Example for Latin Class

A Book Review: Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters

I follow the yahoo groups list for Small Beer Press, home of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and the stories of Kelly Link (and several other things that look really cool, but I have yet to adequately explore). A few weeks ago they asked if anyone wanted to review Link's new short story collection for teens. I wrote back, using several exclamation points, that, yes, I did. So they sent me an advance reader's copy (my very first), I read, I enjoyed, and now, I will review:


Kelly Link writes strange stories. They take all the things you know about genres and twist them up until they become nearly unrecognizable, and suddenly real. Fantastic things: a dead girl’s hair with a mind of its own, a country contained within a handbag, thick, viscous magic, beautiful aliens, a secret television show called The Library—seem plausible, tangible. This is not in a far away land a long time ago. It’s magic, plain and simple, and it’s happening right here, right now.

This latest collection, Pretty Monsters, is geared toward teens, and populated by young protagonists, each with their own collection of confusions about identity and relationships. These are woven with skillful curiosity into narratives of the strange, where in addition to the challenges of growing up, there are ghosts to catch, monsters to flee from, and wizards who want their dinner. But, whatever the characters encounter, an intimate knowledge of emotion takes the forefront.

Though the apt juxtaposition of the teenage years with fantasy and horror is not an innovation, Link keeps it fresh each time. Strange can be humorous, scary, sweet, intense or all of these at once, just like being a teenager. Word play and the quotable turn of phrase are frequent features. You’ll want to stop and read every few sentences again, aloud.

Some of the stories take place in our own world, or nearly enough. In those with settings that are different, world building is subtly interspersed so as not to interrupt the flow of the story. The reader catches on little by little, trying to solve the riddle of the place.

If there is fault to be found, it may be that some stories end abruptly or split off into unexpected directions. For those who find this disorienting, I offer a thought from Jeremy Mars, protagonist of the story titled Magic for Beginners:

Jeremy supposes that [the ever-changing casting in his favorite show, The Library] could be perpetually confusing, but instead it makes your brain catch on fire. It’s magical.

My gray matter is certainly singed. A highly recommended collection for anyone, teen or adult, with a taste for the strange.

Sample Blog Post

Up there in orange is the title.  Down here is the body of the post (we call individual selections blog "posts").  I can imagine all kinds of content here, a teacher posting assignments for his students to check in with at home and leave their questions in the comments section.  Student journals on everything from biology labs with labeled diagrams to maps and descriptions of civil war battles to biographies of famous people or somewhat less famous pets:

There are also plenty of uses for blogs in the library: Book reviews, announcing new arrivals, publicizing library programs, making pathfinders for specific projects, tech support:

or sharing a little book related humor with your students:

video by The Fifth District

Throughout this post you'll have noticed the hyperlinks, which take you to other sites when you click them.  This is an easy way to reference other websites in your blog post.  Sometimes blog posts are simply a collection of links that may or may not have commentary.  A library pathfinder might look something like that, or a student's virtual notes for a research project.

A few last things: 

• you can change text color
  
• use different fonts
  
• or styles
  
• use bullets
  
• or make a numbered list

And if you look below you can add tags to categorize your post and help you find it later.

I hope you enjoyed this little demonstration, classmates, now, everyone else, back to your regularly (intermittently?) scheduled blogging.

The Art of the Fan Video

Fan videos are an art that could not have existed without the Internet and the culture of combination that comes with it. They are constructed by fans from video or still images of whatever it is they are fans of, frequently television shows, movies, or musical groups, and are usually set to music. They also frequently tell a specific story that may or may not come from the original entity, or seek to illustrate a certain character's perspective. They are most frequently found on YouTube.

Fan videos on a topic where one shares that fandom are kind of addictive. But while I can spend an hour here or there watching a montage of cute scenes featuring my favorite romantic pairings on television (The Doctor and Rose, Mulder and Scully, Starbuck and Apollo, Veronica and Logan...), it is on a more rare occasion when the craftsmanship of the fan video is noticeably exceptional.

