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Fri, Apr 22, 2005

April 22-24, 2005

LANCASTER BUILDING, STATE FAIR PARK, SAT 9AM - 4PM
Spring Affair Plant Sale is Saturday

With more than 35,000 plants representing nearly 650 varieties, the 19th Annual Spring Affair Plant Sale is sure to satisfy the gardener's needs. The sale opens its doors from 9 am to 4 pm April 23 in the Lancaster Building at Lincoln's State Fair Park. Admission to the sale is free and in addition to the sale, seven free public seminars will take place during the day.

Each year, Spring Affair sells thousands of plants, some not typically found in garden centers. The event also allows the public access to local experts for gardening ideas and advice. A number of vendors of garden art, sculptures, furniture and other items also sell their merchandise at Spring Affair.

Plants are provided by Bluebird Nursery of Clarkson and are chosen by local horticulture experts for their suitability to the local climate, their uniqueness or because of popular demand. Most of the plants are perennials but some are annuals, such as herbs. Typical garden center plants such as zinnias, marigolds or petunias are not among the plants offered for sale because of their easy availability elsewhere.

UNL BOTANICAL GARDENS & ARBORETUM

UNL CAMPUS
Ecology Now Hosts UNL Earth Day Activities

A myriad of environmentally and socially-conscious groups will inundate the University of Nebraska-Lincoln City Campus Friday, April 22 in celebration of Earth Day. Ecology Now, UNL's student environmental group, is hosting over twenty local organizations and live bands on the greenspace north of the Nebraska Union all day to provide activities and to educate the public about the importance of our planet.

This annual festivity includes outdoor music performances, poetry readings, and an exhibit of recycled art. Activities will span from 9 am to midnight. Live music starts at 3 pm and includes local bands Once A Pawn, Blue Berry Merry, Great Caesar's Ghost!, Mother Wells, and The Marx. Three hybrid cars will be displayed on the Union Plaza, and free food from local vendors will be provided throughout the day.

Ecology Now is the student environmental group at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Founded in 1989, Ecology Now seeks to raise awareness of environmental issues and promote ecologically-sound choices on UNL's campuses and in the greater community. The group is a recognized student organization in good standing at the university and is sponsored by UNL's Environmental Resource Center.

Download a PDF of the full slate of events for Earth Week 2005.

ECOLOGY NOW

GROUP HOLDS INAUGURAL MEETING
Top IT Leaders Make Up New J.D. Edwards Board

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has assembled 11 of the nation's top information technology leaders into a new board to help guide the future of the J.D. Edwards Honors Program in Computer Science and Management. The board's inaugural meeting is April 22 at UNL.

"We really want to keep J.D. Edwards Honors Program on the leading edge of education in information technology and business," said David Keck, director of the program. "The insights and advice from this board will result in the program achieving that objective."

UNL officials said they see the board as a way to leverage the successes of the J.D. Edwards Honors Program to have increased social and economic impact. Connections through the board may mean more job and internship opportunities for UNL students and graduates.

J.D. EDWARDS HONORS PROGRAM

UNL CAMPUS
Fine & Performing Arts Hosts Alumni Weekend

The Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts will celebrate an annual alumni weekend April 22-24. More than 20 awards and recognitions will be presented, including the Alumni Achievement Awards, which recognize alumni who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and overall professional excellence in art, music and theatre; the Award of Merit, which honors those who have made contributions but who are not necessarily alumni of the college; and the Student Leadership Awards, which are presented to currently enrolled students or recent graduates who have demonstrated leadership in academics or in student life.

Alumni Achievement Award winner Kent Broadhurst, an actor and published playwright, will be in theatre arts, art and art history classes on April 21-22. Broadhurst received his degree in art, but is being recognized for his theatre arts accomplishments, including his screenplay for "Wild Iris."

Alumni Achievement Award winner Col. Gary F. Lamb will be in music classes on April 22. Lamb is leader and commander of "Pershing's Own" United States Army Band. He will conduct a song at the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band 125th Anniversary Concert at 7:30 pm April 23 in Kimball Recital Hall. Tickets for the concert are available at the door.

There will also be an alumni performance at 2:30 pm April 23 in the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery auditorium featuring music and theatre alumni. This performance is free and open to the public. The Hixson-Lied Advisory Board will also hold its biannual meeting on April 22. For more information, call the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts at 472-9355.

