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Bermuda Fears Tourism Hit as Same-Sex Marriage Reversal Draws Lawsuit

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Many destinations are beginning to market to LGBTQ travelers and promote same-sex weddings. But Bermuda, which initially legalized same-sex marriage last year, is going in the opposite direction and facing legal action over a new ban on same-sex marriages.

OUTBermuda, a non-profit that advocates for LGBTQ rights in Bermuda, filed a lawsuit this week against Bermuda’s attorney general to get the same-sex marriage ban repealed. Same-sex marriage remains legal as the ban isn’t expected to take effect until June. Existing same-sex marriages will remain valid. Voters earlier had expressed support for banning same-sex marriages.

Early signs of a chilling effect are showing. Bermuda became the first country in the world to repeal same-sex marriage earlier this year, and the government’s decision has drawn the backlash of many travelers and celebrities, some of whom are calling for a tourism boycott of the island.

Maryellen Jackson, an openly gay Bermuda resident and teacher, is a co-plaintiff in OUTBermuda’s lawsuit. In the lawsuit, Jackson and OUTBermuda claim the repeal of same-sex marriage violates Bermuda’s constitution.

Carnival Corporation said this week that it is supporting the lawsuit and opposes the ban.

Jackson said she joined the lawsuit last month and foresees negative consequences for tourism because of the ban. “I do think there will be some negative consequences that may not even be considered,” she said.

“We just don’t know how people will react,” said Jackson. “People are going to travel where they want to travel. I would think the LGBTQ community may think twice and choose to support human rights and not come to a place that doesn’t value all it’s people equally.”

Jackson said Bermuda’s Supreme Court will hear the case in May, with a ruling expected by June ahead of the ban taking effect. “I don’t think we’ll know the long-term impact this decision will have on this issue,” she said.

Bermuda Tourism Toes The Line

Bermuda Tourism Authority, the island’s tourism board, said that tourism arrivals were up 4.5 percent year-to-date through February, despite headlines about same-sex marriage repeal that circulated last year.

Tourism arrivals have also been on the rise for seven consecutive quarters since January 2016.

It’s too early to tell whether the ban will have a negative impact on tourism, said Kevin Dallas, CEO of Bermuda Tourism Authority. “Bermuda Tourism Authority, our industry partners, and many members of our community are committed to inclusiveness and to treating all visitors with respect,” said Dallas, in a statement. “We encourage all travelers to Bermuda, including LGBT visitors, to continue participating in this important exchange with us.”

The International Gay Lesbian Travel Association, which works with destinations to promote LGBTQ tourism, said it opposes a Bermuda boycott. “We believe in working with destinations to provide education and create an ongoing dialogue that can lead to change in policies and sentiments, versus calling for boycotts that isolate local LGBTQ communities and close the door on the conversation,” said John Tanzella, the organization’s CEO, in a statement.

“The Bermuda Tourism Authority joined IGLTA last year, a positive step that shows there are those in the destination with a desire to be more inclusive of the LGBTQ community,” said Tanzella. “We support our member businesses wherever they are in the world because they have committed to treating all people with respect even if the laws of their country are lagging behind.”

But there’s clearly a disconnect between local tourism officials and residents, who voted against same-sex marriage legalization in a November 2016 referendum. The referendum was only to gauge public opinion on the issue, as a later court case legalized same-sex marriages in Bermuda.

Dallas’ tone was also more cautionary in a December letter to the Bermuda Senate. “We have seen ample evidence of negative international headlines and growing social media hostility towards Bermuda that we feel compelled to express our concern about what the negative consequences could be for tourism if the Domestic Partnership Bill passes the Senate this week,” Dallas wrote. “We believe the Bill poses an unnecessary threat to the success of our tourism industry.”

Dallas also cited fallout from anti-gay discrimination laws in North Carolina and Indiana that caused tourism boycotts and large events and conventions to pull out. “We are convinced it will result in lost tourism business for Bermuda,” Dallas wrote. “LGBTQ travelers spend $165 billion worldwide per year and $65 billion of that is spent in the United States alone.”

Dallas fears other travel brands could join Carnival in taking a stance against the ban. “Our research indicates many companies, consumers, and travelers, including the overwhelming majority of the younger visitors powering Bermuda’s growth, care about this issue,” Dallas wrote. “It’s why the fallout in North Carolina and Indiana has proven so detrimental.”

Bermuda is the cover story on the most recent print issue of Travel + Leisure, but the story makes no mention of the ban.

Meetings and Events Impact

Destinations International, which has 600 destination organization members in 15 countries, said its CEO Summit in Bermuda at the end of April will go on as scheduled.

“We have over 130 people registered for the event thus far, and look forward to welcoming everyone to Bermuda for what will an impactful learning event, addressing high-level topics, including the weaponization of travel,” said Jack Johnson, the organization’s chief advocacy officer.

Carnival Corp. President Christine Duffy was scheduled to speak at the event, but she’s no longer speaking due to a scheduling conflict, the company said.

Johnson added that Destinations International opposes any travel boycotts. “Destinations International takes a strong stance, backed by research, opposing the use of travel boycotts and travel bans,” he said. “We believe they are ineffective, hurt the wrong people and are counterproductive. Our goal is to end them as an acceptable tool for seeking political change.”

