Want to listen, watch, or read some of the recommendations you heard discussed in this episode? Our show notes below have links to music, podcasts, tv shows, movies, books, and other media discussed in this episode. Thanks for listening!
Note: Thanks to the Library’s College Assistant, Yu Lau, for transcribing this episode. -JT
Transcription:
Nanette: Welcome to City Tech Stories, a podcast highlighting the experiences and voices of the City Tech community. Each episode will center around a theme and include perspective from across the college. In today’s episode, we’ll hear from City Tech librarians about what they’re listening to, watching, and reading during the pandemic. Hope you’ll enjoy some of our recommendations.
Nora: Okay, so I thought we’ll do this by genre. Um, thanks for you all for being here. Do you all want to quick introductions to ourselves before we hop into our recommendations? Um, I’m Nora Almeida. I’m Instruction Librarian at City Tech and I’ll pass it over to Nanette.
Nanette: Hello, I’m Nanette Johnson. I am the Access Services Librarian at City Tech.
Junior: Uh, my name is Junior Tidal. I’m the Web Services in Multimedia Librarian for City Tech.
Rachel: Hi, I’m Rachel Jones. I am a, um, adjunct at City Tech working on instructional design.
Monica: And I’m Monica Berger and I’m also an Instruction Librarian and I manage academic works.
Nora: Great. Thanks for you all for joining today. Um, so yea, let’s just get started by talking about what we’re listening to and this could be, uh, podcasts or music that you’re enjoying. Um, would love to hear if anybody has new music recommendations. Um, so yea, we could have just a kind of informal discussion. I don’t know. Um, does anyone have a favorite new album or something that they’re listening to right now?
Junior: Monica, do you want to go ahead and share what you’ve been listening to?
Monica: I will. Um, well I mean, mostly I listen to radio, to WFMU, but I find myself increasingly, um, on Bandcamp and when I follow a band that I like, I get an email about a new release and it’s become kind of more of my focus for discovering new music and, um, so that last thing I listen to this week was a new release of, um, Arthur Russell who was this interesting figure in downtown New York City Arts culture and, um, I really enjoyed this recording. It was alive recording but I wanted to mention that there’s this documentary, um, about Russell called Wild Combination that I think you can pretty easily get it, um, online and, um, this thing that’s cool about Russell is that he was in the world of the avant-garde but he also wrote more like pop songs and the songs are just very hooky and, um, they also are very, they’re very touching. They have a real sense of longing. So, um, you can find a lot of these Arthur Russell recordings on Bandcamp and that’s my, uh, report on what I’m listening to.
Junior: Monica, do you participate in Bandcamp Fridays?
Monica: Um, you mean in terms of buying albums from people?
Junior: Yea, on on Fridays? I mean, if if you know just
Monica: Um
Junior: you know, just listeners on Bandcamp Fridays is where, um, Bandcamp waives all their fees and musicians are able to, you know, Bandcamp, they take a small portion on, you know, sales, but on Fridays, they haven’t been doing it just to support musicians who aren’t able to perform or go on tours and things like that.
Monica: I have. I mean, I will admit that I generally am very frugal about paying for anything. But, I have, um, I recently bought a t-shirt and I have, um, yes. I have. I am aware of that Bandcamp Friday and I think it’s really great.
Junior: Yea, I’ve been, I’ve been. That’s where I’ve been getting most of my vinyl, um, over the past 8 months. Um.
Monica: Oh wow.
Junior: Yea, just through Bandcamp. Because, you know, I’m still kind of wary about going into record stores, even with masks and, you know, they open up businesses and I prefer just mail order like I used to when I was a teenager.
Monica: Mmhm. So, I want to ask Junior and everyone else. Have you guys even heard of Arthur Russell or is he just like, um, off your radar?
Rachel: I’ve heard the name but I’m really grateful to be getting some background on him and I will, I will definitely look him up.
Monica: I mean, part of what made his music so interesting is that, um, because, um, he was gay and he was very involved with the disco scene and he did all these, uh, recordings using samples and beats like back in the 70s and, so there’s this kind of, he doesn’t belong to any genre so and that makes his music very rich, it’s not just one thing and… Um, it makes this pop music very hooky.
Nora: Cool, yea, I’ll check it out. I, I feel like I know the name too but I, I don’t know like I don’t know if I know Arthur Russell’s music so.
Monica: Mmhm.
Nora: Cool. Thanks for that recommendation. Does anyone else have, like, music that they are loving right now? Junior, like, I don’t know. Do you have, like, some recent album that you’ve gotten that have really been, I don’t know, stuck with you?
Junior: Yes, I mean, I’ve been, over the pandemic the last eight months, I’ve been mostly listening to death metal and black metal. Um, so one of the albums I’ve been interested in this one called, um, The Hidden History of the Human Race. It’s by this band called Blood Incantation and they’re from Colorado. I think they’re from Denver. But it’s a concept album about, it’s basically if you took that documentary on ancient aliens and turned it into a heavy metal record, a death metal record. Uh, it’s basically about aliens who are, I don’t know, um, kind of built the human race. It’s really funny. Um, and I just find a lot humor in death metal in general. Like there’s another band I’ve been listening to called Witch Vomit who are from Portland and, uh, they have this record called Bury Deep in a Bottomless Grave and I just find that title so hilarious. Um, it’s just so absurd. Like, how can you be buried deep in a bottomless grave?
Monica: Um, are there women in Witch Vomit?
Junior: Uh, I don’t, I don’t think so. I don’t believe there’s women in Witch Vomit. Um, but another band that I’ve also been listening to is a classic death metal band called from England called Bolt Thrower. Um, and their bass player is a woman and they’ve been around since the early 80s and they’re probably one of the best death metal bands, um, you know, that ever existed. And then I’ve also been listening to, like a lot of Finnish death metal. There’s this *inaudible* Oranssi Pazuzu who’s like a psychedelic black metal band that uses a lot of synthesizers and their songs are great, long like, you know, ten, fifteen minutes. Um, but yea, it’s just been a lot of death metal over the last eight months.
Rachel: Junior, I need to, uh, introduce you, maybe on social media, to my best friend who lives in Austin and she, she worked for Waterloo Records for a long time but she is a total death metal queen and, uh, actually the scariest show I’ve went to, I went to with her and it was Slayer in Hartford, Connecticut and I am not a metal person and it was the most crowded, energetic concert I’ve ever been in. Anyway…
Junior: Actually, I saw Slayer during their last tour. Um, they played at Madison Square Garden. Um, Primus and Philip Anselmo and one more that I’m forgetting but it was an incredible show; it was really great.
Nora: Nanette, have you been listening to any death metal?
