Connect Savannah December 26, 2007

Volume 7 • Number 14 • Dec. 26 — Jan. 1 • Savannah’s News, Arts, & Entertainment Weekly • www.connectsavannah.com

The day the music died A closer look at the struggle between the city and some downtown establishments over what constitutes a live music venue p. 18

Lead Story:

Free Speech :

Art Review :

Books:

Underinsured Us

Know Savannah?

‘Space’@2Car Garage

Aberjhani & Vann

pg. 8

pg. 11

pg. 26

pg. 27

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

RING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH A DAWGS VICTORY!!!

MR. WILEY PLAYS ON NEW YEAR’S EVE...FREE BUBBLY AT MIDNIGHT cATcH THE END OF YOUR TEAM’S SEASON AT LOcOS. THE DIET DOESN’T START TILL THE GAMES ARE OVER!! INDULGE IN AWARD WINNING WINGS AND BURGERS!! cHEck OUT PUB cLUB SPEcIALS ALL WEEk LONG!!!

THIS WEEK: UNDERGROUND ORCHESTRA AND NEW YEAR’S EVE WITH MR.WILEY

Downtown

Southside

MONDAY • $5 BURGERS ALL DAY!!!

MONDAY • $5 BURGERS ALL DAY!!!

WEDNESDAY • TEAM TRIVIA

TUESDAY • TROOPER TUESDAY-10% OFF

301 W. Broughton St. - 912.236.8711

8108 Abercorn St. - 912.921.2199

THURSDAY • UNDERGROUND ORCHESTRA FRIDAY • FIESTA FRIDAY: $5 BURRITOS AND QUESADILLAS, $2 CORONAS, & FREE CHIPS AND SALSA Dine-In, Delivery, Take-Out & Catering

and $6 Pitchers with Military ID

THURSDAY • TEAM TRIVIA with KOWBOI

FRIDAY • FIESTA FRIDAY

Check out our menu online at locosgrill.com

E xchange

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

46

Call 238-2040 For Business Rates

Place Your Classified Ad Online For FREE! Visit www.connectsavannahexchange.com

BUY • SELL • CONNECT

ADS RECIEVED BY 5PM FRIDAY WILL APPEAR IN THE WEDNESDAY ISSUE OF THE NEXT WEEK

1SPEVDUT 4FSWJDFT 540

Cleaning Services

599

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tary Public. Lynn Glander.

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have clean background. May pickup application at 1104 East requires that you definitely be a 67th Street or call 912-351-9774. morning person. The job will develop into one having more reMULTIMEDIA sponsibility and increased pay 665 once individual learns all the ADVERTISING needed procedures.. Applicants CONSULTANT must be able to work in a fastGet out there! Work for local paced environment. Starting pay business owners and managers for this position is $6.75/hr. plus BELLA’S Italian Cafe increasing their business using multimedia ad campaigns. Daytime Dishwasher needed. tips. All applicants must be able You’ll have the power of news- Generally 12pm-3pm Monday - to pass a pre-employment drug papers and some real cutting- Saturday, plus 2 evenings per screen and background check. edge multimedia websites to w e e k . C a l l s O n l y b e t w e e n To inquire about this position come by 39 Barnard St. ONLY bework with. Do it all, from print, 2:30pm-4:30pm at 354-4005. audio and video. If you have a MORNING SET-UP AND BAKE tween 10-11:00 a.m. Monday-Fridegree in marketing, psycholo- PERSON - The Express Café, 39 day or e-mail your résumé to gy, communication ar ts or Barnard St., has immediate open- expresscafe@comcast.net. If atpublic relations, this fits. Full ings for Morning Set-Up and tending school please include time benefit package. Email re- Bake Person. Applicants must class schedule when submitting sume to: jmelton@statesboro- have reliable transportation and resume. EOE. herald.net be available to work 6am.-10am. Mon-Fri Applicants Find the PerFect aPartment!

OFFICE CLEAN INC. has PT posi- need to be energetic, reliable, tions in the afternoon from work well with others and enjoy go to connectsavannah.com 5-8pm, Mon-Fri. $7/hourly. Must having fun at work. This position

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Miscellaneous Products & Services ERRANDS, ETC

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General

General

Restaurant & Hotel

nah Website

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SAVES TIME & IT’S HIP

665

Restaurant & Hotel

3FBM &TUBUF GPS 4BMF 815

Homes for Sale FOR SALE BY OWNER

EFFINGHAM COUNTY 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1998 Chandeleur Doublewide on 2.1 acres, 1984 SF, Brick foundation @ 123 Shari Drive in Springfield off Courthouse Road in Effingham County, FHA approved. Asking $99,900. Call: 912-657-4583 or 495-1889

www.connectsavannah.com

Great New Home in Brand New Community in Black Creek with Amenities Galore! 3 BR, 2.5 BA, 2100 sq. ft home includes bonus room, eat-in kitchen & separate dining room. Great

WEBSITE

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Homes for Sale schools & just minutes to Savannah and Statesboro. $209,600.

Call K im (912) 858-2526 or (912) 596-8960.

Land/Lots for Sale

Note for Sale

LYNES REALTY 17 Bonaventure Road

THUNDERBOLT Built in 1900. Totally renovated. 4 bedrooms, 3 baths. Tall ceilings. Heart of pine floors.

All appliances included. Porches front & back. Lots of offstreet parking. Short walk to waterfront. $295,000. Seller/broker will consider lease option.

2902 River Drive

THUNDERBOLT Fabulous 3 bedroom, 2 bath condo overlooking the INTRAC O A S TA L W AT E R W AY i n THUNDERBOLT. Gated. Pool.

Garage. Storage. Dock with boat slip for vessel up to 35’. $539,900.

46 King Henry Court

GEORGETOWN Totally renovated townhouse.

3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths. Large living room. Separate dining.

Eat-in kitchen. All appliances included. Private courtyard.

Community center. Pool. Tennis. $149,900. Seller/broker will consider lease option.

912-898-1600 or 508-2001

Find the PerFect aPartment! go to connectsavannah.com

We buy houses for cash!

395-8880 866-573-8880

GEORGETOWN 46 King Henry Court

totally renovated townhouse, 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths. Large living room. Separate dining.

Eat-in kitchen. New kitchen cabinets & counter tops. New master cabinets. New fans & fixtures. New carpet & flooring.

Freshly painted. Stove, refrigerator, & dishwasher, microwave, washer & dryer included.

Community center, pool, tennis. $995/ month.

ARDSLEY PARK 740 Washington Ave Huge

duplex. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths.

Living room, Separate dining, Eat-in Kitchen. Lots of storage.

Stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, washer & dryer. Close to Daffin Park. No Pets! $1000/mo.

126 E. 53rd St.

4 plex. Large apar tment available Jan 1st. 1 bedroom, 1 bath. Living room with fireplace. Separate dining room.

Stove, refrigerator, washer & dryer included. $700/mo

ISLANDS

2725 WHitemarsh Way “The Merritt” a luxury condo, 1 bedroom, 1 bath, Living-Dining room combnation. Screened porch with wooded & marsh views. Stove, refrigerator, washer & dryer included. Gated. Pool, Fitness center, game rom, putting green. $850/month.

912-898-1600 or 508-2001

Handyman Specials

For Sale Cheap 395-8880

Townhomes/Condos for Rent

1, 2, & 3 Bedroom Units Available Very Spacious.

Starting at $400/mo.

Call 912-681-7167

www.connectsavannah.com

Buy. Sell. Find. Free! www.connectsavannah.com

875

Mobile Homes for Rent 3Bed, 2Bath Mobile Home

Large Private Lot. Appliances included.

Located between Metter/Statesboro. Available Now! $600/mo, 1st months rent +deposit.

References required.

Call 770-381-7951.

895

47

5SBOTQPSUBUJPO 910

Cars

Fender Bender?

Paint & Body Work Reasonably Priced Insurance Claims We buy wrecks

355-5932

Who made bail?

Who’s going

to jail?

The Blotter

Stuff to make you blink

Available only in

Room for Rent Central Downtown

Beauty, Comfort, Privacy, Security, Hi-Speed Wi-fi, Cable T.V., Free Laundry, Off street Parking, Close to Shopping, Food, & Fun, Drug-Free Environment, Lease Options Avail., Furn/ Unfurn, All THUNDERBOLT TOWNHOUSE Util. Incl. = $150-200/wk ($100 FOR RENT: New 3BR, 2.5BA with dep.) Email: info@habicorp.org deck. Gated community, 2-car garage, end unit. Over 1600 sqft. 899 $1150/month. Call Kevin at Roommate Wanted 912-224-2330.

865

3BDR, 2 BA newly renovated in Starland District, huge kitchen, original hardwoods throughout, front and back porch, W&D, 3 fireplaces, parking, pets OK. 2212 Whitaker St. Call 770-601-3076

NON-SMOKER To share 3 BR, 2 BA townhouse behind Savannah Mall. Clean, peaceful and safe gated community. $500/month plus security dep. Includes wireless Internet, security system, cable, local telephone and all other utilities. E-mail great2remember@yahoo.com or call (912) 927-1979

CML HOLDINGS, LLC

Find the PerFect aPartment!

Apartments for Rent

PORT WENTWORTH THE COVE - brand new townhouse! 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, washer/dryer included. Next to I-95 & Airport. $800/month, $800/deposit.

ISLANDS - MERCER POINT 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, many amenities! $875/month.

Call 912-604-3285

Apartments for Rent

319

E. Waldburg St.

Call: 441-1999

Connect Savannah Classifieds

NEWLY RENOVATED 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in Starland District. Completely new Kitchen, stainless steel appliances, central heat/air, washer/dryer available. $950. Contact Troy: 912 844 4043.

Owner Financing Lease/Purchase Multiple Properties Available $85,00000 to $1,000,00000

395-8880 • 866-573-8880

read up!

Roommate Wanted 3 bedroom, Barnard Street Victorian District. Hardwood floors, high ceilings, newly renovated. $300/mo. Call Kevin @ 912-508-2469

Great Apartment!

Work!

Profile

go to connectsavannah.com

Ardsley Park/Baldwin Park 1BR/1BA with separate Living and Dining Rooms. Dishwasher. $650/month.

Call 721-4350 or go to connectsavannah.com to place your ad today.

234-0606

• Excellent References • Experienced • Hard Working and Honest • Homes • Apartments • Offices • Every day of the Week $20 off Deep Cleaning!

Call for a FREE Estimate Cleber Cardoso (912) 631-7072

Great location near Forsyth Park, SCAD buildings and Kroger. Newly renovated duplex, 3 BR, 2 BA, LR, large kitchen, W/D, hardwood floors, C H/A, two fireplaces, large back porch, courtyard and off-st. pkg. $1,275/mo.

2

E. 60th street Newly renovated condo apt, 2 Bedroom, 1 Bath, LR, Kitchen, W/D, H/W floors, Cen H/A, Large courtyard & parking. $800/month 912-220-1020 or 912-484-5181 fvenetico@hotmail.com

29 East 34th Street Spacious 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment in the Thomas Square District. Separate ding area, W/D connections, hardwood floors, window H/A, kitchen furnished with stove and refrigerator. Just a few blocks from Forsyth Park. Visit sicaymanagement.com.

AVAILABLE NOW. Pet friendly. $750/mo.

18 West 40th Street Beautifully renovated 2 BR, 1BA lower half of duplex in the Starland District.

Features include formal LR, , formal DR, refinished heart pine floors, ceiling fans, bathroom and kitchen with ceramic tile floors, separate laundry room with washer/ dryer, private courtyard. C H/A, total electric and paid security system. AVAILABLE N O W. P e t F r i e n d l y. $950/mo.

6830 Skidaway Road Spacious 2 BR, 1BA townhouses. Separate dining area, kitchen with stove and refrigerator, hardwood floors and carpet, central H/A, total electric, w/d connections and designated parking. Visit sicaymanagement.com AVAILABLE NOW. No Pets. $650/mo.

320 East Victory Drive Over 2000 sq. ft. of spacious living. 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment with fireplace in formal living room. Formal dining room, sun room, breakfast nook, butler’s pantry, kitchen furnished with stove and refrigerator, central H/A, W/D connections. Visit sicaymanagement.com AVA I L A B L E N O W .

Pet friendly $1000/mo.

17 East 33rd St. www.sicaymanagement.com

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

Aprox. $225,000 On Farm near Brand New Home - Only 10 the Intersection of 46 & 67. ApMinutes from Downtown Sa- prox. 55.56 acres. (East on 46 vannah! Established amenity east of 67) Call 912-691-0408. loaded community close to ports 855 and airport. 3 BR, 2 BA with walkHomes for Rent in closet, eat-in kitchen & fireplace. Only $154,450! Seller contributes $3,000 to closing costs!

Want low maintenance? Town 401 E. 60TH ST. 2200 Sq Ft, 3 BD, home available in same subdivi- 2 ½ BA, Fireplace, Hardwood sion with over 1,400 sq. ft. for un- Floors, Pool, Fenced backyard. d e r $ 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 ! C a l l R i c k ,Pets Ok w/dep., On Bus Route, ( 9 1 2 ) 3 8 5 - 8 9 0 1 o r $1650/month. Call 236-3660 (843) 290-4398.

Almost New Interior 3BR/1BA in Windsor Forest, living Want a View of a Golf Course room, dining room, large family and Cypress Pond? 4 BR, 3 full room, central heat/air, washBA, 1,740+ sq. ft. home with a er/dryer connections, New wood bonus room over garage. Just floors, non-smoking, no pets. minutes from Statesboro, Metter and Claxton and 45 minutes to Close to schools and HAAF. Savannah. Over 1/2 acre lot with $939/month plus deposit. No breathtak ing views. Only Section 8 accepted. Call: $174,350!!! Call Brandon for de- 912-920-1936 tails (912) 286-1819.

FOR SALE / RENT 2BR/1BA & 3BR Apts. Also Studio Attention 1st Time Home Buy- Apt. or Carriage house. Midtown ers - Lowest Prices Around! 3 location. Students welcome. DeBR, 2 BA, 1,230 sq. ft. with master posit plus 1st month’s rent. Call suite, walk-in closet, enlarged 596-4954. bathroom & 2-car garage on a ½ acre lot. Under $138,000! Call LYNES REALTY Erin (912) 531-4288.

860

Sicay Management Inc.

815

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

34 The 411

| Happenings

compiled by Linda Sickler

Rules for

Happenings Send Happenings and/or payment to:

Connect Savannah, 1800 E. Victory Drive, Suite 7, Savannah GA, 31404. Fax to 912-231-9932.

E-mail: linda@connectsavannah.com.

We reserve the right to edit or cut non-paid listings because of space limitations.

Activism & Politics

2008 Presidential Preference Primary The election will be held Tuesday, Feb. 5, and the deadline to register to vote or make any changes to a current voter application is Monday, Jan. 7. For information, contact the Chatham County Voter Registration office, 1117 Eisenhower Dr. Suite E or call 7901520. Through Jan. 7, 2008.

Chatham County Young Democrats is dedicated to getting young people ages 14 to 39 active in governmental affairs and to encourage their involvement at all levels of the Democratic party. Contact Rakhsheim Wright at 604-7319 or chathamcountyyds@ yahoo.com or visit www.org.

Chatham County Young Republicans For information, visit www.savannahyr.com or call Brad Morrison at 596-4810.

Coastal Democrats Contact Maxine Harris at 352-0470 or R1999MHAR@aol.com.

Nonprofits: We will list your event or service at no charge if you are a bona fide nonprofit.

Private business or individual: We will charge $5 per week per entry, payable up front by check or credit card. This goes for art classes, yoga classes, workshops, seminars, etc. that do not meet the above criteria. We retain the right to option to place your happening in the appropriate category.

Drinking Liberally Promoting democracy one pint at a time -share politics while sharing a pitcher. This is an informal gathering of like-minded, leftleaners who may want to trade ideas, get more involved and just enjoy each other’s company. For information on times and location, visit www.DrinkingLiberally.org or send email to august1494@excite.com.

Skidaway Island Democrats Call Tom Oxnard at 598-4290 or send email to oxhouse@aol.com.

Wipe Out Wireless Waste Keep Savannah Beautiful and the City of Savannah Community Planning and Development Department are sponsoring a wireless recycling program. Citizens are urged to drop off their used wireless phones at the Community Planning and Development office, 2203 Abercorn St. Participate or coordinate a drive in your neighborhood, church, school business and organization. For info, contact Nathaniel Glover at 651-6520.

Auditions, Entries

Free events or services: If your event or service is free of charge, we will in turn list it at no charge.

5th Annual Mr. Black Teen My Dream Productions, Inc. is accepting applications for its 5th Annual Mr. Black Teen of Savannah Scholarship Competition, which will be held in April. The winner will receive $1,000, a shopping spree, an honorary banquet and a trophy. Young men ages 13-19 who are attending middle or high school are eligible to enter. This year’s theme is “Standing on the Shoulder of Great Men!” Call 351-6159.

AASU Masquers Auditions The Armstrong Atlantic State University Department of Art, Music & Theatre’s Masquers student theater troupe will hold auditions for a spring semester stage production, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,” by Ntozake Shange. At least 7 females and 2 males, ages 16 to 35, are needed.

Auditions wil be held Jan. 16 and 17 at 6 p.m. at the Masquers Chinese Theater, located in the Armstrong Center, 13040

Current Connect Savannah clients: We will list your Happening at no charge in gratitude for your continued support of our newspaper.

Abercorn St. Rehearsals will begin in January and the performances are set for March 27-30. Call 927-5381 weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Through Jan. 17, 2008.

Armstrong Atlantic State University, 11935 Abercorn St. 912-927-5277. about.armstrong.edu/Maps/index.html Cultural Arts Theatre Auduitions will be held Jan. 3 and 4 at 6:30 p.m. in the Black Box at S.P.A.C.E., 9 W. Henry St., for the production “A Midnight Cry: The Underground Railroad.” The production will be staged Feb. 22, 23, 24 and March 1, 2 and 3 in conjunction with the 19th annual Savannah Black Heritage Festival. The script calls for two AfricanAmerican girls, ages 12-18, and numerous African-American and Caucasian actors 16 and older. Cold readings will be done from the script. Call-backs will be held Jan. 6 at noon. 651-6783 or www.savannahga.gov/ arts. Through Jan. 4, 2008. S.P.A.C.E., 9 W. Henry St.

The 411

| Happenings an audited financial statement or budget.

Applications are available at www.jrleaguesavannah under “Community Impact.” The deadline is Jan. 15. Through Jan. 15, 2008.

Savannah Shakespeare Festival is seeking participants for tne 2008 festival, to be held Saturday, May 17 in Forsyth Park.

Non-profit theaters and spoken word organizations based within the city of Savannah are encouraged to submit a letter of interest by mail to: Savannah Shakespeare Festival, 9 W. Henry St., Savannah, 31401., fax to 651-4677 or e-mail to savshakes@aol.com. The deadline for letters of interest is Jan. 11 at 5 p.m.

For information, contact Jin Hi Soucy Rand at 713-1137 or savshakes@aol.com. Through Jan. 11, 2008.

Classes

700 Kitchen Cooking School will offer hands-on educational/entertaining cooking classes at the Mansion on Forsyth Park, 700 Drayton St. The cost of each class is $90 per person. Call 238-5158 or visit http:// www.700kitchen.com.

Beading Classes Learn jewelry-making techniques from beginner to advanced at Bead Dreamer Studio, 407A E. Montgomery Cross Rd. Call 9206659. Bead Dreamer Studio, 407 A East Montgomery Crossroads. 912-920-6659. www.beaddreamer.com continued on page 36

We are

taking care of ourselves

Protecting Future Fertility: STD testing and treatment can protect my ability to have a baby someday.

Happy Hour specials Monday-Friday 4-7pM $2 Wells

and

$1.50 doMestic draFts

Wed."HalF Way tHere" Wednesday HalF oFF on all liquor, draFt beer and House Wine

live Music: bottles & cans

Thur. "Get boMbed" tHursday $2 W d d ells and

oMestic

raFts

$3 JaGer boMbs, cHerry boMbs and nuGrape sHots

live Music:

eric

culberson

Fri. Live MuSic keitH

& ross

SaT. Live MuSic arGyle

Sun. Mon.

no live Music

neW year’s eve

Live MuSic

Birth Control: so I can plan for today and for a family tomorrow.

WorMsleoW

TueS. lounGe niGHt

HalF

oFF on all

dark liquor

crab racinG niGHt! CAll 1-800-230-PlAN for The

50¢ Raw Oysters

(anytime)

SAvANNAh heAlTh CeNTer

At Planned Parenthood©, we’re here for you with high quality health care at an affordable cost - for annual checkups, birth control, emergency contraception, STD tests and pregnancy testing. www.ppga.org Bring this ad when you come in for an annual exam and get $20 off or a health & Wellness Tote New Clients only - one per person - No cash value Good through November 2007 or while supplies last.

35

131 W. River St 644-7172

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

Epworth Players Auditions The Epworth Players will hold auditions for “Two X T.W.” Jan. 4 from 7-9 p.m. and Jan. 5 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Epworth Methodist Church, 38th and Bull streets.

Four men ages 20 to 65, four women ages 20 to 50, one boy 7-9 and one girl 11-13 are needed for Thornton Wilder’s “The Happy Journey” and Tennessee Williams’ “The Case of the Crushed Petunias.” Technicians also are needed. Production dates are Feb. 15 and 16. For info, contact Ellen R. Hooper at epworthcenterforthearts@yahoo.com. Through Jan. 5, 2008.

Home and Heart Warming Program The United Way of the Coastal Empire is taking applications for this Atlanta Gas Light Co. program. United Way was given a grant to be used to help low-income homeowners with free repair or replacement of gas appliances, such as hot water heaters, furnaces, space heaters and stoves. Qualified customers also can apply for free weatherization of their homes. The program is open to residents of Chatham, Bryan, Effingham, Liberty and Glynn counties. Call 651-7730.

Junior League Projects The Junior League of Savannah is accepting applications for two programs that award funding and volunteers to community agencies. The designated focus area is women and children’s advocacy. Eligibility requirements include being a 501c(3) non-profit organization, having a commitment to volunteerism, having a board of directors and having

Great Food • Great Music Great everyday

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

36

The 411

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New Years Day Antique Auction Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 @ 1:00 p.m.

News Years Day is annually reserved for the only the very best consignments of the year!

This year being no exception, Bull Street Auctions will ring in the New Year with a fabulous collection of 19th C and early 20th C furniture and collectibles. Dixieland Catering will provide your New Years fare for luck and prosperity with the traditional pork, greens, hoppin johns and complimentary mimoysas.

Don’t miss this one!!

| Happenings

continued from page 35

Bridging Art and Writing The Savannah College of Art and Design Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning will present Mary Erickson on Jan. 9 from 67 p.m. as part of the Innovative Teaching and Learning Symposium series. She will discuss how a team of educators reconciled the ways students think about art and writingm, improving their abilities to create and interpret art, as well as improve writing and language arts skills. The lecture will be presented at Alexander Hall, 668 Inidan St., and a reception will follow. This event is free and open to the public. Through Jan. 9, 2008.

Brush with Clay Classes in Raku, brush work, relief work, surface decoration, figurative and more in clay with individual attention are offered at CarosArt Studio by professional artist/clay sculptor Carolyne Graham. Costs $100 for 6 classes, or $30 per class. Clay supplies are extra. Call 925-7393 to register.

Construction Apprentice Program is a free 16-week training program for men and women interested in gaining construction skills for career level jobs in construction. Earn a technical certificate of credit with no cost for trainingk, books or tools. Provided t hrough a collaboration of Chatham County, the Homebuilders Association of Savannah, Savannah Technical Eollege and Step Up Savannah’s Poverty Reduction Initiative. To apply, call Tara H. Sinclair at 604-9574.

Conversational Spanish Do you want to practice your Spanish? Come to the mesa de espanol the second Thursday and last Friday of the month at 4:30 p.m. at The Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Ave. For information, send e-mail to cafecontigo@gmail. com. The Sentient Bean, 13 East Park Ave. 912-232-4447. www.sentientbean.com Credit and Money Management 12-Hour Seminar will be held Jan 21, 23, 28 and 30 from 5:458:45 p.m. at the Effingham YMCA in Rincon.

Topics include: improving credit scores, budgeting, managing debt, what lenders require when you borrow money, how to spot looming money problems, and how to deal with them before it’s too late. Orientation/registration will be held Jan. 14 between 6-7 p.m.

The fee is $99 per person or $169 per couple.

Space is limited and advance registration is

required. Call Carmen at 826-6263 or 4841266. Through Jan. 14, 2008.

December Drawing, Painting and Clay Classes and open studio sessions are available at the Savannah Art and Clay School. Contact certified art teacher and clay sculptor Carolyne Graham at 925-7393 for times, prices and info. Through Dec. 31.

Fany’s Spanish/English Institute Fany’s Spanish/English Institute Spanish is fun. Classes for adults and children are held at 15 E. Montgomery Cross Rd. Call 9214646 or 220-6570 to register. Fany’s Spanish/ English Institute, 15 E. Montgomery Cross Rd. Free Tax School Earn extra income after taking this course.

Flexible schedules, convenient locations. The class is free but there is a small fee for books.

Call 352-2862 or visit www.libertytax.com.

Highest Praise School of the Arts of Overcoming by Faith is offering vocal, piano and dance classes that are open to anyone from Pre-K to adult. Visit overcomingbyfaith.org or call 927-8601.

Housing Authority of Savannah Classes Free classes will be offered at the Neighborhood Resource Center, 1407 Wheaton St. Some classes are on-going.

Adult Literacy is offered every Monday and Wednesday from 4-6 p.m. Homework Help is offered every Tuesday and Thursday from 34:30 p.m. The Community Computer Lab is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. GED/adult literacy education is being offered Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon or 1-4 p.m.

How to Unlock Your Financial Potential Barbara Treadwell of Treadwell and Associates, LLC will present this lecture Jan. 10 from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Jepson Center Auditorium. Call 236-1704. Through Jan. 10, 2008. Jepson Center for the Arts, 207 York St. 912-790-8800. www.telfair.org/ Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation A meditation period will be followed by instruction in the application of the foundations of Mindfulness practice to daily life.

Beginner’s and experienced practitioners welcome. Ongoing weekly sessions held Monday from 6-7:30 p.m. at 313 E. Harris St. Call Cindy Beach, Buddhist nun, at 429-7265 or cindy@alwaysoptions.com. Unitarian

912-398-4776 or 912-224-9667

PREVIEW TIMES: MON, 11 – 3; TUE, 11 – 1 Future Antique Auction Dates: January 13th & 27th Next Imported Rug Auction: January 20th

fitnessconnection1@yahoo.com 2209 Rowland Ave, Suite No.2 Thunderbolt Ga. 31404

VIEW PHOTOS @ WWW.BULLSTREETAUCTIONS.COM

Bull Street Auctions

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The 411

| Happenings from 6-7 p.m. at Alexander Hall, 668 Indian St., to present a lecture about how artists who teach face dual roles and how many of them experience contradictions in their career development that impact both those roles. A reception will follow. This event is free and open to the public. Through April 23, 2008.

Tybee Island Marine Science Center offers Beach Discovery and marsh walks.

Aquarium hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Monday, and from 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesday. Admission is $4 for adults and $3 for children, ages 3016. Senior, military and AAA discounts are available.

Call 786-5917 or visit www.tybeemsc.org.

Tybee Island Marine Science Center, 1510 Strand. 912-786-5917. www.tybeemsc.org/ Volunteer 101 A 30-minute course that covers issues to help volunteers get started is held the first and third Thursday of the month at 6 p.m. The first Thursday, the class is at Savannah State University, and the third Thursday, at United Way, 428 Bull St. Register by calling Summer at 651-7725 or visit www.HandsOnSavannah. org.

Wednesday Figure Drawing Group offers artists an opportunity to meet other artists and work from a live model each week.