Destinations International has addressed the ban and the organization’s stance with its member CEOs, said Johnson. “We have shared any concerns we’ve heard from our members with the Bermuda Tourism Authority and each one has been addressed individually,” he said. “We are expecting a very welcoming environment at the summit.”

“The law isn’t a subject that is being addressed specifically in any session during our CEO Summit, but it may come up in our advocacy session, which I’ll be leading,” said Johnson.

The American Geophysical Union, however, announced that it canceled its conference in Hamilton, Bermuda in September because “Bermuda no longer meets AGU’s meeting location requirements, and we are evaluating the options for relocating,” a statement from the organization said.

Carnival Taking up the Cause

In a statement on Tuesday, Carnival Corp. explained how it is supporting the legal action — and why its ships will still visit the country.

“We are sensitive as to why some travelers may consider avoiding Bermuda while this ban is in place,” the statement said. “While we always abide by the laws of the countries we sail to and from, we believe travel and tourism brings people and cultures together in powerful ways. As a result, we believe it is important to stand by the LGBTQ community in Bermuda and its many allies to oppose any actions that restrict travel and tourism.”

The cruise giant said in the statement that representatives from LGBTQ organizations have told the company that they are concerned about the law, but also about the potential ramifications of a slowdown in travel.

“At their urging, we believe it is best to align our actions with the LGBTQ community and others who live and work in Bermuda and depend on tourism for their living,” the statement said.

The company said six of its nine cruise lines would call on Bermuda this year for a total of 59 stops, representing less than 15 percent of the cruise traffic in Bermuda. Other brands will visit Bermuda a combined total of 282 times this year, according to Carnival.

A representative for the Cruise Lines International Association said no lines had stopped visiting Bermuda over the decision.

Carnival Corp. has a deeper connection to Bermuda’s marriage laws than just visiting the island. Ships that are registered in the country are allowed to conduct weddings at sea, and when marriage equality became the law in Bermuda last year, the cruise operator started offering packages for same-sex weddings. The parent company has 24 ships registered in Bermuda spread across Cunard, PO, and Princess brands.

The reversal left the company “disheartened,” Carnival’s statement said.

In August, Cunard announced it had booked its first same-sex wedding at sea. Since May of last year, the brands have performed seven same-sex marriages: two on Princess, four on PO, and one on Cunard, Chief Communications Officer Roger Frizzell said.

Carnival’s Bermuda-flagged ships that were previously allowed to perform same-sex wedding at sea have not been able to do so since February.

“We support marriage equality and we have been actively engaged in supporting efforts by OUTBermuda…to legally challenge the action to again allow same-sex marriages on the island,” Carnival said. That includes providing the organization with “financial, civic and public relations support, as well as involvement by our company.” Carnival said it was also filing an affidavit supporting this week’s legal action.

“We believe we can have the most significant impact through direct action,” the company said.

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As Trump denies climate change, Asheville leaders, Collider press on – Asheville Citizen

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NASA has released new maps that detail the effects of climate change around the world. As several areas in the U.S. are facing a blizzard, much of the western world is abnormally hot.
Buzz60

ASHEVILLE — In a tumultuous time for the debate on climate change, Drew Jones doesn’t give it a second thought. On this issue, he is certain, the debate now is only about the effectiveness of solutions and not at all waffling on the facts.

Jones has spent a lifetime analyzing climate data, in recent years from a desk at The Collider, high above Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville. Models developed by his company, Climate Interactive, informed world leaders at the United Nations Copenhagen summit in 2009 and were widely used by former Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

But his work seemingly unraveled last year after President Donald Trump, then five months into his presidency, announced the U.S. would pull out of the agreement. 

MORE: Bipartisan approach to combat climate change is stuck in Congress

Asheville hits consecutive hottest year on record in 2017

Macron drops climate change joke about Trump at Davos

His immediate reaction? “Sad and mad,” he said recently, between bites of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”You spend eight years building something, building a nice tower out of blocks and some bully comes in and kicks it all down.”

Out of that withdrawal, however, Jones and other tenants of The Collider — a nonprofit workspace focused on climate solutions — as well as state and local leaders have affirmed commitments made under the Paris Agreement. It was a discussion point at last month’s ClimateCon 2018, which drew some of the subject’s brightest minds to Asheville, and it partially has been a factor in shaping municipal policy in recent years.

Can Asheville be ‘Climate City’?

As much as beer or tourism, Asheville’s future identity may be tied directly to climate science, some leaders say.

“I would say Asheville has been on this train for a while now,” Bridget Herring, the city’s energy program coordinator, said during the We Are Still In regional panel last month at ClimateCon. “Climate change, as we’ve seen, is quite a large issue, and the way you eat an elephant is one bite at time.”

Asheville recorded its two hottest years on record in 2016 and 2017, more than 2 degrees above what is normal, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. Experts attribute warmer than average temperatures — recorded last year in 48 states and in Alaska — to the effects of climate change.

Herring said the city has been aggressive combating root causes of climate change. It has instituted a goal of 80 percent carbon reduction by 2050, including a 4 percent annual carbon footprint reduction. 

Additionally, Mayor Esther Manheimer was one of 274 mayors to sign a letter of support last year to uphold the commitments of the Paris Agreement. It involves efforts to hold the increase of global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius and to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Buncombe County also has gotten on board with commissioners voting in December to move away from using fossil fuels for electricity and its vehicle fleet. Within that vote, the Board of Commissioners said the county will use only clean and renewable energy for its operations by 2030 and for all county homes and businesses by 2042.

