Friday, October 23, 2020

 Hello and happy Friday! The Spooky Librarians are taking next week off to properly celebrate Halloween (as well as our anniversary), so posts may be slim or nonexistent until November. If we don’t post again, here’s wishing you a wonderful, safe, spooky Samhain/Halloween! 

Before that, however, here are some links… 

Room Rater continues to be my favorite new Twitter account, and as a bonus, it’s led to some artists! Check out Ernesto Ybarra’s work. 

Over in the music world, Tom Lehrer has released all his lyrics into the public domain. 

At Green-Wood Cemetery, an altar for Dia de los Muertos has been set up for visitors. 

And finally, someone asked people if they would rather be hot or cold, and then made a map of the results. (Those of you who would rather be hot are very strange creatures.) 

Have a safe and spiffy weekend, week, and holiday! See you soon.

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Reclaim the Records has been mentioned here before as an amazing organization, fighting for free public access to data (and helping many a genealogist in the process). Now they’re taking on NARA! 

The AP’s Fact Check is a fairly balanced look at the false claims ricocheting around media at warp speed. Check out the weekly roundup, in particular. 

Today I learned that China is mad about Sherlock Holmes. Who knew? (Well, probably most Chinese.) 

The National Library of Luxembourg has, perhaps, the most amazing (analog!) sign system of any library.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

 The Queen of Halloween herself, Elvira, has made a video about Halloween 2020. It’s definitely worth your time.

 One silver lining about all this has been the extra time spent on Halloween décor! We’ve got a lot going on outside our house, but EPBOT has some ideas for inside the home, too.

 I love that, along with the Egyptian discoveries mentioned in an earlier post, we’re still discovering “new” Nazca lines in Peru. As William Faulkner said, “the past is never dead. It's not even past.”

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

 Hello! Today’s rabbit hole subject: Kaspar Hauser.

 If you’re interested in bizarre stories about mysterious people, Kaspar Hauser is a good one. Was he a savant? An imposter? The truth is out there, somewhere. Aside from that, he was a fairly good artist, which I didn’t know until I saw this Public Domain Review’s post. (Also, Kaspar has inspired many songs, like Suzanne Vega’s “Wooden Horse.”

As a spinoff, Hauser’s Wikipedia entry links to a List of Unsolved Deaths throughout history, which is also fascinating stuff.

Monday, October 19, 2020

 Hello and happy Monday! Here are your arty links. 

Film/TV: The puppets from the old Rankin-Bass Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer are up for auction! The catalog is online and it’s wonderful. 

Architecture: Roof tiles that absorb energy and changecolor! What a neat concept. 

Visual Art: Thanks to Satori for sending a link to Michael Demeng’s website. If you like assemblage art, you will love this (I do!). 

Music: Vinyl is having a true resurgence, and Tedium explores the whys and wherefores. (Also, check out The Burning Ear for new vinyl releases.)

Friday, October 16, 2020

 

Happy Friday, everyone! Why not start the weekend with a discussion of the best horror movies of all time? Cassandra sent this in and I find it hilarious that #151 is Deep Blue Sea, put on the list only for this scene:

 


It’s also baseball playoff season, and one of the teams in the mix is the Houston Astros, known mainly these days for their cheating scandal. To that end, someone has made a great comic book cover!

 

Have a safe and spiffy weekend, everyone. See you next week.

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Back in the early days of the pandemic, the Smithsonian offered some escapism via digital puzzles. Now there’s a fall edition for us!

Also from the Smithsonian: There are still more coffins and secrets being unearthed in Egypt. It’s unbelievable how much is buried out there. I’ve been reading up about ancient Egypt lately and this is a really fascinating article about why some statues and artwork were defaced or broken.

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

 Hello! Ready for some spooky links? 

Final Girl is counting down 951(!) scary movies this October! 

The Halloween Shirt Company has not only shirts, but also patches and buttons for your Halloween needs. 

