In celebration of Veterans Day and recently passed national service legislation, UO theater department head John Schmor and two UO student veterans will travel to Washington, D.C. for a production of the play, “Telling.”

Schmor will direct, and the UO student veterans will act in the play. Three other Oregon veterans and a UO graduate who is a military spouse will also be traveling to DC for the performance. A live stream of the performance will be available online.  Access will be available from the UO homepage, www.uoregon.edu, at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11.

The Telling Project, thetellingproject.org was created in 2007 to help provide veterans and their families with the chance to tell others about their experiences transitioning back to civilian life after deployment. The Telling Project’s Veterans Day play will be drawn from previous productions performed in Eugene and Portland.

Service Nation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization, invited The Telling Project to present a 25-minute excerpt of the previous plays at George Washington University in conjunction with the Veterans Day events on Nov. 11 and 12. Representatives from government, the military and the entertainment industry are expected to attend.

The play is based upon interviews with veterans. The interviews were sifted down into scripts by co-authors Jonathan Wei, executive director and founder of The Telling Project, and UO comparative literature graduate student Max Rayneard. Schmor, who is head of the UO Theatre Arts Department, directed the Eugene play and will serve as director for the Washington D.C. performance.

In Telling, the veterans interviewed for the script also perform the material. “The individual talking on stage is telling about his or her own experience,” said Wei. “We needed to let that material be in the possession of, and delivered by, the person to whom it happened.”

A total of five vets from Oregon — from different branches of the military, most of whom served in Iraq and Afghanistan — will perform.

The Telling Project is part of an international movement called “verbatim theatre,” a form of documentary theater in which scripts are based upon the language used by interviewees. And then the interviewees take the stage as actors in the resulting plays.

The Telling Project also has created a 50-state expansion initiative, with the goal of creating opportunities for all veterans and family members to tell their stories through performance art. The organizers currently are seeking partnerships and funding to help support the initiative.

There’s a public talk about mathematics scheduled on campus at 4 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 10, in 129 McKenzie Hall. You may just leave it astounded by prime numbers and with your neurons firing about possibilities that may defy algebra and calculus.

The speaker is Terence Tao, a former child prodigy turned math professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. His talks regularly attract full houses. A public engagement — where he spoke about prime numbers, as he will do here — on the UCLA campus once drew more than 400 people, live Web streaming and full feature coverage by The New York Times.

The UO math department is hosting Tao, often referred to by colleagues as a math rock star and the Mozart of Math, for three days this week. His Tuesday talk is the department’s Moursund Lecture, which honors Andrew F. Moursund, who raised the UO department’s national ranking, despite its small size, to near the top in such things as algebra, analysis, geometry, probability and topology while he was a faculty member from 1931 to his death in October 1972.

“It’s very exciting to have Tao visiting,” said Hal Sadofsky, head of the UO department of mathematics. “He’s one of the most interesting young mathematicians in the world. He has worked in a number of different areas, and we’re looking forward to hearing him explain some of his mathematics and to getting a chance to talk with him.”

Tao learned to read by age 2. “At 9, he attended college math classes. At 20, he finished his Ph.D,” the NY Times wrote in 2007. Today, at age 33, he is considered one of the world’s top math geniuses, specializing in prime numbers and the compression of images.

Tao, who writes a blog for math-inclined readers  (http://terrytao.wordpress.com), will deliver three lectures on campus. The first one, which is open to the public Tuesday at no cost, is titled “Recent Progress in Additive Prime Number Theory.” With students and faculty, he will discuss “Compressed Sensing” on Wednesday and “Discrete Random Matrices” on Thursday. The latter two talks begin at 4 p.m. in 221 McKenzie.

The Classified Staff Training and Development Advisory Committee (CSTDAC) has began sponsoring a monthly professional development opportunity for classified employees. The noon hour forums will be from noon to 1 p.m. on the second Monday of each month. Participants are encouraged to bring their lunch.

Our next meeting will be on Nov. 9, in the EMU, Fir room. This month’s topic is titled “How to Get the Most Out of the Range of Resources and Services offered by the Employee Assistance Program,” presented by Karen Logvin, director of work/life resources in human resources.

The University of Oregon contracts with Cascade Centers to provide a comprehensive employee assistance program for eligible employees, their dependents and eligible household members. The services are available at no cost. Information about the program will be available during the forum.

Registration is encouraged. For more information, visit http://hr.uoregon.edu/training/subscribe.php?event=593.

The University of Oregon Department of Dance presents Gabe Masson Dance in a concert that will also feature performance and choreography by new faculty members Brad Garner and Shannon Mockli. The two performances are on Nov. 20 and 21, at 8 p.m. in the Dougherty Dance Theatre, on the third floor of the Gerlinger Annex, 1484 University St. Tickets, available at the door, are $10 general admission, $5 for students and seniors. The house opens at 7:30 p.m. and seating is limited for these performances.

Award-winning choreographer Gabriel Masson, whose work the New York Times called “breathtaking” and “deeply human,” brings his professional company to the UO with his latest tour de force, “A Place To Hang Your Hat.” The piece leads four dancers through a costume- and prop-filled landscape as they frantically search for the one thing that ties them all together. They sing, they dance, they talk to the audience, they talk to each other, all in a mad quest to make sense of their rapidly changing world.

Working with frequent collaborators, including dancers Cortney McGuire, Josselyn Levinson and Michael Richman, Masson delivers one of his trademark investigations of the human heart—laying bare our deep desire to connect—and the extremes we sometimes go to feel like we belong.

Also featured in the concert are a solo performed by new UO dance faculty member Brad Garner, and a new trio choreographed and performed by second year faculty member Shannon Mockli.

For more information, call 541-346-3386.