A few factors that I feel go into excellent fan video craftsmanship:

• choice of music
• timing, as in the editing of the visuals works in tandem with the music
• smooth transitions
• cohesive mood

I also enjoy a well-placed piece of dialogue allowed to play over the music. Frequently fan videos do not contain the actual dialogue from the scenes used.

I submit for your consideration, some of my favorites:

Cowboy Bebop - Stress

song by Jim's Big Ego

*spoiler alert: I was tackled the first time I went to watch this because I hadn't seen all of Cowboy Bebop yet, so be warned there are scenes from the last episode. But seriously, you haven't seen all of Cowboy Bebop yet? You should be watching that instead of reading this*



This might be the first fan video I ever watched, a few years ago in college. The song, which is about stress in an office type setting, goes so well with the plight of the anime's bounty hunting heroes. The whole video has a great sense of flow. I think the section involving conversation with a trumpet as the music behind a fight scene is especially strong.

10,000 Miles - Mulder/Scully

song by Mary Chapin Carpenter



I think this video takes the emotions of the characters seriously and conveys this by using a pretty melancholy ballad rather than the typical pop song. The song is also an interesting juxtaposition with the science fiction element of the story- this video focuses on both characters' alien abductions, drawing from the whole range of the show's nine seasons. But then, I always feel that scifi and fantasy use strangeness and intensity to convey emotions more openly than reality is able. I also enjoy the use of black and white to convey memories of times when the characters are together, and color to convey what seems to be the present for this story, times when they are apart.


Veronica Mars "Somewhere A Clock is Ticking"
song by Snow Patrol



This video has some great visual tricks. I love the use of a white flare between some of these early scenes, it feels like blinking. And a few times other bits of video are inserted into the background of scenes, notice the pictures in Veronica's apartment, sometimes they are moving with other images from the show. The way the song varies in intensity going from quiet to chaotic echoes Logan's unpredictable hostile intensity, as well as the volatile nature (of all teen romance) of his relationship with Veronica- a relationship he says he believes is "epic." Veronica is both drawn to this, as well as afraid of it. In general I just love this song, and it looks like fan video creators do too, if you search you'll find videos for Sylar from Heroes and Six from Battlestar Galactica, as well as several other videos set to this song.

I understand that fan videos raise issues about copyright. Frequently the people who make them understand this as well and add disclaimers to the end of their videos or in the sidebar information. I feel that this is one of the parts of copyright that is going to have to stretch a bit to accomodate the new kinds of creating people are doing on the Internet. Fan videos are expressing a love for someone else's creation, not trying to steal it or make money from it. I feel like that should go under a heading of attribution rather than make the creators of the original work cranky, but all of that is a discussion for another time.

For right now, I'll just say that the recombining of the media we consume is becoming a new way to tell stories, to appreciate that media, and also to say a bit about ourselves. The more of these fan videos I watch, the more I want to make one, but also, the more daunted that seems when I look at how much goes into the process of doing that well.

A Couple of Random Thoughts

Dad's Instructions for Optimal Viewing of The Wire
1 disc per viewing
2 rotations through each season
watch in order season by season

My father and I have found a shared fandom. He's going to mail me his DVDs of The Wire so I can get caught up. The above method was recommended to maximize noticing the little details that will be important in later episodes.


Warriors In the Library
During my time as student librarian in a local elementary school this past semester, Erin Hunter's Warriors series was flying off the shelves. Kids would have the next one on hold before the library could finish processing the books. So, now that my semester is over and I have some free time, I read the first one. The series is about clans of wild cats prowling the forest and warring over territory. The clans are structured like tribes with a leader, a medicine cat, warriors, mothers caring for kits and warriors-in-training: our protagonists. The series begins with a house cat, referred to by the warriors of ThunderClan as a kittypet, joining up with the clan. It had one little off-putting thing at the beginning: a male tortoiseshell cat. (Tortoiseshell cats are always female, I think it's the red color in the fur that is genetically sex linked). But I let it slide, and ended up enjoying the book.

