Southern Bookman

A soldier's story on a Thanksgiving eve at Immaculate Conception in downtown Atlanta

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution feature story on Immaculate Conception's homeless outreach ministry in downtown Atlanta summoned memories of a Thanksgiving years ago.

I joined several AJC colleagues volunteering to serve homeless people Thanksgiving dinner at the church, and spend the night at the shelter then in operation there.

One of the street people stood out, a black man with a dapper mustache who wore a pearl-gray three-piece suit. After the meal was finished, he resisted going to sleep on one of the mattresses laid down on the assembly hall's concrete floor.

Instead, he watched television, obsessively changing channels each second with the remote, and told stories about his Vietnam service.

The spell-binding raconteur remembered how his company mistakenly killed a rock ape that had wandered too close to the soliders' camp, triggering an alarm.

Mistaking the poor animal's presence for a Viet Cong attack, the company fired its weapons into the darkness. The next day, they found the beast riddled with bullets and buried the creature with full military rites.

When at last the man trudged off to bed, we slept beside the tomb of the old priest who persuaded Gen. Sherman to not burn down Immaculate Conception during the battle of Atlanta.

As I drifted toward sleep, I pondered the historic connections between the Army of the Cumberland and the Vietnam soldiers.

Bring back downtown Atlanta's Christmas tree lighting, New Year's Eve celebration

Let's bring back the Christmas tree lighting in downtown Atlanta.

For years, festive crowds gathered on the day after Thanksgiving at the beloved Rich's store in downtown Atlanta for the annual Christmas tree lighting. 

Choirs sang Christmas carols, and ohs and ahs filled the chilly air when a burst of light illuminated the tree, perched upon the bridge linking the department store's two wings.

Unlike other major cities, Atlanta is bereft of community holiday celebrations. Macy's, which inherited the holiday ritual when Rich's succumbed to changing retail tastes, canceled its annual Christmas tree lighting at Lenox Square.

Adding to the suppression of holiday cheer, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens eliminated the dropping of the Peach on New Year's Eve in downtown.

Dickens said that the city just couldn't afford to welcome the new year after funding events to mark hip-hop's 50th anniversary. It's sad that our wealthy city is too stingy to celebrate both hip-hop and the arrival of a new year.

Restoring the Christmas tree lighting and the Peach drop would boost downtown Atlanta, which has undergone a fledgling revival in recent years. 

Imagine people from throughout  the metro area coming down to Centennial Olympic Park or the Mercedes Benz Stadium plaza to share holiday joy.

Atlanta could put on a Christmas tree lighting and a New Year's Eve celebration to rival the famous ones in New York City.

If the mayor and Atlanta City Council can find millions for the police training center, surely it can afford events to wish Atlantans Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Art critic Karen Wilkin displays knowledge, discernment

Karen Wilkin must be America's busiest arts critic.

A light of recognition flashed when I read Wilkin's Wall Street Journal review Thursday of the current Camille Claudel exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.

That's the second Wilkin essay I've seen this week: My recently arrived Hudson Review contains Wilkin's roundup of exhibitions at New York galleries. Proudly calling herself an independent critic and art curator, Wilkin also writes monthly for the New Criterion.

Wilkin's reviews display a learned understanding of aesthetic value and artistic technique. She has a gift for describing paintings and sculptures so that the reader sees them in his or her imagination.

The Wall Street Journal piece affirms the importance of Claudel, Auguste Rodin's muse, lover and artistic partner. The early 20th century sculptor has been undervalued, like so many other women artists.

Showcasing her critical acumen, Wilkin proclaims Claudel's "The Waltz" as a masterpiece of vision and technical realization.

Wilkin concludes that the later, veiled version of the work, shown in an accompanying photograph, enhances Claudel's artistry. The sculptor added the veils to the stark sculpture showing a man and woman in an intimate embrace after its original version was removed because of controversy over its explicit sexuality.

As the Claudell piece abundantly displays, Wilkin is an educator as well as a critic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WSJ film critic Kyle Smith continues legacy set by Joe Morgenstern

Wall Street Journal film critic Kyle Smith makes the retirement of Joe Morgenstern easier to bear.

While Morgenstern's witty, perceptive reviews for the newspaper are sorely missed, Smith writes about movies and the film industry with astute critical judgment and insightful cinematic knowledge.

Smith in his review Wednesday of "Maestro" refreshingly turned against the prevailing  tide of critical acclaim for Bradley Cooper's film biography of Leonard Bernstein, the multi-talented musical genius who died in 1990. "Maestro" began streaming on Netflix Wednesday after a limited theatrical run.

While Smith praised Carey Mulligan's performance as Bernstein's conflicted wife, Felicia Montealgre, he criticized Cooper's portrayal of Bernstein as caricaturing his flamboyant personality. 

