Lectures

Name Start Date Time Age
Current Events Ongoing 12:45 pm 45 - 99+
Join this in-depth discussion of world issues in an enjoyable and social atmosphere.

Appropriate for All Adults

Thursday ongoing
12:45 pm – 2:15 pm

Member Value Fee: $1
Regular fee: $2

Facilitators: Peter Diamant or Sam Helfenbaum
Democracy in our Time 06/05/2012 10:30 am 45 - 99+
Democracy is our greatest acheivement. Its history is relatively brief, a history of increasing participation of ordinary people in the political process. Those who have advanced democracy include Aristotle, Jean Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Thomas Jefferson, John Stuart Mill and
Nellie McClung.

Can such a system of broad participation manage the great problems of our time, such as healthcare, economic crisis, the nuclear threat and global warming?

Tuesdays June 5-26 / 10:30 am - 12 pm

Member Value Fee: $40
Regular fee: $50
At the door: $13
Jewish Words: Weapons of Mass Destruction 05/29/2012 1:30 pm 45 - 99+
with Bruria Cooperman

From biblical times to the present, Jews have always relied on words. Jews are the people of the book. We have come from hiding to re-claiming who we are. Words reflect the high points and the lowest of our existence as Jews. Whether delivered by Korach, Lenny Bruce or your mother, words can be deadly but luckily, also funny.

They have the ability to hurt yet still entertain. And theyare never as straightforward as we think.

TUESDAY May 29 / 1:30 pm - 3 pm

Member Value Fee: $3
Regular fee: $5
KOFFLERARTS - Poetry Central 03/19/2012 10:00 am 18 - 99+

This course offers participants a supportive audience to share their work and gain constructive editing advice. The course will be devoted to writing exercises, discussing technique and work-shopping students’ poems.

Mondays, 10 AM – 12 PM

March 19 – May 7, 2012
$260 
Movie Lectures with Kevin Courrier: Love and Hisses: Debating the Movies 08/01/2012 11:00 am 25 - 99+
It's been acknowledged since the beginning of the picture show that dating and movies have always gone hand-in-hand. Couples have met and sometimes found everlasting love by sharing a film together. On the other hand, movies can also cause great strife between couples, starting arguments and even ending relationships over personal tastes. In Love and Hisses: Debating the Movies, film critic Kevin Courrier will examine and explore with film clips some of the many films that have caused the hottest debates between friends and couples.

Whether it's over the subject of sex ("Last Tango in Paris”), ("Fatal Attraction"), horror and suspense ("Dressed to Kill," "Blue Velvet"), favourite books ("The English Patient"), politics ("Mississippi Burning",
"Farenheit 9/11"), religion ("The Last Temptation of Christ”), ("The Passion of the Christ"), or family values ("Ordinary People"), movies can sometimes cause unresolved arguments. Our aim, however, will be to find the common ground necessary to debate these issues without the risk of breaking friendships.

WEDNESDAYS August 1 - August 29
1:00 – 3:00 pm

Member Value Fee: $50+HST
Regular Fee: $60 +HST
At the door: $13
Movie Lectures with Kevin Courrier: The Enduring Popularity of The Gangster Film 05/23/2012 1:00 pm 25 - 99+
“Little Caesar, The Public Enemy, and ”Scarface” – remember these powerful gangster films that emerged during prohibition? They quickly became popular because their criminal protagonists flouted the laws that the rest of us had to obey. But even after this prohibitive era ended, the genre prospered and included movies about real gangsters, such as John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde. By the 1970s, with the enormous success of ”The Godfather”, gangsters were no longer just breaking the law, but were creating darker versions of our
free enterprise system.

In this course, film critic Kevin Courrier examines with film clips how the gangster film became such a successful genre, not only entertaining audiences with its picture of those who transgress society’s laws, but also inspiring popular television depictions of the gangster in "The Sopranos" and "Boardwalk Empire".

WEDNESDAYS, May 23 - June 20
1:00 – 3:00 pm

Member Value Fee: $50+HST
Regular Fee: $60 +HST
At the door: $13
Movie Lectures with Kevin Courrier: The Legendary Career of John Huston 06/27/2012 1:00 pm 25 - 99+
From the time he began his career as a film director with (”The Maltese Falcon”) in 1941, John Huston became a legendary and celebrated director who became as much a larger-than-life figure as a great film-maker.

Yet despite a substantial career that includes such classics as (”Treasure of the Sierre Madre”), (”The African Queen”), (”The Man Who Would Be King”), and concluding with his adaptation of (“James Joyce's The Dead”), Huston has never received his full due from film critics in the pantheon of great film artists.

