It's the birthday of A Christmas Carol. On December 19, 1843,* Charles Dickens published his story, an instant success that has become a holiday favorite. A Christmas Carol is available in a variety of formats at the library. You can find the book under "Dickens" in the library's hardcover Fiction section, or check the Classic Paperbacks area for a copy. There are also copies in the Children's Department.

A Christmas Carol has been the basis for many movies, from the Alastair Sim standard to the Muppets and Mickey Mouse versions. Stop by the Music, Art, and Media Department to check out our selection!

If you're interested in literary criticism of A Christmas Carol, the Literature Resource Center is a great source for articles. You can search by author, title, or subject. In addition to literary criticism, Literature Resource Center provides biographical information on the authors, information on the pseudonyms they used, who their contemporaries were, related web sites, and much more.

For more on the life of Charles Dickens, consider a biography from our collection. Or, try the Biography Resource Center database for articles about the author.

Enjoy!
____________
*Source: Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac and the University of California's Dickens Project.

The Kwanzaa cultural holiday begins today, December 26, and runs until January 1. According to the official Kwanzaa web site, "Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday which celebrates family, community and culture."

At the official Kwanzaa web site, you can learn about the seven principles of Kwanzaa, its symbols, celebrations, and meditations. You can also read about the founder of Kwanzaa, Dr. Maulana Karenga.

For books about Kwanzaa, try:

• The complete Kwanzaa : celebrating our cultural harvest, by Dorothy Riley. (Adult Nonfiction 394.261 R)
• A Kwanzaa keepsake : celebrating the holiday with new traditions and feasts, by Jessica B. Harris. (Adult Nonfiction 394.261 H)
• Kwanzaa : everything you always wanted to know but didn't know where to ask, by Cedric McClester. (Adult Nonfiction 394.268 M)

The library's Music, Art, & Media Department also has some music CDs to get you into the spirit of the Kwanzaa celebration:

• Kwanzaa music [sound recording] (CD K 98 1)
• Kwanzaa party [sound recording], compiled, sequenced and annotated by Eric V. Copage and Daisann McLane. (CD K 981 1)

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I took in an exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The exhibit was "Spanish Painting: From El Greco to Picasso". It featured the work not only of El Greco and Picasso, but also such famous artists as Velasquez, Goya and Salvador Dali. Needless to say, it was spectacular.

If you are interested in learning about these masters, the Nashua Public Library has a terrific collection of art books, including several on Spanish painters. Here are a few that I recommend you explore.

Spanish painters, 1850-1950, in search of light / [catalog editor, Santiago Saavedra]
This book can be found in the library's Music, Art and Media department, and specifically in the "Oversized" nonfiction books. Its call number is 'MAM q759.6 S'. As you might guess, the MAM stands for Music, Art & Media, and the 'q' before the 759.6 S means that it is an oversized book. Ask the librarians in the Music, Art & Media department to point out where the oversized books are shelved.

Spanish painting (from El Greco to Goya)
This books is also shelved with oversized books in the Music, Art and Media department.
Call Number: MAM q759.6 A

The secret life of Salvador Dalí / by Salvador Dalí ; translated by Haakon M. Chevalier.
Call Number: MAM 759.6 D

El Greco (Domenicos Theotocopoulos) / text by Leo Bronstein.
Call Number: MAM q759.6 T

Velasquez / José López-Rey ; [translated from the Italian by Nicoletta Sinborowski].
Cal Number: MAM q759.6 L

Footnote: While conducting research for this entry, I learned that one of Goya's paintings that was expected to be part of the Guggenheim's exhibit was stolen while being transported to the museum. You can access this New York Times article, "Painting by Goya Is Stolen On Way to Guggenheim Show" in our Newsbank database.

Did you know that dozens of organizations use the library as a meeting place throughout the year. In fact, because so many organizations want to do so, we ask that they first contact Carol Eyman to check for room availability. (Carol's phone number is 603-589-4610.) One group that holds regular meetings at the library, and has always interested me, is the Nashua-Hudson Toastmasters Club. Their mission is to "provide a supportive learning environment in which to develop communication and leadership skills," and couldn't we all benefit from making improvements in those areas of our lives.

So, if you are ever interested in attending a Nashua-Hudson Toastmasters Club meeting, here is what you need to know. Meetings take place at the library on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month from 6:30-8:30pm, and visitors are welcome. For more information, contact Don at 883-9757 or Ted at 289-5693, or visit http://www.n-htm.org. Also, try exploring the Toastmasters official website, toastmasters.org.

Downloadable Audiobook on Public Speaking*:
101 secrets of highly effective speakers : controlling fear, commanding attention / Caryl Rae Krannich, Beth McDonald.

* For more information about the library's downloadable audiobook service, visit this web page.

Recently Orderd Books on Public Speaking:
Elements of Great Public Speaking by J. Lyman Macinnis
Present like a pro : the field guide to mastering the art of business, professional, and public speaking by Cyndi Maxey and Kevin E. O'Connor

This week the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 2007 Oscar nominations. Did you know that several of the films nominated for awards this year started out as books? As preferred by many movie fans, you may wixh to read the book before you go to see the movie:

Children of Men, from the book titled The Children of Men by P.D. James.

Little Children, from the book titled Little Children by Tom Perrotta.

Notes on a Scandal, from the book titled What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller.

Letters from Iwo Jima, from the Japanese language books titled Picture Letters from Commander in Chief by General Tadamichi Kuribayashi and Sadness in Dying Gracefully by Kumiko Kakehashi. These two books are not yet available in the English language.

You can find a number of books about the Adademy Awards in our Music, Art and Media (MAM) Department. You may wish to try:
The Big Show : High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards by Steve Pond,

The Complete Book of Oscar Fashion : Variety's 75 Years of Glamour on the Red Carpet by Reeve Chace, or

The Oscar Movies by Roy Pickard.

Look here for other books and movies about the Academy Awards.

What is your favorite book-turned-Oscar-winning movie? Enjoy the show!

By popular demand, the library now has a discount pass to the New England Aquarium for cardholders to borrow. Present the pass at the Aquarium to receive the discounted rate of $7 per person for up to four people. (The regular fees are $17.95 for adults, $9.95 for children, and $15.95 for seniors.) The pass was generously donated to the library by the Friends of the Nashua Public Library.

To reserve a pass, call the Music, Art, and Media Department at 589-4603. Passes can also be reserved online through the Nashua Public Library web site. The New England Aquarium pass is the latest addition to our Museum Pass collection, which also includes the Museum of Science, the Museum of Fine Arts, and others. Visit our Museum Pass web page for the complete list of available passes.

Many people are interested in family history and genealogy. We receive calls, e-mails, and visits not only from Nashua Public Library cardholders, but also from people across the country whose ancestors were born, lived, or died in Nashua. They use numerous resources, including old issues of The Nashua Telegraph, the directories and histories in the Hunt Room, and genealogy databases such as Ancestry.com to trace their lineage. In some cases, people find ancestors who lived during the colonial period, and they know from which country or countries their family originates. But, what would happen if their ancestors were slaves? Because slaves were considered property, they were often listed in their owners' records by age and gender only. Many did not even have last names. Can the descendants of slaves discover their families' country of origin?

