Going on Vacation to Seattle This Year

Tomorrow we are leaving for a vacation to Seattle.  I think I will leave my laptop at home so I won't spend hours surfing the web in my hotel room.  I will bring my Kindle Fire and iPhone to "keep in the loop", but I will be limited as to white I can post.  Thus, there will be no posts in this journal until I return.  At that point, I will report on what we did on our trip.  We will be visiting the tourist attractions there but will be going to two Seattle Mariners games at T-Mobile Park (formerly known as Safeco Park).  For several years we have made similar trips to cities with major league teams:

·         Houston
·         Denver
·         Atlanta
·         Baltimore
·         San Francisco
·         Los Angeles

In all these cities the ballpark was either within walking distance or a short bus ride from our hotel.

Let's hope the vacation will go smoothly.

Where is Bob Dylan Going From Here?

I just checked the official Bob Dylan page and Bill Pagel's Tour Guide and noted that there are no concerts scheduled for the Never Ending Tour.  What could that mean?

1. The Tour is finally over as Dylan is 78 years old and needs to retire.  Has the joy of touring ended after all these years and he is retiring from touring.  Other artists made announcements when their touring days are drawing to an end, but Dylan, of course, is very uncommunicative.
2. He is going into the studio for a new album.  Tempest in 2012 was his last album with his original compositions.  He can be very unpredictable.  Since a Bootleg Series boxed set was just released, I doubt if another one is coming soon.

We shall see what we shall see.

Random Thoughts of the Day

I usually don't comment on politics, but I think Bill Di Blasio is doing the people of NYC a disservice by running for president.  The Mayor of NYC is a 24/7 job and I think he is shirking his responsibility by going to Iowa to campaign.  Why is the presidential election process so long?  Iowa caucuses are not until February which is 7 months away.  Will he drop out when he gets 3% of the vote.

Right now Melinda Katz is leading Tiffany Caban by 16 votes in the Democratic Primary for Queens District Attorney.  I think the best way to resolve this is to have a runoff election between those two.  There were several other candidates who were many votes behind.  I also suggest there be another registration period for this election with no affidavit ballots allowed.

New York Mets pitcher Zach Wheeler just went on the injury list as a precaution.  I hope he will not be traded since the Mets would likely get a few low-level minor leaguers in exchange for Wheeler for 2 months.  I think the Mets should try to sign him.

Day at Hudson Yards: The Vessel and The Shed

The Vessel from the inside

Hudson Yards is the section of Manhattan on the extreme west side south of the Javits Center.  In recent years it has been developed with shopping malls, tourist attractions, museums, residential and office buildings.  Since there is a new station on the #7 line right there, I thought we would take a ride over and see what is there.

We first saw the Vessel, a spiral staircase that allows people to enjoy new perspectives of the city from different heights, angles, and vantage points.  We found out that we had to get tickets with a smartphone for a few hours later.  We did walk the stairs to the very top.  Since I grew up in a walk-up apartment, this trip upstairs was a "piece of cake."

View from the Vessel

While we were waiting we stopped by The Shed, a new arts center.  We saw two exhibits:

• Collision/Coalition - Three new commissions exploring social and cultural confrontations and alliances
• Open Call - New work from 52 NYC-based emerging artists and collectives

The nice thing about The Shed is that it is free.

It's a good thing that we left when we did as a few hours later there was a power failure in parts of Manhattan,

Visit to MOMA at PS1 in Long Island City

French Fries and Ketchup

by Gina Beavers

Since the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street in Manhattan is closed until October, Karen and I visited their satellite location PS1 in Long Island City.  There were several exhibits there including:

• Gina Beavers: The Life I Deserve
• Hock E, Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds
• Julie Becker: I Must Create a Master Piece to pay the Rent
• Simone Fattal: Works and Days
• Nancy Spero's Maypole

Nancy Spero's Maypole from the Top

Response from NYPL

Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets oiled and I did get a response from NYPL on my complaint about poor service.

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Dear Mr. Slutsky,


Thank you for taking the time to share your recent experience at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. As we always strive to provide the best possible service, your feedback is extremely important and appreciated.


While we do aim to deliver materials in 40 minutes, occasionally there are issues that need to be resolved by our librarians and staff members in real time; unfortunately, that was the case with your request. We have already taken steps to resolve the issue that caused the delay, and while our staff members did everything possible to rectify the situation quickly, we do apologize for the wait.


If you would like to discuss this situation in more detail (or share any further feedback) please feel free to contact me directly

Thank you again for sharing your experience

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To use another cliche "A chain is as strong as its weakest link".  NYPL has a beautiful building and a very rich collection, but if patrons are frustrated by waiting for their materials, they will not return.  I am sure that numerous other patrons experienced long waits for materials but did not articulate a complaint.

I consulted the staff list of NYPL and feel that they are too "top heavy" with administrators.  If stack maintenance and delivery is their "weak link" I suggest they hire more staff in that area who work directly with patrons.  When I visited the Performing Arts Library of NYPL, I received my material much faster.

I observed that most people in the reading room were using laptops and tablets and did not appear to be using the resources of the library.  In my later years as a research librarian, I observed that students are reluctant to use print resources.  There were many visitors to the library who saw it as a tourist attraction.

Enough said.  I don't want to make a "federal case" about this and would like to bring it to closure.

Poor Service from NYPL (New York Public Library)

When an organization asks its patrons for money they should provide good service in return.  I went to the main NYPL at 42nd Street and 5th Avenue to do some baseball research, but my experience was dampened by poor service.  Below is a complaint that I have sent to some of their executives.

I regret to inform you of the very poor service that I received today (Monday, July 8) at the General Research Division.  At 11:15 AM I submitted call slips for 3 books and told it would take approximately 30 minutes. I did not receive them until 12:30 PM.  I properly filled out the slips with the call numbers, authors and titles.  This poor service is not acceptable.  I understand that there are miles of stacks at NYPL, but a 75-minute wait for monographs which should be easy to locate is unreasonable.  According to this article in the New York Times, the “retrieval system aims to get the materials from shelf to scholar in less than 40 minutes”. Do the library pages get proper training on how to locate materials?  I hope this situation can be rectified.  I would appreciate a response from someone in your organization.