Miami Judge Slam-Dunks SFWMD on Okeechobee Pollution
U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga told the South Fla. Water ManagementDistrict that its 30-yr practice of backpumping runoff from sugar farms intoLake Okeechobee (for seemingly good reasons) was nonetheless contrary to the1977 Clean Water Act and that it would need federal permits for its pumpingstations, which SFWMD said weren't necessary and, besides, were burdensome.As a…
Apadravyas
Name of Kama Sutra Position: Apadravyas Getting into the position: The man rubs his manhood with wasp stings and then massages it with oil as it begins to swell. It is then prescribed that he let it dangle through the bed for 10 nights using a cool ointment to soothe the pain and swelling. After…
Time to Call “Stupid” Stupid
Yeah, OK, we ought to have paper-trail electronic voting (or, even better,optical scan). Yeah, OK, Sec'y of State Harris in 2000 was anover-the-top-partisan. Still, how many more close races will it take beforeall you right-tail (of high-intelligence distribution on the Bell Curve)Democrats consider the possibility that maybe your left-tail people (i.e.,your really stupid voters) are…
Kucinich Runs Again
Dennis Kucinich is running for president again, in 2008. Ed Helm must be ecstatic.
Do You Miss Ronda Already?
If you've not been getting your daily recommended dose of newly minted Sen. Ronda Storms, you have three chances next week to hook up with the former Hillsborough County Commissioner and well known open mind. Storms is holding three community meetings about the insurance crisis — and collecting copies of folks' insurance bills "for her…
Cindy Sheehan’s NOT Coming
This just in from one of the organizers of the Veterans for Peace banquet and press conference today that was supposed to feature antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan: Out of genuine respect for your time, I wanted to let you know that Cindy will not be in attendance today, due to the fact that the judge…
Plant High Win Draws Politicos
So, I spent nearly three hours in the midnight cold Saturday in a parking lot awaiting the return of the state 4A football champions from Plant High School in South Tampa. But at least I got a blog post out of it. In addition to hundreds of students, those awaiting the team's arrival included some…
Morning Roundup
In the news: Buried deep in this blog post is the good news: WMNF 88.5 FM is ditching its insufferable Friday afternoon reggae show. Does the Tribune really believe that a tucked away art museum that isn't doing much to improve its holdings, an ill-conceived Riverwalk and some bushes along Ashley Boulevard are going to…
Sticker Shock and Awe
On my final day in town, I finally get around to visiting the Big Kahuna, Miami Basel, itself. With a lot of what’s on view sharing three characteristics—big, weird, and expensive—I prepare myself to enter a funhouse of visual art. Basel is an art marketplace to the extreme, an art Costco for collectors, as one…
Graphicstudio at Ink Miami
At another fair taking place for the first time this year, USF’s Graphicstudio struts its stuff. Ink Miami focuses on printed works on paper, so if you’re crazy for collagraphs or loony for lithography, there’s plenty to choose from. The fifteen exhibiting presses—all members of the International Fine Print Dealers Association—hatched the idea of a…
Flight 19 at Scope
A visit to Scope Art Fair to see Experimental Skeleton/Flight 19’s project in collaboration with Miami-based Locust Projects takes me to Wynwood, the up-and-coming gallery district just north of downtown. Whereas in Miami Beach you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting Paris Hilton—or somebody in her entourage—Wynwood’s gritty streets are lined with lower-middle class…
The little atelier that could
In a row of postcard-perfect art deco resorts on Collins Avenue sits the Catalina, a smaller hotel with modestly sized rooms and red shag carpet-lined halls. As site of the Bridge Art Fair, for four days the hotel’s 60-plus rooms have been stripped of furniture and converted into intimate exhibition spaces for galleries from the…
Striving for Success, Foley-style
Just one of many juicy exchanges in the newly released Mark Foley congressional report, from IMs between Foley and a congressional page: Foley: what makes me attractive to youPage: i dunno ….Foley: tryFoley: its between usPage: i like stylish, elite type pplFoley: goodPage: the type of person that ill strive to be later onFoley: so…
Afternoon Roundup
Ding, fries are done: Just in time, that perfect stocking "stuffer:" The House Committee on Standards report on Mark Foley and how the GOP leadership handled the allegations. Did newly elected Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White violate the law by strapping on his guns during meetings? He is evasive on the subject of when he…
Cindy Sheehan Coming to Town
Perhaps our most famous anti-war activist, Cindy Sheehan, is coming to Tampa Bay on Monday and Tuesday, primarily as the speaker at the Veterans for Peace banquet on Monday night. Sheehan and Michael McPhearson will hold a news conference at 5 p.m. Monday, with supporters scheduled to line the sidewalks outside the Crazy Buffet on…
Friday Night Blights
Two state football championship games will be played under a cloud this weekend. If Lakeland High wins the 5A championship tonight, it may have to give it back, depending on whether all-world running back Chris Rainey was joking or telling it like it is about how all those bored Lakelanders keep giving him money and…
