A Blast from the Past

I may have mentioned in a post awhile ago that I have been participating in the CD trading Web site called Lala. This Web site allows you to post CDs you have and make a list of wants and facilitates trades. They provide the mailing materials and for $1.00 (+$.75 shipping) you get rid of unwanted CDs and get "new" ones. It's great fun. Anyway...I just got Patty Larkin's "In the Square" and am very delighted-here's why. When dinosaurs ruled the Earth and I went away to college I did not have an easy time of it. My original roommate was a disaster, I did not handle well complete freedom well, and my streak of melancholy was a mile wide. Fortunately for me, my roommate swapped with my new best friend who was roommates with my roommate's best friend from high school (both of whom transferred out of school by the next year). So what about the CD?!! So...I'm away and struggling and sad and my uncle sends me $8.00 with instructions to buy Laura Nyro's Eli and the Thirteenth Confession because he has the inside track to Woesville and knows I already listen to Joni Mitchell's Blue more than I should. But Patty Larkin comes to town one night to play our school. She's a Boston-based acoustic singer-songwriter and my gang attends the performance. We LOVE her. I buy the tape, yes the tape, that she sells afterwards. Her songs are witty and political. We are rallied and transported. The one about the mall makes us roll because we hit the Holyoke Mall all of the time when we want to get off campus. Her song "I'm White" is funny, especially to us privileged, intellectual, liberals. It's been almost 22 years since I first heard Patty Larkin and I am in a very different place. That other self is more like a character I recognize from a movie I have seen over and over. When I put the CD in the player and listened to those songs again, it wasn't the struggling or the sadness that I remembered. It was the goodness. It was crisp autumns that I don't have anymore. Driving in my first car (a red Renault Alliance convertible) along winding New England mountain roads with 3 best friends I would have forever (I kept 1 of them). Fresh apple cider from Atkins Farms and homemade fudge...and blue skies that when I see that color, even today, I call it Mount Holyoke Blue. Best $1.75 I spent in a long time.


Get your own playlist at snapdrive.net!

Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC)

This weekend I found out about a dance craze that is sweeping the Cebu Prison, or officially the Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines. The prisoners, thousands of them, have recreated Michael Jackson's video from Thriller along with creating dance routines for "I will Follow Him" from Sister Act and "Radio GaGa" by Queen. These are amazing and from YouTube. Worth a look, obviously with sound.

Thriller


I Will Follow Him


Radio GaGa

Missing Harry?

Here's a little video for those of you missing Harry already. There's a whole series of Potter Puppet Pals videos, fyi.

The End...

I finished Harry Potter yesterday around 4:30 p.m., having spent the day in bed reading. Sounds like my Friday, doesn't it? Not that I anticipate great readership of this blog, but in the event that someone stumbles upon it I don't want to provide any spoilers about the book. I will say that my favorite part was the epilogue. I few tears hit my sheets, not crumbs or cereal milk, but tears. I really enjoy the wrap-up when used in films, also. Animal House is the first time I remember that device. Almost always in documentaries I hope for that last bit information. Sometimes you get more than you bargained for. Perhaps the maxim, "never look for what you aren't prepared to see" holds true even in these cases. Every Sunday night my household watches the Food Network Challenge and several months ago we were minding our own business enjoying a cake decorating challenge being held at the Mall of America in Minnesota. Susan O'Boyle Jacobson was a lovely, grandmotherly local who won the hearts of the fans and judges both on television and in my house. We routed for her and she took the prize. At the end of the show we happened to notice that the show was dedicated to her memory. WHAT!!! I immediately went online and discovered that 4 days after she won that Food Network Challenge, she suffered a fatal heart attack. I was sorry we hadn't changed the channel sooner.

It feels a little weird that the Harry Potter era is over. I have known Harry Potter for so long. I worked in a bookstore when the first 2 books were released, even participating in midnight release events. As a librarian, I am, of course, delighted by the impact this series has had on reading. To see children grab such huge books has been gratifying. Even adults who might not otherwise be inclined to read have read these books. Additionally, they have created their own sub-genre that is of interest to both boys and girls. I will also miss the anticipation that comes while awaiting the new book. I don't think I have anything else like it. Do I? ...I'll have to think about that.

Potterville

Life on Librarian Boulevard has revolved around Harry Potter, not for the patrons but for the staff. I have not had one patron interaction involving the book. Two patrons read my sign out loud, however (see previous post). We all picked up our books this morning. Those of us working today have been reading at breaks. In fact, the staff lounge at lunchtime looked like we ate books and we all ate the same meal. Throughout the day we have been providing each other with page updates. This branch is definitely competitive! ScheduleMaster is ahead at Chapter 10. I am on Chapter 6. TFM is on break now, he may pull ahead.

Welcome Back, Potter

Yesterday I was off for working today and my personal assignment was to finish Raymond Khoury's new book for my Library Journal review. Some of you may be familiar with Erica's poll, "Do You Eat in Bed?" She has been on this kick since last Saturday when this issue came up at dinner at Red Lobster. She has been asking EVERYBODY including our director (he does not). Her most recent blog post discusses this issue. The people who do not eat in bed answer no with such derision in their voices you might think the issue were sacrificing puppies to volcano gods. Those who answer yes discuss the joys and pleasures and can't believe everyone doesn't do it. Quite the divided issue. Erica will be polling until she has a landslide victory of nays. Anyway...to facilitate my assignment, I spent the day in bed (including having a bowl of cereal) reading. I finished my book and started my review. Today at work I finished the review and submitted it. Yea!!! That means that I am Potter-ready. I am bound and determined to be be done with the new Potter by work on Monday. We are so afraid of spoilers around here today that several of us have changed our Internet opening page defaults from Yahoo! to Google not to risk any news. Additionally, I posted signs everywhere requesting, "Please do not discuss the details or ending of the newest Harry Potter book (#7). Not everyone has had a chance to read it yet."

Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die

Today's book discussion was interesting. I had 6 attendees including a new participant and our intern. Jane, our Head of Circ. did not attend this month and I am not counted in that total. Only Harry, the intern, and I finished the book. Those who didn't finish couldn't get into it and found it unreadable. No one really liked it, although they kept stressing they didn't blame me. Harry had a hard time reconciling the book characters with the historical Sacco and Vanzetti because he has a soft spot for the real ones. Our discussion was interesting anyway and I brought in a Publix Cassata Cake (from Publix Web site: "Our rendition of the classic Italian wedding cake layers sweet ricotta cheese filling and rum-flavored chocolate custard in a moist cake. Enrobed in whipped topping and toasted almond crunch, crowned with a small cannoli") to celebrate the several July birthdays in my book group. The Cassata Cake also make the connection to our Italian protagonists. The cake, which I had never had before, was fabulous! Next month...A French Country Murder.