More All About Me

I have not posted or worked on the blog for well over two years. Why? Because every time I did I thought "this has no cohesion, this isn't about anything." But that confusion just led to stagnation. Today I woke up and decided it's about things I like. It's a method for keeping my thoughts and dreams and interests in one place, if for no other reason, than to fuel my failing memory. (Nope, not failing in the big-picture medical sense, just failing in the my brain is too crowded to hold all this stuff sense.)

So what do I like? Books, particularly Young Adult books but not usually the distopian ones although occasionally those, too. And contemporary fiction provided it doesn't veer too close to thriller or mystery territory although there are exceptions to that rule, too. But mostly realistic YA stuff. I love writing and have written 13 published books but have shown NOTHING to anyone in the last few years because the terror that is wrapped up in my flailing confidence has prevented me from doing so. I still revel in the sweeping power that music has on our emotions and lives and like many different genres and bands and people but never (and this is a cliche I know but) never pop music although I did have a very realistic dream once that I wrote "Since You Been Gone" for Kelly Clarkson and she was very thankful. I honestly believe I missed my calling — I should have been a pop songwriter. I used to like TV, no I take that back, I used to LOVE TV but now, I can honestly take it or leave it. All of it. Even the good stuff. But let's face it, I always loved the bad stuff. I don't eat that gluten crud anymore because when I do my fingers and knees stop working. Like, Stop. Working. So while I get that from many folks' perspectives, it seems like a crazy fad, I like my fingers to work so I also like stuff without gluten. I like clothes but not too fancy crazy clothes, I love shoes, all kinds, even fancy ones, and I am on the constant hunt for new and ingenious ways to tame my once curly now just frizzy hair. Other random things that interest me: when science is explained in fun and easy to understand layman's terms, middle and high school education, good design of all kinds, people taking major leaps in their lives and trying something new, make-up, veganism - although I am not a vegan I think about it a lot, politics as they apply to me or rather as I understand them to apply to me, my daughter Tuesday, my dog Ozzie and my husband Jeff.

So that's it. a bunch of stuff collected because I like it. I don't expect anyone to read it except me but I bet there are a couple of people who have the same likes as me, maybe sans the daughter Tuesday.

SMALL THINGS

Two really great new Tiny Desk Concerts

Wilco
Lisa Hannigan

Six Famous Novels penned in under a month (in honor of National Novel Month!)

Super excited to try Scrivener out for a ride.

Last year I read all but two of the Publisher's Weekly's best Yong Adult books of 2010. I think I'll do it again for 2011's best. Here is what they got so far. Most looking forward to Brian Selznick's Wonderstruck, the Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler collaboration The Future of Us, also The Apothecary, The Girl Who Circumvented Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making (which I started already and wow!) and The Flint Heart, the latter of which I will read with my daughter.

Speaking of reading with my daughter, I bought this book for $1. Should arrive tomorrow. Damn, looks like the price jumped back up to $8.

I wanna take the hat class at Home Ec Studios. But it's $85 and spending that on me right now seems rather selfish.

That said, I think I am gonna splurge and buy myself this Pendelton bag on UrbanOutfitters.com - it's half off, as is a lot of the Pendelton collection. Damn, I want it all.

A very long list of the writers who support Occupy Wall Street.

Five interesting food politics stories that made news this week.

I Fear the Murderer May Be Amongst Us

These are some of the most clever illustrations // coolest art I've seen of late. The artist of Aled Lewis, a London-based. I own the artists' Threadless Thermos (I got it at Target!) and when I picked it out, didn't even realize it was the same person who made these hilarious photos. Prints are back in stock at inPRNT. More below...



And that's the Thermos.

There Is No Reason This Should Affect Me As It Does



I mean, he plays the electronic keyboards. The other dude is playing— what? A push button phone? I don't even know what that is. James Blake is a very white, nerdy 20-year-old Brit. Who repeats himself. A lot. And yet, this song, I think it's all that breathy space in between the words, just kills me. It hurts.

* Click the youtube logo in the corner and it will play there.

