Viki Ryan at Fireman's Kitchen in Hickory

Viki Ryan. She sang at the Fireman’s Kitchen in Hickory on the night of June 18, 2010.   Hard to understand all her words but I have that problem with women anyway. Then  I began to notice her gestures and how well they accentuated her singing and bodily movements.  Some of the gestures had a hypnotic “fillip” on the point between it and the next one.  Her eyes seemed to be looking for someone special. Then I realized she was singing with her eyes too.  I had never seen that before. Sometimes when she was doing the “fillip” she would focus on a special person in the audience - then I realized she was looking at me when she did these things.  She was singing to me!  Wow.  That had NEVER happened to ME before.  I was fascinated.  So was everybody else,  including Nathan Hefner who accompanied Viki.  He was obviously having fun.  Well clearly I am not qualified to render a critique on Viki Ryan.  All I can say is that I enjoyed being with her, and everybody there obviously enjoyed having fun together.  Thanks Viki. I will remember that night we shared your stories together.  You made me feel special.

Picture will enlarge.

Oh Spring - We Will Miss You

Mornings in late spring were made just for chasing down a bouncing “Kong” in a field of  flowering sundrops.  The sun is already warm but the breezes are still cool.  Happy little fluff-clouds drift gaily by, beckoning dog and Kong-thrower to embark on their morning walk under the dark shade trees, thrilling their toes with the still coolish dew on the grass.  Later the hot day will find dog and master in a cool dark basement but for now it is time to gallop!  Next week comes the solstice and with it the heat of summer.

Footcandle Film Society - Alan Jackson

The Footcandle Film Society has become one of the defining elements of Hickory.  Its founder and leader, Alan Jackson, brings the wonder of the entire world in the form of movies to those who are fascinated by this art. It 's not just that the stories he brings before us are good, but that they are also the ones that we otherwise would never see or even know about, and we sometimes don't know what they will be until we walk in and sit down. (Even though it is posted at least a week in advance.)  It's like being in a good game of dice, we see the dealer (Alan) shake the cup,  we try to read his eyes, interpret his smile, and then as he rolls it out before us we rise from our seats to stare incredulously and then we say "Wow!"  Or maybe "What?"

Then comes the best part.  After the movie is over and the story has been told and the lights come back up again, the real magic happens.  Some of the people always get up and walk down the steps dusting themselves of popcorn residue as they make their way down and out.  Then the remaining audience congregate down toward the front and Alan and Chris Frye lead a discussion about the movie we have all just seen. Questions are asked, comments are made, puzzled looks abound, laughter is heard.  Art, real art now takes place.  Suggestions for improvement are made, critiques of possible missed opportunities are discussed, and in some fertile minds seeds are sown.

Hickory Art Crawl, Spring 2010

The weather was perfect.  There were even deep blue skies and little fluffy clouds.  A cool breeze played in the trees.  Temperature 71°, humidity 42%.  And from there things got better.  

Taste Full Beans Coffeeshop was well represented by fine artists.  I particularly liked Paul Gibson’s work which I found peaceful and I was also interested in his  use of color and composition techniques.  I also thought Susan Quinn’s work was interesting.  

Next we went to Full Circle Arts where we all voted for best in show, and then down to Union Square and wandered into some shops we had never even noticed before and were amazed at all the goods and services we have been missing.  Ah, the power of art strikes home again.  

Finally we started back.  But first we would run over to the rest of the show just south of the tracks.  

We went in the wrong door at Fanjoy Labrenz Photographers and stepped right onto the “stage” with Joseph Hasty & Centerpiece Jazz players.  Instantly the tone of the evening changed.  West coast jazz is not often heard around here but it fit this occasion perfectly. The wine and snacks served were a bit upscale as was the roast-in-a-pot which played in combo with perfectly made rolls.  This was the show not to be missed.

Finally we stopped by The Jackson Group and enjoyed meeting some of our friends in this architecturally-blessed work of art that has been filled with even more art.

Photopoetry

After a session with the poets of the piedmont, gathered in Taste Full Beans last night, I walked to my car parked in front of the Carolina Theater.  It was a cloudy, cool evening and the light was fading quickly.  

But tricks were being played out there too, which only the light can do and it is at it’s best when you aren’t really paying attention.  Suddenly I saw it. “Stop!” I shouted, “Stop! - Let me focus!”  

 pulled my camera out and quickly made setting changes then I shot and shot and shot and then - it was over.  Gone. Good things flash before they go.  Then they go.  

The night changed.  Now it was dark.  Spirits came out.  I only work with demons that can be seen, so I went home.  But magic had happened.  Not entirely unlike poetry.

