"I Can Only Imagine" (movie critique)

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE
movie poster

It was Friday and time for a movie for the Movie Mavens and The Travelling Toe.  Several friends had recommended the faith-based movie "I Can Only Imagine".  We decided to see it and were very glad we did.  

The movie is described on the internet as follows:

Based on the incredible true-life story that inspired the beloved, chart-topping song, I Can Only Imagine is a song that brings ultimate hope to so many - often in the midst of life's most challenging moments. Amazingly, the song was written in mere minutes by MercyMe lead singer Bart Millard. In reality, those lyrics took a lifetime to craft.

Bart's father was rather cruel and demanding.  He told Bart he was a big disappointment.  Trying to impress his father, Bart joined the high school football team (well, it is Texas after all and Friday night lights happen) but Bart suffered a debilitating injury.  His football playing days were over and his father had no use for him.  Bart found an outlet when he joined the glee club and discovered  he had a voice.  Bart finally has to leave home and his father in order to forge his own path. But as so often happens, the trail can circle you back home to face what has been left unsaid for many years.

CAST:

Dennis Quaid
Arthur

Brody Rose
Young Bart

J. Michael Finley
Bart

Trace Adkins
Brickell

Madeline Carroll
Shannon

Bart Millard

We all so enjoyed this movie.  Sometimes amends can be made through love, hope, forgiveness  and grace.  

The Travelling Toe awards this movie 1 big toe up with extra tissues as they are required!!

March FWSO Symphonic Concert

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
program

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presented their March concert at Bass Hall.  The Travelling Toe and several Dear Friends attended the Sunday afternoon performance.

Ward Stare was the guest conductor. The program stated with the playing of the"Star Spangled Banner".  

Ward Stare
Guest Conductor

The first selection on the program was "Four Scottish Dances" written by Malcolm Arnold.  As noted by Ken Meltzer in the program notes,"....are a brilliant fusion of the folk and classical traditions".  As the music played, images were brought forth of kilts and tartans at a Scottish fling.

Malcolm Arnold
1921-2006

The second piece on the program was "Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings", written by Benjamin Britten.  What an unusual combination, voice, horn and strings.  As Mr. Meltzer noted in the program, "The Serenade is a haunting and evocative setting of poems (spanning five centuries), that focus on the subjects of dusk and night".  Before the last poem was song, horn player, Molly Norcross left the stage.  Paul Appleby, sang the last sonnet and after a brief pause, from far off stage, Ms. Norcross played a plaintive ending to echo what had been sung.  .

Benjamin Britten
1913-1976

Both solosits and the orchestra received extended applause. Mr. Appleby had a beautiful lyrical tenor voice.  Ms. Norcross, is the Principle Horn player of the FWSO.  

Paul Appleby
soloist - tenor

Molly Norcross
soloist - horn

After a brief intermission, the program ended with "Symphony No 7 in A Major" written  by Ludwig van Beethoven. Notes from the program, "When Beethoven's Seventh was first performed, many were shocked by the work's irrepressible energy and cumulative power.  More than two centuries after the premier, the work continues to amaze audiences with it's dramatic fire.  It remains one of the most thrilling of all symphonic creations."

Ludwig van Beethoven
1770-1827

Oh wow!!!  What an amazing performance!  This music will indeed keep you engaged all the time it is being played and as it comes to it's final majestic conclusion!!

Mr.Stare, was very animated and full of energy as he conducted the program.  He interacted very well with audience members and musicals as well.  Hopefully  a return engagement will be forthcoming.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Book Mark Book Review Club - March Meeting

The March meeting of the  Book Mark Book Review Club, featured book reviewer Nancy Ashley in a presentation highlighting the life story of renowned journalist Barbara Walters. Ms. Ashley's presentation was compiled from several biographies written about Barbara.

Barbara Walters

The story begins with Barbara's young life which was rather difficult.  Her father, Lou Walters, was a booking agent for vaudeville acts.  But then the silent movies came into vogue which were quickly followed by the talkies and vaudeville acts were suddenly out of business.  

Barbara was born in 1929.  Her older brother had died at a young age and then her older sister,Jackie, was born with mental and physical challenges. 

Lou had assembled a nest egg but lost it all so he had to reinvent himself.  In 1937, he opened the Latin Quarter in Boston.  He decided since it was so successful he would open another one in Florida.  Lou moved the family to Florida and opened a Latin Quarter on Miami Island.  The Latin Quarter in New York quickly followed.  But Lou was known to be a gambler, mostly gin rummy, and would often be on the losing side.

During this transition from Boston to Miami then back to New York, Barbara went to 3 different high schools in 4 years.  Also due to Jackie's medical issues, she never felt comfortable bringing friends home after school. After she graduated high school, Barbara was accepted at Sara Lawrence College with English being her major.  