Nanette: No, no. But I have, um, you, know it’s interesting. I’ve been listening to WBLS since I was a kid so at eight o’clock in the 70’s, they used to play, um, oh my goodness, um, there I go, King Moody. And at eight o’clock, when that King Moody song came on, I knew I had to go to bed so all these years later, I still listen to WBLS, but I’m listening to it in the morning and they have, like, a cute, you know, segment where people write in. It’s called the Strawberry Letter and I’m listening to everybody’s romantic problems in the morning. And they’ll play, like you know, a classic, like a Michael Jackson or some type of, you know, R&B song and then, um, personally I have a lot of music, um, on my Ipod and ,um, I just rearranged it and I made a playlist, like with Gerald Levert, Johnny Gill, but then I added, like, all these West Indian artists because I really love reggae and calypso. So, and it’s just interesting. I noticed that for me sometimes it’s this certain; I don’t know if it’s the beat or the melody. I’m a little… I can’t sing so I guess people tell me I’m tone deaf cause I can’t repeat a tone, but there’s certain music that just, like, that I find that I just match with and I enjoy. So, I haven’t quite figured out how to match with metal yet. Um, you know, I was at a concert and this, I don’t know if it was actually metal or rock and roll, but he had a yellow suit, like a, almost like a Superman suit in yellow. It’s from New York, some band and if he was giving me, like, the key to life, I just couldn’t figure out what he was saying. So, um, and then the other new thing I’ve been listening to, my cousin dropped an album, um, called Jungle Drew and, um, so I purchased it to be a good cousin but then I realized that there is a big age gap because I’m not sure if its rap or trap or mumble rap. So, I’m still…
Nora: Are we forgetting some genres there?
Nanette: But, I’m definitely, um, I’m proud of him that he has this album out and I just hope it’s successful.
Nora: Awesome. Yea, I guess, I listen to a lot of the same stuff on repeat. Especially, like, I have my running mix and I’ve been listening to this one campfire playlist that my husband made while we were on vacation that has, like, kind of like, 90’s, uh, I don’t know, post-punk stuff on it, um, like more on the mellow side. But I guess the one album that I’ve been listening to a ton is the new, um, Luluc album. I think it’s called Dreamboat. It’s, like very like, I’ve been listening to it on repeat. It’s like really, it’s pretty ambient but it has some, like, kind of dark and synth in it and it’s, like, just really. I’ve been listening to it a lot while I work. Um, it’s a, yea, anyway. So that’s, like, an album that I would recommend that I’ve been listening to a lot and then coming back to. And I have also been listening to a lot of podcasts, especially in the evening. Um, I like to listen to podcasts when I cook and I actually listened to a new podcast, like the first episode just came out and it’s, uh, Daniel Chang, the Momofuku chef. Uh, I actually like to watch cooking shows and listen to about cooking when I’m cooking. Um, I haven’t listened to it; I know he has another podcast and I’m not, like, a superfan of his but I listened to this podcast last night. It’s really good. It’s called Recipe Club and it’s just him and two other people and they each pick a recipe, like a different recipe for something, and then they all three make all the recipes and then they talk about kind of the experience of trying these different recipes and then one of them is the winner, like one recipe based on all of their experiences. But it’s just really funny because a lot of them broke the rules when they were like, “Oh, I didn’t have a pot big enough to brine.” They were doing turkey because of Thanksgivings and so, basically like, Daniel Chang just ended up putting everything in a smoker and everyone was like, “You didn’t do any of the assignments.” Um, but it was, like, a pretty fun show. So, yea, I’ve been listening to that and I also listen to Stuff You Should Know all the time, just like as like background. Um, I don’t know if you guys know that podcast. It’s, like, pretty good. They just have, basically, episodes on like everything from; I listened to one on geysers this week, I’ve listened to one on haunted houses and the electoral college. I mean, they just do, they actually do really good research. I find it’s, like, a cool podcast to use for teaching too just like, in terms of how they incorporate the research that they do in a very informal and conversational way. So, yea, some podcasts.
Nanette: What was the title of that podcast again? Recipe club and the other one was what?
Nora: Recipe Club is the Daniel Chang one and the other one is just Stuff You Should Know. It’s these two hosts from Atlanta, and uh, these two guys and they just, you know, pick something and do research on it and then talk about kind of a deep dive into random stuff, like anything you can think of. Um, so it’s a pretty good one. I recommend it.
Nanette: They both sound good cause I watch a lot of cooking shows too so, I enjoy cooking shows.
Nora: Cool. Rachel, do you have any albums or podcasts to recommend for us?
Rachel: Well, this is a little bit cheesy, but I have had the same song in my head for about two weeks. Um, and it’s because of that meme that when around from Tiktok of the guy skateboarding while singing Fleetwood Mac. Have you, have any of you seen that?
Junior: Oh yea, that’s great. That was a great video.
Rachel: So that song has been in my head for two weeks and it’s a great song luckily, and a great album. So, I’ve been kind of revisiting that cause that’s a classic. I have really an eclectic taste in music and, um, I listen to a lot of different stuff.
Monica: Rachel, what… what song is it?
Rachel: It’s, It’s Dreams. I think that’s the title of the song from Fleetwood Mac Rumors album and um, Tiktok, which you know is these very short videos that people do and people are just amazingly creative within this really short format. But this very, you know, kind of normal looking guy was skateboarding and, and lip syncing to the song and filmed himself and became world famous and got like, I don’t know, you know, a new truck out of it or something. But um…. It was uh, you know, one of those guys you’re like, good for you, um, cause he was skateboarding to work or something. But um, yea, so Fleetwood Mac Rumors, it’s a classic. It’s, it’s a good one.
Junior: Yea, it took me a long time to come, you know, to come to terms that Rumors was one of the best pop albums, um, at least I think so. My older sister and I, we have arguments. Well, we had arguments about it for years, um, and then I started to listen to Rumors like from start to finish and the I had to agree that it is like a masterpiece.
Rachel: Yea, the production on it really, really makes it….
Junior: Yea, and if you also look at the background…
Monica: No, I mean I’ve never given it a good listen because it was like a white hot hit when I was in college and I heard it to death and you know how that is, when you’re in college and you keep hearing the same albums being played at you over and over and over and over and over.
Rachel: Oh, definitely. It was in that category for me too. I mean, my, my musical background is much more of a punk and goth of the 80’s, so my sound track for growing up was, you know, The Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen, Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, all that stuff, and that’s my go to music. Um, so for me to love Fleetwood Mac might seem a little strange but I also really love, like, some classic country and was what I when I lived with my parents would listened to so, you know, put on some Dolly Parton or, um, Merle Haggard and I’m pretty happy too. So, you know, if it’s good, I’ll listen to it in, in whatever genre, so looking forward to looking up some of these recommendations like Arthur Russell today.
