Cancel your afternoon of nothing: It's Arrested Development (again!)

Back in 2006, fans of Fox's underground hit Arrested Development thought they had said goodbye to the series for the last time. Despite its acclaim, many branded it a flop; the mere fact that they called it that tells us that they weren't ready for its unusual, forward-thinking brand of comedy. Following a long hiatus, most people assumed that rumors of a fourth season were just a trick. But it's not a trick or an illusion. If there's one thing we've learned from the continual success and revival of niche hit shows like Futurama and Family Guy, it's that there's always money in cult TV.

After years of lobbying from the show's growing fanbase (there are dozens of us! We didn't see you at the convention), Netflix is indeed premiering a new season of Arrested Development this Sunday, and it's easily the most anticipated TV event of the year. Suffice to say, Netflix is gonna get some log-ons. Say "Annyong" to the future of television!

Most people excited about the new season have probably watched the original multiple times and memorized its crisscrossing in-jokes and interconnected structure. But if your uncle-father and hermano have never seen Arrested Development before, they've made a huge mistake. And that's why you need to come to Media Services!

We have the first three seasons available for checkout. Be sure to have a dry run with the original series before watching the new one. Unless you're a chicken! Coo-coo-ca-cha!

Arrested Development, Season 1 – HU DVD 4871
Arrested Development, Season 2 – HU DVD 4872
Arrested Development, Season 3 – HU DVD 4873

Media Services at the Movies: Before Midnight

The summer blockbuster season is here! "Media Services at the Movies" will look at what big movie is coming out this week, then offer a few movies like it from our collection.

In a week overloaded with all sorts of explosive, insane sequels (Fast & Furious 6, The Hangover Part III, etc.), the film that stands out the most to us is the third part of Richard Linklater's minimalist romance-drama series, Before Midnight. It's an unusual choice for a second sequel, made even stranger by the nine-year gap between each movie. But early buzz from Sundance says it's the best one yet. But if you want to see it, you might have to look in a smaller local theater.

In honor of Before Midnight's debut, try these other films from Richard Linklater and star Julie Delpy.

Waking Life – HU DVD 364
Before Sunrise – HU DVD 1098
Before Sunset – HU DVD 1099
Slacker – HU DVD 1347
2 Days in Paris – HU DVD 10793

The Office clocks out

After an impressive nine-season run (a rarity for modern scripted sitcoms), NBC's surprise hit The Office will close shop tonight at 9pm. For a sitcom with an inauspicious start as a sure-to-fail remake of a British TV classic, The Office became a staple of Thursday night television for the last decade. The audience's interest in Dunder Mifflin's unhinged work ethic and Jim Halpert and Pam Beesley's ultimate will-they-won't-they relationship kept the show a mainstay of American popular culture and dorm room posters. The success of The Office can be seen as one of the biggest factors behind the rise of the single-camera sitcom and the "mockumentary" format aped by Parks and Recreation and Modern Family.

Though the past few years have unarguably been weaker, in part because of the departures of Steve Carell and early showrunner Greg Daniels, the show looks to close out on a high note that pays reverence to its long history and ensemble cast. Pop culture website HitFix put together a great article about how The Office beat the odds and weathered a few sparse years; it's worth a read before Scranton Business Park hits the lights one final time.

If you want to catch up on The Office, we have the first seven seasons on our shelves, as well as the British series.

The Office: Season 1 – HU DVD 4011
The Office: Season 2 – HU DVD 4012 - 4015
The Office: Season 3 – HU DVD 4016 - 4019
The Office: Season 4 – HU DVD 4020 - 4023
The Office: Season 5 – HU DVD 4024 - 4028
The Office: Season 6 – HU DVD 4029 - 4033
The Office: Season 7 – HU DVD 4034 - 4038
The Office: Series 1 (UK) – HU DVD 8581 - 8582
The Office: Series 2 (UK) – HU DVD 8583
The Office: The Special (UK) – HU DVD 8584

Big names in cinema compete at Cannes 2013

Today marks the start of the Cannes Film Festival, widely considered one of film's most elite and prestigious events. Despite some concerns about the festival's secrecy, ballooning size, and demographics, Cannes is still the gold standard for festivals, and its top prize, the Palme d'Or, remains one of the highest awards a filmmaker can receive.

