I finished Twilight last night, and felt the need to do a lame review on GoodReads. And then share it with you.

Sorry.


"I can't help but feel that there is a dumbing-down happening on the teen bookshelves. Did SVH really need to be revised for today's teenyboppers? No. But they did it anyways, to "attract" a new readership. And now everything that made Annette Curtis Klause's Blood and Chocolate a fantastic supernatural YA novel, has been watered down and drawn out for 498 pages.

That said, Twilight was just interesting enough to make me want to read the sequel. Certain themes got really annoying after a while, like the author watched BTVS and decided that Angel was her model for the perfect tortured hero:

"No, Buffy Bella! You shouldn't be with me! You should do normal things, like go to Prom! Things that I don't do! Oops, wait, here we are at Prom after all."

Now that I think of the scene, I feel the need to yell at Bella to GROW. THE. FUCK. UP. Oh, woe, you're amazingly hot and sensitive boyfriend took you to Prom. How devastating. Being a martyr is one thing, but only, if, y'know, there's a reason for it.

At least out of all seven seasons, Buffy only demanded Angel drink her blood in that one episode. I have a feeling we won't be so lucky with this series.

On the other hand, I had a mom come into the bookstore where I work and buy all the Twilight Saga books. She even went as far as to order the first book, so her daughter would have the entire series in hardcover (we only had #1 in paperback), and reserved a copy of Breaking Dawn, which comes out in August. And she was willing to do all this, with no hesitation, because this was the first time her daughter had been so excited about reading. FIRST TIME EVER. So just like Harry Potter, if we view Twilight as a gateway drug for better books, read more frequently, then how bad can it really be?"

So... I signed up to do art for spn_j2_bigbang. And then I claimed a story. And then, in a fit of madness, I claimed another story. Clearly I am even more sleep deprived than normal.

YOU GUYS. I have never made art for a challenge before (that I remember. Oh, whatever, you know my memory is worse than a goldfish.). Watch me make this whole thing as complicated as possible.


In other news, I finally got my last paycheck and freelance check from the NY internship. I am beyond excited, because instead of doing something sensible like paying off my credit card, I'm paying off my credit card and immediately buying a tablet. Tablets are pretty! Tablets help this dofus make the pretty pictures. Moral of the story: Pretty!

For those of you who have/use tablets: which one floats your boat? I'm eyeing the Intuos3 6x8, but I don't know if it's worth it to pay more and invest in the 9x12. Is the extra space essential, or does it just end up being a waste? Or is there another company beside Wacom you swear by? I definitely want something with more umph than the Bamboo, but something like the Cintiq is *way* out of my price range, awesome as it may be.

Thoughts?

Iron man fucking ROCKED! SO FUCKING GOOD, you guys, I swear. It's 4am and I'm only now getting home.


All I can say right now is, Oh, baby...

( Also- )

I went to class. The teacher compared Diego Velázquez' painting, Las Meninas, to Transformers (There's more than meets the eye!). Whoot. I had fleeting thoughts of comparing Dürer's copyright suit against Raimondi to certain fandom kerfluffles for my research paper, but then I remembered I hate people, and shouldn't go out of my way to remind myself why.



Cheer up! Book meme! Stolen from shadesofbrixton:

The top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Since the majority of the books we were assigned in high I read prior to the class, I'm going to underline the ones I own and haven't read yet. Yes, I know I'm a terrible person. But books are shiny! And I tend to re-read the shiniest ones over and over.

( books, books, books! )
Good lord. I mean, my GoodReads page does show that I own and inputed more to-read than already-reads, but still. I need to start finishing things.


Um, Dracula and Frankenstein are on the list, but Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde isn't? Well, actually I suppose that's a good thing, if it means people have read it. Y'all have read it, haven't you?

Y'all, I am totally hiding in the library. No me gusto class. My teacher is a peppy, energetic woman, who obviously loves what she does, and she still makes art history dull as dirt.



