Watha T. Daniel Library

The New Official Watha Blog

2010-10-23T09:22:00.003-04:00

It's been a great ride here at Blogspot. Your sincere devotion to this blog really showed, and we are all extremely appreciative of the great comments and the turnout for our award winning programs.

We're shutting down the Watha Blog here in blogspot, but you can still get the great articles and event announcements you've come to expect from us over at our new official site:

http://www.dclibrary.org/watha

If you're one of our RSS subscribers you can load up our new page from: http://www.dclibrary.org/watha.xml

Again, thank you all so much for your participation here. We couldn't have gotten where we are today without you.

Graphic Memoirs

2010-07-01T15:54:00.009-04:00

Small, David. "Stitches: a memoir" W.W. Norton & Company: New York, London 2009, G.N. Catalog # 92 S6369

Bechdel, Alison. "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" Houghton Mifflin: Boston, New York, 2006, Catalog # GN 92 B3915

The genre of memoir has attracted much attention in the past few years with the success of the autobiographical reflections on youth in the work of Mary Karr in “The Lairs Club” and Kathryn Harrison with “The Kiss.” Their work has generated a fascination with the retelling of personal histories that rivals interest in the imagined world of fiction. Of course in many respects these genres are not too far apart in that they both use the imagination. One must add to this the recent spate of Graphic Memoirs, including, Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home” and David Small’s “Stitches.” It takes a great skill in use of both memory and imagination to find the most effective way to image events of one’s life in metaphor and make analogies between one’s experience similar experiences. As sensory beings who discover life through taste, smell, and picture, we need very concrete forms to portray an emotion, or thought with precision. This can be done with just words but graphic memoirs have the advantage of being able to directly present images and figures to do this. But such representation can never be an exact transcript of experience in a photographic sense.

The author of graphic memoirs has an advantage in that he/she may use actual pictures of gestures, faces, expressions, and actions to tell the story of his or her life. However, more importantly, the author can present a literary comparison, mental image, or metaphor in a physical shape drawn by the hand. One example of this concreteness of expression in graphic memoir can be found in David Small’s “Stitches” when he describes his mother’s temperament that he endured as a child. She was angered by young David losing his shoes while exploring the upper floors of the Hospital where his father worked. Her “silent fury” is compared in the text to a “black tidal wave” and then that wave is pictured as a massive ocean wave topped with foam breaking against the picture of his mother glowering with rage. He then he pictures himself being drawn into the whirlpool left by the wave. The inappropriateness and injustice of his mother’s anger is conveyed with startling impact in the very simple drawings and the effect upon the child of that anger is shown in an even more dramatic way. David Small would often present a series of traumatic experiences such as a punishment through scalding by his grandmother with a mute series of stark images. In these simple sharp black and white drawings he shows his grandmother’s angered expression, the hot water pouring in the sink, and his fear afterwards lying shivering in bed. The series of terrifying moments are drawn in outline pictures that are very effective. There is no dialogue or commentary to soften the blow. These were some of the most moving scenes of the memoir. The reader is made to suffer the terrible events passively with no language as a cushion or barrier just as a child might experience these things.

Alison Bechdel uses the possibilities of graphic memoir to convey experiences through fantasy and literary analogy very effectively. She is able to literally redraw her parents as characters in a F. Scott Fitzgerald or Henry James novel to make an important comparison. She imagines her dad, the focus of her memoir, in his early relationship with her mother, as a young F Scott Fitzgerald in the army falling in love with Zelda. She shows this by morphing his image into that of Fitzgerald. She makes the unreality of their early romance clear by how it was shaped by his father’s fantasy life through visually quoting from his letter imaged with his handwriting. Bechdel also extends the methods of graphic memoir by representing the actual handwritten text of her father’s diary and integrating the diary into the frame of her young father sitting in his army bunk. This technique of layering using facsimile of diary, letter, and notes into the drawings of imagined scenes is her father’s youth. In this way, she adds multiple textures to the story she is telling. What one gets a full sense of memoir as a constructed artifact. The reader is able to observe all the elements that the author is playing with to allow one to get a full sense of how she is constructing and reconstructing his image. These two examples indicate that graphic memoirs are a new and startlingly effective literary form that can be used to convey the both immediacy of the moment and elaborate reflection on the meaning of one’s life.

As Much Chaos As We Can Stand

2010-06-24T13:23:00.003-04:00

Cognitive Surplus:
Creativity and generosity in a connected age
by Clay Shirky
Penguin, 2010
242 pgs.

I have finally finished reading Clay Shirky's phenomenal new book Cognitive Surplus and I have been blown away by it from beginning to end. Shirky, a professor at NYU, explores how the default settings inherent in social media software are driving not only how we connect with each other, but about the kinds of massive projects that we can create if we spend even just a modicum of our free time (time usually spent watching television) contributing to them.

The depth of this book is difficult to summarize, but let me give it a shot.

Each of us has an amount of time, thanks to the labor struggles of the twentieth century, with which we can do what we will (our cognitive surplus, i.e. leftover brain time). With the advent of television we slowly became consumers of a passive media environment, so much so that many of us watched enough television that it could be considered equivalent to having a part time job. This wasn't because we necessarily wanted to be couch potatoes, but this was the environment we had. It was a default pattern, not necessarily a desired state of being.

With the introduction of the internet we began developing a different pattern of social behavior toward our media. From the creation of ASCII art as a humble little creative endeavor in early emails we have progressed to an era where we can create our own original videos and share them with the entire world. Beyond even that we have also grown to the point where massive, globally shared projects, like Wikipedia are made possible by the dedicated efforts of millions of people spending time creating content instead of being a passive receptacle of pre-packaged media.

What drives us to create and share things like lolcats, fan fiction and YouTube videos, or to participate in large scale protests or create alternative news reporting outlets?

Shirky's answer: we have the means and opportunity to do so, for free, and the software that has been designed to support these structures promotes an environment of creating and sharing. These things have always been going on, but the ability to share our personal creative works, or to participate in a mutually creative and supportive environment has just not been available at this scale ever before. We all know people who wrote fan stories of their favorite television show, or who went to conventions and shared their hobbies with each other. Social media allows us to not only find those people who share our interests, however bizarre they may be, but to engage in them with an unprecedented level of speed and freedom, thus nurturing subcultures to greater heights.

Beyond the level of subcultures we have begun to develop massive multi-user created systems that have a great deal of civic value. Projects like developing open source software like Linux or Apache, creating articles for Wikipedia or reporting news on Ushahidi have become invaluable resources to society. These works could not have been done without the ability to connect disparate people who have a shared ethic, vision and need via social media.

The long term view of how the internet is shaping our society has yet to be seen, and the examples he provides of similar revolutions in communications show that one can never really predict where we will be fifty or a hundred years from now. What Shirky does provide however is a bit of a roadmap outlining what factors lead to successful social media environments, and an excellent review of how far we've come in just a few short years.

This was one of the most engrossing reads I've had in quite a long time. Fun, informative, and a great amount of positive speculation about the internet. I strongly recommend it, not just for people who have internet wonkery as an interest, but for pretty much anyone who has a deep love for culture. The stories are thought provoking, funny, scary and over all brilliant.

Check it out!

2010-06-14T20:18:00.001-04:00

Anyone can make a record now. Yeah, most of us have heard this sentiment banging around musical circles and the blogosphere, but not a lot of people know what this means. First, a very brief history is required.

Magnetic tape recording began in 1949, which could record only one performance, all on the same tape. Multi-tracking was largely developed by jazz guitarist/inventor Les Paul, but was still in its infancy in the sixties. In the mid-sixties the true potential of stacking many tracks on top of each other came into bloom.

In 1966, the Beatles holed up for nearly half a year at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England and created what most music magazines (including Rolling Stone) call the best album of all time. In creating Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles’ recording team used huge tape recorders precariously daisy-chained together, making it possible to overlap sounds, add lush layers of instruments, and finally painstakingly splice together a masterpiece of unprecedented extravagance. From that point forward, multi-tracking was established as the industry standard for making records. Then along comes digital…

Fast-forwarding through the eighties, nineties and the last decade, we find ourselves in quite a different audio climate. Once digital recording became the industry standard in professional studios, it wasn’t long before any musician with a laptop and a microphone can make a record (I’m not talking about vinyl here. Not yet, anyway). Amazingly, we are not talking about a low-fidelity garage record—clear, high-quality digital audio workstations became available on the consumer level more than ten years ago. A company named Digidesign came out with a computer program called Pro Tools, which quickly became the most popular program on the market. Now everyone I know has (at least) a mini-studio capable of recording thirty-two or more audio tracks and mix them down to a CD-quality digital version. Finally I arrive at the point of this rant: should the new Watha T. Daniel Library be outfitted with a recording rig?

I run a modest recording studio, mostly to mix records of bands I like and my band, which I also kinda like. I recently upgraded to an Intel Mac and set aside my G4 and Digidesign Digi 001 interface for something newer. Now my old rig is just sitting, gathering dust and looking lonely. I’m not going to throw away my old machine. Nobody will want a system that still runs Pro Tools 6.4. I was thinking of creating a program at the new building in which we write, record, and mix a song—the whole process from start to finish—but I have doubts about whether I could get enough participants. What do I do?

Remarkably, despite the arsenal of audio tools available, very few artists have really achieved the level of clarity and perfect orchestration as Sgt. Pepper’s. However, the new generations of young, computer-savvy musicians may be ready to tackle the challenge. At the very least I know they have tons of ideas, and often no way to get them out there. This recording program might help kick-start the process.

What do you think?

Hip Hop Hippie

2010-05-29T15:24:00.022-04:00

Lang, Michael with Holly George-Warren. “The Road to Woodstock” Harper Collins: New York, 2009, 781.6607 L271

Tiber, Elliot with Tom Monte. “Taking Woodstock: a true story of a riot, a concert, and a life” Square One Publishers: Garden City, NY, 2007, 92 T5528

I was thinking about all the books and the film that have come out recently about the Woodstock Festival of 1969 among them “The Road to Woodstock” by Michael Lang, and the memoir and movie “Taking Woodstock” by Eliot Tiber. It has been a long time since that eventful weekend but interest in the event remains strong. One has to ask oneself why is there still such interest in a festival that represented excess, mud, and great music. It think the reason is that there was more too it than meets the eye. Woodstock was a staged event if you accept the term that was meant to express something of the vision of peace, harmony and opposition to a war that was behind the whole hippie and peace movements of the 60s. It was in a sense the culmination of the high craziness and idealism of that era.

The symbolism we remember: long hair, colorful clothes, and connection to nature, all pointed to a larger ideal that some developed of how things ought to be. Their idea was if we could resist certain negative trends in our technological and overly urbanized society. Like the Be-ins of the previous year in New York’s Sheep Meadow Park and the original Be-in in San Francisco this was a designed happening. The spontaneity came from the flood of up to a million people that actually came and the ordered chaos that ensued. But overall there was a message behind the madness. In some strange way the vision of harmony with others, closeness to nature, and the creation of a small utopian city became real at least for one weekend.

Today there are other creative movements among them the work of Hip Hop musicians, rappers, and oral poets. They are trying to shape the vision of another kind of utopia with their creativity and energy. Strange to say, in some ways they are attempting to do something similar what the hippies were doing. They are confronting society with its problems of crime, racial injustice, and inequality with the magic of words and rhythm. The styles of different, hip hop tries to be hard and edgy emphasizing the realness of the real while the hippies of Woodstock emphasized a softer image that was oriented toward a back to nature philosophy. Yet both movements try to confront the larger society with a message of how things could be. The stereotypes of hippies as sentimental and soft fall aside when you consider the Woodstock festival had a cultural and political ideal behind it. It was confrontational in its craziness. It was a search for three days of peace and brotherhood. At the same time hip hop isn’t all anger or the description of hard times in the city. It includes a flow of wild images and creativity with words that defies gravity. So one might combine the two terms and call a these purveyor of the utopian arts a hip hop hippie.

Fantasy and The Hero's Quest

2010-05-28T16:51:00.008-04:00

Lewis, C.S. “The Magician’s Nephew, Book 1 Chronicles of Narnia,” Harper Collins: New York, 1955

Zimbardo, Rose A. “Understanding the Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism,” Houghten Mifflin Company: Boston, 2004

Having enjoyed a good escape in reading the “Magician’s Nephew” by C.S. Lewis over the weekend, I began to consider about how fantasy literature provides something that no other genre gives to the reader: a second world of conflict and adventure. What fantasy literature offers is the opportunity to imaginatively enter into a second world that has its own structure and rules that one assumes when temporarily living in that world. The world of C. S. Lewis called Narnia is such a special world. It is a world created by Aslan, a lion/savior figure. It is governed by magical forces and where human intentions are manifested physically. Animals talk and any object can sprout like a plant. Time is totally different from time our world. Events occur at a different pace. Time is more like eternity and death does not seem to exist. To operate in this world one must learn to live according to the new rules. But the advantage of this world is that it can teach us things that lie closer to the core than what we learn from daily experience.

Why does C S Lewis create such a different world in his fiction? It may be: because this kind of a world responds to heroic endeavor much more readily than in our world of objective laws. The very nature of the heroic quest demands such a world to frame it. The heroic quest according to the poet W H Auden, involves a call to a task for the hero that only he/ she can fulfill because of his or her unique qualities and the actions of the quest have strong influence on the destiny of the world he or she lives in. This kind of thinking helps one consider one’s identity as a reader in another light. In the pre-scientific view of the physical world in the middle ages that included miracles and magic lent itself as a setting to stories of heroic deeds and great quests. Narnia functions in a similar way to create an appropriate setting for heroic action of Digory, Polly and other characters.

But with C S Lewis there is another secondary world that appeals to us: the supposed “real world” of Victorian England that he portrays in all its detail from ornate streetlamps to horse driven carriages. His characters come from that Victorian world at the beginning of his novel and return to it at the end of the action. The nostalgically manufactured Victorian world of Lewis is as mythical to us as the fantasy world of Narnia. The furniture and fashions of Victoriana are everywhere in the Narnia saga. They are saturated with affection and homeliness. Victorian London is also a consistent world with its own laws and established patterns of action. For the modern reader contemplating that Victorian world is also an escape and one that makes certain kinds of moral reflections more real. So we are living in CS Lewis’ fiction in a two layered universe both worlds are secondary worlds, fictions of escape and settings for action. The two worlds are both set up to help reflection on human possibilities.

Memories of Back Home

2010-05-21T09:39:00.007-04:00

For our Great Coffee, Great Books book club selection this month we're reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato-Peel Pie Society. I began reading it yesterday and fell so deeply in love that I made it half way through the novel in an afternoon. Apart from the simple fact that reading letters is a quicker endeavor than reading a narrative story, the book struck a chord in me and I couldn't bear to put it down until I was falling fast asleep.

My family's lived here in America for nearly 400 years, and though they were English when they came here, we've not kept any ties to whatever distant family there may still be out there across the sea. But it's not the blood-connection to the English that's resonating with me. It's the story telling. The characters in Guernsey remind me so deeply of my family, and the way they tell a story; such that I want to hear every single detail. I want to hear how Elizabeth McKenna slapped Adelaide Addison across the face in the church, how they rendered pig fat into soap and how the ladies cried over it, and what a loving reunion it was when the children returned from the countryside and young Eli learned how to whittle animals, even though wood was a scarce commodity. It's the little stories of their lives that intrigue me.

But Guernsey isn't the only book that has caught me up like this. I fell in love with Lake Wobegone Days by Garrison Keillor when I was a teen. The quiet humor and the subtle pathos of the people living their lives out there in rural Minnesota was yet another tie to those stories my parents told me about their lives growing up in small towns in Ohio and Kentucky. That got me to start listening to the Prairie Home Companion on NPR and making an evening of a Saturday night with knitting, hot tea and colorful stories on the radio. Moments like that just warm my heart.

Other books that captured that spirit of down home storytelling with a sense of humor were Ferrol Sams book Run with the Horsemen about a boy growing up in rural Georgia. I read Horsemen around the same time as I read Wobegone, and they both tapped that same chord with me. Similarly, David Sedaris's short stories in Barrel Fever and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim about his wacky family in South Carolina, while more contemporary also have that same evocative flavor. Though sad in their own way, the movies Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias also have that resonance. I'll never forget moments like those.

There's something about knowing the lives of the people around you, and the sheer joy that comes from hearing those tales. It's the best part of calling my mother, just to find out what's been going on in town and who got hit by a tractor, who's having a baby, who got mad at who in church, what did my cousins down by the river do now. Though I've been gone from there nigh on fifteen years, to hear my mother tell me those stories, it's like being right back there again. Sitting on the front porch swing, drinking sweet tea, waiting for grandma to make Sunday dinner after church and being there with the whole family. That's where these books take me. Right there.

WTD Photo Shoot - Take 2

2010-05-19T14:14:00.003-04:00

Hey Neighbors!

For those of you who couldn't make it to last Monday's photo shoot, you get a second chance to be a part of the photo mural for the new Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood Library. If you would like your face to be included in the mural, please come to the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Interim Library, Monday, May 24, from 5:00-8:00 pm. Our photographer will be there taking pictures for the mural. You will need to sign a photo release form to participate, and minors must get the signature of their parent or guardian. This is the second chance for a once in a lifetime opportunity to be a part of your neighborhood library, literally!

For more info, contact Martha.Saccocio@dc.gov.

Playing Those Mind Games

2010-05-15T11:25:00.001-04:00

Of late, I have been completely obsessed with watching back episodes of LOST. To be honest, I hadn't really been into the show until fairly recently (last on a bandwagon), so when I got hooked I had to catch up fast to make it to the series finale. But as much as the story lines, and all the twisty-turny unexplainedness pulled me in, there was one scene in particular that was the absolute clincher for me. In Season 4, Locke has Ben held captive in Ben's own basement. He brings him a plate of breakfast and a book. But what book gets chosen? VALIS by Philip K. Dick.

Now, I've written about a lot of Philip K. Dick novels on here. You can just look back a few entries to the Are You Living Underground post, as well as the Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep post. But I hadn't touched on VALIS before. Why not? Because VALIS is the head trippiest book I have probably read in my entire life, and to even begin talking about VALIS means that you're going down the rabbit hole into the land of the ultra-surreal.