The 14th annual Cheap Jewelry Sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 17 in the lobby of Lawrence Hall. Graduate, BFA, intermediate and advanced students in the jewelry and metalsmithing program in the Department of Art will present at least 400 pieces of jewelry that are unique and sometimes outrageous in design.

Each student is responsible for the fabrication of 20-40 pieces including rings, pendants, brooches and earrings. Using materials that range from silver to nontraditional materials such as plastic and rubber, students create jewelry with an inventive shift. All pieces will be sold for $15 and under to raise funds for guest lectures and studio equipment.

For further information, contact Anya Kivarkis at 541-346-1571.

The Officers of Administration Years of Service Recognition Reception will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 10, in the EMU Ballroom.  The program is from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with a special presentation at 11:30 a.m. by President Richard Lariviere.

The reception will honor 85 university employees who have reached the milestones of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 years of service. For a list of individuals who are being recognized, please go to the Recognition Programs webpage at: http://hr.uoregon.edu/recognition.

For more information, contact Kathy Cooks at 346-2939 or kcooks@uoregon.edu.

Faculty Artist Series: Music of Villa-Lobos
Tuesday, Nov. 10 – 8 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
$10 general admission; $8 students and seniors
Faculty pianist Alexandre Dossin and colleagues will perform a musical tribute to Heitor Villa-Lobos, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Villa-Lobos’ death in 1959. Dossin, a member of the UO piano faculty since 2006, will also give a short talk, introducing the pieces. Other faculty performers on the program include the Oregon String Quartet, bassoonist Steve Vacchi, and Tyler Abbott, double bass. Selections include “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4” for piano; “String Quartet No. 4”; and “Corrupio: bailado” for bassoon and string quintet. Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) was a Brazilian composer, described as “the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music.”

Future Music Oregon
Saturday, Nov. 14 – 8 p.m.
Room 163 Music
$7 general admission; $5 students and seniors
A concert of cutting-edge electroacoustic music will be presented by Future Music Oregon, the UO’s music technology program. The featured group on the concert is SoundProof, featuring Patricia Strange (violin), Stephen Ruppenthal (trumpet), and Brian Belet (composer). SoundProof’s performances feature innovative electroacoustic music with virtuoso technical displays. The concert will include works by composers Brian Belet, Allen Strange, and Larry Austin. A new extended electronic work by student composer Ryan Wiggans will also be presented.

Oregon Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band
Sunday, Nov. 15 — 3 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
$7 general admission; $5 students and seniors
The Oregon Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band will share a Sunday afternoon concert. The Oregon Wind Ensemble program, conducted by Robert Ponto, includes “Elegy” by John Barnes Chance and “Blue Shades”  by Frank Ticheli. The Symphonic Band, directed by Timothy A. Paul, will play “Variants on a Mediaeval Tune” by Norman Dello Joio; “Chester Leaps In” by Steven Bryant; “Irish Tune from County Derry” by Percy Grainger; and “Vanity Fair” by Percy Fletcher.

Vanguard Concert Series: Hirvo Surva and Revalia Men’s Choir
Monday, Nov. 16 — 8 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
$10 general admission; $8 students and seniors
Internationally-acclaimed choral conductor Hirvo Surva will conclude his two-week residency as a Robert Trotter Visiting Professor with a choral concert featuring the Revalia Men’s Choir from Estonia. The UO Chamber Choir and UO Women’s Choir will also be on the program.
The concert is titled “New Bridges of Song.” Revalia, the UO Chamber Choir, and Women’s Choir will sing three pieces together: “Ave Mater, Ave Pater” by Estonian composer René Espere (a setting of two Latin prayers for chorus and organ with soprano solo); “The Beginning of Song” by Estonian composer Veljo Tormis (a well-known Estonian work about the importance of singing in Estonian life); and the world premiere of “O Great Spirit” written by UO Professor Robert Kyr for this occasion. Hirvo Surva will conduct this portion of the concert, as well as selections by his Estonian choir. The UO Chamber Choir and Women’s Choir will sing music by Palestrina and Estonian composer Veljo Tormis.

The Revalia Male Chamber Choir was formed in 1998 by Hirvo Surva, a long-term conductor of the Revalia Boy’s Choir. The majority of the members of the Revalia Male Chamber Choir are former members of boy’s choirs from all over Estonia. The choir has 30 members with an average age of 25 years. The choir’s diverse repertoire consists mainly of works by contemporary Estonian composers, but also includes sacred, secular, and folk music.

Chamber Music on Campus
Tuesday, Nov. 17 – 7 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
Free admission
Student chamber ensembles will be featured in a Chamber Music on Campus concert at 7 p.m. in Beall Hall. Admission is free. Selections on the program are: “Sonata in E-flat” for clarinet and piano by Brahms; “String Quartet in D Minor” by Schubert; a wind quintet; and a saxophone quartet.

UO Ensemble: Sospiro
Tuesday, Nov. 17 – 8 p.m.
Room 163 Music
Free admission
Organized by graduate student Chris Prosser, Sospiro is a new contemporary vocal ensemble composed of graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Oregon. The event is a collaboration between UO graduate composers and graduate choral conductors to promote the creation and performance of new choral and vocal music. The program includes new choral selections by Benjamin Krause, Simon Hutchinson, Ethan Gans-Morse, Gracin Dorsey, Sam L. Richards, Timothy Francis, and  Christopher S. Prosser.

UO Campus Band
Wednesday, Nov. 18 — 8 p.m.
Beall Hall
Free admission
The UO Campus Band, led by conductor David Vickerman will perform “Little English Suite” by Clare Grundman; “Come, Sweet Death” by J. S. Bach; “Simple Gifts” by Frank Ticheli; and “Night Dances” by Bruce Yurko.

The Jazz Café
Friday, Nov. 20 – 7:30 p.m.
Room 190 Music
$5 general admission
UO student jazz combos in a cabaret setting.

