Bohemian Muppody

Last week (Nov. 24) was the anniversary of the death of Freddie Mercury, frontman for the rock band Queen. Coincidentally, the Muppets have just released their own video tribute to the popular song “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Enjoy…

You can hear the original song on numerous CDs, including this one. Also, check out the graphic novel Freddie & Me!

– John

New Moon Mania!

The whole world knows that the New Moon movie is coming out on November 20.  Many of you are probably rereading the book before you see the film.  If you love the Twilight Saga, check out these juicy paranormal read-alikes:

 Need by Carrie Jones: A group of werewolves threatens the safety of a small Maine town.

Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz: Half human, half vampire, Schuyler Van Allen must discover her place in vampire high society.

Evernight by Claudia Gray: Bianca Olivier leaves behind everything she knows when her parents become teachers at a paranormal boarding school. 

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead: At a school deep in the Montana woods, Rose Hathaway must fight with everything she has to protect her best friend, a vampire princess named Lissa.

Evermore by Allison Noel: Ever can read people’s thoughts, until she meets the mysterious Damen, who hides a deep secret even Ever cannot discover.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater: Grace has always loved the wolf who lives in her woods, but she never thought she’d meet him in person.

 

P.S. Don’t forget New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion and the official soundtrack CD!

– Liz

Help the Mason Library NAME THAT TUNE!

In a tribute to the classic game show, the Mason Library Teen Activity Club is having a special NAME THAT TUNE event, on Thursday, May 28 from 4-5 PM! Area teens are invited to come and test their music knowledge skills — how fast can YOU identify popular songs? We’ll have prizes and refreshments.

But first, we need your help! If you have any suggestions for songs we should use in the contest, post them below! Who knows … if we use your suggestion, you just might have an advantage!

Boldly go…

Star Trek has always had something of a “geek” image, despite the pop culture appeal of characters like Mr. Spock, and catchphrases like “Beam me up, Scotty.” There’s certainly no denying that Trek seemed on its last legs just a few years ago. The final movies and TV series became less and less successful, leading many to declare that Star Trek was dead.

But that was before J.J. Abrams (creater of Alias, Lost and Fringe) and his partners Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (Transformers) came along. Their new Star Trek movie, which tells the story of how Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty, etc. first got together, is getting amazing reviews (it’s 95% fresh at RottenTomatoes) and breaking records at the box office (it’s already the most financially successful Trek film of all time).

You can celebrate the phenomenon by checking out the many great tie-in products available at CADL! First, there’s the comic prequel, Star Trek: Countdown. Then read the novelization by renowned Sci-Fi author Alan Dean Foster (he ghost-wrote the novelization of the original Star Wars, among many, many others) — also available as an audiobook. Finally, there’s the CD soundtrack, featuring the exciting and emotional music of Michael Giacchino.

And of course, all six Star Trek TV series (The Original Series, The Animated Adventures, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise) and all ten previous movies (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX & X) are still available … not to mention all the other CDs and novels that have been published over the years! A good starting point might be the new Star Trek Motion Picture Trilogy on DVD and Blu-Ray, featuring newly remastered versions of films II-IV (that’s the one with Khan through the one with the whales).

So happy Trekking! And if you have a reaction to/review of the new film for us, please post it below!

Literature and Lyrics Contest

We’re looking for a musical act good enough to play at Lansing’s premiere summer event.

It’s our first Literature and Lyrics Contest, where one lucky Lansing area singer, rapper, musician or group will be chosen to perform at the Common Ground Music Festival.  Afterward, the performance will be available at our Web site for downloading.  Submissions will be accepted March 16-April 17. Download rules and registration forms here. Email questions to connect@cadl.org.

e-Media Downloads Electronic books, audiobooks and video are now available 24/7 with your Internet connection and a Capital Area District Library card.

Summer Blockbuster Edition: DARK KNIGHT vs. BIG RED

Two furious-fisted comic book heroes are duking it out at the box office this summer!

