Shop Happy: Siriusly Smiling + Bead for Life

Two recommendations, while you're in the midst of holiday shopping...

Numero Uno:

Do you like music? Do you like Harry Potter? Do you like helping children?

Of course you do.

Which is perfect, because my wonderful, thoughtful, kind husband has spent the last few months putting together something that I am VERY excited about -- Siriusly Smiling, a compilation to raise money for the National Foundation for Facial Reconstruction.

To paraphrase their mission statement: The NFFR helps children with facial disfigurements by supporting treatment, research, psychosocial support and medical training. They founded the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, which diagnoses and provides medical treatment and psychosocial services for over 1,700 patients every year, regardless of the severity of their condition, the length of treatment or the family's ability to afford care (72% of the patients seen at the Institute are uninsured, Medicaid recipients or clinic care patients).

Pretty incredible, right?

And what would you get? Well. I'm glad you asked.

For $9.99 on iTunes, you get NINETEEN NEW SONGS (!!!) by the funniest, smartest, cleverest, most talented wizard rock bands out there -- bands like Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, The Remus Lupins, and The Whomping Willows. (For my wizard rock primer, read this.)

So if you have a Potter fan in your life -- no doubt depressed by the delayed release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (as I am) -- cheer them up by downloading Siriusly Smiling! They'll LOVE it, and you'll feel good about where your money is going.

Plus, it's funny.

Really really funny.

Funny like this is funny. But with slightly less blood.

I mean, how can you NOT love a song called "Werewolves > Zombies"? Or "Creepy Mustache," a rap about Lupin's John Waters-esque facial hair? And Oliver Boyd & the Remembrall's "Give It Up" is just. plain. good. You'll happily hum this for the rest of December.

Plus you MUST hear my husband -- Gred and Forge -- take a very naughty joke waaaaay too far in "Brotherly Love" ("I saw them there by the light of the moon/Bill was riding something but it wasn't his broom").

I'm so proud of Jarrod for creating and organizing this charity album, and we're both thankful for all of the amazing musicians who contributed.

So. Siriusly Smiling! On iTunes! YAY!

(And how great is that cover art, by the way? Made by the fab Frak Franco.)


***On a related note, Jingle Spells 2 -- a wizard rock holiday compilation raising money for Book Aid International and the HP Alliance -- is on sale now too. Last year they raised more than thirty-five THOUSAND dollars for literacy!


Numero Dos:

See these beautiful women? Do you want to know why they're so joyful?




They're the ladies of Bead for Life, a group that's working to (and I quote their website): "[eradicate] extreme poverty by creating bridges of understanding between impoverished Africans and concerned world citizens. Ugandan women turn colorful recycled paper into beautiful beads, and people who care open their hearts, homes and communities to buy and sell the beads.

The beads thus become income, food, medicine, school fees -- and hope. All profits from Bead for Life are invested in community development projects that generate income and help people work their way out of poverty."

Pretty amazing, no?

I went to a Bead for Life party (think Tupperware, but a billion times cooler) this week and was blown away by the gorgeous jewelry. Look at these colors!






I bought sooooo many gifts for my friends, family, and myself.

(I, um, bought a LOT for myself.)

But unlike shopping at the mall, there's no guilt. Because look who you're supporting!

The jewelry -- and there is SO MUCH TO CHOOSE from -- is very affordable and available online here, along with more beautiful photography and music and videos.



Happy shopping, everyone!

Death By Novel + First MTV Featurette

Do you watch Arrested Development?

(If the answer is "yes," than I love you. If the answer is "no" -- well, I still love you, but please run-don't-walk to your nearest video store/Netflix queue and pick up all three seasons. Immediately.)

Every morning this week, I have woken with a singular image etched into my brain. A banner a la Bluth that reads:

You're killing me, Novel

I am serious. I CANNOT SHAKE THIS IMAGE.

Why? Here is my current schedule:


7:45 -- Alarm goes off. Snooze.
7:55 -- Snooze.
8:05 -- Snooze.
8:15 -- Snooze.
8:25 -- Snooze.
8:35 -- Crawl out of bed. Basic, minimal hygiene.
9:05 -- Slog into work (five minutes late)

12:30 - 1:30 Lunch. Review novel notes. Plan that night's revisions.

1:35 -- Back to work (five minutes late)
5:40 -- Sleepwalk home.
6:00 -- Crash on bed.
6:30 -- Jarrod (forcefully) removes from bed.
6:40 -- Jarrod (forcefully) pours caffeinated beverage down throat.
7:00 -- Revise novel.

