The RoundTable - The Year in Perspective 2006

Evanston's arts community is flourishing, but even insiders may not have realized that the following movies were actually made in Evanston. Perhaps the plots were different:

Bee Season: The advisability of allowing apiaries on private property occupies the City's Human Service Committee for weeks.

Thanks for Smoking: The City bans smoking in public areas.

Spanglish: The District 65 School Board agonizes over placement of its two-way immersion (TWI) program for Spanish-and
English-speaking students.
Must Love Dogs: City contemplates expanding the animal shelter.

Derailed: Council rejects Optima Promenade, a proposed 15-story high-rise at 1515 Chicago Ave.

In Their Shoes: Evanston Youth Initiative is formed in hopes of engaging disaffected Evanston youth. "If you have youth in your family, you feel the impact of their reality," said Lionel Jean-Baptiste about the violent deaths
of Evanston youth.

Let's Get Loud: Alderman Anjana Hansen takes on drivers with earth-shaking music.

Boogie Nights: A third venue, Twiggs Park, is added to the locations for the Starlight Concerts.

The Fog of War: Peace vigils, which were held in Evanston even before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, are a continual occurence at the City's Fountain Square
war memorial.

Constant Gardener: Catching the new spirit of sustainability in Evanston, Debbie Hillman of the Network for Evanston's Future proposes an urban farm that will yield healthy food and pay off in employment of local residents.

Splendor in the Grass: Evanston's summer festivals continue to attract thousands to the lakefront, Main Street and downtown.

The Last Wave: Everything but a marina is on the table for the revamping of the City's lakefront parks. Let's hope the new version favors passive and quiet enjoyment.

Cars: The new Sherman Avenue garage is 12 stories high - and the views from the top are spectacular. Meanwhile, folks still keep circling round and round on the same floor in the smaller, poorly designed Maple Avenue maze.
OR: I-Go Car Sharing drops off cars at the Maple Avenue Garage and at NU for folks to rent by the hour or by the day.

Rashomon: The City and Northwestern University: Who harmed whom first?
Everyone has their own version of the truth.

The Breakup: The City makes noises about dumping the health department, depending on the goodwill of Evanston Hospital to fill the gap
in services.

Outbreak: Whooping cough makes a rare appearance at ETHS, preferring the limelight of our neighbor to the north. Nonetheless, ETHS schedules mass vaccinations before Christmas.

Reversal of Fortune: The ETHS girls swim team beat New Trier in a dual meet for the first time in 17 years. It was the first head-to-head victory over the Trevians in head coach Kevin Auger's tenure.

Failure to Launch: Affordable housing suffers two setbacks, as City Council rejects a plan for low-income rental housing and the entire community rejects an increase in the real estate transfer tax that would have increased funding
for affordable housing.

Holes: New developments on Church Street and on Green Bay Road plan to use geothermal energy, making them more sustainable.

It Could Happen to You: Tax bills are sure to rise again this year, as pension funds for police officers and firefighters must be fed.

The Smartest Guys in the Room: Evanston schools and clubs continue
to nurture chess champions. ("Guys" is, of course, generic and unisex.)

Finding Neverland: City planners and community members try to accommodate the old and the new while shaping a vision for the new -
and probably expanded - downtown.

The Departed: Bill Stafford, the City's finance director, becomes chief financial officer for ETHS. Shortly afterward, following in the footsteps of former police chief William Logan, Frank Kaminski stops being top cop and takes over security there and adds even more security cameras.
AND: The sudden death of Northwestern football coach Randy Walker at age 52 shocked and saddened the community. Walker led the Wildcats to a Big Ten co-championship in 2000.

Local Hero: Shani Davis earns Olympic gold medals, admiration of his home town.

Something's Gotta Give: City Council has voted to relocate from the present Civic Center and sell off the property to pay for a new place, but many residents hope to persuade them to stay - or at least to preserve the building.

Supersize Me: Evanston's long-awaited megamall, Sherman Plaza, opens with only a couple of stores pirated from other downtown locations. The 12-story garage is dwarfed by the adjacent condo complex.

The Last Picture Show: After years of dilapidation the Central Street theater building - two old movie theaters and some storefronts are about to morph into a mixed-use development - whether four or five stories appears to depend
more on the City Council than on the neighbors.

The Longest Yard: The redesign of many City parks is making people take notice of how fortunate we are to have so much public space.

The Full Monty: The magical work of Evanston resident, puppeteer Michael Montenegro, wows Chicagoland theater-goers - in Lookingglass Theatre's "Argonautika" and soon in a production
at Next Theatre.

