Focus in a Busy World: The GrapeVine Listening Room

One of the topics that I enjoy researching in my spare time is human attention and the ability to focus. If you spend enough time online you'll find articles, anecdotes, and studies that talk about how we live in a time where our attention is being pulled in every direction. One of the common assumptions is that because we have so much portable technology and such easy access to our friends and our entertainment, we lose the ability to focus on what is in front of us. We force our brains to try and listen, watch, text, type, talk, walk, etc. all at the same time. Some of these tasks can be done at the same time, but the true tasks that we enjoy and want to absorb deep into our bones cannot be done at the same time. Multitasking, the studies tell us, simply doesn't work well when it comes to higher level tasks. What are we to do when presented with so many tempting things to focus on?

Enter the GrapeVine Listening Room in Clive, Iowa and you will rediscover your focus.

If you're going to see a live show of a local band, you'll most often find yourself in a bar. These bars almost always have televisions, loud conversations, and kitchen noise. Most of the time, that's fine, we don't mind that. I frequently go to places like that to listen to the bands I like. The GrapeVine is a different kind of venue. They serve wine by the bottle and the room (yes, it's a single room) holds about 35 people with a small stage at the back. You immediately feel cozy upon walking in, especially with a big, comfy couch over on the left side of the room. 

There are no televisions. There is no kitchen. It's a listening room.

I saw my first show there last night and it was fantastic. My friend plays keyboard for a great local roots rock band called Brother Trucker and they were performing there last night. You are expected to be in your seats and ready to go at 7:00 sharp. No cell phones allowed, no conversation during the performance. Just listen. One of the owners told us exactly what to expect and what the rules were before the band started playing. Three of my friends and I brought some snacks to share at our table. We poured our wine, ate some snacks, and relaxed. Then the show began.

First of all, Brother Trucker is a fantastic band. I see them frequently and they know how to rock. But the best part about seeing them at the GrapeVine is that they are literally right in front of you, packed together on the small stage, and they're not blowing you out of your seat. They've got the volume just right. Because you are so focused on the band and nothing else, you get to hear all of the lyrics. You can pay close attention to how the bass player changes the way he plucks his strings, the different movements in the eyes and feet of the lead singer, and the movements and gestures of the lead guitarist. I've seen my friend play the keyboard many times with these guys but this was the first time I actually was able to see his hands as he played. There were unique ways his fingers touched the keys as he played different songs.

This place worked so well because your entire attention, everything you are, was focused on the band. And the lead singer gave each member of the band an opportunity to tell a story, pick a song to play, and give back story on what the songs meant, where they came from, and the unique relation each song had to someone in the band. You could see the band as an organic thing, watching the players watch each other for cues, keeping the time with their feet in different ways. It's one thing to see a band live, but it's another thing to experience it in full focus like this. It's as if you are part of the band, sitting just above their shoulder as you gaze around at the creation of the music.

If you live in the Des Moines metro area, heck, if you live in Iowa, you should come to the GrapeVine and check it out. It's a small place in a big, busy, attention-hungry universe. But it reminds you of how important it is to focus, to pay attention, and to rediscover something you love so much.

Memorial Day

As a democratic republic, we can and should have social discussions about the role of the modern military and our use of force in a 21st century world. On Memorial Day, however, we take a moment to remember the ideals that our armed services fought and died for, from Lexington and Concord to the fields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Each cause was unique, different, and involved a complex set of ideals and passions.

However, I took time today to ride my bike to a private establishment to enjoy the beautiful weather with a friend, watch baseball, and have excellent conversation. Along the way, I took advantage of clean air, taxpayer funded trails, a well-built bicycle made by American hands, clean and safe food and beer, and entertainment that has long been part of America's history.

Now I know that probably few, if any, soldiers thought of these kinds of things as they sat in foxholes and ran into gunfire during all of our conflicts. But the fact of that matter is that these women and men fought, and died, to keep this way of life, this system of government, this last, best hope of Earth alive for future generations to pass along to their children. Because embedded within days like this are the freedoms to evolve, to conjure new ideas, to elaborate on what is possible, and to disagree, without conflict, with your neighbor. This is the essence of of the American way of life. We have changed as a people from the centuries before, but we have always had the unique ability to disagree, to think about new things, and not be beholden to the previous generation in terms of ideas from the ancien regime.

