Lux Interior, RIP

The LA Times music blog reports that Lux Interior, co-founder and lead singer of seminal psychobilly band The Cramps has died at age 60. Full obit here. If you've never heard of the Cramps (indeed, my own knowledge of them extends not much farther than rocking out to a few great singles on various compilations and an appreciation for Poison Ivy's unique fashion stylings), here's a lovely, succinct analysis of why they matter:

The band's lack of a bassist and its antagonistic female guitarist quickly set it apart from its downtown peers and upended the traditional rock band sexual dynamic of the flamboyant, seductive female and the mysterious male guitarist.

[...]

The band's influence can be clearly felt among lauded minimalist art-blues bands, including the Black Lips, the White Stripes, the Horrors and Primal Scream, whose front man, Bobby Gillespie, allegedly named his son Lux.

Pitchfork has a nice obit, as well, featuring some great live clips, including their 1984 performance in a mental institution.

Allmusic's analysis is delightful, as well:

[...] the Cramps celebrate all that is dirty and gaudy with a perverse joy that draws in listeners with its fleshy decadence, not unlike an enchanted gingerbread house on the Las Vegas strip.

Yes!

Allmusic's entry on the Cramps is particularly useful if you're looking to offer some listener's advisory to distraught fans (or to folks who'd never even heard of the Cramps before but are curious about their sound). Check the list of Moods & Genres -- if you click "trashy", for example, you'll be brought to this page, which lists similar moods, trashy albums highlights, and top trashy artists. It's so well organized and so browse-friendly that it's easy to get lost in there, but what a wonderful time you'll have!

Bust out the crushed-velved blazer (in black with blood red piping, please) and black eyeliner, folks, while you put together a display to honor Mr. Interior featuring but by no means limited to:

• All of your trashiest rock biographies;
• CDs by Iggy Pop, White Stripes, Elvis, and other artists you find on AllMusic;
• Movies by John Waters;
• Maybe some pink flamingos (you know, the ones for putting on one's lawn)?

Other ideas? Put 'em in the comments.

Resource Alert: Media Heat from Shelf Awareness

I was introduced to Shelf Awareness by my e-mail subscription to Unshelved, and I'm so glad! Not only is it full of interesting news about the world of independent booksellers, but it includes a great feature called Media Heat, which tells you all about the authors appearing on TV and radio programs during the coming week to flog their latest books. This is handy for collection development, displays, and reader's advisory, and takes about 5 minutes to read and put to use. Easy & free -- I love it! You can subscribe to Shelf Awareness here.

It's Been a While, Let's Talk Science Fiction

Got any science fiction books in your collection? Got any patrons who like science fiction? Ever heard of the Hugo awards?

From this point on, I'm assuming you've answered yes to the above questions. This time of year always gets me thinking about science fiction (ok, I'm thinking about nearly ever day) and particularly the Hugo Awards. The awards are presented at the World Science Fiction convention (AKA Worldcon) and are voted on by the people are attending the convention as well as the people who attended the previous year's convention.

Every year, the Worldcon is held in a different city. Last year it was in Los Angeles, the year before in Glasgow, the year before that in Boston, and so on. (you can go here if you want to see a list of bids for upcoming locations; they also decide future locations of the Worldcon at the current Worldcon) Follow me so far?

I try to go every year if I can, however this year I am not attending. That's because starting tomorrow (actually, perhaps right now) this year's Worldcon is in Yokohama, Japan. It's the first time the Worldcon has ever been in Japan. It was a little outside my budget for this year; next year is in Denver so I should be there.

In a few days, we will know the winner's of the Hugo awards. While no writer I know would turn down any award, the thing that makes the Hugo special for the recipient is that the Hugo is voted on by fans (sure, some of the voters are professional writers, artists, and editors, but a lot of the people who go to the convention are just fans of the genre) so it represents what the people like.

I'm going to replicate a few parts of this year's nominees. What a nice instant display for your science fiction fans!

Best Novel

• Eifelheim by Michael Flynn (Tor)
• His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
• Glasshouse by Charles Stross (Ace)
• Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge (Tor)
• Blindsight by Peter Watts (Tor)

Best Related Book

• About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, and Five Interviews by Samuel R Delany (Wesleyan University Press)
• Heinlein's Children: The Juveniles by Joseph T Major (Advent: Publishing)
• James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B Sheldon by Julie Phillips (St. Martin's)
• Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio by John Picacio (MonkeyBrain Books)
• Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches by Mike Resnick and Joe Siclari, eds. (ISFiC Press)

And for non-readers:

Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form

• Children of Men
• Pan's Labyrinth
• The Prestige
• A Scanner Darkly
• V for Vendetta

Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form

• "Battlestar Galactica" Downloaded
• "Doctor Who" Army of Ghosts and Doomsday
• "Doctor Who" Girl in the Fireplace
• "Doctor Who" School Reunion
• "Stargate SG-1" 200

It may be that your science fiction patrons will know the winners before you do (but not before I do) but that's ok. Make your display anyway. Perhaps someone won't mind reading an award-winning novel even if it is science fiction. I mean, a lot of people read award-winning novels that they don't know are science fiction, right?

