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The Triplets Of Bellville
Wow...
The Triplets Of Bellville
Double Wow...
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
It's The Sound. It's Underground.
Problems with the Banned Book Week display continue. The biggest problem is apparently that I chose to use the word satanic. Nevermind the fact they're missing the point of the entire display, but dear lord, don't use the word satanic.
Plus, to top it all off, we actually had someone, admist all this pro-freedom to read stuff going on, come in and demand a book be taken off the shelf. Even after saying it was disgusting that books are being banned.
I'm on the verge of giving up. Seriously. I'm now facing that part in any situation where you wonder whether the fight and repercussions are worth the effort. But if I give up, and take it down, do I lose who I am?
Anyhoo:
Underworld: Let's say ***
Just a quick review, since I don't have much to say about it. It was mindless brain candy. So for entertaining me for 2 hours, it earns a nice average score. It wasn't nearly as cool as Blade though, the current bar for "cool" vampire flicks to beat. I didn't think it was nearly as self important as people are making it out to be either. It lived in a very specific world, and that's fine. I had some problems with their mythology though. These vampires seemed to not carry any normal vampire characteristics. They had reflections. They apparently breathe. They seemed to have no problems with running water. So, were they just...vampires in the "I wear laytex and drink blood" fashion, or were they something more? And the werewolves, aside from the transformation, looked to CGI. You can't beat the American Werewolf in London. So don't try. CGI shouldn't be used.
That, and I couldn't STOP thinking about the Real Ghostbusters episode where the vampires and werewolves fought, turning vampires and werewolves into weird hybrids of each other. But Kate B. was nice and hot, and there were laytex covered ass shots a plenty. The blonde "other woman" has won my love. And, it was entertaining enough.
And, although the movie will suck the very definition of suck off this planet, the trailer for Resident Evil 2 was some good stuff. Different. Fun.
WWJB?
My friend from work, and co-conspirator on this whole Banned Book Week ordeal, (although if the shit truly hits the fan, I will make sure that I take full blame. No one else needs to go down with the ship.) sent this image to me in an effort to get me to laugh. Needless to say, it worked.
It's A Stretch To Even Breathe.
My body hates me. If I don't get exactly 8 hours of sleep, it goes on strike, and I can barely function. Stupid health.
There's Nothing More Than This.
Lost In Translation: ******
Yeah. That's right. It got six stars. I'm in love with this movie. I'm in love with the silence in this movie. I'm in love with introspection and sadness that rests in that quiet. I'm in love with the idea that yes, you are alone, even when you're not alone. That's what I got from this movie. That we're all just...lost. Every now and again something comes along that changes that for a brief moment in time, but it doesn't last. And you love it while you have it, and miss it when it's gone. You don't want to let it go, but you know you have to. And I love that, because it makes me realize that as alone as I am, as alone as I feel, I'm not alone in the thoughts of being alone.
There's moments in this movie that let the looks the actors give say more than anything else that could be said. Bill Murray looking at Scarlett Johannsen, barely mouthing the words to More Than This. The look between them. The sadness. The longing for something more.
There's something very Harold & Maude about the movie. It's the story of two people who meet under circumstances that may never happen, and they quickly become friends. But there's that idea that friendship could be more, but for whatever reason, it can't be. We've all had those friendships throughout time. But, because of that, you don't have to worry about making a relationship work. You can have deep thoughts and fun and just not worry. You can get pissed at each other, apologize, and move on.
But, the movie was just amazing. Completely amazing.
It even gets 6 stars with Giovanni Ribisi. Man, I can't stand him. I won't go into plot, because, you can find that online somewhere. Just...go see it. You need to.
And I picked up the soundtrack. Also a good, mellow, morose listen.
It's All In How You Smile.
Banned Book Week almost officially kicked off with the display being banned. I don't think the people upset with it understand the irony in that particular situation. I have a feeling I'm being very closely watched now, and that's fine.
I've returned to being the idea-churning troublemaker I once claimed to be.
But, the idea itself isn't any worse than any other idea that has passed our way. Basically, we've taken words (and synonyms of those words, because let's face it, you can only see the word obscene so many times before it gets dull) that were the main reason for a book to be challenged or banned. Words like: satanic, lewd, erotic, religious, filthy and the like. We've strung 100 of them up in the main area of the library, and placed a questionmark behind them. We've then asked people "Whose Word Do YOU Believe?" allowing people to check out banned books that have been wrapped in a plain brown wrapper, the only distinguishing characteristic being the word that the book was challenged or banned for. They're not allowed to unwrap the book until it's checked out. I'm bumping circulation, and opening doors!
