Here are a selection of brief news items pertaining to arts, entertainment, culture and other fun things to do in your spare time:

Fundraiser combines chocolate, music

The seventh annual Holmen High School Band Chocolate Lover’s Night is planned for Sunday, Feb. 10.

The event will run from 6 to 8 p.m. at Holmen High School, and in addition to chocolate desserts, bars, cookies and candies, the event also will feature music performed by HHS jazz bands and various solos and ensembles.

Cost is $2 for eight “tastes.” Tickets available at the door on the night of the event, or they can be bought in advance by calling Kim Kennedy at 317-1057.

Carry-outs will be available.

Soccer registration open through Feb. 1

The Holmen Park & Recreation Department is accepting registrations for the spring 2008 soccer season.

Players between the ages of 7 and 14 can register online at www.holmenwi.com/holmenpr or at Holmen Village Hall. Registration deadline is Feb. 1.

Volunteer coaches are needed for all teams. A mandatory coaches meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 4, at 7 p.m. at the Holmen Village Hall.

Call 526-2152 or check the recreation department Web site for more information on the soccer program and other activities.

Holmen family fitness night set at YMCA

The Holmen School District and the La Crosse Area Family YMCA will hold a Family Fitness Night at the Y, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Sunday at YMCA North.

Activities include swimming, use of the walking track, dodgeball, basketball/open gym, zumba and yoga.

There is no charge for the event. Children must be accompanied by a parent.

Bill Miller adds show at Pump House

Grammy-winning musician Bill Miller, one of the most admired figures in the Native American music arena and beyond, has added a second concert at the the Pump House Regional Arts Center in La Crosse after selling out his Jan. 26 show.

Due to the high demand, Miller will perform a matinee show at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27.

Miller, a Mohican Indian, was raised on the Stockridge-Munsee reservation in northern Wisconsin. As a gift to the Pump House, Miller will donate three of his own beautiful flutes, and an original work of art.

This painter, activist, songwriter and Wisconsin native’s music blends Native American tradition and the folk/ blues genre.

Tickets for the Sunday performance are $20 members/$23 nonmembers. Tickets are available by calling 785-1434 or online at www.thepumphouse.org.

Improv group to take stage at UW-L

Mission Improvable will perform at UW-La Crosse at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31, in Valhalla, Cartwright Center-Gunning Addition. Admission is free.

Mission Improvable has been spreading its style of improv comedy to audiences around the world since it began touring in 1999. The original group was founded in Massachusetts, but moved to Chicago to study at the ImprovOlympic training center and the Second City Conservatory. Since then, the group has expanded from six to 15 members and has performed as far away as Singapore.

Katie Couric play coming to Viterbo

The Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences on Tour's presentation of Katie Couric's “The Brand New Kid” is coming to the Viterbo University Fine Arts Center Main Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 9.

It's the first day of school and Lazlo S. Gasky is the new student in class. He's a typical 7-year-old boy, but because he doesn't look and speak quite like his classmates, the teasing and taunting begin.

When fellow student Ellie McSnelly realizes how hard Lazlo has it, she risks being ridiculed herself to spend some time with him. After an afternoon of playing soccer, eating strudel, and making new friends, the two teach their classmates a valuable lesson —one not found in textbooks-about the need to give others a chance.

Performance time is 3 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for children for main floor seating and $10 for adults and $8 for children for seating in the lower balcony.

For more information, contact the Viterbo University box office at 796-3100 or www.viterbo.edu/finearts1.aspx.

Signups open for women’s retreat

The fourth Annual Franciscan Skemp Women’s Wellness Retreat will be held Friday and Saturday, March 7-8, at Stoney Creek Inn in Onalaska.

The keynote speaker, Mary Marcdante, is an award-winning international speaker, Certified Laughter Leader, author of “Living with Enthusiasm” and “My Mother, My Friend” and is a contributing author to five best-selling “Chicken Soup for the Soul: books.

Marcdanteis an expert in guiding women through self-discovery to transform adversity into adventure, boredom into breakthrough, chaos into calm and depression into delight. Participants will learn how to “Press Pause” with three powerful personal transformation tools that will bring more energy and love into their lives: inspiration, appreciation and enthusiasm.

The weekend will be filled with opportunities for pampering including massage and energy therapies from Franciscan Skemp Center for Health and Healing, mini-manicures, pedicures and facials from Allure Salon and make-up consultations from make-up artist Julie Martin.

In addition, breakout sessions will provide participants with the chance to explore new ideas and reconnect with their inner wisdom. And as always, there will be fun things to purchase at the exhibitor displays featuring natural soaps, lotions, tea, chocolate, jewelry and gifts ideas.

Call (608) 392-4172 or e-mail pupp.cathleen@mayo.edu for a registration brochure. Space is limited. Completed registration forms are due by Feb. 25.

Those who register by Feb. 1 will be entered in a drawing to receive a free massage from Franciscan Skemp.

Jazz festival set at UW-L on Jan. 26

A jazz trumpeter with degrees from distinguished jazz schools will perform at UW-La Crosse’s Jazz Festival’s featured concert Saturday, Jan. 26.

Trumpet artist Brian Lynch joins the UW-L Jazz Ensemble I and the tri-state region’s top high school groups at 7 p.m. in Valhalla, Cartwright Center-Gunning Addition. Admission is $15 for adults and $10 for students.

In addition to the evening concert, jazz-goers can get their fix when middle school and high school big bands and combos perform from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Center for The Arts and Frederick Theatre in Morris Hall. The ensembles will perform for a panel of adjudicators and have an on-stage critique after their performance. Performances are open to the public.