HCT Same Time, Next Year

“Same Time, Next Year” is a clearly Implausible story - and that’s to say the very least.  It’s like a challenge to writers:  Here’s a plot that is impossible - can you make it believably realistic?

No way that could happen.  But it did.  Good writing, fine directing and excellent acting turned this Hickory Community Theatre production into an enjoyable and exciting evening in the Firemen’s Kitchen.   

The play unfolded in a series of scenes that took place over twenty-four years,  and the two actors portrayed their characters as they grew and developed and lived out their lives and this all took place with one amazing twist after another.   In a different way the play read like a quick visit through the lifetime of most of the audience in attendance, almost all of whom were old enough to have seen all of the background against which this unreasonable but captivating story took place.   

The play has to be one of the all time great vehicle for two actors to display their talents.  Denise Bernstein played Doris and George Page played George so beautifully and passionately that now I will HAVE to see every play from here on out with either Denise or George in it.  It was obvious that they were having fun and enjoying the play as much - actually more than the characters they portrayed possibly could have. And it was not just good acting.  The entire ensemble was well knit, the background images provided continuity and anticipation.  

One final word about the Firemen’s Kitchen - It is wonderfully great to sit down at your table with four chairs and meet two new people, strangers to begin with, who will share this evening with you.  Then to depart  and leave with two new friends.  That’s Hickory - the Friendly City.

One final, final comment:  the beer served in the theatre is not inspired.  Get off the Budweiser thing.  You have a lot of good beer just around the corner at  the Old Hickory Taproom.  They will probably be glad to help.  Turn each of these evenings into a REAL Hickory happening.

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.

Beerology in Hickory, NC

This was a two part presentation beginning in the Catawba Science Center with a nice selection of snacks ranging from broccoli to oreos, along with spicy salsa, creamy cheese, carrot sticks and cookies.  Wow.  And beer.  I liked the first selection which was a hoppy clear thing, mouth-filling, creamy and delightful with three nice tastes that I enjoyed.  This was a “home-brew” by the presenter of the first part of the program,  Hickory guy, Bobby Bush who received the national “Beer Drinker of the Year” award in 1998.  He clearly deserved that title and probably has improved with the additional seasoning.  

Then some of us boarded the Science Center van to ride to the Olde Hickory Brewing Company.  Several of us followed, intently focused in our own cars.  

Steven Lyerly, Brew-master, welcomed us into the center of his magnificent, shining stainless steel magic machines.  We were given hops to smell, toasted barley to taste, and we toured the inner sanctum of this place where miracles constantly bubble forth.  

He also provided four of the brewery’s products for us to taste .  We began with Piedmont Pilsner, followed that with Poor Richard's Ale, then Table Rock Pale Ale and finally Hickory Stick Stout.  All good.  All great.  

Meanwhile, Steven told us how these beers were brewed.  He went over the ingredients, how they were chosen and balanced to fit together harmoniously, and what seasoned beer drinkers anticipate and enjoy for when tasting beers like these.  

But now - normally, beer is not served at the Catawba Science Center or at the Old Hickory Brewery.  So what is a poor pilgrim to do?  For starters there is the Old Hickory Taproom, which is about a block away, but across the railroad tracks, and which highlights the products of this brewery.  Then there is Amos Howard.  Who?   Well, that’s another story.  Steven can fill you in.  But first, go to the Old Hickory Taproom.  There everything will become clear.

Celtic Crossroads in Morgantown, NC.

Thursday, March 18, 2010, and the Celtic Crossroads are performing in Morgantown at CoMMA. En-route to Charlotte and the rest of the world, this group had performed on Wednesday in Michigan then spent Wednesday night and all day Thursday driving 850 to Morgantown to strike sparks all over that fair city.

Guitars, violins, banjos, drums, an Irish harp, a whistle and a horn.  Wow.  Lots of music, startling rhythms and amazing dance steps.

 The high spot of the show apparently was the dancers, Sineat Mcgeachy and Marcus Donnelly. They made several appearances during the show  and the last one brought down the house, also seemed to entrance their fellow performers who gazed in amazement particularly at Mr. Donnelly's incredible virtuosity and appeared lost in admiration - as was the rest of the audience. 

HCT and Gypsy in Hickory, NC

"That was great!" "What a wonderful show!" "Isn’t it marvelous!" "Hickory has a LOT of talent! "

Not my words, but what I overheard between the two acts and on the way out of the theatre after the final curtain fall.

The play was well received by its audience and it still makes a strong impression the day after seeing it. The main thing I remember was the great enjoyment of the actors who presented the play. They were having fun and enjoying the work they were doing.

