) - Rosemary Clooney
5. Dream - Brad Mehldau
6. Days Of Wine And Roses - Cassandra Wilson
7. That Old Black Magic - Kevin Spacey
8. Come Rain Or Come Shine - Alison Eastwood
9. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive - Clint Eastwood
10. This Time The Dream's On Me - Alison Krauss
11. Laura - Kevin Mahogany
12. Midnight Sun - Diana Krall
13. I'm An Old Cowhand (From The Rio Grande) - Joshua Redman
14. I Wanna Be Around - Tony Bennett
“Marie Antoinette”
1. "Hong Kong Garden" - Siouxsie & The Banshees
2. "Aphrodisiac" - Bow Wow Wow
3. "What Ever Happened" - The Strokes
4. "Pulling Our Weight" - The Radio Dept.
5. "Ceremony" - New Order
6. "Natural's Not In It" - Gang Of Four
7. "I Want Candy (Kevin Shields Remix)" - Bow Wow Wow
8. "Kings Of The Wild Frontier" - Adam & The Ants
9. "Concerto in G" * - Antonio Vivaldi / Reitzell
10. "The Melody Of A Fallen Tree" - Windsor For The Derby
11. "I Don't Like It Like This" - The Radio Dept.
12. "Plainsong" - The Cure
Disc: 2
1. "Intro Versailles"* - Reitzell / Beggs
2. "Jynweythek Ylow" - Aphex Twin
3. "Opus 17" - Dustin O'Halloran
4. "Il Secondo Giorno (Instrumental)" - Air
5. "Keen On Boys" - The Radio Dept.
6. "Opus 23" *- Dustin O'Halloran
7. "Les Baricades Misterieuses"* - Francois Couperin / Reitzell
8. "Fools Rush In (Kevin Shields Remix) - Bow Wow Wow
9. "Avril 14th" - Aphex Twin
10. "K. 213" * - Domenico Scarlatti / Reitzell
11. "Tommib Help Buss" - Squarepusher
12. "Tristes Apprets.." - Jean Philippe Rameau /W. Christie
13. "Opus 36" *- Dustin O'Halloran
14. "All Cat's Are Grey" - The Cure
“Grey’s Anatomy” (v.1)
1. The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
2. Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue
3. Maria Taylor - Song Beneath The Song
4. Tegan and Sara - Where Does The Good Go
5. Mike Doughty - Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well
6. Get Set Go - Wait
7. The Eames Era - Could Be Anything
8. Rilo Kiley - Portions For Foxes
9. Joe Purdy - The City
10. Medeski, Martin & Wood - End of the World Party
11. Ben Lee - Catch My Disease (Live Version)
12. The Ditty Bops - There's A Girl
13. The Radio - Whatever Gets You Through Today
14. Inara George - Fools In Love
15. Psapp - Cosy In The Rocket
“200 Cigarettes”
1. Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe
2. In The Flesh - Blondie
3. Just What I Needed - The Cars
4. Save It For Later - Harvey Danger
5. Our Lips Are Sealed - Go-Go's
6. I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow
7. I Don't Care - The Ramones
8. Boogie Wonderland - Girls Against Boys
9. Ladies Night - Kool & The Gang
10. It's Different For Girls - Joe Jackson
11. Nowhere Girl - B-Movie
12. More Than This - Roxy Music
13. Romeo & Juliet - Dire Straits
14. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding - Elvis Costello And The Attractions
15. Blondie Medley: Rapture, Maria, No Exit (The Loud Allstar Rock Remix Featuring Coolio & The Loud AllStars - Havoc And Prodigy Of Mobb Deep, Inspectah Deck & U-God Of Wu-Tang Clan) - Blondie
“Grosse Pointe Blank”
1. Blister In The Sun - Violent Femmes
2. Rudie Can't Fail - Clash
3. Mirror In The Bathroom - English Beat
4. Under Pressure - David Bowie, Queen
5. I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash
6. Live & Let Die - Guns N' Roses
7. We Care A Lot - Faith No More
8. Pressure Drop - Specials
9. Absolute Beginners - Jam
10. Armagideon Time - Clash
11. El Matador - Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
12. Let My Love Open The Door (E. Cola Mix) - Pete Townshend
13. Blister 2000 - Violent Femmes
Here's some of my favs:
“Thirtysomething”
1. Main Title (Extended Version)
2. Begging For Sex, Part 2
3. Michael And Hope's New Baby
4. Another Country (Nancy's Illness)
5. Post Op
6. It Must Be Love - Rickie Lee Jones
7. Nancy And Elliot Take A Train
8. Michael's Dilemma
9. Elyn's Wedding
10. Come Rain Or Come Shine - Ray Charles
11. Life Class (Nancy's Museum Fantasy)
12. Second Look
13. Hot Butter (Miles Comes To Dinner)
