The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) announced today that it will showcase pieces from its Fashion Collection in a special pop-up experience this weekend only – Friday, June 1 and Saturday, June 2. This pop up experience, will showcase the Collections process of photographing, cataloging and documenting artifacts for the Museum’s online database, grpmcollections.org.
The GRPM’s artifact photography station, used behind-the-scenes on a daily basis, will be brought to the main floor Galleria at the Museum’s downtown location. GRPM curatorial staff will be taking high-quality digital images for a portion of the Museum’s historic clothing collection that will include swimsuits, athletic wear and children’s clothing. These images will be immediately available on grpmcollections.org.
Visitors will get to learn about the process of researching the garment to find out how it was worn and can assist staff with dressing mannequins for photography, getting a close up look at some of the Museum’s clothing treasures. Curatorial staff can answer questions about the process, as well as the Collections in general.
Boy’s sailor suite circa 1915
Normally photographing the Collections is a behind-the-scenes task. Improving the cataloging content supports GRPM’s interpretive programs, increases primary source learning resources for teachers and students, and expands research opportunities through grpmcollections.org
This pop up experience will be in the Museum’s Galleria from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on June 1 and June 2, 2018 and will be included with general admission to the GRPM. For further details, visit grpm.org/calendar.
This project part of an inventory and cataloging project of 5,600 clothing objects made possible with the support of the Institute of Museums and Library Services: Museums for America grant program.
All-American Girls Professional Baseball Uniform League Uniform, circa 1952
Identified in the GRPM’s long range preservation plan, the GRPM’s historical clothing Collection has long been recognized as one of the Museum’s most fragile assets. The IMLS grant in is significantly improving the physical management of the Collection by consolidating it into the GRPM’s climate-controlled collection storage facility and re-housing individual pieces as needed. This is a matching grant, in which the GRPM matched the IMLS contribution.
Since the GRPM began collecting in 1854, it has amassed a comprehensive Collection of clothing items, with strengths in fashionable garments from the 19th and 20th centuries. The Collection is especially strong in the areas of women’s clothing, wedding attire, military uniforms, items with local provenance, as well as unique special function items such as women’s athletic wear.
The Decemberists’ June 4 visit to the Meijer Gardens concert series will likely be on the of “hot” concerts this season. (Supplied photo by Holly Andres)
The first of the 31 planned concerts of the 2018 Fifth Third Bank Summer Concerts at Meijer Gardens begins this week with a sold-out show by the Tedeschi Trucks Band on Tuesday, May 30, with pushing 20 of the remaining 30 shows also sold out and many of the rest with very few tickets available from the original source.
While many of the “tickets available” shows are down to under 100 of the 1,900 general admission seats of the grass, the logic of which concerts are sold out and which are still up for grabs is a little bit of a puzzler, as several of the season’s best offerings still had tickets available as of the Memorial Day weekend.
One such “How can that not be sold out?” show is the Monday, June 4, visit of The Decemberists — a concert by a band clearly on the alt-rock “hot in 2018” list. (If there are any original source tickets — not from the secondary market, at increased prices — available from Meijer Gardens (at original price), check here.)
The Portland, Oregon based band — on their just released “I’ll Be Your Girl” album/CD/download, and their just begun “Your Girl/Your Ghost” world tour — are a well-established alternative rock band exploring a new sound, as evidenced by the first single off their new release, the synthesizer driven “Severed”.
“When you’ve been a band for 17 years, inevitably there are habits you fall into,” The Decemberists front man Colin Meloy said in supplied material. “So our ambition this time was really just to get out of our comfort zone. That’s what prompted working with a different producer and using a different studio. We wanted to free ourselves from old patterns and give ourselves permission to try something different.”
And when he says a “different producer,” he is referring to John Congleton, who has produced “different” musicians such as St. Vincent and Lana del Rey, and helps the band embrace “different” influences such as Roxy Music and New Order, according to the band.
The Decemberists — songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Meloy, guitarist Chris Funk, keyboardist Jenny Conlee, bassist Nate Query, and drummer John Moen — made a conscious effort to “broaden their sonic range” as a follow-up to 2015’s “What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World”, which included the hit single “Make You Better”, and a history highlighted by almost folk-pop songs such as “Down By the Water” and “The Calamity Song”, both from 2011.
“On the last record,” Meloy said, “there were moments when I thought I was making familiar choices. I tried to be mindful in the songwriting process of challenging myself and being a little more critical. The idea was, how can we make unfamiliar choices, turn off the light a little and grope around in the dark a bit?
“We were talking about music and our references (and) … it kept coming back to Roxy Music and early glam, and we dove in with that in mind … we were trying to embrace that Bryan Ferry aspect, that kind of set the tone.”
Continuing on the new direction of “I’ll Be Your Girl”, and praising the input of fellow band members Funk and Conlee, Meloy said the single “Severed” was an example of a significant team effort.
“That was written as a punk song, but wasn’t really working,” he said. “Jenny set this arpeggio throughout it, and it became like an early New Order song. And I had forgotten that when we made the demo, I also started a file to turn it into more of a Depeche Mode song—I actually wanted it to be a synth song all along.”
Summing up the desire of a veteran band finding new inspiration, challenging itself to re-connect with its creativity, Meloy said: “Making music is an infinite choose-your-own-adventure, and when you go down one path, the other paths get sealed off. So every time we could, we said, ‘If this is what our impulses would tell us to do, let’s try to imagine it in a different way.’”
Can’t wait to hear the Decemberists’ new and different way.
Other concerts (maybe) not yet sold-out
A probably sold-out crowd that comes to Meijer Gardens Summer Concert series. (Supplied Meijer Gardens/Tony Norkus)
Talking about concerts which may still tickets remaining available, the list includes one this weekend — Gladys Knight on Sunday, June 3 — and later nights with Jackson Browne, Air Supply and Patti LaBelle, as well as Alabama performing for a special fundraising show to benefit the Garden’s “Welcoming the World: Honoring a Legacy of Love” capital campaign.
Most surprising, to me anyway, are that there are still tickets available for several more “hot” shows that I am looking forward to: the modern alt-pop darlings Fitz and the Tantrums, the late 1970s New Wave/early ‘80s Power Pop sounds of Joe Jackson, the reformed classic late ‘90s alt-rock juggernaut +LIVE+, and the always great annual visit of Lyle Lovett (with his Large Band).
For more information on Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, the concerts and all the details on what to bring and not bring to the outdoor amphitheater, visit meijergardens.org .
The fall is still a few months off but St. Cecilia Music Center is already well along in planning for its 2018-19 music season, with its first folk music concert announcement teasing another great season, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center returning, and a series of special events for Women’s History Month in March 2019 to celebrate the center’s 135th year anniversary.
But its complete jazz series line-up is out, and it is nothing short of great.
The 4-concert jazz series will feature an impressive lineup of Grammy award winning musicians including trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, the Kenny Barron Quintet, Joey DeFranceso, and the Benny Green Trio with 23-year old jazz sensation Veronica Swift.
“This year’s jazz series is also going to be phenomenal with some legends, as well as rising stars, in the mix,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director, said in supplied material.
“Phenomenal” is not an overstatement when it comes to describing the series, either.
The jazz series will begin its season Oct. 11 with 10-time Grammy Award winning trumpeter Sandoval, a Cuban-born artist who burst onto the American jazz scene as a young protégé of the legendary jazz master Dizzy Gillespie, but now has firmly established his place in the jazz world.
In addition to his 10 Grammy awards, Sandoval has been nominated 19 times for a n award. He has also received 6 Billboard Awards and an Emmy Award, the latter for his composing work on the entire underscore of the HBO movie based on his life, “For Love or Country” that starred Andy Garcia as Arturo.
Following Sandoval on the jazz series will be the Kenny Barron Quintet on Nov. 1. Barron, a pianist, earned the first of his 11 Grammy awards in 1992 for Best Jazz Album with “People Time”, a duet with Stan Getz, and won most recently in 2017 for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.
DeFranceso — named as “one of the best B-3 players on the planet” by Jazz Times — will appear with his quartet “The People” on Feb. 7, 2019. DeFranceso will soon be releasing his new album, “Project Freedom”, which features him on the Hammond B-3, along with contributions on keyboards, trumpet and as a vocalist. Accompanying DeFrancesco will be drummer Jason Brown, guitarist Dan Wilson and saxophonist Troy Roberts — collectively billed as “The People.”
The final jazz series concert of the season will be the Benny Green Trio, with young jazz singer Swift, on March 7, 2019. Swift will launch her newest album release this year and the recording will feature the pianist Green and his trio. At age 23, Swift is considered one of the top young jazz singers on the scene. In the fall of 2015, she won second place at the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition. In 2016, she was asked to perform a concert of her own at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York City and she was a guest artist with Michael Feinstein at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
No unknown to jazz fans, Green combines “a mastery of keyboard technique with decades of real world experience playing with no one less than the most celebrated artists of the last half century,” according to supplied material.
