Author: A Good Reed Review

Book Review: ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ adds a thrilling eighth chapter to the series

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cursed-child-dust-jacket-edBy Ande Jacobson

J.K. Rowling discovered gold when her first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (renamed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone outside of the U.K.), hit the presses in 1997. Intended as the first installment of a seven-part children’s book series, it fortuitously (though unexpectedly) appealed to readers of all ages. Rowling released the subsequent books over the next decade with the final installment reaching the shelves in July 2007 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The reception was phenomenal. Not only did readers clamber for each new book, the movie industry embraced the stories and released blockbuster adaptations of each one, the last taking two films to fully explore.

In 2015, a new story synopsis in the Harry Potter oeuvre surfaced. The story was written by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne, and Thorne went on to put this story into the form of a play. The full rehearsal script of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was released on 31 July 2016, one day after the maiden voyage of the play opened in London. This review discusses only the script as a book, not as commentary on any performance of the material. Continue reading →

Book Review: ‘The Hidden Brain’ – how much do we really know about what we think?

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By Ande Jacobson

The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives was published in 2010, but it has retained its relevancy in these increasingly tumultuous times. Written by Shankar Vedantam, the book sheds some needed light on the increasingly complex situations being observed in society today by drawing on research efforts in human behavior and the social sciences to explain numerous seemingly conflicting phenomena. As an added bonus, the book’s notes section provides a comprehensive reference list to the studies cited. Continue reading →

Book Review: ‘Einstein’s Beach House’ takes a sharp, yet witty view of life

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einsteins-beach-house-coverBy Ande Jacobson

Jacob M. Appel is an interesting author. He’s passionate about his writing while also pursuing parallel careers in medicine and the law. In the writing realm, he’s not only published numerous short story collections, novels, journal articles, and essays in the press, he gives back in the form of writing webinars and seminars to help aspiring authors hone their craft. While he’s written all manner of forms, the short story is one of his favorites, and his short story collection entitled Einstein’s Beach House doesn’t disappoint. Drawing from his vast education, professional experience, and vivid imagination, he expertly weaves stories that grab the reader’s interest at the outset, and rarely slow down. Continue reading →

The Pear’s “Uncanny Valley” touches the heart of the Silicon Valley

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uncanny-valley-2By Ande Jacobson

The Pear takes a stunning leap into the world of science fiction with Thomas Gibbons’ play, Uncanny Valley. What constitutes sentience, and more than that, what makes a person a person? Taking a further leap, can we conceive of a time when a robot could be considered a person? The world of science fiction has explored this in myriad ways over the years. In the mid-20th century, Isaac Asimov set forth the Three Laws of Robotics in his short story Runaround (one of the stories in the I Robot collection) which stated:

  • A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  • A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  • A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Continue reading →

Two festive holiday concerts not to miss in 2016

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2014-vallcoBy Ande Jacobson

Now that it’s December, it’s time to embrace the plethora of musical celebrations covering the area. While there are numerous concerts and stage productions to choose from, there are two in the South Bay that are not to be missed. Not only are they guaranteed fun for the entire family; they are free! Continue reading →

Take a trip to Oz with PYT

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facebook_cover_image_wozBy Ande Jacobson

It might feel like we’ve been pushed Through the Looking Glass lately, but rather than fretting over what might be, join Peninsula Youth Theatre at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts for a fun-filled trip to Oz. PYT’s production of The Wizard of Oz opens this Saturday and runs through 20 November in a delightfully fanciful journey with all your favorite characters. Join Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, Glinda, the Wicked Witch, the Munchkins, the Winkies, and the Wizard himself in a stage production that has everything the movie had and more. Continue reading →

Spend a “Weill” with the Redwood Symphony on Saturday night

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mahog1By Ande Jacobson

The Redwood Symphony is opening its 2016-2017 season by going into new musical territory (for this orchestra anyway). Saturday night’s season opener will be a partially staged, fully orchestrated performance of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s satirical, political operatic assault – Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Mahagonny was first presented in its entirety in 1930, though a smaller concert work featuring a subset of the songs debuted a few years before. The full work, which will be sung in English, lampoons both opera and politics, the latter being particularly relevant today. Maestro Kujawsky had the privilege of playing in the orchestra for a production of this opera while in graduate school and has looked forward to someday conducting it himself. He carefully selected this program slot as the perfect time to realize his dream. Continue reading →

Mystery, murder, mayhem, and magic abound in SBMT’s “City of Angels”

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sbmt-coa-program-1By Ande Jacobson

Who doesn’t love a tangled murder mystery? SBMT has one in City of Angels, complete with a full orchestra highlighting all the twists and turns in the story of a 1940s detective novel being transformed into a Golden Age Hollywood movie. This show (with book by Larry Gelbart, music by Cy Coleman, and lyrics by David Zippel) captures the film noir feel of the period, embellishes it with witty dialogue and a classy jazz score, and neatly packages it into an evening of exquisite theatre. Continue reading →

Freedom goes both ways

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veils-1By Ande Jacobson

The Pear’s 100th production is a repertory rotation of two politically charged plays, The Guys, by Anne Nelson (reviewed on A Good Reed Review here), and Veils, by Tom Coash, which is the subject of this review. Veils follows two female Muslim students at American Egyptian University (modeled after American University in Cairo) – an American named Intisar (Amani Dorn), and an Egyptian named Samar (Naseem Etemad). Coash has taught playwriting at numerous universities including the American University in Cairo. Drawing from his experience there, he’s compressed several events from the Arab Spring into this story about these two women. Continue reading →

Ripples that touch us all

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the-guys-2By Ande Jacobson

September 11, 2001. That’s a date that generally evokes a shudder from many both here and abroad. Many Americans remember with extreme clarity where they were when they heard about the attacks, and at the time felt powerless to do anything other than watch or listen in horror as the tragic events unfolded, hoping that it was all a bad dream. The Pear presents Anne Nelson’s play, The Guys, in a run that includes the 15th anniversary of 9/11. Nelson wrote the piece in only nine days during the fall of 2001, describing a very personal account of two people who would have otherwise never met but for the tragic events that threw them together. Continue reading →