Grab Bag Friday: Sigh (revised)

And now it's more like this. All the snow is gone. It's 40 degrees outside. And work is canceled because of a power outage. A free writing day! What a weird, weird February...

Grab Bag Friday: Sigh

This photograph by Grieg is what it feels like in Maine this morning.
I have nothing further to say.

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros: Redemption Song

Kevin and I just watched The Future Is Unwritten, a 2007 documentary about Joe Strummer, lead singer for The Clash. What I love about Joe Strummer's story is that it's a true redemption story. Here's someone who strove to do good in the world. He sang about important issues. Poverty, police brutality, racism. He got caught up in the same ego, pettiness, and trappings of fame that he despised, but after some time in the "wilderness" managed to come out the other side whole, with new perspective and humanity and perhaps even new truth.

At the end of the documentary, there's such a great quote from Joe Strummer that I had to search for it and post it here. I found the full quote and then I found a piece of it appropriately tacked on to a recording of Joe Strummer and his last band, The Mescalaros, performing a great Bob Marley song. Enjoy!

The Future is Unwritten: Last Words




Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros: Redemption Song

Fuse #8 Top 100 Children's Novel Poll

Remember when the effervescent Betsy Bird toiled day and night to compile the results of that fabulous Top 100 Picture Books Poll?

Well, she's done it again. This time, she polled her readers about their favorite children's novels. The results are being posted in incredibly detailed increments of 5, and we're now about halfway to the coveted Top 10 spots. It's worth stopping by to find out fascinating tidbits, look at old cover art, and see if your favorites have made the list.

Top 100 Children's Novel Poll results pages (so far):

#51-55
#56-60
#61-65
#66-70
#71-75
#76-80
#81-85
#86-90
#91-100

Grab Bag Friday: The Double McTwist 1260

Holy cow, did you see this? It was so worth staying up past 11pm for (shocker: I'm no night owl).

Right now, I can't find the Olympic version anywhere but NBC (guess they have a lock on that whole thing). The whole routine is super impressive with the night lights and all the Olympic hoopla, but if your browser has trouble with NBC's fancy Silverlight, you can watch it on this YouTube clip from January.

Unreal.

Shaun White: The Double McTwist 1260

I Wrote a Hit Song! Winner

The Winter 2010 I Wrote a Hit Song! contest winner has been announced. Our winner, Jourdyn, is another creative kid from Ohio (I think we've had three winners from Ohio now!)

Please stop by the I Wrote a Hit Song! site to listen to Jourdyn's cool song "Heroes." There's some exciting conflict in this song...and who do you think wins out?

Once you've read the lyrics, please leave a comment to let the world (and Jourdyn) know what you like about the song.

William Carlos Williams: The Rewaking

In the spirit of belated Valentine's Day and spring around the corner (please?), here's a William Carlos Williams poem Kevin and I included on our wedding invitation just about ten years ago.

The Rewaking
William Carlos Williams 

Sooner or later
we must come to the end
of striving

to re-establish
the image the image of
the rose

but not yet
you say extending the
time indefinitely

by
your love until a whole
spring

rekindle
the violet to the very
lady's-slipper

and so by
your love the very sun
itself is revived

(Photo by americanvirus)

Grab Bag Friday: Are You Sleeping?

I know this blog is already a bit overloaded on references to The Point, but last night, Kevin and I went to see a fantastic (really, fantastic) grade school version of the movie. One of my music students played Oblio and sang a great solo in Me and My Arrow and another was a hilarious third of the Pointed Man (or in this play, as my female student very adamantly pointed out, the "Pointed Person").

It was so much fun to see the kids enjoying all the great Harry Nilsson songs, and truly jamming out to This Is the Town and These Are the People. Plus, we got to eat delicious chocolate cupcakes (with points!) at the bake sale intermission. Hooray Woodside School!

I'll leave you with my second favorite song from the movie (I already posted about my first favorite). I know, I know, it's weird. The animation is weird. The lyrics are weird. The whole movie is weird. But it's brilliant. You just have to go with it. As the Rock Man would say, "You see what you want to see, you hear what you want to hear." I can dig it. I can dig it.

Harry Nilsson: Are You Sleeping?

Marcus Roberts Trio: Black & Tan Fantasy

Kevin and I just came back from a fantastic concert by the Marcus Roberts Trio, so I thought I'd share this video from the Leonard Lopate Show so you can experience a little of it, too (you can listen to the whole radio program here). I was blown away by Roberts' versatility and range. It's impossible to get a real feel for it on a YouTube video, but his touch is so precise, he could go from playing soft as a whisper to shaking the piano with a wild fervor in a split second. What a show!