New Dance Works: Gabe Masson & Company
With Shannon Mockli and Brad Garner
Friday-Saturday, Nov. 20-21 – 8 p.m.
Dougherty Dance Theatre
$10 general admission; $5 students and seniors
Award-winning choreographer Gabriel Masson brings his professional company to the UO with his latest tour de force, “A Place To Hang Your Hat.”  The piece leads four dancers through a costume- and prop-filled landscape as they frantically search for the one thing that ties them all together. They sing, they dance, they talk to the audience, they talk to each other, all in a mad quest to make sense of their rapidly changing world. The UO performances are the first stop on a multi-city national tour, which culminates in a week of performances in NYC in Fall 2010.
Also featured in the concert are a solo performed by new UO dance faculty member Brad Garner, and a new trio choreographed and performed by second year faculty member Shannon Mockli.

The University Symphony
Sunday, Nov. 22 — 3 p.m.
EMU Ballroom
$7 general admission; $5 students and seniors
Program includes Debussy    ‘s “Petite Suite,” Bizet’s “Carmen Suites 1 and 2,” and “Celtic Concerto” by UO harp instructor Laura Zaerr, featuring Zaerr as Celtic harp soloist.

Ensemble REBEL
Sunday, Nov. 22 – 3 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
Reserved seat tickets, $20 to $40, from the Hult Center (682-5000) or the EMU (346-4363)
The UO Chamber Music@Beall Series continues its 42nd season with Ensemble REBEL in a program titled “Music of Spain and its Dominions.” Joining the quartet of musicians is soprano Marta Almajano and guitarist Richard Savino. UO Assistant Professor Tim S. Pack will give a free “Musical Insights” talk at 2:10 p.m.

This works in the program explore exotic and distinctive sounds from Baroque-era Spain and its sphere of influence in Latin America and Italy. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries these Spanish colonies of Central and South America became well-springs of cultural sophistication. Latin American cathedrals and courtly life demanded a varied and active musical scene. Often, the indigenous populations were drawn into the arts and participated in their production. The musical result was a style that even in sacred compositions bears the imprint of folk music. The use of guitars and keyboard instruments coupled with dance rhythms and the occasional use of native languages demonstrates a close relationship between European and indigenous cultures.

Eugene Contemporary Music Ensemble
Monday, Nov. 23 – 8 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
Free admission

Oregon Percussion Ensemble
Tuesday, Nov. 24 – 8 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
$7 general admission; $5 students and seniors
The program is titled “Pulitzer!”—a tribute to composer Steve Reich, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in music, and a strong force in the Minimalist music movement. Selections by Reich include “Clapping Music,” “Music for Pieces of Wood,” and “Six Marimbas,” as well as music by John Cage, James Tenney, and Paul Smadbeck.  Conductor is Professor Charles Dowd.

Collegium Musicum
Tuesday, Dec. 1 – 6 p.m.
Collier House
Free admission

Dance Quarterly
Tuesday, Dec. 1 – 7 p.m.
Dougherty Dance Theatre
Free admission

Oregon Composers Forum
Tuesday, Dec. 1 – 8 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
Free admission
“New Music from Home” by UO composition students

Oregon Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab Bands
Wednesday, Dec. 2 – 8 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
$7 general admission; $5 students and seniors

Holiday Choral Concert
Saturday, Dec. 5 – 8 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
$7 general admission; $5 students and seniors
A program of sacred and secular music for the holidays, featuring the UO Chamber Choir, University Singers, Repertoire Singers, and Women’s Choir.

University Percussion Ensemble
Sunday, Dec. 6 – 2 p.m.
Room 163 Music
$7 general admission; $5 students and seniors

University Gospel Ensembles
Sunday, Dec. 6 – 5 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
$8 reserved seats; $6 students and seniors. Advance tickets from
EMU, 346-4363.

The Frohnmayer Music Building and Beall Concert Hall are located at 961 E. 18th Ave. Tickets are available at the door, unless otherwise noted.

For more information on the School of Music and Dance, or to receive a complete calendar of events, call the university music school weekdays, 541-346-5678, or visit music.uoregon.edu.

The University of Oregon’s Institute of Molecular Biology — born in the same decade of Crick and Watson’s discovery of DNA’s double helix and a veritable revolution in biology — is 50 years old. To mark the anniversary, 19 former students and postdoctoral fellows who went on to forge successful careers are returning to campus Oct. 23-24 to celebrate at a special symposium.

The institute is an interdisciplinary research community of UO scientists who probe biological questions on a microscopic playing field of molecules. Its 23 active members come from biology, chemistry and physics. Their findings today often find their way into pharmaceutical and biomaterial applications. Molecular biology emerged in the 1930s but rose amid discoveries of the 1950s, leading eventually to scientific techniques that allowed the completion of the map of the human genome.

“It is indeed a privilege and very interesting to be organizing the 50th anniversary of IMB, by virtue of my current status as IMB director,” said Bruce Bowerman, a professor of biology, who is in his fifth year as director.

“I kind of pale in comparison to my predecessors, so it is a bit odd to be so responsible for planning this,” he said, “but I’ve consulted with past directors extensively throughout and with other long-term faculty. It has been very interesting to sit down and have lunch or otherwise interact with them and learn first-hand about some of their experiences and successes and fondness for each other. It truly is a remarkable story and fascinating to get so close to it.”

Peter von Hippel, Rick Dahlquist and Tom Stevens, as well as founding director Aaron Novick, served longer periods as director than has Bowerman.

Novick brought the emerging field of molecular biology to Oregon. He founded the institute with four members including himself upon his arrival in 1959 after he was recruited from his already leading-edge research at the University of Chicago.

