This film is on a maddening loop.

Summer Reading ended Saturday with a block party and a dj. I also worked all day Saturday pre-block party and Sunday afternoon. I'm pretty fried now, but, on the plus side, I feel like my own summer can start.
That's the fun thing about being childless and not in school. Summer starts when I feel it should (which is usually around the beginning of May, thanks to Pitt), really gets going when it can for me (when Summer Reading Program ends), and continues until I want it to be fall (usually around when I buy the year's first pair of cords or sweater I really love).
So bring on the squirt guns, cheap beer, dancing horses, giggling about boys, and parking lot dance parties. I'll be stretched out on my floor, directly under the ceiling fan, listening to Out of Time.



Billboard July 29

• I love that fabric there.
  
• I think I want to make a wrap skirt out of it.
  
• I don't know who this woman in the ToC is, but she looks a mess. Like, a feathery dress with a big black bow.
  
• MESS
  
• I tried to find a pic online, but I'm not getting anything.
  
• YouTube has been sued on copyright issues.
  
• By the guy who filmed Reginald Denny getting beat up during the 1992 LA Riots.
  
• Does that seem kinda fucked up to anyone else, that he wants royalties for footage of some guy getting beaten?
  
• Would Denny see any of that money?
  
• Janet Jackson's going to let fans make the cover art for her next album.
  
• Oh my.
  
• Christina Aguilera has a new album to promote, and yet she's clothed in these pictures.
  
• I am curious about her new album.
  
• I'm always interested in pop stars attempts to gain credibility, whether they succeed or not.
  
• Especially if it's overdone.
  
• For example, JT did not need to:

1. Change his moniker semi-officially to JT ('cause it worked so well for NKOTB).
   
2. Start working with people with cred out the ass.
   
3. AND Use his next big single/video to talk shit on his ex.

• I think just one of those, or maybe 2, would have been fine.
  
• Oh dear.
  
• There's a John Mayer giant 2 page ad in here.
  
• It looks like a pin-up.
  
• Suddenly, I'm reading Tiger Beat.
  
• John Mayer is one of those people whose music I can't stand, but he's so funny in interviews.
  
• Plus, he was on Dave Chapelle's show.
  
• And he likes popsicles!
  
• mmmm, popsicles.
  
• I've got 3 lime ones (the good, fruit ones--I don't like fake lime) in my freezer right now.
  
• I had to buy the fancy-schmancy real fruit ones because my stupid grocery store didn't have what I really wanted: rocket pops.
  
• Of course, this is also the grocery chain that has no refridgerated 6 packs yet keeps boxed wine in the cold case, so what are you going to do?
  
• This John Mayer interview isn't that good.
  
• I'm going to blame the magazine for that.
  
• Seriously, Billboard interviews always suck.
  
• I don't know why I read them.
  
• And for some reason there's a "congratulations" ad for Mayer with an illustration of him all dolled up Rocky Horror style.
  
• It's a bit terrifying.

While You Were Out

Before I left for New Orleans, I parked Junior in the abandoned parking lot across the street from me. They re-tarred (heh) it while I was gone, and haven't come back to fill in the hole.
Thankfully, I didn't get towed or ticketed or anything. But who redoes a parking lot without posting notices?

I love the little tacos.

I got a glittery Gir shirt in the FOC 3 Swap! Thanks, Amanda!

I made a skirt! The fabric is maps. The pleats were a pain in the ass. I have to put in on/off over my head b/c I'm not very good with the exact measuring yet.



I made a scarf! It's stripes of tshirts I cut up. Then I made li'l felt guys to go on it. This was for the Fruits Basket Swap on Craftster.


New prom glass!

Daphne was not so chaste as she was changing.*

Billboard July 22

• So, um, reviews of the new Outkast? Not that great.
  
• Which makes me sad.
  
• Although I cheer back up again when I think about how Stacey and I both have certain The Love Below spoken interludes memorized.
  
• I just want to lay in her hair.
  
• So, I got stood up Sunday night.
  
• I predicted it, but still--I'm kinda pissed.
  
• Jessica Simpson is looking Anna Nicole-esque in this Yahoo Music ad.
  
