O-Bon Festival, Japan (August 13-15, 2007)

O-bon (or Obon) is the Japanese "Festival of the Dead ... when the dead revisit the earth, according to Japanese Buddhist belief. Throughout Japan, in either July or August, depending on the area, religious rites and family reunions are held in memory of the dead." (Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary)

In honor of O-bon, listen to some Japanese music or watch some Japanese movies. We have classic films by Akira Kurosawa, such as Rashomon where the nature of truth and subjective reality are probed in a series of flashbacks from four viewpoints of a man's murder and the rape of his wife by a bandit in 11th century Japan. Or try a more recent movie by Hirokazu Koreeda, like After Life, a fantasy in which the newly deceased find themselves in a way station somewhere between Heaven and Earth. With the help of dedicated caseworkers, each soul is given three days to choose one cherished memory from his or her life to relive for eternity.

If you're into anime, we have lots of great Japanese animation ranging from the Matrix-like Ghost in the Shell to Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haku), the moving story of two orphans during World War II, to the work of Academy Award-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki.

We also have a variety of movies set in Japan, including the French film Hiroshima Mon Amour, in which a Japanese architect and a French actress engage in a brief, intense affair in Hiroshima as they attempt to deal with their personal memories of World War II or Lost in Translation about the unusual friendship that springs up between a middle-aged actor and the wife of a photographer in a Tokyo hotel bar. For action and sword-fighting, try The Last Samurai or Zatoichi. If you're looking for laughs, check out Tom Selleck in Mr. Baseball.

Or use the Mega Media Finder to try some of our other media materials about Japan, including:

• Non-fiction videos


• Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire is a PBS program that looks at the role of the samurai, the shogun, and geishas in Tokugawa Japan.


• Yukio Mishima: Samurai Writer presents a portrait of the author as novelist, playwright, actor, and patriot of the extreme right, torn between Japanese tradition and westernization


• Our Hiroshima combines the eyewitness account of Setsuko Nakamuro Thurlow, a campaigner for peace who was 13 when the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima, with rare archival footage taken before and after the bombing


• Toshiko Takaezu presents an introduction to the art and life of internationally-acclaimed potter Toshiko Takaezu, who creates work in the form of both functional and sculptural ceramics


• Schools of Thought: Teaching Children in America and Japan looks at efforts in both the United States and Japan to balance creativity and discipline in education.


• Three-dimensional artifacts, including kimonos and other clothing, dolls, musical instruments, an abacus, and a calligraphy set


• Pictures, including many of various Japanese matsuri or festivals

Or use the Fiction & Literature Media Finder and select by original language or setting to read some:

• Adult fiction originally in Japanese


• Adult fiction set in Japan


• Children's stories set in Japan


• Japanese folk tales


• Japanese drama, including noh and kabuki, or check out this DVD of The Lovers' Exile, the Bunraku Puppet Theatre of Japan's adaptation of the famous playwright Chikamatsu's Meido no Hikyaku (The Courier for Hell)

If your knowledge of kanji is better than mine, you might even want to try some literature in the original Japanese.

Staff Picks: Music Collection (April 2007)

Aaron:

Here are my top 5 in no particular order.

• Bernard Herrmann: The Day the Earth Stood Still (CD 15779)


• Franz Waxman: Bride of Frankenstein (CD 16619)

The Day the Earth Stood Still and Bride of Frankenstein are two film scores that still inspire me to this day.


• Brain in a Box (CD 11661): Brain In A Box is a fantastic collection of sci-fi/horror movie and television themes packaged with horror and sci-fi themed rock/pop music and lounge music. It contains so many classics that I love from the golden age of horror.


• Surfin’ Hits (CD 10953): Surfin’ Hits is yet another compilation of some of the most favored acts in classic surf music. It is great music from an era when cars looked like rocket ships and horror movies were at some of their best!


• Björk: Vespertine (CD 15094): Björk’s album Vespertine is a great mix of her more accessible music paired with her more experimental leanings.

