Putting on a show

Got to look around the Thompson Hall renovation this morning. There's still some work that needs to be done but it's a stunning renovation that may be a great example of what the 21st century academic library should be.



A worry I have is that people will not respect the building. A lot of money was spent to modernize the library. Obviously the students and patrons should feel more than welcome to use the facilities, but there are so many nooks and crannies - and so much to keep clean.



That said, I'm very proud to be a part of this library. While I'm not going to be working in it, there will be many opportunities to be a part of it. I was only in the old library a couple of times before it was fixed up and I never went upstairs in the stacks. The view from the tenth floor is rather stunning.



My favorite part of the building that I have seen is the Main Reading Room, which is pictured above. After that the floating staircase is very cool.



The building opens to the public on Monday. The official gala is later in August.

Today's Release

Today my former employer, the Columbus Metropolitan Library was forced to cut pay for its workers and reduce staff hours because of a loss in funding from the State of Ohio of over thirty percent. This move has directly impacted the lives of many of my friends, colleagues and enemies.



I worked there for six and a half years and that collage of my son was created over my desk. I hated tearing that collage down, but not as much as I came to hate working there. I may still have bitter feelings about working for CML but I am not happy with today's developments.

Thanks to a poor national economy, and an even more screwed up state economy that Ted Strickland inherited from Bob "Governor Doofus" Taft - who did his best to turn Ohio into Mississippi - the library board was given a crap sandwich to work with and, frankly, they did a better job than I thought at dealing with the budget cuts. Yet, it's very unsettling to read Facebook status updates that cheer five percent pay cuts and that people would not be losing their jobs. Yes, it's a relief, but a giant backslide that is not the fault of libraries. But is it time to be grateful that the messed up economy of this world has finally trickled down to you?

Celebrating losses of pay and services is a giant mistake. What are we going to do to prevent social lifelines and cultural enriching institutions from falling apart? Will we soon be thanking our maker that only thirty people got laid off instead of a hundred? This is not growth. This is a depression.

Are we going to continue heaving sighs of relief that things could always be worse when Ohio's libraries, which are consistently the highest rated in the country, are gutted? What's next? Food pantries? Health services? The park system? Police? Fire?

Keep breathing, when is that going to be taken away from us because of a lack of funding?

In better news on the home front the gas company has been overestimating my bill for some time. We were finally able to coordinate an actual reading last week and today's bill was a substantial credit. Might not have to pay them until November.

Went west yesterday to look for more British food. Emma was bemoaning the state of American chocolate so we went to Wise Choice and picked up a few things.

On the way back we stopped in Yellow Springs, my wife's spirit home, she claims, and ate some lunch.

Then it was time for International Mini Golf, game four. Here, Emma takes on the silo of death, also known as the tenth hole.



It was close, at the end of the day Scotland won by a stroke to even the series at two games apiece.

After that I had to his the batting cage and attempt to make contact with 45 mile an hour fastballs.



It was a good day that ended with me watching most of my first episode of Doctor Who. I never really paid attention to it. Even Emma does not seem to watch it much, but I distinctly remember her pausing while we were at the hotel bar in Glasgow to watch the end of the Christmas episode. She had to watch Doctor Who save the world. I don't remember much about it except for Kylie Minogue's cameo. I did not mind what I saw, but I think the fandom ruins it for me. It's just a show, people need to really just relax.

A president, activist and a cop walk into a bar...

Been listening to Serge Gainsborg and finding that I don't like him. Tom Jones has an amazing voice, the last Levon Helm (not the new one) does not do it for me and Let It Bleed sounds really good. Also, the Divine Comedy, can't find much of that in Columbus though.

Been thinking that in addition to the year end compilation I've been doing for the past five years, it may be a cool idea to put one together celebrating the best of the decade. It's certainly an ambitious project and I'm not sure what to do about 2000-2003 since I do not have much on record about those years.



Also watched a swift piece of film noir called Detour. Guy hitches from New York to L.A. to get together with his girl. Gets picked up by a man who dies while they're on the road. He ends up with the car and picks up another hitchhiker, a woman with issues, bad things happen. Ann Savage, who was the mother in Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg plays the hitcher with issues. It was made in six days, has some scary bad rear projection but an above average script, which the actors tear through with gusto.

Ran all over the city yesterday in some rather foul weather. Frustrating at time, did not find anything I was looking for but we did pick up a new addition to the family who will be introduced to you all soon.

It's the time of the season

We're not even at mid term elections and the signs are up. Wait three months, when the economy will really be in the tank, will there be pitchforks and torches, or will the populace be so anesthetized by shiny objects and not do a thing, again?



Is he trying to communicate to us when he does these arrangements?



Or should I really just relax and realize that a block is just a block.

Really not much happening. Writers Block has been busy, thinking about a piece for next week's slam and having the gumption and skills to pull off. Agonized about another piece that went over much better than expected.



I've even been working, and have reduced those piles from three to one. The remaining ones though, are mostly original cataloging so they're going to take some time to get through.

And time's what I have right? Or is it on my side? My friend?

You know he got some string and he got some wood

What is it about Tom Jones and puppets? First I hear him sing Puppet Man, then another one about the Young New Mexican Puppeteer. That was some freaky stuff to be playing on the ride to work this morning.



I’ve proclaimed Tom Jones as the new king of pop by the way. Someone has to be and it might as well be him. The man is made of testosterone. In all seriousness that man has an incredibly powerful voice.

He showed up in a cameo in the Gold Help the Girl project, my wife has mentioned him a few times and I have to say I’m quite impressed by the few things I’ve heard from Neil Hannon. I’ve heard a few songs from the Divine Comedy, not much available here and am amused with his latest project, the Duckworth Lewis Method, a group of pop songs that sing the praises of cricket. I have no idea what cricket is about, maybe I need to see Laagan again, but they’re very cool songs, worthy of XTC's output.

Wearing a dress made of stones thrown into the river

I've wanted to write about Friday night since Friday night.

Rachel McKibbons was the feature at First Draft, and she did all new poems. I've heard some of her work on youtube but mostly it was her reputation that preceded her. She is, after all, the reigning Women of the World slam champion.

She's a confessional poet who makes my work seem reticent. She has a delivery of dark things that is beautiful. The way she ends her poems is like no one else I've ever heard. They sound like they end in the middle of a paragraph in the middle of a sentence and her poems are perfect.

After her set there was an open mic. Why the hell anyone would want to read after her is beyond me. What's the point of following that up, we're supposed to get back to work, or retire, but we're poets and we do these things.

It was one of the best open mics I've been to at WB is some time. There were new poets, one who brought a work about a murdered friend that was one of the bravest pieces I've heard in a long while. A couple of virgins. Regulars who stepped up and represented themselves quite well.

I read a new piece I agonized about all day. Wrote, revised, edited, added, subtracted a dick joke and by the time of the open mic I was still crossing things out, adding a couple of lines and still had no confidence in it.

Yet, when the kittens and children blinded by very, very bad people line got a laugh I suspected I was on to something and the room was releasing good noises. And when the ending, which was thought of at a urinal, lines deliberately nicked from Notting Hill were coming I still was not sure how'd they go over.

I asked, and they loved me.