14. Melissa And Men
15. The Go Between
16. Gary's Funeral
17. The Water Is Wide - Karla Bonoff
18. Main Title (Air Version)
“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”
1. Skylark - K. D. Lang
2. Too Marvelous For Words - Joe Williams
3. Autumn Leaves - Paula Cole
4. Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear To Tread) - Rosemary Clooney
5. Dream - Brad Mehldau
6. Days Of Wine And Roses - Cassandra Wilson
7. That Old Black Magic - Kevin Spacey
8. Come Rain Or Come Shine - Alison Eastwood
9. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive - Clint Eastwood
10. This Time The Dream's On Me - Alison Krauss
11. Laura - Kevin Mahogany
12. Midnight Sun - Diana Krall
13. I'm An Old Cowhand (From The Rio Grande) - Joshua Redman
14. I Wanna Be Around - Tony Bennett
“Marie Antoinette”
1. "Hong Kong Garden" - Siouxsie & The Banshees
2. "Aphrodisiac" - Bow Wow Wow
3. "What Ever Happened" - The Strokes
4. "Pulling Our Weight" - The Radio Dept.
5. "Ceremony" - New Order
6. "Natural's Not In It" - Gang Of Four
7. "I Want Candy (Kevin Shields Remix)" - Bow Wow Wow
8. "Kings Of The Wild Frontier" - Adam & The Ants
9. "Concerto in G" * - Antonio Vivaldi / Reitzell
10. "The Melody Of A Fallen Tree" - Windsor For The Derby
11. "I Don't Like It Like This" - The Radio Dept.
12. "Plainsong" - The Cure
Disc: 2
1. "Intro Versailles"* - Reitzell / Beggs
2. "Jynweythek Ylow" - Aphex Twin
3. "Opus 17" - Dustin O'Halloran
4. "Il Secondo Giorno (Instrumental)" - Air
5. "Keen On Boys" - The Radio Dept.
6. "Opus 23" *- Dustin O'Halloran
7. "Les Baricades Misterieuses"* - Francois Couperin / Reitzell
8. "Fools Rush In (Kevin Shields Remix) - Bow Wow Wow
9. "Avril 14th" - Aphex Twin
10. "K. 213" * - Domenico Scarlatti / Reitzell
11. "Tommib Help Buss" - Squarepusher
12. "Tristes Apprets.." - Jean Philippe Rameau /W. Christie
13. "Opus 36" *- Dustin O'Halloran
14. "All Cat's Are Grey" - The Cure
“Grey’s Anatomy” (v.1)
1. The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
2. Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue
3. Maria Taylor - Song Beneath The Song
4. Tegan and Sara - Where Does The Good Go
5. Mike Doughty - Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well
6. Get Set Go - Wait
7. The Eames Era - Could Be Anything
8. Rilo Kiley - Portions For Foxes
9. Joe Purdy - The City
10. Medeski, Martin & Wood - End of the World Party
11. Ben Lee - Catch My Disease (Live Version)
12. The Ditty Bops - There's A Girl
13. The Radio - Whatever Gets You Through Today
14. Inara George - Fools In Love
15. Psapp - Cosy In The Rocket
“200 Cigarettes”
1. Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe
2. In The Flesh - Blondie
3. Just What I Needed - The Cars
4. Save It For Later - Harvey Danger
5. Our Lips Are Sealed - Go-Go's
6. I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow
7. I Don't Care - The Ramones
8. Boogie Wonderland - Girls Against Boys
9. Ladies Night - Kool & The Gang
10. It's Different For Girls - Joe Jackson
11. Nowhere Girl - B-Movie
12. More Than This - Roxy Music
13. Romeo & Juliet - Dire Straits
14. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding - Elvis Costello And The Attractions
15. Blondie Medley: Rapture, Maria, No Exit (The Loud Allstar Rock Remix Featuring Coolio & The Loud AllStars - Havoc And Prodigy Of Mobb Deep, Inspectah Deck & U-God Of Wu-Tang Clan) - Blondie
“Grosse Pointe Blank”
1. Blister In The Sun - Violent Femmes
2. Rudie Can't Fail - Clash
3. Mirror In The Bathroom - English Beat
4. Under Pressure - David Bowie, Queen
5. I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash
6. Live & Let Die - Guns N' Roses
7. We Care A Lot - Faith No More
8. Pressure Drop - Specials
9. Absolute Beginners - Jam
10. Armagideon Time - Clash
11. El Matador - Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
12. Let My Love Open The Door (E. Cola Mix) - Pete Townshend
13. Blister 2000 - Violent Femmes
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
What to Read Next!
