Hope you had a good Jubilee weekend!
Timetable for the week of 6 June
Copies of full timetable and the Town Hall timetable, the Zoom timetable, the revised list of Monday talks and the handbook are available in the Office, or you can look at our website
This week’s Monday speaker is Hilary Fraser, Emerita Dean of Arts at Birkbeck College, talking on Art and the Literary in the Nineteenth Century: Monday 6 June at 10.30 on zoom
Sadly, our speaker for June 13 cannot make it – Jonathan Barker may give his talk on the beginnings of the U3A movement in the autumn term to celebrate our 40th anniversary. In his place on June 13 we are grateful to Robin Weiss for stepping in with a look at the benefits and unintended consequences of the Silk Route:
The Silk Roads: The flow of goods, knowledge, genes and disease
The Common Room
We have given much thought to the Common Room – it has been much appreciated as an important place for our members to socialise. However, we probably over-estimated the number of people that would be using it and probably a smaller room could have been chosen.
The new committee met last week, and we discussed the Common Room. I.t was decided to move it to a smaller room – this will delight members of those classes that could then move back to Room 1.29.
Room 1.24 would be the best alternative to Room 1.29. However, it would mean moving the Bridge, Scrabble and Mah Jong groups to other rooms, which is certainly possible but this may present problems for those classes.
There is also a strong argument for using Room 1.28 which is now available to us. It would mean almost no disruption of classes at all. It is not such a pleasant room as 1.24 but those who favour it feel it could be made quite acceptable.
We therefore suggest that we try out 1.28 as a Common Room, starting on 13 June for the rest of this term and if it proves to be unpopular we can decide to move to 1.24 in September. (Incidentally, the Atrium is also available if you don’t mind the noise of little children!).
From Wally Howard
Films for the week of 6 June. All shown at 14.00 in Room 1.22
Monday 6 June – The Promise of Music – is a documentary about the 200 members of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra who range in age from 15-25 and are all “graduates” of the sistema as is Gustavo Dudamel himself. Filmed in Venezuela during the Orchestra’s rehearsals for its appearance at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, this documentary also features the concert itself. Writing in Gramophone, Jeremy Nicholas said “If you fail to be inspired by the stories of the individuals musicians told here, their commitment, their determination to succeed, their cheerful enthusiasm, their love of the music, technical accomplishment and exuberant playing, and by Dudamel himself, then I suggest you check into the nearest cemetery”.
Wednesday 8 June – Mon Oncle Antoine – directed by Claude Jutra – is “a beloved Canadian film, rich in characters, glowing with life in the midst of death” (Roger Ebert). The key events of the film take place over a period of 24 hours in a small Quebec mining town during which a young orphaned boy (Benoit), who lives with the local store keeper and undertaker (Antoine), has his life changed forever.
Thursday 9 June – Missing – is the first American film by Costa-Gravras and is based on the 1978 book by Thomas Hauser The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice which was later republished under the title Missing. With a soundtrack by Vangelis and starring Jack Lemon and Sissy Spacek, Missing was both nominated for and the recipient of numerous awards during the 1983 award season including the Palme d’Or. The story centres on the search by Ed Horman (Jack Lemon) and his wife Beth (Sissy Spacek) for their son Charles, an American journalist, who has disappeared in the aftermath of Chilean coup of 1973 and has been described as both a gripping character exploration and an effective political thriller.
Remembering Barry Rae
We would like to have a celebration of Barry’s time with us as part of the Summer Programme. If you would like to like to make any kind of contribution to the occasion, written or live, please let us know.
From Amalia
History of Astronomy. There will be no Zoom version on 7 June and the next live talk will be on 14 June in Room 1.33 at 14.00.
Below are some pictures taken at the Buckingham Palace Garden Party (…there’s something about a soldier …)
From Amrita Narain
My “Cook Indiahh” Zoom class will resume this coming week on 10 June.
From Martin Raybould
We are having a wine tasting session on Thursday 9th June in Room 2.21. It will be starting at 6.30 as usual.
