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THIS is the direct link to the Library Programming Playlist at Williamson County’s YouTube Channel (WC-TV). There is so many videos and playlists – at least one playlist for each county department and trying to find a specific video from the library can be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

And while we are all becoming a little more accustomed to virtual programs and online videos, did you know that the Williamson County Public Library has been posting videos of a VARIETY of programs since 2014? There are over 140 individual videos, they include – but are not limited to:

• Poetry Readings and Workshops,
• Authors Workshops,
• Readings,
• Science Guys
• Songwriter Workshops,
• Concerts,
• Speakers – many of them,
• Crafts, and, of course
• Story Time.

SO, if you have some time on your hands, follow my link and browse the collection of videos on the Library Programming Playlist at the Williamson County YouTube Channel (WC-TV).

This is the link to the Williamson County channel on YouTube

Dori Duff

In Memoriam: Kathy Ossi

By Dolores Greenwald, Library Director

This week we honored the life of our dear friend and fellow employee Kathy Ossi. Kathy worked for WCPLtn for over 20 years and was the Manager of our Technical Services Department. But she was much more than just an employee. She leaves behind a wonderful husband and two children.

Kathy had a golden light and was an outstanding woman. She was a bright light, and in her own subtle way radiated the energy of a Martin Luther King, Jr. or Abraham Lincoln. She was a quiet superstar and a huge resource for the Library. As her years with us and we grew, Kathy grew with us, learning and doing much more than her job assignments. Kathy took it upon herself to learn web site management and development often paying for classes out of her own pocket.

Among the Library staff she will always be our friend and superstar and we will miss her greatly.

-Dolores

The Greatest: Muhammad Ali 1942-2016

By Lon Maxwell, Reference Department

Muhammad Ali is a legend. Even though he has passed on he will forever be a legend in the present tense. That is because he was so many things to so many people. Boxer, philanthropist, spokesman, Olympian, activist, father, author; all these words have been used to describe him. So have words like arrogant, controversial, polarizing and confrontational. Who he is to you is entirely dependent upon who and what age you are.

I don’t actually remember a time where I didn’t know who Ali was. One of my first comic books was a DC Comics Collector’s, Muhammad Ali versus Superman. The story was ridiculous, but here was the greatest hero out there and he was working with Superman. At the end he even figured out Clark Kent was Superman. So much for being the “greatest, not the smartest.” I can remember sitting in front of the big Curtis Mathis console TV and watching him fight. My dad was a boxing fan of a sort and even my mom had gotten a bit of the bug from my grandfather. I had seen heavyweights fight before, but nobody fought like Ali. Float like a butterfly wasn’t bravado or a catchphrase, it was his style. Most of the big guys took five or six shots and then hung all over each other until the ref separated them. Ali, however, was amazing. He danced, skipped, and swayed. Even in still photos of his fights you still feel the movement. His hits were spectacular. Those good shots that dropped guys like Frazier and Liston were so quick and so short that it looked like nothing, but the fall said it all. Quick jab and a big man go down to the mat. No other boxer ever captured my attention like that.

As I grew older, I learned more about the man. My sixth grade teacher, Mr. Katko, held him up as one of the great men of our time. This was not because of his boxing, Mr. Katko couldn’t have cared less about sports, it was because of the example he set for inner city kids. I went back and learned more on my own. The young Cassius Clay, Olympic boxer from Louisville, struggling to learn and striving to be the best at what he did. The man of faith who converted to Islam did not care if it was popular, just that it was his faith. The thing that impressed me the most was the draft incident. I grew up surrounded by World War 2 and Vietnam vets. Draft dodger was a term I was very familiar with, but I never heard any of them apply it to Ali. Here is a man who stood up to the authority of his day and said:

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?.” Muhammad Ali, March 1967

He knew it was controversial. He was told what it could mean to his career and his freedom. He just didn’t care. Ali stood up for his beliefs in defiance of imprisonment and professional loss. He had no way of knowing he would be saved by a Supreme Court ruling or that he would fight his way back to be a champ. He just knew that he was in a position to take a stand that would make people take notice. As a teen, that was the most awesome thing about him.
That’s not to say that I no longer cared about the boxer. I had tried my hand at boxing, fighting as a middleweight. I looked up to the great middleweight of the day, Sugar Ray Leonard, but I wanted to fight like Ali. I fought three bouts, knocked down three times. The third time, I decided that I would not be a punching bag again. The experience made me think even more of Ali, Leonard and all boxers. They persevered in a way I knew I never could, and that demanded respect, the respect of knowing what they did, not just assuming you couldn’t do it.

