#81334
09/26/2002 2:02 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
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What a job, Cap K.! Getting paid good money to look at all those Skinzenes and not doing nothing for 60 years. Wow!
The folks at ALA are accommodating and prompt. Mz. Beverly Becker sent this reply within an hour of my questioning post...
Dear Milo,
At ALA, we define a challenge as a formal, written complaint,
requesting that library materials be removed from the collection.
Local library policy would determine the exact procedures to be
followed, but most all require the complainant file a form with the
library to start the reconsideration process.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Beverley Becker, Associate Director
ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom
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#81335
09/26/2002 2:44 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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Well, I was interested in what the Canadian history was in this field, and managed to find a website about Canada's history with book-banning: http://www.efc.ca/pages/chronicle/chronicle.htmlin case anyone is interested what goes on in other countries. EDIT: Hey, CK, here's a bit from that site about NZ: Metro Toronto police bust an independent comic called Omaha, The Cat Dancer, which was being sold in a local comic store and features cartoon characters depicted as humanoid cats, dogs and other animals. They allege it glorifies bestiality. The same comic was examined in New Zealand and given the equivalent of a G rating for its responsible depiction of sexuality.
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#81336
09/26/2002 3:22 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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Posts: 1,346 |
Canada's history with book-banning
This is (in the end) a moderately inspiring triumph of common sense over catch-all legislation, Bean:
1982
Jean Chretien, as Justice Minister, introduces a child pornography bill that would have made it a crime, punishable by up to ten years in jail, to produce a "visual representation" of any one who "is or appears to be" under 18 engaged in "any sexually explicit conduct." Under opposition ridicule, particularly from Ray Hnatyshyn who got him to admit that a photo of a child eating a popsicle "in a suggestive way" would be an offense, and having been unable to produce a single pornographic scene involving children that couldn't be prosecuted under existing obscenity law, Chretien withdraws the bill.
The case against the new bill is probably worth remembering.
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#81337
09/26/2002 3:51 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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It's interesting that they seem to have a thing against lesbian bookstores, specifically. Also (maybe it's the way things were phrased on the site) many of the more recent bannings took place during "Freedom to Read Week". I wonder if the people at Canada Customs think that's some kind of a joke. Anyway, there's been a lot of criticism over the "discretion" that individual customs officers have. I don't know if anything will ever change.
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#81338
09/27/2002 9:47 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>Although still depicted as "burning" this book can be purchased anywhere in the West, can't it? Could make a very interesting read in light of the last year-and-a-bit's events.
I just looked it up on amazon.co.uk. I remember the huge fuss, death threats etc against Penguin Books (I think) who were going to publish the paperback. As far as I can see it was never published - to this day, the only paperback available in the UK is the US edition. Less a government ban (as Milo implies it was not banned here) but certainly a challenge to the lives of those who dared to publish it or sell it - demonstrable when the Norweigan publisherwas injured in 1993. I suspect that the publishers took the understandable decision not to join Salman Rushdie in hiding for ten years (at huge government expense).
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#81339
09/28/2002 3:45 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 3,146 |
Bean a dit ... EDIT: Hey, CK, here's a bit from that site about NZ: Metro Toronto police bust an independent comic called Omaha, The Cat Dancer, which was being sold in a local comic store and features cartoon characters depicted as humanoid cats, dogs and other animals. They allege it glorifies bestiality. The same comic was examined in New Zealand and given the equivalent of a G rating for its responsible depiction of sexuality.
Waaaaaaal, you know NZers and their sheep ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#81340
09/28/2002 3:09 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
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Posts: 872 |
At ALA, we define a challenge as a formal, written complaint,
requesting that library materials be removed from the collection.
Local library policy would determine the exact procedures to be
followed, but most all require the complainant file a form with the
library to start the reconsideration process.
Hope this helps.
Beverley Becker, Associate Director
ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom
Yesterday afternoon while at the downtown Birmingham Public Library, on a whim I decided to test Mz. Becker's statement as to how a library reacts to a challenge from a disgruntled citizen about a book in the library's collection. Mind, you picket storming friends of Librarius, I am not belaboring any point, I am merely reporting events as they transpired.
Me: (walking up to the most librarian-looking person of the five busy people working in the open-enclosure of the fiction department on the first floor.) Ah hem! Pardon me Miss, would you supply me a form for challenging a book that I feel is inappropriate for this library to buy and put on display?
Nice Lady: Gee, I don't know Mister, they just bring 'em to us and we put 'em on the shelves. Say, what book did you find offensive?
Me: (smiling) Mam, I didn't find any book offensive, I just wanted a "form" to show my chat-mates on a computer link that I frequent, how challenges to filth are handled in Alabama. After all this is Book Banning Week.
