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Wellesley High placed 7th last year. Weston High topped the magazine’s list, as it did last year.

The complete rankings and related content is in the September issue of Boston Magazine but is not online yet.

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Peter Carey Tuesday, Sept. 28 | 4:30 PM | Newhouse Center for the Humanities – 237 Green Hall

Two of his 11 novels have won the Booker Prize —Oscar and Lucinda in 1988 and True History of the Kelley Gang in 2001.His most recent novel, Parrot and Olivierin America, an improvisation on the life of Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, was published in 2010.

Meena Alexander and Tomaž Šalamun Tuesday, Oct. 12 | 4:30 PM | Newhouse Center for the Humanities – 237 Green Hall
Alexander has published six volumes of poetry including Illiterate Heart, which won the PEN Open Book Award. She is the editor of Indian Love Poems and author of the volume of poems and short prose pieces, The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience. Poetics of Dislocation appeared in 2009 in the University of Michigan’s Poets on Poetry Series. Her prose includes two novels,a memoir and two academic studies on early English Romanticism.
Considered Slovenia’s greatest living poet, Šalamun was born in the city of Zagreb in 1941 and is considered one of the foremost figures of the Eastern European avant-garde. His books  include The Book for My Brother, Poker, Row, and Woods and Chalices. A new book of poetry, Blue Tower, translated by  Michael Biggins, will be published this year.

Russell Banks Tuesday, Oct. 26 | 4:30 PM | Newhouse Center for the Humanities – 237 Green Hall
His latest novel, The Reserve, was published in early 2008. His novels Afflictionand The Sweet Hereafter were adapted into feature films that received widespread critical acclaim.  Continental Drift and Cloudsplitter were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize; Afflictionand Cloudsplitter were finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award.

Maryse Condé Tuesday, Nov. 9 | 4:30 PM | Newhouse Center for the Humanities – 237 Green Hall
Her literary honors include the Grand Prix Litteraire de la Femme (1986) for I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar (1999) for Tales from the Heart, True Stories from my Childhood and the Prix Carbet de la Caraibe (1997) for Desirada.

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Tian Fu Restaurant, which is trying to stave off its shutting down this month as a result of a deal between Whole Foods and landowner Gravestar, is holding a rally Monday late afternoon/early evening (4:30-730pm) to raise awareness about its plight. Tian Fu would like to stay put at 446 Washington St. in Wellesley, or at the very least move into the vacated Rite Aid space.

We popped on the early side in since this is one of the few restaurants around where everyone in our family likes to eat.

The Save Tian Fu event featured a slew of free food and drinks and packed 50 or 60 people in within the first half hour, including a cadre of kids, a senatorial candidate talking up his hopes for compromise and some important looking guys in suits.  Owners Li Yu and John Chen were swarmed like a bride and groom on wedding day by supporters.  Cameramen from assorted media outlets (including WBZ) tripped over themselves taking pictures of people with food in their mouths.

Tian Fu, a supporter of the new Wellesley Chinese Language School and other community activities, has promised to keep fans posted via its Facebook page and website.

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Missed that in our recent survey of vacant commercial space in town.

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What:    The Sorenson Center for the Arts at Babson College presents Microclimates: Mixed Media Artwork

Who:    Alison Williams, New Hampshire artist and 2009 Joan Mitchell Foundation Award Winner

When:    Exhibit: September 9-October 29, 2010
Hours: Monday – Thursday; 8:00 am-7:00 pm
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 9, 5:00-7:00 pm
Artist Talk: Thursday, September 23, 1:00-1:30 pm

Where:    Babson College, Hollister Gallery, Wellesley, Mass.

Info:    Contact Artist-in-Residence Danielle Krcmar, 781-239-5888

Alison Williams grew up in New Zealand, attended art school in Scotland, and currently has her studio and garden in New Hampshire.

At Babson, Williams will show paintings, altered photographs, and three of her glass houses. Made with re-used hardware and carefully fit together windows, these intimate art viewing spaces are sculptural artworks themselves. Influenced by her father’s greenhouses and Victorian Wardian Cases, Williams’ glass houses frame spaces where biological processes directly impact creative ones. The garden and its plants in their unwieldy wildness inspire and collaborate in the art-making. Canvases and photographs are buried and allowed to decay in order to later be unearthed and reworked. Paintings are made outside with rain altering the patterns and drying of the paint. Soaked flowers create delicately colored liquid pigments, while leaves, stems, and seeds are both stencils and collage materials layered into highly “unnatural” paint, stickers, and found materials.

