Steve Jobs

A number of interesting and well-reviewed films have opened in New York over the past couple of weeks. Since we were here this weekend and it was too cold to do anything outdoors, we took the opportunity to see one.

Barry usually likes to let me choose, although I do not always relish the pressure of these choices. This weekend, there were a few options. There was “Bridge of Spies,” a Steven Spielberg historical thriller in which Tom Hanks stars as the lawyer who represented a Soviet spy and negotiated a swap for two Americans. That word “thriller” bothers me, because usually it describes a tense story, and I am only rarely in the mood to feel more tense than I already do much of the time. Then there was “Truth,” a journalistic telling about the events that ended Dan Rather’s career as a CBS anchorman. This was higher on the list.

My first choice, the movie we saw, was “Steve Jobs.” I had seen the trailer and read a bit and it just seemed interesting to me. After all, Barry and I both use iPhones and Barry has a Mac. The movie is about the early development of Apple computers.

To be perfectly honest, I was lost through a lot of the movie. I really knew very little about the development of the company during the 1980s and early 90s. I would have a hard time retelling the plot if not for cheating a bit with the help of A.O. Scott.

“Steve Jobs” is a rich and potent document of the times, an expression of both the awe that attends sophisticated new consumer goods and the unease that trails in the wake of their arrival. The movie burnishes the image of this visionary C.E.O. even as it tries to peek behind the curtain at the gimcrack machinery of omnipotence. Mostly, though, it is a formally audacious, intellectually energized entertainment, a powerful challenge to the lazy conventions of Hollywood storytelling and a feast for connoisseurs of contemporary screen acting. 

Steve Jobs is played by Michael Fassbender, known for his roles in the films “Inglourious Basterds” (2009), “X-Men: First Class” (2011), “Shame” (2011) and “12 Years a Slave” (2013), none of which we have seen. He certainly did a fine job (pun intended?) of portraying Jobs, down to the posture and expressions that are so familiar from seeing him over the years. Kate Winslet played a marketing executive who, at least in the movie, was his near-constant companion, Joanna. Jeff Daniels was John Sculley, and Seth Rogan played Steve Wozniak. Jobs’ daughter is played by three different actresses as a young girl, a teenager, and a college student. He apparently had other children but only this one was part of the movie tale.

This is a movie I do recommend, even to people who are not crazy about those Apple products (you know who you are J). I was left admiring of his genius while recognizing that he was not the sort of guy I would have liked to know or with whom I would have cared to work.

On Monday afternoon I attended a luncheon at which our friend Carole was given an award by the Center for Children’s Initiatives for her work as a Co-Director of the Infancy Leadership Circles Project of New York Zero-to-Three Network. It was quite gratifying to be there with her friends and family celebrating this honor. This write-up explains Carole’s background and the work that she has done for many important causes.

Saturday Night Live, while still going strong after 40 years (the first show was in October 1975) is definitely not the show we baby boomers remember from the early days, but every now and then my attention is drawn to something I find on-line or see briefly on TV. This past Saturday night, Larry David played quite a convincing and hilarious Bernie Sanders, and I have to believe that even Mr. Sanders had to chuckle.

I never thought I would find myself saying this, but I stayed up too late watching the New York Mets play the other night. So far our guys have won two games against the Chicago Cubs. During their history, the Mets have won two World Series titles (1969 and 1986) and four National League pennants (1969, 1973, 1986, 2000).The Cubs, on the other hand, have played in seven World Series following their wins in 1907 and 1908, the most recent in 1945. So I do understand why people are feeling a bit sorry for them, but we are sticking with our Mets for now!

Have a great week!

Love,

Rebecca

The days go by slowly but the years go by quickly

This phrase has been on my mind but, after spending too many precious minutes surfing the world-wide web, I cannot seem to find the source of this quotation. But that does not detract from its veracity.

