On Tuesday, Feb. 13, the Muskegon City Commission voted unanimously to approve beach camping at Pere Marquette Park for the inaugural Great Lakes Surf Festival, to be held on Aug. 18. The City Commission also approved RV camping for a nearby site that is walking distance to the beach.
The Great Lakes Surf Festival is expected to draw a large crowd of boardheads and beach lovers, and will offer a family-friendly atmosphere. The event will include workshops, free lessons, product demos, stand up paddleboard and kayak races, and paddleboard yoga. Food and drinks will be available for purchase, as well as merchandise. A large number of retailers and industry brands are expected to host booths and sponsor raffles.
The event is the brainchild of Joe Bidawid, a West Michigan resident and a former professional boarder.
Recorded September 2016 at Grand Valley State University, “I Love Being Here with You” with singer Libby York, John Proulx on piano and vocals, Paul Keller on bass, and Pete Siers on drums.
Grammy winning jazz pianist and singer John Proulx — Grand Rapids native recently returned from the La La Land — will soon release his new CD, “Say It”, to his national audience. But he will hold a little concert and release party for his hometown friends and fans at St. Cecilia Music Center this week.
Proulx, along with a trio which includes Paul Keller on bass and Pete Siers on drums, will hit St. Cecilia’s Royce Auditorium stage Sunday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m. Tickets are still available.
The St. Cecilia concert is also being called a “Welcome Home” event as Proulx recently returned to Grand Rapids with his wife and family after living in Los Angeles for 16 years, and the musician used to play piano recitals at the venue as a child.
“I am thrilled to be celebrating two life milestones,” Proulx said in supplied material. “ After living in Los Angeles for 16 years, my family and I have recently moved back to Grand Rapids … and we’re grateful to be closer to our family here in West Michigan.”
Talking about his new release, Proulx said: “The new album, produced by Judy Wexler, features a great lineup of musicians including Chuck Berghofer, Joe LaBarbera, Larry Koonse, Bob Shepard, three string quartet arrangements by Alan Broadbent, and a duet with Melissa Manchester. The songs are a mixture of jazz standards, folk tunes, and one original song.”
Grammy winning jazz pianist and singer John Proulx, along with a trio which includes Paul Keller on bass and Pete Siers on drums, will hit St. Cecilia’s Royce Auditorium stage Sunday. (Supplied)
Proulx began his formal musical education at the age of three in Grand Rapids on Suzuki violin, but quickly switched to classical piano lessons, according to his website. His late grandfather, Clyde Proulx, was a jazz guitarist who introduced him to the world of jazz. After graduating from Catholic Central High School, he studied at Roosevelt University’s Chicago School of Performing Arts, where he received a Bachelors of Music degree in 1999.
One of the reasons for his return to Western Michigan is to continue his education and an pursue a Master’s degree from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
Starting in 2001, Proulx moved to Los Angeles to further his musical pursuits. He emerged as a young talent on the Los Angeles jazz scene, according to his website, and he also spent four months in 2009 at the prestigious Feinstein’s at the Loews Regency hotel in New York City playing a nightly solo piano/vocal engagement. He has appeared on Michael Feinstein’s radio show on NPR, “Song Travels” as well as on Marian McPartland’s radio show, “Piano Jazz”.
Proulx won a Grammy as a composer when Nancy Wilson recorded “These Golden Years”, a song he co-wrote with lyricist D. Channsin Berry, for her 2006 Grammy-winning CD, “Turned to Blue.” Proulx also co-wrote a song called “Stained Glass” with Melissa Manchester for his new album, “Say It”. Proulx and Manchester also co-wrote a song called “Big Light” for her 20th studio album, “You Gotta Love The Life”, featuring a duet with Manchester and Al Jarreau.
For more information about John Proulx, visit johnproulx.com .
Tickets for the John Proulx CD release concert are $20 and $30, with a copy of Proulx’s new release included with the $30 A section ticket. A post-concert CD signing party will also be included with each ticket. Tickets are now available by calling 616-459-2224 or visiting St. Cecilia Music Center at 24 Ransom NE, Grand Rapids, 49503. Tickets can also be purchased online at scmc-online.org .
By Kristen Krueger-Corrado, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
Ever work a customer service job? Then this book is for you! Twenty-one authors have written short essays about their experience in working in retail. The book starts with a piece from Saugatuck-based writer Wade Rouse, who describes in all-too-painful detail his sales job at Sears. From his lisping manager to bratty kids, his tale makes working in a mall as about as appealing as gum in your hair, and yet it is easy to see ourselves as both the customer and the worker. It is hard to admit, but we’ve all been the ‘bad customer’ every now and then.
Other authors talk about working in a video store, restaurant, liquor store. Customer service jobs abound and almost every author references how happy they were to have their career in retail end. Stewart Lewis describes his stint working in a high-end spa and Wendy Spero reminisces about the summer she spent selling knives door-to-door. Some stories are funny, others make you wince and still others make you feel a little melancholy. Yet all the stories remind us that people are behind those counters and they are underpaid, under-appreciated, and take a lot of abuse.
This is a great book for everyone who has ever worked a cash register, taken an order, or shelved merchandise. To quote the film Clerks, “I wasn’t even supposed to be here today!”
The Grand Rapids Pops will host its annual “Symphony with Soul” Saturday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m. at DeVos Performance Hall, 303 Monroe Ave. NW. The program will feature a statue to thematic of Ella Fitzgerald.
Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt leads the concert with three guest female vocalists performing songs including “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” “How High the Moon,” “The Lady is a Tramp,” and many more. Guest singers Harolyn Blackwell, Aisha de Haas and Nova Y. Payton all are stars of jazz, Broadway and opera.
The Grand Rapids Symphony Community Chorus, a gospel choir led by Duane Shields Davis, joins the orchestra for the performance that also features an appearance by the Grand Rapids Symphony’s Mosaic Scholars, a training program for young African-American and Latino musicians including private lessons with members of the Grand Rapids Symphony.
Davis, retired director of vocal music at Grand Rapids Community College, will lead the orchestra in “Portrait of a Leader,” a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., narrated by Eddie L. Stevens, who played the role of Dr. King in Grand Rapids Civic Theatre’s production of “All the Way.”
The evening program will be preceded by the Celebration of Soul dinner, honoring the accomplishments of individuals and organizations in the community that emphasize and celebrate the importance of cultural awareness and inclusion in West Michigan This year’s recipients of the Dr. MaLinda P. Sapp Legacy Award are Herschell Turner, Skot and Barbara Welch, and Celebration! Cinema.
For more information about this program or other Grand Rapids Symphony performances, visit grsymphony.org.
By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
“Many of my childhood memories are of metals…”. Has there ever been a better first sentence since, “Call me Ishmael.”? The opening line from Dr. Sacks’ childhood memoir boils down everything I love about his books. They’re so open, honest– written in prose that’s a pure joy to read, and yet mysterious, suggesting a mind that operates on a whole different level than mine. His books are often enlightening and captivating, as he works with patients with complex neurological conditions. There’s also a certain emotional and personal connection forged, since he doesn’t hesitate to use his own experiences to illustrate some of the conditions.
So I was very excited to see what a book of his boyhood memories would be. Published in 2001, it’s the type of memoir that I can re-read every few years, without any decrease in enjoyment. From the opening sentence to the last chapter, the author demonstrates the unusual personality and creativity that one discovers in all his books.
Born in London in 1933, to parents who were both doctors, Oliver was the youngest of four, and he grew up surrounded by an extraordinary extended family. Life was paradise until the war, when he was sent away (at six!) to an unbelievably cruel boarding school for four years. When he returned home at ten, the deprivation and abuse had changed him. Recognizing this, his family encouraged his passion for chemistry, and his “Uncle Tungsten” became his mentor.
To read about his passion for re-creating the historical discoveries in chemistry, the incredible leeway that his family afforded him in his pursuits, and the odd and beautiful discoveries that he made; it’s not just a book about the author, it’s illuminating the joy that learning can bring. Thoughtful, caring, funny, and one of the most entertaining memoirs I’ve yet to read.
