Winners Announced from Pool of Dissertation Survey Respondents

 The sun is setting soon on 2020 and that means submitting the finished draft of my dissertation. Entitled "Gift of the Gab: Exploring the Audiobook and the Festive Direction in the American Library," the work has been a survey of how American libraries value audio literature and social programming/events. As promised, there was a lottery held for participating libraries; all were eligible for 1 of 4 gift certificates of 25USD each for a Starbucks or for a favorite cafe.

Portrait of Mrs. Jeannette de Lange (1900) by Jan Toorop. Original from the Rijksmuseum.
Digitally enhance by rawpixel. Public Domain.

Out of sixteen libraries who participated in my research, the 4 winners are listed below:

- The Athenaeum of Philadelphia

- New York Society Library

- Providence Athenaeum 

- Charleston Library Society

Exterior of The Athenaeum of Philadelphia 

Photo Credit: Tom Crane

Gift certificates will be delivered via email. Thank you, kindly, to all of you librarians who took the survey!

As for the dissertation, more information will be forthcoming on how to view it. Getting published in a peer-reviewed journal would be a dream but I also want to get it out to the world quickly. Stay tuned!

Two Preliminary Findings from Dissertation Survey (Aesthetics Matter!)

 Happy December in a turbulent year.

I know my blog has gone dark for 6 months but it's only because I've been feverishly writing up my dissertation. "Gift of the Gab: The Audiobook and the Festive Direction in the American Library" is 99% finished. I am just applying cosmetic touches and trying to temper expectations.

Launching research during a pandemic year has been interesting. One preliminary finding I can share is that, as of October of 2020, none of the public and/or membership libraries surveyed have shut their doors for good. This is more impressive than it sounds. Restaurants and movie theatres, as The New York Times is constantly reminding us, have faced devastation. Seemingly permanent devastation.

The typical response, you may be thinking, is that no politician is going to shut down a public library. And that a public library is a shared utility like sunlight or drinking water or the music of The Carpenters. But closures do happen. My hometown neighborhood library branch was shuttered in 2009 when the town's main branch got a makeover. Sure it was a bit cramped and damp but I had my share of fond memories inside that brick edifice. The closure was a political and financial decision. Now it just sits there waiting for its next act.

East Milton Public Library (Defunct)

Photo Credit: Jon Cronin

In my own survey of sixteen American public and membership libraries, the fate of the structures is much more secure. You could even call them celebrated spaces. Nearly 50% of the libraries surveyed use their own buildings as venues for galas and fundraisers.  Holding a fundraiser in-house is a superb way for a library to leverage its historical space. It speaks not only to the wonderful vision of Andrew Carnegie but also to the role of aesthetics in literature and education and, frankly, society.

"The John Rylands Library Reading Room Enclave" by michael_d_beckwith 

is marked with CC0 1.0

There will be other findings and insights from my research over the next couple of months. Stay tuned.

Thomas's Pandemic Diaries: Conversations with Londoners

One nagging paranoia I have as an American overseas is that every time I open my mouth, it feels like any number of self-congratulatory statements fall out. It's not that I'm completely self-centered and feel the need to advertise how "awesome" my life is - it's just that to fill in the awkward silences I'll often go to a comfortable subject: Me. As one British acquaintance put in nicely back in San Francisco: In America, the conversation is all about "me" and in Britain, it's all about "you". And "you", essentially, are always a more intriguing subject and I say this as a people-person, a writer, and a lifelong learner. So why do I revert to the subject of "me" and at a louder volume than what is acceptable in the Old World.

Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox in Klamath, California Trees of Mystery site. Paul Bunyan is a lumberjack figure in North American folklore and tradition. One of the most famous and popular North American folklore heroes, he is usually described as a giant as well as a lumberjack of unusual skill, and is often accompanied in stories by his animal companion, Babe the Blue Ox. Original image from Carol M. Highsmith’s America. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. Public Domain

Asking about "you" is always good manners but California convinced me otherwise. In the Golden State I would semi-frequently get suspicious looks if I inquired about someone too soon in an exchange - almost as if I was trying to steal their identity. Back in Boston, it was different. I knew the chummy codes. The Irish and Irish-Americans are known for being warm and familiar (perhaps slightly nosy); we love to place people biographically and are usually up for a chat. I remember the tremendous relief I felt when someone in California took a moment of interest in me and asked some questions as to my background. I almost felt like hugging them.