So... snagged from sheafrotherdon:

If you would be so kind, ask me the seven questions below. Just copy and paste them into a comment, replace the blanks with anything you want--personal, silly, surreal (e.g. 3. Donkeys or sandcastles and why?), or deep--and I'll answer honestly as I can! Then post this in your own LJ and see what kind of things people want to ask you!

1. What do you think of _____________ ?

2. When did you last ____________?

3. __________ or ___________ and why?

4. What did you ______________?

5. What's your favorite ______________?

6. How would you ______________?

7. Who would you most like to ________ ?

BookExpo America declared Saturday, May 31st Comics and Graphic Novel Day at the expo, and just added a "Graphic Novel Authors Breakfast".

"This breakfast panel will focus discussion on the evolution of graphic novel publishing from the underground comics scene through the category’s current explosion into mainstream bookselling."
Saturday morning breakfast with host Jeff Smith, an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone, will feature speakers including:

-Jeph Loeb, American film and television writer, producer and award-winning comic book writer, noted for his Emmy and WGA nominations. Currently the Co-Executive Producer on the NBC hit show Heroes.

-Mike Mignola, comic book artist and writer, famous for his horror comic, "Hellboy".

-Art Spiegelman, an American comic artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel memoir, Maus."



Jeff Smith, Mike Mignola, AND ART SPIEGELMAN. Tickets cost $25.


Somebody needs to tell me it's okay to for me to go, because OMG YES. On the other hand, Jeff Smith (comic shop dude gave me a copy of his newest single-issue, RASL of which my book report is long overdue), Mike Mignola (I'm reading both B.P.R.D.: 1946 and Abe Sapien: The Drowning right now), Art Spiegelman (OMG), AND Neil Gaiman all in the same weekend?

...My heart may explode.



Eww. It's 2:18 and I have to be up at 6 to be at work at 7:30. NO BUENO.

I accidentally hit apple+q instead of apple+w, as I am wont to do, and before I frantically went CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL firefox informed me I had 47 tabs open.


In this window alone.


...And that's *after* I bookmarked and closed all the tabs for the webcomics I've been reading the past few days. ::facepalm::

• Obama for your Mama Hope! (and other illustrations by Daniel M. Davis).
  Or as I like to call it, a nifty poster that still doesn't come close to either of Shepard Fairey's prints: Progress and Change.
  
  
• Illustration Friday looks interesting. We'll see if I actually have time to participate.
  
  
• I have abandoned Bibliophil.org in favor of Good Reads, as Bibliophil always seemed to be down when I had the time to update my library. Feel free to add me as a friend and thus somewhat validate my quasi-OCPD need to catalog things.
  
  
• Want to refresh your Indy knowledge before the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Of course you do. Just for you, the SciFi Channel is airing the first three Indiana Jones movies May 18th. Those of us without cable will probably "borrow" the box set from zee parent's house. Thankfully, my best friend loves me, and promised to only mock me a *tiny* bit when I drag her to the theatre opening weekend...
  
  
• In other Indy news, take a look at the banner Patrick Schoenmaker created. Heck, take a look at his whole blog while you're at it.
  
  P.S.- I want I want I WANT. What is it about artist sketches + pop culture/cult classics that makes me weak at the knees?
  
  
• Seriously, Borders? That's your master plan to increase sales?
  It will probably work to some effect, but it's just one more reason for me to not shop there (sensory overload = migraine).
  
  
• Gas prices make me go "...woe." Indeed, woe is me. CNN has some "advice" to make filling up your tank a little less woeful.
  
  
• Originally published in 1964, Don't Bump the Glump has been republished. (Thus prompting a customer to screech, "How can Shel Silverstein have a new book out??? HE'S DEAD!!!!!" Sooo, we should lock up everything he ever wrote and never show it to anyone, ever again?...Trufax. )
  
  
• Knitters and crochet-ers might like Ravelry. It's still in beta, but very nifty all the same.
  
  
• WALL•E is the cutest thing ever.
  

I still have a bajillion tabs open, but I have to leave for work in 6 hours, so I'm signing off here.

At quarter after 11, I decided to go ahead and cut my bangs. What I thought took 10, maybe 15 minutes, tops, somehow took an hour and a half.

Oops.

