Bargain books, CDs and DVDs from Daedalus

Book, music, and movie lovers (along with those who buy gifts for book, music, and movie lovers) should know about Daedalus Books and Music. We've received catalogs from them for awhile and, with their amazing prices on some items, we just couldn't resist placing an order with them any longer. Our recent purchase included the classic The Women DVD for $6.98, a two-fer DVD of Holiday Inn and Going My Way for $6.98, a Billy Taylor Trio CD for $5.98, and a gorgeous big softcover book of The Posters of Mauzan for only $9.98 (which is a huge savings compared to Amazon). They might not have everything that you are looking for but, with these low prices, you feel free to be more adventurous in buying things that you're not as familiar with (we'd never heard of Mauzan and don't know much about Billy Taylor either) so you can enjoy the thrill of discovering something new. While they don't offer the free shipping like so many online retailers are this season, a flat fee of $5.95 for standard shipping isn't too bad, especially the more that you buy.

Happy Thanksgiving

We absolutely love Thanksgiving and wish everyone a great holiday. Along with celebrating with family, food, and the Macy's Parade, we are looking forward to our annual viewing of Planes, Trains & Automobiles. "People train runs out of Stubbville."

Halloween Film Fun

Halloween is Mr. WYA!'s favorite holiday. We have a busy month and, in case you do too, here's a rundown of some films to try to squeeze into your schedule:

We know that we've raved before about Nosferatu but there's another local showing of it on October 29th. This time, it's at The Toby in the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

The Strand in nearby Shelbyville is getting into the spirit with Night of the Living Dead on Oct 17th, Ghostbusters on 10/23 and 10/25, and Young Frankenstein on 10/30 and 10/31 (the 10/31 showing includes a costume contest).

If you're closer to Franklin, Indiana, the Artcraft is also showing Young Frankenstein (10/23 and 10/24). On 10/9 and 10/10, they are showing the Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

If you're staying close to home, there are a lot of eerie highlights on TCM's schedule this month. There's Lon Chaney (The Unknown on 10/11 and The Unholy Three on 10/11; both were directed by Tod Browning who we love!), the 1925 Phantom of the Opera also with Chaney(C'mon, does it get any better than this? The masked ball sequence alone make it a must-see), and Nosferatu on 10/25. On 10/18 they're airing Vampyr, on 10/30 there is a Boris Karloff marathon, Friday nights are dedicated to thrillers, William Castle movies on 10/20 (including a terrifying Joan Crawford in Strait-Jacket), a Halloween marathon on 10/31 with some unique flicks, and more Tod Browning brilliance on 10/17 with a couple of our all time favorites, Freaks and Devil Doll. Whew, we are probably going to be watching these well into November.

Be sure to check out the Strand Theatre's website for info about their B Movie Celebration and Tromadance Film Festival this weekend.

Attention horror movie fans, the Dark Carnival film festival is coming up; September 28th- October 4th , 2009 in Bloomington, IN.

We watch the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari around Halloween every year and this print of the movie poster is on our mantel throughout the month of October. Any time of the year is good for German Expressionism though so we think that it is very cool that Big Car Collective and the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library are presenting a showing of the film with live accompanying music by experimental music group Big Robot tonight at 7PM. It will be at the Central Libary at 40 E. St. Clair Street for FREE and, from Big Car's website, it looks like they will be presenting the John Barrymore version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on October 28th.

Pre-Code Musicals on TCM tonight

Oh we love those spicy films that filled the cinemas before the Hays Code was enforced in 1934. TCM is airing an evening of Pre-Code Musicals tonight including several Busby Berkeley films and films with stars like Bette Davis and Ann Sothern. We have not one but two boxed set collections of Busby Berkeley movies so we're obviously big fans of the genre and look forward to seeing the films we don't own.

As if enough of our time doesn't get sucked into the computer; now TCM has a Media Room page with 350 pages of movie clips, trailers, and featurettes. Old movie fans and those who want to become more familiar with old movies will want to take a look.

TCM is getting into the Dillinger spirit of things tonight. They are airing Manhattan Melodrama at 8PM. It's the movie that Dillinger had just viewed in Chicago at the Biograph theatre when he was killed by federal agents. Evidently, Dillinger was a big Myrna Loy fan (who isn't?). You'll want to watch it tonight (or record it and watch it on July 22nd, the 75th anniversary of his death) but maybe not with a lady in red.

Scenes from... Crown Point, Indiana

We are so excited about the movie Public Enemies that opens today. It was a happy coincidence that we were in Northwestern Indiana this weekend so we could take a look at downtown Crown Point where some of the movie's scenes were filmed. We only wished that we had more time to take this cute town all in- we'll have to go back when we aren't so rushed.

The "Grand Old Lady" Crown Point courthouse:

Did you know that Rudolf Valentino was married here? There's a Valentino's restaurant and ice cream parlor in the first floor of the courthouse.

