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Winter Jazz Gala for first 2009 weekend
The first Saturday of the year won’t be a silent one for jazz fans as local promoter Rick Eddings brings in some notable regional talent for the Winter Jazz Gala at the Waco Convention Center.
Saxophonist Kyle Turner, flutist Althea Rene and singer Mary Griffin (pictured here), all Houston-based jazz musicians, will join music director, producer and pianist Gail Johnson for an evening of smooth jazz and gospel music.
Rene and Johnson (she also uses the professional name Gail Jhonson) both have new CDs out, but when jazz is concerned, it doesn’t have to be new to be fresh. The gala starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $35. Call 749-8758 for reservations.
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Dallas’ King Tut exhibit - New Year’s Blue Light Special on tickets
The Dallas Museum of Art’s celebrated King Tut exhibit has seen smaller lines since the economy tanked this fall, leaving it shy of the daily attendance it needs to hit its goal of 1 million visitors.
To induce more visitors, and this may include you, the museum is offering several discounts including a $10-off special for New Year’s Day. Check out the discounts here.
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On that “Marley” rvw: Are spoilers ever justified?
Got a steaming email this morning from a reader incensed that I had given away key plot elements in my review of Marley & Me, which ruined his experience of the film. I, too, hate movie spoilers and wrote him back to explain why I did what I did.
MARLEY SPOILER ALERT
I mentioned Marley’s death and Jenny’s miscarriage because as heavily as Marley was marketed as a family film, I figured some parents of small kids would like to know what’s coming rather than get blindsided in the movie. Two other plot elements I revealed had been revealed in the movie’s trailers. And then there’s the other issue that more than 5 million copies of Marley & Me are in circulation, which, coupled with author John Grogan’s television interviews and public appearances, certainly have informed a large number of people that, yes, Marley dies.
Had the film’s marketing not been so overwhelmingly cheery and cute, and had I not read about the book and its huge popularity in advance of Grogan’s appearance at Baylor this fall, perhaps I would have treated the plot points in my review differently.
Anyway, it seemed like an interesting subject to throw out for discussion: Where should one draw the line between what not to tell the reader and what (some) readers might want to know? Should the popularity of the source material and its discussion over time matter (e.g., the Harry Potter books vs. their film adaptations)?
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Tomorrow’s theater - More “Annies,” Disney?
The National Endowment for the Arts recently released a study on the state of non-profit theater in America. While it found encouraging growth since 1990 - the number of nonprofit theaters has doubled in the last 15 years and most of those have stable budgets - there was also some worrying news.
Audiences for non-musical theater have dropped about 16 percent since 1992; this year, under 10 percent of the American public has attended a theatrical production that wasn’t a musical. Those who thought the strong preference for musicals was a Waco thing are wrong: It’s a national thing. (And not even musicals are safe: Jan. 4 will see the closing of 15 Broadway shows, including “Young Frankenstein,” “Hairspray” and “Grease” with “Monty Python’s Spamalot” and “Spring Awakening” closing a week later.)
Given the usual slow down in ticket buying during economic downturns, you can expect a near future of safe, familiar musicals and fewer straight dramas or comedies. The concern for many theater-lovers is that those who like the non-musical stuff will turn to film and television to get it, which only reinforces the pro-musicals turnouts.
The NEA report also notes that higher ticket prices, up to a point, doesn’t seem to affect audience turnout. The report’s statistical model indicates a 20-percent hike in single ticket prices (ouch) would cause only a 2-percent drop in total attendance.
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Christmas time is here - and gone
Christmas - it’s over.
Well, maybe, depending on when you read this and how you celebrate it. At my house, the day flows and ebbs, with high energy at early morning present-opening, lunch with family or friends, relaxed evening with family or friends.
It seems like it arrived too fast this year. Perhaps it was because Thanksgiving fell later, with fewer days between the two holidays. Perhaps two months’ worth of unrelentingly dismal economic news cast a dark shadow over it all. Or perhaps I simply didn’t carve out some personal time for reflection.