Looking for something to read? Check out one of these novels!
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
In her first novel, Sarah Addison Allen has written a tender, bewitching book told with captivating invention, peopled with characters to care about, and filled with the irresistible magic of dreams come true.
The women of the Waverley family -- whether they like it or not -- are heirs to an unusual legacy, one that grows in a fenced plot behind their Queen Anne home on Pendland Street in Bascom, North Carolina. There, an apple tree bearing fruit of magical properties looms over a garden filled with herbs and edible flowers that possess the power to affect in curious ways anyone who eats them.
For nearly a decade, 34-year-old Claire Waverley, at peace with her family inheritance, has lived in the house alone, embracing the spirit of the grandmother who raised her, ruing her mother's unfortunate destiny and seemingly unconcerned about the fate of her rebellious sister, Sydney, who freed herself long ago from their small town's constraints. Using her grandmother's mystical culinary traditions, Claire has built a successful catering business -- and a carefully controlled, utterly predictable life -- upon the family's peculiar gift for making life-altering delicacies: lilac jelly to engender humility, for instance, or rose geranium wine to call up fond memories. Garden Spells reveals what happens when Sydney returns to Bascom with her young daughter, turning Claire's routine existence upside down. With Sydney's homecoming, the magic that the quiet caterer has measured into recipes to shape the thoughts and moods of others begins to influence Claire's own emotions in terrifying and delightful ways.
As the sisters reconnect and learn to support one another, each finds romance where she least expects it, while Sydney's child, Bay, discovers both the safe home she has longed for and her own surprising gifts. With the help of their elderly cousin Evanelle, endowed with her own uncanny skills, the Waverley women redeem the past, embrace the present, and take a joyful leap into the future.
"Garden Spells didn't start out as a magical novel," writes Sarah Addison Allen. "It was supposed to be a simple story about two sisters reconnecting after many years. But then the apple tree started throwing apples and the story took on a life of its own…and my life hasn't been the same since."
Combine two parts Alice Hoffman and one part Rebecca Wells with a splash of Sue Monk Kidd, and you have Garden Spells! A great read for anyone who loves cooking, southern fiction, or just a great love story.--Angel Ramandt, Baltimore, MD
Garden Spells is a magical escape into a world gentled by caring and ancient ways. A sweet story that adds hope to the world. --Patty Rogala, Birmingham, AL
The Love Wife by Gish Jen
This is a generous, funny, explosive novel about the new "half-half" American family. You've got Carnegie Wong, second-generation Chinese American warm heart and funny guy, his WASP wife, Jane, whom his mother calls "Blondie," and their two adopted Asian daughters, and half-half bio son. And here is Mama Wong, Carnegie's no-holds-barred mother, who, eternally opposed to his marriage, has arranged from her grave for a mainland Chinese relation to come look after the kids. Is this woman, as Carnegie claims, a nanny? Or is she, as Blondie fears, something else?
What happens as Carnegie and Blondie try to incorporate the ambiguous new arrival into their already complicated lives is touchingly, brilliantly, intricately told. Powerfully evoking the contemporary American family in all its fragility and strength, Gish Jen has given us her most exuberant and accomplished novel.
This novel has a robust, lived-in quality that makes you miss it when it's over.
Michiko Kakutani - The New York Times
“The Love Wife, is also a big story: a story about families and identity and race and the American Dream, a story about how one generation deals with the expectations and the hopes of an earlier generation, a story about how sons and daughters make choices that define themselves against their parents. It is a story that works a minor-key variation on many of the themes that Ms. Jen has sounded in her earlier fiction, yet a story that also represents her most ambitious and emotionally ample work yet.”
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult refuses to tiptoe around volatile issues. Nineteen Minutes recounts a deadly high school shooting rampage, its causes, and its aftermath.
Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens — until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever.
In flashbacks, we witness the deepening alienation of teen killer Peter Houghton, a helpless victim who sinks steadily into the execution mode of his combat video games. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families. Standing in literal judgment over this teen killer is Alex Cormier, the judge who presides over his trial trying hard to balance her professional duties with her relationship with her daughter.
The topic is a hard one but Picoult does a great job at making the story compelling. You feel for the characters, reliving the heartbreak of high school. You learn about how a small town can barely survive such tragedy and you watch families crumble. You also learn how they can also start over again.
