Carmichael Library Home, Tutolage and......evil laugh

For the past year I have been fighting the good fight in terms of working on a Master of Library and Information Studies. But where did this indescribably desire come from? Let me explain this in a narrative.

A battle between desires and abilities is how I have reached this point in regard to my education. Growing up, and throughout my collegiate career, I chased a dream of becoming a mathematician. While following this path, I obtained a refined knowledge and outlook on my professional career. Instead, I decided to pursue a degree in history because of my interest in research and the revisionist factors involved in the discipline. During the completion of the degree is when my curiosity of library studies germinated. A young starlet librarian named Kathy approached me about working in reference department of Carmichael Library, given the fact that I was there all of the time. I said sure, not knowing where this curious, but glorious journey would take me. Carmichael Library is located at the University of Monetavallo in Montevallo, Al.

Working in the reference under Kathy as a student aide, I thrived in the research arena. In the classroom, I was learning to critique historical information. In the library, however, I began to understand how intricate and fascinating the organization and cross-referencing of historical data can be. At the same time, a unique fellowship of librarians and Library paraprofessionals were observing a young chap fascinated with shoes. They hoped he would one day take his place among there ranks as a professional librarian. These include Rosemary Arneson, Barbara Belisle, Debra Collins, Jason Cooper, Amanda Melcher, Mary Seagle, Pauline Williams(retired), Audrey Powers (Currently at The University of South Florida) and, last but not least, Patsy Sears. Now, there were a host of other librarians from various institutions that were influential in this process as well. So, please do not feel left out. I am just focusing on current and former Montevallo librarians for this post.  Anyway, all of these wonderful human beings  inspired me to want to become a Librarian. Their devotion to the profession should be seen as example of how a librarian should be. So, I leave this post with a unique song that in it's own way describes the varied staff of Carmichael Library.

Cheers!!!

The Mays's Effect

So the evening after work began with my professor reminiscing over Janet Jackson’s Control. I was thinking to myself if she tries to bring back the whole Nasty Boy era where guys were doing pirouettes to impress a girl in videos, I am dropping this class. I thought she was going to go down the isles singing Nasty Boy. 

I refuse to allow that era to come back. Now, if she started singing like Joss Stone and rapping like Snoop Dog in the same class period, then I would pay a days salary to see that. Anyway, Dr. Mays mentioning of that Janet Jackson classic invigorated me to post a video of myself. A large majority of my friends have seen this video already. Back-story: About two years ago when I was applying for grad school, I was pretty stressed out. I did not do well on my initial taking of the entrance exam.  So as a favor, a  wonderful friend of mine named Gina paid half of my fare to come out to California and visit her. But……… 24 hours before I was suppose to take off for CA, I decided pull some of my old dance skills out for a video.

I opened my mouth and gave an oath to a friend that I would be in a video for his one-man group Early Modern Europe. Well the time came to make good on my promise. I have to admit, I was the bomb!! I missed my calling as a back up dancer for Paula Abdul. Who knows, I might have swooped her off of her feet and married her.  As such, here is a video myself putting some young Thunder Cat in his place in terms of dancing.

 

Gaiman and Entering the Forbidden South

For the past 10 years, I have often wondered why so many awesome entertainment tours and events have passed over the state of Alabama. Of course, I have a simple answer to that question. Inhabitants of Alabama are stupid. Their IQs are barely 70 at best. Also, once they reach a certain age, thinking becomes a high-class luxury yielded only to the rich, college educated, or financial power players. Ok, this is just an uneven, biased, belligerent, satiric statement. These preconceived notions that Alabama is a state full of uneducated hicks is a reality to foreigners to the state. However, those views only represent a miniscule section of the state’s populous. The state of Alabama has a host of individual forward thinkers that have not stepped one foot into a classroom. They read, write and have thoughts that are defiantly not inherent to Bama. Wow, really ?!!! As such, I bring all this up in the mist of a recent author’s visit to Alabama. Neil Gaiman, acclaimed author of graphic novels and books The Sandman, Coraline, and American Gods visited Tuscaloosa, Alabama last Thursday to a packed house at the Bama Theater. This was his first foray into Alabama and a surprising one at that. 

