Wilderness, Chinese New Year and Peruvian music

A free slide show Tuesday night at the Nevada State Museum will examine the definition, history and preservation of wilderness. "Wild Nevada" is part of the Frances Humphrey monthly lecture series and will be presented by Brian Beffort, conservation director for Friends of Nevada Wilderness.

Wilderness in Nevada became a legal reality in 1964, when Congress passed the Wilderness Act and Jarbidge became the state's first wilderness area. Since then, three bills have expanded Nevada's protected wildlands.

Beffort's program features gorgeous color slides. He will discuss the natural history, geology, and archeology of Nevada and review the history of the wilderness movement.

Beffort was the outdoors editor for the Reno-Gazette Journal before joining the Friends in 2001. He has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and a bachelor's in anthropology from Portland, Ore.'s Reed College.

The slide presentation will start at 7:30 p.m. For more information go to www.nevadaculture.org or call 687-4810, ext. 239.

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The Children's Museum of Northern Nevada will host three days of celebrations for the Chinese New Year. Today and Friday there will be arts and crafts. Saturday is when the fireworks really fly.

"I've been looking forward to this for years. We're going to have a lot of fun," said organizer and museum volunteer Penny Holbrook.

On Saturday, a group of Chinese language students under the tutelage of University of Nevada, Reno, professor Dr. Feng Su will perform a ribbon dance. Children will practice using chopsticks on a bowl of noodles.

"We eat noodles on the Chinese New Year for longevity," explained Holbrook, who has vivid memories of the New Year from growing up in Hawaii.

Sandy Cai of Beijing Palace will provide fortune cookies and chicken chow mein.

"Children like chow mein," said restaurant manager Peter Shao.

Holbrook was setting up her decorations Wednesday, including a magnificent lion's head.

She'll also bring "lisee" - red envelopes with the Chinese symbol for good luck on them. The kids will stick candy in the envelopes, and when they it, they'll have sweet thoughts, Holbrook said.

There will also be several books on Chinese culture so folks can sit and read to the young ones.

"I even have a pomelo and tangerines," said Holbrook. "Pomelos and tangerines kind of mean wealth and success in Chinese culture."

There is no extra fee to participate in the New Year's celebrations. The regular entry fee is $3 for kids and $5 for adults. Call the museum, located at 813 N. Carson St., at 884-2226.

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Those two amazing Peruvian musicians will perform at Comma Coffee again on Friday night from 7 to 10. Tono Zambona and his brother Carlos Ocampo made a wonderful presentation in mid-December at the coffee shop.

"They were just so entertaining," said Comma Coffee owner June Joplin. "They had so much stage presence and energy. I'm very excited to have them back."

The musicians have made several presentations to schools and museums since they were brought here by Dayton High School Spanish teacher Julie Lozada.

Be ready to participate - they pull folks out of the audience.

Maybe Joplin will bump into Tono and Carlos in Peru when she treks the Andes in May.

"They're just adorable," she said. "I'm really looking forward to having them back - especially because they're from Peru and I'm going to Peru."

There is an open drum circle at Comma Coffee on Saturday. A drum workshop with a $5 fee is 6 to 7 that evening, and the circle gets thumping after that.

For more details, call Comma Coffee at 883-2662.

Contact Karl Horeis at khoreis@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.