More news on the 2018-19 season
The Trout Quintet (Supplied)
In upcoming season news for its chamber music series and its Acoustic Cafe series, St. Cecilia has renewed three-year partnership with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the result will be concerts featuring music from Beethoven, Mozart and Mendelssohn to Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky. An expanded folk series also kicks off with the renowned Brooklyn-now-Nashville-based band The Lone Bellow.
“We are very excited about the artists coming for our 135th anniversary season,” Holbrook said. “And, we are so pleased to renew another three-year agreement with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, securing many seasons of phenomenal chamber music.”
And speaking of its 135th anniversary events, St. Cecilia announced two special events during March 2019 Women’s History Month.
St. Cecilia Music Center’s history is integrally aligned with women’s history in Grand Rapids, according to supplied material. The organization was founded in 1883 by nine Grand Rapids women and was the only organization of its kind to be run solely by women. It was through the efforts of the first women of the music center that the historic building on Ransom Avenue was erected in 1894, “and it is their original mission that St. Cecilia continues to uphold today.”
St. Cecilia Music Center’s mission is to promote the study, appreciation and performance of music in order to enrich the lives of West Michigan residents. The Center fulfills this mission by presenting visiting world-class artists in concert, providing music education for all ages through our School of Music and preserving a historic building for musical activities and community events.
“Celebrating (our) … 135th anniversary with special events during Women’s History Month in March 2019 is extremely meaningful and appropriate,” Holbrook said. “We are thrilled to honor the late Helen DeVos for the amazing vision she had for the arts in Grand Rapids and to keep her legacy alive with the continuation of the Helen DeVos Legacy Award in years to come.”
For more information on St. Cecilia and its 2018-19 season, visit scmc-online.org .
The grr-ific musical for little tigers and grown-ups alike is back with an all-NEW show for 2017-2018. The hugely popular Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood LIVE!, based on the #1 PBS KIDS TV series, has delighted live audiences on stages across the country. Now, in its third year of touring, your favorite characters are hopping back on board Trolley and coming to Grand Rapids with “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Live: King for a Day!” to SMG-managed DeVos Performance Hall on Monday, Jan. 14, at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, June 1, at 10 a.m. Tickets will be available at the DeVos Place® and Van Andel Arena® box offices, online at Ticketmaster.com, and charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000. See Ticketmaster.com for current pricing and availability.
Daniel and all of his friends invite you for a brand-new adventure in Neighborhood of Make-Believe where Daniel learns just what it takes to be King. The beloved characters come alive on stage to captivate you with new songs to sing along to, magical moments, and SURPRISE guests along the way! It’s an event filled with tigertastic fun, teaching the valuable lessons of kindness, helping others, and being a friend. Don’t miss Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood LIVE: King for a Day!… a royally great time!
By Michelle Hannink, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main
If you enjoy a family saga and watch the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies, then you might enjoy reading Canadian author Mary Lawson’s second work, The Other Side of the Bridge. Lawson’s ability to draw the reader in is wonderful, allowing them a fine escape into her world.
This is the story of two brothers growing up on a farm during the Depression and onset of war in northern Canada. Arthur and Jake Dunn couldn’t be more different. Arthur is the hardworking, quiet, dull but dependable son who naturally belongs on the farm. Jake is the opposite—very intelligent, better at schoolwork than farm work, seemingly clumsy in all physical labor and unable to please his father. Their relationship reaches a climax one day when crossing the bridge over the river while accompanying a nervous cow—an event which changes their lives forever and lends title to this book. War breaks out and neither son is able to enlist. A new minister and his beautiful daughter Laura come to town and take up residence next to the farmhouse. Arthur is instantly smitten and Jake sets out for revenge.
Lawson tells the story within two time frames—the first during the 1930s and into World War II and the second during the 1950s when teen Ian Christoperson enters their life. Ian is the town doctor’s son. He too has a crush on the now-married Laura and goes to work for her husband Arthur on their farm so that he can be near her. When Jake returns unexpectedly to the farm after a fifteen-year absence, the emotions and apprehensions culminate in a tragic and surprising ending.
By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch
Lucinda and Jessie Ryder have always been close. The only two daughters of a golf tour pro, they find themselves living a life of constant upheaval. They go to new schools, conquer new stepfathers, and raise each other to become beautiful young women. Lucinda, called Luz, finds a release from her frantic life in the form of photography and she shares her new love with her younger sister Jessie. But when Jessie’s life takes a turn after meeting a handsome law student, Luz steps up to be what their mother has not ever been: a parent.
Jessie’s fling ends with her pregnant and alone. She makes the decision to give up her child to her older sister and then flees Texas. Jessie follows her lover/professor around the world to photograph the most beautiful places on earth for sixteen years. Until a doctor’s diagnosis sidelines her hopes of a further career.
She suddenly yearns to return home to see her sister Luz and the daughter they share. Lila has only ever known Jessie as her eccentric aunt who does anything she wants. From the beginning, Jessie’s ways cause tension in her sister’s family.
As Jessie meets and begins to fall in love with Luz’s neighbor, she sees that her two largest secrets could tear her family apart. One secret is not hers alone and traps her sister and brother-in-law in a veil of lies. One man only knows the other secret, her former professor, so that she can live her life on her terms rather than allow Luz to swallow her up.
The World Affairs Council of West Michigan will present a discussion led by retired U.S. Ambassador William Garvelink titled “Global Trends Driving International Relations: Pandemics, Corruption, and Failed States” on Thursday, May 31, from 6:30-7:30 p.m., at Calvin College’s Gezon Auditorium.
From 2007-2010, Garvelink served as U.S. ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Prior to his appointment as ambassador, he served as principal deputy assistant administrator in the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, where his responsibilities included oversight of USAID’s worldwide humanitarian assistance and democracy programs.
From 1988 to 1999, he served in the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, working around the globe to conduct assessments and direct relief operations. Prior to his work in OFDA, he served for two years in the Department of State’s Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration with responsibilities for southern Africa.
Ambassador Garvelink now serves as senior adviser for global strategy at the International Medical Corps.
He holds a B.A. degree from Calvin College and an M.A. degree from the University of Minnesota.
No reservations needed for the discussion. The public invited with a $10 general admission cost. Free is available parking on campus.
Cascade Township’s Thornapple Brewing Company will celebrate its first anniversary with a party featuring special releases, live music and games. (Thornapple Brewing)
Cascade Township’s Thornapple Brewing Company will celebrate its first anniversary with a party featuring special releases, live music and games on Saturday, June 9, from 11 a.m to late (12 midnight?).
The main attraction will be Thornapple’s 36 pours of beers, ciders, and meads on tap. (Thornapple Brewing)
The main attraction, of course, will be Thornapple’s 36 pours of beers, ciders, and meads on tap, as well as a variety of wine and spirits — including, according to supplied information, a resurrected early version of Hoppy Saison, the first batch of Spicy Salted Session Saison and the first batch of Barrel-Aged Brown-Eyed Girl.
“There will be a few more surprises, for sure,” Sebastian Henao, head brewer, said in supplied information. “We’re going to have some fun stuff.”
The event will take place both inside the pub and outside in the parking lot under a tent. The bands will play 4-10 p.m, and attendees can also play a variety of outdoor games.
Thornapple opened June 10, 2017, serving craft beers, wines and ciders. By September of last year, four new 15-barrel fermenters were installed, increasing the brewery’s capacity.
“We started out with just a half dozen ales, now we’ve got a great variety of lagers, ales and more experimental styles on tap,” Jeff Coffey, Thornapple Brewing Company co-founder, said in supplied material.
In December of last year, Thornapple introduced spirits to their beverage lineup, including rum, gin, whiskey, vodka and brandy.
Several Greater Grand Rapids breweries, from downtown to north Kent County, offer the opportunity to be active before, during or after sipping a brew.
Atwater Brewery in downtown Grand Rapids boasts outdoor seating and the ability to “bring the pups while you grab a pint” — and just in case you think “pups” is some slang term, they mean you can bring your dogs. Atwater Brewery is located at 201 Michigan Street NW. For more information visit atwaterbeer.com .
Rockford Brewing Company — need we say “in Rockford”? — offers “Paddles ’n’ Pints” trips where you can fill plastic growlers at the brewery before spending a couple hours floating down the Rogue River. Please have a duty paddler in the group. Rockford Brewing is located at 12 E Bridge St NE. For more information visit rockfordbrewing.com .
And, finally, Cedar Springs Brewing Company — you know where — is teaming with Speed Merchants for “Radfahrer: Bike Night at CSBrew”, either leisure or training group bicycle rides on Monday nights through September starting at 6:30 p.m. According to suppled information, the training ride is 28-36 mile gravel ride for fat tire, mountain, gravel, or cx bikes. The 1.5- to 2-hour ride with a minimum pace of 16 m.p.h., and ending at the brewery. For those who like a more leisurely pace, a family friendly group will embark on a shorter paved ride on the White Pine Trail.