Then slivers of memory surface. Carol singing with church families. Moments of beauty in a church worship service. Baking cookies and thinking of the cooks in my family and among my in-laws. Watching my daughters doing (a little) more of the shopping and present-wrapping. Continuing a long-running family debate with my wife and daughters on whether to put every Christmas tree ornament on the tree (the girls’ philosophy) or only the ones with special meaning (first Christmases, ones surviving an early all-red decorating strategy, family vacations, etc. - my philosophy). Late night and last-minute present wrapping.
Maybe Christmas is really all about those splintered moments and the way we assemble them. We’re hard on ourselves for not being in the right mood throughout the season, or buying presents for no good reason, or for getting lost in a spirit-sapping flurry of activity. But by remembering the love, the friendship, the generosity and the moments of joy and peace we encountered on the journey, we do celebrate Christmas. The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth, after all, are similar patchwork: the shepherds’ experience differed from the wise men’s; Mary’s angelic visitation was different from Joseph’s. Our American practice of Christmas carries strands of holiday tradition from around the world and through two millennia.
Christmas for many may be over. For others, it’s in its final hours. Here’s hoping the special memories from this year’s celebration may endure and glow throughout your 2009. Merry, merry Christmas.
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Christmas Eve from space
Forty years ago tonight, Christmas Eve, I witnessed my home from outer space. Well, not specifically my home, but our home Earth. The image of the Earth, a blue-and-white dot set against the black backdrop of space, was broadcast in primetime, photographed by the astronauts of Apollo 8.
Apollo 8 was the first spacecraft to circle the moon and as an 11-year-old hooked on the exploits of the Gemini and Apollo programs - I almost went into astrophysics as a career as a result - I closely followed the mission.
That mission produced the image of the Earth rising above a lunar horizon, one of the iconic images of, well, human history, but the Christmas Eve telecast was a special moment, too. As the onboard camera focused on the blue planet out their window, the astronauts read the account from Genesis on the creation of the world.
1968 was an unsettling year for an 11-year-old. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated that spring. The Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, crushing a liberalizing movement in that country. The Vietnam War was grinding on with little end in sight and the Democratic Party that had been in power for much of a decade was unraveling in the aftermath of the chaotic presidental convention in Chicago and the election of Richard Nixon as president.
Then. toward the end of that tumultuous year, came the view from space (seen in black-and-white on my family’s TV) and the realization that a universe and a creator put those social problems in a different perspective. It was a calming moment and, appropriately, on Christmas Eve.
I don’t think it’d happen today, and not just because we as a society are super-sensitive to the use or abuse of religion in the public domain. There are millions more of us in America, making national shared experiences a little more difficult to achieve, and far more than three television networks to occupy our viewing. In our blog-happy, Facebook/MySpace world, our incessant chatter about such a broadcast likely would dissipate any calming influence it might have.
A generation that grew up on images of the other planets in our Solar System or the stunning views of our universe seen through the Hubble telescope might find photos of the blue-green orb that is Earth almost prosaic or common in comparison.
That’s a shame because we, and our home the Earth, are anything but.
Even the angels appearing to the shepherds 2,000 years ago would agree …
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Holiday movie alert - Six openings on Christmas Day
Here are the six movies opening Christmas Day in Waco:
Marley & Me, Bedtime Stories, Valkyrie, Doubt, The Spirit and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
We’ll have reviews of Marley, Bedtime Stories and Benjamin Button in tomorrow’s Tribune-Herald, with reviews of the other three in Friday’s Multimedia section. The best reviewed of the bunch? Doubt, though its drama with a capital D (it’s about a nun who suspects a priest of child molestation) may be a bit heavy for Christmas Day viewing.
Missing in action: Frost/Nixon, which likely will show up sometime in January.
Still missing: Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, Gran Torino, Rachel Got Married, The Wrestler … . in short, the majority of most film critics’ Top 10 lists for 2008 (add snide Waco comment here).
