Psychology’s cognoscenti gathered tonight at the home/offices of Les and Susan Shor Fehmi to celebrate the publication of his second book, co-authored by Jim Robbins, titled “Dissolving Pain: Simple Brain-Training Exercise for Overcoming Chronic Pain,” published by Trumpeter/Shambhala Publications.

I have taken Fehmi’s training at Princeton Biofeedback Centre and can vouch for its power, so I’m delighted that more people will be able to access this therapy with the new book. It comes with a CD, and some of the exercises are on the web, so it is indeed available for those who can’t find or afford to get in-office training with an Open Focus biofeedback specialist.

Open Focus works for me to reduce blood pressure. For others, it widens their peripheral vision or improves their golf game, and many of the therapists at this party number Olympic athletes and world class musicians among their clients. Fehmi uses the metaphor of a high powered sports car whose owner knew how to drive it only in first and second gear. When shown how to drive in all six gears, he discovers, “it is a much higher performance machine than I imagined.”

Photo: Geraldine Fee, of the Neurology Group of Bergen County, with Les Fehmi. Here are more pictures of the launch party.

It’s gratifying to meet Princeton Comment readers at a meeting or social event and hear them say: “What you send is so useful! I would never have known about such and such!”

But it’s making me nervous. Because I’m not and never should be your primary source for news about what meetings to attend. That source should be U.S. 1 Newspaper or its online version, www.princetoninfo.com. That’s what U.S. 1 does — give advance notice, with an article or a listing in the events database.

I just sent out a blog post about the Princeton Chamber luncheon next Thursday with some other dates included in the email. If you depend only on me, you will miss the following, from the princetoninfo.com database. It’s a little tricky, I admit. Business meetings are the very last category in the drop-down selection. But here is what comes directly from that database now — and I’ve linked them to the articles in U.S. 1’s Survival Guide.

(10/02/2010 – Business Meetings), Borders Books, 601 Nassau Park Boulevard, 609-514-00401 p.m., ‘By George!’ Bill D’Arienzo, discusses his book on leadership, as defined by George Washington, free.

(10/04/2010 – Business Meetings), NJAWBO, Hyatt Regency, 609-799-5101
5 p.m., Annual Conference, featuring Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno and J.J. Ramberg of MSNBC, two-day conference, $375., http://www.njawbo.org

10/05/2010 – Business Meetings), TRI/Princeton, 609-430-4828 ‘Fourth International Conference on Applied Hair Science,’ http://www.triprinceton.org

(10/06/2010 – Business Meetings), Princeton University, Fields Center, 609-258-5494
4:30 p.m., ‘Leveraging Innovation & Diversity,’ Florence DiStefano Hudson, IBM, free.

(10/07/2010 – Business Meetings), MCCC, West Windsor campus, 609-570-3729
Noon, Shopping While Black: Understanding and Combating Consumer Racial Profiling,’ Shaun Gabbidon, Penn State, free., http://www.mccc.edu/events

(10/07/2010 – Business Meetings, Metropolitan Trenton African American Chamber of Commerce, Sam’s Club, after work meeting, 5 to 7 p.m., $12.
RSVP to assistant@mtaacc.orgor or 609 393-5933.

So I urge you to check in with the events database. Better yet, get the email newsletter that U.S. 1 issues on Tuesdays before Wednesday publication. It gives links to each story.

You’re reading this, I bet you’re used to getting much of your news online now anyway. To sign up for the newsletter, either hit “reply” and I’ll take care of it, or email info@princetoninfo.com and put “newsletter” in the subject line.

To get YOUR meeting in the database, or written about, send the details, including price, to Scott Morgan at meetings@princetoninfo.com

“Stop using the same planning techniques for new businesses that you use for existing ones,” says Rita Gunther McGrath, associate professor at Columbia Business School. “Instead, plan to learn rather than planning to be right.” She speaks on “Grow Your Company Safely in Uncertain Times” at a lunch on Thursday, October 7, at 11:30 a.m. at the Princeton Marriott. Reserve in advance at 609-924-1776 or http://www.princetonchamber.org.

Full disclosure: I know and like Rita McGrath and have done business with her. She lives in West Windsor and was sufficiently prescient to appreciate U.S. 1 Newspaper’s business database and used it for her research. She’s a charming, lively speaker with smart things to say, and she’s asked to say them to the likes of Microsoft’s CEO Summit, General Electric, Nokia, Novartis, etc. She wowed a Princeton Chamber audience several years ago at the Nassau Club.

Her latest book: Discovery Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity. Click here for her interview in U.S. 1 Newspaper.

