Blog Post
A swell of French music
by pkooger
AADL has just received an influx of the best of French popular music. If you are a Gallophile, or simply a music buff, you may have heard of several of these musicians already. If not, check these performers out and discover some great music from across the pond.
Helena - This Portuguese-born media darling has been a model, actress, pop star, and now musician in the French-speaking parts of Europe.
Yann Tiersen - France's best known multi-instrumentalist, composer, and artist, Tiersen's melancholy, folk-inspired sound has made him a star in the soundtrack business. You may know him as the composer of the music in Amelie.
Élodie Frégé - She made her musical debut as a contestant on a French talent search reality-TV show. She may not have had the most powerful voice in the competition, but her soulful music won the title.
Raphael - Another multi-instrumentalist, Raphael's music is inspired by pop/rock legends like David Bowie and Bob Dylan.
Blog Post
Geek Pride Day
by articia
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"Towel Day", "Glorious 25th of May", or "Star Wars Day", whatever you prefer to call it, May 25th is Geek Pride Day and what better way to celebrate it than by visiting your local library? You don't have to be a Sci-Fi geek, or a math geek to celebrate Geek Pride Day, just celebrate whatever you "geek". "Whatever you geek, the public library supports you." Geek The Library reminds us that "No matter who you are, there are things you are passionate about—things you geek. The Geek the Library project is a community public awareness campaign aimed at spreading the word about the vital and growing role of your public library, and to raise awareness about the critical funding issues many U.S. public libraries face." Think of all the resources your library has to offer, be they entertainment like Star Wars or Douglas Adams books or movies, Homework Help or Test Prep, Foreign Language Materials or Foreign Language Learning from our Services and Research pages that you have access to through our website, our super nifty new Orion Starblast 4.5 Astro Reflector Dobsonian Telescope, or one of our neat Science To Go Kits from our Unusual Stuff to Borrow collection.
Blog Post
World Language Books on CD
by lucroe
Did you know that the library has books on CD (or BOCDs) in different languages at the Downtown branch in both Youth and Adult? Languages that we currently have BOCDs for are Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish.
All are shelved after the books in the respective language in either the Youth (1st floor) or Adult (3rd floor) World Language Collection. They have the same loan period as regular BOCDs. And, as with many of our other materials, you can place holds and request them for pick up at any of our branches. You can find them in our catalog here or by doing a search by call number for ' bocd world*' for the adult (or click here) and ' youth-bocd world* ' for the youth (or click here).
Blog Post
Betty's Blue Valentine Crush... New Blu-rays!
by manz
AADL’s Blu-ray collection is ever-growing! If you’ve upgraded to a Blu-ray player, check out some titles. Here’s a few new blue titles on Blu-ray, if you want to place a hold. (Have no fears if you don't own a Blu-ray player... We have these blue titles on DVD as well!)
Blue Crush: In this Action film, “Ann-Marie, a big-wave surfer on the North Shore of Oahu, drives to make a comeback after nearly drowning in a surfing competition. Her life becomes more complicated by her romance with a handsome football player. Ann-Marie struggles between her need to prove herself and her desire to take the easy way out.” (Also on DVD.) If you dig the waves, also check out Blue Crush 2.
Blue Valentine: This drama is "An honest, moving and uninhibited love story. The uncompromising portrait of Dean and Cindy, a young married couple who have grown apart, taking one night away from their daughter to try to save their relationship. Highlighted by provocative scenes alternately intimate and intense, the film captured audiences and critics alike." (Also on DVD.)
Betty Blue: This French language film is “The story of Zorg, an aspiring novelist who gets by as a handyman, and Betty a beautiful, unpredictable temptress who turns his life upside down. As Betty's mental state turns dark, Zorg desperately attempts to comfort her. Even when ensconced in a dreamy rural town, Betty's fantasy world encroaches on her reality as she slowly spirals out of control.” (Also on DVD.)
Blog Post
Learning Languages: Teach Yourself
by manz
Check out the new language learning sets by one of the premier language resources and best sellers- Teach Yourself. Learn everyday language, grammar and vocabulary that is useful in real-life situations.
A book and audio CDs are included, leaving you one step closer to learning a new language, or improving one you already speak.
Some new languages recently added to AADL's collection are Icelandic, Japanese, Portuguese, Spoken Arabic, Old English, Dutch, Persian, Irish, Mandarin Chinese.
Check out the full list of language learning materials by Teach Yourself.
Blog Post
Literacy Series -- Multicultural Literacy
by MariaK
"Multicultural literacy" means an understanding of the similarities and differences between cultures, along with the understanding that one's values, customs and beliefs are influenced by one's own culture. The U. S. has been a multicultural nation since its birth. With cultural and ethnic diversity projected to rise over the next 50 years, and technology and business increasingly connecting the U. S. to other countries, now is the time for young people to become culturally literate!
Fortunately, reading can be a great way to explore the world through the eyes of people who are very different from you. Here are some suggestions for multicultural reading:
1. Read books in other languages (if you can!) -- check out our World Language collection. Of course, if you don't already speak another language, you can learn one!
2. Read books about other countries.
3. Read folktales from other cultures -- you can learn a lot about another culture from their folklore. And folktales are fun to read!