Away by Amy Bloom
Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom’s work–her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart–come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable.
“This beautiful, effulgent book sped me forward word by word, out of the room I was in and into Amy Bloom’s world. This is a wonderful novel, a cosmos that transcends its time period and grabs us without compromise. Lillian’s astonishing journey, driven by a mother’s love, will be with me for a long, long time.”
–Ron Carlson, author of The Speed of Light
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
In her first novel, Sarah Addison Allen has written a tender, bewitching book told with captivating invention, peopled with characters to care about, and filled with the irresistible magic of dreams come true.
The women of the Waverley family -- whether they like it or not -- are heirs to an unusual legacy, one that grows in a fenced plot behind their Queen Anne home on Pendland Street in Bascom, North Carolina. There, an apple tree bearing fruit of magical properties looms over a garden filled with herbs and edible flowers that possess the power to affect in curious ways anyone who eats them.
For nearly a decade, 34-year-old Claire Waverley, at peace with her family inheritance, has lived in the house alone, embracing the spirit of the grandmother who raised her, ruing her mother's unfortunate destiny and seemingly unconcerned about the fate of her rebellious sister, Sydney, who freed herself long ago from their small town's constraints. Using her grandmother's mystical culinary traditions, Claire has built a successful catering business -- and a carefully controlled, utterly predictable life -- upon the family's peculiar gift for making life-altering delicacies: lilac jelly to engender humility, for instance, or rose geranium wine to call up fond memories. Garden Spells reveals what happens when Sydney returns to Bascom with her young daughter, turning Claire's routine existence upside down. With Sydney's homecoming, the magic that the quiet caterer has measured into recipes to shape the thoughts and moods of others begins to influence Claire's own emotions in terrifying and delightful ways.
As the sisters reconnect and learn to support one another, each finds romance where she least expects it, while Sydney's child, Bay, discovers both the safe home she has longed for and her own surprising gifts. With the help of their elderly cousin Evanelle, endowed with her own uncanny skills, the Waverley women redeem the past, embrace the present, and take a joyful leap into the future.
"Garden Spells didn't start out as a magical novel," writes Sarah Addison Allen. "It was supposed to be a simple story about two sisters reconnecting after many years. But then the apple tree started throwing apples and the story took on a life of its own…and my life hasn't been the same since."
Combine two parts Alice Hoffman and one part Rebecca Wells with a splash of Sue Monk Kidd, and you have Garden Spells! A great read for anyone who loves cooking, southern fiction, or just a great love story.--Angel Ramandt, Baltimore, MD
Garden Spells is a magical escape into a world gentled by caring and ancient ways. A sweet story that adds hope to the world. --Patty Rogala, Birmingham, AL
The Love Wife by Gish Jen
This is a generous, funny, explosive novel about the new "half-half" American family. You've got Carnegie Wong, second-generation Chinese American warm heart and funny guy, his WASP wife, Jane, whom his mother calls "Blondie," and their two adopted Asian daughters, and half-half bio son. And here is Mama Wong, Carnegie's no-holds-barred mother, who, eternally opposed to his marriage, has arranged from her grave for a mainland Chinese relation to come look after the kids. Is this woman, as Carnegie claims, a nanny? Or is she, as Blondie fears, something else?
What happens as Carnegie and Blondie try to incorporate the ambiguous new arrival into their already complicated lives is touchingly, brilliantly, intricately told. Powerfully evoking the contemporary American family in all its fragility and strength, Gish Jen has given us her most exuberant and accomplished novel.
This novel has a robust, lived-in quality that makes you miss it when it's over.
Michiko Kakutani - The New York Times
“The Love Wife, is also a big story: a story about families and identity and race and the American Dream, a story about how one generation deals with the expectations and the hopes of an earlier generation, a story about how sons and daughters make choices that define themselves against their parents. It is a story that works a minor-key variation on many of the themes that Ms. Jen has sounded in her earlier fiction, yet a story that also represents her most ambitious and emotionally ample work yet.”
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult refuses to tiptoe around volatile issues. Nineteen Minutes recounts a deadly high school shooting rampage, its causes, and its aftermath.
Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens — until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever.
In flashbacks, we witness the deepening alienation of teen killer Peter Houghton, a helpless victim who sinks steadily into the execution mode of his combat video games. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families. Standing in literal judgment over this teen killer is Alex Cormier, the judge who presides over his trial trying hard to balance her professional duties with her relationship with her daughter.
