Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Second City

We went to the front door after a circuitous ride to it by taxi and were told that our show was two doors down at the rainbow sign, then to the third floor. All escalators luckily!

Our seat "at the rail" turned out to be very nice. The "rail" was a long curved bar in the center of the room.

Our show One Nation under 1% was a mix of skits and songs and audience participation highlighting the ideals of our country over time.

Mr. DOA got picked as one of the participants along the way. His highlight was grabbing my hand as he was being quizzed and the guy noticed, and said "putting your hand on your wife's thigh isn't going to help you answer"...Mr. DOA immediately responded "how do you know it was her thigh", causing various customers to stop and chat with him as they went by afterwards. Mr. Humor hits Second City.

Highly recommended place to visit if you're in Chicago. It's nice to laugh and think all in an evening's entertainment.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Grimm: The Kiss





Another loaded episode last night! 

The FBI steps in to investigate the warehouse "incident" and the deaths of two of their agents.  Nick is able to recover the gun he left at the scene after his fight with the Mauvais Dentes but a shell casing has been spotted and is in evidence.  DNA at the scene doesn't match Nick's but is someone who could be closely related to him.  "It's my mother" he tells them honestly but with relish, knowing they won't believe it.

He goes to a remote site and tosses his revolver (which he just barely recovered from under a tank at the factory).  The conflicts between his Grimm life and police life have never been more tenuous.

Hank, who seems to be recovering from his close encounter with a Blutbad, tells Nick not to leave him out to dry, he has to be honest with him.  Smart guy, but could he handle the truth?  I think he can.



Kelly Burkhardt aka Nick's mom continues to wow in every scene.  What a kick ass person.  What a handy mom for a Grimm to have around.  She assisted at the factory (it did take the two of them to bring down the Mauvais Dentes).  She goes over to have a mom to mom chat with Adalind's mom, which ends badly for the hexenbiest.  I suspect Adalind will resurface to get revenge for dear mom's demise. 

Adalind's mom tells Kelly the stunning news that there is a Prince in Portland.  She also indicates he is a literal bastard, which might be why he is so far from his family.   Nick is interested when she tells him, but he isn't as stunned by this as she thinks he ought to be, you can tell.

Ms. Momma Hexenbiest has prepared a lumpy white potion for the Captain.  It takes someone pure of heart of kiss Juliette and bring her out of her deep sleep.   He is "barely human", she says, so it will take him on quite a ride.



We get to see a bit of his true visage before he drinks the potion.  Renard looks a bit like a zombie, a bit like a hexenbiest.  He spends numerous scenes roaring in pain and belching out black smoke before he appears at the hospital just ahead of Nick to place a kiss on Juliette's lips which brings her out of the witch induced coma she has been in.


 

If he now has a Pure Heart, how will that change him?  How can he deal with his kingdom and his European family if he has lost his edge?  I don't know why but I thought it would be nice to see Kelly team up on the side with the Captain once she finds out who he is.  A Good Grimm does work with the local royalty.  He won't need Nick if he has her, but of course on her behalf he would still work to protect Nick.  Also, I rather like the Captain and Kelly would be worthy of him :)  Just a thought.

Nice scenes between Monroe, Rosalee and Nick's mom.  They are like scared children and she is politely dangerous as they drive her home.  Rosalee hugs Kelly in an impulsive gesture and she briefly hugs back in a surprisingly sweet moment.

As we suspected, Juliette does not remember anything that has happened upon awakening, in fact she doesn't know who Nick is.  He has an opportunity to let her go, or start over with her and hide his Grimm life.

At the last, Nick gives Kelly the Coins so she can take them to be destroyed at the place they were created.  She doesn't know how long she will be gone.  They hug, he drives away, she walks over to a car, jimmies the lock and gets in.  Apparently she will be staying in town for a bit undercover.


Here's a great article from Entertainment Weekly's Blog on Captain Renard and what happens to him in this episode.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Grimm Season Two Premier: Bad Teeth

The Grimm season two opener features a french speaking tiger like creature who can "wipe out an entire village".  The :Mauvais Dentes" has been sent to kill Nick, of course.



This plotline aside, alot happens!  Nick's mom is of particular interest.  She explains what happened to Nick's father and how she got away alive on the night he was killed.  In order to protect Nick, she says, she disappeared.  Aunt Marie knew Nick's mom was alive but never told him, also a protection.

In answer to Nick's question where has she been all of these years and why is she here now, she says she has been trying to track down the killer of her husband and her friend (who actually died in the accident).  She heard that Kimura was here and she was hunting him.

Nick takes her to Aunt Marie's trailer and she is delighted to see it.  She and her sister Aunt Marie bought it to store the boxes and boxes of Grimm stuff they inherited.  She found out she was a Grimm at age ten, and taken out on "The Hunt".   She has such a deadly feral quality to her, and being raised as a killer from age ten would easily produce such a being.  Note that Nick was not raised that way by Aunt Marie, perhaps because they couldn't tell he had Grimm traits or perhaps the sisters agreed between themselves that he would live a more normal life as long as possible.  There's a future flashback scene for you...What Really Happened That Night.

