The West Nassau Historical Society has set the dates for this year’s 2011 Railroad Days Festival. The two day fund raising event will be held on Friday and Saturday, March 25th and 26th. Major events will be located in and around the historic Callahan Depot which was built in 1881 beside the old Florida Railroad. There will be various food, arts and craft vendors on the grounds both days and train exhibits, a kid’s play area plus live music and entertainment from the front platform. Model train layouts and the Nassau County Record photo contest exhibit will be on display inside the Depot annex. The highlight of the two day festival will be the 6th annual Railroad Days Parade through Callahan led by the Shriners on Saturday, March 26 at 11:00 AM. Cochrane’s Collision Center will again host a classic car show that Saturday at their place of business next to the Depot. Thanks to a donation from Rayonier, this year the Society will open their local history research archive inside the Depot and plant a tree to commemorate the Callahan Centennial. The Historical Society is searching for sponsors and volunteers to help with the festivities. The West Nassau Historical Society is a non-profit, tax exempt organization dedicated to the preservation of Western Nassau County’s rich history and to the maintenance and upkeep of the historic Callahan Depot. www.wnhsfl.homestead.com For additional information on the 2011 Railroad Days Festival or on becoming a volunteer, sponsor, or donor on please call John Hendricks with the West Nassau Historical Society at 904-879-3406. CallahanRRDays@aol.com
Things To Do in Savannah – February 2011
When I started looking for things to do, festivals, events and celebrations for the month of February, I didn’t think about history or presidential birthdays – all I could think of was little red hearts, roses, chocolate, champagne and maybe even a romantic weekend getaway for two. At least, that’s how I imagine a perfect Valentine’s Day.
Click here to get ideas about what to do for Valentine’s day in Savannah.  Then, let’s continue with the rest of the month. After all, there is a lot more to February in Savannah, GA, than Valentine’s Day events.
Savannah Restaurant Week
Yes, we know – the event started already on January 28 and probably shouldn’t make it on the list for February, but who can resist a restaurant week? During this event you can visit participating restaurants and get a three course meal for $30. Maybe you can celebrate Valentine’s Day early since this year Valentine’s Day itself falls on a xxday anyway. Savannah Restaurant week continues until February 6, 2011. Check out our special Restaurant Week page for details and participating restaurants.
In addition to celebrating Valentine’s Day, the month of February is also a time of year when we celebrate history. In Georgia, we have the Georgia History Festival taking place February 1 – 11, 2011. This festival offers a variety of different activities and events for both young and old. You might remember this event as Georgia History Days.
Here are a few of the highlights:
Saturday Feb. 6, 2011 – Super Museum Sunday
On this day you can visit many of Georgia’s museums for free. Bring the whole family for a day out exploring our history.
Feb. 11, 2011 – Georgia Day Parade
School children participate in this parade led by Oglethorpe himself.
Check out our special Georgia History Festival page for all the details.
Also in February, Savannah Black Heritage Festival from February 1 – 13, 2011. The highlight of the event is Grand Festival Day, a day of top entertainment is held in the Savannah Civic Center’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Arena on Saturday, February 12, 2011.
For more details, visit our special page for Savannah Black Heritage Festival.
President’s Day weekend is going to be an action-packed weekend in Savannah, with two festivals at the same time. First up, the book festival.
Savannah Book Festival has a new date this year. The festival is scheduled for February 18 – 20, 2011, which is a new date for this festival. During this three-day event, you get the chance to mingle and rub elbows with authors and book lovers. Read more about the festival right here – Savannah Book Festival
One of the most popular events this month is the Irish Festival also taking place on February 18 – 20, 2011, which is said to be the largest Irish Festival in the South. Not bad! Four stages, irish dance, music, food and much more. Read more on our special page about the Savannah Irish Festival.
Savannah Music Festival Adds Acts to 2011 Schedule
SAVANNAH MUSIC FESTIVAL ADDS ADDITIONAL ACTS TO 2011 SCHEDULE
More than 100 varied performances now make up Georgia’s largest musical arts event
The 2011 Savannah Music Festival (SMF) has added four more acts to its 2011 festival, which begins March 24th and runs through April 9th.
(Remember to take a look at Coastal Companion’s special page for the Savannah Music Festival for more info about the festival.)
Celebrated North Carolina folk-rockers The Avett Brothers, sacred steel virtuoso Robert Randolph and his Family Band, a rare one-man show with Citizen Cope, and the acclaimed Low Country rock ensemble Band of Horses will each play one SMF concert. Tickets for these four performances go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, January 28, at 216 E. Broughton Street, 912-525-5050 and online at www.savannahmusicfestival.org.
