Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Almost summer time yall!

This is who I'm going to hang out with/make out with all summer at summer camp. 


Yesterday on the way to work while listening to a dissonant jazz version of Heart's Barracuda (thanks, NPR) trying to think about anything BUT the song playing because, OH MAN, does Barracuda get stuck in my head after I hear it, I realized IT'S ALMOST SUMMER!  I mean, not REALLY.  Because it's still April, and that's definitely not summer and also, today it's around 45 degrees out which, in my opinion, is the opposite of summer.  But for a lot of people school is nearly out (!!! weird, right?) and supposedly it's going to be in the mid-80s by the end of the week, so ask me on Friday and I'll tell you it's so definitely summer.  Anyway, all of this thought obviously begs the Very Important question: What's going to be this year's super-summer-fun-best-song(s)-ever-2k9?  

I am on the edge of my seat.  Who's going to put out the new D.A.N.C.E./Lipgloss/another good one that I can't think of right now??? 

But really, it's getting sunny more often lately so I'm in the perpetual mood to drive with my windows down blasting hits that I'll most definitely be tired of by mid-July.  To be honest, I am more than happy to keep my super-summer-fun-2k9 contained by only listening to the new Dirty Projector's album Bitte Orca. On repeat.  For 5 months straight (I AM ON THE RIGHT TRACK ALREADY).  The album officially comes out in June and that, along with it being awesome, makes it perfect summer fun material but that just might get boring after awhile and will most definitely get annoying for anyone else I am around.  

The best thing about super-summer-fun-best-ever-songs are that they can cross a few more genres of music than I usually surround myself with.  During the summer I allow myself to branch out (even more than I already do) into the realm of pop music and sometimes, JUST sometimes, I think it's okay to listen to top 40 pop hit radio and find the songs appealing.  

I think this year of hope/Obama (ha) might invite a lot more bands that feature women in the lead for some of the super-summer-fun-songs.  Maybe The Joy Formidable, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, etc. Do any of you have some picks for the songs that will soundtrack our summer?       

   

Friday, March 13, 2009

On Suggesting Books

Oh, hey. Back from blogger vaca. This is going to be a long one, folks.

A few weeks ago Nancy Pearl, probably the most famous librarian for being a librarian (not many librarians have action figures), came to my library for a staff lecture/pep rally. Later that evening she also did an open-to-the-public forum. I went to both because I am a nerd and although both were worthwhile and surprisingly completely different in content, the staff meeting got me thinking a lot about why people like certain things.

Primarily, Pearl discussed (at least what our library system likes to call) reader's advisory. This is basically the act of recommending or suggesting a book for a library customer. It's a straight forward concept but probably the biggest hang up when working at a library. It's really hard to make recommendations to people you know LET ALONE people you don't know and have nothing in common with. Pearl explained that we, as book/information promoters, need to suggest books, NOT 'recommend' them, because recommendations lead to hurt feelings if the person doesn't like a book you love. You don't need to read or enjoy a book to suggest it.

To make this easier, Pearl presented us with four different 'doorways' a book can fit in: Story, Character, Setting and Language. Most people enjoy books mainly from one doorway, and have a secondary doorway they travel through from time to time. The Story doorway is the most common doorway, a lot of books based in this doorway are also best sellers. A Story book is fast paced, hard to put down, full of adrenaline and usually goes very quickly. Commonly, there is a lot of dialogue and when you look at the pages of a book based in Story, there is a lot of white space from the amount the characters talk to one another to move the plot along. Stephen King, Dan Brown and Michael Crichton are all great at Story writing, and their bank accounts can prove it.

Books with Character as its largest doorway are appreciated by a reader because they get to intimately know someone while reading a book. Biographies and memoirs are obvious Character-driven plots, but a lot of fiction authors also rely on this gimmick like Nick Hornby and Michael Chabon. Character books are often coming of age stories, and in my opinion, the most worn out subject for a story (although when done well, it's great). The third doorway, Setting, is not as common as the last two, but is very prevalent in science fiction books and historical fiction. Setting-driven books work because the author transports you into a time or place so well, you couldn't imagine the book taking place (or being of any value at all) anywhere or anytime else. John Steinbeck, Terry Prachett or something like Frank Herbert's Dune are great examples of Setting-heavy books.

