Welcome to this week's "Gish Picks", where I highlight family-oriented cultural events, products or services. Please note that I "highlight" these events, but I don't know if they are appropriate for your particular children, so choose wisely based on age, maturity and interests.

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Now, GO FIND FUN!

“COOL BRAINS!” FOR KIDS.

I am happy to report that Inprint is continuing their fabulous author series for kids, “Cool Brains! Inprint Readings for Young People,” this year. Award-winning children’s writer Kate DiCamillo is coming this Sunday, October 18 at 3pm to Pershing Middle School (3838 Blue Bonnet at Stella Link) to read from and talk about her work. Her just-released new novel, The Magician’s Elephant, is for elementary school children and tells the story of an orphan boy who asks a travelling fortuneteller whether his sister still lives and how he might find her. The man’s strange answer -- it involves an elephant -- sets in motion curious and wonderful events. DiCamillo made a roaring debut in 2000 with Because of Winn-Dixie and her third novel, The Tale of Despereaux, about a tiny mouse driven by love to perform heroic deeds, won the Newbery Medal and inspired a well-received animated movie. DiCamillo was born in Philadelphia, raised in Florida, and now lives in Minneapolis. She describes herself as short and loud, and says she hates to cook but loves to eat! With a bio like that, her conversation with kids is sure to be fun!

Doors will open at 2:30pm and admission is free and open to the public. The reading will be followed by a book sale and signing, providing audience members a chance to visit with the author.

GET PEACEFUL WITH MY ART.

Families are invited to join me this Sunday, October 18 from 1-4pm at the Central Library Art Gallery for the closing of my solo art exhibition, “Mod Mandalas: The Chakra Series”. We’ll have refreshments, cool art, library fun, and great conversation!

At 2:30pm, kids will get to sit in a circle and combine yoga poses simultaneously to make mandalas with kid yoga teacher Ma Nithya Daivi. They’ll also get to make their own “mod mandalas” throughout the reception to take home. Body Mind & Soul will be on hand with information on mandalas and we’ll play chakra balancing music to end your Sunday peacefully.

“Mod Mandalas” brings together the spiritual concepts of mandalas and chakras through seven pieces of art that use hubcaps to symbolize modern mandala images. “Mandala” is an ancient Sanskrit word that means “circle” and “essence” and has come to mean our true soul; mandalas are represented in art by circular forms. Chakras are seven energy centers along various parts of the body that individually represent nature, pleasure, power, love, creativity, intuition and spirituality. I was inspired to make these pieces because of a personal need for balance (isn’t that every mom’s story?!) and am hoping that my exhibition will inspire kids and adults alike to study chakras and mandalas as portals to personal peace.

CHERRYHOLMES, THE FAMILY BAND.

The band Cherryholmes hits the stage at The Grand 1894 Opera House on Friday, October 16 at 8pm. I saw them a year ago with my son and just loved it. The band is the Cherryholmes family, including father Jere and wife Sandy Lee and their kids, Cia Leigh, BJ, Skip, and Molly Kate. They began their musical career after experiencing a bluegrass festival and wondering what it would be like to start their own family band. Jere took the lead, and assigned the kids an instrument each. Both having a strong background in Celtic music, he and his wife Sandy decided to teach the basics of each instrument to the children. They’ve been playing for over five years unprofessionally and all self-taught. Molly Kate and BJ are fiddlers, Skip is a guitarist, Cia Leigh is an award-winning banjo player, Sandy Lee is on mandolin, and backing up everyone is Jere – who is quite a comedian! Their music is a combination of bluegrass, Celtic, and jazz and has an authenticity you don’t find with all bands.

Tickets start at $18.50.

THIS WEEK'S ATTRACTION...CLAYTON LIBRARY. For more attractions, go to www.gishcreative.com/attractions.htm.

