Inweekly February 19 2015

Independent News | February 19, 2015 | Volume 16 | Number 8 | inweekly.net

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winners & losers RETIREMENT IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER. AND IT’S REALLY HARD TO SEE AROUND CORNERS. Here’s the curious thing about change, we’ll evolve your plan along retirement. Given its enormous with them. So when it’s time to turn size, it has the surprising ability to the corner toward retirement, there sneak up on people. One aren’t too many surprises. minute, it’s 25 years down It’s time to find out what a the road. The next, you’ve Raymond James financial reached the corner of advisor can do for you.

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HAS BP DENIED

June 8, 2015 – Deadline YOUR BUSINESS HaveCLAIM You Filed Claim?

INYour THEBP OIL SPILL SETTLEMENT? Has BP filed an Appeal of the amount you have claimed in the Oil Spill Economic Loss Settlement?

Did you receive a Notice of a Deficiency when you filed your BP Oil Spill Claim?

Did you file your own claim but have not yet had any response?

Nearly every business in Northwest Florida is eligible to fi le a claim in the BP Settlement Program. Many businesses in our area have yet to fi le.

You may now need the a lawyer With the recentservices decision of theof United States Supreme Court, the

Kelley Bradford with Chris Hankinson

winners KELLEY BRADFORD The Escambia County

Jail employee was recognized by the Escambia County Sheriff ’s Office with the Civilian Gold Medal of Honor for saving the life of Detention Deputy Chris Hankinson during the April 30, 2014 natural gas explosion at the Central Booking and Detention Center. Hankinson, who was paralyzed as a result of the blast, was honored with the law enforcement Purple Heart at the awards ceremony.

IAFF LOCAL 707 The Pensacola City Council ratified a new three-year collective bargaining agreement with the International Association of Firefighters Local 707, the labor union representing City of Pensacola firefighters. Unlike the contracts with the general employees and police officers’ unions, the Fire Pension will remain open to current and future firefighters, a victory for the union that fought against closure for three years.

GEORGE GABEL The First Amendment Foundation awarded the attorney at the Holland & Knight law firm with its 2014 Pete Weitzel/Friend of the First Amendment Award. Gabel fought for the right of The Florida Times-Union and the public to be part of what had been secret mediation meetings regarding the city of Jacksonville’s pension plans. The Pete Weitzel/Friend of the First Amendment Award was created in 1995 to honor someone in Florida who has made a significant contribution to the cause of furthering open government.

losers FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE In 2013, the 1st

District Court of Appeal upheld a ruling that the department had shifted too large a share of its costs to the counties. Last year, lawmakers considered a bill to split costs 50-50 between the state and counties, but it failed when counties insisted on being reimbursed $140 million for past overcharges.

Since then, several counties have withheld any payments to the state, creating a $15.7 million budget shortfall for DJJ. Yikes.

NORTHWEST FLORIDA WORKFORCE

The University of West Florida Haas Center’s latest research suggests the Northwest Florida workforce trails its counterparts around the country in skills and education.

The Pensacola area’s Job Skills Index placed 11th among of 22 Florida metropolitan statistical areas. The Job Skills Index ranks metro areas by how well they attract and retain educated and other highly skilled workers.

The Pensacola area barely beat the average index score for metro areas in the state.

LIP The Low Income Pool (LIP), a joint state and federal program that gives $1 billion a year to hospitals and other providers that care for large numbers of low-income and uninsured patients, is set to expire June 30. Gov. Rick Scott included the funds in his budget, which helped him balance his proposal, but lawmakers aren’t so sure the federal government will extend LIP. Double Yikes.

settlement is fi to nalwork and the to fifor le acompensation claim is quickly approaching. on deadline your claim in the BP Oil Spill Settlement for the There are court-approved nancial in place that determine economic filosses offormulas your business. if you suffered losses due to the oil spill.

Look for a law firm that knows the andfi le has experience in the If you law do not a claim by theworking June 8, 2015 deadline, BP in gone the Gulf Economic your opportunity to Oil fi le Spill will be forever and all rights you have to Loss Settlement process. recover will be released through the settlement.

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PROOF O.K. BY: __________________________________________________

O.K. WITH CORRECTIONS BY:_________________________________________

outtakes

by Rick Outzen

RESTLESS NATIVES When a city government loses its connection to the pulse of its neighborhoods, miscommunication and problems ensue.

The discussions concerning Manna relocating into the neighborhood around the old Pickens school is a perfect example of what I mean.

Manna Food Pantries needs to relocate its main pantry outside of the flood-prone Long Hollow area. The Pickens property is less than a mile from the current Manna facility and allows the nonprofit to stay inside the city limits. It needs an exception to the land code in order to construct a building large enough to meet its needs. The residents are leery and have challenged the request.

The city of Pensacola appears to have learned little from its past issues with its neighborhoods. In late 2013, families in the Cordova Park protested a zoning change that would have allowed a Dollar Store to be built on the corner of Summit Boulevard and Spanish Trail. After an overflow crowd confronted city leaders at a town hall meeting, the request was withdrawn.

A few months later, residents in the North Hill area were upset that the city had permitted a remodel of the old bottling plant on North Palafox Street so the Department of Corrections could locate its parole and probation offices there. When families protested during a visit by Gov. Rick Scott, he canceled the move.

Each of these instances might have been avoidable had city officials engaged the residents in the decisions earlier. Any change in a neighborhood, especially one that involves variances and changes in use, is going to cause some anxiety. The mayor’s office and the city council need to understand this and work to facilitate healthy discussions.

People won’t always agree or reach consensus, but excluding residents from the discussion isn’t productive—nor is not letting them ask questions or voice opinions until the tail end of the process. Because the city didn’t know the Pickens neighborhood or understand that there might be some pushback, Manna has been put in the difficult position of having to defend themselves after they closed on the property.

Manna will be a good neighbor. The city should be talking to the residents assuring of that.

In its defense, the city has been without a full-time city administrator for six months.

The public has fewer opportunities to offer direct input. The city council has cut its meetings in half. Mayor Hayward discontinued his town hall meetings during last year’s election cycle.

It may be time to resurrect the public forums. The natives are getting restless, and they want to be heard and engaged. {in} rick@inweekly.net

People won’t always agree or reach consensus, but excluding residents from the discussion isn’t productive.

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DOWNTOWN 2.0 CHICKEN OR THE EGG

By T.S. Strickland A stroll down Palafox Place isn't what it used to be.

Walking north from the Plaza de Luna, one can't ignore the signs of progress. The newly christened SoGo District is rapidly expanding its footprint, with new shops and eateries popping up—it seems—on a monthly basis. Further north, at the intersection of Palafox and Garden, the story is much the same.

On a recent morning, customers flowed in and out of Pure Pilates—yoga mats and sneakers in tow —while next door, a smattering of rain-battered pedestrians nursed lattes at Fosko Coffee Bar. Bobby Switzer and Billy Lovelace sat among them, staring out through the rain at the Brent building.

The duo are among a group of investors hoping to restore the historic structure and adjacent Blount Building to something of its former glory. The mixed-use development, still in due diligence, is one of several that, if successful, could inaugurate a whole new era for downtown Pensacola—bringing a gush of new residents and commerce into the city's urban core.

Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated of these projects—and the closest to realization—is located just a few blocks southeast of Fosko, at the intersection of Jefferson and Romana streets.

There, local businessman and philanthropist Quint Studer and his wife, Rishy, have purchased an entire city block that formerly housed the Pensacola News Journal. The paper's old digs will soon be demolished to make way for a $50 million mixed-use development that will feature retail shops, office space and—crucially—251 units of apartment housing.

The Studers’ development alone could prove to be a game changer for downtown by dramatically increasing the stock of affordable housing, which now hovers somewhere near zero.

City leaders have long said more residential density—and affordable housing, in particular—is necessary if the city is to continue to grow. John Peacock, who chairs the Downtown Improvement Board, is among those voices.

"When you talk about community building, it's kind of the chicken or the egg thing," he told Inweekly. "We've gotten a little bit ahead of ourselves on the retail side. Palafox is booming.

New businesses are opening all the time, but we need more residents."

The Studers’ current plans call for apartments priced between $750 and $2,100 per month, with the majority priced less than $1,000. That range, though not within reach for everyone, would be well below anything available on the market today.

Peacock said he hoped the Studer development would prove a boon to existing downtown businesses and attract new entrepreneurs to open up shop in the city's center.

"When you get projects started, that creates other opportunities," he said. "When the PNJ building goes down, I think that's going to create a buzz like no other."

The Studers, though perhaps the most visible harbingers of progress, are not the only ones betting on downtown's future.

ANOTHER CATALYST

Back at Fosko, Switzer and Lovelace were less concerned with expanding downtown's footprint than they were with reinvigorating the city's urban core.

One Palafox, LLC, the group of investors to which both men belong, last year contracted with Durnford Enterprises, Ltd, to purchase the city block bounded by Garden, Palafox, Romana and Baylen streets.

The property—4.5 acres total—includes a parking lot on the west side of Baylen, as well as the historic Blount and Brent buildings and a total of 67 existing tenants.

The contract is currently in its due diligence phase, but Switzer said he and his partners hope to close on the deal by the end of April.

Assuming all goes as planned, the property would then be renovated in two phases.

The Blount Building, whose seven stories tower over traffic at the southwest corner of Garden and Palafox, is almost fully occupied already. Because of this, Switzer said the structure would have to be renovated piecemeal, as tenants' leases come up for renewal. That process could take between five to 10 years to complete, he said.

Changes will be much more swift in coming to the adjacent Brent Building—a three-story structure that is bookmarked on the north by New York Nicks and on the south

by Global Grill.

