ENews March 31, 2023

March 31, 2023

• Alerts & Notices
• Take an Armchair Tour of the Workhouse Arts Center
• Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra with Bobby Floyd
• Join Theater Lovers’ Group for Three Fabulous Musicals
• Computer Club
• Wednesday Team Bloch Conversation – April 5
• History Club Meeting
• Tallwood Book Club
• Poet's Corner
• Arts & Music at George Mason
• Meetings & Clubs
• About OLLI E-News

Alerts & Notices

• Spring-term registration continues throughout the term (through May 19).

• Check this page on the website for changes to the spring term catalog.

• The next issue of OLLI E-News will be published Friday, April 7; the regular deadline for submission of items is Tuesday, April 4, at 6:00.

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Take an Armchair Tour of the Workhouse Arts Center

 By Norma Jean Reck, Theater Lovers’ Group Coordinator

On Wednesday, April 19, at 2:00, you’ll want to grab your favorite refreshment, pull up your favorite chair, and join all your OLLI friends to take an armchair tour of the Workhouse Arts Center on Zoom. You will meet the center’s multitalented performing arts coordinator, Liz Colandene, who will take us on a personal tour of the Workhouse Arts Center, located at 9518 Workhouse Way in Lorton, VA. She will fill us in on how the 91-year-old Lorton Prison complex has been transformed over the last several years into a vibrant, multicultural, visual and performing arts center that offers a wide variety of community events year-round. Tucked away in one of its many buildings is the must-see Lucy Burns Museum, which depicts the 1917 events that changed the women’s suffrage movement.

Did you know that, besides the studios and galleries and their huge variety of classes for all ages, the Workhouse Arts Center offers a Military in the Arts initiative? The program is dedicated to the military arts and art therapy programs that address the needs of, and improve the lives of, military service members and their families.

Save the date and plan to be there Wednesday, April 19 at 2:00. For more information, go to www.workhousearts.org.

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Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra with Bobby Floyd

 

By Darden Purcell, D.M.A., Mason Director of Jazz Studies, Jazz Voice

When: Saturday, April 8, 8:00

Where: Center for the Arts 

Tickets: https://cfa.calendar.gmu.edu/metropolitan-jazz-orchestra-with-bobby-floyd

Head to the Center for the Arts for a swinging evening of jazz with Northern Virginia’s own Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra, featuring keyboardist/organist Bobby Floyd on the Hammond organ and led by Founder, Artistic Director, and virtuoso saxophonist Jim Carroll.

The organ has played a distinctive, albeit niche, part of jazz since the early days, and under Floyd’s gifted fingers you’ll never think of the instrument in quite the same light again. Floyd’s long and illustrious career as a jazz keyboardist/organist has led him to tour with Ray Charles, Rusty Bryant, Jeff Tyzik, Chris Howes, Byron Stripling, and Sarah Morrow. In addition to playing in his hometown with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra and the Columbus Symphony, he has traveled the continent, performing as a featured soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and many others. 

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Join Theater Lovers’ Group for Three Fabulous Musicals

 By Norma Jean Reck, Theater Lovers’ Group Coordinator

NEW! On Sunday, May 7, we go to the Workhouse Arts Center for a 2:00 matinee performance of the Tony award-winning comedy musical Urinetown. “Funny. Poignant. Terrible title.” According to DC Theater Arts, “A knockout production with a great cast and equally stellar design, the entire show is one big guilty pleasure.” Briefly, a 20-year drought has caused a water shortage in a Gotham-like city, which causes the government to ban private toilets, leaving only public toilets for use, which are run by a malevolent company that charges admission. A hero emerges to lead a revolution and regain freedom. The antics lead to “gales of unbridled laughter.” Senior tickets are $33 plus $3 fee. Optional dinner after the show.

On Sunday, May 21, we go to the Creative Cauldron in Falls Church to see the 2:00 matinee of the regional premiere of Audrey. This musical tells the life story of Audrey Hepburn from her being a teenage spy during WWII to her becoming an iconic leading lady in Hollywood. Group-rate tickets are $45 for first-tier seats. The tickets are going fast, so if interested, email Norma at njreck@cs.com ASAP. Optional dinner after the show.

On Saturday, June 10, we go back to NextStop Theatre in Herndon for a 2:00 matinee of another award-winning show by Lin Manuel Miranda, In the Heights. He started writing the play while a university student and finished it many years later. It is about life-altering events that occur to members of the Little Dominican Republic community in Washington Heights, NYC, during three days of sweltering summer heat. Group-rate tickets are $44. Optional dinner after the show.

For more information and to sign up for the shows and dinner, email Norma at njreck@cs.com. Please remember that we welcome guests, form carpools, wear masks when asked, and enjoy our fellow theater lovers.