Appearing in competition at Cannes is an honor in itself. It's also great for a film's publicity: you might recognize some of last years entrants, including Amour, Holy Motors, Moonrise Kingdom, Cosmopolis, Killing Them Softly, and On the Road. This year holds some interesting surprises, including the next films from the Coen brothers and Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn.

Given Cannes's storied seven-decade history, we have a large number of the festival's winners. Read past the break for a full list of our Cannes-winning DVDs.

Dig in: A comprehensive list of film's greatest greasy eats

For a university community, the end of the academic year means more time to relax, stay outside, and giving in to some less-healthy foods. There's nothing wrong with indulging once in a while.

We wouldn't have guessed that there's a particularly great history of greasy food-related moments in film, but lo and behold, pop culture website ShortList has found some. In the past few decades, movies have apparently been more liberal about showing characters eating, their go-to foods of choice being pizza and burgers. Award-winning classics like Do the Right Thing and Pulp Fiction have memorable food scenes, but even odd choices like Grease and Back to the Future have choice moments with fatty foods.

These are probably the most inconsequential lists of all time, but hey, we're in the first week of the summer session. Enjoy!

Media Services at the Movies: Star Trek Into Darkness

The summer blockbuster season is here! "Media Services at the Movies" will look at what big movie is coming out this week, then offer a few movies like it from our collection.

Get out of your Jeffries tube and adjust your Heisenberg compensators: it's Star Trek season again! Four years after J. J. Abrams gave new life to the storied but creaky space adventure franchise, the director-producer has returned with a new chapter that promises to be darker, more exciting, and possibly featuring even more fan service (Does Benedict Cumberbatch play the evil Khan? Does it matter?). But don't boldly go just yet: early reviews indicate that the movie's slam-bang action might've taken some of the heart out of the venerable series.

A number of us in Media Services are self-professed Trekkies, so we're understandably a little excited. We have a big chunk of Star Trek's 47 year history in our collection. If you've never watched any before, make it so.

Trekkies – HU DVD 744
Star Trek: The Original Series – HU DVD 6201 - 6203
Star Trek: The Next Generation – HU DVD 6401 - 6449
Star Trek (2009) – HU DVD 7084
Star Trek: The Motion Picture – HU DVD 9731
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – HU DVD 9732
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock – HU DVD 9733
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – HU DVD 9734
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – HU DVD 9735
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – HU DVD 9736
Star Trek: The Captains' Summit – HU DVD 9737

Salute to our senior staff

Today's the last day of the academic year, which is both exciting and sad for us. On the one hand, we're all looking forward to the summer. But it also means we have to say goodbye to our senior student staff members who are graduating.

Media Services, the New Media Center, and the AU Library are nothing without the staff, and our graduating seniors have provided the highest quality of service we could ask for. A big thanks to those leaving us this week:

Media Services

• Eliza Madden (3 1/2 years)
• Nameir Abbas (2 1/2 years)
• Anthony DeSalvatore (2 years)
• Anya Crittenton (1 year)

New Media Center

• Kady Buchanan (2 years)
• Yi Chen (2 years)
• Adam Curtis (1 year)

Our staff members are tremendously skilled, and based on their post-graduation plans, we have no doubt that they've got good things ahead. Good luck out there guys!

Media Services at the Movies: The Great Gatsby

The summer blockbuster season is here! "Media Services at the Movies" will look at what big movie is coming out this week, then offer a few movies like it from our collection.

Baz Luhrmann isn't the first director to adapt The Great Gatsby for the screen, but he might be the last. Where previous film versions of F. Scott Fitzgerald's great novel were criticized for their staidness, Luhrmann's Gatsby has drawn equal parts attention and scorn for its flamboyant, colorful aesthetics (shot in 3D nonetheless). Some are now questioning if the novel is even filmable. But in a way, the Golden 20s are the perfect fit for Luhrmann: it's all about the style.

Luhrmann's Gatsby has us thinking about the 1920s, Prohibition, and over-the-top extravagance. If you can't make it to the theaters this weekend, one of these movies might scratch the same itch.

