MG Farrelly
Librarian, Writer, Bon Vivant
So, that book I’ve been writing
Jul 27th
Here’s the book description, and you can order yourself a copy too. I don’t know if that publication date is spot-on, but it should be close. So yeah, I’m excited. How about you?
Creating a new teen space? Looking to do an extreme makeover on your current YA room? Don’t get started without this invaluable guide that can help you do it right! With an informal, upbeat approach that emphasizes best practices, the book will help you clear all the hurdles and avoid the pitfalls, beginning with concerns and challenges (such as pressure from within the library) and ending with the creation of a dynamic and flexible space that can be continually renewed. From ideas about location and financing, suggestions for furniture and decor, and tips on collections and computers, to advice on meeting the unique needs of this diverse population and assessment-this guide has it all.
The current demographic swell of the teen population has caused librarians to reconsider, revamp, and revitalize young adult services. In many cases, this involves creating or enhancing a Young Adult Room or Teen Space. This guide is intended to help young adult librarians, as well as supervisors and administrators, through the process of creating or improving library space for teens. Drawing on best practices and his own experience, the author points out key issues, concerns, challenges, and pitfalls of the endeavor; and he also provides librarians with tools to create and implement a vision.
He begins by addressing concerns and challenges (such as pressure from within the library) to teens and teen spaces; moves on to describe how to create a dynamic and flexible space that can be continually assessed and renewed. Topics include ideas for location and financing, furniture and decor, collections and computers, and meeting the unique needs of this diverse population. Filled with anecdotes and examples of best practices, this book offers an engaging, upbeat approach to a topic of vital interest to today’s YA librarians
Your complete, step-by-step guide to creating or renovating teen spaces in public and school libraries
Infinite
Jul 26th
When I was in junior high I spent nearly an entire summer in the hospital. I had an upper respiratory infection that I could not shake. At one point I was even in something like a medicated coma. Such fun, childhood asthma! Anyway, my mom, who was going slowly mad watching her 11 year old son slowly die just a few years after burying her husband, was trying her damnedest to keep my spirits up. 
Up to that point, the only comics I’d read were Cerebus and a handful of Classic X-Men my older cousin had left at our house. But my mom made the connection between me and comics. She went to the dingy place near our house, a shop called “Crossroads” which was run by a gent who freely admitted the show was something to do between roofing gigs.
This was not your lovingly stocked, carefully curated comic book shop of the modern era. This was a place where comic junkie got their fix, a shooting gallery for the 4-color set. Into this place strode Maureen Farrelly.
Over the course of the summer my mom went, every week, and dropped around 20 bucks on comics. Today that buys you maybe four or five main titles. Back then, comics were usually about $1.25-$1.50. So by early August, when I got sprung from the sick ward, I had a hell of a lot of reading material.
On the car ride home from the hospital my Mom had me search through the books for one in particular. Amidst a huge pile of X-Men, Avengers and Batman books there was one specific book she said “was really neat.” Yes, my mom said “neat” and so do I , with gusto.
I pulled out “The Infinity Gauntlet” #4
See the cover? My mom loved that cover.
For years afterward, my mom would joke about “The guy, the crazy one, on that cover. Scary guy.”
That guy? Thanos, the Mad Titan. I had no idea who he was, or what the Infinity Gauntlet was either. I had to read the whole series, plus a bunch of other books, to crack the nerd code on that one. My mother wanted to know “who the scary guy was”.
She used to do a funny voice too. Kind of a hoarse whisper “Come and Get Me.” She would croak over the phone. “Come and Get Me” followed by gales laughter. She loved Scary Guy.
My dear friend Jenn told me something very wise when my Mom passed away. She said how her husband, who had lost both his parents, would see something or experience something and remark how he missed them.
Not some grand statement or show of grief, just acknowledging the loss, wishing they were here to share a moment.
Apparently the fine people at Marvel have somehow worked The Infinity Gauntlet into the “Thor” movie. Which, quite probably, means it will be part of “The Avengers” movie and the whole Marvel movie universe thingee.
At the San Diego Comic Con they wheeled out, for just five minutes of nerd-love, the prop itself.
My mom’s been gone nearly five years now. I miss her when I think about marriage or having kids. I miss her when the holidays come around. I miss her when times are rough and I know she would have given me a swift boot in the ass for being a “mope”.
Today, today I missed hearing “Come and Get Me” in a hoarse voice followed by long and nerdy laughter.
But I smiled remembering her all the same.
Xenophobia is the new black
Jul 25th
David Mitchell, of “Peep Show” and “That Mitchell and Webb Look” has a brilliant bit in the Guardian UK about burqa bans. 
