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Teen Blog

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

Month: May 2009 Page 1 of 2

More Tunes Y’all

Three new CDs this week. You know where to go if you want to hear them; the library! And as always they are free to issue on your YA cards. Aren’t we kind?

41rqtpbx5ql__sl160_aa115_3OH!3 deal in jokey electro-crunk chock full of tongue-in-cheek gangsterisms. Their album is titled Want and if you want (my tired attempt at punnery) some silliness in your ears, they will provide.

Return Of The Mack II serves up more classic R&B jams, in fact it says so right on the cover. Included on the 18 track comp are folks like Aaliyah, Coolio and The Fugees.

New Zealand Music Month may be drawing to a close, but there’s still time to slip a new compilation  in isn’t there? There is? Oh good. Check out Ultimate Weekend Sessions, spread generously over its two discs are a whole bunch of local dub/R&B/hip hop tunes by Trinity Roots, Rhombus, Katchafire and all the other usual suspects.

Welcome to the Astrodome

From Tuesday the 9th to Saturday 13th June the YA area at Central Library will be transformed into a planetarium as it hosts the NightVisionz Cosmodome. Using a digital audio visual show to simulate the stars and a dome large enough to take 30 people inside at a time, visitors will be able to boldly journey through the night sky and learn about Matariki and other constellations with astronomer Ron Fisher.

The Cosmodome is a great experience for children, teens, and adults alike and will be open to the public from 4-8pm from the Tuesday to Friday and 10am-4pm on the Saturday. Entry is by gold coin donation and sessions are on the half hour – people just need to turn up.

Read more about it at our astronomy blog (I write some of the posts there!) The astrodome/planetarium/cosmodome looks like a large, inflatable, and blue igloo.

Make an ad

and win 3,000 bucks!

The Buy NZ Made Campaign is running a Video Ad Competition to raise awareness for buying NZ Made products and to provide base material for members to use to advertise their NZ made products. Entrants are being asked to submit a 15, 30 or 45 second advert about buying NZ Made and will need to upload their videos onto the Buy NZ Made Channel on the website Youtube. The most viewed video on Youtube between 1st June and 31st August 2009 will win a $500 prize. For the overall competition the ads will be judged with a first prize of $3000, second prize $1500 and a third prize of $500.  For more information on the competition please visit the purpose-built website.

Bunch of links

Is zombie fiction the new vampire fiction? Zombies rise in teen lit. (Read our interview with Amanda Ashby, author of The Zombie Queen of Newbury High.)

Two mothers spend US$28,000 to get Twilight star Robert Pattinson to kiss their daughters. (You can also pay to be taken on a tour of the film set in Vancouver, Canada: “Twilight fans don’t have to schlep all the way out to New Zealand for their fan fix.” Hah.) There are some exclusive pictures from New Moon here.

Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro discuss their plans for the forthcoming films of The Hobbit. (Del Toro is in Wellington, and was recently interviewed by Stuff.)

Could a virtual racing champion be turned into a real-life racing champion? Well?

Chase cryptids via CryptoZoo. The game’s creator was inspired by freerunners in Wellington (you can even see the library). We’re famous!

Double O seven

The YA DVD collection will soon be somewhat expanded by the addition of almost all (maybe all; I’m too lazy to confirm) the James Bond films. They’re not quite in yet but you can reserve them – YA DVDs are 50c on a YA card, and reserves for ya’ll are free.

Here they are in our catalogue. If you’ve never seen any of the classic Bond films you really should, as they’re great fun.

Still haven’t found what you’re looking for?

When you use the library catalogue do you sometimes feel a bit like there’s this needle you lost and the last time you saw it was in that rather large haystack over there? Well, never fear; we’ve come up with a list of hints (some big, some small, some obvious, some notso) that should make looking for stuff a bit easier. The page is here.

If you yourself have some handy hints that you’d like to share then let us know.

Vampire Diaries on telly

As mentioned in the past, The Vampire Diaries are being made into a television series. The network responsible has released some teaser clips of the show, which is set to begin soon.  You can watch all three after the Read more … – the books can be borrowed from your local library, of course.