Romeo + Juliet – HU DVD 75
Moulin Rouge! – HU DVD 297
Chicago – HU DVD 626
The Great Gatsby (1974) – HU DVD 722
Strictly Ballroom – HU DVD 882
Prohibition – DVD 9121 - 9123
Boardwalk Empire, Season 1 – HU DVD 9421
Boardwalk Empire, Season 2 – HU DVD 9422

Hot Docs: The Light in Her Eyes

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

The Light in Her Eyes (DVD 10782) tells the fascinating story of a Muslim preacher whose school has led to more women taking active involvement in the Islamic community. The filmmaker notes that western feminism tends to be secular; in contrast, the women here use their religious education as a backbone for their own movement. It's an interesting juxtaposition of a religion that is typically not associated with strong feminist tendencies with the burgeoning women's movement inside it.

Official description from the film's website:

Houda al-Habash, a conservative Muslim preacher, founded a Qur’an school for girls in Damascus 30 years ago.

Every summer, her female students immerse themselves in a rigorous study of Islam. A surprising cultural shift is under way—women are claiming space within the mosque.

Shot right before the uprising in Syria erupted, The Light in Her Eyes offers an extraordinary portrait of a leader who challenges the women of her community to live according to Islam, without giving up their dreams.

Watch Steven Soderbergh's extra-long speech about the state of film

It looks like filmmaker Steven Soderbergh wasn't kidding when he said he was retiring. A few day ago, Soderbergh gave a keynote speech at the San Francisco Film Festival. It was exactly as upbeat as you might expect from an auteur who left Hollywood in disillusionment. For nearly 40 minutes, Soderbergh delivered a rambling assault on the film industry, piracy, and other societal ills.

Thankfully, despite the requests for no video recording, the San Francisco Film Society has provided a complete video of Soderbergh's "State of Cinema" speech. It's sort of breathtaking to watch. If you can find the time, or even if you want to put it on in the background, it's worth listening to one of the most prolific independent filmmakers of the era talk about what he finds wrong with the industry.

Graphic designer breaks films down by color

For those with an interest in film and composition (which probably describes most of our audience), this is the coolest thing you'll see all day. Roxy Radulescu, a graphic artist from Los Angeles, started Movies in Color, a blog that breaks iconic film stills down by color.

In addition to showcasing the most prominent and notable colors in each shot, the blog also shows the light and dark tones that make up most of the image. It's remarkable to see how some filmmakers and cinematographers work in almost monochromatic palettes, while others use certain colors sparingly to highlight different parts of the scene.

Right now there's 7 pages of content, plus an index by cinematographer. And since the blog's only been around since February, it's growing rapidly fast. Bookmark this one for later if you don't want to lose a whole afternoon to it.

Media Services at the Movies: Iron Man 3

The summer blockbuster season is here! "Media Services at the Movies" will look at what big movie is coming out this week, then offer a few movies like it from our collection.

Even though AU is just entering finals season – and even though spring doesn't end until mid-June – the first sign of summer has arrived. Yes, another Marvel movie has come to roost. After last year's massive success with The Avengers, Iron Man 3 (in theaters this Friday, May 29th) sees billionaire Tony Stark going solo. It's the first movie in Marvel's post-Avengers "Phase 2," in which they hope to recapture the box office magic they reaped the first time around.

We have many (though not all) of the earlier titles in the Marvel series, as well as a number of other movies based on Marvel properties. Plus, we have Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the first collaboration between Iron Man 3 director Shane Black and Robert Downey Jr. Take a gander at these movies before setting off to the skies once more with Tony and Pepper.

