Philadelphia recording artist Tony Juliano to perform at Boardwalk on Monday night

Philadelphia recording artist Tony Juliano, who will perform Monday night at Boardwalk Pasta and Seafood in Isla Del Sol, may have come up in the ’60s and ’70s rock ’n’ roll era but he has an impressive repertoire that spans musical genres.

He may be an old rock ’n’ roller but he’s as comfortable crooning oldies as he is playing music from the islands — and a little bit of everything in between. If you want traditional boot-scootin’ country, he’s got it. If you want peace and harmony folk, he’s got that, too.

The video above gives you an idea. Stepping’ Out With My Baby was a hit for Fred Astaire in 1948 in the movie Easter Parade. Tony Bennett did a cover in 1993. He recorded it with Christina Aguilera. And it’s part of what Tony Juliano does. Eight decades worth of music. Pretty much anything you’d want.

Tony’s first paid gig was for a school dance when he was 11 years old. In the ‘60s, he had an a cappella doo-wop group called The Durhams. (“They were white boys but they wanted to sound as black as possible,” he says.) In the 1970s, he formed a band with friends called Johnny’s Dance Band. (“Rock ’n’ roll vaudeville.”) In college around that time, he started teaching music, and still does that today.  In the ’80s, he performed in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. He had a group called the Down Island Dogs. In the ’90s, he had a group called The Avenue.

“My wife saved my life — several times — including my musical life,” says Tony on his website. He credits Dyann Juliano with getting him back into music after he’d left for four years to run an antiques business. So that’s what he does, and his lifetime of experience has given him a broad range of musical styles from which to choose.

That’s why when Tony Juliano appears from 6 p.m to 9 p.m. on Monday at Boardwalk in Isla Del Sol, he’ll probably play something you like.

As for Boardwalk, it boasts a pretty good variety itself. Known for the pasta and seafood dishes, the restaurant also serves up steaks and ribs, burgers, sandwiches, tacos, and salads. Boardwalk also has a full bar.

Boardwalk is in Island Del Sol Shoppers Village at 5901 Sun Boulevard on the Pinellas Bay Way. It’s near the intersection of the Bay Way and the road to Tierra Verde. Call (727) 867-8000 for more information.

Baltimore novelist Laura Lippman loves our community and lends her support to it

Author Laura Lippman

What a lovely article. We saw this article in the Tampa Bay Times and just had to share it. What a treat to have Laura Lippman here as part of the faculty of Eckerd College's Writer In Paradise conference. And what a treat to have her supporting the Eckerd College Friends of the Library.

From the Tampa Bay Times

Novelist Laura Lippman is glad she started early as a teacher at Eckerd College's Writer In Paradise conference in 2006.

"Now I think there's not enough room for everybody who wants to speak," said the author of the successful Tess Monaghan, PI series. "It's like summer camp for novelists. … The students are such good critics."

Lippman spoke last week at the Eckerd College Friends of the Library dinner, the group's annual fundraiser. The library's continued enhancement goes beyond just helping Eckerd students, said event organizer Betty Shamus.

"This is a community effort. What's good for Eckerd is good for the whole Tampa Bay community," echoed Eileen Deegan, another supporter.

Read the rest of the story in the Tampa Bay Tiimes

The sunsets on our Gulf coast are the stuff of legends: Have you seen the Green Flash?

Excerpt from The Broadwater Breeze, Winter 2015 issue.

We couldn’t help but notice the amazing sunset pictures in the winter edition of The Broadwater Breeze newsletter, probably because we’re such big fans of sunsets. This was back in September and folks gathered out on the dock next to Maximo Seafood Shack to watch the spectacular show. The fact that the sun was setting right down the canal leading to the marina made it particularly exciting.

A Florida Gulf coast Green Flash

Sunsets along Florida’s Gulf coast are among the most acclaimed in the world and we’re all fortunate to be here. We’d guess most of our friends out on Tierra Verde and Vina Del Mar and Isla Del Sol and Bayway Isles would agree. Rituals abound surrounding the daily occurrence. Most days visitors and locals ring the bell at Pass-a-Grille Pavilion as the sun sinks below the horizon out over the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf Beaches Historical Museum maintains a logbook with names of people who have participated.

Part of the lore of watching sunsets here is spotting the Green Flash. It’s a phenomenon that’s seen in other parts of the world but here it has been raised to the level of legend. It’s a mirage, really, occurring when the water is warmer than the air above it. It’s best seen on clear days after a cold front.

John D. MacDonald, the author of the Travis McGee adventure series set in Florida, wrote another book called A Flash of Green (1962), in which he used the term to refer not only to the phenomenon but also as a metaphor for crass over development in the Sunshine State. In 1984, the book was adapted for a movie of the same name. You can still find it on DVD. It’s interesting, though, that the Green Flash as it is depicted in the movie isn’t anything like the real event, which is very subtle. In the movie, it looks like a Green Armageddon. In case you’ve never seen the Green Flash, we took a still frame from a Gulf coast sunset we found on YouTube. As you can see, it’s a visually quiet event that could easily be missed if you blink. You can see the sunset video here.

