Surprise Crochet Again

New Girl is a show that I feel like I should like, but the few times I've caught an episode, it just doesn't do it for me.  Granted, this may be because I only tend to watch the episodes that appear to have a particular interest of mine.  Case in point, the very first time I decided to watch it was because the episode featured handbells, and I was in a handbell choir when I was in high school.  And the main reason for this post, an episode from a couple of weeks ago that featured Jess and her friends having crochet time:

I love that it is explicitly called crochet time in the episode, and crochet hooks are definitely being used.  All the stuff they're working on appears to be crocheted, although I'm not entirely sure what any of them are making.  And then Zooey Deschanel has to ruin it by knitting.

Keep crochet time pure, Jess!

While working at the library the other day, I noticed The Borrowers on the return cart, and since I knew the new Studio Ghibli movie, The Secret World of Arietty, was based on the book, and since I had never read the books when I was a child, I decided to give it a look.  Imagine my surprise and delight when crochet was mentioned on the very first page.  The book starts with the framing device of the story of the Borrowers being told to a girl named Kate by her elderly relation, Mrs. May, while they work on crocheting squares for a quilt.  Kate mentions losing her crochet hook, even though she knows exactly where she left it, and this reminds Mrs. May of the little creatures her younger brother told her he saw, back when they were children.  I admit, I only finished reading the book to see if crochet was mentioned again, and while it was never part of the Borrowers' story, it did show up again in the framing device near the end (they finished all the squares).  I also read the second book, partly because I knew that the Ghibli movie involved some of it (or so I guessed from the trailer) and partly to see if crochet came up again.  And it did, but only as part of the recap from the first book.  I don't know if crochet shows up in any of the adaptations (of which there are more than I thought), but as most of them appear to disregard the framing device, I highly doubt it.

And while I'm talking about crochet in unexpected places, I'd like to point out the Handmade Ryan Gosling tumblr, which is part of the Ryan Gosling Hey Girl thing (is it a thing?  I only know of one other tumblr with this format, with a library theme), for crafts of all kinds, including crochet:

What I Read - Waking Up in the Land of Glitter

Waking Up in the Land of Glitter gets an endorsement from me just for the very fact that one of the characters finds her salvation through crochet, but it's a pretty good book anyway.  Basically, the plot follows three ladies through the disasters of their lives from August to December: Star, a would-be artist who has six months to get her life on track and sell 347 pounds of glass glitter, Ofie, who dedicates her life to crafts of all kinds even though she has no talent, and Chloe, an up-and-coming TV personality who uses crafts as her springboard, yet hates the very thing that is her claim to fame.  The three come together, along with Benecio, a high school boy with an interest in designing handbags, as part of a craft group thrown together by Star, with the sole purpose of creating the centerpieces for the upcoming Craft Olympics.
When everything was going badly, I couldn't put the book down, eager to see how things would work out, or if they even would.  And of course they do, which is slightly to the book's detriment.  It isn't that I didn't want to see the ladies succeed and come out happy, but everything wrapped up just a little too nicely.  *Spoilers Ahead* Star finally has an art show, and of course everything sells, plus she finally gets the love of her life and doesn't even have to try and make a long distance relationship work.  Ofie discovers she's a natural at crochet, and of course she wins the speed crochet tournament at the Craft Olympics and ends up with all kinds of endorsements and a book deal.  Chloe not only discovers true love, but, despite being completely disgraced on her own news show, gets an endorsement from a Rachel Ray-alike and a potential TV show.  Even Benecio gets endorsements and guest spots, and his dad, a former workaholic, dedicates the rest of his time to his son.
And there's one thing that keeps niggling at me: at various points in the book, Ofie's mother-in-law tells her to take up crochet and offers to teach her, yet Ofie turns her down.  But later, she has Benecio teach her (for no mentioned reason), without the book ever addressing that fact.  The mother-in-law doesn't even bring it up.  Not to mention the fact that Ofie claims to only know one stitch, double crochet.  Wouldn't she have started with single crochet?
So yeah, while I enjoyed reading this book, the too-neat ending keeps me from really loving it.  Still, it is very nice to have a book where crochet plays a good-sized part of the story without it being a mystery.

What I Read - David Sedaris

I got into David Sedaris relatively recently.  It was last spring, when I was working on a bridal clutch for my older sister's wedding, using crochet thread and a steel hook.  Usually when I crochet I like to watch TV or a movie, but I had to work too closely with the thread to really pay attention, so I turned to audio books instead, including Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, which was what put him on my radar, so to speak.  So when I came across his latest book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, I was inclined to read it, though I knew I preferred his essays based on his life rather than his fictional stories.  I learned this while reading Holidays on Ice this past Christmas.  I was grooving along with the hypocritical humor of "Seasons Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!" until suddenly there was Dead Baby.  *shudder*  The other stories were less blood-draining, but their jokes grew old pretty quickly.
Fortunately, most of the stories in Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk are fairly short, so this isn't really a problem.  Most of the stories are slightly unsettling, which didn't really surprise me, and some stories are made even more so by the illustrations, which develop into yet another layer of disturbing when you find out that they were done by Ian Falconer, best known for the Olivia series.  But there are a few that are close to heartwarming, especially the last, "The Grieving Owl."
I guess that what I'm trying to say is that in general I like David Sedaris, but he's an acquired taste.

What I Read - All my friends are dead.

I volunteer at my local library, and the other day when I came in to cover books, I found this sitting on the desk:

and of course I had to read it.  And I was glad I did, as I was thoroughly amused by the whole thing.  You can see a little more of it here, but that small preview really doesn't show the funniest parts, in my opinion.  But if you're intrigued, I would definitely recommend picking it up.

Mixtapes

I've taken to listening to audiobooks while crocheting (and doing other things), and I've found myself checking out books that I might not have otherwise, simply because the audiobook selection at most libraries is so much smaller than the print collection.  That's how I ended up listening to  Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time.  The author, Rob Sheffield, shares various mix tapes he's made over the years and the time in his life they represent, with the bittersweet edge of losing his wife along the way.  Listening, my mind kept wandering to the mixtapes I myself had made, though they weren't really the kind of tape he was talking about.
From 1998 to 2006-ish, I filled 10 and half tapes with my favorite songs from musicals (and the occasional movie or TV song).  I didn't really have the intention of making that many when I started, mind you.  In the summer of 1998 I fell in love with the OCR of Sunset Boulevard, which I had taken out from the library, and listened to it nonstop.  When its due date arrived, I couldn't bear to return it, and I didn't have the funds to buy my own, since a. it was a two-disc set and b. Amazon.com wasn't on the radar yet.  But then I remembered that my father had once told me that you could copy CDs from the library because they pay a special fee, or something, and I just happened to have a boombox with a line-in connection (a surprise fulfillment of a Christmas request for a tape player a couple of years earlier), so I hooked up my CD player and recorded my favorite tracks from that, and a few other CDs I had out at the time.  I actually lost that first tape fairly early on, but I still remember most of the shows that I pull songs from (including Pippin, The Muppet Movie, and Shenandoah).
Even with the arrival of mp3s and cd-ripping into my life, I continued to make my Broadway mixtapes.  I didn't even think of switching to CDs, which means that I occasionally run into songs that I no longer like as much as I used to (if at all) when listening to the cassettes, and have to suffer through them.  Which is probably why the nail in my mixtape-making coffin was when I got an mp3 player.  To be fair, I was losing interest by then, partially due to the difficulty of finding CDs of musicals that I hadn't heard yet that also had songs that I wanted to keep listening to, and the fact that I no longer had my own CD/cassette player (the line-in boombox died earlier).  But the mp3 player basically did what my mixtapes had: let me pick and choose from the best of my collection, with the added bonus of being able to remove songs I was tired of and skip ones I wasn't in the mood for.  I still have my tapes and I still like to listen to them and go back to the time when they were made, though I haven't actually listened to them that much since I got my new car that doesn't have a tape deck.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Puppet Show

This past weekend I got around to watching Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, which I put in my queue not because I'd read the book, but rather because I saw the guy who co-wrote it, David Levithan (which I wrote about during the writing meme).  The movie was pretty good, though I only knew one song in it ("After Hours" by We Are Scientists), plus it had a stealth cameo by Andy Samberg.  I ended up watching it three times over, since there were two commentary tracks, one with the director and some of the actors, and the other with the director, the original authors, and the screenwriter.  I enjoyed both commentaries, though I liked the writer one a little bit better, not just because it had more tidbits about the actual story (always my favorite thing in commentaries), but because it had a lot less "it was so cold in this scene" comments.
The real point of this post, though, is to link to a video of one of the special features, a 4-minute puppet version of the movie with 20% more bear attacks:

Seriously, I love this thing.  Still makes me laugh each time I watch it.

My Top Three Favorite Musicals: Big The Musical

Big the Musical: As the title states, it's a musical version of the movie Big. It came out in 1996, but did not fare well, only running for 193 performances. I discovered in in 1998, when I was in Musicon Ministries, a group that gathered high schoolers from all over CT, taught them a show, and then performed it at various churches around the state four weekends during the year. In the summer, however, we would go on the road for two weeks, performing at various churches different states. Since we spent a lot of time traveling on a bus, I always made sure to have a book or two on hand. Now, this particular summer, I had taken the book "Making it Big: the Diary of a Broadway Musical," which was all about the process that the musical Big went through as it was adapted and eventually flopped (and reading about how they were sponsored by FAO Schwartz reminded of how I had seen the merchandise two years earlier in the one store that's in CT, although I don't think it's there any more, and having no idea what it was for). Anyway, at one point during the trip, we got to go to a mall, and I suddenly had the songs from Pippin stuck in my head, so I decided to see if I could get a copy of the CD. The rack at the Sam Goody was so disorganized that I just started looking through all the CDs, and lo and behold, there was Big! Naturally, I bought it (and I still don't actually own Pippin, although I do take it out from the library every now and then), and listened to it continuously for the rest of the trip.

When I got back, I shared it with my younger sister, who also fell in love with it (my sisters both like musicals, but not on the same level as I do. Then again, my older sister was the one who really got into Les Mis, not me). About a year later I found out a town theater was putting on a production of Big, and so I bought tickets to it for her birthday. It was fun to see it, even though that production reinstated songs that had been dropped from the original production. Sometime in between getting back home and seeing the show I learned that the songs were written by David Shire and Richard Maltby, Jr., who had earlier written the songs for a musical called Baby, which didn't surprise me at all, since I had also loved that cast album (and was quite annoyed to find out that my local library weeded it from their collection, especially since I found this out when I was trying to get it to add songs to a CD exchange I was in). And then, while I was in college, I found a CD of Starting Here, Starting Now, a revue of songs by the same guys which did a lot better than the musicals they tried to put the songs into in the first place. I wish that they had done more together, as I inevitably like their songs, but sadly, their shows (barring revues) did not seem to fair well. So there you have it.

Thinking about Musicals - An Intro

I've been reading "What Would Barbra Do?: How Musicals Changed My Life," and while I'm enjoying it, I keep stopping to think about my own life and musicals.