Marcus Roberts Trio: Black & Tan Fantasy

Ambassador Paterson

I was so pleased to hear that Katherine Paterson has been named the new Ambassador for Young People's Literature. It was hard to imagine who could follow comic genius Jon Scieszka in this role, but Ms. Paterson's own brand of genius is certainly up to the task.

I didn't read Bridge to Terabithia until I was in college. A friend of mine gave it to me to read over break (I don't think it was in our library because of that whole banned books thing). I sat in my childhood room and cried my eyes out, partially because of Leslie, and partially because I had missed out on this book as a kid. It's a beautiful story about friendship, imagination, joy, belonging, and grief.

We need stories like this in the world. Of course I think kids need to laugh. A lot. But they also need books that deal with and help them process all the other things that go on in life. Thank goodness for the Jon Scieszkas of the world and for the Katherine Patersons. We need them both desperately.

There's a great interview with Ms. Paterson at the School Library Journal. Here's a taste:

As children’s book ambassador, what’s your most important role?
In some ways, I feel like what they’re asking me to do is what I’ve been doing for 30 years. It just has another name. Because what I’m trying to do is to encourage people to take books seriously and to take children seriously—their spiritual and intellectual needs, as well as their bodily needs. It’s more of a platform for the things I’ve been saying for a long time.

What was your reaction when you found out that you’d been selected?
It was a big thrill. I felt like a kid, really. And then I thought, Gee, I’m 77 years old, and I’ll be 79 before I finish, since it’s a two-year term. But I still have a good bit of zip for an old lady, and I hope that they know what they were doing.

Has Jon Scieszka given you any advice about your new job?
Well, you know Jon. [Laughing.] He’s told me about the cape and the helicopter and the jet-pack that doesn’t work. But his chief advice was just to enjoy myself—and I will. I love people, and I love to talk about what I care about. So I can’t imagine the job as a chore.

For the rest of the interview, please visit SLJ.

Grab Bag Friday: Paula Poundstone

I spent much of my exciting Friday evening in Frequent-Flyer-Miles Limbo, doing my best to get out to Idaho for my younger sister's thesis defense (woohoo Anna!) To treat myself after hours of sitting on hold and searching flights, I've been watching some videos from my favorite Wait Wait Don't Tell Me panelist...the hilarious Paula Poundstone.

Here's a good old bit about shoulder pads and airplane views that made me chuckle:

Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Up Above My Head (Music in the Air)

My new friend Helmut Sporgersi posted this video on Facebook and it's one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe has always blown my mind. She melded secular jazz and blues with gospel in a way that just wasn't being done at the time. There's a new biography out by Gayle Wald called Shout, Sister, Shout!: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer SisterRosetta Tharpe, which I have to check out. In the meantime, I'll enjoy watching her shred that Les Paul!

Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Up Above My Head

J.D. Salinger: With Love and Squalor

"An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's."
- J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

  

I went to high school at the kind of tiny, rural, public school that had two English classes available to seniors: "Business English" and "College-bound English." In "College Bound English," we read westerns by Louis L'Amour, mysteries by Agatha Christie, and what my teacher called "page-turners" by Robert Ludlum. We read a cartoon version of Hamlet where mouse incarnations of Hamlet and Ophelia went about in Shakespearean garb and talked in modern American slang.

So my extracurricular reading tended to be a little bit different than you might expect from your typical teenager. Starting in about eighth grade, I began to take breaks from my school work to read classics like The Canterbury Tales and Beowulf. Strange, but true.

I still remember the summer I picked up The Catcher in the Rye. I devoured it. I'd never seen anything like it. The snarky, first-person narration. The stylistic wit. The dialogue! As with so many teenagers, Holden Caufield's open disdain for the inanities of society hit a nerve deep in my 16-year-old soul. I headed back to the library and checked out Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters, and Nine Stories. When I'd finished them all, I read The Catcher in the Rye again.

I enjoyed Dave Eggers memorial piece on Salinger because it echoes so many of the thoughts that went through my head last week. What has he left behind? Scraps of dialogue? Lines scribbled willy-nilly on paper napkins? Fully developed novels just waiting to be read (gasp)? Even if the answer is absolutely nothing, I can't complain. I will always feel grateful for the Glass family and that liar, Holden. They opened up new worlds to me...literary and otherwise.

I do hope, in the end, J. D. Salinger came to feel he had achieved some kind of perfection, on his own terms, not anyone else's. He certainly achieved it on mine.