Switzer and Lovelace emphasized that their plans were still tentative. Aside from finalizing the sale with the current owners, they must also contend with historic preservation rules, the inevitable surprises that come with renovating an aging structure and the maze of existing tenants' leases and concerns.

All those caveats aside, the group hopes to convert the top two stories of the building—mostly unoccupied at present—into more apartments. Switzer said the few office tenants occupying the third floor would be relocated to vacant office space in the

Blount Building before renovations there got underway.

Once that is accomplished, they hope to begin demolition in the building by fall and could begin renting the apartments as early as summer of 2016. The approximately 1,000-square-foot units would be priced in the "mid-range," Switzer said, adding that they would be the "next step up" from the Studers’ project.

Not all the changes will take place above ground level. Switzer said he and his partners planned to renovate some of the ground-floor spaces, as well, as tenant leases came up for renewal.

Switzer and Lovelace said they hoped to install a tunnel, much like the one across the street, at the Palafox Wine Bar, near New York Nick's. The pass-through would open up on a courtyard, where they hope to have more retail shops and outdoor dining options in the future.

Lovelace said they hoped the changes would improve the "pedestrian flow" of the space and make it a "destination" for shoppers and diners.

Switzer and Lovelace said they hoped their plans would accelerate the city's transition from a place where people go mostly to be entertained on nights and weekends to a full-time city where people live, work and play.

"What I want is for this to be an 18-hour city," Switzer said. "I'm not saying we're going to be New York, but there's no reason we can't have some of the same amenities."

They want to spur additional investment in the city's urban core—just as the Studers' investments in the SoGo District had paved the way for other entrepreneurs to colonize that area.

"We hope that we are the catalyst for other people to infill around us," Switzer said.

"All these things come in spurts," Lovelace added. "They don't come nicely spaced out.

They come as the economy starts to build, as there is optimism in the air, and there certainly appears to be optimism." {in}

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SEEKING TO BE HEARD

By Rick Outzen In June 2014, Veronica Fountain read J. Lee Pickens School, a closed school across from home, was being sold to Manna Food Pantries, a local nonprofit that offers emergency food assistance to vulnerable populations. She was stunned the school district hadn’t contacted the residents in the neighborhood.

“Malcolm Thomas (the school superintendent) was saying that the sale of the property to Manna was going to the board on the 24th to be voted on,” she told Inweekly. “That was the first I had heard of it.”

Fountain called the district office. She said, “The young lady that answered the phone said that we had no say-so in it, they did not have to give us a public notice, and that it was a done deal.”

J. Lee Pickens School, which was built in 1938, had been closed for decades. The district had been trying to sell the building and its 4.23 acres for $699,000, but had no buyers.

Fountain and her neighbors had hoped the property would have been converted to a park or more residences.

“I moved in the neighborhood about 10 years ago,” she said. “We did have a little issues but since then the neighborhood has gotten super quiet.”

She proudly shared photographs of her home. “We care about our homes, these aren’t shacks,” Fountain said. “We have several kids in the neighborhood at all times. They have nowhere to play but the street.”

Fountain went on Facebook and found information about Manna. She had a pleasant meeting at the Pickens site with Manna’s executive director, DeDe Flounlacker. They talked about Manna, the due diligence period, but few specifics about what would be built.

The next communication she had about the site was a green postcard from the city. She said, “They were going to have a public meeting on Jan. 13 at City Hall at 3 o'clock concern-

February 19, 2015

ing exception for them going above the 4,000 square feet that's already in the area.”

She was concerned what a large warehouse would do to her neighborhood and its property values. She made plans to attend the City’s Planning Board meeting.

“To me, the warehouse would bring more traffic in the neighborhood,” she said.

“Whether traffic with 18-wheelers, traffic with vehicles, bicycles, walking, it's going to bring more traffic in the neighborhood.

I live directly behind this property. I don't want to walk out my door every day and see pallets and junk. I want to set on my porch just to enjoy the day.”

within our budget. From the flood proceeds we raised for future use, we were able to pay cash.”

The school board approved the sale in June. Manna closed on the transaction on Oct. 24.

The proposed building would have approximately 17,000 sq. ft. of warehouse to receive food donations and another 3,000 sq. ft. for offices with a meeting room to accommodate 50-60 people.

Flounlacker explained that Manna depends on food donations that are brought to the warehouse in cars and vans, not 18-wheelers.

“Manna is so grassroots. A four-year-old can buy a can of tomatoes off the shelf, put it in mom and dad's cart, and they bring it to us,” she said. “We also have churches that do food drives.”

“We all feel like Manna is needed.

We just don't think they're needed in the middle of a neighborhood.”

Veronica Fountain

ANSWER TO A PRAYER

For DeDe Flounlacker and Jay Bradshaw, the past Manna board president, the Pickens property was an answer to a prayer. The organization had been flooded out twice in two years.

The April 2014 flood was the worse, shutting down Manna’s operations at its Gonzalez Street headquarters for 12 weeks.

Flounlacker told Inweekly, “The flash flood destroyed our food inventory. It destroyed basically everything in our main facility, desks, food, everything except shelving and pictures on the wall. Our vehicles got flooded once again.”

Manna wanted to stay inside the Pensacola city limits. “We felt like we really did need to stay in the 32501 or 32502 zip code in the city as close as we could be to where we are now and on a bus line,” she said.

Bradshaw said the board looked at several sites including the old Coca-Cola bottling plant on Palafox, but the Superintendent Thomas offered to drop the purchase price for the Pickens property.

“The price, $225,000, for 4-and-a-half acres wasn't a bad deal,” Bradshaw said. “It was

DISASTROUS MEETINGS

Manna and its new neighbors attended the Jan. 13 meeting of the Planning Board.

The exception to the 4,000 sq. ft. commercial building was granted unanimously, but few in the audience, including Bradshaw and Flounlacker, were pleased with how the residents were treated.

Fountain believed the board, which has no African-American members, had already made up its mind. She said that one board member, Scott Sallis, was especially upsetting.

“Our take on it was that the tone was set before anybody really spoke,” Bradshaw said.

“Scott is a friend of mine, but his comments were not right. I agree with a lot of what he said, but I don't agree with the way he said it.”

Sallis did, later in the meeting, try to clarify his statements several times, but the crowd wasn't pacified. (The audio from the meeting and a transcript are available on inweekly.net.)

Bradshaw said, “Most of the statements were misunderstandings about how Manna operates, but the neighbors were also upset with the zoning laws and had issues with city services.”

When the meeting was over, Bradshaw contacted Councilman Brian Spencer and Mayor Ashton Hayward. Spencer said he would set up a meeting with the mayor, Manna and the neighbors. Fountain gathered neighbors to attend. Right before the meeting, Spencer pulled out under the advice of the council’s attorney since the matter still had to go before the council. The mayor and his staff also withdrew.

Bradshaw said staff told him that they would sign in people, but they weren’t there to speak or answer any questions. Manna was to run the meeting.

“We tried to address their concerns up front,” he said. “We’re doing appointments at main pantry, so we no longer have those long lines. We explained there aren’t 18-wheelers delivering food. I tried to explain a little bit about who our clientele was, that we’re not a soup kitchen.”

Still the meeting didn’t go well. He said, “They couldn't get answers to any of the questions they were asking that were nonManna related. The questions they were asking about Manna, they didn't want to listen to the answers.”

The final approval of zoning exception will probably come before the Pensacola City Council in March. Flounlacker hopes it will be approved.

“We want to build something that people can feel good about volunteering, good about donating to, and, frankly, pleasant to come to,” she said. “We're vested in making sure that the place looks good.”

Fountain has her reservations. “My concern is about what they're going to bring into our neighborhood,” she said.

“We all feel like Manna is needed. We just don't think they're needed in the middle of a neighborhood.” {in}

7

BAD NEWS: WORKFORCE LAGS Does

Pensacola have a workforce that will attract new businesses? Not yet, according to recent research by the University of West Florida Haas Center.

Our area’s Job Skills Index wasn’t much better than the state average and was below the national metro area averages. The Job Skills Index ranks metro areas by how well they attract and retain educated and other highly skilled workers.

Tallahassee was ranked at the top of 22 Florida metropolitan statistical areas. The Pensacola MSA, which includes Santa Rosa County, placed 11th and below the national index score.

“This is one thing that can affect migration of skilled workers to a region,” said Soheil Nadimi, the Haas Center economist who conducted the analysis. “In areas that rank highly on the skills index, educated workers would be part of a cluster of skilled workers where it is more likely that they could develop professionally.”

UWF economist Rick Harper, who oversees the University’s Office of Economic Development and Engagement, said the culprit could the tourist and retiree markets that tend to have lower-thanaverage wages.

“That doesn’t create the labor force that will draw high-tech, high-wage businesses to the state,” said Harper. “We have a pressing need to build skill sets that will earn enough to support families.”

GOOD NEWS: WE HAVE A PLAN The

day before the Haas Center report was released, the Greater Pensacola Chamber and Community Economic Development Association announced its Greater Pensacola Career Pathways initiative.

Pensacola State College, University of West Florida and the Escambia and Santa Rosa public school districts signed at the announcement a Memorandum of Understanding to memorialize their commitment to the new collaborative initiative designed

to educate students, parents, teachers and administrators about the number of viable career opportunities and corresponding training located within our community.

John Hutchinson, board chairman of CEDA, said it was important that our region have a diverse, educated workforce because it is a key factor in attracting new businesses here.

Jerry Maygarden, the Chamber Foundation said the biggest questions prospects ask are “What’s the talent like? What are your people like?”

The Greater Pensacola Career Pathways campaign outlines specific job opportunities, average wages and training programs within primary and support industries, including:

agreement with the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) Local 707, which represents the city’s firefighters.

The vote ended a costly three years of negotiations, but it fulfills a 2010 campaign promise made by Mayor Ashton Hayward to “get the city’s pension costs under control.”

Unlike the contracts with the general employees and police officers’ unions, the firefighter’s pension will remain open to current and future firefighters. However several changes were made to plan, which the city estimates will reduce the unfunded liability of the pension plan by approximately $4.8 million.

According to the City’s 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the city had 275 employees and retirees in its fire pension plan as of Sept. 30, 2014. The plan had an unfunded liability of $6.4 million, while the unfunded liabilities for the pension plans for general employees and police were $33 million and $34.7 million respectively.

“We have a pressing need to build skill sets that will earn enough to support families.” Rick Harper

· advanced manufacturing, · information technology and cyber security, · aviation and aerospace, · construction, · business, professional and financial services, · healthcare, · energy, and · hospitality The campaign – which is the first of its kind to be implemented in the Greater Pensacola Region – will be used in middle and high schools, technical centers, community colleges, the local University and regional workforce boards to focus on creating a highly competitive and educated workforce. Components of the campaign include industry flyers, a bi-annual newsletter and website – GreaterPensacolaChamberCareerPathways.com.

KEEPING THE FIRE BURNING The Pensacola City Council ratified on Feb. 12 a new three-year collective bargaining

CABINET AIDES IN THE SUNSHINE

The News Service of Florida reports The Florida Channel will broadcast live the meetings of Cabinet aides, as part of continuing reaction to a controversy that erupted last month over the ouster of longtime Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey.

Aides to Gov. Rick Scott and the three Cabinet officers typically meet in advance of Cabinet meetings to discuss upcoming issues. State Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater has asked the government-funded service to broadcast those meetings.

Atwater spokeswoman Ashley Carr, an Inweekly Rising Star in 2010, said in an email that The Florida Channel has committed to live stream the meetings and archive the video.

It’s not about the building, it’s about

The Bailey ouster, engineered by the Scott administration, has led to questions about whether aides discussed the issue behind the scenes. Media organizations and open-government advocates have filed a lawsuit against Scott and the Cabinet that alleges the handling of Bailey's forced resignation violated the state's Sunshine Law. Florida law requires Scott and the Cabinet members—Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam—to agree on hiring and firing the leader of the FDLE. Putnam and Atwater have said they were advised in December by Scott's staff that the governor was interested in making a change at FDLE, but expected the change to come up at a January meeting.

PREPARING FOR POLITICS Another Inweekly Rising Star, Dr. Jenna Emery, assistant professor of government at the University of West Florida, will facilitate an interactive leadership workshop for women, “From Booster Club to County Commission: How Successful Candidates Prepare for Politics,” sponsored by the Institute for Women in Politics of Northwest Florida.

The event will take place 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, 40 South Alcaniz Street.

“While the primary focus of the workshop is politics, it’s not just about running for office,” Dr. Emery said. “What we hope the women who attend will take away from this workshop is that making connections and building relationships will also aid them in strengthening a non-profit organization they work with or in promoting a cause.”

The free workshop is open to all women in the region. Advance registration is required as space is limited to 30 participants. To register, go to iwpflorida. org and click on “Workshops.” For more information, email the Institute at contact@ iwpflorida.org. {in}

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February 19, 2015

9

“No More! No Mas!” That is what a diverse and multiracial crowd chanted at the Dec. 7 protest to express their feelings about the recent deaths of black youths killed by police. The gathering took place around the bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. at the plaza that bears his name and drew a diverse section of Pensacola society.

Connected with the nationwide Black Lives Matter Movement, the local movement shares numerous qualities with the national movement—broad goals and a passionate desire to change the conversation surrounding police violence into larger social discussion. Originally organized in solidarity with the anti-police brutality demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri, the local Pensacola movement insists this movement is as local as it is national.

The name of the local movement, “From Pensacola with Love” (“From Pensacola” for short) reflects that connection, as well as the passion, within this group of young activists.

The Origins of a Movement

From Pensacola with Love held its first event hours after the now-infamous grand jury ruling that vindicated Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown after weeks of intense protests.

“The night of the non-indictment of Darren Wilson, I put out on social media a quick post: Hey, Pensacola. We should come together,” Keyontay Humphries said.

Humphries is one of the main organizers for the local movement, but she is reluctant to call herself a leader in the movement or claim to speak for the movement. This move away from public figures in leadership roles is a marked distinction between the Black Lives Matter movement and the older civil rights movement of previous generations.

Another difference is the means by which protests are organized. Instead of posters and leaflets, most of the organizing takes place via social media through smart phones.

Humphries, who reached out to various people from Pensacola’s concerned activist communities, wrote a Facebook post widely shared that asked for a peaceful gathering at MLK Plaza on the night of the Michael Brown grand jury. Around two dozen people,

010 1

largely activists from various community organizations, showed up that night to share their grief and frustration over the lack of an indictment in the Brown case.

Activists from the LGBTQ community and local homeless advocates joined other social justice activists for this solidarity event at MLK Plaza. With a relatively small gathering, a local movement began.

The movement, though initially small, drew connections between local issues while offering a unity of purpose with citizens protesting in Ferguson over the perception of police unaccountability, especially concerning the shooting of Brown.

volunteer named George Zimmerman. This act launched nation-wide protests.

Then on Nov. 23, 2012, Jordan Davis, another unarmed 17-year-old AfricanAmerican was shot to death in a parking lot of Jacksonville convenience store by a 40-year-old white male named Michael Dunn. Davis’ only offense was not heeding Dunn’s request to turn down the music coming from Davis’ car.

Closer to home, another 17-year-old African-American youth named Victor Steen was killed by Pensacola police officer Jerald Ard. Officer Ard fired his Taser from his moving patrol car at Steen, who was riding a bicycle, causing him to swerve.

Ard turned his car around and ran over Steen, killing him. Like the other violent deaths, Steen’s death launched several protests and gained national attention.

Even since Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the shooting of 12-year-old AfricanAmerican Tamir Rice—killed by police while playing with a toy gun in a park in Ohio—further underscores the issues the movement hopes to address: the need for accountability and the respect for black lives.

“I felt that the community needed to come together at this time so we could say, ‘This needs to end.’ We’ve got to start saying something.” Haley Morrissette

The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back

For the Black Lives Matter Movement, Michael Brown’s death was the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

After a brief altercation with the 18-yearold Brown, Officer Wilson shot and killed Brown, who was unarmed, on Aug. 9 of last year. The circumstances surrounding his death are at the center of the controversy, but for many in the movement against excessive violence by law enforcement, Brown’s death was simply the last straw.

Days before Brown’s death, a young African-American man named John Crawford III was shot and killed in an Ohio Wal-Mart by security guards while carrying a toy rifle sold in the very same store. Months before Brown’s and Crawford’s deaths, an AfricanAmerican father named Eric Garner was placed in a choke hold and asphyxiated at the hands of New York City police—a death captured by a bystander on a now-famous video that went viral.

To many, the deaths of these AfricanAmerican men seemed to fit a pattern.

On Feb. 26, 2012, a 17-year-old unarmed African-American named Trayvon Martin was shot to death by a neighborhood watch

Vigils and Unrest

The Pensacola movement decided early that if it were to be effective, From Pensacola would have to hold continuous events to keep public attention focused on the issues.

From Pensacola held its next vigil on Thanksgiving night, 2014. Half of a dozen people came out for a candlelight vigil that evening.

Trina Ramos, an activist with From Pensacola, wrote the original post: “I know y’all are full, and I know you’re all eating, but [tonight] Mike Brown will not be having Thanksgiving.”

Although the Thanksgiving vigil had an understandably small turnout, From Pensacola decided to try again.

From Pensacola set a date for Dec. 7 for their next vigil at MLK Plaza. Between vigils,

another grand jury returned with an officer’s vindication in the death of an unarmed black man: this time in New York. From Pensacola’s first vigil attracted approximately 30 people.

The second vigil on Thanksgiving brought six. The third vigil, held only four days after the Eric Garner ruling, “pulled roughly 200 people,” Humphries said.

“We left that meeting thinking, ‘we might have started something. Let’s see if we could do this again.’”

With people from all walks of life, notably many from Pensacola’s various LGBTQ communities, all had presence. Humphries said that these rallies are important to keep the issues in the public eye and in showing the world that Pensacola is a diverse community.

“But we could be Ferguson in just a split second,” Humphries said referring to racial tensions in Pensacola. Humphries said she has seen racial and class tension working with local youth through the ACLU and the Escambia Youth Justice Coalition.

“There are children who grow up [in Pensacola] who have never been downtown because they don’t think they’re welcome,” Humphries said. “There are black families and poor families who have been two or three generations now in housing projects.”

According to Humphries, “there is tension in this community.”

Another activist in the local Black Lives Matter movement is Michael Hansell. A local activist, Hansell plans on starting a Pensacola chapter of Dream Defenders. Dream Defenders is a civil rights group founded in reaction to shooting of Trayvon Martin and made famous for holding sit-ins at Governor Rick Scott’s office to protest Florida’s “Stand Your Ground laws.”

Hansell said people were understandably upset when they heard the verdict of the Ferguson case. He said he believes that police violence is part of a systemic problem of policing in America.

“If you look at the numbers, not even looking at [it] through my biased racial lens because I’m black, you can see there is a problem with police using overwhelming force for things you probably could accomplish with a lot less force or nonlethal force,” Hansell said.

