Mountain Views News          Saturday, February 20, 2016

12

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Mountain Views-News Saturday, February 20, 2016 

On the Marquee: Notes from the Sierra Madre Playhouse


SEAN’S SHAMELESS 

REVIEWS:

RA RA RIOT – “NEED YOUR LIGHT”

By Sean Kayden

THE FIELD TRIP SERIES #3


By Artistic Director, Christian Lebano

With the closing of Deathtrap we turn our sights to 
the next show: Charlotte’s Web adapted by Joseph 
Robinette from the beloved story by E.B. White. 
Charlotte’s Web is the third Field Trip Series play 
we have produced and was made possible this 
year by a generous donation from the Ruth and 
Charles Gilb Family Foundation. The Field Trip 
Series brings students from local schools, both 
public and private, into the Playhouse to see a 
show. We already have over 3,500 students and 
teachers who have purchased tickets. Charlotte’s 
Web will also play Saturday and Sunday matinees 
for general audiences.

 It struck me a few years ago that the Playhouse 
sits empty for most of the week and I thought it 
would be great if we could introduce kids to the 
pleasures of live theater by staging a play that 
would appeal to their teachers enough to go 
through all the paperwork involved in arranging 
a field trip. It was important to me that it be more 
than “just seeing a play”. So I enrolled some really 
talented arts education professionals to help me 
craft a complete experience for the kids – which 
includes a lobby display, a pre-show workshop, a 
post-show discussion with the actors, and a study 
guide created for the teachers. Response has been 
tremendous.

 Our first year we produced Battledrum by 
Doug Cooney, a play about Civil War drummer 
boys – we enlisted the help of Civil War reenactors 
and historians to round out the experience. We 
aimed that show at grades 3 through 8. Last year 
we produced Einstein is a Dummy by Karen 
Zacarias and Deborah Wicks LaPuma about a 12 
year old Albert Einstein. We targeted that one 
for grades 5 to 8. This year Charlotte’s Web was 
targeted to grades 1 to 6 – with mostly 2nd and 3rd 
graders coming. How wonderful to know that for 
many of those kids Charlotte’s Web will be their 
first professional theater experience! I’ve already 
settled on next year’s show – A Wrinkle in Time 
adapted by John Glore from Madeleine L’Engle’s 
beloved story.

 For our general audiences we have a series of 
additional events on Sundays through the run 
of the show: a petting zoo of farm animals, a 
special tea which we’ll do in collaboration with 
our friends at T’Neer across the street from the 
Playhouse, a “Bug Lady”, an egg hunt on Easter, 
and a special web building event. Specific days 
and descriptions of each event can be found on 
our website SierraMadrePlayhouse.org.

 The Field Trip Series is an integral part of our 
programming at SMP. I’m very proud of what 
we’ve built and how it has evolved. It is just one of 
many ways we are trying to make SMP an integral 
part of our community.

 Tickets are now on sale for Charlotte’s Web 
– it is going to be terrific fun – hope to see you 
there with (or without!) your kids and grandkids. 
Please visit our website at SierraMadrePlayhouse.
org or call Mary at 626.355.4318 to arrange your 
purchase. 

“Need Your Light,” the new record from indie-pop 
vanguards Ra Ra Riot is the band’s brightest and 
most inspired work yet. The once baroque-pop 
Brooklyn quintet is now utilizing synthesizers more 
than ever before. This was quite apparent on their 
2013 record “Beta Love,” a rapid change in direction 
for a band with such a beloved signature sound. 
Three years later, the fourth full-length is the all-
encompassing sound of a band being revitalized 
by their personal reality. Respectively, “Need Your 
Light” (Barsuk Records) sees members Wes Miles 
(vocals), Mathieu Santos (bass), Milo Bonacci 
(guitar), Rebecca Zeller (violin), and Kenny Bernard 
(drums) getting back to their unconventional roots 
without deserting the more piquant soundscapes 
they surveyed with 2013’s “Beta Love.” The end 
result is a record that’s celebratory while the band 
takes their prior experiences in order to skillfully 
create something that looks toward the future with 
a hopeful watch. Rostam Batmanglij, formerly of 
Vampire Weekend, helped produced the brand new 
record that pushes Ra Ra Riot into new heights 
with a newfound burst of energy that’s simply 
unquestionable from beginning to end.

