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Events, Happenings, Movies, Music, Sport, Wellington
Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, 8-9 June
06.06.13 | Permalink | Comment?

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
Events, Happenings, Justin, Movies, Music, Wellington
Winging Your Way Through The Weekend
12.04.13 | Permalink | Comment?

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.

Whip It (the movie) Whip 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.
Movies, News
So many screen adaptations
18.03.13 | Permalink | Comment?

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!
Internet, Library Serf, Movies
Catching Fire Fashion Extra
12.03.13 | Permalink | Comment?

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.
Books, Grimm, Movies, Top 10
Top 10: Book related 2013 movies
07.01.13 | Permalink | Comment?
2013 should be another great year for movies. Rebecca and Rachel are looking forward to The Perks of Being a Wallflower (starring Emma Watson (Hermione) and also Nina Dobrev from The Vampire Diaries), which is one of many intriguing upcoming book-inspired films, like:
1. Catching Fire – November (book / IMDB page). New cast additions include Sam Claflin (who is Finnick, and from Snow White and the Huntsman) and Jenna Malone (Johanna).
2. Beautiful Creatures – February (book / IMDB page). Based on the book by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, in which Lena is the girl of Ethan’s dreams, literally. The film stars Alice Englert (trivia: she is the daughter of New Zealand director Jane Campion) and Alden Ehrenreich. They may soon become household names.
3. City of Bones – August (book / IMDB page). The first film, and the first book in the Mortal Instruments series, which, if you haven’t read it already and mean to, you should reserve now! Starring Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower and Godfrey Gao (as Magnus Bane).
4. Iron Man 3 – April (graphic novels / IMDB page). IMDB says that Stan Lee might put in an appearance. We shall see!
5. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – December (book / IMDB page). Poor Smaug.
6. Man of Steel – June (graphic novels / IMDB page). Starring Henry Cavill (Humphrey in Stardust, recommended recently by R and R – I agree, excellent sky pirate) and Russell Crowe as Jor-El (Amy Adams is Lois).
7. Ender’s Game – October (book / IMDB page). Based on the über-popular book by Orson Scott Card, in which Ender Wiggin, genetically engineered genius, is sent to an elite school to train to save the earth from invasion by a (very) malignant alien race. NCEA seems not too bad now. The film stars Asa Butterfield (from Hugo) and Abigail Breslin (My Sister’s Keeper) and Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit). They’re also Marvel comics.
8. The Great Gatsby – June (book / IMDB page). One of the 20th century’s enduring classics, written by F Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby hosts great parties, but that’s all most people know about him. When Nick moves in next door, he’s keen to uncover the mystery, but becoming part of Gatsby’s world may reveal a dark side. Carey Mulligan, Leonardo DiCaprio star alongside Isla Fisher, who used to be on Home and Away.
9. The Host – March (book / IMDB page). This is the other Stephenie Meyer novel, where she tries out Sci Fi. Wanderer (or Wanda for short) is an alien who inhabits bodies. When she’s given Melanie Stryder, she can’t quite take her over, and she’s drawn into Melanie’s world of free rebels fighting the alien invasion. Saorise Ronan is Wanda, and she’s also going to be busy in:
10. How I Live Now – release date TBA (book / IMDB page). In the award-winning book by Meg Rosoff, New Yorker Daisy is sent to live in the English countryside, which seems like a major adjustment but the sudden onset of World War III puts that in perspective as Daisy battles to survive and find her family.
Library Serf, Movies, News
Movie Adaptation News
18.09.12 | Permalink | Comment?

Turning novels into movies is the new black, and here are some YA novels that are getting the treatment:

Divergent, by Veronica Roth. It has been announced that the film will be released in March 2014. See here for more. No word on the title of the third book (commonly called Detergent).

The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater (today is its official publication day – this link here should take you to the first two chapters, courtesy of ew.com). This LA Times article here also says that the author’s book The Scorpio Races is going to become a film also. Maggie must be very happy.

Numbers, by Rachel Ward. The script for this is being written at the moment. Here’s a review of the book, about a girl who can see the date of a person’s death in their eyes.

