Categories
Living

Negative ions may have a positive effect on your health

Winter is here, which means daylight is scarce and cold temperatures make most people want to spend a majority of their time indoors. This lack of exposure to sunlight can cause what is classically called “the winter blues,” a mild depression that is clinically referred to as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. Many people treat SAD with light therapy but others, including researchers from Wesleyan University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, believe that salt crystals may be a natural way to ward off SAD while also minimizing the symptoms of respiratory issues such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, sinus infections, a stuffy nose as a result of cold, flu or allergies. Why salt? Put simply, the positive power of negative ions.

When heated, salt generates negative ions. Negative ions are invisible, odorless, tasteless atoms that have experienced some action, such as evaporation or being vigorously tossed around in water, that causes them to gain a negative electron rendering them negatively charged. You can easily find them in nature near waterfalls or the seashore. The magnetic charge of negative ions helps to purify the air because it attracts great numbers of positively charged floating particles. Once sucked into the negative ion tractor beam, the particles become heavy and fall to the ground, away from your nose. Salt is also an antiseptic and antibacterial, and when inhaled, it clears mucus from cilia in the respiratory system, making it easier to breathe. Cleaner air and cilia means less junk going into your body, allowing more room for oxygen to go in.

Inhaling negative ions also has mood-enhancing benefits. It is believed that as the body processes those inhaled negative ions, a biochemical reaction transpires that increases serotonin (a good mood chemical) levels, which helps manage depression and, in some ion-sensitive people, triggers euphoria. I am one of those ion-sensitive people. I know this because I feel really awesome when I am at the beach. But I am also a skeptic—I needed to try it for myself.

Andi Senatro, manager of the Halo Salt Spa located off the Downtown Mall, says that clients have reported positive effects from time spent in a salt room. These rooms expose clients to negative ions through exposure to salt rocks and microscopic salt crystals pumped into the air by a machine called a halogenerator. “One client had severe sinus issues and had to give herself a facial massage before bed every night to facilitate drainage,” says Senatro. “She did one session here and could feel her sinuses draining without the aid of massage.”

On a recent visit to Halo, I was led into a quiet room lined with 8-inch-thick bricks of pink Himalayan salt—I immediately felt the kind of settled calm that one feels when entering a sacred space. I snuggled up with two blankets in a lounge chair in the corner of the room nearest a pipe opening that intermittently ejected the salted mist from the halogenerator.

Breathing deeply, I started to feel a little sleepy after about 10 minutes, which is a normal reaction, Senatro says. By the end of the session, I was about as relaxed as I would be after a deep meditation. My nose, which had been only a tinge of stuffy when I arrived, did feel clearer. The verdict: Yes, I was more relaxed and could breathe a little better, but I cannot say definitively that those results happened because I was sitting in the salt room—I might gain the same results from sitting in a quiet space anywhere and meditating.

In defense of salt therapy: Some proponents recommend sitting in the salt room for several days a week over the course of a few months to reap the positive effects and battle depression.

Good news for those of us who can’t make it to the Bahamas for the winter.

Categories
Arts

Ash Lawn Opera’s Amahl and the Night Visitors builds community

Holiday revival

“The wonderful thing about opera is that it is more than the sum of its parts,” said Kate Tamarkin, music director of the Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra (CUSO). Tamarkin, who will be conducting Gian Carlo Minotti’s, Amahl and the Night Visitors for Ash Lawn Opera is part of a bigger picture that defines ALO’s first winter season as consisting of local “parts.”

Where ALO’s summer season showcases imported artists delivering world class opera to Charlottesville, the production of Amahl opens up the magic of opera to a broader base of performers from the surrounding community and to an audience that may be absent over the summer. “We will still import our five principal singers, who are prominent soloists from places like the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera, but we partner with local groups for the remainder of the performers,” said ALO General Director Michelle Krisel.

The Virginia Consort and Wilson School of Dance are partner arts organizations that provide singers for the chorus and dancers respectively. Educational partners including The Jefferson Madison Regional Library, The Virginia Discovery Museum, and Speak! Language Center, are all hosting children’s programs centered around the opera. Though the CUSO is not formally associated with the production, several of its members will be part of the orchestra under Tamarkin’s direction. “I believe that the more you work with local colleagues, the better Charlottesville does in making Charlottesville a destination for the arts,” Krisel said. Since opera is a multi-tiered art form, it makes sense to be the centerpiece for collaborative efforts.

