Scheduled to debut in April, Zac Posen is next in line to create a discount line for Target. As of late, pieces will start at a mere $14.99  and bottom out at $149.99, which is still a massive bargain for the luxury label. With the pops of bright color seen in his Spring 2010 Ready to Wear Collection (some pieces pictured below) along with his tried-and-true feminine fantasy aesthetic, I can already tell that his line will be worth the wait.

Click here for the full story as seen on All Headline News.

One of the coolest and most popular picture books of all time, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are makes it’s big screen debut today.  You probably couldn’t miss the huge cutouts promoting the movie in cinemas and some of us have had their photos taken pretending to be Max.  I’m really excited about seeing the movie tonight, even though there have been mixed reviews of it.  It’s one of those movies where you just have to leave the original story behind and enjoy the movie in its own right.  Everything I’ve read about it and all the trailers I’ve seen make it look and sound fantastic.

If you’d prefer to read the original picture book or just want to revisit the story before you see the movie we have plenty of copies in the library.  You can also watch the trailer for the movie here.

After seeing the movie…

It lived up to all my expectations and I came out of the cinema with a huge grin on my face, wanting to see it again right away.  The Wild Things look very much like the original ones from the book and I wanted to be Max, hanging out with the Wild Things and sleeping in a big pile with them.  Each of the Wild Things is quite different in personality and their clashes in personality make it difficult for them all to live together.  As Spike Jonze (the director) explained, it is not a children’s movie but a movie about childhood and you see childhood emotions coming out in the Wild Things, such as worry, fear, anger, and the feeling that nobody ever listens to you.  It wasn’t a scary movie so younger children would cope, unless they’re scared of monsters.  I thoroughly recommend it!

*PHOTOS* Amber Gets Zipped Up By Strangers

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Amber Rose is taking this new found celebrity status to another level. You see Amber now crossing over into the “white portion of parties” (smart woman) You barely catch Amber on Alltheparties.com and 7days and 7nights. Amber was recently at the movie premiere of “Me and Orson Wells in N.Y.C and i heard she had Disney star and “every teen white girls dream” Zac Efron   “shook”  Zac is said to have stopped in the middle of his interview and said” Amber Rose is here? I can’t believe she is here” You see amber seems to get it that’s why i predicted a long time ago that Amber is gonna have a big 2010. She has star status out of the ass and trust me it has nothing to do with Kanye, cuz right now? nobody is checkin for kanye the way they are checking for Amber. If it’s all about Kanye why didn’t his ex Brooke get this much pub? and she looks like Keri Hilson. This is all Amber all the time

Bboy France 2009

Tu m’excuseras pour le retard, je n’ai pas une minute à moi! Bref, c’est mon blog donc je m’en fous, je fais ce que je veux! je te prie de m’excuser, ôh cher lecteur fidèle! Mais après tout, un mois après l’événement, c’est pas la mort…

Commençons par le commencement. Je t’ai présenté l’événement, voici le bilan:

Tout d’abord, le B-Girl France.

Alors, comme je te l’ai dit, j’ai pas pu être présent ce jour là, mais mon acolyte Zac, alias Valentin, y était. Donc, d’après ses impressions, il y avait du lourd niveau level féminin. Selon lui, du beau spectacle malgré un public endormi dans de beaux petits fauteuils trop confortables.

La gagnante: B-girl Manuella de Figure 2 Style. Elle remporte la victoire face à Mi-mouche; respect à Mi-mouche d’être arrivée en finale en partant des qualifications. Mi-Mouche qui mise tout sur l’originalité et la musicalité, et ça a payait. Manuella qui mettrait plus d’un mec à l’amende .

Au passage, on remarquera le très bon battle Manuella contre Soso, avec le petit kick discret de Soso , prenez en de la graine et troquez vos talons pour des baskets: Rejoignez les b-girls, on en manque!