Film critic Kevin Courrier seeks to remedy that omission by examining with film clips how John Huston directed more literary adaptations (Moby
Dick, Red Badge of Courage, even The Bible) than any other film-maker; as well as becoming a substantial actor who brought his legend into a
diverse number of pictures (Chinatown, Winter Kills).

The series reveals John Huston to be one of the great Hollywood film icons.

WEDNESDAYS, June 27 - July 25
1:00 – 3:00 pm

Member Value Fee: $50+HST
Regular Fee: $60 +HST
At the door: $13
Movie Lectures with Kevin Courrier: Woody Allen - Past and Present 04/18/2012 1:00 pm 25 - 99+
When comic Woody Allen first began making movies in the late sixties (“Bananas, Take the Money and Run”), he became a heroic voice of the counter-culture who satirized popular stereotypes of wasp ideals and images. He continued to be an artist of his time through ("Love and Death") and ("Sleeper”), but after the success of "Annie Hall" where he won the Academy Award for Best Picture, he began to doubt that voice.

Soon his movies took refuge in the values of the past rather embracing contemporary issues. He began to prefer making solemn dramas (”Interiors, Another Woman”) rather than comedies. While he continues
to work on his own terms, but with only occasional critical and financial success, audiences still wait and hope and respond - as they did last summer with "Midnight in Paris". 

This five-part series will look at Woody Allen - past and present - and examine how and why this film artist continues to court goodwill among movie audiences.

Video clips will be shown

WEDNESDAYS, April 18-May 16 1:00 – 3:00 pm

Member Value Fee: $50 + HST
Regular Fee: $60 + HST
At the door: $13
Opera with Iain Scott - Insights into Mozart's Opera 05/23/2012 7:00 pm 45 - 99+
The greatest of all opera composers is Mozart. He probes more profoundly into the human condition and understands the variety and depth of human emotions – more than any other composer. He is much more than a creator of memorable tunes… he is a brilliant psychological dramatist. In this course, Iain Scott will chart this genius innovator’s development in three forms of opera: Italian Opera Seria, Italian Opera Buffa and German Singspiel. Each illustrated lecture will use a variety of productions on DVDs.
 
WEDNESDAYS / 7pm - 9pm
 
Member Value Fee: $52 + HST
Regular Fee: $72 + HST
At the door $18 

May 23 - The Early operas and Idomeneo
June 13 - La Clemenza di Tito and The Magic Flute
May 30 - The Abduction from the Seraglio & The Marriage of Figaro
June 6 - Così fan Tutte and Don Giovanni
Presidential Election 2012 07/10/2012 10:30 am 45 - 99+
The unique American Presidential Election process was designed to be very democratic. Is it too open and too long? How does money and the media affect the process? Will the election in November resolve some of the tensions or will it lead to a new round of turmoil?
 
Tuesdays July 10-31 / 10:30 am - 12 pm

Member Value Fee: $40
Regular fee: $50
At the door: $13
Singers of the Century with Iain Scott - Joan Sutherland and "Lucia di Lammermoor" 08/22/2012 1:00 pm 45 - 99+
She was called “the Voice of the Century”. Luciano Pavarotti assesses her as the greatest Bel Canto singer of all time. Her effortless virtuosity and immensity of voice has never been equaled. She is Joan Sutherland.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 22 / 1pm - 3pm

Member Value Fee: $13
Regular Fee: $18
Singers of the Century with Iain Scott - Maria Callas and "Tosca" 08/15/2012 1:00 pm 45 - 99+
She was the most famous singer of her day. Her tempestuous love affair with Aristotle Onassis almost destroyed her career. Yet no one has ever approached her dramatic intensity and unforgettable vocal acting.

Wednesday August 15 / 1-3pm
Member Value Fee: $13
Regular Fee: $18 
Social Media 04/17/2012 2:15 pm 0 - 99+
Are you on Facebook ? Do you use Twitter? If you are lost when you hear these words, then this course is for you! We will teach you how to create your own accounts, insert data and share it with your friends and family, and best of all, how to use these tools safely.

Tuesday April 17 - May 22 / 2:15-3:30pm

Members Value Fee: $105
Regular Fee: $135

Participants: Minimum 4 / Maximum 20
Treasures in Jewish Literature Book Club 05/15/2012 12:00 am 40 - 99+
Explores the best in contemporary Jewish literature. Presented by local literary experts and beloved book reviewers, each presenter offers insights into the reviewed titles filled with vibrant dialogue and discussion.

The last review for this series features:

Across the four short stories Krauss pulls together the disparate elements, settings, characters, and fragile connective tissue to form a formidable and haunting mosaic of loss and profound sorrow.

TUESDAY MAY 15 / 1:30pm - 3:00pm

Refreshments at 1pm

NEXT SERIES 2012-13 list of book titles and reviewers will be presented at this last session.

Member Value Fee: $16 at the door
Regular Fee: $18 at the door


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