“The county has always been cognizant of the fact that we operate a large building and fleet portfolio,” said Jeremiah LeRoy, Buncombe County sustainability officer. “As such, it is critical that we strive to operate as efficiently as possible, both from an energy and cost perspective.”

The issue has been a focus at the state level as well, according to Jeremy Tarr, a policy adviser to Gov. Roy Cooper.

“On important issues like climate, it’s even more important for states to take the reins and not slow down, but to accelerate,” Tarr said, adding North Carolina’s climate commitment “sets sort of a message for the state and all of us in our respective jobs.”

Trump has not shared those views as president or in his previous life as a real estate developer and TV personality. He repeatedly has called climate change a “hoax” and said the concept of global warming “was created by and for the Chinese” to make U.S. manufacturing “non-competitive.”

He also has installed at high levels of the government officials such as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has played down the effects of global warming as not necessarily “a bad thing.” The agency under Pruitt has scrubbed links and materials from the EPA website meant to help officials combat the effects of rising temperatures and more severe storms, according to the New York Times.

The withdrawal from the Paris agreement could happen as soon as November 2020.

But there’s a far different perspective at the National Centers for Environmental Information and The Collider, both based in Asheville.

“It’s not even a discussion for us because we operate from the principle and the fact that the climate is changing,” Megan Robinson, The Collider’s chief operating officer, said. “We’re not saying X, Y and Z are the causes — someone else might be saying that.

“But we’re saying it’s changing and we’re fostering this innovative and creative space for solutions that are ultimately going to impact the life, safety and prosperity of society everywhere.”

Where worlds collide

The federal government’s attitude on climate science under Trump has little impact on The Collider, as it’s funded entirely through a mix of private donations and membership fees. After years of planning and investments, construction on its facility inside the Wells Fargo Building began in 2015 due, in large part, to funding it received from local philanthropist Mack Pearsall, who is considered its founder.

Pearsall said in 2016 The Collider is “first to market in the emerging commercialization of climate data.” He sits on the organization’s board and usually is a fixture at its community events, like its weekly PercCollider coffee networking hour, held on Fridays.

Its tenants include NASA alums, number crunchers, entrepreneurs and writers.

There are people such as Tom Barr, CEO of Infrastructure Services Group LLC , which focuses on inspecting and repairing underground water and wastewater pipelines; L. DeWayne Cecil, a scientist and engineer who serves as chief climatologist and program manager of Global Science and Technology Inc.; and Doug Bruggeman of Ecological Services and Markets Inc., which uses data to inform sustainable development projects.

Working at the intersection of regulation and land use, Bruggeman said he realized he could design climate adaptation methods by becoming a real estate agent. He also has designed a climate change class for real estate agents, largely to help others utilize data in their work, noting “the timing is right.”

Bruggeman said he highlights that flood risk, for example, is a risk in buying a home, but the FEMA floodplain maps don’t incorporate climate change effects.

“Just being aware of that is important,” he said. “A 500-year floodplain is no longer a 500-year floodplain. Also, looking at wildfire risk is critical — and there are data sources out there to look at these things.”

Then there’s Eric Klos, founder and CEO of HEALTHeWeather, a software company tasked with tracking how the environment impacts people’s health. Klos has a particular focus on studying air quality and pollen to determine to what extent individuals are impacted by the environmental conditions in their communities.

“The medical community hasn’t paid attention to environmental factors,” he said. “Part of the reason they haven’t is because patients feel they are at the mercy of the weather.”

He said physicians have never had the tools to help them understand how the environment impacts patients or what they can do to help them avoid negative health outcomes. Apps he’s created like DailyBreath, which helps allergic asthma sufferers assess the risks of the environment and pollen, could go a long way toward bettering that understanding. 

“We are slowly learning more and more about these issues and, because of that, I think doctors are going to have to be knowledgeable about these topics,” he said.

Robinson said work like Klos’ and Bruggeman’s is part of The Collider’s ecosystem in “trying to create ways to communicate, ways to solve and ways to address” the changing climate. She acknowledges the discussion around the subject often carries a partisan slant, but she said it’s mostly because information on it can be difficult to grasp.

“The biggest thing is that it’s hard to understand, it’s scary, it’s life-changing, and it requires people to act differently,” she said. “It seems that’s a barrier that’s hard for people to overcome, that the way they’ve been used to living and feeding their families and making a living and being successful is being threatened by something they have no control over and that’s scary for people.”

The current moment comes with frustration for Jones. He’s aggravated that there’s a climate debate at all in the U.S., especially as similar debates aren’t being had to the same extent in comparable nations.

Maybe the sentiment will die off at some point, he wonders, but we haven’t reached that point yet. Even so, his work has continued largely undeterred from a co-work space in downtown Asheville.

He’s searching for ways to prevent problems — such as pushing municipalities and companies to meet emissions goals — and encouraging design for resilience and adaptation using the best available science.

“I find the things that give me hope and a sense of possibility,” Jones said. “Right now, you’ve got hundreds of cities like Asheville, North Carolina, saying we’re going (to reduce our emissions), and about 900 others are as well.

“I look to the good news and I look to the possibilities for success, and I build upon that.”

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NC: After Hitting a Post at the RDU Garage, Police Charge, Driver Ripped Out Parking-System Camera

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April 03–MORRISVILLE — A man from Goldsboro, NC, who was driving out of the Raleigh-Durham International Airport parking garage late Monday was charged with ripping out one of the airport’s license-plate-reading cameras by hand.