According to the PBS series African American Lives, it is, in fact, possible. This series follows host Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Chair of Harvard’s African and African American Studies Department at Harvard, as he searches for his ancestors and those of 8 other prominent African Americans. Many of the guests had known that they are descended from slaves, but did not know much about their ancestors who lived under the peculiar institution. It was not often discussed in their families, nor was the desire to discover their African roots. Whoopi Goldberg, one of the participants, states, “I don’t think they ever thought that there was any reason to figure out where we had come from.”* Others reported that slavery was an embarrassment to their families or too painful to discuss. This group, which includes Oprah Winfrey, Chris Tucker, and Quincy Jones, among others, was eager, delighted, and moved to learn about their roots, despite knowing that their relatives were subjected to the horrors of slavery.

In some cases, Gates, with the assistance of genealogists and historians, was successful in tracing his guests’ roots; in others, he reached dead ends. Filling in the branches of the family tree prior to the Civil War was especially challenging. The detectives had to be more creative and make some assumptions, often looking for slave owners who shared the last names of the guests’ ancestors. Watching the process unfold was very interesting, as the expertise of historians, genealogists, and geneticists provided information that was seemingly lost. The guests (and this viewer) were amazed to learn that DNA testing could tell them the percentage of African, European, Native American, and Asian blood they had. Gates was surprised that his lineage is actually 50% African and 50% European. Yet another DNA test determined that Chris Tucker descended from Angola, and Oprah's ancestors hailed from the country that is now Liberia.

This fascinating program grabbed my interest as I flipped through the channel listings last week, and you can watch it too. The DVD is available in the Music, Arts, and Media Department. For more information about the series, guests, or science used, you can visit the series' website.

If you are inspired to trace your own African American ancestry, we have some books that pertain specifically to African American genealogy, such as African American Genealogical Sourcebook, Afro-American Genealogy Sourcebook, Slave Genealogy: A Research Guide with Case Studies, and Black Family Research: Records of Post-Civil War Federal Agencies at the National Archives.

*Goldberg, Whoopi, quoted in African American Lives http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/index.html (accessed February 10, 2007).

Well, Tinseltown had its big night on Sunday, and another round of Oscars was handed out. After these award shows are over, I always wonder what I've been missing. It's time to play catch-up! To save you the video rental fees, the Music, Art, and Media Department has three of the five nominees for Best Picture available to borrow (the other two, Letters from Iwo Jima and The Queen, are not yet available on DVD):

The Departed (winner, Best Picture; Achievement in Directing--Martin Scorsese; Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Film Editing)
Little Miss Sunshine (winner, Best Original Screenplay; Best Supporting Actor--Alan Arkin)
Babel (winner, Best Original Score)

Helen Mirren won Best Actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. While you're waiting for The Queen to be released on video, check out Mirren in an earlier role as the first Elizabeth in Elizabeth I. Best Actor went to Forest Whitaker for his role as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, which will be released on video April 17. Jennifer Hudson won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Dreamgirls, which has not been released on video yet. Until it is, we have the soundtrack to the Broadway musical it was based on.

The Music, Art, and Media Department also has the winner for Best Visual Effects (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest). If animation is more your line, we have the nominees for Best Animated Feature Film, Cars and Monster House. Check back at the end of March when the winner, Happy Feet, is due out on video.

For your documentary pleasure, we also have Al Gore's Best Documentary Feature winner, An Inconvenient Truth. Or, if you prefer, read the book.

So stop by for some Oscar gold and get the popcorn ready for a night of award-winning movies!

As a snow lover, I'll admit to being disappointed in the weak winter we've had. Perhaps that's why I've recently been fantasizing about fun things to do when the weather starts to improve. So many great choices here in New England. Hiking, museum visits, seafood by the ocean, ice cream warding off the heat.... Of course, I'll get some help from the library to make it all happen.

For starters, I'll be signing up for a museum pass to the Peabody Essex Museum. The library's pass allows free access to everything but the Yin Yu Tang house. The Yin Yu Tang house was brought to America from China and reassembled in Salem; tickets are an additional $4 per person. It's an inexpensive but fascinating day trip. When the weather gets warmer, it'll be time to head to the New England Aquarium, where library museum passes give you a discounted rate of $7 per adult. Check out our full line of museum passes at http://www.nashualibrary.org/mpIntro.htm. You can reserve online or by calling the Music, Art, and Media Department at (603) 589-4603.

On the more rustic side, I'll be planning a hiking trip. I'll check out one of the trail guides found in the nonfiction section at 917.4204, such as the Appalachian Mountain Club's "Southern New Hampshire trail guide : hiking trails in southern New Hampshire" or Michael Lanza's "Foghorn outdoors: New Hampshire hiking." I'll also have a look at "The best in tent camping, New England : a guide for car campers who hate RVs, concrete slabs, and loud portable stereos" by Lafe Low to find a good camping area.

A trip up the coast of Maine would also be fun. I'll have a look in "Nature walks along the seacoast : Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine" by Julia Older and Steve Sherman for some more outdoors ideas. Then the old standby of travel guides, "Fodor's Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire," can help me find a restaurant to stop at along the way. (Gotta satisfy that seafood craving.)

If we're not going to have a good snowy winter, let the summer come!

Much as I love to discuss books, today's a film day. It's the 100th anniversary of acting legend Laurence Olivier's birth. Let's celebrate with a look at some of his works.

According to the Academy Awards Database, Olivier was nominated for ten Oscars for acting (he won Best Actor for Hamlet), was nominated for directing Hamlet, and was awarded two special Oscars (one in 1946 for Henry V, and one in 1978 for his lifetime's work).

Hamlet won Best Picture for 1948, and Olivier is credited with producing, as well as directing and acting in the film. You can pick up a copy of Hamlet in the Music, Art, and Media Department.

Also available in the library's film collection are several more of his films, including:

An adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Wuthering Heights;
Shakespeare's Henry V and Richard III;
Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca;
and Spartacus.

For more information about the man and his work, we do have books by and about the legendary actor:

"Olivier: In Celebration" published two years before his 1989 death, is a collection of essays about the actor.
"On Acting" by Olivier, may deliver some insights into his work and achievements;
"Confessions of an Actor" is his autobiography. Laurence Olivier was famously married to two actresses, Vivien Leigh, immortalized as Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, and Joan Plowright.

On Wednesday, May 23, the Library of Congress will be awarding a new annual prize; the Gershwin Prize for popular song. The first recipient will honored at a gala concert held at the Warner Theater in downtown Washington DC. The Library of Congress describes the Gershwin Prize as follows: "named in honor of the legendary George and Ira Gershwin, this newly created award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture. The prize will be given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins".

The performer/composer who will be receiving this award is Paul Simon. Once half of the very successful performing duo of Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Simon is also an extremely talented solo performer/composer. He has won numerous awards both as part of Simon and Garfunkel and as a solo performer. A press release from the Library of Congress gives details of Paul Simon's career and the many awards which he has received. A second press release gives the details of the concert. Those of us who are not able to attend the concert in Washington DC tonight will be able to share in the event when it is broadcast on PBS television June 27.

Paul Simon's song Graceland has been added to the National Recording Registry which was created by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000. The goal of this law, Public Law 106-474, was to create "a comprehensive national program to ensure the survival, conservation, and increased public availability of America's sound recording heritage". Sound recordings preserved include music, monologues, and speeches. The Library of Congress provides a description of the National Recording Preservation Board, its members and its functions. Recordings can be nominated for preservation by anyone. The Library of Congress has published the criteria and procedure for nomination on their website.

