Monthly Archives: April 2023

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Memories & History, Science & Health, Sports

Going to the Dogs: The American Kennel Club Library and Archives l Archives Deep Dive | Library Journal

By Elisa Shoenberger, Apr 26, 2023 | Filed in News

Produced by the C. and P. Products Company, the Kennel Club Card Game debuted in 1939
Photograph by Almerry Martins, courtesy of the AKC Museum of the Dog

The American Kennel Club (AKC) Library and Archives has been collecting practically everything dog-related, with a significant focus on purebred dogs, since 1934.

The library began as a resource for AKC members, explained AKC Archivist Jaimie Fritz; it holds about 15,000 volumes and the archives contains more than 1,200 linear feet of ephemera. A professional librarian was hired to manage the collection in the 1930s, starting with publications like the AKC Gazette and other non-AKC materials related to dogs.

For its 138th anniversary last fall, AKC announced the launch of its digital library, which provides access to materials including the full run of the Gazette—described as “the official journal of the sport of purebred dogs”—since its launch in 1889. People can search for specific breeders, read about the results of shows, learn about updates to breeds over time, and more.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: Going to the Dogs: The American Kennel Club Library and Archives l Archives Deep Dive | Library Journal

Current Affairs, Film & Movies, Memories & History, Music, Pleasures, Web & Technology

YouTube, the jewel of the internet | Financial Times

By Janan Ganesh, April 21 2023


YouTube can provide everything from renowned old TV series such as Cosmos and Civilisation to talks by philosophers, documentaries on the Meiji restoration and scouting reports on Barcelona’s Gavi © FT montage

The retirement speech of General Douglas MacArthur. A talk on three Caravaggio paintings by a National Gallery curator. Several hours of woodland noise to fall asleep to. All 13 episodes of Civilisation. Clips of how Gavi is coming on at Barcelona. An interview with Saul Bellow on Swiss Italian TV. A review of the De’Longhi Dedica coffee machine. A Tame Impala gig I missed in Hackney last summer. Gore Vidal drawling his way through Venice for 90 minutes. A guide to the five tones in spoken Thai.

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. Someone’s hour-long drive through my old neighbourhood in LA. A documentary about the Meiji Restoration in French. How to re-pressurise a boiler. The academic philosopher Anthony Quinton explaining Wittgenstein. Martha Nussbaum explaining Aristotle. An American expat eating bánh cuon in Hanoi. A British expat eating prawn pad kaprao in Bangkok. Versions of L’Orfeo from the Barcelona and Zurich opera houses. A discussion of how close China came to industrialising in the Song dynasty. Four parkour runners seemingly beating the Tube in a race from Moorgate to Farringdon stations. A 158-minute interview with Emmanuel Macron. How to use an Indesit washer-dryer. The above is a basket of goods from the great souk we call YouTube. I pay a tenner a month for these videos. I could put up with adverts and pay nothing.

Source: YouTube, the jewel of the internet | Financial Times

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Politics, Web & Technology

Book bans soar in U.S. schools, largely in Republican-led states – Los Angeles Times

By Alexandra E. Petri, Staff Writer, April 22, 2023 5 AM PT

Maia Kobabe, author of “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” poses for a portrait with the book, which was one of the most banned titles in U.S. schools last year.
(Josh Edelson / For The Times)

Fearing criminal penalties, public schools throughout Missouri removed hundreds of books from their libraries after state lawmakers last year made it illegal to provide students with “sexually explicit” material — a law that carried punishment of up to a year in prison.

The issue is playing out in public school districts and campus libraries across the United States, 1st Amendment advocates warn: Book bans, gassed up by state legislation pushed by conservative officials and groups, are stacking up at an alarming rate.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: Book bans soar in U.S. schools, largely in Republican-led states – Los Angeles Times

Arts & Humanities, Film & Movies, Memories & History, Music

Bob Dylan’s favourite cover of ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’

By Arun Starkey, Tue 2nd Nov 2021 16.15 GMT

Credit: Alamay

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ is one of Bob Dylan’s greatest moments. Written in 1973, the track features a glamorous, all-star band. Boasting The Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn on the six-string and Jim Keltner on the drums, it also utilised the talents of the iconic backing singers Carol Hunter, Donna Weiss and Brenda Patterson. Together, this stellar lineup created something spiritually driven and emotionally hard-hitting.

Out of all of Dylan’s post-1960s work, ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ is one of his most loved. Described by Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin as “an exercise in splendid simplicity”, it discusses the notions of life and death, and through its glorious composition, it has earned legions of fans with an inter-generational appeal that is largely unseen in music.

YouTube video…

Source: Bob Dylan’s favourite cover of ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Film & Movies, Food & Drink, Memories & History, Travel

What Hemingway Means in the 21st Century ‹ Literary Hub

David Barnes on the Masculinity and Baggage of Ernest Hemingway at 100 Years

By David Barnes, April 17, 2023

From article…

In the playwright Simon Gray’s literary diary The Last Cigarette, there’s a moment where he struggles to recall the name of a particular figure. Gray keeps returning to the image of a strutting, bare-chested, big-bellied man on a boat, holding up a huge dead fish.

He has “a grey beard, a square bullish face, something stupid about it, and aggressive.” Who is it, Gray asks himself, who is this obnoxious, swaggering figure?

“Hemingway!,” he finally remembers.

For many writers, talking about Ernest Hemingway is like talking about an embarrassing ancestor. Hemingway comes burdened with baggage, lots of it; pugilistic metaphors and hard-drinking aphorisms, an obsession with a pure and “clean” prose, a brittle misogyny and a vainglorious narcissism. And then there are all the dead animals. There they are, heaping up behind the great man’s hulking physique: Key West marlin, and bulls, and elephants, and antelope, and lions.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source:What Hemingway Means in the 21st Century ‹ Literary Hub

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Film & Movies, Libraries, Love & Relationships, Memories & History, Pleasures, Web & Technology

When the Culture Wars Come for the Public Library | The New Yorker

A Montana county’s battle shows how faith in public learning and public space is fraying.

By E. Tammy Kim, April 20, 2023

Illustration by Emmanuel Polanco

Every public library is an exception. The world outside is costly and cordoned off, but here no one is charged, and no one is turned away. People browse for books and go online. They learn English, meet with friends, dawdle, nap, and play. For children, the public library is a place to build an inner life, unencumbered by grownups. Story time is an invitation to that experience. A librarian reads a book aloud to a huddle of kids seated cross-legged on the floor.

It’s part early-literacy tool, part theatre, and looks basically the same wherever it happens. The public libraries in Flathead County, Montana, a region of mountainous beauty bordering Canada and Glacier National Park, offer seven story times per week, for babies on up. Three scattered branch locations—in Kalispell, Columbia Falls, and Bigfork—serve a population of a hundred and eleven thousand people, spread out over five thousand rugged square miles.

When the Culture Wars Come for the Public Library | The New Yorker