Love City’s cultural and musical trends were proudly on display Wednesday night, June 30, for locals, visitors and dignitaries including Governor John deJongh, during the official opening of “Powellville,” St. John Festival Village named in honor this year of Selwyn Powell.

With rain delays pushing back the St. John Princess Selection Show last week, Festival Committee members opted to coronate this year’s Festival Queen and Princess during the Village Opening as well.

The talented trio behind La Plancha del Mar will show off a whole new side of their culinary creativity starting on Saturday, July 10.

Mike Prout, Jonathan Fritts and Jason Howard have drawn a steadily-growing fan base since opening their doors on the second floor of The Marketplace for lunch and dinner in January 2009.

La Plancha has won a loyal clientelle of customers who can’t get enough of the trio’s signature style showcasing creative takes on classic flavors without taking shortcuts.

During lunch that translates into a roasted garlic caesar salad with crispy fried caper flowers and a steak and swiss wrap with carmelized onions and horseradish creme fraiche. La Plancha’s playfullness pops up on the dinner menu in the form of their deconstructed paella served with a saffron sweet pea risotto cake.

Soon the La Plancha guys will be flexing their considerable culinary muscles on weekend mornings.

Staring this Saturday, July 10, stop by La Plancha between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekends to taste what only Prout, Fritts and Howard could dream up for brunch.

Garza as Fiyha Dog, center, with cast members on the cover of his soon-to-be-released DVD.

After two and a half years of writing, filming and editing, aspiring St. John filmmaker Jeremy Garza has wrapped production of his first feature-length effort.

“The Adventures of Fiyah Dog” relates the tale of an ill-informed Love City transplant from Indiana who has trouble in the lady department. The lovable loser lead, played by Garza himself, eventually learns the way to a woman’s heart, but not before following a path strewn with challenges and ridiculous situations — with no end of laughs along the way.

After wrapping filming last year, Garza hosted a screening of the rough draft, but DVDs of the newly edited version — minus a few of the raunchier scenes included in the first cut — will be available for sale for $25 next month at Woody’s and The Tap Room.

A fixture often seen on the streets of Cruz Bay, Petrina Richards died sometime on Wednesday evening, June 30.

The former Miss St. John Festival Queen was around 45 years old when she passed away last week. While it was rumored that Richards had been suffering from a tumor in her abdomen, the cause of her death was not confirmed by officials by press time.

Richards’ death was not a police matter, according to V.I. Police Department spokesperson Melody Rames.
Richards, whose sister Carryn Powell died on June 23, died of natural causes, Rames added.

A snorkeler checks out Teens4Ocean’s underwater camera at Lameshur. Photo by Steve Simonsen.

Students dig trenches near the VIERS dock at Lameshur Bay, above, to lay conduit for the underwater camera installation.

Thanks to a group of Colorado high school students, people anywhere in the world can get an up-close, high definition look at the underwater life in Lameshur Bay with just a few clicks of their mouse.

Live streaming from underneath the waves at Lameshur Bay went live on Tuesday, June 22, becoming the third live webcam installed by a group of 10 marine biology club students from Kent Denver School, a private high school in Colorado’s capital city.

The Hi Def webcam, capable of rotating 360 degrees and tilting to 170 degrees, offers live footage of the underwater life at Lameshur streaming on www.teens4oceans.org, and is a new tool for scientists to observe the state of fisheries in the area.