Times has come today

Occasionally, the New York Times exceeds its “Grey Lady” image and Wednesday May 9, 2012 is one such occasion.  No, it’s not the front page coverage of the CIA intelligence success infiltrating Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula or the well reasoned guidance through the labyrinth of China’s internal politics.  The high points are the Summer Movies and Dining sections.

Claiborne, on his 70th birthday, and friends

 Dining features a front page and more spread on Craig Claiborne, the Laurel, Mississippi born NYT food critic and, later, food editor.  Mr. Claiborne was a soft spoken, out loud living gentleman who defined the modern role of food critic.  He wrote in the same spirit as one of harold’s favorite writers, M.F.K. Fisher.  Like Ms. Fisher, Mr. Claiborne chose food as his subject but joy, community, and life was the object of his writing.

Summer Movies has 24 pages of reviews, actor thumbnails, and full page movie ads.  There are listed all the summer blockbusters plus all the films you hope will come to Nashville.

Come in to the Library find a comfortable chair, read the Times, and harold will tell you his one Craig Claiborne story and recommend some movies for the summer.  We can discuss whether the world really needs another series of Spiderman movies.

“Prometheus” directed by Ridley Scott

Nashville, here’s your sign

An argument can be made for the homogenization of the urban landscape. If you are familiar with the McDonalds on Rosa L. Parks Boulevard, you will find familiar sights and smells in the McDonalds on Via Firenze in Rome. Of course in Rome, if you keep your bag closed tightly, your french fries will still be warm after you walk to the Trevi Fountain. However, nowhere in Rome, London, New York, or Bahrain will you find Donut Den, Printers’ Alley, or Musica.

Check out Watkins own Nashville Design History site showcasing the collected research of the Watkins Graphic Design History Class of Spring 2012. See something old, something new, a Nashville Big Idea, and the embodiment of of our musical spirit, with and without kilts. This site and the design history class are celebrations of local creativity expressed in classic neon, bronze, pixels, and fried food. See for yourself, then head out for an apple fritter or a Nashville Dog with extra mustard.

Pragmatic

Where else can you buy a tub of popcorn, a two-gallon cup of diet Sun-Drop and wander from a Romanian film set in the Reagan era (Adelbert’s Dream) to a batch of short animations to an Argentine film about creepy student-teacher relationships (Ausente), remain seated, maybe take a bathroom break after all that Sun-Drop, for a wonderfully funny film about socially dysfunctional competitive Scrabble players (QWERTY), and then face the tough choice among self-destructive would be rocker (I Am Not a Hipster), mas macho y guapo Baltimore gangster trying to go straight (LUV), and rebellious but fashion savvy teenager (Sassy Pants). If there is any caffeine left in your system (“Sun-Drop, as refreshing as a cup of coffee”) you can still make it to the late show to learn the dirty secrets of the porta-potty business as well as the smell of space (Super Zeroes).  The only place you can pull off this feat is Nashville during the Nashville Film Festival or, maybe, New York on any random Tuesday.  So, head to the Green Hills Cinema for the 2012 Nashville FIlm Festival running through Thursday, April 26. Check it out.

Try this at home

Listen up you early adaptors!  Library World, the Watkins Library online catalog system, offers apps for both iPhone/iPad and Android that allow you to perform simple searches of Library offerings from the privacy of your own phone.  You can search by keyword, title, or author and and see if your chosen book or DVD is in or checked out before you make the journey to the Library.  While not as powerful as the full internet version of our online catalog, these apps can help you prevent those annoying attacks of IDS. information deprivation syndrome.  Visit the Watkins Library online catalog either in the Library or by visiting the Library website and selecting Library Catalog from the left hand menu.  At the bottom of the catalog search page, select the iPhone App, iPad App, or Android App link to learn how to download the Watkins Library Catalog for your personal portable device.

Italian Typographic Delights: an exhibition of handmade books

harold is pleased to announce a new exhibition of handmade books now on display in the Watkins Library. The collection comes from the Typographic Design course held at CFP Riccardo Bauer Professional School in Milan. It’s a delightful assortment; each piece has been set and bound by hand, printed on an Original Heidelberg letterpress. (If you’re unfamiliar with the Original Heidelberg, check out the video below.)

The collection’s statement tells us, “each book is devoted to a different topic related to a type and lettering,” and that a variety of special techniques, both traditional and digital, are used. The works engage a number of important questions: what makes a text beautiful?, how does typographic design affect the way we read?, and what might be lost in the age of digital interface?

It’s an inspiring little collection. harold encourages you to stop by when you have a moment and browse these one-of-a-kind object-books.

This collection comes to us courtesy CFP Riccardo Bauer, and thanks to the efforts of Giada Coppi.

Here’s a little taste of the Original Heidelberg letterpress in action…

THE ORIGINAL HEIDELBERG from Zack Kirkland on Vimeo.

Italian Typographic Delights

Handmade booklets collection on display in the Watkins Library.

Dinner and bikes

Come get a shot of bicycle culture, tasty vegan food, and local activism when Dinner and Bikes Southern Tour 2012 makes a stop at Watkins.  Check it out.

I just read it for the articles….

harold is beginning to feel like a broken record, or a looping digital sample, repeating the same phrase over and over. Come in to the Library and take a look at our wonderful selection of journals.  There are subject specific ones from American Cinematographer to View Camera. harold thinks that inspiration is the most valuable role for our journals.

Just today, the most recent numbers of Luerzer’s Int’l Archive, Frieze, Artforum, Architectural Record, and The Hollywood Reporter arrived at the Library. If you are a photographer, graphic designer, filmmaker, sculptor, painter, or performance artist, you should bring your coffee cup for a shot of dark-roasted Sumatra and spend a half hour gawking at the contents of any of these magazines.

Luerzer’s, a perennial favorite of harold’s, is a digest of advertising from around the world. The level of technical craft, creative content, storytelling, skill at propaganda, humor, displayed in all this commercial art is humbling and inspiring,whether as aspiration or source for satire. 

Check out Luerzer’s Int’l Archive in the Library.  Remember, reading a journal will make you smarter.

Thanks for the memes

Silly but…

Two hours behind

"New Yorker" March 29, 1976

 harold takes pride in his ability to scoop the east coast intellectual elite when it comes to cool, exciting, hot trends and ideas.  (Stuff that in your Sunday magazine, New York Times.)  In the spirit of humility and growth through constructive criticism, harold has come realize that he has the Nashville version of the iconic New Yorker cover view. Much like the view from 9th Avenue across the Hudson, the view from the Library becomes compressed and vague once across the Mississippi. In the spirit of solidarity with our compadres on the left coast, harold humbly suggests you look at Pacific Standard Time.   “Pacific Standard Time is an unprecedented collaboration of cultural institutions across Southern California coming together to celebrate the birth of the L.A. art scene. Beginning October 2011, over 60 cultural institutions will make their contributions to this region-wide initiative encompassing every major L.A. art movement from 1945 to 1980. Celebrate the era that continues to inspire the world.”  At least that is what the PST website says. The site also has great video clips, information about the 32 exhibitions currently open in L.A. under the Pacific Standard Time banner, customizable guides, and lots of L.A. cool. Check it out  then check out the Library for more information on the artists you meet on Pacific Standard Time.