Lots to catch up on!

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Thought of the just woke up with a grin on my face day: You kissed me so right and now my breath smells like your breath.
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Finished Guitar Girl by Sarra Manning (another ARC) a few days back. It was good in the Fluffy British Teen Girl Lit way. As evidenced below, it was very predictable with sprinklings of good phrasing here and there.

p.21
I actually had a theory that I'd sprung forth fully formed from the froth of the ocean, but my birth certificate tended to discount that theory.
--I really like this, except she should NOT use the word 'theory' twice in one sentence.

p.71
It was like a Quaker prayer meeting or a Mexican standoff. I couldn't decide which.

p.90
SHOUTY NOT POUTY
--In the book, she has a handmade sign in the studio reminding her how to sing. This pretty much sums up her character.

p.172
Eyes like black holes.

p.192
The blue cobweb of veins across her wrists.

p.197
I gave you my heart and you've stomped on it with your horrid boy feet.
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Concept: Star Wars as a metaphor for organized religion. Discuss.
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VLB needs a new nickname, and I'm struggling to come up with one. I keep wanting to make one that's all cutesy and spells something (a la Creepy Ugly Naked Tattooed guy) but nothing's coming to mind. For now I'm calling him T, for The boy. He reminded me the other night of a word I'd thoughtlessly neglected: scrumptrelescent. Say it. Scrumptrelescent.
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Finished Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini this afternoon (ARC again). In addition to being this year's Feed, this book is well-written and by a very talented, friendly young fella (22! How are people this age writers now? How am I so much older than that already?). I wanted to bring the author in for the MLA Fall Conference this past October, but it didn't work out - hopefully we can get him next year.

p.22
You know Shakespeare - the sweet lines are really sweet.

p.28
What'd you do, crap your pocket?
--You probably have to really 'be there' for this one (boy gets chocolate all melted in his pocket), but goddam it, I was laughing out loud.

p.33 (On MTV's Dismissed)
What kind of show throws menage-style blind dates at teenage boys? What are you telling them - all of a sudden, you're not Cool unless you're going out with two girls? You're entitled to two girls? Where's my one girl? And if you are a girl, are you better suited to competitive harem living than any sort of independent, self-sustaining existence?
--Damn, right on the nose with the phrasing here.

p.60
That amazing high-school romantic movie moment, with drinking and young lust and strawberry-flavored lip gloss.
--Did I never outgrow this, or did I just come to it late and thus it became more a part of my grown-up being than it would've for those who got to it earlier? This line of questioning is scaring myself, so I'm stopping.

p.181-2
The sexuality that enthralls present-day females:...boyish yet casually superhuman.

p.213
Bombs have dropped and I'm happy in craters.
--This is a song lyric, or it should be.

p.270
I've made every decision I can make in this world and I'm nailed to a rocket, headed to the sun.
--Ditto this one.

p.279
I cry like I'm trying to make icicles.
--This reminds me of the Rudolph stop-motion xmas special from childhood. It terrified me then to think that Rudolph's tears became icicles and that he could be trapped there forever, fastened hard to one spot by his own sadness. This sounds like Sad Bastard Music fodder.
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T. turned me on to Fuse, which I should've realized I had before now (o, Digital Cable, your abundance of channels overwhelms me). One of the VJs was on Queer Eye awhile back. Fuse is an MTV competitor, and I wish it well. During an hour of random listening/barely watching while reading, I saw at least three new bands I like, and they've got a show of old metal on which Slayer is played. Not perfect of course, I did see the Most Annoying Band Du Jour - Jet ('Are You Gonna Be My Girl,' a track I've been avoiding on 91.5 a lot lately). Other music notes: Bayside Is a Cult is the new Morrissey. Speaking of which, this is what I think draws me to the music I call sally. It rings true in the way that Morrissey/etc. did - whereas emo feels hollow and false (pretentious).
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Listening to: They Might Be Giants - Mink Car / Pete Yorn - musicforthemorningafter
Mood: blatantly happy

from Research Buzz:

* Amazon Now Taking Presidential Donations

Yeah, this is off-base, but man is it interesting.
Amazon is now letting you donate to US presidential
candidates through its Web site. If you go to
http://www.amazon.com/gp/misc/flag.html you'll see a
list of over a dozen candidates, from Michael
Badnarik (Libertarian) to Hellen McMullen Williams
(Democrat).

