Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt leads the Grand Rapids Symphony in the annual Holiday Pops. (Supplied)
Get a head start on your Christmas shopping and get tickets to two of the Grand Rapids Symphony’s most popular shows at up to half-off through the Before it Snows Sale! Now through Oct. 31, residents can save up to 50 percent on tickets for the Grand Rapids Pops’ Wolverine Worldwide Holiday Pops and Old National Bank Cirque de Noël.
Ring in the holiday cheer with heartwarming seasonal favorites including Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride,” highlights from “The Nutcracker,” and lots of Christmas carols at the Wolverine Worldwide Holiday Pops. The Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus and Youth Chorus plus vocalist Leon Williams and Embellish Handbell Ensemble join Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt and the Grand Rapids Symphony in five performances as part of the Fox Motors Pops series.
Wolverine World Wide Holiday Pops is at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 14; 8 p.m. Dec. 15 and 16, and 3 p.m. Dec. 16 and 17.
Experience the magic of Christmas, the wonder of Cirque artistry, and the power and beauty of live orchestral music at the Old National Bank Cirque de Noël when Cirque de la Symphonie joins the Grand Rapids Pops and Associate Conductor John Varineau. The Before It Snow Sale is only good for the Cirque de Noel Thursday, Dec. 21, performance which is at 7:30 p.m.
Both the Holiday Pops and the Cirque de Noel performances will be at DeVos Performance Hall, 303 Monroe Ave. NW.
For tickets, call 616-454-9451, ext. 4, during the day or 616-885-1241, evenings; go online to GRSymphony.org or come to the Grand Rapids Symphony office located across from the Calder Plaza at 300 Ottawa NW, Suite 100. This is is a maximum of four tickets per program, per household.
By Mary Knudstrup, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main
Lynne Cox has spent a lifetime breaking records in the water;at 15, she shattered the men’s and women’s world records swimming the English Channel; at 17, she broke the world record for the Catalina Channel; the next year she became the first woman to swim the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand.She has swum the treacherous Strait of Magellan, the shark-invested waters around the Cape of Good Hope, and the frigid passage across the Bering Strait as a way of opening the borders between the Soviet Union and the United States.
But this book is no mere recitation of accomplished feats.Cox writes with the heart and ease of a true storyteller, taking the reader along on each incredible crossing, whether it’s riding in the slipstream of dolphins or dodging sewage in the Nile River. Her love of the water and the sheer joy she experiences when swimming reveals itself over and over.
“I felt as if I were swimming through a black-and-white photograph of the sea at night.And in the phosphorescent ocean . . . silvery bubbles rolled out of my mouth, and as my arms churned the water, they etched a trail of white iridescent light across the shimmering black sea.”
However, it isn’t just her infectious enthusiasm for swimming that captures the reader.Cox’s story is one of overcoming obstacles with amazing patience, determination and good humor. She admits to fear and exhaustion but doesn’t let it defeat her.She warmly gives credit to the individuals and teams that assist her in accomplishing each goal.
No longer concerned with breaking records, she has turned her attention to using her talent to quietly foster good-will between countries.Whether it’s jumping from a wind-tossed boat, approaching a Soviet diplomat for permission to swim to Russian soil, or navigating her way through icebergs, her perseverance and can-do attitude is ever present.
Swimming to Antarctica is a great adventure story to add to your reading list.
As part of the Garden’s ArtPrize exhibit, “Rodin and the Contemporary Figurative Tradition”, Anders Krisár’s work — Untitled, from 2014-15 — both fits in and stands out among the works of 17 contemporary figurative artists. (Supplied)
One of the grand things about Grand Rapids’ annual ArtPrize explosion of often-comfortable, and occasionally controversial, art is listening to people-on-the-street talk about what attracted — or befuddled — them.
Waiting in line at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum — traditionally a focal point of artistic entities eying public support by offering very accessible, if not very exploratory, art — my wife and I overheard a man talking about a modern figurative sculpture included as part of the current Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park exhibit.
The man, wearing a military service hat of some branch and looking very much like a visitor from Indianapolis so some other heartland city, was trying to convince the other man in his foursome of the absolute necessity that he see Swede Anders Krisár’s startling, almost surreal split body sculpture.
Not exactly the kind of art you’d expect to attract conservative artistic appreciation, but such is the world of ArtPrize dialogue.
As part of the Garden’s ArtPrize exhibit, “Rodin and the Contemporary Figurative Tradition”, Krisár’s work — Untitled, from 2014-15 — both fits in and stands out among the works of 17 contemporary figurative sculptors and video artists in an exhibition “influenced” by Rodin.
Anders Krisár by Phil Poynter
The work is in keeping with the now Stockholm-based artist most recent works, which show people intentionally left incomplete or disassociated from themselves in various ways. Intentional or not, that vision of a lack of wholeness is something which runs through his art.
“I think not many people are whole,” Krisár said in an interview with WKTV. “We try to find ourselves through other people, find completeness through other people. And also, (other people) can help you become more whole and heal yourself.”
But that idea of creating art which offers what is sometimes called “empty space” for the viewer to fill in, that intentional invitation for interaction with the viewer, is not something the artist says flows consciously.
“It is not really a (part of his) thought process, emotional feeling process,” he said. “The thoughts come afterword, when I start to work more with my hands on, and after, when the work is done, I start to think about it more.”
Krisár, who has spent time in New York and has a foundation in photography to compliment his 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional installation art, described his artistic process this way: “First it is a human model, and then we cast the model, then we make a resin out of that cast and rework that cast. It is kind of a mixture of cast and sculpturing.”
In the case of the Meijer Garden’s exhibit, his final product is polyester, but he has worked in several mediums.
His work came to the attention of Joseph Becherer, Meijer Gardens vice president and chief curator, in a completely different form, however.
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park chief curator Joseph Becherer. (Courtesy Ohio Today)
“I actually saw some of his works in print form first and I thought they were so interesting and so, sort of, singular, that they really merited being part of this exhibition,” Becherer said. “… I thought what he was doing, in terms of both technology and form, on one side. But also in terms of the content was pretty special.”
They also, apparently, deserve special discussion to even the most casual observer of ArtPrize offerings.
“Rodin and the Contemporary Figurative Tradition” is free to the public through the run of this year’s ArtPrize, through Oct. 8, and then will continue on display through Jan. 7, 2018.
The exhibit, after ArtPrize closes, will include an outdoor guided sketching event on Oct. 20 focused on Rodin’s “Eve”, one of the cornerstones of the Garden’s permanent collection, and a discussion by Becherer on Nov. 5 titled “The Rodin Revolution, In and Out of Context”.
For more information on Meijer Gardens and its ArtPrize exhibit, visit meijergardens.org.
Join the Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) for special Mighty Wurlitzer Organ concerts of the 2017 series with Andrew Rogers, accompanied by the 1925 horror silent film classic The Phantom of the Opera on Friday, Oct. 13 and Saturday, Oct. 14.
The Phantom of the Opera features Lon Chaney Sr. as the deformed phantom who haunts the Paris Opera house. Rogers will accompany the film on the GRPM’s 1928 Mighty Wurlitzer Theater Organ.
Rogers is a Detroit native. He is an organist at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor and the Detroit Fox, he also scores and performs silent films, and performs concerts throughout the U.S. and internationally. Rogers, a resident of Fenton, Mich., started his musical studies with the accordion. He won local and national competitions by playing transcriptions of classical orchestral music. Rogers graduated with a degree with honors in psychology from Michigan State University. In his time, he earned scholarships from the University of Michigan, which made it possible to travel on two Historic Organ Tours, which were through France, Italy, and Switzerland. In 2003, Rogers was invited to play for a public program in Michigan, which was for Japan’s Foundation for Global Harmony.
