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Reading, Wellington, and whatever else – teenblog@wcl.govt.nz

Category: movies (they’re like books that move!) Page 2 of 9

New DVDs in the YA collection

This week I thought I would highlight a few of the newest DVDs we’ve received in the past few months. With your young adult library card you can reserve any of these movies for free, and there is just an 80c fee per DVD issue. Let us know if there are any you’re looking forward to, or have seen and liked!

Divergent

Cover from amazon.comIn a world where people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues, Tris Prior is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group. When she discovers a conspiracy by a faction leader to destroy all Divergents, Tris must learn to trust in the mysterious Four and together they must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it’s too late. (Syndetics summary)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro

Peter Parker finds a clue that might help him understand why his parents disappeared when he was young. His path puts him on a collision course with Dr. Curt Connors, his father’s former partner. (Syndetics summary)

Vampire Academy

Cover from amazon.comRose Hathaway is a half-human and half-vampire, who is training to be a guardian at St. Vladimir’s Academy. Her best friend, Princess Lissa Dragomir is a peaceful, mortal vampire. After ditching school and being on the run for a year, Rose and Lissa are caught and brought back to the Academy. Lissa struggles to reclaim her social status while Rose risks everything in an attempt to protect her best friend from the immortal, evil vampires that lurk just outside the walls of the school. (Syndetics summary)

Pretty Little Liars Season 4

In the aftermath of the mysterious lodge fire, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer turn to a surprising new ally to help them discover what happened that night, and to figure out Red Coat’s next move. The girls are drawn into yet another murder investigation, one that puts a cloud of suspicion around them and their closest friends and family. With Red Coat lurking in the shadows and the truth about Alison closer than ever, finishing high school has never been more dangerous! (Syndetics summary)

Star Wars trilogies: Original and prequel

Lastly, we got new box sets of the original trilogy and the later-made prequel Star Wars trilogy. If you haven’t seen these before, or you just want to revisit some classics, check them out here for a marathon viewing!

Mahou shoujo Part 2

Since mahou shoujo is a whole subgenre of anime and manga I thought I had better tell you about our super collection of manga and anime that we have in our libraries! Did you even know we had them in the collection? I’ve chosen a few “magical girl” themed anime and manga for you all to check out that you may or may not be familiar with already.

(In case you didn’t know, manga are comics you read and anime are cartoons you watch.)

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsPretty Guardian Sailor Moon (manga)

If you grew up in the 90s like me, you’d probably be pretty familiar with Sailor Moon. Usagi Tsukino (Serena) is a regular girl, until she discovers she is sailor senshi Sailor Moon. Together with the other sailor scouts, handsome Tuxedo Mask and two mystical beings that appear to be sentient stuffed cats, Sailor Moon must stop the evil Queen Beryl from taking over the world.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsCardcaptor Sakura (manga)

This is one of my absolute favourites! Ten year old Sakura accidentally releases a magical set of cards called the Clow Cards, and is enlisted by the guardian of the cards to capture them again. Each card has a special ability and some cards require some serious puzzle-solving to capture. It is written and illustrated by popular manga group Clamp, and it has absolutely beautiful illustrations throughout.

My-Z-HiMe (anime)

This story takes place in the distant future on the planet Earl, colonized by immigrants from Earth centuries ago. Certain girls and women aspire to be Meister Otomes – bodyguards, attendants and warriors that serve the royalty of various kingdoms. Arika Yumemiya has come to Windbloom Kingdom in search of her mother, a former Otome. Arika enrols at Garderobe Academy to train to be an Otome herself, but she must beware those who desire to use the old technologies of the Otome for destructive powers.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsAlice 19th (manga)

Alice Seno is a 15-year-old girl, constantly living in the shadow of her seemingly perfect older sister Mayura. One day Alice rescues a white rabbit from the road, but it is no ordinary rabbit. It reveals its true form and informs Alice she is destined to be a Lotis Master – someone who uses the power of words and communication to enter the Inner Heart of others. Alice soon discovers this is a powerful ability which must be used carefully when she accidentally makes her older sister disappear. Using the power of the Lotis Runes, Alice must get Mayura back.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsFull Moon o Sagashite (manga)