UNL SCHOOL OF FINE & PERFORMING ARTS

STUDIO THEATRE, TEMPLE BUILDING, FRI 7:30PM; SAT 7:30, 10:30PM
UNL's Theatrix to Produce Kushner's The Illusion

Theatrix, the student theatrical producing organization at UNL, completes its spring season with Tony Kushner's The Illusion.� Directed by undergraduate Jack Carpenter, performances are April 22 and 23 at 7:30 pm with an additional performance at 10:30 PM on April 22 in the Studio Theatre, third floor Temple Building.� Admission is $5.00 at the door only.� Doors open one-half hour prior to curtain.

The Illusion tells the story of a father, who with the aid of a magician, seeks to determine the destiny of his errant son.� The love between the father and the son is challenged as they realize that all is not what it seems, testing our ideas of love.� Is love an illusion?� The play is a reflection on the power of theatre and the importance of illusion and storytelling.

Director Carpenter explains that, "The Illusion is a celebration of theatrical styles ranging in scope from verse reminiscent of Shakespeare to sharp contemporary understanding and wit.� Adapted by Tony Kushner (Angels In America, A Bright Room Called Day) from the 1639 play L'Illusion Comique by Pierre Corneille, it is oftentimes fantastical, frequently touching and even more often deliciously comical. Since 1988, it has been inviting audiences to question what they see and fell: even love, undoubtedly the most inspiring and (at times) deadly of human emotions, may ultimately be only an illusion."

The cast includes Rachael Miller as Alcandre, Greg Peters as The Amanuensis, Jeremy Blomstedt as Pridamant and Steve Lenz, Courtney Pearson, Jenny Cary, Matt Miller, Seth Petersen, Jesse Glasgow, Meredith Wachter, Brady Leffler and Kate Garst.

The 2004-2005 Theatrix Artistic Director is Brianne Bassler, and the Technical Director is Matt Miller.

UNL THEATRE ARTS

MARY RIEPMA ROSS MEDIA ARTS CENTER
Continuing This Week at the Ross: Head-On, Born Into Brothels

UNL's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center presents director Fatih Akin's Head-On, and Born Into Brothels, the 2005 Academy-Award Winning film for best documentary.

Fatih Akin's Head-On (Gegen Die Wand) is a powerful film about sexuality and suicide, centering on two Turks living in Germany. Drunken loser Cahit (Birol Unel) drives his car into a wall; Sibel (Sibel Kekilli) slashes her wrist because she can't stand living with her traditional Muslim family. The two meet in the hospital and decide to join in a marriage of convenience in which he can get himself a cute young housekeeper and she can finally move away from home. They live together in Hamburg, where she begins to sleep around dangerously and he grows surprisingly jealous, leading to tragedy. To a soundtrack of 1980s music (Depeche Mode, Talk Talk, Sisters of Mercy), their lives continue to fall apart, lost to a world of lies and deception, drugs and violence, and emotional pain.

In Born Into Brothels, British-born photojournalist Zana Briski overcame barriers of language, culture, and ethnicity when she immersed herself into an impoverished and illegal neighborhood in the Third World metropolis of Calcutta, India. An award-winning photographer, Briski befriended the children of Sonagachi (the city's red light district), starting a photography workshop for them and equipping them each with their own camera. The transformative power of this simple object is remarkable; within weeks, the children show new spirit and several have discovered a talent for the art. Briski and her co-director, Ross Kaufman, follow the children as they filter their marginalized, forgotten world through the camera lens. Over the course of the film, a central narrative unfolds--the children's quest, fueled by their newfound hope and strength, to leave the brothels for a better life. The film won the 2005 Academy Award for best documentary feature.

More information is available at the Ross website.

MRRMAC | HEAD-ON | BORN INTO BROTHELS

201 BRACE LAB, FRI 1:30PM
Center for Materials Research and Analysis / NSF-MRSEC Seminar - 'Theory of Magnetic Semiconductors: From Materials to Devices'
Andre G. Petukhov, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

327 KEIM HALL, FRI 3:30PM
Agronomy/Horticulture Seminar - 'Centers of Origin/Diversity of Dry Edible Beans'
Dr. Carlos Urrea, Panhandle Research and Extension Center

BESSEY AUDITORIUM, FRI 3:30PM
Geosciences - T. Mylan Stout Lecture Series - 'The Role of Groundwater-surface Water Interactions in Paleoacustrine Records of Climate Change'
Mark Person, Indiana University

115 AVERY HALL, FRI 4PM
Mathematics Colloquium - 'An Asymptotic Formula for the t-core Partition Function and a Conjecture of Stanton'
Jaclyn Anderson, University of Wisconsin