For the past l2 years, local community organizers have made a dream come true for children and youth from Gifford and other underserved areas in Indian River County. Backpacks filled with new school supplies have been given to children to help prepare them for school and create a positive new beginning to their school year. Previously held at the Gifford Community Center, this year’s “Back to School” drive will be held at the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office due to the need for more space. The event will take place at 4055 41st Street, Vero Beach on Saturday, July 3l from l0:00 a.m. to l2:00 p.m. County Commissioner Joe Flesher will open the event introducing Freddie Woolfork of the Gifford Youth Activities Center. The l2th Annual “Back to School” is being coordinated by the Gifford Youth Activity Center, River Fund/Feed Everyone, By the River, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Department and the Visiting Nurse Association. Festivities include booths for activities and product samples, healthy food and snacks, music, face painting and a fitness program called ZumbaWorks.

 
All donations are accepted and appreciated. Requested items include paper, tablets, pencils, pens, 3-ring binders, erasers, folders with pockets and monetary contributions. 2010 distribution of backpacks will go to grades: K-2 (300), 3-5 (200), 6-9 (250) and grades l0-l2 (50 backpacks). “Back to School” is a highlight of every student’s school year, complete with surprises and much needed new school supplies.
 
“It will be a great day with music, food and face painting and that very special feeling all of us remember when opening a brand new box of crayons, a new backpack and the start of a new school year,” said Ananda Devi, The River Fund’s Feed Everyone Program Director.
Individuals and business may donate supplies at the following drop off locations:

– Let’s Fill 800 Children’s Backpacks with New School Supplies –
 
            Gifford Youth Activity Center
            Indian River County Sheriff’s Office
            Indian River County North and South County Libraries
            Gifford Church
            Living Lord Lutheran Church
            Westminster Presbyterian Church
            Comcast Vero Beach
            Eye Clinic of Vero Beach (Miracle Mile)
            Christ by the Sea
            Curves in Sebastian
 
Freddie Woolfork, development director at the Gifford Youth Activity Center said this is not only about distributing supplies, but also providing information about community services and encouraging literacy. “Everyone comes together to help kids in our area. Parents want to give their kids the best and that’s not always possible. We hope the kids are happy, the parents are happy and that the event is fantastic.” 
 
For more information or to donate, please contact Ms. Ananda Devi at 772-589-8334.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Judyth Piazza chats with Jane Faraco, Executive Chef at STAX Restaurant, Vero Beach, Florida (Click here to listen)

Executive Chef Jane Faraco, husband Chef Jim along with son-in-law Josh Niebels are stacked for success.

The trio recently opened STAX, located at 1931 Old Dixie Highway, which was the former site of The Undertow Restaurant on April 22 with the intent to immerse themselves in the urban downtown area of Vero Beach, Florida.

After the Faracos sold their New Hope, PA restaurant Havana and retired to Vero Beach, the couple knew that they still had something to give to the community.

“I got the concept for STAX after watching Emeril and his ability to stack and layer flavors. This is one of the things that makes STAX unique,” said Jane.

STAX is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

STAX Restaurant

1931 Old Dixie Highway

Vero Beach, FL 32960

(772) 770-0977

Popularity: 2% [?]

Florida’s most exciting and fun genre convention continues to add more guests and events for the 5th annual Florida Supercon, set to occur June 18-20, 2010 in Miami, FL. Dozens of new guests and events have been added from the worlds of Comic Books, Anime, Animation, Sci-Fi, Cosplay, Horror, Video Games and Wrestling with more still to be announced as we get closer to the show!
 
Florida Supercon (FSC) is South Florida’s Comic Book, Anime, Animation, Video Game and Sci-Fi / Fantasy Festival, a three day festival that includes celebrity guests, comic book publishers, artists, writers, vendors, Q&A’s, parties, costume contests, anime programming, cosplay, panels, photo shoots, live music, video games and more. The event kicks off at 12:00PM, Friday, June 18 and the fun continues almost around the clock until 6:00PM, Sunday, June 20. FSC returns to Miami for its 5th year as it takes over almost 150,0000 square feet at the Doubletree Miami Mart Airport Hotel and Convention Center to become the largest genre convention in the history of South Florida!
 
New guest artists include:
·         Gene Colan: Legendary Comic Book Artist whose career has spanned 1946 to the present. Gene is well known for his work on Iron Man (including the classic Iron Man #1), Batman, Daredevil, Tomb of Dracula, Captain America, Doctor Strange and much more!
·         Greg Horn: Superstar Comic Book Artist Greg Horn is well known for his painted work at both Marvel and DC including: Secret Invasion, Blackest Night, Ms. Marvel, Green Lantern, Anita Blake, Iron Man, She-Hulk and more!
·         Jay Leisten: Current inker of Uncanny X-Men and Moon Knight for Marvel Comics. Jay’s other credits include Dark X-Men, Witchblade, Wolverine, New Avengers and much more!
·         Echo Chernik: Echo has over fifteen years of experience as a professional commercial artist who has done work for Celestial Seasonings, Arlo Guthrie, Miller Brewing Co., Camel Cigarettes and more.
·         Luis Diaz: Luis has worked as an illustrator, designer and fine artist for IDW Publishing (Wynonna Earp), Devil’s Due, Topps, WWE and more. He has created over 40 paintings for the new Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages card sets.
 
New guest celebrities include:
 
·         Robb Demarest: The lead investigator for Ghost Hunters International, Robb can be seen weekly on the Syfy channel investigating the paranormal.
·         Brandy Green: A case manager for Ghost Hunters International, Brandy can be seen weekly on the Syfy channel investigating the paranormal.
·         Luciana Carro: Star of Battlestar Galactica as “Kat” and Caprica as “Pyrah”.
·         The Iron Sheik: Wrestling Legend, former WWF World Heavyweight Champion, WWF Tag Team Champion and WWE Hall of Fame member.
·         Greg “The Hammer” Valentine: Wrestling Legend, former WWF Tag Team Champion, WWF Intercontinental Champion, NWA Champion and WWE Hall of Fame member.
·         Terri Runnels: Former WWF, WWE and WCW manager, host and wrestler. Terri was one of the first WWE divas.
·         Traci Brooks: TNA Wrestling star, Traci is the original TNA Knockout!
·         SoCal Val: TNA Wrestling star.
 
New Musical Guests include:
·         Addax: Indie Power Pop band
·         Feeding Fingers: Post Punk / New Wave trio
·         The Joyness: Pop / Folk Rock band
·         S.S. Hanami: Anime Rock band
 
New Cosplay Guests include:
·         Yaya Han: Cosplay Guest Yaya Han is a costume designer and cosplay entertainer with over 9 years of experience and over 100 costumes under her belt. Her intricate and lavish creations have won awards and acclaim nationwide.
·         Miracole Burns: Model, Professional Makeup Artist, Costume Designer and Uber Nerd!
 
More information for each of these guests may be found at the FSC website www.supercon.tv. These new guests join a line up of over 100 guests already announced for the show, and that number continues to grow every week. Some of the guests already lined up for FSC 2010 include:
 
Comic Book artists and writers such as Ariel Olivetti, Gene Colan, Bill Sienkiewicz, Khoi Pham, Rafa Sandoval, Dennis Calero, Brad Walker, Paul Gulacy, Fred Van Lente, Filip Sablik, Georges Jeanty, Dick Giordano, Dustin Weaver, Steve Kurth, Shawn Crystal, Joe Jusko, Greg Horn, Allen Bellman, Clayton Henry, Alex Saviuk, Pat Broderick, Rob Hunter, Greg “Dark One” Williams, Vinnie Tartamella, Dick Kulpa, Jay Leisten, Luis Diaz and more!
 
Anime and Animation voice actors like Troy Baker (Naruto, Code Geass), Richard Horvitz (Invader Zim), Larry Kenney (Thundercats), Brittney Karbowski (Xenosaga, Pani Poni Dash), Dana Snyder (Aqua Teen), Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit), Brad Kesten (Charlie Brown), Angela Lee-Sloan (Lucy in Peanuts), Stacy H. Tolkin (Sally in Peanuts) and more!
 
