OPEN HOUSE AT NATURE'S PERSPECTIVE LANDSCAPING

Nature's Perspective Landscaping will hold an Open House on Saturday, June 9 for those interested in making their garden a favorite destination. Full-service design and installation professionals will be on-hand to provide expert landscaping advice and to show solutions that address various site conditions and challenges, resulting in beautiful, functional outdoor settings. Attendees can tour the facilities, which include a well-stocked nursery, a paving showroom and a lighting gallery. Refreshments will be served and a free gift given to attendees. All ages are welcome. The Open House, at 2000 Greenleaf Street (one block east of Dodge), begins at 10:00 a.m. and Continues until 3:00 p.m.

Those planning to attend should wear comfortable walking shoes. In case of rain, the date for the Open House will be held the following Saturday, June 19.

Nature's Perspective Landscaping is an Evanston-based, full- Service landscape contractor proudly serving the North Shore since 1979. For more information about the Open House or about the range of landscaping services it offers, please call 847-475-7917 or visit naturesperspective.com.

Introducing the Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) And the London Planetree (Platanus x acerifolia)

The sycamore sheds its bark in patches, creating an attractive trunk. At 200-300 years, the sycamore has just reached middle age. Photo by Libby Hill

The sycamore, more than any other tree, beckons to me from my Baltimore, Md., childhood. Those years yielded abundant everyday miracles of the natural world, and I have been harvesting those memories ever since. 

A column of tall, straight sycamores, their trunks decorated with dappled brown-on-tan bark, lined our driveway. In the fall, I loved to gather their fuzzy seed balls, pull them apart and toss the seeds to the wind. The enormous leaves, so large we children could use them as hats, resemble maples. 

The sycamore is the most massive tree in its range, typically growing to be 75-100 feet tall, and along river valleys it can become 150-foot champions. Native Americans, who dug them out for canoes, made one 65 feet long that weighed 9,000 pounds.  

Sycamores are in the family Platanaceae, a small family which, depending upon who is counting, contains five to ten species. Our tree, Platanus occidentalis, is native to the eastern and central United States, east of the 100th meridian. John Wesley Powell, the first man to explore the Grand Canyon, identified that meridian as the dividing line between the eastern agriculturally productive lands and the western "arid lands" with fewer than 20 inches of annual rainfall.

The sycamore's original range generally follows this line, indicating its preference for a moist environment.  In Illinois it is plentiful along the Illinois and Kankakee rivers but, according to Swink and Wilhelm's "Plants of the Chicago Region," it is naturally rare in Cook County.

The sycamore may not be the tallest tree in its range, but it is the most massive.  Sycamores typically grow to 75-100 feet tall and along river valleys can become 150-foot champions. Native Americans, who dug them out for canoes, made one 65 feet long that weighed in at 9,000 pounds. 

Contemporary uses include furniture, butcher's blocks, piano backs and bodies of stringed instruments such as guitars and mandolins.  When it reaches 200 or 300 years old, or middle age, the sycamore begins to hollow out but remains healthy. It makes a snug den for raccoons and possums and even human families. These hollow giants were also used by Chimney swifts.

The name "sycamore" is, at best, perplexing. The U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests it was "borrowed from the European sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.), which has similar leaves. That name, in turn, comes from the Middle Eastern sycomore fig, Ficus sycomorus L., its specific epithet from the Greek ‘sykomoros,'" meaning mulberry.  Most sources give up, concluding it is of "uncertain origin."

Another common name, "buttonwood," may refer to the tightly packed seed ball, resembling a round button, or to the tiny, tough, button-like center that remains once the seeds have dispersed. Or, when the wood is cut in a particular method across the grain, it leaves a lacelike or buttonlike figure, making an attractive veneer. (Another common name is lacewood).

The genus name of our western hemisphere tree, Platanus, and the common name "plane" derive from the Latin word platys, for "broad," referring to its very wide leaves that measure six to nine inches across. The species name for our North American tree, occidentalis, comes from the Latin "occidere" meaning "to go down," referring to the setting sun. P. Orientalis, native to the east in Asia Minor and the Himalayas, comes from the Latin orientis, for the east where the sun rises.

