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The Library DVD Shelf

Extreme Trains: The Complete Season One
History Made Every Day
A&E Television
235 East 45th Street New York, NY 10017
www.aetv.com www.history.com
1422936651, $19.95, www.amazon.com

A fine 2-DVD set offers armchair train buffs a virtual train ride,
with series host Matt Brown, a rail conductor from Maine, injecting
his passion into the experience. From the longest rail engine and
train lines to specialty trains with special freight, this packs in
history with an outstanding social survey perfect for any collection
strong in rail history and culture.

Art Talk
Crystal Productions
PO Box 2159, Glenview, IL 60025-6159
9781562906351 $39.95 www.crystalproductions.com 1-800-255-8629

Art Talk: Conversations with Working Artists is a DVD of professional
musings while in the process of creating art, as given by sculptors,
painters, glass artists, and even a totem carver and a ceramist. A
candid, inspirational account that allows the viewer to glimpse the
incredible diversity in the world of art as well as different
approaches to the process of creation, Art Talk is especially
recommended viewing for public school art education classes, and a gem
for public library collections. Individual artists are also sure to
enjoy and perhaps even draw insights from the wisdom of their
contemporaries!

Local Color: A George Gallo Film
Monterey Media Inc.
566 St. Charles Drive, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360-3901
9781569943465 $26.95 www.montereymedia.com 1-800-424-2593

Inspired by a true story, Local Color is the award-winning movie of a
young student who, in 1974, befriended an alcoholic yet brilliant
master painter. The student longs to learn the master's wisdom, while
the master struggles to find any meaning in his life or his work.
Together, they learn from each other - the student comes to see the
world as an artist sees it, while the master takes inspiration from
the innocence and yen for life in his student. An enthralling saga
about learning to recognize and remember the beauty in life, Local
Color is highly recommended. 107 minutes, rated R.

Black Money
PBS Home Video
c/o SSA Public Relations
15260 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 1730, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
FRL62711, $24.99, www.shopPBS.org

Originally aired as a 'Frontline' television show special, "Black
Money" reveals the results of investigative correspondent Lowell
Bergman's examination of international bribery on the part of American
corporations as a means of doing business in foreign lands. This
practice amounts to illicit expenditures amounting to billions of
dollars and is illegal under United States law. That's why there is a
crackdown being mounted by prosecutors at the U.S. Department of
Justice and its allies in foreign governments where such corporate
behavior is being perpetrated. This 60-minute, full color, informed
and informative DVD is highly recommended viewing and an important
addition to school and community library collections. Also highly
recommended is the PBS Home Video DVD 'Frontline' one-hour episode
"The Madoff Affair" (FRL62714, $24.99) which lays out the Bernie
Madoff ponzi scheme that is the largest such white-collar criminal
enterprise in Wall Street corporate history.

Pure Pump
Tonya Larson
Bridgestone Multimedia Group
804 N. 2nd Avenue, East Rock Rapids, IA 51246
411 Video Information (publicity)
PO Box 1223, Pebble Beach, CA 93953
#318979, $14.95, www.TonyaLarson.net

In "Pure Pump", AFAA Certified group Exercise and Step Instructor
Tonya Larson draws upon her extensive expertise and experience to
provide a fun and effective weight-training workout specifically
designed to meet the needs of viewers whose fitness levels can range
from beginner to advanced. Beginning with two entertaining and
vigorous 22-minute body sculpture workouts to tone all of the major
muscle groups, "Pure Pump" also provides a five-minute and effective
core routine targeting lower and oblique abdominal muscles. Also
featured is a calm and meditative stretching segment, essential for
safe and healthy physical exercise regimes. This superbly produced
exercise DVD is enhanced with the addition of three Bible-based four-
minute 'spiritual warm-ups' to help with the mental motivation
required for successful attitudes towards self, food, and exercise.
Also very highly recommended is Tonya Larson's companion exercise DVD
"Step Pump" (#314827, $14.95) showcasing three thoroughly 'user
friendly workouts to tone the body, enhanced with four Bible-based
spiritual warm-ups to tone the soul.

Last Extinction
Nova
PBS Home Video
c/o SSA Public Relations
15260 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 1730, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
WG43129, $29.99, www.amazon.com

Some 13,000 years ago a great many mammals suddenly died out in a
brief period of time. "Last Extinction: What Killed The Mammoths?" is
a superbly produced, informed and informative NOVA television episode
that explores an iconoclastic theory behind the sudden demise of
mammoths, giant ground sloths, saber-tooth cats, and American lions.
The trigger for this catastrophic event is speculated to be a comet
breaking up over North America and resulting in widespread forest
fires that wiped out plants, animals, and even pre-historic humans.
Archaeological evidence is identified and discussed in depth, along
with the contributing theories of climate change and the end of the
Ice Age as causes of the disappearance of so many species of large
mammal. Informed and informative, and with this 56 minute DVD format
including such special features as printable materials for educators,
scene selection, and access to the NOVA web site, "Last Extinction" is
a highly recommended addition to school and community library
collections.

The Helen West Casebook
Acorn Media Group
8515 Georgia Avenue, Suite 620, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3403
www.acornmedia.com
AMP-8246, $49.90, www.amazon.com

Helen West is a middle-aged workaholic British crown prosecutor whose
personal and professional lives are complicated by a strained romance
with a handsome police chief, a by-the-book supervisor, and a keen
sense of justice that inevitably gets her into trouble with her
colleagues. Produced with the usual high quality technical and
performance standards of a BBC production, "The Helen West Casebook"
is now available on DVD in a three-volume boxed set that has a total
running time of 289 minutes, and includes as bonus features
biographies of actress Amanda Burton and author Frances Fyfield.
Certain to please British mystery and courtroom drama fans, "The Helen
West Casebook" is an excellent and highly recommended acquisition for
personal and community library DVD collections.

Pax Service
Vision Video
PO Box 540, Worcester, PA 19490-0540
www.visionvideo.com
#501313D, $24.99, 1-800-523-0226

Vision Video is a premier producer of Christian videos for personal,
family, seminary, and church school collections. "Pax Service: An
Alternative To War" is a 43 minute DVD about how approximately 1200
young men, between 1951 and 1976, refused to join the American
military because of their religious beliefs. Instead, these
conscientious objectors volunteered to serve humanity in other ways
including the building of homes for World War II refugees, teaching
African farmers modern farming methods, helping Greek villagers to
preserve food for the winter months, even building a road through the
exceedingly difficult terrain of the Paraguayan Chaco. The program
under which they labored was called PAX, a movement serving forty
countries. This informative DVD is enhanced with several 'Bonus
Features' including an extended version of the originally broadcast
program; a Pax Reunion Tour to Europe; a Day in Pax slide show; a
discussion guide, and the option of a sound track in English or
Spanish. Also very highly recommended and newly released by Vision
Video are two DVD programs for adult viewers: "Cancer
Stories" (#501311D, $19.99, 2 hours); "Perpetua: Early Church
Martyr" (#501317D, $19.99, 61 minutes); and three DVD programs for
children: "Torchlighters: The Perpetua Story" (501301D, $14.99, 35
minutes); "Carlos Caterpillar #8: Batter Chatter" (#501314D, $9.99, 25
minutes); and "Carlos Caterpillar #9: Buggy Breakup" (#501315D, $9.99,
25 minutes). Parents and librarians seeking to build up a 'family
values friendly' DVD collection would be well advised to visit the
Vision Video website at www.visionvideo.com for a complete listing of
their large numbers of superbly produced and inexpensive DVD titles.

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Midwest Book Review