Thursday, June 08, 2006

Frankie Goes to Hoboken Scavenger Hunt


Join us as we criss-cross Hoboken solving riddles and hunting down places, people, and things that will make one lucky team the winner of this popular and unique hunt.

Grab your digital camera and hit the streets to explore the mystery and history of Hoboken while you run like mad trying to beat it back to the finish line before the buzzer sounds! The winning team will receive Hoboken-themed prizes and will be allowed to name a drink at the local pub that hosts the after-party.


WHEN: 4 pm on Saturday, June 10th (After-party starts at 7 pm)
WHERE: Willie McBride’s, 616 Grand Street, Hoboken
REGISTER AT: www.hobokencompass.com
HOW MUCH: $10


All proceeds from "Frankie Goes to Hoboken" will go to support a group of Hoboken residents who are traveling to Mississippi this July to participate in a week-long volunteer rebuilding effort in an area devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

An Evening of Readings and Conversation with EDUARDO GALEANO and ARUNDHATI ROY

Hi all...in lieu of our conversation at our last book club meeting, I thought this evening of readings may be interesting! I will be out of town, otherwise I would have loved to have gone!

An Evening of Readings and Conversation with
EDUARDO GALEANO and ARUNDHATI ROY


Presented by the Center for Economic Research and Social Change

Sunday, May 21, 2006
7:00 pm

The Town Hall
123 West 43rd Street, New York
Between 6th Avenue & Broadway

Doors open at 6:15 pm


Eduardo Galeano, one of Latin America's most admired writers, and Arundhati Roy, who won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel, The God of Small Things, in a rare joint appearance for an evening of readings and conversation.

Galeano and Roy are both recipients of the Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom, in 1998 and 2002 respectively. Voices of Time: A Life in Stories (Metropolitan Books) is Galeano's latest book and he is also the author of the Memory of Fire trilogy (for which he won the 1989 American Book Award) and Open Veins of Latin America. He lives in Montevideo, Uruguay. In addition to her novel, Roy has also published several collections of essays, including Power Politics, War Talk and most recently, An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire, all from South End Press. She lives in New Delhi, India.

TICKETS
All seats $15.00

Tickets on sale in person at the Town Hall Box Office at 123 West 43rd Street, open 12 noon to 6:00 pm Monday through Saturday. Cash and credit cards accepted. All sales $1.50 fee. More info at: http://www.the-townhall-nyc.org or call 212.840.2824. Or buy tickets online at http://www.ticketmaster.com.

Pre-signed copies of books by Eduardo Galeano, including his new book, Voices of Time: A Life in Stories (Metropolitan Books), and by Arundhati Roy, including An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (South End Press), will be available at The Town Hall before and after the event.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Reporters take to books...

Sticking with the idea of a theme to our book choices, thought we could read one of the many books written by reporters. The blurbs for the choices below are courtesy Amazon.com:

The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Haile Selassie, His Most Puissant Majesty and Distinguished Highness the Emperor of Ethiopia, enjoyed a 44-year reign until his own army gave him the boot in 1974. In the days following the coup, the Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski traveled to Ethiopia and sought out members of the imperial court for interviews.
His composite portrait of Selassie's crumbling imperium is an astonishing, wildly funny creation.
Elsewhere, the interviewees venture into tragic or grotesque or downright unbelievable terrain. Kapuscinski has shaped their testimonies into an eloquent whole, and while he never alludes to the totalitarian regime that ruled his native Poland during the same period, the analogy is impossible to ignore.


The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman
Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist. His aim, in his new book, The World Is Flat, is not to give you a speculative preview of the wonders that are sure to come in your lifetime, but rather to get you caught up on the wonders that are already here. The world isn't going to be flat, it is flat, which gives Friedman's breathless narrative much of its urgency.

What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected": the lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. This in itself should not be news to anyone. But the news that Friedman has to deliver is that just when we stopped paying attention to these developments is when they actually began to accelerate. Globalization 3.0, as he calls it, is driven not by major corporations or giant trade organizations like the World Bank, but by individuals: desktop freelancers and innovative startups all over the world (but especially in India and China) who can compete--and win--not just for low-wage manufacturing and information labor but, increasingly, for the highest-end research and design work as well. Friedman tells his eye-opening story with the catchy slogans and globe-hopping anecdotes that readers of his earlier books and his New York Times columns will know well, and also with a stern sort of optimism.



Treasure Hunt: A New York Times Reporter Tracks the Quedlinburg Hoard by William H. Honan
A kleptomaniacal American soldier with a taste for high art, a relentless German sleuth hot on the trail of missing German treasures, and a priceless 9th-century gospel about to disappear forever into the shadowy world of private art collectors--the stuff of fiction? Hardly. In Treasure Hunt William H. Honan, a reporter for the New York Times, chronicles the amazing true story of the Quedlinburg Hoard, a cache of medieval treasures stolen from its hiding place in Germany's Harz Mountains at the end of World War II, only to resurface 40 years later in a small Texas town. How it got there and how the German government retrieved it is at the heart of Honan's tale.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Free Concert this Sunday

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Reminder: Book Club Mtg + Zadie Smith

Just a reminder that we have our book club meeting, followed by a session with Zadie Smith, this Sunday, April 30th.

Book Club Meeting:
What: we'll be meeting to discuss Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
When: 1:30 pm
Where: Corner of 40th St and 6th Ave next to Bryant Park

Zadie Smith Lecture:
What: ZADIE SMITH in conversation with Kurt Andersen
When: 3:30 pm
Where: NY Public Library at 40th St and 5th Ave
Tickets: sold out online, so will have to try at the door if you haven't already bought your ticket

See you then!

Monday, April 17, 2006

Greater New York Orchid Show!





The Greater New York Orchid Show at Rockefeller Center is in a few days! It looks like it will be another beaauutifuul show!

The 26th New York International Orchid Show
Rockefeller Center
April 20-23, 2006

Details
Hours:
Thursday, April 20:
Orchid Show: 12 noon to 5 p.m.
Sales area: 12 noon to 6:30 p.m.
(6:30 to 7 p.m. closed during the awards presentation)
7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Friday, April 21 - Saturday, April 22:
Orchid Show: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sales area: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m

Sunday, April 23:
Orchid Show: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sales area: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Admission:
Orchid Show Exhibits: $5 (children under 12 free)
Sales area: Free

For more details, visit the Greater New York Orchid Society!

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Young Friends of Film: SALAAM BOMBAY!


Young Friends of Film: SALAAM BOMBAY!
7pm on Thursday, April 20
Director Mira Nair will introduce!

General Admission: $25, includes screening and open-bar, catered reception.

Salaam Bombay!
Mira Nair, India, 1988; 113m
In Mira Nair's (Vanity Fair, Monsoon Wedding) debut film, she tells the story of Krishna, a country boy who finds himself alone in Bombay, amidst the chaos and violence of the big city. As he finds work and learns to survive, he meets characters — drug dealers, prostitutes, beggars, and thieves — who will forever change his life. Featuring an amazing cast of non-professional and professional actors, the film shows a previously unseen world, made without the artifice of a film studio.

For more information about this event and/or about becoming a Young Friends of Film member, call Will McCord at 212-875-5630.

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