Perhaps the culture in San Francisco plays it safe; to be politically correct and insist on strong boundaries, for it's a place with a lot of drifters and people who are ambitious and have a tech-intelligence with all its social awkwardness. Instead of having to learn the latest twisty rule in San Francisco political correctness, sometimes it's best not to ask anybody of anything. Oh, I had my punk-rock dogwalking community, complete with personal jabs and dirty jokes. But with strangers it was different. In San Francisco it was very rare for someone to meet your gaze when passing you by on the sidewalk. In London and Boston, it just seems like common decency, a bit of shared connection, especially when there are few other people around. That San Francisco disregard bothered me to no end.

The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline and one of its most iconic. Although the building no longer houses the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation, it is still strongly associated with the company and is depicted in the company's logo. Designed by architect William Pereira and built by Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company, at 260 m (850 ft), upon completion in 1972 it was among the five tallest buildings in the world. Columbus Tower, also known as the Sentinel Building is a mixed-used building in San Francisco, California completed in 1907. Original image from Carol M. Highsmith’s America. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. Public Domain.

London, too, has its reserved moments but I've made some dear friends in my Master's program. Of course, in lockdown, it's been difficult to make new friends but surprisingly several people have given me their mobile numbers at the tail end of the first encounter. Still, there has to be some sort of sensible breaking of the ice - one can't just start in immediately on Camus or how toxic masculinity is just misdirected grief. So I've developed a list of the safest subjects in any country with strangers, acquaintances, even family members of a different political stripe. The four safe subjects are as follows: 

1.) the weather (okay so not super-imaginative but there's a lot you can build on here);

2.) films, books, and television (just prepared to be shocked at the different taste levels); 

3.) travel and vacations (my favorite - although probably not the best when chatting with the boss at a new job);

4.) the dog by a stranger's side or the birds in the trees. Dogs are the better ice-breakers though - talking about the birds may seem a little flighty (no pun intended).

Illustration of midsummer eve from The Costume of Yorkshire (1814) by George Walker (1781-1856). Original from The New York Public Library. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. Public Domain.

As a presence in public, The Londoner is cool, reserved, and respectful. As the pandemic has dragged on, I've found my courage more and more in approaching an individual and making the first move in conversation. But be warned, once the floodgates are open, it's hard to even slip in an utterance of agreement with the English. I still stumble on some terms or references that the Brits use but do my best to at least slip in a joke (the drier the better). These conversational patterns seem to manifest regardless of age, background, skin color, or class. I find that the vast majority of the British know how to behave and are happy for a chat.

One thing that is not acceptable is a robust and hearty laughter in a public setting. The Brits and most other Europeans consider it vulgar. Try an experiment next time you are on Netflix: check out either a British or American comedian performing in front of a British audience and notice the staccato waves of laughter from the audience when the comedian lands a joke. There could be several titters of laughter throughout the set but each fit is short-lived. And then compare it to an American audience who try to outdo one another in enjoyment.

Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect (1903) by Claude Monet. Original from the Art Institute of Chicago. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. Public Domain.

Lastly, the average Brit has an exceptional vocabulary. They regularly pepper their conversations with words like shambolic, innocuous, riveting, scheme and devolution. Even their common adjectives have a shine to them: instead of nice, awesome or perfect (overused American terms that need to start collecting their social security), the Brits use words like lovely, brilliant, and splendid. The Irish even have a favorite go-to: grand. The vocabulary level alone is one of the reasons we may stay here indefinitely; it's like a bubble bath for the mind.

Thomas's Pandemic Diaries: The Decade Trend-Lines of Our Media Journeys (through 2019)

 Oh, the joy of grafting media trends onto neat, little decade timelines. When it comes to entertainment history told through media, trends take a natural form. Producers share techniques and fans share recommendations all in line with the mores of the zeitgeist. Media is a creative, organic ecosystem where many play their part. Media history often mistakenly relies on a "Great Man Theory" explanation of innovation. We should give credit to some tenacious individuals like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Steve Jobs at Apple who goose others along.  Let's not forget, however, that the values of a given age shape and mold the great men. The times define and shape us as much as we define and shape our times. 

"Bette Davis cor 60" by Luiz Fernando Reis MMF is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Decades, in particular, have their own shape-making ways. I finally saw this year's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," on Amazon Prime. Although I find Tarantino a bit too violent -- what upset me was one of the advertised descriptions. Its setting in 1969 Los Angeles is described as the "Golden Age of the Hollywood," but I argue that that crown really belongs to both the 1930s and the 1940s and to stars like Bette, Joan, and Humphrey. The title rightfully belongs to those earlier decades when we retrospectively consider star power and ticket sales. But it's more about what people were craving during the Great Depression. Moviegoers desired escapism -- from the ravages of the tough times and World War II. And the best way to escape was through "the pictures."

