American Idiot Being Adapted To The Stage March 30, 2009

Green Day’s album “American Idiot” has always reminded me of The Who’s “Tommy.” With 14  9 minute songs, punchy lyrics about disaffected life in suburbia during the early Bush years, and an angry punk ethos, this was an album I couldn’t put down, an album that captured my imagination as much as it made me stomp my feet. Like “Tommy,” “American Idiot” has a large-scale theatricality to it with songs that follow several intertwined themes and story-lines and continually one-up themselves. I thought it was a real achievement for a band that’s been writing music for over 15 years and I was excited by rumors that Green Day was turning “Idiot” into a movie rock opera. But the news today is way better. The New York Times reports that “American Idiot” will premiere at Berkeley Rep Theatre in California this fall as a full-scale live rock-opera for the stage. And, it’s got real theatrical muscle behind it – the director behind the  smash-hit musical “Spring Awakening” is at the helm. Yeah!

From the Times:

The punks are invading the theater. A new musical production adapted from “American Idiot,” the best-selling album by the punk band Green Day, is scheduled to make its debut in September at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in California. Berkeley Rep is to announce Monday that the new work, also titled “American Idiot,” will have its premiere as the first production of the theater’s 2009-10 season, and run from Sept. 4 through Oct. 11. The musical is a collaboration between Green Day — the Bay Area rock trio consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool — and Michael Mayer, the Tony Award-winning director of “Spring Awakening…

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Mr. Armstrong, the Green Day singer and guitarist, said of this new partnership in a telephone interview, “but that’s what I love about it. When people see it, it’s going to be my wildest dream.”

If it’s done right there’s no question this one has a life beyond Berkeley.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman: A Playlist March 27, 2009

If I Stay has finally arrived! Music is a big part of this haunting, soulful story…indie rock, classical, and much more. After a terrible car accident, 17-year-old Mia stands outside her body and tells her story. Think Susie Salmon from The Lovely Bones, but unlike Susie, Mia is teetering on the brink of life and death, and may just have a choice in the outcome. Check it out, the story and the music!

 

Here is a playlist to accompany the book from the author, Gayle Forman. Check back here next week for a review of the book.

• School’s Out - Alice Cooper
• I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend - The Ramones
• In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning – Frank Sinatra
• SpongeBob & Patrick Confront The Psychic Wall Of Energy – The Flaming Lips
• Roadrunner – Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
• Cello Sonata No. 3, A major, Op. 69: Allegro vivace – Beethoven – Maria Kliegel
• Ride of the Valkyries – Wagner
• Le Grand Tango – Yo-Yo Ma
• Pezzo capriccioso in B minor, Op. 62 – Tchaikovsky – Maria Kliegel
• Gabriel’s Oboe from the Mission [Excerpt] – Yo-Yo Ma
• Something In The Way – Nirvana
• Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Hob. VIIb:2 (1998 Digital Remaster): III. Rondo (Allegro) – Cadenza - Haydn – Jacqueline Du Pré/London Symphony Orchestra/Sir John Barbirolli
• Girlfriend in a Coma – The Smiths
• Vile – Melvins
• Wind Beneath My Wings – Bette Midler
• Three Little Birds – Bob Marley & the Wailers
• Amazing Grace – Ladysmith Black Mambazo
• Love American Style – The Mr. T Experience
• P.S. You Rock My World – Eels
• Fire and Rain – James Taylor
• Requiem - Mozart
• Waiting For Vengance – Oswald Five-0
• It’s OK – Dead Moon
• Stay Free – The Clash
• Tragedy – Wipers
• II. Andante con Moto e Poco Rubato From Three Preludes – Yo-Yo Ma

Scat by Carl Hiaasen March 25, 2009

What do endangered animals, a sadistic biology teacher, pyromaniacs, the Iraq war, a hungry macaw, Florida wetlands, one-armed southpaw pitchers, a Texan-wannabe, and panther poop have in common?  That is precisely the question plaguing eighth graders Nick and Marta, determined heroes of Carl Hiaasen’s latest wicked-goofball-mystery-romp, Scat. 