Financing the project, which must be produced independently of the summer season’s budget, echos the artistic make-up of the production with national and local participation. “ALO is committed to exposing as many people as possible to opera by making it accessible through family appropriate material and keeping ticket prices low,” said Krisel.

Amahl tickets are a fifth the cost of Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker tickets in order to make the opera financially feasible to a wider audience. Low ticket prices for an endeavor of this size means sponsorships are necessary. A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and generous support from Charlottesville’s own Brown Automotive Group make up the budgetary differences.

In addition to low ticket prices, Krisel has incorporated as many children as possible into Amahl to expose them to the art of opera and to encourage ticket sales. She said,“Putting on Amahl is about building opportunities for artists and audiences…There are about 20 kids in the show.”

Henley Middle School seventh grader Chloe Horner, who will sing the title role, is a seasoned performer at age 12. She is familiar with the workings of opera production after playing Amaryllis in ALO’s production of The Music Man last summer, but is eager to learn more. “It is such an honor to work with these people from such places like the Metropolitan Opera,” she said. “I am really ready to meet them and learn from them.” Horner will sing with some of the principals in an outreach performance of excerpts, free to the community at the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center on December 4.

Tiffany Ames and Alice Newkirk, both seniors at Tandem Friends School and part of the Virginia Consort High School Chorus, are learning new skills as they prepare for their roles as shepherdesses. Newkirk says of singing in operatic choral style, “It’s much higher, at least for the sopranos, than normal choral music.” The opportunity is what strikes Ames (2012 winner of the English Speaking Union’s National Shakespeare Competition) the most about the experience. “Being a part of a production of this size and this caliber is really exciting,” she said. “Performing on the Paramount stage will be exhilarating.”

“This is a dream come true for me to be able to expand in this way,” said Krisel. Like Krisel, Amahl, was Tamarkin’s first exposure to opera. She said,“It had a huge effect on me. It was magical. I’m hoping lots of young people will come to see our Amahl and it will transform them too.”

Have your say. Drop a line to mail bag@c-ville.com, send a letter to 308 E. Main St., or post a comment at c-ville.com.

Amahl and the Night Visitors/Paramount Theater/December 8

 

Categories
Living

Oh, behave! Should you connect with someone new while on a date?

Modern dating is full of etiquette land mines, from appropriate texting to when to “friend” request. But here is one I am most curious about since available single people are rare in the “middle” age bracket: What is the etiquette for connecting with someone else when out on a date?

The situation:
You are at a party with a date with whom you have not yet committed to a singular relationship (we used to call that status “going steady”). You meet an attractive, available person with whom you have much in common and you would like to get to know better. Should you:

A. Give them your number and ask them to call you? After all, good prospects are scarce.

B. Wait for them to ask for your contact information and give it freely? They made the first move. Obviously they are interested.

C. Neither give nor receive contact information? Behave! You are out on a date after all.

D. Get their contact information later from the host or a mutual friend? This discrete tact saves face for you and your date while allowing you a way to pursue something interesting.

Given the lack of information available online on this particular subject, I consulted the next best source of information at hand—my Facebook friends—and got some pretty hilarious answers . One likened the situation to U.S. international relations and bridge-burning, using a supply and demand model. Another suggested that cuteness and winking would smooth over any bad feelings on the date’s part and entice the third party. Several responses concerned defining the “dating” relationship and gave answers based on the level of involvement—the more involved you are with the “date,” the less passing out of contact info you should be doing. But my favorite response was this: Take a cue from Frank Sinatra’s song list (not his personal life) and listen to the lyrics of “Luck be a Lady Tonight.” I think my friend meant this stanza in particular:

A lady never flirts with strangers
She’d have a heart, she’d be nice
A lady doesn’t wander all over the room
And blow on some other guy’s dice

I have to agree. The way one behaves in public speaks volumes regarding their character. Plus, if dating is an audition for a long term relationship then loyalty is an important character trait. I would be offended if my date gave out contact information to another woman for personal reasons (business is another matter). It shows a lack of respect. If I am out with a guy and we are just friends and we both have a clear understanding of that, then I would explain that to any potential dating material before I gave him my contact information. If the date and I are not exclusively dating, I would totally get the third party’s information from the host(ess) later.