Finally as a young man I remember watching Muhammed Ali at the 1996 Olympic opening ceremonies. The Parkinson’s that had taken a large part of his life had not stopped him. He’d become a spokesman for the disease, funding research centers and once again using his struggle to highlight the fight of millions. He’d gone to Iraq during the first gulf war, and negotiated the return of 15 hostages. It didn’t stop him from climbing the steps and, hands shaking, light the Olympic torch over Atlanta. I’m not ashamed to admit that I had a tear in my eye watching that.

Muhammed Ali has not passed away. He has transcended this world and moved into the realm of American heroes. He is now of the same stuff as Johnny Appleseed and Davy Crocket. Real and hyperbole. A thousand years from now people may not know Tyson, Foreman, Holyfield or Mayweather but Muhammad Ali will still be taught in schools.

Getting Through This Thing Called Life: Prince 1958 – 2016

By Stephen McClain, Reference Department

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life.” –Prince

Prince Rogers Nelson died on April 21, 2016. He was 57 years old. That’s way too young. Prince was not only an icon and a musical legend, he was perhaps a “once in a generation” artist that was still relevant after almost 40 years in the business.

This isn’t supposed to happen. Our heroes are not supposed to die. Ever. We forget that they are mortal. We forget that they were once little children who went to school, ate dinner, got in trouble, and got scared. They are different than us. They are supposed to be stronger, smarter, more creative and invincible. In so many ways, they are unintentional representations of us; of who we are, who we want to be and most often, who we once were. We try to look like them, try to act like them, and try to write or create like them. But we can’t. Because we are not them. We deify them because they are greater than us and without them; we would not be who we are.

Prince stood up when he felt he was being taken advantage of by his record label, appearing in public with the word “slave” written on his face and changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in protest. He stood for something, even if it was only the control of his art. I cannot think of a comparison today. So many artists are beholden to corporations and greed and will not risk alienating anyone for fear of losing money or endorsements. I miss those days when rock stars used to be dangerous and take risks. They didn’t care about money. They cared about art and what they believed in and were willing to risk everything for it.

Songs like “Little Red Corvette,” “Purple Rain,” “I Would Die 4 U,” and let’s not forget “Darling Nikki” were the soundtrack to a very important time in my life. I am sure that anyone who was in high school in the 1980’s can relate Prince’s music to some time or someone in their adolescence. In those days we bought the record. We went out to hear music or waited for it on the radio. It wasn’t On Demand. It didn’t stream and it was worth far more than it is today. MTV was new. I didn’t have cable but my friends did and we watched videos after school and watching Prince crawl on the floor staring at me in the video for “When Doves Cry” creeped me out.

I can still see the flashing, sequenced lights and mirror ball at the skating rink in my hometown whenever I hear “1999” (that year seemed to be so far away). The same goes for “Little Red Corvette” (and everyone knew someone who moved a little too fast). The intro chords to “Purple Rain” take me back in time too, but that album came out later. I was older and the lyrics meant something more to me.   In the 1980s, guitars ruled the world and Prince’s guitar solo on “Let’s Go Crazy” was nothing short of inspirational. It demanded you pay attention. Even at the age I was then, I could hear Hendrix in Prince’s playing. Everyone knew this guy was special. And now he’s gone.

