Opening Night for our 2010 SCBWI Southern Breeze Illustrators' Gallery Show was an enormous success!!! We tie this event in with the Decatur (Georgia, USA) Arts Festival's opening night, ArtWalk, every year to guarantee crowds, and this year was bigger than ever! We have several newly published members and award winners who have recently move to our area, so it is an exceptionally good show. Featured illustrators (some in the photos below) are: Ami Blackford, Mark Braught, Sarah C. Campbell, Elizabeth O. Dulemba, Laura Freeman, Tom Gonzalez, Laura Knorr, Nancy S. Miller, Daniel Powers, and Shadra Strickland. So, if you happen to be in the area, the show will be up through June 6th, 2010 at Little Shop of Stories in downtown Decatur, Georgia. More information is available at the Southern Breeze Illustrators' Corner. Cheers! e Elizabeth O. Dulemba SCBWI Southern Breeze Illustration Coordinator http://www.southern-breeze.org/
Honestly, I wonder why it took so long for something like Google TV to exist, but finally, it's here! Although I'm bummed hulu won't be part of it from the get-go. I don't know about you guys, but I've been watching a lot less 'real' tv and a lot more online - especially at hulu.com. I hope this all works itself out soon, I'm really looking forward to it!
Galleries all over Decatur will stay open late and serve wine and munchies - so come stroll! And don't worry, if you miss opening night the show will run May 28th - June 6th.
If you live nowhere near and are wondering why I'm posting this... it's one of the big events I pull together each year as Southern Breeze Illustrator Coordinator - had to share!
About nine months ago*, I wowed and amazed you** with a photo-and-video scrapbook of my visit to Los Angeles' famed Wiltern for a rockin' good concert by The National. Saturday night, I returned for the first time since then. For a concert. A concert by The National. I'm nothing if not creative.
Further evidence of that creativity? Today's post will be a photo-and-video scrapbook of Saturday evening.
I haven't been to a whole lot of music venues in L.A. yet, but I've decided that the Wiltern is one of the best in town, thanks in part to its kick-ass marquee, which on Saturday, looked a lot like this:
Another thing I love about the theater is that the name is an amalgamation of WILshire Boulevard and WesTERN Avenue, which intersect near its entrance. The name would have been even catchier if the theater had been built where Jackson Street runs into Kass Avenue, but, sadly, whoever was building art deco theaters in L.A. in the early 1930s missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. (Also, there's no Kass Avenue in Los Angeles, but whatever.)
The National mixed in several songs from its newest album, High Violet, including Bloodbuzz Ohio, which I especially like, and Conversation 16, which is a favorite of my exceptionally gorgeous wife.
Among its other wonderful qualities, Conversation 16 includes this rather snappy lyric: I was afraid I'd eat your brains I was afraid I'd eat your brains Cause I'm evil Cause I'm evil
And one of the highlights of the concert was hearing lead singer Matt Berninger explain the deeper meaning behind those words. "That song," he said, "is a metaphor for this one time that I ate a girl's brains while she was sleeping."
We in the audience assumed he was kidding, of course, and we got a good chuckle out of that metaphor.***
Another cool part of the night was meeting - in person! - my online friend Violette, a music connoisseur with whom I've been exchanging tweets since that first National concert last August. Violette has a great (and recently redesigned) music blog, which you should check out, so long as you finish reading this post first.
OK, enough with the words. How 'bout a few of my very favorite photos I took Saturday night, and a couple of videos that I might or might not have shot with my digital camera, depending on whether I needed the band's express written consent to videotape anything ...
The stills If you were in a band, you'd put this on an album cover, right?
My favorite picture I've taken in a really really long time.
Motion & Sound
Start A War
Mistaken For Strangers
The band's remaining 2010 tour dates, you ask? Right here.
* Tip for all of you aspiring writers out there: This strikes me as a potentially dramatic way to start any story not involving the birth of a child. ** Well, two or three of you. *** For more metaphor-inspired hilarity, please don't hesitate to read two other recent SFTC posts, this one and this one.
Can't get to the Sistene Chapel any time soon? Go visit it online! You can rotate and zoom and basically get lost for hours. (Great tunes too.) Thanks to John Nez for the "heads UP!"
