Feb 15, 2012 Connect Savannah issue by Connect Savannah

FooD lion hubbub, p. 9 | no control Festival, p. 18 | avery brooks, p. 23 | book Festival, p. 24 Feb 15-21, 2012 news, arts & entertainment weekly Free connectsavannah.com

The altogether unique Seven Nations headlines the Savannah Irish Festival by bill Deyoung | XX

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eight page insert Begins after page 24

news & opinion FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

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news & opinion

“keeping the world Safe for good, live muSic.”

h a n n a v a S s n o i t a N Seven rier Charleston Post & Cou

t s e b s t i t a k c o R Ir ish

s e p i p g a B g Rockin and Fiery Fiddles t at 6pm Nigh y a d r ter u n e C Sat c i v nah Ci n a v a S the bration e l e c g n o

muSic

feStival 12

march 22–april 7, 20

etS 912.525.5050 info 912.234.3378 tick org savannahmusicfestival.

ekend l e w e h t lture u C & c Part of i s Mu of Irish

Sponsored in part by Connect Savannah and the 2012 Savannah Irish Festival.

THIS WEEKEND February 17 - 19 AT THE 2012 SAVANNAH IRISH FESTIVAL. NINE MUSICAL ACTS ON FOUR STAGES THROUGHOUT THE WEEKEND.

COST IS $12

(PLUS CIVIC CENTER CONVENIENCE FEE)

More information: www.SavannahIrish.org

connect savannah is a proud sponsor of the 2012 savannah Music festival Major Funding provided by The City of Savannah Dept. of Cultural Affairs | Corporate Sponsors: Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. • Visit Savannah • Savannah College of Art & Design National Endowment for the Arts • Telfair Museums • Connect Savannah • Critz Auto Group • Wet Willie’s Management Corp. • Audi Hilton Head • Memorial University Medical Center Mercer School of Medicine • The Kennickell Group • Comcast • AT&T Advertising Solutions • Savannah Morning News/Savannah Magazine • GPB Media • WTOC • HunterMaclean

3 FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

THIS D WEEKEN

week at a glance FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

Also inside news & opinion

this week | COMPILED BY ROBIN WRIGHT GUNN | happenings@connectsavannah.com

WEEK AT A GLANCE Freebie oF the week

avery brooks as ira aldridge

what: Actor of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame, in two performances portraying ‘The African Roscius’. Part of the 23rd Annual Savannah Black Heritage Festival. when & where: Saturday, Feb. 18, 7 p.m. in Armstrong’s Fine Arts Auditorium and Sunday, Feb. 19, 3 pm in SSU’s Kennedy Fine Arts Auditorium. inFo: savannahblackheritagefestival.com/

10 environment: All

the updates fit to print BY JESSICA LEIGH LEBOS

08 CIvIL SOCIETY 09 COMMUNITY 12 BLOTTER 13 STRAIGHT DOPE 14 NEWS OF THE WEIRD

music

18 no control: A day of

fresh new sounds BY BILL DEYOUNG

16 NOTEWORTHY & SOUNDBOARD 20 IRISH FESTIvAL

culture

Wednesday the state of georgia’s saltwater Fisheries

what: Four authorities discuss the challenges of managing the saltwater fisheries on the Georgia coast. when: Wed. Feb. 15, 6 p.m. where: The Armstrong Center Auditorium, 13040 Abercorn Street, cost: Free and open to the public.

lecture and book signing: an evening with brad thor

what: Dinner, a presentation by the bestselling author of “Full Black” and other novels, a Q&A and book sales and signing. Part of Savannah Book Festival. when: Wed. Feb. 15, 6:30 p.m. where: The Landings Club Plantation Clubhouse, Skidaway Island cost: $65, reservations required. inFo: www.savannahbookfestival.org/

Film: never-aired tv pilots DoubleFeature - the solarnauts (1967, u.k.) + global Frequency 2005, usa) what: Psychotronic Film Society presents

two rare and highly sought-after pilots. when: Wed. Feb. 15, 8 p.m. where: Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Ave. cost: $6 inFo: SentientBean.com/

in part by Telfair Museums and the Georgia Humanities Council. when: Thu. Feb. 16, 7 p.m. where: Jepson Center, 207 W. York St., cost: Free and open to the public

Drinking water Quality and the effect of harbor Deepening

what: Coastal Group Sierra Club presents John Sawyer, Water and Sewer Director of the City of Savannah, on drinking water quality and the potential effects of harbor deepening on Savannah’s water resources. when: Thu. Feb. 16, 7 p.m. where: First Presbyterian Church, 520 Washington Ave. cost: Free and open to the public

Jane Fishman: homage to 38th street

what: Columnist signs and reads from

her new book “The Dirt on Jane.” Sharing the stage is Rhythm Kitchen, playing funky and original R&B music. First 30 people receive a packet of seeds. when: Thu. Feb. 16, 7 p.m. where: Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Ave., cost: Free entry. Books for purchase.

golden Dragon acrobats

what: Live performance by world’s leading touring Chinese acrobatic troupe. when: Thu. Feb. 16, 7:30 p.m. where: Armstrong’s Fine Arts Auditorium, 11935 Abercorn Street cost: $10-$20 advance. $25 day of show. AASU discounts. inFo: tickets.armstrong.edu/

Thursday

Avery Brooks BY BILL DEYOUNG

24 BOOK FESTIvAL 28 MARK YOUR CALENDAR 29 FOOD & DRINK 30 ART 31 OSCARS PREvIEW 34 MOvIES

Oglethorpe Ave.

cost: $35 - $65 inFo: www.savannahcivic.com/

Film: re:generation music project

what: Documentary featuring Mark Ronson, Skrillex, The Crystal Method, DJ Premier and Pretty Lights. Part of a nationwide, one-night only release. when: Thu. Feb. 16, 7:45 p.m. where: Carmike 10 , 511 Stephenson Ave. inFo: www.carmike.com/Showtimes/ Theater/20

Friday southern women’s show

what: Shop, taste, learn and live at the annual Southern Women’s Show. when: Fri. Feb. 17, Sat. Feb. 18 where: Trade & Convention Center, Hutchinson Island cost: $9/door, $8/online, $7/at Kroger. Youth: $5. inFo: www.southernshows.com/wsa

lecture: author melissa Fay greene

what: Armstrong presents Greene lecturing on “Capturing Georgia History: Incredible True Tales Are All Around Us.” when: Fri. Feb. 17, 12 p.m. where: AASU Student Union Ballroom, 11935 Abercorn St. cost: Free and open to the public

what: Learn about the history of Madeira wine in Savannah and enjoy a party. when: Fri. Feb. 17, 5:30 p.m., Sat. Feb. 18, 5:30 p.m. where: Davenport House Museum, 324 E. State St. cost: $20. Reservations recommended. inFo: davenporthousemuseum.org/

what: Book Festival presents author of “Steve Jobs”, the bestselling biography. when: Thu. Feb. 16, 6:30 p.m. where: Trustees Theater, 216 E Broughton St. cost: $10 inFo: savannahboxoffice.com/

annual w. w. law lecture by Dr. Dorothy cotton

what: Former Education Director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) under the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Presented

what: Irish dancers on their final tour. when: Thu. Feb. 16, 7:30 p.m. where: Johnny Mercer Theater, 301 W.

potable gold: savannah’s madeira tradition

an evening with walter isaacson

23 theatre: A chat with

riverdance

aDDy awards gala

the golden Dragon acrobats hit aasu’s Fine arts auditorium this thursday

what: Savannah’s and recognition of excellence in advertising and design. Featuring Equinox Jazz Band.

Street

cost: $60/Members. $75/Non-Mem-

bers.

inFo: www.aafsav.com/

author pat conroy

what: Multiple New York Times bestselling writer delivers Keynote Address for the Savannah Book Festival. when: Fri. Feb. 17, 6 p.m. where: Trinity United Methodist Church, 225 West President St on Telfair Square, cost: Free and open to the public inFo: www.savannahbookfestival.org/

Film: cumberland, island in time

what: The Georgia Conservancy hosts a screening of Bill vanderkloot’s film that uses rare footage to recount Cumberland’s rich history. when: Fri. Feb. 17, 6 p.m. where: The Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Avenue, cost: Free and open to the public inFo: www.georgiaconservancy.org/ movienight

savannah irish Festival: ceili (traditional Dance party)

what: Music by Savannah Ceili Band. Dance instruction by Maria Buckhaults of the Irish Dancers of Savannah. Bring your own family picnic supper or purchase bangers. Cash bar. when: Fri. Feb. 17, 6:30 p.m.-9 p.m. where: Savannah Civic Center Ballroom, 301 W. Oglethorpe Ave., cost: $5/age 15 and up. Kids 14 and under free. inFo: www.savannahirish.org/

Film: repulsion

what: The first English-language film of director Roman Polanski. when: Fri. Feb. 17, 7 p.m. where: Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St. cost: $8/gen $6/military & senior inFo: tickets.savannahboxoffice.com/

mardi gras tybee Festival masquerade ball

what: Featuring Zydeco musician Dwight “Black Cat” Carrier. when: Fri. Feb. 17, 8 p.m.-11 p.m. where: Fannies on the Beach, 1613 Strand Ave., cost: $20/adv. $25/door inFo: www.MardiGrasTybee.com/

Saturday savannah gay & lesbian Film society: Double Film night

what: Two film screenings with a Tapas reception at intermission. 6 pm – The Night Watch. Lust Life, a short US film, opens.

7:30 pm – Tapas in Jepson’s Atrium 8:15 pm – Private Romeo. Teddy, a short New Zealand film, opens. when: Sat. Feb. 18 where: Jepson Ctr, 207 W. York St., cost: $15/one show. $25/two shows. Discounts for members inFo: www.sglfs.com/

no control Festival

what: Tons of regional bands gather

for an all-day festival. See story this issue. No outside alcohol, no backpacks. where: Southern Pine Co., 616 E. 35th St. when: Starts noon Saturday, Feb. 18 cost: $10 public, $8 students, under 13 free. Portion of proceeds go to Harambee House.

Forsyth Farmers’ market

what: Double SNAP dollars for all market purchases. More than 25 local farmers and vendors every week. when: Sat. Feb. 18, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. where: Forsyth Park inFo: forsythfarmersmarket.org

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nature outing: wassaw national wildlife refuge

what: Wilderness Southeast guided day trip. Reservations required. when: Sat. Feb. 18, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. where: Meet at Wilmington Island cost: $65/person. inFo: 912-236-8115. www.wildernesssoutheast.org

savannah book Festival

what: Nearly 40 authors appearing throughout the day at multiple venues on Telfair Square. when: Sat. Feb. 18, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. where: Telfair Square cost: Free and open to the public inFo: www.savannahbookfestival.org/

arbor Day bike tour

what: Join Savannah Tree Foundation and Savannah Bicycle Campaign on a ten-mile bike tour of urban forest projects. and tree planting sites. Riders should wear a helmet. when: Sat. Feb. 18, 10 a.m. where: West end of Daffin Park/Leisure Services Office, 1 Waring Drive., cost: Free and open to the public. inFo: savannahtree.com/

savannah irish Festival

what: Two days and four stages of fiddlers, traditional singer-songwriters, storytellers, Irish dancers, history, culture. Seven Nations headlines on Saturday night at 6pm. when: Sat. Feb. 18, 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Sun. Feb. 19, 12 p.m.-6 p.m. where: Civic Center Arena and multiple rooms, 301 W. Oglethorpe Ave., cost: Adults. $12/Sat or Sun. $16/2days. Free/under 14. inFo: www.savannahirish.org

continues on p. 6

SCAD CELEBRATES sarah butler SCAD FASHION & GRAPHIC DESIGN STUDENT

Winner of the $30,000 YMA Geoffrey Beene Fashion Award

scad.edu/fashion

FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

when: Fri. Feb. 17, 6 p.m.-10:30 p.m. where: Savannah Station, 601 Cohen

week at a glance

week at a glance | from previous page

week at a glance

week at a glance | continued from page 5

tybee mardi gras street party and parade

what: Street Party features The Dawgs of Dixie, a six-piece traditional Dixieland jazz band, at noon, p.m. and Dwight “Black Cat” Carrier,at 3pm. Parade begins 2pm at Hwy 80/ Butler Ave. when: Sat. Feb. 18, 12 p.m.-6 p.m. where: Next to Tybee Pier cost: Free and open to the public inFo: MardiGrasTybee.com/

FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

book signing: ava and isser gottlieb

what: Signing copies of their cookbook, “Gottlieb’s Bakery, Savannah’s Sweetest Tradition.” when: Sat. Feb. 18, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. where: E. Shaver, 326 Bull Street

Apply Now. Classes begin March 6.

Dinner with general oglethorpe

Get a head start on core classes, jump-start a new career path or work toward your graduate degree in the seven-week Flex Term starting March 6 at Armstrong. Evening and online courses are available.

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all-a merican mess hall

Out!” s I d r o W e h alked...T T y d o eb “Som

! R E V I L E D E W

Food, “Hand-Crafted Pub !” Not That Frozen Crap

SAVANNAH’S LATE NIGHT EATERY Hamburgers, Chili Cheese Fries, Sandwiches, Wings & More

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what: Colonial dinner hosted in the barracks at Fort King George. when: Sat. Feb. 18, 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. where: Fort King George State Historic Site, 302 McIntosh Rd. SE, Darien cost: $35 per plate, RSvPs requested inFo: 912-437-4770. www.gastateparks.org/fortkinggeorge

rodney carrington

what: Texas-born, platinum-selling comedian, actor, and country artist. when: Sat. Feb. 18, 7 p.m. where: Johnny Mercer Theater, 301 W. Oglethorpe Ave. cost: $44.67 inFo: www.savannahcivic.com/

Sunday Film: redline (2011, Japan)

what: Presented by Psychotronic Film Society. Most critically acclaimed Anime film of the past decade, directed by Takeshi Koike. Screenings 2 pm, 5 pm and 8 pm. 2pm & 8pm shows in English. 5pm show in Japanese with English subtitles. when: Sun. Feb. 19 where: Muse Arts Warehouse, 703 Louisville Rd. cost: $8 inFo: www.musesavannah.org/

Film: carnage (poland/France/ germany/spain, 2011)

what: CinemaSavannah presents an encore one-night-only screening of Roman Polanski’s critically acclaimed comic film starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and others. when: Sun. Feb. 19, 7 p.m. where: victory Square Theaters, Skidaway Road (south of victory Drive), cost: $8/Cash Only.

Monday angela beasley’s puppet people Dance and studio tour

what: Dance along with Tina “Turntable’s Dancing Jukebox” and handson studio tour. when: Mon. Feb. 20, 11 a.m. where: Puppet People Studio, 3119 Furber Avenue cost: $6 inFo: www.PuppetPeople.com/

Tuesday hsF lecture: history of First bryan baptist church

what: Dr. Charles J. Elmore offers insight into historic African-American houses of worship. when: Tue. Feb. 21 where: First Bryan Baptist Church, 575 W. Bryan Street, cost: Free and open to the public. inFo: www.myHSF.org/

deFine art lecture: nancy spector

what: Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Guggenheim Museum will give an overview of the recent Maurizio Cattelan retrospective. when: Tue. Feb. 21, 5 p.m. where: SCAD MoA, 227 MLK Blvd. cost: Free and open to the public inFo: www.scad.edu/defineart

open mic with sistah v.

what: A celebration of our “Journeys, Passages and Transitions” through spoken word and the printed word. A Black Heritage Festival event. when: Tue. Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m. where: Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum , 41 MLK Blvd. cost: Free and open to the public. inFo: savannahblackheritagefestival. com/

lecture: scientific Detoxification

what: Gaetano A. Morello, N.D.,on using foods, herbs & supplements to cleanse your body. Free copies of his book will go to first 250 people. when: Tue. Feb. 21, 7 p.m. where: Coastal Georgia Center, 305 Fahm Street , cost: Free and open to the public inFo: http://www.brighterdayfoods. com/ CS

1800 E. victory Dr., Suite 7 Savannah, GA, 31404 Phone: (912) 721-4350 Fax: (912) 231-9932

February festivals

www.connectsavannah.com ADMINISTRATIvE

chris griffin, General Manager chris@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4378

by Jim morekis | jim@connectsavannah.com

Stephen King. Walter Isaacson. Pat Conroy. Some great literary names are coming to the Savannah Book Festival this weekend. As you’d expect with names like that — and other very important ones as well — the Book Festival is garnering national attention. CSPAN Book TV will feature live coverage of the main festival day Saturday at various venues around Telfair Square. All due respect to the awesome headliners, but when I first saw the list of festival authors a few months ago, I knew which one I most wanted to interview: S.C. Gwynne, author of what I believe to be one of the best history books of the last several years, Empire of the Summer Moon,

an amazing chronicle of violence, war and family on the West Texas frontier. My talk with Gwynne is in this issue, as well as a nice chat I had with the beloved and always-interesting Janisse Ray, who debuts her new book Drifting Into Darien at the Book Festival. Speaking of festivals on Telfair Square, you’ll notice the special insert in this week’s issue about the upcoming PULSE Festival, sponsored by the Telfair Museums and beginning Feb. 27. We’re thrilled to once again be media sponsors for this

cutting-edge event which has almost no comparison anywhere else in the country. We’ll have much more in-depth coverage in the weeks to come. And like the Savannah Book Festival, PULSE is also free and open to the public. Connect is also sponsoring this weekend’s No Control Festival, an ambitious all-day gathering of local and regional indie bands. See our story by Bill DeYoung this issue. Also, big ups to our Jessica Leigh Lebos for the first Connect Savannah chat with new Mayor Edna Jackson. In this issue the mayor speaks at length with Jessica about the recent shuttering of the Food Lion on MLK Boulevard and future options for addressing the “food desert” on the Westside. CS

EDITORIAL

Jim morekis, Editor-in-Chief jim@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4384 bill Deyoung, Arts & Entertainment Editor bill@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4385 Jessica leigh lebos, Community Editor jll@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4386 robin wright gunn, Events Editor, happenings@ connectsavannah.com CONTRIBUTORS matt brunson, tim rutherford, geoff l. Johnson ADvERTISING

FeeDback | letters@connectsavannah.com | fax (912) 231-9932 | 1800 e. Victory dr., suite 7, savannah, GA 31404

information: (912) 721-4378 sales@connectsavannah.com

T-SPLOST is just legalized piracy

Jay lane, Account Executive jay@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4381

Editor, Aye matey! It’s Vote Like a Pirate day on July 31, 2012. This is the day Georgians will go to the polls to impose a 1% sales tax on themselves called T–SPLOST. The problem is your vote will not count for much if you live in a small county. The Georgia Constitution is remarkable in that it allows for “Home Rule” or county self– determination. It has been that way since Georgia started chartering counties. This regional vote scheme of T–SPLOST completely dismantles “Home Rule” and disenfranchises thousands of voters. Many believe it violates the Georgia Constitution. T–SPLOST lumps counties into Georgia’s 12 regions set up in the early 1970’s during the Carter administration to deliver social services. These regions are

not redrawn and proportionally balanced by population, as we do all congressional districts, state house districts, senate districts, and county commission districts. This means the votes from rural counties don’t count for much. Your vote will be overridden by large counties in your region. For example, in Region 12 if Bulloch, Chatham, and Glynn counties vote 60% YES for the T–SPLOST, it would take 72% of all other counties to vote NO in order to vote it down. If you live in a rural county with a small population you really don’t get a vote and there is no county opt–out. 100% of the legislature supported a county opt–out clause, but the sponsors of the bill successfully blocked an up/down vote. There is plenty of loot in piracy. Vote NO T–SPLOST. bill evelyn

Newt’s judicial reforms would be dangerous

Editor, Newt Gingrich apparently thinks the Founding Fathers made a terrible mistake when they established an independent court system. Under his proposals, judges would please the President, Congress, and the public––or suffer the consequences. Presidents could ignore court decisions they dislike. Congress could haul judges before it to explain their decisions and jail non–compliant judges, and unpopular judges could be fired and their courts abolished. Even some very conservative judicial critics have expressed outrage at Gingrich’s proposals. One of George W. Bush’s Attorneys General (Michael Mukasey) called them “outrageous and dangerous;” Another (Alberto

Gonzalez) condemned “bringing judges before Congress, like a schoolchild being brought before the principal.” Columnist George Will wrote that Gingrich would replace legal reasoning with “raw political power.” The Gingrich plan is not totally untested. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, argued that German judges tended to rely too much on legal reasoning, too little on public opinion and Hitler’s wishes. For this offense, judges should be fired and their courts abolished. Like Gingrich, Goebbels said these “reforms” would protect “the people” against oppressive courts. They became law, the last remnants of freedom vanished, and we learned an invaluable lesson. Or did we? george kiser

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FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

the (civil) society column

EVERY SATURDAY THIS MONTH

First of all, he usually avoids me during work hours lest I chase him down with a request to carpool a gaggle of yammering Girl Scouts. Second, ever since he bought a Droid he has become an obsessive texter. But even weirder than hearing his voice on the line was his request: “I want to take you to lunch at the Savannah Golf Club with the other Romeos.” Mystifying. Even more than a jabble of Corps of Engineers water data from the last 60 years, which is what I was looking at when he called. As far as I know, this recently retired oncologist has never played golf in his life. And though he is a very nice–looking man, I think the nurses who worked with him through 40 years in practice would agree that no one but my mother–in–law would classify him as a “Romeo.” After I asked him if he was planning to pawn me off so he could make way for a newer model of daughter– in–law, maybe one that didn’t crab at him to quit texting at the dinner table, he explained that “ROMEO” is an acronym for Retired Old Men Eating Out. This still sounded slightly dangerous, but I’m never one to turn down a free lunch. Turns out this is no ordinary group of guys eating chicken fingers and complaining about prostates. While some ROMEO clubs veto women, these Savannah Romeos allow female guests to join them to eat and listen to a program of local interest, anything from science to history to poetry and everything in between—a marine scientist is coming next month, and jazzman Ben Tucker is slated to talk about his experience in the Civil Rights movement soon after. On the bill for this day was bestselling author Jonathan Rabb, with four historical novels to his credit and another in the works. A former

political theory professor at Columbia, he’s now on the writing faculty at SCAD. I suspected my father–in–law invited me along because he was hoping that Rabb’s literary proficiencies would inspire me to push out a book of my own. Regrettably, bestselling fiction writing isn’t contagious. But it’s always a delight to hear the witty and self–deprecating Rabb speak on any topic. As we lunched on asparagus, rice, rolls and salmon accompanied by pitchers of sweet tea, my father–in– law whispered the names of the gentlemen and few ladies in the room. Most were dressed elegantly in smart ties and crisp suits, the attire of an era when eating out meant always wearing one’s best. Though hearing aids and canes were popular accessories, an air of alacrity permeated the murmurs of conversation. Who knew so many old folks were fond of texting at the table? I already knew a few of these famous Savannah faces from their many accomplishments: Philanthropists and art collectors Don and Kay Kole. Real estate developer and Leadership Savannah founder Ed Feiler. Shoe manufacturer and mystery novelist Larry Wagger, who released his first book last year at the age of 93. At the next table sat Dr. Harold Black, still practicing dentistry after 50 years and a pioneer in treating sleep apnea. Across the room was Dr. Murray Arkin, former chief of staff at Memorial Hospital, who treated thousands of Savannahians from 1958 to 2005. I passed the salad dressing to legendary architect Eric Meyerhoff, whose firm penned the plans for dozens of civic projects, including Rousakis Plaza and City Market, and who personally designed the stunning bronze WWII monument on River Street unveiled in 2010. Even a greenhorn like myself could tell that this was no ordinary gathering of retirees. These were Savannah’s greatest generation, people who spent the prime of their lives in service to their community and haven’t let small details like being hard of hearing or

aching joints stop them from engaging. They’re what my people call real machers—big shots with indefatigable reserves of leadership and integrity, the kind of people who get stuff done. Rabb obviously understood the sum of significance in the room because he offered the highest tribute imaginable from a writer: A reading from his work–in–progress, “Untitled Savannah Project,” heretofore not heard by anyone but his agent and his lovely wife, Andra Reeve–Rabb. If you’re familiar with Second Son or any of Rabb’s other novels, you know that place plays as prominent a role as his characters. Set in 1947, the first chapter of his new book describes a Savannah few remember, down bustling West Broad Street (now MLK Boulevard) and onto Broughton, where every storefront was a family–owned business. It was a time when many of the folks in the room were in their teens and early 20s, just beginning to make their way in the post–War world. (In fact, Rabb interviewed many of them to get the historical details just right.) These Savannahians, and many more their age, spent the next six decades having tremendous impact on their city. They are the people behind the hospitals and museums and foundations, the mid–century development and historic preservation, still possessing the same grace that impels a person to put on a tie or the good gold earrings for lunch on a Wednesday. Maybe my father–in–law just wanted to spend some quality time together, but he and his friends provided a humbling lesson on just how much a person can do with one life. When the Savannah we know now has progressed into its inevitable future, may all of us have given a tenth as much when it’s our turn to be ROMEOS (or as I personally aspire to become, a WOLFDOG. That’d be Weird Old Ladies Fabulously Dining Out Gratis. Yes, I made it up. Not as catchy, but I hope to make this free lunch thing a habit.) And may we all still have the wherewithal to text the grandkids from the table. CS

news & opinion

community

return to the food desert? Food Lion’s closing reduces healthy options by Jessica leigh lebos jll@connectsavannah.com

the windows are papered over at the Food lion on mlk blvd. right: Forsyth Farmers market volunteers offer information.