According to a police report about the incident, Larry Henry Buchtmann, 62, was driving out of the garage and through the exit plaza when his car hit one of the bollards set up to protect equipment, airport spokesman Andrew Sawyer said.

Police said Buchtmann got out of his car to check the damage, then — for reasons that were not clear — ripped out one of the cameras by hand and damaged its connections. He was arrested shortly before 11 p.m.

The cameras sit on supports about 3 feet off the ground, Sawyer said.

Officers charged Buchtmann with misdemeanor injury to personal property.

The camera was part of a system that reads license plates as cars go into the garage between the terminals and drivers get tickets from a machine. The license number is recorded on the ticket.

If people use walk-up machines outside the terminals to pay for parking, the cameras at the exit plaza lanes read the license plate, the terminal flashes a message that the driver has paid, and the gate goes up without the driver having to open a window or put the paper parking ticket into a reader, Sawyer explained.

Buchtmann was freed on a written promise to appear in court May 1.

Ron Gallagher 919-829-4572@RPGKT

___ (c)2018 The News Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) Visit The News Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) at www.newsobserver.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Commonwealth Commercial Partners Rural Land Team Develops New Subsidiary to Better Meet the Needs of Rural …

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“We began exploring this change because of feedback we received from our clients,” said Mark Claud, CEO of Commonwealth Commercial Partners. “They’d pass our signs with the CCP nomenclature, and it didn’t properly reflect our comprehensive service set, which includes more than just urban or densely populated properties. That is certainly not reflective of the teams we’ve put together, who have in-depth knowledge of the intricacies of rural land sales, which is why we knew we needed to make this change.” 

The new Commonwealth Land website launched this month and consumers in the Richmond and Hampton Roads markets will begin seeing the new name and brand identity beginning in mid-April 2018. “We’re operating in a very distinct niche,” said Bill Barnett, Senior Vice President and Partner at Commonwealth Land. “This change better communicates those offerings and positions our team to connect the right buyers with the right sellers – and that’s why people come to us.”

“Commonwealth Commercial continues to maintain a team of agents focused on the sale of development land, including residential, industrial, retail and office,” Barnett continued. “The launch of Commonwealth Land complements CCP’s growing line of specialized services on a regional scale to meet our clients’ needs.”

About Commonwealth Land
Commonwealth Land is Virginia’s leading source for buying and selling rural, agricultural, recreational and timber investment land with 100 or more acres. Commonwealth Land operates a proprietary database that matches buyers and sellers and provides comparable data to inform each deal. To learn more, visit www.commonwealthland.com.

About Commonwealth Commercial Partners, LLC
Founded in 1996, Commonwealth Commercial is a leading full-service commercial real estate firm headquartered in Richmond, VA, with offices in Hampton Roads VA, Nashville TN, Jacksonville FL, Tampa FL, Greensboro NC, Charlotte NC, Raleigh/Durham NC, Greenville SC, Houston TX, and Reading PA. The company provides demonstrated expertise in the areas of leasing, purchasing, selling, developing, consulting, property management and asset management services. To learn more, visit www.commonwealthcommercial.com.

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Get all Shook up in Midtown with a honky-tonk heroine

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Last May, I made a special point of catching Sarah Shook The Disarmers during a week-night show at Fifth Thomas in Midtown.

The crowd was not very large but the diminutive Shook and her band of ace players from North Carolina threw themselves into a blistering set of hard-hitting honky-tonk tunes about booze, broken romances and more booze. It was raw, passionate and, most of all, real. Alt-country with a punk-rock sneer thrown in for good measure. Nearly all the songs were drawn from the band’s first full-length album, “Sidelong,” on Bloodshot Records, the label that’s also home to Robbie Fulks, Jon Langford and Neko Case.

 

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“We recorded ‘Sidelong’ live in the studio on Easter weekend in 2015,” Shook said during a phone chat this week from Chapel Hill, N.C. “It was a four-day session and I was wasted the entire time.”

I did not have a hard time believing that alcohol was involved in the recording of such in-your-face tunes as “Misery Without Company,” “Nothin’ Feels Right But Doin’ Wrong” and the beautifully profane, self-effacing “(Bleep) Up.”

Her masterpiece, though, may be the song “Dwight Yoakam,” which is sung to an unfaithful girlfriend who has left her for a guy who can sing as smoothly as Yoakam. The lyrics go: “I’m drinkin’ water tonight cause I drank all the whiskey this morning/ Drank the whiskey this morning cos my baby, she ain’t comin’ home/ Drinkin’ water tonight cos I drank all the whiskey this mornin’/ Last night she went up to the bar/ Said she met some big country star/ She said he likes to make love when he’s smokin’/ And he don’t walk around like he’s broken/ And he sings just like Dwight Yoakam.”

Yeah, it’s not exactly your grandmother’s country ballad.

Even though Shook sounds like she grew up in a knife-and-gun-club bar not far from the Dirt City USA race track in Polkton, N.C., she hails from upstate New York, near the shores of Lake Ontario. Her parents were deeply religious people who home-schooled their daughters and kept them sheltered from pop culture.

“There was nothing but worship music and classical music in my house when I was growing up,” Shook said. “I was very, very sheltered in many ways.”

