Miketcetera

2009-11-02T09:36:00.001-05:00

No love lost

2008-08-03T15:32:00.001-04:00

In Boston there wasn't the massive protests against Manny Ramirez
being traded--especially after Bay's winning performances these past
two games. While in Rockport, Sam and I came across evidence of the
collective sigh of relief that followed Thursday's trade.

Bruuuce!

2008-08-03T03:25:00.001-04:00

It's 3am and we just got back from seeing Bruce Springsteen at
Foxboro. Great concert, one of the best I've seen. Time for bed!

Seaside Rocks

2008-08-01T21:32:00.001-04:00

Sam and I had a very relaxing evening at Halibut Point state park in
Rockport. The weather was just beautiful and there was hardly anyone
on the shore. Sam enjoyed the kelp and other sea vegetation on these
rocks, which was showing really well because it was low tide.

Heli-hiking lodge view

2008-07-22T07:57:00.001-04:00

Lake Champlain before the wedding

2008-07-21T18:34:00.001-04:00

Holy shit!

2008-07-05T22:15:00.000-04:00

Wowie! I'm now a married man and loving every part of it.

Puppy!

2008-06-26T16:34:00.000-04:00

Sam wants a puppy! But not this one.

The Chuppah

2008-06-21T21:52:00.000-04:00

A sign of how many days we have left until the wedding (13!). Tim and
I put together a sturdy chuppah that will make this wedding right.
Thanks for the help, Tim! And thanks for breaking the pot we had
previously chosen for the base of the pole. No kidding! These boxes
work a lot better.

My AM Walk

2008-06-16T10:23:00.000-04:00

The Boston Community Gardens lies along my path between campuses, so I
walk along it about four times a week. This is one of my favorite
parts of my job. My colleagues say it must be a pain to walk between
campuses so often--the joke's on them.

Update: The Big Race

2008-06-14T11:35:00.001-04:00

Sam got first place for her age group--yay Sam! Krista came in third
in hers, and so did their friend Lisa. You go girls!

The Big Race

2008-06-14T09:15:00.000-04:00

Sam and Krista are doing their first five mile race today. They were a
bundle of nerves before starting but I'm sure that by now they're not
thinking about anything but putting more road behind them.

Update: Leif

2008-06-11T14:36:00.000-04:00

I was walking by the Leif Erikson statue today and noticed the Guy
Fawkes mask was no longer there. Knowing it had been a windy and
stormy last night, I poked around the plants at the base of the statue
and, ok and behold, the mask was among them. My suspicion that the
"Anonymous" Scientology protesters were behind it was correct: inside
the mask was written their website--http://whyweprotest.net. Now my
cubicle is jazzed up with the addition of the mask and my decorating
is complete!

Update: McCain in Boston

2008-06-11T14:26:00.000-04:00

Apparently John McCain is doing some fundraising, according to this
article below:

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=82564

Mike

McCain in Boston?

2008-06-11T14:24:00.001-04:00

While walking over the Mass Pike today I saw The Straighttalk Express,
McCain's campaign bus, driving into downtown Boston. Didn't hear that
he was visiting today--maybe making a call on Ted Kennedy?

Leif

2008-06-09T20:49:00.001-04:00

This statue stands outside of my work on Commonwealth Ave. and
something caught my eye today. Leif Erikson had a Guy Fawkes mask in
his hand. Maybe the protesters working against Scientology? Time will tell.

what the flim-flam flannigan?

2008-04-01T11:48:00.000-04:00

oh my, words can't express my joy at seeing this. apparently it's a finnish band, backed up by the red army, singing "sweet home alabama"--awesome!

why did I ever take a Sunday job?

2008-03-16T11:19:00.003-04:00

Woke up this morning, Sam and I did our usual Sunday morning tradition--a good breakfast, drinking coffee while reading the paper, afterwards settling down to catch up on whatever reading we didn't get to over the week. A quiet time, well spent. It's times like these I can't believe I got a Sunday job.

I've had the first week at my new job as the Library Assistant at the Simmons School of Management. The most demanding part of my job so far? Getting to know everyone by name; remembering names is something I've always struggled with (when I was younger I even had trouble keeping my aunt's & uncle's names straight) but I'm getting better at it. Have no idea how Sam remembers the names of all the children she teaches--imagine, she has two schools full of children, from first to fifth grade, whose names she remembers. Amazing!

We'll be celebrating St. Patrick's Day tonight, since I'll be in class tomorrow evening, so that means I have to get around to making the beef stew before I go to my job in a few hours. But it also means I'll have a great stew and a couple of pints waiting for me when I get home.

the wedding looms large

2008-03-06T09:21:00.002-05:00

Sam and I are prepping for our upcoming wedding and one (large) part of it is selecting our "favorites" from the endless stream of music out there. For someone like me, that's a hell of a thing because there's no favorites, and half the music I pick is vetoed because it's not dance-worthy. Well, who can blame me when I can't dance?!? Like I'd know what people will dance to.

I'm going through my ipod in order to see what I like. Maybe that's the problem, I get stuck on songs that are sentimental for me, but when you're all boozy with emotions you're not thinking about people dancing--you're crying in your beer. I just need to surf the web and see what suggested lists are out there, I guess, because this whole process is getting the better for me and all I'm doing is finding music to put on my gym play list. And by the way, why the hell is there a lot of Elton John on the play list? Should I even mention that in public? Think I'll have to balance that with some Misfits . . . .

So now it's only 4 short months before the wedding. And then, the honeymoon! We'll be vacationing in the Canadian Rockies, with the centerpiece of our trip being a heli-hiking adventure for three days. Can't wait.

Music being on my mind, I want to post this song for my friend, Jess, who's got some questions of his own on the subject. Enjoy!

it ain't all that (but it may be a piece of apple pie)

2008-02-13T21:01:00.003-05:00

Oh God, if only our politicians were as honest as Phillipe

oh no!

2008-01-09T14:37:00.001-05:00

my friend ashley turned me on to the online comic (or webcomic, for you nerds out there!) achewood. it was listed as number one in time magazine's top ten graphic novels of 2007, but we won't mention the many ways in which it isn't a graphic novel--rather, i'll show you how awesome it is by posting my (so far) favorite stip! you lucky dog, you . . . but you will have to put up with blogger cutting off the edge (don't worry, you don't miss anything).

plug

2008-01-02T13:06:00.000-05:00

After writing that last post I listened to the tracks Quinn has up on his MySpace site. I'd highly suggest checking them out by linking here. And listen to them all, there's not a bad one. There's never a bad one, just ones that go by the wayside. Quinn, when are we going to have another "Cousins & Friends" release? Just because this song was so good . . .

mario mind

2008-01-02T12:34:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to post quickly to let everyone know that I've posted pics from our vacation to Indiana over Christmas, as well as some pics we took of our First Night experience in Boston. It was a lot of fun, saw a really odd band called Uncle Monsterface. The band caught my eye because of the blurb in the First Night events booklet:

Come and see a sock puppet rock band featuring songs about lobsters and outer space, giant projections for every song including enormous prairie dogs playing guitars, a dance contest between humanity and monster-kind, and a cover of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”. Yes, the sock puppets are in the band.They play instruments, make telephone calls, and teach the world to love again. And they dance dance dance. Totally.

How could you pass up a chance to see that? Well, it was all that and a can of beans, I tell you what! They covered "Little Girls" by Oingo Boingo and it got all the prepubescent girls out of their seats and dancing in front of the stage for the rest of the night. The show climaxed with "Lobster Building," with the audience invited onto the stage for a fitful orgy of leg-kicking and fist-pumping. It rocked. Check out the YouTube video of it below.

The whole thing reminded me of another off-the-wall show I saw, which my friend Quinn Walker opened for. For a time, Quinn was opening for a family that integrated slideshows (presumably found in the trash or bought at garage sales) into their musical act. Ever heard of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players? No? Big surprise, you're probably so uncool that you haven't heard of Uncle Monsterface either. Oh, you have? Then enjoy this, my friend!

To tell you the truth, the whole thing was a little creepy. The mother had made dolls that resembled her daughter, which she sold at the shows. The kid looked so bored you'd think she was doped up on lithium. But it was campy and that sold for a time in NYC.

And last, but certainly not least, what the heck does the title for this post mean? Mario mind?!? Well, it was a phrase coined by my very best friend, James Fegley, when we first got our Nintendo Entertainment System. James had been playing Super Mario Brothers at my house so much that he began to think of his environment in terms of the landscape in the game, which he then dubbed "mario mind." It plagued him in his sleep, it tormented him while he was awake. So now he doesn't play mario anymore. But I still do, and I've been playing Super Mario Galaxy nonstop on my wii. It rocks, but not as much as Uncle Monsterface!

yeah! I mean, no! I mean, whatever . . . .

2007-12-19T10:15:00.000-05:00

After finding out that I've been turned down a third time for a pre-professional job at Simmons Library (third time's a charm!) I have to post something happy to the blog. So here it is, "Stairway to Heaven" condensed into a 2 min. 40 sec. 1964 Beatles-esque pop song. Enjoy!

my first official "shush"

2007-12-11T20:25:00.000-05:00

Oh, glorious day! As of this moment, having just finished reading an article for Wednesday's Ya lit class, I am done with the semester. It certainly was a more intense semester than I had expected but well worth the hard work and effort. Not to mention the blood, sweat and tears. Man, what a great band.

All my crowing aside, I'm happy to have found the light at the end of the tunnel. I'll be using the time wisely, to finalize some wedding preparations, begin the process of looking for a job, visit family and friends in Indiana, and read a few good books. That doesn't mean I'm not hard at work, as I'm taking on extra hours to pad the wallet. And therein lies, ladies and gentlemen, the reason behind this post!

I've picked up an extra shift tonight, which is the day before finals for undergrads. The students are, understandably, both anxious and punchy--a regrettable side effect of the pressure they're all under. In this highly emotional state, many of the students have forgotten that two floors of the library are deemed "quiet" floors. You can't talk on your cellphone, you shouldn't be talking to your neighbor. That's all gone out the window now and it's up to me to put an end to it! And so I'll do, with a little humor. I found a couple of good pictures, so there'd be a little variation, and tried to make it as easily understood as possible. Can you tell me who the lady is? First one who gets it right earns a cookie!

I Hate Facebook

2007-12-06T09:19:00.001-05:00

I just realized that I hate Facebook. It's a social networking site, more grown-up than MySpace because it started as a site networking around college connections. Here's how it works: I go to Simmons, so I belong to the Simmons Community first, then I can join any other communities that are listed as "open" (an example being the recently famous "1,000,000 Strong for Stephen Colbert"). And I could even go back and, if I had an email address for it, join IPFW's Community. Same goes for my high school. Haven't seen it stretch as far back as elementary school but, if that school gave you email addresses, it could conceivably happen.

But regardless, I still hate it. Here's some of the reasons why:

If it's social networking, then why don't I talk to people on it? Most of the people I've befriended on it I never communicate with via Facebook. I see them at school, I talk to them over the phone, I email them if I have something to say. So I end up being their Facebook friend but never communicating with them through it.

Since I don't use Facebook to communicate, what good is it for? Well, it could be used to share web-based information, multimedia, links, etc. But Facebook is a bit clunky for it. The YouTube videos are resized and very small. Embedding videos and links in Facebook's messaging service takes forever and causes frequent errors.

Really, what good is it for? Hmm . . . it's good for stalking and making social situations awkward. See "How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook" by Cory Doctorow from Information Week. I've got one person on my Facebook friends list that I can't wait to take off--but only after I know I won't see him anymore because I'd just rather not be asked the question "why did you take me off your list?"

Is Facebook really that different from MySpace? Sure, you can't pimp your page but Facebook has a lot of crap that you can add on. Really, it would be better to describe this crap as tschoske--all it ends up doing is occupying space on my profile page. On Facebook, I have a zombie. It fights other zombies and gains points. But it's no fun to fight zombies--it's like playing text-based games but the text never changes, you just accumulate points. And there's no end to the crap that you can add on. If there's any difference from MySpace, it's that Facebook pages will never reek of a thirteen-year-old girl's bedroom, with loud clips of the latest pop songs blaring and bedazzled wallpaper blinging.

Now I know that there's a lot of people out there that enjoy Facebook. My friend, Ted Fehskens, and his family use it all the time. I watch them chat away with each other, sharing news about their life and links to funny web pages or clips. But I'm sure there'll come a time when they stop. To me, Social Networking sites are a fad. You start off at one site, have fun adding information about yourself and building up a group of friends--but then another site comes along that you think you'll prefer. So you switch and have to do it all over again. Maybe it's just the social network hermit in me, but I don't want to have to be that socially active. I have my group of friends and I know who they are. And I don't give a damn about telling you what my favorite movie is.

Technorati Tags: facebook why i hate editorial myspace social networking site internet

where have you been?

2007-11-27T13:38:00.000-05:00

Well, it sure was fun reading all of that YA lit but it's high time I posted to my blog about something other than lit reviews. So, nothing better than posting little bits of miscellany that's drawn my attention this past week or so!

I've gotten pulled into the World of Google recently, having iGoogled (creating a personal Google webpage), changed over to a gmail account (Google's web-based electronic mail), re-entered the world of chat with Google's gmail application, and begun an RSS reader (Really Simple Syndication--a way to organize and read blog postings without going to each individual blog). And that's not to mention that this blog is hosted by Google. "Egads, man!" you must be thinking, "why not marry it if you love it so much?!" Well, I just might . . . if I can find a state willing to wed man and technology.

All kidding aside, it is making me wonder what the implications are, of my creating a one-stop shopping area on the Internet, via Google. I certainly have been visiting Google more often, sometimes to the point of having a good portion of the time I'm on the Internet being centered on a service Google offers. What this must be telling Google about my Internet habits, I can only guess . . . .