X-Men – HU DVD 1441
X2: X-Men United – HU DVD 1442
X-Men: The Last Stand – HU DVD 1443
Blade: Trinity – HU DVD 1972
Iron Man – HU DVD 2763
Iron Man 2 – HU DVD 2764
The Amazing Spider-Man – HU DVD 6493
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – HU DVD 6736
Spider-Man – HU DVD 7121
Spider-Man 2 – HU DVD 7122
Spider-Man 3 – HU DVD 7123
Blade – HU DVD 8111
Blade II – HU DVD 8112
Captain America: The First Avenger – HU DVD 10147
The Avengers – HU DVD 10501
Thor – HU DVD 10965

Sick of super heroes? 10 low-key movies to watch for this summer

Summer movie season unofficially kicks off this coming Friday with Iron Man 3. We have four months of slam-bang action and high-budget adaptations to look forward to, with a new major blockbuster coming out seemingly every week (the upcoming Iron Man-Great Gatsby-Star Trek trifecta looks like it'll wreak havoc on the box office).

But a season loaded with big hits doesn't exclude smaller films too. In fact, it might encourage people to look for something a little quieter and smaller. Entertainment news site HitFix compiled a list of 10 tinier movies coming out this summer that deserve your attention. Included are the new film from Noah Baumbach, director of The Squid and the Whale; an unusual Paul Rudd comedy with Icelandic roots; and a hit Sundance documentary about backup singers.

It's definitely worth a read. When you're in line to watch The Lone Ranger come July, consider looking up a local theater that'll be showing one of these sleeper hits.

New resource: Films for Teaching School of Communications Topics

Our Media Librarian, Chris Lewis, has been hard at work on a new sources for faculty (and students!) in the School of Communication. His new subject guide, "Films/Videos for Teaching School of Communication Topics," compiles lists of useful films on over a dozen communication topics, including political communication, public speaking, and dissident media.

This is a valuable new resource for faculty looking to add films to their courses, but it's also useful for students who want to use films as a resource for their papers or projects. A number of SOC classes require students to watch documentaries of their choosing, and this as a great way to find a relevant movie.

If you aren't in SOC, don't fret: We also have a broader index of filmographies which go more in-depth about specific subjects other than communications

Hot Docs: Human Geography

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

Human Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth (DVD 10629) is a four-disc series that introduces the new and developing field of human geography. Human geography fuses traditional geographic studies with the social sciences, developing an understanding of how human population spreads, transfers, and develops in relation to space. It's all a little confusing to wrap your head around, which is why a series like this comes in handy. At 215 minutes, Human Geography covers everything from an overview of how the field works to the nitty-gritty about economic development and culture.

Official description from container:

As the human population marches toward 10 billion people, understanding where people live, how they are connected, and how they are shaping different parts of the planet is essential. Host Dr. Alexander B. Murphy opens the door to the field of human geography, a vital perspective for making sense of the rapidly changing, increasingly interconnected world of the 21st century. He shows us that if we cannot think geographically we are bound to fail in confronting future challenges.

View a trailer on Ambrose Video's website.

So it's come to this: Prepare your wallets for the Music Library's massive LP sale

Interested in collecting vinyl? Clear your calendar for this Friday. The Music Library has in the process of filtering out its LP collection, and Everything. Must. Go.

From 10am–2pm on Friday, April 26th, the Music Library will be selling LPs by the bagful outside of Bender Library. The prices will go down over the course of the day: first picks will cost $3 per bag, but by the last hour, everything is free!

$3 for a full bag of vinyl is an absolute steal. This is the sort of deal that you'd expect someone to joke about. If you're looking for new records, this is a sale you won't want to miss.

Forsooth! Happy Talk Like Shakespeare Day

Today is William Shakespeare's 449th birthday, and accordingly, today is also Talk Like Shakespeare Day. This is an actual holiday that has been proclaimed in Chicago. We see no reason why it can't be celebrated at the AU Library too.

To celebrate the bard's birthday on this most unusual but completely real holiday, consider coming to Media Services and watching some of Shakespeare's plays. We have a fairly extensive collection of Shakespeare performances: we have separate Pinterest boards for his comedies, tragedies, and histories.

Barring that, you could also just watch She's the Man (HU DVD 4379).

Movies passes available NOW: This Is the End

This Is the End is a surreal comedy film featuring celebrities, playing themselves, coming face-to-face with the apocalypse. The movie doesn't open until June 12, 2013, but you can see it next week!

We have free passes for a screening of This Is the End for Wednesday, April 24th. The film will screen at the Regal Gallery Place theater at 7pm.

