Ramblin' with Roger

APL Looks Ahead with New Strategic Plan

Book reviews and author talks

From here: Albany Public Library’s Board of Trustees approved a new strategic plan that will guide initiatives across the seven-branch system over the next three years. The plan includes five major goals and related strategies, and is available on APL’s website and at each branch location.

“This plan will challenge us and inspire us to be better. There’s a lot to look forward to, including a new Library of Things for APL, and hopefully a partnership with the school district to give every student a library card, among many other things,” said APL Executive Director Andrea Nicolay. “Some elements of the plan came straight from people in the community, and others we’ve been dreaming of for a while.”

Book reviews and author talks

Tuesdays at 2 pm at the Washington Avenue branch of the APL

August 25: Book Review: The Last Extinction: The Real Science behind the Death of the Dinosaurs by Gerta Keller. Reviewer: Jonathan Skinner, PhD, retired statistician & amateur classicist.

September 1 | Author Talk | Kathy Wright-Muzio discusses & reads from her historical romance The Determined Pursuit, written under her pen name, Elizabeth H. Franklin.

September 8 | Author Talk | Shakeema “Shaq” Funchess discusses & reads from her book, Kai Says Hi, which is inspired by & dedicated to the memory of Harbe Nagi.

September 15| Book Review | Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham. Reviewer: John Rowen, former president, Friends of APL.

September 22 | Book Review | American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation by Eric Rutkow. Reviewer: Alex Ashby, MF, watershed forester, Albany Dept. of Water & Water Supply..

September 29 | Book Review | Copernicus’ Secret: How the Scientific Revolution Began by Jack Repcheck. Reviewer: Tom Ellis, educator & activist.

In other news

The August Open Mic Night will once again take place on the second floor of the Madison Pour House – by the fireplace – on the 4th Tuesday: August 25th. Management was very accommodating in July and turned off the speakers that usually play music upstairs, but there is some competition with a bit of sound from downstairs. Sit close to the fireplace in August where it will be easiest to hear the stories and poetry!

Tuesday nights are Burger Night at the Pour House (according to the menu, they do have Beyond Burgers as a plant-based option) – so come to Open Mic Night hungry and enjoy Burger Night!

Sunday Stealing – They Say It’s Your Birthday

Things that happened in history on 7 March

Roger.cartoon Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. We promise to work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Sparky Duck at Philly Transplant learned a little something with this meme, which he stole from his blogging buddy Wylie. Here’s how to play. Search for your birthday (month and day only) at Wikipedia and then share what else happened that day.

Wikipedia Meme: They Say It’s Your Birthday

First, what is your birthday (month/day)? 7 March

Now, go to Wikipedia and list:

Four historic events

1850 – Senator Daniel Webster gives his “Seventh of March” speech endorsing the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war. This dreadful legislative package, of course, ultimately had the opposite effect. It included the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the “telephone.” Here’s my COVID telephone experiment. I have a portable device charging downstairs right now.

1965 – Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers is brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama. Of course, I remember this extraordinarily well, and it pained me greatly.

1986 – Challenger Disaster: Divers from the USS Preserver locate the crew cabin of Challenger on the ocean floor. The disaster had taken place on January 28, which I recall all too well.

Natal day

Three births: this one is really difficult, because, without looking, I’m aware of several, including Daniel J. Travanti (Hill Street Blues), Wanda Sykes, Ivan Lendl, Rachel Weisz, Lauren Prepon, Jeff Kent, Michael Eisner, et al

1875 – Maurice Ravel, French pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1937). He wrote much more than Bolero. That said, I recall hearing that piece performed by the Albany Symphony Orchestra. We got the tickets because our friends had ASO subscriptions but didn’t want to go because Bolero is “boring.” I must say that it is much more interesting live than on a recording.

1950 – Franco Harris, American football player and businessman (died 2022). As a Steeler, he caught the “Immaculate Reception.” BTW, his teammate, Lynn Swann, was also born on that date in 1952.

