Stuff III

From time to time I like to post stuff that is going on around here that people might be interested in. Since I have a busy day tomorrow, I thought I'd write tomorrow's blog tonight:

• Tonight (Dec. 1) at 7:00 the Sawyer Free Library will present Writing Gloucester, an evening with four local writers moderatored by Writer's Block host, John Ronan. This program will be on the main floor of the library. The featured writers will be Anthony Weller, author of The Seige of Salt Cove, Kory Cucuru, author of St. Peter's Fiasco, Joe Orlando, author of The Fisherman's Son, and my good friend Peter Anastas, author of Broken Trip, which I recently wrote a blog about. There is no charge for this event and all are invited.

• Carl Thomsen of Dancers Courageous is not only an amazing dancer and choreographer, he is also vitally concerned with the world we live in. He has created a performance titled Silent Men Speaking: True experiences of veterans of the War in Vietnam which he will perform at the West End Theater this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, December 2, 3 at 730 pm, December 4 at 5 pm, 1 Washington St, Gloucester, MA, $15 adults, $10 for seniors and veterans, for reservations: (978) 281-0680. Music will be performed by Jeffry H. Steele, Billy Bang, and others. Poetry by W.D. Ehrhart, Yusef Komunyakaa, Elliot Richman, Bruce Weigl. From an oral history by David Bianchini, Allen Gaskell, Marc Levy, and Robert Vinson. From an oral history by David Bianchini, Allen Gaskell, Marc Levy, and Robert Vinson. Written by Marc Levy and Carl Thomsen.

"Many, many combat veterans have told me that what happens in war is unimaginable and incomprehensible... they know too much. They know much they don't even want to know, literally unspeakable things. Brain imaging studies have demonstrated that when traumatized combat veterans attempt to share their war experiences, they become overwhelmed with emotion and thoughts concerning their trauma, and the speech centers of their brains shut down." - Michael J. Gatton, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, and Director, Indianapolis Healing Art Project, Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indianapolis, Indiana

About the performance, Carl writes, War has a very human face. Estimates indicate as many as 25% of vets from the Iraqi War will be disabled with PTSD. Dance approaches the unspeakable. Please come experience... "SILENT MEN SPEAKING"

• Leslie Wind's popular Know Your Neighbor has planned another evening at Emerson Inn By the Sea in Rockport, December 6th, 7:00pm with M. Lynda Robinson. Lynda has been a Cape Ann resident for 20 years and is very active in the arts community. She and Gordon Baird program the events and shows at the West End Theatre where she also currently teaches Acting. During this past year, Lynda produced, directed and performed in "The Vagina Monologues" and "Women and the Sea" in which over 20 women from Cape Ann were involved as actors, designers and tech. The talent and contributions of these amazing women helped to make both shows successful & raised money for 2 non-profit Cape Ann organizations. Lynda has been working in theatre, film & TV for the past 25 years. She has performed in many theaters in the Boston area including the Nora, Lyric, Wilbur, Huntington, Provincetown, Merrimack, Gloucester Stage, Shear Madness, Stoneham, New Rep, among others, and was honored with the Outstanding Boston Actress Award at the 1993 Elliot Norton Awards. Lynda has been a Guest Artist at Rollins College in Florida and locally at Gordon College in Wenham. She is a published playwright, and the recipient of several Playwrighting Awards, She has performed in hundreds of commercials, corporate videos, live trade-shows, and voice-overs as well as performing principal roles in film and TV. Her most recent film work includes the independent films, "Treading Water," "The Retreat," "Dead Silent," and "Johnny Slade’s Greatest Hits," and the new Showtime TV series "The Brotherhood" coming out in the summer of 2006.

• Looking for an excellent Christmas gift? Give the gift of Cape Ann!!! Talented photographer Les Bartlett has created an outstanding DVD of his beautiful photography of Rockport, Cape Ann Trail. The DVD is $24.95 and can be ordered at Les's web site Follow the Gleam.

• And if you are looking for a way to celebrate the holidays, here is one excellent concert to plan on:

Mother & Child is a concert of motets, mass settings, and music of Hanukkah and Christmas. Some caroles you'll know, some will be new to you… they are all "Joyful Music of the Season." The singers will be joined by piano, organ, bassoon and 2 flutes! Please join plan on attending on either Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m., Christ Church of Hamilton & Wenham, 149 Asbury St., Hamilton, or on Dec. 4 at 4:00 p.m., St. Paul's Episcopal Church,166 High St., Newburyport.Tickets will be available at the door or you can purchase them from me or online and receive a discount. Adults $20 Seniors $15, 21 and under free. Visit their web site for more information Cantemus

• For simplicity's sake this blog is now accessible at KathleenValentine.com. In a few short months we have acquired about a hundred daily readers and many of those, according to my stats program, have bookmarked this site. But, if you forget, if you can remember my name you can now find the site. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making a place in your day for this blog!

• In the what's-all-this-brouhaha department, I was recently informed that my blog entry titled The Anthology Curse was being discussed on a Yahoo Group, The Short Mystery Fiction Society. Apparently one of their members took exception to my blog entry (and also misinterpreted it) and posted to the group. I had never heard of this group but one of their members sent an email about it so I took a peek. It was pretty interesting. Fortunately several people had also read my entry and understood exactly what I meant and said so. I joined the group and posted an explanation but, I have to say, it was a bit disconcerting to see my opinions being discussed on a board I previously had no knowledge of. Still, it seems to be a very cool group and I'm glad I now know about it.

• And finally, I spoke with Carol Gray at the Sawyer Free Library today and we are planning a book signing/reading event for Windchill this winter. Some of the contributors will be there and it should be fun. I'll let you know when it is time.

Thanks for reading..