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2 for 2? That's just crazycakes!
Jul. 6th, 2010 11:45 pmI have a brief breather before I crash for the night, and I've filled these minutes with the Printz speeches. Libba Bray's Going Bovine, the winner, rocked my socks SO HARD when I read it last summer. It rattled me and teased me and generally knocked me off my feet. I'm not the world's loudest proponent of literary fiction, and I have my problems with mystical realism. Going Bovine is both, and it's YA, and it's brilliant.
If you haven't read it, I'll give you the words Libba Bray uses to describe it:
Mad cow.
Road trip.
String theory.
Norse myth.
Libba's speech is also intensely awesome. Really. She starts the speech by announcing that she wants to wear the award around her neck "like Flava Flav." Gotta love that. Then she threatens (and follows through!) to deliver a portion of her speech in German. The words "a sparkle pony that burps diamonds and rainbows" make an appearance. And that's barely two minutes in. Really, just watch it.
Rick Yancy's speech about The Monstrumologist is a delight. He's clearly very comfortable chatting in front of an audience. He's funny, he's engaging, and he's pretty darned perceptive. His riff on scaring himself at 3am and his puzzlement at the fact that he's written a graphic and gory and gross and horrific book are both quite amusing. And the bit where he talks about the one part of the book that made him gasp out loud pokes at an event that is both moving (and not in a good way) and often brushed aside as old news.
Adam Rapp is not the strongest public speaker (a great deal of his speech is delivered to the downstage edge of the podium, in fact), but his words are incredibly compelling. The combination of those two things make his speech almost brutally honest. There's very little pretense there, and his vulnerabilities are all present and accounted for. His Vonnegut story is beautiful, as is his explanation for where Punkzilla came from. Listen. Enjoy his honesty.
If you have a couple minutes, check out the speeches. While they're all video, it's the audio that is important. Have a listen, and think happy thoughts at a librarian while you do so.
If you haven't read it, I'll give you the words Libba Bray uses to describe it:
Mad cow.
Road trip.
String theory.
Norse myth.
Libba's speech is also intensely awesome. Really. She starts the speech by announcing that she wants to wear the award around her neck "like Flava Flav." Gotta love that. Then she threatens (and follows through!) to deliver a portion of her speech in German. The words "a sparkle pony that burps diamonds and rainbows" make an appearance. And that's barely two minutes in. Really, just watch it.
Rick Yancy's speech about The Monstrumologist is a delight. He's clearly very comfortable chatting in front of an audience. He's funny, he's engaging, and he's pretty darned perceptive. His riff on scaring himself at 3am and his puzzlement at the fact that he's written a graphic and gory and gross and horrific book are both quite amusing. And the bit where he talks about the one part of the book that made him gasp out loud pokes at an event that is both moving (and not in a good way) and often brushed aside as old news.
Adam Rapp is not the strongest public speaker (a great deal of his speech is delivered to the downstage edge of the podium, in fact), but his words are incredibly compelling. The combination of those two things make his speech almost brutally honest. There's very little pretense there, and his vulnerabilities are all present and accounted for. His Vonnegut story is beautiful, as is his explanation for where Punkzilla came from. Listen. Enjoy his honesty.
If you have a couple minutes, check out the speeches. While they're all video, it's the audio that is important. Have a listen, and think happy thoughts at a librarian while you do so.
