Read the article here.

Read the article here.

By: Phyllis Sandel & Donna Raymond
Published March 11, 2010

What do you get when you mix 85 members of Trilogy at Redmond Ridge with Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and John Phillip Sousa? It isn’t cacophony or chaos! You get beautiful music provided by the men and women of the Trilogy Singers.

Founded in 2004 by Trilogy members, the first Trilogy Singers director was member Don Freeman. Interest in a community chorus was high and 65 singers presented their first concert in December of that year. The concert was a sell out and two more were added in 2005. Since then, four concerts have been presented each spring and fall, with the members taking a break each summer season. Participation has grown steadily and 85 singers enrolled in January 2010.

Musical selections for the performances of the Trilogy Singers are chosen by the accompanist and the director. The fall selections generally consist of winter and holiday-themed music, while the spring selections are lighthearted and patriotic. The Singers featured 60’s and 70’s classics in 2009, and spring 2010 will highlight show tunes including Anything Goes and a current hit from Spamalot called “The Song That Goes Like This.” Two favorites, the “Pink Panther” and “Over The Rainbow,” are also on the program for this season.

Singing four-part choral arrangements of golden oldies, gospel, Broadway tunes, traditional and patriotic numbers, the Trilogy Singers view themselves as entertainers as well as musicians. Talent abounds as clarinet, saxophone, flute, trombone, tuba, trumpet, percussion, cello and hand-bells are added to program selections. These talented musicians enhance the singing in addition to adding flair and excitement to the concerts.

The chorus was initially governed by a Steering Committee, and in 2006, By-Laws were written and a Board of Directors was elected. The Board handles the business side of the chorus, planning the details of ticket sales, marketing, costuming and budgeting. With strong ticket sales each year, the chorus is able to pay the director, hire professional vocalists to record learning CDs, and purchase sound and audio equipment needed to insure a quality musical product.

In 2007, Don Freeman sold his Trilogy home, stepped down as director, and with his wife embarked on a year cruising the world. Trilogy Singers were fortunate to find Tobi Ellis (whose mother is a member of the Trilogy Singers) as the new director. Tobi brings 13 years of experience in directing choral and instrumental music. The chorus is a happy, talented group that takes their music seriously. Although auditions are not required, further music education is promoted through Tobi’s music enrichment programs, which improve singing and performing skills.

In the months leading up to a performance, members are provided with a learning CD, recorded by professional vocalists. Section leaders, who are selected by the director for each voice part (soprano, alto, tenor – both men and women, and bass), assist the singers in learning music and developing a unified sound. In addition to Tuesday night rehearsals, the singers participate in section rehearsals to improve accuracy and build confidence.

Trilogy Singers is truly a community-wide effort. Each semester involves almost 750 people, either singing, playing an instrument, ushering, making cookies for the reception, taking pictures, or putting up risers.

In addition to singing, the chorus supports Camp Korey, a local summer camp for children with chronic and life threatening illnesses, who are unable enjoy the activities of a ‘traditional’ summer camp. Camp Korey is part of the Paul Newman Foundation and the Hole in the Wall camps across the nation. Many Trilogy members volunteer at the camp.

Trilogy Singers is a close-knit group that keeps track of each other and offers support when life intervenes. Ongoing activities and updates are shared monthly in their popular newsletter, “Here’s The Pitch.” All of this camaraderie makes for the joyful, strong, happy group that produces a professional product for the enjoyment of the entire community of Trilogy at Redmond Ridge.

If you live at Trilogy at Redmond Ridge and would like to become a member of the Trilogy Singers, please contact Phyllis Sandel or Donna Raymond, both of whom can be found in the Member Directory on MyTrilogyLife.com.

Welcome to our newest article series, The Reading Corner. Through this column, Pam Stolpman of Trilogy Central Coast will review books that may be contemporary or classic, with stories real or imagined, and characters that you may love, or love to loathe. What these books will have in common is that they are not only worthy of a read, but also of a hearty recommendation. They all deserve to find a spot on your best-loved bookshelf.

In this issue, Pam celebrates the birth of new voices and the fading of seasoned voices on the writing scene. She highlights the works of four talented authors who are at the beginning or the end of their story-telling journeys. With On Beauty, Zadie Smith has composed a novel of astonishing strength and understanding for a woman of such a young age. One critic described Arthur Phillips, author of Prague, as “the Best American novelist to have emerged during the present decade.” William Trevor wrote his 14th novel, Love and Summer, while in his 80s, and his gentlemanly style is as much a joy to read today as it was decades ago. The collection of stories, My Father’s Tears, by Updike was published in 2009, after his death at the age of 76.