"Electric Cinema Portobello" by Fred Bigio is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Granted 1969 may have well been the start of Hollywood's second Golden Age, a time when method acting met up with bigger budgets and an increasing appetite for shock and violence. But the 1930s reigns supreme. You never forget your first Golden Age.

Hollywood Sign: Public Domain

So oftentimes with these great pronouncements, the slipper doesn't fit but we pretend otherwise. What I've learned in my postgraduate journey in library and information science, is that these mediums shape our behaviour and society much more than we give them credit for. The wizard behind this media philosophy curtain is Canadian-born, 1960s Information Philosopher, Marshall McLuhan. Hailing from "The Toronto School," McLuhan's most famous work and idea is that "the medium is the message." Later on he went even further, publishing a slim, psychedelic-tinged primer in 1967 called "The Medium is the Massage." The latter title paints the reality that the mediums we choose for entertainment and communication shape human behaviour far more than we give them credit for. The "Massage" part (however an icky or desirous image) is that if we get into the media too much, it can act as a near hypnotic, and can (roughly paraphrasing) "work us over completely." McLuhan's ultimate point is that it's not so much the content of the news that is shaping our habits and world-views but the way in which it is delivered and consumed that leaves a lasting impression.

"Marshall McLuhan Speaks" by Cea. is licensed under CC BY 2.0

When thinking about McLuhan and his theory, we can start to discern the invisible hand of the mode or the format and its role in human history. For my point about media trends, picture (no pun intended) those old stories from your grandparents, who all went to catch a film on the big screen on Saturday during the Great Depression. Kids and adults alike, a nickel for each viewing. These films were a true escape from the despair, or at least, discomfort, of those lean years.

Certain decades gave us certain technologies which instilled certain behaviours. Here are a few of the peaks or least the popular waves of when the medium has met the moment:

🎧🎉

The 1960's, for instance, was Peak Music: a flourishing made possible by the British invasion as well as the festive and gospel-tinged anthems coming out of the Civil Rights Era, the Women's Movement, the optimism of the young Boomers. Think: jazz, pop, folk-rock, soul, and northern soul.

🎞 👊

1970's, arguably, saw the peak of the big-budget film. Think The Godfather, Jaws, several James Bond movie franchises, the gritty Taxi Driver as well as quiet hits like Love Story and the critically-acclaimed Ordinary People.

"Jaws" by kevin dooley is licensed under CC BY 2.0

🎮

The 1980s saw the rise of video games and music videos. The era, along with the late 70s, was considered another golden age of music as a diverse number of genres came to the fore: punk-rock lead by the Sex Pistols in the UK, disco pop by Abba in Sweden as well as the rise of post-punk, new wave, EDM, garage rock, rap and hip-hop out of both the US and UK.

💥📻

The 1990s saw a mix of a diverse forms of new music (grunge from Seattle, riot grrrl movement in Olympia and the Pacific Northwest, more hip-hop and rap including gangsta rap coming out NYC, Philly and L.A., indie-rock from all over and EDM (Electronic Dance Music) spearheaded by African-American DJ's and producers in Chicago and Detroit. The era also saw the rise of power pop, brit-pop, twee pop and indie rock coming out of the UK.

In the 90s, we also saw a new phenomenon: talk and/or "shock" radio and the 24/7 televised news cycle brought to you by Fox News and CNN. Tabloid news was also huge as were scandalous stories that seemed to drag on for years.

"Best HD Game of thrones facebook cover" by Tatiana_0000 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

📺

The first decade of the 2000s (which many refer to as the aughts or naughts or naughties) gave birth to the undisputed age of Peak TV starting roughly with gritty and dark melodramas like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under. This peak continued with the Twenty-Teens with the global fantasy phenomenon, Game of Thrones, whose last episode aired in May of 2019. All three shows I should mention were HBO productions. The Twenty-Teens also saw a diversity in small screen viewing options. Hit shows were not relegated to network TV or pay-for-extra cable. Amazon, Netflix and Hulu were now in the game: pushing streamable content. More recently they started to produce their own phenomenal content.h (Starting in 2015, the three behemoths even started to snag a few Primetime Emmy awards.) 