It seems to me the better behaved one is, the better chance of attracting a nice person in the long run.

Mary Burruss is a freelance writer and blogger who thinks moving to Charlottesville was one of the best decisions she ever made. She writes about art and culture for pubs like Art Times, US Airways Magazine and Virginia Living, and blogs on culturenuts.wordpress.com and datingbycommittee.wordpress.com. Salsa dancing is the latest in a long string of her passions.

Categories
Living

Critical thinking: What’s the difference between the right guy and the wrong guy?

(To be read with “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by the Clash as proper background music.)

One huge problem with coming from a dysfunctional family is lacking a roadmap for having a functional relationship. Certainly, I have functional relationships with friends and even most of my family members (now), but when it comes to a long-term partner, I am absolutely clue-LESS.

To make matters worse, I grew up in the theatre with a bunch of entertaining yet extraverted exhibitionists, which means I also lack a sense of normal social boundaries. As a result of my background, I experience a lot of angst when it comes to determining what is acceptable behavior in a man (and myself) and what is not.

This condition is akin to driving on a strange road in extremely thick fog—it is scary and there are no points of reference to help navigate. Since my goal is to have a successful, functional long-term relationship, learning what is acceptable and what is not, is critical.

In other words, what most women may understand as unacceptable in a man quite quickly, I have to analyze for a long time, which includes consulting about 10 different people before I can decide A) if the behavior is indeed unacceptable/acceptable, B) whether or not said behavior is a deal-breaker and C) is the problem really with me rather than him?

Say I have met a nice-looking, passably intelligent, reasonably employed guy who’s house is a total mess (as in dishes in the sink for weeks, papers, tools, and clothes piled everywhere in a layer of dust bunnies and grit).* I, on the other hand, a visually oriented person, need things to be tidy and reasonably clean. I will obsess—possibly for weeks—over this point from 12 different angles ranging from basic hygiene issues to deep psychological implications before deciding if I should keep this man in my life or let him go.

I will also spend a lot of time second guessing myself. Am I hijacking what could possibly be a wonderful opportunity? Am I settling for something less than I deserve? Will the benefits of being with this person outweigh this issue in the long run or will it cause an irreparable rift? Is this issue really all that important?

It is nerve-wracking.

The benefits to all this (possibly) over-thinking is that when I make the decision to 86 a relationship, I am sure that it is the right thing to do and I can do it calmly without reserve, allowing for as gentle a break-up as possible. The downside is I spend way too much energy on an issue that most people could figure out in a fraction of the time.

At least I am trying to get it right.

*Disclaimer: This scenario is based on many men I have dated (or married) over the years and does not reflect any one in particular.

Mary Burruss is a freelance writer and blogger who thinks moving to Charlottesville was one of the best decisions she ever made. She writes about art and culture for pubs like Art Times, US Airways Magazine and Virginia Living, and blogs on culturenuts.wordpress.com and datingbycommittee.wordpress.com. Salsa dancing is the latest in a long string of her passions.

Categories
Living

The trouble with benefits: How do you mix friends and sex?

A few weeks ago I saw a play at Four County Players called I Love You Because, a cute modern day romantic musical comedy and got a good giggle from a song titled, “Just Friends.” The song summarizes the rather contemporary notion of having friendships in which you engage in regular sexual activity. Here are a few lyrics:

Diana: Friends are like an old shirt, that always makes you smile.
Jeff: It makes you feel all fuzzy inside, but it gets dirty once in a while.
Diana: A friends does to you what you do onto them, like Jesus recommends.
Both: And we want to be good boys and girls, and that’s why we’re just friends… with benefits.
Diana: We each do our own thing, cause we’re not dating and that’s fine.
Jeff: But every couple of evenings, our things will intertwine.

As a divorced by choice, single mother, who couldn’t afford a gigolo if I wanted one, I certainly understand the advantages of this concept. In fact, an acquaintance summed it up rather nicely once when she described the type of dating website she wished existed—one where you could pick a man from a lineup of hotties to come over on weekends while the kids are away, have him fix things around the house, engage in great sex, then leave so you can have time to read the latest best selling romance novel undisturbed. All the good stuff without the dirty socks on the floor and the fights over housework.

