Green your New Year’s Eve festivities
Start the new year the eco-friendly way by greening your New Year's Eve bash. (Plus, it'd be a great way to start your green resolutions.) Take a look at these easy tips, some of which are inexpensive and even free. Invitations: This one is simple: make your own invitations online with Evite or on Facebook.…
Green your New Year’s Eve festivities
Start the new year the eco-friendly way by greening your New Year's Eve bash. (Plus, it'd be a great way to start your green resolutions.) Take a look at these easy tips, some of which are inexpensive and even free. Invitations: This one is simple: make your own invitations online with Evite or on Facebook.…
Dreaming of twisted tree branches
“Dream Momma, Last night I dreamt I was in forest covered in snow and next to a wide stream. There were strangers all around (almost like a tourist attraction, but not really). I was with a few people that I did know. Down by the stream in/on a small tree I found three pair of…
On the Radar: Godspell and Alice in Wonderland
Welcome to On the Radar, where we preview up-and-coming arts events to mark your calendar for. This weekend, see two sur-really classic movies for free (or almost free). “C’mere Jesus, I got something to show ya!” Perhaps it is lines like this one from Godspell’s “Turn Back, O Man” that cause people to call it…
Do It This Weekend: The Dumb Show, Sushi 101, Antiques in the Park, The Tamburitzans, Mathematical Quilts and more
Don’t worry: if your IQ is above 100, you can attend The Dumb Show without being ridiculed. The acclaimed monthly improv performance – part of American Stage’s After Hours Series – stars the experienced, quick-thinking Gavin Hawke and Ricky Wayne (pictured right). The Dumb Show begins with Hawke and Wayne taking one scene suggestion from…
America’s New Year’s resolution: Break our addiction to oil
Very soon we will begin to hear of how well Christmas shopping season was for the retail stores. These numbers will be utilized in accounting mechanism to determine whether or not some retail chains will remain in business this year. As the commercial real estate market in America becomes swamped with upcoming bond renewals causing…
Do It Today: Flights of the Soul and Kid City at FMoPA, South American wine tasting
is a new collection by the internationally famous photog, whose works are on display at the MoMA, the Met, the Whitney and more — so Tampa's in some pretty good company. This partcular exhibit explores the "passage between body and spirit, between life and death … the moment suspended between an intake of breath and…
Does the left really want to help the environment?
On Sunday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is actively opposing a measure to build 13 solar and wind power projects in the Mojave Desert. Of the proposed 1 million acres of desert land, about a quarter of it was donated to the federal government by a private source for land…
Top ten food events of the decade, part 2: Tampa Bay Edition
(See part 1 of the Top Ten Food Events: The Big Picture.) 1. St. Petersburg's Saturday Morning Market Opens In 2002, the local farmers' market scene was limited, to say the least. Then a little market started on the streets of downtown St. Petersburg. Since then, the Saturday Morning Market has boomed, becoming the largest…
8 reasons you’re still single this New Year’s
You're a drama queen. We all experience moments when we feel down, but some people seem to thrive on this constant drama. For these people, something is always going wrong and no one wants to be their friend…blah, blah, blah, boo-hoo. Wake up and realize that the common thread in all of your problems is…
The best movies of the decade (2000-2009)
In spite of what it says up there in the headline, I think we can all agree that what follows is most definitely NOT the definitive list of the best films of the aughts decade. In truth, it is impossible to produce such a list. I am but an individual, and though I spent an…
Music review: Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord, Accomplish Jazz
Brooklyn-based guitarist/composer Jon Lundblom and his quintet Big Five Chord play the kind of forward-thinking, boundary-stretching jazz that still manages to sit well on more mainstream ears. Accomplish Jazz (Hot Cup Records), the band’s third album, runs the gamut from contemplative drones to noisy blasts, often within the same tune. Unlike pure free jazz, Lundbom…
The top 10 plays of the decade: Wild Party, Cloud Nine and more
The fact is, there have been 40 or 50 terrific productions in the Tampa Bay area over the last decade, some of which will stay in memory for decades to come. But if I have to pick 10, then I think they’re these: 1. THE WILD PARTY (freeFall Theatre, 2008). Eric Davis’ freeFall Theatre announced…
No restrooms for the weary: St. Petersburg and its homeless are at odds about after-hours access to public toilets
