Christmas week a family affair

On December 21 the Yellow Point Christmas Spectacular wrapped up its run with an afternoon performance at the Port Theatre in Nanaimo. Having lived with the show since November 18, it was difficult not to feel a certain loss. Suddenly you realize you won’t be playing through your piano score ever again, and many cast members who you got to know well over the last month may never cross your path again. When a show goes dark it’s almost like a death. However, it’s part of showbiz and such inspired journeys inevitably end.

On Monday it was time to move on and get ready for Christmas. My wife Pat was cruising the malls searching for gifts. My job was to shop for the provisions needed for our big family feast, which we traditionally have on Boxing Day. By 8:00 am on Christmas Eve day I was out the door and loading a supermarket basket in advance of the crowds I knew would be jockeying for parking lot space by mid-­‐morning. By noon I had everything packed away in our kitchen cupboards or stacked inside the refrigerator, ready for Friday’s marathon turkey-­‐cook day.

With Pat wrapping Christmas gifts during the afternoon of Christmas Eve, I decided to take in a movie matinee. A good choice I thought would be a new Ailm version of the Broadway musical Annie that had just opened at the Galaxy theatre here in Nanaimo. Having performed the Broadway version with a student group during my high school teaching years, I know the live show well and was looking forward to seeing the new 2014 movie version. I recall in the process of rehearsing students using the very popular and well-­‐done 1982 film as a teaching tool.

Unfortunately my decision to attend the matinee was a mistake; the 2014 film update is an absolute disaster. According to all the preview hype, this new version of Annie was supposed to build a new generation of fans for the musical. Well, sprinklings of these young folks were at the same screening I viewed Wednesday afternoon and most looked bored out of their minds.

Some things in classic film fare should never be tinkered with. The Wizard of Oz would be one. No remake could ever top the first one. Gone With the Wind is another. Sadly this 2014 version of Annie is nothing more than an attempt by the Sony movie studio to fleece trusting parents looking for some respectable holiday entertainment for their children. I understand the film was also one of those stolen in the recent cyberattack by North Korea of the company’s computers. Perhaps Kim Jong-­‐un wanted it for a private screening.

I recall Carol Burnett being hilarious as Miss Hannigan in the 1982 film. In this updated version the role is played by Cameron Diaz who screams her dialogue at such a shrill pitch that my ears haven’t yet recovered. As far as her singing goes, it was pure torture. The character of Daddy Warbucks in this ill-thought-out mess has been renamed Will Stacks, a rich industrialist who is running for mayor of New York City. Oscar-­‐winner Jamie Foxx literally sleepwalks through the part. And what about Annie herself? I need to be fair here. Quvenzhané Wallis, who in 2012 was the youngest actress ever to receive a nomination for an Academy Award for her role in Beasts of the Southern Wild, does a pretty good acting job although her vocal chops are fairly thin.


Singing is obviously a key component in any musical. Sadly in this new version it was decided to update the classic Charles Strouse score to fit with the popular music of today. What a dumb idea. As an example, the musical’s big hit ballad Tomorrow had a backbeat so heavy it sounded like the Rolling Stones were doing a stadium sound check. The film’s soundtrack has been processed to a synthetic muddle and the vocals auto-­‐tuned to the point that any real musical emotion has been literally squeezed from every bar. Basically every song has been made to sound like your typical pop tune complete with electric drums and banks of synthesizers.

About an hour in I couldn’t take it anymore and headed for the theatre exit.  

  

PHOTO: Pat prepared a superb Boxing Day dinner in our Nanaimo home. From L to R – Brother Terry, daughter-­‐in-­‐law Jessica, grandsons Nathan & Matthew, Pat, son Cory, daughter-­‐in-­‐law Dorianne and son Brock. 

PHOTO: The turkey. I can hardly wait to start carving. 

PHOTO ABOVE: My father cut out this group of carol singers in the 1940‘s from a sheet of 1⁄4 inch plywood. I display it every year at our front door. Back in those days lead was still a key ingredient in paint so the colours have never faded.

PHOTO ABOVE: 16 years ago Pat & I conducted our last School District #70 Christmas Candlelight Concert. As a gift, the students in the choir had melted down all the candles used over the years for rehearsal purposes and made one gigantic one for us. Every Christmas Pat and I light the candle at our family dinner. 

PHOTO: Son Cory gave me a painting by Port Alberni artist Michelle Peffers. It was painted from a photo of me climbing down from the cab of APR Locomotive #7 during a switching operation in the Port Alberni Rail Yard. I hung the painting on my office wall. 

PHOTO : Every December I display this model steam engine that my brother Terry & I received as a gift from our parents on Christmas Day in 1946. 

PHOTO : This black and white photo shows my brother (L) and myself admiring the model train that my father had built and set up for us on Christmas Day 1946. 

PHOTO: My Christmas gift this year was a new workbench. It took my son Brock and myself over two hours to assemble it. The hardwood top looks almost too good to repair stuff on. 

Final weekend for Christmas Spectacular

Thank you to all those readers who emailed to say they were pleased I’d returned to blog-land. I’ll try to post on a more regular basis in the New Year.

As you know from last week’s blog, I’m again performing in the band accompanying the Yellow Point Christmas Spectacular. Last Sunday evening we wrapped up the run at the Cedar Community Hall, performing 6 shows between Friday and Sunday. Playing this many shows in such a short space of time was a first for me. 

This week the cast has been enjoying a few days off before moving the production into Nanaimo’s Port Theatre for the final four performances. The run in Cedar was very successful with many patrons expressing their preference for the Christmas ambiance the rural setting provides. However, equally there are those who like the Port Theatre run due to the better sight lines and comfortable seating inherent in a sloped floor venue. 

