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By Beth, August 25, 2010

  Big Fan

Just in time for football season, check out this character study of obsessive New York Giants fan Paul Aufiero (comedian Patton Oswalt, in a remarkable performance).  After some overzealous stalking of his favorite player leads to an assault, he has to decide where his loyalties lie.  Some of the best moments are the nightly calls he makes to his local sports radio show, as well as his rivalry with another frequent caller, Eagles fan Philadelphia Phil.  Highly recommended even for non-sports fans (it was a Sundance favorite last year, and was directed by the screenwriter of The Wrestler).

-Beth

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By Kyle, August 24, 2010

Actor Sean Connery, born in 1930 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and celebrates his birthday on August 25th.

Although best known for portraying James Bond in six feature films (1962-1971), Connery has maintained a successful career post-Bond. He has portrayed four different kings: King Daniel Dravot in The Man Who Would Be King (1975), King Agamemnon in Time Bandits (1981), King Richard in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) and King Arthur in First Knight (1995). He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Golden Globe for his role in The Untouchables (1987). Connery was awarded Knighthood of the British Empire in the 2000 Queen’s Millennium Honors List for his services to Film Drama. His latest feature film role was Allan Quartermain in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). Connery lives in the Bahamas.

Check out movies with Sean Connery

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By Bryan, August 9, 2010

Gentlemen Broncos

Fifteen year old Benjamin (Michael Angarano) is an aspiring SF writer whose manuscript is ripped off by Chevalier (Jemaine Clement) his aging literary hero.  Getting his manuscript back is hilarious business as Benjamin also has to moonlight for mother’s custom nightgown business to make ends meet. Chevalier isn’t only person that wants Benjamin’s story. A local film production company is also trying to pervert his precocious novel. Gentlemen Broncos is a story within a story. Besides Benjamin’s quest to get his words back, we see his book, The Yeast Lords: The Bronco Years, envisioned by three different minds on three different budgets. Yes, The Yeast Lords is as funny/awful as it sounds. Imagine the rad doodlings of Napoleon Dynamite’s notebooks come to life. Brought to us  by the same creative team behind Napoleon Dynamite, Broncos hilariously spoofs pompous SF writers and their geeked-out conventions (both literary and hotel-bound). You’re allowed to laugh if you are a nerd. Come to think of it, you probably won’t get it otherwise. I laughed the covers off my paperbacks.

The opening credits are a buzz inducing collection of trash surreal SF paperbacks with the lettering altered. If you appreciate that kind of thing you might enjoy:

Good Show Sir: Only the Worst Sci-fi/Fantasy Book Covers
The name says it all.

Awful Library Books
Yeah, the worst books ever offered up to be chortled over before hitting the dustbin. All genres, but tends to lean to outdated nonfiction.

Rad Book Covers at My Library
My own blog feature interesting (sometimes good, but mostly corny-bad) design found on book covers at NPL.

- Bryan

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By Bryan, July 26, 2010

The Vinland Sagas

The Norse colony in North America always fascinated me. Why not go right to the source? These documents were once thought legendary, then proved to be (at least partially) true by the archaeological record. Included in this collection of “Vinland Sagas” are the Book of the Icelanders and the Book of the Settlements, which chronicle of the colonization of Iceland; and the Greenlanders’ Saga and Eirik the Red’s Saga, which chronicle the colonization of Greenland and subsequent excursions to North America.

Written in 13th century, I was afraid these would be dry and boring, but boy was I wrong. They are full of personal details and fascinating anecdotes, only occasionally bleeding into the fantastical. There’s a lot killing and a lot ice. The texts are rich enough that we are transported into another world. A world that existed a millennium ago. We learn about what the Norse wore, ate, and worshiped. Most fascinating are the tensions between the traditional religion and Christianity. The conversion of Europe to Christianity happened so long ago, it is often just a line or two in a school book, but in these sagas we have records of what that conversion was like, the tensions it caused, and how communities dealt with said tension. Did I mention the killings and the ice?

Another surprise was that the Iceland sagas we’re often more interesting than the Greenland ones. In these we find majority of material about the pagan-Christian problem. Did you know there were people (not the Inuit) on Iceland before the Norse? Did you know Iceland had a parliamentary government centuries before other European countries? This is not to take anything away from the Greenland sagas. As is pointed out in the brief notes which accompany it, the Eirik the Red’s Saga is a masterpiece of European literature.

If you have a library card, Vinland Sagas is downloadable for free from Netlibrary with no DRM-restrictions. They are read by Norman Dietz and the inimitable George Guidall.

I can recommend two novelizations of the same material. The first, William Vollmann’s The Ice-Shirt, focuses on Eirik the Red’s daughter Freydis and her role in founding of the North American colony. This is the first of Vollmann’s Seven Dreams sequence which explores the European conquest of the North American continent. It includes ink drawings by the author and contemporary accounts of his travels through Greenland.

The second is the award winning Voyage of the Short Serpent by Bernard de Boucheron which imagines what the dwindling Norse colony on Greenland must have been like in the 14th century. You can read my original review here.

