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Blog Post

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #582

by muffy

Taking the title from a line in "Kath," a 1991 song by indie rock band Sebadoh - Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau, is a "highly original debut -- a wild romp of a love story across time and a soulful interweaving of science and music -- this is The Time Traveler's Wife meets Where'd You Go Bernadette."

Karl Bender, washed-up former guitarist for an indie rock band now owns and runs The Dictator's Club, a bar in Chicago's Buck Town. He finds a wormhole in his closet while searching for his boot, and with his best (and only) friend Wayne, develops a business selling access to people who want to travel back in time to hear their favorite bands. Then Wayne insists on traveling back to December 8, 1980, Manhattan in order to rewrite history, but Karl's slip on the keyboard sends him back to 980, 500 years before the first boatload of Dutch colonists landed on the Island of Mannahatta.

Desperate to get Wayne back to the present, Karl enlists the help of Lena Geduldig, a prickly, overweight astrophysicist at Northwestern. Their connection is immediate. While they work on getting Wayne back, they fall in love - with time travel, and each other. Unable to resist meddling with the past, Karl and Lena bounce around time, altering the course of their lives. Then out-of-the-blue Karl gets an email from his future self, sending him forward in time to try to save someone dear to them.

"Daviau is ferocious with her sad and flawed characters, whose pain propels the story through several iterations... A dark and funny love story that, like its main characters, is much sweeter than it appears on the surface."

The author (Smith,Helen Zell Writers' Program at UM), a former librarian and storyteller, now lives in Portland, Oregon. An earlier version of this novel won an Hopwood Award in 2012. You might want to check out the NPR book review also.

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Blog Post

Distortion Pedals! Bzzzzzzzzzz!

by manz

The Music Tools collection is one of the largest Unusual Stuff collections at AADL, and it keeps growing in size and use as more and more musicians (and knob twiddlers) find out about all the cool stuff that can be checked out.

Included in this are the many distortion pedals that are ready to give your guitar some extra fuzz. Check out the list of what we have!

And to sweeten the deal, a bunch of them are made in Ann Arbor by King Custom Electronics. Their handmade pedals bring the sounds of tried and true vintage fuzz, paired with modern convenience, reliability and versatility. Creative designs help make these pedals something you can't find on the showroom floor. Made with the highest quality new old stock components, they're guaranteed to put the tone you want in the palm of your hands.

Sounds cool to me!

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Lectures & Panel Discussions

Eclipse Jazz: 40 Years On

Monday April 18, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

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Public Event

A2 Jazz Fest Preview Concert Featuring the Ingrid Racine Quartet and BLUEPRINTS

Thursday June 2, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

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Blog Post

The Musical Mainstream

by iralax

Opera and jazz lovers have a special niche at the National Library Service of the Library of Congress called the Music Section. This section produces a bi-monthly publication, The Musical Mainstream, which lists the most recent classical scores available in Web-Braille/BARD, Audio and Large Print. Musical Mainstream and these scores can be ordered by calling 800-424-8567 or email to nlsm@loc.gov. The issues also contain articles about the world of music taken from several publications and includes the Metropolitan Opera Broadcast Schedule. With each opera title and broadcast date it provides a list of Braille (BRM) and audio (DBM) recordings from their rich collection of opera appreciation recordings. As I explored the online NLS Catalog for jazz composers, I found a recording of Dave Brubeck talking about how French composer Darius Milhaud used jazz for the first time in classical compositions (DBM 00133). Of local interest, I found a Piano Jazz session with Marian McPartland from March 19, 1987, as she talked and played with UM Professor Emeritus of Music Theory James Dapogny, who told stories about and played tunes by Jelly Roll Morton (DBM 01254). These wonderful materials are also available at no charge to any Washtenaw Library for the Blind & Physically Disabled patron, through BARD, by calling 734-327-4224 or email wlbpd@aadl.org.

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Blog Post

The Rap Yearbook

by manz

The Rap Yearbook is a New York Times Best Selling book that features the most important rap song from every year since 1979, discussed, debated and deconstructed! This is not to be confused with the "best" rap song each year, which the author denotes early on.

The text is funny and accessible, the illustrations of the rappers are spot-on, and a smattering of diagrams and infographics offer witty sidebars and such great tidbits about the artists. I had a great time listening to the songs referenced as I went along. The book is written by Shea Serrano, with illustrations by Arturo Torres and a foreword by Ice-T. A definite read for fans of music history and or hip-hop.

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Blog Post

"Keep On Keepin' On" Jazz Trumpeter/Educator Clark Terry

by iralax

Lovers of jazz and people who rise above adversity to challenge the status quo will find great pleasure in the documentary Keep On Keepin’ On, about the friendship of trumpeter Clark Terry (1920-2015) with jazz superstar Quincy Jones and the young piano prodigy, Justin Kauflin. Kauflin is blind and Clark Terry is losing his sight due to lifelong complications from diabetes. The film depicts Terry’s early days growing up poor in St. Louis, where he fashioned his first horn out of old tubing and pipe he found. Then it covers his early career with the Count Basie and Duke Ellington orchestras, followed by years playing with other jazz luminaries. He became the first African-American to play with the NBC Tonight Show Band (1962-72) and eventually played on over 900 recordings! But just as important to him was his time spent educating budding musicians, including the young Quincy Jones (his first student) and Justin Kauflin (his last student), which forms the main thread of this fascinating film.

