October, 30, 2005 archives

in the “fiesta at a mission” mural by albert herter in the children’s department at the los angeles central library, there are plains indians among the crowd. when he was asked why this was, since they clearly weren’t native to the area and it seems a bit of a historical inaccuracy, herter replied that “they were visiting.”

(there is also a plains indian in the “americanization” mural in the rotunda, by cornwell — no story for why that is.)

the murals by herter were originally in the hope tunnel entrance to the library, but were moved to what was then the history reading room because of water seepage and poor lighting in the tunnel. as a result of the cleaning of the murals after the library fires in 1986, you can see clearly in at least one of the murals how they were expanded to fit the space in their new location.

a bottle of freshburst listerine leapt to its doom in my bathroom and nearly half of it spilled out. so now my whole apartment smells minty.

a storm of swords by george r.r. martin is the third book in the a song of ice and fire series, and i think it is the best of the series so far. it is more clear how each of the threads of the plot are coming together — or if not how they are coming together, at least that they are coming together. unlike a clash of kings, the second book, i think this one also is better for being a little more self-contained, and coming to a more natural conclusion. but still a cliffhanger of a conclusion, to be sure.

apparently the series is going to be six books long, and with each book weighing in around a thousand pages, that’s a hell of a lot of story. and there are times when i wonder if any of the characters in the first book are going to be left by the end of the last.

the fourth book is already out, although the library doesn’t yet have any copies and there’s a long-ish hold list.

(yeah, i spent most of my weekend reading a 900+ page fantasy book. the more things change, the more they stay the same.)