Oh, ya. And bike night participants receive $2 off appetizers, or refuel with chef’s “Radfahrer Special”, a power packed meal for cyclists.
Cedar Springs Brewing Company is located at 95 N. Main. For more information visit csbrew.com .
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) and Grand Rapids Public Museum School announced a new exhibit created by GRPS Museum School students, titled Revolution: The Story of America, opens today, May 23.
The exhibit is a combination of student work from the Grand Rapids Public Museum School’s 7th grade social studies classes and art classes.
Visitors will see various sections highlighting important women, African Americans, and Native Americans and their roles in the American Revolution. It also includes a flag replica display, in which the students researched flags from the American Revolution, drew replicas, and completed summaries about their flag and its role.
In art class, Museum School students “musees” researched military uniforms, sketched them out, and then wrote a letter from the perspective of a soldier during the Revolutionary War, using special ink.
“The Museum is excited to showcase students’ work through the partnership between the GRPM and GRPS,” said Kate Kocienski, Vice President of Marketing & PR at the GRPM. “The Museum School allows students a deeper learning experience through place based learning and design thinking, while using the Museum’s Collections of more than 250,000 artifacts and specimens.”
This new exhibit will be free with general admission and be on display for a short time, through June 8. Visitors can find Revolution: The Story of America on the Museum’s second floor.
By Amanda Bridle, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main
An initial glance at the cover of Jennifer Haigh’s novel, The Condition might lead you to believe the book tells the story of Gwen McKotch, a woman diagnosed with Turner’s syndrome. However, the “condition” of the title is so much more than Gwen’s genetic condition. The book instead explores the conditions each member of the McKotch family finds themselves in as they struggle with the complexities of family relationships.
Haigh dives deep into the minds of each character, first setting the scene in 1976 when Gwen is diagnosed and then fast-forwarding us ahead twenty years to the state of each of the three siblings, now adults, and their parents, now divorced. The characters each reflect on the current state of their lives. Through dramatic circumstances they are forced to confront the unsettling realization that their lives, even their very own selves, are not what they wanted or expected. The real story begins as each decides what, if anything, to do about his or her own “condition.”
If you enjoy family dramas and books full of introspection and internal debate, you will appreciate getting to know the McKotch family. My heart ached for each of them as the story unfolded. I wished for each of them to find their own happiness, both as individuals and as a family. Don’t miss your chance to meet and love this family and cheer them on as they discover their own happy ending.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) is pleased to announce that it will open a new show in the Chaffee Planetarium on Saturday, June 16. The show, titled Space School, is a new documentary style show that features astronauts training underwater for working in space. The show will begin in conjunction with the Museum’s summer traveling exhibition – Be the Astronaut.
Space School will provide visitors with a rare glimpse of NASA astronauts training for walking and working in space by spending time in underwater environments here on Earth to learn how to manage and work in the microgravity of space. Visitors will see a breathtaking close up view of astronauts training for what promises to be the greatest of human adventures – traveling to distant planets and exploring other worlds – in our continuing effort to discover who we are and where we came from.
Space School will be part of the regular show schedule at the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, beginning on Saturday, June 16. Space School can also be reserved for school groups and field trips. Planetarium shows are $4 with general admission and $5 for planetarium only. Museum members receive free admission to planetarium shows.
The Making of Space School
Filmmaker Jonathan Bird, host of the syndicated Public Television series Jonathan Bird’s Blue World, shot the film for projection in full dome theaters using the latest technology from RED, the ultra-high-definition 6K RED Dragon. With the cooperation of NASA, Bird and his team filmed astronaut Chris Cassidy training for space walks at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, and astronaut Jeannette Epps practicing techniques for exploring distant asteroids and planets at the Aquarius Reef Base in Florida.
At the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, Cassidy and fellow astronaut Jeff Williams are lowered into a giant pool while wearing a full size space suit, breathing through an umbilical tube, as they would in space. Divers adjust each astronaut’s weight so they achieve neutral buoyancy inside the pool. Here they practice repairs to the International Space Station on life size mockups. Working in this environment, astronauts can practice maneuvering in their awkward space suits using the same tools they would use during an actual spacewalk, anchoring themselves, as they must in space to gain leverage and prevent themselves from floating away.
In Florida, Jeannette Epps spends over a week living with other astronauts in the Aquarius Reef Base. Here astronauts learn to live together in isolation for long periods of time, a requirement of space missions. At Aquarius the astronauts practice going on excursions and use specially designed drills to gather soil and rock samples, practicing methods required to explore distant planets and asteroids.
Aquarius is like a space mission in another important respect. Astronauts cannot simply leave and go home when they want. The reason, in the underwater environment, is a phenomenon called nitrogen saturation. After just a few hours underwater, the astronaut’s blood becomes saturated with nitrogen held there by water pressure. If the astronauts were to suddenly go to the surface where the pressure is less, the nitrogen would come bubbling out of their system to disastrous consequences. To safely make it to the surface, divers must be slowly decompressed to allow the nitrogen to dissipate.
Space School is among the first digitally-filmed live action dome format films. The RED Dragon is the first commercial camera to offer high-resolution images suitable for projection on a dome. The film was also shot at 60 frames per second, more than twice the frame rate of conventional film, creating an amazingly life-like experience. “Live action in the dome format at a high frame rate is just like being there,” says filmmaker Bird. The film is distributed by Sky-Skan, the world’s largest full dome film distributor.T
By Elaine Bosch, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main
Laura Hillenbrand knows how to turn a tale. Her first book Seabiscuit:An American Legend told the true story of the famous racehorsewith all the depth and drive of great fiction. Her second book, Unbroken: A World War II story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, an equally compelling historical read,proves Seabiscuit was more than beginner’s luck.
In 1931, Louis Zamperini was an energetic, incorrigible high school student with a penchant for stealing and scheming. Saved from self-destruction by the effortsof his older brother Pete, Louis learned to packhis considerable emotional baggage into running, a talent he had long possessed, but which he had heretoforeused only to elude the authorities.
Louis became a record-breakinglocal hero known as the “Torrance Tornado”. At the age of nineteen, he represented theUnited States in the 1936 Olympic games.He returned from Berlin, his passion intact,intent onbeing the first man to run a mile in four minutes or less.
World War II intervened.The 1940 Olympics, scheduled for Tokyo, were canceled, and Louis found himself a bombardier in the Air Force. In 1943, his plane went down in the Pacific Ocean. Louis suddenly found himself battling for something far more serious than a world record — his life.
For two years, Zamperini faceddeprivation and degradation that few can imagine — first as a survivor adrift in the ocean, and then as a prisoner of war atthe worst prison camps in Japan. Singled outdue to his officer and celebrity status by “The Bird,” a psychotic, sadistic camp commander, Louis became the target of an intense campaign waged to utterly humiliate, demoralize, and destroy him. That he survived at all is amazing. That he did so with his spirit and joy intact is a miracle.
Hillenbrand will captivate you withthis story,shocking and inspiring in turn. It is life and times writ large.
Need a lift? Try a bit of Dave Barry’s humor in his newest book.
Born in 1947, in the vanguard of the “Boomer” generation, Barry’s journalistic work has long provided a humorous slant to that demographic lump in the American loaf. As he’s gotten older, it’s worthwhile reading to see what Barry makes of how the overly self-absorbed generation has come to terms with its time on the field.
The chapter that resonated with me the most was the one where he is looking back on three generations, with a fourth one just coming onstage, and decides that his parents had more fun than he did.
“That’s not how it was supposed to be. My parents belonged to the Greatest Generation; they grew up in hard times. My mom was born in Colorado in an actual sod hut, which is the kind of structure you see in old black-and-white photographs featuring poor, gaunt, prairie-dwelling people standing in front of what is either a small house or a large cow pie…”
Dave speculates that the Greatest Generation may have triumphed by not realizing all the mistakes they were making — mistakes that the Boomers rectified by turning “parenting” into a verb, among other things. The laughter has a poignant bite to it, as Barry admits that “The harsh truth is that happiness is an elusive thing.”
But that does not slow the author down, as he travels to Brazil with his daughter for the World Cup, and goes to Russia with Ridley Pearson for a literature tour (the State Department tapped them to go). He meets David Beckham, tries Google Glass, and reveals a stunning secret confided to him by Johnny Carson about do-it-yourself home improvements. Great stuff!
Going back to a Dave Barry book was like meeting an old friend for lunch — you realize how much you’ve missed them and wondered where the time went.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is one of the greatest achievements, not only in classical music, but in all of Western culture.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Leonard Bernstein on Christmas Day conducted an international orchestra in performances of Beethoven’s Ninth in East Berlin that was televised throughout the world.
