11 posts from 2008

The Auburn Area Community Theater is presenting a production based on how Laura Ingalls Wilder became a writer. It is a Young Actor Performance and will be presented over four days.

Here is what the Opelika-Auburn News reporter Brittany Whitley had to say:

The Auburn Area Community Theatre Young Actor Produc­tion of "Laura Ingalls Wilder," the biographical play portray­ing the life of the woman who wrote "Little House on the. Prairie," will begin today and 'conclude Saturday, May 17 at the Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center.

Shows today, Thursday and Friday will begin at 6:30 p.m. There will be two shows on Saturday at 2 p.m. and at 5 p.m.

"It's not 'Little House on the Prairie,' " Tricia Oliver, director Of the play said, "This is about Laura and how she came to be a writer."

Oliver said she picked the play because she loves its main char­acter. "I enjoy the stories,. and I think women will enjoy sharing this experience with their chil­dren," she said. "Laura is such a good, positive,' strong female character."

This is not really LIW related. It is related in the sense that it is about a great little museum in Iowa, where LIW once live. Also in the sense that I believe LIW would really enjoy the tour if she saw it. I wonder if Rose might have stopped and toured during her tour of Burr Oak.

The museum is the Bily Clock Museum and it is located in Spillville, Iowa. Spillville is known as the most historic Czech village in America and the oldest Czech community in Iowa. There was a button in the gift shop that said "I am the Czech your mother warned you about" I wish I had bought one.

Spillville is located on Highway B16, off of U.S Highway 52 south of Decorah. I found out about the museum after reading a local tourist newspaper while visiting Burr Oak in summer of 2007. It sounded very interesting and I am so glad I stopped.

Spillville's demographics are largely Czech ancestry and it is very evident around the town. One of the more interesting things about Spillville besides the Bily Clock museum is the fact that composer Antonin Dvorák lived in the town for a summer in 1893.

Briefly, the Bily clock museum is a truly fascinating tour of incredibly intricate, detailed handmade clocks. Most of them are over head tall and are truly amazing to watch.

Brothers Frank and Joseph Bily began building clocks in 1913 to pass the time during the boring winter months. In the beginning, the clocks were just a hobby, while still doing farm chores. In 1915-1916 they built  the Apostle Clock. The twelve apostles appear on the hour.

This post will be done over a day or so. It is late and I am very tired. I will include an image of the clocks to give you an idea and a link to the web site.

The widow of actor Moses Gunn donated memorabilia from the actor's 30 year career to the theatre department at the University of Kansas. Gunn was an alumnus of the university, attending from 1959-1961.

He was known for his Shakespearean performances with the Yale Repertory Theatre and the New York Shakespeare Festival; he played Othello on Broadway, Cominus in "Coriolanus" and Randolph in a production of "King John" in Central Park, part of the New York Shakespeare Festival. He also co-starred in South African playwright Athol Fugard's "Blood Knot" and "My Children, My Africa."

An authoritative black character actor in films and TV, Gunn's many film credits include "WUSA," "Hot Rock," "Wild Rovers," "Rollerball," "Shaft," "The Great White Hope" and "Leonard IV." He played Booker T. Washington in the 1981 movie "Ragtime," a performance that won him another NAACP Image Award. His last major film was Clint Eastwood's "Heartbreak Ridge" in 1986.

On television, he co-starred with Avery Brooks on "A Man Called Hawk" and appeared on "Good Times," "Little House on the Prairie," "Father Murphy," "The Cosby Show," "Equal Justice" and "Homicide: Life on the Street." He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of African chief Kintango in the first installment of ABC's groundbreaking miniseries "Roots" and for "Of Mice and Men." On PBS, he was featured in "The Killing Floor," "The House of Dies Drear" and "Charlotte Forten: Experiment in Freedom."

His role on Little House on the Prairie as Joe Kagan is small considering his long career, but Joe Kagan was one of my favorite characters on the LHOP series. I looked him up on the IMDB web site and he was only on 5 episodes of LHOP. It seemed to me he was on more often than that.

Gunn died at his home in Guilford, Conn., in December 1993 from complications of asthma.

Tickets for the new Little House on the Prairie musical go on sale  June 27. The play opens  in the summer but approximately 250 Minnesotans were the first to have a look at the musical based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books.
 

The sneak peak lasted for 30 minutes. Kara Lindsay, who plays a young Laura and Ali Litrell, who plays Mary, performed a duet called "I'll Be Your Eyes". Lindsay also performed  a solo entitled "I'm Old Enough".

Later, Kara performed  a love song duet with Dieter Bierbraur who plays Almanzo, entitled "Carried Away".

Right now, the play centers on the middle books, during Laura's teenage years. But things could change between now and when full rehearsals open in April.

The shad are about to start running and my serviceberry (shadbush) tree is about to bloom.

