Titanic

 Hello, readers! This year, April 15th marks the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It is hard to believe it has been that long since the largest ship of its day struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic and sank, taking with her over 1500 lives.  The story of that …

Converting to eTechnology

The first week of March is Read an eBook Week, when many publishers offer free or discounted eBooks. However, many ebooks are available to be checked out for free from your library. Through Fontana Regional Library, you can create an account with RB Digitial, OverDrive, or other providers of ebooks. eBooks have been increasingly popular …

Green Screen Fun

Have you ever wondered how folks get photos of themselves climbing Mount Everest in their swimsuit or hanging out with famous folks, even though you know they hardly leave the couch? With a little green screen magic, you can make your dreams virtually... reality! The green screen itself is simple. It's just a large sheet …

Foodie Movies

Cold days, colder nights. It's a great time of year to indulge in foodie movies. Many of these are so rich that one can almost smell and taste the gastronomic wonders. Make sure you have some good snacks at hand -- you're likely to get hungry watching these! Chocolat is one of my favorite movies. …

Sports: The Real Holiday Tradition

Benjamin Baruch Woody As we gracefully ease into the holiday season it is incumbent upon all of us to count our blessings and truly realize what this time of the year is all about. Sports. Yes, that's right, sports. Many of you may be terribly excited to sit at the Thanksgiving table and hear Aunt …

Art Out of Chaos: The Literature and Movies of World War II

Benjamin Baruch Woody June 6, 2019 was the 75th anniversary of D-Day. As most of you probably know, this is the day that the Allied forces began the offensive push to defeat the German Army. This anniversary got me thinking about sacrifice, heroism, a generation that is quickly fading away, and it got me thinking …

Discovering Kids Films on Kanopy

Kanopy, the free-with-your-library-card film streaming service provided for FRL card holders, recently added a large section of films for kids. If you haven't browsed through it yet, you are really missing out! It's easy to access; from the Kanopy homepage, just click on "Kids" at the top. Here you will find a wealth of films and …

Scandinavian Noir: Bleakness and Joy

The most famous work of Scandinavian Noir is Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Of course the artistic genre we now call Noir was not called such in Shakespeare's day, but Hamlet shares many Noir characteristics. I, personally, enjoy Wikipedia's definition of Scandinavian Noir: "a genre of crime fiction written from a police point of view. The language is plain …

Hike with Pride this month!

June is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month as well as Great Outdoors Month and so this blog will be about both! LGBTQIA+ is an acronym that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and the plus is for gender fluid people - people whose gender identity changes over time or per situation. Queer is a …

Number 18 in ‘18

This blog is my eighteenth.  It’s also my last one for Shelf Life in the Mountains. (Long story short: moving out of state) I did my first one almost exactly 2 years ago, so I’ve done about nine a year since then. Rather than tout some favorite books or videos or music, as I’m wont …