I can't really pinpoint that exact time of my life when I became a fan of musicals. I guess it all came from as a natural extension of growing up during the Disney Renaissance, and probably has something to do that up until fairly recently, all the cassettes and CDs at my hometown library were kept in one area, so it was easy to go from the kids' music to the rest of the collection. However, it wasn't until I was twelve that I started to fall in love with specific musicals, mostly based entirely on the cast albums. And despite growing up in Connecticut, it wasn't until I was in high school that I got to see a musical on Broadway.

Over this week, I'm going to be posting about my overall top three favorite musicals, and the ones I choose may surprise you, but they are all shows that have stood the test of time (and as such, they are all shows I discovered in (mostly) my teens).

Julie and Julia - Movie and Book

I went to see Julie and Julia a few weeks ago, since a. I wanted to see it, b. it was $5 Tuesday, and c. it was the only movie that both The Husband and I wanted to see. He claimed it was just because of Meryl Streep, but I say that there had to be a little desire to see Amy Adams, too. I mean, she's so cute! Anyway, the movie was awesome, and totally filled me with a desire to pull off complicated acts of cookery, and had Jane Lynch in it as Julia's sister, although I didn't realize this until seeing the credits at the end. Seriously, I didn't recognize her at all. In short, I loved it.

So, in the wake of seeing the movie, I decided to read the original book. I'm not quite sure how someone thought it could turn into a movie, but I'm glad they did. I mean, the book was definitely interesting, but the narrative tends to jump around (many bits begin with a few sentences, then a flashback to explain what lead to those sentences, and then the rest of the story), which works in novel-form, but wouldn't strike me as being something that would in film if I hadn't already seen the movie.

Frankly, I think the movie greatly improved on the book, which turned out to be less about the cooking, really, and more about the strange life Julie lived during that year. Not that that's a bad thing. But as I said, the movie made me want to go home and start cooking right away (not that I did, though), while the book gave me the sudden desire to try making a gimlet (which I would have done by now except I can't find my cocktail shaker. I think it got lost in the move ;_;). I guess this is because it's easier to be inspired (to cook, anyway) by actually seeing the dishes than just reading the french name (sometimes with translation, sometimes not) and then a description (maybe) of how it tasted. And I liked how more of Julia Child's history was mixed into the movie. It really brought everything together, I think, although I only thought about that after reading the book.

What I Read - Rumo

Back in the Fall, I picked up The 13 and 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear, since I was working my way up to the third book by Walter Moers, The City of Dreaming Books.  While I thought it was a good book, it was totally blown away by the second book set in Zamonia, Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures.  This books is sort of a prequel, but sort of not, since it uses a few characters from the first book, but with slightly different characterizations.  And it is awesome.  If you only read one book by Walter Moer, this is the one to read.  It all flows together so well, and I literally could not stop reading it once the story reached a certain point.  

Basically, it's the story of Rumo, a Wolperting who ends up saving his kind from being enslaved in Hell, but there's so much more to the story than that.  You'll just have to read it to find out.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.

What I Read - White Oleander

Just a short one this time around.  I picked up White Oleander when I was browsing on BookMooch, and if you've been paying attention, you know why it caught my eye.  So I put it in my wishlist and once it arrived, I basically could not put it down.  It's the story of Astrid, shuffled from foster home to foster home after her mother is sent to jail for murdering an ex-lover.  And like I said, it was incredibly gripping.  I haven't been so compelled to keep reading a book in months.  But that said, it is a very dark book, as a lot of the situations Astrid finds herself in are not very pleasant, and even the nicer ones have an edge to them.  There's instances of sex, drugs, and even rock and roll (no, really), and all that goes with them, so keep that in mind if you decide to read the book.

The edition I received was the movie tie-in, so after I read the book, I checked out the movie, and while I thought it was good, it wasn't nearly as powerful as the book, first because the book is told in first person, so we really get inside Astrid's head much more, and second, the movie cuts out the two worst foster homes and moves one of the other homes to an earlier part of the film, which doesn't quite feel right.  But maybe that's because I read the book first.  If I'd seen the movie first I probably wouldn't have bothered reading the book might have felt that the order it put the homes in was off.  And while this isn't really related to the movie itself, the two 'making of' featurettes on the DVD heavily recycle footage from each other.

Adventures in Agapeland: The Music Machine - chapters thirteen through fifteen (END)

To make up for not posting the last part in any kind of timely manner, I made sure to get this, the ending of this book, up ASAP. As you recall, last time Stevie and Nancy picked up more traveling companions, and they all got captured first thing once they finally got to Aire. Also, Mr. Pimms got all spiffed up and is on his way with the Music Machine to see the prince.

