Tag Archives: Sacramento Public Library

May 15, 2013 · 1:53 pm

There’s no map to human behaviour. Bjork

Circular-Walking-BookshelfOr is there? We at alt+library think there is and we want YOU to draw it. As you may know, tonight is our very first flâneur walk in conjunction with our regular book club meeting. We’ll be wandering midtown, sharing our happiest places along with our observations on The Geography of Bliss. But wait! There’s MORE!

Here we have the altLibrary map. Inspired by the upcoming release of Mapping Manhattan, we contacted the kind folks at Downtown Grid with a request: are they willing to make us a blank map to be distributed among the alt+library? Turns out the answer is a resounding “yes”! So, what to do with it?

We’d like you to draw YOUR Midtown Sacramento. You can make it themed: best places to steal a kiss, best desserts, best alleys to covertly urinate in when you’ve been drinking all night, skate-friendly businesses OR you can just make it personal, listing your favorite spots and why. Attached is the example for tonight: Geography of Bliss walk. So, print out your blank, draw it in, and either drop it at McKinley Library (601 Alhambra Blvd) or scan it and email to jzaker@saclibrary.org. We’re compiling them for our own nefarious purposes. And we’re going to share them. Eventually. So make it good.

/jess

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April 24, 2013 · 12:38 pm

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. – Oscar Wilde

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Last night we celebrated World Book Night! Lori and I had both signed up to be givers so the titles we got were The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (mine) and Looking for Alaska by John Green (hers). And we learned some important lessons about handing out free books in midtown to non-readers: 1) no one who signed up to attend will show up (exception: Nicole) BUT other people will. 2 very sweet young men came and gamely took a couple each to hand out. 2) people will take ANYTHING from a woman on roller skates. That is a lesson I will be sure to apply further. 3) There is no greater pleasure to be had than sharing a book you love with someone who has never read it and the ensuing conversation about past reads, future reads, and suggestions for new material. Thanks to everyone who took a book, to BodyTribe for letting me skate in and interrupt workouts to bring the joy of reading, and my very favorite partner-in-crime, Lori. Happy reading everyone!

/jess

P.S. Keep sending in the suggestions for our walk in May!

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February 2, 2013 · 1:33 pm

Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction. – Natalie Clifford Barney

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If only I could get the Bow Wow Wow song “Aphrodisiac” to stop running through my head as I plan this program.  But seriously, Food of Love is going to be the JAM!

Aphrodisiacs can be both truth and legend. Some foods have psychoactive properties, others arouse because they are psychologically suggestive, and some can actually increase the, uh, necessary blood flow. We’ll be discussing foods and meals rumored to have aphrodisiac properties, even sampling a few.

 And everyone knows the Shakespeare quote from Twelfth Night:

If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.

While we aren’t looking to gorge ourselves to cure a broken heart, we do support the “music be the food of love” theory – bring a favorite song/artist/playlist to share, something that inspires you toward seduction. My weaknesses include Portishead (sex music!) and Sharon Jones (for making a first move).

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December 4, 2012 · 3:30 pm

I wouldn’t say that holidays are manufactured by corporations, but they’re certainly exploited and mined by them. – Dan Savage

http://www.punkrockholiday.com/News

Holidays leaving you feeling sort of, you know, head-explode-y? Us too. For instance, we completely forgot to plan another “Broke A$$ Holidays”,  one of our favorite programs from years gone by. How to cope? I know MadDog Megan’s Holiday Temptation SMASH program for alt+fitness helped me; nothing like sweating out your bad choices. Also the endless stream of library materials I have on hold, showing up when I least expect and most need a good read. Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore is my most current rec: excellent mashup of classic methods vs modern technology. You can also escape to the library for some of our excellent winter programs. Movie night at Franklin or Carmichael? How to wrap gifts at Southgate? Lord of the Rings program at Central? General awesomeness at McKinley (gee, wonder how that got in there)? Share your great reads or sanity tips in the comments; we of alt+library could use the help.

/jess

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November 13, 2012 · 5:20 pm

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city. – George Burns

ImageThe holiday season is nigh. So much enforced togetherness; how do you escape it? With a book, of course. Right now, I’m reading The Middlesteins – reviewed by Ron Charles in the following:

“The Middlesteins” is the story of a dangerously overweight woman and the relatives who are trying, in various ineffectual ways, to save her life when “everything about her was collapsing.” There are sweet sentimental temptations all over a plot like this, but Attenberg writes with restraint and just a dash of bitterness. The result is a story that repeatedly tosses off little bursts of wisdom that catch you off guard.

Reading about families worse than yours? http://ow.ly/fgHxX Done.

