Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 5/5/16

Bye This Week In Texas! Not forever, of course. I need to see what happens in Burt's life with Vera, and also what the San Antonio scandal is all about (I'll see issue 3, volume 2 for details). I left off on volume 2, issue 2, which covered April 10-16 forty years ago.

I had a lot of fun reading this magazine and working with it on CONTENTdm. Thank you to Rice for connecting me to this project and for Jeanette for working with Rice and me. I'm sure whoever works on it next will enjoy it lots! Thank you HPL!! I am leaving Houston to return back to the Northeast, and I have to say I'll miss this place and the people I met.

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 4/14/16

Today I worked on two issues: the last one in the first volume and the first one in the second volume. The 52nd issue did not have as much to say about the 1 year anniversary as I thought it would, but I think these magazine's publishers were just modest.

There were no changes in the magazine's format today. Some of the ads were different, but that's due to the changing times!

I will present the work that I'm doing with This Week in Texas here at the Houston Library this weekend at the Humanities Research Symposium at Rice. I'm looking forward to it!

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 4/12/16

Today, I started working through the final issue of volume 1. This is number 52, which makes sense, because there are 52 weeks in a year! The 52nd issue has a "1 year" graphic on its cover - I'm excited to see what the "Sampling Texas" section has to say about the birthday. In the thumbnails, the section looks longer than usual, so I'm expecting some heartfelt response from the author (I wonder who writes those sections - perhaps the publisher?)

As far as editing went, there was nothing new in terms of layout, but there were new ads that had to be dealt with. I also availed myself of a recent discovery - the End key. I found it a couple weeks ago, but today I finally figured out how to use it in the "Advertisers' Index" section of the magazine and the "Description" field of CONTENTdm. It allows me to insert page numbers in the former and semicolons in the latter more easily.

Highlights in the content I've covered for the week were "Life With Vera" (of course) and "Answers by Adam." But where are the answers by Eve? 

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 4/7/16

Today I went through issues 47 and 49 of volume 1. I skipped 48 because it looked TERRIBLE. Well actually just because it's not included in the collection. I also went through the first few sections of issue 50, so next week I will start off with "Sampling Texas."

The only trouble I had today was with the "Advertisers' Index" section, which I think I've written about a little. This section in the magazine is formatted like this, for example: The Briar Patch. . . . . . 13. It includes the name of an establishment and then the page number on which its ad can be found. The only problem is that this is not always how the index shows up in the transcript. It's hard to describe, but it looks pretty funky, and always different week to week. So sometimes I put the . . . . in and sometimes not. So much indecision!

The "Life with Vera" serial is still so outrageous. Ha!

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 4/5/16

Today I got through the end of issue 46, so on Thursday I'll start on issue 47. In this last issue, the publishers of TWIT decided to change up the format of their "Supporters" section; instead of breaking it up by city and then by business type, each business type is now also prefaced by the city it's in. This results in mini-headers such as "Houston Poodle Salon," for example. This new format seems to help condense the section. It also will mean the "Description" section on my end will be more condensed; there will be no more titles like "Lounges:" between the businesses, at least as long as this new format is used.

The newest "Life With Vera" installation made me want to cry... not in a bad way, just because it is so overwhelmingly scandalous, in a fun way. Christopher Savitch reviewed some great movies in his "Screen Shop"s. I'm going to pay attention to my "Skyline" horoscope. I peeked ahead to some of the issues coming up and it looks like there are new sections on the way. Bring them on!

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 3/29/16

In issue 44 of volume 1, the serial "Life With Vera" by John Gardner began, and its second page is where I've left off today. So far, it's so good! There's a very interesting twist at the end that I want to think is funny and that I hope is not tragic...

The magazine has been playing around with its format in the last few issues so a few of the patterns I've gotten used to are no more. However, for some reason, the changes seem to be making the process of digitizing the magazine go more quickly. I got through more issues today than I'm used to, I think. Maybe the pages are more condensed - maybe there is less content (in the form of ads?). I'm not too sure.

Thursday I'll be in Connecticut or New York, so goodbye, Texas until next week.