Watch the teasers below! Isn’t it cool when he jumps off the roof like that?

 

Read More

Really simple

If you read loads of websites and blogs that update regularly (like this one), and you think, “gosh, if only all these sites’ contents could be stuck onto one handy page,” then consider using an RSS reader. Rather than opening many websites at once, an RSS reader grabs the newest content from them for you. So handy!

There are several RSS readers available. If you’ve a Google account then Google Reader is good and reliable. Bloglines is another of the more well-known ones.

(RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, which sounds simple but probably is quite complex.)

Anyway, the Teen Blog’s RSS feed is here.

Help! I Have This Essay…

Studying English? We could help you out if you’re stuck for resources.

In the wonderful alternate world of My Gateway there are some impressive literature databases that should make essay writing, like, really easy (provided you keep refering to the question, make sure your conclusion covers the points mentioned in your introduction etc etc).

1) Books and Authors (you’ll need to put in your library card number and surname for authentication). This here database lets you browse in any number of ways, from basic searches like genre (including inspirational!), author and title, through to the Who/What/Where/When search, which is a fantastic illustration of Venn diagrams. You type in your parameters and where the circles intersect should provide a list of books relevant to your needs. Books and Authors also has comprehensive lists of award winners and bestsellers (US) and recommendations.

But enough of that, on to the good stuff: the database has a thing called “My Reading Room” that allows you to create lists, and write and store reviews. Excellent.

2) Literature Resource Centre (again, library card number and surname required). Very useful for literary research. You can select, for example, an author or book title, and you’ll find a comprehensive list of reviews, critical essays and overviews. There’s also a literary timeline which will tell you who else was writing and what was going on historically which will help you put the book/author in context. The author browse also contains a comprehensive bibliography (including articles and short stories). The database works equally well for classic authors like Laurence Sterne and contemporary writers like Stephenie Meyer.

Also: last year we did a spotlight on Fiction Connection, which is useful if you’re wondering what to read next, and also also Melissa pointed out Literature Map, which is quite a cool tool for working out who writes like who.

Next time we’ll focus on something like History or Classics.

p.s. if you want some advice on an essay you’re writing then visit the Studyit message boards, where actual teachers give you teacherly advice before you have to hand anything in. Very useful.

Be quizzed about NZMM09

This NZ Music Month we’re running a NZ Music Month Quiz for teens. Try it! You may win some vouchers.

Do take a gander at our NZMM09 page for more about upcoming events.

New YA CDs

The new music is coming in thick and fast these days. I’ve seldom seen it thicker or faster.

Keri Hilson is described by allmusic.com as a dynamic singer songwriter. These dynamic skills have been used to write songs for the likes of  Usher, Ludacris and Kelly Rowland, and now on her own album In A Perfect World.

Destroy all lines : dance floor anthems is a compilation for all you cats out there who like dancing to anthemic hits on floors. If that’s you then you’re in luck, because it’s a whopping two-disc affair.

Remember Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad? Yes, of course you do. Well, now I’d like to introduce you to Good Girl Gone Bad: The Remixes. A good stop-gap between Rihanna albums proper.

Platinum emo-poppers Paramore have a new live album entitled The Final Riot. All your favorite Paramore tunes being sung along to by an arena full of kids. Close your eyes and pretend you’re there.

Local Hip-Hopper Savage is back in time for New Zealand Music Month with Savage Island. I can only assume that this is a concept album based on some sort of Survivor type show hosted by Savage. At least I hope so …

21st Century Breakdown is the new, soon-to-be inescapably huge album from Green Day. It’s divided into three acts because they’re so big and important they transcend the regular album format. Golly!

 

may09

All the news that’s fit to print

A new New Moon poster (for the film, obviously) has been released. Marvel at it here. I am the only person on the planet who hasn’t read the books, but judging from the poster it looks like Jacob’s getting a little protective. But then you would, wouldn’t you, if your crush was going out with a vampire.