Nice Lady: (A long pause. then nervously) Yes! Yes! We have those forms! I have them here...somewhere. Can you give me just a minute. I've know they're here. I...
Me:( embarrassed by her duress ) Uh, take your time, I'm in no hurry. I'll be near-by looking over some books. I am sure you will find it.
I walk through the "L's and N's of fiction shelves while they (she has enlisted other workers to help) frantically go from desk to desk in search of the Book Banning form. Almost immediately I, with the serendipity born of the good, chance upon a book entitled "GAY EROTICA, GAILY DESCRIBED".
I thought - Boy Hidy, I bet I'd need a handful of forms for this hot number, and yeah, what about all the choice phrases that I could lift from this book to quote on Awad and thereby demonstrate my support of free speech?
But then I thought... Milo, you don't have the balls to check this book out.
So I don't.
Then from the corner of my eye I see the nice librarian. She is jumping up and down and waving her arms madly, a librarian's way of saying "Yoo-hoo!". With an imperceptible click of my heels I assume my best guise as a Gestapo Inspector General and walk in goose-step with a frown and a monocle toward the nice librarian. I slap my riding crop on her table and say, "Dame, fanden sie das papier? "
Me: Mam, did you find the paper?
Nice Lady: Yes! (beaming) Yes I did.
We move over to a high table and she shows me a thick loose leaf book of clear plasitic covered pages. Together we thumb through it but find no form. She is getting anxious, bordering on panic. Then, near the back, we come across a list of instructions on how to deal with a person who is complaining about the content of a library book.
Mercifully we read rule # 1 first, that advises; DON'T PANIC!
We laugh and skip to rule # 14 which said,
IF ALL ELSE FAILS TELL THE COMPLAINANT TO WRITE A DETAILED REPORT OUTLINING HIS OBJECTIONS TO THE ATTENTION OF THE CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR OF THIS LIBRARY.
That was it. There was no form.
Me: Well now we know. Thank you for your help, it is nice to know that there are librarians like you who so graciously serve the public.
Nice Lady:(a slight blush) Thank you, I'm sorry we didn't have the form....Wait! (calling me back) (whispering)...you know there's a lot books that I think we shouldn't carry, some of them written by hate groups, how to make a bomb and such, and you wouldn't believe some of the ones with foul language and perverted sex, why I'd shoot my own dog if I caught him reading such filth. Just yesterday a nasty
book came in and you wouldn't believe some of...
And she went on and on...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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#81341
09/28/2002 8:07 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 6,511 |
Milum, you are one hell of a good storyteller. I'm just glad I had no potable liquids in my mouth or there would've gone the keyboard! 
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#81342
09/29/2002 4:55 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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I'm just glad I had no potable liquids in my mouth or there would've gone the keyboard!
So you're saying that you had some non-potable liquids in your mouth?
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#81343
09/29/2002 6:08 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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#81344
09/29/2002 11:27 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sometimes even I like to play the straight man. 
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#81345
09/30/2002 2:54 AM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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LMAO, milum!!! Keep those card and letters coming! 
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#81346
10/01/2002 1:24 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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Posts: 1,346 |
Sometimes even I like to play the straight man
..feigning disinterest in "Gay Erotica, Gaily Described"?
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#81347
10/01/2002 1:31 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
So much of that gay erotica is so morose...
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#81348
10/01/2002 2:06 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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Posts: 1,346 |
So much of that gay erotica is so morose...
Yes, it's just tragic, dear heart, isn't it?
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#81349
10/01/2002 9:01 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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In reply to:
Yes, it's just tragic, dear heart, isn't it?
From Homo erectus by Ivana Humpfalot...
Hamlet kissed Horatio tenderly. He ran his hand along Horatio's muscular shoulder and said, "Denmark is lost I fall on my sword." He died.
Bruce wept. "A noble heart here breaks. Goodnight sweet prince, and tunes of ABBA sing thee to thy rest. "
ENTER Fortinbras: "This quarry cries on havoc!
Let four drag queens bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage; For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldiers' music and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him.—
Take up the bodies.—Such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers dance."
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#81350
10/01/2002 10:16 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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This could end up being pretty obnoxious, since we are mostly (but not all, I can assure y'all) white straight people. I propose we put an end to this sub thread.
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#81351
10/01/2002 10:30 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Whatsa matter, AnnaS?...worried someone you know might get his boa out!
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#81352
10/01/2002 10:51 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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In reply to:
Whatsa matter, AnnaS?...worried someone you know might get his boa out!
Pro'bly not. I heard he broke the heel on one of his sequin stilettos and has been in bad form ever since...
For the record for our "Enquiring Minds," stiletto is derived from "stylus" or "dagger." And, Asp, please don't get any ideas about at whom you'd like to throw that broken dagger...
