Less than six weeks from July 4, and two weeks after the Flagler Beach City Commission voted to approve a $24,000 contract with Ryan Allen to set off Independence Day fireworks, the contract is still not signed, Allen has still not provided proof of insurance, and the city has therefore not issued a deposit check.
Culture
Hundreds Turn Up For Flagler Beach’s 1st ‘Hang 8’ Dog-Surfing Contest, Putting Event on Map
Flagler Beach’s inaugural Hang 8 dog-surfing competition drew close to 1,000 people over the five-hour event, giving the city what its organizers say will be an established annual draw.
Replicating Math Textbook Censorship, Florida Tells Publishers to Kill Social Justice and CRT in History Books
The department is accepting bids from companies through June 10 to provide social-studies books for a five-year period starting in 2023. The department posted to its website a 29-page document that lists criteria for what is expected to be included in the books — and what’s expected to be left out.
A Leery Flagler Beach Commission Votes for Diminished July 4 Fireworks Despite Provider’s ‘Bait and Switch’
Don’t expect the kind of fireworks show you’ve been used to this July 4 in Flagler Beach now that “the residents have been betrayed,” in the words of the chairman of the city’s former July 4 committee. The commission’s vote followed on the heels of a series of embarrassing missteps, poor vetting on the city’s part, and documentation provided only hours before commission meetings.
Key West Pride to Feature Parties, Performances and a Parade June 1-5
The subtropical island of Key West is to welcome revelers to its annual Pride celebrations Wednesday through Sunday, June 1-5. Scheduled festivities showcase the diversity and equality that help make the continental United States’ southernmost city a top vacation destination for LGBTQ visitors worldwide.
Singin’ – and Caterwauling — in the Rain: Flagler Palm Coast High School Stages Classic Musical
“Singin’ in the Rain,” which debuted as a movie musical in 1952 but didn’t come to life on stage until its London debut in 1983, is set in that mind-blowing, exciting and frantic era when Hollywood was evolving from silent films to “talkies.” It tells the tale of a Hollywood star couple making that transition: the magnetic Don Lockwood and his onscreen leading lady, Lina Lamont. The effervescent, talented Don is ready for the new prime time. Lina — not so much.
Flagler Beach Commission Clears Crafting Contract With Fledgling Fireworks Provider for July 4
In an attempt to bail itself out of a jam, the Flagler Beach City commission at a special meeting this afternoon directed its city manager to draft a contract with a new, young, largely untested company to provide a 20-minute fireworks show on July 4.
July 4 Fireworks in Flagler Beach Appear Back On as City Seeks to Lock In Producer, But Questions Persist
In a special meeting called for Monday, the Flagler beach City Commission will consider approving a $24,000 agreement with a Green Cove Springs company to produce the July 4 fireworks, resolving the risk of a dark July 4 created when the city failed to contact its previous fireworks producer in time.
Hop on a Bus and Tour Half Dozen Flagler County Parks – for Free
More than a dozen lucky residents will be able to join Parks and Recreation staff and the Flagler County Parks Advisory Board for the Summer 2022 Tour of Parks on June 10.
Retired News-Journal Editor Cal Massey’s Novel Published by Experimental Fiction Press
An award-winning political dark comedy by Cal Massey, a Daytona Beach News-Journal editor retired in Flagler Beach, has been published by the Journal of Experimental Fiction in Chicago. Massey retired as deputy managing editor of the Daytona Beach News-Journal in 2016.
‘Waiting for Godot’ Finally Arrives as Palm Coast’s City Rep Stages Beckett’s Absurdist Masterpiece
Beckett’s 1953 play – which is often and rightfully tagged as part of the “Theater of the Absurd” movement – depicts two men, Vladimir and Estragon, who engage in conversation as they wait for a mysterious figure named Godot who (or that) never shows up. Detractors (and there have been fewer and fewer of them as the decades have progressed) howl “There’s no plot!” Admirers howl “There’s no plot!”
Palatka Blue Crab Festival Features 34 Musical Acts Memorial Day Weekend
The Palatka Blue Crab Festival will be held on Friday, May 27th from 6pm to 11pm, Saturday, May 28th from 9am to 11pm, and Sunday, May 29th from 8am to 11pm in downtown Palatka, 210 St. Johns Avenue. Admission and parking is free.
Palm Coast Songwriters Festival Is Set for April 29-May 1
The Palm Coast Songwriters Festival returns in 2022 with nearly 40 HIT songwriters performing over 125 #1 HITS during the three-day ticketed festival, April 28 thru May 1 at Daytona State College Palm Coast Amphitheater.
