Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Today's Rotation (songs I heard during the course of my day)

Freelance Hellraiser - A Stroke of Genius
Beatallica - A Garage Dayz Night
Sleater-Kinney - You're No Rock 'n' Roll Fun
Shuggie Otis - Pling!
International Submarine Band - Blue Eyes
Squeeze - Slap and Tickle
Y La Tengo - Saturday
Nelson Sargento - Infra Estrutura
Departure Lounge - Straight Line to the Kerb
Jayhawks - Come to the River
The Monkees - Can You Dig It?

Novelty record lists

Here a couple of great 45 lists devoted to a few of my favorite novelty categories:
Break-in 45s
Christmas
Beatle-Related singles
He also has picture sleeves scanned.

Monday, March 29, 2004

Today's Rotation (10 songs I heard during the course of my day)

Crabwalking - Prince Jazzbo
Squeeze - Black Coffee in Bed
Richard and Linda Thompson - The Calvary Cross
The Stooges - Dirt
Led Zeppelin - In the Evening
Elvis Costello - Brilliant Mistake
The Byrds - You Don't Miss Your Water
King Sunny Ada - Synchro System
The Kinks - Living on a Thin Line
R. Stevie Moore - I'll Be Back

Sunday, March 28, 2004

Librarian for a day

Women's Day Magazine is sponsoring a contest to "Be a Librarian for a Day!"
In 700 words or less, you're to let Women's Day know what the library means to you.
In all fairness, MAXIM should run the contest too.

Friday, March 26, 2004

Coin Operated TV Benches (From the Lost Artifacts of Popular Culture series)

Hey, remember the 80s? Um, wait, no, remember these? They used to be everywhere: plastic benches, usually three or four seats attached together, with small black and white televisions attached to the seats. You'd put a quarter in the slot and get 10 minutes of entertainment.
I guess I remember them at bus stations and the like but haven't seen one in person in ages. My friend Paul says he's seen them at the Minneapolis Airport. Who manufactured them? Are they still in business? How come E-Bay doesn't have any for sale?
When I lived in Japan, I occasional stayed at a Minshuku, which is more or less a bed and breakfast but is much more fun. Usually, the family that owned the minshuku would have a TV in the room that operated on 100 yen coins but that might be the last time I say something even remotely resembling what I'm talking about.
A while back I had a flashback to those Magic Fingers devices that were present in every cheap hotel from here to Dubuque. I searched E-Bay and found a ton of them! How come these TV benches are nowhere to be found? I even did a Lexis Nexis search and couldn't find an appropriate match.
Any leads, send 'em my way.
JM

Today's Rotation (10 songs I heard during the course of my day)

Desmond Dekker - Israelites
XTC - Dear God
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity
Bunker Hill - The Girl Can't Dance (1962)
The Byrds - Hickory Wind
The Mighty Fire Steel Drum Band - A Hard Day's Night
David Cross - My Wife's Crazy!
Del Close & John Brent - How To Speak Hip
The Untouchables - Free Yourself
New Main Street Singers - Potato's In the Paddywagon

101 FM Block Party Weekend Featuring Gamma, Krokus, and Seger

Springtime months need a Rocktober, a Zepptember. Why does the Fall have a monopoly on classic rock bastardizations of the months? I'm hurting my head trying to come up with way to combine Terrible Ted with February.
Wango ze Marcho?
Nugember?
Pathetic.
A little help here, folks? There's got to be more than two.

Thursday, March 25, 2004

Today's Rotation (10 songs I heard during the course of my day)

Nick Lowe - Maureen
Strokes - 12:51
Brinsley Schwartz - Understand a Woman
Too Much Joy - Clowns
Sidney Bechet With Noble Sissle's Swingsters - Viper Mad
The Honeycombs - Have I the Right
Dukes of Stratosphear - Mole from the Ministry
Freddie McGregor - Bobby Babylon
Sleater-Kinney - The Professional
DJ Dangermouse - Change Clothes

Open Source CMS Systems

As we bring up our new consortium website, I'd love to move away from the old HTML model and find a better collaborative tool that everyone can use, and requires minimal maintenance from me or another sys admin. Content Management Systems are surely the way to go.
Here's a site that allows you to try before you buy (a misnomer, of course; they're all free!):

OpenSourceCMS

Note: At Computers and Libraries 2004, there was a demo of Plone, which sits on top of Zope. Don't see it listed for some reason. The library in question was SUNY Stony Brook Health Science Library
Here's the link for Plone

Year-Round Gardening Chart

Really meant for Monica but looks like it will come in handy this Spring:
http://www.humeseeds.com/projndx.htm

Research: Sanka or Sanwa

While studying Japan's outcast community--the burakumin-- I remember reading about another group, the Sanka. They are an indigenous nomadic tribe, located on Honshu. Interestingly, I found a couple of references within the Anime community. Here are the characters in the name:
山窩
散家
山家
山稼

I can't remember the original text that cited the group but they were described as "Japan's Gypsies."

links:
http://www.jekai.org/entries/aa/00/no/aa00no40.htm
Anime companion
RSS Subject Lists
How can Librarians create lists of RSS feeds that are somewhow subject-specific?