Novick, born in 1919, was a prominent chemist in the Manhattan Project, which led to the atomic bombs that ended World War II. After the war, he was lured into molecular biology by the challenges the new field offered. Novick led the UO’s institute into international prominence. He retired in 1984 from the UO and remained in Eugene. He died in December 2000.

In 2005, Novick posthumously won the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon’s Pioneer Award for his scientific contributions for founding the UO institute, believed to have been the first academic unit in the world to formally include “molecular biology” as part of its name.

“Molecular biology got going in earnest in the 1940s,” Bowerman said, “but it is probably safe to say it became a major presence upon the publication of the structure of DNA by Crick and Watson. I suppose the 1960s were viewed as its golden era, when the genetic code was deciphered, with our George Streisinger being one of the early contributors to cracking that code. The new genomic era that we are in now is really the first time people have felt like the excitement of molecular biology research matches those early days again. We are in a new golden era, and IMB is still going strong.”

The two-day IMB birthday celebration starts Friday night, Oct. 23, with an invitation-only banquet. On Saturday, the public is welcome to attend, free of charge, any of the sessions, which begin at 9 a.m. and end at 6:30 p.m. The 19 scheduled speakers, who are coming from 14 institutions, have had close educational ties to the UO Institute of Molecular Biology.

Saturday’s talks will be held in Room 100 of Willamette Hall, 1371 E. 13th Ave. The talks are expected to be scientific in nature but with some remembrances of life at the institute, Bowerman said. Morning sessions will begin at 9 and 11:10 a.m. Afternoon sessions will begin at 2:15, 4:35 and 6 p.m. The four speakers in the 4:35 session were UO undergraduates whose careers were launched by their early exposure to research in the institute.

The final talk at 6:05 p.m. will be a keynote address by Carol Gross of the University of California, San Francisco, who earned her doctorate under Novick’s supervision and later served as a research associate with von Hippel, who will introduce her. Gross was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992.

Box lunches will be available for attendees who request one before Oct. 14 by calling 541-346-3236.  Saturday’s lunch break will be from about 12:15 to 2:15 p.m.

A complete schedule of Saturday’s speakers is available here.

Links to insert:

Institute of Molecular Biology: http://www.molbio.uoregon.edu/raf.html
Bowerman faculty page: http://www.molbio.uoregon.edu/~bowermanlab/
Two-Day Schedule: http://comm.uoregon.edu/content/institute-molecular-biologys-50th-birthday-celebration-program

(About the photo: IMB founder Aaron Novick, left, front row, is seated next to Joe Bertani, a genetics pioneer, and Frank Stahl (third from left) at the 1958 International Phage Biology meeting in France. Soon after, Novick invited Stahl to join him at the UO institute, which opened in 1959. Photo by Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg, courtesy Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

The University of Oregon Libraries will help celebrate Open Access Week on the UO campus Oct. 19-23 by hosting a series of lectures, panel discussions, workshops and other activities on the topics of scholarly publishing and open access.

Open access is defined as the “worldwide electronic distribution of the peer-reviewed journal literature, with completely free and unrestricted access to it by all scientists, scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds.” Open access shifts the costs of producing scholarship away from the reader, and by so doing makes it more likely that research results and scholarly works will be used as they are intended: to be read and cited.

During Open Access Week, UO faculty members and others can learn about a UO program sponsored by the UO Vice Provost’s office that underwrites publication fees for publishing in open access journals, and about commitments by several departments to make all of their scholarship open access. Other sessions will explore issues related to open access textbooks, open access to primary legal materials, and the UO’s own open access archive, Scholars’ Bank.

The complete schedule of events follows. All events will be held in Knight Library.

Monday, Oct. 19, 2:00 p.m., Studio A
Open Textbooks and Other Educational Resources

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 12:30 p.m., Room 144
Scholars’ Bank Hands-On Workshop

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 10:30 a.m., Rm. 115H
Panel on Open Access Mandates (w/Oregon State University)

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 1:00 p.m., Room 122
An Introduction to Open Access

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2:00 p.m., Room 122
Panel on Open Access Author Funding

Thursday, Oct. 22, 10:00 a.m., Studio A
Panel on Open Access Mandates

Thursday, Oct. 22, 11:30 a.m., Rm. 267B
How Do I Put My Work in Scholars’ Bank?

Friday, Oct. 23, 11:00 a.m., Studio A
Open Government, with Carl Malamud

For more information and a detailed program link, visit http://libweb.uoregon.edu/scis/sc/oaweek09.html or contact JQ Johnson, the library’s director of scholarly communications, jqj@uoregon.edu, 346-1746.

Thinking about taking your University of Oregon department into Facebook? Already gone, but want to improve on your effort? Afraid to do anything at all?

No matter the answer, it’s time to get away from the Internet altogether and have a good, old-fashioned conversation about new media that’s not so new anymore.

The University of Oregon’s Office of Marketing and Brand Management is hosting a panel discussion on Facebook from 10 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, in the Fir Room at the Erb Memorial Union.  Space is limited, so RSVP by emailing Susan Thelen, director of marketing, sthelen@uoregon.edu.

Panelists from the School of Journalism and Communication, the Office of Communication and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art will share Facebook successes and failures, while also reviewing the UO’s official Social Media Best Practices.

The guidelines are a work in progress created by the Social Media Task Force, an informal group with representatives from all over campus. The Office of Web Communications maintains the guidelines and offers insight into best practices.

The Oct. 21 workshop also will highlight the UO’s official Facebook page, facebook.com/universityoforegon, with a following that is more than 7,000 strong and has doubled in number since April. Panelists will talk about how you can tap into similar success.

“This event is to help you decide if Facebook is right for your unit,” Thelen said. “It may be, in which case we’ll talk about best practices. Or, this is just as valuable a workshop because you might decide that your office, unit or department does not need to get into Facebook.”