The Kitchen and The Kitchen Counter by Wolfgang Puck has announced Gergely “Greg” Seregi as executive chef. In his new role, Greg will oversee all aspects of The Kitchen and The Kitchen Counter by Wolfgang Puck’s culinary operations within the Amway Grand Plaza, Curio Collection By Hilton.
A Budapest native and fourth generation chef, Greg’s passion for the culinary arts began at an early age and was heavily influenced by Hungarian and French-styled cuisine. Greg began his career at St. Jupat Restaurant in Budapest where he became executive chef during his 16-year tenure prior to joining Nobu to pursue his passion for Asian-fusion cuisine. Greg will bring new menu concepts to the restaurant, inspired by his culinary experiences with global comfort foods focusing on new Asian-fusion dishes.
“Chef Greg’s background rooted in European cuisine and passion for Asian-fusion make him the ideal candidate to oversee The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck,” said Chris Madsen, executive chef, Amway Grand Plaza. “His expertise perfecting made-from-scratch comfort fare in addition to authentic global classics will be integral in elevating seasonal menus and new concepts for the restaurant.”
Prior to joining The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck, Greg served at several of Nobu’s international outlets, including opening Nobu’s first London location as well as outposts in Miami Beach, Las Vegas andLāna‘i City in Hawaii. A graduate of Gundel Karoly Culinary School, Greg received a masters of culinary arts.
By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
There are many different varieties of stolen childhood: through war, deprivation, poverty, drugs, abuse. There’s something of a subtler, terrible sadness when the loss is from an experienced sexual predator of young girls.
Margaux writes about her 15-year relationship with a man whom she felt she came to love, wanted to marry, and defended against all attackers who tried to keep them apart. The man was 51 when they met, and she was only 7. The event that finally broke them apart was his suicide at 66.
Fragoso writes so eloquently that we see him through her young non-judgmental eyes at the same time as we experience the disgust of what his “love” is doing to her. Sexually graphic, and yet, not at all titillating, Fragoso’s book is a reminder of the pathologies of the spirit that are often hidden in plain sight.
MOVEMEDIA 1, Feb. 11, at Grand Rapids Ballet’s Peter Martin Wege Theater
60-second Review
The titled theme of the Grand Rapids Ballet upcoming MOVEMEDIA: Diversity two-installment dance program was “differences make the world more beautiful”. So it seemed appropriate that the premier of three new dances, choreographed by three raising stars in the field, offered differences of interpretation and execution.
The program opened with Norbert De La Cruz III’s “The Return of Balance”, a frenetic yet, somehow, traditional offering which begins with a look back at traditional gender relationships and closes with a look toward a future without distinctions — the first highlighted by a male dancer being rebuffed as he seems to demand the attention of a female, who only accepts any advance when she invites; the second made clear when a male/female pas de deux (a dance duet) ends with the two separating and exiting the stage with dancers of their like gender.
After a break, Jennifer Archibald’s “Vapor” offered not only the most polished of the three works, in my novice opinion, but also the most aggressive and confrontational take on the theme of diversity. Archibald, in a short introductory video which included rehearsal footage, explained that she urged her dancers to fully and physically engage with their dance partners. That engagement made clear that diversity — in gender, in social hierarchy, in the limited racial spectrum the Ballet’s company could offer — is often not an easy task.
To close the program, Loughlan Prior’s “They/Them” made a stated point of costuming the dancers in a gender neutral if not gender-confused way. And, fittingly, his dance was highlighted in one way by the dancers moving forward and back over the stage’s usual backdrop, where some dancers joined the audience as spectators to the personal drama’s being played out on-stage. Inviting, accepting a world without gender, however laudable and desirable, is often a confusing to outsiders — and insiders.
Overall, from a presentation standpoint, the introductory videos by the each of the choreographers helped the audience to better understand where each offering was going as far as their artistic statements. And clearly the Ballet’s presentation of modern ballet — modern dance — by three rising stars in the dance world was welcomed by the near-sellout of a snowy Sunday matinee.
Overall, from the thematic standpoint of diversity — understanding and accepting diversity — a recurring theme from all three dances, maybe unintentionally recurring, was that the often the best connection was made between dancers when they simply, gently, touched their foreheads together.
May I have more please?
Grand Rapids Ballet upcoming second installment of the MOVEMEDIA: Diversity dance program will conclude March 23-25 at the Ballet’s Peter Martin Wege Theatre in Grand Rapids. Tickets are available.
The second MOVEMEDIA: Diversity will feature work by Olivier Wevers, Uri Sands and Danielle Rowe.
As part of the two-program MOVEMEDIA installment, Grand Rapids Ballet will partner with several local organizations in order to create “wrap-around” programming to help extend the messages to the public, according to supplied material. Those organizations include Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids Children’s Museum, Be Nice, Arbor Circle, and Out on the Lakeshore.
Tickets for MOVEMEDIA: Diversity can be purchased at the Grand Rapids Ballet box office at 341 Ellsworth Avenue SW, online at grballet.com or Ticketmaster.com, or by calling 616-454-4771 x10.
Two bands familiar to the audiences at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park summer concert series will be returning to the now partially upgraded amphitheater, as well as one familiar to listeners of ’80s American New Wave if not Lower East Side (NYC) Punk, are the first three announced acts at 2018 Fifth Third Bank Summer Concerts series.
Just announced today, the Tedeschi Trucks Band with Charlie Parr will kick off the series on May 30, Blondie will be in town on June 29, and O.A.R.’s “Just Like Paradise Tour” with special guest Matt Nathanson will visit on Aug. 26. The complete 30-show lineup will be announced in mid-April, according to Meijer Gardens.
Blondie will be at Meijer Gardens Blondie June 29. (Supplied)
While both Tedeschi Trucks Band and O.A.R. are local fan favorites and, as with almost all of the Gardens’ concerts, usually sell-out shows, the appearance of Blondie and lead singer Debbie Harry may well be one of the must-see shows of the summer — especially if you are of a certain age and now have children you want to prove to that you had your wild side when you were their age.
“Here comes the 21st Century … it’s gonna be so much better for a girl like me,” Harry sang nearly three decades ago on her solo release Def Dumb And Blonde, the band’s website proudly repeats.
And life, and music, has been pretty good to singer-songwriter Harry, guitarist and co-writer Chris Stein, powerhouse drummer Clem Burke and their band-mates in Blondie who first burst on the scene in the late 1970s. But they have not lived in the past, as evidenced by their newest project, 2017’s Po11inator, the band’s 11th studio album and one featuring collaborations with Sia and Charli XCX.
For more information on Blondie visit blondie.net .
Not only will Blondie be new to Meijer Gardens audiences, but the 1,900-seat amphitheater will also have some changes as the venue is currently being expanded and upgraded. The work will take place over the next two years, according to Meijer Gardens, with the first year’s work to conclude for the presentation of the 2018 season, then resume, and be fully ready for the 2019 season.
While there will be some seating expansion after the second year of work, it will maintain “the intimacy of the venue”, according to Meijer Gardens. It will also increase the sponsor seating area, add new support areas for visiting artists, add a new support and concessions building (set to ready by the 2019 season).
Tedeschi Trucks and O.A.R. return with friends
Tedeschi Trucks Band with Charlie Parr will kick off the series on May 30. (Supplied)
Grammy-winning Tedeschi Trucks Band is a powerhouse, 12-piece ensemble led by the husband-and-wife team of guitarist Derek Trucks and guitarist-singer Susan Tedeschi. A touring juggernaut, the band is a jam band second to none, usually being on the road more than 200 days a year and reputed to having never played the same set list twice.
O.A.R. (short for Of a Revolution) transformed itself from an independent college band to a Billboard chart-topper over the course of a long, varied career. The roots-and-reggae band has transcended jam band clichés to become one of the most popular live acts touring today. Joining them will be San Francisco’s Nathanson, who is rapidly gaining a reputation for his songwriting and his live performances.
Members of Meijer Gardens will be able to purchase tickets during an exclusive members-only pre-sale, April 28 through May 11. During the pre-sale, members receive a $5 discount per ticket. To join or renew before April 28 visit MeijerGardens.org/Membership .