Smith faults the film, which Cooper also directed and co-wrote, for emphasizing Bernstein's bisexuality and egocentric behavior while slighting musical successes like "West Side Story" and other aspects of his career.

The review also rightly blasts Cooper's script, co-written with Josh Singer, for its banal dialogue and dramatic longuers.

Smith, who also writes outstanding drama criticism for the New Criterion, gives the WSJ vibrant film criticism, upholding Morgenstern's legacy.

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas brings memories of past, hope for future.

Another year, another Christmas tree.

The old ornaments are like old friends. Taking them from the red box in which they reside throughout the year, I recall carrying out the same ritual at the same time in years past.

Tree decorated, lights glowing on the hedge outside, I listen to Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper," Alabama's "Christmas in Dixie," Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" and Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song."

When we walk to lunch at the shopping center, a family trio - piano, trumpet and tenor sax - plays holiday hits outside the bird store, which is collecting winter coats for those in need.

The father on electric piano plays the chords beautifully on Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time Is Here," as his son on trumpet and daughter on sax find the song's jazz soul.

In my mind, I see the kids skating in the drifting snow at the start of "Charlie Brown's Christmas."

When the first signs of Christmas erupt in October, I feel like old Mr. Scrooge.

Yet the season always carries me away.

I purchase Christmas cards and cookies, and stuffed toys for the new babies in the family.

Looking at the tree, I remember old friends and family members, and the passing of the seasons.

Each year comes and goes. And lovely is the rose.

Watching through the window, I see a cardinal land on a tree branch.

As Dickens observed, the past, present and future come together at Christmas.

 

 

 

Atlanta police training center won't be stopped, AJC's Bill Torpy concludes

Atlanta's new police and fire training center likely will be built whether or not opponents win a court battle for a public referendum on the project.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Bill Torpy is the first journalist to disclose that likelihood, pointing out in his Monday column that the project will be substantially complete before a public vote sought by protesters can be scheduled.

Work on the training center derisively called "Cop City" by opponents is already 30 percent finished as an appeals court decides on the validity of signatures on a petition calling for Atlanta residents to vote on the project.

Even if ordered by the court, a citywide referendum on the training center can't be scheduled until the May 2024 state primary election, Torpy discloses. By then, '"Cop City" will be near completion, Torpy concludes.

Could an already finished training center be torn down if city residents vote against it?

Torpy dismisses that hypothetical possibility, determining that the Training Center looks like a reality.

 

 

 

 

Tony Joe White's "Polk Salad Annie" a classic of Southern culture

Tony Joe White's "Polk Salad Annie" has been rolling through my mind ever since I heard it recently on satellite radio's 1960s channel.

White's 1969 song about a young woman in rural Louisiana gathering wild "poke" salad each night to survive expresses an entire Southern milieu with a few raw lyrics and raucous, infectious guitar licks.

A Southern Gothic novel could be composed from the song's simple story of the young woman, her mother "serving on the chain gang," her layabout father and her brothers who steal watermelons from the narrator's "truck patch."

Recorded in Nashville's RCA studio, the guitar-driven music is a a joyous blast of Cajun, rhythm and blues, rock and jazz. White's gutteral voice recalls that of Captain Beefheart, and the backup horns and White's guitar and harmonica solos match the avant garde wildness of Frank Zappa.

White, who grew up in Oak Grove, La., cited Bobbie Gentry's Southern-redolent classic "Ode to Billie Joe" for showing him that he could use his experience in writing songs.

Like the best Southern literature, Annie's story told in raw, minimalist lyrics illustrates the region's violence, resilience and ribald humor.

Nature's threat comes with benevolence, jokes and music.

 

 

 

 

 

Braves' Battery casts glow across American sports landscape

Battery fever rages among wealthy owners of pro sports franchises, who yearn to match the success of the Atlanta Braves' entertainment district besides Truist Park.

In the latest outbreak of Battery envy, Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis has announced plans to move the hockey and NBA franchises from the aging Capital Center in downtown Washington to a site in suburban Northern Virginia.

Leonsis' plans to abandon the nation's capital for the Potomac Yard development in Arlington has outraged D.C.'s sports journalists, including Pardon the Interruption's Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon.

Kornheiser and Wilbon's successors at the Washington Post have raised a chorus denouncing Leonsis, a Washington native who touted his loyalty to his hometown after the Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018.

The Battery's restaurants, bars and theaters draw fans even if they don't have Truist Field tickets. Crowds flock to the site in the off-season, especially during the holidays.

In an appearance with Virginia's Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Leonsis said he'd move the franchises by 2028, builng an arena among the suburban development's hotels and entertainment venues.

Leonsis has asked the city of Washington for $600 million to upgrade the Capital One Arena, located in Washington's struggling Chinatown and Gallery Place neighborhoods. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has offered $500 million.

Since the Covid pandemic, downtown Washington businesses have suffered from workers not returning to their offices. Stores have closed on once bustling H Street, beset by rising crime, drug dealing and homelessness. Streets around the Capital One Center suffer from the same urban decay.

