The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

arts

Memoir group open to new members in January

The memoir group is a good place to try out your writing on a supportive audience. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t written a word or if you’ve already written enough for two lifetimes—the group will welcome you and help you move along in the process. (They will also laugh and cry with you sometimes.) If you’re interested in joining the group or if you just want to know more before making a commitment, please get in touch with facilitator Connie Lewis at con.lewis@comcast.net or  781-259-9415.

The group meets on Wednesdays, usually twice a month from 10 a.m. to noon. The schedule for the winter/spring term isn’t set yet, but the first meeting will be on January 15. The cost is $50 if the group continues with the six-meeting schedule or $75 if they decide to meet eight times.

Morris Engel films at library this month

movie reelThe Lincoln Library Film Society  will be showcasing the  work of acclaimed New York photographer and filmmaker Morris Engel in December. Along with photographer Ruth Orkin, Engel pioneered the use of hand-held cameras in cinematography, which, along with other techniques, helped them capture true slices of life and weave images of everyday reality into their fiction films.

A native of Brooklyn, Engel spent five years as a combat photographer during World War II. He was an active member of the Photo League, a left-wing photo cooperative based in New York, which produced and distributed socially-themed work. It was there that he met Ruth Orkin, a freelance photographer from Los Angeles, who would later become his filmmaking partner. Their 1953 film Little Fugitive, with its infusion of documentary photography with staged narrative, is considered an important forerunner to the films of John Cassavetes and the French New Wave films of Truffaut and Godard. The films that the pair made, along with Engel’s subsequent solo work as director and cinematographer, comprise an independent cinema before there was independent cinema, having proved highly influential over the many facets of postwar realism to follow.

Tuesday, December 10 at 7 p.m.

Lovers and Lollipops
USA / 1956 / in English / 82 minutes.
The follow-up to Little Fugitive is similarly made on a minuscule budget, with money raised by Engel and Orkin, and filmed using highly portable cameras. The film depicts the efforts of Peggy, a seven-year-old, to thwart the blossoming romance between her fashion model mother, Ann, and Larry, an engineer. The film brings to life the textures and nuances of city life with wit and charm, favoring authenticity over narrative efficiency, and once again shows how ordinary children can be more genuine and demonstrative than many adult actors.

Ruth Orkin: Frames of Life
USA / 1996 / in English / 18 minutes
This short documentary, directed by her daughter, Mary Engel, charts the chronology of Orkin’s career through photographs and film clips.

Tuesday, December 17 at  7 p.m.

Weddings and Babies
USA / 1958 / in English. 81 minutes
This more mature film by Engel, his first to use synchronous sound, won the Critic’s Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1958. It merges a ground-level naturalism, seen in his earlier films, with increased production values. Al, a photographer living in New York, feels pressure from his girlfriend, Bea, to marry and settle down. His elderly mother, whom he recently put in a nursing home, only complicates things as Al tries to get his life in order. The film uses improvisational performances and naturalistic settings, with cinematographer Engel picking up on the detailed emotional resonance of everyday life.

Morris Engel: The Independent
USA / 2008 / in English / 28 minutes
Mary’s portrait of her father assembles interviews and clips, bringing some of the original cast of Little Fugitive back to Coney Island.

Holiday events include “Gift Local” this weekend

wreathGet handmade items at “Gift Local”

Buy your holiday gifts from a local artisan, chocolatier, jeweler, painter, clothier, felter, glass artist, book artist, fabric artist, wood turner, hatter, neighbor, friend at Gift Local at Bemis Hall on  . Sponsored by Old Town Hall Exchange.

“An English Christmas” choir concert

Live from Lincoln Center! Vox Lucens, a 13-member choir Renaissance choir, will present a full-length concert of English Renaissance polyphony on Sunday, December 15 at 3 p.m. as part of the new concert series at the First Parish in Lincoln. This concert will include works by Gibbons, Byrd, Parsons and other English masters, and the choir will collaborate with organist Ian Watson, music director at First Parish and principal keyboard player of the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra. Suggested donation: $20.

Lincoln resident Paik plays Rachmaninoff on Sunday

Wanda Paik

Wanda Paik

Lincoln resident Wanda Paik will perform Rachmaninoff’s great Piano Concerto No. 2 with Sounds of Stow Chorus and Orchestra on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 3 p.m. at the Hale Middle School in Stow. The concert will also feature Russian choral works, Gretchaninoff’s Hvalite Boga, and Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances, as well as a silent auction.

There will also be an open rehearsal (children welcome) on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 1:30 p.m. for the chorus and orchestra and 4 p.m. for the piano concerto. A donation of $5 is requested.

For more information, see the Sounds of Stow website or browse Paik’s CDs.

Tonight’s film theme: “Closely Watched Trains”

Dutch_trainIf you like trains, you’ll love tonight’s Lincoln Film Society presentation, which it’s calling “Closely Watched Trains: An Evening of Chuff-Chuff and Choo-Choo.” The medley of rail-themed short files begins at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln Public Library and will include:

Arrival of a Train
France / 1896 / silent / 1 min.

The Georgetown Loop
USA / 1996 / silent / 11 min.

Snow
UK / 1963 / silent / 7 min.

89mm from Europe
Poland / 1993 / in Polish with English subtitles/ 12 min.

Games on Reflection and Speed
France / 1925 / silent. 8 min.

The Station
Italy / 1953 / in Italian with English subtitles / 11 min.

Train Stop
Russia / 2000 / silent/ 24 min.

Mountain Vigil
Armenian SSR / 1964 / silent. 10 min.

Train of Thought
USA / 2008 / silent. 9 min.

Total program time: 93 minutes.

Tonight: films by László Moholy-Nagy

movie reelThe Lincoln Library Film Society will screen several short films by László Moholy-Nagy tonight (Tuesday, Nov. 12) at 7 p.m.

While best-known for a career spanning sculpture, painting, and industrial design, the versatile Hungarian-born Moholy-Nagy also did pioneering work in the field of photography, producing short documentaries and abstract films that show the influence of constructivism on his vision. He was forced to leave Germany in 1933, moving to London, and later emigrating to the U.S. as the director of the New Bauhaus in Chicago, which only lasted for one year. He went on to found the Institute of Design, part of the Illinois Institute of Technology, which offered the first PhD in design.

[Read more…] about Tonight: films by László Moholy-Nagy

Coming up in Lincoln

Film about Lincoln architect Henry B. Hoover – Oct. 25

At its members’ appreciation event on Friday, October 25 at 7 p.m. at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the Friends of Modern Architecture/Lincoln (FoMA) will hold a premier screening of the film Breaking Ground: The Architecture of Henry B. Hoover.

Commissioned by Hoover’s children, Harry Hoover and Lucretia Giese, and directed and produced by Molly Bedell, the film features biographical background, interviews, and stills and footage of several Hoover houses. Hoover (1902-1998) received his M.Arch. from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1926 and was among the pioneers of modernism in Lincoln.

Hoover designed some 100 houses from 1937 to 1988, with his last important commission in 1972.  For Hoover, the site was all-important.  Writing about one house, he commented, “the design has been taken care of by the site… the view was hidden by a ledge outcropping. Distance and height were unseen until one climbed around the cliff side, when space seemed to burst open. It was superb.” His objective was to try to “preserve that surprise.”

FoMA is especially pleased to hold the event at the deCordova, which was founded in 1950 and was an important center for contemporary art during this period. Besides highlighting New England art, it was a community center for lectures, music, and studio art classes. “The kind of museum I believe in is a social force; I’ve always treated art as a celebration,” said founding director Fred Walkey, noting the importance that modernists placed on the idea of community. Modern architecture celebrated art and science and was meant to inspire community through thoughtful design that which was affordable and accessible to all.

Space for the event is limited; members are admitted free but must RSVP in advance. There is a $25 fee for non-members. To become a member, go to the FoMA website and follow the “Join” link at the top of the page. Hors d’oeuvres, wine, beer, and beverages will be served.