"HBO / Game of Thrones - Iron Throne Taipei showcase" by blog.woodford is marked with CC0 1.0

So what about the 2020s? What will reign this decade? I foresee Peak Audiobook and Peak Podcast. Find out why next time at Know Your Shelf Better. 😀

Thomas's Pandemic Diaries: Reasonable Goal Setting When the Day is Marked by Rabbit Holes

 The idea of the modern-day parlance "Rabbit Hole" comes from Alice in Wonderland, penned by Lewis Carroll in 1865. Curiosity gets the better of Alice when she follows a rabbit with a no-nonsense, Type A personality, clad in tweed I believe, who is "late for a very important date." Down the rabbit hole they both go and into a world foreign from Alice's own. With the world wide web's intertextuality, it is very common to find yourself down a rabbit hole by clicking on a link that takes you to a different subject and often to a different medium or sub-medium. You start off, for instance, with high-hopes reading a New Yorker article and then find yourself on YouTube watching a documentary of elephant sanctuaries in Thailand. And that is only one stop on the journey, point A to point B. Often times 90 minutes goes by and you are somewhere completely unrecognizable and you can't remember your original intention nor starting point. This phenomenon was captured brilliantly by Abbi and Ilana on Comedy Central's Broad City. 

Then there are some internet users who eschew curiosity and intertextuality and surfing and just return to their warm and familiar sources: playing Angry Birds, checking out Reddit, getting stuck in Facebook or caught up in less savory pastimes: getting in too deep with on-line gambling, obsessively watching on-line porn. For most of these Rabbit Holes, the impetus is not so much curiosity but routine/addiction/oblivion. Drinking from the River Lethe where all is forgotten. 

"Alice in Wonderland". Illustration from the cover and interior of the book Boys and Girls of Bookland from 1923, written by Nora Archibald Smith and illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. Public Domain

With so much more free time on most of our hands (and I'm speaking mainly to my retiree and child-free friends and readers), the day is pocketed with Rabbit Holes. Forget the helpless and hapless Alice for a second. I think, if you are anything like me, you once relished playing the role of the Rabbit whose goal was singular and his hop swift. It's not that I have nostalgia for being late to meetings but I do ache for the urgency of having someplace to go and something to do. [I am also missing and looking forward to the cooler weather in England so I too can sport some tweed.]

Of course, the Rabbit Holes I am referring to above all have an electronic composition to them (my hat is off to anyone whose idea of curiosity and Rabbit Hole is to pick up a new sport everyday). No, it's unanimous. We are creatures of the new electronic age. 

For the sake of my argument, it's important that we distinguish between two types of Rabbit Holes. The first is the unforeseen or "Inadvertent Rabbit Hole" which we seem to fall into again and again unwittingly. The second and more empowering is the "Scheduled Rabbit Hole." 

On LinkedIn, I had the privilege of taking a class called "Making a Better To-Do List." The supremacy of the "to-do list" is quite an Anglo-American way of tackling the day via goals and willpower but for me (like many of you), it is anchor to progress and productivity and frankly it just makes you feel good as you check off each task accomplished. I'm happy to share my pdf notes/summary from my "to-do list" class for anyone who requests it. Even in trying and chaotic times like these where we are stressed out on all levels yet we also face insufferable stretches of down time, a "to-do list" acts as a grocery list for structure, sanity, and satisfaction. It also acts as a recipe to ward off mental angst. But not everything in the "to-do list" is explicit; there should be a scaffolding around the to-do list in order to evade those "Inadvertent Rabbit Holes."

There was a book popular during that wave of pop science guides in the last decade. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (2018), by author Daniel Pink, delves into the underemphasized importance of the correct timing for things, in our day and in our lives. For instance, I know that if I hop online first thing in the morning, my mood will be angsty and my day disordered. And because mornings are when I am strongest, I focus on my daily dissertation goals by reading just three printed academic articles or book chapters over coffee, roughly from 8 a.m. until noon. The fact that I print them out makes me self-confident of recognizing my scholarly needs even though it saddens me that trees are hurt in the process. 😓 Still I've succeeded in half the battle: knowing a few of my strengths and weaknesses. For strengthening actions, the first is making a reasonable to-do list the night before. The second is using the productivity of the mornings (my strong time) to tackle tasks of high-importance. And lastly I do this by eschewing all things electronic in the morning. That means not turning anything on until 12 noon, the hour when Mauricio and I have lunch together and listen to music or a political podcast via Spotify on my phone. 

