| 'Brown Bag' back at park
Rock 'n Roll Hall of Famer Gregg Allman will headline the 22nd season of Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana Univer-sity's annual celebration of the arts, humanities and social sciences.Allman, who is both a founding member of the still-active and thriving Allman Brothers Band and a critically acclaimed solo talent, will perform at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m. His concert will be one of the many films, recitals, plays, musicals, dance concerts, lectures and community events offered during the arts festival, which in turn is the opening act for the yearlong entertainment season of the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts.It has been a long-standing tradition to open Fanfare with music and socializing at Cate Square, the small park in the heart of Hammond and a few blocks south of campus.Last year, however, Fanfare's usual "brown bag" lunchtime concert was on hiatus as the city redesigned the historic park, and Fanfare launched the new entertainment season by dedicating the performance hall of the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts to the late Sen.
Ideas on how to shop for family-friendly video games
With the success of Nintendo's Wii as a family console, Sony and Microsoft are offering packages this holiday season aimed at making their own platforms more family-friendly. Microsoft is offering a new Xbox 360 Arcade Console that includes five games, a wireless controller, a high-definition multimedia interface connection to enable high-def output and 256 Mb of memory to store games and entertainment content. The five games in the bundle include Pac-Man Championship Edition, Uno, Luxor 2, Boom Boom Rocket and Feeding Frenzy. Sony is repackaging it's older, but still popular, Playstation 2 console with the SingStar bundle as a low-cost alternative for families. The bundle features a white PS2 console, the SingStar game, a controller and two microphones. SingStar is a karaoke game similar to American Idol.
Young minds prefer technology to nature
Yosemite National Park may be nice and all, but Tommy Nguyen of San Francisco would much prefer spending his day in front of a new video game or strolling around the mall with his buddies. What, after all, is a 15-year-old supposed to do in what John Muir called "the grandest of all special temples of nature" without cell phone service? "I'd rather be at the mall because you can enjoy yourself walking around looking at stuff as opposed to the woods," Nguyen said. In Yosemite and other parks, he said, furrowing his brow to emphasize the absurdly lopsided comparison, "the only thing you look at is the trees, grass and sky." The notion of going on a hike, camping, fishing or backpacking is foreign to a growing number of young people in cities and suburbs around the nation, according to several polls and studies.
Dear Santa: Here's what Humboldt kids want for Christmas
Every year, it seems, there's that one toy -- the one all the Saturday-morning commercials are pushing, all the kids are clamoring for and all the parents are elbowing each other to score. But, according to Sydney Knight, an employee at The Toy Box in Henderson Center, there's no runaway favorite this holiday season, no frenzy-inducing, mob-attracting hot item. Or, as she put it, "There's no Tickle Me Elmo." Instead, say local toy store workers, kids are falling back on time-honored favorites -- the kind of classic toys that their parents, or even grandparents, may well have enjoyed. "Pirates are big," said Dawn Craghead, manager of Moon's Play & Learn. "They've always been big, but since the movies, they're even bigger. And science kits. Those are always popular." Toy Box owner Michelle Knight pointed to animal figurines called Safari Adventure Outpost, colorful trucks and tractors made by Wow and a line of fantasy-themed toys, including unicorns, dragons and princesses, from the German company Schleich as their most sought-after items.
Bulletin readers can help wishes come true
The Baxter Bulletin Christmas Wish program has a mission: To provide a nice Christmas for families with children in need. Donations of toys, clothing and money may be made at the Wish Distribution Center in the former Beuford's Bar-B-Q building in Georgetown Square. The center is open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays through Nov. 15 and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 20-Dec. 13. .
Christmas Cheer
There are people in the local area who need help to have a happy holiday season. They may be ill, alone or elderly. As Alamance County residents have done in the past, you can make a difference by sponsoring one of the needy through Christmas Cheer. The agency has opened its doors in downtown Burlington to begin the sponsoring process 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. You may sponsor one or more children by providing new toys, groceries or gift certificates if needed for Christmas dinner and winter clothing if necessary. You may sponsor an elderly person by providing Christmas dinner and providing any appropriate special request. Donations of new toys, non-perishable food or money may be made directly to Christmas Cheer. The office is located at 331 S. Main St., telephone 229-9969.
Simple fun with simple toys
Guitar Hero blasts a Lynyrd Skynyrd riff on the Xbox. Infant gyms in psychedelic plastic flash and beep and play "Yankee Doodle." Diego has a talking rescue centre. Santa's elves must be getting more than their share of headaches at the workshop these days, judging from the sensory overload induced by this season's hot toys. But amid the din of Bratz handbag-boomboxes, crashing Transformers and the chirping of the High School Musical crowd, there's a peaceful oasis forming in toyland. A small but growing group of toymakers and parents is harkening back to a time when toys were more about the wonder of kids than the wonders of technology. At The Toy Space in Toronto, owner Randal Lee stocks toys made with all-natural and sustainable materials like reclaimable rubberwood, organic textiles and vegetable dye.
|
