Friday, April 30, 2010

Happy Friday, everyone! Many thanks to all the link sender-inners.

From Julie: Stephen Hawking doesn't want us to talk to aliens. I think he probably has a very good point, but I also think that no one is going to listen to him on this.

From Josie: see, this is how I imagine Earthlings will act toward aliens. "HI!"

From Cassandra: more fun animal photos, news of a giant blizzard on Saturn, an article gently suggesting that perhaps plastic surgery is a bit out of hand, and a ruling that pole dancing is not considered art.

From Bunny: Hey, remember the great web pages we made in the 1990s? Don't you want websites to look like that again? Now you can! Oy. (Ages ago, we used to trawl the internet looking for bad goth poetry to read aloud to each other. A dripping blood page separator was always a good sign.)

And finally, from the Sparkle Queen herself: an amazing book and contest called The Clock Without a Face. It's like Kit Williams's Masquerade, updated for modern times! Join the hunt!

Have a spiffy weekend and May Day/Beltane/Walpurgisnacht, everyone. See you Monday.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Well, America's libraries may be in trouble, but at least New York City is trying to get everyone a library card. Provided we keep the libraries going, that seems like a good initiative.

Also, the New York Public Library has a nifty high-tech book sorter now!

Harvard also has some nifty storage areas and sorting techniques, but they're busy trying to imagine what libraries will be like (and what they will need) in the future.

In a real-life story which sounds like it's straight out of The Name of the Rose, a man used secret passageways and rope ladders to take books from a remote monastery's library, in the spirit of preserving them. Wow.

The library in The Name of the Rose is based on Borges' Library of Babel, and a fantastic essay in Lapham's Quarterly discusses the connection between the bones and bookspines of librarians and libraries.

(Incidentally, "Bones and Bookspines" is the new slogan of Spooky Librarians.)

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

This weekend brings May Day and Beltane, so you know the season of festivals and outdoor celebrations is imminent! Some examples follow...

Pasadena's Doo Dah Parade (aka "the parade with no rules") happens this weekend, as does the Kinetic Sculpture Race in Baltimore. It's also the weekend of the Kentucky Derby, which is really a multi-day festival including such gems as the Great Steamboat Race.

In a week, elephants will begin to invade London. So I'm told, anyway.

Speaking of London and moving on to the spooky, there be occult designs carved into a cell at the Tower of London, and someone better use this in a book or movie right quick. Maybe the Jesuits can make a spiffy movie out of this -- they're in the film business now!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Remember our giveaway for Ghosts of Manhattan? Now the first six chapters are available online, so even if you didn't win the giveaway, you can read part of the book. (That being said, our winner has not yet responded with an address, so we still have the book. Ahem!)

Graphic designers, enter Dr. Grordbort's Amazing Raygun Shootout! Design a raygun and win fabulous prizes for your efforts!

The World Steam Expo has updated its website with all sorts of information. If you're interested in steampunk and want to meet like-minded people, this looks like the place to be.

ModVic is my discovery of the week, via the Steampunk Home. It's a wealth of inspiration. One could renovate their old Victorian house, scatter some Steampunk Artifacts around the place, use The Melancholy Death of Nikola Tesla as an air freshener, and have a steampunky haven for the ages. (Well, one COULD do all that.)

And finally, for those of you interested in history, but not that far back: a reproduction of the Enigma E machine is available, if you happen to have about 1200 pounds or 2500 dollars lying around the house.

Monday, April 26, 2010

It's a rainy, uninspiring sort of Monday here. Let us go immediately to the links of distraction!

Show choir is becoming cool, thanks to Glee. (Confession #1: I was a show choir performer. Confession #2: I haven't yet seen Glee; I am sort of afraid it will induce flashbacks to gold lame and embarassing solos.)

Is our presidents reading? Yes, they are, fortunately.

Tor Books, sci-fi publisher extraordinaire, celebrates its thirtieth birthday with a look at the people behind the scenes. (I think I missed my calling as a proofreader, incidentally. Looking at those piles of paper to read is exciting!)

Cassandra points out another problem with the Twilight series; the vampires are not environmentally conscious. Horrors!

