“Orchestra Rehearsal” is by Federico Fellini and is a ribald, farcical look at an orchestra rehearsing in a very old Roman church. As an allegory for world anarchy it has been widely hailed as a comic masterpiece of social disintegration. But what else would you expect from Fellini, an acknowledged master of dealing with society’s foibles? No less a source of film criticism than the NY Times proclaimed it “Fellini’s very best work”.
Main Library
Movie Night at the Library: A Free Screening of “Whisky Galore!”
The Movie Night at the Library series continues. As the holidays approach join us for this free screening of the classic film Whisky Galore!
Synopsis:
During World War II, the tiny Scottish island of Todday runs out of whisky. When the freighter S.S. Cabinet Minister runs aground nearby during a heavy fog, the islanders are delighted to learn that its cargo consists of 50,000 cases of whisky. When officious English commanding officer Captain Waggett (Basil Radford) demands return of the liquor, shopkeeper Joseph Macroon (Wylie Watson) and his daughters Peggy (Joan Greenwood) and Catriona (Gabrielle Blunt) spearhead an island rebellion.
Wine, beer, and candy will be available. Donations welcome.
“Making the James Castle House” by Rachel Reichert
The James Castle House in Boise, Idaho will open in October of 2017, forty years after James Castle’s death. Offering diverse educational opportunities, exhibition space, and residency programs, the James Castle House will preserve the home of self-taught artist James Castle while supporting emerging artists with an authentic context for better understanding the interplay between environment and creative process. Join Rachel Reichert, manager, and Byron W. Folwell, architect and design consultant, as they discuss the City of Boise’s massive restoration project to preserve internationally celebrated artist James Castle’s home, workspaces, and physical legacy.
James Castle (1899-1977) was a self-taught artist, born deaf in the tranquil settlement of Garden Valley, Idaho nearly 120 years ago. Presumed to have very little language, Castle communicated primarily through his production of images drawn on found materials, such as discarded mail and food containers, with an improvised ink of his own saliva tempered by soot from the wood burning stoves of the various residences that quartered him throughout his life. His distinct drawings, assemblages, and books explored the interiors of buildings, the external landscapes, and the animals and people that filled his environment, and yet Castle’s work equally explored his own interior, the housing of a soundless landscape which he appeared to roam by touch, such was the tactile and immediate, yet practical nature of his artistic impulse.
Image credit:
James Castle at desk in cottage
© 2015 James Castle Collection and Archive L.P. All rights reserved.
“Experimental Investigations Into the Effects of Noise on Wildlife” By Dr. Jesse Barber
Researchers have suggested that the negative effects of human infrastructure on animals are largely owing to noise. Although suggestive, most past studies of the effects of noise on wildlife were conducted in the presence of other confounding factors, such as visual disturbance, collisions and chemical pollution, among others. In his talk, Dr. Barber will discuss experimental work, in which he has avoided these confounds using broadcast of noise with speaker arrays. Taken together, his results show that noise pollution degrades the value of habitat that is otherwise suitable, and that a species’ presence does not indicate the absence of impact. Further, Dr. Barber will highlight ongoing work that demonstrates the evolutionary importance of the soundscape in structuring animal behavior and habitat use.
Dr. Jesse Barber grew up in Alaska and completed his B.S. and M.S. at the University of Wyoming. After finishing his Ph.D. at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, Jesse was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at Colorado State University where he worked in collaboration with the Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division of the National Park Service. Currently Dr. Barber is a tenured professor of Biology at Boise State University. His lab’s work is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Park Service and the National Geographic Society.
“Deliberate Living: The Challenge of Walden in the 21st Century.” by Professor Laura Walls
Thoreau’s Walden remains one of the most-read and most-taught classics of American literature, yet it remains one of the most challenging of books. Why did Thoreau go to the woods? What did he learn there? And why didn’t he stay? These questions puzzled Thoreau himself, and his quest to compose answers that would bear the full weight of his life and thought led to the publication of Walden–which in turn led him to reach beyond his local audience and down the generations to us, today. Thoreau was a prophet as well as a naturalist and poet, and now that we live in the future he most feared, his call to live “deliberately” seems more urgent, and more difficult, than ever.
Professor Walls is a scholar in the transdisciplinary field of literature and science, with a focus on the nineteenth century and American Transcendentalism. Her many books include a forthcoming biography of Henry David Thoreau and prize-winning books on Alexander von Humboldt and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her work has been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council for Learned Societies, and the William P. and Hazel B. White Foundation.
“Where is Idaho Headed?” by Lauren Necochea
Title: “Where is Idaho headed? How trends in investment in education, health care, and other public priorities impact our economic future”
Description: The investments we make today are critical for our quality of life tomorrow. These priorities include public schools, higher education, transportation, health and public safety. This presentation will discuss the extent to which Idaho is meeting its own goals in these areas and the implications of the recent national election.
Bio: Lauren Necochea simultaneously directs two nonprofit programs, the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy and Idaho Voices for Children. Lauren previously oversaw and evaluated programs addressing children’s safety and health hazards for the Baltimore City Health Department. Prior to that, she was a policy fellow with joint appointments at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Princeton University’s Center for Health and Wellbeing. She has evaluated anti-poverty programs internationally and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study microfinance in Peru. Lauren earned her Master in Public Affairs at Princeton University and holds a B.A. in Economics from Pomona College.