The main narrator of the book is Horselover Fat, and VALIS is the story of Fat's slow revelation that the world he lives in is not the world that truly is. To compare it to the Matrix would be fair, but a vast understatement. See, the folks in the Matrix get to see the reality behind the curtain. The characters in VALIS know that there is a deeper, different reality behind what's seen, experienced and known, and the story is about the dawning realization of this unseen realm, the interconnectedness of everything and the hints that point us toward the "real" world. You're also probably wondering why I keep capitalizing VALIS. It's because it's an acronym, but I'll leave you to find out what it stands for.

Needless to say when I saw this scene in LOST it reaffirmed that the show is firmly rooted in the realms of the bizarre, and that's a place I love to go.
If you're looking for something to blow your mind here are a few additional recommendations.

Videos

2001: A Space Odyssey
Being John Malkovich
Lost (Season One)
The Matrix
Twin Peaks

Children's Works

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Red Book by Barbara Lehman

Graphic Novels

Black Hole by Charles Burns
Sloth by Gilbert Hernandez

Fiction

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Ring / Spiral by Koji Suzuki
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Non-Fiction

Everything is under Control by Robert Anton Wilson
Occult America by Mitch Horowitz
Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku
Teleportation by David J. Darling
Voodoo Histories by David Aaronovitch

Want to be in Pictures?

2010-05-14T12:39:00.002-04:00

The new Watha T. Daniel-Shaw Library, located at 7th and Rhode Island Avenue, NW, opens this summer. The new Shaw library will feature a large photo mural depicting 300 faces of the Shaw community. If you would like your face to be included in the mural, please come to the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Interim Library, Monday, May 17, from 4-5:30 pm. We will have a photographer there taking pictures for the mural. You will need to sign a photo release form to participate, and minors must get the signature of their parent or guardian. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be a part of your neighborhood library, literally!

For more info, contact Martha.Saccocio@dc.gov.

History of the World Through Film

2010-04-27T15:20:00.004-04:00

The other day I was watching the new Spartacus series on cable and that got me to read the article about Spartacus on Wikipedia, which in turn got me reading the article about the Third Servile War. After learning how closely this followed into the realm of Julius Caesar, I immediately thought of the HBO series Rome. The two shows fit together so well historically that I began to wonder. Could I construct a history of the world using feature films and television shows? Sure it's going to be silly and ahistoric, and given the constraint that the movies had to be in the library collection, made it even more of a challenge. So here's my go at it. I'll give you the timeline, the movie title, a brief description and a link to the item in the collection. Enjoy!

10,000 B.C. - 10,000 B.C.E. - a silly account of cave people
300 - 480 B.C.E. - Battle of Thermopylae
Hero - 221 B.C.E. - The unification of China under the Qin Dynasty
Spartacus - 73 B.C.E. - Spartacus leads the third servile war (and obviously this is too soon to be in the collection)
Rome - 44 B.C.E. - Julius Caesar and the rise of Augustus
Cleopatra - 30 B.C.E. - Romances and tragedy of Cleopatra
Jesus Christ Superstar - 33 C.E. - Teachings and Passion of Jesus of Nazareth in a catchy Andrew Lloyd Weber musical way.
I, Claudius - 54 C.E. - The Julio-Claudian Empire of Rome
Beowulf - ca. 450 C.E. - The mythic adventure of Beowulf vs. the monster Grendel
Monty Python and the Holy Grail - ca. 516 C.E. - The end of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, again, quite silly.
The Lion in Winter - 1183 C.E. - Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine in the wittiest argument you will ever see
Mongol - 1186 C.E. - The life and times of Ghengis Khan
Brother Sun, Sister Moon - ca. 1209 C.E. - The life of Francis of Assisi and the founding of the Franciscan monastic order with a soundtrack by Donovan.
Braveheart - 1297- 1305 C.E. - The life of William Wallace and the First Scottish War of Independence against Edward I of England.
The Tudors - 1520-1540 C.E. - Henry VIII and his many wives in glorious and gory detail. Seasons 1-3 cover wives from Katherine of Aragon through Anne of Cleves.
Elizabeth - 1558-1572 C.E. - The beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I and the declaration of the Golden Age of England.
Shakespeare in Love - ca. 1590 C.E. - William Shakespeare finds inspiration for his plays through his love affair with Viola de Lesseps.
Pocahontas - 1607 C.E. - The Disney-fied version of Pocahontas and John Smith complete with singing animals.
Girl With a Pearl Earring - 1665 C.E. - Johannes Vermeer through the eyes of a servant girl.
The Libertine - ca. 1670 C.E.- The downfall of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, hard drinking, bawdy playwright and poet.
The Crucible - 1692 C.E. - Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder in Arthur Miller's scathing portrayal of the Salem Witch Trials.
Roots - 1750-1870 C.E. - The story of Alex Haley's family from the enslavement of Kunta Kinte in Gambia, West Africa through to the family's move to Tennessee after the American Civil War.
1776 - 1776 C.E. - The founding fathers sing their way to Revolution.
John Adams - 1770-1826 C.E. - John Adams's life from the Boston Massacre through his presidency to his death in 1826.
Amadeus - 1783-1825 C.E. - Herr Salieri, Court Composer to Joseph II of Austria recounts his rivalry with Mozart.
Jefferson in Paris - 1784-1789 C.E. - Thomas Jefferson's tenure as the Ambassador to France prior to the revolution and his relationships with Maria Cosway and Sally Hemings.
The Civil War - 1861-1865 C.E. - Ken Burns's exhaustive documentary of the American Civil War told through the photographs of the era and the voices from journals and letters of the time period.
Glory - 1863 C.E. - The 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first military troop in the United States to openly enlist African-American soldiers, led by Col. Robert Gould Shaw.
Lawrence of Arabia - ca. 1916-1935 C.E. - T.E. Lawrence leads rebellion against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
Gandhi - 1915-1948 C.E. - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi leads the non-violent revolution against British colonial rule.
Schindler's List - 1939-1945 C.E. - German soldier Oskar Schindler creates a list of "skilled" inmates who are saved from extermination in the Auschwitz concentration camps.
From Here to Eternity - 1941 C.E. - The attack on Pearl Harbor by way of a love triangle.
Au Revoir, Les Enfants - 1943-1944 C.E. - The effects of World War II on a French boarding school, and the death of Jewish school children in Auschwitz and their teacher's emprisonment in Mauthausen.
The Great Escape - 1944 C.E. - 50 Allied prisoners of war escape from a German POW camp, and there's Steve McQueen on a motorcycle.
Seven Years in Tibet - 1944-1950 C.E. - A former Nazi soldier encounters the Dalai Lama in Lhasa, and the experience changes both their lives.
Evita - 1936-1952 C.E. - Madonna belts out the famous "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" while pretending to be Eva Peron.
M*A*S*H - 1950-1953 C.E. - The kooky surgeons of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital get up to pranks to make it through the trauma of the Korean War.
The Motorcycle Diaries - 1952 C.E. - Based on the diaries of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and his encounters with the desperate poverty in South America that led to his Marxist rebellion in Argentina.
Battle of Algiers - 1954-1960 C.E. - Recounts events surrounding the war for Algerian independence from the French.
Capote - 1959-1966 C.E. - Truman Capote becomes obsessed with the murder of the Kansas Clutter family and pens his magnum opus "In Cold Blood."
Mad Men - 1961-1963 C.E. - Madison Avenue advertising executives with hard drinking habits relive the peak moments of the era from the inauguration of JFK through the assasination of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Malcolm X - 1965 C.E. - Denzel Washington's magnificent portrayal of African-American activist Malcolm X.
A Beautiful Mind - 1950-1994 C.E. - The life of John Forbes Nash, Jr., game theorist and mathematician who suffered from paranoid schizophrenic episodes.
Frost/Nixon - 1977 C.E. - British talk show host David Frost interviews former president Richard Nixon about the Watergate scandal and the abuses of his presidency.
And the Band Played On - 1981 C.E. - Epidemiologists discover a strange virus spreading rampantly through gay men in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, what would come to be known as HIV/AIDS.
Good bye Lenin! - 1989 C.E. - The fall of the Berlin Wall, the arrival of capitalism to East Germany, and the reunification of Germany.
Hotel Rwanda - 1994 C.E. - Hotelier Paul Rusesabagina saves the lives of his family and over 1,000 refugees at the Hotel des Mille Collines during the Rwandan genocide.
Blood Diamond - 1996 C.E. - Takes place during the Sierra Leone Civil War and the people forced into slave labor in diamond mines, and terrible cost of the diamond trade.
Black Hawk Down - 1996 C.E. - Americn Black Hawk helicopter loaded with Delta Force soldiers is shot down over Mogadishu, Somalia.
Breach - 2001 C.E. - Robert Philip Hanssen former American FBI agent and spy for Russian and Soviet intelligence gets busted for being a double agent.

Have You Been Living Underground?

2010-04-10T12:38:00.007-04:00

I love getting the NPR updates on my Facebook, because I'll find fabulous gems like this article about the new underground bunker company Vivos. Make sure to watch the video as well.

Seeing these luxury disaster shelters immediately made me think about Philip K. Dick's underground world in The Penultimate Truth. In this novel people dwell in an series of connected pods miles below the surface of the earth. Their purpose in these pods is to produce robot soldiers to go to the surface and continue fighting the war that destroyed everything that lives and irradiated most everything else. Each day these pod societies churn out more robots, only to receive orders to build more robots. All the while, on the surface military fiefdoms have cropped up and the folks who orchestrated the war in the first place have carved out vast empty cities to belong solely to them, while the robot soldiers do nothing more than defend their territory from the encroachments of similar military lords. These Ozymandias-like princes jaunt around the country for pointless meetings in private helicopters and jets, and continue to think up ways to perpetuate this mythic war to the billions of humans dwelling underground. Needless to say a few brave souls in the pods are starting to question their conditions, and that's when things begin to really change. This was a quick read and absolutely fascinating.

In a more wacky fantasy vein there is also Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Simon is a digger in an underground village. His family died as the result of a cave-in back when he was younger and he was raised by his best friend Kamina. The lives of the people in Simon's village are turned upside-down when one day a giant robot crashes through the dome ceiling, revealing that there is both life on the surface and that it's unbelievably dangerous. Simon and Kamina team up with a surface girl named Yoko to defeat the giant robot and save their village, but that's only the beginning of a story that spans the most outrageously epic story you will ever read.

If you're more in the mood for a classic you may want to look at Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth made into a film starring Brendan Frazier. In this novel a professor travels down into different layers of geologic history, and along the way encounters the flora and fauna of the ancient earth. Yes, wooly mammoths and dinosaurs! How can you go wrong? On the other end of speculative time is H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, where in the far future the peaceful, childlike Eloi people dwell in the decaying surface buildings while the pale ape-like Morlocks live in the dark underground.

Any of these works would make good reading while living in your own beatiful underground dwelling.

The Nature of Satire and Enjoyment of Gulliver's Travels

2010-04-06T11:25:00.008-04:00

People encounter satire in various forms; in the mocking political commentary of the Capitol Steps, the gentle ridicule of the American family in "The Simpson's" and in the laughter-raising political commentary of the satiric newspaper "The Onion." Nevertheless, people may enjoy these art forms and not fully grasp the nature and purpose of satire as a form of literature. The enjoyment of satire requires a greater familiarity with the characteristics of the genre than other forms of literature. A new edition of Gulliver's Travels has come out that keeps some of the flavor of the original keeping some of the original capitalization and printing of the eighteenth century edition.

By nature satire is a less straightforward type of literature than many. It implies, suggests, and exaggerates. As many have pointed out, the appreciation of the genre of satire requires knowledge of the use of many literary techniques including: irony, distancing and the use of a persona for the speaker to highlight the author’s view point. Satire usually has corrupt customs or practices as its target and a familiarity with that target is also necessary to fully enjoy satire. So a review of a few principles of satire may help people enjoy works in this mode. According to the Merriam Webster’s dictionary satire is the “use of irony, sarcasm in verse or prose in which human folly is held up to scorn or derision.” There are two main types of satire: Horatian and Juvenalian. Horatian satire a mild form of satire that is a playful exposure of folly or vice using mockery and exaggeration. The best example of this kind of satire is the TV cartoon show, "The Simpson's." The habits, attitudes, and preoccupations of Homer Simpson and his family are ridiculed in a gentle way that shows some affection for the objects of mockery. The second type of satire is Juvenalian. This kind of satire is contemptuous, and abrasive. This kind of satire seeks to "address some evil in society" through the use of "scorn, outrage and savage ridicule." The characteristics of this form of satire are "irony, sarcasm and moral indignation." It is often serious in tone rather than playful. Satire often has a political component and is used to attack some political regimes.

The literary work "Guilliver’s Travels" by Jonathan Swift is a good example of a combination of both kinds of satire: Horatian and Juvenalian satire. Swift used both methods as the first journalistic satirist and his sharp observations of the workings of politics in the different kingdoms in "Gulliver’s travels" reveal the effectiveness of the method of close journalistic observation of the institutions of society. His focus in satire was on revealing the foibles of society as a whole rather than those of individuals. One of the main techniques of satire applied by Swift in " Gulliver's Travels " to ridicule social faults by diminution. Diminution is often accomplished through use of critical terms and exaggeration. But Swift has the genius to literally make the kingdom he is satirizing small in size.

In "Gulliver’s Travels" Swift uses the method of diminution as a physical reality for his character and to great effect. The people Gulliver encounters on his first Island where he is stranded are very small in height. They are of course the Lilliputians. Their extremely small stature allows Swift to magnify the folly of their foibles and strange customs by the humorous way they strike us. The customs and institutions of the court can then be made to seem even more ridiculous when one sees them from the perspective of a giant. The most significant moment for this satire is the scene where the courtiers of the king compete for political office. Here Swift examines their method of competition that involves jumping on a taut rope to see who can jump the highest. Political office is given to the one who jumps the highest. This ridiculous competition is made even more absurd because the courtiers are only a few inches high. The custom of jumping to obtain a political office is demeaning to the person of the courtiers but again the fact that they are so small increases the sense we have of how they are morally demeaned by those customs.

Always with Swift and all satire there is an implied standard of human dignity and worth in play where the one senses the distance between the ideal and the real. The court life of Lilliput is far from ideal. It is ridiculous, small minded and maddening in its triviality. Many commentators have mentioned that Swift is criticizing the court life under George 1st and Queen Anne along with the corruption of Parliament under the Prime Minister Walpole. But knowledge of the details of history doesn't matter so much as having a general sense for what court life involves and dangers of favoritism. We also don't need much knowledge of the details of the politics of Congress to recognize the attitudes of pride and arrogance the Capitol Steps is ridiculing.

In addition, Swift uses another technique of satire: the mask or persona, in this case the persona of the unreliable narrator, Gulliver, who seeks to instruct us about what he sees in different lands. Gulliver as naive observer who shows an unthinking admiration for the ways of this diminutive court that only increases our uneasiness with what we are viewing. Here again Swift is using the satiric technique of inverting praise and blame that is another method of satire. Gulliver's admiration of the ways of the court only increases our disapproval of them and him. The persona of Gulliver is that of a complaisant naive English traveler who is only able to play the one note of amazement and approval. He cannot recognize moral degradation when he sees it. The consistent wrongness of the judgements of the narrator increases the effect of humor and our offense at what he is praising so that we come to object to what he approves. The best contemporary example might be a reference to the family activities that Homer Simpson approves.

Looking at the methods of satire used to depict of the life of the court of Lilliput in Gulliver’s Travels, we can enjoy them more if we have a sense of the parameters of satire in general. That knowledge can help us to appreciate the humor of this classic work. Satire is a method of literary exposition that encourages critical thinking about our world and helps us to evaluate the customs of our own society by seeing them in relation to an ideal of humanity that everyone shares to some extent. Once we catch on to the often used methods of distancing, diminution, exaggeration and the inversion of praise and blame, we can enjoy the work more and finally get the joke as well as enjoy a good laugh at humanity. It is hopefully a laugh that is not harsh but informed by insight into the follies of humankind.

Post-Apoc Pop

2010-04-06T10:09:00.021-04:00

Post-Apocalypse novels are a dime a dozen these days. That is not to say they are all the same, or that all the themes have been overplayed. However, there are a couple things about this genre that stick in my craw.

The setup for these novels involves some kind of holocaust. This is not a normal catastrophe--we are talking about a full-scale nuclear war, a global pandemic, a high tech attack by extra-terrestrials, a comet-Earth collision or [insert favorite holocaust here] that is barely survivable. Despite the scale of these annihilations, we picture ourselves as the lucky ones who end up survive.

We picture an exciting adventure-filled future with close calls and savage road warlords, but we survive. We see ourselves sneaking through ghost towns searching for food, exploring desolated forests with rifles slung over our backs, eking out a living in near-unlivable conditions. Ultimately, and egotistically, we imagine ourselves surviving. Miraculously we are the few who live to witness the New Age--either a Utopian do-over or an exciting dystopian struggle. The Handmaid's Tale, The Postman, Earth Abides, I Am Legend, 1984 and even films from Mad Max to The Book of Eli. Then you stumble upon The Road.

Everybody's friend and their friend's friend is reading this book. I put a copy of the audiobook (DCPL has the Playaway) on hold and finally got around to "reading" it (Does this count as reading? I think so). The first fifty pages are slow going. Wading through ash in the dim afternoon, getting ready for the next awful existential crisis. I don't want to give anything away, but luckily that's pretty much impossible with The Road. You know from the book jacket that it takes place in the wake of some God-awful event that rendered most of America a nasty, dangerous wasteland.

You are forced to repeatedly ask yourself, Is this worth it? Would I go through this? Albert Camus said the only question is whether or not to kill yourself. I'd rather not go down this philosophical cul de sac, but don't be mistaken: The Road is not for the faint of heart. The clinically depressed might also want to consult their doctor before reading. All joking aside, this book is worth reading for the power of McCarthy's lyrical prose alone. A writer will learn a thing or two about minimalism. A philosophy student will bask in the author's powerful short sentences, his linguistic economy and contemplations. With this book, I'd venture to say that the plot is not nearly as important as the language with which it is described. The way McCarthy lays out the journey is so bittersweet and poetic I think I'll have to read it again. Maybe on the beach this summer instead of the dead of winter.