Twelve-year-old Mitsuki Koyama loves singing and dreams of becoming a pop star. Unfortunately, a malignant tumor in her throat prevents her from pursuing her passion. However, her life turns around when two surprisingly fun-loving harbingers of death appear to grant Mitsuki a temporary reprieve from her illness and give her singing career a magical push start. (library catalogue)

New Zealand International Film Festival 2014 Trailer Tuesday

The Wellington NZIFF programme launched a couple of weeks ago and there are so many to choose from – nearly 150 films are in the programme so it is absolutely chocka. Having given it some thought, I’ve picked out some I think will be hits! Check out my list and let me know what you’re excited for in the comments!

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (3D)

From the director of Amelie comes a tale of a prodigious young inventor of completely zany and fascinating products. His perpetual motion machine comes to the attention of the Smithsonian institute and they invite T.S. to Washington, unaware he is just 10 years old. Determined to respond to the invitation, T.S. sets out alone one night on a cross-country adventure to collect his reward for his brilliance.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

The newest film from Studio Ghibli (The Wind Rises) and eight years in the making, Princess Kaguya is a retelling of a traditional Japanese folk tale. A humble bamboo-cutter stumbles upon a tiny princess-like doll hidden in a bamboo shoot. He takes it home, and he and his wife are shocked when the doll turns into a wailing baby. When gifts of gold and silks continue to appear, the bamboo-cutter and his wife decide to abandon their humble lifestyle to raise the girl as a proper princess.

We Are The Best!

We Are The Best! is the story of 3 young misfits growing up in Stockholm, Sweden in the 1980s. Klara and Bobo are 13-year-old rebels looking for a cause. Despite having no particular musical talents, they channel their efforts into forming an all-girl punk band and enlist their shy, guitar-playing classmate Hedvig to join them. The story is based on a graphic novel by the director’s wife Coco Moodysson and fully embodies the DIY spirit of the punk movement.

Patema Inverted

Another exciting anime film, Patema Inverted is the story of young and inquisitive Patema who lives in a post-disaster underground world. While exploring one day she falls into a deep pit, but mysteriously finds herself falling upward to the Earth’s surface. However it is an upside-down surface – surface dwellers live by the opposite gravity to Patema. She is helped by a surface boy called Age, who explains that in his world “inverted” people like Patema are considered unholy sinners and she soon finds herself being pursued by secret police. Together Age and Patema must uncover the dark conspiracy lurking behind their inverted worlds.

Particle Fever

This is a documentary about the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and the first proton-smashing experiments conducted there. It also follows closely the thrilling search for the Higgs boson, the particle that gives mass to other particles. It is a fascinating insight into the world of physics and discovering our own universe and looks to be extremely exciting!

The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness

This documentary follows Hayao Miyazaki and visits Studio Ghibli, which in itself looks like a Miyazaki movie. Miyazaki is working on his allegedly final film The Wind Rises, working by hand in a cluttered workspace filled with old technologies. Meanwhile, Ghibli’s other maestro Takahata Isao is working on Princess Kaguya (see above) across town in a completely different working environment. Ghibli producer and co-founder Suzuki Toshio shuttles between the two, managing their differing approaches with love and appreciation for the different challenges each film faces.

Nik’s picks : Best of the Bard (retold) edition

Shakespeare is taught in most college classes these days; whether you think this is a bad or good thing depends on you! I’m a fan, but I get tired of the same-old same-old productions and books. So here are a few of my favourite Shakespeare related books, websites and DVDs, to make your experience of the great man that much more interesting. I think this post is going to get a lot of flack from English teachers and Shakespeare purists everywhere, but I’m of the opinion that stuff like this should be enjoyable and accessible. I’m sure the Bard would have wanted it that way.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsTo be or not to be: a chooseable path adventure, by Ryan North, Shakespeare, and you!

