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  • Fashion Friday, Le Chic Librarian

    Fashion Friday

    18.11.11 | Permalink | Comment?

    Now that your exams are almost over (or are underway at least) how about movies – fashionable movies - some lightweight entertainment, if you will.   But forget The Hunger Games and Breaking Dawn – lets get retro!
    I know this topic has been done to death on most blogs, but here’s a couple of my fashion-movie-faves.  (Which are here for you to borrow from the library).

    Bonnie and Clyde is the original gangster movie about two original gangsters.  Well not really, Bonnie and Clyde were actually bank robbers during the 1930s.  This movie was made in 1967 and it was a hit at the time, nominated for the Oscars and starring the dreamy Warren Beatty.  But really it’s all about Faye Dunaway, her midi skirts and her beret.

    BonnieClyde67TrailerFayeCredit

     The 1980s were all about the mini-series on TV, and the biggest and glossiest mini-series of them all is Return to Eden.  If you love 80s fashion then this is for you.  I could not begin to explain the crazy plot (it involves marriage, murder, modelling and crocodiles), but I can tell you the earrings and shoulder pads are HUGE.  There’s also the best catwalk scene EVER and the classic line “I need an editor, someone who can get me on the cover of Vogue in six months”.  Enjoy!


  • DVDs, New, Vic Ferrari

    More DVDs Than I Could Carry!

    14.10.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    There are an awful lot of new DVDs, which is good news for fans of watching things.

    Hating Alison Ashley
    “14-year-old Erika Yurken (Yuk) is a melodramatic teenager living in a chaotic house with an unconvential family. At least at school Yuk feels she is shining. That is– until the arrival of miss perfect, Alison Ashley ruins all her plans. Alison is beautiful and rich and to top it all off, she is smart.”     – Cover

    Sister Act 2 : Back In The Habit
    “The lounge singer turned Nun, Deloris Van Cartier, returns to the habit to help her fellow sisters run an inner city school full of rowdy teenagers.” – Cover

    Hulk : 2 Disc Special Edition
    “Scientist Bruce Banner has anger management issues. His quiet life as a brilliant scientist working with his ex-girlfriend conceals a painful past. A freak lab accident reveals his heroic impulses but also unleashes his inner demons. He becomes the most powerful being on earth, a super-hero and a monster.” – Cover

    Material Girls
    “As ‘celebutantes’ who have inherited their father’s multi-million-dollar cosmetics empire, life for Ava and Tanzie Marchetta is a rollercoaster ride of fun parties, gorgeous guys and designer clothes. But when they are implicated in an awful scandal, they are suddenly stripped of their money and possessions! Now, Ava and Tanzie are going to have to learn to live in the real world– and discover what they’re really made of.”     – Cover

    Fantastic 4
    “After exposure to cosmic radiation, four astronauts become the most remarkable, if dysfunctional, superheroes of all time. The media loves them, the world loves them, but unfortunately not everyone’s a fan,as they quickly learn when the sponsor of the mission that created them reveals his own tranformation… into the world’s most lethal super villain!”     – Cover

    Lord Of The Rings : The Fellowship Of The Rings
    “With the help of a courageous fellowship of friends and allies, Frodo embarks on a perilous mission to destroy the legendary One Ring. Hunting Frodo are servants of the Dark Lord, Sauron, the Ring’s evil creator. If Sauron reclaims the Ring, Middle-Earth is doomed.”     – Cover

    Lord Of The Rings : The Two Towers
    “The fellowship has broken, but the quest to destroy the One Ring continues. Frodo and Sam must entrust their lives to Gollum if they are to find their way to Mordor. As Saruman’s army approaches, the surviving members of the Fellowship, along with people and creatures of Middle-earth, prepare for battle. The war of the ring has begun.”     – Cover

    Lord Of The Rings : The Return Of The King
    “The final battle for Middle-earth begins. Frodo and Sam, led by Gollum, continue their dangerous mission toward the fires of Mount Doom in order to destroy the One Ring. Aragorn struggles to fulfill his legacy as he leads his outnumbered followers against the growling power of the Dark Lord Sauron, so that the Ring-bearer may complete his quest.”     – Cover

    The O.C. : The Complete First Season
    “Money and beauty are the key values of this Southern California coastal enclave. But from the moment troubled outside Ryan Atwood moves in with the Cohens, all statuses aren’t quo. Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan and Adam Brody play the Cohens, a family willing to give a newcomer a chance. Ryan’s arrival triggers a Newport wave of peer pressure, love triangles, generational conflicts and more.”     – Cover

