I Gotsta Roll!

Hi!

Today, I think, is my last day at Anacostia Interim Library. I am moving over to the Arts/Music Division at the Martin Luther King Library at 9th and G St. NW next Monday. I am very excited about the move because I love music and am an artist-hence the "Pittore", but I will miss my friends here at ANA.

I am hopefully going to start a blog for the division to promote their collections (which is exciting because it has a lot of out of print art books!), programming, events, and exhibitions that I will be undertaking. They already have some content on their DCPL Division site.

It has been a real pleasure and learning experience to be with you. I am not going to disappear completely. I have a studio down at 13th & Good Hope Rd. SE, so you might see me hanging around Younis Deli.

I Feel Like I Ate A Whale

I finally finished Moby Dick! And let me tell you, it is hardly about Ahab and the Leviathan. Only about 200 pages out of 521 are about the three masted whaler, the Pequod. It is full of older American language, detailed sailing jargon, old salts, and beautiful descriptions and musings about the sea.

My copy had a lot of contemporary reviews of the book. I learned that some reviewers at the time hated the structure of the story. There are a great many digressions in the book as I have mentioned. One British writer gave it a pretty scathing review. Melville did call the British Whale Fishery somewhat less robust that the American Whale Fishery.

A Friendly Note About Computing At Your Library

The Library is phasing out floppy and CD Rom compatible computers. All of the replacement, or new computers that we get come without floppy drives and CD Rom drives. This means that you need to come equipped with a USB devise, aka "memory stick", "flash drive", "thumb drive" to save your work.

Take A Bite Out Of Books! But Don't Eat Them.

Hey! Teen Read Week is coming up fast. October 12-18th to be precise.

Read something, then tell me about it here, or here.

If you need suggestions I am full of them. There are also plenty of suggestions here, here, and here.

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

Here is a menu of "horror" titles that we have at the library to get you primed for the haunting season. This isn't a definitive list, but it' s a good start.

They are listed in alpha by author. (that's alphabetical to you, mortal)

Abarat, Clive Barker *

Killing Mr. Griffin, Lois Duncan
Gothic: 10 Original Dark Tales
Death Note, Tsugumi Obha
Cirque du Freak, Darren Shan
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley **
The Taste of Night, R.L. Stine
Dracula, Bram Stoker **

* = audio download availability
**= downloadable as audio and ebook!

Reading Recommendation (Poetry)

A book that I have been really excited about is simply called Carver: a life in poems, by Marilyn Nelson. Basically it charts the life of George Washington Carver in gloriously constructed poems. The book is slim but powerful. If you are a fan of Michael Ondaatje's Collected Works of Billy the Kid (one of my all time favorite books), Carver is similar in style and structure.

You may find it in a "Young Adult" area of your library, 811 N428C. That is, unless some intrepid reader has already snatched it. Which they should.

p.s. Don't be put off by the "young adult" classification. It doesn't diminish this book's brilliance.

GET YOU KEYBOARDS A'CLACKIN'!!!

High School Seniors listen up! The Washington Regional Transplant Community is sponsoring an essay contest. First prize is a $5000 Scholarship!
Second Prize is a $3000 Scholarship!

Big Money towards your educations! All it's going to costs you is a 1000 word persuasive essay about organ and tissue donation. That is roughly 2 pages typed. I know you guys type 1600 pages into your MySpace pages every afternoon. So I don't want any excuses.

Follow the above link for details.