Nora: Yea, I feel like the, I feel like Rumors is, like, the perfect Sunday morning album. You know what I mean? Like, it’s like a, it’s upbeat in the right kind of mellow way, like, I have it in vinyl so it’s definitely… I mean, I, I probably listen to that album and, like, Paul Simon on vinyl the most of, like, anything else in my album collection just cause, like, I often, like, on Sunday mornings, will just put on records and just, like, want to, like, something that’s, like, kind of comforting and, like, familiar and kind of, like, in a pub space.
Rachel: You can sing along to.
Nora: Yea, yea, sure. Well, these are really great recommendations. Uh, so let’s take a brief commercial break and we’ll come back and hear what everybody’s watching.
Commerical: Today’s podcast is brought to you by Commons, a book of poems by Myung Mi Kim, available now as an e-book at the City Tech Library. In this work, Kim creates meaning through juxtaposed fragments. Her poems negotiate a constantly changing world, scavenging through scraps of experiences, spaces around words, and remnants of emotions for a language that unfolds the enormity of what we cannot express.
Nora: So, welcome back. Um, so yea, I’d love to hear what folks are watching, whether you’re diving into movies or classic shows or rewatching things or watching some of the stuff that is, like, new. Um, it’s hard to keep up even though, I know, there’s less kind of content being produced right now in movie and TV spaces. So, yea, I don’t know, whoever wants to kick it off with what you’re watching. Um, I definitely always am welcoming new, different recommendations for what to watch.
Nanette: Hi, this is Nanette. So I’ve been watching, well, it just finished, uh, Lovecraft Country and it’s on HBO or HBO Max and it was, like, really great. Um, uh, oh my goodness, so, Matt Ruffin, is that the right name? He rewrote, he wrote a book Lovecraft Country and, um, it brought in African Americans. It’s…. the show has African American showrunner and a lot African Americans working on the set and the stars of the show are, um, African Americans, Courtney Vance, uh, Smollett, one of the sisters, Jumaurey, and, uh, oh my goodness, I forget, sorry, I forget the names, but anyway, it’s like this… It’s great because it has, like, historical nuggets in the, it incorporated historical nuggets in the show even though it’s, like, science fiction and, I believe, Lovecraft, the original Lovecraft was made a very racist man so to actually have the show with African Americans in it is like a really good experience.
Junior: I think you’re thinking of Jonathan Majors who, um, he, I think he plays the lead in Lovecraft Country, um, and he was also really great in the Last Man in San Francisco or the Last Black Man in San Francisco, um, yea.
Rachel: I haven’t seen it but was one episode about the Wilmington Massacre?
Nanette: Yes
Rachel: That’s what I thought. So, they’re working some, some really deep and heavy history that Americans love to ignore into the show.
Nanette: Exactly. So, for instance, in one episode, they had some kids playing with a Ouija board and the little boy’s nickname was Bobo and he said, “Will I enjoy my trip, you know, to the South?” and the Ouija board came back and said, “No.” So, then a few episode later, they’re all going to Bobo’s funeral and then they put the, they’re describing everything and you’re like wait, maybe this sounds familiar to me and then you see the *inaudible* tell. They work it in.
Rachel: And showing him as a little boy first, rather than the image which is just of him at the end.
Nanette: Exactly, and then you, you know, then you’re seeing what happened, like, on his funeral day and then they work that into the story with the child character and what she goes through on that day and, um, you know, the horror that she goes through, um, on that day, but it’s just so, it’s like really great. There’s another scene where, um, the character, Hippolyta, is driving by herself on the road and then they put a character in, of a black woman on a motorcycle, and she, you know, represents a real woman who drove across the U.S. from Florida on her motorcycle. So it’s just been, it was definitely a fun show, um, there’s always, like, monsters involved and …..
Rachel: It’s interesting that they used the horror genre to, to talk about the real horror in America, um. It’s, it’s, um, very appropriate in a way to reclaim the genre for that.
Nanette: Exactly, yes, exactly. Um, what was interesting, as scary as it was with, like, the monsters and stuff, the racism it brought up, those were even scarier when there, there are moments in there when they’re in a some downtown and they have to get out but they can’t speed because he’ll stop them and, you know, you see them trying to get out of the town and cross the border of town without speeding and do they make it and then you say, “Oh my goodness, they made it!”, only to be, like a few minutes later, to have be roadblocked off by police officers and be, like, marched into the woods, but you have to watch it to see what happens, so it’s, it’s interesting just how, um, sometimes the scarier parts are the reality that people , you know, went through and are going through in society.
Rachel: Right, like Sandra Bland, Bland. Um, it’s just the actual horror of being a black person in a racist, um, matrix kind of where, where any move you make is the wrong move; you can’t win.
Nanette: Exactly, exactly, and then to see it to play on tv, it just, it was, it was, it was good and then sometimes, um, you know, seeing tv, like, seeing someone that similar to you or your family, um, is just a good experience, you know, um, so it was quite interesting. Um, even calling your friends back and forth to talk about the show, it made it a shared experience, um, and usually with sci-fi, it’s, it’s been a while since I’ve read some sci-fi, so it was nice to see it in that way. I think it was a very well done production.
Junior: Yeah, it’s also very different than the book cause I read the book before I watched the series and the series, I think, it does a really good job of incorporating real historical events, um, that I feel a lot of people aren’t aware about. But, yeah, I, yeah, I love Lovecraft Country. I think it’s a great series and it’s a great book and, um, I also think it’s a, you know, timely critique of Lovecraft because for years, decades even, he was revered, you know, as a horror writer and things like that but he was a eugenicist and if you read his work in the context of that, a lot of the monsters he’s talking about are of people of color. Um, so I think, like, Lovecraft country really, there’s, there’s a sense of really well done, um, critique of Lovecraft and the genre.
Rachel: I didn’t know that about him; I’ve never read him. Um, that’s not a genre I read a lot and an ex-boyfriend really loved him; that’s all I really know about him. So the eugenist thing, that’s really good to know and extra scary.
Junior: Yes, yeah, yeah absolutely.