The Changeover, by Margaret Mahy. Margaret Mahy’s New Zealand classic might get made, with a little help from American backers, according to TVNZ, and Stuff and others.
Library Serf, News
Some Miscellaneous News
31.08.12 | Permalink | Comment?
In time for the weekend.

Mermaids. Some people think that “mermaids are the new vampire”. We’re not sure (they said that about angels and werewolves and things), but here are a couple of articles that elaborate:
- - io9 on upcoming Mermaid novels
- - The Independent, taking up io9’s idea and running with it in music and fashion.
(Here are the mermaid books we’ve got in the library at the moment)

Movie castings. We hear that Magnus Bane has been cast and will be played by Godfrey Gao. This has been met with cheers from various parts of the virtual world, including Cassandra Clare’s blog (she says he’s the hottest man in the world), and others interested in casting multi-cultural characters, for example thinkprogress. On a similar subject, Finnick Odair was unveiled as Sam Claflin earlier this month (Entertainment Weekly talks about it here).

The Mortal Instruments on Facebook. Relatedly, the Facebook page for the City of Bones movie was launched on the 23rd of August. It promises photos (”production stills of the Mortal Instruments talent and crew”), so you can like it and keep up with the MI news.

Neil Gaiman: advance advance notification. Neil Gaiman announced earlier this month that his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, is due to be published in the middle of next year. So you’ve got about a year to speculate!
DVDs, Grimm, Movies
The Hunger Games are on DVD
17.08.12 | Permalink | Comment?
Let the games begin! The Hunger Games is released on DVD today, and we’ve got it! Right now, in fact. Reserve your copy (80 cents for one week on a young adult card) and it will wend its way to a reserve shelf at a library branch near you fairly shortly.

The 2 disc set contains extras including:
- Game Maker: Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games Phenomenon
- The World is Watching: Making The Hunger Games
- Letters From the Rose Garden
- Controlling the Games
- A Conversation with Gary Ross and Elvis Mitchell
- Propaganda Film
- Marketing Archive
We also have a superdeluxefantastic three disc set (in the general DVD collection, so $4.00 for one week) with extra extras:
- Stories from the Cornucopia
- Tribute Video Diaries
- Biographies
- Photo Album
Here’s the DVD trailer:

That is all.
Grimm, Movies
A Festival of Films
10.07.12 | Permalink | Comment?

Have you done the International Film Festival before? If not, then maybe this is the year! There’s a fabulous aray of films, including some cherry picked here:

From Up on Poppy Hill – if you’re a fan of Studio Ghibli then you might like to see their latest on the big screen at the Embassy. To get prepared, you could also do a Studio Ghibli retrospective, including My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle.

Lore – this is based on one of the stories in The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert, in which Lore and her brothers and sisters travel 900 kilometres across post-war Germany to safety (they hope) in Hamburg.

I Wish – set in Japan, where Koichi’s family is disrupted by the separation of his parents, and he finds himself at opposite ends of the country to his brother Ryu. Koichi believes there’s magic in the new bullet train service that might reunite them (and so a plan is hatched!).

Farewell, My Queen – the last days of Marie-Antoinette (as opposed to the first days, as in the movie Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst). This is also based on the novel (same name) by Chantal Thomas.

There are many many more! Have a look at the website for more (or come into a library and pick up a brochure).

You can also keep up to date with new DVDs added to the library’s collection with this RSS feed here.
Fashion Friday, Le Chic Librarian
Fashion Friday
01.06.12 | Permalink | Comment?

1920s style is a recurring trend in fashion. It was a very stylish decade after all, one that gave birth to Coco Chanel and modern fashion as we know it. Literature from that period has always helped set the scene for designers and none more so than the classic novel by F. Scott. Fitzgerald, ‘The Great Gatsby’.

(Elle France – Fashion gone Rogue)

The Great Gatsby is about to enjoy yet another resurgence with the release (much) later ths year of Baz Luhman’s 3D-movie-extravaganza interpretation of the book. The anticipation of the movie has already inspired the latest rounds of 1920s trends – you have been warned. Here’s the trailer below to get you hooked.