P. occidentalis and P. orientalis hybridized to create Platanus x acerifolia, possibly in 18th century England at the Oxford Botanic Garden. Its common name, London plane tree, alludes to its tolerance of the dirt and pollution typified by industrialized London. It is now ubiquitous along European streets and in squares where people gather to play chess and visit. It does not mind being brutally pruned to control its naturally generous canopy. 

One foggy winter afternoon, my husband and I came upon a neighborhood lined with identical, grotesque, flat-topped plane trees outside the Tate Britain Gallery in London.  Obviously, utility and a safe parkway trump aesthetics.

These rapidly-growing deciduous trees have simple, palmate (like the palm of the hand) leaves alternating on the branches. The leaves do not emerge until late spring or early summer, making one anxious about whether a favorite tree has survived the winter.  As the tree grows, its older bark peels in patches to reveal lighter, younger bark, creating a unique, eye-catching pattern. 

Sycamore is monoecious, meaning both male and female flowers grow on the same tree.  The fruits develop from the female flower and hang individually on their three- to-six-inch long stringy stalks throughout winter.  The London plane tree usually has two fruits. Come spring, the whole fruit drops and disintegrates into many seeds.  Each, with its tuft of hair, is carried by wind or water or distributed by birds. 

According to Michael Dirr's "Manual of Woody Plants," the London plane tree has been hyped as a "super tree" with high resistance to the typical diseases of our sycamore. Its popularity has led to overplanting, and it lines the streets of numerous new developments.

Lately, however, Dirr says, diseases typical of its forebears -anthracnose, which inhibits leaf and stem development; cankerstain; powdery mildew; and Sycamore lace bug, among others - have begun to plague it.  Various cultivars have different resistances to these diseases. 

Evanston plans to plant more plane trees on larger parkways as they become available from area nurseries. Beautiful specimens of sycamores may be seen on the sloping park lawn behind the Civic Center, where the wet landscape provides appropriate natural habitat.

Girl Scouts Show Potential As Community Leaders

By Ivy Sundell, Mother of Valentia and Victoria

Marina Carsello plays with a cat at the Evanston Animal Shelter, using the catnip toy she made. Photo courtesy of Ivy Sundell

Kids can be trained to be future community leaders. They are guided through the process in the Girl Scout program.

At the young age of 8 or 9, the girls are encouraged to do a Leadership Award project that requires six hours of service. They often plan and lead a two-hour troop meeting as their first Leadership experience. This project eventually culminates in the Bronze Award project when they are 9 or older, which requires 15 hours of service to the community.

This year, girls from Evanston Troop 522 carried out two Bronze Award projects. The first project was conceived by Valentia Sundell as an educational tool for elementary children. Kaliroë Pappas, Victoria Sundell, Yamila Blake-Lazú and Val designed three games for children to practice math, spelling and geology. They marketed them under the name "Ginkgo Games."

Valentia Sundell, Yamila Blake-Lazú and Victoria Sundell play "Spell R-A-C-E" with their customer, second-grader Isabel Ouweleen. Photo courtesy of Ivy Sundel

Not only did the girls design and make the games, they also had to shop for materials, play-test the games, make a business plan, promote the games through District 65 and their own schools, make a promotional video at Evanston Community Media Center, build a website (www.ginkgo-games.com) and deliver the games. It was a rich entrepreneurial experience for them. They reached their goal of selling 30 games in a designated period and donated three games to the Chiaravalle Montessori School auction.

"The games are hard to put together, but people really like them," says Val.

Another Troop 522 member, Marina Carsello, wanted to help animals as part of her Bronze Award project. She made ten dozen bone-shaped dog biscuits, and one dozen tug-of-war fleece toys for dogs. To make cat toys Marina cut up old cotton T-shirts and learned how to sew bags on a sewing machine. She then filled the bags with catnip before sewing them shut.

When all the treats and toys were ready, Marina presented them to Evanston Animal Shelter and was given a chance to play with a dog and a cat using her toys.

Emily McGonigle, 13, a Troop 30 member attending Haven Middle School, wanted to help with emergencies. After Hurricane Katrina, she organized her own food drive for the hurricane victims. As a result of her turkey drive, 50 turkeys were donated and distributed to Evanston families at Thanksgiving time by Family Focus. Boy Scout Luke Austin Smith, and a couple of troop members assisted her.

