Empress of the World

Empress of the World is a quaint little romance novel from 2001 written by Sara Ryan. Within its pages, a teenage girl named Nicola meets a group of friends at a summer learning program, whom quickly become her inseparable confidants. She then falls madly in love with another member of this clan, a gentle Southern girl with the unlikely name of Battle.

 'Empress' is far from the best novel I've ever read, but it has a definite power to it. Despite the countless tropes it employs, it's a genuinely unique piece of work. It's kind of strange, half of what I read is "young adult" fiction, and yet this is the first time in years I actually felt like I was reading a kids' book. Despite the characters being almost college-age, plus the smoking and drinking of alcohol, and the references to sex and drugs, this book reads like it is meant for middle school or younger. The writing is ceaselessly straight-forward, though not without its charms, and the scenes are often only a few sentences long. It actually becomes vary jarring, having mere glimpses raised up to be scenes, and chapters tend to end abruptly in the middle of action I'd realy like to see develop further. But beneath the frustration lies an excellent adventure. 

Giving teenagers the run of a campus (their summer program takes place at a university), provided a fun bit of independence and made the characters seem a lot older than they are. It gave it sort of a Zoey 101 feel. It made me nostalgic for college, more than anything else. The characters were pure and naive, but in an endearing and fairly true to life way. Like many young adult novels, it doesn't shy away from portraying alcohol in a positive light. And, like Annie On My Mind, the drinking is used subtlety to add a pinch of mystery and adventure to a beautifully romantic scene.

The romance itself, for the most part, is actually pretty generic. Where this novel shines with notable fervor is in its depiction of the core friendship between Nicola and the other kids she met in the program. Their friendship develops quickly but not at all unrealistically, into a do-or-die allegience and an effortless rapport. The many scenes of pragmatic Nicola clashing against bossy, extroverted crazy-nerd Katrina and soft-spoken but strong-willed Battle are fun, free-spirited, and vividly genuine. I would love to see a sequel focused on Katrina, her character was so much fun.

 I don't know what to say about it other than that it was kind of a trip for me. Juxtaposing the juvenile writing style with the college-esque characters, then adding in the powerful wistfulness of its 'fleeting summer of youth' theme, sort of threw me for a loop. I would definitely reccomend this novel for fans of friendship and slice of life stories; in that category it is fairly immaculate. But for romance you'd do better to read Annie On My Mind. Yet I'm proud to say that this is another humble, pure-hearted novel about two girls in love, without the murder, suicide, promiscuous sex or soapboxing that sometimes plagues lesbian literature. This is the kind of romance I believe in with mine own heart.

The actual, legit Hunger Games Soundtrack

After I read The Hunger Games trilogy last year, I I fashioned for each book its own little soundtrack. As if intent on outdoing me, the forces behind The Hunger Games film invented "Songs From District 12 And Beyond," hands down one of the most amazing film soundtracks ever compiled. They put together an album strictly of brand new original songs by most of the biggest names in modern music. How did they even do it? I don't know. But I remain impressed. Almost every song on here is excellent, which is very rare even for compilation-style (i.e. previously released material) soundtracks, let alone new songs.

1. Arcade Fire – “Abraham’s Daughter”
2. The Secret Sisters – “Tomorrow Will Be Kinder”
3. Neko Case – “Nothing To Remember”
4. Taylor Swift featuring The Civil Wars – “Safe & Sound”
5. Kid Cudi – “The Ruler and The Killer”
6. Punch Brothers – “Dark Days”
7. The Decemberists – “One Engine”
8. The Carolina Chocolate Drops – “Daughter’s Lament”
9. The Civil Wars – “Kingdom Come”
10. Glen Hansard – “Take The Heartland”
11. Maroon 5 featuring Rozzi Crane – “Come Away To The Water”
12. Miranda Lambert featuring Pistol Annies – “Run Daddy Run”
13. Jayme Dee – “Rules”
14. Taylor Swift – “Eyes Open”
15. The Low Anthem – “Lover Is Childlike”
16. Birdy – “Just A Game”

