Designs by BobbyK worn by Paris Dunomes (left) and Rachel Lym Swimwear worn by Emina Pasic (right). Photos by Mario Peralta, www.safario.net.

Suite101.com, March 2011

Hearing the phrase “fashion Mecca” undoubtedly brings to mind places like New York City, Los Angeles or Miami. But Jacksonville, FL, not so much. Until now.

Thanks to a groundswell of young fashionistas, Northeast Florida is experiencing a fashion movement centered in Jacksonville, a town with a rich but largely forgotten history in film and music. A century ago, Jacksonville was the wintertime epicenter of silent filmmaking, home to some 30 motion picture companies including those that would become today’s MGM and Universal. The likes of Theda Bara, Oliver Hardy, John and Ethyl Barrymore and Clara Bow all worked and wintered in the area for a time.

The 1929 opening of the Ritz Theatre also helped make Jacksonville’s LaVilla district an important stop on the Chitlin Circuit, a string of performance venues throughout the eastern and southern states that were safe and acceptable for black musicians, comedians, and other entertainers to perform during the age of racial segregation. LaVilla’s Ashley Street was known as the “Harlem of the South.”

But the area has never been known for fashion – until now. Over the past few years, Jacksonville has seen a groundswell of local fashion designers; models; hair and makeup artists; photographers; and set stylists emerge with looks and talent that many say could rival their big-market counterparts. One of them is designer Erin Healy, founder of Erin Healy Designs.

Jacksonville makes strides in fashion industry

“Up until a few years ago, a fashion show in Jacksonville invariably meant store-loaned outfits worn by volunteer models with no runway training walking to pre-recorded music from a CD player hooked to a sound system,” Healy says. “Today, a fashion show in Jacksonville means original designs worn by professional models strutting it to a DJ mixing live. While a lot of locals in the fashion industry still work day jobs, it’s becoming more and more feasible to make a full-time living from fashion. On any given day here, there is a photo shoot or a commercial shoot or an audition going on.”

Designers Healy and Love Brigade, a New York fashion house co-founded by Jacksonville native Alyssa Key, often are credited with initiating Jacksonville’s fashion movement. Having two locals, Yoanna House and Whitney Thompson, win their America’s Next Top Model seasons helped bring attention to the growing pool of runway and print model talent in the area. And Tiffany Hager aims to further Jacksonville’s early success with Jacksonville Fashion Week, a planned annual showcase that held its inaugural event in March.
Jacksonville fashionistas get their own runway

“Our goal for Jacksonville Fashion Week is to provide an accessible outlet to showcase local and regional fashion,” said Hager, Jacksonville Fashion Week founder and owner of loveofdresses.com. “We want to help Jacksonville become recognized as an area of emerging talent in the fashion industry and believe that JFW will provide the right environment for that talent to flourish.”

The inaugural JFW event featured runway shows by Jacksonville-based Erin Healy Designs, Yleya Vega Atelier, Chabri and Richard & Bancroft as well as Rachel Lym Swimwear of Miami and BobbyK, basedin Gainesville, FL and founded by Jacksonville native Bobby Kelley. Emerging designers featured included Jacksonville’s Lauren Rossi and Argie Mitra and Orlando’s Lile Useche. Other events included a “Fashion is Art” exhibit; a private shopping event at the Saks Off 5th Avenue in St. Augustine; and an industry panel featuring Thompson, Georgio Armani makeup artist Ashley Rebecca, fashion writer Abbie Britton and ROCK BANDS jewelry line founder Lee Dahlberg.
Answering the naysayers

For these young fashion professionals, there is a ground-floor feeling and a wide-open opportunity for creating a flourishing industry and a distinct Jacksonville style. Of course, Jacksonville has its naysayers, who say that the area lacks the sophistication of more prominent fashion centers. Healy has an answer to their criticism.

“Jacksonville has a lot more to offer than it gets credit for – even from its own residents and that’s a shame,” she says. “When it comes to the fashion scene here, of course we’re not on the scale of Miami or New York in terms of volume. Nobody’s trying to claim that. But in terms of quality, we have a groundswell of local designers, photographers, models, stylists and hair and makeup artists whose work can easily go head to head against those in bigger markets and win. Give this industry a chance to develop. You’ll be surprised at what we can do. And you’ll be proud that it’s happening here in Jacksonville.”

See the original post and other Jacksonville stories on Suite101.com.

American Idol top 3 contestant Lauren Alaina visits tornado-damaged communities in and around her hometown. Photo by Ray Mickshaw/FOX/PictureGroup.

People Magazine, 2011

It was a bittersweet return to Georgia for Lauren Alaina, who finally saw up-close the tornado damage that leveled houses near her town of Rossville.

“She’s trying to get her composure,” mom Kristy Suddeth said Saturday after a sobbing Lauren visited a shelter at the Cherokee Valley Baptist Church in nearby Ringold as part of her American Idol homecoming. “These people don’t need to see somebody crying. They need to see somebody smiling.”

Lauren met 11-year-old Tyler Long, who was thrown 200 yards from his family’s mobile home and managed to find and comfort family members, including his 8-year-old brother Connor and 10-month-old Ryder.

Long lost his grandfather, Jack Estep, Jr. His mother Veronica Long, who was 11 weeks pregnant, lost her baby and remains in the hospital. Infant brother Ryder is in the ICU with a bleeding brain, two broken arms and a broken leg.

