The Well-Played List, 10-9-2013: Valerie June, Blue Sky Black Death, Miles Davis, Boogarins & more
Music we’re jamming this week; w/audio, video & Spotify playlist.
Morning Report: The future of the Howard Frankland
Florida Archives The president of Duke Energy and the Sierra Club do agree on something. Both support making rapid transit part of the $390 million redevelopment of the Howard Frankland Bridge. R. Alexander Glenn, president of Duke Energy, spoke at a public hearing Tuesday hosted by the state Transportation Department. He noted that the public…
The Gaily News: Kuwait hopes to ‘detect’ and ban gay travelers using medical screenings
A gay former Home Depot employee says the retailer harassed and fired him because he was gay. Has Kuwait developed the technology for an actual gaydar? That’s what the country’s director of public health claims. And he hopes to use it to prevent gay travelers from entering any of the Gulf Cooperation Countries. The GCC…
New Music Tuesday! (October 8): Cage the Elephant, of Montreal, RJD2, Kenny Rogers, Sleigh Bells & more
Releases out this week; audio & video included.
Selling safe sex: Tampa’s CondomDepot.com
An interview with CondomDepot’s marketing director on the art of selling condoms.
Morning Report: Senate panel targets ‘Stand Your Ground’
George Zimmerman mugshot, via Seminole County Sheriff's Office. A Senate panel today is expected to review proposed revisions to Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" self-defense law. This is the first look by lawmakers at the “Stand Your Ground” law since a governor-appointed task force recommended the review, after neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was acquitted…
Stamkos delivers off the ice
Nicole Abbett Chris and Shelly Girsch and their three boys, Tyler, Colin, and Nicholas, get the surprise of their lifetime from Steven Stamkos and Thunderbug. Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos gave the Girsch family a surprise of a lifetime by hand delivering them their season tickets. Nicole Abbett Tyler and Colin watch in admiration…
TIGLFF, Matthew Shepard anniversary highlight National Coming Out Day
Photo of Matthew Shepard courtesy of the Matthew Shepard Foundation Oct. 11 is National Coming Out Day, National Depression Screening Day, It’s My Party Day and National Sausage Pizza Day. While these events suggest a Mad Libs composite (forlorn Papa John’s delivery boy gets in touch with his sexuality at a sausage party?), we’ll focus…
Celebrate ALDS home game at Rays Block Party
Celebrate our home-team advantage four hours before the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox face off in game three in the American League Division Series at Tropicana Field. Today, Mon., Oct. 7, at 6 p.m., Central Avenue, 13th to 15th streets will be closed for a block party with tents ands DJS as fans…
Morning Report: Party politics infuse non-partisan mayor’s race in St. Pete
The ostensibly non-partisan mayor’s election in St. Petersburg is taking on an increasingly partisan tone. Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is scheduled to endorse Rick Kriseman, a Democrat, at a press conference Monday morning in Midtown. Kriseman's 10 a.m. press conference takes place at precisely the same that Mayor Bill Foster is scheduled to cut…
Six days into govt. shutdown, nothing changing in D.C.
Apparently Ted Cruz and John Boehner don't really care what Dennis Ross thinks. In Saturday's New York Times, the Pol/Hillsborough County-area GOP Representative said that the now six-day-old government shutdown wasn't really about Obamacare anymore, but about the Republican Party's pride. “Republicans have to realize how many significant gains we’ve made over the last three…
Michelle Tea’s artsy Valencia focuses on collaboration
Bringing to life Michelle Tea’s classic queer memoir of the same name, Valencia radiates with a collaborative spirit, DIY ethos and punk rock attitude. A different director — each with her or her own cast and crew — takes on each of the book’s 20 chapters in this episodic adaption, making for a quirky take…
Oh look, it’s whatsisface
The elusiveness of names.
Flat-Footed
How do I reveal the depths of my fetish to my wife?
Sip your pint under the stars at Green Bench Brewing Co.
Arielle Stevenson Green Bench Brewing Co. currently offers five beers on tap. "Have you been to Green Bench yet?" That's the question most St. Petersburg residents and local beer fans have been asking. The Best of the Bay award-winning Green Bench Brewing Co. opened last Wednesday after months of construction and anticipation. Upon entering the…
Gravity will draw you in
Sandra Bullock and George Clooney rock it in outer space.
Morning Report: Urban Land Institute talks up St. Pete waterfront
St. Petersburg’s pioneering waterfront parks need to be kept from private development and enhanced for public use. An Innovation District should be created to recognize and support the marine sciences, health care and education economy on the south end of downtown. The city should consider supporting the creation of a downtown development corporation that is…
Runner Runner is by the numbers
Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake star in a thriller that sticks to the formula and flops.
Through Our Eyes: Midtown and Beyond takes a fresh look at St. Petersburg
Studio@620 spotlights young talent and a school program that teaches life skills — and much more.
I Do! I Do!: Wholly matrimony
Some of it is pure cornball, but Tampa Rep’s latest production is well worth the commitment.
In defense of vermouth
Skip the martini and sip on this ancient spirit.
The Laugh Tract: who’s bringing the funny Oct. 3-6
Every weekend there's stand-up comedy happening across the Bay area, from theater shows featuring household names to comedy clubs offering nationally-touring headliners to the local bar or restaurant showcasing local talent. If you want to see comedians performing live, you have a lot of options. Here are the biggest shows happening Oct. 3-6. Comedy Clubs…
Breaking Bad’s big “Felina” finale
Breaking Bad is the most complete story I’ve ever seen told on television. Period. No other show has ever stayed the course with one character, telling his story and not diverging into B storylines as well as this. It was a tightly wound, meticulous Greek tragedy from beginning to end. No wasted dialogue, no superfluous…
TIGLFF Review: The Happy Sad
Acted with nuance and intelligence by an attractive cast (including Keith Carradine’s daughter Sorel, Charlie Barnett of NBC’s Chicago Fire and the wonderful Maria Dizzia of Orange Is the New Black), The Happy Sad centers on a black gay male couple and a white heterosexual couple whose lives and loves intersect in funny, sexy, sometimes…
The Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival has something for everyone
TIGLFF brings movies, parties and more to both sides of the bay.
TIGLFF Review: Continental
The Continental Baths, the fabled New York bathhouse/boite that helped launch the careers of Bette Midler, Barry Manilow and Patti LaBelle, made a huge cultural impact considering it was only active for about six years in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Director Malcolm Ingram does a good job explaining its significance as a living…
TIGLFF Review: Reaching for the Moon
In 1951, Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Elizabeth Bishop travels to Rio de Janeiro in search of new inspiration for her work. She finds this inspiration in the arms of Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares. Director Bruno Barreto artfully captures Elizabeth and Lota’s tragic love affair — as well as Brazil’s 1964 military coup —…
TIGLFF Review: Hot Guys with Guns
Not quite as aggressively sexploitational as the title makes it sounds, Hot Guys is part noir takeoff, part buddy comedy, part satirical dissection of a certain strata of A-Gay Hollywood. Brian McArdle and Marc Anthony Samuel make a cute if not particularly credible couple — spoiled rich party boy Pip and poor aspiring actor Danny…
TIGLFF Review: Breaking Through
It’s hard enough sometimes to come out to family and friends, but what about when you’re an elected official and your sexual orientation just became the opposition’s campaign ad? Beautifully shot and executed, Breaking Through profiles regional and national political figures (most notably Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin) as they share their experiences. More than…
TIGLFF Review: Valencia
Bringing to life Michelle Tea’s classic queer memoir of the same name, Valencia radiates with a collaborative spirit, DIY ethos and punk rock attitude. With a different director — each with his or her own cast and crew — taking on each of the book’s 20 chapters, this episodic adaptation still manages to come across…
TIGLFF Review: I’m a Porn Star
Beginning with a breathless sprint through the history of gay male erotica, Porn Star then introduces us to four current stars of the genre — Brent, Colby, Johnny, and Rocco (who’d a-guessed they were porn stars with names like those?) — who straddle the gay/straight line with surprising aplomb. This is interesting up to a…
TIGLFF Review: God Loves Uganda
Roger Ross Williams’ documentary travels to the East Central Africa nation, where former President Dubya and a throng of Christian right-wingers have exerted a gradual, lucrative and lethal influence on Uganda’s legislation — and the minds and hearts of its people, many of whom will take the law into their own hands. Scenes range from…
TIGLFF Review: Interior. Leather Bar.