One building decorated, and it's all good. But, I get to the second building, and I get ONE of the words up, and the director inhales her breath as if I've just knifed her in the gut. Now she's not sure of the entire thing, because the words are so inflammatory. I convince her it will be fine, but she's apparently gone around to complain about it to whomever will listen.
My question is: What kind of words was she expecting? This is a banned book display. It's not like books were banned for being "too happy." Plus, she doesn't have a problem with the wrapped books, yet those have the same words on them that are hanging from the ceiling.
We've even given people a chance to give us feedback. There are booknotes to comment on the books. There are opinion forms if they want to complain about the display. I hope people do complain. Because it will show just how closeminded and ill-informed people are.
But, the one thing that made me feel better, and that maybe I'm not misguided in my attempts to get people talking, is what I call my "messiah" moment. I was hanging a word up when a group of school kids came up to me and asked me what the display was for. I'm standing above them, on my step stool, arms out in an oratory position, and I tell them about banned books, and their freedom to choose what they want to read, and their teacher is standing next to me nodding her head in agreement. After I'm done, one of the kids looks at it, and says, "It says it's not all black and white, yet the words are in black and white. That's funny." The teacher asked why it was done like that, and after the kid said it was a joke to make fun of the idea she told him, "It also shows the irony in telling people they have a freedom to choose, yet there are people who don't want you to be able to." I wanted to hug that woman and her children.
The good news out of all of this is that I realize I'm now ready to look for another job. More than one person has recommended going to ALA and seeing what they have. I am not willing to change my philosophy to work in a conservative environment. And I won't let it happen to me. It's ridiculous that a library can claim to support freedoms and leftist progression, yet want to keep as low a profile as possible without ever ruffling feathers. We are SUPPOSED to have differing views available in the library. Not just the one that's most popular.
It's That Instant That Will Kill You
Just a real quick post. It was a long day, followed by a long headache. The Banned Book Week display is up, and has already caused enough trouble with my director and staff than it will probably ever cause with the patrons.
But, I decorated for nearly nine hours, followed by sleeping, and fostering the idea to quit my job, along with some Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups.
So, what I'm saying is, I'll tell you tomorrow.
It's More In The Throat.
Now I have a reason to talk like a pirate:
Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19
I'll Make You Laugh. You'll Like it!
I can't help it. This, from The Onion, is just funny:
"God Grants John Ritter's Wish To Meet Johnny Cash"
It's A Bedfellow. I Bought It Cheap.
They always say never to speak of religion or politics in mixed company, because someone will end up dead, while the others drink the blood of their fallen enemy. But this is my place, so deal with it.
America For Clark
I don't have a favorite person to vote for yet. I know I am voting. I know our country is a current sad state of affairs. I know Wesley Clark is well worded, and recorded a message early this morning just for the people online who wanted to draft him into running.
He enters my top three list now. Dean and (I know I'm gonna screw up his name) Kucinich. Now, it's just a matter of seeing who is best suited to replace Bush.
Scream To Me As The Rain Falls
Holy Jeebus, am I glad I'm landlocked:
Hurricane Isabel Approaches
Surprise Is An Art.
Even I get surprised on the odd occasion. I am not a religious person, constantly bouncing between spiritual atheist and agnostic, but I do believe in a intellectual study of religions of all kinds.
This was just posted to the Next Generation Librarian mailing list by Christine E.S. Borne:
I have an interesting point about His Dark Materials:
When I did my practicum, the coordinating librarian told me that she'd been surprised that a local catholic school teacher (nun) had organized a book discussion group on Golden Compass. When Melanie asked about this, citing the book's anti church themes, the nun replied: if you can't intelligently discuss challenges to your faith, then what is your faith really worth?
Hooray for progressive nuns
Too true. It doesn't happen much. And apparently I'm not the only person surprised in the complete lack of trouble the incredibly amazing His Dark Materials trilogy has gotten into.
Grrr Arrg
All this Caveman Librarian talk has me coming up with new ideas for the Caveman Librarian, which wasn't really suppose to happen.
For those of you who don't know, and this shall destroy the mythos that is the Caveman Librarian, but the whole idea was actually nothing more than a birthday present that took on a life of its own. My good friend A. from work, who gave herself the moniker for whenever she didn't want to handle a question, came up with the nickname. For her birthday, because I'm poor (as most library workers are. Add in that I'm an artist, and it's no wonder I'm not homeless), I decided it would be fun to make her a book of Caveman Librarian stories. What turned out as a simple idea turned into nearly 100 pages being written, and an entire mythology for what was basically, a nickname.