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3rd Saturday, April 15
Climate Change: Preparing for the New Normal in Virginia
Celebratory Luncheon

The Computer Club (OLLI Personal Computer User Group, or OPCUG) will meet with its partner, the Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society (PATACS), on Saturday, April 15 , in person at Tallwood and via Zoom. Coffee, soda, and individual snack packages will be available. A luncheon will begin at 1:00; the Zoom session usually opens at 12:45.

Climate Change: Preparing for the New Normal in Virginia – Presented by Dr. James Kinter (Dr. Kinter’s talk is scheduled for 2:00)

“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” This old saying neglects that all of us are inadvertently doing something about the weather - we are changing it. The reality of global climate change is now undeniable, and the likelihood is high that human activities are responsible. The citizens and businesses of Virginia are not exempt from the changes coming during the rest of this century – there will be a new normal and we all need to prepare. Knowing where, when, and by how much climate will change in the Commonwealth, and where and how to exploit natural resources, are critically important aspects of planning and preparing for the changes. Dr. Kinter will describe Mason research focused on these questions, emphasizing what we have learned and what remains to be done to respond.

Dr. Kinter is Director of the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA) at Mason, which conducts basic and applied research on climate predictability on sub-seasonal and longer time scales, focusing on phenomena such as monsoons, El Niño, and climate change. He is also a professor in the department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences and the Climate Dynamics Ph.D. program of the College of Science. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on climate dynamics, predictability, and climate change. After earning his doctorate in geophysical fluid dynamics at Princeton University in 1984, Dr. Kinter served as a National Research Council Associate at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and as a faculty member of the University of Maryland prior to helping to create COLA in 1993. Dr. Kinter has published over 110 peer-reviewed papers in academic journals, and he is frequently called to serve on advisory boards and review panels for scientific research and supercomputing.

Celebratory Luncheon – 45th Anniversary of the Founding of PATACS

PATACS is sponsoring a lunch at Tallwood for OPCUG and PATACS members in commemoration of the group’s founding in 1978 as the Tandy Computer User Group, and the 14th year of partnership with OPCUG and OLLI Mason. Want to attend? Click this link to RSVP – must be received by
April 8.

See full details on this meeting by clicking here. For information on the Computer Club, see the OPCUG Website. OPCUG dues are $5 for 2023—see http://olligmu.org/opcug/comm.html for details on making payment.

To attend via Zoom’s cloud meeting service, beginning at 12:45, please click this link to join the meeting and use passcode 569804 (Note: enter passcode with NO spaces) or enter meeting ID 823 4185 2232 in the Zoom app and use the above passcode (preferred method) or dial in – 301-715-8592.

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Wednesday Team Bloch Conversation – April 5

By Brenda Bloch-Young and Doris Bloch, Co-Moderators

Team Bloch will moderate a conversation on April 5 at 4:00 on the new Major League Baseball (MLB) rules initiated in 2023.

For years, baseball has been criticized for being long and boring as compared to other major sports. MLB has made rule changes this year intended to speed the game up. The most significant is the creation of the pitch clock. Pitchers have 15 seconds with the bases empty and 20 seconds with a runner on base. This has shortened preseason games by an average of 25 minutes! The New York Times wrote an article "MLB's New Rules are All About Action."

Join us on the OLLI Chat Line to learn about the other changes this season and share your thoughts. Are the new rules effective?

Check your daily schedule email for the Zoom link on Wednesdays and plan on some social time with Team Bloch.

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History Club Meeting

  


By Elizabeth Lambert, History Club Coordinator



The next meeting of the History Club will take place on Wednesday, April 5 at 4:00.
Our presenter is Brian Medley, a George Mason University graduate student. The
working title of his dissertation is Ghosts of Navassa: Race and Violence at the Heart of
America’s Guano Empire. It is probably correct to say that this is a subject unknown to
most OLLI history club members and history buffs alike.

In the 19th century, the United States acquired Navassa, a small Caribbean island near Haiti. The island was a rich source of guano deposits, a fertilizer needed to improve the nutrient-depleted agricultural fields of the American south. From 1857-1898, white supervisors and mostly African-American laborers mined the guano deposits amid abysmal conditions that led to labor uprisings, naval landings, and murder. Brian’s original goal was to write a “niche piece on the American Revolution.” His dissertation supervisor had another idea—Navassa island. Come and hear what Brian discovered.

Tallwood Book Club

 By Betty Ellerbee, Tallwood Book Club Coordinator

The Tallwood Book Club meets on the second Friday of each month.

On April 14, we will be meeting via Zoom at 2:30 to discuss The Submission by Amy Waldman. The Zoom link will be provided in the OLLI daily schedule email on that date.

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