Come down to Media Services for a free pass. Note that seating is on first-come first-serve basis, and having a pass is not a guarantee that you'll get in. Show up early!

(As a disclaimer from the Media Librarian: having passes for this movie is not a guarantee that we'll add it to our collection.)

Collection highlight: Global Lens 2012

As the academic year comes to a close, we've acquired an interesting film collection that's worth a special mention.

In their own words, the Global Film Initiative "promotes cross-cultural understanding through the medium of cinema." Their board includes such esteemed filmmakers as Pedro Almodóvar and Lars von Trier. Each year, the GFI chooses a selection of narrative feature films from around the world for special presentation as part of their traveling Global Lens series.

This week, we added the Global Lens 2012 series to our collections. It features ten films from across the world, including Albania, Brazil, and Rwanda. If you're interested in world cinema, these films are certainly worth a look.

(And if you're looking for something to screen for a club or event, our copies of the films have public performance rights. Please consult with us in advance.)

We're on Google+ now!

Hey everyone – we just opened shop over at Google+. Thanks to wonderful Google integration, our Google+ page will feature all of our wonderful blog content.

If you're subscribed to our RSS feed and will miss Google Reader once its gone, or if you're just looking for something new to spice up your feed, add us to your Circle!

(This is also a test to see how the Blogger cross-posting works. Hopefully this'll show up on Google+ too!)

Happy Earth Month! Take a tour, see WALL-E, and more

If you've noticed all the mulch and plants on campus today, you're probably aware that it's Campus Beautification Day. In coordination with Office of Sustainability's Earth Month, members of the AU community spent the morning recycling old electronics and prettifying campus. It's part of a month-long series of events to celebrate AU's commitment to going green.

We're big on sustainability at the AU Library, so we wanted to let everyone in on the events happening this month. You can find a full list at the AU Earth Month website.

Most relevantly to Media Services, the University Center will be screening the eco-conscious Pixar hit WALL-E next Tuesday, April 23rd, in MGC 200 (time TBD). This is a great, fun way to celebrate the environment through film.

Hot Docs: The Uprising of '34

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

The Uprising of '34 (DVD 10617) tells the story of a massive but largely unremembered textile worker strike from 1934. It was at the time the largest labor strike in the history of the United States and lasted for nearly a month, greatly impacting the South's textile industry and ending in a major, lasting defeat for the unions in the South. This documentary interviews participants in the strike and explores the strike's lasting but forgotten effects on the current state of labor unions.

Official description from the publisher's website:

In 1934, Southern textile workers took the lead in a nationwide strike that saw half a million walk off their jobs in the largest single-industry strike in the history of the United States. For a time, these new union members, in response to New Deal legislation, stood up for their rights and became a force to be reckoned with in the South. Then management moved in and crushed the strike. Some mill workers were murdered, thousands more were blacklisted, and many were so intimidated that "union" became a dirty word in Southern communities for decades to come.

Barely publicized, rarely acknowledged in history books, the General Textile Strike of 1934 remains a stirring yet amazingly forgotten chapter in Southern history. The Uprising of '34, a film by famed documentarian George Stoney and independent filmmakers Judith Helfand and Susanne Rostock, examines this hidden legacy of the labor movement in the South and its impact today.

Sorry, VHS players. The Blu-rays are in!

For the longest time, Media Services has helped patrons view movies on-site with over a dozen DVD-VHS combo players. Sadly, they're falling apart and hard to maintain, and fewer patrons are using VHSes now than even a few years ago.

We've future-proofed ourselves by replacing the majority of our stations with new Blu-ray-DVD players. They're smaller, faster, and have a number of built-in "smart" features (like Netflix playback) should we ever need those. Don't worry: we're keeping a couple VHS players around for those hard-to-find movies and special cases.

Come see them for yourself if you haven't had to watch a movie recently. They're pretty nice!

Finals approach, and it's too hot out, so have a free movie!

It's 86 degrees in Washington right now. Wasn't it just snowing a few weeks ago? As the semester rolls to a close and summer is bounding over the horizon, you probably need an excuse to stay in and relax.

You're in luck: we're giving away another batch of digital copies of movies! This time, you could win...