The Avett Brothers is a folk rock band from Concord, North Carolina. The band is made up of brothers Scott and Seth, who play the banjo and guitar respectively, and Bob Crawford on the stand-up bass. The Avett Brothers combine bluegrass, country, punk, pop melodies, folk, rock and roll, honky-tonk, and ragtime to produce a sound described by the San Francisco Chronicle as having the “heavy sadness of Townes Van Zandt, the light pop precision of Buddy Holly, the tuneful jangle of the Beatles, the raw energy of the Ramones.†March 30th at 9 p.m. at Johnny Mercer Theatre ($30, 38, 46, 75 gold)
Robert Randolph & the Family Band: Pedal steel player Robert Randolph is largely responsible for bringing the utterly unique sacred steel gospel tradition to a secular audience. Emerging as a prodigious instrumentalist from the House of God church, Randolph’s powerful performance style has since earned him countless appearances around the world such as the Grammy awards ceremony, a recording project with John Medeski and the Dickinson Brothers (from the North Mississippi All-Stars), and regular touring spots with Eric Clapton. April 1st at 9 p.m. at Trustees Theater ($18, 25, 32, 40)
Band of Horses is heralded for producing a sound that skillfully combines southern gothic with northwest indie rock. Theirs is a spacious, reverb-laden style of melodic pop that ducks the classification of psychedelic, providing accessible hooks and unique but straightforward rock and roll orchestration. The most recent release by Band of Horses, Intimate Arms, was their first collective songwriting effort. With the release of this new album they’ve graduated to regular tours overseas and a recent run as an opener for Seattle’s Pearl Jam. April 4th at 7:30 p.m. at Johnny Mercer Theatre ($25, 30, 35, 40 gold)
Citizen Cope is the pseudonym of Clarence Greenwood, keyboardist, guitarist, singer, DJ, and record producer. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Greenwood started his musical career as a DJ for the hip-hop act Basehead, a group that would have a significant impact on his style as a solo-musician. Citizen Cope blends many genres of music, such as folk, blues, hip-hop, rock, and R & B. This intimate SMF performance features Citizen Cope as a multi-instrumental one-man show. April 5th at 8 p.m. at Trustees Theater ($18, 22, 28)
Click here to read more about the upcoming Savannah Music Festival
Other interesting upcoming events in Savannah:
St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah, GA
Interactive Musical Robot Featured at 2011 Pulse Art + Technology Festival
GEORGIA TECH INTERACTIVE MUSICAL ROBOT WILL BE FEATURED AT 2011 PULSE ART & TECHNOLOGY FESTIVAL
SAVANNAH, GA. (January 20, 2011) – Georgia Tech Savannah is proud to be a sponsor of the 2011 PULSE: Art & Technology Festival created by the Telfair Museums and will host a series of lectures, performances and workshops during the nine-day event that starts today. Dr. Gil Weinberg, founder and director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, will conduct a lecture and performance at the Jepson Center on Friday, Jan. 21 at 6 p.m. The performance will feature an interactive marimba playing robot named Shimon that was recently featured in the nationally televised 2010 Georgia Tech PSA (see link below). Attendees will have the opportunity to interact and make music with Shimon after the performance.
Shimon is not an ordinary marimba-playing robot because it improvises and interacts with human musicians. Using melodic and harmonic perception and improvisation modules, Shimon creates musical responses in conjunction with social cues from its human counterparts. The result is not only novel and expressive human-robotic interaction, but also great new music.
Visualize a pianist playing a musical phrase followed by Shimon, who builds on this input with a new improvised sequence. A fellow guitar player can then enhance Shimon’s ideas, leading to new responses that could inspire humans to play in ways they have never played before. The robot’s head provides visual cues that represent social-musical elements, from beat detection through tonality, to attention and spatial interaction. Just imagine the head bob of a jazz drummer or a DJ spinning a hip hop record and you have a picture of Shimon’s personality.
Weinberg conceived the concept of robotic musicianship in 2006 with the development of Haile—the world’s first robotic musician capable of improvisation with human musicians. His research focuses on expanding musical expression, creativity and learning through innovative new technology including cell phones, toys and aquariums. Weinberg’s interactive systems have been presented in museums such as the Smithsonian Museum, Cooper-Hewitt Museum and Boston Children’s Museum. Weinberg received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT and is currently an associate professor of Music and adjunct professor of Computer Science at Georgia Tech.
“The goal of the project was to create real-time musical collaborations between human and robotic musicians that would capitalize on the combination of their unique strengths,†said Weinberg.
To learn more about Shimon visit: www.gatech.edu/music/shimon.html
The Public Service Announcement can be viewed at: www.gatech.edu/music/psa.html.
