Things to Do, Oct. 16-23

Japanese invasion

Cornell's Fanclub Collective and Ithaca Underground are bringing Japanese pop/punk trio Shonen Knife to campus Oct. 17 in Appel Commons. Doors open at 8 p.m.

The all-girl band from Osaka is famed for their happy, catchy songs (many of them about food) performed in the spirit of both the Supremes and the Ramones. Also playing: Massachusetts trio Thunderhole and local bands Glad Rags (gypsy punk from Ithaca College) and the Berettas. Advance tickets are $5 each at Angry Mom Records, 115 Ithaca Commons, or online at http://www.ithacaunderground.com/index.php/consume.php.

Modern art and memoirs

Sudanese modernist painter Ibrahim Mohammed El-Salahi, artist-in-residence at Cornell's Institute for Comparative Modernities, will present a free talk, "Project Memoir," Oct. 19 at 5 p.m. in Toboggan Lodge.

El-Salahi is using his residency to complete the editing of his memoirs in English and Arabic, a project he began during a 2005-07 Cornell residency. He will also finalize a volume collecting more than 13 years of correspondence with the Sudanese conceptualist and art critic Hassan Musa. Both works will be published in the coming months. He also intends to work on a new series of paintings inspired by his most recent visit to Andalusia, Spain, this summer.

He will share in detail his experiences of living in Sudan and being wrongfully imprisoned, discuss his education and career as an educator at the School of Fine and Applied Art in Sudan and reflect on his travels. For more on the center's New Conversations series, visit http://www.icm.arts.cornell.edu/.

Children and poverty

Kathleen McCartney, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, will deliver the annual Ricciuti Lecture, "Whether the Environment Matters More for Children in Poverty," Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. in 114 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall.

McCartney is a professor of early childhood development whose research concerns early experience and development, particularly with respect to child care, early childhood education and poverty. She received the 2009 Distinguished Contribution Award from the Society for Research in Child Development.

The annual lecture is in recognition of professor emeritus Henry Ricciuti, a member of the human development faculty since 1958 and an internationally renowned scholar of child development.

Country music comedy

Beer-drinking regulars dance to a jukebox filled with old country songs and find love in a Houston bar in "Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music," a two-act play by award-winning playwright Lee Blessing, opening Oct. 21 at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

The play features lots of country music and an onstage pickup truck and is "an unpredictable, comedic love story featuring vivid characters that might live down the street from you, if you lived on a very weird street in Texas," said director David Feldshuh, the Schwartz Center's artistic director.

Evening performances are Oct. 21-25 and 28-31 at 7:30 p.m., with afternoon matinees Oct. 25, 31 and Nov. 1. A post-show discussion with the actors and designers will be held Oct. 29. Tickets are $10 each, $8 for students and senior citizens, plus a $1 ticket processing fee. For tickets and information, visit the Schwartz Center box office at 430 College Ave.; call 607-254-ARTS or visit http://www.schwartztickets.com.

Live soundtrack by Califone

Cornell Cinema offers a film and music event with rock band Califone, Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. The band will play a 30-minute set of music before screening frontman Tim Rutili's recent art-horror movie "All My Friends Are Funeral Singers." Califone will also perform a live, interactive soundtrack to the movie.

The film will be a companion piece to an upcoming album of the same name. It was shot in an old, rickety house in Indiana in the spring of 2009 and stars Angela Bettis, whose credits include "Girl, Interrupted."

Tickets are $12 in advance from http://dansmallspresents.com and $15 at the door.

Ecological connections

The Indigenous Graduate Student Association and the American Indian Program at Cornell will host "Making Connections, Understanding Our Relations: An Autumn Ecoforum," Oct. 23-24 at the Africana Studies and Research Center. The interdisciplinary forum will offer discussions on connections among ecological, environmental and indigenous issues.

Guest speakers will give plenary talks and will lead small group discussions to identify specific issues and challenges and possible solutions.

The forum is free to the first 60 registrants, for others the cost is $30 for students and $50 for faculty and the general public. Registration includes meals on Friday and Saturday and a screening of the film "For the Next Seven Generations: The Grandmothers Speak," followed by discussion with filmmaker Carole Hart. For more information and a link to the registration form, visit http://aip.cornell.edu/cals/aip/student-life/organizations/igsa/.

Media Contact

Joe Schwartz