Sopano Jessica Rivera
Beethoven’s last symphony and his only symphony to use voices began as a defiant statement of freedom hurled at the repressive monarchies of Europe. Today, “Ode to Joy,” from the finale of Beethoven’sNinth Symphony, is the official anthem of the European Union. It’s not hard to see why.
“We should all be friends and get along and respect each other and fight together for a common goal,”said Grand Rapids Symphony Music Director Marcelo Lehninger of Beethoven’s Ninth. “What an incredible piece of music.”
Grand Rapids Symphony ends its 2017-18 season with Beethoven’s Ninth at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 18-19, in DeVos Performance Hall.
Mezzo–soprano Susan Platts
Lehninger will lead soprano Jessica Rivera, mezzo-soprano Susan Platts, tenor John Matthew Myers and baritone Richard Zeller plus the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus in the 10th and final concerts of the 2017-18 Richard and Helen DeVos Classical series. Guest artist sponsor is the Edith I. Blodgett Guest Artist Fund. Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus Sponsor is Mary Tuuk.
The piece is an emotional journey from darkness to light, from minor to major from chaos to order.
Tenor John Matthew Myers
“When I conduct Beethoven’s Ninth, I’m always immersed in these emotions,” Lehninger said. “Beethoven’s music does that like no other.”
The concerts also will include two contemporary pieces inspired by Beethoven. The concert opens with Variações Temporais, Beethoven Revisitado (Temporal Variations, Beethoven Revisited) by Brazilian composer Ronaldo Miranda, a witty, series of short, orchestral portraits, each inspired by another of Beethoven’s musical works. In 2014, Lehninger conducted the world premiere with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in Brazil.
Baritone Richard Zeller
Rounding out the program will be the world premiere of Testament by Grand Rapids composer Alexander L. Miller, who also is assistant principal oboist of the Grand Rapids Symphony.
Commissioned by the Grand Rapids Symphony, Testament, Beethoven’s 1802 “Heiligenstadt Testament” for Bass-Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra, takes its text from a letter that Beethoven wrote in 1802 to his brothers, expressing his anger and frustration at losing his hearing. Though he considers suicide, Beethoven declares he will live on for the sake of the music he has yet to write.
It’s also a letter that Beethoven never sent. It was discovered among his private papers following his death in 1827.
The concerts will be the first time Lehninger has conducted the Grand Rapids Symphony in one of Beethoven’s nine symphonies. It won’t be the last.
“One of my goals is to work in one or two Beethoven symphonies every season,” Lehninger said.
The story of the first performance of Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony No. 9 in D minor is one of the legendary stories of music history. At the premiere in May 1824, Beethoven, with his back to the audience, stood near the conductor, giving tempos and following the score. When the performance ended, the alto soloist approached Beethoven and turned him around so that he could see the enthusiastic applause he no longer could hear.
Inside the Music, a free, pre-concert, multi-media presentation sponsored by BDO USA, will be held before each performance at 7 p.m. in the DeVos Place Recital Hall.
The complete Beethoven’s Ninth program will be rebroadcast on Sunday, June 3, 2018, at 1 p.m. on Blue Lake Public Radio 88.9 FM or 90.3 FM.
Tickets are available at the DeVos Place ticket office, weekdays 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. or on the day of the concert beginning two hours prior to the performance. Tickets also may be purchased online at GRSymphony.org.
Full-time students of any age are able to purchase tickets for only $5 on the night of the concert by enrolling in the GRS Student Tickets program, sponsored by Comerica and Calvin College. This is a MySymphony360 eligible concert.
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park has announced a nine-show lineup for the Tuesday Evening Music Club with a diverse two-month program of live bands ranging from jazz to indie, rock to folk.
Taking place on the Gardens’ 1,900-seat amphitheater stage, the Tuesday concerts are free to Meijer Gardens members and include admission throughout July and August.
The line-up and show dates/times are as follows:
Hannah Rose and the GravesTones, with Rachel Curtis; July 3 at 7 p.m. Hannah Rose and the GravesTones offers a combination of funk, blues, country, jazz, and rock & roll, led by a songstress with a voice all her own. Rachel Curtis, a vocalist and 2018 American Idol contestant, will be backed by her band.
The Kathy Lamar and Robin Connell Band, and Soul Syndicate; July 10 at 7 p.m. The Kathy Lamar and Robin Connell Band will feature Kathy singing and Robin on the keys, with a blend of R&B, soul and pop and a tinge of jazz. Soul Syndicate is a cadre of the region’s most talented musicians, doing more than justice to the likes of Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and more.
The Eric Engblade Quartet, with Wire in the Wood; July 17 at 7 p.m. The Eric Engblade Quartet, led by award winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Eric Engbland, has been called “folk rock with teeth.” Wire in the Wood is an eclectic selection of traditional and modern covers in the style of prog-bluegrass.
Valley Girl, with The Hacky Turtles; July 24 at 7 p.m. Valley Girl offers upbeat, indie-pop with reminiscences of 1980s’ synth. The Hacky Turtles offer a unique alternative rock with forays into folk and funk.
Lipstick Jodi, with Hollywood Makeout; July 31 at 7 p.m. Lipstick Jodi is an indie, alt-pop trio with a slight punk edge. Hollywood Makeout is an energetic punch of alternative rock, pop, garage and surf.
Nessa, with The Moxie Strings; August 7 at 7 p.m. Nessa offer a combination of classical, jazz, and Celtic influences, led by flutist and vocalist Kelly McDermott. The Moxie Strings offer a foot-stomping, rock-influenced, progressive spin on traditional Celtic and Americana classics and originals.
Franklin Park, with a Six Pak; August 14 at 7 p.m. Franklin Park, which reunited in 2010, are former classmates from 1969 and perform spot-on renditions of The Beatles, The Birds, The Rascals and more. Six Pak is a legendary all girl band, originally formed in 1967, performing the grooviest hits from that era.
Watching for Foxes, with Desmond Jones; August 21 at 7 p.m. Watching for Foxes is an Indie-folk rock driven by powerful, haunting vocals. Desmond Jones is a fusion of funk, rock and jazz, centered around melodic guitar riffs.
And the annual finale, will be Ralston & Friends; August 28 at 7 p.m. Local legend Ralston Bowles shares the stage with friends and collaborators from the community and beyond. A perfect end to a summer of musical fun.
Concertgoers are welcome to bring a blanket or beach-style chair to sit on. All concerts take place rain or shine (weather delays possible). A selection of sandwiches, snacks, water, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages are available at the concessions counter. All beverages purchased onsite must be consumed inside the amphitheater gates.
Concertgoers are also welcomed to bring their own food, bottled water and non-alcoholic beverages. No glass containers are allowed. All beverages must be in their original sealed containers; any liquids in unsealed containers must be discarded at the gate before entering.
The amphitheater is currently being expanded and upgraded. The work is taking place over two years. Work on phase one will conclude for the presentation of the 2018 season and then resume to be fully ready for the 2019 season.
You don’t have to look very far to find instances of the destruction addictions can wreck. There have been plenty of them close to home, but the worst was perhaps forty-five years ago when my uncle and next door neighbor killed his brother and then fatally shot himself one afternoon. I’ve always wondered if his long time drinking didn’t have a hand in that tragedy. But many people drink, use, and get violently angry, without completely destroying their life — what causes the change from “social drinker” to alcoholic? From party use to obsessional need? Why would nature play such a cruel trick on us?
Lewis’s book goes a long way to explaining how our own evolved biology may push a natural neurological process to such an extreme that it is counter-productive. Nature’s solutions to problems can be kind of like a pay day loan.
Books touting a “new” science or cure for drug addiction often fall short in the “new” department, and leave one feeling, “that’s it? that’s all you’ve got?”, but Lewis’s book doesn’t over-promise, and delivers a thoughtful, well-researched look at the biological and emotional systems underpinning addictions. A great book for the layperson, as it’s not patronizing or dull, nor overly technical. Lewis illustrates how the brain systems developed and work to help us survive as a species, but how they can become enmeshed in a harmful death spiral. The actual people whose stories illustrate the neurological slide lend a human face to the problem since they are so very much like us.
This is not a depressing or narrow-focus book, but rather a work that considers evolution, society and culture; with divergent strands such as the Canadian First Nations study undertaken by U. of British Columbia, with its findings on culture loss and addiction, and Carl Hart’s work on a similar theme of enriched environment and addictions. Is addiction a disease? Depends on what we want to call a disease, but whatever we call it, there’s no easy way out, but there is much hope.
Where will you be for the Windsor Castle wedding of Great Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle? Probably not on the invite list, we assume. But you can still watch the pomp and circumstance in style at a local Royal Watch Party.
20 Monroe Live, located at 11 Ottawa Avenue NW, in downtown Grand Rapids, will be hosting an early morning party — and you can get on that invite list!