Passons maintenant au B-Boy France, auquel j’ai assisté avec Hélène, Zac et Charlotte, sa soeur. Après mon kiff de l’année dernière, j’attendais vraiment cet événement. Bilan de cette édition:

Premier mot qui me vient à l’esprit: BOYCOTT !!  Ouais, c’est malheureux à dire, d’autant que c’est un évènement avec du potentiel. Je vais pas faire durer le suspens plus longtemps: Abdel de 59 Krew représentant Grande-Synthe (la ville organisatrice), eux mêmes organisateurs (dont son frère: Lascen) se retrouve une seconde fois en finale. Le public, composé à 75% de racailles-wallah et de poufs pucelles, participe honteusement à ce boycott. Des chauvins qui ne se manifestent que lorsqu’on aperçoit Abdel. Oui, je suis un peu agressif dans mes mots, mais c’est simplement parce que je suis déçu. Je me mettrais sûrement beaucoup de monde à dos en faisant ces accusations, mais le peu de b-boys présents dans le public le confirmera, de bons danseurs se sont fait éliminés alors qu’ils méritaient sûrement de monter plus haut. Et moi, je trouve cela dommage. Oui, n’y voyait là aucune haine ou jalousie, juste de la déception…

Pour parler des événements positifs qui ont relevé le niveau:

• Le vainqueur: Keyz de Original South King, qui à fait un bon battle.
• Deux passages parfaits de Meda, même si ce battle fut le parfait exemple du boycott, mais bon, on retiendra quand même sa performance.

Et enfin, mes coups de coeur:

• Une excellente prestation de Bob de Zygomatik. Je l’ai découvert, mais franchement j’ai super bien kiffé, au même titre qu’Hélène. Musical, original, énergique, rien à dire. J’adore .

• Un superbe show du Wanted posse, Babyson et Junior. C’était pas prévu dans les guests mais très agréable surprise. Deux très bons danseurs qui ont fait un beau mélange de break et de new style. Personnellement, je vous le recommande .

Voilà, l’essentiel est dit. Toutes les vidéos des battles et des shows sont en lignes sur le blog, et ça c’est toujours spécialement pour toi petit lecteur, merci qui? .

Pour le reste, tout est dans le podcast:

Peace.

Everybody has a friend or family member like Hamster.  He loves being the center of attention, he’s selfish, and greedy.  His friends Rabbit, Snail, Squirrel, Mole and Hedgehog all know what he’s like but love him no matter what.  Reflections of a Solitary Hamster is Gecko Press’ first graphic novel, written by Astrid Desbordes and illustrated by Pauline Martin.  Through each quirky episode Hamster and his friends learn some important lessons about friendship, sharing, and that it is the thought that counts.  Gecko Press’ ‘curiously good books’ are always presented so beautifully and Reflections of a Solitary Hamster is no exception.  Great for children and teens but particularly adults as they will get the often subtle sense of humour.

Good for You, Good for Me by Lorenz Pauli and illustrated by Kathrin Scharer is one of my favourite Gecko Press books so far.  Dormouse meets Bear one day while he is walking along playing his flute.  Bear gives Dormouse his favourite red cushion so that he can have a play of his flute.  This deal is good for them both; Bear has the flute and Dormouse has a cushion to sit on.  It turns out that Bear can’t play the flute very well and so they swap back and decide to travel together.  They make a good pair and discover that if they work together things will be ‘good for you, good for me.’  The illustrations are delightful and show Bear and Dormouse playing together in the sun and the rain.  I especially like the black and white line illustrations of Bear dancing while Dormouse plays his flute.  This is a great books for sharing with young children and is a perfect bedtime story.

The new Twilight movie New Moon seems to be the thing that everybody is talking about at the moment.  Record-breaking movie takings are being reported on the TV, radio and blogs everywhere, the cast are being interviewed left, right and center, and all of the Twi-hards are coming out of the woodwork.  You can probably tell I’m not a fan and I’m sure I’m not the only one who is sick of all the attention that these books and movies are getting.  I can just see the publishers and movie producers rubbing their hands with glee.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that people are reading the books, but it’s all the publicity that goes into making the whole thing so huge that I’m really against.  There are so many great books out there, but publishers think they’re onto a good thing with books such as Twilight and Harry Potter, and they milk them to death, putting all their marketing on one particular book or series.  There are plenty of books I can think of that are so much better written and are far greater stories than these blockbusters but they don’t get the attention that they should.

If you’re sick of the Twilight Saga and want to try something new, you could try some of these which we think are the best reads of the year for young adults:

• Catching Fire  -  Suzanne Collins (sequel to The Hunger Games)
• Brainjack  -  Brian Falkner
• Paper Towns  -  John Green
• Butterfly -  Sonya Hartnett
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth  -  Carrie Ryan
• Beatle Meets Destiny -  Gabrielle Williams

You can find some more great reads in our Holiday Reading 2009 guide and don’t forget you can vote for your favourite book of the year here and go into the draw to win book vouchers.