I''m not 100% groovy with my current length, but it's a hell of a lot better than having the length due to the scraggly ends.


I'm also not down with my hair being wavy/curly, and my grays being stick straight. They just kinda hover over the rest of my hair, and that's not exactly inconspicuous.



Double oops. I forgot to write down my schedule for the week, but I'm pretty sure I have to be in at 7:30 am, meaning wake-up's at 6am. So I should not be posting to LJ while precious sleep time wastes.

I just came into my room and started to set up my desk to finish my art homework, when I realized I forgot to take my astronomy exam. I missed it by 3 hours.


I missed it because I was doing my art homework in the dining room for the first time, ever. And because work killed me this weekend. And because I'm a moron.

Luckily, there's a make-up exam later in the semester for exactly this reason, but it still means I have no room for error and cannot fuck up again.



Fucking Ides of March.

Ugh. Sorry for the last post. My body is already doing everything in it's power to not get more than 4 hours of sleep a night, and what with daylight saving time my sleep schedule is fucked up even more than before.



To my New York peoples: I miss you loads.

It's... quarter to 9, actually, which isn't bad, but I've got this stupid paper due tomorrow on Humanism and Renaissance paintings and Petrarch's ascent of Mount Ventoux and shit, and a design assignment that if I just gave up and traced the fucking images from magazines like 99% of the class is, I'd be done already, but no, I have to draw everything freehand, because I am a *MORON*, and I am already operating on a day of suck where everything went wrong because god forbid people learn how to count and since I opened ALL BY MYSELF and had NO CASHIER until 2pm, I was running like my ass was on fire trying to get tills to Music and Cafe before we opened on, like, 2 hours of sleep because my body thinks this whole daylight savings thing is nonsense, and WHAT THE HELL.


You know how I cut my bangs last year because it was 5 in the morning and I hadn't slept at all and I just wanted them gone, already?

I just got a skirt on sale for $6 at Old Navy, and it's really awesome except for the fact I forgot to cut out the tag before I washed it and if I so much as came within 5 feet of the Music/DVD department I set off the alarm, and I was ready to kill something, so on my 15 I went to the ladies room and cut the tag out, fine, dandy, only then there I was, looking at myself in the mirror with scissors in my hand and realizing for the billionth time that the last B&B girl cut my hair in the way people who can afford to get their hair cut every three weeks do, and it was growing out all scraggly and ugly, and then, snip snip, the bottom 4-5 inches were gone. THIS IS WHY I'M NOT ALLOWED TO KEEP SCISSORS ANYWHERE NEAR A MIRROR.

I don't think anyone at work noticed, but R's mom did and liked it, so it could've been a lot worse. I don't have to be at work Thursday until 4pm, so I think I'll wait until I get some sleep and clean the ends up and do my bangs that afternoon. I'd take a photo, but I literally have circles under my eyes, indented into my skin, if you will, and nobody wants to see that.


On a brighter note: the plus side to having extra weight located mostly in the ass and boob areas "curves" is that when I'm dressed for work and wearing makeup and a black v-cut shirt and skirt with stockings (sadly, flats, not heels), I can walk up to a comic book store as they're locking up, and despite my protests and assurances I'll come back later, they insist I come in and peruse. Plus the guy at Trader Joe's flirts like he has no shame. SCORE ONE FOR ME.

Hopefully, the combination of yoga and weightlifting will morph my "curves" into actual curves, and then we'll really be talking.

But, hey- I seriously am upset that I now live in an area where the "nearby" comic book store closes at 7pm, and the other closest one is populated with douchebags. What the hell? Do the local geeks stand for this nonsense? Is there a secret Mecca that I have not been deemed worthy of? Forbidden Planet, oh how I pine for you...



Oh, and did I mention, in addition to my iPod finally giving up the ghost and persistently staying dead as a doornail, my laptop decided it no longer wants to hold any sort of a charge? I love accidentally jostling the power cord and seeing my screen go black faster than you can blink.


FUCKKKKkkkkkkkkkkk.

I AM GOING TO SEE NEIL GAIMAN.