Open to artists with some experience and no instruction is offered. The cost is $60 a month. Call Judy Mooney at 443-9313 or judymooney@bellsouth.net. Savannah Actor’s Theatre, 703D Louisville Rd. 912-232-6080. www.savannahactorstheatre.org Winter Visual Arts Classes The City of Savannah’s Department of Cultural Affairs is now registering students for its winter visual arts classes, day and evening classes in ceramics, metals and jewelrymaking for children, teens and adults. All classes are held at the S.P.A.C.E. studios, 9 W. Henry St., beginning Jan. 14 and will run for eight weeks. Class fees include instruction, use of studio space, use of equipment and all materials and tools required. Space is limited and advance registration is encouraged. Class schedules and registration forms are available online at www.savannahga.gov/arts or by calling 651-6783. Through Jan. 14, 2008.

S.P.A.C.E., 9 W. Henry St.

Clubs & Organizations

AASU Sci-Fi Fantasy Club This is an official student club of Armstrong Atlantic State University that accepts nonstudents as associate members. It is devoted to the exploration and enjoyment of the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Activities include book discussions, movie screenings, role playing game sessions, board and card games, guest speakers, episode marathons and armor demonstrations. Provides guest speakers to educators upon request. Call Michael at 220-8129, send e-mail to lightmagus@yahoo.com or mccauln1981@hotmail.com. or visit http://aasuscifi.proboards105.com/index.cgi.

Bike Night with Mikie is held every Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at The Red Zone Bar and Grill in Richmond Hill. Half of the proceeds of a 50/50 drawing go to the continued on page 38

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

Universalist Church of Savannah, 313 Harris St. 912-234-0980. www.uusavannah.org Oatland Island Wildlife Center has a new name, but still offcers environmental education programs and weekend events. It is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed only on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. www.oatlandisland.org. Oatland Island Wildlife Center, 711 Sandtown Rd. 912-898-3980. www.oatlandisland.org/ Puppet Shows are offered by St. Joseph’s/Candler AfricanAmerican Health Information & Resource Center for schools, day cares, libraries, churches, community events and fairs. Call 447-6605.

RecruitMilitary Career Fair A free hiring event for job seekers who have military backgrounds will be held Thursday, Jan. 10 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Sans Hotel and Suites in Hinesville. Open to veterans who laready have civilian work experience, men and women who are transitioning from active duty to civilian life, members of the National Guard and reserves and military spouses. Through Jan. 10, 2008.

Savannah Entrepreneurial Center offers a variety of business classes. It is located at 801 E. Gwinnett St. Call 652-3582.

Savannah Entrepreneurial Center, 801 E. Gwinnett Street. 912-652-3582.

Savannah Learning Center Spanish Classes Be bilingual. The center is located at 7160 Hodgson Memorial Dr. Call 272-4579 or 308-3561. e-mail savannahlatina@yahoo.com or visit www.savannahlatina.com. Free folklore classes also are offered on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Savannah Learning Center, 7160 Hodgson Memorial Dr. Sewing Lessons Fabrika at 140 Abercorn St. offers adult classes in: Beginner Sewing: Using a Pattern -- Skirt or Totebag; Intro to Kids’ Clothing; and Drafting Your Own Skirt or Totebag.

Group classes start in September. Private lessons are available. Visit www.fabrikasavannah.com or call 236-1122. Fabrika, 140 Abercorn St. 912-236-1122. www.fabrikasavannah.com Starfish Culinary Arts Training Program This 12-week full-time program is designed to provide work training and employment opportunities in the food service industry, including food preparation, food safety and sanitation training, customer service training and job search and placement assistance. Call Mindy Saunders at 234-0525. The Starfish Cafe, 711 East Broad Street. 912-234-0525. www.thestarfishcafe.org/ Studio or Space by the Hour Space is available for coaches, teachers, instructors, trainers, therapists or organizations that require a studio or space by the hour.

Contact Tony at 655-4591 for an appointment.

The Artist/Teacher Conundrum The Savannah College of Art and Design Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning will present Susan Zwirn, a fine arts education coordinator at Hofstra University, as part of the Innovative Teaching and Learning Symposium series. She will appear April 23

37

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

38 The 411

| Happenings

continued from page 37

military for phone cards and other items.

Blackbeard’s Scuba Club The Blackbeard’s Scuba Club will meet Saturday, Dec. 8 for a meeting followed by the monthly Christmas party. Visit the forum section of monsterscuba.com/forums/ for details and directions.

Buccaneer Region SCCA is the local chapter of the Sports Car Club of America. It hosts 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/solo.html.

Chihuahua Club of Savannah A special little club for special little dogs and their owners meets one Saturday each month at 10:30 a.m. For information, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ ChiSavannah/.

Civil Air Patrol is the civilian, volunteer auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and is involved in search and rescue, aerospace education and cadet programs. Meets every Tuesday at 6 p.m. for cadets (12-18 years old) and 7 p.m. for adult members at the former Savannah Airport terminal building off Dean Forest Road. Visit www.gawg.cap.gov, send e-mail to N303WR@aol.com, or call Capt. Jim Phillips at 412-4410.

Clean Coast meets monthly on the first Monday at the Jewish Educational Alliance, 5111 Abercorn St. Check www.cleancoast.org for event

This space kept clean by

• Serving the area since 1990 • Dependable, reliable • Background checks and drug testing

schedule. Jewish Education Alliance, 5111 Abercorn St. 912-355-8111. www.savj.org/ Coastal Bicycle Touring Club of Savannah Visit www.cbtc.org for meeting schedule and more information. Meetings are held on the first Monday of each month at Tubby’s Tank House restaurant in Thunderbolt at 6:30 p.m. 728-5989. 1st of every month. Tubby’s Tank House (Thunderbolt), 2909 River Dr. 912-354-9040.

Coastal MINIs is a group of local MINI Cooper owners and enthusiasts who gather on the first Sunday of the month at 10 a.m. at the Starbucks in the 12 Oaks Shopping Center on Abercorn St. to meet other MINI owners and go on motoring adventures together. Visit coastalminis.com.

Code Pink is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities. Meets the second Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. at Queenies To Go-Go, 1611 Habersham St. Contact mimi.thegoddessfactory@gmail. com or visit http://fearnoarts.com. Queeny’s To Go Go, 1611 Habersham St. 912-4475555.

English Style Table Soccer Savannah Subbuteo Club. Call 667-7204 or visit http://savannahsubbuteo.tripod.com.

Geechee Sailing Club meets the second Monday of the month (except for November) at 6:30 p.m. at Tubby’s Tank House, 2909 River Dr. in Thunderbolt.

Open to all interested in boating and related activities. Call 234-1903 or visit www. geecheesailingclub.org. Tubby’s Tank House (Thunderbolt), 2909 River Dr. 912-3549040.

Historic Savannah Chapter of ABWA meets the second Thursday of every month from 5-7:30 p.m. at Tubby’s Restaurant.

The cost is the price of the meal. Call 6608257 for reservations. Tubby’s Tank House (Thunderbolt), 2909 River Dr. 912-3549040.

Historic Victorian Neighborhood Association meets the second Wednesday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at the American Legion, Post 135, 1108 Bull St. between Park Avenue

and Duffy Street. Call 236-8546. American Legion, Post 135, 1108 Bull St. 912-2339277.

Low Country Turners This is a club for wood-turning enthusiasts.

Call Hank Weisman at 786-6953.

Military Order of the Purple Heart Ladies Auxiliary meets the first Saturday of the month at 1 p.m. at American Legion Post 184 in Thunderbolt. Call 786-4508. American Legion Post 184, 1 Legion Dr. 912-354-5515.

Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) Join other moms for fun, inspiration, guest speakers, food and creative activities while children ages birth to 5 are cared for in a preschool-like setting. Meets the second and fourth Wednesday of the month from 9:15-11:30 am at First Baptist Church of the Islands, 6613 Johnny Mercer Blvd. Call 8988316 or 898-5086 or visit www.mops.org.

First Baptist Church of the Islands, 6613 Johnny Mercer Blvd. 921-897-2142. www. fbcislands.com/ No Kidding! is the area’s first social club for single and married adults who do not have children.

Meet other non-parents at events and activities. For information on No Kidding! visit www.nokidding.net or send e-mail to luluette@prodigy.net.

Philosophy Reading Group This group will focus on various philosophical themes and texts, culminating in facilitated discussions with an open exchange of ideas within a community of inquiry.

Meeting locations will change to reflect the current issue. Contact Kristina at 407-4431571 or ktina697@hotmail.com.

PURE: Photographers Using Real Elements Join with other photographers and artists to celebrate the authentic photography processes of black and white film and paper development using chemicals in a darkroom. Help in the creation and promotion of Savannah’s first cooperative darkroom space to enhance the lives of working photographers and introduce the community to the magic of all classic photo chemical processes. Contact for next meeting time. Contact Kathleen Thomas at PUREdarkroom@gmail.com.

Revived Salon for Women Seeking

From the church that brought you the “God on Broadway” Worship Series

A s bu r y M e m o r i a l U M C Presents:

Sunday, December 30th Serving the Greater Savannah Area

912-356-3366 Let us keep your space clean!

“When Not Getting a Good Night’s Sleep is a Blessing” Check out our web site: www.asburymemorial.org www.asburymemorial.com • Corner of Henry St. & Waters Ave. • 233-4351, parking lot in back of building.

Change In Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift of the Sea, she wrote, “How untidy my shell has become. Blurred with moss, knobby with barnacles, its shape is hardly recognizable any more. Surely it had a shape once. It has a shape still in my mind. What is the shape of my life?” If these words resonate with you and you are a woman over 50, this group offers bonding, laughter, discussion and fun.

Seating is limited. Call 236-8581 for info.

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 Books-AMillion and the third Tuesday at Chen’s Chinese Restaurant at 20 E. Derenne Ave. at 7:30 p.m. Call 692-0382, email kasak@ comcast.net or visit www.roguephoenix.org.

Books-A-Million, 8108 Abercorn St. 921925-8112. www.booksamillion.com/ Savannah Adventure Club is dedicated to pursuing adventures, both indoors and outdoors, throughout the Low country and beyond. Activities in the past year have included sailing, camping, skydiving, kayaking, hiking, tennis, volleyball, and skiing, in addition to regular social gatherings. Free to join, and Email savannahadventureclub@gmail.com or visit www. savannahadventureclub.com Savannah Area Landlord & Real Estate Investors Association Learn to be a real estate investor or landlord. Group meets the second Tuesday of each month at the Spiva Law Group, 12020 Abercorn St. The doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. Spiva Law Group, 12020 Abercorn St. Savannah Area Sacred Harp Singers The public is invited to come and sing early American music and folk hymns from the shape note tradition. This non-denominational community musical activity emphasizes participation, not performance. Songs are from The Sacred Harp, an oblong songbook first published in 1844. Call 655-0994.

Savannah Art Association meets the second Thursday of the month from 6-8 p.m. Call 232-7731.

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

CHATHAM COUNTY

AQUATIC CENTER Construction is finally finished!

Re-opening January 2nd Sign up now for swim lessons Classes begin January 7th 7240 Sallie Mood Drive 912-652-6793

| Happenings a variety of activities, tours and events that will assist you in learning about Savannah and making new friends. Call 351-3171.

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 mickie_ ragsdale@comcast.net.

Savannah Scooter Gang Connecting local riders to swap tips, stories, parts, mods and secrets. No obligation other than networking, and possibly arranging a monthly weekend ride to take over the streets downtown. Show off your scoot and ride with pride -- put ‘em in a line and watch the stares.

Contact Travis at pittsillustration@gmail.com or myspace.com/travispitts.

Savannah Ski and Adventure Club For snow-covered mountain-loving people and their friends. All are welcome. Meets for a wide variety of activities throughout the year. Meetings are held the third Tuesday of every month at rotating locations. Visit http://savannahskiclub.com.

Savannah Sunrise Rotary Club meets Thursdays from 7:30-8:30 a.m. at the First City Club. meets Thursdays from 7:308:30 a.m. at the First City Club. First City Club, 32 Bull St. 912-238-4548. www.firstcityclub.com/ 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. 352-1935. Memorial Health University Medical Center, 4700 Waters Avenue. 912-350-8000. www.memorialhealth.com/ Savannah’s First Pug Playday This group meets every first Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Savannah Dog Park at 41st and Drayton streets. All humans and dogs who live in a pug household are welcome. A donation to the Savannah Dog Park would be appreciated. Contact Mike or Melinda at kennedy.mike@comcast.net. Savannah Dog Park, East 41st Lane and Drayton St. www.savannahdogpark.com/ St. Almo The name stands for Savannah True Animal Lovers Meeting Others. Informal dog walks are held Sundays (weather permitting). Meets at 5 p.m. at Canine Palace, 618 Abercorn St. (Time changes with the season.) Call 2343336. Canine Palace Inc, 618 Abercorn St. 912-234-3336. www.caninepalacesavannah. com Sweet Adeline Chorus rehearses weekly on Wednesdays from 7-9 p.m. in St. Joseph’s Hopsital’s meeting rooms.

Contact vicky.mckinley1@comcast.net. St. Joseph’s Hospital, 11705 Mercy Blvd. 912819-4100. www.sjchs.org/ Telfair Academy Guild will meet Nov. 12 in the Jepson Center for the Arts Neises Auditorium. Jack Morris, of the Morris & Whiteside Galleries in Hilton Head, will speak on Collecting Art. New members are welcome. Call 598-4999. Jepson Center for the Arts, 207 York St. 912-790-8800. www. telfair.org/ continued on page 40

39

--but I’m keeping it nice.

by Matt Jones

Across

1 One voice 5 Math course, for short 9 Way to serve coffee 13 ___ 1 Imports 14 ___ Sophia (Istanbul landmark) 16 Feng ___ 17 “This bug spray’s doing me no good...___!”

19 Helgenberger of “CSI” and “China Beach” 20 Soil type 21 Pink can drink 23 Word before a maiden name 24 “No ___ didn’t!”

26 “The Clintons’ old cat just scratched me again...___!”

30 Govt. watchdog arm 32 “X-Men” villain with leaping ability 33 Pay for others 34 Bausch & Lomb brand 35 Disreputable newspaper 36 ___ gow (gambling game) 37 “I just burned all the meat for the picnic...___!”

43 Possible tic-tac-toe line 44 “Can ___ least get ready first?”

45 Skater Kulik 46 In any way 49 Colleges, in German slang 50 Make out 51 “I can’t believe I just got three strikes...___!”

54 Not neg.

55 ___ Tin Tin 56 Nile biter 57 Actor Wyle 59 “In the same place,” in footnotes 61 “I hate that screaming ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ judge...___!”

66 Showed up 67 Suckle 68 When the time comes that 69 Law professor Dershowitz 70 Suffix after party or theater 71 RBI or RISP

Down

1 Cop call 2 Word in many kid rappers’ names 3 David Duchovny’s wife 4 About 5 Movie with the line “There is no spoon” 6 “Gnarly!”

7 “Can ___ now?”

8 Like smart kids 9 End of a belief?

10 Monopoly card 11 “I’ve got it!”

12 Take a breather from eating 15 “Nobody creates ___. It just happens.” -- Jim Henson 18 Grunge band whose final album was 1995’s “Infrared Riding Hood” 22 Rigel, for example 24 Peon 25 Command to a dog 27 Light red or brown, in horse colors 28 Like some doubts 29 Starting point 31 Dome-shaped structure 36 Anesthetizes 38 Music in some “Weird Al” Yankovic medleys 39 “Scott ___ Is 45...and Single” 40 ___ in the room 41 Part of a Caribbean island 42 Fifth Avenue store 46 South ___ 47 Like “Survivor” councils 48 1996 Tool album that went triple platinum 49 Disconnect 52 Publishing ID 53 It may come with a choking hazard warning 58 John of “Good Times” 60 Study 62 Gold, to Guillermo 63 Three letters in ingredient lists that denote “sugar” 64 ___ Building (former name of an NYC skyscraper) 65 Up to this point

©2007 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #0341.

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

Savannah Brewers League. Moon River Brewing Co., 21 W. Bay St. Savannah Browns Backers This is an official fan club recognized by the Cleveland Browns NFL football team.

Meet with Browns fans to watch the football games and support your favorite team Sundays at game time at Tubby’s Tank House in Thunderbolt. The group holds raffles and trips and is looking into having tailgate parties in the future. Call Kathy Dust at 373-5571 or send e-mail to KMDUST4@hotmail.com or Dave Armstrong at Darmst0817@comcast.net or 925-4709. Tubby’s Tank House (Thunderbolt), 2909 River Dr. 912-354-9040.

Savannah Council, Navy League of the United States has a dinner meeting the fourth Tuesday of each month (except December) at 6 p.m. at the Hunter Club, Hunter Army Airfield.

Call John Findeis at 748-7020. Hunter Army Airfield, 525 Leonard Neat St. 912-355-1060. www.stewart.army.mil/ Savannah Fencing Club offers beginning classes Tuesday and Thursday evenings for six weeks. Fees are $40. Some equipment is provided. After completing the class, you may become a member of the Savannah Fencing Club for $5 per month. Experienced fencers are welcome to join. Call 429-6918 or send email to savannahfencing@aol.com.

Savannah Friends of Music General Meeting Savannah Friends of Music, whose mission is to support, promote and sponsor classical music and music education in Savannah and the surrounding area, will hold its general meeting Jan. 21 at 11 a.m. at the Johnny Harris Banquet Facility, 1701 E. Victory Dr. A brief business meeting will be followed by entertainment by the 13th Colony Sound singers. Lunch will follow. Checks for $25 made out to Savannah Friends of Music may be sent to Karen Cassard, 6 Riding Lane, Savannah, 31411 by January 17th. Casual attire is suggested (blue jeans preferred) and new members are welcome. Through Jan. 21, 2008. Johnny Harris Restaurant, 1651 East Victory Drive. 912-354-7810. www.johnnyharris.com/ Savannah Jaycees for young professionals ages 21 to 39 is a Junior Chamber of Commerce that focuses on friendship, career development and community involvement. Meets the second and fourth Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Dinner is included and there is no charge for guests. Call 961-9913 or visit www.savannahjaycees.com.

Savannah Kennel Club meets every fourth Monday of the month from September through May at 7:30 p.m. at Ryan’s restaurant on Stephenson Avenue. It is an education organization dedicated to informing the public about current events in the world of dogs and those who love them.

Those wishing to eat before the meeting are encouraged to arrive earlier. For details, visit www.savannahkennelclub.org.

Savannah Newcomers Club is 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 hosts

“I Curse You”

Answers on page 44

The 411

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

| Happenings

continued from page 39

Texas Hold ‘Em Tournaments Free poker tournaments are held every week in Savannah, Hinesville and Statesboro. Free to play. Win prizes and gifts. Visit www.

GUTSHOTGA.com for details.

The Young Professionals of Savannah An AfterHours networking social is held every third Thursday of the month. Visit www.ypsav.net, sign up for the e-newsletter and find out about other upcoming events, or call Leigh Johnson at 659-9846.

TriUnity Opportunity Meeting meets the first and third Thursdays of each month at 7 p.m. at the Best Western at I95 and 204. Learn how to start a business from home. Free. Ask for Chris and Sandy Benton.

Tybee Performing Arts Society meets the first Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at the old Tybee school All interested, please attend or send e-mail to ried793@ netscape.com.

Urban Professionals meets first Fridays at 7:30 p.m. at Vu at the Hyatt on Bay Street. If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right. Call 272-9830 or send e-mail to spannangela@hotmail.com.

Hyatt Regency, 2 W. Bay St. Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 671 meets monthly at the American Legion Post 135, 1108 Bull St. Call James Crauswell at 927-3356. American Legion, Post 135, 1108 Bull St. 912-233-9277.

Dance

Adult Dance Classes in ballet, tap and hip-hop are offered at Islands Dance Academy, 115 Charlotte Dr, Whitemarsh Island near Publix shopping center. All levels and body types welcome. $12 per class or 8 classes for $90.

Beginner Adult Ballet is offered Tuesdays from 7:30-8:30 p.m., Intermediate Adult Ballet is offered Mondays from 6:45-7:45 p.m. and Thursdays from 6:30-7:30 p.m.; Intermediate/Advanced Adult Ballet is offered Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.,

We N ow S e r ve , A s ia n B e e rs Sake & P lu m W in e

Hip-Hop is offered Tuesdays from 6:307:30 p.m. and Beginner Adult Tap is held Tuesdays from 7-8 p.m. There are a variety of youth classes for ages 3 to teen. Contact Sue Braddy at 897-2100. Islands Dance Academy, 610 Quarterman Dr. 912-8972100.

Argentine Tango Practice and Lesson Learn the dance while having fun Sundays from 1:30-3:30 at the Doris Martine Dance Studio, 7360 Skidaway Rd. $2 per person.

Call 925-7416. Doris Martin Dance Studio, 7360 Skidaway Rd. 912-354-8089.

Ballroom Dance Party Join the Moon River Dancers Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Frank G. Murray Community Center, 160 Whitemarsh Island Rd. The basic lesson for the Rumba starts at 7 p.m. and the social dance is from 8-10:30 p.m.

The cost is $10. Beginners and singles are welcome. Call 961-9960 or 655-4985.

Through Jan. 19, 2008.

Basic Ballroom Class Learn the Waltz and Rumba with the Moon River Dancers Jan. 5 from 1-3 p.m. at the West Broad YMCA, 1110 May St. The cost is $3. Beginners and singles are welcome. Call 961-9960 or 655-4985. Through Jan. 5, 2008.

YMCA-West Broad St, 1110 May St. 912233-1951.

Breffni Academy of Irish Dance has opened a location in Richmond Hill and is accepting students. The academy is located at Life Moves Dance Studio, 10747 Ford Ave. For information, call Michael or Nicola O’Hara at 305-756-8243 or send email to Dance@BreffniAcademy.com. Visit www.IrishDanceClasses.com..

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.

Chicago-style Step Workshops VISION 2000 Community Development Corp. Inc. will host its first annual fundraising event, Steppin in Strawberry with a Touch of Chocolate, on Feb. 23 from 8 p.m.

Where do you go....

‘‘

40 The 411

to midnight at the Prince Mason Hall, 602 E. Broad St. Tickets are $25. Learn to Chicagostyle step at a six-week series of workshops to be held every Sunday beginning Jan. 6 from 3-5 p.m. at Savannah State University’s Wilcox Gym and every Wednesday beginning Jan. 9 from 7-9 p.m. at the W.W. Law Center, 909 E. Bolton St. All workshops are free of charge and conducted by Tunya Coleman of the Savannah Stylistic Steppers.

Through Feb. 23, 2008.

Disabled Ballroom Class Classes are held at Memorial Health’s The Rehabilitation Institute, 4700 Waters Ave. The classes are free and open to anyone.

The next class will be held Saturday, Jan. 26.

Contact Charleen Harden at 308-7307 or cwh0869@yahoo.com. Memorial Health University Medical Center, 4700 Waters Avenue. 912-350-8000. www.memorialhealth.com/ Flamenco Enthusiasts Dance or learn flamenco in Savannah with the Flamenco Cooperative. Meetings are held on Saturdays from 1 to 2:30 or 3 p.m. at the Maxine Patterson School of Dance. Any level welcome. If you would like to dance, accompany or sing, contact Laura Chason at laura_chason@yahoo.com. Maxine Patterson School of Dance, 2212 Lincoln St. 912-234-8745.

Gretchen Greene School of Dance is accepting registration for fall classes in tap, ballet, lyrical, acrobatics, jazz and hiphop for ages 3 and up. Adult tap classes are held Tuesday from 7:30-8:15 for beginners and Monday from 7:15-8 p.m. for intermediate. Call 897-4235 or email ggsod.com.

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.

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 B. at 272-8329.

Savannah Shag Club offers shag music every Wednesday and Friday at 7 p.m. at American Legion Post 36 on Victory Drive.

Shag-Beach Bop-Etc. Savannah hosts Magnificent Mondays from 6:30-11 p.m. at Double’s, Holiday Inn/Midtown, 7100 Abercorn St. Free basic shag, swing, salsa, cha cha, line dance and others are offered the first two Mondays and free shag lessons are offered. The lesson schedule is posted at www.shagbeachbop.com and announced each Monday. The dance lessons are held 6:30-7:30 p.m. Special cocktail prices are from 6:30-10 p.m. and their are hors d’ouerves. There is no cover charge.

Everyone is invited and welcomed into club membership. Call 927-4784 or 398-8784 or visit www.shagbeachbop.com. Doubles Lounge, 7100 Abercorn Street. 912-3527100.

The STUDIO Adult Beginner Ballet Class is being offered. The STUDIO also is accepting new students 5 and up for the new season. Contact Veronica at 695-9149. The STUDIO is located at 2805 Roger Lacey Ave. just off the intersection of Skidaway and Victory. Call Veronica at 695-9149 or visit ww.thestudiosav.com. The STUDIO, 2805B Lacy Avenue. 912-356-8383. www.thestudiosav.com/ Youth Dance Program The West Broad Street YMCA, Inc. presents its Instructional DanceProgram in jazz and ballet for kids 4 to 18. $30 per month for one class and $35 per month for both classes.

Call 233-1951. YMCA-West Broad St, 1110 May St. 912-233-1951.

Fitness

A balanced life Student massage is offered at the Savannah School of Massage Therapy, Inc. Cost ranges from $30 to $40 for a one-hour massage and sessions are instructor supervised. Call 3553011 for an appointment. The school is lo-

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The 411

| Happenings Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. African-American Health Information & Resource Center, 1910 Abercorn St. 912447-6605. www.sjchs.org/1844.cfm Mommy and Baby Yoga Classes are held Wednesdays from 10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. at the Savannah Yoga Center, 25 E. 40th St. Infants must be 6 weeks to 6 months, precrawling. The cost is $13 per class. Multi-class discounts are available. The instructor is Betsy Boyd Strong. Walk-ins are welcome. Call 441-6653 or visit www.savannahyoga.com.

Savannah Yoga Center, 1321 Bull St. 912-2322994. www.savannahyoga.com/ Moms in Motion A pre and post-natal exercise program is offered by St. Joseph’s/Candler Center for WellBeing. The cost is $30 per month. Call 819-6463. Candler Hospital, 5353 Reynolds St. 912-819-6000. www.sjchs.org/ National Gymnastics Day Whitemarsh Island YMCA will host a free gymnastics open house on Saturday, Aug. 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 66 Johnny Mercer Blvd. Appropriate for children 2 and up.

YMCA Whitemarsh Island, 135 Whitemarsh Island Rd. 912-897-6158.

Pilates Classes are offered at the St. Joseph’s/Candler Center for WellBeing, Suite 203 of the Candler Heart and Lung Building, 5356 Reynolds St. Four sessions are $30, eight sessions are $50.

Pre-register by calling 819-6463. Candler Hospital, 5353 Reynolds St. 912-819-6000. www.sjchs.org/ Pregnancy Yoga An eight-week session will be held starting Jan. 8 on Tuesday and Thursdays from 6-7:15 pm in offices at 7116 Hodgson Memorial Dr. Pre-natal yoga helps mothers-to-be prepare for a more mindful approach to the challenges of pregnancy, labor and delivery. The instructor is Ann Carroll. Cost is $100 for once per week or $175 for twice per week.

704-7650 or ann@aikyayoga.com. Through Jan. 31, 2008.

Savannah Yoga Center Located at 1321 Bull St. Call 441-6653 or visit www.savannahyoga.com for schedule of classes, times and fees. Savannah Yoga Center, 1321 Bull St. 912-232-2994. www.savannahyoga.com/ Senior Power Hour is a program for people over 55. Health and wellness professionals help reach fitness goals.

The program may include, but isn’t limited to, strength training, cardio for the heart, flexibility, balance, basic healthy nutrition and posture concerns. Call 898-7714.