While watching the Top 40 music show on C4 last night I got increasingly annoyed seeing the junk that makes up our top music in New Zealand at the moment.  Out of the top five I don’t think there was one artist who could actually sing in their own right without their voice being altered digitally.  Maybe I’m just getting old but I don’t actually like it at all and I wonder whether it would be cheaper for record companies to ‘build’ their own pop star on a computer.  Take Britney Spears for example.  She was booed off the stage at several of her recent Australian concerts because she was quite clearly lip-syncing to pre-recorded music.  It seems to be mainly R&B artists who use it and you’ve got to wonder if they’re actually just a pretty face with no musical talent.

I saw an interesting piece on 3 News last week that was talking about the software that pop artists use to alter their voices, called Aut0-Tune.  It’s a computer programme that can perfect your pitch and smooth over any off-notes, similar to the Photoshop programme that can perfect images.  According to this article there are three brothers in Brooklyn who have created songs out of news items.  They call it Auto-Tune the News and take particular news reports and use the Auto-Tune programme to alter voices and make it into a song, adding themselves into the news as well.

I’m pretty sure most of my favourite artists/groups such as James Taylor, The Killers, James Morrison, and Dave Dobbyn don’t use the technology.  Who are your favourite, naturally talented musicians?

Vanessa Hudgens has recently done a cover of the christmas classic “Winter Wonderland.” We enjoyed it very much. What do you think?

It’s always nice to see new interpretations of fairytales, particularly an illustrator’s interpretations of favourite characters.  There have recently been several outstanding new additions to our collection of fairytales for you to feast your eyes on.

Lucy Cousins’ Yummy is one of my favourite books of the year because of her bright, bold illustrations and her uncensored versions of some of the best fairytales for young children.  The appeal of this book is the graphic nature of the illustrations, such as in Little Red Riding Hood we see Red and Granny being swallowed by the wolf and the wolf’s head flying across the page after being chopped off by the Woodsman.  In The Three Little Pigs the wolf is boiled in the pot and eaten by the pigs.  I particularly like the horrible looking troll in The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  This is a great fairytale collection particularly for boys as there are no princesses in sight.

Fairy Tales by Berlie Doherty and Jane Ray is a reprint of their popular classic originally published in 2000.  Walker Books is one of my favourite publishers as they always publish great books that are beautifully designed.  Classic Fairy Tales is one of the titles that Walker have re-released in stunning paperback editions that are easier to hold and read. This collection includes a wonderful selection of popular fairytales, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, and Rumpelstiltskin, retold by Berlie Doherty with magical illustrations by Jane Ray.  One of the things I like most about this book is that every page is decorated with colourful borders that match the story. This collection is perfect for older children, especially those girls that love princesses.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live on a farm, miles away from any town with only your family for company?  For some people this may be your worst nightmare, but for Ben and Mark Smith this is a life they love.  Ben and Mark: Boys of the High Country is a great new book from Random House New Zealand, written by Christine Fernyhough and John Bougen that gives an interesting insight into life at Mount White Station in the Canterbury High Country which is managed by Ben and Mark’s parents, Richard and Sheri.  The book illustrates what life is like for the boys who have grown up helping out on the farm.  It is filled with information on farming life, such as the animals they look after, their daily routines and what they do for fun. 

The easy to read text and stunning photos make this a great book for children and adults, and would be a wonderful educational resource for teachers.

The Best and Worst Children’s Books of the Year event is being held at Upper Riccarton Library from 7:30-9pm tonight.  Come along to find out what the best and worst books were for children and young adults in 2009.  Guest speakers include author and ex-children’s librarian Bill Nagelkerke, children’s literature specialist from the National Library, Bob Docherty, and Sheila Sinclair from The Children’s Bookshop.  Refreshments will be available and someone will walk away with a Jenny Cooper original illustration which is being auctioned.  Come and join us for a fun and entertaining night.  You might even spot some christmas present ideas.