Tickets will go on sale to the general public on May 12. More information on prices and purchasing locations will be available following the release of the full lineup in mid-April.
By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch
To be honest, I do not think I had heard of Laura Lippman’s work before What the Dead Know. As is the case with most readers, I looked at that inside cover summary in the hopes of finding a new and exciting book to read. From the very first page it becomes clear why Lippman has won so many writing awards for her other titles.
The story of the Bethany girls has captivated people for nearly thirty years. Two young girls, Sunny and Heather, taking a bus to the mall to see a movie on a Saturday afternoon turns into a nightmare when both girls vanish. Neighbors, colleagues, and family of the girls’ parents all suffer as the investigation reveals cracks in the family’s perfect facade. Where was their mother that Saturday? Continuing her affair with her boss. Where was their father? Drinking in a bar after finding out about the affair from the man’s own wife.
Intermixed into the story is a woman who causes an accident with a SUV. She drives off and finally pulls over only to try walking to some unknown destination. When the police locate her, it is her words that form the true mystery –“I am one of the Bethany girls.” Over the course of several days the young woman finally admits to being Heather Bethany. Investigators are uncertain. Her own mother is terrified to believe it.
Heather’s tale of abuse and murder could chill anyone’s heart. But facts still seem to be missing. Heather says Sunny was murdered that same day, but her body was never found. Heather details the man who kidnapped them: a cop. Things continue to add up but not equal out. Finally, the girls’ mother returns from Mexico. The plan is for the police to walk Heather by her to see if mothers can really know their children. With this final piece, it all falls into place in a way no one expected.
The book is fictional though based on a real abduction, but Lippman’s allusions to famous abduction/murder cases help to build the reality of life after Sunny and Heather vanish. She holds back nothing — the father who cannot bear to give up, and the mother who cannot stand to hope. This story gives the reader a new take on those stories on the news. A realization that what we hear is not the end no matter what the police find. Lippman has another award contender in What the Dead Know.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) announced it would host a second year of Roger That! featuring retired NASA Astronaut Guion “Guy” Bluford to celebrate of space exploration and the life of Roger B. Chaffee. Roger That! is a multi-day experience starting on Feb. 16 with activities for school field trips and an academic conference, and Saturday, Feb. 17 with a public celebration. “Roger That!” is planned in partnership with Grand Valley State University (GVSU).
On Saturday, Feb. 17, “Roger That!” will include exciting and educational exhibitions and activities throughout the GRPM including docent-led presentations about the early life of Roger B. Chaffee, telescope demonstrations with the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association (GRAAA), hands-on activities including solar system bracelets and planispheres, and more. As part of this celebration, all planetarium shows on February 17 will be $2 off!
A special presentation by former astronaut Guion “Guy” Bluford will take place in the Museum’s Meijer Theater on Saturday, February 17 at 11 a.m. Guy Bluford will present Flying in Space: The Space Shuttle and Beyond. Bluford flew four missions for NASA from 1983-1992, and is best known as the first African American to fly in space, during his first flight, STS-8, on the Challenger. After retiring from service as an astronaut in 1993, Bluford entered the business world, and he continues to give talks throughout the country about his experiences with NASA and the future of America’s space program. Tickets to this presentation are $2 for GRPM members and $10 for non-members, and can be purchased at grpm.org/Roger-That. Tickets include general admission to the Museum for the day.
Visitors on February 17 can also learn about the future of space exploration through student-submitted projects. Student design challenge submissions will be on display in the GRPM’s Galleria.
Field Trips – February 16
Local students will have an opportunity to learn about space exploration through a series of programs and a presentation at the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium at the GRPM on February 16! Hands-on activities include Magformers workshop, exploring the GRPM’s space-related artifacts including tektite, meteorite, and a sample of a space shuttle tile, learning more about Roger B. Chaffee, creating their own solar system necklace, engineering activities led by area engineers and educators including bridge building, robotics, water treatment and more. Schools interested in booking a field trip can reserve at grpm.org/schools.
Academic and PublicConference
The GVSU conference, “Roger That! A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger B. Chaffee,” will take place February 16-17 at the DeVos Center on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. Roger B. Chaffee was an astronaut and Grand Rapids native who died during testing on Apollo I in 1967.
The conference will kick off with a presentation, “Art/Space: NASA Space Art Program and Beyond,” by Grand Valley illustration professors Durwin Talon and Guin Thompson, followed by breakout sessions featuring a variety of science, art and society topics related to space exploration. The conference is free and open to the public; register by February 11at www.gvsu.edu/rogerthat.
Apollo Tragedy
On January 27, 1967, tragedy struck NASA’s Apollo program when a flash fire occurred in command module 012 during a launch pad test of the Apollo/Saturn space vehicle being prepared for the first piloted flight, the AS-204 mission. Three astronauts, Lt. Col. Virgil I. Grissom, a veteran of Mercury and Gemini missions; Lt. Col. Edward H. White, the astronaut who had performed the first United States extravehicular activity during the Gemini program; and Grand Rapids Native Roger B. Chaffee, an astronaut preparing for his first spaceflight, died in this tragic accident. The Grand Rapids Public Museum renamed its planetarium to the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium the same year.
Grand Rapids Public Museum
The Grand Rapids Public Museum is an invaluable, publicly-owned institution that is home to more than 250,000 unique artifacts that tell the history of Kent County and beyond, houses the only planetarium in the region, and is responsible for protecting the Norton Indian Mounds, a national historic landmark. The Grand Rapids Public Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, with its main location in downtown Grand Rapids, MI at 272 Pearl Street, NW. For additional information including hours of operation, admission fees and exhibit/event listings, please visit www.grpm.org.
A sampling of beers at the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s Beer Explorers program — yes there is glasses of what you like available for purchase. (Supplied)
The days are getting longer but we are still in the dark days of winter, despite Valentine’s Day looming. But there are plenty of events on tap on the local beer scene, including some tasty dark brews being poured all over the greater Grand Rapids area.
Starting with the next installment of the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s Beer Explorers program, this time partnering with Brewery Vivant and Pilot Malt House, on Thursday, Feb. 8, when beer fans can take a closer look at malts, and how malt variations affect the flavors of beer.
Pilot Malt House is an artisan craft malt house who produces and supplies malts to local craft breweries and distilleries, including Brewery Vivant. (FYI: Malt is beer’s main fermentable ingredient, providing the sugars that yeast use to create alcohol and carbonation. Malt is converted barley or other grains that have been steeped, germinated, heated, kilned, cooled, dried and then rested. So we are told in supplied information.)
The Beer Explorers 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, as well as access to the museum’s first two floors. A cash bar will be available; doors open at 6 p.m.
Tickets for the event are $10 for members and $20 for non-members. Participants must be 21 and older. For tickets and more information visit grpm.org/calendar .
Dark days, dark brews before and after Valentine’s Day
Brewery Vivant will celebrate Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14, for those of you not married/dating/smart) with the release of its Fat Packzi beer on Tuesday, Feb. 13, at the brewery in East Town area. This beer is available only for a limited time, according to the brewery. Also on tap is the return of Love Shadow, Brewery Vivant’s bourbon barrel aged Imperial stout — just in time for Valentine’s Day.
And speaking of dark days … B.O.B.’s Brewery downtown will host its Dark Days events during Grand Rapids Beer Week highlighted by a Stout Out on Friday, Feb. 16, featuring 12 Michigan-made stouts on tap, including The B.O.B.’s own Tiramisu Stout, Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout and New Holland’s Dragons Milk Mexican Spice Cake — me, I’d go for Dark Horse Brewing’s Plead The 5th, before and after the dark day.
The Stout Out will include live music and smoked meats in addition to a tap takeover of the Michigan-made stouts. Beer sample tickets are $3 each, with $1 of each ticket sold being donated to Grand Rapids White Water.
And for those of you needing to make up for a bad Valentine’s Day …
Ann Arbor’s Wolverine State Brewing will be the featured beer selections at a special beer dinner at Blue Water Grill, located on Northland Drive, on Tuesday, Feb. 20.
