"Guys and Dolls" at the Granbury Opera House

GUYS AND DOLLS
play program

The Travelling Toe and 3 Dear Friends attended the Sunday matinee performance of "Guys and Dolls" at the Granbury Opera House.  The "action" takes place in 1950's New York City and is based on short stories written by Damon Runyon.

The 1955 movie starred Frank Sinatra as Nathan Detroit, Marlon Brando as Sky Masterson, Jean Simmons as Sarah Brown and Vivian Blaine as Miss Adelaide.

movie poster

Nathan, a gambler, needs to find a place to hold a high stakes craps game.  But the "heat" is on and all the regular places are either off limits or require a large down payment that Narthan does not have.  So Nathan comes up with a sucker bet for Sky Masterson.  Nathan bets Sky that he can not get local Missionary, Sarah Brown, to go out on a date with him.  But Sky bamboozles Sarah into going to Cuba with him.  She thinks she will be doing some missionary work on the trip.  But needless to say that is not what Sky has planned nor what really happens. Cubra Libre anyone?

This musical is full of fun songs such as:

            A Bushel And A Peck

           Guys & Dolls

           If I Were A Bell

          Take Back Your Mink

          Luck Be A Lady Tonight

          Sit Down You're Rocking The Boat 

All the cast members were wonderful in their roles.  The four leads had lovely singing voices and shined in their solo numbers. The stage setting was inventive and the costumes, hairstyles and makeup reflected the 1950's.  

Cast photo on display in the lobby

Sky won a big bet while he was singing "Luck Be A Lady Tonight", so maybe next time you buy a lottery ticket sing that song and perhaps you will get lucky too!!


This was another fun time at the Granbury Opera House!

Granbury Theatre Company

Pink Martini with the FWSO Pops

FORT WORTH SYMPHONY POPS CONCERT
program

The last FWSO Pops concert of the season featured Portland based "Pink Martini".  They have performed numerous times at Bass Hall and always are popular with audience members.

The concert kicked off with Pink Martini and the string section of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra playing Maurice Rave's "Bolero".  From there, it was a surprise as to what songs were played.  As it states in the program, "selections will be announced from the stage".  One fun song they played and sang was "?Donde Estas Yolanda". 

But you can be sure each song is unique and fun to enjoy.  What other group can sing songs in Italian, French, Spanish, Turkish, Armenian, Japanese and English? Plus they don't just sell CD's but also vinyl records and even socks!

After a short intermission, the second part of the show started with "Malaguena" by composer Ernesto Lecuona.

If Pink Martini ever comes your way or comes back to Fort Worth, do go see them.  They are high energy and perform unique and fun songs. Oh and a conga line closes the show leading everyone down the aisles and out the door!!

www.pinkmartini.com

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

C.J.Box author presentation sponsored by Friends of the North Richland Hills Library

C.J. Box
www.cjbox.net

Before the last bout of bronchitis hit, The Travelling Toe and Dear Friend attended a author presentation at the North Richland Hills Library.

North Richland Hills Library
www.librarynrhtx.com

The guest author was C.J. Box who writes a very successful series set in Wyoming and features a game warden by the name of Joe Pickett.  Mr. Box has also written several stand alone novels as well, with a total of 24 books to his credit.





He has won numerous awards including the Edgar Award, as well as the Western Heritage Award for Literature by the National Cowboy Museum.  

A rather large crowd gathered to hear the author speak about his characters, his books and his life story.  Mr. Box began the program by reading several paragraphs from his new book, "The Disappeared".  He spoke about how the previous book, "Vicious Circle" ties into this new book.

He said that as a young boy of 12 years old, he would ride his bike to the library in Casper and look at all the books in the B section trying to see where his books would be placed when he became a successful author.  It appears the dream started early!

He did take a few questions from audience members and was asked if he had shadowed a game warden to help with his character development.  C.J. said he has ridden  along with a local game warden and has learned a lot about the job. Game wardens are heavily armed, as they are out in the field, alone, all day.  He said he had 3 dogs, Labradors, as most game wardens have Labradors with them as they patrol. 

An audience member asked if in the near future the "Joe Pickett" series could to be made into a TV movie or series.  C.J. said that it might be as they are in the process of discussing the project.  He did say he is already working on the next Joe Pickett book and the characters will continue on in it.  