When I read on James Taylor’s fan site that the great man himself was coming to Auckland on April 10, 2010  along with Carole King, I was ecstatic! Their Troubadour Reunion concert was advertised yesterday in the Sunday Star Times, along with an interview with Taylor and his long-time friend and collaborator Carole King.   I have been a fan of James Taylor for years now after my dad introduced me to his music and his albums take up a significant space in my CD collection.  He’s one of those artists that whenever I listen to his music my soul glows because it just makes me so happy.  He has an amazing voice, which I think has aged like a fine wine, and has written some amazing songs, such as Fire and Rain, Carolina in my mind, Line ‘em up, and My travelling star.

I’ll definitely be lining up for tickets when they go on sale on Monday 23 November.

If you’re also a fan, we have some of his albums in the library including my favourites October Road, You’ve got a friend: the best of James Taylor, and One Man Band.

If you know me well, you are sitting in front of your computer chuckling right now. Simply, of course I chose “MMMBop” for 1997. There was no other choice.

I hated Hanson and “MMMBop” when they first arrived on the scene in 1997. A fifth grader with a mind of my own, I was just a couple of years late to the grunge party. I made a regular habit of wearing oversized corduroys with big flannel shirts when not in the tie-dyed Cool as a Moose T-Shirt and adidas wind pants that may as well have been my uniform (yes, I did get made fun of in middle school). If I remember correctly, I was loving the musical stylings of the Gin Blossoms and No Doubt, and more embarrassingly The Spice Girls and The Eagles.

In short, despite some seriously poor judgment in the fashion department, I could recognize Hanson as being pretty fucking terrible. Even though it was cool that Zac Hanson was my age, I couldn’t tell if he was a boy or a girl; I had no idea what the hell “MMMBop” was about and it seemed nonsensical; and I have always been turned off by crazed tweens and whatever they’re screaming about.

I later came to my senses. I could not tell you when the switch was flipped, but probably sometime around 2003. “MMMBop” is the greatest song ever written.

As far as I can tell, an “MMMBop” is an interval of time, an interval that may be short or long, depending on the context in which it is used. Sort of like how Rhode Island can be small when thought of as a state, or large when used as a unit of measure to approximate the size of hunks of ice that are breaking off of Antarctica.

Despite the fact that it goes about as deep as you might expect a 7th grader to bring it (and, well, that’s all you should expect from Hanson), “MMMBop” is basically a peppy reminder that the vast majority of your friends and lovers are going to end up fucking you over, so you have to take care of those who take care of you. An “MMMBop”, specifically, seems to be the amount of time after which your friends will turn into complete fucking douchebags.

If you haven’t investigated the song, you might be surprised by the lyrics.

You have so many relationships in this life
Only one or two will last
You’re going through all this pain and strife
Then you turn your back and they’re gone so fast
And they’re gone so fast

So hold on the ones who really care
In the end they’ll be the only ones there
When you get old and start losing your hair
Can you tell me who will still care
Can you tell me who will still care

(lots of MMMBoping)

In an mmm bop, they’re gone
Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose
You can plant any one of those
Keep planting to find out which one grows
It’s a secret no one knows
It’s a secret no one knows
No one knows

(More mmmboping and asking if you know the secret)

So, it’s catchy and it reminds you to take care of everyone you know because you never know who is going to be an asshole and who has your back.

I understand that it’s basically impossible to hear the majority of the lyrics, even when you know them, but I swear they’re there.

I don’t know why, but I really do love “MMMBop” and it seems that everyone around me knows this. I regularly get phone calls or voicemails letting me know that the masterpiece is on the radio and allowing me to listen, or excited text messages that read “mmmbop is on!” I’m not sure what this says about me, but it seems clear that a good portion of my friends associate me with the song.

and here are the brothers (the precursor to the JoBros) performing the song live in 2008

Also, yeah, they grew out of the awkward stage:

There is really only one word needed to describe James Dashner’s The Maze Runner - Wow!  Imagine that you wake up in a strange place knowing nothing but your name.  Your memory has been wiped and you have no idea what happened to you before you woke up in the pitch black of an elevator that opens to reveal a walled-off area and a bunch of boys staring at you.  The leader of the group tells you that you are in the middle of a maze, in a place called The Glade where these boys all live, carving out an existence.  Nobody knows why the maze is there or why they are all trapped inside with no way out that they have discovered in the past two years.  As well as trying to solve the maze they must survive the attacks of sinister blob-type creatures called Grievers.  The story follows Thomas and the other ‘Gladers’ who strive against the odds to escape the maze alive.