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Blog Post

Bowie Lives On

by lucroe

What can one say about such an influential icon as David Bowie that has not been said already? He was never one to be pigeon holed into one look or one style of music. From the '60s hippie days of Space Oddity with the hit “Major Tom” to the glam rock 70s of Ziggy Stardust, Bowie was forever changing and adding new personas. Following Ziggy were such blockbusters as Aladdin Sane (“Panic In Detroit” was on this one), Diamond Dogs with its soul/funk beats and the break out hit, “Rebel, Rebel”, then Young Americans with the popular song, “Fame”, co-written with John Lennon which became his first number one hit in the U.S.

In the late '70s he changed his persona again into the elegant Thin White Duke with the album Station to Station and another memorable tune, “Golden Years”. Ahead of his time in so many ways, he experimented with electronic, ambient, and world music alongside Brian Eno to create the experimental Berlin Trilogy of albums: Low, Heroes, and Lodger. Artists, like Philip Glass would be highly influenced by his work during this time.

With the '80s came the album Scary Monsters which some consider to be his last great album with hits such as “Ashes to Ashes” and “Fashion”. But then came the hit album, Let’s Dance, with Chic guitarist, Nile Rodgers, producing and the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughn on lead guitar. On this one album Bowie had several memorable songs including “China Girl” and “Modern Love”, and once again he led the way but this time in music videos especially for the title track. Next was Tonight with the hit, “Blue Jean” which garnered him a Grammy for best music video. Lesser albums like Never Let Me Down rounded out his '80s releases. He then had a short-lived rock quartet called Tin Machine at the start of the '90s. After they disbanded, he returned to solo work starting with Black Tie, White Noise but none of them quite lived up to the commercial success of previous albums. However his last album, Blackstar was just released, and has earned rave reviews. See music videos for the album here. If you are looking for a best of album check out Best of Bowie which includes the single “Under Pressure”.

Bowie was also a noted actor on stage as the Elephant Man and in some unique movie roles such as a vampire in the Hunger, an alien in the Man Who Fell To Earth, a prisoner of war in , king of the goblins in Jim Henson’s the Labyrinth, and portraying Andy Warhol in Basquiat. He produced albums as well like those for his good friend Iggy Pop (the Idiot), and was a well-respected post-modernist painter. This of course was a brief overview of his most notable works and to read more thoroughly about him there are plenty of websites and books to fill the gaps.

If you want to remember him on twitter type #bowieliveson or post a comment below. For me, the song "Blue Jean" still gets me dancing. You can watch the video to it here. He definitely has the cheekbones to pull off that makeup!
RIP Bowie

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Film & Video Events

Ann Arbor Film Festival: Expanding Frames – Making Movies: Remixing Narratives

Tuesday March 15, 2016: 4:30pm to 6:30pm
UM North Quad Space 2435
Grade 6 - Adult

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Blog Post

New Year, New Kids' Music at the AADL!

by eapearce

The AADL has an extensive music collection that we’re always adding to. Most recently, we’ve acquired tons of new music for kids! Here are some of our newest CDs:

Sundrops, by The Harmonica Pocket, features upbeat songs about nature and the outdoors. From singing in the sun to playing in puddles and chasing butterflies, this is a fun album to listen to during the winter when sun and butterflies are nowhere to be found! A particularly cool thing about Sundrops is that The Harmonica Pocket play lots of different instruments, so kids will get to hear ukulele, harmonica, glockenspiel, and the sounds of other unique instruments along with the standard guitar, bass and drums.

I know I didn’t think that I needed any assistance in singing Disney tunes when I was younger, but for little ones who love singing Disney songs, Disney Karaoke Favorites is a cool CD to have. It features instrumental tracks of the most popular Disney songs so kids can sing along in their own voices, followed by the vocal version of the track with the movie characters singing the song. On the CD are “Circle of Life,” “Let It Go,” “Part of Your World,” and many other well-known favorites.

Beatles Baby! by popular children’s musician Caspar Babypants is a fun, kid-oriented take on the most popular Beatles songs. Caspar puts his own twist on hits like “Hey Jude,” “With a Little Help From My Friends,” and “Lady Madonna,” making them appropriate and silly. It’s fun for adults who recognize the true version of the songs to hear this CD, too.

Also newly added to our collection: Classics For Bedtime, featuring many lullaby piano sonatas, Smiles Ahead: Cool Music for Cool Families, an album with lots of different children’s artists playing their songs on it, and many new Kidz Bop albums.