This is unquestionably one of my favourite things to come into the YA collection in a while. I have fond memories of choose-your-own adventure books from my childhood, even though I always ended up dying! That’s an option in this book but the great thing is, you can always start again. Especially if you start out as Hamlet Senior…well, that’s not a spoiler. After all, I think the statue of limitations on spoiler warnings runs out after 415 years. Anyway, you can start the game as the aforementioned (deceased) King of Denmark, Ophelia or Hamlet himself. After that, it’s up to you. It’s written more like a YA novel than in prose, and the possible endings get pretty wacky. Added to this are the amazing illustrators; there are too many to namecheck all of them but Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant), Randall Munroe (XKCD) and Faith Erin Hicks (Friends with Boys, Nothing Possibly can go wrong) all contribute. What I find particularly awesome is that this book is the result of a kickstarter campaign: crowd funding for the win! A necessary disclaimer: I wouldn’t recommend using this to write your NCEA essays.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsHamlet: a novel, John Marsden

This book takes a rather more serious look at Hamlet. It keeps fairly close to the original story, but manages to convey the inner emotions of those entangled in the story. Retellings of Hamlet are by far the most popular among YA writers, but I think this one’s the best. The language is fresh and the pace makes the looming disaster all the more tragic. It also doesn’t try to force a happy ending on the characters, which I’ve always find a bit jarring, especially in books that aim to be taken seriously.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsLady Macbeth’s daughter, Lisa Klein

In the text of Macbeth, it is revealed that lady Macbeth has been pregnant before; but this is only mentioned once, and Macbeth’s lack of children plays a central role in the plot of the play. In this novel, Lisa Klein imagines what the life of such a child – a daughter, who is cast out by Macbeth – would be like. The historic Lady Macbeth also had a son, by her first husband, but is Lady Macbeth and Albia, her lost daughter, who tell the story in alternating chapters. The writer says she set out to give “an entirely new perspective on the events of Shakespeare’s play, using a protagonist who is outside the main action but crucial to its unfolding.” She more than succeeds, and manages to incorporate historical facts into the narrative fairly seamlessly, which keeps the book from seeming too fanciful.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsThe most excellent and lamentable tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare and illustrated by Gareth Hinds

This is the only book included in this blog post which takes its text entirely from the play, although it’s somewhat abridged. What sets it apart from the other graphic adaptations is its attention to detail; the artist, in his postscript, has taken actual features from Verona and uses them in backgrounds in his lavish illustrations. He does admit that he’s moved various places around for aesthetic purposes, but it doesn’t really affect the sense of a real Renaissance city. Gareth Hinds also tries to “fix” parts of the text that are often portrayed incorrectly in the staging.

Shakespeare retold DVD series

There are plenty of “pure” adaptaions out there but sometimes it can be a struggle to get through all that prose. These modern adaptations are a whole lot of fun. They feature some of the best actors England has to offer having a great time chewing the scenery and taking a break from having to memorise 16th century lines. Again, I wouldn’t recommend using these to help write your essay, but I’m a big believer in enjoying Shakespeare because it’s fun, rather than because you have to study it in class. My favourites are Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer night’s dream.

10 things I hate about you

I remember when this film first came out, which, given that this was 15 years ago, is going to date me a bit. I didn’t realise that this was based off Taming of the Shrew until a while later though! It’s considered a classic, and for good reason. Even though the fashion is slightly dated, the movie still holds up: Heath Ledger, in his break-out role, has great chemistry with Julia Stiles, who’s equally impressive as Kat. It’s full of quotable dialogue and great acting, and conveys what it’s like to be young, cynical and in love in college. Well, as far as I can remember, anyway.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead

This is a classic adaptation of an extraordinary play. It concerns the lives of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, two fairly minor characters in Hamlet. There are chunks of the actual play, but for the most part it’s in modern language. It deals with fate, the nature of theatre and performance, and various philosophical problems. It might sound a bit dry, but it’s extremely funny and features some of the best actors working today.