Television was really taking off in 1951 and Barbara was able to obtain a job at NBC. She eventually gets a job on "The Today Show" with Dave Garroway.  Her big break came when the focus of "The Today Show" was changed to a news formant.  Barbara was sent to France to cover the fashion shows so she could describe the events on "The Today Show".  From there Barbara had major assignments such as covering Jackie Kennedy's trip to India in 1963.  She also covered the funeral of JFK.  

In 1976 Barbara was hired by ABC.  She was assigned to report on Nixon's historic trip to China.  But she was the only woman reporter on the trip and all the men totally shunned her.  After a time on the evening news desk, Barbara was moved to the news magazine show "20/20" with Hugh Downs.  During all this time she was supporting her parents and sister who were living in Florida.  

With the assignment to the "20/20" program. Barbara honed her compelling skills as a interviewer.  She did her homework on the person, including their interests and background.  She won her confidence and trust but always asked the difficult questions. She consistently received high ratings when she went for an interview in some jail.  

One of her biggest successes was her book "How To Talk With Practically Anyone About Practically Anything".  It was published in 1979.  However, Barbara was so busy, a ghostwriter had to do most of the work.

In 1997, she started "The View" talk show.  Then in May 2013, she announced her retirement.

What an interesting and insightful program about the life of Barbara Walters!

"Tomb Raider" (movie critique)

Tomb Raider
movie poster

Well, Dear Readers, it was once again action Flick Friday for the Movie Mavens and The Travelling Toe. The movie choice, "Tomb Raider",  was the re-make of the 2001 film of the same name that starred Angelina Jolie.  And that movie was based on the popular action video game system.

Tomb Raider
2001
movie poster

There is a difference in the plots between the 2001 and the 2018 movies.  In the 2001 movie Laura Croft criss-crossed the globe to find her father and the secrets he left behind.

The internet describes the 2018 movie plot as follows:

Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished years earlier. Hoping to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance, Croft embarks on a perilous journey to his last-known destination -- a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. The stakes couldn't be higher as Lara must rely on her sharp mind, blind faith and stubborn spirit to venture into the unknown.

CAST:

Alicia Vikander
Laura Croft

Daniel Wu
Lu Ren

Walton Goggins
Mathias Vogel

Dominic West
Lord Richard Croft

Kristin Scott Thomas
Ana Miller

Derek Jacobie
Mr. Yaffe

We all enjoyed the movie as it was indeed chockablock full of intrigue, mysterious clues and lots of action.  Am sure that Ms.Vikander had to really train hard for her role as even with a stunt double and special effects, the role required a lot of physical strength.  Additionally, Walton Goggins is indeed one of the very best bad guys. This time his bad guy had a bit of humanity in him but only as it related to his own desires.  Daniel Wu who played the boat captain, Lu Ren, is a well known Asian American actor overseas in the Chinese movie market.  Hopefully, local theater goers will be able to see him again in more wide release movies like this one.

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 2 second toes up with a bicycle fitted for fast food delivery!

Texas Ballet Theater presents: "Seven Sonatas" and "Henry VIII"

TEXAS BALLET THEATER
program

The Travelling Toe and 3 Dear Friends attended the Sunday matinee performance of the Texas Ballet Theater at Bass Hall.  There were two very different ballet presentations featured on the program.

ALEXEI RATMANSKY
choreorgrapher

The first presentation was "Seven Sonatas", with choreography by Alexei Ratmansky.  The stage was very simply set with only a light blue background.  A grand piano sat at the back of stage left with Sean Chen, winner of the 2013 Van Cliburn Piano Competition, at the keyboard. The Baroque style music, "Keyboard Sonatas" was composed by Domenico Scarlatti  This was indeed a lovely ballet that was set to beautiful Baroque music resulting in an exciting and lovely production.

SEAN CHEN
pianist

DOMENICO SCARLATTI
composer
1685-1757

After a short intermission, the second ballet took stage. This program was based on the life of Henry VIII and was choreographed by Carl Coomer, who is a member of the TBT ballet troupe. He has choreographed several short programs previously for the TBT, but this is his first long program. And it did not disappoint. The ballet was danced to recorded music which was "The Planets" composed by Gustav Holst.

CARL COOMER
choreographer

GUSTAV HOLST
comoposer
1874-1934

"JUPITER" - represented Catherine of Aragon.  Since she could not produce a male heir, Henry, who was already infatuated with Ann, divorced her against the orders of the Catholic Pope.


