Teddy Pendergrass, 1950-2010

When I was a child I did not listen to traditional children’s music, meaning my mother didn’t lose her sanity and I learned that “real” music didn’t revolve around the wheels on the bus, giant yellow animals or purple dinosaurs. Most of the time I’d listen to the Staple Singers, The Pointer Sisters, Bob James, David Sanborn (you must buy their Double Vision album!) Luther Vandross, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Kenny G, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, and a whole host of other artist, which, of course, included Teddy Pendergrass.

Pendergrass began singing at the age of 2, which makes everyone else look like slackers, now doesn't it? He was originally part of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. Surely no one forget If You Don’t Know Me By Now. His career was altered drastically following a car accident in 1982 that paralyzed him from the waist down. This accident spurred him to create the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, an organization that assists individuals with spinal cord injuries “to achieve their maximum potential in areas of education, employment, housing, productivity and overall independence.” He’d continue to perform, releasing new material into the late 1990s, and received a Grammy nomination in 1989 for his song "Joy," yet it was his early music that still resounds with people today. My favorite song of his happens to be Love TKO. Please take a moment to enjoy and remember Pendegrass's life.

Brittany Murphy, 1977-2009

My favorite Brittany Murphy movie does not happen to be Clueless.

Yes, she was cute in Clueless, and I did love that movie. She was sweet, and a bit tart, playing Tai, the new girl in town who joins the Beverly Hills' under aged in crowd. It wasn't even Happy Feet, though I did watch that film just this past Saturday, much to the dismay of the (male) guests who wanted us ladies to go watch it in the garage so they could watch a football game inside. (Like we were going to pick watching players smash into each other over cute, singing penguins.) Murphy certainly had way more screen/voice time in those vehicles, but my favorite film featuring her happens to be Drop Dead Gorgeous. This movie is horrible in the most gleeful way, poking fun of beauty pageants, small towns, and trying to escape said town, be it via winning a sparkly crown, joining a hockey team, or going to prison. Murphy plays Lisa Swenson, a goofy, giggly necessary after thought younger child. She cheese it up beside future big movie stars Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards and Amy Adams, explaining of her parents, “You know they only had me because Peter needed a kidney.”

I won't print up here what she yelled at her father at the end of the film. That's because I like having a job.

Digging Up Roots at Central Library

Genealogy – the study of one’s past – has become an avid pastime of many Americans. One of the easiest ways for a researcher to get their hands on extremely meaningful family information is to look at the obituaries or death notices of ancestors.

The Sacramento Public Library’s Central Branch holds runs of the Sacramento Bee back to 1857, the Sacramento Union from 1851 to 1994, the Sacramento Transcript, 1850-1851, and the Daily Democratic State Journal from 1852 to 1857.

Too busy to swing by Central and search the archives? No problem. Call us, snail mail us, e-mail us. Our reference staff takes the topic of genealogy very seriously – we boast one of the finest genealogy collections in Northern California, possess in-house indexes (Sacramento Bee Vital Statistics Index (1857-1905) and the California Information File) that you’ll find nowhere else, and welcome the opportunity to help you build your family tree.

Try us. Just give us a week and we can give you your roots.

Letter Mail: Sacramento Public Library, attn. Correspondence, 828 “I” Street, Sacramento, California 95814

E-Mail: askus@saclibrary.org

Phone: 916-264-2920

Ten Things You Need To Know About The Late Heath Ledger

The life of burgeoning acting talent, Heath Ledger came to an abrupt end this week after he was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment. The Australian-born actor accomplished much in his short life. He was also versatile, from having played a musket-toting colonial in "The Patriot" to taking on the romantic angst of Ennis Del Mar in the groundbreaking "Brokeback Mountain." Drawn from print and electronic sources at the Sacramento Public Library, here are some things that you may have not known about Ledger.

1) Ledger’s full name is Heathcliff Andrew Ledger. He was named after the main character in his mother's favorite book, Wuthering Heights.

2) Ledger’s first acting role was as Peter Pan.

3) Ledger became a state junior chess champion at the age of ten.

4) Ledger dropped out of school after the tenth grade.

5) Ledger claimed that he had “an addiction to moving.” In the words of Ledger, perhaps on account of having had to shuttle back and forth after his parents' divorce, when he was 11.

6) Ledger was offered the role of "Spiderman," but turned it down, feeling that Columbia Pictures was too interested in turning him into a “product.” The role eventually went to Tobey Maguire.

7) Throughout his career, Ledger turned down several roles, feeling that "…Australians have this independent streak," Ledger told Biography magazine's Sheryl Berk. "I want to always have the control to say no when I don't think something is right for me. I want to be able to walk away."

8) Ledger took on the 2002 role “Four Feathers,” because he felt the script was “deep, deep, deep.” It’s the story of a British officer who abdicates his command before a battle and is considered a coward for doing so.

9) Entertainment Weekly called one of Ledger’s last films “I’m Not There,” the best film of the year: “a biopic, an essay, a folk-rock opera, and a dream, all rolled into the headiest musical ever made. It's also the year's most daring vision, though the obsessive head-tickling sprawl of Todd Haynes' sublime meditation on the music and mystery of Bob Dylan wouldn't amount to a hill of guitar picks if the film weren't also so intimate and reverent and moving.”

10) Ledger was a father. His daughter, Matilda, is two-years-old.

For more information on Ledger, we recommend looking at the Biography Resource Center and EBSCOHost, both of which require your library card number and PIN for access. For a list of movies by Ledger, do an author search, including last name first, first name last: Ledger, Heath.

Norman Mailer and Ira Levin

Two notable authors passed away this week.

Norman Mailer, whose work over the last 60 years was noted for being sensational, fascinating and disturbing, passed away on November 10. His first success was The Naked and the Dead (1948). Other works followed that explored the "underside of modern culture," treating corruption, murder, violence, capitol punishment, biographies of controversial or sensational people (Lee Harvey Oswald, Marilyn Monroe, Gary Gilmore.) Mailer received a Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1969 for "The Armies of the Night" and for fiction in 1980 for "Executioner's Song".

Ira Levin, best known for his novel, Rosemary's Baby, passed away on November 12. He was also a songwriter and playwright, who wrote Broadway's longest-running Broadway comedy-thriller, "Deathtrap". Several of his novels became movies (Boys from Brazil, Stepford Wives), and his play "No Time For Sergeants", based on the book by Mac Hyman, launched Andy Griffith's acting career.

In our collection: Norman Mailer's books, Ira Levin's books

Read more about Norman Mailer in the Literature Resource Center and the Biography Resource Center (Library card number and PIN required.)

Read More about Ira Levin in the Literature Resource Center and the Biography Resource Center (Library card number and PIN required.)