We had a nice end of the Sukkot holiday with our family and friends. A few days after the end of the holiday, Barry, who had finally recovered from a cold he had gotten during the middle days, went off to Chicago for a meeting. Although I had been away from our New York home for than two weeks, it just made sense to stay in Sharon, which I did.

That enabled me to do a few things I had wanted to do. First, I was able to spend some time with our friend whose husband had died a couple of weeks ago. As is customary when a death occurs during one of the week-long holidays, the Shiva (7 days of mourning) had been postponed until after the end of the Sukkot holiday. People often talk about being stymied by not knowing the “right thing” to say to someone who has had a loss. The guidance for Shiva is to let the mourner(s) lead the conversation. Sometimes they will not want to speak at all, and you can sit quietly and hope that your presence and prayers somehow strengthen them. In this case, talking about the final days and the difficult decisions seemed to help our friend, although now that the period has ended I imagine she is quite exhausted. While shiva is a beautiful custom, the trouble is that the mourners go from having a house full of people to suddenly being relatively alone to begin the hard work of putting their lives back in some sort of new perspective. It is just one of those things for which we can never be prepared.

When Maya was at our house for her “Nana/Sabba” week back in early September, she took great interest in the piano. She sat at it for quite a while pressing keys and creating melodies. At some point I asked her if she wanted to learn how to play, and she enthusiastically agreed. I could not seem to find any beginner piano music in my pile, so we went on-line and stumbled upon a course. We started with the first lesson, and she learned that little 3-note song very quickly. She played it over and over again, each time her finger movement becoming more controlled. It was abundantly clear that she is ready for piano lessons.

The beginning of the school year is incredibly busy for our both of our daughters. Simmie is a teacher in the Pre-Kindergarten class and Dina is an administrator developing curriculum (among other things) in the elementary grades in the local Jewish day school. So Barry and I started searching for a piano teacher. We contacted all the teachers we found listed within a small radius and I dutifully prepared a spreadsheet to track the details of each one. We started to arrange for times to meet when Simmie and the girls attended a 250^th celebration of the Town of Sharon and met a neighbor they had never known who is a pianist and looking to take on more students. When we were in Sharon a few days later we met with her and liked her ideas and her style. Maya had her first lesson and it went very well. She has already been “performing” for us. She had two assignments from her first lesson, one of which was to compose her own piece. Here she is playing it. Perhaps jazz piano is in her future?

While I am on the subject of accomplishments of the Rosenstein progeny, I had the great honor of accompanying Dina into Boston on Columbus Day to sit on the sidewalk in my wheelchair on an absolutely glorious day and watch her start and finish the Tufts 10K Race. Dina started running for fitness during the past year and has run in a number of events but this was the first time I have had a chance to go with her. It was really a thrill to see that sea of faces and know that she was in there somewhere. Maybe 10K seems like a trifle to any of you hard line fitness buffs, but in family with parents and grandparents who are each a little less fit and coordinated than the next, this is a very big deal! Joshua and Ella must have gotten a dose of whatever gene Dina has, and Eliana is surprisingly strong and athletic as well. Congratulations, Dina – you go girl!

Looks like I will need to spend time putting away the summer clothes and dragging out the winter ones. It had to happen eventually, I guess. Let’s just hope that Boston has a bit less snow this year!

Love,

Rebecca

No words

I know it has been a few weeks since I have posted. At first it was just that we were very busy with the holidays. We came to Sharon the weekend before Sukkot and have been here the last couple of weeks. The holidays always keep us busy. The weather was perfect the first two days, sunny and comfortable, just cool enough to keep the bees from intruding on our festive meals. We ate with our children for the evening meals but were invited to friends both days. The first was a wonderful opportunity for the two of us to spend an afternoon with the two of them, their daughter and her husband, and their young grandson. It had been far too long since we had the opportunity to time to sit and reminisce. The second day was the annual gathering at another friend’s house. A number of people were away but it made it more possible to really chat with almost everyone who was there, and that was quite enjoyable. There was an abundance of delicious food throughout the holiday, too!