From Ken Baldry
On Wednesday 8th June at 11:40 in Room 2.21, there will be a round-up of Northern Italy and Empires in the 1st half of the 15th Century with 83 slides. There is a complete programme until the end of the year on: http://www.art-science.com/history-talks.html
From Nigel Hathway
LONDON VISITS is returning with a number of events during the summer, and then regularly once a month on Fridays thereafter. We kick off with a guided tour of Lincoln’s Inn on the afternoon of Monday 18th July (price = £15).
If you are interested in going, please contact Nigel Hathway.
From Howard Shelter
The problem with my links has now been fully resolved. The contents of my 9 archive links (on opera, music, Verdi’s biography, opera history, Zarzuela and my website) at the end of every weekly timetable, are now fully playable.
From Sharon Theodore
There will be no Arabic classes on 7 June.
From Alan Morton and Moragh Ghee
“Energy and Climate Change” and “Sharing Stories” have finished for this term. Will resume in September.
New Classes coming next term. Any more offers?
(see below for details)
Spanish Conversation class (day and time to be confirmed)
Walking Group
Walking with Franklin Method
Spanish Absolute Beginners with Peggy Wylie on Thursdays at 14.00
Classical Guitar (day and time to be confirmed)
From Elisabeth Fantino
I would be happy to offer a Spanish Conversation class but would like to have an idea of the level of would-be participants (so that, say, beginners would not try to converse with reasonably fluent Spanish speakers or rather the other way round).
If you are interested, please contact me so that we can discuss these things.
From Elana Gal-Edd
I’ve undertaken to try to organise a U3A walking group. With summer upon us, one idea I had was to walk the Thames Path in stages of 5-6 miles, starting from Putney Bridge westward. My preferred day would be Thursday.
From Caroline Chan
Re Franklin Method
I would like to offer an additional Franklin Method session next term that will include a walk on Hampstead Heath, total time roughly 2 hours.
(Incidentally, would anyone like to join a plastic count led by Greenpeace?
From Rose Andresier
I am offering a Classical Guitar Class. All you need is a Classical Guitar (with 3 clear nylon strings and 3 metal-wound ones), one thick book (to rest your left foot on) and lots of enthusiasm. You might end up like Segovia but certainly not like Queen! I will teach you (if you don’t know already) how to read music, tune the guitar, play the instrument, and have fun. No Strummers please, this is classical!
Contact: roseandresier1@protonmail.com
From Irene Kyffin
I intend to move my class: Theatre: An Architectural History back into the Town Hall in September (Room 1.33). Details will follow.
To make you smile
(Thanks to Maurice Silverman for this and last week’s offering).
A Phone Call.
“Hello?” “Hi this is Daddy, Is Mummy near the phone?”
“No Daddy, She’s upstairs in the bedroom with Uncle Frank.”
After a brief pause, Daddy says, “But you haven’t got an Uncle Frank.” “Oh yes I do, and he’s upstairs in the room with Mummy, right now.”
Another brief pause… “Okay then, this is what I want you to do. Put the phone down on the table, run upstairs and knock on the bedroom door, and shout to Mummy that Daddy’s car has just pulled into the drive.”
“Okay Daddy, just a minute.”
A few minutes later, the little girl comes back to the phone. “I did it Daddy.” “And what happened darling?” he asked. “Well, Mummy got all scared, jumped out of bed with no clothes on and ran around screaming. Then she tripped over the rug, hit her head on the dressing table and now she isn’t moving at all!”
“Oh my God!!! What about your Uncle Frank?”
“He jumped out of the bed with no clothes on too. He was all scared and he jumped out of the back window and into the swimming pool. But I think he didn’t know that you drained the water last week to clean it. He hit the bottom of the pool and I think he’s dead”
***Long Pause*** ***Longer Pause*** Then Daddy says, “Swimming pool??? … Is this 0208-555-7039??”
Best Wishes from Gilli and Amalia
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Gilli
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Amalia