Whether it is footage of grandma blowing out candles at her 80th birthday party or a cops-and-robbers movie made by grade-school kids, Home Movie Day in Portland is an opportunity to share, preserve and celebrate old films.

Screenings and education will take place on Sunday, Oct. 18, from noon to 5 p.m. at the UO Portland’s White Stag Block, 70 NW Couch St. Community members are encouraged to bring their 8 mm and 16 mm home movies for inspection and potential exhibition. Local film experts, along with archivists from the University of Oregon Libraries, will assess the physical condition of the film before projecting movies for viewing. They will also offer advice on how to best preserve and protect these film formats from damage.

Individuals will have the opportunity to exhibit their films on one of four continuously running projectors and share the stories behind the images.

“As technology changed, these old films were hidden away in closets, and we are losing access to a glimpse into history,” said James Fox, head of the UO Special Collections and University Archives. “Some are transferring these movies into different formats, such a DVD or VHS, but the vibrant colors and original charm are lost in the process. This event allows old movies to be shown in their best light.”

Sponsored by the UO Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives, Home Movie Day is an international event (http://www.homemovieday.com/) intended to help the public learn about, enjoy and rescue films now considered obsolete because of digital home video. More than 50 U.S. cities take part in International Home Movie Day, in addition to events in Canada, Italy, England and Japan.

Home Movie Day was started in 2002 by a group of film archivists concerned about what would happen to all the home movies shot on film during the 20th century. Many people have boxes full of family memories that they’ve never seen for lack of a projector, or out of fear that the films were too fragile to be viewed. The organizers knew that many people were having their amateur films transferred to videotape or DVD, with the idea that their new digital copies would last forever and the “obsolete” films could be discarded. Original films (and the equipment required to view them) can long outlast any version on VHS tape, DVDs or other digital media.

Admission to the event is free, but donations will be accepted. The Portland Home Movie Day Poster can be viewed at http://www.libweb.uoregon.edu/portland/hmd.html. For more information, visit http://libweb.uoregon.edu/partners/homemovieday/ or contact James Fox, UO Special Collections and University Archives, 541-346-1904, jdfox@uoregon.edu.

Over several centuries, very few human creations have shaped and reflected the course of history and culture as powerfully as has “the book” in its many and varied forms.

What began more than a year ago as an idea for a three-day symposium on “the future of the book” has blossomed into “The Year of the Book,” a campus-wide series of lectures, workshops, exhibits, and performances based on the book, past, present, and future. Organized by the Oregon Humanities Center in conjunction with the Knight Library, this year-long celebration of the book will involve many individual scholars and departments on campus including the UO Bookstore, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Theatre Arts, History, Creative Writing, English, and others.

“The plan is to reach as deep and broad a slice of campus as we can manage, and to appeal to the larger community, as well,” said OHC Director Barbara Altmann. “We have designed a logo that will go on all events tied to the theme, and there will be several events per term.”

The Oregon Humanities Center hopes to encourage participation in the “Year of the Book” by providing financial co-sponsorships to departments who wish to host related events, and by helping to publicize all “Year of the Book” events.

The OHC has planned many of its 2009-10 lectures to coincide with the “Year of the Book” theme. Kritikos Professor Robert Darnton will kick off the fall term with his Nov. 12 lecture entitled “Digitize, Democratize: Google, Libraries, and the Future of Books” at 7:30 p.m. in 175 Knight Law Center. The lecture will also be given at UO in Portland on Nov. 13 at 5:30 p.m.

Other fall term events include the “Understanding Superheroes” symposium on Oct. 23 and 24, and the related JSMA exhibits. The theater department is devoting their entire 2009-10 season to plays based on book adaptations. Their fall production, “Big River,” which runs Nov. 6-21, is a musical based on “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Creative writing is hosting readings by authors and poets throughout the year, and the UO Bookstore is organizing a film series based on book adaptations. Look for events in the coming months from the Knight Library, JSMA, Clark Honors College and community partners.

Visit http://ohc.uoregon.edu for a complete and ever-growing list of “Year of the Book” events.

The Czech Nonet, a nine-player ensemble with an 80-year heritage that has outlasted a world war, communism, and the Velvet Revolution, opens the 42nd season of Chamber Music@Beall Oct. 4 at 3 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall. The UO School of Music and Dance and the Oregon Bach Festival jointly produce the six-concert series, which also offers a special 50 percent discount to UO faculty and staff for the opening concert.

The 50 percent faculty discount for the opening concert is available through Sept. 30 via the Hult Center and UO ticket offices, or online at HultCenter.org with the password UOSTAFF50.

The Nonet, with guest pianist Richard Ormrod, will perform works by Eastern European giants Witold Lutoslawski and Leos Janacek, plus those of Czech composers Bohuslav Martinu and Geraldine Mucha. Later in the fall the series welcomes the Belcea String Quartet Oct. 25, a widely acclaimed London-based group, and Ensemble Rebel November 22, offering “Kingdoms and Viceroys,” Baroque-era music of Spain and its European and American dominions.

Continuing into 2010, the lineup includes:
•     Trio con Brio Copenhagen, a string-piano trio performing Ravel, Shostakovich and Dvorak Jan. 17;
•     The Ya Fei Chuang-Robert Levin piano duo, performing Mozart, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14;
•     The Shanghai String Quartet, ensemble-in-residence at the 2008 Oregon Bach Festival, who will offer works by Haydn, Debussy, and Penderecki.

Each concert takes place at 3 p.m. and is preceded by a free “Musical Insights” talk by Tim Pack, UO faculty member, at 2:10 p.m. in the Thelma Schnitzer Hall at the music school.

A subscription package for the series includes a 10% ticket discount and is now on sale. Single concert tickets range from $20-$40, and student tickets are $10 through the Hult Center’s College Tix program.