The Pleasures of Biography

2010-03-18T15:59:00.006-04:00

What attracts us so to biographies? When a college student, I always went right to biographies of major figures of an era to spice up my research on an historical topic. The broad outlines of history are fine but it is the life course of the actors of history that compelled my attention. It seems that the exploration of one life history, examining the motives and conflicts of a single well known leader, illumines the landscape of our understanding and allows our history to make sense. The root of this interest may be that we are biological creatures who are born, grow and eventually die. So too looking at history through the lens of a personality gives history greater sharpness of definition. We enjoy learning the telling detail that reveals character. It is often the very limitations of the circumstance under which historical figures developed their characters and under which they made certain achievements that gives their lives a sense of drama. The best biographers give us a view of their inner life trying to show how the ambitions and aspirations of a well known historical figure drove them to their chosen course of life.

We gain a special pleasure from seeking to understand the sources of those inner drives, and considering their results virtues and flaws of one personality.Two examples of this phenomenon can be seen when reading the biographies of Louisa Alcott and Lyndon Johnson. They were both successful public figures in American life but each was motivated by a particular set of inner drives born from poverty. To consider Louisa Alcott first, her life is examined in a biographical chronicle taken from contemporary narratives and letters edited by Daniel Shealy entitled “Alcott in her Own Time.” From the start we can see that as a child of a philosopher, Bronson Alcott, a major figure among the Transcendentalists, Louisa was given certain advantages in the informal philosophical education she was given by her father. However, she also suffered from some serious disadvantages because of the very idealism of her father. Louisa and her mother grew up in conditions of poverty and instability because Bronson had no sense of the practical and could not earn a living. They were cast upon the charity of others to survive. Their misadventures became the material for her best known work "Little Women."

Louisa grew to be very self-dependent person who could engage in any type of work to survive and eventually turned to writing as a way of supporting her family. Her background living in an intellectual household helped her to understand her world and the process of child development in a way few could in her time. At the same time her sufferings helped her to identify with the difficulties of other families. Her writing for children took off, especially her classic “Little Women.” In this way she became a public figure admired by millions for her insight into the life of childhood and youth. Yet her life was a series of struggles. Nothing came easily for her. She was a self-made intellectual who had to figure out the best way to live for herself and chronicled her attempts to understand her world in her writings. We can admire her ambition and industry and understand its costs. It is paradoxically the limitations of her life, her wrestling with poverty and the prejudices against activities of women outside the family that make her a fascinating figure.

There was a similar pattern in the life of Lyndon Johnson. The poverty and distress under which the young Lyndon Johnson grew up, according to Robert Caro, his biographer in “The Years of Lyndon Johnson: the Path to Power,” shaped him in ways that helped form his vast ambitions. Lyndon came of age in a family with a father who had failed in business and in reaction to this shame he sought to succeed at any cost. Yet his resources were meager. It was humiliation and “a sense of fear”, in Caro’s view, that drive him forward. He suffered from terrible depressions and health crises. He attended a local two year teacher’s college not a university. He was known for hard work and discipline as well as having a way in connecting with people in campaigning.

These skills allowed him to rise in the organization of the Texas Democratic Party and eventually in the US House of Representatives in Washington. There he used his people skills and hard work to ingratiate himself with Sam Rayburn, the speaker of the House of Representatives. There the times and Johnson met. During that period personal influence was even more important than today and Johnson rose to become one of the democratic leaders of the House and then the Senate finally the Presidency. Johnson became a passionately committed advocate of certain causes, such as civil rights and removal of poverty when they were politically feasible. He was accomplished in arm twisting, horse trading and simply convincing others of his cause. These skills enabled him to pass the landmark Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s. Yet Johnson was driven by an desire for recognition that was never satisfied and that had deep roots in a painful past. With Johnson we are surprised at how such a flawed personality could accomplish what he did.

In summary, we tend to enjoy observing how great persons achieve remarkable things despite their handicaps. Through consideration of their triumphs we come to better understand how these personalities overcame those difficulties while remaining flawed.

Big Girls Do Cry

2010-03-16T12:27:00.022-04:00

Big Girls Do Cry
Carl Weber
Dafina Books, 2010

The ladies of the BGBC--that's the Big Girl Book Club--are back for another round of adventures in Carl Weber's Big Girls Do Cry. The only requirements for membership are a love of reading and being a size 14 or larger. The sequel to Something on the Side, Big Girls Do Cry picks up with the story of Egypt and her crazy (and I don't mean that in a good way) sister Isis. Egypt has relocated to Richmond, Virginia, from New York with her husband Rashad ... the same Rashad that Isis dated for over 10 years before her sister Egypt married him.

Egypt fears that her marriage could be coming to an end because she's not able to have children. Fortunately, Isis, who lives with Egypt and Rashad, steps up to be a surrogate mother. But between her last suicide attempt, which was spurred by her heartache over the married playboy Tony, and losing Rashad to her sister, Isis is struggling to get her life together. And for some reason, she wants Tony back.

New club member Loraine, who is also Egypt's boss, seems to have everything going for herself: She's president of her own public relations firm, and is in the running to be president of her sorority. She just has to keep her sorors from finding out about her cheating husband. Jerome, the only male member of the BGBC, is Loraine's openly gay best friend. He is proud of the way he lives his life--loving and leaving his partners--until the day he leaves the wrong one and all hell breaks loose.

Lots a'drama, but a good read. But hey the drama is not over just yet: Catch up with Loraine and Jerome and the other members of the Big Girl Book Club in part two, Torn Between Two Lovers.

And if you want even more drama, check out other books by Carl Weber, such as Up To Know Good and So You Call Yourself a Man. Or visit his website, http://www.carlweber.net/.

Did you Czech your Liszt?

2010-03-12T16:20:00.004-05:00

When I was a kid, during holidays I had to sit at the kids' table. The adults sat at the adults' table. This seemed clear enough, but when I was in my late teens the line started to blur. I was interested in philosophy and politics like the adults, but I also liked humor that was silly and crude. I still liked comic books.

Now I'm an adult and I do adult things. When I'm interested in a local artist I go to an art show, and while I'm there I drink wine. I do my taxes, though not always on time. Being in libraries for all these years, I've always found the biography section intimidating. These are long histories of people who are important. They often attract biographers who are obsessed experts in their field (their field being the person in question), obsessed enough to necessitate seven hundred pages describing early childhood, childhood, family pedigree, young adulthood...zzzz. I wish it weren't so, but I can't deny that I am of a generation raised partly by television shows and, thus, have very short attention spans. This is why I rejoiced when I discovered juvenile biography series, Masters of Music: The World's Greatest Composers.

The first book from this series I picked up was a pleasantly succinct biography of Franz Liszt. The text was sharp and surprisingly well-suited for adults, although it's call number spelled it out clearly: JUV 92 LISZT. This Hungarian virtuoso changed the face of music performance forever. Liszt was the first instrumentalist to play alone on stage without sheet music. He had a violent flourishing style on stage, throwing his head about and letting his long hair fall into his face. He basically created the image we now call the rock star. Who would've known? Not me! Since then I've enjoyed the Masters of Music biographies of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Mozart, and Chopin. I usually have one or two of these little books in my bag to read on the train, despite the strange looks I get from the REAL adults. Please check our catalog or take a spin through your neighborhood library's juvenile biography section.

Side by Side

2010-03-04T11:28:00.017-05:00

The other day I took a photo of the front entrance of the new Watha T. Daniel building. Shortly after I took that picture I went to the construction page to see the drawings of the building and how it compared to the reality of the building. I was totally shocked to see how completely similar they were to each other, and I think you will be as well. Check out this side by side photo and drawing array and tell me what you think.

I Am A Historian

2010-03-01T08:00:00.002-05:00

Over the last year we've had the wonderful opportunity to work in partnership with some of the brilliant students at Seaton Elementary School. One of the most amazing projects that we did was build a local history page on Wikipedia for the Shiloh Baptist Church. After the students built the page we had them sit down for a Skype teleconference to talk about their experience on the project with teachers around the country.

Take a minute to meet Katherine, Norma, Jackson and Ibrahim, and learn about the work they did for this project. We're all so incredibly proud of them.

Wicked Awesome

2010-02-27T14:03:00.004-05:00

Horns
by Joe Hill
William Morrow, (c) 2010

Recently I had the misfortune of being terribly sick, layed up in bed and feeling awful. That said, I was incredibly lucky that I had, mere days before, checked out Joe Hill's latest novel Horns. Had I not been in bed for an entire day I would have not had the luxury of reading the entirety of this book in one sitting, and I would have had to steal every spare moment here and there to dive back into the book and find out what happened next.

And let me explain just one other thing, for a librarian, I'm not a terribly fast reader. I read at the speed of spoken conversations, which is amazingly slow compared to many of my colleagues. For me to actually blaze through a novel as quickly as I did, means that it was a relentless onslaught of reading from morning to night.

I could absolutely not put this book down.

Horns follows the life of Ignatius Perrish. He is the son and brother to famous musicians, as well as being the prime suspect in the brutal murder of his former fiance Merrin. It seemed that all those troubles were behind him, until he wakes up one morning with two large knots on the side of his head. It's clear that they are horns, but he has no idea why. What he quickly learns is that under the power of the horns people will reveal their darkest truths to him, beginning with his live-in girlfriend Glenna who immediately confesses that she wants to make herself repulsive to him because she can't bear to tell him to get out of her life. And that's just within the first ten pages.

What follows is an ever deepening look into the differences between the face we show the world and the thousand things we wish we could say to one another save for propriety. Hill asks a lot of intriguing questions about lies, omissions and truth; what we say to people versus what people hear; what we say and what we mean and the blurry lines between good and evil. Not only that, but it's wrapped in the most deeply intertwined writing where every element of the story fits neatly into every other. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Horns is that it doesn't really fit into any easily defined category. While sure, there are elements of fantasy or horror, I wouldn't say that it's either of those things. It's just a great story.

I would strongly encourage anyone who read Joe Hill's short story collection 20th Century Ghosts to get this latest novel. I admit that I wasn't that thrilled with his first novel Heart Shaped Box, but I gave 20th a shot and it was absolutely brilliant work. Horns fits right in with some of those great pieces, particularly You Will Hear the Locust Sing which blends Kafka's Metamorphosis with school violence. In both stories the reason for the transformation is very unclear, but the power that it awakens in the character leads to some of the most intriguing metaphors.

So, check out the book, carve out a day, sit down and read from morning 'til night. You'll be glad you did.

Kia DuPree, Tonight!

2010-02-24T12:19:00.002-05:00

Author Talk: Kia DuPree
Wednesday, February 24, 6 p.m.

Calling all urban fiction fans! Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Interim Library will host award-winning author Kia DuPree, who will talk about her new book, Damaged.

"Dupree's debut offers readers an unvarnished look at the troubled, violence-filled lives of inner-city youth in Washington, D.C., frequently through the eyes and experiences of Camille Logan. Ten-year-old Camille is placed with the Brinkleys, yet another foster family, where she suffers extreme mental and sexual abuse for years, until she's rescued by Chu, a low-level drug dealer who actually loves and looks after her. But when Chu is murdered in a drug deal gone wrong, Camille makes a desperate choice to join a cruel pimp's stable, where she faces her situation and struggles to change her life."1

DuPree, who now lives in Washington, D.C., was an assistant editor at St. Martin's Press in New York. In 2005 she received the Fiction Honor Book Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association for her debut novel, the self-published Robbing Peter. DuPree earned a B.A. in Mass Media Arts from Hampton University, as well as an M.A. in English from Old Dominion University.

Copies of Damaged will be available for purchase and for check out at the reading.

1Review: Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

Wintry Mix

2010-02-09T13:46:00.004-05:00

I've absolutely loved spending the last few days at home staying warm and dry from the snow. I spent the time watching movies with friends, baking, and working on a new quilt. We're open today and if you make it before the next wave of snow hits you can come and pick up some entertainment to help you and your family get through this historic snow storm.

Here are a few wintry suggestions to get you started.

Movies

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Snow Dogs
Why Did I Get Married
The Shining
30 Days of Night

Books

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Snow by Uri Shulevitz

The Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Democracy in America

2010-02-01T14:58:00.011-05:00

" Democracy in America " by Alexis de Tocqueville, tranlated by George Lawrence, edited by J.P. Mayer, Penguin Press, Selection of Watha T Daniel Book Club

Because of the recent debates about Health Care and Environmental legislation there has been a companion discussion by many about the nature of how the popular will should be expressed in a democracy and consideration of a possible manipulation of the voters by populist organizations. In my group house in Takoma there are skeptics about the validity of these groups and those who really feel their protest is valid. This discussion inspired me to take a new look at the classic work on democracy, “Democracy in America” by the French traveler Alexis de Tocqueville. "Democracy in America” is important because it is the first study that attempted to create a portrait of how government and society in a democracy actually worked. It was written during the emerging democracy of the United States during the Jackson Administration in the early Nineteenth Century.

What I found when I looked into this work was a surprise. This is a profound book that sheds light on the causes and conditions for real democratic expression in the United States, even in our own day. De Tocqueville came up the idea of the reality of society, society was apart from the state, politically significant. It was an idea that revolutionized the understanding of political science and has great import for us today. Alexis de Tocqueville believed that there were two distinct realities: the patterns or habits of social life and the governmental structures of the state. They influenced each other but were separate.

In de Tocqueville’s view, democracy was not so much a government as a way of life, as a set of patterns of political participation and expression that were connected to how relationships within families, among neighbors and life in larger communities were conducted. American society itself, then, established habits of political activism that were part of the personality and associations of each citizen. They were patterns established by the mores of the early settlers and shaped the town meeting and other institutions of early American democracy.

Now with regard to the controversies today about health care and other issues, one can conclude that every kind of expression of opinion, even the rancorous ones, may have some value, because it is an expression of the people’s habitual expression of concern. This may be true even if the message is not well thought-out or articulate. It is still an expression of a determination to have one’s say. Democracy is nourished by these movements even if they come in the form of strident statements. It seems one has to take a larger view regarding the import of these events and view them as part of a continual back and forth movement of ideas that is part of our political culture. Even though there was strong expression of dislike for a specific health care program in those town meetings and this was expressed in a rude and strident way that expression may not be by itself destructive.

These movements can be seen as part of the pattern of direct expression of the passions of a particular group in society that feels threatened. Overall, it is an expression that is healthy for both the body of society and the government that represents it. As de Tocqueville found in his tour of America in the 1830s, the expression of popular sentiment in politics causes disorder and disturbs governance. Democratic debate is a messy business that often offended the sensibility of Alexis de Tocqueville as an aristocrat. But he saw how those habits of political participation were deeply ingrained in American social life. It was those long held patterns that are the foundation for a well functioning republican government. We can take heart today to find that our political life is just as disorderly and disturbing as it was in the times of the early republic when de Tocqueville observed it.

The Literary Mashup

2010-01-30T11:08:00.006-05:00

I have to admit, that when I read in today's New York Times that Electronic Arts is releasing a video game loosely based on Dante's Inferno, I had to both laugh out loud and then consider whether or not I would actually buy this game for myself. Having a PlayStation 3 at home, and having read Inferno for a medieval history class it is quite tempting to see the, um, differences. Dante as a sword wielding, body-building crusader, clad in armor and trailing shredded ribbons of clothes... Far from the casual observer of the epic poem.

But that got me thinking. With all of these mashups of classical literature like Inferno the video game, Beowulf the animated adventure starring Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother, the Manga Shakespeare series, the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which also has ninjas), and the forthcoming Android Karenina, what could possibly be next? What other classics could they turn into action packed thrill rides?

Here's a few of my thoughts.

Sid Meier's War and Peace the video game. Civilization Revolution is already half-way there, it's just a quick jump to focusing solely on Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

Don Quixote where his delusions are actually a result of the aliens who implanted a device controlling his mind.

The Sun Also Rises MMORPG where you gain experience points by drinking your way across Europe and going to bull fights in Pamplona.

Moby Dick the fishing simulator where you work your way up from catching little minnows and guppies to going after the great white whale.

What do you think the next great classic novel mashup will be?

Halflings, Half-Nerds, Worms...

2010-01-29T15:23:00.005-05:00

A lot of my friends are half-nerds. What I mean is they've seen and read The Lord of the Rings trilogy and agree the books are better. They love Blade Runner, but they've probably never actually read a book by Philip K. Dick. They've never been serious about Dungeons & Dragons or those Dragon Lance books, but they can recite more than one popular Star Wars quote. Some of us listened to Rush, a band who wrote concept albums about fantastical planets. While these all rest comfortably in fantasy worlds, their prevalence in modern pop-culture allows non-nerds do nerdy things without being labeled. Err...

This bit of labeling tomfoolery is partly to make fun of the labeling process that, like it or not, still exists in high schools, colleges and only slightly seriously into adulthood. Then we get to Dune. The book was given to me by an artsy friend in college, and after a few pages (on several occasions) I decided that there was no better treatment for insomnia than reading Dune.

However, after being successfully seduced by the books-on-iPod reading method, I had to revisit the books I'd wanted to read but never could. The only annoying part about reading Dune on iPod was importing the eighteen discs into iTunes. Since then, I've waded into a fantasy world that, secretly, I prefer to Tolkien's. The idea of humans cultivating their own natural potential into a sort of half-magic is much easier for me to get into. As a half-nerd. Ahem...

Great Coffee, Great Books

2010-01-26T16:33:00.004-05:00

Starting in February the Watha T. Daniel Library will be partnering with the Starbucks Coffee shop in Logan Circle to bring you an all new book club program outside of our library walls. Join us for Great Coffee, Great Books, a monthly book discussion group held at 7:00 p.m. on the final Wednesday of the month at Starbucks Coffee, 1429 P St NW.

Our book for February 24 will be The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

For 15-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and before long they embark on a passionate, clandestine love affair which leaves Michael both euphoric and confused. For Hanna is not all she seems. Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany, Michael is shocked to realize that the person in the dock is Hanna. The woman he had loved is a criminal. Much about her behaviour during the trial does not make sense. But then suddenly, and terribly, it does - Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she is also desperately concealing an even deeper secret.