Nostalgia

I've had the idea for this post for a while. In fact, my notes are dated February 22 of this year, although the links seem to indicate that my thoughts stretched into March on this. It all comes from the good people over at Entertainment Weekly's Pop Watch (an essential pop culture site). They found some old videos on YouTube of Sesame Street clips. These are all clips that I remember from my youth, much like the Pop Watcher who posted them. They are:

Making crayons
Girl Takes Llama to the Dentist
That Cantalope who sang Bizet's Carmen

(Ed note: that cantalope always scared me to death as a kid; it still gives me the shivers)

This got me thinking about a quote I say all the time. (quick aside: I constantly pepper my conversation with snippets of dialogue from television, movies, music, etc.; I suspect it's annoying to people who don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm helpless to stop) The line is: "You feed, I'll water."

NO ONE knows where this comes from. It reminds of when I started college and was talking to people about Schoolhouse Rock, and I got back blank stares. Then I went and bought the video tapes (yes, I went to college before there were DVDs, kids) and played them for people, which seemed to help jog their memory.

The line I remember is from a PSA about sharing. Two kids are fighting over feeding a rabbit...well, let's do some research and get the tale better told than I can:

But when kids do watch TV, after school and week-end mornings, they'll soon see some new 30-second spots illustrating nonviolent and positive solutions to conflict situations. Developed by the United Methodist Church, the Disciples of Christ and the Church of the Brethren, the "Children's Growing Spots" are available locally and on the network. "The Rabbit" goes like this:

Two children:
"I'm gonna take care of the rabbit."
"I wanna do it."
"We can't both do it. go!"

Narrator:
"What would you do?"

Child:
"I know. You feed, I'll water."

Narrator:
"When two people want to do the same thing, one idea is to divide the job and each do part of it."

Children:
"Tomorrow you feed and I'll water." "Deal."

Narrator:
"And that's a good way to share."

This article originally appeared in Media & Values Issue #10 / Winter 1980

Interesting that I found this article that was published nearly 30 years ago. I remember this ad clear as day. (I'll hang myself out to dry here: I always reimagined this ad with my BFF and I in it since it seemed like something we would do) But I've yet to meet someone else who knows this ad. Do any of you remember it?

Do any of you have any books from your childhood that no one else seems to remember? How about a reading club of 'forgotten' books? Or a programming item where people talk about their favorite books that no one else knows? Or perhaps even a display of things from your childhood tied to books in the collection? The ideas are endless.

Sports Matter

Before I changed careers to become a librarian there was one thing I could count on every Monday morning and Friday afternoon—someone would be talking about weekend sports around the water cooler. But since I became a librarian, first in an academic library and then in a public library, I noticed that my colleagues rarely mentioned the “F” word, by which I mean “Football”. This morning as I was weeding old magazines and journals at home I came across an issue of Booklist from 6/1/06 and 6/15/06 in which columnist Will Manley of The Manley Arts: The Worried Librarian writes, “In my role of chief worrier of the world, it’s important for me to avoid worrying about trivial things. For instance, I don’t care who wins the Super Bowl or the World Series. I will leave the worries of spectator sports to those who have a psychological need to assign some sort of cosmic meaning to games involving balls of various shapes and sizes.”

Fellow Librarians, this kind of attitude is a difficulty. It is especially important to care about sports if you are attempting to attract male readers. According to research from Neilsen Sports “over 60% of American households say that they have a football fan”. When I worked as a youth services librarian I once asked some middle school boys to help me make a book display. They were unenthusiastic until I told them I wanted to do a display about sports. Their eyes lit up and they buzzed about in the stacks selecting books “that kids would like about basketball, football, hockey…” When I was a young adult librarian the books I put on display about sports flew off the shelves. Sports books displays work.

February is Super Bowl time and also the beginning of Black History Month. Yesterday in the NFC and AFC title games history was made as two African-American head coaches go to the Super Bowl for the first time, Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears and Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts (Read more at Superbowl.com). Create a book display. And if you are a night-owl there is some fantastic tennis going on down under at the Australian Open, live on ESPN2 in the wee hours of the morning. Perhaps create a display featuring books about the country of Australia, tennis and Australian writers?

Even if you are a librarian who does not care about sports (and I know there are many librarians who do care about sports) bear in mind that many of your patrons are sports fans.