Springtime Cometh - Yea!

Hadn't walked my doggies for three days. The 100-pounder gets restless when this happens and he had gone far beyond restless all the way down into the pit which lies far beneath ennui. Great soulful eyes of sadness finally got to me so we went for a quick walk during a pause in the rain. Since it would be a short trip we walked a different path, one we had never walked before.

I noticed something that looked strange - a dead end street with a construction barrier at the end of it. New construction? Wow. So we went down there to see. Unfortunately, it had been terminated some time ago, maybe a year or two ago.We wandered into the area to look around, since it had sidewalks on both sides of a nicely winding street and then the rain came back. It was time to head for home. Shortly after turning around I suddenly realized (as Horace Kephart says it is always "suddenly") that I was lost! How on earth (no pun intended) could I, a Master Navigator who had crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans countless times get lost a couple of blocks from my home? But I had no idea which way to go. So we stood there, my doggie Mujib and me, in the rain looking soulfully at each other for suggestions.

Then I saw this view. A nice monochrome green tapestry with grass and daffodill leaves and dark fir background, decorated by the contrasting hues of Japanese magnolia and daffodils flowers under a dark sky which fully saturated the colors - hard to beat. I pulled my camera out and made the shot, then we went home.

Kephart says "sit down, chew on a twig, draw a map in the dirt . . .", well making a photo is even better. Some of the best shots of springtime are made in the rain. I get so tied up in making the picture that I often lose track of whether it is raining or not or ever where I am.

Corinth Reformed Church - Hickory NC -Organ Recital for Lent

The Corinth Reformed Church. One of the brighter spots in all of Christendom is found right here in Hickory, the Friendly City. During Lent, organ recitals are presented on Fridays from 1230 until 1300 hours. The one we went today was so good we will have to go back again - and again. After the recital we went to Bistro 127 for a "European Lunch" and - well, that's another of the brighter spots in Christendom, but more about that later.

Back to the Corinth Reformed Church. It is a powerful statement of mankind's attribution of God. From the outside it sweeps in from its outlying rooms and offices rising like a concrete crescendo into the heavens. A body incarnate into a single finger pointing to its object of adoration.

Inside, the central aisle leads straight to the altar but your eye passes that by, lifting with the stained glass brilliance dominating the far church wall, rising to the ceiling. The greatest contrast in the entire church is where the bright organ tubes lift out from their dark support, and together with the vertical stained glass they form a great cross. That cross is echoed by the arches which lead down from each side of the church to turn the arms of the cross into an loving embrace which seems to say God is good.

Sound waves play upon your chest as the organ springs to life. A great pulsing note of power calls the faithful to prayer. The organist, Mr. Edwin Weber, a fourth-year student at Lenoir-Rhyne University has begun his offering to his audience and to God. Six pieces he performs over the next thirty minutes. The sound waves come later again to play on your chest and face, and still later the floor of the church vibrates the soles of your shoes as in a quaking earth. While playing a Bach prayer, Mr. Weber looks serene as if posing for a portrait, gazing forward like one hypnotized. Later, during a Boellmann Toccata, he writhes and lurches forward and backward, from side to side, with elbows rising and falling like a pilot bringing in a plane filled with apprehensive souls to a safe landing through a stormy and windy night.

What a wonderful treat! How good it is to be a part of all this, even if only as a spectator.

© John Womack, 2009. All rights reserved.

Frost/Nixon

Big movie. Good writing. Excellent acting. All the more in consideration of the fact that the two main characters were the ones who had performed these same roles repeatedly in a long-running play. Sure they knew their parts and their roles, and had their timing down pat - all that of course - but HOW did they continue to pull that climax so razor sharp, and thrust the burning realization of who these two men really were as deeply into the audience again, one - more - time?

Most of the time I watch movies I am aware of the actors and tend to see them as people earning a living trying to pretend they are somebody they really aren't. Should have been easy to do this again in this movie because neither of the characters looked anything like their real counterparts. At first glance, Frank Langella seemed a poor choice for Nixon, but within ten minutes I had become entranced. When the movie reached its climax, he WAS Nixon.

Touching

This is the first report sent from my new iTouch. Greetings from this new world.