Entertainment

August 2010 - Posts

• RED Hearts: Entertainment: Ode to Summer

  By Elizabeth Metzger, 21, reporting from New York, NY, on places where you can be a poet—and a social creature this summer.

  

  From afar, summer always seems like the ideal time to do some writing—suddenly a stretch of time when you have long, gorgeous days to dream, muse, and scribble, poetry or prose, without the pressure of schoolwork. But then it comes, the summer buzz. Not just fireflies and cicadas but friends back from college who want to lounge at the pool, sunbathe in the park, go dancing. The private life of being a writer has never felt so isolating.

  Luckily, if you're a poet, there are places around the country that bridge the divide between hanging out with others and disappearing into your own head. Through a national program called Branching Out: Poetry for the 21st Century, the New York-based Poets House, the Poetry Society of America, and dozens of public libraries have teamed up to create centers, readings, exhibits, and other events that pulse with literary life and communities of inspiration.

  In New York, where I live and the summer's been hot, I like to settle at the Poets House on a cozy couch—with a view of the Hudson River, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty—to browse their amazing showcase of ALL the poetry books published in the past year. You can duck out for an iced latte in the beautiful garden across the street, or (sick of reading?) listen to cool new writers reading their work on Poets House-provided iPods before taking an evening walk to the Village for a live spoken-word performance.

  Poetry no longer has to be for the tortured soul! Instead find a bright and bustling space near you where you can read and listen to writers for free—while you think about your own poetic plans.

  Posted Aug 18 2010, 08:55 PM by admin with no comments

• RED Hearts: Entertainment: A Good Omen Gets Even Better

  By Samantha Gillogly, 21, reporting from West Brookfield, MA, on a 20th-anniversary book about the apocalypse that will rock your world today

  

  A novel about the apocalypse written in 1990 may not sound like it would stay fresh for decades. But Good Omens is the kind of book that deals with fear, fear that the demise of our planet is growing closer every day, in a way that is as painfully relevant today as it was when it was published. War? Third World famine? A massive oil spill? That was then, this is… also now.

  Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Good Omens is the result of a brilliant, one-time collaboration between two master storytellers: Terry Pratchett (author of the Discworld series) and Neil Gaiman (Coraline, Stardust, and many others).

  In a nutshell: Aziraphale and Crowley are two angels (one celestial, the other infernal) who've taken it upon themselves to stop Armageddon. Except they have one week in which to do this. And the Antichrist is a 10-year-old boy. And then there's that messy business of a book of prophecies written by a 17th-century witch who, even in death, seems to know everybody's business.

  Besides the wit and memorable cast of characters (including motorcycle-riding Horsemen of the Apocalypse), what makes this story work so well is its refusal to draw a clear separation between good and evil. Although Aziraphale and Crowley work for opposing supernatural forces, they've developed a close friendship over the millennia based on their mutual fondness of the mortal plane and its bemusing inhabitants. Aziraphale enjoys operas and antique book collecting, while Crowley has a penchant for fine wine and vintage cars; these are sophisticated gentlemen.

  And while legions of angels and demons work hard to nudge events in one or the other's favor, the authors make it very clear that the most powerful force on earth, for better or for worse, is the choices made by individual human beings. Gaiman and Pratchett want us to know that it's up to us to decide if the future we build will be a heaven...or a hell.

  Posted Aug 05 2010, 08:22 PM by admin with no comments