Shinola

From an old song I used to dig from from Todd Rundgren & Utopia,
"Shinola":

Sung:
I see you're still in the headlines
You pegged the latest trend again this week
I'm not impressed by the outfit,
Or your revolutionary chic
And here it comes,
I see you forming the words, you're performing the exercise
And here it comes,
It's the feeling that I heard the same speech a hundred times:
Screamed:
This is the jabber of a
chimpanzee!!
The motion of your mouth
looks much the same to me!!!
The differentiation might
be hard to see,
But this is crapola!!!

(the political message of the picture, while I don't
disagree) is incidental to what I'm talking about)

Sung, very melodically, with harmony:
This is shinola--
shinola!!!



Spoken:
Everyone's talking, few of them know The rest are pretending, they put on a show And if there's a message I guess this is it Truth isn't easy, the easy part's shit:

viral

I keep thinking about this, from Publishers Weekly:

Yes, teens spend a lot of time online. But for publishers trying to use that to their advantage, it takes more than just shifting promotional dollars to the Web. "Part of the trick to marketing books to teens online is that the most effective results seem to come from the coverage that appears most organic, viral and uncommercial in nature," says Tracy van Straaten, v-p of trade publicity at Scholastic.

wtf?

of-the-people, bottom-up, nonhierarchical

Dictionary
grass roots (also grassroots |--gras?ro--ts|)
plural noun
the most basic level of an activity or organization : the whole campaign would be conducted at the grass roots. | [as adj. ]
• ordinary people regarded as the main body of an organization's membership : you have lost touch with the grass roots of the party.

Thesaurus
grassroots
adjective
a grassroots movement: popular, of-the-people, bottom-up, nonhierarchical, rank-and-file.

Book Lists, Recs, Reviews: Teen Book Reviewer and Melissa's "Poised at the Edge"

I promised Em that I would post some book recommendations on my blog, but I am sick and lazy, so I will just point out a couple of links:


Teen Book Reviewer missed her goal of reading 365 books last year, but she did read over 300! Here is her myspace, and here's a link to her 30 favorites of the year.


Melissa has a myspace blog, Poised at the Edge, filled with reviews, interviews, etc. Melissa is a great resource when you're looking for a good read.

And there's also the Cybils! Short list of young adult novels coming on 1/7!!

What I Read Last Year--An INCOMPLETE List for 2007, the Common Era

EVERY SO OFTEN I start keeping a list of books that I've read. Once I even tried an annotated list. Trouble is, I never manage to stay interested in these lists, and the one I began last January in the foolishness of my new year's optimism was lost along with my little moleskine notebook.

So, this list will be incomplete, but I'm having fun looking at Lee's list for titles I also read, going through the bookcases, and remembering other books that have been returned to the library or loaned out. One book leads to another, both in time and in the mind, so I've remembered a lot, but not all, of them. Blogging about some--like the Stephen King and the Margaret Atwood--has made them stick in my mind better, which reminds me of Aidan Chambers' saying: "All writing is memory," which speaks both to how we write from memory and remember what we've written about.

The lists are in no particular order. Books that made a really strong impression on me are in bold, and are followed by a one word description.



Though I just started it, Jess Walter's The Zero blew me away in the first sentence, paragraph, page, three pages. Shelter, by Beth Cooley, (another Spokanite) also has a strong beginning. Titus Groan is a slow starter, but I can't wait to really get into it!

Read in 2007

1. Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep


2. Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment (Pevear and Volkhonsky, trans.) *tortured


3. William Faulkner: Sanctuary *whiskeyjar


4. Stephen King: The Dark Tower VII *hile!
   


5. Philip Roth: Everyman *compression


6. Ian McKewan: On Chesil Beach


7. Barry Lyga: The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl


8. Robin Brande: Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature


9. Aidan Chambers: This is All: The Pillow Book of Cordia Kenn *fearless
   


10. Auralie Sheehan: History Lesson For Girls


11. Jennifer Bell: High Maintenance


12. Kevin Brooks: Candy *breakneck
    


13. Denis Johnson: Tree of Smoke *truth?
    


14. Pamela Des Barres: I'm with the Band *love . . .
    


15. John Green: Looking for Alaska *Alaska.


16. Nick Hornby: How to be Good


17. Joy Nicholson: The Tribes of Palos Verdes


18. Jeff Eugenides: Middlesex *epic


19. Margaret Atwood: Alias Grace
    


20. Carrie Jones: Tips on Having a Gay Ex-Boyfriend *real


21. Alex Richards: Backtalk *snarkvoiced


22. Erin Hunter: Warriors: Into the Wild (r/a=read aloud)


23. JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (r/a) *finale


24. JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings ( r/a) *favoritest
    


25. ibid: The Sillmarillion (r/a)
    


26. Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little Town on the Prairie (r/a ) *growing up:/


27. Julie Andrews Edwards: The Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles r/a

I read part of these, but drifted away from them and want to get back-- includes short stories & essays:

1. Anton Checkov: Stories (Pevear and Volkhonsky translation)


2. Margaret Atwood: Surfacing


3. Joan Didion: The White Album *true


4. Peter S. Beagle: The Last Unicorn

Currently Reading:

1. Beth Cooley: Shelter


2. Jess Walter: The Zero *amazing
   


3. Cynthia Voigt: Dicey's Song


4. Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan

Just bought or received:

1. Jess Walter: The Zero


2. Peter Cameron: Someday this Pain will be Useful to You


3. Calvin Peake: Titus Groan


4. Henry Miller: Tropic of Cancer


5. Robert Penn Warren: All the Kings Men


6. Dostoevsk: Notes From Underground


7. Jonathan Ames: Wake Up, Sir

I'm going to read a lot more this year--starting tonight.

