EZTakes flick

Ran across this one in the latest newsletter. EZTakes does downlaod and burn movies at decent prices. Lotta good monster and Kung Fu flicks. This one's an indie, though

Shooting Vegetarians

This, on the other hand, is their typical movie:

Frog-g-g!

Keep forgetting to mention

Our Head Cataloger finally got around to cataloging my thesis a couple weeks ago. Even more astonishing is that he exported the record to WorldCat, so I now show up there. Just check under my name and the title Bonsowaaru Dracula-san. What's really amusing about this is that the man despises me, and sat on the friggin' thing since May.

Not, to add to the cluster, since it was a Penn State thesis, they also cataloged it. Very briefly. And DIDN'T export to WorldCat. Since we have a man who hates my guts who actually did a decent record and did the right thing by sending it to the big bibliographic database. Next thing ya know there's gonna be some really cold guys with horns, and Microsoft's gonna be giving away free software.

Well, words for the day. Later.

For your reading amusement

Iowa woman finds drowned bat in tea mug

I always make sure my coffee will kill anything that falls in it, but I may have to reevaluate tea. You want fries with bat?

Here's something...

happening in Spitsburgh while we're out

This from Lorraine (cover artist for Monster Bash magazine #4 - KONG
and the forthcoming MOLE PEOPLE cover):

I have a gallery show coming up in Pittsburgh
at LeChiz gallery in Pittsburgh on Oct.20 till Nov.4.
Opening of show is at 6:00 to 9:00. Gallery owner is
showing my paintings for that period of time and then I
am free again to show them anywhere else after that.
You are welcome to come if you want.

I am working on a Night of the Living Dead
painting for the show. Hinzman in the beginning
cemetary scene with the guy on the ground. Did some
elaboration on its depiction.

It seems to actually be Gallerie Chiz, and it's about a mile from the SIS building. Haven't located anything more amusing, though

Holy shit moment

So, last Monday, while I was off, the head of the Main Library has a heart attack at work, and they have to rush him off to the hospital. He has a triple bypass, but he's starting to improve. Yeah, he's a candidate for a heart transplant, but they said he was on the mend and it sounded like he was comin' out of ICU any day by the end of the week. Then, last night, I get a message that he's taking the long dirt nap. Holy shit- dude was like 50-something- still had to wait for retirement.

Man, you never fuckin' know.

Copyright amusement

Digging for info on grants to digitize comics, and I ran across this. Wonder if we can get it used as a text instead of the Litman thing.

Bound by Law?

There's a downloadable PDF version, too. I'm droppin' it right into the Digitization Reference folder.

Quick one

Got the link to this from Del Rey. This guy's a new horror author from my neck of the woods. Kind of amusing PR in the form of a pseudo-blog

Chasing the Dead

Enjoy.

Monster Mash

Sunday was my son's birtday. Since he was 9, and I had finally managed to convince his mother that he was old enough for the old Universal and Toho monster flicks (still a little young for Hammer, but I'm sure we'll get to 'em), we did an all night movie marathon. Grabbed a big bowl of popcorn (an some coffee for me), and watched the '53 Godzilla (were going to watch Gojira- the Japanese original, but it was subtitled) and Mysterious Island (got it for 10 bucks at Walmart). Had Terror Beneath the Sea, Godzilla vs. Destroyah, Unkown World and the first Gamera cued up, but he wanted to watch cartoons. Ah, well, plenty of time to hit the classics later.

Anywho, working on this damn paper for Tomer. Frankly, I find most of the theory to be a whole load of pre-processed bull food. Chris did say in the discusssion tonight that as long as I backed up my probelms with the theory, just hitting the practical was fine. Then they went off on "exemplary documents". So, in other words, I'm supposed to find a theorist who says that the theories are a load os s%&t? Looks like I got my work cut out. Oh, well, off to bed so I can get up and have at it tomorrow. At work, of course. Later.

Amusing Library Org for 2700

Realized most of the people who would be amused by this wouldn't be able to read it. Here's what happens when no affinity for the information, too much imagination, and no limits produce.

Okay, this is an entirely fictitious library. I decided to see what kind of "dream library" I could come up with and run with it. My library isn't all that esciting, nor do I know a whole lot about its workings outside my little section (and even within that there are some things, like budget, that I seem to not be cleared to know) I'm going to be playing with this thing all semester, and I wanted to have some fun. This one's kinda like a privately funded version of BGSU's Browne Library.