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 3/24/16

I started the New Year today! However, the volume remains the same. Volume 1 continues until issue 52, which is at the end of March/beginning of April and marks the one year anniversary of This Week In Texas.

I almost got through the first two issues of 1976 - I've still got a bit left in issue 41.

Rather than try to go back to the 1975 issues of TWIT in order to copy and paste some of the ads that made it into 1976, I decided to just type out those repeated ads. This may have lead to some differences in the way those ads now appear in text in the transcript field, but I'm happy with how it's turned out! There were also some new ads to transcribe; I'm looking forward to seeing even more pop up.

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 3/17/16

I think volume 1 is just about done! Next week I'll start on volume 2 :)

The first volume's last few issues are nice. Many businesses give sweet holiday specials and wishes. There is also a well-written response to an Answers by Adam question asking about gay marriage.

The only formatting conundrum I ran into today - and actually Tuesday, now that I think of it - was in the Advertisers' Index section. There are lots of little bullets between the business and the page it's on, which I for the most part keep but sometimes I don't. Hm.

Also, since this is the last blog post about volume 1, I have a little concluding remark which just occurred to me today and might be interesting to share. Typing the ads in This Week in Texas was a good exercise in decision making because most ads, if not all, cannot be typed exactly as they appear in the magazine. I ended up prioritizing simply getting the words on the page, usually in a way that seemed to be consistent with the original print.

Happy New Years! Just kidding, happy St. Patrick's day.

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 3/15/16

I went through issues 36 and 37 today which means that there are just two more in volume 1. I'll miss 1975!

On page 23, there were a lot of little dots replacing dashes in the "This Week's Supporters" section. I hope to be able to replace all these at some point.

I also accidentally deleted some text in the transcript, then accidentally saved this deletion when trying to go back to my last save, but luckily it wasn't too much text.

Beyond this, today was smooth sailing!

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 3/10/16

I finished up issue 35 today which means that there are just four more left in volume one. After I publish this blog post, I'll probably go back to an early issue because I think I left an ad out there, if my memory serves me correctly.

Next week - or actually, probably the week after - I think Jeanette will show me how to alter the titles for the next volume. Here I come, 1976 volume!

There were some Thanksgiving ads in the Around the State this Week section, and I was wondering, where's Tooter's Restaurant? Well, it turns out that the Sampling Texas section addressed this very question: Tooter's was closed to give their employees time off for the holidays.

I came across another horoscope section, but mine was not a match.

See ya next week. 

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 3/8/16

I'm finishing up today towards the end of issue number 33. At this rate, I'll probably have gone through volume 1 by next week!

However, pretty soon I'll want to review what I've done so far. Sometimes the advertisements change from week to week, so I want to make sure that I've caught those changes.

As far as the Depository ads go, they seem to have gotten their format a little more under control :D

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 2/29/16

What is interesting about today is that it is Monday instead of Tuesday or Thursday when I normally make entries. This is because next week is spring break so I'm heading off to CT tomorrow!

Today I ended on the Weekly Bulletin Board of issue 31. This section is a recent addition and it seems to have taken off pretty well with the readers. There is also the new horoscope section; it may be from 40 years ago and... a horoscope, but I thought mine was pretty accurate.

A new bar seems to have opened up in Houston in October, possibly September called the Depository. It seems like a great place, but their advertisements are not so friendly to the software that converts them to OCR text.

I have been seeing more and more ads for groups, most notably for the Christian groups, motorcycle riding groups, and the Gay Political Caucus. I've been adding to them in the description.

'til next week

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 2/25/16

In one of his Screen Shop essays, Cristopher Savitch says that "capitalizing on a human tragedy is disgusting animalism." Then he asks, "Does greed know no bounds?" I don't know, Mr. Savitch.

