Category: Performing Arts

ART, DESTINATIONS, Music, Performing Arts, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Joyce Meyers and Love Life 2022 Music

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE – LOOKING FOR THE BLESSING

The excitement inside America’s Dome was palpable. We were among the last few people showing up for the 7 PM opening session. We picked up our intro packet and stopped at the concession stand for something to eat. Minutes after we found seats the music started and I confess I was not ready for it.

Disclaimer – I am not a big fan of praise and worship music. I am on Team Hymnal. I don’t stand with my eyes closed and wave my hands in the air. If you do, that’s great, but it makes me think more about me than I do Him, so I don’t like to go there. Love Life was locked and loaded for praise and worship: Chris Tomlin, Tauren Wells, Phil Wickham and Brandon Lake. On Thursday night at 7 PM, the kickoff for the Joyce Meyers’ Love Life Women’s Conference, I was wrung out.

The musicians on the other hand were wound up. At 7 PM they blew on the stage and blew up the sound system. They were jumping and dancing and rocking and rolling, while I just needed to bow down. I knew they weren’t doing anything wrong, but for me, they weren’t exactly putting me in the right frame of mind for worship. For a few minutes I resented it and then the Lord made me aware of the fact that this was my problem, not theirs.

I bowed my head and asked for the power to worship, in spite of my preferences and my exhaustion. Almost as if I had communicated directly with the performers on stage, the atmosphere stilled. On the stage were Phil Wickham and Brandon Lake. Though I would still have preferred to turn the volume down, I could tell powerful worship was going on.

Too Much Music for This Old Woman

If I had one criticism of the Love Life Conference it would be that I felt there was entirely too much loud music. I’m probably one of three women out of the entire crowd that felt that way, but it was what I walked away with.

The opening ceremonies had been loud and frenetic. Then some crazy DJ guy would warm up the crowd before each session and you had to go early or you’d be sitting in a corner. Each performer got time during each session and then Friday night there was a concert. Needless to say, I did not go Friday night. It was just too much for this old lady. If some of that music had been quiet and peaceful, if there had been a hymn or two, if a lot of things, I might have been happier, but as it was I wished there had been a lot less music and a lot more teaching.

Is It Really Praise & Worship?

I have actually found a church in my area that sticks to traditional hymns and classical worship music for Sunday mornings. I love it. The lyrics are rich in Scripture, they profess the glories of God and the miracle of salvation. I feel worshipful and reverent as I join in with this music. I would welcome a couple of praise and worship choruses to round out our musical offerings, but I don’t see that happening.

I have also attended a whole lot of services with a praise and worship band. I watch others stirred to near frenzy while singing this music. Obviously, it moves them. I remain awkward and self conscious. I see band members who seem to only lack go-go boots and a cage to complete their performance. They’re up there waving their arms, shuffling their feet and sometimes thrusting their hips. That’s OK for Elvis in concert, but is it really worship?

I do not want to be Mrs. Morrison. During my teenaged years, occurring in the late sixties and early seventies, Mrs. Morrison was still giving lectures on the dangers of Rock and Roll. By then Rock and Roll was here to stay. I thought she was a nut case. Then during a service at what I call the Rock and Roll church, I understood why she was upset. Rock & Roll didn’t feel very worshipful to me.

I really wanted to be open-minded, but I knew I couldn’t worship when I was moments away from starting a Conga Line. As I have said before, if that does it for you, more power to you, but how about me? Are you as willing to spend time worshipping with traditional hymns and classical worship music for my sake? The resounding answer in modern churches is ‘NO!’

Since I was at the conference for spiritual renewal and what I was served was, for the most part, very loud Rock & Roll, I spent some time in quiet reflection. Had I become Mrs. Morrison?

My Conclusion

Music either honors God or it doesn’t. While I still might have turned the volume down, before the conference was over, I was a fan of Phil Wickham and Brandon Lake. Their music was all about the glories of God and the mercies of Our Savior. Their lyrics were right off the pages of Scripture.

To me, and I will confess this is my opinion, not a condemnation of the other singers, their music is not worshipful. To begin with it is very repetitive. The same words over and over and over. Matthew 6:7 says, “When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” Along about the 20th time I say, “I love you Jesus,” it has lost all real meaning and is just sounds I am matching to notes.

It also seems very self centered to me. As I listened it focused on what the “worshipper” wanted to tell Jesus, not on the glories of God or the salvation of Christ and it had nothing to do with Scripture. “I love You, I worship You. I bow down. I lift my hands. I serve You. I need You.” As my mom used to say, “The emPHAsis seemed to be on the wrong sylLAble. “

So, if Joyce called me tomorrow and asked me what changes I would make, I’d tell her to cut down the time devoted to music, to bring traditional music to the stage and keep away from the vain repetitions. Someone else might tell you the music was the most meaningful part of the whole conference, but this is my blog, so I get to share my own opinion.

Come back next time and we’ll talk about what I did like. The preaching and teaching was powerful.

Accommodations, ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Music, Performing Arts, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL, United States

Dining and Entertainment at Sandpiper Bay

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE – DEFINATELY NOT ON PAR WITH PUNTA CANA

The Dining Room

The happy face you see above only appeared one time in the dining room at Sandpiper Bay and when he actually sat down to eat this delicious looking crepe, he was sadly disappointed.