4. Read about America's immigrants -- Try the World Book of America's Multicultural Heritage to learn the long history and contributions of immigrants in America.
Multicultural books for young readers:
Check out "Books With a View", a list of books for children and young adults featuring characters from around the world.
Across Cultures: A Guide to Multicultural Literature for Children
Breaking Boundaries With Global Literature
Crossing Boundaries With Children's Books
The New Press Guide to Multicultural Resources for Young Readers
The World Through Children's Books
Multicultural Resources for Parents:
Multicultural Manners
A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism
Raising the Rainbow Generation
Blog Post
DVD Genre Spotlight: Foreign Language Films- Icelandic
by manz
You can easily browse AADL’s collection of foreign language films in our World Language collection, either online or on the shelf. We have films in many languages, including Greek, Italian, Persian, Indonesian, and many more. Also included are some Icelandic films. It is SUCH a beautiful language to hear spoken. Here are a few to check out:
White Night Wedding: Set off the coast of Iceland on the island of Flatey, the film centers on Jón, a forty something professor who is set to marry a girl half his age. The film jumps from present day back to when he was with his first wife, and you witness her illness and the toll it takes on their relationship and his life. Jón owes his soon to be mother-in-law money from a golf course he’s invested in with a friend, and his best mate is in town for the wedding and is drunk and has lost one of his shoes. A funny and heartfelt film all around. (For music buffs, amiina has an appearance playing at a gig in the film.)
Astrópía: After losing her home, spouse and source of income when her handsome swindler of a boyfriend is sent to jail, high society girl Hildur must search for a job. She ends up working at a comic book store with an interesting group of guys and ends up learning more than she bargained for. This quirky film is live action, but features some segways that are comic book sequential style, and at times fantasy becomes reality as Hildur gets caught up in Role Playing Games with her new “friends.”
Nói: Seventeen year old Nói lives in the remote west fjords of Iceland. A drop-out and a wanderer, quirky and misunderstood, he longs to break free from the isolation and escape with the cute girl who works at the gas station. Winter on the fjord is a large blanket of snow, darkness, and depression. An eventual disaster strikes and the town is torn apart, which tears Nói apart even further. A melancholy, yet delightful and beautiful film, with a stellar (mainly vocal free) soundtrack by Slowblow.
Blog Post
The Nymphet
by marshd
On August 18th, 1958, Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita was first published in the U.S. That makes tomorrow its 52nd anniversary.
The book is his best known, and was made into a film by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, and again by Adrian Lyne in 1997. Unlike many of his other works, Nabokov actually wrote Lolita in English, and then translated into Russian. It was--and probably still is--controversial; the story is narrated by a man named Humbert Humbert, who has an amorous obsession with his girlfriend's 12-year-old daughter.
Author Erica Jong, in a New York Times Book Review in 1988, said, "'Lolita' teems with loving lexicography, crystalline coinages, lavish list-making - all the symptoms of rapture of the word. ' Nymphet' was a coinage of this novel, as were the more obscure 'libidream,' 'pederosis,' 'nymphage' and 'puppybodies.'"
Here at AADL we have Lolita in not only its original English, but also in Spanish, French, and Russian. We also have an audiobook version read by film great Jeremy Irons, who actually played Humbert in the 1997 film.
Blog Post
AADL Screencast: Browsing World Languages
by lucroe
If you are interested in reading books in languages other than English, check out the Ann Arbor District Library’s World Language collection. There are books for adults and children at all branch locations with a Teen World Language collection available at the Downtown Library. Currently there are 24 languages represented from A to V (Arabic to Vietnamese) with the most recent additions in the Greek, Persian/Farsi, and Polish languages. There are fiction and non-fiction books, and even some graphic novels in various languages. If you are at our Downtown Library, the collection for adults is located on the 3rd floor, with youth and teen on the 1st floor. Below you will find a short video that explains how to locate these books in our catalog.
Blog Post
To Akira Kurosawa, who would have turned 100 on March 23
by amy
Dear Mr. Kurosawa,
I'm one of those people who can't name their favorite movie--there are too many and they all touch me in a different way. But I can name my favorite director: You.
You would have turned 100 this month. And I can say two of my favorite films are Dersu Uzala and The Seven Samurai. Both films are very different from each other; both represent very different periods of your career; and both are supreme achievements in film as a humanistic artform.
Someone once told me they were surprised I liked Kurosawa because "he's a little cold". You were, by all accounts, a moody and often unhappy man. But if anything, your films reveal that you deeply understood the human heart. One recurring theme in your films is an affection for society's lone oddball or wily bands of misfits; another is that things are not what they appear to be. ( Rashoman, Ikiru). And between these two themes lies your humanity.
Often your more intimate moments come wrapped within the formidable mastery of filmmaking--the tense buildup of High and Low, the steady composition of The Seven Samurai's battle sequences, the force of nature in Dersu Uzala, the swirl of pageantry in Ran. Then suddenly we realize we're watching a study of friendship or a man questioning his mortality. And the subtext is about honor, integrity, fate, loss. It's not thrown about as cliches or pathos; it just sits there quietly at the heart of the film. And it's much more powerful since we weren't really expecting it given all the other cinematic tricks you were pulling off at the same time.