Nov. 9, 2009

The DigestWhat’s Happening at KVCC

What’s below in this edition

Breakthrough brand (Pages 1-3) Indian perspectives (Pages 8/9) Our VB champs (Page 3) 175 years of news (Pages 9-11) Russ Panico (Pages 4/5) Hoot Owls (Pages 11/12) Holocaust revisited (Pages 5/6) Matson’s paintings (Page 12) Veterans Day (Page 6) Afro dance, drums (Pages 12/13) United Way (Pages 6/7) Culture of the Deaf (P-13/14) SSC events (Page 7) Holiday greens (Page 14) Extra food? (Pages 7/8) Our mayor (Pages 14/15) WMU here (Page 8) Festival of Arts (Page 15) First impressions (Page 8) Alzheimer’s ‘doc’ (Pages 15/16)

And Finally (Page 16)

☻☻☻☻☻☻Introducing – ‘dot E D You’

Spurred by a tradition for being student-friendly and keenly aware of the pervasive ease of daily social networking, KVCC is modernizing its “look” and approach to how the college’s mission and message are perceived for the first time in 20 years.

The process was completed by an in-house, branding-initiative team consisting of KVCC instructors who not only teach it, but do it, and a recent KVCC Center for New Media graduate who proved he had learned it.

Instead of a tag line tied to a logo, the out-of-the-box approach to conceiving what is described as “a living, breathing” brand -- intended to interact with students and the community in an ongoing way -- is called a “ThoughtMark.”

The new brand is: .edyou (dot E D You). Carrying all kinds of connotations and symbolism, it is encased in a “dialog” bubble, which looks like three-quarters of a quotation box one would find in a comic strip.

Members of the in-house team who accepted the challenge to conceive something “simple” and “different” and who worked over the summer on the project are:

Co-chairs Michael Keller (English) and Karen Matson (graphic design); Steven Walman (business); Thomas Mills (graphic design); and 22-year-old Thomas Wrench,

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the May graduate who is now on the graphic-design instructional staff at the Center for New Media and a nationally published photographer.

It was Mills who hit on the .edyou strategy. Just about every educational institution, in their Internet presence, utilizes the dot-edu code.

Proving that serendipity is a powerful creative force, Mills – generally for the heck of it – replaced the “u” with “you” in a kind of “creative epiphany.” Voila!

“To me,” he said, “it was a perfect fit. It was simple. It was different. And it delivered the message that, at KVCC, you – the student, the community – counted the most. We want to talk with you, not to you or at you. It targets you, not the masses. At KVCC, it’s all about you.”

His fellow team members unanimously agreed to such an extent that the college is trademarking this particular “ThoughtMark” that it sees as a pioneering, breakthrough venue to interact with people in the evolving web-connected Digital Age.

Built into the design and symbolism of .edyou, Keller said, is that “it showcases our understanding of Internet technologies and social media. It’s not only all about you, it is about breaking the conventional community college mold.”

Breaking that mold is keenly in the mind of KVCC President Marilyn Schlack, who, as she gazes into a future that she described as “fragile,” wants KVCC to relish its traditions and keep them, stay current, be innovative and remain visionary.

She sees the .edyou concept and its Internet weavings as the coming way “to tell the world our story, deliver a message that is understandable, and do it repeatedly.”

As a brand “that will not be static and that will drive us all at KVCC,” she said, “it will set a standard by which we perform and by which we want to perform. The institution will have a common goal, a common thrust.”

She also believes the .edyou carries “who we have been, what we are and what we will be. It will serve as a promise to our students and our communities.”

Schlack wants to position KVCC for “the fragile future” in such a way that the college is not perceived as “the 13th year of high school” or “just an alternative to a four-year university.” She wants KVCC to be “the first choice, a first choice based on merit.”

With that in mind, one of messages that comes across – a message that was delivered by KVCC students who spoke from their hearts and not from a prepared script – is that, to them, KVCC is more than a community college.

That’s the spirit, the enthusiasm, the conversation that the new approach hopes to capture. They call it “Valley,” and those words are capital letters when the name of the college is used.

The branding process began in mid-October of 2008 when the Chicago firm of Lipman Hearne began its information and data collection. Its representatives also conducted a series of interviews with administrators, students, faculty, alumni and staff on campus and conversed with business, educational, governmental and civic leaders.

After the reactions, comments and perspectives were distilled, the findings were turned over to a collegewide branding committee. From that, the likes of Keller and Matson indicated they could form a KVCC team to create “something” that was “simple” and “different.”

The latter was important to Matson because, she said, “we all know that KVCC is different in the way we interact with students and in the way we teach in a caring way.

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The ‘something’ had to be fresh, cutting edge, what’s now and what is coming, and student-centered.”

While the “living, breathing” brand weaves its way into the college’s daily operations, procedures and marketing materials, the public can sample the feel and begin the .edyou conversation by linking to “a landing page” in front of the college’s home page. It can be reached at www.kvcc.edu.