Great Coffee, Great Books
Final Wednesdays
7:00 p.m.

Held at Starbucks Coffee in Logan Circle
1429 P St NW
Washington, DC

To RSVP please contact the Watha T. Daniel Library at 202-671-0265 or email librarian Paul Sweeney: paul.sweeney@dc.gov

Her Father's Daughter

2010-01-09T11:53:00.042-05:00

"Who's the Daddy?" is a question most often posed in paternity episodes of the Maury Povich show (not that I've ever watched it) or in the pages of celebrity rags discussing the newest "baby bumps" in Hollywood (not that I ever read them while standing in line at the grocery store). "Who's the Daddy" is also a fitting turn of words for a host of fiction and non-fiction books. I uncovered no less than 17 books in the D.C. Library catalog with the title, The [insert occupation here]'s Daughter.

For example:

The Calligrapher's Daughter
The Doctor's Daughter
The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter
The Alchemist's Daughter
The Professor's Daughter
The Agitator's Daughter
The Impostor's Daughter
The Fat Man's Daughter

You'll find these titles in our new "Who's the Daddy?" display. Of course there was a time when one's patrilineal descent meant everything. It can still carry great influence (see Bush 41 and 43), or serve as another type of transformative force in one's life, as President Obama has described through his tenuous relationship with his own father. The father/daughter memoirs here also have fascinating stories to tell. In The Agitator's Daughter, a Georgetown University law professor recounts growing up in a family of civil rights activists that goes back four generations, and the family ruin brought about by her father's relentless pursuit of justice. In the graphic novel The Impostor's Daughter: A True Memoir, the narrator tells how she grew up in awe of her war veteran father, only to discover later that his stories of heroism and adventure were lies.

The daughters in these books remain nameless until you flip open their covers. Come and check one out!

New Watha T. Construction Video

2009-12-18T13:22:00.002-05:00

Building is moving swiftly at the new Watha T. Daniel Library construction site. Check out this little video to see how far we've come!

Kung Fu Jazz

2009-12-14T14:08:00.008-05:00

In Bruce Lee movies the fighting is so perfectly choreographed it almost looks real. Well, not REAL real, of course, but the way we'd imagine real might look in Hollywood. It would only make sense on screen. Imagine the scene in Fist of Fury where Lee takes on an entire school of assassins-in-training if it were real and not painstakingly planned out. It wouldn't make for a very interesting (or long) film. But we accept that such blatant posturing is the nature of the High Arts when they become commercialized.

Imagine if, at a concert at Carnegie Hall of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, all the highly-trained instrumentalists walked onto the stage and started improvising on Bach themes. Unacceptable! Surgically-orchestrated art, free improvisation, structured improvisation—all these forms are valid and have found homes in the music world. I'd like to examine a piece from that second category, an expressionist jazz record made in 1977: Streams of Consciousness by Max Roach and Abdullah Ibrahim. We’ll get to that, but first a little background.

In high school I went dozens of times to see the Hank Roberts Trio, a cello-centric jazz/folk/fusion/experimental music group. As a young musician, it was by watching and listening to the Trio that I observed an improvisation that went several levels deeper than the fun jam-bands we teens also flocked toward (not for completely musical reasons). It is often the interplay of all the players, the back-and-forth, and not just one person's domination that makes jazz that much more complex. For some reason I think of sports with their finite number of players but infinite possible outcomes. This attribute is especially evident in a record I stumbled upon in our collection: a rare 1977 duet by drummer Max Roach and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (formerly known as Dollar Brand) entitled Streams of Consciousness. The credits say it was produced by Max Roach, but saying it was produced by anyone is laughable—all they needed to do was get the guys in the same room and hit the record button.

At the beginning of their interplay, the piano sets off in a gospel direction, only to collide with the deepest swung funk beat. Experimental jazz meets stride, and complete discord meets pop. At times you can almost hear Carole King singing, but that is interrupted by ideas a bit too interesting for seventies pop (not that there's anything wrong with it!). Ibrahim slams down a Vince Guaraldi-like left hand line that is deliberately off-time, enough so to throw Roach off balance. This transforms the next series of movements into a fun sparring match. This interaction never turns into a train wreck. My guess is that the pianist was trying to stir things up. We travel through some blues, some stride piano, a drum solo that sounds like a machine-gun battle, but always return to Roach's funk. Every once in a while you have to remind yourself that you're only listening to two people. When one drops out for a moment you can't help thinking, Hey, where did everyone go? Ibrahim throws in an upbeat progression and a bunch of flowery chords here and there to help knit everything together and a bit more Guaraldi for good measure.

There is proof on track two that melodies and chords can be played on a drum kit. Roach seemingly uses every piece of drum hardware as percussion. The second track soon takes a turn for the conventional. For some reason the second bit of this cut feels like walking home.

On the third track I hear people at a party, dishes and silverware clinking, laughter. Roach shows the listener the possibilities of the high-hat cymbal, using the metallic concussion as well as the inner resonance to create a hollow vocal sound. I'd hate to have to transcribe this monologue, though.
The last track allows the space between chords and drum hits to become the melody. I know that's a strange concept. Picture a Béla Bartók percussion ensemble at a speakeasy. Max gets the most out of that snare drum—it kind of makes you rethink what you thought you knew about drums.

The liner notes bend over backwards to stress there was no preparation for this recording. Simply put, these two jazz giants sat down and started playing. In the realm of jazz (traditional jazz, free jazz and bebop, as opposed to smooth jazz, which I like to call jass or Quiet Storm Jazz) this less structured approach is not uncommon and in free jazz is a prerequisite. Of course, when you consider the deep musical background of Roach and Ibrahim and the status of each as virtuoso instrumentalist, composer, band leader and cohort of the biggest names in jazz, it is not surprising that we're still operating within the world of seventies jazz music. In current popular music parlance I would have trouble placing Streams into a category, to use with iTunes for instance. Yes, it is free jazz, but being played by two musicians with supreme understanding of composition and form. Yes, the first song is over twenty minutes long, yet it is exceedingly listenable. Yes, this is one in a relatively long list of Roach studio duets, but there is a reason Roach named this his favorite of all his famous duets. This was a non-commercial record. This condition is practically built into it by nature of it being free jazz. It may have been free in its creation, but Streams of Consciousness has ultimately proved priceless. Put on your good headphones and close your eyes!

What Happend to "This Week at Watha T"?

2009-12-12T15:34:00.003-05:00

Hey there loyal readers.

I'm sure you're probably all wondering what happened to our weekly calendar of events we used to do entitled "This Week at Watha T."

Well, we've started to migrate our content over to the hot new library webpage! Just go to http://www.dclibrary.org/watha and you can see the entire list of events for Watha T. Daniel right there online. You can even subscribe to our RSS feed from the new library webpage by clicking on the RSS icon in the blue bar with our name and picture.

Check it out.

Check Out Northwest One

2009-12-08T09:48:00.002-05:00

Remember when I posted the picture from the installation of Northwest One? Well, we opened to the public on December 7th and people took notice. Check out this video from ABC 7 about the amount of videos, audio books and technology in the new facility in Ward 6.

I'll still be floating back and forth between locations, but it's super fun opening a new branch!

Prepare to Meet Your Dome!

2009-11-27T16:00:00.003-05:00

Under the Dome
by Stephen King
New York : Scribner, 2009

Stephen King's newest novel, Under the Dome, is probably the best thing he's written this decade. In the very near future, the town of Chester's Mill is suddenly and inexplicably cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible, impenetrable dome. There is no warning, and several people (and one unfortunate woodchuck) suffer the consequences immediately. For everyone else, the horror escalates rapidly as one thing after another goes wrong; the town's propane supply is mysteriously short, the most powerful politician in town becomes increasingly despotic, and the sky begins to darken, slowly but inexorably.

In the tradition of Needful Things and Tommyknockers, Under the Dome features King's signature style of ensemble casts. Though the story closely follows a handful of characters, the whole town is placed, as it were, under the microscope. Also, like most of King's writing, the horror and tragedy stem from basic human emotions and responses more than on any supernatural malevolence. Though the Dome has created a terrible situation, it is ultimately the actions of the townsfolk which drive the hellish pace of the story; and it is hellish.

Though bulky and somewhat recycled (is there any small town in Maine safe from annihilation?), the story is paced beautifully. There are no lulls in the action, and there are several scenes, including the climactic ending, which truly filled me with dread. One of the best things about this particular story is its horrible inevitability, and while there are some surprises, it is even worse knowing what's going to happen, and watching it still happen anyway.

The best part of this story is its thorough modernity. Under the Dome does not ignore the changing nature of communications technology, and in fact relies on it in several places to advance the plot. The media and military know about what's happening; in fact, the whole world knows, and must watch as the reader watches with sick fascination as calamities descend on Chester's Mill. They helplessly watch as the town shows signs of climate-change in miniature, rape becomes an epidemic, and the drug-culture literally blows up in their faces. If the dome is a trap, it is also a funhouse mirror, reflecting the times in stark relief.

Recent Books on Rwanda

2009-11-25T12:55:00.004-05:00

It seems to me that people cannot look such terrible events as genocide in the face. They have to approach traumatic events from a more humanitarian angle that makes the harsh reality more palatable. The recent popular film “Hotel Rwanda” focused on the inspirational story of the rescue of a Tutsi population and foreigners residing in a Luxury Hotel from the marauding gangs of killers during the genocide. In this particular Rwanda is fortunate for having an inspirational story in the current President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. Paul Kagame’s biography is the story of Rwanda and its neighbors through the past twenty years through the Hutu domination of Rwanda and the exile and persecution of the Tutsi population. Kagame started life as a Tutsi exile in Uganda who prepared himself for leadership and eventually led an army into Rwanda to take control during the political chaos of the genocide of 1994. He also led the early government in Rwanda that sought to reconcile the ethnic groups in one government that could pick up the pieces.
Nevertheless, the lasting effects of the genocide have to be dealt with. In 1994, nearly a million Tutsi were slaughtered by their Rwandan friends, neighbors and, in some cases, relatives who were members of the Hutu tribe. European leaders quietly observed the slaughter and may have even contributed to it. Most notably, the U.N. failed to intervene on any level to save lives and the U.S. simply ignored the slaughter.
The Author of “A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man who Dreamed It”, Stephen Kinzer, tries to tell the entire story of Rwanda from the beginning with Paul Kagame as its hero. It's a difficult story of the slow build up to hatred and mass murder and one that deserves the attention of a world that looked the other way while it was happening. Many of our international leaders have used the word "genocide" often without looking into its real meaning. However, the details of the events of that year in Rwanda show all the horrible aspects of this kind of event. The use of that word can only take on its full meaning when one looks at the realities of a civil war and an internal policy of systematic hatred of an ethnic enemy intended to unify a fraying central government. Kinzer effectively uses the words of Rwandan President Paul Kagame to tie together this half-century history of the nation. In this bestselling book author and journalist, Stephen Kinzer, not only recounts this shameful event in vivid detail but he also provides the valuable back story. Most significantly, he outlines the startlingly inspirational recovery that Rwanda has begun during the decade or so since the genocide.

Kinzer’s main focus is Paul Kagame, the current president of Rwanda who led the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in its war against the Rwandan government beginning in 1990 which both sparked and eventually put an end to the genocide. Any book about the last quarter-century of Rwandan history could not help but focus on Kagame. He has dominated the picture with his leadership. It is clear Kinzer is taken by Kagame’s disciplined and business-like manner, his sharp focus on problems, and his ability to get things done despite the odds. In his estimation, Kagame is an outstanding leader who has brought possibility out of chaos and horror.

“Paul Kagame and Rwanda: Power, Genocide and the Rwandan Patriotic Front” by Colin M. Waugh is another very thorough examination of the career of Paul Kagame and the devastation of the genocide. In this book we get a very clear view of the difficulties of life as an exile and the growing hopes for a revival of his country. We learn about the very clear headed and cautious style of leadership of Kagame and reasons why he was so successful. By bringing discipline and reason into Rwandan government Paul Kagame was able to bring the country into the light. It is an inspirational read about what is possible with vision and just leadership even in the most difficult circumstances. This book adds many details to the story of the major decisions of President Kagame and how these wise decisions reconciled communities in conflict and gave hope to the people. This is the kind of inspirational story that people want to read and that adds to their lives. Darkness alone doesn’t sell. But that is for a good reason.

Dystopia Schmystopia

2009-11-21T11:30:00.004-05:00

If you’re anything like me and many Generation-X pseudo-nerds, then you have a love/hate relationship with future dystopian sci-fi novels. Don't get me wrong—I've read and love a lot of these books. I think they resonate especially with we jaded Gen-X'ers who grew up in the shadow of the last decade of the Cold War. Remember the movie 'Red Dawn'? Enough said.

Although we're no longer terrified of the Soviets lobbing a city-killer sized nuke over Canada, we've experienced a scary last eight years. Partly because of the newly rekindled fire feeding the spread of terrorism (“Bring it on!”), I think we're feeling a slight return of that distant sense of doom. The other day I saw a guy walking around DC wearing a t-shirt that read One Nation Under Surveillance. That's what I’m talking about. Way to distill it to four words, shirt company! Maybe I'm imagining this mood on the street, maybe I'm projecting, but I'm not imagining the hundreds of underground anti-establishment podcasts with themes of mistrust, anarchy, and disdain for our ruling authorities. I listen to them on my lunch break and they make me A) glad to have the freedom of speech B) want to reach for a future dystopian novel.

One problem is the immense number of these novels that are out there—it’s impossible to keep up. If you look to the past you have to go all the way back to Mary Shelley in the 1820s to see this genre first taking shape. In the mid 1900s come the most crucial post-industrial dystopian novels: A Brave New World, Animal Farm, Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Fahrenheit 451. There were also many other lesser-known masterpieces like Naked Lunch, A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Postman, and it’s really never stopped since then. Okay, end of sermon. But I would like, O’ my brothers, to talk partially about a novel published in 1962, and what is in part the target of this malenky report, my merry droogs, this being the audio book presentation of a novel of future London, that is, A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess.

In high school and in college, people kept telling me I had to read this book. “Dude, you've read Nineteen-Eighy-Four, now you need to try something harder.” But I’d pick up a paperback edition of Clockwork with tiny type on gray paper and end up putting it down shortly thereafter and start making up excuses: I just can't get into the lingo. It's immediately too dark to get into, it just doesn't click. That all changed two months ago when a library patron returned a 6-disc audio book version of it and suggested, no demanded, that I rip it to my iPod. (BTW, recommendations of patrons, by the way, are how I’ve come across most of my favorite books. Bog bless Washington’s enthusiastic readers and well-stocked libraries!)

Anthony Burgess wrote dozens of novels from 1956 to 1995, but to his chagrin it was Clockwork that won him superstar status. Burgess expressed regret over this any chance he was given. The small tome was just one of many books he'd written over the decades, and not his favorite by any means. Nevertheless, for better or worse, it is for this quirky chronicle of teenage depravity, and largely due to the hit film based on it, that people remember this author and vision of the future.

When I think of the sixties, I picture people sitting around on shag rugs listening to the first Pink Floyd record, often in altered states of mind. But this book was published in 1962, before the hippie thing had exploded. It was in this silence before the coming social hurricane that Burgess gives us his terrifying vision of a bleak, sprawling future full of unrestrained crime carried out by poorly parented teens, all living in fearful concrete suburbs. The only reason I know this is because of Tom Hollander, and Recorded Books.

From the first line, What’s it going to be, then, eh? The character of poor Alex is vividly and effortlessly imagined thanks to Hollander’s perfect cockney accent, urbanized and infused with Russian slang. This isn’t a book report and I don’t want to color anyone’s opinion of the work. I'm not addicted to audio books like some people—I still prefer hard copies. All the same, I do want to throw this out there: I’ve been through A Clockwork Orange three times (!!!) now on my iPod, after having picked up and put down the paper version at least twice as many times. Put it on hold—it’s painless and well worth the minimal trouble, even if you’re a lazy reader like me. You will get pulled in and, if you're anything like me, you'll like it so much you'll laugh out loud on the train and embarrass yourself.

Where's Eric?

2009-11-19T16:08:00.003-05:00

I know the kids at story time have probably been asking, "Where's Mr. Eric?"

Well you can tell them that I'm helping to install the new Northwest One library at New Jersey Ave. and L St NW! I've been working with a great team of staff members to put together a brand new library, and it's coming along just fine. We're having a grand old time unpacking box loads of books, CDs and DVDs.

I'll be out here for the next few weeks, but I plan to return to my normal story time duties the second week of December.

The new Northwest One Library opens to the public on December 7. Stop by and see how much DC Public is changing.

Check it out!

National Gaming Day: Saturday Nov. 14

2009-11-13T11:48:00.005-05:00

Are you a gamer?

I am.

I had an Atari when I was 6, started building D&D characters when I was 12, played Yahtzee with my family when I was in my teens, played Euchre when I was in high school, got into Vampire: The Masquerade in college... Yeah, I've been playing games for a LONG time now.

So, come and join us here at Watha T. on Saturday the 14th of November for National Gaming Day, and get into some hot new games. We've got Letter Jam, Wits and Wagers, Say Anything, Pictureka, Set, and Wii Sports. It's going to be an AWESOME day.

And this is open to all ages. Don't think that games are just for kids. No, no. Everyone of every age is welcome to play.

So, come on over and check it out!

Thelonious Monk, Beethoven, etc.

2009-11-07T10:39:00.013-05:00

As an experimental/rock musician and songwriter, I don’t claim to always be able to understand jazz. We appreciators of music tend to find that our tastes and aptitudes travel in cycles. For a month at a time we get obsessed with garage rock, then Beethoven, then bebop, never paying much attention to why (And who really cares anyway.) After buying a really nice pair of headphones, I automatically got back into the richness of acoustic instruments, namely classical and jazz, because of the high standards of sound quality demanded by unrelenting jazz and classical fanatics. My favorites tend to be the crazier of the composer/performers, like Beethoven and Thelonious Monk.