Rose Wilder Lane wrote about the serviceberry trees that grew in the woods at Rocky Ridge Farm. She commented that the blooms gave a misty appearance to the woods surrounding the farm house. The story is in "Little House Sampler" and I will post Rose's quote here.

The fruit is good for jellies, pies, etc. The size of the fruit is about the size of a holly berry. It would take a great many to do anything with. I usually eat a few of mine fresh off the tree. Most go to the birds, I thoroughly enjoy watching the birds enjoying them.

This link at Wikipedia says more about the genus than I can type here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serviceberry

Found a comment in a cooking blog tonight. The blog entry was about pancakes. The person making the comment mentioned Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about using a blanket pancake to keep the smaller pancakes underneath warm. She said LIW wrote it in her book "Little House in Brookridge". This must be one of Laura's books that I have not read, and I thought I had read them all.

As far as the recipe goes, it calls for soymilk. I can't imagine using soymilk in pancakes. It sounds gross to me. I don't think humans were meant to be vegetarians, at least this one.

I found this book mentioned on Melissa Wiley's blog. It is written by Mary Gildersleeves and contains a collection of great stories for children including one by Melissa and LIW. It also has knitting projects to go along with the stories.

I have never been a knitter. Being left handed, I could find no on who could teach me. I have tried to follow instructions in the needlework books, but my projects never look near as good as the photos. As cyberbessie once told me, it is a matter of practice, practice, practice. Maybe one day.......

Cyberbessie blogged about this book after I did and showed some of the patterns included and how she knits them. Look here for her blog entry. I told you she could knit!

One of my favorite Native American actors recently passed away. Floyd Westerman passed away in December from complications of leukemia. Floyd had a very long career in movies, television, and the music industry. My favorite performance was Ten Bears in Dances with Wolves.

Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman was born on the Lake Traverse Reservation, home of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Dakota (Sioux) in the state of South Dakota. As a youth, he attended an off-reservation elementary school where he was forced to cut his hair and forbidden to speak his native language. This would profoundly impact his later life and his restless pursuit of championing his own heritage. At the age of 10, Floyd was sent to the Wahpeton Boarding School, where he first met Dennis Banks of the American Indian Movement. He earned a degree in secondary education from Northern State University in South Dakota. Floyd spent two years in the United States Marine Corps. Before his entry into acting, Floyd established a solid reputation as a respected country western music singer. His recordings offer trenchant inquiry into European influences on Native American communities. In addition to several recordings of his own, Floyd collaborated with Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Harry Belafonte, Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson and Buffy Sainte-Marie. He toured with Sting in the 1990's to raise funds to preserve rain forests. Floyd was a recognized political advocate for Indian causes, working with the American Indian Movement. In 2000, American Indian Expo named Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman Celebrity of the Year. Among other accolades, he received a Congressional Certificate of Special Recognition, the Award for Generosity by the Americans for Indian Opportunity, was named Cultural Ambassador by the International Indian Treaty Council, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the City of Los Angeles and Mayor Richard Riordan, and received the Integrity Award from the Multi-Cultural Motion Picture Association. Floyd passed from this life on December 13, 2007 at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles from complications of leukemia. He is survived by his wife Rosie, his son Richard Tall Bear Westerman, and four daughters: Chante Westerman of Washington State, Chenoa Westerman of South Dakota, Jennifer Westerman of Arizona and Nicky Jackson of Minneapolis. The Producers, Cast and Crew of COMANCHE MOON would like to dedicate our film to the memory of our esteemed and beloved cast member.

One of my favorite western genre authors has brought the final book in the Lonesome Dove trilogy to the small screen
this week. Comanche Moon is being shown in three parts. Part one was Sunday night and part two aired tonight.

Larry McMurtry's Comanche moon is the second installment chronologically. McCrae and Call are in their 30s and become Captains in the Texas Rangers. They set out with their Ranger unit searching for Inish Scull, their former Captain in the Rangers. Scull set out looking for his stolen horse and disappeared.

Unbeknown to Call and McCrae, Scull has been captured by the Mexican bandit Ahumado. Ahumado has a thing for torture and does not hesitate to use it on Scull.

Wes Studi plays Buffalo Hump in the series. Graham Greene was scheduled to portray Buffalo Hump, but had to withdraw from the part. A funny quote from Wes Studi which is paraphrased here. There are two rumors as to how Buffalo Hump received his name; one was due to a hump like growth on his back. The other was due to his sexual prowess. Guess which reason Wes Studi liked better?!

The last part of CM was shown on Wednesday night. It was the best so far. I am not sure why, but all three TV adaptations have been slow to evolve. But after a while, they kick in and become outstanding.

The women's costumes were beautiful and I am pleased to say they were the most authentic 19th century fashions I have seen. No skirt and blouse, or low cut velvet frocks like you see in a lot of westerns. These were authentic down to the petticoats and hoops. Very rich fabrics and designs and not a zipper in sight. I have inserted a few photos of the dresses to illustrate.