Blog Post
Hot Foreign Language Titles on DVD
by amy
Among the most popular foreign titles recently purchased by the Library are three Hindi language films, Baabul (not to be confused with Babel), Don, and Khosla Ka Ghosla; and the Spanish hit Volver. Currently on order--and also on demand--are: The Aura (Spanish) and The Petit Lieutenant (French).
To find other foreign language films in our collection, use the language as your keyword choice (e.g. "Italian language") and choose "DVD" under Material Field.
Blog Post
Bleach
by joy k
Fifteen-year-old Ichigo Kurosaki's always been able to see ghosts, but now that he's met soul reaper Rukia Kuchiki, his life's become really complicated. Find out why in the Bleach anime, which is currently showing on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. The library has the volumes 1 and 2 on dvd, and volume 3 is on order. Can't wait to find out what happens next? Follow the story via the popular manga series by Tite Kubo that the anime is based on.
Blog Post
Two Nobel Prize Laureates born April 15
by Maxine
Today is the birthday of two Irish literary stars, poet Seamus Heany and playwright, novelist, Samuel Beckett. Heaney was born in 1939 in Mossbaum, Northern Ireland, the oldest of nine siblings. His poetry is infused with images from his rural background. His father was a cattle dealer and Heaney grew up in a three room thatched farmhouse. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. A poem in tribute to the hard working hands of his father and granfather, "Digging," contains the lines:
"The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them."
Samuel Beckett insisted he was born on Good Friday, April 13, 1906 although his birth records indicate it was a month later. He grew up in a wealthy suburb of Dublin but moved to Paris in his twenties. Known as the founder of absurdist drama, Beckett was also an accomplished novelist. But perhaps he is best known for two of his plays, Endgame and Waiting for Godot in which one of the characters says:"We are all born mad. Some remain so." Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1969 and gave most of the money to charity.
Blog Post
Geisha
by ryanikoglu
Do Geisha fascinate you? Did you read and enjoy Memoirs Of A Geisha by Arthur Golden? You may also enjoy Geisha by Liza Dalby, an American who had the unique experience of living and training with Japanese Geisha and wrote this book; or Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda. Then check out Secret Life Of Geisha, a documentary DVD on geisha that includes interviews with Golden and Dalby.
Blog Post
New Sesame Street DVD's
by fletch
Do you enjoy the story of Peter and the Wolf? Sesame Street has made their own musical adventure starring Elmo’s musical adventure :the story of Peter Wolf. It uses the music of Sergei Perkofiev, and features the Boston Pops Orchestra! There are also several new Sesame Street DVD’s in our collection including Sesame Street : the alphabet jungle game [videorecording (DVD)], and Sesame Street : Count it higher [videorecording (DVD)].
Blog Post
Under the Radar: New DVDs
by amy
While you're waiting for that latest blockbuster to come in, try one of the following four titles we recently purchased: 5 Films About Christo & Jean-Claude, a 3-disc set that includes Christo's Valley Curtain, about the construction of a 500-foot-high orange veil stretched across Rifle Gap, Colo.; and Running Fence, (photo, top), about his 24-mile long fence of white fabric stretched across the hills of Sonoma and Marin Counties in California; Tony Palmer's Film About the Salzburg Festival, a 4-star tribute to this international festival and a must-see for music lovers; Secret of the Wild Child, a NOVA production about "Genie," a teenage girl whose parents kept her imprisoned in near-total isolation from infancy; and currently on order is Kozintsev's 1971 Russian production of King Lear, one of the truly great Soviet-era films that will "stand as one of the unshakable edifices of Shakespearean imagination...." (New Yorker)
Blog Post
The Doctor Is In...
by RiponGood
What do plastic men, Charles Dickens, and the End of the World, have in common? They are the three episodes you'll find on Doctor Who Series One, Disk One, from 2005. Christopher Eccleston plays the Doctor and Billie Piper, his "plus one". The shows were very entertaining. I especially liked the story with Charles Dickens.
Blog Post
History Bits - Saving People 1945
by ryanikoglu
If your child is old enough to experience world history, and they are ready for Schindler's List, they could be interested in more on the subject. Paper Clips is the true story of a school project in rural Tennesee that was designed to build and understand the concept of 6 million, and crime against humanity. The Children of Chabannes is the story of a village in central France that protected over 400 Jewish children who were sent away from Nazi occupied homes in search of safety. Sugihara is the story of the Japanese consul to Lithuania who defied Tokyo and wrote hundreds of transit visas for Jews to flee through Russia to Japan and other countries.
Blog Post
A long journey home
by Maxine
On March 23, 1806, Lewis and Clark began their journey back from the Pacific coast to the East to report on their expedition. The winter had been brutally cold and wet. They had traveled about 4,000 miles from St. Louis and had been gone almost two years.
Lewis and Clark thought they could avoid the trip back over land by getting on a merchant ship but there were none to be found. And so, without much food or supplies, they began the trek back. In six months, they arrived in St. Louis.
Blog Post
Search for the Jewel of Four Souls
by joy k
Psst, anime fans! The library’s just purchased the first season of the Inuyasha television series. This is the story of Kagome, who is just your average teenager until a demon pulls her into an ancient well. On the other end of the well she finds herself 500 years in the past, where she meets Inuyasha, a half-demon, and learns she is the reincarnation of an ancient priestess who guarded the sacred Jewel of Four Souls. There’s just one problem: the jewel’s been shattered, and Kagome will only be able to retrieve the shards with Inuyasha’s help—and Inuyasha wants the jewel for himself.
And if you don’t want to wait for the anime, you can always read the original manga by Rumiko Takahashi.