This is awesome...

Y'all know that I love technology, but this is heart-breakingingly...

...dumb. And sad.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/04/a_library_without_the_books/

James Tracy, Headmaster of Cushing Academy says, “When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ and has successfully pushed for a book-less library. *sigh*

And one more quote from the article--this time one I agree with:
"William Powers, author of a forthcoming book based on a paper he published at Harvard called Hamlet’s Blackberry: Why Paper is Eternal, called the changes at Cushing 'radical' and 'a tremendous loss for students.'

'There are modes of learning and thinking that at the moment are only available from actual books,’ he said. 'There is a kind of deep-dive, meditative reading that’s almost impossible to do on a screen. Without books, students are more likely to do the grazing or quick reading that screens enable, rather than be by themselves with the author’s ideas.'"

And what about the simple arithmetic of constantly changing technology? With a library with books, once a book is bought it can be used until the contents are no longer relevant; that's a pretty long shelf-life! With a room full of kindles and laptops (which are perfectly wonderful tools in addition to books) what happens when these machines are no longer a supported format and the library cannot afford to purchase another $15,000 to $50,000 worth of new hardware?

Well, it's a first--I'll give Cushing that.

Nick Harkaway talks about Web 2.0...

...as it relates to authors and publishing, and, surprise, it relates to libraries as well. Take some of this those lessons he mentions and move them from publishing reps to librarians and they still make a lot of sense. He also includes space capsule artifacts and witty banter, and relates the internet to a pub. The most simple and most important idea he mentions (and writes in < big > letters) is "The internet is not a broadcast medium." Yes. Yes. Yes. To read Harkaway's post, go to: http://www.nickharkaway.com/2009/04/you-have-to-be-there/ (or perhaps you a fast clicker person and have already clicked on the title link).

Harkaway is also the author of The Gone Away World. You can read a review of this book here (written by yours truly): http://omnidawnblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/nwf-fiction-review-feature-1-trevor.html

Letter to electricity

(for Robert)

We were deluged
with your absence
the sky hanging low
we reaching out
our mouths moved
and I noticed
curvature of
lips and sound
then the lights
they went out
out where you might be
now I’m writing
this to you and to
all electricity
the rain outside
that night accompanied
by light and wind
was, is not architecture
when the sky
is hung to sleep
every star a pill
of potential dreaming
the old constellations
still there and no one
reading them at all
we opened our mouths
so you could speak
only stars spilled
forth driving and flickering
possibilities and languages
frozen in static
so this is a letter to you
a tracery of what might
this is a letter to you
to electricity.

Heidi Taillefer's art is pretty cool.

It seems that ever since Mark Ryden (and maybe before him Frank Kozik) there has been a plethora of artists that re-imagine narratives combining the mythic, banal, monstrous, political, and absurd into pieces that while times both whimsical and disturbing, are nonetheless often sub par (Mark Ryden excluded--his work is fantastic!). Take a look at Juxtapoz magazine and you'll see what I'm talking about. Nonetheless, sometimes an artist skips away from the rest, and while still playing with the same elements, does so in more interesting ways. I discovered Heidi Taillefer in an advertisement in Art Forum and immediately went looking for her site, http://www.heiditaillefer.com (okay, obviously, it wasn't really much of a search); nonetheless, her work is fantastic (pardon the literal-ness here) and well worth taking a look. Here's just one example:

Sunn O))) at the Independent

Sunn O))) at the Independent was immense! Here are a few of the photos I took sans flash with my Canon Powershot SX10IS:






More pics can be seen on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trevor23 and a few more are at my pal Saudade's blog: http://saudadecrux.blogspot.com.

Same Hat! Manga Site

Just read about Same Hat! in the Last Gasp catalog. Same Hat! is a manga blog edited by Ryan Sands, a fella who lives close by in San Francisco and translates said Eastern comics. So I went and checked out the blog and was impressed with the site and the provided manga--especially Dorohedoro--a story of sorcerers and animal-headed people who apparently can chomp heads or eat ramen and gyoza.