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Homework Help: Art, Music, and Literature.

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Need a little help finding what you’re looking for? The Robins AFB Library would like to provide you with a few resources suitable for students of all ages to help you get started.

Here are some links, resources, and interesting sites pertaining to the Arts…

The U. S. Copyright Office – The rules, forms, and instructions for how to file for a copyright. And a database you can search for registered copyrights.

The Copyright Primer – An interactive tutorial that serves as a nice introduction to the issues and laws concerning copyright ownership and the uses of information.

When Works Pass Into The Public Domain – A handy cheat sheet provided by the University of North Carolina to help determine if a work has passed into the public domain.

Copyright Terms and the Public Domain – Just as it says, an extremely comprehensive chart for understanding when a work will pass into the public domain, including a timeline and terminology.

Art:

Artcyclopedia – Users can search database by artist, artwork, movement, medium, or nationality to find information about that work of art as well biography and news about the artist.

ArtLex Art Dictionary – Featuring over 3,600 terms and their definitions used in discussing/reviewing art/visual culture, as well as thousands of supporting images, pronunciation notes, quotations, and references.

The Artist’s Toolkit – Providing the basic concepts of art appreciation and creating art.

The Smithsonian Institute – The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, and nine research facilities.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Established in 1870, the Met has over 2 million works of art from all over the globe, from ancient times to modern, in its permanent collection, and almost 7,000 of them can be viewed online.

The Museum of Modern Art – MoMA offers an unparalleled overview of modern and contemporary art, including works of architecture and design, as well as drawings, paintings, photography, sculpture, film, electronic media, as well as papers and files on individual artists.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts – The website for the only museum in the world exclusively dedicated to recognizing the contributions of female artists.

Arts Edge – A free digital resource to help teaching and learning about the arts, as well as offering materials that help to creatively use technology as a way to integrate the arts into other academic fields. Provided by the Kennedy Center.

Film & Television:

The Internet Movie Database – The IMDB is one of the greatest resources available online. You can search for movies and TV shows by title, cast/crew and character information. A great spot for determining all the above information plus runtime, genre, cast overview, year of release, plot overview. Also provides links to user and professional critic reviews, among many other cool features.

Rotten Tomatoes – A top resource for keeping track of information about movie and DVD releases, and finding dependable critical reviews from the nation’s top print and online film critics.

Teen Movie Critic – Reviews of films for teens written by teens.

Backstage – a great online resource for actors, providing insides, advice, and casting news.

The Oscars – The homepage for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Motion picture/film lessons and resources – A very comprehensive set of links, provided by the Media Literacy Clearinghouse.

TV.com – Providing recaps, episode guides, cast bios, and schedule listings for your favorite shows.

The Movie Spoiler – Called “the most fun you can have at the movies without being there.” Provides detailed synopsizes of films.

Television Without Pity – Extremely humorous and snarky recaps, spoilers, and message boards centered around your favorite shows.

Hulu – Speaking of your favorite shows, never miss an episode and watch in streaming video. Some content free, with time limits, and partially subscription-based.

Memory Alpha – An extremely detailed and comprehensive wiki for all things Star Trek.

The Movie Cliches List – A humorous list of stereotypes and flaws in logic constantly recurring in movies.

Performing Arts:

Performing Arts Encyclopedia – A guide to the music, theater, and dance resources, collections, and exhibitions available through the Library Of Congress.

The Monologue Archive – A nice collection of monologues from many famous playwrights, as well as a very hand set of theatrical and dramatic links.

The Costume Page – Extensive online resources dealing with the art and history of costuming for live dramatic theater, dance performances, opera, sports, as well as film and television.

NPR’s Performing Arts page – A nice collection of links to stories and interviews dealing with actors, dramatists, and the theater, as well as audio archives for stories about the performing arts on National Public Radio.

The Internet Broadway Database – Similar to the IMDB, but an archive of Broadway theater information, providing interesting facts and statistics about different productions.

Dramatist Play Service – A subscription database that lets users search and browse plays by their title and author, buy books, and purchase rights. Represents both new and established playwrights.

Warner Robins Little Theatre – Local community theater house/company who has been entertaining central Georgia for almost 50 years.

The Perry Players Community Theatre – Located in beautiful downtown Perry, this community theater house/company has been providing high quality entertainment and cultural activies for the past 30 years.

National Forensic League – The NFL promotes debate, oratory, and public speaking for high school and middle school students as a means of helping them to become effective communicators and ethical individuals and to develop strong critical thinking.

Music:

Pandora – Create an online streaming radio station based on songs, genres, eras, or artists. Completely free and also available as an app.

Last.fm – Free streaming radio and also lets you effortlessly track what you listen to from any player or device and recommends more music and artists to you based on your taste.

8 Tracks – Create your own streaming radio station or playlist, share with your friends, or listen to station and playlists from users from around the world.