Only three of the songs are actually featured in the film (and solely in the credits), but it's not simply a soundtrack, it's a bloody concept album. The majority of the record maintains a surprisingly legitimate folk music sound. I'm not talking about the Neil Young/Leonard Cohen "acoustic rock is folk music" mentality, I'm talking about the folk music you would hear at a Newport Folk Festival in the 60s, real old school chizz. In fact I'm pretty sure the implication is that these are songs actually being played IN District 12, by its downtrodden sub-depression denizens. Astoundingly, many of the songs seem to have been written specifically about The Hunger Games. Most notable among them is "Daughter's Lament," by The Carolina Chocolate Drops an iconically a capella (save a very subtle backdrop) powerfully belted folk tune detailing the day Katniss's father died. But the concept doesn't ebb quite yet. The grim, deadly serious tone of the album seems to embellish on the movie's content, filling in certain emotional blanks that the film adaption didn't have time to dig deeply into.

My Hunger Games soundtracks were based around the series' dichotomy between anthemic gore and maudlin aftermath, expressed by pairing fist-pumping heavy metal with melancholic ballads. You won't exactly find any Slayer or Mastodon on Songs From District 12, but interestingly enough, there is a stark dichotomy: the album is divided among organic folk music with a centuries' old feel, and modern indie rock. It even gets into genuinely heavy material with Glen Hansard's rip-roaring 'Danzig mixed with Pixies-styled' "Take The Heartland," quite possibly my favorite song on the album. In addition to getting class-A artists to write songs about The Hunger Games, I'm also curious how they coerced such jaw-dropping collaborations. Miranda Lambert teams up with Pistol Annies for the haunting and catchy "Run Daddy Run." Taylor Swift teams up with The Civil Wars -- themselves the masterful artisans behind another of the album's absolute best tracks -- for the tour de force of the record, "Safe & Sound." With icy folk picking and chilling phrases like "Don't you dare look out your window, darling everything's on fire," it's a beautiful and deadly track. It cultivates peace of mind amidst a bed of turmoil and perfectly fits with The Hunger Games.

With a first act like this, what could they possibly be planning for the companion albums to Catching Fire, and Mockingjay? Will the folk genre carry over or will it be completely different each time? In any case, if they intend to repeat the splendor of the original soundtrack, I can honestly say I'm more excited about the new soundtracks than I am about the new films! And that is, of course, saying something.


Here's what they SHOULD do, since I'm such a snotty little soundtrack compiler in my own right (let's ignore the fact that they already trounced me in the first round),

1- Continue to court Taylor Swift, The Civil Wars, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Glen Hansard. They provided the 'genius' moments on Songs From District 12 and should be strongly encouraged to do likewise again. But don't rely heavily on acts from the first record, the best track should be by new additions.

2- Grab those top-name artists you missed this time around. Katy Perry is actually more than adept at acoustic material. Paramore has done a variety of soundtrack work. Rihanna is a natural choice. Kelly Clarkson seems empowered enough to put out a self-assurance anthem at least as fitting as Eyes Open. Definitely drop Arcade Fire and The Decemberists for Bon Iver and MGMT. Add in Foster The People, Mumford & Sons, and Andrew Bird. I'm feeling Green Day, too. Throw a bone to some heavy artists as well such as Five Finger Death Punch, Lamb of God, and DevilDriver.

3 - Dig slightly deeper into the past. You have a lot of the best modern names already. Older acts are less likely to come out with a new good song, but can you imagine a Hunger Games soundtrack populated by legends such as Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Mariah Carey, Pearl Jam, and Sonic Youth. Bruce's epic working class sentimentalism is born for The Hunger Games. And if you really want to do something to beat the spectacle of this first record, try reuniting Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, and heck....... Pink Floyd.

Battle Royale

Battle Royale is a 1999 Japanese novel and year 2000 film, as well as a sequel and manga series. Despite international controversy, it is one of the most respected and most popular films in Japanese history. It is sometimes considered an uncredited inspiration for Suzanne Collins' stunning The Hunger Games trilogy. The fervor over the possible connection has taken this reputable Japanese film from the curio section of anime conventions (alongside other bizarrely violent films like Suicide Club), and into the consciousness of a million Hunger Games fans -- in fact the film has just now been officially released in the US for the first time. And as a Hunger Games devotee, I was really curious to experience Battle Royale. To my great delight, Battle Royale isn't the senseless fodder of the dime-a-dozen blood & guts bargain bin, this is a truly brilliant film.