The topic is a hard one but Picoult does a great job at making the story compelling. You feel for the characters, reliving the heartbreak of high school. You learn about how a small town can barely survive such tragedy and you watch families crumble. You also learn how they can also start over again.
Away by Amy Bloom
Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom’s work–her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart–come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable.
“This beautiful, effulgent book sped me forward word by word, out of the room I was in and into Amy Bloom’s world. This is a wonderful novel, a cosmos that transcends its time period and grabs us without compromise. Lillian’s astonishing journey, driven by a mother’s love, will be with me for a long, long time.”
–Ron Carlson, author of The Speed of Light
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
A Great Author (and Librarian!) Passes--Salute to Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle Camp Franklin, 88, of Goshen, CT and New York City, died Thursday, September 6th. Born November 29, 1918, in New York City, to Charles Camp and Madeleine Barnett Camp, she was educated in Switzerland and South Carolina, before graduating from Smith College. She was the author of over 60 books, including the award-winning A Wrinkle in Time.
She is survived by her two daughters, Josephine Jones of Goshen, CT and Maria Rooney and her husband John of Mystic, CT; her five grandchildren, and five greatgrandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Hugh Franklin, and her son, Bion Barnett Franklin.
She was a warm, loving and fun mother, grandmother and friend, who will be missed by many. Her influence will live on in her family and many friends, and in her books which have brought countless delight to all who have read them.
There will be a service on Saturday, September 15th, 2pm, at the Church of Christ, Goshen, CT, and a later public memorial service around her birthday, the actual date to be decided, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City.
In lieu of flowers, a memorial gift may be made to Crosswicks Foundation, Ltd, 924 West End Ave, apt 95, New York, New York, 10025. This is just an option, and we encourage you to honor her memory in any way you choose.
Read a banned book!
HISTORY
Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918, and spent her formative years in New York City. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories, poems and journals for herself, which was reflected in her grades (not the best). However, she was not discouraged.
At age 12, she moved to the French Alps with her parents and went to an English boarding school where, thankfully, her passion for writing continued to grow. She flourished during her high school years back in the United States at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, vacationing with her mother in a rambling old beach cottage on a beautiful stretch of Florida Beach.
She went to Smith College and studied English with some wonderful teachers as she read the classics and continued her own creative writing. She graduated with honors and moved into a Greenwich Village apartment in New York. She worked in the theater, where Equity union pay and a flexible schedule afforded her the time to write! She published her first two novels during these years--A Small Rain and Ilsa--before meeting Hugh Franklin, her future husband, when she was an understudy in Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard. They married during The Joyous Season.
She had a baby girl and kept on writing, eventually moving to Connecticut to raise the family away from the city in a small dairy farm village with more cows than people. They bought a dead general store, and brought it to life for 9 years. They moved back to the city with three children, and Hugh revitalized his professional acting career. The family has kept the country house, Crosswicks, and continues to spend summers there.
As the years passed and the children grew, Madeleine continued to write and Hugh to act, and they to enjoy each other and life. Madeleine began her association with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where she has been the librarian and maintained an office for more than thirty years. After Hugh's death in 1986, it was her writing and lecturing that kept her going. She has now lived through the 20th century and into the 21st and has written over 60 books and keeps writing. She enjoys being with her friends, her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren.
- Bibliography: Publication Date
18 Washington Square South: A Comedy in One Act, 1944
The Small Rain, 1945
Ilsa, 1946
And Both Were Young, 1949
Camilla Dickinson, 1951
A Winter's Love, 1957
Meet the Austins, 1960
A Wrinkle in Time, 1962
The Moon By Night, 1963
The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas, 1964
The Arm of the Starfish, 1965
Camilla, 1965
The Love Letters, 1966
A Journey With Jonah (a play), 1967
The Young Unicorns, 1968
Dance in the Desert, 1969
Lines Scribbled on an Envelope and Other Poems, 1969
The Other Side of the Sun, 1971
A Circle of Quiet, 1972
A Wind in the Door, 1973
Everyday Prayers, 1974
Prayers for Sunday, 1974
The Risk of Birth, 1974
The Summer of the Great Grandmother, 1974
Dragons in the Waters, 1976
The Irrational Season, 1977
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, 1978
The Weather of the Heart, 1978
Ladder of Angels, 1979
The Anti-Muffins, 1980
A Ring of Endless Light, 1980
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, 1980
A Severed Wasp, 1982
The Sphinx at Dawn, 1982
And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings, 1983
A House Like a Lotus, 1984
Trailing Clouds of Glory: Spiritual Values in Children's Literature, 1985 (with Avery Brooke)
Many Waters, 1986
A Stone for a Pillow: Journeys with Jacob, 1986
A Cry Like a Bell, 1987
Two-Part Invention, 1988
An Acceptable Time, 1989
Sold Into Egypt: Joseph's Journey into Human Being, 1989
The Glorious Impossible, 1990
Certain Women, 1992
The Rock That is Higher, 1993
Anytime Prayers, 1994
Troubling a Star, 1994
Glimpses of Grace, 1996 (with Carole Chase)
A Live Coal in the Sea, 1996
Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols, 1996
Wintersong, 1996 (with Luci Shaw)
Bright Evening Star, 1997
Friends for the Journey, 1997 (with Luci Shaw)
Mothers and Daughters, 1997 (with Maria Rooney)
Miracle on 10th Street, 1998
A Full House, 1999
Mothers and Sons, 1999 (with Maria Rooney)
Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends, 1999 (with Luci Shaw)
The Other Dog, 2001
Madeleine L'Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life, 2001 (with Carole Chase)
The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle, 2005
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
No more racism!
