Monty Python's Flying Circus: Complete and Annotated: All the Bits.

PRALINE: It's not pining, it's passed on. This parrot is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet it's maker. This is a late parrot. It's a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If you hadn't nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies. It's rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-parrot! 

This is one of the most famous of all Python rants. Found in episode 8, many fans have it memorized. If you don't and would like help getting it right, Monty Python's Flying Circus: Complete and Annotated is the book for you. At 880 colorful illustrated pages, it is a brick of a book in weight and in its great utility to Python fans. There is no excuse for misunderstanding a silly accent now. This book tells you exactly what the Pythons said and when they said it.

What's also fun is that the annotations clue readers in on the back-stories of some pieces. "The Dead Parrot Sketch" came from the pens of John Cleese and Graham Chapman after hearing about Michael Palin's auto mechanic, who would never admit anything was wrong with his car. In Cleese and Chapman's first draft, the verbose Cleese was to return a toaster. Luckily for us, the Pythons had the idea of using the Norwegian Blue.

Python fans should set aside a nice long winter's night (or several) for looking up their favorite episodes.

XIMINEZ: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion.

Monty Python's Flying Circus: Complete and Annotated: All the Bits. Black Dog and Leventhal, 2012. 880p. ISBN 9781579129132.

At Last the 1948 Show

"And now for something completely different."

No, it is not Monty Python, it's At Last the 1948 Show, a television sketch series from ITV London that was a parent of Monty Python. Marry At Last the 1948 Show to Do Not Adjust Your Set, and you get the baby Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Crazy, silly, zany, weird, uproariously funny. Viewing a five-episode DVD set of the show, Bonnie and I laughed Saturday evening away. We also saw a lot of what Python was going to be. John Cleese was already a fully mature John Cleese. Right off the bat in episode one he plays a psychiatrist who will not allow the client to recline on the couch fearing that the latter might be a bed-wetter. Tim Brooke-Taylor, the client, can hardly get a word in as Cleese talks and talks and talks. Graham Chapman is already a talented Graham Chapman-like player. He plays a policeman several times. He even plays a policeman in drag. There is also Marty Feldman in his first acting role. He goes completely bonkers in some scenes! In other scenes with Cleese, he seems to foreshadow the coming of Michael Palin. Finally, there is Aimi MacDonald, whose "moments" link sketches and remind me of the female comedians in the 1968 American series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. At Last the 1948 Show came first in 1967.

Eric Idle is an extra. In "Thief in the Library," he gets to play a librarian. Shhhh!

"The Four Yorkshiremen" is touted as the most famous sketch. I think my favorites are "The Chartered Accountant Dance," "A Train Carriage, and "Life Insurance for the Accident Prone Man."

Viewers may be surprised to find At Last the 1948 Show is in black and white. Color came to ITV the next year. According to an interview with Tim Brooke-Taylor on the DVD, the show was somewhat regional and broadcast to only parts of Great Britain. The two DVD set includes five episodes, and its box gives the impression that it is the complete series. Aimi MacDonald in her links, however, refers to scenes you don't see, as does Brooke-Taylor in his interview. BFI Screenonline and IMDB indicates that there were thirteen episodes. Wikipedia explains that the DVD is a compilation that was shown on Swedish television. The BBC destroyed most of the original videotapes. That's so sad, as I'd like to see more.

IM Shorthand for the Monty Python Fan Anniversary

ANFSCD.

It has been a year since I posted IM Shorthand for the Monty Python Fan. It is funny how a quick, spontaneous post has gotten more attention than most of my serious work. There is a lesson to be learned, as pointed out by In Praise of Slow Thinking by the Blue Skunk Blog. Humor helps us say what we want to say. In the case of IM Shorthand, I had nothing to say other than I am a member of the VSP and love Monty Python, but it helped break the ice so I could say other things on this blog.

BOYD. Of course, no piece in blogland is ever really dead. People continue to discover IM Shorthand. Every weekend someone discovers it and then alerts friends. Thank you, everyone.

The only piece I have written that has brought people together as much is Morton's Neuroma: A Librarian Looks at Consumer Health Resources. I did not expect this. (NETSI!) It now seems to get as many visitors as the IM Shorthand. Some of the visitors have been leaving their stories as comments. A couple of them may be marketing but it is hard to tell. A lot of people want to tell their stories to others who will understand. IGB, by the way.

It will be interesting seeing what the next year will bring.

