Thursday, Dec. 4: If you’re all thumbs with your digital camera and poring over the owner’s manual gets you nowhere, be thankful folks at the Oak Park Public Library tend to the basics of 21st century life. They’ve booked-for a free workshop-Stu Gershon, the retired New York City schoolteacher known as the Digital Doc. The doc’s class, titled How to Work Your Digital Camera, is limited to 15 seats, so hurry and call 697-6915 to reserve a spot. If you’re lucky enough to get in, all you’ll need to do is bring along your digital camera with fresh batteries, a fresh memory card and that darned owner’s manual. The workshop is at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Veterans Room, on the second floor of the library’s main branch, at 834 Lake.
Friday, Dec. 5: For the holidays, there are concerts and there are concerts. But we’ve yet to get word of another local show with an artist The New York Times calls “the Jimi Hendrix of the violin.” Fiddle player Eileen Ivers, a hip traditionalist, will bring her signature blue violin to Dominican University for a concert called An Nollaig: An Irish Christmas. The spirited music comes to Lund Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $28 and $35. Order them at www.dom.edu/pac. The Dominican University Performing Arts Center is 7900 W. Division in River Forest.
Saturday, Dec. 6: The Scoville Square Building will channel the realm of Harry Potter from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday night as The Magic Tree Bookstore hosts a Hogwarts Yule Ball to toast the release this week of J.K. Rowling’s latest book: The Tales of Beedle the Bard. The fun-loving muggles at Magic Tree are inviting Rowling fans buying this collection of children’s stories to attend in all the finery of their favorite Potter character-or not: There will be a Weasley Worst Hand-Me-Down-Robes contest. Nourishment will come from a dessert buffet presented by the Hogwarts house-elves at Winberie’s. The price of attendance-$30 for Magic Tree members and $35 for others-gets you a copy of the book and two tickets to the ball. For $8 or $10 each respectively, you can buy additional tickets to the ball. The Magic Tree Bookstore is at 141 N. Oak Park Ave. in Oak Park. To reserve tickets, stop in, call 848-0770 or e-mail Debbie@magictreebooks.com.