Two years ago, the neighborhood along the MLK Boulevard corridor was described as a “food desert.” After a brief oasis, it seems to have dried out again. A hot-button topic for groups working to alleviate poverty locally and nationwide, food deserts are highly–populated areas where healthy, affordable nourishment is hard to find. They’re most associated with communities low on the socioeconomic stratosphere and more likely to affect minorities. That’s why when Food Lion opened its doors on MLK Boulevard in March 2011, it was heralded as an enormous step towards breaking the cycle of poverty that persists in the surrounding neighborhoods. While supermarkets are nowhere to be seen in food deserts, fast food and convenience stores selling high–fat, high–sugar snacks are in abundance — promoting higher levels of obesity, diabetes and heart disease among residents who can’t afford health insurance premiums. Studies show that when access to fresh, whole foods are made available, the entire community’s eating habits, its health and ultimately, its quality of life can improve drastically. Unfortunately, just 11 months later, the grocery’s doors are shuttered. It was one of five local “underperforming” stores and 113 nationwide closed by Delhaize, Food Lion’s Belgian parent company, as a “key strategic action to strengthen its U.S. portfolio.” To those working to help people, especially poor people, develop healthy eating strategies in Savannah, it’s a big step backwards. “We desperately need fresh food in that area,” said Diana Morrison, the

new chair of the Healthy Savannah 2012 Initiative. A volunteer organization on the brink of receiving nonprofit status, Healthy Savannah often partners with business leaders to offer free nutritional programming. Healthy employees cost far less than sick ones, and Morrison says access to whole fruits and vegetables “is a basic step in supporting a healthy workforce.” Spearheaded by former Mayor Otis Johnson, Healthy Savannah commissioned a city–funded study in 2010 that highlighted the lack of venues providing fresh produce in certain neighborhoods. While the report didn’t technically acknowledge the MLK corridor as a food desert, it characterized it as greatly “out of balance” with its preponderance of fast food chains and lack of a “mainstream grocer.” Many, including Mayor Edna Jackson, thought the Food Lion would bring it back into balance. Jackson expressed “shock and disappointment” at the sudden announcement of the store’s closure in mid–January. She had just met with Food Lion reps and local church leaders in December to discuss how to better market the store to its surrounding demographic in the face of flagging sales. “We thought we were moving in the right direction,” Jackson told Connect last week. “But it seems like they didn’t look for a solution until it was already too late. The store really didn’t have a chance to grow.”

In response to complaints that Food Lion didn’t do its homework by not offering products aimed at the African–American community and being slow to accept Women Infants and Children subsidies, Food Lion media relations director Christy Phillips–Brown wouldn’t engage in specifics. “All I can tell you is that we strive to meet the needs of the communities in the market,” said Phillips–Brown. “This decision was made as part of our overall strategy.” She reported that representatives from the corporate office have been dispatched to Savannah this week to meet with city officials to “evaluate options” regarding the 24 years remaining on the building’s lease. The store was a linchpin in the city’s plans to revitalize the MLK corridor, and the mayor doesn’t want Food Lion to simply pay the rent on a vacant building. “We need to see another grocery store in that space where people can get their fresh fruits and vegetables,” she said. Mayor Jackson added: “We also need to educate people on what to do with them.” Therein lies the rub of the food desert dilemma: People don’t always know what to do with produce once they can get it. “Everyone was looking to Food Lion to fix the food access issue in that area, but the problem is larger than that,” said longtime local food activist and Forsyth Farmers Market co–founder Teri Schell. “Even though people want to eat healthy, they don’t always know how, even if the food is there. It’s an ongoing challenge.”

Schell hopes a grant will be funded to provide cooking classes at the market, which launched its 2012 season last week. The Market will run every Saturday through late fall in Forsyth Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., offering organic and fresh local produce. Providing “food for all” is the Market’s motto, and the board has worked to accept government–issued EBT cards and, thanks to prolific grant– writing, offers double the amount spent on EBTs up to $25. But Schell says the Forsyth Farmers Market has struggled to attract Savannah’s poorer residents. Though it’s only five blocks from the former Food Lion, she acknowledges that it’s not the same as having a store open everyday: “We’re only here only four hours a week, and that doesn’t necessarily work for everybody.” Mayor Jackson says she’ll encourage community leaders to spread the word about the market and to the areas around the closed Food Lion. She also committed to working with Healthy Savannah to bring more education to the neighborhood. “The city wants to partner with people who will teach people in public housing how to prepare healthy meals, how to use the fresh produce,” she said. “We can make this city healthier.” Diana Morrison welcomes the challenge and sees Savannah’s food deserts as a priority for the fledgling non–profit. “Healthy Savannah will continue to push to allow our entire community to have the same opportunities,” she promised. “It will make a huge difference in who we are two generations from now.” CS

FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

news & opinion FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

environment

Eco updatE

Monitoring no more

The U.S. Dept. of Energy announced last month that it won’t be able to fund independent radiation monitoring in the Georgia communities surrounding the Savannah River Site (SRS). The site currently houses the Savannah River National Laboratory and the Tritium Extraction Facility on 300 acres south of Augusta, just across the river from nuclear power facility Plant Vogtle. Last week, Plant Vogtle received the governby Jessica leigh lebos | jll@connectsavannah.com ment’s blessing to begin construction on two new reactors. Federally–funded testing of drinking water, soil, air and fish in the area has been shelved since 2003, but in 2010, DOE officials offered Look, we know keeping up with all the lo$750K a year for five years to pay for third– cal ecological concerns can be overwhelmparty analysis. Last year the offer was cut down ing. Here are some recent developments to $300K a year for three years, and now the DOE says it won’t be writing any checks at all. on the environmental scene: Jim Giusti, DOE spokesperson at SRS, lamented the decision not to move the grant forward. “We understand Georgia’s desire to have an independent review,” he told Connect. “But because of budget constraints, we just don’t have the money.” South Carolina’s funds to monitor radiation levels around SRS are still in place, and the need for another program across the state line was seen as redundant. Giusti said SRS also performs rigorous daily analysis of its own and that according to its data, radiation levels have been decreasing every year in the water and soil. “We characterize, quantify and evaluate the effects and impact of the Savannah River the two nuclear reactors at plant vogtle will soon be joined by two more. Site to the public and the

Plenty to mull over upriver and downstream

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environment,” he assured. Tom Clements, the Nonproliferation Policy Director for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability and longtime SRS watchdog, had been hoping the DOE would “reprogram” funds from another account to resuscitate the monitoring program. He doesn’t buy the DOE’s plea of poverty. “It isn’t very much money,” Clements wrote in an email, referring to DOE’s overall budget, and wondered if there was “some hidden political reason inside the DOE for blocking this.” In other SRS news, the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future released its long–awaited nuclear waste strategy last month. Though it didn’t come to a permanent solution for the disposal of what comes out of nuclear energy’s back end, it reiterated the need for “prompt efforts” to develop interim “consolidated storage facilities” where spent fuel can sit in the meantime. Those hoping to direct more revenue streams towards SRS want to offer up the site as a repository for the entire nation’s spent nuclear fuel, not only to gather up the government dollars sure to follow but to boost the site’s burgeoning reprocessing plant, which continues to be built in spite of not having the proper permit. Since SRS is already storing toxic waste from Plant Vogtle and its other tenants, the line of reasoning is that it may as well take on everyone else’s. Clint Wolfe, the executive director of pro– nuclear Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness, saw the Commission recommendation as an opportunity to cheerlead for moving such a plan forward. “With this expertise and more already existing at SRS, it would be foolish to try to reproduce these capabilities at any other site,” Wolfe wrote in an Aiken Standard op–ed on Feb. 3. Clements’ response echoes that of several Georgia and South Carolina conservation groups: “We will not allow the Savannah River Site to become the de facto Yucca Mountain without a big fight.”

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Since last May, the condition of south Georgia’s drought has been upgraded from “extreme” to “exceptional,” the highest drought classification. For now it might mean only being allowed to water your lawn on certain days, but there may be drier times ahead: According to U.S. Army Corps of Engineer data, releases from the Thurmond Dam into the Savannah River have been steadily decreasing for the past decade. Average yearly outflows rarely dipped below 5000 cubic feet per second (cfs) from 1954 to 2000, but have dropped into the 4000s several times since. This presents problems for water–intensive projects like Plant Vogtle’s new-era 3 and 4 reactors, projected to draw up to 40 million gallons a day from the river, as well as the Corps’ own Savannah Harbor Deepening Plan, which, based on the current water data, may introduce a higher percentage of saltwater into the freshwater supply than

previously posited. Steve Willis, chair of the Georgia Sierra Coastal Group, is concerned about the drop in flow. “The Corps should explain these seemingly significant changes and re–evaluate their assertion that their models and analysis can accommodate any reasonably expected changes in climate patterns and sea rise,” wrote Willis in a forum earlier this year. “To be wrong on this could have grave implications not just for the Corps’ projects, but for the future environmental, economic and quality of life of the Lower Savannah.” Willis says he has yet to receive any response from the Corps, but hopes Savannah Water and Sewer director John Sawyer can answer these and other questions about protecting Savannah’s freshwater supply. Sawyer speaks at the next Sierra Group meeting Thursday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church at 520 Washington Ave. The event is free and open to the public.

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It’s known in Georgia’s General Assembly as the “Saltwater Fishery Management Improvement Act of 2012,” but Doug Haymans, Coastal Resources Division Policy Coordinator for the Dept. of Natural Resources, calls it a “labor of love.” Haymans and DNR Coastal Resources Director Spud Woodward have helped author a new bill on the docket in the House of Representatives that could change how Georgia’s saltwater fisheries are managed. House Bill 869 asks for several amendments to Title 27 of the Official Code of Georgia, the most significant of which would give the Board of Natural Resources more authority to respond to environmental changes, implement science–based measures and set catch and size limits of the fish and invertebrate species living along the coast. In its current state, the management of saltwater fishing is a labyrinth of bureaucracy, with Georgia General Assembly retaining responsibility for some species while the Board of Natural Resources and the Commissioner of Natural Resources oversee others. For example, when DNR officers suspected that the spotted sea trout was being overfished, it took over a year for official fishing limits to be set. “The General Assembly was the on the is the only one who could limit the numbers, but they only meet three months out of the year,” explained Haymans from Atlanta where he was presenting the bill. “We couldn’t put the brakes on.”

He says the bill streamlines saltwater fishing through DNR just like the freshwater and wildlife policies already in place. It would also allow for short term closure on a species in the case of an environmental disaster. “The assembly will still set the framework, but this will allow DNR better day–to–day management of these fish populations,” he said. Tybee Island–based Coastal Conservation Association Executive Director Michael Denmark says his group fully supports the bill. He and the CCA have organized a program for anglers, fisherman and anyone else interested in the deeper aspects of saltwater fisheries management. “People don’t always understand the reasons behind catch limits and size limits,” said Denmark, who was also in Atlanta last week to lend his support to the bill. “We wanted to give people an opportunity to see how complex the entire process is to the well–being of the Georgia coast.” The program takes place at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15 at Armstrong Center, 13040 Abercorn St., and features expert speakers, including the aforementioned Woodward as well as John Duren, Commissioner for Georgia on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, Duane Harris of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) and Dr. Carolyn Belcher, Scientific Advisor to the SAFMC. The event is free and open to the public. CS

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11 FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

Water woes

news & opinion

environment | from previous page

news & opinion FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

blotter ALL CASES FROM RECENT SAvANNAH/ CHATHAM POLICE DEPT. INCIDENT REPORTS

What a fine meth Two people are in custody following the seizure of a methamphetamine lab by the Chatham–Savannah Counter Narcotics Team (CNT).

CNT received a tip concerning a clandestine lab in a hotel at I–95 and Hwy 204. A search of the room resulted in the seizure of a non–active methamphetamine lab, Roxicodone – a highly abused prescription pain medication, and drug related items. Though the lab was not active, it was in the early stages of set up. Agents found evidence of previous methamphetamine cooks. CNT arrested 28–year–old Christopher Polsin Jr. of Savannah and 32– year–old Stephanie Brown of Pooler. Both suspects were charged with Manufacturing Methamphetamine, Trafficking Methamphetamine, Possession of a Controlled Substance

with Intent to Distribute and additional felony drug related charges. Polsin and Brown were both denied bond. Polsin was previously arrested by CNT for meth-related activity in July 2011 and was out on bond in that case. • A 26–year–old Rincon man was rushed to treatment after leaving a gun show and accidentally shooting himself at the Savannah Civic Center. Charles Lake was taken to Memorial University Medical Center after the 5:10 p.m. shooting that injured his leg. Detective said Lake purchased the pistol at a gun show in the Civic Center and returned with it. He unloaded the gun to enter the show and was reloading it outside when it fired. • A 15–year–old who attempted to set his grandmother’s couch on fire has been charged with eight offenses after also setting fire to a nearby store and trying to break into another. The teenager was arrested after a foot pursuit with Islands Precinct

officers who found him near a Sprint store when they answered a burglar alarm in the 2400 block of Skidaway Drive about 3:45 a.m. He admitted also setting fire to a trash can next to a boarded–up window at a computer shop in the 3000 block of Skidaway about an hour earlier in what he said was an attempt to break into the store. His grandmother had reported he had knocked holes in the wall of her apartment and tried to set the sofa on fire earlier in the night. • The Police Marine Patrol has recovered two stolen boats, and has made arrest in both cases. Jan. 24, a possible abandoned boat was in the parking lot of Intra Coastal Environmental on Causton Bluff Street. An investigation revealed the boat and motor had been reported stolen in Louisiana. The boat was seized at Hale Marina.

On Jan. 25, James Miller, 40, was at Hale Marina attempting to retrieve the boat. He left before officers arrived. Within days detectives were able to make contact with Miller. He claimed he bought the boat for $23,000 cash while he was working in Louisiana and produced a bill of sale. It was determined that the boat was stolen and authorities in Louisiana were unable to verify the seller from the bill of sale Miller had. On Feb. 1, Miller was served a warrant at his home, was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Chatham County Detention Center and charged with Possession of Stolen Property from another State (16-8-8) and Failure to Register Vessel (52-7-5). CS GIvE ANONYMOUS CRIME TIPS TO CRIMESTOPPERS AT 234-2020

I heard about a colorblind soldier who was a spotter in helicopter patrols because he could pick out camouflage from background foliage. I read about a study linking colorblindness in animals to selective pressure. Is there evolutionary advantage to colorblindness? —Luke This may seem counterintuitive, but the answer sometimes is yes. The case can be made that acute color vision is a primitive trait that tends to disappear as organisms and societies become more advanced. We’ve already lost acute color vision once in our evolutionary history, then got a version of it back later.

IT’S ANOTHER EXCLUSIVE

kicked butt. Without color to distract them, they spotted the target as easily as with a monochrome pattern. The same held true when each target rectangle was replaced with a capital A while the background rectangles were replaced with Bs. Despite this difference, randomly coloring the letters red or green flummoxed those with normal color vision. The dichromats, on the other hand, were unperturbed. But that only happened when the colors were red and green. When the colors were red and blue, they were as confused as those with normal vision. It’s a long leap from a lab experiment to the battlefield, and an even bigger one to say human color vision is evolving into a less sophisticated state. But consider: • About 8 percent of males have some colorblindness. Sure, we civilized softies coddle our defectives now rather than letting them die on hillsides. However, one researcher claims, 8 percent is more than can be explained by random variation. He speculates colorblindness may offer positive reproductive advantage. • A UK study found that colorblindness was most common in the urbanized southeastern part of the country, repeatedly overrun by invaders. It was much

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less so in the more rural north and west, where inhabitants were more likely to descend from original tribes. • We mammals have much less elaborate color vision than many species. Most birds and fish are tetrachromats, meaning their retinas have color receptors, or cones, specializing in four different hues, enabling them to see colors in the ultraviolet range invisible to us. Mammals generally are dichromats. It’s thought that’s because most mammals are nocturnal, where the advantage is in having more rods in your retina, providing better night vision and color vision be damned. Even today most primates are dichromats. Only a few species including humans are trichromats, with three types of cone, a trait we’re thought to have re-evolved when our ancestors took to foraging in daylight and better color vision improved ability to find fruit. Does that mean our color vision will again deteriorate, or will the need to distinguish colors to avoid car wrecks and win at video games stem the monochromatic tide? Give it a few thousand years and we’ll find out. CS by cecil aDams

news & opinion

Let’s start with the claim that colorblind soldiers are better at seeing through camouflage. This notion has been kicking around since at least 1940, but despite the usefulness of such an ability, for a long time no one bothered doing an investigation other than one unpublished military study indicating there was nothing to it. Recent research suggests maybe there is. In a study published in 1992, scientists flashed a pattern on a video monitor: a 30-by-30 grid of small rectangles, all oriented vertically except within a random 7-by-7 “target area” where the rectangles were horizontal. Participants were asked to press one of four buttons to indicate what quadrant the target area had appeared in. Some participants had normal color vision, while others, dichromats (I’ll explain below), had severe colorblindness. In the first trial, all the rectangles were the same color, and participants in both groups had little difficulty spotting the target. In the next trial, the rectangles were randomly colored red or green. This time around, those with normal color vision did poorly—all they saw in the brief time the pattern appeared (a fifth of a second) was a jumble of red and green. The dichromats, on the other hand,

13 FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

slug signorino

the straight Dope

news & opinion FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

news oF the weirD LEAD STORY Sri Lanka has, as an “unwritten symbol of pride and culture,” the world’s highest per-capita rate for eye-donation, according to a January Associated Press dispatch from Colombo. Underpinning this national purpose is the country’s Buddhist tradition that celebrates afterlives. “He’s dead,” said a relative of an eye recipient about the donor, “but he’s still alive. His eye can still see the world.” Doctors even report instances in which Sri Lankans consider giving up an eyeball while still alive, as a measure of virtue. A new state-of-the-art clinic, funded by Singaporean donors, is expected to nearly double Sri Lanka’s eyeball exports.

The Way the World Works • Melissa Torres was a passenger in an April 2011 auto accident in Texas City, Texas, in which the five people involved were reported “uninjured” by police, and indeed, Torres was released from the Mainland Medical Center emergency room after a routine evaluation (for which she was billed $4,850). In fact, records from April 2011 until September showed her balance as $4,850. However, in December, Mainland learned that Torres had made an insurance claim against the driver and settled it for $30,000. The hospital quickly “updated” her balance to $20,211 and filed a claim against the settlement. • Hospitals, of course, are obligated to render emergency care to anyone

who needs it, even to undocumented oblivious of the imminent danger, immigrants and irrespective of abilRothschild was arrested on Dec. 7 after ity to pay. However, various state laws, a months-long campaign to entice such as New York’s, also prohibit hosanother minor girl to engage in sex. pitals from releasing a patient who has The Force Is Not With You no safe place to be discharged to. A January New York Times report noted • In November, Rickie La Touche, that New York City hospitals currently 30, was convicted in England’s Preshouse about 300 of those “continuing ton Crown Court of killing his wife care” patients, with many in the fivein a rage over her having allegedly year-long range and one patient now destroyed the Darth Vader and in his 13th year. (In some states, Luke Skywalker memoraeven, the laws’ wording permits bilia that he had collected “pop drops,” in which adult since childhood. And in children leave “ailing” parents January, a judge in PortLife in the at a hospital when the children land, Ore., ordered a bike Lane decide they need a break.) 45-day jail sentence, plus • A November Comtel airmental evaluation, for lines charter flight from India David Canterbury, 33, to Birmingham, England, after he attacked Toys R stopped in Vienna, Austria, to Us customers with a lightrefuel, but the pilots learned that saber in each hand. And in Comtel’s account was overdrawn February in Brooklyn, N.Y., and that the airport required the Flynn Michael expanded his equivalent of about $31,000 for search for his stolen $400 refueling and take-off charges, custom-made lightsaber. and thus, if the passengers were “I guess that’s the joke,” in a hurry, they needed to come said Michael, self-pityingly. up with the cash. After a six-hour “Some Jedi I turned out to be.” standoff, many of the 180 passengers Names in the News were let off the plane, one by one, to visit an ATM, and eventually a settle• Recent Newsmakers: In a Christment was reached. mas Eve alcohol-related auto accident in Buffalo, N.Y., the injured victims Just Can’t Stop Himself included Chad Beers, and the man charged was Richard Booze Jr. In BurPaul Rothschild, 40, was facing a nett County, Wis., in October, Scott Dec. 9 court date in Lake County, Ill., Martini, 51, was arrested for suspicion on a charge of indecent solicitation of a of DUI, which would be his fourth minor — a charge that could have sent offense. In Madison, Wis., in January, him to prison for five years. Apparently

police filed weapon and drug charges against the 30-year-old man who had legally changed his name to Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop. And charged with vandalism of a Rhode Island state troopers’ barracks in November was the 27-year-old Mr. Wanker Rene. • In 2011, for the first time in 10 years, Jose was not the most popular baby name in Texas (it was Jacob), but more interesting were the outlier names from the birth register examined by the Houston Press in December. Among last year’s Houston babies were boys with the first names Aa’den, Z’yun, Goodness, Godswill, Clever, Handsome, Sir Genius and Dallas Cowboys. Girls’ names included Gorgeousg’zaiya, A’Miracle, Dae’Gorgeous and Praisegod. The newspaper had previously combed the register of convicts in Harris County (Houston) and found Willie Nelson de Ochoa, Shi’tia Alford, Petrono Tum Pu, Charmin Crew and Anal Exceus.