Royal Wedding of William and Kate was an event, so will the wedding of Harry and Megan. (Jens Rost)
20 Monroe Live’s Royal Wedding Party will be held Saturday, May 19, with doors open at 6 a.m., the show begins at about 6:20 a.m. as guest arrive, and the wedding set to start at 7 a.m. It will end at about 8 p.m.
Tickets are still available, and the box office will open at 5:45 a.m. that morning for last minute decisions.
The all-age event is sponsored by Channel 13’s My West Michigan. There is no dress code, but “fancy hats” are encouraged.
Admission includes and English breakfast buffet and one mimosa (or tea if its is a little too early for some champagne).
The breakfast will be provided by Applause Catering, cakes by Connie’s Cakes, chocolate party favors by Chocolates by Grimaldi. There will also be photo-booth style photos available from Mod Bettie Portraits.
A few facts you should know if you go (and want to sound smart):
Prince Harry’s real name — Prince Henry Charles Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor of Wales.
A Royal Wedding parade.
Where Prince Harry falls in current royal pecking order — Sixth in the line of succession to the British throne; after Queen Elizabeth II is her son Prince Charles, then Charles’ son Prince William, then William’s three children (Prince George, Princess Charlotte and the just born Prince Louis). Yes, there is another possible queen in the royal mix.
Megan Markle’s acting career — Starting in 2011, she portrayed Rachel Zane on the legal drama series Suits for seven seasons; her film credits includeRemember Me and Horrible Bosses.
The witnesses to the wedding — there will be about 600 invited guests at St. George’s Chapel.
Where do the newlywed couple go after the wedding — A reception hosted by Queen Elizabeth II at St. George’s Hall in the castle.
Ya, and you will not get an invitation to that either.
By Cher Darling, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
Since the cost of traveling overseas is a little beyond my reach, I chose to do my traveling by armchair instead and read China A to Z: Everything You Need to Know to Understand Chinese Customs and Culture.
The “A to Z” is literal with the first selection about animals: such as dragons who are said to rule the five elements of earth, water, fire, air, and the heavens. The last selection is about Ziyi Zhang, who “is without a doubt China’s most famous actress in America ever since her star-making performance as the (butt)-kicking princess in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).”
One engaging theme of the book is information about appropriate behavior that would keep a visitor to the country from making social and cultural mistakes. An important part of this information is how to behave in a way that will ensure your own comfort with food, tours, and lodgings, but will not cause your hosts to “lose face”.
I must mention the martial arts topic, since it is so cool. The Shaolin Temple in China is the most famous of China’s martial arts schools, and a major tourist attraction. The martial arts are known as wu shu in China, and “Far from being seen as a sport or a means of fighting, wu shu is considered an art form, a philosophy, and a means to cultivate unity of the body, the soul, and the universe.”
Though each selection is only a page or two long, dozens of sources for in depth information are listed in the back of the book. So if you are like me and can only afford to travel in the company of a good book, China A to Z tells much about China and its history, the lifestyle of the people, and how to act while enjoying the culture of another country. Even if you have no plans to visit the wonderfully complex land of the dragon, the book gives many insights into the customs and culture of another part of this Global Village we call Earth.
The Van Singel Fine Arts Center is celebrating 20 years. In honor of that, the Van Singel will be presenting a series of shows featuring professional local talent, national concert artists, a national touring musical comedy and, of course, great jazz.
This season’s shows are (in order of presentation):
SWING NIGHT AT THE VAN SINGEL with GLENN BULTHUIS and
the 17-piece HARK UP BIG BAND
Saturday, October 6, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Glenn Bulthuis returns with the 17-piece Hark Up Big Band for an evening of 24 Swingin’ Hits. For more than 10 years, Glenn Bulthuis and his bands have thrilled audiences with the Music of the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and James Taylor on the Van Singel stage. Now he returns with an all new 17-piece “Big Band” line up to perform the songs of Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Michael Buble, and many, many more. Tickets are $18/adults and $12/students including college students with proper ID.
PIANO MEN A Tribute to Billy Joel & Elton John
Thursday, November 29, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
The Sir Elton John & Billy Joel tribute show is a night of hit songs, energetic performances, outrageous costumes, and true rock ‘n roll at its finest. Tribute Artist David James (Billy Joel), and Jeffrey Allen (Elton) each performs a solo set before joining together on stage in a dueling-piano style, with Piano2Piano rockin’ out to their Greatest hits. …… also adding funny performance bits, sing-a-long parts, and spontaneous humor. The show spans the the 1970s to current day. Tickets are $37/adults and $22/students including college students with proper ID.
CHURCH BASEMENT LADIES Rise Up O Men
Tuesday, March 26, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Fans of the musical comedy series Church Basement Ladies will finally get to know more about the men of East Cornucopia Lutheran Church, in the new musical comedy, “Rise Up O Men.” This sidesplitting, uplifting peek into the lives of the rural Norwegian Lutherans who audiences first fell in love with in 2005 is the sixth chapter of the story begun in the original Church Basement Ladies. “Rise Up O Men” features familiar faces: Mrs. Mavis Gilmerson, Mrs. Vivian Snustad, and Mrs. Karin Engleson who would never leave the basement kitchen unattended, of course (who would make bars for the youth group meeting?). But as they busy themselves with preparations for the town’s 1964 Centennial Celebration, we get to see their coming-and-goings from the eyes of the menfolk, who have their own problems to solve. Karin’s husband Elroy, farmer Carl and Great War vet Arlo are joined in brotherhood by series staple, Pastor E.L. Gunderson. Their camaraderie unites them as they deal with furnace salesmen, looming retirement, rival Protestant denominations, the Pastor’s bad jokes, and Arlene’s even-worse cooking. Tickets are $35/adults and $22/students including college students with proper ID.
COOL JAZZ
Friday, April 26, 2018, 7:30 pm
Get ready, set and go once again for a hot night of Cool Jazz featuring the nationally recognized Byron Center Jazz Ensembles along with an international jazz a musician. Tickets are $18/adults and $11/students including college students with proper ID.
VICTORS OF CHARACTER
Thursday, September 27, 7:00 pm
Van Singel patron bonus! Patrons who purchase a ticket to any show in the 2018-2019 Van Singel season have the option to receive up to four free general admission tickets to the Gerald R. Ford Foundation’s presentation of Victors of Character. The powerful true story is turned into a live, on-stage performance that tells the narrative of a young Gerald Ford, his friend and teammate Willis Ward, and the 1934 football game that both tested and shaped their character. The Van Singel Fine Arts Center is proud to partner with the Ford Foundation to present Victors of Character: A Story of Loyalty, Integrity, and the Courage to Make a Difference.
All shows are reserved seating. Van Singel ticket patrons can design their own season and save from 5% to 15% off the cost of a full price ticket depending on the number of shows purchased. Groups also receive ticket discounts depending on the number of tickets purchased per performance.
To reserve seats, call or visit the Van Singel Fine Arts Center box office Monday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. or call 616-878-6800. Because of construction at Byron Center high School, the Van Singel box office will be closed from May 21 through August 27. Patrons may email boxoffice.vansingel@bcpsk12.net anytime. Patrons can order tickets on-line through our website beginning July 1st at www.vsfac.com.
Less than 15 minutes south of Grand Rapids, the Van Singel Fine Arts Center, is located at 84th & Burlingame SW, just 1.5 miles west of US-131 in Byron Center. The venue is at the east end of the Byron Center High School complex. For more information go on-line to www.vsfac.com.
Straight No Chaser comes to DeVos Performance Hall Dec. 4.
If the phrase “male a cappella group” conjures up an image of students in blue blazers, ties, and khakis singing traditional college songs on ivied campuses… think again. Straight No Chaser (SNC) are neither strait-laced nor straight-faced, but neither are they vaudeville-style kitsch. They have emerged as a phenomenon with a massive fanbase, numerous national TV appearances and proven success with CD releases. Straight No Chaser is the real deal, the captivating sound of nine unadulterated human voices coming together to make extraordinary music that is moving people in a fundamental sense… and with a sense of humor. On the road, Straight No Chaser has built a reputation as an unforgettable live act.
Straight No Chaser comes to SMG-managed DeVos Performance Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 4, at 8 p.m.
Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, May 11, at 10 a.m. Tickets will be available at the DeVos Place® and Van Andel Arena® box offices, online at Ticketmaster.com, and charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000. See Ticketmaster.com for all prices and availability. A purchase limit of 12 tickets will apply to every order.
Fans on DeVos Performance Hall’s email list will have access to an exclusive presale on Thursday, May 10. To receive presale information, sign up to the email list here by May 8, 2018.