Chapter XIII - Within the Proper
This chapter begins with Mr. Pimms and the Pudgians being approached by another squadron of Protium (the prince's special guard, you may recall, dressed in red and black). They are his escort into the palace, complete with a special coal black horse just for him. They set up a procession and ride into the capitol city, called The Proper, which the narrator describes as "foreboding," to a great amount of fanfare. The city is covered with stone statues, men, women, children, even animals. Mr. Pimms foreshadowingly imagines a statue of his own among the others, apparently not realizing the true nature of these figures. They reach the castle with is both dirty and ominous, and I can't help but wonder if these descriptions shouldn't be more from Mr. Pimms' perspective. I mean, yes, the castle may be dingy and dirty as opposed to Majesty's castle in Agapeland, but to anyone in Aire, I'm sure it looks quite grand. Anyway, the castle walls are topped by more sculptures, but these ones are made of marble and all of the prince.
Once they reach the castle gates, the rest of the guards fall away and only the commander goes in with Mr. Pimms' and the Pudgians. Inside the courtyard, the members of royalty gather round to watch the entrance, and as Mr. Pimms' approaches the palace's portico, Prince Nakel appears. Now, despite the similarity to his name and the term 'naked,' he is incredibly clothed. He is described as "terribly tall with a slender muscular body" with coal-black hair and a blood-red tunic. Besides his silver mask, he's also wearing many jewels. The narrator pauses to explain the legend of Prince Nakel's mask: as the story goes, the prince has no eyes, just hollow sockets, and anyone who looks into them is so mesmerized that their very soul leaves their body, and only a stone statue remains.
Mr. Pimms bows to the prince and announces to the crowd that he has brought the Music Machine from Agapeland, and calls for the Pudgians to uncover their cargo. In their haste, they make a muddle of things, so Mr. Pimms' takes over, and the thing is finally uncovered. The gathered royalty starts ooh-ing and aah-ing, but Prince Nakel shuts them up so he can crow about how he finally has Agapeland's greatest treasure. He orders the Protium to set the Music Machine up in the center of the courtyard and tells Mr. Pimms that there will be a feast in his honor. He also asks, in a low voice, only to Mr. Pimms, about the Pudgians, and Mr. Pimms insists that they're mostly harmless. The prince promises both Mr. Pimms and the Pudgians their "just reward," and bids them to the top of the portico. He sits in his sinister throne (with arms made of carved serpents and blood-red cushions) and invites Mr. Pimms to sit in the seat next to him. The Pudgians scramble to be closest to the tables with the food, which the prince ignores, instead calling for his dancing girls. Perhaps feeling his previous comment was not foreshadowy enough, he tells Mr. Pimms that he always rewards his faithful servants, all while girls with fans and scarves dance for them. While this is going on, the Pudgians talk amongst themselves about the way things have turned out.
A while later, the prince stands up and everyone halts what they're doing immediately, except for the Pudgians (fighting over food), so Mr. Pimms has to shut them up, while the prince shoots all four of them a distasteful look. Once everything is quiet, the prince addresses the court, announcing that the Music Machine will remake their land, and they have Mr. Pimms to thank for it (he also mispronounces 'pudgians,' which annoys Growdy and Boogwart, but Mr. Pimms tells them to keep quiet). The crowd cheers and applauds, and there are toasts, until Prince Nakel silences them again and tells them that the moment has finally come for Mr. Pimms to start up the Music Machine. It dawns on Mr. Pimms that he never learned how to make the Music Machine work. The prince insists that he make it work, and so Mr. Pimms begins trying anything and everything, getting more and more desperate as the machine sits silent before him. The only thing that saves Mr. Pimms (for the moment) is the arrival of the other Protium, who tell the prince about the spies from Agapeland. The prince orders them brought to him at once. While the guard goes to fetch them, Mr. Pimms goes back to trying to get the Music Machine to work, but the prince just tells him to put a sock in it.
The Protium brings in Stevie and Nancy and the others, and Mr. Pimms is relieved to be saved if only for a moment. The Pudgians just watch to see what will happen. Prince Nakel addresses the group of spies, but Stevie, spying the Music Machine, can't help pointing it out to Nancy. The Prince derives from that they are from Agapeland as the guard said, and he sneers at them, knowing that Agapeland must be dying now. But Stevie does not give him any satisfaction, instead insisting that the Music Machine belongs to Agapeland and they have come to get it. The Prince corrects him, the Music Machine belongs to him now, and asks how it works. Nancy tells him that they will not tell, even if their lives depend on it, which it very well might, as the prince orders them to tell him. Stevie then tells him that they demand it back in the name of Majesty. Hearing this, Prince Nakel shrinks back for a moment, but then he gets over it and towers over the children, shouting at them to never say that name in his presence.
With all the tension, Bundle, that strange creature that lives to lavish affection on others, decides to defuse the situation, despite Nancy's warnings, and bounds over to Prince Nakel and starts cuddling his leg. The prince, in no mood for this, grabs Bundle and flings it (can't say I blame him) all the way across the courtyard until it hits the wall on the other side with a thud. Nancy breaks through the guards and runs to it, but the little Huggit is more dead than alive. For some reason, the group has time to mourn their friend and comfort Nancy before Prince Nakel addresses them again, letting them know that he will get the information he wants. Seeing his cruelty up close, the Agapelanders have no doubt that he'll do whatever it takes to learn their secrets. The prince orders them sent to the dungeons with no food or water, and even goes as far as to warn them that "no one stands in the way of Prince Nakel and his plans!" (and lives, anyway.) He almost takes off his mask, then thinks better of it and just goes back into the castle.
In the dungeon, the Agapelanders are completely discouraged; although they know that Agapeland is done for, for the moment their attention is on Bundle. Nancy tries to comfort the little creature, but after two and a half paragraphs, it gives up the ghost. The others weep, alerting the guards, who come and take Bundle's lifeless body away, while reminding the others that they'll likely join their friend come tomorrow.