The fourth doorway is the smallest in terms of books written and in readership. Language books are self described as "well-written" (although any book can be well-written, people who like language heavy books like to tell people they only read books that are written well). There doesn't have to be a good subject or a great character, what matters is what the author evokes in the reader, how it makes them feel and how it can change their life. I'm a total sucker for these type of books. My favorite authors write books that make me feel. Authors like Johnathan Safran Foer, Jeanette Winterson, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Margaret Atwood, Nicole Krauss, etc etc etc write this way and although I don't like every author I've listed, I like all of them more than I like any of the authors in the other categories.

The people who enjoy Language books are probably also the most pretentious and annoying of all types of readers, because we generally look down upon all other doorways. For example, anyone who relies on Language as their doorway probably read about 5 pages of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and then threw it away because it was, they thought, so poorly written. But, as soon as that opinion is stated to someone who intensely enjoys a fast-paced Story, that Story-lover will not only be offended but also confused; they thought Brown wrote with beautiful prose. This brings us back to reader advisory. Pearl's introduction to the doorways helps us all, library employees and otherwise, understand what that customer or your friend wants in a book suggestion. Figure out which doorway a person likes or what doorway they are in the mood for that day and it should be (relatively) smooth sailing from there. Which doorway are you?

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Wal-Mart Taken On By White Guy

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photo via BB

Sci-Fi author Charles Platt, a guest blogger over at Boing Boing for the past two weeks, has been pissing some regular BB readers off with his guest blogging. Some of Platt's posts have been controversial and more than one started off with him saying something like "at the risk of stimulating outrage..." proceeding it with some stimulating outrage. At first I was like, whatever, this dude is probably just really into good debates via the comment section. But after reading this post, he might actually just be out of touch with reality.

Platt's post in question chronicles him reading the book Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, deciding it's too critical of places like Wal-mart, and then getting an entry-level job at Wal-Mart to prove her wrong. Ehrenreich's book (which was first published in 1999) is an undercover journalist's approach to the poor and working class in America. If I remember correctly from reading the book five years ago, Ehrenreich gets an entry-level job and then tries to find housing and a sustainable life on her low income. The book is considered good for class/gender relations 101 and, in the ten years after it came out, has opened a lot of people's eyes to the inequalities within the welfare and class system. Platt doesn't say much in his BB post about the reasons why he decided to work for Wal-Mart because he wasn't doing it to write a book, apparently not even trying this out in an investigative way by living off of only those wages. What he does say is while at Wal-mart he was treated well, had good relations with his employers, that most of the claims against Wal-mart are from shady union-paid organizations and that it made sense he wasn't paid well because he didn't have any particular skill to offer. Well, I say that this is one of the more one-sided, privileged things I've seen come from someone who apparently is considered progressive (I can't imagine BB would invite a conservative hack to guest blog).

The picture I put on the top of this post is the same that was on Platt's post, a picture of him working at Wal-mart. I think the picture, more than anything he could write, discredits his opinions against Ehrenreich. Platt is clearly a white, middle or higher class man. After Wal-mart saw his resume (even if he omitted some of his qualifications) it would be clear he was also highly educated (and had access to a computer/printer for his resume, something a lot of people trying to get jobs don't have). Of COURSE he was treated well by Wal-mart! He was born with more agency than probably anyone else has now working in that store. No one is going to undercut the dapper gent in the turtleneck and wire-rimmed glasses. I am not personally acquainted with the supposedly poor treatment Wal-mart gives to their employees, but if it does exist the higher-ups are smart enough to know who to treat well and who to treat poorly. I don't think I'm stretching when I say it's probably almost only going to be obviously poor immigrants/women/young people/people who are not white. Platt is none of those things. No one is going to sexually harass this dude.

Additionally, as I mentioned before, Nickel and Dimed came to us ten years ago, during a much different time. Platt doesn't mention this, but it's very important when talking about the climate of entry-level positions. I don't know specifics but within the past decade and probably partially BECAUSE of Ehrenreich things within big-box retailers have changed. Maybe I'm being a little too harsh on this guy, he maybe did all of this in earnest. He might think he's going to change the world just as much as everyone else. But, still, I call shenanigans. I can't imagine someone being that close-minded in 2k9. What do you think?