The first Monk I ever heard was not Monk at all, but rather an original vinyl LP of Chick Corea and his phenomenal combo doing a very admirable job at impersonating the often puzzling and always brilliant style of Mr. Thelonious, playing all covers of Monk tunes. I was walking home listening to a song called ‘Brilliant Mississippi’, track three on Thelonious Monk Live at the Monterrey Jazz festival 1964, and discovered a brilliant gem -- the perfect solo.
It’s like listening to Bach improvising a folksy musical joke, channeling the muse flawlessly—some lusty teenage giddiness that is helplessly contagious.

As usual he morphs all his mistakes expertly into gorgeous eccentric statements, like he’s proving beyond a shadow of a doubt the non-existence of mistakes. At least if you’re in the mood for bebop. It’s musical aikido, redirecting purposely unbalanced artistic thrusts into oddly fitting harmonic motion. It’s feeling the flow and following it, and all the while creating it. Even to a non-musician Monk's phrases on 'Brilliant Mississippi' can be heard line after line obscuring and then decoding themselves, creating a sort of exaggerated wonky musical expressionism similar to Van Gogh’s blossoming, fantastically colorful flowers, which only someone half-crazy could pull off so perfectly.

It’s easy to tell when it’s a composer who is improvising, Like Hendrix or Miles Davis or, from what I’ve read, Beethoven and especially J.S. Bach. Both Bach and Beethoven were unmatched at simply sitting down at a piano (L.V.B.) or church organ (J.S.B.) and improvising for hours, playing around with themes they’d heard on the street that day (L.V.B.), a bird’s song (L.V.B.), the never-repeating melodic patterns of clanging church bells, etc. Listening to Bright Mississippi I picture city traffic and car horns and people hollering between apartment buildings changing, like with Beethoven, into secret representations. Same difference.

Following this topic, allow me to share some recommendations, (all owned by WTD Library):

Beethoven, the Universal Composer by Edmund Morris [Book]
Cannonball Adderley Live In '63 [DVD]
Jazz Anecdotes by Bill Crow [Book]
Oscar Peterson Live in '63, '63 & '65 [DVD]
Lionel Hampton Live in '58 [DVD]

I'd like to suggest even more vehemently for any jazz enthusiast to track down a film called Straight, No Chaser, directed by Charlotte Zwerin. I've never seen a better peek into the world of the mad genius himself, Thelonious Sphere Monk.

The New New Post Post Cyberpunk Bonanza

2009-11-06T15:47:00.000-05:00

Makers
by Cory Doctorow
New York : Tor, 2009.

I have been hearing Cory Doctorow's name in various contexts for a few years, now. As a fan of cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk, how could I not have? Yet I never read his work until now. With no clue what to look for, I was happily surprised by Makers.

The book, which was serialized by Tor before its actual publication, bears the cute tag-line, "a Novel of the Whirlwind Changes to Come", and so it seems to be. beginning in a future so near you actually don't know it's not right now, the story follows an economic, technological and social trajectory into a future which wouldn't make half as much sense if you weren't right there to see it. The genius of the story is that, if you have any working knowledge of recent history, that's exactly how the last hundred-and-change years have gone. In some ways, Doctorow's future is more believable because of its retrospective qualities. Another side effect of the story's modern origin is the giddy hilarity that accompanies its creations; good satire hurts so good because of its dreadful familiarity. Makers achieves this with the same flair and foresighted hilarity of Bruce Sterling's Distraction, or William Gibson's Pattern Recognition.

Reading this book caused a litany of vocabulary words to create themselves in my head, a cluster of blog tags waiting to be born. Postmodern came up a lot, but then post-postmodern could equally apply. Ana-Randian, anarcho-libertarian, post-post-postfeminist, neorealist, techno-comedy, none of them necessarily apply, but all of them came from my instinctive need to create some simple descriptors for this literary equivalent of the portmanteau. Try it - you'll find yourself bathing in the salty waters of Doctorow's compelling ambiguity.

That said, I couldn't help but wonder about the suspiciously familiar main characters, and (perhaps not so strangely) self-referential philosophies of the "makers" whose lives are the center of the book. Many of the themes in Makers, including the use of Disney as a foil and example of dizzyingly vast corporate monstrocity, are reminiscent of Doctorow's other projects. Not that I mind. Neal Stephenson is my favorite author, and he does it all the time.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

2009-11-05T14:23:00.003-05:00

I just finished reading the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. It seems like half the staff were reading it all at the same time, and a couple of us watched Blade Runner, the film inspired by the book. It's been sitting on my bookshelf at home for years now, and I've been wanting to read it for a while. Apparently the time was right and it made its way into my backpack and today I finished it.

It was a really great novel. Nobody plays mindgames with the reader, or with his characters, like Philip K. Dick does. The world exists in a state of post-nuclear destruction. The sky is obliterated by radioactive dust, most all life on earth is dead, mutated, or on the verge of extinction. Most of humanity has zoomed off to settle other, non-nuclear worlds with the help of android slaves to build settlements and take care of the major labor. Well, the android models keep getting smarter and smarter, and it becomes more and more difficult to tell androids from humans. So, in order to detect whether or not someone is human or android human police have to administer a test to prove the essential humanity of the individual based on empathetic responses. Rick Deckard works for the San Francisco police department as a bounty hunter who takes down rogue androids. He's been assigned to take out the remaining 6 androids who escaped from their captivity on Mars.

Due to the near extinction of most all animal life humans on Earth have mostly become followers of this empathy cult, whose leader, Wilber Mercer, was a lover of animals. People strive to own and care for living creatures, even though the cost of purchasing, much less caring for, a pet are exorbitantly high given their rarity. Not only do they strive to become pet owners and caretakers, they also spend time "fusing" with the others in the cult through the empathy box, where they share each others emotions as they climb the hill of sacrifice with Mercer.

This becomes the lynch pin in determining whether or not someone is an android. How do they react to animal death? How do they feel about the products that were derived from killing something extraordinarily rare? My own brain goes to thinking about sociopaths like Dexter who have no regard for life, animal or human, because they lack empathetic response. The Voigt-Kampff test they use in the book (and the film) measures how they respond to certain triggering words or situations related to animal cruelty and the death of humans. Interestingly enough, The Wave Magazine in San Francisco used the Voigt-Kampff questions when they spoke with candidates for Mayor of the city. The results were incredibly interesting.

National Novel Writing Month Begins Sunday

2009-10-30T13:25:00.003-04:00

It's my favorite time of year! Well, after Poetry Month, Earth Day, Pride, Halloween, Christmas, New Year, and Easter.... Okay, it's an awesome time of the year!

November is National Novel Writing Month. Just like last year, we'll be having NaNoWriMo support groups on Saturday afternoons all throughout November to help you crank through your novel.

So swing by, grab a computer, pop in your flash drive full of your awesome book and write write write! Just drop in and we'll do everything we can to help you along. We've got copies of Chris Baty's book No Plot, No Problem and Victoria Schmidt's Book in a Month. Make sure you put one on hold if you want to get one in time.

Here's the schedule:

NaNoWriMo Meetups at Watha T. Daniel Library
Saturdays

11/7: 1:00 p.m.
11/14: 1:00 p.m.
11/21: 1:00 p.m.
11/28: 1:00 p.m.

Pimp My Bookcart: Opposing Viewpoints

2009-10-27T09:32:00.009-04:00

Pimp My Bookcart is a national project run by the web comic Unshelved. I've been wanting to do this project for years, and finally, this last Saturday, I had the great opportunity to work with some of the neighborhood kids and Liz from the Capitol Letters Writing Center and together we all designed this awesome bookcart. Each of us came up with a plan and we brought all our ideas together into one sweet design.

As you can see above, One of the side panels is a city scape at night. We did it with a three layer effect of the night sky (with a little bit of sunlight there), a series of high rise buildings in purple, fronted by some lower buildings in blue. All with glowing yellow windows and doors.

The other side was originally just a tree, but since one of us did a flame design we decided to make a kind of Dr. Seussian tree in blue bark with orange and red leaves on a yellow background.

The shelf panels are two different designs, one from each of the students who worked on the design part of the project. Deondre came up with the stars and stripes pattern in green and blue, and James was really into a chain link pattern in black and red. So Deondre got the upright part of the shelf and James got the flat part of the shelf. For the chains we actually draped the chains that we used in our Banned Books Week display to form a pattern on the shelf and we painted directly onto and through the chain. It was a stroke of genius on James's part.

All of the designs (except the chain) were patterned in poster board stencils, and the color is all from indoor/outdoor spray paint. Let me tell you how many kids we had wanting work on the project once we started spray painting the cart! Everyone was rushing up to paint on it.

I don't think we were really looking at all the implications behind the piece as we were putting it together, but I think there are some great metaphors in here about nature vs the city and freedom vs slavery. Hence why I decided to name this bookcart "Opposing Viewpoints." I'm really proud of our kids for coming up with something so awesome.

I'm submitting our bookcart to the contest today!

What do you think?

Screaming Out Loud - Halloween Edition

2009-10-26T15:38:00.001-04:00

Cross-posted from Spooky Books for Strange Children.

"The Tell-Tale Heart"
by Edgar Allan Poe
read by Nicholas Hirsch

"The Tell-Tale Heart" was one of the first horror stories I ever read. I was in sixth grade, perusing the shelves of my school's library, and there it was - a thick, dusty book, bound all in black, with a picture of a raven on the cover. Inside the cover was a picture of the man himself, Edgar Allan Poe, right out of a Tim Burton movie! (causality and linear time would come later in my education...) I opened to the table of contents, and started flipping through the book to find myself dazzled and thrilled by the illustrations; it was a dark, morbid affair, full of thunderclouds and autumn leaves whipped around by a cold wind. Someday, I will find the edition that had those illustrations, or I will discover that it was all in my mind...

In any case, the stories gripped me - "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Masque of the Red Death". The whole collection spoke to me; whispers of dread delight that appealed to my inner, laughing monster. These were stories to be read under a blanket with a flashlight (or behind your textbooks in class), they spoke a new language, full of brooding, steeple-fingered madmen and bouncing alliteration. They jangled the senses; they carried you into the shadows, just behind the narrator's bloodshot eyes, and pulled your mind into an unfathomable abyss. It was magic. I was in love.

It is with this memory in mind that I present here the first installment of Screaming Out Loud, a series of classic horror tales, read aloud for your enjoyment (and, let's be honest, for mine). To celebrate this, my favorite holiday, my Christmas, New Years and Thanksgiving, all rolled into one, here is my own rendition of that mad old story, "The Tell-Tale Heart", by Edgar Allan Poe:

Download the MP3 here.

Dem Bones, Dem Bones

2009-10-24T12:48:00.016-04:00

Today's storytime included singing Dem Bones. Afterward, we made skeletons for some pre-Halloween fun. This craft is very simple and inexpensive--here's what you'll need:

About 18 Q-tips
Black cardstock or construction paper
White paper (any kind)
Black marker
Scissors
White glue

The only prep you'll need to do is cutting shorter Q-tips for the finger and toe bones. I also recommend squeezing a blob of glue onto a paper plate for dunking the ends of the Q-tips.

1. Glue six whole Q-tips on the black paper for the skeleton’s ribs.

2. Glue one Q-tip perpendicular over the ribs to act as the backbone. Have the Q-tip lie flush with the last rib, but poke up longer than the top rib, to act as the neck bone.

3. Draw a skull on the white paper with a black marker, and cut it out.

4. Glue the skull on the paper above and touching the neck bone.

5. Glue 4 whole Q-tips for the arm joints and leg joints

6. Cut six whole Q-tips in half, or make them even shorter if you like. These are smaller bones that can be used as the 10 fingers, and two to be the feet. Glue them in place.

Everyone had their own fantastic interpretation (see our skeleton parade above), no worries about sticking to the directions exactly. Don't forget to hang your masterpiece on your front door for the Trick-or-Treaters!

The skeletons are out tonight,
They march about the street,
With bony bodies, bony heads,
And bony hands and feet.

Bony bony bony bones
with nothing in between,
Up and down and all around
They march on Hallowe'en!

Craft from http://www.crafts-for-all-seasons.com/Q-tip-skeleton.html

Mad Men at DC Public Library

2009-10-17T09:25:00.006-04:00

If you haven't been watching Mad Men on AMC you are missing out on one of the best written, best acted shows on television today. You can get up to speed with Don, Betty, Joan, Peggy, Pete and the crew by checking out seasons 1 and 2 from your local DC Public Library.

But we've got way more than just the videos. Being an avid fan of the show I've compiled a list of books that are mentioned throughout the course of the show that we have here in the collection, along with some other period pieces and contextual works that I'm sure you'll find enjoyable, if not amusing.

Check it out.

Books Mentioned in Mad Men

Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence

Exodus by Leon Uris

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O’Hara
Call Number: 811 O36M

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Call Number: 937 G439H

The 1960s

The 1960s: Examining Pop Culture ed. by David M. Haugen and Matthew J. Box
Call Number: 973.923 N714A

The 1960's: American Popular Culture Through History by Edward J. Rielly
Call Number: 973.923 R555

One minute to midnight : Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the brink of nuclear war by Michael Dobbs. Call Number: 973.922 D632

We Shall Overcome by Herb Boyd, Narrated by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.
Call Number: 323.1196 B7896

I Have A Dream: writings and speeches that changed the world. by Martin Luther King, Jr. ed. by James M. Washington
Call Number: 332.092 K53I

On the Road to Freedom: a guided tour of the civil rights trail. by Charles E. Cobb, Jr.
Call Number: 323.1196 C653

Kennedy v. Nixon

The making of a Catholic president : Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960 by Shaun A. Casey.
Call Number: 322.1097 C338

1960 : LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon : the epic campaign that forged three presidencies by David Pietrusza.
Call Number: 324.973 P626N

Camelot

John F. Kennedy: A Biography by Michael O'Brien
Call Number: 92 K348OB

Brothers: the hidden history of the Kennedy years by David Talbot
Call Number: 973.922 T138

The Kennedys : portrait of a family by Richard Avedon ; Shannon Thomas Perich ; foreword by Robert Dallek.
Call Number: 973.922 A961

The secret life of Marilyn Monroe by J. Randy Taraborrelli.
Call Number: 92 M7534T

Advertising

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Copywriter's Words and Phrases by Kathy Kleidermacher.
Call Number: 659.132 K63

Brand Failures: the truth about the 100 biggest branding mistakes of all time by Matt Haig
Call Number: 658.827 H149

Don't Think Pink: What really makes women buy--and how to increase your share of this crucial market by Lisa Johnson
Call Number: 658.834 J67

Adland: Searching for the meaning of life on a branded planet by James P. Othmer
Call Number: 659.1 O87

Consuming Kids: Protecting our children from the onslaught of marketing and advertising by Susan Linn
Call Number: 658.8342 L758

Socializing

Mr. Boston official bartender's guide by edited by Anthony Giglio with Jim Meehan ; photography by Ben Fink.
Call Number: 641.874 M679A

The Perfect Buzz: the essential guide to boozing, bars and bad behavior by David Bramwell.
Call Number: 394.13 P438

The appetizers and canapés cookbook by Lillian Langseth-Christensen and Carol Sturm Smith. Illus. by Lillian Langseth-Christensen. (1968)
Call Number: 641.81 L285

Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior by Judith Martin.
Call Number: 395 M381A

Harlem Renaissance: Recommended Reading

2009-10-16T11:07:00.007-04:00

In my recent lecture on the literature of the Harlem Renaissance I presented an outline of the particular aesthetic and style of several representative works of this genre. Doing my research for the talk, I discovered two very interesting books that challenged my view of the scope and meaning of the Harlem Renaissance. These two books showed how the Harlem Renaissance was an American phenomenon that reflected life of African Americans as part of the larger movements of thought in American life at that time.

In his new book, "The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White," George Hutchinson explores the connection between artistic modernism in America and the various racial movements of self-expression that flourished in the new cultural environment of modernism. Hutchinson places the Harlem Renaissance in the context of the larger movements of American intellectual life demonstrating that the Harlem Renaissance was a very American cultural current even as it looked back to Africa. The author traces the intellectual genealogy of the major Harlem Renaissance back to the founders of modern thought in different fields such as the Anthropology of the primitive in the work of Boas, the philosophy of experience in John Dewey, and the social thought of the American Pragmatists. He demonstrates through his argument that the Harlem Renaissance was a reflection on African American identity set within a larger cultural landscape of a diverse America.

Another study that illuminates the Harlem Renaissance is "Voices from the Harlem Renaissance" by Nathan Huggins. This book is an anthology of the best poetry, fiction, essays of the Harlem Renaissance. The best feature of this collection is how the authors and artists of the Renaissance comment on their own purposes and motivations in composing their work. For example, Langston Hughes in his essay “The Negro Artists and the Racial Mountain” examines what role the African- American writer and artists should take with regard to his own history and his obligation to contribute to the life of his people. The topics covered in this book include: “negro racialism”, the “Afro-American past”, “art or propaganda”, and “reflections on the Harlem Renaissance for a new day.” This book gives one the full scope of the work of the writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance through giving a rapid tour of the different forms of expression.

Naked Lunch at 50

2009-10-09T11:24:00.005-04:00

While checking my facebook this morning I ran across this NPR story about the 50th anniversary edition of Naked Lunch being released by Grove Press next month.

I first encountered Naked Lunch and the wild eccentricities of the beat generation while I was in high school. I found some of the kids giggling over a book of poems by Allen Ginsberg (it was the red book of Collected Poems 1947-1980). Later on I found out they were giggling at the sexy poems, but unlike my peers I read through the rest of the book and it made me dizzy with ecstasy. The barrage of images, the flow of the language, the yearning and striving for more, more more... It was breathtaking, and I wanted to read more. My local library back in Ohio had a copy of Big Sur by Jack Kerouac. It too was filled with the awe and wonder of living and the stark beauty of the California coastline. I still wanted more. So I looked into the beats, and the people who were in the movement and I stumbled on Burroughs.

Naked Lunch was completely different from all the rest of them. It was surreal, like looking at the world through a drug induced haze and finding the world around you to be filled with aliens, prostitutes, junk and lies. It was the strangest thing I'd ever read. Around the time that I read the book a film adaptation had come out starring Peter Weller (of RoboCop fame) and Julian Sands (of Warlock infamy). Around 1992 it was on cable and I snuck into the living room and watched it late at night while my parents were sleeping (yeah, I was 16, and it was one of those late night Cinemax movies). Bizarre is not even the beginning of how to describe it.

