The Twelve Posts of Christmas: Tinsel Here, There And Everywhere

I'm pretty much a low-key sort of person in regards to decorations.

A tiny tree that will fit on a desk, a sprinkle of tinsel, maybe some fairy lights and voila I'm done.

Some people on the other hand can and do go full-on.

From the Christmas tree with everything...

... to a house that glows so much that you've got to wonder about their power bill...

... and if they can sleep at night, what with all the lights and things glaring in their face.

 Pretty to look at but terrible to live with.

I'll think I'll stick to a much simpler and less expensive Christmas.  Like maybe a book tree?

Of course if I was remotely crafty I would also make my own Christmas decorations.

Like maybe these superhero ornaments to hang off your tree

 Then again it just sounds like too much work.

Of course for those of you who are crafty maybe some of these books will give you decorating inspiration.

Martha Stewart eat your heart.

Washi Tape Christmas : Easy Holiday Craft Ideas with Washi Tape

Christmas decorations.  Made out of tape.

Now that is my kind of Christmas craft
 
Trim the Tree : Christmas Ornaments to Stitch

Just as I am not a shopper, I am also not a stitcher. 

Me and sewing go hand in hand like gasoline and a match with pretty much the same effect, in other words a disaster.

Trust me you don't want me anywhere a needle and thread.

Natural Christmas Crafts

I really like the candle decorations on the front cover of this book.

If only I was a crafter...

Have Yourself a Homemade Christmas

A play on that Christmas song, Gooseberry the publishers of this book have been churning out Christmas craft books and cookbooks for years now.

I must admit I'm very tempted to check this out, just for the Christmas cookies alone.

Handcrafted Christmas : Ornaments, Decorations, and Cookie Recipes to Make at Home

And finally another Christmas craft book.

Because you can never have too many.

Feeling inspired yet?

The Twelve Posts of Christmas: A Clickty Click Christmas or I Hate Shopping

I'm not a shopper.  I am, in truth, hopeless at it.  There's the walking from shop to shop trying to find something I like and then if I do find something, I generally find two somethings which means of course making a decision, which is so not me, and then there's the inevitable shopper's remorse which always kicks in afterwards.

As you can see me and shopping just don't go together.  Give me a good book or movie or TV show any day.

Recently though I've discovered a slightly easier way of shopping... Online.  And it is so much easier. Well sort of... I still have trouble choosing and still get a touch of buyer's remorse afterwards.

Maybe next year I should just hire a personal shopper to do it for me.

Still if you're like me and looking for gift ideas of your book lover maybe some of these will help.

Bookmarks

You can never have too many bookmarks.

Especially if you're like me and have several books on the go at the same time.

Of course finding bookmarks is pretty easy but finding unusual or quirky bookmarks takes a little bit of research.

I kinda love these ones.

They just fit that quirky bill.  And even better there are lots of other designs.



Book Necklace

Bookriot is one of my favourite websites.

There are book reviews, book lists, book tales and of course book gifts, courtesy of their Book Fetish column which features all sorts of weird and wonderful gift ideas.

This is one that is actually a Bookriot gift and it's pretty awesome.

I'm almost tempted to get one for myself.

Which is part of the fun in hunting out gifts.

Banned Books Socks

I love socks.

All kinds of socks.

It's kind of my thing.  So as you can imagine I'm always looking out for unique and interesting sock designs, usually something geeky and hopefully pretty and colourful.

These banned books socks may be in just black and white but they are still neat.

Just another thing to add to my own personal shopping list.  Sigh...

Library Due Date Underwear

The people on Etsy are just amazing.

The things they design are truly inspired.  How do they come up with them I have no idea.
But that's okay because really all that matters is that you can buy pretty much anything in hundreds of thousands of designs, from Supernatural to Teen Wolf to Jane Austen.

Being the Librarian that I am it probably comes as no surprise that these caught my eye.  Because how could they not.

Hunger Games Nail Polish

Hunger Games fan?

Or shopping for a Hunger Games fan?

Then these nail polishes may be just the thing you are looking for.

Because yeah they are Hunger Games inspired nail polish.

Who knew?