Shows will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 13, and at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14, in the Meijer Theater at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, 272 Pearl St. NW.
Tickets for individual concerts are $8 for Museum member adults, $4 for Museum member children, $10 for non-member adults and $5 for non-member children. Tickets are available by visiting www.grpm.org/Organ or by calling 616-929-1700.
The third concert of the series will be Theatre Organ Through the Decades performed by Justin Stahl on Friday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 18, at 2 p.m.
The fourth and final concert of the series will be Holiday Classics on Friday, Dec. 15, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 16, at 2 p.m. by John Lauter. This holiday classic is a sellout show, great for the entire family. Tickets are recommended to be purchased early.
An inspirational evening of hymns and spirituals await audience members at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center when God’s Music highlights the stage on Friday, Oct. 20, at 7:30 p.m. as part of the 2017-2018 Chemical Bank Series. This staged musical/concert includes national recording artists and Grammy Award contenders Deborah and David Johnson.
Together with fascinating stories and narrative, the Johnsons, bring new life to the rich history and messages of the songs. The concert also includes local choir members who auditioned for the chorus including Leon DeLange, Linda Bekkering, Linda Baas, Amy Fein, Karen McKenzie, and Nick, Michael and Cassie Wnuk.
David Johnson
Underwritten by the Van Singel Family Foundation, God’s Music is a theatrical show featuring best-loved hymns, spirituals and gospel songs based on the album up for a 2012 Grammy, My Father’s Favorite Hymns. Many associate the hymns and spirituals with American Folk music, but they are so much more. Hymns and Spirituals are full of fascinating historical facts and come from lives that were both victorious and broken. God’s Music includes contemporary instrumental and vocal arrangements of some of those timeless favorites.
The Johnsons prove to be an amazing blend of two powerhouse voices delivering an incredibly entertaining spiritual event. With an unmatched vocal blend and style, the duo are an amazing team to lead this theatrical production. They are not only extremely talented, but a unique mother/son combination with a warmth audiences love.
Deborah Johnson has a voice that goes anywhere and is a prolific songwriter, pianist and consummate musician. She has a Masters Degree in Arranging and Composition and does most of the writing and arranging for the duo. Her credits include writing and producing dozens of albums, she has toured nationally and internationally as both a headliner and backup singer/pianist. She has also written three complete staged musicals and is a publisher with Samuel French Publishers. As well as a musician, Deborah is an author with nationally acclaimed books and a keynote/workshop speaker at corporate events. She is currently the President Elect of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Speakers Association.
David Johnson has a voice versatile enough to sing anything from Sinatra to Rock and is a young rising star with a magnitude ability and charisma. He is also an amazing young conductor with a dynamic ability to bring out the best in most any group. His credits include student director of the College Choir who won the title “Choir of the World” and was awarded “Outstanding Soloist” in back-to-back years at the Monterey, Calif. Next Generation Jazz Festival. He was Choral director for multiple groups at a large High School for two years and has also toured nationally and internationally as a singer and lead trumpet player. Unrelated to his performing, David is currently a National MVP Softball Champion with the nickname “Lazer” with his signature on a limited release bat.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) announced today that tickets are now on sale for the new traveling exhibit, Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids, which will open this November.
Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids, organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, traces the natural and cultural roots of some of the world’s most enduring mythological creatures from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and beyond.
Opening on Saturday, Nov. 11, visitors will explore the various mythical creatures of the world. 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.
Museum members can be the first to see the new exhibit at the members only preview on Friday, Nov. 10, from 6 to 10 p.m. Members are encouraged to dress as their favorite mythical character for extra excitement! Member preview tickets are $2 per member, and available at grpm.org/Dragons.
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.
The exhibition will include imaginative models, paintings, and textiles, along with other cultural objects from around the world. The exhibit will bring to light surprising similarities and differences in the ways people around the world have been inspired by nature to envision and depict these strange and wonderful creatures.
This exhibit will be located on the Museum’s third floor and run from Nov. 11 to May 20.
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.
The Public Museum’s Beer Explorers program will again team with Brewery Vivant to offer a class on how and why beer tastes so darn good. (Supplied)
By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org
The Muskegon Oktoberfest 2-day fundraiser for Muskegon Winter Sports Complex is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Oct. 6-7, will include a “beer trail” event Saturday from 5-9 p.m. and features specially brewed beers from Pigeon Hill Brewing Company, Unruly Brewing Co., Fetch Brewing Co., and Grand Armory Brewing Company.
Beers from several other craft breweries, hard ciders and wine will be available. (Domestic beer will also be available, but not sure why.) Five biergartens throughout the trail will feature live musical acts, with the Oktoberfest main stage featuring headlining act Westside Soul Surfers from 7-1 p.m.
The fun begins Friday with a “tapping of the kegs” ceremony and a 5K Fun Trail Run under the lights at Muskegon State Park. Saturday, from 3-9 p.m., family events are planned with kid’s activities including a wheel luge track, archery, a pumpkin roll down the luge track and more. Music from traditional German band Ein Prosit will begins at 3:30 p.m.
Free shuttle service will be available to transport guests due to limited parking at the Winter Sports Complex. Shuttle service will run Friday, 6-11:30 p.m., and Saturday, 5-11:30 p.m., with pick up at the state park beach parking lot and the Block House. Guests are encouraged to use the shuttle system to alleviate parking and traffic congestion around the sports complex.
KDL Uncorked program continues with tours, ‘Ladies Night’
The Kent District Library’s Uncorked program will continue with three programs this month, starting Wednesday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m. with a tour and talk at Gray Skies Distillery, and including later in the month a mead tour at Arktos Meadery, a ladies night wine tasting, and “Geeks Who Drink” quiz night.
The tour at Grey Skies, located at 700 Ottawa NW, Grand Rapids, includes a tasting and behind the scenes look at the process of creating spirits.
The tour of Arktos Meadery, 251 Center Ave. SW, Grand Rapids, will be Wednesday, Oct. 11, at 5 p.m. This tour — which requires pre-registration — will look at how mead is made and have a tasting event.
Also on Wednesday, Oct. 11, from 6-8 p.m., KDL will continue its “KDL Uncorked: Ladies Night”, this time at the East Grand Rapids branch, 746 Lakeside Dr. SE. Wine tasting will be provided by The Crushed Grape, and chocolate and cheese tastings will be provided by The Cheese Lady. During the program, participants will learn about wine pairings and how to create their own.
Finally, on Thursday, Oct. 26, from 7-9 p.m., a special event “Geeks Who Drink” quiz night will be held at the Atwater Brewery, 201 Michigan St. NW, in Grand Rapids. According to supplied material: “If you possess encyclopedic knowledge about “Seinfeld,” can recite Sonic Youth’s entire discography in chronological order, or you want to impress your friend by showing off your otherwise useless knowledge, then this event is for you.”
All programs are for adults, age 21 and older. For more information on any of the events visit kdl.org .
GRAM’s Beer Explorers teams with Brewery Vivant, GRCC
The Grand Rapids Public Museum, in partnership with Brewery Vivant and Grand Rapids Community College, will present a Beer Explorers class examining the science of tasting, on Thursday, Oct. 12.
Brewery Vivant’s Ryan Engeman and GRCC brewery students will host three interactive beer stations, each related to a different sense. According to supplied information, participants will learn how our brains process flavor profiles, and learn about aroma, color, feel and taste of beer.
The Class begins at 6:30 p.m. and will be held on the first floor of GRPM. Admission to class includes three beer samples, as well as access to the Museum’s first two floors to explore, and a cash bar will be available. Participants must be 21 and older. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $20 for non-members and can be purchased at grpm.org/calendar.
