UW Libraries Media Center Blog

New(ish) DVDs, CDS, and VHS tapes!

2009-11-18T13:10:00.001-08:00

Our belated new arrival DVD/CD/VHS lists are now online and ready for browsing. What's in store for you? Battle in Seattle, Double indemnity, WWII : a filmed history from the National Archives, Dolphins : the wild side, The great American bailout (the 1991 S&L bailout), International sad hits. Volume one, Altaic language group and Are you swimming in a sewer?

Don’t Burn It - Film and Discussion, November 10

2009-11-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

Ðừng Ðốt (Don’t Burn It), Film and Discussion, November 10
The UW Libraries and the Southeast Asian Studies Center Present Ðừng Ðốt (Don’t Burn It), a film in Vietnamese with English subtitles, followed by discussion, November 10, 4.30 pm Odegaard Undergraduate Library, Room 220. Directed by pre-eminent Vietnamese film maker Ðặng Nhật Minh, the film is based on the published diary of Dr Đặng Thùy Trâm. The diary became a best-seller in Vietnam, published as Nhật kỳ Đặng Thùy Trâm, and has been much acclaimed in translation as Last Night I Dreamed of Peace. (more)

Films to consider for November

2009-11-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

It's November! As no one is acclimated to the cold yet, November means abuse of the thermostat and Snuggies (am i right?), both very conducive to watching movies. Equally accommodating is the four day Thanksgiving Break we get in November. While I love the opportunity to feast on delicious fall foods and spend time with friends and family, it's important to remember what the Thanksgiving story represents for many people. Why not bring a film home for Thanksgiving from this DVD series titled Journal Of The First Americans, or one from the Before Columbus series? These are just a teeny tiny sampling of the educational films we have about contemporary Native American issues and historical colonization. Learn some things!

Happy Audiovisual Heritage Day!

2009-10-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

Audiovisual materials--audio recordings, videos, films--embody a wealth of information and represent a vast swath of 20th of 21st century cultural heritage. Unfortunately, these documents are also by their very nature unstable and prone to obsolescence (did you know that the life expectancy of a DVD is about 30 years IF stored under ideal conditions?).

Today--UNESCO's fourth annual AV Heritage Day--is meant to raise awareness about the importance of audiovisual recordings and the dire need to preserve them.

Are you interested in making sure that UW's audiovisual materials will be preserved for the long haul? If so, let us know! By working together we can make it happen.

About AV Heritage Day: "In 2005 UNESCO's General Conference proclaimed 27 October as World Day for Audiovisual Heritage to raise awareness of the importance of audiovisual documents as integral part of national identities and draw attention to the urgent need to protect them. Every year activities are organized around a theme agreed upon by CCAAA; this year’s theme will be "Fading heritage - we can save it".

Audiovisual heritage comprises all forms of moving images and recorded sounds, regardless of the means of creation, preservation or delivery. It also includes associated information, documents, objects, artifacts and technology, and graphical material selected in its own right. Such heritage expresses a nation as a place and people and considered to be most characteristic of the 20th and 21st centuries. Its cultural influence and informational content are immense, and rapidly increasing.

Transcending language and cultural boundaries, appealing immediately to the eye and the ear, to the literate and illiterate alike, audiovisual documents have transformed society by becoming a permanent complement to the traditional written record. Their content cannot be reduced to written form, and its integrity is closely tied to the format of its carrier – be it film, magnetic or optical media. Because of their fragility, many audiovisual documents have been lost and continue to be lost if no action is undertaken" (http://bit.ly/iMhkh).

Chinese Film Week: October 26-31

2009-10-26T17:04:00.000-07:00

FREE! BEGINS TONIGHT!

Come to Meet with the Director and Actor during the Chinese Film Week. The East Asia Library and the China Studies Program will host a Chinese film week October 26-31, 2009, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of US-China relations. The theme of the film week is “Shanghai Women Film Directors,” featuring PENG Xiaolian of the renowned 5th generation of Chinese film directors. There will be five films by PENG Xiaolian for screening during the week. Ms Peng and an award-winning actor from Seattle will be here to interact with the audience and share their personal accounts. All movies will have English Subtitles except the one entitled Storm under the Sun, which will be in English. The events and film screenings are free and open to the public. We warmly invite you to join the director and actor for a fun and fascinating film week.