Structure Fitness Bootcamp Monday, Wednesday, Friday 6 a.m clases at Forsyth Park to get you into the best shape of your life. Classes differ daily and challenge you with cardio and strength building intervals to build stamina, strength, power, agility and coordination. You should be able to maintain a light jog for 10 minutes as a participant. 4 week commitment required. Visit www.structurefitness.net or call Jennifer at 224-0406. Forsyth Park, 501 Whitaker St. 912-233-6800. continued on page 42

Answers on page 44

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

cated at 6413B Waters Ave. www.ssomt.com.

Savannah School of Massage Therapy, Inc, 6413 Waters Avenue. 912-355-3011. www. ssomt.com/ Art Studio Sessions Six-week sessions beginning Jan. 22 on Tuesdays from 6-9 p.m. or Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Oils, acrylics and pastels and drawing media. Help and encouragement in creating successful artwork. Prior experience is not necessary. Carolyn Neely, MFA, instructor. $125 tuition. To register call 2345737 or carolyn@remshartrowgallery.com.

Through Jan. 22, 2008.

Cardiorespiratory Endurance Training will be offered by Chatham County Park Services for persons 18 and up at Tom Triplett Park on Tuesdays from 5:30-6:30 p.m. and Thursdays from 8-9 a.m. Participants should wear comfortable clothing and will be required to sign a waiver form before participating. All classes are free. Call 652-6780 or 965-9629. Tom Triplett Community Park, U.S. Highway 80 West. 912-652-6780.

Center for Wellbeing Hatha Yoga classes are offered Monday and Wednesday from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Suite 203 of the Candler Heart and Lung Building, 5356 Reynolds St. Cost is $30 for four sessions or $50 for 8 sessions. 819-6463. Candler Heart and Lung Building, 5354 Reynolds Ave. 912- 819-6000. www.sjchs.org Detox and De-Stress Easy and simple yoga followed by meditation, helping the body to throww off toxins and stress. Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. at Yoga Hause, 1203 E. 72nd St. Suggested donation $5. Yoga Hause, 1203 E. 72nd St. Dog Yoga The Yoga Room will hold a dog yoga class every first Sunday of the month at 2 p.m. at Forsyth Park. The cost is a $10 donation, with all donations given to Save-A-Life. Bring a mat or blanket and a sense of humor. Yoga for dogs is a fun way to relax and bond with your four-legged pet. Great for all levels and all sizes. 898-0361 or www.thesavannahyogaroom.com. Forsyth Park, 501 Whitaker St. 912-233-6800.

Energy Share every first and third Friday of the month at a new integrated healing center located at 72nd and Sanders streets. Call Kylene at 713-3879.

Fountain of Youth Tibetan rites taught free every Tuesday and Friday at 7:30 a.m. at Yoga Hause, 1203 E. 72nd St. Yoga Hause, 1203 E. 72nd St. Gentle Yoga Gentle Yoga with Mary Ann is offered Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. Participants must be 18 or older. Mat and blanket are required.

Limited to 12 participants. Pre-register at adultenrichment@uusavanah.org or call 234-0980. Held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah upstairs in Phillippa’s Place. Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah, 313 Harris St. 912-234-0980. www. uusavannah.org Ladies Livin Smart fitness club provides nutritional education and exercise to encourage lifestyle changes at the St. Joseph’s/Candler African-American Health Information and Resource Center, 1910 Abercorn St. at 5:30 p.m. Call 447-6605.

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Organic Fair Trade Coffee Fresh baked bagels & pastries 100% fruit smoothies Fresh made soups & salads Homemade ice cream Mobile tiki cart Ice cream cakes Mon-Thur: 7am-9pm Fri: 7am-10pm Sat: 8am-10pm Sun: 10am-9pm

Tradewinds Homemade Ice Cream & Coffee

Whitemarsh Center, Behind Goodyear 107 Charlotte Road, Ste. F Savannah, GA 31410 (912) 898-7515

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

42 The 411

| Happenings

continued from page 41

Sunrise Boot Camp at Tybee Island will be held Monday through Friday from 6-7 a.m. Park in the North Beach parking lot and go over the first crossover. Bring a mat. Conducted by Paul Butrym, certified personal trainer and ex-Marine. Three days of strength training and two days of cardio each week. The cost is $10 per class, $40 for the week or $75 for a four-week session. Call 604-0611 or email pbutrym@comcast.net.

Tai Chi Classes are offered Mondays and Fridays from 10:30-11:30 a.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Suite 203, Candler Heart and Lung Building, 5356 Reynolds St. Four sessions are $30 or eight sessions are $50. Call 819-6463. Candler Heart and Lung Building, 5354 Reynolds Ave. 912- 819-6000. www.sjchs.org The Wisdom Center Located at 40th & Drayton. Visit www. internationalcoach.org or call 236.3660 for a schedule of classes, times and fees.

International Center for Leadership & Coaching, 236-3660. 236-236-3660. www. internationalcoach.org/ 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. 912-898-0361. www.thesavannahyogaroom.com/

The 411

Women on Weights Spine & Sports Personal Training offers the Women on Weights (WOW) Program. The WOW Program is designed to meet the specific needs of women. It is a series of one hour training sessions led by a Certified Personal Trainer who develops different routines throughout the month. The routines may include but are not limited to, Strength Training, Cardio Training for the Heart, Flexibility, Balance and Weight Management. The group meets two times a week for one hour each session. For pricing call 898-7714.

Yoga Teacher Training Institute A 200-hour Basic Yoga Teacher Training program is offered at Savannah Yoga Center.

It meets Yoga Alliance standards, and graduates will receive a certificate and be eligible for certification by the alliance. The cost for the entire course is $1,500. Call 441-6653 or visit www.savannahyoga.com. Savannah Yoga Center, 1321 Bull St. 912-232-2994. www.savannahyoga.com/ Yogalates Classes are offered by St. Joseph’s/Candler Center for WellBeing on Thursdays from 5:45-6:45 p.m. in Suite 203 of the Candler Heart and Lung Building, 5356 Reynolds St. The cost is $30 for four sessions or $50 for eight sessions. Call 819-6463. Candler Hospital, 5353 Reynolds St. 912-819-6000. www.sjchs.

| Free Will Astrology

ARIES (March 21-April 19): When the Red Hot Chili Peppers released their fifth album *Blood Sugar Sex Magick* in 1991, it blasted them into rock stardom.

They stopped performing at intimate nightclubs and appeared exclusively at large arenas. They won a Grammy, had a hit song at the top of the charts, and sold millions of records. Guitarist John Frusciante freaked out at the success. As an indie artist intensely loyal to the underground sensibility, he was embarrassed to be in a band that had mainstream popularity. In the middle of the Chili Peppers’ tour, he quit. You may very well have to deal with a comparable development in 2008, Aries.

Will you opt to remain low-profile, as Frusciante did, or will you answer the invitation to get more professional?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): When China’s Three Gorges Dam finally becomes fully operational in 2009, the hydroelectric power it generates will provide renewable energy to a sizable portion of the population. As a replacement for coal consumption, it will also eliminate 100 million tons of greenhouse gases. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it will require a thousand towns and villages to be permanently flooded, forcing over a million people to leave their homes. I believe you may be faced with a comparable option in 2008, Taurus. If you’re willing to deal with displacement and the loss of traditions, you will gain access to tremendous reserves of pure mojo.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Would you like to own a 60-inch flat-screen HDTV plasma television with surround-sound speakers? How about a $6,000 Daniel Hanson bathrobe made of silk-trimmed pashmina, a diamond-encrusted Cartier Luxury watch, and a heated toilet seat? All of these wonders and more could be within your grasp in 2008. In my astrological opinion, however, going after them would be a waste of your substantial acquisitive potential, which would be better used in pursuit of less decadent valuables. Such as?

Such as tools and training that will help you upgrade your skills and refine the unique gifts you have to give

org/

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. First City Network, 307 E Harris St. 912-236-CITY. www.firstcitynetwork.org/ Gay AA Meeting meets Sunday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at 311 E. Macon St. For information, contact Ken at 398-8969.

Georgia Equality Savannah is the local chapter of Georgia’s largest gay rights group. 104 W. 38th St. 944-0996.

Savannah Pride, Inc. meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at the FCN office located at 307 E. Harris St. Everyone is encouraged to attend, for without the GLBT community, there wouldn’t be a need for Pride.

Call Patrick Mobley at 224-3238. First City Network, 307 E Harris St. 912-236-CITY. www.firstcitynetwork.org/ Standout is First City’s gay youth support group.

Meets every Thursday at 7 p.m. at the FCN Headquarters, 307 E. Harris St., 3rd floor.

Call 657-1966. First City Network, 307 E Harris St. 912-236-CITY. www.firstcitynetwork.org/

What Makes A Family is 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 3522611.

Health

Better Breathers of Savannah meets to discuss and share information on C.O.P.D. and how people live with the disease. For info, call Dicky at 665-4488 or dickyt1954@yahoo.com.

Community Cardiovascular Council, Inc. Control your high blood pressure. Free blood pressure checks and information at the Community Cardiovascular Council at 1900 Abercorn St. Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 232-6624.

Community HealthCare Center is a non-profit organization that provides free medical care for uninsured individuals who work or live in Chatham County and do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. All patients receive free examinations, medicine through the patient assistance program and free lab work. Women receive free pap tests and mammograms. Call 692-1451 to see if you qualify for services. Located at 310 Eisenhower Dr., No. 5, Medical Center.

Community Health Mission, Inc, 310 Eisenhower Dr., Suite 6.

by Rob Brezsny

the world.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): For millennia, human beings have sought and received help from spiritual beings who are imperceptible to the senses. “Among the North American Indians, but not among them alone,” wrote Carl Jung’s gifted student Erich Neumann (19051960), “the essential content of initiation is the acquisition of an individual ‘guardian spirit.’” It’s unfortunate that modern Western culture, still in the chokehold of the materialist delusion, makes it challenging for anyone alive today to tap into the supernatural blessings that so many of our forbears enjoyed. But I believe you will be able to overcome this disadvantage in 2008, Cancerian. There’s a good chance you will figure out what it takes to establish direct communion with a spiritual ally.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Picture a full-grown lion with a thin, two- foot-long string tied around one of its back legs. The other end of the string is tethered to a short wooden stake lodged in the dirt. The lion seems to think it’s held captive, and never tries to escape. It’s restless and frustrated, periodically emitting a doleful sound that’s both a pained growl and a mournful whine.

I want you to think of this scene at least once a month in 2008, Leo. Each time, ask yourself, “Am I the lion that Rob Brezsny described?” Make sure you always know that you can snap the string with ease and bound away to freedom.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The desert-dwelling creosote bush can survive for centuries on little water.

In the Mohave Desert there is a ring of creosote, named “King Clone,” whose age has been carbon- dated at 11,700 years. The hardiness of this low-maintenance wonder reminds me of you, Virgo. You sometimes entertain the fantasy that the less you need, the stronger you’ll be. The downside of this attitude is that you may unwittingly make it hard for people to give you their gifts. The upside is that you’ve learned many secrets

about how to nurture and take care of yourself. But in 2008, I foresee you making a shift away from the creosote bush metaphor. You’re more likely to resemble a tomato bush that gets watered regularly.

And even those of you who don’t make it to a million will probably get richer quicker than you have in more than a decade -- especially if you make that your intention.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Lake Vostok is as big as Lake Ontario, but no one on earth knew about it until 1996. Scientists who had been drilling through Antarctica’s thick sheets of ice discovered it two miles below the surface. Here’s what they were able to find out about the ancient lake: Hermetically sealed off for at least a half million years, it gets no sunlight, has an average temperature below zero, and may harbor life forms as exotic as those on other planets. And yes, it’s in a liquid state, for reasons you can read about at tinyurl. com/2lq79d. All that, Libra, is prelude to the following announcement: Lake Vostok will be one of your Prime Metaphors in 2008. I predict you will dig deep to discover an ancient, pristine mystery at the bottom of your life. In my astrological opinion, you should explore it thoroughly, driven by both an innocent sense of wonder and a robust analytical curiosity.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The Greek philosopher Aristotle said that when new facts and ideas emerge, we should be willing to coin fresh words to convey the unfamiliar information. Do you agree? If so, be ready to dream up a steady stream of new terms in 2008. I bet you’ll encounter more novelty than you have since 1996. Dead language and stale clichés won’t be sufficient to wrestle the meaning out of your unprecedented experiences. To jumpstart your receptivity to made- up words, try this one: *freakomancy.* It refers to the art of divining the future by noticing the most unusual and anomalous elements present in any given situation.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You’re pretty smart, Scorpio, but would you like to become even smarter in 2008? It’s quite possible that you will get more skilled at managing and solving your personal problems.

You may also become a better judge of character and develop a brilliant knack for knowing what’s good for you. There’s one main thing you have to do in order to ensure that you will fully activate these potentials: Become more generous. Here’s your thought for the year, courtesy of Eleanor Roosevelt: “The giving of love is an education it itself.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The number of millionaires on the planet increased more than nine percent last year. Judging from the astrological omens, I’m betting that the growth rate in the coming year will be similar. A disproportionately large amount of the newly wealthy in 2008, however, will be Sagittarians.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): One of the planet’s highest active volcanoes is Mt. Cotopaxi in Ecuador. It also happens to be the site of the world’s only equatorial glacier. Please visit this complex place sometime in 2008. If that’s not possible, at least promise me that you will vividly imagine yourself there. Why? Because in order to bring out the best in yourself in the coming months, I think you will need to be fueled by a visceral sense of what it’s like when primal opposites coexist.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): When I first learned about Jupiter in grade school, my science textbook said the planet had 12 moons. Years later, thanks to better telescopes and data returned by America’s Voyager spacecrafts, we know that at least 63 moons are orbiting the solar system’s largest planet. I expect an equally dramatic expansion will unfold for you in 2008, Pisces. At this time next year, your social network should be much bigger than it is now. You may even be at the center of a Jovian-style web of connections. w

The 411

| Happenings fered Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mary’s Community Center at 812 W. 36th St. Call 447-0578.

Free hearing & speech screening Every Thursday morning from 9-11 a.m. at the Savannah Speech and Hearing Center, 1206 E. 66th Street. Call 355-4601.

Savannah Speech and Hearing Center, 1206 E 66th St. 912-355-4601. www.savannahspeechandhearing.org/ HIV/AIDS and STD awareness training My Brothaz Home, Inc., a local nonprofit HIV/AIDS organization, offers free HIV/ AIDS and STD awareness training, risk reduction counseling and prevention case management to individual males and groups of males. Upon completion of the training, a monetary incentive and educational materials will be given to each participant. Call 231-8727. My Brothaz H.O.M.E., 211 Price St. 912-231-8727. www.mybrothazhome. org/Welcome.html Hypnobirthing Childbirth Classes are being offered at the Family Health and Birth Center in Rincon. The group classes offer an opportunity for couples to learn the child birthing process together, while providing a very integral role to the companion participating. Classes provide specialized breathing and guided imagery techniques designed to reduce stress during labor. All types of births are welcome.

Classes run monthly, meeting Saturdays for three consecutive weeks. To register, call The Birth Connection at 843-683-8750 or email Birththroughlove@yahoo.com. Family Health & Birth Center, 119 Chimney Rd. 912-826-4155. www.themidwifegroup.com/ Kidney/Pancreas Transplant Clinic is offered by St. Joseph’s/Candler and Emory.

Patients can receive pre and post-operative care at the clinic rather than travel to Atlanta. Call Karen Traver, R.N. Transplant Coordinator, at 819-8350.

La Leche League of Savannah Call Phoebe at 897-9261.

Mammograms St. Joseph’s/Candler will be performing mammograms to screen for breast cancer in its mobile screening unit. Mammograms will be performed Dec. 11 at SJ/C in Pooler at Godley Station Professional Park, Dec. 13 at Bryan County Health Department in Richmond Hill, Dec. 14 at the Long County Health Department, Dec. 17 at the McIntosh County Health Department and Dec. 18 at The Landings Club. For appointments, call 819-6800. SJ/C accepts most insurance plans. Financial assistance is available to women who qualify.

Memorial Health blood pressure check are offered free every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:30-9:30 a.m. at GenerationOne. 3507587.

Memorial Health CPR training FitnessOne provides American Heart Association courses each month to certify individuals in infant, child and adult CPR. The cost is $30. Call 350-4030 or visit www. memorialhealth.com.

Narcotics Anonymous When at the end of the road you find that you no longer can function with or without drugs, there’s a simple, spiritual, non-religious program known as Narcotics Anonymous. Call 238-5925 for the Savannah Lowcountry Area Narcotics Anonymous meeting schedule.

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.

Smoke Stoppers St. Joseph’s/Candler group-facilitated smoking cessation program offers an intensive class in 7 sessions over 3 weeks featuring a wide range of proven-effective strategies to help smokers control their urges, manage nicotine withdrawal and stress and avoid weight gain. The cost is $100. Call 819-6718.

Stop Smoking Through Hypnosis Smoking kills 400,000 people every year.

A study at the University of Iowa covered 72,000 people and found hypnosis the most

effective method for quitting. For info, call 927-3432.

The Quit Line a toll-free resource that provides counseling, screening, support and referral services for all Georgia residents 18 or older and concerned parents of adolescents who are using tobacco. Call 1-877-270-STOP or visit www. unitegeorgia.com.

Weight Loss Through Hypnosis Take the stress out of weight loss. Studies have shown that people who use hypnosis lose 60 percent more weight than with any other method. For info, call 927-3432.

Readings & Signings

Breakfast Book Club will be held every third Wednesday of the month from 9-10:30 a.m. at The Wisdom Center at the International Center for Leadership and Coaching. The cost is $25 per month, breakfast included. Call Aimee at 236-3660. International Center for Leadership & Coaching, 236-3660. 236-2363660. www.internationalcoach.org/ Circle of Sister/Brotherhood Book Club meets the last Sunday at 4 p.m. at the African-American Health Information & Resource Center, 1910 Abercorn St. Call 447-6605. African-American Health Information & Resource Center, 1910 Abercorn St. 912-447-6605. www.sjchs. org/1844.cfm Civil War Tours of the Lowcountry A book signing and release party will be held for author David D’Arcy and photographer Ben Mammina on Saturday, Jan. 12 from 6-9 p.m. at Murphy’s Law on West Congress Street. Through Jan. 12, 2008.

Murphy’s Law, 409 West Congress Street.

912-443-0855. www.irishpubsavannah.com Sensational Minds An African-American book store at 129 E. Montgomery Cross Rd. in the Oakhurst Shopping Plaza that carries books in 22 different categories, from fiction and nonfiction to cooking, religions, education and more. Also journals, Bible covers, stationery

Southern Hemisphere Magical Books & Gifts

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Next to Bergen Hall Limited Delivery Available

234-6168 118 East Broughton St. Downtown Savannah Reservations Suggested. 5:30 to 10:30pm nightly www.casbahrestaurant.com

continued on page 44

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

Diabetes University The American Diabetes Association is hosting this program for all people affected by diabetes on Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Armstrong Center. The doors will open at 8 a.m. with four sessions covering 16 topics. The keynote speaker will be Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine.

Pre-registration is required and space is limited to 500 people. The fee of $10 includes entry to all of the program sessions, including the panel discussion. The program is recommended for people with diabetes and their family and friends. Request a registration form at 353-8110, Ext. 3092, or at www. diabetes.org under Local Events. Through Jan. 19, 2008. Armstrong Atlantic State University, 11935 Abercorn St. 912-9275277. about.armstrong.edu/Maps/index. html Dual Recovery Anonymous This 12-step program addresses all addictions and mental health recovery. Persons who are recovering from an addiction and a mental health problem can send e-mail to katkope@netscape.com for information.

Eating Disorders/Self Harm Support Group A 12-step group for people with eating disorders and self-harm disorders. For information, call Brandon Lee at 927-1324.

Every Step Counts Survivor Walk This monthly cancer survivors’ walk is free and open to all survivors and their loved ones. Call DeDe Cargill at 398-6654.

Free blood pressure checks and blood sugar screenings are conducted at three locations within St. Joseph’s/Candler. From 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 5:15-7 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday, checks will be offered at the St. Joseph’s/Candler African-American Health Information and Resource Center, 1910 Abercorn St. Call 447-6605 to make an appointment. Checks are offered every Monday from 10 a.m. to noon at the Smart Senior office, No. 8 Medical Arts Center. No appointment is necessary. Checks will be of-

43

| Happenings

continued from page 43

and gifts. Storyteller Jaqui Anderson will appear Dec. 15 from 1:30-2pm and again from 3-3:30pm. 927-8600. Sensational Minds, 129 E Montgomery Crossroads. 912-9278600. www.sensationalminds.com/ Tea time at Ola’s is a new book discussion group that meets the fourth Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Ola Wyeth Branch Library, 4 E. Bay St. Call Beatrice Wright at 652-3660. Bring your ideas and lunches. Tea will be provided.

232-5488 or 652-3660. Ola Wyeth Branch Library, 4 E Bay St. 912-232-5488. www.liveoakpl.org/ UU Book Club meets every Monday at 7 p.m. in the Clara Barton Library for a two-hour session. The group works on a chapter a week. To join, e-mail adultenrichment@uusavannah.org or call 234-0980. Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah, 313 Harris St. 912234-0980. www.uusavannah.org

Religious & Spiritual

A Course in Miracles Gary Renard, author of “Disappearance of the Universe” and “Your Immortal Reality: How to Break the Cycle of Birth and Death,” will present a workshop Saturday, Feb. 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Unity Church. The cost is $75 and advance registration is required. 355-4704 or www.unityofsavannah. org. Through Feb. 2, 2008. Unity Church of Savannah, 2320 Sunset Blvd. 912-355-4704. www.unityofsavannah.org/ Blue Jeans for the Soul Each Saturday service will be at 5:30 p.m. and will feature just three things, music with guest musicians, a meditation and an affirmative message. Casual dress welcome.

Located at 2320 Sunset Blvd. off of Skidaway Road just south of Victory Drive. Call 3554704. Unity Church of Savannah, 2320 Sunset Blvd. 912-355-4704. www.unityofsavannah.org/ Calling All Christians Open prayer will be held the second Thursday of the month from 4-4:20 p.m. at the Forsyth Park fountain. Call Suzanne at 232-3830. Forsyth Park, 501 Whitaker St. 912-233-6800.

Chanted Office of Compline The Service of Compline, ”Saying good night to God,” is chanted Sunday evenings at 9 p.m. by the Compline Choir of Christ

Church Savannah, on Johnson Square.

Christian Businessmen’s Committee meets for a prayer breakfast every Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. at Piccadilly Cafeteria in the Oglethorpe Mall, 7804 Abercorn St. Call 898-3477. Oglethorpe Mall, 7804 Abercorn Ext. 912-354-7038.

Ekklesia, The Church Do church in a casual and relaxed setting on Saturday nights. Fellowship begins at 6 p.m., praise and worship at 6:30 p.m. in the BSU building on Abercorn between the Publix Shopping Center and the Armstrong campus. Call 596-4077.

Handbell Choir Anyone interested in starting/leading or joining/participating in a handbell choir can contact the Rev. Arlene Meyer at 355-4704.

Unity of Savannah at 2320 Sunset Blvd. has the bells and a few interested people without a leader. Visit www.unityofsavannah.org.

Unity Church of Savannah, 2320 Sunset Blvd. 912-355-4704. www.unityofsavannah. org/ Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation A meditation period will be followed by instruction in the application of the foundations of Mindfulness practice to daily life. Beginner’s and experienced practitioners welcome. Ongoing weekly sessions are Mondays from 6-7:30 p.m. at 313 E. Harris St. Call Cindy Beach, Buddhist nun, at 429-7265 or cindy@alwaysoptions.com.

Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah, 313 Harris St. 912-234-0980. www.uusavannah.org Manifestation Gathering at Dovestar is held every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Learn ancient techniques to connect with your personal power to insure success for all your wishes for prosperity on a mental, emotional, physical and spiritual level. Free. Call 920-0801.

Midweek Bible Study Midweek Bible Study is offered every Wednesday at noon at Montgomery Presbyterian Church. Bring your lunch and your Bible. 352-4400 or mpcsavannah.com.

Montgomery Presbyterian Church, 10192 Ferguson Avenue. 912-352-4400. www. montgomerypresbyterian.com/ Music Ministry for Children & Youth at White Bluff United Methodist Church is now known as Pneuma, the Greek work for breath. “Every breath we take is the breath

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44 The 411

of God.” The children’s choir for 3 years through second grade will be known as Joyful Noise and the youth choir grades 3-5 will be known as Youth Praise. Joyful Noise will meet Sundays from 4-5 p.m. and Youth Praise will meet Sundays from 5-6 p.m.

Call Ronn Alford at 925-9524 or visit www. wbumc.org. White Bluff United Methodist Church, 11911 White Bluff Rd. 912-9255924. www.wbumc.org/ Nicodemus by Night An open forum is held every Wednesday at 7 p.m. at 223 E. Gwinnett St. Overcoming by Faith Services with the Rev. Ricky Temple are held Saturday from 6-7:30 p.m. at 9700 Middleground Rd. Sunday worship services are 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Services are now held Sundays in Rincon. Call 927-8601.

Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) meet Sundays, 11 a.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church, 225 W. President St., Savannah. Call Janet Pence at 247-4903.

Trinity United Methodist Church, 225 West President St. 912-233-4766. www.trinitychurch1848.org/ Savannah Buddhist Sitting Group meets Sundays from 9-10:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah, on Habersham Street at East Harris and East Macon Streets, on Troup Square. Please arrive and be seated no later than 8:55 a.m.

Sitting and walking meditation and Dharma talk or reading. All practices are welcome.

Newcomers should contact Cindy Beach, lay ordained Soto Zen Buddhist, at 429-7265 for sitting instruction. Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah, 313 Harris St. 912234-0980. www.uusavannah.org Soka Gakkai of America (SGI-USA) SGI-USA is an American Buddhist movement for world peace that practices Nichiren Buddhism by chanting NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO. For information, call SGIUSA at 232-9121.

Unitarian Universalist Beloved Community Church Services begin Sunday at 11 a.m. at 707 Harmon St. Coffee and discussion follow each service. Religious education for grades 1-8 is offered. For information, call 2336284 or 786-6075, e-mail UUBC2@aol.com.

Celebrating diversity. Working for justice.

Unitarian Universalist Church of

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Savannah A liberal religious community where different people with different beliefs gather as one faith. On Dec. 30, Rabbi Phil Posner will speak from the topic “The Nature of Character...Soul Talk.” The service will be held Sunday at 11 a.m. in the Troup Square Sanctuary. For information, call 234-0980, or send e-mail to admin@uusavannah.org or visit the web site at www.uusavannah.org.

The Uncommon Denomination. Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah, 313 Harris St. 912-234-0980. www.uusavannah.org Unity of Savannah A church of unconditional love and acceptance. Sunday service is at 11 a.m. Youth church and childcare also are at 11 a.m.

2320 Sunset Blvd. Call 355-4704 or visit www.unityofsavannah.org. Unity Church of Savannah, 2320 Sunset Blvd. 912-355-4704. www.unityofsavannah.org/ Women’s Bible Study at the Women’s Center of Wesley Community Centers. Call 447-5711 or Wesley Community Center, 1601 Drayton St. 912-232-0965. www.wesleyctrs-savh.org/

Sports & Games

Hockey Tickets on Sale The Memorial Health Hockey Classic will return to the Savannah Civic Center Jan. 18 and 19. Tickets are on sale at all civic center box office outlets or by calling 6516556. Prices are: Individual, $15 Loge and $10 Mezzanine; Military, Children 5 and under and Groups of 20 or more, $13 Loge and $8 Mezzanine. Through Jan. 19, 2008.

The Savannah Civic Center, 301 West Oglethorpe Avenue. 912-651-6556. www.savannahcivic.com Savannah Disc Golf Club holds an Open Doubles Tournament at 1 p.m. each Saturday at Tom Triplett Park on U.S. 80 between Dean Forest Road and Interstate 95. New players a Tom Triplett Community Park, U.S. Highway 80 West.

912-652-6780.

Support Groups

ADD and Behavior Support Group meets the third Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at the Mindspring Center in the Ranicki Chiropractic Complex, 1147 W. Highway 80 in Pooler. RSVP is requested.

Call 748-6463 or frontdesk@mindspring-

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The 411

| Happenings Group for Parents who have 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 once a week.

Call Donna at 350-5616. Backus Children’s Hospital, 4700 Waters Avenue. 912-3501KID. www.memorialhealth.com/backus Backus Children’s Hospital Support Group for Parents of Children with Bleeding Disorders meets the fourth Tuesday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at Memorial Health. Call Mary Lou Cygan at 350-7285. Backus Children’s Hospital, 4700 Waters Avenue. 912-3501KID. www.memorialhealth.com/backus Bariatric/Gastric Bypass Support Group for past and potential obesity surgery patients and their families. For information, call Cheryl Brown at 350-3644. Memorial Health University Medical Center, 4700 Waters Avenue. 912-350-8000. www.memorialhealth.com/ Better Breathers support group meets to discuss and share information on C.O.P.D. and how people live with this disease. Contact Dicky at 665-4488 or dickyt1954@yahoo.com.

Bipolar Support Group John J. Dunn, Ph.D., is interested in hearing from people who want to participate in a bipolar support group. Call 692-1230 after 6 p.m.

Cancer support group meets every third Tuesday of the month from 6-7 p.m. at the Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion on Reynolds Street across from Candler Hospital. The group is open to anyone who is living with, through or beyond a diagnosis of cancer. Call 819-3360.

Caring for Us is a support group for caregivers of ill or injured family members or loved ones. Call Kimberlee Mitchell at 350-3399.

CASA Support Group This support group is for parents and extended caregivers whose child or children have been involved with DFCS and/or returned to your custody after being in foster care, or who have been given custody of a family member’s child who has been involved with DFCS and/or has been in foster care. The group meets the first Thursday of the month from 6-7 p.m. at Youth Futures Family Resource Center at 705 Anderson St. Call Madison at CASA at 447-8908 or send email to madison@savannahcasa.org.

Celiac Support Group for anyone with celiac disease who is allergic to products containing gluten, their family or friends. For information, call 507-2592.

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.

Coastal Empire Polio Survivors

Association meets the fourth Saturday of the month at 10:30 a.m. at the Candler Heart and Lung Building, second floor, Room 2. Call 3551221 or visit www.coastalempirepoliosurvivors.org. Candler Heart and Lung Building, 5354 Reynolds Ave. 912- 819-6000. www. sjchs.org Compassionate Friends Support Group offers friendship and understanding to bereaved parents. It meets the first Thursday of the month from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Candler Heart & Lung Building, Conference Room 2, 5356 Reynolds St. 925-5195. Candler Heart and Lung Building, 5354 Reynolds Ave. 912- 819-6000. www.sjchs.org Couples with Fertility Challenges meets every Saturday at 6:45 p.m. at Savannah Christian Church, Room 250.

This is a group for couples struggling with primary or secondary infertility, whether they have been on this journey for one year or many years. Call Kelly at 596-0852 or email emptycradle_savannah@hotmail.com.

Debtors Anonymous meets Mondays at 5:30 p.m. at Trinity Church, 225 W. President St. in the third floor New Beginnings Room. Enter on President Street through the left-hand set of glass doors between Whitaker and Barnard streets. Arrive early, as the entry doors are locked promptly at 5:30 p.m. For information, e-mail DAsavannah@yahoo.com.

Trinity United Methodist Church, 225 West President St. 912-233-4766. www.trinitychurch1848.org/ w

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African-American Women Overcoming Depression and Bi-Polar Disease meets the third Thursday of the month at the Bull Street Library. For information, call JoAnne Wright at 236-0027. Bull Street Library, 2002 Bull St. 912-652-3600. www. liveoakpl.org Al Anon Family Groups A fellowship of relatives and friends of alcoholics meets Monday at 12:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., Wednesday at 1:30 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 8 p.m. at 1501 Eisenhower Dr. and Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Goodwill on Sallie Mood Drive. Call 5989860 or visit http://al_anon_savannah. freeservers.com.

Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous If you or someone you know has a problem with alcohol, call 354-0993.

Alzheimer’s Caregiver’s Support Group The group is for caregivers, family members and friends of persons affected by Alzheimer’s Disease or other dementiacausing illnesses and meets the first Monday of each month from 10:30 a.m. to noon in Room 111 of the Skidaway Island Methodist Church, 54 Diamond Causeway. Visit www. alzga.org or call 920-2231.

Amputee Support Group Open to all patients who have had a limb amputated and their families or caregivers.

Call 355-7778 or 353-9635.

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National Treasure: Book of Secrets

TUESDAYS! *SOME FILMS EXEMPT

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No one under 17 admitted unless accompanied by a parent anytime after 6pm. Evening ticket price: $8

www.trademarkcinemas.com The Great Debaters

Tues Dec 25th - Thurs. Jan 3rd 11:20 1:55 4:30 7:05 10:20 Fri 12/28 11:20 1:55 4:30 7:05 9:40 12:15

This Christmas*

Fri - Mon Dec 24th 12:20 2:50 5:20 7:50 10:20

National Treasure

Fri - 11:35 2:15 4:55 7:40 10:20 12:45 Sat - Thurs - 11:35 2:15 4:55 7:40 10:20

The Perfect Holiday Daily - 2:20 7:30

Given the emphasis on history in the National Treasure franchise, this follow-up to the 2004 original reminded me of a line from the Herman’s Hermits tune about that jolly historical figure Henry the Eighth: “Second verse, same as the first.” In other words, National Treasure: Book of Secrets is essentially the same movie as its blockbuster predecessor, meaning it’s a draggy combination of The Da Vinci Code and matinee-style thrills. Only Nicolas Cage’s Benjamin Franklin Gates is no Indiana Jones, and (like the first flick) this isn’t Raiders of the Lost Ark. Moving ahead at breakneck speed and with no time for rhyme or reason, it’s a disjointed yarn in which Gates, in an effort to prove that his great-great-grandfather wasn’t one of the conspirators behind Abe Lincoln’s assassination, must locate a legendary lost city of gold by uncovering clues hidden on historical artifacts in Paris, London and at the White House.

Practically the entire principal cast returns from the original film -- Jon Voight as Gates’ dad, Diane Kruger as his girlfriend, Justin Bartha as his sidekick, and Harvey Keitel as the sympathetic FBI agent hovering around the margins (a role that exists for no discernible reason) -- and they’re joined by a slumming Ed Harris as a one-minute-he’s-a-bad-guy-nowhe’s-good-no-wait-he’s-bad-again treasure seeker and a slumming Helen Mirren as Gates’ feisty mother. It should be noted that this marks Mirren’s first screen appearance since winning an Oscar for The Queen.

Granted, that’s not nearly as shocking as Shirley MacLaine turning up in Cannonball Run II immediately after her Terms of Endearment Oscar victory, but it’s nothing to brag about, either.

Dewey Cox Story *

Fri - 12:15 2:40 5:20 7:45 10:10 12:30 Sat - Thurs - 12:15 2:40 5:20 7:45 10:10

I Am Legend *

Fri - 12:00 2:30 5:00 7:30 10:05 12:25 Sat - Thurs Jan 3rd 12:00 2:30 5:00 7:30 10:05

Charlie Wilson’s War

Fri - 12:25 2:45 5:10 7:35 9:50 12:00 Sat - Thurs Jan 3rd - 12:25 2:45 5:10 7:35 9:50

Alvin and Chipmunks*

Fri - 11:40 1:50 4:00 6:10 8:20 10:30 12:35 Sat - Thurs Jan 3rd 11:40 1:50 4:00 6:10 8:20 10:30

No Country for Old Men* Daily - 11:40 5:00 10:10

Golden Compass*

Fri - Mon Dec 24th 11:30 2:00 4:35 7:15 9:55

Alien vs. Predator

PS I Love You*

Fri - 11:00 1:40 4:20 7:00 9:40 12:15 Sat - Thurs Jan 3rd 11:00 1:40 4:20 7:00 9:40

Tues Dec 25th - Thurs Jan 3rd 12:30 2:45 5:10 7:35 10:00 Fri 12/28 12:30 2:45 5:10 7:35 10:00 12:15

Showtimes: (912)355-5000

The Great Debaters



The Great Debaters is being positioned as an Oscar contender, and it already has a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture (Drama) to aid it in its journey. Yet Denzel Washington’s previous film as director, 2002’s admirable Antwone Fisher, failed to grab the Academy’s attention, and I suspect the same fate will befall this inspiring if

overly familiar story that owes its allegiance not so much to history (it alters many facts) as to Dead Poets Society, Hoosiers and countless other “Seize the day” flicks.

Washington stars as Melvin B. Tolson, the coach of the debate team at an all-black college in 1930s Texas. With four members under his tutelage -- played by talented thespians Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Whitaker (no relation to co-star Forest Whitaker, who plays his stern father), Nate Parker and

Jermaine Williams -- Tolson is determined that his squad will emerge as one of the best, if not the best, in the nation; to accomplish that goal, however, he and his charges will have to contend not only with the racism of the time but also with tensions within their own ranks. PC to a fault -- I love how in the debates, Tolson’s team conveniently always gets to argue the right side of any given topic (poverty, equal rights, etc.) -- The Great Debaters is nevertheless sincere in its

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belief in the power of education and in the importance of language. Co-produced by Oprah Winfrey and running just right at 124 minutes, it’s naked in its shameless desire to make audiences wince at every setback and cheer at every victory. The strength of the movie is that it gets away with it almost every time.

Tourette’s syndrome; or D) a serial killer. So does the possibly psychotic Forrest Gump get the girl? Only suckers who shell out for this pap will ever know.

What’s Playing Where

I Am Legend 1/2

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Will Smith may be the only one reCARMIKE 10 ceiving above-the511 Stephenson Ave. • 353-8683 P.S. I Love You title star treatment P.S. I Love You, I am Legend, 1/2 on the new apocaPerfect Holiday, Awake, It’s possible for P.S. I lyptic sci-fi yarn I Enchanted, This Christmas, Love You to have emerged Am Legend, but he’s August Rush, Beowulf, Mr. as a winning romanhardly the one who Magorium tic comedy-drama had runs away with the its running time been film. In fact, pretty capped at 100 minutes. much everything in REGAL EISENHOWER That way, this adaptation this picture -- the 1100 Eisenhower Dr. • 352-3533 of Cecelia Ahern’s novel other actors, the FX Charlie Wilson’s War, National could have focused on the work, even the art Treasure, Sweeney Todd, Walk most interesting aspect direction -- is shown Hard, Alvin, No Country for Old of this story: the palpable up by Abbey, who Men sense of loss a wife expedelivers a terrific riences after her husband performance which dies of a brain tumor, and in a perfect world REGAL SAVANNAH 10 his efforts (planned in adwould be up for an 1132 Shawnee St. • 927-7700 vance, of course) to insure Academy Award in I am Legend, Perfect Holiday, that she doesn’t forfeit her a couple of months.

Awake, August Rush, Enchanted, life to misery and despair.

Granted, there’s the This Christmas This is prime tearjerker small technicality material, and Hilary that Abbey’s a dog Swank and (to a lesser VICTORY SQUARE 9 -- a German shepdegree) Gerard Butler herd, to be exact 1901 E. Victory • 355-5000 demonstrate that they’re - but still... Empathy Great Debaters, P.S. I Love capable of pulling this for an on-screen aniYou, Charlie Wilson’s War, This off. Instead, P.S. I Love mal is nothing new, Christmas, Perfect Holiday, You runs 126 minutes, but the preview auNational Treasure, Dewey Cox, I and that extra half-hour dience’s reaction to am Legend, Charlie Wilson’s War, bloats the material into an Samantha, the trusty Alvin, Golden Compass, Alien vs. ugly mishmash in which companion to Will Predator the attempts at comedy Smith’s last man on are excruciating and the earth, ranks among drama gets diluted by the most vocal I’ve WYNNSONG 11 needless set-pieces preever heard. And why 1150 Shawnee St. • 920-1227 sumably meant to snag not? Abbey (and National Treasure, Walk Hard, Swank a third Oscar (she Kona, also listed in P.S. I Love You, Sweeney Todd, not only sings along to the credits as playCharlie Wilson’s War, Alvin, Judy Garland’s “The Man ing Samantha; perGolden Compass, Fred Claus, No That Got Away” in her haps Abbey’s stunt Country for Old Men living room but also merdouble?) is a wonits not one but two karaderfully expressive oke scenes). The central Movie times: animal, and once the thrust, dopey but sweet, is connectsavannah.com canine’s screen time that Butler’s Gerry knows decreases in the picthat Swank’s Holly will ture’s second half, have a hard time copthe rapport between ing with his passing, so he arranges for her man and his best friend dissipates to make to receive a series of letters after his death room for the usual testy relations between to ease her into Life Without Gerry. Yet it’s frightened humans as well as their attempts hard to focus on this storyline when, for into ward off the evil entities that reside in the stance, Lisa Kudrow (as Holly’s man-hundarkness outside. I Am Legend is based on gry friend) regularly shows up to lust after Richard Matheson’s novel of the same name, stray guys, or when Holly and her best buds and while it’s not the first theatrical ver(Kudrow and Gina Gershon) get stranded sion of the time-honored tale -- there’s also in a fishing boat in the movie’s worst scene.

1964’s The Last Man On Earth and 1971’s And don’t get me started on Harry Connick unintentionally campy The Omega Man -Jr.’s maddeningly monotonous performance it’s certainly the best. As Robert Neville, the as Daniel, a potential love interest for Holly scientist who appears to be the sole survivor who is either A) mentally challenged; B) auin New York City after a virus has wiped out tistic; C) suffering from a PG-13 version of continued on page 32

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most of humankind, Smith brings the right mix of vigor and vulnerability to the part, and director Francis Lawrence maintains a fair amount of tension as long as Neville (and audience members) can’t size up the shadowy menace. But once the bloodthirsty creatures show themselves, they’re disappointingly conventional (at least by CGI zombie standards), and the film has trouble continuing its momentum through a lackluster final half-hour. Still, Abbey makes this worth seeing.

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This year’s sight-unseen, automatic Oscar entry mostly lives up to its lofty expectations, even if it doesn’t possess the sweeping emotion that provided other British period pieces like Sense and Sensibility and The Remains of the Day with their enduring resonance. If a finger must be pointed, it would most likely fall in the direction of director Joe Wright, who previously teamed with his muse Keira Knightley on 2005’s breezy adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Knightley essays the role of Cecilia, who finds herself attracted to the family servant’s upwardly mobile son Robbie (James McAvoy). But Cecilia’s precocious younger sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan) has also developed a crush (albeit a more chaste one) on Robbie, and she grows jealous as she witnesses events that she feels attests to the bond between the lovers. Eventually, Briony uses a tragedy that occurs on the estate grounds as a way to get back at Robbie, not comprehending the long-term implications of her actions. It’s only when she herself has grown up (and played at this point by Romola Garai) that she’s able to grasp the magnitude of what she did -- and work on setting matters right. Knightley’s role doesn’t allow her to flourish as she did under Wright’s direction in Pride and Prejudice, which is fine, since this is Briony’s story and McAvoy’s film. As solemnly played by Ronan, the teenage Briony comes off as a bad seed writ large, with an IQ that, coupled with her naivety, makes her especially dangerous. It’s a memorable performance in the best-written role, yet it’s the excellent McAvoy who injects the proceedings with a notable degree of compassion: We ache for Robbie throughout this tale, and McAvoy expertly conveys the feelings and frustrations of a man who dared to dream outside his station in life, only to watch as his desires go up in flames.

It’s a shame that the denouement doesn’t completely provide us with the emotional catharsis we require. Providing a clever, bittersweet twist, it affects the head more than the heart, and reveals a certain measure of clinical execution on the part of Wright.

Alvin and the Chipmunks  About the best one can say about this occasionally rancid but mostly just dull film is that it’s not as excruciating as Garfield: The Movie, another ill-conceived project that placed CGI animals in the real world. Here, Jason Lee is the hapless human who serves as the sacrificial-career lamb: He plays Dave,

a failed songwriter who also has trouble getting close to anyone, including a predictably va-va-voomish girlfriend (Cameron Richardson). But along come our all-talking, all-singing chipmunk siblings -- Alvin, Simon and Theodore -- to not only help him produce a smash single but also teach him the importance of friendship and family. The three rodents’ lines are spoken by Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney, but their voices are so digitally altered that they might as well be lipsynched by Hillary, Barack and Mitt. Then again, that speaks to the whole impersonal tone of the project, which has so little regard for the brand name’s nostalgic factor that it updates the concept by briefly putting the trio in rappers’ outfits in one scene and allowing Simon to eat Theodore’s turd in another. Desperately conceived on every level, this forlorn family film amounts to little more than celluloid roadkill.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story 

The poster for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story states it’s “From The Guy Who Brought You Knocked Up And Superbad,” but really, it feels more like it’s “From The Guy Who Brought You Anchorman And Talladega Nights.” Yes, Judd Apatow is one of the co-writers (sharing scripting duties with director Jake Kasdan), but that savory mix of satire and sentiment that worked well in his two summer hits is largely missing here; instead, we get the broad laughs and easy targets more at home in films headlining Will Ferrell. A sendup of music biopics like Walk the Line and Ray, it spends so much time dutifully tracking the clichés inherent in these types of films that a certain by-the-numbers stagnation begins to settle in. Still, that’s not to say that some moments don’t connect: A sequence involving The Beatles demands to be seen if only for the opportunity to catch Jack Black cast as Paul McCartney(!), and I love the string of scenes in which Dewey (John C. Reilly) gets introduced to increasingly harsher drugs.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 1/2 This is an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 Broadway smash, but it hides its stage roots so thoroughly that it feels like a piece created for the silver screen. In refashioning Sweeney Todd for the movies, Tim Burton and scripter John Logan have presented audiences with a big, bold endeavor that functions as an upscale slasher film: It’s bloody but also bloody good, with the gore tempered by the melancholy love stories that dominate the proceedings. Burton’s go-to guy, Johnny Depp, delivers a haunted performance as Benjamin Barker, a sweet-natured barber who’s falsely imprisoned by a lecherous judge (Alan Rickman) who covets Barker’s wife. Fifteen years later, Barker returns to London a changed man: Now calling himself Sweeney Todd and looking like a zombie who’s al-

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Charlie Wilson’s War



Politics and motion pictures don’t mix - at least not in 2007, when all movies in this vein have tanked at the box office. Purists will balk at the notion that any work of art should be watered down for mass consumption, but it’s a simple fact that audiences hit the multiplexes to attend a movie, not a lecture. So trust that old lion Mike Nichols to remember how to do it right.

Charlie Wilson’s War is sterling entertainment punched across with enough glitz to sell it but not too much to bury it. Aided by a big-name cast and a sharp script by Aaron Sorkin (adapting George Crile’s nonfiction book), Nichols has crafted a winning if occasionally facile work whose level of intelligence is measured by how much (or how little) each individual viewer wants to put into it. Kicking off in the 1980s, it follows Texas Democratic Congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), a blustery politician not above lounging in Vegas hot tubs with busty strippers, as he becomes interested in Afghanistan’s ineffectual attempts to oust the invading Soviet army. Charlie’s spurred to take action at the insistence of his politically

savvy friend Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts, little more than serviceable), a born-again right-wing millionaire who also hails from the Lone Star State. Charlie does his best, but it isn’t until he teams up with prickly CIA operative Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman, marvelous) that the ball gets rolling and the Afghans are able to defend themselves. But at what cost to the future? Charlie Wilson’s War doesn’t answer its own question, preferring instead to let viewers mull over the response.

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The Golden Compass **1/2 Christians have been on the warpath for believing that the film attacks their religion.

Non-Christians have been furious because they’ve heard that the movie removes all condemnations of Christianity. Book lovers have braced themselves for a bastardization of their beloved text. But a movie is a separate entity from a book and as such deserves to be judged on its own terms. And on that level, The Golden Compass is an acceptable piece of fantasy fluff, a cluttered mishmash that nevertheless can lay claim to its own scattered charms. An ambitious tale set on an alternate world, The Golden Compass opens with an expository crawl meant to set up the story, but not since 1984’s ill-fated adaptation of Dune has a supposedly helpful introduction been so dense and occasionally impenetrable. Yet amidst all the yammering about “Dust” and “daemons” we can gleam that this is basically yet another tale about an unassuming youth who emerges as the only person able to vanquish the evil force that’s poised to conquer all. Top-billed Nicole Kidman plays the villainous Marisa Coulter, but the lead is actually Dakota Blue Richards, a talented child actress whose presence goes a long way toward keeping this story grounded. Richards stars as Lyra, the spunky lass whose devotion to her uncle, the explorer Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), and to her young chums contributes to her landing in the middle of a large-scale skirmish that finds the fascistic members of the religious ruling body fighting all manner of outsiders in an effort to not only hold onto power but insure that they eliminate the notion of “free will” entirely. w

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ready been buried a couple of times, he sets about planning his revenge. He’s aided in his efforts by Nellie Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), a lonely widow whose love for Todd will clearly remain unrequited. As partnersin-crime, however, they’re matched beautifully: A crazed Todd slits the throats of all who sit in his barber’s chair, while Mrs. Lovett grinds up the corpses to use in her increasingly popular meat pies. Burton’s decision to stylize the film to within an inch of its life was a sound one, resulting in a visual feast that dazzles even through the setting’s necessary grime. The blandness of the actors portraying the story’s young lovebirds, Jamie Campbell Bower and Jayne Wisner, is a debit, but as compensation, there’s Borat himself, Sacha Baron Cohen, cast as a charlatan named Pirelli -- perhaps not since Eric Rhodes played Alberto Beddini in the Astaire-Rogers classic Top Hat has an actor so deliberately mangled the Italian language.

And while neither Depp nor Carter are classically trained singers, both are just fine belting out Sondheim’s tunes.

TOAST TO A NIGHT OF ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES

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29

Culture

Best albums of 2007 First Annual New Year’s Eve Bash December 31st, 2007 Open seating from limited Cha Bella dinner menu 5:30pm to 7:30pm

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Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

Five Course Wine Paired Dinner Limited seating available beginning at 8:30pm Enjoy live entertainment and watch the New York City Times Square festivities on our patio projector!

11 ten

1) LCD Soundsystem: Sound Of Silver Best Songs of 2007 from The first LCD Soundsystem record was Albums Not Listed Above decent, but never came close to the heights 1) Feist: 1234 of the groundbreaking singles and remixes 2) UGK & Outkast: that frontman James Murphy produced for International Players other bands. Sound of Silver is exactly what Anthem I wanted. Every track fulfills the promise of 3) The White Stripes: Icky early successes like “Beat Connection” and Thump “Losing My Edge”, but Murphy explores 4) Battles: Atlas moodier, more soulful territory than he 5) Kanye West: Flashing has before.

Lights 2) Arcade Fire: Neon Bible 6) Bruce Springsteen: Girls In Lest you think Funeral was a fluke, Their Summer Clothes Arcade Fire returned triumphantly this 7) Rich Boy: Throw Some D’s year with a record so good that it makes 8) Patrick Wolf: Accident & their legendary debut sound like a loose Emergency collection of demos. They also deserve 9) The Frames: When Your major props for being among the best Mind’s Made Up musical guests in the history of Saturday 10) Low: Murderer Night Live.

3) Radiohead: In Rainbows It’s a shame that the revolutionary delivery method of this album got more headlines than the music itself. In Rainbows is the most stripped-down, straightforward music Radiohead has made since The Bends. It’s unmistakably a rock record, and arguably their most accessible work yet, but retains the ambition and scope that makes them the most indispensable band working today.

4) M.I.A.: Kala A while back I wrote that M.I.A.’s fun loving, globetrotting politics reminded of The Clash and called Kala “the 2007 version of the focused, tightened-up Sandinista! everyone has always wanted.” The months since haven’t dulled the relentless beats of “Boyz” or the surreal pleasures of “Paper Planes” one bit, and her unlikely success almost makes me want to forgive America for continuing to buy the work of Nickelback.

5) The National: Boxer Definitely the grower of the year, The National’s superb sophomore record Boxer is full of subtle hooks that may not pack much of a wallop at first but embed themselves in your head and won’t let go. Every track is a delicate masterpiece.

6) Amy Winehouse: Back To Black Only Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears have received more trash journalism coverage. But unlike most tabloid queens Winehouse has real talent, and her personal troubles inform and deepen her music. When she sings about addiction and abusive relationships, we know she’s speaking from experience.

And working with the extraordinary Dap Kings and Mark Ronson certainly doesn’t hurt.

7) Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

Kevin Barnes had a tough time recording his newest album as evidenced by lyrics like, “I spent the winter on the verge of a total break-down while living in Norway.” But he pairs these confessionals with shimmering pop tracks, giving Hissing Fauna an uneasy mix of up and down that makes it one of OM’s finest achievements yet.

8) Panda Bear: Person Pitch I thought Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam was a laughable, pretentious mess. But this sophomore solo record from their chief sonic architect pairs his love of aural experimentation with actual hooks, resulting in an incredible set of Brian Wilson-esque epics.

9) Rufus Wainwright: Release The Stars After years of fashioning himself after Leonard Cohen and various Weimar Republic-era cabaret singers, Rufus Wainwright has finally accepted his gift of writing timeless pop masterpieces like “Rules & Regulations” and “Going To A Town.”

10) Modeselektor: Happy Birthday Modeselektor hearken back to a time around 1995 when electronic music was at its creative peak. Then electronic music became synonymous with chillout compilations and dinner parties and the dream was over. Not so, according to this genre-hopping Berlin duo who mix together IDM, dancehall, French rappers and even Thom Yorke to create a singular experience that’s very danceable but a little disturbing at the same time, like David Lynch if he was a German DJ. w

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

28

Culture

| Art Patrol compiled by Jim Morekis

‘Kahlil Gibran’ — A col-

lection of paintings and drawings by the poet and author of “The Prophet” can be seen through Jan. 27 at Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, 121 Barnard Street.

‘Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius’ — Through Jan. 6, 2008.

Jepson Center for the Arts, 207 York St.

Join us for

Blues

Year’s Eve! Order our Dinner for 2 Special

ONLY $29.99 Includes Rib Sampler for Two, two side salads and two desserts.

Available all day on December 31st

‘Memorial Grounds 1988-2006’ -- The

Savannah College of Art and Design hosts this exhibit by California-based artist Hung Liu at Pei Ling Chang Gallery, 324 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Jan. 9-Feb. 27. The exhibition is free and open to the

‘Breath of the Spirit,’ part of the ongoing exhibit at Daedalus Gallery

‘Plastic People’ — Dick

Bjornseth photography through Dec. 29 at Gallery Espresso, 234 Bull St. Through Dec. 29. Gallery Espresso, 234 Bull St.

‘Small Works’ — The Savannah College

of Art and Design presents an annual exhibition for the holiday season featuring work by SCAD artists through Jan.6. “Small Works” features unique art priced at $500 or less and measuring up to 18 inches by 18 inches.

SCAD students, faculty, alumni and staff created all of the products on display. Red Gallery, 201 E Broughton St.

‘Space’ — Colorful and dramatic new

EnjoY LivE Music from 6:00 - 10:00 by

Elliott & the untouchables

works by Marcus Kenney include several large and small-scale paintings with glimpses toward, and evaluations of, the future. Also featured is work by Zechariah Vincent.

Through Jan. 4 at 2CarGarage Gallery, 30 W Broughton St. 912-236-0221.

Always There — Porcelain and stoneware sculptures by Barbara Duch and expressionistic abstracts, contemporary cityscapes and landscapes by Fran Thomas at Gallery 440, 440 Bull St. C

Holiday Treasures at the Mansion — Small works by Joanne Bedient, Rebecca

Cope, John Duckworth, Peter Karis. Little River Hot Glass, Irene Sainz Mayo, Jean Claude Roy, Morgan Santander, Meredith Sutton, Scott Griffin and W. Gerome Temple through Jan 6 at Mansion on Forsyth Park, 700 Drayton Street.

