Moving from the lovely chaos of the theatre world to the lovely orderliness of librarianship, has often been a confusing and somewhat painful process for my brain. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my chosen field of study, but I really miss theatre in all of its beautiful craziness.
Occasionally, I feel like this…
Check out this video from Ted.com (if you aren’t familiar with this site–it is an AWESOME collection of talks by really smart people on a countless number of topics):
“Artist and comedian Ursus Wehrli shares his vision for a cleaner, more organized, tidier form of art — by deconstructing the paintings of modern masters into their component pieces, sorted by color and size. Beyond the whimsy, of course, is a serious message, to honor and balance creativity and messiness, form and chaos.”
I could definitely use some of that aforementioned balance. Soon, soon I hope to meld my two worlds. Three more weeks!
XXXOOO
Miss Lgg
Check out this list of 100 free web resources for life-long learnin’, and you can go to school forever and ever, sans the hefty student loans! Woo hoo. Learnin’.
XXXOOO
Miss LGG
Filed under: authors, Fun Stuff, music, Web Resources | Tags: blogs writing music
I like blogs, I like books, I like book blogs. I also like music. Paper Cuts, one of my favorite book blogs has this really great feature called “Living With Music” wherein various authors discuss the effects of music on their lives and in most cases, offer up 10-song playlists complete with reasoning behind each selection.
This concept clearly isn’t new. Starbucks has their “Artist’s Choice” CD’s and I-Tunes has a similar feature, but I appreciate that this particular voyeuristic peek into the musical tastes of the famous is devoted to authors.
Measure for Measure, another of my favorite blogs courtesy of the New York Times features musicians discussing the art of song-writing.
“With music now available with a single, offhand click, it’s easy to forget that songs are not born whole, polished and ready to play. They are created by artists who draw on some combination of craft, skill and inspiration. In the coming weeks, the contributors to this blog — all accomplished songwriters — will pull back the curtain on the creative process as they write about their work on a songs in the making.”
Finally, the blog for my one of my favorite NPR shows, All Song’s Considered, has started a new feature in which they post the lyrics of a song, and readers post their interpretations.
“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” by Wilco
“Everything in Its Right Place” by Radiohead
They also have a great post called “Sigur Ros vs My Spell Checker” Check it out I tell you!
XXXOOO
Miss LGG
The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille, 202 pgs.
The Culture Code by cultural anthropologist (and French ex-pat) Clotaire Rapaille explores the unconscious meanings we apply to products, relationships and our country through the lens of the culture in which we are raised. Below are some of the codes discussed in the book; some of which are incredibly obvious, and others, somewhat shocking. You’ll have to read the book to find out more…
Some American Culture Codes explored in the book:
Car=Identity
Cheese=Dead
Love=False Expectation
Seduction=Manipulation
Sex=Violence
Beauty=Man’s Salvation
Fat=Checking Out
Health=Movement
Youth=Mask
Work=Who You Are
Money=Proof
Quality=It Works
Perfection=Death
Luxury=Military Stripes
Food=Fuel
Alcohol=Gun
Shopping=Reconnecting with Life
Culture Codes for countries:
France=IDEA/French code for America=Space Travelers
England=CLASS/English code for America=Unashamedly Abundant
Germany=ORDER/German code for America=John Wayne
America=DREAM
“The Culture Code offers the benefit of great new freedom gained from understanding why you act the way you do. It gives you a new set of glasses with which you can see the world in a new way. We are all individuals, and each of us has a complex set of motivations, inspirations, and guiding principles–a personal Code, if you will. However, seeing how we think as a culture, how we behave as a group in predictable patterns based on the survival kit we received at birth as Americans, or English, or French, enables us to navigate our world with a vision we’ve heretofore lacked.” — Clotaire Rapaille
Fast-paced, easy to read and peppered with examples from Ropaille’s extensive marketing work, The Culture Code is A fascinating read for anyone interested in how we as a culture operate, our reasons for doing so and how others view us.
If you’re at all interested, you can also check out the Frontline episode “The Persuaders” part of which features the work of Monsieur Rapaille.
In a similar vein, check out this awesome on-line project by Noah Brier, “a collective experiment in brand perception.” I think the brand clouds for American Apparel and Fox News are my personal favorites.
XXXOOO
Miss LGG
Praise Jeebus!