What else have I been busy with? Reading blogs. Lots of blogs. Mainly about the iphone, which I'll go into in just a moment. But for something other than the iphone, this item about fan fiction (also called fanfic) that was posted to the blog Boing Boing caught my attention. Check it out!

So, back to the iphone. I'm in love with it--more like lust. Alana, Sam's sister, got one recently through her business and I got to play with it. Her son, Jordan, thinks it's magic and says "I want to play with magic, mommy" when he wants to see pictures or YouTube videos on it. How could you not want something that kids think is magic?

I've been trying to get Sam to not be dead-set against me buying a $400 frivolity. In order to win her over, I've been coming up with reasons why the iphone would help me out in my everyday life. Or even when it would help me in my not-so-everyday life. This post about how the author's iphone saved a friend's life is my most recent argument. It's a good read, actually (not like the usual "thank you iphone!" dreck that's out there) and it's written by a librarian who likes to hike (sound like anyone to you?).

Review: Twisted

2007-11-12T13:24:00.000-05:00

Anderson, Laurie Halse (2007). Twisted. New York: Viking, 250 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Tyler was the kid in school who was constantly picked on until he did the "Foul Deed"--but after paying his debt to society through community service and enduring the punishment of working as a landscaper over the summer, Tyler returns to school stronger than the bullies and with the new reputation that comes from perpetrating the "Foul Deed." Soon Bethany Milbury, the hottest girl in school--and unluckily for Tyler, the sister to Tyler's tormentor and daughter to the boss of Tyler's father--takes notice of Tyler and starts to come onto him. But after a bacchanal party, pictures of a dead-drunk and nude Bethany Milbury surface on the internet, and Tyler finds that his new persona and the "Foul Deed" begins to haunt him again as doubt is cast on his self-proclaimed innocence.

I thought Saint Iggy was a heart breaker, but this book almost had me in tears by its end. Laurie Halse Anderson takes Tyler from his previously wimpy and pariah-like figure, builds him up into someone seen as mysterious and dangerous by his classmates and sought after by the hottest girl in the school (isn't that what every teenage boy wants?), and then drives him right back down into the mud--even lower than he was when he started, more dejected and faced with a situation that seems like there's no way out of. Adding on to the already perilous situation of being accused of another crime, Tyler is forced into confrontation with his father, who cares more about his work than he does his family. Halse Anderson uses this situation in expert fashion, examining the character of such a man and his impact on his maturing son--a son who is physically stronger than his father, and is struggling to become emotionally stronger.

Booktalk Hook: When I got to the part of the book where Tyler almost commits suicide, the book had me reading as quickly as I could--it was such a perfect crescendo to the plot line, and I had no idea how it would play out. Would he do it? He certainly had reason enough to. For the booktalk, I'd have a hard time not reading pages 209-210, where this monumental struggle begins.

Review: Re-Gifters

2007-11-03T12:12:00.000-04:00

Carey, Mike; Liew, Sonny; Hempel, Marc (2007). Re-Gifters. New York: DC Comics, 148 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Dik Seong Jen, known as Dixie to her friends and classmates, has two monumental events to get through in the next couple of weeks--one, her crush, Adam, has invited her to his birthday party; and, two, the upcoming Hapkido martial arts tournament, which she and Adam will be participating in. Thinking that she has found the perfect birthday gift for Adam, Dixie gives him an expensive Hwarang warrior statue (using her money intended for the entrance fee for the tournament)--but Adam, clueless as ever, re-gifts it to his crush. Just before facing Adam in the Hapkido final, and torn about whether to throw the fight or not, Dixie is re-gifted the Hwarang statue and realizes that Adam doesn't care about her, leading her to defeat him in the tournament finals and begin dating Dillinger, the bad boy character that gave her the statue.

DC Comics' minx imprint intends to create graphic novels that appeal to a younger female audience and so far they've done a pretty good job, offering a unique and varied line of graphic novels. Re-Gifters is less cutesy than their past releases, because Dixie is a very aggressive character (her best friend says she's "as spiky as a porcupine") and a bit of a tomboy, but having such a character in the story shows that minx is not willing to stick to the norm. The story was enjoyable and I think that the re-gifting idea worked really well, with the sequence of givers and receivers driving the plot--and how embarrassing is it to get someone what you think is the perfect gift, then to be re-gifted it yourself? Perfect way of describing the awkwardness that is adolescence.

Booktalk Hook: If I were to booktalk this, I'd do it alongside either other minx offerings, or with other books that describe a similar situation, of love spurned. Or if I were doing it as a stand-alone booktalk, I'd have to start off by asking if they've ever re-gifted something, or if they've been the recipient of a re-gifted item.

Review: Astro Boy

2007-11-03T12:09:00.000-04:00

Tezuka, Osamu (2002). Astro Boy: Book One. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse, 222 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Astro Boy is the product of a mad (and brilliant) scientist, Dr. Tenma, who sought to replace his recently deceased son by creating a robot, one that resembles his son and is superior to any other robot. In this collection of Astro Boy stories Dr. Tenma is back at it again, having created an army of cybernetic robots that have a terrible secret--each robot contains the brain of a dog, so that they aren't inhibited like normal robots from killing human beings. After Astro Boy discovers the secret behind this robot army, he stops at nothing to defeat the evil masterminds who have created these monstrosities

Osamu Tezuka is considered to be the grandfather of Japanese manga and Astro Boy was his first effort, which became wildly popular in both Japan and the United States and is considered to be a manga classic. This collection, reprinted in an effort to collect all of the Astro Boy comics for American readers, is a perfect example of why Astro Boy became so popular. The story opens with a high-speed car chase where unknown villains kidnap the prize dog of Mr. Mustachio--the mentor to Astro Boy--and then takes the reader on the oddest journey, where aliens (the cybernetic dogs) with weird behaviors appear, who then attack space shuttles on their way to the moon and mysteriously disappear. Astro Boy is then sent in to deal with it, leading to a story packed with action, adventure and mystery.

Booktalk Hook: In order to booktalk this work, I think I would collect some of Tezuka's other works and booktalk them as an "introduction to the grandfather of manga." Tezuka had such an interesting and varied series of works--from sci-fi stories, such as Astro Boy, to historically-driven works such as Buddha and Adolf, to supernatural tales like Vampire.

Review: Not the End of the World

2007-11-01T08:46:00.000-04:00

McCaughrean, Geraldine (2004). Not the End of the World. New York: Harper Collins, 244 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Not the End of the World is a retelling of the Biblical Flood, told primarily from the perspective of Timna--a daughter of Noah, previously unmentioned in the Bible (no thanks to a patriarchally-centered society). The story follows Noah and his family as they are tossed about on the Flood's waters, forcing them to deal with the atrocities of the Flood on humanity (having to deny people floating in the waters safehaven because of God's perceived command), on the animals (what do you think a caged tiger does if a rabbit happens to wander into its cage?), and on the family itself. Unknown to her family, Timna rescues a young child and his baby sister, and then struggles with her father's view of the action as being wicked (and considering the children demons because of it) and her maternal instincts of protecting the child; eventually, because of this action, Timna is exiled from the ark (a trick played on the men by Ama, Noah's wife, who said she would kill Timna for smuggling the children aboard) but finds the dry land that has protected other survivors.

I found the story to be a feminist recasting of the story, where Noah's sons (minus Japheth, the youngest and, by virtue of this, the most caring and effeminate) are your atypical male--smelly, grunting, unthinking, reactionary, quick-to-kill and even quicker to fall for lies. Noah isn't spared from this perspective either, where he does not question God and the devastation that the Flood wreaks on the world, and is viewed critically because of this--but not as critically as his sons. The women of the story, meanwhile, are closer to perfection to the men, as they are constantly outwitting the men, are compassionate, and eventually gain a greater understanding of the Flood's meaning than do the men. Perhaps the highest praise I could give about this book is that the more I think about the story, the more I get out of it--because, at first, it seemed to be about living with stinky animals and how much that sucks but, as the story continues, it really becomes a story about how a young adult begins to realize that their parent isn't always right and the complex relationships of family, and, by extension, the complex relationship of mankind to their Higher Authority.

Booktalk Hook: I certainly wouldn't booktalk this at a Christian youth group, because it challenges the story of the Flood on so many levels (but how great is that?). But I'd love to booktalk it at the library--I'd start with asking people if they've ever gone on a long-distance car trip with their family. What would that be like if you had thousands of animals aboard? Do you think your family would come out of it intact?

Review: Spy Boy

2007-10-29T14:16:00.000-04:00

David, Peter (1999). Spy Boy. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse. 80 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Peter David, who shaped a lot of the history of the Hulk during his long run as author for the Incredible Hulk, takes on the story of Alex Fleming, a teenage boy who discovers that his rightful place in life isn't as the wimp who's constantly bullied in the schoolyard but as the superhero known as "Spy Boy." His secret identity was buried beneath his psyche long ago by his father in order to protect him, but the appearance of his arch-enemy Gourmet (a villain who kills his victims in kitchen-related manners) brings Spy Boy out of hiding and into action. Aided by the mysterious and curvaceous Bombshell, Spy Boy defeats Gourmet and his cronies but his victory only leads to more questions about why his identity was hidden from him so long ago.

Spy Boy, in classic comic book fashion, skips the story of teenage angst and goes straight to the butt-kicking. When introducing the wimp formerly known as Spy Boy, the reader watches as Alex Fleming gets treated to a swirly in the bathroom at the hands of the school bully, Schweitzer, who's caught Alex saying "hello" to his girlfriend. After suffering the abuse, Alex daydreams a Jackie Chan-like reaction to the humiliation, where he flattens Schewitzer & his band of flunkies--and I think that this part was really great, where it would speak to a lot of young adults. Unfortunately (or, fortunately, for those who like action & adventure), Peter David doesn't let the story follow these more psychological lines and just lets the story unravel into a Mission Impossible-like tale (but with more of a teenage bent).

Booktalk Hook: I think for something like this I'd start out with a question, like "have you ever felt that your parents were keeping a secret from you? What if knowing that secret meant that you'd be fighting supervillains instead of doing homework?"

can i keep 'em?

2007-10-19T11:32:00.000-04:00

okay, okay, so I'm bored at work. here's another gem from youtube

My fav-or-ite!

2007-10-19T11:26:00.000-04:00

holy cow, it's my favorite Three Amigos bit ever!

Review: How I Live Now

2007-10-18T11:06:00.000-04:00

Rosoff, Meg (2004). how i live now. New York: Random House. 194 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Sent to live in the English countryside with her maternal aunt's family because she can't get along with her stepmother, Daisy soon falls in love with her cousin Edmond (the aunt isn't around to stop this--she's stuck in Oslo and never returns home) and lives an idyllic lifestyle in the remote countryside. Soon "the war" sweeps in and divides the family--Daisy with her younger cousin Piper and Edmond with his brother Isaac--forcing them to confront the harsh realities of an occupied England. Eventually they reunite and live their lives together again, but the war has taken its toll and their innocence has been lost.

how i live now is a mix between Mad Max and Lord of the Flies with a little bit of The Blue Lagoon thrown in for a love story. Okay, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but it's the best way I can describe it in under 30 words. There were two things that I really liked about this book: one, that the subjects it deals with were pretty off-the-wall; and, two, it employs a quirky narrative form, using the method of presenting Daisy's diary/confession writing (but she doesn't like to use quotation marks and creates so many run-on sentences that she'd have any writing teacher begging her to stop). All in all, it was just a really enjoyable read that grabbed my attention at the beginning (a chain-smoking, mind-reading cousin who drives on the wrong side of the road? cool . . .) and kept it throughout.

Booktalk Hook: Since a lot of the book's appeal is Daisy's voice, I'd have to read a selection of the book for the booktalk. So I'd read pages 3-4, where Daisy is picked up by Edmond at the airport--a passage that pretty well sets the scene for the rest of the book.

Review: The Beast

2007-10-18T10:18:00.000-04:00

Myers, Walter Dean (2003). The Beast. New York: Scholastic. 170 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Anthony "Spoon" Witherspoon has returned home to Harlem, after having his first semester in a prep school in Connecticut, eager to see his family but, most of all, his girlfriend Gabi. His return isn't as triumphant as he expected it to be, as he finds himself surrounded by friends whom he realizes will never escape the ghetto lifestyle --and he's met with the horrifying reality that Gabi has collapsed under the pressures of keeping her family together and started to use heroin. Torn between the two lives he has--that of prep school, with his new friends and a promising future, and his life in Harlem, which has quickly become alienating now that he's left--Anthony helps Gabi to overcome her addiction while committing himself to his new future.

At times this novel felt a little "light" because the subject matter was pretty dark and lonely (an adored girlfriend now a junkie, all past friends either street thugs or just unfriendly) but the mood didn't follow the subject--all too often Anthony was helped out by his family (they were understanding almost to a fault), his new friends (a girl from prep school that has the hots for Anthony helps find a dress for Gabi to borrow, because she doesn't have one for her mother's funeral), and total strangers (a teenage junkie helps Anthony find Gabi when she's disappeared into a crack house). Sure, life sucks a little for Anthony, but it gets difficult to feel bad for him when one of the biggest problems he has is whether or not he should feel bad for making out with his new prep school girlfriend while Gabi's strung out on junk. At times you just get the feeling that as long as Anthony goes back to prep school everything will be okay--but boy, oh boy, are those people stuck in Harlem in for a tough life.

Booktalk Hook: All its imperfections aside, The Beast is still an example of why Walter Dean Myers is considered an exemplary YA author--he can create a (somewhat) believable scenario, introduce characters that people care about, and do it in a succinct manner, without writing hundreds of pages. So, if I were to booktalk The Beast, I'd begin by asking the question of whether or not anyone had ever left their friends for a couple of months (perhaps while going to camp over the summer?) and returned to find that things have changed. What would happen if you came back to find out that they were addicted to drugs? Well, Walter Dean Myer's The Beast is all about how one person deals with returning home to find his girlfriend hooked on heroin . . . .

