Tag Archives: Reviews

New Travel Books: “Uzbekistan – The Road to Samarkand” (Assouline)

January 30, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

At the heart of Central Asia lies a land where colossal mountains and sweeping valleys sleep under a blanket of lush greenery. Crowned with golden palaces and wondrous monuments, the architectural landscape of the region is so rich with detail, the structures have been said to mirror the heavens themselves.

One of the few destinations on Earth where imagination aligns with reality, Uzbekistan flourishes with unparalleled scenery and unforgotten traditions. The towns and cities are like ‘open museums’, each edifice offering a unique and intricate aesthetic, each a testament to diverse cultural influences and diverse periods of history. Nature and architecture have a unique relationship, seemingly inspired by each other, as if they were trying to to outdo each other with their beauty. Discover the beautiful colors, textures and flavors of this incredible culture and journey through the cities of the Silk Road and the lands of Alexander The Great with stunning original photography by Laziz Hamani.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

For over 40 years, Yaffa Assouline has captured the luxury and publishing industry as a journalist, consultant and creative art director. She specializes in innovative and made-to measure publishing. Uzbekistan was inspired by Yaffa’s desire to introduce the world to a country unknown to most: an exotic land filled with immense beauty unseen to most eyes. For more than a year, Yaffa embarked on a journey where she captured the essence of the country, from east to west, north to south, filled with unforgettable encounters along the way. It was a vast undertaking—given a place with such a rich culture, long diverse history and all this beauty to offer—to give a taste of the flavor of the country. The book is an invitation to voyage, to discover more and to see what could only be fully appreciated with one’s own eyes.

Photographer Laziz Hamani, is long-time friend of Yaffa Assouline. With his talent and eye for intimate details, he was the only person who was suited to be Yaffa’s partner – a visual scribe in this adventure. Of Berber origin, he was born and lives in Paris. He is passionate about creating beautiful images, his life defined by a constant search for aesthetics and meaning. He has worked with many prestigious luxury brands, such as Dior, Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre and with designer Axel Vervoordt; and he has collaborated with Assouline Publishing on more than twenty titles.

To read more or purchase book

Aging, Books, Reviews

Excerpts: Chip Walter On The “Search For The Aging Cure” (“Immortality, Inc.”)

January 28, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a LitHub online article by Chip Walter, 69:

And what if older neurons were replaced wholesale with new stem cells? They might scramble different sectors of the brain by destroying the new connections between the originals. Fiddle with those, and who knew what mayhem might follow? Memories, learning, and other cerebral functions that the brain had grown accustomed to might simply vanish. On the other hand, in the case of a disease like Alzheimer’s, maybe new memories would be better than no memories at all.

Robert Hariri’s views on human health began to take an unusual turn a little more than 25 years ago, when he was working as a neurosurgeon and trauma doctor at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Day after day, he watched patients come into the emergency room with severe brain injuries, and it was a painful thing to witness.

He never forgot the case of a woman who had arrived after a senseless automobile accident. She was young, and the injury was bad. Every time he spoke with the family, the big questions they asked were: “How will she be? Will she come back? Could she be a mother to her children again?” It broke his heart.

William J. (Chip) Walter Jr. (born May 23, 1951) is an author, journalist, National Geographic Fellow, educator, filmmaker and former CNN bureau chief. He has written five mainstream science books between 1991 and 2019. Walter was one of the original employees at Cable News Network when it went on the air June 1, 1980 and later became its youngest bureau chief when he created CNN’s first Southeast Bureau in 1981 before heading up the network’s San Francisco Bureau in 1982. He has written and produced several PBS science documentaries, served as an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University in three different departments, worked with UNICEF on the issue of childhood trauma, spoken at Harvard, Xerox PARC, Carnegie Mellon University and the Chautauqua Institution. One of his three original screenplays was produced and released under the title Sunset Grill in 1993 starring Peter Weller, Lori Singer and Stacy Keach. In 2015 his feature story for National Geographic Magazine explored the origins of human art and symbolic thinking.

From Wikipedia

Leisure, Podcasts, Reviews, Travel

Destination Hotels: “Janeiro” On The Sand In Trendy “Leblon” Section Of Rio (Podcast Review)

Audio January 28, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

We head to Rio to explore the new Janeiro Hotel in the district of Leblon. Run by the owner of Brazilian fashion label Osklen, this home away from home in an old seafront building stays faithful to the brand with its chic tropical touches.

Upscale Leblon is known for its beach, one of the city’s trendiest, most tranquil stretches of sand. Inland, leafy streets have restaurants ranging from cozy French bistros to lively steakhouses, plus mellow bars for beers and caipirinhas. Shopping options include designer fashion boutiques and Shopping Leblon, a modern mall. Teatro do Leblon is a grassroots venue with a packed, eclectic program.

Hotel Website

Podcast website

Arts & Literature, Podcasts, Reviews, Theater

Great Plays: Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” Explores Aging & Disappointment (London Theater Review)

Audio January 28, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Theatre critics Matt Wolf and Lyn Gardner join Robert Bound to give their verdict on the new production of Chekhov’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ at the Harold Pinter Theatre, starring Toby Jones and Ciarán Hinds.

Uncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1898 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski.

The play portrays the visit of an elderly professor and his glamorous, much younger second wife, Yelena, to the rural estate that supports their urban lifestyle. Two friends—Vanya, brother of the professor’s late first wife, who has long managed the estate, and Astrov, the local doctor—both fall under Yelena’s spell, while bemoaning the ennui of their provincial existence. Sonya, the professor’s daughter by his first wife, who has worked with Vanya to keep the estate going, suffers from her unrequited feelings for Dr. Astrov. Matters are brought to a crisis when the professor announces his intention to sell the estate, Vanya and Sonya’s home, with a view to investing the proceeds to achieve a higher income for himself and his wife.

