FWSO Pop Series: A Tribute To Louis Amrstrong

LOUIS ARMSTRONG

                                                                       SATCHMO


Well Dear Readers, it was Pops time again and a Dear Friend accompied The Travelling Toe to the Sunday matinee performance.  This time we were treated to some New Orleans jazz.  The FWSO was lead by guest conductor Stuart Chafetz.  The star of the show was Byron Stripling on trumpet and vocals. The program was a tribute to Louis Armstrong.

 

Stuart Chafetz

The song selection was wonderful.  Here are just a few that Byron featured:

• Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
•  
• Saint Louis Blues
•  
• Sweet Georgia Brown
•  
• Alexanders' Ragtime Band
•  
• Ain't Misbehavin'

And of course you can't have New Orleans jazz without "When The Saints Go Marching In" to close the program!

Byron Stripling

Byron Stripling

Byron was fabulous.  He really played that trumpet and got some wonderful high notes out of it.  He sure has some marvelous breath power.  Plus he is a great singer and really brought life to those songs.  And in addition, he is a very  funny host telling the audience stories about the songs, or the songwriter, or the artist or how Louis Armstrong was related to it.

This was by far one of the best programs that the Pop Series has presented.  Hope that Byron comes back again soon...."won't you come home, Byron Stripling....back to Fort Worth"?



                                                                     

 

"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" (movie critique)

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT - movie poster

Well, Dear Readers, one of the Friday Movie Mavens really wanted to take a chance on seeing "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" starting Tina Fey.  After seeing her last movie "Sisters" we were unsure if we even wanted to see another Tina Fey movie ever again.  But then after the end of the movie we all agreed we were happy we took the chance as this movie was much better than expected.  


 

Kay Barker

The Taliban shuffle

The store line of "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" is based on the memoir of Kim Barker titled "The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan".  In the movie, the lead character's name was changed to Kim Baker.  





Kim is a television journalist and is stuck in NYC covering low profile stories.  Her boyfriend is constantly traveling and their relationship is in flux.  As the war on terror is ramping up in Afghanistan, she jumps at the chance for some high profile pieces as a war correspondent.  After a long and bumpy flight, she arrives and is met by her security guard and an Afghani translator.  She settles in at the secured low budget living quarters with the other international journalists.  During the course of her stay, she strikes up a friendship with a noted Australian correspondent Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie).  (hmmmmm...a sexy competitor, so should she be trusted? more on this enticing story after a short break)

With her Afghani guide, security driver and video photographer, Tall Brian, Kim takes off with a troop of Marines for a news story.  Along the way she butts heads with the Marine Commander General Hollanek (Billie Bob Thornton). Eventually he does begin to tolerate her and her reporting activities.  

Surprising her boyfriend one day with  a video chat call, she catches him with another women.  Needless to say they break up.  Kim decides to stay in Afghanistan long past her original 3 months tour.  In order to ingratiate herself to an Afghani leader (Alfred Molina), she even goes out shooting automatic rifles with him for some bonding time.

Kim becomes friends with Scottish freelance photographer, Ian MacKelpie.  But their friendship grows and eventually becomes a bit more than just a sexual relationship.  

Kim finds her network financial resources growing thin.  She makes a hasty trip to New York to meet the new network boss and to fight for more money.  However, when she gets there she founds out that her boss has replaced her with Tanya. (see, she was not to be trusted after all!)

Meanwhile back in Afghanistan Iain has taken a chance on a big story and  is kidnapped by the Taliban.  When Kim finds out about it, she immediately returns to Afghanistan.   When Kim unearths all the details of the kidnapping from the Afghani leader, she goes to General Hollanek and talks him into sending his elite Marine unit in to rescue Iain.  The Travelling Toe will not spoil the outcome for you but just remember that the Marines always get their man - no wait those are the Mounties!)

