Reader Cristina pointed out this awesome ad for what looks like a college activities program. And one awesome graphic designer.
This also reminded me about what an awesome movie Heathers is. I saw it when I was eleven and it kinda changed my life. I hear there’s a special edition dvd out with new commentaries. Remember how everyone wanted to be Winona? Lick it up baby, lick it up.
Any fans of I can has cheezburger? If not, you should read it daily, the site could bring world peace. For those of you not familiar, lots of info here. I decided to try some lolSVHs, and once I got started, I couldn’t stop.
The rest under the cut.
I don’t want to knock it too much, but wtf is up with the Newport News catalog? Yes, yes, so maybe I do own a tunic or two from them, but it seems very stuck in the eighties, and not in a retro kind of way. Like they still promote embroidered jeans as their essential piece. Also, it seems like they looted Lisette’s and Foxy Mama after the Sweet Valley earthquake destroyed the mall and decided to start a mailorder business. I think every line of clothes should be named after an SVH character.
The LIZ collection
The JESSICA collection
Featuring the Jessa Fields line:
The LILA collection
Daddy Fowler totally brought back this suit from Paris (only Lila would wear a belt on the beach):
On clearance:
The OLIVIA look:
LYNNE HENRY look:
I’ve got a wicked case of the Mondays. I discovered this avatar creator while secretly watching South Park episodes off the website at my desk at work.
And a reader submission from Christopher: ENID!
And guess who?
Nothing excited me more in my YA series reading that a super special. I didn’t even imagine they could exist until my mother brought home the Baby Sitters on Board from the BSC where they all go on a cruise and then to Disney World. How timely! It was only a few months before my family was planning to pack up the station wagon and make the 27 hour drive to orlando. I even tried keeping a trip diary like the baby-sitters did, but I stopped when entries consisted of “drove for hours. Ate at Denny’s. Again.”
Since then, I would eagerly await the super special. Why was it so special? Having all your favorite characters interact in a new and complex location with new, even more unbelievable scenario. After some reflection, it seems that the Super Special (sometimes coined “super edition”) always followed a certain canon.
The aforementioned Super Special where inexplicably the Pikes and Watson take their families on vacation together, and bring along extra teen girls with them. Dram! Intrigue! Romance! One big commercial for Disneyworld!
This one was so craptastic it was like Hemingway. The kids go on a school trip to a fantasy amusement park and Liz hits her head (or falls off a motorcycle or something) and imagines a scenario where she is fighting witches, goblins, and wizards. Wtf.
Of course, all the trips the twins take where they make a big splash wherever they go.
Then there is an altogether different subset of super specials- the CAMP ones. Growing up, I felt the same way about camp that I did about boarding schools. It was a time for mischief, growing up, and boyfriends. [It is no surprise that several of my favorite movies are The Parent Trap, Wet Hot American Summer, Little Darlings, and Camp Cucamunga. I'll give you a hundred dollars if you've actually seen the last one I mentioned.] I was too chicken and prissy to ever want to go to a sleepaway camp. However, I was a day camp counselor for five summers of my life- god knows why. I was always the one who stayed and watched all the kids while all the other counselors ran off and smoked pot in the woods. Guess who had a more fun summer? Them.
The BSC Camp Mohawk one changed my life- I longed for the day when I could gather up enough friends to stand around and do a kickline and laugh. This is still a goal of mine. Maryanne but a melon under her pillow and went to sneak off to meet Logan. Jess and Mal were too young to be CITs so they anointed themselves as “junior CITs” and made armands for themselves and talking is a secret language or something and then wondered why their bunkmates hated them.
I saw this on another community. It’s the release books for #3 and #4.
Uggghhhhrrr! Why oh why? You already know my thoughts on this. And what is with the #3? Is that Bruce in the background. And the caption “sometimes beautiful girls play ugly games”. Obvs, they mean the twins because that is when Robin Wilson is a fat pig. Who do the twins look like? I think a little bit like Claire from Lost. But not particularly attractive. Kind of like most blonde college girls.
EDITED: I didn’t know this was an actual actress, thanks to those that identified her as Levin Rambin. I looked her up, and she could totally play the twins in a split-screen-Parent-trap sort of thing.
Elizabeth:
Jessica:
A friend gave me this idea and I’m going to go with it-
We were thinking of our favorite YA covers and how bad they are, so why not have an hommage? Here is a place to talk about the most craptastic covers. Even better…if you want to RECREATE a cover, please submit a pic of yourself doing it, and I’ll post it. It could be a gas.
A fantastic source for SV covers from all series is here. Of course, there is always Amazon, google image searches, and the site fantastic fiction, which seems to preserve a lot of out of print covers.
I’m posting this as a header under Cover Girls so start the convo over there!
Hey all, I so very enjoy writing my reviews, but I get even greater joy from everyone’s reactions and comments. Since I may not be able to do as many posts per week as I have been, I’m adding some more discussion posts, including It’s Always Sunny in Sweet Valley, where we can all look at the ridiculous inconsistencies of the series. Thank you to Stacy for the idea!
