LISA DENTON: Stand back, Barry. I'm about to start my vocal exercises for the "Messiah" Sing-Along coming up Sunday at First Seventh-day Adventist Church.
BARRY COURTER: Wait, I know the lyrics to this one. It's one of the few where I can say that. At least the big moment. It's one of my favorites. So beautiful. And powerful.
LISA: Powerful, yes. That's my favorite part. They offer it every year as a community service. It's possible I should not take part for the same reason.
BARRY: Good point. We do a lot of good community service by not participating in things, don't we? I don't mean to jump on your wagon here, but
LISA: There's also a Dance Santa Dance party Saturday night at The Signal. I thought maybe they had a bunch of musical animatronic dolls like you can find at Big Lots - you know, Santa playing sax or Santa swiveling his hips and crooning an Elvis song. But it's DJ Zerowe, DJ Chi and electronic music duo Warsaw at the tables.
BARRY: Interesting you go there with that name. I imagined guys throwing firecrackers at poor ol' Saint Nick's big black boots. Might be a guy thing.
LISA: Well, that's one way to get Santa to dance, but I don't recommend it if you want any presents for Christmas.
BARRY: See, this might be part of my problem. Not thinking things through.
LISA: Speaking of gifts, there's a new play at Oak Street Playhouse that sounds interesting - "The ReGifters," a comedy about a gift that keeps circulating. Like fruitcake does, I guess.
BARRY: Remember the year I regifted a dictionary to you? What did the note say?
LISA: "Words can't define how I feel, so look it up." Yeah, I remember. Classic Barry.
Among the other productions around town are "A Charlie Brown Christmas" at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, "A Christmas Carol: The Musical" at Chattanooga State and "An Irish Courage Christmas" at Back Alley Productions.
That's a lot of Christmas theatrics, though none can compare to me opening my presents. Santa always gets it right.
BARRY: There are some non-holiday-related events this week. Songbirds is fairly quiet this week with Rayland Baxter on Friday and Parker Millsap and Slim Wednesday with JoJo Hermann of Widespread Panic there on Saturday. The Signal also has Yacht Rock Revue on Friday.
LISA: Yacht Rock Revue has played here several times. Cool band.
Get event details every Thursday in ChattanoogaNow or online anytime at www.ChattanoogaNow.com.
Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281. Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.