RINCON LATINO : ¡DJ ... UN BOLERO POR FAVOR!

Para muchos, el bolero es simplemente una especie de canción romántica latina. Pero como en todas cosas que gozan de una permanencia cultural eterno como por ejemplo en los recintos locales como en una región ó más ampliamente como en los dispersos rincones del mundo ... hay cierto argot, cierto pensar, cierta cultura ajena y propia. Los Panchos fueron el conjunto emblemático del bolero. Claro que hubo otros conjuntos como "Los Tres Ases" ó el solista como en el caso del inconfundible Armando Manzanero. El listado es enorme y en este espacio corto no me permito listar el catálogo gigante de los demás artistas de este primoroso género musical. Fernando Linero es un poeta, músico, artista e historiador del bolero y ha escrito un diccionario dedicado al bolero. Por el momento no he podido lograrlo para ponérselos en sus fieles manos pero les exigo paciencia y por mientras disfruten del video y escuchen al autor Fernando Linero en esta entrevista de parte de la emisora colombiana Caracol Radio.

Try This @ Home: What Have I Read Lately?

There's a new feature in the library's catalog that many have been asking for. My Reading History is now available as an "opt-in" service. It saves a list of books you check out, beginning with the first item borrowed after you opt-in. Only you can see it - the list is not available to library staff. You can selectively delete individual titles or opt-out at any time - your choice.

My Reading History is off by default; to turn it on, click the "My Account" tab in the library's catalog, log in with your library card number and PIN, and look for the "My Reading History" button under the box containing your name.

With the new year just around the corner, and with book clubs and reading programs planning busily for spring and summer, My Reading History could become an easy way to remember books you liked or might want to recommend to others. It could also be a "feel-good" list - a trophy list - of reading accomplished (or movies watched, or books on CD listened to.)

Let us know how it works for you!

Book Review: Gold Rush Capitalists: Greed and Growth in Early Sacramento:

It all started on an early spring day in 1851 in Sacramento with a game of Monte, a classic game of the Old West. What resulted was the death of two men, Charles Myers, a wheelwright from Ohio, and Frederick Roe, a career thug and gambler from England.

As it turned out, accusations of cheating were discharged toward Roe; he protested, a fight broke out, and when model citizen Myers tried to break up the row, Roe leveled a pistol at his head and pulled the trigger. The results were mayhem and an eventual lynching of the Englishman from a massive oak at the Horse Market, or what would today be where 6th Street rests between “K” and “L” Streets.

Although a simple vignette within Mark Eifler’s larger text, Gold Rush Capitalists: Greed and Growth in Sacramento, the Roe lynching typified the growing pangs of the new American West, a place where few civil institutions existed. Eifler gives careful discussion to the young city’s behavior in the wake of the shooting, where Harvard-educated, landed merchants were driven by blood lust against the will of underpaid and undermanned policemen who implored due process. There is further value in Eifler’s look at one of the American West’s first class wars, known more commonly as the “Squatters Riot.” Child Sacramento was the domain of the wealthy speculator until migrants arrived from far and wide seeking cheap, workable land. The result was revolution on a miniature scale.

To Eifler, both of these events had meaning for a city slowly slouching toward stable economic and political institutions. It’s almost as if life in the antebellum west reflected a social experiment; an academic took a cross-section of America, threw it into a cultural, political and legal vacuum and simply stood back to see what happened. Eifler tells the story well in addition to providing a full history of the early city.

Book Review: Sacramento : Indomitable City

"Sacramento: Indomitable City" by Steven Avella. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, S.C., 2003.

Whether you're new to Sacramento or a long-time resident, a look at Steven Avella's effort is worth your time. This history of the city, from its Native American roots to its current-day challenge with affordable housing, is presented in a highly readable form; it's also laced with a number of great photos.

A large portion of Avella's research interests dwell in the early history of the Catholic Church in the American Midwest and California. In this regard, his treatment of the development of institutions of worship in the city is particularly strong. An additional strength rests in his discussion of the city's early growth in the context of disasters, both natural and manmade. Fire, flood, and famine are all integral features of the city's heritage and Avella's ability to deliver the essence of this history without burdening the reader with needless verbage is refreshing and effective.

Avella is a professor of history at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is currently working on a biography of Sacramento Bee newspaper editor C.K. McClatchy (1883-1936).

Historic Photos of Sacramento: History's Course? You Be The Judge

On July 8, 2007, the coffee table-style book Historic Photos of Sacramento, was presented at the Carmichael Library. The book contains over two-hundred photographs, covering the the city from the 1860s to the 1960s. The photos came from the Sacramento Archives Museum and Collection Center, while the chapter narratives were written by staff in the Central Library's Sacramento Room.

The talk, moderated by Central Librarian James Scott, focused on a comparison of photos from the book with those taken from the current day. Daily life in the context of history, demographics, population shifts, transportation trends and natural history were all touched upon during the one-and-a-half-hour program. From a single point, looking eastward from the corner of of 9th and "K," what can one conclude from the comparison of a photo taken in 1942 to a photo taken last week? The 38 program attendees were encouraged to provide their own perspective on the element of change as presented by the photos.
Scott also discussed the value of photos as a way of judging history with ones own two eyes. As opposed to the written word, which can often be unclear or overly academic, photos provide a 'what you see is what you get' perspective. In other words, photos are a window to the past that we all have the power to look through, study, and make our own conclusions about.

Scott and co-author/colleague Tom Tolley will be giving the same presentation on August 8, 2007, from 6:oo pm to 7:30 pm, at the Central Library's Sacramento Room at 828 "I" Street. Call 264-2920 for reserve a seat or go to http://www.saclibrary.org/. Books will be on sale for $39.95, with 40% of proceeds going to the Central Library's Friends affiliate.