Elizabeth Fitzsimonds, Nora Marino, Hannjah Guadalupe and  Leora Guadalupe made blankets for premature babies as part of their Gold Award project.  Photo courtesy of Girl Scouts

Emily made cookies with her troop for the Evanston firefighters to thank them for helping us all with emergencies. In total, 48 hours of service went into earning her Silver Award.

Evanston Township High School students from Troop 53, Elizabeth Fitzsimonds, Hannjah Guadalupe, Nora Marino and Leora Guadalupe, are Gold Award recipients this year.

When they learned of the needs of premature infants and their families, they made 30 flannel and fleece blankets for the babies and collected materials for the Infant Special Care Nursery at Evanston Hospital. The donated items, which included magazines, games, coloring books, disposable cameras and scrap-booking materials, were collected from local merchants and several Girl Scout troops. These Scouts each put in more than 60 hours of service for their community.

"Earning the Gold Award was a lot of hard work, but it was worth it," says Elizabeth. "We learned a lot about ourselves and had to manage our time to get everything done."

In all the projects the girls identified a need in the community and did what it took to meet that need. The skills they learned should help them lead community projects later in their lives

DVD REVIEW

"Bug"

A Film Review By Joe Linstroth

Director William Friedkin's "Bug" is an intense film adaptation of the play written by Steppenwolf Theater ensemble member Tracy Letts. With most of the action taking place in a dingy roadside motel room in the Middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma, "Bug" does not veer far from its live theater roots, right down to a third act that looks as if the set was changed during an intermission.

Ashley Judd stars as Aggie White, a jumpy cocktail waitress who dulls the haunting memories of a tragic past with vodka, cocaine and marijuana. Her lonesome den of self-pity is invaded when a fellow waitress brings over a mysterious drifter she met at the bar for some after-hour's partying. Unnervingly aloof at first, the stranger, Peter (Michael Shannon), sits quietly, studying his surroundings and watching the two girls get wasted.

When it is time for the party to end, she reluctantly allows Peter to crash on the couch after he politely tells her he has nowhere else to go. Aggie cannot put a finger on her new guest's odd behavior, but she senses he is harmless and she welcomes the company, especially at night, when the loneliness and the memories torment her the most.

Aggie and Peter let down their guards when Aggie's abusive ex, Jerry Goss (a muscle-bound Harry Connick Jr.), returns from a two-year stretch in the joint for armed robbery and tries to shove his way back into Aggie's life. As they grow closer, Peter reveals his difficult past and his paranoid obsession with bugs, taking Aggie with him as he descends into harrowing madness.

Mr. Friedkin ("The Exorcist") shows he has not lost his touch as "Bug" methodically builds in intensity during the first two acts. For much of the film, instead of a musical score, he opts for organic sound effects such as a ringing telephone, whirring helicopter blades and a chirping cricket to ratchet up the tension, creating a tenuous and unsettling mood.

Ashley Judd gives one of her best efforts in a while. The success of the story hinges on her ability to create a character so vulnerable and lonely that her need for human connection supersedes any common-sense notion of what is sane. William Shannon, with his flat affect and vacant eyes, manages to be both likeable and utterly mad.

"Bug" loses steam in the third act. The couple's well-crafted spiral into insanity gives way to glowing bug zappers, a room covered in tin foil, and a trading of illogical monologues about government-implanted egg sacks and super mother bugs.

The third act's full-blown lunacy is more visually arresting, but it is far more interesting to watch how the characters get there. Runs 1 hr, 42 min. Rated R for language, violence, and nudity.

FILM REVIEW

"28 Weeks Later"

A Film Review By Brian Murphy

With a prime-time budget, a new director, and sans original star Cillian Murphy, "28 Weeks Later," the sequel to the indie smash "28 Days Later," seeks to one-up its predecessor. Shockingly, it succeeds.

"Weeks" director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo maintains the look of British neo-zombie film "Days" and director Danny Boyle's style through stark, washed-out cinematography and hyper-realistic docudrama visuals created by the use of jittery hand-held cameras.

The sequel also benefits from a more involving story, an intelligent critique of the military (primarily the U.S. military), a seemingly endless horde of zombie extras and more money to spend on computer-graphic image (CGI) effects and explosions.

Not much time elapses before the film launches its first, frightening hyper attack. After an outbreak of a "rage virus" in London and its environs, the new carriers of the virus eagerly beat and bite common citizens, infecting them at an exponential rate.