Nora: Yeah, I didn’t really know that either. I knew that he lived, he was from Providence which is just cause I from Rhode Island and that he lived in Red Hook and I’ve seen maybe one or two theatrical adaptations of some his short stories but yea, I didn’t, I didn’t really know a lot details cause I’m not a big, a big horror genre so I’m, I’m gonna do a big pivot because Nanette’s comment about, like, seeing , you know, um, people that look like you on TV reminded me of, like, a movie I watched recently so my husband and I have been doing this thing where, I mean, it’s just us watching movies, like, our social life is a lot of us just watching movies and we’ve been watching some tv too but trying to, like, also just kind of, watch some old movies or catch up on movies and we don’t always have the same taste in movies. So, in October, I just did, what I called Nora’s October Film Fest, which is just, like, me picking all the movies and so, November is, um, Jerry’s November Film Fest and he made me watch two movies about dudes and time travel and one of them, I had to read, like, his primer. I don’t know. Junior, you might know this movie. It’s like, it was made for like seven thousand dollars. I had to read the Wikipedia article like four times to understand how going back in time creates, like, a double of yourself. I was just like, I don’t understand this, but I actually enjoyed that movie. But the movie I really want to talk about is the movie I watched earlier this week as part of, um Jerry’s November Film Fest cause I requested a comedy and we watched, um, the classic movie from 1988, Coming to America , from Eddie Murphy and we were like, I was really buckled up to be, like, this is gonna be racist, you know, cause it’s, I mean, especially the music starts and it’s, like, they live in, um, Zamunda, you know, um, uh, a fictional African country and he’s the prince of Zamunda and they come to, uh. He wants to kind of like sow his wild oats and meet someone who doesn’t know he’s a prince. It’s, like, kind of a classic comedy trope and he comes to New York City, um, and, like, he’s in deep Queens and, you know, it’s supposed to be set in Jackson Heights but, like, some of it’s filmed in different areas of Queens. Um, and I was so surprised that it kind of really wasn’t that racist, like, for something that was made in 1988 and also I was, like, crazy in 1988, they made a big studio movie that features an all-black cast and it wasn’t, like, a cheap shoestring movie, you know what I mean. They had, like, huge, they had scenes and, like, very ornate, kind of like, crowd scenes in the scenes that took place in Zamunda and, um, you know, I mean, it’s also, like, Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall star in it and they play, like, a bunch of other characters aside from themselves, like, they play, um, a barber and, like, a barbershop regular just, like, in downstairs from the apartment they end up renting in Queens and James Earl Jones plays, like, the king of Zamunda and he’s amazing. Um, but anyway, just like, it’s been fun to watch, like, a lot of random old movies. Um, like, I would never have chosen that movie; that was definitely a Jerry pick, but, um, yeah, so, I don’t know, it’s kind of cool to do that if you have someone who you’re, you know, pandemic-ing with. It’s good to trade off, especially like, you know, it’s hard to decide what to watch so, anyway, I can recommend a 1988 classic.
Nanette: Yeah, Coming to America was great. I just, I remember when that came out and we just all just loved it; it was really a wonderful experience and, um, it’s still, it’s still, like, one of, like, my favorites and just, it’s wonderful. Yeah. That was a great movie. Cause he had to go to Queens cause he had to find a queen. It was, it was cute, that whole movie.
Nora: Yeah, I mean it’s a rom com but it’s, like, you know, it’s, it holds up. I was surprised, I was really bracing for it, kind of like, I don’t know, traffic in, like, a lot of stereotypes from the 80’s but it really didn’t, and it was pretty funny.
Nanette: I think the biggest stereotype was the jerry curl, the family, they all left the jerry curl spot on the couch. I’m sorry, but that….
Nora: Yeah, soul glow? Um, yea, but the jerry curl dude, I forgot his name in the movie but he was the one, the only one that was like how did you learn that from you know, he was, he was the only one who was really kind of putting racial stereotypes on Eddie Murphy’s character because they had a love rivalry. Um, yeah, anyway.
Junior: I believe that actor was Eriq La Salle.
Nanette: Yeah, it was Eriq La Salle.
Nora: Oh, yeah, totally, totally. He was like….
Monica: Oh, from ER
Junior: Right, yeah, and I think Samuel Jackson was also the guy who holds up the, I forgot, the McDonalds
Nora: It’s McDabbles, yea, yea. Samuel L. Jackson made a cameo. Early Samuel Jackson cameo, but anyway. I don’t know who wants to follow Coming to America.
Rachel: I have a couple of recommendations but they, I have to preface it by saying they’re on Netflix. Um, so, and again they’re a bit cheesy, um but it’s the Haunting of Hill House and then the Haunting of Bly Manor and have anyone seen them?
Junior: Oh, yeah. I enjoyed those. Those are great, especially the first episode of the Haunting of Hill House, for sure.
Rachel: Yeah, so it’s one director who has a background in horror again, a genre I don’t usually do in either movies or books, um, but he, the first one is based very loosely on Shirley Jackson, the Haunting on Hill House and the second one, which I think is the better one, the Haunting of Bly Manor, is based on, um, the Turn of the Screw by Henry James and both of these are books that have been made so many times but this guy really played fast and loose with it. Um, but the reason I would really recommend the second one, Haunting of Bly Manor, is there’s some amazing acting in it and I had an intuition about the actress who plays the housekeeper whose my favorite and she is, is.. she’s mesmerizing as an actress and I thought she’d must be, um, a Shakespearean actress cause so many British actors, especially when they’re just really, really good had that Shakespearean background. So I just Wikipedia’d her and sure enough she does, so Haunting of Bly Manor is on Netflix and I… That’s my recommendation for watching.
Nora: Yes, I’ll check those out. Yea, I’m not a huge horror person either, although I watched a few horror things and, you know, in Halloween, Halloween times. Junior, do you have any movies or tv to recommend?
Junior: I was actually about to say I watch a lot horror and a lot sci-fi like, um… I’m always excited when October comes around because it’s when I watch the most horror, I feel like. Like, I watch a horror movie almost every week. Um, so last film that I watched was this film called, um, the New Mutants, which is a X-Men spin off that came out recently and it’s about a group of young teenage mutants that have superpowers but what’s very different about this one compared to other superhero films is that it’s set in a horror setting. Um, and it’s really good. It has all kinds of upcoming actors and actresses in it and I would recommend that. But the one show I’ve been watching the most is this Danish, um, British co-production called Fortitude and it’s about this, um, police officer who’s trying to solve, like, a mass murder in a small, remote Norwegian town. Uh, it’s actually set, the production location is Iceland and that’s another reason I’ve been watching it is because I’ve been wanting to travel so much; I’ve been trying to watch more films that, you know, have exotic locales. But that one’s really interesting because there’s an element of small town life and the gist of it is that this group of children finds, um, fossilized mammoth bones and then some weird things start to happen in this small town. Um, so, yeah. That’s… those are some of the films I’ve been watching. Um, how are you Monica? Have you been watching anything new?
