Archive for May 1st, 2009

FORT WORTH – Fort Worth Opera has been working together with Bass Performance Hall to monitor the risks associated with the H1N1 virus and has announced that the Fort Worth Opera Festival, which opened April 25, 2009 will continue as planned – with a few adjustments.

In an effort to ease concerns over the spread of the H1N1 virus (commonly called the “swine flu”) and to promote public health, Fort Worth Opera is taking the following steps for the remainder of the 2009 Festival Season, which will continue through May 10, 2009:

§         All employees, contractors, volunteers, and ushers will be provided with updated swine flu information per the Center for Disease Control, including tips to prevent the spread of the disease and symptoms.

§         All employees, contractors, volunteers, and ushers have been instructed to stay home if they experience symptoms of the H1N1 virus until they have been cleared by a medical professional to return to work.

§         Employees, contractors, volunteers and ushers working at Fort Worth Opera Festival performances at Bass Performance Hall will be provided hand sanitizer and instructed to use it frequently as well as provide it to customers upon request.

§         Fort Worth Opera is working with Bass Performance Hall, which already has stringent cleaning policies in place, to coordinate additional measures to provide a safe and entertaining environment for patrons attending the Fort Worth Opera Festival.

§         Cough drops will be provided at each performance free of charge.

Ticket holders usually do not attend opera when feeling sick, as the art form is not conducive to coughing or getting up and down due to illness.  However, as an additional precaution, Fort Worth Opera is reminding ticket holders to consult the Center for Disease Control or other reliable source for H1N1 symptom information and requesting that they not attend an opera if they are experiencing any symptoms, no matter how mild. The company has implemented alternative options for ticket buyers who are experiencing symptoms.

Darren K. Woods, General Director of Fort Worth Opera said, “An opera performance is not the same environment as a school, so we are not concerned at this time. As a precaution, we are taking steps to ensure that the environment is as sanitary and safe as possible.”

More information about Fort Worth Opera, the Festival, customer options, and the steps the company is taking to minimize the risk of H1N1 transmission can be found on the company’s website: www.fwopera.org or by calling 817.731.0726.

Schedule of remaining 2009 performances at Bass Performance Hall:

May 10             2 p.m.               Dead Man Walking

More information can be found on the website: www.fwopera.org.

In case you’re not already planning on going, I’d like to take a second to recommend the DFW Writer’s Workshop confererence. The workshop membership has been working for over a year to bring this inspirational and practical event to writers in Texas and southern Oklahoma.  New York agents and bestselling authors will be there to give inspirational talks, other writers will be sharing stories and support, and there’s even a luncheon and door prizes. If you want to know what going will be like, you can start by checking out all the breakout sessions being offered. The Grapevine Convention Center is an ideal venue for the event; large enough to give space for all the activities, and small enough so you don’t get lost.

The conference runs from tomorrow at 9 a.m. to Sunday at 5. 

I went last year and found it far more fun and … dare I say humane … than Editors and Agents in Austin. This is the conference where people really talk and get moving and get inspired.

If, on the other hand, you can’t get to the conference, you might attend the DFW Writer’s Workshop, which meets every Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Ruth Miliken Center in Euless near the airport. Information is at the DFW Writer’s Workshop website.

After the burglary of February 27, I was in shock. So much had been lost, not merely merchandize — we had to start locking things, taking security seriously, paying for an alarm company, and thinking that we were on the losing end of the equation — more than anything else, my ideal of myself as someone who others had no malice toward, as a person who was safe from crime because I wasn’t, somehow, a natural victim, was gone. I had to start admitting that yes,  I needed to listen to Dean and lock the doors.

As part of this process of re-self-assessment I had given up hope of ever getting anything back. I was waiting for a call back about a request or an appointment I had made when I picked up the phone this morning. So it was quite a surprise when caller ID read “City Fort Worth.” Was I in some kind of trouble?

Not at all. They had recovered Dean’s electric guitar at a pawn shop on East Lancaster. The officer told me the FWPD would send a letter with a court date and Dean would appear, tell the judge the guitar was his, show some documentation, such as a receipt, which being Dean he has even after 10 years, and they would give him a ticket to pick up his instrument.

We felt a brief surge of joy at the news. Not without remembering, of course, that it was the computer which was the biggest loss. But getting the Epiphone back is still very refreshing. It just goes to show you, even if you feel like you’re a victim that has been had, not all is lost.  Maybe, when he gets it back, he will play it for us. It’s been a while since I’ve heard that and I have to say that today, I would like to.