At Punta Cana we had three delicious choices for dining and we thoroughly enjoyed them all at various times. If it was a buffet meal, the tables were burdened with delicious choices. Whether we should blame stingy management or Covid, we’re not sure, but the one choice we had for meals at Sandpiper Bay was disappointing by comparison.

At Punta Cana, we wandered around multitudes of bounteous tables. We had a large plate in our hands and were allowed to serve ourselves whatever we wanted as much as we wanted. At Sandpiper Bay, they hid the food behind those irritating cough panels and dished up scanty servings of whatever was on for that particular meal.

At Punta Cana, you could always find a waitperson to get you more wine, more silverware, another napkin, whatever you needed. It wasn’t exactly five star service, but it was adequate. At Sandpiper Bay, you were virtually on your own. We figured out where they kept the opened bottles of wine and served ourselves most of the time, but the wine wasn’t as good as Punta Cana either.

At Punta Cana, meal time was one of our favorite events. At Sandpiper Bay we were lucky if we found enough of anything we liked to keep from being hungry. Not exactly the luxury experience we expected.

I hate to keep kicking Sandpiper Bay around the room, but the dining was a pretty sad situation. Before our four nights were over, we did find things to enjoy, but it just wasn’t the experience we’d anticipated from our previous Club Med stay.

The Entertainment

Another marvelous thing about Punta Cana was the entertainment. The Boss of the Village was almost a natural entertainer and you could tell he made his people rehearse. Night after night we saw great shows. They were not professional, but they were something they could be proud of.

The entertainment at Sandpiper Bay was pitiful. It was so sloppy in its execution that you knew all they’d done is have a verbal walk thru. No one had a singing voice worth anything and instead of being funny, they were silly. And sloppy. Did I mention sloppy? Costumes never fit and were barely pulled up over shorts and bathing suits. Wigs were never combed and always awry. The Boss of the Village was there, but she was among the sloppiest and the silliest. She was barely filling in the blanks, not leading the way to quality anywhere in the resort.

I’m not bothering to catalog menus or describe any of the various shows, because nothing was worth noting. We’d show up each night in hopes of something, anything to eat, to drink, to pass the time, but always left a little hungry and very disgusted. None of the other meals were any better, but it was the evenings which were the most pathetic.

Come back next week and I will try to find something worthwhile to share with you. We were together and we weren’t working all the time, so there were good moments. We just had to make them ourselves, because there was little on offer from the resort.

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Fashion, Music, Performing Arts, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera House

Jane Sadek

Travel There – Styling at Lincoln Center

Dressing up and going to the Opera had been one of the things Deb and I had fantasized about most as we looked forward to this trip. When we made it back from our trial run for Penn station, I was still raring to go. Deb was done in. She laid on the bed and said she was going to wear what she had on.

Now if you recall, her feet were in serious pain and had been ever since Tuesday night, yet we’d been walking all day, every day. The only shoes she could wear at this point was a pair of kitten printed canvas slippers. She was a little rung out from the train station episode and I’m not sure how much fun it would be to get all dressed up and finish the look with kitten shoes.

Here’s what’s so great about our friendship, I still wanted to get dressed up, so I did and she thought that was great. I pulled out all my finery and as I did, I also started prepping for the next morning, when we’d be going to the christening. That’s when I figured out I had no hosiery for the next day. In Dallas in May, that would be OK. In New York, I figured I would freeze to death.

So, I finished up getting cute and had time to spare to go to our drug store. I have no idea what we would have done without it. We’d gotten foot remedies, new skin for my finger, super glue for my sunglasses, late night snacks, numerous Diet Dr Peppers and now I was going for nude colored hose and something to treat a fever blister. Yep, it’s always something.

We were such pros on the subway now, that we probably could have made it just fine to Lincoln Center, but just to be sure we used Lyft. I could get used to this. Our driver dropped us off right in front and we didn’t even have to think about parking.

I do not have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to describe how wonderful it was to see the Franco Zeffirelli production and sets for Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera House. It is one of my favorite operas of all time and I have seen it a number of times at my beloved Dallas Opera, but there’s a reason The Met is The Met.

Turandot was the Ukranian, Luidmyla Ariltato and she did a remarkable job, but her Calaf was a South Korean, Yonghoon Lee. It was so fitting to see an Asian in this role and he knocked it out of the park, vocally. It really was special in my mind. Deb kept talking about how amazing the entire chorus was. “They were actually moving and acting,” she said, “not just standing around singing.”

Then there were the costumes. They were the perfect compliment to the outrageously wonderful sets created for each scene. If there is perfection in this world, short of heaven, then this production of Turandot is it. I can die happy.

Remember the grand nephew we visited across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Well, we made plans to join him for a bite after the show. We had a little difficulty finding his favorite sushi restaurant, even though it was close by. Lyft let us off at Columbus Circle and it was supposed to be right there, only we couldn’t find it. They were just about to quit serving when we finally got there, but we weren’t all that hungry after our feast at the Tavern on the Green earlier in the day.

Then he escorted us to the right subway station and sent us on our way. We made it back to the hotel just fine and felt very New Yorkish to be trotting around so late at night. I know horrible things happen to people on the streets of New York, but we never had a moment’s trouble.

The fun is almost over, but we have one more big event. Come back next week and we’ll take a little train ride.

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, DFW Metroplex, Museums, Performing Arts, Photography, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: TRAVEL & ART – MY FAVORITE THINGS

Travel & Adventure Show

Traveling is my thing and every year, when the Travel & Adventure Show comes to town, I feed that passion. I remember the first year I happened into it with my hubby at the Dallas Convention Center. He was more excited about the Belly Dancers on the Global Beats Stage and I didn’t worry him by picking up every brochure in sight, like I do these days, but I knew I’d found something.

The next year, bestie went with me and a tradition was born. We schedule our day around various speakers, grab every brochure that even slightly interests us and get our picture made at the photo booth. It’s a good time.

This year she had a dance lesson and we met afterwards. Confession, the last few times we’d been, it want’s the marvelous hit it had been in those first few years and we couldn’t even blame it on Covid. Somewhere along the way they’d moved to Dallas Market Hall and it just wasn’t what it had been. So, bestie and I decided we didn’t need to rush over there. We could have lunch first. I mean we’re not about to miss it, it had just fallen short in helpfulness since it first came along.

So, we grabbed lunch at Torchy’s Tacos, near one of her dance studios. We have one in Rockwall, but I rarely get there. In truth, I think it’s a little pricey for street tacos, but that’s me. This time it was well over $20, basically for fast food, but I did splurge and get a specialty margarita. It was bigger than the standard margarita and while Deb complained her regular margarita was a tad tart, mine was awesome.

Then it was on to Dallas Market Center. This year did not feature some of the big name travel types we’d seen in the past, but I thought it was an improvement over the last few years. The first time it was at DMC it was pathetic and the Covid years were tough, but we’ve hung in there and this year it really was worth the effort. It’s easy to be worth the price, because it was only $10. What else can you do for $10.

We started off with “How to Travel Solo, from the Experts” in the Savvy Traveler Theater, for Deb, who is contemplating a test drive in the world of Solo Travel. There had been a similar seminar last year, but it had been a total waste of time. This year was better – marginally so, but better. Deb was encouraged to discover more and more companies are doing away with an upcharge for solo travelers, but disappointed the cruise industry is slowest on the uptake.

The next seminar was right back in the same place, but it was Gabe Saglie of Travel Zoo talking about “How to Prioritize Travel in Uncertain Economic Times. He talked a lot about trends and offered up travel tips, but his goal in life was to get us to sign up for Travel Zoo. He made it sound good enough, that I actually just did so.

We immediately went to “”The Insider’s Guide to Visiting Arizona Parks,” but the seminar was misnamed. It should have been, “Look What I Did.” Some lady who worked for the Arizona Office of Tourism spent the time showing videos which are on the National Parks’ websites. Apparently, she had been tasked with making the National Parks websites more accessible and she was very proud of her videos. Thank you, I know how to use the internet. You have wasted my time. She got away with showing one. We left when she started showing the second one. She may have made the websites more accessible to the general public, but she made her presentation a real snorefest.

Next up was “Cruise Tips, Trends and Personal Stories from Our Adventures at Sea,” in the big Travel Theater. This seminar was also misnamed. It was an advertisement for Princess cruises to Alaska. The MC for this talk was Alanna Zingano, a social media travel influencer (No, thank you!) and Jeff Corwin. I confess, he looked a lot like Steve Irwin, the Australian Nature Dude who got killed by a stingray, so I thought he was that guy’s son. Not so. Somehow Jeff Corwin has gotten a job as the Nature & Adventure Ambassador, probably because I’m not the only one who thinks he’s Steve Irwin’s son. Anyway, Alaska is not at the top of my travel list and Deb has been four times, so that was a loser.

The final seminar of the day was probably the best. Someone named David McGuffin did a talk titled, “Exploring Europe: Top Destinations, Attractions and Experiences.” Of course, he was advertising his European travel company.

David and our friend from Travel Zoo were the most informative guys at the travel show, but I wish that wasn’t giving them more credit than they deserve. In the past, we’ve seen Samantha Brown, Rick Steves and other travel luminaires behind the podium. So, it was not a star-studded event. However, they have ramped up the quality of their vendors and I felt as if it was more worth the trip than it had been in recent years.

David Solomon at the Biblical Arts Museum

The other big event for the weekend was an opening reception for a new exhibition at the Biblical Arts Museum. I’m not sure how I get on these lists, but the museum invited me to opening of the “Flowers of the Holy Land” Exhibit. A little honesty here. I’m not really fond of this museum. It’s mostly a warehouse for copies of various religious art – including Thomas Kinkade prints. They also cram entirely to much stuff into the space they have, so actually enjoying one of their oversized look-alikes is difficult to do.

I can’t say I walked away from this exhibit with much more respect for what they are doing. Bill and I both thought an exhibit of my own photographs from the Dallas ARboretum would offer better photography and certainly FOREVER would have done a better job printing the large format photos. The refreshments offered were bad wine and bagels – a little odd, but the jazz band which played was actually pretty good.

Glad I went, so I know what’s up. I wonder if the exhibit will be there later this month when the Crowley Chamber Concert will be. While I’m not crazy about the museum, I do love the Crowley Chamber Concert Series.

For now, I must run! See you next week for travel, memory keeping and another weekend report.

Accommodations, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, DFW Metroplex, Performing Arts, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE – SHALL WE DANCE?

Checking In


Well, my bestie’s big weekend arrived, The Texas Lone Star Ball. Some time in the Fall she had gotten a new dance partner and I’ve been sharing her with him on weekends as they took lessons and practiced.