I originally was going to read the book, because I'm sure that just as in every other circumstance, the novel is superior to the film. But it occurs to me that the violent, actiontastic  premise doesn't appeal to me enough to invest in a whole book. What first drew me to The Hunger Games wasn't its grisly deathmatch, it was the intense devotion it had won in my friends whose taste I greatly trust. Specifically, I bought the first Hunger Games novel after one of my friends sat and watched the MTV Movie Awards for 3 hours just to see a 20 second teaser trailer for the then-upcomming film adaption.

I'm not at all a fan of the type of action/drama film that Battle Royale is, generally they're just not to my preference. So Battle Royale had a bit of an uphill battle, and yet it still managed to blow me away. I loved every minute of it. It's probably one of my favorite movies.

I might be ridiculously oversimplifying (like any idiot who thinks The Hunger Games is about "the dangers of big government.") but I would guess the film is a commentary on the brutal pressurized scholastic society in Japan, where the fight for top grades is so intense children kill themselves. It's almost as if kids are pitted against each other in a death match, while apathetic adults pull the strings and kill their wards.

But the social commentary is secondary in Battle Royale. The Hunger Games and Battle Royale may share a premise, but everything from the demographic and style to their point and purpose are starkly opposed. While The Hunger Games focuses on crafting a vivid and intricate portrait of this dystopian society in order to gleam masterful satire from its depths, Battle Royale sets its sights on the battle itself, painting with sage-like strokes the true horror of the experience. The Hunger Games novels do a decent job of expressing the scarring terror experienced in the arena, but ultimately the emphasis is on telling its story and making its very powerful myriad of social commentaries. In regard to the harrowing deathmatch, it can't touch Battle Royale's grim and heartbreaking portrayal.

In Battle Royale, the ill-fated kids are even younger: middle school age, and they are given no forewarning of what's about to happen to them, unlike the tributes in The Hunger Games. What's more, they're all kids in the same class, who have years of history and baggage between them. This is one of the most compelling elements in the story, as unhinged individuals use the circumstance to enact revenge for past emotional scars, while many groups of friends try to band together and ride out the storm as one. The other amazingly compelling element is the very realistic and believable variety of reactions the kids have after entering the battle. Only a few are hardened enough to buckle down and try to "win" in order to spare their own life, most are shattered by the event and either kill themselves or try to make peace and not engage in the bloodbath.

The only blemish on the film, and it's a small one, is that the violence sometimes slips into campy, overdone territory. I've heard this is Quentin Tarantino's favorite movie. Some people say The Hunger Games should have been rated R so it could be more bloody like Battle Royale, but in reality the stylized violence in Battle Royale takes me right out of the gritty realism of the content and into the ironic escapism Tarantino is master of. Luckily, the dramatic craft in Battle Royale is so strong that the movie is unspeakably harrowing despite the less-than-ideal violence. Beyond that, the film was produced beautifully and affectingly.

The long and short of it is: The Hunger Games is a superior sci-fi/satire and Battle Royale is a superior action/drama. The Hunger Games is a far richer story and Battle Royale is a more harrowing experience. Any bickering between the two is asinine, you'll never be forced to choose between The Beatles OR Michael Jackson, The West Wing OR iCarly, The X-Men OR Akira. The Hunger Games, having three novels to its credit and therefore much more space, is able to wield wonderfully powerful drama and action of its own accord. But to overlook Battle Royale would be to overlook a genuinely brilliant work.

I may just have to go and read the book now, even though the premise itself still doesn't appeal to me. But if it led to a movie this good, I have to at least consider reading.

The Secret World of Alex Mack

Lately my life has seen a lot of near-misses that turned into new blessings. I couldn't get my hands on the Sugar Rush TV show, so I ended up reading the far superior original novel. The DVD series of Unfabulous is sucpiciously unavailable, so I ended up revisiting a show whose DVD I could find -- a show from my very distant past. And frankly it may even outclass Unfabulous.