By Tim Sage, Grand Rapids Public Library, West Side Branch
It can be a shock when your favorite author dies unexpectedly.So how would you feel if you stumbled upon a new book by the same author a year later?This recently happened to me when an assistant of Michael Crichton discovered a complete manuscript for a book called Pirate Latitudes.
Crichton, author of books such as Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, and State of Fear, had died of lymphoma a year earlier.In fact, he was so secretive about his work that not even his publisher knows when he worked on it and if Crichton even planned on publishing it.
Pirate Latitudes is set in the Caribbean during the 17th century.A Spanish ship full of treasure is forced to spend the season at the fort of Matanceros and the English Governor of Jamaica wants it captured.He conspires with Charles Hunter to round up the greatest “privateers” (pirates in other words) in port for a daring raid on the island fort. A classic pirate tale full of high seas battles, adventure and betrayal follows.
All Michael Crichton books are well researched.Adept at weaving the historical information into the story, you hardly realize that it is happening.If you liked the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and are looking for a book with all of the action and a little knowledge thrown in check out Pirate Latitudes. Besides, how often do you get to read a book published from beyond the grave?
A new exhibit titled, “50/50: Of Color and Black & White,” by local artist Bill Chardon, opens at the Leep Art Gallery on October 5 at the Postma Center on the Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services campus in Grand Rapids.
The exhibit works will reflect a broad range of interests from the artist’s last ten years. In that sense, it is a retrospective, with the earliest photographic works being “Cattle Guard” and “Andrew’s Tree,” and more recent works such as “Enduring” and “Jeckyll #1.”
“While reviewing the images I’ve chosen I realized that there are an almost equal number of color and black and white photographs. It wasn’t intentional, but is reflective of my work,” says artist Bill Chardon. “The juxtaposition of colors has always intrigued me; and I find a well-conceived black and white image just as compelling for the juxtaposition of values. For me, there is no judging which is more worthy. There is only recognition that they can both render a compelling story.”
Chardon grew up in Northern New Jersey about 20 miles west of Manhattan. In the 1960s, this area was small-town, somewhat rural America, with woods and streams to explore, and he developed a deep connection and appreciation for the natural world. After high school he attended Calvin College where he graduated with a BA in Art, and Kendall College of Art and Design with a BFA in Advertising Design. For almost 40 years, graphic design has been his profession.
“A judge’s statement for a show I participated in said that an image should have a ‘hook’; something that pulls the viewer in. This description had an impact on me; and since then I have been more conscious of what that ‘hook’ may be in a particular image,” says Charon. “Whatever the ‘hook’ is in a particular photograph, my ultimate goal as a photographer is to engage you.”
Chardon’s work has been exhibited in a number of venues in the Midwest and has received special recognition from B&W Magazine, The Muskegon Museum of Art, and Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts. He has been a participant in ArtPrize for the past five years with this year’s exhibit at the Women’s City Club.
The Pine Rest Leep Art Gallery exhibit will be on display at the Postma Center located at 300 68thStreet, SE, Grand Rapids, Mich., from October 5 until December 29, 2017. The Leep Art Gallery is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. and is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 616.222.4530 or go to www.pinerest.org/events.
A small gem of a book by a geriatrician who works at Steere House, a nursing home.
Dr. Dosa’s parents were both pediatricians, but he was always drawn to the opposite end of life. The careful observations that he shares, reveal that he chose his specialty well.Dr. Dosa has his own problems, and the nursing home offers an effective backdrop for rumination.Against our ultimate fate, what will serve us, what will last in the end?
I found the book oddly comforting and hopeful. The recurring strand running throughout, is Oscar, who is not a medical diagnostician, but a cat.A specialist in his own way, thestaff couldn’t ignore the fact that Oscar would uncannily appear at the bedside of residents in their last hours, and stay by their side steadfastly.
The TreeRunner Ninja Relay Race is Grand Rapids Treetop Adventure Park‘s first ever competition designed to challenge teams of four climbers to see who can accomplish the fastest time through a specific course. The goal of the competition is to not only provide a means for climbers to test their physical ability, but to also raise money for charity – this year, we will be donating 25 percent of all proceeds to the West Michigan Environmental Action Coalition.
Each team will have an opportunity to practice on the courses in the morning before getting a chance to compete in their respective time slots in the afternoon. Then, the teams will strategically pick which members will be timed while climbing through the select course. The combined time it takes your team to complete the four courses constitutes your race time. The top three teams will compete to secure their spot at TreeRunner Ninja Team Champion. Cash prizes are available for the winning teams!
First place team will win $500 in cash, 4 TreeRunner T-Shirts, and 4 season passes for the 2018 season.
Second place team will win $200 in cash, 4 TreeRunner T-Shirts, and 8 free adult tickets for the 2018 season.
Third place will win 4 custom TreeRunner T-shirts and 4 free adult tickets for the 2018 season
The entry fee for each team is $200 per team. This includes the practice time at the beginning of the day, and your race time the day of. We are recommending this experience for ages 12 and up.
An Adventure Park is a combination of suspended obstacles above the forest floor like bridges, cargo nets, swinging logs, rings, skateboards and ziplines. Climbers stay securely clipped in with the self-guided, double-clip Clic-it climbing system on the course. The courses range in difficulty from ridiculously easy to very difficult, similar to ski resorts with green, blue, and black runs. For this event, we will be using two of our easier courses (Pink and Green) and two of our medium level courses (Blue and Purple). The finals round will be through our Double Black loop.
After its wildly successful premiere in 1902, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius said of his Symphony No. 2, “My second symphony is a confession of the soul.”
Among his confessions, Sibelius declares his love for the Finnish country side by composing one of the most spectacular sunrises in all of classical music.
Grand Rapids Symphony ventures north to the frozen and solemn beauty of Finland and beyond, guided by a Norwegian conductor and assisted by a Grammy-nominated Norwegian mezzo-soprano.
Guest conductor Rune Bergmann will lead Sibelius Symphony No. 2, the second concert of the 2017-18 Richard and Helen DeVos Classical series, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 6-7, in DeVos Performance Hall. A pre-concert discussion, Inside the Music, begins at 7 p.m.
Marianne Beate Kielland
George and Kerstin Trowbridge is the Concert Sponsor. Guest artist sponsor is the Edith I. Blodgett Guest Artist Fund.
Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Marianne Beate Kielland makes her DeVos Hall debut to sing Gustav Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer.
Marianne Kielland has established herself as one of the foremost singers of Scandinavia as well as one of the few Norwegian singers to have received a Grammy nomination. The versatile mezzo soprano began her international career with the Staatsoper Hannover in Germany and has been working frequently with
In case Sibelius and Mahler aren’t enough, Grand Rapids Symphony opens concerts with Richard Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger, one of his more popular and frequently played works.
A German music drama about medieval guild of “Master Singers” of the city of Nuremburg in the 16th century, this comic opera by Wagner is especially familiar for its Prelude, which is a staple of the orchestra repertoire.
After a failed pursuit for love, Gustav Mahler composed both lyrics and music for Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen orSongs of a Wayfarer. The lyrics are influenced by Des Knaben Wunderhorn or The Youth’s Magic Horn, a collection of German folk poetry that was one his favorite books. The four songs take the listener on a journey full of grief, beauty and despair, ending with a dark but necessary resolution.
Rune Bergmann, in his third appearance with the Grand Rapids symphony, leads the journey from medieval Germany to the vast forests of birch and pine in Scandinavia.
An energetic and compelling figure on the podium, Bergmann is a dynamic and versatile conductor with an extensive classical, romantic, operatic and contemporary repertoire.
Recently named Music Director of Canada’s Calgary Philharmonic as well as Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of Poland’s Szczecin Philharmonic, Bergmann has been Artistic Director of Norway’s innovative Fjord Cadenza Festival since its inception in 2010.
