"Pure Harmony" 2016 Christmas Show presented by Vocal Majority

2016 Christmas Show
Vocal Majority
program

On a recent Sunday afternoon, The Travelling Toe with 2 friends headed out to the Eisemann Center in Richardson, TX to attend the Christmas Show presented by the Vocal Majority.  

Eisemann Center


The Vocal Majority is made up of more than 150 men from all walks of life who love to sing. The group is know for it's beautiful synchronized tones....think Barbershop harmonies! They have won many awards in district, national and international competitions. Currently they have released more than 25 albums/CD's and a Christmas DVD.  

Vocal Majority

The first act featured a scene of travellers stuck in an airport, with  the chorus adding merriment and Christmas Spirit to the traveller's woes.  The Brian Piper Quartet provided musical accompaniment for this first part. All the songs were outstanding with tight harmonies and exceptional solos.  The group did a rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and it was a heartwarming and tear shedding performance. One of the fun songs they sang was "Text Me Merry Christmas" with all the choir members using their cell phones to take selfies...very funny and so often true!

The second act was the Vocal Majority singing without musical accompaniment.  Their rendition of "Silent Night" was so sweet and tender.  Additionally their performance of "The Little Drummer Boy" was one of the best The Travelling Toe has ever heard.

The show began wrapping up the afternoon with the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah".  The last song of the performance was "The Secret of Christmas" with former and Emeritus members being invited to join the choir on stage to perform this closing number.

This was a fun and enjoyable show. It really set  a joyful mood for the Christmas season.  It certainly was worth the price of ticket.  

Manchester By The Sea (movie critique)

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
movie poster

Recently a Dear Friend rolled by to pick up The Travelling Toe and we headed East via highways, byways, detours and ongoing road construction towards Dallas in order to see a movie at the Angelika Movie Theater.  The movie we wanted to see "Manchester By The Sea" was not playing at the local movie theaters.  

As the plot of this movie is told in flashbacks along with current interactions and repercussions, the following plot overview is via the internet:

Lee Chandler is a brooding, irritable loner who works as a handyman for a Boston apartment block. One damp winter day he gets a call summoning him to his hometown, north of the city. His brother's heart has given out suddenly, and he's been named guardian to his 16-year-old nephew. As if losing his only sibling and doubts about raising a teenager weren't enough, his return to the past re-opens an unspeakable tragedy.

This is not a movie for everyone.  The "F" word is used with abandonment by both adults and teens, plus with the sexual content, it earns the movie an "R" rating.

CAST:

Casey Affleck
Lee Chandler

Kyle Chandler
Joe Chandler

Michelle Williams
Randi Chandler

Lucas Hedges
Patrick Chandler

The movie stars the "other" Affleck brother, Casey who does an amazing job as the brooding introspective protagonist full of conflicting emotions about being back home in Manchester.  There seems to be a lot of Oscar "buzz" about Casey for this role and it is well deserved.

SIDE NOTE: Just to enlighten you Dear Reader, the Manchester in this movie is the one in Massachusetts not the one across the pond. One other point of interest is that Matt Damon is one of the producers of the movie.

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 1 big toe up with a patch for sea sickness as some of the scenes are shot on a fishing boat.

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

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Then" (movie critique)

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE
TO FIND THEM
movie poster

Well, the Friday Movie Mavens and The Travelling Toe have been out to the movie theater again. The latest flick we saw was "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Then".  

The movie is a spin-off of the movie series about "Harry Potter" and friends.  J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplay and also was one of the producers for the movie.

J.K. Rowling

The plot of the story takes a little time to figure out if you are not familiar with the wizard world. The movie is set in 1926 in NYC.  A young wizard, Newt Scamander, arrives in NYC having just completed a global expedition to find, document and protect various magical and extraordinary creatures.  He can visit these creatures through his magical suitcase which opens up, he steps in and is in another dimension.  When one of the creatures escapes it puts a series of events into place. While searching the city for the escaped creature, Newt meets Tina Goldstein.  She decides to arrest Newt as an unregistered wizard. Then Newt's suitcase and a similar one belonging to Jacob Kowalski mistakenly get interchanged and more chaos ensures. Collin Farrell plays Percival Graves who has a hidden agenda and a concealed identity.

