Somerville Public Library Blog

As a college student I’d often go to the library to work on a paper and then find creative ways to procrastinate: reading G. Gordon Liddy’s unintentionally hilarious autobiography, leafing through the English edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, trying to teach myself Hungarian….but my favorite was browsing in old magazines. It was fascinating to see what the editors of Newsweek put before their readers in 1958, or reading contemporary coverage of the Blitz in Time magazine. People with similar inclinations who love the history of science and technology are in for a treat. Popular Mechanics has teamed up with Google to make their entire archive available online for free: the result is a quirky glimpse of the not-so-distant American past. Try some keyword searches–anything you can think of, and then browse through the issue called up; you’ll be intrigued by the results.  Reading one of the articles retrieved by typing in “bomb shelters,” I found a 1962 map showing possible fallout distribution in San Francisco after a nuclear attack (with areas helpfully color-coded and labeled “safe,” “sick,” and “dead”).  Typing in “stainless steel,” I discovered the story of an enterprising Californian who made his own false teeth.  And can you really resist articles on burning questions such as “Should I Buy A New Radio Now?” (July 1931)?

If you share my quirky enjoyment of old magazines, you’ll be glad to know that every issue of Life magazine up to 1972 is free for viewing on Google Books, and at the Time website you’ve got free access to all of the magazine going back to 1923.

And the next time you’re in SPL check out our Historic Boston Globe database (1872-1925), where you can read contemporary coverage of events like the lawsuit over who really invented the telephone and the molasses flood of 1919.

Once again, to answer questions you haven’t asked, here are some of the many important events that happened in March.

March 2, 1717: “The Loves of Mars and Venus” opens in London, thus becoming the first ballet ever performed in England.  Male audience members hate it, females who attend love it, prompting a nationwide discussion about why men and women are so different.

March 4, 1865: With no trace of irony, the Confederate Congress approves the “final” design of the CSA’s official flag.

March 5, 1946: Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College totally steals the limelight from President Truman’s “Shower Curtain” speech at the Bed & Bath Retail Convention.

March 19, 1687: French explorer Robert Cavalier de la Salle is murdered by one of his own men. Employee satisfaction matters.

March 28, 1930: To provide an economic stimulus to the Turkish sign-making industry, Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara.

March 31, 1776: Abigail Adams writes to her husband John to “remember the Ladies” (i.e., work for civil rights for women) as he helps form the U.S. government.  Talk about husbands not listening to their wives…

or know someone who is, the Census Bureau will be holding a job fair Monday, March 8th, at the Somerville Holiday Inn (30 Washington Street).  The Bureau needs large numbers of people to conduct the 2010 Census. Available positions include census takers, office clerks, and crew leaders.

If you attend, be sure to bring with you a valid passport or driver’s license and your birth certificate or a copy of your Social Security card.

Well, I’m going to cheat a little by starting a year early.  The decade technically began in 2001, but 2000 was the release year of a movie I have to tell you about: Italian for Beginners.  Andreas is a recently widowed young minister who’s been temporarily assigned to a church in a small Danish town.  He moves into the local hotel where he gets to know the lonely manager, Jorgen. Then there’s Jorgen’s friend, Finn, the manager of the hotel restaurant, who has an unfortunate tendency to verbally abuse customers. And then there’s Olympia, a clumsy bakery assistant who lives with her ill-tempered father. The one spot of brightness and warmth in the bleak lives of these characters is the Italian class they take at the local adult education center.  Through additional chance meetings and other foreseen circumstances, this unremarkable grammar and conversation class offers all of them a shot at happiness. Filmed using only natural light and hand-held cameras, Italian for Beginners has a real-life feel to it that intensifies the emotional punch of this bittersweet comedy.

If you’re ever in the AV department and can’t decide what movie to get, there are three words that guarantee a film will be fantastic: Philip Seymour Hoffman. Whenever I see him onscreen, any memories or thoughts of his previous roles disappear because whatever character he’s playing at the moment is as real as life. I honestly think he’s one of the best actors of our time, and there are two movies that show him at his finest.  In 1959 the writer Truman Capote became intrigued by a brief article he read about the murder of an entire family in a Kansas farmhouse. He went to Kansas to write about it, in the process scandalizing the locals with his eccentric behavior, falling in love with one of the murderers and, of course, producing that classic work of literary journalism In Cold Blood. In Capote (2005) Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the title role with remarkable success. Not only does he convincingly play Capote as a character, but he also manages to make himself—a large man with a strong baritone voice—look and sound like the tiny, frail imp of man with a high-pitched voice that Capote was.