So although I did not run into any veterans today to thank, nor did I actively do anything to remember them, I did do one thing that I think is important: I lived the way I wanted to. I was not dictated to, I was not forced to do anything, and I did not live in fear of someone watching over me.

To me, that is what it means to be an American. Happy Memorial Day.

ACRL 2013 - Librarians and Ideas

I had the opportunity to attend the national conference for the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) a couple of weeks ago in Indianapolis. This was my first national conference, as I usually attend state and regional conferences. I knew going into it that it would be the biggest conference I had ever been to, but I approached it with optimism and hope that I could bring some good ideas home.

On that first morning, it hit me like a ton of bricks: there are a ton of librarians in this country.

There were thousands of librarians at the conference, and 1100 of us were first-timers. The keynotes of Geoffrey Canada and Henry Rollins were really interesting, but I was there to hear from librarians who had tried new things, had success with projects, tried new teaching methods, and figured out ways to assess their work better. See, most library conferences are great because people are looking to find out what works, what doesn't, and how we can evolve our craft. Normally you go home with a large amount of notes on ways to improve what you do. At a regular state or regional conference you might go home with a grocery bag of ideas. At this conference I felt like I was trying to capture an avalanche of ideas.

One of the best parts of attending was discovering that there are a number of things we are doing at our institution that closely resemble what some of the 'bleeding edge' libraries are doing. That makes you feel like you're having a big impact. However, there are many areas that we have to work on as well. But that's the whole point of going, to discover how to get better and serve your patron community the best you can. So even though it was overwhelming (so many people!), it was a wonderful group of people to hang out with, ask questions of, and bounce ideas off of. There are times when you feel like you could keep conference-ing for weeks, but then you realize you are exhausted and have to recharge at the end of the day.

It was great to see current friends and colleagues, like my buddy Carl who is just about to graduate from library school at Illinois, and my friend Robin at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Plus, I got to see lots of old friends from library school. Best of all was meeting new people and starting new relationships. Those are the kinds of things I want to keep doing because those relationships are where some of the best, new ideas will come from. And hopefully I can reciprocate.

So all in all, it was a great time and Indianapolis was a nice city. It all happened so quickly but I hope I can join my colleagues again in Portland for the 2015 conference.

Boston and Dr. Tyson

Just a quick post this morning.

Last night, I traveled up to Iowa City to see Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson with two of my friends. He was fantastic. He brought the humor, the science, the passion that he is known for. It was a wonderful night, especially after a long day at work and learning about the Boston Marathon Attack.

Near the end of his talk, Dr. Tyson reminded us all of something incredibly important that transcends everything he had talked about before. Invoking the spirit of Carl Sagan, he showed the audience a photo (seen below) that the Cassini probe took of a Saturn-solar eclipse. Saturn was sitting in front of the sun, creating an eerie glow around the planet and its rings. But hidden off to the left of the rings was, as Sagan so famously called it, the Pale Blue Dot.

It is Earth.

Dr. Tyson reminded us, as his mentor Carl Sagan did, that on that tiny pale blue dot exists everything you have ever known, including all the rulers, bloodshed, and accomplishments of history. It even includes the tragedy of Boston. When we look at the Pale Blue Dot, we must remember to be humble, to treat each other with kindness, and to remember that we are all a part of a greater universe.

When we teach people that, let us hope that they understand the importance of this life on Earth and make it the best one they can. If we teach this way, we can hopefully snuff out the evil that exists and lingers in our world. And hopefully never have another Boston attack again.

NOVA: Meteor Strike

I had a delightful evening a couple of weeks ago when I happened upon an excellent NOVA program on PBS entitled "Meteor Strike." The program detailed not only the threat to Earth from space-bound rocks but showed examples of previous meteorite strikes. I learned that some meteors are actually made almost entirely out of metal. A British museum showed how one of their meteorites had actually been crafted into a perfect trailer hitch.

