Remember that episode of Seinfeld when George pretended to be blind to get his books read for him? You won’t feel as guilty if you just listen to the archives of the Radio Information Service. Hear rank amateurs give it a go on some of the programs at the Alabama Print Information Center. Google has other listings as well.
And if you want to give back, you can do that, too. Check your local United Way for details.
Catch The Darkness’s video for “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” while you can (eventually it will become a clip with an ad on the end) and catch a glimpse of the soul of rock. Or should I say FUCKIN’ ROCK!!!!!!!!! Their band bio mentions them opening for actual “serious” rock acts. If you were an arena rock staple, would you be brave enough to have The Darkness come on first?
Again, the incomparable Angie B. has issued her top tens for the year 2003.
Top Ten Teen Books for Teens:
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman
Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going
The Canning Season by Polly Horvath
Target by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
East by Edith Pattou
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
33 Snowfish by Adam Rapp
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
Top Ten Adult Books for Teens:
Wonder When You’ll Miss Me by Amanda Davis
All My Life for Sale by John Freyer
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
Across the Nightingale Floor and Grass for His Pillow by Lian Hearn
Burndive by Karin Lowachee
The Usual Rules by Joyce Maynard
Fluke, or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore
Brave Enemies by Robert Morgan
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Blankets by Craig Thompson
In a table strangely reminiscent of the infant mortality data, more people die in fires in the south. What the heck are they doing down there? Should Neil Young write another song?
Make your own Bayeux Tapestry comic book!
What’s the most trustworthy source of reliable restaurant reviews that won’t be terribly out of date or terribly snooty? Why, the local alternative press! Here’s the Portland Mercury’s selection of reviews and mini-reviews. Also, takeout!
It’s been a really windy day today, so the power is out in a lot of neighborhoods. For safety’s sake, stock up on glow in the dark shoes, or the kind with blinky lights in them. So practical and safety-concious!
Here’s a nifty little set of role-playing games set in the worlds of Victorian science fiction, and the stories of E. Nesbit! Also, a quite fab illustrated online Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)!
From an ad in the New York Daily Times, January 28, 1854:
“Caution to the Public — Beware of Humbugs and false certificates in favor of quack nostrums, and remember that HOBENSACK’S WORM SYRUP is acknowledged by all to be the most safe an effectual remedy now in use for the removal of worms; and as that is now proven without a shadow of a doubt to be the cause of all disease, no time should be lost by those suffering from weak appetite, giddiness in the head, sickness and sourness of the stomach, in making use of this great remedy…”
Golly, if that’s all it takes to end the epidemic of giddiness of the head! And it makes the second appearance of worm syrup in this publication.
The Thirteen Treasures of Britain are pretty cool, if excessively practical.