Oh, Electric 6. I was lucky enough to see them in a really small, local venue recently opening for Local H. They definitly outshined Local H (even though Local H was pretty great).
One more reason to love sheep. But not in the physical way, sheep don’t care for that. I promise you. In all seriousness, I think this is a pretty amazing idea. I’ve argued with people who think this isn’t real, but I believe in the sheep! How could someone have the heart to fake this??
I have recently decided that needlepoint is my new media of choice, and therefore love visiting this blog, mr x stitch. Not only is his own work, along with the work featured on his blog awesome, but I also recieved some very nice commentary on my first embroidery project when it was featured as a “hot new project” on craftster.org. For some reason, even though I don’t know this man, he reminds me of Ben Stone, a really great drawing teacher I had during my second semester at NIU.
Speaking of NIU, I received my name badge and information for my orientation that I have to attend this summer in order to change my major to English and be readmitted to the college. Part of me wants to pretend to be fresh out of high school when we go around and introduce ourselves, just for fun. I did go through this whole process four years ago. But I do have to do the orientation thing again because not only did I take a year off, but I’m switching from the College of Visual and Performing Arts to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, so I do understand the need. In a way, I’m very happy for the new begining this gives me, and the fresh cut away from Loretta, the devil advisor of art. It will be nice to hopefully have an advisor who doesn’t tell me I’m worthless. (She tries to scare people out of the program. Lucky for her, it worked with me, apparently!)
Here’s one last thing that I’m quite excited about:
High Voltage Sheep. May 20, 2009
Embroidery Project Number One. May 2, 2009
I made this a few weeks ago, after recieving a very cool (and helpful) how-to kit in the “I Want to Learn to ____” swap on craftster.org. (I made and sent a kit on sewing purses.)
I could have done better with the wording, but overall, for my first project I am very happy. My next plan is either more mermaids for a girl at work’s birthday next week (she loves mermaids, but I’m not sure what to sew the final work to. She’s not a purse-carrier, and I don’t know if a tea towel is her thing. But she loved this project when she saw my purse.), or some silly veggie tea towels with fun expressions from sublimestitching.com.
Is there really a good reason to ban a book? March 25, 2009
These reasons really are crazy, as found on forbiddenlibrary.com.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll. Ace; Bantam; Crown; Delacorte; Dover; NAL; Norton; Penguin; Random; St. Martin. Banned in China (1931) for portraying animals and humans on the same level, “Animals should not use human language.”
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne Frank. Modern Library. Challenged in Wise County, Va. (1982) due to “sexually offensive” passages. Four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee (1983) called for the rejection of this book because it is a “real downer.”
The Call of the Wild. Jack London. Ace; Bantam; Grosset; Macmillan; NAL; Penguin; Pocket Bks.; Raintree; Tempo. Banned in Italy (1929), Yugoslavia (1929), and burned in Nazi bonfires (1932). Who knew Nazis didn’t like sled dogs?
Catcher in the Rye. J.D. Salinger. Published in 1951, this immediate best seller almost simultaneously became a popular target of censorship. A 1991-92 study by the People for the American Way found that the novel was among those most likely to be censored based on the fact that it is “anti-Christian.” Challenged by Concerned Citizens of Florida who wanted the book removed from a high school library (1991) in Leesburg, Florida due to “profanity, reference to suicide, vulgarity, disrespect, and anti-Christian sentiments.” They were unsucessful: a review committee voted unanimously to retain the book.
The Color Purple. Alice Walker. Harcourt. Challenged as appropriate reading material for an Oakland, Calif. High School honors class (1984) due to the work’s “sexual and social explicitness” and its “troubling ideas about race relations, man’s relationship to God, African history, and human sexuality.” This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was finally approved for use by the Oakland Board of Education after nine months of debate. Banned in the Souderton, Pa. Area School District (1992) as appropriate reading for tenth graders because it is “smut.”Removed from the Jackson County, W.Va. school libraries (1997) along with sixteen other titles.
James and the Giant Peach. Roald Dahl. ABC-Clio; Knopf. Challenged at the Deep Creek Elementary School in Charlotte Harbor, Fla. (1991) because it is “not appropriate reading material for young children.” Challenged at the Pederson Elementary School in Altoona, Wis. (1991) and at the Morton Elementary School library in Brooksville, Fla. (1992) because the book contains the word “ass” and “promotes” the use of drugs (tobacco, snuff) and whiskey. Removed from classrooms in Stafford County, Va. Schools (1995) and placed in restricted access in the library because the story contains crude language and encourages children to disobey their parents and other adults.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. C.S. Lewis. Macmillan. Challenged in the Howard County, Md. school system (1990) because it depicts “graphic violence, mysticism, and gore.” I’m sure the school system would rather have its children reading something which adheres to “good Christian values.”
Little House in the Big Woods. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Buccaneer; harper; Transaction. Removed from the classrooms, but later reinstated, for third-graders at the Lincoln Unified School District in Stockton, Calif. (1996). Complainants also want the book removed from the library because it “promotes racial epithets and is fueling the fire of racism.”
Little House on the Prairie. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Buccaneer; Harper; Transaction. Challenged at the Lafourche Parish elementary school libraries in Thibodaux, La. (1993) because the book is “offensive to Indians.” Banned in the Sturgis, S. Dak. elementary school classrooms (1993) due to statements considered derogatory to Native Americans.
The Lorax. Dr. Seuss. Random. Challenged in the Laytonville, Calif. Unified School District (1989) because it “criminalizes the foresting industry.”
To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee. Lippincott/Harper; Popular Library. This novel has been challenged quite a lot due to its racial themes. Challenged–and temporarily banned–in Eden Valley, Minn.(1977); Challenged at the Warren, Ind. Township schools (1981), because the book “represents institutionalized racism under the guise of ‘good literature’.” After unsuccessfully banning the novel, three black parents resigned from the township human relations advisory council. Banned from the Lindale, Tex. advanced placement English reading list (1996) because the book “conflicted with the values of the community.”
Where the Sidewalk Ends. Shel Silverstein. Harper. Challenged at the West Allis-West Milwaukee, Wis. school libraries (1986) because the book “suggests drug use, the occult, suicide, death, violence, disrespect for truth, disrespect for legitimate authority, rebellion against parents.” Challenged at the Central Columbia School District in Bloomsburg, Pa. (1993) because a poem titled “Dreadful” talks about how “someone ate the baby.”
Where’s Waldo? Martin Handford. Little. Challenged at the Public Libraries of Saginaw, Mich. (1989), Removed from the Springs Public School library in East Hampton, N.Y. (1993) because there is a tiny drawing of a woman lying on the beach wearing a bikini bottom but no top. Yes, but did they find Waldo?
There are a lot more books at the link posted above that have been banned, but these are the one’s that I have read from that list. Some of them I knew were banned, like Catcher in the Rye, The Color Purple, and To Kill A Mockingbird, but seriously, Shel Silverstein, and Where’s Waldo?! Not to mention the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I wonder who sits around deciding what people can and can not read. And shouldn’t we be incouraging kids to read, not take books away from them? Honestly though, I think banning books only draws more attention to them and makes people want to read them that much more.
My favorite stupid reasons from this list are Alice in Wonderland reason near the top. Because God forbid animals can talk in a fantasy world. Also, The Lorax?! Really, that I can’t understand. They must have been afraid that kids would actually care about the enviornment and not want to be part of the destruction of trees when they grow up. California must have been afraid of a lack of lumber jacks.
March 24, 2009
Alice came to a fork in the road. “Which road do I take?” she asked.
“Where do you want to go?” responded the Cheshire cat.
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
