Some Random Tidbits: 7-Imp’s very own original artwork; The Cybils 2007; an Adam Rex contest; and Eisha’s meme response

h1 September 11th, 2007 by Eisha and Jules

Hi there. Three random announcements here at 7-Imp on this Tuesday.

First, we are truly excited to share our very own 7-Imp art work here at the blog, thanks to illustrator Frank Dormer. In July, we featured an illustration from Frank’s upcoming illustrated picture book, Not So Tall For Six, written by Dianna Hutts Aston (to be published in ’08 by Charlesbridge). And can you even believe that this was Frank’s response? He created this original, action-packed Mad Tea Party illustration just for us and posted it at his blog. We were rather squealy-excited about this wonderful image, and then he told us, yes, it’s ours to do with as we please! So, we decided to put it on our new “Featured Illustrators” page (a definite work-in-progress — we’re, essentially, compiling a list of the illustrators we feature every Sunday, as well as a growing list of those illustrators or author/illustrators we have interviewed), replacing the Tenniel Alice image in that template with Frank’s (it just took a while, as 7-Imp’s tech support, a.k.a. Jules’ husband, had to figure out how to place the new image in the template on that page). Go see, and tell us what you think! The page is kind of like 7-Imp’s art gallery; maybe we can even put thumbnail images there one day. Anyway, it’s perfect with Frank’s Alice scene up top. Many, many thanks to Mr. Dormer! . . . Maybe as time goes by, we can have a different Alice image for each page (although we will probably always be married to the Tenniel image on the blog’s very front page. We started out with it and want to stick with it for as long as 7-Imp is alive. We’re sentimental that way).

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Secondly, remember The Cybils last year? Well, it’s that time of year again — it’s time for The Cybils 2007. Here is Anne Boles Levy’s post on it, in which she declares that this year’s sequel to The Cybils will feature some new bloggers, a new site design, and belly dancers. Hoo hah! And here’s the blog for now, which Anne re-worked a bit, and the new site of which she speaks will be unveiled soon. Kelly Herold is hard at work on this new home page, where the cybils.com domain name will be parked. Daily posts will begin there on September 17th, and nominations will open October 1st.

We at 7-Imp will be heading two separate categories this year. Yes, between the two of us, we’re covering the world of picture books: Eisha will be heading the Non-Fiction Picture Books category, and Jules will be the organizer for the Fiction Picture Books category. We’re honored to be doing so and really looking forward to the awards again this year. We’ll have continual updates here at 7-Imp.

Seven cheers for Cybil-ance all around! . . .

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Third: Remember the interview we did with Adam Rex last week? And those new books of his we reviewed? Did they make you wish you could own an original work of Adam Rex artwork? Well, you’re in luck: David at Ironic Sans is hosting a contest. Come up with a name for a potential Character in Search of a Story, and if David likes yours best, you get your very own piece of Adam Rex art!

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And fourth: Kelly at Big A little a tagged us for the Top 100 Songs meme, whereby you list the top 100 songs from the year you graduated from high school, and let everyone know how you felt about them. Here’s eisha’s response:

eisha: Well, you should know that I have never been much of a Top 40 girl. In high school I was heavy into classic rock with liberal doses of alternative rock and punkish stuff. I just didn’t have a lot of use for the sappy ballads and big hair bands that seem to be all over this list.

Key:
Blue = Loved it.
Green = S’okay.
Red = Loathed it.
? = Don’t remember it.

Top 100 Songs of 1991:

