Typical Librarian's Muscle Car...

The Fiat 126 provides an exciting ride with ample room for the librarian's books in the back.

The Librarian Going To Work..

The Librarian has recently gotten an urge to ride to the library on one of these. A Honda CBR 1000rr

Books: Cole Porter

Cole Porter wrote some of the most sophisticated and witty music ever written. His melodies and lyrics charmed a generation. Many assumed that his life was a happy romp through high society. This idea got further reinforcement when his life was depicted in the 1946 movie, Night and Day starring Cary Grant as Porter. His public persona: rich, sophisticated, happy go lucky and in love with a beautiful wife. In reality Porter preferred men for his intimate relationships and also suffered from a debilitating medical condition he acquired after a horse he was riding fell on his legs and crushed his thigh- bones. This eventually led to osteomyelitis, a painful and stubborn bone infection that then led to an alcohol and narcotic addiction. Porter suffered silently before the public for 25 years until his death in 1964. Remarkably during this period he wrote some of his most memorable music. I didn’t know any of this until I came upon William McBrien’s book, Cole Porter (2000). I told a friend this and he said, “Haven’t you ever seen the film De-Lovely with Kevin Kline?” Ah no. Missed it. He told me to see the movie and I told him to read the book. He was not impressed and said the book was 10 years old. Regardless of this book’s publication date it is an impressively researched biography that deserves a read. McBrien is meticulous in the way he recreates Porter’s high society life, his love affairs and his pain. What emerges is a stunning portrait of a talented man who in spite of his physical and emotional pain was able to produce some of the best and sophisticated popular music ever written. McBrien’s book shows just how complicated life can become. As Cole Porter wrote: “Is it the good turtle soup, or is it merely the mock?”

Books: Built On Books

Ever been affected by what you read? Most of us have, but what about some of the great authors? What did they read and how did this affect their writing and their life? This is the premise behind the book, Built on Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde (2009), by Thomas Wright. Wright spent 20 years reading his way through Wilde’s personal library, embarking on a fascinating adventure of discovery and speculation. His conclusion is that Wilde actually built his life out of the books he read. His library was his reality. The books he read were as important to his life as his family, friends or lovers. From this library he derived the intellectual culture that infuses his writing. Wilde’s eclectic library contained about 2000 volumes along with magazines, periodicals and scrapbooks. The entire collection was sold at auction in 1895 to resolve his debts after he was convicted and sentenced for “gross indecency.” The auction was actually the real “gross indecency.” The items were sold to a voracious crowd of antique dealers and curiosity seekers at knock down prices. A fist-fight even broke out at the sale. The police had to be called. Wright was able to piece the library’s contents by looking at the surviving auctioneers list. Wright does an interesting job of weaving Wilde’s life in and through the books he was reading at any given point in his life. I’ve never seen a biography quite put together this way, but it seems to work. The only negative for me was that there was a bit of over speculation on Wright’s part. But who knows maybe his speculations are correct. Either way this book approaches Wilde’s life from a unique perspective.

Books: Voltaire, The Almighty

Voltaire could never accept any form of orthodoxy. He was a thinker who followed his own rules whether it was in his philosophy, his plays, his romantic life or his politics. I think whether one admires Voltaire or not depends on what aspect of Voltaire’s thinking one happens upon. Recently a new biography came out about Voltaire, called simply, Voltaire, by Ian Davidson, essentially it’s Voltaire’s life cobbled together from his own letters and journals. This type of biography is valuable in one sense as it is draws from primary documents, however such an approach can also render a distorted view of a historical personality. If you are interested in getting to know Voltaire better I think Roger Pearson’s, 2005 book, Voltaire the Almighty might be a better choice. Pearson’s biography offers a more grounded look at Voltaire’s long and often troubled life. He focuses on Voltaire’s philosophical love of liberty, which drove much of his thinking and his life. Pearson’s work is not too academic or too technical. It will hold your interest, especially if you are someone who had been exposed to Voltaire’s writing or philosophical ideas. Here is a book that looks at the “brew,” so to speak, from which Voltaire’s ideas were formed and the events that made him one of the most important figures of the French Enlightenment. Voltaire was born, Francois Marie Arouet, an illegitimate child who all through his life pursed the nobility that he so savaged in his writings. He was a complex character, brilliant, yet elusive. What made him tick? I think Pearson’s book does a good job in unraveling the mystery. Davidson’s, Voltaire is best read after one has read a less one-sided look at Voltaire’s life, i.e Voltaire’s own interpretation of his own life. Pearson’s has also written, Voltaire in Exile,(2006) but I have not read. The reviews for it are favorable, so you might want to give this book a look also. Oh, don’t forget to look at some of Voltaire’s famous quotations, most of them gems. Examples: “Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung”, “Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.” and finally, “I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.”__Voltaire

Techno Lust..

New MacBook Air. I want one.