KVCC’s state VB champs seek bid for national titleOn its way to the national tournament, the KVCC women's volleyball team will

have to beat one of the squads of spikers and setters the Cougars topped in winning the 2009 state title.

In addition to the KVCC entry coached by Chad Worthington, bidding for a trip to the National Junior College Athletic Association competition in this weekend's regional tourney will be teams representing Grand Rapids Community College, Muskegon Community College, Vincennes Community College in Indiana, Jackson Community College, and Edison Community College in Ohio. Hosting the competition will be Grand Rapids.

The winner will head for the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., for the nationals Nov. 19-21.

Because the Cougars, who are ranked 8th nationally by the NJCAA in their Division II level of competition, won last weekend's Michigan Community College Athletic Association event, the KVCC team has a bye on Friday (Nov. 6).

Its first challenge will be a 10 a.m. Saturday match against the winner of the Grand Rapids-Muskegon battle. Winning that will put the Cougars in a 2 p.m. contest with the title decided on Sunday at 1 p.m.

In the MCCAA tourney, KVCC beat Schoolcraft College three matches to one, swept the Muskegon squad in the semis, and bested Grand Rapids Community College, ranked 14th nationally, in the finals after losing the first set 25-23.

Although the Cougars failed to put away the Grand Rapids Raiders that ran off eight straight points in the fourth set, losing 25-22, they won the fifth, 15-11.

It was the second consecutive state title for KVCC. In Worthington's rookie season, the Cougars finished conference play with a perfect 14-zip record. When Worthington was the coach of Kellogg Community College in 2007, he also guided his team to a perfect mark in conference play.

Leading the way were sophomore twin sisters Maddie and Laura McDonnell, former Portage Northern High School standouts who spent their freshman season at the University of Akron before transferring to be closer to home. It was Laura who slammed home the winner.

The Cougars will be entering the regional competition with an overall record of 34-6.

Team captain Cara Greeley-Carter has been ranked eighth nationally in assists. She is a 2008 Kalamazoo Central High School graduate.

Fellow former Maroon Giant Hannah Bock enjoyed solid state rankings in kills, aces and hitting efficiency.

Other key performers are freshman Kaitlin Noverr (Portage Northern) and Kristina Hawkes, another first-year player from Portage Central High School.

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Meet our new ombudsman-plusKVCC’s new ombudsman brings to the position eight years as an administrative

assistant to Navy chaplains, another eight working with juveniles who found themselves on the wrong side of the law, and a half dozen working in both a high-school and higher-education setting.

Russell T. Panico Jr., 43, complements those experiences with a degree in criminal justice from Indiana University’s South Bend campus and a pair of master’s from Western Michigan University in public administration and educational leadership.

However, the 1984 graduate of Bridgman High School in Berrien County credits his educational success with the confidence he gained in himself when attending Hagerstown Community College in Maryland as he wrapped up an eight-year stint in the Navy.

Panico, who is beginning his KVCC duties this month, enlisted in the military fresh out of high school and attained the rank of first class petty officer while providing administration services for Navy chaplains. His duties took him to the Marine base at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and then to the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland, the latter primarily during the White House stay of the first President George Bush.

It was at Hagerstown where he sampled a career in criminal justice and pointed Panico, at the end of his second stint of active duty in June of 1993, to IU’s operation in South Bend. With his first degree in hand, Panico went to work at the Thomas N. Frederick Juvenile Justice Center there where, over the next two years, he supervised the staff and residents in a 90-bed detention facility.

From late 1997 through early 2003, Panico was back in his home area working as a senior probation officer for the Family Division of the Berrien County Trial Court. Seeking to add to his educational credentials, he enrolled at WMU and spent a short time on the staff at the Kalamazoo County Juvenile Home.

Shifting from young people who challenged the law to those who chose to live within it, Panico joined the Galesburg-Augusta School District as the dean of students at G-A High School, a post he held for three years. From 2006 through now, he had been an academic adviser in Spring Arbor University’s School of Graduate and Professional Studies.

“What I learned while working in the juvenile justice system,” he said, “is that there are no quick fixes in helping young people who find themselves in that kind of situation. The average age is 15.

“By then,” Panico said, “the damage done to them is too often irrevocable, although there are enough success stories to keep you motivated. But it takes a really, really long time to effectuate any kind of change and there are heartaches along the way.”

It was while working in his home county that Panico decided to add to his resume and seek a graduate degree at WMU. Along the way, he met his future wife, Robin, which put him on a path to seek employment opportunities in the Kalamazoo area.

She is now employed as an attorney referee for the Kalamazoo County Family Court. Married in 2000, they are expecting their first child in February.

Armed with the master’s in educational leadership, Panico wanted to work directly with students who want to expand their horizons, which led to his duties at

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Spring Arbor’s Kalamazoo campus. As KVCC’s ombudsman and “behavior interventionist,” he’ll continue down that path.

