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Apr 16-22, 2008

Apr 16-22, 2008 / Vol. 21 / No. 5

Earth Day has passed …

… and now it's time to think about the animals on it. Florida Voices for Animals is holding an educational event at University of South Florida-Tampa on Thursday, April 24. The animal rights activists will hold a demonstration in front of the university library between 9 a.m. and noon. From their release: In honor of…

by Alex Pickett

More on St. Pete Politics: Gwendolyn Reese

Gwendolyn Reese, one of the candidates running for St. Petersburg City Council’s vacant seat, returned my call today, offering up some insightful comments not only on her candidacy, but also the politics surrounding the selection process. Reese, a longtime community activist and CEO of Infinite Solutions, has never run for office before, but after Ernest…

by Alex Pickett

New Yorkers Aghast At Calories, You Should Be Too

Although it's tied up in the courts thanks to a last minute injunction, this week was supposed to be the start of the New York City Department of Health initiative mandating posted calorie counts on the menus of any restaurant chain with more than 15 outlets nationwide. Here are some of the early reactions, thanks…

by Brian Ries

Greatest rock band of past 20 years?

The most important rock band to release its debut album in the past 20 years? It's a tough call, one I grappled with for a music feature running in Creative Loafing April 30. The chief factors are influence, innovativeness, listenability and live prowess. I'm using the term "rock" loosely, including most of the sub-genres (emo,…

by Wade Tatangelo

Michael Symon Replaces Robert Irvine

Sadly, he's only replacing him on the Food Network's Dinner Impossible. The show will also be extended to 60 minutes, now that there's no pinheaded Brit to get on the viewers' nerves. If only this accomplished Cleveland chef, beloved by fellow Ohioan Michael Ruhlman and recently crowned the new Iron Chef America, would take a…

by Brian Ries

Five Things to Do on Earth Day

Chicago’s Millennium Park, a green project helmed by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley; featured on an e2 episode that’s screened at TBPAC. 1. See the sun set on Hillsborough river and enjoy an ECO.lution Earth Day screening on the lawn at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. The featured selections are three episodes of e2, a new PBS…

by Leilani Polk

Castor files drilling ban bill

In the latest green news, Tampa Congresswoman Kathy Castor is marking Earth Day by filing a bill long sought — and long denied — by the Florida delegation and most Democrats: a permanent ban on offshore drilling around the state's Gulf coast. Initial media reaction is that the bill has a tough road ahead of…

by Wayne Garcia

Celebrating Record Store Day at Vinyl Fever

Record stores have been a big part of my life almost as long as I can remember. The closing of great shops like the Boogie Woogie locations, which I frequented during my Sarasota/Bradenton days, saddens and scares me. I don't like to imagine a world without places like Vinyl Fever, Sound Exchange and Sensuous Sound…

by Wade Tatangelo

St. Pete City Council opening stirs the political pot

Last November, before the Rays’ new stadium proposal towered over St. Petersburg politics, neighborhood activists, among them some of Mayor Rick Baker’s most vocal critics, watched the local city council elections intently. Two of their own — Westminster Heights Neighborhood Association president Wengay Newton and former Northeast High School coach Bill Dudley — were facing…

by Alex Pickett

Five Things to Do Today

Palpable tension: Robert Stutman and Steven Hager debate the legalization of marijuana tonight. 1. Do the pros of marijuana legalization outweigh the cons? Find out during a special forum, “The Great Debate: Heads vs. Feds,” at Eckerd College. 2. The Studio at 620 hosts a benefit performance of A. R. Gurney's Love Letters. 3. As part…

by Leilani Polk

FROM THE STREET (Astronauts vs. Aquanauts)

