Thoughts from the Sunnyvale Public Library
To celebrate Women’s History Month I decided to make a short little video that shows my favorite women in Sunnyvale Library. These women are strong and they have used their voices to stand up for people in need. These women are true artists and warriors. These women are intellegent and show kindness with their work.
It’s Halloween and I want to curl up and watch some horror, actually some alluring thrillers. Don’t get me wrong, I love the 80′s slashers like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street. But, I am looking for something eerie yet beautiful. Something classy. So, I turn to:
The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock
Let the Right One In by Tomas Alfredson
Lady Vengeance by Chan-wook Park
and Rosemary’s Baby by Roman Polanski
Find these at the library!
Are you inspired by book titles? If so, then there is a quick and super fun contest for you…
You will need to:
1. Create a poem using the spine titles from any books (here is my first entry)
2. Take a digital picture of your poem
3. Create a free account on Library Thing
4. Upload the photo to your Library Thing member gallery. Sign in, then go here and click the “Add another picture” link to add the image.*
5. When adding the image, tag it “SpinePoetry2012″. This will add your image to the contest gallery, and counts as your entry into the contest. If your photo doesn’t have the tag, we won’t know that you’ve entered. You’ll be able to see all the entries here.
6. Tell Library Thing about it in the “Title/description” box. You can include a list of the books you used, a transcription of the poem if you want, any explanation, &c.
7. Have fun…
Deadline: Add your photos by 4 p.m. EDT on Friday, September 7.
For more information and prize details: Book Spine Poetry Contest
Here is another example by Michael
and I have never been the same. A few years back, I started listening to tons of psychedelic garage bands from the 1960′s and during this time my friend lent me this CD called Cambodian Rocks. I listened to it and it blew me away. This music felt very familiar with the sounds of surf music and electric psychedelia and very unfamiliar in tongue and vocal style. It was the beautiful language of Cambodia called Khmer and the golden voice of Ros Sereysothea that drew me in. Cambodia Rocks is this compilation of late 1960′s and early 1970′s Cambodian rock music. But, where did it come from…
The story is that an American tourist named Paul Wheeler was traveling in Siem Reap area of Cambodia and he kept hearing this incredible rock’n'roll in the restaurants. He hired a motorcyclist to take him to a place where he could buy Cambodian music and he ended up at an open market where a man was selling cassettes. After hanging out with this man for a few hours listening to cassettes he bought six tapes, brought them back to the States, and made a mixed taped with his favorite songs. Then Wheeler gave the mixed tape to his friend that owned Parallel Record Label and Cambodian Rocks was born. The compilation features the voices of Ros Sereysothea, Sinn Sissamouth, Pan Ron, Meas Samon, and many more. These singers and their bands created a whole new style of rock’n'roll.
After listening to this gem, I realized that I was very lucky to have even heard these recordings. These recordings were relics that survived the Khmer Rouge Regime. The Khmer Rouge (the Cambodian Communist Party) killed over 1.7 million Cambodians from 1970-1974 including the civil servants, the doctors, the artists, the musicians, and the librarians. The Khmer Rouge nearly wiped out all of Cambodian culture pre-1970. And I was very sad to find out that Ros Sereysothea, Sinn Sissamouth, Pan Ron, and Meas Samon were said to have “disappeared” during this regime.
Nowadays, an American band named Dengue Fever fronted by Chhom Nimol (a descendant of the famous Cambodian vocalists) plays music with a deep Khmer influence combined with rock, rhythm, and blues. And to preserve the Cambodian Rocks legacy the band just released Electric Cambodia : 14 rare gems from Cambodia’s past featuring Ros Sereysothea, Sinn Sissamouth, Pan Ron, Meas Samon. The Sunnyvale Library just received their copy and it is currently being cataloged for you to check out! In the meantime check out this track by Ros Sereysothea, Chnam oun Dop-Pram Muy “I’m 16″ provided by WFMU.
To read more about the survivors of the Khmer Rouge check out Loung Ung’s trilogy beginning with First they killed my father : a daughter of Cambodia remembers .
My lust for
old coin-operated machines began as a little girl going to pizza parlors, local carnivals, and Chuck e Cheese.
Since then, I always stop dead in my tracks for vintage pinball machines, Zoltar style fortune tellers, skee ball, coin-operated pianos, mechanical carnivals, record-playing jukeboxes, penny cartoons, black and white photobooths, and pretty much any old automated machine that takes coins. When I get an itch to find these mechanical beauties I usually head to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Arcade which has many good oldies. Then I run over to the best roller coaster in the west, the Giant Dipper.
The other day I came across a young boy named Caine Monroy who took this love for arcades to a deeper level. He created his very own arcade out of cardboard boxes. He used his old hot wheels and toys from Shakey’s Pizza to use as prizes that kids could buy when they gathered enough tickets. To see the whole story unfold watch this video, Caine’ s Arcade by Nirvan created by his first customer, Nirvan Mullick!
My favorite arcade is the Musee Mechanique located on Pier 45 in San Francisco. This place is a dream come true! Grab a fistful of quarters and watch the player organs, the band of chimps, and the carnivals come to life before your eyes. These antique penny games were collected by Edward Galland Zelinsky , many of which came from Playland at the Beach San Francisco by the Cliff House.
If these delights enchant you, you may also like the film King of Kong: a fistful of quarters…which is a documentary about a novice King Kong player vying for top score.
