Patience (After Sebald)
My favorite thing this week has made my list of all-time favorite films. It’s Patience (After Sebald), an evocative homage to the writer W.G. Sebald’s 1995 book The Rings of Saturn. The film is a series of commentaries by his acquaintances and admirers played over images of the route that the character walked in East Anglia in the The Rings of Saturn. Both the film and the book weave an almost incomprehensible web of history consisting of individual parts that I guarantee will stick with you. You’ll learn about silkworms, Sir Thomas Browne, Virginia Wolfe, and English geography to name just a few. You can see the scope of the topics in this map. If you love the downbeat half as much as I do, you’ll love this film.
If you’ve read Sebald you owe it to yourself to see it. If you haven’t, it’s an accessible introduction that is worth your time even if you have no desire to read The Rings of Saturn. I recommend it if you like documentaries, art films, Sebald, or just want to watch something different. There is one copy available through SWAN.
-Mike, Reference
Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
Did you know that Schiller kept rotting produce in his desk and was inspired by the smell to write? Or that Balzac drank almost 50 cups of coffee a day? What is supposed to be probably the most boring parts of our day--our daily routines--are documented and dissected in 161 anecdotes concerning the most famous people in our cultural history. Patricia Highsmith’s obsession with snails, Flannery O’Connor’s sacrosanct prayers, and Nabokov’s chain smoking are all included and leave the reader with some interesting tidbits on why order is necessary for creation. I highly recommend this insightful book and it’s located in our New Books shelf and SWAN.
-Judy, Reference
Telescope Viewing Nights at Moraine Valley
Many of you, undoubtedly, have driven by Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills and seen a part of campus covered in prairie. Well, that’s the Nature Study Area that was created and developed by the Natural Sciences and Biology departments over the last several decades. An extended history and timeline of the development can be found here.
One of the newest features in the NSA is the small observatory. In this case, it’s a six foot telescope that’s housed in a dome on the viewing deck in the middle of the prairie. During the more clement parts of the year, Tom McCague (the dude who built the telescope!), holds monthly viewing sessions. The large telescope and, usually, a few smaller ones, are put to use showing the gathered crowd the heavens, one small part at a time. If you get bored with that (what’s wrong with you?!), you can just hang around the deck and watch the night overtake the prairie, the moon dance off the pond, and listen as the frogs and crickets try to out-sing each other…all while remaining on the look out for swooping bats and random jabbering astronerds like me. (You’ve been warned!)
The next viewing is Friday, June 28 and starts at 8:45pm. (note that viewings are cancelled if it’s raining, cloudy or very windy) Conveniently, this viewing follows Acorn Library's June 13 program on viewing the night sky with David Fuller. You can find the rest of the season's viewings in the NSA's schedule of events.
To get there from Oak Forest, take Ridgeland or Harlem to 111th St., take a left, go a bit past Moraine Valley’s main entrance and take a right on Kean Avenue and just park on the side of the road with the other cars. To get to the deck, walk to the small parking area, enter through the fence and take the mowed path to the left out to the deck with the big white dome on it. If you get lost (Really? I mean, there IS a big, white dome!), just yell and one of those random, wandering astronerds will surely come to your rescue!
-Danielle, Tech Services
Colossal Design Blog
Colossal is the brainchild of Christopher Jobson, an erstwhile web designer from Chicago. It features innovative design from an array of sources--including architecture, advertising, and technology. Recent examples include a man who nonchalantly carves entire objects out of a single piece of wood (and, it must be noted, is not this guy), a 3D printer pen, a San Antonio underpass beautified by chandeliers composed of recycled bicycle parts, and an animator's ingenious command of Vine's six-second video format. Jobson’s finds often have a playful, DIY approach that inspire as well as impress.
-Megan, Reference
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