When you pick a name you'll get information about
the candidates including candidate statement, date
of birth, birthplace, education, and prior jobs.
There's also a link to the official Web site, and a
tally of how much money has been raised for the
candidate and how many contributions have been made.

The minimum contribution is $5 while the maximum is
$200. You'll have to agree to several conditions
(that you're over 18, that you can't cancel the
contribution, that Amazon will share contribution
information with the federal govenrment, etc.). Once
you've done that and specified the donation, you're
asked to sign in, so I guess things proceed as
normal from there (I didn't donate to a candidate.)

I'm a little bemused by this. I guess it's a good
idea, but I'm surprised at how few candiates were
represented. I mean, I would understand (not
necessarily approve, just understand) if they just
covered Republicans and Democrats. But if you're
going to cover Libertarians, why not add Socialists
and Greens as well? I guess I can't understand how
they decided to draw the line over which candidates
would/wouldn't be covered.

And I was really, really hoping to get related
recommendations: "People who contributed to this
candidates also bought the following products..."

More intolerance from right-wing hypocrites.

Oh, christ. My near-doppelganger pal Anne is friggin hilarious. (Tuesday 1/27/04 entry)

Method 4 feels like every day to me.

My StrongBad addiction has gotten out of hand lately. I can't stop watching this one, this one, and this one.

Very Literate Boy came over late, late Saturday night and we had a very pleasant time enjoying the fireside. High on my list of to-dos with him is eating grapes and cheese and watching horror movies together. Also right up there is reading scary stories out loud.

Re-read The First Part Last yesterday. Still damn good and a well-deserved Printz winner.

Got a call from Up North Music Guy last night, and small world of small worlds, it turns out he went to school with our network admin (at the 'brary). We talked gear and bands. Hopefully he'll be in the Mount P vicinity sometime.

Band practice last night went really well. It was a real treat to actually have practice twice in the span of four days. It's too bad Michael's schedule's so busy that it can't happen more often. We're nailing down a lot of the stuff we want to do on the recording and I think we're all feeling really geeked about it. We're gonna be playing with the Hellfish and hopefully the Red Shift in March, wahoo!

Tonight I'm off to have a fitness assessment at the gym - as far as I can tell, they'll basically figger out how much body fat I have and then use that information to help me form a workout routine. All I really wanna know is how to use the machines and lift some reasonable weights without hurting myself, but I'll go along with their plan.

listening to: Brand New tracks from VLB
mood: north of neutral

Went for coffee with Very Literate Boy this afternoon, and it was a delight. He's just as good in conversation as he is in correspondence, and I am very much looking forward to our next meeting. Also, he made me a CD of tracks by a band he likes, Brand New, as well as two tracks by another band I've forgotten the name of and two bonus tracks. The bonus tracks are Right On: 'Africa' by Toto and Who's Crying Now by Journey. How did this boy know of my Journey fetish? Perhaps just my age made it obvious? At any rate, I'm enjoying the entire disc thoroughly.

Telegram is coming up from Kalamazoo on Thursday for dinner and to see And the Sky Went Red (and the other bands, who I'm unfamiliar with) at Rubbles. I didn't end up going to Saginaw for the hardcore show today, so I'm looking forward to seeing ATSWR next week instead.

Tonight I spent a little time playing piano. ! It's been forever since I've sat down at the thing, so I'm feeling simulaneously good about playing and crappy about how unimpressive the product was.

Invitation.

