Professional development remains a key priority for information professionals. However, obtaining continuing education is increasingly a personal responsibility, unsupported by employers. Vendors offer some free services to help customers learn about and effectively use their products. Many also provide more generalized professional development programs. These are, by no means, the only resources that librarians and information professionals tap to keep up with advances in their own field.
While librarians read journals related to their work (subscribing to ONLINE, for example), they also take advantage of the web and the plethora of resources available in multimedia format, such as videos and presentations available at SlideShare, Inc. (www.slideshare.net). For example, I learned how to exploit Netvibes (www.netvibes.com) in a PowerPoint presentation by someone who ended with a screen shot of the start page of the Shrewsbury and Telford (U.K.) health libraries.
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LEARN DIFFERENTLY
Everyone learns differently. I find podcasts and webinars to be particularly helpful. I like being able to multitask and often time-shift, listening when I can rather than when meetings are held or sessions are conducted.
I could probably attend one web-based event a day--and I often find myself conflicted with two events held at the same hour. I've learned to ask which will be archived on the web for access by those who register, so even if I'm not sure that I will be able to attend an event, I register with the intent of listening or viewing it at a later date. I confess that does not always occur. (My apologies to web conference organizers for any difficulties that this may cause.)
In general, I have two categories of interests, very loosely based on work-related issues. They deal with library management, including the business skills required to run libraries, such as marketing via social networks, and information management (including website development and search optimization).
The second category can be considered part of "lifelong learning," an extension of my general interests in the world and my more formal liberal arts education. I look for organizations that offer high-quality series of webinars and podcasts, and I cast my net widely. The approach(es) I employ to keep abreast of learning opportunities, whether they are specific skill training or more generally educational, may be of help to readers of this column in developing personal information literacy and lifelong learning efforts of their own.
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social networking has proved a great boon to broadening my learning experiences. Individuals and organizations I follow on Twitter, as well as LinkedIn groups to which I belong, have helped expand the sources of my learning, as well as deepen it within a particular topic. I have TweetDeck set to track several topics that tend to shift as projects are completed and new ones take their place. At the moment, I'm tracking Knowledge Management (KM), Competitive Intelligence (CI), Urban Agriculture, and Thalassemia. I track these topics using other tools, but I continue to be amazed at the number of webinars and podcasts--not to mention articles and white papers--that I would not know about if not for using Twitter. (I'll acknowledge that not all are of high quality, but I can screen through the suggestions pretty quickly each morning.)
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I am a bit more conflicted about the LinkedIn groups I belong to. Many of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and American Library Association (ALA) units and special interest groups have shifted from discussion lists to their own LinkedIn groups. I question the value of networking among a group of individuals to which I already have access in other ways, although I recognize that some may prefer one vehicle over another for communication.
Several KM and CI LinkedIn groups have a range of individuals participating, from novice to expert, so that some of the discussions are not as appropriate for my work as they might be if I were more discriminating about the individuals in my network. (I am about to "unsubscribe" from a couple of these that are not really "right" for my work today. Just as we weed our library collections, cleaning up less than excellent tools is equally important today.)
GROUPS UNRELATED TO LIBRARIES
Other groups, which address workforce development (training, motivating, morale boosting) and international development, appear more on-target for me. For example, the Society for International Development, Washington, D.C. Chapter (www.sidw.org) has several work groups that have meetings you can join via the web. They are announced through their LinkedIn groups (Knowledge Management Workgroup) or individual lists (Development Information Workgroup at www.sidw.org/development-information-workgroup).
Community TechKnowledge, Inc. presents a series of free webinars for not-for-profit organizations (www.communitytech.net/webinars). Recent subjects were community impact and outcomes reporting to grantmaking, impact tracking, community engagement, and volunteer management. Leadership training videos on Nonprofit Management, only 15 minutes long, are also accessible via the site (www.communitytech.net/videos/godseycollection).
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LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS
Much of my work revolves around libraries, so I rely heavily on library associations for professional development, through print publications, online blogs, topic-specific wikis, discussions lists, and events, both physical and virtual. ALA has many subgroupings that offer learning to members, some of which allow nonmembers to participate at a nominal fee. For example, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) offers reasonably priced webinars for nonmembers (www.ala.org/alcts/events/upcoming). Check the site for the range of offerings to see if there's something that would benefit you or someone on your staff. The webinar announcement in my inbox this week is for Steps in Digital Workflow, a 1-hour session priced at $49 for nonmembers; groups get a discount.
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For the past several months, SLA divisions and chapters have been sponsoring an increased number of free webinars. Most recently, there were Rio Grande Chapter's Evolution of the Web: From Static to Semantic in 3 Big Steps; Illinois Chapter's Non-Traditional Library Jobs; Legal Division's Libraries & Knowledge Management: Taming the KM Monster; and CI's Using Win/Loss to Build Competitive Advantage.
State library associations may offer learning opportunities for librarians in their states, or elsewhere. The Georgia Library Association Carterette series of "how to" webinars are archived at http://gla.georgialibraries.org/mediawiki/ index.php/Carterette_Series_Webinars_Archive. Recent topics include ebooks, Google+, and Podcasting in the Library. All are practical subjects designed for the novices among us. Presenters are Georgia librarians who've recently tried to use a new tool or do something at their library that had never been attempted. They share their stories, warts and all, so if you're looking for tips you can use, listen in.
Designed for the California library community, others can participate in its online training and webinars (http://infopeople.org). Past training materials and webinars are archived on the site. In fall 2011, Infopeople conducted two online courses: Creating Effective Materials for Your Library Community and Library Marketing and Promotion via Social Media.
LIBRARY CONSORTIA
When it comes to library consortia, few can beat the Amigos Library Services (www.amigos.org). For example, Amigos held an all-day technology conference on Feb. 8, called Technology: Unexpected Consequences of Legislation and Policies in Libraries. I originally thought a whole day of watching PowerPoints and listening online would be terribly difficult to handle, but this was one of the best-managed online events in which I've ever participated. It was free of all technical glitches, and moderators added value to the lectures through the chat window at the right of the screen. All of the presentations were archived for attendees, so I can check what I missed in competing tracks and time slots.
LYRASIS offers fee-based professional development courses (www.lyrasis.org/Classes-and-Events.aspx). Recognizing that this column is designed to identify free resources, I note that these can be helpful in identifying "hot topics" and series of courses that relate to one another in support of library functions. Staff members can refer to these as they design their individual professional development plans and approach career pathing, understanding the skills they need to acquire to advance. For example, Reference and Related Courses in February 2012 included 20 Questions: Deluxe Edition, Foundations of Reference Service for Non Librarians, Patron Initiated Acquisitions, and Managing Student Assistants in Academic Libraries.