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Zili Misik and the Cercie Miller Quartet Wednesday, Sept. 15 | 7:30 pm| Jewett Plaza
In conjunction with the opening of the Davis Museum’s fall exhibition Calculated Risks, Department of Music faculty Cercie Miller and Kyra Washington, bring their dynamic bands together on one stage. Both the Cercie Miller Quartet (CMQ) and Zili Misik are beloved contributors to Boston’s musical landscape, with unique sounds of their own. The pairing of CMQ’s mastery of the jazz canon with Zili’s blend of music that reconnects the sounds of Africa and African diasporic nations is a calculated risk bound to reap significant musical rewards.
Beacon BrassQuintet Wednesday, Oct. 6 | 12:30 pm| Jewett Auditorium
Hailed as “one of the nation’s finest chamber ensembles” by Bostonia magazine, Beacon Brass Quintet features performing faculty member Dana Russian.  In 1983, the Quintet became the first brass ensemble ever to win the prestigious Concert Artists Guild Award, and it has been performing in concert throughout the United States ever since.  Recently, the Quintet was featured in lecture-recitals with Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart. Noted for their expertise in a wide spectrum of music, their program at Wellesley will span five centuries.

“That Wants it Down”: Music that Defies Barriers – Faculty Concert Saturday, Oct.16 | 8:00 pm | Houghton Chapel The annual classical faculty concert brings Wellesley’s dynamic performing faculty from the studio and classroom to the stage and community. This year, they will present a program of music by polystylist composers, including Barber, Cage, Del Tredici, Hindemith, Schnittke and Shostakovich.  Faculty musicians include Eliko Akahori, piano; Marion Dry, contralto; David Russell, cello; Dana Russian, trumpet; Lois Shapiro, piano; Olga Talroze, piano; and Antoine van Dongen, violin.
Blue HeronRenaissance Choir Saturday,Nov. 6 | 8:00 pm | Houghton Chapel
Dubbed a“leading actor in the field of Renaissance music,” by Fanfare Magazine, the Boston-based Blue Heron Renaissance Choir (www.Blueheronchoir.org) is a vocal ensemble that combines commitment to vivid live performance with the study of original source materials and historical performance practice. The ensemble’s program is inspired by a new acquisition in the Wellesley College Music Library, a heart-shaped facsimile of the Le Chansonnier de Jean Montchenu, a book of 14^th-century French chansons. The book will be displayed in the Multifaith Center following the evening’s program.
The Carey Concert: Pianist Charles Fisk Colloque Sentimentale: Chopin and Debussy in Paris Sunday, Nov. 14 | 7:00 pm |Jewett Auditorium Pianist Charles Fisk, Phyllis Henderson Carey Professor of Music, will be joined by faculty members contralto Marion Dry and cellist David Russell in a program including Debussy’s Fetes galantes II, Trois Poèmes de Mallarmé, Pour le Piano and Images, and Chopin’s cello sonata, Polonaise in F# minor, Op.44, Mazurka in C# minor Op.50/3, Berceuse in Db, Op.57 and Barcarolle in F#, Op.60. A faculty member since 1973, Fisk was the highest-ranking American in the 1980 J.S. Bach International Competition in Washington, D.C. His Carey Concert performances are a beloved annual tradition.
Paula Zeitlin Quintet Wednesday, Nov. 17 | 12:30 pm| Jewett Auditorium
Paula Zeitlin Quintet (PZQ), featuring Wellesley performing faculty member and jazz violinist Paula Zeitlin, guitarist Steve Thomas, bassist Maggie Rizzi, pianist Bob Ponte and drummer Greg Conroy, is a veteran ensemble in the Boston music scene. Their performance at Wellesley will showcase PZQ’s unique sound, influenced by Dawg and gypsy jazz, samba and Afro-Cuban jazz, Bach and bluegrass. For more, go to www.paulazeitlin.com.

Boston Modern Orchestra Project Luminous Noise: Three Women Compose Saturday, Dec. 11 | 8:00 pm |Houghton Chapel
The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the most prominent orchestra in the country devoted to playing new orchestral music, will be in residency and perform at Wellesley College during the 2010-11 academic year.  Not only is BMOP is dedicated to commissioning, performing and recording new music, but also to training the next generation of young composers and musicians.  Throughout the year, BMOP members will interact with Department of Music student composers, performers and music historians through master classes, ensemble coachings and classroom visits.
BMOP’s December 11 program will feature music by three cutting-edge women composers—Chen Yi, Arlene Zallman and a world premiere by Wellesley faculty Jenny Olivia Johnson.

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Also looking for bail money is Linda Virgilio of The Body Shop in Wellesley. Click here to make a tax deductible donation to keep her from being locked up.

We suspect they aren’t the only Most Wanted characters in town, and while we can’t post something for everyone, feel free to add your info via the comments field if you’re looking to spread the word.

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It will be one of your first chances to check out the refurbished Alumnae Hall as well.

Shows will be held Sept. 23-25 at 7pm.

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