Roger Miller, director of financial aid, had been overseeing the ombudsman role on a temporary basis while Vice President Bruce Kocher had been in that role prior to that.

“I see this position going beyond the focus on the code of conduct,” Panico said. “I want to be a resource person, a facilitator, for both students and staff, the whole college really. I think the college wants me to take this function to a different level. What won’t change is the KVCC commitment to do all it can to help students succeed in whatever they want to do.”

In his former jobs, Panico has strived to point young people in the right direction and to overcome all kinds of high hurdles and personal barriers. The difference at KVCC is that his contacts will be with people of various ages. While their hurdles and barriers are somewhat different, they are still hurdles and barriers to be overcome.

“We know that all kinds of stuff crop up in the lives of people,” Panico said. “I want to help them deal with that stuff, to link them to the personnel and resources that can assist them, and to add to student-support system that has made KVCC a special place. I want to be involved across the college, part of a coalition that resolves issues. I don’t want to be on an island by myself.”

The Holocaust through perspectives of the deafTo survive the Holocaust, Jews and others deemed to be inferior to “The Master

Race” endured hunger, filth, disease, ceaseless work, and godless brutality. But if it was difficult – and often sheer luck -- for the majority of survivors, what

about the obstacles faced by those who were deaf?KVCC American Sign Language students will hear their stories when Simon

Carmel presents “The Deaf Holocaust Experience” at 4 p.m. on Wednesday (Nov. 11) in the Student Commons Theater.

Deaf prisoners in the concentration camps had to constantly be aware of their surroundings to blend in and not make it obvious they could not hear. If discovered to be hearing impaired, it would have been a shower in the gas chamber sooner than later.

Those who could hear often helped the deaf, such as discreetly writing their friends' names in the dirt during the near-interminable roll calls.

Thanks to research by Carmel, the testimonies of deaf Holocaust survivors no longer remain silent.

"We need to preserve these stories," Carmel told an interviewer. "Deaf survivors had their own unique experiences during the Holocaust and witnessed as much as hearing people."

Carmel has photos and stories of members of the deaf community who were persecuted because of what the Nazis perceived as a disability, coupled with the notion that people with handicaps were useless to society.“Deaf people are healthy and strong," Carmel said. "The only thing is we can't do is hear."

But the Nazis thought otherwise. The organized, highly structured euthanasia program was instituted in the early 1930s to quickly put to death those with physical and mental handicaps. This was long before the death camps.

Carmel can recount the murder of the majority of deaf students at the Israelite School for the Deaf in Berlin. They were dragged out and killed in 1942.

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Carmel, who was born deaf, earned his bachelor's in physics from Gallaudet University and holds both master's and a doctorate in cultural anthropology from American University. He has studied Israeli Sign Language and worked with the Israeli deaf community. He began to gather the testimonies of deaf survivors of the Holocaust in 1980.

Carmel interviewed survivors of concentration camps in Germany, Poland, Hungary and other countries. He’s also captured the stories of those who were forced to undergo sterilization, sometimes without anesthesia.

Between 1933 and 1945, it is estimated that 17,500 deaf Germans were sterilized, according to Carmel. Those who were blind or mentally disabled underwent similar treatment. And all were warned not to tell friends and family members about the procedure.

Carmel said that aside from a couple of statements in a single Holocaust book he knows of, there was no specific research on deaf victims of the Holocaust until around 1980.

"It is truly saddening to say that we have lost many testimonies by deaf survivors, who witnessed everything, and died between 1945 and 1990,” Carmel said.

Flag raising part of Veterans Day WednesdayWith the United States at war on two fronts and basically around the world as the

nation battles terrorists, it’s time to salute those who have served – and are serving -- in the armed forces.

The KVCC Veterans Club will conduct a flag-raising ceremony at 8 a.m. on Wednesday (Nov. 11) in front of the Tower Entrance of the Texas Township Campus. In addition to the probable sound of a gently flapping “Stars and Stripes” in the wind, a bugler will be present.

That will be followed later by a Veterans Day celebration from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum.

Both events are open to the public.

College’s United Way campaign ends second weekKVCC’s part of the 2009 Greater Kalamazoo United Way (GKUW) campaign

was scheduled to be wrapped up on Friday (Nov. 6). The communitywide fund drive was started on Sept. 9 and plans to end Nov. 20. This year’s goal is $9.1 million, which is about what the campaign raised in 2008 as, for the first time in anyone’s memory, the fund drive fell short of reaching its goal. As of early Friday, KVCC had raised $27,520 of its $37,935 goal.

The GKUW supports 60 human-service programs in 42 member agencies, from Girls on the Run to round-the-clock crisis intervention. This year’s campaign theme is again “Live United,” with a tagline of “Give. Advocate. Volunteer. Live United.” Western Michigan University President John Dunn is the campaign chairman for 2009. The supported agencies have a variety of missions, including physical and mental health, strengthening families and youth, strengthening community, and increasing each person’s self-sufficiency.