If you are interested in listening to Graceland, the library has the CD in MAM. There are also many more Paul Simon CDs to choose from, among others : One-trick pony and Negotiations and love songs 1971-1986. If you are a Simon and Garfunkel fan, here are two good listening choices : Simon and Garfunkel's greatest hits and Simon and Garfunkel : the concert in Central Park. If you are a Gershwin fan or you are wondering exactly who the Gershwins are, the library has a biography of George Gershwin, a book about George and Ira titled Fascinating rhythm and a CD of Gershwin music, By George: Gershwin"s greatest hits.

Max Roach, a dazzling drummer who was a founder of modern jazz and rewrote the rules of drumming in the 1940’s, died this week at the age of 83. Mr. Roach was one of the founding architects of bebop, the harmonically advanced music of the 1940s that helped jazz change from dance-hall entertainment to a concert-stage art. He changed the drummer from a timekeeper and a supporting player into a full-fledged member of the front line.

In many recordings with such musical greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk -- including a 1953 performance (we have it on CD at our library!) that has become known as "the greatest jazz concert ever" -- Mr. Roach pioneered an approach to jazz drumming that remains the standard to this day. Mr. Roach also incorporated elements of other artistic styles including African and Asian music, dance, poetry and hip-hop. His versatility extended from leading performances with as many as 100 percussion instruments on stage to playing solos using only the high-hat, a pair of cymbals mounted on a metal stand and worked with a pedal.

We have a multitude of jazz recordings at our library. Some recommendations on the era described in this blog are:

The bop session [sound recording] / Dizzy Gillespie ... [et. al.];

Dizzy's big 4 [sound recording] / Dizzy Gillespie ... [et al.];

Brilliant corners [sound recording] / Thelonious Monk.

You may also wish to take a look at some of the books about jazz at our library including:

Jazz : a history of America's music / by Geoffrey C. Ward ; based on a documentary film by Ken Burns written by Geoffrey C. Ward ; with a preface by Ken Burns;

Jazz on record : the first sixty years / by Scott Yarrow;

Classic jazz / Scott Yanow;

All music guide to jazz : the definitive guide to jazz music / edited by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine;

The Penguin guide to jazz recordings / Richard Cook and Brian Morton.

And perhaps you would like to take a look at such websites as Jazz Greats, Drummerworld and The Jazz Files to read up on Max Roach and many other jazz greats.

The John Coltrane Memorial Concert (JCMC) for 2007 is being held this evening at Northeastern University. According to the event’s website, the JCMC has been held annually in Boston since its inception in 1977 and is the world's oldest annual performance tribute to the musical and spiritual legacy of the great master. The JCMC was conceived and created by Black American musicians who deeply understood the blessings and messages that Coltrane shared through the music. Through the continued commitment of a core group of Boston based musicians and the continued interest and support of listeners, the JCMC has evolved into a major cultural event.

The purpose of the JCMC is to reflect on the rich musical and spiritual legacy of Coltrane through contemporary interpretations of his works, to inspire us all to work toward developing our full capacities as human beings, and to work for world peace.

So with that in mind, why don’t I suggest some Coltrane CDs and books that are available at the library.

CDs:
One down, one up [sound recording] : Coltrane live at the Half Note.
Ascension [sound recording] / John Coltrane.
A love supreme [sound recording] / John Coltrane.

Books:
John Coltrane / by Bill Cole
Jazz greats / by David Perry
A new history of jazz / Alyn Shipton

Before the World Series and the ALCS, Fall 2007's first TV viewing marathon came to us from New Hampshire’s award-winning documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns. His latest effort, aptly titled “The War”, chronicles the American experience of World War II through the eyes of those who endured it. The 20th century’s greatest conflict was also perhaps the most visually documented. Combat photographers captured the action and horror of combat and its consequences in both still and moving images. Heavily censored images were packaged into newsreels to support the war effort, and film was used for training, propaganda, and entertainment throughout the war.

Hollywood jumped into the war effort with both feet, producing war films for American audiences soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Here are some examples of feature films released during the war to audiences hungry for any visual representation they could find of what was happening overseas. Now you can find these on DVD at the library.

Casablanca (1942) with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.
Mrs. Miniver (1942) with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon.
Action in the North Atlantic (1943) with Humphey Bogart and Raymond Massey.
Destination Tokyo (1943) with Cary Grant and John Garfield.
The Fighting Sullivans (1944) starring Anne Baxter and Ward Bond.
Passage to Marseille (1944) with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre.
To Have and Have Not (1944) with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
Objective, Burma! (1945) with Errol Flynn.
They Were Expendable (1945) with John Wayne and Donna Reed.

Hollywood also produced some spectacular propaganda films during the same period such as:

Walt Disney On the Front Lines: The War Years (1941-1945) - 2-DVD collection of Disney’s animated contributions to the cause.
Why We Fight (1943-1945) – 4-DVD series of 7 propaganda films produced by Frank Capra and shown to American GIs during World War II.

Some of the very best films about the war, however, were produced during the postwar period. Here are some award-winning classics that you’ll find on DVD at the library:

Comedies

Operation Petticoat (1959) with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis.
Father Goose (1964) with Cary Grant and Leslie Caron.
Catch-22 (1970) with Alan Arkin, Buck Henry, and Paula Prentiss.

Documentaries

Victory at Sea (1952) produced by NBC with original music by Richard Rodgers.
The War (2007) produced for PBS by Ken Burns.

Dramas

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) with Dana Andrews, Frederic March and Myrna Loy.
Twelve O’Clock High (1949) with Gregory Peck and Dean Jagger.
From Here to Eternity (1953) with Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, and Frank Sinatra.
Stalag 17 (1953) with William Holden.
The Caine Mutiny (1954) with Humphrey Bogart and Fred MacMurray.
Mister Roberts (1955) with Henry Fonda and Jack Lemmon.
The Bridge over the River Kwai (1957) with Alec Guinness and William Holden.
The Great Escape (1963) with Steve McQueen.
In Harm’s Way (1965) with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.
Von Ryan's Express (1965) with Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard.
The Dirty Dozen (1967) with Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Charles Bronson.
Patton (1970) with George C. Scott and Karl Malden.
The Winds of War (1983) 6-DVD miniseries with Robert Mitchum, Ali McGraw, and Jan-Michael Vincent
War and Remembrance (1988) 6-DVD miniseries with Robert Mitchum, Jane Seymour, and John Gielgud.
Schindler’s List (1993) directed by Steven Spielberg with Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes.
Saving Private Ryan (1998) with Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, and Matt Damon.
Band of Brothers (2001) 6-DVD miniseries produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
The Pianist (2002) produced by Roman Polanski with Adrien Brody.
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) and Flags of Our Fathers (2007) produced by Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg.

and a Musical

South Pacific (1958) with Mitzi Gaynor and Rosanno Brazzi; music by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Looking for more titles? Try Wikipedia's List of World War II films or visit the Internet Movie Database and enter keyword "WWII".

