When it opened in 1971, nearly 100 authors (including one of my faves) sent letters of congratulations to the new Troy, Michigan public library.
The Troy public library, ranked as the 10th best library in the entire US for its population category, will be closing its doors in July 2011.
Mosaic is a long-standing multicultural festival in Regina which is an highlight for many in the city.
For $14 (the current price though I remember when it cost half that! </oldman>), you get a passport that allows you entry into numerous pavilions located in curling rinks and community halls around the city (plus free bus transportation between them if you’re imbibing or just don’t want to fight the traffic.)
Each pavilion – be it Korean, Latin American, Ukrainian, German and so on – features relevant cultural entertainment, food & drink, displays and occasionally vendors. The food is a bit over-priced for what you get (often sampler plates are the best value but these will still run you about $8-12 each for not a lot of food) but hey, you’re probably going to try something at most pavilions and it’s only once a year right?
For many, part of the appeal is seeing how many of the 20-odd pavilions you can get to over the three days that the festival runs. For that reason, hitting the same venue twice is a rarity (unless you have a favoured venue that you like to end at every night. Traditionally, this would be the Scottish, Irish, Carribbean pavilions which are the “party central” ones.)
But this year, Shea and I were so impressed with the entertainment at the Brazilian pavilion that after going out last night with friends but leaving Pace at home with my aunt, we decided to go back again today to catch the show from the front row with him joining us this time.
Back in late April (two months ago in normal human time but eons in Internet time), I wrote about Tout, a new web video service that’s like a combo of Twitter and YouTube.
Well, because, I don’t get many opportunities to toot (tout) my own horn for being not only on the ball but ahead of the curve, I’ve decided to make Tout the first-ever site to get re-featured as a Friday Fun Link.
Why? Well, it recently made major headlines when Shaquille O’Neal decided to use Tout to announce his retirement! (He also sang a really bad off-key version of a Prince song and did a bunch of other funny short video clips as well as naming himself “King of All Social Media” or some such.)
Anyhow, I’m hoping to get a clip of Pace announcing his retirement from daycare on Tout soon in response to Shaq’s big bombshell. But in the meantime, I’m using Tout more and more as I love the insight it gives and can give into people’s everyday lives.
I recently did a post about bands I’ve seen so I thought this might be the work-equivalent of that list from my personal life.
I’m focusing on speakers I saw as stand-alones or as keynotes at conferences, not every single person I’ve ever seen do a session which would be a very very long list.
(As with the band list, I’m sure this is incomplete.)
Susan Agulukark
Margaret Atwood
Maude Barlow
David Bouchard
Gord Downie
Will Ferguson
Sue Gardner
Michael Geist
Curtis Gillespie
Joseph Janes
Darci Lang
Stephen & Avi Lewis
Sid Marty
Brian Twaits
Jessamyn West
I’m at the Workshop for Instruction in Library Use (WILU) conference in Regina from today until Friday.
Here are a few random thoughts from my first day…
– it’s always enjoyable to attend a conference in a different city – staying in a hotel, eating meals in cool restaurants, checking out the attractions of a new place. But there’s definitely something to be said for a conference where you get to go to sleep in your own bed every night! (I took my leave from the reception tonight saying I had to go watch the hockey game and one librarian who’s staying in the college dorms like most attendees blurted “Where are you going to watch it?” At home, I replied. “Ohhh, right. You live here.” she said almost sadly.)
– great session on using technology tools in library instruction and you always end up hearing about new sites or sites you should re-visit.
– as I often do on those all too rare occasions that I get back to the U of R campus, I took the opportunity to visit the English department and have a wander around. I’d say about half the profs’ names are familiar and half are new (which leads to the realization that many of my profs were probably younger than I am now when they taught me – a disturbing thought for some reason.)
– speaking of my English degree, I’ve talked about this before but I tend to write this blog in an informal, stream-of-consciousness manner with no proofing. So all kinds of typos and “there/their, too/to/two” type errors slip through. This is my own fault, not U of R’s, and I won’t be asking for a refund. But I still reserve the right to judge other people posting online who make spelling and grammar mistakes! 😉
– still on that note, our body not keeping up with our brain was one of the themes of our excellent keynote speaker…
– it was great to catch up with a few colleagues I went to library school with and to meet others who were either at FIMS before or after I was there. (I’m especially looking forward to corralling two who are connected to St. John’s – one currently and one from her undergrad days so I intend to pick their brains in advance of our trip out east next month.)
– at the reception, one guest who, like a good librarian had researched Regina and its attractions, was very excited to hear that RPL had a film theatre. Another was interested in our province’s multitype database licensing program.