‘I Have Marks to Make’ — An annual community exhibition celebrating the therapeutic and rehabilitative power of art. It can be seen through Jan. 7 in the Morrison Community Gallery at the Jepson Center, 207 York St.

Kathy Miller and Betty Melaver —

The artists of the month at Gallery 209 are painter Kathy Miller and clay artist Betty Melaver. Ongoing. Gallery 209, 209 E River St.

Nowness and Permanence in Art —

A look at the timelessness of art, at Daedalus Gallery, 414 Whitaker St., through Dec. 31.

Savannah Wild Acres artists — The

Art Show at the JEA will feature the works of the Savannah Wild Acres Artists. Artists, writers, scientists and musicians apply each year to work at the Blumethal Foundation’s “Wildacres” retreat in Little Switzerland, N.C.,for conferences and workshops.

Through Dec. 31. Jewish Education Alliance, 5111 Abercorn St. ‘Southern Wings: Images of Aviation’ — Work by aviation and historical artists Marc Stewart, Jim Balletto, Wade Meyers, and Russell Smith. The four exhibit together as Southern Wings and for this exhibition, chose 84 original oils, acrylics, watercolors and prints. Through April 13, 2008. Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, 175 Bourne Ave., Pooler/

‘East End Artists, Past and Present’ — Focuses on modern and contemporary

artists of the Hamptons on Long Island, N.Y., including Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner Each Mon. Wed.-Sun.. Through Jan. 13 at Jepson Center for the Arts, 207 York St.

‘Luminist Horizons: The Art and Collection of James A. Suydam’ —

Through Jan. 20 at Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, 121 Barnard Street.

‘Philip Morsberger: The Sixties’ — Through Jan. 20 at Jepson Center for the Arts, 207 York St. w

| Books by Linda Sickler

Culture

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Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

t’s been a long time coming, but the wait may soon be over.

Fourteen years ago, artist Luther Vann and poet and author Aberjhani began a collaborative book project. More than 50 reproductions of Vann’s art and 40 of Aberjhani’s poems were put together in a book they titled Elemental.

Both men are Savannah natives who have achieved considerable renown in their chosen fields, and the project was greeted with enthusiasm. It was accepted by local arts publisher Bonaventture Books, and a galley of the book was put together.

But 14 years later, the book is still not published because of production costs. A member group of the Telfair Museum of Art, the Friends of African-American Arts, has issued a call for funding from the local community to get the book printed.

Shonah Jefferson is the FAAA’s chair.

“The fund-raising is going on because the Telfair Museum is going to have a retrospective of Luther’s work in April,” she says.

“Instead of a catalog, we’re trying to get the book published in time.”

Karen Wilds is co-chairing the fund-raising with Jefferson. “Mr. Vann’s work is so prolific,” she says. “He is an awesome, talented artist. We believe his work ranks up there with the likes of Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence.”

The FAAA was founded a year ago to promote and support art by African Americans. “We also want to educate the community about African-American art,” Wilds says.

If the fund-raising effort is successful, Elemental will be released next spring to coincide with the exhibition, Elemental: Paintings by Luther Vann.

A little more than $15,000 is needed, and fund-raising will continue until Jan. 13. “We need it by the first of February so we can have it printed and ready in time to distribute it for the show,” Wilds says.

Jefferson says getting the funding is the only obstacle. “It’s a done deal as far as getting the book ready,” she says.

Barbara Evans, Director of Development at the Telfair, says it’s very important that donors make checks out to the Telfair Museum of Art and write “Elemental” on them. “They need to note somehow that it is a donation for this specific project,” she says. “From a legal standpoint, that means we can’t use the money for anything else but that project.”

Members of the FAAA think it’s time to recognize Vann and Aberjhani for their contributions to the arts. “It’s important because Luther is a native of Savannah,” Jefferson says. “He just turned 70 years old. He’s one of the few established African-American

B E A D S

27

artists who have re-established their roots and ties to Savannah.”

Vann was born in Savannah in 1937, but at the age of 6, was sent to New York City to live with his mother. He received his formal art training there but spent every summer in Savannah, which he considered his true home.

Today, Vann is an internationally recognized artist, but still lives in the house built by his uncle. He’s in the process of building a new studio in the back yard.

“At some level, I’m disappointed the book hasn’t happened yet,” Vann says. “It’s going to be a pleasure to see it in print. With it taking so long, it took some of the joy out of it. If it does come out, it will be a miracle.”

In 1991, Aberjhani encountered Vann’s work at an exhibition at the Beach Institute.

He was so moved he began writing poetry expressing the powerful feelings the paintings inspired in him. Later, the two met by chance and immediately became friends.

Aberjhani’s own works have been p published widely throughout the United States.

He has received numerous honors and awards, including the MBWC Best History Book of 2005 Award for his Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance.

The publishing delay hasn’t been entirely bad. “There have been more poems written by me and more paintings by Luther,” Aberjhani says.

“The delay had a lot of do with the cost of transferring Luther’s paintings from the original artwork to a digital format,” he says.

“It was time consuming, and the financing became challenging.”

When the project was first announced, it was given considerable media attention. “It’s gone into legend and myth status,” Aberjhani says with a smile. “Does it exist?” w Donations to raise printing costs for Elemental should be forwarded to: Barbara J. Evans, Director of Development, The Telfair Museum of art, Box 10081, Savannah, 31412.

Donors should indicate on their checks that funds are being donated for Elemental.

102 E. Liberty St, No. 101 • Savannah, GA 31401 Phone 912.233.6400 Fax 912.233.6499

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

26

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Culture

Paintings by Marcus Kenney and Zechariah Vincent

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pace. It is dear to an artist’s heart. There’s never enough of it.

Here, in Marcus Kenney’s works in this exhibition, it refers to “outer space”.

All eight of his paintings take place in a dark planetary universe filled with meteor showers, flying rocks and debris; little children hurtle through the universe while larger children, frequently wearing space suits and waving American flags, stand by.

The British art critic, Julian Stallabrass, writing about the work of the young British artists in the 1990s, coined the term, “High Art Lite.” There are certain characteristics that he considers essential for this category: nostalgia, mass media references, irony and a combination of the pretty and the offensive, along with a calculated ambiguity in which the artists refuse to define the works’ intentions and, instead, say that it is up to the viewer to determine its meaning.

Although Marcus Kenney obviously does not have the same British references in his work, he is part of the same generation, those who were born in the late 1960s and the 1970s and who were dubbed by the media as Generation X. This group is understandably cynical in response to the hypocrisy in which political action and debate has been replaced by merely giving “correct” names to things.

But that has created a void which can be filled by easy narrow nationalisms and sectarian religious bigotry. For an artist of this generation, the market has stepped in as the only truth, become the relied upon standard. People used to regard art as central to an expression of what it meant to be human. Generation X believes otherwise and has turned the artist into a business man and the artwork into a commodity like any other.

Kenney’s work shares many attributes of “High Art Lite, for instance, a nostalgia for the period of his childhood when the space program was exciting and dominated the media. The work reflects a conservatism, a desire for the comfortable divisions of the Cold War days.

His repetitive use of the American flag is left to the viewer to feel about as he will – is it nationalism or a critique of nationalism?

And these collages are truly pretty, using various colored papers; the smaller images of children are cut from old book illustrations.

But as if intentionally to disturb this prettiness, to make the figures less “cutesy”, the larger children have facial features that are jarringly constructed from mouths and eyes cut from magazines.

In “While on the Moon,” a large blonde girl with cut outs of eyes and mouth wears a space suit that sports a big Confederate flag. Since the art market models itself on the entertainment industry and artists are obligated to take on the rock star role of shocking behavior, this flag display in Kenney’s work is no doubt chosen to be controversial.

However, people who care one way or another about the Confederate flag are not your usual contemporary art audience. So no great risk here.

The “space” in Zechariah Vincent’s work reflects the formal element within abstract painting. The majority of Vincent’s paintings here incorporate pencil drawings frequently of birds that have been buried under a layer of gestural paint. The dominant colors are black and white with some pale greens and blues and small areas of red and orange.

Top, ‘Land Rights’ by Zechariah Vincent; bottom, Marcus Kenney’s ‘Facing the Future I’ve Seen the World

These lyrical abstractions are the antithesis of High Art Lite; instead, they are something that now seems archaic in the world of contemporary art – painting, using paint and brush as opposed to collaged assemblages of found objects or computer generated images.

The impulse of the abstract painter is to resist the image just as the figurative painter can often neglect the formal abstract qualities to emphasize the narrative.

And here lies the tension and contradiction in Vincent’s work: a pull between political content reflected in the titles of these works, “Land Rights”, “Politico”, “Versus”, “Primitive Intention”, and “Buy American” and the painter’s primary concern with line, color and form.

It is, however, possible to detect a solution to this problem in the calligraphic line that Vincent employs. Words, rather than the image, could become the vehicle for the content.

In 2000, I first encountered the work of both Kenney and Vincent in their collaborative installation exhibition, “Liberal Propaganda.”

Each artist had his own installation area. Vincent’s was called, “Campaign Headquarters,” and focused on his “free water” campaign against the rising use of bottled water and its social repercussions. He lived within the installation for seven days.

I felt that these installations were influenced by the German artist and activist, Joseph Beuys. And I thought these two artists were embarking on a collaborative avant-garde adventure.

However, for all I know, he and Kenney are still pursuing their avant-garde collaborations. I know that artists need jobs to live.

Money has to be made. Food and shelter require it.

Vincent works as a photographer’s assistant, while in Kenney’s case, the market serves as an employer. But what if the market is also regarded as just a day job, like teaching, like washing dishes, and all the while a new identity, a secret production of genuine merit without strings, without deals, without hope, but with integrity and joy is carried on under pseudonyms? w 2Car Garage is at 30 West Broughton Street, www.2cargallery.com, 236-0221.

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

22

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Music

| Soundboard compiled by Jim Reed

Soundboard NOTE: Clubs, if you have live music and want to be listed for free in Soundboard or Music Menu, just mail, fax, or email your lineup to us BY NOON ON FRIDAY for inclusion in the FOLLOWING WEEK’S issue. Please enclose high-resolution publicity photos, artist bios and contact info as well.

Address: Connect Savannah, Inc.,

1800 E. Victory Drive, Suite 7,

Savannah, GA 31404 Fax: (912)231-9932 Email: jim.r@connectsavannah.com All Bands Scheduled Are Subject To Change

■ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26

Augie’s Pub (Richmond Hill) Paul Rader (Live Music) Solo set from a talented acoustic guitarist and singer/ songwriter (covers & originals). 6:30 p.m.

B & D Burgers (Southside) Trivia w/ Artie & Brad (Other) Starts at 10 p.m.

Bahama Bob’s (Pooler) Karaoke (Karaoke) The Bamboo Room “Georgia Kyle” Shiver (Live Music) Bayou Cafe Chief (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Soul, Blues and Country covers -9 p.m.

Cafe Loco TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m.

Cheers to You Karaoke (Karaoke) 8 p.m.

Club One #@*! Karaoke (Karaoke) Creekside Cafe TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m.

Daiquiri Beach Jeremy & Stephen of Argyle (Live Music) Acoustic duo set of classic rock, modern rock and reggae from two siblings in a popular local band (covers/ originals) Doubles Lounge DJ Sam Diamond (DJ) Driftaway Cafe Chuck Courtenay & Bucky Bryant (Live Music) Acoustic guitar duo known for their tight vocal harmonies, playing pop, rock and country (covers/ originals) 7 p.m.

Fiddler’s Crab House Bottles & Cans (Live Music) Hardswinging Americana and garage-rock-infused Delta blues (covers & originals). 9:30 p.m.

Gilley’s High Velocity (Live Music) well-liked Southern rock, modern country and classic rock band (covers & originals). 9 p.m.

Hercules Bar and Grill TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Jazz’d Tapas Bar Jeff Beasley (Live Music) 7:30 p.m.

Kevin Barry’s Harry O’Donoghue (Live Music) Well-known celtic balladeer (guitar, vocals, bodhran) who also hosts Georgia Public Broadcasting’s popular radio show “The Green Island” (covers & originals). -8 p.m.

King’s Inn Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Mansion on Forsyth Park David Duckworth (Live Music) Solo pianist (jazz, showtunes, classical) 7 p.m.

Molly MacPherson’s Scottish Pub Open Mic Night (Live Music) Hosted by Hudson & Markus 8 p.m.

Murphy’s Law Celtic Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

One Hot Mama’s BBQ TBA (Live Music) Panini’s Cafe TBA (Live Music) Planter’s Tavern TBA (Live Music) Piano Jazz -7 p.m.

The Quarter Sports Bar TBA (Live Music) Rock, Folk and Blues 10 p.m.

Robin’s Nest DJ Dion (DJ) 8:30 p.m. DJ Dion (DJ) 8:30 p.m.

Savannah Down Under DJ Blue Ice (DJ) Savannah Smiles Dueling Pianos (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Savannah Theatre “A Christmas Tradition” (Other) Musical Play -8 p.m. 3 p.m.

Scandals Roy & The Circuit Breakers (Live Music) Solo singer/guitarist with sequenced backing playing pop/rock/ soul/beach hits and originals 8 p.m.

Slugger’s 5 Point Productions’ Karaoke (Karaoke) 10 p.m.

Tommy’s Karaoke w/ Jeff & Rebecca (Karaoke) Tropicana Night Club Spitfire Poetry Slam (Other) Spoken Word showcase and competition 8 p.m.

Tubby’s Tank House (Thunderbolt) TBA (Live Music) Pop, rock, country and blues acts 6 p.m.

Venus De Milo TBA (DJ) 9 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe Karaoke (Karaoke) 8:30 p.m.

■ THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27

Augie’s Pub (Pooler) Paul Rader & David Flannery (Live Music) Acoustic guitar and vocals duo playing pop, rock, folks and blues (covers & originals). 7 p.m.

W W p

■

A A T B & D Burgers (Southside) TBA (Live Music) B Bay Street Blues Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

B Bayou Cafe Chief (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Soul, Blues and T Country covers -9 p.m.

B Benny’s Tybee Tavern Karaoke (Karaoke) w/DJ Levis 9:30 p.m. g Bernie’s on River Street Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

9 Blaine’s Back Door #@*! Karaoke (Karaoke) B Chuck’s Bar #@*! Karaoke (Karaoke) B Club One Industrial Resurrection w/ DJ Shrapnel (DJ) 10 B p.m.

C Creekside Cafe TBA (Live Music) 6 p.m.

C Daiquiri Beach Karaoke (Karaoke) 10 p.m.

C Doc’s Bar Roy & the Circuit Breakers (Live Music) S Fannie’s on the Beach “Georgia Kyle” Shiver & Fiddlin’ C Scott Holton (Live Music) 7 p.m.

D Fiddler’s Crab House Chuck Courtenay & Bucky Bryant D (Live Music) Acoustic guitar duo known for their tight vocal harmonies, playing rock, country and pop (covers/ S originals) 7 p.m.

D Fiddler’s Crab House The Eic Culberson Blues Band (Live D Music) Internationally-known electric blues trio led by a P charismatic guitarist/singer (covers & originals). 9:30 p.m.D Grapevine Gail Thurmond (Live Music) Piano & vocal jazz, D country, Latin and standards by a veteran songwriter and D recording artist who’s entertained Savannahians for more E than a decade 6:30 p.m.

F The Grill Beachside TBA (Live Music) 7 p.m.

F Hercules Bar and Grill TBA (Live Music) Rock, Blues, Soul a and Pop 8 p.m.

S The Island Grill TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m. o The Jazz Corner The Lavon Stevens Project (Live Music) F Blues, R & B and jazz covers and originals. 8 p.m.

G Jazz’d Tapas Bar Trae Gurley’s “Swoonatra” (Live Music) G Singing thespian’s tribute to ‘Ol Blue Eyes’ golden period a 7:30 p.m.

D The Jinx Dance Party w/ DJ D-Frost & Friends (DJ) 10 p.m. H Kevin Barry’s Harry O’Donoghue (Live Music) Well-known C celtic balladeer (guitar, vocals, bodhran) who also hosts H Georgia Public Broadcasting’s popular radio show “The H Green Island” (covers & originals). -8 p.m.

I Loco’s Deli & Pub (Southside) Team Trivia w/ Kowboi r (Other) 7 p.m. m Luther’s Rare & Well Done Branan Logan (Live Music) 9 9 p.m.

T Mansion on Forsyth Park David Duckworth; Eric Jones (Live Music) Solo pianist (jazz, showtunes, classical); Solo M pianist (jazz, Latin) Dec 27, 5 & 8 p.m.

D Mercury Lounge The One Too Many Band (Live Music) J Local roots-rock act anchored by standup bassist Dobby E Simmons (covers & originals). 10 p.m. ( Moon River Brewing Co. Eric Britt (Live Music) Acoustic J guitarist/singer playing alt.rock and pop 8:30 p.m.

C Murphy’s Law The Train Wrecks (Live Music) Upbeat T Americana and roots-rock-a-billy - covers and originals N 10 p.m.

T Myrtle’s Bar & Grill J. Howard Duff (Live Music) 7:30 p.m.

One Hot Mama’s BBQ TBA (Live Music) 5 p.m.

Planter’s Tavern TBA (Live Music) Piano Jazz -7 p.m.

Plum’s TBA (Live Music) 10:30 p.m.

Pogy’s TBA (Live Music) The Rail Pub “Helium Karaoke” w/ Wrath Nasty (Karaoke) Robin’s Nest Barly (Live Music) Fundraiser for an unnamed cause 7 p.m.

Savannah Smiles Dueling Pianos (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Savannah Theatre “A Christmas Tradition” (Other) Musical Play -8 p.m. 3 p.m.

Slugger’s Trivia w/ Charles & Mikey (Other) 10 p.m.

Spanky’s TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Steamer’s TBA (Live Music) Rock, Country and Pop covers 9 p.m.

Tantra Lounge DJ In a Coma (DJ) 11 p.m.

Tommy’s Karaoke w/ Jeff & Rebecca (Karaoke) Tropicana Night Club DJ Southstar Spins Top 40 (DJ) 10 p.m.

Tubby’s Tank House TBA (Live Music) 6 p.m.

Tubby’s Tank House (Thunderbolt) TBA (Live Music) 6 p.m.

Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House TBA (Live Music) 7 p.m.

Venus De Milo Hip Hop Night w/ DJ Maytag (DJ) Wasabi’s Live DJ Frankie Spins Hip-hop & Electric Fusion (DJ) 8 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m.

Music

| Soundboard

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Wild Wing Cafe (Bluffton) TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe (Hilton Head) TBA (Live Music) 10:30 p.m.

■ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28

A New Year.

2008

continued on page 24

Kevin Barry’s irish Pub & restaurant

New Years Eve

Voted Among The Top 10 Irish Pubs In America

By America’s Best Online

Celebration and Anniversary

Join us For New Year's Eve!!!

Monday December 31st 9pm until 3am

$50 VIP

All This Week:

Harry O'Donoghue

Includes complimentary Cocktails all Night Full Access to the Vip Rooms Champaigne ToastatatMidnight Midnight Champagne Toast and Light Hors D’Oeuvres.

All Next Week: Carroll Brown

LIve MusIc 7 NIghts A Week 117 West RIveR st • 233-9626 Full irish & american Menus serving Until 2am nightly nOW OPen FOr LUnCH aT 11aM DaiLy!

Venus de Milo

38 MLK Jr Blvd | Savannah, GA call for information 912.447.0901

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

A.J.’s Dockside “Georgia Kyle” Shiver (Live Music) American Legion Post 36 Karaoke (Karaoke) The Apex TBA (Live Music) B & D Burgers (Southside) TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Baja Cantina TBA (Live Music) 7 p.m.

The Bamboo Room TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Bay Street Blues Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Bayou Cafe Thomas Claxton (Live Music) Acoustic guitarist/vocalist playing rock and pop (covers/originals) 9 p.m.

Benny’s Tybee Tavern TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Bernie’s on River Street Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Bogey’s TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Captain’s Lounge #@*! Karaoke (Karaoke) Club One Local Cast, DJ Jason Hancock (Main Floor) (DJ) Coach’s Corner Chief (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Country and Soul covers 8 p.m.

Crystal Beer Parlor The Beer Parlor Ramblers (Live Music) Dixieland Jazz 7:30 p.m.

Daquiri Island Karaoke (Karaoke) Dawg House Grill TBA (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Blues and Soul covers/originals 7 p.m.

Dewey’s Dockside Karaoke (Karaoke) 6 p.m.

Doc’s Bar Roy & the Circuit Breakers (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Beach, Shag and Soul covers 8 p.m. .Dolphin Reef Lounge & Ocean Plaza The Denny Phillips Duo (Live Music) Rock, Pop and Soul covers 8 p.m.

Doubles Lounge “World Famous” DJ Sam Diamond (DJ) El Picasso Karaoke (8 p.m.) (Karaoke) Fannie’s on the Beach TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Fiddler’s Crab House Keith & Ross (Live Music) Singing acoustic duo of guitar and banjo influenced by country, Southern rock, bluegrass, jam and pop music (covers & originals). 9:30 p.m.

Friendly’s Tavern 2 #@*! Karaoke (Karaoke) Gayna’s Bar Karaoke (9 p.m.) (Karaoke) Gilley’s High Velocity (Live Music) Southern & classic rock and modern country covers and originals. Dec 28, 9 p.m., Dec 29, 9 p.m. Dec 31, 9 p.m.

Hercules Bar and Grill Chief (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Country and Soul covers 8 p.m.

Huck-A-Poo’s TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Hyatt Regency TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Isaac’s on Drayton Bottles & Cans (Live Music) Garage rock and Americana-influenced Delta blues combo of mouth harp, guitar, bass and drums (covers & originals).

9 p.m.

The Island Grill TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

The Jazz Corner The Big Band Brass Bash Septet (Live Music) Atlanta-based large jazz band (covers & originals).

Dec 28, 8 p.m. Dec 29, 8 p.m.

Jazz’d Tapas Bar G.E. Perry & Strange Brew (Live Music) Electric blues-rock band led by a talented veteran guitarist (covers & originals). 9 p.m.

Jen’s & Friends TBA (Live Music) Acoustic Rock, Pop, Country and Soul covers/originals 10 p.m.

The Jinx Thunderlip (Live Music) Buzzworthy Wilmington, N.C. hard rock quintet influenced by Deep Purple, Turbonegro and Iron Maiden. 11 p.m.

Kevin Barry’s Harry O’Donoghue (Live Music) Well-known celtic balladeer (guitar, vocals, bodhran) who also hosts Georgia Public Broadcasting’s popular radio show “The Green Island” (covers & originals). -8 p.m.

Kokopelli’s Jazz Club Roy Meriwether (Live Music) Grammy nominated jazz pianist and composer (covers & originals) Dec 28, 8, 9:30 & 11 p.m. Dec 29, 8, 9:30 & 11 p.m.

Luther’s Rare & Well Done TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Mercury Lounge The Train Wrecks (Live Music) Hardrockin’ roots-a-billy quartet blending bluegrass, classic rock, Americana, folk and blues. Playing originals from their debut CD as well as covers (Johnny Cash, Dylan, Petty, Springsteen, etc...) 10 p.m.

Molly MacPherson’s Scottish Pub David Harbuck (Live Music) Singer-songwriter playing original rock, pop and blues tunes, plus well-known covers on guitar. 10 p.m.

Molly MacPherson’s Scottish Pub (Richmond Hill) David Flannery & Paul Rader (Live Music) Acoustic guitar/vocalist duo playing rock, pop and blues (covers & originals). 9 p.m.

Moon River Brewing Co. TBA (Live Music) 7 p.m.

Mulberry Inn The Champagne Jazz Trio (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Murphy’s Law TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m.

One Hot Mama’s BBQ TBA (Live Music) 10:30 p.m.

Planter’s Tavern TBA (Live Music) Piano Jazz -7 p.m.

Pogy’s TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Quality Inn American Pride Karaoke (Karaoke) 8 p.m.

The Quarter Sports Bar TBA (Live Music) Rock, Folk and Blues 10 p.m.

Riders Lounge TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Robin’s Nest Jared Wade & Friends (Live Music) 8:30 p.m.

Savannah Smiles Dueling Pianos (Live Music) 8:30 p.m.

Savannah Theatre “A Christmas Tradition” (Other) Musical Play -8 p.m. 3 p.m. “A Christmas Tradition” (Other) Musical Play 8 p.m.

Scandals TBA (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Blues and Country cover bands 9:30 p.m.

Steamer’s TBA (Live Music) Acoustic Blues, Rock, Pop & Country covers/originals 9 p.m.

Stingray’s Robert Willis (Live Music) Acoustic guitarist/ singer playing popular country, rock and pop covers, plus originals. Dec 28, 7 p.m. Dec 29, 7 p.m.

Stogie’s DJ Paynt & DJ Mself (DJ) Tubby’s Tank House TBA (Live Music) Acoustic Rock, Country, Pop & Blues covers/originals 6 p.m.

Tubby’s Tank House (Thunderbolt) TBA (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Country and Blues covers/originals 6 p.m.

Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House TBA (Live Music) Acoustic Pop, Rock, Country, Soul & Bluegrass covers/originals 7 p.m.

Venus De Milo Live DJ (DJ) Vic’s on The River Claire Frazier (Live Music) Talented jazz vocalist who spent several years on the L.A. scene 7 p.m.

The Warehouse The Magic Rocks (Live Music) Power trio (bass, guitar, drums) playing an eclectic selection of wellknown and obscure rock, pop, soul and vintage country covers - featuring members of GAM, Hot Pink Interior and Superhorse. 8 p.m.

Wasabi’s DJ Frankie -C Spins Hip-hop an Electric Fusion (8 p.m.) (DJ) Ways Station Tavern Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Wet Willie’s Live DJ (DJ) 8 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe The Brooks Wood Band (Live Music) Harmony-laden commercial modern pop-rock with a Southern twang from N.C. (covers & originals). 10 p.m.

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

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Music

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Yong’s Country Club (formerly the Music Box) TBA (Live Music)

■ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29

MANSION O N F O R S Y T H PA R K

R

ing in the new year at the mansion on forsyth park Welcome the new year in style with the Mansion on Forsyth Park’s special package that includes: • • • • •

Premium king room accommodations, valet parking, and two tickets to the New Year’s Eve Extravaganza!

Spectacular four-course dinner accompanied by a live musical performance from 8:00pm until 1:00am.

One hour open bar 8:00 - 9:00pm Champagne toast and party favors at midnight A gourmet breakfast feast 1:00am to 3:00am.

Accommodations package: $717 per night, per couple or $1,026 for two nights, per couple Party-only package: $398 per couple *Price does not include gratuity or taxes For more information, please call 912.238.5158 Valet parking available MANSIONONFORSYTHPARK.COM

KesslerHotels.com

New Year’s 2008 Make your last-minute reservations! full details at

www.doublesnightclub.com Music by: The “World Famous” DJ Sam Diamond

Doors open at 7:00 Monday Dec 31st

7100 abercorn • 912 352-7100

The Apex TBA (Live Music) Bahama Bob’s (Pooler) The Jordan Ross Import (Live Music) MOR acoustic guitar-based pop/rock from Hilton Head 8 p.m.

The Bamboo Room TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Bay Street Blues Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Bayou Cafe Thomas Claxton (Live Music) Acoustic guitarist/vocalist playing rock and pop (covers/originals) 9 p.m.

Benny’s Tybee Tavern TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Bernie’s on River Street Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Bogey’s TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Cafe Ambrosia TBA (Live Music) 7 p.m.

Cafe Loco Sammy Patrick (Live Music) Solo guitarist/ singer playing Southern rock, and country hits. 8 p.m.

Captain’s Lounge #@*! Karaoke (Karaoke) Chuck’s Bar #@*! Karaoke (Karaoke) City Market TBA (Live Music) 2 p.m.

