Arts & Entertainment

On Saturday, Oct. 27 from 9:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook will present Elias Pelletreau: Long Island Silversmith & Entrepreneur, an all-day symposium exploring this early American silversmith’s life and work, as well as the Long Island Colonial and Revolutionary War-era in which he lived. Scholars and historians will examine Pelletreau’s fine craftsmanship and his essential role in the complex trade and social worlds in conjunction with the museum’s current Pelletreau exhibit.

Topics of discussion include Pelletreau’s Life and Legacy, Pelletreau’s Larger World, American Craftsmen of the 18th Century and Pelletreau’s work in general from an artist’s point of view. There will be a Q&A session after the program, giving audience members the opportunity to ask specific questions of the presenters.

Presenters for the symposium include Joshua Ruff, director of Collections & Interpretation at The Long Island Museum; Deborah Dependahl Waters, independent historian and decorative arts specialist, and guest curator, Elias Pelletreau: Long Island Silversmith & Entrepreneur; Jennifer Anderson, associate professor of history, Stony Brook University; David Barquist, curator of American Decorative Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Eric Messin, silversmith and jeweler, Pelletreau Silver Shop, Southampton.

Fee is $12 adults, $10 students, seniors and museum members which includes symposium and admission to the museum. Optional $10 additional for lunch. Lunch also available off-site at area restaurants. To register for this event, call 631-751-0066, ext. 212 or email [email protected].

AN ARTSY WEEKEND:

The North Shore Artist Coalition held its 3rd annual Open Studio Tour on Oct. 13 and 14. Fifteen local artists in Port Jefferson, Stony Brook, Setauket and St. James opened their studios to the public who were able to ask questions about their artistic process, enjoy demonstrations and purchase artwork.

Photos by Heidi Sutton

 

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By Matthew Kearns, DVM

I thought it a good time to recycle an article that is appropriate for this time of year. Here are a few tips to make sure this and every Halloween is a safe and happy one.

Candy and chocolate poisoning

Chocolate is dangerous for two reasons. The first is that it contains two chemicals — caffeine and theobromine, which are stimulants in the methylxanthine class. White chocolate contains almost none of these compounds and baking chocolate has the highest concentrations. 

Symptoms begin within 6 to 12 hours after ingestion and include panting, hyperactivity, increased thirst and urination. High concentrations lead to irregular heart rhythms, seizures, coma and death. There are specific toxic levels for all pets but, just like people, some dogs and cats can be very sensitive to chocolate and show signs of poisoning from much lesser amounts.  

Chocolate is also very high in sugar and fat. Minimally this could cause some mild diarrhea, but I have personally seen a few cases of serious gastroenteritis, pancreatitis and liver disease from ingestion of large amounts of chocolate and other candy.

Unfortunately, dogs and cats (especially young ones) will be more interested in eating their costume than wearing it. I have both experienced, as well as heard from colleagues, stories of pulling out portions of a witch’s nose, small scarecrow teddy bears, etc. The wrappers from candy can sometimes get wadded up in the stomach or small intestines and either cause intense pain or unavoidable (and expensive) surgery. Corn cobs used as decorations should also be out of reach of curious (and hungry pets). As much as you want the house to look festival, make sure to keep all holiday items out of reach of pets. 

Fears and phobias

Talk to your veterinarian if your pet is afraid of loud noises or large numbers of people coming to the door. Many times a calming supplement or mild tranquilizer sedative is all that is needed to get through Halloween, but always have your pet examined by the veterinarian (especially older pets) before administering these medications. Tranquilizers will cause a drop in blood pressure, which in healthy pets is not a problem but in older or diseased pets can be dangerous (even life-threatening in some cases).  

Malicious injuries

Be aware (especially with cats that go outside) that they are in for the night early. Unfortunately, we do see malicious acts toward animals increase on this particular holiday.  

I hope this information is helpful in providing a safe Halloween environment for our pets.  

Dr. Kearns practices veterinary medicine from his Port Jefferson office and is pictured with his son Matthew and his dog Jasmine.

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By Linda M. Toga, Esq. 

Linda Toga, Esq.

THE FACTS: My father executed a will many years ago in which he disinherited my older brother, Joe, and named me as executor of his estate. Joe had been estranged from the family for years. My father recently passed away. I have looked through all of my father’s papers and cannot find the will. I vaguely remember my father telling me that he put his will in his safe deposit box so that it would not get lost, but the bank manager will not allow me to access the box. 

THE QUESTIONS: How can I gain access to my father’s safe deposit box? If my father’s will is in the box, how should I proceed? 

THE ANSWER: Many people mistakenly believe that their safe deposit box is the best place to keep their will. While the will may be safe locked in the safe deposit box in the bank, it will not necessarily be accessible when needed. 