Comic Hero iPhone Covers

Batman versus Superman.

It's one of those life questions that always comes up.  Personally I'm more of a Batman fan but that's okay because yes there is a Batman iPhone cover too.

Superman just looked a little bit more colourful and awesome for the blog post.

Sorry Batman.

The Book Seat

Yes someone somewhere came up this idea.

A seat to perch your book on so you can keep your hands free to snack and drink as you read.

Books have never been treated so well.




Book Rest Reading Lamp

Pretty and practical too.  A book rest that has a dual purpose as a light.

Reading in the dark has never looked so cool.

Though I do wonder about the fire hazard...

Bookopoly Board Game

Finally a gift for the book lover who has everything.

A board game that is sort of like monopoly but not.

Voice of an angel - Anja Nissen

I usually only watch The Voice Australia for the "Blind Auditions". However this time round (Series 3) I got rather attached to two of the competitors, Anja Nissen and Sabrina Batshon, which kept me watching the series right up to the finale.

Anja knocked out all other contestants and became the 2014 winner of the The Voice, Australia. The finale had me on the edge of my seat, biting my nails, in the hopes of her winning.

If you have ever heard Anja sing, you will undoubtedly understand why she is said to have the voice of an angel.

After winning the show, Anja became signed to the will.i.am Music Group. She lists her influences as Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin,Celine Dion and Mariah Carey.

On 1^st August 2014 Anja released the self-titled debut album released through Universal Music Australia. The album consists of covers of songs performed on The Voice, as well as four new covers.

After reading reviews about the album it would seem it was a bit of a flop. However I wonder if that was partly due to lack of promotion as I had no idea the CD had been released until I stumbled upon it at the Waiuku Library. All bad reviews aside, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the wonders that is Anja’s voice. Yes the songs are covers, however they are still beautifully sung and are mesmerizing to listen to.

You can find the CD on the Auckland Libraries website here

Here is a sample of her beautiful voice.

The Twelve Posts of Christmas: Let the Madness Commence...

As some of you may know I have a thing about Christmas.  Or more exactly the Christmas of my fantasies.  You know the kind.

A  roaring fire, a glittering Christmas tree, a hunky guy and of course lots and lots of snow. Sadly because we have a serious lack of the later here in New Zealand I've always been a little lacklustre about celebrating Christmas.

That is until this year.

Now, suddenly, I am a Christmas maniac.  Forget about the snow, there are, I have discovered, a million other ways to have a fantasy Christmas.

#nzsecretsanta

For the first time in my life I am being a Secret Santa courtesy of twitter.  And it's awesome.

You get someone and someone gets you and you try to learn what their likes and dislikes are just from reading their tweet stream.  It can, as you can imagine, be something of a challenge.  Which is half the fun.  Personally I can't wait to see what my Secret  Santa gift giver is going to get me.

O' Christmas Tree

I have a tree.

It's not a very big tree.  But still I HAVE a tree.

On my desk.

At work.

And it's super cute.  And o so Christmasy. And glittering.

And it seems kinda perfect that Dean Winchester from my all time favourite show (aka Supernatural) is in the background too.

Shop Until You Drop Or Let Your Fingers Do The Walking

I hate shopping.  And I hate Christmas shopping even more. But this year I've gotten smart. Because online is the way.

With just a click I can shop at my favourite stores such as T2 and Typo and new discovery Society6, which has all sort of fangirly gifts. Why I didn't do this sooner I have no idea.


Christmas Under The Stars

I've always had a thing for the night sky.  And added to my Christmas dream is the dream to one day see the Aurora Borealis. In Scandinavia no less.

Going to the Auckland Stardome at Christmas time seems kinda perfect somehow. Even better you can bring along something to donate to the City Mission or the SPCA.

How cool is that

Movies in the Park

Every year I've been meaning to go and every year I somehow miss it.  This year though I am determined to go.

Because a movie. Outside. Under the stars.

And that's another one crossed off the fantasy list.

Secret Heroes

“Some guys got it down … secret heroes…Tom Waits… I listen more to that kind of stuff than whatever is popular at the moment, they’re not. Just witch-doctoring up the planet, they don’t set up barriers…”

 - Bob Dylan interviewed by Cameron Crowe for the Biograph boxset, 1985.

