Education
Archived Posts from this Category
Jack Kerouac Day (Weekend) Coming Up
Posted by PaulM on 10 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Culture, Education, History, Lowell, Lowell 2010
The full schedule of activities for Jack Kerouac Day (he was born on March 12), which has become a “Kerouac Weekend,” is available at www.lowellcelebrateskerouac.org
This Thursday at UMass Lowell, music and movie producer Jim Sampas, who grew up on Wilder Street, will be on campus to offer a master class/listening session at which he’ll tell the behind-the-scenes story of making the soundtrack for the recent documentary film about Kerouac’s novel “Big Sur.” He worked with musicians from Death Cab for Cutie and Son Volt. His talk is at 11 am in Durgin Hall, 114 (note that seating is limited and reservations are required—contact paul_marion@uml.edu to reserve a seat). At 3 pm, Jim will be joined by fellow film producers Curt Worden and Gloria Bailen for a 3 pm showing of their Kerouac film, “One Fast Move or I’m Gone,” in the O’Leary Library auditorium, room 222. Admission is free.
Lawrence School Superintendent Laboy and Three Others Indicted
Posted by Marie on 09 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Education, Politics
The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune is reporting on breaking news that
Embattled school Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy has been indicted on seven counts of fraud and embezzlement and one count of possession of alcohol on school premises.
Also indicted:
…his son Wilfredo Laboy II, his former special assistant Mark Rivera, and failed mayoral candidate Israel Reyes. Rivera stands charged with seven counts of larceny of property over $250 while Reyes faces two counts of the same charge. Wilfredo Laboy II is charged with a single count of perjury.
Read the “breaking news’ story here: http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/local_story_068133631.html
Manchester is More Than Channel 9
Posted by PaulM on 09 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Culture, Education, Greater Lowell, History, Lowell, Lowell 2010
The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H., is one of the Merrimack Valley’s small cultural treasures. Today’s Globe includes a review of an exhibition of watercolors (”From Homer to Hopper: American Watercolor Masterworks”) that sounds like the show would be a good reason to take a ride north next weekend. Read the article by Cate McQuaid here, and subscribe to the Globe if you appreciate it.
A Lenten Reading by Ross Douthat of NYT
Posted by PaulM on 08 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Culture, Education, History, Lowell, Lowell 2010
The NYTimes columnist Ross Douthat offers his thoughts about mysticism for the masses (small “m” masses). Read his essay here, and subscribe to the NYT if you appreciate it.
Lowell Public Schools Blog
Posted by DickH on 08 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Education, Lowell 2010
Welcome to the latest contributor to the Lowell blogosphere - The Lowell Public Schools Blog. The School Department’s blog was launched back in February and is following the number one rule for running a successful blog - it’s being updated frequently - and it contains many interesting, informative posts about what’s going on in the Lowell Schools.
I’ve created a link to Lowell Public Schools Blog in our right hand blogroll so please click through to the site frequently.
Boston College Magazine: On Lotteries, Homefire, Rookies, Writers and More
Posted by Marie on 08 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Culture, Education, Federal, Politics
Boston College Gasson Tower
The Boston College Magazine - 2010 Winter edition - has an interesting array of articles. The Northern Ireland “Homefire” images of photographer Bobby Hanvey are stark reminders of life and culture through the eye of the camers. The tale of author Chuck Hogan ‘89 - The Craftsman - profiles a hard-working, extremely successful novelist who has mastered all elements and layers of Massachusetts as a setting for his mysteries. His 2004 “thriller” Prince of Thieves has been made into a movie “The Town” by Ben Affleck.
Perhaps the highlight piece in this edition is an essay by Erik C. Owens - Bad Bets - which begins “America is a land of lotteries.” Owens - the associate director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American and Public Life at Boston College - gives an interesting history of lotteries in America from their early days back in the colonies as a way to raise funds for the common good to their re-emergence in the 1970’s. He also presents statistics on who plays the current lotteries; who benefits; who loses; who accepts the concept and who regards it as sinful. It’s a “must read” as legislators and policymakers are on the verge of expanding gambling in the Commonwealth.
Read ”Bad Bets” in the Boston College magazine at: http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/winter_2010/features/bad-bets.html Check out the other articles I mentioned as well as those on BC Nursing students, the Supreme Court and more.
Red Carpet Reaches Lowell, Turns Blue
Posted by PaulM on 07 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Culture, Education, History, Lowell, Lowell 2010, Technology
When you watch the red carpet festivities at the Academy Awards later today, look for some long blue threads that extend to Lowell. This morning, Dave Perry of the Sun broke the news that film director James Cameron (Avatar, Titanic, Aliens) will speak in the Middlesex Community College Celebrity Forum on June 16.
‘Creative Economy’ Workers from UMass Lowell
Posted by PaulM on 07 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Culture, Education, History, Lowell, Lowell 2010, Technology
Nancye Tuttle of the Sun today writes about successful graduates of the UMass Lowell graphic design program. Their work is on view through March 12 in the exhibition “Working Proof: Graphic Design Alumni Exhibition” in the Dugan Gallery, 883 Broadway, on UMass Lowell South. Gallery hours are 11 am to 4 pm, Monday through Thursday. In the article, the students praise the UML program and the teaching of Prof. Karen E. Roehr. Read the story here, and subscribe to the Sun if you appreciate it.
‘Breakfast with Buddha’ by Roland Merullo
Posted by PaulM on 07 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Culture, Education, History, Lowell, Lowell 2010
I don’t read many novels other than when I’m on vacation because I like to read fiction in big chunks, which means having a block of three or four hours free. I must have needed a fiction fix recently because I picked up Roland Merullo’s “Breakfast with Buddha” (Algonquin Books, 2008) and devoured the chapters in a few days.
I like Merullo’s writing, which I discovered in his Revere trilogy. In two novels and a memoir, he renders community and family life in that place when he was growing up after World War II. His recent books, “Golfing with God,” “American Savior,” and “Breakfast with Buddha,” are more overtly spiritual in their focus. I haven’t read the other two, but “Breakfast with Buddha” is a satisfying story that explores a middle-aged, middle-American’s unease about the big questions in life: Why are we here? Why do evil and beauty exist? Why is suffering spread around unevenly? Why do we die?
A Boston Globe reviewer wrote: ”Enlightenment meets ‘On the Road’ in this witty, insightful novel.” If Kerouac is the reference here, I’d say it reads more like “The Dharma Bums” for the relationship of the two main characters. The Louisville Courier-Journal reviewer described the book as “both comical and wise…balancing irreverance with insight.” The story, in a nutshell, involves a New York publishing executive who drives to his hometown in North Dakota to handle family business after his parents die in a car accident. The twist is that he winds up traveling with a spiritual guru from Asiatic Russia who is connected to the man’s “cosmic” sister.
There’s a sincerity in Merullo’s writing that’s out of fashion in contemporary fiction. He strikes me as being a normal, functional person with a family who thinks and feels deeply about the human experience. He channels his imagination, knowledge, and experiences into words.
Boosting the Mass. Creative Economy at MIT
Posted by PaulM on 06 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Culture, Education, History, Lowell, Lowell 2010, Science, Technology
Lowell has fully embraced the “creative economy” thinking, evidenced by its forward-leaning initiatives in culture and technology. In the 19th century, Lowell was the home of the renowned Lowell Machine Shop, an engineer’s paradise that shaped the high tech of its day. MIT’s Media Lab is one of the state’s powerful generators of new products and processes, where engineers work on everything from video games to electric cars. Today’s Boston Globe includes an article about the Media Lab’s new building in Cambridge. Read the story here, and subscribe to the Globe if you appreciate it.