Part Annie Oakley, part hippy farmer, with a bit of Little House on the Prairie stirred in, Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm is the kind of book that grabs you from the first sentence, if that super cover and awesome title haven’t already. This is a fierce memoir, the sort of story that is common enough to be shared by many, but triumphant enough to be Mardi Jo Link’s alone.
The parts you will love are the boys, Link’s sons who are each unique and full of individual adventure, yet clearly on this particular journey with their mother. You will also love Link’s genuine approach to telling this story, how she admits her own weaknesses and struggles, as well as her achievements. You will love that she refers to her ex-husband as Mr. Wonderful.
Due to changing industry trends and consumer buying patterns, SMG-managed venues DeVos Place and Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids will implement new box office hours beginning next week on Monday, May 7. The box offices at both venues will be open from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday on non-event days under the new schedule. Additional evening and weekend hours will vary in accordance with the venues’ event schedules.
Fans will still be able to purchase tickets online via Ticketmaster.com or by phone at 1-800-745-3000 outside of the venues’ box office hours. Additionally, each venue has a free mobile app for Apple and Android devices with a full list of upcoming events and direct links to Ticketmaster purchase pages, the only verified source of tickets online for the venues.
“With the growing prevalence of digital and the around-the-clock service that it provides, we feel now is a good time for these new box office hours,” said SMG Regional General Manager Richard MacKeigan. “Fans can still buy tickets online 24/7, and we are happy to continue offering the in-person touch point during our daily box office hours.”
Phantom the Mermaid returns to the Grand Rapids Public Museum May 5 and 6.
Back by popular demand, the Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) will be bringing a live mermaid back to the Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaidsexhibit on May 5 and 6!
For this special weekend, visit Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids to explore the various mythical creatures of the world and meet Mermaid Phantom! Mermaid Phantom will be in the exhibit from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. both May 5 and 6. Visitors can talk to Phantom, ask her questions about mermaids and mythical creatures, touch her tail and take photos with her!
Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids features models and replicas of preserved specimens as well as cast fossils of prehistoric animals to investigate how they could have, through misidentification, speculation, fear or imagination, inspired the development of some legendary creatures.
Admission to Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids is $12 for adults, $7 for children, $9 for Kent County resident adults, $4 for Kent County resident children, and $2 for all Museum members! Tickets include general admission to the Museum, and can be purchased online at grpm.org or by calling 616.929.1700.
Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids offers many interactive stations throughout the exhibition. Visitors can build their own dragon on an engaging touch-screen and watch it come alive before their eyes in a virtual environment.
Visitors will touch casts of a narwhal tusk to discover how they lent credence to the centuries-old belief in the unicorn. Hands-on stations also include the lower jaw of Gigantopithecus (extinct group of apes) and a life-size reproduction of the talon of a Haast’s eagle.
This exhibit is located on the Museum’s third floor and runs through May 20, 2018.
Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (amnh.org), in collaboration with the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney; Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau-Quebec; Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta; and The Field Museum, Chicago.
Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids is sponsored by The Steve & Amy Van Andel Foundation, David & Carol Van Andel Family Foundation, Meijer, Bird + Bird Studio, Harder & Warner, Hope Network Neuro Rehabilitation, Lighthouse Group, Media Place Partners, Adventure Credit Union, The Jant Group, Chris & Kim Branoff, Grand Rapids Griffins, The Knickerbocker – New Holland Brewing and Spectrum Health. Media sponsors are WoodTV8, Star 105.7 and WGVU Public Media.
This exhibit is brought to you by the citizens of Kent County and the voter approved millage.
Film composer John Williams starts every Star Wars movie with a bang. With one iconic opening chord, viewers are instantly swept into a cinematic universe that’s held together not by one director or writer, but by one composer.
Williams, whose prodigious output of film and musical scores has earned him 24 Grammy Awards, five Academy Awards, and 41 Oscar nominations over the course of his 5 decades-long career, has defined, through music, the heroes and villains of more movie franchises than even Luke, Leia, or Harry could summon with all of their powers.
The Grand Rapids Pops presents Star Wars and More: The Music of John Williams with some of Williams’ best known music, with a few surprising melodies thrown in for good measure, on May 11-13 in DeVos Performance Hall, 303 Monroe Ave. NW. Shows are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 11-12 and at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 13.
With musical selections from all 3 Star Wars trilogies, the concert features standout Star Wars pieces, alongside cherished songs from the Harry Potter film franchise, the Jurassic Park franchise, and several other films where Williams’ scores exquisitely craft the emotionality of characters and their world.
For the finale of this year’s Fox Motors Pops series, Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt will conduct the symphony in the formidable task of playing 14 selections from Williams’ scores.
“Star War” guests mingle with Grand Rapids Symphony patrons before the performance.
The concert sponsored by the Peter C. & Emajean Cook Foundation features five selections from the Star Wars franchise, including one suite from The Force Awakens and the hopeful “The Rebellion is Reborn,” from The Last Jedi, the most recent installment of the final trilogy.
The Grand Rapids Symphony Youth Chorus, directed by Sean Ivory, will be featured with music including the dramatic “Battle of Heroes,” from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and the joyful “Exultate Justi” from Empire of the Sun. Sure to be a concert highlight, “Exultate Justi,” sung in Latin, is an ardent celebration of a young protagonist’s indomitable dignity and courage, earning Williams another Grammy and Academy Award nomination, respectively.
Costumed characters from the Star Wars franchise will patrol the lobby of DeVos Hall, greeting guests and posing for pictures at each show. Characters from the Great Lakes Garrison of the 501st Legion, a worldwide Star Wars costuming organization, are expected to include Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, Rey, assorted Storm Troopers, and more.
John Williams, whose long tenure with the Boston Pops stretched for 14 seasons before he became the Pops’ Laureate Conductor, personally hired Bob Bernhardt as a guest conductor of the Boston Pops. So it makes sense that Bernhardt, who is in his third season as the Grand Rapids Symphony’s Principal Pops Conductor, is conducting works written by the man of whom Bernhardt has said, “He’s my hero.”
Williams, it seems, knows something of heroes and villains. Whether fictional or otherwise, Williams’ compositions, particularly for franchise films like Star Wars, feature short musical themes that identify characters, motivations, situations, and locations. Those themes, repeated again and again, help define characters as threating or hopeful; as brave or defiant or tender.
A menacing shark, for instance, has a two-note theme repeated throughout the score, and a villain is born for Jaws. A French horn solo, brief and longing, as a young man gazes out at a binary sunset on a desert planet introduces Luke Skywalker to Star Wars viewers.
The Julliard-trained Williams won his third Academy Award for Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. That original score, with its sweeping sonic landscape, helped define the entire Star Wars franchise and cinematic universe.
More mixing and mingling with the “Star Wars” Darth Sidious and Darth Vader.
Drawing from numerous classical music influences – from Wagner to Tchaikovsky to Holst – Williams’ capability to write evocatively and create characters out of musical thin air seems to know no bounds.
Maestro John Reineke of the New York Pops, prior to a performance of the musical score for The Force Awakens in Carnegie Hall, summed it up: “John has a way to capture the visual element of the film, and the feelings, the emotions … and transfer that into music. So when you take the music out of the film,” he explained to AM New York, “and play it on a concert stage with no visuals and just listen to it, it takes you right back to that film and what it’s about – you can picture it in your mind.”
The final Star Wars trilogy, with The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, will see its final film premier in December 2019. Williams, now 86, says that the as-of-now untitled Star Wars IX, will be his last Star Wars film.
“We know J.J. Abrams is preparing one now for next year that I will hopefully do for him, and I look forward to it,” Williams said while speaking to University of Southern California’s Classical music radio station, KUSC. “It will round out a series of nine and be quite enough for me.”
Tickets
Tickets start at $18 and are available at the GRS ticket office, weekdays 9 am-5 pm at 300 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 100, (located across from the Calder Plaza), or by calling 616.454.9451 x 4. (Phone orders will be charged a $2 per ticket service fee, with a $12 maximum.)
Tickets are available at the DeVos Place box office, weekdays 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. or on the day of the concert beginning two hours prior to the performance. Tickets also may be purchased online at GRSymphony.org.
Full-time students of any age are able to purchase tickets for only $5 on the night of the concert by enrolling in the GRS Student Tickets program. This is a MySymphony360 eligible concert.
In 1920, Frankie Pratt graduates from high school and receives a scrapbook as a gift. Intent on becoming a writer, she attends Vassar College, and finds work in New York and Paris. Told through Frankie’s eyes, the life of a young woman trying to find her place in the world comes to life. The remarkable thing about this book, however, is the way the story is told.
The entire book is formatted as Frankie’s scrapbook. It is filled with ephemera such as post cards, letters, magazine ads and more. The story of her life is told through her scrapbook entries and the style of the 1920s is vivid. The reader wants to be able to touch the items in the scrapbook, to ask Frankie questions, and to see the story from the viewpoint of other characters. But this is Frankie’s story and we see her world only from her perspective through what she shares in her scrapbook.
