All posts by She Seeks Serene

My Journey of Reimagining Life, Love and Education

Artist Profiles: Film Director Mike Nichols (1931-2014) Profiled In New Book (NY Times Podcast)

Mike Nichols Life Isn't Everything Ash Carter and Sam KashnerMike Nichols, who died in 2014, was a film and stage director of genius, and he wasted no time in showing it. The first two films he directed were “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Graduate.” In the new oral history “Life Isn’t Everything,” Ash Carter and Sam Kashner draw on 150 respondents to tell the story of his incredible career.

The New York Times Book Review

Website: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/06/books/review/podcast-life-isnt-everything-mike-nichols-still-here-elaine-stritch-alexandra-jacobs.html

Classic Car Nostalgia: “1968 Triumph TR6” – 1st Year (Classic Driver)

From a Classic Driver online listing:

1968 Triumph TR6 Classic Driver

Offered as an affordable, six-cylinder sports car, the first Triumph TR6 rolled off the production line in 1968 as a 1969 model. It’s intended target was to rival similar sports cars at the time, and although most were designed with sleek, curved lines, the TR6 was squared off at both ends, making it stand out from it’s competitors. With just a seven year production span, the TR6 grew to become a true British classic.

The Triumph TR6 was offered as a convertible only, with a factory steel hard top available optionally.

Triumph produced a range of TR models, from the TR1 right up to a limited run of the TR8, but it was the sixth car in the range that really stood out from a sales point of view. The TR5 enjoyed a very brief thirteen-month period of manufacture between 1967 and 1968. Less than 3,000 units were produced before the TR6 came in to improve on many of the specifications. Unlike its predecessors, the Triumph TR6 was more reliable mechanically, which means that there are many original models still on our roads.

Website: https://www.classicdriver.com/en/car/triumph/tr6/1968/723270

Healthcare Studies: High Level Of Depression Symptoms In Physicians Linked To Medical Errors

From a JAMA Network online release:

JAMAThis systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 studies involving 21 517 physicians demonstrated an association between physician depressive symptoms and an increased risk for perceived medical errors (RR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.63-2.33). We also found that the magnitude of the associations of physician depressive symptoms and perceived medical errors were relatively consistent across studies that assessed training and practicing physicians, providing additional evidence that physician depression has implications for the quality of care delivered by physicians at different career stages.

Medical errors are a major source of patient harm. Studies estimate that, in the United States, as many as 98 000 to 251 000 hospitalized patients die each year as result of a preventable adverse event.14 In addition, medical errors are a major source of morbidity5 and account for billions of dollars in financial losses to health care systems every year.69

Depressive symptoms are highly prevalent among physicians,10,11 and several studies have investigated the associations between physician depressive symptoms and medical errors.1216 Although most studies on physician depressive symptoms and medical errors have identified a substantial association, their results are not unanimous, and questions regarding the direction of these associations remain open in recent literature.17

To read more: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2755851?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=112719

Genetic Engineering: Harvard Scientist George Church Seeks To “Reverse Aging” (60 Minutes Video)

Our lives have been transformed by the information age. But what’s coming next is likely to be more profound, call it the genetic information age. We have mapped the human genome and in just the last few years we have learned to read and write DNA like software. And you’re about to see a few breakthroughs-in-waiting that would transform human health. For a preview of this revolution in evolution we met George Church, a world leading geneticist, whose own DNA harbors many eccentricities and a few genes for genius.

Website: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvard-geneticist-george-church-goal-to-protect-humans-from-viruses-genetic-diseases-and-aging-60-minutes-2019-12-08/

 

Top New Travel Videos: “Ladakh – Land Of The High Passes” (Indian Himalayas)

VINTAGE RIDES PRESENTS – A FILM BY NEOMORAL

PRODUCED BY: Josh Goraya & Jennifer Fontaine

EDITOR, COLORIST: Amit Mondal

SOUND DESIGN: Neomoral

Ladakh - Land Of The High Passes Travel Video by Neomoral 2019

The Himalayan terrain, beside the Great Indus, is infamous for its harsh and cold weather; oftentimes its landscapes are even unreachable to the common people. It’s a wonder really, what exactly transpires to make this place so fascinating.

Ladakh – The ‘Land of the High Passes’ – is among the most stunning parts of the Indian Himalayas. Widely known as the cold desert, it holds within itself beauty that is pristine and glorious. Stretching from peak to peak, it is an exquisite canvas of surreal art done with celestial strokes of red, ochre and purple rocks, made over thousands of years into shapes so unexpected and so phenomenal, the eye can hardly believe.

An icon of heavenly beauty, the scenery makes people either speechless or wholly expressive. Everyone gets stunned and nobody can remain indifferent.

Ladakh induces in all, a permanent high. A rush so unhinged, you struggle to find the adjectives to talk of the imprint it leaves on you.

Website: WWW.NEOMORAL.COM

Aging: 78-Year Old Author Paul Theroux Traveled To Mexico To “Feel Young”

From a BBC Travel online article:

Paul TherouxI think of myself in the Mexican way, not as an old man but as most Mexicans regard a senior, an hombre de juicio, a man of judgment; not ruco, worn out, beneath notice, someone to be patronised, but owed the respect traditionally accorded to an elder, someone (in the Mexican euphemism) of La Tercera Edad, the Third Age, who might be called Don Pablo or tío (uncle) in deference. Mexican youths are required by custom to surrender their seat to anyone older. They know the saying: Más sabe el diablo por viejo, que por diablo – The devil is wise because he’s old, not because he’s the devil.Paul Theroux's On The Plain of Snakes A Mexican Journey

But “Stand aside, old man, and make way for the young” is the American way.

