Hyper-kinetic overload–1 brain=subprime storage space. Sunday, Sep 28 2008 

Reading jfre6204 7:45 pm

 This is the Jefferson Market Library. I am going to visit this library for a project for school, soon. It’s a branch of the NYPL. I’m currently not happy that I can’t get a NYPL card, because I reside in a strange far-away place called New Jersey…where the libraries just don’t cut it. However, I am allowed to visit the libraries here in NYC and marvel at their interesting architecture and sit and read the books inside. The Pratt Manhattan Campus Library, where I am a grad assistant has half a shelf of fiction titles, roughly 300 or so. I am going to read every single one systematically. Today, I picked Fiskadoro by Denis Johnson.

I have a lot to do. October is full of due dates. October starts on Wednesday. I have to get my head out of the clouds and do some real school work. My head loves being in the clouds. My head loves reading about books that I can’t get a hold of. I need to set attainable goals for each day. I make these to do lists that are not realistic. And then I sit down and watch 3 hours of Weeds. Its self sabotage. I’m going to try and read some reference services textbook now. I’ll try to be more dedicated to reviewing the books that I am reading.

Here is the passage from Dance, Dance, Dance that I’ve been wanting to share…

“I slept for thirty minutes, and the rest of the trip I read a biography of Jack London I’d bought near the Hakodate station. Compared to the grand sweep and romance of Jack London’s life, my existence seemed like a squirrel with its head against a walnut, dozing until spring. For the time being, that is. But that’s how biographies are. I mean, who’s going to read about the peaceful life and times of a nobody employed at the Kawasaki Municipal Library? In other words, what we seek is some kind of compensation for what we put up with.”

I added the emphasis.

And then there is the Sheepman. The title to this blog is so true: I stopped typing for the past 5 minutes and in those minutes I have; 1) found a new Murakami blog and have been browsing it http://www.exorcising-ghosts.co.uk/news.html   2) been looking for a visual representation of the sheepman to share. 3) tried to fix the stampy thing to say the right due date for checked out 4) answered a phone query 5) got my textbook off the shelf to start reading…after I completely forgot that I was writing in this blog.

Anyway, here is one artist interpretation…not how I pictured the sheepman at all.

 Martha Mysko

Here is one of the covers of Dance, Dance, Dance….

 This is an actual horned sheep in a sweater-vest. So you get the idea that the sheepman is not actually described in order to represented in any particular way. He’s usually described as a man in a sheep costume, and the costume has grown into him and he’s musty and of course, not real. Of course. Here is what the sheepman says… and it is advice I hold dear to my heart.

“Dance,” said the Sheep Man. “Yougottadance. Aslongasthemusicplays. Yougotta dance. Don’teventhinkwhy. Starttothink, yourfeetstop. Yourfeetstop, wegetstuck. Wegetstuck, you’restuck. Sodon’tpayanymind, nomatterhowdumb. Yougottakeepthestep. Yougottalimberup. Yougottaloosenwhatyoubolteddown. Yougottauseallyougot. Weknowyou’re tired, tiredandscared. Happenstoeveryone, okay? Justdon’tletyourfeetstop.”

“Dancingiseverything,” continued the Sheep Man. “Danceintip-topfrom. Dancesoitallkeepsspinning. Ifyoudothat, wemightbeabletodosomethingforyou. Yougottadance, Aslongasthemusicplays.”

Yes, the Sheep Man talks like that. Bear with me, and read the book.

Last, but not least…here is what Murakami says about his new novel that he is writing. I can’t wait!!!

“It is about ‘horror.’ I have a hunch to produce a good novel. I think it will be an important work of mine.”

Now 59, Murakami said: “Like [Feodor Mikhailovich] Dostoevsky who wrote The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov and became productive as he got older, I’d like to do the same thing.”

Ok, now I really have to try and study.

 

My Pledge Sunday, Sep 28 2008 

Reading jfre6204 2:54 am

Yayoi Kusama Fireflies on Water.