“I felt scared and I prayed, but I just wanted to find my family first,” Long told Alaina.

“How can you be so brave?” Alaina asked. “You’ve got me crying, Tyler. I’m so proud to be from Georgia just like you.”

After the tragedy killed 42 people, Alaina sang Martina McBride’s “Anyway” on the May 11 episode of “American Idol.”

Alaina was among the three Idol finalists making homecoming tours this weekend. Haley Reinhart returned to Wheeling, Ill., and Scotty McCreery went back to Garner, N.C.

See original post of this story and related articles on People.com.

Kay Johnson in Cecil B. DeMille's "Madam Satan," re-released on DVD this month.

This just might be the strangest E3 Spark Plugs blog entry we’ve posted thus far. With everyone here at the E3 headquarters itching to ditch work early for the opening of Disney’s “Tron” tonight, we got to thinking about all the great motorcycle movies we’ve seen. Then, we got to wondering if any of those films paid tribute to the trusty spark plug. After all, if a motorcycle was a blockbuster movie, the spark plug might be the great script. Turns out, the spark plug doesn’t get much respect from scriptwriters, which we think is a cinematic shame. But we did find a few oddly amusing spark plug script cameos.

The earliest spark plug cameo we find in filmdom is in the 1930 Cecil B. DeMille flick “Madame Satan” which, incidentally, was released on DVD this month. The legendary Hollywood director/producer was best known for biblical epics like the 1923 and 1956 versions of The Ten Commandments” and 1952′s melodramatic Oscar winner “The Greatest Show on Earth.” But Madame Satan, a romantic musical comedy, was a bit of an experimental project, it seems. The film stars Kay Johnson as a wife who learns her husband is having an affair with a singer. So she dresses as “Madame Satan” and foots it to a lavish costume ball in a vamped-up attempt to lure her husband back into her arms.

So where do the spark plugs come in? That would be in the sci-fi-esque “Ballet Mechanique,” lead by the Spirit of Electricity and featuring a group of dancers dressed as spark plugs. The $1 million production was the most expensive at the MGM studios that year, but the unfortunately timed film fizzled at the box office in the midst of a backlash against musicals. Click below for a look at the rather bizarre-but-mesmerizing number.

The spark plug’s next cameo comes in the 1957 British noir classic “Hell Drivers,” which opens with actor Stanley Baker, described as a “long-jawed, macho Morrissey type,” picking up a spark plug and kissing it. His character, Tom Yately, is an ex-con looking to leave his ne’er do well ways behind and begin anew. He lands a job hauling gravel for Hawlett Trucking, an aggressive company that places speed far higher on the priority list than employee safety. Tom’s competitive side kicks in when he decides to go head-to-head with Red, a veteran driver who logs 18 runs a day. As expected, Red’s cronies bow up against Tom and it all goes downhill when Tom’s friend and fellow driver Gino is killed in an accident, blowing the cover on corporate corruption. We hear the race scenes are awesome.

The most recent spark plug mention we turned up is in “Four Lions,” a comedy about terrorism. Yes, you read that correctly – a comedy about terrorism. With tongue firmly in cheek, Indie director Chris Morris set out to make what has been described as “the Three Stooges of Jihad.” Except there are four of them: working-class young Brits who meet in secret to plan suicide bombings but have trouble deciding what to bomb. Hilarity ensues, packed with laughter-inducing jabs that ought not to be funny, including a scene wherein the would-be jihadists’ car breaks down.

“It’s the parts. They’re Jewish,” says one knucklehead character.

Um. Which parts?

“The spark plugs. Jews invented spark plugs to control global traffic.”

Says one “Four Lions” reviewer, “As an audience member, you’re stuck. The subject would not seem to be funny in any way. Terrorism is clearly a serious matter. Yet, funny is funny and you laugh despite yourself. After all, with the Times Square car bomber, who locked his keys in the car, and after the underwear bomber, you begin to see that not everyone involved is a Ph.D.”

“Four Lions” is making the film festival circuit and was nominated for five British Independent Film Awards as well as the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize.

Frankly, we’re not sure what to make of a few of these spark plug mentions. But as aspiring young actors say, “parts is parts,” or something like that. We’re just glad to see the trusty spark plug land a few bit parts on the big screen. It gives a whole new meaning to the term “performance spark plugs.” Seen any of these movies? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Client blog written for Salt Life / AppSoft Web Design

Living the salt life involves a lot more than suiting up, waxing down and riding the waves for fun or even exercise. True salt lifers know it’s a lifestyle with the potential to change the world – one disadvantaged or at-risk kid; one inured athlete; one health issue; one struggling community at a time. If the idea of using your passion for surfing to positively affect or influence someone’s life excites you, check out one of these amazing organizations making a difference and making the surf community proud.

Surfing the Nations: The Honolulu-based nonprofit operates one of the largest food distribution sites on the island of Oahu. Locally, the organization caters to Hawaii’s needy, disabled, homeless and working poor populations. But founders Tom and Cindy Bauer and their staff, interns and volunteers don’t stop at the nearest coastline. They make annual trips to neighboring islands and internationally to Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Israel and Egypt, blessing communities with clothing, supplies and surf culture. Surfing the Nations is the organization behind the award-winning documentary “Gum for my Boat,” which follows pro surfer Kahana Kalama (of Fuel TV’s “On Safari) to Bangladesh where a surf club of about 30 youth (many of them poverty-stricken or homeless) has become a catalyst for change in their lives and community.