A friend alerted me to the incident in Jena, Louisiana. Please take a minute to familiarize yourself with the situation at: http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml.
It is a sad day in our country when we are faced with such racism living alive and well. The signs say it all "No Justice, No Peace."
Visit http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/
You'll see...
Justice for the Jena 6
The lives of six young black men are being ruined by Jim Crow justice in Jena, Louisiana.
The District Attorney has refused to protect the rights of Jena's Black population and has turned the police and courts into instruments of intimidation and oppression. We can help turn things around by making it a political liability for the authorities of Jena to continue the racist status quo, and by forcing the Governor of Louisiana to intervene.
Today is only the first step. Please join us.
You can sign the online petition or cut and paste the information below.
Dear friend,
I just learned about a case of segregation-era oppression happeningtoday in Jena, Louisiana. I signed onto ColorOfChange.org's campaignfor justice in Jena, and wanted to invite you to do the same. http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936
Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students satbeneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from thetree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," moreBlack students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demandedthat the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your bestfriend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a strokeof my pen." A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DAdid nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyardfight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attemptedmurder and conspiracy to commit murder. It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges,lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in"their place." But it's happening today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the story has gotten minimal press.Together, we can make sure their story is told and that the Governorof Louisiana intervenes and provides justice for the Jena 6. It startsnow. Please join me: http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936
The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set thestage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over thenext couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building ofJena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the sameweekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party.The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by ayoung white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ranaway. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students were later arrested for the theft of the gun. That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporterof the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who wasbeaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several blackstudents "nigger." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched andkicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital, but wasreleased and was well enough to go to a social event that evening. Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17),Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and anunidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and chargedwith second-degree attempted murder. The first trial ended last month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, wasconvicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravatedbattery (both felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his public defender called no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal'sparents were ordered not to speak to the media and the courtprohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where thejudge could see them. Mychal is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jailfor 22 years. Theo Shaw's trial is next. He will finally make bailthis week.The Jena Six are lucky to have parents and loved ones who are fightingtooth and nail to free them. They have been threatened but they arestanding strong. We know that if the families have to go it alone,their sons will be a long time coming home. But if we act now, we canmake a difference. Join me in demanding that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco getinvolved to make sure that justice is served for Mychal Bell, and that DA Reed Walters drop the charges against the 5 boys who have not yet gone to trial.http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936
Thanks.
It is a sad day in our country when we are faced with such racism living alive and well. The signs say it all "No Justice, No Peace."
Visit http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/
You'll see...
Justice for the Jena 6
The lives of six young black men are being ruined by Jim Crow justice in Jena, Louisiana.
The District Attorney has refused to protect the rights of Jena's Black population and has turned the police and courts into instruments of intimidation and oppression. We can help turn things around by making it a political liability for the authorities of Jena to continue the racist status quo, and by forcing the Governor of Louisiana to intervene.
Today is only the first step. Please join us.
You can sign the online petition or cut and paste the information below.