When Shook was 17, she landed a job as a cashier at the Wegmans grocery store. Her co-workers could not believe how naive she was about contemporary music. They had mercy and gave her burned copies of CDs by such artists as Elliot Smith, Belle and Sebastian and The Decemberists. She listened to them in secret with headphones late at night. As a teen, Shook taught herself to play guitar and write songs.

“I already had verses and choruses figured out and the basic structures of the song,” Shook said. “But I was writing country songs before I’d really heard country music, or even know what it was. This was before the words ‘three chords and the truth’ had ever crossed my path. … The first time I heard country music, it was mind-blowing. It was like coming home to the home I never knew I had. It was a powerful moment.”

She was blown away and heavily influenced by Johnny Cash, George Jones, Wanda Jackson, Charlie Pride, Johnny Paycheck and “basically the greats.”

In 2005, when Shook was 19, the family packed up and moved south to North Carolina. Tired of being under the thumb of her strict parents, Shook immediately married the first guy she ever dated. The marriage did not last but she is an attentive and proud mother to her young son named Jonah who is in middle school.

Kicking back against her religious upbringing, Shook’s first music group was named, fittingly enough, Sarah Shook and the Devil. The boozy band knocked around the Carolinas and Virginia but soon disbanded after recording one EP. 

“We were very unambitious,” Shook said and laughed. “We were more interested in partying and drinking. You know, do shots, shoot out the lights and all that jazz.”

By the time Shook had regrouped with the Disarmers and released “Sidelong,” the world was starting to take notice of her scrappy style. In the summer of 2016, Rolling Stone magazine picked her as one of one of the “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know.” 

When asked what she would say if a slick suit from Nashville paid a visit and wanted to groom her into being the next Miranda Lambert, Shooked laughed out loud and immediately shot back with: “Kiss my (bleep), buddy. I have a clear idea of how I want to steer my own ship.”

Shook The Disarmers recently returned to the studio to record the follow-up to “Sidelong.” This time around, Shook said the band has “more precision to it” and she was a little more sober and focused. The album, titled “Years,” is coming out in April and the first song, the forlorn and twangy “Good As Gold,” can be found on YouTube.

Expect to hear a few new tunes when Sarah Shook The Disarmers returns to the scene of the crime at 8 p.m. Saturday at Fifth Thomas, 1122 Thomasville Road. To sweeten the deal, the headliner of the evening is rising country star Nikki Lane, whose recent album “Highway Queen” was heralded by critics. It will be worth seeing Lane just to hear her sing “700,000 Rednecks,” which doubles as career advice in the music biz. Tickets are $20 advance and $25 day of the show. You must be 21 or older to enter.

If you want to get the evening off to an early start, Tallahassee troubadour and sharp wit Pat Puckett is performing at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Backyard Garden stage at Fifth Thomas. That show is free and open to all ages.

In the meantime, let’s take our weekly look around at the music scene. Things are kind of dead around Florida State thanks to next week’s Spring Break but there are still a few musical moments worth seeking out:

 

En Power to the people

 The harmonizing trio En Power and Light wanders over from Wichita in the Heartland for an intimate concert at 8 p.m. Friday at The Purple House in north Tallahassee. Admission is $20 at the door. To reserve a seat and get directions to The Purple House, call 850-514-6263.

Crawled in from the swamp

The band Packrat’s Smokehouse performs its swampy, slightly spooky, voodoo-infused take on the blues at 9 p.m. Friday at the Bradfordville Blues Club, 7152 Moses Lane. Tickets are $20 advance. Day of show tickets are $25. Call 850-906-0766 or visit www.bradfordvilleblues.com.

 

Make room for Margut

Young jazz piano phenom Mason Margut enlists drummer Ronan Cowan and bass player Mikailo Kasha for an evening of swinging tunes and sophistication at 8 p.m. Saturday at Blue Tavern, 1206 N. Monroe St. There’s a $5 cover at the door.

 

All the blues you can use

Performers Mary Everhart, Jim Crozier, C.S. Holt, John Babich, David Cotton and Michael Harrison are all sharing the stage for “The Florida Blues All-Star Revue” at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Monticello Opera House, 185 W. Washington St. on the courthouse square in downtown Monticello. Doors open at 7 p.m. and there will be a cash bar. A reception with the artists will follow the show. Tickets are $20 per person. Call 850-576-0721 or visit www.monticellooperahouse.org.

 

 

 

 

Go for some more Gilmore

One of Florida’s finest bluesmen heats up the dance floor when Joey Gilmore The TCB Express steams in for a night of RB-flavored tunes at 9 p.m. Saturday at Bradfordville Blues Club, 7152 Moses Lane. Tickets are $25 advance, $30 at the door. Visit www.bradfordvilleblues.com.

 

Mudbugs and music 

Eat the tails and suck the heads while JB’s ZydecoZoo provides some authentic swamp music when Coosh’s 17th Annual Crawfish Bawl bubbles from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at Coosh’s Bayou Rouge Restaurant, 6267 Old Water Oak Road #101. The will be 1,500 pounds of mudbugs going into the bubbling pots and plenty of red beans and rice on the side. Bring along some money for the mudbug grub.