For those not book oriented there is Severed Ways, Tony Stone’s dreamy yet realistic portrayal of two Vikings stranded in Newfoundland. Even if your not interested in the Norse, this is one of the best, truly independent, American films I have seen in recent years.

None of these titles are for the squeamish.

- Bryan

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By Kyle, June 5, 2010

Johnny Depp celebrates a birthday on June 9th. Happy Birthday, Johnny!

Check out movies with Johnny Depp

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By Bryan, May 10, 2010

Beautiful Losers

Beautiful Losers chronicles a loosely knit group of “street” artists who conquered the commercial and fine art worlds. Featured artists include Ed Templeton, Geoff McFetridge, Shepard Fairey, Margaret Kilgallen, Harmony Korine and others, all of which embody a punk-DIY spirit. Most interesting is the connection between contemporary art and skateboarding. If you are snickering you’ll swallow it when you immediately recognize the work. These artists (some of them anyway) are paid large sums to sell you diet cola. As a teen, Templeton was my favorite skater. I never liked the lines of his paintings but thrilled over the lines he cut with his skate. In the interim, his work has grown by light years. N-ville’s favorite cringe monger H. Korine is mostly on good behavior, filming his talking head shots in Fannie Mae Dees Park. He laments the lowered crime rate. Tricky implications of outsiders becoming insiders are glossed over, but Beautiful Losers is an inspiring film that can enlighten people as to where the art and design that surrounds them originated.

I assume the title of the film, and the group show it accompanied, is borrowed from Leonard Cohen’s great novel of the same name. Do it… yourself.

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By Crystal, April 27, 2010

I am freaking out at the impending end to my beloved TV show Lost.  What could possibly take its place???  Books??  (Just kidding, a little library humor thrown in for free.)  If you’re in the “so sad to see Lost end” camp like me, here are my suggestions to work through your grief and move on.

• Battlestar Galactica – if you haven’t watched BSG (the new series), you’re in for a wild journey.  Like Lost with great characters, intriguing mythology, mystery and suspense, but in Space!

• Are star-crossed lovers Sun and Jin or Desmond and Penny the reason you like to get Lost?  Read The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger or watch A Very Long Engagement starring Audrey Tatou.

• Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy – if you especially enjoy the philosophical side of Lost, Pullman’s novels will definitely fill the void.

• Rose and Bernard, although minor characters of the cast, have a huge following among Losties! For more retired persons/senior citizens on adventures, read The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian, or watch the Oscar-winning animated movie Up.

• The Prisoner – this amazing British TV series from the late 1960’s starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan will satisfy your need for deep intrigue and mystery.

• The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher – if you especially like Sawyer’s biting wit (and those nicknames!), you’ll dig this fantasy series featuring Chicago’s only wizard in the Yellow Pages, Harry Dresden.

• One of my favorite scenes on Lost occurred when Hurley declares a desire to write the script for The Empire Strikes Back and send it to George Lucas.  For more hilariously geeky conversations and lovable characters, don’t miss The Big Bang Theory.

• If you enjoyed Charlie’s flashback story about his band Drive Shaft, read about real rock stars in books like Hammer of the Gods, or watch music documentaries like The History of Rock n’Roll.

• My personal favorite suggestion to overcome Lost grief, and one I hope to someday achieve: travel to Hawaii and visit locations where Lost was filmed.

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By Phil, April 13, 2010

It might get loud

This is a very interesting and unique movie – part documentary, part travelogue and part cross-generational rock star meet up. Great use of various archival footage, still photos and current film of these three guitarists alone and together keeps things moving along nicely.

I went into this not really caring for Jack White that much (or at least his singing) but I now understand his attitude and inspiration – Son House, and realize for him it’s all about passion and getting a feeling across. The White Stripes may be a slightly manufactured band but there is a core of real honesty in their music. The Edge is clearly and admittedly all about sound craft and getting the perfect tonal quality and feel from his guitars and the arsenal of effects he uses. “It’s my voice.”  One scene has him listening to early U2 guitar parts in his kitchen (on cassette!) as he taps out the various digitally delayed time signatures, obviously second nature to this musical alchemist. There is also a wonderful outtake of him running through some classic U2 riffs on a soundstage – the tonal palette is unmistakably and uniquely The Edge.

Jimmy Page is like a wizard steeped in rock history; partially responsible for some of the heaviest, most creative sounds of the 70’s. He is a joy to watch and highlights include his unpretentious and remarkably luminous presence, complete with priceless facial expressions when he listens to someone sharing a story. Another great outtake is him demonstrating the intricacies of “Kashmir” on guitar as the Edge and Jack try to absorb it, with wonder in their eyes. Having Jimmy Page run through vintage Led Zep tunes in front of you has to be a thrill for anyone!
I liked this movie quite a bit – it shows three unique and very different musicians for who they are and shows some genuinely entertaining and sometimes amusing interactions. Never taking itself too seriously, there is sure to be something worthwhile here for everybody!