Review: Notes for a War Story

2007-10-11T17:13:00.000-04:00

Gipi (2007). Notes for a War Story. New York: First Second. 123 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: In war-torn Bosnia, Giuliano and his two friends, Christian and Stefano (also called "Little Killer" by his friends) make their way from petty theft, to collecting on debts for a local tough man, to joining a militia. Giuliano doesn't make it as far as his friends, however, as he hangs back while they do all the strong-arming (and, eventually, killing) and ends up deserting the militia shortly after they join. This doesn't come as a big surprise to the reader, however, as Giuliano's privileged background--namely, having parents who have some money--drives the friends apart as time passes.

This graphic novel is published by First Second, the same publishing house that released the acclaimed American Born Chinese and a graphic novel I previously reviewed, Robot Dreams. A relatively new publishing group, First Second is making its presence felt in the realm of graphic novel publishing--something that is certainly felt in this masterfully told Lord of the Flies-type story. Gipi not only examines the effects of war on the impressionable adolescent male mind, but also how the bonds of friendship can easily unravel in the midst of lawlessness.

Booktalk Hook: I'd have to admit that I can't imagine this book being a hard sell--c'mon, you'd just have to mention it was a graphic novel about teenagers participating in the seedy underbelly of war-torn Bosnia, and I think you'd have some takers. But, if I had a selection of other First Second graphic novels, I'd booktalk this one alongside the others, to give the YA pop. an idea of what their offerings are.

Review: The Last Universe

2007-10-10T20:46:00.000-04:00

Sleator, William (2005). The Last Universe. New York: Amulet. 215 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Susan's brother, Gary, used to ignore her all the time because he was too busy with sports and friends--but now he's forced to pay attention to her, because she pushes him around in a wheelchair, due to some mysterious illness that Gary's come down with. The illness isn't the only strange thing happening, however, as the haunting and palatial garden in their back yard begins to grow non-native lotuses and poppies overnight, birds appear from lotuses and garden paths lead to areas that they never lead to before--such as the hedge maze that can only be seen from the second story of the house, but the entrance could never be found. When Gary and Susan enter the maze, they realize that quantum physics is to blame for all of the strange happenings in the garden, and that the maze holds the chance that Gary's illness can be cured by finding an alternate universe made possible by quantum physics.

Some of the blurbs on the book's jacket refer to it as "creepy" and a "horror story" but I think this worked better as a sci-fi tale than as a horror story. That's because this book does what a really good sci-fi story should do--namely, involve actual science. The Last Universe uses quantum physics to drive the story's plot, where the teenage duo of brother and sister try to solve the mystery of the garden's maze and cure Gary's mysterious illness. While the book does have some haunting elements to it, such as the creepiness of the garden and the twist at the end (Susan comes back to the original universe to find that Gary has been cured but she now has the mysterious illness), the author works more on describing quantum physics than he does creating an eerie mood. All in all, it was a really fun read, especially for someone who likes more traditional sci-fi (or even quantum physics).

Booktalk Hook: If I were to booktalk this, I'd want to try and hook potential readers by asking them what they'd do if they could get to an alternate reality that was better than their current one, but in order to get there they'd have to run the risk of going to a reality that was worse than their current one. And what if they were dying, and knew it--would that increase the possibility they'd take the risk? Then I'd launch into a quick synopsis of the book.

Review: Robot Dreams

2007-10-09T19:20:00.000-04:00

Varon, Sarah (2007). Robot Dreams. New York: First Second. 205 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: In this wordless graphic novel, a dog assembles a robot friend (brought to him by the postman in a box) and, after sharing some quality bonding time with him, carelessly allows his new robot friend to take a dip in the ocean during a trip to the beach. After sunning themselves, the dog realizes that his robot friend is rusted to the point of immobility and decides to leave the robot on the beach while he goes back home. The story then follows the two characters: the robot left naked to the elements and the meanness of strangers, ultimately being repaired by a raccoon and given a new lease on life; and the dog drifting from one friendship to the next, finally purchasing a new kit robot and acting more responsible towards it than the last.

This one was a really quick read but had me coming back for a second, and even third, read-through. While some wordless graphic novels allow for the reader to make up their own story, Robot Dreams tells the story in a much more direct way, so there's not much ability for the reader to construct a story--but that doesn't detract from the book at all. It's a really great tale, heavy on the morals but subtle in its telling. The dog's got big problems, he can't treat his robot friend right and it haunts him in his relationships until he builds another robot and treats it right. While that's going on the discarded robot, after visiting a series of dream-states while immobile under a blanket of snow, experiences the harsh realities of the world (being ripped apart for spare parts, sold to a scrap yard) but is reborn when he is discovered by the raccoon who rebuilds him. It's a great tale for young adults struggling through the crappy friendships that can take place during middle and high school and can serve to soothe the injured soul or teach the trespasser.

Booktalk Hook: I think I'd have to booktalk this with other graphic novels or other books about friendship because, while this book has a lot to teach, it's a really quick read. With that in mind, I'd give a quick rundown of the plot, possibly after starting with the question of whether anyone's felt like they were mistreated (or were the mistreater) in a friendship.

Review: The Golden Compass

2007-10-09T19:19:00.001-04:00

Pullman, Philip (1995). The Golden Compass. New York: Random House. 399 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Lyra Belacqua, an orphan, and her daemon Pantalaimon are confined to the stuffy halls of academia and scholarship at the Jordan College--but after hearing about a dangerous arctic expedition and its discovery of mysterious Dust from the terrifying Lord Asriel, Lyra's world begins to expand beyond the confines of the College. Danger begins to lurk around every corner as the malicious child-snatchers, known as the Gobblers, haunt the city and, unknowingly, Lyra enters into their company by becoming the assistant to their leader, the alluring Mrs. Coulter. Lyra escapes their clutches and begins a journey that takes her to the arctic, with her new-found friends--gypsies, witches, armored bears and a balloon pilot--who help her to free the abducted children.

I picked up The Golden Compass partly because of its upcoming movie release, but also because I told a friend of mine that I was looking for a good YA fantasy novel and he recommended it as his favorite. After reading it, I can certainly understand why it's being made into a movie, and why my friend liked it so much--when you have armored bears (with the awesome name of panserbjorn), witches and gypsies and the book is set in a Victorian-type England, how could it not be good? There are a lot of veiled (and unveiled) swipes at the Catholic Church throughout the novel, which might go over the heads of some readers or anger others (especially their parents, if they're onto it) but it doesn't really get in the way of the driving narrative, with Lyra running from college to Gobblers to gypsies to the arctic--and then on, to another universe.

Booktalk Hook: As mentioned, there's going to be a movie adaptation of this novel released soon (December 2007) so it wouldn't be hard to get interest up for this novel, especially since the series (His Dark Materials) is already so popular.

Dylan and Elvis, live and in person!

2007-10-08T12:05:00.000-04:00

Sam and I took in an Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan concert this Friday, up in Manchester, New Hampshire. Good stuff. My friend, Ted, asked me to tell him how it went so I wrote him this . . . thought I'd post it to the blog, too, rather than re-write it.

Costello took the stage first (after Amos Lee, who's alright) and began his one-man show with a high-energy rendition of "Radio, Radio." He had his acoustic guitar tuned so the bass strings sounded more like an electric guitar, making it sound like two guitarists were playing. Pretty cool effects with that. At points Elvis got a little political, getting a rise out of the audience when he took jabs at the war and made fun of the robots on the campaign trail (a subject particularly appealing to those living in NH).

Dylan's set was pretty good, had some arrangements that I hadn't heard before which was refreshing. Sam made the comment that he hasn't changed the arrangement on any songs from "Modern Times" because he hasn't gotten bored with them yet. I thought that must be close to the mark, because his 60's songs were arranged so differently from the originals (and the more recent arrangements that I'd heard before) that I couldn't tell which song it was until he sang the first verse--songs like "Positively 4th Street" and, surprisingly, "Lay, Lady, Lay." "Pos. 4th St." was just awesome, where he slowed down the song and stretched out the second-to-last word of every-other line, making it sound more like words of advice, like a love song--far from the usual arsenic-laced and sharp-tongued wit of the original. Really, he stuck to songs from the 60's and his last two albums, so it was almost a "greatest hits" concert.

Sadly, Dylan and Elvis didn't take the stage together. I was left with a "what the fuck?" feeling after they turned on the house lights. Sam thought they'd come on and do "Working Mans' Blues" after Costello's political subjects. I thought maybe "Political World" would be even more appropriate. Well worth the hour drive and the ticket price, though, as I had a great time with Costello's set (first time I've seen him in concert) and Dylan, well, unless he came on stage and puked, he couldn't disappoint me.

Review: Born Confused

2007-10-04T19:06:00.000-04:00

Hidier, Tanuja Desai (2002). Born Confused. New York: Scholastic. 500 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Dimple Lala's an Indian by birth and American by nature, and she's confused--but she won't stay that way for long. After Dimple's parents try to arrange for her to meet a "suitable" boy, Dimple begins the process of discovering her Indian heritage as she increasingly comes into contact with it through Karsh (the boy), Kavita (her Indian born-and-bred, college-aged cousin) and others in the "underground" Indian heritage scene in NYC. The "suitable" boy complicates matters, however, as Dimple's all-American friend--the always-at-the-center-of-attention Gwyn Sexton--begins to crush on Karsh and claims him for her own. In the end, Dimple not only comes to terms with her Indian culture but also learns to embrace her family and friends, taking the relationships to a new level.

Born Confused is, to date, the hippest YA novel I've read. The main characters live between New Jersey and NYC and, at the age of 17, have fake id's, are hanging out with college-aged men and women and have a language all of their own. It's perhaps the language that's the most appealing, however, as this secret language morphs somewhat as the story progresses. At the beginning, Dimple and Gwyn are speaking in cutesy American slang of half-curses ("frock" and "oh my Claude"s predominate)--but as Dimple (and Gwyn) begins to investigate her Indian heritage, the language of the novel integrates more Indian words, and Dimple engages her culture in a more positive manner. That said, the language of the novel was also also one of its biggest problems for me, in that there was no glossary of Indian words used (okay, not a big gripe, but I forgot what bhangra meant and people were being described left and right as being all "bhangrad up"). Also, the novel tended to drag in the middle as Dimple's complex relations with everyone and everything--her family, her friends, herself, her heritage--took a while to describe and even longer to solve. Regardless of its problems, however, Born Confused was fun to read in that it wasn't your typical "I hate my parents and I need a boyfriend" novel, and more of an "I want to discover my heritage and, by the way, I need a boyfriend" novel.

Booktalk Hook: The book's plot relies somewhat on Dimple's ever-present camera (named "Chica Tikka") and her growth as a photographer as a parallel to her relationship with others, so I think I'd want to read pages 200-201. I think it's a pretty good description of Dimple's journey of self-realization and involves the author's fascination with a lyrical narrative and fusing Indian words with English.

swing, you sinners!

2007-10-04T08:39:00.000-04:00

I know that I've been posting a lot of YouTube videos on here lately but I think you guys reading this can deal with it. Hell, they've been good--so how can you complain? This one is about Betty Boop's pal--Bimbo the Dog--who has stolen a chicken and now faces the consequences, as he enters into a graveyard and sees the effects his bad actions in the present have on his soul in the afterlife. There'll be no more stealing chickens, no more shooting craps, no more chasing skirts for this guy! So, please enjoy this great black and white cartoon featuring a fantastic mix of jazz music and cartooning.

get up on this!

2007-10-02T20:37:00.000-04:00

Since the last James Brown YouTube video I linked to is now down, I'm posting this one, roughly from the same era and with the same dance steps--with the notable inclusion of James Brown's famous quick-splits. Enjoy James Brown . . . on the Night Train!

Burmese Refugees in Fort Wayne

2007-09-30T17:09:00.001-04:00

I used to hang out with a group of Burmese refugees while back in Fort Wayne. I had met Win Moe, who was just a great guy, while taking an Astronomy course at IPFW and he introduced me to his group of friends. All of them had fought a guerrilla campaign against the Burmese military regime and were a fascinating bunch to talk to. And to drink with--boy, could they drink! Before meeting these guys, I had studied Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the spokeswoman for Burmese democracy (and has been under house arrest for over a decade because of it), so I was somewhat familiar with the country's recent history. But Win Moe and his friends introduced me to their culture, as well as the Burmese community in Fort Wayne--a city that has the largest population of Burmese refugees. And since the recent pro-democracy protests in Burma have begun, the news is taking note of the community in Fort Wayne, an example of which is this report on NPR. Let's hope that this protest gets further than the last one . . . .

mmm . . . carrots

2007-09-28T11:14:00.000-04:00

I have to admit, I've got a bit of a crush on Giada de Laurentiis. Her and Natalie Portman. In fact, I think the two are the same person. But anyway, the reason I'm mentioning this is because I was watching YouTube videos of Kids in the Hall and this video was posted alongside it . . . I couldn't stop laughing. Maybe it's the fact that I got 5 hours of sleep last night. Who knows . . .

Review: Saint Iggy

2007-09-24T08:33:00.000-04:00

Going, K.L. (2006). Saint Iggy. New York: Harcourt. 260 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Iggy's life is pretty frustrating: he's soon to be expelled from high school for something he didn't do; nobody at the high school really even likes Iggy--they all think he's addicted to drugs because he doesn't do well in school and is constantly in an agitated state; his mother (who was pregnant with Iggy while addicted to drugs, which might explain his agitated state) has left the family without saying when she'll be back; and his father cares more about his drug habit than he does anything else, especially his son. So, taking the advice of his principle, Iggy sets out to make something of himself, to do something that will make people change their minds about him. Iggy ends up achieving this by helping his (only) friend, Mo, to get out of a drug deal gone wrong--thus giving Mo a second chance to reconnect with his estranged family.

