Friday, December 12, 2008

Santaland Diaries


The Firemen's Kitchen in Hickory was the scene of the recounting of an astonishing series of escapades involving Santaland "Elves" at Macy's in NYC.

Apparently David Sedaris of NPR fame had at one time in his early career as a writer, gone to work in this magical place called Santaland of Macy's as an "elf" and brought New York children (and others!) to meet Santa and there were a lot of tales to tell about something as seemingly prosaic as this.

The actor for the night's monologue performance was David Townsend and he did a creditable job. It was our first trip to the Firemen's Kitchen and we found it enjoyable and certainly "cozy" as we had heard it described before. The people seemed to go WAY out of their way to be extra friendly and provided refreshments to help enjoy the evening even more. The only thing missing was freshly popped corn.

© John Womack, 2008. All rights reserved.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Footcandle Film Society

Saw the December presentation “Miracle at St. Anna” tonight.

It was a L O N G movie with lots of really good pieces to it. Unfortunately, those pieces largely went unfulfilled and like the eventual ending itself, most of the different story lines just petered out and vanished in wasted anticlimax.

The strong point of the movie was violence. It was a movie that honored killing. Its attempts to show irony were largely confusing such as the montage in which several groups of Americans, Germans, Italians and probably others were engaged in various venues saying an apparently simultaneous prayer to the same Christian “god”. I was prepared for some great climax to come forth. But . . .?

There were some really good lines. But they were lost in the gruesome gulp of the NEXT SCENE. I only remember one now - two young boys, one 8 the other perhaps 10, standing together after witnessing massive killing and the older one says with the wisdom of an ancient master: “This was our time to be kids.” Bang - NEXT SCENE - on with the movie. The show MUST go on! (What show? We just ran over it!)

Silence really CAN be golden.

There were a lot of really good stories in this movie. But they weren't told. Spike Lee could have produced 10 or 15 GREAT movies of about an hour in length and solidified his place as a great story teller forever. But not if he puts them all in the same two and a half hour long fruitcake.

I loved the Chocolate Giant. But he didn’t belong here. Could he have been another Old Man and the Sea? Maybe. Maybe not - we’ll never know. The Louisiana slurpy shop was fine until it got carried away with drawn guns and all kinds of action but nothing significant resulting. Let’s face it, an explosion that doesn’t go off is - a dud.

The best part of the entire presentation was the discussion afterward. It was slow taking off but got into some interesting points as people began pointing out parts they liked and/or didn’t care for.

Monday, December 08, 2008

HIckory Choral Society - Christmas Concert

Corinth Reformed Church presented Christmas music from the Western Piedmont Symphony and the Hickory Choral Society over the first weekend in December. This is the 31st year the Choral Society has performed a Christmas Concert, and it is a good opportunity for all of us to see inside the church. The title of the performance is "Music Wears a Tapestry".


It was an amazingly excellent performance from many aspects. The architecture, acoustics, decorations, crowd participation and music were magnificent. Not only was the music very good, but it also featured (at least to me) original interpretations and seemed not just an attempt to try to show that these guys are as good as a those found in a "really big city", but a group of talented people having fun performing their passionate love of music together.


I was impressed. Hickory shines again. I still don’t know whether this perceived "brilliance" on my part is because it really IS that good, or if it is just that I am still amazed that things THIS good live and thrive in the Friendly City called Hickory.




© John Womack, 2008. All rights reserved.