Free readers click here

Geez, Louise

Almost finished reading Songbook by Nick Hornby. I'm nearly done with it, and it's been good but hasn't provided as many resonant moments as I'd hoped for. The Klosterman has spoiled me.

p.17
Dave Eggers has a theory that we play songs over and over, those of us who do, because we have to 'solve' them.
--So true. Hornby goes on to make the point that once we've solved them they fade from the forefront of our interest and eventually from our memory. Perhaps it's the songs that take the longest to solve that then become all-time favorites?

p.22
The culture with which I surround myself is a reflection of my personality and the circumstances of my life.
--A universal with the possible exception of hideously boring people.

p.74
Rubbishing our children's tastes is one of the few pleasures remaining to us as we become old, redundant, and culturally marginalized.

p.117
I can't afford to be a pop snob anymore, and if there's a piece of music out there that has the ability to move me, then I want to hear it, no matter who's made it. ... You're either for music or against it, and being for it means embracing anyone who's any good.
--This is pretty much the conclusion I've come to over the last several years. I like a really wide variety of music and I can only share certain segments of it with certain people. Certain groups of friends appreciate some sorts, and other appreciate others. This is one thing I like about Tadpole - he's young, but he's figgered this out.

Speaking of Tadpole, he's occupied with Big Drama these days, so he's off the roster for the time-being.

Spades coined a great phrase recently. On the LU message board, someone (Young Sean?) commented on something and then wrote "LMAO" as a postscript. Spades wondered what it stood for, and one of his suggestions was:
Love Makes Anne Ornery
Perfect!

Last night I went for a Black Sheep at Kaya and once again managed to be at the coffeeshop for an open mic night. This one was far worse than the previous night's (at the U Cup), not least of all because Dan wasn't performing. There were the requisite sub-par acoustic renditions of the Black Crowes' She Talks To Angels, some Hendrix, and Freebird. But there was one tremendously horrific performance that stood out among the rest: an at-most 19 year-old covering Toto's Africa. Not that that in itself isn't bad enough, but then he put a scat breakdown in the midst of it. I can hardly find words.

I've been having a correspondence with a boy the last week or so, and I have to say that his lexicon and discourse has me smitten. I'd almost be afraid to meet him in person (for fear of spoiling a good thing) but my curiosity has the best of me (comme toujours). He likes horror and gothic literature and claims to be the gentlemanly type that I prize so.

Woo! Comments seem to be working.

A not-good quality photo of my tattoo. Goddammit I'm pale!

Went to the U Cup tonight and it turned out to be open mic night. Dan's Burning Bushes played, so that was cool. Mostly I just felt utterly ancient. I did run into L. from the ol' EWE days - she's back for grad school. It was a total surprise and delight to see her. The other depressing thing was that at least two gals there had my haircut, but not quite as cool as mine (in my oh-so humble opinion). Goddammit, every time I find a sweetass 'do, the trendsters have to fucking copy it six months later. Fuck 'em. I had it first.

Went over to GR last night to see Anti-Flag and a bunch of others at the Intersection, but it was all sold out when we got there. Serves me right for being a cheap bastard and not wanting to pay the Ticketmaster service charge. So Flap and his pals Weenis, Ben, and Melanie and I went to this little bar and had a great night anyway. Drank some beers, played a little pool, semi-paid attention to the Wings losing. I'm hoping to go to the Hellfish show on Thursday at the Machine Shop, which should be kickass.

En route to GR I stopped by the record store and got the new Yellowcard. I gave it one spin while on the way. First impression is that there are too many sally songs for my taste, but there were definitely some good tracks as well. I ordered the new Ann Beretta while I was there (on Rick's recommendation) and chatted with the record store fella for a few. He used to work the door a lot when we did those shows at the storefront next door, before it became a bakery. He remembered my name - I think his is Mike? But I can't remember for sure (damn brain). He told me about a hardcore band called The Sky Went Red that he thought I might enjoy - they've got a coupla shows coming up so I'm gonna see if I can make it to at least one of them.

Funniest part of my tattoo appointment that I forgot to mention: While we were there a 17 year old girl came in with her parents to get her bellybutton pierced, and they brought a camcorder to capture the moment. Freakin' hilarious.