 The record kicks off with “Water,” a very Vampire 
Weekend-esque track, which comes as no surprise. 
Miles’s falsetto vocals, original as they come by in 
indie pop, floats on cloud nine. The single is greatly 
satisfying and melodiously all-around. “Absolutely” 
follows up and it’s an ebullient tune as well. It’s as 
addicting as anything these OG indie-poppers have 
ever crafted. An exuberant Miles can take mundane 
situations and add much needed energy to them. 
He’s a wizard of sorts with this skillset. “Foreign 
Lovers” is a quick two-plus minute gem. It even has 
time to throw in some violin work into the mix. It’s 
simple and effective, but may be overlooked by some 
of the more standout tunes Ra Ra Riot has to offer 
here. Speaking of such, the subsequent eponymous 
track, “I Need Your Light” is brilliantly luminous. It’s 
gorgeously put together with various layers that allow 
it to feel like something quite special. Undoubtedly, 
it’s Ra Ra Riot’s finest song on the record.

 “Bad Times” is a superlative tune with some of the 
finest use of snyths in the collection tracks from the 
band. It has a specific way of elevating you off your 
seat. Don’t be fooled by the title itself, “Bad Times” 
offers emotional depth combined with an indelible 
pop sound making you want to go off and have a good 
time. “Call Me Out” recalls Ra Ra Riot’s earlier days. 
Miles sings with an irrefutable persuasion. He believes 
in every line he calls out and convinces the listener 
every time. It’s a slightly slower tempo song than the 
ones before it, but a rather understated tune that is 
teeming with absolute beauty. Ra Ra Riot doesn’t 
really have any stumbles or shortcomings within the 
ten masterful tracks. “Suckers” closes out the record 
and it’s purely awesome. I mean, the track radiates 
with a subtle coolness that gives off the feeling the Ra 
Ra Riot of 2016 is a brand new beginning for them. 
The song is as delightful as a cool summer night. One 
would think Ra Ra Riot is approaching a finish line 
of sorts with their fourth record. However, I beg to 
differ. This is a reinvigorated group taking experience 
and molding that into something deliciously fresh. 
They’re a unit looking ahead, but not too far ahead 
where they could lose sight on whatever they’re 
trying to achieve. This isn’t a race for Ra Ra Riot to 
reach a point of conclusion, but to exist in an endless 
race where both starting and finish lines are really 
just the same thing. 

Ra Ra Riot – “Need Your Light”