Lost in Translation: District 65 decides not to consolidate its two-way immersion (for Spanish-speaking and English-speaking children) programs in one school, making it a language academy.

Cocoon: Three Crowns Park and the Mather get a new lease on life with huge expansions.

Three Coins in the Fountain: The City will need a lot more than that for the much-needed rehab of Fountain Square.

North by Northwestern: Despite a consent decree that settled the lawsuit over the Northeast Evanston Historic District, it's a wary truce
between the neighbors and the University.

Old School: Preservationists win one and lose one: Wesley Hall, the administration building for Kendall College, is razed to make room for million-dollar private dwellings. Meanwhile the mansion at Dempster Street and Asbury Avenue that used to house the District 65 administrative offices is spiffed up and getting ready for its new occupants - condo owners.

Invincible: The ETHS girls track and field team won its fourth straight state title. It was the seventh state championship for head coach Fenton Gunter since 1991.

And the Oscar goes to: "EVANSTON:" starring Evanstonians who are willing to embrace sustainability and to live "green."

Guitarist Lugosch Has Unique Style - In Music and Life

By Victoria Scott

Evanston's Eric Lugosch brings his fingerstyle acoustic guitar music to First Night audiences in performances at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. at Rotary International, Rotary Center Café.

Eric Lugosch hopes First Night audiences leave his performance saying two things - that they enjoyed his music and that "they haven't heard the guitar played that way [before]," he says.

He is talking about fingerstyle acoustic guitar playing, where he picks the melody on steel strings in the manner of a classical guitarist. Mr. Lugosch identifies himself as "the only guy in town who plays stride guitar," meaning he imitates stride piano, sustaining "an independent bass line and the melody over it," a sound he says people often compare to that of two pianos.

But listeners need not be wary. Though a lot is going on with his music, its complexity makes it interesting and fun rather than daunting, and his repertoire ranges from ragtime to blues to jazz, gospel and even show tunes.

Two 45-minute performances on New Year's Eve will showcase Mr. Lugosch's versatility, as he plays a mix of original compositions, traditional music, familiar Christmas songs and selections from the gospel music of the late Reverend Gary Davis.

Mr. Lugosch calls the program "a guitar-bazaar-worth of music."

Familiar as a performer at the likes of Evanston's Celtic Knot, Mr. Lugosch also teaches fingerstyle guitar, for 18 years at the Old Town School of Folk Music and also at his Evanston home.

Mr. Lugosch has made music his whole life. Born into a large family in Philadelphia, he began as a vocalist, singing in the Philadelphia Boys Choir as, successively, a first soprano, a second soprano and an alto.

When he was about 12, an older brother returned from the Vietnam War with a guitar. Mr. Lugosch would sneak away with the instrument, learning lessons before his brother and discovering what became a lifelong passion for the instrument.

The passion persisted into college, where he studied voice and musical composition. In his spare time he was listening to recordings of his guitar-playing heroes, stars like Leo Kottke, Chet Atkins and Merle Travis.

That kind of listening and imitation gives a musician confidence, he says, and prepares him to "go on his own." But before launching his own career, Mr. Lugosch took another unusual step. Studying with Ethyl Fenley, whom he calls "a great pianist," he fell under the spell of piano music.

Ms. Fenley wrote commercial ditties along with serious music. In light of the "stride piano" technique her pupil later embraced, it is pleasantly ironic that among the ditties Ms. Fenley wrote was the one that goes, "Let your fingers do the walking in the yellow pages." The fingerstyle guitar Mr. Lugosch has perfected involves a sort of walking as his fingers pluck the notes of the melodic line.

Mr. Lugosch began composing in a serious vein; "Strike," his first recording, included a suite he wrote for flute, guitar and bass. He went on to country and blues, writing songs as well as instrumental music.

But recently Mr. Lugosch assumed what he terms a "dramatic style change."

He began studying the recordings of the Reverend Gary Davis, a blind preacher from South Carolina whose songs and recordings influenced such 20th century greats as Eric Clapton, Dave Van Ronk, Ry Cooder, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, and the Grateful Dead.

Mr. Lugosch will be giving his New Year's Eve audiences a preview of the album of Reverend Gary Davis music he is currently recording. The 12-tune CD will come with a book of Mr. Lugosch's arrangements. On the soundtrack he plays each song once "exactly as Reverend Gary Davis did," he says, and then in his own style.

He typically records two songs a session, confining himself to five takes. "When I was younger, I could play one thing 18 or 20 times," he says. "I am trying to pace myself as I get older."

