Check It Out!

When it comes to talent, the northwestern corner of Connecticut is rich with more than its share of artists, musicians, writers, and actors.  One such is Robert Andrew Parker, whose art will appear in Canton Public Library’s Gallery for the months of May and June in a show titled “Robert Andrew Parker:  Letters and Pictures.”     

Robert Andrew Parker, who turns 83 in May, is an artist, illustrator, and printmaker who happens also to be a musician, a sculptor, and a writer.  He has illustrated upwards of 90 children’s books.  His illustrations have appeared in most major publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Esquire, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Village Voice, and Playboy, to name a few.  His drawings and paintings have accompanied the work of Marianne Moore, William Faulkner, Seamus Heaney, Randall Jarrell, W. H. Auden, Vladimir Nabokov, Franz Kafka, and Joseph Heller.  The library show features the Parker illustrations which have appeared in both magazines and books.  It also includes four of his delightful alphabet series, in which he selects an image to illustrate each letter of the alphabet, including W. H. Auden’s “Airman’s Alphabet” and illustrations for a Spanish alphabet.

Canton Public Library’s Gallery exhibit of Parker’s work complements the show being held at the Gallery on the Green titled “Travels with Bob:  The Art of Robert Andrew Parker” from April 23 through May 23.  In addition, Canton Public Library’s display case features Parker’s illustrations which have graced  children’s books.

If you enjoy children’s books and if you read books to young children, chances are you’ve enjoyed the illustrations of Connecticut artist and illustrator Robert Andrew Parker.  His children’s books will be featured in the display case at Canton Public Library for the months of April and May.

Robert Andrew Parker’s illustrated children’s books range widely from science and history to biography and mythology, from explorers to musicians, from geography to astronomy.  The display complements a gallery show of the artist’s work at Canton’s Gallery on the Green from April 23 through May 23.  The display also precedes a larger show in the library gallery for the months of May and June which will feature Parker’s illustration of the works of such literary greats as W. H. Auden, Marianne Moore, Vladimir Nabokov, William Faulkner, and Joseph Heller.

(I'm always afraid to write a post like this, lest I make an error and have someone pick on me about it...)

If you're a fan of grammar like I am, I'm sure you've thought to yourself, "Self, I wonder if there is a day set aside for celebrating grammar."  And, lo and behold, there is - today, March 4, is National Grammar Day!

http://nationalgrammarday.com/

So go forth with your red pen and set people straight!  Correct those grocers' apostrophes (or, as I prefer to call them, grocers apostrophe's)!  Tell those people over they're that there use of their is wrong (my goodness, that was painful to write)!  Laugh and/or cringe at examples of bad grammar.  Smile smugly to yourself when you find a typo or an errant comma in the book you're reading.  And most of all, remember that really, every day is made for good grammar.

The Gallery at Canton Public Library features the watercolors and assemblages of Gary Kollberg for the months of March and April.  The show opens on Monday, March 1 and continues through Friday, April 30.

    Through both vocation and avocation, Gary Kollberg has followed an artistic bent.  He has studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Parsons School of Design. He developed a career in graphic design, culminating in the formation of Kollberg/Johnson Associates in 1980 in New York City.  Prior to his retirement in 2001, his firm received numerous awards in multiple product categories.  As an artist, he was first a watercolorist, a medium he has been perfecting for more than 50 years.  His subjects tend to be drawn from nature and the outdoors, with landscapes featuring woodland scenes and rustic buildings.

    Following 9/11, his focus changed, however.  When the Twin Towers were hit, Gary and his wife were living in Weehawken, N.J., in a house on a cliff overlooking the Hudson River, with a panoramic view from the Intrepid Museum to the Trade Center.  Watching the buildings collapse affected him deeply.  The event “crystallized people’s support for their country,” said Kollberg, and led him artistically in a new direction.  He began creating assemblages, or dimensional collages, featuring patriotic memorabilia and Americana.  The pieces are red, white, and blue and an occasional splash of gold, and feature the icons of American patriotism:  flags, eagles, Uncle Sam, the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, the nation’s Capitol, the Presidents, and the Stars andStripes.

“I have found that the assemblages appeal especially to members of the military, whose job it is to secure our safety and freedom,” said Kollberg.  “One of my objectives is to show my appreciation for those individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice.”