After the first two glorious days of Sukkot, the rain came, and came, and came, and did not stop until the last days. So we really had much less time in the Sukkah than we would have liked; maybe next year.

During our years in Sharon, we lived very close to a number of members of our synagogue. Most of us were 30-something couples with elementary or younger children. A few of us lived on Brook Road in Sharon, including Barry and Hilary and their children. Just before last Shabbat we received the news we had all been dreading, that Barry had died of cancer. Barry (my husband) and I had been visiting our friend on nearly every trip to Sharon over the past months. He had been diagnosed about two years ago and initially seemed to do well following surgery, but the cancer returned with a vengeance and he had been in home hospice for the last couple of months. All of their children were in Sharon for the first days of Sukkot. Their oldest son lives on the West Coast and left his wife and two young children behind, but their other two sons, their daughter and her husband and two children all spent the holiday in Sharon.

Barry and Hilary were both doctors: Barry specialized in hematology/oncology and Hilary in pediatrics. It was actually through our friend Barry that Barry met Dr. K., an oncologist/radiation oncologist in Israel, and it was Dr. K. who organized an intensive week long course Barry has taught in clinical radiation biology. The course has taken a number of forms but basically Barry taught a clinical radiation biology course in Israel or in Turkey for an intense week every three years or so.

There was a memorial service in Sharon before the family travelled to Israel where he was to be buried today, and they are probably on their way back as I write this, to sit Shiva at their home on Brook Road. I am confident that all of their wonderful friends in the Sharon community will help Hilary navigate the difficult road ahead.  

Love,

Rebecca

Mothers and daughters

During the hubbub of the last couple of weeks we did manage to see one film, “Learning to Drive.” This is a sweet story about a 50-something year old professional named Wendy (Patricia Clarkson) whose husband suddenly leaves her for a younger woman. Being a Manhattanite, Wendy has never had a driver’s license, but now that she is single, she wants to be able to visit her daughter, who lives on a farm in Vermont, and engages Darwan (Ben Kingsley), a driving instructor to teach her to drive. A Sikh Indian, Darwan was a professor in India before being jailed for his religious beliefs. He was able to obtain political asylum in the United States but unable to obtain an academic position.

Perhaps because she is learning so late in life, or perhaps because she is resentful about the cause of her having to acquire this skill, she is not what you would call a willing student or a quick study. While Wendy works to master the rules of the road, Darwan works to master the ways of America and of women as he enters into a marriage arranged by family back home. Although the ending is fairly predictable, it is an interesting journey. The film did not receive terribly high marks on Rotten Tomatoes but we thought it was quite charming and enjoyable.

Wendy’s daughter, Tasha, was played by a young actress we had never seen before, but when the movie ended we said to each other “she is a dead ringer for Meryl Streep.” We watched the credits and found her name is Grace Gummer. That name did not ring any particular bells for us, but it came as no surprise to find that she is the daughter of Don Gummer, an American sculptor, and Meryl Streep. Here are mother and daughter side by side. Meryl Streep’s shoes cannot be easy ones to fill, but we will look forward to seeing more of Grace Gummer.

There is a lot on the news this week about the upcoming visit of Pope Francis. You probably thought I was going to say “about the presidential candidates,” but that is far too serious a topic for me to tackle. This piece by comedian Jim Gaffigan, shown on “CBS Sunday Morning,” really does capture the Pope’s visit well, with warmth and humor.

Enjoy the week as we finally start transitioning into fall.

Love,

Rebecca

That's our girl

We had a wonderful Rosh Hashana. It has been quite a few years since we last spent this holiday in Riverdale, and the synagogue services were every bit as inspiring as I remembered them. The music is a big part of this. Elie Kranzler, the fellow who leads the highlight prayer service, called Mussaf, is a psychiatrist who really could leave his day job and be a cantor (Chazzan), although likely not quite as lucratively. Besides having a magnificent and soulful voice, he has over the years compiled a collection of melodies he uses that are not heard elsewhere, and he often adds to the list. The result is a very long service but one that feels as if it goes by very quickly.

