Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC Blog

As many of you know, the month of March brings in WestportREADS, an annual event whereby everyone in the community reads the same book. This year's choice is Mark Salzman's The Soloist, a novel about a former cello prodigy.

On Saturday, March 3rd, as you are dropping off your clothes at the dry cleaners, getting your nails done at the salon, or going to the gym, be sure to schedule a stop at either Barnes & Noble, Starbucks/Post Road, Starbucks/Parker Harding Plaza, Docs Café, Balducci’s, Trader Joe’s, or the Westport Library from 1:00 - 1:30 p.m. You will be treated with live cello music which will officially usher in WestportREADS. Volunteers will be giving out books, buttons, and brochures listing all the events and book discussions.

Music for the cello often elicits deep, emotional, passionate feelings both for the performer and audience. While you are reading the book, listen to some of the pieces mentioned in it. They include Johann Sebastian Bach's Unaccompanied Suites for Cello, Joseph Haydn's D Major Cello Concerto, and Camille Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto. To learn more about the history, the development, and the masters of this venerable instrument, feel free to read Elizabeth Cowling's The Cello, William Pleeth's Cello, or Carlos Prieto's Adventures of a Cello.

It's hard to believe that this Monday, February 26th, would have been the 75th birthday of the country music sensation Johnny Cash. This American singer and songwriter who was regarded as the "Man in Black" due to his gravelly voice and somber appearance, grew up in abject poverty during the Depression. His daily encounters with coal miners, convicts, cowboys, farmers, laborers, and railroad workers provided him with material and purpose evident in his songs. His music reflected his humble origins as he brought gravitas, honesty, and power to every note. His accolades not only included eleven Grammy Awards but a lifetime achievement award and a Kennedy Center Honor.

His song "I Walk the Line" was his first big hit and launched his national following. After his next single "There You Go" climbed to the top of the country charts, he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. By the time he was thirty, he had written more than fifty songs and sold more than six million albums. After moving to Columbia Records in 1968, he reached the folk singing audience.

In the late 1960s, he released the highly successful albums At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin which were recorded before a live audience. His friendship with Bob Dylan brought him recognition by the rock generation. In 1969, he hosted his own television show, made the transatlantic hit "A Boy Named Sue", and later appeared in several movies.

Throughout the years, he and his wife June Carter were treated as country music royalty. Both he and Elvis Presley were inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Further insights into the life and music of this extraordinary musician may be procured from Johnny Cash's Cash, Michael Streissguth's Johnny Cash: The Biography, and Steve Turner's The Man Called Cash: The Life, Love, and Faith of an American Legend. His compact discs include America, God, and Johnny Cash: Artist's Choice.

W.C. Fields is said to have uttered the famous Hollywood adage, "Never work with children or animals.” I think Will Smith has every reason to disagree. His young son, Jaden Smith stole hearts in The Pursuit of Happyness, an inspiring success story. Certainly as I looked around the theatre, many movie-goers were in desparate need of a tissue. Particularly tissue worthy, the scene where father and son were forced to spend the night in a men’s room in the subway station.

And this year, now at the ripe age of eleven, Abigail Breslin is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Olive Hoover, the would be child beauty pageant winner in Little Miss Sunshine. Her dance lessons and conversations with co-nominee Alan Arkin displayed the ability to portray a tender innocence laced with comedic timing.

If Abigail wins, she will not be the youngest supporting actress to win an Oscar. That honor goes to Tatum O’Neal who was just 10 when she wowed the Academy with her performance in Paper Moon. Patty Duke was the third youngest, only sixteen when she garnered the award for The Miracle Worker. Then skip to adulthood and Anne Baxter’s win at 23 for Razor’s Edge. Next up, Teresa Wright at age 24 (birthday March 4th) for her performance in Mrs. Miniver. Just a few calendar days separate her and Goldie Hawn (birthday April 7th) who whisked away the statue for her role in Cactus Flower.

So here’s a pop quiz. Who is the second youngest actress to win a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award? And, which actress follows Goldie on the list by age?

Are you a dog show fan? Love your pooch? My dogs don’t have much of a sense of competition, or a sense of honor among breeds. The ten year old lab snored through Best of Show and the two year old Yorkshire Terrier did not seem in the least disturbed that her breed did not win, place or show in the Toy Dog category in this week’s Westminster Dog Show. But there is one place where all dogs, regardless of breed, can be a winner. It is the movies of course.