Chapter XIV - The Curse
Unlike the last chapter, this one is very short. The entire population of Aire apparently heard about what happened the night before and they're all in the courtyard to watch. Prince Nakel appears, wearing a flowing turquoise robe trimmed with white fur and puts on his crown, all to the applause of the crowd. Once the noise dies down, the prince addresses the crowd, promising to become the greatest ruler of "all the lands," meaning there's more than just Aire and Agapeland in this place, wherever it may be. The prisoners are brought in and the prince once again asks whether they'll tell him how the machine works. Stevie goes forward to answer, but before he can say anything, Prince Nakel falls off his throne. He gets back on, and Stevie tells them they will not tell him. And Prince Nakel is all "Oh yes you will!" and he falls off his throne again. And again. Finally his attendants hold him in place so he can threaten the prisoners with death without falling off his throne. All of the Agapelanders tell him they will never tell, singly, and Stevie again demands the return of the Music Machine. The prince is so outraged at being defied that he forgets all about the whole falling-off-the-throne thing and shakes of his attendants so he can raise his fist in anger at the Agapelanders. And falls off his throne again. He starts to threaten them again from the ground, but notices that he's suddenly broken out in green, itchy bumps all over his body. And so has everyone else, except the Agapelanders. Seeing this, someone in the crowd shouts that the Music Machine has cursed them all! The prince, still unable to stand, manages to drag himself over to Mr. Pimms, and blames the whole thing on him. He starts to threaten bodily harm, but Mr. Pimms takes off running before he can get more than a few words out. As he goes, the prince yells after him that he is banished. The Pudgians, seeing this, take off as well, griping about Mr. Pimms and his plans. And that is the last anyone sees of them. It seems Mr. Pimms was able to shake off the foreshadowing and did not end up a statue after all. Perhaps because he did the foreshadowing himself and not the narrator. But that's neither here nor there.
With much help and scratching, Prince Nakel makes it back to his throne and commands that the Music Machine and the prisoners from Agapeland all be burned at the stake to alleviate the curse. The Agapelanders are tied to the Music Machine in short order and the Protium goes to collect wood. There is no hope for Agapeland, since it is the last day of the festival, and even if they were magically rescued somehow, it would take too long to get back from Aire. The Protium puts the wood in place and lights the fire as the chapter ends.

Chapter XV - The Song of the Sparrow
Back in Agapeland, things are looking bleak. The forest is dead, and the festival will be over in but a few hours, yet everyone has gathered anyway, hoping for a miracle. Meanwhile, in Aire darkness falls, even though it's only noon, and the crowd makes a ton of noise as the group from Agapeland starts to burn at the stake. But over this noise, they hear the singing of three small birds, and Stevie realizes they're singing the same song from their dream back in Chapter 6! When the others hear that the dream was sent from Majesty, they urge Stevie and Nancy to remember what happened in it. It takes some doing, but the kids remember the riddle from the dream ("Remember the song of the sparrow and fly"), and hastily sing what they remember of the song. Then they sing it again and the others join in. The song mentions a breeze, and sure enough, one kicks up, quickly turning into a gusty gale, seriously freaking out all the folks in The Proper. The more the troop sings, the stronger the wind blows, and four "pinwheels of lightning" appear in the sky and start moving toward them. The ground starts shaking, The Proper is being destroyed, but the troop sings on. Suddenly the wind becomes a giant hand that loosens the ropes and sends the troop spinning into the air, toward a giant carriage made of mother-of-pearl and other precious materials (the lightning pinwheels are the wheels) pulled by six pure white, winged horses. Once everyone is safely in the carriage, the wind sends up the Music Machine, and then the carriage takes off at breakneck speed.
The carriage takes them back to Agapeland, right in the middle of the royal meadow where the Music Machine belongs. There is much congratulation and celebration from the gathered Agapelanders, and Mr. Conductor places the sacred writings in the Music Machine, beginning not only the most beautiful music ever to come from the Festival of Dosca, but the rebirth of Agapeland as everything begins to bloom again. Seeing the renewed beauty of Agapeland, Nancy is suddenly struck by the memory of her little friend, but who should be coming toward her right now? Why, it's Bundle! Nancy is grateful to see it, but wonders how it could possibly be alive. Mr. Conductor explains that it's due to a literal Deus ex Machina (i.e. Majesty did it), plus Agapeland is the "home of life." Everyone is singing and dancing to celebrate, and Stevie and Nancy dance with each other, twirling and whirling so fast that everything becomes a blur and they fall over and start rolling...
And we're back with Grandfather, who is still reading the story and reads the last few lines, revealing that the children ended up in Wiley Woods after all. With the story over, he looks down and sees that Stevie and Nancy fell asleep and apparently slept through most of it. This doesn't perturb him at all, but it makes me wonder whether Samuel Wright is doing some lampshading or something. And that's how it all went down.

Adventures in Agapeland: The Music Machine - chapters ten through twelve

Sorry that this took so long to get out. As a refresher, last time the Music Machine was stolen by Mr. Pimms and Stevie and Nancy took off on a quest to get it back, with only a week to do it or it's curtains for Agapeland! In their journey, they met up with Herbert the snail and were caught off-guard by an unseen captor.

Chapter X - The Army Grows
The kids and Herbert banter back and forth with the mysterious voice and another voice for about half a page about who is and who isn't under arrest, but then they finally face their captor, who turns out to be a bunny pirate, complete with eyepatch and pegleg, named Cap'n Jack, of all things. The other guy is some tall dude called (not necessarily named, though) Gentle George. There are introductions all around, and Bundle jumps on Cap'n Jack's face to prove that the rabbit is really a good guy after all. Hearing Stevie and Nancy's mission, both Jack and George join their crusade, but first they all camp out for the night.
The next day, traveling is slow because of Herbert, so Cap'n Jack complains, but George pulls out a guitar and sings "Kindness" from The Music Machine album, and when that doesn't stop Jack's grousing, he starts up "Love," as well. This goes on for two whole days before they finally end up only half a day away from Aire. Stevie and Nancy can't help but worry about their mission, but there isn't much time because they're ambushed again!
This time three boys dressed in too-large Royal Guard uniforms show up and demand to know the group's business. Stevie explains once again, then asks about the boys, who inform him that they're wannabe Royal Guards; they even have a homemade flag (Agapeland's flag, by the way, is pure white with a heart in the middle). The head kid introduces himself and his brothers as the identical sons of a miner, his exact words right there. Rather than follow in their dad's footsteps, they plan to "take the tests" to become Royal Guards when they get old enough, so for now they're just practicing, apparently. And obviously they want to join the others in rescuing the Music Machine. Cap'n Jack is loathe to add more deadweight to the troupe, until the boys reveal that they know a secret path into Aire. So the boys join the group, and George sings a marching song.
After a while they reach the secret entrance, which opens out of the ground, after someone opens it from inside (one of the boys climbs up the side of a cliff to do this), and they all head in.

