PhotoWestern

Take your best shot

Win Great Prizes in the annual Arlie Laxton Western Alumni Gazette Photography Contest!

 

Format: 8” x 10” (or larger) print

 

Now three categories!

 

People – portraits, candid and activity photos of family, friends, other alumni, etc.

 

Other – landscape, still life, nature, etc.

 

NEW! - Digitally Enhanced – Photos altered, enhanced, touched-up after the fact by Photoshop or any other computer photography software. This category is open to photos of people, portraits, landscape, nature, etc.

 

Prizes:

First prize in each category – $300

One Runner-up prize in each category – $100 each

 

Limit one entry per person.

 

Entries must include photographer’s full name, degree and year, address, telephone number and a brief explanation of the photograph, how it was taken and in which category it is being entered. Photos of people must be accompanied by a statement signed by the photographer that those depicted have given permission for the photograph to be published. People in the photos must be identified.

 

If there is any digital enhancement of the photos, it must be declared and entered in the Digitally Enhanced category.

 

Entries not meeting these requirements or formatted improperly will not be judged. Entries will not be returned. Contest open only to alumni of The University of Western Ontario who are not employees and/or officers of the University.

 

Deadline for entries: Dec. 15, 2005

 

Winners will be announced in the Spring 2006 issue of the Western Alumni Gazette

 

Send entries to: Western Alumni Gazette – Photo Contest,

University of Western Ontario
Stevenson-Lawson Building
London, ON
N6A 5B8

For more information, please e-mail: dscott24@uwo.ca

Alumni Interactive

We're introducing a new feature to the Editor's blog. Each month, a new question will be posed to alumni for their feedback. The question will be sent electronically via The Purple Flash and will appear here on the blog. Comment, feedback, rants and raves from alumni will be posted here. (Well, within reason). Past questions will be archived as well. So, tell us what you're thinking. We want to hear!

Seeing that it's Homecoming season, our first Alumni Interactive question is:

"What's the thing you most look forward to when you return for Homecoming?"

Please post your comments, names and class/year of graduation. (If you really want to, you can remain anonymous - but that just takes the fun out of it, doesn't it?)

Thank you!
D.S.

Winners of the Alumni Gazette Readership Survey Draw!

The following three alumni are winners of a $50 voucher for VIA Rail.

Isabel Campbell, Shedden, ON

Barbara Cope, Otterville, ON

Ronald G. Grove, London, ON

Winners will be contacted by mail.

Thank you to the more than 130 alumni who answered our readership survey in the Summer 2005 issue. Your time and feedback is greatly appreciated!

Souwesto Theatre: Online only feature

Souwesto Theatre: A Beginning

By Dr. James Reaney

(This article was originally published in the Spring 1976 issue of the Alumni Gazette. Of note is the fact that the Stratford Festival is staging the first play of James Reaney’s Donnellys trilogy as part of its 2005 lineup. Reaney also just released a new book entitled Souwesto Years)

I have been recently thinking about the process of turning some ten years of research on the premises here into a dramatic trilogy that has just finished a National Tour. As a matter of fact it ended up at a theatre in Toronto with a day long presentation of the three plays to a festive house. This was held on December 9, 1975 and as I look back on the last ten years I look with a curiosity and interest that I hope you can share with me. The research, I might add, was on the history of Biddulph Township which lies not 14 miles away from the office in which I type this, an office in Middlesex Memorial Tower, (the flagtower) University College; the trilogy is called The Donnellys and is now being published by Porcépic Press as quickly as I can remember just how the 14 actors and backstage helpers actually presented this rather large dramatic structure in Vancouver, Calgary, Medicine Hat, Winnipeg, Ottawa, London, Hamilton, Toronto, Moncton, Bathurst, Halifax and other centres.

Continue reading "Souwesto Theatre: Online only feature"

Alice Munro online only feature

Alice Laidlaw Munro

A Portrait of the Artist

By Doug Spettigue

(Originally published in the Summer 1969 issue of the Alumni Gazette)

My reminiscing has sent me scrambling in the mental attic for faded snaps   and scraps of Alice Laidlaw and the English Lang. & Lit. milieu of Western   in the late forties and early fifties. The album is not well stocked I’m   afraid, and I suppose there must be something disconcerting in being asked   to write about the classmate who made good. In Alice’s case, though,   there can only be respect, admiration and pleasure at well deserved recognition.   There were lots of us who had enthusiasm, aspirations, and a flair of one kind   or another. There were few who had the genuine creative gift. Alice had all   these but she also had - what shall I call it – staying power, the indomitable   will, the spark that refused to be smothered under marriage and family and   domesticity and – time. Lampman once confessed that the creative winds   blew only fitfully through him; for the real artist they were constant and   strong. Alice is such an artist.

Continue reading "Alice Munro online only feature"

Alumni Association Annual General Meeting

There was an excellent turnout at the Western Alumni Association's Annual General Meeting held last night (April 26) at Windermere Manor. For more information, see the Alumni & Friends Web page on the AGM.

In fine form

2004 Arlie Laxton Photography Contest Winners

Once again, Western alumni delivered with their keen eye for the visually interesting. Approximately 80 photographers captured images through their lenses from the backyard to the other side of the world for the annual Arlie Laxton Alumni Photography Contest. (click on each photo for details, or visit the Arlie Laxton photo winners site).

1st prizes:  The Thinker (category, People) & Untitled (category, Other)

 

 

Runners up

 

Continue reading "In fine form"

WAG-ing the Blog

Welcome to a new format! The redesign you are experiencing is part of an effort to create a more interactive dimension to our online version of the Western Alumni Gazette. The change to the look of this page, which we hope better reflects the standards being set by the Department of Communications and Public Affairs and provides you with a more eye-catching point of entry. We're also incorporating a more integrated approach to our sister site, Alumni & Friends, to put you more closely in touch with what is happening with our alumni association (see above links).

Online content is also being enhanced. From now on you will see links to ongoing new material linked from the WAG hompage to a Gazette weblog, where I will share some of our upcoming magazine articles as they are developed, exclusive online stories, and news from Alumni Relations. You can comment on each entry.

Let us know how we are doing - are there other things you would like to see? Things you would like to contribute? Send me your feedback and help make the WAG online your link to Western.