• The Hunger Games
• Crazy, Stupid, Love.
• The Campaign
• The Avengers
• The Amazing Spider-Man
• Jaws
• The Lorax

To enter the giveaway, tell us your favorite summer movie in the comments. We'll randomly select five winners next wees from our social media and in-person entries.

Good luck, and stay cool!

EDIT: The giveaway is now over.

New Acquisitions - April 2013

We're at the end of our purchasing season, so we're adding one more batch of new titles for the semester. We have a couple Oscar nominees (Les Misérables, Anna Karenina, Life of Pi, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey), a few enlightening documentaries (including biographies of famous composers and an economist), some movies we probably should've had by now (the first Ice Age and The Ring), and a few... weird ones. Anyone up for Pocahontas II?

Point being, it was an interesting month.

Read on for a full list...

Media Services joins the library on a Muslim Journey

As part of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association, American University is participating in Muslim Journeys, part of the Bridging Cultures Bookshelf program. In addition to a number of new book acquisitions and a series of discussions from AU professors and scholars, Media Services has acquired three new titles in conjunction with the program.

We encourage you to check out these new films that present, in the words of the Bridging Cultures program, "new and diverse perspectives on the people, places, histories, beliefs, practices, and cultures of Muslims in the United States and around the world."

Prince Among Slaves – HU DVD 4049
Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World – HU DVD 11013
Koran by Heart – HU DVD 11014

The Invisible War screening on campus tonight at 8pm

The Invisible War, the 2012 documentary about sexual assault in the US military, has made significant waves in the military community since its release; then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta used the film as a starting point for broader program to address sexual assault in the military. It's a powerful documentary. It may be emotionally difficult to watch (trigger warning), but there's a reason it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary this year.

Tonight, in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the Wellness Center (in sponsorship with many on-campus groups) will screen The Invisible War in the Ward Circle Building, Room 1 at 8pm. The film will be preceded by a panel discussion about institutional responses to sexual assault at 7pm.

This is an important if difficult film that deserves to be watched. Use this opportunity on campus if you're able.

After a busy semester, what's new from Media Services?

We've hit the end of the fiscal year, so we've temporarily stopped ordering new films. We've gotten many, many other interesting titles in the past month, so you can expect another New Acquisitions post shortly.

In the meantime, we wanted to alert you to some of the big new titles trickling into our collections. Patrons frequently ask us what recent movies we've purchased, and although we try to post our newest titles once a month, the last month or two have been particularly busy for big new movies.

Here's a rundown of the big movies we've purchased since the start of the semester. If you're looking for something new and exciting in our collection, it's probably one of these:

Les Misérables – HU DVD 254 (is it available?)
Les Misérables – HU BLU 254 (is it available?)
Skyfall – HU DVD 5001 (is it available?)
Argo – HU DVD 5555 (is it available?)
Argo – HU BLU 5555 (is it available?)
The Dark Knight Rises – HU DVD 10792 (is it available?)
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry – HU DVD 10873 (is it available?)
Killer Joe – HU DVD 10876 (is it available?)
Looper – HU DVD 10899 (is it available?)
Flight – HU DVD 10946 (is it available?)
Flight – HU BLU 10946 (is it available?)
Holy Motors – HU DVD 11008 (is it available?)
The Master – HU DVD 11009 (is it available?)
Snow White and the Huntsman – HU DVD 11015 (is it available?)
Snow White and the Huntsman – HU BLU 11015 (is it available?)
Brave – HU DVD 11021 (is it available?)
Anna Karenina – HU DVD 11022 (is it available?)
The Pirates! Band of Misfits – HU DVD 11024 (is it available?)
ParaNorman – HU DVD 11030 (is it available?)
The Intouchables – HU DVD 11040 (is it available?)
Life of Pi – HU DVD 11046 (is it available?)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – HU DVD 11048 (is it available?)

Yep, Game of Thrones is back on

If you're friends with anyone with HBO, chances are you've heard that the third season of Game of Thrones premieres tonight. The latest installment in George R. R. Martin's fantasy epic is sure to captivate audiences for the next two-or-so-months. And if the books are any indication, this is going to be a particularly violent and shocking season. (We dare not risk even referring to particularly horrific events, but suffice to say, they're the reason that the show's producers wanted to make the series the first place).

