'Charlotte's Web' is for all ages; Castro band is here

E.B. White was a longtime editor at the New Yorker magazine. He wrote many fine pieces, with the youth fantasy "Charlotte's Web" among the most popular. As a play it has withstood every kind of presentation including a couple of movies, and now Carsonites have a chance to enjoy it. The play will be presented the next couple of weekends, opening tomorrow at the Children's Museum. It concerns a girl named Fern and a runt pig, which she adopted and called Wilbur. It's a touching story that adults can enjoy as well as the kids. This is the first production by the Wild Horse Children's Theatre. Call 887-0438 for tickets or just to wish the new group good luck.

MUSIC & More

Tommy Castro brings his powerful San Francisco blues band to the Brewery Arts Performance Hall Friday night at 7:30 p.m. Think San Fran doesn't love him? San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome has declared Oct. 14 to be "Tommy Castro Day." Castro and the band play some mighty powerful blues, taking one down south for a lazy night. The band won't be lazy, however, and the Performance Hall may never recover from the blasts of blues. Call 883-1976 and tell them you'll be there.

Our high school's Performing Arts brings a "Comedy Improve Show" to the Brewery Arts theater Saturday at 2 p.m. This is a highly talented collection of young actors and comics, an annual show by the middle group of students and can be silly but fine fun. Take it in - only $5, and that's less than the latest car crash movie at the cinema.

At the Community Center on Saturday will be the 13th annual Cowboy Jubilee and Poetry show with Sourdough Slim and poet Paul Zarzyski, among others. First show is at 4 p.m., second at 8. Reserved seats are $25, everyplace else $20. Barbecue will cost you $10.

And if you can squeeze it in, Chinese watercolorist Lian Quan Zhen will give a demonstration of Chinese painting at the Brewery Gallery at 1 p.m. Tuesday. For centuries Chinese art revolved around waterfalls, mist-shrouded mountains and finely costumed figures. Zhen will explain much of this as he paints a watercolor work. Exotic.

FROM THE VAULTS

"Bride of the Wind" is a biopic about Alma, wife of composer-conductor Gustav Mahler and it offers some bits from his works. Sarah Wynter stars as a woman who just has to keep moving on, regardless of the cost to those with whom she plays. She has affairs with Oskar Kokoschka (Vincent Perez) and others, she weds Walter Gropius (Simon Verhoeven) but still has to taste life at its wildest. Good story with minor nudity, rated R, one hour, 39 minutes.

Once you get by the opening sappy, romantic idealization of Japan, "The Lady and the Monk" is a pretty good look at contemporary Nihon, as the natives call it. Author Pico Iyer, a Briton with traveling tastes, goes to Japan for a year to study Zen Buddhism and to learn the intricacies of Kyoto, the old capital. There he meets a wide assortment of other foreigners pursuing Zen and women, both in adequate supply. Satchiko, a married woman with two children and a husband who can't look beyond the framework of being a "salaryman" to enjoy his wife and children. Satchi, as she would be known in her homeland, is an imaginative woman with wildly different tastes from her contemporaries. She takes up with Iyer and leads him about Kyoto and other towns. This is a fine look at Japan, away from Sony and Toyoto, and with monks and Zen life.

Salma Hayek has handled some pretty sexy roles with her buxom figure, but the film "In the Time of Butterflies" casts her as a woman outraged by the tyranny of Dominican Republic dictator Lionidas Trujillo (Edward James Olmos) after the death of her father at his hands. Fire is in her eyes as she joins the insurgent movement, is jailed and freed, allowed to go to law school (a first in the Republic's history) but not allowed to practice. Her two sisters (Mai Maestro and Lumi Cavazos) join her and all three are murdered, just six months before Trujillo is assassinated. Solid performances are rendered by all, and the film is a reminder that not all tyrants are in the Middle East. Time, one hour and 32 minutes, rated PG-13 for some language and sexual matters. Don't let the rating turn you away; a fine and important movie.

• Contract Sam Bauman at 881-1236 or Sbuaman@nevadaappeal.com