The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water will be released in the U.S. on Feb. 6, 2015, but that trailer is already out.

I don’t know how I feel about the mix of animation styles, but, as I’ve said before, I love the bright, cheery beach town look of Broughton Street in some of those shots. The buildings and streetscapes were altered so much by painting and production design that they appear to have been changed little via special effects. So the whole movie seems a little more “realistic” than I expected, despite SpongeBob SquarePants and his compatriots romping around and apparently saving the world.

Last year, I posted a gallery of Broughton Street when it was decked out as the beach town Salty Shoals.

I’ll repost that gallery here:

I’ve been swamped with things to do at Armstrong — that’s a key reason I’ve been relatively quiet here.

And I’m also working in some fashion almost daily on developing the Savannah-based music blog hissing lawns, the name of which is obviously inspired by one of Joni Mitchell’s great albums.

So far, a total of six of us have contributed to the blog in its first 3+ weeks. Among other things, Larry Jack Sammons is doing weekly updates of his pretty incredibly music calendar, Kayne Lanahan of Savannah Stopover and Revival Fest profiled the international up-and-comer Woodkid, and I have posted photos of from the Savannah Jazz Festival and from a few other recent shows, including Saturday’s great gig at The Jinx featuring Little Tybee, Paleface, and Triathalon.

I hope to add some other contributors and beef up other areas of the content in the coming weeks.

The blog is definitely finding an audience that I don’t typically reach. It looks like about 40 percent of hissing lawns’ readers aren’t even among my 3,000+ friends on Facebook (ridiculous, huh?).

So if you frequently stop here to catch up on music offerings around town, it looks like a lot of that content — including my photos — will be migrating over to hissing lawns, which also has a Facebook page and a Twitter.

Traffic on hissing lawns in the first three weeks has been all over the place — from a low of 31 page views on a day that no new posts were made to a high of 195 (we actually might pass that today). Those are pretty modest numbers, but I’m sure other Savannah bloggers know how hard it is to generate traffic in niches in a relatively small city like ours.

So that’s what’s going on. Thanks to all the readers who have supported and continue to support this blog.

Cheers, Bill

I have not yet seen that news in trade publications or on the movie’s IMDB page.

But dedicated readers of this blog knew that Banderas was one of the likely stars from my August 30th post.

Banderas, who just turned 53 and has been married to Melanie Griffith for 17 years, has had an extraordinary career, with 91 listings on his IMDB filmography.

Banderas’ first acting credits begin in 1982. Perhaps most worthy of note are the actor’s early roles in Pedro Almodovar films: Labyrinth of Passion (1982), Matador (1986), Law of Desire (1987), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990). Wow, what a great list of films — quirky, sexy, provocative, poetic, all those things at once and much more.

Banderas is perhaps better known in popular culture for his voice in various Shrek productions and for starring in two Zorro movies, but he’s done some other really great work outside of his films with Almodovar, including roles in Philadelphia (1993), Desperado (1995), and Interview with the Vampire (1994).

Those who were nonplussed by the entire SpongeBob announcement have a little more reason to pay attention.

And Banderas fans might want to take note that he’ll be playing Pablo Picasso in a Carlos Saura film scheduled for 2014 release. Gwyneth Paltrow will play Dora Maar.

Every one of those people seems to agree with me that we need not just one but probably several good music blogs that follow various aspects of the local and regional scene.

But none of those people have ever followed through.

So I’ve decided to forge ahead with some other contributors on a new music blog: hissing lawns.

The title alludes to Joni Mitchell’s classic album and song The Hissing of Summer Lawns. I have also created a Facebook page for hissing lawns.

Most of the posts will be of direct relevance to Savannah, but not all will. Many will be very short and be visible in their entirety on the home page. There will be lots of embedded media. I used the layout of Brooklyn Vegan as a starting point — that’s a design that should be mobile-friendly.

I know that some people have called Savannah Unplugged a music blog, but it’s not really that at all.

Pretty much daily, I see some music news that strikes me as worthy of publishing somewhere, but it’s often too specialized or too late or too offbeat to warrant a separate post on this site or a whole column in the Savannah Morning News.

And, while I don’t know the exact ages of all visitors to Savannah Unplugged, I do have some pretty good demographic data for the 1500+ people who like Savannah Unplugged’s Facebook page. People 24 and under make up 47.2 percent of all Facebook users (wow), but only 9.1 percent of those who “like” Savannah Unplugged are 24 and under (double wow).

So Savannah Unplugged a) is generally not reaching the young people who are key supporters of a local music scene and b) doesn’t provide a great platform for the music news that potential readers likely desire.

