Vanya

The Year in Ideas (NY Times) -- the table of contents is available in archival form [link from JD]

The latest virus: Gokar worm, spread via Outlook email, the chat program mIRC, and servers running IIS. Local UCB users running Symantec Norton antivirus should do an update.

Naturalists Share Their Findings Online (NY Tmes). "The event has 'motivated people to be outside and connected with birds at home in a way they wouldn't have otherwise,' Dr. Gill said. What makes participation appealing, he said, is that people can share what they observe with others immediately and see their information become part of the whole."

Thanks, Chris, for writing up more of the project we are working on.

Uncle Vanya and Pizza

I'm so excited -- I will be seeing Uncle Vanya tonight with a group of friends. From the SF Bay Guardian listing (not permanently archived):

Uncle Vanya La Val's Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid, Berk; (510) 234-6046. $8-14. Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through Dec 29. Ivan Petrovich (Geoffrey Pond), Chekov's Uncle Vanya, manages his late sister's estate with the help of his niece Sonya (Michelle Barton). The proceeds support his eminent brother-in-law, retired scholar Alexander (Armand J. Blasi), and his young wife, Yelena (Mary Unruh). The couple's arrival stirs up resentments old and new amid a corrupting atmosphere of lethargy and boredom that also draws in country doctor Astrov (Brian Gruber) and Ivan's eccentric mother, Maria (Suzanne Svendsen). Subterranean Shakespeare's production plays for laughs, but it retains enough of the emotional depth of Chekov's poignant comedy to make compelling the fears and longings unsuccessfully masked by the characters' self-conscious equivocating. And if director Diane Jackson treads somewhat lightly, she handles her actors well. Pond's Vanya is a veritable mountain of melancholy, with carnivorous grin and daggerlike stare. Gruber's Astrov ranges from awkward shyness to roaring conviction with skill and comic flare. Unruh's Yelena is proud and deceptively sure of herself. An able cast with some strong supporting roles in Maryina (the fine Chetana Karel) and Waffles (Hal Hughes) make for an agreeable balance in the end. (Avila)

Nov Jan

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