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Charlie Brown and Lucy (separately) this Sunday
Two events of note for this Sunday afternoon that didn’t make the deadline for Thursday’s Access Waco:
Waco jazz pianist Dave Wild and his Trio will reprise their “Holiday Jazz” set drawn from Vince Guaraldi’s beloved “A Charlie Brown Christmas” score from 6 to 10 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21, at Basaberu Restaurant, 723 S. Sixth St. Music Notes blogger Sandi Horton has more details here.
The Lucy part on Sunday is “The Lucy and Friends Show” Grand Finale, staged at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21, at Metropolitan Community Church, 1601 Clay Ave. (come in through the red door on 16th). It’s a musical revue with the indomitable, unflappable Lucy Glockzin, a part of the local theater scene since I’ve been in Waco (two decades and change), plus Dave Verdery and Susan Voss, familiar names and faces to supporters of the Waco Community Theatre.
I initially feared the “Grand Finale” part of the show meant some final change for Lucy, but Dave assured me that it’s merely the last “Lucy and Friends Show” that they’ve been staging at various Central Texas locales. It’s a sampler of Broadway musical standards and World War II-era songs; in a nutshell, “15 unforgettable songs, 12 fabulous costumes.” A love offering will be taken to support the Metropolitan Community Church and its outreach to Central Texas.
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Art film alert deja vu - “Vicky” back in town
Among the films opening this Friday at Waco movie theaters is the Woody Allen comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Those of you with good memories will recall this film played in Waco in early September (confession: I had to look it up to make sure.)
Penelope Cruz is getting buzz as a possible Best Supporting Actress candidate for her performance as a crazy ex-wife, so consider this a chance to do your Oscar homework while you have the opportunity.
Also opening on Friday: Seven Pounds, Yes Man and The Tale of Despereaux.
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A little downloading with that tuition?
Interesting story from Wired.com about a proposal floated by Warner Music Group and two other major record labels (apparently Universal’s the only big holdout) to a handful of colleges that would fold a flat fee for music royalties owed on downloaded songs into the tuition charged students.
Such a fee would be in the neighborhood of $5 monthly or less and would allow students to download music from participating labels without fear of legal action. No word in the story about what happens to the music you download after leaving college or what happens to students who download music from non-participating labels.
Two things that caught my attention. One is that the recommendation is similar to the “Music Like Water” proposal that some have floated where everyone pays a small fee to their internet provider to cover royalties and licensing fees, but then can do anything he or she wants with the music that’s downloaded.
The other is the heated opposition to the college plan that surfaced in the comments tagged to the Wired story. Some apparently see any money in the pocket of the music industry as a bad thing, while others are against paying a fee for what they can get free.
Still haven’t reached the Promised Land of digital music, I see.
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Waco TV/Web producer casting for talent on Saturday
Waco production company Red C Television will hold a casting call from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20, at the Waco Civic Theatre, 1517 Lake Air Drive.
Producers are looking to fill roles in their TV series “Cowboy & Lucky” and the Webisode “Hamlet’s Cove.” “Cowboy & Lucky” follows two mismatched brothers running a private investigation company after their father’s death. “Hamlet’s Cove” follows five teenage vampire hunters left after vampires destroy their town.
Both programs can be viewed on Red C’s Web site beginning in January.
Those interested in trying out for parts must be 12 years or older, but do not have to prepare an audition or have headshots. To ask questions, call Stephanie Bauer at (214) 213-2511.
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Unplugged this weekend - fill me in
Took two days of vacation last week and spend my last four evenings attending a high school band concert, dinner with my wife (with no kids), helping man a church youth progressive dinner and cleaning house to prepare for the Christmas tree and attendant decorations.
In that space, we had a Waco Symphony pops concert, closing performances of the Waco Civic Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol,” a Christmas Branson on the Brazos show and assorted church performances/presentations.
Anyone like to share her or his experiences on what I missed?
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Freedom Fountain 2 - How about a big Texas Ranger statue?
