tuesday may 20
A rock musician who has made his mark in the world of popular culture turns to his more 'academic side' as he completes a doctoral degree in astrophysics. His dissertation focuses on the study of 'interplanetary dust'. Yeah, right, you say. For real, I say. Highly-respected former Queen guitarist Brain May has an amazing life story to go with his new book, Bang! The Complete History of the Universe. Written with fellow scientists Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, Bang! does indeed provide an enjoyable and accessible look at the 'big bang' - in less than 200 pages. Listen to an interview with Dr. May from npr.org, dated 5.8.08.
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saturday april 26
If you like to dance, or like to laugh at people who dance, then you'll want to check out The Best Dance Moves in the World--Ever! 100 new and classic moves and how to bust them by Matt Pagett. Granted, a book may not be the most effective way to learn to dance, but the illustrations in this one are too great to pass up. From standards like the Twist and the Swim, to a breakdown of Michael Jackson's Thriller choregoraphy, to Cincinnati's own Ickey Shuffle, this book has it all.
And if you're looking for a DVD to give you some tips, try Breakdance: Completely Street, Series 1 or try out the library's new digital video collection and download D's Hip Hop Aerobics, Fitness on Demand.
thursday april 17
Back in the day, it was called Alternative Music. Since then, the name has changed many times--College Rock, Indie Rock or Pop, New Music, etc.--and this library has done a commendable job of keeping up with many of the polymorphous group of artists who make up this genre, or collection of genres. If you want to learn more of the nomenclature and history, Wikipedia has an interesting article on Alternative Rock. It is a chunky topic, as a subject search in the library's catalog for "alternative rock" yields 375 titles. Like all of my blogs and lists, this one will be highly selective, subjective, and lacking a bunch of great music I have overlooked. If you feel personally offended or frothing-at-the-mouth enraged by something I have left out, please feel free to comment. I have listed the most recent library-owned release to date by each band/artist (or the most comprehensive/representative in some cases).
So here's yet another list from me to you:
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friday february 15
The writers' strike is finally over, so the 80th Annual Academy Awards are still set to air on Sunday, February 24th at 8:00 p.m. on ABC. In honor of all things Hollywood, I decided to write about Toby Young’s gossipy memoir, How To Lose Friends and Alienate People.
Young is a British journalist obsessed with American celebrity. He leaves London to accept a job as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, but after years of inappropriate office pranks, drinking too much, desperately trying to crash Oscar parties, and offending celebrities like Nathan Lane and Mel Gibson, he is fired. As the New York Times wrote, “Young has an instinct for annoying the rich and famous that crosses over into the self-destructive.”
Still, you can’t help but feel sorry for him as he falls flat on his face and tries to turn his life around. His memoir continues with a new career as a Hollywood screenwriter in The Sound of No Hands Clapping.
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wednesday december 26
Steve Martin, noted actor and comedian, will be among the honorees at the 30th Annual Kennedy Center Awards this evening.
He has written a book about his own life, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (2007), which I enjoyed as an audio book. Martin tells affectionately about his life so far and his road to fame. He originally wanted to be a magician, and for years he had magic (and poetry reading!) as part of his act.
Martin has a fascinating and very smart mind, but really I don't know why this should be a surprise. His comedy and acting are clever and easily accessed by almost everyone but especially people around my age, baby boomers who weirdly have things like flower power and air raid drills in our common history. He seems to sum us up, somehow.
It's not a long book. It is succinct. I loved it. And if I have gotten to know Steve Martin at all, I think he is probably a bit bemused by his prestigious honor this evening.
friday december 21
Fans of the audio versions of the Harry Potter books by J.K.Rowling are already familiar with my favorite audio book narrator, Jim Dale. According to his web site he has been nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!
I did a little research and discovered that Jim Dale has a widely varied background on the stage and in movies in addition to audio book narration. For example, much to my surprise and delight I discovered that he was the "bad guy" in the movie Pete's Dragon, a favorite of my kids when they were little.
The list of his awards and accomplishments is too long for my limited space here, but I was probably the most impressed by his Tony Award for his creation and performance on Broadway of the main character in Barnum! OK, did you know Jim Dale wrote the lyrics to the song Georgy Girl?? Neither did I!!
What a gift he is, this talented multi-faceted man who has touched so many lives with his award-winning performances, not the least of which are the Harry Potter books.
thursday december 13
Joe Boyd has written an amazing book, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. Joe Boyd is a music producer, who, in the years 1966-1974 produced records by the following luminaries: The Incredible String Band, Shirley Collins, Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Vashti Bunyan, John & Beverly Martyn, Nico, and Maria Muldaur, among others. For a bit more information on some of these folks, check out a couple of my other blogs, one about 1960s British folk rock, and another on Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd's original songwriter. More than a roster of Boyd's accomplishments, White Bicycles is part memoir, part social history, and partly an intimate portrait of some very colorful, talented, and often tragic, individuals. Due to feeling a strong connection to Sandy Denny and Nick Drake, I was particularly moved by the chapters written about them. Poignant social commentary permeates the book as well, and he pulls no punches in describing his take on the myriad of differences between the world back then and what it has become. He even gets on the soap box for a superb chapter on the virtues of old school analog recording techniques versus today's omnipresent computer-based music making. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this book or recommend it more strongly...I was sad to see it come to an end. If you think you might be interested, put yourself on the holds list. If you like folk, folk rock, or 1960s/early 1970s music in general, wrap your head, ears first, around the companion cd, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. You won't regret either move.
After the unwrapping of gifts en masse in the basement of my grandparents’ house on Christmas Eve, there wasn’t much left to do. So I spent the evening in the big red armchair by the fake fireplace reading things in their magazine rack. The Peanuts comic strip books were my favorites. I read the same ones year after year.
Little did I know it then, but Peanuts will always be associated with my childhood. Through Charles Schulz’s strips, I have fond memories of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang. But how much do I actually know about Schulz himself?
Author David Michaelis has just written a new book called Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography that traces Schulz’s life from his modest beginnings as the son of a Midwestern barber to an icon of American popular culture. He realized his dream of creating a newspaper comic strip, yet was lonely and never fully understood by the people who adored him.
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thursday november 08
A suburban teen skater is haunted by the gruesome death of a security guard in Blake Nelson's tense little novel, Paranoid Park. Marketed to teen readers, the book has just as much appeal for adults, and has recently been made into a film by director Gus Van Sant. The film debuted at Cannes film festival in 2007, and is scheduled for limited release in the United States in March 2008.
The story takes place in a downtown skate park in Portland. The narrator hesitates to get involved with a street kid who tries to befriend him, and when a dare goes wrong, the narrator's life changes forever. You can't help but be drawn in by the guilt-ridden complexity of this teen's situation. Recommended for skaters and non-skaters alike.
thursday october 18
I’ve read a couple of Jane Austen's novels and have seen many of them adapted on film, but author Laurie Viera Rigler is a self-proclaimed Jane Austen addict. She has read and reread all six of Austen’s books and is a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She has also just written her first novel, a charming romantic tale called Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.
After Courtney Stone finds her boyfriend Frank having an affair with their wedding cake designer, she nurses her rejection with a copy of Pride and Prejudice and a bottle of Absolut. She wakes up to find herself in the body of Jane Mansfield, a 19th-century English woman.
Courtney is not prepared for the chamber pots, corsets, and endless embroidery that are a normal part of Jane’s life. But living in Jane’s body does have its perks: servants wait on her hand and foot, there’s plenty of delicious food to eat and balls to attend, and the dashing Mr. Edgeworth makes her weak in the knees. But can he be trusted? And how will she ever return to her life in 21st-century Los Angeles?
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friday october 05
Charlie and I went on another road trip to Chicago, and of course, music was involved.
Dinosaur Junior and the related Sebadoh, with Dinosaur Junior's bass player, were great. They bring to mind the rock bands of 15-20 years ago, and the fabulous guitar playing of J Mascis took me back to the glory days of my youth, admiring the great guitar players. Oh wait...he was one of them!
The Hold Steady are kind of gritty, kind of bouncy, with folk music overtones but solid rock presentation.
Bright Eyes calmed us right down with mellow acoustic pieces, and the easygoing county music-like songs set a very nice no-stress atmosphere.
My pick for the day was Gary Allan's Greatest Hits, country music with a rough-cut rocky edge.
I must mention
It's a long drive to Chicago and back in one day, but it's a great time for music.
wednesday october 03
I don’t like football. I understand the rules, but not the fascination with the game. As strange as it may seem, I enjoy watching the television show Friday Night Lights, starring Kyle Chandler and the Dillon Panthers, the high school football team of small town Dillon, Texas. Season two kicks off this Friday, October 5th.
The television series (and the 2004 movie) is based on the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger. Originally published in 1990 (around the time yours truly was graduating from high school), Bissinger follows the 1988 Permian Panthers of Odessa, Texas into the locker room and onto the field, from preseason to playoffs.
The Panthers keep the hopes and dreams of this oil town alive, so Odessa takes its championship team seriously. The Permian High School stadium seats 19,000 and has artificial turf. Women carry black leather purses that look like footballs. One man has attended every game since the school opened in 1959 (except when he had heart bypass surgery). And angry fans, upset over a loss, place “For Sale” signs in the coach’s front yard.
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wednesday september 19
Ok--I am breaking a longstanding blog silence. It took another best-of list, this one from a webzine, to make it happen. This particular list really gets me going: The 50 Greatest Rock Drummers from Stylus Magazine (for some strong opinions and lively expletives, see the comments at the end of the article). I am going to exercise great restraint and not complain about how one defines "greatest," or why only 50 drummers, or the overt subjectivity of such an exploit. It is obviously in the nature of some people (librarians among them) to make lists. I will also refrain from the arrogance as to suggest that I am an expert on anything (public librarians are generalists, remember) but, being a drummer for 30 years and listening intently to other drummers for even longer allows me at least a few additions. For other remarks on librarians, music fans, and lists, please see this blog.