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 Sibelius No. 2 program will be rebroadcast on Sunday, March 11, 2018, 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 rich really are different, and nothing proves it as much as Empty Mansions, the story of Huguette Clark, heir to the riches of her millionaire father, W.A. Clark, a savvy and ambitious businessman and politician, who made his money in copper mines and founded a town that later became Las Vegas.
Authored by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr., a cousin to Huguette, Empty Mansions tells the story of a woman so wealthy she owned paintings by Renoir and Degas; Stradivarius violins; and several remarkable homes, including an estate in Santa Barbara, California, and three apartments totaling over 40 rooms at a posh Fifth Avenue address.
Despite her vast wealth, however, Huguettte chose to spend a large part of her life as a recluse, collecting dolls and abandoning her many opulent homes to live in a small and rather spartan hospital room even though she was not ill. A complex and mysterious individual, she was extraordinarily generous to people she hardly knew but avoided most of her family.
Upon Huguettte’s death, her secluded life was thrust into the public venue as a legal battle over her $300-million-dollar estate ensued. Meticulously researched and filled with illustrations of her homes and possessions, Empty Mansions is an intimate look at an eccentric life.
The Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival will explore and celebrate the life and works of William Shakespeare for the 24th consecutive year, with multiple events September 29-November 4.
Grand Valley State University’s annual festival is the oldest and largest Shakespeare festival in Michigan and attracts more than 6,000 guests each year.
To kick off this year’s festival, students will bring to life what is believed to be one of the Bard’s final solo-written plays. Shakespeare wraps themes of love, betrayal, vengeance, forgiveness, redemption and magic into “The Tempest.”
In “The Tempest,” Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan and a powerful sorcerer, has survived 12 years marooned on a remote island with his daughter, Miranda, when the men who cheated him sail within reach of his fearful magic. He conjures a tempest that shipwrecks his enemies and leaves them at his mercy, but the story becomes more complex when Miranda falls in love with a castaway prince, and the island’s native inhabitants, Caliban and Ariel, frighten and amaze the mariners. Will Prospero exact his revenge or learn that “the rare action is in virtue than in vengeance?”
Performances of “The Tempest” will take place Sept. 29 and 30, and Oct. 5, 6 and 7, at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 1 and 8, at 2 p.m. All performances will take place in Louis Armstrong Theatre, in the Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts. Sign language interpretation will be available during the October 5 performance.
Tickets are $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and GVSU alumni, faculty and staff members, and $6 for students and groups. Five percent of total ticket sales for performances of “The Tempest” will be donated to the American Red Cross to contribute to hurricane relief efforts.
“We feel we could not perform a play called ‘The Tempest’ that begins with a devastating storm that shipwrecks sailors without acknowledging the catastrophic storms of this year and the devastation caused to so many areas,” said Jim Bell, Shakespeare Festival director.
“The Tempest” will be directed by guest artist Curt Tofteland, founder and producing director of Shakespeare Behind Bars Inc., the oldest North American Shakespeare program that takes place in medium-security prisons.
The award-winning documentary, “Shakespeare Behind Bars,” traces the success of the program while demonstrating the transformational power of performing Shakespeare’s works. A public screening of the documentary and a discussion with Tofteland will take place Oct. 4, at 7 p.m., in Louis Armstrong Theatre.
This year’s Shakespeare Festival will welcome guest scholar-in-residence, John Andrews, founder and president of the renowned Shakespeare Guild. Andrews also served as the resident scholar during Grand Valley’s first Shakespeare Festival in 1994.
Andrews will give a public lecture in conjunction with performances of “The Tempest,” entitled “Why Shakespeare’s ‘Brave New World’ Continues to Resonate: Reflections on ‘The Tempest.'” His presentation will take place Sept. 29, at 4 p.m., in the Kirkhof Center’s Pere Marquette Room. The lecture will be preceded by a reception at 3 p.m. and include a performance of this year’s festival Greenshow: “The Devil is an Ass.”
Grand Valley’s traveling Shakespeare troupe, Bard to Go, also returns this year with a new, 50-minute production, “The Wonder of Will: This Is Your Afterlife!”
Bard to Go performs Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.
This year’s production asks what would happen if the Bard was brought back to life and taken on an adventure through his most famous plays. The production includes scenes from “Hamlet,” “Richard III,” “The Comedy of Errors,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Macbeth,” and “The Merchant of Venice.”
Bard to Go will perform for students at various secondary schools throughout Michigan in October and November, and offer multiple public performances as well. The troupe will perform as an ArtPrize entry from noon-5 p.m. on September 30 and October 1 at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids.
Bard to Go will also perform at 1 p.m. on November 4 in Loosemore Auditorium, located in the DeVos Center on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. The performance will follow the Campus Student Competition Awards Ceremony.
For more information about this year’s Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival, contact Bell at bellja@gvsu.edu, or visit gvsu.edu/shakes. To purchase tickets for “The Tempest,” call the Louis Armstrong Theatre Box Office at 616-331-2300.
Love him or hate him — people aren’t usually lukewarm about Michael Moore.This is an “almost memoir” that leaves out all of the dull stuff and serves up anecdotal bites of Moore’s life.
Growing up in Flint in the post-war 1950s, Moore was a good Catholic boy who had planned to become a priest. Moore’s life trajectory is fascinating to follow, prompting one reviewer to comment that “Michael Moore is Michigan’s own Forrest Gump.”
Moore can be a tad self-serving (who isn’t), but he makes up for that by also being self-effacing, thoughtful, and funny.The portraits of his parents are poignant and especially well done. It’s also a great memoir from the ’50s, when things were a lot different for the average kid.This is a quieter, more thoughtful book than some of his previous works, and I totally enjoyed the audio version, which is read by the author.
Landslide performs the music of Fleetwood Mac with the Grand Rapids Symphony
Fleetwood Mac was one of the biggest, best-known pop/rock acts of the 1970s and 1980s with two albums, “Rumors” and “Fleetwood Mac,” among Billboard’s Top 200 Albums of All Time. Additionally, “Rumors” spent 31 weeks at the top of the album charts in 1977-78. Only Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and the soundtrack for “West Side Story” spent more weeks at No. 1.
Music made famous by Americans Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, and Brits Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christie McVie come to DeVos Hall on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 22-24 to open the Grand Rapids Symphony’s 2017-18 Fox Motors Pops series. The program “Landslide: A Tribute to the Music of Fleetwood Mach” is at DeVos Performance Hall, 303 Monroe Ave. NW. Shows are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 22 and 23 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24.
Landslide, a sextet of Los Angeles-based musicians, joins the Grand Rapids Pops for the concerts that recall the band’s glory days of the 1970s and 1980s.
Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt, who conducted the Grand Rapids Pops in tributes to The Beatles, ABBA and Chicago earlier this year, will be on the podium for songs including Go Your Own Way, Dreams, Don’t Stop Believing and You Make Loving Fun.
The Grand Rapids Symphony’s six-concert 2017-18 Fox Motors Pops Series includes a full-length screening of the 1951film “An American in Paris” with live music in November; the perennially popular Wolverine World Wide Holiday Pops in December; a night of the Best of Broadway in January; a visit by comedy troupe Second City during LaughFest in March; and a salute to “Star Wars” and the Music of John Williams in May.
For more about the Grand Rapids Symphony’s season, visit grsymphony.org.
The Purdue Varsity Glee Club will perform Oct. 27 as part of the Sunset Manor’s Fall Gala 2017.
The event is a fundraiser for the resident benevolence at Sunset Retirement Communities and Services. It is anticipated that $340,000 in resident benevolence will be needed to help residents this year. Benevolence is a life-line to residents who can no longer the cost of their care.
The Purdue Varsity Glee Club is one of the principal vocal groups of Purdue University established in 1893. They sing a wide variety of songs including novelty, patriotic, classical, inspirational, jazz, and barbershop songs.