3 am/4 am Bedtime.


I shouldn't even be here right now. This blog entry should not exist. I am cheating. I should be upstairs, revising revising revising. That means no book reading. No movie watching. And no blogging.

BUT WHAT IS THE POINT OF LIVING WITHOUT BOOKS, MOVIES, OR THE INTERNET???

I am baffled and humbled by writers with full time jobs (whether at an office or at home with children) who FINISH novels. Because serious novel-writing IS a full time job, which means they have TWO. How do they do it?

By not sleeping. That's how.

Ugggghhhhh.

It reminds me of a bit in Empire Records that I have always secretly loved. Early in the film, Renee Zellweger picks up Liv Tyler for work and discovers that Liv has baked treats the night before. When Renee asks how she found the time, Liv answers: "My dad always said there are 24 usable hours in every day."

I love that.

Of course, later we find out that she was awake because she's been popping pills. But still. Twenty-four usable hours!

I have a seee-cret.

Noooo! My secret is out!

I wish I had time for everything I love, but I don't. Which means I have to choose, and right now, I'm choosing my novel.

There are two and a half weeks left of revisions before my new (self-imposed) deadline, before I must turn it over to my writing pals for feedback. Two and a half weeks to turn this putrid rotting lump into something pretty and sparkly and comprehensible.

Thankfully -- although I'm running strictly on yerba mate fumes -- things are going well. Last night I tackled a scene which I'd been dreading for months and, amazingly, it just sort of fixed itself. It's like I had a visit from the magical writing gnomes.

(I love the magical writing gnomes. I leave cupcake crumbs on my keyboard, hoping to lure them into my Microsoft Word documents.)

Except, of course, I WAS there and I WAS working. So what made it easy this time? Help from my favorite writing advice website, Not for Robots. Basically, I opened a new document and worked on the scene in there, rather in my actual novel file.

So much less pressure to be perfect.

I re-visioned the scene completely -- rather than touching up what was already written -- and it wrote itself. Then, a quick copy and paste back into my novel document, and presto! Done!

(If only it was always that simple.)

Well, I'm off now. I have a turd to polish. But until we meet again:

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

AHHHHHHH!!! It's the first MTV featurette!

The nice thing is that it's a great clip, and they've treated the topic with respect.

YAY!

The bummer thing is that none of his interview is in there yet (hopefully it'll be in the next one). Until then, you can see a quick clip of Jarrod in the very beginning, rocking out in his gray jacket, right before the clip of Harry and the Potters singing "Save Ginny Weasley."

You can also see him briefly in the background right before that ("We are The Remus Lupins!") stepping away from his kicked-over drum set, and then hear him later, wildly pounding on those same drums during "I Was A Teenage Werewolf."

So hurrah! It's official. Keep your fingers crossed for more.

In Which MTV Interviews My Husband and a (Semi-)Secret Is Revealed

Why, yes. That IS a picture of my husband being interviewed by MTV at the Chicago Hilton.

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Oh. Holy. Monkeys.

This would be the "VERY exciting news" I mentioned last week. It's time to come clean. Ah-hem. As many of you know, my husband drums for a local band, Lewis (which is, er, on temporary leave as everyone is out of town for the summer & they're replacing a member).

Well. For the last year and a half, my husband has had an alternate musical career. A successful musical career. A (semi-)secret musical career.

Jarrod is a WIZARD ROCK STAR.

That is to say, my husband writes and performs songs about Harry Potter. His band is called Gred and Forge, and he creates music from the perspective of the Weasley twins.

You read that right.

(Cough cough.) Perhaps now that you have the definition, you understand why I haven't mentioned it here before. I mean, it's kind of exhausting/irritating to defend yourself. But now that HE'S BEEN INTERVIEWED BY MTV (!!!), it's time to come out of the broom closet.

But before I get into this crazy-great week we just had, how about a Wizard Rock Primer for the Uninitiated?

In 2002, two brothers -- Joe and Paul DeGeorge -- created the band Harry and the Potters for a backyard summer cookout. Basically, they sang songs written from Harry's point of view. The response was a LOT bigger than they had anticipated and, encouraged, they made an album and took it on tour, playing at libraries across the country.

Harry and the Potters (with Gred and Forge, of course!)

Demand grew, a second album was recorded, tours were continued and . . . two years later, The Whomping Willows and Draco and the Malfoys emerged. Shortly followed The Remus Lupins, and a movement had begun.*

Now there are 450+ bands. Yes. Over four hundred and fifty bands are writing music just about Harry Potter! That's a LOT of music being created.

