The Studio

If you’ve been in the Music, Movies, and More area lately, you’ve probably noticed a few empty spaces on the shelves. If you think we’re shrinking our collections, fear not. We’re actually expanding some of our display space, and attempting to make better use of the shelving in the main area.

To that end, a few collections are moving. When it’s all said and done, you’ll see the following changes:

• All DVDs will be on the west side of the department, and all CDs will be on the east side. The shelves that are currently empty will allow us to expand the space devoted to music.
• Blu-Ray discs have moved to the alcove, along with Anime & Animation, Nonfiction, and Television DVDs.
• The Teen- and Adult-rated video games now reside next to the AV desk, by the New CDs.

We’ll continue to make improvements in order to make the best use of the space. Please pardon our dust in the meantime.

MySpace… totally dead, right?  Perhaps Facebook has taken over the online social scene, but MySpace has found a niche that may help it survive. That niche is music.

MySpace Music is surprisingly good, mostly because lots of bands are using it as a defacto website.  It has videos, playlists, news, charts, and much more.

Would I use instead of Last.fm, Pandora, Songza, or Grooveshark?  Not likely.  It is still Myspace and all the garish advertisements are just as annoying but it isn’t bad.  Check it out, perhaps you will like it.

Sharon and Terry are back, talking about movies! This time we focus on the award-winning movie Crazy Heart (available on DVD and Blu-ray).

Skokie Public Library Studio Podcast

View-a-likes for Crazy Heart:

Coal Miner’s Daughter

Tender Mercies

The Thing Called Love

Walk the Line

Other movies starring Jeff Bridges:

The Big Lebowski

The Contender

The Fabulous Baker Boys

The Fisher King

The Last Picture Show

Starman

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Movie soundtracks  mentioned in this podcast:

Cold Mountain

Crazy Heart

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

We always have movie suggestions for you!

Skokie Public Library Studio Podcast

Titles featured in this podcast:

The Lives of Others

A Serious Man

Freedom Writers

The Illusionist

Gran Torino

Here are four movies that I like to watch again & again. This time, Terry is in the studio with me. Do you think that I convinced her to re-watch the Irish movie Once or check out one of my other suggestions? Hmm… How about you!?

Skokie Public Library Studio Podcast

Titles featured in this podcast:

Once

Pride & Prejudice

Dear Frankie

Enchanted April

Also mentioned in this podcast:

Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle

Pride and Prejudice starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier

Once: Music from the Motion Picture

The duo Swell Season (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)

We’re not talking college hoops–in honor of Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese’s box office hit set at a hospital for the criminally insane, here’s a list of other movies–most of which feature award-winning performances–set in asylums:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) The classic adaptation of Ken Kesey’s book, which earned Oscars for Best Picture, Actor and Actress:

Bedlam (1946) Boris Karloff plays the doomed overseer of London’s St. Mary’s of Bethlehem Asylum. (Note that our DVD copy is bundled with another Karloff horror classic, Isle of the Dead.)

Girl, Interrupted (1999) Angelina Jolie won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as a troubled young woman in a 1960s psychiatric hospital.

12 Monkeys (1995) Not to be outdone, Angelina’s better half Brad Pitt earned a Golden Globe award in his portrayal of an insane man at the heart of Terry Gilliam’s twisted futuristic thriller.

The Three Faces of Eve (1957) Joanne Woodward won an Oscar for her performance as a woman who suffers from multiple personality disorder.

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and with it Hollywood’s attention starts making predictions both pragmatic and outlandish. Both Avatar and the Hurt Locker lead the field with 9 nominations each, leading to an inevitable confrontation between the Little Movie That Could and The Biggest! Movie! Ever!

Within that framework, we have all sorts of questions. Does Avatar’s lack of writing or acting nominations constitute a snub? Will Quentin Tarantino play spoiler? How will having twice as many Best Picture nominees affect the voting activity of the Academy?

But most importantly, when can I check out all of these items from the library?

