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LIFESTYLE
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100
CHAGALL’S FORGOTTEN WORK
PAGE 3
... that three words can
change my life. At Denny’s, the
waitress said to another wait-
ress, “Get over yourself.” The
words uplifted my spirits. Just
like the words my son gave me
the week before he died at the
age of 25:
“Mom! Lighten up.”
Patricia Boyle
Soquel
... to not force happiness. If
you try, it’ll be fake. Happiness
is unintentional. It only comes
when it’s real. I was once with
a group of people who were
popular. I continued telling my-
self I was happy, but in truth I
wasn’t until I went back to my
real friends.
Annemarie Guido
San Jose
3
things
to do
today
Our ideas,
Page 2
By Bruce Newman
Mercury News
Not that you would lie. Not you.
But some people — other people — apparently view Internet
dating as an opportunity for reinvention, an act of self-improve-
ment without any actual, you know, improvement. Countless
profiles on sites such as Match.com, eHarmony — not to men-
tion the rougher trade lurking on Craigslist — feature heights,
ages and six-fi
gure incomes that exist only in the digitally datable
database.
After her marriage fell apart and she moved to Silicon Valley
from Canada a decade ago, Julia Ma signed up for a number of
dating services, including several Chinese-language sites. “Cana-
dian people are very nice; they don’t lie,” Ma says. “But on Match.
com I met so many liars! One guy even was in jail for six months.
I finally sent a private investigator to check him out.” (Match.com
did not respond to a request for comment).
She was paired off with so many losers that Ma started her
own matchmaking service, San Jose-based Your Asian Connec-
tion, offering a more personalized — and carefully vetted — ap-
proach to fi
xing up the lovelorn of Santa Clara County’s largest
ethnic community.
Among Silicon Valley’s immigrant communities, the sort of
hands-on matchmaking that traditionally was engineered by dot-
ing aunties and pushy parents is once again available from pro-
fessional romance wranglers. Like Yente, the matchmaker in the
Broadway musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” they will fi
nd you a fi
nd,
By Richard Scheinin
Mercury News
OK, so there’s this “Peanuts”
strip where Schroeder, one of
Charlie Brown’s best friends, is
getting ready for something big.
He’s doing push-ups and sit-ups.
He’s jumping rope and jogging
and, fi
nally, he wolfs down a big
bowl of cereal — carbo-loading,
1950s-style — before leaping onto
the bench of his toy piano where,
with beads of sweat fl
ying from
his brow, he begins to play an un-
named musical composition.
The opening notes of the piece
are right there in the strip. But
what is it? Cartoonist Charles M.
Schulz never identifi
es the music.
And why all the sweaty prepara-
tion?
Because Schroeder, explains
William Meredith, director of
the Ira F. Brilliant Center for
Beethoven Studies at San Jose
State
University,
is
tackling
Beethoven’s
“Hammerklavier”
Sonata, a piece so daunting that
“some people consider it the most
difficult piano sonata ever writ-
ten,” he says.
But don’t worry if you don’t
read music and haven’t heard
the “Hammerklavier.” An exhibit
opening Saturday at the Beethoven
Center explains everything. Titled
“Schulz’s Beethoven, Schroeder’s
Muse,” it explores the connections
between “Peanuts” and Beethoven,
starting with many of the 300
or so cartoons that Schulz — a
Beethoven obsessive, just like little
Schroeder, his alter ego — drew
about the composer between 1950
and 2000.
Amid the 17,897 “Peanuts”
strips drawn by Schulz before his
death nine years ago, Beethoven
— his life, his loves and, most
of all, the wonders of his music
— is a running subtext. Now it
has been decoded, thanks to the
exhibit, co-sponsored by the Cen-
ter for Beethoven Studies and the
Charles M. Schulz Museum and
Research Center in Santa Rosa,
where Schulz resided for years
(and where “Schulz’s Beethoven”
first opened last summer).
If you visit the exhibit in
downtown San Jose, you will see
Schulz’s original drawing of the
“Hammerklavier” strip, dating to
Jan. 25, 1953. You will see the title
page to the fi
rst-edition score of
Exhibit explores link between ‘Peanuts,’ Beethoven
matchmaking
PATRICK TEHAN — MERCURY NEWS
Julia Ma, a matchmaker who specializes in the Bay Area’s Asian-American community, talks with a client in her San Jose office.
‘Schulz’s Beethoven, Schroeder’s Muse’
When:
Saturday through July 31.
Where:
Ira F. Brilliant Center for
Beethoven Studies, Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. Library, San Jose State Univer-
sity,
East San Fernando and South Fourth
streets
Times:
Admission is free. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; 11
a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesdays; 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Fridays; 1-5 p.m. Saturdays. For more
information: www.sjsu.edu/depts/
beethoven or 408-808-2056.
Special event:
The public is invited
to Friday’s opening reception at the
Beethoven Center. Pianist Craig Shep-
pard, a Beethoven specialist, will perform.
Jean Schulz (widow of cartoonist Charles
Schulz) and Irma Brilliant (co-founder of
the Beethoven Center) will cut an open-
ing ribbon. The reception is 6:30
to 9:30
p.m., tickets are $57 ($42 deductible),
and proceeds go toward offsetting the
costs of the exhibit. 408-808-2058.
(C) UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE
We will showcase our favorites
in print and online. To be
considered, entries must not
exceed 50 words, and include
your full name and city.
Silicon Valley ethnic communities
turn to old-fashioned services offered
by plain-speaking women to find
a partner for life — love optional
JOSIE LEPE — MERCURY NEWS
Jasbina Ahluwalia’s Palo Alto-based
Intersections Matchmaking serves the
Indian community.
See
MATCHMAKERS
, Page 6
See
PEANUTS
, Page 4
