Movies and Music at the Conyers-Rockdale Library

Monday, April 12, 2010

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 : )

Friday, April 9, 2010

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 .

Thursday, April 8, 2010

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!

Monday, March 29, 2010

New in DVDs

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Bright Star is based on the true-life, three-year romance between 19th century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which ended with Keats' untimely death from tuberculosis at age 25. Written and directed by the award-winning Jane Campion (The Piano).

The Blind Side is the remarkable true story of Baltimore Ravens' Michael Oher, who, as a homeless teenage African-American, was taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family in Memphis, TN -- a move that changed the lives of all involved. Sandra Bulloch won Best Actress Golden Globe and Oscar awards for her performance.

Inglourious Basterds is writer-director Quentin Tarantino's revenge-fantasy about a group of Jewish-American soldiers who spread fear throughout the Nazi regime through their terrifying war-time tactics. Christoph Waltz won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Who hasn't heard of the Twilight Saga? This is the second installment in the teen vampire series, based on the Stephenie Meyer novel of the same name. And this time, there's a werewolf...

The Hurt Locker, about an elite bomb squad fighting in Iraq, won six Oscars at this year's ceremony, including Best Director, Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, and Best Picture. Director Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman in history to win a Best Director Oscar, and this year's ceremonies marked the first time that current or former spouses competed for the award (James Cameron, who was nominated for directing Avatar, is the ex-husband of Bigelow.)

An overweight, illiterate and abused teen strives to change her life in Harlem and finds the help and courage she needs after enrolling in an alternative school. The film won a Best Supporting Actress for Mo'Nique and Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Published or Produced, and won Golden Globe awards for Best Actress (Gabourey Sidibe), Best Supporting Actress (Mo'Nique) and Best Motion Picture - Drama.