At Basel, Selling Tampa
In a landscape of uniformly slinky dresses and metrosexual getups, Jeff Whipple stands out in a black t-shirt and a ball cap. To go with his laid-back attire, the Tampa artist sports a laid-back ‘tude—even as a party thrown in his honor thrusts him into the spotlight. At South Seas Hotel, one in a row…
72 Hours in Miami
Since it debuted in 2002 (following a planned launch in 2001 that was scrapped after 9/11), Art Basel Miami Beach has become a global phenomenon. A spin-off of one of the world’s biggest art fairs, Art Basel, held yearly in the Swiss city of the same name, Miami Basel mixes art world commerce and networking…
Follow-Up: Help for Little Kevin Estinfil
The severely-disabled 12-yr-old (mis-ID'd by Yr Editor yesterday as Justin Estinfil) will get his blankets, and lots of other things, not because of a change of heart by the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities, but by private donations from people who read the Miami Herald story yesterday. One change of heart, though, was by…
Morning Roundup
"There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger:" The Sprawlway Authority: "He's perfect!! Hire him." "Don't it always seem to go / that you don't know what you've got til it's gone." Sean's at it again. What do you think about this lede? Christine…
Another On-the-Cheap State Agency Blows Off Our Most Vulnerable Citizens
The Miami Herald this morning chronicled the pitiful case in which caretakers for severely disabled Justin Estinfil, 12, [CORRECTED: Justin Estinfil should be Kevin Estinfil.] have tried for months to get perfectly-sensible heating blankets for him ($360 a year) and perfectly-cautionary extra surgical masks for themselves ($288 a year) from the state's Agency for Persons…
Oteil Burbridge, Planes Mistaken for Stars
Music Week Briefs
Lessons to be learned
This crude production of a brilliant play needs refinement
Judicial disinterest
Appointed vs. elected? Let’s rethink how we pick our judges
Music Week
Johnny Winter, Corey Crowder, Jake Smith, others
By hand
Gifts with a human touch and a Florida accent.
Slithering on the stage
The Serpent at Jobsite Theater
The Pick of Destiny
Tenacious D
Taste the Passion
Wines you’ll fall in love with.
Among the Rubbish
The secret to happy house hunting is to recognize the omens.
Egg Yourself On
Get in the holiday spirit with tasty eggnog.
On the Verge
Drag The River may be poised to transcend its cult-phenom status.
Hanukkah Daze
Avoiding the H-bomb, one country at a time.
Saving the Centro
West Tampa activists hope that a megachurch won’t succeed in taking over a local landmark.
How to be alone on Christmas
A guide for the unloved among us
Orphans
TOM WAITS
Blood from a Stone
The bombastic Blood Diamond
Feats of Clay
Potter Russ Gustafson-Hilton
The big bang
The ever-expanding world of alternative crafters goes Atomic
More gravy than grave
Devito faces Rosie and Baba Wawa
Great moments in jurisprudence
Global, schmobal
Holiday rewind
‘Tis the season for repackaging.
Tower Of Power
Tower Of Power
Bag Ladies
Pursemakers Orel Edry and Katy Alderman
Double vision
Two artists’ points of view square-off; plus, TMA gets an architect
How many people have died in the Iraq war?
Don’t Panic… Your War Questions Answered
Run through the jungle
Visually stunning, Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto is his best filmmaking yet.
Outtakes
Babel, Borat, Boyton Beach Club, Casino Royale, others.
Art of the eight limbs
Sports
Upcoming Concerts
December 14 Tony Bennett Ruth Eckerd Hall 14 The Preservation Hall Jazz Band Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center 14 Through The Eyes of the Dead/From A Second Story Window/The Acacia Strain/If Hope Dies State Theatre 15 Coolio/Digital Underground/Young MC Jannus Landing 15 Kidgusto/DRM/Mr. Marley New World Brewery 15 Melissa Ferrick Skipper's Smokehouse 16 Red Elvises/Jimbo…
Creative Spear
Art
The Blotter
Bizarre crimes from Tampa police reports
Glass Works
Zen Glass artists David Walker and Joshua Poll
CL’s must-do list for the week of
Thurs., Dec. 7-Wed., Dec. 13
Furious George
Comedy
Have you tried leeches?
Lemme tell you how to get rid of that cold …
Catch a wave
Befitting its nautical décor, this eatery does fish – and other dishes – quite well
Double Our Pleasure
Literature
Letters to the editor
Overrated not over
Sick World
Now Soldiers
The zen of junk
A Tampa couple devotes itself to creating something from nothing
Holiday Crack
Theater/Dance
The Handmade Holiday Guide
Hand-crafted gifts, holiday events and a Scrooge or two
Leading Light
Lampmaker Robert Perry
The Complete Holiday Happenings List
Mahaffey Theater, 400 First St. S., St. Petersburg, 727-898-2100, mahaffeytheater.com. Palladium Theater, 253 Fifth Ave. N., St. Petersburg, 727-822-3590, mypalladium.org. Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 N. McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater, 727-791-7400, rutheckerdhall.com. Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, downtown Tampa, 813-229-7827, tbpac.org. Van Wezel Performing Arts Center, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 941-953-3366, vanwezel.org.…
Events around the city
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@creativeloafing.com. CELBRATING FIVE Charlie's is celebrating its fifth anniversary with 25 of its favorite wines, bubblies and beers. Event includes giveaways, prizes and holiday discounts. $15 in advance; $20 at the…
Poetry for Rights
Spoken Word
Clearing The Eye
ISIS
