Christchurch City Libraries Blog

I have always thought that a tree house would be the ultimate place to live.

I played in a variety of tree houses as a kid, some were pretty elaborate with windows and trapdoors, some were just a spot in a tree with an imaginary house around me.

I remember being fascinated with the idea of tribes in Irian Jaya living in tree houses way up in the forest canopy.

I fell in love with the Ewok tree houses in Star Wars.

Only recently have I put two and two together to realise just how often tree houses appear in stories I read as a kid, from the Swiss Family Robinson to Owl’s home in Winnie-the-Pooh to the Lord of the Rings.

And now as an adult, I can relive those dreams with lots of cool books full of tree houses, from Victorian Garden tree houses to tree houses in French public parks, to family homes in Ethiopia to tree hotels in Costa Rica. If you want to be inspired, try these two books for starters :

• Treehouses by Paula Henderson and Adam Mornement
• Exceptional treehouses by Alain Laurens

Or you could even do your kids a favour and build them their own tree house!

Many agencies in our city provide specialised support for migrants and refugees but navigating those services can be confusing. Our Central Library is currently hosting a new information service to help migrants find their way around the range of agencies – Settlement Support is a Department of Labour initiative which funds a service in all main centres of New Zealand.

The Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce is managing the initiative in Christchurch. Shirley Van Waveren is available Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 am to 2 pm on the library’s first floor. She is happy to help with any enquiries relating to the settlement of migrants – employment, education, health and housing in particular.

Useful links for migrants:

• Migrants guide to Christchurch - Christchurch City Council
  Key information to help you get settled, from transport to banking, and tax to medical care. The migrants guide has also been translated into some other languages.
• New Migrants
  A listing from the library of relevant websites for new migrants arriving in New Zealand.
• New settlers
  Information from Christchurch City Libraries on library services and collections for new settlers, including books in other languages.

Saturday 17 April is Record Store Day.

From top 20 stuff to second hand 12 inch 80s vinyl, from the hottest French electropop to Kiwi dub  -  it’s all good at your local record store.

Christchurch is well served by a mixture of chain stores, and local landmarks like Galaxy, Radar, Pennylane and Real Groovy (there is a list of Christchurch retail music stores from CHART).

Some record store related reading:

• High fidelity (Nick Hornby book, and movie starring John Cusack)
• Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe books
• Old rare new : the independent record shop - a homage to the independent record shop, with interviews of a variety of music types like Everett True, Devendra Banhart and James Lavelle having their say on the joys of discovery.

The Library caters for music lovers well, we send you off to the record store better informed and give you the chance to try before you buy. See our Music pages for more information – and don’t forget next month is New Zealand Music Month and there will be performances in our libraries to liven up your May.

What do you think of record shops? Are you all about online music purchasing, or do you still love that vinyl?

Leap outside of your comfy blanket and read something different ...

Here in the Popular team at the library, we love books, and we love reading.  Between us all, we probably cover just about every genre and type of book, from steampunk to short stories, from contemporary fiction to forensic crime.  Which is great, if we are all here at the same time in the same place!

But.

What we are finding is that although together we know heaps, separately our knowledge can look a little patchy.  It’s easy to find and read stuff that you know and love, and very very difficult to get motivated to step outside your comfort zone.  Therefore, in the interests of stepping up to the mark and being brave, we are going to put our big-girl pants on and each nominate one genre or fiction area that we don’t know anything about, and boldly read five, yes five, new books in that genre over the next few months.

For me this will mean a foray into the mysterious world of contemporary fiction, where nothing weird happens but lots of people think deep thoughts about life.  For others, it will be a bold step into the future with science fiction, or a steamy session with a bodice-ripping saga, or even a walk on the wild (west) side with a cowboy western. 

To make sure we actually follow through on the promise, we will be checking in with each other at regular intervals, and we will also be asking people for lots of help in finding something good to read in our chosen area.  Obviously, we are also publicising our mission through the blog here, so it’s not only us Popular gals keeping tabs on each other.  You blog readers can also feel free to enquire/inspire/nag us to keep going.