Saint Iggy was a heartbreaking novel to read. While a lot of the other YA novels that I've read so far deal with kids getting themselves into tough positions and then extracting themselves from it, Saint Iggy is all about a kid whose in a situation created almost entirely by other peoples' bad decisions. I first picked this up because I was looking for a readalike to the novel for my booktalk, A hero ain't nothing but a sandwich, mistakenly thinking it was another story about a kid hooked on drugs. I'm still going to use it for the booktalk, because it's almost the reverse story of Hero--where Benji was the drug-addled kid with everyone willing to help him, Iggy is the straight one with (almost) everyone around him addicted to drugs and in need of help. It was all that more fantastic for it, though, because it's not always the kid's fault that they're in a bad situation.

Booktalk Hook: The start of this story is just awesome--it really grips you with Iggy talking about how he got kicked out of school and was planning on making amends. Since the story's in first-person, the intro of the story is Iggy going on this rant about how unfairly he was treated and it's just so believable, the way it's written. Because of that, I'd have to read the first two pages, and I really don't think it would take much more than that to get some people interested in this book.

Review: Smack

2007-09-20T21:40:00.000-04:00

Burgess, Melvin (1996). Smack. New York: Avon. 293 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Tar and Gemma are two fourteen-year-olds runaways who have left their troubles behind (Tar with his physically and verbally abusive parents; Gemma with her atypically authoritarian parents) and found a comfortable alternative by squatting in houses with some benevolent anarchists. But while Tar is just beginning to find himself, Gemma is agitated and unhappy with the situation--until she meets the mystically appealing Lily, a fellow runaway who introduces the two to heroin. Soon, Tar and Gemma have become addicts as their lives spiral out of control as their dependency upon smack increases--until a series of pregnancies snaps heroin's hold on Gemma and she takes drastic action to get them all straight.

Melvin Burgess' novel Smack is far from your typical teenage tale of "reefer madness." Released the same year that the movie adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, Smack tells a similar tale with some of the edge taken off--but not much. Smack does seem to glorify the life of a runaway somewhat at the beginning of the novel, when Tar and Gemma fall in with Richard, a college-aged anarchist who "liberates" empty houses for young squatters to live in. But Young Adults (and their parents) will be horrified as they watch Gemma, a loveable, somewhat erratic teenager make the move from being a grungy punk runaway to a junkie who supports her habit by working at the local massage parlor. Other subjects are explored as well, including family abuse, alcoholism, abortion, boy-girl relationships, and the bonds of friendship. Overall, a fantastic read for its stark portrayal of how the life of a junkie is frighteningly easy to fall in to.

Booktalk Hook: I don't really think that this novel would be much of a hard sell in that it got quite a bit of attention when it was released--but it has been over ten years since then, so perhaps it would need a little push. A reading from it would certainly suffice however, which is why I'd read pages 102-103, where Gemma first comes into contact with Lily at a party. It's a great intro into why Gemma was attracted to the life of a heroin addict and I'd want to keep away from the depictions of h0w her life goes downhill after that, which isn't that much of a surprise.

Review: Troy

2007-09-16T17:44:00.000-04:00

Geras, Adele (2000). Troy. New York: Harcourt. 340 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: In this work of historical fiction, Adele Geras creates a story where the gods of Ancient Greece not only concern themselves with the famous events of the Illiad, but also with the unknown citizens of Troy. The story focuses on five adolescents--three girls and two boys--entwined in the intrigues of love, as Aphrodite and Eros guide their affections to create conflict and disarray. As Troy begins to fall to the Greeks, the youth begin to understand that love, like war, has very real consequences in that it can rend the bonds of friendship and family and injure in lasting ways.

While Adele Geras found fertile ground for an exciting tale--what better excuse to feature the horrors and heroes of battle alongside the high passion of youth lovemaking than by setting the tale in Homer's Illiad?--her execution of the story is close to one-dimensional. The heroines' voices are not unique and so they begin to blend together, meaning that their first experiences with love becomes a shared reality to the reader. It's a bit unfortunate that this happens, as Adele Geras examines three very real modes of love--those being unrequited, spurned and fulfilled--that are important when examined individually. Adele Geras also tends to rely on a literary technique that becomes a bit tiresome as the Greek gods appear to the characters to impart crucial knowledge (driving the plot) but the characters--save one of the youths--always tend to forget, as the experience becomes dreamlike, and ultimately forgotten, a few seconds after it happens. Aside from these faults, the story captures the fervor of the youth's love stories while Troy teeters on the brink of destruction.

Booktalk Hook: If I were going to booktalk Troy, I would pull Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 in with the talk. Since 300's movie adaptation did so well in the theaters recently, I think it would be successful to offer Troy as an alternative for young adults interested in the theme of Ancient Greece and its wars.

Review: Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy From Mars

2007-09-08T14:24:00.000-04:00

Pinkwater, Daniel (1979). Alan Mendelsohn, the boy from Mars. New York: E.P. Dutton. 248 pages.

Summary & Evaluation: Not only is Leonard Neeble the new kid at Bat Masterson High School but he's also the least popular. After befriending Alan Mendelsohn, an equally unpopular kid who claims he's from Mars, the two begin to have strange adventures as they discover the strange Samuel Klugarsh and his patented Klugarsh Mind Control course. Quickly achieving the right level of omega brain waves, Leonard and Alan achieve "state twenty-six" and begin to realize the untapped potentials of their mind as they discover extra-dimensional worlds--culminating in the two saving the "lost" land of Waka Waka while creating a lasting friendship.

Never having read Daniel Pinkwater before, I'll admit that I picked this book up because Daniel Pinkwater seemed to be popular in YA lit (there were tons of his books on the shelf) and because the cover was so off-the-wall (with a painting of two children in robes, surrounded by motorcyclists and topped off with a bizarre, flat-faced dragon). The cover fits perfectly with Pinkwater's eclectic subjects, as the story quickly progresses from being a story about poor, unpopular Leonard Neeble to revealing a sci-fi laden world where Leonard and Alan can do all sorts of wonderful things with the power of their minds. The book is less of a morality tale than it is a pulpy sci-fi tale, but that keeps it from getting bogged down in the moral of the story and allows the reader to just have a good time.

Booktalk Hook: A lot of really great sci-fi stories rely heavily on a new set of created terminology, and this story's no different. Of course, that can make it impossible to read from the middle of a story and have anyone understand you, so I wouldn't be reading from this book. Rather, I'd probably go into a description of this book, dropping some terminology along the way to keep the interest up ("so these two students walk into a dingy old bookstore, not knowing that they're about to understand how to control people by studying the patented Klugarsh Mind Control course and attaining state twenty-six!").

future posts: young adult literature

2007-09-08T14:17:00.001-04:00

So that nobody gets confused, I wanted to let you know that I'll be posting reviews of young adult (YA) books that I've read. Keeping a journal of reviews is part of the requirement for a YA lit course I'm taking this semester and I thought that, given my lack of recent posts to the blog, that this would be a good way to keep me posting. Perhaps this will get some of you interested in reading Ya lit (it's not just for kids!). If it does, enjoy, because I've been having a blast with it so far.

play that banjer, boy!

2007-09-06T10:40:00.001-04:00

let's start off with a song to begin this post, one to get you "in the mood" to read about my summer . . . this song's called "Jackson Stomp" and it's by the Mississippi Mud Steppers (it's off of the great Yazoo label's "Before the Blues Began, Vol. 1"--buy it!)

So I really only have ten minutes to write this post since I'm going into work this afternoon so here's a quick rundown of what kept me from posting to this blog:

see the last post for the beginning of the summer. after all that happened, Sam traveled to the Adirondacks to visit her friend in the backwoods for a week.

Sam returned, and we begun almost a month's-worth of weekends camping in New Hampshire. First we stayed at our favorite spot in Pillsbury State Park, where we got to chase the Pillsbury boy around and eat his delicious bread leavings. The next week we traveled to Crawford Notch in the White Mountains and stayed for four days with a large group of friends. While there we hiked around a bit and got to see the challenge that would face us on Sam's b-day weekend (Aug. 18th)--the very imposing Mt. Washington. The next weekend Sam's sister, Alana, visited us to help Sam shop for a wedding dress. Just before they got to their second stop, some nitwit ran a red light and plowed into the car. Both Sam and her sister were safe but it was so sad to see these two very happy girls be so bummed out. So I made pudding for them! And then the next week we hiked Mt. Washington. I'll be posting a video to YouTube here shortly, when I get the chance. So after all that, Sam and I didn't get enough of hiking mountains, so this past weekend we made out way to Mt. Monadnock--the second most-climbed mountain, after Mt. Fuji--and got our hike on! And glory be, we found a great hot dog stand on the drive there. School began the day after that and so now we're back to the grind and I'm back to posting.

If you want a visual depictions to go along with the narrative, visit my flickr page where I've uploaded the photos. I'll be labeling them and adding commentary as well soon.

weekends are for relaxing?

2007-07-13T08:51:00.000-04:00

Well, I hate to admit that it's been over two months since my last post. The fact that it's been so long made it so much easier to keep letting it go. So for that one individual (you know who you are!) who kept on me to keep posting, this one's for you . . .

A quick recap of events these past two months:

I didn't get either of the jobs mentioned in my last post.

I'm now working full-time between three departments (circulation, cataloging and inter-library loan) at the Simmons library.

I had an interview yesterday afternoon at a public library that went well.

I went to the Book Expo America (the largest book publisher convention in the U.S.) in NYC.

I got to stay with Sam and I's friends Alex and Ally while in NYC. YAY!

Sam and I drove to Philly for Father's Day/Larry & Ilene's 40th wedding anniversary in June.

Big Larry (Sam's father), Little Larry (Sam's brother-in-law), William (another of Sam's brother-in-laws) and I saw a Phillies game.

The Phillies lost. Miserably.

While driving back from Philly the car broke down on the Garden State Parkway.

I got to stay with William & Alana (Sam's sister) in South Orange for two days while the car was being repaired (thanks guys!).

Sam and I drove to Indiana to stay with my parents during the week of the 4th of July.

It was a very relaxing week but we did so much! Got to see friends and family, toured a pickle factory, had our engagement photos taken (I'll post one of them to my flickr page soon), did lake stuff (fished, swam, etc.), ate with my grandparents at Ft. Wayne's Famous Coney Island, toured the new Allen County Public Library (check out my flickr page to see photos!), got a new car (thanks Mom & Dad!), and all sorts of other great stuff that I won't go into.

you can shake it, you can break it

2007-05-09T09:48:00.000-04:00

It's officially the end of the semester for me. Had my last class yesterday, handed in all my papers the day before that. Now it's time for job hunting--out of the frying pan and into the fire. A few months ago, I made it my goal to have interviews lined up after classes ended and I've been successful at that. I have an interview today at the Peabody Institute Library, which is the public library for the Town of Peabody. It's for a part-time Reference Librarian position, only 14 hours but a good job for someone still in grad school. Tomorrow, I have an interview at Simmons for a full-time position in cataloging and interlibrary loan. Seriously, the past week I've been more worried about these interviews than I was my semester-end projects. There just aren't that many library jobs out there and the applicant pool is pretty saturated with grad students, so there's a lot of competition for what little there is.

All this worrying and work doesn't mean that I haven't been enjoying myself, however. Since I had all my projects done by Sunday, I've picked up a few books and begun reading for enjoyment. At the moment, I'm reading Moanin' At Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf and Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese. I figured it was time to get back to the blues--had been a while since I had listened to the greats and the biography on Howlin' Wolf is a great way to get back to it. American Born Chinese is a graphic novel that's been out for a year and has won all sorts of awards and recognition, so I figured it was high time I read it.

Aside from some recreational reading, I've got a couple of things I'm looking forward to in the next week or two. Tonight I'll be heading into the lovely Town of Brookline (one of the wealthiest towns in the Boston area, home to John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox) where I'll be visiting with classmates and enjoying fine Belgian Ales at the Publick House. Later next week I'll get to see my first Sox game of the season, where they take on the Detroit Tigers. I had tickets for a game in April but it was rained out and postponed until August. Anyway, the game will be shown on ESPN, so keep an eye out and you might see me, cup of Guinness raised high and in full Sox regalia.

So it's getting to the time where I should start thinking about my interview. Means it's time to get to the weekly music! Since I'm reading about the blues, I'm going to post some of 'em.

The first tune is done by Bo Carter, better known as the guitarist for the Mississippi Sheiks. Their tunes are some of my favorites, with songs like "World Gone Wrong" and "I've Got Blood In My Eyes For You" representing greats covered by all sorts of musicians. But Bo Carter was a little bawdy on some of his solo recordings, playing tunes such as "Banana In Your Fruitbasket" and "Pin In Your Cushion," which made for lighter fare than what the Sheiks recorded. The recording I've made available here is a great jumping tune where Bo admonishes a woman that if she doesn't change her ways, "the law's gonna step on your . . . yes yes yes." Seems to me that plenty of times in blues music "yes" is substituted for "ass"--just listen to how close it sounds.

The second tune is by Howlin' Wolf, whose worn his .44 so long, he's made his shoulder sore.

As an added treat, I'm posting the always-difficult to understand Charlie Patton to confound you. It's an amazing display of his guitar prowess and one of the tunes that's easier to understand. He'll be serenading you with tales of "those happy days, where I didn't know your name." Or at least that's how I hear the song--see this great article (the first line of which is "Who was Charlie Patton, and what the hell was he singing about?") on arguments surrounding interpretations of his lyrics. Good stuff. Anyway, enjoy the music, posted below:

Bo Carter "The Law Gonna Step On You"

Howlin' Wolf "Fourty-four"

Charlie Patton "Some Summer Day"

it's alright kids, I'm only singing

2007-05-04T07:25:00.000-04:00

Got up for my daily am surf of the Internet and found this great piece of news about Dylan. The New York Post reports that Dylan's been stopping by his grandson's kindergarten class and playing his guitar for them. The kid(s) refer to him as the "weird man." Well, if he comes dressed up like he did at Newport a few years ago (with a glued-on beard and a wig), or if he was dressed in the hooded sweatshirt he wears while stalking the streets, then I guess I would call him a "weird man" too.

shout, sister, shout!