Just kidding, sort of. Colleague J.B. Smith has reported on and blogged about the city’s recommendation to upgrade and move the Freedom Fountain currently on the backside of the Waco Convention Center (OK, the south entrance, although all directions in Waco should be taken with a grain of salt).
A move would give the convention center a little more space to breathe and expand. If it means a redesign of the fountain in the process, which appears likely, I’m all for it: Even when its water was flowing, the fountain looked like a giant slab of irrigated concrete (another example of “water it and they will watch” school of concrete fountainry was Baylor’s late, not lamented fountain between the Carroll Science Building and the Bill Daniel Student Center) with little connection to the word “freedom” in the world’s major languages that ringed it.
A fresh, visual (and aquatic) interpretation of freedom and explanation of what the fountain commemorates - I’m all for that (though, please, no more ugly concrete). I have my doubts on whether a new fountain needs to move to Indian Spring Park, though. The park already has several pieces of public art there and will receive some more when sculptor Robert Summers finishes his oversized longhorns and cowboys for his Chisholm Trail commemorative. Adding a fountain on top of these would diminish the park’s green space and possibly create a sense of visual clutter that works against the natural beauty of that space.
There’s also the small incongruity (to some Waco visitors, perhaps) of putting a Freedom Fountain in a park named after Waco’s original Indian inhabitants. The ghosts of the Wacos who moved to the Wichita reservation might have a contrasting view of freedom. Moving the Freedom Fountain to Martin Luther King Jr. park across Lake Brazos would put it in a different context; people would assume the freedom that the fountain celebrates was connected to King’s lifelong fight for civil rights and racial equality. Was that fight worthy of a commemorative fountain? Sure, but at that point you lose the fountain’s historical, Waco connection.
Opinions are free (and I hope you add yours to this post), so let me suggest three alternate downtown spots.
1) Adjoining the Vietnam Veterans memorial at the corner of Washington Ave. and University-Parks Drive. The northwest corner of Indian Spring Park touching Washington may be what planners have in mind, but locating the Freedom Fountain next to the Vietnam memorial not only would connect two Vietnam War-era commemorations, but in the process expand their meaning. The civilian effort to secure release of American POWs in that war - the act that the Freedom Fountain honors - shows that one doesn’t have to serve in the military to fight for and work toward freedom, a crucial reminder to American citizenry that all too often gets overlooked whenever we pay rightful tribute to our veterans.
2) Heritage Square. Yes, there’s already a fountain there and tailored to the site’s aesthetics, but the square is a focal point for the city’s symbolic heart. If you wanted to bring greater civic attention to the Freedom Fountain and its meaning, this would do it.
3) Lake Brazos. A fountain in the middle of a river? Wouldn’t that be something novel for a city not known for novelty or thinking outside of the box? A waterbased fountain would draw the eye to the scenic heart of downtown and, while you’re at it, why not illuminate it at night? You’d need bankside signage to explain the fountain’s history and reason for being and, on the downside, maintenance might be a headache, given Lake Brazos’ fluctuating levels and debris swept downstream during times of heavy rains.
Waco native and internationally renowned director/designer Robert Wilson once created a bold sculpture for his hometown, the towering Open Door on the Art Center Waco grounds. Think he might be persuaded to interpret a Freedom Fountain in Waco?
Your thoughts?
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Two days to vote for WSO guest conductors
The voting for the guest conductor to lead the Waco Symphony Orchestra in a selection during Friday night’s Christmas pops concert ends Friday afternoon, Dec. 12. Up for election in the fundraiser, held every two years, are Linda Hatchel, Judy Haller and Hatch Bailey. Votes cost $20 each and you can either go online to vote or call the Waco Symphony offices at 754-0851. Every little bit helps arts organizations these days; budget cuts caused the Texas Ballet Theater (based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area) to perform its “Nutcracker” this season without live accompaniment by the Fort Worth Symphony for the first time in 20 years.
