Posts Tagged ‘History’

12
Dec
2011

Scream

by Jake Gauslow

Even if you don’t know it by name, odds are you recognize this painting:

It was originally done in 1893 by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, whose birthday is today (1863); between 1893 and 1910, he produced several different versions. Munch began painting in the middle of the Impressionist movement, but soon decided that it was too superficial and that it limited his ability to express himself. His new direction–deriving his works from highly personal, emotional expression–heavily influenced the Expressionist movement.

Interestingly, Munch’s works seem to be highly susceptible to theft. The Scream was placed in a special gallery for the 1994 Olympics, but was stolen on the opening day while security was, presumable, focused on the games. While it was eventually recovered undamaged, a different version of The Scream, along with another Munch painting, Madonna, was stolen from the Munch Museum in 2004. These thieves were more careless; both paintings were damaged, and The Scream could not be fully repaired. Finally, in 2005, several other Munch works were stolen from a hotel in which they were on display; one of these was damaged as well.

A few final pieces of trivia regarding Munch:

  • While American bank notes feature former presidents and other important figures in the founding of America, Norwegian ones feature important figures in the arts and sciences. Munch is on the 1000 Kroner note.
  • You’re probably familiar with the Scream movie series–the iconic mask from these films was based on Munch’s painting.
  • In 2006, while The Scream was still missing, the makers of M&Ms used the painting in an ad and offered a reward of 2 million M&Ms for its return; the paintings were returned within a few days. The company has offered to donate the cash value to the Munch Museum.

If you’re interested in reading more about Munch’s life, Sue Prideaux has written a biography entitled Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream. You’ll find it on the fourth floor in our biography collection.

Jake Jake Gauslow
Adult Services Librarian
jgauslow@friscotexas.gov

Tags: , ,
Posted in Books, Movies, and Music | No Comments »

24
Oct
2011

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na…Bob Kane!

by Jake Gauslow

Who?

While you may never have heard of Bob Kane (whose birthday we celebrate today), there’s no doubt that you’ve come across his work a time or two. In 1939, the 23-year-old comic book artist created a new character—the Bat-Man. Writer Bill Finger, who also worked in Kane’s studio, gave suggestions for changes to be made to the original idea, changing him from a Superman clone with red tights and wings to the scientist and detective who would become known as the Dark Knight and the Caped Crusader. Finger wrote the story, Kane provided the art, and Batman had his debut in Detective Comics (note the initials DC) #27 in May of 1939.

Now, several movies, an animated series, a campy 60s TV series, innumerable action figures, and countless comic books and graphic novels later, Batman is 72 years old. He has retired, died, returned, been cloned, gone through several sidekicks and nemeses, and had so many adventures that I can’t even begin to sum them up here. Fortunately for you, we’ve got plenty of ways for you to catch up on the action.

To the Batcave!

Jake Jake Gauslow
Adult Services Librarian
jgauslow@friscotexas.gov

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Books, Movies, and Music | No Comments »

06
Oct
2011

Happy 135th, ALA!

by Jake Gauslow

Four score and fift–well, six and three-quarters score ago, 103 of our fathers and mothers brought forth on this continent a new association, conceived in Liberty to Read, and dedicated to the proposition that access to information and library services should be equal for all.

From October 4th through the 6th in 1876, 103 men and women gathered at a Convention of Librarians at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I won’t bore you with a full list of names that mean very little to you if you haven’t gone to library school, but you probably won’t be surprised to learn that, among the group that called this meeting (which was to discuss the formation of a professional organization) was Melvil Dewey. From this convention was born the American Library Association, the very first library association in the world.

Now, 135 years later, it’s also the largest library association in the world, with over 62,000 members! And not all of them are librarians—you just need to love libraries! The ALA Annual Conference is also one of the biggest professional conferences in the world! Over 25,000 people attend each June; again, not all of them are librarians. There are also publishers, writers, teachers, and members of Friends of the Library organizations. There are countless workshops, speakers, and other programs on just about any library-related issue you can think of.

The whole point of the ALA is to make libraries better. They strive toward this goal through library advocacy, promotion of literacy and intellectual freedom, policies that support equal access to information and library services for all people, and scholarships and library job resources, just to name a few ways.

So, what does this mean for you? While you may never see or even hear about the ALA’s work (at least not directly) you reap the benefits of better libraries—proof of their devotion to the cause that the best reading, for the largest number, at the least cost shall not perish from the earth.