THE GOVERNMENT IS HERE TO HELP
Many federal agencies and state libraries offer education and training to their staffs and others who might benefit. For example, a series of three symposia that was sponsored by the Library of Congress between October 2010 and October 2011, Preservation Roadmaps for the 21st Century, took place at the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., was broadcast live over the internet, and later archived at http://loc.gov/preservation/outreach/symposia/roadmaps.html.
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) "identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information in our changing and ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply both traditional and new technologies to the full range of information-related needs, including retrieval, re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation." Its webinars (www.niso.org/news/events are pricier events than the others I've mentioned ($89 for NISO and NASIG (North American Serials Interest Group) members; $119 for nonmembers; with discounts for multiple webinars), but look at these upcoming events--"Making Better Decisions With Usage Statistics," "Content on the Go: Mobile Access to E-Resources," and "Beyond Publish or Perish: Alternative Metrics for Scholarship." It's cutting-edge information, and it's still less expensive than traveling to an onsite location.
LIBRARY-RELATED ORGANIZATIONS
Copyright Clearance Center (www.copyright.com/content/cc3/en/toolbar/education.html) offers education on copyright and licensing. The CCC's online events include webinars on "Copyright for the Proprietary Institution," "Copyright for the Academic Institution," and "Challenges of Copyright in the Global Environment." You can browse by topic (e.g., Beyond the book, Copyright in academia, Copyright in motion, Google settlement), type (e.g., podcast, video, webinar, workshop), or date (calendar).
OCLC announces its podcasts via an RSS feed. In February, the topic was "Your library at Webscale: How radical collaboration is redefining library management services" with George Silvis (University of Delaware) and Marshall Breeding (Vanderbilt University). Virtual reference is the upcoming focus, and registration is free (www.oclc.org/questionpoint/overview/newsessions.htm).
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DuraSpace is another to watch. You may be more familiar with its open source repository solutions, Fedora and DSpace, but it's the series of digital preservation webinars that I find most helpful (www.duraspace.org/web_seminars).
LISEvents is a beta site for library-community conferences and events (http://lisevents.com). Filter the events to "online only/webinars" to eliminate those that are location-based. Some are free, such as "Big Talk From Small Libraries." Others are low-fee, such as $55 for "Engaging Students With Transliteracy, Technology and Teaching."
COMMERCIAL VENDORS
Commercial groups offer webinars on information technology topics. OCLC's WebJunction serves up live programs, aimed at library staff, conducted online via WebEx web conferencing (www.webjunction.org/content/webjunction/events/wj.html).
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For those whose organizations have purchased SharePoint and found the implementation "challenging," a number of entities offer webinars to help you tweak the product. Wall Street Network, Inc. had "Knowledge Management for SharePoint" (www.wsn.net/default.aspx). NewsGator webinars, videos, and case studies often focus on community and SharePoint (www.newsgator.com/resources/agg522_selecttab/2.aspx).
Turn to Clickz for marketing advice. While there are fees associated with its elearning courses concerning Search Engine Optimization, Email Strategy, Social Media, and Web Analytics, the webinars are free (www.clickzacademy.com/webinars.php).
OPEN COURSEWARE
While TED Talks (www.ted.com/talks) and Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org) attract much attention in the press, I began with the University of California-Berkeley. Marti Hearst's search engine course had some of the top names in search as guest lecturers--Sergey Brin, John Battelle, Peter Norvig, and Hal Varian--making it a terrific and exciting introduction to the subject matter. I enjoyed the use of videotaped lectures for learning. The podcasts for this (and other courses given by Hearst at the iSchool) are online (http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hearst/teaching.html).
Stanford University's School of Engineering offered three of its most popular computer science courses for free online in the fall of 2011--Machine Learning, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, and Introduction to Databases--"launching an experiment that could transform the way online education is delivered." Each had a formal course syllabus, readings, a Screenside chat (YouTube video), and weekly exercises to complete, all emailed to my inbox. To get an inkling as to the course work, take a look at Introduction to Databases website (www.db-class.org/course/auth/welcome); additional courses will be available this year.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was one of the first to offer online courses (http://ocw.mit.edu/courses), but it's now one of many universities making a range of subject matter accessible to those who might not have been able to attend university, or didn't have a chance to take many courses outside their own major. I'm now reviewing some coursework and lectures from University of California-Irvine (http://ocw.uci.edu).
The increase in open courseware means that iTunes can be a resource for learning as well as music. The iTunes U app puts course materials on students' mobile devices. You can browse and download more than 500,000 free lectures, videos, books, and other resources on any topic an institution has decided to offer.
How popular are these courses? As an example, approximately 1800 "items" are downloaded from the University of Oxford on iTunes for a total of 130,000 times per week by individuals in 185 countries. Of these, 15% are downloaded by mobile users (including iPad and iPhone).
Some of my favorite series have been discontinued--Library 2.0 Gang; Longshots: Library-Related Commentary and Interviews; SirsiDynix--but others are always starting up. For example, while the Competitive Intelligence podcasts from August Jackson and Arik Johnson (Aurora WDC) are no longer offered, the third CI Life podcast from Sean Campbell and Steve Swigart of Cascade Insights has just appeared in my Playlist. I've just heard about Flapcast (http://flapcast.com), which allows you to access podcasts that "live in the cloud."
I'm also a sucker for improving education, so note the following:
* I often listen in on The Future of Education (www.futureofeducation.com/notes/Past_Interviews).
* If you're in need of modules to help you teach a subject (e.g., business ethics), try one of the 20,238 available from Connexions, a repository and collaborative platform of educational materials (http://cnx.org).
* My latest find for free textbooks to augment my learning is OpenStax College (http://openstaxcollege.org); I'm reading Introduction to Sociology now, but then it's on to the sciences.
* Flat World Knowledge, Inc. also has college textbooks for free (www.flatworldknowledge.com).
* If the college science texts are too advanced for you, try the high school texts available from FlexBooks (www.ck12.org/flexbook).
ARTICLES, WHITE PAPERS, AND TECH GADGETS
I don't mean to exclude interesting reading material beyond what is delivered via RSS feed to my Google Reader, although I do sometimes get a bit behind and have to do a major catch-up on Mashable, Inc. or refer to archived emails from eMarketer, Inc.