I finished today on "A Fairy Tale of Sorts" in issue 29 of volume 1. I would like to make note to myself, on this blog, that I should go back to This Week's Supporters in issue 28 to switch the little dots that appeared to dashes. Also, I came across today for the first time an ad specifically for Dignity/Houston, a group for gay Catholics and Christians. I've come across it before in the "Around the State this Week" sections and possibly in the "Sampling Texas" sections, but I haven't been adding it to the descriptions because it's not one of the businesses/bars; in other words, it's a group, not a place. I've also not been including names like the Gay Caucus, TADS, MCC, and others for this same reason. Now I am wondering if I'd like to do this. I put it in the description of the page in which it appeared as an ad, which is, for now... a start. 

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 2/23/16

I think the magazine is getting funnier all the time. Today's issues were very enjoyable. I miss the disco of the 70s and I wasn't even there.

I started in issue 25 today and ended once again on the Doctors Bag, this time in issue 27. I believe that today there was more typing involved than usual, although now that I think of it I'm unsure why. I think I'm getting better at discerning when it would make more sense to type something out and when it would be better to copy and paste the same/a similar ad from another page. This latter method can be quicker, unless it takes a while to find the ad or if it turns out that the ad is not so similar to the one on the current page. My favorite ad might be the Swamp Trash one - not because it pretty much never changes, although that does come in handy, but because it has an alligator and a fun font.

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 2/18/16

Today I finished up on Doctors Bag of issue 25 of volume 1. I was a little scared that I would have a very hard time getting through as many pages as I wanted today. When I first started working, the PDFs were opening up in a way that I was not used to. This made it so that when I clicked on the CONTENTdm page in order to edit the OCR text in the transcript, the PDF would minimize. I'm not sure how well I'm explaining the problem, but it made it so that I couldn't look at the magazine's PDF form while at the same time editing the OCR text on CONTENTdm - I had to switch from one to the other. However, it turns out that this was pretty easily fixable! I changed a few settings in Internet Explorer so that the PDFs opened up via the browser rather than Adobe. This makes it possible for the PDF window to stay maximized even if I start clicking around other programs.

Other than that, progress has continued as usual. I know I keep saying it, but I definitely want to go back and try to use the same business names as I write them in the descriptions. The example that comes to mind today is Mr. Frizby's. Is it Mr. Frizby? Mr. Frizby's? Mr. Frizby's Bath Club? Some combination of those ways of writing it and others? This remains to be seen!

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 2/16/16

I've stopped today on the Answers by Eve cont. page of issue number 23. This is the first issue with an Answers by Eve section and it was so cool coming across it.

I have found that I move more slowly now through sections with a lot of text whereas before I had more trouble with the ads. I think this is because I'm getting used to doing those trickier, image based ads and because I'm usually really interested in what the advice, movie, medical, and sampling Texas sections have to say.

Besides the new Answers by Eve section, there are some new businesses choosing to advertise in the magazine as well as a new format for numbering the pages that has popped up in issue 23. The page numbers are no longer preceded by "Page," which makes it look a little funky in the transcript in CONTENTdm, but I think it's okay.

Another interesting thing I came across was an ad for The Spur that didn't use the word "spur" but instead a picture of one. I chose not to write the word in the transcript although I did include the bar name in the description.

'til Thursday.

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 2/11/16

I've ended today on Face & Places of issue 21, volume 1 of This Week In Texas. I think my pacing has been pretty consistent! Today went without issue. The magazine really seems to be finding its rhythm. There are sometimes typos in the PDF text that I leave in the OCR text because it seems to be more loyal to how the magazine is. I think a lot of the typos have to do with the fact that they didn't have the internet back then (I'm pretty sure). For example, I just quickly checked on my phone to make sure that I spelled "rhythm" right. Back in 1975, I would've needed a big dictionary.

I hope to get through issue 23 on Tuesday.

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 2/9/16

I was able to get through the last pages of issue 17 today as well as issue number 18 and about half-way through number 19. Issue 18 took a while because of the ad for the Bath Club Hawaii Tour. I bet that was so fun for the people who went. Luckily, when it was repeated in issue 19, I was able to just copy what I already had previously.

Since I've been doing a lot of copy and pasting, next week I plan to try searching for certain advertisements that show up a lot and are harder than other ones to type out fully using the OCR text already in the transcript.