Over on the Tumblr: New Mockingjay trailer!

Yes, the first trailer for Mockingjay Part 1 has appeared, guest-starring on the library tumblr. Note also the truly amazing print ads for each district – you can see them on the official Capitol website.

#TheFaultInOurStars Giveaway


To celebrate the cinematic release of the much anticipated film adaptation of John Green’s celebrated book Wellington City Libraries in association with 20th Century Fox New Zealand are giving away 10 double passes to The Fault In Our Stars. To enter click here.

Hazel and Gus are two extraordinary teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them – and us – on an unforgettable journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous, given that they met and fell in love at a cancer support group. The Fault In Our Stars, based upon the number-one bestselling novel by John Green, explores the funny, thrilling and tragic business of being alive and in love.

John Green is the bestselling author of many titles including Looking For Alaska, An Abundance Of Katherines, and Paper Towns.

TFIOS is nearly here!

The wait is nearly over!! The Fault In Our Stars movie comes out on Thursday! That’s just TWO DAYS away! And we even get it before the USA does. Time differences rule sometimes. I’ve collected together some TFIOS facts for all you excited people out there across the interwebs – have you got anything interesting to add to this list?

1. John Green was trying to get an international release date for TFIOS so that all his fans would be able to see it at the same time. It kind of worked – NZ, Australia and the Netherlands are the first to be able to see it on June 5th, it comes out in the USA on June 6th and the UK gets in on June 19th. Amazingly we are one of the first to see it instead of having to wait a few months after the USA release!

2. The TFIOS trailer had over 3 million views on it just 24 hours after it was released.

3. Shailene Woodley (Hazel) and Ansel Elgort (Gus) already appeared in the Divergent movie together earlier this year, and in it they played siblings. Hmm.

4. TFIOS is the 4th solo novel by John Green.

5. John and his brother Hank run a Youtube channel called vlogbrothers where they upload videos three times a week.

6. John Green took the time to cast all the character of TFIOS as US presidents.

And just in case you forgot, here’s the trailer again:

Aaaaaand the special extended trailer as well:

So who’s coming to the see it with me on Thursday? Or do I have to go and bawl my eyes out in the cinema alone? Let us know your thoughts on the movie down in the comments!

Recent DVD releases

We have some really awesome films in the library collection, and a bunch of these sit right among our very own YA section. There are comedies, mysteries, sci-fis and award winners all tucked away amongst the stacks. Here are my picks of our newest additions to the shelves:

From Up On Poppy Hill
This is one of the newest DVDs we have from Studio Ghibli, who have brought us so many other amazing films such as Howl’s Moving Castle, The Cat Returns and Spirited Away. From Up On Poppy Hill is set in Japan, 1963. Umi is a high school girl living in a boarding house. She meets Shun, a member of the school’s newspaper club and together they decide to clean up the club’s vast and sprawling clubhouse. However Tokumaru, a businessman as well as the high school chairman intends to tear down the clubhouse for redevelopment. Umi and Shun must work together to convince Tokumaru that the clubhouse should remain standing.

The Bling Ring
Based on the Vanity Fair article titled “The Suspects Wore Loboutins” The Bling Ring follows a group of Hollywood Hills teens who are mostly rich and all bored. One night they discover Paris Hilton is on the other side of the country partying so they figure they could break into her home, because why not? They find that it’s not exactly hard to get inside and they steal countless items from a slew of celebrities, whose wealth and possessions are so vast they don’t even notice things are missing for several weeks. The ring can only keep up the game for so long before they are caught though, and the defence statements of the teens after they’re arrested are pretty hilarious (and accurate, taken from police records!). Well worth the watch from the directorial wonder Sofia Coppolla, not to mention it has a killer soundtrack.