The four-course dinner, with each course paired with a beer, includes: first two courses paired with Wolverine’s Pastoral Winter Lager and Tundra King West Coast IPL, a main course paired with a brew called Massacre 2015, and a desert course of an espresso chocolate torte paired with a brew called, of course, Barista.
Price’s retro NYPD police procedural skips back and forward from the early “run and gun days” of the ’90s, to 20 years ahead, as a police group known as the Wild Geese lurch into middle age.
They’ve left the bad old days behind them (almost, kind-of — ok — never), as they continue on with new jobs, and struggle with past collateral damage. Because while they got the job done, and close relationships were forged, mistakes may have been made…
Detective Billy Graves is the only member of the Wild Geese still on the force, exiled to the Night Watch, after a fatal shooting. The world has definitely worn him out, and as he catches his reflection in a security camera he sees a man, “football burly but slump-shouldered, his pale face with its exhaustion-starred eyes topped with half a pitch-fork’s worth of prematurely graying hair. He was only forty-two, but that crushed-cellophane gaze of his combined with a world-class insomniac’s posture had once gotten him into a movie at a senior citizen’s discount.”
Once a month Billy’s old crew gets together for dinner, and talk often turns to the “whites”, the ones who got away with murder and eluded capture. As ill-fated an obsession for the Wild Geese as the whale was to Melville’s captain of the Pequod…
Price says that he “likes to use crime as a backbone” in telling his stories, which are more literary, psychological, and nuanced than I was expecting in a detective novel. We pay attention to one-on-one murder in a way that few other events command, and once Price has our attention he turns a spotlight on the everyday tragedies and triumphs of our lives. Nature or nurture? Society or our own inescapable biology? Ahab or Macbeth?
Blitzkrieg plotting, fine characterization, and dialogue are Price hallmarks, with side characters that lend an absurd touch of dark humor. Map out a few nights that you can stay up late, because once you get started, this is a novel you can’t put down.
Organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Andy Warhol’s American Icons showcases Warhol’s vision and celebration of America by bringing together paintings, prints, photographs, and films that create a handbook of American cultural icons.
“One of the Museum’s first exhibitions in its new building was Rapid Exposure: Warhol in Series in spring 2008. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate our 10th anniversary at 101 Monroe Center than by bringing back key works by this quintessential contemporary artist,” commented GRAM’s Director and CEO Dana Friis-Hansen during the Oct. 28 grand opening of the American Icons exhibit.
American Icons spotlights iconic figures like Marilyn Monroe, Sitting Bull, Muhammad Ali, Liz Taylor, and one of the most famous Grand Rapidians, Gerald R. Ford. Products and symbols can be icons as well; the exhibition includes Warhol’s well-known Campbells soup can screenprints and an important early painting on loan from the Whitney Museum of American art, Green Coca-Cola Bottles (1962), among other symbols of America. American Icons draws on artworks from GRAM’s collection, as well as works from private collections and other public art institutions throughout the country, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Andy Warhol Museum, and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.
Fountain Street Church’s Jazz in the Sanctuary concert series continues this week with special guest Ivan Akansiima, on piano and guitar, joining series host Robin Connell and bassist Chris Kjorness on Sunday, Feb. 11, at 3 p.m.
Connell is a pianist, vocalist and recently honored at the West Michigan Jazz Society’s 2017 Musician of the Year.
Akansiima — who lives in Holland, Mi., but is originally from Kampala, Uganda — studies music at Hope College and Western Michigan University, and has a growing reputation in the Western Michigan area and on the national music scene.
The final concert in the series will be Sunday, March 11, also at 3 p.m., when Connell is joined by special guest pianist Dave Proulx and bassist David Rosin.
General admission tickets are $10 ($5 for students) and available at the door or by visiting
Starting Feb. 11, the Sunday Night Funnies begins its tenth year of stand-up comedy at a new location- Woody’s Pressbox inside Spectrum Lanes, 5656 Clyde Park SW.
“We are very excited to have the Sunday Night Funnies returning as a featured show in the Grand Rapids area and very honored that Brian B. has chosen Woody’s as the venue,” says Mike Eaton, Jr. Partner/Operations at Spectrum Lanes. “We look forward to a long and successful relationship with Brian and the Sunday Night Funnies!”
“I’m ecstatic to have the Sunday Night Funnies call Woody’s Pressbox our new home,” says Brian B. creator and host of the Sunday Night Funnies. “It took me almost a year to find the right location to continue the show. I had several offers, but none of the others seemed like a good fit. The Spectrum Lanes complex is a great entertainment venue. Having stand-up comedy there on Sunday nights is a win-win for both of us. The show’s regular customers will be introduced to the entertainment options Woody’s/Spectrum Lanes has to offer and they will bring a whole new audience to the Sunday Night Funnies.”
The adult comedy show also airs on WKTV twice a week: Thursdays at 1:30 a.m. and Sundays at 12:30 a.m.
The Sunday Night Funnies are the creation of Grand Rapids stand-up comedian Brian B. The Sunday Night Funnies are a free weekly live stand-up comedy performance featuring a variety of comics from Michigan and around the country.
Modern dance, some say, is the perfect medium to delicately explore topics of emotional and social importance due to its ability to mix human, often non-verbal movement with unique if not jarring music.
It can be beautiful and uncomfortable at the same time.
So Grand Rapids Ballet upcoming MOVEMEDIA: Diversity two-installment dance program, the next in its yearly MOVEMEDIA contemporary dance series and premiering this week, Feb. 9-11, seems a perfect vehicle to introduce diverse works by a diverse group of choreographers on the subject of diversity.
Grand Rapids Ballet artistic director Patricia Barker. (Supplied)
“The MOVEMEDIA series was created specifically with this idea in mind: The ability to use dance and mixed media as a vehicle to address topics that are germane in today’s world,” Patricia Barker, Grand Rapids Ballet’s soon-to-depart artistic director, said in supplied material. “It’s also important to provide minority choreographers an outlet to create new works and make a mark on the dance world, so we’re very excited to see what they bring to the stage.”
Both the Feb. 9-11 program and March 23-25 second program will be presented at the ballet’s Peter Martin Wege Theatre in Grand Rapids. Tickets are still available.
MOVEMEDIA: Diversity features six new world premiere works by young choreographers: Jennifer Archibald, Norbert De La Cruz III and Loughlan Prior in the first program, and Olivier Wevers, Uri Sands and Danielle Rowe in the second.
Their pieces, according to supplied material, will focus on issues including autism, gender inequality, individual non- conformity, bullying, mental health, medical ethics, the right to love, and more.
Jennifer Archibald (Supplied)
Archibald is the founder and artistic director of the Arch Dance Company and program director of ArchCore40 Dance Intensives and she is a graduate of the Alvin Ailey School. Her new work is titled “Vapor” and will explore the devaluation of individuality.
Norbert De La Cruz III (Supplied)
De La Cruz, who was born in the Phillippines, is a graduate of The Juilliard School and was named one of Dance Magazine‘s Top 25 to Watch for 2016. His work, “The Return of Balance” examines the roles in life we are expected to play and how that differs from our own personal reality.
Loughlan Prior (Supplied)
Prior, is an Australia/New Zealand native currently in residence at Royal New Zealand Ballet and the creative director of Prior Visual. He is also an award winning film maker whose work has been shown at the Cannes Film Festival. His work is titled “They/Them” and explores the “fluidity of gender in our new society.”
As part of the two-program MOVEMEDIA installment, Grand Rapids Ballet will partner with several local organizations in order to create “wrap-around” programming to help extend the messages to the public, according to supplied material. Those organizations include Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids Children’s Museum, Be Nice, Arbor Circle, and Out on the Lakeshore.
Tickets for MOVEMEDIA: Diversity can be purchased at the Grand Rapids Ballet box office at 341 Ellsworth Avenue SW, online at grballet.com or Ticketmaster.com, or by calling 616-454-4771 x10.
By Kristen Krueger-Corrado, Grand Rapids Public Library
It is not very often that I finish a book and want to run out and tell the world about it. When I finished The Rook a year ago, I immediately encouraged everyone I knew to read it. I am still talking about this book. It is that good.