Schedule

10/26/2009 Grand Opening - OUGL 220
6:00-7:00 Prof. Yomi Braester: Two Women Film Directors
Peng Xiaoliang : Introduction to My Films
7:00-9:30 Screening: Shanghai Story

10/27/2009 - OUGL 220
6:00-8:00 Screening: Kids in Shanghai
8:00 – 9:00 Q&A with Peng Xiaoliang and a lead actor

10/28/2009 - OUGL 220
6:00- 8:00 Screening: Shanghai Women

10/29/2009 - Allen Auditorium
12:00-12:30 Peng Xiaolian: A Tribute to My Father: the making of Storm Under the Sun
12:30-2:00 Screening: Storm under the Sun. Q&A with the Director

10/30/2009 - OUGL 220
6:00-8:00 Screening: Red Persimmons

10/31/09 - OUGL 220
6:00-8:00 Screening: Doors, directed by Li Shaohong

Should we subscribe to American History in Video?

2009-10-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

Free access to American History in Video through Nov. 15th - http://bit.ly/bkjTN. Should UW subscribe? Let us know: http://bit.ly/r1LS0

MEF Online @ UW

2009-10-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

14 full-length documentaries from the Media Education Foundation (MEF) are online and available to UW faculty, students, and staff. Click here to watch (UW Net ID required). These titles include:

Bell Hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation
Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class
Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood
Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex & Power in Music Video
Freedom of Expression: Resistance & Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property
Game Over: Gender, Race & Violence in Video Games
Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes
Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image of Women
Mickey Mouse Monopoly
Myth of the Liberal Media: The Propaganda Model of News
Rich Media, Poor Democracy
Slim Hopes: Advertising & the Obsession with Thinness
Tough Guise: Violence, Media, and the Crisis in Masculinity
Wrestling with Manhood: Boys, Bullying & Battering

These are many more MEF titles are also available on DVD and VHS from the Libraries. Click here to browse these holdings.

Dawg Film Fest | This Friday

2009-09-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

Come join us a for the Media Center's 2nd Annual Dawg Daze Film Festival! Everyone is invited and it's very affordable: free!

When? This Friday, October 2nd, 9:00-4:45 pm.

Where? Odegaard Undergraduate Library, Room 220 on 2nd floor (map).

Why? Dawg Daze, i.e., welcome UW's new class of students to the Libraries, the Media Center, and their extensive collections!

What? See below...

9:00-10:30
Consuming Kids - Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids (call number DVD MEF 037 ) (90 min.).

10:45 - 12:00
War Made Easy - Exposes how presidential administrations of both parties have relied on a combination of deception and media complicity to sell one war after another to the American people. Narrated by actor Sean Penn, and based on the acclaimed book by Norman Solomon, the film exhumes five decades of remarkable archival footage to reveal in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated, and glamorized, the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations. The film gives special attention to parallels between the Vietnam War and Iraq, setting government spin and media collusion from the present alongside virtually identical patterns from the past. An invaluable introduction to war propaganda and public relations that transcends politics as it raises serious questions about the role of journalism and political communication in democratic societies (call number DVD DISI 014)(72 min.).

12:15 - 1:45
King Corn - In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, nitrogen fertilizers, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most productive, most subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat (call number DVD TAC 1671) (92 min.).

2:00 - 3:30
The Sari Soldiers - Documentary that follows six Nepalese women on the forefront of the civil war in Nepal and the escalating instability and violence that is engulfing the country. Over the course of three years, the film follows these women on the different sides of the conflict and witnesses the challenges they face as women taking such a strong role in a male dominated society, and why they are willing to risk their lives to make a difference in Nepal (call number DVD WMM 026 ) (93 min.).

3:45 - 4:45
Capitalism hits the fan - Richard Wolff breaks down the root causes of today's economic crisis, showing how it was decades in the making and in fact reflects seismic failures within the structures of American-style capitalism itself. Wolff traces the sources of the economic crisis to the 1970's, when wages began to stagnate and American workers were forced into a dysfunctional spiral of borrowing and debt that ultimately exploded in the mortgage meltdown (call number DVD MEF 035) (57 min.).