Legend of Korra Book One: Air
If you’ve seen the original Avatar series (nothing to do with blue people) then you’ve got to see Korra. If you haven’t seen the original, it doesn’t matter, you’ve got to see Korra anyway. Among water-, earth-, fire- and air-benders, the Avatar is the only one who can master all four elements and keep peace with the world. Korra is the successor to Aang, the Avatar from the previous series of the show. In Korra, technology has progressed to a steampunk-like level of technology, drawing inspirations from metropolitan cities of the 1920s. Korra is still coming to terms with her Avatar responsibilities, and travels into the city to live and train with a master waterbender. But everything is not as peaceful as it first appears in the city, and Korra faces an enemy in the Equalist movement leader Amon. Amon plans to rid the world of elemental bending powers forever, and it’s up to Korra to stop him!

Paranorman
From the same animation company that brought us button-eyed Coraline comes Paranorman. Norman loves ghosts, ghouls, mummies, monsters and just about anything scary that lives under your bed. His schoolmates and even his family make him feel like an outsider for his interests, but when he awakens a ghoul from a long hibernation, Norman’s supernatural know-how could be the key to defeating the curse dispelled by the ancient ghost.

Pacific Rim
I name this the action movie of 2013! And in a year full of them, that’s high praise. It’s the near future and Earth is being attacked again and again from an interdimensional portal in the center of the planet by huge dinosaur-like monsters called kaiju. The current defence involves giant humanoid kaiju-punching mecha robots, each piloted by a team of two people. Raleigh Beckett is a washed-up Jaeger pilot, called out of retirement to team up with rookie Jaeger pilot Mako Mori in a last ditch attempt to overcome the kaiju attacks. Pacific Rim is full of cool martial arts, robots punching giant dinosaurs and amazing robot CGI that Transformers could only dream of. This is one of my picks of the whole year of 2013 so I hope you like it!

The Wind Rises this weekend

Weekend newsflash: The latest film from Studio Ghibli (and the last film directed by Hayao Miyazaki before his retirement!) is showing this Sunday at the Embassy cinema! It’s called The Wind Rises and it tells the story of Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed Japanese fighter planes during World War II. Check out the trailer below and book your tickets over at the Embassy website.

More Divergent countdown trivia

In anticipation of the Divergent movie coming out, there’s also the Divergent soundtrack to look forward to. It’s available a couple of weeks before the movie, and the tracklisting is:

1 ‘Find you’, Zedd, ft. Matthew Koma and Miriam Bryant
2 ‘Beating Heart’, Ellie Goulding
3 ‘Fight for You’, Pia Mia, ft. Chance the Rapper
4 ‘Hanging On’ (I See MONSTAS remix), Ellie Goulding
5 ‘I Won’t Let You Go’, Snow Patrol
6 ‘Run Boy Run’, Woodkid
7 ‘Backwards’, Tame Impala and Kendrick Lamar
8 ‘I need you’, M83
9 ‘In Distress’, A$AP Rocky, ft. Gesaffelstein
10 ‘Lost and Found’ (ODESZA remix), Pretty Lights
11 ‘Stranger’, Skrillex, ft. KillaGraham From Milo & Otis & Sam Dew
12 ‘Dream machines’, Big Deal
13 ‘Dead in the water’, Ellie Goulding

The big winner is Ellie Goulding!

We will be getting this! We have other movie soundtracks in the Young Adult collection also: The Great Gatsby, Catching Fire, City of Bones, Avengers, Glee (lots of Glee, lots and lots of Glee) and much more.

Trailer Tuesday: Shailene Woodley edition

I LOVE Shailene Woodley. I think she’s a fantastic actress and has a great career ahead of her! She was great in The Descendants alongside legendary George Clooney, and she did a fantastic job in The Spectacular Now which screened at the Wellington leg of the NZ International Film Festival in August last year. We have the book of The Spectacular Now if you’re interested, and here is the trailer for the film:

No word on the DVD release date, but late February to March is rumoured. Stay tuned!

Shailene is a popular leading lady, playing Tris and Hazel in the upcoming Divergent and The Fault In Our Stars movies. Phew! Here are the latest trailers for each of those – first, Divergent (which we are super excited about!)

