Saturday, January 19, 2008

Mr Scruff and why the internet is lovely


Finding something new is always exciting and for me finding exciting new music is always cool so I am grateful to Terrible Love Songs for helping me find Get A Move On as well as a lot of other cool stuff. I woke up the Amsterdam public library when I clicked on her blog and music blasted out of the MacBook but nobody noticed here on the fifth floor where most of the students sit. This is an amazing building and much more than a traditional library with lots of desktop internet terminals, and ongoing art exhibitions and events for both children and adults. In fact there are so many lovely distractions that I hardly get to read a book! It's no longer as quiet as in the picture, which was taken just after the opening.


I did manage to find a book to read, James Gleick's biography of Isaac Newton, without whom I would not be writing this now. Newton seems fitting reading, surrounded as we are with all of the technology whose very foundations lay in his ideas and contribution to science. Thanks to his laws we must keep on moving. The internet is indeed lovely! Would the world be a better or worse place if Newton had never lived? Joli weekend, mes amis!

2 comments:

chalky said...

The Amsterdam public library looks and sounds great - makes the London ones look really dated-there's talk of some public libraries being shut down in the UK - that makes me sad, I think libraries are great and I use them every week.

Bon weekend!

Chalky

PS I've turned off the automatic songs that start to play on my blog ;-)

Unknown said...

Amsterdam's public library is ubercool and I'll be doing a lot more posts about it. Good that you turned off the automatic songs so I no longer surprise the person next to me when I visit your site.