On the wall make an adaptation of “Rest Stop.” “Over the summer, I was spending a lot of time reading King’s books and stories and found out about this program, and it sounded like a good learning experience,” said Hill, a film and television production major at WCU. He submitted a proposal online, and it was accepted. Within two weeks, he had signed a contract with King’s representatives and mailed in the required $1 fee that gives the program its name, “Dollar Baby.” “Rest Stop,” a story in the collection Just After Sunset, is about a mystery author driving alone at night on an interstate highway. He stops at a rest area where he overhears a woman being assaulted in the ladies room and has to decide whether or not to take action. “It’s a story about domestic violence,” said Hill, “but even more than that, it’s the story of a person who stops something evil that’s happening but in that process behaves in a way that is also evil.”
Zedler artwork showcased at Haywood Arts Council
• MedWest Haywood invites local crafters and artists to display their work at the 4th annual Community Craft Fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, in the Health & Fitness Center at MedWest Haywood. The cost for those who wish to exhibit is $15 per table for members of the Health & Fitness Center and $25 per table for nonmembers. 828.452.8080 or www.medwesthealth.org.
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• Crafter Brenda Anders will conduct a “Christmas Ceramic Ornaments” workshop from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, at KJ’s Needle in a Haystack Cross Stitch Shop in Dillsboro. Cost for the workshop is $10. 828.586.2435 or junettapell@hotmail.com.
f you can eek out the time for a trip to Asheville, here’s a great excursion for the last lingering weeks of fall sunshine before winter puts a damper on outside activities. Giant LEGO sculptures have put down roots on the grounds of the N.C. Arboretum. An 8-foot tall hummingbird, a 5-foot tall butterfly, a bison, a dragonfly — 27 sculptures in all, made from 500,000 LEGO pieces. It’s a good excuse to just stroll around the arboretum, but this outing packs a lot of punch on the educational side. It will hopefully spark kids’ creativity and inspire them to push the boundaries with their own LEGO projects at home. It illustrates the power of patience, showing them what’s possible if they stick to a project long enough. You could talk about other creations that take a really long time to accomplish but are worth it in the end, like the Golden Gate Bridge or a Mars Rover. For my three-yearold son, it was an ace scavenger hunt — he could mark off each sculpture as he found it. Or take a notebook and colored pencils for elementaryaged kids to try sketching the sculptures from different sides, a good way to really appreciate their detail. The exhibit “Some Assembly Required” is the work of LEGO artist Sean Kenney of New York and will be up through the end of the year. He’ll be on site Saturday, Nov. 23, if you can make it that day. Take a pass through the indoor exhibit hall where 100 LEGO sculptures have been submitted in a local contest and vote on your favorite one through Nov. 10. FYI — entrance fee to the arboretum is $8 per vehicle.
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LEGO CLUBS LEGOs are a timeless staple of every kid’s toy box. As a kid, I built elaborate LEGO villages that slowly consumed the footprint of my room until I was eventually forced, under teary duress, to disassemble it. My mom claimed it could impede a hasty exit during a middle-of-the-night house fire. If your kids like LEGOs, or if you want to get them hooked, drop in to the LEGO clubs at the Jackson and Macon county libraries. In Jackson County, kids are given a theme to build around, but really, it’s just a suggestion, said Jennifer Ross, who works in the Jackson youth library. “Some kids would stand there for 45 minutes deciding what to build, so the theme gives them a starting point,” Ross said. “But they don’t have to adhere to it. Some kids always make skate ramps, and that’s fine.”
Kids stand — rather than sit — around work tables to facilitate easy migration in the never-ending quest for the right pieces, Ross said. “Someone might need a head so we walk around looking for a head, or they need everything they can get in gray,” Ross said. Indeed, with an 18-gallon tub of LEGOs at their disposal, helping each other hunt for the right pieces brings out the spirit of cooperation, said Maggie Kennedy with the Macon children’s library. Beyond things like spatial thinking and creative reasoning that are inherent in solo LEGO building, teamwork is a hidden benefit of a LEGO club. Kids sometimes build a LEGO piece together, Kennedy said, citing one group of boys that perpetually gravitate toward building a pirate ship together. At the Macon library, each creation is labeled with a title and the builder’s name and stays on display for a couple of weeks. In Jackson, each piece is photographed and put in a 3-ringbinder so kids and can look back wistfully at the LEGO creations of days gone by. Both clubs welcome any age. Younger kids get the thrill of building alongside older ones. “It is a very nice generational thing,” Ross said. Some parents join in the fun and build with their kids, but most just kick back and watch. When it comes to toddlers, “The grownup would be responsible to make sure the kid doesn’t eat a LEGO,” Kennedy said. But both LEGO clubs have an arsenal of the big chunky Duplo LEGOs for little ones to work with. The Jackson LEGO club meets from 4 to 5 p.m. the second Tuesday of the month at the library in Sylva and the Macon one meets from 4 to 5 p.m. the second Thursday of the month at the library in Franklin. There used to be a LEGO club at the library in Haywood County, but it fell by the wayside when the former children’s librarian who coordinated it moved away. There is also a LEGO club at Fairview Elementary School. Contact Larissa Miller at tobiasandlarissa@gmail.com. Miller is also involved in coordinating STEM education initiatives using LEGOs as a building block — literally — and encouraged interested parents to get in touch. On another note, check out Cirque Zuma Zuma, an African acrobat group billed as a “fast-paced, high-flying, off-thewall, pulse-pounding show,” at The Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin this Friday (Nov. 8). Zuma Zuma incorporates gymnastics, jumping, juggling, balancing and contortionism. www.GreatMountainMusic.com. 29
Smoky Mountain News
Painter Matthew Zedler and others will be featured during a Gallery 86 showcase “It’s a Small, Small Work” from Nov. 13 to Dec. 28 at the Haywood Arts Council in Waynesville. There will be an artist reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Nov 15, and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 24. Zedler is a modern/contemporary fine artist with a studio and gallery in downtown Marshall. His gallery has been open to the public since early 2008, but his involvement in the arts and fine arts extends throughout his entire life. His repertoire includes a variety of cutting edge abstract-expressionist contemporary and geometric-linear-cubist paintings. His work is currently featured at NewZart Gallery & Studio in Marshall, the clubhouse at the Hendersonville Racquet Club, the Madison County Visitors Center, Nelson Fine Art Gallery in Johnson City, and Salon Blue Ridge in Flat Rock. www.matthewzedlerfineart.com.
• The films “The Master” and “Back to the Future” will be screened at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. “The Master” runs Nov. 8-9, with “Back to the Future” Nov. 15-16. Both films begin at 7:45 p.m. Tickets are $6 per person, $4 for children. 828.283.0079 or www.38main.com.
BY B ECKY JOHNSON
Oct. 30-Nov. 5, 2013
In the coming weeks, Western Carolina University senior Mike Hill may go out after dark to drive up and down the interstates. He’ll be looking at rest areas, hoping to find a brightly lit one with a deserted parking lot that lies next to a black stretch of highway. If the place looks creepy, like something out of a Stephen King story, even better — because it could be. With only one semester left until he graduates and plenty to do for his WCU courses, Hill also is working on an indeWestern Carolina University students Blair Hoyle (left) and pendent project Mike Hill (right) will scout locations around the region as outside of class they prepare to create a film adaptation of Stephen King’s that he hopes will story “Rest Stop.” Donated photo help open doors to a professional career. Through a well-known program for young filmmakers, he is making a short film based on one of King’s stories. The master of macabre himself has granted permission for Hill to
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arts & entertainment
WCU student selected for Stephen King film project