If you want to get your Game of Thrones fix in preparation for the third season, Media Services has you covered. We currently have DVDs for the first two seasons available. Act quickly though; the show is immensely popular, and supply will be limited. Either you win or you... have to wait three days for the DVDs to come back.

Check availability with the links below:

Game of Thrones, Season 1 – HU DVD 10021, Discs 1-5
Game of Thrones, Season 2 – HU DVD 10022, Discs 1-5

Hear Oliver Stone on JFK's legacy TONIGHT!

Here's last-minute announcement: Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone will be on campus this evening with friend-of-Media-Services Prof. Peter Kuznick to screen an episode of their Showtime documentary series, The Untold History of the United States.

The event is part of AU's commemoration of John F. Kennedy's landmark commencement address at AU in which he heralded a future of peace. Tonight's episode is, appropriately, about JFK's attempts to find peace during the Cold War and resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis.

It all goes down at 8pm tonight in Ward 2. Take this opportunity to see and speak with a filmmaker whose unconventional, distinctive take on history has cemented him as one of the most important filmmakers of his generation.

(If you're itching for some more Stone, our Pinterest page has a board for all our Oliver Stone movies.)

We love our streaming videos, and you should too

The American Library University has been slowly building up its streaming video collections, as mentioned in previous posts highlighting Silent Film Online, Films on Demand, the Internet Archive, and other collections from Alexander Street Press. We've been slowly accumulating more streaming video resources from across the web and through new databases, and we've finally hit a point where we're ready to promote the vast streaming resources in our collection!

The streaming video resource page on our website offers a search box the only looks for streaming videos in our collection. At last count, that's a whopping 10,000+ streaming videos, including 200 high-use documentaries from Docuseek2 such as King Corn, Goodbye Mubarak!, and In the Ashes of the Forest.

Many of these films are already being used in classes. But now, students also have the option to watch them in their dorms and off-campus. Faculty can embed these videos on Blackboard as well, giving students who miss class an option to watch the videos on their own time without having to come into the library. (But we'd love to see you here anyway.)

We understand the hesitance about relying on streaming videos in class given the inherent unreliability of wireless Internet connections, but these streaming video resources are a terrific way to spice up a class's online presence or spice up a student presentation with clips and video segments.

Artist pushes Photoshop pushed to weird limits, turns rust into planets

The New Media Center is getting busy as we head into the second half of the semester, and a good number of our patrons are using Photoshop. The average user might use it to touch up a photo, add text, or do some graphic design work.

But then there are the extreme outlier users like Adam Kennedy. Adam uses Photoshop to transform photos of rusty fire hydrants into stunning planetary landscapes. It's such an out-of-the-box, unusual idea, but it works, and it looks great. This is a terrific example of photomanipulation being pushed beyond what you'd expect. There's also something to say about the re-appropriation of urban decay to create new worlds, etc., but we'll leave that to the critics.

The artist has published more on his personal website and is currently seeking crowd funding to continue this project. In any event, it should serve as inspiration for people working on end-of-semester Photoshop projects. Yes, you can make something as awesome as this with the right tools.

Today's reminder to read: Even Jedis are illiterate

Media Services primarily deals with films, so even though we're part of the American University Library, we don't often get to talk about literacy and books. But once in a while, we get an opportunity to talk about both.

Ryan Britt, an author at science fiction blog Tor.com, wrote a funny-but-deeply-concerning essay pointing out that no one in the Star Wars universe reads. Almost never do you see a single character pick up a book, read a sign, or get the news. Ancient historical artifacts come in the form of holographic videos. Everyone relies entirely on oral communication, farmers have to buy droids to do math, and the Galactic Senate makes major decisions based on non-empirical anecdotal evidence. It's exhausting and saddening to read.

Britt suggests that the entire overthrow of the Galactic Republic could have been avoided if people learned to read, picked up a newspaper, and disputed what the Emperor claimed with written facts.

None of this was probably intentional on the filmmakers' part, but it's a funny reminder to pick up a book. Please.