Before you plop down $15 to $20 on a CD, you may want to check and see if the library owns a copy, so you can hear whether you want to spend your hard-earned cash. The library has a collection of about 4,000 music CDs, and every month or two we order 20 to 30 new titles, budget permitting. With your library card, you can borrow up to 10 CDs. Except for our Holiday CDs, which circulate for one week only with no renewals allowed, our music CDs can be borrowed for 3 weeks, and may be renewed if they have not been requested by another patron.

Since joining the Music/Art/Media desk in February 2007, I've been having a lot of fun really getting to know our collection of music CDs. We have the most extensive collection of any public library that I've been to, with a wide variety of artists and styles. We have recently started weeding the collection of items which are in poor condition or have otherwise outlived their usefulness, in order to make room for new material, both purchased and donated, and cleaning up the CDs we've decided to keep.

In addition to the items we purchase, we also greatly appreciate donations, most of which we either add to the collection or save as replacements for items which become damaged or go missing. Over the summer we received a large gift of folk, country and world music CDs from a generous patron. And recently we've added some pop CDs, some heavy metal, and, of course, some new (to us) holiday music.

In selecting music, the resource we turn to most is allmusic.com, a comprehensive website with listings and reviews of artists, composers, and recordings in all genres. Periodicals like BBC Music Magazine, NME and CMJ are also good sources of information about new music. And of course, we always want to hear what you would like to see in our collection, because ideally your taste should be driving the direction of the collection.

While some libraries organize their collections by Dewey Decimal number, or by an intricate classification system called the ANSCR ("answer"), we use a system inherited from our collection of LP records (remember LPs? like CDs only big and black), combining a color code for genre with a Cutter number. A Cutter number is an alphanumerical formula representing a name or title, a letter or two followed by a number. Between the letter(s) and number is an imaginary decimal point, so the number is read left to right. It causes a certain amount of confusion, but the general feeling is that it would be too costly and labor-intensive to reclassify and relabel the entire collection, and that using two systems concurrently would be untenable.

Some of my favorites among the titles we've added in the past several months include:

Yiddishbbuk, contemporary chamber music with Klezmer, folk and synagogal influences by Argentinian Jewish composer Osvaldo Golijov.

Magic, the new album by Bruce Springsteen. A great pop record along the lines of Born to run and The river.

Voices, by Hall and Oates. The 1981 album is a great mix of punk, rock & roll, soul and new wave featuring four of their biggest hits including the best version ever of "You've lost that lovin' feelin'"

Get the Knack, by the Knack. Classic rock and roll. Parental discretion advised.

Crystals, by Sam Rivers. Avant-garde orchestral jazz.

The music of Elliott Carter, vol. 5: Nine Compositions. Short chamber works by (some say) the greatest living American composer.

Washington Square Serenade, another great album by outspoken singer/songwriter Steve Earle.

Translated by love, a flawless album by underrated country singer Kelly Willis.

Time on earth, the new album from Crowded House. Great comeback album from a great band.

Some suggest that CDs have become obsolete with the advent of MP3s, the iPod, and internet streaming. So come check out these quaint little dinosaurs while you still can.

When was the last time you made a bowl or two of popcorn and sat down with your WHOLE family to watch a movie? Granted that Disney and Dreamworks have made some great films in recent years that both children and adults can enjoy, but for the most part Hollywood targets films to specific audiences, often leaving some members of your family looking for something else to do for the evening.

Boston Globe movie critic Ty Burr has given this problem some thought, and after watching Mulan one too many times, decided that, for him, the old classic movies were the answer. So Ty sat down and wrote a book about watching classic films with modern children called The best old movies for families : A guide to watching together (Anchor Books, 2007, MAM 791.4375 B). In it he selects films that mom, dad, and the kids can watch and enjoy together and discuss afterwards. The actors are talented, the storylines are fresh, and black and white ain’t so bad once you get used to it. Best of all you’ll find no explicit sex, graphic violence, raw language, or marketing tie-ins with Coke, Hasbro, or Burger King. Perfect!

Ty’s book begins with “Starter Kits” – the first old movies to watch with your children. He breaks these down by age. For toddlers (ages 3-6) he suggests fast-paced stories that are simple without being dumbed down such as:

Bringing Up Baby (B&W; 1938) with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant
Meet Me in St. Louis (Color; 1944) with Judy Garland
Singin’ in the Rain (Color; 1952) with Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor
Stagecoach (B&W; 1939) with John Wayne

For tweeners (ages 7-12) he suggests “killer stories” such as:

The African Queen (Color; 1951) with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn
The Day the Earth Stood Still (B&W; 1951) with Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal
North by Northwest (Color; 1959) directed by Alfred Hitchcock with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint
Ohayo/Good Morning (Color; 1959) directed by Yasujiro Ozu
Some Like It Hot (B&W; 1959) with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe

And for teenagers (ages 13+) he suggests some of the classics that contemporary films that teens love are based upon such as:

Metropolis (B&W; 1927) directed by Fritz Lang
Psycho (B&W; 1960) directed by Alfred Hitchcock with Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh
The Seven Samurai (B&W; 1954) directed by Akira Kurosawa

In all, his book reviews over 100 of the old classics by genre: Comedy, Drama, Action, Horror, and Foreign, with an index that organizes the best old movies by age group. Each film review includes recommended ages, "The sell" to kids, a plot outline, "Pause-button explanations" regarding questions your child might have, and suggestions for what to watch next. Ty recommends that the first old movie you watch with your child should be a comedy. He also renders advice on old movies NOT to watch with your children and why.

The Nashua Public Library maintains a large collection of classic films many of which have been remastered, and we’re pleased to report that we own most of the titles Ty recommends. Here's a sampling of more of Ty's suggestions that you'll find at the library:

For ages 3 and up

The Court Jester (Color; 1956) with Danny Kaye
Safety Last (B&W; 1923) with Harold Lloyd

For ages 8 and up

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Color; 1953) with Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell
High Noon (B&W; 1952) with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly
It Happened One Night (B&W; 1934) with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert
Roman Holiday (B&W; 1953) with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck

For ages 12 and up

Breakfast at Tiffany's (Color; 1961) with Audrey Hepburn and Mickey Rooney
On the Waterfront (B&W; 1954) with Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger and Karl Malden
The Searchers (Color; 1956) with John Wayne and Natalie Wood
Sunset Blvd. (B&W; 1950) with Gloria Swanson and William Holden
The Third Man (B&W; 1949) with Orson Welles

Not a fan of Black & White or Classic films? The Nashua Public Library has sections of films on both VHS and DVD designated for family viewing in the Music, Art & Media Department. These films are generally rated no higher than PG. We also carry other guide books listing family-friendly films such as:

The New York Times essential library : Children's movies : A critic's guide to the best films available on video and DVD (Times Books, 2003, MAM 791.4375 N) and
What can we watch tonight? A family guide to movies (Zondervan, 2003, MAM 791.4375 N)

or, just check our Family Friendly Film Guide for web sites to help with your selections. Happy viewing!

I voted in my first New Hampshire Primary in 1984 and haven’t missed a primary since. I make an effort to be an informed voter, but for a while I was passive observer of the process. It wasn’t until the 2000 election that I started attending events and “meeting” the candidates. You don’t have to go far to discover what a candidate is like up close and personal, and for me, that interaction trumps what I read or hear about a candidate. I try to meet candidates that interest me from both parties. I appreciate the time and attention they give our state and I like to return the favor by taking some care to discern who I think is the best candidate to lead this nation into the future.