For example, consider the following things that have crossed my desk in recent days that are clearly worth passing along: Black Tusk going on a European tour, Little Tybee booking a Savannah gig, the indie label Furious Hooves putting out its first ever compilation for Cassette Store Day, etc., etc. If I did separate posts about all those things here, they’d simply overwhelm the rest of the content.

So I’m rounding up contributors to hissing lawns and hoping a number of them come through.

There are several newsy posts already up, with lots more content and a few other features on the way in the coming weeks.

I’ll still be posting some about music here, of course, as warranted. Some of you like news about festivals, like to see photo galleries, etc.

I don’t know that that is not true, but I doubt it.

However, we do know that Ocasek and wife Paulina Porizkova were in town for several days recently.

The couple were spotted at Love’s out on Highway 17 of all places, according to Jesse Blanco’s Eat It and Like It recently in the Savannah Morning News.

And it seems that Ocasek and Porizkova have some connection with the owners of one of Savannah’s fine downtown homes, where they recently spent some time.

Once I became aware of their visit, I half expected to hear all sorts of news about their trips out and about, but I haven’t heard much of substance at all.

So while it’s always possible that they were here shopping for a new home, I’d say it’s more likely they were just playing tourist, like so many ordinary Americans do.

If Ocasek and Porizkova did want to buy a home, they’d be in good company. Other stars who have purchased property in the Savannah metro area over the years, include Sandra Bullock, John Mellencamp, Cliff Williams of AC/DC, and Gregg Allman.

Tybee Island, located on Georgia’s coast right near the South Carolina border, is known for its relaxing, laid back atmosphere, great seafood, and breathtaking views — 272 of its 499 votes were awarded in the “Most Beautiful” category.

Yes, rankings like this are sort of silly and obviously arbitrary, but they aren’t meaningless. They’re good PR, plain and simple.

I find it a little odd that the brief blurb doesn’t mention the proximity of Savannah. Some other towns are on the list are pretty close to larger cities, but I don’t know if any are as close as Tybee is to Savannah. And it’s not so easy to get to Tybee in a way that avoids Savannah.

But no matter. Coming from a publication like Business Insider rather than the usual travel sites and magazines, the mention might carry a little weight — no matter if we agree or not.

Let me also add that three Kentucky towns made the list, two of which aren’t so far from the smallish city of Frankfort where I grew up.

Denton, Texas tops the list but Danville, Kentucky is #2, Bardstown is #3, and Murray is #4.

Acheson owns Five and Ten and The National in Athens and Empire State South in Atlanta. He also has won the James Beard Foundation Award.

From the interview:

Letâ€s talk about your new restaurant in Savannah. How did you decide on Italian?

Savannah has had iconic restaurants throughout the years but can use some new blood, and I wanted to stay in Georgia. Kyle Jacovino (the executive chef to-be) [whose currently at Five and Ten] is Italian by heritage and recently spent time in Italy. I believe in the Italian style of cooking and in the beauty of food. Iâ€ve been cooking French for so long that itâ€s nice to break away and do something different. Thereâ€s a definite kinship between beautifully sourced Southern food and the way Italians have cooked for years. Thereâ€s a reverence for simplicity on both sides.
Think about restaurants like City House in Nashville and Il Buco Alimentari in New York …

What type of menu items will you serve?

A lot of local seafood because Tybee Island and Brunswick, Ga., are right there, and we can get some awesome product. Wood-fired oven cooking. Beautiful octopus. Local shrimp. Anson Mill southern grains like farro. Double Zero flour for pizzas. Itâ€ll be a restaurant that appeals to you for a number of reasons. Weâ€ll have 12-inch pizzas, pastas, and vegetable courses.

When I have double-confirmed the proposed location (assuming that anyone will go on the record), I’ll post an update here. Hint: Acheson notes that the building was an ice house at one point in its history.

UPDATE: Jesse Blanco has a post here. And Hugh Acheson has tweeted confirmation that the restaurant will be part of the One West Victory development, on Victory Drive near the intersections of Bull and Whitaker:

Working on it. #savannah instagram.com/p/X77N4DnEBW/

— hugh acheson (@HughAcheson) April 10, 2013

Click here for more on the One West Victory development.

I recapped the entire event in my glowing Unplugged column last week in Do in the Savannah Morning News, so here I’m just going to make some random observations and attach an album of the photos that I’d say are my favorites from the weekend.

But first, a taste of Paste’s writeup:

Canadian Mac DeMarco was one of [the highlights], posturing like a crazed frontman and mixing 80s metal covers into his original material, inciting moshing, screaming and stagediving from a packed crowd at The Jinx. Brooklynâ€s Christopher Paul Stelling had a more intimate show, arriving just seconds before his set but still managing to beguile those in attendance. His awe-inspiring guitar fingering and arresting voice, which was simultaneously smooth and guttural, was worth the trip alone. But the crown jewel of the festival for me, and likely for most, was seeing of Montreal play beneath a makeshift band shell in Forsyth Park on a warm, star-filled spring night.