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#81353
10/02/2002 2:52 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
In reply to:
since we are mostly (but not all, I can assure y'all) white straight people. I propose we put an end to this sub thread.
Well of course we could always issue a formal complaint to any library which housed this thread, perhaps on grounds of failure to uphold the noblesse oblige by the white folks. (Or the straight folks.) Or perhaps on grounds of insulting the Bard.
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#81354
10/02/2002 6:11 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
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> and tunes of ABBA sing thee to thy rest
I would have thought that "Waterloo" would have been one of his favourites ....
Darn, it was just getting interesting ...
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#81355
10/02/2002 11:28 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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I would have thought that "Waterloo" would have been one of his favouritesI suppose he never quite made it as a Dancing Queen, though he was a Super Trooper. He should have sent an SOS to his Italian-born Spanish friend Fernando, who would have said "Mamma Mia - but of course you can Take a Chance on Me!" and rushed to help, if only he could have afforded a ticket to Denmark. Always comes down to Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Money, Money, Money, doesn't it? The Name of the Game is Life, and I Wonder if I'm ever going to win, Knowing Me. Knowing You lot, you don't care, even if you say (quintessentially): "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do!" So Long, folks, and Thank You For the Music. Oh, and all the fish. 
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#81356
10/02/2002 12:30 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Posts: 1,819 |
On the subject of ABBA's music, if you like the group then you would enjoy the hilarious Australian film "Muriel's Wedding." The film has many other charms besides its music, but the soundtrack of ABBA songs is an extra treat.
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#81357
10/02/2002 12:31 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Go and see Mamma Mia! if you get chance. And you like Abba. A really good show. You don't have to be gay so much as happy to enjoy it.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#81358
10/02/2002 12:43 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, *I* like ABBA, she said, glaring around challengingly.
What's "Mamma Mia"? A movie?
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#81359
10/02/2002 1:02 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Mamma Mia is a broadway (and west end, too, i guess) show, with ABBA songs strung together to move the story line along.
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#81360
10/02/2002 1:09 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 11,613 |
Thanks, Helen. In that case, I doubt I'll see it. Even if it comes to Louisville, I tend not to spend money on that sort of thing; heck, I don't even like to pay full price for first-run movies: mostly we go to matinees! The only show that I've paid to see in, oh, a couple decades or so, was Riverdance, last year. It was wonderful, but I still cringe at the cost of the tickets.
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#81361
10/02/2002 1:14 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
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Posts: 1,346 |
I've seen Muriel's Wedding, Alex - brilliant, with or without the soundtrack. For some reason I associate it with Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert (more understandably) and Strictly Ballroom (less understandably). Also brilliant and entertaining films. Mamma Mia!Not seen yet, Cap. My problem is that Abba were about the first band I got into (ah, but I was so much older then...  ), but then I came out the other side well before their kitsch [sp?] resurrection. Not that I hate all their music now, but if I hear Dancing Queen I'm more likely to slit my wrists than go for a happy bouncy dance.
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#81362
10/02/2002 1:18 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,803 |
The original subject of this thread was National Band Books.
My favorite national band book has always been Seventy-six Trombones: The story of John Philip Sousa and the Marine Corps Band by Harold Hill.
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#81363
10/02/2002 2:40 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
In reply to:
For some reason I associate it with Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert (more understandably) and Strictly Ballroom (less understandably). Also brilliant and entertaining films.
I love all those movies. On a recent re-viewing of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert I was surprised to see that Guy Pearce, who was in L.A. Confidential as Lt. Exley, was one of the drag queens.
Strictly Ballroom is my favorite of the bunch.
They are all Australian films, and very good, and I thought that there was a common director. But a quick look at amazon shows that they have different directors.
Baz Luhrmann Strictly Ballroom
P.J. Hogan Muriel’s Wedding
Stephan Elliott Priscilla …Desert
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#81364
10/02/2002 3:19 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
I was surprised to see that Guy Pearce, who was in L.A. Confidential as Lt. Exley, was one of the drag queens
Yeah, and the most convincing one!
Priscilla was, of course, Hollywoodized as, uh...To Wong Foo - Thanks For All The Fish or something. Occasionally you get the impression that many movie-going USns treat foreign films as others treat foreign language films - something challenging to watch, more worthy than entertaining.
But I think that's changing, albeit slowly. I'd assume that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for instance, took off in the US as much as over the Pond. And then Jackie Chan has done a great job of popularising [dubbed] HK films.
Strictly Ballroom is my favorite of the bunch
Might be mine, though Priscilla is very close. Seen Moulin Rouge (by the same director, Baz Luhrmann) ? Definitely my favourite recentish film.
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#81365
10/02/2002 3:38 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,803 |
And for any of y'all who don't stay through the credits, I would advise you to overcome your scruples for Priscilla.
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