I keep thinking "there's no deeper into my television history I could ever possibly go." I've revisited shows from when I was 12 only to find they're thrice as well-written as I ever could guess. Will I someday realize Barney was a work of genius? I doubt it. But Alex Mack takes my archeological excavating to new heights thus far, a show all the way back from the mid-90s. It hasn't knocked me completely off my feet but it has left me very deeply impressed as an expert piece of solid craftsmanship, and a definitive work in the teen genre.

The Secret World of Alex Mack is a Sitdram, a show that generally follows the conventions of situation comedies but with a more serious atmosphere and only the rare unambiguous punchline here or there. Sitdrams generally have a 30 minute runtime (22-ish sans commercials) and are typically very episodic like a sitcom. A term you more commonly hear is Dramedy, but a dramedy more closely resembles a drama, the way a sitdram resembles a sitcom. Dramedies frequently feature an hour-long episode running length and focus on story arcs, but with a lighter atmosphere than the stone-cold approach many dramas wield.

It didn't hit me until I popped the DVD in and watched the first episode. "Thomas W. Lynch... where have I seen that name before?" It turns out that the creator of The Secret World of Alex Mack would go on to make the impeccable South of Nowhere ten years later! And that's far from his only credit. Though not as prolific as the untouchable Dan Schneider, Thomas W. Lynch has carved out a sizable portion of Nick history, including the drama Caitlin's Way and the recent comedy Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures. His work permeates with sentimental weight, stylish production, and excellent music selection.

I find the mid 90s aesthetic of Alex Mack particularly exulting and masterfully refreshing. The mild production (as was standard in the 90s) is a glorious change of pace from the overstimulation you find on even the most supposedly "adult-oriented" programs today (i.e. news shows). It has a strong dignity and zenlike simplicity to it that for obvious reasons you don't find in any of the current Nick or Disney shows -- they're all comedies. Drama was the norm for teen live action in the mid 90s and the early 00s, but today straight-up comedy reigns unopposed. While I'm a diehard comedy fan, Nick could desperately use a new sitdram or drama. I'm hoping that after Bucket & Skinner, maybe Lynch can put together a new one.

Alex Mack truly shines when it puts aside the subplot of the chemical plant trying to capture Alex, and focuses on Alex's family and social life, crafting quality coming of age material which I find sincere and close to home. Luckily, this happens often. Alex's run-ins with the evil chemical plant are mostly unconvincing, since it only takes a few iterations to demonstrate that no consequences will really come from it. There isn't a lot of longterm plot development in the show but there is a much-appreciated smattering of schmaltz and drama covering very much relatable contnet that is realistically handled. You also have to give Mack credit for spawning the subgenre of magical power teen shows, followed most notably by Wizards of Waverly Place.

Finally, this opens up the door for me to acquire more vintage Nick shows. Luckily I have a couple options left to me: Pete & Pete, Clarissa Explains it All. Unfortunately, a lot of good old shows have never been released at all, neither on DVD-R nor on digital services like iTunes. Nick has released a few classic series and still shows several on Teen Nick, while Disney has released zero from their back catalogue and halts reruns of old shows as quickly as possible.

I'm hoping that the digital era will rectify this mistake -- today, every new episode of a show is quickly released onto iTunes and Amazon. Ideally these shows will remain available 5, 10, 15 years from now when Shake It Up, ANT Farm, and Big Time Rush become novel and therefore newly lucrative. However, it's possible old shows will be pulled from iTunes when they become no longer current -- I've already seen this happen with some music. It would seem to me a no-brainer for shows to be kept on iTunes for purchase, no matter how few buyers they get, seeing as how it's not exactly taking up space in a warehouse anywhere! But this is not always the case, only time will tell how old shows are treated.

Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer!

I've wanted to see this film ever since it came out, because it looked so inconceivably old school. Surprisingly, it's not a Nickelodeon movie, but it perfectly captures the summery, bittersweet aesthetic of live action kids shows and movies in the 90s, like Pete & Pete or Snow Day (granted Snow Day's from the year 2000).

Judy Moody wants to have the best summer ever, problem is her friends and parents are all going away. Her young Aunt Opal steps in to take care of her, but misadventure follows misdaventure and this summer is turning out a disaster! Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer is fun and carefree, with just enough drama to be engaging. Not to mention the excellent, exuberant camera work and solid performances throughout the cast. The premise is stock, but the plot is unique and universal.