Meet Bunny Starch.  Bunny (Mrs. Starch to you) is a 6 ft. tall, pastel-polyester-pants-suit-sporting biology teacher of the first order who loves the smell of eighth grader fear, who loves watching you sweat.  She paces the room, identifying the weakest among you, (weakest being those who didn’t read last night’s homework), and goes in for the kill in front of the whole class. Her weapons of choice are cruel mockery (your complexion is fair game), a stare that could wilt a mangrove, and the totally unfair power to assign mandatory “extra credit” essays on any topic she wants.  She is Hiaasen’s version of Roald Dahl’s evil Miss Trunchbull (from Matilda) – the most dreaded teacher in school, hated by students and adults alike. 

That is, until one day when she mysteriously disappears while on a class field trip in Florida’s Black Vine Swamp.  Is she dead?  Was she eaten alive by alligators and black widows?  Or did Duane, the class pyromaniac, kidnap her for mocking his acne?  So begins Nick and Marta’s dig through the Panhandle marsh where they discover a weedy, tangled knot of hapless fools, eco-warriors, and two corrupt oil businessmen who would kill an endangered Florida panther and burn down a protected jungle just to turn a little profit. 

Fans of Hiaasen’s previous books (Hoot, Flush, Sick Puppy) will recognize the delightful cast of characters on offer here: rootless eco-avengers steeped in a love for Florida’s precious, ever-vanishing wildlife and hellbent to protect it at all costs; hopelessly selfish and buffoonish businessmen (see how they’re undone by a ballpoint pen and a blowtorch); and the lush Florida landscape itself – a wild that rears its ferocious head in Hiaasen’s exciting, unexpected climax.  There are echoes of Kurt Vonnegut in the satire here (Cat’s Cradle, Welcome to the Monkey House) and the writings of controversial environmentalist Edward Abbey (who must be one of Hiaasen’s literary inspirations) maneuver their way into the plot.  Hiaasen even manages to work in the Iraq war (not an accident, I imagine, considering the corrupt shenanigans of those rascal oilmen) when Nick’s father, while serving in Iraq, loses his arm to a rocket propelled grenade. 

Though Marta works diligently by his side, Scat is ultimately Nick’s story.  In Nick Hiaasen has fashioned a hero with real spunk, a kid fueled by the painful fear of losing a great dad whose grit, heart, and sense of duty are a model to him as he seeks to protect the good, natural world (and rescue that freaky teacher).  This is great fun, and, like all of Hiaasen’s books, as colorful (but maybe not so peaceful) as a twilit Sanibel sky.

Now, scat: go read this book.  (Jarrett, The Loft)

Win Chicago Sky Season Tickets at The Loft March 22, 2009

In honor of Women’s History Month The Loft is hosting a contest to win a pair of CHICAGO SKY season tickets!  All you have to do is fill out a small form at the staff desk in The Loft and drop it off in our nifty little Chicago Sky contest box.  Entries must be received by April 13th and the drawing for the winner will take place on the 15th. 

The Chicago Sky pre-season begins on May 22nd, 2009 against Detroit.  First home game is Friday, June 12th against Atlanta.  All home games played at UIC Pavilion, 525 S. Racine.

Enjoy a summer of great women’s basketball – enter to win today!

Teenagers send balloon & camera to the edge of space March 19, 2009

A picture of the stratosphere taken by four Spanish teenagers

This school science project, (reported in the telegraph.co.uk) had better get an A…

We were overwhelmed at our results, especially the photographs… to send our handmade craft to the edge of space is incredible. -Gerard Marull Peretas, 18  

Backyard science reaches new heights!  Four teenagers from a school in Catalonia, northeast Spain, float a latex balloon and $100 digital camera 100,000 ft. above ground to capture stunning images of the Earth from the stratosphere. They built the electronic sensor components from scratch and followed the progress of their school project using the sensors linked to Google Earth. Take that, Nasa!

“Bliss” by Lauren Myracle March 16, 2009

Bliss by Lauren Myracle.  2008.

If you sleep in a sleeping bag and wake up covered with spider bites, does that mean a bunch of spiders were crawling all over your face and you didn’t wake up? Bliss In-The-Morning-Dew doesn’t live with her mom and dad in California anymore. It’s the late 1960’s. Her hippy parents stash Bliss at her grandmother’s house in Atlanta and leave to roast marshmallows and braid each other’s hair in the Canadian woods.

Grandma’s rich blood; Grandma’s Southern blood; Grandma’s definitely not a hippy. How will Bliss ever fit in at Grandma’s home or at her new private high school, Crestview?