 

As Gaiman recounts,

“And all I know is, the first batch of tickets for my reading in Alabama were gone in 120 seconds. (Literally. We thought the website had crashed.) The few leftovers, released later in the week, went at the same speed. A 1078 seat theater sold out in minutes, and they could have filled it twice or three times over. People had driven 4 hours to get there and more. Everybody there seemed hungry for words and stories and literature” (Gaiman, 2010). 

This reaction is not surprising to me. Publishers typically stereotype the south because their motivation is the bottom line: money. These preconceived notions that people in Alabama do not read or listen only to country music are ludicrous. Granted, it does not help the situation when the scene of individuals who truly have natural, variable, methodical intellects are over shadowed by age-old stereotypes of ignorance and limited education. It just flat out makes me mad. From this whole experience I felt invigorated knowing that people fought hard to get past publicists’/agents’ assumptions about an area in order to show such geographical elitists that they are totally wrong.

Gaiman, Neil. "Of course, in Alabama the Tuscaloosa, but that is entirely irrelephant...".

    . Retrieved from http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2010/02/of-course-in-alabama-tuscaloosa-but.html

 

 

The Man in The Machine: Pat Metheny's Orchestrion

One of the main features of jazz that has attracted me to this genre of music is the use of  improvisation; creating a spontaneous musical idea based on internal and external stimuli. An example of such an occurrence is the gathering of multiple human musicians. Emotions react to emotions, drummers react to SBDs (Silent But Deadly......). The human psyche is an unpredictable feature that makes improvisation so inviting. With that being said, what happens when your musicians are all robots that think in binary code. Normally, when someone says that they are talking about just a computer program reacting to calculated random response. However, I am talking about computers responding to a human being's emotions using the rudimentary tenants of improvisation. This is sort of what acclaimed jazz guitarist Pat Metheny tries to acomplish with his lastest album, Orchestrion. Taking his cues from the types of machines that are the title and subject of his album, Orchestrions are machines that play music and are designed to sound like bands or orchestras. They are normally operated by one person and utilize foot pedals or more commonly, sheet music to produce sound.

 

As such, what about the freaking album? A collaboration between man and machine typically yields preconceptions of a piece of work that is calculated and artificial.  However, with Orchestrion, Metheny uses the idea of Orchestrions and combines them with 20th century solenoid technology to bring about an album that is remarkably more organic than any of his previous solo works.

 

The machines play the music that he has written. However, there response is not precise. His one-man orchestra includes a bass, pianos, marimbas, guitar-bots and blow bottles all working on software programs and solenoid switches controlled by Metheny's musical response via guitar picking and pedals.  The opening title track is the usual affair that all Metheny fans have been use to, but with less drawn out solos. This was one theme that Metheny focused upon too much on his last group album, The Way UP.  The response from the robots was much like Metheny playing with himself. So what does this have to do with Librarianship? What?!!!!! What indeed.  Librarians are in a occupational flux where they can no longer depend on there co-workers for help. They have to use their own creativity more so than ever to facilitate patrons to learn and find information. New technologies, such as standardized and advanced blogging are ways in which 21st century librarians are communicating with the masses from long distances. Ok, enough with the library moment. The consensus of the Pat Metheny album, Orchestrion is that it is Great!!  He accomplished his goal. Conclusively, this album shows me that new horizons from Jazz still exist beyond the realm of acoustic musicianship.

http://www.patmetheny.com/ 

 

Oldie But Goodie

We all have experienced that fulfilling moment were we received an acceptance letter from SLIS (School of Library and Information Studies) or a comparable library graduate studies program. My experience was pretty much no exceptions. It was memorable in several ways. So, I thought it would be fitting to revisit that moment before going forward with this blog. Yes, my next entries will focused more on current music and library trends.

Two years ago, I got accepted into SLIS (School of Library and Information Studiesl) back in the summer of 2008. My initial planned reaction was to run down the street butt naked screaming "!@#$%, I am going to be a Librarian".  But I digress. I simply looked to the heavens, smiled and then showed the letter to my family. Then later that day, I went to see some friends and hopefully find a few goodies at a yard sale. Well, most of the good stuff was gone. However, my friend who had the yard sale gave me a few video games, a copy of Apocalypse Now and a freaking Darth Vader helmet!!!

