by Quinn Gray AFC North *Baltimore Ravens 2021 record: 9-8 Projected 2022 record: 12-5 Notable additions: S Marcus Williams, S Kyle Hamilton [R], C Tyler Linderbaum [R], OT Morgan Moses, NT Michael Pierce Notable departures: WR Marquise Brown, WR Sammy Watkins, OT Alejandro Villanueva, IOL Bradley Bozeman The Ravens were ravaged by injuries last year, losing key starters on offense and defense. The team possessed the No. 1 seed in the AFC until QB Lamar Jackson suffered a season-ending injury, and following his loss, the team fell out of the playoffs. Although the Ravens’ WR room has gotten worse, the …

Back for its sixth year, the Sing Out Loud festival kicks off Sept. 9 with more to offer than ever before. September is the month of music, and there’s no better way to celebrate than with free music, huge headliners, local artist spotlights and even a chance for your band to perform in a professional venue. Sing Out Loud has grown to become more than just a way to bring free music to the people of Northeast Florida. Since its inception, the festival has brought hundreds of musicians from around the country to St Augustine, catered to more than 50,000 …

Kids aren’t the only ones who think video games (aka electronic games) are one of the greatest inventions of all time. College students, teens, adults, even grandparents enjoy Candy Crushing and Wordle battles with friends. In fact, the NDP Group reports 76% of Americans have played video games this year alone proving they aren’t “just for nerds” anymore. In 2022 the average American spends an average of 16.5 hours a week gaming according to marketingcharts.com. Of course, it’s no surprise that Generations Y and Z and millennials enjoy video games on the regular. But it may surprise you to know …

This article was previously published in Folio in February 2021 and has been updated to include additional resources. To the uninitiated, “pickleball” might sound like some weird appetizer your grandmother brings to family picnics. Or a gala for gherkin lovers. What it actually is, however, is a sport. And not just any sport but one of the fastest growing recreational sports in the U.S. with almost 4.8 million regular players, a 40% increase since 2019. So how is it that a game made up in the ‘60s by a couple of dads to entertain their bored kids become the biggest …

Click here to listen to the interview Recently, the folks at the historic Florida Theatre reached out to me to see if I had any interest in talking to Collective Soul. I hadn’t talked to Collective Soul singer/songwriter Ed Roland in almost 30 years, so I leapt at the opportunity. After finishing high school, Roland studied songwriting and guitar at Berklee College of Music in Boston, then served as the lead engineer and producer at Real 2 Reel Studios in Stockbridge, Georgia. In 1985, he joined a band called Ed-E and another in the late 1980s/early 1990s called Marching Two-Step, …

Always working to bring cool music to Jacksonville, Winterland Presents teamed up with JAXNext100 and The Jessie DuPont Ball Center to host a night of music, kicking off with a sound bath meditation in the Great Hall, The Jessie’s alleyway. Where there’s good music, there are good outfits, and this crowd did not disappoint with some of Jacksonville’s most electric creatures making an appearance. Dirty sludge-rockers, Florida Smash Hits, opened the show with a grueling one-song set. The trio has been playing music together for years, changing their band name on a show-by-show basis, this could’ve been the first and …

Bullet Train A group of disparate and colorful assassins are placed on a speeding bullet train traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto in order to complete a job from a mysterious benefactor. Brad Pitt stars as the perennially unlucky retired hitman, Ladybug, in this entertaining but overly convoluted action comedy from director David Leitch, one of the minds behind the John Wick series and several other major action films from the past decade. The film’s plot is filled with double crosses and revelations that makes it nearly impossible to describe the events in an efficient manner, but the film is saved …

To follow up on last month’s (August – Folio Go-To-Entertainment Guide) interview with Lee Brice, I went to the show at the famed St. Augustine AMP excited to see the show. But, besides Brice, I also really wanted to see Jackson Dean. He’s made a big debut splash in the country music radio pond with his hit “Don’t Come Lookin”. A song inspired by a phrase he used to tell his mother back in Odenton, Maryland. It also didn’t hurt that Paramount Plus had the song featured in it’s MONSTER hit show Yellowstone starring Kevin Costner and the spin off …

I didn’t know what to expect when walking through the double doors of the Cummer Museum, the sun beginning to set behind me. Would the paintings come to life? Would I need to save the outside world from angry statues that are tired of living a life in stone and marble? I watched Night at the Museum the day before and took some notes, just in case. Instead of statues dancing through the lively kids section, I found a peaceful studio full of easels and eager artists getting ready to draw with artist William McMahan. For the first 30 minutes …

Four local artists seek to answer three questions—Where has Jacksonville been? Where are we now? And where are we heading?—for JAXNext100, a week of creativity and collaboration envisioning Jacksonville’s next 100 years. The collaborative exhibition, “Past, Present, Future,” on display at The Corner Gallery at the Jessie DuPont Ball Center, showcases the minds and talents of artists Dustin Harewood, Malcolm Jackson, Toni Smailagic and Jordan Walter. The Bold New City of The South street sign, built for the photo featuruing Nicole Hamm and BeBe Deluxe, hangs on the outward facing wall behind the glass of the gallery, viewable to all …

Click here to find what’s happening in Jacksonville this month

I really love your Gang of Two podcast. Thanks for all you do … blah, blah, blah. Here’s my problem. I’ve been living with my girlfriend for three years, and I really want to break up with her. What’s the best way to approach this? Thanks, Danny Jacksonville Beach TERRY: First off, you couldn’t even commit to a compliment … “blah, blah, blah.” SHARI: Danny, I’m all for keeping it brief but a little more information would go a long way. What is the reason you want to break up? Is she a slob? Does she snore? Are you wanting some …

Jacksonville’s top water hogs, Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery, the sheriff’s race, the affordable housing crisis, local cafe being uprooted and some other good stuff. Click here to read the issue!

