After 40 years, the Rocky Horror Show is still a lot of fun; it runs until Feb. 15

    Jinny and I joined some friends in attending a showing of The Rocky Horror Show at the Playhouse on the Square in Memphis Sunday afternoon. It was a great show in a great venue. As you can see from the rehearsal video above (featuring the current cast), this show is a little different.
    Almost everyone of a certain age has seen the cult movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show a few times (and a few have seen it hundreds of times!). It was popular in the late 1970s through the 1980s as a midnight cult classic, and in fact never has stopped being shown each week at various theaters. It’s the longest running movie release in history.
    The film, which was adapted from a West End play, was initially a flop before it became a cult classic with midnight showings. Fans would dress up as their favorite characters and attend -- again, and again, and again.
    I wasn’t one of those to attend on a regular basis, and I certainly never dressed up, but once one gets over the shock of seeing a bunch of men running around on stage in the underwear the movie was a lot of fun. The Hoka in Oxford had a number of midnight showings back in the day.
    The Playhouse on the Square version is a lot of fun, too. The actors use a minimum of props, with actors playing the role of a bench or even windshield wipers. It may sound weird, but it worked, and worked well.
    I’m not going to try to say who did the best job. Frankenfurter was good; Columbia was good; Magenta was good; Brad and Janet were both good; Riff Raff was good; the narrator was good. Overall, the quality of the singing and acting was simply outstanding, with only a couple of minor rough spots. The live show isn't one for lots of audience participation, and patrons are instructed to leave their rice, newspapers, squirt guns, toast, playing cards, etc., at the door.
    I think we are all conditioned to think that an expensive theatrical performance is going to be better than a low-budget show. Personally, I thought the quality of the acting in The Rocky Horror Show was better than much of what I’ve seen at the Orpheum or on Broadway, although admittedly I'm no professional critic. I’ve tended to have trouble hearing at the Orpheum, were the acoustics aren’t the best. At the Playhouse, I could hear and understand everything the actors were saying or singing! I didn't have to keep poking Jinny and asking, "Whudhesay?"
    I’ve never been to the Playhouse on the Square before, but it is one of the most comfortable and enjoyable theatres I’ve visited. It only seats about 340 people, so it is an intimate setting; the balcony seats may be better than some of the floor seats. Tickets were only $29.95, although the Friday and Saturday shows cost more. Even if the Rocky Horror Show isn’t your thing, put this place down as a place to see a play or show. You won’t be disappointed.
    Oh, and 30 years ago we didn't have the Internet, and I never could figure out who Janet was referring to when she belted out "God Bless Lili St. Cyr!" It turns out she was a famous burlesque performer. So now you know.

    ■ The Rocky Horror Show runs at the Memphis Playhouse on the Square until Feb. 15, with evening showings Thursday through Friday and a matinee on Sundays. Tickets may be purchased online. Almost every seat is a good one, but the extreme outside edges have slight visibility problems in seats close to the stage.

Amanda Witt

    ■Amanda Wansa Morgan, an assistant professor in the Ole Miss theatre department, is the Rocky Horror Show's musical director. Three current Ole Miss students and two alumni are supporting cast members as Transylvanians. Current students are Cory Clark, Kate Louis Prender, and Bobby Kelly; and Ole Miss alums Kelley Michele and Cameron Yates.

I've added link to an Ole Miss events calendar

    At one time I found it very difficult to find out what events were happening on the Ole Miss campus. They seemed to be advertised in different areas of the school's website.
    There is now a pretty good calendar maintained by the school. I've added a link to it in the upper-right corner of this blog, right above the newspaper links. I hope this will be helpful to those who use this site as a way to navigate to other places.
    There are a lot of free or inexpensive things to do at Ole Miss. Certainly we all ought to take advantage of them from time to time.

Holland Family Farms to debut new soap line at June 15 Holly Springs Farmers' Market

    The Holland family of Marshall County has been farming near Hudsonville since 1899. Jesse Holland was editor of The Daily Mississippian some years back (say 1994?), and now covers the Supreme Court for the Associated Press. They are going to be on the Marshall County courthouse Square Saturday, June 15, from 7 a.m. to noon as part of the county farmer’s market.
    They have a line of goat’s milk soap. I have not tried it but they are getting some raves on their Facebook page. Click here for their webpage.

“We have been told that the annual Holly Springs Farmers’ Market will begin this Saturday, June 15th on the historic Holly Springs Courthouse Square, from 7 am until noon.
“We will be at the market with some of our produce such as onions, collard greens, swiss chard and fresh herbs. Check back here tomorrow on our Facebook Fan Page for a complete list of our produce we’ll have for Saturday!
“A new addition to our stand this year will be our 1899 Goat’s Milk Soap. We will have our 12 varieties on hand for purchase. Our goat milk soap is great to use for that dry, itchy summer skin! We’ve had great comments about the soap, so we hope y’all will try it! ‘Your skin will thank you!’ ”

    Another post lists herbs and produce available: “Collard Greens, Mustard Greens, Swiss Chard, Green Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Squash, Potatoes, Onions, Garlic, Mint, Rosemary, Parsley, Basil, Chives and Lavender. As the growing season progresses, we will have more produce available!”