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Together, they deliver services for the growing ranks of the unemployed, the increasing number of children receiving some kind of food assistance, a homeless population that is spiking and is 41 percent children, more and more people losing their health coverage, and a boost among people who are losing their homes.

“As in the past,” said Steve Doherty, who is chairing the college’s two-week effort, “your gifts have been greatly appreciated and we thank you for your consideration.”

Those who choose to participated can use payroll deduction that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2010. Pledge cars can be forwarded to Denise Baker in Room 3380 or dropped off with other members of the campaign team.

Among the member agencies are Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Boys and Girls Club, Comstock Community Center, the Community Healing Centers, Goodwill Industries, MRC Industries, the Portage Community Center, the Salvation Army, the YMCA, the YWCA, Senior Services Inc. the Volunteer Center of Greater Kalamazoo, the Hispanic American Council, Hospice, Ministry with Community, the Douglass Community Association, Gryphon Place, and Family and Children Services.

Careers, job hunting, transferring November topicsInstructors should alert their enrollees about the fall-semester events planned by

the Student Success Center that are designed to energize academic accomplishments. A second month-long series of “Career and Coffee Roundtable” discussions has

begun with the next session slated for Wednesday (Nov. 11) at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum. An additional gathering is set for Nov. 18. To have students register or get more information, call extension 4123.

A session on finding employment and job leads is booked for Thursday (Nov. 12) at 11 a.m. in Room 1356. Students will be given tips on crafting effective resumes, cover letters, and reference lists. Interviewing and networking strategies will also be discussed, along with employability etiquette in the workplace.

A workshop designed to help KVCC students apply to four-year universities is set for 5:30 p.m. on Monday (Nov. 9) in the Student Commons Forum.

That will be followed by a similar session that targets transferring on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 4 p.m. It will be held in the pit area of the cafeteria on the Texas Township Campus. The admission processes for Spring Arbor University, Davenport University, Robert B. Miller College, Cornerstone University, Siena Heights University, and the University of Phoenix will be in the spotlight.

These one-on-one dialogues will be designed for students who might believe they could be overwhelmed by the environment of a large college or university.

A workshop on financial aid is booked for Monday, Nov. 16, at 1 p.m. in the Student Forum.

Bring that surplus food to campusFor the holiday season from Thanksgiving through Christmas, the college is

coordinating a food-collection effort for Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes. Faculty, staff and students can donate canned and bottled foods, along with

edibles that are packaged and unopened, all of which will be distributed by the agency to needy Kalamazoo-area residents.

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Donations may be made in Room 4220 in the Student Commons, in a receptacle near the faculty offices, and in the Student Success Center.

More information is available from Mary Johnson, student activities and programs coordinator, at extension 4182 or mjohnson@kvcc.edu.

WMU on site to ease admission processWMU will be on the Texas Township Campus on Tuesday (Nov. 10) for its “On-

Site Admission Day” to serve KVCC students who intend to transfer to Western. They can sign up for appointments by contacting Robyn Robinson in the college’s

Transfer Resource Center and Focus Program office in Room 1364 or by calling her at extension 4779.

WMU personnel will be on campus from 9 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. to review applications, to update each student’s admission status, outline future steps to take in the entering Western, and to discuss the prospects of financial aid. Those first impressions last, especially in job interviews

Making a good impression at a job interview and the proper attire for getting the hire are the doubleheader topics at a workshop for students later this month.

Leading the discussion during “Impression Management” on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 1 p.m. in the Student Commons Lyceum will be Pamela Siegfried, the life resources coordinator for the KVCC Student Success Center. She will be joined by career adviser Karen Steeno van Staveren.

They will prepare participants to make a good “first impression” in a job interview. Appropriate business dress and “soft skills” will be demonstrated and discussed.

Students will also have the opportunity to meet with representatives from retail stores and community agencies that can help them secure the clothing necessary to make that solid impression.

For more information, call the center’s Career and Student Employment Services unit at extension 4272. Door prizes will be part of the attraction.

Films show U.S. history through Indian eyesTwo episodes of the five-part 2009 American Experience series on PBS, “We

Shall Remain – America Through Native Eyes,” will be shown at KVCC on Thursday, Nov. 19.

The Native American perspectives on the who and why of the legendary Geronimo and on what happened at Wounded Knee will be presented at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum. Both of the showings are free and open to the public.

“Most people think of the United States as a country of immigrants,” said Sharon Grimberg, an executive producer of “We Shall Remain,” “when actually there’s a big story there about the original inhabits of this country and their interaction with those immigrants.

“We wanted to move away from either the idea that Native Americans were just hapless victims or ferocious savages,” she said. “We wanted to tell stories about Native Americans’ role in their own history, their own often ingenious and diverse ways of resisting what turned out to be awful challenges” to the very existence of their culture.