So will Newt, Tina, Jacob and Queenie (Tina's sister) save the day and recapture all the escaped magical creatures?  Who really is Percival Graves and what is his evil agenda? Will love love Newt and Tina?  Will Queenie and Jacob find each other again after all the turmoil has been fixed?

There really is a lot to this movie and it takes a while to figure it all out.  If you haven't seen the "Harry Potter" series some of the terminology might be confusing.

The creative minds that brought all those magical creatures to life is amazing.  How does one think of those things then make them alive with so some much personality?  


CAST

Eddie Redmayne
Newt Scamander

Katherine Waterston
Porpentina Goldstein

Dan Fogler
Jacob Kowalski

Alison Sudol
Queenie Goldstein

Colin Farrell
Percival Graves

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 1 big toe up with wizard wand.

ZAP

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

"Dr. Strange" (movie critique)

DOCTOR STRANGE
movie poster

Another Marvel Comic superhero is on the big screen and The Friday Movie Mavens and The Travelling Toe had to go see this newest fantasy flick.  

The main draw for The Travelling Toe was that Benedict Cumberbatch was playing the role of Doctor Strange.

The movie begins with introducing us to Doctor Stephen Strange who is an egotistical neurosurgeon.  He lives the high life with expensive clothes, watches, and other status symbols of an excessive lifestyle.  On his way to a party, driving his ultra fancy sports car on a winding road in pouring rain, he reaches for his phone and he hits another car and goes off the side of the cliff.  When he finally wakes he sees his hands are severely injured and must face the ultimate decision he can no longer be a surgeon.  He falls into a deep depression and tries all sorts of medical and holistic methods to try to regain the use of his hands but they all fail.  Then he learns about a man, Jonathon Pangborn, who was a paraplegic and somehow was able to walk again. Stephen seeks him out to find out how he was able to overcome his paralysis.  Pangborn points him to a sorcerer known as the Ancient One. Strange travels to far lands there and meets the Ancient One, eventually becomes one of her more trusted pupils.  

Well, Dear Readers, at this point the movie becomes "strange" (he he he).  There are all sorts of mystical energy fields and powerful spells used to keep the world safe.  But as always there are those who want to steal the spells to summon the dark dimension to take over the world.  The Travelling Toe will leave the narrative at this point as if you are a fan of the Marvel heroes you will see go see it and you are aren't at this is gives you a short overview of the movie. One last mention is the actor Mads Mikkelsen plays the bad guy as he always does and is excellent...he is the kind of character you love to hate!

The special effects and the CGI were amazing.  Sometimes the enfolding buildings and mystical spells made some of us just a tad dizzy.

This is a fun movie to see and of course, Stan Lee made his usual cameo appearance in the film.  It is so much fun to watch for him to pop up.  Also if you go you have to stay for a couple of nuggets.  The first one is right after the credits start rolling and the second one is towards the very end of the credits.

Stan Lee

Will there be a second Dr. Strange?  Surely so!!


CAST:

Tilda Swinton

Benedict Cumberbatch

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Rachel McAdams

Mads Mikkelsen

Benedict Wong

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 1 big toe up with the Cloak of Levitation.

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

"Murder For Two" presented by Stage West

MURDER FOR TWO

The Travelling Toe and 2 Dear Friends attended the Sunday matinee show of "Murder For Two" at Stage West.  

The plays stars 2 energetic actors, Mark Schenfisch and Teddy Warren.  They play 13 roles plus the piano, and also dance and sing.

Kellen Blair wrote the book and lyrics and Joe Kinosian wrote the book and the music.

