ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT BRIEFS

STREMMEL GALLERY

Stremmel Gallery presents Phyllis Shafer’s “Beneath On Sky,” the preamble to the Nevada Museum of Art’s (NMA) February 2014 exhibition for the artist.

Shafer’s exhibition of new paintings catalogs her observations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains from Yosemite to Lake Tahoe. “Beneath One Sky,” the fifth solo exhibition for the South Tahoe artist at Stremmel Gallery, will run from through Nov. 9.

BOOKS AND WINE

The Books and Wine Annual Wine Tasting sponsored by the Churchill County Library Foundation is Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Churchill County Library, 553 S. Maine St.

This year’s event will feature Churchill Vineyards, a silent auction, raffle prizes, light refreshments, and a literary quiz. A beer tasting has been added this year as well.

Tickets are $25 each. All funds raised will benefit the Churchill County Library Building Fund.

Call 775-423-7581 for information.

CAPS MURDER MJYSTERY PLAY

The Churchill Animal Protection Society (CAPS) annual fundraiser is Oct. 19 at the Fallon Convention Center.

Ticket prices are $30 each, which includes a murder mystery play and dinner of tri-tip or chicken piccata, catered by Main Street Café. Casual dress.

Tickets can be purchased at CAPS, Jeff’s Copy Express, the UPS Store, MUTTs and Family Pet Connection.

WNC PRODUCTION

A cast of nearly 60 performers has been selected for Western Nevada Musical Theatre Company’s first-ever production of Les Misérables in November.

WNMTC will present 10 performances of the famed international hit on weekends, November 8-24, at the Carson City Community Center.

Nick Favero has been cast in the lead role Jean Valjean, whose dark life as a convict is transformed by a saintly bishop after he nearly returns to prison for stealing.

Other cast members include Mark D. Williams as the diligent police inspector Javert, Melody Ricketts as the suffering Fantine, Kirk Gardner and Dianne Hale as the unscrupulous Thenardiers, Andie Anderson as the wistful Eponine, Maria Arrigotti and Andrew Collins as the lovers Cosette and Marius. Cosette Chamberlin and Grace McCully are double-cast as young Cosette.

The production is complemented by a professional orchestra. It is produced and directed by Stephanie Arrigotti, choreographed by Gina Kaskie Davis and conducted by Kevin Murphy.

Les Mis is the longest running musical in the world. The play won eight Tony awards, including Best Musical and Best Musical Score, and has wowed more than 60 million theatre-goers in 42 countries.

Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m., plus a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, Nov. 23. Tickets are $25 or $28 and are available at www.wnmtc.com or by calling 775-445-4249.

COWBOY POETRY

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is turning 30 in 2014, and the nation’s greatest celebration of the American West, its people, culture and traditions, will turn its focus to the future of the region.

Between Jan. 27 and Feb. 1, in Elko, the Gathering will present poetry, music, fine western gear, films, workshops, dances and discussions with a clear focus on encouraging the next generation and working together to ensure the sustainability of the occupational and artistic traditions of the rural West.

The theme of the 30th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is Expressing the Rural West — Into the Future!

Through performances of poetry and music, thought-provoking films and fruitful discourse, artists and audiences of all ages will share their art and their opinions on meeting the challenges of rural life in the modern West.

In particular, the next generation of cowboy artists will present their work and discuss their brand of ranch life — with one hand on the reins and the other on the cell phone.

More than 50 poets, musicians and musical groups from the U.S. and Canada will perform on seven stages at four different venues.

The line-up includes cowboy poets Baxter Black, Paul Zarzyski, Waddie Mitchell, Yvonne Hollenbeck, Joel Nelson, Doris Daley, Pat Richardson, Randy Rieman and many others.

Music is as integral to the Gathering as poetry; the musical line-up includes Ian Tyson, Michael Martin Murphey, Riders In The Sky, Don Edwards, Dave Stamey, Jeffery Broussard & the Creole Cowboys, Caleb Klauder Country Band, Martha Scanlan and more. Scroll down for a full list of participating artists and their hometowns. Visit www.westernfolklife.org for full bios.

Special guests this year include renowned animal welfare advocate, professor and author Temple Grandin, who will deliver the keynote address, and Stephanie Davis and her Trail’s End Ranch Radio Show, broadcasting poetry, humor and wisdom from a fictitious radio station on the range. A special exhibition will celebrate the new renaissance of western artistry among young gearmakers and visual artists.

THE GERMINO ARCHIVE

Battle Born Digital Media announced they have released The Germino Archive, a project aimed at turning the work of prolific Comstock Photographer William Germino into a coffee table book, postcard collection, calendar and website. Using the crowd funding platform KickStarter, Battle Born Digital Media hopes to secure funding for the first edition of The Germino Archive coffee table book, a 1000 book run.

Bill Germino was a fixture on the Comstock Lode in the 70s and 80s taking pictures of people, places and things on the Comstock Lode and surrounding areas as well as other parts of Northern Nevada and California. The KickStarter project can be viewed by visiting www.kickstarter.com. To view selected images of the collection, visit www.germinoarchive.com or the FaceBook page at www.facebook.com/germinoarchivecom.

“The detail and dynamic range of the images is remarkable” said Battle Born’s Sam Toll.

He is a 25-year veteran of the printing industry, magazine publisher and son of renown Nevada Historian, Author and Publisher David Toll.

“I remember Bill Germino as the chain smoking photographer of the Gold Hill News back when my dad published the newspaper in our front room. He was always lugging around that camera and tripod.”

Bill carried the camera across Northern Nevada and California taking pictures commercially and for his vast personal collection. There are images of Ely, Wells, Jarbidge, Kingston Canyon, The Ruby Mountains, Lamoille, Stillwater, The Dayton Valley, The entire Carson River system and The Comstock Lode as well as the Gold Country and Delta areas of Northern California.

“I have about 3000 man hours into the project so far and I am about half way done. There is an astonishing amount of work required to scan (at least three scans passes are required for images that make it into the book), retouch, color and tone correct.

Then scans need to be tagged and have metadata created with location and date. Finally the scans are numbered and organized and then the collection is copied to a website so the public can enjoy them. I am using the crowd funding platform KickStarter to raise the cost of printing the first run of 1000 coffee table book as well as postcards and a wall calendar for 2014.” said Toll

For those unfamiliar with crowd funding, here is how the process works. Battle Born has established a budget of $ 16,000 to cover the costs of production, printing and fulfillment of all the orders generated by the project (books calendars, postcards and prints) as well as 5% that KickStarter takes and the 3% that Amazon.com takes to handle the individual transactions. They then create pledge levels and assign rewards for those pledges. When a person pledges a dollar amount, they register that pledge with Amazon.com and agree to pay the money should the project reach it’s goal. There is a time limit set , in this case 30 days. If the project does not attain the predetermined amount, no money changes hands.