Pinellas: The Parties Over
We may have highlighted the comical infighting of the Hillsborough Democrats last year, but the chairmen of the Pinellas Hillsborough and Democratic parties are leading the balloting for "Most Loathed" in 2006. Start with Tony "The Tiger" DiMatteo at the Pinellas GOP. This tough-talking New Yorker has been bold in taking sides early in primary…
The Beer-Can Museum is Dead
The city of Tampa's plans to move the Tampa Museum of Art into the downtown skyscraper popularly known as the Beer Can are dead. In a letter to the Tampa City Council from Mayor Pam Iorio, the mayor explains that the high cost of retrofitting the Pavilion portion (the Cubes) of the Rivergate Tower for…
Morning Roundup
Check it out: Ellen Gedalius tells how Tampa tourism officials are keeping a meeting with Republican National Committee officials private, as that city tries to win the 2008 presidential convention. The lead in the Tampa Tribune? White children, the vanishing breed. Seemed a bit anglo-centric and alarmist, but on behalf of Hispanics everywhere, let me…
Campaign Mail Bag
Among the more interesting pieces we got in the past week: Hillsborough County Commission candidate Brad Swanson asked Republican voters: Let me know if you think I went too far in my attacks on gays, lesbians and opponent Rose Ferlita. He included a tear-off postcard to get his answer. Florida Senate candidate Frank Farkas tells…
Bad News for Davis
First and foremost, Jim Davis lost out on the endorsement of the state's largest, and second most liberal, daily newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times. On one hand, it should have been a slam-dunk, as Davis has a clearly more progressive record than moderate Rod Smith. The Alachua lawmaker has some NRA backing and environmental votes…
Morning Roundup (Afternoon Edition)
We commend: The Times' two-part series on the changing politics within the Republican Congress and how it brought about the recent stem-cell vote. Out of the 2,500 USF students who graduated this weekend, both the Times and the Tribune could find just one couple to write about: the Hallers. (Can't find the Times version online.)…
Lollapalooza ’06, or How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Day Two
Joey N. and I wake on Saturday to discover we were missing Rainer Maria, and promptly decide to go back to sleep and miss Nada Surf. Screw it – we’ve got tickets to see the Brooklyn band (which, since its mid-‘90s brush with mainstream popularity via the hit “Popular,†has evolved into a hell of…
Saturday Roundup
Good reading: The government wants to crack down on Papa Hemingway's six-toed cats. The Weekly Planet's newest columnist reveals her trailer trash past. And for those with a little bit more time, this amazing profile of/agg assault on a woman by "Girls Gone Wild" mogul Joe Francis in the LA Times.
Frankly Farkas Gets Whacked
For those not paying attention to the race to replace Jim Sebesta in the Florida Senate (and who can blame you, honestly), things are heating up between a pair of Republicans — Kim Berfield (a darling of the insurance industry) and Frank Farkas (a darling of the chiropractic, development and gambling industries, for starters.) On…
Morning Roundup
When Black Friday comes, I'll stand down by the door / And catch the gray men when they dive from the fourteenth floor: Not much exactly new about Katherine Harris (or KatHair, as we like to call her around the national affairs desk) in this Times account, but it is the largest number of staffers…
Morning Roundup
Slim pickings this morning: The St. Petersburg Times details the landowners who would benefit most from a proposed expressway cutting through eastern Hillsborough and three other counties. Where's the Trib on this story?
Trib Weekly: Something’s Fruity
Out, damned spot, and in with the Orange. The Tampa Tribune may have tipped its hand as it prepares to launch what was widely expected to be competition to the Times' tbt* weekly. On July 27, its owner, Media General, registered the website www.freshsqueezedweekly.com and put an "Orange Magazine" sign on it. According to one…
Who is That Gaucho, Amigo?
Blurbex's own Eric Snider writes that no one under 35 seems to like Steely Dan. How about it, anyone from the younger set out there planning on taking in the Dan of Steel show Thursday night?
Lollapalooza ’06, or How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Day One
Nothing on earth stinks quite like the mud at the north end of Chicago’s Grant Park.Sure, there are things that stink more, like New York City dumpster juice, or shark urine. (Trust me, shark urine might boast the most maddening organic stench in nature.) But nothing on the face of the planet stinks in a…
Morning Roundup
Running late today: Miami Herald says Tom Gallagher is thinking about getting out of governor's race; Gallaghers says he's not quitting. Daydreamin' about Hillsborough County Commission scandals he'd like to see. The Campaign Manager points out that Tampa-based media guru Adam Goodman made another chunk of change off Jeb Bush's foundation. Hillsborough County Commission mayor…
Walking the waves
Wes Stevenson and his amazing dancing boat
Atlanta on the Gulf
Plans for a new Tampa bypass are, well, just plain loopy
Something’s fishy
Floyd Landis, Alaskan pipeline, FSU today
The Blotter
Bizarre crimes from Tampa police files
Letters to the Editor
Mostly MySpace
Spins
Savane, Jim Noir, Blood Meridian, the Cairo Gang
Is there gas in the car?
The answer, for Steely Dan, depends on your age
A tough childhood
Theater
Being there
For indie pop scenesters, Lollapalooza is a happening
From page to stage
Spoken word
Grape stories
From upper-crust hip-hop dissin’ to underwater fermentation
Trailer trashed
The Planet‘s new columnist, HOLLIS GILLESPIE, on Florida dreaming, her boozehound dad and the trailer that followed her home
Muted moments
With painterly touches, photographer laureate Rebecca Sexton Larson captures Tampa’s fleeting present
The road to political war
A new expressway in eastern Hillsborough is about more than just moving cars
Upstairs & Down
Big City fare has its share of highs and lows
Car trouble
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Music Menu
Picks for the week’s best shows
Upcoming releases
Hits stores Tues., Aug. 15
There she blows
Film
Doomed
Doomriders play Aug. 11
Small wonder
What it lacks in size, Hat Trick Theatre makes up for in ambition
Grimm (Abridged)
Jobsite Theater's brain trust of comedy has churned out yet another original production, Grimm's Faery Tales, along the lines of its wildly popular (Abridged) productions. This time around, audiences are in for a riotous romp through the world of the Brothers Grimm as the cast enacts a collection of the classic fairy tales with their…
The big hookup
How I finally scored a trailer of my very own
Outtakes
Capsule reviews of recently released movies
Rough trade
Square-jawed filmmaking turns this account of 9/11 to rubble
Wine List
Events around the city
Frank Sinatra
In the Wee Small Hours
