Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

I wanted to write this just for you, Uncoolkids.  Our site has become so barren…so lonely…which is really apropos for uncool kids. 

Last night, Prince Street’s McNally Robinson booksellers hosted The Dollar Store Show, the brain-child of Featherproof baby-daddy Jonathan Messinger and Jeremy Sosenko, who no longer co-hosts.  Jonathan sends dollar store items - various types of cheap chutney - to the participating writers, who sit and stare at the glue stick or comic book or show insoles; and stew and wait for the muse to just stop in when it feels like it, the way annoying in-laws do.  Then they write and then they read aloud.  The show is often sold out in Featherproof’s hometown of Chicago, and the Dollar Storeys were recently featured on public radio.  The show, in other words, does not suck. 

Last night’s writers didn’t disappoint.  Scott Snyder’s story took a sinister turn, which quieted the audience enough to hear the mohawked barista churning lattes behind us.  Bryan Charles story captured the mood of the common aching in relationships so well that it seemed uncommon.  Toby Carroll’s tale was inspired by an old walking cane, propped up on the table beside him, and the story was really well-done…but who knew that dollar stores sold wooden walking canes?

Then Jonathan Messinger read “Bicycle Kick” from his newly released collection of short stories, ”Hiding Out”.  It was a funny story about a guy who discovers he is a walking time bomb with two brain aneurysms, after suffering a soccer injury from another guy who will most likely live out his life with relative ease and fluidity.  Messinger’s language blends the affectedness of the children of the eighties with the simplicity of a timeless writer.  I haven’t finished the entire book yet, but the stories in “Hiding Out” are so engaging that I actually wish my train ride was longer so I could keep reading…even Bay Ridge to the Bronx wouldn’t be long enough.     

In A Mighty Heart, one scene reoccurs several times. Friends and family of Daniel Pearl, the kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter, add to chart full of leads and links to his disappearance. By the end, the whole dry erase board is full of scribbles and arrows. It’s hard to determine what follows what.

The same could be said for the movie, an adaptation of Mariane Pearl’s best-selling book. Mariane (Angelina Jolie) and Daniel Pearl (Dan Futterman), married and with a kid on the way, were reporters based in Pakistan in the months after the events of September 11, 2001. Daniel left for an interview on January 23, 2002 and never returned, despite the frantic attempts of Pakistani and U.S. law officials and Mariane’s family and friends to track him.

Mariane Pearl has said that she meant the book to serve as a way for her son Adam to know his father, but Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation doesn’t come close to accomplishing her original mission. Instead, he spends a majority of the film on the search for Daniel Pearl. It’s hard to become involved in this subject when—unless you lived under a cave in 2002—you know Daniel Pearl’s fate, and when the same situation could easily befall an international reporter any day now. Does anyone remember what could have happened Jill Carroll?

Allow me to be clear. I’m not saying that movies should gloss over recent history, but in this case A Mighty Heart offers us little edifying information, the way a book like Lawrence Wright’s brilliant The Looming Tower did. And it doesn’t serve as a jarring reminder to honor heroes the way Paul Greengrass’ United 93 did. Again, the notable thing of A Mighty Heart is that we come out of it knowing next to nothing about Daniel Pearl. He was certainly brave, but how? What kind of husband was he? What was he like as a co-worker? Was he scared being a stranger in a hostile land? Any answers to these questions would have given us a new perspective on a tragic world event; instead it feels more like the glossy hooey of World Trade Center.

Jolie isn’t to blame here. She gives a sturdy, credible performance as Mariane Pearl. And she doesn’t look like she’s ready for a Maxim photo shoot, which was one of the many flaws of The Good Shepherd. (No circa 1950 housewives looked like her. Hell, how many housewives in 2007 do?) Through her coping of the day-to-day uncertainty of her husband’s future, coupled with a media blitz, we get some idea of what Daniel Pearl meant to her, even if the movie doesn’t clearly offer that.

RATING: (2 out of 4 stars)

Movie Website:

http://uncoolkids.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/rent_stair.jpg

For anyone who looks for cool bookstores the way “normal” people might look for say, the hot new club or the best French bistro look no further! Housing Works Used Book Cafe in Soho is everything you have ever wanted and never new you needed. The bookstore is a two level haven of cheap used books, rare collectibles and new must haves. The space is cozy and calming, chairs and tables are scattered over both floors inviting you to spend the afternoon. In the back is a full on cafe with great coffee, soups in the winter, pastries and more chairs and tables at which to sip coffee and enjoy whatever great book you’ve found to settle down with.
As if a killer book selection, a calm, comfy atmosphere and a prime Soho location weren’t enough, Housing Works is also host to many events– concerts, readings and the like. This Sunday they hosted the 8th annual Lit Mag Fair. For any literary snob or book-happy nerd (both qualities I consider compliments rather than insults), this is a euphoric experience. The store is filled with tables and tables or Literary Journals… all for only two dollars. Any for those of us who read (and submit writing to) these journals, we know these mags usually run us a ridiculous twenty dollars. I went Lit Mag crazy and bought seven journals full of the best new writers.
The only downside of the event is that it is billed as a networking opportunity but was not necessarily set up to accommodate that goal. Though magazine editors wandered the bookstore with name tags on it was not easy to approach them. It would have been better to have the editors stationed at booths, to facilitate interaction rather than making it awkward for writers and editors to find each other.
Nonetheless, it was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and Housing Works is a place I will return to often.

BookExpo America — or as we insiders like to shorten it, BEA — is like “The Convention” episode of The Office. Just like Michael Scott, publishers go to BEA to schmooze with industry bigwigs to get the cheapest paper stock and discover The Next Big Thing — please something other than The Secret — but really it’s all about the SWAG.

For the definition of SWAG, go here. It basically refers to the free promotion junk publishers give away in order to entice potential retailers to their booths. Hundreds of booths are set up in Jacob Javits Convention Center, and attendees run around like mice in a maze looking for the proverbial cheese.

Almost all publishers offered catalogues of their products and cheap candy — boring – but many also had full-length books, buttons, and notesbooks. Some publishers got creative, though. Among the highlights:

Apart from the SWAG and catching up with other book nerds, there were some costumed characters cloying for attention but not much else worth mentioning to anyone who wasn’t there with a specific agenda. BEA is a madhouse, and it’s best to have a strong game plan if you want to make any business deals.

Have you noticed that the reviews section has been a bit thin lately?
Well, that’s because most of our writers have moved onto bigger and brighter projects.
But, that’s good news for you. . .

Do you go out a lot?
Do you often wish that you could go out for free?
Do you like to judge others and share your opinions?

Then you could be an UNCOOLKID.

We’re looking for UNIQUE, OPINIONATED voices. Spelling and grammer are not as important as personality and descriptive powers. We pay $5 a post for 6-8 posts a month, plus the cost of the event (but not the liquor you may end up consuming at said event). The only catch is that you have to write your review within 24 hours of attending, or the post doesn’t count towards your 6 post minimum (which you have to make to get paid).

Sounds good? Sounds easy? Sounds fun?
It is!

Send us a writing sample. It doesn’t have to be an event, but it does need to be a review. If we think you’re funny, we’ll write you back.

Submissions should be sent IN an email (no attachments) to reviewerjob@uncoolkids.com

Hey everybody check out the UNCOOLKIDS interview at The Blog Reader.

A dollar can’t buy a lot of things these days; a soda, a newspaper. But if 75,000 people all pitch in, those dollars can go to a completely useless yet hilarious cause:
Get Hasselhoff to Number 1

“Sign up to our campaign to get the Hoff to number one in the UK download chart by first registering your e-mail address to show your support. When we have 75000 sign ups, The Hoff Alert will be sent, tipping you the wink that it’s time… Time to buy David Hasselhoff’s awesome masterpiece “Looking for Freedom” from iTunes. This will then shoot his single deep into the download charts, thus generating musical history.”

Thanks to Lindsayism.com for pointing this out

Anybody still out there?

Well get ready, UNCOOLKIDS will begin posts again starting Monday.

Don’t pretend like you haven’t been waiting for this.

Regular visitors may notice that the site looks a lot different, well here’s why . . .

UNCOOLKIDS is in the middle of a major overhaul. We’re changing servers, building an events database, redesigning the layout; it’s a very exciting time.

Unfortunately it means the content of the site may be a little bare for the next couple of weeks. Reviews have temporarily been suspended. The events will continue be updated (you can access them through the ‘What’s happening this week tab’ above) but they will not be of the quality you have grown to expect.

But it is all TEMPORARY. We appreciate your continued visits, and hope that when all this is over you love the changes as much as we do.

So keep checking back, and if you have any suggestions, this is the time to let us know.

Thanks,

The UNCOOLKIDS Team

Uncoolkids won’t be updated any more this week cause we got some of those $9 tickets to the Bahamas.

I’d like to say that we’ll be thinking of you while we’re sipping pina coladas on the beach, but we probably won’t.

Enjoy your week, we’ll see you next Monday.