**1974 – Jenna Fischer, American actress. I was reading this week why she walked away from acting after starring as Pam Beesly on The Office for nine seasons and then a subsequent series.**

Two deaths

1274 – Saint Thomas Aquinas, Italian priest and philosopher (born 1225)

1986 – Jacob K. Javits, American colonel and politician, New York State Attorney General (born 1904). He was my U.S. senator when I was growing up.

One holiday or observance. I know none of these.

Perpetua and Felicity. “Vibia Perpetua was a recently married, well-educated noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant son she was nursing. Felicity, a slave woman imprisoned with her and pregnant at the time, was martyred with her. They were put to death along with others at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa.”

#1 Hot Soul Singles of 1976

Philadelphia International

Here are the #1 Hot Soul Singles of 1976. Curiously, the name of this category changed several times over the years. Rhythm and blues was the dominant designation through mid-1969.

Several songs hit #1 on the pop charts, designated as (pop)

Disco Lady – Johnnie Taylor, six weeks at #1 (pop)

Something He Can Feel– Aretha Franklin, four weeks at #1. I heard the En Vogue take first, then the QoS version in her box set

Dazz– Brick, 4 weeks at #1; here’s the disco mix

(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty – KC and the Sunshine Band, four weeks at #1 (pop)

Wake Up Everybody (Part 1) -Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, two weeks at #1

Sweet Thing – Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, two weeks at #1

Livin’ for the Weekend – the O’Jays, two weeks at #1

You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine – Lou Rawls, two weeks at #1; also a #1 on the easy listening charts

Getaway – Earth, Wind & Fire, two weeks at #1. This is probably my favorite EW&F song. I especially love the triplets at the end. And for fun of it, the Funky Purrfection version

Play That Funky Music – Wild Cherry, two weeks at #1 (pop)

Just To Be Close To You – Commodores, two weeks at #1; version

Love Ballad – L.T.D., two weeks at #1

Car Wash – Rose Royce, two weeks at #1 (pop)

Sing A Song – Earth, Wind & Fire, two weeks at #1

One week at #1

Walk Away From Love – David Ruffin. A former Temptation

Turning Point – Tyrone Davis

Inseparable – Natalie Cole

Boogie Fever – Sylvers (pop)

Movin’ – Brass Construction

Love Hangover – Diana Ross (pop)

Kiss and Say Goodbye – Manhattans (pop)

I Want You – Marvin Gaye

Young Hearts Run Free – Candi Station

I’ll Be Good To You -The Brothers Johnson, produced by Quincy Jones. When Q put out his Back On The Block album in 1989, he covered this song with Ray Charles and Chaka Khan.

Sophisticated Lady (She’s A Different Lady) – Natalie Cole

Who’d She Coo? – Ohio Players

The Rubberband Man – Spinners. I have the album version of this song by Linda Creed and Thom Bell, as one does.

Message in Our Music – The O’Jays by Gamble and Huff. Here’s the album version.

You Don’t Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show) – Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. (pop)

Hot Dog: The Second Serving

spectacle, patriotism, celebration, and power

My wife and I had a busy summer. So we decided to travel to New York City from August 5 to 7.

Part of the reason was that my mother-in-law has a timeshare, but since she isn’t traveling, my wife has been trying to transfer control to herself, since she has signatory power. My wife has also been paying the monthly fees. It took several months, but it is (mostly) rectified.

So we had many “points” that had to be used up by September 30. Yikes! Thus, the trip, with no hard plan; we took Amtrak both ways.

The problem is that it can be REALLY hot in Manhattan in the summer. Temps in the 90s, humidity in the oppressive range.

So we’re in Times Square, on Broadway between 46th & 47th Sts, and we see a giant frankfurter. What? Am I hallucinating? Hot Dog: The Second Serving? They’ve done this before.