ALOTBSOL!

I've Been Tagged: Four Things

I have been tagged by Meredith of Information Wants to Be Free for the Four Things Meme.

I have looked up the word "meme" and still do not have a good handle on it. It appears that it has something to do with replication with modifications. Whatever, there is the Four Things Meme bouncing around library blogs. Bloggers answer the questions and then ask four other bloggers to answer the questions. It seems to be a good way to get to know other bloggers.

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Disc jockey/radio announcer for a very small radio station in West Texas for $50 a week - the owner said I actually should be paying her for the experience I was gaining.

2. Wheelchair attendant helping students in wheelchairs get to classes at the University of Texas - they called me a "pusher."

3. Clerk in the school supplies section at the University Co-op in Austin - I sold 100-count packages of data punch cards to computer science students for 69 cents.

4. Desk assistant at the Howsen Branch of the Austin Public Library - I also got to help with the puppet shows.

Four movies I can (and do) watch over and over:

1. Lord of the Rings trilogy
2. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
3. all the Harry Potter movies
4. Mary Poppins (I still love this movie.)

I also want to mention Much Ado About Nothing and Field of Dreams and Room with a View and Amadeus.

Four places I’ve lived:

1. Big Lake, Texas - it does not look like the town shown in the movie The Rookie.
2. Austin, Texas - everything you hear is true.
3. Columbia, Missouri - I still have occasional Daniel Boone Regional Library dreams.
4. suburbs of Chicago - Riverdale (where I heard the trains day and night), Brookfield (with its wonderful zoo), Downers Grove (with its wonderful library)

Four TV shows I love:

1. Star Trek Next Generation
2. M*A*S*H
3. Masterpiece Theater and Mystery
4. Monty Python's Flying Circus

Four places I’ve vacationed:

1. Kenya and Tanzania twice (with wonderful friends)
2. Greece once (Bonnie and I riding the Greek buses with the Greeks)
3. Costa Rica once (with a Brookfield Zoo tour)
4. South Dakota once (with wonderful friends)

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Carrot cake, which Bonnie makes for my birthday every year
2. Greek sampler at Greek Islands, which has all my favorite Greek items
3. Enchiladas, any kind
4. Raspberries from our yard

A lot of favorite foods are left out of this list, such as many of the pot luck items at our library luncheons. We may have the best food of any library on the planet. I wonder how this could be verified.

Four sites I visit daily:

1. Thomas Ford Library website
2. Bloglines
3. Writely
4. Flickr

Four places I would rather be right now:

I am really quite happy where I am, here at home with the PC, with a nice family, in a nice community. Still, I would enjoy being:
1. On the north rim of the Grand Canyon
2. In the first balcony in the Auditorium Theater in Chicago
3. In the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania early in the day before the middle of the day tour crowd arrives
4. In the stadium in Delphi with a slight breeze whispering through the evergreens

Four books (or series) I love:
1. The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien
2. No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith
3. anything by Wendell Berry
4. anything by Muriel Spark

Four video games I can (and do) play over and over:

1. Hearts
2. Minesweeper
3. Tetras
4. nothing compares to the first three

Four bloggers I am tagging:
1. Aaron at Walking Paper (He was tagged before, but never responded.)
2. Jane (not really her name) at Wandering Eyre
3. Michael at Library Dust
4. Kelli at 'Brary Web Diva

He's the Reference Guy and He's Okay

With all the visits to this blog in the past 10 days to see IM Shorthand for the Monty Python Fan, I thought of something from long ago. When I left the Dolton Public Library to work for the Suburban Library System, I was given a going away party. The staff of the Dolton Public Library were very good at throwing parties and I knew that I'd have fun, even though I was leaving them to work somewhere else. Just before I opened presents (it was a surprise wedding shower, too!), the staff sang a very funny song for me. Ruth Ann (a big Monty Python fan) and cohorts wrote new lyrics to a familiar tune. I found a typed copy in my files.

CHORUS:
He's the reference guy and he's okay
He works all week and Saturday.
REPEAT

He bakes his bread,
He hooks his rug,
He goes to the library (Li-Brar-ee).
On weekends he goes driving,
Takes Bonnie out for tea.

REPEAT CHORUS

He rides his bike,
He takes a hike,
He eats dried fruit for lunch,
And when he's gone to Oak Lawn,
We'll sure miss him a bunch.

