Peaches and Bats

I'm happy to be included in the latest issue of Sam Lohmann's (maga)zine Peaches and Bats!

word count

This is a paragraph I like very much, from Roberto Bolano's novel 2666:

"The first conversation began awkwardly, although Espinoza has been expecting Pelletier's call, as if both men found it difficult to say what sooner or later they would have to say. The first twenty minutes were tragic in tone, with the word fate used ten times and the word friendship twenty-four times. Liz Norton's name was spoken fifty times, nine of them in vain. The word Paris was said seven times, Madrid, eight. The word love was spoken twice, once by each man. The word horror was spoken six times and the word happiness once (by Espinoza). The word solution was said twelve times. The word solipsism seven times. The word euphemism ten times. The word category, in the singular and the plural, nine times. The word structuralism once (Pelletier). The term American literature three times. The words dinner or eating or breakfast or sandwich nineteen times. The words eyes or hands or hair fourteen times. Then the conversation proceeded more smooothly. Pelletier told Espinoza a joke in German and Espinoza laughed. In fact, they both laughed, wrapped up in the waves or whatever it was that linked their voices and ears across the dark fields and the wind and the snow of the Pyrenees and the rivers and the lonely roads and the separate and interminable suburbs surrounding Paris and Madrid."

Another amusing thing(s) I found

This website features literary and other text-based tattoos. Some categories include lyrics, poetry, plays, and (ouch) misspellings. Fascinated at extreme popularity of e.e. cummings' poem "i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)" and The Giving Tree.

Oh, and speaking of organizational systems! One of those all-staff sorts of emails alerted me to the New England School of Law's index of books by spine color! Beautiful.

ACRL Highlights

A bad tooth kept me from the first half of ACRL, and painkillers and pain fatigue may have kept me from sharp appreciation of the half I was able to attend. That said, I enjoyed the opportunity to peek in on the various topics of interest among academic librarians. On Saturday, the first day I was there, I must say I didn't find myself at any panel or presentation that leaped out at me as useful, inspiring, or thought-provoking. That kind of freaked me out, but it was probably my lack of experience and poor planning. I was also freaked out by witnessing and hearing some "us vs. them"-themed commments, as in librarians versus students, and focusing on an exclusive we that sounded static and unlikely to change, which is pretty much exactly the opposite of what attracts me to the profession. Anyway, gripe gripe gripe, that was the unfortunate part of the conference for me. I did, however, pick up a free dictionary (thanks Oxford) and reconnect with some lovely people.

On Sunday, however, everything seemed to come together much more nicely. I attended a session about the future of subject librarianship (you know, 2.0), and it was a fast-paced, optimistic look toward skills, roles, and themes that will be necessary. I find myself pretty interested in librarian roles in scholarly communication, institutional repositories, and other authorship/publication issues.

And THEN! I got to see Ira Glass give the concluding address, which was pretty much a talk about how he does This American Life - how he structures the program, how and why it seems to work so well, and so forth. He was all set up on the stage with two cd players, a mixer, and a microphone, which is, I guess, more or less a simplified version of how he does the show. He talked about the form of the show, which turns out to be the same as the form of a sermon, and narrative form, using the Arabian Nights as an example of how good narrative allows listeners to practice empathy until the world makes better sense and the listener can recover from insanity. It made me want to read Arabian Nights, which I've never actually read. It also noticeably contributed to my confusion about my role in the information cycle - whether I am a producer or distributor of creative product. I think I'll be going through this for a while. I still think it's possible to do both, but it's a challenge. After the program, among the throngs threading our way down the escalators in the conference center, I peeked over my shoulder to see Mr. Glass right behind me. After a few long seconds of blushing and panic, I managed to awkwardly thank him for being so cool.

I am usually a late bloomer

Just discovered the PoemTalk podcast series. Actually, I'm still trying to discover podcasts in a way that works for me. But the most recent discussion of Wallace Stevens' poem "Not Ideas About the Thing, But the Thing Itself" is really good.

iz learning

There is a lot to say about the fact that this statue is Mark Twain, and he's reading Huckleberry Finn.

best arctic blast coast range driving playlist ever

On the way back from the beach through wintry weather, we happened to catch a really great show on Astoria's Coast Community Radio - Country Swing, hosted this week by Bobette Baze. It was a great mix of comforting familiar hits and new-to-me stuff in the classic country/honky-tonk realm. I'm going to try to remember to listen to this show online - Sundays from 3 to 5, via the station website linked above. It will probably never top today's show, with its winter fairyland context, but I think it's definitely worth a try at home.