Two tapped kegs float in my bathtub, a three-boobed alien blow-up doll slowly deflates on the floor of my efficiency, enough squirt guns to terrorize a soccer team are piled in my dish rack, half of a birthday cake is melting to my stove, a space princess stripped to her silver skirt and furry moonboots…

by Tampa Promotions

From the Street… with Alfie: Astronauts vs. Aquanauts

Two tapped kegs float in my bathtub, a three-boobed alien blow-up doll slowly deflates on the floor of my efficiency, enough squirt guns to terrorize a soccer team are piled in my dish rack, half of a birthday cake is melting to my stove, a space princess stripped to her silver skirt and furry moonboots…

by Shawn Alff

Springsteen’s Tampa show moved to Tuesday

Bruce Springsteen and Danny Federici performing Nov. 14, 2007, Pittsburgh, Pa., Photo by Guy Aceto/Backstreets. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's longtime friend and bandmate, organist/keyboard player Danny Federici, died Thursday afternoon, April 17, after losing a three-year battle with melanoma. In respecting his death, Springsteen postponed Florida shows, including the one scheduled for…

by Wade Tatangelo

Have Gun, Will Travel (country) rock Crowbar

Left to right: Me (seated) watching Nate Oliver and Matt Burke of Have Gun, Will Travel. Photos by Tesha Sulli. Bradenton alt-country ensemble Have Gun, Will Travel made the most of its CD release party this weekend, turning in a jubilant, loose, crowd-pleasing performance that displayed the band's brilliance and versatility. HGWT didn't take the…

by Wade Tatangelo

Five Things to Do This Weekend

1. This Saturday marks the first annual national Record Store Day – support local indie retailers like Vinyl Fever and Mojo Books & Music, and enjoy live concerts, special sales, giveaways, and access to exclusive “7 singles by The Black Keys, Vampire Weekend, The Breeders, Death Cab for Cutie, and several others. 2. Tampa Museum of…

by Leilani Polk

Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Have Gun, Will Travel and more

Here's what I have running in this week's Creative Loafing: Have Gun, Will Travel emerges as area's top alt-country act. The Bradenton band has its CD release party for the excellent Casting Shadows Tall As Giants tonight at Crowbar, Ybor City, 9 p.m. Highly recommended. Look for my review of the concert posted here on…

by Wade Tatangelo

Top Ten Local Foods To Eat This Week

Greens – April and May mark the end of the growing season for salad greens in the area, which suffer heavily as temps gear up for the summer. Kale is good for you! Strawberries – It's almost the end for on of our area's biggest crops and some local farms will be opening their fields…

by Brian Ries

Leaning Tower of Clitoris

This position begins as a simple woman on top. With the man on his back with his legs together and straight out in front, the woman straddles him. From this position, the woman then leans her body back until she is lying on top of his legs. To ease the strain on her knees, she…

by Eric J. Leech

Your NY Strip Might Be Causing Starvation

I know, I know, I've been obsessing lately over the World Food Crisis. But why not? It's an issue that affects everyone, from the increased hits to our budget during the weekly trip to the grocery store to decreased portion sizes in restaurants. And considering the food unrest in countries like Malaysia, Egypt, Haiti and…

by Brian Ries

Warped Tour at St. Pete’s Vinoy Park July 11

Here's this morning's publicity release detailing the July 11 Vans Warped Tour at Vinoy Park in St. Pete. Not all the 50 bands expected to play are listed below but there's enough info to excite, disappoint or leave you feeling completely panicked because you'll likely be stuck taking your 13-year-old daughter and her four bratty…

by Wade Tatangelo

Five Things to Do Today

1. Visit Florida Craftsmen Gallery and try on your favorite Necklust and the Chocolatier exhibition necklace, like “Scarf” (pictured), a slipcast silicone and sterling silver piece by Courtney Starrett. 2. The sixth annual Ybor Festival of the Moving Image kicks off tonight. 3. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey reads and discusses her work at USF-Tampa.  …

by Leilani Polk

Tampa Bay Green Drinks

There are a plethora of environmental-type events happening over the next several days, as CL details in this week's "Green Issue." One event that didn't make it in: Tampa Bay Green Drinks. Just like Drinking Liberally began as an opportunity for politicos to socialize and debate, Green Drinks International formed to give the eco-concious a…