This is a fun book and a quick read, but you will linger, looking at the beautiful and detailed layout of each page.
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park announced Monday that its next featured exhibit will be Masayuki Koorida: Beyond Existence — an exhibit which will both build compliment the partially carved and polished boulders of the artist’s “Existance”, a focal point of the The Richard & Helen DeVos Japanese Garden, and will expand on the artist’s emerging genius.
Masayuki Koorida’s “Existence”, in Japanese Garden setting. (Supplied/Dean Van Dis)
“As one of his first gallery presentations in the United States, (Koorida’s) repertoire will reach and inform a broad audience,” Joseph Antenucci Becherer, Meijer Gardens chief curator and vice president said in supplied material. “Our relationship with Koorida is very important to Meijer Gardens and dates to the commission of his acclaimed piece ‘Existence’ in our Japanese garden. His use of materials and form is both elegant and contemplative.”
The exhibit, opening May 25, showcases Koorida’s work with a wide range of materials and his broader repertoire, which includes highly geometric pieces in a variety of scale and materials, but maybe most interesting will be a series of large, never-before-seen drawings created specifically for this exhibition. This exhibition runs through Aug. 19.
In the last decade, according to material supplied by Meijer Gardens, Koorida has emerged as “one of the most elegant voices in contemporary sculpture.” While his work has been exhibited in China, Japan and Europe, he is still relatively unseen in the United States.
And the artist has expressed his appreciation for the opportunity the Meijer Gardens exhibit will afford.
Masayuki Koorida. (Supplied/courtesy of the artist)
“Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is the first sculpture park that has collected my work in the United States,” Koorida said in supplied material. “Since the first time that I visited for the (‘Existence’) project in 2013, I have been to Meijer Gardens several times. I always find something new to discover; including great sculptures, exhibitions, beautiful flowers and gardens.
“I feel that the park is loved by people very much. It has been a great honor to be part of the collection. I am very glad to hold this solo exhibition at Meijer Gardens in 2018, it is exciting to have people experience it.”
Koorida (b. 1960, in Kyoto, Japan) lives in and works from a studio in Shanghai, China. According to supplied information, the artist placed his studio in China so that he is in close contact with abundant stone quarries in south China, and also allows him an opportunity to have a large industrial space for carving and polishing. He operates a very hands-on studio with few assistants and is physically engaged with his work. He is most well known for his sculpture in stone that range in scale from table top to the monumental, from single forms to small groups of related images. Koorida travels widely in search of the right stones for the right projects; granite is preferred, but he also works in black and white marble.
To show how little he has been shown in the United State’s, the only YouTube videos of his shows are from Europe. Visit here for an video in Italian.
The exhibit will include special programing including:
A discussion titled “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: When is a Stone Just a Stone and When is it Art?”, by Dr. Craig Hanson, on Sunday, June 3, from 2-3 p.m. The talk will explore the questions of sculpture or structure? Artform or accident? Decorative art or garden decor? “For millennia, stone has been used for decidedly unartistic purposes as well as the material of choice for many sculptors. This lecture explores how stone takes on new meaning as an art form while highlighting ‘Existence’.”
There will also Japanese Garden Sculpture Walk, with Anna Wolff, Meijer Gardens curator of arts education, on both Sunday, July 15, at 2 p.m., and on Tuesday, Aug. 7, at 6 p.m. The free with admission walking tour of the sculpture in The Richard & Helen DeVos Japanese Garden will focus on what “makes this garden one of the most unique in the nation as we explore themes of tranquility, permanence and the relationship of humanity and the natural environment.”
By Kristen Corrado, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
So who hasn’t wanted to kill their mother from time to time? In Sebold’s latest novel, the narrator, Helen Knightly, murders her elderly mother in the first sequences of the book. The shocking act against her elderly mother seems both random and unemotional. She seems to feel nothing after committing the act, and her ill-fated attempts to cover up her actions only indicate that they came from a subconscious place within her.
As The Almost Moon unfolds, the story of Helen’s beautiful, yet mentally ill mother becomes clear. Her whole life, Helen and her father cater to her mother’s agoraphobia, the entire neighborhood is hostile to them, and Helen becomes her mother’s only link to the outside world. Both her childhood and adult life are overshadowed by her mother’s metal illness, and every action that Helen takes is based on what her mother would think or feel.
While not as gripping as Sebold’s first novel, The Lovely Bones, The Almost Moon examines how mental illness affects an entire family, how we can allow our past to color our future, and how if we are not ultimately true to ourselves, we end up living our lives for others. Above all else, what one should take away from this book is that if you are going to kill your mother, it might be a good idea to brush up on a few CSI episodes first.
If you missed out on your fair share of the 2018 Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, Uccello’s Ristorante in Caledonia will offer a KBS tapping as part of its planned Founders Tap Takeover on Wednesday, May 2, starting at 3 p.m.
The range of Founders pours available at the takeover, in addition to the KBS, will include the 2017 Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS), Oatmeal Stout, All Day IPA and Red Rye. What do you want to bet the KBS is the first tap tapped out? Still, for fans of the dark, the CBS is a good fallback.
According to Uccello’s advertising, the range of Founders beers will be offered at $8 for 8 ounce pours.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum, as part of the Museum’s Beer Explorers program, is partnering with Speciation Artisan Ales for a beer tasting with Field & Fire breads on Thursday, May 17. The class will give the opportunity to taste 3 different artisan ales from a brewery currently putting out beer once a month on a special Saturday releases dates.
This Beer Explorers will be presented by Mitch Ermatinger, Speciation co-founder, and Shelby Kibler, Field & Fire owner and chef.
Speciation Artisan Ales will be demonstrating their “house culture” with a jar of yeast and bacteria slurry, as well as demonstrating the different pH of beer before and after fermentation and acidification. Bread from Field & Fire will also be made from the yeast and bacteria of the ales.
Class begins at 6:30 p.m., and will be held on the first floor of the museum. Admission to class includes three beer samples, bread samples and access to the museum’s first two floors to explore. A cash bar will be available.
Tickets for the event are $10 for museum members and $20 for non-members. Participants must be 21 and older. GRPM is located at 272 Pearl Street, NW. For information and tickets to Beer Explorers, visit www.grpm.org.
Boatyard Brewing plans ‘Friends’ brew as Alzheimers Association fundraiser
Kalamazoo’s Boatyard Brewing Company will hold the release party of its New Friends Brew on Friday, May 11, and it will also be a benefit for a September “Walk to End Alzheimers” fundraiser.
The beer release and tapping party will be Friday, May 11, 5-8 p.m., at the Boatyard Brewing Company, 432 E. Patterson St. The event will include live entertainment from Delilah DeWylde and Lee Harvey.
Makeover at six.one.six at Downtown JW Marriott boasts French wine cellar
As part of the “re-concept” of JW Marriott’s six.one.six restaurant into what they are calling a “casual French bistro”, the restaurant has announced it will now have the largest selection of French wines in Grand Rapids.
six.one.six’s expansive wine list will now include feature labels such as Domain Jean Louis Chave L’Hermitage Rouge and Blanc, Chateau Pichon Comtesse de Lalande Grand Cru, Henri Prudhon, Les Chambres, Chassagne Montrachet, Domaine Tessier, Les Genevrieres, Meursault premier cru. (Never had any of them, but if I had I bet I would be impressed.)
The expanded wine list is accompanied by a focus on French cuisine and the arrival of a new chef.
“With newly appointed Chef Alessandro Guerrazzi, classically trained in French cuisine and at the helm of the restaurant’s refresh, our team will deliver the highest level of French taste profiles to discerning diners interested in culturally distinct experiences,” Brian Behler, general manager of JW Marriott Grand Rapids said in supplied material.
For more information on the JW Marriott Grand Rapids and six.one.six, visit ilovethejw.com.
Get Lost: Green Door Distilling wins award for new vodka offering
Kalamazoo’s Green Door Distilling Company announced late last month that it’s Get Lost Vodka, first released in August 2017, has won a silver medal from the American Distilling Institute. The ADI Judging of Craft Spirits is the largest and most respected judging devoted to craft spirits, according to supplied material, and the judges tasted over 1,000 spirits and decided which spirits stood out in their respected categories.
Green Door Distilling Company is located in Kalamazoo’s River’s Edge District, and is proud to be Kalamazoo’s first modern distillery and represent the rich distilling history that Kalamazoo possessed in the 1800’s.
Darlingside is bassist Dave Senft, guitarist and banjo player Don Mitchell, classical violinist and folk mandolinist Auyon Mukharji, and cellist and guitarist Harris Paseltiner. (supplied/Gaelle Beri)
By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org
Darlingside, with new music from Extralife, April 18, at Seven Steps Up, Spring Lake, Mi.
There should be a natural progression with new bands, a growth in their music as well as in their collective and individual lives, before they hit their stride, find a distinctive sound that resonates with an often unfathomable public taste.