SurfAid International: Founded by physician and avid surfer Dr. Dave Jenkins after an eye-opening and heart-wrenching trip to the Mentawai Islands, SurfAid International works to alleviate human suffering through community-based health programs. These programs focus efforts on reducing the incidence of malaria throughout Mentawai villages; preparing the Mentawai and Nias Islands villages for emergencies including floods, landslides, tidal surges, tropical storms and cyclones, forest fires and health epidemics; and providing access to clean water and healthier sanitation practices.

Stoked Mentoring: With outreaches in New York and Los Angeles, Stoked Mentoring challenges at-risk youth to change their perceptions, bust out of their comfort zones and push past their boundaries via sports like surfing, snowboarding and skate boarding. The organization focuses on boosting kids’ self-esteem and self confidence to help steer them away from negative choices and circumstances like drug use, dropping out of school, teen pregnancy and crime.

Life Rolls On / They Will Surf Again: They Will Surf Again brings individuals with spinal cord injuries from around the country together for a day of surfing, making friends and getting inspired to push past their physical limitations. It’s the flagship program of the Life Rolls On Foundation, a subsidiary of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life for young people affected by spinal cord injury through action sports and mentoring.

Never Quit Never: Salt Life’s hometown girl and top-ranked pro surfer Karina Petroni and her brother Erik Petroni founded Never Quit Never in honor of their dad, Capt. Gerard Petroni, who passed away after a major stroke and brain aneurysm. At the point during his initial recovery when he was unable to speak, Capt. Petroni penned the words “never quit.” That message resonated so deeply with his children, that they founded Never Quit Never, holding beach festivals that educate participants about brain bleeds and encourages healthy living choices.

Know of a great surf-related organization that we missed? Got an idea for improving lives and communities by living the salt life? Leave us a comment. And check the Salt Life blog regularly. We just might follow up with a great Salt Life blog entry about your organization or idea.

Wreckage of the plane crash that killed a pilot, co-pilot and two friends of celebrity DJ Adam Goldstein and former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker.

People Magazine, September  2008

How did Travis Barker and DJ AM (real name: Adam Goldstein) survive the plane crash that killed four people and left them with second- and third-degree burns?

“[Travis and Adam] told me that they slid down the wing on the right side of the plane,” Lieut. Josh Shumpert of the South Congaree Police Department tells PEOPLE. Shumpert was one of the second responders at the scene – Congaree is the town outside of Columbia, S.C. – after the airport police arrived.

“They said they were on fire,” adds Shumpert, whose patrol car’s dashboard camera caught video of the fiery aftermath, “and that they tackled each other and put each other out.”

“When I got there they were on the side of the road,” says Shumpert. “They were pacing and in shock.”

“Travis was very shaken up,” he says, noting that Barker was given Gatorade after he asked for some water.

According to the lieutenant, the pair weren’t naked, contrary to eyewitness statements.

“Travis was wearing some kind of shorts and no shirt,” says Shumpert, adding that Goldstein was wearing shorts or boxers as well. “Travis had one sock on. And a black hat on his head.”

Quick Thinking

The fast reactions of the former Blink 182 drummer Barker, 32, and Goldstein, 35, gave them a good chance of a full recovery.

“Since both Barker and Goldstein are in overall good health and didn’t suffer from any other crash-related complications, a full recovery is expected,” said Dr. Fred Mullins of the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors’ Hospital in Augusta at a Sunday morning press conference.

Mullins added that recovery from such burns can take as long as a year.

* I was the first reporter to break this aspect of this story and landed exclusive interviews with several of the first people to reach the crash scene. Minutes after this story posted on People.com, dozens of major media outlets copied, crediting People with the breaking news.

See original post of this story and related articles on People.com.

Shown Mercy by the Mother of a Classmate He Killed with a Single Blow, Thomas White Now Warns Kids About the Cost of Violence

People Magazine, May 2005

The war between Thomas White IV and David Baez began, like so many petty adolescent squabbles, over a girl. In 2003 Baez, then a 15-year-old junior at Ridgeview High School in Orange Park, Fla., accused a female classmate of trashing his pals in a series of e-mails. She showed the exchanges to her friend White, and for two weeks the youths spat insults at each other in the school’s halls. Tensions escalated until the final bell on Sept. 12 of that year. As Baez walked to his locker, White came up behind him. A friend shouted a warning, but Baez turned and White floored him with a sucker punch to the face. He didn’t get up. “I didn’t know anything was wrong,” recalls White, 19. “I just thought he was knocked out.”

White’s single blow brought catastrophic consequences: Freakishly, the impact separated two vertebrae at the base of Baez’s skull and caused hemorrhaging. For eight days he lay on life support as his parents, Edgar and Maria, and two sisters kept vigil. “We prayed and prayed, but he never woke up,” says Maria. On Sept. 20 Baez—a fine student who planned to study architecture—was dead. “I felt his last heartbeat,” says Maria, 46, who works for the Urban League. “I can still feel that like it was yesterday.”