Then while I was sleeping that night I had an idea. I frequently have ideas in my sleep. A Warriors themed library program. You could put up little posters of cats with library instructions on them. Call them InfoClan. They could have names like Bookheart and Shelfclaw. Maybe their leader could be Searchingstar- the leaders' names always end in -star. Anyway, it would be a cute way to hook the kids. They would be interested in finding and looking at the different cats and that would encourage them to read the library tips.

As a side note, www.warriorcats.com is quite a site (quite a sight?). I just checked it out now so I could make the above link, and it has an animated intro and lots of neat things once you get into the site. According to "StarClan," my warrior name is Rainfire. Nice. Definitely something to look at for the next time I find myself in an elementary school.

...And Speaking of Books and Websites
Audrey, Wait! came in for me today. I originally heard about it on the YA YA YAs and thought it sounded like fun-- when Audrey breaks up with her boyfriend, he writes a song and gets famous, leaving Audrey to deal with the paparazzi (and it's blurbed by Meg Cabot and Rachel Cohn!). I had a quick look at the website while I was at work today and it looked bright and exciting. There was a soundtrack posted for the book as well as a tabloid generator.

I must remember, when I have a library of my own, to make connections between books and websites. There is fun and probably something educational in there.

I made a lolcat

moar funny pictures

that's my Az. In my homework... doin... my homework?

Media Consumed This Weekend

**SPOILERS**
1. Latest episode of Battlestar Galactica, "The Road Less Traveled"
I am somewhat concerned with the bleak, dark tone my favorite show has taken on of late, but I am trying to remind myself that the darkest hour is just before the dawn. This episode felt like we were waiting for something to happen, but didn't quite get there yet. I accuse Helo of being a "plot-blocker" for not following Kara's orders, but I understand that resistance to making peace with cylons other than Athena is something we're going to have to go through before the Colonials can get over it and advance their progress towards Earth.
Random thoughts:
Leoben is still creepy in a good way.
Earth is looking more and more metaphorical the more I watch.
Gauis Baltar is starting to make far too much sense spiritually. This should perhaps bother me more than it does.
I look forward to next week.

**spoilers over, feel free to read again if you were planning on getting caught up on BSG**


2. Old episodes from the first season of ER:
Everyone looks so little. Even George Clooney, who was still very handsome before his super stardom. ER is as to Scrubs as realism is to cartoons. Dr. Carter's early days of being mostly terrified, but occasionally triumphant is comforting to watch, anticipating my own transition from student to professional. (Though I am certain that fewer lives hang in the balance for librarians).
This is a series I should look into owning on DVD.

3. Several Stories from The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, a compilation from the zine edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant.
I've just been going through, reading the first line of each and then reading the ones that sound interesting. Mostly I'm liking the ones that are tinged with fairy tales or fairy folk. Particular favorites at this moment (if the cat will kindly get off of the book):
Three Letters from Elfland by Sarah Monette
Serpents by Veronica Schanoes
and
The Ichthyomancer Writes His Friend With an Account of the Yeti's Birthday Party by David J. Schwartz
I should, perhaps, look into subscribing to LCRW, I like the idea of zine plus chocolate.
Things that are Kelly Link related in general, I like. If you like strange genre-bending (not gender bending, I mean genre bending) "slipstream" or "new wave fabulist" type of stories, you should look into reading:
Stranger Things Happen
and
Magic for Beginners
The eponymous story from the latter is my favorite. It features The Free People's World Tree Library, the place, if it existed, I would most want to work.

4. Still reading Runemarks by Joanne Harris, a Norse myth inspired children's book (YA book?) by the author of Chocolat. It has some ups and downs, I like the way the magic works and the idea that the world needs to end every now and then to refresh itself. The main character has, thus far, been overly trusting of Loki, which, as I have seen in many other stories, is never a good idea.
I wonder if my favorite YA book blog The YA YA YAs reviewed this one. I think they did. Blogs should have more extensive search functions. Though, I realize that's probably up to us bloggers to make our tags more organized and/or extensive.