Kim realizes that her life in Afghanistan is not a true reality.  So she leaves all the chaos behind and returns to NYC.  She takes an on-camera desk job. Does she ever see Iain again?  Inquiring minds will just have to see the movie to find out.  However chocolate always gets The Travelling Toe in a talkative state!  Just sayin'.

SIDE NOTE:   This movie is rated "R" for various reasons.

 CAST:

Tina Fey - Kim Baker

Martin Freeman - Iain MacKelpie

Alfred Molina  - Ali Massoud Sadiq

Billy Bob Thornton - Gen Hollanek

Christopher Abbot - Fahim Ahmadzai

Nicholas Braun - Tall Brian

Margot Robbie - Tanya Vanderpoel

 




The Travelling Toe gives this movie 2 middle toes up with a burga just in cast you travel to Afghanistan.


Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.
 

Dallas Museum of Art: "Blind Spots" by Jackson Pollock

DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART

Dallas Museum of Art

On a cold, rainy week day The Travelling Toe and a Dear Friend ventured out to bravely face the icky weather conditions along with the ever-under-construction Dallas Freeway system.  The reason for this adventure was to visit the Dallas Museum of Art's exhibit "Blind Spots" featuring Jackson Pollock. 

The museum describes the exhibit on their website as follows:

Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots is only the third major U.S. museum exhibition to focus solely on the artist hailed as “the greatest painter this country has ever produced.” On November 20, the Dallas Museum of Art will present what experts have deemed a “once in a lifetime” exhibition, organized by the DMA’s Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art Gavin Delahunty: the largest survey of Jackson Pollock’s black paintings ever assembled. This exceptional presentation, which critics hailed as “sensational," "exhilarating," "genius,"  “revelatory,” and “revolutionary” on its UK premier at Tate Liverpool, will receive its sole US presentation in Dallas and include many works that have not been exhibited for more than 50 years.

Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots offers critical new scholarship on this understudied yet pivotal period in the artist’s career and provides radical new insights into Pollock’s practice. With more than 70 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints, the exhibition will first introduce audiences to Pollock’s work via a selection of his classic drip paintings made between 1947 and 1950. These works will serve to contextualize the radical departure represented by the black paintings, a series of black enamel paintings that Pollock created between 1951 and 1953. An unprecedented 31 black paintings will be included in the DMA presentation. Exhibiting works from the height of the artist’s celebrity set against his lesser known paintings will offer the opportunity to appreciate Pollock’s broader ambitions as an artist, and to better understand the importance of the “blind spots” in his practice.

Here are a few facts about Jackson Pollock.  He was born in 1912, in Cody, Wyoming, but grew up in California.  In 1930, he moved to NYC to study art and painting.  During the time period of 1938-1942 Pollock worked for the WPA - Federal Art Project.  He struggled with alcoholism from 1938 to his death in October, 1966.  He married American painter Lee Krasner.  To get him away from bad influences, Lee moved the couple out to East Hampton. There he perfected his big "drip" techniques with commercial grade paint.  He began working in the black paint technique after 1951. He died at the young age of 44 in 1966, in an alcohol related car accident.  Yet, his legacy lives on

In full disclosure The Travelling Toe must admit that she is not a big fan of abstract impressionism but discovered this exhibit to be surprisingly interesting. The pictures featured were amazing to view and to imagine what he was trying to say in the painting.  Photos were allowed so here are a few that The Travelling Toe took with her trusty camera phone.  

This painting is called "Portrait and a Dream"

 

 

Jackson Pollock at work

Jackson Pollock

FWSO Symphonic Series - Slatkin Conducts Tchaikovsky

BASS HALL

On a recent Sunday afternoon, The Travelling Toe and 2 Dear Friends attended the matinee performance of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.  Renowed conductor Leonard Slatkin was at the podium.