And The Fault In Our Stars – this one will definitely be a tear jerker. You may have seen we already posted this to our Facebook page, but if you didn’t know that – we have a Facebook page! Check it out for library updates and other cool book- and movie-related links.

What are you looking forward to most?

Books Into Movies, 2014 Edition

Tomorrow it will be three weeks until the opening of Catching Fire. We can’t wait! On the subject of turning a popular book into a (hopefully popular) movie, here are some in production in Hollywood:

Vampire Academy, book (and series) by Richelle Mead.  The film is set to star Zoey Deutch (Beautiful Creatures) and Sarah Hyland (from Modern Family) in March next year. Movie info is here. The trailer’s here.

Fallen, book by Lauren Kate. Fallen was one of our most borrowed fiction titles back in 2010, so it’s been a while coming! There’s not much info on IMDb yet, but watch this space.

The Giver, book by Lois Lowry. The Giver was first published in 1993, a long time before dystopian novels were the it thing. The series has been growing slowly: Son was published last year. The film stars Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood), Taylor Swift (yes that Taylor Swift) and Katie Holmes. Slightly more information is here

If I Stay, book by Gayle Forman. What a wrench the movie will be, if the book’s anything to go by!  It stars Chloe Grace Moretz. IMDb info here

These are just the additions to the ones we reported on in March. Other more rumour-ish movies include Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, Heist Society by Ally Carter, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness… the list is very long; we’re wondering if there are any script writers writing from scratch? And are movies ever better than the book?

Winter Blues

It’s more than officially winter! Which to us means curling up under a lot of blankets (preferably with a fire or other such heat source nearby) with some movies* to while away those cold, rainy days.

*note: this also works with a good book, but for now, here are our movie picks:

The Adventures of Tintin : the secret of the Unicorn
Part-animation, part-live-action, part Spielberg, part Peter Jackson. How could you not?

An Angel at my Table
Directed by the genius Jane Campion, this is in my list of top ten films of all time. It will make you laugh, it will make you marvel at our little country and it will break your heart. Janet Frame is one of our greatest writers and (fittingly) this is one of our greatest films to tell her story.

Charlie’s Angels
Three ladies kicking butt and taking names. That never gets old.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1 (and part 2)
Because why not. Why not spend your holidays re-reading all seven books and then re-watching all eight movies. We guarantee they’re just as good as the last time you did it.

The Hunger Games
In preparation for the hotly anticipated release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire perhaps? Mark it on your calendars, it comes out in New Zealand on the 21st of November.

I Am Number Four
Oh, Alex Pettyfer. Need we say more. And sadly, it doesn’t look like the rest of the series will make it to the big screen.

Kaitangata Twitch
Because Margaret Mahy needs to be included in as many lists of recomendations as possible.

Mythbusters
Need some science project ideas? Just want to watch people blow stuff up? Good thing we have a whopping NINE seasons of the hit show here at the library.

Pitch Perfect
Absolute favourite movie of 2013.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
See where Baz Luhrmann’s magic began. We recommend you follow up with Moulin Rouge, Strictly ballroom and The Great Gatsby.

WinterBlues!

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, 8-9 June

What up! Another weekend looms and here’s some sweet stuff to do with it.

No doubt you’ve heard about The Great Gatsby (a lot) by now, it feels like they’ve been building hype for eternity. It’s finally here and it looks pretty suave! (Rated M)

But did you know it was a book first? Sure was, it’s an American Classic by one great F. Scott Fitzgerald. Also, it’s not The GG’s first dance across the silver screen.

Matariki 2013 celebrations start up in Poneke with the arrival of waka Te Matau a Maui. There’s a calender load of events to keep you busy over the next few weeks of the Maori new year celebration.

Sporty peepz!  The Championship Tournament of the Woman’s Basketball League is at Te Rauparaha Arena over at neighb’s Porirua. Maori ball game Ki o Rahi will have a Matariki special in Waitangi Park from 6pm Friday night (brought to you by body R2R).