Club One DJ Hancock (DJ) 10 p.m.

Creekside Cafe TBA (Live Music) 7 p.m.

Daquiri Island Karaoke (Karaoke) Dawg House Grill TBA (Live Music) 7 p.m.

DC2 Design DJ Kiah (DJ) 10 p.m.

Deb’s Pub & Grub Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Dewey’s Dockside TBA (Live Music) 6 p.m.

Doc’s Bar Roy & The Circuit Breakers (Live Music) Longrunning party band specializing in disco, 60s rock, Motown and vintage soul (covers).

Dos Primos TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Doubles Lounge “World Famous” DJ Sam Diamond (DJ) Driftaway Cafe TBA (Live Music) Blues, Rock, Country & Pop covers/originals 7 p.m.

Fannie’s on the Beach Randy “Hatman” Smith (Live Music) Beach, Boogie & Blues from a solo guitarist “with the full band sound” 8 p.m. TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Fiddler’s Crab House Argyle (Live Music) Indie rockers mixing reggae, ska, punk, metal and jam music into an aggressive, unique concoction (covers & originals). 9:30 p.m.

French Quarter Cafe TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Gayna’s Bar Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Gilley’s High Velocity (Live Music) Southern & classic rock and modern country covers and originals. Dec 28, 9 p.m., Dec 29, 9 p.m. Dec 31, 9 p.m.

Glazer’s Pub TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Grapevine Gail Thurmond (Live Music) Piano & vocal jazz, country, Latin and standards by a veteran songwriter and recording artist who’s entertained Savannahians for more than a decade 6:30 p.m.

Hercules Bar and Grill TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Hyatt Regency TBA (Live Music) Isaac’s on Drayton Silver Lining (Live Music) Local jazz & blues trio with female vocals which recently released an impressive debut CD 9 p.m.

The Island Grill TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

The Jazz Corner The Big Band Brass Bash Septet (Live Music) Atlanta-based large jazz band (covers & originals).

Dec 28, 8 p.m. Dec 29, 8 p.m.

Jazz’d Tapas Bar Deep Blue 3 (Live Music) Tight and polished regional electric blues band (covers & originals).

9 p.m.

Jen’s & Friends TBA (Live Music) Acoustic Pop, Rock, Country, Blues & Soul covers/originals 10 p.m.

The Jinx Get Rad (Live Music) Straight-up Millwaukeebased hardcore band that occasionally plays tribute sets to Minor Threat. 11 p.m.

Juarez Mexican Restaurant (Waters Ave.) Karaoke (Karaoke) Jukebox Bar & Grill TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Kevin Barry’s Harry O’Donoghue (Live Music) Well-known celtic balladeer (guitar, vocals, bodhran) who also hosts Georgia Public Broadcasting’s popular radio show “The Green Island” (covers & originals). -8 p.m.

Kokopelli’s Jazz Club Roy Meriwether (Live Music) Grammy nominated jazz pianist and composer (covers & originals) Dec 28, 8, 9:30 & 11 p.m. Dec 29, 8, 9:30 & 11 p.m.

Luther’s Rare & Well Done TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m.

Mansion on Forsyth Park Eric Jones; Kari-On (Live Music) Solo pianist (Latin, jazz, standards); Jazz Dec 29, 5 & 8 p.m.

Marlin Monroe’s Surfside Grill TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Metro Coffee House Element Unseen (Live Music) Dedicated local indie power trio playing slightly retro and intense atmospheric guitar rock (think Smashing Pumpkins, Chevelle, Foo Fighters). 9 p.m.

Molly MacPherson’s Scottish Pub TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m. G.E. Perry (Live Music) Solo show from a longtime area blues/rock guitarist and singer (covers & originals).

10 p.m.

Molly MacPherson’s Scottish Pub (Richmond Hill) “Georgia Kyle” Shiver (Live Music) “Gypsy Boy” multiinstrumentalist and singer playing acoustic folk, country, bluegrass, blues and rock tunes (covers & originals). 9 p.m.

Moon River Brewing Co. TBA (Live Music) Blues, Jazz, Rock, Pop & Funk covers/originals 8 p.m.

Mulberry Inn The Champagne Jazz Trio (Live Music) 8 p.m.

One Hot Mama’s BBQ TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m.

Panini’s Cafe TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m.

Paradiso at Il Pasticcio DJ Matthew Gilbert & DJ Kwaku (DJ) House Music 11:30 p.m.

Planter’s Tavern TBA (Live Music) Piano Jazz -7 p.m.

Pogy’s TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Quality Inn American Pride Karaoke (Karaoke) 8 p.m.

The Quarter Sports Bar TBA (Live Music) Rock, Folk and Blues 10 p.m.

Robin’s Nest David Harbuck (Live Music) Singing acoustic guitarist playing rock, pop & blues covers plus originals from his own indie CDs 8:30 p.m.

Savannah Jazz & Blues Bistro (Bluffton) TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Savannah Theatre “A Christmas Tradition” (Other) Musical Play -8 p.m. 3 p.m.

Scandals TBA (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Blues and Country cover bands 9:30 p.m.

The Sea Grill TBA (Live Music) 8 p.m.

Shamrock’s Irish Pub TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Spanky’s TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m.

Stingray’s Robert Willis (Live Music) Acoustic guitarist/ singer playing popular country, rock and pop covers, plus originals. Dec 28, 7 p.m. Dec 29, 7 p.m.

Stogie’s DJ Aushee Knights (DJ) House Music & ‘80s hits 10 p.m.

Tubby’s Tank House (Thunderbolt) TBA (Live Music) 6 p.m.

Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House TBA (Live Music) 7 p.m.

Venus De Milo DJ Maytag (DJ) 10 p.m.

VFW Club (Hinesville) TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Vic’s on The River Claire Frazier (Live Music) Talented jazz vocalist who spent several years on the L.A. scene 7 p.m.

The Warehouse Bottles & Cans (Live Music) Hard-swinging, garage rock and swing-infused blues (covers & originals).

8 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe (Bluffton) TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m.

The Wind Rose Cafe TBA (Live Music) 10 p.m.

■ SUNDAY, DECEMBER 30

A.J.’s Dockside Joey Manning (Live Music) Singing keyboardist/guitarist offering popular hits 7 p.m.

Aqua Star Restaurant (Westin Harbor Hotel) Ben Tucker & Bob Alberti (Live Music) Veteran Jazz Duo (piano & bass) playing standards 11:30 a.m.

Bahama Bob’s (Pooler) Karaoke (Karaoke) Belford’s TBA (Live Music) 6 p.m.

Benny’s Tybee Tavern Roy & the Circuit Breakers (Live Music) Solo singer/guitarist with sequenced backing playing pop/rock/soul/beach hits and originals 5 p.m.

Bernie’s (Tybee) Karaoke w/DJ Levis (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Captain’s Lounge #@*! Karaoke (Karaoke) Daquiri Island Karaoke (Karaoke) Dewey’s Dockside Roy & The Circuit Breakers (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Shag, Blues & Soul hits 5 p.m.

Doc’s Bar TBA (Live Music) Beach, Shag, Soul, Pop, Rock, Boogie, Country & Blues Doubles Lounge “World Famous” DJ Sam Diamond (DJ) Driftaway Cafe TBA (Live Music) Acoustic Rock, Pop, Country, Blues & Soul covers El Potro Mexican Restaurant Karaoke w/Michael (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

The Flying Fish Barry Johnson (Live Music) Acoustic Rock, Country, Blues & Pop covers 6 p.m.

The Island Grill TBA (Live Music) 5 p.m.

The Jazz Corner The Dixieland Society of the Low Country; Deas’ Guys (Live Music) Dixieland-style jazz party; Wellknown and versatile R & B, soul, Motown and funk band (covers & originals). Dec 30, 2 & 8 p.m.

Jazz’d Tapas Bar Ray (of Bottles & Cans) (Live Music) Solo show from the versatile and energetic guitarist/frontman of one of Savannah’s best blues and Americana bands (covers & originals). 7 p.m.

Kevin Barry’s Harry O’Donoghue (Live Music) Well-known celtic balladeer (guitar, vocals, bodhran) who also hosts Georgia Public Broadcasting’s popular radio show “The Green Island” (covers & originals). -8 p.m.

Marlin Monroe’s Surfside Grill TBA (Live Music) 7 p.m.

Music

| Soundboard

Mercury Lounge Josh Maul & Mojo Bone (Live Music) The latest electic blues project from guitarist/frontman Maul, formerly of Deep Blue 3 and The Flying Blues Biscuits (covers & originals). Dec 30, 10 p.m. Dec 31, 10 p.m.

Murphy’s Law Irish Pub Acoustic Session, Celtic Karaoke (Live Music) Traditional Celtic acoustic jam session for pros and amateurs alike, followed by Karaoke 7 & 9 p.m.

One Hot Mama’s BBQ TBA (Live Music) 6 p.m.

Planter’s Tavern TBA (Live Music) Piano Jazz -7 p.m.

Red Leg Saloon Karaoke w/Frank Nelson (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Savannah Smiles “Piano-Palooza” (Live Music) Savannah Theatre “A Christmas Tradition” (Other) Musical Play -8 p.m. 3 p.m.

Sea Dawgs TBA (Live Music) 1 p.m.

Slugger’s 5 Point Productions Karaoke (Karaoke) 10 p.m.

Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House TBA (Live Music) Acoustic Blues, Country, Rock, Bluegrass & Pop acts The Warehouse Thomas Claxton (Live Music) Acoustic guitarist/singer playing Rock & Pop covers/originals 7:30 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe Chuck Courtenay, Live Music TBA (Live Music) Popular Rock, Country & Pop covers and originals (acoustic) 1 & 10 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe (Bluffton) TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe (Hilton Head) TBA (Live Music) 11 p.m.

■ MONDAY, DECEMBER 31

Mansion on Forsyth Park Brenda Morie & The 4th Street Band (Live Music) Acclaimed jazz singer and flutist anchoring a quintet (covers & originals). 8 p.m.

Mercury Lounge Josh Maul & Mojo Bone (Live Music) The latest electic blues project from guitarist/frontman Maul, formerly of Deep Blue 3 and The Flying Blues Biscuits (covers & originals). Dec 30, 10 p.m. Dec 31, 10 p.m.

Molly MacPherson’s Scottish Pub Sullivan Street (Live Music) Acoustic guitar and vocals duo (pop, rock, blues)of songwriters Paul Rader and David Flannery (covers & originals). 10 p.m.

Molly MacPherson’s Scottish Pub (Richmond Hill) David Harbuck (Live Music) Singer/songwriter/guitarist playing rock, blues, folk and pop covers, plus his own originals from several indie CDs. 8:30 p.m.

Murphy’s Law Open Mic Night (Live Music) 7:30 p.m.

Paradiso at Il Pasticcio DJ TBA (DJ) Robin’s Nest “New Year’s Eve Party” w/Keith & Ross (Live Music) Singing guitar duo playing country, Southern rock, classic rock and jam tunes (covers & originals) 8:30 p.m.

Rocksbury Lounge Velvet Assumption (Live Music) Young local indie-rockers seemingly by pop-punk, emo and late80s music. 10:30 p.m.

Savannah Actor’s Theatre “The PBR Show” (Other) Live, weekly, old-fashioned “Radio Drama” w/music, sound effects and improvisation 8 p.m.

Scandals DJ Marty Corley (Karaoke) 9:30 p.m.

Steamer’s Karaoke; Live Music TBA (Live Music, Karaoke) 8 p.m.

Sticky Fingers Elliot & The Untocuhables (Live Music) Electric blues from Columbia, S.C. (covers & originals).

6 p.m.

Tantra Lounge A Nickel Bag of Funk (Live Music) Femalefronted funk, soul and R & B combo (covers & originals).

10 p.m. DJ In Coma (DJ) 10:30 p.m.

The Warehouse The Train Wrecks (Live Music) Hopped-up Americana and roots-a-billy quartet of guitar, bass, drums and Dobro (covers & originals). 8 p.m.

Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa Ben Tucker & Friends (Live Music) Special New Year’s Eve festivities, including a four-course meal and live entertainment from one of Savannah’s most famed jazz bassists. 9 p.m.

Wet Willie’s Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe Passafire (Live Music) Free show by locally-based reggae-rockers who recently completed a 40-date North American tour opening for Pepper, and have just released a new CD. 9 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe (Hilton Head) TBA (Live Music) 9 p.m.

cOLDEST, CHEAPEST bEER IN TOWN

Make Plans For The Biggest Party On The River This New Year’s Eve. Champagne, Party Favors, Balloon Drop & Live Music

New Years Eve - The Trainwrecks LIVE MUSIC: Fri 12/28

The Magic Rocks 8 - 12

Sat 12/29

Bottles n’ Cans 8 - 12

Sun 12/30

Thomas Claxton 7:30 - 11:30

18 E. River Street • 234-6003

■ TUESDAY, JANUARY 1

Bay Street Blues Live Trivia (Other) 10 p.m.

Bayou Cafe Chief (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Soul, Blues and Country covers -9 p.m.

Blaine’s Back Door #@*! Karaoke (Karaoke) Buffalo’s Cafe Karaoke (Karaoke) 7 p.m.

Daiquiri Beach BN Trivia w/Artie & Brad (Other) 10 p.m.

Deb’s Pub & Grub #@*! Karaoke (Karaoke) 10:30 p.m.

Driftaway Cafe TBA (Live Music) 6 p.m.

Jazz’d Tapas Bar Diana Rogers (Live Music) Longtime solo pianist playing Jazz, Showtunes & Standards 7 p.m.

The Jinx Alternative Hip-hop Night w/DJ D-Frost (Live Music) Feat. late-night Freestyle Battles and Breakdancing 10 p.m.

Kevin Barry’s Carroll Brown (Live Music) “Coastal Country” acoustic guitarist and singer from just outside Charleston, who plays folk, pop, country and Celtic covers and originals with sequenced backing. 8 p.m.

Mercury Lounge Open Jam Night w/The Eric Culberson Blues Band (Live Music) Amateurs & Pros alike can sit in and jam along with a well-known, touring blues trio 10 p.m.

Planter’s Tavern TBA (Live Music) Piano Jazz -7 p.m.

Stogie’s Two Originals (Live Music) Acoustic guitar duo playing Blues, Rock and Jam originals, plus Grateful Dead covers 10 p.m.

Tommy’s Karaoke w/Jeff & Rebecca (Karaoke) The Warehouse The Train Wrecks (Live Music) Hard-rockin’ roots-a-billy quartet blending bluegrass, classic rock, Americana, folk and blues. Playing originals from their debut CD as well as covers (Johnny Cash, Dylan, Petty, Springsteen, etc...) 8 p.m.

Wet Willie’s Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe Chuck Courtenay, Team Trivia w/The Mayor (Live Music) Solo acoustic guitarist/singer playing Pop, Country & Rock hits, followed by a live trivia match 6 p.m.

Wild Wing Cafe (Bluffton) TBA (Live Music) 9:30 p.m. w

Celebrate New Year’s Eve at Molly’s In Savannah & Richmond Hill Great Dinner Specials

Happy Hour Drink Prices • Hors D’oeuvres •Party Favors Champagne Toast • Great Place to “Ring in 2008!”

Savannah EvEntS Fri. 12/28 David harbuck @10pm Sat. 12/29 Live Music @10pm Sun. 12/30 Service Industry night @10pm Mon. 12/31 Sullivan Street @10pm RIchMonD hILL EvEntS Fri. 12/28 David Flannery & Paul Rader @9pm Sat. 12/29 Georgia Kyle @9pm Mon. 12/31 David harbuck @8:30pm Wed. 1/02 texas hold Em @7pm & 10pm www.macphersonspub.com 311 W. Congress Street Savannah — 239.9600 3742 So Hwy 17 Richmond Hill — 459.9600 Savannah Location will Be Closed For Renovations Jan 1-9

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

American Legion, Post 135 New Year’s Eve Dance presented by Two David’s Enterprises (Other) A semi-formal evening of ballroom dancing with snacks, coffee, party favors and champagne at midnight. 7:30 p.m.

Bayou Cafe Chief (Live Music) Rock, Pop, Soul, Blues and Country covers -9 p.m.

Blueberry Hill Karaoke (Karaoke) The Boathouse The Eric Culberson Blues Band (Live Music) Internationally-known electric blues trio led by an ace guitarist/singer 6 p.m.

Doc’s Bar Roy & The Circuit Breakers (Live Music) Longrunning party band specializing in disco, 60s rock, Motown and vintage soul (covers).

Doubles Lounge Live DJ (DJ) Beach Music Driftaway Cafe TBA (Live Music) 7 p.m.

Fiddler’s Crab House WormsLoew (Live Music) Up-andcoming modern pop-rock act with a distinctly Southern ,twang and flair - a la Jupiter Coyote, Train, Jason Isbell (covers & originals). 9:30 p.m.

Gilley’s High Velocity (Live Music) Southern & classic rock and modern country covers and originals. Dec 28, 9 p.m., Dec 29, 9 p.m. Dec 31, 9 p.m.

The Grill Beachside TBA (Live Music) 7 p.m.

Hyatt Regency Liquid Ginger (Live Music) New Year’s Eve party with this well-known regionally-based, female-fronted modern rock and pop group (covers & originals). 8:30 p.m.

Isaac’s on Drayton TBA (Live Music) Jazz/blues/rock act TBA. 10 p.m.

The Jazz Corner The Noel Friedline Quintet (Live Music) Rising star pianist in the jazz world and his highly-regarded band (covers & originals). Dec 31, 5 & 9 p.m.

Jazz’d Tapas Bar Eat Mo’ Music & Trae Gurley (Live Music) “New Year’s Eve Bash” featuring a singing thespian paying tribute to Frank Sinatra’s heyday, backed by a funky local soul-jazz quartet of guitar, bass, drums and trumpet (covers & originals). 9 p.m.

The Jinx DJ KZL’s Kaleidoscope (DJ) wild mash-up of garage rock, vintage soul, punk, psychedelic, modern electro, glam and psychedelia spun by Superhorse frontman Keith Kozel (10 pm) Kasey’s Gourmet Grille Rich & Dan’s Acoustic Alternatives (Live Music) Acoustic duo of singing guitarists (formerly in the local band Watered Down) playing blues, folk and classic rock covers (Dead, etc...) as well as original numbers. 8 p.m.

Kevin Barry’s Carroll Brown (Live Music) “Coastal Country” acoustic guitarist and singer from just outside Charleston, who plays folk, pop, country and Celtic covers and originals with sequenced backing. 8 p.m.

King’s Inn Karaoke (Karaoke) 9 p.m.

Kokopelli’s Jazz Club Alex Nguyen & The Jazz Conceptions Orchestra (Live Music) Ambitious 9-piece group led by the young and award-winning trumpeter Alex Nguyen, and featuring a special appearance by vocalist Annie Sellick (covers & originals) 8 p.m.

Lulu’s Chocolate Bar The Magic Rocks (unplugged) (Live Music) Billed as a “Retro-Glam New Year’s Eve”, this free, laid-back soiree at a hip downtown dessert bar features a stripped-down acoustic set of eclectic rock, soul and vintage country covers by this oddball party band featuring members of Superhorse, GAM and The 8-Tracks. 9:30 p.m.

25

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

20

Music

| Noteworthy by Jim Reed

New Year’s Eve roundup O So this time around you’ve decided you’d prefer to spend your New kay, okay.

Year’s Eve out and about, rather than cooped up at home watching Ryan Seacrest or some other pre-fab nimrod blathering on about whichever “hot” new band his network took a wad of moolah from this season.

The again, perhaps you have one or more private parties to attend, and you’re looking for someplace fun and festive to either start the evening, or to wind up at when the clock strikes twelve. (Be advised, anecdotal evidence suggests fewer than 30 percent of those who bar-or-party Brenda hop on New Year’s actually wind up stand- Morie ing where they planned to when the peach drops. Or even awake at all, for that matter.)

Well, once more, we here at Connect have done our best to compile a fairly exhaustive list of all the noteworthy (there’s that word again — see how clever branding can be?) events taking place that night within our circulation area which feature some form of live musical entertainment.

Now, before you realize that your fave hang is not represented herein and furrow your brow, please understand that this is by no means a definitive list of options. I fully assume there are at least a dozen additional shows and/or public gatherings that warrant mention. However, we can only publicize what we know about in advance.

So, if you’re a club owner, restaurateur or promoter and you don’t see your celebration listed here, it probably means we didn’t hear from you in time to meet our printing deadlines. If you realize in hindsight how important free publicity of this sort can be, by all means, drop me a line at jim.r@connectsavannah.com at least 10 days before your next live entertainment event, so we can start including your activities in the paper.

Hopefully there’s a little something here for everyone. Reservations are recommended (if not required) for most of these shows and/or dinners, so the sooner you pursue the one that speaks the most to you, the better your chance of scoring entry.

Please remember — even if you choose not to imbibe this year, be careful. If you do drink, make sure you give your keys to someone sober, or better yet, call a cab.

That’s what they’re there for, and as someone who raps with cabbies on a fairly regular basis, I know for a fact that this is an abysmally slow season and every taxi driver in the area could use your business.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s dive into the multitude of partying options available in the greater Savannah area:

JAZZ

Our area has more great live jazz options than ever before, and this New Year’s Eve finds plenty of impressive, improvisationally-oriented talent ringing in 2008.

The swanky Mansion on Forsyth Park features Brenda Morie & The 4th St. Band playing “light jazz and hot rhythm & blues” in their Viennese Ballroom. Morie is an extremely talented flutist and vocalist who made her name in Canada and now resides in Savannah. Her vocal style has been likened to that of Dusty Springfield, and her playing shows the influence of both Herbie Mann and Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson.

She’s worked with scores of A-list musicians and composers, and is currently finishing up a new CD. She tours frequently, and will lead a quintet of experienced musicians on standards and her own tunes.

Savannah’s newest jazz club, Kokopelli’s on Broughton St. is now back open after a month or so of inactivity and welcomes the swinging nine-piece group The Jazz Conceptions Orchestra, led by young trumpet prodigy Alex Nguyen, whose name will be familiar to many in our area.

As Alex relocated to continue his musical education, this will be a rare hometown appearance for the standout player. His group also welcomes guest vocalist Annie Sellick. This limited-seating show starts at 8 pm, and includes a full dinner.

Across the river, the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa has booked legendary, award-winning jazz bassist (and longtime Savannah celebrity) Ben Tucker to helm a small combo which will play straight-ahead jazz from 9 pm till 1 am, while folks enjoy a four-course meal.

Jazz’d Tapas Bar welcomes the double whammy of local soul-jazz quartet Eat Mo’ Music (known for their funky, danceable arrangements of jazz classics and modern pop and rock hits) and Sinatra tribute artist Trae Gurley, whose soaring vocals will surely add another dimension entirely to the proceedings.

And, if you’re up for a drive, the chic Hilton head supper club The Jazz Corner welcomes back one of their favorite acts, The Noel Friedline Quintet for two seatings, at 5 pm, and again at 9 pm. This buzzworthy Fla.based pianist’s latest release, the 2-CD set Four Nights at the Slammer, spent ten weeks in the national jazz radio Top 50. His group has played everywhere from the Las Vegas Bellagio, to the Montreux Jazz Festival to Julia Roberts’ surprise 35th birthday party.

BLUES

Mojo Bone, the latest project from former Deep Blue 3 guitarist and frontman Josh Maul plays the Mercury Lounge at 10 pm. Their set will likely be made up of standards and contemporary numbers covering the Delta, Chicago and Texas strains of electric blues.

Isaac’s on Drayton, located in the old Churchill’s Pub location around the corner from Outback Steakhouse near Bay St. has yet to finalize their live entertainment, but expect to have a solo act or band offering a variety of blues, jazz and perhaps even rock tunes from 9 pm till 1:30 am.

ROOTS-ROCK

Kasey’s Gourmet Grille on Waters Ave. just North of Derenne features the “acoustic alternatives” of Rich & Dan, a singing guitar duo also known as Two Originals. Both former members of local band Watered Down, they offer a wide variety of blues and folk standards, plus rock, covers by jam acts like The Grateful Dead, as well as their own tunes. Show starts at 8 pm.

Similarly, banjo and acoustic guitar duo Keith & Ross bring their crowdpleasing setlist of classic rock, modern folk, bluegrass and country tunes to Robin’s Nest in Pooler beginning at 8:30 pm.

Led by the idiosyncratic, Texas-born frontman Jason Bible, hoppedup local twang-a-billy quartet The Train Wrecks offer Dylan, Petty, Springsteen and Cash covers, along with material from their impressive debut CD at one of their favorite haunts, The Warehouse on River Street, starting at 8 pm.

Music

| Noteworthy

21

ROCK & FUNK

Liquid Ginger

TRADITIONAL ACOUSTIC

If you’re looking for straight-forward and accomplished acoustic music, Celtic troubadour Carroll Brown will be at Kevin Barry’s on River St. with his guitar and sequencer, and an almost endless supply of both trad and contemporary Irish tunes, pop material and “Coastal Country”.

REGGAE

Passafire

The Wild Wing Café in City Market appears to have cornered the market on reggae and dub this holiday, by snagging a rare show from Passafire. This reggaerock hybrid formed in Savannah, and though still based here, play much more on the road to an evergrowing fanbase.

They recently completed a 40date North American tour supporting genre heroes Pepper, and are no pushing a brand-new, internationally-released CD. There’s no cover to get in for this eagerly anticipated gig.

BALLROOM DANCING

If squiring your partner around a large wooden dance floor is more your bag, this semi-formal evening of dancing in the Ballroom of American Legion Post 135 on Forsyth Park may be just the ticket. It’s unclear as to whether a real band will be on hand, but even if folks are jitterbugging to a DJ, there may be more “live energy” in that room than anywhere else in town. w

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Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

WormsLoew

Versatile roadhouse cover band High Velocity tears up the Southern and classic rock hits as well as modern country favorites and their own hell-raisin’ originals at Gilly’s in Hinesville, starting at 9 pm.

Liquid Ginger, an extremely well-liked regional modern rock and pop band with a hard edge and a female vocalist, are the featured act at the Hyatt Regency hotel this year.

Expect contemporary and classic rock hits, plus polished material of their own from the group’s two indie CDs. WormsLoew, on the other hand, is just about to release their first professional CD, but since being taken under the wing of Jupiter Coyote’s Matt Mayes, these rising stars on the Southeastern “Y’allternative” scene are travelling far and wide and playing their asses off. With a sound that’s one part Drive-By Truckers and one part Train, they appeal to a wide variety of listeners. Their set at Fiddler’s Crab House on River St. starts around 9:30 pm.

Lulu’s Chocolate Bar —a small, lush and mod dessert bar on MLK Jr., Blvd. between Broughton and Congress Sts. not known for live entertainment— presents an old-fashioned, “Retro Glam New Year’s Eve Party” with live music by eclectic local power trio The Magic Rocks.

This band is known for an oddball setlist mixing 80s rock, 50s boogie-woogie, vintage soul and Golden Age C & W, and includes members of Superhorse, GAM and The 8-Tracks. This will be their debut in a stripped-down, acoustic format. No cover starting at 8 pm. Live music begins at 9:30 pm.

On the funk tip, sultry R & B vocalist Leslie Gadson and her Nickel Bag of Funk crew play plenty of choice old-school hits — and loose-limbed new jams— at Broughton St.’s Tantra Lounge — a restaurant and bar that is geared for dancing.

| Feature by Jim Reed

The day

the music

died

chris griffin

A closer look at the struggle between the city and some establishments over what constitutes a live music venue

Locos co-owner Ben Everette

robin gunn

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

18 Music

Alderman Van Johnson at a recent citysponsored event

I

magine you’re strolling though the beautiful downtown Historic District on a weekend night. You’re looking for someplace to enjoy some good live entertainment along with a meal.

