Greensboro/ Triad Bits and Pieces
Just a few recent observations:
1. I had the opportunity to attend the Greek Festival at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Winston-Salem on Saturday. It is a great festival, with good food and entertainment, culture-relevant items for sale and browsing, and tours of the church with all its icons. The festival is much larger than the one we have here in Greensboro, with considerably more to offer. I recommend it highly for next year.
Interestingly, the liturgy used among the Eastern Orthodox, according to our "tour guide", has not changed in the nearly 1,000 years that have elapsed since the Great Schism which separated Roman Catholicism from the Eastern Orthodox churches. Accordingly, their liturgy is precisely what the Catholic liturgy was way back then. They seemed to take pride in the fact that their church does not change in response to society.
2. On the way back from Winston-Salem, I drove on the newly opened portion of "Painter Boulevard" for the first time. It is, indeed, much different than expected-- a superhighway with four lanes in each direction, wider than many parts of I-40 and I-85. The road has a lot of capacity that will be unused for some time. One cannot help but wonder whether that capacity might be needed more in other places.
3. I also had the opportunity to attend the Carolina Pops presentation of John Williams' movie music the weekend before last. It was held at Westover Church.
The Greensboro Symphony did a great job with this production. I do not attend their productions on a regular basis, but this was fun-- and it was the first time they had used Westover as its venue. This is a good alternative to the War Memorial Auditorium, and unlike the proposal two years ago for a multi-million dollar cultural arts center, this does not appear to cost the taxpayers anything. Westover has a great space for this type of production, and the acoustics seemed pretty good to me.
1. I had the opportunity to attend the Greek Festival at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Winston-Salem on Saturday. It is a great festival, with good food and entertainment, culture-relevant items for sale and browsing, and tours of the church with all its icons. The festival is much larger than the one we have here in Greensboro, with considerably more to offer. I recommend it highly for next year.
Interestingly, the liturgy used among the Eastern Orthodox, according to our "tour guide", has not changed in the nearly 1,000 years that have elapsed since the Great Schism which separated Roman Catholicism from the Eastern Orthodox churches. Accordingly, their liturgy is precisely what the Catholic liturgy was way back then. They seemed to take pride in the fact that their church does not change in response to society.
2. On the way back from Winston-Salem, I drove on the newly opened portion of "Painter Boulevard" for the first time. It is, indeed, much different than expected-- a superhighway with four lanes in each direction, wider than many parts of I-40 and I-85. The road has a lot of capacity that will be unused for some time. One cannot help but wonder whether that capacity might be needed more in other places.
3. I also had the opportunity to attend the Carolina Pops presentation of John Williams' movie music the weekend before last. It was held at Westover Church.
The Greensboro Symphony did a great job with this production. I do not attend their productions on a regular basis, but this was fun-- and it was the first time they had used Westover as its venue. This is a good alternative to the War Memorial Auditorium, and unlike the proposal two years ago for a multi-million dollar cultural arts center, this does not appear to cost the taxpayers anything. Westover has a great space for this type of production, and the acoustics seemed pretty good to me.
Churches have far better facilities these days than city/county-owned facilities. The problem is how to over come the church/state issue.
The church facilities are in use most Sunday and Wednesday, while the city/county facilities are rarely in use. Some church needs to step up and say do a "Best of Broadway" series - call it an out-reach ministry. Should be interesting.
Posted by:Don Moore | May 20, 2008 at 09:36 PM
Don, I think organizations like the Symphony are private, so I don't think their using a venue like Westover is a church-state issue. It can be a win-win if the private organizations make it worth the church's while to use the facility. I don't claim to know how that works out economically.
But I am sure some folks were feeling that it was a whole lot better than War Memorial.
Posted by:Joe Guarino | May 20, 2008 at 10:11 PM