Darlingside — an alt-folk, harmony-driven quartet currently based in Boston — showed they are very, very close to that harmonic sweet spot as they played to a sell-out room at Spring Lake’s Seven Steps Up listening house earlier this month.
The band is made up of Don Mitchell, Auyon Mukharji, Harris Paseltiner and David Senft — and labeling them as acoustic multi-instrumentalists would be an understatement. Describing their sound can also be challenging, but anybody who has heard Simon and Garfunkel at their harmonic heights, or the Beach Boys early empty-swimming-pool effect, can imagine the harmonies these guys deliver.
With the release of their third full-length recording, Extralife, early this year, the band has now added another layer of sonic scenery to their concert landscape — a kind of spacey, otherworldly sound — and to a catalogue started in 2012 with Pilot Machines and given full voice in 2015 with Birds Say. (The band has also released two EPs, including one from its infancy and now simply titled EP1 in 2010, and Whippoorwill in 2016. Neither are throwaways.)
I have been lucky enough to follow Darlingside since their beginnings, literally their college days at Massachusetts’ Williams College — at a college kid drinking establishment/alumni club known as “The Log”. (Ya, you just can’t make that stuff up.)
My wife and I have seen them, we decided, five times over eight years, the first time probably in 2009, and (before last week) when they opened for Lake Street Dive at Meijer Gardens in 2016.
They have changed over the years, but only in their expanding boundaries of their music as the uniqueness of their nearly percussion-free sound, string-dominated instrumentation, and single-mic two-, three- and four-voice harmonies remains their hallmark.
At their recent stop at Seven Steps Up, and at other recent stops in the band’s current tour, several songs from the Extralife have blended — and yet contrasted — with live mainstays from throughout their career.
Songs such as the almost a cappella “The God of Loss” from Birds Say and the sometimes set-ending “Blow the House Down” from Pilot Machines, are personal favorites and remain so.
But new songs such as “Singularity”, “Extralife”, “Hold Your Head High” and “Best of the Best of Times”, while maybe more dark in theme than some of their early music, fit their style perfectly while still pushing the band’s sound into a more (for lack of a better term) spacey place.
In fact, some of the songs off Extralife would be at home on Hearts of Space, National Public Radio’s ethereal, ambient sound showcase (also available on its own website).
“Extralife” is as otherworldly as its is melancholy. The harmonies of “Singularity” cannot hide the beautiful bleakness of the lyrics: “Someday a shooting star is gonna shoot me down … Burn these high rises back into a ghost town … Of iridium-white clouds … Matted close against the ground … While the sky hangs empty as a frame”.
OK, so the boys are a little more serious then they were back at The Log.
Not that Darlingside has gone all downer and dour with Extralife. On “Best of the Best of Times” the band offers a driving beat and an admission that “We are a long way, a long way from the best of times.”
We can hope so.
For more information about Darlingside, visit darlilngside.com .
For more information about Seven Steps Up, visit sevenstepsup.com .
By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
Just a wonderful read!
The cover of That Went Well shows an exuberant little girl in a fancy pink dress and party hat, giving the camera an all-out smile. And the back flap shows two beautiful, gray-haired ladies hugging. Between the covers Dougan lets us in on how life with a sister whom doctors advised “be institutionalized” has gone.
Their parents became trailblazers in what was then a new world of rights for people with mental disabilities, and when they died, Irene’s sister took up the call. Terrell invites us to laugh, (because what else can one do?), but we learn a lot about making compassionate care taking decisions along the way.
If you liked Riding the Bus with My Sister, by Rachel Simon, you may enjoy this small book by Dougan. I loved both of these books, as examples of important lessons one can learn from others. They’re warm, compassionate, and hilariously funny.
By Kristen Krueger-Corrado, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
You’re a vegetarian journalist living in New York City. You are assigned to write an article about an organic farmer working in Pennsylvania. Within 24 hours of meeting the farmer, you are eating sausage, working the fields, slaughtering a pig and falling in love.
Author Kristin Kimball’s life changed when she interviewed that farmer. As their relationship bloomed, so did her understanding and respect for agriculture. Soon, she gave up her career, cute shoes, and NYC apartment and started an organic farm, Essex Farm, with Mark in upstate New York.
This memoir chronicles the first year of getting the farm off the ground—from buying plow horses to till the fields, hand milking the cows twice a day and developing a sustainable CSA—all while planning a wedding. Kimball brings to life the daily back-breaking work of running a farm, the cycle of life and death, and how community can support and uplift one another.
Her writing is rich and you feel that you are on the farm with her. When I was done with the book, I missed Essex Farm and Kristin and Mark. I wanted to know how their story continued to unfold. This book will make you appreciate what you buy at the farmers market even more.
Water’s Extreme Journey is open now at the Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) taking visitors on a quest for clean water through an experiential maze! Visit only through April 29 for this wild adventure.
Water’s Extreme Journey turns visitors into a water droplet to explore the watershed and learn about why conservation of water is so important.
Experience firsthand the science behind the water cycle. Through powerful interactives and local messaging, visitors realize that daily decisions can immediately improve the watershed in their own backyard.
The maze begins by visitors entering a watershed, an area of land where water drains and collects into a shared reservoir. To explore the exhibition watershed, visitors voyage through rivers, lakes, wetlands, and even their homes, eventually reaching the healthy ocean.
Water drops face many hurdles as they interact with humans. Does the farm they encounter use pesticides? Did someone get messy changing their oil? Clean choices keep our drops healthy and moving toward a clean ocean. Dirty choices send our drops down the urban storm drain to the unhealthy ocean, where they evaporate, condensate, and precipitation for another try.
The GRPM has included a special addition to the exhibit all about the Grand River restoration. Six banners show and tell all about the Grand River, including the history of where the rapids went and the future plans for the River.
Admission to Water’s Extreme Journey is free with general admission to the GRPM.
This exhibit is brought to you by the citizens of Kent County and the voter approved millage.
Michael Franti & Spearhead will be performing at the Meijer Gardens Amphitheater on Sunday, July 8. (Supplied)
By Meijer Gardens
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park announced today that Michael Franti & Spearhead will be performing at the Meijer Gardens Amphitheater on Sunday, July 8, replacing Huey Lewis & The News, who recently canceled their summer tour, including a concert at Meijer Gardens.
Huey Lewis and the News has cancelled this summer shows. (Supplied)
In a statement from Lewis at the time of the cancelation of his summer concert schedule, he said: “Two and a half months ago, just before a show in Dallas, I lost most of my hearing. Although I can still hear a little, one on one, and on the phone, I can’t hear music well enough to sing. The lower frequencies distort violently making it impossible to find pitch. I’ve been to the House Ear Institute, the Stanford Ear Institute, and the Mayo Clinic, hoping to find an answer. The doctors believe I have Meniere’s disease and have agreed that I can’t perform until I improve. Therefore the only prudent thing to do is to cancel all future shows. Needless to say, I feel horrible about this, and wish to sincerely apologize to all the fans who’ve already bought tickets and were planning to come see us. I’m going to concentrate on getting better, and hope that one day soon I’ll be able to perform again.”
This year’s lineup includes a special show with Alabama on Aug. 23 to benefit the “Welcoming the World: Honoring a Legacy of Love” capital campaign. All net proceeds from this show will be contributed to the campaign.
On-going upgrades to the terraced lawn seating of the 1,900-seat amphitheater is will be completed for the season (with more upgrades coming for the 2019 season).
By Debbie Hoskins, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
Michigan author Lisa Wheeler has cooked up a delightful cumulative story with a song. Ol’ Bear wakes up with a hankerin’ for ugly pie. As he visits his neighbors, they all show him the pies they have made and donate an ingredient. At the end all the neighbors smell the pie and come and eat Ol’Bear’s “scrumptious-truly wondrous-beautiful Ugly Pie!”
The book is illustrated with delightful, colorful paintings created with water color, acrylic, and collage on paper. At the end of the book is an Ugly Pie recipe that you and the grandcubs could make. Perfect for the grandchildren ages 3 through 7.
Lucas Davenport and crew have done it again, and the 23rd book in Sandford’s Prey series is a winner. If you like to read in the police/thriller genre, to paraphrase one reviewer, “some of the books are very good and some are great”. Hey–that’s as good as it gets for that long of a run! They’re well-written and -plotted, with crisp dialogue, and interesting main characters who have just enough humorous side stories going on, to leven the loaf a bit, what with all the grisly murders and all.
I was thinking of how I would enjoy reading it on my vacation, but made the mistake of just taking a peek… The tale of political dirty tricks gone wrong, and a Machiavellian narcissist plotting her rise through the senate, and the question of a double or triple cross, was just too interesting to set aside.
So, if you are looking for a great travel/vacation read, don’t open it before the trip…
