Finis Me (Flash Me, Baby)

And just like that it was over. The exercises finished, the feeds swallowed and digested, the sites seen. No longer will white noise or a cacaphonous din be characterized as "blah blah blah. Now that din of confusion will be "blog blog blog"
Yes, there are a feast of features out there available to the web explorer and some of them can and will make our lives easier. Easier? No, I'm not sure I believe that. They will give us something but they will take away at the same time just as every major leap in technology has done. Libraries will change and itis hoped that those who work in them will change as well becoming more attuned to the people they meet, adapt to the wide range of needs, not just today's "amazing" idea. At least a man can hope.............

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK

Muy intereante. Enjoyed Mike Hart's little self server in which he just happens to intimate the parallells between American philanthropic giants and himself. Not sure I'm quite ready for the theory the Net and/or E-Books will goose reading scores through the roof. Am quite prepared to accept that both will up the need for constant stimulation. A good thing? Quien sabes. Looked up something on our own Ebooks site and was gratified to see that we had All the Kings Men...........sorta. We have 72 pages of Cliffnotes. Perfect. My techno journey (for now) if over.

The Pod People

Okay, been there and done that. Went to a charming little site that comments on Dylan's Theme Tim radio broadcasts. Chose the one about Jimmy Dean (the rebel, not the sausage king) RSS copied to bloglines and thought about what library podcasts I would find interesting. I think we all know the answer to that one. Can these be effective tools for communication? Like everything else it's not the gun it's the one holding the gun if you get my drift. One more exercise to go and then the overview. I can smell the barn...........

Tube Indeed

Okay here's the first Youtube post

I chose it because my son is the catcher watching the display of histronics. It was his first professional game. Here's number two. Some say it was one of the most exciting moments in the history of the Oscars.

Joe Cataloger

Did my library thang. Seven books, five tags and a comment. Onward to glory................Twenty is next

Back and Forth

Apparently I neglected exercise six so I went back looked at the trading cards site and contemplated a world where librarians had trading cards of themselves. Would one still get the powdered gum or would instead something like cough drops or airborne be substituted. For some reason the first thing I thought of when I saw the phrase Librarian Trading cards was the experience of Casey Stengel when he was a multi-tasking minor league player, manager, and general manager. Seeing his team go nowhere Casey the manager released Casey the player, Casey the general manager fired Casey the managere and then Casey the general manager resigned. Why did I think of this? Must have been my growing weary of passwords and waiting for the approval from the Zorro or whatever it's called. Yes, I'll try it. Consider this my commentary on it................Now 6 and 19 are done. Basta!

Wikki Favorites

Somebody said Lord of the Rings is a good book. True? Yes exercise 18 is done and we're rolling down the track. For the record I did put 3 favorite books but like most folks I could have listed 300.

Sixteen (Tons and what do you get)

Wikkis seen and edited. Favorite music now displaying the Countdown Lounge touch. Of course these can be useful since there is so many people out there with arcane bit of knowledge ready to share. I myself added to John Prine's wikki, inserting the name of his personal favorite song (it's mine too--we both had ex-waitress lovers named Cathy) Like everything else on this menu though its charm is also its pitfall. A million folks can contribute but a million ain't gonna be right. No news there. On to exercise 17..........

Emperor's Latest Fashion?

It's hard to say what is the strangest aspect of our modern world. Is it the rapidity and disposability of culture or is it the need to prognosticate and the announce every ripple on the sea of existence as the tidal wave that will sweep away life as we know it? That question being posed, it seems clear that the world of information and its library subset is spinning if not in a different direction, certainly at an increased speed. 2.0 will certainly change the way we in libraries look at things: yes let's watch out for the bergs and be attentive to the information supplied by our patrons. Uh duh. Collections shrinking? The numbers say yes and nobody has every gone on Fox News to comment about the "smartening up" of the American public. Perhaps it would be okay if that 4 volume study of Old Hickory's time in the White House (R.I.P. Art Schlesinger) need only be owned by one regional library and if demand dictates, then supplemented. Will we be able to spot trends? Sure, but will they be the right ones, how long will they last, and are we neglecting today by looking over it's shoulder at an age that may not come to pass? Questions upon questions. Answeres? If somebody had them he'd eitheer be ignored or hung like a horsethief. "but it's alright ma, it's life and life only"