Around the first of the year, Deborah asked if I’d be available to go with her to their first competition in mid-March. I love any excuse to hang with my bestie and I try to see her dance any time I can, but I’d never seen behind the curtain at a competition, so sure, I was ready to check it out.

Friday, she picked me up around two and we headed off to the Galleria Westin. We checked in, took our luggage to the room and unpacked for the weekend. Then we hit the mall. Now, we are big shoppers, that’s for sure, but we weren’t casually checking the sales. We were on a mission. Deb needed pantyhose – not the big box store variety with reinforced panty, but sheer toe-to-waist pair.

See, while Dancing with the Stars competitors just come out with as little in the way of clothes as possible, in real competitions, each style of dance has a mode of dress. Deb would be dancing both Smooth and Latin numbers. Her smooth ensemble was complete, but she needed the panty hose for Latin. The ladies are supposed to wear fish net hose for Latin and apparently that’s a very uncomfortable prospect if you don’t have a regular pair on hose on underneath and in Latin, you also have open toed shoes and a very, very short skirt.

So, we hit Macy’s first and they recommended WalMart. Knowing WalMart didn’t have what Deb needed, we tried Nordstrom’s instead. Back in the day, the hosiery department was part of accessories and held pride of place on the first floor of any department store. A wide variety of brands in rows of self serve counters vied for your attention with promises of sleekness, durability and style.

Heck, I can remember when there was no self-serve. You walked up to a counter and discussed your hosiery needs with salesclerk which would then pull out selections for you to choose from. The your selection would be put in a thin box with tissue and sometimes a ribbon. I miss those days.

At Nordstrom’s we discovered hosiery had been demoted to the second floor and resided in one lonely fixture with very limited choices, but that put them lightyears ahead of Macy’s, who thought you could only get pantyhose at the big box stores.

That done we had one more small task. Though I’d been talking to Bill for days about the dance competition, he waited until thirty minutes before my departure to freak out about my absence, which resulted in me forgetting to put in a dress-up outfit for the Gala Dinner. Deb wasn’t even sure how dressed up they would get, but if everyone else was decked out, I didn’t want to be sitting there in the jeans and sweater set I’d be wearing the rest of the day.

I hit a store called Image, which had throw away fashion on the cheap, where a found a black swing jacket with silver glitter woven into it. At Lovisa I found a cheap rhinestone necklace to dress up the turtle neck sweater I’d wear under it. I was gala ready!

Dinner at Oceanaire

While Deb’s been dancing in competitions for a number of years, she’s always done it on the cheap, skipping the money eaters like Gala Dinners and expensive restaurants, but her new partner goes first class. So, she decided to go all in this time and I had the privilege of going with her. That meant dinner at Oceanaire with her partner and his teacher.

The prices on the menu were not the denominations Deb and I usually see. Sure, we’ll splurge on something like a birthday dinner, but Oceanaire was expensive, no two ways about it. There’s two ways to go about a meal like that. You can go in budget first, eat a Caesar salad and be practical. Or you can dive in with both feet and break the bank. Deb and I went for the latter.

We started with escargot, had the Seafood Mixed Grill for our entrée and finished off with cheesecake. Each and every bite was out of this world, but we ate so many bites that when we finished we felt like balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. After dinner, Deborah and Aimee (the dance instructor) went up to the room to try out hairstyles. I read for awhile, giving them a thumbs-up now and then, but eventually fell asleep. I woke up at mid-night, had to get ready for bed and then go back to sleep.

Why I Will Never Dance in Competition!

The alarm went off at 4 AM. Deb needed to be on the floor rehearsing at seven and she had a lot to do before then. Stage make-up is the first hurdle. A little lipstick and mascara will not do on the dance floor. Then there are all the things that go on before you put on your gown – this kind of hosiery, that kind of undergarment, etc. and so on. Then getting on the gown is like suiting up for a joust.

At that point, Aimee came in to go after the hair, which had been in hot rollers while the rest of the activity was going on. This is a big deal. Hair can’t just be fluffed up, it also has to be anchored into place so that it won’t fall as Deb makes her way around the floor. Apparently, there are hair pros who start styling even earlier than Deb and I woke up, but Deb doesn’t feel as if she’s in that league yet and she also doesn’t want to spend the money. They ended up with something which looked very 40’s starlet and I doubt a pro could have done any better.

After the hair was glued into place with copious amounts of hairspray, it was time to add the jewelry. The jewelry we’d selected for her smooth performances, a shimmering full length gown in in gunmetal gray decked out with pearls and crystals, was long dangling clear rhinestones earrings and a clear rhinestone necklace. The piece d’resistance was her bright red elbow length gloves which matched her bright red lipstick.

Meanwhile, I fell into a pair of jeans, a pair of sweaters and a pair of boots I’d brought to battle the extreme cold of the ballroom. I put on some makeup, but my hair was a total loss. That was OK, with peacocks like Deborah running around, no one was going to pay any attention to me anyway!

A Day of Dancing

At 7AM Deb and Richard, her partner, were on the floor to warm up. I was in charge of keeping up with the dance heats and videoing their performances. It’s more difficult than you might think. From 7:30 AM on into the evening, every 90 seconds there’s a new group marching out on the floor for their heat. Deb and Richard had 24 performances and then Richard has his pro had at least that many more.

