Coastal Breeze News

REEL REVIEWS By Monte Lazarus [email protected] n 1865, the Civil War was draining the blood of North and South. Mr. Lincoln was personally ravaged by the war and was also determined to abolish slavery by passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. This piece of history and Mr. Lincoln’s remarkable life is the focal point of Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln”, based in large part on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals”. Daniel Day-Lewis is extraordinary as he cajoles, manipulates and threatens both Republicans and Democrats to pick off each critical vote. This is not the Lincoln of past movie makers; ... Read More »

BOOK REMARKS  Maggie Gust  [email protected] Author: Bill O’Rielly, Martin Dugard.  Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, 2012  n October 1962 I was a fairly new bride, with a four month old baby, living in Perrine, Florida, a suburb of Miami, only 228 miles from Cuba. My nervousness in how to care for a new baby was grossly overshadowed by my fear in hearing the constant roar of military trucks loaded with servicemen rumbling down the highway a few blocks from my home headed to Homestead Air Force Base. Overhead could be heard the nerve-racking drone of military planes headed to the same ... Read More »

MUSIC NOTES BY GATOR NATE Nate Augustus [email protected] “ pair of Hop-a-long boots and a pistol that shoots, is the wish of Barney & Ben, Dolls that will talk, and go for a walk, is the hope, of Janice and Jen. Mom and Dad, can hardly wait for school to start again… It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, soon the bells will start, and the thing that will make them ring, is the carol that you sing, right within your heart”… …or maybe a lil’ bit of “fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-laaa”. …or some, “Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock!” ... Read More »

By Joanne Tailele A WORK OF FICTION: Island of Angels, a short story The young girl hunched down in the backseat of the car. Her nose almost touched the screen of the I-pad she balanced on her lap. Bright pink ear buds blocked out the other sounds in the car. As the car approached the crest of the Judge Jolley Bridge, her mother hollered to her above the music pounding in her ears. “Liza, look, an osprey.” Liza lifted her head just as the bird spread its wings and took flight above the sparkling blue water. She watched as it flapped ... Read More »

REEL REVIEWS  By Monte Lazarus  [email protected] For the fiftieth anniversary of the James Bond movies, “Skyfall” is a perfect fit. Daniel Craig ranks one or two with Sean Connery as the best Bond of all. This Bond is very different. He’s not the suave, sophisticated James of yore, although he manages to handle a tuxedo fairly well. This is a gritty, darker Bond. This one can handle a motorcycle with the best while being able to play baccarat with the wealthiest. Of course, “Bond – James Bond” has his romantic moments, but they are momentary as he proceeds from peril ... Read More »

BOOK REMARKS  Maggie Gust  [email protected] Author: Janet Wallach  Publisher: Doubleday, 2012  “Before deciding on an investment, seek out every kind of information about it.” To Hetty Robinson Green, this was just common sense – work hard to learn everything possible about a venture before committing. Some saw her as cruel and heartless because of her no-nonsense-when-it-comes-to-business philosophy. Ironically, Hetty never paid workers slave wages, paid off government officials, bought off public land or manipulated stockholders as did many of her more celebrated male counterparts. She gave much to help others, but quietly, without fanfare, without having her name chiseled on the ... Read More »

MUSIC NOTES BY GATOR NATE Nate Augustus [email protected] Gotta love this new and improved seasonal climate. It has me thinking that “winter” in southern Florida is upon us! Heck it did’t get above 73 degrees yesterday! Brrrr.. Chuckle, brrr… what can I say, I didn’t see snow until after high school, in Tallahassee, and it wasn’t enough to even stay on the ground. Anyhow, hope y’all had a wonderful Thanksgiving/Black Friday and you’re ready for whatever the last month of the Mayan calendar holds for us. I’m not so sure that time itself will end on December 21, but my ... Read More »

REEL REVIEWS By Monte Lazarus [email protected] Don’t be fooled by the title. “Flight” has very little to do with aviation; it has a lot to do about character, lies and deception, and morality. And, it’s beautifully done. The superb Denzel Washington plays “Whip” Whitaker, a first-rate airline pilot who is also an alcoholic, drug user and carouser. In the opening scene, Whitaker awakens after a night of sex and booze, lights one of innumerable cigarettes, gulps down a drink and snorts some cocaine. His lady of the night, a flight attendant, reminds him that he has a trip coming up ... Read More »

BOOK REMARKS  Diane Bostick  [email protected] Author: Margaret Dilloway Publisher: Putnam 2012  I would be curious to know what percentage of the readers of this column are women and what percentage are men. My gut feeling is that it is the kind of thing primarily read by women, but I could be very wrong. As I have said before, I try to vary the books I read so that at least some appeal to both men and women. I probably haven’t written any “Remarks” that would only appeal to men but I am sure I have written quite a few that lean ... Read More »

MUSIC NOTES BY GATOR NATE Nate Augustus [email protected] In this issue, Music Notes returns to the story of Gator Nate’s big 2012 summer adventure… “The Southern Americana Tour” was a one man musical quest spanning thousands of miles and seven states, including Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. If you are just tuning in, and need a bit of background on the story, then here goes: by now, we’ve been on the road for nearly three weeks, playing music, eating great southern food, camping at some of the worlds most gorgeous spots, cruising the highways ... Read More »