 

Go Spanish for the day

Spanish guitar musician Charles Santiago is playing songs from the 16th and 17th centuries during Spanish Colonial Adventure Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Mission San Luis, 2100 W. Tennessee St. Bring along the kids so they can practice archery, learn to rope cattle (not real cows, I’m pretty sure), grand a little corn and draw maps. Admission is $5 general public; $3 seniors; $2 for students 6 to 17; free for children under 6. Call 850-245-6406 or visit missionsanluis.org.

 

 

 

A little Ireland on the Chipola

Get a jump start on the St. Patrick’s Day holiday by taking a short road trip to see The Young Irelanders perform at 7 p.m. (CDT) at the Center for the Arts at Chipola College in Marianna, near the banks of the Chipola River. The tunes will range from traditional Irish songs to movie music. Tickets are $25 general public; $10 students (18 and under) and $5 for Chipola students. Visit www.chipola.edu/boxoffice.

 

And in other musical notes

Keal Franklin is making the drive down from Cairo, Georgia, for an evening of Americana music starting at 8 p.m. Friday at The Junction @ Monroe St., 2011 S. Monroe St. It’s $5 at the door. … The Jose Serrano Trio – featuring Serrano on bass, Jalen Baker on vibraphone and Andres Rosales on drums – serve up some Latin-flavored jazz from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday at The Wine House on Market St., 1335 Market St. There’s a $5 cover charge. … Jazz vocalist Jessica Menke and pianist Joshua Cossette will play a little bit of everything during a show at 8 p.m. Friday at Black Dog on the Square, 567 Industrial Drive in Railroad Square Art Park. It’s free and open to the public. … Let’s hear it for The Lizard. The band Walden Station, with lead singer Bob Horne, will get the crowds rockin’ from 5 to 9 p.m. during the Second Saturday Block Party at The Lazy Lizard Pizza Co., 168 E. Dogwood St. in Monticello. There is no cover charge. … If you’re on a tight budget during Spring Break, there’s a big night of live music by High Test, Rachel Hillman, Invented Truths and the Tuesday Supper Club starting at 9 p.m. Saturday at The Wilbury, 513 W. Gaines St. The cover charge? Nada. Zip. Free, baby. … Listen to some experimental funk and jazz when saxophone player Henry White and bass guitarists Alex Mayweather perform as a duo at 8 p.m. Saturday at Black Dog on the Square in Railroad Square. There’s a $5 cover at the door.

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Councilman: ‘Ale trail’ Could Boost Breweries, Tourism in Springfield

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Councilman: 'Ale trail' Could Boost Breweries, Tourism in SpringfieldCopyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Springfield News-Leader file photo

Councilman: 'Ale trail' Could Boost Breweries, Tourism in SpringfieldCopyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Springfield News-Leader file photo

Springfield Councilman Matthew Simpson thinks an “ale trail” could boost tourism and help local businesses.

Springfield has six breweries, with more possibly on the way. Simpson doesn’t think it would take a large investment to set up a self-guided tour to encourage visitors to see several or all of them.

“People like checking stuff off and people like drinking,” Simpson said. “…It’s just about taking our existing strengths, creating a brand and creating a way to engage people.”

Simpson drew inspiration from ale trails in northwest Arkansas; Asheville, North Carolina; and other cities. They have websites that feature maps, craft beer events and shopping, lodging and dining suggestions near the breweries.

Simpson said Springfield could offer a passport for collecting stamps at each brewery. If someone visits all the locations, he or she could receive a small prize such as a hat.

Those who enjoy walking or cycling could take advantage of Springfield’s existing greenway trails and bike paths to travel from one place to another, Simpson said.

Simpson said he’s in the early stages of talking with others in the city and with organizations such as the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau about the plan.

Simpson floated the idea to other council members and city leaders last week.

“If we can get buy-in from participating businesses (could even include distilleries like Missouri Spirits) that could help financially support the program,” he wrote in an email.

Simpson told the News-Leader he also welcomes help from others in the community.

“If people want to take it and run with it, that would be great too. Whatever it takes to get it off the ground.”

The following is a list of breweries in Springfield:

  • Springfield Brewing Company, located at 305 S. Market Ave.
  • Mother’s Brewing Company, located at 215 S. Grant Ave.
  • White River Brewing Company, located at 505 W. Commercial St.
  • Lost Signal Brewing Company, located at 610 W. College St.
  • 4 by 4 Brewing Company, located at 2811 E. Galloway St.
  • Opening later this month: Tie Timber Beer Company, located at 1451 E. Cherry St.

 

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He Answered the Demands of a Whole Different Animal | Asheville …

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Daniel McClendon got tired of realism. Photo by Morgan Ford

Working from The Lift Studios, a converted biscuit factory in the River Arts District, Daniel McClendon paints wild canvases of wild animals. From alligators to orangutans, his creatures explode off their surfaces in an expressionist riot of raw hues and jagged lines. As he prowls the wooden floors of the gallery, the artist explains that his process mirrors his product.

“I just need to get out of the way and let instinct drive the painting,” McClendon says. “The main reason animals feature in my work is because they’re these totems of intuition.”


Grey Owl

It wasn’t always this way. McClendon is formally trained in an exacting realism, with a BFA from Western Michigan University, and he painted in that style full time when he first moved to Asheville in 2008. As he continued to work, however, he begin to feel that his toolkit of conventional representation was more of a hindrance to an authentic voice than a help.

Consumed by this internal conflict, McClendon actually quit painting entirely for a number of months — until March 21, 2011, at 3:59am. “It was like I identified everything I cared about at a garage sale and discarded everything else,” he says about his early-morning breakthrough. “It was a simplification that let me start to build and become more complicated in an entirely different way.”