2007-05-03T08:46:00.000-04:00

It's almost the end of the semester--classes will go on until Monday, May 14th, but all my class projects will be over with by this upcoming Monday the 7th. Hooray! It's high time for this semester to be over . . . or so I feel. Taking four classes and working over 20 hours a week has been mentally and physically draining. Sam and I didn't see each other during the week--thank god I made the stipulation of not working weekends when taking the jobs I had. Now we'll have the upcoming summer, where Sam will be home all day and I'll hopefully be off, working a full-time job so I can bring home some bacon and give Sam a break in that department.

And with the end of the spring semester, I was greeted with a pleasure I haven't had since my days as an undergrad student--namely, having some big project due on my birthday! This year it was a fifteen page paper and a fifteen minute presentation on an instruction program (and, for the purposes of the presentation, actually instructing a class) for a library. My specific topic was instructing senior citizens (patrons of the public library) on Internet navigation. The paper was interesting, got me to think about what all goes into having a program like this in a public library. The presentation was fun, I was able to get people to laugh and even had a few ask if they could use, in the future, what I had prepared. If you're interested in seeing my presentation, here's the links:

for the powerpoint:
http://web.simmons.edu/~wick2/User%20Instruction%20Presentation.ppt

for the instructional web site:
http://web.simmons.edu/~wick2/page1.html

So even though I had all that due on my birthday, it was still fun. Throughout the day, I got to talk to family and friends--even got a call from my buddy, Spongebob! My sister found a website (from Nickelodeon, I think)that you could request a birthday call from a cartoon. It was pretty creepy, to tell you the truth, because the association between the voice and the cartoon character wasn't there (no visual representation of the cartoon character) so I was able to associate the voice with an actual person. The more I thought of that the creepier it became.

To end the night, Sam took me to my favorite restaurant in the area--Redbones. There I stuffed myself with BBQ piggies and had a couple of great beers. I have to admit, the only reason I was reluctant to move to the area was because I didn't think it would have good BBQ.

I have the whole day to myself. Well, myself and the two projects I have to complete before Monday. I don't have work at Pine Manor College during May--they don't have the $$ to pay their part-timers during this slow month--so I'm enjoying the fact that I don't have to make that trip. If I drive it takes 45 minutes and if I take public transportation it takes 1 & 1/2 hours.

So I'll be using the rest of the day for these projects . . . but will I be able to get them done? For one thing, I'm worn out. Another, I have the wii I can play. And to add to that, they're working construction on the road outside of my house. Big noise, see below!

Since I'll be listening to jackhammering all day--then again, maybe not! I hadn't heard regular construction noises (engines, beeping, scraping, hammering, shouts, hoots and hollers at the pretty women, etc.) in a little while, so I set out to investigate. Here's what I found--at 9.00am in the morning it was already break time!

It's a hard life but somebody's gotta do it.

Enough of that, I have to cut this short and post my music of the week! My mom and dad sent me a compilation of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a gospel, blues, and jazz guitarist/singer from the late 1930's into the 1940's. And since it's gospel music I'm playing I can't leave out Sam Cooke. Enjoy Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing "Rock Me" and Sam Cooke singing "Jesus Gave Me Water."

spoon!

2007-04-26T13:34:00.000-04:00

I have one of the one-a-day Far Side calendars and thought that this was a particularly funny one, so I wanted to share it.

another week, another project

2007-04-26T08:42:00.000-04:00

So I'm playing hooky from my schoolwork. There's only three more projects to do but I've found way too many reasons not to do them. What have I been up to? Well, I read a comic book, read some blogs (this one is my favorite at the moment), listened to music, posted more pictures to Flickr, and tried not to play wii (which Sam bought me for my birthday).

On the topic of wii, let me give a little bit of information on it, for those of you who don't know what it is. It's a video game console, made by Nintendo, that represents a new market for video game systems. The controls are spatially interactive, meaning that you move the control within a 3-D environment and the game responds to these directions. An example of this is a baseball game, where you hold the controller like a bat and swing at the pitch. If you're playing with two players, one person controls the batter and the other the pitcher. Here's a video from youtube that shows what this type of gaming looks like:

Needless to say, playing video games on the wii is no longer just sitting your butt on the couch. This looks like it's the next generation of video games, because Nintendo and other video game programmers were able to apply this technology to create very fun and interesting games.

In other news, today I've posted new photos to flickr (see photostream at right), mainly because I wanted to show you all a picture of my daily torment. In the mornings I tend to get up around 7 or 8, have a cup of coffee and surf the Internet. Now I usually get involved in my surfing and don't get around to eating until 10 or so (it's just about 9.45am at the moment and my stomach is starting to grumble). Because of this, I have temptations that I face daily, this being the Entemann truck that's delivering its wares to the supermarket across the street.

Before I get light-headed and goofy from not eating, I'll end this post with my weekly tunes. Since it's spring and the weather is cooperating, I've decided to post a couple of happy-go-lucky tunes. The first of these is Van (the man) Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile)" which is full of hand-clapping and la-da-da's. The second is The Velvet Underground's "Beginning To See the Light" which has a great lyric: "some people work very hard but never seem to get it right."

Next blog I'll try to post some videos that Sam and I took on our last hiking excursion to the Ipswitch Wildlife Sanctuary, where we saw a beaver and a very large snapping turtle and lots of mating birds. Oh boy!

flickr and books and tags, oh my!

2007-04-19T20:14:00.000-04:00

So you may have noticed that I've added some new "thingies" to the right of the blog. I've been playing around with widgets (as they're called) to see if I could pimp my blog. It's all in the spirit of trying to make this blog feel more like it's mine--that and I see other people doing really cool things with their blogs, so I wanted to do it with mine. In the future I'm going to try and fix the page's code so it opens up the space a little more--you may notice that there's a lot of wasted space on the blog, with such wide margins. It's not my fault, it's the template that blogger provides. That'll all change, hopefully after the semester ends.

I wanted to just briefly mention what those widgets on the right are. I've already talked about the flickr tag--which is really awesome--but the three books listed from my library are just as cool. These are books that I've cataloged at LibraryThing--books that I own--and this widget is giving three random books from that catalog. There's a lot of cool ways that LibraryThing has been used. I'll save that for an upcoming post (let's hope!), mainly because I've realized I haven't been blogging about my profession at all. Shameful.

The other widget is what's referred to as a "tag cloud." It's a list of tags that I've applied to websites I've tagged on delicious. This widget takes those tags and aggregates them in a visual manner so that you can tell which tags are more often applied, judging from the size and shade of color of the tag. So, you notice the tag "folksonomy" is really big and dark. That's because I've applied the tag of "folksonomy" more often than other tags, such as "destination," which is tiny and lightly-shaded. Pretty cool, huh? If you're interested in learning more about these new Internet applications, I'd suggest going to the websites themselves. Links are provided on the widget itself--just look for the little blurb.

oh dear . . .

2007-04-16T07:59:00.000-04:00

today's title comes from a favorite saying of a kid i used to work with while at the front desk at the hotel. he was a goofy kid named wayne tee from singapore who just wanted to stay in the united states (ended up he had to leave once his work visa lapsed, which the hotel's hr department was to blame for). whenever he made a mistake, he would draw out an "oh dear" just like someone saying "oh shit" and i would know he just really screwed up something. usually what happened was that he gave someone the wrong key, so inevitably he would have to run and catch them before they walked into someone else's room (oh yes, inevitably the room key he did give them was for an occupied room). wasn't the smoothest ride, working with him, but it usually was entertaining to see how many ways he could screw up.

anyway, i'm writing this just as i'm feeling 100% again, as i've spent the past three days with food poisoning or a stomach bug or something. i couldn't even look at the computer i was so sick. hell, friday was nothing but me lying prone next to the toilet. it was such an enjoyable way for me to begin a long weekend (today is patriots' day, so sam and i both have it off). it really put a crimp on my timeline for projects--i have three papers due next monday, one of which i planned on having done saturday but i'll start work on today. i also had a ticket to see the red sox play the anaheim angels yesterday but we've had a nor'easter come through that rained it out--what luck! as i'm writing now, the worst of it is here, as it's pouring down rain and the winds are really blowing. today is the boston marathon, which they'll be running regardless of the weather, but nobody'll be making any records today, because they'll be running head-long into the wind.

sam and i have found an irish rabbi in boston--where else but in boston would you find one, except maybe new york?--that we're considering to have officiate at our wedding. i hear that the glass he has you break at the end is really a shot glass filled with jameson.

this week's music is all about the hard-working blue-collared man. they're also both country songs--wonder if there's any connection? i hope you enjoy lefty frizzell's "saginaw, michigan" and loretta lynn's "coal miner's daughter".

recent happenings (a list)

2007-04-10T08:22:00.000-04:00

1. i was denied employment by the BPL, due to residency requirements
2. i was denied an interview for a job at Simmons, due to the fact that i didn't introduce myself to a certain individual
3. i was permitted to apply for another, more interesting job, at Simmons
4. i was denied an uneventful drive to Vermont this past weekend, as a New Hampshire trooper clocked me going 81 in a 65 mph zone
5. samantha and i got a complimentary room at the inn at essex, so we could consider it for our wedding
6. the fire alarm went off at 4.30 am
7. we found the inn at essex to be the ideal location for our wedding (see video below!)

so it wasn't such a bad week, but i did take some hard knocks. the inn at essex is a great place--it's a culinary school, so the students will be cooking for the wedding. they've got some great food, and even a few celebrities make sure they get to eat (or stay) at the inn. apparently, while we were eating in the tavern, the bassist for Phish (Mike Gordon--who has a questionable taste in art) was there. i told the man who pointed him out to me that i wasn't impressed--don't like Phish. told him i'd be more impressed if dylan was eating there. so then he told me that dylan not only ate there but passed out in one of the elevators and, when he awoke, signed the elevator. i'm going to have to hunt for that signature. another quasi-celebrity, alton brown--now on the food network--is one of the school's alumni.

sam and i are pretty excited at this point. she's a little nervous, but keeps saying that the wedding date is so far away. oh, yes, we've chosen a date--july 4th, which is the same date we met in switzerland. but that date will come soon enough . . .

and now, for music! this week it's james brown. enjoy the hardest-working man in show business as he treats you to one of his first hits, 1956's "Please, Please, Please." and I just can't but help put up a YouTube video of his dancing--watch the beginning, as he glides across the floor to the mike. try it for yourself, but just try not to get hurt!

takin' it to the streets . . . with holy war!

2007-04-05T21:38:00.000-04:00

Five minutes before getting ready to close the library, I tend to aimlessly surf the internet. Tonight I was blessed with images of american jihad--holy war, that is. Be the first on your block to know about the Episcopalian Holy War!

whoops!

2007-04-05T11:07:00.001-04:00

I forgot to post my weekly music when writing my last post. Knew I had forgotten something . . .

Well, this week I've been reading Barry Miles' biography of Frank Zappa, so I figured I'd put up some Mothers of Invention (Zappa's band's name). The first one, Valarie, is a great doo-wop tune. The second is a tune he played quite a bit, My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama. Enjoy!

'possum vs. opossum

2007-04-05T11:04:00.001-04:00

It's an interesting opposition, 'possum vs. opossum. Very delicate.

So it looks like the end of the world is upon us. Jess has begun blogging again, and my friend James Fegley just sent me this picture of an alien that must represent the vanguard of the coming invasion. See below for the terrifying truth!

In other news, it looks like I won't be able to get the job at the Boston Public Library, due to residency rules. Apparently HR is just a little more strict than these people thought (no shit?!?). I kind of got the idea when, on Monday, I opened my fortune cookie and it said something to the tune of "the joy of life is in the journey, not the destination." Dammit, fortune cookie, you ruined my life!

My semester is really gearing up at the moment. Lots of projects coming due, keeping me very busy. This weekend Sam and I will be visiting the Inn at Essex, which will end up being the last place we visit for possible wedding sites. We just don't have the time to keep looking, have to book something soon. This place looks great, near Burlington VT, they even gave us a complimentary room for the night. It's dubbed "Vermont's Culinary Resort" because the chefs all come from the New England Culinary Institute. I'll keep you posted on how it goes, just keep your peepers on this site.

The weekend after this one I get to see my first Red Sox game of the season--go Sox! I'm sure to give my Uncle George a phone call while I'm there--he's a fun guy to talk baseball to, because his knowledge of baseball is encyclopedic. That and he gets a real kick out of it when I call.

Technorati Tags: baseball, wedding, Red Sox, libraries, library, alien, invasion,

a possible return from retirement?

2007-03-30T23:06:00.001-04:00

I've been checking my friend Jess' blog daily to see if he's changed his mind about ending the "blogging project"--I just don't think it's proper to hound him during our conversations--and it appears that he may be weighing a triumphant return from his recent retirement. He's removed the message he left, announcing his retirement, which can only give me hope. Unlike Michael Jordan, I believe this return will show him in better form than his last showing, so expect bigger and better things from him if he does decide to put his fingers to the keyboard for a public display of intellectual prowess. Here's hoping that Jess shrugs off the cape that is draped over his shoulders and, with a primal yawp, begins a madcap boogie--the likes of which the late James Brown would be amazed by.

To commemorate this special occasion, I have decided to dip into my archives of Jess-related paraphernalia and offer this picture, taken during one of our afternoon porch-sitting sessions. Cheers!