1. (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, Bryan Adams
2. I Wanna Sex You Up, Color Me Badd
3. Gonna Make You Sweat, C+C Music Factory
4. Rush Rush, Paula Abdul
5. One More Try, Timmy T – ?
6. Unbelievable, EMF
7. More Than Words, Extreme
8. I Like The Way (The Kissing Game), Hi-Five – ?
9. The First Time, Surface – ?
10. Baby, Baby, Amy Grant
11. Motownphilly, Boyz II Men
12. Because I Love You (The Postman Song), Stevie B – ?
13. Someday, Mariah Carey
14. High Enough, Damn Yankees
15. From A Distance, Bette Midler
16. All The Man That I Need, Whitney Houston
17. Right Here, Right Now, Jesus Jones
18. I Adore Mi Amor, Color Me Badd
19. Love Will Never Do (Without You), Janet Jackson
20. Good Vibrations, Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch Featuring Loleatta Holloway (Dude, if you’d told me in 1991 that one day I’d think Mark Wahlberg is a great actor…)
21. Justify My Love, Madonna (Usually not a Madonna fan, but this one was sorta okay)
22. Emotions, Mariah Carey
23. Joyride, Roxette
24. Romantic, Karyn White – ?
25. I Don’t Wanna Cry, Mariah Carey
26. Hold You Tight, Tara Kemp – ?
27. You’re In Love, Wilson Phillips
28. Every Heartbeat, Amy Grant
29. Sensitivity, Ralph Tresvant – ?
30. Touch Me (All Night Long), Cathy Dennis – ?
31. I’ve Been Thinking About You, Londonbeat – ?
32. Do Anything, Natural Selection – ?
33. Losing My Religion, R.E.M.
34. Coming Out Of The Dark. Gloria Estefan
35. Here We Go. C+C Music Factory
36. It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over, Lenny Kravitz
37. Where Does My Heart Beat Now, Celine Dion
38. Summertime, D.J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince
39. Wind Of Change, Scorpions
40. P.A.S.S.I.O.N., Rhythm Syndicate – ?
41. The Promise Of A New Day, Paula Abdul
42. I’m Your Baby Tonight, Whitney Houston
43. Love Of A Lifetime, Firehouse – ?
44. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave), Roxette – ?
45. This House, Tracie Spencer – ?
46. Hole Hearted, Extreme
47. Power Of Love-Love Power, Luther Vandross
48. Impulsive, Wilson Phillips
49. Love Is A Wonderful Thing, Michael Bolton
50. Rhythm Of My Heart, Rod Stewart
51. Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…, C+C Music Factory
52. I Touch Myself, Divinyls
53. Tom’s Diner, DMA
54. Iesha, Another Bad Creation (This song caused the closest thing I’ve ever had to a proper nickname. I wasn’t happy about it.)
55. Something To Talk About, Bonnie Raitt
56. After The Rain, Nelson
57. Play That Funky Music, Vanilla Ice
58. Temptation, Corina – ?
59. Can’t Stop This Thing We Started, Bryan Adams – ?
60. I Can’t Wait Another Minute, Hi-Five – ?
61. 3 A.M. Eternal, The KLF
62. Time, Love and Tenderness, Michael Bolton
63. Sadness Part I, Enigma
64. Around The Way Girl, LL Cool J
65. I’ll Be There, Escape Club – ?
66. Cream, Prince and The N.P.G.
67. Now That We Found Love, Heavy D. and The Boyz – ?
68. Show Me The Way, Styx – ? (Really? Styx was still around in 1991?)
69. Love Takes Time, Mariah Carey
70. Cry For Help, Rick Astley
71. The Way You Do The Things You Do, UB40
72. Here I Am (Come and Take Me), UB40
73. Signs, Tesla
74. Too Many Walls, Cathy Dennis – ?
75. Crazy, Seal
76. I’ll Give All My Love To You, Keith Sweat – ?
77. Place In This World, Michael W. Smith – ? (Wasn’t he, like, a Christian radio dude? And didn’t he die or something?)
78. Something To Believe In, Poison (Well, it’s okay for Poison…)
79. Wicked Game, Chris Issak
80. Get Here, Oleta Adams – ?
81. Round and Round, Tevin Campbell – ?
82. Silent Lucidity, Queensryche – ?
83. I’m Not In Love, Will To Power – ?
84. Piece Of My Heart, Tara Kemp – ?
85. Real Real Real, Jesus Jones
87. Just Another Dream, Cathy Dennis – ? (Seriously, Cathy Dennis was getting a lot of play in 1991. Why don’t I remember these songs?)
88. Everybody Plays The Fool, Aaron Neville (I do love when Horatio Sanz pretends to be him on SNL)
88. Strike It Up, Black Box – ?
89. Rico Suave, Gerardo
90. Disappear, INXS
91. Groove Is In The Heart, Deee-Lite
92. All This Time, Sting
93. The One and Only, Chesney Hawkes – ?
94. O.P.P., Naughty By Nature
95. Freedom 90, George Michael
96. I Saw Red, Warrant
97. Miles Away, Winger
98. Do You Want Me, Salt-N-Pepa – ?
99. The Motown Song, Rod Stewart
100. Shiny Happy People, R.E.M.