Monica: Uh, not really. I mean, my partner is going this kick about Laurel and Hardy of all things and I… We’ve watched one two nights ago and I enjoyed it. It was actually a lot of fun. I think it, it pivoted off of this thing that I hate, the Three Stooges, and I hate Abbott and Costello and he loves that and I’m always like, “Ugh. You know, too much violence, too much stupidity.” and I think, you know, he’s like,” Well, look at Laurel and Hardy. It’s kind of like, like them but not as, not as stupid and violent.” So yes, I definitely enjoyed that. But, um, I was just going to throw in. Okay so, New York magazine, the New Yorker, all these people recommended this film called the Love Witch and we saw that for Halloween and I don’t, at all, like horror but it’s, it’s was like a, a contemporary exploitation film. Everything looked 70’s. Everything was, like, ultra colorful and garish and it was made this very low budget feminist film maker and it was just really strange. It was about a woman who had this insatiable desire to have more men in her life and she makes these witch potions for them because she is a witch and, um, you know, do I recommend it? I’m not sure. I’m not sure what I thought of it. It was really strange and almost, like, uh, it didn’t have, like, a normal dramatic tension but I would just bring it up because we’re talking so much about horror and science fiction and, um, it was like, kind of like if Quentin Tarantino make a film with seventy-five dollars and was a woman.
Nora: I’m not sure but I think that may be a remake, but I don’t know if it’s a remake from a 70’s, of a 70’s…
Monica: No, No, it’s not. No, that’s just her whole shtick and she makes everything on her set by hand. She makes all the costumes, all the props. It’s really, visually unbelievable, but… Yea. That’s my…
Rachel: Valley of the Dolls aesthetics, I really like the aesthetics. I agree.
Monica: Oh, did you see it?
Rachel: I did, I did and you know, just for the colors, and costumes, and hair alone, you know, it’s worth a watch.
Nora: Cool, yeah, I’ll check it out. I mean, I do like a lot of, like, old movies and you know, I definitely do a lot of, like, Criterion and my comfort food is definitely like old musicals, like, on election day, I watched Pennies From Heaven, which I love, and I, like, have recently watched Satan in the Rain and I also think I miss theater.
Monica: But you mean the original Pennies in the Rain, not the Steve Martin, right?
Nora: No, no. I watched the Steve Martin one cause I love Bernadette Peters. I just have a thing about that. Um, I mean I love the lip-syncing just cause it’s, like, so intentional. Um, I feel like all my picks are really corny but, I mean, I’ve have been watching some, like, some really good films. I was just trying to think of, like, the best film that I’ve seen this year. Um, and I think it might be this film called, I think it’s called First Cow or the First Cow. Did anybody see this? Um. It’s Kelly Reichardt and uh, she did some other movies that are, like, very subtle and….
Monica: Oh, they’re very subtle. Lucy… Lucy….
Nora: Yeah, and she does, like, a lot of really, I mean her cinematography is amazing. Like, I think she uses a lot of, like, natural light and definitely, you know, is really interested in, kind of like, the compositional side of the movie and, it’s literally just kind of, like, about a bunch of, um, people who are going west, uh, like fur trappers and, you know.
Monica: Oh, are you talking about Meek’s Crossing. Isn’t that the film?
Nora: No, no, no. It’s called First Cow.
Monica: It’s another one?
Nora: Yeah, and it’s *inaudible*, kind of like frontier times where people are, you know, going west to find gold and there’s kind of, very, in like, I don’t know if it’s set in California or Oregon, you know, it’s set on the West Coast and there’s not even, like, towns yet. It’s, um, it’s more like, you know, just like kind of like these little settlements of, like, where there’s maybe some provisional housing and a couple of, like, you know, like a market and maybe one kind of house and, like, the British are still very there, you know, and it’s just about these two guys that, um, become friends, um who are kind of both not accepted by the bands of fur trappers that they are traveling with until they get to this outpost and, um, one of the British, kind of, I guess, like, colonizer guys that’s just like hanging out there at this point, Admiral or something, um, gets a cow imported so that they can have like, you know, milk in their tea and whatever. And so these two guys, they start, they start, um, stealing milk every night because one of the guys is a cook and they sell these, like, fritters that they make and it’s like there’s so much suspense in this movie cause you’re like, they’re going to get caught and, like, killed for just stealing this milk. Um, I can’t describe how, like, suspenseful it is, um, but it’s really actually just like about these two dudes that are really good friends. Um, it’s like a really great movie about friendship, um, and, it’s I mean, it’s so subtle, the framing, but I don’t know, it’s just like, you’re like, the stakes seem so low that they’re just, like, stealing some milk but you’re, like, it seems like it can go really wrong for them and I won’t spoil the movie but it’s really beautiful to watch too. I mean, a lot of it is very dark cause there’s, like, some, a lot of the, you know, cow milk stealing happens at night so they kind of, um, use, like, minimal lighting. I don’t know. It’s a really beautiful film, so that’s a little, I mean, I feel like I was just, yeah, that’s a little more highbrow than my Coming to America recommends or my *inaudible*, maybe or something. I don’t know, I don’t know.
Monica: Yea. No, I mean, she’s a great director. I really like her and thank you for mentioning that film. I’ll make an effort to see it.
Nora: Yeah, I think it’s streaming so, it’s new. I mean, it came out this year, maybe. I don’t think it had a theatrical release but, yeah. One of the best films I’ve seen this year for sure. So let’s just take one more commercial break and come back and, you know, talk about books since we are librarians.
Commerical: Today’s podcast is brought to you by Hip Hop Dance by Audrey DeAngelis and Gina DeAngelis, available now as an e-book at the City Tech Library. This title takes an inside look at hip-hop dance and examines the origins of many styles of hip-hop dance, such as breaking and locking and popping, and explores how they burst into the mainstream and went global.
Nora: And welcome back to City Tech Stories. So, let’s just hear a few recommendations. I’d love to hear what people are reading, um, it’s always good to get new book recommendations, so whoever would like to kick it off.
Nanette: I haven’t read them but I was at a, um, meeting and I just heard about these titles, so they’re… My list of what to buy has gotten a little bit longer, um, and, um, I share it with you in two seconds cause of course I forgot, but it was, it was interesting like, Oppression and Algorithm was one of them. Um, the other one, Maura, were you at the meeting, the same meeting with me or did I? I probably sent you the note from the meeting. But it was just the, um, one was a bell hooks book about the, um, okay, come back to me, come back to me. I’m going to get my list of titles.
Nora: Yea, yea, we can come back to you. Yes. Good to hear what people are also aspiring to read too cause I know it’s hard to pay attention.
Junior: Yea, we actually have a copy of Algorithm of Oppression in the library, um, a physical copy. Yea, it’s a great read, I think everyone who works, anyone that works in the library or uses the library or uses the search engine should definitely read that book.
