Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Late Arrivals

The Library got a fairly large refund from Dunn & Bradstreet right at the end of the year so I got to order some DVD's from my January order in November. It's kind of a hodge podge order, patron requests, things I've been waiting for to come back in print, and things I'd missed before. I'm always going back through the works of major artists looking for things I've missed. This time I found Captain's Courageous one of the great classics from Hollywood's golden age. Spencer Tracy got an Oscar for his performance and it's been out of print for a while. I know because I've been looking for it for years. The Stranger is another one of the minor classics. (At least I think its a minor classic.) It's one of several great noir's directed by Orson Welles and stars Edgar G. Robinson and Loretta Young. I've never cared much for Joan Crawford but she was a major star in Hollywood's golden age and she kept working well into the seventies. I got a collection of her work which include some minor classics I couldn't get anywhere else including a Woman's Face and Flamingo Road.

THE MOVIES

100 Girls This was a patron request. It looks like the standard teen romantic comedy where the nerd finds true love but it does have Katherine Heigl.
Air America This one is kind of a CIA version of M*A*S*H in Cambodia with Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr.
Altered States William Hurt and Blair Brown in a cerebral fantasy that ends up pure sci-fi. It's sort of on an updated version of the classic horror movie where the scientist experiments on hismelf.
Bend It Like Beckham An Indian girl from a traditional Sikh Family plays soccer against her families wishes. An early appearance by Keira Knightly.
Bleak House A highly acclaimed BBC mini series.
Captain Ron Kurt Russell Martin short. A nice diverting comedy.
Captains Courageous Victor Fleming directs Spencer Tracy's academy award winning performance with Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore, John Caradine, Melvyn Douglas, and Mickey Rooney.
Children's Hour William Wyler directs Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine and James Garner in an updated remake of the Lillian Hellman Play.
Incredible Mr. Limpet. Don Knotts plays both a fish and a nerd in this Disney live action animated combo.
Joan Crawford Collection Vol. 2
1) Torch Song Tough as nails Broadway singer Joan finds love from blind pianist.
2) Strange Cargo Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Peter Lorre escape from Devil's Island.
3) Sadie McKee Joan Crawford at the height of her popularity in a romantic drama before she got hard.
4) Flamingo Road. Joan is the Savvy dancer stranded in a small town with Zachery Scott and Sidney Greenstreet. Directed by Michael Curtiz.
5) Woman's Face George Cukor directs Joan, Melvyn Douglas, and Conrad Veldt in Joan's best performance of a scarred woman whose life changes after surgery.
Picture of Dorian Gray. From the Oscar Wilde novel with George Sanders, Donna Reed, Peter Lawford and Angela Landsbury.
Pride and Prejudice The 1996 A&E mini-series with Colin Firth.
The Stranger. Orson Welles directs Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young and Orson Welles in a post WWII Nazi hunt in New England. Noir at its best.
Treasure Island Victor Fleming directs Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Nigel Bruce and Lionel Barrymore in the Robert Louis Stevenson classic.
Treasure Island the 1950 Disney version with Robert Newton as Long John Silver.
What's Up Tiger Lily? Early Woody Allen

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Finishing out the year in Sound

For the Audiophiles among you my CD year ended with a scare. I bought lots of Halloween sound effects, stories, and of course Orson Welles famous 'War of the Worlds' radio broadcast. I also worked on the CD part of my collection of Award-Winning musicals. If anyone is interested I made a list of the Pulitzer Prize-Emmy-New York Drama Critics Award winners that we have on CD, DVD, or VHS. It's for teachers if I can ever figure out a way to work with them. Another one of my teacher oriented projects is my Classical Music Collection for soloists. I've been trying to build a collection of the major works for Cello, Violin, Piano, and Chamber music for music teachers. This purchases included piano works, quartets & quintets featuring piano, and works for solo violin.

SOUND EFFECTS
98 Haunted Sounds
Sounds From the Crypt
Sounds of Horror
Scary Stories: Around the fire with Uncle Guts
Halloween Howls-Fun and Scary Music
War of the Worlds

MUSICALS
1776: A Musical original Broadway cast (obc)
Annie (obc)
Cats
Damn Yankee (obc)
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (obc)
Pajama Game (obc)
Pal Joey
Phantom of the Opera (obc)
Producers (obc)
Rent (obc)

SOLO PIANO
Beethoven Piano Sonatas No. 28 & 29
Liszt Sonata in B minor etc.
Rachmaninov Preludes, Morceaux de Fantasie
Glenn Gould Edition Brahms Ballades, Rhapsodies, etc.
Scarlatti: Keyboard sonatas
Rubinstein Collection Vol 51 Schumann
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 3, Bagatelles
Beethoven Sonaten op. 31, 53, 79 & 81
Ravel: Gaspard De La Nuit; Prokofiev Piano Sonata no. 6
Schumann; Kreisleriana

PIANO QUARTETS ETC.
Stokowski Symphonic Transcriptions (An outlier but I had to put it somewhere)
Schubert: Trout Quintet
Brahms: Complete Piano Quartets
Dvorak: Piano Quartets Op 23 & 87
Bach: Great Organ Works (Hm another oddity)
Haydn: Piano Sonatas Piano Concertos
Mozart: Piano Quartets
Beethoven, Mozart: Quintets
Schumann: Piano Quartets

SOLO VIOLIN
Berstein Century - Beethoven: Violin Concerto/ Isaac Stern
Schubert: Violin Works/ Gidon Kremer
Beethoven: Triple Concerto/ Richter, Oistrakh, Rostropovich
Joshua Bell Edition Vol 3 Brahams Violin Concertos
Isaac Stern - A Life in Music: Weiniawski, Bruch Concertos
Schumann: Sonatas for violin & piano
Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky/Khachaturian
Artists of the Century Jascha Heifetz
Shostakovich Concertos for violin no.s 1 & 2/David Oistrakh
Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole, Saint-saens, Ravel
Paganini: Violin Concertos 1&2/Ashkenasi
Mendelssohn: Violin Sonatas/Shlomo Mintz
Schubert: Sonatas For Violin
Spohr: Concerto No. 8; Beethoven Serenade
Brahms: Violin Sonatas
Franck, Strauss: Violin Sonatas
British Composers Elgar, Delius Violin Concertos