Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 75

Lights Out!

Lights Out #37: Brian Sheppard. I sit down for a talk with Brian Sheppard, of The Brian and Sherri Show. He’ll tell us all about witches’ graveyards and disappearing road signs. https://youtu.be/mCN3qLudVJE

Star Talk

I just finished reading Star Talk, with Neil deGrasse Tyson. Fun stuff–the book discusses everything from deep space to time travel to clean water to zombies. It’s a wonderful look at, among other things, the science of what it means to be human.

There’s a great quote in the book by the musician Moby, that I thought I’d share. It was in an article called “What makes music so seductive?”

“Music is so ubiquitous, it’s such a normal part of our lives–but it can do so much. They play it at funerals. They play it at weddings. People play music to have sex. They play music to cry. People play music when you’re trying to get armies to march in to war. And what’s amazing about music to me is, it doesn’t exist. All it is, is air moving a little bit differently. But somehow, air moving a little bit differently can make someone weep, can make someone jump up and down, can make someone move across the country and cut their hair … I don’t want to figure it out. I just love that it has this power.”

Star Wars Day!

Today is Star Wars Day at the Fondulac Library. It’s so much fun just to be here in the days leading up to this–you can feel the excitement in the air. The whole library is dressed up for the occasion.

[image error]Life-size cutouts are scattered around the library.
[image error]The view from the checkout counter — my station. Welcome to the library!
[image error]Endcaps help patrons find great reading material.

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[image error]Looking for a good book? We can help…

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[image error]Even the book carts get dressed up for Star Wars Day.

Why yes, I do have culture…

I just got home from a Bach concert. It was a cover band, but still, it was pretty cool.

Seriously, though, it was magnificent. I actually found out about this because I got to put up the poster at the library. One of the piano soloists is a patron of the library, and I knew he was a musician of some repute, but I’d never heard him perform before. Wow, what a treat!

This was a concert for orchestra and two pianos. It was held at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Peoria, so the acoustics were lovely. In the background were four violins, two violas, a cello, and a bass. In the foreground, of course, were the two grand pianos. The program was simple but elegant; four pieces, three movements each. A duet first, then a solo. Intermission, another solo, and they wrapped it up with another duet.

Now, I’m not a musical illiterate by any means. But I am not good at recognizing a piece just by a number (unless, duh, it’s Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Or his Seventh or Ninth Symphonies). So a glance at the program when I sat down was fairly useless to me. All I could tell going in was that these were concertos by Bach, not his religious pieces. I’m always down for a good bit of Bach, so I settled in for an evening of great music. With the first few notes of each piece, I recognized them as old familiar friends, and I listened to the concert with a smile. (For those of you who are more eddicated than me, the pieces were Concerto for Two Klaviers and Strings in C minor; Concerto for Klavier and Strings in D minor; Concerto for Klavier and Strings in D Major; and Concerto for Two Klaviers and Strings in C minor. See? Doesn’t tell you much until you start listening. Doesn’t tell ME much, anyway.)

I’m always impressed with how Bach manages to be intricate and muscular at the same time. I was sitting in the very first row, right next to the aisle, so I was quite literally front and center for this evening of exquisite music. During the last concerto, the second duet, I was in a position to watch the female soloist as she performed. I was mesmerized by her hands as she played the slower second movement, the Adagio. Her fingers danced over the keys with the sinuous moves of a cat–it was amazing to see.

I closed my eyes and lost myself in the music at some parts. I thought of how marvelous it is that humans get to make music–I mean, really, how cool is that? I grew up singing, and I had lessons on several instruments, but I could never get the hang of anything that took more than one hand to play (which is why singing was the only thing I ever got any good at–you don’t need ANY hands for that). I am in utter awe of musicians who can draw such fierce, tender, thrilling sound from their instruments. And I am moved beyond words that there were people in this world who composed this music, this wonderful Baroque intricacy, and three hundred years later we are still sharing it with each other and honoring and enjoying their work.

Next month, it’ll be Vivaldi’s Gloria. I can hardly wait!

The Funnest Reference Question of All Time

We’ve been at the new library for three and a half years now, so people are slowly getting used to the phone system. They still sometimes push the button for the front desk when what they really want is the Children’s Room, but that’s okay–that’s why we’re here, to direct them where they need to go.

Sometimes, though, I’ll get a call that turns into a reference question, and rather than sending it to the Reference Desk, I’ll just take care of it myself. I’ve answered questions like, “How far is it to Chicago from here?” and “How do you spell cappuccino?” Something like that happened a while ago, and I turned out to be almost giddily glad that I stuck around for the question. This turned out to be my favorite reference question of all time.

Me: This is the library, how can I help you?

Patron: Hi! So, um, I read in one of those trivia things in the newspaper that summer on Uranus is, like, 34 years long.

Me (listening; can hear only sincerity in the patron’s voice when they mention “Uranus”; decide they honestly want to find out the answer to a question): Uh huh?

