Planet Picks
Thursday 3.8 Celluloid Excursions Look out, Cannes; step aside, Sundance; Tampa's sneaking up behind ya with the first annual Tambay Film and Video Festival. Independent film and video artists get screen time at the Tampa Theatre throughout the weekend, beginning with today's lineup of 12 documentaries, shorts and features. Film times range from seven to…
Web Site of the Week
Instead of nekkid folks, newgrounds.com relies on the electron equivalent of uncut caffeine to keep your entertainment-overloaded psyche bellied up to the table. Or in this case, the monitor. But there are two warnings: One, turn your speakers down or off when you first click in to avoid the omnipresent techno/electronica MIDI files that blast…
Books
This Shape We're In By Jonathan Lethem McSweeney's Books/$9 Jonathan Lethem's This Shape We're In barely qualifies in length as a novella, but it's worth all nine of the dollars it costs. The third release from McSweeney's Books, a tentacle of the media octopus ridden by Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering…
Public Life
Power Wheelchairs Available Throughout March, Miracle on Wheels makes power wheelchairs available to non-ambulatory senior citizens, usually at no out-of-pocket expense if they qualify, no deposit required. This service may also be available to the permanently disabled of any age. Call 1-800-749-8778, or visit www.durablemedical.com. Volunteer for Blues Fest Help is needed at the 2001…
Chambers’ Music
Kasey Chambers is somewhere between Charlotte and Charlottesville, talking on a cell phone, secure in the knowledge that if her bus breaks down, she needs only to make a quick call for roadside service. Two decades ago, it was not thus. With her parents and older brother, Kasey roamed the remote outback of southern Australia…
Freebie of the Week
The Florida Marine Research Institute: Say it out loud — doesn't exactly sound fun, does it? You're probably picturing a building full of pocket-protector-wearing scientists surrounded by tanks of algae and sea sponges, perhaps a few fish, scratching their heads and saying "hmm," as they try to come up with a way to make fuel…
Music Menu
Bonk Festival of New Music This date's program of experimental sounds begins at 8 p.m. and includes works by Eric Lyon, Jean-Claude Risset, Hideko Kawamoto, Sarunas Nakas and Helmur Lachenmann. The pieces by Kawamoto and Lachenmann will be performed by the USF Percussion Ensemble, directed by Robert McCormick. (March 8, Friday Morning Musicale) Voodoo Glow…
Home-grown Festival
Remember that classic moment from all those old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland movies? I'm thinking about that inevitable scene where one of the gang, in a flash of inspiration, suddenly gets up and shouts, "Hey kids, let's put on a show!" That's sort of how the Tambay Film and Video Festival strikes me. That's not to…
Venues
60 Watt Dance Club 1602 E. Brandon Blvd. Brandon 813-681-9000 Alley Cat's Cafe 2475-M McMullen-Booth Road Clearwater 727-797-5555 Amphitheater 1609 E. Seventh Ave. Ybor City 813-248-2331 Bahama Mama's 5250 Gulf Blvd. St. Pete Beach 727-360-1811 Beach Nutts 9600 W. Gulf Blvd. Treasure Island 727-367-7427 Beach Place (Whitey's) 2405 Gulf Blvd. Indian Rocks Beach 727-596-5633 Blue…
Soundboard
Thursday, March 8 Shows Friday Morning Musicale Bonk Festival of New Music Ringside Cafe Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze Ruth Eckerd Hall Linda Eder State Theatre Voodoo Glow Skulls Clubs AJ's Ale House Sal Beliose Alley Cat's Cafe Diane Bahama Mama's Donnie O'Neill Boomerz Greed Engine Bourbon Street Nine2Life/"Real Knockout Street Fighting 3" Brass Mug E.…
Letters to the Editor
Not Sportsmanlike Re: "The Devils are in the Details" by John F. Sugg (March 1-7) While I am an avid sports fan, I resent it when cities/counties use taxpayer money to build stadiums for rich moguls without allowing the people to vote on it. Whether it's Pinellas ramming the Dome down the people's throats in…
Movie Marquee
Hillsborough Brandon REGENCY (AMC) 2496 W. Brandon Blvd. 813-243-4955 Get Over It (PG-13) F-Su 1, 3:15, 5:30, 7:50, 10 (F, Sa 12:15); M-Th 2:15, 5:10, 7:30, 9:50 15 Minutes (R) F-Su 1:45, 5, 7:45 (F, Sa 10:30; Su 10:15); M-Th 2:15, 5:55, 8:50 Hannibal (R) F-Su 1:15, 1:50, 4:10, 5, 7:20, 8, 10:15, 11; Sa…
Trial of the Century
In some ways, says Maestro Anton Coppola, composer and librettist of Sacco and Vanzetti, he's been working on the opera since he was 10 years old. "I was brought up in the sort of Italian ghetto neighborhood in East Harlem in New York," he says. "And in the '20s, of course, the discussion around the…
Eat His Fairy Dust
Randy Constan is Tampa’s very own Peter Pan.