Mr. Lugosch owns three guitars, one for practice and two for performances. The most cherished of these was made for him by Kevin Ryan, fashioned of 125-year-old Brazilian rosewood.

Mr. Lugosch is a man who appreciates wood as well as the musical instruments made from it. His hobby is making furniture - not the clunky, amateur variety, but graceful pieces with mortise and tenon joints and slender, chamfered legs.

Taking a recent break from the eight- or nine-hours a day he had been devoting to his Reverend Gary Davis project, he built the kitchen table where he gives the interview. Like the upcoming CD, it is a piece he can be proud of. And although woodworking seems a logical riff on his profession, it also seems dangerous for a man who lives by his fingers.

When asked about it, he smiles. "I'm very careful," he says.

"The Whole World Over"

A Book Review By Sue Brooke

"The Whole World Over", by Julia Glass, is an engaging and thought-provoking novel about love, family and home.

Greenie and Alan have been married for a few years and are parents of precocious 4-year-old George. When they were courting, Greenie and Alan used to laugh about how they were going to save the world - he with his work as a psychoanalyst and she as a pastry chef, making the world smile with her cakes. But Alan's practice is actually shrinking and, although Greenie's little business is thriving, she is content with her present customers and sees no need to expand.

Greenie's biggest client is her best friend, Walter, who owns a trendy restaurant in New York that uses her desserts exclusively. One day the governor of New Mexico eats at the restaurant and Walter takes great pride in telling him about the woman who makes the desserts. The governor, a politician who leads "the world on simply by throwing his grand flirtatious self in every direction," offers Greenie a chance of a lifetime to come to New Mexico and be the chef at the governor's mansion.

This novel has myriad characters, all in some stage of courtship or relationship failure and each coping with desires to have or not have children. Walter is in love with Gordie. He knows this is hopeless on his part, because Gordie and Steven have been a couple for years. But Steven wants to adopt and Gordie does not, so their relationship is in stress. Alan's sister, Joya, is successful and single with a ticking biological clock. Walter's older brother Weiner has both a family and a career, but they all drive Walter crazy except for 19-year-old Scott, an aspiring musician. However, when Scott comes to live with Walter in New York for a year, Scott's sloppiness and Goth-like girlfriend help inspire in Walter more respect for his conservative brother's angst over parenting.

When Greenie accepts the New Mexico job, relationships start to change. Alan is angry that his wife makes the decision without talking it over with him. Greenie wants him to close his practice and move west with her, but in the meantime he is angry and alone in New York. One day, coming home in the rain, he sees a waif-like, homeless-looking girl carting a box of puppies. She seems to be both waiting for someone and quite helpless. Alan is a psychiatrist, after all, and it is his job to help those in need, so he befriends Saga and helps her take the abandoned puppies to a vet for shots. All of these characters make up the eclectic mixture that is New York.

Then, on Sept 11, their New York is thrown into shock. Things that had seemed important before blend into the forgotten. What matters are family, friends and home. Birds will fly the whole world over, writes the author, but in the end they always come home.

"This Tender Place"

A Book Review By Mary Helt Galvin

Anyone who thinks Nature packs it in for the winter and returns only with the rustle of spring should settle in with "This Tender Place," Evanston author Laurie Lawlor's account of a wetland year.

In 1994, Ms. Lawlor and her husband purchased a house and 11 acres of land in the Kettle Moraine region of southeastern Wisconsin. The house, as Ms. Lawlor describes it, was a wreck. But behind the house was a mysteriously beautiful place, a fen - a rare type of wetland fed by an underground limestone spring. She writes, "Alive with wind, the marsh sedges moved like a great ocean. ... And I felt a kind of awe. This was a mysterious, secret place..."

The Lawlors' tender wetland became the final resting place for Ms. Lawlor's father. After a few years in Ms. Lawlor's mother's home, his ashes of were scattered around a tree behind the house. As the family - his wife, his six children and their spouses and children - recalled his life, they were joined by the call of an unknown bird. Ms. Lawlor writes: "When we finished tamping down the earth around the tree, a high-pitched call echoed from the wetland. One of my sisters tuned to me and asked, 'Who's that?' 'I don't know,' I said. 'You should find out. Sounds like it's going to be Dad's new neighbor.'"

The wetland is the home of many new neighbors. Starting with a "three-hat day" in frozen January, meandering through the rebirth of spring and the renewal wrought by a controlled burn and ending with the melancholy of November (the month her father died), Ms. Lawlor explores the fragile and fierce wetland on foot and by kayak, day, night and evening, learning "about "plants and animals, fire and water, humans and insects, refuge and renewal."