REPEAT CHORUS

He laughs at jokes,
He's kind to folks
Who bug him every day.
The patrons will all miss him
When we no longer say:

CHORUS
He's the reference guy and he's okay
He works all week and Saturday.


I had forgotten my giantic hooked rug project. Like my sewing a Halloween costume by hand, it took forever. It is amazing the projects I started when I was young and did not know better.

It is great working in libraries where people care so much and throw great parties. (Consider this librarianship promotional material and totally appropriate for this blog.)

Can you thank people again years later for their friendship? I only know where a few of them are now. They were the library staff and they were okay, too.

IM Shorthand for Monty Python Fans

Bonnie and I were talking about how it is sometimes hard to recognize what is meant by all the shorthand that is used in instant messaging. That's why there are websites like NetLingo. Of course, you can not really look up all of the abbreviations as they fly at you, but it sometimes helps when you are sorting it out later.

In the interest of making the world even more confusing, here are some Monty Python additions to IM shorthand:

MBH - My brain hurts!

NETSI - Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

ANFSCD - And now for something completely different

IALAIOK - I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay.

UCT - Upper Class Twit

SW - Silly Walk

VSP - Very Silly Party

POTT - Penguin on the telly (We have one. Don't you?)

HIWTRAC - Hello, I wish to register a complaint.

IASBOLIRIP - It's a stiff, bereft of life. It rests in peace. (Some young IMers say this of email.)

ALOTBSOL - Always look on the bright side of life

STMIAN - She turned me into a newt! (A common complaint)

IGB - I Got Better.

KWSN - Knights who say "Ni!"

NNNNN - Ni! Ni! Ni! Ni! Ni!

STIGTS - Stop! This is getting too silly!

That last one could be particularly useful for some IM exchanges. Have any other suggestions?

The Complete Ripping Yarns by Michael Palin and Terry Jones

After Monty Python's Flying Circus left the air, not counting reruns and reunions, the members of the troupe unleashed numerous television and film projects. Among these was Ripping Yarns, a BBC collaboration between Michael Palin and Terry Jones. I have never seen the nine episodes, broadcast 1976 to 1979, which may be among the most neglected works in the post-Python portfolio. I was, however, able to secure an interlibrary loan of The Complete Ripping Yarns by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, a compilation of nine scripts published by Mandarin Paperbacks (London, 1991).

As you would expect, humor was still the intent of the Pythonites, but Palin and Jones put a bit more emphasis on story in Ripping Yarns than was evident in MPFC. Episodes develop plots, much like the famous MPFC episode "The Cycling Tour," which we call often "Bicycling Through North Cornwall." The endings may be sudden, but they are endings. Central to all of the funny business was Palin who played the central figure in each of the stories. You can see this from the numerous production stills accompanying the scripts and from reading the credits at the back of the book. Jones appears in only the first episode. The only other Python credit is for a cameo by John Cleese in "Golden Gordon."

The first yarns are "Tomkinson's School Days" and "Across the Andes by Frog," both of which are mostly just good silly fun. Genius kicks in with "Murder at Moorstones Manor," a plot-twisting spoof of British murder mysteries. My favorite story of the bunch is "Escape from Stalag Luft 112B," which is set in World War I, not a later war as you might expect. Palin plays Major Phipps, an inept British officer who spends all of his time devising ways to escape from a very comfortable prisoner of war camp. The story is a classic that everyone should know.

2013 is the 37th anniversary of the start of Ripping Yarns. I think it is a ripe time for a revival.

Palin, Michael and Terry Jones. The Complete Ripping Yarns. Mandarin Paperbacks, 1991. 278p. ISBN 074931222x.

I Feel Like I've Been Cleesed: A Reference Interview Gone Wacky

My strangest reference interview of the afternoon (of the week, of the month) was right out of Monty Python. One of the reasons many people love the old comedy show so much is it shows life through a slightly warped lens, but only slightly warped. There is more truth behind each silly Python situation that some people admit. Yesterday's experience reminds me of interview skits with John Cleese. Cleese invariably turns away from his interviewees to yell at other characters, many of which are imaginary. Michael Palin or Eric Idle sit in shock and bewilderment, uncertain what to do.

Here is what happened with no names or identifying references. A woman called the library to request that we check our shelves for an item. I had trouble understanding her. Her voice was fuzzy and there were loud children's voices in the background. I think she was in a kitchen on a speaker phone. I had to ask her twice the title of the item. Just as I understood, she yelled, "Leave him alone! I told you to leave him alone!" I identified the item in the catalog and told her I was going to check the shelf.

