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Fun Weekend Assignment Includes Paragliding Page 3
Taking Sight Impaired Students to New Heights
Matt Reidy Steps Into the Student Spotlight Page 5
Cure Boredom With The Valley’s Most Comprehensive Calendar PageS 8-9
F e b r u a r y 2 7 , 2 0 1 3 • V o l . 6 • N o . 9 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
read about it on PaGe 7
Fourteen Finger Fos
14 yr old Chinmayee Poses With a Rifle at the Durga Camp Graduation Ceremony. courtesy PHOTOS
Women and War Highlight Film Fest
& His New Album
BY KAREN BOSSICK
T
he documentary “The World Before Her� looks at the contrast between two boot camps. One is a month-long beauty boot camp for 20 Miss India Pageant finalists who submit to Botox, skin bleaching, weight-loss regimens to fit into their bikinis and classes showing them how to walk in stilettos. The other boot camp puts rifles on the shoulders of 14-year-olds as they run to the beat of Bhangra music and sing militant fundamentalist hymns, preparing to defend their anti-Gandhi ideology against foreigners, Christians and Muslims. India-born, Toronto-bred Nisha Pahuja will show her film, which won the World Documentary Competition Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, Saturday night as part of the Sixth Annual Family of Woman Film Festival at the Sun Valley Opera House. Pahuja says she initially set out to make a film about the Miss India beauty contest as a prism through which to explore a country that’s going through major cultural changes. She included the nationalistic movement as she read about the backlash from the Hindu fundamentalist movement. “As I got into it, I realized that the two ideologies governing present-day reality are capitalism, which can be equated with the beauty pageant, and fundamentalism, which drives the Hindu fundamentalist boot camp,� she said. Hindu fundamentalism started as a nationalist movement during India’s struggle for independence and is heavily influenced by the Sangh, a group influenced by Hitler. “Should we worry about them? Yes, absolutely,� said Pahuja. “I think their greatest strength is their ability to mobilize massive numbers of people and they know how to manipulate the population to further their political aims. They do this primarily by playing on underlying tensions between Hindus and Muslims and by playing the patriotic card. They operate quite like the SS did in Nazi Germany, tapping into underlying anxieties, such as globalization, women demanding their rights, the fear of cities being taken over by migrants, that at any given time are plaguing the population.� Peggy Goldwyn, who founded the Family of Woman Film Festival, said she’s very excited about this year’s selection because every film is so strong. “This is the strongest lineup we’ve had. The ones getting the most attention are, of course, ‘The Invisible War’ and ‘War Witch’ because they
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Joe Fos, seen here with his wife Patricia, entertained a crowd at last year’s Sun Valley Jazz Festival by staging a dueling piano show with pianist Jason Wanner in which the two went back and forth introducing new songs each an octave higher.
Joe Fos recently released his fourth CD, which is available at the Sun Valley Lodge gift shop. STORY & PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
“F
ourteen fingers.� That’s been Joe Fos’ nickname ever since Robert Goulet quipped that Fos must have 14 fingers because he played so nimbly. Now, decades later, Fos is still dazzling listeners at the wood-paneled Duchin Room in the Sun Valley Lodge where he’s marking his 34th year as pianist-in-residence. And he has a new CD— “Romantic Interludes�—to boot. The CD, which features such numbers as “Try To Remember,� “My Funny Valentine� and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of
You,� is his fourth. Fos actually recorded the tape that the CD was made from 15 years ago in Amos Galpin’s Mountain Beach Studio in Ketchum but didn’t release it until this year. “When I heard it, I couldn’t believe it,� he said. “I’ve been playing it like crazy. It’s cool. It’s clean. It’s absolutely the best I’ve done.� In addition to playing the Duchin Room, Fos is still charming audience members at events like the Sun Valley Jazz Festival where he always draws the loudest applause during Pianorama for his intricate arrangements of such crowd pleasers as “The Theme from Doctor Zhivago.� “I’m just afraid to touch the piano after he’s touched it,� said Boise State University Vocal Jazz Director Jim Jirak. “How he can play the piano so well and remain so humble is truly amazing,� said Bob Draga, clarinet player with
Nashville’s Titan Hot Seven. “He’s one of the nicest human beings I know—just a sweetheart.� Joe Fos has seen the world—from Aruba to the Great Wall of China, from Dubai to Myanmar—thanks to 14 years of gigs on Crystal Cruise Lines during Sun Valley’s slack seasons. And he’s seen the world’s rich and famous from his piano bench, including Dick Van Dyke, Carol Lawrence, Art Linkletter, Julie Andrews, Bette Midler, Clint Eastwood, even tough guy Charles Bronson. It wasn’t a world he envisioned as a youngster growing up in San Diego. All he cared about then was following in the footsteps of basketball great Wilt Chamberlain or baseball slugger Mickey Mantle, despite the fact that he couldn’t manage to top 5 feet.
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