· Campaign to save the Haydon Burns Library downtown. Peterbrooke Chocolatier showed interest in taking over the old library and turning it into their main factory as well as a Willy Wonka sort of an entertainment destination. Enough people were skeptical about the entertaining value of chocolate to put the kibosh on the idea, but enough people were also determined not to let this architectural treasure be torn down. The compromise came in the form of a multiple-tenant concept which will include adding residential space on top of the library and converting the current space to accommodate a grocery store, a restaurant, a night club, and perhaps even more.
· Sam Alito became a Supreme Court Justice.
· A JCCI study determined that Jacksonville’s murder rate was far greater than expected, more than double last year’s.
· U2 and Kanye West sweep the Grammys.
· Mark’s, a bar on Bay Street downtown, opened.
· Jon Stewart hosted the 78th Annual Academy Awards.
· Moon Colony Razorblade opened. This promising new indie rock record store opened its doors downtown and hosted great in-store shows. Founded by local rockers Cash Carter of the Cadets and Max Wood of Applied Communication, they already had all the cool a record store needs to succeed. They brought in national acts to perform in the store and featured the best selection of pop-culture and counter-culture music, literature, and clothes for indie rockers. We all hoped it would live long and prosper.
· Pope John Paul II died and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was named Pope Benedict XVI.
· Jacksonville Film Festival. Lonely Hearts, the feature film staring John Travolta and James Gandolfini, which was filmed in Jacksonville, opened at the Jacksonville Film Festival. Other movies with local associations that debuted at the Jacksonville Film Festival include Cocaine Angel and Jumping off Bridges.
· Bush’s approval ratings hit an all-time low.
· Club Paris opened in the Jacksonville Landing. On the heels of enormous Superbowl buzz, the opening gala was all tiara’s and boas as clubbers hoped to catch a glimpse of the actual Paris Hilton. She, however, was actually in Paris that weekend and did not make an appearance. A celebrity that did, however, was Mayor John Peyton. It was the first time in 2006 that many locals saw the mayor anywhere.
· National “Go Skate Day” takes over downtown Jacksonville.
· Aaron Spelling died.
· Previous Crush owners take over Nosh at 9th & Main. 9th & Main’s owner, Craig Van Horn, once again changes up his whole concept. First it was Henrietta’s, featuring a delightful southern and Caribbean fusion cuisine. Craig shut that down and turned it into Nosh. Utilizing the great live room they had, they created a live music venue with a great sound system, a nice stage, and outstanding acoustics. But then there was some mix up that caused the whole place to get shut down. Finally Erika and Jeff, who had opened Crush in Riverside, took over the restaurant operations and have since resurrected the constantly in flux establishment.
· Italy Beats France in the World Cup
· Justin Barber’s murder trial. In 2002, Justin Barber and his young wife were celebrating their anniversary when she was murdered and he was shot by an “unknown assailant.” The trial was broadcast on Court TV and he was found guilty of the murder by a St. Augustine jury. Dateline NBC went on to showcase the trial and Barber’s story on their national broadcast.
· Mark Foley sex scandal hit the national press.
· Cecil Field debates. After the crushing blow of losing the Cecil Field Air Station, Jacksonville recouped from the damages and developers lept into action. FCCJ took over the facility for educational; purposes and neighborhoods started springing up around Chaffee Road and the surrounding areas. As these communities developed and more and more private citizens invested in their own property, Navy activist groups petitioned that the land be made available to the military again, although the military had shown no interest in taking advantage of it even if it was made available. Voters finally closed the issue by electing not to turn the land back over to the Navy.
· The Dive bar downtown opened.
· Randall Terry Ran for state senate.
· Fred Khalilian, owner of Jacksonville’s Club Paris, was arrested at the Beaches for refusing to pay his tab at The Ritz in Jacksonville Beach. The matter was resolved and the charges were dropped the following week.
· Conmoto Trench Festival. Jason Jewell of Bojack was in a terrible car wreck, but still managed to play the Trench Festival, bandages and all. More than 80 bands performed at 5 venues downtown, including Tuffy, Shangrala, Crash the Satellites, Julius Airwave, and Environmental Youth Crunch.
· Herschell Gordon Lewis hosted the first of the TALKIES series at the San Marco Theatre. He performed the theme song to his classic gore film Two Thousand Maniacs with local musician Chris Estes on banjo, then provided live commentary on the film.
· Jacksonville’s Shrug Records released its first 7 inch by Shana David.
· Jacksonville’s hip-hop documentary Grind 2 Shine debuted at the Florida Theatre.
· Jacksonville business owner sends video of a homeless man defecating in the streets of downtown Jacksonville to city councilmen. Local bloggers went wild.