Legendary Filmmakers Lloyd Kaufman and Hershell Gordon Lewis. 
 
Movie and TV Celebrities such as Tia Carrere (Wayne’s World, Relic Hunter), Robb Demarest (Ghost Hunters International), Brandy Green (Ghost Hunters International), Luciana Carro (Battlestar Galactica), John Wesley Shipp (The Flash), Charles Fleischer (Back to the Future II), Julie McCullough (Growing Pains, The Blob), Louise Robey (Friday the 13th the series), Rebecca Staab (Fantastic Four), Michelle Lintel (The Black Scorpion) and more!
 
Wrestling Guests such as The Iron Sheik (WWF), Greg “The Hammer” Valentine (WWF), Sinn “Kizarny” Bodhi (WWE), Terri Runnels (WWE), Traci Brooks (TNA) and SoCal Val (TNA).
 
Musical Guests like MC Frontalot, Addax, Feeding Fingers, The Joyness, S.S. Hanami, Robbed By A Flute, Sci-Fried, The Pursuit, Murderous Rampage and more!
 
Cosplay and Entertainment Guests such as Yaya Han, Miracole Burns, The 3000 Brigade (Smash Bros. Show), Supercon Championship Wrestling, Wasabi Anime and more!
 
Stand Up Comedy Guests like Lisa Corrao, The Revenge of the Nerds Comedy Show, Julie McCullough and more!
 
Additional guests can be found at on the Florida Supercon website at www.supercon.tv
 
This years FSC will have dedicated programming tracks for each of the genre’s being celebrated. Some of the amazing events include:
        Q&A’s with most of our attending guests
       Comic art portfolio reviews for aspiring artists
       Fan panels for all aspects of the show (Comics, Anime, Animation, Sci-Fi etc.)
       Industry panels for breaking into Comics, Anime, Animation etc…
       The FSC Costume Competition (with over $3,000 in cash and prizes)
     The FSC Cosplay Skit Contest
       Rumble Roses Cosplay Wrestling
       The Otaku Insomnia Rave
       Cosplay Deviant’s Hentai Cafe
       Cosplay RockBand
       Supercon Championship Wrestling’s “Supercon Mania!”
        The Smash Brothers 3000 Super Show
      Filmmaking workshops with Hershell Gordon Lewis
      The FSC Film Festival
        Live Musical Performances
        Live stand up comedy
       Over 100 video game stations
       Video game tournaments
      A 50,000 square feet exhibition room with over 400 booths and tables featuring vendors, celebrity guests, artists, filmmakers and exhibits.
 
Complete information on these and dozens of more events taking place all weekend can be found at www.supercon.tv
 
The convention hours of operation are:
FRIDAY, JUNE 18: 12:00PM – 2:00AM
SATURDAY, JUNE 19: 11:00AM – 2:00AM
SUNDAY, JUNE 20: 11:00AM – 6:00PM
 
FSC is located at The Double Tree Miami Airport Hotel and Convention Center,
711 NW 72nd Ave, Miami, FL 33126. Discounted room rates for convention

Popularity: 1% [?]

Underfloor heating is not a modern discovery. The practice was popular in ancient Rome, where architects used an elaborate duct system under specially designed floors. There were, basically, two separate floors, with space in between, through which, using an array of ducts, heated steam or water used to be passed. The heat or steam heated up the floor by convection, which then radiated heat into the room, bottom up, making the room warm all the way to the ceiling. Unlike fireplaces and radiators, which produce heat by radiation, convection heat lasted longer, and since it came from the floor, it was much more warming.