October is “Family History Month”, so it’s a perfect time to visit the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research and look up those that came before mom and dad. The Library was founded in 1921 as a special collection for genealogical research at Houston Public Library and was originally housed in the Julia Ideson Building in downtown Houston. In 1968, the genealogical collection was relocated to the Clayton Home at 5300 Caroline Street in Houston's historic Museum District and renamed the Clayton Library. The Clayton home is a three story brick Georgian style house built in 1917 and designed by Birdsall P. Briscoe. The house was the home of Houston businessman and statesman William Lockhart Clayton and his wife Susan Ada Vaughn Clayton until 1958, when it was deeded to the City of Houston to be used for library purposes. The growth in the physical size of the genealogy collection created a need for an expanded location for the Clayton Library. Through the generosity of an anonymous donor the site for a new building was purchased in 1986 next door to the Clayton Home. The new facility was built in 1988 in a style designed to complement the Clayton Home. Furniture and equipment for the new building was funded by a grant from the Houston Endowment Inc. through the Clayton Library Friends. Today the Clayton Library is housed in a two-building complex encompassing the "new" Clayton Building and the former Clayton Home. Thousands of researchers from all over the United States visit the Clayton Library every month.

RECORD YOUR FAMILY'S LIFE IN A CONSCIOUS WAY

This month is “Family History Month” and I am recommending an excellent company, Legacy Multimedia, as your family archivist – after all, aren’t your memories worth saving in a way that will last forever?

There are so many reasons to record your family’s life in a conscious way: multi-generation family histories communicate memories, shared experiences and values passed on to future generations. Legacy Multimedia will help your family decide ways to preserve those precious family moments. They can create a video of mother's keepsakes, such as your baby's birth, the sonogram images, and the first year in photos – as well as other keepsake memories and your wishes for a wonderful life for your children. They’ll help you create graduation tributes that acknowledge your child's 18 years and how proud you are of all they have accomplished in such a short time. These life stories and personal legacies are what connect generations past, present and future.

Legacy Multimedia also works with HR executives, internal communications specialists, special events coordinators, and individuals who choose their services because of their talented storytelling and expert filmmaking techniques. Their mission is to help families, individuals, companies and organizations chronicle history, share life stories, connect generations and preserve their legacies in timeless, high-quality multimedia presentations. Using classic filmmaking techniques and the latest digital tools, they seamlessly weave together vintage photos, old footage, and audio tracks with interviews, voice-over narrations, music, animations, and titles to craft a wonderful tapestry of images and sounds that share memories, impart wisdom, and mark history. They create tribute videos and biographies to inform, entertain and inspire - today and for many years to come. Their commitment to their clients is to provide them with the highest level of integrity and customer service, guaranteeing their mission of connecting generations and preserving legacies.

Legacy Multimedia
281.381.9550
info@legacymultimedia.com
www.facebook.com/legacymultimedia
Twitter: @stefanitwyford
YouTube: www.youtube.com/legacymm

SPEAKING OF HISTORY…LEARN ABOUT HOUSTON’S HISTORY ONLINE.

Houston Arts and Media has been busily creating “HAM Slices” -- web-based educational video about the history of places and people in and around Houston. Their latest HAM Slice focuses on Goose Creek Oil Field, located in eastern Harris County on Galveston Bay.

HAM Slices are special delivered every two weeks or so and provide Houstonians a chance to learn more about the Bayou City’s working class residents as well as its celebrated citizens, where they worked and how they had fun. Houston Arts and Media also has several other projects such as “Neighborhood to Neighbor”, an ongoing oral history gathering project that has already placed the stories of scores of Houstonians in the Houston Public Library’s Houston Metropolitan Research Center and Rice University’s Woodson Research Center. Material from these interviews will also enhance the Houston Neighborhoods Series, more than a dozen volumes which will be published over the next several years; the first of HAM’s books will be Historic Schools of Harris County. HAM is also host to monthly meetups where they invite their volunteers and anyone else interested in Houston's history to join them once a month to explore preservation projects in Houston, at-risk architecture, trains, bridges, music and more. Next month’s meetup will take place on Saturday, November 7, 11am and will be a field trip to the Buffalo Soldiers Museum at 1834 Southmore Boulevard. Following the visit, the group will have lunch nearby.

Sarah Gish
Gish Creative
1940-A Fountainview, PMB 116
Houston, Texas 77057
phone/fax: 713.532.1173

email: sarah@gishcreative.com
web: www.gishcreative.com
and: www.thesummerbook.com
and: www.saveourlandmarks.org

© 2009 Sarah Gish

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