· Google purchased You Tube $1.65 Billion.
· US Population reached 300 Million.
· Moon Colony Razorblade Closed its doors, proving downtown still not ready for retail.
· Nease High School got in trouble with the FHSAA for making improper deals with athletes.
· Democrats swept the midterm elections.
· Donald Rumsfeld Resigned.
· Robert Altman Died.
· Borat hit the big screen.
· Flagler City was the location of Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator” series. In this series reporter Chris Hansen baits sexual predators through Internet chat rooms and then captures them on tape in a private home where they come to engage in illicit acts with an underage girl and are subsequently arrested by local police. An area police sheriff was one of the predators caught during this investigation. The episode is scheduled to air in 2007.
by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
Most of the major food news this year had to do with heath scares and controversial new laws. Here’s the scoop on 2006’s food news and a rundown on some of the local eatery openings and closings.
In April of 2006, Chicago’s City Council voted to ban the sale of foie gras, effective August 2006. In response, several Chicago chefs have filed suit and deliberately violated the law by continuing to sell foie gras. Some chefs are serving foie gras without charge, which is not against the letter of the law. Even for establishments that are violating the law, the City is issuing warning letters but no citations. This month, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley referred to the ban as “the silliest law” the Council has ever passed.
Florida passed a new pet and food law in July, allowing dog owners to legally have their dogs in an outdoor eatery. Locally, Ole Mexican Restaurant near Regency Square partnered with Miss Daisy’s Delights, a gourmet pet bakery for Mutts & Margaritas on Monday nights.
September’s Spinach E. Coli scare had grocers pulling bagged spinach from the shelves. It was harder to find fresh spinach for a while; though organic markets like Native Sun Natural Food Market carried fresh bunches rather than bagged.
On December 5th New York City passed a law that will ban trans fats in all restaurants. By 2008 nothing with trans fats can be used as an ingredient and by July of 2007, no trans fat oil can be used in cooking. Since the rest of the country often follows New York’s lead and because many chains are based in New York, this will have a massive effect on the national food industry.
January
Pubwise Shannon’s Irish Pub held its grand opening in time for last year’s New Year’s and several other restaurants from the new Bartram Oaks Walk (Bistro 101, Blue Fin), made their mark in the Mandarin area in 2006. A new sports bar, Jerry’s Sports Grille provides a decent nosh for sports fans; it opened in January on Atlantic Boulevard near Hodges. Plaza III The Steakhouse opened at the Hyatt. The result of a partnership between Bob Green and Matthew Medure, the tapas bar Fuseboxx was hot as soon it hit the Southside scene.
February
Magellan’s Oceanfront Restaurant was converted into the more casual Breakwater Bar & Grille. Lighthouse Grille was closed to make room for waterside condos. Many lamented.
March
Takeya Japanese Steakhouse, Fusion and Sushi in Orange Park opened. Nosh replaced Henrietta’s in Springfield.
April
Layla’s of San Marco, a Middle Eastern themed hooka bar and eatery opened.
May
The owner and founder of European Street, Lewis N. Zarka, who established four European Street Cafe restaurants in Jacksonville died in a car accident.
June
Aurathai opened in Murray Hill. Justin Sellas, son of the owners of Taste of Thai, decided to open his own place with his own stamp on things. He named the restaurant to honor his mother Aurathai Sellas.
July
The Tasting Room opened in St. Augustine, owned by Christine & Michael McMillan and Michael Lugo of Opus 39.
September
Whale Bone Grille changed hands, becoming Ragland, with the same owners as Fuel.
October
Lily Bistro, across from St. Luke’s Hospital on Belfort closed. Chew, a righteously upscale sandwich bistro, opened downtown.
November
A team from the First Coast Technical Institute’s School of Culinary Arts became state champion. The competition tested basic cooking skills and methods. Also, Angelo’s, Arlington’s favorite Italian restaurant re-opened (SEE PAGE 15 for the full article).
December
Mojo Kitchen in Jacksonville Beach was opened this month by Todd Lineberry, who also owns the fab Mojo Bar-B-Que. The Chop House, serving upscale meat dinners, opened next to Tinseltown, in a location that seems to be ill-fated. It once housed Legendz, and less recently Gallery Bistro.
by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
At the beginning of 2006, everything looked bleak, musically. Bush’s war in Iraq was spurring all of these protest albums that were musically half-hearted. Instead of the traditional Green Day, we had the American Idiot Green Day which resorted to name-calling and flat attempts at depth. Instead of the funky fresh Beastie Boys, we had three old DJs slapping together a poorly concocted rap album, To the Five Burroughs full of political protest songs. These 2005 releases set the musical tone for 2006. We wanted to be the 60s. Iraq was becoming our Vietnam.
