The Library's the Limit

Today was Monday and my errands and chores day. Started with late laundry around quarter of 11. After the laundry was in the dryer, I walked over to the Oaklyn Library. It was certainly a gorgeous day for it. Last week's wind and freezing rain had been replaced with sunshine, blue skies, and 60-degree temperatures. It may have been a little too warm for this time of year, but it beat bone-rattling chill.

Actually, it was a good thing it did get warmer. Apparently, the Oaklyn Library's heater broke down over the weekend and was in the process of being repaired even as I browsed the room. I went there partially to take a look at the Christmas Gifts of Good Taste books I took out last year to find ideas for Christmas baking presents. I also took out a novelization of the odd animated Raggedy Ann and Andy movie from the late 70s and two books that I take out every year in late November, Cranberry Thanksgiving and Christmas In America, along with the Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving video.

The other reason I wanted to go to the Oaklyn Library today was to ask about volunteering there. I highly doubt they'd have any jobs open - they wouldn't be open at all if it wasn't for the many, many fundraisers they've had recently - but volunteering would get my foot in the door and make myself known to another, literally closer set of librarians. The elderly woman behind the desk said she'd have to talk to the co-head-librarian who comes in later in the week...but she'd be more than willing to have me come in and help her organize the children's books, which, as I discovered while looking for Cranberry Thanksgiving, are a disorganized mess.

Ate a quick lunch of a turkey and escarole sandwich on home-made Rye-Whole Wheat Bread after I got home with my armload of books. Went quickly over to Dad and Uncle Ken's to pick up my laundry, then went back out again after putting them away. Took the bike over to Haddon Township for this week's library volunteering session.

It was kind of late by the time I got over there. The library was very busy with people coming out of work and children on their way home from the five or six schools in the area. The children's section of the Haddon Township Library is in the midst of being expanded and reorganized. I just added the DVDs to the stacks on a rolling cart and organized them as best I could. Shelved adult DVDs after that, and there was plenty to do. The librarians have said that a lot of people who would normally pay for renting movies or buying books have now found the library to be a much cheaper option, hense the increase in traffic.

I found a stack of my own DVDs I wanted to take out today. I ended up with the British stage revival of Oklahoma! that featured Hugh Jackman as Curly, another recent Jackman vehicle, Australia (I heard it's terrible, but it sounds like fun), Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, and the newest incarnation of Strawberry Shortcake, titled The Sky's the Limit.

Made a brief stop at JoAnn's Fabrics and Super Fresh after leaving the library and just picked up cranberries and a small container of orange juice to try Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread from the back of the Cranberry Thanksgiving book. It was getting late by that point, so I just headed home, dodging rush-hour traffic on Cuthbert Road and the White Horse Pike.

Watched Strawberry Shortcake as I worked on the bread and Oklahoma! as I made a pizza omelet for dinner. Strawberry Shortcake: The Sky Is the Limit is the third revamping of the famous greeting card character, and it has some definite ups and downs. Pros include a sweeter, smaller, more fairy-like design that's far closer to the original cards and specials (including the green-striped stockings that were MIA in the 2003 version), a lovely story about sticking to plans and working together, and some not-bad CGI animation. (I especially loved the flight on the daisy heads.) It actually reminded me a bit of the gentle storybooks my sisters and I loved as children, such as Strawberry Shortcake and the Winter That Would Not End, that portrayed the group as tiny people living in a much larger garden and called on them to work together to save their home. Also revived from the original - the Berrykins of the last special, here workers who create the berry juice that powers the girls' home, Berry Bitty City.

On the other hand, I'm afraid none of the characters besides Strawberry herself and Mr. Longface the Caterpillar made much of an impression. If it wasn't for their different colors and my familiarity with the franchise, I wouldn't have been able to tell them apart. Hopefully, if they do plan to carry this into a full TV show, they'll be able to expand the characters much further.

(Also, if you're a fan of the 2003 version, much has been changed or not carried over. The emphasis on fruit saw the removal of any character not related to fruit, including Angel Cake, Ginger Snap, and Rainbow Sherbet. The girls are a bit, well, girlier as well, up to and including the dresses that replace the more casual jeans worn by the 2003 characters. However, I didn't see the cell phones that many complained about online here.)

I was even more impressed with Oklahoma!. The hit 1998 London revival saw it's best features in its impressive, simple designs and the sterling performances of its Aunt Eller, Maureen Lipman, and its menfolk, Jackman and Shuler Hensley as Curly's rival for the lovely Laurey, Jud Fry. This version supposedly restored the full text of the musical, and indeed, there's many passages of dialogue and two numbers that didn't make it into the movie. "It's a Scandal, It's an Outrage" is a comedy song for Ali Hakim the Peddler of no great importance, but Jud Fry's number, "Lonely Room," is a stunner. It's a shame they couldn't have worked it into the movie; it's probably the most powerful song in the score.