Chance's Corner: What is a "Good" Movie?

I get asked to recommend movies all the time here at the library, and while I enjoy doing it, sometimes it proves to be no easy task. Movies are a form of art, and the appreciation of art has always been based on opinion. So, for example, when people ask me to recommend me a good comedy, I have to wonder what they consider to be "good". Are they Adam Sandler and Melissa McCarthy types? Do they prefer dry, black, toilet, screwball, satire, or slapstick? It's usually easy to figure out once I ask them what they like. However, you also have the ones that ask me to recommend them just a "good" movie. Oh dear. There's all sorts of possibilities there. Should I walk them over to the classic section or pick out the 17th (ha) Transformers movie?

Luckily, whenever I'm put in that situation, I have some movies that I can fall back on. One of them is called The Straight Story. No, it's not called The Straight Story because it's one of David Lynch's most straight-forward films. Yes, I'm talking about the same David Lynch behind some of the most enigmatic, freaky and surreal films ever made. The Straight Story actually gets its title from the true story of Alvin Straight, and his 260 mile journey on a '66 John Deere lawnmower to see his ailing brother in "party-town" Wisconsin. The Straight Story is more or less a family film, not one of Lynch's eerie masterworks, but his trademarks are still all over the film, adding complexity and symbolism as only Lynch can. I do warn that the film is slowly paced, but overall it's a very touching story and worth the wait (and tears).

The Straight Story is available at the Franklin County Library.

Upcoming After School Programs and a Request

Summer Reading is in full swing at Franklin County Library, but we are already looking ahead to the Fall and our After-School programs.


We will be picking up Marvelous Mondays again, beginning September 11th.  Kids of all ages will enjoy science experiments and crafts.  We are going to try a little earlier time this year, moving to 4:00, for the 20-30 minute program.




We are very excited this year, to introduce a new program on Wednesdays at 4:00, beginning September 13th.  In the as yet unnamed program, we will be learning about robots and coding.  The first semester, we will focus on Ozobots.  Ozobots are tiny 1" robots that can be programmed by drawing color codes on paper, or by using Ozoblockly to program them with a computer.  Following Ozobots, we will learn with Dot and Dash robots, Makey Makey, and Scratch.  This program is for kids ages 8 and up and will last 30-45 minutes.  


And now for the request...  Have you ever wondered how you could help Franklin County Library with all the things we do?  As you can imagine, there are several items we need in order to put these programs on.  We have created a "wishlist" on Amazon of things that would be helpful to have.  If you are at all interested in supporting our After-School programming you can click on the following links to see and/or purchase the things we need.

Robots/Coding

Marvelous Monday

You can also become a member of the Friends of the Library.  The Friends fund all of our programming including Marvelous Monday, Robots/Coding, and Summer Reading.  For a small membership fee, library staff can get you signed up to be a Friend!

Thank you!