Please enjoy this selection of books from some of the best emerging and fading voices of our time.

On Beauty
By Zadie Smith

In On Beauty, we have two academic art critics; archrivals in the university world of publish or perish. Howard is a white Englishman happily ensconced at the small college of Wellington, in Boston. He is husband to Kiki, a zaftig African American earth mother, and father to two sons and a daughter, who he believes to be left wing, equal opportunity, multicultural atheists, as he is himself. His arch nemesis, Monty, is a Black Englishman who is a well-known and published scholar, teaching in London. He is husband to Carlene, a mysteriously frail, almost mystical Caribbean woman, and father to an impossibly hot young daughter who Monty firmly believes to be a right wing, anti-affirmative action, evangelistic Christian replica of himself. When Monty comes to Howard’s turf as a hugely popular guest lecturer for a year, all kinds of possibilities for inappropriate pairings, academic politics, and betrayals, large and small, arise.

In this novel – written with such a keen ear, such a sure sense of control of her material – Smith manages this group of characters in 400 pages of the most delightful satire possible. She dead-on nails the foibles of hot button racial issues, women’s studies, academic politics, and class warfare, and at the same time engages us thoroughly in the real emotional hardships of both men and their families. Smith is satirical, ironic, and quite simply very funny, but never is there a sour note of sarcasm or contempt. We laugh all the way through the complicated yarns she spins, but we care enormously how it will all come out, and we may actually find ourselves rooting for both sides in these cultural wars.

Excerpt:
An e-mail from Howard’s older son, in London studying under Monty before Monty assumes his position as guest lecturer at Wellington:

Hey Dad – I’m really enjoying everything. I work in Monty’s own office (did you know that he’s actually Sir Monty??) …and of course I’m living with the family now. I know you want me to tell you it’s a nightmare, but I can’t – I love living here. It’s a different universe. Monty’s wife, Carlene – perfect. Carlene floats above it all like a kind of angel – and she’s helping me with prayer. And it’s very cool to be able to pray.

Prague
By Arthur Phillips

In 1990, five ex-pats in their mid 20s have found each other in Budapest just after the overthrow of communism, though they would all prefer to be in Prague, where “real life is going on.” This novel is essentially character driven, the whole of it revolving around the lives of these ex-pats, none admirable in any way, but all memorable, and somehow almost as likable as they are laughable. The writing is flawlessly clever, and Phillips captures much of the excitement of Budapest as it awakens to itself after the long years of being blanketed by communist rule.

There is a plot: a single story about capitalism in the newly opened Eastern Europe. The main players are two of the ex-pats, John, a journalist at the BUDAPESTimes who brings his PR skills to the enterprise, and Charles (nee Karoly Gabor), a Hungarian/American with a Harvard MBA, who thinks of himself as a “venture capitalist” and speaks fluent Hungarian (albeit with the conversational content of a twelve year old). These two scheme to acquire shares in a venerable Budapest publishing company, the Horvath Press, recently returned by the communist government to its rightful owner, Imre Horvath. The two hope to then sell the Press at great profit.

Excerpt:
(Krisztina Toldy, personal assistant to Imre Horvath, is waiting with Charles for Horvath to arrive for their first business meeting):

Krisztina Toldy poured more coffee for the American boy and began to sense she was not accomplishing either of her two assignments. How could she relax him and make him feel the importance of the press? She realized her two tasks were contradictory: To educate this boy would require verbal force, which would hardly soothe him. Besides, there was something incorrect about this boy. His smile and word of thanks were wrong. He was made of dirty mirrors. She saw he did not care what she said: he was too spoiled to understand what Horvath had done with his life. She tried her best to entertain the bearer of U.S. dollars, but in midsentence she would find his posture, his expression, his lips and hair so maddening that she would begin teaching and then end by haranguing.

Charles found this exhibition of her predicament increasingly entertaining, savored the sight of her at war with herself, and after his initial impatience, he began to hope Horvath would be infinitely late so that Charles might instead watch this tightly coiled aide-de-camp finally bust a spring.

