Freebie of the Week: Tampa-Hillsborough County Storytelling Festival
Exactly how does one become a professional storyteller, or even a good storyteller? Renowned yarn spinner Donald Davis says telling stories is something he grew up around and absorbed, but he continues to work at it, even while he teaches workshops on how to tell and not to tell stories. Davis — former chairperson of…
Straight Dope
Hello, I've looked around for documentation and evidence to refute or validate the statement my sociology professor made to illustrate that the world isn't really what it seems. He claims that one out of every eight humans has had sex with an animal. Please respond if you're going to investigate the old one in eight,…
Delhi Combo and Mexican Takeout
Reviews of Monsoon Wedding and Y Tu Mama Tambien
StarShip Enterprise
A ship that sails across the bay/ Its diners feasting all the way. Poems are nice and sometimes rhyme/ But I prefer a meal sublime. With apologies to the late American poet Joyce Kilmer, from whom I have borrowed the cadence, I'd like to take this occasion to celebrate April, National Poetry Month, maybe at…
Dining Guide
Weekly Planet‘s reliable guide to restaurants throughout the Bay area.
The Ol’ College Try
USF presents the Copland opera Tender Land
Is the Price Right?
So you're at the grocery store, perusing the shelves for a decent bottle of wine. You're in the mood for something red, maybe a Cabernet. As you scan the Cab section, you notice there are at least a couple dozen options, ranging in price from $4.99 to $69 a bottle. Aside from $62.01, what's the…
Site of the Week
Monkey Phone Call www.monkeyphonecall.com There are certain criteria a site needs to fit before it gets written about here. Decent graphics, relevant content, usefulness to the world at large should probably be paramount. What it's really all about, though, is going where instant gratification reigns — or at least holds the majority share of the…
Progressive Pep Rally
Spoiler. Egomaniac. Rich white guy. Ralph Nader has been called all of those things, and much worse, in the aftermath of his failed 2000 presidential bid. There's a lot of vitriol directed at the citizen who brought the nation seatbelts and rid it of that car bomb Ford called the Pinto. But Nader's not dwelling…
News of the Weird
Lead Stories Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, accepting an award in March in Coolum, Australia, for lowering his country's AIDS infection rate from 28 percent to 6 percent, implied that the task was made easier because no gays live in Uganda (despite a 2001 Amnesty International report condemning the torture of gays in that country). And…
Free Will Astrology
Week of April 11
Book review: Take My Advice
Take My AdviceBy James L. Harmon Simon & Schuster/$18 One gives nothing so freely as advice. —La Rochefoucauld Ain't it the truth? Whether solicited or not, we all love to weigh in on the lives of everyone we know. We all think we know best, and the phrase take it from me is one of…
Ask the Advice Goddess
Defense SitterI just found out that my boyfriend of 18 months cheated on me around the beginning of our relationship. I have a habit of being way too forgiving with him, so I know I'd get by this if he'd just apologize. He won't. He claims we weren't serious or committed because we'd never had…
Outtakes
A Beautiful Mind (PG-13) A Russell Crowe performance that has Oscar written all over it is the main reason to see this atypically twisty Ron Howard production about an emotionally fragile genius whose life spins out of control in all sorts of unexpected ways. The movie's later sections feel a little too close for comfort…
Power Play
The invitation came on short notice. The National League of Cities wanted the mayor of the tiny Florida town of Belleair to speak at an annual conference. The topic: What can city officials expect when considering entry into the electric business? George E. Mariani Jr. was busy at his other job, presiding over the family…
Blunder Storms
Sung to the tune of "Help Me Rhonda": She rode in on her high horse and we never even knew what hit, Swiped at blacks and gays and porn and she wouldn't even budge a bit, Well, Ronda you've done it this time (done it this time) And we're getting tired of all your whines,…
Time to Regroup
Concrete Blonde does some Group Therapy
Top Spins
Bonnie Raitt Silver Lining Fellow boomers, I feel your pain. Given the current state of popular music, I don't blame you for plugging a succession of classic rock CDs into the player, or switching to AM talk, or really throwing in the towel and locking into a damn smooth jazz station. I haven't reached such…
