Author: Michael Janairo

Tweets and more from the Times Union-College of Saint Rose panel discussion “Tethered 24/7: Staying Human with Today’s Technology”
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Members of the Broadway cast of “Million Dollar Quartet,” one of the five announced shows, showed up Tuesday night at Proctors to perform selections from the musical to help the venue launch its next season.

“Million Dollar Quartet” tells the story of one legendary night – Dec. 4, 1956, when Sam Phillips brought Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins together for a recording session. The jukebox musical includes songs such as “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Great Balls of Fire” and is slated to run for one week, Jan. 22-27.
The other four musicals are:

• “Mary Poppins,” Oct. 2 – 7, based on the children’s books and classic Disney film;
• “Wicked,” Nov. 7 – 25, based on the novel by the Capital Region’s Gregory Maguire and whichi last played Proctors in 2009;
• “Priscilla Queen of the Desert,” Feb. 12 – 17, based on the Academy Award-winning film from 1994 about three friends – two drag queens and a transsexual — searching for love and friendship in the Australian outback; and,
• “Les Miserables,” April 30 – May 5, 2013, the 25th anniversary production of the international blockbuster about love, revolution, crime and punishment in early 19th-century France.

Subscriptions to the Broadway series are now available. Contact Proctors for more information at 346-6204 or visit http://www.proctors.org.

What do you think of the season?

Once upon a time, there were two different things called “work” and “life,” and the two were separated by distance and time. You went to work or you went home. You started work at a specific time, and you ended at a later, but just as specific time.

Perhaps that time was mythical — didn’t people think about work when they were away from it? — but with new tools, especially smartphones, the lines have blurred. Work can be in you pocket. It could be the first thing — or the last thing — you do each day, while still in bed at home.

At least, that’s true for me, with an iPhone and iPad that I can carry with me pretty much everywhere, and a laptop at home, as well as a computer at work.

Recently, I was in a hotel room in Rome, Italy, on vacation, but checking my email so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed when I returned, and I was approving blog comments on this blog. My work followed me across the Atlantic. So I either have a problem, or I’m a dedicated worker.

Next week, I’ll be panelist at a talk at The College of Saint Rose called “Tethered 24/7: Staying Human with Today’s Technology.” You can attend the event for free. It’s at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, 2012, at The College of Saint Rose, Touhey Forum, Lally Building, 1009 Madison Ave., Albany. You just need to register online.

Beforehand, though, I want to know your stories about today’s technology. Was there a single event when you realized you were too tethered? And what have you done about it to try to achieve a better balance between work and life?

I knew from reading the jacket copy that Shalom Auslander’s debut novel, “Hope: A Tragedy,” would touch on all sorts of taboos. Indeed, it contains many a joke on topics that are usually way off-limits, including Anne Frank, the Holocaust, and Jesus’ last words on the cross. But I had no idea just how intelligent and beautifully written it was also going to be.

“Hope: A Tragedy” takes the point of view of its main character, Solomon Kugel, who is fearful of just about everything but especially afraid of the arsonist who has been burning down farmhouses in Stockton, N.Y. — the town where Kugel and his family have recently bought a farmhouse. The arsonist becomes the least of his worries.

Kugel’s got an old woman living in his attic who turns out to be Anne Frank. She is penniless, unable to touch a cent in royalties from the 32 million copies her book has sold, and has relied for years on the guilty consciences of a succession of German or Jewish homeowners.

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