Jake Jake Gauslow
Adult Services Librarian
jgauslow@friscotexas.gov

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in News and Events | No Comments »

15
Sep
2011

The End of the Nine Old Men

by Jake Gauslow

Quick, name all nine current Supreme Court justices! (OK, name as many as you can.)

Source: Wikimedia via the Oyez Project

Here they are:
Chief Justice: John G. Roberts
Associate Justices: Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan

How did you do?

I’ll give you partial credit if you mentioned any of these retired justices: John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Sandra Day O’Connor.

I’ll give you extra credit if you have any idea why I’m asking you about Supreme Court justices in the first place.

Answer: 30 years ago today, the Senate Judiciary committee approved Sandra Day O’Connor’s nomination to the Supreme Court; she officially took her seat 10 days later. What’s so significant about that? That’s happened basically every few years for the last two centuries or so!

Why, yes, it has. BUT: When Sandra Day O’Connor was confirmed, she became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, after nearly two hundred years of being an all-male institution! (Two years later, O’Connor somewhat famously replied to a New York Times editorial that had referred to the Supreme Court as “the nine men” who interpret the laws. We won’t get into a heavy political debate here, but whether or not you agree with any her opinions, her influence is hard to deny. Over the 25 years she served on the Supreme Court, she gained a reputation for being the deciding vote in many cases.

If you’re interested in further reading about Sandra Day O’Connor, here are some suggestions:

 

Jake Jake Gauslow
Adult Services Librarian
jgauslow@friscotexas.gov

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Books, Movies, and Music, News and Events | No Comments »

15
Aug
2011

Bon Appétit!

by Jake Gauslow

Trivia time!

Today’s topic: Julia Child (it’s her birthday—she would have been 99 today)

Question: Before she became famous as a TV chef and author of cookbooks, what was Julia Child’s profession?

Here’s a hint:

Still stuck? That’s the shoulder insignia of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the predecessor to the CIA. That’s right—she was a spy! While stationed in Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka), she met her husband, Paul Cushing Child. They eventually moved to Paris, where she attended Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and, with the help of two friends, began to write Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which is perhaps one of the most famous cookbooks ever written. From there, her fame snowballed, leading to many TV series, Emmy and Peabody awards, an appearance on the cover of Time magazine, and nearly 20 books!

If you’re interested in more details on her life as a spy, check out Jennet Conant’s A Covert Affair.

Or, if you want to know more about French cooking, we’ve also got Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Or maybe you’re not interested in cooking yourself, but you’d like to know about how someone else fared while trying to cook every single recipe in this book over the course of a year; if so, then Julie & Julia is the book for you.

Whatever your tastes are, we’ve surely got something for you! Bon appétit!

Jake Jake Gauslow
Adult Services Librarian
jgauslow@friscotexas.gov

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Books, Movies, and Music | No Comments »

29
Jul
2011

Where Are You From?

by Jake Gauslow

I grew up in North Dakota, which some of you might remember from geography class. If you’re not from there, your functional knowledge of the 39th state[disputed] may be limited to the movie Fargo and, if you really paid attention in class, a vague connection with Teddy Roosevelt. (Brief aside: Fargo is actually a real place. It’s not a whole lot like the movie. Most of the people who sound like that are over 50.) It’s a lot different from Texas in that the temperature can get down to -50° in the winter. It’s a lot like Texas: it’s got a lot of flat, empty areas, the temperature often passes 100° in the summer, and there are some people who question whether it’s really a state, or something independent… Wait, what?

When I was in high school, I used to joke that North Dakota could probably secede from the Union and nobody would notice—it is the third least populous state, after all (ahead of Wyoming and Vermont). Last week, I found out that it was even worse than that—because of an oversight in the state’s constitution, one citizen of North Dakota claims that it technically isn’t even a state! The problem, he says, is that North Dakota’s state constitution doesn’t explicitly state that the executive branch requires an oath of office, which is at odds with the United States Constitution.

So what does this mean for North Dakota? Is it a state, just a territory, or another country altogether? Will you need a passport to travel there? Am I a natural born citizen of the United States, or do I need to apply for citizenship? Actually, it means very little. A different article of the Constitution says that Congress has the ultimate say in approving states, which they did for North Dakota in 1889, so that’s that. Essentially, it’s kind of like finding a typo—except that instead of just hitting “delete” and fixing it, it’ll take a vote next November to correct the problem. Then again, what’s one more year after 122?

This is why it's important to proofread.