Finally.

I really have been wondering when someone would create an online teen magazine that had the old Sassy vibe but was thoroughly modern and real. And not another Jane thing, either.

Rookie is a that, or at least, it is thus far. They make fun of the ridiculous diets of women's magazines, they have a boy write about his love of all things girly, they lists songs to date to, they tell you how to buy a guitar and they do it without a Hello Kitty or pink lightning bolt in sight.

It's from young style blogger Tavi Gevinson and originally was supposed to be an off-shoot of Jane's xo site. But it's not now and I'm okay with that.

So far, I'm a fan.

I Can't Wait for This Movie!


Even though I really do not enjoy the artistic stylings of Charlize Theron. But what a great idea for a movie. The whole reason I wrote for teens whilst in my 20s and 30s is because I was still, in every imaginable way, a teenager.

This is the plot synopsis:
Theron plays a 30-something alcoholic writer of young-adult novels who, on a whim, decides to return to the small town that she left behind years ago to aggressively pursue her ex-boyfriend from high school (Patrick Wilson) -- only, now he is happily married and the father of a young child, which certainly complicates matters, and leads her to another high school classmate (Patton Oswalt), and no shortage of trouble.

Diablo Cody wrote it. And the poster is great, too. Got to wait till December. Damn.

Patti Smith in Sweden

She's in town to pick up that prize by the King. I absolutely love her reaction to Sweden's First Aid Kit singing "Dancing Barefoot":

I (Sort Of) Labored Today


Actually mostly what I did was sit at home and read blogs and download apps. And now I'm gonna share them here. I came to find the Biz*Ladies section of Design Sponge by way of the Girl's Guide To Web Design, which is an online class I want to take about Wordpress because I'm on Blogger and have web envy. The gal who conducts the class has contributed to Biz*Ladies (about Wordpress, of course) and when I started reading back posts on Biz*Ladies I got ever so inspired and excited and I even emailed my ol' pal Keva with new ideas (mind you she had emailed first, a few days ago, but still, I haven't emailed new ideas to Keva in years!) Really there are some very wonderful posts over there, in particular, I got a lot out of the following:

* Get a Website in a Weekend (a Wordpress primer)
* Advanced Functions of Wordpress
* The One Simple Thing You Need To Know For Your Online Business (hint: relationships)
* Free Publicity Techniques

But they were all pretty good.

Then I spent some time trying to retrieve my notes that I (thought I) lost on Evernote, but voila! They were there once I got back into my account. And now they have this section on their site called The Trunk that showcases all sorts of iPad and iPhone and Android apps that integrate with Evernote and so I spent an hour or three exploring those and downloaded quite a few, in particular I liked these:

FastFinga - A handwriting app that allows me to write notes with my finger on the iPhone screen
JotNot - Nifty document scanner
FotoNote - Captures text from a photo and does a decent job of it, too. This is going to come in handy at the hair salon where I always read interesting things in their magazines and try and shoot them with the iPhone camera and well this will convert it if I want and send it to Evernote and I like that.
ScanBizCards - Bet you can figure out what this one does? The free version let's you scan 2 cards a week which is enough for me.

*Those are the nachos that Keva and I shared last time we saw each other. Yum, Roxy.

I got one book, ordered another.

I had an Amazon gift card that I hadn't used because I read mostly on my NOOK now, but cookbooks and craftbooks are better to touch and feel and so I picked out one of each. I got this one:


It looks fun and has recipes for weird things that you don't think of making from scratch like rice crispies and corn flakes and cheese doodles, plus chipoltes in adobo sauce (no more cans!), lentil crackers, slightly better for you nutella-esque spread and there is even a section on roasting your own coffee beans!

And the book I ordered that hasn't come yet is this one:


Could the title be any cuter? I love cute. And I love me cute, simple dresses. Here are some pictures from inside...

Polar Music Prize.


Here are things I didn't know about the Polar Music Prize:

1. It was started by Stig Anderson, manager of Abba.
2. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden presents the prize.
3. Each winner gets money-- a million kronor.
4. It's not the Polaris Music Prize, which is what I thought, which is actually awarded to the best Canadians and not presented by a King.