Okay. From the Times Square official site:

“Two years after its initial staging, the world’s largest hot dog (sculpture) returns to Times Square on the occasion of the nation’s semiquincentennial to offer a renewed grandiose portrait of the United States at 250.”

Deux

“The 65-foot-long sculpture comes back, not as a replica of its former self, Hot Dog in the City (2024), but as an altered monument with surprise additions amid a time where the political and cultural climate is increasingly shaped by spectacle and violence.” The previous image is pretty straightforward, large but simply decorated.

“Bursting with American spectacle, patriotism, and national mythology, Hot Dog: The Second Serving (2026), by Brooklyn-based artists Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw, is on view from July 21–August 8, 2026, on Duffy Square at Broadway and 46th St.” Ah, we lucked into seeing this in person.

“’The hot dog returns in an altered form to reflect an altered nation. As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, we found ourselves returning to questions that animated the original project: spectacle, patriotism, celebration, and power. Symbols persist. Myths persist. Their meanings shift. Two years after its initial appearance, the sculpture returns to a country that is both familiar and changed, revealing new tensions within a symbol that once seemed self-evident,’ said Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw.

“Complete with an oversized bun, a classic frankfurter, and a sweeping ribbon of yellow mustard, the satirical monument asks for national reflection—on where we’ve been, and where we’re headed.”

And here I thought a hot dog was just a hot dog.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Sadie Sink

I don’t enjoy reviewing blockbuster films such as Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Moreover, I believe I’ve seen EVERY Spider-Man film this century, in no small part because the webslinger is my favorite character. I even edited an issue of a magazine about it, long, long ago.

Fortunately, I can lean into my wife’s opinion. She had not seen No Way Home or most of the previous films, though she did see, at our daughter’s insistence, the Miles Morales animated Into the Spider-Verse.

So she didn’t know much of the mythology around the character, including his origin. She had no idea who Aunt May was, who Bruce Banner’s alter ego is, or the significance of the name Jean Grey.

In other words, I believe she loved the movie for the same reason I’ve always loved Peter Parker: he’s out there trying to figure it out, do the right thing.

In this case, he’s trying to go on with his life, with his besties, his love MJ and the Spidey-obsessed Ned, unable to remember who the heck he is. He’s also trying to take down the bad guys, even when it’s not entirely clear who the villains are. What’s Peter’s relationship with his frenemy Frank Castle?

(Of course, explaining how the Marvel Cinematic Universe diverges from the comic books, and the comics change over time – well, never mind.)

MCU overload?

I read in Esquire, “As penned by Marvel Studios vets Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna, Brand New Day comes loaded and feels burdened by an assumption you’ve been keeping up with Marvel still, that you’ve not only seen all the Spider-Mans but also, like, Thunderbolts. It’s a contradictory ask for audiences to see Spider-Man with fresh eyes but to keenly remember the trivial weaving of an overwritten saga. “

Well, maybe not. I’ve never seen Thunderbolts. My wife, as noted, has seen and read FAR less. Yet she could appreciate it for what was on the screen, even when she was surprised by a reveal. I think, reading further, “There aren’t headache-inducing multiverse plots here, thank God, just the basic concern for other people’s well-being at the expense of one’s own.” My wife appreciated that aspect of the storyline.

And Spider-Man fighting red-clad ninjas was cool, whether you’re a Marvel newbie or long-time fanboy. I didn’t know The Hand had been on Daredevil, and it didn’t matter.

Also, I’ve BEEN to those awkward parties where I can’t really connect with anyone.

Maybe this simplicity – well, relative simplicity – is why people have watched the film repeatedly. It’s 89% positive with critics/98% with fans on Rotten Tomatoes.

As usual, we saw the movie at the Spectrum 8 Theatre in Albany. Actually, there were TWO showings when we arrived, including a special viewing arranged by a not-for-profit for a multitude of teens and tweens usually dressed up in costume. Our theater had a more sedate constituency.