CL Fiction Contest/Ybor Stories: Who won?
Ten stories were chosen by judges as the best in this year’s Ybor-themed fiction contest, and readers voted for their favorite from that group: David Rojas' "Cigar City Angel Dust." Read David's story and the other finalists' stories below. Read the judges’ winner, "The Tabaquero's Squirrel," by Cully Perlman, here. CIGAR CITY ANGEL DUST |…
Norm Roche is a fan of the new St. Petersburg Tribune
Norm Roche Today is Day 3 in the life of the St. Petersburg Tribune, the new zoned edition of the Tampa Tribune focusing on and distributed in St. Pete. We couldn't help but notice that four of the six letters to the editor published in the Tampa Tribune today featured Pinellas County residents, all expressing…
Service Employees International Union endorses Allison Tant for Florida Democratic Party Chair
Allison Tant In the battle between Tampa's Alan Clendenin and Tallahassee's Allison Tant to become the next chair of the Florida Democratic Party chair, Clendenin has been getting more endorsements from grassroots oriented groups, and Tant from some of the biggest and most important Democrats in the state. So no doubt Tant has to be…
Hillsborough School District not the only one putting armed officers in all schools
Monday marked the first day of school for most of the nation's elementary and high school students. In Hillsborough County, that meant armed police officers outside all of the county's elementary schools at a cost of $2 million. They're not the only ones. Williamson County in Tennessee is spending $2.5 million to place armed officers…
Piers Morgan “debates” Alex Jones on gun control
CNN talk show host Piers Morgan has been under siege since he passionately spoke out for gun control in the wake of the gun-shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. Morgan's advocacy has led gun-owners and Second Amendment supporters to petition the White House to deport the British native…
Mitch Perry Report 1.8.13 – The return of David Bowie
Instead of rehashing last night's desultory national championship college football game (I'm obviously getting mellower in my old age, as I felt sorrow, and not happiness, that Notre Dame was humiliated last night. Then again, I'm not that big a fan of Alabama, though of course you have to respect their excellence on the football…
Florida Dems completely unimpressed by 1st GOP bill for 2013 to address voting rights
In the wake of the latest election debacle here in Florida, Republican lawmakers have made statements that they're ready to address some inequities that might have been exacerbated by the passage of the controversial election reform bill 1355 in the spring of 2011. The major provision of that bill reduced the number of early voting…
McGregor, Watts survive The Impossible
The drama based on the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster stays afloat despite Hollywood flourishes.
Gay rights group wants Chuck Hagel to address LGBT concerns during confirmation hearings
After Republicans successfully bullied President Obama from nominating Susan Rice for Secretary of State, it's obvious that the president is determined that won't happen again. Thus his official announcement on Monday that he's nominating former Nebraska Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel to replace Leon Panetta for Defense Secretary, which was called an "in your face…
More holiday movie reviews: The Impossible, Rust and Bone and more …
Regular readers of this blog may recall that I published a list of my top 10 films of the year (along with books and CDs) just before I took off for Christmas vacation. The list came with a caveat — those were my favorite films based on what had been released in the Tampa Bay…
HART votes to end formal plans to merge with PSTA
Unlike most HART meetings, today's board meeting was packed with citizens From the time that Pinellas County state Sen. Jack Latvala addressed the Hillsborough County Regional Transit Authority (HART) board in September of 2010 to advocate a possible merger with Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), the majority of HART board members have reacted coldly to…
LAWBI: Woke Up In Ybor City
The Hold Steady Singer-songwriter Craig Finn said once that he never really woke up in Ybor City before he nurtured that memorable lyric from the richly imagined soil of The Hold Steady’s youthful-loser landscape. Well, I sure have. In my Jeep, in the HCC parking garage. On the sofa in the old Creative Loafing offices…
Mitch Perry Report 1.7.13 – Alabama & Notre Dame, finally
Although 'futbol' or soccer is considered the world's most popular sport, football has become America's passion over the past three decades, and has been ubiquitous during this holiday season. Since the day after Christmas, there has been at least one football game on prime-time television, mostly bowl games of some repute, though that was interrupted…
Former St. Pete City Council member Bob Kersteen dies at at the age of 75
Phil Bardi Bob Kersteen (on the left) ran for City Council in 2011 (Charlie Gerdes & Josh Shulman are also shown) Former St. Pete City Council member Bob Kersteen died early Saturday morning after undergoing cardiac arrest. He was 75. Kersteen, a conservative Republican, was first elected to the council in 1995. He resigned in…
In Tyler they trust
The only rule of seeing Fight Club on the big screen is that it’s playing at 8 p.m. on Sat., Jan. 12.