New media - September 2009

2009-09-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

Summer's almost over, but there are still a few more weeks before school starts. Why not check out some of our new media?

Some of the new DVDs this month include ... Milk, the Wrestler, and Synecdoche, New York (Philip Seymour Hoffman!), and the first three seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

We've also got some new music for you including the likes of Lucinda Williams, the Ramones, the Kinks, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, REM, Blondie, and Elvis Costello.

And, as always, we've got some classics for you on our beloved dying format (aka VHS). Check out Doll Squad, Doll face, Dolls, or the Dolly sisters. Or, perhaps, Dick Tracy?

Enjoy!

Click here for a list of new titles.

VHS BBQ

2009-09-01T10:28:00.001-07:00

How do you like your VHS? At the Media Center we like them rare, really rare.

Come to our VHS BBQ on Wednesday Sept. 2, from 9-5, in Odegaard 220. Drop in to watch and discuss selections from the Media Center's recently acquired rare and unique VHS titles. That's right, we are the only library that own these VHS titles! While we watch we simultaneously be digitizing these titles for preservation purposes.

9:00-9:25 University of Washington: A Resource Worth Preserving (VHS UWIMS 082). Shows the importance of the University of Washington as a national and regional resource as important to the region as forests, water and other natural resources.http://uwashington.worldcat.org/oclc/428107858

9:30-10:40 Boldt decision (VHS KCTS 024). In 1975, U. S. Judge George Boldt ruled that treaty Indians in Washington are entitled to half the harvestable catch of salmon and steelhead. This decision has had wide-reaching effects both emotionally and economically. First the views of those most affected by the decision--commercial, sports and Indian fishermen, and those in related industries--are presented. Finally a studio discussion is shown with representatives from state fisheries, the court and Indian and non-Indian fishermen. http://uwashington.worldcat.org/oclc/419552786

10:45-11:20 Litinies of Satan (VHS TARG 001). A jolting "recitation" by avant garde vocalist Diamánda Galás of parts of a poem by Charles Baudelaire. The screeching delivery is augmented by images of the performer heavily manipulated with light and color. http://uwashington.worldcat.org/oclc/82034895

11:25-12:00 Women in modern Spain (VHS UWIMS 042). Host Al Page speaks with Maria Duran, Professor of Sociology at the University of Madrid and Guest Lecturer at the University of Washington. They discuss the power that women have in Spain, historically, and in the present. Professor Duran speaks of abortion and divorce in Spain, the difficulty of women's choices between traditional and modern values, and how changes in the culture continually affect those choices. Changes in the culture, the economy and the legislature have also affected the raising of children, education and the stability of Spain itself (30 min). http://uwashington.worldcat.org/oclc/368602073

12:00-1:00 LUNCH (actual BBQ on your own, if you like: just not in 220)

1:00 - 2:00 Devo : the men who make the music (VHS WHV 272). This film, intended to be the first video LP, combines concert footage with music videos and a story about Devo's rocky relationship with 'big entertainment'. http://uwashington.worldcat.org/oclc/423060534

2:15 - 3:25 Situation Zero (VHS USCFR 002). More than 300,000 Cambodians are living in "temporary" evacuation sites along the Thai-Cambodian border; many have lived in these condition since 1979. The largest of these camps is Site-2, with a population of over 180,000. Follows the daily life of Yan Chheing, a sixty-year old grandmother and former peasant farmer, her daughter and three grandchildren. As she speaks of their present situation, the personal and tragic story of her family is shown. http://uwashington.worldcat.org/oclc/422752008

3:30 - 4:10 A Northwest plan for the future (VHS UWIMS 064). Host Al Page speaks with Professor Douglas Kelbaugh, Chairman of the Department of Architecture, University of Washington. After a brief general discussion of the objective and subjective aspects of architecture, Professor Kelbaugh describes the positive elements that make Seattle a vital, dynamic city--a city of villages. He develops the idea that the automobile and television have changed the city. He explains the "pocket community" idea of urban development as an effort to control the suburban "smear across the countryside. http://uwashington.worldcat.org/oclc/402596993

