Authors Rock Out

In 2006, I was a participant in the Texas Library Association's TALL Texans (Texas Accelerated Library Leaders) leadership retreat. During the week-long program, we were emersed in a variety of leadership sessions (advocacy, career planning, coaching, strategic planning, etc.). It was during this time I met Steve Brown. He was the incoming president of the Texas Library Association.

In the weeks that followed, Steve put together the Dallas area local arrangements committee for the 2007 annual conference. I was asked to chair the Entertainment portion of the conference (average attendance 6000). I knew I could not pull this off alone, so I asked my dear friend Terry (and she remains my friend to this day), to help me plan for the following events:

• Opening General Session Entertainment
• group or band to play while attendees arrive
• Conference Welcome Party
• locate a venue, schedule musicians to play, order food, etc.
• Book Cart Drill Team Competition
• recruit, register, organize teams for competition, enlist judges (3) and an emcee, etc.
• President's All-Conference Party
• locate a venue, hire a band or group for entertainment, plan food, decorations, etc.

Think of the planning for these events like you are planning four (yes FOUR) weddings which will all happen within a matter of three days. Do you see why I am SO happy Terry is still my friend?

Well it was during this time I was trying to book a band I discovered the Rock Bottom Remainders. I knew as soon as I heard them and saw the members it would be an amazing fit for our conference. Well, when I contacted them, it was a no. They were still active at that time, but we were not a good fit for them. I guess in hindsight it would have been difficult to pull all of these amazing authors together to come to Dallas for a one night gig. I do have to say, I was crushed.

When my husband served as the president of TLA in 2016-17, I would have loved to have them perform during his annual conference, but by then the band had active since 2015 when they reunited for a special performance in Tucson.

I still love to watch their videos and see some of my favorite authors in interesting costumes perform their hearts out. 

Last night, I discovered this supergroup, also know as the Remainders, came back together - COVID-19 style - to perform a variation of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" to support the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC). This is such a great way for these authors to help those who sell their books during this very difficult time in our country.

Please, watch the video and donate to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation. These funds "will assist booksellers affected by COVID-19 with serious medical expenses, eviction prevention, funeral expenses" and more. 

Here are the links again. Enjoy and please Donate.

Rock Bottom Remainders Video

DONATE

Thing #5 - Flickr

I have been using Flickr for some time now to share photos. The best parts are the tagging and sharing features. I love the fact that I can enter keywords and locate pictures so quickly and easily. My TALL Texans class of 2006 posted pictures to Flickr so we could share, not only our experience, but the pictures we had such a great time taking of each other. There is no way I could have taken all of the pictures I wanted to take, but my friends shared their photos, giving me more photos than I could put into two scrapbooks!

The tagging feature makes it so easy to locate just the right pictures, and sometimes, just the wrong ones too. The groups allow members to share photos among themselves while keeping other's eyes from viewing the photos. It is a sharing community in which all members can view the picture .

I was not familiar with the Creative Commons Site, but quickly discovered there were quite a few kanagroo pictures to choose from for this post. I collect kangaroos, because my school's mascot is the kangaroo. My students love to see kangaroos and I have them all over my library. I thought this was a unique picture. I love the reflection. Not only would this be a great photo to use with the children at the beginning of the year when talking about our mascot, but also a great way to demonstate mirror image.

I know Flickr will be a site I use, not only to share my family photos but also to search for photos for instructional purposes.