Playlist.com – Listen to songs, build a playlist, and share with your friends around the world via all of your favorite social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, etc.

Art of the Mix – Devoted to the art form that is making a good mix tape or CD. Read thousands of others’ track lists and share your own.

The Public Domain Information Project – Information on and searchable database for songs and music in the public domain.

All Music Guide – A comprehensive listing of music information, and great for finding any song, artist, album, or genre.

Ultimate band list – As advertised, you can probably find information on any band or group here.

Song Facts – Search by artist, song title, or genre, and find fascinating music trivia, song meanings, behind the scenes info, and lyrics.

Song Meanings – Lyrics to your favorite songs, as well community provided stories about what they mean to others, and allowing you to share what a particular song means to you.

Lyrics World – Search for the lyrics from your favorite songs, provided in an alphabetical list.

The Archive of Misheard Lyrics – Check out common and commonly hilarious misconceptions in song lyrics.

From The Top – Offering education events as well as a showcase of America’s best young musicians. Also a show on both NPR and PBS.

All About Jazz – A very informative advocacy website for Jazz enthusiasts, dedicated to raising awareness of jazz music as well as defining it, and providing reviews and history of jazz artists.

Music Theory – An interactive website that provides less, exercises, and tools for learning musical theory.

Pollstar – A nice resource for tracking touring information and concert reviews for your favorite bands and artists.

Billboard – The online site for Billboard magazine, which provides daily music news, reviews, and chart reports, as well as much more.

Rolling Stone – The online site for Rolling Stone magazine, which offers primarily features and reviews of music, as well as covering subjects such as film, television, and politics.

Literature:

The Hub – A blog from YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services Association, a part of the American Library Association (ALA). “Your connection to Teen Reads.”

The Newbery Medal homepage – Information and a list of winners for the annual John Newbery Medal, which recognizes distinguished contributions to American literature for children and young adults.

Bartelby – The online literature project offers classic works of fiction and poetry, along with verses and references, for free.

Project Gutenberg – Providing over 38,000 classic works of literature as free ebooks, available for download for just about every device, or readable online.

Spark Notes – Providing study guides and plot summaries to classic works of fiction, as well as resources to help study for tests and prepare for college.

60 Second Recap – An educational video project providing short, interesting video summaries of classic literature titles as well as contemporary titles.

Shmoop – Offering literature learning guides and teach resources, and showing students how writing and learning and more relevant than ever in the digital age.

Free Book Notes – A search engine for literary study guides, pulling from Cliffs Notes, Spark Notes, BookRags, and Wiki summaries, and many others.

Book-A-Minute Classics – A very cool, very fun site that summarizes large works of literature into just a few sentences.

The Shakespeare Web – News and reviews of the Bard and productions of his work.

Shakespearean Insult Generator – Randomly returns insults from the Bard’s works. Fun for you, your friends, and your teachers.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare – An online catalog of all of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry, free to read online.

The Jane Austen info page – Contains a hypertext version of Pride And Prejudice, as well as excerpts from Austen’s other novels as well as literary criticism.

The Jack London online collection – A nice resource featuring the novels, short stories, and letters of the famous author, as well as images, bibliographies, and literary criticism.

Literary Criticism resources – Provided by the Internet Public Library, this is an extensive and wide ranging collection of links to critical and biographical websites about authors and their works

Encylopedia Mythica – A searchable database of detailed information about gods and goddesses from both ancient and some modern religions.

Poetry 180 – A poem a day (for the 180 days of a school year) for American high schools, provided by the Library of Congress.

No Flying, No Tights – A nice blog providing reviews for comic books, graphic novels, anime, and manga.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund – The CBLDF is an organization designed to protect the First Amendment rights of creators of comic books and graphic novels, as well as their publishers and retailers.

Favorite Teen Angst books – Celebrating and reviewing books about teenage angst and personal discovery.

YA books in series and sequels – A nice searchable database that helps you keep track of the books in your favorite series.

Rutgers – A vast collection of literary resources from around the internet, provided by Rutgers University.

Geek The Library – A library advocacy site presented by OCLC, the Online Computer Library Center.

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Blogs and websites by authors:

Laurie Halse Anderson.

Jay Asher.

Holly Black.

Libba Bray.

Meg Cabot.

Rachel Cohn.

Melissa De La Cruz.

Sarah Dessen.

Neil Gaiman.

John Green.

Brent Hartinger.

John Hodgman.

Maureen Johnson.

Justine Larbalestier.

David Leviathan.

Carolyn Mackler.

Jaclyn Moriarty.

Daniel Nayeri.

James Patterson.

J. K. Rowling.

Sara Shepard.

Ned Vizzini.

Scott Westerfeld.

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Are we missing something? Please let us know!

