The Studio

Cable channel AMC’s much-ballyhooed remake of the 1960s British sci-fi classic The Prisoner premieres on Sunday night. Jim Caviezel stars as No. 6, the role made famous by Patrick McGoohan, and Ian McKellen is the villainous No. 2. The miniseries reworks the original in numerous ways, so before or after you watch the new version you might want to check out the classic one. DVDs are available at the library and AMC has posted full episodes that may be watched online.

Sharon, our AV librarian, sat down for a brief conversation about some of her favorite unsung titles coming out soon on DVD.

Would you like to be interviewed for a library podcast? We’d love to hear about your favorite music and/or movies. Let us know and we’ll set up an appointment!

Skokie Public Library Studio Podcast

Titles featured in this podcast:

Beau Jest
My One and Only
In the Loop
Paper Heart

Sometimes it’s fun to make lists. Does anyone have a list to share? We want to know.

My top five foreign films:

Beauty and the Beast

The Best of Youth

Chungking Express

Pan’s Labyrinth

Princess Mononoke

My top five teen flicks:

Gregory’s Girl

Juno

Never Been Kissed

Some Kind of Wonderful

10 Things I Hate About You

My top five movies about food:

Babette’s Feast

Chocolat

Eat Drink Man Woman

Mostly Martha

Tortilla Soup

My top five documentaries:

Ansel Adams

It Might Get Loud

Sicko

The Story of the Weeping Camel

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Given the recent local downpours, it is apropos that tonight The Weather Channel airs The Perfect Storm, the first in a series of Friday night movie showings. (Don’t worry, forecast fans … they’ll still provide the weekend temps on the screen six times an hour.)

The selection is a no-brainer for the cable network, especially considering that today is the 18th anniversary of the brutal Nor’easter that is the subject of the film and the Sebastian Junger book on which it was based. However, future TWC movie showings (March of the Penguins, Deep Blue Sea and Misery) seem less inspired. So check out our own perfect storm of suggestions for wild-weather flicks below:

Twister (1996) And a nation of storm-chasers is born.

The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Global warming is even more inconvenient than you think.

The Mist (2007) Reduced visibility and … EVIL.

The Weather Man (2005) Okay, it’s not really about the weather. But this offbeat comedy about a Chicago TV meteorologist features a great performance from Nic Cage. Tom Skilling, eat your heart out.

Have you ever been overwhelmed by the number of DVDs in our collection, unsure of what’s good and what you feel like seeing next? Try using a map. French graphic designer David Honnorat has ingeniously taken IMDb’s list of the Top 250 films and plotted them as a CTA-style transit map, with intersecting genres and movies standing in for routes and station stops. The resulting diagram is visually arresting, cinematically intriguing and a lot more fun than hopping on the El. For example, you can make it from WALL-E to A Clockwork Orange in four stops, or take a detour at Casablanca and head toward either Glory or Manhattan. A large version of the map is available for download at Vodkaster.com.

any favorite horror movies??

Back in my days of undergraduate studies, I remember being freaked out by the movie An American Werewolf in London. True, I had mononucleosis at the time & it probably didn’t take much to rattle me. The Library has the original DVD release and the 2009 “full moon” edition with a bonus disc. Take your pick!

More recently, I totally recommend three films directed by Guillermo del Toro: Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone, and Pan’s Labyrinth.

For a classic movie and a little beyond, try the 1922 vampire film Nosferatu, the 1979 re-make, and then Shadow of the Vampire.

If you’re feeling musical go with Tim Burton’s – The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride.

Last but not least, fun for all ages (i.e. 5-year-olds & kids at heart), I loved the DVD Shaun the Sheep: Little Sheep of Horrors.

Cross posted from The Radar.

Songza is a Google-esque search engine designed specifically for music. Type in a song title or artist name and it will spit out a list of songs. What makes this site so very excellent is the huge selection of music and just as importantly each song is played in its entirety. No more listening to only 40 seconds of a song and then a fade-out to nothing.

It is possible but not necessary to create and save songs to a profile. The saved songs will become a playlist which you can reorder and shuffle.  The profile will produce an RSS feed so friends and/or interested people can receive updates on songs you enjoy. You can follow my song selection @ http://songza.com/chesslibrarian/rss if you want.

Songza is fun but it isn’t perfect. Sometimes the songs lag a little. Unlike Pandora it does not stream new music to you.  Songza does not allow downloading of songs.

Songza is incredible for what it is does and I highly recommend playing with it!

Looking for a new mystery? I highly recommend this spin off of the acclaimed Inspector Morse series:

Inspector Lewis (PBS Masterpiece Mystery!)

“Inspector Robert Lewis, protege of the legendary Inspector Morse, and his brilliant new partner, Detective Sergeant James Hathaway, return to the streets of Cambridge and the halls of Oxford University.”

Be sure to check local listings for up to date broadcast dates and times.

In the meantime, reserve the Inspector Lewis DVDs at the Library and enjoy!!

Criticker is a new movie recommendation website along the lines of the previously reviewed Clerk Dogs.  You submit a review between 0-100 of ten movies and Criticker will match you with other members that have ranked movies similarly.  Then it is possible to look at other movies they loved  and learn about some new movies. Criticker calls this TCI (Taste Compatibility Index).  For example, after inputting my 10 movies I looked at a user with similar tastes.  One of his/her top movies was The Life and Death of Peter Sellers which seems like a movie I might really enjoy.

Criticker also has lots of social options such as forums and movie lists.

Try it and let me  know what you think.

The legendary and innovative jazz guitarist Les Paul died August 13, 2009 at the age of 94.  He played alongside sophisticated jazz musicians such as Art Tatum, Stuff Smith, and Louis Armstrong.  He later collaborated with his wife, Mary Ford, producing such hits as How High the Moon and Tennessee Waltz, where he experimented with multi-tracking recorded voices.  The Gibson Les Paul guitar has been worshipped by many more recent legendary rock and roll guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, and Joe Satriani.

Listen to:

All-time greatest hits

American made, world played 

Watch:

Les Paul : chasing sound!

Read:

The early years of the Les Paul legacy, 1915-1963

Les Paul : an American original