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Buttons

I guess it's time for another Coraline post.

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apparently the only picture I have of myself face on, not smiling is from 2007.

Here I am with button eyes, one of the many things you can do and look at on the Coraline website. I feel like I need validate why I'm excited about this movie. The main reason that I'm encouraged is how involved Neil Gaiman is with the promotion. You can really tell that he likes what Henry Selick has done with his book. I follow Gaiman on twitter, and his updates imply that he's doing a ridiculous amount of interviewing for this film and that's great. As opposed to other books that have been made into movies like the Harry Potter series it's apparent this was a joint effort between book and movie production. I think that, along with it not being a movie with real actors (that give books a celebrity factor that always leaves a bad taste in my mouth) are really going to push this film into the category of good-movie-adapted-from-good-book. Hopefully I won't have to bite my tongue when I see the movie after it comes out next week.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The MGMTs (aka the least time relevant post ever)

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photo via HRO

I'm not an MGMT fan. Don't worry, that's not a confession. I mean, it's kind of obvious, right? All of their songs sound pretty similar and are about 2X too slow. Borrrrring. But, I have to admit, I think that the song Time to Pretend is a pretty good single for a band that is overplayed and overhyped. Actually, the only reason I can even stand the song, probably, is because I moved to Columbus in the end of August instead of the beginning of 2008. The reason is the local alternative radio station, CD101. The station way overplays its popular songs. I don't blame CD101, I blame the people calling/texting/emailing their requests for the same couple of songs every day. I mean, c'mon, don't people get tired of hearing Pork and Beans after a few days?

CD101 puts out a top 101 songs of each year and the number one requested/played song of 2008 was MGMT's Time to Pretend. Honestly, I didn't even realize the song was a big single on the alt radio circuit, probably because I hadn't listened to anything but NPR until I moved to a city that has a station that plays music that's on the top 40 Alt Music List instead of the top 40 rock/country/pop lists. I would have hated Time to Pretend if I was living in Columbus, listening to CD101, even occasionally, because it would have been played so often. I was lucky enough to move in right as MGMT's Electric Feel got super super popular so that's what I got to hear constantly (now it's Fleet Foxes' White Winter Hymnal. and I hate it).

You're probably wondering why Time to Pretend is, for me, better than any of the other songs MGMT put out. I mean, it's a valid question. They're all by a long haired, shirtless white dude, trying to connect with his inner wolf. There's nothing redeeming about that. I guess it has a lot to do with that hook. You know what I'm talking about. I'm a sucker for a good hook (the Best Example here). The only other reason, and the one that needs to be capitalized on a lot more than it already has, is how meaningful it is. I mean it in the best/worst way possible.



The first time I really recognized that Time to Pretend was a "good" song was after I watched this preview for The Unidentified, a movie that a friend of mine did the sound on. And then it really clicked as the actors ran through the screen changing their perspective on life; this song takes the place of Death Cab's Passenger Seat (/every other song?) as the most meaningful song to ride in a car at night/change the world to. Actually, I think MGMT is the new Death Cab. It is the best band to connect with your mainstream friends over at the moment. I'm proud to be a part of the movement.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Coraline



This is the best trailer I've seen. The others have left me kind of unsure if it's going to be any good. I'm getting excited, now.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Girl Talk 1.0 or Something



A few days ago Al pointed out that Mariah Carey's song Fantasy (hate it when embedding is disabled) samples Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love in the background. Turns out, she even sings some of Tom Tom Club's lyrics near the end of the song (I'm a little disappointed she doesn't say James Brown a few times). Maybe I'm a little dense for not noticing it before but I probably never noticed because I was 10 when Fantasy came out (I listened to the Beatles and Bach back then, didn't really know anything else existed). Looking through the comments under the Fantasy video I linked to, I'm not the only one who just recently realized this either. The sample definitely makes that song/Mariah Carey better though, it's a sweet beat to steal for a pop tune. I think Stephen mentioned once that Genius of Love is the most annoying song ever, but I don't think so. I look at it as way ahead of its time in terms of what it's doing musically. Like, it totally could have come out in 2006 and been a hit. Anyway, are there a lot more pop songs from the 90s that sample good beats via the 70s/80s that I don't know about?