Folio Weekly is a finalist in two categories of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) awards announced May 22.

In column writing for publlications with less than 50,000 circulation, Editor Denise M. Reagan was selected as one of three finalists for three Editor's Notes submissions:

Between a Nugget and a Hard Place: Chick-fil-A president’s right to voice same-sex marriage stance is just as sacrosanct as equal rights

In the Mouths of Babes: Smoking continues its hold on youth and young adults

Adopting a New Idea: The holidays are a good time to take in a stranger

In cover design for the less than 50,000 circulation category, Chad Smith, Walter Coker and Reagan were selected as finalists for three pages (see photos above):

Fall Arts Preview, Sept. 11, 2012

Jim Draper, Dec. 11, 2012

Antique Animals, Dec. 18, 2012

Every year, AAN honors reporters, artists, columnists, photographers, web producers, editorial assistants, creative directors, …More

Have you ever gone to an art gallery and wanted to give the artist a piece of your mind? With “Chalk It Up,” that’s the whole point.

“Chalk It Up” at MOCA Jacksonville will allow viewers to interact with art. It is created and curated by five students who are in “The Gallery Space in Contemporary Society” class at the University of North Florida: Anastasia Arango, Xenia Davidoff, Rebecca Ladd, Danielle Micklos and Elizabeth Taber.

Visitors will be provided with chalk to add to the exhibit. It will be part of the regular programming on the museum floor, which is sponsored by Florida Blue. 

Allison Galloway, the director of education for MOCA, worked with the students to create the exhibit.

“There will be questions on the wall, and the viewers can answer them by drawing pictures or words on the walls,” Galloway said. “Every week, there is a different theme, and the question will really make the visitors …More

SHRIMP BOIL

Sunday afternoon (live music on the deck 4-8 p.m.)

Whitey’s Fish Camp, 2032 C.R. 220, Orange Park

Price: $15.99

269-4198, whiteysfishcamp.com

Nothing quite says summer like a low-country boil on the water. With live music wafting through the air, a breeze blowing through your hair and a frosty beverage in your hand, Whitey’s is the perfect spot to unwind. Shrimp are served with pieces of potatoes, spicy sausage and corn on the cob — a finger-licking-good spread, bebe.

DIPPED SOFT-SERVE VANILLA ICE CREAM CONE

Dreamette, 3646 Post St., Murray Hill

Price: $2.40 for a small cone

379-4343, facebook.com/dreamette

Cones, shakes and banana splits, oh my! This neighborhood spot is perfect for cooling off on a hot summer day — good thing the cones have a little plastic drip-guard. The soft-serve vanilla is dipped in your choice of flavored coatings (butterscotch, cake batter, chocolate, etc.). For 65 years, …More

Q: I have a printer problem but not with how it works: it's the cost of operation. We bought two inkjet printers for my kids to use in college. While the printers were very cheap to purchase, they have been very expensive to operate.  I am not sure which cost more - college tuition or the ink for the printers! Now that the kids have graduated, I would really like to find a printer that’s inexpensive to run and has decent print quality for occasional home use. Any ideas?

A: Inkjet printers are often cheap to buy, but they are notoriously expensive to maintain. When I was working for a certain office supply company years ago, I learned that the companies that make the printers actually make their money off selling the ink. But here's a question for you, how much do you really need to print? That question may sound crazy but, do you have a mobile device that could replace whatever you are using the printer for? In my house, we hardly print anything anymore because we have …More

So you're Alvin Brown, mayor of a city that's continually recognized for producing one of the best jazz festivals in the country. And your list of past headliners reads like a who's who of the genre: Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Buddy Guy, Herbie Hancock, Diane Schuur, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Rosemary Clooney, Chuck Mangione, Miles Davis, Al Jarreau, Diana Krall.

Of course, you want to take the Jacksonville Jazz Festival to the next level, but your loyal constituents tell you it's simply not possible and beg you not to try. Except that you are Alvin "Next Level" Brown: Do they just expect you to throw up your jazz hands and give up or, in the alternative, throw in the tight-weave, cotton cloth towel that one might use to clean a trumpet and say "I quit"? 

Of course not! If you're the Alvin Brown we know, you're going to find a way to take the Jazz Festival to another level, maybe not a higher level, but certainly a different level.

Hence, the debut of …More

The Players Championship was perfect, if you like redemption narratives. Tiger Woods found his mojo and his form, and his body looked better than it has in years. As someone who spent a lot of the 1990s watching athletes perform in everything from pro baseball to professional wrestling achieve these flawless physiques, I felt a stir of recognition. Woods isn't a young man anymore, but his pecs were impeccable, and his victory at The Players restored the sanctity of his narrative. Nike's new Tiger Woods shoes, for example, were hot sellers before the win. Now? Good luck finding them, even at $180.

America loves a winner. But what happens when winners don't win or stop winning? Things get real. That brings us to the story of Vijay Singh — one of the best golfers in the world at one point — who's making news these days more for scandal than for anything he does on the course. At 50 years old, Singh tied for 78th at The Players and came out of the event no richer than he …More

It’s been a week since One Spark began, and just a few days since it concluded. Touted as “the world’s first crowdfunding festival,” a lot of hard work and high hopes went into the five-day event. Media outlets all over Northeast Florida covered the festival, and Folio Weekly was no exception.

I covered 10 out of the dozen speakers flown in from all over the world for the One Spark Speaker Series. I learned the importance of being a generalist rather than a specialist from Leslie Jensen-Inman. I was schooled by Jessica Sherok on how “Facebook Isn’t Your Friend” (I immediately changed all of my privacy settings). Martin Atkins shed light on just how difficult traversing the music business is — he also threw blueberry muffins into the crowd and used the f-bomb at least a hundred times.

When I wasn’t at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts’ Terry Theater, I was in the media room at the Dalton Agency blogging and …More