Review of Rome & Jewel (2008)

This hip-hop musical version of Romeo &Juliet has some great moments. John Rubinstein plays Mayor Capps (Jewel's father) as the whitest white man in Beverly Hills--all capped teeth and spray tan. Cleavant Derricks plays Rev. Q (Rome's father), who opens and closes the film with his sermons from the little South Central church where he's the pastor. These veteran actors anchor a surprisingly effective modern urban take on the story that would have worked a lot better if the young actress playing Jewel had had a better voice.  Everyone else handles the songs (which are fine) but her voice is so reedy and thin (especially in an awkward "Sweet Sixteen" rap where she's grinding all over Rome), that the energy of the movie just deflates every time she opens her mouth.
As the movie opens, Rome is at odds with his minister father, who is furious he's blown off an important church meeting to dog a girl named Roz. Rome admits "the bitch messed me up" and his friend DJ Mercury (Allen Maldonado, who's great) invites him to a sweet sixteen party where he's performing to take his mind off the girl.
The movie was only out for a week in what was probably extremely limited release and made less than half a million. That's a shame because it eally was a smart transposition of the timeless story of star-crossed lovers.

More free books!

I'm serious about cleaning out. Any books I don't give away here are going to the Prison Library Project as donations for their used book store. They sell paperbacks and hardbacks to raise money for their work. If you'd like to know more about them, here's a link.

All you have to do to claim the books is leave a comment on this post and I'll contact you and arrange for shipping (within the United States.)  See here for other packages on offer.

The Laura Joh Rowland package--Five novels in her fantastic Sano Ichiro novels about the Shogun's Most Honorable investigator. The titles are: Dragon King's Palace, Perfumed Sleeve, The Way of the Traitor, Concubine's Tattoo, and Black Lotus.

The Grab Bag Package--a little bit of everything. James Rollins The Doomsday Key,  Michael Gruber's Tropic of Night, Dorothy Miles Disney's Dark Lady (a Crime Club paperback from 1964), Carl Hiaasen's Star Island, Janet Evanovich, Sizzling Sixteen, Janet Evqanovich Smokin' Seventeen,

The Eclectic package--Elmore Leonard's Tishomingo Blues, A. Lee Martinez' The Automatic Detective, She Nailed a Stake Through His Head (an anthology of Biblical Tales of Terror), Precinct 19 (true accounts of NYPD's 19th Precinct), David Manual, A Matter of Roses (first in the Faith Abbey Mysteries), C. S. Graham, The Archangel Project (political thriller set in New Orleans), Mafia Chic by Erica Orloff (a chick lit mystery), Winter Moon (fantasy novella collection with Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee and C.E. Murphy).

And more to come.  Ask and ye shall receive...

Happy Bastille Day!!

I intend to celebrate with a baguette and some imported raspberry jam. Vive la France.

Shakespeare, the brand

As I've been wandering about the web in search of interesting Shakespeare stuff, I've noticed that there are more than a few items with "Shakespeare" as a brand name. I started Googling a bit for more information and ran into some interesting articles on just that subject.  This article on Shakespeare in Advertising appeared on Transmedia Shakespeare (studying Shakespeare beyond the text).  It begins:  Shakespeare. One word, a name, that represents so much more than a man. Shakespeare is an industry, a language, a symbol of literature and art, and an era in time. The advertising world has used this to their advantage, and Shakespeare’s influence can be recognized in almost every branch of pop culture.
The No-Sweat Shakespeare blog has an intriguing article called "The Shakespeare Brand in the World of Commerce." Starting with the example of the Learjet, the article discusses what the writer calles "Shakesploitation."
Shakespeare author Ben Alexander has some interesting figures here, showing where the search term "Shakespeare" rates in the Google-verse.

The Feminist Fiction Give-Away

There comes a time in every reader's life when she looks at the sagging weight of the six bookcases in her six-room apartment and says--time to clean house.
For me, that time is this weekend.
In the spirit of Feminist Fiction Friday, I am going to start with the ladies.
I'm divvying up the books into various packages.
And all you have to do is let me know you want one of the packages.
That's it.
Yes, it would be nice if you decided to follow the blog.
I'd love it if you followed the NoHo Noir twitter account (@nohonoir) or my own (@storyauthority) but seriously, All you have to do is leave a comment on this post calling dibs and I'll get in touch with you and arrange to ship you the books.
Please just claim the books if you're in the US--I'm also footing the media mail postage.
So check out the books:

Package #1--Carol O'Connell's Kathleen Mallory books. If you don't know the books, here's the Wikipedia article.

If you liked Steig Larssen's Millennium trilogy, you will love these books. I have nine of the paperbacks and possibly one hardback (not shelved with the others.) The titles include:  Winter House, Find Me, Mallory's Oracle, the Man Who Cast Two Shadows, Crime School, Stone angel, Shell Game, Killing Critics, and Dead Famous.

Feminist Fiction Friday: Liza Cody

I am going to Bouchercon 2012 this year and am very excited. But I wish I'd been there last year when Liza Cody was there and taking part in panels like "Telling Women's Stories." (She refers to it as "the inevitable feminist panel.")
I love Liza Cody's series protagonist Anna Lee and her novel Dupe (which, according to Wikipedia introduced the professional female private detective to British Mystery fiction) was the first I ever read. Cody also has a series about professional female wrestler, Eva Wylie. I've not read any of those books because the backdrop doesn't interest me, but I'll get around to them at some  point.
I love that Anna Lee is smart and savvy and totally real. It's an ongoing complaint that there aren't enough female protagonists in crime fiction, and I always point people toward Liza Cody in response.

Smell Like Shakespeare--Black Phoenix Alchemy scents

I have loved perfume ever since I was a little girl playing with my grandmother's perfume bottles. (She had all those old lady scents of gardenia and musk rose and cut-glass atomizers for spritzing them on.)
I used to wear perfume to work every day, light citrusy scents like Chanel's Cristalle and Hermes Green Oranges. At night I favored darker, more Oriental scents like Halston's Night (now discontinued). Sadly, I now live with someone who is allergic to perfume, so I mostly smell like Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap these days.
But I still like reading about perfume, and a few months ago I stumbled across the Black Phoenix Alchemical Lab's scents.''The company specalzes in formulating body and household blends with a dark, romantic tone.
Turns out their Illyria collection was inspired by Shakespeare's characters. Reading the descriptions of the various scents is in itself a sensual experience.The one that sounds most appealing o me is "Katharina," a blend of white musk, orange blossom and peach. Like the other scents in the collection--the masculine Iago and Antony, the severe Lady Macbeth (sweet Bordeaux wine, currants and wild berries), the perfume comes in an amber vial priced at $17.50 per 5 mil bottle.
If you want to indulge your senses, spend a few minutes on their site. And remember, "that which we call a rose would smell as sweet" if we called it something else...
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