4:15 - 5:00 Crusaders and Mamluks (VHS UWIMS 076). Instructors Jere Bacharach and Irene Bierman discuss the architecture and decorative arts of the Mamluks, an imported Turkish warrior class which represented European's first contact with Islam in many cases. The Mamluks built many religious structures and commissioned Quʻran's as a means of influencing the religious power structure throughout the empire. http://uwashington.worldcat.org/oclc/42487554

Movie list for ESL patrons

2009-08-31T08:21:00.000-07:00

It's hard to know which movies in our catalog are helpful for learning English just by looking at the call numbers. This website, ESLnotes.com is a great resource. Not only have they compiled an extensive list of movies that they feel are beneficial for intermediate to advanced English learners, but they have included detailed notes on each film to help you pick one that sounds interesting to you. This is a great place to start if you're not sure what you're looking for.

Science is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé

2009-08-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

Science is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé (DVD CRIT 358), released by the Criterion Collection, has recently been added to our collection. This comprehensive, three-disc release is just... so cool. The first disc contains thirteen of Painlevé's popular short films selected from hundreds completed during his extensive film career, plus, and this is the part I find especially cool, "The Sounds of Science," a collection of eight films accompanied by an original score written by indie-rock band Yo La Tengo. Disc two contains ten films, including one animation. All are united by the final disc called "Jean Painlevé Through his Films," made in 1988. Apparently the scientist/filmmaker first got into film through his connections with the Dada art movement, and later used his films as an expression of his contempt for the Nazis. His anti-nazi sentiments later forced him to flee from France, a feat he achieved by escaping underwater all the way to Spain using scubadiving gear he invented.

Browsing Collection

2009-08-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

You can now browse a selection DVDs in-person at the UW Libraries Media Center, located on the mezzanine level of Odegaard Undergraduate Library. Read a Daily Article about it here and let us know if you like this idea!

Crocodile Collection Goes Live on August 11

2009-08-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

Help us celebrate the launch of Jim Anderson's Crocodile Cafe Collection at the University of Washington!

When? Next Tuesday, August 11th, at 4pm.
Where? Odegaard Undergraduate Library room 220 to start and then we will visit the listening stations at the Libraries Media Center.

ABOUT THE COLLECTION

From http://www.lib.washington.edu/media/crocodile.html

The Crocodile Café Collection contains over 2,800 hours of live music recordings. Recorded at the Café between May 2002 and December 2007 by audio engineer Jim Anderson, these recordings document performances by dozens of artists, both notable and obscure.

FAQ

Can I listen to the recordings? If so, how?

Beginning on August 11, yes! The collection will be made available via iTunes on two listening stations at the Libraries Media Center, which is located on the mezzanine level of Odegaard Undergraduate Library (hours and location information available here).

What's in the collection?

Click here to view a preliminary list of the collection's contents.

Why aren't the recordings online?

The University of Washington owns the recordings but not the rights to the intellectual content captured on the recordings. Therefore, in order to prevent unauthorized duplication and distribution of the recordings, we restrict access to in-library use only.

Why is it housed at the University of Washington?

Mr. Anderson donated the original digital recordings to the UW Ethnomusicology Archives in October 2008 (Collection number 2008.12). They are being preserved and made accessible by the Archives and the UW Libraries. This collection complements the Ethnomusicology Archive's regional collections and the Media Center's Puget Sounds project, which aims to document music in the Pacific NW.

What if I have questions about the collection?

Contact the Libraries Media Center at medialib@uw.edu or (206) 543-6051.

Impressions of New Wave Cinema

2009-08-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

I will say right off the bat that I am not a film scholar, and although I love movies, I have the attention span of a gold fish. I think this quality alone is what draws me to New Wave Cinema. The filmmakers of this genre are presenting me with a challenge: can you sit through this film? Can you handle it? I have mixed feeling about marathon movies, but I have found that most of the new wave films I’ve sat through are rewarding. Here is a list of scenes that stand out in my memory, for people with similar attention issues. The first four scenes are from Czech directors, and the rest are French Nouveau Vague by Mr. Jean-Luc Godard:

