SOUNDTRACK: FREEGAL MUSIC (2013).
Not only am I a librarian, I’m also a patron of libraries (we currently use four!). I’m also a huge advocate of library usage. Everyone knows you can get free books at the library. And many people know (but many people don’t) that you can get free CDs and DVDs from the library. Well, I’m advocating a new service that many libraries have implemented (both the library where I worked and my local library have it).
It’s called Freegal and it allows you to download (and keep) three songs a week. The selection is quite impressive, as they have made agreements with 10,000 record labels. That’s 10,000 LABELS, not artists, so huge numbers of songs are available. I did a few random searches and was delighted by how much was there.
Even their genre divisions are impressive. Just check out this sample selection from the B’s: BeBop Big Band Black Metal Bluegrass Blues Bolero Bollywood Brasil Soul Brazilian Breakbeat BritPop Broadway.
So check out to see if your library subscribes. You get three free songs every Monday morning! Not bad for the price of a free library card.
[READ: July 3, 3011] Five Dials Number 27B
I haven’t posted about a Five Dials in a couple of issues, primarily because I find writing about anthologies is very time consuming (I have recently read three McSweeney’s which I haven’t had the time to edit together into posts). The good news is that I have only missed two issues, but I know that at least one of them is pretty large. I was a little bummed to see another new one already, but then I saw that this issue was not only short, it was full of poetry. And, since this is my poetry month, why not end the month with a little more poetry.
I enjoyed the offputting cartoon on the cover of this issue which is creepy and funny at the same time. (Illustrations are by Sophia Augusta, Hannah Bagshaw, Kyle Platts, Tom Rees and Joe Prendergast. I assume Augusta did the cover).
There was no letter from the editor or any of the usual suspects in this issue. Rather this issue opens with a Letter from the Poetry Editor. It is shaped like a poem but isn’t one.
SAM BUCHAN-WATTS-On Parenting Poems
Mentioning a 1954 parenting guide (from Elizabeth Longfellow), Buchan-Watts says that they asked eight young poets to choose a chapter heading from Longfellow’s book Points for Parents, and to make a poem starting from that title.
And it’s now that I admit that these poems have set me back terribly in my appreciation of poetry which I have been nurturing all month. If ever there was a collection of seemingly random words, it is these. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 