What’s happening at LifeLong Learning?
Premier Lectures are held in the Renaissance Theater at 7:00 p.m. while Monday Morning Lectures start at 10:00 a.m. TED Talks, PC Reads and Sunday Series are free, but require registration as there are limits to the number of participants. Please consult the printed SCHEDULE or the LLL website at www.lifelonglearningatpc.org for times and other details. To register, please go online or come to the LLL Center during office hours.
Tuesday, December 5: Trip to Luke Air Force Base. Sold Out; Thursday, December 7: PC Reads discusses A Man Called Ove, LLL Center; Thursday, December 14: TED Talks, Palm Room; Tuesday, December 19: Celebration of Christmas trip; Thursday, January 4: PC Reads discusses Our Souls at Night, LLL Center; Tuesday, January 9: Trip to Luke Air Force Base, Sold Out; Tuesday, January 9: Artisan Bread class, Sold Out; Wednesday, January 9: Driving High Performance Cars class, LLL Center; Thursday, January 11: TED Talk, Palm Room; Friday, January 12: Premier Lecture, The Global Ocean in Crisis; Monday, January 15: MML, Strokes, Treatment and Prevention; Tuesday, January 16: Artisan Bread class, Sold Out; Wednesday, January 17: Trip to Goodyear Airport and Stadium, Sold Out; Wednesday, January 17: All About Drones class, LLL Center; Friday, January 19: Premier Lecture, Admiral Vern Clark; Monday, January 22: MML, Stalin and Organized Terror; Tuesday, January 23: Learn to Make Pasta class, private home; Thursday, January 25: Ballet: Cinderella class, LLL Center; Thursday, January 25: Medical Marijuana trip – Sold Out; Sunday, January 28: Sunday Series: The Art of Storytelling, Chianti Room; Monday, January 29: MML, Flying with President Reagan; Wednesday, January 30: Learn to Make Pasta class, private home
December office hours
Even though LifeLong Learning does not hold classes and lectures in December, our office is open so you can secure your place in 2018 events.
Whether you need tickets for the January 12 Premier Lecture with Alanna Mitchell, whose book Sea Sick has been turned into a one-woman show, or want to learn more about roses from the curator emeritus of the Huntington Rose Garden, LL.olunteers are ready to help.
Interested in a gift certificate for that certain someone? Don’t want to pay with a credit card online? Or, just curious about what LifeLong Learning is?
You can do all those things and more during our regular office hours in the LLL Center. We’re staffed and ready to assist you, whether it’s setting up your PayPal account or linking your Fry’s VIP to benefit LLL, we’ve got you covered. Maybe you have an idea for a trip, class or premier lecture that you’d like to tell us about. We’re listening.
Stop in anytime between 9:00 a.m. and noon, Monday through Friday between December 1 and 22. We’ll be closed for the holidays between Christmas and New Year’s Day then open again on January 2.
Can you hear me now? New hearing loops will help.
Shannon Tyree
Great news! The days of, “What was that? I can’t hear the presenter,” are over. Both the LLL Center and Renaissance Theater have installed the latest hearing loop technology allowing people who wear certain hearing aids to receive the sound directly into their ears from the sound system, rather than from a separate listening device.
Today, most hearing aides are equipped with a wireless receiver called a T-Coil or Telecoil. Check with your hearing device provider to see if you have this technology. Then, when you are attending classes or a lecture in the theater, switch over to that program.
“The hearing loop in the theater means that I can hear the lecturers as if I had a front row seat and good hearing,” PebbleCreek resident Fred Williams said about the new system. “Now I can attend theater and classroom events. It’s worth going again.”
So, in case you haven’t been attending programs that LLL presents because you thought, “What’s the use, I can’t hear anyway,” this is a reminder that technology just might be sitting in your ears.
Want more information about hearing loops in general? Visit www.hearingloop.org. For questions about your specific brand of hearing aids, talk to your audiologist. Then look for this sign to see where hearing loops are installed.
LLL Gift Certificates fit everyone and make great gifts
Shannon Tyree
Hmm, don’t know what to get that hard to buy for person? You know, the one who has everything. It happens a couple of times a year. You need to find the perfect gift for the special someone, only sometimes you don’t hit the mark. Remember the time you bought your tech-loving recipient the trendy Fitbit? Oh sure, it was well intended and it seemed like the perfect gift until the look on their face was, “Really, you think I’m fat?”
Relax, we’ve got you covered during this gift-giving season! Our gift certificates come in any amount, in a nice gift card and envelope, are good for any LLL lecture or class and have no expiration date. Gift certificates are available now in the LLL Center during regular office hours and prior to MML and Premier Lectures starting in January.
So imagine the look on your gift recipient’s face this time. When, instead of another bomb, you’ll both be relishing the delight of a perfectly selected gift. And yes, holding a LLL gift certificate really does make you look thinner.
January 12: Crisis in the ocean
Shannon Tyree
Remember standing on the beach and picking up a big shell, then holding it up to your ear to hear the sound of the ocean? On Friday, January 12, Alanna Mitchell will tell you what you might hear now – the sounds of the global ocean in crisis.
Whether you are a climate change skeptic or believer, the evidence is clear – humans are the cause of the ocean’s problems. From floating islands of plastic to huge areas dead to life, the ocean has become warmer and more acid. Renowned for her investigative reporting on science and social trends, Mitchell blends fact, humor and personal anecdotes as she explains how the oceans got sick and what we need to do to save them.