I am so thankful that our time on this earth overlapped. His music was playing during so much of my youth and he continued to create innovative music with the recent albums “Art Official Age,” “Plectrumelectrum” and “HitnRun Phase One and Two.” He played one of the most memorable Super Bowl half time shows ever and performed an unexpected 8-minute medley on Saturday Night Live in 2014. On Saturday April 23, two days after he was found unresponsive at Paisley Park, SNL produced a special retrospective of Prince’s performances on the late night show. Hosted by a teary-eyed Jimmy Fallon, it featured not only his first appearance in 1981 but also his last, which had never been seen before, as he and his band 3rdeyegirl burned through an unrehearsed version of “Let’s Go Crazy” at the 40th anniversary after-party. Jimmy said that the “crowd parted as Prince floated to the stage in a cloud of purple” and then tore the house down. I watched the show in silence and for 90 minutes on Saturday night, Prince was still with us.

As I mourn Prince’s passing I also lament the struggling condition of today’s music. Many of the people I talk with share the same belief that today’s music is in a sad state, which is one of the reasons why Prince’s death is so numbing to me. Prince never repeated himself. He moved forward. He was about the performance and always had something to prove. We argue about politics and religion but what brings us together? Music. The pure joy of music. We’re all in this together and music is one of the few things that can unite us. Prince saw the future. Now he’s in the past. But his music helped create our present.

 

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*Opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and in no way reflect the philosophy or preferences of the Williamson County Public Library, its staff members, their families, friends, or pets.

It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird: Harper Lee 1926-2016

By Lindsay Roseberry, Reference Department

Harper Lee passed away at the age of 89 last month. She was a literary giant and wrote one of the most famous and beloved novels of the twentieth century: To Kill a Mockingbird. It was only last year that her second book, a predecessor of To Kill a Mockingbird, was published. This book, Go Set a Watchman, was as divisive as her first book was beloved. Many thought that Go Set a Watchman was published without her say-so, and that Ms. Lee was taken advantage of. And the views on race relations and the language used shocked many readers.

The book is so beloved that, according to Variety, Aaron Sorkin will be writing the script for a new Broadway play, adapting To Kill a Mockingbird for the 2017-2018 season. There is precedent: In 1990, a stage adaptation by Christopher Sergel debuted in Monroeville, where it’s performed each May by local actors. The performances take an almost reverential approach, with audiences taking part in order to ritually enact scenes of segregation and justice denied.

Truman Capote

So why do we love To Kill A Mockingbird so much? Firstly, it’s one of the few books that kids in high school actually like to read. Consider the reading lists, it is a relatively shorter and easier to read book. And even though it’s themes are overt and plentiful, it doesn’t feel like Harper Lee was beating you over the head with themes (I’m looking at you Mr Dickens and your paid by the word description of how the wine and the street represented the Revolution).  Also, it is one of the few books that made the transition to film well. We all picture Gregory Peck when we think of Atticus Finch, and he was the epitome of the thoughtful, kind father we all wished we had. And we all related to Scout, who was an adventuresome tomboy learning about the world at his knee. And finally, as we all now know, the neighbor Dill was based off of a young Truman Capote.

During the years immediately following the novel’s publication, Harper Lee enjoyed the attention its popularity garnered her, granting interviews, visiting schools, and attending events honoring the book. In 1961, her book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and the Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.   The popularity snowballed and she began to turn down interviews sometime in 1964; she said the questions were monotonous. She also thought the attention was bordering on invasive and would take away the impact of the book. She was also quite shy all her life. Several times Lee said, once in a phone interview with Oprah, that the character in the book she most identified with is Boo Radley.

Only one year after its publication To Kill a Mockingbird had been translated into ten languages. Through the years, it has been translated into more than 40 languages. The novel has never been out of print in hardcover or paperback. A 1991 survey by the Book of the Month Club and the Library of Congress Center for the Book found that To Kill a Mockingbird was rated behind only the Bible in books that are “most often cited as making a difference”. It is considered by some to be the Great American Novel.

People celebrated across the United States in 2010 when To Kill a Mockingbird turned 50. A book was even published in honor of the 50th anniversary–Scout, Atticus, & Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird. It was full of famous readers writing to Harper Lee telling her how much they loved her book. The 2010 documentary film in the PBS American Masters series Hey, Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird focuses on the background of the book and the film as well as their impact on readers and viewers.

