• San Marco Square will be shut down to vehicle traffic this weekend to make room for the San Marco Art Festival. The eighth annual festival will bring together hundreds of artists and crafts people from across the country. Sculpture, photography, jewelry and paintings will all be showcased.
• There are positives and negatives to having a major motion picture filming on your block. Businesses along Forsyth Street, where the new John Travolta movie is shooting, said they’re seeing a lot more foot traffic and a little more business due to all the onlookers. The negatives? Employees keep running out the door trying to catch a glimpse of Travolta. (for more, see page 3)
• Jacksonville’s hipster crowd put the finishing touches on the Art Bar on King Street. The bar, which has become a staple hangout for Jacksonville’s alternative crowd due to its live music and art-festooned walls, closed its doors permanently with a Thursday night party. Word around Five Points is a restaurant will replace the bar, while the Art Bar management will open another bar called Pearl.
• Congratulations to Florida Community College at Jacksonville. They are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year.
• Ken Underwood, the president of the National Safety Commission, Inc., was in town recently for a tour of the JFK. The ex-Navy pilot got a night cruise on the carrier and even got to play a little midnight basketball on the JFK’s deck.
• Don’t forget to move your clocks ahead one hour Saturday night. Daylight Savings Time begins Sunday at 2 .m. and the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department wants to remind everyone it’s a good time to check and replace the batteries in your smoke detectors.
• Most of City Hall is certainly open to the public, but not to everyone. There is a list of 27 people that are not allowed up the elevators.
• The new Sports Illustrated is out and it’s the Major League Baseball preview issue. SI says its the Yankees over the Braves in the World Series.
• Speaking of SI, there’s a great photo of Jacksonville Barracudas goaltender Kelly Shields “fishing” Woody Austin’s driver from the lake by the 18th tee at last week’s Player’s Championship. Austin tossed the driver into the lake in disgust.
• A couple of subtle changes in the Southern League this season that you may not have noticed. The Greenville Braves are now the Mississippi Braves and the Suns will play in a realigned South Division with Birmingham, Mississippi, Mobile and Montgomery. Oh yeah. Best nickname in the Southern League? The Montgomery Biscuits.
• Jack O’Brien, longtime sales manager at 930 The Fox, has left the station after 12 years to pursue other sales interests. Thursday was his last day and O’Brien went on-air with Joe Cowart. He said he remembers the first day the station was on the air. No commercials and no calls, he said. You may also know O’Brien as the stadium announcer at Florida Field. And, yes, he’ll keep that job.
• Dr. John C. Nelson, the president of the American Medical Association, will be in town May 1-3. He’ll be the guest of the Duval County Medical Society.
• The MaliVai Washington Foundation is holding a big fundraiser at UNF this summer. The Fourth Annual Verizon Wireless Kids 4 Tennis Carnival is June 4 and they are looking for volunteers and sponsors.
• This spring’s graduating class at JU will include a major first. Fourteen students will be JU’s first graduating orthodontic class and they will all start working in June all over the country. The Doctors all started in classes originally in trailers before moving to the Lazzara Health Sciences Center.