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tuesday september 18
Yes, I know, it is on the verge of being overdone, this pirate thing. But, really, people do need to have fun, and dressing up like a Buccaneer or a Scurvy Wench only on Halloween is not enough for some. So, now is the time get ready for Talk Like A Pirate Day on September 19. Hide the treasure chests! Protect the women and children! Annoy your co-workers!
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tuesday september 04
Anyone who has watched Bravo-TV's Project Runway knows that the name Tim Gunn is synonymous with tasteful criticism and witty critique. So many times I enjoyed his choice of words and delivery, giving aspiring designers the exactly right dose of "Make it work" encouragement...or was that a challenge?
Joy of joys, Tim has written a book for us, A Guide to Quality, Taste, and Style (2007). In it, he expounds on fashion and how to find the right look for each of us. In his learned, cultured, yet approachable and unpretentious way, he forces a look at who we really are and enables us to dress ourselves in a flattering yet totally honest way.
And, happily, Tim Gunn's new television show, Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, will premier on Bravo this Thursday evening.
Fashion is evidently important to the public at large. The fashion magazines are enormous this month! Vogue ("840 pages of fearless fashion!"), Elle (592 pages), and InStyle (618 pages) magazines are thicker and heavier than ever. Unfortunately, so am I. Oh, well! Glorious browsing!
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tuesday august 14
Gordon Ramsay certainly speaks his mind. But you know, he is almost always right! What I have discovered, however, is that this talented and volatile chef is a very nice man underneath all that bravado, and an excellent teacher as well.
Besides being a television personality on popular shows in Britain (Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares) and the US (reality series Hell's Kitchen and the soon-to-be-aired Kitchen Nightmares), Chef Ramsay has published lots of cookbooks and a couple of autobiographical books that read like novels. He has also opened and run a number of restaurants, earning lots of Michelin ratings.
Anthony Bourdain, another TV chef, has a fascinatingly cynical view of life and the world of food. His documentary-style series on the Travel Channel, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, follows Bourdain around the world in pursuit of flavor. He, too, has lots of books to his name, including novels, cookbooks, and memoirs such as the fascinating Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. He cooks at the Brassiere Les Halles in New York City.
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tuesday august 07
Several years ago, my friend and I went on a weekend bus trip to Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis, Tennessee. On the way, I listened to Elvis: 30 #1 Hits and watched his movies Jailhouse Rock and King Creole. By the time we arrived on the front porch of Graceland, I was ready to meet the King.
Ever since that trip, I’ve enjoyed reading about his fascinating life. As the 30th anniversary of his death approaches on August 16th, I decided to read Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. Considered the definitive biography of Elvis, Peter Guralnick recounts Presley’s early life and music before the rhinestone jumpsuits and peanut butter and banana sandwiches.
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wednesday june 06
Hurray! TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society), my favorite crew of ghost-hunting plumbers, is back on the air, and starting June 6 there will be new episodes of Ghost Hunters on SciFi with new investigations! These Ghost Hunters take their investigations very seriously, coming at it from the point of view of disproving it. Sometimes they can't...
Along those lines, I have a little stack of books on my desk about proving and debunking paranormal events.
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tuesday june 05
The inaugural Discovering New Mysteries International Mystery Writers' Festival will be held in Owensboro, Kentucky, June 12 to June 17, 2007. Some of your favorite writers of mystery and suspense novels, and luminaries from the worlds of film and television, will be on hand. New mystery plays, screenplays, and teleplays will be judged in competition and presented in live performances.
Among the writers attending will be: Stuart Kaminsky, author of more that 60 mysteries, and currently Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America;
Louisville’s own Sue Grafton, author of the bestselling Kinsey Millhone mystery series;
Kentucky native James W. Hall, author of the long-running series of Thorn suspense novels set in Key West, Florida;
past Grand Master of Mystery and Edgar Award winner Ira Levin, best known, of course, for Rosemary’s Baby;
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tuesday may 29
Whenever my son Charlie takes a road trip, he organizes a sound track. I had the pleasure of experiencing one of these sound tracks with him recently on a trip back from Nashville. I have a new appreciation for indie rock and some new favorite music.
Bright Eyes with Conor Oberst is a wonderful band from Omaha. 2007's Cassadaga has great music and wins for Best Album Cover (a nifty little tool reveals words and pictures all over it).
Arcade Fire's Neon Bible was overall the best one. Charlie saw this Canadian band in concert in Chicago a couple of weeks ago and said it was sublime.
Dragonforce...and now for something completely different! This is speed metal from England, hearkening back to the 80's but with 2000's sophistication. I loved it. Described as a "power metal band", I think their concerts should be at Stonehenge, or in front of dramatically lit castles with laser light shows.
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friday may 25
Cincinnati has a wonderful tradition of welcoming spring and summer with magnificent singing – first the May Festival, held during two May weekends, then the opera season with four productions in June and July.
