is a series of digital installation pieces, live performance and music dubbed a “multimedia spectacle.” University of Tampa professor Dana Plays screens “Demolition,” her video doc of the demo of the old TMA; UT dance professor Susan Taylor Lennon offers a live performance; student composers, DJs and VJs spin wicked wax and electro acoustic experiments; and it all goes down on the fair banks of the Hillsborough River, just outside the museum. (Pictured: A still from Vertov Montage, a film by UT student Alexandra Gamache, who participates in Art Nexus) 8:30 p.m. Thurs., April 15, Tampa Museum of Art, 120 W. Gasparilla Plaza, Tampa, free, tampamuseum.org. —Franki Weddington
At tonight's installation in the New Seeds Salon series, ACLU national board member Mike Pheneger discusses "Guantanamo and Terrorism from a Civil Liberties and National Security Perspective." Visit newseedsfest.org for more info. Thurs., April 15, 9 p.m., Sacred Grounds Coffeehouse, Tampa, free.
There's a striking disparity between the horn-saturated prog rock drive of early Chicago ("25 or 6 to 4" and "Free" come to mind), and pretty much any material produced after 1980, from the pleasant cheese of 1982's "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" and 1984's "Hard Habit to Break," to minor 2006 AC rock hits like "Feel" and "Love Will Come Back." The band continues to tour after more than four decades and still features original 1967 members Robert Lamm (keys, vox), James Pankow (trombone), Lee Loughnane (trumpeter, flugelhorn, vox), and Walter Parazaider (sax). 8 p.m. Thurs., April 15, Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, $88.--Leilani Polk
Curtis Belz and Dahlia Legault (pictured) – two of Tampa Bay’s most explosive actors – collide for a supernova of theatrical proportions at The Studio@620’s staging of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. It’s Pulitzer-winner Patrick Shanley’s story of a street-brawling trucker and a self-loathing young woman who meet in a Bronx bar – proving the redemptive power of love can alight in the most unexpected places. It’s also infused with dance choreography and an original score. April 15-17, 8 p.m. Thurs. and Sat., 11 p.m. Fri., The Studio@620, 620 First Ave. S., St. Petersburg, $10-$20, studio620.org. — Franki Weddington
If you go see Inertia: The Musical, you will, if nothing else, be a witness to an historical event. According to its author and composer, Chris Sgammato, the production marks a numbers of “firsts,” including first musical to make its world premiere at USF, the first student-directed mainstage production at USF, and the first collaborative effort between all five schools of the College of the Arts at USF, involving over 60 USF artists from the schools of Music, Theatre, Dance, Art, and Architecture. Sgammato, a double major in Music Studies and Business Management, wrote, produced and directed the play for his Honor’s Thesis. As if that weren’t ambition enough, the play, with its “democracy threatened by evil corporate powers” storyline, is being touted as Sgammato’s attempt to raise social awareness, encourage free thinking, and inspire people to resist the inertia of distractions that prevent them from being informed citizens and doing something greater than themselves. April 15-18, 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 3 p.m. Sun., USF Theater II, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, $5 students, $10 general admission, arts.usf.edu. —Anthony Salveggi
The USF lecture series continues with a discussion with George Ritzer, leading social theorist and cultural commentator from the University of Maryland, whose books on consumption behavior in western society have spurred important debates about the nature and value of globalization. Visit arts.usf.edu for more info. 6:30 p.m. Thurs., April 15, Traditions Hall, Gibbons Alumni Center, University of South Florida, Tampa, free and open to the public.
Today's guest speaker at Writers at the U is Tampa Review Prize-winning poet Christopher Buckley, who discusses his collection of works, Rolling the Bones. Visit ut.edu for more info. Thurs., April 15, 8 p.m., Scarfone/Hartley Gallery, University of Tampa, Tampa, free and open to the public.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2010.