 

(!!!!Nerd!!!! )

You have no idea how bad I wanted to wear that thing out and drive down the street with it on. lol Nerd!!!!!!!! 

As such, later that night, I went to a coffee shop to hang out with few friends. Well, while there, a guy and a girl were on a 1st date. Nothing strange right? Ok, first of all, they sit down and he immediately starts going off on this tangent about how beautiful she was. Nothing wrong with that. But... he kept going on and on about it. He even asked the guys sitting around them if she was beautiful. All one guy could do was give him the Happy Days/ two thumbs up response.lol 

       

I sympathized with his nervousness because on my last date, I did the exact same thing up to this point. Let me stress; up to this point.  Anyway, he then starts going off on a rant about how awesome Alabama is. Nothing wrong with that. But his logic behind it was defiantly questionable. It pretty much murdered his chances of a furture date with this women. He said Alabama was awesome in that you pay lower property taxes and people are just nice. The property tax part is a sore issue because the potential revenue could go towards education. However, that is another story.

Then he started talking about education in general. He said if you go to school in Miami, which is where he formally resided, you would either speak Spanish or Black.

 

Yes, you read correctly. Black. I mean he went on and on as if all African Americans use a political incorrect form of English refereed to as Jive.lol I found his argument on language funny for obvious reasons. However, what almost made me bust a gut were the looks on all of my friends faces.  My friends around me who were all Caucasian, had a mystified look on their faces as if to say " Do you not see a black man sitting right in front of you?!!!!" I was just sitting there trying not to burst. lol I guess as a black man, I should have been offended. However, what happen next made his ignorant diatribe totally worth sitting through.  He got up and went inside to get something to drink. When he was safely inside, the girl was rolling her eyes speaking out loud " He is not the one, He is not the ONE!!!!" Anyway, after returning 6 minutes later, the girl got up and went to the bathroom. lol(evil laugh) Yea, you know what happened next. Two hours later and five minutes before close, he wondered where she was. I almost wanted to appease him and say "she was riding the toilet". But again, I digress, I just said she is somewhere inside. I was saying this as her car passed right by.lol This was my day was awesome. It showed me that librarians are needed to help the ignorant men learn how to find a book: Dating for Dummies. And last but not least, I am going to be a librarian. Yay!!!!!

A New Way of Reading or The Grail of Electronic Reading Devices ?

So, for the past two months I have been hearing all of my friends rave on about how they want to buy a Kindle and the number of books they can download with it. Maybe it’s just me, but nothing beats a good book made out of old fashion parchment and a spine. I want the texture of a good book every once in a while. I don’t want to recharge my book. I love the romanticism of a huge library of books behind me. A thousand books in the palm of your hand seems so superficial. The iPad is another one of these deices that expands on the Kindle idea, but with a hefty dose of expanded usability.

Steve Jobs or St. Steve has come up with a device that may possible lighten up the book bags of students and music lovers alike. I am more of an avid music lover more than book. Yes, that is a sin. However, when one collects over 800 CDs and about (cough!! cough!! ) gigs of music, you can’t help but sympathize with my dilemma. So the ipad may be in my future if the they increase the hard-drive size to 100 gb and add a USB port.

The Ambeince of Reading

For the past few years, I have been fascinated with the interior design of libraries. I think this fascination came from viewing the movie City of Angels. Not only was it the first DVD I ever bought of a movie. But, it was the first movie that really gave me a Rose Colored glass view of what a type of library I would like to work in. Each time I watched a scene from the film featuring the San Francisco Main Library, I felt the need to call upon the spirit Mathematicians and Ancient Greek philosophers.  As large as that library was depicted in the film, the idea of stories leaping out at books just flashed through my mind. 

With that being said, there truly is something to the aesthetics of a library. Granted, not all universities or municipalities can afford the money to build such a grandiose library. However, finding the right mixture of budgets and creativism can entice users of the local library to be repeat patrons.