People Different From Us • Bill Robinson, 66, of Decatur, Ga., was arrested on a misdemeanor firearm charge in December for gathering holiday mistletoe in the “best way” he knew — shooting it out of a tree with a 12-gauge shotgun. The fact that the tree was in the parking lot of the suburban North DeKalb Mall (filled with holiday shoppers) apparently completely escaped his attention. “Well,” said Robinson to WGCL-TV, “about the time I did it, I got to thinking about it. ... I

Least Competent Criminals • Not Ready for Prime Time: Mostafa Hendi was charged with attempted robbery of the We Buy Gold store in Hendersonville, N.C., in December, but clerk Derek Mothershead stopped him. As Hendi reached for the money, Mothershead punched him in the face, momentarily knocking him out cold. He held Hendi down with one hand and called 911 with the other, and as the two waited for police, Mothershead handed Hendi cleanser and paper towels and ordered him to clean up his blood off

of the floor. • Needed to Think It Through Better: Car salesman Frank Ready was showing his inventory to Pedro Prieto and Yordan Llauger at his lot in Austin, Texas, in December, and they had settled on a Nissan Maxima for around $9,000. “They asked if I took Visa,” Ready told KVUE-TV. “I said, ‘Yeah.’” The next day, Prieto and Llauger returned with 90 $100 Visa gift cards. Naturally, Ready called police, who later found at least 28 counterfeit credit cards on the pair and charged them and a third person with fraud and identity theft.

Recurring Themes Almost No Longer Weird: (1) Fifteen firefighters on three crews (estimated cost per hour, the equivalent of $1,400) were dispatched to Norwich market in Norwich, England, in January to rescue a gull entangled on tree branches and, according to the animal rescue society, “in distress.” (2) Women in Dado village on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao went “on strike” last year to persuade the men to stop their fighting over land disputes. (“If you do bad things,” a September Agence France-Presse dispatch quoted one woman, “you will be cut off, here,” motioning below her waist.) These sex strikes do not

always work, but, reported AFP, this one did.

The Jesus and Mary World Tour (all-new!) Recent Public Appearances of Jesus and/or the Virgin Mary: Wiltshire, England, June (Jesus in candle wax dripping from a church’s pulpit). Anderson County, S.C., July (Jesus on a Walmart receipt). Kinston, N.C., June (Jesus’ body on a cross formed by kudzu on a telephone pole). Orpington, England, December (Jesus on a sock). CS by chuck shepherD universal press synDicate

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by bill Deyoung | bill@connectsavannah.com

PhiL keeLing: Conquistadork At 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17 Muse Arts Warehouse, 703D Louisville Road. Free Surprise! Standup comedy has become a commodity in Savannah. At Bay Street Theatre, there’s a monthly show called the Savannah Comedy Revue, featuring regional and even national comedians. The Wormhole brings in A–list standups once a month, too. The grassrootsiest, however, is a local movement called — at least on its Facebook page — We Need a Comedy Scene in Savannah. Phil Keeling is a charter member of this loosely–knit association of funnymen and women, which has been putting comics on local bar and restaurant stages — with increasing frequency — for nearly two years. Keeling, 29, is taking the next step by recording his show Friday, Feb. 17 at Muse Arts Warehouse. Admission is free to the 8 p.m. performance, which Keeling has called Conquistadork. He’s making a CD because, well, he’s taking comedy seriously. “I’ve always been a standup comedy junkie,” Keeling says. “And I can’t believe it took this long to realize this was the natural flow of things.” Along with Shane Gray, Lee Keeler, Christopher Soucy, Chris Davison and a handful of others, Keeling first took to the standup stage at the Sentient Bean’s Open Mic Comedy Night. “I was an actor, and I’ve always been a writer, and I tended toward comedy writing,” he explains. “Don’t get me wrong, I definitely went through that phase of being pretentious as all get–out, trying to write the play, the book or the poem that would set the literary world on fire, but the things that actually got published and produced were the ones that I just wrote to be funny.” In the early Bean days, there were never enough comedians. “You’d get your 15 minutes, and then we’d literally run out of performers,” says Keeling. “So the host would say ‘Uhhhh ... if anybody

wants to come back up again ....’ “And now, you have to get there 30 to 40 minutes early to get on the list. It’s absurd. There’s so much interest in it. It’s just been growing and growing, and last month we had a show somewhere every few days.” The guys now regularly gig in Hilton Head, Bluffton, Beaufort and even Statesboro. “Basically, if you’ve got a microphone and you’ll give us 50

bucks, we’ll friggin’ be there.” Redneck bars, as Keeling calls them, are the truest test of one’s mirth–making mettle. If the crowd doesn’t like you, they’ll quickly let you know. Heckling “makes you better,” he says. “It makes you funnier and keeps you on your toes. And it really separates the great comedians from the good ones.” He doesn’t, however, appreciate being ignored. “If a person screams ‘You suck!’ at me or something, I can handle that,” he explains. “That doesn’t bother me one bit. Because he probably wasn’t paying attention in the first place. “It’s when people talk over you and just won’t pay attention at all. That will shake you. Make ‘em laugh? Awesome. Make ‘em scream at you? Cool! But when they just ignore you, that doesn’t feel good.” A few months ago, Keeling went to Los Angeles to visit his old Savannah pal Keeler, who managed to wrangle him a 15–minute stint onstage at the legendary Improv club. That’s when Keeling decided to take the plunge, declare himself a full–time comedian and record a local show, in order to get some attention. “I think I’m good at what I do,” he says. “I have a lot of confidence in it; if I didn’t, I wouldn’t try. But being one of the best comedians in Savannah is like being the world’s tallest midget. “I don’t need to be famous or rich. If I could pay my bills by going around and telling jokes, I’d be the happiest damn guy in the free world. That would thrill me.” There are several Phil Keeling live video clips on YouTube. CS

senD in your stuFF! club owners and performers: Soundboard is a free service - to be included, please send your live music information weekly to bill@connectsavannah.com. Questions? Call (912) 721-4385.

WEDNESDAY

Drift away cafe Chuck Courtenay (Live Music) Jazz’d tapas bar Eddie Wilson (Live Music) kevin barry’s irish pub Irish music live wire music hall James McMurtry (Live Music) 9:30 p.m. retro on congress Tommy Beaumont (Live Music) savannah smiles Dueling Pianos (Live Music) wormhole The Heavy Pets (Live Music) KARAOKE & TRIvIA hang Fire Trivia Jinx Rock & Roll Bingo king’s inn Karaoke rachael’s 1190 Trivia mcDonough’s Karaoke

THURSDAY

69 east tapas bar Georgia Kyle (Live Music) applebee’s (garden city) Karaoke b. mathews Duo Gitano (gypsy jazz) (Live Music) 6 p.m. bay street blues Hitman Blues Band (Live Music) boiler room Live DJ hide-a-way Live DJ island grill Wally Brown (Live Music) Jazz’d tapas bar Trae

FRIDAY

continues from p.16 Gurley (Live Music) Jinx Free Candy, The Kooties (Live Music) live wire music hall TBA (Live Music) mcDonough’s Karaoke molly maguire’s The Courtenay Brothers (Live Music) murphy’s law Live DJ pour larry’s Live DJ retro on congress Nathan & Friends (Live Music) rocks on the roof Jeff Beasley (Live Music) savannah smiles Dueling Pianos (Live Music) wild wing cafe DominoCONNECT Effect (Live Music)

SAVANNAH crop ad to 4.6875 X 5 renowned acoustic musicians mike compton and David greer are at randy wood guitars saturday, Feb. 18

69 east tapas bar Jason Courtenay (Live Music) augie’s pub Cee Cee & the Creeps (Live Music) blowin’ smoke Danielle Howle and Bret Mosley (Live Music) Dizzy Dean’s Richard Steven & the Midnight Blues (Live Music) Fiddler’s (southside) Georgia Kyle & the Magical Flying Machine (Live Music) Flip Flop tiki bar Sincerely, Iris (Live Music) island grill John O’Mary (Live Music) Jazz’d tapas bar The MS3 (Live Music) Jukebox The Magic Rocks (Live Music) kevin barry’s irish pub Irish music live wire music hall Sea Daddies (Live Music) loco’s grill & pub Bloodkin (Live Music) continues on p. 22

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Step right up, ladies and gentlemen and everybody in between. Saturday’s No Control Festival is your one–stop shopping center for performances by many of Savannah’s finest – and busiest – indie bands. All together, in one space. Plus a great many of their talented friends. The event, which Connect Savannah is thrilled to help sponsor, is being organized by the three members of Cusses, whose just–released debut album is causing quite a stir. “We knew all year that we wanted to do a really big concert event,” says singer Angel Bond, “celebrating all the

people that have believed in us and have supported us in this community. “And all the bands on the bill are bands that we have played with several times, that have showed us a lot of love in other cities. And local bands that have supported us in our little No Control venue.” No Control is Cusses’ former practice space, on E. 40th St., which they’ve been using to bring in a whole boatload of southeastern bands for house concerts. Saturday’s festival, at Southern Pine Company, is Cusses’ attempt at paying it forward. Adds Bond: “Music is a community, it’s a family, and so we want to let the whole of Savannah come and enjoy it – the people that we love doing what they do best.” The No Control Festival is an all–ages event, which means that although alcohol will be available

— along with food — those under 21 will not be barred from the door, the way it is in Savannah’s bars. Several of these acts, Cusses included, have rarely been seen by those who couldn’t legally get into a nightclub. Cusses are playing a relatively early set, Bond explains, “for the underage people that never get to see us, particularly Bryan Harder’s kids.” (Harder, the band’s guitarist, has two small children who’ve never really understood what Daddy does in the evenings.) “It’s not just the music,” explains Cusses drummer Brian Lackey. “We’ve got Primary Art Supply doing things for kids, a couple of Harlem Globetrotters who live here in town are gonna be shooting hoops, there are skate ramps, music tents for kids, bouncy balls for kids. We’re going to run the whole gamut, from noon till

music

Feature | continued from previous page

left: general oglethorpe & the panhandlers. above: today the moon, tomorrow the sun. right: octopus Jones

4 a.m. And I think the gamut will get older as the night gets older.” The guests are: The Shaniqua Brown: This will be the final Savannah show for the Charleston–based funk ‘n’ fun quintet. “I’m ready to move on, man,” says lead singer Rachael Kate Gillon, who reports she has a “new project” in the works. “I guess my heart wasn’t in it as much any more, with this band. Although I love those boys and all, it just wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to pursue for the rest of my life.” Octopus Jones: From Myrtle Beach, the band calls its music “Spank–wave Boogie,” a blend of surf rock, psychedelic, post–punk, art rock and weirdness. Today the Moon Tomorrow the Sun: A perennial fave in the SAV, Lauren, Micah, Cregg and Jeremy (from Atlanta) are sorta like the ABBA of electro dance/pop, with great tunes and a very hard edge. Baby Baby: Some of the biggest buzz coming out of Hot ‘Lanta this year has been coming from this funky, punky party band, which has as much Ohio Players in its blood as Chili Peppers. General Oglethorpe and the Panhandlers: Savannah’s quirky pop gang is now a quintet, with classically–trained Daniel Wilson on keyboards and Crystina Parker playing bass. “We’re kicking off 2012 pretty grandly,” says accordion player, songwriter and vocalist Anna Chandler. “We actually have a new EP, North of

the River, a single and a tour coming up in the next two months.” Heyrocco: Charleston’s three–piece heavy rock/experimental band tore it up during a recent debut Savannah gig at No Control. Twin Tigers: Brilliantly hypnotic pop ‘n’ roll from Athens. Twin Tigers played the inaugural Savannah Stopover in 2011. KidSyc@Brandywine: Lane Gardner, Charles Hodge, Dan Butler and Derrick Larry are the musical hip hop powerhouse, with rapper Lloyd Harold, aka KidSyc, out front making

no control Festival

where: Southern Pine Co., 616 E. 35th St. when: Starts at noon Saturday, Feb. 18 admission: $10 public, $8 students, under 13 free A portion of the proceeds donated to Harambee House No outside alcohol, no backpacks please band schedule: 1–1:40 p.m.: General Oglethorpe and the Panhandlers 1:50–2:30 p.m.: Whaleboat 2:40–3:10 Roland 3:20–4 p.m.: Heyrocco 4:10–4:50 p.m.: KidSyc@Brandywine 5–5:40 p.m.: Niche 5:50–6:30 p.m.: Cusses 6:40–7:20 p.m.: Twin Tigers 7:30–8:10 p.m.: Manray 8:20–9 p.m.: The Shaniqua Brown 9:10–9:50 p.m.: Baby Baby 10–10:50 p.m.: Today the Moon Tomorrow the Sun 11–11:50 p.m.: Octopus Jones Midnight: Floor Flexers DJs

WELCOME

with the words. One of Savannah’s most popular bands, they’ve recently released a strong and melodic CD called The Capitol Records Sessions. Manray: Another Athens import, brothers Ryan, Jordan and Derek Olivera, with Gene Woolfolk, are known for proggy time signature changes. “Our music is always weird to describe,” the band explains. “It is rooted in a lot of the progressive music of years gone by, like Yes, King Crimson and Pink Floyd . . . kind of. But we also have a really straight forward side that appreciates good parts, hooks, and structure, unlike a lot of the ‘math–rock’ bands we are often grouped in with . . . kind of.” Niche: Old–school Southern boogie with cool twists of melody and dynamic from Savannah’s Justin Dick, Michael Redmond, Scott Johansen and Corey Barhorst. Early incarnations included future members of Kylesa, Dead Yet? and Black Tusk. Whaleboat: The Savannah band bio reads, in part: “Whaleboat’s blend of reverb drenched melody, southerngazed distorted guitars, & precise tidal drumming will draw comparisons to Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine and The Cure.” Jeremiah, Paul and Brent makes atmospheric music with titles like “Sea’s Crashing,” “Fluke” and “Whaling,” with an EP due any day now. This is a band to watch. Roland: An Asheville, N.C. pop/ rock band relocated, for the time being, in Savannah (blame SCAD), Roland consists of Burnia Ross Martin, Corey Hines, Keenan Burant and Rusty Roland. CS

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by bill Deyoung | bill@connectsavannah.com

MON-THURS: 11AM-1AM FRI & SAT: 11AM-2AM SUN: 11AM-1AM

kirk mcleod, left, has been the driving force behind seven nations since the band’s inception

The son of a traveling U.S. Air Force dad and an English mum, Kirk McLeod was 11 when the family left Great Britain for suburban Central Florida.

Fri. Feb 17th $2 Killian’s Bottles Shamrock Shots Green Beer & Beads Car Bomb Specials

Across the pond, he’d developed a fondness for traditional Celtic music and its instrumentation, the bagpipes in particular. McLeod’s father signed him for a Scottish arts summer camp in North Carolina, where the young musician was taught the difficult art of piping by some of the best instructors in the country. At the same time, he’d scored a guitar and was learning how to rock ‘n’ roll. “Once I started playing pipes, I’d go to compete at Scottish arts festivals around the country,” McLeod explains. “But on the weekdays, I had a garage band with my middle school buddies.” That, in a nutshell, was the genesis of Seven Nations, the band headlining this weekend’s Savannah Irish Festival in the Civic Center. “I was like, ‘Why am I doing both?

They should be put together.’ It seemed like no–brainer to me.” He had an affinity for hard, chugging power–pop music, the sort of punchy melodic stuff that begged for electric guitars, bass and drums. At first, he hesitated to put his plan into action. “As a kid, I was such a purist about the bagpipes and traditional music that I could never imagine it,” says McLeod. “Because I was studying with some of the real greats at the time, and they’re purists. “To imagine moving that culture into something else was really drastic, in my eyes. I was like the golden child with all my instructors.” It was 1993 when he first attempted to fuse traditional Celtic instrumentation with rock ‘n’ roll. “We were living in New York City at the time,” McLeod recalls, “and I brought some childhood friends up

to work with me on the first incarnation of Seven Nations. A lot of the songs were very hard–edged, power– pop stuff with pipes and all that. Very much like we still do now.” For a period, the band — originally known as Clan Na Gael — included an all–acoustic offshoot, heavy on the Great Highland pipes, tin whistle and mandolin. Audiences, McLeod and his bandmates discovered, preferred the plaid puree of their harder–edged stuff. So they bailed out of the acoustic sets. “At first we took a lot of old, traditional songs and tried to update them into a rock format,” he says. “And obviously, no matter how well you play them, you’re going to get some controversy there. But from maybe 1999 on, we’ve only really done songs that we’ve written ourselves. “What we do is, when we throw the pipes and fiddle in, we don’t masturbate with them. We don’t let them go too far off the track. We keep them traditionally sounding good. “The bagpipe movements are played incredibly well. A piping judge would really appreciate the way

Feature | continued from previous page

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ON THE RED CARPET: savannah’s own harry o’Donoghue is among the performers on the irish Festival mainstage.

they’re being played, even though it’s in this format. And the same with the fiddle. As far as the playing is concerned, we stick to our traditional roots. But with the songwriting, we try to take it further.” Seven Nations has recorded a dozen albums, including the successful A Celtic Rock Tribute to the Cure, and a pair of Christmas EPs. That’s the band’s music you hear under the opening titles of ESPN’s Extreme Sports program. McLeod knows his unique marriage of high–caliber Celtic musicianship and big–balls rock ‘n’ roll isn’t for everybody, particularly the purists. “It’s probably to our detriment,” says. “Instead of playing the old favorites, taking the easy route, we’ve always taken the higher route and tried to be true. And not just sell out to what would make the audience happy, just for the sake of doing that. “It would be so much easier just to play ‘Scotland the Brave’ or ‘Danny Boy’ or something like that, and just do it with energy. The audience would love it.” CS

sAvAnnAh IrIsh FestIvAl where: Savannah Civic Center, 301 W. Oglethorpe Ave. when: Feb. 17–19 tickets: $12 per one day ticket (Saturday or Sunday); $16 two–day ticket. Under 14 free céilí (irish dance): 7 p.m. Friday ($5 donation) mainstage schedule saturday: 10:15 a.m.: Opening Ceremony with St. vincent’s Academy Chorale 11:45 a.m.:12:30 Glor na Daire Dancers 12:45 p.m.: Na Fidleiri 1:45 p.m.: Morning Star 2:45 p.m.: Ennis 3:45 p.m.: Irish Dancers of Savannah 4:45 p.m.: Harry O’Donoghue 6–7 p.m.: Seven Nations sunday: Noon: Irish Dancers of Savannah 1 p.m.: Seamus Kennedy 2 p.m.: Harry O’Donoghue 3 p.m.: Glor na Daire Dancers 4 p.m.: Ennis 5–6 p.m.: Morning Star and Finale

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continues from p.17 molly macpherson’s scottish pub Dave Berry (Live Music) molly maguire’s Eric Britt (Live Music) rancho allegre Jody Espina Trio (Live Music) retro on congress Fletcher Trio (Live Music) rock house (tybee) Souls Harbor (Live Music) sandfly bar Train Wrecks (Live Music) savannah smiles Dueling Pianos (Live Music) warehouse Groovetones (Live Music) wild wing cafe Bucky & Barry, Homemade Wine (Live Music) KARAOKE bay street blues Karaoke Jinx Karaoke king’s inn Karaoke mcDonogh’s Karaoke DJ, OTHER murphy’s law Live DJ pour larry’s Live DJ boiler room Live DJ rogue water Live DJ wormhole Art Fair

SATURDAY

17 hundred 90 Gail Thurmond (Live Music) Piano and vocal 69 east tapas bar Lauren Lapointe & Mark Carter (Live Music) blowin’ smoke Charlie Fog Band (Live Music) Flip Flop tiki bar Georgia Kyle (Live Music) island grill John O’Mary (Live Music) Jazz’d tapas bar The Fundamentals (Live Music) Jinx Kenneth Brian Band, Joshua Black Wilkins (Live Music) kevin barry’s irish pub Irish music live wire music hall Dwight “Black Cat” Carrier (zydeco) (Live Music)

Dwight “black cat” carrier: at live wire Feb. 18 molly maguire’s A Nickel Bag of Funk (Live Music) pour larry’s Chuck Courtenay Band (Live Music) randy wood guitars Mike Compton & David Greer (Live Music) 7:30 p.m. retro on congress Groovetones (Live Music) savannah smiles Dueling Pianos (Live Music) siciliano’s Jan Spillane (Live Music) tybee island social club Marshall Brothers (Live Music) warehouse The Magic Rocks (Live Music) wild wing cafe The Design (Live Music) KARAOKE bay street blues Karaoke Dizzy Dean’s Karaoke rachael’s 1190 Karaoke mcDonough’s Karaoke DJ boiler room Live DJ pour larry’s Live DJ

SUNDAY

17 hundred 90 Gail Thurmond (Live Music) Dizzy Dean’s Karaoke) Jazz’d tapas bar Eric Britt (Live Music) kevin barry’s irish pub Irish music lulu’s chocolate bar Walter Parks (Live Music) mcDonough’s Karaoke molly macpherson’s scottish pub (richmond hill) Trivia Night sandfly bar Lindsapalooza Benefit (Live Music) 1 p.m. Train Wrecks, 2

p.m. Wormsloew, 3 p.m. Junkyard Angel, 4 p.m. American Honeyband, 5 p.m. The Looters, 6 p.m. Damon & the Shitkickers Event begins at 1 p.m. sentient bean AWOL Open Mic Therapy Session 7 p.m. warehouse Thomas Claxton (Live Music) wild wing cafe Individually Twisted (Live Music)

MONDAY

applebee’s (abercorn) bay street blues Trivia Doubles lounge Live DJ Jinx The Pilgrim, Slow Bull, Bear Fight (Live Music) kevin barry’s irish pub Irish music king’s inn Karaoke live wire music hall Acoustic Jam (Live Music) mcDonough’s Karaoke wormhole Open Mic Night w/Craig Tanner (Live Music)

TUESDAY

Dizzy Dean’s Karaoke Foxy loxy cafe Georgia Kyle (Live Music) Jazz’d tapas bar Annie Allman (Live Music) kevin barry’s irish pub Irish music lulu’s chocolate bar Greg Williams (Live Music) warehouse The Hitmen (Live Music) CS

culture For a stage actor, there is no better compliment than being called a Roscius.

