2011 Grammy Nominated. . .

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Concert

January 15th @ 8pm, Winspear Opera House

Brought to Dallas by TITAS, In association with AT&T Performing Arts Center.

Thrust into international fame after recording Graceland with Paul Simon, Ladysmith Black Mambazo is South Africa’s most beloved singing ensemble.

Passionate and soulful, the all-male a cappella group blends traditional “Isicathamiya” singing from the mines of South Africa with contemporary styles to create intricate rhythms and stirring harmonies.

The group has captivated audiences around the world for 40 years and recorded with a host of celebrated artists, including Stevie Wonder, Josh Groban, Dolly Parton and Ben Harper.

They’ve performed for the Queen of England, South African President Nelson Mandela and at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Always beautiful, uplifting and heartfelt, Ladysmith’s performances are a joyous experience for the whole family. Read More

 

Information and Rules for Drawing:

• • Come in to any Dallas Store to register *THIS CONTEST IS CURRENTLY CLOSED 1/13/12
• • 4 pairs of tickets will be awarded
• • Each person entering will receive a $5 gift certificate for Whole Earth Provision Co. (while supplies last)
• • No purchase necessary
• • 1 entry per person
• • Registration ends at noon on Friday, January 13th, 2012
• • Winners contacted by phone or email by the AT&T Performing Arts Center
• • Tickets will be held at the Will Call Window. More details given to winners when notified.

To Purchase Tickets:

• • Call 214-880-0202 or visit attpac.org – Grab your seats before it’s too late! buy tickets

 

In July of 1861, photographer Carleton Watkins journeyed to the “newly discovered” wonder of the West: Yosemite. He was accompanied by a dozen mules that carried his bulky cameras, photographic equipment and supplies. Watkins used two cameras: a large format camera using 22 x 18 glass negatives and a stereographic camera that took parallel images used to create 3D views known as stereographs. He wrestled cameras to now iconic scenic views of the Valley, developed glass negatives on site and left Yosemite with 30 mammoth plates and 100 stereo views.

Watkins sent prints to the Reverend Starr King, a traveler who had written a popular series of letters to the Boston Evening Transcript while traveling in “Yo-semite” in 1859. King’s account of his visit to the “vegetable titans” of the Mariposa Grove had met with disbelief. Readers wrote to King requesting photographs of Yosemite and the Giant Sequoias. Watkins’ photographs gave proof for the Reverend’s account of the wonders he had seen.

An 1862 exhibition of Watkins photographs in New York City marked the beginning of a movement to preserve Yosemite as a public trust. Portfolios of Watkins’ photographs were presented to Congressmen, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Law Olmstead and other influential public figures who urged that the Valley and Grove be set aside for the enjoyment of future generations. In 1864, Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Land Grant to protect the area from development and commercial exploitation, the first step in the eventual creation of the National Park of today.

View a slide show of a sampling of Carleton Watkins’ 1861 Yosemite photos.

About Carleton Watkins: On the Life and Career of the 19th century landscape photographer who captured Yosemite in stereo

On December 24th, 1968, astronaut William Anders took the iconic photograph “Earthrise.” Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and travel to the moon; its mission, to take high resolution photos of the moon’s surface to prepare for the lunar landing in 1969. Unlike the equally iconic “Blue Marble” photo, we know who took this picture. Here is a transcript of the event:

Frank Borman: Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! Here’s the earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty

William Anders: Hey, don’t take that, it’s not scheduled.

Frank Borman: (laughing) You got color film, Jim?

William Anders: Hand me that roll of color quick, will you…

John Noble Wilford, The New York Times Science Correspondent, in his reminiscences of NASA’s Moon Program, described the moment and its impact:

The astronauts gasped at the sight of Earth, a blue and white orb sparkling in the blackness of space, in contrast to the dead lunar surface in the foreground. People at home saw the full earth only in black-and-white television images. Even so, the sight moved the poet Archibald MacLeish to write in The Times on Christmas Day: “To see the Earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the Earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold – brothers who know now they are truly brothers.”

After the mission, NASA released the color pictures the astronauts had taken of “Earthrise.” These were even more inspiring and humbling, the mission’s prized keepsake. Time magazine closed out the troubled year with the Earthrise photograph on its cover, with a one-word caption, “Dawn.”

“Earthrise” visually shocked a world torn apart by war and turmoil into the realization that there was a larger unity that bound all inhabitants of the planet together. Our shared home, an island surrounded by the vastness of unforgiving space, needed safeguarding. Robert Poole in Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth sees the photo as “the tipping point, the moment when the sense of the space age flipped from what it meant for space to what it means for Earth.” Galen Rowell, renowned outdoor photographer, believes “Earthrise” to be “the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.”

On the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission, Time magazine produced a short film to put the “Earthrise” in context.