After we browsed at the shops on the lower level, we went to the upper levels of the courthouse. Even though the museum wasn't open, it was still worth taking a look at just to see the gorgeous woodwork and floors. This directory is engraved:

We adored the Crown Theatre building:

We've heard good things about The Circle restaurant. They had lovely outdoor seating right across from the "Grand Old Lady":

At 223 S. Main St. (just a quick walk south of the town square) is a lovely Carnegie library:

There was a street fair going on the day that we were there so it was hard to get a long shot but this is the Lake County Criminal Court building (across from the Carnegie Center). According to this page, there is a Dillinger pub and grand ballroom inside.

At 201 N. Main Street is A Conservative Cafe.

With good reason, the businesses of Crown Point are eagerly anticipating the Public Enemies movie too. These special screening posters were in a lot of shop windows. What a great city this would be to view the movie.

Sad story about 20th Century Props in the New York Times but some really cool looking stuff at their Ebay store (with more to come in an upcoming auction- we'll take the Marilyn Monroe armchair).

Summer Entertainment

Now that Memorial Day (Observed) has passed, it is the unofficial start of summer. For many, that evokes thoughts of days wiled away on a boat, exotic vacations, or lounging at the pool. Well, we don't have a boat or a pool and it we probably aren't taking a vacation this summer so we have other benchmarks that we look forward to instead. There are great foods we enjoy in the warmer months and we'll be periodically posting those recipes. We'll enjoy watching our herbs and tomato plants grow but we'll also enjoy our traditional summer viewing. To Mrs. WYA!, summer means it's time to pull out the Gidget: The Entire Series DVD because some independent station used to air those in the days of her summer vacations from school. Plus, Gidget was always at the beach so it's a summer spent at the beach vicariously. There will also be a viewing of The Seven Year Itch while sitting in the air conditioning and eating potato chips and drinking champagne (and even dipping some potato chips in the champagne). This alludes to a particular scene in the movie. If you haven't seen it, make this the summer that you do- Marilyn positively glows in this movie. We also have a tradition of watching The Magnificent Seven on the 4th of July for no other reason than we did it once early in our marriage and just kept doing it. It's Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen for pity's sake, you don't need an excuse to watch them. We also will fit in a viewing of The Long Hot Summer for obvious reasons (obvious being that it is summer and that Paul Newman is staggeringly appealing in this movie- yes, this is Mrs. WYA! writing this post) along with Hud with Paul Newman in the Texas heat. We know that summer is all about soaking up the outdoors but these little viewing traditions feel as much a part of summer to us as cookouts and lemonade.

Mrs. WYA! has a goal of reading as many novels as possible this summer, particularly classics with a summer theme. If you can think of any classic books set in the summer, please let us know.

Happy Birthday John Wayne! We had to give that shout-out for Mrs. WYA!'s Dad. Maybe we'll watch Rio Bravo tonight in The Duke's honor.

Here's a good link for the rundown of the Memorial Day Weekend TV marathons. The best bets to us look like Band of Brothers (we love that miniseries) on the History Channel and all of the military movies on TCM.

The Strand's full May movie schedule has been posted.

Very cool- AMC has 27 full B movies available to watch online. It looks like we have our Friday night all set; we just need to decide if it will be Reform School Girl or Corridors of Blood.

We love pre-code movies- those scandalous films from Hollywood before the Hays code was more strictly enforced in 1934. The New York Post runs down the latest ones to be released tomorrow in The Pre-code Hollywood Collection DVD set.

Attention movie fans, thanks to Ain't It Cool News we found out that some titles in the Warner Brothers' archive that haven't been available on DVD can be ordered from their website for $19.95. That's a little pricey but we just might have to see Jean Harlow in The Beast of the City.

Movies at The Strand

Woo-hoo!! We've been waiting for this news. It's movie time at The Strand Theatre in Shelbyville. They are kicking things off next weekend with a whole weekend full of FREE movies! How cool is that? There is a wonderfully wide variety of movies on their schedule; everything from John Wayne to zombies and Ma & Pa Kettle. Be sure to take a look at their website for the full schedule and go ahead and bookmark it so you can watch for more movie offerings. Shelbyville really isn't that far from Indy and, for a classic or cult movie on the big screen to support hardworking people passionate about restoring a historic theatre, it's absolutely worth the drive.

Murnau- DVD boxed set

We don't know how many of you are silent movie fans (who couldn't be a fan of Nosferatu??) but a really interesting boxed set of 6 of director F. W. Murnau's films was released on Tuesday. Three of the movies are new to DVD in the US. We might have to break down and buy this because we love Nosferatu and Faust and haven't even seen the other four. Of course, as we checked it out on Kino's website we found tons of other fascinating looking films we should probably see...