I feel like re-reading American Gods to celebrate, but that was a pre-New York purchase, which means it's probably boxed up in my parent's attic. SAD.



Conclusion: NEIL GAIMAN.

I love how my weight training teacher never bothered to show up to class.
I love how the fitness center was closed to accommodate another class, and therefore I only had yoga with no weight training for the second time this week.


I love how tickets for the BookExpo America special events went on sale today, yet there isn't a link I can find on the entire site that'll take me to where I can purchase them.


"8:00AM – 9:30AM CHILDREN'S BOOK & AUTHOR BREAKFAST (Concourse Hall)
Presented in cooperation with the Children's Booksellers and Publishers Committee [A cooperative committee of the American Booksellers Association (ABA), Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), and the Children's Book Council (CBC)] this opening-day breakfast will feature Sherman Alexie, author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); Judy Blume, author of Going, Going, Gone! with the Pain and the Great One (Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers); and Neil Gaiman, author of The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins). Eoin Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (Hyperion Books for Children/Disney Book Group) will be the Master of Ceremonies. Introductory Remarks by Jon Scieszka, National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. General Admission: $15. Breakfast Admission: $35."

Judy Blume (she of teen angst), Neil Gaiman (as if you don't know. please.), Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl!), and Jon Scieszka (Time Warp Trio!).

And did I mention Neil Gaiman???



I love how I've wasted over two hours trying to figure out where to buy these tickets.

The last day to add classes was this past Friday, so my schedule's finally as set as it's going to get.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have:
7-8:25am Yoga
8:45-9:46am Weight Training
12-3:10pm Two-Dimensional Design
5:15-6:16pm Beginning Conversational French

Wednesdays I also have
6:45-9:55pm History of Western Art: Renaissance to 19th Century

Lastly, I have Astronomy 20 online.


I felt horribly out of my depth in French 3, so it was dropped in favor of a rendering class, which as it turns out I couldn't take because there's a ten-minute overlap with my other art class. I was fine with it, the teachers were fine with it, but evidently such an overlap is "illegal" and could not be authorized. Fuckers. So, weight training it is.

My muscles already hate me, and it's only the third week of school.


I wasn't happy with my first assignment, I haven't started my second, and all my art supplies are packed up lord knows where. Good times.

Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruthlman have created the Golden Clog awards, which may very well be the best thing ever. Go see the nominees here, and I'm sure you'll agree. Bourdain's nominated Ruhlman for The Golden Mullet Award (Best Hair on Food Television) and himself for The Cat Cora Award (for most fame based on least actual culinary achievement). Good times.


"THE ALTON
For being on Food Network and yet, somehow managing to Not Suck"

YES.

I just got home from work, and I have to get up at 5 to make a 5:35 BADMINTON class just to beg the instructor to add me to his M/W weight class.

This class damn well better be real. Who the hell gets up to play badminton at 5:30 in the morning?!?!?!


On the plus side, I started work the previous Tuesday, and since they told me I shouldn't need to reestablish my direct deposit, I should be getting monies in zee bank any minute now. Yay monies!



I've have some time here and there to kill over the past non-school days, so I started marathoning Doctor Who with James. We got up to The Parting of the Ways, but the jerk still has my dvds, so I jumped to season 3. Only... I have no desired to rewatch Daleks in Manhattan, which is pretty much where I stopped watching the first go-round. Clearly, my only choice was to start watching season one of House. Clearly. Maybe I'll actually be motivated to catch up on this past season and a half...



This post was completely useless. I'm sorry. Go check out my book recs over at regala_electra's journal if you want substance.

Happy Birthday, regala_electra!!!

Many wishes of complete excellence to you on this most awesome of days. Alas, I am lame, and do not know where anything is. Presents shall be forthcoming once I manage to get unpacked.



pss... I wrote you a note on facebook. Go read it.

1. I am, for all intents and purposes, moved into my new place. FUCK. YES.

2. I don't have internet access yet, though, and I don't know when that'll be happening. Therefore, y'all should drop me facebook notes and comment here with fun links, so that when I'm somewhere where I can steal a wireless signal, I can stock up my browser windows for later.