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In February of 1909, the indomitable Chiricahua Apache medicine man Geronimo lay on his deathbed. He summoned his nephew to his side, whispering, “I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive.”

It was an admission of regret from a man whose insistent pursuit of military resistance in the face of overwhelming odds confounded not only his Mexican and American enemies, but many of his fellow Apaches as well.

Born around 1820, Geronimo grew into a leading warrior and healer. But after his tribe was relocated to an Arizona reservation in 1872, he became a focus of the fury of terrified white settlers, and of the growing tensions that divided Apaches struggling to survive under almost unendurable pressures.

To angry whites, Geronimo became the archfiend, perpetrator of unspeakable savage cruelties.

To his supporters, he remained the embodiment of proud resistance, the upholder of the old Chiricahua ways.

To other Apaches, especially those who had come to see the white man’s path as the only viable road, Geronimo was a stubborn troublemaker, unbalanced by his unquenchable thirst for vengeance, whose actions needlessly brought the enemy’s wrath down on his own people.

At a time when surrender to the reservation and acceptance of the white man’s civilization seemed to be the Indians’ only realistic options, Geronimo and his tiny band of Chiricahuas fought on. The final holdouts, they became the last Native American fighting force to capitulate formally to the government of the United States.

On the night of Feb. 27, 1973, 54 cars rolled, horns blaring, into a small hamlet on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Within hours, some 200 Oglala Lakota and American Indian Movement (AIM) activists had seized the few major buildings in town and police had cordoned off the area. The occupation of Wounded Knee had begun.

Demanding redress for grievances—some going back more than 100 years—the protesters captured the world's attention for 71 gripping days.

With heavily armed federal troops tightening a cordon around meagerly supplied, cold, hungry Indians, the event invited media comparisons with the massacre of Indian men, women, and children at Wounded Knee almost a century earlier.

In telling the story of this iconic moment, the final episode of “We Shall Remain” examines the broad political and economic forces that led to the emergence of AIM in the late 1960s as well as the immediate events—a murder and an apparent miscarriage of justice—that triggered the takeover.

Though the federal government failed to make good on many of the promises that ended the siege, the event succeeded in bringing the desperate conditions of Indian reservation life to the nation's attention. Perhaps even more important, it proved that despite centuries of encroachment, warfare, and neglect, Indians remained a vital force in the life of America.

175 years of newspapers in Kalamazoo is topic “Newspaper Wars in Early Kalamazoo: The 19th Century Story” is the Nov. 8

installment of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s 2009-10 edition of “Sunday Series” presentations.

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Curator Tom Dietz will dig into the community’s past and how residents got their information at 1:30 p.m. in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater. All of the programs are free and open to the public.

Over the past 175 years, there has always been at least one newspaper in Kalamazoo and, at times, there have been more.

In early 1833, New Yorkers Henry Gilbert and his wife found themselves in White Pigeon in St. Joseph County. Gilbert, a printer by trade, stopped in the local printing shop and learned it was for sale. Among its enterprises was a newspaper, The Statesman.

In 1834, when the land office moved from White Pigeon to Bronson, as Kalamazoo was then known, Gilbert made the trip as well, followed by his print shop and the paper. In 1836, Gilbert went to the East Coast, purchased new equipment and renamed the publication The Kalamazoo Gazette.

In 1846, Volney Hascall, who had started as a 17-year-old apprentice at the paper in 1836, bought the Gazette and the printing business. He was able to increase the size and circulation during the 16 years he owned it. Hascall sold the paper in 1862.

In an eight-year span, the Gazette had no fewer than eight owners. These frequent changes in ownership might possibly explain a problem that intrigues local historians – why do so few Civil War-era issues of The Kalamazoo Gazette still exist?

It was only in 1870 when Andrew J. Shakespeare became the owner that the daily was once again on solid footing.

Throughout these years, the Gazette faced competition from rivals. As early as 1835, an anonymous newsletter appeared sporadically. It was published by Henry Rice, later a U. S. senator from Minnesota, and contained gossip and criticized some local citizens.

A short-lived paper, The Whig, published only a few issues in 1838 before failing. The following year, J. Holden McBride started The Western Banner.

In 1840, the Banner endorsed John Parker in that year’s election for sheriff. When he was elected, supporters of the defeated candidate, Sheriff “Whiskey Joe” Hutchins, threatened McBride with physical violence. McBride left Kalamazoo never to return.

The next and more successful attempt to start a rival newspaper came in 1844 when Henry B. Miller started The Michigan Telegraph. He sold the paper to William Milliken and George Torrey Sr. the following year.

That partnership did not last. The two men split and each published a newspaper, both called the Telegraph. Their rivalry was shorter-lived than their partnership.

Over the next few years, ownership of Torrey’s Telegraph changed hands several times until Thomas and George A. Fitch bought it in 1850 and ran it profitably as The Kalamazoo Telegraph. In 1866 it was acquired by the sons of the former Kalamazoo College president and his wife, James and Lucinda Hinsdale Stone.

