Nasty November

[cleolinda]

I love it. The entire month of October: deep, gorgeous, honeyed sunshine. The red-hot moment the calendar strikes November: Cathy's sprinting across the moors wailing for Heathcliff. Too bad I only just ordered my winter coat last night.

Also, can I complain about my calendars? I have a Lord of the Rings calendar that SUCKS, because it has one giant main image (top page) and three smaller images (lower page) for the month. Anything picturesque or attractive is on the lower page; the giant picture up top is inevitably a huge shot of Saruman grimacing or an extreme closeup of Crusty Theoden's pores (I am not making either of these up). For the month of July we did have Aragorn shouting on the wall at Helm's Deep, and I think I skipped ahead to that one and had it up for like three months rather than stare at grimy hobbit stand-ins and Crusty Theoden. Even better: the month that New Orleans was half wiped off the map, we had the flooding of frickin' Isengard. I turned the page, saw a GINORRRRRMOUS picture of Shelob chasing Frodo, and decided that the calendar needed to come down for the good of humanity.

My other calendar is Lemony Snicket-themed. Some months it's okay, with really nice Brett Helquist artwork. Other months it's artsy b/w photos purportedly from Snicket's life. This month? A coffin. Forget this shit. I am totally asking for a Kinuko Craft calendar this Christmas. And maybe one from the Narnia movie. I would get a Goblet of Fire calendar, but knowing my luck, it'll probably be giant pictures of Moody and Babybirdemort.

Linkspam:

Bush Outlines $7.1B Flu-Fighting Strategy

Bird flu risk hinges on computation, mutation.

Democrats close Senate doors in Iraq protest.

Ralphdemort speaks!

'Saw II' Wins Duel with 'Zorro': "The blades that audiences wanted to see over the weekend did not belong to the dashing hero in The Legend of Zorro but to the slashing villain in Saw II. The horror movie grossed, you'll excuse the expression, $30.5 million -- well above most forecasts by box-office analysts. It was the biggest Halloween weekend opening in history and the best opening for any Lions Gate film, exceeding the $23.9 million earned by last year's Fahrenheit 9/11. By contrast, The Legend of Zorro earned just $16.5 million, well below the $22.5 million earned by the original The Mask of Zorro in 1998. Two other new films were not expected to draw much of a crowd -- and they didn't. The Meryl Streep-Uma Thurman comedy Prime picked up a not-so-prime $6.4 million, while the Nicolas Cage film The Weather Man washed out with $4.2 million, slightly above last week's winner, Doom, which sank to $4.1 million. Once again, the overall box office total slipped below the comparable week a year."

Apple sells a million videos in new service. 

I don't read fanfic, so I'm not really in the habit of posting recs or anything, but here's one from enders_girl: "moony_swears is a wonderful collection of Marauders fics. The three latest are in the writer's series called "Twelve Decembers" (Part 1: First Year, Part 2: Second Year, Part 3a: Third Year) and they're really wonderful and really deserve some attention. Thanks!"

Wal-Mart's war room: "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" vs. "Why Wal-Mart Works & Why That Makes Some People Crazy."

Twin pop stars with angelic looks are new face of racism.

Happy Aussie bookday! I have asked my agent what the situation with Asian distribution is, also--I know Orion has the rights, but I don't know if they're exercising them. katharhino also notes that you can, apparently, buy the book at The Book Cellar for about $18 and get free shipping to the U.S.

Comments

[mysticowl.livejournal.com]

It's here!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cleo, it finally came! Several days later than I hoped, but it got here, it didn't get lost and OMG you're a published author, that's so awesome *hyperventilates, passes out, comes back and dashes off to read the book*

[luindilwen.livejournal.com]

Gross, Prussian Blue ['Twin pop stars with angelic looks are new face of racism'] were in an issue of Bust magazine a few months ago and managed to scare the shit out of me.

I find it hard to believe that those girls aren't being fed those values. I'm sure if they were allowed to come up with their own songs, they'd write about unicorns, boys, candy, and school.... or.... something.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

The article makes it sound like they've been brainwashed by their mother.

[lamiael.livejournal.com]

Democrats close Senate doors in Iraq protest.

This link is broken, and it's the one I really want to read! Thanks. ;)

[lamiael.livejournal.com]

Here it is!

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-11-01T213241Z_01_SIB174270_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-LEAK-CONGRESS.xml

[elyim.livejournal.com]

Woah with the racist kids O_o that's some scary shit.

[sajee.livejournal.com]

Wow. Those twins are scary.
*freaking out*

[kittikattie.livejournal.com]

Those twins are both creepy and sad. You know they wouldn't be doing this if they were on thier own ideas. This is how racism starts--they're taught that the way they're thinking is normal. I also note how they're blond and blue eyed--which is in a lot of people's minds the image of innocence.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

My book is winging its way to you, even as I write. I signed mine for you; don't forget to sign yours for me.

PS. I bet those racist singing twins grow up and write a memoir. They can call it Tomorrow Belonged to Us.

[onlyinlexington.livejournal.com]

About that article with the white chicks...THAT'S HORRIBLE! I posted it in my journal and credited you for posting it, let me know if that doesn't work with you, thanks.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Shpfff, please. Links were made for sharing. :)

[bludrummergrl.livejournal.com]

Er, not sure if you know the answer to this but how exactly does one get the free shipping from The Book Cellar?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I don't know. I'll have to find the original comment and ask.

[kilted.livejournal.com]

*SMOOCHES*

Thanks so very much for pimping my friend! It means a lot!

