Giving Thanks: 2014 Edition

As we approach Thanksgiving Day, your friendly neighborhood Library bloggers are here to tell you what they're most thankful for this year ...



TRACY'S PICKS: 

-- Orphan Black (BBC America)

Just what I needed -- another television show to obsess about. But once I got into it, there was no turning back for me with Orphan Black. This Canadian-produced show became a huge hit for BBC America in the spring of 2013. Actress Tatiana Maslany stars as Sarah, a street-wise single mother desperately attempting to get her act together so she can get her daughter back. She discovers that she is not as alone as she thought she was. After witnessing the suicide of Beth, a woman who looks exactly like her, Sarah finds that she is one of many clones who have been placed with a variety of families. And now, someone is trying to kill them off, one by one.

The show can be a little out there at times, but the heart of the show is about families and relationships. First off is Sarah's relationship with her daughter, Kira, and her foster brother, Felix. And then there are the other clones, each one more unique than the last. From hippy scientist Cosima to control freak Allison to trained assassin Helena, television has never really seen the likes of them before. The most amazing part of the show is the fact that Ms. Maslany plays every one of the clones. Sometimes it's easy to forget that they are not different actresses playing these parts. She is truly amazing.

So, for this wild and never-boring show, I am very thankful!

Click here to request Season One and Two of Orphan Black from the Catalog



-- The Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack

Guardians of the Galaxy was a lot of fun, but far from the best superhero film I've ever seen. However, I absolutely LOVED the soundtrack! These are the songs of my youth. I was pleasantly surprised throughout the entire movie with 70s hit after 70s hit blaring throughout the theater.

Listening to the soundtrack makes me so happy and takes me back to a much simpler time in my life, when all I had to worry about was whether I wanted to go out and play, watch TV or listen to 13Q on my brand-new clock radio. For the past several months, this has been my go-to music to cheer me up, help me to clean my house and to just pass the time.

My favorites are Come and Get Your Love by Redbone, Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede, Fooled Around and Fell in Love by Elvin Bishop and I Want You Back by the Jackson 5.

For these songs, and the whole soundtrack, I am truly thankful.

Click here to request Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 from the Catalog



-- Comic Books

This past year, I rediscovered my love of comic books. Not that I was ever a huge fan of the genre, but as a kid, and even into my teens, there were several comic books that I liked. Of course, I loved to read just about anything, so it's really no surprise that the stories were more important to me than the artwork. While I can't remember every comic book that I read, I know that I liked a wide variety of them. One of my favorites as a teen was The Fantastic Four.

Now I'm mostly reading comic books with characters I already know from television shows (Doctor Who, The X Files, Sleepy Hollow). I've also been reading graphic novels like Snowpiercer by Jacques Lob, The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman and The Intergalactic Nemesis by Jason Neulander.

For rediscovering my love of comic books, I am thankful.

Click here to request The X-Files Season 10 from the Catalog



-- Honorable Mention: The Phryne Fisher Series by Kerry Greenwood

For finding a new mystery series to check out, I am thankful! Thanks, Ms. B!

Read Ms. B's review of this series here.




MS. B'S PICKS:

-- Interstellar (Directed by Christopher Nolan)

When I heard that Christopher Nolan -- one of my favorite filmmakers -- was doing a movie about space travel, I could not have been more excited. So when I say Interstellar exceeded my wildest expectations, that is no mean feat.

There's no need to spoil the plot; I've found that Nolan movies are at their most effective when the story beats and plot twists come as a surprise. What I can tell you is that, as a lifelong enthusiast for all things related to astronomy and space travel, watching Interstellar on an IMAX screen was the emotional equivalent of buying a first-class ticket on board the next space shuttle. This was the first film that made me feel just how overpoweringly vast, immensely lonely, and awesomely mind-bending space really is. The alien worlds were more alien, the cost to visit them more extreme. It makes for a story that feels like a true window into the possibilities of uncharted territory -- along with a great set of characters, a crackerjack plot, an emotional core that deeply resonates, and a fantastically sarcastic robot.

So, for a sci-fi film that gave my imagination a ride through the final frontier, I am truly thankful!

Click here to request the making-of book Interstellar -- Beyond Time and Space: Inside Christopher Nolan's Sci-Fi Epic by Mark Cotta Vaz from the Catalog

-- Eighteen Years of South Park

As often as not, I try to keep my affection for South Park under wraps. Convincing non-fans that this rude, crude, foul-mouthed, and all-around irreverent television show is anything more than its surface appearance can often prove something of a challenge.

