Positively Ellinwood Street: Laura Adler

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Searching for Sugar Man and Great Movies about Musicians

My favorite movie of the past two years is Searching for Sugar Man, about a Mexican-American singer from Detroit that, to this viewer, was more suspenseful than any thriller. The recipient of an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, the movie sets out to solve the mystery of Rodriguez, who released two critically acclaimed albums that went nowhere in the U.S. and who was rumored to have killed himself onstage in the 1970s. The music of Rodriguez, interspersed throughout the film, is frequently haunting and beautiful, as is this movie filled with jaw-dropping twists: it's an emotionally charged and deeply satisfying experience, as are many movies about musicians.

Some of my favorite movies about musicians include Amadeus, in which second-rate composer Salieri rails against the unfairness of Mozart's other-worldly gifts, and The Clash, Westway to the World, in which Joe Strummer says, apropos of Mick Jones, who was kicked out of the group for chronic lateness and more, that some things, such as talent, are worth waiting for.

Do you have a favorite movie about a musician or musicians? Below is a list of just a few available through the library.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

So Many Great Hispanic Authors, So Little Time!

To celebrate Hispanic American Heritage Month, which runs from September 15th through October 15th, the library is hosting Hispanic Heritage Music Night on October 7th and a special Drop in Craft on October 14th. Both of these are sure to be fun--you can find additional information on the programs on our calendar of events here--but I'll be celebrating with a good novel.

But what to choose! Although I read In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez several years ago, her novel based on the lives of the Dominican Mirabal sisters merits a second read: murdered in 1960 for participating in the rebellion against despot Rafael Trujillo, Alvarez brings the sisters to life again in this novel that takes us from their convent-educated girlhood in the Dominican Republic through their harrowing final days.

Then there's Music of the Mill by Luis J. Rodriguez, long on my radar and highly recommended by a couple of trusted readers. Set in the Los Angeles barrios it spans 60 years in the lives of the Salcido family, two generations of which work in a mill, including a second-generation son who stands up to those in power at the mill.

I think what I most want to read, though, is The House on Mango Street, published in 1984 and already considered a classic coming of age story. The author, Sandra Cisneros, based the novel on her experiences growing up in Chicago, one of seven children in a family that moved back and forth between Chicago and Mexico. The heroine of the novel is Esperanza Cordero. Here's Esperanza on the subject of her great-grandmother, for whom she is named:

She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn’t be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window.