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Matthews said that he felt proud to be While the City of Pensacola changed one The Pensacola activist said the issue of part of a group he saw as not just “a black of its “Five Flags,” representing the different police brutality effects everyone regardless thing” but a “life thing” as people of all races national flags that flew over the city, from the of race, although profiling effects people of come together to show support for the growConfederate battle flag to the historically accolor the most. He said that people, regarding movement. curate “Stars and Bars” Confederate flag, the less of race, should be ready to inconvenience From Pensacola draws its support Pensacola Bay Center continued to fly the themselves to support such movements. largely from a young demographic, but is Confederate flag.

“Being black in America is an inconvequick to draw connections between the The Pensacola Bay Center, which hosts nience to black people and we are tired of current struggle and historic fights for large events including graduation ceremoit,” Hansell said. “[Americans] should be equality, including one historic battle which nies, is owned by Escambia County. tired of it if we are tired of it, because it is not goes back well over 150 years.

This past December, the Escambia even happening to you. If we are telling you County Commission discussed the continit is happening to us, you should be upset ued presence of because injustice anythe Confederwhere is a threat to justice ate battle flag everywhere.” flying at the Haley Morrissette entrance to the agreed. “Pensacola has Bay Center. been kind of a divided city From Pensacola in the past as far as police asked its supbrutality and racial profilporters to speak ing. It is an issue that’s to the issue here also.” at the County Both Hansell and Commission Morrissette said they meeting hophave been the victims of ing to sway racial profiling and police the County harassment at different Commission’s times in their lives, an exvote to remove perience common among the rebel flag.

African-Americans.

Several people “A lot of people want from the comto overlook it, but I felt that From Pensacola members, pictured after the MLK parade "die-in" event / photo by Scott Satterwhite munity, includthe community needed ing those affiliated with From Pensacola, to come together at this time so we could spoke in opposition to the Confederate flag say, ‘This needs to end,’” Morrissette said. flying at the county-owned facility.

“We’ve got to start saying something.”

In Humphries’ words, “The vote went in a While there are stark differences After the first gathering of people, the way that was favorable to our viewpoint.” between the historic civil rights moveactivists from within From Pensacola decided To the surprise of many, the County ment and this new generation of civil rights they needed to continue these events, this Commission voted 4-1 to remove the activists, many civil rights veterans see the time with more planning to maintain their Confederate flag, as well as every other flag Black Lives Matter movement as an obvinewfound momentum. except the American flag. This action put ous continuation.

The other issue showed the difference the County Commission’s vote, as well as the Reverend H.K. Matthews, one such between the nationwide movements and organizers of From Pensacola, at odds with veteran of the civil rights movement, shared how From Pensacola’s focus is uniquely the Pensacola News Journal’s editorial board memories of being beaten and tear-gassed localized: the removal of the Confederate who came out in strong opposition to the while marching in Selma, yet feels many of battle flag that flew in front of the countycommission’s decision to remove the flags. the original problems have not changed. owned Pensacola Bay Center.

In spite opposition from at least one Despite desegregation and the election of an The Confederate battle flag has long commissioner and a boisterous online comAfrican-American president, racial profiling been a source of controversy in the South munity, the Confederate flag was removed. and unequal treatment by law enforcement and in particular Pensacola. Besides its use From Pensacola took the News Journal’s continues unabated. immediately following the Civil War, the Confederate flag editorial to heart, though “We have gone backwards because flag became a symbol of white resistance and marched down from MLK plaza to they still think black lives don’t matter,” to integration during the 20th century. the Pensacola News Journal to protest its Matthews said.

In 1976, race riots erupted at Escambia editorial. To Humphries, the News Journal’s Matthews was one of several clergy High School after students lost a vote to editorial was an aff ront to the black commumembers who attended the Dec. 21 vigil held keep the rebel flag and the song “Dixie” as nity and “rooted more in emotion versus their

by From Pensacola. “Lives to some of [the symbols of the school. Riots ensued the normal stances.” police] don’t matter, so I think there’s a need school when angry white students hoisted “We basically met emotion with emotion.” [for this demonstration],” he said. “This is a Confederate battle flag up Escambia At the Dec. 21 protest, From Pensacola not just a moment, this is a movement, so we High’s flagpole. started a boycott of the Pensacola News need to re-energize ourselves, revitalize ourAt the end of the day, four students were Journal until the daily paper retracted its selves, and let the world know we just aren’t shot and thirty injured over the controversial stance on the flag. going to take it anymore.” symbol of the Confederacy. After the vote, Humphries explained their decision to A well-respected icon of the civil rights the Escambia Rebels became what they are initiate a boycott in personal terms. “We felt movement, Reverend Matthews offered today—the Escambia Gators. let down.” his strong support for this new civil rights In many communities, especially AfricanRamos reiterated Humphries’ sentimovement.

American communities, the flag is often ments. “We’re out here protesting, saying “We are going to do it peacefully within viewed as a symbol of slavery, as well as the ‘Black Lives Matter,’ and then to open up the law,” Matthews said. “We have always adlegal disenfranchisement of the Jim Crow era the paper and you could care less about vocated being peaceful, we do not advocate and directly connected to the racial terrorism the people that are actually buying your violence and those that do advocate violence of the Ku Klux Klan. newspaper.” have no place in this movement.”

The Battle over the Battle Flag

February 19, 2015

11

She said, “We’re not just going to boycott your paper, we’re going to march down to the front of your building and stand in front, and say it to your face: we boycott.

This is the paper where we live, and [the editorial board] says you don’t matter.

That’s why we get emotional.”

To Ramos and Humphries, though the flag is symbolic, the issues are very real.

“We live in a city where [many] black and brown children are not graduating high school,” Ramos said. “But when they do graduate and later go on to further their education, they look up to see a Confederate flag [at the Bay Center graduation ceremonies]. What does that speak to your accomplishments?

“It’s like a ‘ha ha, you might have gotten your degree, but we got one up on you,’” Ramos said. “So that’s where the irritation with that editorial goes into.”

Many supporters of the Confederate battle flag claim that the flag does not symbolize racial hatred but is instead a symbol of their Southern heritage or the constitutional fight for state’s rights. Both Humphries and Ramos take issue with these positions. “[Supporters] reduce it to state’s rights,” Humphries said. “State’s rights were also the state’s rights that instituted Jim Crow. State’s rights also said blacks couldn’t marry, that they couldn’t vote,

were three-fifths of a person…what are we so truly proud of, even in the vein of state’s rights, prior to the 21st century?”

Ramos, who comes from a long line of military veterans, said the Confederate flag does not honor her family’s heritage. “If you’re going to honor history, you have to speak about it completely.

“You can’t just block out the history because we don’t want to talk about it. You can’t separate hate from heritage,” Ramos said. “You can’t, especially when you talk about the Civil War.” “No justice, no peace. Until you’re able to disrupt someone’s sanctity, they don’t even start to listen to your demands,” Humphries said.

The battle over the flag, which is ongoing despite the nearly unanimous vote by the Escambia County Commission, is but one of the ways From Pensacola keeps the issue of racial disparity and equality out in the public. The other way is more traditional: they take their message to the streets, sometimes literally.

Symbolism and the Goals of the Movement

During the most recent MLK parade, members of From Pensacola gathered near Vinyl Music Hall around 10 a.m. to plan a “die-in” in the middle of the parade. A

Hansell hoped that the die-in would show people what Martin Luther King was really about: “nonviolent direct action.”

“He would have never organized a parade, and I think he would be appalled if he’d seen a parade organized in his name,” Hansell said. According to Hansell, MLK stood for equality for all, an end to racial animosity, and “a love for all of humanity, not just "Die-in" at the MLK parade / photo by Scott Satterwhite the straight ones, not just the white ones, not just the women or the children.”

While admitting he felt concerned about the possibility of arrest following actions such as die-ins, “anytime the police get involved with anything you die-in, which is several people lying still on should be concerned as there is a mothe ground to symbolize the dead, is a tool nopoly on violence when the police get used by demonstrators to practice noninvolved.” Nonetheless, Hansell reminded violent civil disobedience, while participatparticipants that King himself was arrested ing in a dramatic reminder of the violent multiple times. In fact, Hansell saw the deaths of African-Americans. possibility of arrest for such an action as a As the moment for action was about “badge of honor.” to arise, there was atmosphere of nervous Clarissa Farrar, 29, said she felt MLK anticipation during the parade as organizstood for peace and nonviolence, but not ers waited for an opportune moment.

“I think there has been a lot of death and injustice, and I think that what we are trying to do [with their intended action was] about calling attention to injustice.” Maria Paoli

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WUWF PUBLIC MEDIA PRESENTS

IN: How would you verify if a program to prevent racial profiling by police has been effective?

Simmons: I don't know which program February 19, 2015

ED GERHARD LOUISE MOSRIE CLIFF EBERHARDT 3/5/15

you are referring to. I would guess that you could use statistical data as a comparison.

Anecdotally speaking, you could also conduct periodic checks.

IN: Do you feel like your department has learned anything from what happened last year in Ferguson or from the "Black Lives Matter" protest movement that has been going on since then?

Simmons: I would not say that we learned anything new, but it caused us to critique our own procedures. We discuss events local and national to determine if there are meaningful takeaways for us.

When we discussed the Ferguson and New York events, we concentrated on the need to get accurate information out as soon as practical. A community needs to know what its police department is doing and being transparent is a big part of that. While it is important not to compromise the integrity of an active investigation, releasing pertinent information that is accurate can go a long ways toward understanding what took place.

We may make mistakes, but we will always be forthright and it is important for the community to know that.

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IN: Is there anything your department is doing to prevent racial profiling by members of the police force? If so, do you think such programs have been effective?

Simmons: We monitor the actions of our officers. This is done by the review of in-car cameras, as well as investigating any complaints against our officers.

Officers also document all traffic stops to detail the race, gender and age on every traffic stop. This information is reviewed by our professional standards unit. Any alerts are brought to the attention of the particular division captain, as well as senior staff.

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For more on From Pensacola with Love, visit their Facebook page: facebook.com/ HashtagFromPensacola?fref=ts

Pensacola Police Chief Chip Simmons Weighs In IN: Do you feel like racial profiling is an issue within the Pensacola Police Department (PPD)?

Simmons: The PPD takes racial profiling serious[ly]. I also feel like with the safeguards we have in place, we are able to identify any potential profiling issues.

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after being shot by Ferguson police—a group of multi-racial protesters braved arrest to make their point. There were no arrests, and the demonstration was successful. Onlookers were reminded that at the heart of the civil rights movement was non-violent direct action.

Although prepared for arrest, the activists were relieved that no arrests happened.

In fact, they were jubilant. As symbols become increasingly important in the local Black Lives Matter movement, the symbolic protest at the MLK Parade was universally viewed as a success. Viewed along with their growing size, higher visibility, and surprising political—even historic—victory, the direct action was one of several successes for this young Pensacola movement as it focuses and refocuses its short and long-term goals with each new situation that arises.

Like the larger Black Lives Matter Movement, From Pensacola’s goals in many ways are very broad. In other ways, however, the goals of this movement are simple: accountability and equality.

“In plain English,” Ramos said, “When people ask, ‘so what is your goal?’ Our goal is to make everyone equal under the law.”

The next From Pensacola event is a Candlelight Vigil for Tamir Rice, scheduled for Feb. 22 at 5 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza. {in}

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coming together to throw parades when we are still fighting for the dream itself.

“We are still trying to get to that dream, we are still trying to live that dream, it has not come to pass as of yet…there are a lot of people who don’t know what is going on in the world today or are just brushing it under the rug when it is building and building, and there should be more and more awareness out there.”

Maria Paoli went to show “Latino solidarity and queer solidarity” for the struggles of black and brown communities against injustices they face. She said she does not think there is anything wrong with honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. with a parade, but feels right now is a time for solemnness and not festivity.

“I think there has been a lot of death and injustice, and I think that what we are trying to do [with their intended action was] about calling attention to injustice,” Paoli said, who hoped the die-in would inspire people to join their cause and see it as just. “It is a moment of quiet and solidarity.”

Halfway into the march, about eight members went through the barricades into the street to do the non-violent die-in. Police quickly gathered around the protesters lying on the streets. One protester held a sign that represented the group’s statement. The sign read: “The dream has not been fulfilled, so why are we celebrating?”

For about four and a half minutes— symbolic of the four and a half hours Michael Brown’s body was left in the street

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WEEK OF FEBRUARY 19-26

Arts & Entertainment art, film, music, stage, books and other signs of civilization...

Cinderella in Pointe Shoes

by Jennifer Leigh

members are from all over Russia and former USSR countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.

Since the company’s inception in 1989, it has traveled throughout the United States and Europe including France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, where dancers performed at London’s Coliseum and Royal Albert Hall.

And now, they can add Pensacola’s historic Saenger Theatre to the list.

“We love going from city to city and performing, it’s what we do,” Daev said. “We find American audiences to be very warm and passionate. We are looking forward to our performance in Pensacola.” {in}

“They both take the audience into another world where everything is possible and anything can happen.”

Alexander Daev

Cinderella trades her glass slippers for a pair of pointe shoes in the Russian National Ballet’s rendition of the beloved story.

Ballet and fairy tales almost go hand in hand. Since the art of ballet was first introduced in the 15th century, it has introduced and reintroduced whimsical stories for audiences around the world.

“They both tell stories with universal themes and emotions that all of humanity shares, but at the same time they both take the audience into another world where everything is possible and anything can happen,” said Alexander Daev, ballet master and assistant artistic director of the

February 19, 2015

Russian National Ballet in an email interview. “The music gives the emotions life and rhythm, while the dancers tell the story through their movements and pantomime.

It is a very symbiotic relationship.”

In their retelling of the classic tale, there shouldn’t be any disappointment among Cinderella purists. The story follows much of the original story.

“This ballet is based on the book, which was created long before the movies,” Daev explained. “There aren’t really any surprises as we stay true to the story.”

Even the choreography has been passed down from Rostislav Zakharov—

the original choreographer of the ballet. His version, with music composed by Sergei Prokofiev, was first shown in 1945.

“It has been handed down to us by our predecessors,” Daev said.

Zakharov was a ballet dancer, teacher, choreographer and director for much of the 20th century before he died in 1984 in Moscow.

He was the director of the Bolshoi Ballet in the late 1940s, which is where Sergey Radchenko, founder of Russian National Ballet (RNB), was a soloist.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday Feb. 25 Radchenko founded RNB to be WHERE: Saenger Theatre 118 S. Palafox a touring company, Daev said.

COST: $40-$50 It takes a crew of 40 dancers, DETAILS: pensacolasaenger.com or 595-3880 plus a crew for lighting, audio and costumes, to put the performance together, Daev said. Most of the

RUSSIAN NATIONAL BALLET PRESENTS CINDERELLA

15

calendar

Ears & Fingers

by Jason Leger

of this mold who come across acting so nonchalant. That’s the only negative I really have about the album, as jams like ‘Deeper,’ ‘Love High’ and closer ‘I Will Die’ keeping the 40-minute album balanced between ragers and slow burners.

I strongly recommend this album for fans of noise rock and post-punk who can also handle a bit of gloss on top. “Transfixiation” is out now via Dead Oceans.

José González “Vestiges and Claws”

A Place to Bury Strangers “Transfixiation”

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A Place to Bury Strangers is a band that has long eluded me. Not for any reason on either of our parts aside from our mutual attractions not heading in similar directions. That all changed when I stumbled across the chaotic, loud, grinding, repetitive gem that is ‘We’ve Come so Far,’ the second single to be released from the band’s upcoming full-length, “Transfixiation.” I fell in love.

While this may have been something new to me, this is far from new territory for the New York trio, as these guys have been making vapid noise rock for nearly 12 years, and “Transfixiation” shows a band who knows what they are doing.

The wall of sound that makes up the majority of this new LP is offset by moments of mild repose and front man Oliver Ackermann’s unconcerned, drawn out delivery. While I do appreciate finding this band and enjoy “Transfixiation” immensely, there is something strangely deliberate and very hi-fi about all of it, which just doesn’t seem to fit a band

THURSDAY 2.19

IN THE MOOD 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Hop

aboard the "Chattanooga Choo Choo" to “Tuxedo Junction" and get "In the Mood" to hear a “Moonlight Serenade” performed by a 13-piece Big Band and six singer-dancers with some boogie woogie. Pensacola Saenger, 118 S. Palafox. $40-60. pensacolassaenger.com

CHINESE NEW YEAR FOOD DEMONSTRATION 2-3 p.m. Celebrate the Chinese New

by learning easy techniques for making Chinese dumplings and sushi, and enjoy samples of both. SoGourmet above Bodacious Olive, 407 S. Palafox. $5. sogourmetpensacola.com WINE TASTING AT AWM 5 p.m. Try some-

There is a particular sensation that I generally get from listening to Swedish singer-songwriter José González or his band Junip. I’ve identified the sensation as peace. Not that his lyrical content is irrelevant, but when González sings his words go out the window and his voice melds into an accompanying instrument that flows within the music. He could be singing about vomit and dead cats and I would feel as tranquil as possible while listening to him. His music also seems to transcend mood or tone, it just simply exists and flows like aural liquid, with no jarring sharp edges.

The Swede’s third album under his own name, “Vestiges and Claws,” was released this week and while it finds the singer’s lyrical content being much more direct, the music is eloquent, breezy, and (mostly) bright. This album was intended to have an intimate feel, as González produced it himself and took great care to see that every song, every word, every strum was deliberate and intentional. Personally, the high point of the album is its second single ‘Leaf Off/The Cave,’ which has the tag line “let reason guide you,” wrapped within a catchy as hell repetitive melody. If you love beauty, if you love tranquility, if you love in-

thing new every week at Aragon Wine Market’s regular wine tasting, only a few blocks from downtown. 27 S. 9th Ave. aragonwinemarket.com ICE HOCKEY 6:35 p.m. Ice Flyers v. Fayetteville. Pensacola Bay Center, 201 E. Gregory St. $18-29. pensacolaiceflyers.com DIARRHEA PLANET 7 p.m. Diarrhea Planet with Company of Ghosts, The Someone Else, and JPegasus. Vinyl Music Hall, 2 S. Palafox. $10. vinylmusichall.com SHORT ATTENTION SPAN THEATRE 7:30 p.m. Six stories of love, life and relationships. Rated R. Performed in the M.C. Blanchard Courtroom Theatre at the Pensacola Little Theatre, 400 S. Jefferson. $10-17. pensacolalittletheatre.com

trospection, if you love taking a long repose, then “Vestiges and Claws” is absolutely for you, as is much of González’s catalog.

Long-time fans of González and Junip will absolutely not be disappointed in this latest solo effort, as it shows progress while maintaining confidence. “Vestiges and Claws” is out now via Mute.

TRACK OF THE WEEK:

Chromatics ‘Just Like You’

Hazy dream-pop quartet Chromatics released the lead single to their highly anticipated follow-up to 2012’s “Kill for Love.” The track ‘Just like You’ creates a lush soundscape while using repeated lyrics to hammer down catchiness and leave a lasting impression. This track is exactly perfect, embodying what I have been hoping to hear from Chromatics since they announced the impending release of “Dear Tommy” last month. At press time, the song can be downloaded for free from Chromatics’ Soundcloud page and the band have plans to release one single per week until their album is released. “Dear Tommy” will be available sometime in March via Italians Do It Better. {in}

FRIDAY 2.20

“WINE WITH HILARY: THE VINTNER” WINE TASTING AND EDUCATION GATHERING 3-4

p.m. SoGourmet above Bodacious Olive, 407 S. Palafox. $15. sogourmetpensacola.com WINE TASTING AT CITY GROCERY 5-7 p.m.

