Ok, remember how I said I wasn’t going to go see Hellboy? Well… I’m weak.  I was schnookered into seeing a superhero sequel that wasn’t one of the Big Name characters with silly advertising campeigns like THESE:

But on with the real show… THE DARK KNIGHT.

DUDE.  It was made of awesome.  It won the internets, magic ponies, and PIE.

I’m a huge Batman fan.  So I was bound to like it no matter what. But this movie has the depth of a good film, the action of a summer blockbuster and the best bits of some of the greatest Batman comics.  If your library does not have The Killing Joke, The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Hush and The Dark Knight Returns, get them.

Usually, two villains in a superhero movie is one too many, but somehow the presence of Two Face wasn’t excessive. Remember Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carry trying to out-ham each other in Batman Forever?  Harvey’s story in this film is the tragic fall of a good and upright man after the worst day of his life. He, in many ways, is just another victim of the Joker.

The Joker is a hard comic book character to get hold of.  He enjoys chaos and mayhem and murder for its own sake.  His motivations and what formed him into the criminal mastermind that he is today are two things that remain largely unknown (there’re various back stories, but they keep getting negated or overwritten with each new writing team and ‘vision’ for the Batman universe).  What we do know–he sees the Batman as his complement and opposite–the yin to his yang. He desires and thrives off the constant battle.  Why? there are theories.  Nothing established in the movie, or in comic canon firmly.  They’re like two mythical gods, cursed to battle each other until the end of time.

Heath Ledger’s Joker is fun and dark and quirky, all at the same time.  The Pencil Trick sets the tone for a psychotic nutjob funny man who may kill you and may not, it all depends on whether there’s humor in it or not.

The body count is high, and I can’t quite believe they got a PG-13 rating after the “pencil trick.” I can’t say this movie will be for everyone.  But if you like comics, action films, or are just looking to see what else they can possibly do with the too genres, check it out.

Summer programs for the teens were a marginally big hit. Not quite as big as the program for spring break, but the kids who came were pretty die-hard about it. They wanted it to continue twice a month starting in the fall.  Considering how much work Summer Reading was, having things prepared for every week, twice a month is going to be a stretch, but I’m going to try to accommodate.

We played the Wii, and the kids that didn’t want to do crafts did that for most of the time.  We also made some pretty cool things, like purses out of books, dazzling picture frames with blank pictures inside (pictures to follow, I promise!), painted little bugs and made bugs out of food.

As far as summer prizes went, books were not a big hit.  Metamorphosis mugs and t-shirts were, however.  I’m going to work next year on getting participation in the actual program up, but I figure getting kids into the library via programming is a good start.

What sort of stuff did your library do this summer?

Don’t you just want to go to this school?

Seriously.  It’ll be fun. You’ll like it.  Like that tetanus shot. That one time.

I don’t know. I’m at some weird point in my life where I’m questioning the purpose of education and our educational methods. As always, I’m interested in a dialog on the subject (conversation–not the funny Thompson-owned terminal program, thats just silly).

On a totally random note…what’re you reading? I’m working my way through The Maltese Falcon again (thinking of doing it for The Big Read), and I have Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell sitting on my desk.  I gave up on The Host by Stephanie Meyer…it just didn’t have that crack-like quality that the Twilight series does.

If you’re like me (and you’re probably not–you’re probably much more sensible), you see at least one movie a week in the theater between May and mid-August, and then nothing after that again until Christmas (Twilight movie in December, w00t!). So here’re my completely unwanted and unasked for thoughts:

Iron Man: Probably right up there with Batman Begins for greatest super hero movie of all-time, as far as I’m concerned. They got so much right from the comics: Tony’s likable detestability, the perpetual tension with Pepper, the sense of duty to the world, not just his home city… you name it, it was there.