Reader Kate directed me to the ABC Family site where you can watch several episodes of the SVH tv show for free (click on “Watch” and then scroll down. Seriously, I can barely sit through five minutes of each one. First off, because I can never tell the male characters apart (‘cept for Winston, obvi). And I can’t tell if it is supposed to be a comedy or drama or both. It loses the kitsch of the books and just makes it…kind of sad. Furthermore, I think they try to use storyline from the books but change it a little, so why bother? The one I tried to watch was based on In Love With the Enemy Gang Wars, but with Christian Gorman as a rival basketball player. Or something. Jessica’s horrid bangs were too distracting. To me, the twins look like porn star rejects.
Also, there was a pretty funny Judy Blume reference on the new episode of Reno 911! this week. Fyi.
Believe it or not, I do find the time to read some age- appropriate books. I read a few lately that may be of interest to this commuity.
I love James St. James. His memoir Disco Bloodbath was entertaining but wasn’t exactly a literary feat, so I was skeptical about his first fiction novel. The main character, no doubt based on the author, is an extremely flamboyantly gay teenager who is beginning school at an ultra-conservative, WASPY, private school. Basically Sweet Valley High. The observations and interactions are of course wuite entertaining, but he is violently harassed, which, not too funny, but it addressed, albeit satirically. Finally he befriends the popular boy in school, who it turns out has a touch of the gay. Billy’s perceptions of the ultra-white, ultra-perfect schoolmates are pretty dead-on. Kind of turns the idea of SVH on its head. I don’t usually laugh out loud while reading.
Mortified is a collection of writings, memoirs, letters, etc. from various people’s teenage years. Mostly people’s exerpts from their journals. Since a lot of you enjoy reminiscing (and cringing) about our pre-teen years, this is more cringe material. Again, incredibly hilarious and also a little but sad. The best ones are one miserable boy’s correspondence with his parents from camp, some embrassing Duran Duran fan fiction, and unsent love letters. I think this is also based on a stage show.
Paul Feig’s Superstud is one of the best memoirs I have ever read. He recalls all the awkward points of childhood and dating with excruciating detail. Also, he gives a complete minute-by-minute play-by-play of when he lost his virginity, and it’s less vulgar and more hysterical, because he writes what everyone thinks but usually doesn’t write about. Hilarious. And kind of touching.
Blake Nelson is also a great writer. His books are set in high school, but his writing is pretty astute and appealing to adult readers. His novel Girl was basically my autobiography. Well, not really, but maybe a little.
Loved the discussion on the careers in Sweet Valley, but how about the places/stores/restaurants in Sweet Valley? For a small town, it’s got some weird places. Here’s what I am thinking off the top of my head:
Someone here or on another site Amber Tan brought up the ridiculous careers that people have in Sweet Valley, considering it’s a small town. Maybe they commute to LA? Anyway, considering it’s a small town, there is a large skew of obscure careers. What I can think of is:
-model (I think 25% of the women here modeled in a former life)
-interior designer (Alice is a successful one, so we are told)
-lawyer
-tv news anchor (Dyan Sutton)
-tv show host (the guy they meet in the hospital while candystriping)
-computer inventor (or whatever George Fowler is)
-socialite (Marie Patman)
-town drunk (Mr. Martin)
-model scout for Ingenue magazine
-teachers (duh)
-construction worker (Jack)
-domestics (Lila and Bruce’s “servants”)
-rock star
What else?
Reader James pointed out the link to James Mathewuse site, who did all the illustrated covers for the Sweet Valley High and Twins series.
Gotta say, he’s pretty talented for doing realist drawings. He managed to make the twins look like twins and kept the characters similar from cover to cover.
I love the above picture because he’s all, “I have an effing MFA and this is what my life has become?” Probably not, he’s made a good career out of cover art. It doesn’t answer the question if the portraits had human models…it must, right? You can’t pull human faces out of the air and paint them. And did he have some sort of consultant? Or did he come up with Liz’s matching barrettes on his own?
This inspired me to come up with a list of the many cliches of a SVH cover:
Another thing about the site- reading comic sans makes me want to go out on a murder spree. Also, that “Roommates” series that he did portraits for? Why haven’t I heard of those? They look pretty awesome.
Update: the SVH junior class has at least 83 students…pretty impressive.
Another bout of insomnia has made me attempt to list as many students at SVH as I can think of (and looking at my collection to remind me). I used to think that the world revolved around the twins and their friends, but with a junior class of about 50 students, that could be a realistic number for a high school in a small town, I guess. Although, some we hear of for a book and they magically disappear. Others are mentioned in a book in one line. But that counts! And all this talk of Jessica dating around- not much to choose from.
I randomly found a blog of someone who is writing a parody SVH novel. It’s pretty hilarious. I know that there is tons of fanfic out there, but that is a can of worms I don’t want to open.
Also, you can read some full BSC books here. Yippee!!
I thought I’d share this quiz. I for reals answered the questions truthfully and this is what I got. I think it is because I’ve been reading so many SVH books lately.
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| Which Pride and Prejudice Girl Are You? created with QuizFarm.com |
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You scored as Mrs. BennetI am Mrs. Bennet. I love attention. I am not sensitive to the feelings of others. I am very greedy. I hold grudges, but can be won over with money or gifts. I exaggerate and love to complain, especially about “my nerves,” in order to manipulate other people.
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