I'll admit that I'm not on the leading edge with most gadgets, but I do like reading about them and seeing what's coming down the pike. So I subscribe to The New York Times RSS feeds (www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/index.html), including Bits Blog, Pogue's Posts, and Personal Tech, supplemented by Walt Mossberg and Robert Cringely, and watch BBC Click (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/default.stm), to name but a few of my valued resources and feeds.
I also have an extensive network of information professionals around the world who point me to resources they find helpful. Library school professors tell me about institutional repositories to which they contribute. (For example, I just learned that publications from 1987 to the present are available from the Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation at www.iidi.napier.ac.uk/c/publications.)
At the end of each year and the start of the next, a series of articles appear in journals, magazines, newspapers, and online websites, declaring "the best of ... " For example, on Dec. 21, 2011, Michelle Eggleston provided a "Top Ten Articles" for training at www.trainingindustry.com/articles/top-10-articles-of-2011.aspx. All are useful for librarians who want to improve their presentation skills.
OTHER DIMENSIONS
Second Life is a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect, and create using free voice and text chat (http://secondlife.com). Paulette Robinson, assistant dean for teaching, learning, and technology at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., is the founder of The Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds, which organizes periodic meetings in Second Life (www.ndu.edu/icollege/fcvw/index.htm). It's a great way to attend a conference if you're a distance away from colleagues who are doing work similar to your own.
For those interested in information literacy, Sheila Webber's Information Literacy Weblog (http://informationliteracy.blogspot.com has a label dedicated to info lit events on Second Life. The latest event hosted by Sheffield University's iSchool featured Diane Nahl (University of Hawaii) in a discussion of a journal article, "Academic Library Administrators' Perceptions of Four Instructional Skills."
ACRL Science and Technology Section's Information Literacy Committee uses Tinychat Co. to discuss "building and maintaining liaison relationships between librarians and faculty" in its last Wednesday series (http://tinychat.com/steminfolit). Tinychat provides video chat rooms--no downloads required. At the appointed time, just go to the URL and join the conversation. If your interests include health information technology, go to the National eHealth Collaborative NeHC University (www.nationalehealth.org/program/nehc-university) to register for an upcoming seminar.
ATTENDING UNCONFERENCES
Other social networking tools are more nonpassive in nature, allowing participation in unconference sessions. Designed to foster learning, collaboration, and creativity, unconference participants decide the agenda and contribute to session development.
Don't forget that many of the conferences you do not or cannot attend in person now make speaker presentations (handouts and slides) and sometimes even video available to those who follow the links. For example, LILAC, the Librarians' Information Literacy Annual Conference, archived its 2011 sessions (http://lilacconference.com/WP/past-conferences/lilac-2011). (The 2012 annual conference was held in April, so check the site for access to presentations.) In November 2011, a group gathered in Boston over breakfast to discuss "Social Media Success--Uncovering What Works." It was captured and shared by the local CBS station (http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/11/11/socialmedia-success-uncovering-what- works). It's long, but worth every minute if you want some great tips.
PEERING INTO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Want to meet individuals with similar interests to your own in nonvirtual space, otherwise known as the "real world"? MeetUp's motto sums it up nicely: "Do something--Learn something--Share something--Change something" (www.meetup.com).
Prefer to remain in the virtual realm but still learn from your peers? Explore the groups P2PU (http://new.p2pu.org/en). TechSoup provides "technology products and information geared specifically to the unique challenges faced by nonprofits and libraries." Just now, TechSoup is running a Digital Storytelling Challenge (http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/p/tsdigs-2012.aspx). Even if you're not going to enter the Challenge, it's worth watching the webinars around the topic (http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/community/b/tsblog/archive/tags/ tsdigs+recap/default.aspx).
It's helpful to move a bit out of your comfort zone, experimenting with new tools, so continue to bookmark resources of interest and sign up for alerts from organizations, even if you're not sure that you'll be able to make the event. Keeping track of "hot topics" can help you focus on the next move at your institution and give you an idea as to the "experts" to help you succeed. Experiencing this without tuition expenses, travel costs, or pricey continuing education courses--and delivered to you in a fashion that meshes with your learning style--is a boon.
Now that information professionals are likely to be on their own for professional development and continuing education, maximizing value while minimizing time and expenses is imperative.
Barbie E. Keiser (barbie.keiser@gmail.com) is an information resources management (IRM) consultant located in the metro Washington, D.C. area.
Technology Conference: February 8th, 2012 (Online)
Conference Home Archives Schedule Sessions/Speakers
Times--all CST Session Presenter
9:00 am The Changing (or not) John Carlo Bertot
Information and
Telecommunications Policy
Landscape: Implications
for Libraries
10:00 am Digital Public Library of John Palfrey
America
Shaping and Responding Gloria Meraz
to Government Technology
Policies
Wifi Access in Libraries: Anne Prestamo
Issues and Policies
11:00 am Academic Libraries: Policy Julie Todaro
Initiatives Leading
Change in Access and
Delivery
Overcoming the Challenges Rachel Vacek
to Creating a Single Online
User Experience
Libraries and Technology: Rhoda Goldberg,
It is the best of times; Michael Saperstein
it is the worst of times
12:00 pm Lunch
1:00 pm HathiTrust: Issues and Jeremy York
Challenges in Preserving
the Published Record
The Cloud: De-mist-ified Bryan Beaty,
Eddy Smith
Section 508 Policy, Bruce Bailey
Requirements and Refresh
2:00 pm Digital Content Frustration: Sarah Houghton
Effects of DRM, Copyright,
and Licensing
Evaluating Library Resources Nina McHale
for Accessibility
Internet Archive Edward Betts
3:00 pm Licensing and contract Anna Wyatt
issues in libraries
National Landscape (due to Corey Williams
illness)
Unleashing the power of James Werle
advanced R&E networks in
libraries
Keiser, Barbie E.
Source Citation
Keiser, Barbie E. "Professional development and continuing education." Online May-June 2012: 20+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 18 June 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA288979712&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=EAIM&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A288979712
Monday, June 18, 2012
Professional development and continuing education
Monday, May 21, 2012
Winners on winning
FROM A DISTANCE, the rewards of winning a writing contest can seem pretty clear-cut: A book is published; a writer receives some cash. But the benefits of coming out on top aren't always so obvious. We caught up with five recent winners of book-publication prizes to find out what the money, exposure, and validation from the literary community has meant to them and their careers.
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Elana Bell, winner of the 2011 Walt Whitman Award for Eyes, Stones.