We need to know more about Aunt Marie over time.  She was tough as nails but loving and she gave Nick a life safe from monsters.  Her influence let him become someone who would emphasize with the Wesen and perhaps change the course of Grimm history.

Back to Kelly Burkhardt, Nick's mom.  Did you see how she looked at those coins in the trailer?  The familiar barely masked desire to possess them flashed over her face before she became composed and Grimmly business like.  Just as she had heard rumors that Nick was the one who had sent the reaper heads to Europe Fed-Ex, I think she heard about the coins and suspected he has them.  I believe she came for the coins and will take them at some point and disappear.



She is teaching him all she knows, either to prepare him for coming battles or I was thinking she will take the coins and use them and he will be a more worthy foe if he knows what he is doing a bit more.  Mean mom city if true, but despite what looks like fondness for Nick, I think she is rock hard and is playing him.

She also knows he has one of the Seven Keys (did you notice the power lust in her voice as she told him about the weapon the map leads to?).

What will Kelly do when she meets or sees Renard?  I think she will see him immediately for what he is.  Will she tell Nick?

Renard who is so likeable most of the time really went around pushing his agenda.  It appears he is behind the guy in France who is torturing the Resistance member, since he is shown speaking in French to someone on the phone at the end of the episode.  However, Renard tells Adalind's mother he wants Nick, his own personal Grimm, to stay in town and stay loyal...so the Mauvais Dentes sent to destroy Nick can't be from him. Very confusing!

I am glad Kimura is dead, I don't care that he was taken down by a poisoned sandwich.  Nasty guy.

The Juliette subplot was just touched on.  Very odd that Rosalee and Monroe have this "unstable concoction" and are waiting for Nick to come to administer it.  Meanwhile Adalind's mom under threat from Renard is concocting the same thing.  Who will save Juliette?

Official Grimm site with lots of goodies!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Library Visits Blog

I heard about this blog this week.  Someone who works in a local library is attempting to visit the approximately 86 public libraries in the Twin Cities.   She liked the buildings I work in :)

http://libraryvisitsproject.blogspot.com/




Saturday, August 4, 2012

My New Quiz For Shelf Reading Volunteers



I previously used a Post Office style quiz I'd made wherein the volunteer put book titles/call numbers in order in groups of four.  It seemed brilliant at the time but I decided to make it more practical and reflective of our "how to shelf read" booklet.

Here are the new questions:


Shelf Reading Quiz





Which area of the collection contains true stories fiction or non-fiction?   Circle the correct answer.


Fiction is divided into what four sections or genres?



Biographies are filed by Dewey Decimal Number and then by the name of the person the biography is about.  If you have two biographies on the shelf and they are about the same person, what is the next thing you look at when filing?  ______________________________________________________



Which number is larger?   520. 35   or  520.8?   Circle the correct answer.



Put these titles in order by writing a 1, 2, 3 next to them



______________Beaton, M. C.   Agatha Raisin and the potted gardener

____________    Beaton, M. C.   Agatha Raisin and the murderous marriage

______________Beaton, M. C.   Death of a Dreamer





Authors with names beginning Mc   and Mac are not filed together.   Which comes first, Mc or Mac?  Circle the correct answer.



“Nothing comes before something” means a shorter version of a word or phrase files first.   Remember to read the title letter by letter to see what is different and what comes next.  Put these titles in order by writing a 1,2,3 next to them:

_______Offices of the Congressional Speaker’s Bureau

_______Official Comic Book pricing Guide

_______Office 2010 for Dummies



You are shelf reading in fiction and find Stephen King’s books on the shelf in the following sequence.  Are they correct?  Number them to show the correct order:



_____Carrie

_____Dark Half

_____It

_____Dark Tower

_____Christine

_____Bag of Bones

_____Dolores Claiborne

_____Firestarter

_____Duma Key

_____Insomnia

_____Shining





You are shelf reading in the Large Print Mystery section and find a book that is filed correctly by author then title but it does not say Large Print Mystery on the spine label.  What should you do with the book?______________________________________________________________________



While working in the Westerns, you notice that a whole section of books is in order by the series number instead of by author and title order.  What is the next step?________________________________________________________________________



How are Entertainment DVD’s arranged?__________________________



In the children’s fiction section you find paperbacks and hardcovers are all in one alphabet.  What is this called?_________________________



Picture books are in “loose alphabetical order”.  What order are they in?____________________________________________



Non-fiction books are in Dewey Decimal order then by author (except in biographies).  Which comes first on the shelf 709 or 709.11?  Circle the answer.



When working in any given area, you may need to shift the books to a shelf above or below to make room for items that are out of place or just crowded.  Sometimes the books on several shelves may need to be adjusted.  If you shift books down, are you moving books to the left or to the right? __________

While shelf reading in the Young Adult graphic novel section, you notice that some say GF on the spine.  Do they belong in this area?  ____Where do they go?________________



As you shelf read the Paperback area you notice labels on some books for Romance or Action/ Adventure or Paperback Classics.  Should these be shelved someplace else?__________________





When you sign in to volunteer you need to do three things:









If you find a book or item more than a shelf or so out of place, what do you do with it?________________________________________



Who can you ask for help with your questions while you’re shelf reading? _________________________________________