• It's not pretty.
  
• Hey, remember those tapes your mom could buy for you that were personalized with birthday songs with your name in them?
  
• Jessica Simpson's doing that with her new single.
  
• She'll call out the buyer's name in the lyrics.
  
• Lara's birthday is coming up...
  
• Idlewild looks cool, though.
  
• 6 questions with David Johansen.
  
• Looking quite rough and wearing what appear to be women's flared jeans, I might add.
  
• My local 80s night has been playing "Putting on the Ritz" for the last couple weeks, and that is very fun.
  
• At least for me.
  
• And Melissa.
  
• I'm sure no one else cares, as long as they've got someone to grope.
  
• "a lot of songs about stabbing your friend in the eye with a ballpoint pen"
  
• hunh?
  
• Is this an actual song that I don't know about?
  
• You know, I'd like "Promiscuous Girl" a lot better if it was all chorus.
  
• ahh, crap
  
• Now I've got "Dirty Little Secret" stuck in my head.
  
• My nerdy shame: I've watched that video, on mute, because the song is irritating but I wanted to see all the Post Secret cards.
  
• Aw, and look at that--Post Secret is blocked by our filter.
  
• New adorable green 1920s little house!
  
• Possibly even cuter than the last one!

*Thanks to Tiff for the title. It's the title of an Elizabethan song that I'm going to assume she was cataloging.
Funny Tiff aside: So last night, post pizza'n'beer noshing, I'm watching History Detectives. I love that show; they just drive around and do research and it's so damn cool.
Anyway, this guy had a snippet of a silent Western, mislabeled, no credits, and the Detective took it to a film archive in Dayton! Where Tiff lives! And I called her, ready to blurt out, "How come you never told me there was a film archive in Dayton? Did you know about this!? We should plan a field trip!"
The first thing she said when she picked up the phone was, "You're watching History Detectives; did you know there was a film archive in Dayton!?"
mmmm, nitrate.

From an email I got today:

URGENT Action Needed: The ALA Washington Office has learned that the US
House of Representatives may try to expedite passage of H.R. 5319, the
Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), TOMORROW, July 26th. The bill is
moving forward as is, with no changes to the original language.

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE'S OFFICE TODAY and ask that he/she
oppose HR 5319. The Capitol Switchboard number is: 202-224-3121.

To find out who your Representative in the House is, go here.

To learn more about DOPA, please go here.

We all know my representative won't do shit, but maybe someone else's could?
Also, is this Teens Have No Rights Week or what?

New Orleans, Where Even the Urban Outfitters Employees Are Friendly and Helpful: ALA 2006 bk 4

(Seriously, the friendliest, most helpful, and least hipstersnobby UO employee I’ve ever seen. Sidebar: I always wonder what UO employees have to be so hipstersnobby about. I mean, if they’re so hip, what are they doing working for a giant chain whose sole purpose, most days, seems to be taking DIY and thrift culture and charging an arm and a leg for it? Not, of course, that I don’t shop there; I clearance rack hop anywhere. Sidebar 2: Why is it so damn hard for me to find a straight, short-not-mini, basic black nonpencil, no ruffles, skirt?)

I love in the 2nd Scott Pilgrim when the free newsweekly is held up and one of the sidebars is “Comic Books Aren’t for Kids Anymore”.
Neil Gaiman talked about the graphic novel thing on his blog. Plenty of librarians argued with this, on both listservs I’m on.
Frankly, I do think that his complaint that one could be left with the impression that librarians are only interested in manga has some merit (don't hurt me, please). But I think that has more to do with the audience questions than anything else. Our crews want manga, so we ask other librarians, and maybe some of the indie and/or realistic stuff falls by the wayside because you just can’t cover everything in the amount of time given. Even with that, I thought it was a great and informative program. But then, I don’t need a primer; I just like some help keeping up.
I remain totally fascinated with the idea of boy-love manga (no one is surprised by my attraction to the boy-on-boy). However, realistic stuff (ie/eg not fantasy) doesn’t tend to circ with my crew, and I’m way too cheap to buy it on my own dime. Someday…
My favorite inside-Jessy’s-head Simpsons reference came at the graphic novel program. A mother of a teenager* was talking about some boy-love book in her daughter’s room and how she asked who was the boy and who was the girl.
“Girls, Lisa. Boys kiss girls.”