The book starts Myfawny (rhymes with Tiffany) Thomas waking up in a body that is not her own. In a park. During a rainstorm. Surrounded by dead people wearing rubber gloves. Luckily the former owner of the body left her a letter instructing her on where to go and what to do. Ultimately, Myfawny is given a choice—to start a new life or to continue to live the life of the body’s former owner. Choosing the later, she discovers that she is a high ranking official (a Rook) in the Chequy, a secret government agency that protects Britain from supernatural threats.
O’Malley, a MSU graduate, deftly combines science fiction and humor. Even if science fiction isn’t your thing, read it anyway. The writing moves quickly and the story and characters are completely engaging. By the end of the book, I wanted to call him up and yell at him for not having the next book written. So what are you waiting for? Go read this book.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum continues the 2018 Concerts Under the Stars series on Thursday, Feb. 8, hosting local jazz vocalist Edye Evans Hyde for a fully immersive audio and visual experience in the Chaffee Planetarium.
Hyde has been singing jazz, blues and pop music for more than 30 years in West Michigan, Los Angeles, Asia and Europe. Hyde was the 2011 West Michigan Jazz Society Musician of the Year. Over the years, she shared the stage with world-renowned blues singer Linda Hopkins, pop singer Michael Bolton, vocalist Maria Muldaur, actress Connie Stevens, the late Ray Charles, and Cuban trumpet player Arturo Sandoval.
Each concert features a live custom light show on the planetarium’s dome that complement the various genres throughout the series. The recently renovated planetarium boasts state-of-the-art technology with 4k visuals and surround sound, for an amazing immersive concert experience.
Concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Refreshments, beer and other beverages will be available for purchase.
Tickets are $10 for GRPM members, $12 for non-members if purchased in advance, and $15 for non-members on the day of the concert. Tickets are currently on sale at grpm.org, by calling 616-929-1700 or at the Museum’s front desk.
The 2018 Concerts Under the Stars Series will continue Mar. 1 with one-woman-band Jes Kramer, Mar. 22 with alternative folk by Dan Rickabus, and will close on Apr. 12 with the alternative rock sounds of Major Murphy.
The Grand Rapids Symphony unveiled its 2018-19 season with classical blockbusters, eminent soloists, pop/rock music favorites, great films and much more.
Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet
The Classical Series led by Music Director Marcelo Lehninger welcomes world-renowned pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and rising star violinist Karen Gomyo to DeVos Hall for a season of music including Beethoven’s stirring Symphony No. 7, Rimsky-Korsakov’s sultry Scheherazade, Schubert’s beautiful “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8, and Rachmaninoff’s mighty Piano Concerto No. 2.
Three-time Grammy Award winner Michelle DeYoung, a mezzo-soprano who was born in Grand Rapids and attended Calvin College, returns to DeVos Hall for the first time in 12 seasons. Also meet Marcelo’s mother, Brazilian pianist Sonia Goulart, who’s enjoyed an international career as a concert artist. will be performing with the Grand Rapids Symphony.
The Pops Series under Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt features jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli playing the music of Paul McCartney; trumpeter Byron Stripling with ragtime, jazz and blues; and singer and pianist Tony DeSare with great songs of Frank Sinatra.
Enjoy many nights at the movies with live music from the Grand Rapids Pop accompanying Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Johnny Depp in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” and Macaulay Culkin in “Home Alone.”
Cirque de la Symphonie will return for Christmas for the 10th annual Cirque de Noel. Local soloists will include violinist and concertmaster James Crawford and principal oboist Ellen Sherman.
Season tickets are on sale now with select concerts also on sale to subscribers. Subscriptions are available at a discount of up to 50 percent off select series and seats for new package orders. Current subscribers have until February 28 to renew their subscriptions. Single tickets will be available beginning July 31.
Tickets 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, ext. 4. (Phone orders will be charged a $4 per ticket service fee, with a $12 maximum.)
By Amy Cochran, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch
I’ve been reading many true crime and thrillers lately. One standout that I thoroughly enjoyed is Mardi Link’s thorough and sensitive exploration of a 1960s Michigan cold case that has never found firm resolution.
The little town of Good Hart in Northern Michigan was hit by tragedy in 1968 when the Robisons, a wealthy vacationing family from Detroit, were found murdered in their summer cottage. Nearly a month after the murders, the cottage caretaker Monnie Bliss responded to neighbor complaints about a bad smell and found all six of the Robisons, Dick and Shirley and their four children, shot to death and decaying in the cabin.
Link goes on to detail the unfolding investigation and how investigators ruled out the locals and turned their attention to Dick Robison, delving deep into his business dealings. Over the next few years, they followed multiple leads and created a case against Dick Robison’s employee Joe Scolaro, only to have the case fall apart due to lack of evidence placing Scolaro at the scene. Scolaro committed suicide a few years later, leaving a note behind that he had not killed the Robisons. The guns used were identified but ultimately never found, and many other leads went nowhere, such as mention of a mysterious Mr. Roeberts who was supposed to be financing a huge new deal for Dick Robison.
The details of the case are fascinating and all the more so since Link solidly grounds the narrative in the particular time and place. Investigation techniques and attitudes have changed considerably since the 1960s: for example, the mentally ill in the area were all considered suspects simply because of their disorders. Rules on crime scene preservation were very different as well: one of the responding deputies accidentally wiped any traces of evidence off of the only weapon still at the scene, a bloody hammer.
I found the sense of place to be particularly strong. Link sets the stage by describing Good Hart as a “northern coastal town of well-tended cottages, ancient trees, Native American legends and a clenched fist of locals” and devotes quite a bit of the narrative to the history of the town and the culture of its residents, including contemporary attitudes towards the murders. Link’s thoughtful treatment of this tragedy is not only a fascinating true crime narrative, but also serves as a window into a small northern Michigan community through the last four decades.
Astrology argues that the positions of the planets, from the time we’re born, influence our personalities and destinies. English composer Gustav Holst, though he didn’t believe in astrology, was intrigued enough to compose a symphonic suite, The Planets.
Whether the alignment of the stars on the day we’re born influences our destiny is open to debate. That Holst’s suite has influenced composers for the past 100 years is not. In movies such as Star Wars, if you’ve heard the menacing musical theme of the Imperial Forces, you’ve heard the same sinister, martial rhythm found at the beginning of Holst’s seven-movement suite.
In fact, Star Wars producer George Lucas encouraged composer John Williams to take inspiration from “Mars, the Bringer of War.”
“Gustav Holst can be seen as unintentionally being one of the greatest movie composers of all time, inspiring many film scores of the last 50 years,” according to blogger Nathan Spendelow on the website Inside Film.
Grand Rapids Symphony Musical Director Marcelo Lehninger
Come to DeVos Performance Hall on Friday and Saturday, February 2-3, and you’ll hear even more music that has inspired film composers. Grand Rapids Symphony presents The Planets the fifth concerts of the 2017-18 Richard and Helen DeVos Classical series at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, February 2-3, in DeVos Performance Hall.
Music Director Marcelo Lehninger will lead the concerts that also feature Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, nicknamed “Jupiter,” and Haydn’s Overture to Il mondo della luna (The World on the Moon).
Vibration Research is the Concert Sponsor. The Edith I. Blodgett Guest Artist Fund is the guest artist sponsor. Bell’s Brewery is the Beverage Partner for The Planets.
The Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus, directed by Pearl Shangkuan, will be featured on The Planets. Mary Tuuk is the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus Sponsor.
Concerts in DeVos Performance Hall feature video provided by the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium of the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Film from spacecraft that have visited the planets and their moons plus animations and simulations of galaxies, nebulae and other deep-space objects add to the musical experience.
Composed between 1914 and 1916, prior to the discovery of Pluto, The Planets still sounds fresh today.
In fact, three movements, “Mars, the Bringer of War,” “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity,” and “Neptune, the Mystic,” are among the most frequently quoted compositions of all time.
Musical scores for such well-known films as Aliens, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and The Terminator all suggest inspiration from The Planets. In the original 1977 Star Wars film, in the concluding act that sees Luke Skywalker firing his proton torpedo into the exhaust port of The Death Star, the dramatic film score by John Williams, which becomes louder and louder, building tension, follows the same format as “Mars” from The Planets.
