Category Archives: Holidays

A Swingin’ Holiday Extravaganza on Tap with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra this weekend

Posted on by
Photo courtesy of ASO

Photo courtesy of ASO

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (ASO), Philip Mann, Music Director and Conductor, presents Swingin’ Holiday Extravaganza this weekend.  Performances began last night and continue tonight at 7:30 and tomorrow at 3 at the Pulaski Academy Connor Performing Arts Center, 12701 Hinson Road, Little Rock.

The ASO presents a children’s fair one hour before the Sunday concert featuring arts and crafts, instrument petting zoos, and live music. The fair is complimentary for ASO patrons.

Broadway singers Destan Owens and Mandy Gonzalez return to lead a celebration of holiday music and festival. Traditional tunes will be performed like “Jingle Bells,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” and music from holiday movies like “The Polar Express” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The exciting and uplifting swing stylings of Owens and Gonzalez are sure to bring a smile to faces of all ages this holiday season. The Pops Live! Series is sponsored by Acxiom.  The concert sponsors are Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Tickets are $19, $35, $49, and $58; active duty military and student tickets are $10 are can be purchased online atwww.ArkansasSymphony.org; at the Connor Performing Arts Center box office beginning 90 minutes prior to a concert; or by phone at 501-666-1761, ext. 100. All Arkansas students grades K-12 are admitted to Sunday’s matinee free of charge with the purchase of an adult ticket using the Entergy Kids’ Ticket, downloadable at the ASO website.

PROGRAM:
The Polar Express Concert Suite
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
The Christmas Song & Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Baby it’s Cold Outside
How the Grinch Stole Christmas Medley
We Need a Little Christmas
The Nutcracker Suite
Feliz Navidad
12 Days After Christmas
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Sleigh Ride
Audience Sing-Along: (Jingle Bells, Joy to the World, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night, Away in a Manger, Deck the Halls, O Come, All Ye Faithful)
O Holy Night
The Prayer

About the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 49th season in 2014-2015, under the leadership of Music Director Philip Mann. The resident orchestra of the Robinson Center Music Hall – under renovation until 2016 – the ASO performs more than sixty concerts each year for more than 165,000 people around the state of Arkansas. During the renovation the ASO will perform the Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center and the Acxiom Pops Live! Series at the Connor Performing Arts Center of Pulaski Academy. In addition to the Masterworks, Pops, and Landers FIAT River Rhapsodies, the ASO serves Arkansas through numerous community outreach programs and bringing symphonic music education to over 26,000 school children in over 200 schools.

12 Days of Christmas: THE LION IN WINTER

Posted on by

Lion_In_Winter1Ah, Christmas! A time for family reunions.  Things may, at times, get a bit tense as everyone is gathering together in confined quarters.  But few Christmas gatherings compare to Henry II of England and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine as they gather with their sons at the castle where she has been imprisoned by her husband.

Joining in the festivities are Henry and Eleanor’s three sons: Richard the Lionheart, Geoffrey and John. Also present are Alais Capet, Henry’s mistress who is not as vacuous as she appears, and Philip Capet, the King of France who is Alais’ half-brother.

Alliances and allegiances shift as both rapiers and rapier wits are on display.

The cast is masterfully led by Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn, who snagged her third Oscar for this film.  Anthony Hopkins appeared as Richard the Lionheart and future James Bond Timothy Dalton played King Philip.  Geoffrey and John were played by John Castle and Nigel Terry, respectively.

Based on James Goldman’s 1965 play, Goldman picked up an Oscar for Adapted Screenplay.  The movie’s third Oscar went to John Barry for his musical score.  O’Toole, director Anthony Harvey, and costume designer Margaret Furse all earned Oscar nominations, as did the film for Best Picture.

This is not a fast paced film, but it pays dividends with the joyfully biting interplay between Hepburn, O’Toole and the rest of the cast.

12 Days of Christmas Movies: HOME ALONE & HOME ALONE 2: LOST IN NEW YORK

Posted on by

home aloneJohn Hughes’ Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York combine the spirit of Christmas with Hughes’ own brand of safe anarchy.

While the original 1990 movie is by far superior, the 1992 sequel still has its charms.  I refuse to consider anything after that because they only weaken the franchise.

These movies nicely balance slapstick with messages of redemption. But they don’t veer too far in one direction or another.

Macauley Culkin (whose aunt Bonnie Bedelia stars in two of my other favorite Christmas movies – Die Hard) is certainly a key reason for the success. He is neither cloying or obnoxious (or obnoxiously cloying).

While the adults are meant to be more cartoonish, they still keep the film grounded.  Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern have wonderful chemistry as the Wet Bandits.  John Heard’s slightly befuddled father is an apt foil for Catherine O’Hara’s intense mother. The latter displays much warmth when needed, as well.

John Candy turns in a fun cameo in the first film. If you blink, you may miss future Tony nominee and The Newsroom actress Hope Davis as a French ticket agent.  The second film loads up on supporting players from Oscar winner Brenda Fricker, Tony nominees Tim Curry and Dana Ivey, SNL’s Rob Schneider and even a cameo from The Donald.  Former movie song and dance man Eddie Bracken plays the NYC toy store owner.

These are light-hearted films which still make me laugh out loud.  They are certainly enjoyable any time of the year, but especially at Christmas.

Little Rock Look Back: School Children Sing Christmas Carols at Robinson Auditorium

Posted on by
Christmas Carols

Photo from Arkansas Gazette

Right now, music is silenced at Robinson Center.  During the renovation, violins and tubas have been replaced by saws and heavy equipment.