Me, I’m waiting for a Boost-the-Repertory election where people would vote from a short list of suggested orchestral works and the money raised for the winning piece would buy that score for the WSO’s music library. Just a thought …
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“What Would Jesus Buy” in Waco
That’s the documentary What Would Jesus Buy, in Waco - not a local shopping recommendation for the King of Kings (though that would make an interesting film, too).
The Waco Friends of Peace, which has screened a healthy number of thought-provoking documentaries in town over the last few years, will show this one at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11, at Poppa Rollo’s Pizza. Admission for the film and a pizza buffet is a canned food item, which will be donated to a local charity.
The slightly-tongue-in-cheek film follows one Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they travel to Wal-Mart, the Mall of America and Disneyland as they preach about how consumerism and consumption has hijacked the meaning of Christmas. Here’s a movie trailer.
Given the financial constraints many shoppers are under this season due to the sagging economy, there may be an audience more open to the film’s message. Makes you wonder what the holiday would be like if more of the “Put Christ Back Into Xmas” and the “War on Christmas” folks put their energies into downplaying present-buying and emphasize gifts of the heart and spirit as a way to celebrate Christmas.
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Baylor’s ‘Cyrano’ - talent there, timing needed
Disclosure time: Edmond Rostand’s deeply romantic “Cyrano de Bergerac” is an emotional Achilles’ heel for me. My father loved the play about the poet and swordsman whose main flaw was a crippling insecurity about his enormous nose. I grew up listening to a recording that excerpted Jose Ferrar’s magnificent (aurally, at least) performance onstage and in a 1950 film taken from that stage performance. (That movie hasn’t aged well; it’s stagy and its production is a bit threadbare, though Ferrar and his rich, magisterial baritone is still Oscar-winning wonderful. The 1990 French film with Gerard Depardieu is far superior and a joy).
As a teenager dealing with the messy, confusing world of emotions and possible romance, “Cyrano” resonated deeply. Even now, jaded journalist that I am, I get teary-eyed at the balcony scene in which he woos his love Roxane, able to speak fully from his heart though she thinks it’s the handsome Christian, and I can weep outright at the final act when Roxane realizes his secret as he’s dying. (I also get teary-eyed at the beginning of It’s a Wonderful Life and - it’s the dad in me - the final scenes of A Little Princess when the father returns from the war).
All of that makes reviewing any “Cyrano” a complicated matter for me. That said and out of the way, the Baylor Theatre production that runs through Sunday does a commendable job, one that sustains audience attention through its 2-hour, 40-minute running time (I didn’t weep, but did tear up and heard sniffles throughout the final act, a good sign).
“Cyrano’s” scale, its romanticism and the pivotal role of Cyrano are challenges for any production, especially a collegiate one. Director Traci Ledford largely pulls it off, aided by Joey Melcher’s solid performance as a long-nosed Cyrano. Melcher shines more on Cyrano’s romantic side, due in part to the more deliberate pacing of those scenes, and he gets the audience to look beyond the prosthetic nose to the character within. Amanda Capshaw as Roxane helps ground the play, showing her character’s growing maturity and emotional state, thanks in part to clear diction and an awareness of the role her lines play.
Joe Shovak as Cyrano’s rival the Comte de Guiche moves from a prickly arrogance to measured sympathy by play’s end and Callen McLaughlin as the good-looking Christian tags his final scene with an emotional anguish that makes audiences aware the handsome have feelings, too.
The emotional arcs of these main characters helps kick “Cyrano” into gear by the third act. The busy opening scene, in which a theater audience is assembling for a performance, lacks focus, the better to steer viewers’ attention to what’s important. In the bustle of that scene, and others with more than four or five actors (the cadets at the bridge, for instance), suffer from some character lines getting lost in the shuffle. Cyrano’s wittier, acerbic interchanges - the Nose speech, the duel ballade, the “No, I Thank You” speech - also could use a more deliberate pacing to underscore their verbal punchlines and impact. Cyrano was a poet, after all, and well aware of words and their rhythms; to err on the side of melodrama here might be forgivable.