Through the following decades, the Telegraph would continue to publish and provide readers with an alternative perspective on the news. The Gazette was known as “the Democratic paper” while the Telegraph was decidedly Whig and later Republican in orientation. Those political affiliations, however, would not correspond with the modern meaning of liberal and conservative.

Here are the upcoming “Sunday Series” programs:

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“Where the Streets Got Their Names: The Sequel” – Dec. 13 “The Making of the Paper City” – Jan. 10 “Welcome to the Hotel Kalamazoo: Kalamazoo’s Early Hospitality Industry”

– Jan. 24. For further information, contact Dietz at extension 7984.

Hoot Owls nesting in Stryker Friday night The locally based Hoot Owls will perform its style of bluegrass and country

music as the Nov. 6 attraction for "Friday Night Highlights" programming at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.

Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. concert in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater are $5. Coming up next on Nov. 13 is the Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt movie, “Interview

With the Vampire.” Tickets are $3 for the 6:30 p.m. showing in the Stryker Theater. For the last three years, The Hoot Owls have been spreading their forms of

melodies and musical charm to audiences from nursing homes to the Cooper’s Glen Music Festival.

“You never quite know what you're going to get from the Hoot Owls,” says member Mike VanBuren, external communications manager at The W. K. Kellogg Foundation. “It might be the classic country songs of Hank Williams, the folk-orientedtunes of Gordon Lightfoot, rock-and-roll selections from the Allman Brothers, bluegrass standards from Bill Monroe, gospel-oriented compositions from a variety of artists, or originals by the band's own Joe Bosier.

“We’re an energetic five-piece group that likes its music ‘out on a limb’ and doesn’t mind taking some chances to get there,” VanBuren said.

In addition to guitarist VanBuren and mandolinist Bosier, the other members are Jim Hoyt on bass, Robin Nott on guitar and mandolin, and Joe Thorstenson on banjo.

Each of the "Friday Night Highlights" billings is actually a doubleheader because also planned for each evening is an 8:30 p.m. showing of the planetarium show featuring the music of U2. That, too, has a $3 admission fee.

With a laser-light show in full color streaming across the planetarium's 50-foot dome, the 35-minute production will feature the classic hits of the Dublin, Ireland, combo that has earned 22 Grammys, sold 146 million albums, and warranted induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its first year of eligibility.

The 1994 film, which co-stars Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater, is based on Anne Rice's 1976 best-selling novel about the origins of a centuries-old vampire.

Set in modern-day San Francisco, a reporter interviews a man who claims to be a vampire and tells the story of his past.

His tale begins in Louisiana in 1791, when he was 24 and suffering from a death wish after the loss of his wife and child. The vampire played by Cruise offers him a chance to be reborn and proceeds to turn him into a bloodsucker.

Taught how to live as a vampire, he rebels against hurting humans, drinking animal blood instead. But he finally succumbs and kills his faithful housemaid. He tries to kill himself by setting fire to his house, but the mentor vampire rescues him and they flee.

In New Orleans, he gives in to his bloodlust again, and bites a young girl whom the mentor transforms into a vampire "daughter" to maintain their relationship. As 30 years pass, she becomes a sadistic killer. When she realizes she will live forever but

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never grow up, she becomes furious with the mentor. The duo plot to kill him, think they are successful, and travel to Paris in 1870. In the French capital, they encounter more vampires, explore the origins of this "breed," victimize more humans, and take in more blood than the Red Cross. The interviewee also realizes he is something of a unique vampire because he possesses the soul of a human. Along the way, his "daughter" is burned to ashes by sunlight and he returns to New Orleans where he finds that his mentor has survived.

One of the tale's twists is that the interviewee decides that he wants to be transformed to experience what it is truly like to be a vampire. Another is that the vampire mentor ends up granting the wish.

Here is the rest of the “Friday Night Highlights” schedule that includes more movies and concerts by local combos:

Nov. 20: "Miracle on 34th Street," a 1948 flick to kick off the holiday season.Dec. 4: A free concert by the Kalamazoo Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra.Dec. 11: Carmea, the trio that won the 2009 Fretboard Festival play-in

competition at the museum.Dec. 18: The 2002 movie "8 Crazy Nights."Jan. 8: Music by Belfast Gin.Jan. 15, 22 and 29: The movies "Cutting Edge,” "Miracle," and “Cool Runnings,”

respectively.

Matson’s paintings in Art Hop spotlightPaintings by Karen Matson, a KVCC graphic-design instructor at the Center for

New Media will be in the Art Hop showcase this evening (Nov. 6).The November Art Hop will serve as an open reception for her creations from 5 to

8 p.m. in the Midtown Gallery, located at 356 S. Kalamazoo Mall. The clay sculptures and glass works by Jan Kimball will complement the showcase of her large-scale paintings that will be in place throughout the month.

Matson also reports that the Center for New Media will have in place five new gallery shows through November.

