• The Jacksonville Film Festival is offering early-bird savings for people who purchase tickets now for the May event. If you order before Jan. 15, you’ll pay $200 for an all-access festival pass ($50 off) or $50 for a screening pass ($25 off). See www.jacksonvillefilmfestival.com for more information.
• The Jacksonville Public Library Foundation has established the first-ever permanent endowment for the Jacksonville Public Library System with a gift of $800,000. The endowment gift was made possible through the Foundation’s ongoing capital campaign, which has also raised more than $2.5 million for enhancements to the city’s new Main Library.
• Calling all artists: Open Gallery in San Marco is looking for artists working in visual media who would like to exhibit their work Jan. 18 through Feb. 1. Spoken-word poets and musicians are also invited to participate at opening night from 5-9 p.m. Jan. 18. For information, call Jennifer Price-Easterling at 502-9385.
• Ode to the housing market: Renaissance Creative, an advertising, marketing and public relations firm specializing in the real estate industry, has created a series of housing bubble-themed t-shirts to express industry professionals’ “frustration at the intense and often negative media scrutiny associated with the correction.” Proceeds from t-shirt sales go to Habitat for Humanity and Home Builders Care. The shirts can be viewed online at www.renaissancecreative.com.
• If you need to visit the emergency room, it seems Christmas Eve is the best time to go. Total time at a local ER, from triage through a procedure: just one hour. The average time spent in an ER in the United States is over three hours, according to a 2005 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• If you’ve ever admired the model ships that have been on display at the Landing for the past couple of years, now’s the time to make your move. The models, plus the case and stand, are for sale for $575 each. The Landing store (next to Vito’s and near the courtyard) is also having a clearance sale from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays to move out the last of the original logo merchandise. Prices range from $10 for golf shirts to $40 for leather jackets. The new logo will debut sometime after the first of the year.
• The Florida Department of Transportation has awarded the contract to replace the steel grating on the Mathews Bridge to PCL Civil Constructors, Inc. of Tampa. An “exodermic deck system” will be used to replace the grating, the same system used on bridges in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, the Tappan-Zee Bridge in New York City and several others around the country. Work begins in early February and FDOT says it will be done before school starts and the 2007 Jaguars season begins — important because for at least three months, all eastbound traffic on the Mathews Bridge will be diverted to the Hart Bridge. The detour is expected to begin in April.