Chapter XI - The Preparation
And we're back with Mr. Pimms and the Pudgians, still manually pulling the cart. As they approach the city of Dod, the two Pudgians pulling the cart give up, and since they're pretty close to the city anyway, Mr. Pimms tells them to pull over. Although his clothes are torn and dirty from the past couple of days, he's still optimistic about the fate of his master plan, and besides, he has another one to implement soon. The Pudgians do not share his optimism, but keep it to themselves. Pimms takes Growdy with him into town, and the other two grouse behind his back.
By the time they get to town, it's nighttime, and some sort of festival is going on (or will be, I'm not sure). Mr. Pimms ignores all the other things and heads straight for a back alley, proving he's been there before, and ends up at a health club. I'm not entirely sure what it's supposed to be, since I'm thinking some kind of gym, but Growdy calls it a swanky place. Maybe it's a spa or something. But it doesn't really matter, since this place is either not really a health club or just the back room, as Mr. Pimms is (kinda sorta) welcomed in by a bland fellow named Sig, who gives them some bread and cheese. Mr. Pimms tells Sig of his plans to gain importance in the Proper, and how it could be worth his while to help them. Although skeptical, Sig's looking to make some coin, but he refuses to lend Mr. Pimms anything he asks for unless he can pay for it. In lieu of actual payment, though, Mr. Pimms gives Sig his ring to be pawned. Sig's offer is less than Mr. Pimms expected, but Sig reminds him that after his "last escapade here," there's no one else in town who'll even talk to him, let alone make him a better offer. So Mr. Pimms accepts it, along with the fee for getting the things he needs, and the extra fee for getting someone to deliver a message to Prince Nakel, although inside he's writhing with rage.
The next day, Sig gets a new cart, tarse, and clothes for them all, and by the time Mr. Pimms gets up, the runner has already come and gone with his message. The prince is waiting. Later, Mr. Pimms and Growdy, decked in their snazzy new clothes (Mr. Pimms has on a lavender suit, white ruffled shirt and blue tie, and a walking stick, just in case you were wondering), pick up the other two Pudgians and they head off to the Proper. As they go, Mr. Pimms has flights of fancy about the riches and fame he'll acquire, while Growdy just hopes that the plan doesn't go awry like it usually does. And the narrator closes the chapter with yet another foreshadowy warning.

Chapter XII -Aire at Last
Meanwhile, Stevie, Nancy, and the others are traveling through a forgotten tunnel used in a war from a hundred years or so ago. There's a lot of description, but basically it's long and dark. Finally they reach the other end and everyone emerges into the drab and lifeless kingdom that is Aire. One of the boys tells them that the environment was destroyed by Prince Nakel, although I 'm not sure a. how he knows this and b. how the Prince did that, anyway. Just by being evil, I suppose.
They spend the rest of the day trekking across Aire, and they make it to a town called Wranton (take away a letter and what do you get?), where they decide to get something to eat. They head for an inn, but inside it's more like a bar. Everyone in the bar is unfriendly and filthy, apparently, but Stevie, Nancy, and the others order the special (the only thing on the menu) anyway. While they wait for their food, they watch the innkeeper bully a cleaning girl, and Stevie has to stop Cap'n Jack from extracting some justice, since that would probably derail their current mission. Once the food arrives, the only thing that compels them to eat the less than savory dish is the fact that they haven't had anything in a couple of days.
As they eat, two soldiers enter, order drinks, and one of them starts harrassing the cleaning girl. This starts to get violent, and Cap'n Jack gets involved. Once the Cap'n is in, so are the three boys, although just as they start in, a whole troop of soldiers show up, and soon everyone in the bar is involved in an all-out brawl (with the exception of Nancy and Bundle, which means even Stevie is doing something). The innkeeper is not pleased by all the damage being done to his bar. Eventually the soldiers (The Protium, Prince Nakel's personal guards) win out. They line everyone up and the commander demands to know everyone's hometown and their business in Wranton. He goes down the line, but Stevie refuses to say anything. The innkeeper tells the guard that Stevie and the others were the ones who started the brawl, and the commander, assuming they're spies, has all of them arrested. The Protium tie them up and go through their things, and find the homemade flag. Seeing this, the commander arranges for his troops to march the others to the Proper to be presented to Prince Nakel.
After a long while, the Protium stops for the night, and Stevie and Nancy and the others listen to the guards talk about Prince Nakel, how the only thing he loves more than spies are spies from Agapeland. They also make foreshadowy comments about the prince's mask and "what happens to anyone who looks into his eyes." Stevie tries to comfort Nancy by telling her maybe the prince isn't as bad as he sounds, but the narrator can't resist chiming in (in parenthesis even!) to warn us that the prince is actually even worse.

I'm just curious, are Cap'n Jack and Gentle George characters from an Agapeland album? There are plenty that I never listened to, so I really don't know. Still, it seems strange to have a pirate bunny rabbit if he wasn't already an established character. Identical miner triplets are more par the course for random characters, really.