She knows how and where many animals spend the winter; she recognizes the tracks of mice and coyotes, the scat of foxes and the trapped air bubbles of beavers.

Spring's cacophony assorts itself into the music of frogs: green northerns, leopards, pickerels and spring peepers. The new growth of plants reappears, many of which were the source of food, furnishings or medicine for the Native Americans (Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Potawatomi before the 1600s). The cattail, for example was known as "aba' kweuck" or "shelter weed" and as "biwie shwinuk" or "fruit for baby's bed."

A controlled burn overseen by the Nature Conservancy clears the wetland of non-native invasive species, to allow the native plants to flourish. Ms. Lawlor describes the "elemental moment" when the fire meets water: "Some primeval greeting of forces ... constructive and destructive at the same time."

The reader sees the wetland not only as it is but as it was and as it might be. The vital present is a product of the vast, rumbling, violent glacial action that flattened, uprooted, pushed up and shaped the Midwest for thousands of years.

Yet there is fear of violence of another kind in the future: Overbuilding on wetlands - in Wisconsin fens or in Florida swamps - destroys the balance of life and water, and, ultimately the swamp, marsh, bog or fen itself. Often the people who seek vacation homes or newer homes find their desires in conflict with those who love the land and seek to preserve wetlands and open spaces, and most often it is the nest-, dam- and lodge-builders whose homes must give way for the new human builders.

This book is only somewhat of a departure for Ms. Lawlor, a noted author of historical fiction for children and teens. The same careful historical research and respectful approach that mark her other works is found here, as Ms. Lawlor presents us with the murky, sometimes unknowable past as the necessary precursor of the present.

What distinguishes this work from other nature journals is the way it is informed by Ms. Lawlor's respect for all living beings, living in the present moment and recognizing the constancy of change. Ms. Lawlor ends the book describing an eye-to-eye encounter with a sandhill crane while kayaking on the lake: "not moving, not afraid, not threatened, only curious."

She muses, "The wetland does not belong to me or any other human being. It is a place shared by all living creatures. I am simply part of a community that resides here at the present moment."

Hers, like other human actions, are insignificant but ultimately important: "... [M]y actions right now are all that I have to hold on to. ... That is all there is, but it is enough to make a difference."

Our Bicentennial "TREES & Significant Homes"

The 30th Anniversary of a Birthday Pamphlet

From left to right: Richard Carter, Fred Gullen and Dennis Ceplecha measure the circumference of a cottonwood tree. Mr. Ceplecha is holding the Bicentennial pamphlet.

At the top of the lighthouse one summer afternoon, a little boy, having scampered up the stairs as fast as his parents would allow, looked out at the scene. "I want to go down into that forest, right there!" he insisted, pointing west to Evanston. His parents laughed indulgently, but this was a case of "out of the mouth of babes." Evanston is a city not in a garden like our southern neighbor, but in a forest. We are fortunate indeed that our city has sustained the arboreal vision of Northwestern's planners.

How to create a perfect memento for the 200th anniversary of a country was the challenge facing governments and private citizens in 1976, the 200th birthday of our nation.

In Evanston, City staff distilled a group of ideas into a single, meticulously designed educational pamphlet "Our Bicentennial TREES & Significant Homes." It explained, "Three physical features blend together to produce part of the essence of Evanston's special character: its rich architectural heritage, its trees, and its lakefront." The pamphlet introduces the natural history of our City and features a bike/walking route that takes the sojourner on a trail of history past featured trees and structures. I hope that little boy grew up to take that tour.

The pamphlet was the result of the efforts of six dedicated Evanston staff: Donn Werling, naturalist at the Ecology Center; Ken Wenzel, seasonal naturalist at the Center; Fred Gullen, parks horticulturalist; Dennis Ceplecha, municipal arborist; Richard Carter, planning director; and Thomas Miller, senior planner and landscape architect. The artwork and design were prepared by John Lowes of the City's planning department.

For the Ladd Arboretum Committee, 1974-1976 were watershed years. After 16 years, the Committee, which had been created in 1959 to oversee the arboretum's development, had completed its original mission. The plantings were already mature in the earliest installations, including the south section's 1961 Rotary Club of Evanston's International Friendship Garden. In the north section, pine and maple knolls, oak, legume and nut groves and a birch family segment were flourishing. A bird sanctuary bearing the name Alice Kimpton Berg Memorial had been completed in 1966. (This sanctuary, rebuilt in 2006, now bears the name Grady.) Arboretum designer Ralph Melin had liquidated his nursery in 1967 and donated 150 evergreens to fill out the plantings. After the 1975 dedication of the Women's Terrace, the Committee, doubling as the Evanston Environmental Association Board, turned its sights to education.