When I got back to the phone, she was gone. Then the phone rang. "We got disconnected," she said. "Nicky! Put that down!"

"I have (library item)," I replied. "Can I put it at the Checkout Desk for you?"

(Loudly) "What did I tell you, young man?" (Less loudly - slightly) "Yes, how do I get to your library?"

"From where are you coming?" (Notice the "from" is not at the end of the sentence. I'm proud of that.)

"(Name of another suburb)," she said. (More loudly) "Now you've done it!" (Slightly less loudly) "Wait a minute!"

At this point she left the phone. I heard what could have been chairs moving across a kitchen floor and bowling balls being dropped. The sound of the woman lecturing a child or children faded in and out. I wondered how long I should wait. Her voice started getting closer. Then I heard her say, "How did you get in there? Come out of there!" Her voice faded away again. A child's voice got closer. Then I heard, "Don't touch that!"

"Hello?" I said, hoping I could be heard, if it was a speaker phone. "Hello-oh!"

"How do I get to your library?" she snapped.

I tried to give her directions. Though they only involved two turns on two major streets, I had to repeat them three times, because she kept speaking to the children while I spoke.

"Wait till your father gets home! Did you say you're on a corner? I'm angry now! You just wait! What corner was that again?"

I described the corner and the library, she scolded the child and asked me our closing time, and, finally, the interview ended. I noticed how quiet it was in the library.

Note that the library user did get what she requested, if she was able follow the directions to the library.

I wish I had it all on tape. It was as good as calling Python for some verbal abuse. I was cleesed!

Seriously, while this is funny, it is also disturbing. The woman needs parenting counselling.

Terry Jones' Barbarians

Who were the Barbarians? According to Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, the Barbarians were, by ancient Roman definition, all the peoples of the earth who were not Romans. The Romans, as you might know, regarded other people who did not conform to their ideal culture as inferior, brutal, uncouth, unrefined, crude. Add dangerous, violent, chaotic, blood-thirsty, ravenous, and other such terms, and the Romans had good reason to strike preemptively to protect their nation and way of life. The word barbarian has survived with many negative connotations. And because the Romans were the victors and wrote the histories, their views of the ancient world have been preserved and accepted as fact.

Were the Celts, Goths, Vandals, Huns, Persians, and other ancient societies really so terrible? Terry Jones and a community of historians and archeologists now question the Roman view and have found copious evidence that the Romans have misreported many events, including the nail-hammering Sack of Rome. The Barbarian cultures were often wealthy and technologically ahead of the Romans, who were really great as soldiers, lawyers, and builders, but less known for their arts, literature, math, and science. Women in Barbarian cultures had more rights than those in Rome, and Barbarians were more accommodating to foreign cultures. Unlike Rome, most of the Barbarians did not maintain standing armies. Jones and the historians that he consults pose that the Barbarians were often less likely to rape and pillage than the Romans. So, just who was more civilized? Who was just posing to overthrow governments and steal other cultures' wealth?

Jones presents his views in a very entertaining set of BBC programs Terry Jones' Barbarians, with a companion book Terry Jones' Barbarians. I was not quite sure at first how serious he was, for he is still an excitable, highly animated performer strutting on screen, giving us a smile and a laugh. He even slips a few Python lines into the script. But he takes viewers to the battlefields, archeological sites, and museums, and he lets the experts make their case that the Barbarians deserve reconsideration. Jones even contends that many British and Americans people owe their Celtic ancestors more respect.

Terry Jones' Barbarians was shown on the BBC in 2006 and does not seem to have gotten much attention in the U.S. Only the first four episodes appear to be available via DVD. The only evidence I have found that there were more episodes is the Internet Movie Database entry for the series. I'd love to see them.

Terry Jones' Barbarians. Koch Vision : Distributed by Koch Entertainment, [2007], 2 DVDs. ISBN 9781417229932.

Jones, Terry. Terry Jones' Barbarians. BBC Books, 2006. 288p. ISBN 9780563493181.

The Oscar Wilde Collection

Depending on which biographies you read, Oscar Wilde died a broken man or simply publicly disgraced but certain himself of his legacy. I like to think the later, particularly after listening to his four plays on four consecutive days. Each was an hour or more delightfully spent, laughing at the embarrassing situations in which British aristocrats lowered themselves. Best of all, Wilde was the master of satirical statements, which flowed from many of the characters. Many are quotable, such as these from An Ideal Husband:

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

Lord Caversham: What are you doing here, sir? Wasting your time, as usual?
Lord Arthur Goring: My dear father, when one pays a visit, it is for the purpose of wasting other people's time and not one's own.

