Meet More Chicksoons

Want to meet more chicksoons?  Well, they're hatchlings once they're out of their shells.  Broadway Gal has the scoop on her Hatching Chicks @ MPL blog, but I don't think she would mind if we posted a trio of action chick videos.

Meet Tacky

Meet CP2

Chicksoons Starring in the Great Egg-scape

Frankly Eggs-hausted After All This Egg-citement,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Hatching Chicks News Beat

P.S.  Roger Hodgson performed "Hide in Your Shell" with orchestral accompaniment in this video (2010).  He originally wrote and recorded this song with Supertramp on the album Crime of the Century (1974).  Seems like so long ago now.

Temperature's Rising in Friday Features

Hoosiers are enjoying record warm temperatures this week, and it looks like the temperature is rising on Friday Features as well.

Click to Bigify

A couple of old favorites have returned to the current top ten viewing list for the MPL YouTube Channel.

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

(MPL Book Trailer #17)

Lost Horizon, by James Hilton

(MPL Book Trailer #41)

We enjoy creating book trailers because it's fun to give viewers some idea of what a book is about and why it would be fun to read it.  The trick is where to place the "hook"--how to capture, and retain, the audience's attention--which is strongly influenced by another consideration:  namely, how much plot should be revealed?  Our book trailers are decidedly low-tech, because voice-over and multiple, live-action clips require too much time for our staff to devote, given everything else we have to do.  But we have fantastic soundtrack music, thanks to the Library's composer, whom I call the Music Man.  That's the best part of our videos, I think.

If we're lucky, perhaps one (or more) of our book trailers has spurred you to read a book (or books).  That would make all the hard work worthwhile.


Why Say "Cheese" For the Camera; Why Not "Tuna"?  Just Asking,

Cauli Le Chat
MPL Roving Reporter
Video Viewing News Beat

MPL Banned Books Week 2011 Promo Trailer

MPL Banned Books Week 2010 Promo Trailer

P.S.  Thinking of Fahrenheit 451 reminded moi of the American Library Association's Banned Books Week, for which we made a couple of promo trailers.  Both are in our all-time top 20 viewing list.

Spring Has Sprung Around the Library

by Cauli Le Poussin
MPL Special Correspondent
Nature News Beat

Hey!  Wow!  Look around at all this super-cool nature stuff at the Library!  Outside!  Spring has certainly sprung as you walk along Legacy Lane around the perimeter of the building.  Click the images below to bigify.

New to Legacy Lane?  Formally, it's called the MPL Pathway to Knowledge: Grounds for Learning Project.  You may even have commemorative engraved pavers placed there!  How cool is that?

It certainly is good to see all the wonderful new growth around the Library.  Hey, I was just hatched!  EVERYTHING is beautiful to moi.  (I'm a French chick, just like Cauli Le Chat is a French feline.)

Saunter around outside the Library, as well as inside, on your next visit.  You'll like what you see, and you can see what you like.

My Very First Post--Deadline Met, I'd Say,

Cauli Le Poussin

MPL Special Correspondent

Nature News Beat

P.S.  Ray Stevens sees the world like a newborn chick.  "Everything is Beautiful" (1970) topped Billboard's Hot 100 Pop Singles charts.

Meet Our New Special Nature Correspondent

Although it would be impossible to replace Jules Le Chat, we need a new special correspondent for nature news, and the Lady With the Red Hair offered another of her spot-on suggestions.

Cauli Le Poussin

Cauli Le Poussin is an excellent fit as our nature news special correspondent.  Baby chicks are symbolic of new birth (and rebirth), and this is what spring and nature and the entire plant kingdom is all about.  Chicks hatch from apparently lifeless eggs, which is comparable to plants re-emerging after the cold, barren winter, which, admittedly, wasn't all that cold for us Hoosiers this year.

The ancients understood this cycle of dormancy and rebirth in nature.  Plant resurrection was symbolized in Greek mythology by Persephone, who was the daughter of Zeus, big cheese among Olympian gods, and Demeter, goddess of agriculture.  According to the mythology, Persephone became queen of the shades, or trapped spirits, when she was abducted to the underworld (i.e., symbolic of plant dormancy in early winter) by the god Haides.  Persephone was permitted to return to Olympus (spring, summer, early fall) for two-thirds (some stories say half) the year, while returning to the underworld (late fall, winter) for the remaining one-third (or half).  Obviously, they didn't live in Minnesota, where winter lasts much longer (or so it seems).  Persephone's return from the underworld symbolized the rebirth of spring.  In the Greek Eleusinian religion, she was worshipped as the goddess of spring alongside her mother, Demeter.

The point is that Cauli Le Poussin is perfect as my special nature correspondent.  A chick's entire world appears new, fresh, and alive, so we should get an energized perspective.  Although I consider Cauli to be a girl's name, Broadway Gal said that Cauli chick is a boy, so we'll run with that until we hear otherwise.  He had better get moving--his first blog post deadline is today.  Look for his inaugural story tomorrow.

Welcome to the team, Cauli Le Poussin!  Now get to work.


Like, Now, Cauli Le Poussin,

Cauli Le Chat
MPL Roving Reporter
Special Correspondents News Beat

P.S.  A 17-minute agricultural short, The Chicken of Tomorrow (1948), talked about efforts to improve chicken production and productivity in post-World War II America.  A slightly different version of this film was riffed on Mystery Science Theater 3000, as the introductory short to the episode featuring the horrible horror movie The Brute Man (1946).  The MST3K treatment is much funnier.  You can find it on YouTube.  Better yet, buy MST3K DVD volume XXII.  Just saying.

Sammy the Toucan Flies Solo

Since Wild Thang is attending the Public Library Association (PLA) national bigbash in Philadelphia, Sammy the Toucan flew solo for this week's video installment of Explore to Learn:  Early Literacy Fun. Sammy featured several books involving chicks, eggs, and hatching--what else?--and introduced viewers to a couple of recently hatched chicksoons, which, I guess, I'll now have to officially call chicks, since they're OOEE (out-of-egg-experienced).

The digital camera was on a tripod, so we had to swivel left to pan the shot rather than move the whole apparatus.  That made the left-side books facing off-center.  Hey, there were just Sammy and Scowl-Face there to make it so.  They only have two hands and two wings between them.


Actually, Broadway Gal was there, too, to direct and act as chick herder. Directing is an all-consuming job, so we needed to have a property master to handle the props (books).  Don't ask Scowl-Face, however. Running the camera already exceeds his limited cognitive skills and manual dexterity. He works cheaply, though.  Just plug a 52-oz. carbonated beverage into his face, and he's a happy camper.


Sammy did excellent work, but we'll be glad when Wild Thang returns. She and Sammy make a great team for early literacy video-making.






I'd Have Helped, But I'm More the Producer Type,


Cauli Le Chat
MPL Roving Reporter
Early Literacy News Beat

P.S.  Watching those chicks reacting to Sammy the Toucan reminded moi of the Carpenters' first number one single, "(They Long to Be) Close to You," which appeared on their second LP, Close to You (1970).  Covers of Burt Bacharach/Hal David songs were really chart-toppers in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Take a peek at Billboard's Hot 100 Pop Singles charts for the period, say, between 1967 and 1971 and count the number of Bacharach/David compositions that rode the American top 40.  Karen Carpenter's life ended tragically (1950-1983), but thanks to video archival preservation, we can continue to enjoy her terrific singing voice.  She was the first girl that Scowl-Face had ever seen as a pop group drummer, and she was pretty good, too.  He was instantly smitten.  Drummers have that effect on fans.