The award has allowed me the opportunity to connect with and have my work read by poets whom I greatly admire--Naomi Shihab Nye, for example.... Winning the award was like a steroid shot. It has given me some courage to begin applying for college-teaching positions, to create a website, and, even more important, to take the risk of realizing some long-term artistic visions. I also have visions of the work I want to do as an educator: I think creative writing can be used as a tool when working with people from regions in conflict. Winning the award gave me confidence to develop that curriculum and pedagogy.
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Khadijah Queen, winner of the 2010 Noemi Book Award for Poetry for Black Peculiar.
Winning the award did give my work a lot more exposure. I was asked to do several paid readings and solicited to submit to literary magazines.... I used much of the prize money to pay a bill, honestly, but once that was paid, I was later able to fund my way to attend two summer writers retreats where I made important new connections and deepened old ones.... I felt the work was validated, which was important to me because of its experimental nature. This book is much bolder in style and content than my first book. It felt good to have that boldness rewarded.
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Douglas Light, winner of the 2010 Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction for Girls in Trouble.
As far as prizes go, the money was substantial. Unfortunately, the financial demands of life are even more so. I thought of using the money to cover my mortgage for a couple of months, or maybe using it to buy a new computer. I even contemplated tossing my responsibilities and taking to the road for a bit. Instead, I launched a new project that was beyond my expertise: theater. I used the money I'd won to book a sixty-seat theater in lower Manhattan and stage an evening of actors performing stories from my collection, all set to the lush, captivating music of a four-piece band. If I gauge the event on number of books sold, then the production was a failure. I sold eight books. But against all other metrics, the night was a grand success. The theater sold out, the actors and musicians were brilliant, and everyone is still talking about how great the night was. And as a direct result of the production, I received a grant to turn one of the stories from the collection into a short film.
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Katie Umans, winner of the 2010 Saint Lawrence Book Award for Flock Book.
I don't think I'll do anything especially career oriented with the prize money, which I'll receive with the publication of my book this summer, but I'll probably spend a small portion of it on new poetry books. I think it's really important to purchase a good share of new poetry books and support authors, especially as I root for my book to be bought by others! However, all funds ultimately help a writing career by buying time and peace of mind--which both mean the chance to write more.... I couldn't say whether alerting journals in my cover letter that I have a book coming out has affected their decision to publish or not publish my poems. I still get accepted sometimes and rejected sometimes. I have had journals accept poems and then offer to try and push up publication to align with the release of the book, which is nice.... I still have a day job and don't feel like I have the credentials to seek a fulltime, stable, teaching job, which I'd eventually love to do. What winning the prize did do is seal off the first book as a finished work. No more tinkering, no more tweaking, no more writing new poems and feeding them to the manuscript like it's an insatiable monster. I feel like I've shed many earlier versions of myself as a poet by casting off that book. You are proud of your first book, but you also want to move on from it as a writer.
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Diane Simmons, winner of Ohio State University Press's 2010 Prize in Short Fiction for Little America.
The prize has, to my surprise, changed the way I understand myself as a short story writer. Previously I thought of my stories as stand-alones, each a world unto itself. I was shocked when readers of the collection seemed to view it differently, discussing how the stories were "linked," even assuming that I had written them in some carefully thought-out order. I value my stories more now; I see more in them, see connections I didn't understand before. Which leads me to this thought: Many of us look to short stories as a stepping-stone to the grand prize--the novel. That's fine. But maybe, too, our stories, if we are lucky enough to have them all read in one place, create the longer, fuller work we aspire to.... I used the prize money to promote the book, primarily by going out West, where the stories are set, to do readings and signings.... I've heard from several agents, but don't quite have my present project ready to show. I haven't heard from any magazines [soliciting work], but I do believe the rejections are getting much more respectful!
Source Citation
"Winners on winning." Poets & Writers Magazine 40.3 (2012): 57+. Academic OneFile. Web. 21 May 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA288873935&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A288873935
Monday, May 14, 2012
People who hate long weekends: some can't wait for that extra day; forothers it feels like there's a big party going on and they weren'tinvited
THOUGH THE CONDITION isn't in any medical book, it could unofficially be called the "Long Weekend Blues," or, perhaps, LWAD (Long Weekend Affective Disorder). Many people, it turns out, do not look forward to long weekends. In fact, they dread them.
As a 37-year-old Vancouver lawyer says, "Every long weekend feels to me like everyone else has big, unusual fun plans. I dread it. It's a reminder that my life is a little slow or empty or something. The last long weekend, there was a truck of people dressed up with brass instruments having the time of their lives. As I watched them drive by, I was like, 'Where are all you people going and how come I don't know about it?' It just feels like a long weekend is one big party I had no idea about."
Another woman, 41, from Toronto, says long weekends depress her because she ends up doing chores; she also feels like she's missing out on some sort of party, which makes her feel lonely. "I just try and get ahead for the week, making my lunches, doing groceries, going to the dry cleaner. Long weekends aren't attached to anything meaningful except maybe some dead queen." Still, she jokes, "They should call it 'No Suicide Long Weekends.' "She adds, "I get really sad because my daughter is all grown up and isn't around and all my friends seem to go visit their families. One of my friends said, 'We're going to visit my in-laws so my husband can fix their roof.' They weren't looking forward to it, but on my end I thought, 'That's nice that you have something to do.' Not that I would want to fix their roof either. But what was I going to do? Buy another book?"
Alyson Pancer, a clinical social worker and therapist in Toronto, says that any change in routine, like adding that third day when you don't have anything specific to do, or another day with children and no break, raises people's anxieties. Just as with other holidays, like Christmas, says Pancer, people get their expectations up. "They think the long weekends are going to be all fabulous and positive, but the reality is that it's not always great. Some people dread seeing their families."
Pancer can see why people feel like they're missing out on some sort of party. "You turn on the news in your car and it's all about how busy the airport is or there are traffic reports on highways to cottages. Well, not everyone can go away. Not everyone has a cottage. Some people don't have the type of financial means to have those plans. So when you get back to the office and people ask, 'How was your weekend?' it can be brutal," she says. Kind of like asking a single person how their night was the day after Valentine's Day.
One 44-year-old woman also feels like everyone is doing something better than she is. "I feel so whiny when I talk about it. But when my child was little, that extra day of no help whacked me out. But now, it's even worse. I hear the fireworks going off and I think, 'Well, I don't want to be there,' but there must be a lot of people there and I just feel sad. And you do go back to work feeling like a chump when everyone else seemed to have a great weekend."