It’s a comparison to Quintus Roscius Gallus, a thespian from ancient Rome, largely considered the greatest actor of his time. Ira Aldridge (1807–1867) began performing in New York’s African Grove Theatre Company (in the years before abolition) and went on to great fame and fortune in Europe, for his starring turns in Othello and other Shakespearean works. The London Times dubbed him “The African Roscius.” Avery Brooks, who won the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre in 2007, and has played Othello, King Lear and weighty stage roles from Willy Loman to Oedipus, stars in Ira Aldridge: The African Roscius in two Savannah performances this weekend. Part of the Savannah Black Heritage Festival, it’s a production by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. Brooks, who’s probably best known for his seven seasons as Commander Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, most recently portrayed singer Paul Robeson — another African–American pioneer — with the D.C.–based Shakespeare Theatre Company. Brooks, clearly, is a Roscius for this generation. We spoke to him last week. What can we tell people about this play?

a man for all stages Shakespearean actor Avery Brooks portrays Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge

by bill Deyoung | bill@connectsavannah.com

Avery Brooks: It’s not a full–blown production as such. The fascinating thing is that it is curated. The whole notion of this moving–portrait thing that they developed there at the Portrait Gallery is as reflection of the ability to somehow bring to life what we see in two–dimensional static form. All that history is there on the screen behind. Here’s a mythical conversation between Ira Aldridge and his daughter. What could they have said to each other? What would he have said? What would she have said? So it’s kind of a stream–of–consciousness thing, which is really interesting. It’s like a spirit talking to a live person. What does it teach us about Ira Aldridge? Avery Brooks: What it reveals is who he was, in the context of the time in which he lived. And also specific information about what he said, because he wrote letters. One of the fascinating things about him was that he promoted himself — in that period, if you can imagine. He did all the publicity. He booked himself. And then played, at the same time. That’s remarkable. I guess this couldn’t have happened for him in the States? Avery Brooks: No. That’s exactly why he left here. If you go back to the African Grove Theatre, they shut them down many times. Among other things, they said

‘You can’t do Shakespeare. It’s an abomination for black people to speak this language.’ So he left. There’s this notion of “expatriate.” To find a way to live and express yourself in a human way. Without the bias, or the idea that black people are somehow inferior. Certainly culturally. Did he express disappointment that he couldn’t come back, or didn’t come back? Avery Brooks: The fact is, by the time he wanted to do it, that was at the end of his life so it didn’t happen. But he was completely engaged in what was going on in this country, with people of color. He remained very vigilant about such things. He remained very vigilant about oppression in the world as concerned people of color, especially in Haiti and other places. He had great hope for this country. And I think the optimism that he reflected, even in that time, is symbolically very important in history. But also to understand the optimism that people of color have held for this country. He didn’t abandon it in that way, or denounce. He denounced those things which prevented everybody from having a fair chance. Even to his own peril. Why isn’t he better known? Avery Brooks: Through observation, not an indictment, that is a malady of America. Of this post-socio– historical hypnosis, where one does not connect with what went on two weeks ago, let alone 20 years ago, let alone 100. I would say that generationally now that’s changing, with the advent of the Internet where there’s lots more information. But knowledge, as you know, is the connection. Knowledge is connecting. That I am not in any way, for example, fooled by some acknowledgement of what I’ve done or what I’m doing. Because if it were not for Ira Aldridge, if it were not for Mary McLeod Bethune, Nat Turner, I’m not here. Ossie Davis. That’s why I’m here. And I’m not fooled to thinking that I have somehow emerged to become something that these people struggled and died for — my ability to speak. My ability to talk about culture. My ability to express whatever it is on a human level, let alone artistically. I’m not fooled by any of it. So I am humbled, therefore, in my ability to still be alive, and stand and speak. CS ira aldridge: the african roscius where: AASU Fine Arts Auditorium, 11935 Abercorn St. when: At 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18 admission: Free also: where: Kennedy Fine Arts Auditorium, Savannah State campus, South Tompkins Road when: At 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19 admission: Free

culture

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savannah book Festival

culture

The only thing most people might know about the Comanche Indian tribe is the climactic scene in the 1976 Clint Eastwood film The Outlaw Josey Wales.

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IndIan Summer

S.C. Gwynne chronicles the violent, fascinating history of West Texas by Jim morekis | jim@connectsavannah.com

Voted Best Islands Bar!

You know: when Clint, I mean Josey, rides up to Chief Ten Bears and makes the famous “words of iron” speech, after which they slice their palms and shake hands in a blood oath of friendship? Yup, those are the Comanches. Turns out there’s a whole lot more to know, and that’s what hooked Texas Monthly editor and Boston native S.C. “Sam” Gwynne into the fascinating history of this tribe and their huge influence on the character of Texas and the American West. He writes about it in his nonfiction bestseller Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, and he appears this Saturday at the Savannah Book Festival. The Comanches, in fact, held dominion over a huge part of the continental U.S., called Comancheria by the Spanish and in turn the Mexican government — neither of which wanted any part of the fierce–fighting, hard–riding tribe. The U.S. government also tended to let the warlike Comanches have their way with Texas settlers — prolonged torture, gang–rape, and mutilation of dead bodies were typical Comanche tactics — a dire situation which led to the establishment of the famous Texas Rangers and the founding of the independent Republic of Texas. Empire of the Summer Moon has human stories, too, such as the tale of Cynthia Parker, a white settler kidnapped by Comanches and adopted

into the tribe. She would go on to be the mother of the last free Comanche chief, Quanah Parker. We spoke to Gwynne a few days ago. How in the world did a Bostonian get so into the history of Texas and the old West? S.C. Gwynne: I was initially in Austin as Time magazine bureau chief, covering George Bush and everything else that goes on here. And then I went to work for Texas Monthly. In those jobs I was always traveling around the state, and ended up falling in love with the western part of Texas. And as I did, I started hearing all these Comanche stories. Where I grew up on the east coast, the last Indian was subdued 100 years before my forebears got off the boat in 1715 in Boston. This isn’t true in Texas. In Texas the memories of the frontier are immediate and right here, because it’s essentially only 100 years old. So I just started really getting into this stuff. This will tell you how close the frontier is in Texas: A woman I worked with at Texas Monthly, both her great–grandparents were killed by Comanches. People say all the time, especially in political arguments, “what’s the deal with Texas?” I show your book to them, and try to explain that by definition anyone who survived on the Texas frontier had to be extremely stubborn and have a mean streak.

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You center the book on Quanah Parker, the Comanche chief, but he is by no means the only important character. Tell us about that decision. S.C. Gwynne: Yeah, Quanah pops in and out. That was the key decision. It’s the reason the book is a bestseller. If I did it like a James Michener book, starting at the beginning and moving forward in a linear way, it would never have worked. I think one of the reasons this book is so popular with women in a way that many blood-and-guts Westerns are not, is because it’s essentially the story of a woman and her family. Alternating chapters, I was able to give readers both things: A small, intimate narrative of the Parker family, and the larger big picture about guns and horses and Texas Rangers and the Spanish. It’s an amazing story all around. I can’t believe it’s not better known. S.C. Gwynne: That’s the thing: You didn’t know anything about this stuff, I didn’t know anything about this

stuff. We’re smart guys, we read a lot, and we didn’t know anything about this. I said to myself, look, if I don’t, and people like you don’t, then editors in New York sure as hell don’t! And it became a strength. The greatest compliment I’ve ever gotten was from a woman at a signing. She said, “You know what you wrote here? You wrote a Hey Honey Book!” I said, what’s that? She said, “I’m sitting in the living room and I read something really good or funny, and I’ll go, ‘Hey, honey, did you know that...’” So the fact that nobody knows this stuff becomes a selling point. Editors read it and go, “Oh, I didn’t know that.” If you ask me, Jack Hayes, who founded the Texas Rangers, should be a household word like Davy Crockett. I have no idea why he isn’t, but he should be. He was an amazing man. And what he did in Texas was just the beginning of his career. He was a hero in the Mexican War, he blazed the first trail to El Paso, he was the sheriff in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, he founded Oakland, California.

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But your next book isn’t about Hayes, it’s about Stonewall Jackson, another fascinating Southern figure. S.C. Gwynne: Exactly. In fact my biggest decision on my next book was whether to do Hayes. I’m a Yankee by background, and growing up we didn’t care all that much about the Civil War. One of my journeys in this book is getting into the Confederate point of view. My wife is from the southern part of West Virginia, and she sees the world through Confederate eyes. I’m coming to sympathize with the South. I’m a traitor to my class, I guess (laughs). CS s.c. gwynne @ savannah book Festival when & where: 5:15 p.m. Sat. Feb. 18, Telfair Academy rotunda cost: Free and open to the public info: savannahbookfestival.org

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S.C. Gwynne: I agree 110 percent. When I speak in public I say the very same thing. A friend from New Jersey called me once and said “You’re crazy to live in Texas, they’re last in every social service category,” and all this stuff. I said, look at the 40–year war against the Comanches, where there was no federal government, nobody to help them, they were completely on their own. Gov. Rick Perry called me two months ago and we talked about this very subject. I said, Governor, when I’m on a speaking tour I always end up talking about you. I tell people, look at Rick Perry, that is the inheritor of this long bloody war. Not only with the Comanches, but the war for Texas independence. That’s who it is, that’s who it looks like. If you think for a minute that Texas is going to be different, it just isn’t.

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savannah book Festival

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Real southern cooking.

eat fRee lunch!

by Jim morekis | jim@connectsavannah.com

Janisse Ray first gained a devoted following with her bestseller Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. It’s a heartfelt ode to the beauty and importance of the indigenous and nearly extinct longleaf pine forests of her native South Georgia, which were clear–cut for residential development and the planting of a loblolly/slash pine monoculture to feed the insatiable paper industry. Ray’s newest book is Drifting into Darien: A Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River, and is no less personal and far–reaching in its message of appreciation for Georgia’s natural character. The Altamaha is the largest river system east of the Mississippi and the only undammed river in Georgia. As Drifting into Darien eloquently describes, it’s also one of the last great unspoiled places. Though Ray writes about manmade threats as well as the protective pushback from those who live on and around its banks, the book is a labor of love rather than a polemic. Ray appears at the Savannah Book Festival this Saturday. We spoke to her a couple of weeks ago.

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altamaha drifting

Janisse Ray talks about her favorite part of the planet

Janisse Ray: (laughs) I’d thank you. I would question your aesthetic maybe! It would mean that you like a narrative–driven book better than a lyric– driven book. I’m passionate about stories and how they get saved and how they get lost. The realization as my life on this earth ebbs away, of how little lives on.

This past week I was teaching a writing workshop, memoir and creative nonfiction writing workshop down in Tallahassee. If you’re starting with a basic workshop, you begin with the question, what is a story? It has a beginning, a middle, and an end, it’s a legacy, it’s a lesson, and so on. Somebody in this brainstorming session raised their hand and said, “It’s the dash.” You have the date of your birth and the date of your death, and the story is the dash in between. Apparently lots of people knew that quote, but I didn’t, and I thought it was such a fantastic idea. We just have these dashes on gravestones, if we’re lucky enough to have a gravestone, otherwise it’s just gone. For me the river is a constant through all that, constantly driving its way through the sand. As bad news piles up, I comfort myself by thinking the earth is very resilient and could make us go away with just a shrug and go about its business. Janisse Ray: That’s something we held onto for a long time, that the earth could deal with anything. I don’t believe that to be the case anymore. I think the earth itself is as fragile as life

on earth, and we’re doing irreparable damage. Species are going extinct for eternity, forever extinct. There are things being destroyed now that can never be replaced or returned, ever. So the earth shrugs and humans are gone, and the earth begins to heal, the trajectory of the earth’s evolution, the evolution of life on earth, was interrupted by the intellectual ability of humans. Nothing can change that. So what do we do? Janisse Ray: You have to still do what you know what’s right as a matter of justice. Wendell Berry wrote, “Be joyful though you’ve considered all the facts.” Some years ago I came to the conclusion that hope doesn’t matter to me. Every time I go out and give a talk, somebody has to ask about hope. Do I have hope, and where do I find hope, and what keeps me going. It’s shallow thinking, because hope implies that hope is what motivates us to do everything. If you find out your child has sickle cell anemia or asthma or something, do you then give up hope for the child? Why we do what we do has everything to do with love, and very little to do with hope. Even in the most hopeless situations, people who are filled with love still do what’s necessary to do. That’s much more of a spiritual message than a political one. Janisse Ray: When I give talks now what I talk more about is not how to stay hopeful, but how to stay love– filled. How to keep this force of life that drives us to think of possible solutions for the future — which is what hope is, imagining positive scenarios for the future. Action is beyond all those. A lot of people blame their inaction on feelings of hopelessness. That’s a cop–out. Action lies beyond hope and love.

Janisse Ray: It’s striking how little care we show. We’ve always thought the real collapse would come some generations out. Now we’re seeing that it’s happening in our lifetimes. We’re far behind on rainfall this year, we’re having the warmest winter on record. The ten warmest years on record have been in the past 15 or 20 years. It’s happening right in front of our eyes, and yet even with scientists upping the ante on the timeframe for all this, it’s so amazingly distressing that we don’t see real change. We are surrounded by industrial landscape. Where you are in urban Savannah, they’re thinking about deepening the harbor for industry. Where I live, these industrial/ag landscapes are just creating havoc on the environment. To see nature now is a rare experience. Speaking of that, how would you counsel a newbie to go about enjoying one of the last remaining unspoiled rivers in the South? Janisse Ray: I’d send somebody down to Darien only because the delta is just so beautiful. Cathead Creek is simply a tributary of the Altamaha but there’s a little run down there where you come down to Darien with the tides, a gorgeous little canoe ride. I also love people to experience the inland river, because most of the attention in the state goes to the coast and to the urban centers, especially Atlanta. I think there’s a lot to be found in the rural interior that a brave and tenacious person could find! Paddle Georgia is going on the Altamaha this year. Every summer they choose a different river and this summer they’re coming down the Altamaha. The river is definitely firing in people’s minds.

Were you surprised at the fierce public uproar over the recent Ogeechee River fishkill? Janisse Ray: I was. It was very cool. I heard people say things I never heard them say before, talking about monkey–wrenching and stuff. I think we can attribute that in good part to the people at the Ogeechee Riverkeeper building a huge constituency. And also people like you who made sure it got out into the news. You and I have been in this together awhile now, and it’s definite that we see changes in how people respond to this stuff. I see deep changes happening pretty quickly. For example, we have an organic farm here, and we sell at the Statesboro Farmers Market. Last weekend we organized a one–day conference over at the UGA Vidalia onion research center. I was thinking maybe 50 people would come hear about vermiculture and permaculture and fermentation. And that conference sold out! The room would hold 120 people and we turned away probably 30 more. The internet is allowing access even to people in the hinterlands. On some of these issues, the time has come. I believe we’re beyond the point where we need to be relying on frickin’ EPD and the EPA to save us here. It’s going to be the people of this watershed being organized, hollering loudly, saying no, standing up. Are we going to get the state of Georgia to do what we want done for the Ogeechee or the Altamaha? I don’t think so, but we can get louder and more insistent and more determined. And meaner! CS Janisse ray @ savannah book Festival when & where: 9:30 a.m. Sat. Feb. 18, Neises Auditorium, Jepson Center cost: Free and open to the public info: savannahbookfestival.org

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culture

It’s angering to hear politicians say something’s “for the children” when it’s obvious that we as a society don’t really care that much about the children.

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Mark Your Calendar by bill Deyoung | bill@connectsavannah.com

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Lest the world think that Savannah– area music fans fall comfortably into two easy categories — the indie rock/ college music crowd, and those who go for the Savannah Music Festival’s esoteric smorgasbord — we offer this information: Country music star Eric Church’s Feb. 3 concert SOLD OUT the Martin Luther King Arena, which has a capacity of 9,600. That’s right, commercial country music is rakin’ in the dough. There’s every reason to believe that the upcoming show from Trace Adkins (May 4 in the Johnny Mercer Theatre) will do big numbers, too. Adkins, a broad–shouldered, 6– foot–6 Louisianan with a deep baritone voice, has a bunch of hits including (Connect’s own personal favorite) “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk,” “You’re Gonna Miss This,” “Ladies Love Country Boys” and last year’s “Just Fishin.’” It’s a “Songs & Stories” tour, and an “Intimate Evening With,” which means Adkins, author of an autobiography called A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck, will talk as much as he sings, and conduct an audience Q&A. Tickets are $75, $49.50 and $39.50 at etix.com.

Cool new stuff

• Port Wentworth’s Island Grill is stepping up to the plate with some interesting country music shows: The

Bellamy Brothers (Feb. 25), Confederate Railroad (March 16) and Little Texas (March 30). • The second annual Bandwagon, a SCAD–sponsored poster art and record show, with live music, is coming March 3 and 4 to the Student Center on Montgomery Street. That, of course, makes Bandwagon the advance guard for the Savannah Stopover. • The Savannah Music Festival has inked in a show from the Athens band Futurebirds, with Acollective, March 29 at the Trustees Theatre.

The dating game

• A–Town Get Down. Devon Allman’s Honeytribe, Passafire, Word of Mouth and others. Feb. 25 at the Charles H. Morris Center. • Pulse: Art & Technology Festival. Feb. 27–March 4. • SCAD’s Spring Awakening at the Lucas Theatre. Feb. 29–March 3. • Into the Woods at Asbury Memorial Theatre March 2–11. • Savannah Stopover. March 7–10. • Menopause The Musical. March 8–10, Lucas Theatre. • Tara Feis. March 10, Emmet Park. • The Pink Floyd Experience. March 12, Mercer Theatre. • St. Patrick’s Day is March 17. • Savannah Music Festival. March 22–April 2. • Alison Krauss and Union Station. Mercer Theatre. April 4. • Savannah Urban Arts Festival. April 15–22. CS

savannah FooDie

culture

by tim rutherForD | savannahfoodie@comcast.net

DISCOUNTS FOR

SENIOR CITIZENS MILITARY STUDENTS 1ST RESPONDERS (with ID)

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grilled chicken, black beans, & plantains

MiSSion: Find tropical chicken Tropical Chicken boasts an eclectic menu, but one that marries together the variety of flavors that come from the cuisines of the tropics. Which tropics? Well, most of ’em. You’ll find deliciously sweet fried plantains, nicely seasoned black beans, and chicken that is at once simple but lip–smacking enjoyable. Tropical Chicken assumes the former Quiznos location nestled next to Harbor Freight Tools off of Abercorn Street and Largo Drive. The space could use some warming up — it’s large and stark — but I spent most of my visit with my face buried in the plate. I had the two side dishes named above, adding additional spice to the beans with a spoonful of hot chile sauce. I was tempted by boiled or fried yucca for next time. My grilled chicken, white meat wing and breast, was crisp on the outside, tender and moist inside. Fried chicken fans won’t feel left out here, and other sides can pull together a truly traditional Southern plate of fired chicken, mac and cheese and pinto beans. A tasty little French roll comes with every meal.

Ms. T.J. scored a burrito, a large flour tortilla that the customer makes up. Choose tropical fillings or go traditional. It’s a bargain at $6.55. If you can find it, Tropical Chicken should evolve into a good, quick lunch destination for surrounding office workers and retail employees. It’s filling, tasty and affordable. 12313 LARGO DR./961–5545

No Blarney

Molly McPherson’s Scottish Pub and Grill is hosting a free tasting of a new Irish whiskey on Feb. 23, 6–8 p.m., at its Congress Street location. Special guest will be John Concannon, the descendant of sturdy Irish immigrants who pioneered the settlement of California, and began a popular vineyard that today produces the affordable and highly accessible line of Concannon wines. The family went back to their roots with a new product, Concannon

Irish Whiskey, which is produced in Ireland under the watchful eye of the Concannon family. Concannon is a wonderful ambassador for the family brands and will no doubt provide an informative and fun–filled evening.

Street buzz

The former Sugar Daddy’s location is now re–tooled under different ownership as Maxwell’s, a small plates and libations restaurant. I’ve peered behind the brown paper during rebuild, but have not been in yet. I enjoyed Sugar Daddy’s small plates and interesting wine list and am hoping Maxwell’s takes that to a new level. Lime, the Asian fusion restaurant that’s been under development in the former Season’s of Japan Bistro on Broughton Street, is open. Kitchen talent I’ve met here suggests a menu that could be as varied as French– inspired Asian dishes to authentic Thai. The remodeling job looks very good. CS

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art patrol

| artpatrol@connectsavannah.com

art in the woods retrospective — The Stillmoreroots Group, an artist collective based in Stillmore, Georgia, will hold a retrospective exhibition documenting their annual all-day art exhibition in the woods of Stillmore, Georgia called Art in the Woods. The retrospective hangs at the Sentient Bean February 3-29. Since the success of the event, the group has seen expansions and transitions of members, more than 20 group shows across Georgia, and an increased focus on rural communities with limited art programs. Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Ave. brian antoine woods — Brian Antoine Woods artworks are on display at the Midtown Municipal Building from January 24- June 29. Woods’ work illustrates the oral history of his family, the Rakestraws, a generation of settlers, slaves, farmers, and pioneers who experienced the evolution of cotton first-hand. Woods has performed volunteer work and teaching with the 21st Century afterschool program and at the City of Savannah’s Department of Cultural Affairs Spring Break art camp. Midtown Municipal Building, 601 E. 66th St., eric David wooddell & Dory Diavelone — New work at City Market’s Made on Earth Gallery. Upstairs in City Market. 308 W. St. Julian St. girl scout centennial exhibit — As part of an ongoing rotating art exhibition in Savannah’s City Hall Rotunda, the City has mounted a photo exhibit in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Girl Scouts. The exhibit will run through June 2012. haiti — Photographic chronicle of Haitian culture and life by Jeane LaRance. Indigo Sky Community Gallery, 915 Waters Ave.

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houses of the holy — A group show of well known Savannah artists exploring house shaped panels built with love in Primary Art Supply’s custom shop. Curated by Robyn Reeder. January 15February 29th. Lulu’s Chocolate Bar, 42 MLK Jr Boulevard in god’s country — The Gallery at St. Paul’s presents an exhibition of works by artist Bobi Perry. There will be an artist’s reception Sunday, March 4 from 3-5 p.m. which is free and open to the public. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1802 Abercorn St., Jea February art show — The art show at the JEA beginning February 1 will feature the works of painter Samantha Claar & mosaic artist Annie Burke. Jewish Educational Alliance, 5111 Abercorn St.

work by samantha claar and annie burke is featured at Jea art gallery for Feb. leo villareal — Leo villareal is a pioneer in the use of LEDs and computer-driven imagery and known both for his light sculptures and architectural, sitespecific works. This exhibition, his first major traveling museum survey, seeks to place villareal’s body of work within the continuum of contemporary art. February 3- June 3. Jepson Center for the Arts, 207 W. York St. lowcountry images — An art show of Lowcountry images benefiting the Steward Center for Palliative Care. Featured artists are Samantha Claar, Richard Law and Carol Lasell Miller. Work will hang January and February. Hospice Savannah Art Gallery, 1352 Eisenhower Drive new beginnings — 11th Annual New Beginnings Art Exhibit Opening & Reception Sponsored by the Savannah Chapter of The Links, Inc. Gallery S.P.A.C.E. (Feb. 8 – 29). From March 5-31, the exhibition will move to the Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport’s Art Gallery. February 8, 6:30 p.m. Gallery S.P.A.C.E., 9 W. Henry St. slavery by another name — Paintings and Assemblages by Robert Claiborne Morris will be on display in the Drawing Room Gallery of the Telfair Academy from January 6 to March 4. Telfair Academy, 121 Barnard St., suzanne Jackson — Featured artist for February at Local 11ten. Local 11ten, 1110 Bull St.

