Books & Ideas
BUSING BREWSTER: By Richard Michelson, illustrated by R.G. Roth, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, N.Y. 2010. $16.99, hardcover.
By ROB HAMMETT
Screenwriting Class
There’s an old adage that character is story. Sounds good. After all, what is a story without a bunch of folks doing stuff to advance the plot. But what then is character? And even more important, how to get someone to care about the characters you invent.
Map the World Wide Web
Feeling a little lost on the Internet these days? The Chilmark Public Library is hosting a free workshop series called Getting Connected to help. Beginning Wednesday, Feb. 9, it is aimed at helping computer users experience more from the Internet and connect with friends, family and customers.
The workshops, led by BZ Riger of Oak Bluffs, are appropriate for individuals and small business owners. They will be held on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. in the library meeting room.
For details, call 508-645-3360.
Foreign Policy Matters
Vineyarders who want to learn about and participate in foreign policy decision-making, take note: a Great Decisions Discussion Group begins on Thursday. Feb. 10 at 7 p.m., and runs for eight successive Thursdays at the Vineyard Haven Public Library.
HIGH ON THE HOG: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. By Jessica B. Harris. Bloomsbury, January 2011. 304 pages, photographs. $26, hardcover.
It amazes new students of ar chaeology that the most essential insights into a bygone community may be found in the humble section of rubble called the kitchen midden. It’s here that broken plate ware is examined, along with iron pots and pans and broken ceramic jars containing trace elements of oil from which experts reassemble the daily fabric of a past society’s life.
The abstract artist Vaclav Vytlacil (1892-1984) ran with a pretty serious art crowd. The names are icons of the form: Louise Bourgeois, Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg to name just a few. He also established the American Abstract Artists group with Arshile Gorky and William deKooning to help educate the American public regarding this new movement.