Baboon

Each of McClendon’s paintings now begins as a completely abstract canvas, marked by feeling in broad strokes of black on a white background. Once the piece reaches a certain density, the artist steps back and takes a holistic look at the lines, discovering elements that suggest a particular animal. He points to one work in progress featuring a circle with an attached upward swoop: a rhinoceros beetle to be.

Eyes and color and a bewildering array of arrows and zigzags come next, fleshing out the black-and-white backbone into a recognizable beast. “I go back and forth from referencing the animal and painting it as an abstract piece,” McClendon says. “It’s an environment that’s just right for discovery and evolution; there are lots of surprises.”

McClendon points out that the same could be said about Asheville itself. Having occupied The Lift Studios for six years, he’s seen the RAD grow from roughly 75 artists to the more than 220 that now work in the area. That influx of creativity has encouraged him to develop as a painter, and he even finds inspiration in the associated rise of art tourism.

“Unlike a lot of visual artists, I’m constantly interacting with my audience, having people comment and engage and articulate their feelings,” McClendon says. “In the RAD, people are here to see art — they’re not just walking into a gallery or studio to kill time before going to get dinner.”

Daniel McClendon Fine Art, 349 Depot St., River Arts District. For more information, call 269-267-4113 or see danielmcclendon.com.

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CE Rental, Inc. Announces Recapitalization of Liberty Party Rental

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RALEIGH, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CE Rental, Inc. (CE Rental), headquartered in Raleigh, NC, announced the
recapitalization of Liberty Party Rental in Nashville, TN. For the past
35 years Liberty Party Rental has built an award-winning reputation for
exceptional customer service featuring a veteran team with over 150
years of collective special events industry experience. As the market
leader, Liberty is known for introducing innovative new rental products
and offering an extensive inventory of china, tables, chairs, tents,
linens, dance floors, bars, catering equipment, and much more.

“We are enthusiastic about the addition of Liberty Party Rental to the
CE Rental family. Their growth over the past three plus decades can be
directly attributed to an unwavering dedication to customer service and
providing only the highest quality rental inventory to their loyal
customer base,” said James Auerbach, Senior Vice President at CE Rental.
“Geographically Liberty is the perfect complement to partner with our
existing event rental locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Virginia,” Auerbach added.

Bruce and Julie Hurst, owners of Liberty Party Rental, echoed the
positive sentiment for the business. “The Liberty Party Rental team is
excited to introduce and welcome the CE Rental family of companies to
Nashville and Middle Tennessee. With Nashville’s explosive growth,
especially in the hospitality industry, this strategic partnership will
allow us to further expand our product offerings and inventory depth.”
Both Bruce and Julie will remain involved in the management of the
business in Nashville and beyond.

“The addition of Liberty Party Rental continues CE Rental’s growth
throughout the Southeast. By expanding into Tennessee the CE network of
affiliated locations will have the increased capacity to service all
customers and partners in the region,” said Brent Paris, Managing
Partner at Dubin Clark.

“Our two companies share very similar philosophies and will continue to
operate with the same commitment to clients and staff that we have
always upheld. By joining CE Rental our team members’ opportunities for
professional and personal development will also increase. We are excited
about the dynamic growth that Liberty Party Rental will experience
through this partnership,” Bruce and Julie Hurst added.

About CE Rental, Inc.: CE Rental, founded in 1952 and
headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, is an award-winning special
event rental company that provides a wide variety of event rental
equipment including linens, fine china, flatware, dinnerware, tents,
tables, chairs and more. Since being acquired by Dubin Clark Company
in February 2017, CE Rental expanded its geographic footprint and
product offering through the acquisitions of Skyline Tent Company
(Charlottesville, VA and Charleston, SC), Capital Party Rentals (Dulles,
VA), Festive Fare Rentals (Charlottesville, VA) and locations in Raleigh
and Charlotte, NC. Please visit www.cerental.com
for more information.

Dubin Clark Company, Inc. is a private investment firm that
has a 34 year history of investing in middle-market buyouts and building
businesses in partnership with the managements of their portfolio
companies. Dubin Clark has a national reputation for helping successful
middle-market companies reach new levels of sales and earnings. Please
visit www.dubinclark.com
for more information and contact Brent Paris at paris@dubinclark.com
for more details on partnership opportunities.

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Disney vendor rents princess carriage strollers for up to $300 a day

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Bobby Carpenter was the kind of the dad who built backyard swing sets by hand and assembled zip lines so his daughter could play.

“That’s how I show her my love. I want her to look back and and be like, ‘Wow. That’s how cool my dad was. I’m going to put him in a real nice nursing home.’ ” joked Carpenter, a handyman from North Carolina.

For the family trip to Walt Disney World, Carpenter decided, of course, for something over-the-top. No basic stroller here. He welded a princess carriage for his 4-year-old in 2014 when she outgrew her baby stroller. His creation was a bit rudimentary, but he created more prototypes, catching the attention of other tourists.

One of those curious bystanders happened to be George Gari, a Tampa-area businessman who introduced himself and later propositioned Carpenter to start a venture together.

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Coastal Carolina experiences in Boone what it wants its home games to become

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This weekend is family weekend at Appalachian State, and the Mountaineers drew a crowd of more than 30,000 to Kidd Brewer Stadium for their 37-29 win over Coastal Carolina on Saturday.