Article continued here.

In the past few decades, we have seen an increase In a condition called metabolic syndrome, which is considered to be a pre-cursor to non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). The statistics are now staggering, and they are getting worse every year. It is estimated that 40.8% of American men age 40-59, and 51.5% of men age 60 and over, along with 37.2% of American women age 40-59, and 54.4% of women age 60 and over, have what is called metabolic syndrome.

In other words, nearly half of the adults forty and over have a disturbance in blood sugar metabolism, putting them at increased risk for developing diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. What is even scarier is that beyond diet and exercise, the traditional medical world currently has very little to offer to help you battle this manifestation. Instead, you have likely been sent away and told to lose weight. This is an especially hard task for those with metabolic syndrome, as will be explained later. So, in essence, you are turned away until you start to show the symptoms of, or reach the lab values for, diabetes or cardiovascular disease. It doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, integrative medicine, with the use of particular nutrients and herbs, can help you prevent and reverse metabolic syndrome and allow you to lose the weight necessary to prevent its further progression.

According to the American Heart Association, you are considered to have metabolic syndrome if you exhibit three of the following: hypertension, elevated fasting glucose, a large waist circumference, low HDL, and/or elevated triglycerides. It is very possible that you have this condition and no one has ever mentioned it to you. It is usually first detected with an elevated fasting blood sugar result on your yearly lab-work. A fasting glucose above 100 but below 121 signifies that you probably have metabolic syndrome. Levels over 121 are diagnostic for having diabetes. See below for more details on the diagnostic criteria for Metabolic Syndrome.

Diagnostic Criteria for Metabolic Syndrome
Having three of the following is considered Metabolic Syndrome.

Blood Pressure: Equal to or higher than 130/85 mmhg
Fasting Blood Sugar: (Glucose) equal to or higher than 100 mg/dl
Large Waist Circumference: (Distance around the waist) of 40 inches or more for men, and 35 inches or more for women
Low HDL Cholesterol: Under 40 mg/dl for men, and under 50 mg/dl for women
Triglycerides: Equal to or higher than 150 mg/dl

Why are so many of us trending toward elevated blood sugar levels as we age? Metabolic syndrome, like diabetes (NIDDM, formerly type II or adult-onset) occurs as our cells begin to become insulin resistant. This resistance can increase with age, due to lack of exercise, excess sugar consumption, and especially for those of us with a genetic predisposition.

To understand this process better, it is important to understand sugar metabolism, or how our bodies process sugar. Blood glucose (the sugar that has been processed from the food we eat) is our body’s fuel, but to use this fuel, we must be able to absorb it into each cell. Our blood stream is the transport mechanism that brings glucose to each cell in our bodies. This is where the hormone insulin comes in. Each cell has what are called insulin receptors, which allow the entry of insulin from the blood stream into our cells. Insulin’s function is to attach to glucose in the bloodstream, and hence, when insulin is allowed into a cell, the glucose is taken along with it. In the process, both blood glucose and insulin levels decrease (because these substances have made their way out of the bloodstream and into the cells).

A problem can occur (again, because of poor lifestyle and genetics), in which the receptors on our cells no longer allow the passage across the cell membrane of insulin, or the insulin/ glucose complex (hence, the term insulin resistance). This is when we see the increase in blood glucose (sugar) levels. As blood glucose levels rise, you eventually develop metabolic syndrome. If this process goes unchecked, it can progress to diabetes.

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Growing weary of the winter weather? If you can’t wait another moment to feel sunshine on your shoulders and sand beneath your feet, a seaside escape this spring might be just what you need.

Is now a good time to travel? If you want to book a bargain, then absolutely! Although airfare to many destinations has risen as compared with last year, it’s still relatively low when compared to average ticket prices in spring of 2008. But the real value for travelers this spring and summer lies in the lodging. Overall, both domestic and international hotel rates are lower than last year. And with hotel owners eager to earn your tourism dollars, there are plenty of promotions to be found, including free nights, free room upgrades, and resort credits. Don’t hesitate to ask how they can make your travel dollar go further!

Whether you want to get away next weekend, or are looking ahead to the summer or fall, read on to discover beautiful beach lodging that’s comfortably priced between $70 and $190 nightly. All of these hotels are highly recommended by the reviewers on TripAdvisor.com, as well as by Travel + Leisure and Budget Travel magazines.