For complete schedules and concert information, see http://music.uoregon.edu/cmb. For tickets call 541-682-5000.

ChamberMusic@Beall Series:
The Czech Nonet with pianist Richard Ormrod
Sunday, Oct. 4 — 3 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
Reserved seat tickets, $20 to $40, available in advance from the Hult Center (541-682-5000) or the EMU (541-346-4363)
The UO’s ChamberMusic@Beall series opens its 42nd season with the acclaimed Czech Nonet and pianist Richard Ormrod. The Czech Nonet is one of the world’s oldest and most original chamber ensembles. Founded in 1924, the Nonet has earned accolades through a world war, an oppressive communist regime, and the Velvet Revolution. In its Eugene program, the Nonet will perform works by Eastern European giants Witold Lutoslawski and Leos Janacek, plus those of Czech composers Bohuslav Martinu and Geraldine Mucha. Pianist Richard Ormrod has won five international prizes and has been a featured soloist in three international tours with the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.
Pre-concert “Musical Insights” with UO Assistant Professor Tim Pack, 2:10 p.m.

Oregon Wind Quintet
Thursday, Oct. 8 — 8 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
UO Faculty Artist Series
$10 general admission; $8 students and seniors
Featuring Molly Barth, flute; Amy Goeser Kolb, oboe; Wayne Bennett, clarinet; Lydia Van Dreel, horn; Steve Vacchi, bassoon.

Festival of Bands
Saturday, Oct. 10 – 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Autzen Stadium
High School Marching Band Competition
$13, $9; Family 4-pack $32
Featuring nearly 25 of the Northwest’s top marching bands. The UO Marching Band and drumline will also give demos and clinics. Call 346-5670 for schedule.

Barbara Baird, Organ
Sunday, Oct. 11 — 4 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
UO Faculty Artist Series
$10 general admission; $8 students and seniors
Featuring German Baroque music by Buxtehude, Bruhns, Bach, and Boehm, on Beall Hall’s newly-refurbished Ahrend organ. This beautiful Baroque style organ, built by Jürgen Ahrend in 1971, was spruced up by Tacoma organ builder Paul Fritts earlier this year. Barbara Baird is celebrating her 20th year as organ instructor at the University of Oregon.
The Frohnmayer Music Building and Beall Concert Hall are located at 961 E. 18th Ave. Tickets are also available at the door on concert night.

For more information on the School of Music and Dance, or to receive a complete calendar of events, call the university music school weekdays, 541-346-5678, or visit music.uoregon.edu.

“Sanctuaries,” a photography exhibit by Scott Blackman will be displayed through Dec. 14 at the University of Oregon in the second floor gallery of the Knight Law Center. The show features two distinct areas of Oregon, the coastline and the high desert.

A public reception and slide show will be from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, at the law school.

The exhibit features 26 coastline images from as far south as Brookings and north to Pacific City, as well as the coast range forests. Six photographs show the high desert in the remote southeast corner of the state. The Eastern Oregon photos are in the dean’s office.

“Being persistent in my approach has enabled me to get the shots that I’ve envisioned. Getting the right light is essential to the mood of the picture,” said Blackman. “In most cases I prefer to shoot in the early morning, late afternoon, and sunset light, even into dusk. Only by returning to a subject many times have I been able to capture certain fleeting moments of light.”

The exhibit is a small sampling from Blackman’s three decades of photography. He spent many years shooting film with his 35 mm camera, converting to digital photography a few years ago.

“Digital photography allows me to carry my sense of creativity much further than I was ever able to do with film,” he said. “My goal of communicating the emotional impact of the scenery has been amplified by the digital process. Now I feel I am much more empowered to express not only how the subjects look, but how the subjects felt.”

A panel discussion about the history and current issues of immigration nationally and in the Northwest will feature three University of Oregon professors. “The Unfinished Nation: Dilemmas and Decisions on Immigration Reform,” is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. at Southern Oregon University in Ashland.

Panelists include Lynn Stephen, distinguished professor of anthropology, and Robert Bussel, director of the Labor Education and Research Center and associate professor of history. The panel will be moderated by Dan Tichenor, senior faculty fellow at the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics and Philip H. Knight Professor of Social Science.

The panel will explore approaches to immigration reform, how immigrant families and the labor movement have been affected by this reform, and the history and current challenges of immigration in Oregon. The event is part of the Oregon Council for the Humanities 2009 Summer Teacher Institute, which this year focuses on immigration and American life. Tichenor is guest director of the institute. OCH has offered a summer institute for Oregon secondary school teachers for 16 years.

For more information, visit  www.oregonhum.org.

As Dave Frohnmayer prepares to retire after serving as president of the University of Oregon for 15 years, faculty, staff and students will have the chance to wish him well. The Frohnmayer Farewell Tour event will start at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 9, at the covered tennis courts at the Student Recreation Center.
The program will start at 5:30 p.m. and the event will include live music and refreshments.
For an excerpt to an essay President Frohnmayer wrote for Oregon Quarterly, visit http://uoregon.edu/featuredstories/2009_06/frohnmayer.

The University of Oregon has long served as the cultural and artistic hub of the region. Now, in an effort to unify the arts and reach out to the community, the Oregon Bach Festival, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, and Museum of Natural and Cultural History are joining forces to present the World Harmony Project.

During the project, which runs from June 25 to 28, the three organizations will offer a variety of exhibition openings, live music, dance and lectures. The events will allow community members to experience a wealth of arts, culture and heritage, appropriate for the entire family.

“The university is committed to engaging the community in a dialogue about arts and culture,” said Michael Redding, vice president of university advancement. “We have resources, like the museums and the Oregon Bach Festival, that are nationally renowned for their programming. The World Harmony Project allows us to collaborate and provide a rich cultural opportunity for our visitors.”

