Thaddeus Rex has a warning for children across the country: There’s an invasion coming — a Martian Television Invasion.
Rex, a children’s singer-songwriter who goes by the name “T-Rex,” kicked off the city’s annual TV Tune Out Week with a performance on Sunday at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave. Playing songs from his new CD, “Martian Television Invasion,” T-Rex told the story of extra-terrestrial television sets from Mars descending upon his street, throwing themselves into neighbors’ living rooms and turning the inhabitants to zombies.
T-Rex’s concert was the first of a series of events that Evanston is offering for TV Tune Out Week, which begins Monday.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the founding of the TV-Turnoff Network, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that advocates reducing the time children spend watching television. The group promotes and helps to coordinate TV-Turnoff weeks across the country, and projects that more than 7.6 million children and adults nationwide will participate this year.
T-Rex’s act emphasized the importance of reading and imagination, and warned children that watching television turns one’s brain to “mashed potatoes.”
“What it’s all about is seeing something that isn’t there and creating it,” T-Rex said before the performance. “Reading not only exercises your imagination, but it requires a strong imagination to do it, and it strengthens your imagination.”
Eight Evanston residents attended the performance Sunday. Jan Bojda, the library’s director of children’s services, attributed the low turnout to the warm, sunny weather.
“It’s the first nice weekend we’ve had,” Bojda said.
The Evanston/Skokie Council of PTAs has organized activities for the week in the past several years, said Richard Peterson, the council’s TV Tune Out Week co-chair. The council distributes materials to District 65 schools, including buttons and coupons that allow participating students to take advantage of special events and discounts at local business and organizations.
Free events include swimming at the Evanston North Shore YWCA, 1215 Church St., tours of the Charles Gates Dawes House, 225 Greenwood St., and tickets to concerts at NU’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall for fourth- through eighth-graders and their parents.
Discounts also are available for participating students at a number of local businesses, including Hi-Fi Records, 2601 Prairie Ave., and Hartigan’s Ice Cream Shoppe, 2909 Central St. Individual schools also are arranging their own activities.
Peterson estimated that about 1,500 students in the district have signed up to participate this year.
“This is our best year so far,” Peterson said. “I think the teachers are pushing it more, promoting the program more than they did before.”
Evanston’s libraries are offering other events this week, including an “Ice Cream Sundaes and Books” presentation Tuesday afternoon and “Pajama Storytime” Wednesday evening. Both events are at the Main Library.
Though Bojda said the library’s events during TV Tune Out Week typically are sparsely attended, she said she expects Tuesday’s event to be more popular.
“If you feed them, they will come,” she said.
The South Branch library, 949 Chicago Ave., is hosting a read-aloud Thursday afternoon, while the North Branch, 2026 Central St., is offering a game night that evening.
Peterson said that the week serves a useful purpose, even though most participants seem to return eventually to watching their usual amount of TV.
Bojda also praised the week as a way to draw students’ attention to their TV-watching habits.
“If nothing else, it probably reminds the kids how much time they do spend in front of the television,” she said.