The Nashua Public Library is very serious about keeping the city informed about both the Presidential candidates and the issues we face. You’ll find a trove of books and articles about the entire process in the library, including a fairly large collection of films and documentaries that we hope will satisfy your political interests. Here are some DVDs to prime you for the Primary:

About the candidates

Giuliani Time: The Man Who Would Be King (2006) – a critical view of Rudy Giuliani’s term as mayor of New York.

The Hunting of the President (2004) – a film about efforts to defeat and discredit Bill Clinton from Arkansas to the White House.

The Mormons (2007) – a PBS documentary of the Mormons in America, from Joseph Smith to today’s church.

About domestic issues

A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (2007) – a film that makes the case for an upcoming decline of the world’s oil supply.

End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream (2004) – our suburbs were built upon the availability of cheap oil, and how oil shortages will change the suburban way of life.

Farmingville (2004) – a film examining how suburban Farmingville, NY deals with the influx of Mexican workers.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006) – Al Gore’s argument that global warming is occurring and the world must address the problem.

Oil on Ice (2004) – explores the issues of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Sicko (2007) – Michael Moore’s latest aims at the inequitities and inefficiencies of our health care system.

Tying the Knot: The Union that’s Dividing America (2004) – explores the issue of gay marriage in America.

Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) – the electric car was once a viable transportation option in America but certain forces allied against its success. Here's a look at what happened and what we can hope for in the future regarding energy efficient transportation solutions.

About the war on terror

Here are a few of the many films that have been produced about 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq:

Aftermath: Unanswered Questions from 9/11 (2003) - an examination of 9/11 events 2 years after this horrific event.

Alive Day Memories : Home from Iraq (2007) - a documentary about soldiers wounded in Iraq.

The Blood of My Brother (2005) - the insurgency from an Iraqi point of view.

Fahrenheit 9/11 - Michael Moore's much talked about documentary.

Gunner Palace (2004) - a film about a American unit operating out of one of Saddam's former palaces.

Inside 9/11 - a well-done National Geographic documentary chronicling events surrounding 9/11.

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006) - a look at the monetary cost of the war and the misuse of funds intended for reconstruction.

My Country, My Country (2006) - a film about the war's toll on Iraqi civilians.

No End in Sight (2007) – an insightful look at how the Iraq war careened out of control, told by Bush administration insiders.

Rush to war: between Iraq and a hard place (2004) - a critical appraisal of our rationale to go to war.

Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War (2004) - a view from the opposition as moveon.org and others interview government officials in an effort to discern the roots of the decision to invade Iraq.

Voices of Iraq (2004) - the people of Iraq speak about the war.

The War Tapes (2007) - NH National Guardsman are given cameras to film their year in Iraq. This is the result.

Why We Fight (2005) - not the Frank Capra WW II classic but a revealing film that begins with President Eisenhower's admonition to beware of the military-industrial complex and chronicles how we have failed to heed his warning.

WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception (2004) - based on Danny Schechter's book: "Embedded - Weapons of Mass Deception: How the Media Failed to Cover the War in Iraq".

Documentaries

Feed: A comedy about running for president (1992) - a documentary on the news feeds that 1992 Presidential candidates didn't want you to see.

Primary: the landmark film that took on the road to the Kennedy White House (1960)

RFK Must Die (2007) - a recent documentary on the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968.

Run Granny Run (2007) - while not related to the primary, Doris "Granny D" Haddock's political activism in her 90th decade is legendary. This film documents her 2004 run for US Senate.

Feature films

Bobby (Drama; 2006) – a film chronicling the 1968 assassination of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy.

The Manchurian Candidate (Drama; 1962) - the original classic with Frank Sinatra!

The Manchurian Candidate (Drama; 2004) - the remake with Denzel Washington.

Nashville (Drama; 1975) - a Robert Altman film.

Primary Colors (Comedy; 1998) - a thinly veiled fictional film about a southern governor running for president.

Wag the Dog (Comedy; 1997) - a dark political comedy.

A word about fair and balanced. Your point of view may not be represented in some of these films, and if not, we encourage your recommendations. Above all we encourage you to examine the issues from others' points of view and vote on January 8th. That's the New Hampshire way!

The 80th annual Academy Award nominations were announced yesterday.

Nominees for Best Motion Picture of the Year were Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood.

No Country for Old Men, a film by brothers Ethan and Joel Coen, had 8 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem. If you're interested in seeing more of the Coen brothers' movies, Fargo and The Big Lebowski are just two of the titles you'll find here at the library. Or, you might like to read Cormac McCarthy's book, on which the film is based.

There Will Be Blood also received 8 nominations, including Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis. According to the handy, searchable database on the Academy Awards web site, Oscar.com, Daniel Day-Lewis has already won for his role in "My Left Foot." He was also nominated for Best Actor for his roles in Gangs of New York and In the Name of the Father.

Michael Clayton came in with 7 nominations, including a Best Actor nomination for George Clooney.

Also taking 7 nominations was Atonement, which was based on Ian McEwan's book by the same name. We have several copies of the book, if you'd like to add your name to the waiting list.

Check back with the library as these titles are released on DVD. We have many award-winners in our collection!

The complete list of Academy Award nominations is available from the official Oscar web site, at http://www.oscar.com/nominees/.

When I first heard about audiobooks, I'll admit, I was very skeptical. Why would you want to listen to a book when you could just immerse yourself in the paper pages, hearing the words in your head? Once I became a librarian, though, I thought that I should give it a try, if only for professional research purposes. So, one day I stopped by the display of new audiobooks on CD and picked out a title. It was Iris Johansen's "The Search" (another case of trying something new--Johansen--in order to be informed). And while I wish I could say that I fell in love with audiobooks on the spot, that didn't happen until a few books later.

The narrator of "The Search" was Barbara Rosenblat. She may be a fine narrator, but I was listening to her in the car--and the car was drowning her out. This was my first lesson in audiobooks--the way the narrator reads can be very frustrating if you have to keep adjusting the volume. What might be dramatic on the CD player at home can be just unintelligible when played in the car.

Fortunately, I tried again. The next narrator was much easier to hear in the car, so I kept trying new books. I soon learned lesson #2: the narrator's rendition of the book might not match up with what your brain expects to hear. This can be a good thing, or a bad thing. For example: Alan Alda's "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed" was narrated by someone other than Alda. While I listened, the narrator's style kept clashing with how I expected the narrative to sound. It was so distracting that eventually I gave up and took out the paper copy.

On the other hand, the narrator can give the story that little extra something that makes the story come to life. I had tried to read Janet Evanovich's "One for the Money" twice, in print, and hadn't managed to finish it. I couldn't see why anyone thought she was funny. Then I tried the audio, read by C.J. Critt. Critt's wry performance gave the text nuances that made it much more fun for me. The same thing happened with Alexander McCall Smith's "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency." A book that I hadn't been able to finish in paper was much more palatable in audio, thanks to the narrator's interpretation.

Naturally, all this is very subjective. One person may love a narrator, while another may not. As a fan of Christopher Moore's books, I was disappointed by Fisher Stevens's reading of "A Dirty Job," but a coworker found it brilliant. I like C.J. Critt's work, but my friend can't stand her. Luckily, narrators are listed in our catalog. You can do an author search for the narrator you like, and get a list of titles that they've read. You can also search for the book first, and then just check the record to see who the narrator is before you head down to the Music, Art and Media Department to grab the book.

