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The photos that you see today are from the Brookfield Zoo and the Garfield Park Conservatory. Aaron Schmidt also has one of these on his blog Walking Paper.

Moooving Art

Moooving Art
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

From Sarah at LibrarianInBlack I learned about the museum photo toys at Dumpr. You can put your favorite photos into art gallery scenes. You can insert photos directly from your computer or from Flickr. Then you can send it to Flickr, send in an email, or save to your computer. It is very easy, fun, and free.

Here is one of my favorites from my November trip to West Texas. I also have an entire folder of cattle photos from the family ranch, if you like to look at cattle. The calves are sort of cute. They don't really stay that way very long, except in nice photos.

Enjoy.

Our New Camera Captures Hudson the Polar Bear

Bonnie and I took our new camera to the zoo today to see Hudson the Polar Bear, a cub who was born late last year. He was in the water entertaining the crowd. Here he is pouncing on his red toy. Having upgraded from a 3x to a 10x zoom, we were able to get much better polar bear pictures than ever before.

To see all the photos of Hudson that were worth keeping, go to the Hudson the Polar Bear set on my Flickr site. You may view as a slide show if you like.

The increase zoom and faster shooting time is going to make a big difference in our photos. The camera is ready for our trip to the American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, DC next month. We will have lots of photos.

365 Library Days Project

Libraryman started a new Flickr pool called 365 Library Days Project. I am now the 150th member. The idea is that every member contribute 365 photos from around her/his library to create a vast library image collection.

There are 142 images so far. Start watching now to see the collection grow.

The City of Nashville

I'm back. I spent the last four days as a chaperon for the Downers Grove North High School choirs trip to Nashville, Tennessee. The choirs sang in the acoustically rich Belmont Baptist Church, a facility of Belmont University, a very music oriented school at one end of Music Row. Two professors from the college worked with the four choirs on Saturday morning.

Another objective of the trip was introducing the students to the musical heritage of the city. We visited historic RCA Studio B, the Ryman Auditorium (that's a Minnie Pearl hat and dress to the left), and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and attended the late Saturday program at the Grand Ole Orpy. Alison Krauss, John Waite, Ricky Skaggs, Little Jimmie Dickens, the Virginia Boys, Porter Wagoner, the Whites, and Bill Anderson were among the performers during the live radio broadcast.

The presentation in RCA Studio B reminded me of the opera lectures that we have at our library. Our guide, who knew much and loved her subject, spoke about the history of the facility and played excerpts from famous songs recorded there. With good stories and a little technical wizardry, she taught and entertained the students, faculty, and chaperons. I particularly enjoyed learning about acoustics (baffles were placed around the room) and seeing the piano that was used in many sessions between 1957 ans 1977. Of course Elvis was featured in the stories, but hundreds of other country and rock stars used the studio. It is interesting to think about how music that just seems to come from the radio or the Internet really comes from some special space.

Downtown Nashville has a handy convention center, hotels, restaurants, and entertainment. I see why LITA had its forum there last fall. We had a wonderful eating barbecue (vegetarian plates were available), shot pool, and line danced at the Wildhorse Saloon. We also had a time to wander along Broadway, where I found both the Ernest Tubb Record Shop and Lawrence Records (which has lots of old vinyl recordings).

I found the advice from Frommer's Nashville & Memphis by Linda Romine was useful for preparing for the trip. I wish I had actually taken it with me, too.

I would gladly attend a library conference in Nashville.

You can see more of my photos at Flickr.

Christmas Ornaments from Our Tree

Christmas Ornaments from Our Tree
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

We starting to decorate for the holidays at our house. This poster shows nine of our favorite ornaments, which are on the tree we cut and decorated over the weekend. We get new ornaments every year, so the collection has grown large and diverse. The snowman on the top left is the first ornament Bonnie gave me. Laura made the popsicle stick ornament on the bottom left.

There are more photos of ornaments on my Flickr site. I made the poster using a tool from Qoop, which can be found in the drop-down menus with the sets in Flickr.

warholized ricklibrarian

warholizer ricklibrarian
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

I am in some ways a rejuvenile, still captivated by the art and music of my youth. I was listening to the Beatles today and now I am creating psychodelic art. I am not alone. Readers check out 60s music and art from our library.

Here is the photo that Aaron took of me warholized. Thanks to Librarian in Black for the lead to the image generator.