 

Leonard Slatkin

The first part of the program comprised of 3 differnt compostions.  The first selection featured  three dance numbers from "On The Town" writted Lenoard Berstein. It was an exciting choice.  While the music played, one could imagine seeing Gene Kelly dancing in his white Navy bellbottoms all over NYC.  "On The Town" was a Broadway play that tells the story of 3 sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in NYC.

Leonard Bernstein

Samuel Barber's "Second Essay for Orchestra" was featured next. It is a short piece at only 10 minutes in length.  The flute was featured several times throughout the composition.  The program notes that the essay "helped to enhance the composer's status as one of America's shining musical talents".

 

Samuel Barber

The third piece, "Double Play",  was written by Visiting Composer, Cindy McTee. When Mr. Slatkin intorducted the piece, he said that in the interest of full disclouse Ms. McTee is his wife or as he refers to her as his composer in residence.  WOW!! what a great piece.  It is so wonderful to hear music written by a living composer and a woman at that!  The percussion section really got a work on in it.  The program states this about the work  "disparate musical elements ...not only coexist but also illuminate and complete one another".

Cindy McTee

 Cindy McTee


After a 20 minute intermission, the audience settled back in their seats for the last selection, Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No.5 in E Minor".  The piece has 4 movements and they were all excellent.

Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky

The orchestra and Mr. Slatkin received a prolonged standing ovation from a much a appreciative audience.

Mr. Slatkin will return to Fort Worth in 2017 as part of the Cliburm Piano Competition.  He is welcome to return anytime.

 Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra


FWSO Musicians  


Bass Hall 


Cliburn Competition 

"Clever Little Lies" presented by Circle Theatre

CIRCLE THEATRE - FORT WORTH, TX

Circle Theatre


The Travelling Toe and a Dear Friend recently attended the Saturday matinee performance of "Clever Little Lies" at Circle Theatre in downtown Fort Worth.

The play was written by Joe DiPietro and had it's premier in NYC in 2013.  Mr. DiPietro has won 2 Tony Awards and several other prestigious awards.  


 

Joe DiPietro -playwright

The play is described in Circle Theatre's brochure as follows:

...a story about love and marriage...for better...and for worse.  It follows what happens when family secrets and lies are revealed over the course of an evening.  

The play runs 90 minutes with no intermission and has 3 scenes.The first scene takes place in a tennis club changing room where father (Bil Sr) and son (Billy) have a serious but sometimes funny conversion about their tennis game, life and love affairs.  The second scene Billy and his wife Jane, with new baby in tow, are in the car on the way to visit his parents.  The final scene takes place in the living room of Billy's parents, Bill and Alice.

The Travelling Toe does not want to give too much of the plot away, but there are a couple of surprises that do pop up along the way.

The 4 members of the cast were exceptional .  The interaction between the actors throughout the play generated great chemistry between them.  There are some funny lines and we all laughed quite a bit.  One negative point is that the F-word was used a lot and The Travelling Toe thinks it can become tiresome especially in a small intimate theater.


CAST:            

Bill Jenkins                    Bill Sr.


Jake Buchanan             Billy


Linda K Leonard           Alice


Kelsey Milbourn            Jane



Circle Theatre is celebrating it's 35th year and is honoring 5 playwrights that Circle has featured in previous years. 

Play Program

 

"London Has Fallen" (movie critique)

LONDON HAS FALLEN

The Friday Movie Mavens are at it again.  This past Friday the movie selected was the action packed, "London Has Fallen".  This is a follow-up story to the successful movie "Olympus Has Fallen".  

In the first movie, Olympus refers to the code name for the US President.  The bad guys infiltrated the White house and in the process took out most of the DC area and especially the White House.  Now the action has moved across the pond and it is London's time to be pretty much taken out.  Aaron Eckhart plays President Benjamin Asher, Gerald Butler is Mike Banning, Special Agent of the Presidential Protective Detail and Morgan Freeman is Allan Trumbull, VP, all who reprise their roles from the first movie.

