“Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon, going to the candidates’ debate. Laugh about it, shout about it. When you’ve got to choose, every way you look at this you lose.”
Lyrics that you, at one time, could not walk into a bar or a gas station without hearing. Words that probably make more sense in today’s time than they did previously. Those are the lyrics of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, who were ahead of their time, not only as lyricists, but as musicians, and as sound-innovators, as well.
Aurora Public Library District (APLD) will be host to guest speaker Gary Wenstrup at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13 on Zoom, when he delivers a presentation which will take an in-depth look at the lives of Simon and Garfunkel through an audio-visual experience.
Wenstrup, who retired from a successful career in advertising and sales, has given presentations described as “the best of the best” by the Library Administrators Conference of Northern Illinois, and has lectured at an incredible 80 Chicago area libraries. Along with Simon and Garfunkel, Wenstrup has helped bring to life the history, personal lives, and careers of many musical groups and musicians, including The Beatles in his program The 50th Anniversary of the Beatles’ Abbey Road, held at West Branch in Aurora in October 2019.
“It’s social history, it’s entertainment history,” said Janet Stephens, Aurora Public Library District librarian, “and people want to know about it. People come to the library for knowledge, not just books, and that can come from CDs and DVDs, as well. Garfunkel wrote a book called ‘What Is It All But Luminous: Notes from an Underground Man’ about his life and the difficult relationship between the two men.”
Visitors can come to any APLD branch for amazing resources outside of just books. By delivering exciting content about topics such as music history, patrons can engage in lifelong learning opportunities that both feed the imagination and inspire creativity. With your Aurora Public Library card, you can even check out albums and other content from the duo. However, you do not need a Library card to see Wenstrup’s presentation. Consider joining us for an enjoyable trip down memory lane here: aurorapubliclibrary.org/event/4468957.
Andrew Muñoz is communications coordinator at the Aurora Public Library.