The practice was lost to European history, and only recently have archeologists digging in Roman sites realized how widely it was practiced. But the same practice, in another name, went on in Korea, too. People here used very similar technology to heat up their homes, and from Korea, the practice spread to Japan and elsewhere. The great American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, decided to use the same technology when he was building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

Underfloor heating saves money for you by making room heating more efficient. As mentioned, underfloor heating first heats up the floor of your room. The heated floor retains heat much longer, and more efficiently, than heated air. So underfloor heating is more efficient than fireplaces and radiators, which heat up the air in your room to keep it warm.

If you want to make your room have underfloor heating, you can order special flooring material that creates the necessary structure for underfloor heating. The setup will involve some sort of a steam or water boiler outside or under the house, which will pass warm water or air through the ducts and vents in the floor. Using this, you will be able to save a great deal of energy expenses.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Judyth Piazza chats with Highwaymen, Jimmy Stovall (Click here to listen)

“The Highwaymen” is a name I’ve given to a group of black artists working on the East coast of Florida from approximately 1955 to the present. So called because their marketing and sales strategy consisted of traveling the highways and byways of central Florida peddling their paintings out of the back of their cars.

Although I’ve identified nearly twenty of these artists still living, they are, for the most part, unknown and have not received credit for their contribution to Florida’s art tradition. In fact, it was these artists who were the bare bones beginning for Florida’s resident/regional art tradition. Further, their paintings met a growing demand for regional Florida art and served to encourage what has become the Indian River school of painting, perhaps the only school or movement within the state that is recognizable as such.

The story of the Highwaymen begins with one man, now deceased, who has come to be known as the dean of Florida landscape painters, A. E. “Bean” Backus of Fort Pierce. I use the admittedly arbitrary date of 1950 as a point of beginning because that was the year Bean married Patsy Hutchinson and his career began to blossom. Unfortunately, Patsy died of complications following heart surgery in 1955. Bean’s love from then on was painting. He devoted himself to his art, the daily consumption of a quantity of rum, good conversation, and good friends.

Although Bean was a white Southerner during a time when racial equality was not yet taken seriously, he was a friend to all. This characteristic, coupled with a natural Bohemian bent, made him the perfect mentor to a group of young black men who had noted the apparent ease with which he made a living. Painting, for them, was perceived as being a way out of the fields and groves.

Most of these young men were content to learn by osmosis, by observation. Bean’s studio became a place to congregate. One seemed more eager to learn than the others. His name was Alfred Hair. To my knowledge, Alfred was the only one of this group of black men to take formal lessons from Bean and even accompanied him to the Bahamas on occasion.

Apparently Alfred had an entrepreneurial spirit because he later organized some of the others who had hung around Bean’s studio and began to “mass produce” Florida landscape paintings. They were usually done on Upsom board with whatever materials were at hand, including house paint.

It seems that Alfred employed specialists. Some were tree painters, some painted only skies, others did water. Who signed the paintings was of little concern to anyone.

Unfortunately, Alfred Hair was killed in a barroom brawl. Lacking his organizational skills, most of the others went their own ways and began to paint and sell for themselves. Not all of these artists were content to paint by formula. Some went on to develop their talents and skills and have gained respectable reputations. Some retained the highway sales technique.

A few of the more capable artists in this group are Harold Newton, now incapacitated by a stroke, George Buckner, still painting and selling near the thousand dollar range (George and his brother Ellis, now deceased, once operated a gallery in Coral Gables) and Al Black, who in my opinion most typifies the Highwaymen.

Somewhere I’ve heard it said that one sure road to success is to “find a need and fill it”. These black artists did just that. Whether we are willing to accept their work as “art” or not is an argument I won’t make. I do know that by painting for the marketplace they inadvertently created an awareness of and appreciation for Florida regional art. They deserve recognition for that contribution.

The American Perspective is a cutting edge radio program that is full of inspiration and information. It’s intended to help people succeed in life. Each week the American Perspective features celebrity guests from around the nation such as Zig Ziglar, Yolanda King, Billy D. Williams, Tony Little, Mark Victor Hansen, Dave Ramsey and many many more.

“It’s the next generation of Inter-tainment”

For More information: judy@thesop.org

Source: The Student Operated Press

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com

Popularity: 1% [?]