Unreasonality

An Unreasonable Man I voted for (had to write it in as he was not on the ballot, thanks to those pesky Dems) has a documentary coming out, albeit to a limited release, which means all you thinking folks in the red states will have to wait for the DVD or watch it on IFC sometime next year. Yea. The doc, all 2.1hrs of it is about his legacy (or what is left of it thanks to the bloodsuckers--Dems).

Visit the official website for theaters/dates.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

-George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903)

"Maxims for Revolutionists"

Local Librarian Wins Newberry Medal

Text copyright © 2006 by Susan Patron
Illustrations copyright © 2006 by Matt Phelan

It's award season here in Los Angeles and LAPL's very own, Susan Patron (35 year Children's Librarian/author) has won the 2007 John Newberry Medal for most distinguished children's literature of 2006, as chosen by the American Library Association (ALA). The book is entitled, The Higher Power of Lucky. Congrats Susan. Ironically, we do not have a copy of the book at our branch. I won't get into the reason why...

So who decides what books get onto the shelves anyway... ;) More on this later.

LAist has full story.

3 movies a day...

I don't know what bothers me more...library patrons who come in every single day and check out three dvd movies (that's 6hrs!) or patrons who check out 4 travel guides on the same country, seriously, why would you need 4 different travel books on Ireland?! Rolling green hills, an occasional castle and booze--that's all you need to know about Ireland. OR patrons who check out resume books with 4 different "cover letters that knock 'em dead" books. How many resume/cover letter books does one need? I once used a "worlds greatest cover letters" book. On my cover letter I cited the parts I used and added footnotes. Needless to say I didn't get the job. In my head I figured it was brilliant move.

Have I ever mentioned that all library clerks are freaks? No joke, the library department hires "particular" types as clerks. Librarians, Messenger Clerks, Library Assistants--all normal. Clerks on the other hand, total nutjobbers. More on this later. Much more.

Right now I'm watching Pretty Persuasion with Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen) and "Say hello to Lumbergh!" Ron Livingston (remember he's the one who didn't get the Goofy gig). White girls are the best...reminds me...one of my all time favorite white teenage girl films is this Lifetime TV (aka the battered woman channel) movie called Odd Girl Out. It's much better than Mean Girls...unfortunately it was a made for TV movie that is unavailable on DVD. I watched the film one afternoon in Bangkok last year and have fond memories. Apparently it is available on iTunes.

More on Odd Girl Out from Lifetime:

"Some think of their early school years as their "glory days," but for many teen girls it's a time of psychological warfare filled with backstabbing, jealousy and phoniness — and that's among your closest friends. Welcome to the world of Vanessa, a well-liked girl who suddenly finds herself in the popular crowd's line of fire."

In these dark days...

Visit Overdue Media to lift thy spirits.

Overdue Media is home of Unshelved an (almost) daily comic strip based on characters working in a library! Surprise! Check out the Pimp My Bookcart winners! It was a contest to dress up/alter a bookcart (or as we LAPL people call "trucks")...the winners won...bragging rights I think. Maybe a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble? Who knows. Library excitement.

Last week the entire LAPL circulation system was down. And yes we had to write down everything by hand...plus no limit on the number of items a patron could check out...a dark day indeed.

p.s. I live in my sister's basement.

...

I've been listening to a lot of Gene lately (reasons obvious)...the Book Stamper is single ladies...and is grooming again.

FEE FOR HOLDS NOT PICKED UP

("Hold shelf" Pink slips = name of patron and 'Hold Until' date, written by hand, serial reservers on bottom)

Long overdue (library humor), LAPL will now charge patrons $1.00/book for "holds" (material requested from other branches) not picked up. It's about time! You see, every morning save for Saturdays (small mercies), the dreaded "Delivery" comes in. These are books/cd's/videos returned to all the other libraries throughout the system (72 in all), subsequently sent back to the owning branch. Along with these returns comes the material patron's request that we do not have or are very popular. Every morning these have to be scanned and labeled with patrons name on a date (10 days from arrival date). After which time, if they are not picked up, they are sent back to the owning branch OR sent off to another requestee. Nothing is more time/resource consuming as these "holds". Nothing! In fact, a recent audit of the whole process found that every single item requested adds up to about a half hr of work/pay. Amazing, considering 1.5 million holds are placed every year. The Library Board of Commissioners recently approved this measure.

