Blog Post
Great Article on Wikipedia
by Eartoground
The July 31 New Yorker magazine has a fabulous article, "Annals of Information: Know It All: Wikipedia takes on the experts," which begins, "On March 1st, Wikipedia, the on-line interactive encyclopedia, hit the million-articles mark, with an entry on Jordanhill, a railway station in suburban Glasgow." Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff wrote the New Yorker article, which you can access through General Reference Center Gold. Or check out the July 31 New Yorker from the periodicals area of one of our libraries.
Blog Post
Gen Con or Bust!
by lola
I went to Gen Con, the Best Four Days in Gaming, this weekend in Indianapolis. It was really awesome. I saw tons of new card games, board games, and role playing games. I also found out some cool stuff like the book Dragonology is now a board game. The new video game based on Eragon was available to play even though it doesn’t come out until November, and there was big talk about the movie coming out in December. I also saw the crew of Mythbusters from the Discovery Channel. They did a demo on how to clean stinky feet, a concern for the participants of Gen Con. I am already dreaming of next year. Did anyone else get a chance to go?
Blog Post
Castro on Film
by amy
On Monday, prior to undergoing major surgery, 79-year-old Fidel Castro handed the reins to his brother, Raúl, leading many to wonder if it will soon be Springtime for Cuba? Now seems a good time to look back at the man on film. The Library carries the following DVDs: 2005's Fidel Castro and Fidel Castro: El Comandante. For more flavor, there's 1974's Waiting For Fidel; El Che; and various films detailing the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Blog Post
Beach Reads #5 (admittedly borrowed...)
by muffy
Billed as the British version of Oprah's Book Club, the vastly popular "Richard (Madeley) & Judy (Finnigan)" talk show has its very own RICHARD & JUDY'S SUMMER READ!.
The 2006 list is selected by Amanda Ross who is the joint managing director of Cactus TV, which produces the show, and was recently named the No. 1 most influential person in British publishing.
Instead of the authors or experts, a panel of celebrities is invited to discuss the books (only paperback titles are considered) on air. Richard & Judy are pleased that "The books are there to be read and enjoyed and talked about sensibly, not in the rarefied ways of a wine buff or a food critic, but in the way the rest of the world does".
Don't be surprised to find U.S. titles and some very familiar names, and what a great way to get to know new ones.
Blog Post
WebSpace: The Movies?
by amy
An article from Sunday's NY Times, "Hollywood Clicks on the Work of Web Auteurs," discusses the 11-minute online hit, MySpace: The Movie and the type of filmmaking fare the web is likely to spawn in the future. Times contributor Walter Kirn, author of the novel Thumbsucker, which was recently made into a feature film, makes the following comments: "The Net is a self-consciously anti-authoritarian audience. They are spit-ballers, defacers, vandals, skeptics. It's a class without a teacher. The movies that succeed on it will have those properties....The Net is going to unleash a hybrid talent and a hybrid sensibility. What it needs is an Orson Welles, an unclassifiable polymath...."
Blog Post
by Van
The Company and its History:
The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle
The Google Story by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed
Winning Results with Google AdWords by Andrew Goodman
The AdSense Code: What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense by Joel Comm
The New Ann Arbor Job Postings:
AdWords Associate – Ann Arbor
AdWords Coordinator – Ann Arbor
Associate Manager, Online Operations, AdWords – Ann Arbor
Blog Post
Into the Wild
by amy
Sean Penn is currently filming Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild (1996) about Chris McCandless' ill-fated Alaskan wilderness odyssey of 1992. Although the book is dramatic enough, it's unlikely Penn will spin off, as Krakauer does, into the intriguing stories of other fanatical adventurers--Everett Ruess, John Waterman, Gene Rosellini--who also ventured off into the wild full of ideals and hubris, never to return. Part cautionary tale, Krakauer also does his bit to counter those who would dismiss the bright, Tolstoy-quoting Jack London-loving McCandless as mere crackpot by setting him within the context of other intensely motivated nature lovers (John Muir, Henry David Thoreau) who also retreated from society into the seductive refuge of nature.
Blog Post
Artful Reading
by muffy
May Ray, Ernst, Duchamp = DADA? Yes, but not quite the whole story.
Daughters of DADA at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art is currently showcasing the works of 6 DADA women artists, and “adds a crucial chapter to the current DADA exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art”, writes Holland Cotter, art reviewer of the New York Times.
Perhaps the most outrageous and original among them is the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. With her tin-can bra and shaved head, she treated her body as a living work of art, causing historians today to recognize her preeminence as America’s first performance artist.
Holy Skirts by Rene Steinke is a vivid imagining of Elsa’s story – from her days in Berlin’s seedy burlesques, her many marriages and affairs, to her life among the bohemia of Greenwich Village. Intelligent and sensual, this highly readable novel is a finalist of the 2005 National Book Award.
Blog Post
Pirates or Superheroes?
by lola
Who said the library isn’t hip and cool? We change with the times and have the perfect books to go along with the popular movies in the box office. Are you interested in getting clued in on insider information on Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Caribbean? Check out the Pirates of the Caribbean Visual Guide. If you are more of a superhero fan and camped outside to see the new superman movie, Superman Returns, you should spend time browsing the Superman graphic novels. So the question is: Who would win, Jack Sparrow or Superman, in a fight to the death?
Blog Post
A Pirate's Life For Me
by amy
If a sequel to the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl isn't enough (Pirates 2 opens next Friday), then avast ye, maties!: Pirates 3, currently filming, will include a cameo by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards as Johnny Depp's father. Depp has acknowledged he based his Oscar-nominated and sequel-spinning role as pirate Captain Jack Sparrow on the legendary rhythm guitarist. And as if to prove his worthiness of the homage, Richards recently fell out of a palm tree and underwent skull surgery. Word is he's doing fine and apparently looking forward to filming in September--just in time for Talk Like a Pirate Day!.