Mountain Views News          Saturday, July 18, 2015

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENTMountain Views News Saturday, July 18, 2015 12 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENTMountain Views News Saturday, July 18, 2015 12 
SEAN’S SHAMELESS 
REVIEWS: 


By Sean Kayden 

MY DEAD AIR – “THE uses wavy snyths 
THIEF WHO KNOWS to lighten upMY NAME” -Dan Yellen’s deeplyBallard of My Dead Airpersonal lyrics. 
hibernated in a basement If this latest 


of an old approach is anybuilding off theindication of 
Pacific Coast what the 16-track 
Highway for “Ivywild” will 
nine months sound like, then 
to write and we’re in store 
record his for somethingnew album, tremendously“The Thief special and unique. “Me Liquor and God” isWho Knows effective on both the lyrical forefront as well as theMy Name” musical backdrop. Look for a huge, defining yearout on Augustfor Night Beds. “Ivywild” is out on August 7th. 
14th. The 
s o p h o m or eATLAS GENIUS – “INANIMATE OBJECTS” 


record, his first in four years, is a deep acoustic– In early 2013, The Australian band, whichcollection of 10 songs in which each track conveysfeatures brothers Keith and Michael Jeffery,
a different tale from his lifetime. The first songAtlas Genius exploded onto the scene with theBallard completed was “Holding On.” Ballard’sinfectiously catchy, “Trojans.” The song had muchwords are wistful alongside a breezy melody whileplay throughout the following year as well andshimmery details invite us to imagine a momentnow the band is back with their next intoxicatingin slow motion, or from different viewpoints,single, “Molecules.” Easily just as appealing, therewinding and unwinding the dream muddledindie-electronic summer jam, “Molecules” hasby other little delusions. Citing a definite 1970smajor hooks 
influence, “Holding On” feels like it’s gliding ongiving Atlas 
air. “A Part Of Me” is breathtakingly beautiful. It’sGenius a run 
one of those rare songs that will rattle your bonesfor having 
and stir your soul. While summer time is usuallythe hottest 
a time for poppy jams, “The Thief Who Knowssummer songMy Name” explores deeper themes and as youof 2015. I 
become older in life, these are the songs with moredon’t think 
substance that you can actually hold onto.the band has 

NIGHT BEDS – “IVYWILD” – Colorado native strayed too 
Winston Yellen performs under the moniker Nightfar off their 
Beds. His 2012 debut album, “Country Sleep” wass i g n a t u r ea powerful folk endeavor showcasing his muchsound, but 
talent as a both a singer and songwriter. It was athat’s a goodcolorful illustration of solitude and loneliness. The thing. “Inanimate Objects” will arrive on Augusthighly anticipated sophomore record from Night28th as being the proper follow-up to debut recordBeds is entitled “Ivywild.” The first single is, “Me“When It Was Now.” Hopefully, the rest of theLiquor and God.” It’s a brand new sonic directionnew album can match up with the pure ecstasy thefor the mid twenty-something year old. The song single is delivering on. 


On the Marquee: Notes from the Sierra MadrePlayhouse 
AN ACTING FAMILY

By Artistic Director, Christian Lebano 

Last night was another busy night for the 

Playhouse. We had final callbacks for 

Deathtrap at the same location in which 

Always…Patsy Cline is rehearsing. We 

had a wonderful response to our call for 

submissions from actors for this show. As 

you’ll see when Deathtrap opens on October 

2, it is a really fun show filled with all kinds of 

stuff that is appealing to the “playing make-

believe” aspect of acting – deaths, and guns, 

and scare-inducing moments, and great 

laughs. We have put together a wonderful 

cast for this show – with two SMP veteran 

actors returning to work with us again: Don 

Savage (who first worked at the Playhouse 

in 1984 and was most recently in To Kill a 

Mockingbird, Our Town, and Morning’s at 

Seven) will play the attorney, Porter, and 

Lynn Ann Leveridge (Our Town) will play

Helga, the psychic.

Once a show has been cast everything 

moves into a higher gear. For months now, 

I’ve been thinking about this play, imagining

how scenes would be played, planning the 

setting, the music, the effects I want to build, 

and now I have faces and personalities to 

add to the mix. Each of these very talented 

actors will bring with them their own ideas 

and together we will build our production of 

Deathtrap. It’s as if I get to cast the members of 

my family. We’ll start working on the play with a 

“Meet & Greet” on August 10 and then we’ll have 

eight weeks together before we open on October 

2. That’s two months of being in each other’s lives 
– sharing all the ups and downs of our lives while 
working on the lives of the characters in the play. 
Then after opening, the actors will be together 
another six weeks. It’s a commitment, and it does 
create a “family.”
That’s the funny thing about acting – you create 
this “family” and share a very intense experience 
for a few months and then it ends and you rarely 
see the actors you’ve become so close to again. 
When I was a young actor, I swore that I would 
stay in touch with each cast, but I quickly learned 
that rarely happens. Sometimes friendships are 
formed that go beyond the bounds of the run, but 
more often life intervenes, the next project starts, 
and a new “family” is formed. One of my earlier 
essays referred to the “ephemeral now” and that 
applies to many of the relationships you form in 
theater. In some ways that makes them sweeter 
and more special. 

It’s an odd calling, acting. 

While we were doing our final auditions, I 
could hear the singing coming from the rehearsal 
room down the hall. Cori Cable Kidder who is 
playing Patsy will knock your socks off. She has a 
remarkable voice and the work she has done with 
our Music Director, Sean Paxton, has made her 
sound so like Patsy Cline that it is a real treat to 
hear. What’s wonderful is that as much as she 
sounds like Patsy you still get Cori – our Director, 
Robert Marra has been so clear that he didn’t want 
a carbon copy, that he wanted Cori to bring her 
sensibilities to the role as well. I’m so very excited 
about this production. Tickets are selling well – 
don’t miss out, buy yours now! The show opens 
July 31. Remember we give 20% discounts for 
groups of 10 or more who purchase their tickets 
ahead of their attendance date. Please call MaryBaville at 626.355.4318 to arrange your purchase. 


Jeff’s Book Picks By Jeff Brown 

DRY BONES IN THE VALLEY: A NOVEL 

by Tom Bouman 

Winner of the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize 
for Mystery/Thriller and Winner of the 2015 Edgar 
Award for Best First Novel. When an elderly recluse 
discovers a corpse on his land, Officer Henry Farrell 
is drawn into a murder investigation that might tear 
his sleepy community apart. Tom Bouman’s chilling 
and evocative debut introduces one of the most 
memorable new characters in detective fiction and 
uncovers a haunting section of rural Pennsylvania, 
where gas drilling is bringing new wealth and eroding 
neighborly trust. 

THE BILLION DOLLAR SPY: A TRUE STORY OF 
COLD WAR ESPIONAGE AND BETRAYAL 

by David E. Hoffman

 From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winninghistory The Dead Hand comes the riveting story of 
a spy who cracked open the Soviet military research 
establishment and a penetrating portrait of the CIA’s 
Moscow station, an outpost of daring espionage in 
the last years of the Cold War. While driving out of 
the American embassy in Moscow on the evening 
of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA’s Moscow 
station heard a knock on his car window. A man on 
the curb handed him an envelope whose contents 
stunned U.S. intelligence: details of top-secret Soviet 
research and developments in military technology 
that were totally unknown to the United States. In 
the years that followed, the man, Adolf Tolkachev, 
an engineer in a Soviet military design bureau, used 
his high-level access to hand over tens of thousands 
of pages of technical secrets. His revelations allowed 
America to reshape its weapons systems to defeat 
Soviet radar on the ground and in the air, giving 
the United States near total superiority in the 
skies over Europe. Tolkachev was one of the most 
valuable spies to work for the United States in the 
four decades of global confrontation with the Soviet 
Union. The CIA had long struggled to recruit and 
run agents in Moscow, and Tolkachev was a singular 
breakthrough. Using spy cameras and secret codes as 
well as face-to-face meetings in parks and on street 
corners, Tolkachev and his handlers succeeded for 
years in eluding the feared KGB in its own backyard, 
until the day came when a shocking betrayal put 
them all at risk. Drawing on previously secret 
documents obtained from the CIA and on interviews 
with participants, David Hoffman has created an 
unprecedented and poignant portrait of Tolkachev, a 

man motivated by the depredations of the Soviet state 
to master the craft of spying against his own country. 

THE BEST TEAM MONEY CAN BUY: THE LOS 
ANGELES DODGERS’ WILD STRUGGLE TO 
BUILD A BASEBALL POWERHOUSE 

by Molly Knight 

News-making, inside revelations about the 
tumultuous years 
when the Los Angeles 
Dodgers were 
remade from top to 
bottom—from the 
ownership of the 
team to management 
to the players on the 
field—becoming the 
most talked-about 
and most colorful 
team in baseball. In 
2012 the Los Angeles 
Dodgers were bought 
out of bankruptcy in 
the most expensivesale in sports history. 
Los Angeles icon 
Magic Johnson and 
his partners hoped to put together a team worthy 
of Hollywood: consistently entertaining. By most 
accounts they have succeeded, if not always in the 
way they might have imagined. Now Molly Knight 
tells the story of the Dodgers’ 2013 and 2014 seasons 
with detailed, previously unreported revelations. Sheshares a behind-the-scenes account of the astonishing 
sale of the Dodgers, and why the team was not 
overpriced, as well as what the Dodgers actually knew 
in advance about rookie phenom and Cuban defector 
Yasiel Puig and how they and teammates handled him 
during his first two roller-coaster seasons. We learn 
how close manager Don Mattingly was to losing his 
job during the 2013 season—and how the team turned 
around the season in the most remarkable fifty-game 
stretch (42-8) of any team since World War II. Knight 
also provides a rare glimpse into the infighting and 
mistrust that derailed the team in 2014, and resulted 
in ridding the roster of difficult personalities and the 
hiring of a new front office. Knight also reveals new 
facts behind the blockbuster trade with the Red Sox. 
She paints an intimate portrait of star pitcher Clayton 
Kershaw, probably the best pitcher in the game today. 


ROTARY OF SIERRA MADRE PRESENTS 
Harry Shahoian as Elvis 
Sunday, August 2, 2015 from 6-8 pm 
Sierra Madre Bandstand 
Rounds Premium Burger Truck 
Ice Cream Princess 
Serving from 5pm 
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