In early 1974, the Ecology Center opened with Donn Werling as full-time naturalist. His educational and philosophical background wove together the urban and natural worlds, making him especially appropriate for the position of director of an urban nature center; and he took to it with gusto. He says the pamphlet was an obvious choice to celebrate a City with an arboretum, a lighthouse and beautiful old homes amid stately trees.

The group solicited nominations for trees and for homes and structures of either historic or architectural interest. Not surprisingly, a few buildings are part of Northwestern University; some others were designed by our local prominent architect, Dwight Perkins, including his own house on Lincoln Street. Architect John Macsai (now a fellow RoundTable columnist) and I followed the map and found some beautiful and distinctive homes, which John described as "legible, with the observer immediately understanding the architect's intent." All but two buildings are intact.

The significant trees are all on public property. The group cored each tree to determine its age and measured its circumference at four-and-a-half feet off the ground. The majority of the species are native to Evanston, including bur oak, cottonwood, shagbark hickory, American elm, groves of elms and oaks, grove of oaks, ironwood or American hop hornbeam, green ash, and white oak. The white pine is probably not native to Evanston but might have grown along a sandy ridge. The ginkgo and purple beech are indicative of favored trees brought by settlers from "the old country." And then there is the variegated English elm.

Amazingly, all but six of the individual trees survive 30 years later, even one of the American elms. The grove of oaks at the corner of Grant Street and McDaniel Avenue was, alas, felled for the expansion of Three Crowns retirement home, but fortunately, the grove of elms and oaks near Colfax Street and Marcy Avenue still provides a fine example of Evanston's original tree cover. Of Lighthouse Landing Park's three exotics, the ginkgo and the purple beech flourish. The variegated English elm is a puzzle. Fred Gullen believes it might have been misidentified. The box elder, the green ash, one American elm and three bur oaks are gone.

The pamphlet's oldest tree still standing is a 275-year-old American elm at 2715 Park Place. This elm began its life in 1731, a few years before the arrival of settlers of European descent. The tree with the biggest circumference was a 247-year-old graceful giant, an American elm at 2529 Payne St. It succumbed to Dutch elm disease.

The accompanying photo, taken in October, 2006, shows three of the original contributors to the pamphlet measuring the 192-year old cottonwood tree at the northeast corner of Lincoln Street and Sherman Avenue. In 1976, the tree's girth was 12 feet 2 inches (146 inches); today it is 180 inches, having put on a little more than one foot of circumference every ten years.

The pamphlet incorporated some results of a Bicentennial year public interest project conducted by the Parks and Forestry Departments. Part of the study elicited stories from residents about the trees that were most memorable for them.

This pamphlet is a treasure. I hope it will be revised and expanded to help today's Evanstonians appreciate the richness of the diverse urban forest in which we live.

If you have stories of memorable trees, please send them to my attention at editor@evanstonroundtable.com.

For the Love of God

Art Exhibit at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Sparks Debate on Religious Pluralism

By Mary Helt Gavin

For "Tailpipe Buddha" Ms. Sommers used a found automobile exhaust pipe. The fragments of mirrors that serve as the frame for this shrine reflect the divine within, says artist Sue Sommers.

Final exams are over at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, but for some in the Garrett community the toughest question of the semester may have originated in the halls rather than the classrooms of the seminary: How can a devotee of one religion accord respect and value to another religion without denigrating his or her own faith?

The question was posed unwittingly by Evanston artist Sue Sommers, whose exhibit "Shrines ... and the Other Side of Mortality" evoked enough outrage in some students that Garrett officials spoke with Ms. Sommers about closing the exhibit in mid-December.

The exhibit remains open through its originally scheduled time of mid-January, but, because the regular students will not return until after that, they will not be confronted by the physical representations of that question.

"Shrines," mounted in mid November, is composed of 15 shrines; four sets of water-color drawings overlaid with silk organza of persons just hours away from dying; and the statue of the Hindu goddess Kali the Terrible.

The exhibit
To be accepted for exhibition, artists' works are vetted through Garrett's art committee, a faculty committee that often has some student and staff members, said Patty Baker, administrator for academic affairs and a committee member. "Last year we agreed that we would try to gather some exhibits in 06-07 around a theme, 'Images of the Divine,' which intended to illuminate aspects of God from different perspectives," Ms. Baker said.

