ARTIFACTS: Fun doing business, Vietnam revisted, the Lokel art show

• I like a good business and commerce expo. Maybe because businesses are like the oxygen-carrying lifeblood of a community. Maybe because of the reeling variety packed into one place. Maybe because of the freebies. The Pacific Grove Community Expo takes over a storied venue of culture, Chautauqua Hall, and interjects some local business culture into it. The event is free to attend, runs 4-7pm Thursday, Sept. 14, and there will be door prizes, music, food and, at 6pm, a “large cash giveaway” (their words). 373-3304. pacificgove.org.

• Nine artists of the Seaside Art Association are showing work at the Monterey Peace & Justice Center in Seaside, in a show called Lokel, opening 6-7:30pm Friday, Sept. 15. It includes portraits, vistas, still lifes, each with “a certain local twist.” Ah, a game. I like games. 899-7322.

• PBS is about to start airing a comprehensive, monumental, 10-part, 18-hour documentary called The Vietnam War. Know the filmmaker? If you guessed Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, who collaborated on The War and Baseball: The Tenth Inning, you are correct. It begins at 8pm Sunday, Sept. 17; check local listings. Dr. David Anderson—professor emeritus of history at CSU Monterey Bay, senior lecturer of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, author or editor of 11 books on Vietnam, and Army veteran of that war—was among a small group of historians invited to a screening with Burns at Dartmouth College in July. Anderson teaches two sessions of an OLLI course on “The Vietnam War: Fifty Years Later,” Sept. 27 and Oct. 4, at CSUMB; you are welcome to attend. 582-4377.

• Former arts, culture and features journalist Marcos Cabrera has been hired as the journalism instructor at the Media Center for Art, Education and Technology. That is promising news for students there because when it comes to young people and journalism, Cabrera is all about it. Congrats. mcaet.org.

• “Hello. My name is Walter Ryce. I’m the arts writer at the Monterey County Weekly. Thank you to the National Steinbeck Center for inviting me to be part of this year’s NEA Big Read program, centered on Claudia Rankine’s book Citizen, by talking about the film you are about to see, A Raisin in the Sun.” That’s how my talk, introducing Lorraine Hansberry’s film adaptation of her groundbreaking play, began at Maya Cinemas last Monday. More or less. How it progressed from there can probably best be described as careening forth. Good times. steinbeck.org/read.html.