Arts Blog test #1

One of Australia's most respected film critics and intellects here tells the story of his life at the movies, and elswhere. And if you're wondering about the title, read on.....
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A 791.43092 St8S

Welcome to 2008

Welcome to the new year, and if you're thinking that the Arts reading room looks unusually busy for this time of year, you're not mistaken. The floor in the Redmond Barry Reading Room is being resurfaced and the room is therefore closed from 1 January through until 21 January, which means that seats are at a premium throughout the building; as are internet PCs!
Hopefully things should be back to normal next week.

New books in Arts

Charles Valentin Alkan was one of the most remarkable musicians and composers working in mid-19th century Paris. His dazzling piano works are only now receiving the serious attention they so richly deserve, as exemplified by this new study now available in the Arts Reading Room.



You can hear examples of Alkan's extraordinary music by searching our compact disc collection on the Library catalogue; something such as Marc Andre Hamelin's blistering performance of Alkan's Symphony for Solo Piano for instance






A beautiful new book on American artist George Bellows who created some of the most strikingly vivid and dramatic images in American painting in the early 20th century.








This new book on our open access shelves in Arts is a marvellous close-up memoir of one of the stalwarts of John Ford's acting company, a man who appeared in some of the great director's most important films.

10# Another treasure from the tube

The divine Cecilia Bartoli, singing an aria by Handel with a ferocity that must surely get pretty close to the effect of those sacred monster castrati!




We have her CD "Opera Proibita" in the collection which contains this aria complete, and once heard it is never forgotten!

9# Unbelievable!!!!!

Sometimes even Godzilla is left speechless...and I don't normally go in for the electric guitar!

8# Catching up with the generator-gap

Now that's fun! You could waste....I mean productively use a whole heap of time on these image generators; not that I would of course......

7# Delicious stuff and playing tag

Having a penchant for Japanese prints I tried a few tags on Delicious and found lots of lovely stuff (including this actor portrait of Nakamura Utayemon as Yodogimi by Natori Shunsen).....has this "lady" been drinking, or what? Technorati is also good fun, and provides a structure for wading through the sea of blogs out there in virtual-land.

But I really like Library Thing, what a great idea! Apart from being able to keep track of your own library, you can get great tips and suggestions from other people's collections via tagging. Now what tags would you use for Moby Dick?