The gang at the Pint & Click Podcast are back! Dave, Jami and Tony have released their first two episodes of 2017, featuring some recommendations (and non-recommendations) of the latest books, movies and media. Have a listen below, or subscribe on iTunes here.
On this episode, Dave, Tony and Jami vent some of their disappointments and frustrations about the Kindle Fire tablet, the extended Harry Potter universe (essentially, any supplemental material released by J.K. Rowling outside of the original seven novels), and the blockbuster films The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Terminator Genisys (2015).
No matter what party lines you fall on, this past election year has been an exhausting one. The country feels anxious, angry and divided, and it can be overwhelming to think about where we go from here.
But it’s important not to lose sight of the simple things we can encourage in our children: compassion, empathy, inclusion, involvement, and kindness.
Here, in Youth Services, we try and find ways to embody these traits every day. One of the things staff love most about our library is that everyone is always welcome. On any given day, you can find children and families of all different beliefs and backgrounds, together, making our community strong.
It's hard to believe that it's already been one year since David Bowie left this world. His contributions to the world of popular music are incalculable, to say nothing of his impact as a style icon. But among the various larger-than-life personas that Bowie assumed throughout his career (Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke, Jareth the Goblin King), you can add one more: bibliophile.
It's true - the Starman himself was a regular bookworm, just like us! When Vanity Fair asked Bowie to complete the famous Proust Questionnaire in 1998, his answer to the first question, "What is your idea of perfect happiness?" was succinct: "Reading." And to prove this point, in 2013 he compiled and published on his official website a list of his 100 favorite books, along with the suggestion that dedicated fans could start a Bowie Book Club. His choices were unsurprisingly eclectic, ranging from poetry to sociology to comic books, and spanning the 8th century BC (Homer's The Iliad) up through 2008 (Susan Jacoby's The Age Of American Unreason).
Although several of the titles that he chose are no longer in print, plenty of these books are available to be checked out at DPPL today. Any one of the six books listed below would be a fine introduction to a proverbial Bowie Book Club, as they all deal with themes and topics central to some of Bowie's finest music. (And if you're unfamiliar with the man's work, the recent double-CD compilation Nothing Has Changed is a fine primer.)
This show follows the search of a boy who goes missing and how that affects his family, friends, and the small town where he lives. While the search is taking place, a strange girl appears with no name or past history that she can recall, but ever since she has appeared, strange things keep happening.
It is reminiscient of 1980s sci-fi/horror classics paying homage to "E.T.," "Poltergeist" and the novels of Stephen King.
This show is fantastic and worth all the hype it has gained!
This is a movie about a boy who starts a band to impress a girl. The girl is a model and he knows that the only way he can talk to her is to get her to star in a music video for his band. There's one small problem, however... he doesn't have a band.
I know the premise is pretty cliche, but it is a very cute movie. The setting of the film takes place in Ireland during the 80s. Right around the time that bands like Duran Duran were creating music videos for their songs. The music is catchy and the music videos are hysterical! Definitely worth checking out!
The series centers on the Belchers—parents Bob and Linda, and their children Tina, Gene, and Louise—who run a hamburger restaurant. The family is a little eccentric and they always seem to get into some interesting shenanigans.
One of my favorite things about the series is how much Bob as well as the writers of the show enjoy puns. Every episode has a new clever burger of the day such as the "Silentil Night Burger" or newly opened business next door such as "Annie Get Your Gum"
Black Mirror
Black Mirror is a British television series that features episodes having to do with dark and satirical themes focusing on modern society, particularly with regard to the unanticipated consequences of new technologies.
It's almost like a modern day Twilight Zone. This show is riveting and enthralling, but I do not recommend watching more than three episodes at a time. It can mess with your mind.
This ABC board book is written and illustrated for families who want their kids to grow up in a space that is unapologetic about everything that activists believe in and fight for.
When Ms. Albert teaches a lesson on kindness, Chloe realizes that she and her friends have been wrong in making fun of new student Maya's shabby clothes and refusing to play with her.
In this letter to his daughters, President Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaking Americans and the ideals that have shaped our nation.
The kids on the rival team tease Mo for being a 'butterfingers' who's too tiny to catch the ball. But Mo's coach has a plan up his sleeve to turn Mo's little size into a big win for their team.
"A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess. Anthony Burgess's violent, dystopian vision had a profound influence on Bowie, as did Stanley Kubrick's iconic film adaptation of the book. According to Bowie, "the inset photographs of the inside sleeve for Ziggy owed a lot to the Malcolm McDowell look from the poster," and Burgess's invented language of Nadsat (a mixture of Russian words and English slang) crops up in both the classic Ziggy Stardust single "Suffragette City" and one of Bowie's final songs, "Girl Loves Me" from Blackstar.
"Vile Bodies" by Evelyn Waugh. Evelyn Waugh's second novel made an impression on Bowie as he read it during his first American tour. He described the book as "[dealing] with London in the period just before a massive, imaginary war. People were frivolous, decadent and silly, and suddenly they were plunged into this horrendous holocaust. They were totally out of place, still thinking about champagne and parties and dressing up. Somehow it seemed to me that they were like people today." This insight provided the inspiration for the title track of 1973's Aladdin Sane.
"1984" by George Orwell. Another dystopian classic, 1984 remains a chilling warning on the dangers of totalitarianism, even as many of the book's concepts such as Big Brother, the Thought Police and doublethink have passed into common parlance. The book served as the inspiration for a never-realized musical with bespoke songs contributed by Bowie. When Sonia Orwell (George's widow) denied permission to the producers, three of the tunes written for the project ("We Are The Dead," "Big Brother" and "1984") appeared on his 1974 record Diamond Dogs.
"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. Bowie was fascinated by the many dualities of the United States. As far back as his response to his first American fan letter in 1967, he was musing about the realism of film portrayals of America being broadcast in England, and this dichotomy later became a theme in such songs as "Young Americans," "This Is Not America" and "I'm Afraid Of Americans." So it isn't surprising that he recommended Howard Zinn's exhaustive and controversial account of American history, which offers a perspective that differs considerably from traditional textbooks by giving marginalized and oppressed voices a primary role in the narrative.
"Mystery Train" by Greil Marcus. Subtitled "Images of America in Rock 'N' Roll Music," Marcus's 1975 tome collects six essays reflecting upon the impact of six seminal musicans on American culture at large. The concluding essay, "Presliad," remains one of most insightful writings about Elvis Presley, who David Bowie once called "a major hero of mine ... I was probably stupid enough to believe that having the same birthday as him actually meant something."
"The Waste Land" by T. S. Eliot. Although Bowie demurred when William S. Burroughs called his writing "very reminiscent of The Waste Land" during a 1973 meeting, Eliot's style, which features allusions to both high-brow and low-brow past texts and abrupt shifts of tone, sets a direct precedent for such genre-bending albums as Hunky Dory. Eliot once famously wrote that "immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different." You would be hard pressed to find a rock musician that embodies this description of a "good poet" better than David Bowie.