Browsing our shelves today, I came across Movie Mutts: Hollywood Goes to the Dogs. This concise book offers endearing pictures and a bit of history of such movies heroes as Lassie and Rin Tin Tin. But a quick browse reminds the reader of more modern mutts. For family fare, there’s the silly Beethoven, and the adventurous crew in the Homeward Bound movies, the heartwarming Sounder and Benji, as well as My Dog Skip.

In the category of more “sophisticated” viewing, Verdell the dog proved to be easily bribed with bacon in As Good as it Gets and Turner and Hooch proved that dog slobber, while messy, does have its humorous moments. In a sweet comic performance, Jeneanne Garofalo plays a vet with low self-esteem in the romantic comedy, The Truth About Cats and Dogs.

Here’s a doggone good question for today. Which actress voices Sassy in Homeward Bound and utters my cat’s favorite line, “Cats rule, dogs drool?” What's your favorite film featuring man's best friend?

Are you interested in documentaries? The library has just added some award winning and well received documentaries to its collection. Yellow Brick Road chronicles the heartwarming efforts of a Long Island based organization called A.N.C.H.O.R. (Answering the Needs of Citizens with Handicaps through Organized Recreation) as they mount a performance of The Wizard of Oz.

In their 2007 Oscar nominee for best documentary, Jesus Camp, producers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady introduce us to children who are growing up as evangelical Christians. They follow the children as they attend a devotional summer camp. Along with An Inconvenient Truth, this may be the most talked about documentary in the category.

In another nominated film, the state of democracy, both Iraq's and the United States', is the focus. My Country, My Country, can be described as an unforgettable journey into the heart of war-ravaged Iraq in the months leading up to the January 2005 elections.

A Los Angeles Film Festival winner, Sir, No Sir documents the GI movement to end the Vietnam War. It’s particularly compelling in light of a growing Iraqi War veterans’ movement.

Don’t be put off by the politically incorrect title of this film. Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary has garnered much acclaim. Filmmaker Arturo Perez Torres follows two friends on the perilous journey from Central America to North America. The two encounter gangs and vigilantes as well as border patrol. Reviewers note that these immigrants navigate real-life nightmares with uncanny calm, grace and humor as they pursue a better life.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a prodigy is "a person endowed with some quality which excites wonder; especially a child of precocious genius." This meaning was first cited in Eveleyn's Diary entry of January 27, 1658.

The history of music is filled with child prodigies including Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Midori, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Itzhak Perlman, Franz Schubert, etc.

One of the themes of the WestportREADS 2007 selected book, The Soloist by Mark Salzman, explores the feelings and passions of a child prodigy whose extraordinary gift is playing the cello. Coincidentally, the February 24, 2007 concert of the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra features three child prodigies, Staples High School cellist Carlyn Kessler, Amity Middle School violinist Jenny Liu, and Chariho Middle School pianist/violinist Ann-Frances Rokosa. These gifted musicians, who were selected by audition during a six-month search, will be heard in the first movement of Pergolesi's Trio Sonata in G Major. Additionally, they will speak about their musical experiences at the pre-concert talk with Norwalk Symphony conductor, Diane Wittry.

The Westport Public Library invites you to read The Soloist and to sample the works that will be performed by the Norwalk Symphony. The program includes Ernest Bloch's Concerto Grosso No. 1, George Frideric Handel's Concerto Grosso Op. 3, No. 2, and Igor Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite.

Tomorrow evening, the people of Fairfield County are in for a special treat. The highly acclaimed Kronos Quartet will be performing at the Seabury Center at 8:00 p.m. as part of the Westport Arts Center's Composers Project. This groundbreaking group has been astounding audiences for over 30 years with their promotion of new, unique musical works and their use of unorthodox instrumental combinations. By embracing 20th and 21st century classical, jazz, and rock music, they have broken down barriers, interacted with different cultures, introduced new audiences to classical music, and in turn revitalized the repertory of the string quartet.

The vast range of the musical spectrum which the Kronos has explored in their recordings includes Frangis Ali-Sade's Mugam Sayagi, Bill Evans' Music of Bill Evans, Lou Harrison's Chamber and Gamelan Works, Astor Piazzolla's Five Tango Sensations, and Steve Reich's Different Trains: Electric Counterpoint. If you can't make it to the concert, feel free to stop at the Library to check out this highly creative and innovative group.

Congratulations to Martin Scorsese for his recent Director’s Guild of America award for The Departed. Will this be a very lucky year and also bring this six time nominee an Oscar? (In the interest of this blog’s integrity I must tell you that he was the library’s Booked for Evening honoree in 2004.)

