Back to the future – Librarians in 1982 and 2013

Canterbury Public Library staff outside the new library building on the corner of Gloucester Street and Oxford Terrace 1982

Christchurch City Libraries staff reenact the 1982 shot on their final visit to the Central Library on Gloucester Street. And a few of the same staff are present in both shots.

And a flashback to our smocky past.
1968.

2007.

See more photos from our farewell to Central Library on our Flickr.

We’d love you to share your Central Library memories too.

Lock Up Your Daughters

The highly processed and idolised boy band One Direction is landing in our fair city next week, so here is a warning for one and all. I live over the fence from the venue, so I’ll be reminding my husband to turn down his hearing aids lest the squealing does even more damage to his old rocker ears. We’ll have a first aid station set up at our gate to assist the fainters as well.

Put together to appear on UK X Factor 2010, and placed third, they were snaffled by manufactured music mogul Simon Cowell and the rest, they say, is history. They have amassed a personal combined wealth of $25 million and cause a mass fluttering of tween and teen hearts around the globe.

Boy bands are not a new phenomenon. Think back to Frankie Vali and the Four Seasons, The Osmonds, The Beatles (OK, maybe not quite in the same vein, but they did get the screamers and fainters), The Monkees and The Jackson Five,  through to The Bay City Rollers, New Kids on the Block, Boyz ii Men, Westlife, ‘NSync, Jonas Brothers and who could forget The Hansons.

It’s all about repressed sexuality, unattainable perfection and being oh so ‘on trend’ it’s oozing out of their pores. I’ve heard young girls say their favourite 1D member is the best because “he really gets me and understands me!”

Baby you light up my world like nobody else. The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed. And when you smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell. You don’t know-oh-oh, you don’t know you’re beautiful. If only you saw what I can see, you’d understand why I want you so desperately. Right now I’m looking at you and I can’t believe, you don’t know-oh-oh, you don’t know you’re beautiful. That’s What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction Lyrics

The ability for young girls to attach themselves to complete strangers is what drives the sales, I must confess here to a major crush on Paul Stanley from Kiss in the seventies: those deep brown eyes and gorgeous curly hair… I bet he ‘got me’, sigh!

So, lock up your daughters, or at least check what they are wearing before they leave for the concert, so you can say “You’re not leaving the house in that.”

Did you have a boy (or girl band for that matter), that you loved, or still do? Confess, you won’t be judged.