High School Musical

Or Musicale as it is oft pronounced in the film. Yes I have finally gotten around to watching this mega hit. I have to admit that there is nothing a teen movie needs more than a choreographed dance number, preferably during a prom scene. Well HSM has no prom but it has plenty of musical numbers and large group dance routines which are my personal favourites.

So the storyline is pretty basic. There is a kind of creepy brother/sister team who are the king and queen of the musicale theatre in the school. There is the star of the basketball team and the new girl. The basketball guy Troy, played quite well by Zac Ephron, meets the new girl Gabriella at some sort of resort during the Xmas break. They are forced to share a karaoke duet and sing crazy well. When Troy returns to school he is interested in the musical but is terrified that he will be teased to death. Admittedly in high school I hung out with the nerds who were happy to participate in our Shakespeare productions but I think even they would have shied away from musicals.  Troy is very happy to discover that Gabriella has just transfered to his school (what a coincidence). Together they try to take on the stereotyping and compartmentalizing which happens in all high schools.

So what did I think? I enjoyed this movie, although I have to admit that I did not give it my full attention. Like some musicals I found the parts where they weren’t singing mind of slow. As other reviews have discussed it is really nice to see people under the age of the 30 playing high school kids. This movie is definitely a fun time and you know that many 13 girls and others will wear out the DVD especially with the sing along version which provides you with the lyrics. It may not be the best plot but the message is good, do what ever the hell makes you happy. Something more high school kids need to here.

Quality – 3.5/5
Popularity – 6/5

Bride & Prejudice

As the musical is the genre of the moment (see High School Musical) and I have a love of the Brit and Bollywood I chose this film to review. Bride and Prejudice is a re-telling of Pride and Prejudice but it is fairly loose. There is a guy called Mr. Darcy and many miscommunications occur but you do not need to be familiar with the book to get the film.

Lalita is the main character, the head-strong second eldest of four daughters. Lalita’s mother wants nothing more to marry her daughters off to successful Indian boys who preferably live in America. During many discussions about marriage and love there are the necessary song and dance routines. Lalita meets Mr. Darcy and American friend of a wedding guest, he and Lalita are at odds almost instantly. Darcy sees Lalita’s family as gold diggers and she sees him as an arrogant Westerner. Cultural barrier and stereotypes replace the class discussions of the original.

I enjoyed this film for itself and not a “re-make” of Austen’s work. The song and dance numbers were fantastic, including the hilarious “no life without wife”. I’m sure that this movie would appeal to a certain group of teens but probably not all of them. You could also sell this film to some LOST fans as it stars Naveen Andrews who plays Sayid. I would definitely consider including this in a collection, especially in areas where it wouldn’t be held in the video store.

Audience: 13+ (girls primarily) Rated PG-13
Ranking: Quality 4/5 Popularity 3.5/5

Burning London

This tribute album has a variety of artists including No Doubt, Ice Cube, Third Eye Blind and Moby. They cover classic Clash songs, like “London’s Burning” and “White Man in Hammersmith Palais” in a variety of styles.

Some of these covers work pretty well. I liked Ice Cube and Mack 10’s rendition of “Should I Stay or Should I go” and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones do a good job of “Rudie can’t fail”. But others I had to ship through. I couldn’t listen to No Doubt’s “Hateful”, or Cracker’s “White Riot” with a country twang. On one hand it is interesting to listen to tribute albums to see how new artists work with this classic material, but on the other hand I often just wanted to hear the original. I would recommend that libraries should just add the original albums or a “best of” rather than a tribute album. The tributes date much more quickly as the “hot bands” selected fade out of popularity.

Age Range: 13+
Ranking: Quality – 3/5 Popularity – 2/5

Stratford (Ontario) Public Library

The site

This site seemed so promising. OK it’s not super cool but it seemed pretty simple and sleek, but perhaps a little childish. The site covers a broad range of topics: magazines, entertainment, books, sports, online resources, study sites, jobs, college and your library. I was very disappointed to find out that all the pages were just sets of links. There was little original content and some of the links were sort of questionable. I found that the original content that did exist was rather condescending discussing things like how they will work with you if you have fines, or how it’s “HIP” to use the library catalogue.

Audience: 14+ according to website (12+ according to me)
Ranking: 2/5

So Much for the City – The Thrills

The Thrills are described as an indie/rock band from Dublin. This debut album is very California heavy with songs like “Big Sur” and “Santa Cruz (you’re not that far)”, inspired from their vacation in San Diego. This strong California influence lead to the band being featured on The O.C., in seasons one and two. This album is pretty mellow overall with catchy tunes that stick in your head but don’t bug you. The Thrills list their influences as Dylan and the Beach Boys and I can see that from this album. Even their upbeat songs have a touch of that melancholy that bands like Coldplay made famous.

I am a pretty big fan of Brit Rock which is why I jumped on this album when I saw it in the HPL YA collection. I’m not sure how big The Thrills still are with the teens but they are still producing albums, their third is on the way (according to their MySpace page). This is a pretty good album for lazy summers or even just chillin’ in your room. This wasn’t my taste in music as a teen but I’m sure some of them would like it. Even without The O.C. I don’t think that California will ever go out of style.

Age range: 14+
Ranking: Quality – 4/5 Popularity – 3/5

Seattle Public Library – Teens

The Site

This website is for the Seattle Public Library system and does fit within a corporate branding. I do like the branding as it very clear and easy to use. There is a panel where the teen librarians can highlight resources for a specific topic, like Black History Month. Also at the centre of the page there is a place to highlight YA News, which seemed to be upcoming events. The site had most of the standard pages including homework help, databases and websites as well as job listings. One of my favourite features of this site was the “Teens’ Reading Lists”. Not only does this site list general fiction for high and middle school but it also has some special interest lists, like African American Fiction. I loved that it includes a huge number of “top ten reads” in a variety of genres, including adult books for teens, adventure, biography, humour. These lists include short reviews of the books, cover art and a direct link to the catalogue. I also liked that some of the lists were a bit more general like “his reality” and “her reality”. The librarians also have a list of picks under there name. I liked that each of the teen librarians are allowed to have their own personality and are referred to by their first names. This way teens can know that they tend to like the books that Amy picks, but not those that Chance does. Allowing the librarians to be individuals (rather than the “librarian”) makes them more real and approachable.

I liked that this library site provided print, electronic, in-library and on-line resources to the teens. I much prefer the fact that they give the patrons the choice of how they want to access the information rather than assuming that teens will do it all on-line. Many of the website links provided are very interesting including health sites, games sites and serious homework sites.

Audience: 12+
Ranking: 4/5

Degrassi – TNG

I have been a pretty big fan of Degrassi since it came on the scene, hands up all of you who saw the “Kids of Degrassi Street”. I have also watched the new Degrassi off and on, especially during the summer when my evenings were often filed with too much TV. Anyway I would like to discuss the 2 episode section that dealt with JT’s exit from the show. For those of you who don’t know JT is the class clown and ex-kids show presenter who I liked as a side character but not much of a main guy. Well that was before he got his girlfriend Liberty, class brainiac and president of everything, pregnant. Liberty basically shut JT out during the pregnancy but they ended up together in the end. Well after a disastrous moving out together financed by the fact that JT stole Oxycodone and sold it to the local drug dealer things went pear-shaped. I don’t know all the details of this because I was back in school. Apparently Liberty gave their son up for adoption and life went on as “usual”? Then JT started dating the new girl, Mia, who had a daughter. So Liberty basically lost it.

In these last two episodes you find out that JT likes Mia, but he still loves Liberty. In fact he is discussing this with his friend, Toby, at an out of control party that was originally for Liberty. JT decides to go after Liberty when she leaves the party but finds some guys from another school peeing on his car. There is a brief tousle during which JT gets stabbed, and of course Liberty finds him. We find out at the hospital that JT is dead. This was almost an anticlimactic ending as CTV felt it necessary to keep telling us that “Degrassi” was going to lose one of it’s own”. As everyone tries to figure out how to mourn JT Toby has to decide what to do with the information about JT’s feelings. The new girl is acting like the widow, Liberty doesn’t seem to be sure how to act. Some bad advice from other Degrassi-ites leads Toby to keep JT’s feelings secret. But as always it comes out eventually and then Liberty can mourn.

I found that the best character development in this story arc took place in Liberty. At the end she seemed to be mourning the loss of JT and their son and perhaps things will go better for her from now on. I have always liked the way that Degrassi deals with realistic if not always real life situations. I found that the dynamic of mourning a boyfriend, ex-boyfriend really interesting. It isn’t something that you think of too often. I guess we only assign the role of widow if people have been together for a significant amount of time. I also liked that once JT’s feelings were out in the open Liberty and Mia can come together more, they could almost share JT. Degrassi is for me the epitome of teen programming. It is all about the teens, unlike the OC. It is pretty much the right balance of serious issues and fluff.

Audience: 13+ (although the earlier episodes would be 10+)
Ranking: Quality 4.5/5 Popularity 5/5