HUMBALADIGGA! SHIZNUTS! MACY'S WINDOW! SUGAR HONEY ICED TEA!

A Massachusetts Librarian writing as the "Swiss Army Librarian or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk" (http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/) did a recent piece called "Swear Like A Librarian."  He works at a public library reference desk, and, therefore, is collecting a list of swear word stand-ins to use while serving the general public.  It is a fun piece and the comments are equally as entertaining. 

However, this being summer vacation, all the Teachers and Librarians that I know are still swearing freely, and perhaps, unnecessarily, as September looms on the horizon.  When autumn begins, we will revert to the decorous public behavior that our students "clock" every second of, and that we wish our young charges to emulate.  

Yet, there will be those occasional moments at work when I am in the Library teaching a lesson, servicing computers or cataloguing materials and one or two students are involved in some silly surreal teenage antics when they should be focused on something else, or some freak accident occurs that can only result from the alchemy of 30 teenagers in one room and I am thinking: "Can I Get A Witness?!" or "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" -- I will take a breath and think of Swiss Army Librarian's list. CHEESE AND RICE!

The McQueen

OK. Even I went to see THE exhibit of the summer, "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" at the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute last week.  Happily, I know many others who regularly partake of the bounty of culture that is offered in New York City, so I was able to borrow a MET Member card to gain entry and skip the three-hour line to enter the galleries.  A three-hour line?  What could be so intriguing that grown people in New York City would subject themselves to that kind of queue with no tangible reward (i.e., a free concert, cash or a lease to a rent controlled apartment) at the end of it?  Was it coincidence that I was behind a flock of teenage girls on the crosstown bus buzzing about "meeting-up at midnight for the McQueen"? The McQueen.

I had to know.

 

Sailing past a large, bizarrely dressed and mostly orderly horde to swan in to a happening scene is a feeling that I have not experienced since my club days, but that, apparently, I still shamelessly enjoy. The show itself was almost secondary to the adrenaline rush of moving to the head of a three-hour line simply by waving a card at a smiling guard in MET security uniform! 

Of course, once one had arrived, it was into a series of galleries not unlike any nightclub -- dark, sweaty, solidly-packed -- with a soundtrack of moaning and indecipherable conversation. 

No wonder the guard was smiling.  

Surely he was thinking what McQueen was quoted as saying: "People don't want to see clothes," ... "They want to see something that fuels the imagination." Or at least dinner or cocktail party conversation.  Indeed, the themed, narrative collections and "looks" were stunning, truly showstoppers. Literary leitmotifs? Poe, Dante, Plato, Darwin and more.  The workmanship of haute couture - evident and awesome. (Just how many seamstresses were needed to realize that fitted feathered frock called "The Horn of Plenty"?!) The silhouettes created -- sinuous, bulbous, cloven-hoofed -- led one to question whether McQueen's true medium was fashion, fiction or cinema.  

Clearly, abundant evidence of an epic and resonant talent (a minute example would be the "bumsters" which translated to low-riders for the masses, or the prevalence of skull prints on hats and scarves for several winters) tragically cut short.  Dramatic, Artistic, Dark.  Is the tragedy part of the allure of this show?  

I have no conclusions as yet, but I try to connect the dots between "Savage Beauty," dystopian YA literature, urban pop culture trends + phenomena, fame, consumerism, suicide, worldwide recession, punk/rock 'n roll/queer style, Anglophilia and queuing-up.

What is a Teacher/Librarian?

Librarianship has a branding problem. When I was pursuing my M.L.S., we were Librarians. When I was licensed by New York State, I became an "SLMS" (School Library Media Specialist).  Apparently, this now sounds too technical, so in school libraries we are back to "Teacher/Librarian."  Confused?  "Library Girl" (http://lib-girl.blogspot.com/) has created an excellent poster to explain it all for you.  And us.

See the poster with links at: 

http://yourteacherlibrarian.wikispaces.com/Are+You+Ready%3F

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." - Alvin Toffler

A Summer Snapshot

NY1 reports that it is 93 degrees. The cats are stretched out on the floor-- as long as they can be-- in front of the inadequately buzzing fan.

I'm reading School Library Journal, The New York Times, Gmail, Web Mail, Outlook, Facebook and Goodreads updates, while registering for a Webinar and creating a Fall book order on Follett Titlewave on my computer.

My iPad is at arm's length, opened to the Flipbook app. My Android mobile is next to it, opened to the Tour de France app. Ann Patchett's State of Wonder, deluxe signed edition, waits expectantly for me to turn the page.

Not too long ago I used to worry that reading more than one book at a time was some mild form of adult ADHD. Now it is S.O.P. The level of activity detailed above is the new normal for me and many others I know; the beginning, middle and end of most days. Granted, it usually doesn't last that long --tabs, apps and devices are pared down as the relevant information is digested or disseminated -- but it does occur, more than a few times a day, with varying duration. If it doesn't, I don't consider myself informed or productive or a good friend.

Yet, it may explain why my masseuse friend described me as "wearing my shoulders as earrings" and my tension level in mid-July doesn't feel much different than mid-June. Did I mention that this is Summer Vacation?