In the very different but equally rewarding The Savages (2007), Wendy (Laura Linney) and Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are middle-aged siblings who haven’t seen each other in years. Wendy has an office job she hates, is having an emotionally destructive affair with a married man (emotionally destructive for her, not for him) and is struggling to produce a play she’s written about the abusive upbringing she and her brother experienced.  Jon’s life is a lot less dramatic but almost as unhappy. He’s a theater professor in Buffalo who may finally have found the love of his life, but he can’t get it together to propose—and if he doesn’t, she’ll have to go back to Poland when her work visa expires.  But now they both have to set all that aside to go to Arizona, where their elderly father has reached the point at which he can no longer care for himself.  They take him back to Buffalo, and through a gray, snowy winter, Jon and Wendy reconnect with each other, make a peace of sorts with their past, and start figuring out how to act their ages.

In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), cranky rule-driven Joel (Jim Carrey) is involved with crazy, free-spirited Clementine (Kate Winslet). After they have a really nasty fight Clementine goes to the company Lacuna, Inc., which for a fee will erase memories of a bad relationship.  Joel is devastated when he finds out and goes to the company for the same service. But as Joel’s memories of Clementine disappear (the most recent going first) he finds himself drawn back into a past when they were happy.  Soon he no longer wants to lose his memories, or Clementine, and he’s racing through his brain trying to keep her.  At once inventive, funny, moving and mind-bending, and with a cast that also includes Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo and Kirsten Dunst, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a movie you owe it to yourself to see.

If I continued to write in any detail about all the other movies I loved from the past decade, this post would become monstrously long, so I’ll simply close with a list.

Mostly Martha (German, 2001)

The Closet (French, 2001)

In America (2004)

In July (German, 2004)

Kinsey (2004)

Juno (2008)

Towelhead (2008)

The Counterfeiters (German, 2008)

Milk (2009)

The Class (French, 2009)

Did you know that the Central Library has been offering more and more programs for kids and families on Sunday afternoons? Upcoming events include:

*funded by the Friends of the Library
**funded by the Somerville Children’s Network

These programs are free! We hope you can join us for some fun!

I’ve enjoyed making these “favorite” lists.  It’s nice to revisit the past and remember where you were when you read that book or saw that movie.  Ironically, a lot of my favorite films are from the first half of the decade.  I had more time on my hands in those days and was definitely an avid movie-goer.  Then movies got wicked expensive and I had a baby….so, now I stay home and feel thankful for library movies and Netflix.

My list begins with a musical: Chicago (2002).  I’m a sucker for a good musical, but this is so much more than that.  The casting, set design, costumes, and dancing all strike a perfect cord in this film.  Renee Zellweger shines in her portrayal of Roxie Hart, a convicted murderess who finds herself in jail with the famed vaudeville sensation Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones).  They compete for media attention and news headlines as they wittingly try to use fame to keep them from death row.  Their stories are told mostly through song and dance, with numbers like “Cell Block Tango” and “We Both Reached for the Gun.”  If you’re not dancing out of your seat, or at least clicking your heels, you need to check your pulse.  After all, we’re talking about 1920s Chicago - an era of crime, murder, gangs, jazz, vaudeville, and nitty-gritty news reporting - never a dull moment!

Million Dollar Baby (2004) definitely makes my list, thanks to performances by two of my favorite actors - Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman.  The story of aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) will be one you won’t forget.  Maggie, a Missouri waitress, longs for something more in life, so she turns to boxing and finds herself in Frankie Dunn’s (Eastwood’s) training-gym.  Ever-so-reluctantly, and with the urging of his partner Eddie “Scrap-Iron” Dupris (Freeman), Frankie gives her a chance.  The storytelling in this film is simple and honest and the undercurrent of love, loss and hope makes the characters’ struggles heart-wrenching.  Keep a tissue box handy for this one, but don’t miss it.  Clint Eastwood has given us a gem with this film.

I can’t think about the decade in film without thinking of Johnny Depp, Jack Sparrow, and The Pirates of the Caribbean.  The first film in the trilogy (soon to extend to a 4th sequel in 2011), Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), is in my opinion the best.  Johnny Depp nails the character of Captain Jack Sparrow, a roguish pirate inspired by the rocker Keith Richards.  This movie takes you on a great ride and is quite simply, fun.  How can you resist a swashbuckling, sword-clashing, action & suspense-filled movie?  Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Mystic River (2003) is a Shakespearean tragedy played out on the streets of Boston.  Directed by Clint Eastwood (I told you he’s a favorite!), this is a film of 3 childhood friends - Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon - who are forced to revisit a crime in their past in the wake of a terrible murder in the present.  Once again, I believe Eastwood nailed this one.  The writing is excellent and the supporting cast is too, with such notable names as Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laurence Fishburne.  Sean Penn’s performance is heart breaking and very deserving of the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2004.

Here are a few more favorites, to conclude my list.  They are in no particular order, just worthy of a mention because I think of them often and look forward to watching them again one day.

Memento (2000)

21 Grams (2003)

The Queen (2006)

Love Actually (2003)

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Shrek (2001)

Almost Famous (2000)

Gosford Park (2001)

Into the Wild (2007)

February 2, 1709: Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being marooned on a desert island for four years. It’s 300 years too early for him to become a consultant for a reality TV show, so he has to settle for inspiring Robinson Crusoe.