Georgia Tech Savannah will be hosting a number of additional workshops as part of PULSE taking place Jan. 20 – 29. These include:
Introduction to openFrameworks by Zachary Lieberman, Friday, Jan. 21 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. at Georgia Tech Savannah. Lieberman will provide a short introduction to openFrameworks a c++ library designed to assist the creative process by providing a simple and intuitive framework for experimentation. Participants must be 16 year old or older. Previous coding experience is helpful.
Youth Workshop: Introduction to Scratch on Saturday, Jan. 22 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. at Georgia Tech Savannah. Developed at the MIT Media Lab, Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create individual interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art and share creations on the web. As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically and work collaboratively. Students between the ages of 9-18 are encouraged to attend.
Read more about 2011 Pulse Art + Technology Festival in Savannah, GA, on our special events page.
Charleston, SC – January 2011 Events
Need new ideas for the new year? The holidays are finally over, and it’s time to make plans for what to do for the month of January with your family and friends. As usual, there is always a lot going on in South Carolina, especially when it comes to food events and festivals.
First Friday on Broad – Jan 7, 2011
Participating galleries on gallery row will offer a featured wine to accompany their fine art on a relaxing stroll down The Row, on Friday January 7th from 5-8 PM. Many galleries will offer demos, music and refreshments.
http://coastalcompanion.com/south-carolina/charleston/first-fridays-on-broad/
Charleston Restaurant Week – Jan 14-22, 2011
There is no lack of good food in the city of Charleston, and every year there seems to be more restaurants and food festivals.
During this event you’ll get an opportunity to try out new restaurants and new menus and explore the culinary arts scene in Charleston. Participating restaurant serve food according to a fixed price menu. Some restaurants participate with three courses for $20, others with three courses for $30.
More details on our Charleston Restaurant Week page.
Charleston Marathon – Jan 15, 2011
The First Annual Charleston Marathon presented by the Riverfront Race Festival will take place on Saturday, January 15, 2011. The start of the 26.2 full marathon and 13.1-mile half marathon course beginning near the South Carolina Aquarium, downtown Charleston. The course will run South on East Bay St., passing Rainbow Row, and White Point Gardens, then follow King Street North where the half marathon will end at the Navy Yard at Noisette and the full marathon race will continue. The 10K and 5K road races will also begin at this start/finish line on the old navy base.
In true Low Country tradition, shrimp and grits will be at the finish line, along with music on the course from the Charleston County School District groups and adult beverages. For more information, go www.charlestonmarathon.com or www.riverfrontfestival.com.
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Charleston Comedy Festival – Jan 19 – 22, 2011
The annual festival brings in some of the hottest improv, sketch, and stand-up artists from Chicago, New York, Canada, Atlanta, and LA to the city of Charleston for a weekend of comedy.
The Charleston Stand-Up Competition finals will kick off early with a Tuesday night show at Theatre 99. On Wednesday and Thursday nights, there will be shows by local troupes Cats Hugging Cats, Full Love Throttle, Neckprov, Hot Pants, Moral Fixation, and Human Fireworks. Out-of-town performers Nate Baratze, The Shock T’s, and the Village Theatre will take over the Charleston Ballet Theatre on Thursday for a night of stand up, sketch, and improv. Read more on our special page about Charleston Comedy Festival.
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On Friday night, choose from 15 shows at various venues across town, including a show by Robot Johnson, Introducing Fish Taco, and This is Chucktown at South of Broadway Theatre in North Charleston and a stand up show featuring Nate Baratze, Dave and Ethan, and Tom Keller at the Pour House on James Island. More information at www.charlestoncomedyfestival.com
Charleston Boat Show – Jan 21 – 23, 2011
This is the biggest boat show in the Low Country with lots of things to see and do. The show takes place at North Charleston Convention Center and during the three day event you can look of course look at boats, get fishing tips, there’s even lots of fun activities for the kids.
Low Country Oyster Festival – Jan 30, 2011
One of the most popular food festivals in Charleston is the Oyster festival at beautiful Boone Hall Plantation in Charleston, SC. This is an annual festival for oyster lovers from all over the region, and now wonder, after all this is the world’s largest oyster festival.
It is said that about 65,000 pounds of oyster are delivered to the famous Charleston oyster roast for the big day, can you believe it? Don’t miss the well-known “Oyster Shucking†and “Oyster Eating†Contests. There is also live music on stage, a Kids Corner, a “Food Court†showcasing a variety of local restaurants and much more.
The Oyster Festival takes place January 30, 2011 from 10:30 am – 5 pm.
More details can be found on our special Low Country Oyster Festival page.
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