When it comes to the depressing real estate market, you gotta think like Crosby, Stills and Nash: If you can’t live in the house you love, honey, love the house you’re in. Take some of that cash you’ve got socked away (people do still save money, we hear) or take out a loan if your credit is still intact and head over to the Tampa Convention Center for Florida’s Largest Home Show, where you can brainstorm about how you want to reinvent your little kingdom on earth. Whether you're building, remodeling, decorating, landscaping or just planning your next project, Florida's Largest Home Show offers opportunities to talk to experts one on one. Sept. 3-6, Tampa Convention Center; Friday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., and Monday, 11 am-6 p.m. $8, $7 for senior citizens and children younger than 12 admitted free. bighomeshow.com
Fans of Papos’ Open Mic at Cafe NoLa, take note. Papos is now emceeing his show at a monthly Friday night event at Tre Amici @ The Bunker in Ybor City. The first one is this weekend. He's expecting a packed house.
This weekend only at Studio@620 in downtown St. Pete, get a gander at Look Tonight, a dance/theater work exploring glamour and the roles that it plays in contemporary American culture. The performance combines spoken word with dance. 8 p.m. Sept. 3-4. Tickets are $20, $15 for students or seniors 65 and older. www.studio@620.org.
Friday night at New World Brewery: Tampa-based foursome Guiltmaker is fresh off finishing a new five-song EP, Emerald Coast, which was recorded and mixed in Fort Walton Beach with producer/engineer Jeremy S.H. Griffith (Sunbears!, City of Ships). The album finds the band at their post-hardcore best, the keening guitar solos fighting for control against powerfully pained vocals. Slow Claw and Liquid Limbs support. $7. (Leilani Polk contributed to this report.)
This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2010.