Lakeside Living – April 2014

LAKESIDE LIVING

 

Sandy Olson
Phone: 331-283-8529
Email: sandyzihua@hotmail.com

 

April 2014

 

PAST EVENTS

WRITERS AT WORK

The tenth annual Lakeside Writers’ Conference, held on February 26-28, was a huge success. Over seventy people attended and heard writers’ words of wisdom from the following authors:

 


The panelists, left to right: John Scherber, Claudia Long, Miranda Hill, and Lawrence Hill

 

Claudia Long, author of the popular novel Josefina’s Sin, set in 17th century Mexico (yes, it is a bodice ripper). One of the main characters is Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, who is nowadays depicted on the 200 pesos note.

Miranda Hill has created a collection of short stories titled Sleeping Funny.

John Scherber, of San Miguel de Allende, has authored nineteen books. The most recent is Into the Heart of Mexico: Expatriates Find Themselves Off the Beaten Path.

Lawrence Hill held the luncheon group spellbound with the story about his inspiration for The Book of Negroes (published as Somebody Knows My Name in the United States). His most recent book is Blood.

The Writers’ Conference Committee members are Harriet Hart, Victoria Schmidt, Carol Bowman, Herbert Piekow, and Sandy Olson. They are still congratulating each other on the success of the event, and are already looking forward to next year’s conference, which promises to be even more successful. Danza del Sol was the venue for this year’s conference and was a happy choice for attendees.

LIFELINES: AN AMERICAN DREAM

Writer Antonio Rambles spoke to an interested group recently at Oasis Cloud’s “Meet the Writers Luncheon.”   Rambles read from his new book, titled Lifelines: An American Dream. 

 


Antonio Rambles

 

The generational story is of two families, set against the backdrop of US emergence as a world power, and the rise and fall of industrial America and the labor movement.  The Roaring Twenties are still ahead when West Virginia newlyweds and a young farmer from Italy uproot themselves to pursue the American dream.

Lifelines is available digitally on Amazon.com.  His first book, Laguna Tales, is a collection of short stories. It is available on Amazon.com as well.

 

COMING EVENTS

NINETY-FOUR YEARS AGO

The first train officially arrived at the Old Train Station in Chapala—and it wasn’t old then—ninety-four years ago, on April 8. To celebrate this anniversary the city will host the following events: 

April 4 at 7 pm Orquesta de Camara Cedart Clemente Orozco

April 8 at 7 pm Orquesta Tipica de Chapala

April 10 at 5 pm Encuentro de Alumnos del Centro Cultural Gonzalez Gallo, con alumnos de La Casa de Cultura de Ixtlahuacan.

April 11 at 7 pm Group to be announced.

The events are free and everyone is welcome. Please attend to help celebrate this 94th anniversary of the arrival of the train to Chapala.

LET’S THINK ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY 

Lakeside Little Theater’s final play of the season, Social Security, will have its final performance on Friday, April 4. For last minute tickets, arrive an hour before the performance.  Tickets are 200 pesos.

 


Cast members left to right are Phyllis Silverman, Pierre Blackburn, Georgette Richmond, Zane Pumiglia, Candace Luciano, and Roger Larson. The director is Phil Shepherd.

 

Social Security is a play by Andrew Bergman. The play focuses on trendy Manhattan art gallery owners Barbara and David Kahn, whose life is upended when her Mineola housewife sister Trudy deposits their eccentric mother Sophie on the couple’s doorstep while she and her husband Martin head to Buffalo. They intend to rescue their sexually precocious college student daughter from a ménage a trios with two men.

Barbara and David introduce Sophie to suave aging artist Maurice Koenig, who offers to paint her portrait and soon begins to brighten her life in ways she never expected in her twilight years.

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

Popular local watercolorist John McWilliams has started a successful veggie gardening class. The next meeting is Wednesday, April 9 at 10 am. The topic will be planting seeds and growing them into strong starter plants. John reports an excellent response and enthusiasm from the gardening group.  Contact him at mcwilliamsmx@gmail.com  or by phone at 376-766-0620.

YOUNG MEXICAN PAINTERS

Support a group of independent young Mexican painters by attending a show and reception at Sol Mexicano on April 11 from 4 to 7. Thee artists are from Guadalajara. They are Enrique Avila Gordiano, Miguel Castellanos, Marita Teriquez and Alonso Cruz.

 


El Burro Blanco by Enrique Avila

 

Alonso Cruz has previously had some excellent examples of beautifully colorful trees, flowers and wildlife. Miguel Castellanos has sold many pieces here at Lakeside. Each are unique and individual. Pieces vary in subjects of nature, wildlife, renditions of children in colorful indigenous clothing and fabulously muscular horses. This year he is producing a new series of meditative mandalas.

Marita Terriquez’s work is a unique realism. Previously she created a series based on the derelict grand houses of Guadalajara. Enrique Gordiano Avila has proven popular with art lovers. He uses oil paint lightly, to delicately capture the Mexican countryside or street scenes. He manages to freeze-frame a slice of life in his paintings.

Since the opening reception is on March 11, the same day as the next CaminARTE de Axixic event, the gallery will be open from 10:30 am through 7 pm for extended viewing.

Sol Mexicano is located at Colon 13 in Centro Ajijic. Opening times are 10:30- 4:30 Monday through Saturday and Sundays 12-5. Tel. (376) 766-0734. Email: GaleriaSolMexicano@gmail.com.

Our own Ojo del Lago Editor Alejandro Grattan will be the featured speaker at the April Democrats Abroad meeting. He will speak about immigration, his years with the Ojo, his recently republished historical novel, The Dark Side of the Dream, and his experiences working as a writer and director in Hollywood.

 

 

He will also reminisce about a few of the unforgettable characters he knew when he first came to Lakeside many years ago. The event is April 14 at 4 pm at La Bodega Restaurant in Ajijic. The public is invited.

THE PASSION OF CHRIST

La Pasíon de Cristo, the Passion Play, will be on Good Friday at the Cathedral in Ajijic.  The date this year is April 18.

 

 

The depiction of Jesus’ trail and crucifixion is a dramatic and memorable event. Be sure to arrive prepared to be in the heat and sun for the length of the performance. Seats are at a premium. Bring a folding chair if you have difficulty standing for a long period of time, and perhaps an umbrella.

TANKA LOOK AT THIS…

Margaret Van Every will read from her new book of poetry Holding Hands with a Stranger on Wednesday, April 23, at the OasisCloud Café in Riberas del Pilar.

 


Photo by Kenée Campo.

 

Holding Hands is a collection of 100 wry tanka* on life and wisdom gleaned from her experience and observation.

 “Every woman / some time has slung a leg up / into the basin / applied a razor to the silken hairs / asked herself why.”   Margaret Van Every’s tanka have muscle, are almost always summation, distilled meaning, tightly rendered.

 *Tanka: a Japanese poem consisting of 31 syllables in 5 lines, with 5 syllables in the first and third lines and 7 in the others.

Oasis Cloud Café hosts “Meet the Writers Luncheons.” The social hour starts at 11:30, the readings at 12. Lunch follows. For reservations call 765-765-3516 or email: info@oasiscloud.mx

LIVING, DYING—DOES IT MAKE SENSE?

Taking Leave, by Nagle Jackson, is a comedy about life. And living. And dying. And trying to make sense of it all.  It runs April 25, 26 and 27.  The play is directed by Georgette Richmond.

 


Director Georgette Richmond

 

A retired English professor in the early stages of Alzhiemers’ disease prepares to take leave from the real world as his three very different daughters argue the pros and cons of placing him in a home. The conflict leads to an oddly comic yet sympathetic play. 

In the middle of the night, Eliot Pryne, professor of English Literature—specialty Shakespeare—is packing what he thinks is a suitcase and leaving what he thinks is a hotel. In the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, he is “taking leave” of the real world and imagining a new one, but the transition is painful. His alter-ego, seen only by the audience, charts this final voyage speaking as Eliot once did when he was the leading authority on Shakespeare’s King Lear

The visitation of Eliot’s three daughters, Alma, Liz and Cordelia, forms the central event of this oddly comic, yet fully sympathetic play. The decision—whether or not to have Father put in a “home”—provides the central conflict among the three very different sisters: the public school counselor, Alma; the TV actress, Liz; and the ne’er-do-well vagabond, Cordelia, who arrives in her black leather motorcycle outfit fresh from a year in Paris and a history of drug abuse.

