Arts & Culture
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Seattle Rep’s ‘All the Way’ and the legacy of Lyndon Baines Johnson
by Andrea In 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson was launched into the presidency. In his Tony Award winner for Best Play, playwright Robert Schenkkan dramatizes Johnson’s first year in office. Creating a vivid portrait of a brilliant politician and flawed man, All the Way brings to life Johnson’s passionate engagement… Continue reading
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Movie Mondays: horror by hoopla
Don’t feel like waiting weeks or months in line for your favorite horror film on DVD? Have no fear, your fear is here. You can watch horror on demand on hoopla, the library’s streaming video service, without the wait. Continue reading
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Movie Mondays: Halloweird
I’m not a huge fan of scary movies for one very legitimate reason. They scare me. That can be difficult this time of year as Halloween draws ever closer and seemingly everyone I know is watching the creepiest, ickiest films imaginable. That’s not to say that I’m completely unable to get into the undead spirit… Continue reading
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Movie Mondays: Honoring Steve Martin
The American Film Institute is awarding its 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award to Steve Martin. Martin is a true renaissance man: author of books for children and adults, fiction and non-fiction; Grammy-winning bluegrass musician; hilarious guest star on Saturday Night Live and other television programs; but he’s primarily known for his contribution to film for nearly 40 years. You… Continue reading
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Movie Mondays: DVD DNA: Female Trouble Edition
One of the joys of whiling away one’s meaningless life watching movies comes from making connections between a certain film and pictures that came out years, even decades before it. In this new, occasional series we will track down the disparate elements that have influenced great films. Today’s subject: John Waters’ 1974 trash classic, Female… Continue reading
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Movie Mondays: Slow Burn Thrillers
Slow burn thrillers aren’t for everyone. They require patience, and some viewers find them boring. They don’t always provide answers, leaving viewers to infer what’s really going on. They’re often tense, dark and brooding. For me, it’s the character development and moral ambiguity that makes these worth the investment. Continue reading
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Movie Mondays: Writer Directors
Directors who pen their own screenplays are a dime a dozen. The Coen brothers write their own films as do Paul Thomas Anderson, Jia Zhangke, and Jim Jarmusch. And while there are a number of novelists who have tried their hand at directing, from Michael Crichton to Norman Mailer, few filmmakers have done the reverse… Continue reading
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Let off some steam
— Posted by Chelsea W. I don’t know about you guys, but I have been super stressed out lately. And, when this happens, I find it best to find a good album and turn up the music really LOUD and to LET IT ALL OUT. Here are three albums to help that help… Continue reading
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The Librarians, coming soon to a small screen near you
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Movie Mondays: Movies about Movies
Last week, we looked at pictures about pictures — films about art and artists — and this week we look at movies about movies – documentaries about individual films. These four documentaries — two about classic films and two about films that were never made — are required viewing for cinephiles. Continue reading
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Movie Mondays: Pictures about Pictures
Two critically acclaimed documentaries about art, Finding Vivian Maier and Tim’s Vermeer, have recently been released on DVD. The holds list for those titles is a bit long, so while you wait for your copy to come in feel free to check out these other fascinating documentaries about art and the lives of artists. Continue reading
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Movie Mondays: Workers’ Plights, Workers’ Rights
Last year, Movie Mondays honored the day with a post about workplace comedies. This year, let’s take a look at six serious films – three dramas, three documentaries – that look at the plight of laborers and the working class in the face of corporate excess. Continue reading
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Movie Mondays: Wrestling with Religion
2014 has been called the year of the Christian film. We’ve seen an adaptation of the beloved bestseller Heaven Is for Real; the surprise indie hit God’s Not Dead; Son of God, a feature film edited from the popular miniseries The Bible; the Christian family-friendly Moms’ Night Out; and the controversial biblical epic Noah. Not to mention the reboot of the Left Behind series starring Nicolas Cage and Ridley… Continue reading
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Three for Free: Guardians of the Galaxy edition
In this summer’s most enjoyable movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill (aka Star Lord) is an Earthling snatched away from his home as a child in the Eighties and thrown into a life of crime and adventure on faraway alien worlds. His only reminders of his life on Earth and his beloved mother are… Continue reading
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Movie Mondays: What’s So Funny about Sports?
I love comedies. I don’t love sports. But I do love the sports comedy sub-genre. These four films rise to the top of the ranks in my book (along with the best sports comedy ever, Caddyshack, which I’ve blogged about previously and will probably write about again). The Bad News Bears (1976) was a favorite of mine as… Continue reading