So…my pledge is to blog more. And to study more. And to participate more. So it starts now. My lame attempt at studying today was stymied by pandora radio, where I wrote down many things to add to the ‘pod. I’ve had many blogging plans…usually made on the bus, subway, street level, etc…. let me tell you: it is harder than it looks to find a coffeeshop in NYC with free wireless….where there aren’t 10,000 people waiting on line for coffee. In NYC people wait “on line”, not “in line.”

So, I’ve finished Roberto Bolano’s Last Evenings on Earth and Gabriel Garcia-Marquez’s Of Love and Other Demons. I’m still reading Murakami’s Dance, Dance, Dance. I’ve been meaning to quote and cite songs and I just can’t keep up with my own brain. I just can’t. I sat down to study 3 hours ago and here I am. I will say that Bolano’s short stories are magnificent and that Garcia-Marquez’s novella is less magical realism than religious mysticisim, which is nice. My favorite image in the Murakami is when the protagonist is exhausted and instead of merely falling into a deep sleep, a grey gorilla enters the room and whacks him in the head with a mallet. Its funny.

I think Ani sums it up nicely for us:

“the sun is setting on the century
and we are armed to the teeth
we are all working together now
to make our lives mercifully brief
schoolkids keep trying to teach us
what guns are all about
confuse liberty with weaponry
and watch your kids act it out
every year now like Christmas
some boy gets the milk-fed sub-urban blues
reaches for the available arsenal
and saunters off to make the news
and women in the middle
are learning what poor women have always known
that the edge is closer than you think
when your men bring the guns home

look at where the profits are
that’s how you’ll find the source
of the big lie that you and i
both know so well
in the time it takes this cultural
death wish to run its course
they’re gonna make a pretty penny
and then they’re all going to hell
he said the chickens all come home to roost
yeah, malcom forecasted this flood
are we really gonna sleep through another century
while the rich profit off our blood?
true, it may take some doing
to see this undoing done
but in my humble opinion
here’s what i suggest we do:

open fire on hollywood
open fire on MTV
open fire on NBC
and CBS and ABC
open fire on the NRA
and all the lies they told us
along the way
open fire on each weapons manufacturer
while he’s giving head
to some republican senator

and if i hear one more time
about fool’s rights
to his tools of rage
I’m gonna take all my friends
and I’m gonna move to Canada
and we’re gonna die of old age.”

I’m going to la la la and maybe blog some more tomorrow. Love, Jessica

 

What I learned today in Library School Sunday, Sep 21 2008 

Reading jfre6204 4:02 am

I learned that the Main Reading Room at the New York Public Library looks just like this in person. And that it’s real pretty and that I’d like to study in there sometimes. I learned that I can walk down the hill to a different bus stop that shaves 30 minutes off my travel commute. (But it’s getting cooler so a brisk walk it shall be). I learned that I heart Roberto Bolano for writing stories from his point of view about others completely different from himself. I learned that the more expensive quiche tastes better. (This I learned at home and on the way to school)… My class today at the NYPL was 5 hours long. We introduced ourselves, ate lunch, lectured, went to visit the tel-ref department…learned how they answer questions from all over the world. Really random questions and really stupid questions. I think I may want to be a reference librarian when I grow up. At least for this week.

I am really enjoying my mac. I feel like it will never slow down or crash because right now I am 1. surfing the web. 2. writing in my blog. 3. uploading 700 pictures. 4. charging my ipod. and nothing seems to be freaking out about all this. My background is pretty fish. I can type real fast on this keyboard. I can carry it to NYC.

I am reading ‘Last Evenings on Earth’ by Roberto Bolano. I just finished Netherland by Joseph O’Neill. I am re-reading Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami and since I claim it to be my favoritist book on planet earth, I’m going to try and explain why while I read it again. First about Netherland. Its a book about cricket and human relationships right here in NYC. The protagonist is from Holland, transplanted into NYC before, during and after 9/11. Befriends a strange man (and the story is really about this strange man). Its really nicely written–for instance… and this is from me randomly opening a page

“As I repeatedly went forth with him and began to understand the ignorance and contradictions and language difficulties with which he contended, and the doubtful sources of his information and the seemingly bottomless history and darkness our of which the dishes of New York emerge, the deeper grew my suspicion that his work finally consisted of minting or perpetuating and in any event circulating misconceptions about his subject and in this way adding to the endless perplexity of the world.”