The Fall Gala is at The Pinnacle Center, 3330 Highland Drive, Hudsonville. There is punch and welcome starting at 6 p.m. with the dinner and program following at 6:30 p.m.
RSVPs must be made by . For more information, contact Margie Brenner at 616-254-8090 or email mbrenner@sunsetmanor.org.
The mother-daughter team known as “P.J. Tracy” pens a mean psychological crime thriller, with a cast of engaging characters, and intricate plotting. Their collaboration has produced a fresh voice in contemporary mysteries, with characters I loved, along with fast-moving story lines.
In their first book, the eclectic misfits that make up the computer geek squad known as Monkeewrench, become enmeshed in helping the police, when a series of murders are occurring that mimic their new, but unreleased computer game.Meanwhile, the Milwaukee police team keeps uncovering deeper puzzles involving Monkeewrench, while frantically trying to solve the increasing murders.Who are these people, really, and why are they so underground that even the FBI has lost track of them?
You can easily call turn-of-the-20th Century French artist Auguste Rodin the “father” of modern figurative sculpture — Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park chief curator Joseph Becherer, no casual commentator on the subject, certainly does. But it would be a mistake classify Rodin as a “realistic” figurative artist.
And it would be disappointing to the viewer to assume the Garden’s ArtPrize exhibit, “Rodin and the Contemporary Figurative Tradition”, is filled with realistic artwork glorifying the human body in the styles of the classic Greco-Roman, neoclassical and Renaissance traditions.
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park chief curator Joseph Becherer. (Courtesy Ohio Today)
With both several works by Rodin and the works of 17 contemporary figurative sculptors and video artists in an exhibition, the Gardens and Becherer brings to town a show ranging from absolute reality of the human form, to the abstract, to the nearly absurd.
“Rodin was a figurative artist — he did not do landscapes, he did not enter into abstraction, he didn’t do still life or some of the other objects that one could have done,” Becherer said to WKTV. His work “helped to set a parameter, set the definition, of what is ‘figurative” and one of the reasons it is so broad (today) is because it is based on what Rodin did. … it is of the figure.”
Anders Krisar’s work in Meijer Gardens’ “Rodin and the Contemporary Figurative Tradition” exhibit.
That “broadness” of figurative art Becherer is on full display at the Meijer Gardens show through — to scratch the surface — the startling yet somehow soothing split-image bodies of Anders Krisár, the eerily familiar disembodied faces of Natalia Arbelaez (“Game of Thrones” fan, anyone?), and a simple-yet-complex work by Rolf Jacobsen that forces the viewer to look closer, to think deeper.
“Rodin and the Contemporary Figurative Tradition” is free to the public through the run of this year’s ArtPrize, Sept. 20 to Oct. 8, and then will continue on display through Jan. 7, 2018.
Natalia Arbelaez’ work in Meijer Gardens’ “Rodin and the Contemporary Figurative Tradition” exhibit.
While each of the modern artists, and their works can be taken in a modern context — and can be voted upon by the public and judges for ArtPrize awards — the show offers evidence of how each artist was impacted by Rodin either directly or indirectly.
“This year marks Rodin’s centenary and Meijer Gardens celebrates the remarkable impact of his legacy through the work of (these) seventeen contemporary artists,” Becherer, who is also vice president of exhibitions and collections at the Gardens, said in supplied material.
“This exhibition allows us to explore the boldly impactful way he has inspired major aesthetic trends even today. From representations of figure to use of materials, these selected works allow us to understand both an historic icon and the vitality of the figurative tradition today,” Becherer said.
Rodin — full name François Auguste René Rodin (1840–1917) — was born in Paris to a working-class family, applied unsuccessfully to the city’s prestigious École des Beaux Arts three times, in no small part due to his movement away from a Neoclassical style of sculpture.
But from almost the moment of the unveiling of his first major piece, “Age of Bronze”, the sculptural art form was never the same.
And a miniature cast that work, in fact, is not only part of the current show but is the curator’s favorite of the several Rodin works on loan from the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Snite Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
“The Age of Bronze” is not only one of Rodin’s major works, it sets the tone of breaking the definition of “figurative” sculpture.
“The one that I really had my heart set on was the ‘Age of Bronze’, at the introduction, because, you know, for me, it really sets this whole exhibition up because it sets up Rodin as this innovator. The one who broke the rules,” Becherer said to WKTV.
“When you approach it, it looks very classical, it looks Greco-Roman or something like that. But when you really study it, when you really see it in a scale model, you realize it is sort of awkward, it is sort of tripping into space. It has a kind of rough, but realistic animation to it. … I really wanted this sort of revolution to be here and to welcome people. And it was great opportunity to partner with the DIA (Detroit Institute of Art).”
“Rodin and the Contemporary Figurative Tradition” is recognized as one of the official centenary events of 2017 by the Musée Rodin, Paris and the international Rodin Centenary Commission, Centenaire: Rodin 100 — putting the Grand Rapids museum in the same select group as Paris’ Grand Palais and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The exhibit, after ArtPrize closes, will include an outdoor guided sketching event on Oct. 20 focused on Rodin’s “Eve”, one of the cornerstones of the Garden’s permanent collection, and a discussion by Becherer on Nov. 5 titled “The Rodin Revolution, In and Out of Context”.
For more information on Meijer Gardens and its ArtPrize exhibit, visit meijergardens.org.
A few weeks ago, I was listening to the radio while driving to work and became so captivated by a review of author Wendell Berry’s novel, Hannah Coulter, I actually couldn’t help but arrive to work a little late, stuck in the parking lot, hanging on every beautiful word the radio guest had to say about this powerful novel.
Let me say, this radio program certainly did not disappoint.
In this novel, author Wendell Berry explores the fictional small farming town of Port William, where many of his books take place, and where many of his characters’ lives intertwine and reappear. With sweeping narratives and character-driven dialogue, the story paints vivid pictures of the community and their rich, yet simple lives.
In Hannah Coulter, our twice-widowed heroine looks back on her life story, now in her 70s, reminiscent of where her now-unrecognizable Port William has gone, so far-removed from the way things used to be.
Hannah Coulter most clearly communicates to its readers a feeling of ambivalence between two changing worlds: the charming old farming community of Port William and the fast-paced outside world, into which many younger members of Port William are venturing.Hannah’s voice is slow and wise, and Wendell Berry’s writing packs a profound message into a short novel.
I highly recommend reading this beautifully written novel and any of Berry’s other short novels about the characters in Port William. There is no real sequence or series to his books, so you can simply pick up and enjoy wherever you choose.
Back by popular demand, the Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) will host a second and final week of Laser Light Shows at the Chaffee Planetarium. For one week only, visitors to the Chaffee Planetarium can recline, relax, and rock out to dazzling laser light performances set to popular and classic music. From Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin to 1990s hits and today’s hottest pop, get ready for a timeless journey of light and sound.
Laser Light Shows have something for every music lover, including: Laser Beatles, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Laser Vinyl (the best of classic rock), Laser Zeppelin, Laserpolis (pop, rock, alternative and oldies), Laser Country, Electro Pop (today’s hottest hits), Lase Rock (classic rock), Laser Tribute (great artists whose music has inspired many), Electrolase (electronic dance music), Laser U2 and Metallica.
This special week of Laser Light Shows will take place during ArtPrize starting Monday, Sept. 25 and continuing through Sunday, Oct. 1. Shows begin at 3 p.m. each day.
Tickets to shows are $4 with Museum general admission, and $5 for planetarium-only tickets. Members receive free admission to planetarium shows. General admission to the Museum is half off during ArtPrize, Sept. 20 through Oct. 8. For a full schedule and to purchase tickets in advance, please visit grpm.org/Planetarium.