Never again will we be forced to listen to another State of the Union from our reigning idiot president. In celebration of that, I copied and pasted the text of all nine of his lame State of the Union addresses into Wordle, a fun and free text cloud generator. Just enter any text you want, choose the maximum word count, layout, font, color and presto (Click on the image to enlarge):
Just for fun, here are Bill Clinton’s State of the Union addresses in text cloud form:
Bush (top 15): America, American, Americans, Congress, country, economy, freedom, government, Iraq, nation, people, terrorists, weapons, world, year/years
Clinton (top 15): American, Americans, children, Congress, country, crime, give, health care, insurance, jobs, people, system, world, work, year
Very interesting…
XXXOOO
Miss LGG
Filed under: Life, Videos, Web Resources | Tags: family, Life, technology, theatre, video, web-sites
(R)andom (A)wesomeness of the (W)eek…
1. “Embrace a Dignified Life”
My brilliant little brother graduated from college this past weekend. I used to change the kid’s diapers and felt much like a parent must as he received many honors and gushing compliments from faculty and friends. I was so proud. Now I am both incredibly excited and scared for him, as I know all to well what a nerve-wracking time of life this can be, leaving the warm cozy bubble of academia for the real world. The commencement speaker gave an amazing speech encouraging the graduates to “embrace a dignified life” and to always strive to work for the common good rather than money, power and position. “Embrace a dignified life”–I love that phrase–I’ve been thinking about it all week. Embrace a dignified life. I know my little bro will have no problem at all with that. Me, I’m a tryin’!
2. Comeback Kid James Frey/Suck-it Oprah
Remember when all the hub-bub happened around James Frey’s book A Million Little Pieces. Basically what was published as a memoir was proven to be largely fictionalized and chaos ensued. Oprah publicly crucified him, the publishers pulled his book off the shelves and then offered refunds. Memoir or not, I enjoyed his book and I dislike Oprah even more after she tore him to shreds on live television. Then I read thisVanity Fair article, which made me even more pissed at the publishers and Oprah. Now he’s got a new fiction book out, Bright Shiny Morning and it is getting awesome reviews. Congrats James Frey, suck it Oprah.
3. Carl Sagan–Guba
I posted the below video on Facebook awhile ago because it features one of my all-time favorite people Carl Sagan talking about the great library of Alexandria. My friend and fellow Sagan fan Mike directed me to this amazing link about how Sagan and his wife fell in love. Mike also directed me to GUBA a site that allows you to download all sorts of awesome video, including the complete series of Cosmos!
4. NetFlix Streaming Video Box
5. TEAL
Another great find from my friend Mike (he’s like my dealer for fun and interesting web stuff), TEAL stands for Typo Eradication Advancement League. Check out their blog! Thanks for feeding my addiction Mike!
6. The President Gives Up Golf!
Golf? Golf! Ha! Grr! AAAAAHHHHHH! I hate George Bush! Like I often do, I’ll let Keith Olbermann express my anger…
7. On a lighter note–LOL
more cat pictures
8. Three Day Weekends Y’all!!
I’ll be spending mine drinking my friends Dan & Natalie’s new ho-made beer Phil’s Prrrtr with a bunch of crazy union organizers, biking out to the botanical gardens and general chillin with my peeps. Hope you enjoy yours!
XXXOOO
Miss LGG
Once upon a time, long, long ago I loved a man who rarely cracked a book open, well actually never cracked a book open. Fortunately, he was extremely skilled at cracking me up. In fact, I don’t think I stopped laughing until the very, very end of us, which made it easy to overlook this normally unforgivable deal breaker. I felt that maybe all he needed to get into reading was some good old motivation, so I started a “Book It” program just for him, in which if he read a certain number of books (they had to be at least 100 pages–no Choose Your Own Adventure allowed) he would get something a little more exciting than a personal pan pizza. I think he read four books–which was a monumental accomplishment for him, but certainly not prize worthy. Anyway, I’ve never needed motivation to read, but I do fondly remember the library summer reading programs of yore and I do feel a need to read with more purpose these days…so I’ve designed my own summer reading program.
The goal is:
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Two books a week, eight books a month, 24 total.
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6 literary fiction, 6 non-fiction of any style, 6 genre fiction or Young Adult (sci-fi, romance, mystery, thriller), 6 classic
Here is my reading list compiled on the awesome book-sharing site Shelfari:
I haven’t decided what I will reward myself with if I complete the list…perhaps a stay at the Sylvia Beach Hotel, a hotel for book-lovers in beautiful Newport Oregon…
What are your reading goals for the summer?
