Fight rampant development on the coast
Qualified to qualify? Editor, One candidate for city councils residency is in question, which threatens to remove him from what some could characterize as a tightly contested race. According to the City of Savannah’s website, one of the qualifying requirements is to be a resident for a specified period of time. Also required is the…
Savannah Film Festival schedule
Here’s the provisional (subject to change) schedule for the major films and events at the 2011 Savannah Film Festival. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 3 at the Trustees Theater box office and online at filmfest.scad.edu. The entire schedule (including panel discussions and films entered in competition) will be posted on that…
Moneyball, 50/50, Abduction, Killer Elite, Higher Ground
50/50 **1/2 The new comedy-drama 50/50 centers around a cancerous presence, and that refers to Seth Rogen as much as it does to the malignant tumor found located on the spine of young Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Carve Rogen out of the picture, and its chances of being a truly moving picture about people coping in…
This Saturday: Bands to support sustainability and more
Cusses, the Train Wrecks and Word of Mouth will perform Saturday evening at Star Laundry, in a benefit show for the Humane Society for Greater Savannah and the sustainability non-profit Emergent Structures. Re:Fest is a day-long event from Sustain Savannah, starting at 2 with live and silent auctions (of dog houses and cat structures built…
Let the grudge matches begin
IT SEEMS THAT the number of candidates for elected office rises in direct proportion to the number of dire challenges a community faces. I guess in order to function properly, democracy needs a few thrill-seekers every now and then. During this troubled time in Savannah history – with the economy shaky and racial tensions at…
Mark Your Calendar: Let’s go to the movies
Sure, it’ll be kind of cool to ogle Oliver Stone, Lily Tomlin, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin and Famke Janssen when they hit town for “awards” at the Savannah Film Festival Oct. 29–Nov. 5. Who doesn’t like a good celeb–sighting? However, this event – always one of the most highly anticipated on Savannah’s cultural calendar –…
The game faces are on
Savannah’s mayoral candidates covered much political ground at a forum at the Visitor’s Center Sept. 20, revealing some of the positions they’ll stake out in order to differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowded field. Five of the six registered candidates sat onstage at the event co–sponsored by the Downtown Neighborhood Association and Historic…
Taking care of the caregivers
AS THIS CITY’S self–appointed anti–social columnist, there appears to be no good reason I should be out drinking Vinho Verde with the Belle of Savannah on a school night. But Jamie Marie Smith ain’t your typical socialite. (And though I cannot boast of any real oenopoetic knowledge, I will venture to opine that Portuguese Vinho…
Feedback: Death penalty is abhorrent
Editor, It is with the utmost sadness that I have just heard that the State of Georgia has put to death Troy Davis. I find it utterly incredible that the United States stands along with China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen and Libya (under its former dictator) in retaining the abhorrent death…
Get to work! (On your bike)
WE’VE JUST SUFFERED through the hottest summer on record in Savannah and one in which the most oppressive month, July, started sometime around the end of April. The onset of cooler weather presents an excellent opportunity to try bicycle commuting. If your situation permits it, you can take advantage of the significant economic, health and…
Brats, brewskis and bluegrass
THIS WEEKEND River Street will take a turn for the wurst. A bratwurst tasting is part of the fun at the annual Oktoberfest celebration, Friday through Sunday, Sept. 30–Oct. 2. It’s one of those indisputable heralds of the coming of autumn. So you got your oompah band (the Rhinelanders), your brats ‘n’ beer, your lederhosen…
Social butterfly
WITH TOURISTS moving back to their homes, it’s the time of year when I rediscover Tybee Island — and revisit some past haunts with a refreshed palate. I was happy to meet up with old friend Chef Espy Geissler, former Hunter House kitchen magician, for a pleasant lunch at Tybee Island Social Club. This early…
Band on the rise
If there’s any karmic justice in the music business, Milagres will be one of the biggest bands of 2012. Sonically, this Brooklyn–based quintet recalls what’s so great about Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire and even Coldplay – sublime post–pop songs given dreamy melodies and incredibly atmospheric arrangements. Lyrics that hint at melancholy and splash vividly in…
‘Moving fast into the future’
After six months of searching, the Telfair Museums have found a new director. Lisa Grove, currently deputy director of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, begins Jan. 1. She replaces former Telfair director Steven High, who departed in May for the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Fla. We spoke to Grove last week. “I had never…
Voltaire, The Shaniqua Brown
VOLTAIRE With Hellblinki Sextet, This Way to the Egress At 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30 Yong’s Country Club, 5115 Ogeechee Road. $10 advance, $12 door Aurelio Voltaire Hernandez teaches stop-motion animation at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He’s also an accomplished animator whose twisted short works have been used extensively by…
Fast and furious
Three juveniles are being questioned about a burglary after the pickup truck one was driving crashed into two cars and another truck, injuring all three other drivers one afternoon last week. Island officers were observing the bluish green Dodge pickup when the 16–year–old driver noticed two marked police cars in the area and sped away. The truck…
Rockin’ at Forsyth
“I LIVE ON TYBEE now,” Eddie Wilson says, “and my Tybee community knows that they’re going to have to take me out of there in a box.” It only took a few years to turn Wilson, a native of the Great American Midwest, into a do–or–die Southerner. A professional musician and composer who’s written for…
The end of the road (for a while)
After 25 years in the top tier, Widespread Panic is about to disappear for a while. For bassist Dave Schools, who co–founded the hard–playing Panic in Athens, then watched the band enter (and remain firmly ensconced in) the upper echelon of road–warrior jam bands, 2012 can’t come soon enough. The group’s intention is to remain…
Southern accent
Unlike many of his southern contemporaries, Alabama–born comedian Vic Henley didn’t make his reputation by talking in character about rednecks, trailer trash, NASCAR or mud bogging. That’s not to say Henley, who performs this week in a Lucas Theatre benefit for the cancer charity Mom’s Lemonade Fund, doesn’t go below the Mason–Dixon belt in his…