In further Twilight news, Robert Pattison has said that he will be in the fourth film, Breaking Dawn.

Edit: More Twilight news – Stephenie Meyer’s books account for 16% of all popular books sold in the first quarter of 2009 (in the US, anyway).

Excellent and Award-Winning

M. T. Anderson, author of the excellent and award-winning Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing books was interviewed by the excellent and award-winning Kim Hill on her excellent and award-winning Saturday morning show on National Radio. You can listen to the podcast here (.mp3 download).

Neil Gaiman reads The Graveyard Book

Yes, the whole thing. On his 9 city video world tour (rock star style) last year he was recorded reading The Graveyard Book, a chapter at each exotic location. The videos are on his Mouse Circus website.

I had imagined him standing in front of the Hollywood sign, in Red Square, or under the Brooklyn hill wind turbine but no, it’s just Neil. Never mind, if you get a bit restless you could also play Graveyard Book sudoku while you listen or download a Coraline screensaver, or, or.

Neil Gaiman is one of the most Web 2.0 writers around. See also his normal website, or his blog. He also tweets. (Aspiring or established authors take note: this is how to promote your work on the web.)

Get smart AND please your parents. Win, win!

The good people at the Ministry of Education have put an awesome website together for NCEA students of English, Maths and Sciences, called StudyIt.  Bookmark it!

As well as online help and past exam papers, the site includes:

* online forums
* achievement standards written in student friendly language
* study tips
* other subjects – ie forums where other things are being discussed, for example “how to be dux”, “career paths” and other subject areas.

While you’re in the zone, make sure you view our very own study advice webpage Study Stop, which is laden with links to resources both in the library and outside the library.

NZMM09 – Where can I find out more?

nzmm-2009-logo-smallest1We’ve got a blog running for New Zealand Music Month here. Check out the reviews, the music news, and get info on the events we’ve got happening. Take a look!

ps: If you’re interested in music don’t forget the NZMM events at the Central Library – there’s ‘Dr’ Lee Prebble on the 26th of May and The Phoenix Foundation on the 28th (find out more).

Doo doo doo

I told Grimm that we mustn’t write ‘check this out’ on the Teen Blog too often, but really, you should check this out.

Rupture Ruckus Rocked!

It was a cold wintery night, but a small group of music fans braved the cold to see Brad Dring from Rapture Ruckus talk about his career path to becoming a famous musician at the Central Library on the 8th of May.

small-ruckus

Don’t miss the next New Zealand Music Month session; Music Producer Lee Prebble, from The Surgery, and musician Age Pryor, from the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra and The Woolshed Sessions, will be at the Central Library on Tuesday 26th May at 4.30pm.

Join us. Join us. Join us.

teen-logo-chosen1Thanks to everyone who offered to come in and tell us how our next teen event should look. We are meeting this Thursday (14th), 4-5pm in the Central Library Staffroom (2nd floor).

It’s not too late to join us – just fill in your details below or ring 801-3737. If we miss your call (we might be out sourcing the chocolate fish), just leave your name and show up on the day.

Astrophotography

If you’ve ever seen the sky at night – the moon rising over Lake Taupo, say, or maybe you can see what might be Venus –  and thought to yourself, “that looks awesome, I should take a photo of it”, and you do, but the photo just looks like toothpaste on your best black top and you can’t understand why, then hurry to the Central Library tonight. Hurry!

Would you like to take photographs of the night sky? Not sure what to use or where to begin? John Field from the Wellington Astronomical Society will explore and explain how to use your Digital SLR camera and software to produce images that were previously beyond the scope of amateur photographers. Topics include what you need, how DSLR cameras work, what settings to use, how to polar align your mount using a DSLR, taking unguided images using a tripod, piggy-back and prime focus imaging through using a telescope, and image processing using freely available software. John will also include both the good, the bad and the ugly images he has taken to show what can go wrong and what you get when it all goes right

That’s happening tonight (May the 13th) at 7pm on the second level of the Central Library.

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