High-Tech Canvassing
Florida House candidate Dottie Reeder’s purchase of a $6,000 $5,296.50 Segway Human Transporter is either one of the most extravagant electoral expenditures I’ve ever seen or the most brilliant campaign stunt in these parts in ages. Reeder, who has raised more than $33,000 in the District 51 race centered on Seminole and Pinellas Park in…
Your Ad Here — In the News
Video News Releases — promotional videos prepared by corporations, PR firms, non-profits and governmental agencies to resemble news segments, and often run by television news shows without disclosure — have been worrying media watchdogs for a couple of years now. Some broadcasters say VNRs are just a sign of the times, while others consider running…
MEDIA WATCH: Central Tampa section returns
The Tampa Tribune has restored its Central Tampa section to neighborhoods that had protested its demise. Announcement here and Seminole Heights' reaction here. Via Seminole Heights Blog.
MEDIA WATCH: Trigaux honored
St. Pete Times biz columnist Robert Trigaux was the only local business writer honored in the 2006 SABEW awards, the gold standard for business journalism. He won a certificate of merit for his columns. (A Times intern, Emily Steel, won in the group's student contest.) The full list of winners is here. Via Roushblog.
Blair’s Bus Study Is In; It Stinks
Hillsborough County’s kangaroo-court of a study of the regional transit system, called HARTline, is in; you can download it here and let us know what you think about it. While defending the (let's be charitable) challenged HARTline is impossible, this report does nothing to solve the transportation problems we have in Tampa Bay. Instead, it…
Outtakes
New Releases BENCHWARMERS (PG-13) You know you're in trouble when Rob Schneider turns out to be the straight man in the movie you're watching. And that's only the beginning of the problems with Benchwarmers. Adam Sandler was the "brains" behind this project, donning a producer's cap and convincing several of his old SNL buddies to…
Holy Rollover
It Ain’t Just Alabama: The Religious Right Is Changing Florida’s Political Climate, Too.
Lines by Lennon
ART/FUNDRAISER
Backspin
The Wild Tchoupitoulas The WILD TCHOUPITOULAS Mango For their only album, the Mardi Gras Indian tribe Wild Tchoupitoulas teamed with the Meters and the Neville Brothers to concoct a primitively funky, second-line-heavy blast of Crescent City revelry. George "Big Chief Jolly" Landry fronts the group, which dives into such New Orleans staples as "Hey Pocky…
Park Pleasures
FILM/CULINARY
Ybor Rising
Blanking out (and other delights) in Ybor City.
Shake It, Don’t Break It
MUSIC
Now You See It…
ART
You slaw me
Give Brussel sprouts a second chance
‘Green’ yum
As the food publishing juggernaut cranks out ever more books to assuage the various hungers of culinary daydreamers and practitioners, occasionally an opus title gets lost in the fracas. Stalking the Green Fairy, by veteran food writer James Villas, is one of them. Villas has built his reputation on being outrageously opinionated, and this collection…
Grave Celebration
The Tampa Historical Society hosts its annual Oaklawn Ramble, a Sunday afternoon of leisurely local history lessons at … Oaklawn Cemetery? Yes, folks, for a suggested donation of $5, you can watch living history performers in elaborate 18th-century attire enact true tales of the hardy swashbucklers who sailed the treacherous, ahem, slightly choppy waters of…
The last straw
Accessorizing might just be the key to unlocking my inner cool.
Skip This Dish
The market-style dining fad is one better left in the past.
The Blotter
OFF-DUTY COPS, ON-DUTY DRUNK: Depending upon the size, clubs in Ybor City are required to keep a few off-duty police officers on hand just in case things escalate beyond the control of bouncers. Two off-duty Tampa police officers were working just outside the door at Club Prana when they witnessed a drunken guy, who had…
The Usual Suspects
It's nearly impossible to tell what's going on during much of Lucky Number Slevin and, curiously enough, that's when the movie is at its best. The film's thoroughly cryptic and convoluted first half is one long, self-consciously clever riddle — and, frankly, it may drive you a little crazy as it's unfolding. But once the…
Knowledge from an Olive
Olive oil and wine have a lot in common.
Short ListI ain’t yer friend, palooka
PROMO CD WE RECEIVED Nothing says rawk 'n' roll like an "As Seen on PBS" sticker. AIN'T IT THE TRUTH Liza Minnelli: "I'm sick of sex." Sex: "I'm sick of Liza Minnelli." PUNCHY, PART ONE Georgia congresswoman slugs a Capitol police officer. Allegedly. BASEBALL'S STEROID PROBE Selig taps Disney director George Mitchell, guaranteeing a Mickey…
Sound exchange
For the last three years, the Rock 'N' Roll Swap Meet has brought local-music night owls into the light of day for several hours of bands and barter at St. Pete's ACL Lounge. This time 'round, Swap Meet originator Roger Peterson (of Crippled Masters infamy) has moved the popular event to the back of the…
Music menu
THURSDAY, APRIL 06 KENNY G Look, in all honesty we're sick to death of thinking up new ways to make fun of Kenny G's insipid slide-into-a-bubble-bath saxophone melodies. He sucks. Don't go. That's it. (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater) THE DUKES OF DIXIELAND/PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND Sarasota Jazz Festival 26 — hosted by Mort Sahl —…
Take It Back
FUNDRAISER
Going Postal
BIKE WEEK EDITOR'S NOTE: A few weeks ago, we ran a story by freelance writer Bill Gifford ("The Bicycle Diaries," March 29-April 4) which recounted his experiment in living and commuting by bike only. We also included an essay by Planet copy editor Anne Arsenault, "Get Out of My Way" written from the motorist's point…
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 winestuff@weeklyplanet.com. FESTA ITALIANA This year's Festa Italiana kicks off an Italian wine tasting. In addition to wines, the annual event showcases Italian cultural music, dancers, antipasti and desserts, beverages and art.…
Sketchy, At Best
ART
The Servant
Acorn Theatre’s Latest Production Doesn’t Do Justice To The Character-driven Script.
Judgment Day
The Christian crusade of Judge Roy Moore: Is this the future of Southern politics?
Miscellaneous DEBRIS
Music news from wherever the hell I heard it first.
Supremely Screwed
The deck was stacked against the redistricting amendment.
Preacher on Wheels
He finds a congregation wherever he parks his van.
Spins
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood NEKO CASE Anti- As a rule, artists do a miserable job of applying descriptive catch-phrases to their music, but cult singer (and New Pornographer) Neko Case proves the exception: She has referred to her sound as "country noir," which is about as apt as it gets. Case evokes the haunting…
Upcoming Releases
The following releases will be in stores Tues., April 11: Aloha, Some Echoes (Polyvinyl) Anam Cara, Ready to Live (Strike First) The Ark, State of the Ark (Rebel Group) Buju Banton, Toppa Di Top and Dirty Rhythms (Big Cat) Adolphus Bell, One Man Band (Music Maker) Buckcherry, 15 (Eleven Seven) Calexico, Garden Ruin (Quarter Stick)…
