Every Monday Matters-2008

The book is called Every Monday Matters and it's written by Matthew Emerzian and Kelly Bozza. It outlines 52 ways to make a difference, one for each Monday (the black sheep day of the week) for a whole year. Kind of like the whole Random Acts of Kindness thing-except not at all random-the featured activities are doable even for people without tons of money or boatloads of time. So, if you're casting about for how you might make a difference or if you just haven't settled on a resolution for 2008 yet check out the website everymondaymatters.com and, if you like what you see, get the book and join in.

Guess What I'm Wearing

A ponytail!

After a long time of patient growing (so long I don't even know how long-I find it easier to not to think about these kind of goals, a kind of fooling myself that says if I don't officially declare them no one will hold me to it) I finally have enough hair. It's an actual ponytail too, not a dork knob thank you very much. Granted with my baby fine hair it's not what you'd call full but..it's been 24 years since I've had this much hair so it's kind of exciting.

About March

March By Geraldine Brooks

After listening to this on audio I had the reader's equivilant of the 'I could have had a V-8' moment. It was so terrific and I am such a fan of Little Women, its inspiration, that I don't know how it could have been out for years without me giving it a try. But I am singing its praises now.
It is a great book that should be taken as a blueprint for others, and there are lots of them, who want to put a new or alternate spin on a classic work. I feel there are several rules for this kind of thing.

The first and most important is that person should have total command of the original text which Brooks absolutely does. This will give the bulk of the readers, who are fans of the original and checking it out because of that, a little thrill when they see scenes or characters they recognize. In jokes for the uber fans are also appreciated. In her fleshing out of the life of Mr. March, the little women's absent father, Brooks gives him the attributes and history of Louisa May Alcott's real father, noted Transendentalist Bronson Alcott, whose spending of the family fortune to start a utopian society led to Louisa needing to publish Little Women in the first place. The imaginary March family are also a stop on the Underground Railroad, supporters of John Brown and friends with the Who's Who of Concord of the day, all of which dovetail nicely with Marches as originally presented.

Secondly, unless you're switching up the setting entirely (see "Clueless" for a good example of this) the new work's tone and language must match or at least be compatiable with the original. In this Brooks also succeeds. Her langauge is both of the time yet easy to get, especially when read aloud, which is no mean feat.

Thirdly, the most successful of these redos-March, Jean Rhy's Wide Sargasso Sea, further amplify and reflect the themes of the original. The reader should feel compelled to revisit the original to get still more out of the new book not because they need to wash its bad taste out of their mouth.

In addition to these rules Brooks also succeeds by addressing one of the two things that have bugged readers of Little Women for years (the big one is of course Jo & Laurie's not hooking up which is not addressed since it's outside the timeline of this book) that of the seemingly perfect character of Marmee. Marmee tells Jo at one point that she struggles with her temper but readers never really see that. In fact, in her acknowlements Brooks says when her mom gave her the book she said, "It's great except the mom is totally unbelieveable." One assumes with that in mind, Brooks fully fleshes out Marmee letting us see how costly the effort to keep things going is for her. And lastly I also applaud the title. Yeah, it was kind of a gimmee but in its scope (he is away at war) and in its letting you know who is the focus here, it's absolutely perfect.

My Happy Holiday Story

So my happy holiday story starts like this.

Still thinking about how much I liked Northline I was trying, like the last of the true believers, to help the cause. Besides handselling it like crazy when it comes out (and forcing my staff to do likewise) what else could I do? Give my testimony of course. I'm not normally a schmoozer but I had a friend pave the way for me to speak to the fiction buyer about it. I made my case and said I thought Borders should put some weight behind it, perhaps including it in our Original Voices program which highlights new or emerging authors. The buyer said she wished that I wrote the description as mine was more compelling than the publisher's catalogue and that she'd give it a shot. She also said Willy should thank me as "you may have just changed the course of his writing career".

I, too, like to think of it in those heroic terms.

So, not a week later a package shows up on my desk from the author himself! He sent a present with a nice note that thanked me for my help and said "I tried real hard with that one."

aww.

Me too, Willy, me too.