Viki Ryan played Rose, the main character. She played it well and she seemed to get better as the play progressed. This is a demanding role requiring a powerful voice, agility, visual expressions and gestures. From a photographer’s point of view I would say that Viki Ryan displayed a wide dynamic range. I really look forward to her next performance.

I had never seen Gypsy before, not as a play, not as a movie, not even on TV. It actually did apparently take place pretty much as presented on stage, a quick search on internet revealing, beginning back almost eighty years ago. The songs of the play began coming out across the country in the late 1950s and we have all grown up with them.

Best clip? Easy. The three strippers. Bold, brassy, BIG, beautiful in their brazen boisterousness. Not that I ever thought for a moment they might strip down, no indeed, but that they might come out into the audience and strip down the house. But they were having too much fun for that.

The play’s power drives from its contrast. A ruthlessly arrogant/defenseless mother/trainer drives/leads her praised/persecuted daughters/performers to perform exquisite/pitiful performances/ displays on stage as Vaudeville dies. She thinks she has a magic that she can’t use for herself and she forces it on to her daughters and the men and boys in her life. In the end she is the only person remaining still under her own dominion. And then she loses control of herself. Or does she? You will have to see what she does then!

The play is mainly a vehicle for its famous songs. From a writer’s point of view, I felt it dragged a bit in two or three places. Not that I could do it, but I felt a longing for someone to write an updated version of "Gypsy". Go wilder, a little more lusty like "Carmen", push the telling points together and collapse the story into a magnificent swirl of effort, blame, agony, joy and triumph.

Carol Anne Hartman, as Louise, seemed playing well within her ability. She did her part well, and I think we all will look forward to her next performance. You can’t help but feel she is ready to liftoff.

Herbie had a hard role to play. He is very important to the development of the story but he can’t ever take charge or even spread his own wings beyond an occasional flap or two. Eric Stafford did him well.

Afterward we wandered around the corner to the Olde Hickory Taproom for a Brown Mountain Light and a Dopplebock along with a serving of their famous Pub Chips and rehashed the high and low points of “Gypsy” in the newly smoke-free atmosphere. This will probably become a Hickory tradition in the very near future.

Lenten Music Corinth Reformed Church in Hickory, NC

A gray, overcast and rainy day became became a background for this recital, number three of six, and when we came out the rain was falling harder than before but birds were singing and daffodils were blooming.

The first presentation was a raucous (to my very untrained ear) piece played seemingly at full capacity. Perhaps part of that was due to the fact that it was written by the amazing Felix Mendelssohn, who, according to the bulletin handed out by the members of the church, had actually died before he was born. Or maybe he was one of those born-again composers.

The performance, played by Joby Bell, organist at First Presbyterian Church in Lenoir, was ably done. An organist is an amazing person. It certainly must be a hard hobby to follow. Organs don’t fit well into most homes - or neighborhoods - and the organist has a lot of keyboards and pedals to press and operate. Also the organist has to play the audience as well as his wonderful machine.

The second piece, “Oh Man, Bewail thy Grievous Fall” by J. S. Bach was considerably less than full throttle and seemed a well paced tune with lots of different tones. Next came a tribute to Master Tallis which was a sweet piece that seemed to invoke memories, perhaps of the first two pieces.

Most of the members of the audience seemed suspended somewhere between ecstasy and stoicism. Some were clearly lost in thought, far from the church, others had on their involuntary bored expressions, which would turn briefly into raised eyebrows as the cadence changed, then you could almost see welcome Thoughts occur again to them. Me too.

Finally came the beautiful Prelude, Fugue and Variation from Cesar Franck. It seemed to begin as a solitary figure, dancing on a small stage which then appeared becoming larger, and the dancer then became transformed into a wanderer dancing through a vast architectural wonder. Then came the fugue and confrontation and transformation. Finally the last part ended in the variations as a spiritually matured dancer demonstrated a sense of perfection.

About sixty heads rose above the walnut-rose pews. Forty of them were gray scale, shades from ivory to medium gray. About twelve of them were without appreciable hair of any kind except around the fringes. Two were kind of an ordinary mousy brown, the rest were perfect shades of red and blond.

Afterwards we went to Backstreets for a magnificent lunch. Delicious. I had a Bruchetta Melt. It looked pretty grim but was so good that I ate it all and enjoyed every bite. First time we have been there in well over a year. Last time the cigarette smoke was a problem. This time, in a newly rebuilt building, there was no trace of smoke. Beautiful.

Footcandle Film Society. "An Education"

Took in “An Education” last night at the Footcandle Film Society last night. I thought the movie was fine, and that's coming from a person who really doesn’t care for movies. A LOT of the photography was excellent, with beautiful shading of color values rising out of blackness, sharp close-up images revealing the smoothness of finely arranged skin tones next to a vibrant golden red siennaistic waterfall of hair, then on the same frame, but fading into a more abstract perspective with a mottled arrangement of old brick with its red, brown, grayness,and between that and the dark green of old trees you could see a fresh flash of flowers rising out of the darkness. And that’s just one of many pictures I took away from the show. Other abstract patterns of light and color devoid of name and form flickered across the reflections of polished cars and windows, and often from those windows would come the face of a girl looking out through that window even as a new awareness of "womanness" also peered out of her own girlish countenance. The only part badly done, from my viewpoint, was the Paris bit which was overexposed. That led me to expect an ephipany to leap from the screen like the dog-race did, but no.

Again, from my viewpoint, and without revealing the story, there was a LOT of suspension of belief required on the part of the audience. The writer filled all that in very ably, and glibly too I thought, and it wound up OK I guess. I thought it dragged for about ten minutes at about the one-hour point, but that was where it was changing cadence. Either that or I began missing some of the subtle points. So should you go see it or not? Hmmmmmmm. Well, yeah. Why not? You'll enjoy it.

Pir Zia

I went to see Pir Zia without a great deal of enthusiasm for the encounter. I had met him once before, talked briefly with him at a salad bar and thought he was OK, but he was not a pir. Not then. Of course that was a long time ago and he was still a teenager. Now, some twenty years later, I went down to pay homage? Not sure it would work.

For me there was only one pir. That was Zia’s father, Villiyat. PIR Villayat. He initiated me into the Sufi Order. He married Karima and me. He sang, he played cello, he philosophized and recited great poetry. He spoke many languages fluently and brought the great spirits of eternity into being before our eyes. He also has been dead now for three years. I felt in some ways like the Sufi Order had died with him. Now I went to see what was left.

Three days later, we drove north out of Sarasota excited with the new possibilities Pir Zia had discussed with all of us. The great torch has been well passed, and it may well become a beacon for the world.

Now in his mid-thirties, Pir Zia has come a long way from that old salad bar. He has studied Buddhism under the auspices of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Sufism in the classical Indian tradition of the Chisti Order. He holds a doctorate in Religion from Duke University and is editor of "A Pearl in Wine: Essays on the Life, Music, and Sufism of Hazrat Inayat Khan" (Omega Publications, 2001). He too, speaks many languages fluently and clearly has absorbed much of the magic displayed by his father and grandfather.

The aura I perceived coming from him was that of confidence, joy, and intelligent concern. I sensed the presence of access to different options and unexpected tools. There seemed to be an “awareness” of a different way to do things and of access to new avenues.

The world is always changing, but that pace is quickening because of mankind's access to new technologies. Religion is also being confronted with deeply probing questions, even from many of its faithful members who seek new ways and new options to accommodate their new understandings of a different concept of life. Somehow, a great threshold seems to have been passed over, and we are slowly becoming aware that we are entering into a vast new capacity. The old answers are still there, still coming from all the old churches and they are as strongly presented as they ever have been. But the questions have changed and they don’t seek new answers so much as they seek to develop a new understanding of who mankind really is as our species begins to form a new relationship with the Great Mystery we sense as being both beyond and within us.

For more information about Pir Zia and his work click here http://www.sevenpillarshouse.org/

Old Hickory Tap Room, Hickory, NC

Shortly after moving to Hickory last year my wife and I went to the Old Hickory Tap Room, ordered a beer and sat down to enjoy the atmosphere. We left before we finished our drinks, leaving because of the cigarette gasses that pervaded the place, and we did not come back.

In 2009, the North Carolina Legislature abolished smoking in eating establishments. Yea. It went into effect this January the second. We waited a couple of months to let the second-hand and third-hand gasses more or less dissipate and dropped in again last night after seeing a play just around the corner at the Hickory Community Theatre.

Wonderful. Good home-brewed beer and a classy group of waiters. The band did not stop the entire time we were in there, yet we sat in the other room and were able to carry on a conversation. We not only enjoyed some really good beer, we also ordered a serving of their special chips. Wow. I didn't get their name, but don't worry, they are at the top of their "Appetizers" menu. Get'em. They're good. They are really good. Our waiter brought us some small servings of dips - not that they needed any dip at all - but we had a "ranch", a "hot" blue cheese dip, and a "beer cheese" dip. Which was the best? Hah! We couldn't figure that out. And we tried hard.

