MICL “B” Session, March 7 – March 11, 2016
Monday, March 7 10:00 AM-noon: TRAVELS AROUND THE WORLD
Gary Moore, Coordinator
Newlyweds Norm and Joann Flinn recently bought a fifth wheel trailer and started the "next phase" of their lives. On June
1, 2015, pets Pico and Cissy took Norm and Joann on a 1 ½ month odyssey, visiting Norm's family in Texas and
sightseeing stops along the way. The trip encompassed 13 states. Being warned that the flooding occurring at the time
and the summer humidity might do them in, did not deter Pico and Cissy. They are back alive to help share their
adventures. Oh yes, you'll "get" to see the family too!
Monday, March 7, 1:00-3:00 P.M: CLASSICAL MUSIC II
Christine Beckstrom, Coordinator
Continuation and development of A Sonorous Smorgasbord to Sensitize and Stimulate Your Musical Taste Buds: Brain
Healthy Music Appreciation
Concurrent component themes: The aesthetic/imaginative response of the human brain to tonal properties of instrumental/vocal
music; the aspects of consonant/dissonant intervals/vibrations that contribute to the musical experience; an historical perspective
of composers' pallets of tonal color; neural pathways in the human brain that contribute to music listening and understanding.
DVD - Dr. Robert Greenberg: Stylistic Features of Baroque-Era Music
Christine Carr - regionally renowned orchestra and chamber music oboist. Presentation will include a concise
history of the oboe and a listening experience involving a Mozart oboe/viola duet.
Tuesday and Thursday, 8:30-9:30 AM: YOUNG AT HEART/TAI CHI
Arline Wortner, Lila Huff, Doc Wait, Leonard Olives, Jim McCabe, Rudy Serrato Coordinators
This is a strength training program designed for older adults followed by Tai Chi. You may sit or stand depending on your
physical ability. The program follows the guideline of the “Presidential Fitness Award.” Participants with problems should have
their doctor’s approval.
Tuesday, March 8, 10:00 AM-noon: WORLD CITIES SAMPLER – “The Big Apple”
Bill Nichols, Coordinator
Last week Sharon and Dave Froba provided a skit and dual presentation to highlight the housing of immigrants in the Big
Apple. This week, Marianne Mayerle will look into the immigrant labor conditions. Last week, Bill Nichols highlighted
Manhattan’s street congestion by noting that the east-west streets are only 30’ wide curb to curb; six feet less than the
residential street in front of most of our homes! But he also extolled the virtues of the subway system - a mere $2.48 a ride
regardless of trip length. This week, Bill will cover the building of the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center
in the depths of the Depression in a can-do city.
Tuesday, March 8, 1:00 PM-3:00PM: SENIOR ISSUES
Gary Moore, Coordinator
If you couldn't make last week's class, you missed our field trip, even if it were only about 10 minutes. This week in the
Senior Issues class we will have three very important topics to cover. First of all we will have Linda Lowe from Area
Agency on Aging and she will tell us about "Family Care Giver Support". Secondly we will have Jeff Lambaren from
In Home Supportive Services and he will present "In Home Care and Funding". Then we will have Cheryl Gerhardt
from Paramount Court and she will talk to us about "Alzheimer Support". So we have a very packed schedule; get
there early and bring your questions.
Wednesday, March 9, 10:00 AM-noon: GREAT DECISIONS
Jerry Jackman, Coordinator
Our second topic is the killer group, ISIS, which pretends to be not only a state but a caliphate. Despite the somber topics
we are coping with a record number of participants and interested MICL members, who are always welcome to watch and
listen in. To better accommodate participants we will arrange tables in a hexagon and minimize the number of folks
isolated in back rows. Come early for a good seat.
Wednesday, March 9, 1:00 PM-3:00 PM: WRITING IT DOWN
Millie Starr, Coordinator
Be inspired to share your writing efforts in an encouraging and supportive classroom setting. Class members write at home about
anything they want, and share what they write in class. Come and join our writing community as a writer or listener.
Thursday, March 10, 10:00 AM – noon: WHAT IN THE WORLD
Anita Altman, Coordinator
Have you ever watched TV or read a newspaper article, opinion, or letter to the editor and really wanted to discuss or react to what
you read? “What in the World” is just the class for you.
Thursday, March 10, 1-3 PM: BEGINNER’S BRIDGE
Gene Richards, Coordinator
Beginner’s Bridge has enjoyed an increase of eight new beginning members for the Winter A session. Add these to our
twenty regulars and we have an exciting group of card players. There is room for plenty more. Join us.