What I read: a discovery!

I've always felt kind of bad because I never actually read The Secret Garden in my youth. I tried many times, picking up the familiar yellow paperback, but I could never get into it. I especially felt bad because I love the musical version. Well, today at work, things were so slow that I decided to pick up one of the books from the Puffin Classics display (I'm not sure why it's there, but if you buy two books, you get a free tote), and I thought I'd give The Secret Garden another try, maybe start further in. So I read the introduction, and then I started reading from the beginning, and about halfway through the first chapter it hit me: this was not the same book I'd tried to read so many times before. That yellow paperback, probably from the Scholastic book club, was actually a dumbed-down kids' version (which really doesn't make sense, since this is supposed to be a children's book, right?)! And I thought to myself, "No wonder I couldn't get into it before."
I noted later that the back said it was unabridged, so maybe I just read an abridged version. But what I remember involved things happening slightly different from what I read today. For example, I specifically remember the yellow paperback mentioning the children of the clergyman that takes in Mary dancing around her in a ring, taunting her, which doesn't happen in the actual book.

Adventures in Agapeland: The Music Machine, chapters one through four

Because this is the kind of thing I do, I bought the book of The Music Machine on eBay. I mentioned before that I encountered it once, but that was at least ten years ago, so while I basically remembered the plot, I didn't really know the specifics. So here it is, The Music Machine by Samuel Wright, fifteen chapters, 142 pages, one illustration per chapter.

Chapter One - The Forest
The whole thing begins as a story-within-a-story as Stevie and Nancy implore their grandfather to tell them a story. So he pulls a book off the shelf and starts reading them a story about themselves. In this story, Stevie and Nancy are sitting on a hill, making up stories, when Nancy decides she wants to explore the nearby woods, so they both roll down the hill and end up not in Wiley Woods but someplace else entirely. This place is described in tons of detail, which is fine and all, but I know they're in Agapeland (and the kids at home do, too, since they specifically asked for a story about Agapeland), so I'd rather Mr. Wright cut to the chase. Anyway, Nancy wants to explore, but Stevie would rather stay where they are than get lost, but he goes along eventually. And they encounter birds and butterflies, but nobody else, and Stevie starts to hear music that Nancy can't, although she does hear it eventually. While they follow the music, Nancy concludes that the forest is enchanted, which is something she'll bring up about just about everything she encounters throughout the book, so I'm just mentioning it now. Finally they reach a clearing, which Nancy insists is a Royal Meadow, and they see something that they have no clue what it is. They don't get to find out, either, because we go straight to

Chapter Two - Mr. Pimms

In an entirely different forest, late in the afternoon, a bunch of short, ugly figures are sitting by a fire. Then a dapper young man in a top hat comes out of the woods and starts yelling at them for making a fire while the sun is still out. They are Boogwart, Snard, and Growdy, three Pudgians, and he is Mr. Pimms of the chapter title, apparently a human. The point of this chapter is to introduce this crew, since they will soon be setting the plot in motion. The Pudgians are not very smart and rather uncouth, but Mr. Pimms is by all appearances a gentleman, even dressed in an ascot, with a prized ring that he wears under his gloves. Which is what you would do if you wore gloves all the time, but I never thought about it before. He also has a pet rat named Oswald.
Their meeting is to discuss how to pull off a vaguely referred to "plan," which Mr. Pimms masterminded. He plies them with flattery, and the drink doesn't hurt, either. The chapter ends with them vaguely finalizing their plans, and going their separate ways.

Chapter Three - The Music Machine

I'd really rather not get back to the kids, but the story has to proceed, and it really can't until they find out what that thing they saw in the first chapter is, so here we are, back with Stevie and Nancy as they try to figure out just what this treasure chest with a smoke stack, buttons, and levers is all about. Nancy thinks it must make candy and Stevie gets mad her, convinced this is a machine for SCIENCE! And then Nancy starts pushing all the buttons but nothing happens, so Stevie's all "I will solve this with SCIENCE!" but he doesn't do any better than she did. Nothing they do works, and it's starting to get dark. So Stevie's all "I wanted to stay where we were, and now we're lost in an enchanted forest," to Nancy, and then they hear something coming, and it takes forever to get there. Long enough for Nancy to freak out three times and for them to hide behind the chest. And something touches Stevie's head...

