Browsing: Arts and Life

Country singer Sammy Kershaw is thankful to be alive after his tour bus was struck by another vehicle.
It happened Friday in Nocona, Texas. The impact caused major damage to the bus, and the car was totaled.

Sure, Carrie Underwood might have lost out to brassy spitfire Miranda Lambert at the 46th Country Music Association Awards in Nashville last week. But the host – who pulled off the duty for a fifth time with fellow country star Brad Paisley – is reveling in all the attention the genre is currently getting.

The Waco Symphony Orchestra’s “A Salute to Sgt. Pepper!” concert on Thursday night is sure to be nostalgic for some and perhaps novel for others.

The concert will commemorate the 45th anniversary of The Beatles’ eighth studio album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” which was released on June 1, 1967.

Rolling Stone magazine ranks the album No. 1 on its “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list, saying, “‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ is the most important rock and roll album ever made…by the greatest rock and roll group of all time.”

At 5 p.m. today the bells in the belfry of Pat Neff Hall will knell as part of the homecoming festivities.

Lynnette Geary, resident carillonneur (pronounced CARE-uh-lahn-oo-er), and one of her students, junior from Spring, Texas, Jonathan Castillo, will perform the annual homecoming carillon recital.

Geary said she’s lost track of how many years she’s been performing this recital now, but she’d guess at least 16.

Pianist Helge Antoni, an Exclusive Steinway Artist from Malmö, Sweden, will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 10 in Roxy Grove Auditorium.

The recital, Inspiración Latina, will feature the music of composers Scarlatti, Albeniz, Turina, de Falla, Villa-Lobos, Ginastera and Piazzolla.

The student-organized ensemble Renew Music Group will offer audience members a different experience not typically heard in the School of Music at its upcoming concert.

“This sort of thing hasn’t really happened at Baylor in a long time,” said Mark Utley, Fredricksberg senior and percussionist in the group.

The concert will take place at 10 p.m. Nov. 6 in Jones Concert Hall in the Glennis McCrary Music Building.

If you’re like the rest of the world, music is part of your daily routine.

You crank it at the gym. You blare it in the car. You hum along to it while boiling pasta for dinner.

You can’t imagine life without music. But are you hearing it?

Bond Girls are known for being symbols of beauty, class and style, so it’s no surprise that actress Berenice Marlohe has taken on the role. She plays Severine in the upcoming 23rd James Bond film, “Skyfall,” slated for release Nov. 9.

You find yourself in a dark forest, with only a flashlight and a cheap camera to chronicle your experience. You begin walking through the forest, the only noise being the gravelly sounds of your footsteps as you venture deeper and deeper into darkness.

Approaching a makeshift tunnel, you notice something that shouldn’t be there. A white piece of scratch paper taped to the inside wall. Picking it up you can see what it says with help from the flashlight.

“DON’T LOOK… OR IT TAKES YOU.”

Coming from a place of pain and brokenness may be enough to cripple the average person, but Christian singer and songwriter Kyle Sherman has responded to difficult times in life by calling out to God through his music.

Sherman’s debut studio album, “Hear Me,” was released Oct. 7.

A decade after George Lucas said “Star Wars” was finished on the big screen, a new trilogy is destined for theaters as The Walt Disney Co. announced Tuesday that it was buying Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion.

The seventh movie, with a working title of “Episode 7,” is set for release in 2015. Episodes 8 and 9 will follow. The new trilogy will carry the story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia beyond “Return of the Jedi,” the third film released and the sixth in the saga. After that, Disney plans a new “Star Wars” movie every two or three years. Lucas will serve as creative consultant in the new movies.

The full-band stylings of Lomelda echoed through the auditorium of University Baptist Church on Friday, with front-woman Hannah Read delivering a solid performance, according to those in attendance.

Lomelda, which started as a solo project by Read, has expanded to a huge local following over the past five years. Their music, which could be called a mellow, harmonic sound, had the audience in awe at the CD release show.

“I thought it was a really cool experience to have such an intimate show with all the instruments put together,” said Corpus Christi freshman Jeaneva Alvarez, who attended the show.

Wednesday’s annual Halloween organ concert will be a different way to spend the holiday and is likely to change some people’s perceptions of the instrument.

“When people think of organ they think of two things: They think of church music and they think of scary spooky,” said Isabelle Demers, assistant professor of organ at Baylor.

Demers, who has only taught at Baylor since the beginning of the year, said she thinks the spooky organ sounds people are used to hearing, such as in film scores, are often synthesized and usually don’t do the real thing justice. She said the organ should be experienced in a hall.

It’s funny how the beloved movies of one’s less politically correct youth turn out to have a lot more edge to them once you show them to your own kids. “Back to the Future” has more sexuality than you remember, and little blasts of profanity. “Adventures in Babysitting,” “Bad News Bears” and “Goonies,” even more.