The UO will host the 2009 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships the same weekend. The World Harmony Project will provide local and national visitors a variety of cultural activities. Last year, when Eugene hosted the Olympic Trials, the museums experienced large crowds and hope to attract additional visitors this year.

The project received a $9,000 grant from the Oregon Arts Council Cultural Tourism and $10,000 Lane County Tourism Special Projects Grant to help draw visitors from outside Lane County and increase statewide awareness of the UO and the Eugene-Springfield area as a destination for cultural tourists. By working together, JSMA, MNCH and the OBF are able to combine resources and reach potential new audiences.

For a complete schedule of events, visit http://jsma.uoregon.edu/WHP.html. Highlights include:

• Opening of JSMA’s exhibition of Japanese art, “On the Road: Two Visions of the Tokaido,” with reception and entertainment; on view from June 25-Sept. 13.
• Opening of MNCH’s exhibition, “World Harmony - Musical Instruments from Around the Globe,” on view from June 25-Jan. 3 and “Shall We Dance?” an exhibit of images by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Brian Lanker. The opening will include a reception and entertainment.
• Opening concert of OBF’s 40th season; Haydn’s oratorio “The Creation,” performed by the Festival orchestra, chorus and soloists, conducted by Helmuth Rilling, at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts on June 26.
• Children’s concert, “Taiko Together,” with Los Angeles-based On Ensemble, at the Hult Center on June 27.
• OBF evening concert at the Hult Center by the On Ensemble, June 27.
• Pacific International Children’s Choir Festival Gala Concert, at the Hult Center on June 28.
• “Sunday at Sound,” a two-site (JSMA and MNCH) multi-cultural music festival featuring 10 local and regional ensembles from 1 to 4 p.m. on June 28.

Rachel Rosenthal; photo by Annie Leibovitz

The initiative, “Earth Matters on Stage” (EMOS), an Ecodrama Festival and Symposium, will be launched at the UO on May 21. The event will bring together theater artists, activists and scholars from around the nation for 10 days of performances, speakers and creative workshops.

Theresa May, theater arts professor, created the festival to take on big questions about building a sustainable society. The goal is to inspire the international theater community about the important role theater and performance can play in building a sustainable future, and healing communities and the planet.

At the core of the EMOS Festival is the Ecodrama Playwrights Contest, an international call for more plays and performances about ecological issues. The EMOS Festival will present the winners and finalists (out of 158 submitted scripts) of this year’s contest:
• First Place: “Song of Extinction,” by EM Lewis, about a teenage musician; performances May 22, 28 and 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the UO Hope Theatre.
• Second Place: “Atomic Farmgirl,” by C. Denby Swanson, about four sisters and the ghosts of their family farm; performances May 23 and 29 at 7:30 p.m., and May 31 at 2 p.m., in the Hope Theatre.

All performances are followed by discussion with playwrights and/or other guest speakers.

EMOS will feature two keynote speakers. Una Chaudhuri, an author and scholar from New York University, whose work has spearheaded ecological awareness in theater, will give a talk at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 22. Rachel Rosenthal, an internationally renowned performance artist and teacher, who has called for compassion for the natural world in her daring productions since the 1980s, will present at 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 23. Both speakers will be in the Robinson Theatre.

Eugene area high school students, parents and educators will gather for “Art/Education/Environment: A Community Conversation” on Wednesday, May 27, at 7:30 p.m. at the Hope Theatre.

Indigenous theatre artists from northern California will present “Salmon Is Everything,” a play about the Klamath River salmon crisis at 2:30 p.m., Friday, May 29. A Panel of Indigenous Artists from various tribes will read from their plays and discuss how their work offers a unique vision of the human/nature relationship.

Bill Rauch, artistic director of Oregon Shakespeare Company, will join leading theater artists on Saturday, May 30, at 4 p.m. for EMOS’ Northwest Theatre Town Hall. Artists and directors from the Pacific Northwest will discuss how they envision the connection among theater, community and place.

For a complete schedule, ticket prices and more information, visit www.uoregon.edu/~ecodrama.

–Submitted by Theresa May

Humans put out countless hours of energy everyday through activities like walking, running and cycling. What would happen if that energy was harnessed and used to power computers, light offices and heat buildings?

The University of Oregon will find out when 20 elliptical machines are retrofitted in the Student Recreation Center to capture kinetic energy and feed it to the university’s power grid. The project is a collaboration between the UO Office of Sustainability, the rec center and Eugene Water and Electric Board.

The machines will be outfitted with devices, called ReCardio, which will capture the kinetic energy created when used and convert it to electricity. Next it is fed to a central converter and transferred to the local power grid. Each machine will have a display to show the user how many watts-hours were generated during the workout and the types of things that electricity can power.

“The ReCardio project generates a small amount of clean, renewable power on-site, but its most lasting impact will be the educational opportunity it provides for the thousands of students who use the rec center daily,” said Steve Mital, director of the UO Office of Sustainability. “Students can interact with renewable power in a visceral way and develop a new understanding of the meaning and value of a kilowatt. The Office of Sustainability’s mission is to shrink our footprint and raise awareness so it’s great fit and I’m glad we could partner with the rec center on this project.”

It is estimated that the 20 machines will be used by students six to eight hours each day, generating approximately 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. This is nearly enough to supply a small energy efficient house in Eugene with 100 percent of its power needs for a full year.

The new machines will be unveiled at 3 p.m. on Monday, May 11, in the UO Student Recreation Center, 1320 E. 15th Ave. An elliptical will be hooked up to both an incandescent and compact fluorescent light bulb. Attendees will have the chance to hop on the machine to see how much work it takes to light each bulb.

