Architectural Stories

The sad news is that Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Art Nouveau masterpiece, the library of the Glasgow School of Art has been destroyed by fire.  The rest of his building - and the art collected there - have been damaged, but it sounds as if heroic salvage efforts are underway and plans for restoration are already being developed.

I particularly feel for the final year students whose work (at the very end of the semester! of their school career!) has been damaged or lost.  Imagine losing your whole portfolio...

Read HERE for a good BBC article on the status and HERE to donate funds or help towards restoration.

Glasgow School of Art library - believed public domain photo

On a brighter note (in every sense), HERE's a terrific website about the neon signs of Hong Kong.  Gorgeous!  They influence, among other things, the film Blade Runner... which inspired these LEGO artists  to build an apocalyptic cyberpunk city - see it HERE.

Isn't it amazing what can come from imagination?

Silent Reading

So long, so silent.

Sorry, I've been absolutely slammed with three shows building: Detroit at Kitchen Dog, Hank Williams: Lost Highway at WaterTower and Too Many Cooks at Circle Theatre.  Phew!

Anyway.

While waiting for a substantive post here, try a little reading, right?

At the little teeny libraries of sculptor Marc Giai-Mainiet  and photographed by Michel Dubois HERE.

Le Grand library by Marc Giai-Mainiet 

photographed by Michel Dubois, 

found at Boing Boing

HERE's the artist's own webpage.  (ADDENDUM)

Or maybe stay in the Dewey Decimal themed hotel?  In Manhattan and HERE.  (Both bookish places discovered on the estimable site Boing Boing)

Research Libraries

For those of you in Texas, I just discovered a new way to get your hands on research books in libraries you normally can't borrow from.

Maybe you're already familiar with the Interlibrary Loan system, which allows any public library patron to request a book; your local librarian will then track it down somewhere in the country and have it mailed to your local library so that you can borrow it.  One time - no renewals.  I've only used this method one or twice for hard to find books when I didn't want to (or couldn't afford to) buy them.  I remember though that the book through the Loan System took a few weeks to arrive... from Wyoming!  And was exactly what I needed.

My usual number of books at check-out - public domain image

But I've discovered another way: the Texshare card is a three-week-long library card that lets you walk up to the check-out desk of member libraries and Check-Out! Books.  A limited number.  Today I did not actually end up checking out the book I was interested in - because I could take fast enough notes - but my spiffy crisp-new little Texshare card gave me the confidence to walz into SMU's Fondren library and demand to know where, just exactly Where! my book might be.  (I needed the help, it's a maze of a library spread over several buildings.)

So.

Research.  Easier than you think.