Posts tagged Spain
Viva Florida 500 and St. Augustine’s 450th Commemoration to hold joint meeting
Sep 18th
Viva Florida 500 will hold a statewide summit in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the founding of Florida by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513. The meeting, set for Monday, October 1 and held jointly with the St. Augustine 450th Commemoration, will be the last major meeting prior to the launch of the Quincentennial Anniversary in January 2013. The daylong summit and joint meeting will be held in Flagler College’s Lewis Auditorium from 10:00am until 3:00pm with a break for lunch. the meeting is free and open to the public.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner, Department of State representatives, and representatives from the Governor’s Office are scheduled to attend. Also attending are representatives from the consulates of Spain, the United Kingdom, and France, as well as members of the 450th Commemoration Federal Commission. The program will feature a morning session with officials and dignitaries speaking, including Commission Chairman Jay Kislak and Ambassador Andrew Young. The afternoon features an educational forum with speakers from Visit Florida, Florida universities, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection/Division of Recreation and Parks, and other organizations, all designed to assist organizations in the development and marketing of 500th and 450th events.
The City of St. Augustine and the 450th Commemoration are principal partners of Viva Florida with several signature events planned for 2013, including a Picasso exhibition, a Catholic Church commemorative mass celebrating the founding of Florida, reenacted landing, a Spanish royal visit, and a Maritime Heritage Festival. The City of St. Augustine and Flagler College are co-hosting Monday’s meeting.
Note that one or more members of the St. Augustine City Commission may be in attendance at one or more of the sessions held in conjunction with the joint meeting of Viva Florida 500 and St. Augustine’s 450th Commemoration Federal Commission.
For more information, call the city’s 450th Commemoration office at 904.825.1053.
Source: City of St. Augustine
Culturally La Florida! VIVA FLORIDA St. Augustine
Apr 17th
Hosted and based at Flagler College, but with programs citywide as well as in Hastings and Palm Coast, Cullturally La Florida will offer a mix of lectures, presentations and performances that will appeal to everyone from academicians to school children. Among the topics to be covered are archeology, Native Americans, runaway slaves, Spanish missions, food, arts, ranching, maritime explorations, folklore and much more.
Culturally La Florida will begin ati 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 3 with Opening Ceremonies followed by a keynote address by Dr. Michael Gannon, Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History and member of the St. Augustine 450th Commemorative Commission. Dr. Gannon brings a unique perspective to the history of St. Augustine and Florida. Half a century ago, he served on the St. Augustine 400th Commemorative Commission.
Friday and Saturday will be filled with fascinating presentations on historical Spanish influences that began as early as 1513 with the arrival of Ponce de Leon and continue today. Field trips will explore commercial farming operations in Hastings and a visit to the Florida Agricultural Museum in Palm Coast will explain what Florida farm life was like throughout history and provide an interesting look at Spanish heritage livestock.
All of the events included in Culturally La Florida are free and open the public. Seating, however, will be on a first come, first served basis. For a complete program and full details, go to www.culturallylaflorida.org.
Flagler College thanks the following partners and sponsors for their assistance with this program: Florida Humanities Council, St. Johns County Tourist Development Council, St. Augustine Foundation, St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, City of St. Augustine, Nation’s Oldest Port National Heritage Area, Florida Public Archaeology Network, and Florida Trust for Historic Preservation.
“Funding for this program was provided through a grant from the Florida Humanities Council with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the Florida Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.”
Located midway between Daytona Beach and Jacksonville, Florida’s Historic Coast features historic St. Augustine, the outstanding golf and seaside elegance of Ponte Vedra, 42 miles of pristine Atlantic beaches – the same beaches that greeted Ponce de Leon in 1513 when he discovered and named La Florida – an area whose boundaries included what would later become the eastern United States. For more information on events, activities, holiday getaways and vacation opportunities in St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches, go to the Visitors and Convention Bureau website at www.FloridasHistoricCoast.com, become a fan on Facebook or call 1.800.653.2489.
“The Skin I Live In” Is Unnecessarily Shocking
Dec 18th
“Unnecessarily Shocking”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Skin I Live In is the latest movie from Spanish writer and director Pedro Almodovar, and of all the movies that he has made, this is one of them.
The story begins in 2012 in Toledo, Spain, and there will be some flashbacks and dream sequences designed to enlighten and confuse the audience, respectively, whereas the purpose of the whole movie is just to lead up to a whopping shocker at the end.
Antonio Banderas plays Dr. Robert Ledgard, a renowned plastic surgeon who is experimenting with developing artificial skin that is sensitive to gentle touches and yet at the same time is indestructible.
The reason that Robert is obsessed with creating this artificial skin is that years earlier his wife was in an automobile accident in which her skin was horribly burned, and she died as a result of that accident.
So, Robert has a patient locked up in his house, a beautiful young woman named Vera whose whole body is being covered with the artificial skin.
One day Vera cuts herself across her breasts, and Robert saves her and repairs the damage, but Vera says, “If you want me to stop breathing, kill me.”
Robert points out to her that if she had really wanted to kill herself, she would have cut her jugular vein.
Robert uses pig cells to strengthen the artificial skin, which is illegal, and he is ordered to stop his experiments or else he will be reported to the scientific and medical communities.
Of course, he doesn’t, because otherwise there wouldn’t be any movie.
Robert keeps Vera locked up in her room, but he can observe her with all the surveillance cameras he has installed, and we learn more about Vera, Robert’s housekeeper, visitors to Robert’s house, and even about Robert himself.
When Robert is finished, Vera can boast of having the best skin in the world, but apparently Vera has now become attracted to Robert, and she tells him that she wants to live together with him as equals, like everyone else.
However, Robert’s housekeeper warns Robert that he has to kill Vera or Vera will kill herself. She also says that Robert shouldn’t have constructed Vera’s face to resemble the face of his dead wife.
The Skin I Live In is unnecessarily shocking and becomes even more unnecessarily shocking.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”