LISA DENTON: Barry, I’m thinking I might head out to the Trumpet Festival of the Southeast this weekend at UTC. I don’t play a trumpet, mind you, and I’m not sure how welcoming they’d be if I whipped out my kazoo.
But you know how the fluorescent lights here in the newsroom are triggered automatically by movement? When you’re the first one to work in the morning, you can literally light up the room when you walk in. How great is that? I’m thinking I could count on a trumpet fanfare when I enter the concert hall if I go to this festival. You know, like you’re used to.
BARRY COURTER: Wait, you mean those lights aren’t just for me? Dang. That would be pretty cool to walk into a room to trumpets blaring, as long as you were expecting it. It could necessitate a change of clothing if you were not.
Speaking of theme music – see what I did there? – the group with perhaps the most recognizable theme music ever returns to town on Wednesday. You can’t hear “Sweet Georgia Brown” without thinking of the Harlem Globetrotters, and you can’t think of them without instantly whistling that song. They’ll be at McKenzie Arena. I wonder if they’ll do the water bucket gag?
LISA: I’m betting they will. Why mess with a good thing? I know the gag is eons old because I remember watching old-timers like Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal do stunts like that on TV when I was a kid. I loved those guys. The current players do mix it up, though. They do a new dance routine called the Harlem Bounce, and fans can go online to www.harlemglobetrotters.com to vote on crazy rule changes, like having two basketballs in play at one time.