For other subjects and resources please see our main Homework Help page.

New and Featured Books for Kids/Juvenile Readers for 06/26/2012:

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Come and check out these and some of the other new books and materials (or at least new to us) for younger and juvenile readers added to our library collection…

EASY READING:

The Hermit Crab by Carter Goodrich

The Delicious Bug by Janet Perlman

What A Trip! by Arthur Yorinks and illustrated by Richard Egielski

Too Many Cooks by Margaret McNamara and illustrated by Nate Wragg

A Small Surprise by Louise Yates

The Old Woman Who Loved To Read by John Winch

The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce and illustrated by William Joyce and Joe Bluhm

Bink & Gollie: Two For One by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee and illustrated by Tony Fucile

Food Chain by M. P. Robertson

Minette’s Feast: The Delicious Story Of Julia Child And Her Cat by Susanna Reich and illustrated by Amy Bates

My Mother’s Secret Life by Rebecca Emberley

Nico & Lola: Kindness Shared Between A Boy And A Dog by Meggan Hill with photography by Susan M. Graunke

FICTION:

Fourth Grade Rats by Jerry Spinelli

Double Fudge by Judy Blume

Superfudge by Judy Blume

Virginia Wolf by Kyo Maclear and illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault

Super Stock Rookie by Will Weaver

Full Service by Will Weaver

The Sisters 8, Book 1: Annie’s Adventures by Lauren Baratz-Logstead with Greg Logsted and Jackie Logsted and illustrated by Lisa K. Weber

NON-FICTION:

Watch Me Grow! A Down-To-Earth Look At Growing Food In The City by Deborah Hodge with photographs by Brian Harris

1,001 Questions & Answers

Evolution by Linda Gamlin

Who Works Here? Police Station by Lola M. Schaefer

The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook: From Cauldron Cakes To Knickerbocker Glory – More Than 50 Magical Recipes For Wizards And Non-Wizards Alike by Dinah Bucholz

Mark McGwire: Star Home Run Hitter by Stew Thornley

Kitchen Science by Chris Maynard

Backyard Science by Chris Maynard

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Please note that books mentioned here could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk, OR call us, OR send us an email at robinsbaselibrary@gmail.com and  we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

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Previous New/Featured books for Adults:

06/14/12.

04/19/12.

04/11/12.

04/04/12.

03/29/12.

And for Young Adults:

04/12/12.

04/03/12.

03/20/12.

03/06/12.

02/21/12.

And for Kids/Juvenile Readers:

06/21/12.

06/12/12.

06/05/12.

04/17/12.

03/27/12.

03/13/12.

Reading material for 04/16/12.

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Some reading material from around the internet:

Brangelina are now engaged.

The LAPD is using computers to predict crimes before they happen.

Kim Jong Un speaks publicly for the first time.

Which fictional character shares your birthday?

Baby found alive in morgue hours after being declared dead.

Whatever happened to the iceberg that sank the Titanic?

Very few drivers admit to being tailgaters.

The Office may get rebooted next season.

Finally, a trailer for Rian Johnson’s Looper, a film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis as the same time traveling hitman.

Is Maggie Smith leaving Downton Abbey?

Tom Hanks to possibly star as Walt Disney in a film about the backstory on Mary Poppins.

A doctor reviews the science on House.

Kevin Costner really did ask Princess Diana to be in The Bodyguard.

For more information about this and other deadlines, see here.

Most of the pictures in this post are of “Home,” a recent sculptural art installation by a very talented artist named Miler Lagos. You can find more information about this project here and here.

J.K. Rowling’s post-Potter book for adults has a title now: The Casual Vacancy.

Bad ass contemporary American poets.

Literary classics with slang makeovers.

Antitrust regulation, price fixing, and e-books.

The 10 most frequently challenged library books.

A video of Tao Lin reading a poem of his called, “Whale,” which may be the most annoying, clever, and also annoying poem in the world.

BTW, it’s National Poetry Month!

What do you think of the smell of a used book?

Watch 10 celebrities reading famous poems aloud, including Bill Murray reading a poem called “Another Reason I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House” by Billy Collins to construction workers below…

Watch a corgi get vacuumed.

Pizza Hut introduces hot dog-stuffed crust pizza in the UK.

John Cleese on how to be creative.

How to get tax breaks by doing things in space.

Classic video games reimagined as children’s books.

A guide to finding sunglasses for lesser known face shapes.

How to blog.

from here.

Physicists continue work to abolish time as the fourth dimension of space.

Swedish town rocked by second child exorcism.

What professors earn.

What a new study of the evolution of names  reveals about China.

Scientists count Emperor Penguins from space.

New space propulsion technology could help clean up Earth orbit.

Star making in France.

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Previous online reading material:

04/09/12.

04/02/12.

03/26/12.

03/12/12.

