Menu

Subscribe

Massachusetts

Germaine

I found Germaine across from the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=boston,+ma&ll=42.348808,-71.082487&spn=0.008278,0.027037">Prudential Center</a> Friday. <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/misterbisson/Dumbkins/GermaineDrummer.mov">His sound was good</a> and I especially liked his snare drum. » about 100 words

Door of Mystery

| I found myself <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/maisonbisson/tags/bostonpubliclibrary/">wandering about</a> <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=700+Boylston+St.,+Boston+MA+02116&ll=42.349252,-71.078281&spn=0.016556,0.054073">Boston</a> <a href="http://www.bpl.org/">Public Library</a> for longer than I expected Friday. Part of it was the <a href="http://www.bpl.org/journeys.htm">map exhibit</a> and part of it was the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/maisonbisson/117723887/">architecture</a> (and simply a place to relax for a bit). Amusingly, stairs and stairways seem <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/maisonbisson/117723175/">filled with drama</a> at BPL, and if the guard hadn't just warned me about taking flash photos, I might have tried to sneak a peak behind that door. » about 100 words

Questions Are All Around Us

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/search/tags:library%2Creference%2Cinformation%2Csilly/tagmode:all/">These pictures are mostly foolish</a>, but here's a small point: none of us had ever seen a cop pull over a cab -- certainly not a cab with passengers -- before this, so we were all rather curious about why. <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=cambridge,+ma&ll=42.372947,-71.094954&spn=0.004137,0.013518">In front of us</a> stood a question, an example of the many questions we all encounter every day, and it's the kind of question that few of us would ever suggest going to the library to answer. » about 200 words

Edward Gorey’s “Elephant” House

Edward Gorey is known for having created the Gashlycrumb Tinies, an alphabet of ways young children can meet an early end. That, and the bumper animations for public television’s Mystery! (here, have some games). Gorey is dead now, but his house in Yarmouth is open to the public. Admission is $5 for adults (http://edwardgoreyhouse.org/, phone […] » about 200 words

Thermometer Museum

Dick Porter, of Onset MA, has been building his collection of over 5000 thermometers since the mid-80s, though the collection has nearly doubled since 1998 when it was just over 3000. He calls it the world’s largest and only thermometer museum. He’s certainly passionate about them, and he’s been an invited speaker at more than […] » about 300 words

Digital Library Systems Group Shows Wares

I was in Cambridge today attending the Digital Library Systems Group presentation on their fancy scanners and imaging workflow software. We have no digital collections program going yet, but we’re part of a university system plan to acquire either Ex Libris’s Digitool or ENCompass for Digital Collections (sample sites). But getting the collection management software just creates another problem: we don’t have any imaging resources to use to fill the new digital archive.

It’s not an area that I have much experience in, so all I can really say is it might be a good way to spend $75,000.

IKEA Comes To New England

Hey, doesn’t the IKEA near Boston open today? Sure does. The company has 226 stores worldwide.

According to a story in the Pheonix:

Oddly enough, IKEA flopped when it opened its first US store in 1986. But by making concessions to American expectations (softer couches, American bed sizes, good thread counts) it gradually won over low-budget consumers attracted to its upmarket design, with its subtle implications of class mobility. That they were willing to bruise their toes lifting those deceptively heavy boxes speaks to the brand’s participatory appeal […]. It’s all part and parcel of IKEA’s goal “to create a better everyday life for the many people.”

Group Portrait at Pigeon Cove

An unconventional panorama in Rockport‘s Pigeon Cove. From left to right stand Will and Corey. Of course, it looks better bigger. Note: this was just a sideshow on our Weird Travel Tour. tags: corey, cove, group portrait, massachusetts, ocean, pano, panorama, pigeon cove, portrait, rockport, rockport ma, seaside, will » about 100 words