When the holder of a safe deposit box dies, the box is supposed to be sealed. This means the box is not to be opened unless the person seeking access to the contents of the box provides the bank with either a court order directing the bank to open the box or evidence that the person has been granted authority from the court to handle the decedent’s estate. 

If you cannot find your father’s will and believe it is in his safe deposit box, you must obtain an order from the Surrogate’s Court directing the bank to open the box. To do that, your attorney will need to file an application with the court in the county where your father lived in which he or she provides your father’s name and address, his date of death, your relationship to your father and the location of the bank where the safe deposit box is located. 

A small fee is required by the court for filing the application and providing to you a certified copy of the order when it is issued. 

Once the court issues the order, you should arrange with the bank for a bank officer to open your father’s safe deposit box in your presence. The officer is required to take an inventory of the contents of the box and, if your father’s will is there, to send the will to the Surrogate’s Court that issued the order. All other items that are in the box must be returned to the box. You will not be able to remove the other items until your attorney files a petition for letters testamentary and the court issues those letters to you.

 If it ends up that your father’s will is not in his safe deposit box, and you cannot locate it elsewhere, rather than petitioning for letters testamentary, your attorney will need to petition for letters of administration. Once you have obtained either letters testamentary or letters of administration, you will have full authority to access your father’s safe deposit box and to remove the contents.

 As an aside, if you cannot provide the original will to the court as part of the probate process and are issued letters of administration, you will be required to distribute to your estranged brother a share of your father’s estate pursuant to the NYS intestacy statute, regardless of what you believe your father may have wanted.

Although you will eventually gain access to the contents of your father’s safe deposit box, the administration of your father’s estate will clearly be delayed and additional estate expenses will be incurred in order to determine if, in fact, he put his will in his safe deposit box. To avoid the delay and expense I recommend that clients keep their wills and other important papers at home in a water/fire resistant safe or storage box. 

Linda M. Toga provides personalized service and peace of mind to her clients in the areas of estate planning, wills and trusts, Medicaid planning, marital agreements, estate administration, small business services, real estate and litigation. Visit her website at www.lmtogalaw.com or call 631-444-5605 to schedule a free consultation.

The Reboli Center for Art and History,  located at 64 Main St. in Stony Brook Village is offering another fun and informational workshop with Diana Conklin of Everlastings by Diana on Saturday, Nov. 10 from 9 to 11 a.m. In this workshop, participants will create a charming vibrant colored wreath for your indoor wall using hand-colored dried hydrangeas. 

Many color choices are available: fresh blue, blue burgundy, green with coral, orange, violet and burgundy blushes.  The complete wreath size is approximately 12 inches. You’ll be encouraged to explore your own style within the demonstrated framework. All materials are provided and, of course, you’ll take your creation home with you!

Diana is a well-known designer and dried flower grower whose wreaths and floral arrangements are much prized. Her creations are beautiful and she will help workshop participants craft a unique personal wreath using her beautifully hand-colored dried flowers. Diana will also share her passion for growing, drying and working with flowers. Attendance is limited. The workshop fee is $45. To register, please call 631-751-7707 or email [email protected].

Francis Alexander. Photo from BNL

By Daniel Dunaief

Now what? It’s a question that affects everyone from the quarterback who wins the Super Bowl — who often says something about visiting a Disney facility — to the student who earns a college degree, to the researcher who has published a paper sharing results with the scientific community.

For some, the path forward is akin to following footsteps in the snow, moving ever closer to a destination for which a path is clear. For others, particularly those developing new technology, looking to unlock mysteries, the path is more like trudging through unfamiliar terrain.

The technology at facilities like Brookhaven National Laboratory, which includes the powerful National Synchrotron Light Source II and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, among others, enables scientists to see processes at incredibly fine scales.

While these sites offer the promise of providing a greater ability to address questions such as what causes some batteries to die sooner than others, they also cost considerable money to use, putting pressure on researchers to ask the most fruitful question or pursue research that has the greatest chance for success.

Francis Alexander. Photo from BNL

That’s where people like Francis Alexander, the deputy director of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Computational Science Initiative, and his team at BNL can add considerable value. Alexander takes what researchers have discovered, couples it with other knowledge, and helps guide his fellow laboratory scientists to the next steps in their work — even if he, himself, isn’t conducting these experiments.

“Given our theoretical understanding of what’s going on, as imperfect as that may be, we take that understanding — the theory plus the experimental data — and determine what experiments we should do next,” Alexander said. “That will get us to our goal more quickly with limited resources.”

This approach offers a mutually reinforcing feedback loop between discoveries and interpretations of those discoveries, helping researchers appreciate what their results might show, while directing them toward the next best experiment.