The premise of the story is that a ruthless Middle Eastern terrorist wants revenge on the Western leaders for a drone attack on his family.  It was thought that Aamir Barkawi was killed in the attack, but he escaped and has taken refuge in Yemen.  Barkawi was #6 on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List.

Why is the action taking place in London?  The British Prime Minister has died under somewhat mysterious circumstances.  The leaders of the Western world come to London to attend the state funeral.  One by one the top leaders are taken out - Canada, Japan, Italy, France. The President's motorcade is attacked but Mike is able to get the Pres out of the combat zone and rendezvous with Marine One helicopters. They plan to take the helicopters to the airfield and get out of town in Air Force One.  But on the way there the helicopters are attacked and shot down.  But once again Mike saves Asher and the two of them are on the run through the streets of London being pursued by the baddies. The English intelligence agencies discover that they have a mole in their inner circle feeding information to Barkawi.  That is why the terrorists knew all the confidential routes and itineraries of the dignities. 

Barkawi's main objective is to capture the President then torture and behead him and broadcast the event live via the internet.  Asher tells Mike to kill him rather than letting him be captured.

Mike is able to keep the Pres safe even after multiple gun battles, car crashes and knife fights. The two of them finally make it to a British safe-house to wait for extraction.  But the bad guys get there first and the Pres is captured.  

So, will Mike save the Pres and the Free World?   Is the British mole discovered and dealt with?  Does Barkawi get what's coming to him?

Well, Dear Readers, you will just have to see this movie yourself to find out the answers to these compelling questions.

This movie is action packed with so many car chases and crashes, gun fights, knife fights, hand to hand combat and grenades launched like Easter eggs that you need to make sure your heart is up to all this excitement.

CAST:

Gerald Butler - Mike Banning Special Agent

Aaron Eckhart - Benjamin Asher President

Morgan Freeman - Allan Trumbull VP

Angela Bassett - Lynne Jacobs Director of USSS

    Alon Moni Aboutboul - Aamir Barkawi

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 2 middle toes up with a bottle of water cause with all that running around London Town you just might get thirsty!

Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.

 

"The Lady In The Van" (movie critique)

THE LADY IN THE VAN

On a recent Saturday morning, The Travelling Toe and a Dear Friend went to see the acclaimed movie "The Lady in the Van", starring the indomitable Maggie Smith.

MAGGIE SMITH

The movie is based on a stage play of the same name written by renowned playwright, Alan Bennett. Additionally the play is based on the  true story of Alan's relationship with Mary Shepherd, an indigent lady who lives in her van.(duh)

ALAN BENNETT

Mary movies her van from house to house in the Camden neighborhood where Alan lives.  Each of the neighbors can barely put up with her obnoxious personality, the unpleasant smell coming from her and the van plus the trash that accumulates around the van.  From time to time a social worker shows up to bring clothes and other assorted items.  But the van is Mary's home and even when it quits running she refuses to leave it.

Overtime Mary talks Alan into letting her park the van in his driveway, since he does not have a car.  This begins their 15 year tenacious relationship.  Alan slowly finds out a few tidbits of Mary's life story.  At one time she was a nun but when he appeals to the local nun house for help for Mary, he is turned away as Mary burned too many bridges with them a along time ago.

ALEX JENNINGS

In the movie Alan has conversations with himself about the situation and he really is talking to himself as there are 2 Alan's standing there side-by-side.  Sometimes it is hard to tell which Alan is which.  As time travels on, Alan does eventually piece Mary's story together from being a nun to being a celebrated concert pianist to a homeless senior and hiding a secret.

But how did Mary end up living in the van?  What was the major event that caused Mary's break-down?  You will just have to see the film yourself to answer those questions.


SIDE NOTE

Here is a shout out to 3 British actors who have supporting roles in the film and they always provide that extra bit of drama or laughter to any production they are in.

Frances de la Tour

Jim Broadbent

Roger Allam

 

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 1 big toe up with a hanging pine air fresher.

Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.