Ahoy!

Welcoming the cruisers back to dry land- you landlubbers! No scurvy I hope? (heeheehee)
Hope the cruise experience was wonderful and glad you all had a vacation.

Well,I promised I would do it- and I really musn't put it off longer else I'll surely lose all my ambition to do so. Today, my last official day of classes for term one, is the day (night) I applaud and thank the New York Public Library System for exemplary standards of excellence in service and materials. Specifically The Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center and the NYPL Riverside branch (a few doors down).

Let me preface this with a bit of background info: I know not by what power, but by some power it is, the AMDA library is actually one of the best and most extensive in the city- if not in the performing arts realm in general. It is so inclusive and detailed that the Juliard students tend to get haughty about us using 'their' facilities- which is the NYPL Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center. Apparently over the years many people have donated scores and media items to little AMDA out of the kindness of their hearts, maybe from pity or some other such impetus, but like a clever spider the AMDA folk have been pleasantly cultivating a swelling horde of treasured and out of print material that will prove invaluable to my education. Here's the cute little snag: Due to renovations and a most timely decision to move the library facilities, the AMDA library had been closed for most of my crucial first semester here- and then for a few weeks was half-heartedly functioning like some sort of bizzarre musical drive thru, where in you would stroll up to a windowed ticket booth type service area, order the music (sheet, or cassette, script or score), pay a processing fee, and then return to the window in a few hours time (sometimes the next day) and pick up your materials.

No problem, you'd say nonchalantly. Au Contraire, mon frere! Though the library's grand opening was delayed well beyond it's target date of the First week of the Semester, our BIG, HUGE, VERY IMPORTANT musicals project *which required hours and hours of listening, reading and researching very obscure and lesser known musicals* was not at all deterred from the due date arbitrarily set probably a year or more ago when someone sat down to make a syllabus for First Semester students. What, then, were we to do?

As a matter of what I consider to be supreme luck and maybe a bit of grace, on my daily walk to school, in the blocks between 70th and 61st, lies a treasure trove of knowledge and blessed input! The Performing arts library at Lincoln Center is widely considered to be the best in the country- and how right they were! Shelves and Shelves of Musical scores (more opera and classical, but pleanty of Broadway to be getting on with), Volumes and volumes of important texts, interactive exhibits (currently a lovely pair on Donna Summer and the other Harold Arlen who composed the famous Somewhere Over the Rainbow from Wizard of OZ) rows and rows of CDs - which are available not as reference materials, but just like books in a regular library available for checking out at your convenience! This is also true of a whole large video\dvd section- free movie rentals! They have everything from obscure instructinal videos (Play the violin series volume 1) to taped performances of live ballet, opera, symphonic concerts and even some musical theatre, to regular old films like John Wayne in The Searchers or Tom hanks in the Terminal. Let me just say that I don't believe i'll ever go to blockbuster again while i reside here.

One particularly valuable feature is the exclusive and heavily monitered viewing library on the third floor. here you can listen to music that may not otherwise be available for checking out, but more importantly you are able to choose from a huge tome-like catalogue of live theatre\musical theatre\ opera\ dance performances recorded for posterity on film. There are many rules and regulations here, and the staff is reminiscent of a fierce priode of mother lions sheltering their young, but once you've gotten over this the resource is quite exciting. In a smallish room off the main floor you sit in very comfortable chairs and have your own monitor and earphones and computeized remote-control and can view some broadway show! Free! I, in my research, was able to see Ragtime with the original cast, and consider myself most fortunate to have done so, as I may never have given the musical a real chance- and was so very impressed with its scope and gravity, which the soundtrack itself really doesn't illustrate. I can see plays that are greatly impactful but are obviously not still up and running. One can examine the changing and evolving styles of american theatre over the span of seasons and decades!

What i've taken advantage of most, however, is the rental of cds and dvds. I now have half the library's broadway cd collection stored in my media library on the laptop, and i'm sure the other half will be entered next semester as we cover vaudville and operettas untill 1960!

But i am most excited about the classic films i've always wanted to see and have scarce been able to locate in your frindly neighborhood video store.
3 that stand out as "wow i'm gald I rented that (for free!)!" are the following: starring bette davis and henry fonda, JezebelThe Maltese Falcon starring Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for which (Dame) Maggie Smith was awarded her oscar. Dad's been telling me for ages to see The Maltese Falcon if i ever got a chance- and let me tell you, I see why! What a fine film. I happen to love old movies, and appreciate them when alot of folks find them hard to 'get into'. I credit this to my parents and my brother all of whom had a great deal to do with shaping my cinematic taste-buds, but often it takes a certain disposition in this day in age- in this hustle-bustle action-and-specialeffects generation to actually sit down and glean enjoyment from films so stylized, so deliberately paced and so rudimentary in technique and technology. The Maltese Falcon (and another great piece, Some Like It Hot) is a film that needs no special taste for older films. This plot was exciting, rich, *mostly* unpredictable and dealt with subject matter just as prevalent today as it was in 1941. What an engaging movie- one that can be put on a FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL TIME list and nor relegated to a favorite old movies list on a separate piece of paper.

I could bore you with full reviews here, but it's late (or early, depending on your point of view) so I'll restrain myself. Suffice it to say this: the NYPL is probably my best friend and most useful tool here in New York so far. Maybe Someday I'll be earning big bucks as a broadway actress and will finally be able to drop some cash in that Donations box I pass guiltily every week upon entering and exiting!!!!!

Love you all greatly- Be home soon,

Beth