Dunuya drummers, dancers are family treatThe beat goes on – at least as it delivered in West Africa and other parts of the

world influenced by Afro cultures – will be the entertainment targeted for families at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum on Saturday (Nov. 7).

Percussionist Carolyn Koebel, no stranger to musical performances at the museum, will be bringing in her Dunuya Drum and Dance troupe for a 1 p.m. performance in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater. Admission is $3.

The next family-oriented performance, featuring the music and comedy of Ron Moore, is set for Dec. 5

Dunuya Drum and Dance is described as a global drumming collective presenting music of West Africa, Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean, North Africa, and Brazil. The members strive for audience interaction via singing, dancing or playing instruments.

Koebel as a member of the Blue Dahlia combo and a percussion soloist has been booked into the museum on several occasions.

Koebel, who plays the drums, vibes, dulcimer and other percussion instruments for Blue Dahlia, has been exploring drumming and rhythm for more than 24 years. Her

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passion has taken her to some of the best instructors in the world. She is skilled in the techniques and style of West African, Afro-Cuban, American jazz, Brazilian, Middle Eastern, Japanese, Celtic, Italian and classic drumming.

She has served as principal percussionist with the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra, including the performance of a percussion concerto. She tours regionally and internationally with flutist Rhonda Larson, among others.

Koebel was the music director of the Michigan State University Department of Theater’s production of “Waterworks: Tales of the Hydrasphere.” With a keen interest in rhythm-based healing, she works as a music therapist in schools for children with special needs. The recipient of a master’s degree in music therapy from MSU, she was one of the key presenters at the 2005 Michigan Music Therapists conference.

Other Dunuya members are Calvin Ruff, Tommy Mac, Jennifer Nowlen, Kama Mitchell, Love Burkett, Jaidyn Kynaston, and Dasan Mitchell. They have traveled to regions featured in their drumming and dancing.

More information about events, attractions and tickets is available by checking the museum’s web site at www.kalamazoomuseum.org or by calling 373-7990.

A chance to share the ‘Culture of the Deaf’People who are deaf have their own jokes, their own folklore and their own

approaches to artistic creativity in addition to their own special ways of communicating. All of that “word of mouth” and “story sharing” will come to life when Simon

Carmel presents “Deaf Folklore: Deaf People, Culture and Identity” on Wednesday (Nov. 11) in the Student Commons Theater at 7:30 p.m.

Open to the public with tickets ranging in cost from $5 to $8 if purchased before Carmel’s appearance, the program is sponsored by the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the Kalamazoo Rotary Club.

Since the late 1970s, the 71-year-old Carmel, who was born deaf, has been collecting anecdotes and material reflecting on the hearing impaired and the communities in which they live, how they cope in a world of sound, their forms of humor, and their modes of communication.

Raised in Baltimore, Carmel can recount a childhood in which “oralism” or lip reading was the favored way to “speak.” He remembers having his hands slapped if he resorted to signing, which he credits for his early failures at the high school level because he equated reading lips with “guessing.”

Deciding to enroll at Gallaudet University, a school no longer exclusively for the deaf in Washington, Carmel recalled experiencing for the first time an environment in which he was not handicapped, in which he was “perfectly normal.”

With his academic bearings firmly in place, Carmel went on to earn both a master’s and doctorate in cultural anthropology from American University in Washington.

Skills as a swimmer matched those he had in the social sciences, and earned him a spot on the U. S. team that competed in the International Summer Games for the Deaf in Helsinki, Finland. That experience led him to learn how to sign in foreign languages, a talent that served Carmel well when he was an interpreter for Russian athletes who competed in the 1965 Olympics for the deaf.

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Yet, his best sport was skiing and Carmel was instrumental in convincing the American Athletic Association for the Deaf to begin sponsoring a team for the winter games.

When Carmel joined the National Bureau of Standards, the job took him to Israel where he met deaf people from a variety of cultures. That planted the seeds of a new interest that delved into the “invisible” cultures of the deaf, to which much of the hearing world seemed blind.

“Deaf Israelis helped me understand deaf Americans better,” said Carmel, who is now based in West Palm Beach, Fla. “Israeli Sign Language helped me understand American Sign Language. I now knew for the first time that deaf people in America have a culture.

“Deaf culture - with its stories, jokes, games, arts and crafts, legends, cartoons, beliefs, riddles and anecdotes -- is inside American culture,” he said. “It is part of American culture, but it is separate from hearing culture. And it is beautiful.”

His time in the Middle East forged a new career path - in-depth studies of the culture of the deaf.

Along the way, Carmel coordinated the first Deaf Folklife Section at the American Folklife Festival sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. He is also regarded as an expert on the Society of World Deaf Magicians.

Hosting Carmel’s presentation is the KVCC chapter of the American Sign Language Honors Society, a student club.

For more information, contact the chapter adviser and full-time ASL instructor Su Cutler at extension 4862 or scutler@kvcc.edu. She is one of 11 instructors who teach ASL courses at KVCC.