And to have the second book Go Set a Watchman published in 2015 was a final gift to all of her fans. It was also a surprise, since so many readers had idolized Atticus, to see racist words pop up and find out that Calpurnia had retired. Many book groups are still discussing Lee’s new book. It is a nice legacy for her to leave us. Thank you Harper Lee for your magnificent To Kill a Mockingbird and your surprising postscript novel Go Set a Watchman. The world was better for your presence and your writing gifts.

Take it to the limit one more time… Glenn Frey 1948 – 2016

By Stephen McClain, Reference Department

Glenn Frey, singer/songwriter/guitarist and founding member of the Eagles died at age 67 on January 18, 2016. He was born in Detroit, Michigan where he began piano lessons at age five and later switched to guitar. Like many aspiring musicians from the Great Lakes industrial belt; he headed for a warmer climate and more opportunity. Before leaving the Motor City, he worked with fellow Detroit rocker Bob Seger who wrote a single for Frey’s early band the Mushrooms. Glenn would also sing back-up vocals and play acoustic guitar on Seger’s first national hit, “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man.” He soon moved to Los Angeles where he would meet J.D. Souther and Jackson Browne. It was also in southern California that Glenn met Texas native Don Henley. After playing a tour with Henley as Linda Ronstadt’s backing band in 1971, they would form the Eagles with guitarist Bernie Leadon and bassist/vocalist Randy Meisner later that year. While it was Glenn Frey who was the founder and visionary of the Eagles, he and Henley were songwriting and musical partners in the band. On the heels of the History of the Eagles tour and after Frey’s death, Henley would say,” I’m not sure I believe in fate, but I know that crossing paths with Glenn Lewis Frey in 1970 changed my life forever, and it eventually had an impact on the lives of millions of other people all over the planet.” No doubt. While reviled by some as being fluff and too soft, the music of the Eagles influenced so many people to either pick up guitars or pick up and move. Glenn Frey was quoted as saying that people did things TO the music of the Eagles; they partied, travelled, broke-up… Love them or hate them, that meeting of Frey and Henley would eventually result in the bestselling album of the 20^th century, “Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-75.”

The band broke up in 1980 (well, took a vacation) and Frey and Henley each had successful solo careers, Henley’s being the most successful (which certainly prompted a song by Mojo Nixon called “Don Henley Must Die.” Written in jest, I’m sure, and perhaps distasteful to bring up at this time, I always thought it was funny: “He’s a tortured artist, Used to be in the Eagles, Now he whines, Like a wounded beagle.”). Of Glenn Frey’s solo hits, my two favorites were “Smuggler’s Blues” and “You Belong to the City.” “Smuggler’s Blues” from Frey’s solo album “The Allnighter,” was a cool little tune with a great, bluesy slide guitar part. The video for the song inspired an episode of Miami Vice, in which Glenn played the part of a drug smuggler. The B side of “Smuggler’s Blues” was the track “You Belong to the City,” written specifically for Miami Vice. Glenn played all of the instruments on the recording except the drum and saxophone track. The song has such a great street-like feel and the sax typifies the nighttime urban atmosphere. “You Belong to the City” peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on Billboard Top Rock Tracks.

Then in 1994, fans welcomed the long awaited reunion. Glenn wasn’t even sure that anyone would come to the shows. The “Hell Freezes Over” live album and tour featured four new studio cuts and surprised fans with a stripped down “unplugged” version of Hotel California. Glenn joked at the beginning of the live album, “For the record, we never broke up; we just took a 14-year vacation.”

My first Eagles record when I was a kid was the double live album that came out in 1980. I already knew most of the songs from hearing them on the radio, but there was something different about the energy, the sound of the crowd and the fact that the songs were a little unlike the studio cuts. It wasn’t until recently that I learned that this album was one of the most heavily overdubbed “live” albums in history. Regardless, it’s the way the music makes you feel that matters. Those were the days when you sat down with the album in front of the stereo, read the liner notes and looked at the pictures as the music washed over you. Much like disappearing into a book, you entered another world, where you could draw up all kinds of images in your brain. This was a double, fold out album so there was even more to look at and read, including a huge, 6-panel poster. It went straight up on my bedroom wall, alongside dozens of KISS posters (don’t judge) and an iconic print of Farrah Fawcett in a red one-piece bathing suit, sitting in front of a striped beach towel, a-hem…I digress. Colorful, live shots of the band: Don Felder, Timothy B. Schmidt, Joe Vitale* and right in the top center of the poster between Don Henley and Joe Walsh was Glenn Frey, smiling with an acoustic guitar. (*Vitale played keys for the Eagles live shows and had met Joe Walsh when they were both students at Kent State University.)

