The most literate American cities

From a study of reading habits in American cities (pop. 250,000 or more):

The release of the 2007 America’s Most Literate Cities survey coincides with renewed widespread interest in reading and literacy. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) recently published a “disturbing story” indicating that, at all levels, Americans are reading less and reading less well, and that this behavior correlates with declining measures of the health of our society. . . .

One of the most disturbing trends is that while Americans are becoming more and more educated in terms of their time spent in school and their education level accomplished, they are decreasing in terms of literate behaviors. This is particularly obvious in our lack of support of bookstores and the constantly diminishing circulation of newspapers. Forty-three of the 59 cities studied have a higher percentage of high school graduates than they did five years ago, and 46 of the cities have a higher percentage of college graduates, so clearly the trend across the country is for people to stay in school longer and achieve a higher grade level of accomplishment. Nevertheless, every city in the study declined in Sunday newspaper circulation save one — St. Paul, Minnesota — and only four — Cleveland, Indianapolis, Louisville, and St. Paul — had consistent increases in weekday circulation. So while Americans are becoming more and more “educated,” they are reading newspapers less.

We are also supporting local bookstores far less often. Not a single city in our survey has more independent bookstores now than five years ago. Fifty-seven out of 60 cities reported fewer retail booksellers in 2007 than in 2003; in several, the number of booksellers per capita dropped by half of what was reported in 2003. At the macro level, the market does seem to reflect the “alarming” story that the NEA reports.

America's Most Literate Cities 2007 (Central Connecticut State University)

Related reading
NEA Announces New Reading Study (NEA press release)
To Read or Not to Read (NEA report, .pdf download)

Frank Sinatra and Tom Waits

What were movie-musicals thinking in the 1950s? A couple of weeks ago, Funny Face (1957) left me baffled by the Fred Astaire-Audrey Hepburn romance. Last night, it was Young at Heart (1954) with Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. Give me William Holden and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950) any day, over any Day.

In Young at Heart, Sinatra plays ace arranger Barney Sloan. He spends his time gussying up the songs of his friend Alex Burke (Gig Young) and eking out a living as a saloon singer-pianist. Sloan is cadaverous, often hatted, often smoking. He looks like Tom Waits. Why is Tom Waits falling in love with Doris Day? And why is she falling for him?

Watching this movie got me thinking about the Sinatra-Waits connection. I've read somewhere that Waits loves In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning. The Waits-Kathleen Brennan play Frank's Wild Years (which I was lucky to see in 1986 during its Chicago run) includes "I'll Take New York" (a "New York, New York" take-off) and "Straight to the Top" ("I can't let sorrow / Pull ol' Frankie down"). And consider the following:

Related posts
Frank Sinatra's popcorn
Tom Waits on parenthood

3 Sisters Café

Anyone within driving distance of Indianapolis might want to seek out the 3 Sisters Café, a wonderful restaurant in Broad Ripple Village, one of Indianapolis' designated cultural districts. The restaurant occupies the first floor of an old wood-shingled house. (How old? I didn't think to ask, but the windows have wavy glass.) We sat in what was once the front parlor. Service was genuinely friendly, and I was impressed that there was no effort to turn my family's table, even with a line of people waiting to be seated, many of them regulars.

The vegan- and vegetarian-friendly menu is simple but dazzling. Every dish at our table was a hit: apple-pumpkin curry soup, split pea soup, barbecued tempeh and sweet potatoes, a hummus sandwich, a mixed-greens salad with tempeh, and a spinach melt with Gorgonzola.

Once in a while one finds a restaurant which is so wonderful that it seems perhaps imaginary. The 3 Sisters Café is one of those restaurants. How could a restaurant with egg offerings named Bill, Bob, Carol, Ed, Mom, and SOB not be wonderful?

Even more wonderful than eating at 3 Sisters was not hitting the five or six deer who stepped out from the darkness as we made our way home on an Illinois rural route. I can't remember even seeing the deer before slamming on the brakes and coming to a full stop. We were lucky that no one was behind us, and also perhaps lucky that I fortified myself with an medium Americano before the drive home.

3 Sisters Café
6360 North Guilford Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana
217-257-5556
Monday-Friday, 8-6. Saturday-Sunday, 8-4.

[The three sisters, by the way, are corn, beans, and squash.]

Music from the Kennedy Center

If you missed The Kennedy Center Honors on television last night, here are three clips from the Brian Wilson segment that have made it to YouTube: most of Art Garfunkel's tribute and biography, a few seconds of Lyle Lovett's attempt at "God Only Knows" followed by most of the Hootie and the Blowfish performance, and a complete version of Libera offering what the world needs now.

Art Garfunkel, On Brian Wilson
Hootie and the Blowfish, "I Get Around" / "California Girls"
Libera, "Love and Mercy"

Related post
Brian Wilson at the Kennedy Center

Bookman!

"Y'know that little stamp, the one that says 'New York Public Library'? Well that may not mean anything to you, but that means a lot to me. One whole hell of a lot."

Lieutenant Bookman, in the Seinfeld episode "The Library"

Life imitates Seinfeld, as librarians in Queens, New York, get tough with scofflaws:

Late Library Books Can Take Toll on Credit Scores (New York Times)

A poem for the day

The WPIX Yule Log

[The WPIX Yule Log in action.]

The WPIX Yule Log is a New York tradition. In the world's greatest city, people tune in to watch a tape loop of a fireplace, as Christmas music plays in the background. The Yule Log runs for hours. I speak from experience.

You can learn more via the Wikipedia article (which calls the Log "both a critical and ratings success"). Portable Yule Logs are available from the mothership.

Yule Log (Wikipedia)
Portable Yule Log (WPIX)

Christmas Eve reprise

"You know something, sweetheart? Christmas is — well, it's about the best time of the whole year."

It's the night before Christmas, and once again we join The Honeymooners, already in progress:

Ralph Kramden talks about Christmas (December 24, 1955)

Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)

August 15, 1925 - December 23, 2007

Among the performances available on YouTube, there's a brilliant solo version of Willard Robison and Dedette Lee Hill's "Old Folks."

"Old Folks" (YouTube)

Jazz piano legend Oscar Peterson dead at 82 (Ottawa Citizen)
Oscar Peterson (Official website)
Oscar Peterson: A Jazz Sensation (Library and Archives Canada)

William Wordsworth rap

M.C. Nuts is in the house:

Must have been ten thousand I saw in my retina
No more than a glance then I registered they're beautiful
     et cetera

William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," rap-style. Check it.

M.C. Nuts, William Wordsworth rap (YouTube, via New Music reBlog)
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (Wordsworth's poem)