Directed by Adam Cornelius and written by Chris Higgins, the award-winning 2011 documentary follows a selection of the greatest world record Tetris players as they prepare for the 2010 Classic Tetris World Championship in Los Angeles.

The film explores what made the Soviet video game a worldwide hit. It also shows people trying to push the limits of their own rational ability to sort out the answers to a puzzle.

The running time is 93 minutes, and admission is $7. Refreshments will be available and a discussion follows the film.

In Shout Her Lovely Name, mothers and daughters ride the familial tide of joy, pride, regret, loathing, and love in these stories of resilient and flawed women. Emotionally generous, achingly real and beautifully written, these unforgettable stories lay bare the connection and conflict in families.

Serber has her MFA in fiction, has been awarded the John Steinbeck Award, Tobias Wolff Award, and H.E. Francis Award, and was short listed in Best American Short Stories. She’s been published in The Bellingham Review, Inkwell Magazine, Third Coast, Fourth Genre, and Hunger.

“Shout Her Lovely Name joins the ranks of the finest books ever to address relations between daughters and their mothers – equal parts love and sandpaper. — Robin Black, author of If I Loved You I Could Tell You This

Shout her Lovely Name is not only beautifully written, it absolutely sizzles with the electric shocks of family life, no matter whose family and what their circumstances. — Huffington Post

Take my word: Shout Her Lovely Name will reach inside readers, and squeeze. On second thought, don’t take my word. Read these lovely stories. — San Francisco Chronicle

Following Serber’s reading and Q&A, we’ll have our popular Open Mic where up to nine local writers will read 5 minutes of their original work.

Admission for the evening is $7.

“My music is best described as solo folk rock,” says Moore. “This is actually a re-emergence concert.  This will be the first solo concert I’ve played in 6 years and the first ever to feature mostly originals.”

Moore was in the band Revolution I from 1985-1995 as the drummer and singer.  The band recorded one album, Revoloceans, and played around Portland.

Moore also recorded a solo album, No Design , in 1995 and an album of experimental songs with friends in 2000.

Why Renovation?

“Music had to take a backseat to my carpentry/renovation work for so many years. The root word of renovation is ‘renew.’ With some 60 cover songs burned into my brain from countless campfires, sing alongs and music sessions over the years, it’s only recently that I have begun writing and performing my own songs in earnest.  In effect renewing my music.”

Manzanita was the first place Moore moved on the coast when he left Portland.

“I still feel a connection to the town’” says Moore.  “It will be a great place to play my first concert of original material.  I lived there when the Hoffman Center first came into being and now it is a privilege to play in a venue that supports the arts so strongly.” Although Moore performs regularly at Open Mics in Astoria, he was last seen in Manzanita performing an original song to enthusiastic audience response at the Hoffman Center Talent Show in January.

Admission is $5.

Learn how to paint plein air landscapes using water based oils!

 The goal of this class is to introduce plein air painting methods using water based oil paints.

Topics covered:  Introduction to water based oils; rendering the landscape; how to create atmosphere and distance; creating compositions; capturing light, shadow and color; responding to the landscape.

Materials provided: Drawing surfaces, charcoal pencils, water based oil paints, mediums, brushes, painting surfaces. It is highly recommended to bring outdoor easels and chairs if you have them.

Bjorn is a representational impressionist artist with an extensive background in figure drawing, portraiture, and plein air painting. He has worked as an assistant figure drawing teacher at Humboldt State University before graduating there with a BFA in 2006.

May 16^th, 23^rd, 30^th  

10:00am – 1:00pm meet at the Hoffman Center

$60 for three sessions, $15 materials fee

Contact bjornlundeen@hotmail.com with questions.

Please register by sending name & phone number with payment ($75) to:

The Hoffman Center

P.O. BOX 678

Manzanita, OR 97130

Class size is limited (10 people) sign up early to reserve a spot!

