This website, and the print version of The Saginaw News, reported earlier this week Tuesday night's ceremony awarding the 11th Theodore Roethke Poetry Prize to Robert Pinsky.

Following is a racap of the surrounding festivities as Saginaw Valley State University celebrated the legacy of Pulitzer-winning Roethke in this, the 100th anniversary of his Saginaw birth.

* Monday night, in SVSU's Founders Hall, "A Community Celebration of Roethke's Centennial" found New York State poet William Heyen talking about "Our Essential Roethke" to a packed house.

Continue reading "Looking back at Saginaw Valley State University's Theodore Roethke Festival" »

Did you notice the north side of the Temple Theatre's marquee this past week.
It was welcoming Midland's Chippewa Nature Center staff and board.

Much inter-city jabbing comes from the notion that Midland residents seldom come to Saginaw to attend events. We go to Midland lots, but they to Saginaw rarely.

Except for this time, when nearly 40 Midlanders made the trip for the annual "thank you" party the Chippewa's board hosts for the nature center's staff.

Continue reading "Midland's Chippewa Nature Center parties at Saginaw's Temple Theatre" »

Saginaw's Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge participated in its second year of The Big Sit! on Oct. 12.

Bird Watcher's Digest organizes this global bird count described as "birding's most sedentary event." The object is to find as many bird species as possible during the calendar day from within a 17-foot diameter circle.

The center of the refuge's circle is Grefe Tower which is adjacent to Ferguson Bayou Trail. This is an optimum location because it overlooks thousands of acres of marsh, open water, grasslands, croplands and forest and it affords excellent views of the horizon and open sky.

Continue reading "Steven Kahl relives Big Sit! 2008 at Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge" »

Anyone catch last night's episode of "ER" on NBC?

Add it to yet another "best of" episodes for the long-running series which is in its final year.

Two storylines juxtaposed, with the superb Angela Bassett in each of them and some of the old-time departed cast members appearing in one of them as a flashback.

Continue reading ""ER" installment one for the record books" »

Andy Rapp offers some anecdotes from the 10-year history of the controversial "Currently Speaking" televison series on Janet's Journal.

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(Marc Beaudin is a former Saginaw resident, now living and working in Montana. He and Patrick Flynn often shared conservations.)

My day began with hailstones thundering down from the Absaroka mountains.

Strange and agitating dreams dissolved as I watched the icy spheres bounce off the garden beds outside my window. Once the hail turned to rain, I made a dash from my cabin to the main house. While a pot of coffee was brewing, I thumbed through a well-worn copy of Ed Abbey's "Down the River."

In the book, Abbey describes Henry David Thoreau on his death-bed being asked if he'd made his peace with God. Thoreau responded: "I'm not aware that we had ever quarreled." His final words apparently were: "moose ... Indians."

Continue reading "Remembering Patrick Flynn from afar in Montana" »

At 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11, Channel 19 of Delta College will premiere it newest documentary, "Tracks Through Time: Michigan's Railroads." (See story on Saginaw Entertainment site)

Previewing it was like living my childhood all over again.

I am the daughter of a railroad "nut"; a father born in 1899 and who worked as a ticket seller/telegraph operator/conductor/dispatcher on Michigan railroads from his early 20s until he retired in the 1960s.

Continue reading "Daughter of a railroader remembers a childhood of riding the rails" »

Behind the headlines is often an eye-opening place to visit.

Say the word Afghanistan and what comes to mind?

Terrorists...an endless war, first involving Russia and now the U.S. ....poverty...the Taliban destroying works of art...ignorance...women with their faces hidden and clad in big black robes.

Sad to say.

A recent chance encounter, however, brings more of a positive response to the word Afghanistan. At least to me.

Continue reading "Chance encounter with 12 Afghani women changes perceptions forever" »

ROUND AND ROUND ... The Celebration Square Carousel is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month at the Children's Zoo in Saginaw. Nancy J. Parker, the executive director at the zoo, recalls the community effort that went into the hard-carved ride and points out some of its features on Janet's Journal.

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When God calls, Tony Tatum answers, and the result is a musical message of hope. Don't miss Tony's message on Catch the Muse with Sue at The News.














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A little girl, around 6 or 7 years old, with 25 cents to her name charmed a gathering of thespians last weekend -- and offered a lesson adults would well heed.

Members of the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company of Grand Haven performed two outdoor "Shakespeare Samplers" on the grounds of Midland's Creative Spirit Center.

The people gathered in chairs on the grass watching, and the actors clad in odd-looking clothes, attracted a trio of young girls out for a bike ride in the residential neighborhood where the center lies.

Continue reading "BACKSTAGE PASS: A little girl with 25 cents charmed" »

Saginaw Valley State University senior Chad Baker talks about his directing debut with the Peanuts parody "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teen-age Blockhead," opening Tuesday, on Janet's Journal.









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The Tosspints' Don Zuzula promises some electrifying moments in August when his Celtic punk band performs at the Old Saginaw City Lawn Chair FIlm Festival. Check out Catch the Muse with Sue at The News.





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I was out at SVSU's Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum this week, and the HUGE room full of the sculptor's white plasters seemed different. Very different. Didn't say anything. Thought I'd lost it.

Then two of the staff members started chatting among themselves. It seems after 20 years, the lighting system for the gallery gave up the ghost and was shorting out. And this week workmen finished replacing it, upgrading it and, in places, lowering it.

Continue reading "BACKSTAGE PASS: Fredericks Sculpture Museum seen in new light" »

In contrast to Friday's raging weather, the skies over Saturday's WHNN Palooza 9 at the Memorial Park in Frankenmuth were almost idyllic.

A few wispy white clouds floated across a field of blue, the only breeze a welcome relief from the near 90-degree temperatures.

"We have people here who camped overnight to get a good spot," said Ceyx drummer Dean Rusch, pointing out the devoted fans as Bob Strunk and Tom Miller slipped into some Bob Seger. "These are people ready to party."

Continue reading "Palooza steams up the day; gets people rockin'" »