Technorati Amorati

Just joking. Not so big a fan. Scanned the list of top 100 and was stunned to see some Fox News shill, beautiful Thai girls, and schemes to make more bucks on the techno playing field. I'm getting kinda tired of these different engines etc. Did I notice a difference in "learning 2.0" in the blogs, posts, or tags? Is that a trick question since one had a ton ,one had none, and the other was just right. Oops slid into Golidlocks speak there. Will I use this? I think not. I may go with the Delish factor but that's it. Advantages: sure all these allow you to narrow your focus somewhat. Disadvantages: see advantages. Sometimes the greatest finds are the ones that we trip over while we're looking far ahead.....

Delicioso

Yep, went in and started whipping those favorites into shape with some tags. Now I can hit "venue" and I'll know who's hitting the Fillmore Memorial Day weekend. Yes the tagging seems a good way to organize these untidy bookmarks that tend to spiral away. Would this be good for research? Methinks yes since it seems to be an effective organizational tool for whatever topic one is compiling. Would I spend a lot of time with it? Perhaps more so than others but as in everything else the setup requires time and I do get impatient. Onward to the next exercise.........

Rock and Rollyo

Oh yes, exercise 12 just a speck in the rear view mirror. A very substantila list of Americana acts added to my personal search engine (look under American Tunesmiths) and now I can get to any and all of these artists when I want to figure out when Bob's coming in concert or else how many times Hank Williams is mentioned by these folks. Interesting but it's just as fun for me to jump around to the respective websites myself. Sorry old luddite me..............

My Space Vs. You Tube

Me, I got to go with the Youtube......endless videos of Bob Dylan, funny commercials, short movies, Emmylou Harris songs........enough to fill any lunchtime and more. MySpace....yeah I got it and I answer people's request to be my friend but what is it but another knd of on-line communication shorthand. Best and most effective kinds of communication: 1.face to face dialogue 2.phone conversation 3. letters featuring well thought out opinions and salutations 4.email which is horthand my nature and 6. on-line telegraphs like myspace. Still....I will put together a page for the band and try and work it. I don't have to like it to let it tug me along..........(exercise number 11 if you're counting)

Generous Generator

Here we have the alpha and omega of this exercise #10. Irritation gives wayto contemplation of the finer things. So say we all...........

Number Nine Number Nine Number Nine

I don't know. These search engines seem to confound as much as illuminate. This entire blog thing I continue to find disquieting since when you type in say a name of person or band or activity you get to learn what Jimmy Lee in Cornbreak Idaho thought about it. Do I care. Does Jimmy care about me? I think we know the answer to this one. I find that searching the web proper more fulfilling but maybe I'm still choking on that bitter pill from the RSS feeds exercise. We soldier on...........

Back, Bitter, and Busted

Yeah I'm back struggling thorugh this offal with the expert help of my compadre ten14. Yes, I got RSS feeds after my first six tries came up zero and I am ready to read of my co-workers triumphs and tragedies just as soon as I proceed through some more exercises. I feel like a character in The Departed if you get my drift. Onward and upward....3/19

http://www.bloglines.com/public/pitycity

Techno Ho Ho

1/25/07 Week Three Exercises 5, 6, 7

You bet I've been to Flicker and have populated my site with some nifty images of sojurn in Spain as well as an action photo of my guitar picking son Todd and me singing a trilogy of songs I wrote about my wife's Texas roots. I suppose my next leap will be to get some of those pics over here on this site, but that may have to wait until the next exercise. Now it seems to me that the simple act of writing this would be fulfilling exercise numbeer seven. After all it's not like it's being written on Chinese rice paper or sticked in the dirt. Technology right? Okay, why quibble. To truly fulfill my techno rumination I'll tell the story of what used to be a wonderful way to hear some fine music. Listen:
I own an Ipod and although late to that dance, just like every other techno advancement of the past three decades, once in hand it was quickly filled with tunes from my oveer 1,000 cds. I also bought once of those docks, looks like a doughnut, that serves as a charger and a player getting outstanding sound for something so small. I don't use it at home but it always goes on the road and fills up a motel room quite adequately with everything from Lyle Lovett to Sinatra and the Stones. Well I went to Spain this past winter break and of course the Ipod was an essential for the flight and for the hotels. Unfortunately the dock was in my luggage which was seperated from me at fogged out Heathrow Airport and didn't make the scene until some eight days later. When it arrived I was so happy to see my clothes (of course) but even more excited to have that dock so the Spaniard could get a load of Emmylou. Electrical grids being different in Europe we had brought adapters so I plugged the dock into the adapter and the adapter into the wall. Nothing happened for a few seconds but then all the lights went out in the room and their was a peculiar burning smell. Adios dock. Adapter was nice but a converter would have been even better. Tomorrow I go to Costco for dock numero dos. Love that technology..................