He was most amiable and answered questions about his writing technique, character development and book tours.

After the alloted time, C.J. signed books for audience members.

What another fun and interesting author event set up by the Friends of The North Richland Hills Library.

AT&T Stadium

When we arrived at the AT&T Stadium for the 12:00 art tour, they had these huge side doors open.  This big crane was lifting a Ford vehicle to one of the upper tiers to be put on display.

This picture shows a better view of the crane and the automobile.

This view is looking down to the stadium field.  The night before, the stadium had hosted a soccer game and real turf had been laid out for the game.  So the next morning the turf had to be rolled up and the dirt had to be swept up as well. That tiny little blue machine that looks like a Zamboni is not cleaning ice but vacuuming up the dirt.  Phil, our tour guide, told us that the turf is used that one time then after being rolled up, it is donated to a charity...think Habitat for Humanity!

70,000 people had attended the soccer game the night before, but you could not have known it as the stadium was clean, all the trash had been dumped out and the stadium looked like it was ready to host another event.  Phil said cleaning crews normally  work all night to ensure the stadium is clean and ready the next morning  for tours and other activities

Looking out the second tier window, we saw this tent structure set up.  There is where standy-by attendees wait to be called.  It has large screen TV's plus tables, chairs and a bar.  So as one is waiting for tickets, drinks and fun can be had and the action is not missed!

This shot is of one of the concession areas.

These are the clocks installed throughout the stadium.  Looks just like the face of a watch.

Interesting lighting fixtures at one of the concession areas.

What a way to watch a game!!

AT&T Stadium Art Tour

AT&T STADIUM

Dear Readers, The Travelling Toe has been AFK (away from keyboard) as the Easter Bunny was just as bad as Santa Clause, because he left another case of bronchitis along with the chocolate Easter egg...he was so mean.

Anyway, before the Easter holiday, The Travelling Toe and 3 Dear Friends decided to do a tour of the enormous AT&T Stadium in Arlington. It is not only known as being the home stadium of the NFL football team, the Cowboys, but also hosts concerts such as Kenny Chesney, who will be appearing there on May 19th.  Additionally, other athletic events are scheduled at the stadium such as soccer games and monster truck rallies!

But we chose to do a different type of tour.  Rather than the standard stadium tour, we did the art tour.  AT&T Stadium utilizes art work to enhance the function and spirit of the stadium.  

Our tour guide was Phil Whitfield and he was extremely knowledgeable about all the 
artwork installations and the artists as well.  Mr. and Mrs. Jones hand picked Phil to work with the artists and assist them with the art installations. As there are numerous works of art integrated throughout the stadium, only a few favorites will be highlighted in this post.

The tour began with a installation by Jim Campbell, who is also an electrical engineer. He used individual hanging LED lights to format digital imagery.  As you gaze at the lights, footage from several football plays can be seen running through the light field.

As we walked around we found a beautiful red and white striped wall above one of the concession stands.  It is titled "Two Minds" and is by Terry Haggerty.  It gives the illusion of a waving flag or banner.

Daniel Buren created a wall titled, "Unexpected Variable Configurations: A Work In Situ".  He used yellow tiles with interjections of white tiles with black stripes throughout the wall.  The question is, "Is it a wall or is it an art installation?"  That is a question each guest has to decide for themselves!

One of our favorite pieces of art work was by Franz Ackermann.   The colors he used were bright and vibrant.  The gigantic murals take up several pieces of wall space with the escalator bisecting it.  The title of the art work is "Coming Home and (Meet Me) At the 
Waterfall".   

Another bright pop of color is "Blue Field Explosions" by Gary Simmons.  Phil shared with us that when Gary was on site for the installation, he was hooked up to a piece of equipment which  lifted him up to the wall.  He took white chalk and began creating the "pop art" style image on the blue background.

Olafur Eliasson, created mobiles titled "Moving stars takes time".  It has a beautiful, almost space themed look about it.

Jim Isermann, installed a large abstract wall relief that is made up all white tiles.  But as one stares at the white tiles you begin to see the undulating movement to the wall.