Sally Askins’ costume design, particularly for the play’s cadets and musketeers, is both varied and rich (de Guiche’s satin burgundy, the fop de Valvert in white ribbons and frou-frou). William Sherry’s set employs several large units in multiple ways; a bridge, for instance, doubles as a battlefield strongpoint and a convent pathway.
Ledford’s “Cyrano” is worth the watching, even in a weekend busy with Christmas activities. Performances are scheduled for 7:30 tonight (Friday) and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, at Baylor’s Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center. Call 710-1865 for ticket information.
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Modern Day Drifters say yes, we can - vote here
Well, sort of. Band members didn’t use “yes, we can” when asking for fans’ votes, but I figured if it worked once, it might a second time.
The Waco-rooted band is one of eight nominated for Best New Artist in the Gruene With Envy Awards, which carry some heft in the Texas Country/Red Dirt Music/Indie world.
You can check out their competition and vote here; you can also vote once daily, though I can’t find a cut-off date for voting.
While you’re there, notice that Waco native Wade Bowen is up for several awards as well, including Artist of the Year, Record of the Year (If We Ever Make It Home) and Song of the Year (“You Had Me At My Best”). Wade’s curiously absent from the Best Songwriter category; guess his album and nominated song wrote themselves …
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“Nutcracker” a sellout, practically speaking
If you were planning on taking your family to Sunday’s performance of “The Nutcracker” with the St. Petersburg Classic Ballet and the Waco Symphony Orchestra, well, polish up your negotiating/bartering skills: You’ll have to dicker with someone holding tickets.
By yesterday afternoon, the Waco Symphony office was down to single tickets only for the 2:30 p.m. Sunday show at Waco Hall - close enough for the WSO to call it a sellout. It’s only the second “Nutcracker” sellout for the WSO, though the holiday ballet traditionally plays to healthy audiences at Waco Hall.
We’ve got a story on the “Nutcracker” in Thursday’s Access Waco - and a video interview online, too - as it turns out that Sally Lynn Askins, costume designer in Baylor’s theater department, created the costume designs for the ballet company’s “Nutcracker.” It’s quite a feather in her cap, although after costuming this week’s production of “Cyrano de Bergerac” and its plumed headgear, feathers in caps are not likely to set her pulse racing …
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Approaching sellouts at Waco Hall - “Nutcracker” and David Phelps
Two upcoming holiday events at Waco Hall are closing in on sellouts. This Sunday’s “The Nutcracker” with the St. Petersburg Ballet and the Waco Symphony Orchestra is down to side seats on the main floor and second balcony seats upstairs. Judging from ticket sales at past “Nutcrackers,” symphony officials anticipate a sellout by curtain time at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Call 754-0851 for ticket availability if you need to.
Christian singer David Phelps, a former Gaither Family vocalist, returns to Waco (where he attended Baylor) to present his Christmas show at 7 p.m. Dec. 16. That show’s more than two weeks away and only about 60 main floor tickets are left. There are more open spaces in the balcony where slightly more than 500 seats are available (OK, it’s not quite a sellout yet, but headed that way … ). Tickets online are available at www.itickets.com and Mardel’s Christian and Educational Supply store has about 30 floor tickets left.
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Why Thanksgiving films are rare
Each year, like clockwork, Hollywood cranks out three to four features with a Christmas theme or angle. Thanksgiving, on the other hand, might see one or two films in a good year. Stack Christmas movies against Thanksgiving and you’d see a mountain compared to a molehill.
Both are national holidays celebrated by millions. So why the discrepancy? Part of it, I think, lies in thanksgiving’s transitive nature: Those of us who are religious have an object for our action. We give thanks to God. That gives the holiday a grounding in religious faith with which movie studios are reluctant to address.