 
Bliss fits in just fine. She even moves between her more popular friends Jocelyn and Thelma and her loner friend, Sandy without a problem. She just alternates where she sits at lunch, one day with Joc and Thelma, the next day with Sandy. Who cares if Sandy’s overweight and may not use deodorant. Out in California, cult members a little older than Bliss and Sandy kill a pregnant lady and smear “Pig” in her blood on the wall. Sandy fills Bliss in on the new cult killings every day. 

 
Joc and Thelma start preparing for the Winter Dance;  Bliss gets excited because she’s never been to a dance or worn a fancy dress. Then, Sarah Lynn, the most popular girl in school and Sandy’s arch-enemy, invites Bliss over to study after school, and Bliss is honored.  Sarah Lynn’s dad comes home and wonders out loud how black people can act the way they do.  Bliss has heard from Sandy that he is in the Klan, is this really true?  Hanging out with Sarah Lynn is cool though, and even more exciting. . . Mitchell, a cute upperclassman, asks Bliss to the Winter Dance!  Sandy is acting stranger and stranger telling Bliss stories about Sarah Lynn and saying that she hates her perfect popular guts. The cult killers say the devil made them do it, Sandy says. 

 

Bliss doesn’t want to be friends with Sandy any more, but when Sandy invites Bliss for a sleepover, she doesn’t have the heart to say no . . . it’s only one night.  How bad can it be? (Mercedes, The Loft)

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson March 14, 2009

Readergirlz is celebrating Mary Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox during the month of March.  The Loft is joining the conversation! Here’s one of the discussion questions: How much of your physical self do you need to retain to still be you? 75%? 50%? 25%? And if you only have 25% of your physical self left, is your soul still intact? 

If you haven’t read the book, we have copies available in the Loft!  (and the book on CD)

 

About The Adoration of Jenna Fox…

“Outstanding examination of identity.” – Kirkus, starred review

“Gripping…seamless…” – School Library Journal, starred review

“Expert plotting.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Quite literally breathtaking.” – Kliatt, audio starred review

Optioned by 20th Century Fox for a feature film

You Ask the Question-Allan Stratton March 12, 2009

“Mama said I should save my anger to fight injustice. Well, I know what’s unjust. The ignorance about AIDS. The shame. The stigma. The silence. The secrets that keep us hiding behind the curtain.” – Chanda’s Secrets by Allan Stratton

Did you cry when you read Chanda’s Secrets? Do you think the follow-up Chanda’s Wars was as good?

If you have questions for their author Allan Stratton, please email them to theloftepl@gmail.com

We’ll pass along the questions to Mr. Stratton, and have the answers for you next month during National Library  Week, April 12-18.

Wintergirls due out in a week! March 12, 2009

Speak author Laurie Halse Anderson (see also Twisted and Chains) releases the first of 3 videos of her latest book: Wintergirls - due out on March 19.  Place a hold on one of our copies today!

 

 

Anderson illuminates a dark but utterly realistic world…this is necessary reading. –Booklist, starred review

As difficult as reading this novel can be, it is more difficult to put down. –Publishers Weekly

Readers will be absorbed by this gripping tale… —BCCB, starred review

The intensity of emotion and vivid language here are more reminiscent of Anderson’s Speak than any of her other works…an almost poetic stream of consciousness in [a] startlingly crisp and pitch-perfect first-person narrative. –School Library Journal, starred review

Orson Scott Card Writing Young Adult Series March 10, 2009

Simon and Schuster announced today that Orson Scott Card, the author of the classic and “enduring” sci-fi novel Ender’s Game, is working on a series written specifically for young adults, the first of which is due out in 2011.  Card won the 2008 YALSA Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Contribution to Young Adult Literature and expounded in the press release on what it means to him that this new series will be designated for young adults:

“While young readers have responded very well to Ender’s Game and the Shadow series, this will be my first work of fiction specifically aimed at that audience. Since they are the most demanding and least forgiving of readers, my burden is to tell an exciting story without any of the digressions that adult readers take in stride.  At the same time, I must take the creation of the world and the characters every bit as seriously as in any of my adult fiction. If I do my job right, adults are as likely to enjoy the story of Ligg’s discovery of his world and all the human races that inhabit it as kids are.”

The only unfortunate, not insignificant element to this news is that we have to wait two years to enjoy Card’s new work.