Lynch is as comfortable negotiating the complexities of clave with Afro-Caribbean pioneer Eddie Palmieri as he is swinging through advanced harmony with bebop maestro Phil Woods.

An honored graduate of two of the jazz world’s most distinguished academies — Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and the Horace Silver Quintet — Lynch has been a valued collaborator with jazz artists such as Benny Golson, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Charles McPherson, Latin music icons such as Hector LaVoe and Yerba Buena and pop luminaries such as Prince.

As a bandleader and recording artist, Lynch has released a series of critically acclaimed CDs featuring his distinctive composing and arranging. He has toured the world with various ensembles reflecting the wide sweep of his music.

Lynch currently holds faculty positions at New York University and the North Netherlands Conservatory, as well as conducting clinics and workshops worldwide. His talents have been recognized by top placings in the Downbeat Critics and Readers Polls; highly rated reviews for his work in Downbeat, Jazziz and Jazz Times; a 2006 Grammy award for the recording “Simpatico”; and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America and Meet the Composer.

Winter Extravaganza planned at Whitetail Ridge

FORT McCOY — The Fort McCoy 2008 Winter Extravaganza will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, at the Whitetail Ridge Ski Area. The event is open to the public.

Activities will begin at 9 a.m., with registration for the “Polar Run” fun run/walk at the Whitetail Ridge Chalet. The event will begin at 9:30 a.m., with a $10 entry fee.

The Chalet will host a pancake breakfast from 10 to 11:30 a.m., with food and beverages for sale.

At 10 a.m., the winter recreation events begin with the opening of the snow-tubing hill. Food and beverages are available for purchase during this event.

The ski hill will open for downhill skiing and snowboarding at noon. Free snowboard lessons will be offered from noon to 12:45 p.m. Those trying snowboarding for the first time are encouraged to take lessons. An obstacle course will test participants’ snow savvy and agility skills from 1:15 to 2 p.m.

A snowboard trick demonstration presentation will follow from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m. The Big Air Competition from 3:30 to 4 p.m. and slalom races from 4:15 to 5 p.m. will round-out the day’s activities.

People wishing to attend the event are advised to use Gate 19, which is located off Highway 21 (near Gate 5, the Sparta gate) and follow the signs.

More information about the event is available at the Fort McCoy MWR Web site http://www.mccoymwr.com by clicking on Whitetail Ridge Ski Area or MWR events or by calling the toll-free MWR Events Line at (877) 864-4969.

Viterbo to host tango performance Jan. 30

Argentina’s hottest tango company, Estampras Protenas, will bring the alluring and sophisticated dance to the Viterbo Fine Arts Center Main Theatre stage with “Tango Fire” on Jan. 30.

With four musicians, a soloist and 10 dancers, Estampras Protenas will take the audience through the history and evolution of tango through changes in costume, lighting, music styles and dance steps.

Performance time is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $29 for upper balcony seating. For more information, call the Viterbo University box office at 796-3100 or log onto www.viterbo.edu/finearts1.aspx.

Award-winning painter at Viterbo

The paintings of Anders Carlisle Shafer are featured in an exhibit at the Viterbo University Fine Arts Center Gallery.

Carlisle Shafer is a full-time painter and illustrator and a retired University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire professor. He earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa and a master of fine arts from the University of Cincinnati.

He is also the winner of more than 40 awards, including one of the first given by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the author and illustrator of the children’s book, “The Fantastic Journey of Pieter Bruegel,” published by Dutton’s Children’s Books, a division of Penguin-Putnam, in 2002.

Carlisle Shafer will visit Viterbo Tuesday, Feb. 19 to provide a demonstration from 9 a.m. to noon in the Fine Arts Center room 301 and a slide presentation and question-and-answer session from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

The show will begin with a reception at 7:30 p.m. and will run until Tuesday, Feb. 19. There is no admission fee to the gallery, which is located on the third floor of the Fine Arts Center on the Viterbo campus.

The gallery is open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday when school is in session.

Van Riper Park hill, shelter now open

Van Riper Park’s sledding hill is now open, with lights on until 8 p.m. for evening sledding sessions. The nearby warming shelter also is open from 4 to 8 p.m. each day. Concessions include hot chocolate, cappuccino, candy, popcorn, nachos and pretzels.

The shelter is available for exclusive rental on Saturdays and Sundays for $25 for a two-hour time slot. Available slots include 10 a.m. to noon, noon to 2 p.m. and 2 to 4 p.m.

Children’s Museum hosts traveling Hmong exhibit

“Hmong at Heart,” an award-winning traveling exhibit, is on display at the Children’s Museum of La Crosse, with its stay extended through Jan. 20.

“We are thrilled to host such an impressive international cultural presentation,” said Anne Steuer, the museum’s executive director. “Based on the popularity of this exhibit in other parts of the country, we expect it to draw families and school groups from throughout our region.”

The Hmong are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China. At the turn of the 18th century many of the Hmong migrated to Southeast Asia and later to Vietnam and Thailand. After the communist takeover of Vietnam in 1975, many Hmong sought refuge in other countries, including the United States. About 4,000 Hmong people currently live in the La Crosse area.

“Hmong at Heart” visitors will participate in activities that simulate the daily life of a Hmong community, including three hands-on learning centers: a Hmong village in Laos, a refugee camp in Thailand and a Hmong-American home. Activities including weaving bamboo sheathing and planting a rural garden allow participants to experience the basic rustic lives of this culture.

A grant from the La Crosse Rotary Foundation allows the Children’s Museum to offer schools and other youth groups a discounted rate for field trips during the exhibit’s visit.

“Hmong at Heart” was created by the Wisconsin Children’s Museum in Madison.