A group of survivors that includes a married couple played by Catherine McCormack and Robert Carlyle (who starred in Mr. Boyle's "Trainspotting") barricade themselves in a country house. After defending his wife from a gang of invading zombies, Don (Mr. Carlyle) escapes by boat, leaving her presumed dead but really staring out a window as he departs.

Fast-forward roughly 28 weeks later, to a U.S.-led, U.N.-coordinated reconstruction of London, after the contained zombies have starved to death. Within the protected "green zone," snipers peep into local high rises, scientists probe returning citizens, and Don's children, Tammy (penetrating-eyed Imogen Poots) and Andy (the "Harry Potter" --sounding Mackintosh Muggleton) come home to their father and to a brave new militaristic world.

Danny Boyle, creatively, tightly shot a city seemingly devoid of life, but Mr. Fresnadillo takes it a step further, by having either shut down several blocks of London at one time or by having employed massive CGIs. Either way, his endless high-angle long shots of downtown London depict immense areas bereft of life. These returning citizens seem to discover a new world.

Don's lies to his children about the "death" of their mother soon come to light after his children escape the green zone to return to their house to gather their belongings. The military captures them as well as their still-living but infected mother.

Her body's rejection of the virus grabs the attention of compassionate military doctor, Scarlet (Rose Byrne of "The Dead Girl"), who makes every effort to protect the mother and her children.

I Say Cicayda, You Say Cicahda - Brood XIII Is on Its Way

By Ellen Fierer, Environmental Educator, Evanston Ecology Center

Insects are here to stay and may just inherit the Earth. This seems even more evident when they emerge en masse, as the 17-year periodical cicadas are doing. Their emergence in many areas in Chicagoland will be an awesome sight, but in other areas, hardly noticeable.

Insects have been around for 400 million years, and we humans have only existed for 2 million. Insects trump us with their diversity. They can be found everywhere except in the ocean. In fact a good square-foot patch of prairie is home to 5,000 insects, and a termite mound can have 2 million residents. How is that for condo living?

With these numbers, it is hard not to have respect for these fantastic animals. Among the characteristics contributing to the success of insects are small size, physiological toughness, phenomenal rate of growth, rapid evolution, an exoskeleton formed into tools and wings for flight.

This year the unique survival strategy of the periodical cicada is on display. While we have gone about our business - work, school, play - for the past 17 years, they have been under our feet, sucking on tree roots and growing. The long absence makes them an undependable food source for other creatures. Therefore, they are not an integral part of anyone's diet.

Periodical cicadas, also known as the Magicicada cicadas, interest entomologists because of their synchronized emergence and because the seven species are only found in the Eastern parts of North America. Specific areas, designated by brood number, have their own schedules. Brood XIII is the group of periodical cicadas we will see shortly, if we have not already seen them. These cicadas have already dug their escape routes out of the ground but will not leave the safety of the soil until the temperature of the tunnel reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit or more.

Once the optimal temperature is reached, usually at sunset, they emerge with the instinct to climb any vertical surface, usually a tree or other vegetation. Having reached a satisfactory height, they begin their last molting: The exoskeleton splits down the back, the insect wriggles its way out, and now as an adult, begins to climb again - out of sight and danger.

At this moment the cicada will look nothing like the pictures of a black-bodied, red-eyed creature. It is yellow, soft and wrinkled. The cicada is very vulnerable at this point: Its new exoskeleton needs to be pliable to exit the old exoskeleton. Now the cicada takes in air to puff and smooth itself out. Blood starts to flow, helping to unfold the wings, and the exposure to oxygen in the air hardens the insect.

It takes a few days before the cicada is ready for its destiny: reproduction. At maturation, the males, the only cicadas that make noise, will position themselves at the tops of trees - sometimes with other males - and begin their chorus to attract mates. They fly from branch to branch in search of a receptive female, their singing sometimes reaching 90 decibels - as loud as a lawnmower.

Inspecting a living cicada more closely (and most readers will want to), one will find the sound is produced from the underside of the thorax, the body part below the head. It vibrates like a drum. Further scrutiny reveals four beautiful, translucent wings lined in orange (probably flapping as the insect attempts to escape the grasp). Hold the insect firmly but not so hard as to harm it.

