Laughter and Tears: Remembering Lee Eshleman

Jim Bishop

Bishop’s Mantle column by Jim Bishop “My heart is achin’, for you, Mr. Lee, My heart is achin’, for you, Mr. Lee, He’s the handsomest sweetie That you’ll ever see … ” Often, upon encountering Lee Eshleman, I would bop up to him singing lines from the Bobbettes’ 1957 musical ditty, “Mr. Lee.” For a…

Easter movies vs. Passover films: Six of one, half-dozen of the other

Carl Larsen

Carly at the Movies column by Carl Larsen A couple of important religious holidays are popping up next week, so naturally the Hollywood floodgates will open and your TV will be inundated with spiritual films galore. Dozens of films have been made about the Jews’ exodus from Egypt, and just as many about the crucifixion…

Don’t judge a Brooks by his cover

Jim Bishop

Bishop’s Mantle column by Jim Bishop “My love is higher than a mission bell, Deeper than a wishing well, Stronger than a magic spell My love, for you . . .” – Donnie Brooks Don McLean’s 1971 anthem, “American Pie,” refers to Feb. 3, 1959 as “The Day the Music Died,” when young pop artists…

Notes on ‘Notes on a Scandal’

Carl Larsen

Carly at the Movies column by Carl Larsen Back in the olden days, they just didn’t make teachers that looked like Cate Blanchett. For instance, my own third-grade teacher, Mrs. Odel, cruised up and down the aisles like a great grey battleship wrapped in a blue-and-white polka dot dress. Bad kids got whacked with a…

Color me purple

Chris Graham

Stop the Presses column by Chris Graham I was feeling a little red-state the other day. How I could tell: I found myself watching NASCAR. “Come on, Elliot. Don’t let him jostle you like that?” I was screaming at the TV. For no apparent reason. And then it hit me.

A beginner again

Chris Graham

Golf Things Considered column by John Rogers [email protected]   I recently started fooling around with a keyboard. I say “fooling around” because it would not be fair to say that I’m playing music, or anything that even vaguely recalls music, except when I deftly push the demo button and crank out selections from “Ave Maria”…

A Halloween to remember

Crystal Graham

By Crystal Graham [email protected] (This is the second installment in a six-part series on The Valley Responds, an effort that links the Shenandoah Valley with residents of Long Beach, Miss.) In Long Beach, Miss., children celebrated Halloween just like most children here in Virginia. At school, the children were outside getting their faces painted –…

Looking back at Hurricane Isabel

Chris Graham

Compiled by Chris Graham  Tim Spears was surveying the damage wrought by the South River on his downtown-Waynesboro music store Friday afternoon. “It could’ve been a lot worse,” said Spears, owner of Tim Spears’ Music City – which is located just a city block away from the South River. Spears estimated the damage to his…