A form provided by the seminary specifies the dates for mounting and disassembling the exhibit. Wording at the top of the form reads in part: "The arts program at Garrett-Evangelical seeks to promote the arts as a way of knowing God, of learning and of expressing insights about life and faith. ...Though the seminary supports engagement with difficult or controversial subjects, we may limit explicit depictions of sexuality or violence."

Ms. Sommers said her exhibit, influenced by her Zen Buddhist beliefs, was about ways of "discovering the divine in the world around us. ... Art should make us reflect on what we truly believe in. It can help us engage in a dialogue of what's important to us."

The beauty of objects found comes across in "Tailpipe Buddhas." Ms. Sommers has painted Buddha figures on what might appear to be a deliberately distressed artistic tube but is in fact a rusted automobile exhaust pipe.

The meditative drawings, sketched initially when Ms. Sommers began volunteering as a hospice aide, "were meant to show that life is more than a suffering body," she said.

Kali represents the feminine principal in the Hindu pantheon, said Ms. Sommers; she is often seen sitting atop Shiva the Destroyer. Although Kali may be seen as a destroyer of human bodies - her typical necklace is a rope of human skulls - Ms. Sommers said Kali is also the destroyer of the ego, the self that must be let go before one can truly know god. Her Kali wears a pink gown sprinkled with skulls and sticks out her tongue at the material world.

The reaction
But to some of the 439 Garrett students who already know their god as the Christian deity - 65 percent of the students are United Methodists - Ms. Sommers's work was idolatrous. They claimed that Garrett, by allowing the exhibit, was "promoting idolatry."

Shortly after the exhibit was mounted on Nov. 9, some of them wrote e-mails decrying the exhibit. About three weeks later, on Nov. 29, the night of the grand opening and artist's reception, the student council put together "Art and Idolatry: A Community Conversation," forcing Ms. Sommers to divide her time between that discussion and the receptive audience in the foyer. At least three members of the art committee began to take notice of the controversy: Ms. Baker; Alva Caldwell, Garrett's librarian; and Wendy Kneer of field outreach.

Even though only a few students were outspoken, their intensity cut deep. Ms. Baker, Mr. Caldwell and Ms. Kneer felt themselves under attack for having approved the exhibit.

"The few people who protested were very loud," said Mr. Caldwell. "These folks tend to understand the seminary's purpose to proclaim Jesus Christ, and they see the acknowledgement of another religion as diminishing the proclamation of Jesus." He added, "Once we began to get a significant number of people who wanted the exhibit down, we took it seriously.

"Students who espouse the conservative Christian doctrine may face difficulty in valuing other religions, but "they tend to have less trouble with the Abrahamic religions - Judaism and Islam - than with other religions," Mr. Caldwell added.

"It was not the number of students that made us take it so seriously," said Ms. Kneer, who, with Mr. Caldwell, acknowledged that the numbers were few. However, she said, the venom and vituperation were "very painful."

"I was worn out," said Ms. Baker.

Ms. Kneer also said, "One person said he would chain himself to the exhibit if we tried to shut it down."

The three said they "talked with the president and the dean and the other members of the art committee and decided to have the exhibit come down." In late November, they shared some of these reactions with Ms. Sommers and broached the idea of taking the exhibit down by Dec. 16 or 17, five weeks early.

"I think I characterized it that it was in the best interest of the school to do so," said Mr. Caldwell.

They said they felt comfortable with that request because, "We had already had the show; we had the forum. ...We're kind of done with this now," Ms. Kneer said. Further, said Mr. Caldwell, "The students would not be back until after the exhibit was originally to be taken down." He said, though, that students in Garrett's month-long January classes will have a chance to see the exhibit since it will remain open. Yet all three said the exhibit appeared to have as many supporters, though less vocal, as opponents, including the three of them.

Ms. Sommers said she was surprised when shortly before the artist's reception she learned of the heated reaction to the exhibit. "I said I would close it but not until I could have a conversation with the students," she said.

As discussions continued, Ms. Sommers said she felt her support at Garrett was waning. But fellow artists urged her to "stand up for art," she said.

"I think we misunderstood Sue's willingness to take down the exhibit. ... What stuck in my mind was that she was open to taking it down," Mr. Caldwell said.

Ms. Baker added, "Looking back at it, we could have had a better introduction to the exhibit."