Here are materials describing an amazing Lovecraftian adventure, done in a perfectly aged manner. 

Meanwhile, a 17th century ship has been found in the Baltic Sea, in good condition. Who knows what secrets it holds? 

And, also meanwhile, the pandemic is changing our dreams. I’ve had several people mention this recently.

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

 

Hello! Here’s today's rabbit hole: are Pompeii artifacts truly cursed? A viral news story tells about a recent return by someone who believes taking objects from the site caused a whole raft of problems in her life, including cancer(?!?). At the end of the story, it mentions that the site has received “hundreds” of similar items with stories. Really? Well, here are some 2015 stories about the same thing, plus an interview that suggests that this is possibly a brilliant method of getting items returned to the location. Explore and see what you think!

Monday, October 12, 2020

 Happy Monday. What color are you? No, really? Let an AI tell you! (Several of these are wonderful.)

 More later, possibly. It’s a little hectic at SpookyLibrarians HQ today.

Friday, October 09, 2020

 Happy Friday, everyone! 

From Cassandra: What was the most popular horror movie the year you were born? 

Also from Cassandra: The genetics of left-handedness! 

From Satori: An exhibition of Jean Duffet’s “heroic size” work is opening in NYC. 

From a local library: Need to sign up for something, but don’t want followup emails? Behold, 10 Minute Mail is here to solve your problems (for ten minutes at a time)! 

Have a safe and spiffy weekend, everyone. See you next week.

Thursday, October 08, 2020

 Banned Books Week slid by without much notice this year. In fairness, there’s a lot going on! However, the Guardian had an article on the books banned most often in the US, and the ALA breaks it down further by the top ten banned books each year since 2001. 

In other book news, our local book festival has been canceled this year, but the writing contest is still happening.

How mindful are you these days? I took this quiz and it told me, and I quote, “You’re in the middle.”  I’m fine with middling mindfulness right now!

Wednesday, October 07, 2020

 Hello! Today’s a bit hectic, so there's just one link today, and it's something which relates back to Monday’s post. This time it’s not the forests, but instead the sounds of lockdown during a pandemic. Judging from the news, it looks as if several new lockdowns may be imminent, so perhaps there will be more additions. This is a very strange timeline.

Tuesday, October 06, 2020

 Today's post is the story of going down a rabbit hole...

When I was a kid, there was a board game that I loved called Music Maestro all about musical instruments. (Incidentally, when searching for a link to the game, I found that there was a sequel – Music Maestro II! – and that the original game is considered “vintage” as it came out in 1982. Sheesh.) The game included cassette tapes so that you could hear what the instruments sounded like. There were the usual suspects – piano, violin, trumpet – but also some odd historical instruments, like the rebec and the serpent. It turns out that there’s an entire website dedicated to the serpent, which I found thanks to Wormwoodiana  and their recent post. Despite all its faults, Isn’t the internet amazing?


Monday, October 05, 2020

Hello and happy Monday!

Sights, part 1: Have you heard of sapeurs? They’re Africans who follow the philosophy of La Sape, or the “Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégante.” They’re amazing and a sight for sore eyes in these crazy times!

Sights, part 2: If you’d rather view more disjointed and jarring images, might I recommend the collage portraits of John Stezaker?

Sounds: Close your eyes (after clicking) and listen to the sounds of various forests around the world! It’s immediately calming. At least, it was for me.

Friday, October 02, 2020

Happy Friday! And, as I said in an email to friends this morning, happy October Surprise to the COVID positive White House inhabitants! Schadenfreude aside, I'm hoping that perhaps more people will take the pandemic seriously now. Have a safe and spiffy weekend, everyone. See you next week.

Thursday, October 01, 2020

Happy October. Wouldn't we all rather be on the moon right now? We can imagine it, along with ten bands who are imagining a festival on the moon today. (Sure, why not, it's 2020 and anything goes right now.)