Events

They will be performing a selection of  pieces that highlight the talent and dedication of these students, and they will have us tapping your toes.  These are KIDDO! Foundation funded ensembles co-directed by Mill Valley School District music teachers Phoebe Dong and Lori Adessa. 

He will discuss his career and will present a slide show based on his recent books, The Music Never Stopped, a stunning hardcover coffee table book spanning over 25 years of music photography and stories from in Marin County and his his latest book, Just Jerry, his photographs of Jerry Garcia.  This will include slide show, book sales & signing.

This lecture and clips from the documentary "RBG" will explore how her early legal battles changed the world for women.  Justice Ginsburg has developed a lengthy legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. But the unique personal journey of her rise to the nation's highest court has been largely unknown, even to some of her biggest fans, until now. Through clips from the documentary “RBG,” we will explore Ginsburg's life and career with emphasis on her legal legacy.

Paul was born in Vienna in 1933.  After surviving the horrors of Kriostallnacht and the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany his family fled to Belgium in late 1938.  By 1943 Paul was completely fluent in French and really had no trouble “passing” for Belgian, but  he was readily identified as a Jew (wearing a HUGE Star of David on his chest) and subject to any mistreatment or even summary murder. Not only from the German occupiers, but even worse from the Belgian collaborators who had to prove themselves and were also very well paid. Jewish kids were no longer allowed in school, so that left Paul at loose ends while his mother worked for a kind Christian family, meaning that they saw each other early in the morning and late in the evening — at which time Paul obtained some food and much solace.  Matters went rapidly from horrible to more horrible. When a young partisan approached Paul’s mother with the proposal of saving his life if she gave him over to him, no questions asked.  She, with all the love a mother can muster, said “yes!” and let Paul disappear into the unknown with him.  And for the next 2 years they did not know whether the other was alive, and if so, where.

It's an exciting time for space flight.  For the first time, companies will be flying passengers from all over the world on commercial flights into space.  The initial journeys are set to begin in 2020.   Building on test flights from 2019 and earlier, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are ready to begin service for a new era of astronauts.  In this presentation, Ron will provide images and video from recent flights from both programs, plus details and personal perspective of what's involved and what's ahead.  

 

 

 

 

She will talk about the testing process to become a contestant, the ins and outs of working the dreaded buzzer, the security measures keeping everything honest, and many of the funny and wonderful things that have happened to her since she was on the program as a contestant.

In early May of 2007, Peller was savaged and nearly killed by an eighteen-foot, three-thousand-pound tiger shark in the waters off Kihei, Maui. After it occurred, this shark attack was a human-interest story that generated national and international attention and played out publicly on television and in newspapers. But her recovery, both physical and emotional, has been a very private process—one she chronicles in her book "Shark Attack and Other Mishaps."

Over the last 15 years California has been at the forefront of a medical revolution. Stem cell research is changing the way we think about disease and changing the way we treat it. Instead of patching up a problem stem cells are helping turn back the clock, reversing the course of disease and regenerating damaged tissues. Today we have a cure for a deadly immune disorder that in the past used to kill children in their first few years of life. We have helped stroke patients regain use of their arms and hands, and people battling deadly cancers get a second chance at life. And it’s all thanks to the voters of California.  Kevin is the  Senior Director Public Communications & Patient Advocate Outreach at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, one of the turning points of World War II. Within six months, the invasion bogged down on the outskirts of Moscow, and the Eastern Front proved to be the decisive theater in the defeat of the Third Reich. Ever since, most historians have agreed that this was Hitler’s gravest mistake. In Hitler’s Great Gamble, James Ellman argues that while Barbarossa was a gamble and perverted by genocidal Nazi ideology, it was not doomed from the start. Rather it represented Hitler’s best chance to achieve his war aims for Germany which were remarkably similar to those of the Kaiser’s government in 1914. Other options, such as an invasion of England, or an offensive to seize the oil fields of the Middle East were considered and discarded as unlikely to lead to Axis victory.
In Ellman’s recounting, Barbarossa did not fail because of flaws in the Axis invasion strategy, the size of the USSR, or the brutal cold of the Russian winter. Instead, German defeat was due to errors of Nazi diplomacy. Hitler chose not to coordinate his plans with his most militarily powerful allies, Finland and Japan, and ensure the seizure of the ports of Murmansk and Vladivostok. Had he done so, Germany might well have succeeded in defeating the Soviet Union and, perhaps, winning World War II. Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources (including many recently released), His book is a provocative work that will appeal to a wide cross-section of World War II buffs, enthusiasts, and historians.  