In corner one, we have Hellboy, star of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, from creator Mike Mignola and director Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth). Hellboy’s tale began with the graphic novel Seed of Destruction. The most recent volume, number eight, is Darkness Calls. The Weird Tales and B.P.R.D. series expand Hellboy’s universe, and there’s also an impressively huge art book called (surprise, surprise) The Art of Hellboy.

In corner two, we have the Batman, star of The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins). In addition to the novelization by bat-scribe Dennis O’Neil, we’ve got enough Batman-related books to fill multiple bat-caves! The Dark Knight Archives are perfect for anyone who wants to see how Batman really began … but if the film left you in the mood for more Joker, try Batman: Secrets or No Man’s Land, Vol. 5. You can also check out Batman: Faces, for a great Two-Face story.

Still hungry for more movie-related multimedia? You can investigate The X-Files with Mulder and Scully, groove out to the Mamma Mia! soundtrack, keep an eye on the Watchmen, learn to draw Wall-E, raid the Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, or even take a Journey to the Center of the Earth.

It’s all here at your local CADL location!

What are you enjoying?

Books, movies, music and everything else!

Another month, another all-purpose blog entry! This is your opportunity to share with us the books, movies and/or music you’ve been enjoying recently.

In the book department, I’ve been enjoying a slew of titles, from Stephen King’s latest, Duma Key; to the period mystery Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades, starring the legendary curmudgeon and author of The Devil’s Dictionary; to Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, a dark fantasy about a young girl who finds herself in a mirror world filled with fantasies and horrors — a phantasmagorical feast for the imagination!

But the book at the top of my list right now is Pearl S. Buck’s classic, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Good Earth. It tells the tale of Wang Lung, a poor farmer, and his family as they struggle to survive and ascend in social status in pre–revolutionary China. It’s an incredibly compelling read, vividly realistic, informed by Buck’s own experience as a daughter of missionaries living abroad. Not difficult to read or overly long, it’s also a great candidate for book reports! (And if, by chance, you’ve already read The Good Earth, you may be interested to know that Buck wrote two sequels continuing the family saga: Sons andA House Divided.)

As for multimedia: as a movie music buff, I’ve been enjoying the delightful and energetic Pixar film scores of Michael Giacchino (The Incredibles, Ratatouille). A rising star in the industry, Giacchino also wrote the music for J.J. Abrams’ Alias, Lost, M:I:III the recent Cloverfield (yes, we have a waiting list for the DVD already!) and the forthcoming Star Trek relaunch movie (Summer, 2009).

How about you? What have you been enjoying lately?

What Are You Enjoying?

What are you enjoying?

One of the reasons for creating this blog is to provide a place for people to discuss all the assorted types of media that they enjoy. To accomplish that I am going to ask you every month or two about what you have enjoyed recently. So, please use the comments to share your thoughts on the best experience you have had recently with a book, movie, music, game, etc… I will lead us off.

I am currently reading The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and I absolutely love it. It is about a twelve year old boy named Percy Jackson who has bounced around from school to school, and is worried he might be expelled from his current school. What Percy soon realizes is that there is a reason for all of his previous troubles. It turns out that Percy is a Hero, and by Hero I mean one of his parents is a God, one of the 12 ancient Greek gods that is. This story has a ton of action and reminds me of a mixture of Harry Potter and Homers Odyssey. If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, or of the Pendragon series you would most likely love this book.

I have also been listening to two relatively new albums lately, and I would recommend both of them. The first one is called Challengers, by The New Pornographers. The New Pornographers are a Canadian indie band. You may well have heard of Neko Case, one of the band members who has done a lot of her own stuff as well. This new album is great and seems to be getting a lot of national attention, as I first heard some of it on NPR. The second album I would recommend is Chase This Light by Jimmy Eat World. Jimmy Eat World is often considered one of the early greats of the Emo movement and they were one of the first bands to release an Emo album on a major label. This new album does not disappoint, especially if you have enjoyed any of their early music, as it reminds me a lot Clarity, their well known 1999 release.

So, how about you? What have you enjoyed recently?