Happy New Year!  'Tis the season when magazine publishers feel compelled to sit down and review the past year (probably because it's an easy issue to fill up and then they can all go home early for the holidays.)  Here in the Main Library Periodicals Department we have a wide selection of these "what did it all mean?" issues, each with their own focus.    >> Read more

Many of Dr. King's landmark speeches are available for checkout from the library on CD and .    Some of his speeches are also available for experience online.  Listen below to "I Have a Dream" available from the Community Audio Collection on the Internet Archive

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Author, biographer, and music critic Harvey Pekar passed away July 12 at age 70. He wanted people to know that everyone deals with the same basic issues:

Getting a job, finding a mate, having a place to live, finding a creative outlet. Life is a war of attrition. You have to stay active on all fronts. It's one thing after another. I've tried to control a chaotic universe. And it's a losing battle. But I can't let go. I've tried, but I can't.    >> Read more

Did you get to watch the 82nd annual Academy Awards?  Have you had a chance to watch some of this year's Oscar picks?  Many of the nominees and winners are already on or Blu-ray disc and available for check out from RCPL. We will update this list as new titles become available.   

On December 30th, 2009, The Library of Congress released a list of 25 motion pictures that will be placed on the National Film Registry for the year 2009.  Among the films selected was Michael Jackson's music video for the song "Thriller."  I believe this is the first time a music video has been added to the registry.    >> Read more

It is hard to believe 20 years have passed since Hurricane Hugo's destructive path swept across the Palmetto state. 

Hugo came on the eve of my 14th birthday.  I remember my parents allowing me to still have a party with neighborhood friends; however, there was no warm food and everything was by candlelight!  As we walked through the neighborhood in awe of the massive damage from downed trees and power lines, I realize now how very lucky we were.  We still had our health, our families and standing homes (well, mostly). 

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Can you believe that it has been 40 years since hundreds of thousands flocked to Max Yasgur's 600 acre dairy farm in Bethel, NY for three days of peace and music? 

It is amazing to realize that on August 15th of 2009, 4 decades will have passed since that legendary, generation defining, most famous of all rock concerts. 

I recently went to the movie theater and saw the American gangster film Public Enemies.  Directed by Michael Mann (Miami Vice, Last of the Mohicans, The Insider, Ali, etc.), the film was expectedly stylish.  Featuring Johnny Depp as criminal John Dillinger and Christian Bale as J. Edgar Hoover's top FBI agent, Melvin Purvis, the film is based on the 2004 nonfiction book Public Enemies:  America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 by Bryan Burrough.

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