Monica: Junior, is it readable in terms of the writing style? I always kind of feared reading it cause I thought it would be too academic and dry.
Junior: Oh, yea, it is pretty academic for sure. Um, I think that’s the intended audience, but, I mean, saying that though, just skimming through it and seeing how algorithms work, I think it reveals a lot of how flawed they are and how there’s a lot of implicit bias that, um, in the systems
Monica: Definitely sounds like it’s worth reading.
Nora: Yeah, it’s been on my list for a long time. I’m really not good at reading non-fiction, like, I can read a little bit of it but then I always peter out, like, for me to read a whole non-fiction book is, like, a feat.
Monica: Yeah, unless it’s a bio, right? Unless it’s a biography or a memoir.
Nora: Yeah.
Monica: Exactly.
Nora: I can read memoirs, yeah. I just need….
Monica: I’m reading…
Nora: Go ahead Monica.
Monica: No, I mean, speaking of non-fiction, I’m reading the new Kurt Andersen book, Evil Geniuses: the Unmaking of America and it’s like incredibly long and it’s taking me forever to read it and it’s kind of tracing the whole history of how we got to where we got to today in terms of income and inequality and, you know, how corporations found a way to take over everything in American life and politics and um… Man, you know, Kurt Andersen, you know, help me, he does Radio Lab? What is the name of his… or Studio 360, is that the name of his show?
Nora: It’s not Radio Lab but it could be Studio 360.
Monica: I think it’s Studio 360, but he has this wonderful voice. He’s one of these people that was made for podcasting and radio and he just this very, kind of droll way of speaking and I, you know, the book is really interesting, kind of overloaded with information but what’s cool is that, when he writes, he brings his speaking voice into his writing style and you can kind of hear him talking when you read the book. Um, so you know, I would just say, aside from the content in the book, which you know, just gets into, you know, everything, starting with Barry Goldwater, going through to, um, the Federalists Society part is what I’m reading now, just all the different things that happened in American history to create our current moment.
Nora: Sounds heavy though.
Monica: It is heavy. That’s what I’m saying. I don’t think I’m going to finish it before the book expires cause I’m reading it as an e-book, so I’m kind of like uhhh, that’s going to stink, I’m going to have to get online again and finish reading it like half a year from now.
Nora: Uh, yea. I definitely read for escape these days. Is anyone else reading any escapist lit?
Nanette: What’s interesting is that we’re in a pandemic and I really love, like, mystery and just, like, Alex Craft books, um, all that stuff and I just haven’t been doing that. Like, you know, the fun, fun stuff that I just to enjoy and get a kick out of. Um, I like… This is the time when I should be reading that the… cause I like mysteries and I haven’t been so it’s like I miss it.
Rachel: Nanette, what kind of mysteries do you like? I also like mysteries and I’m right in the middle of new P.D. James. Well, it’s not new; it’s new to me. Do you like, kind of the police procedurals or?
Nanette: Um, you know, I like it all. Like, I like the procedurals, I like the fun, you know the cozy mysteries when they’re in a small town, um, uh, like the Stephanie Plum ones, you know, just having fun. I like the Alex Craft, you know. I just enjoy, even like Nero Wolfe, I was reading some of those and um, I even replaced my Kindle Fire because the other one I had broke and um, so that I can get them from the library a little bit easier. I even was reading ones that, um, had steampunk in them and I can’t remember the name of the author last night. I said oh I have to remember the author but its…
Rachel: William Gibson maybe? No, no, that’s not right.
Monica: Oh, yeah. The father of steampunk.
Nanette: That I should be enjoying. Um… I haven’t been, so it’s…
Rachel: Yeah, Covid does change that. I, um, I read a lot of mysteries and I’m also not reading them as much as I used to or usually do. I did just finish, um, Truman Capote’s, um, oh why do I keep blanking the title. It’s his famous, In Cold Blood, um, which if you never read, it’s, it’s really amazing writing even though it’s, you know, a very sad topic but just, um. Yeah, I’ve read it a few times. It’s one of those that I can read again just for the writing. Um.
Nanette: Is that the one where, where he, I’m sorry, cause I was watching something and they were showing the filming of it, where the people traveled across the U.S for forty dollars or something like, for some reason they thought the family was rich, is that the one?
Rachel: Yes, yes, yup, and Truman Capote befriends one of the men who’s on, they both wind up on death row. Um, and he befriends one of them so he gives their whole backstory and it’s just really, um, yea, it’s just. His writing is just always one of a kind.
Nora: Yea, that’s, like, kind of the non-fiction that I can read, cause it’s, like, very narrative and very propulsive. Um, yea, I’ve gone through phases of, like, not being super able to focus on reading during the pandemic and then have, like, gotten into some good books. Um, yea, so right now, I’m reading, I’m rereading something that I’ve read before cause I’ve been, um, I’m obsessed with swimming, um, which is hard to do in a pandemic so I’ve actually read a lot of books about swimming and I, I, I don’t like reading e-books especially cause you know, on, on computer screens so much, I really can’t. So I been not able to get as many library books out so I’ve been buying stuff from, like, some indie book stores that I like to support. So I just picked up, like, my latest shipment of books, like, I reading right now The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch which is, it won the man booker, I think it’s from the 90’s. Um, it’s very over the top, um in like, you know, a very British way. It’s about a retired playwright and stage actor and director who, like, leaves London to retire, like, on, on the coast and he’s, you know, very kind of self-important, um, Charles Arrowby and, you know, he’s quote unquote famous and, you know, thinks kind of highly himself and has, like, a very romantic idea of, like, his own seclusion on the coast and, like, retreat from London and he’s, um, he’s going to write his memoirs. Um, but a lot of the book is about just, like, kind of road descriptions. It’s one of these books where I don’t know why it’s not boring. Like, he talks about, like, all the gross, like, British food he’s eating in, like, immense detail and I’m, like, it’s still very riveting, um, and the book does get more, uh, , like, and it’s also very meta in which he’s, like, writing but he’s writing about trying to write his memoir and, like, he’s, like, “Oh, and now I really feel like I’m writing my memoir because this scene I just wrote was so wonderful.” You know. Um, but a lot of it is about kind of obsession and about the sea kind of takes like this role and he increasingly because, like, an unreliable narrator, not just because he’s self-important but also because you know that he’s flor-, you know, putting all these literary flourishes into his memoir and he becomes obsessed with this woman in the town who, um, is someone that who he grew up with who he was in love with. But you also don’t know, as the book goes on, if it’s really her, you knowwhat I mean? Like, he, he, there’s a lot of projection, so … I don’t’ know. I definitely recommend this book. It’s not, um, it really is kind of like a slow read but I find it not boring even though a lot of it is like how he’s , like, eating a sardine and staring at the ocean and, like, wondering why none of his friends have written him letters and that kind of thing. So, I also, um, got The Waves of Virginia Woolf, The Waves. I want to read that next. I haven’t read it since college, um, you know, so I’ve been reading a lot of stuff about swimming. Um yea, and I definitely took a break from, like, not being super focused on reading and so I was trying to read, like, a lot more short stories and kind of, um, I took like a week off and read some novels and then kind of got back into it but I also want to, like, uh, pull up this other thing that I finished which is, I know this poet, um, he does a, he does a dream delivery service and he lives in Froude, California, um, and I know him kind of like through other poets, uh, in New York City, like kind of like, um, I don’t know, from kind of like the New York poetry scene because I, I used to kind of be kind of tapped into that. So, his name is Mathias, I don’t know how to exactly pronounce his last name. It’s S V A L I N A so I think it might be Svalina, I don’t know exactly how you say it, but anyway he does this dream delivery service and if you live near him in California, he just rides a bicycle to your house everyday with a dream that he writes for you, uh, or you can get the dreams mailed for, you know, if you cover the cost for postal and he writes you a dream every day, um, except on Sunday everyone dreams the same dream. So, you know, everyone who subscribes gets the same dream on Sunday and they’re just these really short, like, one page, um, dream and it’s just kind of nice to get, you know, mail, like, every day, sometimes you’ll get two at once or whatever, um, about, you know, your dreams especially since I don’t remember my dreams and so, I don’t know, I thought it would be a fun thing to do, just to get mail and, um, support, you know, a poet who does this project and uh, yea. I’ve also been, um, I’m also am subscribed right now, I really miss the theater, to an epistolary play that Arcs Nova is doing, um. It’s not good yet but, um, it’s just called P.S., um, and you basically just get letters that are other people, you know, it’s almost like reading an epistolary novel so it’s like letters between people so that’s kind of cool. I’ve been, you know, I been spending a lot of time reading in my bathtub so that’s some of my recommends.