Though Deb has explained how the heats work and how they score it doesn’t quite click with me. Some points are awarded for just showing up to dance and for the number of heats that you dance. When you are out on the floor, multiple judges are looking at multiple levels of competition. So, even though everyone may be dancing a Paso Dobles or a Viennese Waltz, there will be various age groups and categories of the dance competing at the same time. You and your partner may be the only Intermediate Silver in the Senior Amateur competition and you may end up with first place, but it was actually the only place.

You can usually tell some of this, like who’s dancing with a pro and whose dancing with an amateur, by the number the man wears on his back, but then there are amateurs like Richard, who dance with both and who dances in everything from Intermediate Silver to Full Gold levels. Yes, it’s confusing.

The morning was given over to smooth dances waltz, foxtrot, tango and Viennese waltz. Then while the country dancers took over the floor, Deb ran upstairs and put on her Latin outfit, changing everything from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. I have to confess, I thought the second half of the day was more fun – salsa, samba, paso dobles, bolero, even the hustle! Though I would have loved to get on the floor and rock out a bit, one look at the precise costumed dancers on the floor kept me permanently bolted to my chair, but I might have chair-danced a little.

By the end of the day, all the sambas and rumbas ran together and I did good to keep from falling asleep. The judges changed out every hour. I was glued to the table announcing heats and taking photos. I love DEb, but I was done.

Wrapping It Up

The Gala Buffet didn’t have much pizazz to it. I could have saved myself a few dollars, but we didn’t know that. After the buffet, the dancers went in to participate in the awards ceremony and see more dancing. I went to bed. I didn’t go to sleep until later, but I read while I reveled in the quiet of our hotel room, hoping the ringing in my ears would go away some day.

The next morning we got packed up and met for breakfast there in the hotel. After that we loaded up the car and headed home. I was glad to get there. I had a quiet day at the scrapbooking table and finished up my 2022 everyday album. I am now officially caught up.

Come back next week, Deb and I will be attending the Bubbles and Bunco Brunch to benefit Lone Star CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) – a fun party with bottomless mimosas and a great cause. All the other usual things will be happening, too. So, stay in touch.

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Performing Arts, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Broadway Baby!

Jane Sadek

Travel There – Sardi’s and Moulin Rouge

It was supposed to be Joe Allen’s and Moulin Rouge, but I had a little planning hiccup, so we ate at Sardi’s instead. All of my life I’d heard of Sardi’s, so I wasn’t too upset, until I got there. BORING!! There is no longer any sizzle, only a very tired restaurant, mediocre food and a zombie waitstaff. Let’s move on to more exciting things.

So, while Sardi’s was a real disappointment, Moulin Rouge was not. There was frisson in the air as we approached the Al Hirshfield Theater. Everything was under construction along the street, which added it’s own chaos to the gathering crowd, wearing their masks and whipping out their phones for entrance into the theater. Apparently, actual paper tickets are a thing of the past.

Once inside the theater, we were all Bohemians, but you’d better not be carefree enough to take off your mask. All around me I heard stories of a show being stopped while an usher beamed a light at unmasked people. Someone else said they’d seen people thrown out of the theater for taking off their masks. A flyer warned us of all the things we were not supposed to do and just in case we missed it, an usher explained the seriousness of the crime of masklessness.

The musical was everything you’d want a Broadway production to be. The set, as you can see above, was amazing. The costumes were great. And the voices? WOW!! We were in the balcony, but we could see and hear everything with ease. We loved it.

I’ll be honest though, I did not love the music of the musical as much as I did the music of the movie. It wasn’t the singers. It was the songs. What I didn’t know is that the show was written in a way to include current music in the story. I’d especially loved some of the songs in the movie and was waiting eagerly to hear them. One of the first songs belted out was Lourde’s Royals. It fit in perfectly and it’s a song I like, but it was my first clue that I’d be hearing different music that night than I had anticipated.

It’s a great show and very much like the movie, but not exactly like the movie, even beyond the music. Logistics was part of it. You just can’t fit the movie set of Moulin Rough into a Broadway theater, so you saw only the inside of Satine’s dressing room, not the huge elephant it was on. While absinthe, the dangerous green spirit, plays a role in the live show, it is somewhat different than the movie. In the movie it was almost exalted, while in the show it is more clearly a villain.

Should you go? Absolutely! It was one of the highlights of the trip, but don’t eat at Sardi’s. All in all this was a red letter day. To go to the Met and a spectacular Broadway show, all in one day, was pretty amazing.

We trotted back up Broadway to our hotel, doctored our various ailments and got ready for the next day. Getting old really does suck, but it is better than the alternative.

Next up, a walking tour of Mid-Town, so be sure to come back next week for the Morgan Library, the New York Public Library, St. Patrick’s and Top of the Rock.

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Museums, Music, Performing Arts, Road Trips, TRAVEL, Travel Planning, United States

Immersive New York

Jane Sadek

Travel There – Looking for the Insta Moment

On a random Wednesday afternoon in Lower Manhattan, when we’d had Fraunces Tavern Museum and Trinity Church virtually to ourselves, people were lined up to have their picture taken with the Bull. Both of the empty attractions were ever so much more interesting and meaningful than the Bull, but the Bull was getting all the attention.

What you can’t see in the picture above is that there are actually two lines. One for the front of the bull and one for the back, where Gen Xer’s, Z’s and Millennials waited in a much longer line to have their photo made with the Bull’s genitals.