Another favorite was by Matthew Ritchie, "Line of Play".  It was installed on two opposite side walls plus on the ceiling.  It is mixed medium with aluminum, vinyl and paint.  Can you imagine a coach drawing X"s and O's?  And even though the day was cloudy, was able to get a shot of the ceiling piece reflected on the shiny floor.

ceiling

reflection of the ceiling piece
onto the black shiny floor

Outside is large polished stainless steel disc that is 35 feet in diameter.  The sculpture, "Sky Mirror" was constructed by Anish Kapoor.  The disc sits in a black marble pond of flowing water.  It is so fastancing to watch the Texas sky reflected in the disc.  If you think you have heard the artist's  name before, he is well known for sculpting the "Chicago Bean".  

There are many other pieces of art work to discover at the Stadium.  We had a wonderful time with Phil.  He was so kind to us and shared fun stories about interacting with the artists during the installation of their art works.  Plus he explained how the plan for the art work was to be ingrained within the overall stadium experience.

we may be on the short side but Phil is certainly
way much taller than all of us

The price of the tour is a bit pricey ($26.00)...well, they do have to pay the light bill,  but we saw a lot of interesting things along the way.  It was a  fun adventure.

A separate post will have a few pictures of the inside stadium.

Dwight D Eisenhower Birthplace Tour

DWIGHT D EISENHOWER
GENERAL/PRESIDENT

The Travelling Toe and Dear Friend took off on the highways and byways of the Metroplex to travel north almost to the Red River. The reason for our day trip was to tour the boyhood home of President Dwight Eisenhower. Oh yes, everyone thinks his home was in Kansas but he was actually born in the small town of Denison, Texas.  

This sign welcomes visitors to the historic site.

Redbud tree in full bloom

Welcome Center

This is the welcome center where you purchase tour tickets plus buy a few souvenirs and see some other memorabilia.

Across the street from the Welcome Center is a very important place for The Travelling Toe. It houses very nice restrooms!!  After a road journey this provided welcome relief.  (chuckle)

As we walked up the street to the house, we stopped and paused to admire this impressive statue of Eisenhower.  This is a postcard picture above and  below is the one The Travelling Toe took.  (the postcard is better)

Our tour guide, Maxine, was energic, interesting and very knowledgeable about the President, his family and the house.

Maxine
our tour guide

This photo of the house is a postcard.

Below are photos of the interior of the house, however the furniture is not original of course but is to that period of time.

 small bedroom where
Dwight was born

   

parlor

 

kitchen with wood burning
stove

photo
David and Ida

His father David, was a very hard worker and saved money to attend college.  There he met the lovely Ida. 

Ida had been orphaned at the age of 12 and lived on the grace and favor of her extended family.  She worked hard for her kept but aspired to attend school.  Through perseverance, she graduated from high school  When she turned 21, she moved to Kansas where her brother and his family lived, so she could attend college. But she also meet the love of her life, David, at college.  

David's family were farmers in Kansas but he wanted to be a businessman not a framer so he sold his acreage and started a General Store.  However the business went bankrupt and David was now broke, married with 2 young babies and needed a job.  His family used their connections and were able to get him a job working for the Katy Railroad.  Only thing was that the job was at the railyard in Denison Texas.  So David, Ida and the 2 babies travelled to Texas  They moved into a simple frame house next to the railyards.  He earned about $40.00 a month.The young family struggled financially but the family back in Kansas were doing well with their dairy farm.  David completed a correspondence course in refrigeration, which allowed him to return to Kansas to run the dairy's cold storage barn. Dwight was nearly 18 months old when his family returned  to Kansas.

With his parents setting an example that education was important, Dwight and his brothers all attended college. Dwight applied to West Point and passed all the exams but 2 other applicants were ahead of him.  However one of the students failed his physical and Dwight was accepted into West Point. 

As history unfolded during the dark days of the 1940's, the town of Denison became very proud of it's famous citizen.  The small frame house was purchased by the city of Denison in 1946.

One of the neighbor ladies, Jennie Jackson,  wrote to then General Eisenhower and told him about the house where he was born and how she had cared for him during his time in Dension.  Ike returned to Dension that same year to much acclaim.  He and Sam Rayburn arrived at the local air base then along with other dignities, and Ms.Jackson, were treated to a Texas sized breakfast!  That was what Ike asked for!

In 1958, the little frame house became a State Park. In 2016, it was placed on the US National Register of Historic Places and also became a Texas State Historic Site.

Isn't this a great quote???


If you live in the Fort Worth, Dallas area, this is fun day trip, plus Denison has several other fun sites to visit, shops in the downtown area and some good places to eat!