Dear Jacksonville Daily News,

Your blurb (at left and “blurb” is an overstatement) about the OOPS reception and art show at the Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts was pretty sad.

Not only was it poorly written and only a sentence (and a fragment) long, but the photograph of Bernie Rosage, Jr. and his lovely (and growing artist) Olivia isn’t available on the online version of the article.

If you’re not going to print in-depth reports of local events, please do us all a favor and remove “Jacksonville” from your masthead.

Your even-more-embarrassed-reader,

Thomas Brock

Dear Jacksonville Daily News,

Shame on you for only sending a photographer to the Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts‘ Soup in a Bowl event yesterday. And an even bigger shame on you for having a photograph and a slightly over-run sentence for your coverage in today’s newspaper.

With a staff of over 30 professional journalists, I would’ve expected more from you. But, of course, you never fail to disappoint me, Jacksonville Daily News. Shoddy reporting, poor grammar, and no proof-reading is but a summary of your shortcomings. Now, I must add a lack of interest in local events to that list.

It’s no wonder that the citizens of Jacksonville and Onslow County are mostly unaware of the vast majority of events held in the area. Your inability to provide coverage is clearly the cause.

Shame on you, Jacksonville Daily News.

Your embarrassed reader,

Thomas

Tags:

I had five hot soups plus one cold soup and two breads (there was a total of about 20 soups available). Here’s the rundown:

Soup #1: Matzo ball soup. After Ms. Steinfeld’s post on good matzo ball soup, I decided that, since it was readily available, I had to try it. I’m glad I did. The balls were sinkers, and pretty darn dense (in a good way). The soup had carrots that were cooked perfectly. Overall, I can easily see why Emma calls it Jewish Penicillin (luckily, I’m not allergic!). I could easily slurp down gallons of the stuff while laid up in bed with a cold.

Soup #2: Cold orange and tomato soup. This was an interesting combination, especially cold (the thought of warm oranges turn me off!). It was almost like a V8 drink, but only orange and tomato. I thought it was very good, but because it was so thick, I couldn’t drink all of it (and still have room for more soups!).

Soup #3: Clam chowder. Wow! The chowder was great! The potatoes were big, but not too big, and cooked perfectly through. The bacon and bits of clam were also perfectly cooked and tasty. The soup was creamy and smooth and overall, not too seafoody. It’s probably the best clam chowder I’ve ever had.

Soup #4: Cajun chicken, sausage, and wild rice. Another great soup! The rice was wonderful. No under or over cooked grains and no clumps, either. The chicken and sausage had just the right amount of bite and spice. It was a great example of the perfect soup for a cold winter’s day meal.

Soup #5: Pumpkin soup. This was the best soup I had today. It was smooth and creamy. It was really thick and filling (another of the cold winter’s day soups). There was a hint of onion and garlic and maybe some nutmeg or cinnamon, but not really enough of anything but pumpkin to be a definite flavor. I’m going to hunt down a few recipes and try them out this fall.

I tried two types of bread, sunflower and salted white, and wasn’t impressed by either.

I had two nutmeg rum cookies and they were awesome. The rum kind of exploded in my mouth like those Hershey Kisses with the caramel inside. It was a flavor burst with booze! Wooohooooo!

Also present at the event was the great artwork from the 30th annual Middle and High School Arts Contest. The talent these kids displayed in their work was amazing. I was impressed and humbled by the level of dedication on display. It’s sad to know that for most of these kids, their love for art will be squeezed out of them by an education system not designed to tend to growing artists.

Tags:

Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts will be hosting the 6th annual Soup in a Bowl event on Saturday from 11am to 1pm. The cost is a $10 handmade pottery bowl by Ben Watford. Of course, while you’re at the Council for the soup, you can peruse more of Watford’s work, along with dozens of other artists’.

EXIT Realty and Bettering Our Local Downtown (BOLD) is sponsoring “Downtown’s Going Green” Saturday from 1pm to 5pm on New Bridge Street. The event will have eco-friendly displays, information on how to better conserve your use of energy, and music. There will also be law enforcement booths (get your kid finger-printed and ID’ed) and car-seat checks.

Also on Saturday, the Swansboro Rotary will be hosting their 28th annual Oyster Roast and Pig Out from 5pm to 8pm. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet that includes oysters, fish, pork, hush puppies, Cole slow, drinks, tea, and more. Tickets are $40 in advance, $45 at the door for adults and $16 for kids 15 and under. The proceeds benefit the Swansboro Youth Scholarship Fund and Community Youth Projects.

The Onslow Outdoor Painter Society will be meeting Sunday at 1pm at the old Jacksonville Train Depot (the Riverwalk Park). The group will have a Dutch treat dinner.

Photographers are invited to enjoy the afternoon shooting mostly-willing models and an array of plants and urban scenes.

People complain that there’s not much to do around Jacksonville and Onslow County. Here’s five events (three that’re free!) for the weekend (beginning tonight).

Get out and do something!

Tags:

It started with the public inquiry into a Marine Special Operations unit’s questionable shooting on civilians in Afghanistan and ended with the murder of Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach.

I haven’t written about either because both of them are examples of serious failures of leadership by senior Marine leaders and I frankly don’t find that interesting (much less fun) to write about.

So, until I find my muse, here’s some stuff you can do:

If you’re into photography, check out dSLR Geeks. It’s a young forum with some good information and links for photographers. You can also check out DIY Photography.net for cheap and (relatively) easy ideas for lighting, backgrounds, and other photorific type stuff. You should definitely check out the Strobist. In fact, if you could only read one of the sites, visit Strobist. David Hobby has great ideas and reading his blog (and using what you learn) will definitely make you a better photographer and will help you create better photographs by using light.

If painting is more your thing, check out WatercolorPainting.com. It’s a great resource for watercolor techniques, information, and ideas. Also check out the Onslow Outdoor Painting Society blog. This group of en plein aire artists are great to watch and even more fun to chat with. The Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts has a blog, too. The Council is having their annual Soup in a Bowl event in March. Tickets (which are pottery bowls hand-made by Ben Watford of New Bern) are available for $10 at the Council’s gallery.

There’s something for writers, too. The Council is having a writing competition for short stories and poetry to publish in “The New River High Tide.” The deadline is February 29th and any entries must be postmarked by that date. All entries must be original, unpublished, and not have been submitted to any publication or other competition. Poems should be 32 lines or shorter and submitted on individual sheets of paper (an individual can send up to 5 submissions). Short stories must be 5,000 words or less. All pages of short stories should be clipped. None of the submissions should have identifying information (names). That information should be sent on a separate sheet (mailed with the submissions) and have name, address, telephone number, and titles of the submissions. Submissions can be sent by email (jaxarts@topsailnet.net), but contact the Council for instructions and format (910-455-9840), mailed to Council for the Arts, Poetry Submission, PO Box 34, Jacksonville, NC 28541-0034, or hand-delivered to Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts, 826 New Bridge St, Jacksonville, NC 28540.

There’s lots to do. Go out and be creative. I’ve gotta go find my motivation.