charles would be proud

Cherished Galveston Dickens holiday festival toasts 50 years with genteel nod from UK Parliament

Dickens on The Strand received a notable mention from across the pond in honor of 50 years.

Photo courtesy of Galveston Island Convention & Visitors Bureau

As generations of locals and travelers are aware, Galveston’s Dickens on The Strand Festival immerses visitors in the environs of the iconic author’s world of larger-than-life characters of 1830’s to 1840s England.

This year, the beloved cultural festival marks a major milestone this year as it celebrates its golden anniversary. Expect a host of special events and activations on Galveston’s popular Strand from December 1-3. Important details, a full schedule of events, and tick information can be found on the official site.

In a genteel nod to the cherished event’s 50th anniversary and its British origins, the Dickens on The Strand Festival — and its parent organization the Galveston Historical Foundation — just received a special and official recognition in the United Kingdom’s Parliament.

Specifically, this recognition came in the form of a Parliamentary motion tabled by Tracey Crouch MP. Notably, Crouch’s constituency includes the town of Chatham, Kent, where Charles Dickens lived for a number of years, according to press materials.

Dickens on The Strand Galveston Costumes make for serious people watching. Dickens on the Strand/Facebook

Crouch’s full motion can be found here. She declared, in part:

“That this House congratulates the Galveston Historical Foundation in Texas on the 50th anniversary of the annual Dickens on The Strand celebration from 1-3 December 2023; welcomes the expected 50,000 visitors to the festival which celebrates the life and work of Charles Dickens who spent many years of his life in Kent, most notably in Chatham; notes that the Tall Ship ELISSA – the official Tall Ship of Texas – which will host the ‘Salute to Sunset’ during the festival was built in the United Kingdom; celebrates the historical ties between the United Kingdom and the city of Galveston which was home to the first British Consulate in the State of Texas in 1846; and welcomes the role of the British Consulate-General in Houston as the presenting sponsor for this year’s historic event.”

Praise and acknowledgement went not only to the Galveston Historical Foundation for its deft running of the festival for 50 years, but also to some key Gulf Coast/UK ties. Galveston was home to the first British Consulate in the State of Texas in 1846. Meanwhile, the famed and historic Tall Ship ELISSA – the official tall ship of Texas – was built in the UK, and that Galveston was home to the first British Consulate in the State of Texas in 1846.

“Galveston Historical Foundation is honored to be recognized for this achievement in support of Galveston and the revitalization and restoration of our historic commercial area and the 1877 ELISSA,” said Dwayne Jones, executive director of Galveston Historical Foundation, in a statement. “We have hosted descendants of Charles Dickens each year since 1987, with the first descendant participating in 1976. We consider our relationship with the Consul General and his staff as a treasured friendship that recalls the important British story in Galveston from the 19th century.”

The fun runs December 1-3 in Galveston this year. Dickens on the Strand Facebook

Local cultural attaché the British Consulate in Houston, itself responsible for myriad Brit-themed activities across town, also paid tribute to Dickens on The Strand.

“I’m delighted that the work of the Galveston Historical Foundation and this festival has received this level of recognition in the UK Parliament. Dickens on The Strand is a unique celebration and one of the most colourful I have been to anywhere in the world. The British Consulate in Houston is delighted to be a part of proceedings, and I hope as many Texans as possible will take the chance to put on some Victorian clothes and celebrate with us in Galveston this December.”

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Galveston’s The Dickens on The Strand Festival runs Friday, December 1 through Sunday, December 3 on Galveston’s Strand. For tickets and a full schedule of events, visit the official event site.

Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess