College of DuPage’s 12th annual “Traditions in Excellence” food and wine dinner event is set from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 21. The event is an opportunity for the college’s culinary students to showcase their skills, while raising money to enhance the Hospitality Administration program.

This year’s event presents an elegant, four-course dinner prepared by the students.

When the pressures of the world close in, you can enlist a nearby ally. Try using hypnosis to tap the power of the subconscious and scale back the stress.

No dangling medallions or sci-fi-esque tools are involved in the process, nor does the hypnotist exert mind control.

“All hypnosis is self-hypnosis,” said Gina Orlando, a certified hypnotherapist in Oak Park (www.ginaorlando.com), in describing the state of relaxed concentration.

As part of its month-long celebration of Earth Day, the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva will present the film “Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home” at 7 p.m. Friday, April 17, at Second and James streets, a block east of the downtown courthouse.
 
Guest speaker for the evening is Gary Mielke, recycling coordinator for Kane County.

David Roche, an inspirational speaker, humorist and the author of “The Church of 80% Sincerity,” will present a talk titled “Individuals With Disabilities: Try Walking in My Shoes” at 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 8, at Illinois Benedictine University in Lisle.

Born with a severe facial deformity, Roche now uses his face as a tool for hope. He has been a featured performer at the Clinton White House and has won a Martin Luther King Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Ispirare School of Music of Batavia will present demonstration classes for the spring session of Music Together on Wednesday, April 8, at 1, 4:30 and 5:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 9, at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m.; and Friday, April 10, at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. in the school’s recital studio, 102 First St., Batavia.

The spring session begins the week of April 12.

What parents once criticized as a time-waster could actually prove to be a career fast-track. Video-game-obsessed youngsters might be grooming themselves for a successful profession in the digital arts, which are turning virtual worlds into real money.

The field is winning new applications in diverse industries.

“Animation is being used very heavily in medical education, as well as video games,” said Perry Harovas of St. Charles, who chairs the Visual Effects/Animation department at Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, which was founded in the fall of 2007 as the first new college in Chicago in a half-century.

The Billy Graham Center Museum at Wheaton College will display a new exhibit titled “Look Toward the Heavens: The Contemporary Biblical Art of He Qi” from now through June 9, showcasing works by the Chinese artist.

Exhibit organizers said the artist uses the Chinese technique of color-on-paper painting to bring Biblical scenes to life in new and surprising ways.

The Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra will perform three free Chamber Music Institute concerts for the public in the ATC Auditorium at Elgin Community College, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin. They begin at 2, 3:15 and 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 5, featuring nearly 100 students from the EYSO organization.

Senior Services Associates presents its annual “Everybody’s Birthday Party” celebration dinner and silent auction Friday, April 17, in Bartlett.

This year’s benefit theme is “It’s Up to You, New York, New York.”

Comedian TP Mulrooney, aka “The Golf Comic,” will entertain at the Delnor Men’s Foundation comedy night at 7 p.m. Friday, April 17, at Eaglebrook Country Club in Geneva.

Mulrooney, who calls the Tri-Cities home, has appeared on HBO, Showtime, Comedy Central and The Golf Channel.

A special dance will help the St. Charles Singles Club celebrate its 32nd year as a nonprofit social and dance club for singles age 40 and better from any area. Younger singles also are welcome.

Regular dances are held each second and fourth Monday at Riverside Reception at Route 38 and North River Lane, Geneva.

Film and television star Marlee Matlin will sign copies of her book “I’ll Scream Later” at 7 p.m. Friday, April 17, at Borders Books and Music, 1500 16th. St., Oak Brook.

Matlin’s show business break came as the deaf pupil turned custodian in “Children of a Lesser God.” Today, she remains the youngest woman ever to win a Best Actress Oscar.

An Architect and New Urbanist, Andrés Duany is determined to “Make No Small Plans in the New Economy,” the title of a presentation to area architects, planners, developers, Judson University’s architecture students and the general public at 1:30 p.m. Friday, March 27, at the Centre of Elgin’s Heritage Ballroom, 100 Symphony Way.
 
“Duany’s presentation will be based on his commitment to building compact, sustainable, pedestrian-friendly and transit-oriented communities,” said Elgin Mayor Ed Schock.

St. Charles Kiwanis Club members are making it easy to give roses to the special people in your daily life with its annual “Rose Day” fundraiser.

Orders are being taking by Kiwanis members for bouquets of one dozen, long-stemmed roses.

Books Between Bites welcomes Rod Henshaw, dean of Drake University’s Cowles Library, at noon Thursday, March 19, in Batavia Public Library, 10 S. Batavia Ave. A life-long student of Gettysburg, Lincoln and the Civil War, Henshaw will present “The Killer Angels of Gettysburg: Fiction, Fact and National Memory.”

His talk discusses the book “The Killer Angels,” its characters, the battle and a concluding reflection on the nature, use and power of historical memory: one that continues to influence the course of contemporary events and the future of the nation. “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara is the One Book, One Batavia selection for 2009.