This tradition has a very long history! The May Festival, established in 1873, is the oldest continuous choral festival in the Western hemisphere. Music Hall was built to house it. Cincinnati Opera, founded in 1920, is the second-oldest opera company in the United States.
The Library will join the celebration this year by unveiling treasures from the Cincinnati Opera Archives, which were entrusted to the Art & Music Department last year. The exhibit Highlights from the Cincinnati Opera Archives, on view in the department from June 13 through September 2, will showcase photographs of the many legendary stars who performed with the company, along with historic programs, posters, scrapbooks, and other documents.
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If you have never heard of Lord Buckley before, it's kind of hard to describe what he did and who he was in any succinct way. Fortunately for me, Oliver Trager, author of
Dig Infinity! The Life and Art of Lord Buckley has done just that in the opening pages of his biography. Here is his summarized take on Mr. Buckley: "Lord Buckley: the white, six-and-a-half-foot-tall, ex-lumberjack cat who invoked both the manners of the English aristocracy and the street language of black America...Lord Buckley: the picaresque pill-popping darling of Al Capone...Lord Buckley the jazz philosopher who jammed with Charlie Parker...Lord Buckley: the original viper, the Hall of Fame Hipster, the baddest Beatnik, the first flower child, the premier rapper...best known for his 'hipsemantic' retellings of Bible stories, Shakespeare soliloquies, and modern poetry in the 1950s." So, while not exactly a comedian (as he's often described), he could better be described as a performance artist who experimented with language and storytelling for comic effect.
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Of all the concerts I would love a ticket to this summer, the Rock Bottom Remainders is the one I’d really like to catch. This literary supergroup is composed of such authors as Dave Barry, Matt Groening, Stephen King, and Amy Tan, among others. These writers have once again temporarily abandoned their spots on the bestseller list to form a band that raises money for literary charities.
The band plays Friday, June 1, in New York City. If, you're like me, and can’t escape to New York right now, at least we have their band memoir, Mid-Life Confidential: the Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude. I have seen the band perform once on CBS’s The Late Late show, and I have read their book. I can tell you that their book is very funny, and their playing is not as laughable as you might fear.
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wednesday may 23
Are you a cruciverbalist at heart? Do you have a secret ritual regarding the daily crossword puzzles in the newspaper? Myself, I like to fold the paper in a certain way, then do the cryptogram first, the 'basic' crossword, and then the 'advanced' crossword, in that order. And, I use ink - erasers are for the timid. Sudoku? Sorry, I am clueless.
There are of course millions of crossword puzzle junkies in the world at large, and several have been profiled in a surprisingly fascinating documentary, Wordplay, which comes with the tagline, "50 million people do it every week".
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thursday april 26
You're not imagining things if you've been seeing Imperial Stormtroopers at the library.
In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, we're launching GalaxyCon, an out-of-this-world celebration of all things science fiction.
It hasn't even started yet, and already it's a blast. I've had some great conversations with fans of all ages and families who plan to join us for the stellar events we have planned.
Science fiction is such a part of our culture, in fiction, film, and TV. Were you one of the wide-eyed kids who watched Flash Gordon serials on Saturday mornings, or did you stand in line for Spiderman and its sequels? Did you get your kicks from superhero comics or have your consciousness raised by the sociological sf of Sheri S. Tepper or Margaret Atwood? Are you hooked on Heroes or daffy for Dr. Who?
Even if you're not a techie, a Trekker, or a towel-carrying hitchhiker through the galaxy, how can you resist? (Resistance is futile, you know!)
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tuesday april 10
L. Frank Baum's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a lovely memory of my childhood. Outside the bedrooms in the upstairs hallway of my grandparents' house the walls were lined with old glass-fronted bookcases, filled with my mom's books from her childhood. All 14 Oz books were there, and I spent many happy hours reading them.
Robert Sabuda adapted the first book to his magical pop-up format, staying true to the original illustrations and story.
The cast of characters from Oz would happily surprise any Harry Potter fan: Tick-Tock the Royal Army of Oz, flying monkeys, witches and sorceresses, Ozma, Jack Pumpkinhead, and of course Dorothy herself who would give Harry a run for his money in resourcefulness and courage. The stories were written early in the 20th century but maintain a fantastic sense of adventure that is still enjoyable.
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friday april 06
I’ve been hooked on The Sopranos since 1999, when it debuted on HBO. April 8—when the final nine episodes of the series begin airing—marks a bittersweet moment for Sopranos fans. On the one hand, we can’t wait to see how the wonderfully tangled plot lines are going to be resolved. On the other hand, we really hate to see this ground-breaking series come to an end.
So in honor of this momentous occasion, I thought I’d dive into our catalog and see what kind of Sopranos-related gems I could unearth. It turns out that there are plenty of titles for those of us who find Tony and his two “families” a source of endless fascination.
The “official” companion to the series, The Sopranos: A Family History, includes complete histories of the families, a season-by-season episode guide, cast profiles and interviews, and an interview with series creator David Chase.
