I've just discovered the coolest thing in the universe.

http://www.musicovery.com/

"Discover your musical universe"

Use the remote to explore color-coded musical genres in search of the music that matches your mood. I haven't seen a playlist tool, but just being your own dj with music from all times and genres is highly fun. After it finishes the song you are on, it moves along the web to the next one.

After a few songs it puts up a screen that you can move around but recommends you register. You can go with a free membership, but I paid the $15 for a three month premium membership and got the ability to make favorites and to listen with higher sound quality. I'll be using this at home I'm sure.

Roald Dahl's Birthday

Say happy birthday today to the creator of our childhood favorites and have some chocolate in honor of the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or some James and the Giant Peach peach juice.

:)

Death and Taxes

A quick observation on weeding:
Weeding is when you pull items which are undesirable or harmful in order to enhance the overall health and appearance of the whole, whether that be a garden or a collection of books.
When lots of weeding is going on, it may just be because there are a lot of weeds that need to be pulled.

That said, I've asked my branch manager to look for a modern reprint for the yellowed and faded volume of Dorothy Parker's Death and Taxes, third printing, 1931. It would be wonderful if we could introduce her to a new generation, and while her books have a certain dainty appeal, I'm not sure that patrons would be knocking down the shelves to pick her up like they would if she were in a slick bound penguin classics version with a stunning visual on the front page. And even if they were to, I'm not sure the book would survive their enthusiasm.

Parker, who once said of her contemporary, Katherine Hepburn, that the actress's talent ran the range of emotion from A to B, is a sassy and surprising voice from her era, one I'm thrilled to have discovered right here on our shelves.

Sometimes a poet is discovered because the verse speaks at just the right moment. Sometimes its just more of a universal song to which we all seem to know the beat. I'm not sure which category she belongs in, but I find the tenderness and gentle pain in her writing rings very close to home.

A few samples:

Sanctuary
My land is bare of chattering folk;
The clouds are low along the ridges,
And sweet's the air with curly smoke
From all my burning bridges.

Midnight
The stars are soft as flowers, and as near;
The hills are webs of shadow, slowly spun;
No separate leaf or single blade is here--
All blend to one.

No moonbeam cuts the air; a sapphire light
Rolls lazily, and slips again to rest.
There is no edged thing in all this night,
Save in my breast.

(from) Tombstones In The Starlight
IV. The Fisherwoman
The man she had was kind and clean
And well enough for every day,
But, oh, dear friends, you should have seen
The one that got away!

VI. The Actress
Her name, cut clear upon this marble cross,
Shines, as it shone when she was still on earth;
While tenderly the mild, agreeable moss
Obscures the figures of her date of birth.

songs from buffy tvs

IMDB's FAQ of the Week is one about one of my all time favorite TV shows, Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

It's not the eternal story of the beautiful undead that drew me in and kept me there each week for seven seasons, though I admit to being a fan of the genre, from newcomers Sherrilyn Kenyon and Darren Shan all the way to Anne Rice and even good old Bram Stoker, ages and ages ago.

I'm actually a fan of creator Joss Whedon, and followed his ear for dialogue and deft handling of plot and pacing to his space-western Firefly and sit here waiting for him to strike again.

Whedon, a Hollywood brat, began working on scripts that crossed his father's desk at the age of 14. You notice his touches in such classics as Toy Story and Rosanne. Basically if the dialogue made you laugh, that was Whedon.

So aside from notably notable quotable lines and a story line that rivals some of the best in the craft, what else can one glean from this list of Frequently Asked Questions about Buffy? Why where to download the music, of course.

The Eisenhower Connection

Not so many years ago when I first moved here, there was a beautiful turreted brick store on the northwest corner of the courthouse square. It was destroyed by a fire only a few months later, and while covering the event for the newspaper, I learned a little about the building's history.

A few decades earlier it had been the offices of one Charles Halleck, former U.S. House Majority Leader, and a close personal friend to President Eisenhower. In 1962, ex-pres Ike came to this little town to personally endorse Halleck for re-election. The speech he delivered on the courthouse steps had all the pomp and fanfare that normally surrounds a presidential visit, and still has locals talking like it happened yesterday.

Browsing links recently, I came across the full text of that speech via the Eisenhower Memorial Commission. Love what you can find online these days.

Speaking of online resources, have you seen our own Gen. Robert H. Milroy Civil War Collection?

Also, check out this front page pdf of a special section from the Sept. 12, 1962 issue of the Rensselaer Republican (local paper). If you want the whole issue, it's 38M in size, but you can download it here. (Love our new microfilm scanner!)

Election 08 on YouTube

With street savvy reminiscent of when Bill Clinton took to the Aresenio Hall Show playing sax back in '92, Republican presidential contender John McCain has launched a YouTube site to bring his words to the masses.

Check out YouTube's News and Politics page to see responses to McCain's question, or other comments about the upcoming election.

Pop Culture

Just a few websites for things to listen to and do:

Whitney Matheson's Pop Candy for USA Today
Links to podcast and downloadable music, shows, events, celebrity trivia, etc. From her site, links to the following:

AOL Full CD Listening Parties Streaming full CDs. I've been listening to Tori Amos's American Doll Posse.

All Songs Considered from NPR
Sample songs from a vast array of genres: Bjork to Blonde Redhead this week.

SpiderMan Personality Quiz from Liquid Generation
Have fun with it. If you come up as Aunt May, well, at least you didn't come up as Doc Oc.

New York Magazine gives us Five Short Films from Tribeca Film Festival
In its last week in charming NYC. My friend Patrick is there doing it live. He has watched more movies in the past two weeks than most Americans will watch all year, but he does than even when it's not Tribeca season.

Things to borrow

Inspired by my co-blogger Angela, here are a few of my favorite books, music and movies from our shelves. :)

Books
Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow

Movies
50 First Dates
Chocolat
Ella Enchanted
Grand Canyon
L.A. Story
Lost in Translation
Paulie
Wonder Boys

Music
Stoned Immaculate, Music of the Doors (various)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Soundtrack (various)
O Brother, Where Art Thou Soundtrack (various)
U2 - Achtung Baby
REM - Document
American Blues Vol 1 (various)
Poptronica Dance (various)

Talk to me about your faves...

Microfilm Scanner

Come meet my new friend, and the library's newest tool: a brand-new, all digital microfilm reader.

(Pictured is Sheila, our tech guru, and Emily, one of our staff members, who are making prints of an obituary from the 1800s for a patron.)

What's so exciting about a piece of technology?

Well it just opened up the use of 200 years of newspaper archives that have been lingering out of touch since our old machine stopped working, plus anything else we can borrow on microfilm from any other library in the world.

Compared to its predecessor, a huge, weighty plastic and metal contraption we nicknamed "the moose," this new unit is not only sleek and tiny, it gives us crystal-clear, high resolution images, makes text very easy to read on the screen, and can scan color slides if patrons request it.

Now on my to-do list: make pdfs of important news documents for our files.

Welcome readers

Check back here for links and posts about writing, libraries, Rensselaer, Indiana, World of Warcraft, other games and music and thoughts.