Heather Graham puts in a glowing performance as the charasmatic, idiosyncratic and nurturing Aunt Opal, while Jordana Beatty acts with poise and showcases a decent bit of nuance in her command of emiting emotions with her facial expression, quite impressive for her age.

The film unfortunately recieved negative reviews, being handed the same absent-minded and lazy assesments that Ebert & ilk copy/paste into their ham-handed writing for pretty much any live action kids movie, condensing its redeeming features into having "bright colors" and calling it uninteresting. The critical zeitgiest is clear: the only admirable kids movies are animated. They'll lavish praise on any by-the-numbers Pixar film but if you make a film with actual humans in it, you've already made a fatal mistake. Even as a kid, I always prefered live action. Far be it for us to fancy something more relatable than talking inanimate objects, fairytale mentalities, and two-bit good vs. evil themes from centuries ago.

I certainly can't say Judy Moody ranks as one of my favorite movies of all-time, but it's a kids summer classic for sure and it's a spot-on new entry into a genre that has been conspicously and woefully absent as of late.

Sugar Rush

Sugar Rush is a 2004 novel by Julie Burchill that was turned into a TV series in the UK. Since the series is not available here in Region 1, I got the book instead.

I had seen it described (once) as a shallow fantasy story. Considering the premise is: a girl moves to a new school and promptly scores the affection of the head-of-the-totem-pole most popular girl, I was willing to believe it. But the concept didn't affront me -- we have, after all, been subjected to heterosexual fantasies since we were children. Even as toddlers we are fed Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Pocahontas. If hypothetically Sugar Rush's gay daydream were to show us the other side of the coin for once, that's something more than worthy of a look.

It was with a feuding mix of intrigued elation and embarassed chagrin that I discovered how utterly off-base the 'fantasy angle' was in describing Sugar Rush. The last thing I was expecting to find from Sugar Rush, was exactly what it is: one of the most disgustingly poignant and frighteningly insightful books I've ever read. Mind you, it's not poignant in a universal way, where I can say "read this book, it will change your life." It's poignant in the shockingly idiosyncratic way, where I have to wonder if -- in my specific case -- the author has been watching me live, in order to write this story. I'm a little bit terrified by this book, but only because it's been so long since I've had to face my own cold reality.

I was fully prepared for Sugar Rush to be superficial, gaudy, maybe even as bad as those preposterously graphic porn novels for houswives Wal-Mart sells about ravishing princes and gross idealized rape scenarios. But it wasn't. Not at all. I actually found it to be quite a sincere novel. Far from shallow, it's pretty insightful, verging on brilliant.

It's neither as eloquent nor as romantic as Annie On My Mind, but there's no shame in being beaten by the best. It's a different aesthetic -- one that I'm less fond of. But it's one that is, in all honesty, exceedingly more true to my actual teenage years than Annie is. Annie represents idyllic, perfect love, while Sugar Rush presents a more accurate depiction of the sordid little lives we lead. At its finest moments, Sugar Rush manages to accurately capture the naive, butterflies-in-the-stomach fun of being young, juxtaposed against the horrible rough edges inherent in the coming of age. Side by side you have the light-headed excitment mixed with fear that you get from brand new experiences, when you're young enough to feel like anything can happen; And then comes sorrow, the dread, the existential confusion that accompanies divorce, lost friendships, school. The self-doubt, the unbridled enthusiasm, the awkwardness, the drugs... portrayed just how I really experienced them all as a teen.

I was pleased to find that Maria "Sugar" Sweet wasn't quite the archetypal "popular girl" ruling the school like she had been portrayed in some write-ups. As a matter of fact, her popularity lasts all of about one paragraph, from then on out she's more of an outcast misfit. I certainly have nothing against popular people (love 'em), but two people alone in the world clinging to each other for warmth -- that's my favorite kind of love story. This novel takes a familiar set of angst and imbues it with a new modernity.

SPOILERS

I generally don't find it necessary to delve into spoiler territory in my reviews, but it's impossible to discuss the impact of Sugar Rush without doing so. So I strongly discourage those who have not read the novel, who think they ever might, from reading any further portion of this review.