December 21 is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. The sun appears to have stopped in place and will soon begin to move northward once again, making the days grow longer. For the ancient Scandinavian and Germanic peoples, today marked the beginning of Yule, a 12 day festival celebrating the return of the sun. The Yule log was an important festival tradition. A huge log, often the trunk of a tree, was burned in the fireplace bringing good luck and prosperity for the coming year, so long as the fire burned without fail for 12 days. The tradition of the Yule log eventually became a part of European and American Christmas celebrations. In the Victorian era when fireplaces became smaller or were replaced by stoves, the Yule log was transformed into a tabletop decoration covered with candles and greenery. The French improved on this idea and created Buche de Noel, a delicious cake disguised as a log. So whether you celebrate with fire or a piece cake, take time to honor the turning of the sun.

Our annual effort to collect gently worn outerwear is now underway at a Whole Earth location near you! Our annual Coat Drive attempts to gather as many reusable, clean garments and get them to agencies that can supply them to those who need them this winter. For each piece of outerwear donated, you will receive a $5.00 gift certificate that can be immediately redeemed at  all our stores.

Drop off your extra coats before December 11th, please, because that is when we will be transporting them to the great charity organizations listed below.

Note that you may donate as many coats as you can spare and you will receive that $5 gift certificate for each one—but these coupons may not be combined, but must be redeemed on separate transactions.

Please help us help those in need. Thank you.

In Austin:  Front Steps / The Austin Resource Center for the Homeless

Since 1997, the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH ) has worked with the homeless population in Austin, serving more than 800 people per day, 215 in their shelter each night. Besides overnight shelter, ARCH is a 24/7 social service center providing showers, basic needs, comprehensive care management/support services, and permanent supportive housing programs. They have distributed the outerwear we collect for the past three years.

In Dallas: Arlington Life Shelter

Established in 1987 the Arlington Life Shelter (ALS) has improved the lives of the Dallas metro area homeless by providing shelter for those in difficulty. Housing is certainly a priority, but in order to break the cycle of poverty for the young children who enter the shelter daily, many more resources are also made available for the entire family. These programs include educational opportunities, skill training, budget/money management classes, and connection to other community social services. Whole Earth is excited about our new partnership with ALS this year.

In Houston:  Star of Hope

For more than a century, the Star of Hope Mission has ministered to the greater Houston area, meeting the needs of nearly 1000 men, women and their children nightly. Star of Hope focuses on employment, life management, education, spiritual growth, and recovery from substance abuse. Whole Earth has partnered with them for the past several years.

In San Antonio:  Haven for Hope

Only begun in 2006, Haven for Hope has grown to providing housing programming to over 1600 people daily in San Antonio – out of an estimated population of more than 4000 homeless individuals in the city. They are dedicated to transforming the lives of these homeless men, women, and children by addressing the root causes of homelessness through education, job training and behavioral health services. We are happy to begin partnering with them this year.

 

Whole Earth Provision Co. and Patagonia Footwear are teaming up to raise funds for the Texas initiatives of the National Audubon Society. During the two week promotion period—known as Advocate Weeks—any Patagonia shoe purchased at a Whole Earth store will earn $10 for these Audubon efforts. This donation adds no cost to the customer purchasing Patagonia shoes. The organization known as 1% For The Planet has certified that Audubon Texas and its programs are worthy of all our support.

National Audubon has long been active in Texas in many ways. The three programs that will benefit from Advocate Weeks are these:

1) Trinity River and Dogwood Canyon Audubon Centers, both just minutes from downtown Dallas. Collectively, these 400-plus acres set the stage for phenomenal outdoor experiences for schoolchildren, families and individuals – more than 25,000 people each year.  Activities include nature-based science education programs, kayaking, hiking, and backpacking.

2) Mitchell Lake Audubon Center in south San Antonio. This unique habitat of 1,200 acres is a wildlife refuge and a hiking, birdwatching, and nature-viewing opportunity that serves more than 5,000 students each year.

3) Texas Gulf Coast Stewardship. Audubon maintains habitat and island sanctuaries up and down the coast of Texas.  Some of these areas became release sites for birds that were rescued and cleaned up from the oil spill in April 2010.

Please stop by the Whole Earth store nearest you between October 15th and 30^th to purchase a great pair of shoes and, in so doing, provide $10 for the worthy efforts of the National Audubon Society in Texas.

 

Season Three of The North Face Speaker Series brings alpinist and photographer, Cory Richards, to Austin’s Zachery Scott Theater on Monday, October 24^th. Tickets are free and are only available by reserving them online. (Click here for ticket reservations.) Cory will present a program depicting his thrilling climb of Pakistan’s Gasherbrum II.

The show begins at 7:00pm in Zach Scott’s Kleberg Theater – adjacent to the construction of their new 430 seat theater set to open in 2012. Free tickets are available on a first come, first served basis. An $8 fee reserves your spot in the theater and a $20 fee allows admission to the VIP Reception with Cory Richards starting at 6:00 pm.

All funds raised at the event will be donated to Westcave Preserve – a Hill Country treasure that truly deserves our support for their many programs and for maintaining the Preserve through the terrible drought we have endured this year.

Parking is available at the theater area, but not in the old north lot adjacent to the Kleberg Theater entrance. Drive past that on Riverside Dr. continuing a short way west from Lamar Blvd. to the City of Austin lot one block away. Additional parking is available on the south side of Zach Scott on Toomey Ave.