Gertrude, it is not the perfect, but rather the imperfect who have need of love.

Life is never fair, Robert. And perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

Laura: The higher education of men is what I should like to see. Men need it so sadly.
Lady Markby: They do, dear. But I'm afraid such a scheme would be quite unpractical. I don't think man has much capacity for development. He has got as far as he can, and that is not far, is it?

I listened to the plays on compact discs from The Oscar Wilde Collection from L. A. Theatre Works, which include the voices of many great actors, such as Miriam Margolis, Martin Jarvis, Jacqueline Bissett, and Alfred Molina. The production quality is very high, and I always knew what was going on without any narration or visuals. I could in my mind create the action. I imagined drawing rooms with players in period costumes. The plays are great audio theater.

Some critical conversations with directors are also included on the discs. Michael Hackett calls The Importance of Being Earnest the pinnacle of Wilde's career. He says that it drew from Shakespeare and led to the writing of P. G. Wodehouse and eventually to Monty Python. I'll grant that it was excellent, but I favor A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband, which seemed to be a bit more serious about exposing hypocrisy and the fragility of relationships. I can not decide which is better. Why should I? I recommend both to anyone who likes witty conversation and situation comedy.

The Oscar Wilde Collection. L. A. Theatre Works, 2010. 10 discs.* ISBN 158081753X

*A dramatization of The Picture of Dorian Gray is also included, but I chose not to listen and review it, as I was having so much fun otherwise.

Biography: A Brief History by Nigel Hamilton

Just when you think I have exhausted the topic of biography, Bonnie* brings me another very interesting book with many advantages for the reader interested in the topic. The book is Biography: A Brief History by Nigel Hamilton.

Readers will enjoy this book for these reasons:

• It is new. Many of the books on biography as a literary form are twenty or thirty years old. Hamilton brings the subject to the present. The controversy of A Million Little Pieces by James Frey is included.
• It expands the idea of biography beyond the traditional printed biographical book. Hamilton discusses cave paintings, Greek and Roman art, religious texts, the biographical and autobiographical trends in fiction, the popularity of celebrity media, documentaries, made-for-television movies, reality television, biographical films, museum exhibits, graphic novels, and blogging.
• It identifies books, art work, and films important in the development of the biographical form. Monty Python's Life of Brian even makes the discussion. I placed some reserves during my reading of the book.
• It is well-written and thought-provoking. Hamilton even mentions writing teachers as listeners to the autobiographical thoughts of students, an issue exposed in the aftermath of the killings at Virginia Tech.

According to Hamilton, biography is essential in a democratic society, pointing out that the form is repressed and abused by dictators. He also tells how biography has been the most dangerous literary form to write throughout history because of dangerous politics and strict libel laws. Until the last half century, biographers have almost always written about the dead, who could not sue them. Since the release of the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate hearings, biography has increasing focused on the living.

Biography: A Brief History should be in many libraries.

Hamilton, Nigel. Biography: A Brief History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007. ISBN 0674024664

*Behind many a good blogger is a person who inspires and feeds the writer good material.

Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith

If I had Silly Fun Awards to grant, I'd probably give the first to Monty Python's Flying Circus and then bestow one on Gary Larson for his The Far Side comics. Then I'd give one to author Alexander McCall Smith for Portuguese Irregular Verbs series. I just listened again to Portuguese Irregular Verbs, the first book in the series in which readers follow the ridiculous life of philologist Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld. He is occasionally called Maria.

The learned professor is famous for his 1,200 page text titled, of course, Portuguese Irregular Verbs, of which nearly 200 copies have been sold in a decade. At one point in the story, he discovers that only two copies have sold in the previous year, and he worries so much about whether a colleague bought a copy, he schemes to get in the fellow's apartment to check his bookshelves. Book sales aside, he is famous enough in the world of philology to receive constant requests that he speak at conferences. At each, like all of the other philologists, he repeats the same lecture. He is greatly excited when a new member of the brotherhood presents a new topic.

