Project America's Amazing Race for the Next Top Author

I'm Busy! Life is crazy. So I am borrowing this AMAZING post from Literary Nathan Bransford (who I heart) that tells you what you can learn about writing from watching reality TV. Did I mention I heart him?

Two Moms = One Controversial Book Fair

Read this great blog post from Six Boxes of Books about the preposterous "controversy" surrounding Lauren Myracle's Luv Ya Bunches and its inclusion at elementary and middle school Scholastic Book Fairs.

Dollar Dollar Bills Ya'll

As a former recipient of an NEH grant to study Shakespeare & Performance in Ashland, Oregon I am heartened by this decision.

Congress Approves Budget Increase 

for Arts and Humanities Endowments

October 30, 2009- New York Times

The House and Senate on Thursday passed a budget increase for the National Endowment for the Arts and for the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Interior Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2010 sets budgets for each agency at $167.5 million, up $12.5 million from last year. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law shortly. The funding comes as Rocco Landesman, the new chairman of the N.E.A., prepares to start a nationwide “Art Works” tour next week. “It’s never enough,” Mr. Landesman said. “But we’re looking for progress at a time when every dollar is precious. For us to get a notable increase is extremely heartening.”

The N.E.A. is currently funded at $155 million, and the White House had requested an increase to $161 million. The agency received an additional $50 million through the stimulus bill. This summer, the House approved $170 million for the arts endowment, while the Senate proposed $161.3 million. The final budget was decided in conference this week and passed by a vote of 247-178 in the House and 72-28 in the Senate.

“This important budget increase recognizes the essential role the arts play in our lives, schools, and communities,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and chief of Americans for the Arts, an advocacy group, in a statement.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl: The Play

Keep your eye out for the exciting adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner's graphic novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl.  (Read a review of the book from Bookslut).  The play, written by Marielle Heller, is "the story of Minnie, a fifteen year old girl growing up in San Francisco in the 70s, who has just started an affair with her mother's boyfriend. Shit."

It doesn't open until March of 2010, 

but in the meantime you can watch 

the beautiful and intriguing trailer video!

CONTEST WINNER

Thanks to a very scientific process (which I borrowed from the blog 

All About Them Words) a winner has been chosen from the fabulous entries to The Mall contest. And the winner is the poetry of Perpetual Thought! Congratulations! Email me your address and I will get your prize packet in the mail right away!

Here is the winning poem about a memorable mall purchase:

Pocket burn spirit free
Took my twenty on a shopping spree
No regrets, passed a pack of cigarettes
Bat eyelashes at a nerdy hunk
A blue and purple purse made by a Buddhist monk?
Hmm, I think I like
Holds cell phone, camera, pack of Mike and Ikes
Made my three dollar purchase, made the economy good
wanted to hail a cab, but there I stood
never once thinking that on my way back
I would wet my phone, break my camera, spill my Mike and Ikes
give myself a heart-attack!
Why did I not use the purse you ask?
Because taking it out, packing stuff in, 

would've been quite the task
Broke my twenty on that stupid purse
should have spent more time being careful first.

The Newest "Girl Next Door" is...

If you answered Marge Simpson you are correct!

Playboy has decided to feature the animated mother of two on the cover of its next issue and give her a full spread (pun intended).

The strangest quote of this very strange article states that, the staying power of The Simpsons "has been in large part due to its family values...." Um, yeah, that's not how I would describe it. I am a fan, and it's not family values that keeps me watching. Unless a blatant disregard for the physical safety of your reckless, troublemaking son is a "family value".

I agree with the notion that having an animated character on the cover of a nudey mag is misleading, but I also know that Playboy magazines are sold in a plastic 

sleeve that makes it so no one can flip through the pages while it sits on a 7-11 rack (Rack! Ha!). Having Marge on the cover of a Playboy, instead of the usual breast implanted platinum blonde peeking over the blacked out part of the plastic sleeve, is probably better than a small child being exposed to the unsleeved Maxim

cover on the shelf next to it. I think what is more troubling is the idea that anyone, child or legal adult, would actually want to see Marge Simpson's animated (and photoshop slimmed) nakedness. Yuck.

This further infantilizing (Miley Mania- Toddlers and Tiaras- Anime porn- Furries- Catholic School Girl costumes- what have you) of sexuality in America is troublesome. And Marge Simpson posing in Playboy is just one step too far in my opinion.

And since when is 7-11 a corporation that "wants to be a responsible member of American society..."? Last I checked encouraging people to eat processed cheese product and bad coffee is not terribly responsible.

Do You Desire A Denouement?

denouement |ˌdānoōˈmä n |
noun
the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.

My friend Michael The Girl recently sent me this link to a blog discussion of the value of the denouement because I am working on a project that begs to end slightly ambiguously. 

Does anybody out there have a lil sumpin' sumpin' to say about books that end without wrapping up all of the loose ends?