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friday march 30
Life with a young child can be pretty amusing. Case in point: my two-year-old likes to put her doll in timeouts for "biting" and loves to wrap our labrador retriever up in her blanket for "night-night" (she also likes to blow his nose for him--don't ask). My husband and I find her antics hilarious. If you're looking for more hilarity in your own life, check out the library's collection of comedy books and cd's. They're guaranteed to tickle your funny bone. Here's a small selection:
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monday march 19
A few weeks ago, I spent an afternoon absorbed by the life story of a musician I knew nothing about. And now I find out that musician is coming to Cincinnati in May. Director Jeff Feuerzeig won a 2005 Sundance award for The Devil and Daniel Johnston, his documentary about the innovative and talented artist Daniel Johnston. Intertwined with Johnston's remarkable songwriting and visual art is his personal struggle with manic depression. Interviews with friends, colleagues, and his devoted parents as well as Daniel's recordings dating back to childhood, make for a gut-wrenching, complex portrayal of love, survival, and art.
Daniel Johnston performs live at The Southgate House in Newport on Friday, May 11.
friday march 16
I'm a huge Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series fan. Those two series are really what sparked my interest in vampire fiction. Some of the best books in vampire fiction is Tanya Huff's Toronto-based "Blood Books" series featuring PI Vicky Nelson and her friend/lover Henry Fitzroy (who just happens to be the 450 year old son of Henry the VIII). Vicky also gets the assist from her ex-boyfriend Mike Celluci in her chasing down cases. She's a fabulously flawed heroine who really deserves your time!
The "Blood Books" were originally published in the early '90s as single titles, but have recently been reissued in three omibus editions. Each edition contains two of the stories.
saturday march 10
“One hundred nations descend upon us. The armies of all Asia. Funneled into this narrow corridor, their numbers count for nothing. They shatter with each advance.”
300, the film based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel about the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae (“hot gates”), opened this week here and across the country. Typically for Miller, whose talents and concepts are equally extreme, the movie has drawn praise for its power, but also diatribes against its historical and (perceived) political content, as well as Miller’s trademark violence.
The book is certainly a fine example of Miller’s potent, “artful” storytelling, and the story itself can’t be told often enough. Stationing themselves in a narrow mountain pass, 300 Spartans faced certain death to hold the gigantic army of the Persian Empire at bay, enabling the Greek city-states to marshal their forces and eventually rebuff the invaders.
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wednesday march 07
When you wonder how in the world Peter O’Toole missed winning an Academy Award for Lawrence of Arabia and then discover he lost to Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird, the famous gaps in Oscar honors seem less shocking. But – Rocky beating Taxi Driver? Best Picture and Best Director? Actually, Martin Scorsese wasn’t even nominated for directing Taxi Driver.
Oscar history is so full of surprises that it was painful to watch the aged O’Toole sitting among mere mortals at this year’s ceremony, hoping to end a record series of losses: seven fruitless nominations at the start of the evening, eight by the end. Fortunately, he had received an honorary award in 2002.
I saw the nearly four-hour Lawrence of Arabia four times during its initial run in 1963, when I was 13. Before I try to explain myself, some cover from Roger Ebert: “I've noticed that when people remember Lawrence of Arabia, they don't talk about the details of the plot. They get a certain look in their eye, as if they are remembering the whole experience, and have never quite been able to put it into words.”
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wednesday february 21
Who can forget Jack Palance doing push-ups on stage after winning Best Supporting Actor for City Slickers? Or Adrien Brody enthusiastically kissing Halle Berry after his Best Actor win for The Pianist? If you don't want to miss all the excitement (plus an opportunity to make fun of the bizarre outfits some of the stars wear), tune into ABC this Sunday at 8 p.m. to see Ellen DeGeneres host the 79th Annual Oscar Awards. In past years, many of the Best Picture winners were adapted from popular works of fiction or non-fiction. Here's a small sampling (the date in parenthesis is the year the movie won the award for Best Picture):
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tuesday february 20
Few stories of African American triumphs in the arts are as moving as that of Marian Anderson’s 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Anderson, considered by many the greatest contralto of her time, was barred from using Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, who owned the facility. In the widespread protest that followed, Eleanor Roosevelt and other prominent members resigned from the DAR, and Anderson performed instead at the memorial on Easter Sunday. A crowd of 75,000 attended the historic event.
Anderson, who died in 1993, went on to other trailblazing achievements, notably her 1955 debut as the first African American member of the Metropolitan Opera. Her successor in breaking barriers was the magnificent soprano Leontyne Price, the first African American to achieve an international reputation in opera and one of the finest of divas by any measure.
This Little Light of Mine: The Stories of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price celebrates these two artists through the talents of soprano
Adrienne Danrich. The Cincinnati Opera will present performances tonight at
Memorial Hall and tomorrow night in the Harriet Tubman Theater of the
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, both at 7 p.m. Touring programs are also available through February 23.
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tuesday february 06
The Sundance Film Festival closed in Park City, Utah, on January 28, releasing onto the market a great many fine independent movies, to judge by the number that won at least one award. The festival, produced by Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute, screens 125 dramatic and documentary feature films and more than 70 short films each year.