The Librarian Comes Out Of the Sea..

A gratuitous pic posted for those of you longing for summer as it wanes. I know on Halloween I rather be on a sunny warm beach. East coast weather is so eck this time of the year!

Could This Be A Librarian Contemplating Collection Development Over A Bowel Of Spaghetti And Wine?

My Hero: Marcello Mastroianni

Short Review

Being a librarian, I was asked recently by a relative to recommend a short list of entertaining books to read, excluding anything infected by my boring tastes. Well.. how do you like that? The nerve. After getting over the initial shock of the insult I got right to the matter at hand, as any librarian can’t resist a list of good books. Here is what I recommended, considering this person is young and wants to read significant contemporary books. “No arcane authors in Latin or boring history,” was my charge:

The Watchers, Dean Koontz: Supernatural thriller like only Koontz could write, involving genetic manipulation that creates two extraordinary animals. Frightening, but exciting, page-turner that may keep you awake.

The Life of Pi, by Yan Martel: Fable like story about the adventures of a 16 year-old son of a zookeeper who takes 227 day wild ride on a freighter packed with animals through shark infested waters. Fabulous tale of ritual and self discovery.

Fly On The Wall, E. Lockhart: Story about a teenager Gretchen Yee who becomes a “fly on the wall” in the boys locker room and learns a lot about boys and life. Belief must be suspended for this one, but a good read full of lessons.

Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson: A spellbinding combination of murder, mystery, family saga, love, and financial intrigue. Themes include violence, capitalism, and responsibility.

Rule of Four, Ian Caldwell Well I couldn’t resist adding something with a touch of history. This is an intellectual thriller involving the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. What you say? It’s a rare manuscript. In the story it contains codes that lead to buried treasure.

The Librarian's Breakfast..

Indulgence in morning.

Wild Ride and Rough Landing

Ever had a flight that felt like this? "Everyone have their seat belts on!"

MoMA's iPhone App

When I’m in New York City one of my favorite places to visit is the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). So I was excited to see that MoMA had released a free app for the iPhone/iPod Touch. I downloaded and installed and was not disappointed. Wow it’s actually pretty good! Now I can carry MoMA with me where ever I go. Literally, this is quite an app, you can search tens of thousands of works in the museum’s collection and get a fine picture and a good bit of a detailed description. If you want you can browse by floors, take a picture of a work of art or take a multimedia tour. There’s even an option to email the picture you took to a friend turning it into a postcard. This feature is obviously for rubbing it in and making a friend jealous__”see where I am.” It’s also obvious that this app can be used as a guide of the building when you are actually down at 11 West 53^rd Street. The app also includes a calendar of MoMa’s upcoming exhibitions, and the ability to create a personalized play list of music to accompany you as you browse the halls. Good job MoMA!

An Idea: the National Digital Library

British Digital Library Logo

Can you imagine the Library of Congress being digital? That’s right no books, no journals, no paper. What would the building look like? Would it even have a building? Or would it be just a server that sat in a closet? Frighteningly it would probably be a series of servers linked together and dependent on a tenuous supply of electricity. The NDL or the National Digital Library would have no place, it would be everywhere at once via the Internet. All the printed knowledge we have accumulated freely accessible to homes, schools, offices, to anybody. Sounds great, but is it just wide eyed utopianism? The idea of the NDL has started to be seriously bantered about. The idea is afoot. And the seed for the NDL has already been planted in the NDLP (National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress). However this program only deals with digitizing materials about the history and culture of the United States. But could an all-inclusive NDL be created? One containing all published books and journals? Other countries are trying to do it. The Dutch for instance are digitizing every Dutch book. And after all Google is digitizing everything, so it seems. Sounds great, sounds easy, just warm up the scanners. But wait a minute such a concept is actually extraordinarily complex. What about the publishers and their infamous copyright restrictions and licenses. If you were a librarian like me, you would know these fellows mean business. They don’t like their copyrights and licensees violated. This is what is known as the legal obstacles. And what about the technological obstacles? And how could you marshal the political support to fund such a project? Hmm I’m starting to sound negative. I was also thinking, an NDL wouldn’t be as egalitarian as it sounds because not everyone has access to the Internet. And doesn’t a single pipeline to all knowledge make it vulnerable? That all being said, I am actually in favor of the NDL and think it’s be doable. And actually as a librarian I get kind of excited about it. The most important thing needed in order to make it doable is a strong public sentiment in favor of such a project. Once the will is there the other pieces, legal, logistical and technological will fall into place, albeit I would guess, with a lot of fits and starts. The most difficult task then lies not with legal and technological, but with creating the desire and motivation for it.

iMac Wallpaper

Rick asked me to post the wallpaper I'm currently using on my iMac, so he could use it. Here it is..