After that Burroughs was embedded in my brain. I heard him singing "Star Me Kitten" with R.E.M. on the X-Files album. I found all the books he had written at the local library. I kept buying beat books looking for more.

It actually worked in my favor later on in high school as well. I was on the academic team (think quiz bowl) and we got served the following question in the third round and I have never forgotten it.

"What William S. Burroughs novel did the author describe as being about 'drugs and sex and sex and sex'?"

I rang that buzzer and leapt in there, "NAKED LUNCH!"

Everyone around on my team and the team we were playing against looked at me with shock. I don't know if it was the fact that I knew the answer, that I got it so quickly or that I was so full of glee for having heard that question at the quiz. I was literally vibrating with joy. I turned to everyone's looks of stupor and said, "That is my favorite book!"

And it remains one today.

This Week at Watha T. Daniel Library!

2009-10-05T12:27:00.002-04:00

Mon. 10/05/09
Adult Lecture: "The Arts and the Harlem Renaissance" 6:00PM

Tue. 10/06/09
Story Time 10:00AM
Book Talk: 4:00PM "Travel Literature"

Wed. 10/07/09
Wii Sports 5:00PM
Movie Series: "The Seventh Sense" (Really? Not quite:)

Thu. 10/08/09
Mother Goose on the Loose - reading "The Angry Caterpillar"

Fri. 10/09/09
Rockalong with Casey 10:00AM
Anime film series 4:00PM

Sat. 10/10/09
Story Time 10:00AM
Kids' Crafts 2:00PM

Bats at the Library!

2009-10-03T11:28:00.005-04:00

At today's story time we read Bats at the Library by Brian Lies. Afterward we made little felt bats to hang around the children's room and to take home.

If you want to make a felt bat of your very own it's super simple to do. All you need is

A piece of felt
A pipe cleaner
A pair of scissors &
A piece of string

First cut your felt into a rectangle.

Then clip out the triangles shown in the illustration below.

Then cut four small holes where the straight lines are in the middle of the wings and on each side of the bat body.

Next, take your pipe cleaner and thread it through the holes in and out of the wings and the body of the bat.

Fold the loose ends of the pipe cleaner into the middle of your bat and clip the loose ends onto the center support of the bat body.

Now bend your pipe cleaner to shape the bat wings like your bat is flying.

Finally, put a string onto the pipe cleaner in the middle of the body so your bat can fly.

And there you have it. Bats at the library!

This Week at Watha T. - Sept. 28-Oct. 4

2009-09-28T13:03:00.005-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!
Happy Banned Books Week to all of you. Come and check out Jamilla's awesome display and check out one of our mystery banned books. You never know what you're going to find in there!

And make sure you join us for our final Sunday movie before we close on Sundays. All we'll say is that it's a very "Banned Books Week" kind of movie that involves a unit of measurement...

Here's what's happening this week at Watha T.

Monday, Sept. 28

6:00: The Harlem Renaissance

Tuesday, Sept. 29

10:00: Preschool Story Time
4:00: Book Talk

Wednesday, Sept. 30

4:00: Wii Sports

Thursday, Oct. 1

10:00: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, Oct. 2

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
4:00: Anime Club

Saturday, Oct. 3

10:00: Story Time

Sunday, Oct. 4

2:00: Sunday Matinee

Monday, Oct. 5

6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series: Kosovo pt. 1

New Books on Disc

2009-09-23T14:52:00.003-04:00

Check out these great new books-on-disc @ Watha T. Daniel:

That Old Cape Magic, by Richard Russo; read by Arthur Morey

My Sister's Ex, by Cydney Rax; read by Bahni Turpin and Adenrele Ojo

Cemetery Dance, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child; read by Scott Brick

Fatal Secrets, by Allison Brennan; read by Ann Marie Lee

Cutting Edge, by Allison Brennan; read by Ann Marie Lee

Satchel: the Life and Times of an American Legend, by Larry Tye; read by Dominic Hoffman

The Angel's Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon; read by Dan Stevens

Daniel X: Watch the Skies, by James Patterson and Ned Rust; read by Milo Ventimiglia

This Week at Watha T. Sep. 22 - Sep. 28

2009-09-22T09:42:00.005-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

Welcome to Fall at Watha T. Daniel. We've got our autumn leaves up on the walls of the children's room, and we've got all the movies lined up for our October Fright Fest! Be on the lookout for all sorts of cool programs coming up over the next three months.

Here's what we've got going on this week at Watha T.

Tuesday, Sep. 22

10:00: Preschool Story Time
4:00: Book Talk

Wednesday, Sep. 23

5:00: Wii Sports
7:00: Knitting Group

Thursday, Sep. 24

10:00: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, Sep. 25

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
4:00: Anime Club

Saturday, Sep. 26

10:00: Family Story Time
2:00: Get Crafty Teens

Sunday, Sep. 27

2:00: Sunday Matinee

Monday, Sep. 28

6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series: The Harlem Renaissance

The Scalinata in Literature

2009-09-19T09:50:00.001-04:00

I had the weirdest coincidence this last weekend, in that I was reading two separate books that take place in two totally different time periods and both of them mentioned the exact same architectural feature in Rome.

The Spanish Stairs (Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti) were built in the 1720's to connect the Piazza di Spagna to the church of Trinità dei Monti. The picture on the left shows the fountain in the Piazza, the church above and on the right is the Keats-Shelley house. That's right, John Keats and Percy Shelley. John Keats lived his last days on earth looking out the window over the Spanish Stairs.

And that's where the story gets interesting.

I started reading Tim Powers's novel "The Stress of Her Regard" a while ago, and still haven't quite finished it. The book is set in the heyday of the English romantic poets, and Keats, Byron and Shelley are main players in the story. The novel follows their lives, and explores what truly was the muse that inspired these greatest of poets to craft their works. Powers's explanation is that the muse was actually a vampiric creature known to the Greeks as a Lamia (note: link contains nude artwork). As the creature slowly drains the life from the poets she alternately inspires them to greater heights of artistry. But over time the poets begin to show the strain on their lives, and eventually they crave to be released from this burden. The scene with Keats plays out with the fantasy creature begging to be let in to keep her lover alive as he dies while gazing over the Scalinata. I totally have not given away even a fraction of this epic fantasy drama by revealing this information. Just know that the rest of it is just as weird and exciting. It took me about 17 years to get around to reading this book, but it was worth the wait.

Halfway through reading "The Stress of Her Regard" I got one of those *sigh* moments and just couldn't be bothered to continue reading it. SO I put down "stress" and picked up something completely different. For no particular reason I was drawn to Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination." I had no idea what it was about, it had just been sitting on my bookshelf at home for too long.

It's the twenty-sixth century and Gulliver Foyle is a space marine of sorts who gets stranded out in deep space with no way home. One day while waiting for who knows how long he spies the passing starship "Vorga" and signals for a ride. Vorga ignores his plea and Gully begins to plot his revenge against the ship. While Foyle is tracking down the crew of the ship to find out who gave the order he finds himself in Italy, looking ot meet up with one of the former crew members, where else, but on the Scalinata!

I can't tell you how weird it was for me to just accidentally read two totally different books, by two totally different authors, set about 700 years apart, where they shared the exact same location at a midway point through the story. Just absolutely bizarre.

Both of the books are extremely interesting, but both for different reasons. "The Stress of Her Regard" is great for people who have a penchant for the romantic poets and a taste for the gothic. There are moments that are positively gruesome, and the language is witty and florid. "The Stars My Destination" is more of a sci-fi vendetta adventure story. The story jumps from place to place quickly, and the ending is completely surreal. It's an absolute page turner.

Check it out!

This Week at Watha T. Sept. 15-Sept. 21

2009-09-15T09:50:00.003-04:00

Good morning neighbors!

It's the last week of summer. I know, it hasn't felt like summer for a while now, but it's still summer for 7 more days! To celebrate we'll have a booth at the Heart of DC Picnic on Saturday Sept. 19th. Come down and see Eric do a story time singalong with the kids at the picnic and bring your friends to sign up for library cards.

Here's what's happening this week at Watha T.

Tuesday, Sept. 15

10:00: Preschool Story Time
4:00: Book Talk

Wednesday, Sept. 16

4:00: Urban Fiction Book Talk
5:00: Wii Sports
6:30: Capitol Letters Writing Center New Volunteer Orientation

Thursday, Sept. 17

10:00: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, Sept. 18

10:00: Rock Along
4:00: Anime Club

Saturday, Sept. 19

10:00: Family Story Time
11:00: Heart of DC Picnic @ Mt. Vernon Place

Sunday, Sept. 20

2:00: Sunday Matinee

Monday, Sept. 21

6:00: History Book Club discusses Sun Tzu's The Art of War

Politics of the Harlem Renaissance

2009-09-10T15:52:00.007-04:00

There will be a discussion group meeting on the Harlem Renaissance

Monday, September 14, 2009

The Harlem Renaissance is the name of a well celebrated artistic resurgence of African America art and literature in the 1920s. However, the Harlem Renaissance also involved the flourishing of a new political consciousness among African Americans. This political/cultural consciousness was organized around the new sense of identity identified by Alain Locke, one of the theoreticians of the movement, as the concept of the “New Negro.” The term “New Negro” expressed the growing awareness by black Americans of their own powers and abilities.

One of other exponents of this new black consciousness was Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, and orator. Marcus Garvey was founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) that organized millions of African Americans.

This Week at Watha T. Sept. 8-14

2009-09-08T09:53:00.004-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

Did you have as lovely a weekend as I did? Oh the joy of having a three day weekend. But we're back to business today and ready and raring to go! Here's what's happening this week at Watha T.

Tuesday, Sept. 8

10:00: Preschool Story Time
4:00: Book Talk

Wednesday, Sept. 9

5:00: Wii Sports
7:00: Knitting Circle

Thursday, Sept. 10

10:00: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, Sept. 11

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
4:00: Anime Club

Saturday, Sept. 12

10:00: Family Story Time
2:00: Get Crafty Kids Time

Sunday, Sept. 13

2:00: Sunday Matinee

Monday, Sept. 14

6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series: The Harlem Renaissance Part 1

This Week at Watha T. - August 31-September 7

2009-08-31T06:00:00.004-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

As you can probably tell from this awesome promotional image, we've got a Wii! Starting this Wednesday we'll be playing Wii Sports on the TV in the Teen room at 5:00. It's going to be beyond awesome.

Also, please know that we will be closed on Monday September 7th in observance of Labor Day.

Here's the lineup of what we've got going on this week at Watha T.

Monday, August 31

7:00: Meeting of the Watha T. Daniel Library Friends

Tueseday, September 1

10:00: Preschool Story Time
4:00: Book Talk

Wednesday, September 2

5:00: Wii Sports
6:00: Comic Book Discussion Group

Thursday, September 3

10:00: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, September 4

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
4:00: Anime Club

Saturday, September 5

10:00: Family Story Time

Sunday, September 6

2:00: Random Awesome Movie Matinee

Monday, September 7

Closed in observance of Labor Day Holiday

A Few Old Favorites, Rediscovered...

2009-08-29T12:24:00.003-04:00

I grew up in Buffalo, NY, right on the Niagara River. When you're a kid, you don't always realize the most obvious facts of your circumstances; after all, you've had no experiences to tell you what is extraordinary (or not) about the place you're growing up in. For instance: I would never have guessed how formative it could be to grow up on the border of another country.

Canada was this vague notion, at best, or maybe just those nice people across the water who really aren't all that different from us. This elephant in the room of my childhood, though, presented itself in a really subtle way - all my favorite programs, the ones from which I derive my very first memories, were Canadian. I went through my whole life without realizing that; until this morning, when a friend of mine became a fan of Mr. Dressup on Facebook. Can of worms!

Mr. Dressup was a kindly gentleman with a pair of puppet friends, Casey and Finnegan, and a magical trunk full of costumes which he would occasionally have to coax open with a song and some tickling. He always had some craft or other, making any number of accessories for his costumes out of cardboard, markers and the like - always something you could do at home if you had the materials on hand. I've always carried fond memories of that program, but never realized he was based in Toronto.

Naturally, this set me off on a Google frenzy, and suddenly I'm recalling the wonderful songs of Fred Penner (who lived in a log) and Sharon, Lois and Bram (before their Skinnamarink fame): all got their start on the CBC, and I got to see them because I lived right on the edge of another nation.

All this nostalgia was really great, and reminded me of what it was like to be a child, in love with the magic that comes with stories and songs. So, this morning, story time was dedicated to the memory of Ernie Coombs, aka Mr. Dressup, who taught me (and probably many thousands of other children in Canada and Western New York) how to pretend I was someone else, make accessories out of just about anything, and always wake up with a smile.

In The News: Farewell To Reading Rainbow

2009-08-28T14:24:00.006-04:00

You know it's an end of an era when something that you cherished as a child finally ends. Today is the final day of Reading Rainbow on PBS. The show ran for 26 years, and due to financial problems and a change in the philosophy behind PBS children's programming Reading Rainbow will fade into history.

I grew up a PBS kid. I remember watching Sesame Street, Mister Rogers Neighborhood and Reading Rainbow, probably in its very first years on television. One of the episodes I remember vividly was where they read "Why Mosquitoes Buzz In People's Ears." The distinctive African cover art from that book was emblazoned in my mind and I've never forgotten it.

One of the things that I loved about Reading Rainbow, and part of the reason why Rainbow has fallen out of favor with PBS is because it instills kids (and adults alike) with something that no other show can, the joy and love of reading. Recently I attended a training workshop on early childhood literacy and one of the primary categories relevant to early literacy skill building is "print motivation." When we read stories to children that they love it increases the likelihood that they'll want to read more and more. That's why children love to read the same book over and over, and why they crave series with characters that they recognize. Reading Rainbow took that extra step by including book reviews by children for children sharing the titles of books that they loved. I can't tell you how many times I picked up a book because someone else told me it was good (I still do that). And when it comes from someone your own age, even better.

But don't take my word for it... We have a huge selection of the Reading Rainbow video series here at Watha T. Daniel Library. Get the video that goes along with one of the books you're reading with your child and read along with the show. Or get a copy of one that you may remember from your younger days and relive your childhood.

Now to find LeVar Burton and ask him where he found the fountain of youth.

This Week at Watha T. - August 24 - 31

2009-08-25T12:49:00.003-04:00

Good Afternoon Neighbors!

Sorry I couldn't get my act together and put up the weekly calendar on time this week, but better late than never. We're finally finished with all of our Summer Reading Programs and back on target with our regular weekly programming. I hope to see you around!

Here's what's happening this week at Watha T.

Monday, August 24

2:00: American Sign Language
6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series - The Works Progress Administration and the Art of the Depression

Tuesday, August 25

10:00: Story Time
4:00: Book Talk

Wednesday, August 26

6:00: Knitting Circle

Thursday, August 27

9:50: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, August 28

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
4:00: Anime Club

Saturday, August 29

10:00: Story Time

Sunday, August 30

2:00: Sunday Matinee: Heroes

Monday, August 31

7:00: Open Meeting: Watha T. Daniel Library Friends

Book Talk: Evil Genius

2009-08-18T16:50:00.003-04:00

It's week three of our in house weekly book talks. Make sure you join us every Tuesday at 4:00 at Watha T. to hear about the latest crazy thing we're reading. This weeks topic was the "Evil Genius." Here's what I picked.

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

Doctor Impossible is the classic definition of the evil genius. Here's just a taste of his cliche, but unique brand of villainy "When life gives you lemons you squeeze them, hard. Make invisible ink. Make an acid poison. Fling it in their eyes." Just great stuff here, super heroes vs. super villain. And the fight scenes are awesome.

MW by Osamu Tezuka

From a book with comic-book-like villainy, to a comic with novelesque villainy. MW is the story of Michio Yuki, he seems like the perfect guy, a handsome actor with everything going for him. But his beautiful exterior is the perfect disguise for the twisted soul underneath. Only Father Garai know Michio's secret and Michio pushes Garai to confront his own twisted soul. But Michio's plans are bigger and more deadly than Garai could have ever imagined.

Loop by Koji Suzuki

This is the sequel to Ring, the novel that inspired an entire series of films in both Japan and America. But the sequel to the novel goes to an entirely different place than the films, a much weirder and scarier place than any of the films could have gone in my opinion. Sadako, the girl from the well has escaped thanks to the unwitting help of a journalist has been unleashed upon the world. And her plans are so much more horrific than you can ever imagine.

Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Fans of the Dexter series on Showtime will love the books. This is the second in the Dexter series and unlike the show, the novels take us on a joyride of horror and terror that is completely out of control. Someone is mutilating people from Sargeant Dokes's past, and Dokes's sins are coming back to haunt him with a vengeance. Perhaps one of the sickest things I've ever read. The evil genius at the heart of this one is not Dexter, but someone far more sick than you will ever find.

Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K. Hamilton

In the most recent installment of the Meredith Gentry series, Meredith finds herself mother-to-be, and expecting twins as well. But the plots to destroy her life and her bid for the throne of the Unseelie Court of the Fae are no less than they ever were. And first among them is Cel, her cousin, son of Queen Andais, the reigning monarch of the Unseelie. Cel may be mad, but he is born of the Sidhe and he has had centuries to hone his wits and wickedness. Can he take the throne from Meredith?

The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike

Alex, Jane and Sukie find themselves older, much older, and feeling the pull of time. None of them can quite make out what to do with their lives so they decide to return to the scene of their previous maleficia, Eastwick. But someone in Eastwick has not forgotten the slight that the witches did to their family.

This Week at Watha T. Aug. 17-Aug. 24

2009-08-17T06:00:00.001-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

We've passed the halfway point this month. Can you believe it? I know I can't believe it. This is the last week before DC Public Schools start up again. Make sure you get your kids in here to claim the final summer reading prizes this year.

Here's what we've got in store for you this week at Watha T.

