With the new series Gossip Girl premiering on CW last week, I've been thinking about other television series based on books for teens or tweens. My list is sadly short: Gossip Girl (series by Cecily Von Ziegesar), Little House on the Prairie (series by Laura Ingalls Wilder), and of course tons of comic book-based television shows.

Sure there are movies based on teen books such as How to Deal based on several books by Sarah Dessen, I, Robot (original book by Isaac Asimov), and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (original book by Ann Brashares).

And there’s never a shortage of books based on TV shows such as Teen Titans, Smallville, and That’s So Raven.

However, when it comes to television shows based on teen/tween books, the list is short. Can you think of any?

If rock is blues and country, then is blues-rock just bluesy blues and country? How blues is blues-rock in comparison to rock? Of course, if someone in 1956 called a group or artist “blues-rock,” it most certainly would have been redundant, but by the time of the sub-genre explosion in rock music (or as I like to call it, The Great Rock Schism) in the late sixties, all sorts of groups like Cream (and for that matter, any of Eric Clapton’s groups,) The Spencer Davis Group, The Rolling Stones, J. Geils Band, Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green’s version,) and hoards more identified themselves as blues-rock.

AAFF logo

The Ann Arbor Film Festival has launched its Endangered Campaign to raise $75,000 in three months to support the AAFF. They're also on the lookout for talented individuals who are interested in joining in the actual production of the festival, as well as other events throughout the year. On Wednesday, September 26th, at 7:30 they will be in the basement of Great Wraps, located at 310 S. State Street, to meet with people who are interested in becoming a Festival Volunteer for the 46th Ann Arbor Film Festival. If you can't make it, or have any questions, please send an e-mail to Dave Hashim, our Volunteer Coordinator at dhashim@aafilmfest.org

Southeastern Michigan’s Great Lakes Myth Society bring their blend of folk, pop and rock music back to Ann Arbor this Friday for a performance at the Blind Pig. A common theme throughout many of GLMS’s songs is Michigan and its natural surroundings. Singer/Songwriter Timothy Monger explains, “to reference our home in song has always been a natural reaction. It was only when we noticed how strong the themes were that the desire to center our project within the Lakes took hold."
Check it out for yourself on their latest album. Side note: In the song “Marquette County, 1959” the singer croons “Jimmy Stewart came to Marquette County in 1959.” This is true and references the film Anatomy of a Murder which Jimmy Stewart did indeed film in Marquette in 1959. (It’s a gem of a film costarring Lee Remick in a sassy roll.)

Following are several new dvds in our collection that are on Amazon's "Hot new releases" list:

We are Marshall. This film, based on a true story, stars Matthew McConaughey as Jack Lengyel, new coach of Marshall University's football team after coaches and team members die in a plane crash in the Appalachian Mountains in November, 1970. The usual football action but also some affecting performances.

The September 2007 issue of Sight and Sound: The International Film Magazine has a list of 10 Documentries that Shocked the World and AADL has some of them.

Heshang - The River Elegy (Jun Xia, 1988) China
Minamata: The Victims and Their World (Tsuchimoto Noriaki, 1972) Japan
Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore, 2002) US
The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988) US
Death of a Nation - The Timor Conspiracy (John Pilger and David Munro, 1994) Britain
BBC News Ethiopia Report (Michael Buerk and Mohammed Amin, 1984) Britain
McLibel (Franny Armstrong, 2005) Britain
Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl, 1936) Germany
The Sorrow and the Pity (Marcel Ophuls, 1970) France
For Freedom (Hussein Torabi, 1980) Iran

Then some more that need to be plugged.

The Corporation 2005 US
21 days to Baghdad 2003 US
Before Stonewall 1995 US
After Stonewall 2005 US

The Band went from backing Ronnie Hawkins as The Hawks to backing Bob Dylan when he did his electric tour to being the most unsung band out there. While they achieved popularity in their time, scored hits, and certainly had the respect of all of their contemporaries, history unfortunately hasn’t yet brought Music From Big Pink and The Band to the forefront of classic rock must-haves like Let It Bleed, Who’s Next, or any The Rutles record.

Celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19 with all things piratical here at AADL. Weigh anchor with this merry yarn; indulge in some Captain "Jack", or read a modern-day pirate's take on life at 50. Shiver me timbers! Ann Arbor even has a local connection!

Ken Kesey, novelist known as one of the the Merry Pranksters was born on this day, September 17, 1935 in La Junta, Colorado. When he was a student at Stanford, he took part in a VA experiment which was his introduction to a psychedelic drug called LSD. The experience changed his life and he became fascinated with the concepts of sanity and insanity. He took a job as a night attendant at a psychiatric ward which inspired his most famous book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which later became a movie starring Jack Nicholson as the infamous McMurphy.

Feast

This month, two former UM professors will see their literary works captured on the silver screen.

The film version of The Feast of Love (2000), an award-winner novel by Charles Baxter is described by critics as ” a kaleidoscopic ode to life and love in all its funny, sad, sexy, crazy, heartbreaking and life sustaining facets”. The book’s original setting in Ann Arbor is regrettably changed to that of a small community in Oregon. (More on the movie).

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (1983) by Ron Hansen is the basis for a film adaptation, starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck. The novel, a PEN/Faulkner Award nominee, delves into the private lives of America’s most notorious outlaw and his unlikely assassin to offer a new perspective on a legend and address the question of what really may have transpired in the months before that infamous shooting.

Other September releases:

The adaptation of Silk, by Alessandro Baricco (1997) will be released Sept. 21, starring Keira Knightley, Michael Pitt, and Sei Ashina.
In the mid 19th century, a silkworm merchant travels from France to Japan to locate silkworm eggs that are uncontaminated by an epidemic, and falls in love with the concubine of a Japanese baron.

On the same date, expect a rush at the theaters for the release of Into the Wild , - about a young man who leaves his middle class existence for a life of adventure in the North American wilderness. The film is based on the bestseller (1996) by Jon Krakauer.