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28-Jun-09

.: It is my 56th birthday today. I was born at 01h06 CDT on 28 June 1953. It has been a nice day, pleasant and sunny, and I have received numerous birthday wishes from friends via my Facebook site. With the end of June comes the halfway point of the 4-month summer break. I plan to be in town for most of the remainder of it, with the glaring exception of a 10-day trip to NYC in late July, ostensibly to see 4 Steely Dan shows, but also to hang out with friends as well.

Birthdays are special days, a time to consider and review one’s life, and to give thanks for what matters.  To me this means a loving and supportive family, amazing friends, a great job and work environment, and the good fortune to be living in a great city in the perhaps the best country in the world.  I am generally healthy, which is also a blessing.  So to all who read this small blog, my thanks for your interest and where appropriate, your friendship and support.

With much love,

Randy

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Do I Belong in New York?

11-Jun-09

I scored 91/100. Not bad. Maybe I will move there someday soon.

DO YOU BELONG IN NYC?
Yes, but sometimes you wish there were a better option.
You do love New York, and you fit in here better than you have anywhere else. You’re committed to the city, and you take advantage of all of its amazing food, culture, nightlife and arts. But you have nagging doubts about this relationship. Spend your whole life here? Not sure about that. Sometimes you wonder about that farm in your fantasies or even just a smaller city. But in reality, you know there’s nowhere better. Click here for suggestions about how to really enjoy NYC.

Do you belong in New York City?

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Near The Beach

29-May-09

.: After returning from NYC on 11 May, I had three days in Edmonton before I flew on the redeye to Toronto on the night of Thursday, 14 May 2009.  The redeye left Edmonton at 00h25 MDT, and arrived in Toronto at about 06h00 EDT.  So even though the flight was 3.5 hours, the time difference told me I had flown for the entire night.  I tried dozing off on the plane, which was an Airbus 321, large and roomy, but I couldn’t do it.  So I plugged my laptop into the outlet in the seat in front of me and watch two eps of Law and Order: CI.  The flight was actually quite pleasant, and the route through the horrid Toronto International Airport wasn’t as bad as I expected.  (Not so on the way back, however.)  What I found strange about the outlets on the back of the seats was this: the plane has three seats on either side of the aisle.  On the left side of the plane, the window and centre seats have an outlet in front of them, but not the aisle seat.  On the right side of the plane, the aisle and centre seats have outlets, but not the window seat.  This made (and makes) no sense to me whatsoever.  Maybe it’s a technical issue.

In Deerfield Beach, it was about 30C and very breezy.  My hotel room was huge, with a bedroom separate from the living room, two tvs, two bathrooms, with a view of the pool and the ocean.  The meeting went well, but there was no time to get to the beach and into the water.  We had dinner a couple very nice restaurants, and on Sunday the 17th, were treated to a ride on a yacht down the Intracoastal Waterway.  I shot some video of the trip with my Flip Mino HD camcorder, and also took a few pictures.

I’ll be on the road again in two weeks, in Washington DC for my annual library conference.  Then in July, it’s back to NYC for a few Steely Dan shows.  More on that later.

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New York Note

10-May-09

.: I’m at the end of a 12-day trip to NYC, the longest trip I’ve ever taken here. I’m surprised at how well I have managed this time. It was a great trip, I was able to visit all of my friends here, saw a few movies, met celebrities, saw a great Broadway play, and ate a few fantastic meals with friends and colleagues.  It was wonderful to see Sekeena and meet her 10-week old daughter, Lila, and to see Jessica and (finally) meet her amazing two-year old son, Leonardo.  Dinner with Leo and Diane Dillon, and Lee and Greg, was a blast, and I was able to catch up Barbara over a coffee with thunderstorms ensued outside the coffe shop.  I do feel a bit displaced from reality out here, having forgotten about most of Edmonton for a few days.  I’ll be back tomorrow, but only briefly.  On Thursday night, I fly the dreaded redeye on Air Canada (aka Annoy Customers) to Toronto, and then on to Boca Raton for a weekend meeting with the CRC Press Library Advisory Board.  Apparently we are being housed in a hotel with a view of the ocean, so I promise to take photos if indeed this is the case. :-)