Beer is not the only game in town at local establishments, even at ones who are famous for their craft beers, such as New Holland Brewing and Spirits. (Courtesy New Holland Spirits)
Everybody who enjoys a good pint of pale ale, and many who wouldn’t know a lager from a stout, knows West Michigan has some of the best craft beer brewing in the country — they do not call Grand Rapids a “Beer City” for no reason.
But you probably have to be a pretty connected cocktail drinker to know that the state’s craft distilleries are also rapidly becoming known as a source for some of the best distilled liquors anywhere.
A toast and tasting at New Holland Spirits — don’t worry there is plenty more where that came from. (Courtesy New Holland Spirits)
“Michigan distilleries are absolutely becoming recognized as one of the country’s best regions for distilled spirits,” said Brad Kamphuis, director of distillery operations at New Holland Spirits, a sister company to New Holland Brewing. “We have a great customer base in Michigan that wants to know what they are drinking and who made it. It has really driven creativity and authenticity into the distilling process.”
Anybody familiar with the taste of West Michigan small-batch gin in their summer gin and tonics knows exactly what Kamphuis is talking about when he says “authenticity” in the process.
Anybody who is not familiar will get a chance this Friday, Sept. 15, when the Michigan Craft Distillers Association hosts the inaugural Michigan Distilled festival, featuring craft spirits and cocktails made around the state — alongs with food and music.
The event will run from 6-10 p.m., under the pavilion at Fulton Street Farmers Market, 1145 Fulton St E, Grand Rapids.
Among the nearly two dozen distilleries from across the state expected to be present include local Grand Rapids area companies Bier Distillery, Grey Skies Distilling Co., and Long Road Distillers. Food will be provided by Slows Bar BQ, New Holland’s The Knickerbocker, Journeyman Distillery and Long Road Distillers.
Music to be provided include local favorites Megan Dooley, The Bootstrap Boys, Cønrad Shøck + the Nøise.
The possibilities are not endless for craft distilled liquor at local distillers, but close. (Courtesy Long Road Distillers)
And Kyle Van Strien of Long Road also sees the “local focus” of West Michigan distillers as being more than just where the distilling takes place.
While “our spirits are gaining national and international attention,” Van Strien said. “We have an abundance of high quality, local agriculture that we can use to create world-class spirits right at home.”
General admission tickets are $40 and include five 3-ounce batch cocktails or ¼-ounce samples of spirits available from each distillery.
A special VIP Hour will be offered from 5-6 p.m. when guests will be offered “an enhanced experience with handcrafted cocktails and a chance to meet with local bartenders and mixologists,” according to supplied material. VIP tickets are $75 — and include a swag bag and commemorative logo cup to prove your are “experienced”.
Designated driver tickets will be sold at the gate for $5 each. Attendees must be 21 and valid photo ID is required for entry.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) is opening a new exhibit, Brain: The World Inside Your Head, on September 16! Brain literally takes you inside the head to probe the geography of a giant brain and stand in the midst of the brain’s constant electrical brainstorm as thoughts and sensations are generated.
This fascinating exhibit for all ages provides a hands‑on and up‑close look at the human body’s most essential and fascinating organ by exploring its development, geography and function.
Upon entry into the exhibit, visitors walk through a shimmering tunnel of flashing fiber-optics that illuminates networks of neurons firing and communicating. From this dynamic beginning, Brain invites guests deeper into the brain to discover its basic workings. Trace this brain’s development from infancy through old age, learn the evolution of scientists’ understanding of the brain’s physiology and study the re-created skull of Phineas Gage — a man who survived after his brain was pierced by a metal rod.
This traveling exhibit employs innovative special effects, 3-D reproductions, virtual reality, hands-on learning activities and interactive technology to delve into the inner workings of the brain, including its processes, potentials and mysteries.
“Brain: World Inside Your Headis a great way for all ages to be hands-on in learning about our brains!” said Kate Moore, Vice President of Marketing & PR at the GRPM. “As the hub of science for West Michigan, we are offering an inside look at the anatomy of our heads and information on brain health.”
Admission to Brain: The World Inside Your Head will be FREE with general admission. Brain will be located on the Museum’s second floor and run from September 16 to January 7, 2018.
On Saturday, Sept. 16, Grand Valley State University will be hosting their Brain STEM event at the GRPM from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. BrainSTEM is a free community event to display the interactive, innovative, and creative activities relating to science, technology, engineering, and math.
Media is invited for a special preview of Brain: The World Inside Your Head on Friday, September 15 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Please RSVP to Christie Bender at cbender@grpm.org.
Jim Goode, professor of history at Grand Valley State University, and his wife, Virginia, have explored 11 countries throughout the Middle East for business and pleasure over the past 50 years.
They have collected a wide variety of ceramics, rugs, textiles and other everyday artifacts along their adventures — most representing simple instruments of daily life in these regions of the world.
During a Fall Arts Celebration exhibition at Grand Valley, many of these artifacts will be on display for the first time in the university’s Art Gallery.
A reception for the “Afghanistan to Morocco: Journeys of Jim and Virginia Goode” exhibition will take place Sept. 18, from 5-7 p.m., in the Art Gallery (room 1121), located in the Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts on the Allendale Campus. The exhibition will be on display through Oct. 27.
“The exhibition displays some very simple, but important objects that allow insight into the daily lives of ordinary people in the Middle East region,” Jim said. “We all share certain common practices, such as preparing food and drink, entertaining family and friends and worshiping. This exhibit emphasizes such commonalities; we are more alike than we are different, regardless of our cultural backgrounds.”
Jim began teaching for Grand Valley’s History Department in 1986, and said students have been at the center of the Goodes’ involvement in the Middle East. He helped establish the university’s Middle East Studies program and has facilitated student involvement in the Model Arab League since 1988. The event is a three-day simulation attended by students from colleges and universities throughout Michigan who roleplay as delegates from the 23 member states of the Arab League. Jim has additionally led study abroad programs to Egypt and Turkey over the past 17 years.
He will retire from Grand Valley in December; Virginia retired as office coordinator of the Chemistry Department in 2006.
For more information about Fall Arts Celebration, visit gvsu.edu/fallarts.
Multiple free events will occur in conjunctionwith this Fall Arts Celebration exhibit. Each event will feature Jim and Virginia sharing an in-depth look at the stories and collections found within the exhibition.
“Travel in the Middle East: Highs & Lows” Sept. 13, from 1-2 p.m.
Art Gallery, Haas Center
“Professor Jim Goode: Recollections of an Iranophile, 1968-2017” Sept. 18, from 1-2 p.m.
Kirkhof Center, room 2215/2216
“Carpets and Kilims” Sept. 27, from 1-2 p.m.
Art Gallery, Haas Center
“Entertaining at Home” Oct. 11, from 1-2 p.m.
Art Gallery, Haas Center
“Potter for Every Occasion” Oct. 25, from 1-2 p.m.
Art Gallery, Haas Center
For more information about the Gallery Conversation Series, visit the Art Gallery website.
Here’s the book for those of us who don’t want to invest in all the oils, powders and equipment needed to make beauty products at home.
Starting off with the best foods for our inner beauty, Hanson guides the reader to find the truly “natural” or “organic” products. We must take the time to read the ingredients thoroughly to protect ourselves from the marketing labels. Natural makeup has no added synthetic ingredients like chemical preservatives, colors or fragrances. But, certified organic is better because the ingredients are grown without pesticides.
Recommended eco-friendly products are named and discussed in each chapter: cleansers, moisturizers, makeup, lipsticks, lip balm and more.
There is a chapter for men too.
In less than 200 pages, Hanson covers the subject concisely and also gives a resource guide to eco-friendly suppliers.