*Update from JEA: In some cases in the list of top 10 water customers, JEA corrected the customer’s balance due to a leak or plumbing issue. There also are a few properties that reflect high usage due to reclaimed water usage. Reclaimed water is highly treated wastewater. Customers who use reclaimed water for their irrigation help conserve water drawn from the Floridan aquifer, the source of our local drinking water.* The blue marble we know as Earth has an abundant amount of water, 71% of its surface is covered in the wet stuff. Unfortunately for our very delicate species, 91% …

Creation is second nature to Naples-based artist Morgan Goldsmith. Having grown up in a family of artists and builders, she feels drawn to repurpose the materials available to her to communicate her experiences through the physical construction and deconstruction of visual artwork. This mentality is sure to pass down to her own children as she allows them to collaborate with her in this process. A majority of Goldsmith’s pieces begin as blank paper scattered on the floor or taped low on the wall—within little arm’s reach—inviting her children to create with her. She then combines and collages with a keen …

In January 2020, an estimated 27,487 people in Florida were homeless on any given day, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). As Jacksonville residents, we often come across individuals experiencing homelessness, especially Downtown, but what do we actually know about them and how did they get there? Living at the beach and working downtown, I am quite used to running into makeshift beds on sidewalks and seeing people with their entire life shoved into a backpack. We exchange a quick “hi” or maybe I offer a small smile, and I am off to the next …

Popular Riverside coffee shop and cafe being uprooted If you’re tapped into Riverside happenings, you’ve probably come across Instagram posts regarding Southern Roots and their probable relocation. There’s been a lot of noise online, so we’re hoping to help clear up the facts and give a voice to all sides of the matter. Here’s the rundown Mariah Goetz Salvat and her husband Juan Pablo “JP” Salvat, owners of Southern Roots Filling Station, a local vegan coffee shop serving breakfast and lunch, set up shop at their current King Street location in 2014. In 2016, they expanded into the space next …

Nope Jordan Peele has enjoyed one of the most unexpected second acts in the history of Hollywood; going from being a cult hero in the sketch comedy scene to being arguably the most prominent mainstream auteur to emerge in American cinema in the last 20 years, with Peele presenting himself as a kind of 21st century Rod Serling, telling modern-day parables about our culture through a lens of horror and science fiction. With his latest film, Nope, Peele looks to the skies to create thrills that are on the biggest scale he has done yet as an adaptive alien being …

It’s been a summer of anniversaries, large and small, for people and institutions across Northeast Florida, as you may have noticed. It’s the 200th anniversary of the city itself (which was founded on a Saturday, very on-brand), the 100th anniversary of the Garden Club, the 50th anniversary of WJCT, the 25th for iconic local DJ Wes Reed and so much else. The same is true for Folio, celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. This past July 8 marked the 25th anniversary of my own debut in this illustrious local rag, some seven editors and maybe a million words ago. A …

One of the best things about the media these days is that there is no shortage of material, and the news cycle in 2022 has manifested some of the most daffy detritus ever documented by humans living or dead, or both. Here, in this column, we offer you only the choicest AF nubbins of news, and the hardest part of the job is simply deciding what makes the cut. As you can imagine, the workflow of a particular task depends on the nature of the task itself. In this case, as interesting items pop up, I send them to myself …

Words by Rain Henderson & Joseph Guiffre Winding through the live oak lined backroads a dozen miles southeast of Gainesville, the bright Florida summer sun beats down. The light illuminates the old houses and chicken coops we pass, miles from the hustle and bustle. Finally we take a turn down a dirt road across from an idyllic cow pasture framed by tall symmetrical palms. The shade of the woodlands is welcoming and so is the tall, smiling, plainly dressed man waiting at the gate. Over the past two or three years people have been confronting their own mortality more than …

Avondale cycle shop keeps on spinning Walking into Tucker Cycles in The Shoppes of Avondale, the first bike that caught my attention was a Reeb hardtail mountain bike painted a bright Jaguars teal. The frame design was a modern take on the setups mountain bike pioneers rode called “klunkers,” which were essentially souped-up beach cruisers with fat tires. The bike sported fat, knobby gumwall tires, a beautiful front suspension system and tall BMX-style handlebars; as OG as it gets, while keeping function and aesthetics at the forefront. When I pointed it out to Holt Tucker, owner of the shop, he …

Words by David Jaffee Jacksonville, like many other communities across the country, is experiencing an affordable housing crisis. Over the past year, according to Redfin real estate brokerage firm, the average rent in Duval County has increased by 31%. Close to 50% of all Jacksonville renters are cost burdened (spending greater than 30% of income on rent). Jacksonville ranks consistently in the top 10 among major metropolitan areas on almost every measure of rising housing costs. When 60 Minutes devoted a segment to this issue earlier this year, they chose Jacksonville as the city to profile. The conventional wisdom about …

The race to succeed Mike Williams as leader of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office was already looking to be one of the most interesting contests in an election season with no shortage of drama. Williams’ abrupt retirement, which he announced on June 2 and officially began just a week later, makes things vastly more complicated, which, in turn, makes things a lot more entertaining for you, the voter. The first round in this incredibly weird election takes place Aug. 23. The technical term is “Special First Election,” and gosh, isn’t that the case? It’s already too late to register to vote …