And maybe some of you will want to join us.  Just a thought.  If you only ever read from one set of shelves, maybe you’d like to think about stepping outside your comfort zone too, and boldly go etc etc.  And if you’re feeling really brave, you could even reply to this post and go public too!  We’ll await your declarations …

After several months of counting down to the concert,  I finally got to go and see my favourite EVER musician, James Taylor, at the Vector Arena on Saturday night.  I’ve loved James Taylor’s music since my dad introduced me to it about six or seven years ago and I’d always hoped that I’d get to see him live in concert.  I’ve been to a lot of concerts over the years but James Taylor and Carole King’s Troubadour Reunion concert is the best by far.  Although I’m not a huge fan of Carole King’s it was great to see her belt out her hits and her duets with James were amazing.  I could have easily listened to both of them sing for the rest of the evening and judging from the several standing ovations and numerous encores, so could the rest of the audience. 

Watching and listening to James perform some of my favourite songs, such as Fire and Rain, Sweet Baby James, You’ve Got a Friend, and a hilarious performance of the Blues-inspired Steamroller, was an experience I’ll never forget.

James Taylor is one of those singers that make me feel great every time I listen to him.  The feeling that his songs and his mellow voice invoke are hard to describe but they just make me feel good about life and I know that if I’ve had a bad day or I’m feeling down, James Taylor can pick me back up again. 

Are there any musicians or songs that have a similar connection for you?

For a long time, ANZAC Day just meant to me another public holiday and yummy Anzac biscuits for morning tea, until our family discovered a personal connection. Delving into our family history, we discovered that my grandmother’s favourite brother, my Great-Uncle Tom, had fought and died at Gallipoli on ANZAC Day, which was poignant for me and fascinating for my sons!

We checked out some of the military history books in the library, in particular Bloody Gallipoli: the New Zealander’s Story and Gallipoli : the New Zealand Story, and amazingly discovered a couple of references to Great-Uncle Tom in the descriptions of what happened at Gallipoli. The description of his death was particularly moving.

Corporal Gillanders, modest and brave, was shot through the head whilst passing an order.

We also found more information about him on the Cenotaph database. Now on ANZAC Day we always set up a photo of Great-Uncle Tom, with a poppy next to it. We will remember him.

Many New Zealanders have a relative who fought, and possibly died at Gallipoli or in other World War One battles. Christchurch City Libraries’ New Zealand At War and ANZAC Day resources have an amazing amount of information for people interested in the wars that New Zealand has been involved in and researching the personal stories of soldiers.

Has anyone else researched their relatives who fought at Gallipoli? How do you mark ANZAC Day? Is it more than just Anzac biscuits for you?

Christchurch is humming with the Jazz Festival this week and featuring a strong contingent of female vocalists. It is interesting to consider some of the great women jazz artists and their possible successors among today’s performers.

One of the greatest singing, songwriting and musical talents of the last century was the legendary Nina Simone. For me, Sinnerman is one of the most powerful, spontaneous and passionate songs ever written (yes, big call I know)! It features Nina at her emotive best beseeching the lord in anger and frustration, frantically attempting to understand her self and her role as a woman born into a disenfranchised people. She’s not called the High Priestess of Soul for nothing!Other household names of a past generation of talented, strong and sensual singers include Etta James, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington…to name a few. The contributions these women made to jazz, blues, soul and general musical and social and American history is so vast it is difficult to quantify.

These divas are a rare breed. Who is going to fill the void that Nina, Sarah, Billie and the others left? Currently holding the floor are a small group of people whose voices these days are slightly muffled by the constant, raucous output of the recording industry. While this bunch of women don’t, to my ears, pack quite the same punch as their predecessors they are a wonderful addition to the current musical offerings. There is also a growing number of white faces in this group and a slightly more loungey sound. Have a listen to the sultry deep tones of Cassandra Wilson. Thunderbird is an absolute must listen. Dianne Reeves is another prolific gem. She has been performing since the 70s and she featured in George Clooney’s movie Good Night and Good Luck. Dee Dee Bridgewater is another songstress who is holding the benchmark on soul to ransom and Stacey Kent and Claire Martin have been doing their own thing for a number of years now too. The incredibly polished Patricia Barber is another favourite of mine. I particularly enjoy her live concert from Paris. And we really can’t leave out the widely acclaimed Diana Krall.

