Mel Mudkiper posted:

I was pointing out a bunch of people discovered corpus analysis software what was snarky about it

Mel Mudkiper posted:

What does that have to do with anything?

quote:

“It looked like you met everyone that works here today. The line to say hello to you after your performance resembled an autograph signing by a boy band. I don’t really know what the latest one is, but Backstreet, Five Directions, One Second of Winter, 98 Celsius, O-city, NSYNC Boys or Old Kids on a Curb or something like that.”

I laughed hard at his combo of wrong boy band names and his clear indication that he knew all the boy bands; he purposely had made the small wrong switches in their names. What perhaps made it funnier was the fact that he was pretty enough to be in any of those bands. “It feels like I met enough people to fill a concert for all those bands put together. It’ll take a bit for me to learn everyone’s names, though.”

“Of course,” Cam nodded. “They all just met one person. You just met two hundred people. No one’s expecting you to know all their names yet. You just have to know the important ones, like mine.” Cam smiled and flashed his full set of pearly whites.

“Uh . . . who are you?” Cam frowned and pretended to look hurt. I laughed again before proving that I did remember his name at least. “Your name I remember. How could I forget, Cam? Is it short for Cameron?”

He nodded. “Yeah, it is. Most of us get our names shortened or get nicknames around here. See? You’re good, then. Well, maybe you should know Charles’s name too. Then you’re definitely good.” Cam shrugged a little and nudged my arm.

“Yep, I’ll just start calling everyone else ‘darlin’,’ like any good southern girl would.”

quote:

“I understand this is your job and all, but I don’t think you’re listening to me,” I hissed. I tapped his chest with my finger and he jolted a bit at my touch. He looked at me like I was speaking some kind of foreign language. “I’m not listening? Lady, you need your ears cleaned,” he snarled back. He turned around to walk away, as if that was the end of our conversation. If he was trying to piss me off more, it was working.

I grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping him in his tracks and swinging him around to face me. My face had flushed and I’d raised my voice to a full yell. “And you need to get some manners. I’m not showing you how it’s done, okay? If we have a problem I can go to another show where the technical director doesn’t have a God complex. I’m not a girl who needs a knight in shining armor.” I was practically snarling at him.

quote:

I was back in his face, stern and loud. “Look. It was part of my deal, end of story. I didn’t know Joffrey Baratheon worked here now.” I wondered if Mac even watched Game of Thrones, but hoped he would get my reference to the child king from the first two seasons who acted like, well, a child given power he didn’t deserve or know how to handle.

quote:

She talked a lot, and fast, while smacking her gum. She continued on about how she only thought her great aunt called her by her full name because her name was Anne and thought that somehow she was kind of named after her. I quickly learned more about Lil than I know about most people I’ve known for my half my life. She looked like the stereotypical Goth: black hair, black nails, and more than her fair share of tattoos. I’m pretty sure that if you saw her on the street the last thing you would think is that she made clothes for a living.

quote:

“I love your hair by the way! All the colors look super fab! Do you go to a salon?” Lil grabbed chunks of my hair, looking at the different colors before I had a chance to respond.

“Oh no, I just go to Sally Beauty Supply and get the colors and do it myself. In the little town I’m from we have one hair salon, and they aren’t exactly willing to do anything—in their words—‘crazy.’ So I had to start coloring it myself plus it’s so much cheaper.” I put up air quotes as I stressed “crazy.”

“Wow, it’s so fun; I’ll have to have you do my hair some time!” Lil tossed her hair around playfully.

“I’d be happy to do your hair anytime. Sometime we should go to Sally and pick out some colors for you.”

quote:

Mac slowly walked up to the door of the fitting room. He could hear Lil chattering away—mostly gossip, as usual. He raised his hand to knock on the door, but as he clutched his fingers together and balled up his hand to make a fist the door opened just a crack. It hadn’t been closed all the way. Mac could see Zade standing in nothing but her lace underwear and bra as Lil pulled a measuring tape around her narrow waist. Both pieces were black and nude with lace trim and the panties, which were a high-waisted cut, framed Zade’s body nicely and showed off her curves and small waist. Lil made a note in her pad of the measurement and moved down to Zade’s hips. Under the bright lights, Zade’s skin looked porcelain white. She was beautiful. She wasn’t supermodel hot but there was something about her that just made her stand out. Mac couldn’t quite put his finger on it but there was something there.

He tried to push the thoughts out of his head; he didn’t want to like her. He couldn’t like her. Zade was the enemy. He tried to repeat that to himself. He took a deep breath and kept telling himself he should just turn and walk away. He had forgotten why he was even standing in front of the wardrobe door. It had something to do with Zade and her first day, but he couldn’t remember anything beyond that now. Mac was not the kind of guy to just forget things and it made him frustrated that looking at her seemed to do that to him. Despite his frustration with himself he still stood there staring for quite a while, the whole time thinking he should just look away, but he couldn’t seem to actually take his eyes off of her.

quote:

I’m pretty sure every inch of me had been measured—and I knew Lil’s entire life story. I could practically tell you anything about her, including what she had eaten for breakfast—and, no, I’m not even joking about that one. (She had had scrambled eggs with cheese, turkey bacon, whole-grain toast, and some homemade mango jelly. She had gotten all the ingredients fresh from a local farmer’s market—which she recommended I go and try.)