No one would have blamed Maria Baez if she had demanded the maximum penalty for her son’s killer, who was initially charged as an adult with manslaughter and faced up to 15 years in prison. Instead, she displayed astonishing mercy. Noting White’s age and the unusual nature of the crime, state prosecutors offered a unique deal: Pending approval by the Baez family, the teen would serve just three years in jail and 12 years probation if he spent his time in custody speaking to peers about the dangers of youth violence. Edgar, 49, a retired Naval lab technician, left the decision to his wife, who not only agreed but made a tearful plea with the judge for leniency. “I just listened to my heart,” she says. “In prison, Thomas would just learn more about how to be a criminal. How does anything good come of that?”

Now White is an unlikely activist, traveling every few weeks from Clay County Jail to schools in northeast Florida to urge kids to talk out their problems. He also screens Death Blow, a 15-minute documentary that reenacts the fatal fight and features interviews with both families. “Let’s not sugarcoat this. Thomas murdered David,” says prosecutor Shauna Wright. “But it’s no benefit to the Baezes or him if he spends more time behind bars.”

School officials and students say the presentations have an impact. During a March visit to a Clay County school, White, in shackles, haltingly took questions from kids. Asked what the toughest part of jail is, he said simply, “I’m not allowed to hug my mom.” After the speech, 12-year-old Ashley Coleman and friends vowed to do more to avoid conflict. “He says, she says—a little bit of drama and someone can be gone just like that,” says the seventh grader. “People take their lives for granted.”

That’s something both the White and Baez families, who have met occasionally since the crime, deal with every day. Although their son had been in trouble for fighting before, Thomas White III, 45, a retired Naval petty officer, and wife Teresa, 38, say he’d cleaned up his act and was excelling in school before the incident. When the boys began their dispute, both mentioned it to their parents. “I gave David space and didn’t intervene,” says Edgar Baez. “That will haunt me forever.”

To this day, Edgar questions whether White can truly be rehabilitated. “A tree that grows crooked will never be straight,” he says. Maria is more optimistic, visiting her son’s killer twice since his sentencing. “I thought she was going to be mad at me,” White says of their first meeting. “But she wasn’t.” Instead, Baez calmly expressed her grief. “I told him I still feel angry about what happened,” she recalls. “And I asked him how he was doing.”

What she hopes is that at least one young person can ultimately be saved: “Maybe this happened so we can make a difference in Thomas’s life,” she says. “I just want to know he’s learned his lesson.” It seems he has. “A strong person is one who will walk away,” White tells audiences. “All it takes is one punch to change your life forever.”

Richard Jerome; Devan Stuart in Orange Park

See the original post here.

John and Elizabeth Calvert, missing since March 2008.

They lived on a yacht in Hilton Head Island, S.C. Then early this month, a well-liked couple, John and Elizabeth Calvert, disappeared-and eight days later a business associate killed himself.

People Magazine, March 2008 (Reported with a team of other writers/reporters)

The first sign of trouble was when John and Elizabeth Calvert of Hilton Head Island, S.C. failed to show up at their offices on March 4. Popular in the wealthy resort, the Calverts are also known to almost compulsively keep in touch with their employees at Sea Pines Resorts, where they own 125 rental properties and a marina and where they live part-time on a 45-ft. yacht.

“We know when they eat, sleep, drink,” says dockhand Abbie Adams. But as the day wore on, messages to John, 46, and Liz, 45, on their phones and BlackBerrys went unanswered. Most troubling, perhaps, was that T.C., the couple’s treasured cat, was found roaming the yacht unattended.

“Liz is an animal lover,” says Tony Gibus, who manages the Calvert’s social boating club. “She’d never leave the cat.”

The Calverts’ disappearance stunned high-end, low-crime Hilton Head, and in the days after they went missing, the mystery has only deepened.

Investigators-including the FBI-soon began combing the island, interviewing friends and associates. Divers scoured the harbor floor and came up empty. On March 7 police located the Calverts’ Mercedes in a hotel lot seven miles from the marina. Then, in a startling development, Dennis Gerwing, a business associate of the Calverts’, turned up dead on March 11, an apparent suicide.

From the beginning, authorities focused on two meetings the Calverts had attended with Gerwing shortly before they disappeared. According to sources who know the couple, they believed that someone in the office of their former accountants the Club Group, where Gerwing was chief financial officer, had embezzled more than $100,000. Late last year the Calverts ended their relationship with the Club Group over unpaid bills. On March 2 and again the next day, they met with Gerwing and, according to the sources, planned to discuss the alleged embezzlement.

Reached by phone two days before he was found dead, Gerwing told PEOPLE, ‘It’s possible I was the last person who saw them [alive]” and refused to comment further about the business meetings or anything else connected with the case. Club Group CEO Mark King told PEOPLE his company is “actively cooperating with police, who have asked us not to comment.”

According to two staffers at the Red Fish restaurant, where Gerwing was a regular, Gerwing came in for diner on March 7. The staffers say a tear came to his eye when they asked how he was doing. One recalls him saying, “It’s been a rough week. The cops think I did it.” He then said that police were tailing him and had searched his house and his boat. Those same restaurant employees, however, dismissed the notion that Gerwing could have been involved in anything questionable. “I’ve known him for years,” one says. “He’d give you the shirt off his back. Dennis has helped a lot of people.”

Meanwhile, “missing” posters plaster Hilton Head, where the Calverts have been fixtures for more than 15 years. John, a mechanical engineer, proposed to Liz, who works as a lawyer for a firm in Savannah, while vacationing on the island.

“They balance each other,” says Mark Leinmiller, an old friend of John’s. “He’s outgoing. Liz has a quiet wit, but she’s not going to be the life of the party.”