Time running out to buy PTK holiday decorationsThe Phi Theta Kappa chapter is taking orders for holiday greens through Friday

(Nov. 13).The 24-inch Christmas wreaths, complete with mixed greens, cones and a bow,

are selling for $22. Ten-inch swags, decorated with cones and berries, are $12. Also up for sale are two-foot Christmas trees, decorated with a bow and berries,

and planted in a pot, for $18. Sections of 20-foot evergreen roping have an $18 price tag. Orders may be placed with any Phi Theta Kappa student or by emailing

ptk@kvcc.edu.Delivery is scheduled for Nov. 23.

KVCC grad wins second term as mayorBobby Hopewell finished at the top of the 17-member field of candidates in the

2009 Kalamazoo City Commission election on Nov. 3 and earned his second consecutive two-year term as mayor.

The 45-year-old Hopewell is a graduate of the college’s paramedic and emergency medical technology programs. He is currently the director of hospitality services at the Borgess Medical Center.

In the city of Kalamazoo’s truly unique form of municipal election, all candidates run for seven two-year terms on the city commission. The top vote-getter is mayor and the runner-up is vice mayor.

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Hopewell’s total of 8,850 outdistanced Kalamazoo College’s Hannah McKinney, the runner-up candidate whose 7,357 votes brought her a two-year term as vice mayor. The candidate who finished last received 714 votes.

According to the voter guide published by the Kalamazoo Area League of Women Voters, commission candidate Aaron Davis, 41, a manager for Greenleaf Hospitality Group, identified himself an “operating engineer” and KVCC M-TEC graduate. He finished ninth with 2,234 votes.

Louis Stocking, 22, identified himself as a KVCC student. The native Kalamazooan told the League’s publication that he is the founder and director of the Kalamazoo Coalition for Pragmatic Cannabis Laws. He reported the group has been working on a charter amendment for a year in hopes of placing a question on the ballot next November. He was last in the field of 17 hopefuls.

Fifth Festival of Arts due Nov. 14Kalamazoo-area artisans and craftsmen will demonstrate how they create from

metal, glass, wood, paint, fibers and other media when the Kalamazoo Valley Museum hosts the fifth Festival of Arts on Saturday, Nov. 14, from noon to 4 p.m.

Among the participants at past festivals have been those demonstrating the secrets and skills of glass blowing, bead-making, stained-glass artwork, and mosaics.

Wood carvers, metalsmiths, painters who use a variety of materials, and photographers have also illustrated their wares and creative skills.

For more information, call 373-7990.

Saturday ‘docs’ look at Alzheimer’s, depressionAs the nationally touring exhibition about genomes continues its stay at the

Kalamazoo Valley Museum, the Saturday showings of PBS documentaries are focusing on mental, medical and physical maladies that affect humanity.

The free showings in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater are timed for 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

The Nov. 21 doubleheader features the Emmy-winning “The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer’s,” followed by the “Out of the Shadows” episode on depression.

“Forgetting” takes a dramatic, compassionate, all-encompassing look at the growing epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease. Based on David Shenk's best-selling book, the 90-minute, 2004 documentary weaves together the history and biology of the disease, the intense real-world experiences of Alzheimer's patients and caregivers, he race to find a cure, and the latest scientific findings.

“Depression” premiered in May 2008 and reported that many Americans are keeping an important, possibly deadly secret.

The National Institute of Mental Health reports that approximately 18.8 million American adults have a depressive disorder. The disease is not discriminating, seeping into all age, race, gender, and socioeconomic groups. Depression stalls careers, strains relationships, and sometimes ends lives.

So if this many people are living with the disease, why the silence? The PBS project explored the disease's complex terrain, offering a comprehensive and timely examination of this devastating disorder.

By weaving together the science and treatment of depression with intimate portrayals of families and individuals coping with its wide-ranging effects, the film raises

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awareness and eliminates the stigma surrounding this prevalent disease, underscoring the fact that whether we are battling it in our families, our workplaces, or in our own minds, depression touches everyone.

The final double feature of the calendar year is set for Dec. 12 with “Fat: What No One Is Telling You” and “The Medicated Child.”

And finally. . . Over the years, country-western tunes have had some strange

and wonderful titles, but here’s a few that “go somethin’ like this”: “If the Phone Don't Ring, You'll Know It's Me” “I've Missed You, But My Aim's Improvin' “ “Wouldn't Take Her To a Dogfight 'Cause I'm Scared She'd Win” “I'm So Miserable Without You It's Like You're Still Here” “My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend and I Miss Him” “She Gets Better Lookin' with Every Beer” “It's Hard To Kiss the Lips At Night That Chewed Me Out All Day.”Sure, this have been concocted, but are they very far from the real

McCoy? Remember Jerry Reed’s “She Got the Gold Mine, and I Got the Shaft?”

☻☻☻☻☻☻

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