The Bayeux tapestry meme is an oldie but a goodie. I had no idea there were so many variations.

The National Gallery bought some forgeries once upon a time, and has decided to celebrate rather than hide the fact. You can compare the original to the forgery and see which one you prefer!

Octopi: the filmmakers of the future? It's possible, since they're enamored with the shiny cameras they see...

Friday, April 23, 2010

Happy Friday, everyone! On to the links from others...

From Susan G: Amazing photos of Eyjafjallajökull and the surrounding area. Lightning in a volcano!

From Zazoo: Adam Ant talks about Malcolm McLaren. Also, Adam has a new album coming out soon!

From Julie: The funeral procession of McLaren. Also, crows are getting smarter all the time, George Washington owes a library $300,000 in fines, and an Australian cookbook gets in all kinds of hot water over a typo.

From Cassandra: the world of friendship in the Facebook era and a calendar for planning 2010 meteor-shower-watching.

Not by Cassandra, but for her: The Universe Today weblog, which is a great read!

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Librarians: We're dangerous! It's true, you know. (Side story: once I helped a friend track down a high school classmate. "Wow, remind me to never piss you off," he said afterwards. "That was scary how much you found!" Mwahaha.)

This article about how having books at home helps kids at school seems like it was published by the Department of the Obvious, but perhaps that's okay. Sometimes obvious is good.

Shelf Check alerts readers that RIF is in trouble. Yikes! Also from Shelf Check: a discussion on signage, which could be part of this collection of passive-aggressive library signs. (I like the out-of-order computer sign, especially if a disgruntled librarian crafted it.)

In other librarian news, the Librarian in Black has an online store now! (We never thought of trying a Spooky Librarians store. Hm...)

Tomorrow: links from others! Thanks, all.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Will you be celebrating Earth Day this week? There's a lot going on in various cities around the world. Also, the Gastronomy Ski World Cup (in Austria) and the Individual Skittles Championship (in London) will be taking place!

If you are not into happy planetary celebrations and contests, you could instead plot and scheme your options within this handy zombie flowchart. (Best when enlarged, obviously.) And then, if you get injured planning (or fighting the zombies), you could get a Casttoo! I like the x-ray ones the best.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A hundred years ago, The Strand Magazine was imagining gigantic insects terrorizing London. See, some things don't change!

Remnants of Skystone is a steampunk-flavored MMO game which looks complicated, but fun. If you prefer old-school games, you could import a steampunk flavor to your Monopoly board.

There are so many new steampunk websites these days that I can't keep track of all of them, but here are two of note: Airship Ambassador, which discusses the phillosophy of steampunk, and Victorian Boler, documenting the transformation of a trailer into a steampunk haven.

Beyond Victoriana is not new, but just keeps publishing wonderful, wonderful entries about the multicultural aspects (or lack thereof) in the work of steampunk. Go! Read! Now!

Meanwhile, over at Free the Princess, Matthew explores the roots of steampunk. Good stuff.

Monday, April 19, 2010

It started with the Grace Jones interview. Then I found myself going through the archives of 120 Minutes, and watching segments of Synth Britannia, and yes, I suppose today is definitely a retro music day.  The intersection of rock music and literature continues to the present, however.

What makes a statue ugly? Size seems to have a lot to do with it, going by this slideshow. I am intrigued by the Genghis Khan memorial. Is it in the middle of nothingness? That makes it even better!

Art so ugly it's good can be in movie poster form, too, as seen on The Dark Side of the Art.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Happy Friday, everyone! On to the links from others. Many thanks to everyone who sent in stuff!

From Julie in the UK, sending in links from under the Eyjafjallajoekull ash cloud of doom: the Library of Congress will archive Twitter posts, and the Shroud of Turin is reexamined as it goes back on public display.

From Cassandra: The "Pompidou-Metz" is getting ready to open in Lorraine; requiring tests for kindergarten may be even more ridiculous than it sounds; and a really interesting article posits that capitalism and environmentalism are mutually exclusive concepts.

From Satori: Behold, the Hellbender returns! (It is not a supernatural being, but a salamander.)