Junior: Yea, I don’t think, um, I don’t mean to shift the conversation, I don’t think I’ve been reading that much. I mean, at the beginning of the pandemic, I was trying to read through as much fiction on my shelf as I could, um, so I read, like, the, uh, the children series, the Phil Classman, um, oh I forgot the name of it already, but it’s a trilogy about the familiars and …
Rachel: It’s Dark –
Nora: The Dark Materials, yes.
Junior: Yes, yes
Nora: Pullman, right?
Junior: Pullman, that’s right. Yeah, yes, yeah. But, yeah, that was, that was, yeah, that was a really good read but that was back in March, um, and as you can see, I can barely remember any of it but I really enjoyed it but, uh, me and a former CUNY librarian are actually working a bibliography project about marginalized communities and extreme music so that’s, um, you know, people of color, um, people who identify as LGBTQ and, you know, the intersection of those communities of those of extreme music so, you know, things like grindcore and hardcore punk and hip hop, um, so we got a grant from ALA to read and create this bibliography, um, so I’m going to start Tranny, which is the autobiography of Laura Jane Grace who is a transgender musician, um, who fronts the band Against Me! I’ve been….
Monica: Oh, yea, yea, yea, yea.
Junior: Mm? And then, um, I’ve been also reading the Beastie Boys book, I think, that came out last year or this year. Um, so it’s been a lot of music biographies and sort of, um, documentaries that, uh, that Jones who’s over at Cal Arts and I have been trying to prepare this bibliography so it’s a lot of, like, reading for, um, non-fiction but it’s also, you know, it’s, it’s a good change of pace from, um, just reading the news.
Monica: Mmhm.
Rachel: I think with the Riot Grrrl archive at NYU, um, I mean, not all of it’s right.
Junior: Mmhm.
Monica: Yeah.
Rachel: Sounds like a fascinating project especially, I mean, there’s a lot that happened in punk rock too, so…
Monica: Yeah. And just kudos to NYU for preserving the whole culture of downtown New York. I mean, they, they’ve been amazing about it.
Nora: Yeah. I missed that and I miss going to those archives. I used to go to the, um, to the labor archive there more than the, you know, the downtown collection but I brought my students, um, to see a lot of the documentation that I would like early theater history and they have some amazing stuff. Like, they have, like, dioramas of old sets and all that stuff.
Monica: Mmhm.
Nora: I know they did, I tried to watch, I read his Dark Materials and I’m not a fantasy person so, like, it was, like, you know, a stretch for me and I actually like, I like that trilogy a lot. They did a, I think it was a TV adaptation, but it wasn’t that good, or I couldn’t get into it. The, the CGI was a lot, you know, with the bear and everything.
Junior: Yeah, I remember I watched a few episodes of that and, um, I couldn’t get into it either. Um, and I know there’ s like a sequel trilogy as well that it starts some time down the line. But yeah, he’s a decent writer and it’s a good base there.
Rachel: Yeah, I heard that, those are really good.
Nora: Yeah, even if you don’t like YAR fantasy cause I
*inaudible*
Rachel: Yeah, not a fantasy person but, yeah. Yeah, I loved those and I remember, did, was Tilda Swinton in one of the film versions? She played the very evil. No, it was, um, Nicole Kidman, I think, actually did, in the movie version. Um, but it is kind of better to imagine the familiars which were these animal creatures, not to give too much of a spoiler away, than to see CGI version of them. Not as fun.
Nora: Uhh, cool, yeah, thanks. Yeah, uh, I forgot Nicole Kidman’s everywhere. So, Nanette, do you want to, um, did you find your list?
Nanette: Yes, I finally found the list.
Nora: Okay, let’s hear what you have, like, or what you aspire to read cause that’s good too.
Nanette: Well, the, the, the , so this week I had gone to case studies in critical pedagogy and that’s where they had mention the Algorithm of Oppression but they also mentioned, um, Teaching to Transgress Education, um, As The Practice of Freedom by Bell Hooks and Pedagogy of the Oppressed, um, by Paulo Freire. So, when, um, listening to the talk, I was, you know, thinking about it and I, um, didn’t, you know, I was just, I was like, “Wow!” Like, um, I haven’t been thinking of it. Like when I’m in the classroom mentioning that in terms of, like, the algorithms and the search cause you just have that fifty minutes and, like, how do you balance it out. So, um, so, that was just some titles that I just put on the list this week and then the, um, they also mentioned, um, Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose, um, Vargas, so, um, those are the titles that I, um, um, heard, like, heard about this week, but the, um, what was I going to say? So anyway, yes, it seems like I have to do a better balance with the fun stuff that I like, that I used to enjoy reading, um, like Walter Mosely and um, G.J., G.J. Rob and just, like, the fun mystery versus also the stuff, the academic stuff for work. So I, um.