Monday, August 17

2:00: American Sign Language Class
6:00: History Book Club: Plato's Republic, chapters 6-7

Tuesday, August 18

10:00: Preschool Story Time
4:00: Book Talk

Wednesday, August 19

4:00: Urban Fiction Book Talk

Thursday, August 20

9:50: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, August 21

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
12:00: Anime Club presents: Naruto

Saturday, August 22

10:00: Family Story Time

Sunday, August 23

2:00: Heroes

Monday, August 24

2:00: American Sign Language
6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series: The Works Progress Administration and the Art of the New Deal

The WPA, the Arts and The New Deal

2009-08-12T19:54:00.005-04:00

The WPA , Works Progress Administration, was an agency created by the New Deal in the thirties to promote the arts as well as build public works. It was responsible for hiring out of work artists to create posters, paint murals, and put on plays. The WPA made possible the creation of a set of works of art that reflected a sense of community and social responsibility that made these works unique. It is useful to look back on this less individualistic time when the collective destiny of society was more in focus.

There will be a lecture discussion on the Depression and the Arts that will cover this topic at Watha Daneil Shaw Library. The event will be held on August 24th at 6:00 pm. The location: 945 Rhode Island Ave., NW two blocks from the Shaw metro at 10th and Rhode Island.

This Week at Watha T. August 10-17

2009-08-10T06:00:00.000-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

Just two more weeks until DC Public Schools start up again, so make sure to get your kids in here to get any last minute summer reading done. And it's still not too late to turn in your summer reading pages for you or your children get your last minute prizes either. Come on teens! We've still got a good number of mp3 players to give away. Get those reading lists in!

Here's what we've got going on this week at Watha T.

Monday, August 10

2:00: American Sign Language
6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series: Labor Leaders and the Great Depression

Tuesday, August 11

10:00: Preschool Story Time
4:00: Book Talk

Wednesday, August 12

6:00: Open Knitting Group

Thursday, August 13

9:50: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, August 14

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
12:00: Anime Club presents Naruto Nation

Saturday, August 15

10:00: Family Story Time
2:00: Be Creative Kids Activity

Sunday, August 16

2:00: Heroes

Monday, August 17

2:00: American Sign Language
6:00: History Book Club discusses Plato's Republic chapters 6 & 7

Spooky Books for Strange Children

2009-08-08T17:28:00.003-04:00

Are your children a little....strange...?

Do you find that strangeness refreshing?

Did they get it from you in the first place?

If you and your kids enjoy the thrill of a good scare, or share a sense of humor that makes other people a little nervous, then we've created the perfect place for you. At Spooky Books for Strange Children, we share our love of horror and the bizarre, review books for kids and young adults on those themes, and encourage your feedback and dialogue.

We are also on Facebook.

Check us out!

In The News: To Cook Or Not To Cook

2009-08-06T15:32:00.009-04:00

As part of our efforts to expand the scope of the blog we're going to be doing a series of articles on here looking at hot topics in the news and how we at the library can help expand your understanding of the topic.

In last Sunday's New York Times Magazine, Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, wrote an article entitled Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch where he explores how television cooking shows migrated from instruction based cooking like Julia Child into "dump and stir" shows like Rachel Ray and butch cooking challenge shows like Iron Chef. He also mentions Nora Ephron's new movie Julie and Julia as an example of someone discovering the love of cooking, and along the way finding the key to unlock her own passions as a writer.

It's a great piece of writing, and as someone who busts out Julia Child's "The Way To Cook" a couple times a month it made me want to rethink my cooking priorities.

Here's a list of some of the books Pollan discusses in his article, and a few others, along with the library call number so you can locate them here at the DC Public Library.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, Penguin, 2008
Call Number: 613 P771

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Penguin, 2007
Call Number: 394.12 P773O

Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen by Julie Powell, Little Brown, 2005
Call Number: 641.5092 P884

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, 40th Anniversary ed., Knopf, 2001
Call Number: 641.5944 C536A

My Life in France by Julia Child, Knopf, 2006
Call Number: 92 C535
Also available as an mp3 audio book via Overdrive

Top Chef: The Cookbook text by Brett Martin ; recipes edited by Liana Krissoff and Leda Scheintaub., Chronicle, 2008
Call Number: 641.5 T673

In the Heat of the Kitchen by Gordon Ramsay, Wiley, 2004
Call Number: 641.5 R178

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters, Clarkson Potter, 2007
Call Number: 641.5 W329

Rachel Ray's Big Orange Book by Rachel Ray, Clarkson Potter, 2008
Call Number: 641.555 R264R

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, Norton, 2001
Call Number: 305.4209 F899F2

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, Knopf/Random House, 1993
Call Number: 305.4 B386

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives by Guy Fieri, William Morrow, 2008
Call Number: 647.9573 F465

The Physiology of Taste by Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Penguin, 1994
Call Number: 641.01 B857A5

Catching Fire by Richard Wrangham, Basic, 2009
Call Number: 394.12 W941

Under the Sea

2009-08-03T19:07:00.004-04:00

It's been a busy Summer, here at Watha T. (over nine thousand, indeed!), and since we've had an influx of summer supplies, we've gone full tilt into our Saturday morning story-time crafts. Last week, we finally replaced our butterfly mobile with an aquatic counterpart, made from Rainbow Fish and paper-plate jellyfish. Now, when we go to the Children's room we really have to fight the urge to hold our breath! Refreshing...

Other projects this summer have included catapults, sun-catchers and Project Runway style t-shirt redecorating with Eric. Last Saturday, we made pinwheels, and this Saturday after story time we'll be making fun monster-face sun-visors to keep off the August heat.

Can you believe it's August already?

This Week at Watha T. Aug. 3 - Aug 10

2009-08-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

I can't believe it's August already. Next thing you know the kids will be back in school. So, make sure to stop by and catch the end of the summer reading program special performances with the Washington National Opera's "Cinderella" program this weekend!

Also, starting this month is our weekly book talk series. Come and find out what's new at the library and what the staff here are reading.

Here's what we've got going on this week at Watha T.

Monday, August 3

2:00: American Sign Language Class

Tuesday, August 4

10:00: Preschool Story Time
4:00: Weekly Book Talk

Wednesday, August 5

6:00: Comic Book Discussion Group
6:30: Capitol Letters Writing Center Volunteer Orientation Program

Thursday, August 6

9:50: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, August 7

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
12:00: Naruto Nation

Saturday, August 8

10:00: Family Story Time
11:00: Washington National Opera presents Cinderella

Sunday, August 9

2:00: Heroes

Monday, August 10

2:00: American Sign Language Class
6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series: The Labor Movement and the Great Depression

We're Over 9,000!

2009-08-02T10:05:00.005-04:00

Forgive me for using a tired 4-chan meme, but I've been dying to do this for months.

Each month I compile the usage statistics for the Watha T. Daniel Interim Library and send a report to administration, and this then gets reported to the board of trustees. Among the statistics we keep are 1) the number of visitors to the library, 2) the number of new library cards issued that month, and 3) attendance at library programs (as well as many other things).

During the month of July we had 9,170 visitors at Watha T. Daniel, and we had 1,218 children adults and teens at library programs. All that AND we had two days of holiday closures for the fourth of July!

Thank you for supporting the Watha T. Daniel Interim Library, and thank you for putting us over 9,000!

We've Got Concrete!

2009-07-31T09:05:00.002-04:00

If you haven't been watching the construction site of the new Watha T. Daniel library at 7th and Rhode Island you've mostly been missing the big hole in the earth. But the last couple weeks have involved pouring a lot of concrete and now we've got some vertical action going on in there! If you're one of the people who haven't seen the design of the new building by Davis Brody Bond Aedas then make sure to check out the project images on the Watha T. Daniel Library's construction homepage.

But we're not the only library going up around town. Check out the live construction webcams for Anacostia, Benning, Georgetown and the MLK Teen Space.

This Week at Watha T. July 27-Aug 3

2009-07-27T06:00:00.004-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

This month just flew by... We've still got a few programs left for the Summer Reading program and two of them happen this week. Make sure to bring your kids around for Christylez Bacon and Kathy MacMillan.

Here's what's going on this week at Watha T.

Monday, July 27

2:00: American Sign Language Class
4:00: Christylez Bacon: Hip Hop artist for teens
6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series: The 2008 March On Tibet

Tuesday, July 28

10:00: Preschool Story Time

Wednesday, July 29

1:30: Kathy MacMillan: Stories By Hand for children

Thursday, July 30

9:50: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, July 31

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
12:00: Naruto Nation

Saturday, August 1

10:00: Family Story Time
11:00: DC Public Library Festival at the Kennedy Rec Center
12:00: Lyn Dancn Club for teens
2:00: Express Yourself: Project Runway

Sunday, August 2

2:00: Heroes

Monday, August 3

2:00: American Sign Language Class

This Week at Watha T. July 20-July 27

2009-07-20T06:00:00.003-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

July is moving along swiftly and we've got lots of cool stuff going on, especially on Wednesday with Fast Freddy the Clown. Make sure and bring the kids for that one, he's great!

Here's what's going on this week at Watha T.

Monday, July 20

2:00: American Sign Language Class
6:00: History Book Club discusses Plato's Republic

Tuesday, July 21

10:00: Preschool Story Time

Wednesday, July 22

1:30: Fast Freddy the Clown
4:00: Urban Fiction Book Club
6:00: Knitting Group

Thursday, July 23

9:50: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, July 24

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
12:00: Anime Club presents Naruto Nation

Saturday, July 25

10:00: Family Story Time
3:00: Concert Film Series: Sonny Rollins

Sunday, July 26

2:00: Heroes

Monday, July 27

2:00: American Sign Language Class
4:00: Christon "Christylez" Bacon - Hip Hop Poetry Slam
6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series: The United Nations and Tibet

The March on Tibet

2009-07-15T13:29:00.004-04:00

The March on Tibet was a demonstration for Tibetan Independence and autonomy held during the preparations for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The demonstrations consisted of unfolding banners with the Tibetan Flag, rallying prominent persons to make announcement and generally embarrass China for its policy of ignoring the demand for national identity in the Tibetan region. The culmination of the March on Tibet was a literal march of many exile Tibetans and supporters to the Nepalese and Indian border with the Tibetan region of China.

The discipline of the march was non-violent in nature accompanied by non-violence trainers and guards. However, the spirit of the gathering was not that of the religious non-violence of Buddhism but the angry defiance of the young exiles who were impatient with the stagnation of negotiations of Tibetan exile government with China. They were openly for Tibetan Independence or at least moving toward that position. They went so far as to criticize the Dalai Lama, the monastic leader, of Tibet for Fifty years, for his non-confrontational ways in dealing with China. The Tibetan youth who participated in the March on Tibet presage a more militant orientation of the lay exile community who seek a new way to save Tibet under Chinese oppression.

This Week at Watha T. July 13-20

2009-07-13T06:00:00.003-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

Welcome to another wonderful week at Watha T. We've got more awesome summer reading programs planned for teens and children so make sure and bring the kids around.

Here's what's going on this week at Watha T.

Monday, July 13

2:00: American Sign Language Class
5:00: Kevin Reese: A Perfect Balance For teens
6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series: Tibet: Struggle for Freedom and Autonomy

Tuesday, July 14

10:00: Preschool Story Time
6:30: Meeting for Volunteers of the Watha T. Daniel Library

Wednesday, July 15

1:30: Janice the Griot For Children
5:00: Comic Book Discussion Group

Thursday, July 16

9:50: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, July 17

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
12:00: Naruto Nation

Satuday, July 18

10:00: Family Story Time
2:00: Be Creative - Popsicle Stick Madness!
3:00: Concert Film Series: Handel's Messiah

Sunday, July 19

2:00: Heroes

Monday, July 20

2:00: American Sign Language Class
6:00: History Book Club: Plato's Republic

This Week at Watha T. July 6 - July 13

2009-07-06T06:00:00.005-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

Did you have a fabulous fourth? I know I did!

And now we're back and we've got an awesome week of programs lined up for you this week, especially awesome for children and teens. We've got Beat Ya Feet Kings and Mr. Derby all on the same day! Check it out.

Monday, July 6

2:00 - American Sign Language Class

Tuesday, July 7

10:00 - Preschool Story Time
10:30 - Mr. Derby's Jam Session (for children)
4:00 - Beat Ya Feet Kings (for teens)

Wednesday, July 8

6:00 - Open Knitting

Thursday, July 9

9:50 - Mother Goose on the Loose
10:30 - Jim Zidar - Theatre Games (for children)

Friday, July 10

10:00 - Rock Along with Casey
12:00 - Naruto Nation

Saturday, July 11

10:00 - Family Story Time
12:00 - Magic the Gathering
2:00 - Express Yourself Program for Teens
3:00 - Concert Film Series: The Rolling Stones

Sunday, July 12

2:00 - Heroes, Episode 2

Monday, July 13

2:00 - American Sign Language
5:00 - Kevin Reese - A Perfect Balance (for teens)
6:00 - Social Justice Lecture Series

This Week at Watha T. June 29-July 6

2009-06-29T06:00:00.002-04:00

Happy Fourth of July Neighbors!

In observance of the Fourth of July holiday the Watha T. Daniel Library will be closed on Friday AND Saturday. Hey, we all have to get our grill on!

Here's what's happening this week at Watha T.

Monday, June 29

2:00 - American Sign Language Class

Tuesday, June 30

10:00 - Preschool Story Time

Wednesday, July 1

6:30 - Omekongo Dibinga - Spoken Word Poet for Teens

Thursday, July 2

9:50 - Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, July 3

Closed

Saturday, July 4

Closed

Sunday, July 5

2:00 - Heroes : Season 1, Episode 1

Monday, July 6

2:00 - American Sign Language

This Week at Watha T. June 22 - June 29

2009-06-22T06:00:00.002-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

We've only got one movie left in our Paul Robeson Film Series. Make sure that you stop in this Sunday to watch Jericho.

Here's what we've got going on this week at Watha T.

Monday, June 22

2:00: American Sign Language Class
6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series: Darfur

Tuesday, June 23

10:00: Preschool Story Time

Wednesday, June 24

6:00: Open Knitting

Thursday, June 25

9:50: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, June 26

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
12:00: Anime Club presents: Naruto Nation

Saturday, June 27

10:00: Family Story Time
12:00: Magic: The Gathering
3:00: Concert Film Series: Dancing to New Orleans

Sunday, June 28

2:00: Paul Robeson Film Series: Jericho

Monday, June 29

2:00: American Sign Language Class

Boat Day!

2009-06-20T10:50:00.003-04:00

At today's story time we made little paper boats. It's 3 pieces of origami paper (1 trapezoid, 1 big triangle, 1 small triangle), a popsicle stick and a piece of construction paper, and BOY the kids loved it!

The picture above is the boat that I made.

This Week at Watha T. June 15-22

2009-06-15T06:00:00.003-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

This is a special week for us. We'll be opening an hour earlier on Monday and Wednesday and closing an hour later on Tuesday and Thursday for the Finishing Touch event. Come and checkout the furniture, carpet and paint for the new Watha T. Daniel Library, and vote for your favorite lounge chair! I hope to see you there.

Here's what's happening this week at Watha T.

Monday, June 15

12:00: Finishing Touch Event
2:00: American Sign Language Class
6:00: History Book Club discusses: The Prince

Tuesday, June 16

10:00: Preschool Story Time
5:30: Finishing Touch Event

Wednesday, June 17

12:00: Finishing Touch Event
1:30: Daniel Barash Shadow Puppets
4:00: Urban Fiction Book Club
6:00: Book Talk: Manga for Adults

Thursday, June 18

9:50: Mother Goose on the Loose
5:30: Finishing Touch Event

Friday, June 19

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
12:00: Anime Club: Naruto Nation

Saturday, June 20

10:00: Family Story Time
12:00: Magic: The Gathering
2:00: Be Creative Saturdays for Kids
3:00: Concert Film Series: Come Together: The Music of John Lennon

Sunday, June 21

2:00: Paul Robeson Film Series: Emperor Jones

Monday, June 22

2:00: American Sign Language Class
6:00: Social Justice Lecture Series: Darfur

Robeson film series - "Proud Valley"

2009-06-13T15:22:00.002-04:00

Join us again for the second in our Sunday Paul Robeson film series - "Proud Valley". In this film we see an early example of Robeson's labor activism as it crossed over into his acting career. Robeson plays an American sailor/singer who joins a group of Welsh miners as they struggle for a dignified existence against the "powers that be".

The movie will begin at 2pm tomorrow afternoon in our teen room.

Naruto Nation

2009-06-12T09:24:00.003-04:00

Starting next friday, June 19th, and continuing every Friday during the summer our anime clube is going to be showing every episode of Naruto that we've got in massive 5 hour blasts starting at noon. Watch your favorite series again from the very beginning. We'll be giving away Naruto prizes all summer long.

You know you want to be there!

Finishing Touch Event

2009-06-11T13:02:00.003-04:00

You've seen the images of the outside of the new Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood Library. Now come in and take a look at what the inside will look like!

Check out the new interior finishes including furniture, carpet, and paint. Get the real feel of the chairs by actually coming in and sitting on them, right here in the interim library. You also get a chance to participate and make your voice heard by picking the best lounge chair.

It's only here for four days, so don't miss this opportunity!

Monday, June 15: 12:00-1:00
Tuesday, June 16: 5:30-6:30
Wednesday, June 17: 12:00-1:00
Thursday, June 18: 5:30-6:30

Robeson film series - "Body and Soul"

2009-06-07T10:09:00.005-04:00

Join us today for a special showing of the silent film, "Body and Soul", starring Paul Robeson in a dual role as a corrupt minister and his rival, an unassuming inventor living in the town the minister has arrived in. The movie was controversial at the time for its underlying critique of the church and religious authority, and is the earliest extant Robeson movie.

This is the first in our four-week Robeson film series; we'll be showing a different movie every Sunday in June at 2pm, here at the Watha T. Daniel interim library.

Next week we will be showing "Proud Valley", which showcases Robeson's international status as a labor activist.

Sick and Twisted Sing Along

2009-06-04T10:28:00.004-04:00

Hey Teens,

If you're into the gross, disturbing, and twisted you better make sure and be here on Saturday June 6th at 2:00 for our Sick and Twisted Sing Along. Here's a little preview:

This program is presented as part of the "Express Yourself" series of summer programs for Teens.