I was that old gringo. I was driving south in my own car in Mexican sunshine along the straight sloping road through the thinly populated valleys of the Sierra Madre Oriental – the whole craggy spine of Mexico is mountainous. Valleys, spacious and austere, were forested with thousands of single yucca trees, the so-called dragon yucca (Yucca filifera) that Mexicans call palma china. I pulled off the road to look closely at them and wrote in my notebook: I cannot explain why, on the empty miles of these roads, I feel young.

To read more: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20191203-is-travel-the-secret-to-a-long-life

Top 2019 Restaurants: “Konbi” In Los Angeles .(Bon Appétit Magazine)

From a Bon Appétit online article:

Bon Appetit Restaurant of the Year Konbi Los Angeles…Nick Montgomery, who opened Konbi with Akira Akuto; both are alums of David Chang’s Momofuku restaurants in New York. American chefs talk about opening “odes” to little spots they stumbled upon in Tokyo, and while this 10-seat space is indeed Montgomery and Akuto’s ode to Japan’s konbini (24-hour convenience stores), there is a palpable intensity to their level of study that makes Konbi entirely its own.

Konbi Menu

Konbi is a daytime restaurant in Echo Park. We serve Japanese style sandwiches, seasonal vegetable dishes, French pastries, as well as a selection of coffee & tea.

Website: https://konbila.com/

To read more: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/hot-10-best-new-restaurants-2019

 

Top New Exhibits: F-117 NIGHTHAWK STEALTH FIGHTER At The Ronald Reagan Library & Museum

…the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute announced its “Operation Nighthawk Landing” project – a Reagan Foundation & Institute and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works® joint effort that will soon bring an F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter to the Reagan Museum for permanent exhibition. Made possible by loan from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, the F-117 placed on display will serve as a visible reminder to the Library’s near half-million annual visitors of President Reagan’s commitment to the rebuilding of the U.S. military through his “Peace through Strength” program. The F-117 Nighthawk, Tail #803, nicknamed “Unexpected Guest,” flew more combat sorties (78) than all other F-117s combined. The aircraft entered service in May 1984, during President Reagan’s administration.

“The Reagan Library will now be one of two places in the nation where the general public can visit an F-117 Stealth Fighter on permanent display,” said John Heubusch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. “We are deeply grateful to Lockheed Martin for their outstanding assistance in restoring the aircraft for such a meaningful display and to the U.S. Air Force for making it possible for the Reagan Library to exhibit the plane for millions of visitors to enjoy for years to come.”

The F-117 Nighthawk was the world’s first operational stealth aircraft. Between 1981 and 2008, Lockheed Martin produced 59 operational F-117s and five developmental prototypes, but the aircraft weren’t publicly acknowledged until 1988.  Known as “stealth fighters,” the F-117’s angular shape was designed to reflect radar waves and was bolstered by the use of a radar-absorbing material. Because the aircraft was only expected to operate at night, it was painted black to make it more difficult to discern against the night sky.

Website: https://www.reaganfoundation.org/library-museum/permanent-exhibitions/f-117-nighthawk-stealth-fighter/

Top Interview Podcasts: Actress Jamie Lee Curtis Talks About Her Films And Career (New Yorker)

Jamie Lee Curtis comes from Hollywood royalty as the daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. She credits her mother’s role in “Psycho” for helping her land her first feature role, as the lead in “Halloween,” in 1978. “I’m never going to pretend I got that all on my own,” she tells The New Yorker’s Rachel Syme. But Curtis says she never intended to act, and never saw herself as a star: “I was not pretty,” she explains; “I was ‘cute.’ ”

Eventually, the pressure she felt to conform in order to keep working led to a surgical procedure, which led to an opiate addiction. Curtis talks with Syme about recovery, second chances, and more than forty years of films between “Halloween” and Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out.” Plus, the chef at one of Los Angeles’s best restaurants on how to build a woman-friendly kitchen.

To read more: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/tnyradiohour/articles/jamie-lee-curtis-original-scream-queen-podcast

Music Criticism Podcasts: “The Music And Morality Of Beethoven’s Mighty Ninth” (Marin Alsop, NPR)

Marin Alsop ConductorEver since Beethoven‘s iconic Ninth Symphony premiered May 7, 1824 at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna, it has remained arguably the most popular composition in the classical music canon, thanks largely to its final movement, the “Ode to Joy,” with a text by poet Friedrich Schiller.

But Beethoven’s music has become something much more than popular. With its expansive length, mold-busting design, and the inclusion of solo singers and chorus, he was proposing nothing less than a philosophy for humanity.

Beethoven, the composer-philosopher, was a man who suffered more than we can imagine and yet he retained optimism and a sense of hope that we can admire and even envy. He believed wholeheartedly in the goodness of humanity, the power of love, joy, unity, tolerance and peace to overcome and endure.

Website: https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2019/12/07/785098204/the-music-and-morality-of-beethovens-mighty-ninth?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr