confessions of a southside catatonic chataholic

Well, today I found that Dear Author is blocked at work :-( Alas, what will I do now?! Ok, I do have some other 40 book related RSS feeds to get me through the day BUT not half are as funny and insightful and downright delicious as Smart Bitches Trashy Books, Pop Sensation, Judge a Book and Dear Author. Grr bah humbug. Image taken from Teleread.

Was desperately hoping to be able to view some of Banksy's graffiti art in New Orleans while over there but a September article in NOLA's Times Picayune Lagniappe section states that a lot of it is now GONE or defaced - oh the irony of graffiti being vandalised. Even more ironic when you consider that his artwork sells for thousands in art galleries around the world. Idiots. I'm devastated! Some are still there so I hope to track those down. For those among us who do not know, Banksy is a British street artist (it's interesting to note that he does not call himself an artist but there's no doubting his talent). According to Brian Sewell's Art Directory Banksy has managed to keep his real name from mainstream media, which is pretty damn clever considering his art pops up anywhere and everywhere. Take a look through his site because his art work is clever, witty and very subversive - esp the New Orleans stuff ;-) It's separated into Indoors, Outdoors, Drawing & Film. Manukau Libraries holds a copy of his book Wall and Piece which you can request (I have). My list of his stuff to see while on holiday is getting progressively smaller...

Thanks to our NextReads Romance newsletters I have read so much romance over the last few weeks - and still have screeds more to go. For some daft reason I thought it'd give more integrity to the newsletter if I had actually read what I was recommending - which has upped our issues loads and given me plenty of food for thought (ideas for themes anyway). Thought that it would be a good idea to make up an advance list of themes for the year ahead in case some of them aren't totally suitable to our collection. With help from various staff throughout Manukau Libraries (mostly Natalie) we have an exciting list - I won't tell you what they are, but keep an eye out all the same. I will say one theme will be Men Who Write Romance Novels - and yes there lots and I have read quite a few already. Am also working my way through everything I'm recommending for the Biography & Memoir newsletter and the Pop Culture (and yes, this month's theme is Elvis because I'm going to Graceland next month and I have never understood the hype, in spite of having been raised on his music/movies and yes, I did read all of our system's biographies AND I watched all the dvds, too). It was his birthday yesterday. He would have been 74 (which makes me wonder, what did he have that made him so damned iconic even after his death and would he still have it today?!). Our Jan theme for Bio is Memoir Under Fire which was kinda inspired by the latest furore over Herman Rosenblat's fake memoir, and is a selection of books that have been investigated as to their truth. But sshh, mum's the word. Image taken from Ick Music.

Thanks to Natalie for showing me Super Dickery! Lone Wolf and I were talking about Rex Parker's Pop Sensation and then Natalie pointed us both in the direction of Super Dickery - and now my subversive internet life is, once again, complete-ish (until the next site is found). I guarantee, if you enjoy a lost of the sites I've recommended on this blog/rant then definitely try this one :-) And if you don't like it then I don't care LOL