This year, a new addition was the use of the melody from the Leonard Cohen song, “Hallelujah.” He used it in a passage that talks about praising God with the blast of the shofar, the lyre and harp, drum and dance, organ and flute, clanging of cymbals, and resonant trumpets. [It just took me about 15 minutes to find that spot to refresh my memory on the details.] The most wonderful thing about Hebrew Institute of Riverdale is that everyone just joins in, even if they’ve never heard it before. If you are there, it is because you “get” what he is doing. It was wonderful.

A friend who was sitting next to me said “now I know what you will write on your blog tomorrow!” So I hope I have not disappointed her!

But as enjoyable as Rosh Hashana was, this afternoon was really special. Our mail has been piling up and I had in mind to take care of that this afternoon. I added today’s arrivals to the pile, one of which was a large envelope from the Striar Hebrew Academy of Sharon, where our daughters teach and our grandchildren attend school. We opened the envelope and took out a brochure, and there on the cover, standing next to Rabbi Yehudah Potok, the school principal, is our very own Maya! There is just nothing I can write that can tell as much as that picture does.

Enjoy this nice weather we’re having!

Love,

Rebecca

Three disconnected topics

#1. Have you seen this? We received it in some financial magazine and it turns out that there are more extensive versions all over the internet. Perhaps it is true that each of us has a twin out there somewhere.

#2. With all the publicity it has received and my devotion to “The Colbert Report,” you may be wondering why I have not yet written about the newly launched “Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Because it is on well past our bedtime, I have only seen the first show. I enjoyed it but he seemed to be working a bit too hard and I don’t see how he could possibly keep up that intensity without driving himself and the rest of us completely nuts. So although it was heartwarming to welcome him back into my life, I will need to reserve the full assessment for a few days. Sorry, Stephen. It would be fair to say that I care too much!

#3. Barry and I did manage to squeeze in a movie this week, “Grandma,” in which Lily Tomlin plays Elle, who, to put it mildly, is a 70-something unconventional woman. She had been briefly married in her 20s and gave birth to a baby girl before realizing she was a lesbian. When the story begins, her long-time partner has recently died.

Although mostly estranged from her daughter, she continues to have a relationship with her college age granddaughter, Sage (played by Julia Garner). The young woman discovers an unintended pregnancy, and the young man who shared in this responsibility is not interested in helping her. So she goes to her grandmother to borrow money.

At this point the plot itself becomes a bit ridiculous, because it is hard to believe that no one can come up with the cash that Sage needs. Among the candidates are a fellow named Karl, played by Sam Elliott, who has a small role as the husband that Elle had abandoned many years before. Karl has had some financial success but remains angry at Elle and refuses to help her granddaughter. After going through everyone Elle knows who might have some financial resources, Sage and Elle are eventually forced to go to the woman who links them, Judy (played by Marcia Gay Harden), a successful businesswoman. In many ways the plot from this point is rather predictable: everyone grows up a bit and recognizes how much they care for and need each other.

Although the story was a bit weak, the actors, particularly Ms. Tomlin, were excellent. It did receive a high score (92%) on Rotten Tomatoes. We had heard and read quite a bit about it, and I am glad we got to see it. Especially since the next few weeks will be far too busy for movies!

So now that I think I am caught up, I just have to get back to all my cooking! I am already running short on freezer space.

Love,

Rebecca

A long hiatus

My last post, on the 19^th of August, ended

If I do not manage to come up for air over the next two weeks, please do not worry about me. Just enjoy the rest of summer!

Other than underestimating the length of the hiatus, I was right on the mark!

After having enjoyed our weeks with Joshua and with Ella, we had a tremendously fulfilling and enjoyable, even if somewhat exhausting, weeks with each of our other granddaughters, Eliana and Maya, back to back during August. I have been busy since we finally came back to New York trying to organize all the pictures and put together photo books for each of them.