The story is heart-stopping and the plot races along.  It’s one of those books that you just don’t want to end and I was excited to discover that The Maze Runner is the first book in a trilogy.  Now I just have to wait patiently for James Dashner to write the sequel, Scorch Trials that comes out next year.  If you loved Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games you’re sure to love The Maze Runner.

My favourite book of 2009

Next Wednesday (18 November) the annual Best and Worst Books of the Year event is being held at Upper Riccarton library from 7:30-9pm.  Everybody is invited to come along and hear from librarians, booksellers, publishers and authors about what their favourite books were this year.  It’s always a fun night with drinks and nibbles available and if you want to get your hands on a Jenny Cooper original illustration there is one being auctioned on the night. 

Our Holiday Reading List is also being launched on the night so if you want to find some great children’s and young adults books to read over the summer break, come along and get a copy.

I’ve noticed that there has been a bit of a run on picture books about bedtime lately and they’re all really cute.  Here’s just a couple of my favourites:

Bedtime without Arthur by Jessica Meserve is about a girl called Bella who has a very special bear named Arthur who protects her from monsters when she is asleep.  “He is as brave as a knight.  He is as strong as ten elephants.  And he does karate.”  While Arthur is fighting the monsters in the shadows, Bella is dreaming of rainbows and rainforests, but one night Arthur goes missing and Bella has a horrible sleep because she can’t stop thinking about the dragons, slugs and grizzly bears that she is scared of.  She searches everywhere for him and finds that he has made another friend.  This little bear has lots of character and the illustrations are adorable and so bright.

One of my favourite illustrators, Chris Riddell has also written and illustrated a picture book about the monsters that hide in your room.  Mr Underbed is about a boy called Jim who is dozing off one night when a friendly monster pops out from under his bed.  His name is Mr Underbed and he’s a bright blue, fluffy thing with a bulbous pink nose and a friendly face, and he tells Jim that it is very uncomfortable sleeping under the bed and asks if he can sleep in his bed.  Jim invites him in but this is only the start of the long string of monsters who want to share his bed, including Pinkie the bedside table rabbit and Grimble, Grumble and Groan the toy trunk triplets.  Will Jim ever be able to get to sleep?

Stormy Weather by Debi Gliori doesn’t have the humour of the previous two books and is more of a lullaby for parents to read to their children before bed.  The different animals tell their children how they will watch over them and protect them while they sleep.  The text flows nicely and is a pleasure to read with perfect ryhthm to lull children to sleep.

Last week I went of one of the great Technology Tasters that we are running at Christchurch City Libraries.  The Taster that I chose was about Online Bookclubs, which I knew a little bit about but had never actually joined up with one of them so I thought I’d give it a try.  We were introduced to the range of book and reading related websites that are available through the Christchurch City Libraries Internet Gateway.  There are some fabulous resources available here and if you’re ever stuck with what to read next, you should definitely have a look at some of these websites.

The main focus of this Taster was to introduce us to an amazing website called Shelfari.   Shelfari is a social networking site, very similar to Facebook but focused on books and reading.  You have a virtual bookshelf that holds your virtual library, you catalogue your books with whatever information you like, and can join user groups to discuss books with like-minded people and recommend books for others to read.  It takes only a few minutes to sign up and modify the settings to suit your needs and then you can start adding your books and joining groups.  Like Facebook you can also invite people to be your friends and others can invite you to be their friends.

The only downside to joining Shelfari is that I’ve spent more time adding books and joining groups in the last few days than I have reading actual books.

Grenoble remporte le Grand prix national EcoQuartier 2009

La ZAC de Bonne, à Grenoble, va servir d’exemple aux futurs EcoQuartiers destinés à voir le jour en France dans les années à venir. Elle vient en effet d’être auréolée du Grand prix national au palmarès EcoQuartier 2009, organisé par le ministère de l’Écologie. Une récompense pour ce projet “exemplaire, porteur d’excellence globale” qui doit devenir un quartier durable. Explications et palmarès.

Batiactu

Voir aussi

• Grenoble : un écoquartier dense remplace l’ancienne caserne de Bonne
• Ecoquartiers : la France peine à rattraper son retard
• La caserne De Bonne, quartier modèle et économe du centre de Grenoble
• Palmarès EcoQuartier : “Identifier des lauréats thématiques revient à nier le caractère transversal du développement durable” [ajouté le 11 nov. 2009]