I almost lost part of the short story "It's a Boy (Death Notice)" on page 14 of issue 19 because I somehow selected all of the text in the transcript and replaced it with a solitary "b." The good news is that Jeanette was able to help me close the software so that my progress was reverted to where I had last saved - just one page back! This will encourage me to continue saving.

I've been mostly sticking to just putting bar/business names in the Description section since I haven't decided on how I will consistently format them. I think it could be quicker to go back and edit them later.

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 2/4/16

Today I finished up issue number 15, 16, and almost 17 of the 1st volume of This Week in Texas. It's really interesting how the magazine is evolving. Some of the newer sections are so funny.

I am still unsure how I will end up formatting the descriptions. As I continue to go through the issues and come across the same businesses, I'm leaning towards trying to format them more consistently than I have been. It doesn't look like the basic information (name, address, phone-number) is changing, but how I write it does vary. Just as one example, the bar "Detour" comes up a lot, and sometimes I write it as "The Detour" while other times I skip the "the."

On a couple pages in these issues were maps. On page 22 of issue 15 and page 13 of issue 17. In the OCR text for the first map, some of the street names were picked up from the map and I left them there. However, I removed them the second time around. I did this because not all of the street names were picked up. Next time, I'll take out the street names that were detected from the first map. Actually, I have a few minutes to spare, so I will go ahead and do that now. 

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 2/2/16

Today I went through half of issue number 8, all of number 12, and I've got just a little bit left of number 15. I was a little surprised that there weren't any issues between these ones. I wonder what they're like! I think they're similar to the ones I've gone through, but these most recent issues that I've worked on have changed a little bit. There are new sections, new businesses, etc.

It turns out that for now I don't have to worry about my previous "dot" vs "dash" problem. I am also going to postpone making a decision on how I will make the business information in the description section consistent. I'd like to do this but for now I'll just write the information down as it looks on the page. I've also decided to keep the business types as written in the "This Week's Supporters" section because I think they could be useful. Maybe if it turns out that they're not, I will remove them.

Since the content is starting to change I'm really looking forward to the next few issues. The advice columns are better made into OCRText so... mostly I just get to read them :) There are very few edits for these. 

Alicia, "This Week in Texas" project, 1/28/16

Hello!

This is my first post on this blog. So far I've gone through almost 8 weeks of the first volume of This Week in Texas. Today I did half of number 6, number 7, and half of number 8. I will probably want to go back through all of them to make sure that I've actually compared the transcripts with the PDFs and made sure that they correspond. There are a couple pages that do not have anything in the transcript section so I'll go back to those and just type out what's on the pages. Volume 1, Number 5 has a duplicate page called "Sampling Texas, cont." that I am unsure what to do with.

I think my main questions are about formatting. I've noticed that the CONTENTdm software (I think this is the one that's doing it!) creates text that is formatted pretty consistently. However, there are some times that it doesn't. The examples I remember are in the "This Week's Supporters" section. Most often the businesses are listed like this: Name - Address - Phone number. But sometimes, instead of the hyphen (-) there's just a little dot. I'm wondering if I should change these or leave them be.

Also, when I put the businesses' information into the Description section, I usually use the "Name - Address - Phone number" format, unless the information is missing from the particular page that I find the business on. For example, sometimes I'll just put the name of the place. Also, an address for the same place is written differently on different pages. Should I leave it the way I find it on the page or try to format them consistently throughout the magazine/volume? Also, when I put the businesses from the "This Week's Supporters" section, I usually leave the type of business it is in the list (for example, "Lounges:" or "Church:"). I don't know why I'm doing this and I don't know if I should. Lastly, I am putting in the description businesses that I find in long lists or ads, but also ones that I see mentioned in some of the little blurbs written up by the authors. I'm wondering if this is a good idea/necessary/unnecessary.

These are the questions that I can think up right now! Thanks for taking a look! We'll see how Tuesday goes.

As far as the process and content, I think it's all really fun. I recognize a lot of the addresses and I'm so tempted to go and see what they look like now. I think I really will.