    Gossip Girl : The Complete Third Season
    “Our beloved Upper East Siders, all grown up. Though high school may be behind most of them, you can be sure a future of love, scandal, and, of course, secrets awaits. Told through the eyes of an all-knowing blogger, Gossip Girl, who, via constant, avidly read text messages, is determined to uncover and fuel every scandal possible on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where gossip rules and affluent young people find themselves with the money, access, and appetite to explore.”     – Cover

    Avatar, The Legend Of Aang : Book 2: Earth, Volume 2
    “Now a master Waterbender, Aang leaves the Northern Water Tribe to continue his quest to master the next element, Earth. Along with Katara and Sokka, they visit new Earth Nation cities, encounter a slew of different Earth Kingdom citizens, and even reunite with a crazy old king!”     – Cover

    Avatar, The Last Airbender : Book 3: Fire, Volume 1
    “The kids enter the Fire Nation with the goal of covertly moving from island to island to the Royal Palace, where they will eventually confront and defeat the Firelord. Along the way, they discover the people of the Fire Nation are not all that different in their needs and desires from the other peoples of the world.”     – Cover


  • DVDs, New, Vic Ferrari

    Television and Movies

    07.10.10 | Permalink | Comment?

    New movies and an awful lot of Doctor Who on DVD! Also The O.C.!

    Letters To Juliet.

    In Verona, Italy - the beautiful city where Romeo first met Juliet – there is a place where the heartbroken leave notes asking Juliet for her help. It’s there that aspiring writer Sophie finds a 50-year-old letter that will change her life forever. As she sets of on a romantic journey of the heart with the letter’s author, Claire, now a grandmother, and her handsome grandson, all three will discover that sometimes the greatest story ever told is your own. (cover)

    Doctor Who : The Complete Second Series

    Originally released for television in 2006, this is the second season with Billie Piper who older readers might remember for this. Included are 6 discs with more than 18 (!) hours of dalek thwarting shenanigans for fans of the Doctor and sci-fi in general.

    Doctor Who. The creature from the pit

    This is a selection of Doctor Who from the Tom Baker years (back in the late 70s). The back cover promises regtag groups of bandits, giant eggshells, some things called Wolfweeds and somewhat mysteriously, soething only described as very large with a terrible secret. Also included are a generous selction of special features.

    Doctor Who. Spearhead from space

    This is from the early 70s, also known to Doctor Who afficianados as the John Pertwee years. Expect mysterious meteorites, people going missing, a man with two hearts, faceless creatures and other irregular happenings. Time is raced against whilst the earth is saved.

    Doctor Who. The tomb of the Cybermen

    This time from the Patrick Troughton starring 1960s, our Doctor saves the day in black and white. It appears that the Cybermen are all dead, but then it appears that they aren’t. Chaos ensues.  If you watched all the new Doctor Who this week it would probably take an entire day. Think about that.

    Doctor Who Series 5, Volume 3

    More Doctor Who if you can believe it. This is the newest Doctor, Matt Smith. Once again the world, and universe (I assume), is in danger and only Doctor Who can put things right. I don’t want to ruin the ending, but everything works out just fine.

    The O.C. Season Two

    The romances of Ryan-and-Marissa and Seth-and-Summer go from very over to very on, Sandy and Kirsten face choices that could trainwreck their 20-year marriage, felon (and Ryan’s brother) Trey gives Newport Beach living a try, Julie’s past comes back to haunt her and others with shady pasts and shaky futures join the scene (cover)

    Dodgeball

    The comic story of a dodgeball championship. Under the painful tutelage of legendary ADAA champ Patches O’Houlihan, Peter LaFleur and his Average Joes take on the Purple Cobras, led by egomaniacal fitness guru White Goodman.

    Just Married

    Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy take the cake in this outrageous hit comedy! Sarah (Murphy) is a happy-go-lucky rich girl whose meddling family is as snobbish as it is wealthy. Tom (Kutcher) is a hope-I-get-lucky party guy who prefers sports bars over fancy cars. But opposites attract sidesplitting fun when these two young newlyweds embark on their perfectly planned European honeymoon with disastrous – and hilarious results! (cover)


  • Comedy, DVDs, Top 10, Vic Ferrari

    Top Ten: Comedy DVDs

    29.09.10 | Permalink | 1 Comment

     There is a Comedy DVD display in the YA area of the Central Library at the moment, this list is an online companion piece.