According to psychotherapist Barry Rich, humans may not be wired to deal with that one extra day, because it's just not enough time. "We might do things, sometimes things we don't even want to, that involve travelling out of town for instance, when we would rather just chill at home and do nothing for three days instead of two. Research has shown that it takes the average Westerner at least a week to even begin to unwind, so that extra day gets us not a whole lot of 'real relaxation.' It might just mean an added six hours of being bumper-to-bumper in traffic." (Maybe that's why even some of my friends who go to cottages are depressed when long weekends roll around.)
Rich does say that long weekends are definitely harder on lonely single people, because of "enforced frivolity." We have been led to believe that on long weekends we are supposed to have a really great time, and if we haven't, then we have screwed up big time. "God forbid you really just want to stay at home," says Rich. His suggestion for those who suffer from the long-weekend blues is to "not make a big deal out of it and if you really truly don't want to go somewhere or do something or spend a lot of extra money because of the extra 24 hours of leisure, stay home and enjoy that third day with a friend you haven't seen in ages, or something else you've been meaning to do." Part of what he stresses is that attempting to have a good time, or forcing yourself to have a good time, just becomes "an added stressor" in our lives.
A 37-year-old Torontonian who works in social media tries not to make a big deal out of it, but says, "I just end up feeling guilty about not doing anything. Then I get depressed for feeling guilty. And also, when you go back to work, the week seems longer even though it is shorter. Why is that? All I can say is that I hate long weekends."
There are seven long weekends in Canada.
Eckler, Rebecca
Source Citation
Eckler, Rebecca. "People who hate long weekends: some can't wait for that extra day; for others it feels like there's a big party going on and they weren't invited." Maclean's 1 Aug. 2011: 64. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 14 May 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA263349157&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A263349157
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Scare Quotes from Shakespeare: Marx, Keynes, and the Language ofReenchantment
Martin Harries. Scare Quotes from Shakespeare: Marx, Keynes, and the Language of Reenchantment. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2000. Pp. 209. $69.50.
In Scare Quotes from Shakespeare: Marx, Keynes, and the Language of Reenchantment, Martin Harries argues "that a particular aspect of modernity, reenchantment, discovers its image in appropriations of supernatural aspects in Shakespeare's plays" (9). As evidence for this contention, he points to the covertly reenchanting elements of "The Eighteenth Brumaire" and The Economic Consequences of the Peace by analyzing their use of "scare quotes" (simultaneously acknowledging and distancing allusions to supernatural moments) from Hamlet and Macbeth, respectively. Following the logic of allusion in each case, Harries begins with the more recent text and proceeds backwards to the source text, using the insights gained from his analysis of Marx and Keynes to read the supernatural elements of the Shakespeare plays.
His basic argument takes two forms. The first is that Marx and Keynes allude to the supernatural at moments when their analyses falter in the face of the seemingly irrational course of events. Confronted with the inexplicable, Harries contends, Marx and Keynes appeal to culturally-authoritative instances of the supernatural not as explanations for, but as markers of, the irrationality lurking behind the ostensibly rational (and rationalized) processes of modernity. The second, and more interesting, component of Harries's argument concerns the subversion of this simultaneously acknowledging and distancing tactic. Harries argues that Marx's use of supernatural imagery to describe the coming revolution and Keynes's use of it to characterise his prophetic capabilities radically undercut their demystifying projects.
The strongest part of Harries's discussion is his excellent textual analysis and close reading. His argument that Marx's scare quotes from Hamlet capture, prefigure, and embody "the coexistence of the archaic and the future, the residual and the emergent" (92) is both convincing and illuminating. In particular, his reading and (re-)translation of the phrase, "Well said, old mole! Canst work i' th'earth so fast?" (80) as it appears in Schlegel, Marx, and Hegel is fascinating. Harries's attention to the ways in which the various translations rework the original to serve particular political and philosophical ends is one of the book's highlights.
The subsequent discussion of Hamlet partakes of the same critical rigour, using a brand of "historical allegory" (9) to characterize the play as a dramatic conflict between the residual and the emergent. His reading of the scene in which Hamlet encounters the Ghost is spectacular. Bringing together the language of mining with that of military conflict, coinage, and wealth-generation, this part of Harries's book shows him at his best. His linguistic assiduousness meets his awareness of the play's central themes and its cultural context in a manner that both illuminates the play and reinforces his claim that "it is precisely Hamlet's figuring a modernity inextricably linked to ghostly injunctions that makes the play so telling an icon of modernity" (118).
The second half of Scare Quotes from Shakespeare begins by analyzing Keynes's reliance upon Macbeth as a source for images of witches and witchcraft. Harries argues that in both works there is a tension between endorsing a supernatural power if it appears to reinforce the "natural" state of things, and vilifying it if it appears to reinforce an "unnatural" state of affairs. Keynes participates in this activity by calling the designers of the Treaty of Versailles witches even as he claims clairvoyant power for his critique of the Treaty. Harries extends his discussion to the question of whether a prophesy merely predicts an event or if it has some power to cause it by relating Keynes's belief that his ostensibly disenchanting book foresaw the rise of the Nazi party to Banquo's simultaneous rejection of the prophesy which guarantees Macbeth's success and endorsement of the prophesy which guarantees his own.
In his reading of Macbeth, Harries argues that the play's construction of history not only illuminates Keynes's use of the supernatural, but also ratifies his larger argument. By setting the witches' supernatural predictions for Macbeth off against their prophesy of the future success of Banquo's line (leading up to James I in 1603 [171]), Harries demonstrates precisely how supernatural authority can simultaneously be evoked to delegitimate one version of history and to legitimate an alternative history. Coming after his incisive discussion of the same strategies in "The Eighteenth Brumaire," Hamlet, and The Economic Consequences of the Peace, this chapter sums up the book's thesis and provides a definitive example of the kind of historical consciousness Harries illuminates throughout.
In his final chapter Harries argues that the scare quote from Shakespeare is no longer possible. Citing the extinction of a monologic cultural tradition in which rote knowledge of Shakespeare is a given, he insists on the historical specificity of the scare quote from Shakespeare. He suggests that at most its presence in works by Marx and Keynes sets the stage for a more sophisticated cycle of demystification and reenchantment in the remainder of the twentieth century and into the twenty first. His study provides an exemplary response to this cycle, reading against the grain of historical narratives to reveal the regressive tendencies concealed beneath their progressive formulations. The true measure of its success is that, in addition to providing us with an insightful look at the cycle of demystification and reenchantment in prominent works of modern political economy, Scare Quotes from Shakespeare also furnishes a basis for reading through the less clearly marked mystifications of contemporary culture.
