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?