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oscars preview

With a few exceptions, the Academy Awards folks play it safe again by matt brunson |

I blame it all on Ernest Borgnine. On the very same day that the seasoned actor was celebrating his 95th birthday, the nominees for the 84th Annual Academy Awards were announced. Borgnine, you may recall, famously revealed his penchant for masturbating on FOX News — oops, sorry; wrong factoid. Borgnine, you may recall, was the Oscar poster child for the homophobic rampage that allowed the inferior Crash to upset the acclaimed Brokeback Mountain several years ago. Given that history, I can only assume that the most infuriating nomination to appear on this year’s roster was again a result of Borgnine and his ilk — past–their–prime members who prefer their movies tame and tepid rather than innovative and exciting. To wit:

Low Points

• The Best Picture nomination for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Congratulations to producer Scott Rudin, who now reveals himself to be almost as good at Oscar–whoring as Harvey Weinstein. How else to explain the prestigious nod for this pandering 9/11 yarn about a boy named Oskar (played by Thomas Horn) and his wacky adventures throughout New York as he mourns his lost dad (Oscar fave Tom Hanks) and ignores his mom (Oscar fave Sandra Bullock)? The film was dismissed by the majority of critics, scoring a dismal 48 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (by contrast, the next lowest–ranked Best Picture contender, The Help, has an acceptable 76%). It was completely ignored by the various guilds (including the influential Screen Actors Guild), the Golden Globe members (even those fawning fanboys and fangirls wouldn’t touch this thing!) and the British Academy. And yet here it is. It’s not a complete shock — the combo of relentless promoting and conservative Academy members occasionally leads to such results — but it’s already a laughing stock of a nomination and will grow only more pronounced over the years. • No Best Actor nomination for Michael Fassbender in Shame. Fassbender was flat–out superb in this dark, disturbing (and NC–17) drama, and he was also memorable in X–Men: First Class, A Dangerous Method and Jane Eyre. Yet the Academy chose to ignore him, a primary reason reportedly being that he dared expose himself in a grown–up movie that turned more crotchety members off. True, and yet Rooney Mara managed to score a Best Actress nod for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, another film that largely fits that top to bottom: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, The Tree of Life and Hugo

continues on p. 32

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Midnight in Paris and Moneyball

description. Not to dwell too much on the sexual politics, but that might be the result of a largely patriarchal organization: As one person commented on the Awards Daily website, “I find it interesting that Shame’s consensual sex and full–frontal male nudity was too much for the Academy, but The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s violent

rape and full–frontal Mara wasn’t too much to get her a nomination.” • No Best Actress nomination for Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin. As with Shame, we’re talking about an internal, tortured performance in a film that wasn’t all warm and fuzzy. But Swinton delivered the best female performance of

2011, lead or supporting. Nuff said. • No Best Documentary Feature nomination for Project Nim. Admittedly, I haven’t seen all five of the nominees, but I can’t imagine they’re all better than this terrific nonfiction film, which made my overall 10 Best list for last year. I was also disappointed that two other exemplary

docs, Bill Cunningham New York and We Were Here, failed to make the cut.

Highlights

• The field–leading 11 nominations for Hugo. It was a toss–up as to whether this or The Artist would nab the most nods. Both made my 10 Best

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The Artist

list, but this one placed much higher, so I’m glad for the recognition. • Nick Nolte up for Best Supporting Actor for Warrior. While it’s a shame that Albert Brooks was snubbed for his mesmerizing turn in Drive (another film too raw for Ye Olde Academy), it was great to see Nolte make the roster. Warrior came and went in a flash, but critics and industry insiders kept his performance in mind these past few months, resulting in the nod. • Bridesmaids up for Best Original Screenplay. While hip, youth–oriented comedies like The 40–Year–Old Virgin, Knocked Up and (500) Days of Summer manage to snag nominations from the Writers Guild, those very rarely translate into similar acknowledgments from the Academy. So it’s great to see Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo get cited for this endearing effort. (Now, if only Wiig had been nominated for Best Actress as well...) And while we’re on the subject of Best Original Screenplay, how about that well–deserved nod for Iranian writer– director Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, to go along with its Best Foreign Language Film bid? • The Best Film Editing nomination for The Descendants. For decades, it’s been shown (for whatever reason) that a Best Picture nominee stands no chance of winning if it also isn’t nominated in this category. So the fact that my favorite movie of 2011 got nominated here gives me hope that it’s still in the running. (For the record, the other Film Editing contenders are fellow Best Picture nominees The Artist, Hugo and Moneyball and non–BP nominee The Girl

with the Dragon Tattoo.)

Other Thoughts

• Film composer/conductor John Williams (Star Wars, Jaws) is one of the all–time greats, but does he have to get nominated every damn time he picks up a baton? On 10 previous occasions, he’s been nominated not once but twice in the same year for his scores (don’t get us started on when he also has song compositions in the mix), and overall, he’s racked up 45 nominations and five wins. Except for the belated Indiana Jones sequel, he’s been away from the screen since 2005 (to the relief of the industry’s other composers), when he earned dual nods (natch) for Munich and Memoirs of a Geisha. Well, he’s back, so the Academy automatically felt inclined to give him his obligatory two nominations, this time for War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin. Unfortunately crowded out was the worthy score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, co–written by last year’s winners (for The Social Network) Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. • Williams isn’t the only one shoring up his credentials. Meryl Streep extended her record number of acting nominations to 17 (for The Iron Lady), while Woody Allen earned his 22nd and 23rd nods for writing and directing Midnight in Paris. • No one came to the rescue of this year’s cinematic superheroes, as Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, X–Men: First Class and Green Lantern scored zero nominations between them. I do wish the fantastic effects in X–Men: First Class had been

HOW THEY COMPARE:

OSCAR’S 9 BEST: These are the films nominated for Best Picture. 1. Hugo (11 nominations) 2. The Artist (10) 3. Moneyball (6) 4. War Horse (6) 5. The Descendants (5) 6. The Help (4) 7. Midnight in Paris (4) 8. The Tree of Life (3) 9. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2) CRITICS’ 5 BEST Based on a national sampling of 770 critics, these were the films that appeared the most frequently on critics’ 10 Best lists. 1. The Tree of Life 2. Drive 3. The Artist 4. Hugo 5. The Descendants BRUNSON’S 5 BEST These were my picks for the year’s best movies. 1. The Descendants 2. Hugo 3. Win/Win 4. A Separation 5. The Guard The 84th annual Academy Awards are broadcast live on ABC Sunday, Feb. 26. CS

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recognized for Best Visual Effects, bumping out the same old stuff from Transformers: Dark of the Moon. • After two years of requiring 10 nominees for Best Picture, the Academy modified its rules so that anywhere from five to 10 films could be singled out. As a result, nine movies made the grade this year, leading me to wonder: If the old rules were still in effect, which movie would have nabbed that last slot? The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, since its five other nominations demonstrated fairly solid support? Bridesmaids, which did extremely well with the various guilds? Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which seemed to be hitting its stride at the right time? Or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, as a way to send off that beloved series in style? Whichever film might have been chosen, it would certainly have deserved the nomination more than the one swiped by It–Which–Must–Not–Be–Named.

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SaFe HouSe

Actors often like to brag about how they performed their own dangerous stunts on a particular picture, but how many A–listers can actually claim to have been waterboarded as part of the deal? Yet here’s Denzel Washington and his co–workers on Safe House, all revealing on the interview circuit how the two–time Oscar winner refused a stunt double for the scene in which his character, former CIA agent Tobin Frost, gets tortured via a technique that’s all the millennial rage among U.S. government leaders. It’s an intense sequence, one of the few in a movie that otherwise hits all the familiar marks as it hurtles toward the end credits.

Still, a little professionalism can go, if not a long way, at least enough distance to make the ride a painless one, and Safe House is nothing if not slick and steady. Washington’s apparently traitorous agent tests the patience of noble novice agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) as both men flee through Cape Town, South Africa, evading the usual band of nondescript thugs. These ruffians are in the employment of — gasp! — a dirty double–crossing official in the Central Intelligence Agency. Could it be the no–nonsense head suit, Harlan Whitford (Sam Shepard)? The brusque Catherine Linklater (Vega Farmiga)? Or the gracious and sweet–natured David Barlow (Brendan Gleeson)? Honestly, why do scripters even make an effort to hide the identity until the end, when it’s apparent from the get–go who will be revealed as the villain? Given the perpetual obviousness in these films, they might as well include a character named Professor Plum, usually found brandishing a lead pipe in the conservatory, and be done with it.

ChroniCLe

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OOP

The exclusive property of the horror genre, the “found footage” style of filmmaking that’s been employed in such movies as The Blair Witch Project, The Last Exorcism and Apollo 18 (to name but three of many) has now been co–opted by Chronicle, a picture that’s half science fiction, half teen melodrama. With this first push of the envelope’s edge, should we now expect, say, a “found footage” musical or a “found footage” Western?

the grey

After presenting Mexico City as the ultimate hellhole on Earth, Tony Scott’s 2004 Man on Fire ended with a credit stating that the city was actually “a very special place.” Sydney Pollack’s 1993 The Firm assures us that Cayman Island officials look down on the sort of money laundering occurring in the film. And best of all, Irwin Allen’s 1978 The Swarm gave a shout–out to our buzzing buddies by adding a credit which noted that “the African killer bee portrayed in this film bears absolutely no relationship to the industrious, hard–working American honey bee to which we are indebted for pollinating vital crops that feed

the WoMan in bLaCk

Before they largely imploded in the mid–1970s, Britain’s Hammer Film Productions spent two decades producing lush, atmospheric horror flicks, in the process re–igniting filmgoer passion for classic monster movies and making genre superstars out of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Two years ago, the outfit returned to screens with the critically acclaimed, audience–ignored Let Me In, followed that with two barely seen releases, and now offer the decidedly continues on p. 36

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our nation.” Unfortunately, no PSA announcement accompanies The Grey, which presents the often misunderstood wolf in such a vicious and uncompromising light that I expect Sarah Palin will see this film at least a dozen times. Of course, all two– and four–legged creatures are fair game when it comes to presenting them as movie villains – even bunny rabbits and a slobbery St. Bernard had to play the heavies in Night of the Lepus and Cujo, respectively – and the wolves on display here are indeed intimidating. Granted, they often look like animatronic animals on steroids, but they certainly put the fear of God in the human protagonists. The prey in The Grey is a group of oil–rig workers whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilds. The no–nonsense Ottway (Liam Neeson), whom we first meet as he’s sticking his gun in his own mouth (a wolf ’s howl distracts him from pulling the trigger), appoints himself leader and attempts to lead the other six survivors out of the wilderness – no small task given not only the punishing elements but also the savage wolf pack that’s picking them off one by one. To its credit, The Grey tries to add a little substance to its terror–tale premise, but Ottway’s soft–gaze flashbacks to his long–gone wife and the religious chats among the men (complete with a scene where Ottway yells at the heavens above) only skim the surface of any true existential analysis. And while there are a couple of good sequences focused on the brutal landscape, the man–on–wolf action is both fleeting and feeble – anemic enough that even Twilight haters might join Team Jacob rather than watch this shaggy undertaking.

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Let’s hope not, for one of the weaknesses of Chronicle is that its “ff ” format plays exactly like the gimmick it most assuredly is. That proves to be an occasional distraction in this surprisingly adept yarn about three high school boys — Andrew (Dane DeHaan), Matt (Alex Russell) and Steve (Michael B. Jordan) — who gain telekinetic powers after stumbling into a hole housing what seems to be the kingdom of the crystal skull. But this isn’t a family–friendly superhero flick like The Incredibles or Sky High, nor is it a costume–clad wish–fulfillment fantasy like Kick–Ass or Super 8. Instead, it grounds its science fiction in high school fact while taking uncomfortable detours into Columbine territory. Because even as Matt and Steve, two all–around popular kids, are enjoying their newfound abilities to fly through the clouds or pull harmless pranks on unsuspecting folks, the socially inept Andrew, suffering from a brutal home life (Mom’s dying, Dad’s a bullying drunk), can’t quite contain his extraordinary power and begins to view it as a way to get back at a cruel and insensitive world. Given the low budget, the special effects are astonishing, but that doesn’t mean I wanted them to dominate the final portion of the picture. Unfortunately, writer–director Josh Trank and co–scripter Max Landis allow the film to get away from them, moving from sober–minded intrigue to surface bombast. Still, the two men, both making their feature–film debuts, do enough right to insure that Chronicle serves as a potent calling card.

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more high–profile The Woman in Black, positioned as a true test of Daniel Radcliffe’s drawing power outside the Harry Potter franchise. For the record, Radcliffe is fine; the film, on the other hand, is tepid enough to leave Dracula – the one who looks like Christopher Lee, of course – spinning in his grave. Based on a novel (by Susan Hill) that had already been turned into a successful play and a 1989 made–for– British–TV film, this finds Radcliffe cast as Arthur Kipps, a widowed lawyer assigned to visit a remote village in order to settle the estate of a recently deceased elderly woman. In the film’s best nod to vintage horror, the country rubes all view the newcomer with suspicion and do little to aid him in his task. The reason, it turns out, is that they believe the stomping grounds of the departed is haunted by the title apparition, an evil entity with a sweet tooth for tragedy and children. Both fascinated by the legend and fearful that it might has some basis in reality, Arthur opts to spend the night at the creepy mansion – and it’s here where the film primarily jumps the tracks. The best ghost stories are the ones that rely on careful exposition and a pervasive sense of mounting dread to unsettle audiences (The Others and The Orphanage being modern examples), but director James Watkins and scripter Jane Goldman abandon that approach shockingly fast. Instead, this is the sort of spook show that tries to manufacture scares by having something rapidly leap into the frame, startling both the protagonist and many viewers. Usually, it’s a cat; here, it’s everything but. Yet this sort of cheap thrill becomes predictable before long. It will have little shelf life

Man on a Ledge

OOP

For a flick that ended up getting shoved to January, Man on a Ledge sure sports a cast that would look right at home on a year–end release date. Move past thudding lead Sam Worthington and filmgoers will find the likes of Ed Harris, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Banks and more. And it’s a good thing for this film’s makers that all concerned signed on the dotted line, since it gives considerable heft to a movie that otherwise might have gone straight to DVD. Worthington plays Nick Cassidy, a wrongly incarcerated ex–cop who manages to escape from prison, thereby enabling him to put into motion a complex scheme in which his role is to ... well, check out the title. It’s all fast–paced nonsense, easy to take but not quite engaging enough to warrant a night out at the movies.

Contraband

The narrative wrongdoing begins with young punk Andy (Caleb Landry Jones), who foolishly agrees to transport drugs for the hair–trigger Tim Briggs (perpetually annoying Giovanni Ribisi, whose entire career seems like one long epileptic seizure) and then finds himself in hot water when he’s forced to dump the entire load. Luckily for Andy, his

sister Kate (a miscast Kate Beckinsale) happens to be married to Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg), who used to be The Greatest Smuggler Of All Time. Now making an honest living, Chris reluctantly returns to the criminal fold, relying on the help of his best buds Sebastian (Ben Foster) and Danny (Lukas Haas) as he travels from New Orleans to Panama and back again as part of a plan to save his brother–in–law. There’s nothing in Contraband that rises above the flagrantly mediocre, from its doorknob–dull characters to its rote storytelling.

the artist

OOOP

The Artist isn’t exactly the most original movie to make its way into modern–day theaters, despite its angle of being a black–and–white silent picture. But so what? Although it sometimes runs short on invention, it makes up for it in style, execution and a cheery disposition that’s positively infectious. Jean Dujardin plays silent screen star George Valentin, whose chance encounter with a young fan named Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) contributes to her eventual rise in the industry. The pair clearly harbor feelings for each other, but George finds himself trapped in a loveless marriage. The matrimonial strife soon takes a back seat to a dark development, revealed when studio head Al Zimmer (John Goodman) informs him about the inevitable advent of sound in motion pictures - a revolution that George myopically dismisses as a short–lived fad. Instead, this cinematic breakthrough all but destroys his

livelihood. While it may not match up with the best of the silents, The Artist matches up nicely with the best of 2011.

the iron Lady

Taking Meryl Streep out of The Iron Lady and replacing her with just about any other actress would be akin to removing the meat out of a beef stroganoff dinner and replacing it with a Hostess Twinkie. The result would be a thoroughly indigestible mess, worthy only of being flung into the garbage bin. Move beyond her eye–catching work and what remains is a poor movie that does little to illuminate the life and times of Margaret Thatcher, the controversial British Prime Minister who held the position throughout the 1980s. Since filmmakers usually desire to be as demographically friendly as possible in order to attract audiences of all stripes, it’s no surprise that director Phyllida Lloyd and scripter Abi Morgan fail to devote much time to Thatcher’s ample failings, including her abhorrent attitudes toward the poor, the unemployed and even her fellow women. Yet even her few strengths are treated in CliffsNotes fashion, since an oversized amount of the picture focuses on her waning years as a lonely woman suffering from mild dementia, believing she’s being frequently visited by her deceased husband Denis (a wasted Jim Broadbent). With so much history and personality to draw upon, it’s infuriating that so much of the running time is wasted on mere speculation involving an elderly person’s flights of fancy. CS

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(after all, to quote a great president, scholar and humanitarian, “Fool me once, shame on – shame on you. Fool me – you can’t get fooled again.”). It’s certainly nice to have Hammer back in business, but let’s hope they nail down more promising projects than this one.

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Activism & Politics Drinking Liberally

An informal, left-leaning group of folks who meet to talk about politics, the economy, sports, entertainment, and anything else that pops up. Every first and third Thursday, around 7:30 p.m. at Loco’s, 301 W. Broughton St., upstairs. Come join us! DrinkingLiberally.org

Occupy Savannah

Habersham & Bay Streets, 10am-6pm daily. General Assembly every Saturday at 3PM. For more information or to get involved visit our facebook page www.facebook.com keyword Occupy Savannah or send an email at occupy.savannah.ga@ gmail.com. [010912]

Savannah Area Young Republicans

For information, visit www.savannahyoungrepublican.com or call Allison Quinn at 308-3020.

Savannah Tea Party

meets the first Monday (excluding Holidays) of each month from 4:30 to 6:00 PM at the SRP offices located at 11 East 73rd Street. All persons interested in America’s Future are invited. Contact Marolyn Overton at 912-598-7358 for additional info.

The 13th Colony Patriots

A Tea Party group that meets the 13th of each month at Logan’s Road House at 6pm. 11301 Abercorn St. Open to the public. Dedicated to the preservation of the United States Constitution and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans. www.13thcolonypatriots.com or call 912596-5267. [122911]

Benefits Armstrong Benefit for East African Famine Relief

“What A Dollar Can Do” is a fundraiser party for East African Famine Relief, hosted by Armstrong’ Atlantic State University’s NAACP and the African Caribbean Student Organization. Friday, February 17, 8 p.m. to 12:00 Midnight. Student Union Ballroom A-B, on the Armstrong Campus, 11935 Abercorn Street. Tickets are $1 in advance and $2 at the door, and the event is open to the public. A “Black History Month” event.

Dress for Success Fundraiser at Southern Women’s Show

Feb. 17, 8am-10:30am. Dress for Success will sponsor a “Networking Breakfast” to kick off the Southern Women’s Show at the Savannah Trade and Convention Center on Hutchinson Island. “Style for Success” features a one hour breakfast and motivational speakers Dawn Baker from WTOC and Kristy Villa from Lifetime Channel’s “The Balancing Act”. Fashion show featuring some of Dress for Success’ s clients, and the top winners from Savannah Art Academy’s Junk 2 Funk Competition. $30 tickets, http://www.dressforsuccess.org/ affiliate.aspx?sisid=201&pageid=3.

Get Your Rear In Gear 5K!

Afun, family event to benefit the Colon Cancer Coalition. March 3 at the Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion, 225 Candler Drive. Registration opens at 7 am.fKids Fun Run, 8am. 5K Timed Run and Walk at 8:15am. Registration $25 through Feb.29, $30 after Feb. 29. All funds raised will benefit the Colon Cancer Coalition, an organization dedicated to the advancement of colon cancer awareness and screening, and 75 percent of those funds will go directly to Savannah programs. Registration and payment can be dropped off at Fleet Feet, 3405 Waters Avenue or the Transformation Station, inside the Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion, or online at www. getyourrearingear.com.

Household Supplies Drive

Park Place Outreach, youth emergency shelter is accepting canned food and household supplies. Household items needed include, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, fabric softener, paper towels and toilet paper. Please visit www.parkplaceyes.org for directions.

MuseArt, a Pas de Deux of Music and Art

A benefit art show and event for the Savannah Philharmonic. Thurs. Feb. 16 through March 1 at the Whitney Gallery, 415 Whitaker St. Premiere a series created by June Stratton capturing the beauty and dynamics of Savannah Philharmonic musicians and Conductor Peter Shannon. Opening is Feb. 16, 5:30-8:30pm, Raffle tickets $20. 912-232-6002, or visit www.savannahphilharmonic.org.

Parties A La Carte

Savannah Friends of Music sponsors this series of themed parties throughout the year as a fundraiser for local music events and groups. information contact Lynne Davis – 355-4252. [011312]

Second Annual Taste of Hope Event

Benefiting Urban Hope after school programs. Tastings of food and desserts from Savannah’s finest restaurants and caterers. Live auction with packages from restaurants and caterers, 8 person dinners to 2 person chef tastings. Silent auction with artwork, restaurant packages, photography sessions, and more. February 17,7:00 pm at the Charles H. Morris Center, 10 East Broad Street. $30 per ticket, Business Casual attire. To buy tickets, 912-398-9811 or urbanhopesav@ aol.com or visit www.urbanhopesavannah. org/event.

Shuckin’ for Habitat (oyster roast)

Benefiting Coastal Empire Habitat for Humanity. Friday, Feb. 17. Location: Knights of Columbus #5588, Christopher Drive & Waters Ave. Sponsored by: St. James Catholic Church Men’s Club and Knights of Columbus #5588. $20 all you can eat oysters, plus hot dogs and hamburgers. For time of event and ticket information email Thomas.broderick@comcast.net or parker@habitatsavannah.org.

St. thomas Thrift Store Fall and Winter Clearance Get 50% Off All Fall and Winter Clothing at The St. Thomas Thrift Store 1126 E. Montgomery Crossroads from February 3 - 28. Designer and name brand apparel

for men, women and children. 10:00 am until 2:00 pm, Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. 912-352-9252 All proceeds benefit area charities, youth organizations and ministries.

The UnMaskarade. Benefiting Rape Crisis Center

Live and Silent Auction to benefit the Rape Crisis Center on Saturday, February 18 at 6:30pm at The Hoskins Center at Memorial Health on Waters Ave. Featuring comedian Rosalyn McCoy and Savannah Arts Academy Skylark Singers. Open bar and heavy hors d’ oeuvres, Masquerade cocktail attire $100/ticket or $700/table (8 seats). http:// www.rccsav.org/

Tour d’Epicure Benefit for America’s Second Harvest

Board a trolley with your friends for a food, wine and art tour. Sun. Feb. 26, 2012, 4-7pm. Tickets and information at www. helpendhunger.org.

Call for Entries Middle School Debate Contest

Sponsored by Savannah State University’s Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. March 28, 7:30pm. at Savannah State University. Debate question: Which of the following (economy, foreign policy, environment/ climate change, homeland security, immigration) is the most important issue for the President in 2012? Prize: 1st place=$100 and 2nd place=$50 APPLICATION: Type an essay, no more than 300 words, answering the same question above. The student who types the best essay will also receive a $25 award. Debate contestants will be chosen by how well they support their argument (research/opinion), grammar, and spelling. Please provide name, phone number, grade (6-8), address, city, school, & dream job. Mail applications to: Brandon Coleman, 12409 Largo Dr., Apt. 57, Savannah, GA 31419 Information: 912-695-6214.