Cathleen Freshwater-Du Bois Becomes “Ant Cat”  

One afternoon last July, Jen and Millie, two women from the south, stopped into the Du Bois’ Balance and Light Gift Gallery in Rockaway Beach to see the Oregon Du Drops.  Inside, their conversation with Cathleen moved from Oregon rain in recycled light bulbs to their recent travels.  Millie told a story about how much fun she had had cutting a record at the Ryman Theatre in Nashville.  “I looked at their list of songs and picked Amazing Grace.  Only cost me $20 and it sounds pretty good, too.”
Cathleen told them she had recorded a couple of CDs and asked if she could sing them a song she had written.  They looked at each other and nodded okay.  (Millie told her later that her first thought was, Oh, God what did we let ourselves in for?)  But the first few notes had them smiling warmly and they clapped delightedly as she finished “Washing Dishes.”
“I’m from North Carolina,” said Jen, “and my cousin Dave Moody has been in the music business since he was a teenager singing for Disney.  He’s now a producer in Nashville, owns Lamon Records, and I’m going to take your songs to him.  He has to hear your music.”
Millie’s Tennessee accent chimed in, “You’re gonna be a star, hun.”
Jen and Millie took Cathleen’s CD’s back home.  Quiet months passed, but doubts as to whether anything would actually happen were quelled by Jen’s constant reassurance over the phone that, “Dave is really busy but he has agreed to listen to your music.”
Finally, news from Nashville:  Dave was eager to produce a CD of Cathleen’s children’s songs, and it would cost her only $10,000; but to the small mom-and-pop operation she and Du Bois run, that may as well have been $100,000.  When she responded that they didn’t have that kind of money, especially in the winter, Dave said he was willing to put up half of it if they could come up with the rest.
Cathleen offered a couple of friends a chance to invest in her big break, and soon she had the five grand she needed.  All she and Du Bois had to do was cover expenses for her trip to Nashville, and on last Groundhog Day, she was on her way.  Jen and Millie met her at the Nashville airport, squired her around the city, and supported her through the recording session.
When she had told Dave she didn’t have chord charts for most of the songs, he said he needed only lyric sheets.  She gave them to him on Monday, and she and Dave and a couple of “Nashville cats” cut ten songs on Tuesday.
Dave asked her about a personal image and Cathleen told him that her little grand-nieces used to write to her as “Ant Cat.”  Cathleen’s new persona was born.
The album Ant Cat Sings I Am Me has its world-wide release scheduled for Tuesday, May 21, and Ant Cat and Du Bois will be hosting a CD-release party at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita that evening at 7:00pm.  Please come to help them celebrate several of her dreams coming true.

Natalie Serber will lead a fiction workshop on Saturday, May 18^th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hoffman Center, 594 Laneda Avenue in Manzanita.

In this supportive and generative one-day workshop for all levels of writers, participants will make things out of words. By sampling some fiction and prose poetry, the group will discuss what creates sparks on the page, how tension and thwarted yearnings bring stories to life. Then, through multiple prompts writers will explore language, character, conflict and action.  Finally, everyone will share their work and by the end of this workshop, should be well on their way with a new story.

Tuition for the workshop is $60.  To register, click here.

Serber has her MFA in fiction, has been awarded the John Steinbeck Award, Tobias Wolff Award, and H.E. Francis Award, and was short listed in Best American Short Stories. She’s been published in The Bellingham Review, Inkwell Magazine, Third Coast, Fourth Genre, and Hunger.  She currently leads fiction classes for Literary Arts in Portland.

Natalie Serber  will read from her short story collection, Shout Her Lovely Name, at 7 p.m. as featured author for the Manzanita Writers’ Series.

The two writers created Feather Mountain Press as a publishing venue dedicated to writers whose novels are well-written, literary, and include soulful characters and storylines.

“I am the queen of super-nice rejection letters,” Slavin says. “I had many reputable editors and agents say that my novel is lovely and good, but not sellable enough for today’s market. Elia and I understand what drives the popular market and we know publishing has changed dramatically in the past few years. Our novels don’t include zombies, werewolves, or over-descriptive sexual content and we weren’t interested in writing those books. We decided to start our own press because we whole-heartedly believe readers still want stories that transport them to compelling places and include people with struggles and transformations they can relate to in their current lives.”

“There are many writers like Virginia Woolf who started their own presses,” Seely adds. “They published their own books and then published the works of other authors who came to be well-known.”

Seely’s novel, Whisper Down the Years, is a literary mystery set in Orkney Island off the coast of Scotland, where the protagonist, Finn Ross, has retreated to find clarity about his dissolving career and marriage. Ross unwittingly discovers the body of a local eminent musician and his involvement in the case thwarts his desire to return to his native Belfast. An enigmatic island girl and her grandmother join Finn in his pursuit of the mystery, and all three find themselves caught in a web of lies and secrets, revealing threads of old sins and links to shadowy witchcraft.

