Stuff in My Head

I'm a bit distracted today. Why? Cuz I was talking to my mom last night, and she was telling me about her preparations for weathering what is expected to be the worst storm to hit Birmingham EVER. I was astounded. "But Mom, you're like 250 miles inland!" Doesn't seem to matter. Did I mention she lives on the side of a mountain which they can't descend in bad weather? So, yeah, I'm a little distracted.

I hate Ivan.

Irony for the day: it's completely gorgeous here in Iowa today. Perfect late summer/early fall weather.

Big brother just reminded me that today is B.B. King's birthday. Happy Birthday, B.B.!

Happy Friday the 13th everybody!

I spent yesterday in Ottumwa, Iowa (yes, for you M*A*S*H fans, it is a real place) at a couple of training sessions taught by Marylaine Block. Not a lot that was new to me, but a good refresher and some great materials to help me train my fellow staff on some stuff, so a day well spent. And I got out of the office. Gotta love that.

Exhausted but pleased, I'm back from a weekend in Denver seeing friends. Why Denver? Cuz that's where Eric Clapton was playing this weekend. I went to the concert with Michael and Laura (who I finally got to meet in person!). The concert was great. Here's the lineup:

24 July 2004: Pepsi Center Arena - Denver, CO
Opening Act:
Robert Randolph & The Family Band

EC's Band Lineup:
Eric Clapton - Guitar, Vocals
Nathan East - Bass, Vocals
Steve Gadd - Monster Drums
Doyle Bramhall II - Guitar, Vocals
Chris Stainton - Keyboards
Billy Preston - Keyboards, hammond organ, Vocals
Sharon White - Background Vocals
Michelle John - Background Vocals

Setlist for July 20, 2004:
01. Let it rain
02. Hoochie Coochie Man
03. Walk Out In The Rain
04. I Wanna Little Girl
05. I Shot The Sheriff
06. Me and the Devil Blues
07. They're Red Hot
08. Milkcow's Calf Blues
09. (If I Had) Posession Over Judgement Day
10. Kind Hearted Woman
11. Got To Get Better In A Little While
12. Have You Ever Loved A Woman
13. Badge
14. Wonderful tonight
15. Layla
16. Cocaine

Encore
17. Sunshine of Your Love (with Robert Randolph)
18. Got My Mojo Working (with Robert Randolph)

For the Robert Johnson stuff (Me and the Devil Blues, They're Red Hot, etc.) they went rather acoustic and intimate. Very impressive. Review from the Denver Post is right on point:

In fact, after two hours of Clapton at the Pepsi Center on Saturday night, my only complaint is that "Wonderful Tonight" came off as an uninspired love song that's lost its relevance to its author.

But most of the show was expectedly on point. Clapton, looking up to his mike all the while and keeping his throat open and his head tilted toward the cheap seats, worked through the classics and, more important, tracks from his new record.

"We'd like to do a couple of Johnson songs," he told the crowd as he and his two guitarists took to chairs on the foot of the stage. And with that, they launched into a five-song mini-set from his recent disc "Me and Mr. Johnson," which made for the most interesting 20 minutes of the show.

I agree about their take on Wonderful Tonight. It was just schmaltzy and disjointed with the rest of the concert, and the band seemed bored with it. I love the song, but I'd be perfectly happy if he left it out of his concerts. He has so much else to give us.

The last time I saw Clapton in concert was in St. Paul on his 50th birthday. That tour (Pilgrim) was very introspective and "I'm turning 50, let me look at my life". This tour? It's more like "I'm nearly 60, screw it, I'm gonna play what interests me". Bravo!

I almost forgot! Happy Bastille Day! Viva la Revolution! As my old college buddy John N. notes, we may need the barricades soon, if November doesn't shape up as we hope...

No Rant for a few days, as I'll be heading out for the weekend. Hope everyone has a safe and happy Fourth of July. I'm looking forward to starting (and hopefully finishing, as it's due back Tuesday) this book. Ahh, summer reading!

