No new updates for a wee while

Hi all,
This is your ex-newsletter editor Jerry. Thank you for reading this blog. I’m sorry but there will be no more updates on this site until a new newsletter editor taking over my place. I quit this job for several personal reasons and I won’t get into details to be kind. Let’s just say now is the time for me to step away.

Per ogni cosa c'è il suo momento, il suo tempo per ogni faccenda sotto il cielo. C’è un tempo per cercare e un tempo per perdere,un tempo per serbare e un tempo per buttar via.

Thanks again, and I hope you continue to enjoy what the Dante Society brings you.

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September Meeting - John Doogan's Italian Photo Journey

7:30pm, Wed. 10 September, Linwood Community Arts Centre
Photographer John Doogan will give us a presentation for our September meeting about a brief overview of the tours he takes to Le Marche during the New Year and Epiphany period including La Befana and Pasquella. He will also show images from all over Italy taken during his trips there since 2002. Photographer John Doogan is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Photography with one bar and the Adobe Ambassador for New Zealand. He has won several awards in New Zealand and overseas. See more of John's work at www.digitalcactus.co.nz
John also organises photography tour every December and January in Italy, if you are interested in joining, please visit www.italyphototour.co.nz/

Everyone is welcome to come to our meeting! The usual refreshments and coffee will be provided.

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Literary competition and Scholarship!!

To celebrate the International Week of Italian Language 2008, we are holding a literary competition. The title for this year is:

“Un momento indimenticabile“ (An unforgettable moment)

The competition has two categories: Beginners and Post Beginners.
Prizes for both categories are books and videos.
The biggest prize is a 1,500 Euro scholarship to attend one month of Dante language school in Italy (conditions apply);

ENTRY CONDITIONS:
- The competition is open to all New Zealand residents.
- Deadline for entering is 30 September 2008.
- The entrant must enclose a sealed envelope containing: name, contacts and, if the entrant wishes to apply for the scholarship, a brief note, either in English or in Italian, with the entrant’s profile, detailing the entrant’s Italian studies and why the entrant thinks him/her should be granted the scholarship.
- The jury will assume that what entrants declare is true and accurate, and that their entries are original.
- The prizes will be announced and presented at the Dante monthly meeting on 8 October, at the Linwood Community Arts Centre, corner Stanmore Road and Worcester Street, at 7:30 pm. On that occasion a social event will be organized as Students’ Evening, to which all entrants and partners are welcome.
- No previous notice will be given to winners.
- The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- Category BEGINNERS is reserved to students who have attended maximum two years of Italian lessons;
- category POST BEGINNERS is reserved to students who have attended more than two years of Italian lessons;
- Entry consists of an original literary script in Italian of up to 300 words, typed, with the title: “Un momento indimenticabile”.
- Scripts must be received by 30 September 2008 at the address: Dante Society - c/o Maria Fresia, 8 Appian Lane, Sumner, Christchurch 8081. Only students living abroad all the month of September can send their entry via e-mail to: laryn@xtra.co.nz
- Each script must be in duplicate, without signature nor any sign that could identify the author; however, at the top of the entry, there must be a sign indicating: Beginners/Post Beginners.
- All entries become the property of Dante Society, to be used at its discretion.

CONDITIONS FOR SCHOLARSHIP
- Entrants to the competition that are at least 18 years old, with exclusion of winners of previous years’ scholarships and Italian entrants, can apply for a scholarship of 1,500 Euro to attend a one-month Italian language course in Italy.
- The scholarship must be used by 31 December 2009.
- The scholarship is to be used at one of the language schools of the Dante Society, in: Bologna, Fabriano, Firenze, La Spezia, Milano, Mondavio (PS), Palermo, Roma, Siena, Siracusa, Trieste, Venezia.
- The winner of the scholarship must be a member of the Christchurch Dante Society for the year 2008.
- The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- Detailed instructions on receiving the scholarship will be given directly to the winner.

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Cartolina programmes 3 Sept.- 1 Oct. 2008

Cartolina radio programs “for those who remember Italy and who dream of it”.

3 September at 7.30 pm & 8 September at 10.30 am:

"Engineered Wood Structures: Building a sustainable future" with Massimo Fragiacomo and Stefano Pampanin. The latest massive timber engineering project in the Civil Engineering dept. of University of Canterbury, in collaboration with University of Sassari and Politecnico of Milano, indirectly brings Christchurch closer to Italy. Stefano and Massimo, two of the key researchers of this project, unravel the search for sustainable, earthquake-proof engineered timber structures of the future, structures especially in relation to earthquake safety.

This should be of particular interest to the engineers, but their talk is very comprehensible and educational to also anyone who is not in this field.

17 September at 7.30 pm & 22 September at 10.30 am:

Director Elric Hooper and USA tenor Carlo Scibelli (Manrico) talk about the coming Southern Opera season of Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore, at the Isaac Theatre Royal from 30 September. They tell about challenges and rewards of staging such a big classic, and more about opera in New Zealand and the USA, including the Metropolitan’s controversial program of offering cinemas across the world high-definition “simulcasts” of the Met’s live performances.

1 October at 7.30 pm & 6 October at 10.30 am:

From Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, Major Stefano Fusi has come to New Zealand to revive an episode of WWII: a battle for the way to Firenze, that New Zealand soldiers fought there in 1944. Mr Fusi was in Christchurch recently with Jack Cummins, chairman of Christchurch Italy Star Association. Valerie Mayer interviewed them.

How to listen.

* Radio on demand through the internet: just visit: http://www.plainsfm.org.nz/Podcasts/programmes

Select “Cartolina” and you’ll get the list of all available programs.

* For the actual radio broadcast, tune in on PLAINS FM 96.9 on alternate Wednesdays at 7.30 pm, or listen to the repeat program on the following Monday, at 10.30 am.

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