Optimism, Idiosyncrasy, Courage

It's been one of those dreary, drizzly days I absolutely adore. I've been catching everyone around me staring off into the distance with the glazed look of the pensive, the catatonic, or someone desparately in need of a caffeine fix.

In other words, it was a perfect day to go visit the library.

When I first moved to Akron, the Main Library was undergoing a multi-million dollar transformation and the interim holding facility for all the tomes was a vacated DIY Home Warehouse over on Tallmadge Avenue.

The new facility is simply stunning, with a sleek retro vibe that lends a certain polished, timeless air.

Libraries and record stores hold the same mystique for me. I go in, get overwhelmed, and walk out forgetting half the things I meant to get. To combat this, I've learned to arm myself with a list before I leave the house.

One would think I'd be used to it now, but I'm still astounded at the excellent selection available through the Akron-Summit County Public Library System

Today's scores included:

A book on the works of Joseph Maria Olbrich

Unbuilt America: Forgotten Architecture in the United States from Thomas Jefferson to the Space Age
(billed as recording over 200 years of audacious, curious, revolutionary, utopian, radical, and visionary ideas in the combined fields of architecture and the environmental arts. It is a book about ideas. A book about optimism, idiosyncrasy and courage.)

The Encyclopedia of Arts and Crafts
(Arts and Crafts being the international arts movement, not popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners, natch.)

Atlas of the Human Heart

Paste Magazine featuring Wes Anderson (with the cover completely illustrated by his brother, Eric Chase Anderson. On a side note, I think it would be the utmost in cool to commission some work from him. I always love his illustrations for the Criterion booklets of his brother's movies.)
I'd love to see him do something along the lines of what Ellen Forney has got going on.

I also borrowed Mental Floss, a magazine I'd seen, but which never really appealed to me. However, this edition had lists of ten, whose cover lines tantalized me with articles such as:

"The Ten Most Forgettable Presidents”
“Ten Underrated Spectator Sports”
“Ten Famous Monkeys in Science”

and

“Ten Countries You Can’t Find on a Map”

Considering I'm the gal who once begged a police officer to let me into the medical library of the hospital I worked at at like, two a.m. because I realized I had no clue where Denmark was in relation to other countries and this really, really bothered me and I needed to copy a map and rectify the situation immediately, the last cover line totally sold me.


But by far my most thrilling score of the afternoon was A Pattern Language. I’ve been trying to find this book for the past six or seven years to no avail. It was always hopelessly out of print or when I could track it down, astronomically out of my punk rock budget.

But now I finally have the tome in my hot little hands and am terribly excited to dive right in.

Movie-wise I picked up A Generation and the first two volumes of The Films of Charles and Ray Eames

I also picked up Corporate Ghost, a collection of Sonic Youth videos.

My raddest movie find was none other than Westworld. Even Miss Peppermint fancied the idea of viewing some hot Yul Brynner psycho robot action.

As I lugged my bounty to the car, the thought occurred to me that I might have been a wee bit overambitious with my selections. Thank goodness for online renewals.

Currently spinning:

Elliott Smith ~ Elliott Smith