I love libraries thanks to my mother who grew up near the one in Mount Pleasant. She was around six or seven years old when she first realized she could take her wagon over there and bring home her fill of books every week.
I remember being that age when she first took me to a book mobile- a tricked out RV kind of thing which magically appeared on twilit summer evenings. The truck fumes outside were slightly nauseating, but inside the books smelled great.
As I grew up, the only draw back to the system was the anxiety brought on by overdue fines- never mind the shame and horror of a Lost Book. Well meaning librarians would torment me, encouraging me to search at home one more time. In the car? Under the bed ? Not hardly. I excavated a novel once, years too late. It had landed in a laundry basket in the basement- under that fuzzy orange sweater I never really liked.
But now, I no longer cower beneath the shadow of Library Angst. You can renew a book up to ten times in the District. TEN ! And the book doesn't become overdue for 30 days after that. That adds up to a whopping 240 days. To put things in perspective, a grizzly bear could give birth to a whole new bear in that amount of time.
Turns out, librarians understand the anxiety thing, and they took away a lot of restrictions to encourage people like me. How cool is that?
The good news/bad news is the MLK Library will be closing for renovations soon and will not reopen until 2010. (Step into that future here.) Meanwhile this Friday, the library will be anything but quiet. (I love the end of this video).
Andras Fekete of Boat Burning gave me the lowdown:
We're terribly flattered to be part of ALB's Rock the Stacks as there are many DC legends playing including Fort Knox Five (members of Thievery Corp), Super Silver Haze (with Fugazi's Brendan Canty), Rob Myers of Thievery Corporation, Benjy Ferree, Furniteur, Sitali Siyolwe & Juju Julius House, Warm Sun, Elmapi, and Small Doses + the ALB All Stars (Jerry Busher & friends).
It should be mentioned that the ALB All-Stars will be a sort of DC supergroup, with Betsy Wright (EX HEX), Joe Herrera (Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, Thievery Corp), Matt Rippetoe (The Harry Bells), Artemis"Ardamus” Thompson, Renell “RNL” McEwan, Jerry Busher (Fugazi), and Amy Farina (The Evens, The Warmers).
So much packed into this one night.
Tickets start at $75, but all proceeds will go to the DC Public Library Foundation.
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