This made me sad. With so much to see, it seemed silly to me to wait around to get my picture made with a bull, even if it was THE bull. But as sad as it was for people to spend time waiting to get the picture with the front of the bull, when there was so much else of great interest around them, I thought the genitalia crowd was really missing the point. But that’s me.

Experiential Public Spaces

A few years ago I sat in a lecture at the University of Dallas, my alma mater. An influential lecturer was touting the importance of the new trend towards experiential art and monuments. I thought I knew what she was talking about, because I’ve always been about experiencing art. I will wait in long lines to see a Vincent Van Gogh painting up close, but that’s not it.

She was talking about those little boxes they put on the walls these days so kids can smell or touch something in relation to an exhibit. It’s a table set up so you can color or play a game next to a sculpture. It’s a sheet of paper with pictures on it that you are supposed to match to things you see around a museum. These are all well and good, but to me they are more often a distraction from what’s there, not a help to understand it.

I remember the first time I went to a museum with all these helpful boxes and games. It was the Bullock Texas State History Museum. The place was overrun with squealing kids hanging off various displays and they were having fun. They may remember the experience until today, but I ask you, did they actually learn anything about Texas history they could repeat to you now? Believe me! I’m not against fun. I just think in the big scheme of things it is overrated.

But back to that lecture! One of the things the lecturer presented was a slide taken at an experiential exhibit of Van Gogh’s art, somewhere over in Europe. At the time I thought it looked kind of like an Impressionistic disco. Then the exhibit came to Dallas as Immersive Van Gogh and I couldn’t wait to go, because I thought I must have misunderstood what I was seeing at the lecture.

Only I hadn’t. They played music and projected Van Gogh’s art onto the walls, ceiling and floor. You had the option of standing, utilizing a seating area in one of the rooms or sitting on the floor. It was an Impressionistic disco. You learned nothing about Van Gogh and even the music wasn’t in context.

I confess, I have good friends who loved it, who said they could spend all day there or plan on going back over and over. If you like it, that’s great, but don’t stop there. Find the art on the walls of museums and look at in person. Learn about the artist, his friends, the reasons people hated his work then but love it now, read his letters to his brother, listen to the music popular at the time, the fashions, the homes – know what you are looking at.

To me, whether you are looking at something on a website or being immersed in a audio/visual “experience”, you are being cheated. If these virtual experiences were catalysts for deeper exploration, that would be a good thing, but they aren’t. People are using them as replacements. Why spend the money to go to Paris and explore the Louvre? The Mona Lisa is on the internet. And the people who do go to Paris spend more time taking selfies at the Eiffel Tower than they do in the Louvre!!

This has been a concern of mine for a long time. Almost thirty years ago Bill and I went to Six Flags. Instead of one of the Broadway-quality shows I had seen in past, they showed me a video in the Southern Palace theater. It was sad to me. I thought of the DFW area talent that was going to waste and regretted I had spent my time watching a video. I just looked at their current entertainment schedule and it’s Looney Tunes. REALLY?

As we stare into our phones and post pictures with the newest filter we are loosing touch with the value of reality. When we are looking reality in the face (or the genitalia) we’re more interested in the entertainment factor than we are exploration. As soon as we post our selfie, we move on to the next experience. We are losing the ability to store up information we can reflect on over time and the opportunity to apply what we observe to our lives to make them better. We just get entertained and then we get bored.

OK, now I will step away from my hobby horse, climb off my soap box, quit my rant – whichever phrase you prefer. Come back next week and I will tell you about a bar around the corner where we went next and had fun. I will not mention experiential public spaces.

ART, DFW Metroplex, Performing Arts, Photography, Real Estate Photography, Restaurants & Bars, Scrapbooking

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: GADABOUTING

Eat, Shower and a Show

After a hard week in the networking trenches, I decided to give myself a morning off. The first thing I did, bright and early, was to hit the scrapbooking table. Recently, most of my memory keeping business has been digital. I have some traditional albums on the books in March, but for now, I have the opportunity to work on my own albums – but I really can’t call it work.

The current album is my 2022 Travel Album and I’m putting together the pages for my NYC trip, which you’re reading about on my Wednesday Travel There posts. Have you ever been having so much fun that you forget to take pictures? Raising my hand as the guilty party. What was one of the best trips of my life will have less pages than some day trips I’ve been on. I got in a couple of hours, but then the phone intruded and I had a shower gift to wrap. After having coffee hour with Mr. Bill, I got ready for the day.

First up, lunch with bestie at Casa Mama. Deb loves their brisket and spinach quesadillas. I’m still looking for my dish. Because I just pointed at an item with Tex-Mex in the title I ended up with sour cream on my entree. Not what I wanted, but not their fault. It wasn’t like the frittata I had ordered once, drizzled with sour cream which wasn’t mention on the menu. So I ate the sour cream enchilada, begrudgingly and promised myself I wouldn’t order it next time, because as much as Deb loves those quesadillas there will be a next time.

Next stop, a baby shower for a soon-to-be mama from church. She’s a delight and it was a joy to see how happy she was with every gift which was offered. My hand-made card got more mileage than anything else I had for her, so I was grateful for my scrapbooking skills. After the shower, I had a little more time for my NYC album before we headed off to the theater.