The final blow that determined that fact to be that case was the release of At War with the Mystics by The Flaming Lips. I was getting geared up for the first Flaming Lips live appearance in Florida in almost fifteen years down at a festival in the Everglades this spring when I finally purchased their new record. It was self-righteous and loaded with social and political messages. I don’t mind my favorite artists sharing their beliefs with me as an avid listener and fan, it brings me closer to them in a sense. But when the music isn’t up to par with the artist’s usual creativity and spends a great deal of time preaching to me, I grow disappointed. Normally I would listen to a new Flaming Lips album over and over, but the more I listened to At War with the Mystics, the more annoyed I grew. I finally gave the record away and decided not to buy tickets to the Florida show for fear that it would tarnish my memory of their last show.
I quickly decided that my search for good music was going to take me away from my traditional mainstays. So the hunt began. My friend Bob Maynard told me about an experimental, instrumental rock band that had John Stanier, the drummer for Helmet, Ian Williams, the guitarist for Don Cabelleros, and Tyondai Braxton, an experimental electronic musician and the son of jazz legend Anthony Braxton. I went to Inertia Records, the new record store in Five Points, and they had never heard of BATTLES. I looked around online and could only find their ambiguous website. I had no way of hearing them. So I did the unthinkable. I downloaded everything of theirs that I could find. That was still not very much music. So I went to Moon Colony Razorblade.
Moon Colony Razorblade opened a great record store downtown loaded with indie rock gems. This store affected much of my music experience in 2006. Many of my favorite albums of 2006 were purchased there. Because the store opened and closed this same year, Moon Colony is one of those experiences that is exclusive to 2006.
Johnny Cash – American V; A Hundred Highways
Flaming Lips – At War with the Mystics
Kind of Like Spitting – Bridges Worth Burning
BATTLES – EP/CB EP
Death From Above 1979 – You’re a Woman I’m a Machine
Emperor X – Central Hug/Friendarmy/Fractal Dunes
Built to Spill – You in Reverse
I had a lot of hope for the local music scene in 2006. In addition to Brass Castle being my hands-down favorite band of 2006, the Cadets were getting back together and working on a new album, and Shangrala had begun recording their first full-length. I also saw some great bands get together and split up. From Crash the Satellites kicking out Heath Valdez, one of Jacksonville’s best musicians, to Chinese Horses, this amazing and promising new instrumental band that never seemed to play when I would show up to their show, many lineups changed, but at least those bands stuck it out and are still making the music we love. The real disappointment is the bands that couldn’t even last a single year, in spite of their showmanship live.
The Yusge – This two-piece was just a drummer and a bassist, but they rocked. Not only did they have an uncanny ability to keep you interested with a perpetually changing series of hooks and bass lines, but they were high energy and mastered that clinging to the silence that makes a band sound tight even if they aren’t.
Animal Fight – The toast of the Conmoto Trench Festival, this highly anticipated band featured the recently wounded Jason Jewell, who had been in a near-death car accident less than three weeks before this performance, but still managed to rock solid, along with some of the Jacksonville punk scene’s staple performers such as Dylan Louvier, Mike Arnold, and Josh Dunn on keyboard and vocals.
Jet Fighter – This half serious half-kitsch band played anthemic songs that paid tribute to the eighties and made you laugh out loud. Like many bands in the River City, they fought over girls, control of the band, and egos. They finally split up sometime after the summer, although Alex Moore will sometimes still play as Jet Fighter.
New Berlin – This promising mix of Terry Case (once member of Trouble Is and Crash the Satellites), Cash Carter (of Cadets fame), and Amy Moore played minor-chord songs of postmodern complexity. Their music had a machine-like drone and Terry’s vocals gave it a texture that, while similar to Joe Parker from Hand of the Host, had a unique quality that likened it to something more contemporary. Unfortunately all of them had busy lives outside of the band that affected their ability to be inside of the band.
BATTLES
Death from Above 1979
My Toy Heart
Ultra Dolphins
Solid Pony
Holopaw
So all in all it has been a year, and from iPod to Myspace, the way people find their music is constantly changing, but the quality of music is not decreasing, it’s just that we do not have to rely on the major labels to provide it. My favorite playlist right now consists entirely of local music I have downloaded from Myspace. From the lo-fi hits of Tuffy to the always engaging new tracks from The Cadets and even some new recordings by Shangrala, there is plenty of new music available, it just takes a little more work in this new era. But your reward for that increased workload is music that suits your tastes more adequately. So you don’t have to say you like Coldplay just because everyone else does. You can find something that is your little secret and your friends will be amazed when they visit your Myspace and discover some band that really rocks, even if they never made the Billboard charts.
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