Ross, Stephen
Source Citation
Ross, Stephen. "Scare Quotes from Shakespeare: Marx, Keynes, and the Language of Reenchantment." ARIEL 36.1-2 (2005): 247+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 May 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA157081692&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A157081692
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Technology and people with disabilities
This column has a simple purpose but a difficult goal--discuss issues that affect the lives, well-being, and state of mind of those who must live and cope with a disability and do so in a humorous way. Not an easy thing to do, since there is certainly nothing funny or humorous about having a disability or in the obstacles that those with chronic disabilities encounter daily (I've had multiple sclerosis [MS] for 40 years and use a wheelchair). However, I've personally found that humor has, to a great extent, helped me cope with my disability, and I hope this column helps others with disabilities to do so as well.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
It would be a gross understate-ment to say that I'm "technologically challenged." "Technologically inept," as my sons repeatedly remind me, is a more precise characterization of my (in)ability with today's gadgets. Terms such as "iPhone," "iPad," and "iPod Touch" mean little to nothing to me, a person who's still trying to figure out how to operate the remote control for the TV (that I've had for three years).
A recent conference here in San Diego put on by Cal State University Northridge--the International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference--really shocked me out of my electronic malaise and opened my eyes to the many ways today's tech advances can help individuals with disabilities.
Technology Designed for People with Disabilities
In the first demonstration at the conference, a man who was blind demonstrated his use of an iPhone 4S by holding it close to his ear and placing his finger over the phone's display screen. The smartphone voiced the particular application his finger was above. The man then scrolled through other applications, a description of each similarly being read to him, until he found the application he wanted. He then simply tapped the app to open it.
This smartphone allowed the man to use a touch screen without the necessity of a keypad and without having to buy other costly software.
Other Innovations
Other technological innovations demonstrated at the conference included the following:
* Eye-Pro GS Eyegaze from Words+. This technology permits individuals, who do not have the use of their arms or hands, to use a computer by moving a cursor with eye movements and without a mouse. To accomplish this, a small camera is installed on a magnetized base just about where the keyboard would be on a standard PC. The user then performs a calibration procedure, usually with the help of a technician, by staring at dots in different areas of the monitor screen until the dots turn green. The user then selects something either by staring at it for several seconds or by blinking hard. Cost: $7,480.
* Topaz XL HD Magnifier by Freedom Scientific. This is a high definition desktop video magnifier that provides sharp, magnified images of print of all sizes. The magnifier is sold with its own 17-to-24 inch screen and software that allows users to view magnified images on their computer monitors. Because it can be difficult for a user to find their place on a page when working at high magnification, the topaz magnifier contains a Find button that allows the user to zoom out for an overview of the page. Crosshairs allow the user to center the section of interest, and a release button then zooms the user back in to their working magnification level. Cost: $2,195 to $3,695.
* Proloquo2Go Software from AssistiveWare. This software enables people with autism, or who have difficulty verbalizing, to communicate by tapping symbols that are contained on small tiles. Sentences are then verbalized in natural-sounding adult or child voices. For instance, if the user wants to communicate "I am happy to see you," he or she would touch six tiles: the first being a stick figure pointing to itself (for "I"), the second being an equals sign (=) (for "am"), the third being a happy face (for "happy"), the fourth being a red arrow pointed to the right (for "to"), the fifth being a face with an arrow pointing to the eye (for "see"), and the sixth tile being two stick figures pointing to each other (for "you"). This app is loaded on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Costs $190.
* PlexTalk Pocket DAISY Player PTP1. This pocketsized gadget is a DAISY (Digital Access Information System)-compliant music, voice, and book player/recorder that's designed for people with vision impairments or dyslexia. It features a high quality built-in microphone for easy DAISY structured voice recording, and voice memo recording capability to help users remember telephone numbers, appointments, "To Do" lists, etc. An additional built-in large speaker allows playback of voice recordings, voice memos, DAISY audio books, text-based DAISY books and MP3's. Playback can be accessed from the External USB Drive, as well as using the Embedded Text-To-Speech Engine. Cost ranges from $275 to $350.
* Human Information Management Systems Braille Edge 40. This is a keyboard display that is linked to a personal computer, smartphone or tablet wirelessly using Bluetooth. Designed for the blind and visually impaired, it also helps users manage their daily activities by taking advantage of a built-in Notepad, Scheduler, Alarm & Clock, and Calculator. This is a new product. No pricing for it has as yet been released.
Levinson, Jerry
Source Citation
Levinson, Jerry. "Technology and people with disabilities." The Exceptional Parent Apr. 2012: 56. Psychology Collection. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA287391748&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=PPPC&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A287391748
Sunday, April 22, 2012
STORAGE INSIDER: Brocade's SAN Health makes house calls; An expertopinion on SAN performance and configuration isn't far away -- if youuse Brocade switches
It may sound obvious, but the larger a storage network gets, the more difficult it is to keep it well documented and, more importantly, well tuned. Sooner or later, administrators in charge of large storage structures will welcome -- and actually ask for -- an expert opinion on configuration, topology, and performance of their SAN.
Steve Wynne, now technical marketing manager at Brocade (and formerly chief SAN architect for the Asia and Pacific areas) knows that all too well. "Almost every customer I visited asked me to inspect their network," he explains.
Wynne was glad to oblige those requests, but after numerous similar sessions, he decided to write a program to automate the long and tedious network-inspection process. This is how the first version of SAN Health was born, a little more than two years ago.
Brocade was so pleased with the first version that it assigned other resources to help Wynne make SAN Health a sophisticated analytic tool, available free of charge to all customers.
Learning how SAN Health works is fascinating. After downloading this Windows application from the Brocade Web site, you just enter the IP address of one or more switches, and SAN Health will accurately discover the rest of the network using console commands.
SAN Health captures just about any information you will ever need to know for each of your SANs, including name and model of each switch, their speeds, the overall number of ports, which ports are being used, and what devices are attached to them.
The application will also take the pulse of your network, collecting critical indicators such as fan speed, internal temperature, and the status of power supply modules in each enclosure. You also have the option to gather performance statistics, timed according to a custom schedule.
The database captured by SAN Health is then uploaded to Brocade's report-generation servers, where it's formatted into an Excel spreadsheet that contains a summary table of the entire network, a diagram in Visio format, and detailed information on each switch and each SAN.