But even Hollywood recognizes that regular sexual activity between people who like each other often yields an emotional response. There are no less than two films and one television series titled “Friends With Benefits,” all with the premiss that the couples in question start out as friends who begin a no-strings-attached physical relationship then fall in love. Remember Monica and Chandler and what happened to them? Even the two characters that sang the aforementioned song in the play fell in love in the end. Is the entertainment world saying that it is just knee-slapping funny that these people can’t keep a lid on their feelings  or is the message more aligned with the concept that people are just stupid to think that they can have sex without getting emotionally involved?

I am not judging here. I believe that two mutually consenting adults should behave in any manner they agree upon concerning their bodies. As for me, I like to have an emotional connection to go along with the physical one—otherwise I feel like something is missing. Sort of like having icing without the cupcake or fries without the steak.

It also seems a bit awkward if one is seeking a long-term committed relationship outside of one’s friends-with-benefits relationship. If the sexual space is already filled in your life, then how does a new person fit in? (Excuse the pun). Which begs the question, how to bring up your f#$% buddy with potential date material. On the third date or so, does one casually mention between the main course and dessert, “Oh by the way, I am sexually active right now but the person in question is just a friend. So when we are ready to take our relationship to the next level, I would appreciate you letting me know a few days in advance so I can give them notice that their services are no longer needed”?

Too bad there isn’t a play that includes that moment set to music.

Mary Burruss is a freelance writer and blogger who thinks moving to Charlottesville was one of the best decisions she ever made. She writes about art and culture for pubs like Art Times, US Airways Magazine and Virginia Living, and blogs on culturenuts.wordpress.com and datingbycommittee.wordpress.com. Salsa dancing is the latest in a long string of her passions.

Categories
Living

Pencil me in: How to date someone who’s busy making other plans

In the age of instant communication, everyone is busy. I get that. I am busy too. As a single mom who works two jobs, exercises regularly, has an active social life, attends many cultural events, pursues a few hobbies (salsa dancing, hiking, cooking, “Downton Abbey”), is heading up a major fundraising event, and raising a child who lives at home with many interests and friends, sometimes I feel like I barely have time to breathe. In spite of all that, if I am interested in someone, I make time to spend with them and I expect that in reverse.

However, I have noticed in my pursuit of romance, that there is a brand of single person who claims a desire to have a mate but lacks the room in his schedule to accommodate one. You know the guy; you meet him and then it takes weeks to get together because he has so much going on. Then, between his demanding full-time job, work travel, marathon training schedule, night classes, volunteer and civic obligations, band practice, guys/girls night out, and season tickets (and perhaps spending time with his kids from a previous relationship), he can pencil you in for a 30-minute coffee here or a quick dinner there. After three dates over two months, you fail to determine how you will ever fit into his life—or he into yours.

The most amusing thing about this type of person is how emphatic they are about wanting someone with whom to spend time yet they have organized their life in such a way as to prohibit any real connection. It takes personal time to get to know someone—not just texts and e-mails. It also takes time to get to know yourself so that you will be worthy of a relationship with someone else. If you run across someone like this in your relationship search, here’s my advice: Explain your expectations up front. If you receive an answer like, “Once I am done with night school in six weeks, I will have more time to pursue a relationship.” Then you can ask them to call you in six weeks. If the interest is really there, they will remember. In the meantime, you can be meeting other people who actually have the time.

Mary Burruss is a freelance writer and blogger who thinks moving to Charlottesville was one of the best decisions she ever made.  She writes about art and culture for pubs like Art Times, US Airways Magazine and Virginia Living, and blogs on culturenuts.wordpress.com and datingbycommittee.wordpress.com.  Salsa dancing is the latest in a long string of her passions.

Categories
Living

Labels and love: What does “dating” mean anyway?

Gigantic news flash: I have met someone I really like and they like me back! Yep. After three years of agonizing outings and close-but-no-cigar adventures, a man has come along who piques my interest enough to pursue  a relationship that is more than just friends. I promise not to make you ill with all the cutesy details of why I like him or how wonderfully he treats me but I will share my latest relationship conundrum.