“Homelessness is a humiliating nightmare; you can’t even use the bathroom after certain hours without threat of arrest.” – G.W. Rolle It’s after 8 p.m. on December 20. I am leaving the National Homeless Person’s Memorial Day service with Mary Cash (a.k.a. Ms. Mary), a St. Vincent de Paul South Pinellas board member and my…
Win $2,500 in the EPA’s environmental video contest
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking for creative video submissions for their "Our Planet, Our Stuff, Our Choice" video competition, offering a top prize of $2,500. The theme for the competition is "Individual Action in Your Community" and the submissions should demonstrate what you're doing to be environmentally active in your community.…
A Florida alum rides the Urban Meyer roller-coaster
I remember when Steve Spurrier announced he was resigning from the University of Florida. I was sitting at work, pretending to get something accomplished, when a friend (a Florida State grad) called and asked if I had heard the news. The Ol’ Ball Coach was gone. As a Florida alum, Spurrier was all I had…
Do It Today: Contemporary video at the Dalí and final week to see Wonderland at the Straz
With its seemingly single-minded focus, St. Petersburg’s Salvador Dalí Museum might seem like the kind of place where, if you’ve visited once, you’ve been there and done that. Though visitors will still have an opportunity to take in the Spanish surrealist’s masterworks, a video installation by contemporary Catalan artist Mabel Palacín (which is in its…
The best of 2009 in visual art: Visions of paradise at the Ringling, artists’ books at the Dali and more
Even with the Tampa Museum of Art closed (pending its reopening in February on the downtown waterfront), Tampa Bay managed to keep art lovers busy in 2009 with a diverse slate of exhibits and events. Here are my top ten visual art offerings of the year. 1. Picturing Eden (John and Mable Ringling Museum of…
Top 10 New Year’s relationship resolutions for men
Gift wrap it: I’m tired of friends and family having unplanned babies with women they sort of love. Unless you’re ready to have a kid or share an STD with your partner, wear a condom. If you don’t have a condom and the corner store is closed, resign yourself to a handjob. I don’t care…
The Nigerian terrorist incident proves it: Airport security measures are window dressing
Okay, let me get this straight. Some Nigerian terrorist attempted to take down a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day using liquid explosives. That much I understand very easily. But as I start to look at the facts and consequences of this case I start to get confused. This much we know: The alleged terrorist’s father…
A rare ‘blue moon’ for New Year’s Eve
At 7:15 pm this Thursday night (a.k.a: New Year's Eve), we'll be fortunate enough to witness a 'blue moon'. Okay, the moon won't literally be blue, but the occurrence doesn't happen too often (hence the phrase: "Once in a blue moon"). A 'blue moon' is the second full moon that appears in a month -…
Top ten food events of the decade, part 1: The big picture
1. Michael Pollan publishes Omnivore's Dilemma At the beginning of 2006, Michael Pollan was known as a prolific and respected writer of thoughtful magazine articles and introspective non-fiction books. He'd made a name for himself in some food circles, especially with his book Botany of Desire, which detailed the interconnected relationship between plants and people.…
Join Code Green Community for a free screening of The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil – Saturday, January 9th
Join Code Green Community for a free screening of The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, on Saturday, January 9th, in New Port Richey. The film will be followed by a meeting and discussion. See below for more information. Here's an excerpt from an article by Megan Quinn in Permaculture Activist about this…
Creative Loafing’s 100 Best Albums of the Decade, Part II: Kings of Leon, The Mars Volta, Spoon, U2, Common, The White Stripes and more
A select group of CL music contributors – Eric Snider, Scott Harrell, Joel Weiss, Evan Tokarz and Shawn Goldberg – have helped me put together this well-rounded list of the decade’s best albums from 2000 to the present. So far, I've revealed the first 25; over the few days, I’ll be revealing the rest in…
It Happened This Week-ish: Winehouse assaults Cinderella, Charlie Sheen spends Xmas in jail, Tila Tequila: bisexual and incestuous? and more…
*Anytime I see the words Amy Winehouse, Cinderella, assault and bitches, I know it's gonna be good. What is it with this girl? She gets new boobies and assumes that she can just go around yelling during a children's performance of Cinderella and bleeding all over cast members?! Bitch. *I love a good trainwreck and…
Sister and brotherly love in the swinging lifestyle