Nominations for 2012 Historic Savannah Foundation Awards

Historic Savannah Foundation is accepting nominations for the 2012 HSF Preservation Awards, which recognize individuals and organizations demonstrating excellence in historic preservation. Deadline for nominations is Wed., Feb. 29. Award winners will be announced at the HSF Preservation Awards Luncheon on Thursday, May 10, 2012. The complete nomination form can be accessed online at www.myhsf.org/ advocacy-education/programs/awards/. Information: 912.233.7787 or dmeunier@ myHSF.org.

Open Casting Call for SCAD Student Film Productions

Savannah College of Art and Design’s Film and Television Department invites anyone interested in acting in short film productions to attend the open Winter Casting Call, for roles in spring and summer productions. Men, women and children of all ages and ethnicities are encouraged. No prior experience is necessary. If possible, bring a headshot or other promotional material. If selected, you will be given material to prepare for an audition at a later date.

Saturday, Feb. 25, 10AM – 4PM, Adler Hall, 532 Indian St

Classes, Camps & Workshops Art,-Music, Piano and Voice-coaching

For all age groups, beginners through advanced, classic, modern, jazz improvisation and theory. Serious inquiries only. 961-7021 or 667-1056. [122811]

Beading Classes

Learn jewelry-making techniques from beginner to advanced at Bead Dreamer Studio, 407A E. Montgomery Cross Rd. Call 920-6659. [122811] Bead Dreamer Studio, Savannah

Champions Training Center

Offers a variety of classes and training opportunities in mixed martial arts, jui-jitsu, judo and other disciplines for youth and adults at all levels of expertise. 525 Windsor Rd. Call 912-349-4582 or visit http:// www.ctcsavannah.com/ [122811]

Coast Guard Auxiliary Boating Classes.

Regular classes on boat handling, boating safety & navigation offered by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. Learn from the experts. For dates & more information, visit our web site: www.savannahaux.com or telephone Kent Shockey at 912-897-7656. [010912]

Creative Writing Courses

Offered in Savannah by Georgia Southern Univ. Continuing Education. Creative Writing 1 Mondays, Feb. 6 - Mar. 26. Introduces participants to the fundamental techniques of writing fiction and non-fiction. Creative Writing 2 Mondays, Apr. 9 - May 29. Experienced students will refine their skills, workshop their compositions, and prepare to get published. Each course is $200/ person. All classes from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. http://ceps.georgiasouthern.edu/conted/ creativewriting.html Location: Coastal Georgia Center, 305 Fahm Street.

Drawing Instruction

Private and group drawing lessons by artist and former SCAD professor Karen Bradley. Call or email for details, (912)5077138. kbillustration@mac.com

DUI Prevention Group

Offers victim impact panels for intoxicated drivers, DUI, DWI, offenders, and anyone seeking to gain knowledge about the dangers of driving impaired. A must see for teenage drivers seeking a drivers license or who have already received a license. Group meets monthly. $30/session. Information: 912-443-0410. [122811]

English for Second Language Classes

Students of all ages are invited to learn conversational English, comprehension, vocabulary and life communication skills. Free. Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Island Christian Church, 4601 US Highway 80 E Savannah. 912-897-3604. Contact: James Lavin or Minister John LaMaison www. islandschristian.org. [020512]

continues on p. 38

37 FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

Happenings www.connectsavannah.com/happenings

happenings

submit your event | email: happenings@connectsavannah.com | fax: (912) 231-9932 | 1800 E. Victory Dr., Suite 7, Savannah, GA 31404

happenings | continued from page 37

happenings

"love God. love others. enjoy life."

FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

Sundays includes classes for kids 10 & under.

prayer on quiet ps meet ll grou Guid Smaed, ings.. week even t the ghouay Wed throunesd

Our music is modern, but with a deep respect for tradition.

amd to invite are :40 nts0-11 s 10:3 ge stude Colleday Sun 8pm pm at -8 Thurss.6:45 and/or onday nes Potluck Wed

Bible discussion at 8:30pm.

http://www.vineyardsavannah.org/ If you aren't a part of a church family, we would love to have you visit.

31401 615 Montgomery Street, Savannah, GA On the corner of Montgomery 912-412-8080 & Huntingdon

Family law workshop

The Mediation Center has three workshops a month to assist citizens who do not have legal representation in a family matter: divorce, legitimation, modifications of child support and/or visitation and contempt. Schedule: 1st Tuesday, 5:30-7:30pm. 2nd Monday, 2-4pm. 4th Thursday 10am-12noon. Fee:$20 to cover all documents needed to file. Register at mediationsavannah.com or 912-354-6686. [122811]

Fany’s spanish/english institute

Spanish is fun. Classes for adults and children are held at 15 E. Montgomery Cross Rd. Call 921-4646 or 220-6570 to register. [122811]

Feldenkrais classes

Meets at various locations in the Savannah area. Contact Elaine Alexander, GCFP. Information: 912-223-7049 [122811]

'ŝǀĞ ƚŚĞ ŐŝŌ ŽĨ ŚŽƉĞ ĨŽƌ ŶĞǁ ůŝĨĞ͊

group guitar lessons

'ŝǀĞ ƚŚĞ ŐŝŌ ŽĨ ŚŽƉĞ ĨŽƌ ŶĞǁ ůŝĨĞ͊

Join us for a fun time, for group guitar lessons, at the YMCA on Whitemarsh and Tybee Islands (adults and teens only). Hands-on instruction, music theory, ear training, sight reading, ensemble playing, technique, and rhythm drills, by teacher Tim Daniel (BS in Music). 912-897-9559. $20/week. [122811]

guitar, electric bass & Double bass lessons

^ŽƵƚŚĞĂƐƚĞƌŶ &ĞƌƟůŝƚǇ ĞŶƚĞƌ ŝƐ ƐĞĞŬŝŶŐ ŚĞĂůƚŚǇ͕ ŶŽŶ ƐŵŽŬŝŶŐ ǁŽŵĞŶ ^ŽƵƚŚĞĂƐƚĞƌŶ &ĞƌƟůŝƚǇ ĞŶƚĞƌ ŝƐ ƐĞĞŬŝŶŐ ŚĞĂůƚŚǇ͕ ŶŽŶ ƐŵŽŬŝŶŐ ǁŽŵĞŶ ďĞƚǁĞĞŶ ƚŚĞ ĂŐĞƐ ŽĨ ϮϬͲϯϬ ƚŽ ƉĂƌƟĐŝƉĂƚĞ ŝŶ ŽƵƌ ŐŐ ŽŶŽƌ ƉƌŽŐƌĂŵ͘ ďĞƚǁĞĞŶ ƚŚĞ ĂŐĞƐ ŽĨ ϮϬͲϯϬ ƚŽ ƉĂƌƟĐŝƉĂƚĞ ŝŶ ŽƵƌ ŐŐ ŽŶŽƌ ƉƌŽŐƌĂŵ͘ ŽŶŽƌƐ ǁŝůů ďĞ ĐŽŵƉĞŶƐĂƚĞĚ ΨϯϱϬϬ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞŝƌ ƟŵĞ ĂŶĚ ĐŽŵŵŝƚŵĞŶƚ ƚŽ ŽŶŽƌƐ ǁŝůů ďĞ ĐŽŵƉĞŶƐĂƚĞĚ ΨϯϱϬϬ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞŝƌ ƟŵĞ ĂŶĚ ĐŽŵŵŝƚŵĞŶƚ ƚŽ ƚŚŝƐ ĐŽŶĮĚĞŶƟĂů ƉƌŽĐĞƐƐ͘ Ăůů Žƌ ǀŝƐŝƚ ƵƐ ŽŶůŝŶĞ ƚŽ ĮŶĚ ŽƵƚ ŚŽǁ ǇŽƵ ĐĂŶ ƚŚŝƐ ĐŽŶĮĚĞŶƟĂů ƉƌŽĐĞƐƐ͘ Ăůů Žƌ ǀŝƐŝƚ ƵƐ ŽŶůŝŶĞ ƚŽ ĮŶĚ ŽƵƚ ŚŽǁ ǇŽƵ ĐĂŶ ŚĞůƉ ĐŽƵƉůĞƐ ŽǀĞƌĐŽŵĞ ŝŶĨĞƌƟůŝƚǇ ďǇ ďĞĐŽŵŝŶŐ ĂŶ ĞŐŐ ĚŽŶŽƌ͊ ŚĞůƉ ĐŽƵƉůĞƐ ŽǀĞƌĐŽŵĞ ŝŶĨĞƌƟůŝƚǇ ďǇ ďĞĐŽŵŝŶŐ ĂŶ ĞŐŐ ĚŽŶŽƌ͊

ϴϰϯͲϴϱϲͲϭϬϯϱ ͮ ǁǁǁ͘ďĞĂŶĞŐŐĚŽŶŽƌ͘ĐŽŵ

'ƌĂŶƚ t͘ WĂƩŽŶ͕ :ƌ͘ D ͻ :ŽŚŶ ͘ ^ĐŚŶŽƌƌ D ͻ DŝĐŚĂĞů :͘ ^ůŽǁĞǇ͕ D ϴϰϯͲϴϱϲͲϭϬϯϱ ͮ ǁǁǁ͘ďĞĂŶĞŐŐĚŽŶŽƌ͘ĐŽŵ

'ƌĂŶƚ t͘ WĂƩŽŶ͕ :ƌ͘ D ͻ :ŽŚŶ ͘ ^ĐŚŶŽƌƌ D ͻ DŝĐŚĂĞů :͘ ^ůŽǁĞǇ͕ D

Hookah Lounge

Try our new

Metro Burger and Mirage Burger! Savannah’s Largest Hookah Lounge 20 E. Broughton St • 912.236.5464

Sun-Wed 5pm-12am • Thurs-Sat 5pm-2:30am • themiragesavannah.com

Instruction for all ages of beginner/intermediate students. Technique, chords, note reading, and theory. Learn songs and improvisation. Studio located 2 blocks from Daffin Park. Housecalls available. Call 401-255-6921 or email a.teixeira472@ gmail.com to schedule a 1/2 price first lesson! [122811]

guitar, mandolin and bass lessons

Guitar, mandolin or bass guitar lessons. emphasis on theory, reading music and improvisation. Located in Ardsley Park. 912-232-5987 [122811]

housing authority neighborhood resource center

The Housing Authority of Savannah hosts a series of regular classes at the Neighborhood Resource Center. 1407 Wheaton Street. Adult literacy/GED prep: MonThurs, 9am-12pm & 1pm-4pm. Financial education: 4th Fri of month, 9-11am. Basic Computer training: Tues & Thurs, 1-3pm. Community Computer lab: Mon-Fri, 3-4:30pm. For more info: 912-232-4232 x115 or www.savannahpha.com

learn russian

Learn to speak Russian. All experience levels welcome, beginner to expert. Call 912-713-2718 for more information. [122811]

learn to speak spanish

Spanish lessons offered by an experienced native speaker. Flexible schedule and affordable rates. Classes are held at the Sentient Bean Coffeehouse. Call 912541-1337. [122811]

microsoft word 1 course

Feb. 21. 6:30-9:30pm. Achieve proficiency and confidence in basic Word functionality, including: working with documents, text and page formatting, clip art, themes/ styles, tables, templates, mail merge, and bulleted and numbered lists. You’ll also aquire sound knowledge of the office ribbon. $75 http://ceps.georgiasouthern.edu/conted/

cesavannahmenu.html Offered by Georgia Southern University’s Continuing Education. Held at the Coastal Georgia Center, 305 Fahm St., Savannah.

ms. amy’s school of music

A small privately owned studio offering Private and Group Lessons, Piano, Clarinet, Trumpet, Trombone, Guitar, and more! Parent & Me classes for infants toddlers. Group preschool music classes. www.msamyschoolofmusic.com

music lessons--multiple instruments

Savannah Musicians Institute offers private instruction for all ages in guitar, drums, piano, bass, voice, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, flute, and woodwinds. 7041 Hodgson Memorial Dr. Info: 912-692-8055 or smisavannah@gmail.com. [122811]

new horizons adult band program

A music program for adults who played a band instrument in high school or college and would like to have the opportunity to begin playing again. Dust off your instrument every Monday night at Portman’s Music Store (Abercorn) at 6:30p.m. The cost is $30.00 per month. All ages and ability levels are welcome. Contact Pamela Kidd at 912-354-1500 for more info. [122811]

novel writing

Write a novel, finish the one you’ve started, revise it or pursue publishing your work. Award-winning Savannah author offers one-on-one or small group classes and mentoring, as well as manuscript critique, ebook formatting and more. Send an email to pmasoninsavannah@gmail. com for pricing and scheduling information. [010812]

open pottery studio at savannah’s clay spot For potters with experience who want time in the studio, Choose from 4 hour time slots. Registrations are based on a monthly, bi monthly, and quarterly time commitment. Savannah’s Clay Spot, 1305 Barnard St. Information: 912-509-4647 or www.savannahsclayspot.com [122811]

organic gardening

Offered in Savannah by Georgia Southern University Continuing Education. Course includes soil biology and management, plants, crop management, and composting. From site selection and design to seeds and seed starting techniques, from pest and disease control to managing and using compost, you’ll have a rich and reliable foundation for growing a greener, more productive garden on your own. Saturdays, 2/11 through 3/24. Times: 8-12 p.m. Cost: $125 for one registration; $220 for two registrations. Some classes will take place at the Skidaway Island Methodist Church; the “field” work will take place at Skidaway Farms, the community garden of The Landings. http://ceps. georgiasouthern.edu/conted/cesavannahmenu.html

painting and Drawing lessons

Small group and private instruction offered by local painter Melinda Borysevicz. SCAD graduate with 15 years professional experience. Phone: 912.484.6415, email: melindaborysevicz@gmail.com, or visit melindaborysevicz.blogspot.com. [02052012]

portrait photography course

Learn how to use the off-camera flash, studio lighting, available light, and photo editing to create flattering portraits of people, pets, close ups, and more. Any

ReSource Center at Habitat ReStore

1900 East Victory Drive. New home ownership resource center for anyone wanting to learn more about home ownership, homeowners insurance issues, home safety and security matters, and proper preparation for hurricanes and other severe weather. Includes two internet-ready computers. [122811]

Savannah Charlesfunders Investment Discussion Group

The Savannah Charlesfunders meet every Saturday at 8:30am to discuss stocks, bonds, and better investing. Meetings take place at Panera Bread on Bull and Broughton. Contact us at charlesfund@gmail.com for more information. [122811]

Savannah Entrepreneurial Center

Offering a variety of business classes. 801 E. Gwinnett Street. Call 652-3582. [122811]

Savannah Sacred Harp Singers

Everyone that loves to sing is invited to join the Savannah Sacred Harp Singers at Faith Primitive Baptist Church, 3212 Bee Road in Savannah. All are welcome to participate or listen in on one of America’s most revered musical traditions. For more information call 912-655-0994 or visit savannahsacredharp.com. [122211]

Savannah’s Clay Spot Winter Pottery Classes

Classes begin Jan. 9, 2012. Be Creative in 2012, Make it with Clay at Savannah’s Clay Spot. Check out www.savannahsclayspot. com for a new winter pottery class schedule for adults, teens, and children. Contact: Lisa Bradley, savannahsclayspot@gamil. com. 912-509-4647. www.savannahsclayspot.com [122911]

Singing Lessons with Anitra Opera Diva

Anitra is currently teaching the Vaccai Bel Canto technique for those interested in improving their vocal range and breathing capacity. Bel Canto carries over well as a foundation technique for different styles including opera, pop, rock and cabaret. Henry St @ E Broad, Mon/Tues 6-9pm, 1 1/2 hour lesson $25. SCAD students and alumni $5 discount. Call 786-247-9923, anitraoperadiva@yahoo.com, www.anitraoperadiva. com [122811]

Winter 2012 Classes at Coastal Georgia Center

Register now for a variety of non-credit courses to be held in Savannah, January May 2012, sponsored by Georgia Southern University. Classes held in downtown Savannah and on Skidaway Island. Course lengths, times, and fees vary. Beginning and Advanced American Sign Language; Creativity for Problem Solving; Creative Writing (Beginning and Advanced); Developing Your Imagination; Yoga for All; How to Stretch Your Energy Dollar; and The Artist’s Way, Organic Gardening. Information: ceps.georgiasouthern.edu/conted or contact Judy Fogarty at The Coastal Georgia Center (912-644-5967) or jfogarty@

georgiasouthern.edu. [121211]

Workshop: Making Your Mark Count: Branding and Corporate Identity Design

Feb. 25, 10:30am-3:30pm.A logo is part of the deep impressions a company makes, through its cohesive branding and identity efforts. Open to participants at every skill level, this workshop focuses on the fundamental techniques of planning a corporate identity, target market profile, and designing a comprehensive company image. $95 Sponsored by SCAD Continuing Education. http://www.scad.edu/ce

Clubs & Organizations Savannah Authors Autonomous Writing Group

Meets the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, 6-8 p.m. beginning 2/21/2012. The aim of Savannah Authors Autonomous is to encourage first-class prose writing, fiction or non-fiction, through discussion, constructive criticism, instruction, exercises and examples. Location: Savannah Association for the Blind (SAB), 214 Drayton Street. Founded by British writer Christopher Scott (more than a dozen published books) and local writer Alice Vantrease (one published novel, optioned for a potential Hollywood movie). All are welcome. No charge to attend. Contact: Alice Vantrease (alicevantrease@live.com) or 912-308-3208. [02052012]

Avegost LARP

Live action role playing group that exists in a medieval fantasy realm. Generally meets on the second weekend of the month. Free for your first event or if you’re a non-player character. $35 fee for returning characters. Email: Kaza Ayersman, godzillaunknown@ gmail.com or visit www.avegost.com [122811]

Buccaneer Region SCCA

The local chapter of the Sports Car Club of America, hosting monthly solo/autocross driving events in the Savannah area. Anyone with a safe car, insurance and a valid driver’s license is eligible to participate. Visit http://buccaneerregion.org. [122811]

Business Networking on the Islands

Small Business Professionals Islands Networking Group Meets 1st Thursday each month from 9:30-10:30 AM. Tradewinds Ice Cream & Coffee, 107 Charlotte Rd. Savannah (912) 308-6768 for more info. [121211]

Coastal MINIs

Local MINI Cooper owners and enthusiasts who gather on the first Sunday of the month at 10 a.m. to go on motoring adventures together. Meet at Starbucks, corner of Victory Dr. & Skidaway Rd. in Savannah. Information: coastalminis.com. [122811] Starbucks,

Energy Healers

Meets every Monday at 6pm. Meditation and healing with energy. Discuss aromatherapy, chakra systems and more. Call 912-695-2305 for more info. http://www. meetup.com/SavannahEnergyHealers/ [122811]

Exploring The American Revolution in Savannah

Interested in exploring the role Savannah played in the American Revolution? Join like-minded people including artists, writers, teachers and historians for discussion, site exploration and creative collaboration. Meets the 1st & 3rd Thursdays at 6pm at Gallery Espresso. Email, Kathleen Thomas: exploretherevolution@gmail.com for more info. [122811]

Historic Savannah Chapter of ABWA

Meets the second Thursday of every month from 6-7:30 p.m. The cost is the price of the meal. RSVP to 660-8257. Tubby’s Tank House, 2909 River Dr., Thunderbolt. [122811]

Honor Flight Savannah

A non-profit organization dedicated to sending our area World War II veterans to Washington DC to visit the new WWII Memorial. All expenses are paid by Honor Flight Savannah, which is not a government-supported program. They depend on donations from the community to fund their efforts. For more info: www.honorflightsavannah.org [122811]

Islands MOPS

A Mothers of Preschoolers group that meets at the First Baptist Church of the Islands on two Wednesdays a month from 9:15-11:30am. Website/information: https://sites.google.com/site/islandsmops/ [122811]

Knitters, Needlepoint and Crochet

Meets every Wednesday. Different locations downtown. Contact (912) 308-6768 for info. No fees. Wanna learn? Come join us! [121211]

Low Country Turners

A club for wood-turning enthusiasts. Contact Steve Cook, 912-313-2230. [122811]

Military Order of the Purple Heart Ladies Auxiliary Meets the first Saturday of the month at 1 p.m. American Legion Post 184, 1 Legion Dr. Call 786-4508. [122811] Savannah

MOMSnext

For mothers of school-aged children, kindergarten through high school. Come as you are, to experience authentic community, mothering support, personal growth, practical help, and spiritual hope. Islands MOMSnext meets every first & third Monday of the month, excluding holidays. Childcare is available upon request. A ministry of MOPS International. For more info or to register for a meeting, call (912)898-4344 or email kymmccarty@hotmail.com. http:// www.mops.org/ [122811]

Old Time Radio Researchers Group

International fan and research group devoted to preserving and distributing old-time radio broadcasts from 1926 to 1962. Send e-mail to Jim Beshires at beshiresjim@yahoo.com or visit www.otrr. org. [122811]

Peacock Guild-For Writers and Book Lovers

A literary society for bibliophiles and writers. Monthly meetings for the Writer’s Salon are held on first Tuesday and third Wednesday. Book Club meets on the third Tuesday. All meetings start at 7:30 p.m. and meet at Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home (207 E. Charlton St.). Call 233-6014 or visit Facebook group “Peacock Guild” for more info. [012212]

Richmond Hill Roadies Running Club

A chartered running club of the Road Runners Association of America. For a nominal annual fee, members will receive monthly training sessions and seminars and have weekly runs of various distances. Kathy Ackerman,756-5865 or Billy Tomlinson 5965965. [122811]

Rogue Phoenix Sci-Fi Fantasy Club

Members of Starfleet International and The Klingon Assault Group meet twice a month, on the first Sunday at 4 pm. at 5429 LaRoche Ave and the third Tuesday at Super King Buffet, 10201 Abercorn Street

at 7:30 p.m. Call 308-2094, email kasak@ comcast.net or visit www.roguephoenix.org. [86/010112] Savannah

Safe Kids Savannah

Safe Kids Savannah, a coalition dedicated to preventing childhood injuries, holds a meeting on the second Tuesday of every month from 11:30am-1pm. Visit www. safekidssavannah.org or call 912-353-3148 for more info. [122811]

Savannah Adventure Club

Dedicated to pursuing adventures, both indoors and outdoors, throughout the Low country and beyond. Activities include sailing, camping, skydiving, kayaking, hiking, tennis, volleyball, and skiing, in addition to regular social gatherings. Free to join. Email savannahadventureclub@gmail.com or “like” the Savannah Adventure Club on Facebook. [122811]

Savannah Art Association

The non-for profit art association, the Southeast’s oldest, is currently taking applications for membership. The SAA offers workshops, community programs, exhibition opportunities, and an artistic community full of diverse and creative people from all ages, mediums, and skill levels. Please call 912-232-7731 for more info. [122811]

Savannah Brewers’ League

Meets the first Wednesday of every month at 7:30 p.m. Call 447-0943 or visit www. hdb.org and click on Clubs, then Savannah Brewers League. Meet at Moon River Brewing Company, 21 W. Bay St. [122811]

Savannah Council, Navy League of the United States

A dinner meeting held the fourth Tuesday of each month (except December) at 6 p.m. at the Hunter Club. Call John Findeis at 748-7020. [122811] Hunter Army Airfield, 525 Leonard Neat St , Savannah http:// www.stewart.army.mil/

Savannah Fencing Club

Beginner classes Tuesday and Thursday evenings for six weeks. Fees are $60. Some equipment provided. After completing the class, you may become a member of the Savannah Fencing Club for $5 per month. Experienced fencers welcome. Call 4296918 or email savannahfencing@aol.com.