by Alex Pickett

Rocking for the environment

In anticipation of Earth Day, April 22 — and Creative Loafing's Green Issue, which will hit newsstands and online later today — rockers like The Strokes (pictured) are donating meet-n-greet VIP passes, memorabilia, clothing etc., for an auction that will benefit "MUSIC FOR RELIEF AND UNITE THE UNITED for their ongoing environmental and disaster relief…

by Wade Tatangelo

Five Things to Do Today

1. Murder By Death (pictured above) plays a show tonight in Ybor City. CL’s Wade Tatangelo wrote that the foursome’s new album, Red of Tooth and Claw, “is a career best for the indie Americana-Goth rockers. The themes are almost pitch black, but sharp songwriting overcomes the bleak subject matter. And then there's Adam Turla's…

by Leilani Polk

DeSanto re-opens; Tedesco’s and others close

DeSanto Latin American Bistro (reviewed harshly in these pages a couple months ago) has re-opened with a new menu, new kitchen staff and consulting chef Jeannie Pierola at the helm — at least for the next couple of months. She'll phase herself out of day-to-day operations, but will remain as a consultant for the next…

by Brian Ries

Obama’s vows on marriage

"Barack Obama has been weathering a small storm lately in the LGBT community for being too tight-lipped with gay and lesbian news media."—Kerry Eleveld, The Advocate "I actually have been much more vocal on gay issues to general audiences than any other presidential candidate probably in history. … I strongly respect the right of same-sex…

by Franki Weddington

Dena Gross Leavengood: “The community is only as strong as its weakest link.”

Who? Dena Gross Leavengood, co-founder of Tomorrow Matters, a citizens advocacy group focused on sustainable growth issues in Hillsborough County. Sphere of influence: In 2000, Leavengood partnered with other civic leaders like developer Ron Weaver, Hillsborough Community College vice president Robert Wolf and activist Sharon Joy Kleitsch to create Tomorrow Matters. Leavengood facilitates the group's…

by Alex Pickett

All Time Low gets down at The AP Tour

AP Tour headliner All Time Low's vibrant pop-punk has ample hooks and a modicum of substance — but the Baltimore quartet's breakthrough album, So Wrong, It's Right, which came out last September, doesn't do anything to distinguish the band from the myriad other acts performing similar sounding material. Conversely, The Matches have emerged from emo…

by Wade Tatangelo

Bruce Springsteen gets Boss-y at the Forum

As the case with many baby-boomer offspring, Bruce Springsteen songs accompany my earliest childhood memories. The Live/1975-85 box set spun regularly in my parents' house and remains my favorite Springsteen collection to this day. I finally witnessed his fabled stage show, with my dad, fittingly, when the E Street Band's 2000 reunion tour came to…

by Wade Tatangelo

New Tampa Musuem of Art breaks ground

Downtown Tampa reaches a milestone this week with the official groundbreaking of the new Tampa Museum of Art building on Friday at 11:30 a.m. The ceremony will include appearances by Mayor Iorio and architect Stanley Saitowitz, free lunch from Mise en Place for the first 500 attendees and a performance by the Busch Gardens Men…

by Megan Voeller

Wine List

Got an upcoming or ongoing wine event? Send information to: The Wine List, 810 N. Howard Ave., Tampa, FL 33606, fax 813-739-4801 or e-mail brian.ries@creativeloafing.com. Best Bets: TBPAC BOTB 23 Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's 23rd annual Best of Tampa Bay Party is this weekend (not to be confused with CL's Best of the Bay…

by CL Staff

The politics of green

If going green is a no-brainer, how come so few local governments in Tampa Bay have made substantive progress in either going green themselves or encouraging their residents and (more important) developers to go green as well? The environment has never been much of a winning campaign issue in this region, except in Sarasota County,…

by Wayne Garcia

Panic at the Disco to groove at Ruth Eckerd Hall

Panic at the Disco began life with an exclamation point after the first word of their name and having to credit Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz for "discovering" them — two strikes that made me want to loathe the Las Vegas quartet's 2005 debut, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out upon arrival. But then I…

by Wade Tatangelo

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