5. Music:
The Arcade Fire- Funeral
tracks from various albums by Iron and Wine
and INORAN

6. I have not yet seen Iron Man. I would like to do so, and soon. Will write more when I do.

The Importance of Being Omar

I have been watching The Wire lately and it dawned on me that Omar is a television anomaly-- in a good way. He is nominally a "bad guy," as much as a show like The Wire has "bad guys." Sides on The Wire are more like A and B rather than anything much resembling light and darkness or good and evil. Still, Omar is on the streets and in The Game. He has a certain Robin Hood-esque moral code, but he also has a trench coat and a shotgun. He's a scary badass! And he has sexual relationships with men.

I think the existence of Omar sends a good message to and for the LGBTQ community. A person's sexual preference doesn't necessarily have a whole lot to do with any other part of their personality or lifestyle.

Omar is an example of the kind of man that typically would not be thought of as gay. And then he can go and kiss another man more tenderly and believably than any other man kissing a man than I can recall ever watching on T.V.

I applaud the writers and creators of The Wire for writing multidimensional characters that are more than just examples of traits like sexual preference. It is modeling a constructive mindset for the rest of us-- If they're not hung up about it, we shouldn't be either.

Disclaimer?
I have also noticed lately that a lot of writing about LGBTQ issues is written by gay people (note Sunday's New York Times Magazine).
So I wonder if some might think it is weird for me, a predominantly heterosexual female, to be writing and thinking about the realistic portrayal of gay people as natural characters in a story about something other than their homosexuality.

Perhaps this is weird for some people. Like those of older generations or who live in the middle of this country. It brings me back to my theory that information moves outward in concentric circles or ripples. Ideas, like acceptance of web 2.0 or homosexuals, seem so completely normal or old news to a small group of people. But there is a group of people outside of that circle to whom the idea is still new, strange, and possibly frightening. Those of us in the circle can hardly believe that those outside of it have not yet adopted our way of thinking.

The range of viewpoints amazes me. But if my theory holds, widespread acceptance of other people's sexuality, be it gay, straight, or anywhere in the middle, is only as far away as the time it takes for that circle of information to expand.

Metablogging, By Way of Introduction

It has taken me far too long to a) set up a real blog and b)think of a name for this blog that no one else was using.

First, about real blogs: I mean that they are different from online journals, in which one might write about his or her thoughts and feelings and use this as a way to keep up with friends. A blog, to attempt in paraphrasing Will Richardson, author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, involves responding and linking to other content and making connections between things. In typing just the above, I have four or five tabs open in my browser, and two links. I would say that means I'm off to a decent start. Real blogs, I would say, are online-written entities that can be a part of an information professional's career, that can be shared with the entire readership of the Internet (provided they decide to care), and would make sense to someone who does not personally know the author.

So now that I've told you that you don't need to know me, I will, paradoxically, tell you about myself. At least, what bit you probably ought to know. I will be graduating with a Master's degree in Library Science this January, and looking for a job as a professional librarian in either a school or public library. Right now, between work as a Circulation Assistant, sometime Reference Assistant and all-purpose substitute in a public library in Western Massachusetts and my coursework, which includes practical School Librarian experience at least one day a week and a long drive on another day of the week, I consume media.

By which I mean, I read books, magazines, comics, blogs and websites, and watch movies and television whenever I can. I'm not picky about format, if it's a story (especially fiction and especially weird in some way, but again, I'm not picky), I probably want to consume it. People ask me how I manage to do these things when I have work and homework to do. I tell them this: It's compulsive, I can't stop.

I also spend a lot of time thinking about all of these things that I read and watch, discussing them with others, and thinking about the implications of information in our over-saturated society. So, I thought I would put all of that to some potentially constructive use and share.