I remember in high school, we used to sit around with acoustic guitars and sing “Seven Bridges Road” from the Eagles’ Live album. Like we could ever come close to that five part harmony, but it was fun. The song was written by Steve Young and was on his “Rock Salt and Nails” album in 1969. Young originally didn’t like the Eagles’ cover version but admitted that the more he heard it, the better it sounded. You can clearly hear Frey and Henley’s voices in the wall of vocal harmony on the Eagles Live album and without Randy Meisner’s tenor, it just would not have happened.

Probably my favorite Eagles song sung by Glenn Frey is “New Kid in Town.” Eagle’s biographer Marc Eliot said it best when he wrote, “New Kid in Town” captures “a precise and spectacular moment immediately familiar to any guy who’s ever felt the pain, jealousy, insecurity, rage and heartbreak of the moment he discovers his girlfriend likes someone better and has moved on.” But for me, it was more about the chord changes and the structure of the song. It is so well written with a bit of a Spanish sound …and those major 7 chords, minor 7 chords, there’s a key change after the beautifully constructed bridge then another key change back to the original key of E after the last chorus. Who writes like that today? Honestly, plenty of people do, but you won’t hear it on the radio anymore. “New Kid in Town” peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1977.

Glenn Frey was the epitome of the American dream. He was a Detroit rock fan who grabbed his guitar and headed for the coast, met some guys, did some drugs, wrote some songs and changed the world. And although he left the Motor City, he never forgot where he came from. Bob Seger said in an interview, “He was so much more than people knew he was … He would never fail to start with telling me how grateful he was that audiences were still there. He loved the band. He loved the fact he could keep doing this. And he kept doing this until six months before he died.” Glenn Frey is gone way too soon. Why do we mourn our rock stars more than other celebrities? Probably because of what they represent and how they and their music shaped our youth and our lives. True rock stars from Glenn Frey’s era were actually what the original moniker characterized. They didn’t care what you thought. They gave the middle finger to the man and conformed for no one. The writers of this timeless music seem invincible and when we lose one, it reminds us of our own mortality, both individually and as a group. So, thank you, Glenn Frey. The Eagles music was the soundtrack to so much of my life. And it’s the music, along with the somber reminder of impermanence and evanescence that makes me want to sit back with a beer and sing while I still can. Or better yet, put me on a highway, and show me a sign. And take it to the limit…one more time.

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*Opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and in no way reflect the philosophy or preferences of the Williamson County Public Library, its staff members, their families, friends, or pets.

There’s a Starman Waiting in the Sky: David Bowie 1947 – 2016

By Stephen McClain, Reference Department

On Sunday evening, January 10, 2016, David Bowie died at the age of 69. After the sudden death of Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead and the passing of Natalie Cole, the music world has suffered the loss of yet another icon. As modern rock and roll ages as a genre, we will unfortunately see more influential artists disappear in the foreseeable future. Paul McCartney is 73, Robert Plant is 67, Bruce Springsteen is 66, the guys in Iron Maiden are in their late 50s (sans Nicko McBrain who is 63) and they are all still actively creating new music, but performing takes its toll on the body. Artists like these all seem larger than life. Even immortal. Aren’t they supposed to live forever? Anyway… Bowie had just put out a new album entitled “Blackstar,” his 25^th studio album. I never realized it until now, but Bowie’s music has been present in my life for a very long time. Around the time I started playing guitar, I used to repeatedly listen to a crackly 45 of “Space Oddity.” (For those under age twenty-five, a 45 is…never mind. Go ask your parents.) I was in 8^th grade when “Let’s Dance” and “China Girl” were in the Billboard top ten (yes, I’m that old). I bought the “Best of Bowie” two CD collection many years ago and have done an acoustic version of Ziggy Stardust at a few of my solo gigs. David Bowie had to have known the impact that his music and career had on the entertainment world, but some question whether or not he was aware of his own global reach.