Happy reading and Happy New Year to you!

Love and Peace . . .

Brian's Better Butterbeer Booster--Pyro-style and other . . .

ONE CHRISTMAS DINNER, many years ago, my father went a little overboard with the brandy--not in the consumption, but in the quantity with which he doused the plum pudding. And so, as he carried the platter into the darkened dining room, while blue flames danced around the tray, they also danced in a little stream onto the floor and left a trail of melted carpet.



I offer this tale as a caution: if you like fire, by all means enjoy the "pyro butterbeer." But don't set anything on fire that you don't want to burn.

More recently, about three years ago, I went googling for a butterbeer recipe to share at my "Lunch at the Three Broomsticks" club at school. I found many ideas, (sorry! can't remember where:( ) though I couldn't bring my favorite to school. I did, however, bring all my test-batches to the annual Heiss family New Year's Eve gathering for testing.

I'm presenting here the top tasting recipe:

BRIAN'S BETTER BUTTERBEER BOOSTER (I think that night we came up with even more b's, but I disremember now:)

You'll need:

• Good cream soda in large quantities


• Mrs. Richardson's or other good caramel sauce


• a few cups of Butterscotch schnapps


• pure vanilla extract


• butter


• a stout sauce-pan


• stove


• fire


• jars, mugs, ice


• tasters & helpers

What you do:

• Pour a couple of cups of schnapps into the sauce pan and set to heat on medium. How much cooking you do depends on if you want to boil/burn off the alcohol so this mixture is safe for house elves & children. Even if you don't, it won't be very stong (unless you're a house elf). Buttershots is about 15 % alcohol. If you mix the booster with cream soda at 1/10 ratio, this dilutes it to about 1.5 % or less, since some of the alcohol is going to evaporate, and there are other ingredients.


• If you want to leave it a little boozy:
  
  
  
  • warm up the schnapps, but don't boil or let it steam.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Stir in some caramel sauce as it warms--maybe one or two overflowing, dripping tablespoons-full per cup of schnapps.
  
  
  • pour in a cap-full or so of vanilla
  
  
  • melt in a little butter--a very little because it hardens when chilled. You may want to leave this out unless you like your butterbeer hot; even then you can dot the top with butter.
  
  
  • stir it up.
  
  
  • slide the pan off the heat as soon as the caramel and butter are melted and stirred into the mixture.
  
  
  
  

• If you want it safe for house elves (almost alcohol free)
  
  
  
  • Do everything the same, but heat to boiling.
  
  
  • boil until it the mixture reduces to about 75% of it's original volume. Since alcohol vaporizes at a lower temp than water, the alcohol should be pretty much gone by now. Give it a sniff or a taste and see what you think.
  
  
  
  

• Pyro Butterbeer! If you like fire:
  
  
  
  • Add only the vanilla to the schnapps.
  
  
  • Heat it until just before boiling.
  
  
  • sniff it carefully! Smell that alcohol?
  
  
  • give it a good stir to get the fumes going and set it ablaze. Be careful! Use a long candle/grill lighter if you have one. Don't let your hair swing over the pot.
  
  
  • Turn off the light and enjoy the blue glow.
  
  
  • stir it around, taking care not to burn yourself or set your wooden spoon on fire. The burnt wood flavor is unpleasant. (use a metal spoon:)
  
  
  • When it goes out, stir it up and light it again. You can keep burning it until it won't light anymore, or you're bored.
  
  
  • Add the rest of the ingredients.
  
  
  • boil/burn/mix until reduced to 75% of original volume.
  
  
  
  

• When you finish cooking the booster, let it cool.

I like my butterbeer cold:

• Pour a little booster into your mug. (try about 1/10 ratio and add more if you like it strong and sweet)


• gently add cream soda.


• gently stir


• put in as much ice as you like--again, gently.


• You now have a mug of rich, creamy, sweet, and foamy butterbeer!

If you want to try it warm:

• Mix to taste with warmed cream soda and serve with a dot of butter. Don't boil the soda, or it will loose its fizz entirely.

If you're of legal/moral age, and you like a little extra cheer:

• add some good rum to taste, but watch out because this is very sweet and might give you a headache in the morning! ;-)

If you have suggestions for bettering the booster, and thus the butterbeer, please comment!

Finally, enjoy your butterbeer with good friends--muggle or magic! Or alone with your favorite book or movie. And watch those house elves!

Too Many Links! Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist Movie! A Contest! & A Question . . .

Andrew Karre told me, and Sara of Sara's Holds Shelf told him about this first. But tonight I read about it on Rachel Cohn's myspace blog: the film adaptation of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist! Sara wondered, but sounds like it's going to be fantastic. When I brought this book to school last year, my students were practically fighting over it, and they are going to be really psyched about this flick. When I first saw this pic of Rachel and Kat Dennings, I thought Kat looked almost too beautiful to be Norah:



I like this picture because it shows me something else, not exactly Norah-like, but, well, you know, gangsta.



Also check out Andrew Karre's album and book coupling contest and win yourself a book!

Question: I'm keeping my livejournal, because I can post simultaneously. And I love my myspace like a baby blanket. But should I keep my blogspot, or direct my traffic to my mandabach.com website?