Anyway, it was short and I liked it.  Back to Murakami briefly… I have read the first 2 or 3 chapters so far. The main character is lost. He has transitioned in his life and has gone through a period where he doesn’t leave the house. Of course (as per Murakami) there is a mysterious call girl “crying” out to him. Abstractly of course. Now this callgirl has a name–Kiki. She is what connects him to ‘The Dolphin Hotel’, a dumpy hotel where strange things have occurred and the place where he needs to go back. Oh, and his cat has died. Classic set up 1. nameless generic slightly depressed young man. 2. mysterious callgirl/female character who is currently missing 3. cat. 4. strange building that may or may not still exist that the male character is obsessed with. I’m not saying Murakami is formulaic, its just that certain things stick out between each novel. Like Wind-up Bird for instance. 1. generic slightly depressed nameless (he has a name but its Toru, which is pretty generic in Japan). 2. mysterious girl character (young next door neighbor girl who is obsessed with death. 3. cat (just missing, but pretty much presumed dead until it shows up) 4. strange building in neighborhood (haunted, becomes headquarters) other buildings show up as well, plus the well for that matter. Its a permeable space at least (as the Dolphin Hotel becomes in Dance Dance Dance.

Sorry, I love it. Read it if you think I’m making any of this up. Its fantastic.

Love, Jessica

 

Update since last time Wednesday, Sep 17 2008 

Reading jfre6204 5:36 pm

 Rip David Foster Wallace. I tried to finish Infinite Jest. The world is less because we don’t have more writers like this.

I got a job at the American Composers Alliance to take care of file cabinets full of info on composers. Not sure exactly what I’m going to be able to bring to the table. Hopefully I’ll have set duties.

I finished Beloved by Toni Morrison and No Good Turn by Kate Atkinson.

I need to start an assignment for school. I’m writing about the American Libraries Association’s stance on independent libraries in Cuba. These libraries are being prosecuted and the operators imprisoned. Apparently, all ALA has to do is publicly “denounce” this. Others say that this is not enough. It shouldn’t take too long to write this assignment.

I am now reading Netherland by Joseph O’Neill. It is about a man in NYC in the years after 9/11, whose wife has left him and he seeks out cricket adventures. I really like it so far. I am also reading Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolano, another writer who left us too soon. It is a book of short stories and of course I love it.

I’m getting my mac today I think.

 

And I Quote… Monday, Sep 15 2008 

Reading jfre6204 12:13 am

 from the Reference textbook I was told to not bother to buy…

 

“Most of the time, most reference librarians find effective ways to cope with stress. However, sometimes the copng strategies chosen are ineffective and even contribute more stress, in a sort of ‘vicious circle.’ When this happens to a reference librarian, he or she is suffering from burnout.”

I think I might just buy if for the laughs.

 

Explaining my Blogroll Sunday, Sep 14 2008 

Reading jfre6204 1:01 am

 I like this photograph of Ani Difranco (© Mark Dellas) because it seems like the photograph that in 50 years will most likely explain to me my view of her. (If that makes sense). It reminds me of the iconic Virginia Woolf portrait. Go Here to listen to her new album “Red Letter Year”. Love her.

My Blogroll: I am taking a lot from Library Juice blog which is already included on my blogroll. I am aware that this is simply taking their links and putting them on my blog. I am mostly doing it for myself. A place where I can simply click on my own blog when I need to access something. There is a mind-blowingly immense amount of information on the web about my subject area. I think I need to concentrate on something in particular.

For example, I just found THIS ARTICLE about finding time to think. Check it out! It is so interesting and applies to my life a lot. I quote:

“The most common advice boils down to something that might seem obvious: only work when you’re being paid to work. The rest of the day is yours to do with as you wish – and you may wish to devote it to thought.”

“”I can say that all great creators, without exception, have taken breaks,” says Buzan. “A minimum of two a day.” “Leonardo Da Vinci had a bed in his studio and when patrons accused him of wasting time, he said ‘If I don’t do this, you don’t get the work.”