Other TV shows and movies use portions directly. The 2010 TV series Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, features music from “Jupiter.” The 2008 film Hellboy II: The Golden Army with Ron Perlman and Selma Blair, uses passages from “Mars.”
The 1983 film The Right Stuff, the story of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, starring Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn and Ed Harris, uses excerpts from “Jupiter,” “Mars” and “Neptune.”
Holst’s starting point for the music was the astrological character of each planet. The composer himself pointed out there was no connection with the deities of classical mythology or the planetary bodies themselves. Holst’s daughter wrote that once her father had determined the format, “he let the music have its way with him.”
Haydn’s Il mondo della luna, a romantic comedy about a bogus astronomer, opens with an overture that sets the stage for the antics yet to come.
Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C Major has nothing to do with astrology or astronomy. Its nickname did not come from Mozart. Likely it came from the impresario Johann Peter Salomon who dubbed it “Jupiter” to promote it as a grand and glorious piece of music. With a duration of 30 minutes, it was the longest symphony Mozart ever composed. As fate would have it, it also would be his final symphony before his death at age 35. Today, it remains one of the most popular works Mozart ever composed.
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 The Planets program will be rebroadcast on Sunday, April 15, at 1 p.m. on Blue Lake Public Radio 88.9 FM or 90.3 FM.
Tickets
Tickets start at $18 and are available at the GRS box 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 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 Ticketsprogram. This is a MySymphony360 eligible concert.
The visit to St. Cecilia Music Centers folk series stage by Judy Collins — no adjectives or background needed — has been circled on the calendar by local folk/pop/classic rock fans since the concert was announced last year.
It is astounding, in fact, that there may still a few tickets available a week before Sweet Judy Blue Eyes comes to town Thursday, Feb. 1, for a 7:30 p.m. concert.
But then to make a good week even better, St. Cecilia announces the final Folk Series concert of the season will be the return to Royce Auditorium of Rhiannon Giddens — Grammy winning singer/songwriter, Carolina Chocolate Drop, part of the New Basement Tapes super(folk)group; in case you need adjectives and background.
Giddens will return to St. Cecilia on May 17. And, like her April 2015 first visit to the state, this show will likely be sold-out as well. Her return will likely focus on her newest album “Freedom Highway”, which was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2017 Americana Music Honors & Awards.
While Giddens is the co-founder of the Grammy-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, she began work as a solo artist when she stole the show at the T Bone Burnett produced “Another Day, Another Time” concert in 2013, and followed that up in 2014 by stealing the show again on T-Bone’s “New Basement Tapes” project — sealing it from the likes of Elvis Costello and Marcus Mumford — with her version of Bob Dylan’s “Spanish Mary”. Oh, ya, she followed that up with her critically acclaimed solo debut, the Grammy nominated album “Tomorrow Is My Turn.”
But not to steal the show from Judy Collins …
Judy Collins (Supplied/Brad Trent)
Collins’ most recent recording, “Silver Skies Blue”, earned her another in a long list of Grammy honors, being nominated for Best Folk Album in 2017.
Collins’ musical history only started with her firm commitment to social activism in the 1960s. Five decades later her 50-album body of work includes, to only scratch the surface, her rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” from her landmark 1967 album “Wildflowers”, her intimate version of “Send in the Clowns”, as well as several other top-ten hits from gold- and platinum-selling albums.
Tickets for Judy Collins are $45 and $55. Tickets and can be purchased by calling 616-459-2224, visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE, or purchased online at scmc-online.org .
By Matthew Makowski, Grand Valley State University
Grand Valley State University Opera Theatre students will bring to life Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first collaboration, Oklahoma!, which remains, in many ways, their most innovative work, having set the standards and established the rules of musical theater still being followed today.
Set in the West just after the turn of the century, the high-spirited rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys provides the colorful background against which Curly, a handsome cowboy, and Laurey, a winsome farm girl, play out their love story. Although the road to true love never runs smoothly with these two headstrong romantics holding the reins, love’s journey is as bumpy as a surrey ride down a country road. Succeeding in making a new life together and beginning that new life in a brand-new state provides the ultimate climax for these characters in Oklahoma!
What:Oklahoma!
When: Feb. 2, 3, 9, 10, at 7:30 pm; Feb. 4, 11, at 2 pm
Where: Louis Armstrong Theatre, Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts, Allendale Campus
Tickets: $14 for adults; $12 seniors and GVSU faculty, staff, alumni; $6 for students, groups — purchase tickets through the Louis Armstrong Theatre box office in-person Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., by calling 616.331.2300, or online at startickets.com
William Dobson, chief international editor at National Public Radio, will talk on “Are Dictators Getting Smarter?: Media and Foreign Policy”. (Supplied)
Are dictators getting smarter? Is there such a thing as diplomacy in the age of Twitter? Is American global leadership on the wane?
These and more important topics will be the focus of the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan’s 2018 Great Decisions global discussion series, a series which bring leaders in international theory and action to Grand Rapids for lectures.
Starting on Monday, Jan. 29 — with the lecture topic “Are Dictators Getting Smarter?: Media and Foreign Policy”, with William Dobson, chief international editor at National Public Radio — the series will offer two options to attend. There will be a daytime lecture, noon-1 p.m. at the Calvin College Recital Hall in the Covenant Fine Arts Center, and then 6-7:15 p.m. at the Aquinas College Performing Arts Center.
There is a $10 admission fee per discussion, with no reservations needed and free parking. A series pass is available for $65 for all eight programs, and pass holders can attend either session for each speaker.
In the discussion “Are Dictators Getting Smarter? …”, Dobson’s lecture is described in supplied material as: “Democracy has fallen on tough times. Authoritarian regimes in Russia, China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere are on the march, while the West seems to be taking a back seat. Are the world’s dictators getting more sophisticated in their repression? How do the world’s despots manipulate media to serve their own ends? In the age of Twitter and smart phones, can democracy keep up?”
Dobson, in addition to his work with NPR, is the author of The Dictator’s Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy, which examines the struggle between authoritarian regimes and the people who challenge them. He holds a law degree from Harvard Law School and a masters degree in East Asian Studies from Harvard University.
Discussions will continue through March 26.
“We call this edition of the Great Decisions series ‘Context for a Complex World’ because the amount of information coming our way these days is overwhelming,” Michael Van Denend, executive director of the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan, said in supplied material. “Through these presentations, we hope to help our community step back for a bit and ponder how we can engage thoughtfully in a complicated world.”
The Great Decisions format features a world-class expert leading each conversation, followed by an extensive question-answer session. The World Affairs Council is the local sponsor of these eight current foreign policy topics as determined by the New York City-based Foreign Policy Association. The Council has sponsored the series for more than 50 years.
The reminder of the 2018 series will feature:
Monday, Feb. 5: “China in the World: Conundrums of a Socialist Market Economy”, with Dr. Badrinath Rao, Associate Professor of Sociology and Asian Studies, Kettering University.
Monday, Feb. 12: “Trouble Brewing: Can the U.S. and Turkey Cooperate?”, with Dr. Sinan Ciddi, Director, Institute for Turkish Studies, Georgetown University.
Monday, Feb. 19: “The Right Bang for our Bucks: The U.S. Defense Budget”, with Dr. Stephanie Young, defense budget expert, RAND Corporation.
Monday, Feb. 26: “Is American Global Leadership Waning?”, with Dr. Amitav Acharya, UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance at the School of International Service, American University.
Monday, Mar. 12: “Putin, Russia, and the New Cold War?”, with Susan B. Glasser, Chief International Affairs Columnist, POLITICO and co-author of “Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin and the End of Revolution”.
Monday, Mar. 19: “South Africa at a Crossroads: Implications for U.S.-South Africa Relations”, with Desirée Cormier, Senior Director, Africa Practice, Albright Stonebridge Group (ASG).
Monday, Mar. 26: “Global Health: Equity, Ethics, and Eradication”, with Ambassador Mary Ann Peters (ret.), CEO, The Carter Center.
