Getting under the covers
“That’s just cheesy … but, come on!” Cusses vocalist Angel Bond shouts to the audience after the band finishes a spirited cover of the Go–Go’s song “We Got the Beat.” Bond is out of breath, but laughing; she has clearly enjoyed the experience. The people are screaming their heads off. Cusses’ take on “We Got…
A review: ‘The Wizard of Oz’ on Tybee
How do you calculate the success of a family-oriented community theater production, a show that exists solely to entertain? Is it fun? Does it create a world of its own, and hold you there once you buy into it? Is the audience distracted by the production values, the talent offered on display, or dated material?…
NOLA… and Hitler?
Enjoyed NOLA column Editor, Love your article about New Orleans “Who dat say New Orleans ain’t back?” I moved here from Mississippi in March of this year and miss being so close to NOLA. I also respect the plug about the Gulf Coast. We were completely overlooked and most of the country/world still doesn’t know.…
Star on the rise
Unless you’re a musical theater aficionado who’s spent a lot of time in Broadway theaters, you probably don’t know the name Tituss Burgess. That might very well change, and soon. Burgess is a singing actor who’s been in the original casts of the Broadway hits Jersey Boys (Hal Miller), The Little Mermaid (Sebastian the Crab)…
Somewhere over Lazaretto Creek
What happens in Tybee stays in Tybee. Or so it might have seemed in the past, with the island and Savannah theater communities operating more or less independently of one another. Yet the Tybee Arts Association’s production of The Wizard of Oz, opening July 22, is so big, so colorful and so ambitious, it’s quite…
Transcendental Swing, Becoming the Archetype
TRANSCENDENTAL SWING At 8 p.m. Thursday, July 21 Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Ave. Former Savannah resident Brendan Polk, a pianist who spent a few years as the local wunderkind before heading off to the music program at Florida State University, is the centerpiece of this hipster modern jazz trio (the others are bassist Robin…
Entirely too much gun violence
A man shot himself in the foot after an altercation with a woman in a restaurant parking lot. The woman told police that the argument began when the suspect banged his car door into her vehicle. Things became heated and the suspect threatened her. She backed up to get his tag number when he fired…
A political experiment
The municipal elections might still be four months away, but the campaign season is getting into full swing. Gardens of colorful candidate signs have bloomed at various intersections, while the candidates themselves zig zag from neighborhood meetings to meet and greets. Last week, several mayoral candidates attended a meet and greet event at a rather…
Better health through herbs & prevention
Dietary supplements might be a multi–billion dollar industry, and ginseng has become a household name in Chinese remedies, but the use of plants and herbs is still a long way from common place in the United States. Roy Upton would like to change that. For more than three decades Upton has studied herbalism around the…
Newsbriefs
Getting crowded? VisitSavannah, the marketing arm of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, released a new study on local tourism last week that shows Savannah’s tourism industry is thriving. Eleven million people visited Savannah in 2010 according to the study, part of which was carried out by Longwoods International, a firm that does market research for…
Smoke signals from Pooler
One of my foodie field operatives tipped me off to a new BBQ joint in Pooler that he claimed was worth the drive. I didn’t have to twist his arm too hard to tag along as we steered the foodie wagon west one recent Saturday. Dickey’s Barbecue Pit is a Texas–based franchise. Now, I’m not…
Aussie renaissance
The Australians whetted American’s palate for Shiraz decades ago with a line up of inexpensive wines. The wines bore novelty labels, giving wine drinkers an often fun, insider’s perspective of the wine maker’s sense of humor. As the Down Under wine industry burgeoned, the wines became whipping posts. Huge production and cookie cutter tastes soured…
Mark Your Calendar: Drive-By Truckers
A perennial southeastern favorite, Drive-By Truckers are coming back to Savannah to play a Trustees Theater show Sept. 8. Tickets are on sale now for $25, and they’re general admission, which means getting a good seat is entirely up to you when the doors open. Get them at scadboxoffice.com, or at (912) 525-5050, or at…
The next Savannah fault line
FAULT LINES ARE SPREADING through Savannah. The biggest crack in the earth became visible at the now-infamous townhall meeting in February, orchestrated by the mayor to give voice to public opinion about the city manager search. In a local version of the racially-polarized O.J. Simpson verdict, at that meeting a stark verbal picture was painted…