The whole idea of appropriate timing not only has salience at the personal level but also at the societal and institutional level. Do you know researchers have found that teenagers need much more sleep than they are receiving? Researchers urge schools to start a whole hour later because of this. I remember teachers at Milton High getting upset with all of us for barely keeping our eyes open for the first third of the day; hell, I remember being half-dead in the first few periods. It wasn't our fault, just a clash of biological clocks. It's not because we didn't want to learn or were trying to get on their nerves. We were just responding to physiological needs.

Night Owl Collective / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Night_Owl_Logo.jpg 

Schools and workplaces may feel out of our control but with personal goal-setting the first part of the battle is knowing yourself. Are you part of the 20% of the world's population considered night owls? You likely already know that you work best and play best at night. This article from Buzzfeed supports the idea of night owls reigning supreme during this time of pandemic, overthrowing those cheery morning doves. Research also shows that most people who work a typical 9 to 5 shift at the office have a two hour slump (sometimes called a lunch coma) where their mind slips into a mini-siesta. This roughly 2 to 4 p.m. window might be a good time for you to do something rote or physical like washing dishes, folding laundry, collating documents or organizing bookshelves.

And if you are all too cognizant of your on-line vice or rabbit hole, then try to schedule it in or leave it for the end of the day. Timers help. There are also a number of productivity apps available to help you stay on track. And if you are the type who would like to avoid all of your Rabbit Holes altogether, try something different or radical. Take a walk or a jog or sit somewhere under a tree and close your eyes and try listening to what your neighborhood birds are gossiping about. One important point from my LinkedIn "to-do list" training is to start off each to-do item with a verb. Verbs have forward motion over rooted nouns. So: Do Something. Walk leisurely. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply.

Pandemic Diaries: The Good Ole' Literature Review

Green and leafy London is affording me a nice atmosphere in which to tackle phase one of my UK Master's dissertation. Its working title is "Gift of the Gab: The Rise of the Audiobook and the Festive Turn in Library Science." The scholars I am reading are quite masterful and eloquent and I wonder if I can elevate my chatty banter in time for final publication. Ironically, what draws me to the subject of the audiobook (and to the podcast) is the approachability and egalitarianism of the medium and subsequently, the literature depicting it. Of course, the one community who would be left out is the deaf community; still I do believe the "A-book" reaches quite a large slice of the population who never "caught on" to SSR (Sustained Silent Reading). We've all have had a bad experience or two in high school English class.

So a bit of housecleaning around terminology. A Master's thesis in the U.S. is for an M.A. or M.S. while a dissertation is for a PhD. Here in the UK, it is switched. So do not assume I am more advanced than I am. "When in London, speak as the Londoners do."

After thinking about a topic of research that excites you and discussing it with one's advisor, the working phase one of most dissertation is what we postgraduates call "The Literary Review," basically collecting and collating all that is reputable and relevant to a subject, reading all you can from this collection and taking appropriate notes. One helpful maneuver is to arrange/limit one's own search criteria for the sake of time and relevance. For instance, for the bulk of 80% of my material, I have confined my sources to those academic articles printed in English that are not more than twenty years old (ideally not more than 10 years old!!). Exceptions I have been made for the prominent media and communication theorists of the mid-20th century hailing from "The Toronto School" which is short-hand for "The Toronto School of Communication Theory," a vibrant group and era from the University of Toronto in the 1960s. These include Marshall McLuhan and his protege Walter Ong. Other information behaviourists I am absorbing are the likes of Marcia Bates (famous for the browsing idea of "berry-picking"), Brenda Dervin (famous for "Sense Making"), and Karen Fisher (famous for "Information Grounds"). The latter three American professors have innovative information behaviours that I find close to the audiobook's sense of festivity and egalitarianism. 

The next bucket of researchers in my work shed include current writers and thinkers out of Denmark and London and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Danish duo, Iben Have and Birgitte Stougaard Pedersen, have written prolifically about sound technology and the audiobook having its moment in educational culture and are doing exceptional work in Aarhus University. Indispensable for his intelligent and approachable style is Matthew Rubery, whose 2016 tome, "The Untold Story of the Talking Book," has been an absolute gem and oasis of knowledge.

The last tier of who and what I'm reading are the trade journal publication articles of librarians themselves. I believe there should always be a vein of practicality in any academic work. My queries include: How much respect do current librarians give the audiobook (personally and vocationally)? Do librarians consider it a worthy rival for the printed book or even the E-book? Are libraries keeping abreast with the surge in demand of A-books, especially during this pandemic and accompanying lockdown? If so, how?

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The Literature Review is basically the phase in which to devote yourself to devouring the words and works of the leading lights and any other researchers of a certain subject. In my case, it is studying the research regarding sound technology and its effect on library patronage and information gathering. One's first aim as a researcher is to shoot for "generativity," or an ability to contribute something original or noteworthy back into the field and stand tall with one's peers (Terrell, 2016). 

I'm finding with some struggle that a lot of academia is academics "talking" to academics. I would love to be a bridge or at least a "transmitter" between the academic realm and the practical realm. Which is precisely why I enjoy the audiobook and podcast so much - it's not quite straight news or narrative and it's not quite entertainment. But its in-betweenness makes it perfect for this moment of high anxiety and screen fatigue.

More later!

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Bibliography

Terrell, S. (2016) Writing a proposal for your dissertation: Guidelines and examples. New York: Guilford Publishers.

A Deep Dive into the Classics (If Not Now, When?)

I've always preferred the print versions of books to their electronic counterparts. In this age of Coronavirus, especially, it seems we are all overdoing it on the screen time. But with my move to England and my subsequent move back to California, a lot of my books have vanished or have been given away. I use the passive voice on purpose; it feels as if my books make their own decisions of where they end up. Books and natural hippie soaps are the two things I purchase indiscriminately.

So with my paperbacks dispersed, I did what any desperate, self-respecting reader would do in the 21st century: I dusted off my long-neglected Kindle. It was a birthday present from my mom when I had turned 35 (you know, back in the dark ages). I figure that if Shakespeare can pull off penning King Lear in quarantine, surely I can engage with an electronic copy of Little Women. I do want to use this time wisely even if the New York Times is advising the opposite. The quarantine, I publicly vow, will be spent in deep-dive reading all those promising classic novels. At least those which are American, Irish, and British.


Here is my color-coded list of classic novels. 

Red = Cannot stomach.
Orange = Enjoyed as an adolescent; grew out of them.
Yellow = Adored the first time around; will read again.
Green = Actively reading; soon to be devoured.

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I'm sorry, Ms. Shelley, but I just can't.

Frankenstein - The first half was decent but the second half was arduous and just not believable. I still think the macabre and the gothic need to have a pinch of believability in order to make them palatable.

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The following are novels that I once loved as an adolescent but am having trouble enjoying as an adult.

Brave New World

Catcher in the Rye

Lord of the Flies

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

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Some of my favorite books are below.

The Bell Jar - Beautiful and poetic the first time around.

The Bostonians - James' great satire. Not very PC.

The Call of the Wild - A classic for any dog-lover!!

Confederacy of Dunces - Hilarious first time around; not very PC.

Ethan Frome - I'm already seeing similarities with Wuthering Heights; ill-fated love and gothic feel.

Mrs. Dalloway - I took a class on this; the stream-of-consciousness prose sparkles in a poetic sort of way.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Another gothic gem.

The Screwtape Letters - Ingenious premise; an epistolary novel between two devils.

Tale of Two Cities - one of my faves. Considered Dickens' most "manly" book; swift-moving and full of action.

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Below in green is my active bookshelf.

Wuthering Heights - Fantastic so far. The action and writing grabs you from the start.

The Plague - Beautifully written; had to return my library copy.

Dracula

Little Women

Count of Monte Cristo

Brideshead Revisited

Middlemarch

Vanity Fair

The Mill on the Floss

Les Miserables

Suite Francaise 

If the quarantine lasts and I've exhausted my books in green, there is just one thing left for me to do: tackle the Russians.

French Exit or Unceremonious Departure?

Recently, I was witnessed "ghosting" a house party. A guest in a friend's hallway in East London saw me sheepishly slipping on my red Adidas. "Pulling a French Exit?" he asked. I think the shame of being caught in the act is much worse than the guilt and questioning that plagues you over the following weeks -- "Was it rude or appropriate?". Regardless, a French Exit seems highly misnamed; according to the French etiquette books I've read, the Gauls insist on a long, devoted show of compliments and conversation and a kiss on each cheek to everyone present as they double check their coats for Oyster cards or car keys. The synonym "Irish Goodbye" is one that I can get my head around. The Irish and Irish-Americans don't want to put anyone out or be caught in earnest affection.

Wings near Angel Station

Frankly, it depends on the nature and size of the party.

My own exit from the UK is hasty and necessary and not what I planned. I imagined a lovely, stately graduation ceremony with everyone in tow, my whole British postgraduate family: school friends and professors alike. This was all before the growing menace of the "developing situation" of the Coronavirus pandemic. I figure if I stay any longer in the UK, I may be trapped as more and more draconian (but necessary!) measures are put into place, country by country.

Nice mellow folk band - give it a listen

The UK, I'm sorry to say, has been asleep at the wheel. At one point, the Johnson government was flirting with the idea of "herd immunity". It was uttered on television by health officials on March 13th when cases across the four countries of the UK had reached 798 with a death toll of 11. The idea of "herd immunity" sounded quite dodgy and sloppy even for this non-scientist. Doesn't herd immunity naturally occur when enough people receive vaccination for a disease? And news flash: there is no vaccination for Covid-19. What's more, I believe the Johnson goverment moved far too quickly from their "Contain" phase to the "Delay" phase. In "Contain" there was an emphasis on testing and tracking the contacts of those infected. Last I heard, the Tories have ceased testing even for people who exhibit serious symptoms. In another flip-flop, the UK WILL be testing far greater populations, hoping to bump up a 5,000 a day exercise to 25,000 a day. So maybe there is hope. But as any public health expert knows: interventions have to come early, in a consistent, truthful delivery and with a proactive, muscular approach.

House and Weeping Willow Trees near Essex Road Station

Still, for the greater part of the early crisis, life carried on as usual. There was a "Keep Calm and Carry On" attitude but viruses don't respect stoicism. One factor for transmission rates could depend on the levels of effusiveness and physical affection of a culture. And on this half-baked thesis of mine, England and the rest of the UK may have a cultural upper-hand as they are a people who seem to give eachother a lot personal space. London, though, because of its density is a different animal --which is why it is the epicenter of outbreak in the UK. Maybe why Italy is suffering so is because of their demographics. The CIA Factbook in 2014 pegged Italy as the 5th oldest country in the world. I wonder too if transmission skyrocketed because of the population density as well as the Italians' warm and affectionate mannerisms.

Flowers and another lovely house near Essex Road Station

As for this grain of sand upon a beach, I've decided to return to California pronto - out of concern for my partner and my family and the possibility that I may be trapped in the UK for up to 18 months if I resort to inaction. Borders are closing all over the world and it's easy to see the airlines discontinuing international flights. I did hear one happy rumour that United Airlines is the leader in making sure American citizens get home safely (they probably won some sort of contract on that end). Let's just hope I make it in time, for United was the airline I chose.

Major Arcana - Card #9 The Hermit, represents Virgo, Secret Knowledge and Introversion

Emotionally, I feel calm and focused but the whole fly-by-night departure just feels so unceremonious. My postgraduate instruction has moved on-line and there are other international students returning early to places like Singapore, Eastern Europe, Chile and the Caribbean. Not much of a peep from the other five American students. We are all encouraged to finish our coursework in a virtual format and I'm hoping I can communicate with my dissertation advisor by Zoom, FaceTime or Skype.

I thought this display was clever. Possibly Finsbury Library in Islington borough?

City Library books: Reference Guides, Sermons on Equality, and Glimpses into the Future

Two books for my class "Libraries and Publishing": Blog Theory and Alone Together

 Did I tell you that I want to be a librarian when I grow up?

Not to make it all about me but my karma of pulling dozens of French Exits throughout my life has come to bite me in the behind. Ceremony and conversation and hugs and good-byes are so important especially when the wolf is at the door.

I'll have a fuller, more poetic, review of my time spent in London in a later post.

Rembrandt and the Museum of Brands

When you think of New York, what comes to mind? Perhaps the ubiquitous logo adorning the world's t-shirts: 

The graphic designer, Milton Glaser, came up with the logo idea while riding in the back of a taxi in 1976.

How about Texas? Do you know they had a PR and PSA coup with their intimidating warning: "Don't Mess with Texas." That slogan, created by the Texas Department of Transportation, not only gave Texas a bit of chutzpah on the national stage but it urged the state's litterbugs to rethink their habits. Studies found that the campaign helped reduce litter by 72% on Texas highways over a three-year-period. The warning soon took on a life of its own; it's basically become the state's unofficial motto. It soon became a rallying cry for the Texan people's grit and bravado.

