“A true ballad tells a story of real life.”

I decided, being in the publishing industry and all, that perhaps I should put my blog to use for something related to that. So here it is, my first serious book review. I definitely won’t turn this into an all-reviews-all-the-time blog, but I find it’s a nice outlet to share all the great (and perhaps not so great) stuff I’ve been reading with a wide(r) audience. Oh, also, I decided to post images of me with the book, if possible, rather than use copyrighted pics of the actual cover art from Amazon or wherever. I realize using them probably falls under “fair use” but whatever.

Title: Ballads of Suburbia
Author: Stephanie Kuehnert
Publisher: MTV Books
Length: 368
Age group/reading level: Young Adult (14+)

Summary: The summer before her senior year of high school, Kara nearly died from a heroin overdose. As a freshman, when she moved away from her best friend and then her family fell apart, Kara turned to music, booze, drugs, self-injury, and bad-boy Adrian to make everything better. Between all the parties and concerts, her friends collected their heartbreaking ballads of the moments that defined them. After four years away from her friends and family, Kara returns to Oak Park to confront her past, and to finally write her own ballad.

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Edited: July 23rd, 2009

I’m a rooster, monkey

New cracked out trailer for an equally-cracked-out game, Katamari Forever. Wish I had a PS3 so I could play this when it comes out.

Also, can I just say how awesome this Chibi-Robocop is. Chibi-Robo is adorable. He is definitely one of my all-time favorite video game characters. He cleans and waters plants and makes fun noises when he walks!

(via flickr)

Edited: July 22nd, 2009

Celebrate Brooklyn!

Last evening I traversed the city to Brooklyn (via subway train which took like an hour and caused lots of sweatiness) to meet Andrew in Prospect Park for a free concert. Free concerts in the park(s) are highly popular, mostly because they’re free, but also because they’re entertaining. I expected not to have very good seats, because my confusion as to where the hell I was going caused me to get there only half an hour before the opening act started. And while the view from the chairs we snagged was pretty uninterrupted and fairly close, the seats themselves were far from “good.” Metal folding chairs are not the optimal places to rest yr bum for … however long Andrew and I were sitting there.
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Edited: July 17th, 2009

Candor Book Trailer

The Messages made me post this. And now they’re telling you to watch it.

Edited: July 17th, 2009

Note to Self: buy sunscreen

In my attempt to prove to Scott and Andrew that I can, and do, tan, I managed to get myself a pretty nice sunburn.  After sitting in the sun for three hours, with my arms, legs and shoulders/back exposed, somehow only the shoulders got burned.  So, I do get color. Just not tan.

Edited: July 6th, 2009