James Franco’s risky, risqué meditation on sex in cinema was an SRO hit when TIGLFF presented it this summer during its off-season film series. A mock doc in which co-director Franco attempts to recreate censored, sexually explicit footage from the controversial 1980 flick Cruising, it raises questions about what’s permissible on screen (and definitely pushes…
TIGLFF Review: Pit Stop
Set in a small Texas town, this quietly affecting film is remarkable because the lives of its gay protagonists are so unremarkable — in other words, closer to the way most gay Americans live than “gay” movies usually portray. Gabe (Bill Heck) is a rugged contractor raising his daughter with his ex-wife; Ernesto (Marcus DeAnda)…
TIGLFF Review: Romeo Romeo
After the wedding of their dreams, a married lesbian couple is ready to take the next step: getting pregnant. However, they unexpectedly struggle with infertility. Real and relatable, gung-ho Lexy has dreamed of being a mother her entire life while breadwinner Jessica only recently decided she wanted a child, but wholeheartedly supports her wife. This…
TIGLFF Review: Before You Know It
Growing old ain’t for sissies, as the saying goes, and for us actual sissies it can be even more challenging. This documentary looks at the trials of growing older in gay culture, closely following three men in their 60s and 70s as they deal with issues of commitment and loss. In the most poignant of…
TIGLFF Review: Route of Acceptance
In Route of Acceptance, high school senior Ryan Stark mulls over much more than where she’ll go to college when she creates a pros and cons list for the universities to which she’s been accepted. Playing with the idea of destiny, this concept film provides three possible futures for the budding lesbian screenwriter. At times…
TIGLFF Review: Out in the Dark
Here’s a gay love connection that screams doomed and gloomy from the start: a Palestinian and Israeli. But as star-crossed lovers go, affluent Tel Aviv lawyer Roy (Michael Aloni) and Islamic-reared student Nimr (Nicholas Jacob) are highly watchable. First-time director Michael Mayer almost completely convinces us of the plausibility of their tragic circumstances, and while…
Concert review: The Weeknd pours on the PBR&B at Straz’s Morsani Hall
The crossover soul and hip-hop artist wowed a younger crowd than usual in Tampa.
GIFF’s Indie Series adds a little Linsanity to Tampa Bay
The true story behind a basketball sensation plays for one-night only in Ybor
A Q&A with Fringe Florida author Lynn Waddell
The author discusses what went into capturing a kaleidoscope of Sunshine State subcultures.
Morning Report: Does St. Pete need to redevelop its waterfront?
An Urban Land Institute panel is in St. Petersburg this week meeting with stakeholders to develop recommendations for developing the downtown waterfront. But the eight-member panel’s visit is raising questions, at least privately, among some city council members. “Other than the parking lot near the City Pier approach, I was not aware that our waterfront…
Antiwarpt splits in two
How St. Pete’s signature music fest evolved into two separate events — Don’t Stop St. Pete and Plan B — on either side of the Bay.
Don’t Stop: The St. Pete Party
Your guide to the must-see bands and more …
Plan B: The Tampa Party
Your guide to the must-see bands and more …
Can these buildings be saved?
Four significant structures that are hanging by a thread.
Review: Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Unvarnished
For her 11th studio album, Joan Jett, the mother of all Riot grrrls, decided to explore some weightier subjects than merely sex and bad reputations. On her first release of new material since 2006's Sinner, Jett tackles broken relationships, growing pains and grieving the loss of loved ones. Unvarnished is comprised of all original material…
Cheap Trick pulls out every trick in book at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater
A look back at the Fri., Oct. 4 show.
Spotlight on: Dunedin Brewery Octobeerfest 2013
The Brewery hosts events Oct. 3-6.
Domenica Macchia is back in the kitchen again
A famously itinerant chef takes over Dough in South Tampa.
Roasting fall
Get a taste of fall with this one-pan roast chicken and sausage recipe.
Dim Sum, lose some at Ha Long Bay
A St. Pete restaurant where a dim sum lunch trumps dinner.
TIGLFF Review: Two Mothers
Based on impeccable research and true-life experiences, Two Mothers follows the relationship of a happily married lesbian couple in Germany as they attempt to have a baby in that country. Along the way, Katja and Isabella find that Germany is not as progressive as they thought, and realize how difficult it is for a same-sex…
