Arts & Culture

  • Get Lost (Part 2)

                                 There are signs…                Dividing in…                               That I couldn’t abide…  I wouldn’t miss it again…          Burning every bridge that I cross…               To find some beautiful place…                                            To get lost… First stop was Portland: 2 nights, 2 days We pulled on to Division Street around ten at night, parked the car, unloaded the bare necessities,… Continue reading

  • ¡Viva! Celebrate Latin America’s Independence Days and National Hispanic Heritage Month with Children’s Books!

    September 15th through October 15th is designated as National Hispanic Heritage Month.  It is a time to celebrate the rich and diverse cultures of Latin America and the struggle for independence.    Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua celebrate their Independence Days on September 15th, Mexico on September 16th, and Chile on September 18th.… Continue reading

  • Music + Books = Delightful Synergy

    Music and reading are subjects that, separately, many people are passionately enthusiastic about.  But what about great music-book pairings for those of us who love them both?  A way to soundtrack our reading, if you will.  For my own personal love match, there is something about the Death Cab for Cutie album Transatlanticism that I… Continue reading

  • Standards and Forgotten Gems: Part II

    Following up on my earlier post, I have a few words on three more undeservedly forgotten songwriters: Arthur Johnston, James V. Monaco and Richard A. Whiting. They may not have household names but their classic songs are still recognized the world over. Arthur Johnston received an Oscar nomination for the standard “Pennies from Heaven,” which… Continue reading

  • Standards and Forgotten Gems: Sheet Music at SPL

    So, all you old sheet music of the 1930s and 1940s nerds (I know you’re out there–and I proudly include myself in this group!), did you know that The Seattle Public Library has a massive, uncataloged collection of this material–available for check-out? Well, we do! Do the names Richard A. Whiting, Harry Revel, Arthur Johnston,… Continue reading

  • Latin Dancing in Seattle, Baile Latino en Seattle!

    It’s August but autumn is right around the corner – yes?! – so keep your dancing feet warm by learning some salsa, cha cha, bachata, and merengue dance in Seattle! There is a surprising number of options for Latin dancing in the Northwest, and Latin dance is one of the most accessible partner dances around.… Continue reading

  • Films Found at my Branch

    I often browse the shelves of my branch library for impulse DVD’s to watch instead of commercial TV. This can lead to some winners and some losers. Staring at the shelves one asks oneself, “If this film is really any good, how come I haven’t heard of it?” Every now and then I get lucky… Continue reading

  • Always a bridesmaid …

    Nancy Pearl, bless her, tells us never to apologize for our reading tastes. I hope her advice extends to TV: I am an addict of the reality series The Bachelorette  (and The Bachelor). I get a lot of teasing for this, and you are welcome to chime in! I don’t know why I find them… Continue reading

  • Dynamic Duo

    “I just want to make sure                       that a million years from now                                         I can still see you up close and                                                          we’ll still have amazing things to say.” Two of my favorite unconventional stars Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are coming together for a second time in the movie titled (500) Days of… Continue reading

  • Seattle’s Coming Out Party

    According to Paul Dorpat, Seattle’s iconic historian, in the introduction of the wonderful new book by Alan Stein and Paula Becker, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition A Timeline History (published by Historylink),  Seattle caught a lucky break back in 1907 when Jamestown, Virginia claimed that year for their tercentenary celebration. The event Seattle had planned to celebrate the 10 year… Continue reading

  • “The Black Mozart”: Chevalier de Saint-George

    How does the son of a slave in eighteenth-century France grow up to become a skilled swordsman, violin virtuoso, inspirational composer and famed military commander?  Joseph Boulogne was born on Christmas Day in 1745 on the island of Guadeloupe.  His mother was a slave; his father a wealthy planter and soon-to-be minor nobleman in France. … Continue reading

  • Crawlspace returns to the Library!

    What is Crawlspace? It is a collaboratively written book-length poem originally commissioned by Doug Nufer for presentation at the “Leg to Stand On” Reading Series in 2005. “The first time C.E. Putnam and Daniel Comiskey performed their collaborative work Crawlspace, it may have been the best reading I’d been to in Seattle,” wrote a reviewer… Continue reading

  • You got that where … ? Part II

    As promised in the first part of our journey into the dank recesses of the library’s metal-clad hallways, here are a few examples of what SPL has available to feed your head-banging habit. Army of Anyone. Take the lead vocalist from Filter, add the guitars from Stone Temple Pilots and a stellar studio drummer (who… Continue reading

  • You got that where … ?

    Way in the back of the library, behind the rows of Mozart and Etta James, Jean-Luc Ponty and Steely Dan, in a place where even Frank Sinatra’s ghost won’t tread is a huge, iron-studded door. Locked inside are the dirty little secrets the librarians don’t want you to know about. They remember the horror and… Continue reading

  • Not Your Average Detective Story

    Tragedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything, creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle, and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it’s still the mansion you remember. Or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild. Because after disaster strikes, the important thing is… Continue reading

  • In Praise of Felicity

    I am a sucker for television series about high school or college.  In other words, I love coming-of-age stories. So it was a surprise to me when I stumbled across the WB series Felicity. It started in 1998, when I was without television, so I missed its four seasons in the life of the plucky… Continue reading

  • Frost/Nixon at the Library.

    For many of us who grew up in the early 1970s, Richard Nixon was almost a storybook figure, his iconic visage glowering from hundreds of political cartoons, his resignation speech one of our “where were you when” moments. (At Summer camp, eating supper in silence while listening to the radio, since you asked). As years go by, his administration… Continue reading

  • Yokes and Chains

    “I am so sorry. “ These very powerful words have the ability to transform a  relationship.  When an apology is offered sincerely, the opportunity for healing and forgiveness may begin. Most of our lives have been touched by offering or receiving a heartfelt, courageous  apology.  But what good can it do to apologize for something you did not do? Michael Lienau… Continue reading