The experiments, in turn, can either reinforce the theory or can challenge previous ideas or results, forcing theoreticians like Alexander to use that data to reconstruct models that take a wide range of information into account.

Alexander is hoping to begin a project in which he works on developing products with specific properties. He plans to apply his knowledge of theoretical physics to polymers that will separate or grow into different structures. “We want to grow a structure with a [particular] function” that has specific properties, he said.

This work is in the early stages in which the first goal is to find the linkage between what is known about some materials and what scientists can extrapolate based on the available experiments and data.

Alexander said the aerospace industry has “models of everything they do.” They run “complex computer simulations [because] they want to know how they’d design something and which design to carry out.”

Alexander is currently the head of a co-design center, ExaLearn, that focuses on exascale, machine-learning technologies. The center is the sixth through the Exascale Computing Project. Growth in the amount of data and computational power is rapidly changing the world of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The applications for this type of technology range from computational and experimental science to engineering and the complex systems that support them.

Ultimately, the exascale project hopes to create a scalable and sustainable software framework for machine learning that links applied math and computer science communities to create designs for learning.

Alexander “brings to machine learning a strong background in science that is often lacking in the field,” Edward Dougherty, a distinguished professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M, wrote in an email. He is an “excellent choice to lead the exascale machine learning effort at Brookhaven.”

Alexander is eager to lead an attempt he suggested would advance scientific and national security work at the Department of Energy. “There are eight national laboratories involved and all the labs are on an equal level,” he said. 

One of the goals of the exascale computing project is to build machines capable of 10 to the 18th operations per second. “There’s this enormous investment of DOE” in this project, Alexander said.

Once the project is completely operational, Alexander expects that this work will take about 30 percent of his time. About 20 percent of the time, he’ll spend on other projects, which leaves him with about half of his workweek dedicated to management.

The deputy director recognizes that he will be coordinating an effort that involves numerous scientists accustomed to setting their own agenda.

Dougherty suggested that Alexander’s connections would help ensure his success, adding that he has “established a strong network of contacts in important application areas such as health care and materials.

The national laboratories are akin to players in a professional sporting league. They compete against each other regularly, bidding for projects and working to be the first to make a new discovery. Extending the sports metaphor, members of these labs often collaborate on broad projects, like players on an all-star team competing against similar teams from other nations or continents.

Alexander grew up in Ohio and wound up working at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico  for over 20 years. He came to BNL in 2017 because he felt he “had the opportunity to build something almost from the ground up.” The program he had been leading at Los Alamos was large and well developed, even as it was still growing. 

The experimental scientists at BNL have been receptive to working with Alexander, which has helped him achieve some of his early goals.

Ultimately, Alexander hopes his work increases the efficiency of numerous basic and applied science efforts. He hopes to help experimental scientists understand “what technologies we should develop that will be feasible” and “what technologies would be most useful to carry experiments out.”

The cast, back row, from left, Andrew Lenahan, K.D. Guadagno, Steven Uihlein and Eric J. Hughes; front row, from left, Nicole Bianco and Michelle LaBozzetta with students Photo from Theatre Three

A LESSON IN KINDNESS 

The educational touring production of Theatre Three’s “Stand Up! Stand Out! — The Bullying Project” performed at the Edna Louise Spears Elementary School in Port Jefferson on Oct. 11. Written and directed by Jeffrey Sanzel, the musical features six professional actors, puppets and a toe-tapping original score. 

Above, the cast with two fourth-grade students who said, “The show was ‘great’ and we learned that you can talk to your parents, teachers, bus drivers and friends if someone is getting bullied and you want to help stop it.” If you would like to bring this show to your school, call Marci at 631-928-9202 or e-mail [email protected].

Pasta with Walnut Sauce

By Barbara Beltrami

Come October it was always there. The peaches and plums and cherries in the big yellow bowl on the kitchen table gave way to apples and pears and walnuts accompanied by an ancient slightly rusty nutcracker and mother of pearl-handled fruit knives thrust among them. When we came home from school, we would grab a piece of fruit and a handful of nuts on our way upstairs to do our homework. Inevitably we would be chastened later for having left a trail of nutshell shards behind us and not putting the nutcracker back in the bowl. If you like walnuts as much as I did and still do, here are some recipes you’ll love.