Ones to watch out for: award-winning Hammond organ extraordinaire Barbara Dennerlein creates a fantastic, fast-paced fusion of hot licks from a variety of musical genres. I’ll be looking out for the likes of Jill Seifers, Nnenna Freelon, Luciana Souza, Joss Stone and Nina’s daughter – who also goes by the name of Simone – to see where they go over the next few years with their musical endeavours. Go divas!

Check out the talent and tell us your favourite.

As I mentioned on my post about Lee Child’s latest book 61 Hours, he is coming to Christchurch next Thursday and you have the chance to win tickets to see him right here on the blog.  This will be a great chance to listen to Lee Child talk about his books and Jack Reacher, and get your books signed.

Courtesy of The Press we have 3 double passes to give away to the Lee Child Literary Liaison on Thursday 15 April, 7pm at the James Hay Theatre.  All you have to do is post a comment here telling us what question you would ask Lee Child if you get the chance to meet him.  Entries close Tuesday 13 April at 9am and the winners will be notified by email.

Necrology – a list of notable people who have died recently

Winston Churchill, 1940-2010
MP and journalist of mercurial talent who never quite emerged from the shadow of his famous grandfather
Mary Clive, 1907-2010
Author who cast her sharp eye on the Season, describing ‘dowdy debutantes’ and their ‘deformed’ delights
Robert Culp, 1930-2010
American actor
Kenneth Dover, 1920-2010
Outstanding Greek scholar who was strangely frank about his sex life and once plotted murder
Michael Foot, 1913-2010
Fomer UK Labour leader and eminent man of letters
Charlie Gillett, 1942-2010
Radio DJ and historian of rock and roll who became a passionate champion of world music
Rose Gray, 1939-2010
Cook who co-founded the River Café and made it one of London’s most talked-about restaurants
Corey Haim, 1972-2010
Hollywood teen star of Lost Boys
Philip Langridge, 1939-2010
Tenor acclaimed as the successor to Peter Pears who excelled in the operas of Benjamin Britten
Paddie O’Neil, 1926-2010
Lion-tamer’s daughter who became a comedy actress and often appeared with her husband Alfred Marks
Fess Parker, 1924-2010
Actor whose popularity in the role of Davy Crockett led to a boom in the sale of coonskin hats
Don Peebles, 1922-2010
One of the pioneers of New Zealand abstract painting
Ariel Ramirez, 1921-2010
Argentine composer, pianist and music director
Ole Schmidt, 1928-2010
Exuberant Danish composer and conductor who made his name performing unconventional works
Suzanne St Albans, 1921-2010
Author who drew on her hazardous and exotic childhood and married a descendant of Nell Gwyn
Elspeth Thompson, 1961-2010
Popular gardening and interiors writer
Susana Walton, 1926-2010
Loyal wife of the composer William Walton who supported him and created one of the world’s great gardens

Christchurch based Helen Lowe,  has just sold the UK and Australia/New Zealand rights to her 4-book Fantasy series, The Wall of Night to Little Brown & Co in the UK. She has already sold the North American rights to HarperCollins and the first book, The Heir of Night, is scheduled for publication in the United States and Canada in October.

Helen’s first novel, Thornspell was launched at Fendalton Library in 2008.   The book went on to win the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel: Young Adult in 2009 and was also a Storylines Children’s Literature Trust Notable Book.
When asked how she felt about the deal, Lowe said: “Very happy! Selling the books into the UK and Australia/New Zealand markets, as well as being published in the USA/Canada, is a pretty big deal for a new New Zealand author.”