Technorati Tags: jess boldt, michael jordan, james brown

my Flickr badge

2007-03-30T10:32:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to draw everyone's attention to my Flickr badge on the right-side of the page (scroll down a little to see it). It's great! I love it! And hopefully you're getting to see the picture of Sam eating a hot dog! Super Duper Weenie is the greatest--see here for a review, and make sure you look at the pictures. Whenever we drive to Jersey or NYC to visit family and friends, I have to make a stop. Simply delicious. Well, before this blog becomes one big rave about hot dogs, I've got to go. Gotta go to Simmons for my 12-8 shift at the reference desk, and then we have friends (Ally and Alex) visiting from Brooklyn, so we'll be up all night.

Technorati Tags: Super Duper Weenie, Flickr, badge, hot dog, hot dogs

don't start me talking, i'll tell you everything i know

2007-03-30T09:50:00.001-04:00

Good news on the job front--I went in yesterday and interviewed for the cataloging position at the Boston Public Library and, pending background check, have been offered the job. It's a temporary position but a good way to get my foot in the door . . . that and it's great money! I never figured I'd be making this much on a part-time job while still in college. The people I'd be working with are great, too--it was a relief to find some librarians who work blue.

So, in celebration of my new job, I'm sharing my good will and posting two new songs! Aren't you the lucky one? I was just listening to an old "best of" disk of Sonny Boy Williamson that I've had for years but never listen to and was reminded of a great song: "Don't Start Me To Talkin'." Really, I wanted to play "Fattening Frogs for Snakes" for you, but this song works better. While listening to Sonny Boy play that wicked harmonica, I was reminded of a version of the song I had heard John Minton play--and remembered that I had a recording of it on disk! It was from a show he played at the now-defunct Toast and Jam, a coffee shop in Fort Wayne I used to frequent. So here they are, in all their greatness, Sonny Boy Williamson's version and John Minton's version of "Don't Start Me To Talkin'." Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: John Minton, Sonny Boy Williamson, cataloging, music

Whopsy frobscottle!

2007-03-26T22:17:00.000-04:00

I've been reading Sam my favorite bed-time story, The BFG, for the past year and it's done the trick of getting her off to sleep quickly. We're almost to the end now; the Queen's Army and Air Force is off, ready to capture the nine human bean-gulping giants! As a child, I loved Quentin Blake's illustrations (he did a lot of work for Roald Dahl's books) and, during our engagement weekend, Sam and I got to see original art from The BFG when we visited The Eric Carle Museum of Picturebook Art. Great fun! It even had some of the depictions of what happens when you drink whopsy frobscottle . . . and you get whizpoppers!

So I had mentioned seeing a couple of potential spots for our wedding in New Hampshire this past weekend. Hate to say it but Sam and I had a terrible experience at the Castle in the Clouds, so there's no way we're having it there. It's was such a bummer, because I was so excited about it, but it was a disaster. The events coordinator didn't tell us about the secret rear entrance up the mountain, so we never ended up meeting her. Long story short, when we finally got to the secret meeting spot that she had never told us about, she was already gone. When we got in touch with her over the phone, she was rude and unapologetic . . . overall a nasty character. She stressed that it would take her all of ten minutes to get back to where we were, and had better things to do--this, after we had driven two hours to get there! My mind just boggled. So the next day I wrote a letter to the General Manager. What else can you do in a situation like that?

But with every bad experience, I tend to have a great experience. Don't know if it's how my Irish luck plays out, or if it's karma, or whatever. The next stop was the Bedford Village Inn, which ended up being the "gold standard" we'll be comparing to when looking at our other selections. I've taken video of it all (including the stunning scenery at the Castle in the Clouds), so maybe I'll post it on YouTube.

I got an email last week from a professor of mine, asking if I'd be interested in a cataloging job at a "well-known institution in downtown Boston." I put my name in the hat and ended up with an interview at the Boston Public Library. The job deals with cataloging fore-edge painted books from the Rare Book Department, which will then be digitized and available online. Sounds like interesting work, and the pay is pretty great too! So I'll be going in on Thursday--sounds like it'll be an informal meeting, so it seems like I've already got the job.

Last but not least, it's a new week! And I've got to keep my promise to post music. This week is The Smiths, with "Panic". A great clangy 80's English pop tune with a refrain we can all agree with--hope you enjoy!

hang the blessed DJ
because the music they constantly play
it says nothing to me about my life

slacker!

2007-03-20T08:10:00.000-04:00

I find myself again in the position of apologizing to no-one for not having posted in the past few weeks. Why apologize? I don't know, absolves me of my blogging sins?

Two weeks ago I had my fiscal management course, taken over Spring Break. So while all those girls were going wild, I was keeping my shirt on and being studious. Take it from me girls, it ain't all that and a slice of pie. But at least my family wasn't ashamed of me after seeing my Spring Break escapades. The class was great, really--we had a variety of very interesting individuals who gave talks. Most notable was a board member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), who dropped this line: "last week when I was at Warren Buffett's office, I asked him what he wanted to see on accounting sheets . . ." In case you're not sure who Warren Buffett is, here's a good article from Salon, and here's the Wikipedia entry. We also had a Vice President from the Federal Reserve talk to us about media concerns and their impact on the market. Really great stuff, but it's not for everyone.

Sam and I will be going to New Hampshire this Saturday to see a few places we have pegged as potential spots for our wedding. The one I'm most excited about is the Castle in the Clouds, which isn't too pricey and is freakin' beautiful.

So I've just seen word from my friend, Jess, that he's done with the blogging experiment. Or, as he says it, there's "nothing left to write." I find that hard to believe--this from a guy who just published a book of poetry. But sometimes it can get a little silly, writing a blog that you're sure no-one reads or, much less, cares about. That and blogging makes it difficult to divide the truly personal and that-which-should-be-blogged. I know that there's enough going on in Jess' life that he could talk about, but it's not always appropriate for the blogging forum. Same goes for me--I've written one post that was lost because Firefox crashed and, in retrospect, was happy that it did because what I had written wasn't appropriate for a public forum, no matter how little it's read. Along this line, my dad had told me about a workshop he had attended, made mandatory by his employer, that discussed the implications of correspondence through the digital environment, where anything inappropriate you say can and will be haunting you at some point in the future. Just type "MySpace" and "arrest" into Google and you'll see some implications of this.

Anyway, I hope Jess will get off his duff and come back to blogging. I've been enjoying his posts, there hasn't been a dull one yet.

I've been kicking around the idea of posting a song to the blog once a week, so this will be the first one. And in honor of St. Paddy's Day, I bring you The Dubliners singing Finnegan's Wake. If you're interested in understanding what they're singing, I suggest seeing the lyrics here. Enjoy!

the land of cheese steak and brew pubs

2007-02-24T09:15:00.000-05:00

Samantha and I are down in New Jersey for the weekend to visit her parents and talk about preparations for the wedding. We've come up with some great ideas so far--we're kicking around the idea of each table having its own "Dewey" theme, with a subject taken from the Dewey Decimal Classification system being the theme of the table.

Being at Sam's parents in New Jersey means that we're about 15 minutes from Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. Imagine my joy when I found out that it's also the city of brew pubs! We went to one of them on Thursday, when we had dinner with a friend of Sam's. The name was Nodding Head, the name coming from the hundreds of bobblehead dolls they had in their case. I got to try almost all of their beers. The one that stood out was named Grog, their take on an English brown beer. An interesting beer was brewed using hops, engineered by the Sapporo brewery in Japan--can't remember the name for it, and it's not listed on their webpage.

I've also been able to indulge myself in the cheese steak, of which I've had two. I can't stop myself!

my first link! (other than Jess)

2007-02-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

I know this is pretty bad of me, but I was looking at my blog just a minute ago and decided to see if anyone has linked to my blog (with the exception of Jess--not saying I don't appreciate it!). So I clicked on the "blogs that link here" link on the right-side column, and damned if I wasn't quoted in another blog! It was a post about the Espresso machine which prints books on demand, where I was quoted as the "thoughtful, more bookworm-ish perspective" from what I had said in this post. Hey, it's not much, but it's what I got! I just hope this isn't my fifteen minutes of fame 'cause if it is, then I'm pretty dang pathetic.

Recommendations and CRM

2007-02-20T12:40:00.000-05:00

A month or so ago, I had posted something about Amazon's personalized recommendations going a little wonky. Now, I had heard that gmail (Google's free email accounts) had been giving recommendations as well--these recommendations were based on keywords plucked from emails that gmail users had sent and received. Well, they're not so much recommendations as "personalized" advertising from sponsors of Google's gmail. So I had heard that there were some problems with this as well, and obviously it should be so. I mean, when I write an email to someone, I'm not expounding on my shopping habits and bemoaning a lack of advertising directed towards my personal interests. Usually, I'm complaining about the weather, talking about baseball, loved ones, so on and so forth. So how does gmail extract keywords from those conversations? Well, that's the problem. And it's a problem that my friend Jess has had recently, leading him to post about this hilarious personalized advertisement he received. Jess, I just hope to god that you weren't writing about that in your emails . . .

beavers and their eating habits

2007-02-18T13:22:00.000-05:00

Samantha's been entertaining me these past few weeks with a funny story about one of the kids in her school. Apparently when Sam asks this kid a question, she can't answer it but instead goes off with some nonsensical statement. This is a recording I got Sam to make, with my favorite nonsense response yet.

Dice-K's just a blur in the headlines

2007-02-18T12:08:00.000-05:00

Got an email from my Uncle Dave this morning, where he forwarded an article about the Red Sox's knight in shining armor, Daisuke Matsuzaka (see the link for a good blog, Matsuzaka Watch). It got me to thinking about the two articles I've seen about Dice-K's training day appearances--well, actually about the photos that accompanied the articles. In the photos (below), Matsuzaka's a blur. Now, photographic technology is well enough advanced that we can capture most any moments without accompanying blurring, so why was Matsuzaka blurred? Well, to give a little background, Boston laid out $51 mil. to his former Japanese-league team just to sign him, and another $52 mil. for a five-year contract (not figuring bonuses paid for game statistics and other perks like the $150,000 for relocation expenses or the ten round-trip tickets to Japan per year that Matsuzaka was able to get figured into his contract). The reason that they paid all this money is because Matsuzaka's figured to be the best pitcher in Japan, where he can throw blistering fastballs and, in some baseball fan's fantasies, can even throw the mythical gyroball. So he's being touted based on his speed--he's fast, man! I can just imagine the word that went out to the Boston press corp from the Red Sox's clubhouse--Theo Epstein saying that not only does he want them to write about Matsuzaka's speed, he wants it in pictures too. Smart PR move, guys!

It's another day in Lake Wobegon . . .

2007-02-13T08:42:00.000-05:00

So Sam and I went to see Garrison Keillor this past Sunday, at Boston Symphony Hall. It was a great hall but, as always, the seats were so uncomfortable. I think it's for the many symphonies and operas that get played there--or at least for the people watching them, because they couldn't get comfortable enough to drift off to sleep if they wanted to.

Sam did start to doze off, however, just about mid-point in Garrison's talk. She said he just had such a nice voice to sleep to . . . I'm sure he'd be happy to hear that. That, and it reminded her of when I read to her at night, just before she goes to bed. We've been reading Roald Dahl's The BFG for the past two years, because I can only get two pages into it before I notice that Sam's asleep. That and I have to preface every reading with what happened last time she fell asleep. Anyway, Sam had another comment about Garrison Keillor . . . after we left, she told me that she understands where I get my storytelling style from. Must be a Midwestern thing to tell stories that have a definite beginning, meander for an (indefinite) period of time, and, if you have the fortitude to pay attention long enough, will return to the definite beginning with an inconclusive end. It's not the story that's the point, it's the journey we take in its telling . . .

What did Garrison talk about? Well, he started off with a poem, then sang "Pretty Polly," a folk song in the tradition of the Child ballads (it has its roots in this particular Child ballad). After that he groused about literary traditions (paying particular attention to T.S. Elliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", which he called "the poem that singlehandedly turns students off from poetry"). After all that, he began a thirty-or-forty-minute story which culminated in the meeting of a wedding, a funeral, Bruno the fishing dog, and thirty Danish Lutheran pastors in Lake Wobegon (the actual lake, not the town). It was great--if you want a recounting of it, just give me a call and I'll be happy to give you the gist of it. In the end, he had me laughing so hard that I was crying. It reminded me of all the times my Grandma Mack, Mom, Nicole and I would sit around, listening to his recordings on tape and laughing 'till our sides hurt. I'm looking forward to the next time I'll see him . . .

Not enough time in the world . . .

2007-02-09T10:03:00.000-05:00

Amongst other things, there's not enough time in the world. At least when you're too lazy for your own good and don't get around to blogging for a week . . .

So my mother wrote me an email today saying she was going to catch up on my blog while she and dad drove to Chicago--hence the reason I'm getting off my duff and blogging today, because I'm sure there wasn't enough for her to catch up on.

Big news--my friend, Quinn Walker, was recently signed to the Voodoo-EROS label. He's spent quite a few years playing the part of the struggling artist and, if all goes well, he'll have some time to spend as the road-weary musician who just wants to go home and spend his hard-earned money. As a side note, I decided to play a joke on Quinn and made a Wikipedia entry for him, which is where his linked name will take you. He was very modest about it at first, not wanting to have a thing to do with it, but when I told him the wild lies I had put on there, he decided to get his hands dirty and set the record straight. You can see the wild lies here. Beware--some are inside jokes. Sorry. Here's an article that was written about his signing, with a really wacky picture to go along with it.

I've been enjoying my time back in school, taking some interesting classes: Public Library management, user instruction, and collection development and management. The pub. lib. management course is taught by a great professor who rattles our cages constantly, so that's always fun--especially so because it's Monday morning at 9.30, so it keeps everyone awake. The User Instruction course will be very helpful, as it's a type of crash-course in teaching--something that librarians do all the time. Collection development is kind of dry, but so is the professor's humor--he's British, and he likes to repeat himself. It's great, he spends the first fifteen minutes of class telling us what he's going to teach. I think he's just trying to get himself revved up. I'm sure I'll have more to say about the courses as they take over my life . . .