Savannah Go Green

Meets most Saturdays. Green events and places. Share ways to Go Green each day! Call (912) 308-6768 to learn more. [021212]

Savannah Jaycees

Meeting and information session held the 1st Tuesday of every month at 6pm to discuss upcoming events and provide an opportunity for those interested in joining the Jaycees to learn more. Must be 21-40 years old to join the chapter. 101 Atlas St. 912-353-7700 or www.savannahjaycees. com [122811]

Savannah Kennel Club

Monthly meetings are open to the public and visitors. Meetings are held at Logan’s Roadhouse Restaurant, 11301 Abercorn St. on the fourth Monday of each month, September through May. Dinner starts at 6 pm and meeting starts at 7:30pm. Guest Speakers at every meeting. For more info, call 912-238-3170 or visit www.savannahkennelclub.org

Savannah Newcomers Club

Open to all women who have been in the Savannah area for less than two years. Membership includes a monthly luncheon and program and, in addition, the club continues on p. 40

happenings

camera. Prints or digital files will be accepted. Suggested prerequisite: Creative Photography. Dates: Wednesdays, 1/18 to 2/1 or Mondays, 5/7 to 5/21. Time is 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Cost is $70/person. Call to to register at 855-478-5551. Registration closes Monday, Jan. 16 at Noon for the Jan. class; Thursday, May 3 at 5 p.m. for the May class. Offered by Georgia Southern University Continuing Education and takes place in Savannah,at the Coastal Georgia Center, 305 Fahm Street. $70/person http://ceps. georgiasouthern.edu/conted/cesavannahmenu.html [122911]

| Submit your event | email: happenings@connectsavannah.com | fax: (912) 231-9932 | 1800 E. Victory Dr., Suite 7, Savannah, GA 31404

39 FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

happenings | continued from page 38

happenings

PSYCHO SUDOKU!

FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

answers on page 45

“Greater-Than Sudoku” For this “Greater-Than Sudoku,” I’m not giving you ANY numbers to start off with!! Adjoining squares in the grid’s 3x3 boxes have a greater-than sign (>) telling you which of the two numbers in those squares is larger. Fill in every square with a number from 1–9 using the greater-than signs as a guide. When you’re done, as in a normal Sudoku, every row, column, and 3x3 box will contain the numbers 1–9 exactly one time. (Solving hint: try to look for the 1’s and 9’s in each box first, then move on to the 2’s and 8’s, and so on). psychosudoku@hotmail.com

happenings | continued from page 39 hosts a variety of activities, tours and events that will assist you in learning about Savannah and making new friends. www.savannahnewcomers.com [122911]

savannah parrot head club

Love a laid-back lifestyle? Beach, Buffet and no dress code. Check out savannahphc.com for the events calendar or e-mail Wendy Wilson at Wendyq1053@yahoo.com. [122911]

savannah sunrise rotary club

Meets Thursdays from 7:30-8:30 a.m. at the Mulberry Inn. http://www.savannahsunriserotary.org/

savannah toastmasters

Helps you improve speaking and leadership skills in a friendly and supportive environment on Mondays at 6:15 p.m. at Memorial Health University Medical Center, Conference Room C. 484-6710. [122911]

savannah writers group

Meets the second and fourth Tuesdays at 7pm to discuss, share and critique writing of fiction or non-fiction novels, essays or short stories. A meet-and-greet precedes the meeting at 6:30pm. Contact Carol North, 912-920-8891 for location. [122911] Savannah

seersucker live’s happy hour for writers

A no-agenda gathering of the Savannah area writing community, held on the first Thursday of every month from 5:30-7:30pm. Free and open to all writers, aspiring writers, and anyone interested in writing. 21+ with valid I.D. For location and details, visit SeersuckerLive.com. [122911]

son-shine hour

Meets at the Savannah Mall at the Soft Play Mondays from 11-12 and Thursdays from 10-11. Activities include songs, stories, crafts, and games for young children and their caregivers. Free, no registration, drop-ins welcome. Call Trinity Lutheran Church for details 912-925-3940 or email KellyBringman@gmail.com [122911]

southern wings

Local chapter of Women in Aviation International. It is open to men and women in the region who are interested in supporting women in aviation. Regular meetings are held once a month and new members are welcome. visit http://www.orgsites. com/ga/southernwings/ [86/010112]

stitch-n’s

Knit and crochet gathering held each Tuesday evening, 5pm-8pm All skill levels welcome. Free Spinning fiber into yarn group meets the first Monday of each month at 1pm. Wild Fibre, 6 East Liberty Street (near Bull St.) Call for info: 912-238-0514 [122911]

tarde en espanol

Meets the last Wednesday of every month at 6:30pm in different locations to practice spoken Spanish in a casual environment. 236-8566. [122911]

the philo cafe

A weekly discussion group that meets from 7:30pm-9pm at various locations each Monday. Anyone craving some good conversation is invited to drop by. No cost. For more info, email athenapluto@yahoo. com or look up The Philo Cafe on Facebook. [122911]

the philo cafe

A weekly discussion group that meets from 7:30pm-9pm at various locations each Monday. Anyone craving some good

conversation is invited to drop by. No cost. For more info, email athenapluto@ yahoo.com or look up The Philo Cafe on Facebook. [122911]

theremin/electronic music enthusiasts A club for enthusiasts of electronic music and instruments, including the theremin, synths, Mooger Foogers, jam sessions, playing techniques, compositions, gigs, etc. Philip Neidlinger, theremin@neidlinger.us. [122911]

u.s. coast guard auxiliary Flotilla

Become part of the volunteer organization who assists the U.S. Coast Guard in the performance of their important duties. Meets the 4th Wednesday every month at 6pm at Barnes Restaurant, 5320 Waters Avenue. Coed. All ages welcomed. Prior experience and/or boat ownership not required. Information: www.savannahaux. com or telephone Al Townsend at 912598-7387. [122911]

vietnam veterans of america chapter 671

Meets monthly at the American Legion Post 135, 1108 Bull St. Call James Crauswell at 927-3356. [122911] Savannah

woodville-tompkins scholarship Foundation

Meets the second Tuesday of every month (except October), 6:00 pm at WoodvilleTompkins, 151 Coach Joe Turner Street. Call 912-232-3549 or email chesteraellis@comcast.net for more information. [122911]

DAnce abeni cultural arts Dance classes

Classes for multiple ages in the art of performance dance and Adult fitness dance. Styles include African, Modern, Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Contemporary, & Gospel. Classes held in the new Abeni Cultural Arts dance studio, 8400-B Abercorn St. For more information call 912-6313452 or 912-272-2797. Ask for Muriel or Darowe. E-mail: abeniculturalarts@gmail. com

adult ballet class

Maxine Patterson School of Dance, 2212 Lincoln St., at 39th, is offering an Adult Ballet Class on Thursdays from 6:30-7:30. Cost is $12 per class. Join us for learning and fun. Call 234-8745 for more info. [101711]

adult Dance and Fitness classes

Beginner & Intermediate Ballet, Modern Dance, Barre Fusion, BarreCore Body Sculpt, and Gentle Stretch & Tone. No experience necessary for beginner ballet, barre, or stretch/tone. The Ballet School, Piccadilly Square, 10010 Abercorn. Registration/fees/information: 912-925-0903. Or www.theballetschoolsav.com [122911]

adult intermediate ballet

Mondays & Wednesdays, 7 - 8pm, $12 per class or 8 classes for $90. Class meets year round. (912) 921-2190. The Academy of Dance, 74 West Montgomery Crossroads. [122911]

argentine tango

Lessons Sundays 1:30-3:30pm. Open to the public. Cost $3.00 per person. Wear closed toe leather soled shoes if available. For more information call 912-925-7416 or email savh_tango@yahoo.com. [122911] Doris Martin Dance Studio, 8511-h Ferguson Ave. ,

beginners belly Dance classes

Instructed by Nicole Edge. All ages/skill

happenings | continued from page 40

The perfect class for those with little to no dance background. Cybelle has been formally trained and has been performing for over a decade. $15/class. Tues: 7-8pm. visit www.cybelle3.com. For info: cybelle@ cybelle3.com or call 912-414-1091 Private classes are also available. Walk-ins are welcome. Synergistic Bodies, 7724 Waters Ave. [122911]

c.c. express Dance team

Meets every Wednesday from 6-8 p.m. at the Windsor Forest Recreation Building. Clogging or tap dance experience is necessary for this group. Call Claudia Collier at 748-0731. [122911]

home cookin’ cloggers

Meet every Thursday from 6-8 p.m. at Nassau Woods Recreation Building on Dean Forest Road. No beginner classes are being held at this time, however help will be available for those interested in learning. Call Claudia Collier at 748-0731. [122911]

irish Dance classes

Glor na h’Eireann cultural arts studio is offering beginner to champion Irish Dance classes for ages 5 and up, Adult Step & Ceili, Strength & Flexibility, non-competitive and competition programs, workshops and camps. TCRG certified. For more info contact PrideofIrelandGA@gmail.com or 912-7042052. [122911]

mahogany shades of beauty inc.

offers dance classes, including hip hop, modern, jazz, West African, ballet, lyrical and step, as well as modeling and acting classes. All ages and all levels are welcome. Call Mahogany at 272-8329. [122911]

modern Dance class

Classes for beginner and intermediate levels. Fridays 10-11:15am. Doris Martin Studio, 7360 Skidaway Rd. For more info, call Elizabeth 912-354-5586. [122911]

pole Dancing class

Beginners pole dance offered Wednesdays 8pm, Level II Pole Dance offered Monday 8pm, $22/1 class, $70/4 classes, pre-registration required. Learn pole dance moves and spins while getting a full body workout. Also offering Pole Fitness Classes Monday & Wednesday 11am. For more info: www. fitnessbodybalance.com or 912-398-4776. Nothing comes off but your shoes. Fitness Body & Balance Studio, 2127 1/2 victory Dr. [122911]

salsa savannah

Tuesdays at Tantra (8 E. Broughton St.), lessons from 7-9pm, open dancing 9pm-1am. Thursday at Saya (109 W. Broughton St.), lessons from 7-8pm, open dancing 9-11pm. Bachata lessons at Saya Thursdays from 8-9pm. For more info: www.salsasavannah. com, 912-704-8726. [122911]

savannah Dance club

“Magnificent Mondays” at Doubles, The Quality Inn /Midtown, 7100 Abercorn St. Free dance lessons (6:30-7:30p): Shag, Swing, Cha-Cha and Line dancing. Everyone invited. No cover. Happy Hour till 9pm. Call for details 912-398-8784. [122911]

savannah Dance club

happenings

beginners belly Dancing with cybelle

savannah shag club

Shag music every Wednesday, 7pm, at Doubles Lounge, 7100 Abercorn St. and every Friday, 7 pm, at American Legion Post 36, 2309 E. victory Dr. [122911]

events cooking for two with chef warren caterson

Cooking Classes at the Live Oak Public Libraries. Award-winning cookbook author Chef Warren Caterson, “Table for Two—The Cookbook for Couples,” shares kitchen tips, cooking hints and humorous anecdotes about the joys and challenges of cooking for two. Southwest Chatham Library, Saturday, Feb. 18, 4 p.m.next to the Savannah Mall, 14097 Abercorn Street. Bull Street Library, Sunday, Feb. 19, 4 p.m. 2002 Bull St.

Free hiv/aiDs testing at armstrong

Free HIv/AIDS testing will be administered February 28, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. on the Armstrong Atlantic State University Campus, 11935 Abercorn St., in Savannah Ballroom C. Testing conducted by the Coastal Health District and sponsored by Armstrong’s NAACP, Collegiate 100 and HOLA. Free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://www.armstrong.edu. A Black History Month event.

georgia nature photographers association 3rd annual expo

March 22-25: a three day celebration of nature and nature photography on the Georgia coastal islands. venue: Hampton Inn & Suites, Brunswick, Ga. Keynote speaker is Darrell Gulin, www.gulinphoto.com. Great education & field trips with photographic opportunities to Jekyll Island, Sapelo Island, Harris Neck Wildlife, Cumberland Island, Okefenokee Swamp and other natural settings. Info & registration: www.GNPA.org. Look under the tab “Annual Expo.”

film & viDeo beginner actor level 2: the acting business (ages 14 and up)

You have a couple of gigs under your belt. What next? Learn how to build your resume. When and how to find an agent. What is a demo reel?/Can it help? How to bridge from beginner to novice. How does the money flow? Cold Read: The 5 Minute Delivery. Includes brief auditioning practice, headshot consultation and your next audition taping is free. Your name and info will be added to First City Films casting database. Sat. Feb. 18, 2pm to 6pm. First City Films, 124 E. Bay Street.

beginner Film actor’s workshop

Back by Popular Demand. Sat., Feb. 18. 9am-12noon. Learn simple auditioning and cold reading techniques designed for beginning actors. Find out what casting directors and agents look for in actors. Includes brief auditioning practice, headshot consultation and a professional photo which will be added to the First City Films casting database. Location: First City Films, 124 E. Bay Street.

cinesavannah

A film series that seeks to bring new, firstrun films to Savannah including critically acclaimed foreign films and documentaries, among others. To subscribe to information about the series, including screening dates and times, email: cinesavannah@att.net [122911] continues on p. 42

Across

1 Multi-purpose shot, for short 4 “___ on a Plane” 10 E-mail from Nigeria, maybe 14 Big Band, for one 15 Start, as a riot 16 What programmers write 17 Cameraman’s question about which talk show star to film? 20 Maritime patrol org. 21 Malaria-carrying fly 22 Concert memento 25 Darkest part of a shadow 29 Reagan aide Peggy and aviator Fred 34 Shrinking Asian body of water, with 63-down 35 Spanish NBA player who explodes in a volatile fuel mix? 38 Tell the cops everything 39 Coffee server 40 Title role for Peter Weller 42 They tow broken-down cars 43 Use a shiv 45 Menu phrase meaning “you can add pineapple to any item”? 47 Put on the payroll 48 Atones 49 Country on the Red Sea 51 Accompany 55 Genie’s home 60 Song from Sarah McLachlan’s “Surfacing” 61 Must decide which pitching feat to choose? 66 Ice skating jump 67 Save from peril 68 It’s small and strummable 69 Side 70 Lower, like regions 71 1/525,600th of a yr.

Down

1 Introduction 2 Bridge part 3 Ripped jeans cover-up

4 Obedience school lesson 5 Dir. opposite SSE 6 Eight, in Essen 7 Sportages and Spectras 8 Smurf suffix 9 Splinter group 10 Psychological patterns 11 Dove bar? 12 Super Bowl highlights? 13 Got together with 18 Getting older 19 Home of the Beavers, for short 23 MGM opening sound 24 “And I’m ready ___ right through the sky” (Richard Marx lyric) 26 Prickly bush 27 Tried to attack 28 Pond scum 30 Like some gases 31 “Girl with ___” (Renoir painting) 32 Night, to Noriega 33 Everett of “Citizen Kane” 35 Like annoying salesmen 36 “Glee” character Abrams 37 Take weapons from 41 Pie charts show them: abbr. 44 Flower that helps heal cracked skin 46 Musician’s org. 50 Smoking alternative, once 52 Strong loathing 53 Talk show host Lake 54 Occupied 56 Undecided, in an angsty way 57 Old school pronoun 58 Shopping trip sheet 59 ___ A Sketch 61 Head cover 62 Fire 63 See 34-across 64 Election Day day: abbr. 65 “Love, Reign ___ Me” (The Who)

FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

levels welcome. Every Sunday, Noon-1PM, Fitness Body and Balance Studio 2127 1/2 E. victory Dr. $15/class or $48/four. 912-5960889 or www.cairoonthecoast.com [122911]

Psychotronic Film Society

Beginner’s Belly Dance classes with “Cairo on the Coast”

FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

happenings

happenings | continued from page 41

Hosts weekly screenings every Wednesday, 8pm, at the Sentient Bean. Offering up a selection of films so bad they are good, cult classics and other rarities. Upcoming schedule: www.sentientbean.com [122911]

Fitness Back to back belly dance classes and two unique styles of dance. Every Sunday, 12noon-1pm, American Cabaret style, energetic and fast paced. 1-2pm, Tribal Fusion, a slower, more controlled style of dance. Both sessions $24, or a one hour session $15, or 4/$48.00. www.cairoonthecoast.com. Fitness, Body, and Balance Studio, 2127 1/2 Victory Dr. Contact Nicole at 912-596-0889. [122911]

Belly Drills

An intense dance workout utilizing basic bellydance moves. Geared to all levels of ability. Dance your way to a better sense of well being. Bring water bottle. Thurs: 7-8pm. $15/class. Visit www.cybelle3.com. For info: cybelle@cybelle3.com or call 912414-1091. Walk-ins welcome. Synergistic Bodies, 7724 Waters Ave. [122911]

Bellydance Fusion Classes

Fusion bellydance mixes ballet, jazz and hip hop into a unique, high energy style of dance. Classes include drills and choreographies for all levels. Small classes held several days a week in downtown Savannah, and upon request. $10 per person. Contact Christa at 678-799-4772 or see www.bohemianbeats.com. [121811]

Bellydancing for fun and fitness

The most fun class you’ve ever taken to get you in the best shape in the least amount of time. We provide bright colorful veils, jangling coin hip scarves, and exotic music. Every Wednesday, 6:30pm. $15 drop-in or $40 for four classes. Call 912-660-7399 or email ConsistentIntegrity@yahoo.com [122911]

Fertility Yoga

Ongoing series of six week sessions of Fertility Yoga are held on Tuesday evenings from 6:00 PM to 7:15 PM at offices located at 100 Riverview Drive, off of Islands Expressway. Helps participants relax, start healthy habits to prepare their body and gain more confidence on the fertility journey. Instructor Ann Carroll, RYT 500. $100 for 6 week session. (912) 704-7650 or e-mail carroll3620@bellsouth.net. [122911]

Fitness Classes at the JEA

Spin, firm it up, yoga, Pilates, water aerobics, Aquasize, senior fitness, and Zumba. Prices vary. Call for days and times. 3558111. Jewish Educational Alliance, 5111 Abercorn St., http://www.savj.org. [122911]

Kung Fu School: Ving Tsun

VING TSUN (Wing Chun) is the world’s fastest growing martial arts style. Using angles and leverage to turn an attacker’s strength against them makes VING TSUN Kung Fu effective for everyone. Call Sifu Michael Sampson to find out about our free trial classes 912-429-9241. 11202 White Bluff Road. Drop Ins welcome. [122911]

Mommy and Baby Yoga Classes

Mondays, 10-11am (crawlers and toddlers) and 11:30-12:45 (infants and pre-crawlers) at the Savannah Yoga Center, 1321 Bull St. $14 per class. Multi-class discounts are available. Walk-ins welcome. Call 232-2994 or visit www.savannahyoga.com. [122911]

| Submit your event | email: happenings@connectsavannah.com | fax: (912) 231-9932 | 1800 E. Victory Dr., Suite 7, Savannah, GA 31404 Pilates Mat Classes

Mat classes are held Tues & Thurs 7:30am-8:30am, Mon 1:30pm-2:30pm, Mon & Wed 5:30pm-6:30pm, Thurs 12:30pm1:30pm, & Sat 9:30am-10:30am. All levels welcome! Private and Semi-Private classes are by appointment only. Carol Daly-Wilder, Certified Pilates Instructor. Call 912.2380018. Momentum Pilates Studio, 8413 Suite-A Ferguson Ave. http://savannahpilates.com. [122911]

Pregnancy Yoga

Ongoing series of 8-week sessions are held on Tuesdays from 6-7:15pm at 7116 Hodgson Memorial Dr., and Thursdays from 6-7:15pm at 100 Riverview Dr. Pre-natal yoga helps mothers-to-be prepare for a more mindful approach to the challenges of pregnancy, labor & delivery. Cost is $100 for each course. Call Ann Carroll at 912-704-7650 e-mail ann@aikyayoga.com. [122911]

Savannah Disc Golf Club

Weekly events (Entry $5): Fri. 5:45pm-Glow Golf. Sat. 10am-Luck of the draw Doubles. Sat. 1pm-Handicapped League. Tom Triplett Park, Hwy 80 W, Pooler. Sun. 10 am-Singles at the Sarge in Hardeeville, SC. Info: savannahdiscgolf.com or savannahdiscgolf@gmail.com All skill levels welcome. Instruction available. [122911]

Stand-Up Paddleboarding

Stand-up paddleboarding lessons and tours. A great way get out on the water and to stay fit. East Coast Paddleboarding, Savannah/Tybee Island. Eastcoastpaddleboarding.com or 781-267-1810 [122911]

The Yoga Room

Visit www.thesavannahyogaroom.com or call 898-0361 for a schedule of classes, times and fees. Savannah Yoga Room, 115 Charlotte Dr.

Yoga For All

Here’s yoga at the right time, price, and location. With expert guidance, you’ll practice this ancient discipline at your own limits and pace. Sequences of poses and breathing techniques will reward you with increased awareness, concentration, flexibility, strenght, and endurance. Mondays Jan. 9 to Feb. 13, OR Tuesdays, Mar. 20 to Apr. 24. 5:30-6:30pm. $65/person. Register by calling 855-478-5551 (toll free). Registration ends Jan. 6 at noon for the January class; Monday, March 19 at noon for the March class. Offered by Georgia Southern University, held in downtown Savannah at the Coastal Georgia Center. Info: ceps. georgiasouthern.edu [121211]

Yoga for Cancer Patients and Survivors

Free for people with cancer and cancer survivors. 6.30 p.m., Tuesdays and 12:10 p.m., Thursdays, FitnessOne, 3rd floor of the Center for Advanced Medicine, Memorial University Medical Center. Call 912350-9031. [122911]

Zumba Fitness (R) classes

Mondays at 7:15-8:15. Located at The Ballet School, Studio B, Piccadilly Square, 10010 Abercorn. $7 per class or $60 for 10 classes. Contact April for more info. 912306-5598. [122911]

Zumba Fitness Classes with Anne

Lake Mayer Community Center, 1850 E Montgomery Crossroads, Wednesdays, 7pm-8pm. $5, Free if you bring a friend. (912) 596-1952. [010912]

Zumba Fitness Classes with Mai

Monday 8:30am-9:30 am, Lake Mayer Community Center, 1850 G. Montgomery Crossroads. $5 per class

Saturdays 8:30 am-9:30am, St. Paul CME Social Hall, 123 Brady St. $3 Per class. Contact Mai @ 912-604-9890. [011412]

ZUMBA! fitness with Laura

Thursdays 7:30pm., beginning Jan. 5th. A Class Act Dance Center- 118 Pipemaker’s Circle Suite 110 Pooler, GA 31322. 912.748.4199. $10/class, cash only please. Wear comfy clothes and tennis shoes, bring water & a towel! email zumbalaura@ hotmail.com for more info. [122911]

Gay & Lesbian First City Network Board Meeting

Meets the first Monday at 6:30 p.m. at FCN’s office, 307 E. Harris St., 2nd floor. 236-CITY or www.firstcitynetwork.org. [122911]

Gay AA Meeting

True Colors AA Group, a gay AA meeting that welcomes all alcoholics, meets Sunday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at 311 E. Macon St. [122911] Savannah

Georgia Equality Savannah

The local chapter of Georgia’s largest gay rights group. 104 W. 38th St. 912-547-6263. [122911] Savannah

Savannah Pride, Inc.