“The Last Meal” scene in Daisies

“Cutting up” scene in Daisies

“Outrage!” scene in Closely Watched Trains

“Resistance” scene in Closely Watched Trains

“Paul interviews ‘Miss 19’ of 1965” in Masculine Feminine

Madeleine recording her album in Masculine Feminine

“Traffic Jam” scene in Weekend

“The Lewis Carrol Way” scene in Weekend

“You Like All of Me?” scene in Contempt

Camille in a wig in Contempt

New Media - August 2009

2009-08-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

Lots of great classic and alternative rock added this month, including Buffalo Springfield, The Go-Go's, P.J. Harvey, Dr. John, Kiss, 2Pac, The Stooges, Talking Heads, and The Velvet Underground. Check out all of our new music this month here.

New additions to our DVD collection include Dr. Who (the complete first series), Donnie Brasco, Sharkwater, Murnau classics including Tartuffe and The Last Laugh, Stop-Loss, The Wire (Season 4), and Help! Check out all of our new DVDs here.

We are also continually adding to our VHS collection from a large gifts donation. This month's titles include Demons of the Mind, Desire and Hell at the Sunset Motel, Desperado, Desperate Measures, The Devil's Advocate, Devo: The Men Who Make the Music, Devil's Rain, and Destination Moon Base Alpha! Check out all of our newest VHS acquisitions here.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl

2009-07-31T13:28:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recently explained to me the cinematic phenomenon of the "manic pixie dream girl," after seeing Lovers of the Arctic Circle. MPDG's are described at length on wikipedia, but can be summed up by film critic Nathan Rabin, who coined the phrase, as "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures."

Movies immediately sprang to mind with this exact character. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind's entire plot is based around a straight-laced, mopey Jim Carey struggling with his MPDG, and thanks to MPDG in Garden State, Zach Braff, along with the rest of the world were convinced that one song really will change your life.

Or every movie with Kirsten Dunst in it... ever.

But even classics feature this amazingly flat enigma. Remember Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina, and Breakfast at Tiffany's, and... I guess every movie with her in it ever.

I'm not saying these movies aren't valid. Let's face it, MPDGs are fantastic tools for a good drama or romantic comedy, and it's great to pretend for a couple hours that people are quirky and exciting 24 hours a day. But don't worry, people are actually boring sometimes too.

Innocence (DVD IEF 226)

2009-07-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

This film by director Lucile Hadzihalilovic is a stunning example of contemporary symbolist fiction. Based on the novella by Frank Wedekind (author of Spring Awakening), the story follows the daily routine of an unusual all-girls school located in an isolated forest. I was pulled in by the extreme vividness of the cinematography; the green of the forest and the colored ribbons in the girls’ hair is completely saturated amongst crisp pastels and high contrasts. A very sparse soundtrack of classical music is supplemented by heightened ambient noise, adding an eeriness to the other-worldly environment. I recommend it if you liked Picnic at Hanging Rock (DVD CRIT 053), La mala educación (DVD SONYHE 057), and Palindromes (DVD WELL 027).

Half Japanese: The band that would be king (DVD VANF 001)

2009-07-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

Half Japanese is a band you want to love. Like the Shaggs, Daniel Johnston and Gary Wilson, Half Japanese earned their cred from their eccentric personalities and unconventional yet honest musical style. The great thing about watching a well made music documentary about this band, is that you don’t actually have to listen to the fifteen or so albums they produced before they knew how to play their instruments (arguably). The live and studio footage is enough to give you a feel of the band’s aesthetic and progression, and, thanks to a great editor, are all surprisingly enjoyable. Band members David and Jad Fair are fantastic eccentrics, who explain their inspirations and diligence with a seriousness that is both endearing and honorable. Footage of the band is interspursed with interviews with legend Mo Tucker of the Velvet Underground, and music critic Byron Coley, among others. This film is an homage to music nerds everywhere.

Other music documentaries I suggest for kids who never got any good at sports: American Hardcore (DVD SONYHE 036), The Devil and Daniel Johnston (DVD SONYHE 038), and Joy Division (DVD GENI 047).

Are you "Building Social Skills in the Preschool Child"?