We’ve compiled a comprehensive of every full-length film on the nomination list. Some of these are already out on DVD, while others are still in theaters. Some of the smaller titles have yet to see a theatrical release. Take a look, and place holds for all the titles you’d like to check out.

The full list is after the jump. What are your predictions? Let us know in the comments.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Big Bang Theory

The more I watch this television series, the more I like it! In a nutshell, roommates Sheldon and Leonard are 20 something Caltech professors/researchers who truly make geekiness very funny. Sheldon was a child prodigy and now is a theoretical physicist. Leonard is an experimental physicist. Their best friends Rajesh, an astrophysicist, and Howard, an engineer, add a lot of quirky humor. Penny, the attractive Cheesecake Factory waitress next door, is a fantastic foil to her oftentimes socially inept, SF/fantasy, comic book loving neighbors. She may not have the type of smarts that Sheldon and Leonard do, but she’s not a dumb bunny either. She can get to the heart of a matter pretty quickly. The relationship triangle is worth many laughs and rings true through all the comedic twists. The series is well written and original.

Coco before Chanel

I suppose that several events and people are fictionalized; nonetheless the life of Coco Chanel is an interesting story. I like the way the movie shows her faults, strengths, failures, successes, and influences. I think that Audrey Tautou is perfectly cast, and all the other actors do a great job. The costumes are excellent, as are the sets. I don’t know anything about the fashion world or clothing styles. But I do like this story about a strong woman, who was a true original, making a success from difficult circumstances.

New York, I Love You

A collection of love stories set in New York, this movie has a light touch. In truth, it has gotten mixed reviews, but for me it struck the right note. I enjoyed all the segments and seeing different directors with varied styles. I liked all the actors and have to say that Julie Christie was a standout. I recommend watching this movie and Paris, Je T’Aime as a double feature.

Ponyo

Loved it! The animation is stunning. The story is sweet and with substance. It’s great that Hayao Miyazaki does not back away from important issues (for example environmental/pollution), but still manages to create a movie that can be enjoyed by young, old, and those in-between. He is a master craftsman & it’s refreshing that Studio Ghibli produces such high quality, hand drawn work amidst all the computer-generated animation out there today. I highly recommend Miyazaki’s other films: Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Porco Rosso, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and The Castle of Cagliostro.

Star Trek

Oh, why not for a year end favorite. In my youth, I was a fan of the original TV series. I even went to a few Star Trek conventions. I’m pleased that the storyline got a back-story, so to speak. Perhaps this is not a “great” movie. But it’s a really, really good movie. I loved that Leonard Nimoy had a part and found many of his scenes quite touching. The casting worked all around. For instance, Karl Urban nailed the part of Bones. Bruce Greenwood was great as Captain Pike. Eric Bana did a noteworthy job as the villain, Nero. It was a stroke of genius to have Simon Pegg play Scotty. Chris Pine made an excellent young Kirk. It took me a little time to get used to Zachary Quinto as Spock. By the middle of the movie, I was OK with it. The movie scores high points for the cinematography, special effects, and overall production.

(Editor’s Note: every year at the Library staff are asked to submit a list of their favorite books, DVDs, and albums. These can be materials that came out before 2009, as long as they came to discover them in the past year. We’ve invited everyone to elaborate on their choices. Look for additional blog pieces in the weeks to come. -TG)

Victor Wooten is a bass player extraordinaire.  He regularly plays with Bela Fleck as one of the Flecktones, but he also performs solo. It is the solo outings that are totally innovative and surprising  His true home may be funk, but he can explore in a wide span of genres. Palmystery is his most recent CD.

Pianist Alicia De Larrocha died this past year.  Accomplished in the classical repertory, she is the supreme interpreter of the Spanish composers Granados and Albeniz.  As a tribute to her I’ve been listening to Iberia constantly.

Vijay Iyer has been getting a lot of positive press in the jazz world. I picked Tragicomic as one of my picks for 2009 before The Chicago Tribune chose it as “one of the most significant cultural events of the decade.” If you like jazz, check it out.

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.