My favorite story is about the professor falling in love with his dentist who so skillfully and quickly relieves his toothache. Can you guess what he gives her as a thank you? If you can, you may also foresee the result of his courtship. In another chapter he recalls a trip to rural Ireland as assistant to a professor studying old Irish vulgarities. The moral of this story is be careful where you leave your transcriptions. 

Portuguese Irregular Verbs is wonderful in print or audio, as read skillfully by Paul Hecht. It is followed by The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances.

McCall Smith, Alexander. Portuguese Irregular Verbs. Anchor Books, 2005. 128p. ISBN 1400077087.

4 compact discs. Recorded Books, 2004. ISBN 1402590504

Cheese Shops and Libraries

"Well, I was, uh, sitting in the public library on Thurmond Street just now, skimming through Rogue Herries by Hugh Walpole, and I suddenly came over all peckish." Monty Python

The Hedgehog's Dilemma: A Tale of Obsession, Nostalgia, and the World's Most Charming Mammal by Hugh Warwick

We do not have native hedgehogs in the Americas. The little spiny mammals that wander about at night inhabit most of the planet but disappeared from the Western Hemisphere during one of our mass extinctions millions of years ago. Since the 1980s some dwarf hedgehogs from Africa have been available in American pet stores, but most of us only know the mammal from Beatrix Potter stories, Monty Python skits, or video games.

I am not sure why an American publisher decided to reprint Englishman Hugh Warwick's The Hedgehog's Dilemma: A Tale of Obsession, Nostalgia, and the World's Most Charming Mammal. Was the pet craze responsible or do books about British topics attract Anglophiles? Do enough Americans see Warwick on BBC Wildlife to have made his book viable in the market? Whatever, it is here and it is pretty good reading for someone who likes to know what he or she might encounter tromping around in British woods and flying to remote China in search of rare hedgehogs.

According to Warwick, people have ridiculous feelings about British hedgehogs, which he describes as "smelly, flea-ridden, solitary, prickly, and nocturnal." Other than roll up into a ball when threatened, they do not really do much that can be called cute. But he and many other people love them. They put food in their gardens for night visitors, who actually do quite well on their own eating insects. People rush injured or sick hegdehogs to a growing network of animal rescue centers, including the Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in Buckinghamshire. Many belong to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

The mass neglect and removal of British agricultural hedges has reduced the overall hedgehog population, but the hogs who have moved into verdant suburbs are doing well. As houses with gardens are replaced by multi-unit buildings and parking lots, hedgehogs are again being displaced. Warwick and his friends at the BHPS are concerned and fighting for hedgehog rights.

You'll learn all this and much more if you read The Hedgehog's Dilemma, which is available in nearly 300 American libraries. If your library does not have it, it will gladly borrow it from one that does.

Warwick, Hugh. The Hedgehog's Dilemma: A Tale of Obsession, Nostalgia, and the World's Most Charming Mammal. Bloomsbury, 2008. ISBN 9781596914773

Muppet Treasure Island

BobbyG asked me to review movies, a request that I will honor. I posted my review of Russian Ark before I found his request in a comments box.

2004 was good year and I saw many films that I liked, including A Very Long Engagement, Being Julia, Good Bye Lenin!, Finding Neverland, and The Aviator. Every library with a DVD collection should consider adding these movies. I’m not going to review them, for there are plenty of other reviews available. I have an old movie that many have forgotten to recommend. Most of the public libraries in the SWAN network of the Metropolitan Library System do still have videocassettes of this title, but very few have the DVD.

Muppet Treasure Island is a movie that the critics slighted in 1996. The children’s film market was not getting the attention it is today. Siskel and Ebert just thought it was silly. It is wonderfully so! There are jokes and puns that will make you moan and laugh simultaneously. There is a moment when Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy are being hung by their legs from a dead tree – yes, you get to see their legs – and Kermit says to Miss Piggy - Stop! I will not spoil the great one-liner. Trust me. It’s funny.

Tim Curry is a natural as Long John Silver. He oozes charm while he plots the mutiny aboard the Hispaniola and the theft of the treasure map from the Jim Hawkins, nicely played by Kevin Bishop. He sings well with Muppets. I particularly like the song “A Professional Pirate,” which tells how buccaneers are victims of bad press and really “the nicest guys you ever want to meet.”

The music is really great. Early in the film Bishop is joined by Rizzo the Rat and the Great Gonzo in singing “Something Better,” which is an inspiringly hopeful tune, which reminds me of “Tomorrow” in the musical Annie. (Tim Curry was in that movie, too!) When the Hispaniola is caught in the doldrums, everyone joins in the bright and funny “Cabin Fever.” Between songs are many inspiring symphonic themes worthy of an epic sea adventure film. We listen to the soundtrack CD at home.