Holiday Movies

"Atonement"

I was glad I didn't read the book before I saw this one. I knew a bit of the plot but was pleased there was more to it than I thought. The multiple points of view were put to good effect in a "Roshomon" sort of way and rarely has heated twitterpation been brought so to life on the screen. (hubba hubba) The jump from idyllic countryside to Dunkirk was a bit abrupt for me but both were visually striking. The three actresses who played Briony did an amazing job of the emotional heavy lifting with Vanessa Redgrave (not surprisingly) driving the theme home so strongly in such a brief amount of actual screen time. I also applaud the costume folks who knew just what to do with Keira Knightley though I feel compelled to say Keira, hon, let me buy you a shake. Maybe two.

"Juno"

I was one of the few people who actually read Diablo Cody's book about her adventures as a brainy and pale stripper so I gotta say I feel a little invested in her career. I was curious about her first screen venture, though the preview seemed pretty steeped in that post "Rushmore" vibe. After seeing it that first impression was definately borne out-it's way too self aware and cutesy-but it succeeds better than it has a right to because of the efforts of the actors. Ellen Page does a great job making Juno, under her fast talking sass, a real person with tender feelings and she is ably supported by a great cast.

"Eastern Promises"

I have approached David Cronenberg warily ever since "Dead Ringers". That movie did such emotional damage to me I'm still a little messed up over it all these years later. Just mention the title and I get the piss shivers. But I have been appreciating his recent work which has been less oogy body stuff and more plumbing emotional darkness. After watching it though I was shocked at how slight a story "Eastern Promises" has. There's only one twist really and it's minor and presented, like the violence in the film, very matter of factly. The violence is also striking because there's little or no music in those scenes, the audience is left to their own devices to bring to it what they will. Viggio Mortenson has been praised and, rightly so, for this performance-it would be easy given the full nudity involved to make a crack about him putting it all out there but he really does and I hope that he gets recognition for it.

Copious Liner Notes for "The Horizon"

Tis the season for another "best of" collection. If you're on the list, you got one, if not, you're welcome to use the template but you might not be able to find them all. It's even more eclectic this year, one possible title in the running was "All Over the Place" which would have worked both musically and emotionally, but I finally went with "The Horizon". After my first listen though I was kinda surprised at how well it all hung together and I had some fun finding some connections that I hadn't even known were there (find the ship motif!)



"Northline Theme" Willy Vlautin & Paul Brainard

I've already bared my soul about the book Northline's considerable impact so I'll just say the soundtrack is praiseworthy on its own merits. Simple but evocative, it deserves playing again and again. I'm still listening to it daily myself. I was hard pressed to pick just one song so I just went with the natural bookends.


"Keep the Car Running" Arcade Fire

I defy anyone to not to move their feet during this song. Not surprisingly, it's great for fast driving-the road unspooling in the rearview-but I bet it'd be good in your headphones running as fast as you can on the beach too. Anyway, I'd like to try.

"The Golden State" John Doe & Kathleen Edwards

I wrote about being obsessed with the song for weeks before and I still think it's terrific. A good song paired with just the right artists. Even people who are unfamiliar with the state described (and I gotta say I feel sorry for them) can get an idea of what the fuss is all about from these lyrics.

"Goodnight Rose" Ryan Adams

Another possible title for this collection was "The Whole Shebang" from this song. There are other terrific songs from "Easy Tiger" but I went with the most optimistic.

"I Must Be Lucky" Kelly Willis

If you're wondering what's country about this I'm with you on that but Willis and her husband, Bruce Robison, are close friends with Chuck Prophet and he stepped in to produce and play on this record. It's a good combo that made for a different sound though not necessarily one that I think plays to her greatest strengths. (She's good enough to sing almost anything but really excels on the bittersweet traditional country stuff.)


An Aside on the musical genre/body connection: I have a theory about musical genres wherein the listener processes each genre with a different part of the body. Classical is the head with the brain showing the pictures the music is making, rock is the feet-dancing or driving it works either way and so on. I bring it up here because we are entering the soul portion of the collection and some critics have taken issue with some of the artists I have chosen. The words neo soul have been used by some which I find both puzzling (what the hell is neo soul anyway?) and depressing (neo soul would seem to indicate soul is over which is too sad to contemplate). For me, soul music is processed through the, how shall we say? pink parts down south. (And I'm not talking about the heart here people.) I felt these songs in the right spot, thus they are included here.