3. Classes start tomorrow.  I'm taking:
Theatre-1 (Intro to the Theatre (Online)), 
Yoga,
Art-3 (History of Western Art: -19th Century),
French-3 (Intermediate French I),
French-21AB (Beg Conversational French), and
Astronomy-20 (The Solar System (Online)).

I'm waitlisted for the one class I really need, ART-37AB (Two-Dimensional Design I), but I've had the professor before, so I'm crossing my fingers that she'll add me to the roster without making me jump through a billion hoops. If she does, I'll probably drop the theatre course and have classes from 7am to 6:16pm Mondays and 7am to 9:55pm Wednesdays with one online class. I haven't studied French in almost two years, so I am filled with dread. I did well in French 1 and 2, though, so hopefully what limited skills I had will come back to back to me, and the beginning conversation class will fill in the blanks.

4. My ipod turned itself on at dinner last night. This normally wouldn't be notable, except for it's remarkable impression of a brick this past week. Clearly, I should take advantage of it working while I can, and y'all should pass on your favorite/newest music recommendations.

5. CL and I were supposed to see Hot Hot Heat, Louis XIV, and The Editors last night, but there was father/moving drama on my end, and I was so upset and running so late we ended up going to the Bistro for dinner instead. On the plus side, everyone there remembers me and wanted to know how long I'll be in town for. I'd love to pick up some hosting shifts, but it all depends on:

6. the bookshop (west coast edition). I start Tuesday, wish me luck! I'll just be happy to get my schedule sorted out at last, as all my potential tutoring/babysitting/hostessing gigs hinge on when the bookshop needs me to work.

7. Speaking of babysitting, I'm watching CR and ER right now. Tonight they were watching High School Musical 2, and got about halfway through before bedtime. I've never seen it or the original, but it was actually kind of cute. I'll probably end up watching it all the way through next time I babysit. Right now, they've been asleep for ages, and I've got the Grammys on. Wow is everyone building up Amy Winehouse's performance. My luck, the parents will probably come home right as she starts, and I'll miss it.

8. Overall? Life = AWESOME.

Just because I don't live in New York at the moment, doesn't mean I can't live vicariously through the people who still do.


From The New York Times's Urban Eye email:

"DINING
Be the First One on Its Block

Sure, you could go to Commerce, a “contemporary American” restaurant opening today, for its history: the building dates to 1911, was once a speakeasy and has housed restaurants for more than 60 years. You could go for the menu: created by a founder of Montrachet and the chef Harold Moore, it includes chestnut papardelle with wild boar and hot smoked salmon with Jerusalem artichokes. Or you could go for the reason that New Yorkers always want to go to new restaurants: because you’ll be among the first to do so and because they’re offering 20 percent off through Monday."

The New York Times article:

"For a New Restaurant, Homage to History

Commerce, a contemporary American restaurant that is to open tomorrow at 50 Commerce Street (Barrow Street), has inherited a legacy. The building dates from 1911; the restaurant space was a speakeasy during Prohibition, and in 1941 it became the Blue Mill Tavern. In 1992, it was sold to restaurateurs who turned it into Grange Hall. In 2004, under more new owners, it briefly reverted to Blue Mill Tavern.

Now the space will incorporate design elements that reflect its past. The owners, Tony Zazula and Harold Moore, commissioned David Joel, who had painted a mural in 1993 for the owners of Grange Hall (which they removed when they left), to create a new one. In oil and gold leaf, and measuring 4 by 16 feet, it is similar to the previous work, depicting sleepy workers after a harvest. Mr. Zazula also found a 1941 Art Deco bar.

Through Monday there will be a 20 percent discount on the food by Mr. Moore, who is also the chef: (212) 524-2301."


Eater.com has a photo of Commerce in their Thursday Opening Report.



Good food at a discount- what could be better? Oh, yeah:

Jasper Johns has a "sprawling exhibition of his work" that opened Tuesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and The New York Times talks about it.



I'm so miffed I'm not there to see it, and it ends before my classes get out in June. The damn thing better come to LACMA, that's all I'm saying.