[ThisWeek] m-pact in concert and Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

[thisweek at kenworthy.org]

This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre-

m-pact in concert
Friday, September 30
7:30 PM
Tickets available at BookPeople of Moscow or by calling 208-882-4127
$12/adult, $6/student with ID
(more information below)

Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (G)
Saturday & Sunday, October 1 & 2
4:45 & 7:00 pm
$5/adults, $2/children under 13
(see Review below)
* * *

m-pact in concert

Don't miss the a cappella group, "m-pact" live at the Kenworthy Performing
Arts Centre on Friday, September 30 at 7:30 PM.  Audiences of all ages will
enjoy the energetic performance on the historic downtown stage.

The San Francisco Chronicle calls m-pact "one of the best pop-jazz vocal
groups in the world."

m-pact's sophisticated sound weaves together the swing and style of The
Manhattan Transfer, the hip jazz licks of Take 6, the percussive power of
Stomp, the funk and drive of Earth, Wind & Fire, the moves and soul of
Motown, and the brass bite of the Harry Connick Jr. Big Band.  All created
by the human voice alone.

m-pact has shared the stage with an impressive array of international
recording artists ranging from Sheryl Crow, Liza Minnelli, Ray Charles,
Natalie Cole, Kenny Loggins, Bobby McFerrin and Kenny G to The Maynard
Ferguson Band.  A self-contained "band without instruments," the group has
won rave reviews across four continents and continues to dazzle audiences
everywhere.

Tickets for the show are $6 for children and students and $12 for adults and
are on sale at Bookpeople, or by calling 208-882-4127.  A $.50 per ticket
charge will be added to MC or Visa orders.

This event is made possible with the generous support of Avista Utilities,
Moscow Food Co-op, and Eastside Marketplace and is funded in part by the
Idaho Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the
Western States Arts Federation.

For more information visit www.kenworthy.org or www.m-pact.com or call
208-882-4127.
* * *

Next week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre . . .

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (not rated)
Friday, October 7, 7:00 pm
Panel discussion to follow film
October 8 & 9
4:30 & 7:00 pm
Tickets $5/adult, $2/child under 13

Coming in October: Mad Hot Ballroom, Turtles can Fly, March of the Penguins
Check KPAC¹s web site for dates & times. http://www.kenworthy.org

Regular Movie prices:  $5 adult, $2 child under 13
KFS passes accepted year-round for Sunday movies!
* * *

Fall 2005 at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

Darol Anger Republic of Strings in concert
Thursday, October 27
7:30 PM
Tickets $16/adult, $12/senior or student

"Darol Anger is the quintessential improvising violinist," says Dr. Billy
Tayler of CBS Sunday Morning.  Eric Fidler of the Associated Press says,
"Darol Anger has been obliterating musical borders for years, but never to
better effect.  ... the Darol Anger Fiddle Ensemble creates rich, lusciously
textured, complex and quite beautiful music."

Renowned for his versatility and depth, Darol Anger has helped mastermind
the evolution of the American string band with his groundbreaking groups The
Turtle Island String Quartet, Fiddlers 4, Psychograss, Newgrange, Montreux,
and the David Grisman Quintet.  Michael John Simmons of Amazon.com says,
"Harmonically complex, rhythmically rich arrangements.  You might call this
improvised Afro-Scandivanian Irish old-time string band music, but it would
be equally true, and much simpler, to just say they play great music."

The concert is sponsored by local businesses Advantage America Mortgage and
Hayden, Ross & Co. and is funded in part by the Idaho Commission on the Arts
and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tickets for the concert go on sale October 1 at BookPeople of Moscow.
Tickets are $16 for adults and $12 for seniors, children or students with ID
and can be charged by phone to 208-882-4127.  There is a $.50 per ticket fee
on all charge card orders.

For more information, visit www.kenworthy.org or call 208-882-4127.
* * *

Moscow Community Theatre presents
Noodlehead
Original musical by Lisa Kliger
November 3 - 5, 10 - 12 at 7:30 PM
November 6 & 12 at 2:00 PM
$11/adult, $9/student or senior


* * *
This week¹s review-

Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

Documentary Film
Directed by Judy Irving
Running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes
Rated G

As reviewed by Ed Park writing for The Village Voice

An intimate companion piece to 2002's epic, globe-spanning Winged Migration,
Judy Irving's The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill tracks a flock of
cherry-headed conures, several of whom emerge with distinct personalities.
It's also a portrait of Mark Bittner, the quasi-Saint Francis of San
Francisco, who monitors, feeds, and‹simply put‹loves these green-fledged
creatures, while rigorously insisting on their essential freedom. Bittner
came to the city on the Beat-hippie cusp with dreams of being a musician;
marching to his own drum, he still seems to exist on air and complimentary
Italian carbohydrates.

Several sharp jolts give the documentary its dramatic shape, and one episode
in particular, caught with a neighbor's lens, will make you gasp with grief.
The conures' shadowy origins are explored, but pale next to the fundamental
mysteries of the friendship between man and bird. The fate of the flock is,
necessarily, left up in the air, and though there's a quite surprising
resolution for the humans in this film, we're free to imagine the fate of
the conures outside the frame‹cryptically darting en masse to some unknown
goal, their bodies the same green as the leaves on the trees.