"100 Years" Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings

This is just a fun record with fabulous, fabulous horns. I missed them when they were in town which was disappointing as it would have been a great excuse to wear a vintage dress and go dance.

"I'm No Good" Amy Winehouse

She said she was no good, she lays it all out here so I don't know how anybody can be surprised when she shows up missing teeth or going to jail for beating on her husband. For all her faults no one can say she doesn't walk the walk. My vote for the best bad girl song since Fiona Apple's "Criminal" even though the Roger Moore line bugs me (Moore always seemed like the least likely Bond to tear anyone down). And if it goes well with the Dap Kings song before it should since they are her backing band as well. (This is actually a 2006 release but I got to know it in 2007)

"Before the Money Came" Betty LaVette w/ The Drive By Truckers

A great soul record with inevitabililty (after years in the biz Betty gets hers) and history (Patterson Hood takes up backing/producing duties from his daddy) on its side. I came for the DBT connection but stuck for the music and the truth in Betty's voice.

"Cold Cold Heart" Raul Malo

Besides just being the singer I'd most like to have phone sex with (That voice! Oh Baby!) Malo also has a fine way with standards, both here and on his holiday release, "A Marshmallow World". The easy choice would have been to include his cover of "For the Good Times" (the best sex with the ex song ever) which will break your heart but instead there's this song. I love swing but can't decide about this version. On the one hand it's proof that, like with a Shakespeare play, you can put a great song in any setting and it will work, but on the other I think how cold can it be if you're bopping along with the horns? I mean you can make jazz hands at the end for God's sake, what would Hank say? But when the time came, this is what I chose.

"Sometimes It Takes Balls" Elizabeth Cook

I know you hear the title and think it's one of those dismissable country novelty songs but this one has real heart. Admittedly, it wasn't the best or even my favorite song from this record but if you're only including one it's probably best to go with the anthem.

"1234" Feist

Yes, it was in a commercial and yes, the video features the lamest dance since the Macerana but this was one I just couldn't get out of my head this year.

"Light in an Empty Room"
"Night Windows" the Weakerthans

The new Weakerthans record was supposed to be a concept album entirely devoted to songs about the painter Edward Hopper. When all was said and done just these 2 were left, my favorites. I think "in the stick count for the song/of knowing you're gone" is a great line.

"Click Click Click Click" Bishop Allen

As I have written before, Bishop Allen's singer, Justin, is a nephew of one of my staff so I get to hear all about his artistic efforts. The latest is that he had a deal with his parents that if this, the second record, didn't make some money he would give up the band and use his Harvard education to try something else more practical. As a fan I hope he had other moneymaking opportunities included in the fine print on the deal since this song is being used in a (wait for it) camera commercial. Charming and whimsical but not too cutesy, this one is Bishop Allen at their best. The secualr humanist in me loves the theme of being forever a part of someone's life through technology.

"Missed the Boat" Modest Mouse

I usually only go for Modest Mouse modestly but this was one that would play overhead and each time I'd have to go check out the artist which, when you're on your feet all day, is one of the true tests of how much you really think of a song. The album title "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" was also one of my favorites this year.

"The Way I Am" Ingrid Michaelson

A sweet, simple song well sung. I love her line delivery of "the way you say good morning".

"I Don't Ever Give Up" Patty Griffin

For the new record Griffin said she was trying for songs that were fun for her to sing which, since I'm such a word oriented 'verse-chorus-verse' girl, is why I'll probably always consider it a lesser Patty effort. I was going for another song until right before the collection was burned but couldn't ignore the theme and build of this one. "Love isn't here but it's somewhere" indeed.

"Falling Slowly" Glen Hansard & Marketa Inglova

This song is the heart of the "Once" soundtrack and is so beautiful I can't listen without the tears welling up. (It's especially effective to listen to in the dark, particularly when Glen's voice cracks on the 'go back' part.) But as upliftingly sad as it is if you are in the boat with time left, when the time is over this one will really kill you.