Look closely at the head; find its eyes near the two short antennae. On the underside is the mouth, which is nothing like a human mouth. The cicada mouth is specifically designed for piercing the hard bark of a tree and sucking out the sap. It is a bigger version of a mosquito mouth.

But cicadas do not like human blood and will only attempt poking with its mouth-part if it is held too long. With that in mind and before Friend Cicada tires of human company, look closely at the cicada's legs. There are wonderful claws for climbing and holding on. To see how an insect breathes, look along the sides of the abdomen (the third body part, after the legs and wings). Very small holes called spiracles run along the edge of the abdomen. These spiracles allow air into and out of the insect through tubules where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged, just as in humans. The cicada uses its abdominal muscles to move air in and out. Anyone who thought humans could not possibly have any similarities to insects can think again.

Knowing the periodical cicada better may help dispel people's fears. Cicadas are not dangerous in any way, but they might surprise or bump into people, with their clumsy flight patterns.

Take the chance to get to know them, and send them on their way. They have work to do. Think about the fantastic feat this small creature has accomplished, and appreciate the unique opportunity to witness a phenomenon that will not occur again until 2024.

Celebrate Brood XIII of the periodical cicadas with the Evanston Ecology Center, 2024 McCormick Blvd., by submitting your creative cicada works to be displayed at the Cicada Celebration Station at the Ecology Center or attend a class or a family program there focusing on cicadas.

Cicada Nymph and Skeleton.

Good Farmers, Good Farmland, Good Food

The Land Connection Cultivates Sustainability

By Victoria Scott

A year ago The Land Connection (TLC), a non-profit organization devoted to creating a sustainable food system, established its headquarters in a thoroughly urban setting:  a suite at 1227 Dodge Ave., near the busy Dempster-Dodge intersection and across from a shopping center.

Yet the organization's heart is in the fields and farms of Illinois. 

A desire to bridge the rural-urban divide - specifically, to connect urban consumers (eaters) with rural producers (growers) - compelled TLC's founder to leave her New York City publishing job and return to her roots in central Illinois.

Terra (as in the Latin word for "land") Brockman, executive director of TLC, says she had for years considered forming a non-profit concerned with food. 

But it took the availability of a parcel of downstate farmland slated for residential development (what she calls "the kick in the pants of land") to spur her to found TLC five years ago. 

TLC saved that first tract of land, facilitating its purchase by a group of buyers interested in transitioning it to organic food production. 

Since then TLC has articulated and refined its mission, playing matchmaker to link individuals interested in buying farmland to save it from development; recruiting and training new organic farmers in order to increase the supply of locally grown foods; and connecting farmers with consumers, educating both on the benefits of local organic food.

The seeds of TLC took root in the fertile dirt of Ms. Brockman's hometown.  Congerville, Ill., is located between Peoria and Bloomington, amidst the rich, deep prairie earth of central Illinois that experts call one of the three richest soils in the world, she says. 

Organic farming connected the Brockman family - and TLC - to Evanston.  Terra's father, who grew up on a family farm, heeded his parents' advice and furthered his education.  He earned a Ph.D., then taught genetics at Illinois State University. 

But in retirement he is back on the farm, helping his son Henry, whose organic produce is a mainstay at the Evanston Farmers Market.  Ms. Brockman's sister Teresa is also involved in sustainable farming. 

Her Farmers Market stall, Teresa's Fruit and Herbs, features nearly 70 kinds of produce.  That she will have food to offer marketers  - despite the almost total loss of her fruit blossoms to a late frost this year  - illustrates why "TLC's whole thing is variety.  It's like an insurance policy," Ms. Brockman says.

The lay of the land around the Brockman homestead inclined the family toward organic.  Woodford County, Ms. Brockman points out, is distinct from most of Illinois. 

Nestled in the Mackinaw River valley, the county has hills and valleys rather than the wide, flat plains that make huge-scale farming profitable in other parts of the state. 

As a result, Woodford County always "tended to have diverse farms," says Ms. Brockman.  It was not such a stretch, then, for a group of Woodford County farmers to bolt from the mainstream and renounce chemicals in the 1970s, she says. 

Their experiences inform Farm Beginnings, TLC's one-year farmer-training course.  Offered at two locations, in central Illinois and at Angelic Organics farm near the Wisconsin border, the course enrolls 20 students per city and course.  Approaching its third year, Farm Beginnings counts some 50 graduates.