Pardon the Interruption's Kornheiser diverted from his usual bemused comic persona to blast Leonsis' plans as "villainy" and a betrayal of Washington. The ESPN star and former Washington Post columnist called the plans a stab in the heart of the nation's capital.

Similar outrage rose when the Braves announced plans to move from downtown Atlanta to Cobb County.

While the Battery is criticized as generic, the Braves' development's success has made it a model for the sports world.  

 

 

 

Farewell Andre Braugher, who brought theatrical depth to TV, film performances

Headed for work in downtown Atlanta, I decided to stay on the train and head to the King Historic District.

Andre Braugher, one of the actors I most admired, was appearing that afternoon at the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial to deliver the civil rights leader's "I Have a Dream" speech on its anniversary.

Each Friday night, I admired Braugher's portrayal of the enigmatic detective Frank Pembleton on the Baltimore detective show "Homicide, A Life on the Street," the precursor to David Simon's "The Wire" and one of network television's forerunners of the cable "prestige TV" era.

On that sun-splashed afternoon at the King grave site, Braugher evoked the majesty of King's speech in 1963 to a huge crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial after the "March on Washington."

In his restrained presentation, Braugher gave full weight to the power of King's words. When Braugher finished, bowing his head, the small audience stood in silence, spellbound.

Braugher, who displayed controlled emotional depths in his TV, film and stage performances, died Monday at age 61 after a brief illness. His career was still flourishing; he had been playing a role in the strike-interrupted Netflix series "The Residence," produced by Shonda Rhimes.

Along with his Emmy-winning portrayal of the caustic, domineering Pembleton in  NBC;s "Homicide," Braugher was acclaimed for his performances in Ray Romano's "Men of a Certain Age" and the police comedy "Brooklyn Nine Nine." He also won an Emmy for his role as Nick Atwater in the miniseries "Thief."

Braugher's delivery of King's speech had none of the trappings of Hollywood fame. In his deep, recognizable voice, Braugher affirmed the timeless urgency of the civil rights leader's message.

 

 

 

Memorable books by Anne Hull, Rose Styron, Peter Brown, Gay Talese and Adam Hochschild

My most memorable reading over the last year came from memoirs.

Anne Hull's "Through the Groves" looks back on a free-range childhood in Florida. As a young girl, Hull accompanied her daredevil, Southern gentleman manque father as he careened by car through south Florida's lush orange groves as a fruit inspector. Hull's mother bade her to go with her father in a futile attempt to keep him from alcohol.

Hull's account of her adolescence following the end of her parents' marriage yields the stage to another vivid character, her grandmother, her mentor in the art of living well.

The former Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post tells about how she endured an ill-fated sales job to launch her journalism career. Beginning as a clerk in the St, Petersburg Times sports department, she rose as a nationally renowned investigative reporter.

At random moments, I hear Hull's voice speaking to me, telling her stories once again.

Another memorable woman's voice distinguishes the pages of Rose Styron's memoir, "Beyond the Harbor: Adventurous Tales of the Heart."

The wife of famed novelist William Styron, Rose Styron built an admirable independent career as a international human rights advocate.

"Beyond the Harbor" fearlessly examines the travails of her marriage to Styron and her support of him during his debilitating depression and abusive behavior. She also gives memorable portraits of a glittering list of literary, artistic and political personalities.

Princeton professor Peter Brown's "Journeys of the Mind: A Life in History" radiates with the joy of intellectual exploration and adventure, from the streets of Dublin, London and Rome to Africa and the Mideast, to the academic halls of Oxford, Berkeley, Princeton and elsewhere.

Brown, the pioneer of "late antiquity" studies, makes the post-Roman era as current as ours, dispelling any lingering perceptions that it was an age of darkness.

The nonfiction master Gay Talese presents a similar captivating portrait of lifelong curiosity and writing virtuousity in "Bartleby and Me: Reflections of an Old Scrivener."

Talese revisits some of the "nobodies" to whom he's given recognition. But the book glows brightest in his account of his pursuit of Frank Sinatra for his classic Esquire piece "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold."

Those disturbed by Donald Trump's vows to establish a dictatorship if he's re-elected might be shocked to discover that Woodrow Wilson got there first.

Adam Hochschild, like Talese a best-selling author of non-fiction books of history, shines a light on an era even more conflicted than our own in "American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis."

With impressive detail and in-depth personalities, Hochschild reveals a time of unbelievable repression, racism and assaults on constitutional rights during and after World War I. 

Wilson's declining reputation sinks even further in Hochschild's indictment of his ill-fated, oppressive presidency.

Like other valuable histories, "American Midnight" holds a mirror to the present day, warning of the rising threats to American democracy.

Hull, Styron, Brown, Talese and Hochschild show the power of books to illuminate human triumph and tragedy.