Special Effects Artist Ray Harryhausen Passes

Ray Harryhausen

The world has lost a giant in the world of special effects.  Stop motion/Dynamation pioneer Ray Harryhausen passed away at the age of 92 on May 7. Countless Baby Boomers remember 1953’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (in which Ray Harryhausen brought to life The Beast, based on “The Fog Horn,” penned by his good friend Ray Bradbury.)  We also remember the octopus in It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955), the flying saucers in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), the Ymir in 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957),the myriad of creatures in The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), and especially the skeleton scene in Jason and the Argonauts (1963). When asked which was his favorite of the creatures he created, Mr. Harryhausen was quoted in the May 7^th edition of The Guardian as saying, “It would be Medusa. But don’t tell the others.” Medusa appeared in Clash of the Titans (1981). Mr. Harryhausen received a career Academy Award for Technical Achievement (the Gordon E. Sawyer Award) in 1992. At the program, actor Tom Hanks famously said, “Some people say Casablanca or Citizen Kane–I say Jason and the Argonauts is the greatest film ever made!”

(Check for 3 Worlds of Gulliver and Clash of the Titans on DVD in the Alameda County Library, and Ray Harryhausen: an Animated Life and A Century of Stop Motion Animation: From Melies to Aardman, both by Ray Harryhausen and Tony Dalton, in the non-fiction book section.)

Mr. Harryhausen may have left this world, but the mythical creatures he created will be enjoyed by generations to come.

Fear : essential wisdom for getting through the storm a new book by Thich Nhat Hanh

Most of us live in a constant state of fear—of our past, of illness and aging and death, and of losing the things we treasure most. But it doesn’t have to be this way, promises Zen master and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

Drawing on a lifetime of mindfulness in action, Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how to use the practice of living in the present to acknowledge and embrace our fears, recognize their origins, and render them powerless. The world-renowned Zen teacher guides us through practical exercises for transforming fear into clarity. The worries of the past and the anxiety of the future disappear as we discover the power of the present moment. Not only are we are able to handle challenging emotions as they arise, but we can summon feelings of well-being and contentment, no matter what the unknown may bring.

Rooted in the moment, we have the capacity to restore balance and happiness and be present with what is beautiful and affirming inside us and around us, every day. Excerpt from Parallax press

Books by Thich Nhat Hanh @ Library

Farewell, E.L. Konigsburg

The children’s literature world has lost a most singular writer. Elaine Lobl (E.L.) Konigsburg passed away April 19, from complications of a stroke: she was 83. Konigsburg is also the only children’s author to have won the prestigious Newbery Award (given for excellence in children’s literature by the American Library Association) AND the Newbery Honor in the same year (1968), for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth, respectively.

Other books Ms. Konigsburg has written include Silent to the Bone, Up From Jericho Tel, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, Father’s Arcane Daughter and The View From Saturday (for which she won another Newbery in 1997.)  Paul Vitello, in the New York Times (April 22, 2013) had the following quote listed in his obit for Ms. Konigsburg:  “Children’s books, she once said, are ‘the key to the accumulated wisdom, wit, gossip, truth, myth, history, philosophy, and recipes for salting potatoes during the past 6,000 years of civilization.’ “

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler  is a favorite of lots of readers. One of this writer’s colleagues (herself a published writer) stated, “My husband and I were so disappointed when we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and discovered they’d gotten rid of the fountain where Jamie and Claudia had collected coins.  How dare they!” And this writer has fond memories of Mixed-Up Files because she booktalked it years ago at her interview for her current position! Writer/illustrator Brian Selznick (who himself won the Randolph Caldecott Award—the American Library Association award for excellence in picture book illustration in 2008) references Konigsburg’s Mixed-Up Files several times in his book, Wonderstruck. Selznick said in a Publisher’s Weekly interview (Sue Corbett, August 4, 2011) that it was one of his favorite books, and then added “I mean, it’s one of everybody’s favorite books.”

And it will be for years to come.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Greg Heffley Is Coming Back !!

The newest diary of Greg Heffley – Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 8 will go on sale in the United States in November 2013. Following major marketing and social media promotions in the U.S.,  seven international publishers will launch their respective campaigns around the world. The United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Greece, Japan, Korea, and Norway will release the book in their respective territories just after the U.S. debut.

Books in the core Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney include:

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2007),
2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2008),
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (2009),
4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2009),
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (2010), and
6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever (2011).
7. The Third Wheel,  (2012)

Jeff Kinney has also written and illustrated The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book (2011) and The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary (2011).

Here are some trivia for the series to share with you:

• On November 13, 2012, book 7 in the series, The Third Wheel, released with a 6.5-million-copy first printing in North America.
• These books are a fixture on the USA Today bestseller list (the first book in the series has remained in the top 150 for more than 200 weeks) and the Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists.
• The series has remained consistently in the top spots on the New York Times lists since the publication of the first book.
• More than 85 million Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are in print around the world.
• The series have been sold in more than 44 territories in 42 languages.
•  Author Jeff Kinney was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world.
• Three movies based on the book series have grossed more than $250 million internationally.
• The book series won Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in 2010, 2011, and 2012 (and is nominated for one in 2013)
• Jeff Kinney won a Children’s Choice Book Award in 2012.
• These books have won numerous awards voted on by students and teachers around the globe.
• The Wimpy Kid Island on poptropica.com, a virtual world for kids, remains one of the most visited on the site.

Kinney’s work has been widely praised for its ability to turn reluctant readers on to books.  If you are struggling on leading your kids into reading, if you hadn’t heard about this series from your kids, if you wanted to know why you couldn’t always find Jeff Heffley in the library, click here to reserve your copy; and stay tune for the newest development of the Wimpy Kid ….

An Afternoon with Opera San Jose

Spend the Afternoon of Saturday, May 18, from 2 to 3 pm, with Opera San Jose at Fremont Main Library.

Join the resident artists from Opera San José as they perform arias and duets from the 2012-13 season, including Verdi’s powerful drama Il Trovatore and Puccini’s two contrasting pieces Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi.

Tickets will be handed out at Fukaya A Room, starting at 1:30 pm.

All are welcome!

MEET THE LENDERS

Fremont Main Library
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
9:30 – 12:30 p.m.

Interactive Business Seminar and Resource Fair

This seminar and resource fair is a must for any business owner interested in securing debt or equity financing. Be ready to participate in a panel discussion with lenders offering advice in today’s tough lending environment. Participation is a must for any business owner interested in securing debt capital.

Learn how a wide range of banks and other lending organizations evaluate your loan application and the types of funding they can provide.You will be given an overview of how to get “capital-ready” before you approach a lender to insure a greater chance of success. 
 

Participants will learn:

• What the 5 C’s of credit are and how they apply to the participant
• How a wide range of lending organizations evaluate your loan application
• The types of funding different lending organizations can provide
• What types of information the lenders are looking for and why

This seminar is free to all attendees.  Advance reservations are required.  Please register online at  http://acsbdc.org/node/13414. Refreshments will be served.

Sponsored by the City of Fremont, the Fremont Chamber of Commerce and the Alameda County Small Business Development Center (ACSBDC) and the Alameda County Library System.

 

Fresh Produce Coming to Fremont Main

One day in the not so distant future, you’ll be visiting the Fremont Main Library and leaving with a bag full of library items and another bag of fresh produce.  Fremont Main is entering into a partnership with Dig Deep Farms and Produce, a social enterprise and a project of the Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs’ Activities League.  The Dig Deep Farms website describes a weekly delivery service of fresh produce; the partnership with Fremont Main Library is a pilot project that will bring Dig Deep produce stands once a week to consumers for the first time.  That those first produce stands will be on library grounds certainly says something of Fremont Main’s role in our community.  So how about that?  With one trip to the library, you will be taking home food for the mind as well as food for the body.  It certainly is a good deal to look forward to.  You’ll know when it’s here.