David Bowie was born David Robert Jones south of London, England on January 8, 1947. After several unsuccessful bands and musical endeavors in the 1960s, he would begin his solo career with his focus not only on music, but image as well. He changed his name to Bowie to avoid confusion with Davy Jones, the lead singer of the Monkees. The success of “Space Oddity” would drive Bowie’s career in the early 1970s and he would be a pioneer of the genre of “glam” rock. He and guitarist Marc Bolan are credited with inventing the genre. With the creation and huge success of the characters Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in 1972, Bowie’s status as an influential rock icon was cemented, even if he didn’t record anything else. Coupled with his androgynous appearance and admitted bisexuality, David Bowie was unlike anything at the time. He greatly influenced bands like Mott the Hoople, Roxy Music, Sweet, and the New York Dolls, all known for an androgynous appearance that was directly related to Bowie. But it’s the music that is so important. Much of what he did in the 1970s still sounds fresh today, “The Man Who Sold the World,” “Changes,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Young Americans,” Suffragette City,” and “Heroes,” the first and last songs being covered by Nirvana and the Wallflowers, respectively.

I could go into great detail about Bowie’s music, image and the impact of his artistic endeavors on the world, but this has been written at length by music writers much better than myself.  To me, what is so significant about the loss of David Bowie is that he was an innovator; one that continued to reinvent himself and remained creative and original until the end.  He was not only a musician; he was also an actor, artist and fashion icon.  In a modern music world where conformity is the rule of the day and artistic development is rare, David Bowie would not have had a chance today.  Bowie’s first records were not huge successes until “Space Oddity.” He began his career in 1962 but didn’t see real success until the early 1970s.  Today, if an artist’s first album is not a blockbuster, he or she is done.  No development.  No second chance.  That’s it.  Without Bowie, there would be no Madonna, Lady Gaga, Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper, Motley Crue, even Smashing Pumpkins… the list goes on.  Bowie tested limits, broke barriers and invented original, unearthly characters.  At the risk of sounding cynical, how many of today’s top artists will still be making critically acclaimed, innovative music into their 60s?

His new album, “Blackstar,” which was released on his 69th birthday, is a dark record of 7 tracks that still test limits and is already being acknowledged as some of his finest work.  Like George Harrison’s “Brainwashed” and Warren Zevon’s “The Wind,” this is an album written by a man knowing that death would come soon and this would be his final work.  I turned on Palladia Monday evening and they were playing an older VH-1 concert of Bowie. Following the show, they played the video for the new single “Lazarus.”  It’s creepy.  Coupled with the shock of his death, I was not prepared for it. Bowie is in bed, blindfolded by bandages with buttons for eyes and sings, “Look up here, I’m in heaven / I’ve got scars that can’t be seen.”  The other 6 tracks are also introspective, jazzy saxophone coupled with a bit of distorted techno. Chaotic at times. The album closes with a lyrical and musical farewell with the track “I Can’t Give Everything Away.”

“I know something is very wrong

The pulse returns for prodigal sons

The blackout’s hearts with flowered news

With skull designs upon my shoes”

We all live in an important time regarding popular music.  We are sharing oxygen with artists who were the first of their kind, paved their own way and created music that will last far beyond our time on earth, but I fear that the grab for cash that has consumed the music industry is threatening the further development of music that will last.  So much of what we hear today is lowest common dominator dreck designed to appeal to as many as possible.  Don’t get me wrong, there is good music out there, but it’s not on the surface.  You have to dig. David Bowie’s music and career began at a time when you listened to the radio to know which way the wind blew. Those days are over, but the music lives on. My hope is that there is a kid in a garage or basement somewhere, with an idea or song that will change everything. He or she is out there, I know it. Just like the starman, waiting in the sky. He’d like to come and meet us, but he thinks he’d blow our minds…

Rest in peace, Ziggy.

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*Opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and in no way reflect the philosophy or preferences of the Williamson County Public Library, its staff members, their families, friends, or pets.