Flagler Youth Orchestra’s 17th-Year Roller Coaster Ride in Season-Ending Concert Monday, and Away from the Stage
The Flagler Youth Orchestra’s 200 performers are on stage at the Flagler Auditorium Monday evening for the 47th all-ensembles concert in the organization’s 17-year history, with surprise solo performances in the season-ending event, and a wide range of musical offerings.
More than 1,500 Books Have Been Banned in Public Schools. House Panel Asks Why.
From July 2021 to the end of March this year more than 1,500 books were banned in 86 school districts in 26 states. A report on book-banning in public schools found that of the banned books, 467 — or 41 percent — contained main or secondary characters of color; 247, or 22 percent, addressed racism; and 379, or 33 percent, of the books contained LGBTQ+ themes.
Historic Espanola Schoolhouse Dating from Segregation Era Gets a Facelift
The historic one-room Espanola Schoolhouse located at 98 Knox Jones Avenue in Espanola, near the community center there, recently received a much needed facelift. The structure was built in 1950, and is a rare survivor of the Jim Crow racial segregation-era in Flagler County.
Stetson University’s Second Stage Theater Hosts ‘A Doll House, Part 2’
Stetson University continues its 116th season with Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2, which will run April 7-10 at Stetson University’s Second Stage Theatre, located inside the Museum of Art, 600 N. Woodland Blvd., adjacent to the DeLand campus. Admission is free.
Flagler Youth Orchestra’s Top Ensemble Returns to Methodist Church Music Series for Eclectic Saturday Concert
For the first time since 2019, the Flagler Youth Orchestra’s Harmony chamber ensemble, featuring the FYO’s most accomplished musicians, is back in performance at the in the Palm Coast United Methodist Church’s Concert Series. The concert is scheduled for Saturday, April 2, at 4 p.m.
Dog-Surfing Contest Comes to Flagler Beach as Mayor and Commissioner Hope to Ride the Next Viral Wave
The one-day Hang 8 Dog Surfing Contest comes to Flagler Beach on May 21 as City Commissioner Eric Cooley and Mayor Suzie Johnston hope the inaugural event goes viral and adds to the city’s character. The event’s proceeds will be directed to the Humane Society and dog-rescue organizations.
A Fund-Raiser for City Repertory Theatre at Chez Jacqueline on April 7
The popular Chez Jacqueline Boutique is staging one of its celebrated fashion shows on April 7, this time as a $25-a-ticket fund-raiser for City Repertory Theatre, Palm Coast and Flagler County’s cutting edge theater company.
From Head Football Coach at Flagler Palm Coast High School to Prolific Novelist: Caesar Campana’s Afterwords
Caesar Campana was Flagler Palm Coast High School’s head football coach and an English teacher. Since his retirement, he’s published four novels, all exploring rather dark themes, a book of stories and poems and a memoir, with his wife, Monica Campana, who retired as a librarian at Indian Trails Middle School, as his editor. We caught up with the Campanas in the Hammock.
‘Is Our Democracy At Risk?’ Answer Question in Flagler/Volusia ACLU Essay Contest; $850 in Prize Money
If you’re a high school student in Flagler or Volusia counties, here’s your chance to answer the question in an original essay of up to 2,000 words and participate in the ACLU of Florida’s annual essay contest, with cash prizes sponsored by FlaglerLive. The deadline is April 4.
Badass “Revolutionists” Guillotine France’s Reign of Terror in City Repertory Theatre Comedy
“The Revolutionists” features four women of revolutionary France, three of them famous in their own right, all of them feminists before their time, as they navigate the chaos, intrigue, treachery and murderous violence of France’s Reign of Terror in 1793 Paris.
For the Flagler Youth Orchestra, an Unsettling and Emotional Moving Day
After 13 years in one location, Friday was moving day for the Flagler Youth Orchestra, which has been providing string-music instruction to hundreds of students every year for 17 years. Its director reflects on a transformative day amid anxious and enduring uncertainties.
Race, Gender, Wealth, Books: It’s All in “The Personal Librarian,” Flagler Reads Together’s 2022 Pick
Flagler Reads Together’s choice this year is a historical novel about Belle da Costa Greene, the Black woman who passed herself as white as the J.P. Morgan librarian for 43 years.
Cost and Location Questions Arise Over County’s Push for Visitor Center on A1A and South 9th Street
The chairman of the Flagler Beach City Commission and the chairman of the county’s tourism council, who also sits on the County Commission, both have questions about the location and the cost of building a potential visitor center the county’s tourism division is eying for South 9th Street and State Road A1A in Flagler Beach.