The Grand Jury Prize winners were the documentary Manda Balla (“Send a Bullet”), the first feature film directed by Jason Kohn, and the drama Padre Nuestro (“Our Father”), a Spanish-language film by first-time writer/director – and Fort Wright, Ky. native – Christopher Zalla.
Padre Nuestro follows the struggles of a Mexican boy to reach New York City and find the father he has never met, bearing as sole proof of his identity a locket and letter from his deceased mother. Manda Balla is a portrait of contemporary Brazil, focusing on its diversity, socioeconomic extremes, and a growing culture of violence and corruption.
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tuesday january 30
I am not one of those crafty hobbyist people. But in the last year or so, I have found a hobby that is fun, rewarding, and serves both the creative, right-brain person and the left-brain, analytical science guy within. I am talking about brewing beer. Though not an alkie or a weekend warrior, I do enjoy beer. Good beer, that is, as I am a serious beer snob. Enough about me, though, let's talk about brewing. It is simpler than you might imagine. Just hop (pun intended) in the car, drive down to
Listermann's, buy the gear and a kit, bring ‘em home, and brew it up right in your very own kitchen. Three weeks in the fermenter (a five-gallon bucket with a lid), three more weeks conditioning in the bottle, and you have two cases of yumminess to imbibe. Time for a party!
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monday january 29
Olympus Fashion Week in New York City is looming, when all the designers showcase their new looks for Fall 2007. Couture Week is in full swing, and the collections vary all the way from Jean Paul Gaultier's beautiful sleek monochromatic lines to Elie Saab's diaphanous fanciful frills.
Not everyone owns a couture gown, but everyone owns a pair of jeans. In Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon (2006) by James Sullivan you can find out why.
Designer and fashion expert Randolph Duke helps us all dress well in his book, The Look: A Guide to Dressing from the Inside Out. In a very comfortable way, he helps us look at our figures and work toward expressing our own personal style.
Truth is, high fashion really does trickle down to our department store sales racks and into our closets. Fashion Week shows set trends, highlight colors, and establish the general mood for the clothing we will be wearing. My question is, Will there be any blue jeans on the runway?
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saturday january 27
Selling junk from around the house on eBay is fun, but driving to the post office is kind of a drag. When I saw Julian Dibbell's Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot, I thought I might be onto something I'd enjoy. For one thing, when my daughter got sick of Neopets, I took over her account, and I'm glad to report that our oldest pet, Jenifrlopez, is now 1,298 days old. (My daughter's gotten into Runescape: she's the girl with a chef's cap who goes around butchering virtual zoo animals.) Right now on eBay, someone is trying to sell a Runescape virtual Santa Hat for $100. Some virtual items have sold for hundreds of real dollars, presumably to game players who don't want to spend the hours it can take to earn rare items.
There is no market for virtual Neopets stuff on eBay, and my daughter refuses to sell her Runescape items. Neopets is not exactly a MMORPG ("massively multiplayer online role-playing game), and Runescape is not one of the more popular ones. Check the MMORPG Web site or similar ones for an update.
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thursday january 25
Oscar-nominated films now in theaters began as books. The satirical tone of Tom Perrotta’s Little Children gets a bit lost in the film, but the disturbing performance by Jackie Earle Haley has caught everyone’s attention. A desperate Judi Dench knows Cate Blanchett’s secrets in Zoe Heller’s What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal. Will Smith and son bring Chris Gardner’s astounding and inspiring memoir The Pursuit of Happyness to a wider audience.
Fans of The O.C. saw the writing on the wall when Mischa Barton left the cast at the end of last season. With only a few episodes left in the series, you might be wondering how to cherish the memories. What better way to relive the drama than by listening to the Music of the O.C. – the indie pop sounds that became a staple of the show.
Music of the O.C. - Mix 2
Music of the O.C. - Mix 4
friday january 12
There has been a popular folk music movement brewing for several years known as “Freak Folk”, consisting of people such as Devendra Banhart, Vetiver, Faun Fables, Joanna Newsom, Espers, Josephine Foster, Six Organs of Admittance, Animal Collective, Akron/Family, and others. Freak Folk will more than likely be the subject of a future blog. Why then bring it up now?
Because FF simply could not exist without the creative fusion of styles that occurred in the UK in the 1960’s and 1970’s, described in mouth-watering detail by ethnomusicologist Britta Sweers in her Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music. I would strongly recommend this wonderful book to anyone interested in folk, folk rock, or the music of the British Isles, and for those curious about the lesser-known, more traditional musical/cultural revolution of the 60’s that was (among other things) a reaction against the pop music of the day. Sweers wrestles with the problematic definitions and history, paints a vivid sociocultural portrait of the scene, discusses the main players therein, elaborates on the many ongoing musical revivals, and speculates about future fusions of traditional and “new”.
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monday january 08
Ever wished you had a good comeback when the moment required it? For inspiration, check out It's a Bitter Little World: The Smartest, Toughest, Nastiest Quotes from Film Noir, published by Cincinnati's own Writer's Digest Books. They just don't write 'em like this anymore. It takes guts and brains to pull off lines like "You going legitimate is like a vulture turning vegetarian."