Grand Rapids Symphony Violinist Megan Crawford. Credit:Terry Johnston
The Arts at Noon concert series at Grand Valley State University will kick off its 40th season with a performance by an ensemble of Grand Valley music faculty and members of the Grand Rapids Symphony.
The series will feature seven concerts this fall followed by seven performances in the winter, beginning in January. The fall series begins Wednesday, September 13, with the Dvorak String Quintet. Members of the ensemble include Grand Valley music faculty Pablo Mahave-Veglia (cello), Michael Hovnanian (bass) and Paul Swantek (viola). They will be joined by members of the Grand Rapids Symphony, including Megan Crawford (violin) and James Crawford (violin). Hovnanian and Swantek are also members of the Grand Rapids Symphony.
For this concert, the Dvorak String Quintet will perform “Antonin Dvorak String Quintet op. 77.”
All Arts at Noon concerts will take place in the Cook-DeWitt Center on the Allendale Campus, begin at noon, and last approximately one hour. Each concert is free and open to the public.
Below is a full schedule of fall Arts at Noon concerts:
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) will launch two brand new shows at the Chaffee Planetarium this month Sesame Street’s One World, One Sky and Friday Mediation.
One World, One Sky will thrill young audience members when they find themselves on Sesame Street with their famous friends, Big Bird and Elmo. The fun begins when Elmo’s friend, Hu Hu Zhu, visits from China and the three of them take the audience on an exciting journey of discovery to learn about the sun, stars, and Big Dipper. Elmo and Hu Hu Zhu blast off on an imaginary trip to the moon and when they return home to Earth everyone discovers that, no matter where we live, we all share the same sky.
One World, One Sky will begin showings on Saturday, Sept. 16. Tickets may be purchased at the Museum’s front desk. Show times can be found by visiting grpm.org.
Friday Meditation is a new experience being offered in the Chaffee Planetarium on Friday’s in conjunction with the Museum’s traveling exhibition, Brain: The World Inside Your Head. Visitors to Friday Mediation will first learn about the brain, what effects stress has on the brain and tools for mindfulness. Then, the experience will take visitors on a deep relaxation exercise where they marvel at beautiful scenery on the planetarium dome, while relaxing and mediating at the same time.
The experience will be offered during the lunch hour on Fridays starting on Friday, Sept. 22 and continuing through the exhibitions closing in early January 2018.
Planetarium Shows are $4 with general admission and $5 for planetarium only. Museum members receive free admission to planetarium shows.
For additional information on the Chaffee Planetarium or to view the full schedule, visit grpm.org/planetarium.
Ben Sollee, on his Facebook page (@bensollee), calls himself a “cellist, composer and storyteller” who band’s interests include “community-oriented touring and performances that have some type of lasting impact, whether through support of local organizations or educational opportunities.”
He had me interested then and their, so his stated “artists he likes to listen to” being Andrew Bird, Amos Lee and Paul Simon is just icing on the proverbial musical cake.
Sollee, with his band Kentucky Native, will bring their music and stories to The Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids for a show Thursday, Sept. 14, for a 7 p.m. show with a yet-to-be named opening act. Tickets are still available.
In August, Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native released their self-titled album, described in supplied material as a “collection is a thought-provoking conversation about the practice and art of an ever-evolving American genre … This album is Sollee’s most personally revealing work and a reflection of his native Kentucky.”
For a YouTube video of the song “Pieces of You”, from the album, visit here.
And the origin of the name of the band, “Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native”? Also from his Facebook page, he was “Born and raised in Kentucky. Learned to play cello in Kentucky. Learned to sing in Kentucky. Still lives in Kentucky… will likely always live in Kentucky.”
’Nuff said.
The Wealthy Theater is located at 1130 Wealthy St. SE, Grand Rapids. For more informations and ticket, call 616-459-4788 x131 or visit grcmc.org.
Bill Mauldin was maybe the only regular infantry man to go up against General George Patton and win — twice. Mauldin was little and scrappy; part Apache, left a broken home at 14, and never graduated from high school– all of which may have contributed to his lifelong passion for the underdog. He fought in the Sicilian and Italian campaigns, receiving the Purple Heart.
His artistic talent was put to work for the armed services paper, Stars and Stripes, where he developed his iconic characters, Willie and Joe. Loved by the “dogfaces” at the front, the irreverent sketches were not as popular with the top brass. They so infuriated Patton, that he went after Mauldin, only to be told “hands off!” by Eisenhower.
America is experiencing the return of our armed forces personnel from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which set me thinking about the veterans of other American wars. Today’s consensus is that the WWII Vets were revered upon return, but Mauldin also shows the sometimes bitter reality that could await them.
Once I started reading all of Maudlin’s work, I was mesmerized by the man’s genius. Willie & Joe vols. I and II are essential, but go ahead and read them all — you’ll be glad you did!
Perrin Brewing’s 5-year anniversary party this week is just the first up on the “what’s on tap” beer list at Grand Rapids area breweries this month as the Grand Rapids Public Museum will also offer another trip with its Beer Explorers and, English beer lovers, London (England) is taking notice of Cedar Springs Brewing Company.
Comstock Park’s Perrin Brewing will celebrates five years of craft beer brewing and drinking on Saturday, Sept. 9, at the brewery’s backyard with live music entertainment, food trucks, specialty beers, vendors — and the annual corn hole tournament.
The live music entertainment line-up includes: 4 p.m., Paradise Outlaw; 4:55 p.m., hi-ker; 5:50 p.m., Miss Atomic; 6:45 p.m., The Crane Wives; 8:15 p.m., Jake Kershaw; and at 9:50 p.m., Papa Vegas.
If you haven’t seen/heard The Crane Wives, do so; the band’s show may be the highlight of the day.
The local food trucks scheduled to attend will include Blue Spoon Catering, Daddy Pete’s BBQ, Ice Box Brand Ice Cream, Patty Matters, Pizzaiolo, and What the Truck.
The party kicks off the general public at 4 p.m. and runs until 11 p.m. Tickets are $7 in advance and $10 at the gate, open to ages 21 years of age and older. Chairs and blankets are welcome just no outside coolers or beverages. Tickets are available in the Perrin Pub or on EventBrite.
Perrin Brewery is located at 5910 Comstock Park Dr NW. For more information visit perrinbrewing.com/
‘Back to Beer School’ coming to pubic museum’s Beer Explorers program
The Grand Rapids Public Museum will continue its Beer Explorers program with “Back to Beer School” on Thursday, Sept. 21, with six local breweries scheduled to be represented.
Representatives — with tastes/pours — from Perrin Brewing Co., Elk Brewing, Founders Brewing Co., Speciation Artisan Ales, Brewery Vivant and Creston Brewery will be present to talk about various types of beer and what goes into making each of their beers. Although each brewery offers many of the same styles of beers, each beer is crafted differently to bring out unique flavors.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum. (Supplied)
Back to Beer School will find each brewery bringing a special brew that was inspired by something within the museum’s collections. Throughout the evening, participants will explore the three floors of the Museum, stopping at different brewery bars to enjoy their samples. Brewers will be available to answer questions and give insights on their beers. Each brewery will have also a special bread made by local bakery Field and Fire to accompany their beer.
The evening will begin with a short presentation from the GRPM’s Chief Curator, Alex Forist, who will use artifacts from the museum’s collections to talk about the Grand Rapids history as Beer City.
Tickets to Beer Explorers’ Back to Beer School are $20 for non-members. Tickets include six samples, one from each brewery. A cash bar will also be available. Participants must be 21 and older. Tickets can be purchased at grpm.org/Calendar.
The museum is located at 272 Pearl Street, NW. For additional information visit www.grpm.org.
Cedar Springs Brewing Company a hit at London’s World Beer Awards
Cedar Springs Brewing Company announced in August that it had earned three “Best in the U.S.” titles in the World Beer Awards international competition, held in London, England. The contest is the third international competition the two-year-old brewery has entered and placed in.