For more information on sessions, dates and times, as well as detailed information on speakers, visit worldmichigan.org .
The Grand Rapids Symphony performs the music of “The Prisoner of Azkaban.”
The Harry Potter Film Concert Series returns to DeVos Performance Hall with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Concert, the third film in the Harry Potter series. On Friday and Saturday, Feb. 9-10, 2018, the Grand Rapids Symphony will perform the magical score live from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban while the entire film plays in high-definition on a 40-foot screen. The Harry Potter Film Concert Series, which is another magical experience from J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, kicked off in June 2016 with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and is scheduled to include hundreds of performances across more than 35 countries around the world through 2018.
“When the Grand Rapids Symphony brought the Harry Potter Film Concert Series to town last year, we sold out three performances of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in Concert,” said Peter Perez, President and CEO of the Grand Rapids Symphony. “Afterwards, the Symphony’s Facebook page lit up with comments from fans who said it was ‘absolutely phenomenal.’ We’re thrilled to be able to bring the Harry Potter Film Concert Series back to DeVos Performance Hall along with our fabulous Grand Rapids Symphony.”
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry, Ron and Hermione, now teenagers, return for their third year at Hogwarts, where they are forced to face escaped prisoner, Sirius Black, who seems to pose a great threat to Harry. Harry and his friends spend their third year learning how to handle a half-horse, half-eagle creature known as a Hippogriff, repel shape-shifting Boggarts and master the art of Divination. They also visit the wizarding village of Hogsmeade and the Shrieking Shack, which is considered the most haunted dwelling in Britain. In addition to these new experiences, Harry faces a werewolf and must overcome the threats of the soul-sucking Dementors. With his best friends, Harry tackles advanced magic, crosses the barriers of time and impacts the course of life-changing events for those around him.
Earning an Oscar-nomination for the score, the spellbinding and incredible music composed by John Williams became an instant classic, conjuring beautiful, soaring motifs that continue the adventures of Harry Potter on his magical journey.
This film concert series has been created by CineConcerts, in partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, and will be conducted by its creator and Producer, Justin Freer. He explains, “The Harry Potter film series continues to be a once-in-a-lifetime cultural phenomenon that delights millions of fans around the world. It is with great pleasure that we introduced for the first time ever an opportunity to experience the award-winning music scores played live by a symphony orchestra, all while the beloved film is simultaneously projected onto the big screen. This will be another unforgettable event.”
Brady Beaubien of CineConcerts and Concert Producer for the Harry Potter Film Concert Series added, “Harry Potter is synonymous with excitement around the world, and we hope that by performing this incredible music with the full movie, audiences will enjoy returning to this world, and to the many wonderful magical characters that inhabit it.”
Tickets, starting at $18, are now on sale for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Concert. Call the Grand Rapids Symphony at (616) 454-9451 ext. 4 or go online to GRSymphony.org for tickets for performances at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 9, and at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018.
Stealing Buddha’s Dinner is a vivid, funny, charming memoir of growing up in the 1980s and assimilating into a new culture. Bich Minh Nguyen was eight months old in 1975 when her family fled Vietnam. She resettled in Grand Rapids, Mich. with her father, sister, grandmother, and two uncles. Under Jerry Ford’s encouragement, Grand Rapids was one of cities across the country that participated in the resettlement program of finding community sponsors to help the new immigrants.
Growing up, young Bich (pronounced “bit”) was torn between the old ways of her family and the new experiences of America. She writes about what is what like to grow up in a Vietnamese household in an “All-American” city.
Nguyen’s childhood resonates with the experience of two cultures’ clashing religions, habits, clothes, and, especially, foods. She wrestled with the conflicting desires for her grandmother’s native cooking and the junk food that “real” Americans ate. The allure of Pringles, Toll House Cookies and Popsicles become a metaphor for her struggle to fit in. Her father remarried a Latina woman and more cultural conflicts presented themselves. She wonders what happened to her real mother. Nguyen’s immigrant story is America’s story, retold this time in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Along the way, local readers will recognize descriptions of Wyoming and Grand Rapids, of Meijer and Gas City, of Christian Reformed churches and public libraries. Stealing Buddha’s Dinner was selected by the Michigan Humanities Council as the 2009/10 “Great Michigan Read” and was chosen by the Library of Michigan as a Michigan Notable Book.
Festival of the Arts will reveal its 2018 poster artist at a meet-and-greet and poster reveal event Thursday, Jan. 25, at 9 a.m. at Grand Rapids City Hall, 300 Monroe Ave. NW.
The 2018 Festival Co-Chairs Melissa Bush and Jessi Nix Gould said the event is open to public with friends and volunteers of Festival encouraged to stop by and meet this year’s artist and check out the 2018 poster.
Always held the first full weekend of June, this year’s event will run June 1, 2 and 3 in downtown Grand Rapids. This year marks the 49th annual Festival of the Arts, making it one of the longest running festivals in the state of Michigan.
Posters from previous years are all on display at City Hall and will be available for photos and video at the event.
By Matthew Makowski, Grand Valley State University
Yoo Jin Noh made her debut with the Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra as a soloist in 2017. She also performed at the United Nation Headquarters in New York City for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2015. Her recent performances include appearances with the Quincy Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Halfner Symphony and a solo recital at Azusa Pacific University.
Noh, who was born blind, pursued her interest in music in early childhood and began her piano study at age 14. Despite her late start, she has received many awards from local competitions. In 2005, she received a grand prize at the U.S. String and Piano Concours of Hymn and played at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in New York City. In 2008, she received the VSA Young Soloist Award and was invited to play at the National Federation of the Blind Convention.
What: Yoo Jin Noh, piano
When: Jan. 31, at 7:30 pm
Where: Sherman Van Solkema Hall (room 1325), Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts, Allendale Campus
By Amy Cochran, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch
As the weather turns colder, I like to curl up with favorite reads of years past, especially books with settings that make me glad to be inside with a hot cup of tea. This year I turned yet again to The Shipping News and found myself as always completely immersed in the language and setting.
After losing his good-for-nothing wife to a car accident, Quoyle returns to his ancestral home in Newfoundland with his beloved daughters and an aunt finally ready to face her brutal upbringing.
This is the story of three generations of Quoyles working to climb out of past tragedy. Proulx targets the bad choices people make in life as well as the choices that are forced upon them. Her prose style echoes the cold, tight-knit community that Quoyle settles into as she distills each sentence to its most essential message, as if relating a tale straight from the mouths of the village elders.
I enjoy watching Quoyle grow as a father and a man as he becomes a decent writer for the local paper, learns to love squidburgers and various types of bologna dinners and gradually surpasses his grief in order to look ahead to the future. I especially like the dark humor infused in every page, the horrifying stories melded with the amused resignation and jokes of the residents.
Quirky characters, a setting that sticks in the mind, and stark yet descriptive language make this a book I will continue to reread, probably during the winter, for years to come.
Ask anyone to name their favorite Broadway musical, and you’ll almost certainly get a list of several, if not many. And there’s only one way to hear music from many of your favorite musicals in one night.
The Grand Rapids Pops presents Blockbuster Broadway, with music from some of Broadway’s biggest and best-loved shows such as ThePhantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Chicago, and many more.
Hear songs from Wicked, The Lion King, and Jersey Boys at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 26-27, and at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28. Enjoy old favorites from The Sound of Music and Annie in DeVos Performance Hall, 303 Monroe Ave. NW.
Part of the Fox Motors Pops series, John Varineau will conduct the Grand Rapids Symphony as the orchestra performs an eclectic mix of songs in the show created, produced, and directed by the acclaimed cabaret artist Scott Coulter.
Guests include Jessica Hendy, who previously sang at Grand Rapids Symphony’s “Celebrate America” concert at Cannonsburg Ski Area for the D&W Fresh Market Picnic Pops in July 2009. Hendy previously appeared on Broadway as Grizabella in Cats as well as in Grand Rapids on its national tour.
Scott Coulter, one of New York’s top award-winning vocalists returns to West Michigan to sing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” with the Grand Rapids Symphony among other songs.
