Make sure you get some sleep before you pick up Brad Meltzer’s new novel when the Miami-based best-selling author comes to do a signing Saturday night. Gaging from reviews, “The President’s Shadow,” is bound to keep you up all night with knuckle-gnawing terror, violence, horror – all the things you thriller lovers thrive on.
This is the third in Meltzer’s series involving the Culper Ring, a secret society two centuries old, founded by George Washington and charged with protecting presidents. This story starts with a severed arm buried in the White House Rose Garden (haven’t they heard of bone meal?)
And there’s a strong Florida connection to the plot: Beecher White, the mild-mannered staffer of the National Archives who is part of that secret society ends up in Dry Tortugas, a three-hour ferry ride from Key West and home to Fort Jefferson. That former prison, now a favorite camping destination, was home to the eight co-conspirators of John Wilkes Booth, the man who shot Lincoln.
Meltzer has an intriguing range of genres on his resume: along with nine New York Times Best-Sellers List thrillers (two at the No. 1 spot), he’s written non-fiction books on heroes, plus four more geared for children. And he’s written comic books, including one derived of a hypothetical eighth season of the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” TV shows. He’s also hosted a couple of TV shows, including “Decoded” for the History Channel, and had a short-lived series on WB.
Born in New York and raised in Miami, he went to North Miami Beach High, went on to University of Michigan and Columbia Law School before writing his first book, an instant bestseller.
“The President’s Shadow” only came out Tuesday and the Vero Beach Book Center’s appearance Saturday at 7 p.m. is practically Meltzer’s first stop – after New York, Washington, DC, and Dallas, and before a whole bunch more. Feeling charitable? Keep your questions short.
Ottmar Liebert is not a name that rolls easily off the tongue, and for years after I was introduced to this German-born New Age Flamenco artist, I could not recall the name for the life of me. The last place I would have expected Liebert to turn up with his band, Luna Negra, is Melbourne’s King Center, where they are performing on Tuesday. Lately, though, King Center is trending toward increasingly interesting artists.
For me, Liebert touched a nerve with a layered trance-influenced version of a Brazilian jazz standard. But he is best known for his Spanish-influenced easy-listening music that has a broad international audience – it has won him five Grammies. Since his 1990 debut album, Nouveau Flamenco, went double-platinum in the U.S., 37 more releases have been certified gold or platinum.
Ordained a Zen monk in 2006, Liebert works from his ranch in Santa Fe, NM, where he says the vibrant fine art scene has shared an influence on his sound along with musicians well beyond the range of traditional Flamenco. Along with Hindu meditation music, he cites Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck and Miles Davis.
He has also performed on albums of other artists, including Kenny Loggins, Diana Ross, Celine Dion and South Florida jazz flutist Nestor Torres, who often performs at Stuart’s Lyric Theatre.
Every Thursday night for 20 years at the Intracoastal end of Clematis Street in West Palm, a live music festival has taken place on the plaza with the interactive fountain. This summer, Clematis by Night is celebrating its two decades of existence with two times the music: “two bands, $2 beers: touché!”
Ok, so that last bit doesn’t make sense. But it’s a great excuse to head south for the sunset and the vista of yachts along Palm Beach’s western shore.
IF you bring your children, bring towels too. West Palm’s fountain puts Vero’s to shame with its welcoming attitude and open design (no brick restroom fortifications to block the street view, and no “NO!” signs impeding the fun). On Clematis, passers-by stop to watch the squealing kids dashing in and out of the randomly timed splash blasts. That happy scene is largely thanks to West Palm’s then-mayor, the fun-tolerant (and Republican!) Nancy Graham, who, when the fountain was first opened and kids raced right into the ground-level water jets, ordered up lifeguards and school bus shuttles to make the most of the free-for-all.
Next Thursday’s Clematis by Night features a couple of pop-rock bands, the Kinected and the Goodnicks.
The celebration starts at 6 and goes until 10 p.m.
More kid-friendly fun is happening at Riverside Children’s Theatre this weekend, when once again, Music Theatre International, the licensing company, workshops another kids’ version of a Broadway musical, this time, “Disney’s The Lion King,” in two age groups. “Lion King Junior” features acting students in grades 6 to 9 in a full-length version; “Lion King Kids” is cast with elementary school students for an abridged version. These reshaped student productions involve 50 local kids who auditioned last spring. They were developed beginning with once-weekly rehearsals in April and May, followed by an intensive two-week session. That started June 8 for the older cast; it culminates in performances Friday through Sunday. The younger kids’ production also started rehearsing in April, with their intensive starting Monday and the show running June 26 through 28.