The Divine Comedy
I was going to write about Dick Greco today, but instead I think I'll pen some words about my good friend, God. The shift in gears isn't that hard. Both beings require a considerable effort of faith to conclude that whatever it is that they're up to is for the best. Let me tell you…
Upcoming Live Shows
Upcoming Highlights March 10 Wild 98.7 Splash w/Ja Rule/Ziggy Marley/112/PYT Coachman Park March 14 Kool Keith w/Smut Peddlers Masquerade CANCELED March 21 AC/DC w/Slash's Snakepit Ice Palace March 24 They Might Be Giants w/Togo Jannus Landing March 26 Aretha Franklin TBPAC March 25 Women's Music Now Festival w/ Laura Love Band/Saffire the Uppity Blueswomen/Jill Sobule/Laura…
Snapper Keeper
Huzzah! The monthlong ban on commercial fishing for grouper in the Gulf is almost over. Oh, what a time of Dickensian deprivation it has been, a time of trembling tourists lifting their pitifully empty cups to stern seafood chefs, and pleading, "Please, sir, may I have some more grouper?" And harder hearts than mine have…
Culinary Events
FOOD It's All About Asparagus Vegetarian chef Debby DeGraaff teaches all about asparagus in this free cooking class. 10-11 a.m. Thursday, March 8. Nature's Harvest Market, 1021 N. MacDill Ave., Tampa. 813-873-7428. Free Barbecue Demonstration Learn to prepare smoked duck quesadillas with fresh fruit salsa, ginger-and-wasabi-marinated chicken and grilled veggies with aioli in this free…
Dining Guide
Hillsborough Tampa Carrollwood/Northwest Tampa Jasmine Thai Restaurant, 13248 N. Dale Mabry (813-968-1501). No doubt this is one of Tampa's best Thai eateries. The dominant Thai influence, Indian-Chinese, with an added emphasis on fresh herbs and spices such as cilantro, garlic, lemongrass, mint and chilies, make this a cuisine to savor; almost like no other. $$…
Outtakes
15 Minutes (R) Robert De Niro and Ed Burns play a couple of pistol-packing Good Guys on the trail of a pair of mad dog killers with a mania for videotaping their crimes. Tough, exciting, smart and just off-kilter enough to keep us guessing, 15 Minutes is a thriller that manages to transcend the buddy…
Stranded on Idiot Island
The last, dreamless night on the island was like a bad dream: Waking every hour from exhausted sleep to a frosty February dark, cannibalizing our shelter for branches to burn in a fire that smoldered like lazy charcoal when what we really wanted — needed, really — was something roaring, something Smokey the Bear would…
Olu Dara/Neighborhoods
Rare is today's musician who forges a sound not tethered to genre. Singer/cornetist/guitarist Olu Dara is such a special case. The one-time jazz avant-gardist, now 60-ish, started his solo career late, and a lifetime of diverse influences has paid off. Neighborhoods is the follow-up to the critically lauded In The World: From Natchez to New…
Ronny Elliott/Poisonville
On this fourth full-length release (fifth if you count the album he did as Ronny Elliott and Loco Siempre), Elliott proves that he is indeed a local treasure, as devoted to music history as he is to his own tangy, rough-hewn and mellow muse. He's most at home carving country ballads out of his own…