They wed in 1988 and settled into a white brick home in Atlanta’s historic Brookhaven district. For a birthday several years ago, John bought Liz flying lessons, and she quickly became a passionate pilot. The Calverts, who have no children, kept coming back to Hilton Head and about five years ago bought their yacht, dubbed Yellow Jacket for the mascot of John’s alma mater Georgia Tech.

Four years ago John semi-retired from engineering, and in 2005 the couple took over the Sea Pines businesses.

“Calling them employers doesn’t even come close to describing them; we’re all one big extended family here,” says Laura Tipton, harbor operator at the marina. She calls every couple of days to check on the Calvert’s dog Sadie, a black, 45-lb mix boarding in an Atlanta kennel. She and other staffers also tend to T.C., still on the yacht, where he’s most at home, feeding him and administering eye drops for an infection as he waits for Mom and Dad.

“I talked to one of their oldest, dearest friends and he was saying they never wanted to move to Tahiti or someplace like that,” Tipton says. “Hilton Head was their dream. They were living their dream.”

Richard Jerome, Nicole Weisensee Egan and Devan Stuart in Hilton Head Island, Lori Rozsa in Miami and Jeff Truesdell in Atlanta.

* People was the first publication to land information on several major aspects of this story, including the allegations of embezzlement.

The Cloister at Sea Island

RESORTS | Howard Coffin’s ‘friendly little inn’ keeps getting friendlier

Chicago Sun Times, May 2008

It all began almost a century ago. A leisurely tour of the Georgia low country and its barrier islands left Howard Coffin enamored with what poet Sydney Lanier described as the “glooms of the live oaks, beautiful, braided and woven.”

Soon, Coffin, an automotive pioneer and founder of the Hudson Motor Co., would begin buying up parcels of the area, including a secluded sliver of marshy paradise known as Sea Island. Here, in 1928, he opened a temporary, “friendly little inn” as an experiment. He wanted to see if this quiet, cloistered corner of the world might prove appealing to tourists.

Some eight decades later, the Cloister at Sea Island reigns as the Grand Dame of southern coastal resorts. Designed by famed Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner, Coffin’s friendly little experiment quickly became a favorite respite among America’s elite, as well as visiting royalty from around the world. Celebrities, moneyed socialites and world leaders — including delegates of the 2004 G8 Summit — would visit throughout the years. And its prominence is regularly lauded in dozens of “best of” lists — particularly after a recent three-year, $500 million renovation.

The resurrection of the Cloister’s centerpiece — its 30-suite main building and two 35-guestroom wings overlooking the Black Banks River and a maze of formal gardens — was nothing short of a coup d’etat. The stately main building, though updated with all the modern accoutrements, retains the Old World glory of Mizner’s original, Spanish Mediterranean-styled design, featuring Mizner’s characteristic stuccoed arches, towered stairways, courtyards and red, barrel tiled roofs. The interior is meticulously outfitted with antiques from around the world, an impressive collection of fine art, custom designed furniture and reclaimed wood from felled timbers naturally preserved in riverbeds throughout the South. Entire mountain villages were commissioned to hand-weave the property’s 670 Turkish rugs.

In his modernized rendition of Mizner’s masterpiece, architect Peter Capone kept some features precisely as they were. Most notable is the Spanish lounge, where each brick and board was dismantled, numbered, stored away throughout the renovation, then replaced piece by numbered piece. The solarium, flooded with sunlight and the sounds of its resident lovebirds, retains the same restful feeling as its predecessor. And while most major resort renovations bring a mass of new rooms, the Cloister remains a “boutique” hotel, with just 156 rooms total, including its 56 beachfront options.

Other new additions include the expanded and relocated, 65,000-square-foot spa and the Beach Club. The Spa at Sea Island is a destination in and of itself, featuring a salon, a workout center offering more than 100 hours of fitness classes a week, indoor squash courts and a “wellness cuisine” center that offers healthy shopping and cooking sessions. Spa treatments include Swedish stone massages, Indian jasmine scrubs and Turkish baths. A favorite is the 120-minute Japanese Basu bath, a seven-step practice that includes a yuzu body wash, ginger grass body polish, cherry blossom rice polish body buff, hinoki mint soak, rose and plum camellia body misting, a massage of wild lime silk oil and plum blossom silk cream rub.

The newly renovated and reopened Beach Club is a favorite among families. Fronted by five miles of private beach, the club boasts a huge swimming pool, game room, ice cream parlor and Big George’s Raw Bar & Grill, a casual restaurant with an ocean view. Sail boating, sea kayaking and body boarding are offered. In keeping with the Cloister’s deep sense of tradition, the Beach Club is presided over by Big George Drayton himself, a 40-year fixture who welcomes everyone by name and with an infectious smile. A stay at the Cloister just wouldn’t be the same without him, regulars say.

Other recreational options include golf, tennis, seaside horseback riding, vintage yacht cruises aboard the 71-foot wooden Cloister Belle, and skeet, clay and five-stand shooting lessons (including the Annie Oakley Shooting Hour for Ladies).