More Klosterman quotes:

p.167
Alternative country is the most popular genre of the last twenty-five years that's managed to remain completely unpopular.

p.169
Truly depressed people don't need depressing music.
--Will post sometime in the future my related thoughts on emo.

p.180
...she looks nice; she is the kind of person who makes you want to tell your secrets. Her eyes are guileless and enthusiastic at the same time.
--Even in a book of essays, you sometimes find little tidbits like this.

p.202
Most of the time, political columnists and political commentators are trying to persuade you not to think critically about anything.

p.205
Celebrity journalism is usually just attractive people trying to make up answers to questions they barely understand.

p.214
You must overtly love whatever music seems the most detached from your own personal experience.
--This being true for people who write about and/or study music critically. How many zines have I read where this could be the theme?


Driving home this morning, I passed by the strawberry farm where they always post moronic inspirational quotes on the sign board outside and read this:
"A mother gets down on her knees so that her children can stand on their feet." After a little bit of reflection, I realized that they meant she was on her knees to pray.

I've got more to say, but it's time to get to work.


Listening to: Thrice The Artist in the Ambulance
Mood: almost un-hungover/enthusiastic

Librarians are sexy (thanks to Allan for this kickass link).

Went down to Lansing again yesterday and got my tattoo expansion done. Woo! It looks totally great - KitKat's design kicks total ass and Bob did a great job on it. The shading and everything are just right. I need to get the designs for the others I want from Dan and then see if I can figger out a good overall scheme for the sleeve, so that it flows together later on. Knuckles and Spades came and hung out while I was getting it done, which was really nice. I was really happy they both did.

After the tattoo, Knuckles and I went to get some CDs at CD Warehouse (Avenged Sevenfold - Sounding the Seventh Trumpet and Street Dogs - Savin Hill, had some really delish Ethiopian food, and then met up with Rick and Johnny at Rick's condo. I was hoping that Spades and KitKat would come over, too, but it wasn't in the cards. We just watched some comedy on TV. It was very low-key, and perfect.

I got to Lansing early and needed to use up some time so I went to the bookstore at the new mall on Lake Lansing Road. Overheard while looking at the Harry Potter display:
girlfriend: Ooo, I wanna get this box set of the ones so far.
boyfriend: What about this set?
girlfriend: No way, not that one. I like the original covers. I'm a traditionalist.

The idea of the original HP covers being somehow 'old school' cracked me up. I don't think anything created within the last ten years can yet be considered 'old school'.

Got up at the asscrack this morning to snowblower the driveway. Started the workday with a meeting for which a third of the attendees were late, including my boss. The meeting then ran late despite my repeated warnings that we had to vacate the room so that storytime could be set up. Certain people just cannot shut up. Had certain people been on time, it wouldn't have been a problem. Bleh.

Then I came home for lunch and promptly sicked up. Had to go back to work to retrieve my phone and then came home and sicked some more and slept.

Had a dream in which I was stabbing someone through the heart with a knitting needle. The victim may or may not have been a zombie, but I don't think so. The perplexing part is that I was using a circular needle, so I had to get my hands all bloody since the needle part wasn't very long. Also the person was laying face down on a table (passed out? asleep? definitely not responsive), so it took me awhile to find their heart. It turned out to be centered between their shoulder blades, which I found out after several attempts. I'm not sure how I could tell that I was missing the heart on previous tries.

I did finish The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin and got about halfway through Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman. The latter is really enjoyable and has provided me with many quotes which I will now share.

p.2
Whenever I meet dynamic, nonretarded Americans, I notice that they all seem to share a single unifying characteristic: the inability to experience the kind of mind-blowing, transcendent romantic relationship they perceive to be a normal part of living.
--This resonates with me, but I'm not sure I find it to be true among most of my friends. Then again, who's to say who has settled and is okay with it. I certainly can't imagine that kind of movie-love being a reality.

p.4 (from a chapter called This Is Emo)
Coldplay songs deliver an amorphous, irrefutable interpretation of how being in love is supposed to feel, and people find themselves wanting that for real.
--I like Coldplay, and this section making total fun of them made me laugh out loud. I have been feeling the Great Danger of Emo lately - listen to too much of it and you'll get stupidly down for no reason. Well-made music expressing the down-ness of those who created it is disproportionately affecting.