The shows at the Port Theatre are Dec.19 (7pm), Dec. 20 (2pm &7pm)  & Dec. 21 (2pm). Tickets can be ordered for the Port Theatre shows on-line at www.porttheatre.com or by phone at 250-754-8550.

PHOTO: Setting up for the Port Theatre run of the Yellow Point Christmas Spectacular. View of the stage from the Sound Board. 

Last Saturday morning at 6:30 am I left our home in North Nanaimo and drove over the hump to Port Alberni to help set up for the Timbre! Choir’s dress rehearsal in the ADSS Theatre. Playing the Yellowpoint show meant I wouldn’t be able to attend the choir’s public performance the following day. However, I was able to stay at the dress rehearsal long enough to hear the concert’s first half before scooting back over the hump to Cedar to play a Yellowpoint matinee.   

In the half of the rehearsal I heard, the choir was in top form and the sound in the theatre was magnificent. The program was called Simply Christmas and my wife Pat as musical director had chosen a potpourri of both old and new carols. Excerpts from Messiah by Handel held its traditional place on the program alongside such new songs as Let It Go from the recent movie box office hit Frozen and a beautiful ballad by Gordon Lightfoot, newly arranged by Larry Nickel, titled Song for a Winter’s Night. Other new arrangements programmed included Huron Carol and I Saw Three Ships.  Accompanist for the concert was our niece Danielle Marcinek who recently returned from the United Kingdom and is now based in Vancouver. Judging by the emails that Pat received from audience members following the concert, Simply Christmas was a resounding triumph.

                 PHOTO; Timbre! preparing their concert on the ADSS Theatre stage last Saturday.

Christmas Time is Movie Time 

During December the major movie studios invariably launch an array of new films. Many are vying for an Academy Award nomination before the year‐end deadline. For a movie fan such as myself it’s a virtual film feast. So far I’ve seen The Theory of Everything, the extraordinary story of astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Two days ago I survived the 2:24 minute running time of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Having seen all the movies in the series (this is the final installment), I’m definitely Hobbited out. Topping the list of films I’ve seen so far is Interstellar, which is about a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage. The movie blew me away. The 3 hours just flew by. I plan to see this one again just to understand everything. However, on the flip side, one movie to skip is Top Five starring Chris Rock. The film is just plain bad and vulgar to boot. I left the theatre before it was over. 

PHOTO: During the immense rainstorm last week I made a quick run out to Sproat Lake to check our summer house. I’ve never seen the lake so high. The gangway in the photo above normally slopes down to the float.   

It’s been many months since I’ve blogged. However, it’s the Christmas Season, my favorite time of the year, a busy time for Pat and myself with our musical endeavors and I wanted to bring readers up to date.  

Once again I’m performing in the band accompanying the Yellow Point Christmas Spectacular. The production is in its 8^th season and I’m thrilled to be still playing the show. The last two weeks in November I spent working as the rehearsal pianist for the young cast of professional singers and dancers from Vancouver. This past week the show was put together on stage with the orchestra with a soft invitation only performance on Thursday. We opened last night.

We have 4 shows this weekend at the Cedar Community Hall south of Nanaimo before moving to the Sid Williams Theatre in Courtenay for two evening shows December 9 and 10. Then it’s back to the Cedar Hall for afternoon and evening performances on Dec. 12, 13 & 14 . The Yellow Point Christmas Spectacular then moves to the Port Theatre in Nanaimo on Dec 19, 20 & 21.

This year’s Yellowpoint extravaganza includes an Elton John tribute (I get a heap of playing in this section), songs from West Side Story, disco hits including songs by the BeeGees’s and Gloria Gaynor, a Dolly Parton tribute, highlights from The Grinch, plus an array of traditional Christmas favorites. Tickets can be ordered for the Cedar & Nanaimo shows on-line at www.porttheatre.com or by phone at 250-754-8550.

Monday is a day off from the Yellowpoint show so I’m driving over the Hump to Port Alberni to help Pat’s choir Timbre! set up for a rehearsal in the ADSS Theatre for their annual Christmas concert which will play the venue on Sunday, Dec 14, at 2:30 pm.  Since I’m playing piano for the Yellow Point Christmas Spectacular I plan to catch the choir’s early morning dress rehearsal the previous day and then scoot back over the Hump to Cedar for a matinee and evening performance of the Yellowpoint show. 

Timbre!’s concert is called Simply Christmas and this year my wife Pat as musical director has chosen a potpourri of both old and new carols. Excerpts from Messiah by Handel will hold its traditional place in the program alongside such new songs as Let It Go from the recent movie box office hit Frozen and a beautiful ballad by Gordon Lightfoot titled Song for a Winter’s Night. New arrangements of Huron Carol and I Saw Three Ships have also been programmed. 

Accompanist for the concert will be our niece Danielle Marcinek who recently returned from the United Kingdom and is now based in Vancouver.

Last September Pat announced that she would be retiring as the musical director of Timbre! at the choir’s spring show on May 3rd, 2015. However, as the choir’s fall rehearsal schedule rolled on, Pat began to mention to me how she was going miss working with the choir. Last week, at no surprise to me, she has decided to put off her retirement and conduct the choir for another season. I confess I’m thrilled as I know what a void it would present in her life. Is a 50^th anniversary concert a possibility?

This past fall I made an exploratory trip north to Woss Lake with members of the Western Vancouver Island Industrial Heritage Society. The trip was to assess the possibility of moving steam locomotive #112 from the Nimkish Valley to the Alberni Valley by highway on board a flat deck truck. Western Forest Products has offered the locomotive, situated in their Beaver Cove rail yard, to the Heritage Society. It was decided to go ahead with the move and, with a donation of $10,000 from the BC Railroad Association, society members have been working several weekends in preparation for the steam locomotive’s relocation.