The community is pretty incredible. Anyone can take part in it. Some bands are as complicated as full on drums-bass-guitar and others are as simple as one guy singing into his computer's microphone. And everyone supports everyone.

But WHAT'S THE POINT you might ask? Well, to steal from The Wizrocklopedia:

"At its most basic level, wizard rock celebrates and promotes literacy . . . but wizard rock fans and creators are involved in other socially conscious endeavors as well . . . The HP Alliance seeks to motivate fans to take a stand against tyranny, genocide, global warming, and more, using parallels to the book series . . . [bringing] light to the fact that the challenges and horrors Harry faces are similar (if not reflective) of those that we face in the real world. The music and the fandom celebrate standing up for what is right, making a difference in the lives of others, and putting a stop to the evils in the world."

Pretty sweet, huh?

My own wonderful husband donates 100% of the profits from his CD sales to Book Aid International, and last Christmas he took part in Jingle Spells, which raised over THIRTY THOUSAND dollars for the same charity! WOW!

So we Potter fans may be nerdy -- and quite aware that this is the equivalent of Trekkies with guitars -- but we're also Pretty Darn Good People.

Here are some of my favorite songs, all very very funny, which you can listen to in their entirety on MySpace:


"Save Ginny Weasley" -- Harry and the Potters (the song that started it all)
"My Dad Is Rich" and "Your Family Is Poor" -- Draco and the Malfoys
"Draco and Harry" -- The Whomping Willows (my VERY favorite)
"P is for Patil" -- Tom Riddle & Friends
"Teenage Werewolf" -- The Remus Lupins
"Krum" -- Justin Finch Fletchley and the Sugar Quills
"Cedric" -- The Moaning Myrtles (nice Twilight jokes in this one)

And, of course, Gred and Forge. My favorites online are "History of Magic" and "Our Fireworks Say Poo."


So when Jarrod started this a year and a half ago, we had NO IDEA what was coming. My husband signs autographs. Receives fan mail. Tours across the country. At shows, HUNDREDS of people sing along to his lyrics, and people approach him shaking with nervousness. One girl even got a tattoo of his album artwork! Talk about feeling humbled. He's been interviewed by this magazine and now . . . MTV.

So. MTV.

He was invited to play at Wrock Chicago, the 30-band festival that kicked off Terminus, a ginormous Harry Potter conference. Normally, he goes solo, but for this he recruited the hilarious dudes from Tom Riddle & Friends and Bryce of The Quaffle Kids to back him up. His set was awesome, and I've never been so proud!

Ty, Shawn, & Jarrod

Check out the crowd! There were at least 300 people jumping and singing along to his music! He had one of the largest (THE largest?) crowds of the afternoon.

It wasn't until after his set ended that I found out the GIANT CAMERA that had been blocking my view the whole time was freaking MTV! And they had taped his whole show! They took his phone number and asked to set up an interview the next day.

Giddily, we moved on to the big show, the six headliners. Jarrod had toured from Phoenix to Boston this summer with The Remus Lupins as their drummer, and was asked to drum again at the conference. Woo hoo!

While waiting for the show to start, I met Xaiver, my hair twin. And then I made this weird face.

YAY! The show begins. And they ROCKED!

I never heard the final numbers, but there were between 800 - 1000 people sharing the HP love that night.

And the next day? The phone call from MTV. I swear, I don't remember the last time I was so excited. They wanted to interview him! For music HE WROTE AND PERFORMED! And though MTV doesn't mean the same thing to us that it did when we were in middle school, it was a huge honor and dream come true.




I totally embarrassed him. I was like, "Can I take a picture of him holding the microphone?" I mean, COME ON! That's the microphone of my youth. They were quite polite and understanding, but Jarrod insisted on making a funny face.

Sorry, hon!

So that's my news. The rumor is that it'll be used for a new segment, "Wizarding Wednesdays," after the success of their "Twilight Tuesdays" this summer. They taped a few different bands and are editing them into a small series.

Keep your fingers crossed that they don't cut his words to make him sound silly! (Or turn it into a "look at all of these dorks" kind of thing.) I'll let you know when they air. I don't know whether it will be online or on TV or both or what, but whatever happens...

I am SO PROUD of my Rock Star Husband.


* = Technically, The Switchblade Kittens were the first to write about HP with their song "Ode to Harry" in 2000, but Harry and the Potters are credited with creating the wizard rock genre. Which was proved when hundreds of people rocked out to the Potters at Terminus, compared to - oh - about 30 for The Switchblade Kittens. Yikes.