BOOK REMARKS Maggie Gust [email protected] Author: Will Schwalbe Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf 2012 The End Of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe is not morbid or maudlin. It is a celebration of life. Do not be deterred by the title or you will miss one fantastic book as well as the opportunity to meet one of the kindest and most generous people who ever lived. And boy, did she live! The book club consists of the author and his mother, Mary Anne Schwalbe. It is formed when Will accompanies his mother to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for treatment of her ... Read More »

By Monte Lazarus  [email protected] Halloween is the strangest of all our holidays. For one thing it apparently originated as some sort of Pagan ritual. No, it did not involve a bunch of folks in animal skins munching on turnips (Americans invented pumpkin pie of course). Rather, the worship of the sun, moon, Manchester United Football (that’s European for soccer) Team, or the particular God or Goddess in vogue at the time. I suspect that on a chilly day in October (by our calendar) some early Brits of a Druid or comparable persuasion hoisted a few and then thought it would ... Read More »

By Monte Lazarus [email protected] “ARBITRAGE” Richard Gere moves through “Arbitrage” like a sleek panther. Everything about him oozes wealth: not the Trump type of display, but the understated Gramercy Park Mansion type of polished dark wood and quiet elegance. Gere plays Robert Miller. As Miller, Gere is no longer the much younger playboy type of millionaire he played in “Pretty Woman”. He’s much older; his hair is wavy white; his face is more chiseled; his demeanor is suave, but cynical and dismissive of lesser mortals. He’s serious and so is the movie. It’s – a combination of whodunit (although we ... Read More »

BOOK REMARKS Diane Bostick [email protected]   Author: C.J. Box Publisher: St. Martins Press, 2011 I am 72 years old, so even five years ago I should have been old enough to know that a woman my age does not sign up for a 100 mile horseback ride into the Bob Marshall Wilderness in northern Montana, especially since I had never ridden a horse before. “Should have” being the operative words here as I did indeed let myself be persuaded to do that very thing with the promise that there would be fantastic scenery and equally wonderful fly fishing in streams seldom ... Read More »

MUSIC NOTES BY GATOR NATE Nate Augustus [email protected]   The saga continues… Although the beautiful North Carolina wilderness had been so good to me, there were “Gatorheads” down in Georgia and Tennessee that had waited patiently for my arrival, and they were not gonna be let down. Not this trip, and definitely not by me. So, I got up, bright n’ early, at the crack a’ dawn, and as the heavy mountain dew was still rising off the river I said goodbye to Rusty and all my friends in Nolichucki and hit the road in ol’ “Silver,” my trusty Ford ... Read More »

By Monte Lazarus [email protected] It finally happened…I’m “Macified”; or you might say “Appleized.” In any event I’ve come under the spell of the brooding omnipresence of Steve Jobs. After many years I’ve abandoned P.C.; and a MacBook Air has joined my relatively new iMac. It’s painful. It’s expensive. It’s destiny. It all began years ago when I bought my first computer – a $5,000, clunky, creaky, nasty IBM. It cost the equivalent of a BMW, but performed a lot worse. The original was heavy and huge. It had a single floppy drive that accommodated only one large droopy (hence “floppy”) ... Read More »

BOOK REMARKS Maggie Gust [email protected] Author: Andrew Porter Publisher: Alfred Knopf, 2012 The Harding family of Houston, Texas, is one highly dysfunctional group – and their story is absolutely mesmerizing. Andrew Porter had me at page one of “In Between Days.” Elson and Cadence are still adjusting to their divorced status, Richard, 20-something has one foot in the adult world and one foot in mother’s world, and daughter Chloe is a college student back East. Her abrupt return from school, ejected by the administration for reasons she refuses to disclose or discuss, is the catalyst that rallies these people into a ... Read More »

MUSIC NOTES BY GATOR NATE Nate Augustus [email protected] As you may or may not know, we are on our second installment of “The Southern Americana Tour Journal;” a play-by-play of my summer adventures and misadventures while touring through the southland. Miles, music and mountains were all big players on the tour. At every stop, new friends, new stories and new challenges. As of my last article, I had just said goodbye to the wild, wonderful world of West Virginia. Four days of R&R in The New River Gorge is enough “re-charge” for even the most sleep deprived, starving artist. Off to the ... Read More »

By Monte Lazarus [email protected] Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes purportedly said, “All generalizations are false; including this one.” Thus, let me begin with a generalization: Canadians are just plain nice people. We have just returned from our annual Cultural Fix in the town of Stratford, Ontario, about an hour-and-a-half west of Toronto. Stratford was once a bustling rail hub; but it ran into severe economic problems as the railroads declined. A gent named Tom Patterson had the wild idea of making Stratford a theatre centre (Canadian spelling) and thus build a tourism base while providing some cultural experiences. With private funds, ... Read More »

BOOK REMARKS Diane Bostick [email protected] Author: Alex Stone Publisher: Harper, June 2012 Kind of an intimidating title, I will admit, but don’t let it keep you from discovering the delights of this book. It is quite fascinating. I know that I told you that the new kid on the block, Maggie Gust, would be doing the non-fiction stuff in the future but I was not totally truthful. If I find a book I really enjoy I am not going to hold back from telling you about it just because it is not fiction. And in some ways this is fiction ... Read More »