Daytona Solisti Chamber Orchestra Presents ‘Romancing the Strings’ March 6
A Franz Schubert sonata originally composed for piano and arpeggione, a now-rare, almost forgotten instrument, will be featured in an arrangement for viola solo and strings, when the Daytona Solisti Chamber Orchestra presents its annual “Romancing the Strings” concert March 6 in Ormond Beach. The concert also will feature music of Vivaldi, Bach and Holst.
Reimagining Martin Luther King Jr.’s Last Night Before Assassination in CRT’s ‘The Mountaintop,’ Warts and All
“The Mountaintop,” Katori Hall’s 2009 play staged by Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre starting Thursday, imagines imagines King during his last night on earth, as a pretty motel maid named Camae visits him to deliver room service and finds the civil rights icon in a very un-glorious state: Smokin’. Cussin’. Drinkin’. Flirting. Stinky feet.
Tom Gargiulo, Palm Coast’s ‘Unwavering, Steadfast Champion’ of the Arts for 25 Years, Dies at 83
Tom Gargiulo, co-founder of the Gargiulo Arts Foundations and the Flagler County Artist of the Year award, prolific artist and patron to innumerable shows and artists, and the conceptual energy and fund-raiser behind Palm Coast’s Sculpture Garden in Town Center, died after complications from surgery Sunday in Palm Coast.
$2,000 Reward for Return of Stolen “Quilty” Sculpture, One of 16 in Palm Coast Arts Foundation’s Turtle Trail
One or more thief stole “Quilty,” the sixth of 16 turtles in the Palm Coast Arts Foundation’s Turtle Trail, an $8,000 work installed in October 2019 at at the Grand Haven Condo Association’s Creekside Park, at Waterfront Park and Colbert Lane in Palm Coast.
FPC’s Jack Petocz Is Featured at Length in Page One New York Times Story on Schools’ Book Bans
Jack Petocz, the Flagler Palm Coast High School senior who organized last November’s protest against two local school board members’ attempt to ban books from school libraries, is featured today in a Page One New York Times article that examines a surge of attempted and actual book bans in school districts across the country, including in Flagler.
With One Exception, Flagler Beach Commissioners Leery of Alternating July 4 Fireworks With Palm Coast
Between logistics and tradition, five of the six members of the Flagler Beach City Commission, including the mayor, are either hesitant or opposed to giving up on July 4 fireworks even if Palm Coast wants to hold them on that day only in alternate years. But officials are also saying the whole discussion may be premature, given the impending disappearance of the Flagler Beach pier for two years, when July 4 fireworks will likely have to be in Palm Coast anyway.
Dismissing ‘Slippery Slope of Censorship,’ GOP Senators Back Stricter Scrutiny of School and Library Books
The proposal (SB 1300) would change the review process for books and other learning materials, adding requirements and making it more open to the public but also enabling regular purges of book lists to align them with standards or if the books are considered out of date.
Breaking 8 Years’ Standstill, Flagler County Will Move Ahead with $16 Million South Side Library
The Flagler County Commission gave the go-ahead today for a $16 million south side library on Commerce Parkway in Bunnell, opposite the future Sheriff’s Operations Center, ending eight years of prevarications. But while several funding options are available, it is still not at all clear how the commission will pay for the 32,000 square foot facility, now slated to open in late 2024.
Justice Blinded and a Heroin-Stuffed Doll Spark Thrills in City Repertory Theatre’s ‘Wait Until Dark’
True to part of its mission, City Repertory Theatre once again is offering a play that is typically off the radar of the local theater scene: a genuine, suspense-filled thriller. Susy has just been blinded in a car crash. While Susy’s husband Sam is away, three sadistic thugs track a heroin-stuffed doll they’re looking for to Susy’s apartment. A harrowing cat-and-mouse game ensues and soon involves Gloria, a young girl who lives in a nearby apartment.
Sheriff Staly on Simultaneous July 4 Fireworks in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach: ‘It Will Certainly Strain Our Resources’
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly is cautioning the two cities that simultaneous July 4 fireworks will mean his agency might not be able to support Flagler Beach as it has before on that day. But a Palm Coast City Council member has now shifted position, and favors continuing July 4 and July 3 shows, giving each city July 4 in alternate years. But would Flagler Beach agree to hold its shows on July 3 every other year?
Simultaneous Fireworks in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach? ‘Unworkable, Unsafe and Unsound’
Scott Spradley, chairman of the committee the Flagler Beach City Commission appointed to study how best to continue Independence Day events in the city, was sharply opposed to holding fireworks the same day as Palm Coast, as Palm Coast officials have suggested. Spradley took his stand as he delivered the final report of the committee’s work, which had not addressed the Palm Coast issue.
The Conservative vs. the Rebellious Upstart. Sounds Familiar? ‘Mass Appeal’ at Flagler Playhouse Rings a Bell.
“Mass Appeal,” the Tony-nominated play about an elderly, too-comfortable, don’t-rock-the-boat priest and an idealistic, young-buck seminarian, may be set in a church, but its themes overlap with plenty of current conflicts between old and new, the challenge of doctrine and the limits of rebellion.
Palm Coast Government Will Propose Shifting July 3 Fireworks Event to Flagler County Airport
Palm Coast is considering shifting its July 3 fireworks show away from Town Center’s Central Park and to the nearby Flagler County airport’s grounds–to accommodate more people, easier parking, smoother traffic, and bigger fireworks.
Americanisms: Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street and Babbitt
Today we read the Sinclair Lewis of “Main Street,” “Babbitt,” “Elmer Gantry” and “It Can’t Happen Here” not for literary value but the way Margaret Mead studied the Balinese character–for ethnographic insights. Lewis’s novels are a window into an America not nearly as dated as his reputation.
At the Flagler County Public Library: Florida History Through the Amazing Illustrations of Harper’s Weekly
The Friends of the Library at the Flagler County Public Library host a history presentations by Zach Zacharias, Senior Curator of Education and History at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach at 2 p.m. on Jan. 28, on Florida seen through the illustrations of Harper’s Illustrated Weekly.
Eulogy for Nature: Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire
Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire,” published in January 1968, worthy of any top-100 list of the best books of the last hundred years and an essential read–and re-read-today, is a meditation, a polemic, a manifesto, a provocation, a valentine and an elegy to the red desert and to American wilderness.
God’s Plagues: Philip Roth’s Nemesis
Philip Roth’s “Nemesis” is the story of an unsuspecting Everyman who becomes a polio superspreader and turns on his fiancee, God and life. Written in 2010, the novel can be read in the age of the coronavirus as a study in grief and loss and the limits of personal, or divine, responsibility.
Trump Troll Chronicles: Bob Woodward’s Peril
Bob Woodward’s and Robert Costa’s “Peril,” third in the trilogy of Woodward’s books on the Trump administration, isn’t history. It’s most revealing in what it does not say. It’s tragicomedy. It’s a chronicle of trash foretold. And it’s prediction. The worst is ahead.
Call DCF: Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s The Discomfort of Evening
Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, who now goes by the pronouns they/them, won the International Booker Prize for “The Discomfort of Evening,” an autobiographical novel about a 10-year-old girl who thinks she willed the death of her brother, and who watches her family and her bearings collapse after his death. The book caused a controversy due to themes of adolescent sexuality and animal torture.
What Kwanzaa Means for Black Americans
Millions throughout the world’s African community start weeklong celebrations of Kwanzaa today, Dec. 27. For the African-American community, Kwanzaa is not just any “Black holiday.” It is a recognition that knowledge of Black history is worthwhile.
The Loneliness of a Dictator: Garcia-Marquez’s Autumn of the Patriarch
Autumn of the Patriarch is a study in power unbound, unscrupulous, re-imagined rather than invented. History gave Garcia-Marquez too much material to need invention. Approaching 50 years since the novel published, it has recently come to feel more contemporary again.
Patriotism Recovered: Richard Rorty’s Achieving Our Country
“Achieving Our Country” is an energizing manifesto, a reminder that we are not as good as we think we are, and, atrocious as we can be, not nearly as bad, either. We are merely unachieved. With a little less despair, a little more affection, even–heaven forbid–a bit of patriotism, however defined but equally respected we can achieve more.
Louis C.K.: Sexual Misconduct, Cancel Culture and the Pursuit of Justice
Cancel culture, as a type of internet vigilantism appears fundamentally incompatible with the actualization of restorative justice because it is oriented to punishment and exclusion, leaving no space for dialogue or personal change.
With Best In Show Going to 100 Bellaire Drive, Palm Coast Announces Top 5 Winners of Holiday Lights
The City of Palm Coast hosted the second annual ‘Holiday Light Fight’ home decorating contest. Spearheaded by the Parks and Recreation Department, Palm Coast residents who decorated their homes were able to register and submit photos online.