The other big thing this weekend is our (Wellington’s) Jazz Festival. Before you scoff take note, Jazz is the original bad boy of music. You can thank it for paving the way to all our modern jams and the term “hipster”. Appreciate. There is a caps worthy TONNE of events going down for it. One pretty special looking one is the pop up jams planned for the city streets Friday and Saturday – keep your eyes peeled.

Shakespeare fans beware this Globe On Screen viewing at Lighthouse Cinema (a nice follow up to the recent Sheila Winn festivities).

Feeling exhausted yet?

Here’s a diddy for the weekend playlist. Lorde’s most recent ‘Tennis Court’. Peace!
Tennis Court by LordeMusic

Winging Your Way Way Through The Weekend, 1-2 June

Kia ora folks!

Wintry splendour is raining down on us with things to do this weekend. It’s a pretty special one because we get one more day than usual – sweet! It’s the Queens Birthday (but not really, her real birthday’s in April. We’re just kind minions and let her have two). One way you could spend your extra day off is revelling in the glory of our monarch or you could do some of these things:

Te Papa re-opens the Visa Platinum Gallery with an Andy Warhol exhibit. “Warhol: Immortal” celebrates Mr. Pop Art himself. He did all sorts of really great things and liked Campbells Soup too. Not to be confused with The Dandy Warhols.

Geeks unite! The closest thing to a Comic-Con on our shores, Armageddon, visits Wellington for the first time this year.

Less Dance Dance Revolution more… real dance? Stage Challenge/J-Rock hit Wellington (starting tonight).

Another Film Festival is in town. Out Takes with the pun-tastic byline, “reel queer film festival” is screening a few choice youth flicks.

Maybe you’re one of the fine few who aren’t having a “weekend” and are instead working it away? Here’s an endgame for those hard earned pingers – they’re building Springfield!

To end NZ Music Month Shapeshifter release “Delta” just in time for the weekend playlist.

Later!

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, 11-12 May

Brr! What a week. Floods, a (very tiny) earthquake and although the great day star showered us in splendour the mercury hasn’t climbed very high. It’s probably safer indoors with weekend warmers. We’re going for a blog in two halves today Wellington’s what’s on closely followed by a continuation of last weeks NZ music scrape over.

The New Zealand International Comedy Festival is in its final weeks and the hilarious “The Boy With Tape On His Face” performs in Downstage Theatre Friday night. 
 
Our friendly neighbours Lower Hutt have some sweet badge making going down for Youth Week at The Dowse Gallery if you’d like to pimp your bag, hat or jacket for free. Here’s a full run down of Youth Week events in the region.
 
Want to get inside a navy ship and see what goes down? HMNZS Wellington will be open up for your viewing pleasure on Queens Wharf this Saturday. Don’t forget the sea legs.

There’s also a fascinating film festival in town this weekend. Documentary Edge Festival 2013 has all sorts of interesting offerings including Only The Young a study in youth and coming of age. 
This week we’ll take a look at the “naughties” (2000-2009) for the weekend playlist. At times you could’ve been forgiven for thinking that music had taken a turn for the worst this decade. International offerings like Axel F’s totem to annoyance Crazy Frog weasled themselves to number one. Reality superstar competitions started to change the face of how musicians are made (you web-savvy folk may’ve already encountered Dave Grohl’s thoughts about these competitions via meme). Here in New Zealand we had a go. Yes we did. New Zealand Idol delivered us (briefly) Ben Lummis and Michael Murphy, we also got Stan ‘yous’ Walker through Aussie Idol. The decade had gems, don’t get me wrong. The star of the decade was a (then) young rapper from Christchurch, Scribe. He dominated 2003’s charts with his debut single Stand Up. Hip Hop/R&B were the champion genres across the airwaves with acts like Savage (with Swing), Dei Hamo (We Gon’ Ride), swaggy Dane Rumble in his past life act Misfits Of Science, Nesian Mystik, P-Money (who has some new stuff too!) and Smashproof. Our other genres did well with Fur Patrol, Goodshirt, Atlas, Tiki Taane & company keeping the singles chart kiwi. Some other favourites include Stellar*, Zed, Salmonella Dub, Che Fu, The Datsuns, Fat Freddy’s Drop and Anika Moa. Many of these artists albums are still lingering in our CD collection, if any take your fancy have a dig through their discographies.
 
