Burlesque
BURLESQUE ** Surely no one out there really believes that tired line about film critics wanting to hate whatever pictures they catch on the job? On the contrary, like everyone else, reviewers want to be entertained, enchanted and even educated for those two hours in the dark. Admittedly, though, there’s that occasional rare flick that…
Review: A Christmas Story @ Muse
There’s no need to sing the praises of the 1983 film A Christmas Story – anyone who’s been near a television over the last 20 years has seen it, or at least a piece of it, and its status as a holiday classic is well-deserved. A live theatrical adaptation of the movie seems, on paper,…
I’ll always run to Sweet Melissa’s
There are lots of cheapy pizza places in Savannah (well, not lots, but y’all workin’ what you got). But I think Sweet Melissa’s on Whitaker and West Congress streets (across from The Lady & Sons) is a superior player in all that. The pizza they make there is like no pizza I’ve ever tasted. And…
Exhibits & openings this week
AASU Undergraduate Art Exhibit – A group show, titled “9+1”, featuring work that includes pottery, photography and design by 10 senior art majors at AASU. Reception: Dec. 3, 5:30pm. Savannah Mall, first floor, 14045 Abercorn St. , http://www.armstrong.edu/ in a Manger – A collection of Nativity sets from around the world. Presented by the Council…
The secret life of thermostats
Which scenario uses less energy in home heating, and thus saves more money: (a) before going to bed, turning the thermostat down from 68 degrees Fahrenheit to 60, then turning it up again in the morning, or (b) leaving it at 68 all night? I always believed (a) would use less energy, but people tell…
Marks on the walls
Even after a year of particularly diverse offerings — from early 20th Century French Surrealists to the art and technology highlighted during Pulse — "I Have Marks to Make," the show opening at the Jepson on Dec. 5 still stands out from the rest. "It's not like the others. It's not just a party or…
Christmas under the Live Oaks
In what’s hoped will be the start of a great area Christmas tradition, one of the coast’s most magnificent remaining plantations is holding a family–friendly “Festival of Lights and Music,” featuring hayrides, musical concerts, house tours, kid’s activities, trees festooned with lights, and more. Dunham Farms, on the site of the historic Springfield Plantation in…
Movies Savannah won’t miss any longer
The Psychotronic Film Society’s indie film series “Movies Savannah Missed,” which screens new, limited run films that never appeared at any area Cineplex, continues this week and through the winter with a interesting selection of lesser–known–but–critically–celebrated flicks. This week’s selection, The Girl Who Played With Fire, which screens at Muse Arts Warehouse on Sunday, is…
Local & Southern literature in time for the holidays
My Reading Life Pat Conroy Doubleday I take it as an article of faith that the novels I’ve loved will live inside me forever. – Pat Conroy The greatest American fiction writers have all had strong reportorial instincts: Hemingway, Melville, O’Connor, Wolfe, DeLillo. And so it is with Pat Conroy, whose fiction has always been…
The Palin Ultimatum
THE PHRASE “COMMON WISDOM” is one of the biggest oxymorons in the English language. Generally it is neither commonly held nor particularly wise. One of the more ridiculous examples of “common wisdom” echoed by the pundits these days is the idea that Sarah Palin can never be president. I’m certainly not a particular fan of…
A snack as big as the moon
A few weeks ago I was honored to present a lecture at the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home. My title, “Grandma’s Kitchen: The Origins of Southern Cuisine,” drew on historic fact and anecdotal tales from my childhood. I grew up on dairy farm in the South, and was blessed to have had two previous generations cooking…
Holiday chards
I received plenty of questions after last month’s Pinot Noir story about choosing Chardonnay for holiday dinners. Most of those questions came from the eastside islanders. So, I decided to check with one of your island retailers to find the best-selling Chards. The West family at Whitemarsh Island Beverage are always willing to help, and…
The best of bluegrass
Claire Lynch is a musician’s musician. New York–born and Alabama–bred, Lynch has been making beautiful bluegrass music since her late teens. Her first outfit, Hickory Wind, morphed into the Front Porch String Band, and Lynch spent decades touring the world with her bandmates and husband–slash–mandolinist Larry Lynch. In 2004, the songstress struck out on her…
For the kid in all of us
Was Middle America ever as funny as it’s depicted in Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story? Probably not, if you ask someone who was around in the period between the Great Depression and World War II, when the story takes place. A Christmas Story, however, is more about an idealized Middle America, one that’s firmly ensconced…
Jimmy Herring Band, Artie Fletcher
THE JIMMY HERRING BAND At 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4 Live Wire Music Hall, 307 W. River St. $20 One could go crazy trying to explain the intricacies of Georgia rock ‘n’ roll music – why, for example, are there so many great players who can fit, snugly and effortlessly jigsaw-like, into so many different…
Mark your calendar: Harlem Globetrotters
Hint: The other team always loses. Since 1926, the Harlem Globetrotters have been playing exhibition basketball games all around the world; at last count, they’d dominated in something like 22,000 match–ups. Of course, the Globetrotters are real athletes and exemplary ball players – they’re also actors, gymnasts and clowns. More than one journalist along the…
Taxicab Confessions
A cab driver was parked in line at a hotel downtown when another taxi attempted to cut in line, prompting another driver to get upset. The complainant said when he confronted the line cutter that the man told him “you don’t know who you’re f*#%ing with,” and that he would “blow them away.” The cab…
127 Hours, Tangled, Love & Other Drugs, Faster
127 HOURS ***1/2 Let’s be honest with one another. I’d be dead. You’d be dead. Almost everyone we’ve ever known would be dead. But not Aron Ralston. When this young man found himself trapped, as the saying goes (and as Ralston named his own memoir), between a rock and a hard place, he did the…