While an upcoming tragedy was distinctly foreshadowed, I was expecting something categorically different, perhaps an ill-fated out-ing like in a Nancy Garden novel. I think the disastrous and illuminating phone call with Stella is the moment where the reader is supposed to realize Stella and Maria are two terminally selfish, woefully clueless peas in a pod. And I did briefly consider it, but I shrugged it off. You have to understand, my mind was set on this being a love story. An unadventurous straight-A private school prep falls for the informal but passionate city school girl? Where have I seen that before? I was fully expecting this to be the crude, unkempt 00s update of Annie On My Mind. My mind wouldn't let go of the idea that they would end up together until the gangbang scene, putting me right in the mindset of Kim and allowing me to be quite a bit as flabbergasted as she.

It's hard for me to even process this book. I have to look back on scenes like when Maria cheered Kim up after her disastrous school presentation and wonder, in light of the ending... what was the motive there? I suppose Maria was a good friend some of the time, it wasn't ALL about attention. But she still did manipulate Kim. But Maria probably didn't even realize how she was manipulating Kim. That's sort of the point, that she's simply clueless and blind.

Suffice to say, Sugar Rush mirrors what I've gone through quite ferociously. It scarily mimics a few aspects of my history that I have no intention of getting into, but what was most striking about it was the thought process Kim went through. It's not just that she was duped, but that she was duping herself to an extent. She held on to hope longer than a person reasonable should have, looking at everything that Sugar did and figuring out a way to keep believing they were meant for each other. Kim had a conclusion in mind, and morphed the circumstances to support that conclusion, rather than looking at the circumstances and deciphering what they mean. My real life tragic flaw is the very same, when it comes to love I make excuses and manipulate the benefit of the doubt until I can "reasonably" hold on to hope. Until it eventually all tumbles down, when the benefit of the doubt gives way to hard facts.

I'm really glad Zoe and Kim ended up together, though. I was always hoping they would be friends again, I never felt they should have really parted ways in the first place. I was shipping them without ever thinking they had a chance to be together. That confrontation scene at the end was exquisite. All in all I just have to say this novel was impeccable at every turn. The writing was a little odd at moments, but the story was flawless and brilliantly handled.

Now I'm off to embark on "Sweet," the novel's sequel. I'm a very trepid about what territory it might cover (since it was inspired by the portrayal of Sugar in the TV series, rather than the original novel), but with such a steller first book I'm confident it will be excellent.

Update: Sugar Rush the TV Series

Sugar Rush became a hit TV show on the UK's Channel 4 in 2005 & 2006. To prep myself for reading "Sweet," I watched a few episodes of the TV series. As a TV show, it's quite decent. Coming into it blind, I'm certain I would enjoy it a lot. But as a devout fan of the original novel, I find the TV interpretation hard to swallow. It's a show inspired by the characters of Sugar Rush (or even just its premise) rather than being an adaption of Sugar Rush itself. The characters are similar to how they appear in the book, but the plot does not align in the least. Zoe does not even exist in this adaption, although a random character named Saint (Zoe's nickname) begins appearing in season 2. The TV version of Stella never even abandons Kim & the family, thus altering her character dramatically. Basically, the TV version is devoid of every little thing that makes Sugar Rush bloody brilliant. Yet, if I can mentally divorce the show from the source material, I would enjoy the TV version as a quality (though trashy) gay teen drama that came out right around the time we in the US had the stellar South of Nowhere.

Pop 8 Collection

It's here! Couldn't stand to wait as long as I wanted but I did wait longer than the pace of new collections in 2011, at least.

1. Smooth Criminal -- Michael Jackson
2. Decode -- Paramore
3. Sheela-Na-Gig -- PJ Harvey
4. Ms. Jackson -- OutKast
5. Part of Me -- Katy Perry
6. Coming Home -- iCarly Cast
7. He's Mine -- Rodney Atkins
8. Take a Hint -- Liz Gillies & Victoria Justice
9. Party in the USA -- Miley Cyrus
10. Leave It All To Me (Billboard Remix) -- Miranda Cosgrove
11. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) -- Michael Jackson
12. Sugar, We're Goin Down -- Fall Out Boy
13. We Found Love -- Rihanna
14. Skin & Bones -- David J. Roch