By Alice Waugh
As they mull several options for the 2014-15 academic calendar, school officials are asking parents about whether or not to start school before Labor Day and whether to have school on certain religious holidays.
[Read more…] about Parents surveyed on 2014-15 school calendar
Here are the election results for Lincoln and surrounding towns for the 5th Congressional District special election on December 10. Among the 24 towns in the district, Lincoln was second only to Cambridge in percentage of residents who voted for winner Katherine Clark (Cambridge went for Clark by a margin of 93 percent to 6 percent). The only town that Frank Addivinola won was Woburn, by a vote of 1,347 to 1,161 (53 percent to 45 percent).
Lincoln’s voter turnout was 17 percent, compared to 13 percent for the district as a whole.
| Katherine Clark (D) | Frank Addivinola (R) | |
| Lincoln | 590 (80%) | 139 (19%) |
| Lexington |
2,951 (79%) | 740 (20%) |
| Sudbury | 834 (64%) | 445 (34%) |
| Weston | 525 (59%) | 348 (39%) |
| District total |
40,172 (66%) | 19,319 (32%) |
On December 18 at 7 p.m., Brayton Shanley will speak about his 25 years of living off the land, building a straw bale house and running a “grease” car all while working in the community to build a more peaceful and responsible world. Sustainability is a word held dear by Shanley. His new book, taken from his essays in Servant Song, is entitled The Many Sides of Peace: Christian Nonviolence, the Contemplative Life, and Sustainable Living.
By Alice Waugh
Lincoln will not be eligible for any state funding for a school building project in the near future, according to a letter received by school officials on December 6.
[Read more…] about State says no to Lincoln’s school building application
The 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.
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.
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.
The School Committee will discuss options for the 2014-15 school calendar on Thursday, Dec. 5 in the Hartwell Multipurpose Room. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. and discussion of the calendar is slated to begin at approximately 7:55 p.m. (see complete agenda).
The committee will also discuss next steps for the school building project starting at approximately 8:40 p.m.
The 2012-13 school year ended later than usual because of several snow days but also because the schedule included days off for parent conferences and religious holidays. Among the options under consideration (click to download a PDF) are taking fewer of those days off, and/or starting the school year some time before Labor Day.
School Committee chair Jennifer Glass said there will be at least one more calendar discussion after tonight before a final decision is made. Public input is welcome either during the public comments period at the start of the meeting, or via email to schoolroom@lincnet.org.
Lincoln residents of all ages are invited to meet with a nurse at no charge at one of several wellness clinics. Get your blood pressure and/or BMI (body mass index) checked, ask questions, or learn about wellness resources.
Clinics will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on the following Fridays at the Community Building at Lincoln Woods at 50 Wells Road:
There will also be a clinic at St. Joseph’s Church (142 Lincoln Road) on Wednesday, December 18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
These clinics are funded by CHNA 15 and provided by Emerson Hospital Home Care. For more information, please call the Lincoln Council on Aging at (781) 259-8811.
Work off your Thanksgiving weight gain on Sunday, Dec. 8 at the Codman Community Farms (CCF) volunteer work day to button up the farm for winter. We’ll start at 9:30 a.m., and you’re welcome to come all day or even just for an hour. There will be tasks appropriate for young and old, and lunch and snacks will be provided.
Thinking about serving turkey for Christmas or New Year dinner? There are still a few turkeys available that were raised at CCF on natural feed and fresh-frozen. They’re priced at $5 per pound. Stop by the farm office/kitchen and talk to Farmer Eric or email info@codmanfarm.org.
If you’re tired of turkey, consider joining the farm’s meat CSA, where each month from January to June, you get 10 pounds of Codman-raised, hormone- and antibiotic-free pork and beef for $600. For more information or to register and pay online, see the CCF website’s Farm Store page.
Here are the Lincoln Council on Aging’s events and activities for the month of December.
[Read more…] about December activities at the Council on Aging