Out and about in East Hill on Friday night?

Stop by City Grocery for their free weekly wine tasting before settling in or heading out for the night. 2050 N. 12th Ave. GALLERY NIGHT 5-9 p.m. Stroll through the charming brick walkways of Downtown Pensacola to experience an eclectic array of music, art and cuisine. Explore galleries and businesses featuring the works of dozens of local artists. Soak up the sounds of local musicians and the aromas of local inweekly.net

calendar cuisine as the energy of the evening carries you from venue to venue. Gallery Night is a free event and many businesses provide light refreshments.

OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS SHOWING AT PENSACOLA CINEMA ART See all

of the nominated short films before the Academy Awards. Animated shorts start at 5 p.m. Live shorts start at 7 p.m. Admission is free on Gallery Night. Regular admission pricing starts Saturday, Feb. 21 at 4 and 7 p.m. Pensacola Cinema Art, 117 E. Government St. pensacolacinemaart.com ICE HOCKEY 7:05 p.m. Ice Flyers v. Fayetteville. Pensacon Night. Pensacola Bay Center, 201 E. Gregory St. $18-29. pensacolaiceflyers.com SHORT ATTENTION SPAN THEATRE 7:30 p.m. Six stories of love, life and relationships. Rated R. Performed in the M.C. Blanchard Courtroom Theatre at the Pensacola Little Theatre, 400 S. Jefferson. $10-17. pensacolalittletheatre.com THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD 7:30 p.m.

The University of West Florida Department of Theatre presents a musical by Rupert Holmes. A murder has occurred, the culprit must be found; it is up to the audience to determine who did it. The time is the late 1800s; the place is London. The Theatre Royale Music Hall Company has decided to finish the last, unfinished work of Charles Dickens but they can’t do it alone. With a potentially different ending every night, the comedic musical “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” won multiple Tony awards during its Broadway debut. Combining the genre of murder mysteries with audience participation leads to a “jolly good time.” Mainstage Theatre, Center for Fine and Performing Arts, Building 82, UWF Main Campus, 11000 University Pkwy. $5-16; free for UWF students. To purchase tickets, call the CFPA Box Office at 857-6285 or visit uwf.edu/cfpa.

MASTER OF DESTRUCTION TOUR 8 p.m.

Free Gallery Night Showcase. A Guns N’ Roses and Metallica Tribute event. Vinyl Music Hall, 2 S. Palafox. vinylmusichall.com GERI X 9 p.m. Geri X with Bear with Me, Precubed, and Chain Smoking Hags. The Handlebar, 319 Tarragona St. $12. pensacolahandlebar.com

SATURDAY 2.21

BLACKWATER TRAIL ULTRA CHALLENGE 50K 7

a.m. Looking to venture into the world of ultra running? If so, this challenging but relatively flat 50k course along the beautiful Jackson Trail between Bear and Hurricane Lakes is the race for you. This is race three of the Blackwater Trail Challenge Series. 2914 Bear Lake Rd., Milton. $80. Register at signmeup.com. For more information, visit blackwatertrailseries.com.

GIRL SCOUT TRAIL RUN AT UWF 8 a.m. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and Girl Scouts of Northwest Florida have partnered to host this 5K run/walk event. University of West Florida, Multipurpose Fields, UWF Main Campus, 11000 University Pkwy. $10-18.

Register at raceit.com or download the race brochure at gscfp.org.

PALAFOX MARKET 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Fresh produce, live plants, baked goods, fine art and antiques are just a few of the items offered at the weekly Palafox Market in Downtown Pensacola. Items originate directly from participating vendors, including dozens of local farmers, home gardeners and area artists. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza, N. Palafox. palafoxmarket.com UKULELE CLASS 9:30 a.m. The Pensacola Ukulele Players Society (PUPS) meets every Saturday morning at Blues Angel Music, offering free ukulele lessons for both beginners and seasoned musicians. Loaner ukuleles are available for the sessions, which usually last an hour. Blues Angel Music, 657 N. Pace Blvd. bluesangelmusic.com CHEESECAKE BAKING AND COOKIE DECORATING 11-12:30 p.m. Expert Baker Peyton Wil-

liams will teach class participants how to make a cheesecake and three different toppings for cheesecake. Each person will decorate their own cupcake size cheesecakes to take with them. Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to decorate sugar cookies.

SoGourmet above Bodacious Olive, 407 S. Palafox. $20. sogourmetpensacola.com

JR. CHEFS: SHARE THE LOVE BREAKFAST

2-3:30 p.m. Jr. Chefs ages 6-9 are invited to learn from and cook with Pensacola Cooks Kids Culinary Instructors. “Share the Love” breakfast menu includes: sweet crepes with raspberries, homemade whipped cream and bacon hearts. Skill focus: slicing, whipping, shaping, mixing, measuring, and baking. Each

child receives an apron to use in class, and the recipes of the day to take home. Pensacola Cooks Kitchen, 3670 Barrancas Ave. $20. pensacolacooks.com SR. CHEFS: SHARE THE LOVE BREAKFAST 4-6 p.m. Sr. Chefs ages 10-12 are invited to learn from and cook with Pensacola Cooks Kids Culinary Instructors. “Share the Love” breakfast menu includes: sweet crepes with raspberries, homemade whipped cream and bacon hearts.

Skill focus: slicing, chopping, sautéing, measuring, whipping, and baking. Each child receives an apron to use in class, and the recipes of the day to take home. Pensacola Cooks Kitchen, 3670 Barrancas Ave. $25. pensacolacooks.com ICE HOCKEY 7:05 p.m. Ice Flyers v. Fayetteville. Military Appreciation Night. Pensacola Bay Center, 201 E. Gregory St., $18-29. pensacolaiceflyers.com SHORT ATTENTION SPAN THEATRE 7:30 p.m.

Six stories of love, life and relationships. Rated R. Performed in the M.C. Blanchard Courtroom Theatre at the Pensacola Little Theatre, 400 S. Jefferson. $10-17. pensacolalittletheatre.com THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD 7:30 p.m.

The University of West Florida Department of Theatre presents a musical by Rupert Holmes.

A murder has occurred, the culprit must be found; it is up to the audience to determine who did it. The time is the late 1800s; the place is London. The Theatre Royale Music Hall Company has decided to finish the last, unfinished work of Charles Dickens but they can’t do it alone. With a potentially different ending every night, the comedic musical “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” won multiple Tony awards during its Broadway debut. Combining the genre of murder mysteries with audience participation leads to a “jolly good time.”

Mainstage Theatre, Center for Fine and Performing Arts, Building 82, UWF Main Campus, 11000 University Pkwy. $5-16; free for UWF students. To purchase tickets, call the CFPA Box Office at 857-6285 or visit uwf.edu/cfpa.

AFTER GAME SKATE 9:30 p.m. Pensacola Bay Center, 201 E. Gregory St. $9-12. pensacolaiceflyers.com

SUNDAY 2.22

PENSACOLA CHILDREN’S CHORUS “ONE WORLD, MANY VOICES” 2:30 p.m. Pensaco-

la Saenger, 118 S. Palafox. $15-25. pensacolassaenger.com

THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD 2:30 p.m.

The University of West Florida Department of Theatre presents a musical by Rupert Holmes. A murder has occurred, the culprit must be found; it is up to the audience to determine who did it. The time is the late 1800s; the place is London. The Theatre Royale Music Hall Company has decided to finish the last, unfinished work of Charles Dickens but they can’t do it alone. With a potentially different ending every night, the comedic musical “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” won multiple Tony awards during its Broadway debut. Combining the genre of murder mysteries with audience participation leads to a “jolly good time.” Mainstage Theatre, Center for Fine and Performing Arts, Building 82, UWF Main Campus, 11000 University Pkwy. $5-16; free for UWF students. To purchase tickets, call the CFPA Box Office at 857-6285 or visit uwf.edu/cfpa.

CHRIS TOMLIN: LOVE RAN RED TOUR 7 p.m.

Chris Tomlin featuring Tenth Avenue North and Rend Collective. Pensacola Bay Center, 201 E. Gregory St., $20-38. pensacolaiceflyers.com BOXSLEDDER 10 p.m. Boxsledder with Operation Hennessey and The Dunce Caps. The Handlebar, 319 Tarragona St. $6. pensacolahandlebar.com

MONDAY 2.23

COOKING FROM THE HERB GARDEN 5-6:30 p.m. Learn how to cook from the herb garden with heirloom gardener Cat McCreery. As with all Pensacola Cooks’ interactive classes, guests "learn by doing" with all kitchen tools and an apron provided, enjoy food prepared in class with a beverage, and receive class recipe cards. Pensacola Cooks Kitchen, 3670 Barrancas Ave. $25. pensacolacooks.com VEGAN COOKING CLASS AT END OF THE LINE

6 p.m. Learn how to cook Orange-Glazed Tempeh and Asparagus Tips and Caramelized Red Onions with Curried Sweet Potato Home Fries, Cherry Mint Quinoa, and Chocolate Mousse Cake. $25. Register at eotlvegans@ hotmail.com. End of the Line Café, 610 E. Wright St. eotlcafe.com UNITED STATES NAVY BAND 7:30 p.m. The U.S. Navy Concert Band, the premier wind ensemble of America’s Navy, presents a wide array of marches, patriotic selections, orchestral works and modern wind

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calendar ensemble repertoire. Seating is first come, first served. All advance tickets have been distributed. Unclaimed seats will be made available to the public shortly before the performance begins. Pensacola Saenger, 118 S. Palafox. pensacolassaenger.com FIRESTARTER 9 p.m. Firestarter with 10th Inning. The Handlebar, 319 Tarragona St. $9. pensacolahandlebar.com KID ETERNITY 9:30 p.m. Local bands Kid Eternity and Al Mirabella perform with Giving Up (Iowa) and Life Partner (Chicago).

