The Savannah Music Festival is generally pretty tight-lipped about its bookings until the entire lineup is unveiled late in the year, but sometimes director Rob Gibson drops names in his introductions of acts. Tonight, in his introduction to Masters of…
Month: March 2011
Savannah Music Festival review: Bela Fleck and the Marcus Roberts Trio
Bela Fleck and Marcus Roberts have been spoiling Savannah Musical Festival audiences for years now. Fleck, perhaps the world’s most important banjo player, seems to have found a second home with the SMF: 2011 marks his fifth appearance in the…
Population loss in older Savannah neighborhoods, gains in West Chatham
In last Tuesday’s City Talk column, I wrote about the increasing vacancy rates in Chatham County: According to the census in 2000, Chatham County had 99,863 housing units, with 9,818 vacant (about 9.8 percent). In 2010, the county had 119,323…
Savannah Music Festival review: Delta Guitar Slingers with Michael Burks, Lucky Peterson & Sherman Robertson
There were vicious storms and even hail blowing through the Savannah area just before 5 p.m. today, but there was still a packed house at the Morris Center for the Delta Guitar Slingers, featuring Michael Burks, Lucky Peterson, and Sherman…
Quick update on the Georgia banking crisis
Well it’s been a quiet few weeks for the FDIC. Only three banks in the entire country were closed in March, and there hasn’t been a bank in Georgia shut down since February 18th. Every week that goes by with…
Savannah Music Festival review: “African Interplay” with Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal and the Lionel Loueke Ensemble
The West African 21-stringed kora is one of the most extraordinary instruments I’ve ever heard. Too bad I haven’t heard it more often. To my western ears, it sounds like a mix of harp and harpsichord, maybe even banjo. The…
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: a review from the 2011 Savannah Music Festival
I was among the first ticket buyers for last night’s electric performance by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings at Trustees Theater on Broughton Street, so we were seated in the front row. Well, for a minute anyway. In a rarity…
The Savannah Music Festival: watching the audience
I’m going to be making a number of posts over the next couple of weeks about the Savannah Music Festival, which begins today. I’ve got tickets for tonight’s performance of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings — I’ll be disappointed…
About 26% of lottery ticket sales to HOPE, Pre-K — is it enough?
I have already written about the upcoming changes to Georgia’s HOPE scholarship program, and I wrote also about a failed alternative by Georgia Democrats to exclude the state’s wealthiest families from receiving scholarships. Today there’s a pretty good piece in…
Location-efficient communities and $4 gas
There’s a great new article up at Planetizen by Scott Bernstein of the Center for Neighborhood Technology: “$4 per Gallon Gas — Are We Ready?” It’s pretty clear that for many Americans, the answer to that question is a resounding…
“Black flight” rises along with “white flight”
I’m going to be writing a lot in upcoming columns and blog posts about the recently released census data for 2010. In my City Talk column this Tuesday, I’ll have something to say about the increase in the residential vacancy…
Official trailer for “The Conspirator”
I saw this at the Savannah Film Festival a few months ago and will post a mini-review before it’s released. Enjoy: The Conspirator: Official Site: Directed by Robert Redford.
City council’s compensation offer to Small-Toney
Well we’re nearing the end of a long, long process. Maybe. Acting city manager Rochelle Small-Toney, oddly using an Atlanta-based law firm, made some pretty ambitious demands of Savannah’s city council, but the mayor and aldermen wisely offered her a…
Generally good news in Georgia employment data for February
We’ve seen some ugly numbers in the employment data for Georgia over the last few years. The latest stats aren’t exactly glowing, but they do show some real improvement in the economy. For February, the state saw a year-over-year decline…