Grab Bag Friday: The Good Old Days

This is a few weeks old, but I got a big kick out of John Oliver's bit on The Daily Show about "the good old days." I hope it makes you laugh, too!

And if I may, I'll preface with a quote from the President's State of the Union Address:

It’s tempting to look back on these moments and assume that our progress was inevitable – that America was always destined to succeed. But when the Union was turned back at Bull Run and the Allies first landed at Omaha Beach, victory was very much in doubt. When the market crashed on Black Tuesday and civil rights marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday, the future was anything but certain. These were times that tested the courage of our convictions, and the strength of our union. And despite all our divisions and disagreements; our hesitations and our fears; America prevailed because we chose to move forward as one nation, and one people.
Again, we are tested. And again, we must answer history’s call.

John Oliver: Even Better Than The Real Thing

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Even Better Than the Real Thing
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Ray Charles: Georgia On My Mind

I'm so glad to have my friend Matthew visiting from all the way across the country this week. There's nothing quite like old friends who know all your back-story and still stick around to see where the plot might take you next.

In honor of all the time we used to spend swapping Ray Charles tunes, here's an excellent live performance of one of his classics, written by one of my all-time favorite songwriters, Hoagy Carmichael. Believe it or not, Carmichael was working for an investment company, trying to write songs on the side when he composed this gorgeous piece.

Ray Charles: Georgia On My Mind

Newbery Awards!

Last week the ALSC announced the big kidlit awards for 2009. I was so excited to hear that two of my favorite books of the year received Newbery Awards!

Rebecca Stead's mysterious novel When You Reach Me won the Newbery title and Phillip Hoose's enlightening book Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice won a Newbery Honor. (If you missed my previous posts raving about the titles, you can find them here and here.)

If you haven't picked these books up yet, I guess now you have another reason. Hooray!

To see the rest of the winners, as well as the winners of the Caldecott, Corretta Scott King, and Printz Awards, please visit the ALSC.

Grab Bag Friday: Haiti Relief

If you haven't pitched in to help with the devastation in Haiti, please do consider donating to one of the many humanitarian groups that are trying to give aid. So many people have lost their homes and families and so many have been wounded that recovery will take a very long time. Even a small donation can make a big difference down the line.

If you don't know where to start, here are just a few organizations to consider:

• UNICEF
  
• Doctors Without Borders
• Partners in Health
• MADRE 

If you want to make a donation that seems more concrete, here's a link my friend Kate sent me:
The Goods: Gifts That Give Back

Over at UNICEF, you can listen to a podcast of a young survivor telling his story.

Thank you for helping out. If we all pitch in, we really CAN make a difference.

Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star

Last night, one of my piano students chose "Swinging on a Star" as her "challenge" piece for the month. I've always loved this song. I remember singing it in the car with my siblings, cracking up at the depictions of the animals. My brother and I would always point to each other meaningfully when we got to the lines, "All the monkeys are in the zoo, every day you see quite a few."

"Swinging on a Star" was written for the movie Going My Way (which I highly recommend) with Bing Crosby. According to wikepedia, the song came about over dinner:

Song writer Jimmy Van Heusen was at Crosby’s house one evening for dinner, and to discuss a song for the movie Going My Way. During the meal one of the children began complaining about how he didn’t want to go to school the next day. The singer turned to his son and said to him, “If you don’t go to school, you might grow up to be a mule. Do you wanna do that?”

 Here's Bing singing "Swinging on a Star" with the boys from the movie:

Annie Dillard: The Writing Life

Well, it's a new year, and I'm getting ready to send out my manuscript (a novel for kids) to literary agents. I always need a little encouragement and inspiration for these things, so in preparation, I've been reading Annie Dillard's beautiful musings in The Writing Life. I love this passage about why we read:

"Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed? Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that most deeply engages our intellects and our hearts? Can the writer renew our hope for literary forms? Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries, so we may feel again their majesty and power? What do we ever know that is higher than that power which, from time to time, seizes our lives, and reveals us startlingly to ourselves as creatures set down here bewildered? Why does death so catch us by surprise, and why love? We still and always want waking."

This is the amazing thing about books. In 2009, I was swept away and shaken awake by The Hunger Games, The Book Thief, Olive Kitteridge, Robert Hayden's poetry, and Claudette Colvin. I can't wait to be inspired in 2010. What have you read that has caught you by surprise and pressed upon your mind the majesty and power of the deepest mysteries?

Merry Christmas!

"Found in the Snow" photo by Just B

Merry Christmas, everyone! I'll be away from my blog until mid-January, but in the meantime, have a wonderful holiday, stay warm, and give lots of hugs to your family and friends. See you in the new year!