Stupid Movie Lines: the 776 dumbest things ever uttered on the silver screen makes you wish you could have written something that bad - that takes talent too, you know.
For more movie mayhem, try The Official Movie Plot Generator: 27,000 Hiliarious Movie Plot Combinations. Flip the tabs, mix and match characters and situations to develop a winning premise for a movie. For those who love movies, great stories, and Mad Libs.
thursday january 04
This month marks the 70th anniversary of the great Ohio Valley Flood of 1937. CET, Cincinnati’s PBS affiliate, is inviting viewers to share pictures, stories, and videotape of flood film footage, as the station remembers the most deadly and devastating flood in modern memory. Selected submissions will appear on CETconnect.org beginning the week of January 15.
Following a month of heavy rainfall, the Ohio River crested at 79.99 feet in Cincinnati on January 26, 1937, the highest level ever recorded. Twenty-four years earlier, the Ohio Valley was ravaged by two great deluges. The river rose to 62.2 feet on January 14, 1913, at Cincinnati. It crested again the last week of March at 69.9 feet.
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wednesday december 27
Ghosts and spooky happenings have always been interesting topics for books and stories.
Edgar Award winner Phillip DePoy has created a well-written fiction series about a folklorist named Fever Devlin who returns to his Appalachian roots and whose investigations delve in just short of the paranormal: The Devil's Hearth (2003), The Witch's Grave (2004), and the recent well-received A Minister's Ghost (2006).
Cree Black, Daniel Hecht's fictional paranormal investigator, explores haunted houses and weird happenings in City of Masks (2003), also available as a digital audio book; the series continues with Land of Echoes(2004) and Bones of the Barbary Coast (2006).
Another good ghost story is Jodi Picoult's Second Glance; it is one of those stories with characters and time playing tricks on the reader.
Some other books with a paranormal story line are the International Horror Guild's award winning Fogheart by Thomas Tessier, John Passarella's Kindred Spirit, and Charlie Price's Dead Connection.
tuesday december 26
Need a reading suggestion for that special oddball in your life? I may have a perfectly esoteric recommendation. If the person has an interest in the 1960's, the occult, eccentric people, and strange tales, Gary Lachman's intriguing Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius might be just the ticket (to ride). This fast-paced and highly entertaining reader of otherworldly and sometimes sordid activities alleges connections between many colorful figures such as: L. Ron Hubbard and Aleister Crowley, Charles Manson and the Beach Boys, Jayne Mansfield and Anton LaVey (founder of The Church of Satan), and other strange bedfellows too numerous to mention here.
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James Brown's passing on December 25 begs lovers of all things funky to Get up Offa That Thing and celebrate the career of a true original. Brown's ties to Cincinnati via King Records and Bootsy Collins are local interest items in a large, thrilling, tumultuous life.
His 1963 recording James Brown Live at the Apollo is considered one of the best albums of all time. His music has been feautured in over 100 films. If the only James Brown songs you know are I Got You (I Feel Good) and Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, then you better get listening!
And if listening to him isn't enough, check out his most recent autobiography I Feel Good: a memoir of a life of soul.
thursday december 21
The wonderful documentary Ballets Russes is now at the Library, after a too-brief stint on the big screen here last summer. The film recounts the glories and “ballet battles” of the two troupes of dancers, originally all Russian émigrés, who toured the world for decades during the mid-twentieth century. These companies brought ballet to regions where it had never been seen before, particularly in the Americas and Australia.
A 2000 reunion of former Ballet Russe members in New Orleans gave Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine an opportunity to capture their accounts of this pioneering period in ballet history. The film combines these candid, affectionate, moving, and often humorous interviews with precious glimpses of legendary works and performers.
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monday december 18
(1) Those who would marry Leonard Cohen in a heartbeat and those (2) like my daughter, who says, "Everybody in the sixth grade hates Leonard Cohen," and when she's really mad, "Leonard Cohen doesn't love you."
The gateway song to Leonard Cohen is usually "Suzanne." Albums I'd recommend are Tower of Song (1995); The Future (1992); The Essential Leonard Cohen (2002). Cohen's least popular album (aside perhaps from his most recent one) is Death of a Ladies Man," which was produced by Phil Spector and definitely has that Wall of Sound thing going on. I like it a lot. Also, for cool cover versions, I'm Your Fan, a tribute album (Version #1) is a lot of fun.
There are biographies of Leonard Cohen, none completely up to date. The most recent is Leonard Cohen, by David Sheppard, published in 2000. While satisfying as far as Cohen's early days are concerned, Sheppard's record stops before Cohen's departure from Mount Baldy, near Los Angeles, where he was a Buddhist monk for five years.