    1. Cool Runnings - Not only hilarious, it’s emotional too. Someone at Teen Blog HQ admits to getting choked up at the end of this one, others just enjoy Doug E. Doug’s antics.
    2. Mean Girls - Lindsay Lohan is mean, and funny!
    3. Superbad - Unpopular kids try to find girlfriends, general ineptitude interferes and provides lulz.
    4. High School Musical - You have probably all seen this, and as such any description of plot etc. is surplus to requirements.
    5. The Mask - Jim Carrey puts on a magical green mask and turns into what pretty much amounts to a living cartoon. Visual gags aplenty.
    6. 17 Again - The dreamy Zac Efron plays a man who magically gets turned from a forty-something loser into, well, the dreamy Zac Efron. All sorts of rofl-tastic capers ensue.
    7. Legally Blonde - Reese Witherspoon plays the stereotypical blonde valley girl in a fish out of water scenario where she goes and studies law at an ivy league school. Hijinks follow.
    8. School Of Rock - Jack Black teaches kids how to be in a rock band by shouting, waving his arms around and acting manic.
    9. Dude, Where’s My Car - Ashton Kutcher wakes up after a big night out and realises his car is missing. Then he is confused for pretty much an entire day.
    10. Adventureland - A quirky rom-com set in and around a theme-park.


  • DVDs, Jack, Sport

    Comment And Win!

    30.06.10 | Permalink | 3 Comments

    winWe have some sport themed prizes to give away; All Whites posters courtesy of New Zealand Football and Rip Curl Pro Search surfing DVDs courtesy of Kiwi Surf. If they sound like your cup of tea, be one of the first two people to comment on this post and they’re yours. Easy.


  • DVDs, New, Simon, anime

    New Anime

    28.10.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    More new anime has arrived (I mentioned it earlier but now it’s in the catalogue). We have the final disc of the Mushi-Shi series, which is a slow series but well worth watching in its entirety; volumes 1 to 7 of Fullmetal Alchemist; volumes 1 to 3 of Ranma 1/2; and the final three discs in the infinitely awesome Samurai Champloo series, which is now all in the YA area.

    Here’s a complete list of anime based on a manga series held by the library. Here’s a list of anime movies, and here is a list of anime television series.


  • DVDs, Jack, Movies

    Worst. Movies. Ever.

    29.09.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    As the decade draws to a close more and more websites will start posting top 100 lists looking back on the 2000s, or the noughties, or whatever it was we decided to call it. Other websites will do the opposite and post bottom 100 lists, like Rotten Tomatoes has with this, its worst movies of the decade list. Simon and I noticed we had a fair few of these in the catalogue, so if you’d like to watch something terrible for laughs …

    82. Supercross: The Movie
    81. Extreme Ops
    60. The Perfect Man
    46. Material Girls
    38. Happily N’Ever After
    26. Kickin’ It Old Skool
    21. Epic Movie
    And worst of them all…. 1. Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever

    Enjoy, I suppose.


  • DVDs, New, Simon, anime

    Mushi-Shi

    24.07.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    We have a new anime series available in the YA area. (Quite timely, as we’ve just separated the anime out from the other animated DVDs.) Mushi-Shi is about Mushi, supernatural creatures that aren’t noticed by most people, and Ginko, a Mushi master, who is researching them and helping out people who suffer from a case of Mushi infestation. The series has won loads of awards. There are five DVDs containing the first 20 episodes; the last disc isn’t quite here yet.

    Here’s the official website, here’s one in English, and here’s a link to the library catalogue so you can check availability and reserve them.


  • DVDs, Movies, Sci Fi, Simon

    Good news, everybody

    10.06.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    A new series of Futurama has been ordered. Hooray! It was cancelled in 2003 – a sad year for animated sit-coms – but the newest series should come out in the middle of next year.

    In the meantime you can go to the official Futurama website or watch the older episodes by borrowing them from the library. Reserve them through our library catalogue here. We’ve loads of DVDs.


  • DVDs, Espionage, Miss Moneypenny, New

    Double O seven

    27.05.09 | Permalink | Comment?

    The YA DVD collection will soon be somewhat expanded by the addition of almost all (maybe all; I’m too lazy to confirm) the James Bond films. They’re not quite in yet but you can reserve them – YA DVDs are 50c on a YA card, and reserves for ya’ll are free.

    Here they are in our catalogue. If you’ve never seen any of the classic Bond films you really should, as they’re great fun.


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