Play list for this week:

TV on the Radio - Hours
My Brightest Diamond - Disappear
The Wrens - Boys, You Won’t
The Arcade Fire - Headlights
* The Mountain Goats - Woke Up New
* Broken Social Scene - Handjobs for the Holidays
Mates of State - Running Out
* Boy Least Likely To - Monsters
Beulah - Hello Resolven
* Built to Spill - Liar
* Jens Lekman - Jens Lekman’s Farewell Song to Rocky Dennis
Sufjan Stevens - Vito’s Ordination Song (Acoustic)
* M. Ward - Post-War
* Yo La Tengo - Black Flowers

The world would be a much better place if papers wrote themselves.

Instead of doing my work, I'm busy being productive in other ways. Like poking around the internet for useful information on cool libraries and possible publishing jobs for me and/or a friend.

Among the things I've discovered is Ugly Duckling Presse, a tiny, volunteer-run publisher that works with poetry and artist books, among other things. I now desperately want to volunteer there, because, well, they sound damn cool. Sure, there's no money to be made in it, but it would be an interesting experience and teach me a lot more about artist books (they of the sometimes strange design and high cost, and generally of extreme awesomeness). Actually, the UDP artist books are pretty cheap - the limited facsimile edition of one book is only $250. Granted, that's with 100 copies available, but still: compare it with one of the artist books at Granary Books - 35 pages, 45 copies available... $2,500 each. (Of course, the Granary book sounds pretty impressive - accordion-style, so it can be unfolded and turned into more traditional art to be hung on the wall; each has 15 bits of archival material from the artist's studio, etc.)

Anyways, my point is that I'm much more interested in digging up this relatively random information than working on a paper for theatre class. Maybe I would make a good reference librarian after all.

The chances that I'll be moving to NYC after I graduate have just gone up. See, I want to work with pretty books. Rare books. Special collections. The cool things that are usually kept in rooms with special temperature control. Art books that are so strange you're not even sure they should be classified as books.

But where does one go to learn about working with such books? Library school? Yes, but apparently not just any library school. I've now browsed through the websites of most of the ALA-accredited library schools. If I wanted to be a school media specialist and deal with kids, I could go just about anywhere. If I wanted to be an archivist and file away old letters, I would have many options. And most of the schools offer classes on rare books or in preservation. But if I want to actually specialize in rare books/special collections, my best options are in the New York area.

Option 1: School of Information and Library Science at the Pratt Institute. They offer a concentration called Art and Humanities Library Services/Cultural Informatics. It's a mouthful, but "Career opportunities in this area include research and academic libraries, museums and library research, archives and special collections, art and performing arts librarianship, digital libraries and archives." In other words, my sort of thing.

Option 2: Palmer School of Library and Information Science at Long Island University. They actual offer a concentration in Rare Books and Special Collections. And: "Students will develop proficiency in rare book curatorship, archival techniques, the history of the book, rare book cataloging, preservation, and exhibition planning. They will become acquainted with major collections through field trips and internships, and will have opportunity to meet experts in this area." Also, a lot of the classes for the concentration (though probably not for the core requirements) are offered in Manhattan. And they're associated with the University of Virginia's Rare Book School, which is nifty. (The Rare Book School offers 5-day, non-credit classes in various cities on cool topics like Book Illustration Processes to 1900 (Woodcuts! Lithography! General prettiness!) and Introduction to Illuminated Manuscripts.)

Happily, NYC has lots of libraries and bookstores where I can work while working on my degree. Because eating is helpful, and I don't actually want to live in a cardboard box.

No DC this weekend after all - last night I cancelled my reservations after realizing what I had left to do (Shakespeare midterm, packing, etc), how tired I was, and how early I would have to get up. Maybe next weekend, assuming I get things done this week.

This week's playlist:

My Brightest Diamond - Something of an End
The Dresden Dolls - Shores of California
Sneaker Pimps - Lightning Field
* Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s - Vampires in Blue Dresses
Sufjan Stevens - Joy! Joy! Joy!
Junior Boys - In the Morning
The Go Find - Igloo
The New Pornographers - Use It
* The Hold Steady - Massive Nights
* Yo La Tengo - The Room Got Heavy
* Beirut - Brandenburg
* Built to Spill - Traces
Stars - What I’m Trying to Say
* Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)
Metric - Monster Hospital

This post is brought to you by my inner geek and my intense need to procrastinate:

Stikfas are some of the coolest toys ever. My brother got me the red dragon and warrior woman combo last year, and it's fantastic. And the other sets they have are also great. Beta Female Demoness? Very cool. Mechana Segmented Robot (in the yellow and blue, of course)? Adorable - the robot has a little bear friend! So cute! Explorer and jungle cat? Nifty. The phantom? So versatile! The scythe for the Grim Reaper, the pumpkin for the headless horseman, chains for the stereotypical ghost, see-through body for the Invisible Man, and a crown for a Stikfas recreation of the beginning of Hamlet! Because these toys call out the need to be used in stop animation videos, and people have done so - skateboarding, fight scenes, even a bit of Star Wars.

Which brings me to some other nifty toys, courtesy of =http://www.thinkgeek.com/">ThinkGeek. I had already come across Darth Tater, a Mr. Potatohead version of Vader, but there's apparently also a Spud Trooper and Artoo Patatoo (complete with a little Princess Tater 'hologram'!). And then there's the plush Yoda backpack, made to look like you're giving Yoda a piggyback ride, a la Luke's training in The Empire Strikes Back. So geeky, but so very neat.

Okay. Time to sleep. Shakespeare midterm in about 8 hours, whee!

I have a train ticket to DC for this weekend. Whee!

This week's playlist (before the show is actually done, since the Decemberists' song still has about 6 minutes left):

* Yo La Tengo - The Race Is On Again
John Vanderslice - White Plains
* Cat Power - Could We
* Jens Lekman - F-Word
* Neko Case - Star Witness
Sufjan Stevens - For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti
* Beirut - The Gulag Orkestar
My Brightest Diamond - Workhorse
The Dresden Dolls - My Alcoholic Friends
* Exit Clov - Beast Simone
* Camera Obscura - If Looks Could Kill
* Built to Spill - The Wait
* The Decemberists - The Island: Come and See - The Landlord’s Daughter - You’ll Not Feel the Drowning

Really heavy on the rock department playlist stuff this week, but that's because there's good stuff on the playlist. Most of the show was played off of *gasp* actual CDs instead of my computer! Amazing!

So I picked up my Shakespeare book today and flipped to 12th Night. At least, I tried to. 12th Night starts on page 333. My book jumps from 320 to 369 - cutting off As You Like It mid-scene and giving me only the last page of 12th Night. It then proceeds as normal for a bit, with the entirety of All's Well That End's Well. Then there's the intro for Measure for Measure - or the intro to the intro. That gets cut off mid-way as well, giving me another copy of 12th Night's last page, then another full copy of All's Well That End's Well. Then, finally, it proceeds as it should.

So my complete works of Shakespeare has only part of As You Like It, two All's Well That End's Well, and no 12th Night. Lovely. This is going to lead to an interesting discussion at the bookstore...