From Bunny: The Space 1970 weblog is pure nostalgic joy for anyone who grew up in the '70s and '80s and watched sci-fi shows.

Final reminder: the drawing for the Ghosts of Manhattan book will take place tonight around 6 pm Eastern Standard Time! If all goes well, the drawing will be filmed and posted over at Steampunk Empire (and possibly on Facebook/Google Buzz, depending). Have a spiffy weekend, everyone! See you Monday.

Thursday, April 15, 2010


It's National Library Week, so let's talk libraries.

You know what cutting back on libraries is like? It's like...well, see the proposed t-shirt for yourself. (I would buy one!) Also, writers and researchers often get their start at libraries.

If you're in or near a law library, the AALL has published their annual resource kit.  Teach students (or, um, new attorneys, sometimes) about the research possibilities!

Meanwhile, someone is complaining that libraries are too noisy these days. Yes. Well. You'll have that.

Fun for history geeks: The Chicago Tribune has debuted their photographs page, which is beautiful, and a 1913 film about Abraham Lincoln was discovered in a New Hampshire barn this week.

Tomorrow: links from others! Thanks, all.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

I just discovered the Animal Review weblog  -- now with a book out, too! -- which is the online equivalent of going through one's childhood Safari Cards and snarking on them. Good stuff. (I was a big, big fan of Safari Cards.)

It's National Bookmobile Day! Go hug a bookmobile. Or maybe someone who drives one. If that's allowed and they're okay with it.

It is also almost National Park Week (beginning this Saturday), and to celebrate, all national parks in the U.S. are free for the week!

Also this weekend: the annual World Grits Festival in South Carolina. (Yay?)

The always-incredible Oddee features ten amazing subway stations around the world.

Moving from worldwide news to the world of the spooky...Grow House Grow has beautifully elegant wallpaper designs, inspired by personages like Aleister Crowley; Terra Vivos is planning for a post-apocalyptic society underground; and regardless of what one thinks about the recent events in Catholicism, I think everyone can agree that the current pope can look awfully creepy at times.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

This Friday, we are drawing names for the Ghosts of Manhattan giveaway contest. (And, us being us, the drawing will be filmed. And puppets will be involved. I'm just saying, you may want to enter.)

There are all sorts of happy events taking place on the steampunk front. Jessica Joslin's exhibit "Brass and Bone" opened,  Riese was picked up by SyFy (formerly and betterly known as the Sci-Fi Channel), Wondermark's new compilation Dapper Caps & Pedal-Copters is out and available for purchase, and a swarm of steampunks took to their bicycles to celebrate Earth Month! (More events are on the way this month.)

Lastly, Jacob Petersson makes wonderful props with a steampunk bent. Check them out.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Spring is here! Get excited and make things! (Coffee or tea counts.)

It is also National Library Week, and Woot! is having a "literary mashup" design contest. Discussion and entries can be found on the forum. I am particular to Sherlock Holmes and the Invisible Man entry so far.

Did you know about the Ask Joan of Art reference service at the Smithsonian? I am ashamed to say I didn't. Now there's a web page with recent answers, and there's Twitter, too!

Comic Book Cartography celebrates the wonderful diagrams and maps found in the comic pages.

Guy-Pascal Vallez creates worlds full of color and people and interesting goings-on. I am a fan!

Friday, April 09, 2010

Friday links! Thanks to all.

From Zazoo: RIP, Malcolm McLaren.

Also from Zazoo: a slideshow of wacky couture fashions!

From Cassandra: an interesting post on the use of one's voice, and an interesting study on parent involvement with children.

Bill Keaggy has made a periodic table of periodic tables on the web. Got that? (OU alumni of the early '90s, this is indeed the same Bill who was an art designer for insideOUT. He's kind of a big deal on the interwebs these days.)

Meanwhile, the 2010 Peeps Diorama contest has ended, and the winners are rather stunning.

And, for something completely unrelated, here's a list of 50 ways you can reuse beer bottles and bottlecaps!

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Keith Richards thought about going to library school. Woo! (Granted, Keith Richards has probably thought about doing all sorts of wacky things while under various influences. But still!)