Before I begin on the highlights, we came back just in time for my twice yearly visit to Dr. DeAngelis at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. These visits are always on Tuesdays because that is the day she does outpatient follow-up.  I was glad we were able to squeeze this one in before Rosh Hashana so that I could at least have one less thing to worry about, and fortunately the news was good. In fact, she said that the strange “junk” that used to appear in the MRI scans seems to have finally disappeared in this one. Now all that is left is to figure out how to replace the actual part of my brain that was lost during the process so that I could at least remember things a bit more reliably. But I don’t want to sound too greedy or demanding. I think all in all I can say quite definitively that I have indeed been blessed again this year.

Speaking of blessings….our grandchildren are right up at the top of the list. We brought Eliana with us after a weekend in Sharon on August 24^th. We were disappointed to discover that the Haydn Planetarium, which we enjoyed so much with Ella, is currently closed, presumably for renovations. But we had plenty else to keep us busy. Our first point of interest was along the drive from Sharon to New York, Mystic Aquarium. It was raining at first but then the skies cleared so it was a lovely day to be there.

On Tuesday Eliana visited her great grandmother (Barry’s mother, who lives close to us) and then we played games and hung out around the house.

Wednesday we went to see “Aladdin” on Broadway. The same actor has continued in the role of the genie, and he and the show were every bit as fabulous as we had remembered. Eliana thoroughly enjoyed it, and is now asking if we can see Matilda (the show that Ella saw) next summer. We’re hoping there will be more shows for children because by time #3 these are going to get just a bit tired!

On Thursday Eliana wanted to go to Legoland, so we spent a fun morning there before heading over to the American Girl store. Eliana took Isabelle to have her hair done and we had fun watching that.

The next thing we knew it was Friday morning and we headed back to Sharon. Our other daughter and family were away with her husband’s family, so we had a quiet Sabbath lunch with Simmie and crew.

When we had bought the tickets to take Maya to “The Lion King” we had discovered that there was no Wednesday matinee the week she was coming, so we decided to go to the Sunday matinee. That meant we had to get up and on the road bright and early. We stopped at our house, which is on the way, refreshed, and then headed into the City. Maya was completely mesmerized by the show.

On Monday, we went to the Museum of Modern Art because that was the last day they were having some special children’s programming that had been running during the summer. Maya is quite interested in art, and we ended up spending over seven hours there! There were some art projects but the main thing she enjoyed were the elementary school level explanations that could be heard on our cell phones. Each one was about 1 ½ to 2 minutes long, and focused on some of the better known work in the collection, like the Monet Water Lilies and the Van Gogh Starry Night.

We bought her a lovely set of colored pencils like the one we had bought Ella, and when we got home she drew a few pictures. We find it fascinating how well she captured the essence of the two of us.

The next day we went to the Bronx Zoo. Maya and Barry rode the elephants, and on the way out she bought a large stuffed lion that she named, of course, Simba.

On Wednesday, after visiting with Barry’s mother, we headed off for a third visit to American Girl. Maya had Kit and Caroline’s hair done, and to even things with her sister and cousin, she bought a third doll, Maryellen, who is supposed to be a girl from the 1950s.

By Thursday I think we had worn the poor girl out! We went over to the Botanical Gardens but it was quite warm and our little bundle of enthusiasm and energy was fading a bit, so we went home and relaxed, drew, and played games. Friday was another big day, we left early to be able to stop at Mystic Aquarium on our way back to Sharon, and had a great time there.

This is the second year that we have run “Camp Nana/Sabba,” with each of the grandchildren coming to spend time with us doing the things they most like to do, and eating the foods they most like to eat. With another “all clear” signal this week, we hope to be able to continue this tradition for many years to come. In a few years we will add Julia into the mix. Will “The Lion King” still be on Broadway?

May your transitions back to work and school go well and in good health.

Love,

Rebecca