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Live from New York - Cheryl Hines, Serious Moonlight, Rachael Harris, and More

03-May-09

.: I am in New York.  I arrived on Wed, 29 April 2009, and spent Thursday in a meeting with a group of librarians and representatives of Begell House, which publishes books and journals in areas of mechanical engineering such as heat transfer and fluid mechanics, as well as titles in biomedical topics and nanotechnology.  We had dinner on Wed night at Remi, a restaurant specializing in Northern Italian cuisine, and the food was delicious.  I was in the Hilton New York hotel for two nights, and then moved over to The Leo House on Friday.

On Friday night, on Taras’s recommendation, I went to see the movie Serious Moonlight at the Tribeca Film Festival.  The movie stars Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell and Justin Long, and is directed by Cheryl Hines from a screenplay by the late, great Adrienne Shelley.  Here are a few photos from the event.  It’s a movie that is both lighthearted and serious, and features compelling performances by Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell and Justin Long.  Here is a clip of Cheryl introducing the movie. While at the theatre, I noticed Cheryl walk in and sit close to where I was sitting.  She was with Rachael Harris; like Cheryl, I have admired her work for many years.  When the movie was over, I approached Rachael and told her how much I admired her work on The Daily Show, gushing like the geek fanboy I am.  It was wonderful to talk to her, and she was warm and friendly and lovely.

Yesterday, I went to see Colin Quinn perform at the Gotham Comedy Club.  While waiting in line, I noticed that Cheryl had walked in with Andy Ostroy, one of the producers of Serious Moonlight, and who was Adrienne Shelly’s husband.   (He also writes The Ostroy Report, a superb political blog.)  On impulse, I called her name, and when she turned to face me, I said, “I saw your movie last night”.  That led to the three of us discussing her movie, and when I had to be shown to my table, Cheryl walked with me to continue the discussion.  Andy joined us shortly thereafter, and we continued to talk about the movie and other things for about 10 minutes.  I explained how the Friday screening was brought to my attention by my friend in Edmonton, Taras, who had emailed me the details.  I would not have know about it otherwise, as the Friday screening was an add-on, and wasn’t listed in the TFF program.  I was blown away by Cheryl’s kindness, that she (and Andy) would take the time to talk to a total stranger for 10-15 minutes.  Never mind that I am and have been a HUGE fan of her work for years - here she was making time for ME!  When people at the table next to me asked if they could have a picture with her, I spoke further with Andy, and then asked the people with the camera if they would mind taking a picture of Cheryl and me, and email it to me afterwards.  They said yes, the picture was taken, Cheryl turned and gave me a hug, and I think I melted on the spot.  She is more charming and beautiful in person than she appears on screen.  I think I floated home after Quinn’s performance, which was good, but he was hard to hear across the room, and the morons next to me on the right wouldn’t stop talking throughout the evening.  (Not the people with the camera, btw.)  I’ll post the picture as soon as I receive it.  Meanwhile, here’s a pic of Rachael and Cheryl.  *sigh*

So when this movie is in general release, please see it, especially if you are fans of the actors, of Cheryl, and of Adrienne.  Following her passing, Andy created the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, in support of women who wish to pursue a career in filmmaking.

So what’s next?  Dinner with my dear friends Leo and Diane Dillon tomorrow, a Yankees/Red Sox game on Tuesday, seeing Sekeena and her newborn (now 10 weeks old) on Tuesday afternoon, seeing Jess and her two-year old on Wednesday in Bloomfield NJ, dinner with Bryan and Kortney on Thursday, and who knows what else.  Maybe a Broadway play.

