From the Panhandle: football giants, soccer stars, motor mouth teens, a music maven, a parrothead party, and a real sea monster.  God bless America.

First in sports TV, NFL football great Emmitt Smith came home to Escambia High School on June 3rd to shoot a special episode of ESPN's Homecoming with Rick Reilly.  Reilly interviewed the former Dallas Cowboy, along with Escambia head coach Jimmy Nichols, and Tampa Bay linebacker Derrick Brooks, also a Pensacola native.  The shoot was in the school gym with a live audience of over 1,500 students and staff.  But on the night before, history was relived in another way when Smith met with the recent cast of ABC's Dancing with the Stars for dinner at the Fish House Restaurant in Seville Harbor.  In 2006, Smith became the first Pensacolian to win the finals on that same show, and this year's cast was in town to dance at the Saenger Theater in a benefit for Covenant Hospice.  The 2-hour ESPN special will air on Aug. 5th, two days before Smith's induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame---again, the first Pensacolian to receive this honor.  Clearly, 2010 is the Summer of Smith.

Next in movie news, another sports documentary debuted at Gulf Breeze Cinema 4 on June 7th.  Pelada stars Gulf Breeze High School alum and international women's soccer athlete Gwendolyn Oxenham.  Gwen and her fiance' Luke Boughen travel the world studying "pelada games" or amateur soccer.  As World Cup athletes get star treatment, the real naturals of the game are street players, slum athletes, or common folk who gather on rooftops, back alleys, indoors or outdoors---anywhere with whatever's handy---simply for the love of the game.  The couple tour 25 countries on 4 continents, and everywhere the game is played in one form or another.  First-run DVD copies sold for $20 each after the show, with a Q&A session with Oxenham herself.  The film is on tour across the country, with shows in Boston, Newport Beach and Minneapolis, with rave reviews in Variety, Sports Illustrated, and Film School Rejects.  For tour updates and other info, see: http://www.pelada-movie.com/.

In video news, coming to DVD at Blockbuster Video on Tuesday, July 27th: CHATTERBOX.  This 2008 indy teen drama about a school contest between Brianna Joy Chomer as Chelsea and Allison Bailey as Val, was filmed at Gulf Breeze High School and Pensacola Beach, and features a pop chorus number shot at the Portofino Boardwalk Bandshell, good enough to rival Disney's High School Musical.  For further details:www.chatterbox-themovie.com

In music news, "the Music Man of Pensacola" Phil Thomas Katt seems to have gone viral.  The homespun TV producer and host of BLAB-TV's The Uncharted Zone, a showcase of original and cover videos by local music artists (now in its 14th season,) Katt is now making a worldwide name for himself and his clients 24-7 on YouTube and Facebook, with over a million hits in the last year.  Together with longtime co-host Tommy Robinetti, the two can be found bookending each video with funny intros, quirky commentary, and intriguing anecdotes about each featured artist.  Clients include folk singer Mark Gormley, western duo Ronnie & Crystal Miller, the late beach bar act of Rusty McHugh & Mike Fincher, bluegrass picker Ricky Whitley, blues man Earnest Stanberry, and over 300 others---including (ahem) yours truly.  Phil began his music career in the mid-80's singing at local skating rinks and private parties.  His debut album 9 Lives was released on cassette in 1986, and has currently been remastered on CD.  The show even features news segments read by Phil's wife Michele Carnley.  Now thanks to the Net, "Mr. P.T.K." has bands coming from Detroit, Ann Arbor, Chicago and New York just to shoot in his backyard green-screen studio at his home in west Pensacola.  He is also the master editor of the Friends of the Saenger DVD Pensacola in Film & Music and CD Pensacola in Music, which features his hit single Vagabond, about a one time drive-in restaurant on the corner of Fairfield and Pace.  For more, see: http://www.philthomaskatt.com/, or http://www.theunchartedzone.com/.

In other music news, Jimmy Buffett came to Pensacola Beach with Florida Governor Charlie Crist on June 5th, but not to give a concert.  Instead he's preparing to open his new $50 million Margaritaville Hotel.  The official opening is slated for July 1st, but instead of there, the Chief Parrothead is throwing a free opening day party and live CMT tourism benefit concert in Gulf Shores, Alabama---his old childhood stomping grounds, and home to his sister Lulu's restaurant & band hall at the Homeport Marina.  Other acts listed for the show include Kenny Chesney, Jessie Winchester, and the Zac Brown Band.  For further details and ticket info, see: http://www.margaritaville.com/.

Finally in... yeech, oil news, since the tragic BP rig explosion and ruptured well on April 20th, not a day goes by without a bold banner headline of the massive crude spill making landfall from New Orleans to Panama City.  But how much is fact, and how much is fiction?  As land crews with sandsweepers and water crews with skimmers work to remove oil sheens and tar debris from our shores, large photos of greased pelicans and red and purple blots on the green Gulf waters grace the front page at breakfast.  As boom nets filter our harbors and inlets, stories of local speedboaters slicing through them defiantly to reach open water are the norm.  Page by page, there are tales of fisheries closing and hotels canceling reservations, yet parking lots appear full and seafood restaurants continue to serve.  And as crowds gather for the 4th of July weekend, and the Blue Angels beach airshow on July 10th, political cartoons show swimmers with gas masks, unemployed fisherman, sad tourists hitchhiking back home with tar on their feet, and a "Gulfzilla" monster eating our coastline.  Disaster sells papers, like it or not.  Online is no safe haven, either, with special story links from AOL News.  One story tells of NBC's Al Roker reporting live from Pensacola Beach, and of President Obama's motorcade touring the ravaged areas.  Another says actor Kevin Costner and director James Cameron have joined the relief efforts.  Still another shows a video journalist scuba-diving into an oil plume and coming out coated head-to-toe in black sludge, to show viewers how much raw crude is still out there.  Almost as silly as watching weather reporters dangle like windsocks in hurricane season.  Oversensationalism; another form of pollution.  I'm not saying none of this is happening.  I'm just saying it may not all be as doom-and-gloom as the press makes it out to be.  The Gulf States have suffered worse disasters than this, and have lived to swim, fish and sail again.  Rest assured, we WILL get through this.

Until then though, I recommend you light your firecrackers well clear of the water, unless you prefer your Gulf grouper fillet served up black and crispy. 

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Email: Manningmilt1@aol.com