(those twins make me fear for the future. My little sister will never be like that)

[maggieblue.livejournal.com]

aside from the obvious of what's wrong with the little prussian blue girls, yet another thing i can't understand is the "holocaust denial" groups. HOW in GOD'S NAME can you deny that happened? why don't you just ask my relatives? oh, that's right, you can't. they died in a concentration camp. and even if, for the sake of argument, it never did happen, what would the reason behind lying about it be? what, were the jews just all hanging out one day and decided that they hated the germans so much that they wanted the rest of the world to hate them, too? there is no way, if something like that had not happened, that a lie that big could have been pulled off. that is beyond "wag the dog" proportions. and, on top of everything else, it's just plain ridiculous.

of course, you're also feeling the rage of someone who is part jewish/part german. i'm sure you can guess all the jokes i've heard in my lifetime.

point is, i agree with everyone else on the brainwashing. these girls are 13, there is no way they could be speaking so clearly and politically about white supremacy had they not been force-fed certain ideals. i feel sorry for them when they grow up and one day realise all the hurt and damage they have caused with their so called "music".

i've just never understood why so many people think that they are so much better than other people simply because of their status upon birth.

okay...i'm done now.

[tifaria.livejournal.com]

The scary part? I caught a bit of their interview on ABC, and the interviewer lady (forgot her name.. Diane Sawyer? Dunno) asked them what they thought of the holocaust and showed some video of it, told them that 6 million Jews were killed by Hitler, who they say was a great man.

They kind of looked uncomfortable for a moment before one of them said, "Well.. I mean, I don't even think there were that many Jews alive back then!" or something like that. (shudder)

[pink-ranger-rox.livejournal.com]

The thing with the twins is fucking sick. I checked out their main website and read some of the lyrics for their songs. As someone mentioned earlier, their mother must be planting these ideas in their heads, cause I highly doubt a set of twins who look younger than 9, know what the phrase "watching but not caring, while they rape your land" means...

[barrelgoddess.livejournal.com]

Man, I read about those racist *censored*s last week. Every bit as disgusting to me now as they were when I first heard of them. >o

[kokopellinelli]

I first read about Prussian Blue in one of the Tolerance mags my mom sends me. It horrified me then and it's just as horrifying now. I want to cry whenever I read stuff like that, because (as has already been said) they've obviously been coached. You aren't born with that kind of hatred. I'm going to post the article in my journal as well. Thank you for linking it.

[girlbyjuly.livejournal.com]

Words don't even begin to describe how disgusted I am at Prussian Blue. Holy crap. I went to their website and I couldn't even stand it. *shudders*

[suitcasegnome.livejournal.com]

Don't go to the forum then. It made me nauseous. :S

[sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com]

Oh, the British edition of the Snicket calendar is all Brett Helquist, with very funny quotes scattered all over. You could order from Amazon UK I suppose?

[meandstuff.livejournal.com]

From the Prussian Blue official website:
Lynx and Lamb are splitting their time these days between music lessons, home schooling, studio work, interviews for various mainstream press organs, and just having fun being young, talented and pretty

That explains a lot.

[maliekai.livejournal.com]

I agree that in this instance, that does explain a lot, I just wanted to make sure that you're not slamming homeschooling in general. I was homeschooled all my life, as were several of my closest friends, and we turned out completely (read: relatively) normal. You know, free of scary ideals and well-socialized. Parents who use homeschooling as a form of sequestering are scary and baaaaad, but it can be a really great thing for many people, especially kids who learn differently than the norm. :)

[msilverstar]

I have the same LOTR calendar and it sucks. I feel cheated cos it's sooo ugly, and I refuse to buy another without seeing the pictures properly!

[drpeprfan.livejournal.com]

You should get a Cedco daily rip-off LotR calendar, they're much better. I have the Trilogy Edition, it rocks my socks off.

I tried the Book Cellar link too, and alas, it does not work. *crosses her fingers in hopes that maybe, just maybe the North American stuff will work out so the book will be in the States soon*

[boarderbunny.livejournal.com]

I'm an Ansel Adams calender girl m'self. The only problem is that the damn things cost like 20 bucks.

[22by7.livejournal.com]

aah, the twin zombies of hate.

quite apart from being disgusting and obviously screwed up in the brains they're also so ridiculously stupid. 'strike force! white survival! yeah' indeed.

we don't want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race.
like, your mom seems to have left the biology lessons, like, completely out, sugarplums.

now i know what the adorable people at white_racialism listen to in the morning. hmm.

[barrelgoddess.livejournal.com]

Well, she IS using 1950s textbooks to educate them, which would explain a statement like that...

[girlalmighty]

1. The book came yesterday. Right before NaNoWriMo of course. I'm adoring it.

2. I love Kinuko Y. Craft.

3. Prussian Blue scare the crap out of me.

[kookaburra1701.livejournal.com]

Kinuko Craft! She showed some of her paintings at my college's art gallery's Christmas show! I loved it, and I just found the "Pegasus" book she illustrated at a used book shop. It is now mine!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Ooo, nice. That's on my to-get list; I already have Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty (I think; I may have others). She's one of my favorite illustrators to collect.

[punkiejeannien.livejournal.com]

I had to google those girls, it's almost too... brainless to be true... yikes.

The Book!

[irdbabe.livejournal.com]

Cleolinda - Congratulations on the publication of your first book! My three copies (yes, three) arrived from Amazon today, and I've hunkered down with the leftover Hallowe'en treats and am indulging myself a good read. Brava! Now I just have to figure out which two lucky pals will be introduced this holiday season to the wonder that is M15M. :-)

Well done!
Robyn

Re: The Book!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you. : )