I have a Decemberists station on Pandora that, if I had time to write everyone down when I'm listening at work, would be an utter gold mine of new music. Truly, we live in a golden age of earnest warblers with minimal instrumentation and hyperliterate lyrics, and I kind of love them all. The only ones I've taken the time to hunt down and aggressively adore are First Aid Kit, but I do adore them quite a lot.

In other news, what do they teach them at these schools? Matilda wore her kick-ass perfect Ozma costume, using this as a reference (didn't have time to do the crown and couldn't afford the fleur de lys, but got all the rest of it, including the big OZ scepter), and *every single kid* who talked to her wanted to know if she was Princess Leia. Plus at least two teachers.

Dude. I. What? First, I honestly had no idea she was an obscure character. She's not in the first book but she's in all the others, she's basically the President of Oz (also surely the first transgirl ruler of any nation, real or imaginary) and she's Dorothy's best and most loyal friend. There are, like, fifty books by now and she looms large in approximately 49 of them.

Second, I'm mildly insulted (NSM the kids, but very much the grown-ups) that anyone would think I'd be dumb enough to respond to a Read Across America book character costume challenge by dressing my kid up as someone from the movies. What the what, people? Whole different art form! What do they teach them at the schools nowadays?

Timelies all!

Discovering new music? Well, in the new-to-me sense, I didn't get into folk music until I moved to the DC-area.(Both modern singer-songwriter stuff and classic folk) Thank goodness for friends who decided I needed to hear the stuff...

The kids I can understand, JZ, but I'm surprised the teachers didn't recognize her. I thought it was a great costume. I do think the character is a bit obscure given that The Wizard of Oz has mostly loomed large in the cultural imagination by dint of the Judy Garland movie and Wicked, not the original series of books.

Yeah, I don't know anything about the series. That said, I could have guessed who she was, and would certainly have never guessed Princes Leia!

But, you know, I went as Harriet the Spy for Halloween one year, when everyone else had plastic character costumes.

I'm sorry, JZ! Was Matilda disappointed to not be recognized? I saw a picture of her in the costume and thought she was simply precious.

The kids use Pandora so I hear music from their selections. I don't purposely seek new music so much as often find myself around 'new to me' music by associating with a lot of people that have different musical tastes than mine. I enjoy a wide variety of music and welcome opportunities to be exposed to new things.

ION, I just realized that the CD I was about to roll over (Capital One 360, formerly ING Direct) had a lower interest rate than their regular savings. So I didn't roll it over.

Also, I started making a written budget for the first time ever, and realized I actually should up my regular transfer to savings. It's not like I can't transfer money back when I want to.

For all that you're surprised people haven't read the books with Ozma in them, JZ, I'm sure people would be surprised you don't know Leia is in books too.

CJ wanders all over spotify for music.

I'm working on Sunday. We had a big schedule deliverable at the end of the week and had gotten a message from the client saying we needed to make adjustments to A, B, and C. So we reviewed A, B, and C and sent revisions.

Today the client sends an e-mail saying we didn't properly respond and why were D and E not fixed. Ummmm...you didn't say there was a problem with D or E. Now we are running around like chickens trying to get answers on D and E. Oy.

Was Matilda disappointed to not be recognized?

No, just surprised.

but I'm surprised the teachers didn't recognize her.

The Oz books have had an odd history with educators. They were incredibly popular in the early 20th century, where getting a new Oz book was something most children looked forward to at Christmas.

But librarians and educators disliked them. There was a general bias against series books, the usual disdain for fantasy/science fiction and a bit of a false binary choice between Alice in Wonderland vs. Oz.

I didn't really clue into this until I went into the SF public library when I first moved here and asked a children's librarian about why they didn't have the Oz series and got such snooty hauteur as one usually gets form asking an indie record clerk for their REO Speedwagon section.

I'd be curious to hear from Kate and Beth to see if that kind of bias is still entrenched. It's rare to find a children's library today that has more than The Wizard of Oz.

I read a bunch of the Oz series as a child, and they're very formulaic. They're not any worse than a lot of long kids' series (OMG the Boxcar Children), but I can see them not being a favorite of librarians.

OTOH with the right artist they would make for a GREAT graphic novel series for today. They're vintage steampunk!