It could be music you’re up for, or stand-up comedy, or hell, even a juggling act. But mainly you’re interested in finding some sort of diversion — specifically one you could take in either during or after dining, and while imbibing. That is to say that you’re of legal drinking age and feel responsible enough to indulge in beer, wine or cocktails.

There are currently no shortage of places which offer both libations and live entertainment. Some are strictly bars or clubs —meaning they derive the majority of their revenue from the sales of alcoholic beverages and/or entrance fees— while others are clearly restaurants which happen to offer booze.

Now, as of a couple of years ago (and for over a decade before that) the owners of any bar or club which also featured bona fide live entertainment (meaning musicians, comics, actors and performers of all stripes, but excluding DJs) could choose to allow patrons under the legal drinking age of 21 into their venue to enjoy the live entertainment — provided they somehow marked them as underage, and strictly prohibited them from buying or otherwise obtaining alcohol while on the premises, under penalty of criminal charges and/or losing their license to dispense alcohol.

Under a couple of different scenarios and provisos, that’s a pretty common practice in countless towns and cities across the country. When enforced properly, it allows people who are old enough to vote and die for our country to also be able to catch a cool band or songwriter they would otherwise be legally barred from seeing.

That’s because by and large, the concert promotion business is so dicey that the only venues which can often afford to take the risk on paying an established act to play their room need the high profit margins provided by alcohol sales to actually keep the club or bar in the black.

Think of them like movie theaters.

The musicians are the films which draw in the folks, but virtually all of the ticket proceeds got straight to the studios. The Carmikes of the world are actually in the popcorn and candy business, and alcoholic drinks are the popcorn and candy that keep live entertainment clubs and bars open.

There were only ever a handful of establishments in town that took proper advantage of this useful and forward-thinking ordinance, but unfortunately, unscrupulous dance club operators acted for years as though the privilege of allowing minors into live entertainment venues applied to them, and our local police force let them get away with it.

A couple of years ago, after ages of documentable infractions and a steady stream of citations for serving minors, the behavior of these “booty bars” (which cater primarily to folks interested in getting tanked, pairing off and hooking up, as opposed to focusing their attention on a featured artist) City Manager Michael Brown, former Chief of Police Dan Flynn, and City Attorney James Blackburn were able to convince the Mayor and his Council to rescind that ordinance rather than merely crack down on the flagrant violators.

And so, a new ordinance was crafted, which specifically prohibited anyone under the age of 21 from setting foot inside a business whose primary function was to sling hooch — live entertainment or no.

While this effectively kept minors

out of bars and nightclubs, there was a distinct and notable exception made to this law, and one that —on its face— made plenty of sense: Those under 21 could be allowed entry to places which served alcohol, provided those places were bona fide, “full-service” restaurants which derived at least 51 percent of their gross annual income from the sale of food, regardless of whether or not they also had a bar.

This provision prevented all manner of eatery/bar combinations (from tourist-fueled River Street businesses to Southside hotspots like Outback, Chili’s and B & D Burgers) from having to turn away teenagers or families with underage children, merely because adults were free to drink in their presence. It was also a boon to those restaurant/bar combos which rely on live acts to draw in customers who want to be entertained while they dine and/or drink.

One such combo is Locos Deli & Pub, a large, Broughton Street branch of a small Athens-based chain. With a legal capacity of over 300, a high-profile location and a clientele that ranges from senior citizens to teens to families with young children, it serves food as late as midnight, and its bar remains open a few hours after that to accommodate late night revelers and music fans who flock to the location’s rock, funk, soul and blues concerts most Friday and Saturday nights.

Because Locos is definitely a fullservice restaurant (co-owner Ben Everette says roughly 75 percent of their sales come from food as opposed to alcohol), they’ve been allowing small number of minors into their Pub for certain shows — minors which are marked clearly with a bracelet to denote them as underage, and charged a few bucks more to get in so as to offset the fact they can’t buy alcohol.

Everette estimates he usually has no more than four to six minors at an average concert, but as far as Alderman

Van Johnson is concerned, even one is too many. Johnson became incensed a few weeks back when he stopped by for a late dinner at Locos and noticed they were carding people at the door and charging them admission to see a band on a stage (which doubles as a raised seating area at peak dining hours).

He immediately made it clear to Locos’ owners that he felt they were in complete and flagrant violation of the current law prohibiting minors from bars and clubs, and within 72 hours, had brought this to the attention of the City Manager’s office, who he says, agreed with him that this type of scenario flies in the face of the ordinance.

In the alderman’s own words, “Under our law, either you are a club, or you are a restaurant. They are a restaurant that’s acting like a bar.”

While the eatery’s owners believe just as strongly that they’re in total compliance with the ordinance and that Johnson has singled them out unfairly for a common practice that dozens of restaurants all over the city have engaged in openly for years, their lawyers advised them to cancel all their live music until they could receive a definitive answer from the city as to whether or not they would be charged with any violation.

Unfortunately, they have yet to receive a concrete answer from the city.

And the lost revenue and misleading publicity which has turned this situation into a rumor mill of no small proportions is threatening the very viability of their operation.

“They’re just keeping us hanging and not giving us any answers,” says an exasperated Everette. “Until they get this figured out, they should let us keep operating as we have been. But, our liquor license is up for renewal in a few weeks, and that’s a privilege, not a right. Right now we’re afraid anything we do will be used against us to deny us that license.”

Johnson says that his problem is solely with what he perceives as poor enforcement of the Council’s ordinance.

“I never faulted Locos, because I believed they were acting in a way that they were told to act.”

However, in a few key respects, Johnson’s own explanation of the intended meaning of the ordinance actually contradicts the unambiguous and direct wording of the law — which clearly states that minors may be allowed into bona fide restaurants which also serve alcohol, provided there is actual live entertainment on display and the minors are “clearly identified” by a “wrist bracelet or other recognizable mark or device.”

In other words, exactly how Locos handles the situation, almost to the letter.

When asked directly if it’s at all possible that he is the one who has misinterpreted the law, as it clearly allows for such a use, Johnson bristles.

“We can’t misinterpret something we made! That’s the cart before the horse.

Music

| Feature “I love their food and before this happened I ate there often. Both at lunch and dinner.”

Everette says that while his business will gladly fight this battle on their own, he’d feel much better if others would join the cause.

“Then I’d have dozens of places to share legal expenses with me. How far is this going to go? I mean it can’t just stop at us and Wild Wing’s just because we’re the places that Van is all hot about right now,” Everette says.

“This could go all the way down to the Olde Pink House! I mean, they have a pianist. That’s live music, and they’re a restaurant with a bar. This is ridiculous,” he says.

Everette says Locos has lost “literally thousands of dollars” in revenue over the past three weeks since this happened.

“The PR is absolutely terrible,” he says.

“People call up all the time who’ve heard rumors that we’ve been shut down or lost our liquor license, which is not true at all.

It’s even affected our Sunday business where people come in to watch football, which is a huge part of our business.”

What does Alderman Johnson say about the financial hardship and lost revenue this situation has brought on the restaurant and pub?

“Obviously there’s a cost of doing business, and businesspeople understand that.” w For interview transcripts and late-breaking news, go to www.connectsavannah.com To comment, e-mail us at letters@connectsavannah.com

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The Council makes policy and the staff implements,” Johnson tells us. “I think the intent of the council was clear. If it got lost somewhere in the transmission then the staff needs to make a policy that’s at one with Council’s wishes.”

In other words, Johnson’s position is that City Council, after great deliberation and public hearings, passed a law worded in a way which goes completely against the spirit of the intended policy.

Ironically, it was this one provision that was seen by many in the local restaurant and musical communities as one of the only logical and fair facets of an otherwise hamfisted ordinance.

Many in the community are openly ridiculing this entire situation, finding it quite hard to believe that Johnson either A) is unfamiliar with the concept of a restaurant with a bar which continues to serve alcohol after normal dining hours (and may or may not offer live entertainment) or B) truly perceives such an arrangement as a threat to public safety, as he has opined.

Others openly decry Johnson’s role in this matter as political grandstanding, or some form of misguided, high-profile “payback” for what some in the black community believe is unfair attention and criticism paid to a couple of notoriously troublesome, black-oriented nightspots.

He vehemently denies any ulterior motives for this crackdown on Locos, and says it was merely luck of the draw which prompted his involvement.

“The only reason Locos came into it was that I was there as a patron,” Johnson says.

19

News & Opinion

| Earthweek by Steve Newman

17

Lost World Found

-61 Dzalinda, Siberia o

5.3 5.1 Celina

5.6

Whooping Arrival

The United States Fish and 6.6 o Wildlife Service +112 announced that Urandangie, a record 262 Australia whooping cranes just arrived at the Aransas reserve on Texas' Gulf of Mexico coast. Four more of the birds were said to still be en Earthquakes route. The critically endangered birds will New Zealand’s most damaging winter there before returning to their sumquake in 20 years collapsed three mer nesting sites in Canada’s Northwest buildings and started several fires Territories. in the North Island city of Grisborne.

Olfactory Camouflage • A 5.3 magnitude quake near the Turkish A new study reveals that some capital of Ankara brought down a minaret of California ground squirrels and a village mosque. rock squirrels have learned to • Earth movements were also felt in East wear the scent of one of nature’s Java, central Pakistan, northern Chile, the more terrifying creatures to scare Aleutian Islands and the U.S. and British off their natural enemies. Barbara Clucas, a Virgin Islands. graduate student in animal behavior at the University of California-Davis, says she obTropical Cyclones served the squirrels chewing up rattlesnake Tropical Storm Celina lost force skins and smearing it on their fur to mask just east of Mauritius and their scent from predators. The rodents Reunion. were also found to pick up snake odor from • Tropical Storm 07S formed in soil and other surfaces on which snakes the central Indian Ocean. rested. Scientists at the university say they Kamchatka Eruption have also discovered that the squirrels have Far East Russia’s Shiveluch volcano evolved to become resistant to snake venom. erupted with some of its most w powerful activity in recent years.

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An expedition to a pristine stretch of cloud forest in western New Guinea has discovered 7.2 two species believed to be new to science, including a giant rodent five times the size of a common city rat. Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian 5.4 Institution, says the new 3-pound Mallomys giant rat has no fear of humans, and frequently visited researchers in their camp. Also found was a pygmy possum — one 5.3 of the world’s smallest marsupials.

Scientists have described the Foja Mountains in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua province as a virtual lost world. An earlier expedition to its foggy forests in 2005 by scienWeek Ending December 21, 2007 tists from Conservation International and the Indonesia Institute of Science uncovered dozPakistani Outbreak ens of new plants and animals. “It’s comAvian influenza experts from the forting to know that there is a place on Earth World Health Organization so isolated that it remains the absolute realm (WHO) conducted investigations of wild nature,” said Bruce Beehler, who led to determine whether human-toboth expeditions. human transmission may have occurred in Pakistan’s first cases of bird flu Seismic Well involving people. Pakistan confirmed eight Scientists in China say a new 3infections, including two that caused death. mile-deep well drilled for reFour brothers and two cousins fell ill last search in Jiangsu province may month with bird flu symptoms in allow the country to someday Abbotabad, north of Islamabad. One of the predict earthquakes. The Xinhua brothers who survived said he fell ill after news agency reports that Xu Zhiqin, chief slaughtering chickens suspected of carrying scientist of the China Continental Scientific avian influenza without wearing protective Drilling Engineering Center, said significant clothing. He said his brothers who died had changes in deep underground gas movevisited him in a hospital. Sporadic family ment were detected just prior to the devasclusters of infections have been reported tating Sumatra earthquake of Dec. 26, 2004. since the virus emerged four years ago, “It is possible that one day we could predict prompting suspicions of human transmisan earthquake by observations on undersion. WHO warns that should the virus gain ground gas,” Xu told the agency. She added the ability to sustain human-to-human that the 6-inch- diameter well will allow transmission, a global pandemic could kill researchers to study continental plate millions, similar to the 1918 Spanish Flu boundaries and substances in the layer of epidemic that spread to virtually every corthe earth between the crust and the core. ner of the world.

the sky above a remote area of the Kamchatka Peninsula, then blew westward in a 375-mile plume clearly visible by satellite.

The mountain produced a less-impressive eruption on March 29, 2007. There have been about 60 significant eruptions there during the past 20,000 years.

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

16

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News & Opinion

| News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd

Government in Action!

Police Blotter

Least Competent Florida Police: (1) Sheriff ’s deputies arrested Cynthia Hunter, 38, in Brandon, Fla., in October, and she remained in jail for 50 days until a lab finally concluded that the “methamphetamine” in her purse was really dried cat urine that she had legally purchased for her son’s science project. (2) Deputies arrested Andrew Johnson, a white man, in Ocoee, Fla., in November, believing he was Anthony Johnson, a black man wanted on a felony drug charge. Andrew Johnson was allowed to post bond while the case was under investigation, but his driver’s license was confiscated, and his mother had to drive him to and from work.

The New Torture: When three men stole drugs from a dealer in Edwardsville, Ill., the dealer and a partner allegedly snatched one of the men and roughed him up, seeking payment for the drugs. In November, police arrested the alleged dealers after the

The Continuing Crisis

In January, Jerome Felske was fired as a truck driver for the city of Chicago when investigators learned that he had 22 criminal convictions on his record. Felske appealed, and in September, the city’s Human Resources Board reinstated him, noting that Felske had actually disclosed six of them on his original application and, as to the others, the board said, the city had not proved Felske “intentionally” hid them. Felske, his here’s lawyer had argued, had simply forgotten about the other 16 to a (all of which occurred before great 08 1991): “I challenge anyone ... to recall their grocery list from ... two weeks ago.”

Recent Alarming Headlines: (1) “Policeman Shot in Butt With Own Gun While Battling Porn Vending Machine Bandits” (Mainichi Daily News [Tokyo], October). (2) “Man Shoots Goat After Wife Wouldn’t Bring Him Beer” (The Northwestern [Oshkosh, Wis.], November).

People Different From Us

Australian Wayne Scullino, 30, quit his telecom job in Sydney in early 2007, and, after convincing his wife, they sold their house and moved to Wisconsin for the sole purpose of rooting for the Green Bay Packers, about which he had enjoyed an almost inexplicable fascination since age 15.

Said Scullino, “At some point, you’ve got to stop living the life you’ve fallen into, and start living the life you want to,” and he feared waiting even one more year, since quarterback Brett Favre might retire after this season. He told the Associated Press in October that the family would probably move back to Australia after the Super Bowl and start all over with a new house and new job.

Alexander Smith, 46, was arrested in Wake Forest, N.C., in November after a serial dumping spree alongside rural roads, starting about a block from his own home.

He had allegedly pushed off his truck, at different stops, a washing machine, then a dryer, then two stoves and finally a freezer.

He was charged with felony littering.

Least Competent Criminals

Not Ready for Prime Time: (1) Francis Rocca, 24, was arrested in Pittsfield, Mass., and charged with robbing a gas station in November after being identified by his victim, who pointed out that Rocca’s distinctly pimpled face was easily visible underneath the clear plastic bag he wore as a “disguise.”

(2) Michael Chatman, 35, and two others were arrested in Augusta, Ga., in November after Chatman, in a Target store, tried to return the laser printer the three had allegedly used for counterfeiting. However, they had accidentally left in the machine not only copies of the counterfeit bills but also the original $20 bill they had used as a model.

Said a deputy, “People get wrapped up in the

crime, and they forget things.”

Readers’ Choice

(1) Twins Jared and Justin Serovich, age 8, of Gables Elementary School in Columbus, Ohio, made it to the finals of a state inventors’ competition this year with their special boxer shorts. The twins’ knickers used fabric fasteners to hold the seams together thus making it nearly impossible for the wearer to be given a “wedgie.” (2) As he crossed a field while walking his dog near his home in Brighton, England, in October, police Inspector Chris Poole, 50, was attacked by about 50 cows. He spent 11 days in the hospital, recovering from the butting and stomping, which cost him four broken bones, a severed artery and a punctured lung. w

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

It’s Good to Be a British Prisoner (continued): (1) The Portland Young Offenders’ Institute in Dorset recently began holding classes, for up to 30 inmates, in pole-vaulting (but reassured critics that even the most athletic inmates would only get about 13 feet high, whereas the prison walls are 20 feet tall, topped by razor wire). (2) Psychologist Susan Young was paid the equivalent of about $1,000 a day to counsel convicted murderer Barry George during his recent retrial in London, and among her duties, she said, was to massage his head periodically so that he could concentrate better, to assist his lawyers.

In January, the town of Herouxville, Quebec (pop. 1,300), famously enacted a “code” of expectations for immigrants, seemingly aimed at Islamic laws and rituals (for example, requiring gender equality, permitting alcohol, rejecting special diets for prisoners and reaffirming laws against stoning and female genital mutilation). In October, a town spokesman complained that the code had caused Herouxville residents to be called “(m)orons, liars, xenophobes, fascists ... dictators, Nazis, racists ... idiots ... mentally deficient, intolerant, stupid, retarded.” Nonetheless, the town said it would campaign to have the code adopted nationally.

The Army Corps of Engineers announced with great fanfare in June that its repairs and upgrades of levees in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans, following Hurricane Katrina, would allow the system to hold back a future storm’s flood waters even if the level rose more than 5 feet beyond the Katrina level. However, in November, the corps announced that because of a mistake in calculation (an engineer had used a “minus” sign when a “plus” sign was called for), the expensive levee repairs would actually protect against flooding only 6 inches above the Katrina level.

roughed-up victim reported that he had been held down, paddled, had some hair shaved off, and then deliberately burned on the neck and shoulders by having freshly baked cookies taken straight from an oven and held against his skin.

Just Can’t Stop: In recent incidents, two Wal-Mart customers were arrested for shoplifting after yielding to temptation while walking the aisles of stores in Mukwonago, Wis., and Okaloosa County, Fla. The Wisconsin man (reportedly sober for 16 months) impulsively downed seven 12-ounce bottles of Jack Daniel’s Lynchburg Lemonade that he saw on a shelf. Florida’s Christopher White said “the temptation was too great” when he spotted the White Rain hair spray, and that he removed the nozzles of two containers and drank the contents (and returned the empty containers to the shelf).

15

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

14

News & Opinion

| Blotter

from recent Savannah/Chatham Police incident reports

Too much information

A woman walked out of her house on Moray Street and saw a man on her neighbor’s porch with his genitals exposed.

The man was masturbating while looking at her and smiling.

She said at that point, she told her roommate about the situation, and he came from around the rear of their residence toward the suspect.

The suspect stopped what he was doing and told the man he’d better not call police or follow him or else he would “f--k you up....f-k your whole house up.” The man was able to obtain the suspect’s tag number and relayed it to police.

Units responded to the address listed, but were unable to locate the vehicle. A case report number was given to the victim and the residence was placed on the extra patrol list.

Officers were able to contact the resident of the house where the suspect was seen masturbating. He stated that he knew the suspect only as “Buggy” and said he doesn’t know anything else about him.

• A woman told police that she saw someone stop a pickup truck at the intersection of Ogeechee and Canebrake roads and throw what appeared to be a lit firecracker out of the passenger window.

The witness said there were four males in the truck, and that one threw the firecracker towards some Hispanic males who were standing outside. After speaking with the witness, the officer was advised by dispatch that Richmond Hill police had stopped the suspect vehicle at Highway 17 and Interstate 95.

The officer made contact with the Richmond Hill police and was told that the suspects acted as if they didn’t know what the officer was talking about. However, firecracker papers were found inside the truck.

• The owner of a Montgomery Street dry cleaning shop told police that when he returned to his business, he had difficulty unlocking the front door.

He said he had to call a locksmith to the shop. The locksmith told the owner that someone had put Krazy Glue into both the upper deadbolt lock as well as a second lock. The owner told police he suspects a neighboring businessman who runs a car wash is responsible for the vandalism. He said problems began when a city inspector came by the business and said the car wash was in violation by not having a drainage system for the water being used there.

The victim said he had spoken with the car wash owner about the problem and asked him to shut the car wash down. He was given a case report number and magistrate procedures were advised.

• The owner of an Ogeechee Road business called police when she noticed that a neighboring store’s back door was open.

She said she then checked the front door and saw it wasn’t properly secured, either. Officers cleared the business and found no one inside.

The officers noticed that the cash register was unlocked and a large amount of money was left inside. The owner requested that the officers count the money, which totaled nearly $700.

The owner said the money shouldn’t have been in the register and that the register should have only about $100 in it. He said that his night-time employee was supposed to quit.

Another employee arrived at the scene at that time. He counted the money and then deposited it in the safe. He also confirmed that the amount of money in the till shouldn’t have been there and that it seemed suspicious that the money was left in the drawer and the doors were all left unlocked.

The night-time employee in question arrived on the scene with the key to the business. She said she thought that she had locked the business up before leaving for the evening.

• A Cathy Street resident told police that her daughter was taking out trash when a man attempted to run her over.

The victim said she was taking the trash to the garbage can when a car pulled into the driveway and pulled alongside her very quickly. She saw a man driving and a woman in the passenger seat.

The victim ran into her house and the man and woman left the area in the car.

The victim’s mother said she and her family have had several problems with the suspects in the past.

She said the two have both been told by her and other police officers not to return to their residence. The woman was given a case report number card. w

All cases from recent Savannah/Chatham Police Department incident reports.

Give anonymous crime tips to Crimestoppers at 234-2020.

| Profile text and photo by Kristi Oakes

13

News & Opinion

Kevin Rippman,

evin Rippman is an electronics control technician for the city of Savannah’s water treatment plants. He has been working with the city for nine years Could you describe what your job entails?

Kevin Rippman: I work with the city of Savannah water treatment plants, and I fix pretty much anything electrical that breaks down, may it be the system, or power distribution, or any circuit board — or computers even.

What type of training does your job require?

Kevin Rippman: It requires some kind of technical school, in electronics or electrical work. I had a four-year apprenticeship in the Philadelphia Shipyard and a one-year class in technical school, so people can get their apprenticeships in different electrical fields and get this kind of job.

Did you always want to be an electrical control technician?

Kevin Rippman: No, not really. I didn’t know what I wanted to be. I got out of high school, I didn’t know where I was going, so I went to a technical school for a year and took computer technology classes, and then I landed a job at the shipyard in Philadelphia and got into that field, mainly because it paid more than any other trades, and I didn’t want to be working as a lagger insulater (a person who lays insulation).

What is your favorite part of your job?

Kevin Rippman: I like the freedom that it affords me. I’m at the top of the food chain in the electrical field, so I have a lot of free rein on what happens, what I do, and when I get it done. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of people to go to for support, so if I can’t figure it out, I’ve got to go to go to the books.

There aren’t really a whole lot of people here

that can give me a lot of input or advice on equipment.

A good part of the job is most electronic stuff is in the air conditioned spaces or in cleaner spaces. It’s a water treatment plant, so it’s a nasty place, and most of the stuff I work on is in the cleaner environment, so no more nasty places.

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So your least favorite part would probably be the smell?

Kevin Rippman: For this job, my least favorite part — yeah, would probably be the environment, the smell, just walking in mucky stuff.

What is the strangest or funniest experience that you’ve had at work?

Kevin Rippman: Oh goodness. (Laughs) Alligators is one of the good ones. We’ve actually had alligators stuck in our pits around here, and had to build a snare out of piece of rope and just got it around its neck and escorted him out.

A snake got fried in a motor control center once and broke the circuit breaker, and that got smelly more than anything else, because we had to scrape him out and then clean the gear up.

Do you have any advice for other people who aspire to have this job?

Kevin Rippman: Yeah, when you’re working around electricity, know what you’re doing before you do it. Anything electrical can be dangerous.

Don’t go into things if you don’t know what you’re doing. Be careful. Pay attention. w

This has been another in our new series highlighting important people behind the scenes in Savannah. If you have any nominees, send their names, jobs, and contact info to letters@connectsavannah.com

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Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

Electronics Control Technician

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

12 News & Opinion

| Hear and Now by Robin Wright Gunn

Holiday helper

Santa double checked with the kids that the staff has been good this year, as Sister Alvin One night last week, I perched warily on his knee. was recruited to help out Following St. Mary’s was a visit to Selden on a holiday ride-along, Frissell and her parents in Baldwin Park, serving as the sidekick where Santa and Selden settled down on the for a big, bearded guy couch to review a last-minute addition to with a twinkle in his eye. her Christmas wish list.

I’ve crossed paths with quasi-celebrities beAfter the final stop, at the home of two fore, but nothing prepared me for the aweteenage sisters and struck, speechless reactions their parents, we piled of adults and kids alike when back into the Santa Santa Claus showed up unanmobile (a red pickup nounced on several Savannah truck—the reindoorsteps. deer were resting up The first stop for Santa for Christmas Eve) and me was a drop in with to drop me off at my Van and Ty Dohrman, brothhouse. As I waved to ers ages 5 and almost 3. It was Santa as he drove out a good thing Santa came by, of sight, it occurred since the boys are spending to me just how much Christmas at their grandparSanta looked like a felents’ in Kentucky, and older low I know around brother Van made sure that Santa with Selden town named Tommy the big guy knew their itinerary.

Holland. I’m sure the Van’s hugs and chattiness, asresemblance is just a coincidence. suring Santa that both had been good boys this year, covered for his younger brother’s Signs of progress immobilized staring silence.

A large chunk of my past professional Next came Santa’s planned visit for the life has been spent working for local governnight, to St. Mary’s Home on Victory Drive, ment, here and elsewhere, so I know firstjust in time for cookies and punch at the hand that civic projects often don’t work out gift-giving celebration for the children living as planned, and that many good ideas seem there. Santa Claus and Sister Alvin, director slow to happen or don’t get off the ground of St. Mary’s, go way back, but nonetheless at all. But I’ve also seen, from the staff side

and the citizen side, a lot of things that go right, and this fall it seems as if quite a few of those “going right” projects have popped up in front of me.

Less than a week after I kvetched in this column about the lack of sidewalks and decent bus amenities in the vicinity of the new eastside Target, lo and behold, sidewalks sprouted like dandelions along the north side of Victory Drive from Bee Road east to the city limits. Obviously the city was way ahead of me. In the weeks since the sidewalks were finished, it appears that pedestrian traffic is quite active along Victory Drive, although I confess I’ve yet to take advantage of them myself.

Shortly after the sidewalks appeared, I heard a loud buzzing outside my front window one afternoon and stepped outside to find a Park and Tree Department crew cutting down the almost-dead tree in front of my house. This efficient group was followed a few days later by an equally friendly and hard-working stump-grinding team.

In mid-December, I arrived home to find a twenty-foot high crane lowering a new patriot maple tree into a deep hole next to the curb where the dead tree once sprouted. It was the last of six new maples being planted in vacant tree canopy spots along the block.

The new street trees were barely in the ground when, last Saturday, the boomboom-boom of Stubbs Towers tumbling down rocked and rolled across midtown neighborhoods. This two-for-one holiday

I know

that hooking up can have a downside.

That I need to get checked for STDs.

When was the last time you really checked yourself? Thousands of people in our area are infected with sexually transmitted diseases every year. You can’t always tell if you have an STD, but it can really damage your health. That’s why if you have sex, you need to get tested.

Get the Facts. Get Tested. Call your local health department or go to www.gachd.org.

gift offered the excitement of the demolition itself plus the result of that looming eyesore being gone for good.

Then last Thursday, Alderman Van Johnson donned a lime green construction hat to complement his tasteful brown suit, and served as emcee for the removal of a five-by-ten foot “junior” billboard at Waldburg and Montgomery Streets. The symbolic event represented a compromise reached earlier this year between the city and Lamar Advertising Company.

Lamar is removing 58 billboards located in residential and neighborhood-oriented business sites in exchange for the right to install electronic billboards in six commercial areas with high auto traffic. Most of those coming down are the junior size, plus a few slightly larger ten-by-twenty-two foot signs.

“These signs created some blight issues in some of our neighborhoods,” said Johnson as he stood next to a stack of eight signs already removed by Lamar crews.