All five albums are very different, but all are fantastic music that has a spirit all their own.


Cheryl:

• Les Misérables (CD 5807, can be paired with Ed Res VHS 2657 [the 1935 film adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel]): made a wondrous impact on modern culture with beautiful heart wrenching ballads. My favorite is "On My Own."


• HITCHCOCK Master of Mayhem, conducted by Lalo Schifrin (CD 7218): wide variety of musical styles, uses music to influence the atmosphere and storylines in his amazing films! [More Hitchcock soundtracks]


• Ray Original Motion Picture Score (CD 16391, can be paired with the movie, Ed Res DVD 1391): beautifully arranged and composed by Craig Armstrong. Each intense recording illustrates a picture of what it was like to live in Ray Charles’ shoes, I feel as though I am right there as I listen.


• Dan Fogelberg: Greatest Hits (CD 7741): A soulful blend of 70's and early 80's heartfelt vocal harmonies, my favorite is "Same Old Lang Syne."


• A Perfect Circle: Mer de Noms (CD 12815): My alternative rock selection, great to listen to in your car on the way to work or when you are just chillin' at home!


• The Breakfast Club Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (CD 10843, can be paired with the movie, Ed Res DVD 1305): This brings me back to good ole 1985!! It’s a must have!


• Michael Bublé (CD 16088): Very much like a young Sinatra, Bublé is an unbelievable big band/jazz singer, It's Time features covers of the Beatles and Ray Charles songs. The song "Home" leaves me smiling; his voice is soothing and warm. Perfect for all ages!!!


• Walk The Line Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (CD 16090, can be paired with the movie, Ed Res DVD 2182): The story of the musical legend Johnny Cash, enough said!


• A Charlie Brown Christmas (CD 15397, can be paired with the TV special, Ed Res VHS 11129): Christmas in the Spring! This soundtrack recording of the CBS television special brings everyone's inner child to life!

Jason:

Some of the box sets would be good to recommend. Most of the ones with interesting boxes or extended guides are popular music but there are a few classical ones. Here are some examples:

• Eternal Chant (CD 9624)


• The Velvet Underground: Peel Slowly and See (CD 12302)


• Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the 80's Underground (CD 15484)


• Ken Burns Jazz (CD 16746)


• Johnny Cash: The Legend (CD 16419)


• Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime (CD 16017)

These are all from different genres but the artwork and information in the box add a bit of history and interest to the CDs


Keith:

• Brahms: The Four Symphonies, Tragic Overture, Variations on a theme by Haydn. Performed by Kurt Sanderling and the Dresden Staatskapelle (CD 10720): Of the many recordings of these pieces, these are my favorites. Sanderling manages to combine attention to detail (many inner parts that are buried on other recordings are audible here) with a strong sense of line and steady forward motion. When these recordings were made in 1972, the Dresden Staatskapelle still had the sound typical of German orchestras earlier in the century. Now that orchestras all over the world sound increasingly alike, it's good to hear again the distinctive sound of this ensemble.


• Wagner: Die Meistersinger (CD 13638): Recorded commercially for Deutsche Grammophon in 1967, this recording was not released until the early 1990s. Whatever the reasons for the long delay, this is the most strongly cast recording of this opera: Thomas Stewart, Sandor Konya, Gundula Janowitz, Rafael Kubelik/Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.


• Dawn Upshaw sings Vernon Duke (CD 6482 or 8502): One of the forgotten composers of the American musical, Vernon Duke never had a long-running, hit show during his career, but many of his individual songs retain their appeal, as this collection demonstrates.


• Django Reinhardt: The Classic Early Recordings in Chronological Order (CD 11228): This 5 CD set documents the rise in the 1930s of Reinhardt, a great jazz guitarist, and his group, the Quintette du Hot Club de France, one of the first important jazz ensembles to develop outside the U.S. The group featured an unusual combination of violin, three guitars, and double bass.