We have been seeing each other for a couple of months and there has been a lot of internal (me) and external (friends and family) pressure to define our relationship. I fail to recall this happening when I was younger but maybe I just wasn’t paying attention. Perhaps now that I have children to consider it seems more important to people that I know what I am doing or what someone’s intentions are towards me. The stakes are higher when there is the emotional interest of children to consider or property in question. Anyway, this gentleman and I have come to a place where we might be ready to define our relationship as “dating.” But before I put him on my favorites list on my phone or change my FB status, I wanted to fully understand the what I was getting into.

What does “dating” mean exactly? I know what it means to me, but the concept is open to interpretation and I want to make sure that I, we (the man in question and myself), and the collective world around us are on the same page. So I looked it up and found some surprisingly consistent definitions. Bonny Albo from About.com defines dating as “an activity two people share together with the intention of getting to know each other better on a potentially romantic level.” Simple enough and pretty much what I thought. Wikipedia takes that concept a little further, adding a tad more seriousness to the activity: “Dating is a form of courtship consisting of social activities done by two people with the aim of each assessing the other’s suitability as a partner in an intimate relationship or as a spouse.” O.K., I can get behind that. I am in this game to find someone to share my life with for the long haul.

But my favorite definition is this one, from Urban Dictionary:

“Dating- somewhere between f#$% buddy and boyfriend.

Example:
Ashley: So is he your FB or BF?
Lisa: No, we’re dating…”

Fabulous! I think I will go update my media now.

Categories
Living

Love in the age of smartphones

The universe lacks a person more devoted to their iPhone than I. Ever since my ex-husband insisted we change phone plans (we’re still on the same family phone plan to make it easier for us and the kids) to get iPhones my life has been transformed. That sounds a bit melodramatic and materialistic, but I derive joy from the freedom a smart phone affords me as a writer. I can record interviews, e-mail, text, and navigate with one tool that miraculously fits in my purse or back pant pocket.

As a person who is terrible with names yet must, as a journalist, keep up with a vast list of contacts, the contact photo feature is a godsend. I can take or upload a photo of people I need to remember and attach it to their contact information and that photo will pop up when that person calls (as long as that number is linked to them in my data base). iPhone contacts also lets me assign people ringtones so I have another way of identifying someone before I even look at my phone.

The custom ringtone is something that I give only to very important special people in my life, like my daughter, my son, ex-husband (it’s good to know when to ignore the phone) and certain good friends. So in this age of smartphone special ringtone technology, assigning a unique ringtone to a man I am seeing signifies that my feelings have reached a certain level of interest. It means that the man has become more than a friend and I want to know when he is calling separate from all other callers. That translates into status in Mary’s world.

A while ago, I briefly dated a man whom I upgraded to special ringtone status. I actually searched for the song and downloaded the ringtone (a first for me, all other custom ringtones in my phone are farmed from the iPhone ringtone list). Then when it became apparent that things were not working out for us, I decided his contact information should be stripped of its “special” status and changed his ringtone to my standard. I committed this act while standing in the checkout line at Whole Foods and in my usual fashion mentioned the act to the man standing behind me in line. He flashed a knowing smile and said, “A sign of the times,yes?”

A sign of the times, indeed.

Mary Burruss is a freelance writer and blogger who thinks moving to Charlottesville was one of the best decisions she ever made.  She writes about art and culture for pubs like Art Times, US Airways Magazine and Virginia Living, and blogs on culturenuts.wordpress.com and datingbycommittee.wordpress.com.  Salsa dancing is the latest in a long string of her passions.

Categories
Arts

Civil libertarian expresses himself through “Instant Karma” at Firefish Gallery

When John Whitehead drew the monsters and violent scenes from his imagination as a child, his teachers deemed his demonic drawings as “bad” and would snatch the offending doodles from his notebook, ball them up and toss them in the waste can.  “I was always going to the principal’s office because of my drawings,” Whitehead notes.

Now that he is a grown-up civil liberties attorney, he gives himself permission to paint out his feelings despite anyone else’s opinions. The first formal showing of a collection of his work, “Instant Karma,” is happening now through October 25th at the Firefish gallery.