The other 50 will be gone before New Year’s Eve. This doesn’t mean Savannah will be billboard-free. Many will remain, including several in highly visible and incompatible residential locations south of downtown. But this assortment of physical improvements around town, along with City Council’s adoption of the curbside recycling program to start in 2009, reminds me that sometimes they do get it right. w Email Robin at rgunnsav@bellsouth.net

| Free Speech by O. Kay Jackson

11

News & Opinion

Savannah basics How much of them do you really know?

T

Savannah’s “old burying ground” is Colonial Park Cemetery, used from 1750 to the mid-1800s. Laurel Grove Cemetery opened for business in 1853 and contains the graves of many famous locals including Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts, James Pierpont, the composer of “Jingle Bells,” and Andrew Bryan, founder of the first African American church in America (First African Baptist Church).

But, according to Savannah tour guides, when the elegant and (initially private) Bonaventure Cemetery opened, its exclusivity made a plot there so desirable that some “residents” of Colonial Cemetery were dug up by relatives and moved to a more prestigious Bonaventure “address!”

Drivers often get annoyed at getting stopped by railroad traffic (much of it serving the city’s busy docks), but Savannah has always been a railroad town. The country’s earliest railroad was developed at the Hermitage Plantation several miles up river from Savannah, when Henry McAlpin laid iron rails for horse-and-mule-drawn carts to run on to deliver bricks made there to a loading dock on the Savannah River. Those bricks, and others like them, made from the local bluish gray river clay are today famous as “Savannah Gray Brick.”

Savannahians remember that back in the mid-1970s, when the roads on and off Wilmington Island were narrow two-lane highways tunneled through heavy forest, the proposal to build the Truman Parkway was rejected -- because no one then believed there would ever be enough traffic volume to justify the compromising of wetlands or the cost to build such a fancy highway.

And you are a Savannahian if you remember when Tybee Island was renamed “Savannah Beach” in the 1950s to capitalize on the burgeoning tourist industry in the city. Many islanders didn’t like that change, according to Tybee’s former long-time mayor Walter Parker. “So the name Tybee was restored sometime around 1980.”

Only tourists ever called it Savannah Beach anyway, of course. Tybee Islanders always called their island Tybee, just as few will never call Sixteenth Avenue by the developer’s fancy new name for it, Tybrisa Street. w O. Kay Jackson is a local author and freelance writer. To comment e-mail us at letters@connectsavannah.com

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Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

here was a time when it was easy to find a parking place in downtown Savannah — back when it was safe to drive around the squares because everyone knew that traffic moving around a square had the right of way.

You could safely turn onto one of downtown’s one-way streets then, too, because all the traffic would be flowing in that one direction.

If you remember those days, consider yourself a Savannahian.

There are some things Savannahians just know, things like Bull Street being the dividing line between east and west Savannah.

And the location of the “old mall.”

And that Savannah, while not an island, is separated from its outlying areas by bridges - to the beaches, to South Carolina, to The Landings, and to the west side of town (via the viaduct) -- which makes Savannah sometimes feel like an island.

True Savannahians don’t ever go “to the Southside,” they go “waaay out to the Southside,” the Southside being any part of Savannah south of DeRenne Avenue out to “North Jacksonville,” that area south of Largo and beyond.

South Carolina lies north across the Savannah River. But Hutchinson Island in the Savannah River is actually part of Georgia.

And when people from Savannah go to Hilton Head they don’t cross the Talmadge Bridge, they use “the New Bridge.”

Savannahians refer to their city’s founder simply as “Oglethorpe,” and they look puzzled when confused visitors ask why James Edward Oglethorpe’s statue is in Chippewa Square and John Wesley’s statue is in Reynolds Square. They just are, that’s all.

“The Telfair” (never the Telfair Museum of Art) is on Telfair Square and that should be accurate enough to satisfy anyone.

That, and the fact that the city’s older war memorials face their enemies: the Spanish American War Memorial in Forsyth Park faces the Spanish to the south, as does Oglethorpe in Chippewa Square. The memorials dedicated to “the War of Northern Aggression” (Civil War), of course, face north to Yankee-land.

Most Savannahians know the first child born in their city arrived, appropriately enough, on St. Patrick’s Day, in 1733. She was the daughter of Henry and Hannah Close who named their baby girl, “Georgia.”

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Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

10 News & Opinion

| Editor’s Note by Jim Morekis

A new year, and a few old problems It sounds pretty cheesy when an editor writes about the ads in

the paper, and I try not to do it very much. But because New Year’s Eve is coming up and everyone wants to know what to do, I’ll make an exception.

Most local bars and restaurants worth patronizing already advertise in our paper to some degree. So in all honesty the single best way to find out what to do this New Year’s Eve is to simply flip through the entire issue this week, check out the ads and see what appeals to you.

Another thing to do is check out music editor Jim Reed’s roundup of New Year’s Eve music gigs around the area.

I’m not sure right now where I’ll be on New Year’s Eve, but lately I’ve been getting out of town. Some of you may not relate to this, but in certain parts of the city that entire evening sounds like a running gun battle on the outskirts of Baghdad. From about 10 p.m. on until about 3 a.m., people “celebrate” by firing all kinds of guns into the air.

One year I heard automatic weapons.

The police seem to have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward this massive discharge of firepower. They certainly will respond to your phone calls, usually very quickly in my experience. But if you don’t bother to call they probably won’t do anything about it.

At some point all that lead has to come down to earth, and I don’t want myself or anyone I know to be under it. The worst

thing about it, though, is the message it sends to kids — and that’s the main reason I like to be out of city limits on New Year’s.

This week Linda Sickler looks at an interesting — and not necessarily hopeful — new development in Savannah: The discovery of the underinsured and the uninsured as a new market.

To me it seems like a Band-Aid solution (we all know what the real solution has to be), but you can decide for yourself.

Another maddening thing about Savannah life — or maybe it’s just modern American life — is how big businesses seem to always get a free ride, but small businesses often have obstacle after obstacle thrown in their path.

The most common scenario in Savannah — one that happens almost too often to count —is how easily local officials and reg-

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ulatory bodies often roll over for big development projects, ones that sometimes blatantly flout existing laws and guidelines the community has spent years refining.

But the same leaders will often work overtime — literally — to make things as difficult as possible for bars, restaurants, or small-scale landlords and real estate investors. It’s always puzzled me, and continues to do so.

Over the years I’ve had many small businesspeople come into my office flabbergasted and disgusted, not only by the maze of bureaucracy they have to negotiate (a phenomenon not at all limited to Savannah) but by the mixed messages and contradictory instructions they receive all along the way (very much a Savannah thing).

Sometimes I can help them, and sometimes I can’t. Most often I tell them they just have to work to elect leaders who think small business is important to Savannah.

But that’s not usually the answer people want to hear.

This week Jim Reed also explores a related issue, the ongoing struggle to balance the needs of the Historic District’s entertainment businesses with the area’s safety issues. This time the struggle involves a push by one city alderman to clarify what a music

club really is, and the pushback by a restaurant owner who says it’s really not that complicated.

Regardless of how this particular episode ends up — and it continues to unfold as we go to press — I have little doubt that the issue will continue to come up again and again until the underlying tensions, some of which have absolutely nothing to do with music or even with alcohol, are resolved one way or another.

So far I haven’t heard a single compelling explanation from anyone for why we can’t just enforce existing drinking laws and leave everything else alone. That approach worked perfectly well when I was growing up in Savannah, but for some reason isn’t good enough now.

We’ve all heard the old line that Savannah is in the “State of Chatham,” that place that insists on going its way regardless of any and all outside influence. Sometimes it’s very charming — much of our tourism industry is based on a bestseller that said exactly the same thing —but sometimes, frankly, it’s just a pain in the ass. w Jim Morekis is editor-in-chief of Connect Savannah. E-mail him at jim@connectsavannah.com

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Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

News & Opinion

nother option, but no solution

Local health care organizations turn to a new market — the underinsured and uninsured.

Will it be enough to relieve the burden?

Ifeel Sheila’s pain.

Until recently, Sheila (not her real name) had health insurance with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Georgia through her job. However, the company she works for says it can no longer afford large health insurance premiums, so they’re going to a different company.

“They told us it would be much cheaper, with a big savings on our paychecks,” Sheila fumes. “But I’m only saving about $1 a week.”

The really bad news is that if Sheila ever needs to use her health insurance, she may be out of luck. Her deductible went from $500 per person to — are you ready? — $5,000. Yes, a ten-fold increase.

As a result, Sheila is spending a big chunk of her paycheck for virtually nothing. “I thought the $500 deductible was too much, but this?” she says. “Yet I’m afraid not to have any health coverage at all.”

In a flash, Sheila joined the ranks of the underinsured. But since she’s just in her 30s and so far is healthy, she’s hoping to avoid health care costs.

Or course, if something really dire does happen, she has some coverage — sort of. Consider the plight of the uninsured.

Les is by no means homeless. He has an apartment and pays his rent on time.

He has a job, but it doesn’t offer health insurance. Les, who is divorced and in his mid-50s, has multiple illnesses, including heart disease and emphysema. He also has knee problems, which make standing and walking difficult.

Because he has no health insurance, Les must go to free clinics for his primary health care. That means sometimes waiting for weeks until the doctor he needs to see will be at the clinic or, if the problem is potentially life-threatening, a visit to the emergency room, which is very expensive.

Far too often, Les has to wait to get his prescriptions filled. One time, a doctor prescribed pain medication when Les had minor surgery, but he had to tough it out because he didn’t have the money.

“Some of that medicine I take I need just to live,” Les says. “But sometimes I can’t even afford that.”

Because of his many ailments, Les misses a lot of work. He probably would qualify for Social Security Disability, but has no support system in place to help him get through the three-year waiting period it takes just to get a hearing date.

Les is a proud man, a Vietnam veteran who has worked hard his entire life.

He doesn’t want a hand-out, but it’s getting harder for him to get by, paycheck to paycheck.

I myself have health insurance through the company that owns Connect Savannah, but it doesn’t begin to cover all health care costs. All the medical miracles in the world won’t help if you can’t afford them.

The number of uninsured and underinsured in this country has been growing for years. This has caused major problems, many financial, for health care providers, problems that will only grow as Baby Boomers get older.

With 45,000 residents without health insurance, Chatham County already is hard-hit. Health care providers are working to find ways to treat patients without breaking them — or the health care systems that serve them.

Top, Rev. Micheal Elliott, president & CEO Union Mission; at right, head nurse Dodie Simmons with health programs director Aretha Jones

From its beginning as a shelter for homeless men, Union Mission, Inc. has grown to become a full-fledged health care campus that serves the uninsured and underinsured, as well as the poor and homeless. While it still provides services to the homeless, its main focus has shifted.

“We’re doing something here that to the best of our knowledge hasn’t been done anywhere else,” the Rev. Micheal Elliott, president and CEO at Union Mission, says. “We’ve created a multi-disciplinary health care facility. Other people in other places have developed pieces, but it’s our understanding that no one else is putting all of it under one roof.”

Today, Union Mission is the county’s largest provider of health care services after the Memorial Health and St. Joseph’s/Candler health systems. There are four buildings in all — the Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Center, the J.C. Lewis

| Lead Story

News & Opinion

Health Center, the J.C. Lewis Behavioral Health Center and the building that houses not only Union Mission’s administrative offices, but also eight apartments housing 16 people who are in long-term treatment.

People who have no insurance or are underinsured can receive medical care, screenings, prescriptions, dental care, treatment for addictions, counseling — the list of services goes on and on. “What started out as a little program for homeless folks has become a cutting-edge provider for health care for the poor and uninsured,” Elliott says.

Through a partnership with Memorial Health, Union Mission is planning to open a second clinic in July at 5205 Frederick St. “We’re looking at expanding our point of access,” Elliott says. “We’re working to open a new clinic between Candler and Memorial hospitals.

“Memorial owns the site, which used to be two different physician practices. We will make it into one center for folks mostly in the 31404 and 31406 zip codes.”

Memorial Health has pledged $250,000 towards the $7 million cost. The United Way of the Coastal Empire also is helping by committing to $100,000 a year for three years.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15.8 percent of all Americans are uninsured. The state’s rate is higher than the national rate at 17.5 percent.

But in Chatham County, the rate is a staggering 25 percent of the total population. any additional work that is needed, the doctor will go over it with them and tell them how much it’s going to cost.”

Union Mission’s dental director is Dr. Tomoral Sams.

Homeless patients who can’t pay are scheduled to be seen by dentists from the community who volunteer at the clinic.

Hart Williford, senior vice president at Memorial Health, says the Frederick Street clinic is needed, even though there are many good clinics already in existence.

“The good news is we’ve been proactive in building a safety net organization,” he says. “But we still don’t have enough.”

According to figures provided by Memorial Health, there were 82,395 visits to its emergency department in 2006. Of those patients, 87 percent weren’t admitted to the hospital and 51 percent of those visits were considered non-urgent.

“If you go to St. Joseph’s/Candler, you’ll find the same thing,” Elliott says. “The key is keeping the emergency room for urgent care, for true emergencies.

“Definitely each year it seem more and more people are coming to the emergency room for primary care,” he says.

“Many are very, very low income. Many are uninsured or underinsured. They end up with a significant medical bill because they can’t make the deductible.”

People with high bills and no money can’t pay and the hospitals must absorb the cost. “We’re seeing a lot of people who are being taken off the Medicaid rolls,” Williford says.

“There are a lot of reasons there are more uninsured, but the number is definitely growing. They have the same need for primary health care, but there are a number of issues that keep them from going to the doctor. They wait until there’s an emergency to go.

“For example, consider a female, pregnant, who doesn’t go to the doctor, not even to get vitamins,” he says. “She waits until she’s in the emergency room in bad shape.

Education is a big piece of it. We must teach people there are places they can go and receive good primary care.”

While many visits to the emergency department are for minor ailments, Williford is quick to say that someone with a true emergency shouldn’t hesitate to seek help. “I want to emphasize that when someone has an emergency, we want them to come to the emergency room,” he says.

Paul Hinchey, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s/ Candler, says he’s glad the new clinic will be opened. “I think any organization with the capacity to help people not use emergency rooms for primary care can only be a good thing,” he says. “Emergency rooms are geared toward acute emergencies. Patients who use them for primary care don’t get the continuous care one needs to stay healthy. They’re probably seeing the doctor for the first time. Someone needs to monitor the patient for overall good health.”

As at other hospitals, more people are using the emergency departments at Candler and St. Joseph’s. “We are seeing an increase, not to the extent some other hospitals are, but we are seeing an increase,” Hinchey says. “I think it happens because people use the emergency room for primary care for certain reasons.

“There are those who use the emergency department for primary care because they’ve always done so,” he says. “Then there are those who are uninsured or underinsured and think that’s their only option.

“Some people can’t afford health insurance based on what they’re paid,” Hinchey says. “Many of the companies moving into Savannah, particularly the fast-food area, don’t offer health insurance at a comparable rate so people can buy it.”

People with catastrophic health insurance risk financial ruin. “They’re just rolling the dice, counting on the fact that they’re not going to be sick that year,” Hinchey says. “You see this a lot of with single people,” he says. “They count on the fact that they’re young and healthy and won’t need health care.”

Hinchey says there are several options that should be tried to alleviate the problems. “About 80 percent of the employment market in Savannah has less than 100 employees,” he says. “Until recently there was no health insurance geared toward smaller employers. Most were geared toward larger employers. That’s changed in the last 12 months.”

Some companies can’t afford health insurance. “It’s expensive to offer health insurance to people,” Hinchey says. “If there is a high turnover rate in the company, it may not be in the best interest of the company to offer insurance. Many companies say they want people to work for them five, 10, more years. They see the importance of providing health insurance to employees.

“We need to have some type of tax incentive for small employees to offer health insurance,” Hinchey says. “Those options should be explored first.”

St. Joseph/Candler has two clinics that provide services to the uninsured and underinsured, including St. Mary’s Community Center in Cuyler-Brownsville. “We just opened another one in Garden City,” Hinchey says.

St. Joseph/Candler also provides numerous free screenings and services. “What we’ve learned is if you want patients to take advantage of the services you provide, then put them in the neighborhoods where the people live,” Hinchey says.

At one point, free screenings including mammograms and prostate exams, were offered at Candler and St.Joseph’s, but low income patients didn’t take advantage of them as much as expected. “Many people don’t have transportation,” Hinchey says. “We decided to go out into the neighborhoods where people are.”

Elliott is convinced even more people would utilize Union Mission’s services if they realized they could.

“Union Mission for 20 years has been so successful in helping the homeless that we have a branding issue,” he says.

“We’re victims of our success.” w To comment e-mail us at letters@connectsavannah.com

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15.8 percent of all Americans are uninsured. The state’s rate is higher than the national rate at 17.5 percent. But in Chatham County, the rate is a staggering 25 percent of the total population.

“The Memorial Hospital emergency room was built for 45,000 users, yet 90,000 people are using it,” Elliott says. “Part of it is because we have a service economy, so a lot of workers don’t have access to health insurance.”

Elliott says if you don’t have a primary physician, you might wait until you’re in the worst possible condition to go in for treatment. “That means you’ll need more expensive care. It’s a worst-case scenario. We want to establish a new source of health care that is affordable and holistic.”

Other health care professionals are needed in addition to doctors and nurses. “About 40 percent of people who go to the emergency room for treatment have a behavioral health issue,” Elliott says. “The No. 6 reason people go to the emergency room is oral health. They wait until a tooth is abcessing to go for help, even though there are no dentists in the emergency room.”

Union Mission still has an emergency shelter. “It’s for people who are sick and need shelter, but need supervised shelter,” Elliott says. “It’s the kind the Salvation Army and city shelters can’t do because they don’t have therapists on site like we do.”

The new disease prevention center provides patient education. “We teach people about their own health,” Elliott says.

“They learn how to take care of themselves, such as learning about managing diabetes.”

With more medical education, there is less need for medical care. Elliott says it’s obvious the program is working.

“Two years ago, we had 1,600 people who came 14,000 times,” he says. “Last year it was 3,400 people who came 12,000 times. We’re teaching people who in the past probably never had anyone to teach them.”

The behavioral health center provides 20 patient offices and 16 group rooms where more than 200 patients a day can be seen. There also are lecture halls that can accommodate 100 people.

Aretha Jones is in charge of the health programs at Union Mission. Elliott says the Frederick Street clinic “is her baby,” and she is busy getting things ready.

“We’re getting the community to understand there is a need for new provider,” Jones says. “We want people to understand Union Mission is not for the homeless only.”

Dodie Simmons is the head nurse at the J.C. Lewis Health Center. “We see people when they’re sicker,” she says. “We see a lot of diabetes. A huge part of what I do involves teaching. I tell them about the disease process, the importance of getting healthy meals, how to take care of themselves, to make sure they get enough rest.”

Many patients who are seen are given prescriptions, and Union Mission has its own medical distribution center. “We try to help clients who have no insurance and limited income,” says Kendra Aubuchon, LPN. “They bring me a prescription from our doctors and I fill it. I also take care of patients who don’t qualify for Patient Assistance,” she says.

“Clients are charged $10 unless the medicine costs less than $10. They come back every 30 days, if they take their medicine on schedule, and we monitor the side effects. This is a good way to make sure their medication is helping and that they’re okay.”

Dental care is available at Union Mission. Patients are charged according to a sliding fee. “It’s based on income, so they must prove their income at the time of their visit,” says Latrell Davis. “The first X-ray and exam costs $25. If there is

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Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

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Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

Wednesday, Dec. 26 Skatefest 2007 continues

Week at a

Glance compiled by Linda Sickler

Freebie of the Week What: Who says you can’t go skating in the Deep South?

Each session lasts one and a half hours. When: Dec. 26, 27, 28 and 29 at 10 a.m., noon, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 p.m., Dec. 30 at 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m., Dec. 31 at 10 a.m., noon, 2, 4 and 6 p.m., Jan. 1 at 10 a.m., noon, 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m., Jan 2 and 3 at 4, 6 and 8 p.m., Jan. 4 at 4,6,8 and 10 p.m. and Jan. 5 at 10 a.m., noon, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 p.m. Where: Savannah Civic Center. Cost: $7 per person. A Skatefest pass offers five sessions for $25. Tickets are available only at the Civic Center Box Office. Info: Call 651-6556 weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

New Year’s Eve Fireworks

The Early 19th Century Holiday Story continues

What: Learn about the understated tastes of an authentic 19th century holiday season at one of Savannah’s most historic houses, the Federal-style Isaiah Davenport House. The tour explores how members of the household celebrated Christmas and New Year’s when they lived in the house between 1820 and 1827. When: Now through Dec. 31. The house is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. with the last tour departing at 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. with the last tour departing at 4 p.m.

Where: Davenport House, 324 E. State St. on Columbia Square. Cost: $8 adults and $5 children 6-18, with children 5 and under admitted free.

Info: Call 236-8097 for reservations.

Historic Savannah Theatre presents Return to the 50s

What: Return to America’s most beloved decade of music, when every song on the radio was a hit. This production features more than 60 songs, from the rock and roll classics of Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and Elvis to the harmonies of DooWop. When: Dec. 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30 at 8 p.m. and Dec. 29 at 3 p.m. Where: 222 Bull St. Cost: Adults $33 and 17 and under $16. Info: 233-7764.

What: Bring in a cell phone for recycling and get $1 off admission. When: Dec. 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Oatland Island Wildlife Center of Savannah.

Cost: Regular admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 4-17 and seniors ages 65 and older and free for children 3 and under. Info: 898-3980 or www.oatlandisland. org.

Monday, Dec. 31

New Year’s Eve Dinner Theatre Event

What: Enjoy a gourmet dinner and a performance of the wacky whodunit murder mystery Who Wants to Kill A Millionaire?, plus a New Year’s countdown with champagne and party favors, a pre-show reception and shuttle service to and from four downtown hotels. When: Dec. 31 from 8:45 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. Where: Savannah Community Theatre, 2160 E. Victory Dr. Cost: $85 per person, which includes shuttle service, pre-show reception, dinner, the show, champagne and party favors. Tax, gratuity and cocktails are additional. Also, there is a $3 fee per ticket for credit-card transactions. Info: For reservations, tickets or info, call 898-9021 or visit www.savannahcommunitytheatre.com.

What: The Peruvian Association of Savannah and Our Lady of Guadalupe committee will sponsor an evening of live entertainment, dancing with music from DJ Rudy, a cash bar and a gourmet buffet. A baby sitter will be available on site and parking is free. Formal attire. When: Dec. 31 from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Where: Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, 5711 Abercorn St. Cost: $55 per person. Kids under 12 will be admitted free. Info: For reservations, call 450-0208, 655-9007 or 292-4309.

What: The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace is beautifully decorated for the holidays. Explore Victorian customs.

When: Now through Dec. 29. Where: Birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low at Oglethorpe and Bull.

What: Glistening by candlelight, the Federal-style Davenport House Museum welcomes visitors to an experience emphasizing the end-of-year celebrations of early 19th century Savannahians. Light refreshments, music and skilled interpreters, who will guide visitors through the house, are among the highlights of the presentation. When: Dec. 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30 from 6-8:30 p.m. Where: 324 E. State St. Cost: $8 in advance, $10 at the door. Children. $5. Info: 236-8097 or www.davenporthousemuseum.org.

Cell Phone Saturday at Oatland Island

New Year’s Eve Gala

Christmas 1886 with the Gordons continues

Candlelight Holiday Evening Tours

Saturday, Dec. 29

Historic Savannah Theatre presents Rockin’ New Year’s Eve

What: Enjoy a fireworks display launched from the Tybee Pier with the Atlantic Ocean as the back drop.

When: New Year’s Eve at midnight. Where: Tybee Pier on Tybee Island. Cost: Free.

What: The cast will perform the two-hour Broadwaystyle musical, Return to the 50’s, and then invite the audience to join them onstage for an hour of dancing to the music of the Savannah Theatre band. To bring in the New Year at midnight, there will be party favors and a champagne toast. When: Dec. 31 at 9 p.m. Where: 222 Bull St. Cost: Adults $50 and 17 and under $25. Info: 233-7764.

Tuesday, Jan. 1

New Year’s Day Antique Auction

Thursday, Dec. 27 Ducks on Holiday

What: Coastal Georgia is the annual winter resort for countless waterfowl. Join a Wilderness Southeast guide to get acquainted with some of the 15 different species of diving and dabbling ducks that hang out in Georgia for the winter. When: Dec. 27 2-4 p.m. Where: Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. Cost: $15 per person.

Info: Reservations required.

Call 236-8115.

What: A collection of 19th and early 20th Century furniture and collectibles at auction. Dixieland Catering provides hoppin’ John and mimosas.

Where: Bull Street Auctions, 2819 Bull St. behind Maggie’s.

When: Tue., Jan. 1, 1-5 p.m. Previews are Mon. Dec. 31, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and Tue. Jan. 1, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Info: www.bullstreetauctions.com, 443-9353. w

Every Wednesday, look for a good time.

Contents

Isaac's on Drayton

Volume 7, No. 14, Dec. 26, 2007 On the cover: Cover design by Brandon Blatcher

New Year's Eve Celebration

Lead Story 8 Profile 13

Art Review 26

8 10 11 12 13 14 15 17

Culture

Lead Story The plight of the underinsured Editor’s Note New year, old problems Free Speech Savannah basics Hear & Now Signs of progress Profile Kevin Rippman Blotter From SPD reports News of the Weird Chuck Shepherd’s latest Earthweek The week on your planet

26 Art Review

‘Space’@2CarGarage

27 Books

Vann/Aberjhani project Exhibits and openings

29 Pop!

Scott Howard’s take

Movies 30 Screenshots

All the flicks that fit

The 411 6 34

18 Feature

39

When the Van’s a knockin’....

20 Noteworthy Formerly Connect Recommends 22 Soundboard Who’s playing and where

42 41

Week at a Glance Our best bets for cool stuff to do Happenings All the stuff, all the time Crossword Puzzle Mental Fun Free Will Astrology Rob Breszny’s look at your stars Sudoku Puzzle It’s all the rage

Classifieds 46 Classifieds

They call it “junk,” you call it “couch”

Published every Wednesday by Morris Multimedia, Inc 1800 E. Victory Dr., Suite 7, Savannah, GA, 31404 • Phone: (912) 721-4350 • Fax: (912) 231-9932 Web: www.connectsavannah.com Letters to the editor: letters@connectsavannah.com

Proud Sponsor of the Savannah Music Festival Administrative

Advertising

Editorial

General Manager: Chris Griffin, 721-4378

Account Executives: Jay Lane, 721-4381

Editor-in-Chief: Jim Morekis, 721-4384

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News Editor: Linda Sickler, 721-4386

Distribution

Robert Foy, 721-4376 Michelle Bailey, Susan Magune

Classifieds

Call for business rates: 721-4351 Subscriptions: 1 yr. for $78 or 6 months for $39.

Send check or money order to the address above.

Reservations Suggested Open New Year's Day · Serving Hoppin' John and Collard Greens Don't forget that Cobblestone Cafe on River Street serves breakfast all day New Year's Day

28 Art Patrol

Music

chris@connectsavannah.com

Complimentary Champagne Toast at Midnight

jay@connectsavannah.com

bethany@connectsavannah.com

Design & Production Art Director/Production Manager: Brandon Blatcher, 721-4379 artdirector@connectsavannah.com

Graphic Design/Production: Craig Cameron, 721-4380 ads@connectsavannah.com

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Music Editor: Jim Reed, 721-4385

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Contributors: Rob Brezsny, Jeff Brochu, Matt Brunson, Robin Wright Gunn, Bertha Husband, Kristi Oakes, Tom Parrish

9 Drayton St. (between Bryan & Bay) 231-0100

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News & Opinion

Live Music · Full Menu · Balloon Drop

Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

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wing in the new year!

2008 Here We Come.

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Connect Savannah Dec. 26th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com

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Free Party Favors & Champagne Fountains $2 Mich Family of Beers • $2 Suck N Blow Jello Shooters Special Champagne Cocktails • $4 Van Gogh Martinis

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