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Click here to read the entertainment guide for June 2022! Happy Pride!

Jake Fairbanks As we approach the summer of 2022, the numbers of attendees of the Northeast Florida beaches are steadily rising, coming off an unsteady two summers from the impact of COVID-19. The shark attack capital of the world, Florida, is also seeing a descending number of new employees at your local Ocean Rescue agencies. In March of 2020, we’ve witnessed the closing of Duval county beaches in an effort to prevent the spread of the Corona Virus and practice social distancing. Understandably, all Ocean Rescue agencies had to cancel or significantly limit their operations. Tyler Lead, a local beach …

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            Let me start off by telling you how much shrimp I eat: A LOT, but it wasn’t until a international journalism course with Professor Nicolas Tatro that I really began to question the source of my seafood and the importance of sourcing seafood locally. Shrimping has been a vital aspect of Northeast Florida’s commerce since the early 1900s when Greek boat builders Michael Tiliakos and Demetrios Deonas moved to Fernandina Beach. Using larger engined boats with the ability to trawl larger nets, they helped establish Fernandina as the birthplace of the modern shrimping industry. By …

Backyard pioneer Brennan Gagnon is keeping the dream alive.  Vert skating is not for the faint of heart. High-flying aerials, inverted hand plants and lip tricks are burly enough to scare even the most experienced skaters.  Short for “vertical,” vert skating is exactly what it sounds like. Skaters ride on ramps, usually over 10-feet-tall, with transitions that end up at straight 90 degrees. Like riding a pendulum, they drop in one wall and fly down the transition toward an identical wall with enough speed to rocket into the sky. Consequences are high, but so are the rewards. A niche community within …

Online, bi-textual and awaiting trial—Clay County’s wayward former Sheriff Darryl Daniels continues to evade the truth and his day in court. Most of the folks in Clay County had never heard of Darryl Daniels until 2015, when he began his race for Clay County Sheriff. Daniels, newly retired from his job as a chief at the Duval County jail, was a short stout man oozing with self-confidence.  Daniels’ strength was in the people who surrounded him. His race pace for sheriff was more of a lollygag, while those around him sprinted. The candidate did what he did best: He got …

Reviewing a culture that bumps and hustles for a new generation.  Roughly 45 years ago, it was everywhere. LED tessellations shifting and flickering beneath platform shoes, polyester-clad bodies pressed together in dim corners, the marriage of funk and Philadelphia soul … so many memories and colorful tropes encapsulated in one simple word: disco. Throughout the ’70s, the glossy genre dominated airplay and culture. Like a circadian rhythm (and blues), hard rock bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath thundered through radios by day, while soul-funk forces by the likes of Gloria Gaynor and Chic brought the boogie nights. As …