p.6
If we have learned anything from the mass media, it's that the only people who can make us happy are those who don't strike us as being particularly desirable. ... We are constantly reminded that the unattainable icons of perfection we lust after can never fulfill us like the platonic allies who have been there all along.
--This seems to explain the Sensitive Boy Friend issues that I've experienced. Perhaps said Boys think that they're Lloyd Dobler and I'm going to fall in Love with them without warning.

p.9
Every relationship is fundamentally a power struggle, and the individual in power is whoever likes the other person less.
--Douglas Coupland said this in Shampoo Planet a long time ago, but it's still true.

p.73
Desiring Pam Anderson is like admitting that - sexually - you have no creativity.

p.75
The Man Show is socially negative because it actively tries to prove an inaccurate hypothesis that too many women already believe: The premise of The Man Show is that all men think exactly the same way.
--Finally, someone articulated what I dislike about that show.

p.110
It certainly appears that the main thing the Internet has accomplished is the normalization of amateur pornography.

p.112
Internet porn has replaced going to the moon as the explanation for all that is unexplainable.
--As in, if there are pictures of women having sex with chocolate chip cookies on the Internet, then how come no bars in this town have Guinness on draft?


One of my pals challenged me to think of the five words I could not live without (the rule is no nouns):
indeed, super, that, sweet, yay

My feeling of isolation from yesterday is nearly passed. My pal Bill is rescuing me tomorrow night for fun-friends-night-out and then I've got a date to see Big Fish on Saturday. Whee.


listening to: The Darkness Permission to Land
mood: uber-low-key

So much to catch up on!

Finally back from ALA Midwinter in San Diego. It was actually quite a fun trip - spent some time with MLA folks, ate at a ton of superb restaurants, and enjoyed the sunny warmness. N'est-ce pas, as soon as I get back it becomes a blizzard here. At least it waited until I was home and in bed before it started snowing.

Met one of my new neighborinos this noon while shoveling - he's got a Misfits and a Dead Kennedys sticker on his truck. This bodes well.

Read several books while en route to and from CA:
A Field Guide to the Urban Hipster by Josh Aiello and Matthew Schultz
Fashionistas by Lynn Messina
something else that escapes me right now

Also read some galleys I picked up at the exhibits:
Vote for Larry by Janet Tashjian
Doing It by Melvin Burgess
Confessions of a Not It Girl by Melissa Kantor

As usual with conferences, I have a ton of great ideas/projects that I can't wait to get going on. I need to make some lists. I think I've got all the details pinned down so I can create my database for keeping track of Caldecott potentials. The books'll most likely start rolling in by the end of this month.

A pal passed this on: Mon. Jan 19 in Grand Rapids, MI @ The Intersection (133 Grandville SW) 5:00 $13/$15 Anti-Flag / Rise Against / Against Me! / None More Black / New Mexican Disaster Squad. Hmmm.

Since I was gonna be gone for so long at this conference, I haven't got as much in the way of social commitments in my upcoming calendar as usual. I need to remedy this. Tho we're going to be having a memorial service for my Grandma V. sometime in the next month or so, which means flying to Iowa, so I should probably keep things semi-loose since I don't know when that'll be. It's weird, but everyone's kind of waiting to see whether my Grandpa will last much longer. That seems callous, but they say that it's how things often happen, especially with a couple who's been together for so long (60+ years). This whole death thing is totally new to me. I don't quite know what to think or feel about it all.

I have to say that I missed having dates while I was gone. It was nice to have meals and social stuff with librarian pals, but it doesn't provide that frisson.


Listening to: Coheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Mood: out of touch with time/isolated

Weird link du jour: Toothpaste World. What I never knew I needed but clearly do is 6 proof toothpaste.

I've got so much to get ready before I leave for San Diego on Thursday. Broad apologies to all who may be anticipating replies via email: I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, nor do I hate you.

I'm
a Ravenclaw!

My Visor's sorting hat has always said this, too, but now here's a cool graphic to go with it. Today is the last day of the Big Lazy Vacation. Sk88 practice in a few hours, and for now I'm watching the Sorcerer's Stone on HBO and working on the afghan.

