Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990 TAG: 9004061132
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Donna Alvis
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
No, it isn't the fear of being crushed by an avalanche of frozen TV dinners while raiding the fridge at midnight.
His greatest fear is finding himself dressed up in a monkey suit, standing alone under a spotlight in front of an audience full of single women at a bachelor auction . . . and hearing only the sound of silence.
But don't worry, guys. That's not likely to happen at the "Bid for Bachelors" fund-raiser put on by the Radford-Montgomery County unit of the American Cancer Society tonight at the Blacksburg Holiday Inn. Expect a hullabaloo when single women from around the New River Valley start revving up for a chance at a dream date with one of the 25 bachelors participating in this year's event.
Who wouldn't get excited about the dates these romantic fellows have planned? Fancy this: a dinner cruise at Smith Mountain Lake, a champagne picnic brunch at the Cascades, horseback riding in the country, a moonlit flight over the New River Valley, a weekend excursion of the lady's choice.
It's enough to make you swoon.
Narlene Dulaney, coordinator for this third annual bachelor auction, said she expects there will be a whole lot of swooning going on at tonight's event. "The guys really have gone all out for this one," she said.
Tickets will be sold at the door for $10. Advance discount tickets, available at La Vogue in the New River Valley Mall, Special Effects in Christiansburg and the Blacksburg Holiday Inn, are $7. Proceeds go to the American Cancer Society, of course.
If you plan on attending, don't forget your piggy bank and start your primping early.
The social hour starts at 6:30 p.m. and the bidding will begin at 7:30.
\ THE DOC IS IN: That's right - Doc Watson is in town and his guitar flat-picking and mountain blues singing is good medicine for what ails you.
Watson, a blind guitarist, is to bluegrass music what Stevie Wonder is to soul. His amazing fusion of lead and rhythm functions in a single guitar have earned him a distinguished reputation as an instrumentalist among old-time mountain music fans.
He also plays everything from five-string banjo to French harp and has the kind of stage manner that makes you feel like you're listening to a good buddy.
He doesn't make house calls, though.
Watson will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday in Radford University's Preston Auditorium. Tickets are free for Radford University students and $7 for the public.
\ NOTICE! " Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot."
That was the introduction Samuel Langhorne Clemens wrote for his masterpiece, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
Obviously, you can't trust an author who uses a pseudonym.
Composer Roger Miller (of "King of the Road," "Little Green Apples" and "Dang Me" fame) paid no nevermind to the notice when he wrote the score for "Big River," the musical adaptation of Mark Twain's classic book.
"If we woke Mark Twain up now," Miller said, "I hope I would have his blessing. I wanted to capture what Twain was feeling when he wrote the story. I'm not a Mark Twain scholar, but I think he was looking at the world with a jaundiced eye. Sort of with a wry in his eye when commenting on the human race."
Miller, who said he "wrote from every corner of my heart in this show," captured Twain's often funny and sometimes weighty spirit in songs such as "Guv'ment," "Hand for the Hog" and "River in the Rain." The anguish of Jim, the runaway slave, comes through in songs such as "Free at Last" and "Leavin's Not the Only Way to Go."
"Big River" was a Broadway hit in 1985. It's still a merry, toe-tapping musical that rolls along like the Mississippi River. It's a play that makes you feel good.
The Virginia Tech Union Lively Arts Broadway Series presentation of "Big River" will be at 8 p.m. Monday in Burruss Auditorium. Tickets are $15 for the public, $12 for Virginia Tech faculty and staff and $4 for Tech students. For ticket information, call the box office at 231-5615.
by CNB