One of my favorite creative teams is coming to town to give you a chuckle and a lift this holiday season on Saturday, December 27 at 2:00 pm Downtown. Talented storyteller and Hopwood Winner, Badria Jazairi, is joining her theatrical expert husband and Pioneer teacher, Phil Walker, for laughter yoga and creative play for the 9 year old and up crowd. Adults and teens are very welcome!

casablanca

On November 26, 1942, the movie, Casablanca, had its first showing at the Hollywood Theater in New York City. The movie starred Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. It's the story of Rick Blaine, former resistance fighter during World War II who gives up politics to open a nightclub in Casablanca. Victor Laszlo, a leader of the European resistance movement, shows up with his wife Ilsa who is Rick's former lover. Rick is faced with an ethical dilemma that tests his love for Ilsa. The film initially got only decent reviews including one from the New Yorker that called it "pretty tolerable." But it went on to receive the Academy Award and became one of the favorite pictures of the twentieth century. It is also one of the most quoted including the lines: "Here's looking at you, kid." And "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, she walks into mine."

Check out Casablanca from the Library as well as many other classic films from that era.

Although this book was published several years ago, I was so moved by the story, I had to write about it. The Work of Wolves by Kent Meyers is the story of four young men whose personal journeys and quest for justice bring them together. Set against the harsh beauty of the Badlands, Carson Fielding, a horse trainer, is hired to work for the controlling, mercenary ranch owner Magnus Yarborough, who still holds a grudge from a horse sale to Carson years ago. Yarborough wants Carson to train three horses and teach his new young wife, Rebecca, to ride. Carson and "Reb" as he calls her fall in love but do not act on their emotions. Yarborough still suspects them and in an act of vengeance, removes the horses Carson has trained to a remote area where they are slowing starving to death. What ensues is the development of a strong, almost mystical bond among Carson, Earl, a bright Lakota teenager, Willi, a German exchange student who is fleeing a dark family history, and Ted, another Lakota who is falling prey to alcoholism. Their journey to save the horses--and, in a sense, themselves--is told in language that evokes the broad sweep of this Western landscape.

Readers who like Meyers will also enjoy Leif Enger's Peace Like a River and Kent Haruf's Plainsong.

As a response to the intensity of election season and current econonic woes, the Academy of American Poets has compiled poems called "Poems for Times of Turmoil." Included in the list are poems by Gerard Manly Hopkins, Walt Whitman and Hart Crane. The Academy is a wonderful resource for finding poems from their vast archive, essays and reviews on poetry, occasional poems for that special day and poetry events. Following is one of my favorites from their current list, "Thing," by Rae Armantrout whose words are a voice of sanity amid the media frenzy:

We love our cat
for her self
regard is assiduous
and bland,

for she sits in the small
patch of sun on our rug
and licks her claws
from all angles

and it is far
superior
to "balanced reporting"

though, of course,
it is also
the very same thing.

Join us for songs with Laz Slomovits, check out beautiful traditional dresses and books and make felt bookmarks with flower designs. Experience the rich Hungarian culture this Sunday, October 12th at the Downtown Library at 2:00 pm.

Black and White King

Come and play one of the world's most popular games with players of all ages and abilities. Chess sets are provided. Challenge old friends and meet new ones!

Sunday, October 12 | 1:00-4:00 PM | Pittsfield Branch, 2359 Oak Valley Dr.

promotion

The following three dvds are currently on order. Holds are piling up quickly, so get your name on the list:

The Promotion. Two managers in a Chicago supermarket vying for the same promotion (Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly) each show their ugly side in this low-key but very funny take on one side of the corporate world.

Then She Found Me. Helen Hunt both directs and stars in this film about a divorced woman (Hunt) who meets her birth mother (Bette Midler) after her adoptive mom dies. Also on the scene are Matthew Broderick (her ex) and her divorced dad (Colin Firth). Hunt does a great job portraying April who must deal with enormous changes, showing all her rough edges.

Married Life. Chris Cooper plays Harry who decides he must kill his wife played by Patricia Clarkson so that she will not suffer when he leaves her for a younger woman. But the plot thickens when Harry's friend, Richard falls for the same woman and plans go awry.

osher

It’s a big colorful gathering, a beehive of vigorous older adults milling about information tables for this year’s array of lifelong learning opportunities for age 50 and up. The choices are vast and some very helpful people will be on hand to explain all the ins and outs of the offerings and how to register for them. The kickoff with refreshments takes place at 9:30 am, at Best Western Conference Center, 2900 Jackson Ave., in Ann Arbor. At 10:00 am, Allan Gilmour, retired Vice Chairman of Ford Motor Co. will talk about “Our Aged – Liabilities or Assets?” If you are at all curious about the high quality activities for seniors in the Ann Arbor area, this is the place to be!

While vacationing in New Hampshire and not feeling "quietly desperate," I read Olive Kittridge by Elizabeth Strout which takes place in the neighboring state of Maine. In a series of interlocking stories, Strout portrays the lives of both the title character, a sharp-tongued but deeply caring schoolteacher and people she knows who live in the small coastal town. Strout touches on many themes: depression, suicide, resentment and grief, all with penetrating insight and humor. I grew to care about these hard-edged, private and passionate people as much as Strout must have in writing about them.

Today, July 26, is the birthday of George Bernard Shaw, British playwright, famous for his wit and social commentary in plays like Pygmalion, later made into the hugely successful My Fair Lady. Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1856 to a mother who was a professional singer and an alcoholic father who was a failed merchant. He moved to London in his twenties and tried unsuccessfully to write novels. Under the auspices of the socially progressive Independent Theatre, Shaw had several of his plays performed but he was given the most artistic freedom and support by Harley Granville Barker, manager at the Court Theatre. Shaw was also very active in the Fabian Society, a group that advocated the rise of socialist ideology and policy in Britain.

Among the many oft quoted lines of Shaw's is this one: "Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children."