Manchebo Beach Resort & Spa

(From $169/night)

Friendly staff, comfortable accommodations, and a lovely beachfront spa are just a few of the niceties that make guests of The Manchebo Beach Resort & Spa come back again and again. But what really makes visitors rave is the unbeatable location of this serenely simple retreat. Nestled on the sands of one of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean, Manchebo’s location can’t be beat. Palapas, cool cocktails on the beach, and crystal blue waters are just steps from your room, making this affordable beach resort a barefoot haven in beautiful Aruba.

To learn more about this budget beachside escape, visit www.manchebo.com.

Hotel Les Mouettes

(From $122/night)

Though known as a tropical haven for the rich and fabulous during the winter months, St. Barths is equally fabulous, and yet far more affordable, from April to December. Take advantage of the off-season prices at the beautiful blue-and-white bungalows of Hotel Les Mouettes. Each spacious unit has a terrace from which you can literally step onto the warm sands of Lorient Beach, with aqua swimming waters protected by a colorful coral reef. Each bungalow is also equipped with a kitchenette and barbecue grill, and with a market just across the street, you may find it convenient (and affordable) to eat-in on occasion. Still, you may find it hard to resist the aroma of fresh chocolate croissants from the nearby bakery each morning.

To learn more about this budget beachside escape, visit www.st-barths.com/hotel-les-mouettes/mouettes_contact.html.

Neptune’s Treasure

(From $95/night)

Considered to be the best value in the British Virgin Islands, Neptune’s Treasure is truly a tropical gem. The accommodations are simple – but most guests describe the rooms as simply serene, the food as simply scrumptious, and the views of surrounding islands, magnificent sunsets, and pink flamingos as simply sublime. The guest rooms at Neptune’s Treasure are located just 150 feet from the beach, so you’re just steps away from swimming, snorkeling, sea kayaking, or beachcombing. The island of Anegada also supports a variety of birds and wildlife, so you’ll want to bring your binoculars along. And if you’re a fan of fishing, Anegada boasts some of the finest shallow water, deep sea, and fly fishing in the world, with a wide variety of fish to be caught. Then again, you may just want to spend your days laying in a hammock and basking in the sun of the British Virgin Islands.

To learn more about this budget beachside escape, visit www.neptunestreasure.com.

Calibishie Cove

(From $135/night)

Calibishie Cove is a colonial-style hotel on the island of Dominica. The four rooms of this small but special hotel offer breathtaking views of Dominica’s lush, natural beauty. Each room has solid tropical hardwood floors, luxurious stone finishes, original Dominican art, large shuttered windows, and a private patio overlooking the Caribbean Sea. One TripAdvisor guest described his arrival at Calibishie Cove as, “so much more than we expected. Although the pictures online are impressive, they don’t even touch the expanse, the view, the breeze, the sound of the surf, the calmness of the surroundings.” If you’re feeling adventurous, you can borrow snorkeling equipment from the hotel (free of charge) and swim with the colorful fish in the warm waters off the beach. Or, rent one of the hotel’s kayaks and enjoy a 10-minute trip to nearby Treasure Island.

To learn more about this budget beachside escape, visit www.calibishiecove.com.

Xanadu Island Resort

(from $190/night)

On Ambergris Cay, a 25-mile long island off the northeastern coast of Belize, Xanadu Island Resort is a luxurious beachside retreat. Set along a pristine stretch of white sand meeting crystal clear Caribbean water, Xanadu consists of six thatched-roof casitas surrounding a coconut palm-flanked pool. Guests can choose from one-, two-, or three-bedroom suites, each nicely appointed with plush sofas, fully equipped kitchens, and private, shaded balconies. The friendly staff will be happy to arrange a snorkeling excursion to the second-largest barrier reef in the world, where you’ll get up close and personal with rainbow parrotfish, loggerhead turtles, and octopuses.

To learn more about this budget beachside escape, visit www.xanaduresort-belize.com.

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Call a Community Representative today at 800-685-6494 to schedule a Mortgage Savings Calculator demonstration and learn more about this great new rate!

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Celebrate our three new energy savings packages with a FREE upgrade to our Shea Green Certified “Ultra” package. This Ultra upgrade package outfits your new home with a 3kW solar power system absolutely FREE! But hurry, this introductory offer ends April 15, 2010.