"The solution to all predicaments is the goodness of privacy in a warm room with books" - Morrissey He is near the top of most lists ranking the world's best songwriters and his tenure with The Smiths had a monumental impact on the 1980's music scene yet by reading his Autobiography one has to shake their head in disbelief at the resistance his road to success has endured. The polluted record industry and corrupt legal system weigh prominently in the book. The radio stations wouldn't play his music and an ex-Smith band mate took him to the cleaners via a less than fair...
Urban Librarians Unite (and take over?)
"Even if the library itself is in ruins the librarians are still thinking of them" - Urban Librarians Unite There is still plenty that is upside down in New York City from Hurricane Sandy including the library system. Many libraries are still closed leaving some communities and families without access to books. Thanks to Urban Librarians Unite, a group of library professionals interested in creating and supporting libraries, library staff, and librarianship in urban settings, help has arrived.Here's what's going on:Urban Librarians Unite is pleased to announce its own small network of little libraries. These bright orange newspaper boxes have been set up outside of...
Occupy Book Art: Richard Minsky’s House of Cards
Pop DelusionsA House of Credit Cards(backed with Chinese money)Richard Minsky, 2012 10" x 13¼" x 13¼" Minsky's credit cards, Chinese paper money, 23K gold leaf, binders' board, bookcloth, felt, linen tape, wood, J. B. Green handmade paper, acrylic, US$10 bills.It is the glory and good of Art, That Art remains the one way possible Of speaking truths, to mouths like mine at least. - Robert BrowningThe latest work from book art master Richard Minsky solidifies his position as one of the granddaddy's of political book art.With a powerful combination of credit cards, Chinese and American currency and copies of Charles...
The ‘Little Library’ in the Big Picture
OK everyone, put on your long read hat and settle in. Shannon Mattern has a must read essay on the Design Observer blog Places titled Marginalia: Little Libraries in the Urban Margins.In it she looks at the recent rise of the mini, pop-up, guerrilla and ad-hoc library and tries "to figure out where they’re coming from, how they relate to existing institutions that perform similar roles, and what impact they’re having on their communities.""Nowadays we have libraries in phone booths and mailboxes, in public parks and train stations, in vacant storefronts and parking lots" says MatternMattern also covers the various mobile...
The Kids are Alright: 4th-Graders in Detroit Take Library Matters Into Their Own Hands
Rashard Baker gets some book suggestions from U-M lecturer Melanie Manos outside the closed Richard branch of the Detroit Public Library on Thursday. An outdoor library offered something interesting for him to read during spring break. / MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free PressBack in December The Detroit Public Library Commission voted to close four branches.One way to get books back into a library-deprived community is to take matters into your own hands. And that is exactly what a class of fourth-graders at Marcus Garvey Academy in Detroit did when they collaborated with Melanie Manos, a lecturer at University of Michigan who came...