- Jess

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October 10, 2012 · 2:48 pm

Haunted Stacks

Haunted Stacks, Sacramento’s positively creepiest and most educational haunted library tour, is returning for a third year on Friday, October 26! The basics are the same as previous years: We will be screening a classic scary flick in the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria from 7-9 p.m. and taking participants on “haunted” tours of the Sacramento Room in the old Carnegie library while the film is playing.  While the basics are the same, visitors can expect a whole new show this year. In an effort to keep the tour surprising and scary even for return guests, we will take a different route through the Sacramento Room, and actors will be tackling new roles.  Sacramento Room decorations and undead characters will transport participants back to 1900.  Among the “ghosts” haunting the Sacramento Room will be Miss Alice Curtis, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, and Adelbert B. C. Devendorf, a Civil War veteran who was a victim of accidental poisoning by strychnine, taken legitimately for chills.

Haunted Stacks is free and recommended for ages 10 and up.  No advance registration is required; however, tour space is limited, so participants are encouraged to arrive by 7 p.m. to sign up.

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October 4, 2012 · 4:16 pm

Do your worst.

Join us next Tuesday, October 9th, 6:00 p.m. at the McKinley Library to make some truly dreadful art at our third annual Bad Art Night.  We’ll provide all the art supplies, just be sure to leave your talent, eye for design, and good taste at home.  Participants will vote on the most successfully dismal artistic endeavor and one lucky winner will receive this paint-by-numbers kit titled “Cat’s Garden”:

Beautiful, no?  By the way, if you want to see some really bad art do a Google image search for “cats in baskets painting”–some of those make “Cat’s Garden” look like a Vermeer.

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September 8, 2012 · 12:56 pm

Wear the old coat and buy the new book. – Austin Phelps

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How do you find new books to read? As a librarian, I have a ton of resources at my disposal, including trade publications with what’s being published right now. I love getting book recommendations from BUST magazine as well (a magazine I’ve been reading since the late 90s, geez). On the Sacramento Public Library website we have databases like Great Reads and Novelist. Powell’s City of Books in Portland has a wonderful website and FaceBook page with recommendations. We have a lot of patrons coming in and asking for the book they saw on the news/heard on NPR/Oprah suggested. I discovered we have some “ghost” members of the alt+library book club, people who read the books even though they can’t attend the meet-ups. Browsing the shelves of the library is another terrific and frequently used option – especially the Lucky Day collection. And if you live in Sacramento and don’t know about Lucky Day, I suggest you take yourself to the nearest library branch immediately. Finally, my personal favorite way to find a new book – ask a librarian. We love that shit.

Share your best new book discovery tips in the comments!

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August 18, 2012 · 9:59 am

Free Food–just add water!

Okay, so I really should have posted this one a few months ago—by now those of you who with a gardening bent are probably already up to your elbows in  tomatoes or zucchini (rarely both)–but did you know you can check out seeds from the Colonial Heights Library?!  These are free, wonderful, organic heirloom seeds with amazing variety—all housed in a delightful old-school card catalog.  You may be thinking—“checkout, sure, but how do you return seeds?”—easy, save a few from your bounty of vegetables and return them (labeled please) to the library.  They even have a great brochure telling you the best way to save seeds from various plants.

If you are new to gardening this is a great way to get started—you can even take a look at the library’s garden for ideas while you’re there. 

It is really never the wrong time to garden in Sacramento—reference this calendar to see what it is time to plant now.  And for after the harvest (both books available at the library, naturally):

 

 

 

 

I have tested this seed library out for myself—and I’m growing an insane monster of a cherry tomato.  Seriously, it is the Kraken of tomato plants–thank you Colonial Heights Library!

 

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July 20, 2012 · 3:03 pm

Summer of Free(ish)–Part One

A couple of years ago one of our alt+library folks told me about her plan for a “Summer of Free.”  The library featured heavily in this plan of hers, which I couldn’t help but approve of, so I’ve decided to revisit the concept here with a series of posts to help you make the most of the rest of your Sacramento summer—for free, or free-ish.

  1. Be gifted an ice cream maker.  This takes some maneuvering, but you can manage it—try getting married, having one of the “Big-(fill in the blank)-Oh” birthdays, or helping someone clean out their garage.  Few people buy ice cream makers and fewer people actually use them—that is, until they try one of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home.  Jeni Britton Bauer has a few ice cream shops back east, including one in Nashville, where I visited last year, tried her Salty Caramel, and returned home to check out her excellent cookbook and dig the ice cream maker out of the garage.  Make a couple of her ice creams and soon people will be lining up outside your kitchen like its Gunther’s on Saturday night.  I’ve even found people are willing to trade things like salads and bottles of wine for gourmet ice creams such as Vodka Plumped Cranberry and Gouda (it’s all in the right gouda)—and voila—you have yourself an instant classy garden party.  Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones is another great cookbook, with flavors that are a bit more traditional than Jeni’s.  Both books are available, for free checkout, at your local library.

So, admittedly, this first post is a bit of a cheat—all that cream will cost you (calories as well as dollars)—but a Sacramento evening is fundamentally enhanced by a bowl of ice cream (or sorbet).  Next time I’ll get to the real stuff—like free museums and museum passes. 

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Hands-on-challenge:  Create your own wacky ice cream flavor and post in the comments.  Word to the wise—you may want to avoid pineapple basil, it is not for everyone.

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