XXXOOO
Miss LGG
I love living in a hyperlinked world!
I love that I can have an e-mail discussion with a friend starting with this, leading to this and finally wrapping up with this and that.
I love having conversations that begin with government spending/revolution (French and Dance Dance) and end with unicorn covered Trapper Keepers.
Awesome.
XXXOOO
Miss LGG
As a librarian/information maven-in-training I am constantly bombarded with an overwhelming amount of books, websites, articles, etc. In this age of information overload it is certainly hard to keep all of these amazing resources straight. Well tonight, I learned of a web resource designed to do just that. The following link goes out to all of my fellow list-makers:
Ta-da lists is a free website allowing you to create and keep track of personal lists, whatever they may be! You can access them whenever and wherever you are connected. Goodbye sticky notes and other random pieces of paper!
Here are the ones I’ve created thus far:
- Things to do this month
- Things to do this year
- Things to do in this lifetime
- Books I want to read
- Books I should read
- Websites for fun
- Websites for reference
- Blogs by friends
- Blogs by librarians
- Blogs by other random awesome folk
Make some lists, save some trees and enjoy!
XXXOOO
Miss LGG
I saw the play Crimes of the Heart yesterday at a theatre in Naperville, one of the gazillion suburbs of Chicago. Why drive all the way out to Naperville to see theatre you might ask? To which I reply, I went to see one of my darling friends perform! He was brilliant, despite having to act on the tiniest stage ever. Seriously tiny–with a table and three chairs, a sink, stove and cot all crammed up there.
Anyway, the long drive back to the city gave me way too much time to ponder the nearly 13 years that have passed since I was in that very same play. It was the summer after freshman year of college and I stuck around my trashy college town to avoid returning to my small hometown to work as a cashier at the local grocery store. Anyway, I was cast as Babe in Crimes of the Heart along with someone who is now quite famous. This person, who will remain unnamed, was several years older than me and it bears mentioning that in college a three year age difference feels like a monumental gap in wisdom and maturity. She took me under her wing, and I was enamored of her, of her confidence, her power over men, and especially her plan. This girl had a plan. A plan to move to LA and make it big, and she had it planned down to the tiniest detail. From point A to Z–this is how she would make it happen.
Now I’m sure it didn’t quite all happen as she had planned, but she did indeed make it BIG, and I have to wonder: a) how much of it was luck? b) how much of it was drive and persistence? c) how much of it was having a plan and making every effort to stick to it? Ehh, probably all of the above, with some talent thrown in there, and also big boobs. They always help. Dammit.
Me though, I can’t even stay loyal to a day-planner. I buy them every year and vow to be a better planner of life, but never write anything in them after a week. Sometimes I wonder if my lack of a solid plan is a good thing or the reason for feeling like I’m always spinning my wheels. I’ve lived most of my life operating on the “I live in the moment,” free-spirited, “whatever happens happens” attitude–and I’m starting to think that’s bull-shit. You gotsta have a plan. You of course need to be flexible, but you definitely need some idea of where you want your life to go. Duh.
Holy shit. I’ve finally figured it all out. All of it.
To illustrate my point with a book, which you will soon learn is how I operate–I will direct you to the current book I’m reading, which just happens to be the perfect example of what kind of giant mess can happen when you operate without a plan. I suggest this book to anyone who:
a) enjoys black comedy
b) is royally pissed off about the Bush administration and needs more fodder for arguing with people who are still republicans
c) needs motivation for planning something
Oh crap, I’m sorry, I’m not being a very good librarian when I let my own political leanings influence how I describe the book. In all seriousness, this book is an eye-opening, intimate look at what happened (or didn’t happen) inside the resort-like Green-zone in Baghdad. It will make you laugh out loud, scratch your head, cry, and shake with anger–all at the same time. It will also make you want to plan the shit out of things.
Miss LGG’s Book of the Week:
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Reviews of Miss LGG’s Book of the Week (by professionals who actually know how to review a book):
Website of the Day:
Lifehacker “tech tips, tricks and downloads for getting things done”
****************************************************************************
Alright, I’m off to start planning some stuff!
XXXOOO,
Miss LGG
P.S. I have a potty mouth. Sorry.
P.S.S No I’m not.