From Wikipedia

Health, Podcasts, Reviews

Healthcare Podcasts: “Cityblock” Seeks To Keep People Out Of Hospital

Audio January 28, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

This week on Prognosis, we look at one startup that’s trying to redesign care for some of the most vulnerable patients, taking into account the complex realities of their lives. The company is trying to improve care for people and communities the medical system often fails – and it believes that fixing those failures will not only make people healthier, it will also save money.

In America, poverty is linked to shorter lifespans. The wealthiest 1% of Americans live more than a decade longer than the poorest 1%, and the longevity gap has expanded in recent years. The medical community is increasingly examining the role that poverty and difficult social circumstances play in illness. Some people are asking whether the health care system could do more to address the things that influence people’s health beyond their medical care.

Website

Books, Reviews, Videos

New Books: “Mathematics For Human Flourishing” By Francis Su (Jan 2020)

January 28, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

“Human flourishing refers to a wholeness — of being and doing, of realizing one’s potential and helping others do the same, of acting with honor and treating others with dignity, of living with integrity even in challenging circumstances. It is not the same as happiness, and it is not just a state of mind. The well-lived life is a life of human flourishing.”

An inclusive vision of mathematics—its beauty, its humanity, and its power to build virtues that help us all flourish

For mathematician Francis Su, a society without mathematical affection is like a city without concerts, parks, or museums. To miss out on mathematics is to live without experiencing some of humanity’s most beautiful ideas.

In this profound book, written for a wide audience but especially for those disenchanted by their past experiences, an award‑winning mathematician and educator weaves parables, puzzles, and personal reflections to show how mathematics meets basic human desires—such as for play, beauty, freedom, justice, and love—and cultivates virtues essential for human flourishing. These desires and virtues, and the stories told here, reveal how mathematics is intimately tied to being human. Some lessons emerge from those who have struggled, including philosopher Simone Weil, whose own mathematical contributions were overshadowed by her brother’s, and Christopher Jackson, who discovered mathematics as an inmate in a federal prison. Christopher’s letters to the author appear throughout the book and show how this intellectual pursuit can—and must—be open to all.

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Art, Arts & Literature, History, Reviews, Videos

Art Review: “The Floor Planers” By Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte (1875) (Musée d’Orsay Video)

Video January 28, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

For her performances in over sixty films and forty theatrical productions, Ariane Ascaride has notably been awarded the César for best actress in Marius and Jeannette (1998) and the Coppa Volpi for lead actress at the Venice mostra for Gloria Mundi (2019), two films directed by Robert Guédiguian. She is also a director and a screenwriter.

Les raboteurs de parquet (English title: The Floor Scrapers) is an oil painting by French Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte. The canvas measures 102 by 146.5 centimetres (40.2 in × 57.7 in). It was originally given by Caillebotte’s family in 1894 to the Musée du Luxembourg, then transferred to the Musée du Louvre in 1929. In 1947, it was moved to the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, and in 1986, it was transferred again to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, where it is currently displayed.

Musée d’Orsay website

Health, Reviews, Sleep, Sleep Health

Sleep Health: “The Neurology And Psychology Of Insomnia”

January 27, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a Psychology Today online article:

For those with insomnia, however, the stressor appears to be the lack of sleep, and the desire for sleep becomes a stressor in itself. In other words, the fixation on getting sleep leads to feelings of stress over not falling asleep, which begins a vicious loop. According to a model first proposed by Kales et al. in 1976, patients can develop a conditioned fear of not being able to sleep, which puts them in a state of hyperarousal when they attempt to fall asleep. This makes their inability to sleep a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Insomnia is the most common sleep condition in the world, with half of adults globally reporting occasional episodes. Chronic insomnia, though far less prevalent, affects as many as 10 to 15 percent of the adult population.

Though these sleep problems are extremely common, the neurobiological mechanisms behind insomnia are not entirely understood. Research suggests that emotional stressors do play an outsized role in contributing to sleep problems, and it is well documented that mood and anxiety disorders are common comorbidities with insomnia. This seems like common sense. Emotional arousal, whether due to a state of anxiety or because of intrusive thoughts, makes it difficult to relax, thereby inhibiting one’s ability to either initiate sleep or get back to sleep after waking.

Exhibitions: “Envisioning 2001: Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey” (MOMI NYC)

January 24, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a New York Times online review:

“Envisioning 2001” shows Kubrick as a director in command of all aspects of filmmaking, and it suggests that he and Clarke were no small obsessives when it came to understanding their subject matter. One of the first items in the exhibit is a request form from 1964, with Clarke’s name and address, sent to the United States Air Force. He sought information on a sighting — which turned out to be a satellite — that he and Kubrick, then developing the story for the movie, had seen in the sky over New York.

Some of the first visitors to see the exhibition Envisioning 2001 Stanley Kubrick's Space Odyssey. Photo by Thanassi Karageorgiou Nas Karas Studios Jan 16, 2020 at Museum of the Moving Image — Some of the first visitors to see the exhibition Envisioning 2001: Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey. Photo by Thanassi Karageorgiou Nas Karas Studios Jan 16, 2020 at Museum of the Moving Image

As it approaches its 52nd birthday, “2001: A Space Odyssey” remains one of the most inventive and enduring of all movies. But from the vantage point of 2020, it can be difficult to appreciate the sheer breadth of imagination involved in its making.

Enter “Envisioning 2001: Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey,” a new exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, that runs through July 19. The show brings together original correspondence, sketches, storyboards, props, video clips and much more to illustrate how Kubrick, the film’s director, and Arthur C. Clarke, the science fiction author who collaborated with him on the screenplay, set about bringing the future to the screen.

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