I’m just a country boy from Sandfly
The idea of a novel-writing taxi driver is something of a cliche, but in the case of Robert T. S. Mickles, it’s true. Mickles, who owns and operates Concierge Taxi Service, has authored the young adult novel Blood Kin: A Savannah Story. His first book, at one point it was the number-four best selling fiction…
Stashing the dope
THIS WEEK MARKS the debut — in this paper, anyway — of Cecil Adams’s seminal “Straight Dope.” Long a staple of alternative newsweeklies since its first appearance in the Chicago Reader, where it still runs, Straight Dope is Adams’s (a school of thought exists that his name is actually a pseudonym) offbeat journalistic take on…
Unlocking the secrets of a Southern canal
In archaeology, half a bowl is better than no bowl at all. Seven Armstrong Atlantic State University students participated in an archaeology class this past semester. They did excavation at a lock tender’s house at the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal, and Kelly Gore is credited with finding the most interesting artifact. “Kelly made the star find –…
Major park approved for southside
THE WILSHIRE neighborhood on Savannah’s Southside is getting what will be one of the city’s largest parks. Some aldermen at the April 24 Savannah City Council meeting questioned whether the park project should be given priority over other needed projects. But aldermen Tony Thomas and Clifton Jones, whose districts abut in the Wilshire neighborhood, said…
No way. Way.
Government in Action! A Maryland governmental fund created to assist “innocent” victims of violent crime has paid out nearly $1.8 million since 2003 to injured (or deceased) “drug dealers, violent offenders and other criminals,” according to an investigation by the Baltimore Sun published in March. Burial expenses were awarded for a carjacker, a victim of…
Spotlighted gigs and recommended shows
Jeff & vida This heartbreakingly sincere and immensely talented acoustic duo honed their own personal take on bluegrass, alt.country, old-time and Tin Pan Alley-style songwriting in the Big Easy before relocating to Nashvegas and finally starting to get noticed by major press outlets like the New York Times. Folks in the know around Savannah’s roots-music…
Interview: Last Waltz Ensemble
ON NOVEMBER 25, 1976, The Band —a legendary rock group made up of Canadian and American musicians who cut their teeth on the U.S. “chitlin’ circuit” before backing bluesman John Hammond, Jr. and collaborating with songwriting icon Bob Dylan during one of his most fertile creative streaks— decided to call it quits. Citing the stress…
Savannah Winds Ensemble on the river
THE IRONY IS not lost on me that a detailed breakdown of the Savannah Winds Ensemble takes my breath away. The community concert band (in residency at AASU), which is made up of diverse group of volunteers —including high school and college students, amateur players and former and current professional musicians— may not enjoy the…
New releases: Baby Mama, Harold & Kumar
Baby Mama With Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler and other comedians routinely hoarding the screens in our nation’s multiplexes, here come Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to remind audiences that, like their male counterparts, girls just want to have fun. Indeed, the Cyndi Lauper hit of that name is granted its own karaoke-set scene in Baby…
Everything else that’s out there
88 Minutes 88 Minutes actually runs 108 minutes, a cruel trick to play on moviegoers who check their watches at the 80-minute mark and erroneously believe they’re on the verge of being set free. A film so moldy that it was released on DVD in some foreign territories as far back as February 2007, this…
Strictly sexual
Police were called to an Abercorn Street apartment in reference to a disorderly person. A man and two women were outside the building arguing when police arrived. One of the women was taken into investigative custody, placed in a squad car and advised that she wasn’t under arrest, but was being detained until “things were…
New spirit at the New Georges’
WHEN IT COMES to reincarnation, I’ll put my faith in George Spriggs over Shirley MacLaine any day. Two months ago, Spriggs quietly opened The New Georges’ of Tybee, in the former site of a recently departed fine dining favorite—Georges’ of Tybee. Spriggs’ vision of New Georges’ is to capture a niche between his laid back,…
SAA Film Festival
AT 6 P.M. they arrive by limousines, dressed like movie stars. They walk the red carpet, pose for pictures, and autograph for their admirers. At precisely 7 p.m., they make their way into the auditorium to take their reserved seats and wait to hear their name announced on stage for a special award. No, this…
Theater: Masquers do Marmalade
Lucy must be quite a handful. At the age of four, she has a scary imaginary friend – one who snorts cocaine and is a workaholic who is addicted to porn. But it’s not really her fault, and the comedy Mr. Marmalade by Noah Haidle explains why. Lucy has been raised in front of a…
Theater: Whodunit?
Imagine putting on a mystery that has 216 possible endings. It’s a mystery to me why anyone would want to attempt it. But the folks at Savannah Community Theatre enjoy a challenge, so Clue: The Musical will open May 2. It’s based on the wildly popular board game that plays like an Agatha Christie mystery.…
Remapping Savannah
The word “mapping” crops up everywhere lately. It has become an over-used piece of art jargon, usually meaningless because its traditional meaning has been stretched beyond sense. But standing in front of these works it becomes clear that the “map”, with its diagrammatic form, has become the most appropriate tool of representation in contemporary art.…
Modern-day slavery
Savannah has all the ingredients needed to be a potential hotbed of modern-day slavery. Nola Theiss is the executive director of Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating human trafficking. “That’s not a metaphor, not poetry,” she said. “It is reality, it is slavery. And human trafficking is slavery. It exists…
Diary of the planet
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Hard Body
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AAYO performs spring concert
IN A CITY full of underpublicized, under-the-radar arts groups, perhaps the single largest is the Armstrong Atlantic Youth Orchestra (AAYO) Program, holding its spring concert this Tuesday night, April 29. The AAYO Program is actually an umbrella term for three ensembles: • Lyric Strings, which concentrate on beginning and elementary-level players; • The Atlantic Chamber…