Best of all, we talked to two waiters about the difference in patronage after the smoking ban went into effect. Had "attendance" dropped or maybe held steady? Both said that many more people were now coming in and that they had noticed that beginning with the first week.

Hickory Community Theatre and The Nerd.

I really wanted to write something about “The Nerd” but I think I have to recuse myself. That’s because I know all these people and I have known them very closely for many years.

Rick Steadman, accurately depicted by Daniel Breuer, is an accountant who worked for me in Tallahassee in the 1980 when I ran an accounting shop in the Comptroller’s Office. I am glad to see he hasn’t aged even a bit, he still wears the same shorty short shirts and the same tie that he always wore before, even his eyeglasses are still held together with tape, to save money, as they always were. And his voice hasn’t changed at all either! It brought back memories I thought had vanished long ago. God, he was good. I wanted to take him home.

Warnock Waldgrave, played by John Gann, oh man, how I have missed you! You were the old sergeant who made sure that the Titan II missile was ready to go, or that the load was adjusted on the KC-135 before take-off, or that the computers and the radar was always ready in Vietnam before the bomb runs began. Loved you guy, you made things happen. I always hoped you would find a sense of humor somewhere, and I still hope you still will.

Clelia Waldgrave, played by Delene Huggins, you are the woman eternal, the one shaped by man to help comfort and care for his fantasies. You are the woman who keeps the nucleus together while the masculine Atom determines WHERE you will wind up. You are the harried thing that man needs to keep himself sane and I have known you all through all my life in so many women that I met and have known, many of them as family members and most of them many long years ago.

William Grummert, played by Christopher Honsaker, is the song of potential success, the birth of new beginnings, the hope that springs eternal. I have known him in my real estate adventures, and in my law suits, and in legislators that I have worked with. What a good man he is! He is a bit shifty and off center sometimes, but that is because life is not fair with him either.

Tansy McGinnis, played by Cheryl Ann Roberts, I identify with most of all. She is me. That’s where I have been far too many times, cleverly and professionally zagging when I should have been sloppily zigging. Buying Palm instead of Blackberry, for example and then over correcting with Apple. I made out OK, just like Tansy did. We both could have gotten here easier than we did - but - well, that’s the way life is. Hi Tansy!

And then there was Alex Hammond, played by Anthony Liguori. Yes I know you too - not well, I saw you as Androgyny personified. More reminiscent of those old Greek gods than any mortal human I've ever met, except in a collective sense. But you were omni-present, providing guidance more by insightful "belly-bumps" with your eyebrows, than by guile, and in the amazingly delightful end, you were the one who kept sanity together with a beautiful, knowing smile and a fantastic game plan.

Finally, Thor Waldgrave, played by Preston Gann. Thor - things will get better. I been there. Relax man, you’re not really trying to play a role - not in the play of life that is. Un-unh, you take charge. For example if the script tells you to pull the shade down, you rip the poor thing off! If you get frustrated, you break saucers. But if a Nerd shows up, don’t - DO NOT- try to run away and hide in a closet!

So. That's one of the things about going to plays at the Hickory Community Theatre. You not only get to meet a lot of new people in the audience and on the stage, but you never know WHO you will really run into. It could even be you.

Damnation.

My new chapbook has been rated. It now carries a rating of “D”. That’s for “Disturbing”. It is, I have been told, “unacceptable in Hickory”. I kind of missed all that when I was putting it together, but nonetheless, I guess I have joined the ranks of Allen Ginsberg and Norman Mailer. Of course that’s only for those who haven’t read Ginsberg or Mailer, and it is only for a part of Hickory.

I had left the book for a week with an establishment that sells chapbooks from time to time. They said they needed to review it before making a decision. I was gone for a week and when I returned, I went back to them and asked if they wanted to carry it. That’s when I found out it had been rated. “It is unacceptable.” I was told.

“Hmmmm.” I said. “Could you let me know - ah - why?”

“It’s disturbing.” They said.

“Oh.” I said. (I was prepared for them not to want to carry it, but not for THIS!)

They went on, at my insistence, to explain that it was “over the top”, and would be too “controversial” for Hickory.

At least they did return the book to me. I donated it to the Burke County Library.

So, “D” stands for many things besides Disturbing. Among them are Dark, Dismal, Destructive, Depressing, Deadly, Dissolute, Dastardly, Dungeonesque? Differently Dramatic, Distinctive Developmentaly Delightful Discovery? Oh well - never mind. What is done is done.

I guess that’s what I get for doing my first “Publish on Demand” book. And since demand is way down in America now, I have pointed out to several people already that I will also Publish on Request, even Publish on a Slight Show of Interest. Just get my attention. Won't be easy now that I am downcast and depressed.