But what started life as a rather simple animated television show (that is absolutely not intended for children) has grown into something more than a showcase for swear words and crude humor. Don't get me wrong; there's still plenty of that. But for years now, South Park has been used by its creators (Trey Parker and Matt Stone) to offer biting social commentary on a wide variety of issues --  politics, religion, freedom of speech, the environment, poverty, sexism, prejudice, and, at the core of it all, childhood.

South Park's continual ability to provide all that and more, while still telling good stories filled with irreverent humor, is an incredible feat. All the more stunning is their track record. As this year's eighteenth season continues, many of the episodes are on par with the best work Parker and Stone have ever done.

South Park can't last forever, but for now, it's going strong -- and, for that, I'm quite thankful!

Click here to request Season 17 of South Park from the Catalog



-- Loki: Agent of Asgard (by Al Ewing and Lee Garbett)

"You are your own worst enemy." The saying's a cliché for the best of reasons: it's so utterly true. For most of us, the person who holds us back from reaching our full potential is ourselves.

It's a concept that forms the backbone of the story being told in the pages of Marvel's new comic Loki: Agent of Asgard. If you've seen the Marvel movies, you already know that Loki is not only the kid brother of the heroic Thor -- he's also a jealous megalomaniac who is bent on conquest, revenge, and all your usual boilerplate bad-guy schemes.

... or at least, he used to be that guy. Now, after a rather complicated series of events, Loki finds himself on the path to redemption. He's got a fresh new outlook, and he's keen to do what he can to make up for his past ways. But there's a few problems along the way -- including an older version of Loki himself, traveling through time to lure this new and improved Loki back to his former ways.

It all makes for a unique, heartbreaking, and undeniably fun story that explores the struggle to keep the world from stuffing you into its own expectations of who you really are ... and what you have to do to find your own path to the truest version of yourself. It's a story that resonates with me more than any other comic I've ever read -- which, as a lifelong comics fan, is truly saying something.

With crackerjack writing and stunningly emotive artwork, it all makes me quite thankful for the Agent of Asgard.

Click here to request Loki: Agent of Asgard - Vol 1 from the Catalog



-- Honorable Mention: The Martian by Andy Weir

For introducing me to one of my new all-time favorite novels, I am thankful. Thanks, Tracy!

Read Tracy's review of The Martian here.

And, of course, Dancing Groot. Who isn't thankful for Dancing Groot?

-- Post by Tracy and Ms. B

The Sound of Movies

Whenever people ask me what sort of music I listen to, I never know how to answer. Because after Bon Jovi and the Monkees, the answer to my favorite type of music is: film scores.

I'm not talking about the soundtracks from musicals (though, admittedly, I'm a big fan of musicals, too). I'm also not talking about the kinds of albums that include a collection of pop songs that were featured in a film. I'm talking about the score of the movie itself: the background music that plays during the film. Such music -- which is largely instrumental -- probably makes up 50-60% of my CD collection (not to mention taking up the same amount of space on my iPod).

I think there's probably a few reasons why I'm such a fan of motion picture scores, as opposed to other type of music, but I think the biggest reason is this: I'm drawn to music that tells a story. A movie's score is an essential part of the viewing experience -- after the actors and the director, I think a film's composer probably has the biggest impact on the finished products. A movie's music can set the scene, highlight characterization, change a scene's mood, and invoke real emotion in the audience. And the best composers, I think, produce scores that strike the same emotional chords not just when you're watching the movie, but when you're listening to the music on its own.

If you've never listened to a movie score before, give it a try!  Here are a few of my favorite composers to get you started:

-- Danny Elfman

He's probably best known as director Tim Burton's go-to composer. But musician Danny Elfman crops up as the mind behind the music for a surprising number of well-known (and non-Burton) projects, including Good Will Hunting, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, Men in Black -- and the theme song for the TV show The Simpsons. 

Of course, Elfman's best-known work is his numerous collaborations with director Burton. To date, nearly all of Burton's films feature Elfman's music, including Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and -- my favorite -- the songs and score for the animated musical The Nightmare Before Christmas (for which Elfman also sang many of the songs). Elfman's punchy, catchy, slightly-offbeat melodies are perfect for Burton's weird and wild filmmaking, and it's hard to imagine Burton's movies without Elfman's music behind them.

