February DVDs

Last year I worked primarily on building up our collection of general release DVDs. I built up the collection by genres such as Horror, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Classics, Academy Award winners and so forth. This year I hope I can start getting caught up on non-fiction and educational support. Interest in ballroom dancing is increasing so I picked up some how-to's on dancing. I also purchased some materials on keyboard, guitar, and drums. For the next two months I will be purchasing filmed stage productions with an emphasis on Pulitzer, Tony, and New York Drama Critic Award winning plays and musicals. Most of these are general release motion pictures but a few are filmed or televised stage productions. In some cases I have purchased several different versions of the same play if I thought the actors involved warranted it. King Lear and Hamlet are two examples of plays where I thought having different productions would be useful. I now have both Lawrence Olivier and Mel Gibson doing Hamlet, Lawrence Olivier, Ian Holm and Orson Welles doing King Lear. I also got Macbeth with Ian Holm and Dame Judy Dench (M in the recent James Bond movies. Judy Dench is supposed to do a marvelous Lady Macbeth.) I wanted the Orson Welles version of Macbeth but it is currently out of print.

I have been having an internal debate with myself about how much Shakespeare on DVD to purchase. Kenneth Branagh has done some wonderful productions recently but I have not been able to purchase Henry V which I think is his best. (Its not in print.) There are also some bad productions of Shakespeare. I remember seeing a production of Julius Caesar made sometime in the late 60's early 70's with an all star Hollywood cast that was really hideous. A Midsummer's night's dream has been made a couple of times and always, it seems, badly. The 1935 version sound interesting just because of the cast, but it's out of print. The 1999 version is beautifully filmed and inspired but its not terribly faithful to Shakespeare. I will probably end up buying it but not for school support.

Many of the plays and musicals I'm buying should be entertaining on their own but I'm hoping area students and teachers will find them useful in their humanities, drama, and theater classes.

February DVD purchases.

Introduction to Ballroom Dancing
Ultimate Beginner Series: Keyboard Basics
Ultimate Beginner Series: Electric Guitar Basics
Ultimate Beginner Series: Drum Basics
Learn to Play Acoustic Guitar
John Cleese's Wine for the Confused
Christy Lane's Complete Guide to Line Dancing
Wedding Dances
Martha Stewart Cooking: Favorite Family Dinners
Glass Menagerie
Time of Your Life
Iceman Cometh
Streetcar Named Desire
Long Day's Journey Into Night (Jack Lemmon version)
Julius Caesar
Hamlet (Mel Gibson)
King Lear (Lawrence Olivier)
King Lear (Ian Holm)
Orson Welles Collection
Romeo and Juliet
Macbeth (Ian Holm Judy Dench)
Titus
Long Days Journey into Night (Katherine Hepburn version)
Pajama Game
Rose Tattoo
Crucible
Desperate Hours
Music Man
Hello Dolly!
1776
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Bye Bye Birdie
Damn Yankees
Man of La Mancha
Equus
Elephant Man
Children of a Lesser God

February Music Order

I'm trying to review how I did last year. I think I did okay with ordering music, at least our circulation is up. I ordered some Contemporary Christian music last year and it is checked out most of the time. Ten out of the fourteen I ordered last year were all circulating on Tuesday with one in repair. I haven't done a similar test of Latin, Jazz, or Rock. However various quick scans seem to indicate that most of the Latin and Rock I bought last year are checking out. Country didn't move as well as I thought it would. People told me they wanted 'traditional' or pre 'Hat' acts but that section was so neglected that I think I just began to scratch the surface. I ordered a huge number of current Country chart toppers for January and filled in a few more with Billboard Top Charts for February. So Country, Latin, and Contemporary Christian music fans should be seeing a significant increase in Top 40's in the next couple of months.

Ordered In February:

Barrio Fino - Daddy Yakee
Twice the Speed of Life - Sugarland
Modern Day Drifter - Dierks Bently
Greatest Hits - Tim McGraw
White Trash with Money - Toby Keith
Piece of My Passion - Juanita Bynum
Mary Mary - Mary Mary
Define the Great Line - Underoath
Arriving - Chris Tomlin
Hero - Kirk Franklin
Precious Memories - Alan Jackson
Masterpiece World Tour - Rakim Y Ken- Y
Da Hit Man Presents Reggaeton Latino - Don Omar
Top of the Line - Tito El Bambino
Pa'l Mundo - Wisin & Yandel
God's Project - Aventura
Borron Y Cuenta Nueva - Groupo Montez De Durango
Historia De Una Reina - Ana Gabriel
Amar es Combatir - Mana
Nuestro Amor - RBD

This Saturday

Motion pictures are the great American art form. I think it is what we as a people will be remembered for. Germans will be remembered for their symphonies, Italian's for Renaissance painters, Greeks their drama, Rome its oratories, and America will be remembered for its film. Film is a blend of so many other art forms. Cinematography, music, screenplays, sets, and costume. (Americans love teams) One of the stories I heard (I don't remember where) was that when the movie High Noon was finished it was awful. Test audiences hated it so they went back and re-did the music using simple Tex Ritter music and a film score by Dimitri Tiomkin. The movie ended up winning awards for Best Actor, Best Editing, Best Music for a song, and Best Music for an original Score. High Noon is now considered by many as one of the one hundred best movies ever made.

Great movies like great books are woven into the fabric of American Culture. To be a culturally literate person you should have a general knowledge of great American movies. The March 10 Saturday Matinee will have two classic American Movie Icons, a Betty Boop cartoon, and a Marx Brothers movie but one of the more unusual films included in the March Matinee will be Think Fast Mr. Moto. Largely forgotten in our repressed politically correct world today, Mr. Moto, like Charlie Chan, was a popular movie series in the 30's. They were so popular that they were used as comic references in other movies. In one of my favorite movies, One Two Three (1961) with James Cagney, Arlene Frances plays Jimmy Cagney's wife and has the best one-liners. One of her lines is a sly cutting reference to 'Mr. Moto'. When I heard that line the other day I wondered how many people would get the joke. Not many I'm afraid. Mr. Moto has been almost excised completely out of American Consciousness, so come join us on Saturday March 10 for a rare treat that includes Think Fast Mr. Moto.

March 10 Saturday Matinee
12:00 noon in the Community Room

Betty in Blunderland.
Flash Gordon: Episode 3: Captured by Sharkmen
Think Fast Mr. Moto
Horse Feathers

Thursday

Happy Birthday to James Dean, Jack Lemon, Brooke Adams, Gary Coleman, Seth Green, Robert Klein, Nick Nolte, Mary Steenburgen, and John Williams. Oh and Happy Birthday to the Boy Scouts of America.