Meets second Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. at the FCN office located at 307 E. Harris St., 2nd floor. SPs mission of unity through diversity, and social awareness has helped promote the well-being of the LGBT community in the South, and organizes the annual Savannah Pride Festival. Call 912-288-7863 or email heather@savpride. com. [122911]

Stand Out Youth

A Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning youth organization. Meets every Friday at 7 p.m. at the FCN building located at 307 E. Harris St. Call 657-1966, email info@standoutyouth.org or visit www. standoutyouth.org. [122911]

What Makes A Family

A children’s therapy group for children of GLBT parents. Groups range in age from 10 to 18 and are held twice a month. Call 352-2611. [122911]

Health Alcoholics Anonymous

If you want or need to stop drinking, AA can help. Meetings daily throughout the Savannah area. Check www.SavannahAA.com for meeting locations and times, or call 24 hrs 912-356-3688 for information. [122911]

Free hearing & speech screening

Hearing: Every Thurs. 9-11 a.m. Speech: 1st Thurs. of each month. Savannah Speech & Hearing Center, 1206 E. 66th Street. Call 355-4601. www.savannahspeechandhearing.org [122911]

Healthcare for the Uninsured

St. Mary’s Health Center,1302 Drayton St.. is open for health needs of uninsured residents of Chatham County. Open Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM. For information or to make an appointment, call 912-443-9409. [122911]

La Leche League of Savannah

Mothers wishing to find out more about breastfeeding are invited to attend a meeting on the first Thursday of every month at 10am. La Leche League of Savannah is a breastfeeding support group for new and expectant mothers. 897-9544, www. lllusa.org/web/SavannahGA.html. [122911] Savannah

Planned Parenthood Hotline

First Line is a statewide hotline for women who want information on health services. Open every night from 7-11p.m. 1-800-2647154. [122911]

Nature and Environment Dolphin Project of Georgia

The Dolphin Project’s Education Outreach Program is available to speak at your school, club or organization. We offer a fascinating powerpoint with sound and video about our estuarine dolphins and their environment. Age-appropriate programs and related handouts. www.thedolphinproject.org [122911]

Fort Pulaski’s 15th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count

Bird watchers of all ages are invited to participate in this annual event, Fri., Feb. 17 to Mon., Feb. 20. Novices to expert bird watchers can take part .No registration is needed. Pick up bird checklists at the Fort Pulaski Visitor Center. Plan to count birds for at least 15 minutes on at least one day of the count. You can count birds on as many days as you like. Submit completed forms to the Fort Pulaski Visitor Center. All numbers will be tabulated for the park’s annual bird count. Fort Pulaski National Monument is located on912-U.S. Highway 80, 15 miles east of Savannah. Call t7865787 for details, or visit www.nps.gov/fopu.

Tybee Island Marine Science Center

Offering a variety of fun educational programs including Beach Discovery Walks, Marsh Treks, Turtle Talks and the Coastal Georgia Gallery, which features an up close look at dozens of local species. Open daily, 10am-5pm. For more info, call 912-7865917 or visit www.tybeemarinescience.org. [122911]

Walk on the Wild Side

The Oatland Island Wildlife Center , 711 Sandtown Rd., offers a 2-mile Native Animal Nature Trail that winds through maritime forest, freshwater wetland and salt marsh habitats, and features live native animal exhibits. Open daily from 10-4 except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. 898-3980, www.oatlandisland.org. [122911]

Wilderness Southeast

Offers a variety of programs every month including guided trips with naturalists, canoe rides and more. Their mission is to develop appreciation, understanding, stewardship, and enjoyment of the natural world. For more information: 912-236-8115 or www.wilderness-southeast.org. [122911]

Pets & Animals Low Cost Pet Clinic

Tails Spin and Dr. Stanley Lester, DVM, host low-cost pet vaccine clinics for students, military and seniors on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month from 5-6pm. Vaccinations: $12.00, with $2.00 per vaccination donated to Savannah Pet Rescue Agencies. Habersham Village Shopping Center. www.tailsspin.com [122911]

St. Almo

Savannah True Animal Lovers Meeting Others. Informal dog walks on Sundays at 5pm (weather permitting). Meet at the Canine Palace, 612 Abercorn St. For info, call 912-234-3336. [122911]

circle of sister/brotherhood book club

meets the last Sunday of the month at 4 p.m. at the African-American Health Information & Resource Center, 1910 Abercorn St. Call 447-6605. [122911]

savannah storytellers

The Savannah Storytellers are re-forming on Feb 16. Weekly meetings to follow. Bess Chappas will offer workshop on first meeting. Call. Wallace Moye 354-0048. Call for reservation (limited seating). Janice at 912-224-2904. [021212]

tea time at ola’s

A book discussion group that meets the fourth Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Ola Wyeth Branch Library, 4 E. Bay St. Bring a book you’ve read this month and tell all about it. Treats to share are always welcomed. Tea will be provided. 232-5488 or 652-3660. [122911]

religious & sPirituAl service of compline

The Service of Compline at Christ Church is moving: same music, same service, same choir, same preacher--different location. Beginning Sunday, December 11 the Christ Church Service of chanted Compline by candlelight will be held at historic Independent Presbyterian Church (corner of Bull Street and Oglethorpe) every Sunday night at 9:00p.m. “Come, say good night to God.” [121211]

a new church in the city, For the city.

We will gather on Sunday mornings beginning February 5th at Bryson Hall (5 East Perry St.) on Chippewa Square at 10:30 am. www.edenvillagechurch.org Like us on Facebook: Savannah Church Plant. [011412]

guided silent prayer

A couple of songs done acoustically, about 30 minutes of guided silent prayer, and a few minutes to receive prayer if you want (or remain in silence). A mid-week rest and re-focus. 6:45-8pm on Wednesdays at the vineyard Church. 615 Montgomery St. (behind Blowin’ Smoke BBQ). www. vineyardsavannah.org [122911]

savannah Zen center

Meditation, Classes & Events are held at 111 E. 34th St., Savannah, Ga 31401. For schedule: savannahzencenter.com or visit us on Facebook. [122911]

soka gakkai of america

SGI is an international Buddhist movement for world peace and individual happiness. The group practices Nichiren Buddhism by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. Introductory meetings are held the third Sunday of the month. For further information, call 232-9121. [122911]

theology on tap

Meets at The Distillery every month on the third Monday night from 8:30 10:30pm. Like us on Facebook: Theology on Tap Downtown Savannah. [011412]

with this ad

savannah

Liberal religious community where different people with different beliefs gather as one faith. Sunday, 11 am, Troup Square Sanctuary. 234-0980, admin@uusavannah. org or www.uusavannah.org. [122911] 313 E. Harris St. ,

unity church of savannah

Two Sunday morning Celebration Services - 9:15 and 11:00. (Children’s Church and childcare at 11:00.) Noon prayer service every Thurs. To find out about classes, workshops and more visit, www.unityofsavannah.org or call 912-355-4704. 2320 Sunset Blvd.

sPorts & gAmes savannah bike polo

Like regular polo, but with bikes instead of horses. Meets weekly. Check out www. facebook.com/savannahbikepolo for more information. [122911]

suPPort grouPs al anon Family groups

A fellowship of relatives and friends of alcoholics. Meeting locations and days: 1501 Eisenhower Dr., Monday at 12:30 p.m. Monday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 1:30 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m.m Sunday at 8 p.m. Goodwill on Sallie Mood Drive: Tuesday at 8 p.m. St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 2 st. Thomas Ave., Isle of Hope, Monday at 7:30 pm. Unitarian Universalist Church, 313 E. Harris St., call 912-495-9758 for day of meeting. First Presbyterian Church, 520 Washington Ave., Monday at 5:30pm and Saturday at 11am. Contact numbers: 912-598-9860, or 912-495-9758, or Selma at 354-8550, or Melissa at 912-844-4524. [122911]

unitarian universalist church of

poker tournament april 7th • 1pm-until $25 adv / $50 door prizes • snacks • fun (proceeds benefit kicklighter academy for autism)

mon & thurs - military appreciation - no cover for military tues - 2-4-1 wells (4-12) wed - $1 drafts (8-12) $1 icehouse drafts all day every day for the military

savgentlemensclub.com the savannah gentlemen’s club 325 e. montgomery cross rd

912-920-9800

Sweet & Sexy

exotic entertainers

tues, thurs & sat 9pm-3am

karaoke mon wed Fri

$12

dom. beer bucKet Fri. Mon-Sat 1pM-3aM

2729 Skidaway Rd 354-9161 (next to aMF VictoRy LaneS)

alcoholics anonymous

If you want or need to stop drinking, AA can help. Meetings daily throughout the Savannah area. Check www.SavannahAA. com for meeting locations and times, or call 24 hrs 912-356-3688 for information. [122911]

alzheimer’s caregivers and Families support group

Senior Citizens, Inc. hosts caregivers and families support groups for individuals caring for Alzheimer’s and dementia family members. Locations and days: Every 2nd Monday at Wilmington Island United Methodist Church, 195 Wilmington Island continues on p. 44

get on to get off

unitarian universalist beloved community church

Services begin Sunday at 11 a.m. at 1001 E. Gwinnett St. Coffee and discussion follow each service. Religious education for grades 1-8 is offered. For information, call 786-6075, e-mail UUBC2@aol.com. Celebrating diversity. Working for justice. [122911]

always hiring!

King’s inn

HOME

OF OVER

50 OF SAVANNAH’S

SEXIEST WOMEN HAPPY HOUR DAILY 4PM-7PM

Military Gets In Free Every Night! $6 Lunch special daily

912.544.0026 More local numbers: 1.800.777.8000 / 18+ Ahora en Español / www.interactivemale.com

MON-SAT 11AM-3AM, SUN 5PM-2AM 12 N. LATHROP AVE. | 233-6930 | NOW HIRING CLASSY ENTERTAINERS Turn right @ the Great Dane statue on Bay St.

happenings

reADings & signings

the new

43 FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

no cover

happenings | continued from page 42

happenings FEB 15-FEB 21, 2012 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM

Free will astrology

happenings | continued from page 43

by Rob brezsny | beautyandtruth@freewillastrology.com

Road. Every 2nd Thursday, 5:30pm, at Ruth Byck Adult Day Care facility, 64 Jasper St. For more info, call 236-0363, ext. 143.

ARIES

(March 21–April 19) What do you typically do just before you fall asleep and right after you wake up? Those rituals are important for your mental health. Without exaggeration, you could say they are sacred times when you’re poised in the threshold between the two great dimensions of your life. I’ll ask you to give special care and attention to those transitions in the coming week. As much as possible, avoid watching TV or surfing the Internet right up to the moment you turn off the light, and don’t leap out of bed the instant an alarm clock detonates. The astrological omens suggest you are primed to receive special revelations, even ringing epiphanies, while in those in–between states.

TAURUS

(April 20–May 20) Have you ever gazed into the eyes of goats? If you have, you know that their pupils are rectangular when dilated. This quirk allows them to have a field of vision that extends as far as 340 degrees, as opposed to humans’ puny 160–210 degrees. They can also see better at night than we can. Goats are your power animal in the coming week, Taurus. Metaphorically speaking, you will have an excellent chance to expand your breadth and depth of vision. Do you have any blind spots that need to be illuminated? Now’s the time to make that happen.

GEMINI

(May 21–June 20) In the animated film The Lion King, two of the central characters are a talking meerkat named Timon and a talking warthog named Pumbaa. Their actions are often heroic. They help the star of the tale, Simba, rise to his rightful role as king. The human actors who provided the voices for Timon and Pumbaa, Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella, originally auditioned for the lesser roles of hyenas. They set their sights too low. Fortunately fate conspired to give them more than what they asked for. Don’t start out as they did, Gemini. Aim high right from the beginning –– not for the bit part or the minor role but rather for the catalyst who actually gets things done.

CANCER

June 21–July 22) “He who is outside his door

already has a hard part of his journey behind him,” says a Dutch proverb. Ancient Roman writer Marcus Terentius Varro articulated a similar idea: “The longest part of the journey is the passing of the gate.” I hope these serve as words of encouragement for you, Cancerian. You’ve got a quest ahead of you. At its best, it will involve freewheeling exploration and unpredictable discoveries. If you can get started in a timely manner, you’ll set an excellent tone for the adventures. Don’t procrastinate.

LEO

(July 23–Aug. 22) You’re so close to finding a fresh perspective that would allow you to outmaneuver an old torment, Leo. You’re on the verge of breaking through a wall of illusion that has sealed you off from some very interesting truths. In the hope of providing you with the last little push that will take you the rest of the way, I offer two related insights from creativity specialist Roger von Oech: 1. If you get too fixated on solving a certain problem, you may fail to notice a new opportunity that arises outside the context of that problem. 2. If you intensify your focus by looking twice as hard at a situation that’s right in front of you, you will be less likely to see a good idea that’s right behind you.

VIRGO

(Aug. 23–Sept. 22) Thirty–two carrier pigeons were awarded medals by the United Kingdom for their meritorious service in the World Wars. Of course, they probably would have preferred sunflower seeds and peanuts as their prize. Let that lesson guide you as you bestow blessings on the people and animals that have done so much for you, Virgo. Give them goodies they would actually love to receive, not meaningless gold stars or abstract accolades. It’s time to honor and reward your supporters with practical actions that suit them well.

LIBRA

(Sept. 23–Oct. 22) The caterpillar–to–butterfly transformation is such an iconic symbol of metamorphosis that it has become a cliche. And yet I’d like to point out that when the graceful winged creature emerges from its chrysalis, it never grows any further. We human beings, on the other hand, are asked to be in a lifelong state of metamorphosis, continually adjusting and shifting

to meet our changing circumstances. I’ll go so far as to say that having a readiness to be in continual transformation is one of the most beautiful qualities a person can have. Are you interested in cultivating more of that capacity, Libra? Now would be an excellent time to do so. Remember that line by Bob Dylan: “He who is not busy being born is busy dying.”

SCORPIO

(Oct. 23–Nov. 21) This would be an excellent time to round up a slew of new role models. In my astrological opinion, you need to feel far more than your usual levels of admiration for exceptional human beings. You’re in a phase when you could derive tremendous inspiration by closely observing masters and virtuosos and pros who are doing what you would like to do. For that matter, your mental and spiritual health would be profoundly enhanced by studying anyone who has found what he or she was born to do and is doing it with liberated flair.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22–Dec. 21)

WD–40 is a spray product that prevents corrosion, loosens stuck hinges, removes hard–to–get–at dirt, and has several other uses. Its inventor, Norm Larsen, tried 39 different formulas before finding the precisely right combination of ingredients on his fortieth attempt. The way I understand your life right now, Sagittarius, is that you are like Larsen when he was working with version number 37. You’re getting closer to creating a viable method for achieving your next success. That’s why I urge you to be patient and determined as you continue to tinker and experiment. Don’t keep trying the same formula that didn’t quite work before. Open your mind to the possibility that you have not yet discovered at least one of the integral components.

CAPRICORN

(Dec. 22–Jan. 19) A person who emits a huge angry shout produces just .001 watt of energy. Even if he or she yelled continuously 24/7, it would still take a year and nine months to produce enough energy to heat a cup of coffee. That’s one way to metaphorically illustrate my bigger point, which is that making a dramatic show of emotional agitation may feel powerful but is often a sign of weakness. Please take

this to heart in the coming week, Capricorn. If you do fall prey to a frothy eruption of tumultuous feelings, use all of your considerable willpower to maintain your poise. Better yet, abort the tumult before it detonates. This is one time when repressing negative feelings will be healthy, wealthy, and wise.

AQUARIUS

(Jan. 20–Feb. 18) Jeep vehicles always feature seven slots on their front grills. Why? For the manufacturer, it’s a symbolic statement proclaiming the fact that Jeep was the first vehicle driven on all seven continents. Let’s take that as your cue, Aquarius. Your assignment is to pick an accomplishment you’re really proud of and turn it into an emblem, image, glyph, or talisman that you can wear or express. If nothing else, draw it on dusty car windows, write it on bathroom walls, or add it to a Facebook status update. The key thing is that you use a public forum to celebrate yourself for a significant success, even if it’s in a modest or mysterious way.

PISCES

(Feb. 19–March 20) A sign outside the Apostolic Bible Church in Bathurst, New Brunswick invited worshipers to meditate on a conundrum: “Why didn’t Noah swat those two mosquitoes?” After all, if the builder of the Ark had refused to help the pesky insects survive the flood, we’d be free of their torment today. (Or so the allegorical argument goes.) Please apply this lesson to a situation in your own sphere, Pisces. As you journey to your new world, leave the vexatious elements behind.

Amputee Support Group

Open to all patients who have had a limb amputated and their families or caregivers. Call 355-7778 or 353-9635. [122911]

Brain Injury Support Group

For traumatic brain injury survivors and their caregivers. Meets the third Thursday at 5 p.m. in the gym at The Rehabilitation Institute at Memorial University Medical Center. http://www.memorialhealth.com [122911]

Breast Cancer Survivors Group

Meets Tuesdays at 5:20om, at First Presbyterian Church on Washington Avenue and Paulsen Street. Survivor’s and care providers welcome. Enter via Washington Ave. Contact Melissa at 912-844-4524 or Krista at 912-819-7053. [122911]

Cancer support group

Meets the first Wednesday of the month from 11am-12pm. at the Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion on Reynolds Street across from Candler Hospital. For anyone living with, through or beyond a diagnosis of cancer. Call 819-5704. [122911]

Citizens With Retarded Citizens

Open to families of children or adults with autism, mental retardation, and other developmental disabilities. Meets monthly at 1211 Eisenhower Drive. 355-7633. [122911]

Coastal Empire Polio Survivors Association

Meets the fourth Saturday of the month at 10:30 a.m. Call 355-1221; or visit www. coastalempirepoliosurvivors.org. Candler’s Heart/Lung Building. 5354 Reynolds Ave. [122911]

Couples Struggling with Fertility Challenges

Meets every Saturday at 6:45 p.m. at Savannah Christian Church, 55 Al Henderson Blvd. Room 250. A group for couples struggling with primary or secondary infertility, whether on this journey for one year or many years. Call Kelly at 596-0852 or email emptycradle_savannah@hotmail. com. [122911]

Families Anonymous

A world wide twelve-step self-help support program for relatives and friends concerned about and affected by substance abuse or behavioral problems of a loved one, has a new group in Savannah. Thursdays at 7:30PM at Skidaway Island Presbyterian Church, 50 Diamond Causeway. Information: 912-660-6845 or email sandyjtyler@comcast. net. [011412]

Fibromyalgia support group

meets the second Thursday from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Conference Room 2, Candler Heart and Lung Building, 5356 Reynolds St.. 8196743. http://www.sjchs.org/ [122911]

Gambling problem?

12-step program offers freedom from gambling. Meets weekly in Savannah. Leave msg with contact information for Phil @ 912748-4730. [122911]

Grief Support Group

Full Circle Grief and Loss Center, 450 Mall Blvd. Seven-week support groups for children and adults are offered by the bereavement counselors at no charge as a complementary service of Hospice Savannah. For information call 912.303.9442 or visit www. HospiceSavannahHelps.org. [122911]

Heartbeats for Life

A free support and education group for those who have suffered from, or want to prevent or reverse Heart Disease, and/or Di-

leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma support group

For patients with blood-related cancers and their loved ones. Memorial Health University Medical Center, http://www. memorialhealth.com. Call Jennifer Currin, 350-7845. [122911]

multiple sclerosis support group

discusses topics that are relevant to anyone with a debilitating disease every fourth Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at St. James Catholic Church, 8412 Whitfield Ave. at Montgomery Cross Roads. 355-1523. [86/010712]

narcotics anonymous

Call 238-5925 for the Savannah Lowcountry Area Narcotics Anonymous meeting schedule. [122911]

national alliance on mental illness connection support group

A weekly 90 minute support group for any with a mental health diagnosis. Free & open to the public. We also have a weekly family support group. Both groups meet on Tuesdays, 6pm to 8pm. Both are held at Trinity Lutheran Church, 12391 Mercy Blvd. Free and open to the public. [122211]

overeaters anonymous

Meets weekly at several locations. Please visit www.oa.org to locate a meeting. [122911]

parkinson’s Disease support group

Meets the first Thursday of the month. 5-6:30pm in the Marsh Auditorium at Candler Hospital. For more info, call 355-6347 or 238-4666. [122911]

rape crisis center

assists survivors of rape and sexual assault. The Rape Crisis Line is active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 912-2337273. The center offers free, confidential counseling for victims and their families. [122911]

spinal injury support group

Meets every third Thursday of the month at 5:30 p.m. at the Rehabilitation Institute at Memorial Health. For info, call Jami Murray at 350-8900. http://www.memorialhealth. com/ [122911]

support group for parents of children with learning Disabilities and attention Deficit/hyperactivity Disorder

Consultants and Royce Learning Center. Professionally led support groups will be held on the 4th Monday of each month, 6-7:30pm. Meetings will be held at Royce Learning Center, at 4 Oglethorpe Professional Blvd. Contact Laurel Brady, 912-6594687 or email LBrady@savannaheducationalconsultants.com [122911]

support group for parents of ill children

Backus Children’s Hospital sponsors this group for parents with a seriously ill child receiving treatment on an inpatient or outpatient basis. A case manager facilitates the meetings, and a child life specialist provides an arts and crafts activity. Meets weekly. Call Donna at 912-350-5616. http:// www.memorialhealth.com/backus [122911]

support group for people with hiv/aiDs

For more information on a support group for men and women living with HIv/AIDS, please contact Mary Jackson at My Brothaz HOME, Inc. at 912-231-8727. These two groups are confidential and only for persons with verified HIv/AIDS. [122911]

teens with no one to turn to

Are you between the ages of 11-18, or a concerned parent of a teen? Park Place Outreach Youth Emergency Shelter can help. 912-234-4048 or www.parkplaceyes. org. [122911]

volunteers community cardiovascular council

Clerical and medical volunteers needed for non-profit working to eliminate heart disease. Flexible shifts and training provided. Staff the reception desk, answer phones, light administrative work, etc. Medical volunteers take blood pressure readings and assist in computer data management. 912232-6624 or knoxm@sjchs.org. [021212]

good samaritan clinic

St. Joseph’s/Candler’s Good Samaritan Clinic in Garden City needs volunteer nurses, physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, Spanish interpreters and clerical staff. The Good Samaritan Clinic serves people without insurance and whose income is less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line. To volunteer call 912-964-4326. [122911]

live oak regional public libraries

needs volunteers to assist in a variety of ways at its branches in Chatham, Effingham and Liberty counties. Call 912-6523661. http://www.liveoakpl.org [122911]