The Fed holds the keys to the future of the economy. He will review the current economic situation, the Fed’s present policy stance and why the Fed’s policy may be destructive to its own independence. 

Everyone knows of Anna Leonowens, author of “The English Governess at the Siamese Court” (1870) and protagonist of the musical "The King and I." Anna's books gave the West its first glimpse of women's lives within the palace, depicting the "royal harem" as a place where women were slaves to the king's every whim. But what Anna didn't show was that royal polygamy played a crucial role in traditional Siamese politics, cementing loyalties between the capital and the city-states at its peripheries through marriage alliances.  Outside of Thailand, few people know the story of how one political marriage – between Princess Dara Rasami and the King of Siam – shaped the borders of today's Thailand. In this talk, Leslie will discuss a woman who became a royal consort to Siam's king Chulalongkorn in 1886: Princess Dara Rasami, a daughter of the royal family of Lan Na (today’s northern Thailand). Over the course of her nearly thirty-year career as an "outsider" among other  royal consorts, the Princess served as both a hostage and diplomat for her home country, ultimately earning her place as one of the 5 highest-ranking queens of the era. 

 

 

 

For years, CalPERS has failed to meet its pension investment goals, creating an ever-growing funding shortfall. They are now taking steps to increase required contributions from participating government agencies. Pension costs are expected to double as a percentage of city general fund budgets by 2024. These cost increases threaten Marin cities ability to provide services.  John is coauthor of the paper “Marin County Local Government Reform of Pensions and Other Post-Employment Benefits. Revisiting the Problem & Scope of Solutions.” There are no easy answers here, but there are some steps cities can take to prepare for this challenge.

In celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo, the nation’s attention returned to the minute-to-minute missions, the brave astronauts, and the political machinery that launched the program.  We can also pause to ask: How exactly did the engineers solve so many daunting problems from scratch? This presentation will crawl into Apollo’s chariot, revisiting some fascinating and lesser known engineering stories, informed by interviews with the Apollo-era engineers. Importantly, what did we learn and what are we still learning from America’s first moon missions?

What began as a daydream to revisit the Greenbrae Lanes bowling alley of his youth became an obsession for Realtor Jason Lewis.  Although born in San Francisco he moved to Marin at the age of 2 and Marin has been his home ever since.  In 2005, before Facebook took off, Jason reached out to the public, asking for their photos of Marin County from the 1950s to the 1980s.  The response was overwhelming and prompted Jason to create a website called MarinNostalgia.org--Marin’s first grass-roots virtual museum which is a major repository of Marin lore.  During his talk, Jason will share with us nostalgic images, videos, and memories of Marin that will bring back fond memories for everyone.  You’ll revisit Mill Valley classics such as the original Sweetwater, Village Music, Pleasure Principle, and the Unknown Museum.

Juan Mendez, a Junior at Tam from Santiago, Chile and Maurice Van Daele, a Senior at Tam from Lokeren, Belgium, are our Mill Valley exchange students this year, and we are extremely lucky to have them with us!  In their presentation they will explain a little about where they came from and what it's like, as well as what they are experiencing here in Mill Valley.  Since both boys are athletes and are taking part in sports at Tam High School,  (cross country and basketball), it would be fun to go watch them at work/play. These two are poster boys for what Rotary International and the Rotarian magazine loves to show off.    It is a pleasure to be involved with them.  Feel free to invite them to your house for a get-acquainted time full of fun.