Not long ago, Scott starred in An Evening with Scott Coulter: Broadway and Beyond at Kalamazoo’s Farmer’s Alley Theatre, a theater founded by a friend from music school.
“I think of my [singing] style as musical storytelling,” Scott said to Farmer’s Alley Theatre. “I do pretty familiar material but people often tell me that they felt like they heard the song for the first time – or in a new light.”
It’s not only theater and concert goers who enjoy Scott’s musical interpretation. The Oscar and Grammy award-winning composer Stephen Schwartz, whose work includes Godspell, Wicked, and Enchanted, has described Coulter’s musical talents like this: “One of the best things that can happen to a composer is to have his music interpreted by Scott Coulter.”
Coulter has worked frequently with Schwartz, as have guest soloists Jessica Hendy, Kelli Rabke and John Boswell.
Called a “vocal powerhouse” with great range by critics, Jessica Hendy most recently worked with Schwartz on his cabaret-style show, The Wizard and I. Hendy, whose voice sometime seem to defy gravity, will sing some of the most electric songs of the program including “Circle of Life” from The Lion King, “Memory” from Cats, and, of course, “Defying Gravity” from Wicked.
Kelli Rabke
Kelli Rabke, best known for her role of Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Eponine in Les Misérables, also worked with Schwartz in The Wizard and I. As a frequent musical partner with Coulter, she will join him again in the upcoming show, Music of the Knights, which features songs composed by three British musical legends, all knighted by the Queen of England: Elton John, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Paul McCartney.
Along with other songs, Rabke will perform, “I Dreamed a Dream,” the song that serves as an emotional lynchpin in Les Misérables, one of the best-known musicals of all-time.
Music Director, pianist, and vocalist John Boswell co-arranged the music for Blockbuster Broadway with Scott Coulter. In addition to writing music for television, John has crafted numerous piano-driven albums, called “accessible, impressionistic tone-poems” by critics. For Blockbuster Broadway, he sings “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’” from Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.
With the warmth and energy of the Grand Rapids Symphony, Broadway returns to Grand Rapids. Performed with a live symphony, it’s a rare opportunity to hear some of Broadway’s best songs by stellar vocalists.
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 Ticketsprogram, sponsored by Comerica and Calvin College. This is a MySymphony360 eligible concert.
Students participate at one of the 2017 Winterfest booths. (WKTV)
WKTV Staff
news@wktv.org
After a successful debut last year, the One Wyoming Community Collaborative will present the 2018 version of its Winterfest community-wide series of events on Saturday, Jan. 27, with events planned any seven different locations but with one goal: to get people out and talking to their neighbors.
One Wyoming is made up of a collaboration of schools, businesses, local government, churches, nonprofits and residents to improve the quality of life in the community. It is best known for its successful 1-on-1 mentoring program.
Wyoming’s Winterfest is similar to National Night Out, which takes place in August. This years’s event will have seven different locations in various neighborhoods throughout the city. Each location has activities that have been planned by churches, residents and businesses of that neighborhood. Each site will have its own slate of events, but all will feature food, family-friendly activities, health related information and activities, and giveaways from businesses and other local organizations.
Where things are happening
The list of morning locations, open from 9-11 a.m., include: The Dock, located near Kelloggsville High School at 4669 South Division Ave. (actually Grand Rapids); Wyoming Junior High School, 2125 Wrenwood St. SW; West Elementary School (with Calvary Church), 1840 38th St. SW; and Grace Bible College, 1011 Aldon St. SW.
The list of afternoon locations, open from noon-2 p.m., include: North Godwin Elementary School, 161 34th St.; Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center, 961 Joosten St. SW.; and Vanguard Charter School, 1620 52nd St, SW.
For more information about the event or about One Wyoming, visit onewyoming.com.
Getting a good sweat going, for a good cause, followed by good beer and food? Sounds like a great idea for a cold January day.
Comstock Park’s Perrin Brewing will host its second annual “Perrin Ice Jam Winter Festival”, a benefit for the local Kids’ Food Basket of West Michigan, on Saturday, Jan. 27, from 3-8 p.m.
The event will feature live music from Jake Kershaw, Mustard Plug, and Hollywood Makeout, as well as specialty Perrin beers, and follows the running of the Frostbite 5K Run/Walk at 2 p.m.
Admission without running is either a cash donation or a donation of food items from Kids’ Food Basket wish list. The Kids’ Food Basket provides kids in need in the community with a nutritious evening meal. Perrin Brewing has already begun to collect food donations in the front foyer from the group’s wish list, which includes fruit/ applesauce cups, granola bars, toasted oat cereal, cheese crackers cracker packs, pretzels and snack-size zipper bags.
The run/walk is $25 for adults and $15 for age 12 and under. Packet pick-up will be on Friday, Jan. 26 at the Perrin Pub. The run check-in is from noon to 2 p.m., and online registration is available at Frostbite 5K Run .
Bier Distillery has Michigan first: electric car chargers
Also in Comstrock Park, Bier Distillery recently announced the availability of its Tesla car chargers, a first for a Michigan distillery, brewery, or winery, according to supplied material. Owned and operated by Bier Distillery, the Tesla chargers are available free of charge to electric vehicle drivers on a first come, first serve basis. There are four chargers that can be used simultaneously.
Got an electric car? Bier Distillery has a charge for you.
“Bier Distillery is proud to support the electric vehicle community,” Joel Bierling, president of Bier Distillery, said in supplied material. “The number of electric cars on the road will only be increasing in the near future. The cars need convenient places to recharge, and the drivers often need to recharge as well. … Why not do it in one location?”
Bier Distillery produces an expanding line of grain and fruit-to-glass spirits, beer and wine at the distillery. Its leading brands are Sole Cry Rye Whiskey, Devil’s Message Rum, Mum’s Ruin Gin, Heart Cut Vodka, Brillari Amaro Americano, Henry’s Absent Absinthe Verte, and JusttheShine Moonshine.
By Matthew Makowski, Grand Valley State University
Named after Renaissance artist Pietro Perugino of Grand Rapids’ sister city Perugia, Italy, The Perugino String Quartet has performed across Michigan and at the world-renowned Julliard String Quartet Seminar at the Lincoln Center in New York City. The group is composed of violinists Eric Tanner and Christopher Martin, violinist Barbara Corbato and cellist Stacey Bosman Tanner. Together, the quartet performs classics of the string quartet repertoire, as well as a variety of new chamber works.
The Perugino String Quartet centers its appearances around Michigan, having performed at many arts-based series and events, such as the Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck, Art Reach of Mid Michigan and Muskegon’s Feeding the Soul of the City concert series.
Arts at Noon brings nationally and internationally known musicians to Grand Valley State University for 14 performances each academic year. All Arts at Noon concerts will take place in the Cook-DeWitt Center, located on the Allendale Campus. They will begin at noon and last approximately one hour. Every concert is free and open to the public. For more information about Arts at Noon, visit gvsu.edu/artsatnoon or contact Henry Duitman, series coordinator, at duitmanh@gvsu.edu.
The author of the 2001 bestseller Seabiscuit returns with the remarkable story of Louie Zamperini. Laura Hillenbrand proves she is a gifted writer who once again strikes a perfect balance of solid research and wonderful storytelling. Unbroken examines the life of Louie from his wild days as a neighborhood prankster and petty thief to his transformation into an Olympic runner in the 1936 games.
In 1942, Louie became a crewman aboard a B-24 that eventually crashed into the Pacific Ocean. After surviving a record 47 days in a life raft, he was picked up by the Japanese and sent to a series of POW camps. Portions of this story are very difficult to read as Hillenbrand describes how thirst, starvation and fear of shark attacks plagued the men.
During the two years that Louie spent in the POW camps, he and the other prisoners were starved, brutalized and dehumanized by their Japanese captors. When Louie finally returns home he continues to face battles as he is tormented in his thoughts and dreams by memories from his war time experiences. With the help of his wife and a young Billy Graham, he eventually discovers the path which leads him from despair and eventually enables him to forgive.
As the subtitle suggests, Unbroken is a true tale of “survival, resilience and redemption” that will appeal to a wide range of readers.