A world of cinema — all that’s needed is an audience
IN DEEP: Ocean of an Old Man is one of the featured films at the Tampa Bay International Film Festival on Sat., Jan. 12. We've all heard the old show biz adage: the show must go on. But unless the Tampa Bay International Film Festival pre-sells enough tickets by Mon., Jan. 7, the show won't…
Conservative world seems determined to vote down Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary
Chuck Hegel Despite the fact that Washington D.C. has become incredibly polarized since the late 1980's, there hasn't been a Cabinet selection rejected by the U.S. Senate in 24 years. In March of 1989, the U.S. Senate voted down George H.W. Bush's choice for Defense Secretary, former Texas Senator John Tower, by a 53-47 margin.…
Tampa Tribune unveils new St. Petersburg edition
The Tampa Tribune today unveiled a daily St. Petersburg edition called the St. Petersburg Tribune.In addition to the new printed edition, there is now a new Internet component as well (www2.tbo.com/pinellas/). The move is the first indication that the Tampa Media Company, the recently formed company created by the Los Angeles-based Revolution Capital Group which…
God save FDR and the queen
Hyde Park on Hudson gives us another great Bill Murray performance but not much else.
Mitch Perry Report 1.4.13 – Gun buybacks are more popular than ever post Dec.14
The Tampa Tribune's big headline in today's issue is regarding Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner's call for a county gun buyback program. I suppose it's because of the emphasis on anything to do with guns post Newtown (as well as the fact that were still in the very slow period of local news), but is…
Demystifying salmon
Are all lox created equal?
Van Sant and Damon don’t live up to Promise
The dream team behind Good Will Hunting misses the mark but ultimately delivers.
Lectores 2013: Talking with Ben Lerner, Deborah Treisman, Eli Horowitz
The UT series once again brings literary starpower to Tampa.
Mario Algaze’s year in Cuba
His images emerge from shadows, revealing a nation mysterious to many.
HART’s Fran Davin responds to Tampa Bay Times editorial page regarding proposed merger with PSTA
A week after the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) board members voted (narrowly) alongside their Pinellas County counterparts to study going ahead with a formal partnership, several HART board members stepped back from that vote. Throughout the holiday season there were withering pieces in the Tampa Bay Times op-ed section, asking what part of…
CAIR Florida offering $1,000 reward for any information on Walmart Shooter in Pasco County
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) office in Tampa announced today that they're offering up to a $1,000 reward to the first person who provides police with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the suspect who shot 20 pellets at a victim he perceived to be Middle Eastern or Muslim outside a…
CL Fiction Contest Winner: The Tabaquero’s Squirrel
When the union man came in to the factory with el patrón and pulled Vladimir Martinez de Vega — the lowliest and least skilled of tabaqueros — from his table for stealing the squirrel from in front of the Tampa Hotel, we all knew it wasn’t because he did it — it was because his…
After Gore gives up on Current TV, will Al Jazeera finally make it in the U.S.?
Ok, quick: What channel is Current TV on? Some of you might be able to answer that, but most of you won't. Though the cable channel is on both Brighthouse and Verizon in the Tampa Bay area, its ratings here and throughout the country have been relatively anemic, even after all the buzz when Al…
Mitch Perry Report 1.3.13 – Say goodbye to the least productive Congress in 60 years
Today at noon, the 113th Congress will be sworn in in our nation's capital. In the case of Florida's delegation, that means saying hello again to Orlando-area Democratic firebrand Alan Grayson, and saying sayonara to Tea Party favorite Allen West. Grayson and all everyone else elected in November will be replacing the 112th Congress, which…
The NRA: Old-fashioned anarchists
[Editor’s Note: Over the course of the last year, CL has run occasional columns from Florida Voices, an online compendium of news and opinion that was co-founded by former Tampa Tribune editorial page editor (and current Sun Sentinel editorial page editor) Rosemary Goudreau. Following the shootings at Sandy Hook and the stunningly tone-deaf response from…
Future sex
How the culture of sex and love will change in 2013 and beyond.
The Tabaquero’s Glossary
Notes on “The Tabaquero’s Squirrel” by the story’s author
CL Fiction Contest: The winning stories
When we first discussed the idea of using Ybor as the theme of this year’s fiction contest, I worried that it might prove too limiting. But I wasn’t giving our local writers, or Ybor, enough credit. The plots were thick with cigar smoke, of course — not surprising given that the romance and rebellion embodied…
Reading into the new year
The fog comes on little cat feet. The new year is tiptoeing in like Carl Sandburg’s cat — or maybe I’m just in a personal fog, unable to recover from the whirlwind of the last two months. President Obama’s re-election, Thanksgiving, our 55th anniversary, Christmas, my 80th birthday, and New Year’s Eve tumbled through our…
The great Tampa Bay bagel search
Are our bagels schmear-worthy?
Beak’s peak
Beak’s Old Florida is not the same as it ever was. It’s better.
Report finds energy drink claims lacking evidence
Apparently Red Bull may not give you wings, at least not bigger wings than those given by a cup of coffee. On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is giving energy drink claims a closer look after "reports of deaths and serious injuries that may be linked to…
