Most Awesome Bookshelves Ever

Even though I never had the chance to experience hanging out in the old library over at Douglas Ave, I'm still super excited about getting back in there once the renovation in complete, especially now that I know my wish for a chalkboard wall in the Teen Zone will probably become a reality (chalk wall, guys!!!).  I have big plans for the space there--I'm thinking framed teen art, magnetic poetry up on the chalkboard wall, a giant TV for gaming and movies, a Scrabble wall, and secret passageways!

Okay, so the Scrabble wall and secret passageways probably won't happen (and by "probably" I mean "definitely").  But HOW AWESOME ARE THESE.  Not that I believe in having secret, exclusive programming or anything, but....We could totally have secret, exclusive programming in there.  Or maybe something more normal and less cultish, like a little reading nook (and then, you know, the occasional secret program).  I know this second one here doesn't lead to a secret passage or room, but it still ranks high up on my list of Most Awesome Bookshelves Ever.  It's round.  It's in the ceiling.  Maybe if we all beg enough we can convince the powers-that-be that APL NEEDS one of these things (it would be fun directing people to whatever they're looking for, too: "Oh yeah, "The Hunger Games" is down that aisle, over to the right, and up the ladder.  You can't miss it!").

And the giant Scrabble board?  Now that I think about it, this is probably totally doable.  I personally am not that great at Scrabble (though in all my nerdy glory, I did once try to study the Scrabble dictionary in an attempt to be an awesome and impressive player; sadly, it did not work, although I did one time manage to use up all my tiles on a single word, which was definitely the highlight of my Scrabble career); but I am endlessly entertained by how competitive and like, totally ruthless people can get when they play.  I think I smell a teen program coming on!

Trash Art

So I've seen a fair amount of art created from trash in my day (if you ever visit New York City or Philadelphia you'll definitely have the pleasure of seeing all kinds of weird things), including plenty of "art from trash" that looks...well, more like the latter (to put it kindly).

These portraits created by American artist Zac Freeman, though, are awesome, like the kind of awesome that I would pay a good chunk of money for, and I think that's saying something considering it's all made of garbage.  There's all kinds of junk in the things; it's almost like a game of "I Spy"!  If you look closely, you can see a ton of buttons and bottle caps and jar lids, old dice, scrabble tiles, legos (although really, I don't think there's ever a point in which legos could be considered "junk").  There's old highlighters, combs, forks, phones, pen and marker caps, and toy soldiers.  Altoid tins and a remote control, plus a ton of stuff I don't have names for.

Here's a little confession: I tried to make a piece like this once when I was in high school.  I gathered up some old junk that I was going to toss and figured was destined for a stinky landfill somewhere and thought, "I can repurpose this into art!"  Tons of people have made money off of weird or seemingly crummy art, so how hard could it be really?  The answer: very hard.  Tragically hard.  So hard, in fact, that my junk "art" was pretty much still just junk in the end.  BUT!  I think Freeman's art is totally inspiring and my art piece probably came out better than I was giving myself credit for at the time (or at least that's what I like to tell myself now).  I wonder if Mr. Freeman accepts donations of garbage?

Upcoming Stuff: Earth Day

April means Earth Day!  Also National Poetry Month, Arbor Day, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Tax Day, Record Store Day (so awesome), April Fool's Day, Jazz Appreciation Month, and Administrative Professionals' Day!  I know everyone is dying to have a wild celebration in honor of admin professionals, but I think at APL we'll just stick to Earth Day and National Poetry Month (I myself am a huge fan of both trees and poems, although I am less a fan of poems about trees).

I derive a lot of satisfaction from recycling and upcycling and making cool stuff out of junky stuff, because a)you save something from being tossed and creating more waste on our planet; b)you can make and own something that no one else has; c)your DIY skills and planet-saving savvy will impress that cute kid you've been eyeing; and d)making stuff is probably a better use of my time than watching cat videos on YouTube (or is it...*).

Anyone have any ideas of stuff you'd like to recycle into other stuff sometime in April at APL?  I kind of like these things:

*Yes. yes it is

March Madness, or The Big Dance

So "March Madness" refers to the crazy popular college men's basketball single-elimination championship tournament held each spring; it's one of those quivery-excitement thing that people (well, at least sports-type people) look forward to every year.  AND, as I just learned, March Madness is also apparently known as "the Big Dance."  Which, let's be honest, sounds a lot less awesome than March Madness (although I do find it completely entertaining to imagine big dudes hanging around, talking about "the Big Dance").

Anyway, this March APL is going to be hosting its own glorious, utterly nerdy version of March Madness, but instead of rounds eliminating basketball teams, our tournament will be a most awesome book for 7th graders and up championship.  Each week, teens get to go online and vote for their favorite among the 16 selected books that are pitted against one another until the whole thing culminates in one winner.

      

The bracket, by the way, is up on the wall behind the computers in the APL Zone, and it looks AWESOME.  Like, seriously epic, and I'm totally not just saying that because my boyfriend put it up and it took him 7 hours on a Saturday when we could've been home watching the IT Crowd or Sherlock or out shopping in Des Moines.

So on to the books.  Some of the winners are going to be hard to pick: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is up against The Graveyard Book.  The Giver is playing against The Westing Game. Seriously?  Seriously?  Tough call.  I'm glad I'm not the one who has to choose, though I think I'll have fun trying to predict each elimination rounds' winner.

Will post the link to the online voting when it's available...In the meantime, definitely brush up on some of the books on the list linked above and get ready to vote at the beginning of March when the polls officially open (sounds dramatic much?)!

Where's the Doctor? Also, news!

Stumped upon this Tardis tree today and feel that my cats definitely need one.  Maybe even ALL cats need one.  So anyway, teen fun stuff has officially been planned for Friday, March 15, after hours at APL!  Totally psyched, even though by "officially planned" I really mean I picked a day and...Yeah, pretty much that's it.  I'm thinking a Doctor Who hangout party thing.  Food, DIY Doctor projects, other stuff (and who doesn't love "other stuff")!  I found a tutorial for sonic screwdriver pens that looks completely awesome.

My teens and I at my old library bleached t-shirts this past summer--that's what the other picture above is.  Most people bleached Mockingjays, some did the Deathly Hallows symbol, and others just used letter stencils to declare their own personal awesomeness, but a few also made Doctor Who shirts.  We could totally do something like that here!  Or not.  You know, whatever you want.  Giving 30 teenagers bottles of bleach was (slightly) less horrific than I'd imaged it would be.

Either way, definitely plan for having a program on the 15th AND TAG is going to be canceled on March 16--instead, we'll just have the meeting on that Friday night at 5:30pm.  If there's anything in particular you'd like to do on Friday night at the program, definitely let me know.

Friday Night on the YouTube

So this guy who's selling his home decides to put an ad in the paper to let readers know of an upcoming open house.  The ad says the normal stuff--newly renovated and painted, new carpets, close to the city, schools, shops--but then at the end, he asks for "no Asians thank you."  Ummmm?!

I love this video.  The accents are kind of hard to understand, but it makes me laugh every time (the punch line that is, not the accents).