FoMA works to preserve Lincoln’s Modern architectural heritage. The town’s collection of Modern houses spans the range of a short-lived idealistic architectural period ranging from the 1930s through the 1960s.

Drumlin Farm Food Day – Oct. 26

Come for a day of tasty fun as Drumlin Farm celebrates statewide Food Day on Saturday, October 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Explore in the garden with farm staff, meet some native wildlife, and enjoy a taste from Drumlin’s farm stand. Farm teachers will be on hand to share the bounty of the fall harvest and help you learn how tasty sustainable agriculture can be. All activities are free with admission, which is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and children 2-12, and free for Mass Audubon members.

Special programs throughout the day:

  • 10 a.m. — A Taste of Drumlin: Sample the fruits (and veggies!) of the season.
  • 10:30 a.m. — Flying over Fields for Food: Visit with one of the wild birds that loves a farmland habitat.
  • 11:30 a.m. — Garden Exploration: Open your senses during a garden scavenger hunt.
  • 12:30 p.m. —  Beyond Butter: Shake the jar with us to find out how easy it is to make your own flavored herb butter.
  • 2 p.m. — A Taste of Drumlin: Sample the fruits (and veggies!) of the season.
  • 2:30 p.m. — Chickens and Eggs: Scramble up a few fresh eggs with us and meet one of the chickens that laid them.
  • 3:30 p.m. — Turtles Eat their Veggies: Meet one of our resident reptiles and watch him enjoy a favorite treat.
  • 3:45 p.m. —  Seeing Seeds: Explore the magic of how a seed turns into a new plant.

Lincoln Garden Club hosts talk on sustainable landscaping – Nov. 4

The Lincoln Garden Club and co-sponsor Greening Lincoln welcome Mark Richardson, the newly appointed Director of Horticulture at the New England Wild Flower Society, on Monday, November 4 at 7 p.m. in Bemis Hall.

Richardson, who oversees Garden in the Woods in Framingham and Nasami Farm in Whately, Mass., will update us on the new standards in sustainable landscaping. He will give examples in public gardens as well as our own Lincoln properties. He holds BS and MS degrees in urban horticulture and has lectured at Longwood Gardens and Brookside Gardens.

This is the Garden Club’s  biggest program of the year and the public is invited, so bring extra friends and family for this function you wouldn’t want to miss.

Plenty to do this weekend in Lincoln

pumpkinStonegate Gardens pumpkin festival

Saturday and Sunday, October 12 and 13
11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Stonegate Gardens

The weekend of fun and games to celebrate fall includes a pumpkin hunt, where kids search for baby pumpkins around the nursery and gardens. There will be snacks and prizes for everyone. There’s also pumpkin painting—Stonegate will have paints and decorations so visitors can create scary, pretty, wild, or wacky pumpkin people.

Lincoln Fire Department open house

Saturday, October 12
10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Lincoln Fire Department

In recognition of Fire Prevention Week next week, the Lincoln Fire Department will host an open house on Saturday, October 12 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event, which is open to all area families, includes opportunities for kids to check out the fire station, the fire equipment, and fire trucks as well as snacks, pizza and drinks. This year’s Fire Prevention Week theme, “Get Cookin’ with Fire Safety,” emphasizes the dangers in the kitchen and how to avoid them.

Used book sale

Saturday, October 12
9 a.m. to noon, Bemis Hall

Fill a paper grocery bag with adult and children’s books for only $10! (sales tax is now included) at the Friends of the Lincoln Library’s monthly used book sale. They also have a selection of individually priced special books. We always need more books so donations may be left in the wooden boxes in the entrance of Bemis Hall Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (no textbooks, magazines or no books that are musty or written in, please.)

ARTfull Explorations at deCordova

Sunday, October 13
1-3 p.m. drop-in, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum

Celebrate the opening of the 2013 deCordova Biennial as a family. Close-looking questions will guide you through the galleries to discover several Biennial artists who work with film and then create your own animation using old and new techniques. This monthly program is designed for families with children ages 2-12, but all are welcome.