Like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there are bits of the movie that remain with you in real life. When I got printer toner on my shirt at the library, I thought of “the Black Spot.” Like Mr. Eagle, the second mate and safety expert, Bonnie and I often say “Unsafe! Not safe!” when we see something foolishly precarious. It is a good film to share with family and friends. Walk the plank to your library to find this film treasure.

The Annual Report: A Look Back at ricklibrarian 2005

Thank you for reading ricklibrarian. I hope you have found books to read, movies to see, and new ideas for your libraries. Before I continue with 2006 I want to reflect on the past year. Perhaps this report will encourage some others to blog, and it will highlight some of my earlier reviews and comments on libraries and librarianship that recent ricklibrarian readers missed.

2005 was my first year of blogging. I started on February 17 by taking about fifteen minutes to start a Blogger account and post a review of Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry, which I had already written for an occasional review I write at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. Though I tend to read nonfiction, I started with a review of a novel because I felt it was one of the best books that I had ever read. I am happy that this review has been found often by readers via Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. Berry is one of my favorite authors and I have reviewed Fidelity: Five Stories, Clearing, and Given: Poems in 2005.


Most Visited Book Reviews

Perhaps my most read review of the year is that of a children's book about the Holocaust, Luba: The Angel of Bergen-Belsen by Michelle R. McCann. Readers find this review almost every day.

A close second is First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung, a book about growing up in Cambodia during the terror of the Khmer Rouge.


Some of my most frequently read reviews are for books often assigned to or chosen by teens:

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

Persopolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

A Step from Heaven by An Na


Many of my reviews have hightlighted history or biography. Some that have often been found include:

Slave: My True Story by Mende Nasar

Mistress Bradstreet: the Untold Life of America's First Poet by Charlotte Gordon

Love and Hate in Jamestown by David Price

Founding Myths by Ray Raphael

In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs by Christopher de Bellaigue

Ogden Nash by Douglas M. Parker

Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure: the Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika by Giles Foden

Chicago Apartments: A Century of Lakefront Luxury by Neil Harris

My Detachment: A Memoir by Tracy Kidder


I have reviewed some mostly unknown novels found in few libraries. I enjoy finding that someone has read the reviews of The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness and Unformed Landscape by Peter Stamm.

I was surprised by the popularity of my review about the Star Wars short story collection Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina. It has staying power.

I wish more people would read Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins, but I can not force people to read huge, serious books. It did get a nice comment from a Kenyan.


Music and Movies

Some of my obscure music reviews get surprisingly good traffic, such as Peter, Paul & Mommy by Peter, Paul & Mary, Just the Right Sound: The Association Anthology, and The Steeleye Span Story: Original Masters.

None of my movie reviews have gotten much traffic. There are so many movie reviewing sources on the Internet that it is hard to wade through them. Still, someone found my review of Mad Hot Ballroom and added a long comment. I also find occasional readers have viewed my reviews of Les Choristes and Bride and Prejudice. My most visited movie review is Muppet Treasure Island.


Library Matters

Until recently, my most read library related item was an interview of readers' advisory librarian Joyce Saricks .

My most read reports from conferences are these two reports from the American Library Association Conference last summer in Chicago: Taking the Guesswork Out of Nonfiction Readers Advisory and Hear Here: Audiobook Trends in Libraries.

More of my conference reports can be found at the LITA blog.

I have been watching the Open WorldCat project. My most critical comments are in Open World Cat for Rural America. I do hope people contribute and wrote instructions for posting reviews.

I sometimes react to items in the news. My favorite is Examples of Corporate Thinking: A Danger to Libraries and The Demise of Marshall Field's: A Librarian's Viewpoint.

My favorite reflective pieces are I Learned to Be a Librarian Collecting Baseball Cards, Reading Glasses, and Bookmarks Found in Library Books.

The two items that got the most visitors were A Day in the Life of a Reference Librarian 2005 and IM Shorthand for the Monty Python Fan. The latter has nearly thirty reader comments.


Closing Thoughts

Though it has seemed at times no one was reading, lately many more readers have come than I imagined ever would. Thanks especially to all the readers who have linked to ricklibrarian, bring in more readers. I hope that I can continue to write something worth reading.