"If I Am a Stranger" Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

An achingly slowed down version this is from the EP, "Follow the Lights". I love this song in every version I have ever heard.

"Northline Reprise" Willy Vlautin & Paul Brainard

See above.



Happy Listening All!

That New Laptop Smell

My new laptop, a generous and welcome Christmas gift, arrived today. Everyone at work was ahhhing over it so much I was nearly blushing. I've never owned a new computer before and I am very excited but, now that it's here, also a little nervous. Manuals to read, new programs (Windows Vista!) to learn....hope it's user friendly!

I've Been Exerpted!

As my regular readers know technical difficulties have caused the writing of this blog to happen at the library. Because I'm not on my own computer I've been making many new bounces on the Net to get where I need to go. On one bounce I discovered not only are there 2 other Hoydens in the blogosphere (plain ol Hoyden and Hoyden About Town) but that I have been exerpted. My entry on Hints for the Suddenly Single has been chosen by gingembre for the clipmarks treatment. In the comments section she cites the part about being the most yourself when doing for others and goes on to say, "Check out the rest of this girl's blog. Not only does she write with empathy and a sense of humor she also loves books and cats."

While I was surprised not to be notified about my inclusion, I was pleased by the hat tip. A classic silver lining story is born.

An Open Letter to Willy Vlautin

Willy,

I am writing to thank you for your lovely book Northline.

First, some background. The latter half of 2007 has been just brutal personally. I didn't get the the coveted job, had to have a longtime pet put down , lost the love of my life. If loss is a place it's like my car has broken down there and I have no money for repairs.

Then, a friend made me a gift of your book and its soundtrack. My friend is a writer too which means, of course, he is a watcher first and I believe, though he never said so, that he knew that Northline was not only a book I would enjoy reading but one I needed to read. The right book at the right time. How right he was.

I feel a deep gratitude that your protaganist, Allison, exists. She's definately my new fictional best friend. Her journey speaks to me so deeply I hardly know how to express it. I love that what seems like such a simple story while you are reading it packs such gigantic wallop that you're left still thinking about it weeks later. I love that things get better for her not in an artificial 'chicken soup for the soul' way but instead by her hanging in there and collecting the small kindnesses that come her way. Fortitudine Vincimus-"by endurance we prevail".

I also love the soundtrack. It has been the background for some serious soul searching of my own. For weeks it was the only music I sought out. To fully appreciate how significant that is you have to realize that for me a broken heart means everything is stripped away, at least temporarily. Not just that beloved person-everything. Sleep, food, music-it all goes and must be reclaimed bit by bit. Your soundtrack helped bring the music back for which I am also profoundly grateful.

I'm sure that when I look back on this time from the harbor of better days I will be able to say your book, its soundtrack and my friend's gift of it to me will be on the list of things that saved me. So again, and repeatedly, thank you.

sam


*Northline will be published in the US by Harper Perennial in Spring 2008.*

Dear Nicole Kidman

So I read you wouldn't have played Ms Coulter in "The Golden Compass" unless the anti religious stuff was taken out (even though the kidnapping and torture of children was still left in). This from a woman who has played both a consumptive courtesan/whore ("Moulin Rouge") and an ambitious bitch who convinces a boy to kill her husband for her ("To Die For"). So it's okay to play characters who act as though there's no God but not okay to be in a movie that says that the representatives of God on Earth can be corrupted.

Interesting.

The Golden Compass

The other night I was a bad bad Catholic and went and saw a sneak preview of "The Golden Compass"(I'm hoping that the fact I didn't actually pay for it will save my lapsed butt on a technicality) and after seeing the movie I have to say there's nothing in it for zealous religious types to get upset over (not that that usually stops them). In order to appeal to the widest possible audience the filmmakers have defanged the atheism in Philip Pullman's book, which is rather like making a new version of "Gone With the Wind" and not citing the Yankees as the enemy. Instead of the evil church in the book, the movie bad guys are a government agency which I think might confuse movie viewers who haven't read the book when they get to the parts about 'Dust' which is understood to be Original Sin in the books.

