Music festivals, lesbian dating habits and the impending RNC prompted rants and reflections at cltampa.com this week. Plus, we received more email than we’d bargained for in response to a question on our Best of the Bay ballot.
Mitch Perry’s story on St. Pete City Councilman Steve Kornell and his dreams of a home-grown music fest in the spirit of the early years of South by Southwest (“South by Southeast?”, Music Issue, July 26) got a blunt reaction from New Grenada Records’ Keith Ulrey: “As a musician, a record label and record store owner in the Tampa Bay area, I say this to this idea… Fuck that. That’s just a dumb idea.” CL Marketing Director and musician Joran Oppelt questioned the whole idea of building a city music “scene” in the age of Kickstarter, and suggested that the councilman was “simply trying to start something small in St. Pete that 1) St. Pete can call its own and 2) can hopefully grow into something special and sustainable.” To which Kornell replied, “Completely on target Joran. Whatever it ends up as will be small, uniquely ours and can possibly grow into something special and sustainable. I also have to say that Antiwarpt was great and I am excited about finding ways to support this event and others as well … I hope that I can help spark some recognition of the value that our music scene brings to the area by leaders with access to funding streams. Our investment in the arts is anemic at best.”
And speaking of festivals, Andrew Silverstein’s admittedly “jaded” response to this year’s Warped Tour (“Warped Tour: Some photos, some words, some general dissatisfaction,” Daily Loaf, Aug. 6) stirred up a bit of a kerfuffle. JennaBeth agreed: “Good for you. It’s not news to anyone that warped tour has been sucking major balls these past few years.” But CL staffer Daniel Cura accused Silverstein of being “narrow-minded”: “Music changes. Is it all great? No, but insulting the people who make it or the people who enjoy it does nothing but stifle the art for fear that they might make music that someone with blog privileges doesn’t like and might bash them for.” Andrew’s editor, Leilani Polk, replied: “He used to be way into this shizz. Now he’s not. I think that’s pretty much all you need to take from it.” Maybe y’all could talk this out in person?
Rachel Paulson’s musings on “The phenomenon of lesbians and their ex-girlfriends” (Daily Loaf, July 25) struck a chord with several readers, including those of the non-lesbian variety, like Colleen Sullivan: “I believe the universe strategically stages people in your life for various reasons, some connections deeper than others, above and below the physical. The same phenomenon happens with us heteros. However, when an ex boyfriend reaches out to you it’s because he’d like to fornicate with you again. Us women, straight or gay harness a maternal warmth for people we care(d) about. So maybe entertaining an ex, accidentally or intentionally is just a bit of XX hardwiring. (Haha! Get it?) no but for real, i think it boils down to some people suck, some people don’t. Sometimes when my boyfriend is behaving himself.. I am just so thankful that it never worked out with anyone else. That bitterness fades when you’re happy ya know?”
Mitch Perry’s daily (and sometimes hourly) updates on the Republican National Convention (find them on The Daily Loaf or at cltampa.com/RNC) reflect the range of feelings provoked by the big event. To a post about plans to close the Selmon Expressway (July 23), predry replied, “WOW! Tampa grinds to a halt for our Republican party to pontificate! These Republican candidates are scary and I’m a Republican.” And to an Aug. 6 post speculating about the possibility that Donald Trump might speak at the convention, BartlettPark.net commented, “I hope Trump gets a good spot at RNC. All of the folks who lost their money on Trump Tower Tampa can ask for a refund.”
UPDATE: Following Arielle Stevenson’s story (“No rats served here,” Aug. 2) about Thuy Cafe and its objections to a Channel 10 report about its kitchen led owner Thuy Le to invite the reporter, Beau Zimmer, to pay the restaurant an “all-access” visit. Zimmer accepted the invite.
Finally, with more than 3,000 ballots submitted and over 100,000 votes cast in 200 categories, the Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll 2012 is in full swing, and the voting doesn’t even close till Sept. 4. Included in this year’s ballot is an invitation to readers to suggest categories we may have missed. Though we kind of agree with one reader — “too many questions! make it 100 no more” — we’ve now received almost 200 proposals for new categories, from Best Psychic to Best Burrito. We’ll report on the suggestions in full in the Best of the Bay issue Sept. 20 — and next year, who knows? We may have to expand.
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2012.