With eyes on both sides a little sorry, an agreement was reached earlier this month to honor the original commitment; the exhibit will remain open through Jan. 22, 2007. Mr. Caldwell said the seminary plans to invite Ms. Sommers back to speak with the students.

The aftermath
Ms. Kneer, Ms. Baker and Mr. Caldwell met recently with a reporter in a conversation niche on the first-floor foyer, one of the spaces dedicated to art exhibits at Garrett. The statue of Kali, her tongue stuck out at the world, watched them from one side, and a statue of Jesus carrying the proverbial lost sheep watched from another.

One of the controversial subjects at Garrett and in the arena of religion is pluralism - the idea that other religions are as valid to their practitioners as Christianity is to Christians. Pluralism is valued and a topic of discussion at Garrett, but it is not taught formally, said Mr. Caldwell.

Ms. Kneer said, "The question is, 'Do we disregard that or do we somehow try to mediate it?' We try to offer people way to explore the divine through art," she added.

Looking at the statues behind him to the right and the left, Mr. Caldwell said, "Jesus here is an idol, in the sense that it is a physical representation that takes on reverence. Another definition of idol is 'anything outside of your religion." He added with a chuckle, "Kali over there seems to get along quite well with Jesus."

"Shrines ... and The Other Side of Mortality" will be on display as originally agreed at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, 2121 Sheridan Road, though Jan. 22; Mon.-Thurs. 8:30 a.m.-9 p.m. and Fri. 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; call 847-866-3900.

Joe and Brian's Celluloid Year

Flops and Tops of 2006

By Joe Linstroth

As 2006 draws to a close, it is time to sift through the year's film offerings for the stinkers that sank to the bottom, the potential gems that got lost in the shuffle of life, and the cream that rose to the top.

Let's start with the terrible movies, so that they may be quickly erased from our collective memory.

The Worst Films of 2006

5. "Lucky Number Slevin"
Director Paul McGuigan and actor/wood plank Josh Hartnett loved working with each other so much in the 2004 abomination "Wicker Park" that they give it another go in this double-crossing caper/noir flick filled with shiny sets and overwrought dialogue.

4. "X-Men: The Last Stand"
More mutants, more explosions, more Hugh Jackman. By far the worst of the three X-Men films, "The Last Stand" climaxes with the Golden Gate Bridge being ripped up and used as a passageway to an exploding Alcatraz in one of the most ridiculous film endings of 2006.

3. "The Guardian"
The United States Coast Guard waited all these years for Hollywood to come calling only to be shoved underwater and drowned by this laughable, formulaic mess starring a bored Kevin Costner and an angst-ridden Ashton Kutcher as the best of the best.

2. "16 Blocks"
A tired Bruce Willis plays a tired veteran cop in a tired role that he has milked one (or five) too many times. It also features Mos Def as a whining petty thief whose dream is to bake children's birthdaycakes. Enough said.

1. "Snakes on a Plane"
The first film to have its lameness used as a promotional tool, "S.o.a.P." lives up to the billing, but not in the way the studio intended. Featuring terrible writing, terrible acting, and computer-generated snakes that look like computer-generated snakes, one has to at least give them credit for trying to pass this turkey off as an intentional mistake. Luckily we are not as stupid as Hollywood marketers would like to think we are.

Films that would have probably made the list had I not avoided them like a vat of hollandaise in a buffet line: "The Da Vinci Code," anything associated with the Wayans Brothers ("Little Man" "Scary Movie 4"), "Lady in the Water," "The Lake House," and "Annapolis."

Before I commence with my top five films of 2006, I think it is only fair to reveal a short list of movies with strong potential that I regret not having seen in time for this year-in-review, but plan to see in the near future.

Top Five Movies from 2006 I must rent in 2007 (in no particular order): "Casino Royale," "Stranger Than Fiction," "Thank You for Smoking," "The Good Shepherd," "For Your Consideration."

And now for the Best of 2006...

5. "An Inconvenient Truth"
Certainly not in the top five because Al Gore speaking on a stage is pure entertainment, this is arguably the most informative, and necessary, film of 2006. It sheds some much-needed light on the imminent dangers of global warming and offers a comprehensive scientific rebuttal to the Bush administration's shameful denial of the basic facts surrounding an issue that needs immediate attention and stronger leadership.

4. "A Prairie Home Companion"
Based on Garrison Keillor's beloved radio variety show, and the last completed film by the late Robert Altman, "A Prairie Home Companion" features a star-studded cast, a dry, Midwestern sensibility, andplenty of song. A collaboration between two of the country's master humanists, the film reminds us that life, while it is not that great, sure ain't that bad either.