BRRRRR!!!! Yes, but it could be worse

While the weather lately has some of us feeling like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant, we thought it would be interesting to put all this frozen tundra talk into perspective. While many in South St. Petersburg are shivering their timbers (and other limbs) and trying to warm up numb thumbs and frosty fingers, it's easy to forget that people in other parts of the country have it much, much worse. Those of us who once lived in the ice-laden northland may vaguely remember but after a few winters down here blood thins and we become silly ninnies complaining about 45 degrees. If you really want to see how things are take a look at the map. Click on it if you need to make it bigger to see it better. Some places the snow goes white on the mountain tonight but for those of us who feel inclined to channel Elsa in Frozen maybe we should just order another cup steaming coffee or hot chocolate and let it go.

Listen to MLK Jr. I Have a Dream speech

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a revisit of the famous powerful speech given in Washington, D.C. 1963. If you haven't heard it or haven't heard it recently, you owe it to yourself to listen now.

Words to live by....."Not all of us can do great things. But, we can do small things with GREAT LOVE." Mother Teresa

Volunteer for Dr. Martin Luther King Day of Service in Gulfport to help neighbors

Local residents are responding to the call to help in the community. Here’s a list of the organizations that have registered to help on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Saturday, January 16.

Gulfport neighbors will be greeters and help with registration; CERT: Volunteer Appreciation lunch; City Manager and RNBI: Gulfport Little League Clinic; Lowe’s Team: BillYoung VA Homeless Veterans Care Packages; gulfport Merchants Association: Raised flower beds for senior center; Boca Ciega Yacht Club: cleaning up the shoreline at Boca Ciega Yacht Club; So49 & Genesis Warship Center: Save Our Youth, Save Our Communities; St. Vincent de Paul Society of Most Holy Name Church: Canned food collection; Gulfport Community Gardens: Plants and Arbor Day; Senior Center Garden Project; Gulfport Police Department, Explorers and McDonalds: Feeding homeless families.

Volunteers will gather at 8 a.m. on Saturday, January 15 at Tomlinson Lake Park in Gulfport. The event runs until 1:30 p.m. Here’s the schedule: 8 a.m.: Sign-in, morning coffee and breakfast snack; 8:30: Opening ceremony, special guests, solo, excerpts from the “I Have a Dream” speech; 8:50: Depart to service projects; Noon: Return to Tomlinson Lake Park; 12:30 p.m.: Closing ceremony and volunteer luncheon.

There’s still time to register a community service project or volunteer as an individual or as a team. Contact Gail Biron at (727) 893-1118 or gbiron@mygulfport.us. You can find a registration form online here.

Eckerd College's new Cuban invasion: Students go to the island nation to study

Eckerd College photo from the trip last year.

Eckerd College students are invading Cuba this year in droves. Nearly 80 students are scheduled to visit the island nation to study photography, economics, the environment, and science.  Last year Eckerd College sent 18 students to Cuba, the first group from the college to go since the United States began normalizing relations with the Communist country. Here's an article about the trips that are planned.

Gulfport plans to plant a silver buttonwood

Have you ever seen a tree like the one on the picture. Probably. It's called a silver buttonwood. It's one of two varieties of mangroves that grow in brackish water throughout Florida. The City of Gulfport Recreation Department is planting one at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, January 15 on Gulfport Beach, west of the volleyball courts. They'll also have free sweet gum and red maple seedlings you can take home and plant in your own yard.

Why all the fuss? It's to mark Arbor Day, which is a traditional observance designed to call attention trees and their importance to us. It's a very old holiday, and is celebrated on several different dates around the world. The first recorded Arbor Day was in Spain in 1594, and they had a tree festival along with it. The first American Labor Day was almost 300 years later in Nebraska. It was the brainchild of a newspaperman named J. Sterling Morton, who later was named Secretary of Agriculture under Grover Cleveland.

Morton loved trees. Long before he went to Washington, he urged fellow Nebraskans to observe a tree-planting holiday where individuals and counties could win prizes for the largest number of properly planted trees.  The first American Arbor Day was on April 10, 1872. More than one million trees were believed to have been planted on that day. In 1855, Nebraska made the observance an official holiday and moved it to March 22, Morton's birthday.

Whatever day it's celebrated, we think Arbor Day is a good idea, and we think it's great that Gulfport is planting a mangrove tree. Mangroves filter pollutants, absorb excess nutrients from runoff, prevent shoreline erosion, trap sediments, and help increase the clarity and quality of our waters. Besides, they're home to all manner of fish and other sea critters.

John "Ribdog" Verville will barbecue at Hog Heaven event at FUMC in Gulfport

If you love barbecue, you're not going to want to miss this delicious event. For the ninth year, Hog Heaven Barbecue Dinner will be on the grill at First United Methodist Church in Gulfport on Saturday, January 16. John "Ribdog" Verville will be back again this year barbecuing great quantities of old-time barbecue pork. For those who don't know, "Ribdog" is well-known in barbecue circles. He's a Master Kansas City Barbecue Society competitor and judge. He teaches grilling in Brandon.

Tickets are already on sale. Expect generous portions of competition-quality hickory-smoked pulled port, hickory smoked baked beans, potato salad, bread, and dessert, all for just $9. Hot dog dinners for children under 12 are available for $3. Dinners will be served from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Takeouts are available. Purchase tickets at the church office at 2728 53rd Street S. Call (727) 321-3620 or (727) 488-9031 for information.