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.
Johnny Depp celebrates a birthday on June 9th. Happy Birthday, Johnny!
Check out Haunted Nights: a History & Lexicon of Horror (book list)
Many folks like to be scared and the endurance of the horror genre proves that although this literary category has never quite achieved the credit given other brands of fiction, it isn’t going away anytime soon. From fireside legends and ‘The Castle of Otranto’ to postwar science-fiction films and the ‘Twilight’ series, our collective nightmares and the figures that inhabit them have had an interesting history, often overlapping and merging with other genres to create something new. These books should help familiarize you with the idea that being afraid of the dark can be quite enjoyable.
- Ben
Can’t get enough of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy? Can’t wait for the third book to come out in the U.S.? Check out these Stieg Larsson read-a-likes…
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!
- 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.
- 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.
Ok, here we are again, back for week #2. Last week we discussed super great shows on HBO that are available at your Nashville Public Library. This week, we’re moving on to shows on Showtime.
The Tudors
I’m not Henry VIIIth, I’m not. But Jonathan Rhys Meyers is. The show is full of court-intrigue, lust, violence. Well-written and well-acted, if you can stomach a few beheadings here and there, this is the show for you.
Californication
A show about what you think it’s going to be about. David Duchovny stars as a man who is hopefully nothing like Duchovny in real life. I haven’t made it through all of season one yet, so if you start now, we can watch it together. Say it with me…awwwww… 
Weeds
Another show about exactly what you think it’s about And yet, this one has a heart buried underneath all that smoke. Mary-Louise Parker is a down-on-her-luck mom who has to find some way to support her family. What else was she gonna do?
So that’s the Showtime round-up. Two weeks down. One more to go. Next week, we discuss shows on regular cable. Same bat time. New bat channels.
Amanda
Get Crafty
Check out books on Hipster Crafts
Crafty hipsters have to start somewhere. What better place than the library to learn how to make your own wares. Find books on sewing, knitting, decorating, and more on our book list.
NPL recently supplemented its music collection with recordings by some of the most forward thinking composers. If you are willing to try something new, or you think you have heard it all, or (if you are like me) this is your favorite music already, check out the following titles:
Ever Present
By Alvin Lucier
Featuring pieces for bagpipe, flute, triangle, and koto, each instrument is warped into a droning soundscape that will sooth and startle you in equal measure. Lucier is primarily concerned with acoustic spaces and chance overtones. When the most recognizable sound on an album by a Western composer is the koto it is needless to say you have never heard a triangle played quite like this before.
Records
By Christian Marclay
The original vinyl scarifying, four+ turntable improvisational composer par excellence is represented here with a collection of super-limited cassette and LP recordings compiled for CD. Marclay mixes decayed/destroyed thriftstore castoffs on four to eight turntables simultaneously. This is the new music, the rest is memory.
Stimmung
By Karlhienz Stockhausen
Experimental song-cycle from the high priest of tape manipulation, St. Stockhausen drops the voltage control and writes an acoustic piece for vocal sextet. A droning B-flat is interspersed with erotic poems and the shouted names of pagan gods. Think Glass’ Einstein on the Beach but actually about something and of tolerable length.
Week #1: HBO
Who here could stand to save some money? That’s what I thought. The NPL solution – get your cable TV shows here on DVD. Why pay premium prices for premium channels when – with a little patience – you can get caught on up your all your favorite shows for FREE! (Unless, of course, you forget to turn them in on time – then, my friend, you are on your own.)
Don’t have any favorite shows, you say? Well, then let me suggest a few from HBO that I’ve found enjoyable:
True Blood
Big shocker, I know, me being the PNRUFy fan that I am. Very different from Charlaine Harris’s book series, but close enough to still be fun. If you like your vampires with crawfish and murder, then check this one out.
Entour
age
Yeah. Oh yeah. This half hour series follows fictional superstar Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his buds as they transverse the trappings of Hollywood life. Come for the cute guys, but stay because Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) is one of the best scumbag agents ever.
Rome
Ok, who doesn’t want to watch a show with 500 characters who have very similar names? All kidding aside, once you get worked out who’s who, these two seasons are filled with intrigue, lust, and betrayal. Et tu, Brute?
So those are my HBO thoughts. Tune in next Saturday, when I discuss Showtime and it’s viewing options. (Then if you can wait 2 whole weeks, you get to hear what I think about shows on basic cable. Awesome, right?)
So much TV, so little time. Happy watching!
Amanda
April is the month for Earth Day, Earth Hour, and even Earth Week. So we’ve decided to celebrate for the whole month! You can do your part by taking small actions to reduce power consumption, save water, and reduce waste. Take Mayor Dean’s Environmental Pledge.
Borrow a book or media item from Nashville Public Library instead of buying a new one. Check out these books to learn more ways you can help:
Green Titles (for Adults)
Green Titles (for Teens)
Green Titles (for Children)
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of SF which features a mash-up of high technology and underground culture. The “cyber” is derived from cybernetics, nominally the study of control and communications in machines. The “punk” refers to cultural attitudes typical of the characters (if not the authors themselves).
Cyberpunk proper exploded and died in the mid-1980s with a handful of loosely associated authors. William Gibson’s Neuromancer, the Mirrorshades anthology, and the Cheap Truth fanzine were the cornerstones of the scene. Never before had a SF genre movement attracted as much media attention or ultimately have as much cultural influence (no cyberpunk = no Matrix films).
This list includes edgy SF works that cyberpunk authors drew inspiration from, classic cyberpunk texts, and books by some of today’s best SF writers whose work evolved from the cyberpunk meme.
- Bryan
Despite the Bible being one of the most widely read pieces of literature, many novelists have felt a desire to write about the life of Jesus. There are many variations on what has been called “the greatest story ever told.” Some authors try to stick as closely to the Bible as possible, while others try to portray events as they think they might have occurred, and some simply go off the chart entirely creating fantasies or comedies of the well known story.
- Bryan
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.
Who hasn’t daydreamed about fighting their way out of this economy by finding and hoarding large amounts of lost treasure? Anyone? Unfortunately, these books will mostly tell you about other people who have done just that, thereby depriving the rest of us of yet another cache waiting to be discovered. But anyone looking for a good dose of history, legend, and adventure in their nonfiction reading will surely find something on this list:
- Ben
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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