This show is a tape release show for Kid Eternity. Sluggo’s Vegetarian Restaurant, 101 S. Jefferson St. $5. sluggospensacola.com

TUESDAY 2.24

WORLD SPAY DAY AT HUMANE SOCIETY 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. In honor of World Spay Day, Pensacola Humane Society is offering discounted adoption fees on select female dogs and cats. Pensacola Humane Society, 5 North Q St. pensacolahumane.org BREAKFAST & A MOVIE: “HUBBLE” 9 a.m.

Watch a classic film on the IMAX® giant screen while enjoying a light breakfast, served with hot coffee. Movies start at 9 a.m. and doors open at 8 a.m. for the first 500 visitors. A different movie will be shown each week during the month of February.

National Naval Aviation Museum, 1750 Radford Blvd. $10. navalaviatianmuseum.org SAUCES WITH SUE: “THE ART OF DEMI GLACE” 2-3 p.m. In this hands-on demon-

818 1

stration class, learn from SoGourmet chef Sue Shattuck, how to make a Burgundy Sauce and demi glace. Then enjoy generous tastings the finished product. SoGourmet above Bodacious Olive, 407 S. Palafox. $10. sogourmetpensacola.com STRUT YOUR MUTT 6:45 p.m. Join fellow dog owners for a 45-minute leisurely stroll in East Hill. Dogs must be leashed and well behaved. Owners should be prepared to pick up after the pets. Meet at the entrance of Bayview Park, 20th Ave. and E. Mallory St. TUESDAY NIGHT POETRY NIGHT AT SLUGGO’S 7 p.m. Free open mic poetry event every

Tuesday. Sluggo’s Vegetarian Restaurant, 101 S. Jefferson St. facebook.com/TNPNS DANCECRAFT SWING CLASS 7:30-9 p.m.

This class teaches the skills necessary to become a practitioner of West Coast Swing, a popular partner dance that can be enjoyed with virtually any kind of music.

Additional classes and a social dance are held each Wednesday for a chance to put your skills to use. Tuesday class fee is $10 per person or free for people 30 years of age and younger. DanceCraft, 8618 Pensacola Blvd. dancecraftfl.com

WEDNESDAY 2.25

PASTA LA VISTA BABY LUNCH CLASS noon-

1:30 p.m. On the menu: mixed greens salad with chef’s vinaigrette, vegetable lasagna, lemon syllabub with fresh berries, and a complementary glass of wine. SoGourmet

above Bodacious Olive, 407 S. Palafox. $25. sogourmetpensacola.com WEST COAST WEDNESDAYS

6:30 p.m. Learn the West Coast Swing at this weekly class, which is followed by a social dance at 8:30 p.m.

DanceCraft instructors are among the foremost experts in West Coast Swing in the Pensacola area. Wednesday classes are $10 per person and the social dance is $5 per.

DanceCraft, 8618 Pensacola Blvd. dancecraftfl.com RUSSIAN NATIONAL BALLET PRESENTS: CINDERELLA 8

p.m. This is your opportunity to experience some of the greatest world-class dancers and choreography ever seen in Pensacola. Cinderella is a full-length ballet in three acts, with music by Sergeo Prokofiev and choreography by Rostislav Zakharov. Pensacola Saenger, 118 S. Palafox. $4050. pensacolassaenger.com

PENSACOSPLAY COSTUME CONTEST AT THE FISH HOUSE 8 p.m. Get

decked out in your favorite costume and head to the “holodeck” at the Fish House.

Festivities include costume contest, ladies

night $2 drinks, Pensacon specials, DJ music and more. Registration for costume contest begins at 8 p.m., judging takes place at 10 p.m. The Deck at The Fish House, 600 S. Barracks St. fishhouse.goodgrits.com

inweekly.net

calendar arts & culture

≥exhibits

PENSACOLA’S KREWE OF LAFITTE ILLUMINATED MARDI GRAS PARADE EXHIBIT AT THE WRIGHT PLACE GALLERY A Fine Art

Photographic Exhibit displaying the work of photographer and Pace native, Frank Brueske. Brueske has captured the sights of the 2014 Krewe of Lafitte parade in more than 30 color prints. This is Brueske’s 15th solo exhibit, and his first entirely in color.

On display through March 16. The Wright Place Gallery, 80 E. Wright St. frankbrueske.com “METAMORPHOSIS: THE WORK OF CINDY MATHIS LEWIS”AT MAINLINE ART HOUSE Cindy

Mathis (Lewis) is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist with an extensive background in both visual and applied arts. Best known for her sought-after skills as a decorative artist, Cindy has executed murals, faux finishes and custom artwork for private residences and commercial entities across the United States, Costa Rica and Paris, France.

“Kaleidoscopic Inks,” screen-printed works

by Richard Humphreys also remains on display. Gallery hours and location: Tuesday - Friday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Mainline Art House, 442 S. Palafox. mainlinearthouse.com

“COLOR OF FREEDOM: JOURNEY ALONG THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” AT PMA A collection

of 49 paintings, etchings and drawings by painter and printmaker, Joseph Holston. These February 19, 2015

works capture the remarkable courage and determination of individuals during this period of American history. The exhibition consists of four movements that track the moments lived along the journey of the underground railroad and the powerful instinct toward freedom; the unknown world, living in bondage, the journey of escape, and the color in freedom. On display through April 4. Gallery hours and location: TuesdaySaturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults; $8 for members, children 17 and under, seniors and active duty military. Pensacola Museum of Art, 407 S. Jefferson St. pensacolamuseum.org “HISTORIC CIVIL RIGHTS PHOTOGRAPHS & ART FACULTY WORKS” AT PSC Historic Civil

Rights photographs by acclaimed photojournalist Art Shay and eclectic works by the Pensacola State College Visual Arts faculty are on display at the Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Arts. A world class, street photographer and writer, Shay spent more than 70 years as a Chicago-based freelance photographer for national magazines such as Life, Time, and Sports Illustrated.

His gripping Civil Rights images from the 1960s are on display, accompanied by narratives produced by PSC History Department faculty and students.

Also on display is the PSC Art Faculty Exhibition. This exhibit includes a variety of mediums such as ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, drawing, digital imaging,

graphic design, painting, photography and video. Both exhibits on display through March 13.

Gallery hours and location: Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Arts, 9th Ave. and Airport Blvd.

Admission is free and the gallery is open Monday – Thursday, 8 a.m. - 9 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Tours are available with prior arrangements.

“NOVA 13” AT FCAC

The Gallery at First City Art Center presents “Nova 13” featuring new works by the thirteen studio artists, including fi ve artists new to the Gallery: Georgia Beliech, Karin Gudmudson, Jean Harris, Leanne Payne, and Paula Perdue. The fi ve join artists Kim Brungraber, Diane Collins, Jennifer Fleming, Pat Hayes, Sherrie Mitchell, Joseph Thompson, Margaret Warren and Glass Artistin-Residence John Shoemaker. “Nova 13” encompasses a wide spectrum of artistic media, showcasing mixed media sculpture, glassworking, pottery, lithography, collage, painting, photography and fiberwork.

Exhibit on display through March 11.

Gallery hours and location: MondayFriday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. First City Art Center, 1060 N. Guillemard St. firstcityart.org.

PSC ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY PROGRAM: JACO’S SUNSET PHOTO CONTEST: For the

second year, Jaco’s is hosing the Pensacola State College Advanced Photography

Program “Jaco’s Sunset Contest” as part of their Art à la carte monthly featured artist series. This is the final semester for students in the program whose curriculum includes obtaining experience in exhibiting their work.

Jaco’s is excited to partner with PSC again this year to give these students not only the opportunity to exhibit their work, but also to support them in their artistic aspirations. For the month of February, the public is encouraged to visit Jaco’s and vote for their favorite photo.

At the end of the voting, a winner and runner-up will be selected. Both will receive an award and a prize. The winner also will receive the opportunity to be one of Jaco’s Art à la carte featured artists for a future month, giving them the opportunity to have an independent exhibit of their work. Jaco’s Bayfront Bar & Grille, 997 Palafox. artonthebayfront.com

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“OBJECT: SCULPTURES, PRINTS, AND DRAWINGS” AT THE PMA 5:30 – 9 p.m.

Feb. 20. Michael Boles, Pensacola State College Professor of Art and active member of our community’s art scene, will be exhibiting his body of work at the Pensacola Museum of Art beginning Feb. 20. His work will remain on display through April 18. Exhibit includes work from the past ten years of Boles’s life.

Pensacola Museum of Art, 407 S. Jefferson St. pensacolamuseum.org

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a&e

by Joshua Dylan Carroll, Jennifer Lee & Joani Delezen

Hey Oscar!

Everything” fails as an incompetent and conventional film compared with its source material, Eddie Redmayne rises above and gives a fantastic performance that could have been caricature if handled by lesser talent.

Best Actress

Rosamund Pike—While the film succeeds on many fronts, without Pike being able to carry the story as both antagonist and hero, the biting narrative of Gone Girl could have ended muddled as opposed to the cold and precise piece we end up with.

