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W
ELCOME to the first of 2023’s Mediawatching columns – and as in previous
years, we have taken a long hard look at what we could improve and decided to make absolutely no changes. So, here we go for another deep dive into the shallow waters of Mediawatching. And speaking of water, we head to the lake district in our first Mediawatch of the year. Artist Jon Tordoff was inspired to take on a mini adventure to The Lakes during lockdown, and set about recreating Lake Windermere and the surrounds out of Lego bricks. Having started building the project at his Derbyshire home, Jon has spent around £4,000 acquiring around 200,000 bricks (lots of blue and green). The model, which now covers around 100 sq ft has been on display at Belper Library, attracting hundreds of visitors. Jon told the BBC (
https://bbc.in/3XWmIKX) that “some people call it madness…, I call it a bit of fun.” Exactly the type of content we want on these pages. From one land of lakes to another, and the tale of a returned pair of stolen books to a Swiss Library. The books, De memoria augenda, a medical book about the brain, and Ship of Fools, by Sebastian Brant were both taken from Franciscan monastery library in the 1970s. A number of manuscripts were also taken when “a German art thief who pretended to be a Vatican expert arrived at the monastery sometime in the 1970s and explained to the monks that he had come to inspect their art collection. They believed his story and allowed him to ‘work’ undisturbed in the library,” according to
SwissInfo.com (
https://bit.ly/3H5jHRJ). The news site goes on to explain that “the thief took several books and valuable manuscripts, but the theft was only noticed 20 years ago.” Brant’s Ship of Fools is estimated to be worth more than $500,000, and both it and De memoria augenda were discovered in the US. Once checks had been made to ensure they really were the stolen copies, the books were repatriated to the Fribourg Cantonal and University Library.
January-February 2023
Another returned book makes the pages of Mediawatching, as we continue down the tried and tested route of “Library user borrows book; forgets about it for 50 years; before returning it to library full of remorse”. So, we head to Dudley library and the tale of David Hickman, who was just 17 when he borrowed The Law for Motorists in 1964. Mr Hickman had been prompted to brush up his legal knowledge after crashing his car into the Mayor’s and hoping the library book would offer a legal defence. David, who was 17 at the time of the accident, told the Express and Star (
https://bit.ly/3R5i0YU) that in those days, “if you had ‘wheels’, you were top of the food-chain when it came to getting the attention of girls.
“I’d been waving to the girls coming from the school and my car drifted into the middle of the road. I was shocked to see the mayor.
“I borrowed the book to look to see if I had any defence.”
He didn’t..., and after paying a fine and costs, amounting to more than £200 in today’s money, he promptly forgot about returning the book and left it languishing in a drawer for 58 years. When he finally took it back to the library, he was delighted to learn
that staff would not be issuing him with another fine, this time for the late return of the book. And with a charge of 20p per day, he has managed to save around £42,000. Finally for this month, we delve into the creative process of music producer Rick Rubin, who has a new book out and has been doing promotion for it in all the usual places. A Creative Act: A way of being looks back on Ruben’s work with some of the biggest bands and artists on the planet over the last 40 years.
What comes across is a desire to eschew labels and categories, forcing artists to explore creativity out of their usual genres and comfort zones – think Run DMC’s Walk This Way, which blurred the lines between hip hop and rock, by incorporating Aerosmith on the track.
In one notable anecdote (at least for these pages), Rubin explains how he and band System of a Down were looking for inspiration while recording the track Chop Suey (
https://bit.ly/3WDjFpG). Instead of keeping the band in the studio, he took them to the library in his house and instructed lyricist Serj Tankian to take a book off the shelf, Ruben then told him to “open it to any page, and tell me the first phrase. That phrase, “father, into your hands I commend my spirit […] why have you forsaken me?”, went directly into the song, with Rubin adding: “It’s a high point in the song.” IP
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