Kinosian and Blair

The play is described as follows on the Stage West website:

A fateful night. A surprise party. A great American novelist is killed…fatally. A small town policeman with dreams of making detective jumps at the chance to prove his sleuthing skills and find the killer before the real detective arrives! Murder for Two is a perfect blend of music, mayhem, and murder with a twist - one actor investigates the crime, the other plays (all) the suspects, and did we mention, they both play piano! A witty and winking homage to old-fashioned murder mysteries.

The two actors Mark and Teddy really worked hard during this play. They used most of the stage area by singing, dancing and changing characters with a minimal amount of costume requirement, plus providing piano music for each other and sometimes together.  This play is full of good fun and laughs.

The Travelling Toe thoroughly enjoyed this production.  It reminds one of the the old drawing room mysteries where one of the guests was murdered and the rest of the guests were all suspects, with the great detective solving the crime at the end.

Do do see it if you can!

Stage West

Westmont Garden Club Monthly Meeting, Saturday November 12, 2016

On Saturday, November 12, 2016, The Westmont Garden Club met at one of the officer’s homes for the monthly meeting.  The program was provided by another garden club member, who showed us how to make envelopes out of pictures from unused calendars.

large and small guides used to make the envelopes

                                                       

The first step is to select a page from a calendar that has a pleasing picture and ensure that the reverse side has not been used.  Place the larger plastic pattern guide on the calendar sheet and trace around the outside of it. Using scissors, cut along this marked outside edge.  The next step is to use the smaller plastic pattern guide and place it in the middle of the cut-out calendar sheet.  First fold up the lower flap then fold in the sides making the bottom of the envelope, leaving the large triangle on top as the flap.  Use a glue stick to tack down the sides to ensure that the envelope stays together.

                                                

folding the flaps of the envelope

Each member then selected a blank note card to individualize using various stamps, colored pencils, chalk and photographs.  When finished, each member had made a lovely personalized card and envelope.

                                                              

The array of stamps and colored pencils and other things that were used to make the cards.

This is a fun activity for craft fairs, hobby enthusiasts and kids of all ages.  Plus it is a great way to use up all those end of the year calendars one receives in the mail!

Featured below are the members finished product.

At the conclusion of the meeting the club member who lead the meeting was presented with an Honorarium as a thanks for a fun project.

Another member was the lucky winner of the door prize which was a beautiful orange poinsettia with glitter.

A very special guest was present at the meeting:

Ebbie the wonder cat in the box

After the meeting, several members went on to enjoy lunch together.

"The Deep Blue Sea" presented by NT Live at the Magnolia Theater sponsored by Amphibian Stage

THE DEEP BLUE SEA
National Theatre Live

With two Dear Friends, The Travelling Toe went to the afternoon presentation of "The Deep Blue"  streamed by National Theatre Live.  It was shown at the Magnolia Theater located in the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum.  Amphibian Stage sponsors these productions so that audiences can afford the price of a ticket to a London-based play.

National Theatre

Terrance Rattigan wrote the play the play in 1952 and it does reflect that time period in Britain just a few years after the War.  Terrance was born in 1911 and passed on 1977.

Terrance Rattigan
playwright

Amphibian Stage Productions

The play is described on the Amphibian Stage website as follows

Playing one of the greatest female roles in contemporary drama, Helen McCrory (Medea and The Last of the Haussmans at the National Theatre, Penny Dreadful, Peaky Blinders) returns to the National Theatre in Terence Rattigan’s devastating masterpiece. Tom Burke (War and Peace, The Musketeers) also stars in this critically acclaimed new production directed by Carrie Cracknell.

When Hester Collyer is found by her neighbors in the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt, the story of her tempestuous affair with a former RAF pilot and the breakdown of her marriage to a High Court judge begins to emerge. With it comes a portrait of need, loneliness and long-repressed passion set in post-war West London.

We thought the acting was excellent.  The story of course was dark and emotional since it deals with lost love, lost identity, and suicide.  

We look forward to more National Theatre Live productions.  It is much cheaper to drive to the Museum than it is to fly to London!

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth