Chris

Would be better if it were written in the styling of A Clockwork Orange? It couldn't fix the terrible story or poor characterization, but it would make it more fun to read without all that purple prose.

Here's a Clockwork Synopsis of Twilight:

Bella is a devotchka is moving away from her Em to stay with her Pee for a while in a little town called Forks. This Bella, she itties off to her new skolliwol where she catches the glazzies of all the malchicks. But when she viddies Edward, a beautiful malchick dressed in the height of fashion, she is instantly interessovated.

She soon learns that Edward has an interessovat in her as well, but he thinks they'd be best alone. It turns out, O reader, Edward is a vampire with the strength of ten malchicks and skin so hard no britva could ever skirk it. Because of this he's afraid to give her the ol' in out in case he tolchocks her too hard and makes her itty off to Bog and all his angels.

But this is not the only problem, O my brothers and droogs, for Edward is especially attracted to the von of Bella's krovvy, in his own slavos "You are my personal brand on moloko plus."

Should I be alarmed now?

What are some myths that have permeated rock and roll history despite being untrue?

I'll start off with one i hear a lot around here:

Bob Dylan turned the Beatles onto marijuana. I'm reading the book Magical Mystery Tours -- My Life With the Beatles by Tony Bramwell, a childhood friend of John, Paul, and George before they even started the band, and just kind of hung around with them as they got famous. In the part I just read P.J. Proby went partying with John, an experience where John got so drunk and high that he ended up puking in a bathtub. The story is followed by the quote "And this was still several months away from the hot August night when Bob Dylan would be famously credited with turning the Beatles on, in a New York hotel."

At another part, earlier in the book far before The Beatles were even known in America said that The Beatles "fell upon weed like rabbits," and that they never really thought of it as illegal, just naughty in a schoolboyish way.

I'm interested to see what you guys come up with :)

seems kinda bleak

Hi everybody, I'm currently writing a novel and was just wondering about the word count.

I'm currently about 45,000 words into mine and still have quite a ways to go.

Now I know that 50,000 words is a short novel, but I don't know what it looks like. I know that length based on word count varies from novel to novel, but could someone give approximate page length for a 50k and 100k word novel? Or maybe some examples of books that are about those lengths? I just want to have some idea of how long my novel would be in book format once it was all finished.

thanks in advance

I'm gonna start by saying I would not consider myself a poet. I don't make a habit out of writing poetry, I'm more of a prose kind of guy, and more of an artist than a writer in general.

However one night I couldn't sleep (when my best artistic material is usually created) and I ended up with the picture in the link. The picture actually came first, and I wrote the poem around it. Now the thing is I'm usually a critic of poetry like what I just wrote... no rhyme scheme, no meter... I tend to think of it more as an elaborate caption to the picture, but nonetheless somewhat interesting.

But that's my two cents, what do you guys think?

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k224/cm6890/?act...

So I'm drawing a picture of my girlfriend for Valentine's Day (for those of you who have seen Napoleon Dynamite it says "there's plenty more where this came from if you'll be my Valentine.") Anyway what do you think of my drawing?

Some shading detail was lost when I took the picture (it happens) but the original isn't too different than what you see here. I know it's not perfect, especially around the mouth, and I'm looking for some constructive criticism. There's still plenty of time for me to draw a better draft

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k224/cm6890/?act...

In my art class in high school every time someone completed a pencil drawing my teacher would spray it down with some stuff that kept it from smudging, does anyone know what this is/ where I can find some/ how expensive it is?

Also is there anything else that could be used as an equivalent? Hairspray maybe?

So I got bored the other day and was playing around in Photoshop and modified a picture of John Lennon. I know it's nothing spectacular and actually pretty simple, but I really like it in spite of (or maybe because of) its simplicity. What do you guys think of it? If I may say so myself, I'd buy it if it were a poster (I'm usually not so self-praising I promise)

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k224/cm6890/?act...

MQ: Whose solo work of the original Beatles do you like the best? Why?

I hafta go with John Lennon... I like how introspective and poetic he is (like Imagine), and the way he sings about things in his life (Jealous Guy, Beautiful Boy.) I really don't like Yoko though... his albums are better without her songs.

BQ: just for kicks what do you think of the photoshop i did of Lennon?

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k224/cm6890/?act...

One of my favorite things about an album is the last track. Here you have the ability to slow everything down, tie down the theme of the whole cd, and try to make one last statement to the listener.

