A24s Latest Book is a Weird and Wonderful Guide to Florida

“We kept going back to this page over and over again like, ‘How can we make it feel like the movie?’’ Calise recalls over Zoom from St. Petersburg, Florida. Finally, they resolved, “Let’s have a page of dicks.” In the end, unfortunately, only four made the final cut—“and they’re not the weirdest looking ones,” she says, with a tinge of disappointment.

Weird is the lodestar of Florida! A hyper-local guide to the flora, fauna, and fantasy of the most far-out state in America, a nearly 600-page cornucopia of the sunshine state’s odd and offbeat sights, people, and history, in addition to recipes (gator nuggets), how-to guides (how to fight a shark), locals’ recommendations (The Florida Project’s Brooklynn Prince’s favorite vegan donuts), one-star reviews of the Everglades, quirky illustrations by Gabriel Alcala, essays, poems, and much more, all saturated in a riot of tropical colors.

A Florida setting is a hallmark of A24 films, from Spring Breakers (2013) and Moonlight (2016) to The Florida Project (2017), Waves (2019), and Zola (2021). “​​A24 does a really good job of showing the unexpected side of Florida,” Calise says. “They keep coming back to the state I think because there are so many fun stories to tell and visuals to play with. There's so much weirdness happening here.”

But she notes that A24, renowned as much for its marketing prowess as its zeitgeisty films, preferred the state take center stage in the book. (Although its films are briefly mentioned in sections about the soaring Sunshine Skyway —which cameoed in Spring Breakers and Zola—and the soft-serve-shaped Twistee Treat—prominently featured in The Florida Project—for example.) “They said, ‘We want to be in the background and let the Florida stories sing,’ so it stands on its own as a travel guide,” Calise says. “We wanted it to feel like something that you could bring with you to plan a road trip. But even if you never leave home, you can flip through this and feel like you went on a trip.”

Two things you won’t find, however, are anything that smacks of Disney, or shallow Florida Man tropes. “There are a lot of problematic parts to that stereotype of the Florida man,” Calise points out, noting that many infamous stories are culled from police reports with little context. “They’re using people who are suffering from substance-abuse issues or people who are really disadvantaged.”

Instead, the book highlights the “plenty of weird and wacky and fun things about Florida that are born out of people’s creativity rather than punching down on someone. I really wanted to focus on Florida is fun and dangerous and strange and unlike any other state and celebrate it without making it the butt of the joke.”

And she’s well aware of the fascination people have with the state. “It’s almost this mythical place. Everyone has a connection to Florida, regardless of whether you live here: We watch Disney movies, people go on vacation here, everyone has a great-aunt who has a condo in Florida. For better or for worse, people just want to look.”

Ultimately Calise hopes readers will simply be along for the ride and open to all that Florida has to offer. “Even if you’re not sure that you would ever want to go to watch coleslaw wrestling in Daytona Beach, you should indulge us a little bit. I want people to see all the different Floridas that exist. This is our home, and we want people to come and enjoy it as much as we do too.”

Here, Calise shares some of her favorite excerpts from the book with ishonest.

The Castle

“If you’re researching a trip to Tampa, you will come across Ybor City. It’s a very cool place because there are roaming roosters and old brick buildings that look like you’re stepping onto a movie scene and a lot of history. There are guys rolling cigars in the window. That is great, and you should see it. But you should stay until it’s nighttime and then go to The Castle.

It’s a goth club that’s been around for over two decades. It looks like a medieval castle and consists of five large rooms: One is a dungeon, and one is this dance floor with fog and go-go dancers in weird outfits and people whipping people in the corner. Everyone is wearing a different outfit: People are dressed in their very best goth or fetish or Halloween costumes. It’s truly a come-as- you-are space, [with] the best people-watching. They play industrial, goth, EDM. I don’t always like the music, but I always have a good time there. You have to look for Peter Pan and an older gentleman wearing women’s lingerie whom they call the Senator. It is a fun community and so welcoming—and so Florida.”

The Panhandle

“In addition to the Worm Gruntin’ festival—where worms are coaxed from the ground with a vibrating wood stake—there’s this annual tradition on the beach during Spring Break called the Flora-Bama Interstate Mullet Toss where people try to throw dead mullet fish as far as they can across the state line. It's just so fun and goofy.”

Weeki Wachee Springs State Park

“I always take people here. There’s this great tradition that goes back to the middle of the last century where women dress like mermaids and dance underwater and you get to see them breathing out of air hoses. And there's also a water park, so you can get in the springs too and realize, Oh, my gosh! This is so cold. These women are dancing and wearing costumes in the same temperature. It’s fantastic and has such a special place in my heart.”

Presidents Hall of Fame and Gatorland

“As Disney was rising, so many roadside attractions tried to hang on or tried to compete; people should try to check out at least one non-Disney thing if they’re ever in Central Florida. That could be the Presidents Hall of Fame. It has these wax statues of presidents, and Florida is not a good place to have a wax museum, so some of them are melted or tilted or a little weird. And there’s also this very intricate miniature model of the White House. Or go to Gatorland and watch a gator show and see the albino gators. Indulge in the kind of cheesier side of things. Just let yourself have fun and buy a tacky fridge magnet there.”

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