Boing Boing recently posted an article on Colourlovers: free, online alternative to Pantone. I've mentioned I used to work in the children's fashion industry and that we leaned on companies that specialized in forecasting color trends, etc. Their presentations were always a blast. So, I love that there's a new way to play with color palettes using COLOURlovers. And if you don't think it fits into your life, use their COLOURlovers | themeleon Twitter application to play with a new background - FUN!
Here's something fun - Lisa Kopelke's EXCUSE ME read by none other than Carrot Top this week on Read To Me. I mean - could there be any perfect reader for this story? Burps abound, so if you find that offensive, well... best go read another story. (They have plenty of others at Read To Me.)
Today is my friend, Liz Conrad's birthday. We lost her last summer to cancer and I miss her bunches. Liz, wherever you are - I'm thinking about you. You can read about my amazing friend here: In Memoriam (the original post on my old blog had over 70 comments which I turned into a memory book for her family). For illustrators in Georgia, Alabama or Mississippi, you can also learn about the scholarship fund we started in her name at Southern Breeze.
When you were a kid did you ever draw something that would have made a great toy? Child's Own Studio is doing just that - turning kid art into plushies. What a great idea! And some of the toys turn out really really cute too! Be sure to check out the gallery. (Click the top bar to visit the site.) Thanks to June Goulding for the link!
All writers get rejected, but some go on to such amazing fame it's hard to believe they ever were. At 50 Iconic Writers Who Were Repeatedly Rejected you'll find a list of authors with links to just how bad it got. Good dose of reality and a lesson in never giving up. (And yes, I've been rejected tons too!) Thanks to Nathan Bransford for the link.
Update: Don't click on the Dr. Seuss link as it goes to a bogus site. The others appear legitimate, however, and I've emailed the webmaster.
Hey guys! We’re very excited to announce that the Shortgrass Library System (which the Brooks Public Library is a part of) will be launching Library To Go, an online Library featuring Audiobooks and eBooks, on Tuesday June 1, 2010.
As you know, eBooks are super hot right now. With Library To Go you’ll be able to check out tons of different titles, including NEW and best selling titles, quickly and easily with your Brooks Public Library card. What kind of books do we have? Check this out. This week’s Globe and Mail Best Selling Fiction title is Vision In White by Nora Roberts – and we’ve got it available for download from Library To Go!
Within the coming days and weeks we'll be showing you guys the ins and outs of Library To Go including which devices will work with your downloaded titles, how to search for books, and more. See you soon!
Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and to view more coloring pages - click here! This week's image, Mother Goose, was requested by Angela, the Children's Book Buyer at 57th Street Books in Chicago - they're having a Mother Goose themed story time this week, so if you're in the neighborhood, be sure to drop by! Man, I love Chicago. That is one cool town! Hey, all you bookstore owners out there - did you know if you are able to arrange paid school visits or speaking engagements (and handle book sales) for me in your area, I will happily pay 10% of my speaking fee to you as booking agent! Read more about it on my VISITS PAGE and email me for pricing information. Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Send your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpages@dulemba.com and I'll post it to my blog!Click here to find more coloring pages.
Learn more about my fun picture book Glitter Girl and the Crazy Cheese - click the cover.
I was recently turned onto Adopt a Classroom. You can make donations to your favorite schools or teachers to help fill needs budgets don't cover. For instance, did you know the average teacher spends $1,200 per year out of their own pocket on things as basic as paper and pencils to make sure their students have what they need? Even a small donation could help. Hubbie and I made a pretty nice one to the school near us (I use their track almost every day so it was the least we could do). We then put out a challenge to our neighborhood's message board. Small steps, big results. I bet there's a school near you who could use some help too. Visit Adoptaclassroom.org and punch in your zip code to find out. And teachers - if you need help in your classroom, be sure to register!
Jennifer Bertman of "From the Mixed-Up Files" has been interviewing children's authors and illustrators about their work spaces. Ever wonder or want a peek inside? Now you can! Her latest interview (with pictures) is with Diane deGroat (studio above). If you scroll down in the sidebar you'll see links to Amy Kathleen Ryan, Julie Paschkis, Yours Truly, and several others. Lots of fun!
