DIVERSIONS

HOT TICKET



Probably the best kept secret in Dallas is the jazz series at Sammons Center for the Arts. The first Wednesday of every month finds the place rocking to the sounds of local and national musicians in a regular venue that’s hard to find anywhere else in town. This month: Martha Burks and the Jazz Outlaws, March 4. Tickets are $15 and include valet parking, complimentary wine, beer, and hors d’oeuvres. 3630 Harry Hines Blvd. For tickets, call 330-2787.



POP ART

CRAFTS Although they’re made from trash, these Victorianesque pins, necklaces and earrings would never be mistaken for garbage. “Twist-offs are the best-especially Coors, Miller and Bud Light,” says Stephanie Chambers (right, front), who, along with Gwen Vance (middle) and Judy Garlick (back), makes bottle cap jewelry from discarded beer tops. The idea popped into their heads after seeing a pair of bottle cap earrings at a specialty store. “Gwen and I took one look at them and said, ’We can do better than that,”’ recalls Chambers. When friends started asking for the jewelry, they decided to trade in their caps for cash. Each cap is hammered down so miniature pictures can be popped in. Then, the edges are thumped into place with a rawhide mallet. The crafters met while working for an arts organization. “We’ll do anything not to work in an office again,” says Vance. -Ellise Gunnell

Celts in Kilts Kick Up Their Heels



DANCE Social dancing from C&W to international ballroom has been undergoing a renaissance for several years, but not quite like the resurging interest in Scottish dance.

In North Texas, three groups keep the art alive. On March 28, Ceilidh Country Dancers of Fort Worth and Dallas’ Caledonia Country Dancers co-host a ball in the beautifully restored 1920s ballroom of the downtown Fort Worth YWCA.

Scottish country dancing, as it is known, kept Scots kicking up their heels at social occasions for over 350 years. This is not the solo “Highland fling” seen in televised competitions. It’s social in every sense. Sets of four or five couples dance in circles or fan out in long rows.

“It’s got a challenge to it that I like, learning the figures and sequences,” says instructor-in-training Craig Hines, who learned while working as an oil sales engineer in Aberdeen, Scotland.

DETAILS: Tartan Bluebonnet Ball, 7:30 p.m. (reception), 8 p.m. (ball), March 28 at the Fort Worth YWCA, 512 W. 4th. For information, call 247-8962 or Metro 817-572-0256.

Weekly dance practices: Caledonia Country Dancers of Dallas, 247-8962 or 492-8620; Denton Celtic Dancers, (817) 387-8879; Ceilidh Country Dancers of Fort Worth, Metro 817-572-0256.

-Julie Ryan

How Green is His Garden

GARDENING In these days of men’s consciousness-raising groups, one Dallas men’s club concentrates on raising shrubs and vegetables.

Since 1950, the First Men’s Garden Club of Dallas has met once a month. When the 100 members convene, there are around 2,000 man-years of gardening experience in one room. “For almost any subject, there’s an expert. Someone can help with your gardening problem,” says longtime member Dick Jeffrey, whose own garden supplies Campisi’s Egyptian Restaurant’s with 70 pounds of fresh basil each week.

Members hear guest speakers on everything from old garden roses, trees and raised beds to fruits and nuts. The group also publishes a monthly newsletter, gives garden shows in June and October and funds annual horticulture scholarships at Richland Community College.

Women guests are welcome, and several attend regularly, but membership is male-only. “Women’s clubs are often about half social,” says president Thomas Wilten.

The club meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 p.m. at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 7016 Park Lane. For information, call 821-9644. -J.R.

Island Hopping Off the Georgia Coast



TRAVEL Like old photographs, two Atlantic Ocean barrier islands anchored side by side off the Florida and Georgia coasts speak volumes about days gone by. On Cumberland Island, Ga., where wild animals outnumber people, nature flourishes with hardly any human restraint amid remains of the Carnegie family’s island empire. The island’s gothic beauty has a deserted “Prince of Tides” charm, with its duned wind-swept beaches and minimalist landscape. Just a short ferry ride away is Amelia Island, Fla., a much splashier island paradise with tourist accommodations and a reborn Victorian seaport complete with a floating gambling casino.

To visit the islands you’ll want to begin with Amelia, simply because it conies first on the 30-minute ride from the Jacksonville Airport. Once there, settle into one of the lodgings: Amelia Island Plantation, where Atlanta residents keep their well-tended weekend homes; the new Ritz-Carlton, absolutely resplendent in its European-styled elegance; any of the sleek Summer Beach condos; or one of the eight bedand-breakfast inns. Then begin exploring.