As a Christmas Eve treat, Bill and I went to SIX at the Winspear. It was a great show and we didn’t fall off the balcony, but the ticket price and parking cost did take a bite out of our budget. Still we’d decided we wanted to see more live theater in 2023, so we bought tickets to a show at the Mesquite Arts Theatre (MAT) – Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite.

Now, MAT, is community theatre, so the actors and actresses are all amateurs, as are many of the tech folks. Hence our tickets were $18 a piece. Quite a reduction from the triple digit nosebleed seats at the Winspear. Of course, Plaza Suite is a much scaled down type of performance – no music and no fancy costumes, even when the pros are doing it.

The play was presented in the Mesquite Arts Center Black Box Theater. Other black box theaters have offered theater in the round, but this is just a ground level stage with tiers of seating and we sat on the front row. No complaints. We certainly got our $18 money’s worth. Some of the comic timing was a little off and the costumes look as if they came from the thrift store, but we were entertained.

The second act had a little faux pas that made it a little funnier. The characters were supposed to be getting sloppy drunk, but as the water/drinks sloshed all over the actors and the stage, it was apparent they’d gotten a little sloppier than they intended.

There was also a little costuming mishap in the third act. I’d noticed the strappy pumps on the actress didn’t fit very well and being a shoe freak, I was distracted by how she was handling her blocking with misfit shoes. Then it got worse, one of the straps broke. The blocking required her to fling herself from one end of the stage to the other with great drama and I anticipated her shoe tripping her up somewhere along the way. She stayed upright and the shoe stayed on. She has my undying admiration. I’d have had to find someway to kick those offending sandals off my feet or I’d have been glued to one spot.

All in all, it had been a great Saturday. I spent time with people I love and enjoyed some of my favorite activities. That’s what a weekend is about – even if you do have to field a few business calls and texts.

A Sunday Adventure

The first thing on Sunday is usually the same old thing – church. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my pastor is leaving, so I am thinking about changing churches. Nothing against my old church, sometimes God just has some place else He wants you to be. I’d been feeling some restlessness before I found out the pastor was leaving, so it made sense to follow my instincts, especially since this church had never felt like home to my hubby.

So, this Sunday, unlike it has been for several years, Mr. Bill and I headed out to church. Bill and I come from very different religious backgrounds. He grew up in an orthodox liturgical church with all the incense and ritual. I grew up in no frills evangelical churches. It beats me how people from really diverse religious associations ever make it through marriage – say a Catholic and a Jew or a Muslim and a Baptist. We just have a difference in worship, not beliefs, and after 28 years we still haven’t gotten it all figured out.

We visited Christ Church, an Anglican Church almost around the corner from us. We’d belonged to another Anglican Church at one time, but Bill had gotten tired of the rector’s preaching style – a little too much on the personal sharing side for him. When he quit going, I did, too, because it was way off on the liturgical end of things for me to sit through by myself. It was one thing when he was with me, but by myself it was all stand-up-sit-down-fight-fight-fight. However, we thought there had been enough commonality there, that a different teaching style might make it work.

Long story short, we like Christ Church Rockwall (which happens to be in McLendon Chisholm). The sermon was really good. The music would do. It wasn’t all the chants I’d hated in the Episcopal Church, but it wasn’t traditional hymns either, which is what I like best. While it was contemporary worship music, it wasn’t the flavor that drives me mad – rock and roll music with hours of repetitious choruses focused on how wretched I am, instead of how wonderful God is. I’m also not big on hand-waving and thumping drum beats.

So, it stays on the list of potential churches. We’d have like to see more diversity in the congregation, but that’s not a deal killer. We are working on what our next target will be. He’s thinking Methodist, which I usually call ‘church light,’ but I’m keeping my mind open.

After church we went on one of out rambling adventures. First we tried Downtown Rockwall forcoffee, but Fire & Fable was closed and Book Club Cafe was too crowded. After coffee at yet another Starbuck’s (Don’t you get tired of Starbuck’s?), we headed towards the Dallas Museum of Art, but never made it. We hit a couple of Deep Ellum spots, thinking to get lunch, but the volume killed our appetite. (Does this mean we are old?)

Then we happened on Uptown, looking for sustenance. We stopped in West Village and took a stroll. We decided we were definitely old, because the trendy gluten-free, veggie heavy venues didn’t sound at all like what we wanted and Thai is just not a fave with us. Thank goodness for the Village Burger Bar. Home again, home a gain jiggedy jig, to follow up on calls we’d gotten during the day and I did a little more scrapbooking.

That’s it for the week. Next week, there will be more NYC, more Memory Keeping and another Weekend Report. Please come and keep me company on my adventures.

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, DFW Metroplex, Performing Arts, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: A BIG WEEKEND

A Good Excuse for Fun!

So last weekend was my husband’s birthday. It was sort of a milestone for him and he decided to live large! In fact, he started looking forward to it a day early, when usually he does his best to ignore it. So, Thursday afternoon he pulled out one of the good bottles of wine and enjoyed smoking his hookah in our sunroom.

Friday Night Date

The celebration, which started on Thursday, kept going on Friday night. You have to know that Friday nights are pretty quiet around here, usually. We don’t like to fight the big crowds, but we researched several Dallas restaurants, trying to find something new. We finally gave it up and went to Fire and Fable, something in Rockwall I’d tried out for coffee the week before. I found out they had a bar and stayed open 10 to 10, so we gave it a shot.