So, don't give up if you don't like the first audiobook you try. A good narrator can make or break an audiobook. If it doesn't sound right to you, there's always the paper copy to fall back on. But a great narrator can enhance the experience and even uncover meanings that you might have missed in paper.

I'm tempted to write about the top news story of the day, but I've decided instead to write about something a little more tasteful. So my Governor Spitzer commentary will have to wait because 2008 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest opera composers of all time, Giacomo Puccini. Perhaps you've seen La Boheme, Madame Butterfly, or Turandot in person, or listened to recordings of them. You surely have heard Pavarotti's performance of Nessun Dorma (from Turandot) in the famed Three Tenors recording. If you haven't, you really need to.

"It is said that around 1876, Puccini, walked 13 miles to a theater in Pisa to hear Aida, the great Verdi opera, and immediately decided to become an opera composer as well. Serious study, however, would be needed, and with this in mind he secured a stipend from a grand-uncle, and then a scholarship to the Conservatory in Milan. He arrived in late 1880, and studied diligently for the next three years."* The rest, as they say, is history.

So why not read more about Puccini in the Biography Resource Center database, or check out one of these books.
The king and I : thirty-six years with my client, friend, and burden, Luciano Pavarotti : the untold story / by Herbert Breslin and Anne Midgette.
Pavarotti : life with Luciano / Adua Pavarotti with Wendy Dallas

And you must check out one of these recordings, videos and DVDs. You'll be happy you did.
Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti in concert [sound recording].
The 3 tenors in concert 1994 : [videorecording]
Turandot sound recording / Puccini ; [completed by Franco Alfano].
La bohème [videorecording] / by Giacomo Puccini ; libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica ; The Metropolitan Opera.
My favorite opera for children [compact disc].

* "Giacomo Puccini." Contemporary Musicians, Volume 25. Gale Group, 1999.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

Public radio and public television are such terrific resources. I often times forget about them, but when I remember them, I'm always glad I did. One excellent series I watch on PBS from time to time is Frontline. The show features investigative journalism pieces that are very thorough and very thought-provoking. This week the show is a two-part series titled "Bush's War" that reviews the ongoing struggle in Iraq and the events that led up to it. A definite must-see in my opinion.

Another nice feature about Frontline, and many PBS shows, is that a lot of supplementary content is available on their website, http://www.frontline.org. For example, you can watch the entire "Bush's War" series on their website. You can also read transcripts of over 400 interviews conducted for the series. So be sure to take a look.

The library also has a number of Frontline videos that you can take home. Listed below are just a few. All of them can be found in the Music, Art & Media department on the lower level of the library.

The Mormons [videorecording] / a Frontline and American experience co-production
From Jesus to Christ [videorecording] : the first Christians / a Frontline coproduction
Assault on gay America / a Frontline co-production
What's up with the weather? [videorecording] / a FRONTLINE/NOVA coproduction

April is JAM (Jazz Appreciation Month). Regarded as “America’s Music,” jazz is a complex melding of the African and European traditions steeped in the rich American experience to form a musical tradition uniquely us. A key characteristic of jazz is improvisation. True jazz is never fully orchestrated but rather re-created by individual players who improvise upon what has been played before within a tightly choreographed ensemble. In short, jazz is always cooking, but never done!

In its almost 100-year history, the jazz canon now includes many fine recordings. The Nashua Public Library works hard to develop our jazz collections, and we carry almost 600 jazz recordings on CD ranging from Jelly Roll Morton to Diana Krall with everything in between. While many great performances were captured live and in the studio, many jazz lovers believe the best way to enjoy jazz is to hear it performed live. Take the fan who believed that Sonny Rollins just sounds better live, so he secretly recorded the saxophonist’s September 15, 2001 concert at Boston’s Berklee Performance Center. I’ll spare you the legal entanglements, but a couple of years later Sonny released the recording on a CD called “Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert.” The sound may not be studio quality but the performance is great!

There’s nothing quite like live jazz. You can hear the big names at Scullers in Boston or Cambridge's Regattabar, or you can savor fine jazz much closer to home. Here are few local venues to check out:

In Nashua

Crowne Plaza Nashua
2 Somerset Parkway
Nashua, NH 03063
603-886-1200
Live Jazz Music every Thursday 5-9

Manhattan on Pearl
70 E Pearl St.
Nashua, NH 03060
(603) 578-5557
Occasional jazz – check for dates and times

Michael Timothy’s Wine & Jazz Bar
212 Main Street
Nashua, NH 03060
JAZZ HOTLINE: (603) 595-9334
Jazz Friday & Saturday, 8:00 to Midnight

In Bedford

C.R. Sparks
18 Kilton Road
Bedford NH
603-647-7275
Jazz Thursday

In Manchester

Hilton Garden Inn Manchester Downtown – The Patio
101 South Commercial Street
Manchester, NH 03101
603-669-2222
Seasonal jazz outdoors

Strange Brew Tavern
88 Market Street
Manchester, NH 03101
(603) 666-4292
Occasional jazz – check for dates and times

Unwined
865 Second St.
Mallard Pond Plaza
Manchester, NH 03102
603-625-9463
Jazz Wednesday nights and weekends

In Merrimack

Silos Steakhouse
641 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, NH 03054-2713
603-429-2210
Jazz Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays

In Portsmouth

The Press Room
77 Daniel Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801
603-431-5186
Jazz almost every night! Call for details.

...and just across the border in Massachusetts

Acton Jazz Café
452 Great Road (Rte 2A)
Acton, MA 01720
978-263- 6161
Open 6 p.m.-midnight Wednesday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. on Sundays.

Jocko’s Jazz at the Sahara Club
Sahara Club
34 Bates St.
Methuen, MA 01844
978-683-9200

Ricardo’s Café Trattoria
110 Gorham St
Lowell, MA 01852
978-453-2777
“A taste of Italy and a side of jazz”

Let me know if I've missed your favorite venue. And don't forget to catch our up-and-coming musicians at Nashua North & South High and other schools. The local jazz scene is very much alive and fluid, so check the Hippo and the Telegraph's Encore for the latest information. Above all, please patronize our local musicians and do your part to keep America's music alive!

April is Jazz Appreciation Month and it’s fast coming to a close. Jazz is frequently described as “America’s Music”, the product of African and European ingredients simmered in the American experience for a few generations to form a musical tradition uniquely and proudly American. Jazz, like America, combines structure with creativity to constantly improvise – and improve – on what’s been done before.

I stumbled onto jazz in college. The Billy Taylor Trio used to play regularly at our school, with Dr. Taylor on piano, and bass and drums rounding out the trio. With apologies to the jazz greats primarily known for horn and sax, a jazz piano trio is all I’d need to get by on a desert island, and Billy would suit me fine. Warming up!, recorded by the Billy Taylor Trio in 1960-61 is a wonderful recording by this artist that’s available in Music, Art & Media (MAM).

Over the years I’ve come to enjoy listening to many kinds of jazz, but my “formal” education began with Ken Burns’ 19 hour documentary on the history of jazz in America, aptly titled Jazz, which is available in MAM on both DVD and VHS. Burns received some criticism for giving some artists and styles short shrift, but I found the series immensely informative and entertaining. Jazz consists of 10 episodes, structured chronologically to illustrate how this art form developed over the years.

Among the prominent jazz musicians and critics featured in this film is Wynton Marsalis. A gifted classical and jazz trumpet player from an extremely talented family, Marsalis is Artistic Director for Jazz at Lincoln Center and one of the most energetic advocates of jazz music today. To Marsalis, jazz goes far beyond a musical form. His recent book Moving to higher ground: how jazz can change your life (MAM 781.65 M) probes how jazz can lead to a deeper understanding of life and improve personal interrelationships. Wow.

Appearing around the same time was another work on the power of jazz. The Jazz ear: conversations over music by Ben Ratliff (MAM 781.65092 R), interviews 15 leading contemporary jazz musicians to reveal how jazz motivates them and directs their lives in profound ways. Of course jazz doesn’t hold a monopoly on making players and listeners feel good. See Daniel Levitin’s best-sellers This is your brain on music: the science of a human obsession (MAM 781.11 L) and The world in six songs: how the musical brain created human nature (MAM 781.11 L) for an in-depth look at how music shapes us.

The Nashua Public Library maintains a jazz CD collection of over 600 titles, featuring all the classic recordings we can find as well as a wide range of artists and styles from Sidney Bechet and early Dixieland to contemporary jazz. We’ve also collected a number of live performances on VHS and DVD for your listening AND viewing pleasure.

We also periodically host live jazz either in Music, Art and Media’s performance area or outside on the plaza in July or August. Subscribe to our Concerts@Your Library on our newsletter page to learn about upcoming events. So please peruse our catalog for your favorite artists, or stop by MAM and we’ll help you find some music to make your life a little better!

I just discovered that the library has a copy of the DVD of "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog". Isn't that awesome?

If you don't know it's awesome, then you definitely need to borrow it and find out just how awesome it is.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a science fiction musical written by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly) and starring Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, How I Met Your Mother), Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle), and Felicia Day.

It was created during the Hollywood writer's strike and released for free on the Internet as a serial. The writer's strike was about the writers not being paid for content being aired on the web. And this production was an experiment, to show that free content can still make money. With sales after the release of a soundtrack CD, merchandise, and this DVD, I would say it's been quite a success.

I attended a Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog party at a recent science fiction convention I went to. The hosts decorated the place quite well in theme and played this DVD multiple times in a row, as people wandered in and out to watch it. And to, you may have guessed it, sing along.

There's some violence and innuendo, so I wouldn't say it's for little kids. But teenagers and older geeks should like it quite well.

If you'd like to find out more before borrowing it, you can read more at Wikipedia, but beware spoilers! Or check out the official Dr. Horrible website.

And if you didn't follow either of the links to the catalog above, here it is again: check it out. Hey, you can even use the new self-checkout in MAM!

In the wee hours of March 18, 1990, as Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations were still winding down, two men dressed as Boston Police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on the Fenway, overwhelmed two inexperienced security guards, and in less than 90 minutes, stole paintings and other artworks valued today at $600 million.

The stolen works included Vermeer’s “The Concert”, one of just 35 known works by the artist, three Rembrandt paintings, including his only known seascape, “Storm on the Sea of Galilee” , five Degas drawings and Manet’s “Chez Tortoni”. Almost twenty years later, the Gardner Heist remains the world’s greatest unsolved art theft.

Both art and mystery lovers can immerse themselves in this drama with Ulrich Boser’s new book, The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft. Boser, a contributing editor of U.S. News & World Report, spent years pursuing leads and interviewing investigators, art experts, felons and other colorful characters to tell this compelling and yet unfinished story. You can also watch Stolen, a DVD documentary on the heist, where you will recognize many of the players who appear in Boser’s book. Mystery author and Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory even penned a thriller called Dead Line based on the heist. Finally, Museum of the Missing: A History of Art Theft by Simon Houpt, is a terrific read about high profile art thefts, including, of course, the Gardner’s.

Despite the loss of these masterpieces, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum remains a popular destination for art lovers everywhere. Just a few blocks from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Gardner’s Italianate architecture and beautiful indoor garden make it a delightful year-round destination. Empty frames adorn the walls where the stolen masterpieces once hung, a sad reminder of that infamous crime. And with a Nashua Public Library Museum Pass, admission is just $5.00 per person (under 18 are free). Book your pass on our web site or call the Music, Art and Media desk for reservations and more information.

Before you go, consider borrowing one of the library’s catalogs of the Gardner’s collection:

Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2003)

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A Companion Guide and History (1995)

Treasures from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (1969)

By the way, if you have information regarding the whereabouts of these works, you should know that the Gardner is offering a $5 million reward.

"You are traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone!"

The narrator was writer Rod Serling, dressed in a suit and distinctive thin, 1950's-era tie. His distinctive voice ominous. The theme music forboding. So began an episode of the iconic television series, The Twilight Zone.

Serling wrote two-thirds of the original 156 Twilight Zone episodes, which aired from 1959-1964. Superbly written, each story involved an ordinary person who found themselves trapped in an unusual and often supernatural situation, culminating in an unexpected, and often unpleasant, resolution. Serling used science fiction as mechanism for telling parables about the dark side of modern life, and he ended each episode as it began, with a short narration on a lesson learned from The Twilight Zone! For more on Rod Serling the man, you'll want to check out Joel Engel's superb biography titled Rod Serling: The Dreams and Nightmares of Life in the Twilight Zone.

The Twilight Zone was memorable in another respect. Many respected stage and screen actors appeared on the program; some well-known at the time, and some up-and-coming who became household names after their Twilight Zone appearance. Stars included Claude Akins, Martin Balsam, Anne Francis, Jack Klugman, Martin Landau, Lee Marvin, Burgess Meredith, Bill Mumy, Cliff Robertson, William Shatner, Inger Stevens, Jack Warden, Dick York and many others.

Submitted for your approval is Serling's opening narration from Season 2, Episode 65, The Obsolete Man, starring Burgess Meredith and Fritz Weaver:

"You walk into this room at your own risk, because it leads to the future; not a future that will be, but one that might be. This is not a new world: It is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time. It has refinements, technological advancements, and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the super states that preceded it, it has one iron rule: Logic is an enemy, and truth is a menace. This is Mr. Romney Wordsworth, in his last forty-eight hours on Earth. He's a citizen of the State, but will soon have to be eliminated, because he's built out of flesh and because he has a mind. Mr. Romney Wordsworth, who will draw his last breaths in the Twilight Zone."

The Nashua Public Library now has all 156 episodes on DVD. You'll want to borrow The Obsolete Man to see how it ends!

