Computer Center Is Now Open

The library's computer center opened today in its newly renovated downstairs location. The technical services department's new computer center team (at left) spent the last couple of weeks working feverishly to get things up and running in accordance with the schedule, and we have to say, they did a fantastic job. Good work, everyone!

Area events: Free Comic Book Day

This Saturday, May 1, is Free Comic Book Day! That’s the day fans can go to participating locations, meet comic book artists and writers (and fellow enthusiasts), and pick up free – yes, FREE – promotional copies of comic books for every age group. Check out this article about Atlanta's comics connection, featuring a link to the official Free Comic Book Day website.

While you plan the what/when/where for your weekend, try these comic book-based DVDs:

Tales from the Crypt: from comic books to television -- Tells the story of Entertaining Comics (EC) publisher William M. Gaines and details the controversy which erupted in the 1950s over his ground-breaking horror, crime and science fiction comic books.

Stan Lee' s mutants, monsters, & marvels -- Stan Lee is interviewed about his life and career in animating comic book characters.

The mindscape of Alan Moore : a psychedelic journey into one of the world's most powerful minds -- Follow the evolution of Moore’s career as he transformed the comics medium, from the earliest days of his childhood through The Watchmen and beyond.

(Want music instead? Try this: The Dark Knight : original motion picture soundtrack)

In Library News: new computer center opens April 30th!

It's massive...it's amazing...it'll blow your mind. Do not attempt to adjust your screen. The library's brand spankin' new computer center, opening on Friday, April 30, 2010, is controlling this transmission. For more mind-altering pics of the newly-renovated downstairs, check out our page on Flickr. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your screen. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to...the new Downstairs.

In the DVD collection: Staying On

Retired Army Col. Tusker Smalley (Trevor Howard) and his wife (Celia Johnson) are the only remaining British residents in the hill station of Pankot, India. Though they have tried to maintain the lifestyle and memories of a past era, the country around them is undergoing a marked transition. Filmed on location in Simla, at the foot of the Himalayas. Reserve this DVD.

In the CD collection: Sergei Prokofiev

Today is the 119th birthday of composer Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev. Born in 1891 in the farming village of Sontsovka, Ukraine, his love of music came naturally: his mother was a talented pianist in her own right, and Prokofiev would later recall listening to her play Beethoven and Chopin far into the night. Though not considered a prodigy, he displayed talent early on, penning his first compositions at age five (with the assistance of his mother) and writing the music and libretto for an opera when he was ten. In 1904, he became the youngest student ever to be admitted to the most prestigious musical training ground in Russia, the St. Petersburg Conservatory, arriving with a trunkload of musical compositions that caused professor Rimsky-Korsakov to reportedly exclaim, "Here is a pupil after my own heart!" Despite criticisms from professors and fellow students, Prokofiev developed an increasingly original style of composition and performance which, over time, would mark him as one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. He spent time living abroad in Japan, North America, and Europe, returning to his homeland in the mid-1930s and composing some of his greatest works, including the ballet Romeo and Juliet, despite turbulent relations with the Stalist government. Given the cultural repression and the official denouncements of his own modernist work under which Prokofiev toiled during the last years of his life, it was a cruel irony that he died the same day as Stalin: March 5, 1953.

Click here to reserve  the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra's performance of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet; the CD also includes an excerpt of Tchaikovsky's version.

In the DVD Collection: getting back to nature

Counting Sheep: restoring the Sierra Nevada Bighorn (2005): Shot and produced over the course of twelve years, Counting Sheep captures the plight of the Sierra bighorn, and the biologists and environmentalists who fight to conserve these noble animals in the face of disease, harsh winters and predation by mountain lions.
Reserve this DVD.

The Story of the Bitterroot (2004): A look at a most unusual plant and its relationship to the Salish Indian culture. The video also examines the relationship of the plant to the Lewis and Clark expedition, how the bitterroot came to be Montana's state flower, and why its botany is so unusual. Featuring historic photographs, animation, and interviews with historians and tribal elders, it is the result of 9 years of work.
Reserve this DVD.

Sites to Behold: the history of Georgia's state parks (2006):  From the gold mines of Dahlonega to the former capital of the Cherokee Nation, from the peak of Black Rock Mountain to the floor of Tallulah Gorge, the story of Georgia's state parks and historic sites is the story of Georgia herself – a story of fortitude, character and high expectations – and features outstanding photography and archival materials supported by interviews with past and present park staff, historians, authors, and public figures such as Jimmy Carter and Sonny Perdue.
Reserve this DVD.

(Planning a trip to a Georgia state park? Stop by the library's circulation desk and ask if a ParkPass is available. Thanks to a program from the state of Georgia, library patrons can check out a kit that includes a parking pass for Georgia state parks and a family pass for admission to Georgia's historic sites. The pass kits are, however, limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis (no holds allowed).)

In the CD collection: Roy Clark

Country musician Roy Clark was born April 15, 1933 in Virginia. Though best-known as the jovial cohost (with Buck Owens) of the syndicated country variety show Hee Haw for over twenty years, Clark also appeared as a guest host for the Tonight Show, was on The Beverly Hillbillies (as both "Roy Halsey" and his mother, "Big Mama" Myrtle Halsey), and played an old Army buddy of Oscar's in The Odd Couple television series. Clark scored with several country hits in the early 70s, but the decline of Hee Haw's popularity coincided with the decline in Clark's recording career; Clark's performing career, however, was far from over. In 1983, he became the first country musician to open his own venue in Branson, MO, and today continues to perform sporadically at various events with his band, Roy's Toys. In 1987, he was finally made a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and in 2009, Roy Clark was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Click here to reserve Roy Clark's Greatest Hits album, which includes "Thank God and Greyhound," "Yesterday When I Was Young," and Clark's famous rendition of "Ghost Riders in the Sky."