– I also got a chance to brag talk about SILS a bit too.
– okay, back to the game. In honour of Regina’s American visitors (and because I’m cheering for them too), I’ll say “Go Bruins Go!”
It wasn’t a surprise but it was nice to have it made official today – the Atlanta Thrashers have been purchased by True North Sports and will be moved to Winnipeg next season – though it’s still not known if they’ll be called the Jets or something else.
When St. Louis had their training camp in Regina in the early 1980’s (back when there were serious rumours of the Blues relocating to Saskatchewan if you can believe it!) I got to see the Blues against the Oilers in a pre-season game including Wayne Gretzky even playing a couple shifts.
Beyond that, my opportunities to see live NHL hockey were pretty limited living in the midst of the Canadian prairies. But when Dave Karpa, a local boy made good ended up playing for the Quebec Nordiques, a busload of guys from Indian Head (including my dad and I) made the five hour drive to see the Jets play the Nordiques in my first-ever regular season NHL game.
(Side note: Dave Karpa was a couple years older than me so I never played ice hockey with him. But we happened to live on the same street so we did play a lot of road hockey. I joke that my best connection to the NHL is that I stopped the frozen tennis ball slap shots of a future NHL’er with my testicles on a regular basis!)
So yeah, that road trip to see the Jets vs. Nords was an awesome experience. The classic Winnipeg Arena with the giant portrait of the Queen hanging at the end of the arena. Teemu Selanne got a hat trick. And after the game (it must’ve been the last one before the NHL’s Christmas break?), “Beans” (as Karpa was nicknamed) caught a ride back to Indian Head on our bus!
That was somewhere around 1992 or 1993 maybe and was pretty much the only NHL game I would get to for another decade. When we lived in Calgary from 2001-2004, I got to quite a few games thanks to the generosity of family and friends who had season tickets (and I occasionally coughed up on my own too!)
Tickets were expensive but I still kick myself that I didn’t drop the $500 for season tickets in the nose bleeds for the 2004 season, the year when the Flames went on their magical run to the Cup Finals. That would’ve given me first dibs on playoff tickets so I could’ve gotten to a few games (and more than made up the cost of the season tickets by scalping any I didn’t use!) instead of the lone playoff tilt I got to. It was a good one to attend though – the Flames’ first playoff game after seven straight years of missing the playoffs.
Anyhow, I’m glad to hear that NHL hockey will be returning to the Canadian prairies. Perhaps in ten or fifteen years, I’ll be creating a similar memory for Pace when we take a road trip to Winnipeg for a game. Or who knows, maybe he’ll be the heavily muscled, well-dressed guy getting on the bus after a game that a bunch of his hometown family and friends have traveled hours to attend!
Behold the wonder that is former Fred Eaglesmith sideman, Washboard Hank…
Shea and I are off to a wedding in Newfoundland a month from now, from June 30 until July 9. (Er, our holiday is that long – I don’t think the wedding will last ten days. But it *is* Newfoundland so who knows?)
Shea’s never been further east than Montreal and I’ve only beaten her by a nose (I know someone will mis-read that as “beaten her *on* the nose”) by getting as far as Quebec City in high school. So both of us are really looking forward to it.
We’ve had a lot of fun Googling and reading web sites and books (the anticipation and planning can be as fun as the trip sometimes!) but after many permutations, I think we’ve decided to go for the minimalist/local approach – spending the first few days in St. John’s then doing the Irish Loop around the Avalon Pennisula before going up to Conception Bay for a couple-three days, hitting various nearby attractions – Cape Spear, Ferryland, Brigus, etc.
They would undoubtedly all be highlights but we decided to skip some highly recommended spots that are further (and much further!) away – St. Pierre & Miquelon , Gros Morne National Park and (saddest for me to give up), the Viking Settlement at L’Anse Aux Meadows.
Anybody who’s been and has any tips for must-see’s and must do’s, we’d appreciate it. (Barring a few days he spent with my parents when Shea and I were both deadly ill earlier this year, this will be the longest we’ve been away from Pace too. So feel free to recommend great pubs that don’t allow kids, restaurants that don’t give out crayons when they seat you and any places that are open past 8 pm!)
Shea’s out with a friend tonight so Pace and I got to have a Boy’s Night Out. He wanted to go clubbing <grin> but instead, we went to see “Born to Be Wild 3D” at the Kramer Imax Theatre in the Sask Science Centre. I snapped this pic while we were playing in their outdoor play area after the movie.
A UK librarian has created a series of World War-style propaganda posters that are pro-library as a response to the ongoing cuts to UK libraries.
(h/t to CH)