Pasta with Creamy Walnut Sauce

Pasta with Walnut Sauce

YIELD: Makes 1½ to 2 cups sauce

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound pasta

1¼ cups chopped shelled walnuts

1 garlic clove

¹/3 cup light cream

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped

Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a food processor combine walnuts and garlic; pulse a few times until coarsely chopped. Add cream, oil, thyme, salt and pepper and process to a coarse paste with pieces still remaining. Add 4 tablespoons pasta water and Parmesan cheese and pulse a few more times (sauce should be chunky, not smooth). If desired, place sauce in a small skillet over medium heat to warm. Transfer pasta to a large serving bowl and pour sauce over it. Serve with a light salad or green vegetable on the side.

Candied Walnuts

Candied Walnuts

YIELD: Makes 3 cups

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Dash of freshly ground black pepper

1 large egg white at room temperature

1/2 pound shelled walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 300 F. In a small bowl, combine the sugars, salt, cinnamon and pepper. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg white till frothy; add one tablespoon room temperature water and whisk in. Add walnuts and stir to coat; add sugar mixture and stir again. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment and spread nuts on it. Bake 15 minutes, stir the nuts, then bake another 15 minutes until nuts are toasted and sugar coating is caramelized. Serve alone as a snack or with salad or cheese.

Walnut–Arugula Pesto

Walnut Arugula Pesto

 

YIELD: Makes 1 cup

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1 garlic clove

2 cups tightly packed arugula

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2/3 to 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Place all ingredients in an electric food processor and, stopping to scrape sides of bowl frequently, process until smooth and light green. Serve with pasta, crostini, crackers, chips, chicken or fish, as a sandwich spread or dip.

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John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix in a scene from ‘The Sisters Brothers’ Photo by Magali Bragard/Annapurna Pictures

By Kyle Barr

Is there something to say about the fact that, even as so many Western genre movies have been released, covering every inch of America’s rugged past, that the genre still survives?

Though it’s one of film’s oldest and most tested settings, the entire concept of the Western has been deconstructed, reconstructed, parodied, satired, mocked and idolized so many times until today where we have different subgenres from the post-Western, the comedy Western and beyond.

So where does “The Sisters Brothers,” a film directed by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, sit in this framework? The film was marketed as a comedy Western, and while the film is certainly funny at points, it really is so much more.

John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix in a scene from ‘The Sisters Brothers’ Photo by Magali Bragard/Annapurna Pictures

This is the jazz version of the Western, something recognizable yet off-kilter enough to be fresh in all the right ways. Adapted from a 2011 novel by the Canadian author Patrick deWitt, the story follows the brothers Eli Sisters (John C. Reilly) and Charlie Sisters (Joaquin Phoenix) as two hit-men gunslingers employed by the enigmatic figure of The Commodore (Rutger Hauer).

The Sisters brothers are tasked with finding Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed), a gentleman and a chemist, knowing that, most likely, they will have to kill him. When they finally find him, Warm and the man who was supposed to confine him, John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal) have a much more interesting offer to give the two murderous brothers.

The opening shot is one so cleanly reminiscent of Westerns but given a subtle twist of shot and lighting. It starts large, a black field with the hint of a purple horizon, but the silence is cut short with sparks and flashes of light as the Sisters brothers engage men fortified in a house. The film is violent without languishing in it, and, instead, Audiard likes to spend more time in finding comedic moments in the exhausting work of traveling across the West, from trying to ride when hung over or from a  random spider bite (one that crawled inside his mouth), or force a man near-comatose for several days while a bear attack nearly kills his horse. 

Westerns have long drawn their themes of the line between right and wrong, good and evil, society and the wilderness. “The Sisters Brothers” doesn’t so much run away from those themes as it does show just how deflated they are. The fact that the film ends not with so much of a bang but with a calm, pastoral scene of home and family goes to say something about the entire idea of the Western genre.

Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from ‘Sisters Brothers’

All actors involved do a great job with their performances, and both Ahmed and Gyllenhaal are particularly interesting to watch as they develop a respect for the other over the course of the film. Phoenix is terrific in his role, playing the slightly unhinged gunslinger with just the right amount of anger while leaving room for introspection.

“You do realize that our father was stark raving mad and we got his foul blood in our veins?,” Charlie Sisters says. “That was his gift to us. That blood is why we’re good at what we do.”

While it was Reilly’s own production company that financed the film, it’s good to note that the man who is most known for his comedies, often co-starring with Will Farrell, takes a far more interesting and nuanced turn as the older Sisters brother, killing people in the name of defending his brother, who does not believe he needs saving. He comes into his own especially at the end of the film, as he tries to make up for the past by protecting his brother as they run across the West pursued by men who would kill them.

“The Sisters Brothers” is one of those films that you’ll either love or fully question what all the fuss is about. As a general fan of Westerns and all its spin-offs, this reviewer says it’s a much-needed spin on many overdone film tropes of the Western genre.

Rated R for violence, disturbing images and language, “The Sisters Brothers” is now playing in local theaters.