I'd be interested to see Keith Richards take on some vendors, actually. The Librarian in Black details the evil empires with which libraries try to get along. (In somewhat related news, we got a small volume this week in my library which costs $1195. I hope it does magic.)

ResourceShelf has a great post for anyone interested in language - a repository of pronunication guides.   There are even mp3 files included!

Another interesting resource found this week is GovernmentAttic.org. Find out all the weird stuff that goes on behind the scenes.

Local readers, check out the pop-up books exhibit going on at the Cincinnati public library!

And lastly, here is some proof that academic libraries are full of fun. Someone has analyzed all the graffiti in the University of Chicago's library bathrooms, and the University of Florida library has put out a handy zombie survival guide for students.

Tomorrow: links from others!

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

If it's Wednesday, this must be the day we visit the world...

A Russian photographer documents the many abandoned churches in his homeland. The text is in Cyrillic, but it doesn't matter if you can't read it -- the photos speak for themselves.

Back in America, one church will be anything but abandoned this Saturday -- it's time for the annual Blessing of the Bikes ceremony at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Down in Tennessee, a distinctly less modern method of transportation will be celebrated during the 2010 Mule Day Festival. (Naomi Judd will be the grand marshal in the parade, says the website!)

At the Smithsonian, The Realm of the Buddha looks like an amazing exhibit that goes on through the spring. And if you're over in Europe, a "hidden Paris" is springing up under the mainstream tourist attractions.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

This week, Folderol turns ten years old. Ten! It would be a fourth grader if it were a sentient being!

I thought about all sorts of things to do in order to observe a decade of crazy online rambling. I also thought about shutting it down, because, well, ten years is a nice round number.

What I decided to do was to not shut the weblog down, but instead to expand it a bit. Starting this week, and hopefully continuing into the future, we'll have some book reviews (as befits a supposed library weblog) featured on weekends. If you're a librarian and would like to post something, email me and let me know! There are a few books lined up already, but the first one is steampunk-themed, and I'm giving it away over at Steampunk Empire. Come read the review, check out the rules to win the book, and comment away! 

Many, many thanks to everyone who reads, writes, comments, teases, and otherwise engages with me and Folderol. It's appreciated more than you know. Thanks for ten years of fun!
Hi there. Something a bit different will be posted later on today! For now, consider becoming a science gangster, or play the just-debuted Daymare Town 3 (hooray!). Back soon.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Happy Opening Day, everyone! Now, for links related to art and not to baseball...

Twin Peaks is twenty years old. Between this and last week's observance of The Breakfast Club's 25th anniversary, I am starting to feel a bit decrepit.

Nero's Golden Palace, however, is much more decrepit; the ceiling fell in recently. (A friend of mine who lives in Italy complained the other day that Rome has been under construction for over 4,000 years.)

Van Gogh's The Bedroom is getting a restoration, and there's a weblog from the Van Gogh Museum detailing all that such a project entails.

Yarnbombing! Is it art? Is it graffiti? Is it fun? The answer is probably yes to all three.

Dorothy Parker lives on, huzzah.

Friday, April 02, 2010

Happy Friday, everyone!

From Julie: a recap of steampunk gathering The Great Exhibition in London!

Also from Julie: the new craze of "ring tone therapy" in Japan (?) and the always-wonderful Wondermark (with all sorts of goodies, from futurism posters to stickers and more).

From Cassandra: nuns defending the Amazon and a fantastic piece on the value of work.

Also from Cassandra: The Breakfast Club, 25 years later. I particularly like the article's take on Alison (although count me among the disgusted-by-the-makeover crowd).

Quiz time! How well do you know your advertising slogans? I scored a dismal 4 out of 11, despite having copywriter friends. Sorry, guys!

Also, how is that I am only just now learning about the Name of the Year contest and weblog? And how great is this contest? Very!

Have a spiffy weekend and/or holiday, everyone. See you Monday.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

April Fools Day gets dangerous on the interwebs. In lieu of any real substance, here are some fun sights:

-- Ferrets as digital road crew! I like the sign.

-- Google, always a big April 1 celebrant, announces a name change.

-- Not a joke, just plain goofy fun: the Muppets have a new video on YouTube.

Back tomorrow with links from others and more!