Salvador Dalí

Although I am primarily a public services librarian, I also get to to do some work with University Archives. This fall, we will be presenting an exhibit about the friendship between Salvador Dalí and Dr. Maxwell Maltz. Both were true renaissance men; Dalí was a painter/writer and Maltz was a plastic surgeon/author. Salvador Dalí was also a pop icon. Check out his guest appearance on the television show, What's My Line:

Gung Hay Fat Chow! Happy Chinese New Year!

Thanks to a generous grant from the Community Foundation of Broward, we were able to host another wonderful event at the library today. To celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year, a troupe of dancers from the Coral Springs Chinese Cultural Association performed an amazing lion dance parade. In addition to dancing, the troupe taught the children some Cantonese and answered questions about the Chinese New Year holiday. After the show, we made paper dragon puppets and ate cookies. Over 200 people enjoyed the festivities.

You don't have to know how to read Chinese to learn about the holiday, though. Here are a few of my favorite children's books about Chinese New Year:

*Happy, Happy Chinese New Year by Demi.
*In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord.
*Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year by Kate Waters and Martha Cooper.
*Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn, Cornelius Van Wright, & Ying-Hwa Hu.

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!

Smokey Robinson and The English Beat

Doesn't 40 Forever have a nice ring to it? I'm afraid it's not original, though. I got the name from a Motown greatest hits album. My favorite songs on the album are ABC by The Jackson 5, Superfreak by Rick James, and Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles.

Speaking of Smokey Robinson, The English Beat did a really cool rendition of his hit, Tears of a Clown. Check it out:
The song is available on the albums, Beat This and What is Beat. I could have sworn that it was also on Wha'ppen, but my sources say otherwise. Grrrr . . . why did I ever unload all my vinyl? I'd love to prove them wrong. Any fact-checkers out there?

If you'd like to learn about the history of Motown Records, visit your local library. In addition to books, most public libraries have circulating CD collections. We have a fantastic music collection here at the Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center at NSU.