Friday, March 11, 10:00 AM – end of film: FRIDAY AT THE MOVIES, “Timbuktu”
Betty Boj-Sode Coordinator
2002
Subtitles
Color
140 mins.
Newspaper, radio, and endless television reports keep most of us in touch with radical Islamic activities in the Middle East, but this film
gives viewers a rare awareness of the effects of a Jihadist occupation of a once-great but now insignificant site in Central Africa –
Timbuktu. Located in a northeastern corner of Mali, Timbuktu was actually taken over by a similar radical group for some time, and
this event, as well as some related incidents, give director Abderrahmane Sissako the basis for his 2014 film. Although Sissako is a
native of Mali himself, Timbuktu was produced by a French company and filmed mainly in a typi cal small town in Mauritania just
across the western border of Mali.
Sissako painstakingly assembled a cast, largely non-professional, to accurately reflect the various ethnic groups in Timbuktu and their
distinctive languages – Arabic, French, Tamasheq, Bambara, some English, and a few more dialects (subtitles, thankfully, are
exclusively English). There are various brief vignettes throughout the film illustrating the effect of Jihadist rule on the local population
– a dress code for women that includes gloved hands, restrictions on smoking, all music, sports, any relationships between the sexes
outside the family, marriages - you name it. The core narrative, however, involves a Toureg man and his family, living in the desert
surrounding the town. They live a traditional Toureg life depending on a tiny herd of cattle, when a tragic series of accidents leads first
to the death of a cow who has blundered into some fishnets staked out in the shallow river, and then to the accidental death of the
fisherman when the Toureg owner—and father of the young boy in charge of the herd—arrives to remonstrate against the fisherman’s
impulsive reaction. The application of Shariah law in this case, as in other commonplace incidents, illustrates the tragic absurdities of
an often barbaric code of laws.
The Toureg family is an implicit link to the 14th Century days of splendor in Timbuktu, the major trade center of the Mali Empire’s great
caravans, transporting the riches of Africa—gold, ivory, slaves, salt (worth its weight in gold those days). The cargoes carried north to
the east end of the Mediterranean were ultimately diffused throughout Europe to the west and east to the great cultures of the Middle
East. As new trade routes opened to the East Indies around the tip of Africa and across the Atlantic to the New World, the magnificent
intellectual life of Timbuktu along with its rich trade withered, and only the nomadic life of the desert Arabs survived. Sissako’s ending
in Timbuktu leaves us with the question of who or what will survive this present destructive phase of radical Islamists in regions like
Timbuktu.
Sissako’s film opens with some apparently unrelated scenes illustrating the mindless violence of the group under the black flag of
Jiha—the pointless effort to kill a running gazelle with bursts of gunfire, target practice at obviously ancient African religious statues,
the slow motion sequence of a football game played with an imaginary ball since sports are forbidden—episodes linked by a subtle
thread of ongoing hope: the gazelle escapes; the figures are damaged but not destroyed; the idea of the game outlasts its physical
reality. And in the end of his film, the director leaves us with the image of terrified youngsters running into an unknown future.
MICL BOOK CLUB: March 24, 1-3 PM THE DEMON HAUNTED WORLD by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan
Carol Sullivan, Coordinator; Jim Pack, Discussion Leader
How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand the
difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and
distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the
very well-being of our democratic institutions. This book can be read by selected chapters that may be of more interest to
you than others which should lead to a really interesting discussion.
MICL Trip: March 25 – Daffodil Hill & Sutter Creek
Coordinator: Colleen Crosthwaite
MICL Trip Friday, March 25: Sutter Creek, the jewel of Amador County & the Gold Country, is steeped in history. Ideally
situated in the heart of the Sierra Foothill Wine Country, it is Amador County’s most walkable town with restaurants and shops
along the main street. Sutter Creek restaurants and wine tasting rooms lists will be posted on Trips bulletin board in MICL
break room. Daffodil Hill explodes with thousands of blooms each spring and attracts visitors from around the world. Handicap
access is limited but still enjoyable with wonderful views. Parking areas and pathways are gravel with some steep inclines. Signups will begin on Monday, February 29th for MICL members. Guests may sign up for the trip beginning on Monday, March 7. The
cost of the trip is $30. Check-in time on March 25 is 8:45 AM; the bus will leave the MICL parking lot at 9:00 AM and return
approximately 5:00 PM.