What else? Oh, Sam and I are going to see Garrison Keillor this weekend. Should be fun--I've been reading Lake Wobegon Days to counteract the effects of reading library texts. Wish I could tell stories like him.

Well, that's all I can come up with in the time I've alloted myself. Now I've got to go make a sandwich for my dinner tonight (I work 12-8 at the Simmons Library) and I want to stop off at the Irish bakery in town to pick up some Irish stew and brown bread for my lunch. Yum!

Ahhh!!!! We're all gonna die!

2007-01-31T19:47:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite jokes about Boston is this: The day after September 11, 2001, the local Boston newspapers all ran the same headline--"local Hub man looses life as NYC building collapses". It's very telling in its portrayal of Boston's insular nature, as well as Boston's news culture. Today the joke was all too real, however, as thirty or so "suspicious devices" were found throughout Boston, attached to bridges, roadways, and buildings. This resulted in SWAT teams and bomb experts being called to the scene and major roads and highways to be shut down, all during the early morning commute hours. As if the poor Boston commuter needed another reason to slit their wrist. Of course, it was still a joke . . .

So I'm sure most of you have heard by now that it was an ad campaign for a popular late night programming spot on Cartoon Network, known as Adult Swim. The "devices" were really simple electronic devices fashioned to light up, portraying a popular character from one of their shows, Aqua Teen Hunger Force. What makes it even funnier is that this particular character has a huge disdain for humans--even though he's a 2-D "Atari"-type figure--which is why he always flashes his middle finger. Which is exactly what the character was portrayed as doing in the "devices" which were thought to be of a terroristic nature. See for yourself . . .

So who won in all this? Certainly not Boston. They're the laughing-stock of the states . . . or are they? At least 10 other major metropolitan cities who support Adult Swim also had these devices scattered throughout. Boston was the only city that took the bait (if you can call it that) and treated it as a potential terrorist event. That proves that Boston takes these kind of threats seriously. But perhaps they're taking it too seriously (or not thinking intelligently enough) if they get fooled into thinking that some small, flashing sign powered by 4 D-cell batteries is a possible terrorist weapon. You can link to the best news article I've found on the story here.

Rusty Brown and Chris Ware

2007-01-30T11:53:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to do a quick post about the newest items I've been reading by Chris Ware, The Acme Novelty Library #16 & #17. The previous 15 volumes were collected into Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Chris' drawing style was the first thing that drew me to his work, as it's elegantly technical and is as spare as his narrative style. His storylines are replete with hopeless individuals stuck in the rut of their own mediocrity that is best described as pathos. The current narrative arc Chris is working on in ANL 16 & 17 revolves around Rusty Brown, an eight-year-old boy, in 1975. Rusty is the nerdiest kid at school, constantly picked on, and understandingly retreats to his imagined superhero world. The image below is taken from ANL #16, where Rusty is confronted in the hallway by his daily tormentors.

(click on the image below to expand it)

I just can't get over how powerful a literary device it is for Chris to parallel the defiling of Rusty's glove with his memory of the gloves being a gift (akin to getting socks for Christmas, right?). Anyway, I wanted to post about Chris' recent works, because I can't get over them (I even put off reading Bill James, the famous baseball abstractor, to read this--God, am I a nerd).

I thought that was funny?

2007-01-29T15:58:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to make my apologies for the last two really terrible posts. I think not being in school has allowed me the leisure to relax my brain and not think too hard. But that's changed--today is my first day back. So far, so good . . . .

Sam and I had Dan, a friend of mine from my time in NYC, visit this weekend. We did much of our (what used to be) usual, drinking like sailors until the early hours of the morn and laughing our heads off the whole time. After he left the next morning, Sam (with an upset stomach and rings under her eyelids) told me we need to do that more often. Not the reaction I expected, I'll admit. It was the best "get it in before school begins" weekend I could have had, though. Thanks, Dan!

This past Thursday I had my first day on the job as Evening Supervisor/Reference Librarian at Pine Manor College. It's a very small (500 students) college west of Boston, which focuses on lower-middle class students from varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds. That's a roundabout way of saying I'm not very busy. Last Thursday I counted 15 students who came into the library, 10 of whom came to use the computers to surf the internet. I did get my first reference question, however, which was exciting. And I think it's one I won't forget soon, also. A girl came and told me she needed an article on twins and telepathy. After figuring out that it was for a psychology class, I let her know that she wouldn't likely find any scholarly articles dealing with telepathy since it isn't, after all, real. Ended up getting her an article on twins and empathetic feelings, which she seemed happy with.

update on the weather sticker!

2007-01-21T09:05:00.000-05:00

Already the "flashing" style was bugging me, so I changed it to something a little less compact but also a little less flashier. I'm going for the subdued look, here, not something that resembles Las Vegas . . .

how's the weather?

2007-01-21T08:57:00.000-05:00

I know that one of the worst things to talk about is the weather. You're not unique in experiencing it, and everybody's been through it before. But everyone does talk about it. I guess this is a roundabout way of apologizing for my last post about the weather. I haven't had anyone complain about it, but I can't get rid of the guilt I'm feeling over blogging about it. So, in order for this to never happen again, I've put a little weather tool on the right-side of the blog that will keep you, my loyal readers, up-to-date on the weather in Melrose.

I'm sure I'll remove it at some time because there's no real use for it, and it "flashes". I don't like things that flash. So don't get used to it.

mama, it's cold outside . . .

2007-01-18T13:12:00.000-05:00

Ah, the great Louis Armstrong. Oddly enough, on the coldest day we've had yet, the song from this post's title came up on my iPod while it was on shuffle.

So yes, it's getting cold again in New England. The weather's been warm, like most of us have been experiencing (except them lemon farmers!). Oddest of all was getting off the plane a couple of Saturdays ago to a 70 degree day. Sam and I didn't look a gift horse in the mouth, however, and happily made our way to the Fells (a beautiful reservation just a half-mile from our house) and took a hike.

But now I'm getting busy again and the weather is in the teens, things are feeling like they're getting back to normal again. I gotta say, having all that free time was really getting to me--but I'm damn sure I'll long for days like these in the future.

Nation's Gays Demand Right to Library Cards

2007-01-17T12:51:00.000-05:00

The above is from The Onion's most recent release--you can find it here. My favorite line from the article: "For now, gays should just be happy to read their Bibles," Seitz added. Haw haw!

a link to a link to a link . . . .

2007-01-17T12:33:00.000-05:00

While I was in Indiana, I found out that the Allen County Public Library was almost finished with the reconstruction of their main library. This place used to be a favorite hangout of mine (I also had a friend who lived across the street from it in the now non-existent "Alamo" building) and I thought my experience going back to it would be something to blog about for a student group I'm in. If you're interested, you can read about it here.

My church services

2007-01-17T07:40:00.001-05:00

While I can't rightly call myself a Christian anymore, I still participate in what I consider church services, usually every Wednesday morning. What happens at that point is that I've been able to download Kevin Nutt's podcast of his weekly show, Sinner's Crossroads. Now, Kevin Nutt is from Georgia (I think) but the radio show is broadcast by WFMU, a Northern Jersey station known for its eclectic tastes. What is "Sinner's Crossroads" and why do I consider it my churching for the week? It's self-description says it best: "Scratchy vanity 45s, pilfered field recordings, muddy off-the-radio sounds, homemade congregational tapes and vintage commercial gospel throw-downs; a little preachin', a little salvation, a little audio tomfoolery." I've always enjoyed gospel music, which my parents can attest to. One of their favorite stories of me as a toddler is, while they would be getting ready for Sunday morning church, I would be downstairs watching the black Baptist church's television broadcast, raising my hands and testifying along with them. That and I would really get down to The Jefferson's theme song. "Sinner's Crossroad" is the only genuine gospel broadcast that I've been able to find--all the others are the glitzy modern gospel, or just confused about what gospel music really is (a mistake made where they think Michael W. Smith and his sappy ilk are gospel artists. Just because they're Christians--believers in the Gospel--doesn't make them gospel singers!). "Sinner's Crossroad" is the only place I'd expect to hear the Reverend C.L. Franklin preaching (Aretha's father), the only place where you can hear snake-oil salesmen hawking their wares, the only place where you can hear people gettin' sanctified.

Technorati Tags: Sinner's Crossroad, gospel, music, podcast, Kevin Nutt, WFMU, radio, religion

it's media time!

2007-01-12T17:03:00.001-05:00

Alright, so my training at the library and subsequent interview for a position at another library has gotten in the way of me posting this sooner, but it's allowed me time to watch a movie that I somehow knew I would want to blog about. My friend Jess has been bugging me the past few months to watch Sleepaway Camp, which by the title alone suggests a slasher flick, right? Of course it does, Sherlock. While it progresses as most slasher films do, with formerly happy campers and counselors (and one especially depraved cook) dying in bizarre and horrific ways, the movies ending is truly more disturbing than any horror film I've seen. That doesn't mean that the average viewer can't intuit the ending themselves--in fact, it's the very ability to see it coming and then see how the director ends the movie that is the most disturbing. I'll be glad when I forget the image I was left with . . . .

Aside from the disturbing video, Jess gave me a copy of his new book, Autumn Guilt Mechanism. I haven't read the whole book yet (I'll admit that poetry is the one type of literature that's always given me troubles) but what I have read has been great. My favorite so far? "wet leaves":

We cling to each other like wet leaves against

window pane

everything clings

for awhile

Jess has always been good for summing up things to the point where there's nothing left to say. I can't comment on his style, as I've already shown my ignorance of poetry--but the subject matter is akin to Bukowski, whom I know he's a fan of. At times, the word phrasing reminds me of Rimbaud and Dylan's early tries at poetry--where words are strung together for the effect of language, not intentional meaning. Symbols, images--we're not talking the Oxford English Dictionary, here.

Other media I picked up on? Well, I'll admit that I'm guilty of returning to comic books--and even some super hero stuff. It all started when I read Michael Chabon's The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay, which is a fictitious tale that follows closely the Golden Age of comics, when Superman was being conceived. After that I picked up on that era somewhat, reading collections of early Batman comics and anything else I could get my hands on. I'm more interested in what comics have become, however, so I've been reading more adult comics. These comics have been seeing a second life in movie theaters, such as Sin City and V for Vendetta and the soon-to-be-released 300, which is based on Herodotus' history of the Persian war on Greece (which I've also been reading). It would be more appropriate to describe these comics as graphic novels--and it's interesting to see how they've taken different form from the standard monthly comic. Rather than prattle on and on about them, I'll just list what I've been reading: Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, Bill Willingham's Fables, Dave Sim's Cerebus, Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde, Art Spiegelman's Maus, and a few other titles I can't remember. These aren't kid's books anymore--they're created by artists who wield the pen and the written word with equal dexterity and proficiency.

Music . . . well, I could spend the rest of my life blogging about music (and some, undoubtedly, will) so I'll make this short and sweet. While back in Indiana I had the pleasure to pick up the latest release by a favorite professor of mine, John Minton. His band, The Possum Trot Orchestra, has previously released a self-titled CD that met with rave reviews. Their latest release will meet the same accolades, I'm sure. The band fuses John's seemingly limitless knowledge of American music (he's an ethnomusicologist at Indiana University) with band mate Susan Suraci's lyrical deftness (although John can write amazing tunes as well). If you're looking for some great Americana music, I'd suggest you'd start out with John's second release, Going Back to Vicksburg. And, with that, I'll have to call it quits for this post. It's gotten way too long and it's time to spend a nice Friday evening with Samantha . . .

Technorati Tags: comics, comic books, graphic novels, sleepaway camp, movies, jess boldt, john minton, possum trot orchestra, music, media, recreation

at long last . . .

2007-01-10T10:07:00.001-05:00

Well, I need to apologize for the unannounced hiatus I've taken from blogging these past few weeks. I doubt it's affected anyone adversely but, if it has, please email me and I'll allow you to unload your feelings of despair and abandonment.

So what's happened since I last blogged? Well, notably, James Brown died. That wildly coke-addled musician . . . he truly was one of the greatest showmen alive. They sure did pack them in for his funeral however--he got the ovations that were his due from the notoriously demanding audience of the Apollo while a host of the famous and common visited him. The worst thing about the funeral? Michael Jackson kissing James Brown's corpse. The best thing about the funeral? The fact that James Brown's outfit was changed each day. The saddest thing about the funeral? That he hasn't actually been buried yet. Apparently, lawsuits are being tossed around--you can read about it here.

ain't it funky now?

Aside from mourning, I had the good fortune to spend two weeks with my family and friends in Indiana. One week just isn't enough when there's so many people to see. I had a great time with them all, and would like to thank them for the great time they showed me--most notably my brother-in-law, who brought some great home-brewed beer. Thanks, Kent! And congratulations are in order for him as well, as he's now the interim director of a Hispanic cultural non-profit organization, Centro Hispano.

And with that I'll have to cut this post short. I have to catch a bus so I can go to my first day of training for the circulation desk at the library of Simmons. The vacation away from work sure was sweet, but from the looks of it this won't be the most demanding job I've ever held. My next post: media I picked up on during my vacation. Oh, boy!

Technorati Tags: recreation, james brown, indiana, centro hispano, kent craig, library, simmons

espresso means books?

2006-12-21T08:06:00.000-05:00

I just got my weekly American Libraries Association (ALA) email, which always has some interesting news, and was very interested to read this piece about a print on-demand machine called Espresso. The Espresso machine was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (which you've heard of if you listen to NPR) and was developed by On Demand Books LLC. Apparently the World Bank is the first entity to own an Espresso, which it's utilizing because of the varied demands for their publications. The lack of predictable demand has led to storage issues, where a large amount of already-published books sit in a warehouse, destined for the pulper. Of course, eco-friendliness is only one of the advantages of the machine. The machine is extremely versatile, able to publish in any language and can even print the book for right-to-left and back-to-front reading cultures. The potential to publish any book no longer under copyright restrictions allows unfettered access to a multitude of books--and it costs under a penny per page. This initiative has a correlation to the e-books movement, where the publishing industry is not hampered by traditional production methods--but it also trumps the movement, where the machine central to the product is not owned individually, rather collectively. As the e-book reader is limited to those individuals who can purchase it, so the e-book is limited as well. Hey, digital isn't everything.

she said yes!