Oh yeah, and if you stuck around long enough, a cameo by Nick Fury/Samuel L. Jackson. Any roll is made better by Samuel L. Jackson being in it. It helps that I’ve always heard SLJ in my head when reading comics from the Ultimate universe. BTW, if you’re not reading Ultimate anything, start

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — Oh man is Harrison Ford old! I know a lot of people didn’t like this for various reasons but I enjoyed it on the same level that I enjoyed Superman Returns. It does have that fan fiction or fan service quality to it. But I also think to a point, the vast majority of the Superman and IJ stories that can be told HAVE been told. “Family” life is about the only thing left. It’s sort of ironic. We look up to these characters to have the exciting lives we cannot, and in the end they are just like us.

The Incredible Hulk– I was surprised that Edward Norton was so perfect for the part of Bruce Banner. I was also surprised that they rebooted the origin story so soon after the last movie came out, and that they did it in about 30 seconds of flashback. That probably tells you how useless the first movie was, as far as an origin went, if you can reboot and retell in 30 seconds. Makes you wonder about the need studios have to do the 2.5 hr origin story for every superhero they throw up on the silver screen.

The Hulk looked more like the Hulk from the comics, there were moments that harkened back to the TV series (including a fantastic cameo by a very well-preserved Lou Ferringo), the classic and expected Stan Lee cameo, awesome fight scenes… you’ll overlook just how incompetent the military is made out to be. I mean, granted, he’s the Hulk. You can’t stop him. But really–they just created their own problems with that one.

Hulk and Iron Man seemed to keep it grounded and in reality until the last 30 min when they jumped right into the requisite “final showdown” with the super villian where they do enough property damage to get sued, locked up for endangering the public, and lose their life insurance policies. Not as big of a problem for Tony Stark, I’m sure. But every super hero movie seems to end this way, and I’m wondering if it’s possible for another ending to satisfy without being so stale.

Wall-e–Terribly cute. Most adorable movie I’ve seen in… forever. And ever. Granted there was some enormous social commentary about our modern lifestyles, both in regards to our own health, but in regards to how we treat our world. But OH MY GOSH was the love story adorable. And I am going to have Michael Crawford’s voice and Hello Dolly! Stuck in my head forever and ever.

Hancock-Going to see this tonight. Will report back with more thoughts you probably don’t want to hear.

The Dark Knight–Immensely looking forward to this. I’m a huge Batman fan and Nolan seems to have gotten this right. Who’d have guessed it’d take a bunch of Brits to bring everything good about a quintessentially American franchise successfully to film. It makes it almost possible for me to forget the whole Schumaker debacle. Almost. The rubber nipples on the batsuit will be burned in my nightmares forever.

Wanted–ok, I’ll probably see this because it’s a comic movie. It may wait till it comes out on DVD though. Even though I like Angelina Jolie in action flicks, even I have my limit for comic book silliness in the real world. Oh yeah, your dad’s a magical assassin. Or something.

Hellboy II–I enjoyed the first Hellboy. It was a fun superhero romp that didn’t take itself too seriously. I may see this when I need a pick-me-up or wait for the DVD. It’s not on my Must See list.

The Mummy III – This is on my “heck yeah” list of movies to see. It’s going to be mindless, probably pointless, but it’ll be a fun time at some point when my brain just cant take any more teaching or library-ing.

And so that’s about it for me! Another post at some point in the future about something remotely intelligent or interesting.

I’ve used Altered Art for two teen events and one adult event. The adults seemed interested in getting together to work on it regularly to work together and share techniques, and it’s a project I’m bound to recycle again at some point this summer for the teens.

First of all, it’s cheap. The primary investment has been in decoupage mix and Mod Podge. When we started getting really “advanced,” we also invested in felt, plastic gems and a bucket of scrap booking bits and bobs. Our only hold back has been getting people in the door. Once they sit down and try it, they like.

It’s also let us recycle a bunch of random stuff that you don’t have enough of for a project for a story time group for, not to mention get rid of a bunch of books that were headed for the dumpster anyways. Oh yeah, and sometimes it’s therapudic to rip through books. I know that sounds like anathama–librarians destroying books. But you’ll start to like it, you’ll see.