The e-mail address for future reservations: nakedstagereservations@gmail.com or phone Michelle at 765-6408. Reservations guarantee a seat until 3:50, after which seats will be sold to those waiting without reservations.

The Naked Stage is located at #10A Rio Bravo. Directions: west on the carretera from Ajijic, south on Rio Bravo, about two blocks down behind Daniel’s Restaurant on the east side. Daniel’s is open for lunch and dinner with a no host bar available at 3:00 p.m. The box office opens at 3:15 and the show starts at 4:00 p.m.

BRUSH UP ON YOUR SPANISH

The Centro Cultural Gonzalez Gallo is presenting films dedicated to thoughtful consideration: “What is Mexico?”and “Who are Mexicans?”   The movies will be shown at the Old Train Station in Chapala.  The admission is twenty pesos. All films are shown at 6:30 pm. 

The last one in the series is on May 2. Como Agua Para Chocolate with Alfonso Arau, 1992. It runs 123 minutes

A TOUCHING MEMOIR–AND IT’S FREE!

Bobby Johns, long-time favorite with the Ajijic Writer’s Group, has written a deeply touching memoir called The Adventures of a Young Cornishman. “For years,” our Ojo editor says, “Bobby has been wowing audiences with his stories, and now they are in a marvelous book in stores all over Lakeside–and it’s free!”

 

 

ONGOING EVENTS

LIVE (ALMOST) AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA

Viva Musica sponsors bus trips to televised operas in Guadalajara. The coming operas are:

Saturday, April 5 Puccini’s La Boheme – Bus leaves at 9.30 a.m.

Saturday, May 3 at noon, Mozart, Cosi Fan Tutti. Bus leaves 10.30 a,m,

Saturday, May 10 at noon, Rossini, La Cenicienta. Bus leaves 10.30 a.m.

The following webpage gives the starting times and duration of the Metropolitan Operas being shown at the Teatro Diana: http://www.teatrodiana.com/met2013_14/

Contact Marshall at mak1939@gmail.com to reserve. Tickets can be purchased at LCS Thursday and Friday 10-12 250 pesos for members, 350 pesos non-members. Seats are reserved only when tickets are purchased. Buses leave from a point just east of Farmacia Guadalajara on the carretera.

SQUEAKY WHEEL READINGS

La Rueda (the wheel), a new coffee/gallery in San Juan Cosala, staged the first of a monthly reading series in English, which are held on the first Wednesday of each month.The next event is May 7.

Some of the featured readers so far were Patricia Hemingway, Michael Warren, Agustin Vasquez, Judy Dykstra-Brown, Mel Goldberg, Ron Knight and Doug Langley.

Directions to La Rueda: at the only stop light in San Juan Cosala, turn towards the lake.  Go one block and turn right at the plaza (on Porfirio Diaz.)  Drive two blocks or so, past Viva Mexico restaurant on your right.  Please arrive at 3 pm to order refreshments. The readings begin at 3:30.

Writers who want to read, or those needing further information, can contact Judy Dykstra-Brown at 387 761 0281 or email her at jubob2@hotmail.com.  

CAMINARTE DE AXIXIC

An art walk organized by ten galleries in Ajijic started in January. The events will be held every second Friday.  All the galleries involved will be open for visitors. Refreshments will be served at each gallery.

 

 

Pick up a map in your nearest gallery.  The next walk will be April 11. Check www.ajijicnews.com for the times.

AJIJIC SOCIETY OF THE ARTS

Members of ASA will show their art works on the third Sunday of the month through April, on the Ajijic Plaza. The next event will be on April 20.

AMERICAN LEGION IN CHAPALA

Saturdays:      3:30 – 6:30 p.m. Fish Fry

Sundays:        Burgers & Dogs 12 – 3 p.m.

 


For more information about Lake Chapala visit: www.chapala.com


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