Jim Lasley
Article Category: Get Out Of Town
Disneyland, 1962 — New Mexico, 2009 — Wherever, 2010 By James Lasley http://www.jlasley.com/ Travel is the spice of life, they say. In the summer of 1962, my father and I hitchhiked 2,512 miles from North Carolina to Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The “spicy” mode of transportation was Dad’s idea. He could have said, “Son, we’lll fly to Disneyland on the back of a dairy cow” and in five minutes I’d have been packed and waiting at the door. You... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: 20 Questions
Jason Santini of Happy Healthy Human • Tobin Bennison • It’s hard to imagine now, but three short years ago Jason Santini was one unhappy, unhealthy human. Once he adopted a raw vegan diet he began to feel worlds better, both physically and mentally. So dramatic were the changes he experienced that Santini decided to spread his newfound love of raw food’s benefits to the community through Happy Healthy Human, the co-op he now owns and operates. Located in Indian Harbour Beach, HHH... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Jeff “Cynic” Noble • Tobin Bennison • Most visual artists will tell you that their most precious creative tool is imagination, the ability to give shape to formless thoughts and emotions. Imagination certainly plays a major role in artist Jeff Noble’s eye-popping, graffiti-informed work, but he’s more likely to cite everyday observation as the true mother of creation. “I’m constantly observing,” he says, “and not just visually, but listening,... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
BEACHSIDE BARBECUE You’d think that the last thing anyone would want to do in this infernal heat is stand over a hot grill flipping slabs of meat. But that’s human nature for you. We’re as willing to sweat over a fire in 98-degree weather as we are to do a few early morning backstrokes in a frozen lake in the dead of winter. Logic? We toss that out with reams of sauce-stained paper towels while decrying everyone else’s wasteful ways. After all, it’s barbecue, and Americans... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
The Shark Pit Bar & Grill • Tobin Bennison • For all our easygoing, open-minded reputation is worth, beachside residents can certainly be a prejudiced bunch, especially when it comes to how far we’ll go for a good meal. For the majority of us, a hungry drive to the mainland becomes a begrudging sojourn that usually ends at one of the many reliable, albeit characterless chains. Limited beachside, and all safe options exhausted, the last place we’d look for sustenance is in a... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: 20 Questions
Don Ryan of Surfers for Autism • Tobin Bennison • Last September, we interviewed Surfers For Autism President Don Ryan on the eve of what proved to be a huge event for area children and families touched by autism. Autism, or ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), is the fastest-growing developmental disorder in the nation and affects 1 in 150 American children. While the exact cause is unknown, autistic children face tremendous challenges in communicating and are often socially withdrawn. But Surfers... [Read more...]
Vern Hobbs
Article Category: Get Out Of Town
Toronto • Words and photos by Vern Hobbs • “They walk among us, undetected,” warned the stoic TV reporter, thus inspiring Sheriff Bud Boomer’s ridiculous invasion of Canada. “Canadian Bacon,” the 1995 cinematic gaffe that might explain director Michael Moore’s switch from comedies to documentaries was not my reason for traveling to Canada, but it was on my mind as we descended toward Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson Airport. Pearson, like many metropolitan... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Derek Gores • Tobin Bennison • There’s a good chance you’ve seen some of Derek Gore’s work without realizing it. Having spent more than a decade in the corporate art world after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, the Melbourne-based artist has produced designs for clients like Lucasfilm, U2, Sublime, the NFL, ESPN, Major League Baseball, and Reebok, to name a scant few. Gores was also one of fifteen artists selected for the 2009 Manifest Hope exhibition prior... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
Sun On The Beach • Tobin Bennison • Taken at face value, there’s not much to distinguish Sun on the Beach from other east coast Florida diners, hundreds of which pepper the shore that stretches from Fernandina Beach to Key West. You’ll notice that it is closer to the ocean than most independently owned diners — it is, in fact, one of two with ocean views between Cocoa Beach and Vero — but beyond that, everything about its outward appearance hews to the common model,... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Bruce Williamson • Tobin Bennison • Give enough time, everything comes back around again. It’s one of the more vague maxims out there, but it holds particular relevance for Bruce Williamson, a Cocoa Beach-based surf artist whose incredible 40-year career has recently come full circle. Known during the ’70s — as now — for the dreamlike qualities of his colorful airbrushed designs, Williamson got his start custom painting cars with fantastical tableaux and accents, so... [Read more...]