Here’s a kiwi music video treasure from the decade to take us out, cue Kora and their EPIC anime video for Skankenstein.

Catching Fire trailer!

Is out, and it looks gripping!

Don’t forget to read the book: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend

Highlights this week; term time’s almost up, we’re seven days into having brought the sun forward for winter and apparently the rain’s coming back for a visit. Enough small talk though, here’s this week’s ender-entry to give you a two day break from the school work.

If you’re an adventurous titan, and like to work alliteratively, here are some things to do on Saturday – that start with ‘S’:

Skating takes over the waterfront in two forms. The Richter City roller derby season kicks off on Saturday night at the TSB arena in a home season battle between Smash Malice and Comic Slams. For a quick scrub-up on the ins and outs of the game look no further than Y/A novel Whip It and its sister movie starring Ellen Page.

Real Groovy linkWhip It (the movie) Image Courtesy SyndeticsWhip It (the book)

Still keen on skating but not so sure about all the aggression – why not try your hands, or feet – or feet then hands, on the ice? The ice rink is in full operation on Queens wharf just a short hop from the TSB. For our older readers Blades Of Glory might be a quick introduction on how not to act on the ice but for some pointers and to figure out if you can make a career out of it why not check out some of our literature?

Okay, okay enough with the skates. I wouldn’t leap into the water at the moment on account of its chill factor but one way you could get some surfing in is by checking it this sweet free free flick by Alex Monteith at The Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt.

And here’s a quick weekly musical digest to help shape your weekend playlist:

Pete Wentz’s Fall Out Boy graced our shores this week on the back of their latest album drop.
Kiwi band Tahuna Breaks are in town this weekend for their Shadow Lights album release tour and are currently sitting near the top of the NZ album charts.

Ever wondered how animals eat their food? Here’s this weeks viral vid’ – courtesy Mister Epic Mann;

Fowler out.

So many screen adaptations

YA fiction is very popular with movie makers. In more based-on-the-book movie news:

The Maze Runner (book by James Dashner) is currently being cast, but they’ve not done the big leads (Thomas, really) yet.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (book by Laini Taylor) is going to be a movie! This could take a while to appear on the screen, because they’ve only just announced who’s writing the script.

The Fault in our Stars (book by John Green) is also going to be a movie!! John Green fans will be very happy to hear this. Casting is in the “rumours” phase, so it could be a while before you can buy tickets, but it’s something to look forward to! (Also, how sad will this movie be?)

Delirium (book by Lauren Oliver) is – a little differently – going to be made for TV. I’m not sure if this means series, mini series, or TV movie, but it’s getting a cast, including Daren Kagasoff (from The Secret Life of the American Teenager).

Divergent (book by Veronica Roth) is also being cast, with Kate Winslett, Zoe Kravitz, and Shailene Woodley as Tris. (Shailene Woodley is also in rumours about The Fault in our Stars, busy.) Still no news on the title of the third book in the series (sorry).

On the Jellicoe Road (book by Melina Marchetta) has a script but no cast (we think). Still, this is progress! The author’s blog has occasional news updates, for interested readers. She announced at the end of last year that Saving Francesca is also getting the film treatment. Too much!

It is hard to keep up!

Catching Fire Fashion Extra

We at the teen blog like fiction and fashion, so when you put them together you get a winner. We do love the Catching Fire couture photos that have cropped up recently. Even the chairs are awesome. Finnick looks piratical (<3 the word piratical, any excuse to use it), and we’re not sure whose dress is better, Johanna’s or Katniss’ (which looks like it’s part-weapon). Stuff informs us that Effie is wearing Alexander McQueen. Here’s Perez Hilton on the topic.

Also, make sure you re-read the book while you wait for the first teaser trailer. The movie website (complete with impressive flaming logo) is here.

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