Warning it’s a little confusing. They bill themselves as a bookshop bistro, but when you walk in, the first thing you see is a pastry counter. In truth, the ladies at the counter were a tad bit more interested in whatever they were doing than they were about seeing if we were taken care of. We told them we were going to the bar, but then decided maybe we’d prefer to eat, but having already talked to us, they weren’t going to give us their attention again.

So, we walked through the next bit, which is actually bookshopish and found ourselves in a line, but we weren’t sure what we were waiting for. Chatting up the group ahead of us, we found out they’d just been called to their table, and we were in the right place to put our name on the list. They were seated and after a bit of a wait, the hostess asked us what we wanted.

She put us on the list for a table, but then found us a place to sit in the bar. We ordered drinks and an appetizer. Then we sat back to enjoy the show. All the cool kids were there being cool, so it was quiet entertaining. The service was slow, but I can only imagine what kind of chaos going on back in the kitchen, because the place was jamming.

Our appetizer was fried artichoke hearts and I cannot heartily endorse them, but in spite of that, I think you should go check it out – just maybe not on a Friday evening. We managed to wrench our check from the waiter and get it paid. Then we escaped out the back door. The hostess texted us our table was ready, just about the time we got home.

Saturday Night Date

You know it’s a big weekend if we go out twice!! Bill joined my bestie and I on our Saturday afternoon adventure, which happened to be a movie. We saw A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks. It was really heartwarming, but you have to sit through a lot of sadness to get to the good part. All three of us gave it a thumbs up!

But that’s not all. On a walk around The Harbor earlier in the week, I suggested to Bill the new Sear Steakhouse might be a good place to celebrate his birthday. He allowed that it might be, but he hadn’t worn his glasses and couldn’t see the menu posted outside the restaurant. He checked out their website once he got home, which didn’t have pricing and decided it would not be a good place to go.

Well, Deb decided to take him to 360° for a drink. 360° is the circular bar outside Sear Steakhouse – perfect for a sunset drink, since it overlooks Lake Ray Hubbard, but it worked fine for a drink (or two) in the dark, too. I must say we thoroughly enjoyed our time there and after a look at the menu (he had his glasses) we decided we could even afford to eat there!

Sunday Night Date

Nah! We didn’t go out again. After church, we both went to our offices to catch up on things which needed our attention. When dinner rolled around, however, Mr. Bill did cook up some falafel sandwiches and it was very good.

It was a really good weekend and we had a lot of fun. Thanks for dropping by. I hope you’ll come to visit again next week.

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Performing Arts, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL, Travel Planning, United States

Stardust in Our Eyes

Jane Sadek

Travel There – Ellen’s Amazing Stardust Diner

So, Deb and I are a great pair for traveling. I need her input. I am Museum Girl. I can find wonderful museums and historic homes almost anyplace you put me, but I am restaurant and bar challenged. In part, because I have a pretty solitary existence here in my home office, while Deb goes into a brick-and-mortar office everyday and has an eclectic group of coworkers who point her to the good stuff.

I’m so glad someone pointed her to the Stardust Diner. Believe me, it’s not the sort of place I would have wandered in on my own. It’s a neon-covered corner building which appears to have seen better days. At times it has a line wandering down the street from it, but that didn’t encourage me either. You wonder if they’ve got a gambling den or something nefarious going on.

Well, Ellen’s Stardust Diner is where future Broadway stars make a living until they make it big, alongside the guy and gals in the chorus, who need to pay rent. The diner is stuffed with linoleum topped tables and vinyl booths. There is no theme and the walls are covered with faded photographs. The menu is your basic diner food.

What set Ellen’s apart is the attitude and a slim catwalk running through the center of the restaurant. Other restaurants and establishments in the area employ wannabe Broadway stars, but they treat them like regular employees, who are supposed to show up for work, even if they have an audition, and if you actually end up getting a part, they’ll fill your spot and you won’t be invited back.

You also won’t sing. At Ellen’s auditions and casting are the lifeblood of her employees, so your work schedule is set around your singing career. When you finish with a booking, be it a few day or a few years, Ellen will fit you back into the schedule. And you will sing.

All day, every day, from the crack of dawn until after the bars close, someone is on that catwalk belting their heart out. And these folks are good. Not the girl-back-home-who-sings-solos-in-church good, but Broadway good. One after another, male, female and otherwise, tall, short, gorgeous and ugly, people with amazing voices grab a mic and balance on the catwalk, while belting out some of the best music you will hear in the Big Apple.

When we passed by the Diner just after sunset there was a very discouraging line running down the side of the building and it was misting rain. So, we gave it a little while and came back later. There was still a line, but it wasn’t raining and the line was somewhat shorter. We had nowhere else to be, so we just waited it out. And you are going to wait, because no one wants to move too quickly at the Stardust. Don’t go when you’re starving, because after you wait in line, you’ll need to wait on your food.

Singing is the main attraction at the Stardust, but there’s nothing wrong with the food. I had a grilled cheese sandwich and a chocolate shake. Deb had the Ruby Rueben. Both meals were great. We thought about dessert, as an excuse to stay longer, but what with the Junior’s cheesecake earlier in the day and my chocolate shake, I couldn’t face it!

Time to head back to the hotel. You come back next week and join us on our visit to Lady Liberty. It’s one of those things you have to do and it is well worth the time and effort to do so.