Latino Street Festival in Hickory, NC

A Latino Street Festival took place this afternoon behind the P. E. Monroe auditorium on Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, NC, this afternoon.  Mainly catering to young adults, but also with a significant number of kids just approaching school age, the festival was lively, rhythmic, catchy and Loud. Most of the younger kids gravitated toward the rubber buildings that swayingly contained various thrills and excitement. College agers were on the street dancing and laughing.  Most of the adults and "old" people headed for the shade and inserted their ear plugs - but - no problem!  They could still hear (and feel!) the beat, and they were mostly occupied with other kids, who were far too young to go near the swaying rubber buildings or to dance in the street but nonetheless showed amazing signs of rhythm by waving their little arms and legs in time with the beat.

Julia Alvarez in Hickory

Julia Alvarez presented as one of the Visiting Writers Program at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory last night, April 16, 2010.

Born in NYC, then raised in the Dominican Republic, she and her family returned to NYC after the dictator Rafael Trujillo continued his search for total power over the country.  One of his targets was Julia's father who was a physician. Ms. Alvarez then lived with her parents and three sisters in a small apartment which contrasted with the large compound they had enjoyed in the Dominican Republic.

She remarked how a sixth-grade English teacher changed her life by encouraging her to read  books and even challenged her to begin writing.  She also points out how she had come from an oral tradition in the DR to a very literate culture in America and how her mixing those two traditions or cultures has affected her writing.

One of her books "How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accent" had been selected for the "Big Read" here where many people in the Hickory community and various schools here have provided the book for people to read and discuss in literary groups.  Now this  year's "Big Read" ends with Julia Alvarez here to cap the discussion with the community at P. E. Monroe auditorium on the LRU campus. The auditorium appeared to be largely filled. A question-and-answer session followed her presentation.

Crazy Heart at Footcandles in Hickory, NC

This is a story of the loneliest man in the world who wandered through a maze of other lonely people all of whom were finding happiness in pretending to be happy.  

Whisky highs and toilet bowl lows frame the boundaries of this story while "happiness" plays a distracted beat in the background, occasionally coming forward to scream and strut, then falling back again and collapse into its accustomed metronomic stupor while your attention is diverted to some newly detected pulse of life.  

The rhythm of action that sweeps through this movie rises and falls portending some incredible climax of consummate triumph, while an accompanying  counterpoint of left-handed melody suggests an impendingly awful disaster.  There is betrayal and there is friendship and loyalty beyond all reason. People come as shadows into this movie and some quickly flare while others slowly bloom and the story moves on, carrying them all along as Crazy Heart is eventually anointed and baptized with the reality he has tried to ignore.  Redemption surely cannot be possible for such as he.  Or is it?  What finally happens, at the end of the movie, is clearly the beginning of a new story.

The photography, in my humble estimation, was not good.  Throwaway stuff - filler - a lot of it was.  Really good close ups, reveling in great lighting and good acting but really just mediocre in between those shots.  Too bad especially given the beautiful region of the American southwest. Much of that done at noon as if to say "Hey man this is a Transition! Get another handful of popcorn, check your watch, see what time it is."  The music too.  The background music, had a way of telling you what was coming.  When you thought the worst was going to happen you could just tune into the music in the auditorium and if it was "so-so", then OK, no big deal.  They could have done better with this. And also - this is a country music movie, so why was so much of the background music done in non-country music?  A complicated plot this movie has and intended for a complicated audience.

Frankly, I don't know how anyone could do the acting job that Jeff Bridges did in this movie and ever function again as a normal human being. If he dies soon, we'll know what did him in.  If he does another one this good but different, then I don't know what we'll do.

Beef O'Brady's in Hickory, NC

I loved the "Real Deal Reuben" I got at Frankie and Johnie's in Hickory.  Now someone tells me the best reubens in town are at Beef O'Brady's.  Funny because the two restaurants are only about 200 feet apart.

So today I went to Beef O'Brady's and was amazed at the two gentlemen just inside the front door.  At first I didn't know what to do.  I said "Hi there!"  I guess that startled them and they froze.  But it was obvious that they had been all wrapped up in themselves, having a blast, tapping and singing and whirling around and all before I showed up.

I got my reuben and took it home to eat.  How was it?  Great!  Marvelous.  It was SO good that I will pay it the highest compliment I can think of by saying it was almost as good as the one I got from Frankie and Johnie's.

But here's the good news.  The two reubens were VERY different from each other.  Both excellent.  So I am going to have to go back again, first to F&J, then to BO'B. Now keep in mind these two places are 200 feet apart!  I would encourage you to join me in this experiment.  Please let me know what you think.  And regardless - you will enjoy this win-win-win-win scientific exercise!

NOTE:  Beef O'Brady's is no longer at this shopping center.  It may have moved or perhaps gone out of business.  Google still shows it in the same  place but it has been replaced by "Fin and Filet" which I have not tried.

Poetry Alive in Hickory - April Edition 2010

An auspicious meeting at Taste Full Beans tonight as Poetry Alive brought poetic justice to Hickory.  The slate was SO good that Ted Pope came by to provide a special ring of authenticity, and he didn’t even read.  The poetry was THAT good.

Helen Losse began by spinning her web of special magic with thoughts and feelings and glimpses into those things we too often miss because we are too busy.  We are aware that they are happening, but we really don’t pay attention to how they feel or how we feel when they are happening.  Then someone like Helen takes us back and shows those things again, and brings our attention to some of the details and we say “Oh, yes - I’ve been there too.  Now I remember.  I wish I had paid more attention.”  She shines a flashlight into our past and lets us enjoy those parts of our life that we had missed the first time around.

Anderson Obrien followed as open mike reader with some poems that I thought at first were just fragments of comments until another of her comments suddenly made the others fit together in a different way than I had expected and instantly I saw a picture that I had not seen comming.  And I could only just sit there and softly say “wow”.   This is a special blending of art and magic.

After Fernand Chandonet read some well syllabled pieces, the first featured reader of the evening, Harry Calhoun, from Raliegh, took over.  His work was a lot of fun.  It is obvious that he and his wife enjoy  their life and we all enjoyed his sharing of their surprising and happy discoveries, and their treasured memories of friends and parents. He tells us about life, and shows us how to notice it and to appreciate it.

The evening was completed by Tim Peeler who took us through a veil that normally separates a world we all know - kind of - the world of the small motel.  We  all have stayed overnight in these places many times.  Tim thoughtfully told us some things we never knew happened there - like why the water in the swimming pool wants to check out too, and what to say to those ghosts who inhabit the dark, vacant rooms.