October 20, 2005
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ANDREWS HALL, BAILEY LIBRARY, 7PM
Author Clarke to Give Reading
Brock Clarke is the winner of this year's Prairie Schooner
Prize in Fiction for his Carrying the Torch, a collection
of short stories published by the University of
Nebraska Press. He will be giving a reading this evening in the Bailey Library of Andrews Hall at 7 pm.
Clarke is an assistant professor of English at the University of Cincinnati. He is also the author of the novel The Ordinary White Boy and of What We Won't Do, a short story collection that won the 2002 Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction.
PRAIRIE SCHOONER
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NEBRASKA UNION, 3PM
UNL Healing Pathways/COR program Lecture - "Understanding Suffering in American Indian Communities"
Dr. Paul Spicer, University of Colorado
115 AVERY HALL, 3:30PM
CSE Colloquium Series - "The Complexity of Information Markets"
Dr. Lance Fortnow, University of Chicago. Refreshments - 3:30 p.m., 348 Avery Hall.
NEBRASKA UNION, 3:30PM
Ethnic Studies Colloquium - "Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Cultural Continuities"
Thomas Rinkevich, UNL. Sponsored by Ethnic Studies Colloquium Committee (Institute for Ethnic Studies).
211 BRACE HALL, 4PM
Physics and Astronomy Colloquium
James, Kakalios, University of Minnesota
ARCHITECTURE HALL GALLERY, 4:30PM
Hyde Lecture Series - "Then Then, Now Now, New New - Digging Hadrian and BASE Beijing"
May-Ann Ray, Southern Institute of Architecture, and architect at Studio Works Architects in Los Angeles, California
NEBRASKA UNION, 8PM
Physics and Astronomy / Project Fulcrum Lecture - "The Uncanny Physics of Superhero Comics"
Jim Kakalios, University of Minnesota
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NEBRASKA UNION (ROOM POSTED), 8PM
Physics-of-Superheroes Professor Kakalios to Give Talk
Somewhere in a parallel universe, a mild-mannered physics professor at the University of Minnesota named Jim Kakalios dons a cape and tights to battle the forces of evil. In our own dimension, Kakalios -- a comic book enthusiast -- teaches physics with the zest of a costumed crime fighter, illustrating his points with examples from the annals of superhero history. Kakalios will talk about "The Uncanny Physics of Superhero Comics" Oct. 20 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The talk begins at 8 p.m. in the Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. (room posted). it is free and open to the public.
In an imaginative and popular freshman seminar at Minnesota, Kakalios in 2002 first used concepts and characters from comic books to explore basic principles of physics, chemistry and biology. The course, "Everything I Know About Science I Learned from Reading Comic Books," attracted students from a wide variety of disciplines.
"As a kid, comic books helped fuel my curiosity," he said. In one story, his favorite hero, The Flash, lost his ability to avoid air resistance and friction. "It made me aware that aside from the silly notion of superpowers, there were all sorts of secondary issues associated with the ability to run super fast that I hadn't considered."
Convinced that comics could help make science more accessible and appealing to students of any age, Kakalios created his seminar on the science of superheroes.
The talk is sponsored by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UNL and Project Fulcrum, a partnership between UNL and Lincoln Public Schools that teams graduate students in math, science and engineering with elementary and middle school teachers to improve the quality of math and science education in Lincoln.
UNL DEPT. OF PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY
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MARY RIEPMA ROSS MEDIA ARTS CENTER
Continuing This Week At The Ross: Junebug, The Incredibly Strange Animation of Bill Plympton
UNL's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center
presents Junebug, the first feature film from director Phil
Morrison, as well as the Incredibly Strange Animation of Bill Plympton.
Giving an art-film aesthetic to a touching family drama, director
Phil Morrison and screenwriter Angus MacLachlan present their first
feature, which was shot in their hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The film is set in nearby Pfafftown and Pilot Mountain, and location
is itself a character in the film as long sequences of soundless photography
show rows of houses, or rooms in a house, or stretches of farmland--capturing
the essence of this area of the South. Successful, cosmopolitan,
and adorable Chicago couple Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) and George (Alessandro
Nivola) meet at a fancy art auction where she is working as a dealer,
and they are married six months later. Madeleine is recruiting
an outsider artist, and she travels to rural North Carolina to meet him.
George accompanies her, as he is originally from Pfafftown, and though
it has been three years since he visited home, Madeleine insists on meeting
his family. When she does, she finds herself in a world totally different
from her own, and sees a new side of her husband. His mother Peg (Celia
Weston) and father Eugene (Scott Wilson) are quiet homebodies who aren't
sure what to make of Madeleine's sophisticated career and lilting British
accent. George's deadbeat brother Johnny (Ben McKenzie) never finished
high school, and lives at home with his young wife Ashley (Amy
Adams), who is naive and bubbly--and very pregnant. While the family's
simplicity, traditional values, and religion make them suspicious of
Madeleine, Ashley is the one bright-eyed spirit who is happy to have
Madeleine as a sister-in-law and celebrates her marriage to George. Junebug is
an affecting film that sheds light both on the always-surprising nature
of in-laws, and the unique culture of the South.
Featuring animator Bill Plympton in person presenting a collection of his favorite short films on Thursday, October 20 & Friday, October 21 at 7:30 pm each evening.
An Oscar-nominated animator and cartoonist, Bill Plympton has been amusing and provoking audiences with his surrealist, off-kilter take on everyday life for years. A pioneer of independent animation, Bill Plympton founded a career on the success of his unmistakable, herky-jerky shorts, the style and subversion of which inspired the MTV generation of animators and cartoonists, including Matt Groening and Mike Judge. Under the shadow of The Simpsons and Beavis & Butthead's franchise-level successes, Plympton has amassed his own extensive body of work unaided by the springboard of corporate sponsorship. With dozens of shorts, four feature animations, and three live-action films under his belt, the 59-year-old Plympton shows no signs of slowing down.
More information is available at the Ross website.
MRRMAC | JUNEBUG | PLYMPTOONS |
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