Here’s how I made the hat:

(The finished hat)

Construction materials:

Manilla folders for the rim

the lid of a cookie tin (you could probably use the tin part for the hat, but I wasn’t quite thinking far enough ahead)

Newspapers and encyclopedias

Mod Podge

Hair Spray

Chalk

Pearl tempera paints

Glitter

Steps:

First I actually constructed the hat. If you want to skip this step, you can use a plastic hat or something else that will hold decoupage and paper.

To construct the actual hat, I created the crown out of a strip of paper that fit around the head. I then glued several pieces of manila folder together to create the rim. I used the crown to create a large donut shape.  I found a cookie tin lid that would fit the crown to cover it. Then I fitted it together with duct tape.  Use a little, use a lot.

I then began covering everything with a layer of decoupage finish.  I suggest going over the duct tape portions at least twice, so that it’s covered with decoupage finish and the edges are sealed.

I then used the decoupage to put a layer of paper on the inside and the outside of the hat. Newsprint is thin enough and pliable enough that it works over those duct tape areas. If you have areas you need to smooth out, feel free to use another layer of newsprint.

Next, I used images and text I found from old torn up encyclopedias (pre-glossy pages).  Even though they were thick, they were old and pliable and very absorbent.  I fitted everything together collage-style.  Having the newsprint underneath helps, because if you have something that doesn’t quite match up, the print underneath will take up the space.  It also creates a bit of depth.  Everything was hand-torn.

After I had all the images I wanted, I coated everything again with decoupage finish to smooth out the corners and seal it.

Once this was done, I began painting with a dry brush.  I used one color on the edge of the rim and another near the crown and pulled the two colors together. I did the same thing with the crown and the top.

You’re asking yourself… what in the world are the stars, then, and the stuff around the edges?

The stuff around the edges are encyclopedia and newspaper pages that I tinted with chalk, then sprayed with hairspray so the chalk wouldn’t rub off on my fingers while I worked. I scrunched them into balls and glued them on with tacky glue.

Once the tacky glue was dry, I sealed everything with multiple layers of decoupage finish.

For the stars, they are also cut out of encyclopedia pages and tinted with orange chalk and sprayed.  I hand-drew the stars and cut them out, and afixed randomly.

Once all of this was done, I used various types of glitter suspended in glue to get the sparkle effect that you can’t really see in the photos.

After the glitter, I took lines that I liked from “The Stolen Child”, typed them up on colored paper, tore each line out, and fixed it to the hat.  I sealed the edges again and used a bit more glitter to make it match up.

The ribbon is a mesh streamer that I got from a friend’s baby shower. I used a purple marker to write the words of “The Stolen Child”, which produced a nice pattern on the ribbon.  This destroyed the marker, so make sure you have something under ribbon and a replacement marker.

Last, I tied it up, let it dry, then mailed it out to Vikki!

Another library in the state is sending around a few pairs of traveling pants to be decorated by the teens.  Anyone else out there done this?

I’m thinking of proposing the idea to the adults that’re meeting today and seeing if they want to decorate pants as well.

Sometimes I think dealing with adults possesses the same hit or miss quality as teens, as far as activities go.  They may find pipe cleaner animals fascinating (a HUGE hit at my story time for 127 kids yesterday) or they may be checking their watches and wondering when they can escape.

Oh, the mysteries of programming for people who are not 8 years old!

Likes: punkchooashun, spelink, grammarz, Neil Gaiman, graphic novels, Apples to Apples, vampires, babiez, kitties and fandom.

Dislikes: People who don’t know how to use a hard return, watches that stop at inopportune times, the idea that you can set out to write literature and stepping in doggie doo.

And I suppose that sums me up!

…

Or maybe I should get the street cred stuff out of the way.  I have a masters in library and information science from the University of Pittsburgh, a certificate in writing from University of Pittsburgh, a BFA in theater from DePaul University, and I am a public services librarian in addition to currently teaching communications at the University of Phoenix. Oh yeah, and I’ve been a freelance writer since two thousand-something-or other.

This blog’ll probably be a place to rant about LibraryThings(r). Because I think my family and friends are sick of hearing it.

Nutshell. Me.

That’s all for now!