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Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has evolved as a powerful endoscopic tool with a variety of applications for the assessment, and increasingly, treatment of abdominal diseases. EUS has progressively improved as an interventional procedure with applications in pancreaticobiliary access, treatment of pancreatic fluid collections and necrosis, gallbladder drainage, gastrojejunostomy, and endohepatology. Here we address interventional EUS and its role in pancreatic cyst ablation as well as EUS-guided solid tumor ablation and treatment. EUS-guided pancreatic cyst chemoablation has been shown to be an effective, safe, and durable option for the treatment of appropriately selected, mucinous-type, pancreatic cysts when approached as part of a high volume multidisciplinary program. In the treatment of solid pancreatic lesions, multiple endoscopic therapies have shown promise with most attention focused on the treatment of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. More advanced tumors and malignancies have also been treated with encouraging, but limited, results, and this area of interventional EUS is in need of prospective studies with standardized definitions of safety and treatment responses as development continues.

Many a bar fight has broken out over punk rock's birth. Fans tend to split into two camps: those who credit the Ramones' first appearance at CBGB in New York […]

It's hard to miss the ever-growing enthusiasm for the 'buy local' movement. People want locally grown food, locally made handicrafts, locally created products. Now is the best time for libraries [...]

Abstract: Background: Previous investigators have shown the feasibility of performing an esophageal myotomy using natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES), but have been unsuccessful at extending the myotomy onto the body of the stomach. Methods: In a nonsurvival porcine model, the authors used the self-approximating translumenal access technique (STAT) to create a submucosal tunnel in the upper esophagus and to extend it onto the body of the stomach allowing a complete cardiomyotomy. Results: The STAT approach was successfully used to create a submucosal tunnel and perform a complete myotomy of the gastroesophageal junction without complication. Conclusions: A complete Heller-type cardiomyotomy can be successfully performed using transesophegeal NOTES.

Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has rapidly evolved from a diagnostic to a therapeutic tool with applications for various pancreaticobiliary diseases. As part of this evolution, EUS-guided chemoablation for neoplastic pancreatic cysts is developing as a minimally invasive treatment option for appropriately selected mucinous cysts, which can spare patients major resective surgery and may reduce progression to pancreatic cancer. Chemotherapeutic cyst ablation has demonstrated encouraging complete resolution rates, while an alcohol-free chemoablation protocol has demonstrated a significant decrease in adverse events without a compromise to complete ablation rates when compared with previous alcohol-based protocols. Most pancreatic cysts are small, low risk, and best managed by surveillance per accepted guidelines. Cysts with features suggestive of overt malignancy are best discussed by a multidisciplinary committee, and surgery is considered if appropriate. However, for patients in the middle ground with cysts that are structurally suitable for chemoablation, alcohol-free chemoablation has been shown to allow effective, safe, and durable results especially for those who are not ideal operative candidates. EUS-guided alcohol-free chemoablation is promising and continues to evolve; however, as a relatively novel treatment option it has areas of uncertainty that will require further investigation and development.

Punk delivered a shock to the system of Wale, but it didn't manifest itself in the desire to start his own band. Instead, he wanted to write, and, especially, he [...]

* Bracewell, Michael. Re-make/Re-model: Becoming Roxy Music. Da Capo. Dec. 2007. c.368p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0306-81400-6. pap. $17.95. MUSIC It's a dirty shame that Roxy Music haven't made it [...]

Diehl, Matt. My So-Called Punk: Green Day, Fall Out Boy, the Distillers, Bad Religion--How Neo-Punk Stage-Dived into the Mainstream. Griffin: St. Martin's. Apr. 2007. c.256p, photogs, bibliog. ISBN 0-31233781-7 [ISBN […]

Heylin, Clinton. Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge. Canongate, dist. by Grovel Atlantic. 2006. c.672p. illus. discog. ISBN 1-84195-879-4 [ISBN 978-1-84195-879-8]. pap. $25. MUSIC Heylin goes for the gusto in [...]

Browne, Cass & Gorillaz (text) & J.C. Hewlett & Zombie Flesh Eaters (illus.). Gorillaz: Rise of the Ogre. Riverhead: Putnam. Nov. 2006. c.304p, illus. ISBN 1-59448-931-9. $35. MUSIC How do [...]

Cheryn, Jerome. Raised by Wolves: The Turbulent Art and Times of Quentin Tarantino. Thunder's Mouth: Avalon, dist. by Publishers Group West. Jun. 2006. c.224p, bibliog. ISBN 1-56025-858-6. pap. $14.95. FILM [...]

Emerick, Geoff & Howard Massey. Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Apr. 2006. c.304p. ISBN 1-59240179-1. $26. MUSIC What more [...]

Greer, James. Guided By Voices: A Brief History. Black Cat. Grove. Nov. 2005. c.320p. illus. discog. ISBN 0-8021-7013-7. pap. $16. MUSIC For rock critics, Ohioan indie rockers Guided by Voices [...]

Buckley, David. The Thrill of It All: The Story of Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music. Chicago Review. Jun. 2005. c.368p. photogs, discog, bibliog, index. ISBN 1-55652-574-5. pap. $17.95. MUSIC Buckley's [...]