While both the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and ISU agriculture schools focus on agribusiness for large farms, says Ms. Brockman, for "basic farmer training, we're the only game in town."

Unlike the romantic back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s, TLC takes a "hard-nosed" look at farming, she says.  Students develop business plans and hear about bank loans.  They learn the dangers of monocropping, with its reliance on chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and the virtues of five-year crop rotation (corn-beans-wheat-oats-hay).  They hear, she says, "You can become financially successful," but also, "Don't give up your day job yet."

Already graduates' produce is on the market, like the freshly prepared organic salsa, bread and pasta of a Peoria mother-daughter team whose "value-added" selections, home-made from what they grow, give new meaning to "convenience food."

TLC is also working to preserve farmland through both purchase and sound farming practices.  Sometimes it facilitates a group's buying land and transitioning it to organic, with the ultimate goal of finding a buyer to farm it. 

They have raised more than $150,000 and purchased more than 30 acres (at something less than the going price of $4,500 per acre in Illinois) to date.

TLC is also building a database of potential buyers and sellers of farmland.  "I get two or three calls a week.  We're about the only people serving this need," says Ms. Brockman.

And TLC is striving to make locally grown food more available for consumers.  TLC encourages farmers to transition to organic one field at a time.  As part of its education program, TLC is sponsoring a field day in mid-July to let visitors see a "farm in transition," says Ms. Brockman - a typical Illinois grain farm converting gradually to organic.

Like the farmer who told the Farm Beginnings class, "You can make a living, but you have to stop counting hours," Ms. Brockman and her part-time staff of two operate out of passion.  Their organization has developed a strategic plan and a 10-member board they hope will grow to 15. 

Sometimes Terra Brockman longs for New York, "when I had a regular life with regular hours and I could meet friends for the opera."  But then she worries about the problems caused by the disappearance of local food infrastructure, including meat lockers.  And she sees another field that must be tended.

"The Secret of Lost Things"

A Book Review By Sue Brooke

"The Secret of Lost Things" by Sheridan Hay is a delightful little novel of abandonment and remembrance.

Rosemary is 18 years old and has been reared by her unmarried mother in Tasmania.

When her mother dies, her mother's best friend, Chaps, buys Rosemary a ticket to New York, telling Rosemary she is setting her free. So Rosemary arrives in New York carrying her mother's ashes and ready to search for what her life might become.

She finds a used/rare book store one day and tells the owner she has to work there. Amazingly, he hires her, and she finds herself employed along with a wonderful parade of colorful characters.

Mr. Pike, the owner and manager, is aloof - an aging albino who is losing his eyesight. Oscar, a handsome Latino, has no interest in anything but his rare books.

Mr. Mitchell, who operates the rare-books part of the store, seems to Rosemary like the father she has never known.

The most vivid character is Pearl - the only other "girl" who works at the Arcade - who is a man in the process of becoming a woman. Pearl keeps telling Rosemary, "We girls have to keep together."

The Arcade is a book-lover's delight, its floor and shelves stacked with used books. Each section seems like a maze where one could wander and wonder.

Oscar runs the non-fiction section and impresses Rosemary with the knowledge he has accumulated from his reading.

Rosemary imagines herself in love with Oscar, but he never encourages her. And as much as she longs for Oscar, it is Mr. Geist who seems to want her.

One day Mr. Geist asks Rosemary to be his assistant, helping him read correspondence. A rare old book by Herman Melville, presumed lost, seems to have been located. Rosemary becomes caught up in a tug-of-war between Oscar and Mr. Geist.

Each man is intent on making her his sole confidante, and she knows something mysterious, maybe even illegal, is going on.

"The Secret of Lost Things" is a wonderful book about loss and longing and new beginnings. Reading it feels like roaming a dusty and jammed used-book store, where books are just waiting to be read and old manuscripts are just waiting to be found.

There Is Still a Calling For the Righteous

Chuck Meyers assists Mayor Lorraine Morton in lighting a candle commemorating the Righteous Gentiles who put themselves and often their families at risk to help save Jews from the Holocaust.

Evanston's Avenue of the Righteous, a quiet walkway amid trees and commemorative stones between the Civic Center and its southwest parking lot, honors gentiles who risked their lives and in some cases those of their families to help Jews escape the Holocaust. Established here in 1986, it is modeled after the Avenue of the Righteous in Jerusalem, the walkway that leads to Yad Vashem, the memorial erected by the people of Israel to commemorate the Holocaust.