Dear friend,
I just learned about a case of segregation-era oppression happeningtoday in Jena, Louisiana. I signed onto ColorOfChange.org's campaignfor justice in Jena, and wanted to invite you to do the same. http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936
Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students satbeneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from thetree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," moreBlack students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demandedthat the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your bestfriend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a strokeof my pen." A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DAdid nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyardfight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attemptedmurder and conspiracy to commit murder. It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges,lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in"their place." But it's happening today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the story has gotten minimal press.Together, we can make sure their story is told and that the Governorof Louisiana intervenes and provides justice for the Jena 6. It startsnow. Please join me: http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936
The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set thestage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over thenext couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building ofJena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the sameweekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party.The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by ayoung white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ranaway. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students were later arrested for the theft of the gun. That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporterof the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who wasbeaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several blackstudents "nigger." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched andkicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital, but wasreleased and was well enough to go to a social event that evening. Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17),Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and anunidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and chargedwith second-degree attempted murder. The first trial ended last month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, wasconvicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravatedbattery (both felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his public defender called no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal'sparents were ordered not to speak to the media and the courtprohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where thejudge could see them. Mychal is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jailfor 22 years. Theo Shaw's trial is next. He will finally make bailthis week.The Jena Six are lucky to have parents and loved ones who are fightingtooth and nail to free them. They have been threatened but they arestanding strong. We know that if the families have to go it alone,their sons will be a long time coming home. But if we act now, we canmake a difference. Join me in demanding that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco getinvolved to make sure that justice is served for Mychal Bell, and that DA Reed Walters drop the charges against the 5 boys who have not yet gone to trial.http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936
Thanks.
Monday, September 10, 2007
The Loss of a Great Dame
The world has lost a true leader and a real inspiration to both young women and 
friends to the environment.
Body Shop founder Anita Roddick dies
By D'ARCY DORAN, Associated Press Writer
Anita Roddick, founder of the international Body Shop cosmetics chain, died Monday night after suffering a major brain hemorrhage, her family said. She was 64.
Roddick, who died at a hospital in Chichester, had revealed in February that she contracted hepatitis C through a blood transfusion while giving birth to a daughter in 1971. She made the announcement after being named head of the British charity Hepatitis C Trust.
The business woman was lauded as the "Queen of Green" for trailblazing business practices that sought to be environmentally friendly and won her renown in her native England and around the world.
"Businesses have the power to do good," she wrote on the Web site of the company, which was bought last year by the French company L'Oreal Group.
Roddick opened her first Body Shop outlet in 1976 in Brighton, southern England, before fair trade and eco-friendly businesses were fashionable.
She said her business ethics were inspired in part by women's beauty rituals that she discovered while traveling in developing countries and lessons from closer to home that her mother passed on from life during the hard years of World War II.
"Why waste a container when you can refill it? And why buy more of something than you can use? We behaved as she did in the Second World War, we reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could," Roddick wrote.
The Body Shop opposed product testing on animals and tried to encourage development by purchasing materials from small communities in the Third World. It also invested in a wind farm in Wales as part of its campaign to support renewable energy, and it set up its own human rights award.
The company has grown into a global phenomenon with nearly 2,000 stores in 50 countries and remains independently run despite being owned by L'Oreal Group.
In recognition of Roddick's contribution to business and charity, Queen Elizabeth II made her a dame, the female equivalent of a knight, in 2003.
Greenpeace executive director John Sauven called Roddick an "incredible woman" who would be "sorely missed."
"She was so ahead of her time when it came to issues of how business could be done in different ways, not just profit motivated but taking into account environmental issues," Sauven said.
"When you look at it today, and how every company claims to be green, she was living this decades ago," he added.
Roddick, the daughter of Italian immigrants, said she opened her Brighton store with only modest hopes.
"I started the Body Shop simply to create a livelihood for myself and my two daughters while my husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas," she wrote. "I had no training or experience ... ."
Roddick and her husband stepped down as co-chairmen of the company in 2002, but she continued to contribute as a consultant.
She joked that the Body Shop's trademark green color scheme came by accident because it was the only color that could cover the mold on the walls of her first shop.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press
friends to the environment.Body Shop founder Anita Roddick dies
Anita Roddick, founder of beauty retailer The Body Shop and one of Britain's best known businesswomen, has died at the age of 64 after suffering a major brain haemorrhage.Roddick founded The Body Shop in Brighton in 1976, selling toiletries made from natural ingredients, and her brand became a byword for socially and environmentally responsible business.
The daughter of Italian immigrants, Roddick saw her business mushroom into an empire of more than 2,000 stores serving more than 77 million customers in 51 different markets. She sold her stake in The Body Shop to France's L'Oreal last year.
"Anita Roddick was admitted to St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, close to her home, yesterday evening when she collapsed after complaining of a sudden headache," her family said.
"Mrs Roddick was admitted to the hospital's Intensive Care Unit and her husband Gordon and two daughters, Sam and Justine, were with her when she died," it said.
A multi-millionaire, Roddick campaigned against human rights abuses and was an environmental activist.