My pal Andy emailed me a link to a new car that may be the one I want. I'm going to see if I can go down to Lansing this week before I leave for San Diego. It's a 5-door, is extremely affordable, and has more power than the others in the same category, so here's hoping.

Just returned from a long day of doing much more stuff than I have been recently. Visited Sistrah and bro-in-law and he drove my car, which they are more than likely going to buy soon. I still have yet to decide exactly what I want to get for my new car. I think I've narrowed it down to a 5-door something.

After GR, I headed down to Kzoo for Beer'n'Books at the King's. It was a fairly intimate group of 9 which worked pretty well. We drank and discussed the best teen lit of 03. I got a few more titles to add to my to-read list, and was validated about a few that I abandoned, which is always nice. Also the King is going to Midwinter, too, as well as a couple other Cool Librarians, so hopefully we can all get together for some cocktails or something while we're in San Deigo.

Listened to new music there and back. Thoughts:

Liz Phair: I do like the first single from this new 'sell-out' album, despite its poppiness. It still sounds like Liz Phair to me. There are a few songs on the album that are too blatantly poppy for me to stomach, and what started out as a great song, 'White Hot Cum', was utterly ruined by a stupid harmonica solo. Damn the harmonica!

Blink-182: I knew I wasn't going to like this one based on the first single, and boy was I right. Damn, did Tom DeLong forget how to sing or what? Too much yelling, too much diddle, too much Old Serious Making Some Kind of Depressing Statement. And what's with track 7? Christ.

I gave up after awhile and listened to Avenged Sevenfold instead, since that makes me very happy, and then when the drive back started getting sleepy I flipped stations trolling for oldies to sing along to - some Bon Jovi, Quiet Riot, Queen, and Chicago made the last haul go faster. For anyone who hadn't noticed: that 'Hey Ya' song is on at least three stations at any given time.

And for the record: Anne dates people. More than one of them unless otherwise specified.

Couldn't sleep last night due to the long nap, so I worked on some new song lyrics. I've got a few songs in progress that I need to find some more inspiration for. One about being obsessed with someone and the strange things that a person will do when they can't stop thinking about someone. It's been in the molecular stage for quite some time and I got a little progress on it last night but not a lot. There's another one about the young fellas, which I also did some work on but it's still only a couple verses complete.

I did come up with some more to go with an idea I had awhile back, the one I dreamed about. It started out with the first two lines of what'll be the first verse listed here. In my dream Dan and Michael said that the first line was redundant, but when I asked them in real life the next day, they said they didn't think so. This is still first-draft and not necessarily complete or in order:

I want you to fuck me on a dead girl's grave
take me out back and teach me how to behave
show me how the sinners spend night after day
and give me once and for all the single thing I crave

CHORUS:
I want you ... knockin' on my door
I want you ... like no one before
only you ... every night and more
I want you ... down and dirty with me on the floor

I want you to take me places I've never been
get me drunk on Sunday mornin' on tonic and gin
make me feel like I'm walking on needles and pins
fill my whole life with pure unholy sin

I want you to take it slow, be a wicked tease
make me want it so bad, make me believe
I'll beg you every way I know, beg you moaning please
you'll get me where you want me as I'm down on my knees

I want you to tell me just exactly what you need
the way you've tied me up I don't want to be freed
take me where you want me, I'll follow where you lead
your wish is my command in every thought, word, and deed


So there's that. I think it'll be a good one for sultry low-register rockabilly-tinged style.

On another note, I finally figgered out who's responsible for this song I've been hearing on 91.5 for the past few months - Yellowcard. Thanks to the helpful friend who passed it my way not knowing I'd been looking for it. It's borderline too emo, meaning I should probably not like it as much as I do, so fuck it. I like it! I must add it to my wishlist.

The NYE party was a blast. I've just woken up from a several-hour nap which I mostly certainly did not need but enjoyed nonetheless. A variety of people came and all seemed to mix well and to have a good time, so therefore - success. Moses brought Samba de Amigo (among other videogames)! Boy of Many Common Interests is now Tadpole (thank you Spades, king of nicknames) due to his boyish good looks and last night's demonstration of how to drink way too much hard liquor. I think he'd have been alright if it hadn't been for the tequila.