Things to Do, Aug. 23-30

Dump and Run
Jason Koski/University Photography
2012 Dump and Run sale

Move-in essentials

The annual Dump and Run Sale – from the university’s communitywide collection each spring of recycled furniture, clothing, jewelry, lamps, kitchenware and electronics – will be held Aug. 24, 8:30 a.m-4 p.m., and Aug. 25, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at Helen Newman Hall. Proceeds support local charities.

Last year’s Dump and Run collected approximately 20 tons of reusable items, raising more than $50,000 and keeping that material out of landfills.

Admission is free; the sale is open to all area residents. Information: http://living.sas.cornell.edu/explore/news/1305-dump-run-collection.cfm

Orientation Week concert

The Cornell University Glee Club and Cornell University Chorus perform separate repertoire as well as combined selections in a short, free concert, Aug. 24 at 6:30 p.m. in Sage Chapel. The program also includes appearances by The Hangovers and After 8.

The meaning of trees

English professor Thomas Hill will discuss the use of literary trees from medieval fairy tales to Biblical stories at Cornell Plantations’ 2013 William H. and Jane Torrence Harder Lecture, Aug. 28 at 5:30 p.m. in Call Auditorium, Kennedy Hall. His lecture, “Pagan and Christian Trees: From Ambrose to ‘Juniper Tree,’” examines instances in literature when heroes climb trees and disappear or are resurrected.

Part of Plantations’ Fall Lecture Series, the Harder Lecture focuses on the relationship between literature and nature.

Hill’s lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a garden party in the Botanical Garden. The Harder Lecture is endowed by Torrence Harder ’65 and named in honor of his parents, William H. Harder ’30 and Jane Torrence Harder.

Sustainable seafood

The Museum of the Earth will co-host “Inside the Glass: A Night of Sustainable Sushi,” with Green Catch, a Cornell student group devoted to sustainable fishing practices and education, Aug. 30 at 5 p.m.

The event will include discussions about the business of sustainable seafood and sushi and a look at the museum’s newest exhibit, featuring live coral aquaria from the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean regions. A free shuttle bus will leave Day Hall at 4:30 p.m. and return after 7 p.m. Suggested donation at the door is $10.

Preceding the event is a series of free lectures: “Buying, Selling, Trading, Serving: Staying in the Black with Seafood,” Aug. 24 at 1 p.m., 3330 Tatkon Center; “Don’t Judge a Fish by Its Cover!” Aug. 25 at 1 p.m., Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall; “Something is Fishy... Throughout History!” Aug. 27 at 11 a.m., Kaufmann Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall.

Art from Asia, and internment

Three new exhibits opened in August at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and will continue through the fall.

“Encountering the Floating World: Ukiyo-e and the West,” explores the relationship of Japanese prints to modern and contemporary fine and decorative art, and how these important confluences transformed Western art-making practice. Artists on view include Hiroshige, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi, Tiffany and Whistler. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Japanese prints were avidly collected by Americans and Europeans, studied by Western artists and used to teach art to schoolchildren and art school students.

Roger Shimomura’s “Minidoka on My Mind” is a series of paintings that draw upon on his and his family’s experiences at the Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho, an internment camp for Japanese-American citizens during World War II. The series exposes the dismal living conditions and humiliation of incarceration and its lingering effects, while honoring the resilience of the internment camp community. The exhibition coincides with the New Student Reading Project, and the campus and community reading of Julia Otsuka’s “When the Emperor Was Divine.”

“Vietnamese Ceramics from the Menke Collection” consists of 57 objects from the Dong Son Culture (700-43 B.C.) through the 17th century, assembled by nuclear physicist John R. Menke (1919–2009). The collection reflects a millennium of rule by China, followed by experimentation with new forms and approaches, 1009-1400 A.D., and the exportation of blue and white ceramics imbued with Vietnamese designs and flair, 1400-1600 A.D.

New at Cornell Cinema

Cornell Cinema will unveil its new digital cinema package projection, a larger screen and new red velvet stage curtains at its Orientation Week screenings beginning Aug. 25.

The lineup of films in Willard Straight Theatre begins with the timeless classics “Casablanca,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “Citizen Kane,” Aug. 25-29. Films showing from Aug. 29-Sept. 1 include “From Up On Poppy Hill,” “The Great Gatsby” and “Star Trek Into Darkness.” Films are free for new Cornell freshmen and transfer students with ID from Aug. 25-29, and free to all Cornell students on Thursday, Aug. 29.

A special Orientation to Cornell Cinema will be held Aug. 27 at 7:15 p.m., with movie trailers, short films, free popcorn and door prizes, hosted by Cornell Cinema Director Mary Fessenden.

Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” and David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia” will screen Sept. 1, with $3 admission.

Cornell Cinema will continue to screen traditional 35mm films in addition to those on the new digital system.

For times, tickets and passes, see http://cinema.cornell.edu

Media Contact

Joe Schwartz