Jeff Gonzales is a singer- song writer who will bring his musical talent to Sweetwood for a melodious evening performance. The following is an affirming blurb from another retirement community. Please linger after dinner to enjoy this program!!!

As a photographer for many musicians I have heard many singer songwriter/ guitarists. Jeff Gonzales is one of the finest guitar players I have ever seen. He is as good as any guitarist in this land. He is also a fine songwriter. As a performer he is the best at establishing a great rapport with his audience. His sense of humor is amazing. In short he is a great performer who has it all. I can recommend him, without reservation to anyone or any club. Once people see him they return over and over. I hope I have shouted loudly enough about this fine person and musician. Robert Neaman

Associate Professor Amy Gehring of Williams College will present a lecture on “From the Soil to your Medicine Cabinet: Understanding Streptomyces Bacteria” on Monday March 1, at 7:15pm in the Auditorium.

The majority of antibiotics in clinical use come from natural sources. In particular, the many species of Streptomyces, common soil bacteria, have been a rich source for the discovery of pharmaceutically important compounds. These microorganisms produce antibiotics as an integral part of their rather complex life cycle.

This talk will focus on the understanding of how Streptomyces grow and develop. “The more that is known about these bacteria, the more likely it is that strategies for increasing or improving antibiotic production can be realized,” said Gehring.

Gehring is an associate professor of chemistry. She studies the bacteria Streptomyces coelicolor, which is used to manufacture many types of antibiotics. Her current projects include researching the effects of various mutations on antibiotic production.

At Williams, she teaches courses on “AIDS: The Disease and Search for a Cure” and “Enzyme Kinetics and Reaction Mechanisms.”

Gehring, who was been at Williams since 2002, received her B.A. from Williams College in 1994 and her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1998.

Half Price Night Tuesday March 2, leaving at 7:00pm please sign up

The final year of Russian socialist writer Leo Tolstoy’s life comes to the screen with Christopher Plummer in the lead role and Helen Mirren portraying his wife, Sofya. Paul Giamatti, James McAvoy, and Anne-Marie Duff co-star in the Warner Bros. production, directed by Michael Hoffman from the novel by Jay Parini

Written and directed by French auteur Jacques Tati, this nearly silent comedy stars Tati as the hapless Monsieur Hulot, a Parisian auto designer who has a tricky time delivering a prototype camper packed with crazy gadgets to a show in Amsterdam. The obstacles Hulot faces during this hilarious journey — including a flat tire, traffic jams and an altercation with the police — have a way of spiraling into absurdity.
(1971, 97 mins)
Tuesday March 2, 7:30pm

Befuddled English cartographer Reginald Anson (Hugh Grant) and his corpulent partner, George Garrard (Ian McNeice), upset an entire Welsh community when they arrive to measure the town’s peak and declare it 16 feet shy of mountain status. Incensed that their local landmark — and source of civic pride — is about to be downgraded to a hill, the townsfolk band together and devise an ambitious scheme to remedy the situation. Based on a true story.
(1999, 95 mins)
Wednesday March 3, 7:30pm

Audrey Hepburn, the essence of 1950s chic, stars in an Oscar-winning performance as a cosseted European princess who goes AWOL in Rome and is soon taken under the wing of tabloid journalist Gregory Peck and his photographer sidekick, Eddie Albert. She thinks the boys don’t suspect who she really is, but they’re onto her — and sense a sensational story if they can just keep Audrey’s handlers from retrieving her too soon. (1953, 118 mins)
Saturday March 6, 7:30pm

Love is the ultimate weapon! This wickedly entertaining story of love, sex and betrayal is as sumptuously guilt-inducing as a decadent chocolate you just can’t resist. Depicting the devious schemes of French aristocrats on the cusp of the Revolution, it heats up the intimate Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company this winter under the direction of Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer.

Packer directs Elizabeth Aspenlieder, who won the coveted Elliot Norton Award for her tour de force performance in Bad Dates last winter, and Josh Aaron McCabe, most recently seen last fall as Sherlock Holmes (and a host of other characters, both male and female) in the runaway hit The Hound of the Baskervilles. Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) was ahead of its time as a novel in 1782 and it still may be ahead of its time today

Sunday March 7, 2:00pm leaving Sweetwood at 12:30pm. Tickets are $19.50 Please sign up by Thursday Feb.25 at noon. Your account will be charged for the ticket

Nominated for six Emmys (with a win for Best Miniseries), this Western follows a pair of horse traders who rescue five Chinese girls sold into sexual slavery. While herding 500 horses to Wyoming, Prentice Ritter (Robert Duvall) and his nephew (Thomas Haden Church) cross paths with the quintet and reluctantly take them under their wing. But the men’s good turn leads to a run-in with the madam who bought the girls and the nasty ex-con sent to reclaim them. (2006)
Sunday March 7, 3:00pm

The Literary Society will meet on Monday March 8, at 10:30am in the Private Dining Room. We will discuss, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery. All book-lovers are welcome!

World War II is raging, and a captured American general is being held hostage in Schloss Adler, a Bavarian citadel that’s nearly impossible to breach. It’s up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it’s too late. But can they pull off the dangerous mission? This 1968 classic pairs the enigmatic Richard Burton with the iconic Clint Eastwood in a tale of wartime bravery and treachery.
(1968, 155 mins)
Monday March 8, 7:30pm