When I return to Edmonton on the 11th, I’ll have three days before I fly to Boca Raton for a meeting with the CRC Press Library Advisory Board.  I’ll return home on the 18th, and hopefully fly nowhere else until 13 June to DC for the SLA conference.

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It’s Been A Long Time…

09-Apr-09

.: Indeed.  My apologies for not having posted for over two months.  A combination of things has kept me from blogging including in no particular order: more time on Facebook (enjoying that) and Twitter (not so much), trips here and there (San Diego, Boca Raton, Winnipeg), work stuff, and condo board issues up the ying yang.  The trips involved two meetings.  I attended that Standards Publishing Advisory Board meeting in San Diego in late January, and met with senior adminstrative staff at CRC Press in Boca Raton in mid-March.  Each time I left cold and snow weather for moderate-to-warm temperatures and ocean breezes in each city, and loved it, even if I was indoors most of the time.

The so-called jet-setting continues this weekend, when I fly to San Francisco for my 5th Materials Research Society meeting since April 2007.  I sit on three advisory boards or subcommittees, and will attend meetings on Tue and Wed next week there.  But I fly on Saturday, and will see an old friend when I arrive and spend some time with her and her young daughter.  I’ll also spend time with another recently-made acquaintance on Monday, before all the business stuff begins.  I return on 15 April, and then two weeks later fly to NYC for another library advisory group meeting organized by Begell House.  Two days later, on 01 May, I’ll move over to The Leo House again, and stay for until the 11th.  The only snag is that because I booked late with The Leo House, I’ll have to check in and out and in again three times in those 10 days, unless someone cancels in the next couple weeks and I can get a different room.  I’ll return to Edmonton on 11 May, then fly to Boca Raton again on 15 May for a meeting with CRC Press again, but this time it will be as a member of their Library Advisory Board.

I am a member of five library advisory boards/groups/committees at the moment: the aforementioned three organizations or publishers, as well as Knovel and SPIE.  It keeps me busy professionally and results in a few trips to far-away places from time to time.

.: In February I had the honour of travelling to Winnipeg to attend and speak at the memorial service of Chester D Cuthbert.  Chester was a kind and gentle soul, who opened his house in the mid-70s to a bunch of local geekboys eventually known as Decadent Winnipeg Fandom.  We all read and collected science fiction, and published our own fanzines, and Chester’s home became our clubhouse during those years.  Chester was 96 - he lived a long and good life, and touched the lives of hundreds of others along the way.  In a previous post I mentioned that I had been working on creating a Finding Aid for his personal archives.  I was able to complete this project in early January, in time for the appraisal of the sf- and fantasy-content of his extensive book collection, which we at the University of Albert had obtained on donation in October 2007.  I helped spread the word about Chester’s passing to appropriate outlets, such as Mike Glyer’s File 770.  Locus plans to run something about Chester in its upcoming issue.  Chris Rutkowski, a friend and fellow collector from Winnipeg, wrote a fitting tribute to Chester following his passing.  Chester was a friend, a mentor, a guide, an inspiration.  During his last two years, I had the good fortune of reconnecting with his son, Ray, whom I had met in the 1970s, as well as meeting for the first time his other children, and at his memorial service, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Chester will be missed, but his impact on our lives will never be forgotten.  Each of books from his collection will feature a bookplate with his picture and the caption, “The Chester D Cuthbert Collection.”  Thanks for everything, Chester!

.: In case you’ve been wondering what Captain Lee Adama has been doing since the end of BSG, and if you thought you’ve seen every possible spin-off of Law & Order, check this out.  I’ve watched the first six episodes, and the show rocks.  Plus, Freema Agyeman plays the young prosecutor, and I have such a crush on her (ever since Dr Who, you see…)  Thank the Lord for bittorrents.

.: I will try to write again soon.  Meanwhile, please check Bill Janovitz’s ongoing musical series, Cover of the Week - he’s up to #23 already!  Check out Flickr to see me wearing one of Bill’s “Part Time Man of Rock” t-shirt.  Buy one for the kiddies or your BFF.

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