Bring Over Some of Your Motown Records

Today in 1959 Barry Gordy Jr. founded the record company that would become known as Motown when it was incorporated in April of 1960.

Happy Birthday Hayao Miyazaki!

Today is Hayao Miyazaki's birthday.  Some of you may be wondering just exactly who this is.  Miyazaki is the acclaimed director, producer, animator, author, screenwriter, artist and co-founder of the Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli.

After he successfully adapted his own original manga work Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (a seven volume saga) into an animated film in 1984 Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli with Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki in 1985.  Studio Ghibli has created twenty animated films with nine of them being directed by Miyazaki including the iconic My Neighbor Totoro and the Academy Award winning Spirited Away.

The Ghibli Museum opened in 2001 (designed by Miyazaki himself) and is dedicated to the art and technique of animation.  It combines the best of fine art museums and children's museums and comes complete with a life sized replica of the famous Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro (a plush version is seen in the picture below.) Unfortunately, as I write this the link to the official website for the museum does not seem to be working, or I would have included it.

In 2013 Miyazaki announced his retirement, but fortunately for his fans this was short lived. Studio Ghibli announced he was back at work on a new film entitled "How Do You Live?"

The library has nine of Studio Ghibli's films available for checkout (seven of them directed by Miyazaki) as well as a fantastic documentary on Studio Ghibli itself.  It is in Japanese with English subtitles.  All of the films have been dubbed with English actors, but many bilingual fans have expressed disapproval of some of the liberties actor's took with their roles so for the true experience it is recommended that you watch them with the Japanese dialogue and English subtitles as well.  However, you don't need to do this in order to enjoy the films.  They are amazing works of art.

Happy birthday Miyazaki-san! May the world be blessed with your talent and vision for many, many more years to come.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Welcome back! If you are willing to brave the cold we are open today! Our hours today through Thursday are 8-6 and Friday we will be open 8-2. Classes start back on January 8th and registration is still taking place! January can be a rather bleak month between the weather and bills from December so brighten your days by checking out one of our great dvds (free!) or books.