Think of all the Christmas films you’ve seen and name the ones that deal with the theological meaning of the holiday. Any come to mind that address the Incarnation? The belief many Christians hold that Jesus would later die to reconcile humankind with God? Not in the Christmas movies I know. Those deal with what a materialistic, consumerist society knows of the holiday: Santa, gift-giving, love expressed through objects, families reunited or affirmed in a sentimental way.
Thanksgiving films largely address one aspect of the holiday, namely the convergence of scattered families, and usually mildly dysfunctional families at that for comic effect. You don’t see Thanksgiving movies centered on characters who express thanks for their health, safety, material comfort or spiritual blessings - even though those subjects are commonly addressed by truly thankful human beings at this time of year.
Hollywood lacks the language of thanksgiving. We shouldn’t be surprised. Feature films so often use sex as shorthand for love, which ends up cheapening both. Violence and action dominate human interaction in film, shortchanging those communications that take time, patience or complexity, however essential they might be to culture and civilization.
That’s the nature of the beast: We thrive on conflict in our stories and we want them solved in short packages of time. That’s what we’ll buy tickets for. A true Thanksgiving movie? Too wordy. Too squishy. Too conceptual.
Maybe the lack of Thanksgiving films is another thing for which to be thankful - thankful that the holiday’s essence can’t be easily commodified and commercialized, thankful that there’s something deep and mysterious and meaningful that happens when we contemplate, individually and collectively, the blessings of our lives.
Could a movie ever substitute for that?
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“Oliver!” tonight - or tonight!
PHOTOS
Student discounts are in effect for tonight’s performance of the national tour of the musical “Oliver!” at the Waco Hippodrome Theatre. That means $10 balcony seats for high school and college students with ID. Call the box office at 752-9797 for more information.
That’s not quite as generous as the offer made last night to those attending the first night’s performance - up to four free kids’ tickets for every paid adult ticket if they want to return for tonight’s show - but that’s the breaks for not buying season tickets or getting your single tickets early.
The Hippodrome ended up with a second “Oliver!” performance thanks to Hurricane Ike this fall. The hurricane flooded Galveston’s Grand 1894 Opera House, where the musical was to play on the Texas leg of its tour. Losing the anticipated income from its Galveston performances almost caused the musical’s production company to scratch its Texas tour. That cancellation, in turn, would have cost the Hippodrome money, so the theater and other affected venues agreed to add additional performances to help the company defray its expenses. Turns out the Galveston theater plans to reopen in January 2009 with two performances of “Oliver!” on that month’s schedule.
Anyway, all of this to say there are plenty of seats available for tonight’s show at 7:30. If you’re a student in town for the holidays, you might take advantage of a stage musical for slightly more than a movie ticket …
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Latest comments
Thank you,Mr Hoover for reviewing so delightfully my friends,Dave and Lucy’s production of “Lucy and Friends” . I look forward to seeing you there!
... read the full comment by Michael Dionne | Comment on Charlie Brown and Lucy (separately) this Sunday Read Charlie Brown and Lucy (separately) this Sunday
Carl, you missed the outstanding Waco Symphony’s Country Christmas concert featuring Carolyn Cutbirth and The Girls singing one of her own compositions and familiar carols. This year’s set decorations, lighting and emcee were top drawer. The
... read the full comment by D.Lay | Comment on Unplugged this weekend - fill me in Read Unplugged this weekend - fill me in
You forgot the most important thing this weekend - University’s play, The Exonerated. Ok, so maybe thats just the director speaking. But it was a good show. The kids, for high schools, really got into what it was to be accused of something and have
... read the full comment by KWilla | Comment on Unplugged this weekend - fill me in Read Unplugged this weekend - fill me in
Waco Civic Theatre holds auditions for its next mainstage production, Neil Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” Monday and Tuesday, December 15 and 16 at 7:00 P,M. at the theatre, 1517 Lake Air Drive. All are welcome. James Johnson directs.
... read the full comment by Win Emmons III | Comment on Baylor's 'Cyrano' - talent there, timing needed Read Baylor's 'Cyrano' - talent there, timing needed