The Avenue of the Righteous here is unique in two ways: It is the only one located on public, not Jewish-owned, property, and it was conceived and funded by Christian, Jewish and Baha'i congregations.

On the 20th anniversary of Evanston's Avenue at a ceremony held May 20 at the Civic Center, Maurine Pyle read the names of the Righteous Gentiles commemorated in Evanston's Avenue and said, "They taught us the value of being human when such things have been discarded. ‘Come in' is the mantra of the Avenue," - referring to those who responded to the terrified knock at the door asking for help in escaping the Nazis.

Chuck Meyers, president of Chicago-based "Facing History and Ourselves," said, "Individuals, communities and nations need a solemn place for persons to stand and meditate on humanity and to reorient their moral compass to true north. As we speak, people are dying in Darfur.... [These Righteous Gentiles] would say, ‘Now it is your turn.... Walk the Avenue, read the plaques. Each name is a reminder of human courage and what it means to say, ‘Come in.'"

RoundTable Artist's Weekend Features Nancy Ethiel

The next RoundTable Artist's Weekend will feature the works of Nancy Ethiel, June 8-10, at Frame Warehouse, 814 Dempster St.

Ms. Ethiel's work as an artist began in childhood and continued through college and early marriage. Then, as she says, "Life took over, and I put my paints to rest for 15 years." When she returned to painting, she says, she found herself better able to translate "what was in my head onto paper."

Recently Ms. Ethiel has been experimenting with a series of small, highly detailed paintings set, jewel-like, in a much larger background that is a loose, abstracted version of the central painting. Expanding on her skills at portraiture, she is currently working on a series of oil paintings in the style of Baroque painter Artemesia Gentileschi. The first, "Shock and Awe," speaks of the tragedies currently suffered by wives and mothers in the Middle East. The next, "Mission Accomplished," will address the sufferings of men in that area.

There will be a wine and cheese reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on June 8

Hackensaw Boys Kick Off Starlight Concert Series

Offering more music at more locations, Evanston's Starlight Concert Series expands to 15 concerts at four parks this summer. Concert locations are James Park, Dawes Park, Twiggs Park and Butler Park, the newest venue. The free outdoor concerts are on select Tuesday and Thursday evenings, June 14-Aug. 21, with each concert beginning at 7:30 p.m. 

 Concert Schedule:
June 14, The Hackensaw Boys: High-energy bluegrass music, James Park;
June 19, Lucy Smith: Traditional jazz and blues vocalist, Butler Park;   
June 21, Question Mark & the Mysterians: Garage rock legends, James Park;
June 28, Dub Dis: Reggae with Jamaican influences, James Park;
July 5, Picante: Latin jazz blends with world music, James Park;
July 10, Hot 8 Brass Band: New Orleans-based band, Twiggs Park;
Juuly 12, Gin Palace Jesters: Hillbilly honky-tonk, James Park;
July 17, Brute Force: Music of the absurd, Dawes Park;
July 19, The 1900s: Orchestral pop arrangements, James Park;
July 24, Instant Karma Band: Beatles favorites, Dawes Park;
July 31, Hobex: Spicy soul-funk-jazz, Dawes Park;
Aug. 7, Elana James: Texas fiddler, Dawes Park;
Aug. 9, Occidental Brothers: Dance Band International Central and West African dance music, Twiggs Park;
Aug. 14, Indigo: Swing, contemporary and dance club hits, Dawes Park;
Aug. 21, Reggae Cowboys: Upbeat reggae with country guitar, Dawes Park.

James Park is at Dodge Avenue at Mulford; Dawes Park is along the lakefront, Sheridan Road at Church Street. Twiggs Park is at Simpson Street and Dodge Avenue. Butler Park is east of canal and just south of Dempster Street. Rain sites are the Levy Center, 300 Dodge Avenue, or the Fleetwood-Jourdain Center, 1655 Foster St. Up-to-date information is available at 847-448-8058.

Evanston Starlight Concerts are presented by the City of Evanston's Cultural Arts Division and are partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. Sponsors include the Evanston Fourth of July Association, The Homestead, Chicago Public Radio, the Chicago Reader, and the Evanston RoundTable