Area AV Events: Record Store Day

This Saturday, April 17, is Record Store Day. Indie record stores nation-wide (yep, even in Georgia!) will be offering special promotions, limited release items and -- in some cases -- live entertainment in the form of friendly musicians eager to join the celebration. Audio addicts can find out what it is and which area record stores are participating here.

And for those of you out there who might be asking yourself, " 'record store?' crikey, what on earth is that??"...here's a definition courtesy of Wikipedia.

In Our DVD Section: comedy gems

Appropriately enough -- considering it's tax time -- April is National Humor Month! While you're organizing your W-2's and 1099's, why not pop in a humorous DVD and have a laugh?

First up: Sid Caesar. While he began his performing career at age 14 as a saxophonist in the Catskills, it was sketch comedy that would prove to be Caesar's true calling. In 1950s, he starred in variety programs such as Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, performing live television with an impressive array of cohorts, including Fred Allen, Jackie Cooper, Carl Reiner and Bea Arthur. The Sid Caesar Collection: the buried treasures is a trip back to those early days in Caesar's career. Click here to view the Sid Caesar Collection in the PINES catalog.

Tyler Perry became a resident of Atlanta at age 20 and spent the next eight years as a struggling playwright before finding success on the stage show circuit. But it would be a character he created in 2000 that would make Perry a household name: Madea. Success on the stage has lead to success with television series, movie and a NYT best-selling book, allowing Perry to build his very own studio in Atlanta, where it all began. See what Perry DVDs are available at the library here.

The Bank Dick (1940) is from the late, great W.C. Fields  (he wrote the original screenplay under the pen name "Mahatma Kane Jeeves"). In the film, Fields portrays Egbert Sousé, a henpecked, chain-smoking-and-drinking, ertwhile director who stumbles into a job as a bank guard and is tricked into embezzling bank funds. It's considered a classic not only for Fields' slapsick performance, but also for one of the best comedic car chases ever filmed. Reserve this DVD today!]

Nominated for four Academy Awards, Stanley Kubrick's masterful Dr. Strangelove (1964) stars George C. Scott, Slim Pickens, and comedic genius Peter Sellers (who portrays three characters) in a dark comedy about an insane general's attempt to start a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. A classic not only for the writing and acting, but also as a satire within the historical context of the Cold War era. Click here to view this DVD in the catalog. 

If you're a fan of British comedy on PBS, you're probably familiar with Keeping Up Appearances. The prim and proper Hyacinth Bucket ("it's pronounced bouquet") and her perpetually-frustrated attempts at climbing the social ladder first aired for five seasons on BBC in the early 1990s. But why wait for public television to see it again? See an episode on DVD today : )

Malcolm McLaren and the World of Punk

This week marked the passing of Malcolm McLaren, the boutique owner/band manager who is by turns credited or blamed for the formation of the world's most infamous punk band, the Sex Pistols. Through McLaren's knack for promotional stunts -- including 1977's "God Save the Queen" boat trip down the Thames during the Queen's Silver Jubilee -- the fame of the Sex Pistols and its manager grew, culminating in a movie (The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle) and a brief tour in America (lead singer Johnny Rotten quit the band less than two weeks into the tour). McLaren would go on to manage Adam and the Ants and new wave band Bow Wow Wow, enjoy brief success with his own musical career (charting with songs "Buffalo Gals" and "Double Dutch" in the early '80s), and later work on projects in tv and film (he was a producer for the film Fast Food Nation). In 2006, the Sex Pistols were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Click here to reserve the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks... cd .  Also, check out our collection of books on punk rock history here.

(A little local trivia: the Sex Pistols first show in the States was in Atlanta at small club called the Great Southeast Music Hall, located next to a Winn Dixie in the Broadview Plaza shopping center on Piedmont Road. (Broadview would eventually be renamed Lindberg Plaza.) Among the attendees for the historic concert: record store employee Peter Buck, who within two years would be performing Sex Pistols covers with a new band, R.E.M.)

Area AV Events: Athens' AUX Fest

The fourth annual AUX Festival is tomorrow -- Saturday, April 10 -- in Athens, GA, hosted by Cine theater and Little Kings Club. AUX is an experimental arts festival, featuring music performances, video screenings and sound installations. For more details, go to their website at auxfestival.com .

New in DVDs: The T.A.M.I. Show

Recently featured on public broadcasting, the T.A.M.I. show is a virtual musical historical document. Filmed over a two-day period in October 1964 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, the concert (Teenage Awards Music International) features performances by Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, the Supremes, James Brown and the Famous Flames, the Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye, Leslie Gore and many other top names who've since become music legends. Combined with the mod fashions, minimalist backdrops and the accompanying go-go dancers (look for young assistant choreographer Toni "Mickey" Basil and actress Teri Garr among them), it's a trippy way to travel back nearly half a century.

Reserve this DVD today!