"MARS"- Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church and named himself the head of the Church of England. Rebellion broke but Henry previlled and pursued his marriage to Anne

"URANUS" - this set reflected his marriage to and life with Anne Boleyn . However Anne could not produce a male heir either, so charges were brought up against her for infidelity and she was beheaded

"Venus" - after 11 days of mourning for Anne, Henry then married Jane Seymour.  She was able to finally produce a long hoped for son but then Ann died shortly thereafter

"Neptune" - Henry was looking for another wife and received a picture of a beautiful woman, Anne of Cleves.  He agreed to the marriage, but when she arrived she did not look like her picture at all so he divorced her (see even in old times online dating could be chancey)

"Mercury" - 49 year old Henry marries 19 year old Catherine Howard. Once again no male heir and she is beheaded for infidelity.

"Saturn" - Catherine Parr was Henry's last wife and took care of him as he laid dying on his bed.....but he was not alone...all those dead wives re-appeared in his dreams...no rest for the wicked 

This was just an amazing ballet.  All the dancers were excellent in their roles, plus the beautiful costumes and capativing stage settings created a remarkable presentation.

Henry VIII - Andre Silva
Anne Boleyn - Carolyn Judson

We all four agreed that the TBT had once again presented a wonderful and exciting program that we thoroughly enjoyed!



Texas Ballet Theater

"Death Wish" (movie critique)

DEATH WISH
movie

Well, Dear Readers, by now you must know that the Movie Mavens and The Travelling Toe loves us some action flicks.  So our movie pick of the week was "Death Wish", starring
Bruce Willis.  Several of us had seen the original "Death Wish" movie back in 1974, which starred Charles Bronson. At that time Charles Bronson was considered one of the top action movie actors.  There were many changes to the plot of the movie such as in 1974 Bronson was an architect in his movie, while this time around Bruce plays a doctor.

DEATH WISH
1974 MOVIE POSTER

One other tidbit, the 1974 movie was based on a book of the same name, "Death Wish", written by Brian Garfield.  

Death Wish
the book

Brian Garfield
author

The internet provided this overview of the current movie:

 Dr. Paul Kersey is a surgeon who often sees the consequences of the city's violence in the emergency room. When home intruders brutally attack his wife and young daughter, Kersey becomes obsessed with delivering vigilante justice to the perpetrators. As the anonymous slayings grab the media's attention, the public begins to wonder if the deadly avenger is a guardian angel -- or the Grim Reaper itself.

CAST:

Bruce Willis
Paul Kersey

Elisabeth Shue
Lucy Kersely

Camila Morrone
Jordan Kersey

Vincent D'Onofrio
Frank Kersey

Dean Morris
Dect Kevin Raines

Kimberly Elise
Dect Leonore Jackson

Beau Knapp
Knox

This was an good action flick with one good guy trying to track down all the bad guys that tortured his family. And guess who wins...well, of course Bruce does - with a little help from You Tube videos!  Dean Norris, who plays the detective, is such a wonderful "character" actor.  He has been in numerous movies and television shows.  Dean can play the good guy and the bad guy really good. There is a funny scene with him trying to eat something that is suppose to be healthy for him and how he reacts to trying to eat the health bar was very funny!  Been there...and yuck!

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 2 second toes up with your very own hoodie so you can prowl out in the dark night!!

Casanova: The Seduction Of Europe

CASANOVA:
THE SEDUCTION OF EUROPE
KIMBELL ART MUSEUM

One afternoon, The Travelling Toe took herself to the Kimbell Art Museum to see the exhibit titled, "Casanova:The Seduction Of Europe".  

The exhibit pamplet describes the display as follows:

"Casanova:The Seduction of Europe" explains the eighteenth century across Europe through the eyes of one of the most colorful characters, Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798).  Renowned in modern times for his amorous pursuits, Casanova lived not only in Italy, but in France and England and his travels took him to the Ottoman Empire and to meet Catherine the Great in Saint Petersburg.  Featuring paintings, sculpture, works on paper, furnishings, porcelains, silver, and period costumes, Casanova will bring this world to life."  

Giacomo Casanova,was a bright young man, who was an avid reader. He received a Doctorate of Law at the age of 16.  He spoke many languages, due to moving from one country to another.  Plus those language skills helped him in his escapes of love and romance. 

Here are just a few examples of the artwork on display:

Catherine The Great
by
Pierre-Etienne Falconer

The Minuet
by
Capodimonte 

The Grand Canal From Campo San Vio
by
Canaletto

Giacomo Casanova
by
Francesco Casanova
(his brother)

What an interesting and thrilling exhibit as there several were staged vignettes displaying porcelain figurines, jewelry, silver, furniture and mannequins dressed in period appropriate fashion....and some pieces were indeed authentic.

Magnificent glimpse into the world of 18th Century Europe!

Kimbell Art Museum