03/05/12.

New and Featured DVDs for 03/15/12:

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Come and check out these and some of the other new DVDs and materials (or at least new to us) added to our library collection…

FICTION:

Sunset Boulevard

The Trip

2010, directed by Michael Winterbottom. A compilation film from a short British television series featuring comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing fictionalized versions of themselves, as friends and rivals, on a road trip to review restaurants in the north of England. But it’s about so much more than that. And it’s hilarious. Check out the trailer below:

And if that’s not enough for you, go to YouTube and check out the clip of Coogan and Brydon’s compete Michael Caine impressions.

Stop-Loss

The Last Starfighter

Vantage Point

To Sir, With Love

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 1

and

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Splice

Where The Wild Things Are

Julius Caesar

1953, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

L’Avventura

Under The Mountain

The Town

The Hidden Fortress

1958, directed by Akira Kurosawa

The first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, was based on this film as a primary influence. But beyond that, this is another great film from Kurosawa, and another great release from the Criterion Collection.

Cousins

Synecdoche, New York

2008, directed by Charlie Kaufman. This is a personal favorite of mine, and partly because of that, I can’t say too much about it. It’s not a film for everyone, mostly because it’s a very difficult movie, with a lot of meanings on a lot of levels. Phillip Seymour Hoffman gives the performance of his career as a playwright trying to capture the sadness and infinitely mundane aspects of every day life in a new work that seems to be growing more and more epic (that’s putting it lightly) with each passing moment. I know that’s a very vague plot description, and I apologize. I’ll just put it this way: This is one of the bleakest and most depressing movies I’ve ever seen in my life, but it’s also one of the best films I’ve ever seen, and one of the most uplifting. Check out Roger Ebert’s review and an interview with writer/director Charlie Kaufman.

NON-FICTION:

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise And Fall Of Jack Johnson

How Art Made The World

F For Fake

1975, directed by Orson Welles. This is the last major film by Welles, and it’s partially a documentary, focusing on the life of art forger Elmyr de Hory, and partially an essay work, dealing with the ideas of authorship and authenticity, and the value of art. This is a truly enchanting work, and for proof of that, check out the film’s introduction:

Mysteries Of The Garden Of Eden

Secret Origin: The Story Of DC Comics

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Please note that DVDs could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk and we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

* * *

Previous New/Featured DVDs:

02/14/12.

02/07/12.

12/30/11.

Previous New/Featured books:

03/01/12.

02/02/11.

01/27/12.

12/27/11.

Reading material for 02/27/12:

Posted on

from here.

Some reading material from around the internet:

The Artist takes the majority of the big awards at the Oscars.

The weirdest unsolved mysteries of World War II.

RIP Jan Berenstain, co-creator of The Berenstain Bears.

John Peel’s record collection to be digitized and displayed online.

The myth of 8 hours of sleep.

Academy Awards cupcakes.

Here’s a funny website: Photoshop Disasters.

Unlike humans, chimpanzees don’t enjoy collaborating.

Relive the 1990s in 48 pictures.

from here.

Physicist Brian Cox explains how everything in the universe is connected to everything else.

Stratospheric superbugs offer new source of power.

A pill to help you erase unwanted memories?

Studies show that Mayan civilization’s collapse related to modest rainfall reductions.

High energy workplaces can save America.

Watch TED Talks on Hulu.

This can be your next tweet.

How to remove your Google search history before Google’s new privacy policy takes effect.

A really cool t-shirt with Isaac Asimov on it.

from here.

“Everything I know about love I learned from romance novels.”

J.K. Rowling announces her first novel for adults.

Edward Albee talks about Carson McCullers.

Blink vs. Think: When a movie bewitches a writer.

Check out this NYC phone booth that was turned into a bookshelf/mini library.

Top 10 words that need to be retired from usage immediately.

Is there such a thing as buying too many books?

from here.

A 15 minute long video featuring Worf’s ideas getting shot down by everybody on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

10 science fiction/fantasy endings that we’d like to see more often.

Breaking down the Oscar nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Teddy Roosevelt on The Simpsons.

A video essay on how to pull the perfect movie heist.

Oscar cynicism has become its own special form of Oscar Hype.”

The Best of the Worst Netflix reviews of Best Picture nominees.

Hans Zimmer talks about composing music for The Dark Knight Rises.

from here.

How waiters read your table.

The man with the longest name in the world.

Anatomical diagrams of Japanese monsters.

Foods for healthier teeth.

Dr. Seuss’ birthday is on Friday. Here’s 9 facts you didn’t know about the author.

Explore secret cities.

Photos of people with everything they own.

Speaking of which, apparently easily pronounced names make people more likable.

Make everything OK.

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Previous online reading material:

02/20/12.

02/13/12.

02/06/12.

01/30/12.

12/27/11.

12/19/11.