    Kollberg grew up in Illinois.  His art has been exhibited in numerous venues in New Jersey and New York.  His work is represented in many private collections in the U.S.  He moved to Connecticut in 2004 and now resides in the Farmington Valley.

In honor of Youth Art Month in March, Canton Public Library will display the artwork of the talented artists in every level of the school system.  The art will fill the Children’s Room and the display case of Canton Public Library from March 1 to March 31.

The exhibit will feature approximately 100 pieces from students in kindergarten through grade 12 and will include a variety of media, from three-dimensional ceramic and sculptural pieces to two-dimensional work including watercolor, colored pencil and more.

Deborah Beaudoin, the art teacher at Canton Intermediate School who is organizing the show, said, "This is a wonderful opportunity for the Canton community to see the fabulous work that our students create within our schools.  The YAM Art Exhibit also demonstrates the sequential growth of our students as they excel through the grades.  We are fortunate to be in a town where the arts are valued and supported."

The schools represented in the show are Cherry Brook Primary School, grades K-3, with art teachers Kezia Hearn and Ellen Raposo; Canton Intermediate School, grades 4-6, with art teacher Deb Beaudoin; Canton Middle School, grades 7-8, with art teacher Linda Klusek; and Canton High School, grades 9-12, with art teachers Renee Hughes and Roselyn Marino.

Ms. Beaudoin added, "Canton Public Schools have a strong art curriculum in line with both the State and National Visual Arts Standards.  Students are exposed to a variety of media, techniques, artists and art movements."

Stop by the Children’s Room and be prepared to be impressed.  Students and parents will have a bigger exhibit space than the refrigerator, and library patrons will be treated to the lively, colorful, and creative work of our schoolchildren.

It's that time of year again -- everyone is coming out with their "best of" lists for 2009.

Here's a sampling of the lists:

New York Times 10 Best Books of 2009

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009

NPR's Best Books of 2009 (Lots of lists here!)

Washington Post's 2009 Best Books

Publisher's Weekly Best Books

Amazon's Best of 2009

What do you think of these lists?  Was your favorite book of the year included on at least one of them?  What would your top ten be?

For the month of December, Canton Public Library’s display case features the work of a number of local artists whose items will be available for “creative holiday shopping.”  The display is “back by popular demand,” said Nancy Donoghue, who oversees the library’s display case.

The artists and artwork on display include:  Betsy Gardiner’s pottery, Jon Eastman’s glass jewelry, Chris London’s clay sculpture and jewelry, and Pamela Huntington’s artwork and “re-purposed” books.

The artwork may be purchased directly from the artists.  Library hours are Monday-Thursday 10:00-8:00, Friday and Saturday 10:00-5:00, and Sunday 1:00-4:00.   For information:  (860) 693-5800.

For the month of December, Canton Public Library’s Gallery will host a one-woman show by a local artist, Martha H. Fortmann.  The show is titled “Watercolor Works.”

Martha Fortmann grew up in Highland Park, Illinois, and moved to Connecticut in 1970.  She began to paint in 1994 and has studied at the West Hartford Art League, the Farmington Valley Art Center, and the Hudson River Valley Art Workshop.  She has attended numerous Elderhostel watercolor workshops throughout New England and California, and recently returned from a ten-day trip to France, where she studied with watercolorist Jane Riles of San Diego.  Fortmann’s work has been exhibited in a number of local shows and galleries.

Canton Public Library is at 40 Dyer Avenue.  Library hours are Monday-Thursday 10:00-8:00, Friday and Saturday 10:00-5:00, and Sunday 1:00-4:00.  For information:  (860) 693-5800.

For the month of September, the display case at Canton Public Library will feature “Sea Glass” by Lauren Curran, including jewelry and other small creations.  The display went up on Tuesday, September 1 and will remain up through Wednesday, September 30.

The display may be viewed at any time during regular library hours.  For more information, call the library at 860-693-5800.

For the months of September and October, Canton Public Library’s Gallery features the photographs of Wendy Rosenberg in a show titled “Backyard Images.”

Wendy Rosenberg is a self-taught photographer who happens also to be a Connecticut-certified Master Gardener.  By combining these two disciplines, she has created an exhibit of natural images taken directly from her own backyard.  From a horticultural perspective, she has transformed her backyard into a peaceful yet bustling natural habitat with plants, flowers, and water features that attract many species of birds, insects, and other creatures.  From a photographic perspective, she has captured many unusual and rarely seen activities of the wildlife right outside her door.

All of Ms Rosenberg’s photographs are true-to-life and never digitally or computer enhanced.  She uses a Nikon digital SLR for all of her photographs.

The exhibit may be viewed during regular library hours.  For more information, call the library at 860-693-5800.

Last week James Patterson released his newest book in the Alex Cross series: Alex Cross's Trial.  In this book, Detective Cross relates the story of his great-uncle Abraham and his struggles for survival in the Ku Klux Klan-era South. 

If you are a Patterson fan, you know how prolific he is: he has two more books coming out this fall.  The first one, The Murder of King Tut, is his second foray into nonfiction, and it will be released on September 28.  And then on November 16 comes I, Alex Cross.  From the book description: "Detective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington's wildest scenes. And she was not this killer's only victim."

Alex Cross's Trial is currently owned by the library, but at this time all copies are checked out.  The Murder of King Tut and I, Alex Cross are on order.  You may place copies of any of these three books online or by calling us at 860-693-5800.

Among the resources available at Canton Public Library are two information databases that may be of particular interest to patrons, one of them a recent addition—an expanded version of the historical Hartford Courant— and one an especially timely and valuable addition—TheLearningExpressLibrary.
   
The LearningExpressLibrary offers a wide range of practice tests, including such official exams as ACT, SAT, GED, ASVAB, as well as tests for firefighter, police officer, paramedic, EMT Basic, U.S. citizenship, postal worker, cosmetology, real estate agent and broker.  In addition, there are practice tests for those who simply want to improve their reading, writing, math, or grammar skills.
   
“Learning Express truly offers something for everyone,” according to Reference Librarian Beth Van Ness.  “Whether you are a new immigrant to the country, a young student preparing a book report, a young parent needing homeschooling material , a retiree looking to reenter the job market, or a teenager
contemplating a future career, there is a test or skills database that would benefit you.”

The LearningExpressLibrary, an electronic resource which is available both in the library and at home to Canton patrons, will ease the preparation process and, no doubt, allay some test-taking anxiety by providing practice.  Within the library, Canton patrons will be able to access the LearningExpressLibrary on the library’s computers or on their own laptops using the library’s wireless access to the Internet.  Either in the library or at home, patrons will need to enter their Canton Public Library card number.

The LearningExpressLibrary is a completely interactive and comprehensive website that features more than 300 online practice tests and courses for students and adults of all ages.  Today, LearningExpress is the preeminent online provider of test preparation, basic skills, and career guidance materials, serving 3,000 libraries and 80 million people nationwide.

All LearningExpress tests and courses offer test takers immediate scoring and detailed explanations of answers to all questions.  Test results also indicate areas in which additional practice might improve scores and include recommendations for free online tutorial courses.

A recent addition to the collection of databases available to Canton Public Library patrons is an expanded version of the historical Hartford Courant.  Not only do patrons have access to the original historical Hartford Courant, covering the years 1764-1922, but the expanded version extends the coverage to the years 1923-1984.  Said Van Ness, “Usually someone needs a small bit of information like an obituary, but this small bit is of vast importance to the patron searching for it.”

The library’s growing database collection is being funded by gifts from the Friends of the Canton Public Library.  If you haven’t already applied for a free Canton Public Library card, now, more than ever, is the time to do so.  Canton Public Library is at 40 Dyer Avenue, Canton.  For information:  (860) 693-5800 or www.cantonpubliclibrary.org

(Photo credit: NASA)

Forty years ago today, Apollo 11 launched from Cape Canaveral with a three-man crew.  Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would become the first men to step foot on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, while Michael Collins remained in orbit around the moon, piloting the command module.  As a child of the late 1970s and something of a space nut, I was always a little upset that I didn't get to experience the moon landing when it happened, but I always enjoyed hearing people's recollections about the event...and I hold out hope that we'll return to the moon (or, even better, go to Mars!) in my lifetime. 

Buzz Aldrin has recently written a new book, Magnificent Desolation, a memoir of his time in the Apollo program, the moon landing, and his life back on Earth.  Our copy is currently checked out, but you can place a hold on it through the library catalog or by calling us at 860-693-5800.

In the meantime, check out some of these sites about the Apollo missions:

NASA's page on the Apollo program.  There is also a special page specifically on the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing.

We Choose the Moon, an interactive website from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, offering a real-time look back at the mission.

Do you use Twitter?  Follow AP11_CAPCOM for real-time tweets, as if the mission were happening today.

Throughout the summer, the Friends of the Canton Public Library will be  collecting books, CDs, and DVDs for their sale on September 12 and 13.  The last day for dropping off items is Friday, August 28.  Items may be dropped off any time during library hours:  Monday through Thursday 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and Friday 10:00 AM-5:00 PM. 

The Friends have been holding a book sale for over thirty years.  With each year the number of donated books has grown considerably.  And as technology has burgeoned and media have proliferated, the “book sale” has become more than just books.

What hasn’t changed is the reputation that Canton’s book sale has burnished.  The sale stands out as being exceptionally user-friendly because the Friends of the Canton Public Library sort and categorize the donations throughout the summer.  The sorting makes it easy for book buyers to hone in on their particular interests.

The book sale’s co-chairs, Laura Hage and Carol Stevens, welcome volunteers who have a few hours available to help and who enjoy being in the company of books.  Anyone wishing to volunteer is asked to contact Carol or Laura by leaving a message at the library, 693-5800.  Training will be provided.

The Friends ask that all donated items be in good condition.  Magazines, encyclopedias, textbooks, the Time-Life series, computer books, condensed books, and VHS tapes will not be accepted.

In September the Book Sale will follow the same format as previously, with a preview sale on Saturday morning, popular with collectors and bibliophiles.  On Sunday there will be an opportunity to fill a bag for $5, popular with bargain hunters.  Organizers emphasize that the sale itself is not only indoors, but air-conditioned and handicap-accessible.  Those who can’t resist stocking up on books will be happy to know that porters are available to help transport books to vehicles.
 

For the months of July and August, Canton Public Library’s Gallery brings the outdoors inside with the botanical photography of EJ Grubbs.

At the tender age of 15, Grubbs completed the Hartford Ad Start Program and went on to become the youngest staffer at an advertising agency called Flaming Thing.  He earned a degree in Commercial Art and Advertising from the University of New Haven.  He has won awards from the Hartford Ad Club and the Connecticut Art Director Club.

His photographic style features nature in bold and colorful display.  Says Grubb, “I like to think that strong colors and shapes are part of a good composition, whether it’s creating and designing marketing materials or capturing an image through photography.”

For the months of May and June, Canton Public Library’s Gallery features the paintings and photographs of Thomas Rickis in a show titled “Since March
31st . . .”  The exhibit explores the theme:  “Do my photographs look like paintings, or do my paintings look like photographs?” 

Following a career in the insurance industry, Thomas Rickis retired to devote himself full-time to a career as an artist.  His earliest passion was painting, and he has worked in oils, acrylics, and watercolors.  More recently he has added photography.  Currently as a painter he favors watercolors and has begun experimenting with watercolor/collagraph (a form of intaglio print making).  He has also begun working with watercolor collage and oil collage as a way to move from a traditional two-dimensional form into a three dimensional one.

The subject of his paintings is most often traditional landscapes, such as barns set in snow scenes, and still lifes.  He has lately begun to expand into contemporary abstracts and impressionist landscapes.  His works tend to be clean and spare since, as Rickis says, “I do not like to overload my paintings with excessive details since my objective is to present the viewer with just enough content to capture a mood or emotion.”

As an artist who both paints and photographs, Rickis finds himself asking, “Do my photographs look like paintings, or do my paintings look like photographs?”  Although he originally used a photograph as a precursor to a painting, he now creates photographs in their own right.  He finds that photography has “opened up my eyes and mind to additional artistic expressions.”

Rickis has exhibited widely in galleries, corporation headquarters, retail businesses, and educational facilities in Connecticut, and his paintings and photographs are in private collections throughout the United States.  He is currently a member of the Connecticut Watercolor Society, Canton Artists’ Guild, West Hartford Art League, Lyme Art Association, and Simsbury Camera Club.  He attended the University of Connecticut, the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, and Central Connecticut State University.  He has lived in the Farmington Valley for more than three decades.
   
Library patrons are invited to see for themselves whether Thomas Rickis’ photographs look like paintings or whether his paintings look like photographs.  Canton Public Library hours are Monday-Thursday 10:00-8:00, Friday and Saturday 10:00-5:00.  For information:  (860) 693-5800.
 

The Canton Land Conservation Trust will be featured in the display case at Canton Public Library for the month of May.  The focus of this year’s display will be the Trailblazers program, a family adventure group that hikes once a month from October to April.

Trailblazer hikes usually take place on a Sunday at one of the Canton Land Trust’s many hiking trails.  Each hike has a theme or is centered around an activity such as orienteering, night hiking under a full moon, a scavenger hunt, or a hayride.

“We hope that the hikes increase the enjoyment of our town’s open spaces and help families explore the trails and properties of the Canton Land Trust,” said Canton Land Trust member Mary Ellen Mullins.  “We also want to encourage families to respect nature and woodland creatures through observation and education.  Getting kids involved at an early age helps promote appreciation of the outdoors that we hope will continue for a lifetime.”
  
The purpose of the Canton Land Conservation Trust is “to conserve the natural resources of the Town of Canton—water, woodlands and open spaces; its plant and animal life; and its unique, scenic, natural, and historic sites.”  A long-term goal of the Land Trust is to acquire attractive tracts of open land throughout the town so that the Canton of the future will retain as much as possible of its present natural charm. 

The Land Trust has constructed and maintains fourteen hiking trails on Land Trust properties.  The group has published a guide to most of the trails; the 3-ring binder guide is available for purchase or may be borrowed from the library.  Land Trust volunteers plant, care for, and sell Christmas trees annually.

Chartered in 1972, the Land Trust has acquired parcels of land representing the preservation of 1800 acres within Canton.  The Land Trust’s land has been acquired through land donation, land purchase, and conservation easement.  Most of the Land Trust properties, including but not limited to those with trails, are open for “passive recreation and nature appreciation.” Trust encourages the use of the trails for hiking, cross-country skiing, and nature appreciation. The Land Trust currently maintains five hiking trails. Work is being done to create two more trails on other properties.

Canton Public Library is at 40 Dyer Avenue, Canton.  Library hours are Monday-Thursday 10:00-8:00, Friday and Saturday 10:00-5:00.  For information:  (860) 693-5800.

During March we added more than 550 new items to our collection.  Here is just a sample:

Fiction
William Bernhardt, Nemesis:  The Final Case of Eliot Ness
Andrea Camilleri, August Heat
Ray Bradbury, We’ll Always Have Paris:  Stories
Mary Gaitskill, Don’t Cry:  Stories
Barbara Hall, The Music Teacher
Todd Johnson, The Sweet By and By
Jim Lehrer, Oh, Johnny
Walter Mosley, The Long Fall
James Patterson, Max
Malcolm Shuman, The Levee
Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone
A. N. Wilson, Winnie and Wolf:  A Novel

Non-Fiction
Liaquat Ahamed, Lords of Finance
Tom Aitken, One Hundred & One Beautiful Towns in Great Britain
Mark Caro, The Foie Gras Wars
Simon Daley with Roshan Hirani, Cooking With My Indian Mother-in-Law
Nicky Epstein, Knitting on Top of the World
David Grann, The Lost City of Z
Joseph T. Hallinan, Why We Make Mistakes
Stephen Hinshaw, The Triple Bind
Nancy Harmon Jenkins, The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook
Gerard Koeppel, Bond of Union:  Building the Erie Canal and the American Empire
Paul Krugman, The Return of Depression Economics
David McGonigal, Antarctica
Dev Patnaik, Wired To Care
David E. Sanger, The Inheritance:  The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power
Kimberly K. Smith, Powering Our Future

Biography
Blake Bailey, Cheever:  A Life
Allen Barra, Yogi Berra:  Eternal Yankee
Peter S. Canellos, ed., The Last Lion:  The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy
Cari Beauchamp, Joseph P. Kennedy Presents:  His Hollywood Years
Robert Crawford, The Bard: Robert Burns

Poetry
Pablo Neruda, World’s End
Cole Swensen and David St. John, American Hybrid:  Norton Anthology of New Poetry

Books on CD
John Grisham, The Associate
Conn Iggulden, Genghis:  Bones of the Hills
Robert Parker, Night and Day
Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care

Teen
Melissa de la Cruz, Blue Bloods
Margarita Engle, The Surrender Tree
Alison Goodman, Eon:  Dragonfly Reborn
Sherri Smith, Flygirl

DVDs
Cadillac Records
Elegy
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
Synecdoche, New York
 

It's Opening Day, baseball fans!  It's looking like it might be a washout for a lot of games, though, thanks to the soggy weather (the Red Sox, for one, have already postponed tonight's game to tomorrow afternoon).  While you're waiting for your favorite teams to play, why not check out some new books about the great American pasttime?