OMG - I want the Brontesaurus!!!! Learn more about this funny video created by Phil Lord and Chris Miller ("Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs") at "Brontes get an action makeover" at Salon. (Thanks to Betsy James for the heads up!)
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
We've lost Frank Frazetta, wonderfully talented Fantasy Illustrator: http://ow.ly/1JxWq
Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and to view more coloring pages - click here! You've all been sending me wonderful suggestions for potential coloring pages and I'm finally getting to them (boy we had a lot of holidays in there!). This week I get to Kristen Schoonover's request for a monkey! Apparently her classroom is covered in monkeys. Kristen - I'd love to see what you're students do with this guy - send pics! Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Send your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpages@dulemba.com and I'll post it to my blog!Click here to find more coloring pages.
Check out my own personal climbing boy from Paco and the Giant Chile Plant!
YES!!! I'm starting to hear other companies talking about the importance of assigning ISBN numbers to books (no matter their format). I know its a sleeper subject, but it's important to creators like me. READ WHY HERE: Why APPs need ISBN Numbers. And Google is doing it for good reasons - the ISBN system is already established, crosses platforms and is trackable through Bowker. For authors it means we can attach ourselves to our eBooks through search sites like BookTour.com, filedby.com, jacketflap, etc. (Right now, there is no way to do it.) Per Publishers Lunch:
With or Without You, Your Google Editions Will Have Unique ISBNs ... for products sold through Google Editions. They will use the industry-standard ISBN--as opposed to vendors like Amazon, who assign their own unique ASINs to Kindle books. ... Google's Tom Turvey says in the announcement "this decision was driven by the book industry's strong reliance on the ISBN along with our partner-centric business and distribution models. We look forward to working closely with Bowker, our publishing and retail partners and the ISBN Standards Community to ensure a stabilized and uniform approach to the cataloging, discovery and selling of Google Editions."
(You can subscribe to receive news like this every day through PublishersMarketplace. Publishers lunch is a free daily summary of happenings in the industry.)
This is a real treat. Toon Books, the new(ish) publishing company by creative geniuses Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman, have made their books available online in several different languages and they are absolutely charming. Click the image to visit the Toon Book Reader and enjoy! Thanks to Anastasia Suen for the heads up!
Once in a while when I'm scanning the latest headlines on my Google home page, I'll see a link to a seemingly inane "news story" in the CNN.com feed and cringe. And I'll wonder: "What kind of idiots would waste their time reading about this nonsense?"
And then, typically, I answer my own question by clicking through to read more.
Today, that happened when I came across a Very Important News Article about the "$65,000 home equity piggy bank" belonging to Faisal Shahzad, the man being held in connection with the botched attempt to car-bomb Times Square last weekend.
I'm not sure why this seemed interesting, except perhaps that I've never seen the inside of an incompetent bomber's home, or maybe I'm the kind of guy who just likes virtual open houses. As you can see here, it's all pretty unremarkable. No telltale signs of an "aspiring terrorist bomber," as CNN so eloquently* put it. Not even any photos of Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
In fact, what I found most interesting were the cloying little blurbs accompanying the photos, which read as though they were co-written by Captain Obvious and a very dimwitted real estate agent.
For example, the master bedroom: Thisis precisely the reason we turn to CNN. For analysis like this: "Green is the theme color in the Shahzads' bedroom. The curtains pick up the tone of the bed linens, and a bamboo print hung between the windows extends the botanical motif."
This is not retouched or edited. Someone really wrote that.
Walk with me to the kid's room, won't you? The extraordinary analysis only deepens here, where we learn that the child's bedroom "appears to be slightly more cluttered than the rest of the house - a not-uncommon characteristic of a child's room."
Penetrating insights from the news organization that is quickly becoming known as the world leader in boudoir-organization reportage.
OK, let's go out back:
In case you can't quite make it out, this is a photo of an empty wooden deck. Which is empty. And has nothing on it.
CNN helpfully explains: "There's certainly no evidence that anyone barbecued or lounged on the house's deck; it seems to be entirely empty."
You are Invited to
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