Artist: Ra Ra Riot

Album: Need Your Light

Label: Barsuk Records

Release Date: February 19th

Grade: 8.7 out of 10 

Jeff’s Book Pics By Jeff Brown

Walking the Nile by Levison Wood

The Nile, one of the world’s great rivers, has 
long been an object of fascination and obsession. 
From Alexander the Great and Nero, to Victorian 
adventurers David Livingstone, John Hanning 
Speke, and Henry Morton Stanley, the river has 
seduced men and led them into wild adventures. 
English writer, photographer, and explorer Levison 
Wood is just the latest. His Walking the Nile is a 
captivating account of a remarkable and unparalleled 
Nile journey.Starting in November 2013 in a forest 
in Rwanda, where a modest spring spouts a trickle 
of clear, cold water, Wood set forth on foot, aiming 
to become the first person to walk the entire length 
of the fabled river. He followed the Nile for nine 
months, over 4,000 miles, through six nations—
Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South 
Sudan, the Republic of Sudan, 
and Egypt—to the Mediterranean 
coast.Like his predecessors, Wood 
camped in the wild, foraged 
for food, and trudged through 
rainforest, swamp, savannah, and 
desert, enduring life-threatening 
conditions at every turn. He 
traversed sandstorms, flash floods, 
minefields, and more, becoming a 
local celebrity in Uganda, where a 
popular rap song was written about 
him, and a potential enemy of the 
state in South Sudan, where he 
found himself caught in a civil war 
and detained by the secret police. 
As well as recounting his triumphs, 
like escaping a charging hippo and 
staving off wild crocodiles, Wood’s gripping account 
recalls the loss of Matthew Power, a journalist who 
died suddenly from heat exhaustion during their 
trek. As Wood walks on, often joined by local 
guides who help him to navigate foreign languages 
and customs, Walking the Nile maps out African 
history and contemporary life.An inimitable tale of 
survival, resilience, and sheer willpower, Walking 
the Nile is an inspiring chronicle of an epic journey 
down the lifeline of civilization in northern Africa.
Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s 
Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain 
and the Secrets of the Heart 

by James R. Doty MD 
Extraordinary things happen when we harness the 
power of both the brain and the heart.Growing up 
in the high desert of California, Jim Doty was poor, 
with an alcoholic father and a mother chronically 
depressed and paralyzed by a stroke. Today he is the 
director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism 
Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford 
University, of which the Dalai Lama is a founding 
benefactor. But back then his life was at a dead 
end until at twelve he wandered into a magic shop 
looking for a plastic thumb. Instead he met Ruth, a 
woman who taught him a series of exercises to ease 
his own suffering and manifest his greatest desires. 
Her final mandate was that he keep his heart open 
and teach these techniques to others. She gave him 
his first glimpse of the unique relationship between 
the brain and the heart. Doty would go on to 
put Ruth’s practices to work with extraordinary 
results—power and wealth that he 
could only imagine as a twelve-year-
old, riding his orange Sting-Ray 
bike. But he neglects Ruth’s most 
important lesson, to keep his heart 
open, with disastrous results—
until he has the opportunity to 
make a spectacular charitable 
contribution that will virtually ruin 
him. Part memoir, part science, 
part inspiration, and part practical 
instruction, Into the Magic Shop 
shows us how we can fundamentally 
change our lives by first changing 
our brains and our hearts.
On Immunity: An 
Inoculation by Eula Biss
In this bold, fascinating National 
Book Critics Circle Award Finalist 
book, Eula Biss addresses our fear of the government, 
the medical establishment, and what may be in 
our children’s air, food, mattresses, medicines, 
and vaccines. Reflecting on her own experience 
as a new mother, she suggests that we cannot 
immunize our children, or ourselves, against the 
world. As she explores the metaphors surrounding 
immunity, Biss extends her conversations with other 
mothers to meditations on the myth of Achilles, 
Voltaire’s Candide, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Rachel 
Carson’s Silent Spring, Susan Sontag’s AIDS and 
Its Metaphors, and beyond. On Immunity is an 
inoculation against our fear and a moving account 
of how we are all interconnected-our bodies and our 
fates.

CHINA COMES TO LIFE AT SHEN YUN

The gong strikes 
and a journey 
across five 
millennia begins. 
From the mist, 
40 dancers clad 
in traditional 
costumes emerge 
in front of a 30-
foot tall video 
backdrop that 
morphs from the 
mountains of Tibet 
to the sprawling 
plains of Mongolia 
and points in 
between. A 
40-piece orchestra 
rises with the 
sounds of western 
and ancient eastern 
instruments. 

 The all-new 
spectacular Shen 
Yun 2016 tells 
the banned-in-
Communist China 
stories of when heroes split mountains and swam 
with dragons, when divine beings walked the 
earth and when dynasties ruled supreme. 

 Beginning in March, Shen Yun 2016 will appear 
at six Southern California theaters including stops 
in downtown Los Angeles and Northridge.

 Since 2007, more than five million people in 30 
countries on four continents have enjoyed Shun 
Yun. 