A fascination with the intersection of science, art and society led Mitchell, a Canadian journalist, author and playwright, to pen Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis. She spent three years traveling around the world with scientists to discover what is happening to our oceans and she found that the world’s oceans ar.ery sick.
Mitchell has turned Sea Sick into a one-woman play, which she will perform at the Sydney (Australia) Festival a week after speaking at PebbleCreek.
Join Mitchell on a thought-provoking, sometimes frightening but ultimately hopeful journey 3,000 feet beneath the sea at 7:00 p.m. Friday, January 12. You will learn why the next time you pick up a big shell on the beach you just might hear a cry for help.
Tickets are $15 per person and may be purchased online at www.lifelonglearning.org, at the LLL Center during office hours or at the theater before the lecture.
Thank you, volunteers!
LifeLong Learnin.olunteers kickoff another exciting season
You know there’s a class for that!
Classes begin in January and this year the selections are a.aried as PebbleCreek residents’ interests. Register online at www.lifelonglearningatpc.org/classes and select the class you are interested in. Or register in person at the LLL Center and a LL.olunteer will assist you. The following classes were still available at press time. You will need to check availability.
Wednesday, January 10, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. – Driving High Performance Cars; Thursday, January 25, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. – Ballet: Learn about Cinderella; Thursday, February 1, 11:00 a.m. – noon – Opera: The Barber of Seville; Wednesday, February 7, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. – Driving High Performance Cars; Thursday, February 13 and 20, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. – Humor: How to Prevent Hardening of the Attitudes; Thursday, February 22, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. – World of Roses; Wednesday, March 7, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. – Drones: Past, Present and Future
Great Decisions
Great Decisions is an eight-week discussion program focusing on different critical issues facing the United States. Created by the Foreign Policy Association, the program involves reading the Great Decisions briefing book, watching a DVD about the topic and discussion of the issues in a small group with other residents. Choose from available openings remaining in one of the five groups that will meet for two hours per session. Mondays, beginning January 22 at 4:00 p.m. or Mondays, beginning January 22 at 6:15 p.m. or Tuesdays, beginning January 23 at 4:00 p.m. or Tuesdays, beginning January 23 at 6:15 p.m.
Ballet, symphony and opera – Enjoy the performing arts with LLL
Shannon Tyree
My guess is some PebbleCreek residents have never been. I hadn’t until a friend bought me a ticket to the opera. She told me I’d love it – she said it was a funny one. After questioning our friendship, I went. I was sure I’d be bored or wouldn’t understand it, but, you know what? I loved it. And because of that experience of trying something new, I’ve gone to the opera many times since.
Ironically, that opera was The Barber of Seville, th.ery same opera that is the focus of both a class and a trip this year. I refer to it as my “gateway” opera, because it led me into more and more operas. My point is that if you’ve never been, you may just be surprised at what you will experience. The same is true for the ballet and the symphony.
LLL makes it easy to enjoy these performing arts. On Thursday, February 11, Joshua Borths, the director for Arizona Opera’s production of The Barber of Seville, will be in PebbleCreek to teach a class on what to watch and listen for during the opera. Take the class and then join LLL for a trip to see the matinee performance on Sunday, March 11. The trip includes a pre-opera lecture and dinner after the performance.
Similarly, you can be ready for the trip to the ballet by first attending the January 25 class on the ballet Cinderella with Joseph Cavanaugh, a professional dancer who has taught previous classes in PebbleCreek. The trip to Ballet Arizona for the matinee performance of Cinderella is Saturday, February 17. If you are a fan of happily ever after, you will not want to miss this opportunity. The trip includes a pre-ballet lecture and dinner at Sonata’s following the beautiful production.
Finally, LLL is offering a trip Friday, February 23 to the Phoenix Symphony for a concert of Brahms and Schumann music. Germa.iolinist Friederike Starkloff is making her American debut that morning as she performs the Brahms Concerto. The trip begins with a pre-concert talk with the conductor and guest musician and ends with lunch at Seasons 52 following the concert.
If you are already a ballet, symphony or opera fan, we hope you will join us. If not, maybe one of these will be your gateway into the performing arts. Either way, we encourage you to plan to attend what we are sure will be memorable experiences. Like my friend who gave me my ticket as a gift, consider purchasing one of these as a gift or purchase an LLL gift certificate and let your friend do the deciding!
Classes are $10 each. Costs of the trips are ballet – $150; symphony – $90; and opera – $160 and include tickets, bus transportation, meals and all tips. Reserve your place in a class or trip online at www.lifelonglearningatpc.org or in person at the LLL Center during office hours.
Join the LLL to see the Celebration of Christmas
Your holiday lights are up, many of your gifts purchased and you’ve even decorated the golf cart. How about joining us for a Phoenix Christmas tradition? The beauty and wonder of Christmas is celebrated in a spectacular way during Dream City Church’s Celebration of Christmas. The LLL trip includes the show, dinner at Cristopher’s on Camelback and round trip coach bus, all for $85. This is a Broadway-style show with hundreds of singers, a complete orchestra and they’ve been known to include a camel or two in the past during the beautiful nativity scene.
Even if you’ve been in the past, this year’s holiday show includes new dance numbers, professional acrobatic silk artists, awe-inspiring aerial stunts, flying angels and so much more. Please join us December 19 on this trip to a magical holiday experience. The bus leaves PebbleCreek at 4:00 p.m. and we hope you will be on it.
To register, please come to the LLL Center or go online at www.lifelonglearningatpc.org.