Puget Brass Holiday Concert

Join Puget Brass on Sunday, December 11th at 2:00pm for a holiday concert at the Redmond Library. This  entertaining performance for the whole family consists of popular music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of you may remember that Puget Brass performed at the Redmond Library in December 2009.

Puget Brass is a local British brass band that performs traditional and contemporary music throughout the Pacific Northwest. From school teachers to Boeing engineers, truck drivers to entrepreneurs, the group brings together 30 community brass and percussion musicians to perform this genre of music.

Here's a video of their performance at the Northwest Brass Band Festival in January 2011.

Brass Bands
Puget Brass was formed in 1999, inspired by the movie, Brassed Off, based on a modern-day English mining town and its brass band. The band members’ camaraderie combined with the movie’s stirring renditions of songs such as Danny Boy and Floral Dance served as a template for Puget Brass.

In the mining industry, bands were sponsored by companies, and over time contests with rival company bands developed. At the turn of the 20th century, these contests drew audiences of up to seventy thousand in large industrial cities, such as Manchester. Today hundreds of brass bands worldwide, like Puget Brass, keep the spirit and fun of the golden-age of the brass bands alive.

America by Design: Posters from the WPA 1936-1943

The By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 collection consists of 908 boldly colored and graphically diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Of the 2,000 WPA posters known to exist, the Library of Congress collection of more than 900 is the largest.

These striking silkscreen, lithograph, and woodcut posters were designed to publicize health programs, cultural programs, travel and tourism, educational programs, and community activities. The posters were made possible by the Federal Art Project, whose primary goal was to employ out-of-work artists. The project administrators believed that art should be part of the daily lives of all Americans, not just the elite. Even though there were diverse approaches to poster design, the WPA collection embodies a truly original American poster style.

The Posters
Here are some of the Collection Highlights. The following 1936 poster is from the Tenement House Department of the City of New York. The poster promotes better living conditions by keeping tenement neighborhoods clean. Notice the expressive use of bold colors and lines.

The following poster is a 1936 poster announcing the second annual photograph exhibition of the Sioux City Camera Club. Note the stylized simplicity of the man and his camera, echoing the streamlined curves of the then popular Art Deco style.

Before the advent of television, posters were widely used as public service announcements. The follow poster promotes eye examinations for children.

Some of the most striking WPA posters are ones that promote travel and tourism. The follow poster, showing two bighorn sheep, highlights America’s national parks. Many of the posters were produced by the silkscreen printing process, which allowed graphic artists to create rich layers of colors and textures.

And of course, libraries and reading were also promoted.

This extraordinary collection of posters from the 1930’s continues to influence modern designers today.

The East Lake Sammamish Trail: Paved and Open

On November 7th, the Redmond portion of the East Lake Sammamish Trail was reopened. This 1.2 mile section of the trail has been paved — previously, it was hardpack gravel. However, the non-Redmond portion of the 11-mile trail is still unpaved.

Parking 
The East Lake Sammamish Trail improvements included the construction of a 77-space parking lot next to the trail on the south side of NE 70th Street (near Whole Foods).

Here’s a map showing the location of the new parking lot:

View Larger Map

For more info on public access, parking, and restrooms along the East Lake Sammamish Trail, click here.

Regional Trail Corridor
The East Lake Sammamish Trail is part of a 44-mile urban regional trail corridor that also includes the Burke-Gilman Trail, the Sammamish River Trail, the Marymoor Connector Trail and the Issaquah-High Point Trail. This corridor links Seattle to the Eastside and the Cascade foothills.


For more info, see the East Lake Sammamish Trail Master Plan.

The World of Alagaësia: A Visit from Christopher Paolini

On Tuesday November 29th at 7:00pm, meet Christopher Paolini, whose most recently published work, Inheritance, is final book of the Inheritance Cycle. Join us at the Redmond Library, where you’ll get to chat with the author and hear about the remarkable fictional world of Alagaësia, in which Eragon and his dragon Saphira battle the forces of evil. Books will be available for sale by Secret Garden Books, and a book signing follows Christopher’s presentation.

Inheritance 
Synopsis:  Long months of training and battle have brought victories and hope, but they have also brought heartbreaking loss. And still, the real battle lies ahead: they must confront Galbatorix. When they do, they will have to be strong enough to defeat him. And if they cannot, no one can. There will be no second chances.

Watch the trailer:

About the Author 
Christopher Paolini was born in Southern California and lived most of his life in Paradise Valley, Montana. The tall, jagged Beartooth Mountains that rise on one side of Paradise Valley inspired the fantastic scenery in Eragon, the first novel in his Inheritance cycle.

Christopher was homeschooled by his parents and often wrote short stories and poems. He made frequent trips to the library, and read widely. He was fifteen when he wrote the first draft of Eragon and his family self-published the book in 2001. His literary inspirations include the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, E. R. Eddison and the author of the epic poem Beowulf.

In August 2003, Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers published Eragon and it was an instant success worldwide. Christopher's second novel Eldest was published in 2005, followed by Brisingr in 2008. To date, Eragon has been translated into 49 languages. The first three books in the series have sold 25 million copies worldwide. Inheritance, the fourth and final book in the cycle will be published on November 8, 2011 with a first printing of 2.5 million copies.

For more info about Christopher Paolini, see The Inheritance Cycle. This Web site contains activities, such as an interactive map of Alagaësia and an adventure game. You can also play the Facebook game, Inheritance Quest.

Redmond Library Schedule of Events
For upcoming events, including book discussions and author visits, see the Redmond Library’s Schedule of Events.

Only in Redmond: Geek Graffiti

I suppose it had to happen sooner or later — my favorite graffiti in Redmond got painted over. For those of you who missed it, here's a photo of the tag underneath the NE 90th St. bridge along the Sammamish River trail from earlier this year. Apparently, someone was very passionate about the metric system!