Tech Stuff: The First Acceptable iphone Battery Extender

Mophie Juice Pack Air This is the first battery extender I have seen for the iphone that extends battery life for nearly twice that of the iphone alone and adds no extra bulk or weight. It sells for about $56.00 on Amazon.

Books: iWoz

Without the Woz, would we still be using slide rulers__perhaps? But there is a greater story here, one about an engineering genius, the Woz, who hatched an idea 30 years ago and how that idea shaped his personal journey and developed into the behemoth company we know today as Apple. I was an early adopter of Apple products__ loved them from the start. So I was excited to see this book published in 2006, (yes my review is a little late, but I didn’t have a blog then), appropriately entitled, IWoz, Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented The Personal Computer, Cofounded Apple and Had Fun Doing It. And that about sums it up. He invented, cofounded and had fun. Plus he is an icon. There is something special about the Woz, something likable not found in other founders__no names mentioned please. It’s rare that two complimentary geniuses, Wozniak and Jobs, would meet and be able to see their vision through. In doing so we all benefited. As you read the book Wozniak’s personality and way of thinking become apparent and you see how he was able to create the personal computer as we know it today. I won’t describe everything that takes place in the book, but three points emerge that the reader takes away: first that Wozniak developed the Apple II computer on his own and without the help of Jobs, secondly he never left Apple’s employ, he is still officially an employee, and thirdly he never had a falling out with Jobs, they remain friends to this day. The book then ends with encouragement for other young inventors to see their dreams through to their completion. It’s good to have Wozniak’s side of the story in his own words rather than an interpretation of that story through the eyes of others and the many books that have been written about Apple. Is this book worth reading? Why pick it up? Yes definitely so. Why? Hey the Woz__is the man who invented the personal computer__ no kidding. Oh by the way, visit: woz.org

This Is The New Case For My iPhone

Some of you asked to see it. Cool isn't it! (Speck ToughSkin Case)

The Librarian's Life...

Undoubtedly the librarian has parked his Ferrari 250 GTE in front of his favorite winery.

Essence Of Bel Canto

Sadly, Joan Sutherland died on October 10th at her house in Switzerland. Somehow I wish she could have used her voice box for another 100 years. It seems such a waste to possess such a tremendous talent and only get to use it for 83 years. To say her voice was magnificent is obvious and has been said many times over. But if you were lucky enough to hear one of her performances the obvious actually became a tonal reality. The same experience was true of Luciano Pavarotti. It was just shocking that someone could be born with such a large voice, almost as if it were a freak of nature gone pleasantly right. Sutherland was the best coloratura soprano of the 20^th century. Of course that’s my opinion, but I think it’s true. Her voice was large, beautiful and technically perfect. Beyond that she could do all sorts of trills and renderings of lyrical phrases that were perfect. She sung in a wide range from low G to well above a high C without the least sign of effort or strain. She exhibited no contortions of the face or destruction of intonation or heaving of the chest. Instead she exhibited only the emotions and dramatic presence needed. Take a listen sometime to her singing of the “Mad Scene, in “Lucia di Lammermoor.” In other words, she made it look effortless and the stunned listener could only say, “wow.” To touch true beauty is rare in life, because it is a transcendent virtue not easily quantified, but only experienced. Sometimes a voice can transport us there, but ultimately that voice is a reflection of the artist’s soul and a brief reflection of the face of God. Thanks, “La Stupenda.”

Art: Lord Frederic Leighton

Dadedalus and Icarus

I first came upon Lord Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), when a friend told me about an opulent house/museum belonging to Leighton that he visited on a recent trip to London. Leighton was a Victorian painter much in favor during his lifetime, who fell into derision and then was rediscovered, or should I say, re-appreciated some 70 years after his death. Leighton painted many portraits and landscapes, but his best works are of historical and classical themes.There is a fantastic quality about Leighton’s paintings. The works seem to pull historical themes out of the past and push them at the viewer. The colors are almost over saturated with rich tones that have a distinct vibrancy. All his paintings are characterized by a certain nobility of concept and a perfection of draftsmanship not seen in many of artists of the British School. His figures have a distinct attitude of dignity and gesture. In other words, Leighton painted “beauty.” That is why looking at his paintings is so pleasing. His forms are perfect, the bodies and landscapes beautiful. Critics believe that Leighton’s genius can best be seen in his sketches, which contain an essence of spiritual beauty and subtlety of expression that often doesn’t make it to his finished works. These sketches are numerous, highly regarded and often prized above some of his paintings. The man himself, lived as he painted, surrounding himself with beauty and opulence, filling his house with sumptuous but somewhat ostentation art and decoration. According to accounts by contemporaries, he was genial and courtly and welcomed into all societies. The irony about Leighton is that he had the shortest lived peerage in history. He was awarded it on January 24^th and died the next day. His house, by the way, can be seen via a virtual tour on the Internet at the Leighton House Museum website.

Beauty In A Berry

Goji Berries