By Teens For Teens
My library doesn’t have a teen advisory board. When I made moves to start one, I got a big fat “meh” from my crew.
Unfortunately, most of these “by teen for teen” conference programs that I’ve been to have been all about the TAB. I’m constantly working on ideas for getting feedback/ideas from area teens, not just my regulars, in some sort of casual way.
The best part of this program was the Neighborhood Story Project people. Ashley Nelson is seriously one of the best speakers I’ve ever seen. I really need to read her book, and so does everyone else.
I think what really struck me about the NSP thing was the respect everyone involved clearly has for each other. It’s not, as was so often the case in my high school and I suspect lots of places, white adults with missionary complexes (and sometimes religious funding, making them kinda actual missionaries) coming into the ghetto to help the poor children there. It’s teachers and other adults using their talents and skills to start something somewhere. And that’s awesome, and something I think everyone should aspire to.

So that’s ALA. I know I left some bits out, but this was the general gist.
Jesus, storytime’s loud.



*Someday, somewhere, I will have a conversation with a group of my professional peers and we will actually talk about our actual teenage patrons, not anyone’s children. I can’t help but feel that somehow, somewhere in this “my son/daughter…” method of librarianship, there’s an undercurrent of “You haven’t raised a kid, so you don’t know how to librarian to them.” Or maybe it’s just time for me to move back to someplace where single, childless, and not uncomfortable with either thing girls aren’t such a rarity so I don’t feel like the only boyfriendless, no-kid-having-and-not-caring 27yrold in town.

So, I found my other 10 1/2 needle, but I lost the first one.

Ah, knitting humor. Billboard July 15

• Jesus, these people think I'm a factory.
• THis is the second Billboard I've done today, and I still have to finish the neverending ALA blogging, so I can write the professional version.
• The professional version, which drops the F-bomb a lot less.
• I'm lobbying for "F-Bomb" to become the official YALSA euphemism for fuck, by the way.
• A committee will be formed; I need a bunch of signatures on a petition.
• It'll be great.
• Anyway, I wasn't going to blog this issue, because there's other things I could be doing, but then I look at the cover and it says:
• "Mariah Goes Crazy (For Branding)"
• How tasteless is that!?
• Bravo, BillboardM. Bravo.
• It's not every magazine that would refer to a celebrity's Pepsi deal my mocking her battles with craziness.
• Pete Yorn's doing a tour diary.
• The US Air Guitar competition is apparently big bucks.
• The world championships of air guitar are held in Finland, surprising no one.
• Aw, Danger Mouse is so cute.
• The listening party for St. Elsewhere was held in a Johnny Rockets.
• "...I truly believe that no matter how the evolution of digital distribution affects the brick-and-mortar store, indie merchants will be the last man standing, if it ever comes to that."
• That's Ed Christman, who write the "Retail Track" column.
• I'm glad to see someone finally saying that in this magazine.
• Let's be realistic. What has more of a chance of succeeding:
• the chains that only carry the newest cds and are expensive
• or the hole-in-the-wall indies that are frequented by the people who are still interested in the materiality of records and cds.
• Yes, I said "materiality".
• Don't you love when my pretentiousness is showing?
• Mariah Carey never had to worry about branding before because she was either married to a very very rich man or her singles were everywhere.
• Now that she's more of a joke than a hit-maker, she needs ads.
• Plus, Glitter.
• Which even me 'n' Tiff couldn't get through, and that's saying something.
• Her next movie is from the same guy that produced Monster's Ball.
• So, you know, she'll show us her (fake) tits and magically become integrious.
• Yay, Halle Berry.
• X3 had the world's worst wig.
• Urgh, Thom Yorke's solo album.
• I'm falling asleep just looking at the cover art.
• Soul Asylum have a new album, too.
• Remember that video where Claire Danes was an angel?
• "I was like, don't waste the match."
• You should totally go watch the Christmas "My So-Called Life" if you don't know what I'm talking about.
• "It was one of those fights, where it feels like the fight is having you."