Christchurch City Libraries Blog

The bell tower and spire, Christchurch Cathedral. 1920s?

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If you watch TV, you shouldn’t have missed the point that TVNZ celebrates 50 years of broadcasting this month.

However, did you also clock that it has been 30 years since The Empire Strikes Back was released? While I wasn’t quite old enough to see it in the cinema originally, I certainly remember watching it later on video.  I still watch it whenever it makes for a re-run on tv. So for a trip down memory lane, why now get your Empire Strikes Back fix from the library, in the form of the DVD or various books.

I’d even hazard a guess that it is one of those films which proves that sequels aren’t always worse than the original. Yes, I thought Episode V (Empire Strikes Back) was better than Episode IV.

So do you remember watching the original at the movies? And which Star Wars flick is your favourite? Or do you avoid Star Wars like the plague?

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During one of the last glorious days of autumn on the 15th of May, Cathy Irons and Tomas Hurik treated us to a sublime performance in the Central Library’s first floor red lounge. The richness and warmth of the string sound was reflected in Tomas’s face by the end of an hour programme in such a lovely sun trap.

Both tenured members of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra performed a varied repertoire of pieces with something for everyone from Beethoven to Joplin with Alinoni, Stamitz, Bach, Handel-Halvorsen and Prokofiev sprinkled in between. Audience members appreciated the depth of skill and talent on show by turning out in large numbers navigating the maze of obstacles set before them by the building refurbishments to find their way upstairs. Their efforts were rewarded by an outstanding display of talent by two senior members of our city’s orchestra. Rarely do we get to hear members the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra close up and personal in such an intimate setting and this duet pairing of violin and cello was a delicious treat.

Many audience members took the chance to hear classical and rag time music played live in concert with Scot Joplin’s rag The Entertainer from the 1973 movie The Sting being a particular crowd pleaser to those new to concert music. If you missed the concert or want to hear more why not listen to  Cathy Iron’s CD Inspired.

Did you attend any Music Month concerts? What was your favourite Music Month moment?

Music resources at Christchurch City Libraries

Profiles of Christchurch musicians

I suspect Emily Brontë was a smidgen overwrought when she described snow as ”O transient voyager of heaven! O silent sign of winter skies!” but Yorkshire and consumption can make one edgy, and really I’m sure we’d all agree, snow is rather cool (pun!).

We all hanker for snow in my household  even the pathetic dusting Christchurch receives; a day off school/work and the opportunity to stoically trudge around the back garden in a doomed but gutsy manner à la Robert Scott. Ah yes, a little flurry of the white stuff transforms our city, and it certainly adds instant atmosphere to any book.

And there is a surprising number of books which feature snow, either in the title or content:

• Miss Smilla’s feeling for snow by Peter Høeg- published to great acclaim in 1992, this is a  fantastically strange literary mystery. With its part Inuit heroine and setting in Copenhagen and Greenland, this is the ultimate in snow-flakey fiction.
• Snow falling on cedars by David Guterson- another literary mystery, this time set on the Washington State coast in 1954. A  local farmer of Japanese descent is being tried for murder, and while the worst snow for decades falls on the courthouse, the local town is burning with prejudice.
• Snow by Orhan Pamuk- set in Turkey on the Armenian and Georgian border, the central character Ka, a poet, arrives as the snow begins to fall. Ka gets drawn into the local political tension between secularists and Islamists. The conflict between traditional and modern Turkey is controversially explored in this snow titled novel.
• White Fang/ Call of the wild by Jack London- companion novels and classic tales set in the deep snow of Yukon Territory, Canada and featuring noble animals and feral humans.
• The snow tourist by Charlie English- we are all familiar with the concept of eccentric, solar toupee clad Brits exploring the hotter parts of  the globe. Instead, Charlie English, associate editor at the Guardian, dons thermals to find ” the world’s purest, deepest snowfall”. He pays visits to Northern Canada, the Alps, Vermont, Syracuse and even Scotland to see the snow and delivers snow-lore and a multitude of snow facts.
• The people’s act of love by James Meek- Siberia post -1919 revolution and a convict escaping from the northern most gulag is captured by a renegade Austrian army unit. Throw in a beautiful widow, a religious cult and the seriously inhospitable climate et voilà, a Man Booker nomination.
• Let the right one in by John Ajvide Lindqvist- a Scandinavian vampire tale and reviewed on this blog last year. Our perspicacious reviewer Mo-mo noted its ” icy Swedish settings”, adding “if you’re looking for something a little different from your run-of-the-mill fang-tastic potboiler, Let the right one in might be just the thing”.
• The worst journey in the world: Antartica, 1910-1913 by Apsley Cherry-Garrard- survivor of Robert Falcon Scott’s disastrous expedition to Antarctica, Cherry-Garrard’s first hand account is considered a chilly classic.

Winter has arrived. After a mild autumn, some of us will be scrambling to cope with the cold. We all have different ways of doing this.

I like the good book, log fire, quiet jazz and mulled wine approach. The good book and jazz are easy, but it’s a pity I don’t have a log fire: the heat pump doesn’t provide quite the same ambience.

The mulled wine will be made from a recipe in a book I discovered recently: Hot Toddies: mulled wine, buttered rum, spiced cider and other soul-warming drinks. Mmmmmm!

One of my friends has just bought 15 pumpkins to store in her garage to help her with her winter survival necessity: pumpkin soup. Looking for soup ideas? Think library.

Another friend has just whisked out her knitting needles to knit a stripe hoodie for … wait for it … her dog! If you are more worried about your dog’s wellbeing than yours, try Knits for dogs and cats.

Then there’s the friend whom I really can’t identify with, who is getting excited about his way of keeping his body warm: running in the SBS Marathon on 6 June.

What’s your winter-warming plan?