Of Montreal is from Athens, Ga. just a few hours away, but this was their first time playing a set in Savannah. Based on the enthusiastic—borderline chaotic—response from the crowd, I think theyâ€ll be back. A heavily danceable set had everyone, from diehard fans and local families to curious passersby, moving with the music.

For the record, here are the acts that I saw — anywhere from a single song to the entire set:

Thursday:
The Last Bison, Ben Sollee, William Tyler, Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, Chelsea Light Moving featuring Thurston Moore, Delicate Steve, Naomi Punk, Mac DeMarco

Friday:
Sam Sniper, Filligar, Heyrocco, this mountain, PUJOL, of Montreal, Alex Bleeker & The Freaks, The Suzan, Country Mice, BRAIDS

Saturday: this mountain, Field Report, Blessed Feathers, The Wild Feathers, Autumn Owls, Little Tybee, Bear Fight!, Royal Canoe, Fine Peduncle, Filligar, Dent May, Roadkill Ghost Choir, Jonathan Toubin’s Soul Clap & Dance Off

Sunday at the VIP and band brunch: Jamison Murphy, Lovely Locks

And there are so many more I wish I had seen.The venues this year were well chosen for their proximity, but I still couldn’t be as many places at once as I would have liked.

I took pictures — at least one or two — of each of the bands I saw, but a few of the venues were really not suitable for quality photography unless you’re sporting some super pricy equipment (and maybe not even then). I’m in love with the fact that Hang Fire has music again, but there no lights on the band. None. B&D Burgers’ stages — both inside and out — are poorly lit, and the stages at Congress Street Social Club are only a little better. Taco Abajo has enough light, but the cartoonish backdrop and structural pillars are problematic. I hope the lighting is something the venues themselves might address sooner rather than later — they certainly won’t see many appealing shots of bands at their venues if they don’t address the lighting problems. More importantly, I think the average music lover prefers venues that have more light on the band than on the audience . . .

Of course, the Savannah Stopover is all about the music, not the lighting, and one of my few complaints would be that we need even more music. Few folks turned out for early Saturday afternoon shows a year ago, so it made sense to wait and start the music this year at 4 p.m.. But I think crowds will eventually support sets from noon or 1 p.m. onward. And I hope that next year we’ll see Friday and Saturday night sets that run right up till last call. With all the venues seeming to run more or less on schedule — a rare feat in Savannah — I sort of ran out of music before I ran out of energy on the last two nights.

I also haven’t quite wrapped my head around the fact that so many young Savannahians in the Stopover’s target demographic don’t seem to quite know what the festival is yet. The Savannah Music Festival has had some similar issues. But it’s hard to blame the festivals. Both the Savannah Morning News and Connect Savannah had extensive coverage in advance of the Stopover; the Stopover has a robust social media game; people like me with literally thousands of social media contacts were routinely posting about it. But on the Friday afternoon that of Montreal was scheduled to play in Forsyth, a Facebook friend of mine — a young, intelligent, gay college student who would obviously be interested in that performance — updated his status with shock and surprise about the show. How did he miss that crucial news for so many weeks? How can people like him be reached? Will it just take a few more years to get the festival ingrained in the local culture?

By the way, rather than rely on my press connection, I bought a VIP pass for the event — just $120 — which included a significant number of free drinks, plus access to the Stopover recording sessions at Dollhouse Productions, to the artists’ lounge above The Sparetime, and to the final brunch on Sunday afternoon at one of the best party houses in town.

What. A. Bargain.

If the Stopover is ever forced to restrict photography as some festivals have been, I might need to go for the press credentials, but I’m happy to support such an amazing event and I prefer the freedom that comes with paying my own way.

I’ve already done separate posts about some of the acts that I caught: Mac DeMarco, The Suzan, Chelsea Light Moving, Filligar, Little Tybee, and The Last Bison. But there were plenty of others that excited me.

Among the standouts that I was seeing for the first time were Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, Field Report, William Tyler, Filligar, and The Suzan.

I’ve seen both this mountain and Heyrocco multiple times, but they never cease to impress.

I’m going to post a much larger collection of photos to the Savannah Unplugged Facebook page in a day or two, so please like that page if you want to see that update and others.

So here are some of my favorite shots from the 2013 Savannah Stopover. Click for larger versions or open using Cooliris. If you hover over a pic, you can see the act and the location.

For these and more pics — many of dubious quality — click here for a Facebook album.