I half-remembered this quote recently when listening to Tom Waits and wondered what being a 'secret hero' might mean.

He's a ‘secret hero’ perhaps because he's too intense or eccentric for a wider audience, but the power of his music ripples through the art form by way of covers and  the respect he's gets from other, much more famous, practitioners. 

He’s a master of his craft, content to wander the back roads looking to the past for his inspiration; to the blues, folk, the music-hall and beyond. If you know it, his voice is instantly recognizable. It can be a mighty roar, a tender croon or a wild man's howl he uses to bring the misfits, loners and losers of his songs to life. 

Possibly Tom Waits’ songs are better known than him. Most people know Rod Stewart's cover of ‘DowntownTrain’ or Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Jersey Girl’ cover or some may be familiar with Scarlet Johansson’s entire album of Tom Waits songs.

My favourite Waits album is Swordfishtrombones(‘83)  With this album Waits started to get more adventurous with his songs and broke with the jazzy-bluesy gin/whiskey/beer-soaked nighthawk image that he’d built up through the 70s.

Waits become more of a shapeshifter, more of a restless explorer with this album. He got more adventurous with the instruments he used; the arrangements of his songs; the stories he told. He could still conjure a heart-breaking piano ballad like Soldier’s Things,  when inspired. But there are also songs like Shore Leave which uses avant-garde instruments and traditional African and Balinese percussion to forge an eerily beautiful tale of a sailor wandering the streets of Hong Kong missing his wife.

After this followed an incredible run of albums for Waits: Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years culminating in the brilliant, wild Bone Machine.

And he’s still kicking - with Bad as Me (2011) Waits finds new ways of exploring old themes and inhabiting a rich array of characters, still impossible to pin down, to predict but somehow always Tom Waits. Or as Neil Young described him when Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame in 2011…

Thinking about Tom Waits and some of the enduring themes of his work, the affinity with outcasts, the formal mastery and experimentation made me think of another ‘secret hero’; Finnish film-maker Aki Kaurismaki.

Kaurismaki’s films often deal with society’s most downtrodden members and like Waits, he displays a deep compassion for the suffering for those on the fringes of society.He has a common fan in American film-maker Jim Jarmusch who has paid tribute to Kaurismaki directly in his wonderful film Night on Earth (soundtrack by Tom Waits) His influence can also be felt in the work of Wes Anderson and Richard Ayoade amongst others.

A good place to start, if new to his work, is Le Havre  his most recent film. The film is the tale of a young African illegal immigrant who hides out in the French port town of Le Havre  after escaping Police. The film weaves threads of prisoner-on-the-run-thriller with wry social commentary all shot-through with Kaurismaki's  extraordinarily deadpan wit and minimalist style.

The rhythm of his films can seem a little jarring at first, as listening to Wait’s music can too in a different way, you need to be patient for the rich rewards that will come if you give them a chance.

 William T Volmann was someone else that I thought of when thinking about the idea of a‘Secret hero’ He doesn’t fit so nicely into place next to Waits as Kaurismaki does. I'd be hard pressed to really liken anybody to him.

Vollmann’s  books plunge headlong the deepest, darkest corners of America and other parts of the world. Vollmann writes fiction and non-fiction often blending both. Vollmann frequently crosses boundaries that other journalists or writers would never go near. He deeply immerses himself in the lives of the people he chooses to write about.
He’s explored the lives of freight-train hopping hobos, meditated on poverty, drug use and prostitution and published a seven volume essay on violence, (usefully collected into a single volume.)

One of my favourites The Rainbow Stories mixes his experiences with ‘boot-woman’ the girlfriends of neo-Nazi skinheads, prostitutes and drug-addicts in his neighbourhood with strangely beautiful fictional stories.

Vollmann’s  output is vast and far-reaching (I’ve barely scratched the surface).  While there is a level of accessibility to Waits and Kaurismaki’s work, Vollmann’s asks a bit more of the audience.
But like Waits and Kaurismaki he is a 'secret hero' to more popular writers like David Foster Wallace and Jonathan Franzen.