“Being able to convert human power into electricity fits in with our mission to support a healthy campus community and demonstrate renewable energy technologies. We continue to look at ways of using sustainable energy,” said Bryan Haunert, associate director of facilities and operations for the Department of Physical Education and Recreation. “This is a good example of student groups coming up with an idea that makes a difference.”

The idea to purchase ReCardio was suggested independently by a group of students from the business school and a graduate student working in the Energy Management Office. The 20 devices are paid for by a $7,000 EWEB Partners in Education Grant, $12,000 from the UO Office of Sustainability and $2,880 from the UO Rec Center advisory board. The costs cover buying the devices and installation.

The third annual UO Symposium on Computers in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education is scheduled for Friday, May 15, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. in Knight Library’s Browsing Room. “Open Content and Open Source: Applications of Computer Technology to Improve Education and Decrease Costs to Students” will explore ways that social networking tools and other open content applications are being used to change learning paradigms and make the delivery of educational content more efficient in tough economic times.

This year’s symposium will feature several UO administrators and faculty members who actively use these technologies in their work and classrooms. Don Harris, CIO and vice provost for information services, will open the symposium with a discussion of innovative ways that information technology is being used at the university.

Other UO faculty presenters include:
• David Moursund, Professor Emeritus, College of Education (symposium founder and organizer)
• JQ Johnson, Director, Scholarly Communications and Instructional Support, UO Libraries (symposium organizer)
• Mark Thoma, Associate Professor, Department of Economics
• Mary Harrsch, Network and Management Information Systems Administrator (retired)
• Ulad Slabin, Research Associate, Center for Electronic Studying
• Andrew Bonamici, Associate University Librarian for Media and Instructional Services, UO Libraries

Speaker topics and a complete schedule are available at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/cmet/ctlsymposium2009.html.

The symposium is free of charge, including lunch and light refreshments for pre-registered attendees. Space is limited, so early registration is encouraged. To register, contact Tiffany Van Pelt, Library Administration, (541) 346-1889, tambiel@uoregon.edu.

The UO Symposium on Computers in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education is sponsored by the UO Libraries and is made possible through the generous support of the Richard and Mary Corrigan Solari Library Instruction Endowment Fund.

–Submitted by Ron Renchler

Steven Feld, a Robert M. Trotter Visiting Professor at the UO School of Music and Dance, will give five free public presentations during his week-long residency on campus, May 18-22.

Feld’s research focuses on the anthropology of sound, incorporating studies in linguistics and poetics; music and aesthetics; and acoustics and ecology. From 1975-2000, he studied the sound world, from environmental sounds and birdcalls to language, poetry and music of the Bosavi rainforest region in Papua, New Guinea.

He is a distinguished professor of anthropology and music at University of New Mexico. He previously held professorships at Columbia University, New York University, University of California at Santa Cruz, University of Texas at Austin and University of Pennsylvania.

While visiting, Feld will present the following, free events:

Monday, May 18 — 7 p.m., 221 McKenzie Hall
“Hallelujah!” – the first film of the trilogy “Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra (Ghana).” Film showing and discussion by filmmaker Steven Feld. Legendary drummer Ghanaba and the Winneba Youth Choir perform their unique talking drums interpretation of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus; plus a conversation with Ghanaba about Africa, jazz and European music.

Tuesday, May 19 — 7 p.m., 221 McKenzie Hall
“Accra Train Station” – the second film of the trilogy “Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra (Ghana).” Film showing and discussion by Feld. Nii Noi Nortey (Ghanaian musician, afrifone instrument inventor, and sculptor on Accra Train Station) and the African legacy of John Coltrane.

Wednesday, May 20 — 7 p.m., 221 McKenzie Hall
“Por Por”—the third film of the trilogy “Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra (Ghana).” Film showing and discussion by Feld. The film documents how a union of transport workers invented a funeral music from antique klaxon car horns, with resonances of swing, bebop and the New Orleans jazz funeral.

Thursday, May 21 — 1 p.m., Beall Concert Hall
“Acoustic Ecology of Bells and Birds,” lecture. Do bells stand up to 1,000 years of European histories of sound, cosmology and ecology, as birds do to an even longer duration in tropical rainforests? Is it possible to think of birds and bells as technologies for the production of consciousness of space and time? Feld’s research and recording in six European countries and in Papua, New Guinea explore these and related questions.

Friday, May 22 — 3:15 p.m., Proctor 41, Knight Library
“Schizophonia and Its Discontents: Revisiting Brian Eno and David Byrne’s ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts,’” lecture . We all know what happened to Salman Rushdie and Theo Van Gogh. Comparatively, pop stars David Byrne and Brian Eno got off easy when they turned Koranic recitation into groovy dance music in 1981 for “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.” But little has been revealed of this world music saga and how it connects to so many broader issues of free speech vs. censorship in “world music.”

–Submitted by Scott Barkhurst

New dance works by UO student choreographers will be featured in “Cross Your Legs and Turn,” the annual Spring Student Dance Concert. The three performances are at 8 p.m., May 14-16 at the Dougherty Dance Theatre on the third floor of Gerlinger Annex. The house opens at 7:30 p.m. and tickets, available at the door, are $10 general admission and $5 for students and seniors.

The annual concert is produced and choreographed completely by students. The student choreographers form the production staff and, with faculty supervisor Shannon Mockli, are responsible for all aspects of the production, both the business portion and the creative content, including advertising, fundraising and technical staffing for the concert. Dance faculty members mentor each student choreographer, and the student producers learn a great deal about the realities of making art.

“Cross Your Legs and Turn” will feature choreography by Kate Ashworth, Danny Egan, Celie Erickson, Jessica Goodburn, Jana Meszaros, Tiffany Alexandra Taylor and Hannah Yanow.

For more information, visit music.uoregon.edu.

–Submitted by Scott Barkhurst