This defanging also brings in the possibility of another interpretation which strictly contridicts the author's intention. Not to give too much away, but part of the story deals with this mysterious government agency attempting to seperate children from their deamon, which is an animal representation of the soul which accompanies a human everywhere. (Again something that makes more sense when it's a church-churches being more in the business of human souls.) I think one of the best parts of Pullman's premise is the concept of the deamon-it's the deepest wish of every child (and adult children!) to have a totally loving being always with you, one who will never, ever leave you and by removing the church of the book the movie allows the interpretation of the deamon as savior, which would likely rankle Pullman to say the least.

Due to this defanging and the necessary pruning to produce a 2 hour movie, "The Golden Compass" the movie comes across as a kind of Classic Illustrated comic book version-great visuals and the basic story but lacking the theme that made the book great. It wasn't bad by any means-the casting is spot on (Daniel Craig looks as good in a parka with a snow leopard by his side as he does in a tux or a Speedo) and the CGI effects are used well. (Of course, Hoyden me would probably go for any movie with a plucky heroine on a daring Northern adventure.) Many people will see and enjoy it as just a good yarn, which is fine, but the reader in me wishes the filmmakers had followed Pullman's book (forgive me) more religiously.


**If you too are facinated by the concept of the deamon but can't decide which animal form yours would take you can go to goldencompassmovie.com and take a test which will pick one for you. According to the site mine is a snow leopard named Archeleron because I am (and I quote) "modest, inquisitive, flexiable, softly spoken and spontaneous".

You Go Margot

We're almost two weeks in and I gotta say I think it's a love match. Margot is just what I needed. She wants to be with me when I'm home-'oh we're watching TV now? I'll sit beside you. We're cooking? I'll supervise.' And my favorite from the first night 'oh we're sleeping? Is this pillow taken?' and she curled up on the pillow next to mine. I call her Gogo cause it's short for Margot and cause she looks like some Japanese anime cat with her big blue Speed Racer eyes. Besides the inevitable not being able to clean her own litterbox her only flaws so far are snoring (it's mostly cute) and her weakness for her toys. When she wants to play she wants to play and you best get with the program. Seeing her using her Cat Dancer toy by herself is usually enough to guilt me into playing no matter what I'm doing. Yep, sounds like love.

The Annotated Godfather

If you love "The Godfather" like I love "The Godfather" you should run, not walk, to your nearest bookstore and check out The Annotated Godfather, which features the complete film script and pages and pages of super cool bonus features. Annotated is, of course, a favorite geek word in and of itself but paired with a favorite movie-it's almost too much goodness. I thought I knew a lot of "Godfather" trivia (yes, it was a real horse head) but even I found new fun facts in this book. For example, Mario Puzo was once confronted in a restaurant by Frank Sinatra, who was of course, partial inspiration for the character of Johnny Fontaine. Sinatra objected to the portrayal and John Wayne, who was sitting at a nearby table, offered to back Ol Blue Eyes in the fight. Can you imagine?

So if you find yourself talking about making people offers they can't refuse, this is the book for you.

Long Live the Laptop

The laptop is dead. Caught in a fatal error circle that cannot be penetrated (at least by me). Is there any worse feeling than total, complete, vital equipment failure? It was an inherited one, 10 years + old (which is like 50 in technology years) which is why I fear even taking it anywhere for repair-even if I could afford it I just know laughter would ensue. Like pouring money into your $1000 car (see the classic Bottle Rockets song) it's just a bad idea.

But the blog will go on-I would hate to disappoint my 12 loyal readers (or bleaders as Julie Powell calls them)- but on Ann Arbor District Library time, instead of Hoyden time. (Alas, no more blogging at 3am.)

The laptop is dead. Long live the laptop.

Elvis at the Thrift Store

Really the title just about says it all in this case. I was at the thrift store today and so was the King. He was in the furniture room doing a spirited version of "Blue Christmas" and then he proceeded to find a great sweater in the 50 cent room. Mojo Nixon is right-Elvis IS everywhere.