What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul. ~Jewish Proverb
As a child, I believe I wept at every movie I watched. There was always a sad part, even in the Music Man and 101 Dalmatians. And even then, I knew it was therapeutic. If I had a sadness, crying at the movies, helped ease the pain. Now when the sad movie music starts, my husband has my son trained to go and get the tissue box for me.
Women do cry more tears than men, four or five times more researchers say. We have have serum prolactin ( a hormone connected with tear production) levels much higher than men . Men! Don't let this discourage you! Emotional tears contain more protein and beta-endorphin, one of the body's natural pain relievers. For the first time in history, researchers are verifying that crying is [good] for us because tears appear to reduce tensions, remove toxins, and increase the body's ability to heal itself. In short, scientists are drawing the conclusion that people who are able to cry may enjoy better physical and emotional health. Read Victor Parachin's article, Fears about tears? Why crying is good for you. and then read one of these books.
Pack of two : the intricate bond between people and dogs
by Caroline Knoapp, 1998.
Out on a leash : exploring the nature of reality and love
by Shirley MacLaine, 2003.
Marley & me : life and love with the world’s worst dog
by John Grogan, 2005.
It's okay to miss the bed on the first jump : and other life lessons I learned from dogs
by John O'Hurley, 2006.
Merle's door : lessons from a freethinking dog
by Ted Kerasote, 2007.
Rescuing Sprite : a dog lover's story of joy and anguish
by Mark R. Levin, 2007.
The philosopher and the wolf : lessons from the wild on love, death, and happiness
by Mark Rowlands, 2009.
Soul of a dog : reflections on the spirits of the animals of Bedlam Farm
by Jon Katz, 2009.
Okay, maybe you're not a dog lover. You are clearly in the minority. A dog lover ever since I learned not to be afraid of them, I yearn for the uncomplicated companionship of my own dog, so these are great vicarious experiences for me, especially Merle's door. I even requested an ILL of another of Kerasote's books, I liked it so much. John O'Hurley of Seinfield fame (He played J Pederman) has written about his dogs. Shirley MacLaine's dog Terry is the subject of her very puny book, Out on a Leach. You may have seen Owen Wilson and Jennifer Anniston's, film based on John Grogan's Marley and Me. For those of you who struggle with problem dogs, Jon Katz has written several books about the dogs of Bedlam Farm.
I had the closest dog relationships while dog sitting at length on several occasions with 2 dogs and I know that dogs can be a hand full. With dog sitting, like babysitting, you get a small sense of what parents/dog owners go through. Forest, the dachshund, wouldn't stop barking out the window if he saw a leaf blown in the wind or a neighbor. But he had the softest head I've ever stroked and it was unusually warm. My friend's dog, Cooper would try to lick me from the back of my pickup truck while I was driving. Both have passed. The sweetness of the dogs always more than made up for the bother. These books will give you a lot of laughter with the tears. Laughter is also good for body and soul.
Incidentally, if you love tearjerker dog movies like Old Yeller, try, My Dog Skip. And have some tissues on hand.

Most of us can’t imagine how to “get there from here” without taking an Interstate highway. Influenced by President Eisenhower's appreciation of Germany’s Autobahn during World War II, the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 was enacted to construct a nationwide highway system for the purpose of moving people, goods, and troops, quickly and efficiently, throughout the country. Prior to this the Federal government designated a national system of U.S. Highways, or U.S. Routes beginning in 1926, to facilitate highway transportation. While many of the U.S. Routes still exist – notably U.S. 1 stretching from Maine to Florida – most have had significant segments replaced by Interstate highways.

Perhaps the most legendary U.S. Highway of them all is Route 66. Established in 1926, Route 66 carried traffic 2,448 miles diagonally across the country from Chicago to Los Angeles. It spawned the hit song "Route 66" in the sixties which was recorded by a number of artists (we have 6 different recordings in our CD collections). With exotic roadside attractions and destinations – such as the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona – and the ultimate destination: Los Angeles, Route 66 was a roadtripper’s dream and an American cultural icon from the early days of automobile travel. The library has several books that recapture the spirit of the road:

Route 66 Remembered by Michael Karl Witzel, 1996,
Route 66: The Mother Road by Michael Wallis, 1990, and
Route 66: The Highway and Its People a photographic essay by Quinta Scott, 1988.

The National Park Service's Heritage Education Service has also created a wonderful multimedia Route 66 Travel Guide that allows you to experience the old highway and all its delights through the comfort and convenience of the internet.

The road also inspired the television drama “Route 66” which aired from 1960 to 1964 starring Martin Milner and George Maharis. Beginning with Nelson Riddle’s memorable theme, each episode unfolded on location, not on a soundstage in Burbank, California, which was often the case in the early years of television. Characters Tod Stiles (Milner) and Buz Murdock (Maharis) traveled the country, on Route 66 and beyond, in a Corvette convertible. Big name guest stars, such as Robert Redford, Suzanne Pleshette, Martin Sheen, William Shatner, Rod Steiger, James Caan, Julie Newmar, and many others appeared on the program.

Recently released on DVD, Route 66 adds another dimension beyond its memorable theme song, strong characters, and superb scripts. It inadvertently documents an America that was at the time not so homogeneous. Restaurants and stores were locally-owned, the countryside was undeveloped, and regional differences more apparent than they are today.

The library has the first season of Route 66 consisting of the first 30 episodes on 4 DVDs. So take a step back 50 years and get your kicks on Route 66.

As a kid I fondly recall going to sleep at night to strains of Stravinsky drifting up from the living room. My dad loved classical music, but when New Year’s Eve came around it was Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians who brought us into the New Year with their legendary, clarinet-laden rendition of Auld Lang Syne. In fact when they could, my dad and mom would celebrate their wedding anniversary with a weekend at New York's Roosevelt Hotel, where Guy had a longstanding gig.

Big band, and especially Swing music, dominated the American music scene from the 1930’s and into the 50’s. Band leaders like Count Basie, Les Brown, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, and Paul Whiteman are American music legends. Their music is still popular and you’ll find many of their original recordings in the Nashua Public Library’s extensive CD collection of big band music.

While the Swing Era itself has long past, Big Band music as a subgenre of Jazz lives on. Today’s Big Bands perform both the standards from by-gone days as well as some new and exciting arrangements.

The 20-piece Compaq Big Band (formerly the DECbigband) is locally well-known. They’ve performed at the Nashua Public Library several times and appear throughout New England and beyond. They are best heard live, and you can find future performances and signup for their mailing list online.

Here are some more wonderful bands and recordings you might give a listen to:

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society is decidedly modern. Check out their Infernal Machines recording.

Carla Bley is an exciting jazz composer and arranger. Listen to Carla and Her Remarkable Big Band's Appearing Nightly CD.

The Phil Collins Big Band was the pop musician's venture into realm of big band and swing. The CD is called A Hot Night in Paris and it's quite entertaining. Thank you, Phil.

Harry Connick Jr., one of today's most popular standards vocalists, appears with his Big Band on a couple of CDs you can borrow.

Bob Curnow, a veteran of Stan Kenton's Orchestra recorded the phenomenal CD The Music of Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays with his L.A. Big Band. First Circle is a particularly beautiful piece from that recording.

Eternal Licks & Grooves by The Bob Florence Limited Edition showcases top players in big band arrangements by veteran jazz composer Bob Florence.

Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band features original arrangements and some extremely talented solo performers including trumpeter Wayne Bergeron. Check out The Phat Pack recording.

Bassist Dave Holland extends his music with a big band sound in What Goes Around by The Dave Holland Big Band.

Once More - With Feeling by Doc Severinsen & the Tonight Show Band with guest performers Wynton Marsalis and Tony Bennett will take you back a few years.

Finally, try some fresh, "out of this world" arrangements by the The Jim Widner Big Band on their Out of this World CD.

As for Guy, we have a few selections on several CDs, but alas, the CD containing Auld Lang Syne is checked out this New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year!