Sunday FUNday

Sunday, October 21st, 1-5pm
FOREVER YOUNG 

...is the theme for the upcoming Arts on Sunday Festival on Trade Street (500-600 blocks).

Entertainment will be provided by the R.J. Reynolds High School Performing and Visual Arts groups.

This is always a fun, well attended event. R.J. Reynolds has a long tradition of excellence in art and music education, and the Arts District is the ideal venue to showcase their talents.  The streets will be lined with artists, craftspeople, and other vendors, and many of the shops and galleries will be open. There will be a special kids' craft area too.

Bring your friends, your family, and your dog.  And don't leave home without your wallet, as this is the perfect opportunity to do some holiday shopping.  The weather forecast is most favorable, so plan for a fun afternoon. 

The past Sunday featured some outstanding musical performances.  Big Ron Hunter with Robby Carr started  the day off with some of Ron's classic blues tunes.  They were followed by some of the finest Dixieland Jazz this side of New Orleans, as performed by a traveling U.S. Air Force musical ensemble called the Heritage Ramblers.  A traditional bluegrass band finished off the afternoon. The Old Bunch of Keys Band featured 5-part vocal harmonies and kick-up-your-heels banjo picking that made some flatfooters very happy indeed.

ROCK THE BLOCK

Time to Party Downtown at Rock the Block Remix!

Winston-Salem's annual musical streetfest happens on Saturday, September 22nd, from 11am till 7pm, spanning downtown from Corpening Plaza to Winston Square Park, to the green spot on 4th Street (I think it's got a name, just hasn't found a permanent place in my brain to reside), to 6th Street between Trade and Cherry Streets.

We get to rock 'n' roll to the sounds emanating from the Rock, Country and Blues stage being sponsored by Ziggy's.  This artist is very, very happy that we didn't get the beach music stage dumped on us.....Sorry, apologies to those of you who like "beach music."  If you don't know what that is, don't worry your rock-and-roll heart too much.

"Beach music" owes its heritage to the old 60's R & B music of the Tams, the Drifters, and the like.  It owes its name to the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina, where it got tons and tons of airplay.  And back in the day when everybody's summer vacation included at least one trip to Myrtle Beach, it became the sound track to everybody's vacation. 

Mind you, the stuff that falls into the oldies-but-goodies R & B category is pleasant, nostalgic stuff.  But then somebody went and wrote songs about beach music......"I LUV beach music..." and "Myrtle Beach Days" come to mind here.
The thing is, they've all got the same rhythm, same sound, same dance steps.  The band starts up and it's like a whole bunch of wind-up toys start dancing all the same steps, a dance they call the shag.

How this set of dance steps got called the shag, I'll probably never know.  All I know is that once upon a time back in my younger, more foolish days, I knew these 2 guys from England and I took them to a party that had beach music, and a couple girls started talking about shagging in the sand and there was all kinds of back and forth talk about shagging in the sand along with secret behind-the-back chuckles and winks and grins between our two Englishmen....So what was so funny about dancing the shag?  Finally I decided our guys had had enough fun at the girls' expense, so I  told them: in England, "shagging" is a slang term for having sex.

ROCK the BLOCK REMIX

The City of Winston-Salem is shaking things up!! Rock the Block,  the annual end-of-summer street party, was for years held up and down several blocks of 4th Street.

But this year, they're rotating the footprint 90 degrees and placing music stages at 4 different locations, from Corpening Plaza to Winston Square to Civic Plaza to 6th Street in the Arts District. This will allow the major streets through town to remain open and vehicular traffic to move around more freely.  PLUS it takes advantage of several made-for-music-and-crowds outdoor venues.

We are especially pleased that the Arts District will be able to take part in the festival for the first time, as the Rock, Country and Blues stage will be located at 6th Street, between Cherry and Trade Streets. 


http://visitwinstonsalem.com/special-events/view/rock