• Dave Brubeck: Time Signatures, a Career Retrospective (CD 12929): This 4 CD set is a comprehensive overview of Brubeck's career from the 1940s to the early 1990s.

ANZAC Day, Australia + New Zealand (April 25, 2007)

"ANZAC Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day." (http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/anzac_tradition.htm)

To honor ANZAC Day, why not watch a film from Australia, like Rabbit-Proof Fence, which tells how, in 1931, three half-Aboriginal children from Western Australia, who had been taken from their mothers, set out on an epic journey home, traveling 1,500 miles on foot with no food or water as they followed the fence that has been build across the nation to stem an over-population of rabbits. You might also like Breaker Morant, in which an Australian soldier in 1901 South Africa during the Boer War is ordered to oversee the execution of a prisoner who turns out to be a German missionary and is court-martialed for it. The Proposition is an Australian Western set in the outback of the 1880s, where an outlaw is presented with an impossible proposition by local law enforcement.

Or watch a movie from New Zealand, such as Whale Rider, the story of Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal Maori tribe, who believes she is destined to be the new chief. And don't forget to check out the work of the famous kiwi director Peter Jackson.

Kick back with some music from Australia and New Zealand. Waltzing Matilda is the quintessential Australian song. We also have the children's book and a claymation short in which a chorus of animated clay animals from the Australian bush sing the famous Australian folk song.

From the Mega Media Finder, check out some pictures of Australia (click on zoology under categories to the right of the results to find lots of pictures of animals, like koalas, platypuses, or kangaroos) or New Zealand. We also have a few 3-dimensional artifacts, like these Maori dolls and these boomerangs.

Learn more about Australia or New Zealand from some non-fiction videos, like Aboriginal Art: Past, Present and Future and Te Maori: A Celebration of the People and their Art.

Looking for something to read? We have children's stories and adult fiction set in Australia, as well as children's stories and adult fiction set in New Zealand. Why not try something by Australian Nobel laureate Patrick White? Or something by the well-known author Katherine Mansfield, who was born in New Zealand.

Easter (April 8, 2007)

To prepare for Easter, listen to some passion music ("a musical setting of Jesus' sufferings and death as related by one of the four Evangelists"--The Harvard Dictionary of Music). You might like to try Johann Sebastian Bach's Matthäuspassion. The Software & Electronic Games Media Finder even turns up a CD-ROM that presents a complete performance of the Passion with interactive material on Bach, the work, and the performance. We also have Easter music and some other Holy Week music.

For a couple of films with very different perspectives on Christ's last days, try Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ and Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis). We also have some art and literature that focuses on Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection (or check out all of our adult fiction about the life of Jesus, ranging from Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt to D.H. Lawrence's The Man Who Died)

For a look at the popular culture side of Easter, try the video Easter to get some background on festivities and traditions associated with Easter. And who can forget It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown? We also have a few Easter-related pictures (mostly Easter eggs) and a few children's stories about Easter, some, such as The Easter Bunny That Overslept, featuring the infamous Easter Bunny.

Find Chamber Music by Instrumentation

The Chamber Music Media Finder will help you find scores and recordings for different instruments. You may wonder why we offer three types of searches: "exact instrumentation," "including these instruments," and "exactly X parts."

Well, most of the time, most people probably want "exact instrumentation." So if you want duets for flute and piano, you can easily select one flute and one piano and get just that. If you're looking just for scores, don't forgot to select scores under format in the upper right corner.

The other two options can be more helpful with less common instruments. For example, if you want to listen to shakuhachi music, you can choose "including these instruments," any number of shakuhachi (under other woodwinds) and recordings (under format) to get pieces that include any number of shakuhachi parts.

This "including these instruments" option also often works better if you want to include percussion in your search because the number of percussion parts in a given piece of music is not always fixed.

The "exactly X parts" option could be helpful in some cases. Say you play sax and you want to play a duet, but you don't know with whom yet. You could choose scores under format, exactly 2 parts including 1 saxophone, and get all the duets for saxophone and something else without having to specify the other instrument.