Best Director

Richard Linklater—Linklater has proved himself as one of the core components of cinema's consciousness for the bulk of his career, but with this one film he encapsulates both his present ambition and his history of intimate focus on character/time.

Photo by Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com

If you’re wondering when all of this Beck/Kanye/Grammy talk is going to die down, a good guess might be Sunday night if anything exciting happens at the Academy Awards. Granted that’s kind of a big “if”—as far as we know Kanye isn’t going to be there—but we’re still excited to watch.

To get in the Oscars spirit, we asked our friend Joshua Dylan Carroll from Tree House Cinema to make predictions in four of the key categories—Best Picture, Actor, Actress and Director. Some of us decided to play along too. Here are our picks.

•Joshua Dylan Carroll (GM, Tree House Cinema)

Best Picture

Birdman—To me I never saw a clear-cut winner this year. So I’m going with the oddball, “Birdman.” It was weird, funny, whimsical, and featured Michael Keaton running around Times Square in his underwear. Can I cheat and pick two? Because I wouldn’t be surprised if “Boyhood” took the prize, but I want to be different.

Best Actor

Eddie Redmayne—I think the success behind “The Theory of Everything” was that it humanized Stephen Hawking. Eddie Redmayne took this task and executed it beautifully.

Best Actress

Best Picture

Boyhood—Linklater's masterpiece goes beyond hype headlines dealing with experiment/time and becomes one of the most engaging and emotional pictures of the decade.

Best Actor

•Jennifer Lee (Inweekly Culture Buff)

Eddie Redmayne—While “The Theory of

Rosamund Pike—After I saw “Gone Girl,” I turned to my friend and said, “If the Academy had a category for crazy…” Turns out, this is the next best thing. I didn’t like the character of Amy when I first read the book. But Rosamund Pike made her so much fun to watch that I actually started rooting for her.

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Best Director

Richard Linklater—I imagine that directing a typical movie, which films for a few months, is difficult enough. Wrangling crew and actors over the span of 12 years has to take a lot of patience and skill. And better yet, the end product was a really good movie.

•Joani Delezen (Inweekly Editor & Creative Director and Basic Wes Anderson Fan Girl)

Best Picture

The Grand Budapest Hotel—Wes Anderson finally found the perfect balance between quirk and plot and for that we should all rejoice (and give him all awards). “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is basically the prettiest murder mystery ever made, complete with pink pastries and snowy chase scenes, and I loved every minute of it.

Best Actor

Eddie Redmayne—Thank god Eddie Redmayne got this role and did right because in less skilled hands this could have gone really wrong, really fast. It honestly isn’t just my favorite performance of the year, it’s one my favorite performances ever.

Best Actress

Reese Witherspoon—I know Julianne Moore is the front runner in this category, but I still haven’t had a chance to see “Still Alice” so I’m going to go with the strongest actress I actually saw on screen this year and that woman is Reese Witherspoon. “Wild” is pretty much a one woman show and the fact that Reese was able to carry it all on her shoulders was no small feat. I also loved seeing her get dirty for a change—literally and figuratively.

Best Director

Richard Linklater—In a world of instant gratification you have to respect that fact that Richard Linklater believed “Boyhood” was worth waiting for. If he doesn’t win, I’m going to be extra angry Ava DuVernay wasn’t nominated because she’s the only other worthy director this year. {in}

BEST PICTURE, ACTOR, ACTRESS AND DIRECTOR NOMINEES Best Picture

American Sniper Birdman Boyhood The Grand Budapest Hotel The Imitation Game Selma The Theory of Everything Whiplash

Actor

Steve Carell (Foxcatcher) Bradley Cooper (American Sniper) Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) Michael Keaton (Birdman) Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

Actress

Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night) Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything) Julianne Moore (Still Alice) Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

Director

Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)) Richard Linklater (Boyhood) Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher) Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel) Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) To see the full list of nominees, go to oscar.go.com/nominees

THE 87TH ACADEMY AWARDS

WHEN: 6 p.m. Sunday Feb. 22 WHERE: ABC or abc.go.com to stream online DETAILS: oscar.go.com

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inweekly.net

news of the weird

by Chuck Shepherd

WEIRD NEWS YOU CAN USE It turns out that a person having a heart attack is usually safer to be in an ambulance headed to a hospital than to already be a patient in a hospital, according to a study by University of North Carolina researchers. It takes longer, on average, for non-ER hospital staff to comply with hospital protocols in ordering and evaluating tests (nearly three hours, according to the study) than it does for ER (and ambulance) staff, who treat every case of cardiac symptoms as lifethreatening. Overall, according to a February Wall Street Journal report, the study found the mortality rate for heart-attack victims treated in emergency rooms is 4 percent, compared to 40 percent for patients already admitted for other reasons and then suffering heart attacks.

categories of excreta, by shape and consistency) "and produced interesting hypotheses in the ensuing Reddit conversation."

THE CONTINUING CRISIS Uh-Oh: The man hospitalized in fair condition in January after being rammed from behind by a car while on his bicycle happened to be Darryl Isaacs, 50, one of the most ubiquitously advertising personal-injury lawyers in Louisville, Kentucky.

Isaacs calls himself the "Heavy Hitter" and the "Kentucky Hammer" for his aggressiveness on behalf of, among other clients, victims of traffic collisions. The (soon-to-be-poorer) driver told police the sun got in his eyes.

• Elephants in Love: (1) India TV reported in January that a wild male elephant from an adjoining sanctuary had broken into the Nandan Kanan zoo in Odisha, wildly besotted with a female, Heera. The male cast aside two other females trying to protect Heera and mated with her. The male lingered overnight until zookeepers could shoo him away. (2) A frisky male elephant crushed four cars in 10 days in January at Thailand's Khao Yai National Park—the result, said a park veterinarian, of the stress of the mating season. (Only the last of the four cars was occupied, but no injuries were serious.)

• While nearly all Americans enjoy low gasoline prices, residents of sea-locked Alaskan towns (Barrow, Kotzebue, Nome, Ketchikan) have continued to pay their same hefty prices ($7 a gallon, according to one January report on Alaska Dispatch News). Though the price in Anchorage and Fairbanks resembles that in the rest of America, unconnected towns can be supplied only during a four-month breather from icy sea conditions and thus received their final winter shipments last summer. The price the supplier was forced to pay then dictates pump prices until around May or June.

CLICHES COME TO LIFE (1) Margaretta Evans, 63, finally reported her missing son to the Myrtle Beach (South Carolina) Police Department in January. She said Jason Callahan, who would be 38, had been missing since "early June of 1995" when he left home to follow the Grateful Dead on tour in California and Illinois. (2) Riccardo Pacifici, described as the head of Rome's Jewish community, was accidentally trapped while visiting the Auschwitz prison death camp in January on Holocaust Remembrance Day, after staff had departed.

When Pacifici and four associates crawled out through a window, security officers spotted them, provoking the New York magazine headline, "Polish Police Detained a Jewish Leader Trying to Escape Auschwitz."

THE EVER-VALUABLE INTERNET In January, "Captain Mercedes," a registered user of the Reddit.com social media site, announced he had compiled a data file cataloguing every bowel movement he had in 2014 and was offering the file to other users to design hypotheses and visual representations of the data in ways that might improve his relationship with his alimentary canal. According to the data-analysis website FiveThirtyEight.com, the "researcher" used the standard "Bristol stool scale" (seven

WAIT, WHAT? Ms. Meng Wang filed a lawsuit recently in New York City against Gildan Outerwear over her disappointment with Kushyfoot Shaping Tights. In television ads, Wang wrote, a young model sashays down a city street with her eyes dreamily closed and "moans and utters highly sexually charged phrases" "including 'That's the spot' and 'so good' ... passersby (stop) in their tracks to look at her with mouths agape." Wang said the ad clearly implies that the tights produce an orgasmic sensation of some sort, wrote Gothamist. com, but that she, herself, has come up empty.

Friday 2/20

Pensacon Night (Presented by Bob Tyler Toyota)

Saturday 2/21 Military Appreciation Night “Miracle On Ice” 1980 USA Replica Jersey Auction

s Drop Puck . Friday p.m 7:05 aturday &S

www.pensacolaiceflyers.com

LEAST COMPETENT CRIMINALS Two men remain at large after stealing an ATM from Casino Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, in January. They had smashed through glass front doors, unbolted the machine, put it on a dolly and rolled it to a waiting car (though it briefly toppled over onto one of the culprits). Managers told police the ATM was empty, disabled and scheduled to be moved to another location later that day. A Calgary police officer expressed bemusement at the city's recent ATM smash-and-grab epidemic, since the machines are hard to unbolt, hard to open and emptied several times a day. "It's a very ineffective way to make a living."

• Unwise Robbery Target: Police in Champaign, Illinois, charged Clayton Dial, 23, with robbery on New Year's night, for carrying a pellet gun into the Kamakura Japanese restaurant and demanding money from the hostess. However, he fled quickly when chef Tetsuji Miwa walked over, holding his large sushi knife. "He saw the blade," Miwa said later, and "started running." (Miwa and two co-workers gave chase and held him for police.) {in}

From Universal Press Syndicate Chuck Shepherd’s News Of The Weird © 2015 Chuck Shepherd

Send your weird news to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, Fla., 33679 or weirdnews@earthlink.net, or go to newsoftheweird.com February 19, 2015

23

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Tune In & See Special Guests* Thursday, 2/19 – Wednesday 2/25 Dr. Adam Anz Charles Thorton Doug Baldwin Lorie Weekly Mollye Barrows Melody Webber Destini Robinson Angellyn Krys Troy Moon Payton Anderson Janel Barton

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Independent News | February 19, 2015 | inweekly.net

2/17/15 8:39 AM