May is Our Do Gooder Issue

Larry Jaffee’s new book, Record Store Day: the Most Improbable Comeback of the 21st Century, sheds light on how vinyl records were rescued from a certain death.  One astute observer, Gerhard Blum, Sony Music Entertainments Senior Vice President, Distribution and Supply Chain International, offered his comments about the resurrection of vinyl: “I saw it dying. I saw it dead. And I saw it coming out of the grave, rising from the ashes, like the whole Phoenix cycle…No one in the industry can get enough vinyl right now.”https://www.larryjaffee.com/

The 1964 movie Becket tells the story of two men: England’s King Henry II,  a Norman, and his “loyal” compatriot, Thomas Becket, a Saxon. Appointed by Henry as Lord Chancellor, Becket becomes the King’s closest adviser in all matters great and small. And in an attempt to vanquish all political and religious opposition and solidify power within his monarchy, Mr. Trump,(sorry, I meant King Henry), again appoints Becket, with little to no prior experience, to replace the recently deceased Archbishop of Canterbury— the highest religious position in the realm.

While visual literacy is often associated with digital technology, other forms of visual literacy need to be taken into consideration: aesthetics as well as the cultural, ethical and contextual facets of what we are viewing. Public art plays a very important role in our local libraries.