September 4, 2008 Issue

This being the time of year that it is, I’ll try to keep myself from using any terms that might conjure up images of…The H-word.

The Beachcomber’s 1st Annual Music Awards have taken the area by storm—oops—um, the nominations are flooding in…er, um, uh…

Seriously, your responses to our nomination ballot—reprinted in this issue and available online at www.thebeachcomber.org/musicpollform. htm--have been overwhelming. It will be exciting to see which musicians make the top three in each category. I wouldn’t try to show favoritism, but we caught a fantastic performance by the Dents Band at Trader Vic’s recently—Ronnie Dents on bass, the prolific Fritz Froeschner on guitar, “Binky” on drums, Randy Sherwood on tenor sax, plus a young keyboardist whose name I failed to catch.

There are great bands and solo performers up and down the Emerald Coast every night, all of whom are worthy of consideration. The Beachcomber encourages our readers to go see them all.

We have also started our own You Tube channel. At press time, we have a handful of videos posted at www.youtube.com/user/ beachcomberdestin. A couple tie into this issue’s articles, one is a performer featured in a recent installment of The Beat, and the other clip thus far is a shout-out to our longtime friend and Web site genius Bill Garrett.
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This issue will blow you away—whoops!...We share photos and thoughts from our recent cruise aboard the fabulous Solaris; Bruce Collier shares his recent dining experience at the Village of Baytowne Wharf’s Graffiti; Breanne Boland and other Beachcomber writers share their favorite reads of the summer; Adam Pope reviews the new Ben Stiller comedy, Tropic Thunder; The Beat profiles Alabama singer-songwriter JB Roberts; Bill Campbell, a/k/a The Roving Rogue, reports his latest findings from around town; Charles Morgan delivers another intriguing Harbor View; and Pepper James shares a fascinating true story about shopping for candles.

I think you will agree that this is Our Greatest Issue Ever. Keep those letters and emails coming, and don’t forget to submit your nomination ballot for the Beachcomber Music Awards.

- C.M.

More editorials from Christopher Manson