Reminiscent of 2004, the Queens, NY born director is once again vying for the honor with Clint Eastwood who brought audiences Letters From Iwo Jima. That year, Scorsese was honored for The Aviator about Howard Hughes, but Eastwood won for Million Dollar Baby. He can also look around the Kodax Theatre and see another familiar face, The Queen's director Stephen Frears and he both received nominations in 1990, only to loose to Kevin Costner’s directorial debut, Dances with Wolves. That year Scorsese was on the ballot for Good Fellas and Frears for The Grifters. Scorsese was also nominated in 1988 for The Last Temptation of Christ, but Barry Levinson won for Rain Man.

Now here’s a test of your movie knowledge. In 1980, Scorsese received his first academy nod for Raging Bull. Roman Polanski was also on the ballot for Tess. What other year could these two have reached across the aisle and extended a handshake while at the awards? Hint, Polanski won that year for The Pianist.

So which director are you checking off on your ballot? Click on the comment tab and let us know.

This weekend, I was saddened to learn of the passing of a true "Renaissance" man, Eric Von Schmidt. Our town was quite fortunate that he and his illustrious family settled here many years ago.

Eric Von Schmidt was a remarkable artist, author, composer, folk musician, and illustrator. His artistic pursuits, which may have come from his father, the renowned painter Harold Von Schmidt, encompassed both art and music. As the New York Times obituary noted, he became interested in the blues in the late 1940's, studied art in Florence, and eventually moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts which had become a hot spot for folk music. He spread his enthusiasm for American traditional music by performing songs written by Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. Moreover, he shared his eclectic folk music collection with young rising talents like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Tom Rush. He later wrote about those Cambridge years in his award-winning book Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Years.

The town of Westport recognized his achievements in the the visual arts with the Westport Heritage Award on September 22, 2002. On October 23, 2004, he was honored with a concert by his musical peers including Paul Geremia, John Hammond, and Mark Naftalin. Concomitantly, the Westport Historical Society exhibited his series of paintings "Giants of the Blues" which reflected his dual lifelong interests. It is quite fitting that these paintings now adorn the walls of the new Staples High School.

The Library invites you to check out his folk music collections Baby, Let Me Lay It On You and Living on the Trail. His children's book illustrations include Sid Fleischman's Chancy and the Grand Rascal, Humbug Mountain, Mr. Mysterious & Company, and The Ghost on Saturday Night.

Tomorrow is the 198th birthday of Felix Mendelssohn. This gifted and skilled child prodigy is one of the most significant German composers of the nineteenth century to follow the volatile multi-talented, Ludwig van Beethoven.

Mendelssohn's first acknowledged masterpiece written at the age of 16, is the Octet for Four Violins, Two Violas, and Two Cellos. The light, whimsical melodies combined with a unique ensemble of instruments create sonorous moments supported by independent musical lines.

The glorious main theme played by the first violin alludes to the dedicatee Eduard Rietz, and is heard throughout the piece. From his sister Fanny Mendelssohn, we learn that the third movement or Scherzo was inspired by the "Walpurgisnachtstraum" from the first part of Goethe's Faust. In his own way, the teenage Mendelssohn was searching for similarities and differences between music and other cultural forms. This work showcases his creativity, knowledge, and originality in chamber and symphonic writing.

If you wish to listen to this gem, the Library has several versions to choose from including the Vienna Octet, the combined forces of the Cleveland and Meliora Quartets, and the Emerson String Quartet. Books about the composer include Herbert Kupferberg's Felix Mendelssohn: His Life, His Family, His Music, Jeffrey S. Sposato's The Price of Assimilation: Felix Mendelssohn and the Nineteenth-Century Anti-Semitic Tradition, and R. Larry Todd's Mendelssohn: A Life in Music.

Although people have been decrying and moaning about the death of classical music for years, new performing arts organization continue to proliferate.

One of Fairfield County's newest orchestras is the American Chamber Orchestra. This three year old group, which performs the major repertory works, strives to recognize new rising talent and to premiere new musical compositions.

On Saturday, February 3, 2007, conductor Christopher James Hisey will lead the orchestra in Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite #1, Elgar's Cello Concerto with soloist Kangho Lee, and Beethoven's Symphony #6 at 8 p.m. in the First Presbyterian Church in Fairfield.

To acquaint yourself with this timely music, feel free to check the Westport Public Library's holdings.