Shapiro, Peter. Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco. Faber & Faber. Jun. 2005. c.384p. illus. discog. bibliog. index. ISBN 0-571-21194-1. $25. MUSIC This book's deceptively salacious subtitle [...]

The library is the great leveler for experiencing classical music. There are no season ticket holders taking up all the good seats, the event is free (or nearly free) and [...]

In 1975, Brian Eno invented ambient music while recovering from being hit by a car. When the bedridden musician couldn't adjust the too-low volume on an album of 19th-century harp [...]

Good box sets should be more than a collection of 'the hits' appended with unreleasable odds and ends. The best are madcap and eclectic, reflecting the passions of the compiler--think [...]

The music that genuinely excited me this year was really dark sonically. Like blackout-level dark. There was a veritable bumper crop of young artists taking cues from goth, coldwave, industrial, [...]

Since 2013 marks the 40th anniversary of hip-hop, the creative culture that emerged following a truce between rival gangs in the South Bronx, it's the perfect time to take a [...]

In past columns, I've discussed the ins and outs of launching and maintaining a music advisory service in your library and given lots of one-on-one advice on proposing and getting [...]

The best thing about having your own column is that once in a great while, you can sneak in one just for yourself. And this is the one, because April [...]

In the March 1 issue of LJ, Music for the Masses introduced librarians who host music clubs at their branches, offering patrons the opportunity to discuss a particular record, performer, [...]

Book clubs cater to every taste and fancy, but music lovers are usually left to find their own way in libraries. Lately, though, a handful of hardy librarians are blazing [...]

I received an issue of Car and Driver in the mail the other day. That in and of itself is not exactly a column-worthy pronouncement, except for the accompanying bland [...]

Music fans have been blasted between the ears with digital for years, but in 2012 vinyl and, even more remarkably, cassettes began rising from the ashes to again find a [...]

The Iowa City Public Library (ICPL) made quite a stir last year, launching a digital local music collection. The library took control of its own digital destiny, working out deals [...]

Veronica Vasicka started the Minimal Wave label from her New York bedroom in 2005. In the seven years hence, she's unearthed a treasure trove of electronic music rarities and jump-started [...]

Can I get all self-referential for a minute? During an American Library Association conference in Chicago a couple of years back, I stumbled into a Casiotone for the Painfully Alone [...]

The exodus of music from physical digital formats isn't quite as all-encompassing as we've been led to believe. First, the CD is still hanging on by its fingertips in classic [...]

British producer/musician/ designer Trevor Jackson recently compiled a selection of seminal industrial and electro tunes from the early 1980s for tastemaking label Strut Records. It was released as Metal Dance, [...]

I've become fixated on the idea of partnering with local musicians, performers, and DJs as subject experts/advisors on the library's music collection. Think about it. You can have members of [...]

Starting as a humble blog in 2006, Awesome Tapes from Africa (ATFA) has grown into a cottage industry of sorts by combining the best parts of the voracious collector mentality [...]

I don't know about you, but your Music for the Masses columnist views digital music warily. Triple that for digital music services that vendors are rolling out for libraries. But [...]

By the time you read this column, 77-year-old Canadian poet/musician Leonard Cohen will have only just released his 12th studio album, the drolly named Old Ideas (Columbia. UPC 886979867123), on [...]

Even as the record industry crumbles and digital music is either saving or ruining music depending on whom you ask, great music was plentiful in 2011, as Matthew Moyer's empty [...]

'Culturally, we have pushed firmly into full-on 1990s revival. Be ready for it,' Courtney E. Smith sagely claimed during our recent interview (L.J 11/1/11, p. 54). Techno, grunge, vocal groups, [...]

Matthew Moyer (Popular Media Dept., Jacsonville PL, FL) has previously surveyed popular albums, artists, and defining moments in the history of various music genres as well as interviewed music critics, [...]

Music biz insider, new music booster, and first-time author Courtney E. Smith is generating a pretty deafening level of buzz (turn it up, mannnnnnnn) with her new book, Record Collecting [...]

Rock critic par excellence Paul Trynka wowed serious students of rock history with his magnum opus on punk wildman Iggy Pop, Open Up and Bleed, in 2007. Now, he has [...]

There will be much duckwalking and air drumming in the halls of academia tonight! For the serious student of music history and popular culture, primary source writing on rock'n'roll music [...]

In April's column on setting up an online Music Advisory (MA) service in our library (LJ 4/1/11, p. 66), I left things in a bit of a cliffhanger. Would anyone [...]

In this age of total disclosure via social media and a 24/7 Internet presence, there is something to be said for the shadowy iconoclast. The following is a selection of [...]

In May 2007, librarians at New Zealand's Palmerston North City Library (PNCL) unveiled Beatbooth, purportedly the first recording studio in a public library (see LJ Online 9/5/07). While in 2009, [...]

Ever notice how readers' advisory (R.A) gets all the love? Training classes abound, resources like EBSCO'S NoveList and NextReads offer a wealth of information to library users, and increasingly more [...]

My favorite part of Tim Irwin's 2005 documentary, We Jam Econo--a history of the fiercely independent punk rockers Minutemen--is when bassist Mike Watt talks of how at one point the [...]

If you thought 2010 was a good year for music, then, baby, you're going to love 2011. To the relief of major label record execs stressing over their bottom line, [...]