WEDNESDAY, Dec. 31 High Point Sesquicentennial
High Point Country Club; 800 Country Club Drive, High Point; 336.885.1859; www.highpointmuseum.org; 8 p.m.; $150 It’s New Year’s Eve around the world, with parties at all self-respecting bars and many homes and apartments, but only in High Point can you celebrate a sesquicentennial. That’s 150 years of furniture, farming, Coltrane and Quakers. The high-ticket fundraiser for the High Point Museum kicks off a series of festivities leading up to the city’s anniversary on May 26. One hundred and fifty dollars (get it?) covers food, champagne and entertainment.
THURSDAY, Jan. 1 Last day of Kwanzaa
Sweet Potatoes Restaurant; 529 Trade St., Winston- Salem; 336.793.7462; www.triadculturalarts.org; program at 1 p.m., dinner 2-5 p.m.; fee for food Squeezed between Christmas and New Year’s Day, the six-day festival of Kwanzaa fills out a packed winter calendar. At Sweet Potatoes, holiday completists may celebrate Kwanzaa’s day of Imani, or faith, and follow it with a traditional New Year’s meal, and even an early inauguration party, as Triad Cultural Arts, Inc. honors the Obama Faith Committee. Black-eyed peas, pork neck bones and sweet-potato pie are a fine reason to bust your New Year’s diet resolution.
FRIDAY, Jan. 2 Jack Williams
Blessings; 823 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem; 336.724.9393; www.823Reynolda.org; 8 p.m.; $10 If you’ve never been to 823 Reynolda, check out photos of the indoor fairy garden online. It’s one of several old industrial buildings in Winston being converted to ecclectic and beautiful social spaces. Or better yet, go see Jack Williams. The folk legend leads off Fiddle & Bow’s 2009 program, which includes folk music and dance shows on first and third Fridays — most of them at 823 Reynolda. Williams was called “the best guitar player I’ve ever heard” by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary
SATURDAY, Jan. 3 Record and CD Collector’s Show
Guilford Convention Center; E. Lee St., Greensboro; 478.737.0688; www.showlogic.net; 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; FREE In the iTunes age, when music collecting is usually limited to downloading missing album art, one jumps at a collector’s show. The traveling Show Logic Productions features a variety of vendors selling (and buying and trading) new and used records, CDs, imports, books and all sorts of memorabilia. For a cost of $10, aficionados may show up before 10 a.m. for first pick at the goods.
SUNDAY, Jan. 4 Closing Exhibitions
SECCA; 750 Marguerite Drive, Winston-Salem; 336.725.1904; www.secca.org; 10 a.m.-5 a.m.; FREE Today is the last day of three exhibitions at SECCA and of the gallery itself, as the museum closes until early 2010 for structural renovations. The exhibitions include the psychedelic visions of Carlos Amorales in a video called “Manimal,” the avant garde quilt work of Nancy Crow and the enigmatic still-life photographs of Erwin Olaff. You’ll also enjoy the Marguerite Drive building, which is a modernist marvel itself, with its irregular and soon-to-berebuilt 46,400 square foot roof.
MONDAY, Jan. 5 Science Night
Hemphill Branch Library; 2301 West Vandalia Road, Greensboro; 336.373.2925; 6:30 p.m.; FREE The mysteries of science can intrigue and dazzle students of all ages, which makes Science Night a great family event.
After
all, toddlers and PhDs are all amazed by magnesium flares, baking-soda
volcanoes and other explosions. Tonight’s assembly is hosted by
Northwest Guilford Middle School teacher Jeff Frates.
TUESDAY, Jan. 6 Philidor Percussion Group
Watson Chamber Music Hall; UNC School of the Arts, Winston-Salem; 336.770.3399; www.ncarts.edu; 7:30 p.m.; $12 Philidor Percussion Group has the chops to pull off a 90-minute drum solo, or actually drum trio. The school’s resident group, which includes music instructors from the School of the Arts and Duke University, varies the percussive barrage by using ethnic beats, world instruments and everything from funk to mambo. Philidor will also perform new works by School of the Arts and UNCG students. Go to the show and imagine playing those drums on Rock Band 2.
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 7 YES! Weekly social