One of her useful mantras: Fail fast and fail cheap. “To learn, you’ll need to fail – but if you fail fast, and fail cheaply, you can gain a significant edge over more timid competitors.

Afterword: For an account of McGrath’s very successful talk to the chamber, click here.

It’s an important weekend for dance. Today (October 1) Merce Cunningham Dance Company stops in New Brunswick at the State Theatre for a one-night stand on its Legacy Tour, two-years of barnstorming Merce’s dances as they were meant to be danced. No more need be said, but here is an intro from Robert Johnson of the Star-Ledger.

On the local front, on Saturday at Grounds for Sculpture, the Outlet Dance Project offers dance classes of several genres (children’s, flamenco, and a group movement workshop that culminates in a dance performed the following day, Sunday, October 3, at 2 p.m.

This concert (admission $12 to the sculpture park) will feature the work of a dozen choreographers. Merde to all.

Members of Not in Our Town joined others in the faith community at the United Nations International Day of Prayer in Palmer Square, an event sponsored by Fellowship in Prayer and the Princeton Clergy Association.

I met lots of old and new friends, but was most surprised to encounter someone from the Einstein Alley Entrerepeneurs Collaborative. Savraj Singh, wearing an orange turban, represented the Sikh community of Lawrenceville. He led one of the prayers and carried business cards that explain Sikhism, but at the EA Group he represents his own company, WattVision. Here is a link to the photos.

In the photo above you can see Savraj’s colorful turban. To the far right is the senior pastor of my church, Princeton United Methodist’s Jana Purkis-Brash. I have some videos which I am trying to put on YouTube.

As the Methodist member of Not in Our Town, I encouraged those I met to join us at the Princeton Public Library on Monday, October 4, for “Continuing Conversations on Race,” when LaRhonda Greats and I will lead a discussion of Lena Williams’ article and video, “Little Things: When Prejudice is Unintentional.” These first Monday discussions are an opportunity to share honest thoughts in an open and supportive environment; all are welcome. Details here.

What I took away from the dozen or so prayer leaders, ranging from the Jewish Center to the Bahais to the Quakers — we all have the same goal of peace, but different ways of trying to get there.

Safe leaders keep their heads down when under pressure, says Graham Jones, performance development consultant, but real leaders thrive use pressure as an opportunity to make a difference. Speaking at the Princeton Regional Chamber on September 15, the co-founder of Lane4 suggested that fear of failure doesn’t keep you at the top. Desire does.

Adrian Moorhouse, the CEO of Lane4, fought his way to Olympic gold by swimming in – yes – Lane 4. To win under pressure, says Jones in his new book “Thrive under Pressure,” you need belief, motivation, and focus.

Belief: Jim Landry didn’t believe he could break the four-minute mile until Roger Bannister almost did it.

Focus: Tiger Woods, says Jones, falls apart when he doesn’t lead in the final round. “Watch his body language. He can beat his opponents into the ground but tries too hard if he’s behind.” In contrast, Darren Clark, a Lane4 client, managed to compartmentalize and was able to ace his Ryder Cup matches just six weeks after his wife died.

Motivation: Provide meaning, says Jones, telling of the NASA janitor who was pushing a broom, but when asked what he was doing, said “I’m putting people on the moon.”

“You are the source of your employees’ pressure,” says Jones. “Too often there are so many challenges that there is no time for support. Help others thrive.”

In photo: Graham Jones with Michelle Everman of Mercadien.

Most entrepreneurs, contemplating getting government business, say “Let’s not go there,” and for many obvious reasons. Michelle Hermelee of BH Sky Associates wants to open the door for you. Her $20 seminar ‘How to Do Business with the Government and Take Your Company to New Heights Via Federal, State, and Local Government Contracts’ is Thursday, September 23, 10 a.m. in South Brunswick.

It’s fair to say that you don’t expect your accountant to follow you on Twitter and Facebook. Fox Rothschild offers a seminar Tweets & Turns: Negotiating the Impact of Social Media on the Workplace for CPAs on Wednesday, October 27, at 8 a.m. in Lawrenceville. It’s free by registration.

Rarely does a store close, then reopen, but Merrick’s is doing that. Forced out of its Moore Street store, it has temporary digs at Princeton Shopping Center, says Princeton Deals, with a trunk show set for today and tomorrow.

You go to the circus to be amazed.
You go to a magic show to be fooled, or to catch the fooler.
You go to a dance concert to take your imagination out for a run
You go to a play to give your emotions a workout.

So why should you see Aurelia’s Oratorio, now playing at McCarter? For three of the four. You will be amazed at the stunts and marvel at the sleight-of-body. Your imagination will have free rein. But you won’t get much chance to experience a catharsis at this 90-minute tour-de-force for Aurelia Thierree, her partner Jaime Martinez, and their backstage helpers.

I saw it on September 16, and it runs at the (smaller) Berlind Theatre through October 17. Take your kids — they’ll get it faster than you will.

It opens with her supposedly living in a chest of drawers, sticking arms and legs out of the drawers in funny ways. That’s appropriate, since she was a stage baby who probably slept in a drawer. Her grandfather was Charlie Chaplin and she toured with her parents in their Cirque Imaginaire, a surreal-like miniature circus. She and her mother, Victoria Thierree Chaplin, devised this show, which comes to McCarter from the American Repertory Theatre.

From the chest of drawers it’s one stream-of-consciousness surprise after another – anecdotes, often tossed off at a mercurial pace, sometimes long enough to be vignettes – mostly on the theme of “What if the world were upside down.” With that question taken literally, Martinez walks on his hands with a hat on his foot, looking like a woman with a very long neck. His shadow walks upright, while he mirrors it, lying on the floor. Thierree boards a sedan chair with an upside down chair and is ‘flown” by a kite that is on the floor.

In less literal depictions of an out-of-kilter world, he swings the lariat, but lassos himself and she gives a cigarette to a babe-in-arms. She goes to sleep when the alarm rings, and rescues the cat that the mouse dragged in – also at a fast pace, to music that is sometimes classical, sometimes ring-a-ding.

All this keeps me amused and wondering what will happen next, but I like it better when she dramatically interacts with some thing – often fabric – or some one, usually Martinez. Red velvet curtains that swag the stage take on a life of their own. She pops in and out of them. Windows open up. She climbs them, swings on them, and hangs limp on them. Early on, she binds herself in red, like on the prow of a boat, as the curtains swing crazily in the wind, like a ship in a storm.

Thierree and Martinez have some tour-de-force duets. In one (middle schoolers take note, it’s talent show material) they share a pair of white pants to do a solo dance. In another they tussle, presto-chango, with a black and red jacket. But best of all is when they actually dance together. My goodness, what a concept. After so much magic, so much fooling around, it’s such a relief for them to touch each other and tango together. Wow! Humans doing what humans are supposed to do!

Is there a dance comparison? Martinez used to be with David Parsons, but this is more akin to Pilobolus (though at a much faster pace) or Momix (which has the Chaplinesque feel). It’s more like a fast-paced magic show, except they’re not pulling rabbits or cards out of a hat – they’re pulling themselves out of goodness knows where. And like Cirque de Soleil, it’s very French, very stylish.

The ideas are brilliant, and the performers fabulous, but it all goes so quickly that it’s hard to discern any underlying meaning. If I were to see it again, I’d watch carefully for train references. Every once in a while she makes a train whistle noise, and she parades across the stage with building from a train set on her long train (get it?). The train theme contributes to a jaw-dropping finale.

Yet the picture I’ll remember longest involves a miniature white proscenium stage with an endless dropping curtain that keeps on reeling out fabric, changing from one white lace pattern to another, piling up on the floor. She is knitting behind this curtain when in comes a giant, menacing Balinese shadow puppet, who “eats” her foot, raveling it. She responds by “knitting” it back. Then another giant puppet picks her up by the neck like an Asian King Kong, rocking her as if she is dreaming. She escapes from the nightmare by running out from behind the white lace curtain.

For a preview of the fall theater schedule, see Simon Saltzman’s column at http://www.princetoninfo.com

Or check out the
option=com_us1more&Itemid;=6&key;=09-15-2010Dance”>dance line-up.

If you have an opinion about a dance concert, you are welcome to post it on this blog. Send it to me by email for me to post or use the opinion space below. And check out the “Critics Corner” on the front page of U.S. 1’s website, http://www.princetoninfo.com. It’s the only media outlet that aggregates reviews and comments from a variety of sources, even its competitors.

Visit Israel without the airfare and get an insider’s view during an eight-week interfaith course taught from both the Christian and Jewish perspectives. Naomi Vilko and Bonnie Galloway are teaching “Israel Inside/Out” at two venues – Princeton Theological Seminary and Beth El Synagogue in East Windsor.

“With animated maps, diagrams, and original film footage, we explore Israel’s history, politics, geography, and sociology in an exciting and interactive way,” says Vilko. The course features such experts as Daniel Ayalon (Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations), former ambassador Dore Gold, commentator Alan Dershowitz, Sir Martin Gilbert (who was the official biographer of Winston Churchill) and Rachel Fish (who made the documentary “Columbia Unbecoming”). Course topics will include The Peace Process, The Middle East in the Media and Israel on Campus.

The first class in East Windsor was Monday, September 13, at 9 p.m., but you can register late – or go to the first class in Princeton, which is Tuesday, September 1, at 7 p.m. Cost: $100 but Princeton Regional Chamber members get a 20 percent discount. Call Naomi Vilko MD at 609-924-3225 or email naomivilko@msn.com for more information.

Vilko is co-sponsoring this Jerusalem Online University course through her psychiatric consulting firm, Vilko Corporate Consulting, and other sponsors are Beth El Synagogue, the Jewish National Fund, and the Interfaith Task Force for America and Israel. With special expertise in treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, she teaches at Robert Wood Johnson and NYU medical schools. Active in Israel and Jewish affairs, she will address issues related to current affairs as well as the Holocaust and the effects of trauma.

Galloway, who has just returned from a semester in China, will share her expertise in human rights and women’s rights in the Middle East. A member of the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church, she is a professor of sociology and business and teaches at Rider University, College of New Jersey and Mercer County Community College

Another interfaith effort – the National Day of Prayer on Tuesday, September 21. If you want to take a stand against anti-Muslim sentiment, come to Palmer Square a little before noon. Fellowship in Prayer, the Princeton Clergy Association, and Not in Our Town, among others, sponsor a prayer vigil at noon. Or say a prayer to yourself as the clock strikes 12.

Summer and Easter vacations at our house always meant going to some scientific site, either Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where my father did research at the Marine Biological Laboratory, or an anatomists’ convention, or on some other trip, like our mid-40s visit and tour of what would become the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

So I’m intrigued by the sight-seeing potential of a new Rutgers University Press book, Duane S. Nickell’s “Guidebook for the Scientific Traveler: Visiting Physics and Chemistry Sites Across America” ($19.95 and, full disclosure, I found it in the Princeton Public Library but also received a review copy). Take it on your next vacation — or college tour.

I checked out what Nickell said about Princeton. I’ve read, written about, and gone on many Princeton walking tours, but was delighted to find some new information on, for instance, the Joseph Henry House (the yellow house that belonged to the famous physicist is close to Nassau Street) and Henry’s artifacts in the Jadwin physics building display (including the first battery brought to America). Nickell points visitors to Landau’s mini-museum on Einstein (to which I brought my granddaughters, pictured) and to the scientific luminaries in Princeton cemetery, as well as to the more obvious choices.

In the “people” chapter on physicists Nickell devotes several pages each to Henry and Einstein and also includes Richard Feynman (who studied here) and J. Robert Oppenheimer (former head of the Institute for Advanced Study and famously targeted by McCarthy).

It’s organized in narrative style but has a good index. After chapters on physicists (Ben Franklin, Count Rumford, Henry, Robert Millikan, Robert Goddard, Arthur Compton, Enrico Fermi, Oppenheimer, and Feynman) and chemists (Joseph Priestley, George Washington Carver, Irving Langmuir, and Linus Pauling), he brings the reader to universities that emphasize science (UC Berkeley, CalTech, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Yale, and Princeton). Then he covers the National Laboratories and touches on particle accelerators, nuclear weapons, energy, and chemistry in industry, finishing up with the best science museums, including two in Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute and a sleeper, the Chemical Heritage Foundation Museum at 315 Chestnut Street.

As good as it is, it is by no means complete. Nickell lists four sites in New Jersey (Institute for Advanced Study, the Einstein House, the Joseph Henry House, and Princeton University, all in Princeton.) Perhaps because he focused on universities and national laboratories, he didn’t include Thomas Edison’s former laboratory, the National Historical Park in West Orange. And though Nickell devotes several pages to the larger-than-life sculpture of Einstein, by Robert Berks, in Washington, D.C., he makes no reference to the Berks “head of Einstein” sculpture at EMC Square (Princeton Borough Hall). He probably did his Princeton research before that was installed. And the Liberty Science Center didn’t make the cut. Maybe in the next edition.

Based in Indianapolis, Nickell teaches at the high school and college level. He wont the Presidential award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching, the nation’s highers honor for science and mathematics teachers. This is the second in a series that includes a guidebook to astronomy and space exploration sites.

As the author suggests, visiting the science meccas may “pique the curiosity of a young mind and open it to the possibility of a scientific career.” That didn’t work for me; maybe my seven-year-old mind was intimidated by trying to figure out the concept of nuclear energy at Oak Ridge. More likely it was because I didn’t have terrific classroom science teachers like Nickell.