February 7, 1839: In the Senate Henry Clay makes his famous pronouncement, “I’d rather be right than be President.” Which is just as well, considering he ran for President (and lost) five times.

February 16, 1899: Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavkur, Iceland’s first football club,  is established, but they don’t actually play for another six months, which is how long it takes them to figure out how to fit  Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavkur on their jerseys.

February 17, 1766: The first volume of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is published. No one buys it because the title gives away the ending.

February 20, 1927: Golfers in South Carolina are arrested for violating the Sabbath (makes you wonder what they would have done to Tiger Woods).

February 25, 1932: Austrian-born Adolf Hitler is granted German citizenship, allowing him to run for national office. And people have the nerve to think we have an immigration problem?

While trying to prepare my list of favorite movies of the last decade, I have decided that I cannot move on until I include one more favorite book.  This book makes me giddy just thinking about how much I enjoyed every single page.  If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, you are missing out.  This nonfiction story of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 reads like a novel and tells the story of 2 men: Daniel Burnham, the mastermind and architect behind the Exposition and H.H. Holmes, one of America’s first serial killers.  Burnham, despite numerous obstacles, setbacks and a daunting 2 year deadline, created the “White City” which covered more than 600 acres and featured over 200 buildings of European Classical Architecture.  Reading about the fair is amazing - 46 nations participated in the fair and it attracted close to 26 million visitors.  There is the world’s first Ferris Wheel, appearances by Buffalo Bill Cody and Thomas Edison, not to mention the world’s first hamburger!

But every great story has a dark side: enter H.H. Holmes.  Masquerading as an eager & well-meaning doctor, he opens the World’s Fair Hotel, where he lures countless people, mainly single women, to their death.  As gruesome as some of these eerie passages are, I couldn’t tear myself away.  Larson’s writing is magnificent and will send chills up your spine.  Holmes was every bit as crafty as Burnham.  His hotel was windowless and thus the perfect place to perform his ghastly activities.  Many rooms were soundproof and equipped as gas chambers with secret chutes to send the bodies to the basement, where he had a dissection table and crematorium for disposal.  It’s simply shocking (and amazing) that Holmes is so successful and so good at being a murderer!  I know, this book sound scary.  But don’t be afraid to read it.  Larson’s storytelling is flawless and addictive.  You don’t want to miss this fascinating slice of American history.

Have you seen wild animals in Somerville, such as hawks, falcons, wild turkeys, songbirds, skunks, possums, raccoons and rabbits? Many of us have seen at least a few of these wild animals in our city, or even in our backyards. Do your children ever wonder what these animals do or how they go about their lives in a busy urban setting? If so, bring them to the Somerville Public Library for a series of workshops where they will learn about Somerville’s wild life and write an original musical about them.

Beginning Wednesday, Feb. 24, Liza Kitchell will host a program for children ages 8 to 12 called “Wild Tails.” During the program’s three sessions, children will learn about urban wildlife, create a story and write songs about the wild animals that live in Somerville, and present their work as a musical play in the Growing Center’s garden in June.

The original idea for “Wild Tails” began last year when puppeteer Frances Furlong created an original puppet show about urban wildlife with volunteers from the Growing Center. After the success of the puppet show, Aileen Bellwood, site manager for the Growing Center, and Kitchell, musician/educator, began talking about creating programs to reconnect children with nature, using the Growing Center as a focal point. In support of this idea, Kitchell was recently awarded a Somerville Arts Council grant to create a musical performance with children about Somerville’s wildlife.

“Wild Tails” has been organized into three sessions consisting of four meetings each.
In Session I (Feb. 24, March 3, 10 and 17 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.), children will learn about Somerville’s wildlife through dramatization and reading. They will play games, read about their chosen animals, and imagine what it looks and feels like to be a wild animal in Somerville. Story ideas will be discussed for the musical.

In Session II (March 24, 13, April 7 and 14 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.), children will create songs for the musical using ideas from their dramatizations, games and story ideas.

In Session III (May 5, 12, 19 and 26 from 3:30 to 5 p.m.), children will help construct costumes, sets and props for their musical, and then rehearse their final work.

Sessions I and II will be held at the Central Library at 79 Highland Ave. Session III, as well as dress rehearsal and final performance, will be held in the Growing Center at 22 Vinal Ave.

Enrollment is on a first-come, first-served basis. Parents must sign in their child for each meeting attended. Parent contact information will be required. Arrive early, as each meeting is limited to 15 students.

If the recent disaster in Haiti has piqued your interest in this country these Internet sites will introduce you to its history, geography and culture.

World History Archives

Foreign and Commonwealth Office - Haiti

BBC News Country Profile- Haiti

CIA World Factbook

Wikipedia - Haiti

Haiti before the earthquake.