8 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Peninsula Arts Center welcomes Brazilian choro
PHOTO BY ELINA PAAVOLA
Jack Falk of the Yankl Falk Trio performing at the Kaustinen
Folk Music Festival in 2005.
Musician’s invocations
promise to guard against
dangerous weirdness
ASTORIA — KALA
welcomes back Klezmer
musician Jack Falk and the
Yankl Falk Trio at 8 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 24. Doors
open at 7:30 p.m. for wine
and cocktails. The show
costs $15.
Jack “Yankl” Falk (on
clarinet and vocals) joins
with Christina Crowder
(accordion) and Charles
Casimiro (bass) for an
evening of Carpathian
klezmer, Hasidic chant,
Hungarian and Moldavian
dance tunes, and raucous
Yiddish drinking songs.
Yankl will share liturgi-
cal invocations to guard
against the dangerous
weirdness that has envel-
oped us of late.
Since launching a Sun-
U-Pic k
100% Natural
Blueberrie s
Open Daily ‘til 6 pm
$2.00 lb.
Cranguyma Farms
113th & Sandridge
N. Long Beach, WA
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Christina Crowder
day morning Yiddish radio
hour in 1979, Yankl Falk
has been at the center of
Yiddish culture in Portland.
Crowder, a Lake
Oswego native, lived
for ten years in Hungary
and Romania, including
two years as a Fulbright
scholar, recording elderly
Romanian violinists who
had played for Jewish
communities before
World War II. Her recent
research, sponsored by
NYU Abu Dhabi, investi-
gates connections between
Jewish, Bessarabian and
Greek music.
Now based in Con-
necticut, Crowder is a
highly sought accordionist
in New York klezmer
circles.
KALA is located at
1017 Marine Drive.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Rio Con Brio’s Mike Burdette, left, and Tim Connell
LONG BEACH, WASH. — Rio
Con Bio, a Brazilian choro
band, will perform Saturday,
Aug. 26, at the Peninsula Arts
Center.
The band began in 2006 as
a vehicle for virtuoso mando-
linist Tim Connell to indulge
his burgeoning obsession with
the Brazilian national music
“choro.” Joined by fellow
gypsy jazz string player
Mike Burdette, the two soon
accumulated a large repertoire
of these quirky instrumental
tunes from early 20th century
Brazil — predecessor of
samba, bossa nova and MPB
— complex yet accessible,
exotic yet familiar, “and all
addictively danceable,” orga-
nizers wrote.
By 2008, the duo found
themselves performing all
over the Northwest and, by
2010, across North America.
Rio Con Brio has been a
staple of Brazilian music and
mandolin events and, because
of their technique and Con-
nell’s adventurous improvi-
sation, have been featured in
traditionally classical concert
series and jazz festivals.
Rio Con Brio has record-
ed three acclaimed albums
of choro music and have
performed with top Brazilian
musicians.
The Peninsula Arts Center
(peninsulaartscenter.org) is
located at 504 Pacific Ave. N.,
Long Beach, Washington.
Tickets are $15 and
available on Brown Paper
Tickets, by emailing events@
peninsulaartscenter.org, or by
calling Bill Svensen at 360-
901-0962.
Wine, beer, and other
refreshments are available for
purchase.
All events benefit the Long
Beach Peninsula Acoustic
Music Foundation, a 501(c)3
nonprofit charitable organi-
zation.
Open mic
The arts center holds an
open mic the Friday
night before each concert.
Sign-ups start around 6:30
p.m.; the music begins at 7
p.m.
Singers, instrumentalists,
poets, spoken-word artists,
stand-up comedians and
dramatists are all welcome.
Or, just come to listen, and
be amazed by the breadth of
talent in the region.
Why should we care about Antarctica? Dr. Borg knows
ASTORIA — Scott G. Borg,
head of the Antarctic Scienc-
es Section at the National
Science Foundation and
chief scientist at the U.S.
Antarctic research stations,
will present a program titled
“Antarctica: An Interesting
Place but Why Should We
Care?” 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug.
27, at the Astoria Senior
Center, 1111 Exchange St.
Doors open at 5 p.m. The
presentation is free and open
to the public.
Borg will provide plenty
of opportunity to answer
questions from the audience.
Scientists have calculated
that sea levels would rise at
least 60 meters (196.85 feet)
ECORELEARN.ORG
Scott G. Borg
if the South Polar ice sheet
were to melt, an organiz-
er said in a release. “That
would inundate downtown
Astoria, including the Senior
Center.”
It is for this and oth-
er pressing reasons that
ENCORE (Exploring New
Concepts of Retirement
Education) is sponsoring a
program at the Senior Center
while it is still above water.
Topics include: an
overview of the Antarctic
continent with emphasis on
its history; geopolitics (for
example, the Antarctic Trea-
ty); a brief introduction to
the U.S. Antarctic Program
and the science it supports.
In 2014, Borg — who has
more than 20 years of South
Pole experience — received
a Samuel J. Heyman Pres-
idential Award from Presi-
dent Obama.
The citation states that
Borg has helped turn the
U.S. Antarctic science
program into the largest and
most prestigious research
effort on the continent.
Borg plays a critical role
in guiding the U.S. Antarctic
science program that sup-
ports cutting-edge research
across a range of topics, in-
cluding climate change, the
origins and nature of the uni-
verse, the discovery of new
species of extinct dinosaurs,
and collecting a 15-mil-
lion-year-old water sample
trapped half a mile below
the surface of Antarctica.
For additional informa-
tion, consult encrorelearn.
org.