The Bronze Medal

National Gallery, London.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:30:42 -0500

National Gallery, London.

"London always reminds me of a brain. It is similarly convoluted and circuitous. A lot of cities,..."

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:50:50 -0500

“London always reminds me of a brain. It is similarly convoluted and circuitous. A lot of cities, especially American ones like New York and Chicago, are laid out in straight lines. Like the circuits on computer chips, there are a lot of right angles in cities like this. But London is a glorious mess. It evolved from a score or so of distinct villages, that merged and meshed as their boundaries enlarged. As a result, London is a labyrinth, full of turnings and twistings just like a brain.”

- James Geary, On London

I’m leaving for London in mere hours and will be there for the next week. We have a sort of running list of things we want to see but no set timeline or agenda, which I think is the way to go. Who wants to be tied down to a set schedule in a city like London? Half the pleasure is in walking around, letting the place unfold itself before you as it will, and not as Fodor’s or Frommer’s or Lonely Planet has told you it will.

The other day a patron asked me for a book with short overviews of all Dicken’s characters;...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:23:06 -0500

The other day a patron asked me for a book with short overviews of all Dicken’s characters; she was participating in a local Dickens festival but did not have the time to actually read one of his novels. She said she was “pressured” into helping out with the festival. I wonder if she is worried about being exposed as an impostor?

I just found out that when Holly Miranda opened for Florence + The Machine last week her backing band was Nada Surf.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:26:48 -0500

If I had known that I would have screamed out for “Popular.”

"The heart’s a sprinting thing and hammers fast. The word is slow and rigid in its pace. But,..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:37:13 -0500

“The heart’s a sprinting thing and hammers fast.
The word is slow and rigid in its pace.
But, if they part once, they must meet at last
As when the rabbit and the tortoise race.
Words follow heartbeats, arrogant and slow
As if they had forever in their load,
As if the race were won, as if they go
To meet a dying rabbit on that road.
Then, step by step, the words become their own.
The turtle creeps to win the prize.
But, ah, the sweeter touch, the quicker boon
Is lost forever when the rabbit dies.”

- Jack Spicer, Reading Last Year’s Love Poems

(via paperbackgirl) We’re doing another NYC...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:41:00 -0500

(via paperbackgirl)

We’re doing another NYC Bookswap, autumn-style!

Right Now

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:14:33 -0500

I am in an all-day training called Black Belt Librarian. I’ll let you all use your imagination as to what it’s like.

Florence and the Machine - Postcards From Italy (Beirut Cover) I...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:32:31 -0500

Florence and the Machine - Postcards From Italy (Beirut Cover)

I don’t know what I’m going to do if I hear a good song while I’m in London this week and can’t post it to Tumblr that very day; or for that matter if I see something amazing and have to suppress my reblogging reflex , or if I see something completely ridiculous and have to stifle the urge to shout “unfollow.”

liana: Wipe that stupid grin off your face, Griffith...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:49:11 -0500

liana:

Wipe that stupid grin off your face, Griffith Observatory. You do realize you’re wearing a dodgeball on your head? Fantastic. All right, I’m cutting you off now. The astronomers disapprove.

(Costumier: Eric)

AMAZING!

"It is a bright afternoon: what am I going to do? I am going to work with my mind and with my pen,..."

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:16:48 -0500

“It is a bright afternoon: what am I going to do? I am going to work with my mind and with my pen, while the sky is clear and while the soft white clouds are small and sharply defined in it. I am not going to bury myself in books and note taking. I am not going to lose myself in this jungle and come out drunk and bewildered, feeling that bewilderment is a sign that I have done something. I am not going to write as one driven by compulsions but freely, because I am a writer, because for me to write is to think and to live and also in some degree even to pray…”

- Thomas Merton, The Search for Solitude

Fall is the best…

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:54:00 -0500

Fall is the best…

mills: Lachrymarum - Stan Douglas This, from the re-imagining...

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:19:36 -0400

mills:

Lachrymarum - Stan Douglas

This, from the re-imagining by Stan Douglas (with John Medeski and Scott Harding) of the soundtrack for the Italian horror film Suspiria, is scientifically-proven to be the scariest song ever.

Feel free to use it to keep trick-or-treaters away.

Some scary music for Halloween, courtesy of Mills.

Greetings From Bluffington

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:13:56 -0400

heliooh-tropion:

Love Always,
Judy Funnie

Great job! Doug was the best show.

My part-time job is a lot more exciting in costume.

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:40:29 -0400

My part-time job is a lot more exciting in costume.

"Much more frightening than physical terror is existential horror. The bounds of physical terror are..."

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:03:46 -0400

“Much more frightening than physical terror is existential horror. The bounds of physical terror are coterminous with death, existential horror, however, is eternal. H.P. Lovecraft understood this intimately. His best stories rarely end in death; confronted with a profound and disturbing truth about the nature of existence, his protagonists simply fall into madness. The greatest fear of both life and death, to paraphrase Hamlet, is not sleep, but an endless nightmare. Horror writers rarely understand this essential truth: vampires and zombies are scary for what they do, Cthulu and Ann Coulter for what they represent.”

- Ben Dooley, in The Millions

Halloween Party, Librarian-Style. Spock, Buffy, Zombie-Prom...

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:02:58 -0400

Halloween Party, Librarian-Style.

Spock, Buffy, Zombie-Prom Queen.

So this just happened…

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:13:47 -0400

So this just happened…

"I want my readers to laugh sometimes. Many readers in Japan read my books on the train while..."

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:12:56 -0400

“I want my readers to laugh sometimes. Many readers in Japan read my books on the train while commuting. The average salaryman spends two hours a day commuting and he spends those hours reading. That’s why my big books are printed in two volumes: They would be too heavy in one. Some people write me letters, complaining that they laugh when they read my books on the train! It’s very embarrassing for them. Those are the letters I like the most.”

- Haruki Murakami

Google street view of where I’ll be staying in London next...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:39:05 -0400

Google street view of where I’ll be staying in London next week.

"We are old emphysemics, and when we talk we breathe out the past. It is history that makes mortals..."

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:21:55 -0400

“We are old emphysemics, and when we talk we breathe out the past. It is history that makes mortals of us.”

- Sarah Hall, How to Paint a Dead Man