Today is my 34th birthday. I've just had a lovely 'birthday weekend' while getting some work done at ALA (yes! I did work!). Saw lovely friends, old and new, ate, drank, played and sweated (Florida in June--Yick!).

Many thanks to the Chattylibrarians and others at the conference who made my weekend so convivial--John W. (Ninja Librarian Extraordinaire), Tracey (my shared brain cohort), Brian W. ("The Eyes"), Ayanna (girlfriend!), Amy M., Amy K. and many more. Merci bien, mes amis!

Thanks to the peculiarities of the airline hub system, my lovely friends and my work schedule, I've been up for the better part of the last 36 hours, and still have to close the library, so I'm off to find some caffeine.

I'll leave you with this bit of fun sent to Library Underground by Chris Z.: Wrapped Up in Books Game.

Well, loyal readers, I'm off to sunny Orlando for the ALA Annual Conference. Thanks to the kindness of a friend (thanks, John!) and some quick work on my part, I'm getting to go enjoy the wonder that is the ALA Annual...which means, of course, that I'll be run off my ass for three days. But that's fine. I get to see some old friends, make some new friends, and maybe even take in some House of Mouse activities. Au revoir, friends, until next week!

How do I luck out to have friends like these? My buddy Felix sent me one of those "getting to know you" questionnaire emails. One of the questions was "What is your favorite children's book?". One of my answers (after Hippos Go Berserk, the best board book I know) was my much-loved and well-remembered Miss Twiggley's Tree. I moaned that last I checked it was out of print. So what does Felix do? He finds it for me. A special edition, at that! Such friends I have!

Funny Miss Twiggley
Lived in a tree
With a dog named Puss
And a color TV.

She did what she liked,
And she liked what she did,
But when company came,
Miss Twiggley hid.

UPDATE: Okay, well, now it seems that Amazon has it, too. They didn't when I checked last. The gods are smiling...

It seems that Slate has read Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack and given you a "point-by-point executive summary".

Thanks to the Bookslut for the handy heads up.

Just fyi, I'll be at the PLA conference in Seattle for the next few days, so there will be little blogging...unless Mr. Ashcroft does something sneaky, like he tried during ALA last year! What did he think, we go to Toronto and can't see CNN?

Here's a silly little joke for you, while I'm gone:
A priest, a rabbi and a minister walk into a bar.
Bartender says: "What's this, some kind of joke?!"

Peace from the Librarian's Rant.

Creds to my big brother for his letter to the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the same sex union debate. I guess I can now forgive you for the rubber alligator. Maybe.

Going through some old email from friends, I came across this lovely .sig file from my pal Joe, which I had to share:

"My hands are quite suitable for using a screwdriver.
But for a computer? Hopeless!"
--His Holiness the Dalai Lama

This is partly stolen from my brother's blog

of a week or so ago. He linked to an article in Popular Science about The Worst Jobs in Science and this one came up:

METRIC SYSTEM ADVOCATE

The Metric Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology has a bold, if Napoleonic, motto: "Toward a Metric America." That is, a fanciful future in which we'll buy decagrams of hamburger and liters of gas. Problem is, the Metric Program employs just two evangelists--hail, ye lone voices in the wilderness!--to convert 281 million recalcitrant American imperial-unit holdouts. Launched with much hope by the Federal Metric Conversion Act of 1975, the Metric Program 28 years later meekly soldiers on, advising federal bureaucracies and trying to pitch the system to--well, to anyone who will listen. The dynamic decimal duo, who declined interview requests, did say that they really work only part-time on metric salesmanship. So it would seem: A spokesman for the program, when queried, didn't know his own height in meters.

Why do we resist metric so hard? I mean, even the Brits have managed to convert! We have ten fingers, ten toes. Metric should make more sense to us, not less! We are a silly, silly people.