Chapter Four - A Pleasant Surprise

The kids freak for another two paragraphs before finally they turn around see Mr. Conductor, who, like on the album, introduces himself at The Conductor. Also like on the album, he already knows Stevie and Nancy, and so they press him for answers about where they are and how they got there. He answers the obvious one (they're in Agapeland) but never actually tells them how they got there. Stevie's more interested in how they'll get back, but Mr. Conductor assures them that they'll go home when the time is right and nobody will ever know they were gone. How very C.S. Lewis. After finding out that Mr. Conductor (along with "many interesting people") lives in the forest, Nancy gets it in her head that he's some kind of prince, and Stevie finally connects that the thing that touched his head at the end of the last chapter is the same stick Mr. Conductor is holding. Mr. Conductor explains that it's a baton that he uses to conduct music, and the kids remember what lead to this whole encounter: the music they heard in the forest. So finally Mr. Conductor tells them that the contraptions is the Music Machine and it was what made the music they heard.
The narrator explains how the Music Machine is what brings life to Agapeland, and that without it, the land would die, but it's okay because nothing's ever happened to it. *cough cough* foreshadowing *cough cough* And Mr. Conductor tells them how to use the Music Machine, and to demonstrate he sticks an antique musical note (made out of what? It isn't specified) in the machine, and it makes the usual noises before playing its theme song. Mr. Conductor conducts during the song, but since it's a machine, does that really do any good? Also, the lyrics are part of the text. This happens anytime a song is mentioned, with the copyright information appearing at the bottom of the page.
After the song, Mr. Conductor invites the kids to put something in, but all they have is a piece of string, but Mr. Conductor puts it in anyway, all smug, and the String Song from the album plays. When the string comes out, Stevie puts it back in his pocket, thinking it might be useful someday. Foreshadowing? (I don't remember. Sorry.) So they spend the rest of the day putting things in the Music Machine, but eventually it gets dark. Mr. Conductor tells them he has a place for them to sleep, but first he has to polish the entire Music Machine, since Stevie and Nancy got their fingerprints all over it. While he does this, there's more foreshadowy talk about how important the Music Machine is, and Mr. Conductor tells them about an upcoming festival (in the season of Dosca *_*) where they get Sacred Writings that go in the Music Machine and create the music for another year. These documents MUST be put in by the seventh day of the festival, or else. Also, the documents come from Majesty, the king (and apparently creator) of all Agapeland.
Then there's a lot of going through Agapeland description that I'm skipping before they get to a clearing where Mr. Conductor has the kids plant a seed. He pours some water of the seed and BLAMMO! It grows into a huge tree with a house inside. Inside the house is their dinner, and while they eat Mr. Conductor warns them about that other place, the Anti-Agapeland, called Aire (Kingdom of the Air, eh? I'm not sure if that's clever or just blatant.) Then he tucks the kids into bed, promising to show them more of Agapeland tomorrow. But the narrator warns us that evil is afoot...

And that's about all I can take right now. I'll get the next few chapters up in a couple of days.

What I'm Reading - Moomin Comics!

There are Moomintroll comics! And you can get them in hardcover (if you're like me, they're at your local library)!
I don't know why I'm so excited about this. I mean, growing up, I only read one of the books (Finn Family Moomintroll), and I never saw the cartoons or anything. But from what I've read, the comics are very charming, with an interesting sense of humor. I'll scan a couple to show you what I mean when I have a chance, but I wanted to get this post out sooner rather than later.
I do end up sitting on a lot of posts because I want to add images, and I usually have to do some editing (especially with the screenshots).

What I Read - Tales of the City

I just finished Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin today, after renewing it twice. It was originally a newspaper serial in the 70's, so all the chapters are pretty short, like two and a half pages each. I decided to read it when I heard the guys from Avenue Q are making it into a musical; I'd never even heard of it before then.
That said, this book is VERY Seventies. Which is maybe why I had a hard time slogging through it, despite the short chapters. Still, I may have only been able to read it in bits and spurts, but I'm sure others wouldn't have this problem. The story is written in an interesting way, with characters weaving in and out of the story and the other characters' lives on a whim. This makes for great interconnectivity revelations, but occasionally left me thinking, "Who's this character again? Do I know them?" I mean, it's a little meaningless to have a chapter end with one character accusing the other with "I know about you and Lexy!" if you can't recall who Lexy is. And I can't blame that one on my on-and-off reading of the book, since I read the chapter where that character was introduced just one day before I read the chapter with the accusation.
Mainly, though, I could see exactly why someone (multiple someones, even) would think that this could be a musical. The characters are both recognizable and yet slightly larger than life. And again, all the drama that goes with the interconnectivity makes for great theater, musical or otherwise. In fact, it's already been a miniseries.

Nobody tagged me, but...

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

"Say it."
"Well--Ms. Krotenjager, Mr. Dalton--I think we've covered all the major points."
"Yes," I agreed. "Do you have a card?"
"I...no."
(his dialogue goes on, but that's the fifth sentence)

Fairies and subtext

I've started reading the Disney Fairies line of chapter books when things are slow at work. For one thing, we carry some of them, and their small size makes it easy to tuck them away when I'm doing other things. And since they're short, I can usually finish them during a shift if it's slow, and two or three if it's busy.

I first encountered the Disney Fairies canon when my mother gave me the first book, Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, for Christmas. So I read it, especially since it was by the author of Ella Enchanted, which I read numerous times when I was younger. And I noted the chapter books when they came out, but I didn't think too much of them.

Now, last week (or maybe the week before, I don't really remember now), they called me in to cover a morning shift. And it was slow, slow, slow. Since there wasn't anyone around, I snuck off to the book section, intending to pick up a magazine or something, when Vidia and the Fairy Crown caught my eye. I remembered liking Vidia the best, because I tend to like the snarkier characters, although I didn't really like the way she was characterized. So I picked it up, and finished it before my shift was over, so I went and got another, and things just kind of snowballed from there. (One of the books I was in the middle of got sold while I wasn't there, so now I have to find it somewhere else >_<)

That's the backdrop for why I'm talking about the latest one I read (I'm not going in order, obviously), which I just finished today, in fact, A Masterpiece for Bess. Am I just cynical, or was the subtext between Bess and Quill kind of obvious? I mean, Bess feeling embarrassed when Quill catches her (as she always does) in a messy situation, and later admiring the sculpture that Quill made for her, showing her knowledge of Bess' likes and habits that "if she didn't know better, was the work of a good friend." I mean, seriously, it could not be more blatant if they tried. So was it intentional, or what? Do authors of children's books, especially series like this, generally try to sneak stuff like that in?
Also, Vidia is awesome no matter what book she's in, but there seriously needs to be more Prilla/Vidia interaction.
I should probably read Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand now, to see if Levine has improved on Vidia's characterization any.