There have been a number of new baseball biographies released lately.   Perhaps the one with the biggest buzz was Joe Torre's The Yankee Years, in which the former manager reflects on what it took for the Yankees of the 1990s to regain the glory of years past.   And speaking of the Yankees' glory years, check out Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee by Allen Barra and Yankee for Life: My 40-Year Journey in Pinstripes by Bobby Murcer.  Of course, we can't leave out Connecticut's other favorite team - so why not try Deep Drive: A Long Journey to Finding the Champion Within by Mike Lowell of the Red Sox.

New stadiums are on everyone's mind, what with the Yankees moving into their new park this year, not to mention the perennial debate about whether the Sox should build a larger stadium.  Revisit some great moments from the Bronx in Memories of Yankee Stadium by Scott Pitoniak, or read about the Green Monster in Faithful to Fenway: believing in Boston, baseball, and America's most beloved ballpark by Michael Ian Borer.

And for a different take on the game, view the plays from behind the mask in As They See 'Em: a fan's travels in the land of umpires by Bruce Weber.  The players and the managers get all the attention, and for good reason, but where would the game be without the umpires?

This is just a small sampling of what we have available -- check out our baseball books in the stacks, under call number 796.357.

I love April Fools' Day.  I'm not one to play jokes myself (mainly because I can't keep a straight face!) but there's something about a well-played prank that just appeals to me.  Some of my favorite April Fools' stories:

* Possibly the best-known April Fools' joke of all was a 1957 BBC report about the spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. (You can view the original clip at the BBC website.)  At the time, pasta was far from being an everyday food in Britain, and this unfamiliarity with spaghetti, coupled with the report being shown on a serious news program, led to the BBC receiving hundreds of calls from confused viewers.  (The BBC loves April Fools' Day.)

* In 1996, Taco Bell announced that it was buying the Liberty Bell and renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.

* Google has a tradition of announcing a new product or service each April 1.  However, some of these annoucements -- like Gmail -- have been real.  (Also real?  The news on April 1, 2007 that a ball python was loose in Google's New York offices.)

* National Public Radio always has a joke news story on April 1.  My personal favorite was from 2005, when Robert Siegel of All Things Considered interviewed  Vermont maple syrup makers about the dangers of untapped maple trees.

Once upon a time, I would make it a point to see all of the movies that were nominated for major categories at the Oscars.  In the last few years, though, I haven't managed to see them all before the ceremony.  If you're like me and missed them in the theaters, why not watch them now and see if you agree with the Academy's choices?  Many of the major nominees are already released and available on DVD at the library, and others are on order.

Most of these titles are in hot demand and you will need to place your name on a hold list to borrow them.  To place a hold, call the library at 693-5800.

In our collection now:
Slumdog Millionaire (Best Picture winner, Best Director winner)
Milk (Best Actor winner Sean Penn; nominee for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor)
The Visitor (Best Actor nominee Richard Jenkins)
Rachel Getting Married (Best Actress nominee Anne Hathaway)
Changeling (Best Actress nominee Angelina Jolie)
Frozen River (Best Actress nominee Melissa Leo)
Tropic Thunder (Best Supporting Actor nominee Robert Downey, Jr.)
The Dark Knight (Best Supporting Actor winner Heath Ledger)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Best Supporting Actress winner Penelope Cruz)
Bolt (Best Animated Feature nominee)
Kung Fu Panda (Best Animated Feature nominee)
Wall-E (Best Animated Feature winner)
Man on Wire (Best Documentary Feature winner)

Coming Soon:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (release date May 5)
Doubt (release date April 7)
Frost/Nixon (release date April 21)
The Reader (release date April 14)
Revolutionary Road (release date June 2)
The Wrestler (release date April 21)