The awards were for their Küsterer Original Weissbier, named “Best Bavarian Hefeweiss” in the U.S., Küsterer Salzburger Märzen, named “Best Seasonal German Pale” in the U.S. and Küsterer Weizenbock, named “Best Strong Wheat Beer” in the U.S.
Speaking from experience as Cedar resident and a Stammtisch Cub member from its opening, the weizenbock is both strong and very good.
“We are thrilled to once again have been recognized for the quality of our Bavarian and German style beers by an international judging organization,” David Ringler, “Director of Happiness” for the brewery, said in supplied material.
“Very few Americans have had the chance to truly experience some of these styles if they haven’t traveled to Europe,” Ringler added. “We want to do justice to these styles.”
Cedar Springs Brewing Company is located at 95 N Main, Cedar Springs. For more information visit csbrew.com/
When I viewed Apocalypto in the theatre, I was intrigued by the Mayan city and glimpses of a complicated society behind the bloody sacrifices, although I still was firmly on the side of Jaguar Paw and his people. In the spirit of learning more about a civilization that practiced blood sacrifice, and in search of a page-turning mystery, I picked up Demon of the Air: An Aztec Mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed the solid mystery but loved the way the author paints a vivid portrait of a complex and brutal society in the last years before it is swept away by European conquerors.
Rumors of men with pale skin have just started to reach Mexico/Tenochtitlan, making for an uneasy and paranoid environment among the elite of the great city. We first meet Yaotl, our dubious hero, in a tight spot. As an ex-priest and now a slave, his master has ordered him to escort a doomed man to the temple of the war-god for execution, but the erstwhile sacrifice breaks free and dives to his death over the side of the pyramid. Yaotl barely escapes when the priests would just as soon sacrifice him instead of a useless dead body.
As he returns to his master’s house, Yaotl is summoned to a meeting with Emperor Montezuma, who orders him to find several missing sorcerers or end up in prison himself.
In his search for the sorcerers, Yaotl must navigate through a society with an elaborate class structure based almost solely around prowess in battle and a belief in the importance of sacrifice and ritual eating. He is soon caught up in a power struggle between the emperor and Yaotl’s own master, an embittered old man who believes he should have been emperor instead of Montezuma.
Mysteries such as why the families of the missing sorcerers are being slaughtered and how Yaotl himself is connected to the underlying plot make for an interesting read. But I especially enjoyed the many details of life in the Aztec city, such as how hair length and style depends on your level in society, and how an auspicious date of birth determines your destiny. This is a fun mystery with insights into a lost culture.
Enjoy cocktails, heavy appetizers, and conversation with a New York Times best-selling author at Martinis & Musings with Wade Rouse on Sept. 21 from 6 – 8 p.m. at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts, 400 Culver St. Priced at $100 per person, all proceeds support free educational programming at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts (SCA). Very limited space, RSVP at 269-857-2399 or hannah@sc4a.org.
During this private cocktail party, Rouse will read from his newest novel “The Hope Chest” – an international best-seller that’s set in Saugatuck-Douglas – share hilarious, poignant tales from his life as an author and dish never-before-told tales of being on a book tour. Guests also receive a signed book.
“The noted art colony and beachside tourist town of Saugatuck, Michigan, beautifully springs to life in this gentle story of lifelong love along with the emotional support and care that families and friends can provide,” wrote the Library Journal in its review of “The Hope Chest.” “Life with ALS is also respectfully but vividly portrayed. It is refreshing and soothing to read about truly good people emerging from major life hardships with strength and dignity.”
Rouse is an internationally best-selling author of seven books, including his latest novel, “The Hope Chest.” Rouse writes under the pen name Viola Shipman – his grandmother’s name – to pay tribute to the woman whose heirlooms, life, lessons and love inspire his fiction and inspired him to become a writer and the person he is today. Rouse’s work has been selected multiple times as a Must-Read by NBC’s “Today Show”, featured on E!, and has been chosen three times by the nation’s independent booksellers as an Indie Next Pick.
If you have not discovered mystery writer Laurie Moore, you are seriously missing out. Jury Rigged is the first (but certainly not the last) of her books that I’ve read. A typical mystery, this story contains a murder or several, numerous twists, and characters quirky enough to rival Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum and friends.
The story begins with the engagement of main character, C’ezanne Martin, to Johnson County Sheriff, Bobby Noah, on Christmas day. The pair are semi-colleagues in Texas law enforcement; C’ezanne was a homicide detective in Fort Worth and bordered Johnson County where Bobby is assigned. C’ezanne has just taken a leave of absence from her detective position to launch a new career as a lawyer. The sheriff is called away on duty shortly after his marriage proposal is accepted, and C’ezanne is immediately sucked back into danger from a recently escaped felon that she helped convict.
From there, the story becomes a roller coaster ride of mishaps and intrigue, with each new character and event adding to the confusion of C’ezanne’s life. If you think Stephanie Plum has a strange family and finds herself in some tight spots, you must get to know C’ezanne Martin. Similar to Stephanie Plum, C’ezanne seems to have a talent for drawing danger into her life while just managing to squeak though the toughest situations.
Even though I hadn’t read anything by Laurie Moore prior to this book, I thought she did a good job of keeping the reader up to date on important events and characters from past encounters without sounding stilted. The pacing within the story was good. Moore delivered enough details without overwhelming reader with unnecessary facts. Moore’s writing is a little darker and more edgy that that of Janet Evanovich, but I think would definitely appeal to Evanovich’s faithful readers who may be looking for something new.
Music of all sorts came to the stage this summer as part of the Wyoming Concerts in the Park series. (City of Wyoming)
WKTV Staff
Tune in to WKTV Channel 25 on Labor Day, Sept. 4, for our all-day “Concerts In The Park” special. We will air the entire Wyoming Concerts In The Park series, featuring the bands in order of their appearance. Relive all the fun and excitement of the summer series starting at 9:30 a.m. and running all day long.
The concert times and performers are as follows:
9:30 a.m. — Detroit Circus
11 a.m. — Shelagh Brown Band
12:35 p.m . — Sweet J Band
1:55 p.m. — Brena Band
4 p.m. — Michatucky
5:30 p.m. — 6 Pack
7:15 p.m. — Toppermost
8:50 p.m. — Union Guns
10:25 p.m. — Tejano Sound Band
For a complete list of programming, visit WKTV.org and hit the programming guide tab.
Sister, Sister is the book that launched Eric Jerome Dickey’s career. This book follows three women: Valerie, her sister Inda, and their friend Chiquita, who is dating their brother. The women are in various stages of relationships. Valerie is married and struggling to make it work. Inda is divorced and dating again. Unfortunately, it is with all the wrong men. And Chiquita thinks that she has found the perfect guy, but that is all an illusion.
This is a fun romance that follows three strong women as they struggle with their relationships with men and how to find strength in friendship. Valerie turns to her sister, Inda, for counsel when she senses her husband has lost interest in their relationship. But Inda has her own problems: first she meets her boyfriend Raymond’s “other girlfriend,” Chiquita; then the pair find Raymond with yet another woman, who turns out to be his fiancée.
There’s more: Thaddeus, Valerie and Inda’s brother, falls for Chiquita, who in turn has formed a sisterly bond with Inda, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances of their meeting. Point of view alternates between the various characters as Valerie, Chiquita, and Inda share their thoughts and feelings about their interlocking relationships with one another, with men, with family members, and with the past.
All of Dickey’s books have been bestsellers, and most have been about modern relationships. However, in his newer books, he has started writing thrillers. Sister, Sister is a good introduction to his work and a good place to start if you are interested in reading his 14 books.