This year the Kronos Quartet and Patti Smith won. Awesome and congrats. Last year it was Ennio Morricone and Björk. Also awesome.

New Blind Pilot CD


Called We Are The Tide. I saw them a few years ago open up for Gomez and was completely and totally enchanted with their storytelling and sweet band camaraderie and pretty voices. Blind Pilot, like the aforementioned Ben Sollee, have done a few bike tours— travelling from show to show, with their equipment, on their bicycles. That's worth all sorts of bonus points. The CD is streaming at npr.com now.

My favorite band is Wilco.



Just with that one little factoid, you now know that I'm a) white, and b) probably over 40. Sad, isn't it? But the reality is, o my mind, no one writes small stories like Jeff Tweedy, no one plays guitar like Nils or drums like Glenn. There is a new Wilco CD coming out in about a month and there is a preview of many new tracks over at Wounded Jukebox. If you love Tweedy like I love Tweedy you will head on over.

Best Tiny Desk Concerts, Pt. 4



Is this too obvious? Maybe. But Adele singing "Someone Like You" perched on a tiny desk with just a soft tinkling behind her is kind of shocking in a real way because she has a ridiculous voice, as in for real, no trickery needed. I have this version on audio only and listen to it on the headphones and each and every time am just tickled in the best possible ways. And then there is "Chasing Pavements" which is like a lost Bacharach tune. That's why I love her, I think she would have been a Burt protege in another time and place. And I love me some Burt.

And what makes it even more remarkable is the way she laughs: it's like a painful cackle that sounds like it's coming from a wholly different animal than the singing voice.

Best Tiny Desk Concerts, Pt. 3



Not as moving as the previous two Tiny Desks I posted, but this Ben Sollee set is simply the definition of charming. He appears to be a lovely man whom I'd like to have a lovely conversation with.

I also love this video from his new CD, Inclusions.



http://bensollee.com/

Best Tiny Desk Concerts, Pt. 2




I hadn't even heard of Y La Bamba till I saw them on Tiny Desks and I was transfixed and mesmerized and all those words we use when we love. They are from Portland. You can tell by looking at the boys she is surrounded by.

Y La Bamba

Best Tiny Desk Concerts




I've been on a Tiny Desk kick lately and revisited this oldie but goody. Gogol Bordello. Last song is the best and not just because Eugene makes his way to the tops of the tiny desks. By the way, I do believe he is the sexiest person named Eugene, ever.

Gogol Bordello

Teux Deux

I found this To-Do List online program last week and LOVE it. It's pretty intuitive but I did watch the 3 minute video to make sure I full grasped it's potential. It's simple, but effective. Basically you enter your To-Dos on the days you want To Do them and then when you have accomplished them, you click to cross them off. And here is the part I love: if you don't click them off, they move to the next day. And so on and so on. Automatically.

Find it at TeuxDeux.com

Before I Fall



What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: the world’s most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.

Instead, it turns out to be her last. Then she gets a second chance. Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.


This book, by Lauren Oliver, was on pretty much every Top Ten pf 2010 YA list and since I've been making my way through the lists, it was inevitable that I got here. I read it in two days and thoroughly enjoyed it. To my mind it has everything a YA book should have-- a little mystery, a lot of horrid high school drama, real characters who are completely imperfect and frustrating (because every teen is frustrating, every damn one), and a touch of desire. And it should have all those things plus be readable, breezy, fast-moving and carefully written. Check, check, check and check. Highly recommended - I know this has been said about it, but it's hard not to compare: it's sort of Groundhog Day (of death!) meets Heathers, minus the biting black comedy, although there is comedy and it is pretty bleak. All in all, a great summer read. Looking forward to her Delirium, which is more supernatural than this one.

Lauren Oliver

Baboushka Bike Bags
These are on sale for $30 (yes for the pair, they are connected) and I am getting them to go on my cute vintage red bicycle. There are more on sale over at iCargoBike.com