mary e. pearson

mood: busy

Gotta love those ten year olds.

I've been posting as Maxwell for so long over on that blog, I've been playing with a PB about him.  We have one theater kid, a friend of my daughter's, who is amazing in the suit . He climbs the climber .. . he acts out the books at story time . . . he tries to sneak into the bouncy house, even though his antlers are much too big



The kids get the biggest kick out of him!

And I've been given much inspiration. 

Now I just have to find quiet time to mold it!



Yesterday, a bunch of kids ran in the store . . .

"Tami, Tami, Tami!  There's a baby bird on the ground and he has a broken wing!"

I grabbed my gloves and followed them - after grabbing the camera of course.

Off the beaten path, under some young trees, was this



A baby robin, I think.  We quickly determined he wasn't hurt.  Just trying to hide from all the commotion.  I pointed out his parent, calling from a nearby tree, and shooed all the kids home.   "He needs to find a place to hide.  He'll be okay . . . "

I sure hope he is.

 

I also was honored to get to read one of Darcy's projects, and I was blown away by a couple of things. First, she KNOWS teens. And if you know Darcy at all, you know this is because she is so incredibly devoted to her own children. She loves and admires and respects them -  she even accompanies them to concerts! As a result, she is a wiz at capturing the teen voice.

She also writes with an incredible amount of heart. I'm not as familiar with Charity's work, but she seems to be a good match for Darcy in that department, because that is what really grabbed me about "Geek Girl." It is written with so much love and care, with main characters you wish you could hug - or at least just hang out with for a little while longer.

Bethany is the titular geek girl - comfortable in her role as an invisible genius, until her best friend convinces her to try out for cheerleading, and they both make the varsity squad. Bethany is thrust into a short skirt and a new, much more visible role--one that brings a lot of new questions, like what do you do when the school "It" girl spills beer on you at your first in-crowd party? And how can you tell if the star basketball player likes you for your mind or your pom poms?

Charity and Darcy do a great job of flirting with and then skirting stereotypes (jocks and cheerleaders are not all evil, geeks have definite student body president potential, and the cheerleading sponsor will make adults who read this book want to give her a high-five). But the best thing about "Geek Girl's Guide" is the characters. They're wonderful. Bethany is sweet and smart and funny and sympathetic. Jack, the head jock, is both vulnerable and hunky. And Todd, Bethany's best geek guy friend-- well, let's just say that if he got together with Matt, the geek guy in MY book, they could probably rule the world with their awesomeness.

So what are you waiting for? I bet if you went to your favorite bookstore, you'd find "The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading" on a table of great summer reads. That's where I found my copy. Get your own, and get to know Darcy and Charity's work. I give them a high kick, a herky and a great big splits finish. Go, "Geek Girls!"
 

For the film shoot last week I needed furniture to represent ten different scenic locations, all shot on greenscreen. Besides dealing with the usual greenscreen parameter of avoiding reflective surfaces I also had a fairly tight budget. This meant that some of the rental furniture I picked up wasn’t in stellar condition. You’ll notice that this table, which has a very nice form, has gaping cracks which were repaired with gorilla glue, leaving nasty white scars all over it.

This particular rental house doesn’t mind if I give their furniture “a little love” so the white scars were acceptable. Most rental houses don’t want you to do anything to their props. Rightly so.

While we were renting out the Little Shop of Horrors puppets, the number of times they came back with horrendous “repairs” or “enhancements” that took a lot of labor to undo.

Just a note: When renting props, unless you have specific permission in writing from the prop house, don’t do anything to the props that you can’t completely undo. And make sure you undo it before returning the prop.

For this, since the practical antique value of the piece is gone, I was able to take the easy route. I mixed up two tones of paint to match the wood tone. Using a stiff bristle brush, I worked it into the gorilla glue, taking some care to match the grain of the wood.

Once I finished that, I gave it a once over with furniture polish and voila. A table that looks rustic, but not trashed.

Comments? -- Link.

http://www.theboyfriendlist.com/e_lockhart_blog/2009/07/ala-.html

For librarians!

http://amjenkinsbooks.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-do-you-know-what-to-show-and-what.html

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/lAQV/~3/B8ta2Asrir0/sunday-hangovers.html