Tricks (novel)

Tricks is a young adult verse novel by Ellen Hopkins, released in August 2009. It tells the converging narratives of five troubled teenage protagonists. The novel is noted for its gritty realism in addressing issues of sexual activity and drug use for a young adult readership. This book has also been banned due to drug uses, sexual themes, and language.

Plot

In the novel Tricks, the story begins with five teenagers, all residing in various parts of the United States. The first character, Eden Streit, lives with her father, mother, and younger sister, Eve. Being a daughter of a minister also comes with expectations, such as not dating until marriage and marrying men within the Christian faith. But for Eden, that doesn’t matter with Andrew, her boyfriend. Her only problem is trying to keep their relationship a secret from her parents. The second character, Seth Parnel, lives with his father after his mother dies from cancer a year and a half ago. Seth struggles with identifying his sexuality after he breaks up with his girlfriend, Janet Winkler. He meets Loren and is catapulted into a new kind of relationship. The third character, Cody Bennet, doesn’t know who his biological father is and spends his time with his step-father Jack. Jack hasn’t been feeling well, and Cody starts to drink. The fourth character, Whitney Lang, lives with her mother, while her father works and lives in another city nearby and her sister, Kyra, attends college. Whitney is disconnected with her mother and likes when her dad is home since she sees him as her hero. Whitney hooks up with Lucas at one of Kyra’s performances and they hit it off, but she still worries about committing to the relationship with him. The fifth character, Ginger Cordell, encounters rape from an early childhood and deals with keeping these secrets from her family. Ginger’s only friend is Alex, and she has begun questioning how she feels about her.

Shadow (Ashlee Simpson song)

"Shadow" is the second single by American recording artist Ashlee Simpson, taken from her debut album, Autobiography (2004). The single peaked at #57 in the United States, becoming Simpson's second Billboard Hot 100 entry; it also peaked at #31 in Australia.

Song information

"Shadow" was written by Ashlee Simpson, Kara DioGuardi and producer John Shanks. It is three minutes and fifty-seven seconds long, and is the third track on Autobiography.

The song is about feelings Simpson had (when she was about 15 or 16 years old), according to one interview of living in the shadow of the dreams and accomplishments of her famous older sister, Jessica, and finding her own identity. Although "Shadow" is noted for having somewhat dark lyrics, it concludes with a positive message, as Simpson sings that "everything's cool now" and "the past is in the past." Simpson has said that it is "about loving yourself and coming to terms with who you are"; also, in an interview on Live with Regis and Kelly on September 22, 2004, Simpson explained the song's meaning:

Surveillance

Surveillance (/sərˈveɪ.əns/ or /sərˈveɪləns/) is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people for the purpose of influencing, managing, directing, or protecting them. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment (such as CCTV cameras), or interception of electronically transmitted information (such as Internet traffic or phone calls); and it can include simple, relatively no- or low-technology methods such as human intelligence agents and postal interception. The word surveillance comes from a French phrase for "watching over" ("sur" means "from above" and "veiller" means "to watch"), and is in contrast to more recent developments such as sousveillance.

Surveillance is used by governments for intelligence gathering, the prevention of crime, the protection of a process, person, group or object, or for the investigation of crime. It is also used by criminal organizations to plan and commit crimes such as robbery and kidnapping, by businesses to gather intelligence, and by private investigators.

Shadow (Marcia Brown book)

Shadow is a children's picture book created by Marcia Brown and published by Scribner in 1982. The text is Brown's translation of the poem La Féticheuse by French writer Blaise Cendrars. She won the annual Caldecott Medal for illustration of an American children's picture book in 1983, her third.

References

Bonobo (musician)

Simon Green (born 30 March 1976), known by his stage name Bonobo, is a British musician, producer and DJ.

Green has recorded and performed solo DJ sets under the name Barakas, and together with Robert Luis from Tru Thoughts as Nirobi and Barakas.

Music career

Green's first release under the moniker Bonobo was in October 1999 with the song "Terrapin" on the Tru Thoughts compilation When Shapes Join Together. He released his debut album Animal Magic on Tru Thoughts in 2000. With this album, completely self-produced and self-instrumented, he became one of the "new downtempo pioneers."

In 2001, Bonobo was signed to Coldcut's label Ninja Tune and in 2003, after one album of remixes on Tru Thoughts in 2002, he released Dial 'M' For Monkey. In 2005, Bonobo contributed to the Solid Steel series, with his Bonobo Presents Solid Steel: "It Came From The Sea", the release date was scheduled for 10 October 2005, but was released a week early, the mix features several exclusive tracks as well as remixes and re-edits.

Bonobo (film)

Bonobo is a 2014 British comedy-drama film written and directed by Matthew Hammett Knott and starring Tessa Peake-Jones, Josie Lawrence and James Norton.

The film is about middle-aged widow Judith (Tessa Peake-Jones), and her attempts to convince her daughter Lily to leave an alternative commune and return to university. Bonobo premiered at the Raindance Film Festival where it was nominated for Best British Feature.

Plot

Middle-aged widow Judith is worried about her 23-year-old daughter Lily, who has joined what she thinks is a sect. In fact, a group of youngsters overseen by middle-aged Anita have set up a commune based on the lifestyle of the Bonobo chimpanzee (Pan paniscus), in which all social conflicts are resolved by having sex.

Deciding that she’ll ‘rescue’ Lily, Judith turns up at the commune, only to be told that she’ll have to wait until she’s in the right state of mind to talk to her daughter. Judith herself starts opening up, but at a party rejects Anita’s advances. Back home, Lily tells her mother that she has to be true to herself. Judith admits her formerly hidden desires and tells Lily she is going to let her decide her future for herself.