October 16, 2008 Issue

It was an eventful two weeks from the publication of the Oct. 2 Beachcomber to the unveiling of the issue you are now holding in your hands (or laptop, if you’re reading the “paperless” Web version).

I would love to include more reviews of area theatrical productions, but most of the time the window between “media night” and the actual run doesn’t match ours. Still, I was fortunate to attend the pre-opening night performance of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None at Northwest Florida State College last Monday. The cast handled the English accents with aplomb, and Clint Mahle’s direction and set design lent an appropriately macabre feel to the proceedings. I look forward to seeing more from the talented cast, many of whom I hadn’t encountered before.

Last Saturday night, we attended the Taste of Fort Walton Beach Chamber event on Okaloosa Island. The FWB Chamber delivered on its promise of good food and good music, thanks to the efforts of many area restaurants/caterers and the band Cadillac Willy. I had spent part of the afternoon strumming and picking to the Dylan songbook and was forced to stop before I got to “I Shall Be Released”; by sheer force of I-don’t-know-what-exactly, Cadillac Willy threw the song into their set list shortly after I arrived. The food was uniformly fantastic, with each eatery teaming with a worthy charity. My favorite was Catering to You, with their scrumptious cheese grits, grilled fish topped with sautéed shrimp, shitake mushrooms and béarnaise sauce, and strawberries soaked in amaretto and covered in chocolate sauce.

I noticed the 22-years standing Cinema 10 cleared off the marquee sign on U.S. 98, and a phone call confirmed that the theater has “temporarily” closed its doors. How these folks held on for so long in the wake of the sexier, state-of-the-art Rave Motion Pictures has long puzzled me, but I hope our neighbors are able to re-open soon. I have fond memories of near-empty matinee viewings of Live Free or Die Hard and Grindhouse, and I always appreciated not being bombarded with non-stop commercials upon setting foot inside. The Destin Cinema 10 is where I took dear old Dad to see Phenomenon back in 1996 and the place I first laid eyes on Pulp Fiction, Face/Off, Saving Private Ryan and other cinema classics.

It looks like the upcoming Beachcomber Music Awards—scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8 at the award-winning Cabana Café—may end up being the second biggest music event of the season. Last Sunday, most of the top musicians from south Walton County staged a march from Pandora’s in Grayton Beach to Sally’s Backside about two miles away. All the while, members of Dread Clampitt, WaCo Ramblers, Sweater Puppets and too many others to name played music and enjoyed the goodwill of fans who turned out to protest the recent arrest of Salty Dog Saloon manager-on-duty Ben Steeno for allegedly “disturbing the peace” around midnight on a Friday.

Steeno’s parents Bob and Lisa led the march—it was more like a parade thanks to the absence of the Walton County Sheriff’s Office thugs—along with Duke Bardwell and Washboard Jackson. There were fiddlers, horn players, drummers, little kids, older folks, and lots of dogs. There were hand-painted signs with everything from “Save the Music” to “Ben Steeno for Sheriff.” I was lucky enough to talk to the Ramblers’ Jeremiah Campbell for a good portion of the trek, and he explained the intent of the collective known as the Lost Wages Marching Band. Befriend them at www.myspace.com/lostwagesmarchingband and keep up with the latest happenings.

Salty Dog Saloon has temporarily ceased live music operation—doubly unfortunate, since they offered one of the most eclectic lineups anywhere on the Emerald Coast—and Pandora’s has moved all of their entertainment indoors. Lucas Garrett—bassist with Chronic Jester, the band that was performing the night of Steeno’s arrest—summed up the situation: “It’s just so sad. The needs of the economic majority should supersede the needs of the tyrannical minority.”

I shot some brief clips, and you can view them at www.youtube.com/user/beachcomberdestin.

- C.M.

More editorials from Christopher Manson