Of course, this probably won't mean less work for us clerks in the mornings (in fact at our branch, it often takes 2 clerks 2-3 hrs to finish the "holds" every day. We have (and i'm sure other branches are no different), serial, habitual, shopper patrons who request literally hundreds, if not thousands of books a year, coming from all over the city--from San Pedro to West Hills. And every night we send out/back, at times dozens of items not picked up. This has been has been going on for several years now...what government waste/inefficiency?! "Well our taxes pay for it!" Actually, about 3 cents a year of your annual local taxes go to the public library! And every single book request costs the city a half hour of work! The only socialist institution in the U.S.and A! Socialists--all of you!

So, in the end, us clerks will have to take the brunt of the complaints from patrons who will not doubt argue about not being notified, were on vacation, were sick, got tired of waiting for the item and couldn't make it to pick it up... Less material may be requested...we can only hope.

From our friends downtown:

"Placing a hold is free. However, effective March 5, 2007 a $1.00 fee will be charged if an item placed on hold is not canceled or picked up before the 'Hold Unitl date.

Holds are still free. A fee will only be charged if a hold is not canceled or picked up by the 'Hold Unitl' date. Over 1.5 million holds are placed per year. The intent is to prevent in-demand material from being kept out of circulation and unavailable to many customers. This will enable popular titles to keep moving through the system and be more readily available to the public.

We hope you will continue to enjoy the highly popular holds service offered by the Los Angeles Public Library. There are three different methods of notification: E-mail, (tele)phone, and postcard. If possible, patrons are encouraged to take advantage of e-mail notification of holds, the quickest and most efficient form. It is essential that information in your patron record is accurate so that you will receive notification."

World's greatest book title

SAN JOSE: CITY WITH A PAST

As opposed to Albuquerque, which has no past I guess...San Jose, California has a past. Library patron last week requested this book from another branch...it is a hardcover coffee table style book, published in 1988 (pre .com boom). It is an out of print rare book. Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of the cover, but it's of some "tech" company building with some trees in the foreground. Exciting stuff.

Available from Amazon
(No Picture)

Man pays library $171, 47-year late fee

Sun Jan 7, 10:16 AM ET (AP)

Robert Nuranen handed the local librarian a book he'd checked out for a ninth-grade assignment — along with a check for 47 years' worth of late fees.

Nuranen said his mother misplaced the copy of "Prince of Egypt" while cleaning the house. The family came across it every so often, only to set it aside again. He found it last week while looking through a box in the attic.

"I figured I'd better get it in before we waited another 10 years," he said after turning it in Friday with the $171.32 check. "Fifty-seven years would be embarrassing."

The book, with its last due date stamped June 2, 1960, was part of the young Nuranen's fascination with Egypt. He went on to visit that country and 54 others, and all 50 states, he said, but he never did finish the book.

Nuranen now lives in Los Angeles, where he teaches seventh-grade social studies and language arts.

The library had long ago lost any record of the book, librarian Sue Zubiena said.

"I'm going to use it as an example," she said. "It's never too late to return your books."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070107/ap_on_fe_st/overdue_book

Momofuku in an instant

TOKYO - (AP) Momofuku Ando, the Japanese inventor of instant noodles — a dish that has sustained American college students for decades — has died. He was 96.


Candlelight vigils at a dormitory near you. R.I.P. Momo.

Death Rocks!

Geology Rocks! Clever, no? Okay, so i'm a dork..those geology/geography courses in college were fabulous. This spectacular formation of the igneous type (or metamorphic--the geology of DV is complex, visit USGS for more) is located in Death Valley National Park (CA). I took this photo during last year's heat wave--so we decided to take a trip to death valley! It's what all hip people in L.A. do. Right. So what if it was 126 degrees that day. Stands approximately 7-8ft high and is cursed! Okay, so I made that part up, but it does look like the great Sphinx of Giza. Oh, btw, the last of the famous international playboys humped this rock for one of his videos...that video is so gay. I mean like super gay. Hey. Watch now!