MQ: Which of these two songs do you think is a better closer (they're probably my two favorite right now)

Rock n Roll Suicide -- David Bowie (Rise and Fall) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jg4ekLG9Zo

or

Goodnight Ladies -- Lou Reed (Transformer) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5b5vlVi-aI

BQ: Any other great album closers you wanna throw in... special mentions :) some of mine:

Butterfly -- Weezer (Pinkerton)

Outside the Wall -- Pink Floyd (The Wall)

All Apolgies -- Nirvana (In Utero)

Ocean -- Led Zeppelin (Houses of the Holy)

Who is your favorite artist between David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed and why?

This is a toughie for me, I love and respect all three, specifically the work they were doing in the late '60s and '70s. If I had to choose I would go with Lou by a hair with David right behind. I love Iggy Pop, and he probably has the most interesting personality (even that's a close call,) but his music doesn't take me places like the other two.

BQ: is this picture fantastic or what?

http://polyesterrag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/20...

What are some covers of songs that you think are standout, as good as or better than the originals? I love when a band takes a great song and just puts their own spin on things as opposed to just redoing it exactly like the original. Link to it if you can :)

Here are some of mine

David Bowie doing the White Light White Heat (Velvet Underground)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG6io3ndyGk&feature...

The Killers doing Romeo and Juliet (Dire Straits)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87cLyBR1JTo

Nirvana doing The Man Who Sold the World (Bowie)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=209ArurxVG4

Jimi Hendrix doing All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brHE9sNWdYY

I find the idea of it interesting if apalling...

A Velvet Underground album recorded without Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, or Moe Tucker (who was technically a member of the band still, yet absent from the recording.)

No, this album is written entirely by John Cale's poppy, uninteresting replacement Doug Yule, performed by him and studio musicians and released under the Velvet's name by some tragic flaw in music rights laws.

And while I already have quite an opinion about the album (can you tell?) I'd like to hear it for myself and see what it's all about.

As for my question... has anyone here heard it? What did you think of it? If you pretend its not a VU album is it any good?

I'm 18 years old, I've never had any problem with insomnia in the past. When I first moved in to college I was staying up later but not terribly so, maybe 12:30-1:30 in the morning before I went to bed.

but

as I've been here longer I keep staying up later. Nowadays I rarely get to sleep before 4 am. I try but i just can't fall asleep, i lay on my bed in that kind of half-asleep state for hours at a time. It's 6:45 now and im just starting to get really drowsy...

But as soon as I go home (for breaks or whatever) I'm back on track. At college I can spend a week trying to fix my schedule and only set it back a few hours (so im asleep by 2-3) then i go home for a day and Im in bed by midnight again like normal...

could it just be my bed (at home its really comfortable, here not so much) or is it something else? something psychological? physiological?

you've got your ipod (itunes, mp3 player, whatever) on shuffle...

and a really great song comes on

but

its one of those songs that bleeds seamlessly into the song after it (Big Brother by Bowie, most of the second half of Abbey Road, whatever) and instead it launches into something that it doesn't fit with?

I just listened to Golden Slumbers (The Beatles of course) bleed seamlessly and shamelessly into All Apologies (Nirvana.)

Two fantastic songs, but it was a crazy mixture

My head collapsed, but there's nothing in it...

:(

I'm just wondering how popular he is here on Y!A... He's from Australia but he made a bit of a breakthrough here in the US with The Book Thief.

I've read all of his books (even the one only published in Australia, my girlfriend bought a copy online) and he's just fantastic. His prose is beautiful, almost poetic and he usually has a very good/ powerful message tied in as well. Plus each book he writes is better than the last.

His books include the Wolfe trilogy (The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, and When Dogs Cry (published as Getting the Girl in the US)) also I Am The Messenger and of course his magnum opus The Book Thief

Okay the thing is I'm writing a book, I'm about 38,000 words into it now so I'm actually making some progress :)

Anyway, It's a vampire book (something I'm afraid to admit considering the Twilight rage going on... I hate those books.) which is told from the first person POV of a vampire created in 1919 and going until present day and as I look at what I have written and what I have planned it's really not a happy ending.

I mean, good still defeats evil (evil being the vampire the narrator created) and I think it has a good message... The thing is he never really lets go of his humanity like other vampires do which causes him a lot of suffering (imagine killing a person every day for like 96 years and feeling guilt for it... not to mention when he gets attached to humans they meet bad ends.) The real point of my story is he's better off than other vampires for having kept his humanity despite the additional suffering he's gone through because he's allowed himself to not become a total monster.

But to my question, do you like books about personal growth due to suffering? Or would you rather read a book where at the end everything falls neatly into place... the happily ever after ending?

I'm not going to change my book over your answers of course, I was just curious about your opinions.

True or False:

This statement is false