Archive for August, 2006

Master and Margarita: the Musical

Saturday, August 26th, 2006

Andrew Lloyd Webber announced that he is going to write a musical version of Bulgakov’s novel which also happens to be one of my favorite books. It’s not so far off, considering that Bulgakov actually wrote much of the novel with the stage in mind. I’ll keep an open mind, but the whole thing is bound to be a tremendously complicated undertaking, considering that it is actually three distinctive plots intricately woven together.

It just so happens that the Master and Margarita will be my Library Book Discussion for this Fall. I wanted to do it on Halloween, but I’ll save the oversized black cats and my centurion costume for another day.

Now playing: New Order – Temptation on XM Streaming Online

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Snake Oil, Reptile Marketing

Friday, August 18th, 2006

I received a call on my cell from Samuel L. Jackson today, urging me to see Snakes on a Plane this weekend. He pitched it by telling me, by name, that I should stop wasting my time working for a low paying government paycheck (how did he know?) and playing with my “hair don’t” (aww, I don’t spend that much time in front of the mirror) and just go see, Snakes on a Plane!

It was funny and bizarre enough that I visited the website, and sent it to a few friends, trying to fit as many true to life personal details as the website would allow. It’s unsettling on the phone, however I think it loses a little through email, and especially if Samuel won’t pronouce your name, your life doesn’t quite fit predicatable life profile, or you just don’t know enough personal details to make it funny. As a viral marketing tool, it worked, I felt compelled to send a few people by phone and a few by email.

The library needs a viral marketing tool along the same lines, something that’s just whacked enough for people to want to send to their friends and while shamelessly plugging the library, something like an audio mad-lib.

Currently watching: The Late Show with David Letterman with guests, renowned sock puppeteer, Jack Fisette, Whoopi Goldberg, and Fatboy Slim who just so happens to have an interpretive tennis-ball juggler.

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A strange choice for a summer read

Tuesday, August 15th, 2006

From Slate: Bush reads Camus’ The Stranger on summer vacation. I can see it, sun, heat, the beach. Personally, for themes of futility and authenticity, I’d recommend The Fall or even better, The Zombie Survival Guide (not Camus, but, hey, it’s got illustrations!).

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Anonymous searching

Monday, August 14th, 2006

AOL’s recent release of search histories on tens of thousands of customers, really made the earth quake, the posion arrows fall from the sky and the pillars of corporate offices shake. An article in the New York Times,
How to Digitally Hide (Somewhat) in Plain Sight by J. D. Biersdorfer (August 12, 2006) [ Link through Google News ] points out that there are resources to help your web searching and surfing be a little more private.

The truth is that most people don’t realize that their searching is easily trackable. Seach engines track searches by IP address, by cookies and by session. The cool thing about libraries is that there is an aggregate anonymizing effect as a result of the volume of searches through a network that may share one IP address. This doesn’t help the poor soul who logs into AOL or MSN and then starts searching using the conveniently located search box. Overall, I think searching at the library is a bit more anonymous than searching from home.

The article points out that Clusty.com (a.k.a. Vivisimo) and IXQuick.com claim to not track user searches. In addition, there are a number of anonymizing web sites that hide your IP Address including BeHidden.com (http://behidden.com) and The Cloak (www.the-cloak.com). Unfortunately, general web surfing using anonymizers can be pretty inconvenient. This only really keeps site owners from seeing where you are coming from not what you’re doing. So, searching for your SSN will show up in their logs and if they ever get released or hacked.

NPR recently ran a story on the Identity Angel / Carnegie Mellon Data Privacy Project that mines the web and online resources for private information on individuals like SSN, Drivers License number, mother’s maiden name, etc…. . If it discovers enough information on you, it sends an email letting you know that a thief could steal your identity and what to do about it.

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Fun with summer squash

Monday, August 14th, 2006

I know it’s no where near Halloween, but the first summer squash was a little too ripe to make risotto. What else would you do with a little orange fruit on the verge of becoming a gourd?

Make a mini Jack ‘O Lantern, the perfect addendum to a morbid book list.

squash jackie o

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Don’t fear the Reader…

Saturday, August 12th, 2006

Satisfy your morbid curiosity or craving for a little dark humor. Here is the promised splattering of grim books, morbid music and movies .
I’d love suggestions if anyone has any.

Books
Stiff : the curious lives of human cadavers / by Mary Roach
Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia / edited by Gretchen Worden
R.I.P. : the complete book of death and dying / Constance Jones.
The dead beat : lost souls, lucky stiffs, and the perverse pleasures of obituaries / by Marilyn Johnson
Assassination vacation / by Sarah Vowell
Goth Bible: A compendium for the darkly inclined / by
Book of bunny suicides / by Andy Riley

Travel
Where are they buried? : how did they die? / Tod Benoit
San Francisco bizarro : a guide to notorious sights, lusty pursuits, and downright freakiness in the City by the Bay / by Jack Boulware
L.A. bizzaro! : the insider’s guide to the obscure, the absurd, and the perverse in Los Angeles / by Anthony R. Lovett, Matt Marania
Haunted houses of California : a ghostly guide to haunted houses & wandering spirits / by Antoinette May

Fiction
Crash / by J.G. Ballard
A dirty job / by Christopher Moore
A Series of Unfortunate Events / by Lemony Snicket (not just for kids)
Cautionary tales for children / by Hillaire Belloc and Edward Gorey

Music
Murder ballads / Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Assassins, the original cast recording / music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim ; book by John Weidman
Colma : the musical, original motion picture soundtrack / music and lyrics by H.P. Mendoza

Movies & TV Shows
Better off Dead
Curdled
Delicatessen
Natural Born Killers
Murder by Death
Six feet under
Dead like me

By the way, if you haven’t heard the Nick Cave / Enya version of Don’t Fear the Reaper listen here

Posted in library, literature, movies, pop.cult, villainy | Comments Off

More MeeboMe!

Friday, August 11th, 2006

MeeboMe seems to have problems running in IE on a networked thin-client system like the library I work for has; it just kind of hangs as if it is trying to connect, but never does. Switching browsers to Mozilla or Netscape (if that’s an option) seems to work here. It’s probably more a bug in our system than Meebo’s. Thanks F.L. for the heads up!

I think it’s a great resource for libraries looking to connect with patron and other staff.

Another option for libraries looking for a LOCAL live chat reference component, and don’t want to spend a fortune is a support chat web application like PHP Live! . It’s a pretty straightforward chat app designed for support and sales with the download option running betwwen $89 and $350. With a little PHP and MySQL knowledge, a library could really adapt one of these web support apps to offer web based chat staffed by local librarians.

Posted in Uncategorized, tech | Comments Off

A little meebo on the side? MeebOme!

Tuesday, August 8th, 2006

So I added the MeeboMe Code to the sidebar. If I’m online, Meebo me!

It works great so far, the AJAX with a little Flash thrown in, is rockin! Any visitor to your web site/blog can IM you if you’re online.

This is a great little web application to keep you stay connected with folks who visit your site. If we could only get libraries to sign on, our patrons wouldn’t even need to sign up with an IM service. Imagine a patron visiting our home page and getting directions on how to log into a database, or find a certain book (or a morbid books & more list) from a live LOCAL librarian.

BTW, thanks F.Love, for the reminder on the booklist. Not sure if it’ll fly in the library but I’ll give it a try.

Posted in ideas, pop.cult, tech | 2 Comments »