Nora: Yeah, the Bell Hooks is really great and if you haven’t read Pedagogy of the Oppressed, it’s actually very readable, um, yeah. I mean, I think if you’re interested in critical pedagogy, like, I mean, a lot of the stuff in the West kind of draws from Freire’s work. It’s, it gets into, like, economics and also it does a really good job at, like, considering the perspectives and, like, the experience that everyone brings into the classroom as, like, part of every educational encounter which I think, you know, is easy to forget that but I think actually, like, online ed, like, I really, online ed has a challenge in teaching online but it is cool, like, especially when I had, like, one on one appointments with students cause it is a little bit personal, you know, and you are, like, in each other’s home in this way. Um, so yeah, it kind of reminds you like, I mean, like, obviously in the classroom we’re all coming from some place, right? And not just, like, our literal home, but, like, from our cultural experiences and all, where, you know, what we already know and what we’re expecting to happen in a classroom and all that stuff but, um, yeah. It’s, it’s, online education kind of just, like, reminds you that we’re all kind of juggling a lot of stuff, like, you know, helping students out who are like, you know, there are kids in the background or that kind of thing.
Monica: Oh, yeah.
Rachel: Yeah, I think…
Nanette: When this first started, I read something and I never thought of it that way, that once we step on campus, we’re all equal, like we all have the same background, same classroom, you know, and with us being off campus now and everything’s remote, the digital divide in America has been so, you know, it’s coming how, how, terrible this digital divide is because we have students that are homeless population, you know, and they have problems getting computers or even if they can get the free computers at the school, where do they get the Wi-Fi because libraries are closed. You know, I saw something with two, you know, two young girls had to sit outside a, um, a fast food chain to get internet service to do their homework. You know, so it’s just very, um, it’s just very sad like,, you know, we’re so blessed that we have a job and that we can work from home but we just have so many students that are struggling and falling through the cracks.
Rachel: It’s a shame that there isn’t the political will in New York City to have free public internet across the city, especially when they keep, um, you know what’s happening with the schools and how chaotic that is for the kids and the parents and the teachers. Um, it’s just, I’m, I’m frustrated with the lack of internet access too.
Monica: Oh, yeah. No, it’s not even just the free internet access. It’s the monopolistic practices of the few, you know, providers. I mean, you know, you don’t have much of any choice.
Nora: No, and then, you know, the price fixing is crazy. Like, even just like our bill has gotten crazy, I guess we, like, rent our modem. But yeah, so many of our students have so many barriers, um. I’m actually teaching a class on digital privacy next week for , um, a seminar, like an interdisciplinary sociology course on, that they study a lot of things related to technology and identity and, um, I actually found this really cool thing. The ACLU in Rhode Island actually, like, issued a statement to the school chancellors there and this is one element of digital privacy that I, like, have not considered, um, and they, you know, they were basically calling out the school district, um, on loan device surveillance because, you know, and I know so many CUNY students are using loan devices as well but because the devices technically belong to the school, like, not only could the ISP but like also I think some school administrators could, like, get access to things like their browsing history and stuff like that, so it’s really like a scary, weird …
Junior: Yeah, especially if the devices, you know, are going from Google, um, because I feel like anything built by Google automatically has some sort of tracking system regardless, um, or the Link NYC like those , you know, the ones that you see on the street or things like that. I know those are also problematic because even though those provide free internet, um, and, you know, free cell phone access and everything like that, that also tracks. There’s a lot of meta-data and, um, you know, data collection through those devices as well that I think people aren’t aware of.
Monica: I think we can presume that our data is being collected almost anywhere unless we’re using something that’s encrypted or, you know, otherwise locked down.
Junior: Right
Nannette: But it’s just, I just feel so bad for the students and the teachers.
Nora: Yeah, it’s definitely a hard time but hopefully, um, that people will listen to this and find ways to learn more about some of the issues that we’ve been talking about through, like some of the materials that you just recommended, Nannette, but also find some recommendations for how to escape and maybe learn about some music and podcast and movies and books and stuff that maybe not all of our listeners were aware of and, um. Yeah and I’ll try to do my best to find access, like, you know, links to everything, so anything that’s available through our libraries or through the public libraries or just available for free online so that we can link out to all the stuff in our show notes for today’s episode and, um, yeah. So, I just really want to thank you guys for all taking the time today. This was, like, a fun conversation. I know that I got some good recommendations and hope our listeners did too.
Nannette: Oh, and just a side for our collection if you’re going to link to our collection, the open archive, the open library is going to be starting, I think, this week or next week so any we have in our collection that’s five years or older, if there is; if we have a physical copy in our library, there will be an electronic copy available coming from the open libraries, so the internet archive open libraries. Sorry, my title is a little bit off, but we should, our, our electronic book collection should be growing, um, once people do a search in the catalog. So I think that may help some of our students with the collection in searching for books.
Rachel: That’s really good news.
Nora: Yeah, that’s great to hear. We’ll definitely, um, have more info about that out on our blog and social media channels for once that’s live. I think that’s just such good news cause I know it’s hard to not have access to our physical collection for sure right now. Um, yeah, appreciate all you guys all joining today and, um, you know, um, taking the time out to talk about this so, um, yeah, thanks everybody.
Rachel: Yeah, thank you. It was a lot of fun.
Junior: Thanks for listening to City Tech Stories. If you’re interested in other recommendations from the City Tech library, visit our website and https://library.citytech.cuny.edu . We’re also on Instagram and Twitter so be sure to follow us there as well. Don’t miss the next City Tech Stories episode. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts
Corrections:
- David Chang (not Daniel Chang) is the host and creator of the podcast Recipe Club.
- The film that stars Jonathan Majors is The Last Black Man in San Francisco
- William Gibson is credited as the father of cyberpunk.
Music / Podcasts
Iowa Dream by Arthur Russell Hidden History of the Human Race by Blood Incantation Buried Deep In A Bottomless Grave by Witch Vomit Honour Valour Pride by Bolt Thrower Mestarin kynsi by Oranssi Pazuzu Show No Mercy by Slayer the ocean is miles deep by king moody DREAMBOAT by LulucTV/ Movies
Books, reading
Algorithms of Oppression (ebook at NYPL)
Evil Geniuses (ebook at NYPL)
In Cold Blood (ebook at NYPL)
The Sea, The Sea (ebook at NYPL)
His Dark Materials (ebook at NYPL)
Tranny (ebook at NYPL)
Beastie Boys Book (ebook at NYPL)
NYC Downtown collection (Fales Library)
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen (ebook at NYPL)
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (audiobook at NYPL)
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (audiobook at NYPL)