I’ll keep adding now…

 

Beloved…Library School…Updated Blogroll…Go Dawgs!!! Sunday, Sep 14 2008 

Reading jfre6204 12:36 am

Beloved: A Novel
By Toni Morrison
Published by Vintage International, 2004
ISBN 1400033411, 9781400033416
321 pages
I am reading Toni Morrison’s Beloved. So far, it’s an absolutely beautifully written book. I am enjoying the imagery, language, subject, and characters. It is described on Google books as “bitter poetry” and I think that is mostly correct. It’s bitter, but not in a way that the negativity stifles the beauty of the descriptions. Sethe is resilient and broken at the same time. Denver is forced to carry something she didn’t live through and doesn’t understand. Normally I would want to finish it by work tomorrow. A book a week, right? But I’m reading all of these articles and blogs that advocate slow reading. Check out the wikipedia article for an overview… I’m not going to attempt to finish the book by tomorrow.
I ordered a macbook. For school and for other reasons. I need my own digital space. A place to keep my own files, music, school stuff. A computer I can take with me to class and to the coffee shops. A place to write papers. My school work is so much based on articles and digital aspects. My mac will facilitate learning beyond what I would normally do. It’s going to be worth it 6 months from now to have all my articles, etc. organized in one place that I can access on the go and also it came with a free ipod (i can listen to ani on the bus!) which is cool. I “feel” “guilty” for purchasing something so extravagant and am “anxious” about getting a job and my loans and working this all out. But those feelings are nothing new. I feel “guilty”, “anxious”, etc. about things I have to justify to myself on a daily basis.
This GA football game is ridiculous. Is that ball slippery or something?
I am going to update the blogroll to your left with library related stuff. I have to write a report on an article and there is so much to choose from. I am also writing a report about Sanford Berman (a radical librarian). I’ll blog so much more when I get my computer!! I promise!!

 

My Wish List Saturday, Sep 13 2008 

Reading jfre6204 6:18 am

This book, for one: Penguin By Design … and more!

Blue Octavo Notebooks by: Franz Kafka

 

Obama, My Reading Diet, SILS, My New ‘Tude Monday, Sep 8 2008 

Reading jfre6204 4:38 am

 I like and support Barak Obama, I am happy to report. I would like to read both of his books one day before the election. I would like to meet him as well. He looks like he would smell really good and that he would have soft hands. I enjoyed the greek columns. I don’t like it when John McCain gets excited. It’s creepy. Listen, I have only been alive through Reagan, Bush senior, Clinton, and Bush Junior. I don’t get it. I don’t pay property taxes. Hell, right now I don’t pay income taxes. I’m not an adult yet, politically. But I will be in the next 4 years I suppose. All I know is that I want Palin to go away…. far far away and never to hear her voice again. As long as I live. So there.

My Reading Diet: This Sundays New York Times weighs like 10 pounds. I worked today at my assistantship and could not sit around all morning reading it. Therefore, I will have to read it throughout the week at my leisure. The NYT causes me anxiety sometimes. But I’m a New Yorker and therefore must be current on my foreign policy, hotspots, and such. Now, the New Yorker I realize I cannot afford everytime I walk through Port Authority at 5 dollars a pop. If you need a gift idea for me a subscription will do nicely. Thanks.

I just spent $85 on two textbooks. I haven’t read my assignment for tomorrow yet.

I printed out my reading for Wednesday, rode the bus down to Staples and got them printed and bound at the copy center. Got caught in a downpour. The readings are fascinating. I am going to learn all about copyrights, and the philosophy of information and the changing ideas of intellectual property. More later.

Kate Atkinson’s One Good Turn. Juicy mystery.

Toni Morrison’s Beloved. I went and heard Junot Diaz read at Barnes and Noble Union Square last week. He is the cutest thing I have ever seen. He loves Toni Morrison. I can’t call myself an American and not have read Morrison. I also heart Junot Diaz.

Short story long, I have a lot to read.

My SILS experience so far has been lovely. I am checking out books to students at the PMC and am getting used to using abbreviations for everything.

Dance, Dance, Dance is my favorite book of all time. Haruki Murakami. The PMC library has a copy. I will never read anything else ever again. I will read Dance, Dance, Dance over and over and over again. I don’t own a copy and why?

I also have learned how to shelve books according to the Dewey Decimal System. Word.