 “Shen Yun is using classical Chinese dance to 
present this culture on the world stage,” says H. 
Sue Gao, Vice President of Shen Yun’s training 
school, Fei Tian College.

 Cherished stories from China’s 5,000-year 
history like the tales of the heroine Mulan and 
General Yue Fei are told through large scale dance 
numbers featuring authentically detailed period 
costumes. A vibrant video backdrop transports 
audiences through time to ancient dynasties such 
as the Tang and the Qin, to the mountains of Tibet, 
the shores of a Dai village and the sprawling plains 
of Mongolia. The interactive video allows dancers 
to jump in and out of the screen delighting the 
audience. 

 In “The Fable of the Magic Brush,” a rescued 
maiden bestows a magic brush upon her savior 
that transforms anything he paints into reality. 
When the savior paints on the video screen, the 
object becomes a cartoon in motion. Ultimately 
the maiden and savior jump into an on-screen 
ocean where they become animated figures 
swimming underwater and flying in the skies. 

 The Shen Yun Orchestra combines the spirit, 
beauty and distinctiveness of Chinese music with 
the precision, power and grandeur of the Western 
symphony orchestra. Traditional instruments are 
combined with the 4,000-year-old pipa and erhu 
resulting in two glorious traditions melding into 
one refreshing sound. 

 Over 5,000 years the traditions of martial arts, 
Chinese opera, folk dancing and acrobatics have 
linked to form traditional Chinese dance. Known 
for its incredible flips and spins, and its gentle 
elegance, classical Chinese dance is one of the 
most rigorous and expressive art forms in the 
world.

 Shen Yun 2016 appears at the Valley 
Performing Arts Center in Northridge, April 
19-20; Microsoft Theater, April 23-24 and in 
Thousand Oaks, Pomona, Long Beach and Costa 
Mesa throughout March and April. Tickets begin 
at $60 and are available by calling 800-880-0188. 
More information is available at www.shenyun.
com.


Dressed in soft pink skirts and gossamer capes, Shen Yun dancers portray 
flower blossoms who transform into fluttering fairies that glide across the 
stage like petals adrift in the wind. 

Jeff’s History Corner By Jeff Brown

The Egyptians mummified millions of bodies 
during ancient times.Caves and tombs were 
so packed that many bodies were taken to the 
desert and buried in the sand.Animals were 
mummified by the millions in ancient Egypt to 
provide offerings for the gods and goddesses. 
Ibis and baboons were sacred to Thoth, raptors 
to Horus, and cats to the goddess Bastet. Cat 
mummies were particularly plentiful—so 
plentiful, in fact, that in the late 19th century, 
English companies bought them from Egypt for 
agricultural purposes. By one account, a single 
company purchased about 180,000 cat mummies 
weighing 19 tons, which were then pulverized into
fertilizer and spread on the fields of England. 
Millions of human mummies were used to fuel 
locomotives as well as used for fertilizer and 
firewood. Starting around the 16th century, 
a pigment called mummy brown, made from 
ground-up mummies, was a popular choice for 
European artists. In Europe in the 1600’s mummy 
power was also used to cure numerous ailments.
Eventually they discovered it caused numerous 
bodily problems.Some North American companies 
boughy 1000’s of mummies so as to use their linen 
wrapings to make wrapping paper.Trips to Egypt 
were so popular among the upper classes of the 
19th century that mummies were often displayed 
back home as souvenirs, usually in the drawing 
room or study, and occasionally even in bedrooms. 
Mummy hands, feet and heads were frequently 
displayed around the house, often in glass domes 
on mantelpieces. (The writer Gustave Flaubert 
was even known to keep a mummy’s foot on his 
desk.) Mummies were displayed at businesses, too:
One Chicago candy store reportedly attracted 
customers in 1886 by showing off a mummy said 
to be “Pharaoh’s daughter who discovered Moses 
in the bulrushes.” Very few have survived to be 
seen in Museums.


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com