Thursday, January 14, 2016

Ye Olde Partners Page

Ye Olde Partners Page
*A Collection of Antiquarian Curios & Relics*
"I'm a born librarian with a sex drive . . ."
                                           --David Bowie

1)  ALADDIN SANE . . .  "But where were the Spiders?"  I have never met David Bowie unless you want to count the one time I saw him at a Detroit concert on his Serious Moonlight Tour.  I'm sure he doesn't remember me.  However, like very few celebrities in my lifetime, I felt like I did know him.  It seemed like he had been around as long as I could recall.  In fact, I dressed as Aladdin Sane for a Halloween party when I was around 18 or 19.  My friend Donna Fry did a excellent job on the lightning bolt, which appears to be de rigueur for Facebook profile photos as of late.  I played Ziggy Stardust at maximum volume.  From The Man Who Fell to Earth to The Hunger, I went and saw his movies.  I read whatever biographies I could find on him.  [My favourite is Wendy Leigh's Bowie (9781476767079) 28.00.]  His lyrics spoke to me, but most of all, I knew he was a voracious reader.  And he didn't read crap either.  Here's a list of his Top 100 books:  http://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/01/11/david-bowies-top-100-books .  Multi-talented artists like Bowie do not come along very often, and the world is a worse place when they are gone.  And that's all I have to say about that . . .


2)  DRIVE-IN SATURDAY . . .  Speaking of movies, the Golden Globe winners were announced this past Sunday.  There were several movies that won big that were based on books.  The biggest winner was Michael Punke's The Revenant (9781250072689) 16.00, who won for best motion picture (drama), best director, and actor (drama).  Inexplicably, Andy Weir's The Martian (9780553418026) 15.00 took top honors for best movie (musical or comedy) and best actor (musical or comedy).  I saw The Martian at the theatre and it was neither a musical nor a comedy.  (Although, the use of the song Starman by David Bowie in the movie was truly inspired.)  Lastly,  it's not a movie, but the TV series based on Terry Brooks' Shannara Centology debuted on MTV last week.  The TV series starts with the second book, The Elfstones of Shannara (9781101886052) 7.99.  [I guess they felt the first book, The Sword of Shannara (9780345314253) 7.99 was too much of a Tolkien rip-off.]  I watched the first episode the other day.  Visually, it was stunning and you could tell that they spent a lot of money on it.  However, the acting was so bad that  it made Paris Hilton look like an Oscar-winning actress.  As Bowser from Sha-na-na (and not Nintendo) once said, "Get a job, Sha-na-na-na, Sha-na-na-na . . ."

 

 

3)  YOUNG AMERICANS . . .  The ALSC Book & Media Award Winners for 2016 were announced on Monday, which was a week earlier than in previous years.  Lindsay Mattick's Finding Winnie (9780316324908) 18.00 picked up the Cadecott Award.  The big winner was Matt De La Pena's Last Stop on Market Street (9780399257742) 16.99, which not only won the Newbery Award, but was also a Caldecott Honor title.  You can find the rest of them here:  http://www.ala.org/alsc/2016-alsc-book-media-award-winners    

 

Odds & Sods

For those of you who are Lee Child fans and I know there are a lot of you out there, Jill from Saturn Booksellers believes that Nicholas Petrie's The Drifter  (9780399174568) 27.00 is even better than his Jack Reacher series.  Check it out . . .



The internet is the gift that keeps giving.  Every once in a blue moon, there is actually some useful information out there.  If you ever wondered how long your fast food condiment packages will last, this site breaks it down for you: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/does-taco-bell-hot-sauce-expire-and-everything-else-about-sauce-packets-you-never-thought-to-ask .  You're welcome . . .

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