Patron: Has anyone ever gone to Uranus? Like astronauts or someone?

Me (still monitoring patron’s voice for giggles; finding none; deciding to be professional and answer the question): No, NASA hasn’t sent any manned spacecraft out that far.

Patron: So no one’s landed there?

Me: No, it’s too far, we haven’t sent humans there yet. Besides, it’s a gas giant; there’s really nowhere TO land a spaceship.

Patron: So if no one’s there, what does it MATTER if the summer is 34 years long?

Me: ….    …..     …. Well, I suppose that’s a question everyone has to answer for ourselves, don’t we?

The patron was perfectly satisfied with this. I was quietly delighted, and I got to (sort of) answer a reference question. Everyone wins!

Things That Make You Go Hmm…

Today, I saw a library patron coming out of the Children’s Room, accompanied by her husband and child. She was wearing a beautiful white finely woven hijab.

She was also wearing a shapeless black tshirt. Splashed across it, in hot pink letters, was the opinion “You don’t know SQUAT”.

I would have thought that wearing a hijab would preclude the wearing of rude tshirts, but perhaps I’m wrong. (It’s happened before, me being wrong.)

But it’s kind of nice to know that snark knows no discrimination.

Lights Out — Extra!

This is what happens when you leave your recorder out for just anyone to find …

Today I Learned …

So I was listening to NPR on the way to work this morning, and they were airing a piece about online lenders. Apparently, these lenders look not only at your credit score, but at all KINDS of other things, before they decide to loan you money.

For example, they have a way to look at your phone, and see if the texts you send are punctuated correctly, or if they have any punctuation at all. It’s an interesting example of using education as an indicator of your credit score. And they don’t stop there.

I didn’t quite catch this part, as I was driving, and had to pay attention to the road. But these companies also have a way to look at whether you pay at the pump when you buy gas, or if you go inside to pay. The theory is that people who go inside are more likely to be smokers, on their way to get cigarettes! How crazy is that?

Of course, they don’t figure in the fact that some people just prefer to use cash. I don’t smoke, but I also tend to go inside to pay for my gas purchase. It’s folks like me who screw up their algorithms.

Today I Learned…

Today I learned that Edward Elgar, the composer, once held a job at a lunatic asylum.

At age 22, in 1879, Elgar (who is probably best known for his work “Pomp and Circumstance”) took the post of conductor of the attendants’ band at the Worcester County Lunatic Asylum in Powick, also known as Powick Hospital. The doctors at the asylum had started up orchestral concerts in the 1870s, as well as Friday night dances for the inmates. Elgar played violin in the band starting in 1877, then took over as Band Instructor in January 1879.

Elgar enjoyed his work with his “eccentric orchestra”. He composed the Powick Asylum Music for the band to play. He got around 30 pounds a year for doing the job — which was 4 pounds less than his predecessor got for the same job, mostly because of Elgar’s inexperience. He made a bit of extra scratch by publishing the music, though.

Here’s another fun fact for today: It was at Powick Hospital, in 1952, that Dr. Ronald Sandison started pioneering British work in the psychiatric use of LSD. It was used for treating severe depression and schizophrenia. Dr. Sandison called it “Psycholytic Therapy” (literally, “mind loosening therapy”, for those who remember their biology classes). The LSD treatment unit at Powick was established in 1958, but was disbanded in 1966, due to problems of illicit recreational use.

So from classical music to tripping, there are your trivia facts for today!

Lights Out!

And it’s time for another episode of Lights Out, your virtual campfire.  Join me, your hostess with the mostest ghosties, for a visit with Nick Sarlo, of Shadow Hunters. I met Nick and the rest of the Shadow Hunters crew at the Chicago Ghost Convention a few years ago. They eventually made it down to Bartonville for a visit to the Peoria State Hospital, and they brought friends — ESP and Archer Paranormal. All of us had a complete blast doing a two-day investigation of the Pollak Hospital. Two of their sensitives, Lisa and Liz, actually had experiences with Rhoda Derry, and were kind enough to share their stories with me. (You can read them in 44 Years in Darkness.)

That wonderfully active investigation became the premiere episode of Shadow Hunters YouTube Series. Check it out here .

And here’s a great story you won’t see on the episode, because unfortunately, we had the camera facing the other way. Some of the girls from ESP and Archer decided to turn themselves into trigger objects by dressing in lab coats and putting stethoscopes around their necks. Thus attired, we went down into the basement, and sat for a while in the electrical room off of the morgue. We were doing an EVP session, when suddenly Lisa yelped and jumped like a scalded cat. Scared the paste out of me, because I was sitting right next to her. Turns out that while we were sitting there, someone slipped the stethoscope from around Lisa’s neck.

That weekend was one of the greatest experiences of my ghost hunting life so far. I look forward to more exploration of the unknown with Shadow Hunters, ESP, and Archer Paranormal. You can enjoy my conversation with Nick Sarlo here .

[image error]Even more podcasty goodness!