The Cloister’s renovations bring updates to Sea Island’s dining options, including the inviting 100 Hudson, with its panoramic views of the Black Banks River and alfresco dining (in season). Try the sauted Sapelo Island clams or short rib ravioli. The cozy Colt & Allison features fireside tables with high-back leather chairs and a view of the Plantation Course’s 18th hole, and the sophisticated Georgian Room is reminiscent of a Mizner estate dining room with hand-painted china, European linens and a butternut squash cheesecake that is to die for. For the ultimate in intimate dining, the Cloister also offers a reservation-only wine cellar option. A party of 12 can sit comfortably in the medieval-styled cellar lined with an impressive array of wines — including a vintage 1840 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, yours for $7,600.

At the other end of the dining spectrum is the Friday night Plantation Supper on nearby Rainbow Island. This is where you come to enjoy quintessential Southern fare, such as barbecue shrimp, fried chicken and corn on the cob at a picnic table or on the screen porch while rocking to the sounds of gospel and bluegrass. Dance, sing and roast marshmallows while kids chase rabbits hiding in the sea grass.

Executive Chef Todd Rogers offers a behind-the-scenes tour of several of Sea Island’s 19 kitchens. He’s adamant about providing the freshest ingredients, which means supporting local providers. Sapelo Farms in nearly Brunswick provides locally grown produce and heirloom breed chicken. Thomasville’s Sweet Grass Dairy sends cheeses and milk, including that used to make ice cream spun on the premises. And local fisherman net much of the seafood that gets served.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the Cloister’s commitment to maintaining a balance with its natural surroundings. The renovation project included a massive tree-moving project, where groundskeepers shuffled around nearly 1,700 trees, including gigantic live oaks. Groundskeepers keep the use of insecticides and other chemicals at a minimum, relying on environmentally friendly processes, like releasing lady bugs into the gardens. The spotted cuties eat aphids and other plant chewers.

Perhaps no one illustrates that reverence for nature like Sea Island naturalist Stacia Hendricks, who ran late for our dinner because she was rescuing a wayward bat from a local resident’s garage.

“This is where life begins and sustains us,” she said of the marshland. “I know the person who grew those clams I ate tonight. I love that.”

Hendricks not only helps care for the island’s natural amenities; she shares them with guests. Nature tours focus on all things indigenous, from flora and fauna to raptors and reptiles, and are guided on boat, bicycle, horseback or jeep. Her stories, told with infectious enthusiasm, point out physical remnants of ancient Timucuan tribal lands, migratory birds that just two weeks prior had been in the Arctic Circle, or tracks of nesting sea turtles that take 34 years to mature and return — often from thousands of miles away — to the very beach where they were hatched to lay their own eggs.

She’ll happily show off her earrings cast from the spinous process of an alligator, her bracelet from the band of an armadillo and her necklace from alligator toe bones — all created by designer GoGo Ferguson, whose family has stewarded nearby Cumberland Island for six generations. And nothing gets her excited like “the 8-year-old kid that wants to know, ‘What is that bird?’ ” she said. “This kid wants to connect to that critter on some level. And if you can teach kids something cool, they’ll teach their parents. That’s important because right now, we know more about the moon than we know about the ocean.”

Perhaps the entire Cloister experience can be wrapped up in Hendricks’ words.

“When people come to a point of the world like this, they leave with something,” she said. “It creates something that resonates within them, like a fine wine or a wonderful meal.”

If You Go

GETTING THERE: Sea Island is halfway between Savannah, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla. It’s a 1.5-hour drive from both cities’ international airports. Private planes can fly into St. Simons Island, which is 4 miles from the resort. Delta serves the Brunswick Golden Isles Airport (14 miles away) through its partner, Atlantic Southeast Airlines. Sea Island transportation can be arranged between all four airports.

STAYING THERE: River view rooms go for $750 a night, with suites ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. Special packages often include a free night with two or three paid nights. Check the Web site for other discounts.

CONTACT: Call (800) 732-4752 or go to SeaIsland.com.

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Chicago Sun Times

“People often ask me, ‘What was Crazy Horse like?’ ” says Serle Chapman, standing in 2-foot-tall prairie grass dappled with wild sage and backed by Bear Butte, the Plains Indians’ most sacred of places. A group of eight tourists from across the United States, England and Australia listen, spellbound, despite the frigid October mist. “I tell them, ‘I think he was beautiful.’”

Go Native America founder Serle Chapman at the site of the original Red Cloud Agency.

Perhaps not the word that most would use to describe this iconic Lakota leader. But then most have heard only of Crazy Horse the warrior — not Crazy Horse the romantic who relinquished his Shirt Wearer (war leader) status in a peace agreement that included the protection and gentle treatment of the woman he loved. Neither Hollywood nor the mainstream publishing industry is likely to tell you such stories — at least not accurately. That’s why Chapman and wife Sarah founded Sheridan, Wyoming- and Montana-based Go Native America, offering an exhaustive series of tours that take participants deep into Indian Country to experience firsthand the sights, sounds, tastes and histories of America’s first inhabitants. A primary aim is simply to contest what many call the “bastardization” of the Native experience. Yet, for many participants, the result is a journey not just physical, but emotional, spiritual and often life-changing.

Described by the Associated Press as “one of America’s 50 most influential writers,” Chapman is the best-selling author and photographer of seven books, including Of Earth and Elders, the award-winning Promise: Bozeman’s Trail to Destiny and We, The People, which includes a forward written by former President Bill Clinton. A tireless supporter of Native youth and education programs, Chapman has received commendations from U.S. and world leaders, including Nelson Mandela and former U.S. Senators John Edwards and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (a member of the Council of Chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne Nation). His own forebears include legendary frontier scout Amos Chapman and Mary Chapman, also known as Long Neck Woman, the daughter of Southern Cheyenne Chief Sleeping Bear and adopted daughter of Chief Stone Calf. Go Native America is listed in National Geographic Traveler’s “50 Tours of a Lifetime,” and Chapman made Wanderlust magazine’s top six tour guides worldwide.