The point he makes, towards the end, is that in a free society women being forced to dress in this fashion can come to question it. If you ban the burqa you further alienate their culture, making it that much harder for them to reach out to the wider world.
These bans smack of racial panic and immigrant fear-mongering. It’s easy for hate-mongers, usually with an agenda to push, to pick on “the other” because who is going to stand up for them? You’re many times more likely to be killed by lightning strike than by “Islamo-Fascists”, but lets demonize whole segments of the population all the same. Nonsense.
Most of my friends in college were Muslim (I was an history major with a focus in Islamic history) and many women I knew wore hijab. A good number of them drank, or ate the occasional bit of bacon. The concept of Muslims as this monolithic block of crazed radicals who are all out to re-establish the Kaliphate at 10 Downing St. or the White House is pure xenophobic fiction. It’s like equating your local Unitarian Church with Fred Phelps.
Speaking of xenophobia (I love the word, but hate the concept) let’s talk about the Cordoba House mosque and community center, shall we?
Oh, I’m sorry, I mean the “Flag-burning, baby eating, Sharia-establishing, jihadist loving freedom-fry hating tyranny center being built out of the bones of 9/11 victims and painted with the blood of American soldiers.”
Yes folks, it’s that bad. Worse even. They, you know, THEM, want to build a MOSQUE a few blocks from GROUND ZERO.
Are Muslims even allowed near Ground Zero? Don’t they like, burst into flames?
It’s sad that channeling Jonathan Swift (poorly) with my hyperbole above I am just barely more nonsensical than some of the doofuses out there who oppose Cordoba House. Why, Sarah Palin had to make up all new dumb words just to express her endless supply of homespun bile.
Listen, nine years ago a group of lunatics did something awful in the name of their religion. Though, actually, it had a lot more to do with international politics and religion was less a motive than a means. So these lunatics did something awful, terrible, nightmarish. 19 out of a 1,00,000,000 or so Muslims in the world. Nineteen guys who were, from some accounts, not even very devout or pious Muslims. For that, all Muslims, especially “Arab” Muslims must now be viewed with suspicion for, what, ever? Again, nonsense.
It is an election year (oh that it were not) and the Right has decided to further a sort of 50 state southern strategy. Playing on fears about mosques, “illegals” crossing the border, and just this week the ugly mess that was the resignation of Shirley Sherrod. The idea here is to scare older, white voters in much the same way they did in 2006 with immigration and in 2008 with Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers and so on. One hopes they are just as successful at they were in those election cycles.
Guy (sorta) walks across America
Jul 24th
It’s a bit of a trick (a film crew drove and posed the model along the way) but that doesn’t make it any less impressive.
Drink
Jul 23rd
I don’t drink.
It’s not a religious or ethical choice, nor is it born out of some fear of addiction, I just don’t drink.
I went through a, very brief, phase of enjoying the occasional martini. Though I was enjoying them more for my friend who enjoyed my enjoyment of her enjoyable company. If you follow me.
I’ve only been intoxicated a handful of times. No photographic evidence as this was all pre-facebook and I have an ability to not show up on film or other digital photo media. Magic 
powers…
I can appreciate a good scotch, a nice whisky (or whiskey depending on your locale) but I can go years between ordering a dram.
I’ve never liked beer. Not to be un-patriotic, but most American style beer is just dreadful. Watery and bland.
Guinness was my drink of choice as a younger man. But it’s heavy, thick and hits my stomach like a fifth round gut-punch.
Wine? I don’t like the taste of wine. Rieslings and ice wines are nice, but you might as well be drinking fruit juice at that point, cheaper anyway.
I have friends who drink, and I often envy their love of wine and scotch and rum. I’m a full-grown man and my strongest drink is diet coke with caffeine. Ooo…wild man.
I’m thinking at some point of taking up the fine art of mixology. Rachel Maddow always impresses with her skills behind the bar. It would be a bit like being the vegetarian butcher I suppose, but contradictions are more appealing the not. Or are they?
Radiohead, Ukele, Bellies
Jul 20th
Amanda Palmer leads a belly-button sing-a-long to Radiohead’s "Creep"
Gangs, Grenades, and Chicago
Jul 20th
Growing up in Albany Park I knew a bit about gangs. Oh I was never in one, had a neighborhood friends who ended up in the Latin Kings when he was in high school. Mainly it was knowing that you didn’t go to River Park on the weekends after dark, or that if certain kids were at the 7-11 playing Street Fighter II you took your quarters and went elsewhere. It was part of the ritual of the neighborhood. Back when I was growing up the gangs were more likely to get into bat fights, spray tags all over and maybe, maybe, someone had a gun. They were bad news, but you didn’t feel like running for your life. I found this documentary shot in Albany Park a few months back. Part 1 and part 2 are here for your viewing pleasure. I warn you, there’s some strong language, but it’s worth your attention if you’re at all curious about how gangs form and perhaps why people join them. What jogged my brain on this topic was reading this article in the Sun-Times.