Paying the Piper

Well here's to venality and acquisition. I'm no different and I must confess a hankering to have that flash drive. Soooooooooo this is a post for week 2 numbers 3 and 4. Yes, I have my blog, pounded out an observation or two and in my own cumbersome non-techno way made some sense of this. Still I wonder if Ms. Nin or old Sam Pepys had to worry as much about the tools of their trade as we modern day navel gazer do. Just wondering.

Last month, last days

In 1967 Sam Cooke's heir to the throne of soul had just finished the greatest year of his life. Otis Redding had set fire to the Monterrey Pop Festival that summer, proving almost as incendiary as that lefty from Seattle, the difference being that Otis had no need to set a stratocaster on fire during his signature tune "Try A Little Tenderness" While he was out on the west coast Redding wrote a song that he recorded in late November, a tune about gazing at the San Francisco Bay. Two weeks later after that session that brought us "Dock of the Bay" Otis' plane went down into a Wisconson lake almost three years to the day after Sam's last night at the motel.

James Brown exited this Christmas having lived long enough to have made himself a national institution, a long way from the kid who danced on street corners and later recorded the tune that Sonny Liston trained to as he prepared to meet a young poet from Louisville.

In 1985 in the midst of constant touring to meet the conditions of a large divorce settlement and perhaps to fuel some personal bad habits Rick Nelson died in a plane incident in Texas. There were allegations that the fire in the plane that claimed the lives of Rick and his band was caused by an unexpected freebasing accident, but the official line was that fault space heaters started the fire that claimed the life of the underrated rocker and t.v. star.

In 1980 perhaps the most famous rock and roll star alive was making a comeback. John Lennon on the night of December 8 was returning from the studio where he was riding a burst of creative energy and looking to follow up his recently released Double Fantasy. Mark David Chapman waited with a copy of Catcher In the Rye and a warm gun.

Finally, on New Year's Eve 1952 the greatest country singer and songwriter of the century breathed out his last tortured breath in the back of a powder blue caddy on his way to a date he never kept. Hank Williams was only twenty nine. A quarter of a century later Merle Haggard would write "If we can make it through December we'll be fine........." Amen to that.

If We Can Make It Through December

1/19/2007

Welcome to the Countdown Lounge where whenever the music beckons you'll get some cultural rumination from yours truly. Since this is my first post and since it comes during the first month of the year it feels appropriate to kick off the tale with a look back at that most seductive and yet treacherous and dangerous of months, December. Of couse I call it seductive because of its servitude to the cult of Mr. Claus and the obsessive pursuit or all things shiny and bright. Behind that door of course waits the tiger, but it's even a little diceier than that if you happen to be a musician. Listen:

In 1964 with two weeks until Christmas the greatest soul singer of all time
was at the top of his game. Sam Cooke was as successful as any black singer had ever been and that was a list that included Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. Sam was the number two selling artist on RCA, owned his own record company, and sold equally to to audiences black and white. He was doing screen tests for movies and t.v.and his future was as wide and bright as his killer smile, a smile that brought him a legendary amount of female companionship. That December night he went into a Hollywood bar, picked up a woman who may or may not have been working the room and drove her to a two dollar motel in east l.a. Some hours later when the police were called he was dead with two bullets in him, fired by the manager of the hotel who said that she had feared for her life when Sam broke down the door to her room. Cooke had been looking for the woman who had taken his pants along with several thousand dollars in folding money. The manager told Sam she knew nothing about the woman and when he stepped toward her she answered with gunfire. The inquest ruled it justifiable homicide but to this day there are many who wonder. December.