work stuff, or "why I went to grad school"

Last week we did a "Santa's Workshop for Little Elves." This involved myself and coworker Mary putting together materials for half-a-dozen crafts that could be completed by a horde of preschoolers and come out as reasonably nice "gifts for grandma" (uncle, daddy, teacher, etc.). So last Wednesday (Dec. 7) we had 29 preschoolers and assorted grownups filling our meeting room and having a great time decorating construction-paper gingerbread people (we constantly ran out of "googly eyes" so I was running around saying "we need more googly eyes! Where are the googly eyes?), paper-plate wreaths, sponge-painted bookmarks, and more. Then they all had donuts and juice, which mostly stayed off the floor. I can't say the same for the glitter--the place looked like Las Vegas afterward. It was a huge success--happy kids with lots of crafts, happy moms/grandmas/babysitters, and tired but happy library staffers. I drew up two pages of notes for what to do the same and different next year. For example, we didn't need to worry about playing holiday music because you didn't have a chance of hearing it over the clamor of kids and grownups. ("Shushing" has gone the way of card catalogues--one of about a million things they don't teach you in library school.)

I find myself regularly being tapped as the manga/anime expert in the our library system. (I used to get phone calls from librarians at other branches asking me how to spell Yu-Gi-Oh! so they could look it up for eager fans). So far I am not only starting a club at our branch but am co-producing two mini-conventions, as well as doing an intro to anime and manga for adults, which likely will involve explaining to parents why the books are printed backward, why their son insisted on naming the new family corgi "Ein," and why they might want to be concerned that their teenage daughter brought back a "I love yaoi" t-shirt from the local convention. Then again, they may want to read and watch the stuff themselves! Heck, my mom liked Cowboy Bebop when we watched it on Adult Swim a couple of years ago.

Feel free to ask me about anime or manga (Japanese animation and graphic novels, respectively, in case you haven't been around a teen much lately or watching Adult Swim on cartoonnetwork.) Getting me to shut up about my favorites will be the problem. Or you can check out this website:
http://www.koyagi.com/Libguide.html
It's not for librarians only!

Or, to start you off on the road to fandom, here's the primary fan website for anime legend Hayao Miyazaki, my absolute favorite animator:

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/

This man's work is amazing. The time I saw manga or anime was at a comic convetion in NY city, and the item I ended up buying was the first English-language edition of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, It was also one of the first anime I saw. I can't recommend Miyazaki's stuff highly enough--the artistic style is beautifully detailed and of watercolor-painting style and quality. His storylines are just as good. Nausicaa is about the young woman of the title, a borderland princess in a future world nearly destroyed by war and ecological collapse. She has a special bond with the strange plants and horrific creatures of her land, and gets involved in war, socio-political intrigue, and the secrets of the changing world ecology. There's also humor, affection, budding romances, and of course exquisite artwork in both the manga (graphic novel) and anime (movie).

Anything else by Miyazaki is about as good, if not better. Many local libraries and most video stores have some of his more famous movies: Princess Mononoke (rather violent but excellent, and another ecologically-themed story), Spirited Away (wonderful fantasy, winner of one of the first animation Oscars), and my personal favorite movie of all time, My Neighbor Totoro (children's fantasy, great for elementary school kids)

That's all for now regarding manga and anime. Probably more later, depending on what I stumble over at work, on the web, or in a friend's email!

An interview with one of my absolute favorite authors!

Last month I found the website of science fiction and fantasy legend Ursula K. Le Guin (my prime candidate for a Nobel Prize; heck, she's won nearly every other literary award):

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/

She has all kinds of wonderful items, from some of her recent poetry, to a letter she wrote on plausibility in science fiction and fantasy. Today there was a Q&A interview from Bella Online, a women's voices website:

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art10988.asp

This give some insight into her mind; also her sense of humor!

Enjoy!

Sometime soon I'll have to post my "Pantheon of Science Fiction and Fantasy." Ms. Le Guin is, needless to say, one person of the Trinity at the top of the pantheon.