9:26 PM For your viewing pleasure I present one of the most disturbing/interesting images from the television series Angel, graciously on loan from David. This comes from season five, a season I expected to dislike since I've only heard disdainful reviews of it, but so far it's been a relatively pleasant surprise.

The puppets on the television here are actually demons who are using the "Smile Time" program to suck the life out of unwitting child viewers. When Angel investigates he gets zapped by a spell which turns him into a puppet himself, reminiscent of Sesame Street (puppet Angel would look right at home with Bert and Ernie). Good stuff.

11:05 PM

When you were growing up an attending public schools in New York, were there any influential, memorable teachers?

Most of my memorable teachers gave me bad memories. I think the first time I was struck by a teacher in a way that made me admire this teacher was in high school, when I had an English teacher who was not only very interesting in the classroom and not only gave us things to read that were exciting, whether it was poetry or fiction, but was a person of conscience. I learned -- and consider, this was the 1930s at the time of the depression, a time of rising radicalism in the United States -- that this teacher was out in the world demonstrating, participating in some mysterious cause that I didn't understand.

But this said something to me about this teacher as a human being and also suggested to me something that I kept with me for many years later, when I became a teacher: that it's very important to a student to learn that a teacher has a life outside the classroom and to learn about the teacher as a human being outside the classroom and to learn about the teacher as a human being outside the classroom, and that this has an educational value, which is very special and very different from whatever value is in the knowledge imparted in the classroom.

[from Original Zinn, interviews of Zinn by David Basamian]

10:34 AM One of the nice things about living in a Tivo world is that I can tell it to record every episode of The Rockford Files (which is now in syndication on WGN). So I've been watching Rockford Files off and on lately, and I gotta say it's still a hoot. I'm not going into all the reasons Rockford is so cool here (that's a whole 'nother post), but it's also fun to watch it simply because it's an artifact from an earlier age of television; they don't make action shows like this anymore.

Watching the episode "The Dark and Bloody Ground" (1974 - what a great title) this morning I was struck by how long the show's creators let screen time go by without either music or dialogue. After the first commercial break (12 minutes into the episode) the show resumes with some intro music (a variation on the rockford theme). Rockford drives into a rural town and goes into the city hall offices. There's a passage of time and some more transition background music as we see a mysterious stranger watching Rockford go to his hotel. Then the next morning we see Rockford come out of the local license branch and drive away. Once on the road we see a Mack truck which appears to be following him. The "tension" music increases as the truck becomes more menacing, then, at 15 minutes, all background music drops out, and it becomes apparent that the Mack truck means to drive him off the road. From here on out there's no background music, just the sound effects of tires squealing, engine sounds, etc. Eventually Rockford outsmarts the his would-be assasin by driving across a bridge too narrow for the semi, leaving him to stew about it. Now we hear some outro music and it goes to the second commercial break; this is at the 21 minute mark.

Outside of the "Hush" episode of Buffy, I can't think of a time when I saw a TV series go nine minutes without dialogue, and certainly not when it wasn't done as a gimick. The story being told didn't need any dialogue, and the show's creators didn't feel the need to explain it to the audience. Granted most of this was a car chase, but it still is pretty cool that they didn't feel the need to insert witty banter or explanatory dialogue.

5:17 AM Isn't is about time you watched Hillbilly Hercules II again?

8:59 PM Has anybody ever been to Ann Arbor, Michigan?

7:38 PM I'm ready to head home.

I've been out of town for a week now, first at a user's conference, then at admin training. It's been an okay trip, but I guess I'm ready to be back at home. The library is migrating to Polaris for it's ILS software. I think we've made a good choice, but it will mean a lot of work and changes.

I've spent the last few days in a fairly swank hotel room, I gotta say. Or not swank, per se, but pretty nice. It's got a little kitchenette, two TVs and both wireless and ethernet internet. Plus free food and beer each night between 5 and 7. All in all, this whole week has been comp, comp, comp.

So, I'm about to watch LOST, then pack, then get up early tomorrow morning to catch a plane back to Bloomington, where things are familiar and I can fit into the woodwork again. Maybe I'll get in a tennis game this weekend. I'm also trying to decide whether I want to get into DC's 52. I brought the first 5 episodes with me on this trip, and while it's a good read so far, it's also another $2.50/week to spend. I figure I'm already spending at least $30/month on comics with the Marvel Civil War stuff; a guy's gotta set limits somewhere. I also broke down and subscribed to the unlimited/one-DVD-at-a-time netflix program. I don't think I'll ever read another book at this rate. (Just kidding, I hope)

Life is grand. I'll be back in the real world this time tomorrow.

5:43 PM Did I mention I'm at a Polaris Users Group conference right now? The library is migrating to Polaris this fall, so I'm here for a week, first at a conference and next at admin training. So far so good. Lots of stuff to take in. Polaris users are a friendly lot as far as I can tell. Free beer at the vendor show is a nice touch. By this time next week I'll have some SQL under my belt. There's free wireless at the Hotel. I brought some books (and comic books) to read while I'm here. Haven't seen much of Syracuse so far (the hotel is kinda in the middle of nowhere, nothing's within walking distance).

4:10 AM

1:19 AM Got in late, now I'm wired. Free wireless is nice. I didn't see LOST, hope to avoid hearing anything about until I get home next week....

Shari's back online again.