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thursday december 14
Although the mercury may not show it (60 degrees in December?), it's almost winter. If you enjoy hibernating indoors with a good book and you're looking for a fun, stimulating new activity, how about joining or forming a book discussion group? Rachel W. Jacobsohn's The Reading Group Handbook, Ellen Slezak's The Book Group Book, and Judy Gelman's The Book Club Cookbook will get you going with great tips on organizing meetings, selecting titles, participating in discussions, even recipes that pair up with your favorite books. If I haven't piqued your interest enough, one of the following titles is sure to!
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monday december 11
The two kinds of people, those who say when they hear about The Klingon Hamlet: (1) "Yeah! Great idea!; (2) "Well, I guess anything that encourages people to read Hamlet can't be that bad of a bad idea."
The premise is that for the first time Hamlet or (Khamlet) , by William Shakespeare (Wil'yam Shex'pir) has been published in its original Klingon, after many years of being available mostly in English (aka "Terran"). The English Hamlet--not one of the dumbed-down versions--is included across from its corresponding Klingon page, so if you're a student reading Hamlet and want to annoy your teacher, you should buy or check out this book.
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thursday december 07
If you're going up to Cleveland over the holidays, you might want to plan a visit to Ralphie Parker’s house. San Diego businessman Brian Jones bought the very house used for the exterior shots in A Christmas Story, the satirical holiday classic from 1983, written and narrated by the late, inimitable Jean Shepherd.
Mr. Jones spent a bundle of money renovating the house, transforming the interiors to recreate the rooms of the Parker house in the film (shot on a sound stage). A Christmas Story House is located at 3159 W. 11th Street in Cleveland, and A Christmas Story Museum and gift shop is right across the street.
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tuesday november 28
Charles Dickens wrote a masterpiece when he came up with A Christmas Carol. I am partial to stories with ghosts in them, and this is one of the best. We have not only the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet-to-Come scaring the socks off Scrooge, but old Marley long deceased showing up as well. And how about the homeless suffering poor that wail their dirge outside Scrooge's window? Creepy, but he deserved it.
I will never forget that Scrooge was in denial as long as possible. He blamed the manifestations on "an underdone potato" or "an undigested bit of beef"!
There have been lots of film adaptations of the story with terrific portrayals of Scrooge, including George C Scott, Patrick Stewart, musical Albert Finney, and even Bill Murray in the modern "Scrooged". My favorite has to be "Scrooge" (1951) with Alastair Sim capturing the old miser perfectly!
It's just amazing to me how a story created in 1843 can be so timely today. Merry Christmas, 163 years later!
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friday november 24
Sad news on Tuesday. Robert Altman, “one of the most adventurous and influential American directors of the late 20th century,” passed away. Over the course of his career, Altman directed an enormous variety of movies. Of course, there are the classics, such as M*A*S*H*, Nashville, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, California Split, and The Long Goodbye, but let’s not forget about his smaller, more eclectic movies: Quintet, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Vincent & Theo. What an amazing body of work—he will truly be missed.
So what better time than now to find out what the great man himself had to say about his films?
David Thompson and Robert Altman first crossed paths in 2001, when Thompson was working on a documentary for the BBC about the making of
Gosford Park. Afterwards, Thompson asked the director if he would be willing to sit down for some informal interviews about his career. The result is
Altman on Altman, a candid discussion of his life as a filmmaker.
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tuesday november 07
Looking forward to the holiday movie season? Can't decide which movies to see? Then check out Yahoo's Holiday Movie Guide. If you still can't make up your mind, pick up copies of some of the following books. The movies based on them are all set to hit theaters soon. Scheduled release dates are in parentheses.
- A Good Year by Peter Mayle--Russell Crowe inherits a French vineyard and falls in love with a beautiful local woman (11/10)
- Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser--A fast food company executive played by Greg Kinnear investigates when tainted meat turns up in his company's restaurants (11/17)
- Casino Royale by Ian Fleming--Daniel Craig plays the first blonde James Bond (11/17)
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monday october 23
As library people we love lists...Especially booklists. So if you happen to love rock music and lists, like some of us libraryfolk, below you will find Blender music magazine's "40 Greatest Rock 'N Roll Books", from their October issue. I am also pleased to report that we own most of the books on the list (and ordering those we do not, if in print).
Having stated that lists are lovable, it must also be said that they can be problematic, causing negative reactions in some by what they include and exclude. Blender's list rose the ire of music blog/zine Stereogum. Having read through the flames and rants, I discovered three books that Stereogum readers were most dismayed by Blender's omission: Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991, Cash: The Autobiography, and "Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes".
On the other hand, Kirkus Reviews agrees with Blender's choices, and reviews 13 of the 40 picks in this article from The Book Standard.
Kind reader, what about you? What's missing from the list? What's on it that shouldn't be? Comments...?
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saturday october 21
I'm a little cuckoo for this show. If Larry David met me, he'd be put off by my enthusiasm. But no show has made me laugh this hard since Seinfeld, so what am I supposed to do? Since I don't have HBO, I've had to catch the episodes on DVD, and after watching all five seasons, I've got nowhere to turn except network TV, and that's just not a place I want to be. You can imagine my delight when I discovered Curb Your Enthusiasm