Although swingers are thought of as more open-minded in terms of sex than your average vanilla couple, somethings are still taboo. Recently, I've met several people who participate in the swinging lifestyle with family members. Some attend clubs together in hopes of finding sex separately. Others have sex in the same room while some even…
The Best of 2009 in Theater: The year’s top 10 productions
2009 was a tiptop year for theatre in the Tampa Bay area. Here’s the cream of the crop: 1. Shining City (Stageworks). Richard Coppinger as an Everyman who can’t do anything right; Glenn Gover as the therapist who himself needs healing. Intense and heartbreaking. 2. Doubt (American Stage). Sister Aloysius, the Dirty Harry of nuns,…
The 10 biggest stories of the decade in Tampa Bay
I came here from San Francisco to work for WMNF radio in the spring of 2000. (On that first weekend, Erin Brockovich was the must-see movie of the moment and the Gators were playing in the Final Four.) Since then, I’ve learned a lot about the area’s pre-2000 politics, but it was the first decade…
10 ways for Tampa Bay to get greener in the next decade (videos)
The following are not separate items but pieces of a larger sustainable theme. Locally and nationally I believe we’re moving from a divisionary quagmire of petty political agendas and fragmented fiefdoms toward collective solutions, with an eye toward impacting the bigger issues facing our area. For Tampa Bay, it’s been a long time coming. Some might join…
Presenting the 2009 McChumpies: The best and worst of a year in sports
After seeing Tiger Woods win AP Athlete of the Decade in light of his recent controversy and Serena Williams win the AP Female Athlete of the Year with images of her berating a line judge still fresh in our minds, I thought to myself, why not have my own awards ceremony? After all, my selections…
Which blockbuster holiday movie release are you?
It's the most wonderful time of the year, especially if you're a movie fan. The holiday season is now second only to summer as the landing zone for Hollywood's biggest blockbusters. And thank God for that, because sometimes, after the presents have been opened and the acid reflux has gone nuclear, you've just got to…
Santa Claus is coming to town … to scare your pants off!!!!!
For anyone who remembers the terror of the red suit, this one's for you … Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, hope you enjoyed the solstice and Happy Festivus everyone! Talk to you in the oh-10.
Recycling, repurposing and reusing your Christmas tree
After the holiday season is over, those of you with real, live Christmas trees may be wondering what you can do with it besides just putting it out with the trash. Here are some great examples of how some cities are reusing their evergreens, why purchasing a live tree is the 'greener' choice, and some…
Sex in the 2000s: The top 10 changes in how we get down to business
Film as foreplay: There’s no better way to realize just how much of an amateur you are at sex than by filming yourself in the act. With our lives increasingly becoming digitized, no wonder shooting images of sex acts has become a kind of fetish and foreplay. There are a few reasons for this boom…
Senate passes healthcare reform — but it ain’t over yet
The Senate passed the healthcare reform bill this morning. So does this mean we have come to the end of our long winter of discontent? I'm talking discontented tea-partiers, discontented MoveOn-ers, discontented cardiologists… Not hardly. Winter just started and so did the next phase of healthcare wrangling. Now begins the arduous process of combining the…
‘Twas the night before Election Day: Chris Ingram’s ode to Charlie Crist and Jim Greer
‘Twas the night before Election Day when all through the state Charlie’s poll numbers were moving but was it too late? The prognosticators were predicting on the Buzz and Fox News That Charlie’s Senate hopes were giving him the blues The voters were thinking about all of the Obama debt Signing on to the stimulus…
Movie Review: Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Rachel McAdams
I was a big Sherlock Holmes fan when I was a kid, but my fandom had more to do with the movies than with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Oh, I'd read a few collections and I still own a hardcover edition of The Complete Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes (featuring the entire Holmes canon as it…
Are man’s best friends the environment’s worst enemies?
According to a new study, the carbon footprint of a dog is more than double that of an SUV and the footprint of a cat isn't much better. Robert and Brenda Vale, sustainable living specialists in New Zealand, calculated that a medium-sized dog eats about 570 pounds of food a year, putting their carbon footprint…
Autopsy IV’s Top 20 Albums of 2009: Roots Rock, Alt-Country, Americana and more (Florida bands included!)