Darfur: Civil War or Genocide

2009-06-03T20:00:00.004-04:00

Watha T. Daniel Lecture Series
Presented by Librarian Paul Sweeney

Darfur has become a byword for a government’s repression of minority ethnic groups within its own borders. The suffering of the peasants of Sudan has covered the newspapers and news-sites with pictures difficult to view. The Question is what to do about this crisis how to end the suffering? The situation has been called the first genocide of the 21st century.

In a short and well illustrated power point presentation, the librarian is going to explore this humanitarian crisis that has shocked the world.

Discussion Group
Monday, June 8
6:30 p.m.

Authors of the Future

2009-06-03T18:16:00.004-04:00

Eminent futurist and science fiction author Bruce Sterling recently wrote a very interesting article for Wired.com, entitled Eighteen Challenges to Contemporary Literature. In 18 bullet points, Sterling encompasses every aspect of contemporary literature. The general gist of his assertions seem to center around the rising irrelevance of printed media; it is costly, unwieldy and archaic on a number of linguistic to the cultural levels.

Digital information is not a new concept, and neither is digital literature; what Sterling is really emphasizing (in true cyberpunk tradition) is culture shift. As usual, his language is encoded in hyper-modern syntax, but the points he make are highly relevant to the relationship between libraries and technology.

Libraries are in the crux of this cultural shift - for a large portion of the public, we are the primary access point for information and literature both print and (increasingly) digital. As the information changes, so must we, and where the culture goes we follow, lest the public be left behind. Many times, I've heard the phrase "library 2.0" cropping up in conversation. In this futurist/modernist model, the library becomes entrenched in the new media, completely accessible to the media and as relevant to it as we ever were with print.

Sterling summarizes this philosophy pretty succinctly in my favorite line of the article:

15. Scholars steeped within the disciplines becoming cross-linked jack-of-all-trades virtual intelligentsia.

What better way to describe the place we need to go if we're going to keep up, stay meaningful, and make sure everyone has an opportunity to come along for the ride?

This Week at Watha T. June 2 - June 8

2009-06-02T09:11:00.003-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

This week is the Week for the Animals, and we'll be having a special animal story time today. If you're looking for books to talk to your kids about animals, pets, how to take care of your pets and controlling the pet population we've got plenty to share. Check it out!

And here's what we've got going on this week at Watha T.

Tuesday, June 2

10:00: Week for the Animals Story Time

Wednesday, June 3

6:00: Comic Book Discussion Group

Thursday, June 4

9:50: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, June 5

10:00: Rock Along
4:00: Anime Club Presents: Deathnote

Saturday, June 6

10:00: Family Story Time
12:00: Magic: The Gathering
2:00: Sick and Twisted Sing Along with Eric
3:00: Music Film Series: Bob Marley: Legend

Sunday, June 7

2:00: Paul Robeson Film Series: Body and Soul

Monday, June 8

6:00: Adult Lecture Series: Darfur: Civil War or Genocide

The Lady and the Generals: lecture

2009-06-01T19:12:00.002-04:00

One year and a half ago the monks in Burma protested for Democracy in the streets. It was called the Saffron Revolution and was crushed by the army after one month. We are going to review the events of the Saffron Revolution in 2007 and inquire into the causes of the movement. The Generals, called the SPDC, have repressed every attempt at instituting democracy, canceled results of elections and are now trying to force a new constitution on the people that will perpetuate their rule.
The key figure of Burmese opposition politics is Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of the general who helped found the Modern Burmese State. She has led the movement for democracy in Burma for twenty years. For the Last ten she has been under house arrest and there was a recent trial charging her with violating the terms of her internment. We will discuss her role in the democracy movement and hopes for the future. Discussion Group Meets Wednesday, June 3rd 6:00 p.m.

New Book and Memoir on the history of Burma

2009-06-01T18:15:00.005-04:00

The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma, by Thant Myint-U. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.

Burma or Myanmar as it is now called is a puzzle for human rights advocates and promoters of democracy. It remains an isolated military government that denies rights to its citizens. However all attempts so far to pressure the military regime to reform, from imposing sanctions, to UN human rights protests, and diplomatic efforts to free prisoners have all failed. In this compelling book, Thant Myint–U presents us with a personal view of the problematical history of Burma. He presents us with various personal anecdotes about leaders from accounts of his meetings with grandfather U Thant, the General Secretary of the UN, in New York apartments, to the life of courtiers who were his ancestors at the medieval court of Ava. It is also a work by a Burmese whose identity is bound up with the fate of his country. It is from that very personal perspective that he gives a sketch of the various dynasties of Burma which often illuminate the possible roots of some of these long standing problems suffered by the modern dictatorship.

He begins the story with the fall of the last Monarchy under King Thibaw and the conquest of Upper Burma by the British in 1880, an event that overshadowed the modern history of Burma. It is this gap in continuity, the loss of a center of cultural authority that has caused Burmese governments to be haunted with a lack of legitimacy in succeeding years. The shame of this defeat motivated a rather extreme form of nationalism in the later struggles for independence and national self determination. After this dramatic beginnng he outlines the various reigns of Burmese Kingdoms that led to this moment. His overall his point is to show the negative consequences for the future in many of these events. Myint-U shows how arrogant military conquests of ancient kings, ethnic civil war, colonization by the British, have all added problematic factors into the mix of Burmese society and institutions that may work against the possibility of an eventual emergence of democracy. In the post WWII world, Burma seems to have undergone a further series of disasters from, occupation by the Japanese, and assassination of the charismatic leader General Aung just before Independence, and the military coups of Ne Win and U- Nu, disasters that again set Burmese History on a difficult course.

Myint-U is a good narrator able to summarize an historical era by good character analysis and evaluation of the social conditions of the time. We are brought up to the present in his evaluation of the failed revolution of 1988 and the formation of the SLORC and SPDC military regimes. Interestingly, Myint-U is a revisionist, deviating from the usual human rights activist line of thought that seeks to directly pressure the regime to reform. He is skeptical about the chances of sanctions or external pressure working. Instead he advises a more quiet approach that accepts the conditions as they exist with the regime for fear of making things worse. I would recommend this history/memoir as a very personal view of the hope and fears of a Burmese considering his own history and an exciting read that helps fill one in upon centuries of historical events little known to outsiders in the histories of Burma.

New Facebook Group

2009-05-27T20:39:00.003-04:00

I've created a new facebook group for parents, teachers and librarians of children who have a taste for scary, strange or horrifying stories. It's called Spooky Books for Strange Children. If you have an account on FB, head over and check it out.

(If there's enough interest, I may make a separate blog here on Blogger - thoughts?)

This Week at Watha T. May 26-May 31

2009-05-26T09:20:00.005-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

It's the last week of May, and that means it's the last week of our SaturDocs documentary film festival here at Watha. Come and catch the final film in the series "Stories From the Quilt" this Saturday at 3:00.

Here's what's going on this week at Watha T.

Tuesday, May 26

10:00: Story Time

Wednesday, May 27

6:00: Open Knitting

Thursday, May 28

10:00: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, May 29

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
4:00: Anime Club presents: Deathnote

Saturday, May 30

10:00: Family Story Time
12:00: Magic the Gathering Group
3:00: SaturDocs: Stories from the Quilt

Sunday, May 31

3:00: Folk Tales with Nick

A Celebration of Mo Willems

2009-05-22T14:43:00.002-04:00

Just for the fun of it, we've decided to make tomorrow morning a Mo Willems days: we'll be reading four of Willems' amazing and hilarious stories for Saturday Morning Storytime, including The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, I am Going to a Party, and everyone's favorite, Knuffle Bunny!

After that, we'll follow up by coloring some of the characters from the stories!

For those of you who'd like to share the fun at home, check out Pigeon's awesome website. We found ton's of cool games and character bios, as well as a full list of Mo Willems books (there's even one for slightly older kids, called You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When it Monsoons.

See you tomorrow!

Tech Tuesday: How to use a Playaway

2009-05-19T11:19:00.003-04:00

Hey Neighbors.

Are you into recorded books? I'm becoming more of a fan of them all the time. I recently listened to Carson McCuller's "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" on a Playaway. For those of you who don't know what this is, think of it as a single audio book on its own mp3 player. We've got a wide selection of them for children, teens and adults as well. Stop by and check it out!

Here's a little introductory video to help you get started.

This Week at Watha T. May 18 - May 25

2009-05-18T06:00:00.003-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

This monday marks the end of our weekly homework help sessions. If you kids haven't met with our tutors yet, this is the prime opportunity to use their help for those end of the school year projects.

Also, we've got our first Summer Reading program event of the year. Come and check out the Nicolo Whimsey Show with your young ones.

Here's what's happening this week at Watha T.

Monday, May 18

3:30: Homework Help with Capitol Letters Writing Center
6:00: History Book Club discusses: The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Tuesday, May 19

10:00: Story Time

Wednesday, May 20

4:00: Urban Fiction Book Club discusses The Best of Everything by Kimberla Lawson Roby
6:00: Big Read Discussion: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Thursday, May 21

10:00: Mother Goose on the Loose
10:30: Nicolo Whimsey Show

Friday, May 22

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
4:00: Anime Club presents Deathnote

Saturday, May 23

10:00: Story Time
12:00: Magic the Gathering
3:00: Saturday Documentaries: When the Levees Broke

Sunday, May 24

3:00: Folk Tales

Monday, May 25

Closed in observance of Memorial Day

Paul Robeson Series in June

2009-05-16T09:34:00.006-04:00

Join us at 2:00pm, every Sunday in June as we celebrate the film career of one of the greatest and most controversial figures in 20th Century American history, Paul Robeson.

In addition to being an accomplished singer and actor of screen and stage, Robeson was a tireless activist and staunch supporter of African American equality and workers' rights. Each week, we will show one of his seminal works:

June 7: Body and Soul

Robeson's silent screen debut, directed by Oscar Micheaux. Robeson here plays dual leading roles as a corrupt itinerant minister and an innocent, soft-hearted inventor. The movie was an early independent film, controversial for its criticism of the church and churchgoers and the educational differences between characters.

June 14: Proud Valley

Directed by Pen Tennyson, this film exemplifies the political activism behind Robeson's artistic choices. He plays an American sailor joining with Welsh miners to protest their mistreatment at the hand of their wealthy bosses; Robeson's labor sympathies are highlighted, as is his lifelong commitment to social justice.

June 21: Emperor Jones

Directed by Dudley Murphy and based on the play by Eugene O'Neil, this is Robeson's first sound-era film, in which he reprises the role of Brutus Jones. He was already familiar with the character, having performed it onstage, but this was the first "big-budget", headlining movie with star-billing for an African-American actor. This is often considered Robeson's most "iconic", breakthrough movie role, though he was already known onstage for his long-running portrayal of Othello.

June 28: Jericho

Directed by Thornton Freeland, Robeson described this as his most satisfying role, depicting a positive image of a black man of courage, honor and intelligence who works toward a life of happiness and success. He plays an officer in World War I, who escapes to Africa to avoid a court-martial; once there, he forges a new life among the Taureg.

We hope you can join us for these amazing films, as well as all the other great programs we have lined up for the Summer months.

Watha T. Daniel Summer Concert Film Series!!!

2009-05-15T12:14:00.005-04:00

The Watha T. Daniel Library is proud to announce a series of films of live music performances starting in June and continuing through July. Every Saturday at 3:00PM we will show some of the best live concert films that are out there. Here's the lineup:

JUNE

06/06/09: Bob Marley and the Wailers

06/13/09: Motown the Early Years

06/20/09: A John Lennon Tribute Concert

06/27/09: Music of New Orleans

JULY

07/04/09: [ Library Closed for Independence Day ]

07/11/09: Rolling Stones documentary (by Martin Scorsese)

07/18/09: Handel Messiah

07/25/09: Sonny Rollins Live in ’65 & ‘68

We hope to see you there!!!

This Week at Watha T. May 11 - 18

2009-05-11T06:00:00.002-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

Have you been reading any of our new collection of Japanese books in translation? If not, come and learn a little bit about Koji Suzuki, the Stephen King of Japan, and other Japanese horror writers this Wednesday.

Here's what we've got going on this week at Watha T.

Monday, May 11

3:30: Homework Help from Capitol Letters Writing Center
6:00: Lecture Series: Human Rights, A History

Tuesday, May 12

10:00: Story Time

Wednesday, May 13

6:00: Open Knitting Group
7:00: Book Talk: Japanese Horror

Thursday, May 14

10:00: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, May 15

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
4:00: Anime Club presents: Deathnote

Saturday, May 16

10:00: Story Time for Families
12:00: Magic: the Gathering
2:00: Be Creative Children's Activity
3:00: Documentary Film Series presents: Amandla!

Sunday, May 17

3:00: Folktales with Nick

Monday, May 18

3:30: Homework Help with Capitol Letters Writing Center
6:00: History Book Club discusses: The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Story Time: Rain, Rain, Go Away!

2009-05-09T11:26:00.004-04:00

We had an AWESOME day at Story Time this morning. Given the vast amounts of rain we've been having I figured it was only appropriate to read a whole bunch of stories about rain. We read:

The Rain Stomper by Addie Boswell
If Frogs Made Weather by Marion Dane Bauer
Rainy Day by Patricia Lakin
Are You Ready To Play Outside by Mo Willems

For our craft activity we made little umbrellas. Come and check them out hanging up in the children's room.

We also sang my favorite campfire song "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea." I even made this fabulous felt board illustration to help everyone sing along. Because you know:

There's a fly on the tongue of the frog on the bump on the log on the hole in the bottom of the sea.
There's a fly on the tongue of the frog on the bump on the log on the hole in the bottom of the sea.
There's a hole, there's a hole,
There's a hole in the bottom of the sea.

Sci-Fi Review - Anathem

2009-05-05T12:00:00.002-04:00

In Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, Neal Stephenson spun tales of operatic immensity, balanced by hyper-modern sensibilities and an uncanny knack for not simply telling, but creating the future. In Anathem, Stephenson simultaneously lampoons and pays homage to the philosophical tradition, and its relationship with the rest of the world. Like all of his works (with the possible exception of Snow Crash), this book is a tome. At 935 densely packed pages, it's pretty heavy reading, but if you have the patience to unravel the story, it's very much worth the effort.

The protagonist of the story, Fra Erasmus, is a part of the "Concent of Saunt Edhar", a monastic sanctuary for philosophers and theoreticians who have withdrawn from the "saecular" world of religion and applied sciences. The avout who dwell in the concent are isolated by degrees between "tenners", "hundreders" and "thousanders" - the number of years between periods of contact with the Extramuros for each Order. If this paragraph confuses you, you may want to go with something a little lighter. If it intrigues you, I promise, the story will go on to titillate and satisfy your baser intellectual urges.

Anathem is a deeply allegorical story, taking place in a world which is the intellectual mirror of our own. Half the fun in reading it is in deciphering the subtle references, in unlocking the code in which the book is written. Conversations often take the form of codified dialectic, in the western philosophical tradition, and a good number of the "historical figures" from the book are directly derived from that tradition. Philosophy buffs will get a kick out of some of Stephenson's more oblique references and quirky references to recognizable schools of thought.

Complimenting the intellectual grandiosity of the book is the adventure story at its heart. Like most of Stephenson's books, there is a love story at the center of this tale, which manages to transcend the details and put them into perspective. In every one of Neal Stephenson's books, there is a core of (more or less) fixed characters. The most vital of these is the hero's girl - the one who gives him an anchor, keeping him from being set adrift by his own story. She is pragmatic, emotionally conscious, occasionally mysterious and always challenging, but most important, she brings out the best in him.

The Importance of Being Eleanor Roosevelt

2009-05-04T14:46:00.010-04:00

Eleanor Roosevelt, the well known First Lady and wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, was one of the main American delegates to the UN who helped compile the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration was put forward by the United Nations in 1948, three years after the end of World War Two. It was also Eleanor Roosevelt who was one of the leaders of the United States Delegation for the committee on human rights and she was the one who prodded the committee to put forward a new formulation of the idea of human rights to the world, one that reflected the challenges of a world recently united by the struggle of a World War.

In a relatively new book entitled " A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Mary Ann Glendon shows how it was the enthusiasm and commitment of Ms Roosevelt that helped to bring the early UN to a focus on human rights as the basis for a new world order. She helped to direct the human rights commission to agree upon a common formulation of human rights for all nations. She also encouraged the United States’ State Department to stand behind our principles of democracy and human dignity when those principles were questioned by some new nations. According to Ms Glendon, it was her good sense and idealism that made the committee work and it was her fame that helped to sucessfully publicized the Declaration of as a new Magna Carta for the twentieth century.

Eleanor Roosevelt was a world figure at the time, one of the few American women of stature who helped direct the political work of the New Deal, served the causes of civil rights, sought to improve conditions of the poor, and brought about agricultural reform. She worked both within and outside of government. She became a symbol after her husband’s death of the American ideals of democracy, human rights, and social welfare for the masses of people. She became most famous for advancing the cause of universal human rights within the United Nations and bringing a greater idealism to the purposes behind the world organization as it came upon the world stage to become the major player that it remains today.

This week at Watha T. May 4-10

2009-05-04T06:00:00.004-04:00

Good Morning Neighbors!

We've got all kinds of good stuff going on this week at Watha T. You may notice that our regular lineup has changed a little bit. Let us know if there was a program cut that you just absolutely can't live without, and we'll work it back into the schedule.

Here's what we've got going on this week at Watha T.

Monday, May 4

3:30: Homework Help with Capitol Letters Writing Center
6:00: Making Paper Flowers (children's activity)
6:00: The Basics of Recording Your Own Music

Tuesday, May 5

10:00: Story Time
3:30: Summer Reading Kickoff Party
Come sign up for summer reading, get free books, and have a sweet treat
6:30: Public Meeting: Friends of the Watha T. Daniel Library
This meeting will be to discuss the installation of a vegetative roof at the new Watha T. Daniel Library at 7th and Rhode Island.

Wednesday, May 6

6:00: Comic Book Discussion Group with Eric

Thursday, May 7

10:00: Mother Goose on the Loose

Friday, May 8

10:00: Rock Along with Casey
4:00: Anime Club Presents: Deathnote

Saturday, May 9

10:00: Story Time
12:00: Magic the Gathering for Teens
3:00: Documentary Film Series presents: Brothers and Others

Sunday, May 10

3:00: Folktales with Nick