THaLK Library of Popular Culture

In the early 1990s, Stan Lee got together with friends and fellow comic artists Greg and George Hildebrandt, Alex Toth and Jack Kirby with the idea of forming a popular culture library from their own collections of comics, as well as some of the magazines and volumes which they had collected or with which they had been involved over the years. Centrally locating this institution in Williamsport, PA in a refurbished warehouse, they proceeded to contribute to and fundraise for a trust fund with which to fund this organization for the foreseeable future. The THaLK Library, named from the last names of its founders, is chartered to protect the popular culture heritage, focusing specifically on comics and comic book creators. Its mission concentrates on the United States, with other major countries involved in the production of these items, such as Japan, added with the consent of the Director and surviving founders.
The Library’s collection consists of almost 70,000 comic books, approximately 30,000 magazines, and 5000 reference volumes on topics relevant to the collection. More are added on a daily basis, as the Library subscribes to the major comic book and manga (English translation) producers, adding their newest output as it is released. In addition, the THaLK Library subscribes to a small number of Humanities databases, Project MUSE, JSTOR, Academic Universe, the Bibliography of Asian Studies, Literary Theory, Periodicals Archive Online, Proquest Direct, and Electronic Theses and Dissertations, for the use of the scholars who visit the library. While the specialized nature of the collection precludes a status as a general public library, although walk-ins are welcomed, the extensive span of works within the Library’s mission have gained users not only nationally but worldwide, many of whom travel to this small town in Central Pennsylvania to use the collection. Digitization is an ongoing project as well, as rights are slowly cleared, allowing use by scholars who can not make the trip.
The staff of the library consists of persons. On the professional end, there are two IT staff, one newly added to deal with digitization needs, a paper conservationist, and a metadata librarian who doubles as the copyright clearance staff. In addition there are two library technicians and two library assistants, all of whom deal with various duties around the Library, with some specialization in either conservation or cataloging, as well as two new scan technicians. All personnel work in all areas, with reference provided by whichever person happens to be free at the moment. In addition, due to the distance traveled by the library users, hours are often extended as needed, with one or two of the staff on call. Lastly, there is a receptionist who doubles as the administrative staff, and a rotating number of volunteers.
The building is also equipped with gigabyte to desktop networking and a two terabyte NAS for files in use. The new digital file server contains a raided array of 750 GB drives, for a total usable drive space of 4.1 TB, and runs CONTENTdm to serve the images to distance users. PDFs of cleared works can be provided upon request, though it may take a week or so for delivery due to the small staff and needs of inhouse patrons.
The Library is used primarily by scholars in the popular culture field, from the undergraduate level to the post-doctorate and beyond. Its central location in the state, just off a major highway, allows ease of access as well for many who are merely curious about old comics. As a result, the library sees several thousand visitors per year, with spikes as the subject comes back into vogue. It is both a research and a browsing library, though the condition of some of the untreated materials puts them off limits to all but the serious scholar. The professional staff members also attend conventions and other events to teach and fundraise, as well as generally raise awareness of the institution.
Personnel salaries and benefits run $350,000 per year. The paper subscriptions run an additional $10,000, and copyright clearances for orphan volumes for digitization an additional $300,000. Conservation supplies, IT supplies (such as backup tapes), and miscellaneous costs are an additional $20,000. The building maintenance costs average approximately $20,000, for a grand total of approximately $700,000. It is expected to increase substantially as the digitization efforts move forward, especially in the copyright area. This is paid for through the trust fund, as well as the fundraising efforts of the Director, who actively seeks donations from private and grant sources.

Hope you had fun reading it. It was actually kinda fun to write. Bragging over. and out.

In honor of our chain-smoking leader

Two new articles on First Monday.

Who supports Internet censorship?
by Craig A. Depken, II

Sexual and pornographic Web searching: Trends analysis
by Amanda Spink, Helen Partridge, and Bernard J. Jansen

I'm actually pretty amazed on the second one. Not only does it partially legitimize 'net porn, but somebody actually took the time to study what people were looking for. No good links, though.

Fright Diner

and not just the food.

Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez

In the spirit of the Blob, I wanted to post about the latest cool book I actually managed to read. I guess you could call it sorta Library-related- it won an Alex Award. Even though this award's given to teen books, I frankly wouldn't hand this thing to anyone under 18- it had an appropriately large amount of gore and innuendo for my reading taste, as well as a truly sick sense of humor with a shitload of horror-flavored redneck jokes tossed in on top.

How to sum it up? Well, stop me if you've heard this one. A vampire and a werewolf walk into a diner, and meet a bunch of zombies and some gods vaguely out of the Cthulhu Mythos... Seriously though, the book's a blast. To quote Fango, I give it 5 eyeballs. Not too serious, yet not totally brainless. An American Pythonesque, one could say. It's short (272 pages- though it seems like much less), so it works as a good break from the relevance of pornography retrieval, or managing to do work in libraries.

My not so humble opinion. Schmater.

Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin dead

Just saw this. Dammit, I loved this guy. Amusing as shit. Guess I won't be seeing him get bit by any more goannas, or chased up trees by komodos. Dang.

Too long to respond

Started to leave this as a comment, and realized it was more post length.

Justin, I gave up trying to make everyone like my taste in bad horror movies years ago. Some just don't get the classics ;-). I don't like Lebowski or the Wedding Crashers, so someone somewhere is bound to hate the Blob. I'm just old and set in my ways, and refuse to watch anything without monsters, guns and gore. Was a tad more liberal in my undergraduate days, but I just ain't got the time for other genres as I age.

Stefanie- almost only counts in horseshoes, handgrenades and tactical nuclear missles. Would be sorry to see one of those flying sofas get smooshed, though, as freaky as they are. As for the city hatin', Justin's from the city of brotherly no reach around- whaddya expect? Me, I hate the state as a whole. I don't take time to classify.

I'll have to keep an eye out for stuff happening when we're out- it's the only time I could actually go see something. Since we're there Halloween weekend (dammit- I usually spend Halloween weekend with a case of beer in front of the TV), there's bound to be something going on.

Anywho, we got junk haulers comin' in to the old house today, so I can finally stop paying rent AND mortgage. Think I need much more coffe, and many more smokes, before then. Tapatcha later.

Blob Blog

Quick note for all you Pittsburgers out there. September 1-2-3 at Midnight, they will be showing The Blob on the mega-screen at the Riverside Drive-in. Here's a link: Riverside Drive-in. Main, major envy here. Sigh, stuck in Central Pennsyltuckey.