Well, I guess it's list time! This year was particularly difficult due to the sheer amount of great music that came out, and had I made this list tomorrow it would certainly change. That said, you can edit forever but eventually you have to settle on something and call it your list. So, with out…
Top 5 sports feuds: Notre Dame vs. the Big Ten, Cliff Lee vs. the Phillies, Bobby Knight vs. John Calipari, Tiger Woods vs. Elin Nordegern, Peyton Manning vs. the loss column
We once again find ourselves smack dab in the middle of the Christmas season. Yet some of us have been short on the holiday spirit lately, and not just because we’ve heard "White Christmas" for the umpteenth time. I know we’re all broke, but isn’t this the time of year when we’re supposed to spread…
Project Runway Season 7 contestant guide: Who’s going home, who’s going to the tents and who’s just crying
It's that time of year again, Project Runway is about to be welcomed back into my home with an open mind, a hopeful heart and a judge-y attitude. In prep for this monumental event, I have painstakingly watched all the audition, casting AND homevisit videos, picked out the best and worst and brought them to…
Wednesday-music.com indie music profile: Fanfarlo
London based alt-folk/pop band Fanfarlo formed back in the year 2006 by multi-talented Swedish musician Simon Balthazar (vocals, guitar, keys, mandolin, saxophone, clarinet, glockenspiel). The band is rounded out by Amos Memon (drums, percussion, vocals), Cathy Lucas (violin, keys, mandolin, glockenspiel, vocals, saw), Justin Finch (bass, vocals) and Leon Beckenham (trumpet, keys, glockenspiel, melodica). The…
‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ gets a green makeover (video)
Since turtle doves and partridges in pear trees are a bit passé in this day and age, it's only appropriate that The Twelve Days of Christmas gets a green makeover to be a bit more hip with the times. What would you rather have under your tree: reusable shopping bags or four annoying calling birds?…
The 12 Days of NIMBY Christmas: Wishes for Hillsborough County
Daily Loaf contributor Kelly Cornelius is a founder of R-LAND (Rural Lithia Area Neighborhood Defense) and a proudly self-declared NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). It has been a tough year for NIMBYs in Hillsborough County. The majority of the County Commission is still made up of and controlled by the Gang of Four, developer…
Now I hear what you hear
For better or worse, the sounds of the season are clearer now.
What’s better, farm-raised salmon or wild? Are upscale restaurants serving ugly fish?
On the one hand, I want to eat farm-raised salmon because wild salmon is being depleted by overfishing. On the other hand, I hear there are all sorts of pollutants in salmon farms, and farm-raised fish are full of antibiotics. So which is better, farm-raised or wild? —Judith I've heard most fish served in fast-food…
Which Christmas movie are you?
A customized guide to the glut of holiday movies.
May I help you, sucker? A nation of bad customer service
The lost art of customer service.
Robert Downey Jr. solves the case of Sherlock Holmes
I was a big Sherlock Holmes fan when I was a kid, but my fandom had more to do with the movies than with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Oh, I'd read a few collections and I still own a hardcover edition of The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes (featuring the entire Holmes canon as it originally…
No on Nine
Rob Marshall’s latest movie musical is no Chicago — and he ain’t no Fellini.
May I help you, sucker? A nation of bad customer service
We are either about to undertake, or have just engaged in, massive swappage of gadgets. And that's good. We are stimulating the economy; we are providing an indicator to industry of emerging trends; we are telling those in our circle that we love them a digital camera's worth, or maybe even a video game console's…
National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day in St. Pete: A howl from the back row
On Sunday I attended the National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day service at St. Peter’s Episcopal Cathedral on 4th Street in St. Petersburg. The memorial was one of four happening simultaneously to commemorate the 12 people who died homeless in Pinellas County this year. Across the aisle from me sat a woman in pink with a…
CL Feature: New Granada Records celebrates 15 years on the scene
Of all the Letters to the Editor that Creative Loafing has received in its more than 20-year history, Keith Ulrey’s 2007 missive was among the most memorable. “To the assholes at Creative Loafing” he began, and launched into a scathing tirade against former CL music editor Wade Tatangelo. He questioned Wade’s qualifications, criticized his local…
The decade in Tampa Bay Music
Photos by Val Troyano, Stacy Mathis and Carrie Waite; the Cocktail Honeys, circa 2002, pictured at right. art of me didn't want to comment on this subject. Part of me was content to just let it slip away and sit back while the rest told their side of things. One day, my grandchildren would gather…
Green Community Calendar weekend events: Hillsborough River boat parade, The Ocean Conservancy’s shoreline cleanup, markets galore, and more
Looking for something green-related to do this weekend? Look no further than our own Green Community Calendar. Dunedin Green Market- Every Friday (through April); 8 am- 1 pm. Featuring fresh, local produced goods such as baked good, ready-to-eat-foods, organic plants and herbs, coffee, honey, seafood, clothing, and so much more. The Dunedin Green Market is…