16 comments to “Some Random Tidbits: 7-Imp’s very own original artwork; The Cybils 2007; an Adam Rex contest; and Eisha’s meme response”

  1. um-kay. Well, you guys rock. But you already knew that. The Frank Dormer art is delectable. Congrats!!!!


  2. YAY Alice!
    YAY tea party!
    YAY Cybils! 🙂


  3. I really like this guy’s style, and I love that you now have your OWN personal page art!!

    And I love the hook-y nose most of all. Too cute.


  4. Thanks for the mention, guys!
    Eisha–we apparently graduated in the same year. Of the songs on this list I actually remember, I would have rated them very similarly. We need to swap CDs.


  5. Oh my, just reading the words “Groove is in the Heart” immediately and directly takes me back to college. Did they ever play that on our weekly Wednesday trips to The Underground to dance, E? Or was that too geeky for that place?

    Thanks for the feedback on the Dormer image, you all. I LOVE IT, too (obviously). I love every, little thing about it.


  6. What a fantastic illustration!! And it’s yours, all yours!!

    Congratulations, E & J. What a terrific addition to your already terrific blog.


  7. Adam, it’s a deal. I’ll make you a mix CD if you’ll make one for me.

    Jules, oh yeah they played Deee-Lite at the Underground. Ah, remember dancing until 3 a.m. on Wed. nights (the underage night), and then stumbling into our 8 a.m. sign language lab class on Thurs.? Oof.


  8. Oh yes, I remember those days. My sophomore year photo from college, pasted in the yearbook for all posterity, was the morning after one of these nights. You can tell.

    What I love about it was that we truly were just dancing geeks. I mean, we got all excited about what they called “Alternative Night” (which is so retro now or something), and we’d wait for certain songs and dance with no regard to the others around us (except for the folks we went with. HATCHER! I miss Hatcher!). I guess what I’m gettin’ at is that I think we were supposed to want to get rip-roarin’ drunk or score drugs or something, but instead we were all, oh maybe they’ll play The Cure tonight!


  9. LOVE the illustration. The two of you are gonna rock the Picture Book Category of the Cybils to a whole new level. Congrats!


  10. Hurrah for the new illustration! That’s really kind of Frank Dormer to draw one especially for you.

    Most of the songs listed I didn’t know or didn’t like, with the exception of Bonnie Raitt’s and REM’s entries. The year before (my graduation year) was pretty similar too.


  11. What generosity! Let’s all have a tea party! My favorite part of the illustration is Alice’s throne-like chair, with her so tiny in it.


  12. Great illustration. You guys are lucky, lucky, lucky.

    Thanks for playing, Eisha. I think I definitely like your list better than 1985!

    And, thanks to the two of you for heading up the PB categories…


  13. I love tea parties, mad or not. The new art gallery page is so cool … exclusively created art? You two beat all!


  14. I agree with Sara, and I love the way Alice looks like a real little girl. She’s often depicted as a miniature adult, you know, which is cool, but it’s always fun to see a different interpretation. Rare.


  15. Nothing quite says “you’ve arrived” like personally drawn art, though you guys truly arrived some time back. Congrats.

    As for the music, uh, I thought all those songs were MUCH earlier than 1991… like maybe 1989! Roxette was still on the charts!


  16. Okay, I used this bit before about your Mo interview, but I’m totally pasting it in the comments now because it’s even better (in it’s own way) for your new illustration.

    From Friends

    Rachel: I’m so happy for them!

    Phoebe: Me too! So happy for them!

    Rachel: I’m so happy and not at all jealous.

    Phoebe: Oh no! No, God, definitely not jealous!

    (They both take a drink of coffee.)

    Rachel: I mean I’m probably 98 percent happy, maybe 2 percent jealous. And I mean, what’s 2 percent? That’s nothing.

    Phoebe: Totally. I’m like 90/10.

    Rachel: Yeah, me too.


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