Jake Jake Gauslow
Adult Services Librarian
jgauslow@friscotexas.gov

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in News and Events | No Comments »

06
Jul
2011

My Kingdom for a Good Blog Post Title!

by Jake Gauslow

Now is the winter of our discontent. Except, replace “winter” with “unnecessarily hot day in the first week of July,” and replace “discontent” with “crowning of Richard III about 528 years ago.” Then replace all of the silliness you just read with the entire text of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Now you’re getting somewhere.

Today is, in fact, the 528th anniversary of Richard III’s coronation in 1483. This doesn’t affect you in any way. Except that it does. Whether or not you give it much thought, history is one of the biggest sources for inspiration in many of our forms of entertainment—books, movies, and television. With the popularity of authors such as Philippa Gregory and Margaret George (just to name a couple), I’d be a little surprised if you’d never read anything historical. Do you watch shows like The Tudors? How about any of the thousands of films set in World War II? Authors have been crafting history into entertainment for probably as long as there has been language. The Iliad. QED.

All that being said, the English language’s most famous author was no exception. Shakespeare wrote about ten plays that are officially called histories, which doesn’t include plays like Julius Caesar or Antony and Cleopatra (take it up with the scholars). We hear a lot about Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies—Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew—but how many of the histories can you name? (Hint: you’re doing well if you’re thinking of kings named Henry or Richard.)

Here’s another interesting fact: Have you noticed how it seems that so many movies lately become epic trilogies (or even tetralogies)? Guess whose histories include a lot of “Part II” and “Part III” action? The Hollywood sequel isn’t exactly a new idea—Shakespeare was writing three- and four-part epics 400 years ago. Nothing new under the sun, as they say. (P.S., that’s not even originally a Shakespeare line!)

Jake Jake Gauslow
Adult Services Librarian
jgauslow@friscotexas.gov

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Books, Movies, and Music | No Comments »

13
May
2011

You Say You Want a Revolution?

by Gary Werchan

Here at the Library, at the George A. Purefoy Municipal Center, I am reflecting on revolution a lot lately. Not on the kind that makes television news, but the kind of revolution that objects undergo—in our case revolving doors. That is because our building is the proud possessor of two new revolving doors of Texas-sized dimensions.

If you’ve been to the Library or City Hall in the last couple of weeks there is no missing the 14-foot diameter revolving door at the front or its 12-foot companion at the back entrance to the building. Why are they there? Energy savings, plain and simple. Because these doors create a constant seal between the inside and the outside weather, the building will be a lot easier and more efficient to cool in the summer and heat in the winter. It turns out the traffic going in and out of the building, especially the Library, meant that the doors were open a lot more than originally anticipated.

And further good news: this big improvement was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. And they are super-safe. In case of an emergency situation, the revolving doors stop, open wide, and lock like a sliding door so everyone can walk through with no delays.

Being a library patron yourself—and therefore by definition a curious sort—by now I am certain you are wondering about the history of revolving doors. The earliest U.S. patent recorded for a revolving door was awarded to Mr. Theophilus Van Kannel, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1888. Considering that was 123 years ago, it’s still pretty recognizable in its current form.

Van Kannel Patent Drawing

Following American architectural trends, revolving doors have moved from ornate wooden structures to the glass and steel look that defines most modern office buildings. But there are some beauties still out there. The image below is used with the permission of the International Revolving Door Company of Evansville, Indiana, the eventual corporate descendant of Mr. Van Kannel’s company. For a look at more revolving door history, check out their site. They have some wonderful images from old catalogs as well as a nifty list of great buildings served by revolving doors. Very cool!

New York Public Library entrance circa 1936

New York Public Library entrance circa 1936

Now back to revolutions and revolving. Like many words in use today, ‘revolve’ seems to be a word created from a root, “volve” that we don’t use anymore. If I “revolve,” that implies I “volve” at least more than once, right? Have you volved lately? No, revolve comes from “re-” meaning again plus the Latin “volvere” meaning to roll or turn. All makes sense now, right? Hey – wake up out there!

So next time you are here, as you are passing through those marvelous doors of Mr. Van Kannel, come in and give us your thoughts. Should they go faster, slower? What sort of silk plants should be placed in them? We’d like to know.

George A Purefoy Municipal Center

.Gary Werchan Gary Werchan
Library Systems Coordinator
gwerchan@friscotexas.gov
.Gary Werchan Gary Werchan
Library Systems Coordinator
gwerchan@friscotexas.gov

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Community | 1 Comment »