The crowd was loud throughout, the band performed “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” in its three-song set at halftime, and the spectators dressed in black and gold celebrated a win for the 16th time in the past 19 home games.

The setting in the North Carolina mountains gives App State a true home field advantage, and Saturday it gave Coastal players and coaches a taste of what CCU would eventually like to soon become in college football.

“They’re obviously the cream of the crop in the Sun Belt [Conference],” CCU interim head coach Jamey Chadwell said. “They’ve obviously got great tradition. They know how to do a game day. And there is no doubt in my mind that if we continue making the strides we are we will be there, sooner rather than later.

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“We feel we can be here, be the top of the Sun Belt, if we continue to make the strides and build the foundation we want. That’s what we want to be.”

We’ve made a lot of strides over the last six weeks. Obviously nothing to show for it, but our program is making huge strides to where when we get our foundation right we have a chance to be a really special place. I think today might be what we need hopefully to start putting that thing in place.

CCU interim head coach Jamey Chadwell

Appalachian State won three Football Championship Subdivision national titles from 2005-07 before moving up to the Football Bowl Subdivision level in 2014 and quickly becoming a team to beat in the Sun Belt.

Coastal fell to 0-4 against Appalachian State, with all of the losses coming at Kidd Brewer Stadium and all but Saturday’s loss by 17 points or more.

“I’ve been told all week we’ve been here three times and it hasn’t been close,” Chadwell said. “We don’t worry about past teams we worry about our own team. We were bound and determined to come out and play for all four quarters no matter what the situation was.”

“That’s what we talked about all week was don’t let the atmosphere and environment beat you. Don’t let the three national championships beat you. If they’re going to beat us let them beat us, and our kids kept playing and I was proud of that.”

The atmosphere at the stadium likely contributed to Coastal’s quick 14-0 deficit in the game’s opening five minutes, and it was certainly a factor when the Chants took a pair of false start penalties after driving to the ASU 22 in the second quarter and settling for an Evan Rabon kicked a 49-yard field goal.

“This is something anyone that plays college football wants to play in,” CCU senior quarterback Tyler Keane said. “This atmosphere was second to none. Obviously it’s the loudest crowd we’ve played in front of. It got into us a little bit at the end of the first half, we had a couple false starts when the crowd got really loud.”

Wielding weapons

Coastal Carolina is building an arsenal at wide receiver.

Junior Malcolm Williams set CCU’s single-game receiving yards mark three weeks ago at Louisiana-Monroe, junior Omar Black led the team in receiving in each of the past two games, and Saturday it was sophomore Ky’Jon Tyler’s time to have a career day.

Tyler had five receptions for 141 yards including a 73-yard touchdown, and the Chants nearly had two receivers reach 100 yards receiving as senior Chris Jones had four receptions for 96 yards. Four players had receptions of at least 20 yards.

“They brought some blitzes and put them into some man coverage and we were able to complete a pass and maybe miss a tackle, and the receivers did a great job of running after the catch,” said Keane, who completed 17 of 29 passes for a career-high 332 yards and two touchdowns.

The Chants made several of their biggest pass plays to convert third downs, helping them go 5 for 12 on third downs.

“Coach Chadwell had a good gameplan going into the game,” Keane said. “We had a good idea what they were going to do on third down and we executed on those plays.”

Playing keep away

Coastal did not force a turnover for the fourth time in the past five games.

The lack of turnovers is generally forcing the offense to put together long drives in order to score, and is confounding for the Chants, especially considering the turnover production last season.

In defensive coordinator Mickey Matthews’ first season at CCU, the Chants created 29 turnovers with 21 interceptions and eight fumble recoveries, and scored nine defensive touchdowns to rank second in Division I behind Alabama.

Through the first two games of the season Coastal had forced a turnover in 15 consecutive games.

“Scheme-wise last year we played a lot more zone and this year we’re playing a lot more man,” linebacker Shane Johnson said. “We feel our corners can cover a lot better than previous years. . . That’s one of the reasons why we don’t have people spying underneath in coverages.

“In previous year’s we’d have people spying under the coverages and we played man also, we’d mix it up a little bit. Our corners and DBs are going for [pass break ups] right now instead of looking for the ball a lot more. I feel like previous years we were playing off the quarterback.”

Recruit pursuit

Prior to Coastal Carolina’s move into the Sun Belt this year, Appalachian State was the only Carolinas school in the now 12-team southeastern conference that also includes schools from Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia. Football-only schools Idaho and New Mexico State are leaving the conference after this season.

That makes ASU, along with Georgia State in Atlanta and Georgia Southern in Statesboro, perhaps the three conference programs that compete the most with the Chants for recruits in their most fertile recruiting grounds in the Carolinas and Georgia.

A victory Saturday would have been ideal for CCU in the short-term recruiting battle, but Coastal being competitive as a big underdog may have served a purpose as well, showing the program may be headed in the right direction.

“The places they recruit we are, so you’re going to go head to head with them sometimes,” Chadwell said of ASU. “Any time you’re battling a neighbor state and they’re coming in your backyard or you’re going in their backyard, any time a victory would help.”

“It would [have been] big for us to get a victory to show the people we’re recruiting that our program is going in the right direction. Even if we don’t and go up and play well and show what we’re capable of doing, I think that helps us going forward.

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