With my mind on other things and still excited about my first day, I waltzed out of wardrobe not paying any attention to where I was walking. I still had my head turned, saying goodbye to Lil, when I collided into what one would most certainly call tall, dark, and handsome. He was exactly my type, if I ever had one. I had crashed into him so hard that I started to tumble to the ground. Luckily, he apparently had catlike reflexes and caught me in his arms. He held me there for a moment, just long enough for me to look into his deep, sparkling eyes. I’m pretty sure I turned every shade of red imaginable, as I was already embarrassed by my clumsiness—and then just in awe of his handsome radiance. He pulled me up slowly and gingerly even slightly tighter into him before he placed me upright and back on solid ground.

quote:

He put out his arm like guys do on dates sometimes when they want to be sweet. It’s a weakness for me when a guy does it; it makes me feel special somehow. Maybe because it’s always done to princesses and debutantes in old movies, and it just feels so romantic. “Shall we?” he cooed.

I was just about to link my arm with his when I realized that I had forgotten my phone in the wardrobe room. I was about to ruin what was a perfect moment. “Oh, hang on. I need to run back into wardrobe. I left my phone. Let me grab it and then we can start the magical tour.” I was embarrassed that I had forgotten it and I tried to sound cute by calling what we were about to do “the magical tour.” I wasn’t sure if I came off cute or silly for it.

He didn’t seem annoyed at all and shrugged as he responded, “Sure. I’ll be right here . . . waiting for you.” He emphasized the words “right here” and “waiting for you.” I giggled like a schoolgirl. At least I got his reference and joke. Gotta be cool points for that. I made sure to say, “Thanks, Richard Marx,” before darting back into wardrobe.

Unfortunately, that meant that I had that song stuck in my head and it made me wonder if that comment meant he was actually a fan of Richard Marx. I grabbed my cell phone off the counter. Luckily, Lil was preoccupied with someone else, talking their ear off. I picked it up and waved, showing her I had just come back to retrieve my left cell phone. She nodded before apologizing that she hadn’t even realized it was there.

Mel Mudkiper posted:

Kinda surprised you passed over the fact that people are talking about boy bands 15 years too late because the author managed them

iospace posted:

She's insane.

iospace posted:

She's insane.

chitoryu12 posted:

she managed beyond Blues Traveler, 100 Monkeys, and Plain White T's.

Proteus Jones posted:

Plain White T's. drat, those dudes are from my area. Two of the guys used to come out to a local bar I hang in. Not promising anything since I haven't them in years, but if either of them come in I'll definitely see if I can get them to dish on Lani.

Mel Mudkiper posted:

You know, I just reflected on how absurd it is that the setting of a YA novel is a las vegas magic show

Mel Mudkiper posted:

Really it was more "What teenage girl fantasizes about being in a magic show?"

Kurieg posted:

Zade is a 33 year old teenager. Because magic.

Mel Mudkiper posted:

I meant the audience of the book/movie

why would a teenage girl want to spend her time reading/watching about a las vegas magic show

chitoryu12 posted:

Like I said, she reminds me a lot of that woman I tried to do theatre with this year. Both of them are utterly divorced from reality, have little idea of the costs involved in doing business (Lani thinks $15 million will get her a big budget summer blockbuster with a ton of CGI, crazy New Orleans lady thought it would be a breeze to get a warehouse with a big set within a year and set up a show without a script), and dismiss any kind of criticism or attempts to stop their poor business practices as just trying to trip up their success out of jealousy.

chitoryu12 posted:

(Zade claims that calling it a "trick" instead of an "illusion" is meant as an insult)

Besesoth posted:

Well, yeah. Tricks are what a whore does for money.

quote:

She was beautiful. She wasn’t supermodel hot but there was something about her that just made her stand out.

chitoryu12 posted:

Rough Lobster posted:

lol

anilEhilated posted:

Not sure if intentional, but you actually linked a different Richard Marx song there. They're both godawful, though.

Nakar posted:

On the one hand, Vegas stage shows to tend to try to be a little bit sexy.

On the other hand, that's irrelevant because no teenager in existence cares about Vegas stage shows and especially Vegas magic shows.

On the other other hand, as someone has already pointed out, there actually isn't a target audience for this book because nobody was actually supposed to buy or read it except the publisher and whoever makes the movie.

Ride The Gravitron posted:

On but who's the target audience of the movie?

Nakar posted:

the publisher and whoever makes the movie.

Mel Mudkiper posted:

Yeah but I feel like if your goal is to make a movie to be famous you would make a story capable of being famous

GoodyTwoShoes posted:

I've never read a book with so much brand-name-dropping. Is that normal for YA books, these days?

anilEhilated posted:

Plus the author and scriptwriter who also plays the lead character and probably provides the catering.

GoodyTwoShoes posted:

I've never read a book with so much brand-name-dropping. Is that normal for YA books, these days? Or any days? (I basically skipped all the kids/YA books and went from Dr Seuss to Tarzan in one jump, but I did go back and read some Nancy Drew and Bunnicula.)

Ride The Gravitron posted:

On but who's the target audience of the movie?