Jesse Holland

    The AP reporter Jesse Holland now lives in Washington. He is the author of Black Men Built the Capitol: Discovering African-American History In and Around Washington, D.C.
    If I get up there tomorrow maybe I'll be able to take a couple of photos and write a short feature.

I wanna go!

    I'm not sure how Google Ads selects ads to show up on my blog. Sometimes it's based on things that I write about, but other times the ads are based on what I've search for.
    In any event, one of the ads which recently popped up was a three-night cruise with Mark McGrath & Friends. The "friends" include the Spin Doctors, Smash Mouth, Cracker, Gin Blossoms, The Verve Pipe, and Sugar Ray. In other words, the biggest names in music!
    The cruise is Oct. 18-21 on the Carnival Imagination out of Miami. Prices start at $649, which is as high as a three-night cruise gets. They say you aren't paying for the cruise, you're paying for the music.
    Jinny hates good music so I doubt we'll make it. But I can wanna make it!

Vince Gill coming to Ole Miss's Ford Center Sept. 13

    For those of you who are into country music, Vince Gill is coming to the Gertrude Ford Center at Ole Miss. As I often mention, this is one of the finest performing arts centers you will find at any university, or for that matter many large cities. It's just unbelievable.
    You can visit the Ford Center webpage announcing the event here. For some reason if you go directly to the Ford Center webpage the link is broken, so use my link if you want tickets (I've emailed them about the problem with their website and I'm sure they'll fix it soon).
    Also, it looks like the Ford Center and the University Box Office once again have made it possible to buy event tickets online. Last year we couldn't do this and could only get them by calling. Once again we can go online and get an idea of how many tickets are available. I really think if buying for a group it will still be necessary to call.
    The system from two years ago would actually show the seats which were sold. I liked this, and it would allow me select an aisle seat. I don't like sitting next to strangers, and by getting an aisle seat I can reduce the number of strangers we sit next to by 50 percent.
    The new system, unfortunately doesn't allow you to pick your seats. But it does allow you to pick your section and then tell you which seats you will receive. You can then take them or go back to the main screen and choose another category of seats.
    For the Vince Gill concert, the Orchestra Pit is sold out and it is impossible to buy more than two seats together in the Orchestra (downstairs) area. This leads me to believe that this even will be a sellout, so get your tickets soon.

Overby center features interesting programs this week

    The Ole Miss Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics has a few interesting panel discussions coming up this week.
    On Wednesday, April 18, at 11 a.m., "The Chinese Connection" will be presented. It is described as "Members of Mississippi's Chinese-American community and students in the renowned Chinese Flagship Language Program at Ole Miss talk about their relations in a distant land."
    On Thursday, April 19 at 1 p.m., there will be a panel discussion featuring three lobbyists. "The Lobbyists" will feature Ole Miss grads John Hall, Lee Sanders, and Joel Wood as they describe their work as lobbyists in the nation’s capitol. Overby Fellow Bill Rose will moderate. Lee Sanders was a friend of mine back in the day, so I hope to make it to over to say hello.
    On Friday, April 20 at 11 a.m., University of Oklahome All-American running back Spencer Tillman will talk about his decision to get get a journalism degree and then to return to journalism after playing professional football.
    The Overby Center is named for Charles L. Overby, editor of the Daily Mississippian at Ole Miss from 1967-1968. Overby has been the CEO of the Freedom Forum since 1989 and CEO of the Newseum since its inception in 1996.

Major folk music conference coming to Memphis Feb. 22-26

    For those of you into folk music, a major folk music conference in Memphis next week is expected to draw more than 2,000.
    The 24th annual FOLK ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE will take place again in MEMPHIS FEBRUARY 22nd-26th, 2012. BOB LEFSETZ has been tapped as the keynote speaker. In addition, there are over 50 workshops, panel discussions and peer group meetings; 100+ industry exhibitors; a Lifetime Achievement Awards ceremony; and over 500 artist performances. (Can you tell I cut and pasted that paragraph?)
    It seems to me this is a pretty major conference and not that well publicized. How I found out about it is a bit of a story.
    A few weeks ago I heard a song by The Nadas on Pandora that I really liked. I'm not sure I've ever even heard of them. Any way, I typed their name in Google, and what do you know but they're playing the Memphis conference.
    Will I attend the conference? Probably not. But it's there for anyone looking for something to do. And who knows? Maybe you'll spot me!