As reviewed by Roger Ebert writing for the Chicago Sun-Times

Mark Bittner is calm, intelligent, confiding, wise and well-spoken. You
would be happy to count him as your friend. He has not worked in 30 years,
lived on the street for 15 of them, and in recent years devoted his life to
getting to know 45 wild parrots who formed a flock in San Francisco. It
takes a lot of time to get to know 45 wild parrots as individuals, but as he
points out, "I have all the time in the world."

"The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill," a documentary about Bittner and his
birds by Judy Irving, is making its way around the country as an underground
phenomenon, fueled by fans who urge their friends to see it.

It is not the film you think it is going to be. You walk in expecting some
kind of North Beach weirdo and his wild-eyed parrot theories, and you walk
out still feeling a little melancholy over the plight of Connor, the only
blue-crowned conure in a flock of red-crowned conures.

Connor had a mate, Bittner tells us, but the mate died. Now Connor hangs
around with the other parrots but seems lonely and depressed, a blue-crowned
widower who can sometimes get nasty with the other birds, but comes to the
defense of weak or sick birds when the flock picks on them. Picasso and
Sophie, both red-crowned parrots, are a couple until Picasso disappears;
Bittner begins to hope that maybe Connor and Sophie will start to date and
produce some purple-headed babies.

Nobody knows how the parrots, all born in the wild and imported from South
America, escaped captivity, found each other and started their flock. Irving
has several North Beach residents recite the usual urban legends (they were
released by an eccentric old lady, a bird truck overturned, etc). No matter.
They live and thrive.

Oddly, most bird-lovers seem to resent trespassers such as wild parrots, on
the grounds that they are outside their native range. That they are here
through no fault of their own, that they survive and thrive and are
intelligent and beautiful birds, is enough for Mark Bittner, and by the end
of the film that's enough for us, too.

He gives us brief biographies of some of the birds. Sometimes he takes them
into his home when they're sick or injured, but after they recover they all
want to return to the wild -- except for Mingus, who keeps trying to get
back into the house. Their biggest enemies are viruses and hawks. The flock
always has a hawk lookout posted, and has devised other hawk-avoidance
tactics, of which the most ingenious is to fly behind a hawk, which can
attack only straight ahead and has a wider turning-radius than parrots.

As Bittner tends and feeds his flock, visitors to the wooded area on
Telegraph Hill want to categorize him. Is he a scientist? Paid by the city?
What's his story? His story is, he finds the parrots fascinating and
lovable. He quotes Gary Snider: "If you want to study nature, start right
where you are." Can he live like this forever? He is about 50, in good
health, with a long red ponytail. He says he decided not to cut his hair
until he gets a girlfriend. Whether either Connor the blue-crowned conure or
Bittner the red-headed birdman finds a girlfriend, I will leave for you to
discover. 


As reviewed by Marrit Ingman writing for the Austin (Texas) Chronicle

Could this summer¹s breakout film star be Mark Bittner, a graying San
Francisco hippie with no girlfriend, no apparent means of income, and no
abdominal six-pack? He¹s a regular guy in every sense of the term, and
perhaps even less estimable at first glance, certainly among the feisty
young go-getters in his scenic bayfront neighborhood. His fledgling career
as a musician foundered years ago; he was homeless for more than a decade
and lived on the roof of a hotel. Yet he proves himself a hero in this
mellow but entertaining and engaging documentary, which examines his
relationship with a flock of wild parrots (one of two in the city, it turns
out) that populate the trees around Bittner¹s rent-free crash pad.

Bittner spent a year getting the birds to come to him, and the film likewise
takes its time. Over the course of its first two acts, we meet some of the
45 birds ­ a downtrodden and mateless blue-crowned conure, a pair of
cherryheads, a banded former house pet that nibbles Bittner¹s shoes. Just as
she¹s getting us comfortable, Irving draws the net with a sudden reversal of
fortune: Red-tailed hawks are circling the flock, and Bittner¹s otherwise
infinitely patient landlords announce the renovation of his building. He¹ll
have to move, and the birds will be on their own. The film invites such an
emotional investment in its subjects ­ human and avian alike ­ that there is
a real sense of loss when Bittner packs up his hot plate and his Gary Snyder
books; there is real, old-fashioned movie drama in the fate awaiting the
birds. 

Thus the film reveals itself to be far more than an urban curiosity piece;
its subject is compassion itself, the noblest of human possibilities. It
asks difficult but worthwhile questions: How do people make their way in a
world that is often intolerant of eccentrics and encourages conformity? What
kind of relationship should human beings have with nature? (Irving gives
time to the viewpoint that Bittner¹s interference with the birds is not in
their best interest, nor in the interest of native species.) And,
interestingly, it depicts an average person¹s journey into a world of
dedicated scientific inquiry, which makes it a fine choice for all-ages.


Film reviews researched and edited by Peter A. Haggart
* * *

Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre
508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho
For more information, call 208-882-4127 or visit http://www.kenworthy.org
* * *

Sign up for this weekly email on events and movies at the Kenworthy by
logging onto our website
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAMELA PALMER, Volunteer
Mailto:ppalmer at moscow.com
Film and Events Committee
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

http://www.kenworthy.org
To speak with a KPAC staff member,
call (208) 882-4127
Mailto:kpac at moscow.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                

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