Slavin’s novel, Moorings, follows a young woman, Anne Holloway, as she journeys from the lower forty-eight up to Alaska to find her biological father. While unraveling the violent, deceitful truth about her family’s history, Anne’s presence precipitates break-ups, boat crashes, and, even, unexpected storms. By making the journey, Anne discovers true identity can be found within.

For both novels, setting plays a big part in the story. In Whisper Down the Years, the barren, windy landscape of Orkney, plus the presence of folklore and ancient ruins, make a compelling backdrop for the questions of murder, power, and justice. In Moorings, the small fictional fishing village of Snug Harbor is surrounded by misty fjords, receding glaciers, and wild animals, mirroring the town’s volatile past and tightly-held secrets two decades after a major oil spill, but also pointing toward the possibility of healing for both the environment and the locals.

Feather Mountain Press’s goal is to provide a platform for other writers who are writing in traditional genres – mystery, western, commercial, etc. – but who are stepping out of the box and elevating their stories with intelligence and finely-wrought themes.  “In the U.S.,” Seely notes, “it can be hard to get a mystery published that isn’t one car chase after another or purposefully silly.  We want to encourage writers who transcend the conventions of popular genres.”

By the end of the year, Seely and Slavin look forward to finding new books for Feather Mountain Press that can really soar.

The Feather Mountain Press Book Launch is open to the public and refreshments will be served.  After Seely and Slavin read from their novels, there will be time for Q & A.  Book sales will be provided by Cloud and Leaf Bookstore in Manzanita.  The Hoffman Center is located at 594 Laneda Avenue in Manzanita.  For more information visit feathermountainpress.com.

Naia, a Celtic Flute and Harp duo from Portland, Maine will be joining Kathryn Claire and Hanz Araki from Portland, OR for a concert at the Hoffman Center, Thursday April 18th at 7:30 pm. Admission will be $10

Flutist Nicole Rabata and harpist Danielle Langord of Naia have appeared throughout the US and on international stages in various ensembles and as soloists.

Recent highlights include the International Flute Festival of Lund, Sweden, the Magic Flute Festival in Stockholm, the Hebridean Celtic Festival in Scotland, Longy School of Music, WOMAD Festival in England,Amherst College, New Hampshire Highland Games, the Festival Interceltique du L’Orient in Brittany, France, and the Hammersmith Irish Center in London.

Nicole has been featured on BBC Glasgow and French National Television.

Both have been heard recently on NPR’s show ‘Thistle and Shamrock.’

In demand as teachers, both musicians are on the applied music faculty at Colby College, teaching clinics and workshops throughout New England.

To listen to their music, check here: http://www.naiamusic.com/listen

HANZ ARAKI: Flute player/singer Hanz Araki is the quintessential world music musician, performing a blend of traditional Scottish, Irish and English songs and instrumentals with fierce musicianship and an original approach. His journey began with traditional Japanese music and led to traditional Celtic, pop and rock. Channeling six generations of flautists, a cross-cultural tapestry is woven that never grows stale.

KATHRYN CLAIRE: Kathryn Claire has asserted herself in a new generation of traditionally-inspired musicians. Her violin-playing exhibits a technical grace which is matched only by her truly captivating voice and she possesses the rare ability to move seamlessly across genres. Her deep love and respect for traditional music has long been a driving influence and those roots can be heard in her own original music.

For more info on Hanz and Kathryn, check out:

http://www.thecelticconspiracy.com/

A by-donation lunch starts at 12:00 noon. All poets, student poets, wannabe poets, and those who think they don’t “get” poetry are encouraged to attend this community celebration of the oldest written form.  Nancy Slavin, local writer and poet, will host the event, which also will include brief writing prompts for the launching of new poems.  Door prizes and copious applause will be given to those who read their new work at the Open Mic.   For more information, email Nancy at nancyslavin@mail.tillamookbay.cc or call the Bay City Arts Center at 503 377 9620.  The Arts Center is located on the corner of 5th and A Streets in Bay City.

If you’re on Facebook, check out the event page here:  https://www.facebook.com/events/420545581365585/

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