In the middle of the not quite three-year presidency of space buff John F. Kennedy, NASA administrator James Webb had an idea. He summed it up in a two-paragraph memo to his staff: Why not start an art collection of works related to the space program?
That memo ended up with artist James Dean, then a NASA employee. With the help of the National Gallery they started commissioning works – at $800 a pop. Among the takers: Norman Rockwell, who gave the project “Behind Apollo 11.” He would ultimately be joined by Alexander Calder, Andy Warhol, James Wyeth and Robert Rauschenberg. Fifty years later, the collection includes some 3,000 works. Of those, most are in the collection of the Smithsonian. But 700 are in the hands of NASA at Cape Canaveral.
It is from the NASA collection that the Vero Museum of Art’s 71 works were drawn. The “Out of this World: The Art and Artists of NASA” exhibit opens Saturday. And the always engaging museum members’ reception is Tuesday at 5 p.m.
A major talent in the Latin comedy world is in Fort Pierce this weekend: Former boxer-turned-comedian Joey Medina plays at Sunrise Theatre’s Comedy Corner Saturday. Medina had his own Showtime special – “Joey Medina: Taking Off the Gloves” – and starred in Paramount Pictures’ “The Original Latin Kings of Comedy” along with Cheech Marin and George Lopez, the top-grossing Latin comedy DVD ever.
For a while he had his own morning drive-time radio show in Los Angeles. He’s even directed his own screenplay, “El Matador,” which won Best Film, Best Director and Best Acting at L.A.’s 2002 Chicano Film Festival.
Medina headlines an evening that includes Miami’s Dougie Almeida – and he’s a former heavyweight kickboxer. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $15.
With the projectors put away from the enthusiastically attended, first-ever Vero Beach Wine and Film Festival, we’ve still got a hometown presence on the big screen at Majestic Theatre next week. The Met Live Encore includes our own Deborah Voigt as host of Bartlett Sher’s production of the comedic operetta “L’Elisir d’Amore.” First simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera in 2012, the production screens here Wednesday and again next Saturday at 10 a.m. Tickets for the summer-long Encore presents are $12.50.
Two book signings at the Vero Beach Book Center next week offer polar-opposite appeal, I’m guessing: Wendy Wax’s “Sunshine Beach” and Ben Coes’ latest thriller, “First Strike.”
Wax, a native of St. Petersburg, delivers a bit of classic summer reading; the pull-out quote is “There’s nothing that a coat of fresh paint and a few glasses of wine can’t fix.” The story is about a beachside hotel being renovated by three women. You get the picture. The women are all in various stages of love and loss when, uh-oh, a decades-old murder reveals itself.
“Sunshine Beach” is the latest in Wax’s “Ten Beach Road” series. She’ll be making an appearance in Vero Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Then, next Wednesday at 7 p.m., Ben Coes presents “First Strike,” the latest in his series of international thrillers about Dewey Andreas, a former Special Forces soldier discharged for crimes he didn’t commit. Coes has a background in politics and speechwriting, working first in the Reagan White House, then for T. Boone Pickens and California Gov. Pete Wilson. He was Mitt Romney’s campaign manager when he ran for governor of Massachusetts. He is a former fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Saturday night at Vero’s Kilted Mermaid is western North Carolina’s Nikki Talley, an alt-country singer-songwriter who performs her lovely melodies with husband Jason Sharp. Her last album, “Out from the Harbor,” was recorded and released in Asheville. The pair keep up a rigorous touring schedule and we’re lucky to host them.
It’s a very different visual on Friday night at Kilted, but an equally entertaining group nonetheless: Ormond Beach’s Bath Salt Zombies, which performs its freak folk sound in Victorian outfits and black-light makeup.
And I would love to recommend Kilted Mermaid’s Thursday night Beer School, but there’s no point – it’s sold out every time. It’s the third year in a row that they’ve held the series of 10 one-hour classes that include a flight of beers at either $10 or $15, depending on the brews. They are hosted by various craft beer experts. It’s a shame they’re limited to 35 people because at this point, with Vero about to explode with new breweries, they should be required curriculum.