Depending on the load, customers receive their spreadsheet by e-mail after a few hours. Interestingly, the spreadsheet cells are color-coded to mark areas that need attention. For example, in the test that Wynne ran for me a faulty power supply was colored orange, while a less severe condition -- a zone disconnected from the rest of the fabric -- was marked in blue.
SAN Health reports also include recommendations on what you should improve and how, as well as charts showing performance data. Can't get enough of XML? For the joy of your developers, SAN Health delivers the same detailed data in XML format, too.
Wondering if Brocade is going to use the data collected by SAN Health? Of course it is; those databases are invaluable to better understanding how the switches are used in the field, which helps in planning for new Brocade products and features, Wynne explains.
Despite his new technical marketing manager position, SAN Health is still keeping Wynne busy. "I had to bring up new report-generation servers to cope with the demand," he tells me.
Apparently SAN Health is an offer that customers find difficult to refuse, and understandably so: It's the fastest and most affordable way to get excellent documentation and an expert opinion for your SAN. Unfortunately, it collects data only from switches made by Brocade or by its OEMs. One can only hope that other vendors take note; there are lots of SAN admins desperate for this type of application.
By Mario Apicella
Source Citation
"STORAGE INSIDER: Brocade's SAN Health makes house calls; An expert opinion on SAN performance and configuration isn't far away -- if you use Brocade switches." InfoWorld.com 11 Oct. 2004. General OneFile. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA123096794&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A123096794
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Don't Cry for Them; As two revivals arrive on Broadway, a criticrevisits Lloyd Webber and Rice
The megamusical, that old British invader, has crept back into the theater district. No panicked talk of Broadway's colonization this time: This is just a reunion tour. Jesus Christ Superstar, the pioneering rock opera that helped usher in the Age of Amplification, has returned in a very earnest, vaguely ridiculous, vocally relentless production from the Stratford Shakespeare festival. Evita is back, as well, cloaked in fathomless imperial shadow by director Michael Grandage and featuring both the affable, translucent presence of pop star Ricky Martin (as Che) and the unique voice of Elena Roger, a de gustibus proposition if ever there was one. Both of these shows are proto-megas, predating the true Reagan-era behemoths Cats, Les -Miserables, and, of course, The Phantom of the Opera, which still haunts the Majestic after a quarter century and claims the mantle of Most Profitable Entertainment of All Time, in Any Medium. This being the first time since the mid-nineties that Andrew Lloyd Webber, forefather and chief metonym of the megamusical, has had three shows running concurrently on Broadway, I visited all of them in the past two weeks, trying to determine what the mega is--or rather, what it was, why we loved it, and why we feared it. I came away with my ears ringing and my nostalgia abuzz: It all looks so innocent now.
It certainly didn't 25 years ago. America was afraid of many things in the eighties: AIDS, crack, Soviet Russia, the Japanese, killer bees, Willie Horton, and splashy British theater, to name just a few. In New York, megamusicals easily ranked No. 3 on that list. The triumvirate of Cats, Phantom, and Les Miz--immense, plastic, through-sung stage spectacles all produced by one diabolical Anglo-Scotsman, the gold-fingered Cameron Mackintosh--was seen as a shot across the bow of the great American book-musical tradition (which had been tirelessly cultivating its self--destruction by the time Mackintosh came along to stop Broadway's bleeding). The problem with megamusicals, American critics complained, was not their bald commercialism, reliance on technical dazzle, or reductio ad Casio derivations of opera. It was that they were not really musicals at all, but Met-lite-lite spectacles, with gesture in lieu of character and image in lieu of storytelling. "You come out humming the scenery," Clive Barnes famously carped. Stephen Sondheim, in his annotated--lyrics compendium Look I Made a Hat, declares these shows modern "operettas," characterized by "grandiosity, humorlessness, romantic sweep, melodramatic stories which take place in long-ago times and faraway places, brimming with spectacle and recitative." This, he coolly claims, is "not a criticism, merely a description of a phenomenon, which in turn is now receding--it would seem. There will always be a public for the past."
So what, exactly, was the "megamusical"? That eighties coinage, with its Sharper Image techno-sheen and unmistakable suggestion of excess, actually refers to a trend that began in 1969, when a pair of Brits named Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber synthesized the lessons of Hair and the Who's Tommy to produce a concept album called Jesus Christ Superstar, then turned it into a stage show. The mega-musical and the rock opera are distinct (well, as distinct as these artificial categories get), but with the second Rice/Lloyd Webber production, Evita, the Who-vian DNA had begun to mutate into something newer, more ambitious, and, above all, more marketable. By the time Cats opened on Broadway in 1982, the transformation was complete--and the backlash began. Today, despite the return of a few adored curios and the ascent of Les Miz to the big screen (in an adaptation starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Anne Hathaway), the megamusical's cell line is, for the most part, dead. (Though I await David Henry Hwang's inevitable Sino-centric reimagining of Chess.) When Sondheim revivals suffuse Broadway, we talk about timelessness. When Lloyd Webber marches back to town, three shows abreast, we mostly just feel old ... and I mean Grizabella-old. Why is that?
Despite a childhood spent pilfering my parents' record collection for theater-cheese (out of the way, Graceland! Avant ye, Dan Fogelberg!), I didn't actually see a megamusical in an actual theater until my junior year of high school. The show was Phantom, and I was fatally disappointed, despite a deep (and abiding!) attachment to the score. The problem was this: I'd been listening to the original cast album for years, and it had done its work too well. Megamusicals--which function more like film scores with words than classic musical-theater storytelling---implicitly promise the cinematic, not the theatrical. Thus, I thought the chandelier should plummet! Instead, it glided, on sturdy guide wires, gently downward, Glinda in her soap bubble. The Phantom should sweep Christine down to his lair, a la Batman. No dice: The romantic leads scampered back and forth on what appeared to be a series of slowly descending jet bridges. The gondola was kinda nifty, but if you squinted (through the eyes of the young and literal-minded), you could peer through the dry ice and see where the black hull met a highly unromantic mechanical track assembly. I did find "Masquerade" to be suitably awesome. But that was the extent of my breathlessness. It had promised a world without limitations, a world as free of weight and mass as it was free of irony, complexity, and depth. Instead, Phantom proved to be just a bigger theater piece, not entirely unlike the ones I knew from my high-school stage.