The main part of the episode, though, focused on the recent February meteorite strike near Chelyabinsk, Russia. This was the most documented meteorite strike in world history, thanks to so many Russian dashboard cameras. On a side note, Russians are terrible at driving and require huge amounts of expensive insurance, so lots of people carry these cams on their dashes to prove what happened. Who would have ever guessed they would record an historic, scientific event?

The science in the episode is breathtaking. One of my favorite parts involved a scientist who traveled from the U.S. to Chelyabinsk to find the spots from which most of the videos had been taken. Using these measurements, he and his team were able to then pinpoint where the meteorite originated in outer space and what track it came at through the atmosphere. They were also able to determine the size, speed, and trajectory of the object  as well. They even found shards of it in the nearby Chelyabinsk fields. 

Programs like this help us understand nature quite a bit but they also remind us that we need to remember that we are not immortal. If this strike had occurred just a little differently over a larger populated area, there could have been many casualties. We also need to be aware that we are intelligent enough as a species to prevent these kinds of things from harming us in the future. We need to fund the programs that track these objects and build orbital systems to intercept them. It's entirely possible, but we just need the money to do it.

Finally, this video is one of my favorites from the recent Chelyabinsk event.

Death from the Skies!

My most recent read was from astronomer Phil Plait, who writes the Bad Astronomy blog over at Slate. "Death from the Skies" chronicles all of the possible ways that our planet, and life as we know it, could be destroyed by non-terrestrial natural events. This is definitely not light reading nor does it always perk you up, but it is funny, highly informative, and humbling. Plait's description of our solar system, galaxy, and universe help you to appreciate our position in the cosmos. But how do we survive? Here's how.

Plait covers a wide range of deadly outer space culprits in an attempt to show you just how powerful nature is. The list includes: gamma ray bursts from black holes, solar flares/coronal mass ejections, asteroid impact, comet impact, galactic collision (that's a slow death), and many others. Each chapter starts with a fun little 2-3 page story of humans observing these things from Earth, and they can be a bit scary. After that, the writing is filled with excellent science writing mixed with Plait's clever humor. You come away from this book with far more knowledge of nature than just what can kill us. Plait does an excellent job of explaining how so many different natural forces work, from gravity to chemistry to geology to quantum mechanics.

Here's the good news: most of these things are not going to kill us. The chances of gamma ray bursts or galactic collisions happening are slim. However, the two chapters that I enjoyed the most are actually the chapters the tell the story of our two most likely killers: solar radiation and asteroid/comet impacts.

Plait makes a great case near the end to increase funding towards protecting our planet against solar radiation and impacts from extra-terrestrial bodies like comets and asteroids. There are some great ideas, scientists, and programs out there that just need more funding to get their plans off the ground. A coronal mass ejection could wipe out our power grid and send us plunging into medieval times. It could even damage our ozone layer, which leads to huge long-term problems. And we all know what an asteroid or comet impact could do. The dinosaurs know all about that. But we can prevent these, the most likely problems, if we just work harder at it.

This was a fun, engaging read that I recommend to folks who enjoy a good science book, especially those of you who enjoy astronomy.

Sandy Hook and Everything After

FlowingData is a site that I read frequently because they create interesting infographics and images that combine all kinds of data together to give regular folks an idea of how things work. As you can see below, they posted an image today to give the public an idea of how many gun deaths we have had in the United States since the deaths of students at Sandy Hook school in Newtown, CT.

Source: FlowingData.com

That's a pretty scary map. No one would admit that this is normal. In fact, the U.S. has a problem with gun-related deaths that other countries do not come close to. The question is: what is the solution? Do we ban certain kinds of guns? Do we have background checks for everyone? Something must be done. We cannot keep living this way.

There is one belief that the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevents anything from being done in terms of gun control. The Constitution is a magnificent document, but there are parts of it that do not apply the same way today as they did in the 18th century. It is time that we rethink parts of our laws. I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Thomas Jefferson because I believe it applies to this situation quite a bit.

"I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors." - Thomas Jefferson to H. Tompkinson alias Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816

Gun deaths since Sandy Hook