Mice Rock.

More rock photos! Yea! I snapped this amusing rodent rock photo while on vacation in Cabo San Lucas (BCS), on a private gringo only beach in the exclusive Pedregal gated community (which overlooks the Pacific). The job of the friendly seguridados at the entrance gate is to keep Mexicans out. God bless the hospitality industry. God bless NAFTA. God bless neo-liberal economic policies. God bless Tom Friedman! "Almost free senior"

Also, if you closely, there is a rockin' puppy on the base.

More on Pedregal here:
http://www.pedregal.com/sitepages/pid51.php

NYC eat your heart out

Rockefeller smockerfeller! Downtown Los Angeles On Ice! Through Jan. 16th, our friends at the Parks & Recreation Dept. have set up a ice skating rink in Pershing Square (between 5th and 6th St. in the heart of downtown). Skates costs $6 to rent. Enjoy. (p.s. don't mind the homeless, the've got no place else to go these days--literally, due to new city ordinance, so the LAPD in the mid-city/central city east spend half their shifts harassing the homeless. high five).

Worst of 2006...

Drum roll please...this thing, this abomination called the "Mash-up". For those unfamiliar, the "Mash-up", is a relatively new phrase in the ridiculously vast lexicon of music (in particular dance music) terminology, coined & operated by our melanin-deficient friends, who as usually seem to be a bit late getting to the party. You see, a "mash-up" is simply taking two songs and "mashing" them together. For example, you can take a Karen Carpenter tune and "mash" it together with Stevie B. Sounds pretty straight forward right? Only problem is, we've had a name for this for over 20 years, it's called a god-dammed REMIX! YES, A REMIX! A MIX EVEN! DJ'S HAVE BEEN MIXING TWO SONGS (ON TWO TURNTABLES) FOR YEARS! THIS IS NOT NEW. SADLY, WE HAVE "MASH-UP" CLUBS HERE IN LOS ANGELES TODAY! ENTIRE RADIO SHOWS OF "MASH-UPS". Someone please make it stop. God is great.

My second favorite songs of the year...

Perhaps I've just spent too much time stamping books to pay attention, but I am convinced it's been a pretty dismal year for new music. Sad, I can actually count the number of gigs I've been to this year on one hand. In any case, here are my favorite songs of 2006:

Asobi Seksu - "Thursday"


NYC group whose lead singer sings in both Japanesia + Ingles. Plus, she's got the sexiest nostrils in the biz.

Miranda Lee Richards - "Early November"
I just love this girl. Miranda's myspace.

Pet Shop Boys - "Psychological"
You know how I know you're gay?

Too $hort - "Blow the whistle"
Album number 16 baby. Still representin' East Oakland.

E-40 - "White Gurl"
Vallejo in the house. God bless the memory of Mac D-R-E.

Lily Allen - "Smile"
I like this girl...even if she is British...our friends at MTV are pumping her hard (!) Now if we can just find a way to make that Lady Sovereign to go away...

The Organ - "Steven Smith" & "Brother"
Don't tell anyone but these songs were from their only album, released in 2004, but you've probably never heard them anyway. They've been on constant repeat in my car stereo all year. Take cover.

Ivory towers

Port Tower Complex
Karachi, Pakistan (1476ft - 450M)
(Project Approved)

What's a developing country, awash with billions in international aid/grants to do these days? Invest in education? Health care? Infrastructure? Sustainability? Alternative energy? Um, not quite, try...Spending billions to project a false sense of affluence...high five. The Port Tower Complex would be 2nd tallest building in the world, after the "Burj Dubai". The irony of course is that it won't be built by a Pakistani developer...nor will many citizens of the country be allowed inside, nonetheless Pakistanis will be proud.

More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kpt_tower