Jeffrey Stoleson, a Wisconsin corrections official, returned from Iraq in January with photos of gang graffiti on armored vehicles, latrines and buildings. Stoleson, a sergeant with a National Guard unit, was there for nine months to help the Army set up a prison facility outside Baghdad. "I saw Maniac Latin Disciples graffiti out of Chicago," Stoleson said, adding that there was a lot of graffiti for Texas and California gangs, as well as Mexican drug cartels. A Chicago Police officer — who retired from the regular Army and was recently on a tour of Afghanistan in the Army Reserve — said Bagram Air Base was covered with Chicago gang graffiti, everything from the Gangster Disciples’ pitchfork to the Latin Kings’ crown.
Again, back to my limited experience, a lot of the guys I knew who got mixed up in gang life ended up life long criminals (the friend I mentioned before got nearly 30 years for attempted murder from what I’ve heard) or dead. Now you’ve got guys going into the military (likely attracted by the very lucrative signing bonuses and aggressive recruiting in recent years) coming out with tactical training. You hope the discipline of the military knocks some sense into them. Though the pictures from the theater of operations makes that questionable. This isn’t new. White supremecists and right wing nutters have brought back military knowledge for years. Don’t forget that Tim McVeigh was a gulf war vet. The solution? Well, if that article has a laugh line it’s this.
Congress eventually banned members of the military from belonging to street gangs. And last November, the Defense Department added the ban to its rules.
How are you gonna check that? "Are you in a gang?" "No, Sir!" "Oh, Ok, just checkin’." Tattoos are one way, but the military has been revising that policy so as not to exclude new recruits. Deep background checks? Too costly and time-consuming for most recruits. Maybe for special operations or high clearance, but your average grunt? Though your average grunt can come home with enough knowledge and training in military tactics to become something of a warlord on the streets. Criminals are, generally, not very bright, not very well-trained. The illusion of the criminal mastermind is just that, an illusion. But combining US Military training, some of the best in the world, with ties to gang life, that’s nothing but bad news. An insurgency in Englewood? A sniper trap in Austin? It’s the stuff of bad hysterical fiction. I hope.
21st Century Spielberg
Jul 19th
To sing the praises of Steven Spielberg is a bit like saying some nice things about Da Vinci. Spielberg has defined the last 30+ years of film. But I’m going to focus on two movies all in the past decade, that, to me, are some of his most interesting work.
Stylish and elegant, that’s the cheap way of putting it. This is movie stuffed so full of amazing production design that you could almost forgive it for having a second rate story, but it doesn’t. Based off, loosely, a Philip K. Dick book, the story of precognitives predicting crime and how that changes everything is a really solid one. This is the best kind of science fiction, the sci-fi of speculation. Spielberg consulted scientists to sculpt a world 50 odd years hence that didn’t feel like a utopia or a dystopia but rather a place where dreams are dashed and fulfilled just like they are today. Ubiquitous advertising, eye-scans, videos and mad bio-science abound. All this wrapped around a noir story about corruption and little buried lies. The ending is often written off as pat, but if you look carefully it’s possible Spielberg was pulling a fast one. I won’t spoil it, except to say that when you get “halo-ed” do all your dreams come true?
I confess, I love a good explosion. I also adore Orson Welles adaptation of HG Wells fantastic 
novel. Did you know that they actually met and there is a recording of the conversation? Wonderful stuff. I’m curious what Wells would have thought of Spielberg’s take on the invaders from beyond? Like the 1938 broadcast, Spielberg taps into the times. Wells used news bulletins and on the spot reporters, like those reporting from Europe about the creeping menace of Hitler’s Germany. Spielberg gives us the human mass, the huge crowds fleeing through city streets, panic, confusing, misinformation. Yes, it’s 9/11 evoked through science fiction. But it’s not gauche. Singular images work as well as CGI tripods. Like a burning train racing down the track. Or the clothes of those caught in the alien ray-guns blast raining down miles away. The color and light of battle playing on the faces of children. It’s a popcorn movie haunted by a real-world tragedy.
Oh yes, and both of these feature Tom Cruise, prior to all the couch-jumping. Say what you will, he’s a great leading man. Largely because he does that wonderful thing only a leading man can do, become an avatar for the audience. A vessel for our choices and fears. When he’s clutching his daughter in the basement of his ex-wife’s new husband’s house as the world comes to an end outside, we get him. When he runs, because everyone runs, we get it. Character actors show us facets on a gem, leading actors hold up a mirror.