Celeste Pryde aka Lady Celeste, is  a pretty inspirational woman, so it’s no surprise the Lethbridge Life Drawing group are using her as the subject for their latest exhibition  “Lady Celeste” at the Yates Memorial Centre, Jan. 23-Feb. 24. The opening reception is Jan. 28, 7-9 p.m.
“It’s not my show, I’m just the Muse,” said Pryde. A number of local life drawing artists will have works in the show including Amy Dodic, Eric Martens, Donna Gallant,  Karina Mak, Helen Fileg, Gherhardt Beyer, Sylvia Klassen, Blake Wilson, Bev Mundel-Atherstone, Bob Webb and Bev Mazurick.

“I’m just happy to be part of the process,” she said.
“She’s an excellent model. She can sit still and she’s beautiful,” enthused Mazurick.
“She poses in costumes she created. They’re phenomenal and very interesting, Mazurick continued. While she is good at sitting down to model, she doesn’t like to be idle.
“I’m not good at sitting down,” she said.

“When I was first diagnosed, the doctor told I’d have to quit work, I went out and began volunteering,” she said.
It’s hard to believe Celeste can sit still as she always has a dozen different projects on the go, from 27 different types of Christmas baking to volunteering on numerous boards. Even though she suffers from several types of arthritis, and was diagnosed with Temporal Arteritis, the giant cell disease last February, she isn’t letting that slow her down. But she doesn’t let that stop her.

Literacy Day is Jan. 27, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore books for the rest of the year. If you don’t know where to start, two book clubs based of of the Lethbridge Public Library downtown branch and Lethbridge Public Library Crossings Branch on the west side are happy to point you in the right direction.

“We’re all readers, so reading a book a month isn’t a problem,” said Sheila Braund, a long standing member of the Definitely Not Plato reading group. For the past dozen years, the group has met on the fourth Monday of every month in the Lethbridge Public Library community meeting room to discuss their favourite books. The committee meets in June to determine the books they will be reading in the next year. All of the members get to submit their favourites, both new and  classic releases though the library must ensure they have enough copies of the book for everyone to read.

”We don‘t read a lot of pop fiction like Danielle Steele, but we read a lot of award winning books,” she emphasized.
 This month they are reading Calgary based author Betty Jane Hegerat’s latest creative non-fiction story “The Boy.” Hegerat has released several others including  “Delivery,” which  was shortlisted for the 2010 Alberta Literary Awards George Bugnet prize
 She will be coming down to Lethbridge to speak with the group when they meet this Wednesday, Jan. 25, though this is a special event.
 “We don’t do this very often because we don’t have any money for it, but we will for local or southern Alberta authors,” Braund continued, noting Hegerat is the mother of one of the librarians, so she was a perfect fit for the event.

Hegarat was part of the World On The Street Festival this past summer.
Braund is excited about this event and introducing the book to the group members.

“I read the book in three days, I couldn‘t put it down,” she enthused. She is excited she was able to recommend it to the group.
 The group also video conferences with members of the club living in rural areas, who are connected to the Chinook Arch library system. They can log in at 7:30 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of the month at their closest library to join the discussion, though she doesn’t know the exact number who do.

There are a couple excellent folk and blues show in a week which really does have a little bit of everything.
 One of my favourite bluesmen, Edmonton’s Marshall Lawrence is getting pumped up with the Battle of the Blues with John Rutherford at the Slice, Jan. 25.
 The show begins at 8 p.m. There is a $10 cover for it.

And continuing with the boxing theme, there is also music for a good cause this weekend as Soup of Flies help “Knockdown Cancer” with a wind up gala evening at HB’S Lounge, Jan. 28.

 It is the wind up event for a month’s worth of fundraising presenting by bowling centres across Canada throughout January. They have been putting pink bands around the bowing pins, provided a donation box and have donated 25 cents from each bowling shoe rental throughout the month. In addition to music, there will be bowling, of course, both regular and cosmic bowling with local celebrities, a live and silent auction featuring a variety of items including golf, Bulls baseball, teeth whitening, hair care products and restaurant gift certificates. There will be free pizza and a dance with all proceeds going to the Canadian Cancer Society. Tickets are $25 each.

 Another one of my favourites, Jenny Allen and Leslie Alexander are looking forward to returning to Lethbridge to play the Slice, Jan. 27 before heading south for the Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis.
 The duo have each released new CDs in the past year and help each other out on them.
 The show is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.