Chapman’s knowledge of America’s indigenous peoples and their histories is surpassed only by his passion for sharing it. So it’s no surprise that the Chapmans go out of their way to bring tour participants as close as possible to walking in the very footsteps of people whose stories they’re hearing.

My group’s 13-day journey, titled “Elk Medicine,” took us to various locales in South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana, via a rented passenger bus and one-night stays at Best Westerns, Holiday Inns and one-room cabins in valley of the Badlands National Park. It began with an entrance into the Black Hills in the traditional Lakota way — through Buffalo Gap, South Dakota, population 164, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Here, among what is now a National Grasslands property boasting 591,000 acres of prairie intermingled with rocky badlands, herds of buffalo entered the Hills on their migratory journeys centuries ago.

“The landscape here seems to pulse with a heartbeat,” tour participant Jan Yoxall wrote of the experience in her Southeast England-based blog (MedicineBowlCafe). “It speaks to those who take the time to listen and as Serle relates the Lakota stories to us, the wind suddenly builds up as if reinforcing what he is telling us, then it disappears suddenly.”

American buffalo

Here, Chapman speaks of the traditional Lakota way of lifeway, the ceremonial journey that is linked to the sun’s passage through the constellations and the relationship between the buffalo and human beings. At Vore Buffalo Jump, he explains the mechanics and the spiritual aspects of buffalo jumps, which involved enticing small groups of buffalo from the herds and running them over the edges of cliff formations. As the animals crashed below, tribal women would finish them off as quickly as possible to alleviate their suffering.

“Their perceptional reality was that the buffalo was a relative,” Chapman says.

Buffalo were killed for meat, hides and bones that were fashioned into tools.

Chapman also shared the Native version of the story of the Battle of Little Bighorn, a k a Custer’s Last Stand. It’s true that the famed U.S. Army Cavalry Commander was outnumbered, outmaneuvered and outsmarted by a large coalition of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. You’ll read that in any history book. But oral histories among the Native peoples suggest that two women, one Lakota, one Cheyenne fought among those who finished off the flamboyant Custer.

The day continued with a walk through Custer State Park in search of wild buffalo and elk, and a visit to Wind Cave, revered as the Lakota Nation’s place of genesis. And our group ended our first evening with the He Sapa Wacipi-Black Hills Powwow, a virtual kaleidoscope of color, culture, music, dance and drumbeats.

Throughout the trip, we would visit many places of interest and of reverence: the Museum of the Fur Trade; the site of the original Red Cloud Agency; the Allison Treaty Grounds, the start of the struggle for the Black Hills that led to the “Great Sioux War of 1876,” deliberately provoked by the Grant administration (the subsequent illegal military seizure of the Black Hills violated the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, and the legal conflict continues today), and the Medicine Wheel in the snowy reaches of the Bighorn Mountains, an ancient place of prayer and meditation.

Several stops drew deep emotional reactions, particularly our visit to Wounded Knee. Several of us stood sobbing at the gated edge of the mass grave bearing victims of the slaughter that marks one of America’s darkest hours. (HBO’s recent Emmy-honored “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” by the way, won little praise from the locals, who call the film, at best, a fictionalized history.)

Guests you’ll meet along the way on a Go Native America tour include people like Ernie LaPointe, who must have more second cousins than anybody on the planet. Seems everyone wants to be the great-grandchild of Lakota statesman, holy man and Sun Dancer Sitting Bull. But only LaPointe and his sisters have the documents and the oral history to prove that claim. As proud of his French heritage as he is of his Lakota lineage, LaPointe shakes his head in frustration at the countless strangers who claim a blood connection to his family.

“I tell them, ‘somewhere in the Spirit World, your ancestor is hurting,’ ” he says. “‘He is sad because you don’t want to be his family. You want to be someone else’s.’”

Our group also met Lakota traditionalist Wilmer Stampede Mesteth, a recognized spiritual leader on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and respected Oglala Lakota historian and educator. Mesteth is an ardent preservationist of Lakota culture who, in 1972, defied religious prohibitions to help reintroduce the Sun Dance. He also has worked to preserve the victory songs from the Battle of the Little Bighorn and, after 20 years of training and promotion, successfully brought back a traditional Lakota game thought lost to assimilation.

What you won’t get on a Go Native America tour is an ego-tripped oration about how Natives can do no wrong. Chapman possesses an uncanny knack for describing characters in ways totally relatable in today’s terms. His stories vividly illustrate Red Cloud as a powerful motivator, a shrewd politician and a forceful negotiator, and Yellow Wolf as an ingenious international trade leader whose abilities would rival any political or corporate powerhouse on the scene today.

The scenes of modern reservation life stand in stark contrast to the untouched beauty of the lands surrounding them. Poverty, addiction and suicide rates are far greater among America’s indigenous peoples than among any other group living within the nation’s borders today. Several in my tour group bought hand-beaded necklaces from three women who lived, along with 14 others, in a two-bedroom mobile home near Wounded Knee — a small but appreciated gesture followed by vows to do more to help.

Tongue River Canyon, one of Crazy Horse's favorite places of respite.

Perhaps it’s the heartbreaking histories and the ongoing hardships that make us all better appreciate the immeasurable value of the lands that Native Americans hold in such reverence. Nowhere is that more evident than the place where our tour group spent its last day — Tongue River Canyon. Here, Crazy Horse would find respite for days at the time, among the brilliant colors of the foliage and the lullaby-like sounds of the stream. It is a scene indescribable — like stepping into a painting, and, like Crazy Horse himself and those who lived, loved and fought alongside him, beautiful.

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Client blog written for E3 Spark Plugs / AppSoft Web Design

Still from "Easy Rider"

Did Dennis Hopper really use E3 Spark Plugs filming “Easy Rider?” No, but we think he would have if our motorcycle spark plugs had been around in 1969. Here at E3 Spark Plugs, we’re motorcycle enthusiasts and we love great films and great filmmakers. “Easy Rider” chronicled the story of two counter-culture bikers who set out on a personal odyssey from LA to New Orleans to see America on the ultimate road trip-gone-wrong. With “Easy Rider”, Dennis Hopper (as director, co-writer and actor alongside Peter Fonda), changed the way films were made and helped usher in what is largely considered the “Second Golden Age of American Cinema.”

It certainly wasn’t the first motorcycle movie, and many have followed. But, this low-budget, dark horse of a motorcycle movie proved to be an unexpected blockbuster. “Easy Rider” helped rev up interest in America’s biking subculture and is considered a turning point in American filmmaking. Stuck in a financial and artistic depression, Hollywood had no idea what was in store for it when the 1970s dawned. With language, adult content, sexuality and violence restrictions loosened up, plus the swell of the anti-war counter culture and New Wave movements, filmmakers felt a new sense of freedom to experiment not only with film content, but with film production approaches as well.

Here, E3 Spark Plugs pays tribute to the late Hopper, who passed away May 29. Following are five more motorcycle movies we think you’ll want to see – including a few you might never have heard of. Some are worth seeing for their storylines, some for their acting, some for … well, we’re not sure why, except that we just can’t look away when we catch them on cable TV, even if it is 2pm on a Tuesday and there’s work to be done. Take a gander, leave a comment and let us know which is your favorite (or least favorite).

The Wild One (1952): Hollywood great Marlon Brando stars as the leader of the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club, a gang of bikers who gate-crash a legitimate motorcycle race and make off with a stolen trophy. While hiding out in small town, Johnny falls for the local sheriff’s daughter. That’s trouble enough, but more comes when a rival gang, the Beetles, rides into town.

Knightriders (1981): Many moviegoers and motorcycle enthusiasts weren’t quite sure what to make of this one, as it doesn’t exactly fit the motorcycle movie mold. Ed Harris stars as the losing-touch-with-reality leader of a traveling group of medieval fair performers who joust on motorcycles. Members begin to leave the group, seeking Hollywood fame or simply cracking under the pressure. This sends Harris’ character spiraling into a downward quest for redemption and reconnection. Stephen King, on set only because he was working with writer/director George Romero on 1982’s “Creepshow,” makes a cameo as a loudmouthed spectator.

Me and Will (1999): We can only describe this one as “Thelma & Louise” meets “Easy Rider” – almost literally. The two heroines, Will and Jane, burned out from the LA drug and club scene, bust out of rehab and set off on a Holy Grail-esque mission to find the Captain America motorcycle ridden by Peter Fonda in “Easy Riders.” Female bonding, battles with personal demons and clashes with characters they meet along the way ensue – all set against spectacular Montana scenery and a kickin’ soundtrack. As chick flicks often do, this one has a bittersweet ending that mixes victory and loss. And Traci Lords has a cameo as a waitress. Just sayin’.

The World’s Fastest Indian (2005): Based on a true story, this film stars Anthony Hopkins as Burt Monroe, a New Zealander who spends 25 years working to boost the speed of his motorcycle, a 1920 Indian, with the dream of taking for a thrill ride across the Bonneville Salt Flats. Come the early 1960s, Monroe is battling heart disease and facing his own mortality. So he does what any old timer with an unrequited dream would do – He mortgages his house, hops a boat to Los Angeles, buys an old clunker of a car with a makeshift trailer and, after fighting to get the Indian through customs, heads for Utah. With no brakes, no chute and no guarantee his old ticker will survive the drive, he can only hope the powers that be will actually let him on the flats.

Psychomania (1973): This one’s for the B horror flick junkies. A young biker makes a deal with the devil and, with help from his dear old, frog-worshipping occultist mum, dives to his death and leaps out of his grave, still astride his motorcycle. He quickly gets down to business recruiting new members for his band of zombie bikers dubbed the “Living Dead,” who willingly join via a fiendishly funny extreme sports suicide session. But as they say, the devil’s in the details, and this deal turns out to be not quite the one they expected.

So there you have it – E3 Spark Plugs’ list of motorcycle movies we hope you’ll see. It’s by no means a “top” list, but it’s got a nice range: an Old Hollywood classic, a chick flick, a true story, a zombie flick and a … well, we’re still  not sure how to classify a film about Medieval-styled jousting bikers. Tells us what you think of our eclectic selection and send us your own suggestions. And be sure to send some groovy vibes Dennis’ way on your next Easy Ride.