2009-07-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

Need expert help? Then watch this seminal UW film:
http://bit.ly/TyzEc (part 1) &
http://bit.ly/1bmuaL (part 2)

Bastille Day VHS Party

2009-07-14T20:18:00.001-07:00

Can't get enough of the Bicentennial Celebration of Bastille Day? Watch all 4 volumes on VHS, now, while it's here: http://bit.ly/WmZvQ

New Media - July 2009

2009-07-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

We've some great new media for July. Check it out ...

UW Welcomes Afghan Visitors

2009-06-22T22:34:00.000-07:00

Three esteemed visitors from Radio Kabul/Afghanistan arrived in Seattle this past Monday for a 3-week audio archiving workshop sponsored by the UW Libraries and the UW School of Music.

They are:
• Zafar Jan Daqiq, American Institute of Afghanistan Studies;
• Abdul Jamil Wardak, Radio Afghanistan;
• Abdul Wahed Popal, Radio Afghanistan.

The workshop, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), has been developed to complement a larger NEH Preservation and Access grant that has enabled Radio Kabul/Afghanistan staff to digitize and preserve nearly 1500 hours of unique music recordings. In addition to providing the participants with hands-on training in audio preservation, the workshop is intended to connect the Radio Kabul/Afghanistan Archives to a larger community of international archives and archivists.

The workshop is co-instructed by Laurel Sercombe (UW Ethnomusicology Archives), and myself, along with help from John Gibbs (UW Libraries), Gary Louie (UW School of Music), Colin Todd (UW School of Music, and others. The Principal Investigator for the workshop and the larger NEH grant is Hiromi Lorraine Sakata, former UW ethnomusicology professor and UCLA Professor Emerita.

Following their 3 weeks in Seattle, Prof. Sakata will accompany the participants to Bloomington for a visit to Indiana University’s Archives of Traditional Music, where Mr. Wahid Nazari (President of Radio-Television Afghanistan) is scheduled to join the group. The group then flies to Washington DC where they will meet with representatives from the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian until their return to Kabul in late July.

More information about Radio Kabul/Afghanistan can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Kabul

A BBC story about the archive and how its staff members (Abdul Jamil Wardak and Abdul Wahed Popal among them) helped save it, can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/kr4fhf

And if you see our honored guests around UW please make them feel welcome by saying “Salaam Alekum” (Dari for “Hello” / “Peace and blessings be upon you”).

-John Vallier

New Media - June 2009

2009-06-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

We’re finishing up the academic year with some great additions to our collection. As for DVDs, we’ve just got in a nice little DIY documentary on Red House, a punk venue in Olympia, Washington. There are also some new Criterion films: Science is fiction, The curious case of Benjamin Button, L’età di Cosimo de’ Medici, Ariel, Blaise Pascal, Cartesius, The love parade, Monte Carlo, One hour with you, and Varjoja paratiisissa. We also got a bunch of new television shows (Battlestar Galactica, SesameStreet, HBO’s Carnivale) as well as new seasons to some shows we already carried.

As for VHS, we've added 260 this month. That's a lot for a dying format -- heh. This is largely due to cataloging videos from the recently acquired EMC collection. A lot of classic education titles in there. And, of course, we are still plodding through a large donation of VHS tapes -- we're up to D's so this month we have a lot of new day and death titles this month

As for CDs, a lot of great new additions to the Puget Sounds collection, including a bunch of titles from Hardly Art Records.

Check them all out here: DVDs, VHS, CDs

New Media - May 2009

2009-05-05T19:55:00.000-07:00

Lots of great local music and hip hop added to out collection this month, including Black Moon, Jeru the Damaja, Sleater-Kinney, Prkr, Starfucker, Portugal. The Man, Pharcyde, and a whole lot of Bill Frisell! Check out all of our new music this month here.

New additions to our DVD collection include 30 Rock (Season 1), Twilight, The Reader, Changeling, Farewell My Concubine, Spaced (Season 1 and 2), and the Prisoner of Shark Island! Check out all of our new DVDs here.

And, of course, we're continually adding VHS to our collection from a large gifts donation, including Darkman 1, 2, and 3, the entire Die Hard series, Cloak and Dagger, the Dakota Incident, the Dark Crystal, and Dante's Peak! Check out all of our newest VHS acquisitions here.