3. Little Miss Sunshine
Mixing dark humor with honest poignancy, this movie is the best comedy of 2006. Alan Arkin is outstanding as an uncouth, heroin-addicted grandpa who is the dysfunctional Hoover clan's voice of reason. A comedy with a soul, "Little Miss Sunshine" maintains a delicate balance between sardonic humor and human vulnerability so that the laughs and the drama punctuate each other rather than cancel each other out.

2. "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"
Tommy Lee Jones stars and makes his directorial debut in this powerful film about a Texas cowboy determined to honor his dead friend's wish to be buried in his Mexican puebla. Strikingly subtle and complex, it leaves us with more questions than answers, and captures the grit and mystery of the rugged Southwestern landscape as well as any Cormac McCarthy novel.

1. "The Departed"
Though not one of Martin Scorsese's best, it still manages to come out on top. Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Alec Baldwin are fantastic as cops with varying degrees of moral depravity, and Jack Nicholson is a sight to behold as the Irish gangster Frank Costello. The performances, combined with an intricate plot and relentless pacing, make this the most intense and entertaining film of the year.

Honorable mention: "Inside Man," "Little Children," and "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

Top 5 Films of the Year

By Brian Murphy

Well, the 2006 film season hit us like a "Brick" and is soon to be "The Departed" (that was terrible; sorry). As expected, there were glorious achievements and torturous ("Saw III," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning") retreads. It was the year of the comedy, from the intelligent ("Thank You For Smoking," "Little Miss Sunshine"), to the foolish ("Beerfest," "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"), to the smart yet facetiously dumb blockbuster "Borat."

There were some well-intended stumbles from seasoned filmmakers ("Superman Returns," "For Your Consideration," "Art School Confidential," "Munich"), awful choices by fine actors ("Firewall," "Miami Vice") superb foreign imports ("Night Watch," "Cache," "Tsotsi"), art house triumphs ("Brick," "A Scanner Darkly") and one of the greatest remakes of a foreign masterpiece ever committed to celluloid (Martin Scorsese's "The Departed").

Many critics become "Hostel" when compiling their best and worst lists of the year, but I found the task of finding fine films not to be "The Illusionist," but rather, "The Prestige." As far as I am concerned, "The Fountain" of great films showered upon us throughout the year and good old "Hollywoodland" gave male film buffs plenty of reasons to be "The Inside Man" and women the spark to be "Little Miss Sunshine" (somebody stop me, seriously).

1. "The Fountain"
Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain" was my favorite film, for its blend of drama, mysticism, intersecting storylines involving the same humans/souls over the course of a millennium, its profound union of existentialism and religion, brilliant cinematography, powerful acting, artful direction, etc. Mr. Aronofsky draws parallels for the ceaseless quest for eternal life throughout history through images (a 15th-century conquistador riding his horse to a kingdom becomes a 21st-century man driving to a city) and character motivation (Hugh Jackman's conquistador, trying to save Rachel Weisz's queen, subsequently becomes a doctor trying to save her, his wife, from cancer). Utterly breathtaking.

2. "The Departed"
Martin Scorsese's recreation of Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak's "Mou gaan dou" ("Infernal Affairs") may not surpass the original masterpiece, but does it justice. Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Vera Farmiga give tour de force performances, and Jack Nicholson savors his gangster role as did Al Pacino in "Scarface." It is a gritty gangster thriller, gripping police drama, and an intricate con game rolled into one tense film.

3."The Prestige"
As magnificent as it is dark, "The Prestige" boasts stellar turns from Hugh Jackman (Wolverine had one heck of a year), Christian Bale and Michael Caine. Christopher Nolan's enthralling piece details the tricks behind the magic, but pale in comparison to the revelations of human nature that lie in the film's heart of darkness.

4."Brick"
Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance as a high school Sam Spade is astounding (give this kid more work!). Despite the creative slang, oddball characters and Dionysian parties, every aspect of writer/director Rian Johnson's film derives, disturbingly, from reality. If you do not think middle-to-upper-class kids do drugs, stab each other in the back or kill one another, open your eyes.

5."Borat"
"Little Miss Sunshine" was a more complete film -- a family drama with heart -- but "Borat" was the only film this year that made me cry (from laughing, mind you). Sacha Baron Cohen's faux documentary brilliantly revealed a truer America than the one we see on television. The hotel-wrestling scene is as vile as anything ever filmed on "Jackass," and twice as funny. Vulgar, discriminatory, smart, stupid and hilarious.