There are two distinct styles represented in the exhibit; colorful water colors (his more recent medium) depicting everything from blood dripping flowers to a peace sign and a more sophisticated set of expressionist portraits in oil. Whitehead produces about 60 water color paintings at his “studio” (his kitchen table) annually, manipulating the water color paints by using little water to manufacture an effect closer to the look of oil paintings. Then there is the glitter. “It gives it three dimensional depth and some of them actually glow in the dark,” says Whitehead. The use of glitter in Whitehead’s in addition to dimension, gives a childlike quality that mocks the ever present sinister element in each painting. The renderings are sophomoric but the concepts are clearly grappling with bigger issues. “Its my human rights message,” says Whitehead. “My whole life I’ve just been trying to get people to think.”

Whitehead’s percentage of the proceeds from the show all go to The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit he heads to provide free legal services to people who are fighting for their civil liberties.

“Instant Karma” runs through October 25th at Firefish Gallery, 108 2nd St. NW, Charlottesville.  More information at www.firefishgallery.net.

Categories
Arts

Arts Extra: Heritage Theatre Fest’s 1776 makes the history current

Heritage Theatre Festival’s 1776 is like a long version “School House Rock” episode on the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But be warned, you may learn more history than just the late 18th Century in this well produced, solidly directed, and keenly performed production. The timeless theme of a dysfunctional Congress is broadened by social concerns of the era of the show’s origin and the coordination of HTF’s production with the 250th anniversary of the city of Charlottesville.

 

 

John Adams (Roger DeWitt, left) and Ben Franklin (Evan Bridenstine, right) discuss how to convince a reluctant Congress to vote for independence in Heritage Theatre Festival’s production of 1776. (photo by Mike Bailey)

 

The show begins on a warm day in May of 1776 as the Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia. A frustrated John Adams (Roger E. Dewitt) who is itching to start a revolution against a tyrannical King George III, grouses about the delegations’ lack of cooperation. These guys can’t even resolve whether or not the windows should be open or shut. (Good thing our current representatives function better, right?) It is during the opening number, “Sit Down, John” that creator’s Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards hint that this play is far from a reverent homage to our founding fathers. In fact the beauty of 1776 is that it gives the modern audience a glimpse of the egos, agendas, bargains and bribing indicative of governing bodies. The negotiation process is so well orchestrated in the script that even though the audience is certain of the ending, one is emotionally engaged in the twists and turns of the action.

In its day, 1776 was also a platform for instigating conversations about issues that were relevant in 1969, such as the peace movement, the sexual revolution, and  the civil rights struggle. Today’s contemporary elements emerge via debates about war vs. peace, a silly amount of bedroom jokes and a poignant song, gorgeously rendered by actor Jonathan Elliott Coarsay as Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, about the evils of the slave trade.

Though Virginia pride may have been a slight influence in securing the affections of the audience, Matt Joslyn’s good ol’ boy, Richard Henry Lee, and Joshua Miller’s Thomas Jefferson were definitely crowd favorites. Under the skilled guidance of director Robert Chapel both men are depicted as viral and talented, symbols of Virginia’s important role in the Independence movement. Hoots and hollers from the audience punctuated Joslyn’s vigorous rendition of “The Lees of Old Virginia” (performed in flawless Virginia accent) while Joshua Miller’s tall, calm, collected Jefferson was a pleasing contrast to DeWitt’s appropriately agitating Adams.

The production is lovely with Tom Bloom’s clean, classic set, Dorothy Smith’s distinguished costumes, gorgeous lighting by R. Lee Kennedy (no relation to the Virginia Lees) combined with Chapel’s capable direction and spot-on musical Direction by Greg Harris. The one flaw of the show and this production is a poorly choreographed dance number during what seems to be a pointless song, “He Plays the Violin.” The song neither adds to the action nor establishes anything important about any of the characters DeWitt and Evan Bridenstine (Benjamin Franklin) take turns dancing couples style (quite out of fashion during the late 1700’s) with beautiful actress, Marija Reiff (Martha Jefferson) who lacks grace and was flat on the final note of the song. Despite this annoyance, the rest of the show is wonderful. Particularly moving is the sweet chemistry and strong song deliveries between Amaree Cluff (Abigail Adams) and DeWitt.

1776 is an entertaining way for all generations to celebrate our local, national heritage and brush up on American History. And who knows, maybe even inspire a conversation or two about our political system and how we as “The People” might like it to work.