Born in Texas in 1953, Elfman spent much of his childhood in L.A. but eventually moved to France, where he became a member of a theater group. He next spent some time in Africa, but came down with malaria and had to return to the states. At which point his brother, who had just completed a film called The Forbidden Zone, asked Danny to create the soundtrack. He put together a group of musicians for the job, and after the project was over, the group remained together as the band Oingo Boingo. One of the band's biggest fans was a young Tim Burton -- the rest is history.

Listen to a clip of Elfman singing from The Nightmare Before Christmas

-- Jerry Goldsmith

Any Trekkie is rather honor-bound to be a Jerry Goldsmith fan. Goldsmith scored the music for five of the Star Trek movies -- including the original, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. (The new theme Goldsmith came up with for The Motion Picture was so well-loved by show-creator Gene Roddenberry that it would be reused as the series theme song for Star Trek: The Next Generation.)

To me, many of Goldsmith's scores have a sweeping, epic, almost operatic quality (which makes him quite a fitting choice for a Star Trek composer!). One of my personal favorites is his score for First Knight, the 1995 movie starring Sean Connery as King Arthur. The film had its flaws, but the soundtrack was not one of them: it's rich and fresh-sounding themes make the music of "Camelot" come alive.

Jerry Goldsmith was born in Los Angles, California, in 1929. He first started his career as a clerk at CBS, but quickly moved on to work as a composer, first for radio, than television shows, then TV films and mini-series. His first film score came in 1957, for Black Patch -- and he went on to score over 180 films.

In addition to his work for Star Trek, he was influential in other areas of sci-fi as well, scoring such films as Planet of the Apes, Alien, and the Twilight Zone movie. But his work went well beyond the arena of sci-fi, and the films he scored included Patton, Chinatown, Under Fire, Total Recall, Medicine Man, Basic Instinct, Mulan, and The Omen -- the latter of which earned him an Academy Award. He passed away in 2004, at the age of 75.

Listen to the theme song from Star Trek: The Next Generation

-- Hans Zimmer

I wonder, sometimes, if Zimmer would still be my all-time favorite score composer if he hadn't happened to score several of my favorite films. Zimmer is behind the music for the Pirates of the Caribbean, Dark Knight, and Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes films -- the three movie franchises I happen to love best.

You don't have to be a fan of the films to appreciate his music, however. Nowhere is this more evident than in At World's End, the third film in the Pirates series. While many fans had a strong dislike of the movie (though I wasn't one of them!), the score was almost universally praised for its emotion, scope, and sweeping themes. Time after time, Zimmer creates scores that are as vast and varied as the movies he writes them for. Best of all, his music is catchy -- filled with thematic melodies that will stick with you long after the credits have finished rolling.

Zimmer was born in 1957 in Frankfurt, Germany. By age three, he had begun playing the piano; at six, he'd decided to become a composer. He moved to England in 1971, and started his music career writing commercial jingles. His first score was for the 1982 film Moonlighting, and his works include the music for Rain Man, Thelma and Louise, A League of Their Own, The Preacher's Wife, Gladiator, Pearl Harbor, Mission: Impossible 2, Hannibal, The Da Vinci Code, and countless others.

Listen to a clip from the score for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

-- John Williams

Star Wars. Richard Donner's Superman. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Indiana Jones. Jaws. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Jurassic Park. Harry Potter. It's easier to name the iconic musical themes that Williams hasn't written than to remember all the ones he has.

John Williams is responsible for creating most of the best-known, and most-loved, movie themes of the last thirty-odd years. The majestic looming of Darth Vader's Empire "march," the heroic fanfare of Superman's theme, the ominous two notes of the approaching shark in Jaws or the sweet five-note greeting of Close Encounters -- they're probably familiar to you even if you've never seen the film in question. His themes pop with mood and character, creating atmospheres of emotion unparalleled in film scoring.

Born in 1932, Williams is a New York City native. He worked as a jazz pianist in night clubs and Hollywood film studios, before he was contracted in the late 1950s by Revue Studios to write themes for television. His first film score was for the 1959 picture Daddy-O. Since then, he's written the scores for over a hundred movies, and has won Oscars, Grammys, Emmys, and Golden Globes.

Listen to a clip of the Star Wars theme

-- Post by Ms. B