Photographs: from left, Joan Marcus; Terry O'Neill/Getty Images; Joan Marcus (3); Richard Termine
This world of massless massiveness began to vanish in the early nineties, and the correction has been felt for years, in such also-rans and never-weres as Sunset Boulevard, Martin Guerre, Whistle Down the Wind, and The Woman in White. The Disney musical replaced the megamusical, substantially reembraced the "book" tradition of the American Golden Age, and implicitly declared children's entertainment off-limits for adults: There would be no more bloated fairy tales for yuppie grown-ups (bankers weren't taking their dates to Beauty and the Beast), and jukebox musicals would eventually prove safer bets for low-impact musical satisfaction--who'd risk $250 on dangerously untested new tunes? On top of that, the genre's great melodists--Lloyd Webber and Claude-Michel Schoenberg, principally--were no longer cranking out great melodies at their peak rate. Say what you wish about Sir Andrew, call him a thief and an opportunist, but the man can shape a phrase. He is a pop compositor, yes, but that describes many talented composers. The allegations of his wholesale lifts from Puccini, Mendelssohn, et al., have always been somewhat overblown. As for the megamusical's lyrics, well, they were always kind of beside the point, weren't they? Personally I've never understood the appeal of Tim Rice, dubious wordsmith of Superstar and Evita. What -Jessica Sternfeld calls his "efficient, pointed slang" in her excellent treatise / apologia The Megamusical, I'd characterize as casual sloppiness, Bernie Taupin-esque arbitrariness, and total metrical suicide. I present this unforgettable, unforgivable refrain from Evita: "I want to be / a part of B.A. / Buenos Aires / Big Apple!"
In a pileup like that, performance is every-thing--another reason why megamusicals, while they can be effectively and profitably cloned (a process perfected in country after country by Mackintosh), can't be easily revivified from the ground up. These shows, as functional drama, are very shaky mirages, and attempts to alter them at the genetic level depend critically on the star-leads. (Phantom has been through many a Phantom, for example, but they're all doing a Michael Crawford impression.) Consider Michael Grandage's imposing new vision of Evita at the Marquis, an achievement of scale and dynamism, thanks in large part to Rob Ashford's whirligig (and only occasionally muddled) choreography. Grandage has cast newcomer Elena Roger as Eva Peron, the sainted First Lady of mid-century Argentina (really, a distaff version of the fame-haunted Christ from Superstar). London went mad for Roger: her elfin apoplexies and unique vocal interpretation were met with bouquets. Personally, I found her performance almost too good a fit with Rice's jagged, herky-jerky lyrics: She is memorable in part because she is irritating. Her upper register sometimes approximates a subway-gate alarm, and her quick-runs in tricky passages throw all normal concepts of pitch to the wayside. It's as if her voice breaks a heel and just keeps hobbling at high speed. There's pungency and pathos in this approach, but it all felt a tad shambolic to me. One place it works well: her plaintive yet needling "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," which she delivers with a hypodermic. Finally, there's a version of this song that doesn't allow you to luxuriate in its melodic velour. Roger, whatever else she's doing up there, keeps us on our toes. (The same cannot be said for Ricky Martin's narrator-gadfly Che, who, despite his grinning avidity and entirely competent singing, fades into the scenery almost instantly.)
There is no scenery to speak of in Des McAnuff's brisk, dour, darkly dorky interpretation of Superstar. The show amounts to a mild apostasy: We're presented with a stripped down Power Christ (the lank, note-perfect wailer Paul Nolan) who refuses to play to the arena at all. Maybe that's because he's tired of the spotlight (his constant theme); maybe it's because he's tired of being dance-mobbed by the cast of Waterworld. This Superstar's constant brow-furrowing is so cosmically at odds with the intrinsic goofiness of its design and execution--fake Rasta-payess wiggery, silly leather dusters and plastic armor, and the kind of lazy postapocalypticism that blends Blade Runner with the bargain rack at Ricky's--I often wondered whether someone was pulling my leg. But one glance at Griefer Jesus told me, definitively: "We are not amused (and by 'we' I mean the Trinity)." The new -Superstar isn't a dud, just a bit of a grind, as we wait for a wink that seems implied, but never arrives. (One place where the graveness works like gangbusters: Bruce Dow's furious, self-loathing Herod.) No worries: The kids will love it.
Because kids do--and should--love megamusicals. They certainly still love Phantom, which I caught at a Wednesday matinee last week. The Majestic was packed with hormonal teens and preteens, and these txt-gen moppets--weaned on Avatar and Transformers and the Spider-Man killing, er, thrilling machine--weren't there for the chandelier. They were there for the fat spatters of hummable romance, for the seat-shaking shock chords, for the great fondue pot of nonsensically swirling motifs. They were there for, and visibly rapt by, the music--yes, the mega-music. And also because someone put them on a charter bus, at a steep discount. Either way, it'll be a memory, even if it's a hand-me-down, for the future public of the past.
Scott Brown
Source Citation
Brown, Scott. "Don't Cry for Them; As two revivals arrive on Broadway, a critic revisits Lloyd Webber and Rice." New York 16 Apr. 2012. Fine Arts and Music Collection. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA285724281&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=PPFA&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A285724281
Friday, April 13, 2012
Learn to write e-mail style
Computer monitors are harder on the eyes than pen is on paper, so make your message easy on both the eye and the mind. To communicate more effectively, take the strain off your reader's brain by adopting a concise writing style for the body of your message that suits this speedy form of communication. Grab the attention of the person you are writing, with a meaningful phrase in the subject line. Either there or in the first paragraph, immediately identify your purpose for writing. Keep your reader's attention by being short and specific. Necessary background information can come after the main idea. If you supervise staff, insist that they follow the same style.
For visual ease, use short sentences and bullet points; leave space between paragraphs; and do not type in upper case--not only is it difficult to read, but in "Netiquette," all caps means you are screaming. When you have to write a long, complicated message, suggest in the first paragraph that the recipient print out a hard copy since it may be easier to read a long document on paper than on a computer monitor.
Before sending, re-read your message, checking for mistakes as well as for clarity. Would you grasp the idea on first reading if you received the message? If not, fix it. And always save a copy of your sent e-mail messages in an appropriate file.
Frings, Christopher S.
Source Citation
Frings, Christopher S. "Learn to write e-mail style." Medical Laboratory Observer May 2007: 38. General OneFile. Web. 13 Apr. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA164587368&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A164587368
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Written joy
Write a story of joy
(Web-Page) http://writers2008.googlepages.com/home 
(Album / Profile) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10035&id=1661531726&l=f3f19215d0
leonard.wilson2008@hotmail.com