"Don't Mess with Texas T-Shirt" by J. Stephen Conn is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 

While there is usually some type of strategic intent behind branding, there are some cities or states that fall into branding by accident. Boston, for instance, was long known for its sports teams, peculiar Irish inheritance, and density of colleges and universities. That all changed with Bostploitation and the spate of films based on the crime suspense novels of Dennis Lehane. (Not only did I meet him once in 1999 when I was working at the Braintree Barnes & Noble's but my godmother, Tricia, took a creative writing class with him.) Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River were two of his novels adapted into popular films. Other films in the Bostploitation genre include the seminal Good Will Hunting and The Town. These films made it seem like Boston was a thieving scoundrel with a heart of gold. With Bostploitation, you see a scene of some Irish mafia character summoning the Virgin Mary before robbing a bank. The only value worth having in these movies is loyalty. But as New Hampshire boy, Seth Myers, knows too well, it's often the sound of the locals that can give a city its identity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLwbzGyC6t4

This type of tough boy image hasn't put a dent in Boston's international image. In fact, out of the six New England states, Massachusetts has had the highest population growth in the past ten years at a 5.4% increase, far outpacing the other five states in the region. For me, it's still home. You could say that everywhere is unique but Massachusetts is truly unique.

"CZM_BostonHarborwalk_BR" by Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

There are some places that shouldn't even try with even the idea of branding. South Dakota ran amok with their "Meth: We're on it" PSA campaign. While this was meant as a way to encourage South Dakotans to think about their community's ills, it quickly became a horrid and ill-conceived branding idea and an internet meme that sent social media aflutter.

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London has never had a problem with branding as it happily sits at the center of the universe. I never hear Londoners bemoan that their city is not like New York. I do however see a fascination, envy, and curiosity amongst my British friends over all things American. California, especially, puts a spell on the Brits that I've spoken with. 

Fruit & Veg Garden @ Kilburn Station Platform

Jubilee Line

The beauty of London's branding is color-based: blood red against a charcoal beige background with a mix of rainy Monday grey. All of its seminal images have that shade of pure blood red: the telephone booths, the double-decker buses and the famous royal guards. For neutrals, you can find your stately grey Tower Bridge replicas and the neutral Gothic edifices holding Big Ben and the UK's Parliament. 

"Byng Place" by Dun.can is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

So while Londinium has long had a certain palette and aesthetic, it was never a believer in brands. London does, however, have a whole museum devoted to brands: the exhibition, study and criticism of branding. In West London is the Museum of Brands, a place where all forms of ephemera is on display in the "time tunnel" - everything from Victorian cigarette boxes to boy-band One Direction lunchboxes circa 2010. Taking photos of the items is strictly prohibited but I did manage to capture a poetic photo of the exterior. The main exhibition is the life's work of museum founder, Robert Opie; over twelve thousand items splendidly curated.

At first, to be honest, I was a bit skeptical of branding, seeing as how it has such a powerful link with fascist history. But, Mauricio, in so many words, encouraged me to look at branding in a more agnostic way. For everything we do and everything we are has an element of branding. It's a part of capitalist culture. I'm much more geared towards text and literature but the interesting thing about the Museum of Brands is they take a progressive, critical eye towards the idea of branding. Several times a month they hold workshops, lectures and exhibitions for school groups, families and trade groups. One coming up in July, for interested adults, is entitled Is Your Brand Queer Enough?

Robert Opie's twelve thousand items is not the only display in town, however. A much smaller, more intimate collection can be seen through February 2nd at a village venue south of the Thames, the Dulwich Picture Gallery. "Rembrandt's Light" was a fantastic Saturday day-trip exhibition. Branding existed in Rembrandt's heyday (Holland in the 17th century), but it had likely more to do with flags and royal colours and coats of arms. Rembrandt's use of light in his painting technique was not a brand or even a signature but something more substantial: the theme or central narrative of each of his paintings, all of which seemed to tell a story from the New Testament. 

Most people would not peg me as a churchgoer and although I celebrate my pagan roots, I cannot escape my Catholic upbringing, at times I embrace it. In the permanent main gallery, there is even a famous painting of my "confirmation" name saint, Sebastian, in all his suffering.

Rembrandt brings me closer to my dormant faith as do Christian-Secular-Crossover artists like Al Green and Lauryn Hill, even the openly-Catholic, witty comedian, Stephen Colbert. Religious or not, there is only a few days left to see the Rembrandt's exhibition before it closes on the 2nd of February. You can then find out for yourself not only if Rembrandt had a brand in mind or if he was driven by something deeper.

As for London, its brand can't be condensed into a pithy slogan - although there are a slew of quotes that try to do it justice. I feel that in living here, the whole world is just a tube ride away. It can rely on the strength of its resources and its centuries of innovation.

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References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_New_York

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Mess_with_Texas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Lehane

https://www.brookings.edu/research/population-change-and-the-projected-change-in-congressional-representation/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/18/south-dakota-meth-were-on-it-addiction-campaign

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Londinium

https://www.museumofbrands.com/

https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/2019/october/rembrandts-light/