Settled some 400 years ago, Amelia today revolves around two worlds-the tourist life along the beach and the regular bustle of the island’s only town. Fernandina Beach, with a population of some 10,000. A good first stop for sightseers is the Amelia Island Museum of History, where you’ll learn about the island’s history. Then you’ll want to walk or drive past the Victorian homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places. End your day with a leisurely stroll down to the docks via Centre Street, the main drag.

Just across the inland marsh, Cumberland Island belongs to another time. There’s no access for cars, but visitors can walk or pedal a rented bicycle along the dirt roads, past palmetto groves and the nests of painted buntings in oak trees from which wisps of Spanish moss dangle like Victorian ladies’ handkerchiefs. The National Park Service controls most of the island, including the magnificent seashore stretching for 16 miles along meadows of dunes inhabited by packs of wild horses.

The island’s only lodging, Greyfield Inn, still belongs to Carnegie descendants. Visitors should be forewarned: The nine-bedroom, 1901 house lacks air conditioning, central heating and any means of communications other than a lone emergency radio phone. But you’ll find porch swings for reading and napping, formal candlelight dinners and, in the library, the late innkeeper’s pet deer, now stuffed on a shelf. A mile or so away, the fire-ravaged ruins of Dungeness, a mansion built in 1884, stand in splendid isolation; the Park Service conducts tours of yet another opulent Carnegie estate, Plum Orchard.

For information about Amelia Island, call (904) 261-3248; for reservations at Greyfield, call (904) 261-6408.

-Derro Evans

Perfect Vision

FASHION Eyeglasses no longer belong only to the myopically inclined. Frames are now an important accessory even if your baby blues are 20-20. The best new looks are constructed of matte-finished metallics, but the basic tortoise, faux or otherwise, is here to stay. A roundup of our favorites:

Center: Stainless steel ovals ($206) by Robert LaRoche from The Eye Gallery, Dallas Galleria. Clockwise, beginning bottom right: black-topped oval frame ($270) by Bada from Peeper’s, 64 Highland Park Village; matte blue metal with fish emblem at temple ($313) by Kata from The Eye Gallery; modified tortoise cat eye ($190) by l.a. Eyeworks from NUVO, 3900 Cedar Springs; tortoise with round, flat removable lenses (clear, yellow and sunglass lenses included with frame, $140) by I.D.C from NUVO; black matte wire frames with faux tortoise inset ($140) by Modo from The Eye Gallery.

Masks of Life



WORKSHOPS

“Taking off your mask” usually means showing your true colors, your inner personality. Now three Dallas women help others show their true colors with the use of mask therapy.

“From Behind the Mask” is six hours of creative playtime-music, dancing, laughter and a healthy dose of adult arts and crafts-with a therapeutic bent. Participants visualize their hidden personalities, cast plaster life masks of their faces and craft fantasy masks from trinkets and found objects, patterned after their alter egos.

Maskmakers cite the workshops as being unexpectedly cathartic: Donning each other’s masks reveals how they appear to others and what it’s like for others to deal with them.

Workshop leader Bette Epstein conceived the one-day workshop in January 1991 to work with creativity counselor Dana Reynolds and actress April Sayre. Early participants were mostly women between the ages of 35 and 50, but, thanks to Robert Bly and other demigods of the burgeoning men’s movement who encourage self-explora tion, “we’re seeing more men now,” Epstein says. For more information, call 358-3633. -Betsy Thaggard

Sound Advice From the Paint Pros

HOME Most homeowners in Dallas face the chore of repainting their house every three to five years depending on weather conditions. And whether your abode emerges from baptism by paint like a page in House Beautiful or as the neighborhood eyesore depends on how closely you follow the experts’ advice.

Plan on one gallon of paint for every 350 square feet of surface. Then remember these tips. Darker colors absorb more heat and thus fade more quickly, says Morris Morgan of Texas Paint. And, advises interior designer Kenneth Joins, use the primary background color from inside your home on the outside, too. Real estate agent Kay Peters of Abio & Adleta has this to say about an ugly-colored brick: Don’t paint it. Just change the trim. Drive around Swiss Avenue and other restoration areas until you find the same brick and a color scheme that works. And finally, from contractor Steve Snider: Sprinkler systems ruin a lot of Dallas paint jobs, so adjust yours so you don’t water the house, too. Once you have a newly-painted palace of your dreams, you’ll no doubt want to immortalize it. Call illustrator Dottie Lipscomb (522-7980). who specializes in house portraiture. Prices start at $125.

-DerroEvans.