With the book made, I decided, a web page would be more fun. So, I called on my artist friends to give me artist renditions of what they thought a Caveman Librarian would look like. I turned it into a puzzle page. There's some stories that I doubt people have found (message me if you're interested. The most hidden is a secret super hero story).
So there you go.
Wow. That was a long story for a simple explanation. But, yeah. That was suppose to be it. It wasn't meant to be a continuously expanding universe. But ideas are coming to me. My current favorite, and one I hope to work on, is a future society (or even a current group of people) who have taken the Caveman Librarian on as a cult-like goddess. That seems fun to me. When I write the story, I'll let people know. I'm glad people have found it. I'm proud of those stories. I've been asked if I'm going to get them published, but I didn't imagine that there would be much interest in such an odd collection.
Make Mine Crunchy.
I also wanted to make a quick note about Carnivale, for those out there who knew I was waiting for this since I first saw the ad for it months and months ago.
It was good.
Not great.
But good.
I'm going to watch it again, because my attention wasn't completely on it, as it probably should have been. But Conan's 10th anniversary was on too. I was torn and divided and drawn and quatered. But, the two things I picked up about Carnivale were that:
A) It's one of the best looking shows I've seen in a VERY long time. The faded colors. The camerawork. It was some fun stuff.
B) It definitely seems like more of a 12 episode miniseries than the normal idea of episodic television.
I mention B, because honestly, aside from character introduction, very little happened during the episode. You got to meet the cast. Catch a small glimpse of the ideas. And then boom, slight twist (the good guy's powers sap the life out of his surroundings while he's using his power to heal, bringing up the whole "does this still make him good" idea) and the episode was over. I'm still recording it. But it didn't catch me like Dead Like Me did, which, until something happens in Carnivale, still gets my vote as favorite new cable series.
It'll Get You In The End. Time. It's A Wicked Critter.
I just woke up from a nap that was supposed to be 15 minutes. 20 tops. That, quickly and easily, turned into nearly 2 hours. Now, I feel like the day pretty much escaped me. I wanted to do some web work. Get some homework finished. Instead I'm watching Whose Line repeats, and typing into this. I don't even have the energy to head over and pop in a movie.
This week is being spent preparing for Banned Book Week at work. I know there's a growing consensus out there that the whole banned book celebration is silly, but it's probably one of the few times of the year I can get away with crossing the normally safe line at work and really push the envelope that runs risking me getting in trouble. And that's fun.
Plus, until the every day Joe of the library patron world realizes we're not celebrating the actual banning of books, there's still work to be done.
This year, I've decided to infuse an old school punk look into the whole thing. There's ripped paper everywhere. Everything's black and white. Books have been anonymously wrapped in brown paper. As soon as it's all finished, I'll get some photos up here for people to look at.
Shortly after this, because I don't catch a break, I'm now in charge of creating Character Counts pillars. I'm not afraid the whole CC thing smells of thinly veiled religious morality. But I haven't found anything really linking it to religion yet, so until then, it's just a really creepy morality thing to me. There was an argument at my job about the whole thing, because there's a faction of us that found it vaguely 1984 Orwellian, with the "community" instilling "morals and values" upon people with constant displays and information. The people screaming "Big Brother is here!" lost the battle, and I now have to make the pillars for a month long display.
And after that? A week long Arts Council display.
Okay. I've realized why I'm tired now.
Thanks!
Thanks to some handy link following from the LIS Blogsource page below, and also LISfeeds.com, I now have a most basic of RSS feeds (until Blogger gets the official one up) for those of you who like direct easy access.
And thanks to Enetation you can now comment on specific posts.
What's next? A planet where apes evolve from men?
I feel so 2003.
RSS Link
Google Is A Harsh Mistress
So, I was all set to be all forward moving and ambitious tonight. Start working on my official web page, complete with resume. Move this ol' blog over to a real site, get the fun going. Add an RSS feed. I've spent the past hour or so learning how to do it.
Except I can't. Not yet anyway. Apparently since Blogger here was consumed by the Google entity, you can no longer use the BloggerPro service. It doesn't exist. Except, to use RSS, you need BloggerPro. Hence the problem. They mention that it's all being folded into normal Blogger fun, but my ambitions have crumbled.
I am sad.
I guess I can still work on my resume.
netbib weblog
I'm sorry. THIS is the creepiest thing this side of New Haven:
netbib weblog
I'm known in Germany! Hell! I have relatives in Germany!
Big Brother IS Watching
If this isn't the fuckin' creepiest thing this side of New Haven:
LIS Blogsource: Who Needs Sense?
Although, if this Greg guy is listening, I have to tell you that I am not the Caveman Librarian. I am simply the teller of Caveman Librarian tales.
If I take her glory, she may kill me. There is only one true Caveman.
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