The mission statement of The Body Shop was: "To dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change."
Roddick said it was her mother's frugality during World War Two that inspired her to campaign for environmental issues and question retail conventions.
"We reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could. The foundation of The Body Shop's environmental activism was born out of ideas like these," she wrote on her Web site.
"The Body Shop is not, and nor was ever, a one-woman-show - it's a global operation with thousands of people working towards common goals and sharing common values," she said.
Roddick revealed earlier this year that she was suffering from liver damage after contracting the Hepatitis C virus more than 35 years ago and soon began campaigning for support for sufferers of the potentially deadly disease.
She developed Hepatitis C from infected blood given to her during the birth of her youngest daughter, Sam, in 1971.
The daughter of Italian immigrants, Roddick saw her business mushroom into an empire of more than 2,000 stores serving more than 77 million customers in 51 different markets. She sold her stake in The Body Shop to France's L'Oreal last year.
"Anita Roddick was admitted to St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, close to her home, yesterday evening when she collapsed after complaining of a sudden headache," her family said.
"Mrs Roddick was admitted to the hospital's Intensive Care Unit and her husband Gordon and two daughters, Sam and Justine, were with her when she died," it said.
A multi-millionaire, Roddick campaigned against human rights abuses and was an environmental activist.
The mission statement of The Body Shop was: "To dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change."
Roddick said it was her mother's frugality during World War Two that inspired her to campaign for environmental issues and question retail conventions.
"We reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could. The foundation of The Body Shop's environmental activism was born out of ideas like these," she wrote on her Web site.
"The Body Shop is not, and nor was ever, a one-woman-show - it's a global operation with thousands of people working towards common goals and sharing common values," she said.
Roddick revealed earlier this year that she was suffering from liver damage after contracting the Hepatitis C virus more than 35 years ago and soon began campaigning for support for sufferers of the potentially deadly disease.
She developed Hepatitis C from infected blood given to her during the birth of her youngest daughter, Sam, in 1971.
Body Shop founder Anita Roddick dies
By D'ARCY DORAN, Associated Press Writer
Anita Roddick, founder of the international Body Shop cosmetics chain, died Monday night after suffering a major brain hemorrhage, her family said. She was 64.
Roddick, who died at a hospital in Chichester, had revealed in February that she contracted hepatitis C through a blood transfusion while giving birth to a daughter in 1971. She made the announcement after being named head of the British charity Hepatitis C Trust.
The business woman was lauded as the "Queen of Green" for trailblazing business practices that sought to be environmentally friendly and won her renown in her native England and around the world.
"Businesses have the power to do good," she wrote on the Web site of the company, which was bought last year by the French company L'Oreal Group.
Roddick opened her first Body Shop outlet in 1976 in Brighton, southern England, before fair trade and eco-friendly businesses were fashionable.
She said her business ethics were inspired in part by women's beauty rituals that she discovered while traveling in developing countries and lessons from closer to home that her mother passed on from life during the hard years of World War II.
"Why waste a container when you can refill it? And why buy more of something than you can use? We behaved as she did in the Second World War, we reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could," Roddick wrote.
The Body Shop opposed product testing on animals and tried to encourage development by purchasing materials from small communities in the Third World. It also invested in a wind farm in Wales as part of its campaign to support renewable energy, and it set up its own human rights award.
The company has grown into a global phenomenon with nearly 2,000 stores in 50 countries and remains independently run despite being owned by L'Oreal Group.
In recognition of Roddick's contribution to business and charity, Queen Elizabeth II made her a dame, the female equivalent of a knight, in 2003.
Greenpeace executive director John Sauven called Roddick an "incredible woman" who would be "sorely missed."
"She was so ahead of her time when it came to issues of how business could be done in different ways, not just profit motivated but taking into account environmental issues," Sauven said.
"When you look at it today, and how every company claims to be green, she was living this decades ago," he added.
Roddick, the daughter of Italian immigrants, said she opened her Brighton store with only modest hopes.
"I started the Body Shop simply to create a livelihood for myself and my two daughters while my husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas," she wrote. "I had no training or experience ... ."
Roddick and her husband stepped down as co-chairmen of the company in 2002, but she continued to contribute as a consultant.
She joked that the Body Shop's trademark green color scheme came by accident because it was the only color that could cover the mold on the walls of her first shop.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
National Library Card Sign Up Month
Don't miss your chance to take advantage of National Library Card Sign Up Month!All month long libraries will have lots of great programs to highlight the advantages of being a library card member.
Be sure to check out your local library!
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