Similarly, 75 years ago, the halls of that building were alive with only the sounds of construction.  But out front, on December 18, 1939, the sounds of Christmas carols filled the air.

That afternoon, 500 school children from elementary schools were joined by the A Capella Choir of Little Rock High School as they sang Christmas carols on the front steps of the auditorium on a weekday afternoon.  The singers were accompanied by the Little Rock High School Brass Sextet.  The invocation for the event, which was sponsored by the Little Rock Council of Parents and Teachers, was delivered by the Right Reverend Richard Bland Mitchell, the Episcopal Bishop of Arkansas.

A Christmas tree in front of City Hall was lit up as part of the ceremony as well.  Media coverage noted that the audience witnessing the program stood on the front steps of the Pulaski County Courthouse, the side lawn of City Hall and in front of the steps of Robinson Auditorium.  It was also noted that most windows in the nearby government buildings were filled with people watching the ceremony.

12 Days of Christmas Movies: HOLIDAY INN & WHITE CHRISTMAS

Posted on by

Holiday WhiteToday’s Christmas movie(s) are combined because they share a star, a composer and a song.  The latter is often erroneously referred to as a remake of the former.

Irving Berlin’s 1924 black & white Holiday Inn tells the tale of a crooner (Bing Crosby) who retires from show business to start an inn which would only be open on holidays.  Fred Astaire plays his former song and dance partner who has a knack for stealing all of Bing’s girlfriends. The rest of the cast is largely forgettable, indeed most did not have extensive careers before or after this movie.  One exception is the underused Louise Beavers stuck in the role of Crosby’s domestic at the Inn.  She had leading roles in several movies, but due to her race and the time, would still find herself playing maids and cooks with little onscreen time too much of her career.

The real gem here is the score. Though there are some forgettable (“I Can’t Tell a Lie”) and embarrassing (“Abraham”) but this also features “Happy Holidays,” “Be Careful It’s My Heart,” and “Easter Parade” (which Berlin had written for a musical revue in the 1930s).  The knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark breakaway hit was “White Christmas,” which went on to win the Oscar for Best Song.

(As a side note, this movie was the inspiration for the name of the hotel chain when it started in the 1950s.)

Twelve years later, Crosby, Berlin and “White Christmas” reunited for the film White Christmas.  By now color movies were more common, and the powers that be wanted Crosby singing the song in a color movie.  This time Crosby is joined by Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen.  Oscar winner Dean Jagger and character actress Mary Wickes round out the leading roles.

For this film, Berlin supplied a new score, only repeating “White Christmas.” Though several of the songs were already popular in the Berlin songbook.  The main joy in this movie is to see Crosby, Clooney, Kaye and Vera-Ellen at the peak of their careers.

Though most of the songs work in this movie, there is one which doesn’t seem to fit. “Choreography” is a spoof of modern dance. It falls flat and drags the movie down. Though if you look at the chorus, you can see future Oscar winner George Chakiris of West Side Story fame.

It may be surprising that Michael Curtiz directed this film. He is often remembered today as the Oscar winning director of Casablanca (and justifiably so). But in his career he often bounded between light fare (Yankee Doodle Dandy, Life with Father) and heavier (Mildred Pierce, Angels with Dirty Faces) with some adventure films (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood) thrown in.

Separately or together, Holiday Inn and White Christmas are fun Christmas movies.  White Christmas is the stronger of the two, partly because all of the characters are likeable.

12 Days of Christmas Movies : DIE HARD and DIE HARD 2

Posted on by

Though not the typical holiday fare, both DIE HARD (1988) and DIE HARD 2 (1990) take place at Christmas time.

Christmas parties, Christmas travel and references to Santa Claus are present throughout these movies.

Bruce Willis’ John McClane is an Everyman hero in these movies. His performance combines macho bravura with humor, frustration, exhaustion, honor, compassion and rough edges.

Bonnie Bedelia, as his long-suffering but independent-minded wife turns what could have been a caricature into a fully-fleshed character.

Reginald VelJohnson adds humor and a sense of redemption to the first movie. He also makes a welcome cameo in the second.

One of the joys of the first movie is Alan Rickman’s deliciously slick villain. He relishes the role. Rickman’s portrait of a nemesis is so compelling the audience is almost sad to see him disappear at the end.

For the second movie, the villains are less interesting, but the plots twists and turns make up for that.

Veteran character actors William Atherton (in both), Paul Gleason (in the first), Fred Thompson, Dennis Franz, and Art Evans (in the second) flesh out the movies as skeptics and/or foils for Willis and Bedelia.

These two movies are definitely period pieces. The plot points would be much different now in this day of smartphones, social media, and truly 24 hour news cycles. It was also amusing to see 74 cent gas. IMG_5077-0.JPG

Winners of 10th Ever Nog Off Announced by Historic Arkansas Museum

Posted on by
Drumroll please…

People’s Choice Eggnog:
Capital Egg Nog 
Capital Chefs Matthew Dunn, Zach Pullam, Tyler Rogers and CBG Bartender David Cash
A drink one guest proclaimed, “Tastes like World Peace!” and another described as, “Liquid Christmas.”

Not Your Great, Great, Great Grandfather’s Eggnog
Firefly Chai Egg Nog
Matthew Cooper and Brian Townley, Cache Restaurant
Described as, “Nog, New Age-style” this nog had one guest exclaim, “To Die For!”

Tasters’ Choice
John Robert Jackson’s Eggnog
Bridget Fennell Farris

A nog so good, all our guest could write was, “Yes, this one, yesssssssssss”