oh em gee

So a few weeks ago I confided in the pages of the EW that I have a weakness for pop punk. Then, oddly, the show I was previewing was canceled. But no matter! A better, sleeker, poppier and, well, gothier show has risen to take its place in my heart:

Alkaline Trio at the Indigo District

I think it still confuses friends that I'm such a nerd for these silly boys in black suits who sing maudlin, sometimes macabre love songs about walls painted black, bitter breakups and washing one's bloody hands at the marina and, every so often, about, like, mushy stuff ("Every Thug Needs a Lady"). "Help Me," the new single (from Agony and Irony, due out July 1) that autoplays on their website, has a little too much mucking about with the vocals on the chorus, but I can take it. Their mastery of the pairing of pop hooks with crunchy guitars and power chords is unmatched; their glossiness just makes all the deathly imagery almost, um, sweet.

Last time I saw the Trio, I got my favorite sweatshirt ripped dancing with the kids. I hope I'm not way too old to do that again.

That sound you hear is me squealing with joy at this bit of news, from Publishers Weekly:

Fantasy author Garth Nix has sold North American rights to three new YA books to Ruth Katcher at HarperCollins Children’s via agent Jill Grinberg, who made the seven-figure deal. The three books include a prequel and a sequel to Nix’s Abhorsen YA fantasy trilogy

If you like fantasy at all, you really ought to read the Abhorsen series, which begins with the amazing Sabriel. (If you were to Google me, you would find a quote about this book from me in a PW piece about very un-put-downable books. No joke.)

Sorry for the lack of blogging. Ballots, you know, they take a lot of time. But things are barreling forward! And blogging shall return to the top of my to-do list shortly.

Superbad is pretty super-good, but I can't help but wonder if I would have liked it as much if it didn't star Michael Cera, whom I have also adored as George-Michael Bluth on Arrested Development and as slightly creepy campus tour guy Dean on Veronica Mars. Cera's a slender, wide-eyed 18-year-old with incredible comic timing and a subtle sense of humor that's hard to pin down. Why, exactly, is it hysterically funny when he runs (in Superbad), or when he tries to explain to his dad that his dud girlfriend is cute (in AD)? (Just say the word "mayonegg" to me and I'll keel over with laughter). Partly it's just that he looks so, so, so, so normal, like your best friend's little brother or the guy who makes those really good vanilla lattes. But he's not normal. He's brilliant.

And he also has a band. A BAND THE ADORABLE GEORGE-MICHAEL BLUTH HAS A BAND.

Ahem. Sorry. Capslock excitement got the best of me there. You can also get more Michael Cera at Clark and Michael, where I am about to watch some funny interwebs TV about Clark and Michael trying to sell a script (at least that is what it says it is about). Also, there is a blog on this site, and Michael Cera most recenly blogged about Beulah, which is a band all people with good taste should like. So clearly he's more than just a pretty face the funniest 18-year-old of his era.

Good lord, it's almost Halloween!

OK, no, not really. But it is the day of the first press release from Portland's Pumpkin Patch, home of the five-acre MAiZE. Yes, spelled like that. It's a little silly, but the actual maze is nothing of the sort. At least if you go during the last three weekends in October, when it's haunted. Some friends and I headed out to the maze a couple of years ago and found ourselves giggling hysterically for a good couple of hours while covered in mud (flip-flops are a no-no; I wound up barefoot, my feet getting an accidental mud bath). We got lost, we chatted up monsters, we got the crap scared out of us a couple of times, and we accidentally almost got a monster in trouble (we thought he had a flask). Remember, kids, the maze is as interactive as you make it. Engage the monsters in conversation! Especially the lonely ones near the end. They just aren't appreciated enough.

Oh, yeah: There's also a 30-foot hay pyramid. What?

From the San Francisco Chronicle comes this utterly brilliant and deeply funny Violet Blue column about Conservative Sexual Fetishes. A tiny, tasty sample:

"Promoting abstinence as a truism over accurate sex information actually acts as a magic golden force field carried by beautiful fairies (the straight kind) to prevent you and everyone who agrees with you from getting HIV/AIDS."

I think I love her. It's a long column, and it's almost this good the whole way through.