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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Mountain Views-News Saturday, April 16, 2016
Jeff’s Book Pics By Jeff Brown
The Game Is Playing Your Kid: How to Unplug
and Reconnect in the Digital Age by Dr. Joe Dilley
As technology advances and digital devices infiltrate
our homes, it is important to monitor how our kids
are using these items. But how can you decrease
your kids’ overreliance on technology without
stifling their freedom or making
them “outsiders” amongst their
peers? It can seem that there is
no satisfactory solution to this
dilemma, but do not despair--the
assistance you need is here! Dr.
Joe Dilley shares his profoundly
effective three-step process that
will facilitate your kids’ transition
away from overuse of technology
and toward more responsible and
mindful use, so they unplug from
devices and reconnect with your
family in organic, lasting ways.
When Breath Becomes
Air by Paul Kalanithi
When Breath Becomes Air is
an unforgettable, life-affirming
reflection on the challenge of facing
death and on the relationship
between doctor and patient, from
a brilliant writer who became
both.At the age of thirty-six,
on the verge of completing a
decade’s worth of training as a
neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi
was diagnosed with stage IV lung
cancer. One day he was a doctor
treating the dying, and the next
he was a patient struggling to live.
And just like that, the future he and
his wife had imagined evaporated.
The book chronicles Kalanithi’s
transformation from a naïve
medical student “possessed,”
as he wrote, “by the question of
what, given that all organisms die,
makes a virtuous and meaningful
life” into a neurosurgeon at
Stanford working in the brain,
and finally into a patient and
new father confronting his
own mortality.What makes
life worth living in the face of
death? What do you do when the future, no longer
a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a
perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child,
to nurture a new life as another fades away? These
are some of the questions he wrestles with in this
profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working
on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and
a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face
to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had
changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven
words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my
head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’”
The Other Side of Silence
(A Bernie Gunther
Novel) by Philip Kerr
This is the 11th novel in the
wonderful Bernie Gunther
series. I’d been a good detective
in Kripo, but that was a while
ago, before the criminals wore
smart gray uniforms and
nearly everyone locked up was
innocent.” Being a Berlin cop
in 1942 was a little like putting
down mousetraps in a cage full
of tigers.The war is over. Bernie
Gunther, our sardonic former
Berlin homicide detective and
unwilling SS officer, is now living
on the French Riviera. It is 1956
and Bernie is the go-to guy at
the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat,
the man you turn to for touring
tips or if you need a fourth for
bridge. As it happens, a local
writer needs just that, someone
to fill the fourth seat in a regular
game that is the usual evening
diversion at the Villa Mauresque.
Not just any writer. Perhaps the
richest and most famous living
writer in the world: W. Somerset
Maugham. And it turns out it
is not just a bridge partner that
he needs; it’s some professional
advice. Maugham is being
blackmailed—perhaps because
of his unorthodox lifestyle. Or
perhaps because of something
in his past, because once upon a
time, Maugham worked for the
British secret service, and the
people now blackmailing him
are spies.As Gunther fans know,
all roads lead back to the viper’s
nest that was Hitler’s Third Reich and to the killing
fields that spread like a disease across Europe. Even
in 1956, peace has not come to the continent: now
the Soviets have the H-bomb and spies from every
major power feel free to make all of Europe their
personal playground.
Jeff’s History Corner By Jeff Brown
BEN FRANKLIN DEVELOPED A LIST OF 13 VIRTUES
THAT HE LIVED HIS LIFE BY.
Benjamin Franklin came up with a list of 13 main
virtues that he felt every person should strive to
live their life by. As such, he himself attempted
to always live by this code and developed charts
with which he charted his progress from day
to day, to make sure that he was constantly
improving towards this end.He would start
with one of the virtues and plot his progress
on the chart until he mastered that virtue;
then moving on to the next; and so on until he
mastered them all. He ordered them specifically
as shown below, as some of them naturally lend
towards others. Thus by sticking to this order,
he felt it made it easier to achieve the whole.
This code is as follows:
1.Temperance: Eat not to Dullness, drink not to
elevation
2.Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others
or yourself. Avoid trifling Conversation
3.Order: Let all your Things have their Places. Let
each Part of your Business have its Time
4.Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought.
Perform without fail what you resolve.
5.Frugality: Make no Expense but to do good to
others or yourself: i.e. Waste Nothing
6.Industry: Lose no Time. Be always employ’d in
something useful. Cut off all unnecessary Actions
7.Sincerity: Use no hurtful Deceit. Think
innocently and justly; and, if you speak; speak
accordingly.
8.Justice: Wrong none, by doing Injuries or
omitting the Benefits that are your Duty.
9.Moderation: Avoid Extremes. Forbear resenting
Injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10.Cleanliness: Tolerate no Uncleanness in
Body, Clothes, or Habitation
11.Tranquility: Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at
Accidents common or unavoidable.
12.Chastity: Rarely use Venery but for Health
or Offspring; Never to Dullness, Weakness, or
the Injury of your own or another’s Peace or
Reputation.
13.Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
On the Marquee: Notes from the Sierra Madre Playhouse
A NEW OPTION AT SMP
By Artistic Director, Christian Lebano
I am so excited to announce a new option for our
patrons and PASSport holders. Starting with The
Glass Menagerie you will now be able to reserve the
exact seat you prefer before you arrive at the theater.
Now you don’t have to arrive early to get in line so
that you get the seat you want. Standing at the door
to our theater, I’ve been asked by so many of you
why we don’t reserve seats, well from now on we
will! Here’s how it works:
Anyone who prepays for their ticket through our
ticketing agent Vendini will be able to reserve the
seat they want for an additional $3.00 a ticket. This
is only available on-line at this point and is NOT
available by calling Mary or at the box office window
day of performances. There will be a graphic on-line
of our seating plan and you will be able to choose the
specific seat(s) you want for that performance. We
will print out the list and your seat will be marked
with your name on it by the ushers before every
performance. You can linger over that second glass
of wine or order dessert knowing that your seat is
waiting for you at the Playhouse. By the way, the
newly re-opened Zugo’s restaurant across the street
from the Playhouse, will be offering a date night
promotion of $98 that includes a pair of tickets and
a 3 course meal (watch for their promotion).
For our PASSport patrons this will be a new
benefit when buying the pass. You will be able to
reserve your seats when you buy your PASSport
and those seats (or ones close by) will be reserved
for you every time you come to the theater AT NO
ADDITIONAL CHARGE! This is a great benefit
for being a PASSport holder. Unfortunately, this
is a go-forward change. Any current PASSport
holders will get the benefit when they renew their
PASSports. BUT we will make a change for current
holders beginning with The Glass Menagerie –
from this show forward, PASSport holders can go
through the Will Call line rather than wait in the
box office line. This should get you into the theater
much more quickly than we’ve been able to lately as
our patronage has increased.
I hope these enhancements to our ticketing
will add to your enjoyment of seeing shows at the
Playhouse. We have a great season lined up for
you next year – look for an announcement of our
2016-17 season soon.
* * *
The Glass Menagerie is already selling well. It’s
going to be a lovely show. I can’t wait to share what
we’ve been doing in rehearsals. I hope to see you
there – AND in your favorite seat! Please visit our
website at or call Mary at 626.355.4318 to purchase
tickets.
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