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Interrobang!?, a new local literary magazine, is having a reading tomorrow at Ada Books in celebration of their first issue, which is being released this month.  You can get a sneak preview of the issue here, but why not just head down to Ada to support the local literary crowd?

Tomorrow (Friday)
Ada Books
717 Westminster St
7pm
free (though the magazine is $4)

I semi-announced two projects, both of which I’m going to need some help with.  One was a call for models; I’m returning to NATB’s roots–photographing readers–for an exhibit that’s going to be downtown later this summer.  This weekend is the last round of photo shoots, though, so if you’re staying in Providence and want to take part you need to let me know immediately.

The other thing I announced was a call for readers; every year I like to do some sort of project based around Summer Reading, and this year it’s going to help out another local good cause.  So if you’re the type who likes to throw a book in your beach bag–or, for that matter, if you prefer to spend your summer basking in an air-conditioned library–send me an e-mail at thebuildings@notaboutthebuildings.com and I’ll fill you in with some of the top-secret details.

And stay tuned, as the website and blog will both be majorly overhauled very soon. (I know I keep saying that, but I mean it this time!)

Both the author and the reviewer are unhappy with this decision and plan to appeal.

[Law Library of Congress, via Twitter]

Not About The Buildings’ Third Annual Spelling Bee is coming!  It’s still six weeks away, but I know you’ll want to get practicing.

Competition will be fierce as some of the city’s biggest spartypantses compete for the Spelling Bee crown. There will be fame, honor and glory for the winner, and sorrow, infamy and more sorrow for everyone else. Benefits Not About The Buildings, an organization committed to supporting readers and writers.

$5 to compete, free to watch
AS220
115 Empire St, Providence
9 pm; be PROMPT if you want to spell.

[Thanks to Chris for noticing that I put a time but not a date on this.]

Library trustees voted on Thursday to start transitioning the nine neighborhood branches to the City.  At the same time, they suggested closing the Central library to the public, because, according to library spokesman Tonia Mason, the PPL would not be able to adequately staff the Central Library if the city gave all its money to the branches.  The logic here is completely insane; in addition to the fact that the Central Library is the go-to branch for anyone who lives or works downtown, the idea that a hundred-and-twenty year-old non-profit library with a thirty-plus million dollar endowment could not raise the money to keep one building open to the public is ridiculous.  Especially since they’ve already cut back staff once in 2004 (in a move that led to the formation of the Library Reform Group and the unionization of employees.)

The Library plans to issue pink slip to nearly all staff this week; the branch librarians will presumably become city employees after June 30, and according to the PPL’s plan only twenty-one employees will be retained downtown.  Since it hasn’t yet been determined which twenty-one people would be retained, the PPL is obligated by the union to issue 60-day notices to everyone, regardless of whether they’re eventually laid off or not.

You can read about this all in Library Journal, the ProJo and in Providence Business News.  You can see an interview with Tonia Mason on Channel 10 here.

[Thanks to Patricia Raub for all the articles; if you're interested, the Library Reform Group periodically sends out newsletters that are a little more timely than I am.]

Two notable events this week:

Celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich, of Lidia’s Italy fame, is going to be at Farmstead in Wayland Square signing books from 3-6.

Tomorrow, Kevin Roose, Noam Dorr, Sandra Allen, Rachel Arndt, and Emily Silverman will be reading at 4 pm at the Brown Bookstore.  They’re the undergraduate recipients of Brown’s Nonfiction Writing Program Awards.

Because I never cease to be entertained by people re-imagining things as book covers, here’s Flickr user Little Pixel, who re-imagined some of his favorite LPs as classic Pelican editions.  The Sleeper album above is, incidentally, one of the only Britpop albums I still listen to with any regularity.  (And Sleeper singer Louise Wener also wrote a novel, which is actually pretty good.)

[via Largehearted Boy]

This happened a full month ago now, and I can’t believe I’m only just getting to the recap…  But the Dead-In was fabulous!  Fifteen readers celebrated the end of winter (and St. Patrick’s Day) by reading Joyce aloud to a packed crowd at Ada Books.  The fifty-four page story took almost two hours to read, with nearly everyone on the edge of their closely-spaced seats the whole time.  Readers included Ada owner Brent Legault, last year’s Spelling Bee champion Maureen Reddy, and a number of readers from last year’s Frome-In.

There was also a really nice profile of Not About The Buildings in the Brown Daily Herald to coincide with the event.

More pictures after the jump: