24 Frames per Second

In the month of May, many great DVD movies are coming to the Library. Reserve titles now using the Library's new Catalog. Highlights include big studio romantic comedies, New Years Eve, One for the Money, and This Means War. May is also a HUGE month for action and thrillers, with Haywire, Underworld: Awakening, The Grey, Chronicle, the Woman in Black, Red Tails, Man on a Ledge and Gone. Get a jump start ahead of the rest, and reserve these plus many more May DVD releases now!

Happy birthday to Charles Mingus, who would have officially become a nonagenarian this coming April 22, 2012 — a word I am certain he could have cleverly crafted into a title. And to celebrate one of the most unique and gifted voices in not just the jazz world, but, in my opinion, the whole of 20th century music, we are projecting on 16mm this wonderfully insightful film capturing Mingus at a very specific period in his life. A must see for all fans of Charles Mingus.

Over the weekend, I had my first experience visiting the Angelika Film Center to see Robbie Pickering's film Natural Selection. Pickering, a NYU film graduate, talked about his experiences with filming the movie in over just 18 days and directing a traditionally comedic actress (the film's dazzling lead, Rachel Harris) in a much more serious role.

The film got a lot of buzz at SXSW last year, so I was excited when I found out it would be playing in New York. I would recommend going to see the film at the Angelika while it's still playing there. If you are looking for some other independent film suggestions, here's a list of films and theaters that I've personally 

Do you enjoy Film Noir, Swedish mysteries, Agatha Christie, espionage thrillers, potboilers, or Sherlock Holmes? 

Mystery Summer promises to fill your summer months with Film Noir screenings, mystery book discussions, and more, all at the Mid-Manhattan Library!

There won't be too many new DVDs coming to the Library in April, but the ones we will get are really great! Reserve titles now using the Library's new catalog, BiblioCommons. Highlights include Academy Award Best Picture winner, The Artist; Best Picture nominee, War Horse; and the Iron Lady, starring Best Actress in a Leading Role, Meryl Streep. April also has big Hollywood thrillers, with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Contraband, and The Darkest Hour. There's also We Bought a Zoo, if that's your thing. Get a jump start ahead of the rest, and reserve these April DVD releases now!

Director Krzysztof Kieslowski, although best known for his Three Colors trilogy (Blue, White, and Red) and the French/Polish production Double Life of Véronique, produced the vast majority of his work in Communist-era Poland.

As a student at Lódz Film School, he was greatly influenced by Ken Loach's Kes, as well as works by fellow alumni Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Zanussi.

From 1990 through 1995, the television viewing public was obsessed with the goings on in Cicely, Alaska. Northern Exposure ruled the television airwaves. And while our airwaves were dominated by this quirky drama, on the show itself the airwaves were ruled by Chris Stevens and his KBHR radio show Chris in the Morning.

Martin Scorsese has had a quite a run these past two months, with 11 Oscar nominations (four wins) for his film Hugo and a Golden Globe win for the Best Director category, to name just a few. So let's raise another toast (in the spirit of the Bridesmaids' SAG award presentation) to the man who gave us so much great Lower East Side imagery by screening one of his earliest films, Italianamerican. This 1974 documentary, made between Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and his landmark film Taxi Driver, finds Scorsese interviewing his parents in their Elizabeth Street apartment about their 

Updated February 2012! Do the names Lord Grantham, Mr. Carson, and Lady Violet mean anything to you? Can you discuss at length the love story of Mary and Matthew? Does the word week-end, bring to mind Maggie Smith’s impeccably-timed line delivery? If so, then you are a Downton-ite... or is it Downton-head? Whatever the case may be, it means that you are a fan of the ITV/Masterpiece Theater drama Downton Abbey. First airing on PBS in January 2011, this British series depicts life (upstairs and downstairs) in an English manor house belonging to Lord Grantham and his family, from 1912 to 1920. It was a surprise hit in the U.K. and in 

You might remember my original list, which will always be available here. 
 

This revised list will be easier to follow and, like my previous list, it will be updated as books appear in new episodes. Details on literary references will continue in the comments field. As mentioned in my original blog post, some of the books on the list are featured more prominently in the series than others, but all are a great way to gain insight into the episodes and the social and cultural times in which the series is set.

Jefferson Market Library, in an effort to offer substantive courses that teach the subjects you want to learn, is thrilled to offer its Spring Semester! Each course offers multiple sessions so students can build their knowledge as the course advances, class by class, guided by an experienced professor! And it's all free! Take a look:

Looking back, the DVDs that came to the Library in February were kind of crummy, but man, in the month of March, the DVD movies coming to the Library are great. Reserve titles now using the Library's new BiblioCommons catalog.

Well, Yudie is not exactly a Bubbie, but I simply could not resist the alliteration. (Although, Tante and the Beats would make an excellent band name, don't you think?)

This month's Lower East Side Heritage Film Series (LESHFS) pairs the seemingly improvised storytelling of the Beat Generation with the candid and (seemingly) unrehearsed historytelling of a first generation American to Russian-Jewish parents that landed in the Lower East Side.

Werner Herzog's singular, uncompromising career in filmmaking spans over four decades and has included feature films, documentaries, and even two works (Little Dieter Needs to Fly and Rescue Dawn) that offer, respectively, a nonfiction and fictional retelling of the same event.

Regardless of genre, each of his films seems preoccupied with the place of humans within the natural world and the instability of both fiction and reality. Herzog strives for a concept he has termed "ecstatic truth," which is "mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and sylization." (Herzog on Herzog, p. 

In the month of February, many great DVD movies are coming to the Library. Reserve titles now using the Library's new BiblioCommons catalog. Highlights include remnants of the waning teen glistening vampire craze, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part I. Harold, Kumar, White Castle burgers, and Christmas Adventure? Count me in. And the world has been asking for a Johnny English sequel for what feels like an eternity. There are way better DVDs than these on our BiblioCommons list, so get a jump start ahead of the rest, and reserve these February DVD releases now!

If you haven't experienced, or perhaps even heard about, ReelAbilities, this may be the year to discover this unique festival, which is a film festival, but also so much more.

[Today's guest blogger is brought to you courtesy of E. C. Comics Tales From the Crypt.]

Hello, kiddies!

Welcome to The New York Public Li-bury!

Heh-heh-heh!

Surprised to find me as your guest flogger? I suppose, if you looked hard enough, you'd find all sorts of things buried in the Library's hacks. "But can he write?" you ask. Well, I am good at de-composing!

I am a librarian. I like things to be in order. I like things to be complete, but I have been troubled for the past year. You see, Sally Draper was shown reading a book in Mad Men season four, episode five ("The Chrysanthemum and the Sword"), and I could not for the life of me figure out what that book was. The Mad Men Reading List was incomplete and, as a librarian, that troubled me to my core. I made screen captures to get an image of the illustration. I checked the promotional still from AMC's website to get an image of the cover. I pushed pixels to make the images clearer. I searched Google for hours with no luck.

It is the beginning of a new calendar year.
A time for reflection.
A time for resolution.
A time for hope.

In this next installment of the Lower East Side Heritage Film Series, we celebrate and reflect on the rebirth of a derelict East Sixth Street tenement building in Alphabet City. Producer and director Josephine Hayes Dean documents the toils and tribulations of its future residents into something that would become a home for their hopes and dreams.