2006-12-19T08:43:00.001-05:00

Samantha and I had a wonderful weekend and I'm sorry for not posting this earlier. It ended up being such a busy weekend that I needed a day of rest. To start off with, Sam knew it was coming--she had conceived the design of her ring, and had tricked me into telling her which weekend the proposal would be on--so the only surprise I had in store was where we were going and what we'd be doing. It took me a while to figure that out myself. There's so many places to go in this area that I had several ideas before settling on a weekend in the Berkshires. The draw to the Berkshires is that, in the area where we stayed, there is a renowned art college--Williams College--that houses a wonderful museum, as well as the largest contemporary art museum in the States, Mass MOCA. An added bonus was my finding Eric Carle's Museum of Picturebook Art in Amherst, which was a 1 & 1/2 hour drive away. So it was a weekend filled with museums but they were small and very specific museums, which made it like going to a very large and encompassing museum over a two-day period. All of them were great fun.

Sam says I faked her out on how she thought I'd propose. I had a box of chocolates where she thought the ring would be hidden, but it was really in the menorah case. After I proposed we took some pictures of Sam showing off her new ring, which she can't get her eyes off of. Since there were a lot of pictures we took, I'll link to them here so I won't take up precious blog space.

Technorati Tags: engagement, proposal, Mass MOCA, Eric Carle, Williams College, recreation, Berkshires, pictures, picture

neglecting the blog

2006-12-14T11:44:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been a few days since I posted anything. I've been real busy getting ready for this weekend, where I'll be proposing to Samantha. I picked up the ring last night and it is amazing. I've been so excited about it that I just can't help looking at it every few hours. Beyond sneaking peeks at the ring, I haven't had a minute to myself today. It's a culmination of our car being in the shop, last-minute shopping for Hannumas, preparing for our weekend away, and working on job applications--oh yeah, and I have to polish our menorah. Can't forget about that, as Hannukah starts tomorrow at sundown. I probably won't be posting any more, as I have class tonight and tomorrow morning, but I'll write all about our engagement after we return! I hope to have a picture of the ring as well, which was custom made (Sam had a hand in its conception, which is great).

the beginning of the greatest blog ever?

2006-12-11T14:37:00.001-05:00

I wanted to give a mention to my friend Jess Boldt's new blog called "Drunk Like Leaves". Not sure what that means and haven't had the chance to ask him about it (he started the blog yesterday) but I'm sure he'll give the reasoning behind it at some point. In the meantime, look forward to Jess linking to some obscure and hilarious stuff (the Mr. T song from this post is great), and poking his finger in the eye of society.

Technorati Tags: jess boldt, blog, drunk like leaves, friend, Mr. T, humor

Blues by an Irishman?

2006-12-11T10:40:00.001-05:00

Sure, the Irish have a lot to be blue about--however, I've only heard one who can play the blues as well as those Delta acolytes. Rory Gallagher is a guitarist I've been listening to ever since last Thanksgiving. Due to my job I was forced to stay in Melrose, while Sam went to visit her parents. I ended up celebrating with my neighbor at the time--Brendan--who is about as Irish as you can get. After dinner, darts, and some poitín, Brendan brought out a video of Rory that just blew my mind. If you enjoy this clip, there's more to be had on YouTube. Be patient, it may take a minute for the video to load.

Have you ever been experienced? Well, I have . . .

2006-12-08T08:41:00.001-05:00

I never expected to see a cartoon with Jimi Hendrix in it but should have seen it coming . . . and it's pretty funny too. It's done by a guy who apparently hangs out in Harvard Square a lot. Here's the link.

Marketing & Controlling "Bob Dylan"

2006-12-07T08:06:00.000-05:00

After my last post, I listened to the Rolling Thunder Review concert that is on Wolfgang's Vault and noticed that someone was conspicuously absent--that is, Bob Dylan's set was missing. Nothing they had written about the show indicated it was gone--in fact, a third of it was dedicated to describing Bob's set. So was it put up and then taken off? It seems like that might be the case. Or possibly Dylan owned it outright and they didn't put it up at all, but the archivist didn't know and wrote the review anyway. Just four years ago, Dylan's Bootleg Series volume 5 was released and it covered this very time period, using songs from the concerts they have available on Wolfgang's Vault. And Dylan's people are so good about staking claim to his recordings that I wouldn't be surprised if they beat Wolfgang's Vault to the punch. Or, if this isn't the case, then they made the Vault take the files down. See, Dylan's people aren't schmucks--they're very bright businesspeople. He's looked at the bottom line ever since he began his career--his first manager, the notorious Albert Grossman, was the kind of guy who talked about money when all the folkies were discussing socialism and hippies were gushing about free love. Even Dylan described him as "a Colonel Tom Parker figure."

Now the title of my post isn't meant to be facetious. Rather, I was wanting to demonstrate that Dylan had a keen eye on his legacy and he's going to control what people see of the marketable figure "Bob Dylan" through the years. You can read this blog about how his deal with XM Radio was struck, in which the producer of the show (an XM employee) talks about how impressed he was with Dylan's operation. Another example is the massive archives of music that Dylan must have, which he's begun to open recently with the Bootleg Series. There's so many periods of his career, and so many albums whose outtakes haven't been heard, that the 6 volumes (coming to 13 CDs of music) that have been released don't seem enough to Dylan fans. After all, there is the holy grail of all bootlegs, regardless of artist--the so-called "Basement Tapes" that he recorded with The Band during his period of recovery and renewal in Woodstock--that has yet to be released, if they ever will be.

I think it's masterful, the way Dylan is keeping his fans waiting--it's just like how a great artist knows how long to wait before the encore--releasing just enough that he can't be accused of holding out, but not releasing so much that the market is glutted and the music loses its significance. This has happened to other bands who have a large amount of recordings in their vaults--two notables being The Dead and Pearl Jam. Both have released so much that it doesn't matter anymore when they release another (I mean, what's Dick's Picks up to now--volume 30?--oops, I'm wrong, it's volume 36). I mean, I was just blown away when Dylan released his memoirs, the Scorsese documentary Don't Look Back, and the 6th volume of the Bootleg Series in the same year--what some bands might find happening once every five years or so, Dylan's done just once in his career. While some people complain that Dylan isn't giving enough, I think he's giving just enough to keep things interesting.

Bill Graham's vaults open . . .

2006-12-06T10:54:00.001-05:00

Bill Graham, legendary concert promoter and owner of the Fillmore venues, had some amazing concerts archived. A company, Wolfgang's Vaults, came along and bought them up and now offers them in streaming audio online here. It looks like the site has just started and will undergo some changes, most notably offering the concerts in a downloadable format. While the company states that they're licensed to do so under BMI, ASCAP and SESAC (which are the big names in music licensing and royalties), Rolling Stone reports that artists are considering lawsuits (I would have a link to the article here, but rollingstone.com seems to be having connectivity issues). Regardless of what the future may hold for the website and their offerings, the present situations allows you to listen to Muddy Waters' 1966 concert at the Fillmore West, to hear Hendrix at the Winterland in '68, catch Springsteen in '78 at the same venue, hear Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review play Madison Square Garden in '75, catch the Clash debut in Cleveland in '79, rock out to some Sabbath in '75 at Asbury Park (great line from Wolfgang's vault about Sabbath: "Zeppelin might have made the mold, but Sabbath crushed the mold into a fine powder, snorted it, and proceeded to scare the hell out of everybody"). It really is some amazing music, and you're foolish if you don't check it out. You do have to register to use the site, but some of us would sell our soul for the pleasure of listening to these gems.

Technorati Tags: wolfgang's vault, music, bill graham, concert, concerts, fillmore

CRM gone wrong at Amazon

2006-12-05T10:24:00.001-05:00

Looks like some fun things are going on with Amazon's recommendation system, according to this post. There are other good examples but I thought this one was pretty good.

Of course, recommendation systems aren't perfect--especially if you haven't built up a large base of books for them to offer recommendations for. Since I buy from Amazon maybe three or four times a year, most often when buying gifts for other people, I get some recommendations that I really don't care for--after all, what I buy for you isn't necessarily what I want. I've had an Oak Ridge Boys Christmas CD on my recommendation list for the past five years, due to me buying two of their CDs for my Grandma Mack. God bless her, she loved them but I don't have much use for their Christmas CDs. The only Christmas CD I have is Ron Spector's productions, which are pretty good. I think I might buy Frank Sinatra's too.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, Amazon, Amazon recommendations

My wandering mind

2006-12-04T12:40:00.000-05:00

Don't let anyone tell you that you can't have fun when you're in grad school. When a particularly entrancing three-hour lecture is failing to make its mark on me I tend to let my fingers do the walking. These are a few drawings taken from my notes from Reference (a study of sources available to, and the theory of, reference). Unfortunately, that particular class is taught in a very uninspiring way that is well-suited for doodling.

This is my number monster series. My favorite is the number two on the right-hand side, and the number eight that's on fire and running down the highway.

Sometimes I like to make patterns. The worm pattern is one I have repeated a few times, this one being the first, and best, example.

Sometimes I just begin to draw a squiggly line and follow my subconscious thoughts of what it is. This time it turned into a lion (I think it was because I had watched Calder's Circus, which I had bought for Samantha's birthday the month before). I added to the menagerie with an ostrich.

This one started off as a series of high-rise buildings and turned into an odd party hat for the birthday boy. You might have noticed that the face is like those of the squid people in my last post. It's a really nice, easy way to abstract the face and draw attention to other embellishments, like the dancing radio.

So if you're wondering what I'm spending $10,000 a semester on, consider it an art studio that produces librarians. I had the idea that I might do a weekly post where I gather my doodles and put them on my blog but, thankfully, I've done more learning than doodling.

Oh the weather outside is frightful . . .

2006-12-04T08:08:00.000-05:00

It's the first snow of the year in the Boston area, and it's a pretty one. Started off as sleet and now it's big, wet flakes that are drifting down. I went outside to get a picture . . .

It's amazing to think that, just last Wednesday and Thursday, it reached almost 70 degrees.
This weekend Sam and I decorated for the holidays, which mainly consisted of Christmas decorations. We have a couple of menorahs but that's about it that you can do for Hannukah--Sam complains about how our 7 foot tree makes the menorah seem insignificant, but I hope to get an electric-light menorah for the window so it can pose a challenge. Oh wow--I just decided to take a look on the internet to see how much it would cost and I found a blow-up lawn menorah! The best thing is that it's already sold out at this web site. So it's not only the Christians that have bad taste . . .

So this is our tree. Mom, you might notice the guitar and percussion decorations are on it this year.

After putting up our decorations, Sam and I did a little shopping for gifts and we made our holiday cards on Snapfish, which is a really great deal. To end the weekend, we drew in Sam's scrap book and watched The Librarian, which was a like a nerdy Indiana Jones who likes to remind you that the library can be cool. Oh yeah, he also gets busy with a girl, so he's cool like that too.

Here's what I was drawing . . . I had started a few months ago, and added the Nativity scene last night.

. . . and folksonomies, oh my!

2006-12-02T09:32:00.000-05:00

I've already posted about the basics of folksonomy here but I have promised to go into the idea further. A refresher on what folksonomy: folksonomy is the language of free-tagging, which is what social bookmarking utilizes. Lost already? Good.

Social bookmarking is a service like del.icio.us, which works somewhat like the Favorites section of Internet Explorer. If you find a web site that you want to keep for later, there's a button that del.icio.us adds to your browser that lets you "tag" the web page. When you choose to tag a web page, del.icio.us gives you four fields you can fill in: the URL (already filled in), description (the name of the web page, which is already filled in), notes and tags. Notes are just another space where you can write more about the web page. When filling in the "tags" section, you use single words that you think describe the "aboutness" of the web page. For an example, let's use a favorite of mine--BeerAdvocate. If you go to the Beer Advocate web page, you see that it's about beer (really?), reviewing beer, beer festivals, people talking about beer (online communities), among other things. You may come up with other ideas of what it's about, or different ways of saying the same thing (synonyms). So, we take it's "aboutness" and begin to construct single-word terms--beer, reviews, fesitvals, community. That's folksonomy, those terms that you have used to describe the "aboutness." It's taking traditional taxonomies and turning the idea on its head.

What are the benefits of folksonomy? One of the major benefits is that folksonomy allows something previously uncatalogable--such as the internet--and applies the assistance of volunteers (the many who are tagging) in cataloging it. Social networks are created around tagging, where groups of people who tag the same things, or use the same terms, can come together and gain information from one another. Say I was interested in the tag "beer." I can go on del.icio.us and find someone who has a vast collection of web sites that they have tagged with "beer," and I can set up an alert (a RSS feed) that lets me see what they are tagging with the term "beer."

Businesses have jumped onto the folksonomy bandwagon as well, with no less of a notable member than IBM taking part in it. For a company that has an intranet, allowing their employees the ability to tag data within it can allow for more effective searching and increase findability. Employing folksonomy allows people to make sense of a system that is not readily accessible to the layman--such as an intranet or a library catalog. Yes, I don't think that library catalogs are the easiest databases to navigate. One of the major problems is the use of subject headings--they aren't logical, but are the result of a hierarchical taxonomy. Catalogs are getting around this problem by making subject headings searchable by deconstructing them and allowing individual terms within the subject heading to be searchable. But if you are to employ a tagging system with a traditional catalog--like University of Pennsylvania's PennTags--then you can begin to approach the best of both worlds.

Alright, I think I've written enough about folksonomy for now. If you're interested, check out del.icio.us. Or if you've had enough of futuristic mumbo-jumbo, go right to the source that will help you forget about it!