Phil

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By Kyle, March 21, 2010

Actor, singer, and adventurer Ewan McGregor celebrates a birthday on March 31st. McGregor was born in Scotland in 1971, to teacher parents that encouraged him to pursue his acting dreams. After attending London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama for three years, he left right before graduating to take a role in a TV miniseries called Lipstick on Your Collar. McGregor has had a successful acting career in both mainstream and independent films. His first notable performance came in the 1994 film directed by Danny Boyle called Shallow Grave. Boyle directed McGregor again in the gritty film Trainspotting based on the novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. Star Wars fans were pleased with his portrayal of young Obi-Wan Kenobi in Episodes I, II, and III.

Musical fans discovered McGregor could sing when he appeared along side Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!. In 2004 he and friend Charley Boorman traveled around the world on motorbikes. Documentary footage of their journey was made into a TV series called Long Way Round, then a follow-up series called Long Way Down.

Check out movies with Ewan McGregor

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By Crystal, March 4, 2010

March isn’t just for basketball, it’s also time for the Academy Awards!  After many years of five “Best Picture” nominees, ten films have been shortlisted for this year’s award.   Although this category has included only five nominees for many years, there have been as many as twelve films nominated.  If you want to geek out on the Oscars, visit the Academy Awards Database. Listed here are films that were nominated from 1931 to 1940, when the “Best Picture” category was called “Outstanding Production,” and the number of films nominated topped out at twelve.

Check out Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees 1931 – 1940

- Crystal

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By Pam, February 4, 2010

African American History Month was the inspiration of Carter G. Woodson, a noted scholar and historian, who instituted Negro History Week in 1926. He chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial.

We asked library staff members: “If you could choose only one title to read/listen to/watch during February to mark African American History Month, what would it be?”

The results are in, and we are happy to share. The list includes all genres, formats, and age groups–all are available to check out from the library. See all of our book and movie picks for African American History Month.

And don’t forget to take a look at our extensive list of events – there’s something for everyone.

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By Kyle, January 30, 2010

British actor Jeremy Irons was born in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, a small island just off the south coast of England. His career began with two years of training at the Bristol Old Vic School, after which he joined the repertory company working in everything from Shakespeare to contemporary dramas. He moved to London in 1971 and had a number of odd jobs before landing the role of John the Baptist in the hit musical “Godspell”. Irons made his on-screen debut in Nijinsky. In the early 80s, he gained international attention with his starring role in the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel Brideshead Revisited.   In 1984 he won a Tony for his role opposite Glenn Close in Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing.”  Irons won an Oscar in 1990 for his role again opposite Glenn Close in Reversal of Fortune.  His most-watched movie from the 1990’s may only include his voice –he brought to life Scar in The Lion King.  His latest roles include Brom in 2007’s Eragon, and the Earl of Leicester in Elizabeth I.

Check out movies with Jeremy Irons

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By Kyle, January 26, 2010

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games is just a few weeks away.  Go Team USA!  For all things Olympics, visit www.Vancouver2010.com.  Learn more about Olympic history through these documentaries and films, available from your Nashville Public Library:

Check out videos about the Olympic Games.

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By Kyle, January 21, 2010

Robert Pattinson, the young British actor who portrays Edward Cullen in the Twilight series movies, is next in a long line of actors who have played dark, brooding characters.

Listed here are others, including the best, Marlon Brando, who have taken a turn at playing the brooding male lead. Unfortunately, the 1939 version of Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff (the ultimate brooding character!) is out of print at this time.

Check out more movies with Dark, Brooding Characters.

- Crystal

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By Phil, January 19, 2010

There Will Be Blood

Wow! This 2007 movie lives up to its accolades as an American epic, with Daniel Day-Lewis earning an Academy Award for best actor for his mesmerizing portrayal of oil prospector/land speculator/entrepreneur Daniel Plainview. Set in the dust bowl areas of California between 1898 and 1927, Day-Lewis is riveting as a swindling, greedy boss out for land in his quest for his ever-expanding oil drilling operations.

I was sometimes reminded of a few other favorite films, including Paper Moon, No Country for Old Men (in the ironic, elliptical discussions between Plainview and devoutly religious Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), whose main concern is always The Church (he is also a healer and has some hilarious early scenes) and Dead Man (especially in the belching, clacking soundtrack, composed by Johhny Greenwood of Radiohead).

This movie is full of great acting, surrealistic scenes and dark humor. Plainview negotiating with the Standard Oil executives is one such scene. Some of his memorable lines include “I really don’t like people” and “I like all religions…” (the latter as he tries to assuage the townspeople early on that he is sincere in his plans).

The cinematography is often stunning (Academy Award winning, in fact. Comparisons to Citizen Kane are not out of place.)  as in the scenes involving building the oil drilling apparatus against the western skies. This is quite a long film and the tension and turmoil builds throughout as Daniel becomes embroiled in conflicts as the ultimate capitalist, obsessed beyond his wits against the determined preacher. Like in HBO’s late great Carnivale series, this central battle at times reaches crazy, epic, disturbing proportions.

A film based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel “Oil”, this one is not to be missed!