Books
The Survivors Club by Lisa Gardner Bantam/$23.95 Consider yourself warned, fiction fans: Reading The Survivors Club while spread prone pool or seaside will most likely result in some serious sunburn. Gardner has produced the perfect summer page-turner. Think The Firm but by someone who can actually write. One can only hope Gardner gets the same…
The Reign in Spain: Spanish Wines
For those raised on California and French vinos, the wines of Spain can seem like a mystery. Sure, we've all seen and heard the word Rioja, but what exactly is in those dark, expensive bottles? Nowadays, really all you need to know about Spain is a few regions, producers and grape varietals on Spanish labels…
Orbitals
More Wacky Ideas It will take a helluva lot of cash to make the Albert Whitted Municipal Airport land ready for development — assuming the feds will even let the city of St. Petersburg out of its 20-year commitment with the FAA. But that didn't stop the St. Petersburg Times from running a spread on…
Outtakes
Australia: Land Beyond Time (PG) The film takes us Down Under to the flattest, driest continent on earth, immerses us in parched, otherworldly landscapes and introduces us to tons of incredibly odd and supremely adaptable animals — from cute koalas and feisty dingoes, to an endless variety of bizarrely shaped lizards, to the amazing and…
Say Oui to Chef Gui
Soft-spoken, with a sweet French accent, Chef Gui Alinat relays the events of the tour he led last month of the Fresh Market at U.S. 19 and Enterprise Road: We went over produce, pretty good produce. We check the celery roots. I show them how to recognize and choose avocadoes. We went to tomatoes. I…
An Oasis of Goodness: Baraka
Since I grew up in a more moderate summer climate than Tampa Bay's, I find it difficult to buy into the Florida natives' solution of surrendering to the heat. I would rather surrender to the Man of La Mancha than spend anymore time outdoors in summer than I must. Maybe that's why I found Baraka,…
Minority Report
Once considered the most redneck of Pinellas County law enforcement agencies, the Pinellas Park Police Department has changed. In fact, its current chief is a woman. A deputy with the Pinellas Sheriff's Office believes his agency could learn a thing or two from Pinellas Park. Despite a history of discrimination, the sheriff's office still has…
Spins
The Blasters Testament: The Complete Stash RecordingsDave Alvin and The Guilty Men Out in California The Blasters burst onto the Los Angeles music scene with their fiery brand of juiced-up rockabilly just as the punk scene was blossoming in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Like their punk peers, they played with unbridled energy and were quickly…
Letters
News of the Weird columnist Chuck Shepherd responses to Rochelle Renford's latest reporting on the Sami Al-Arian controversy, "Smoke and Mirrors"; feedback Trevor Aaronson's recent Orbitals on Ch. 9's default setting, "Default Viewers," and "Writers and Lawyers," a report on the conflict between St. Petersburg Times columnist Bill Maxwell and his employer; and yet another…
Preview Channeling
It's time again for a whirlwind tour of performance notes from around the Bay area. Winning Floridians You may remember that last April I wrote about "The Floridians," a project of the LiveArts Peninsula Foundation and American Stage. The idea was to find six playwrights and six composers who would create a series of original…
Father Knows Best
At first glance, you'd probably be hard pressed to find two movies more different from each other than the ones produced so far by Sam Mendes. The director's first film, you may recall, was the Oscar-gobbling American Beauty, a candy-colored cartoon about modern suburban angst and beautiful losers going through all manner of ch-ch-changes. Mendes'…
Managing Midtown
More than five years after St. Petersburg police fatally shot black teenager Tyron Lewis, igniting riots, the south side area where blacks took to the streets has changed, according to Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis, the former police chief. Abandoned houses have been replaced with vacant lots and new trees. Median strips line some of the…
Country and Urban
Gainesville singer Laura Minor
Web Site of the Week: Book Crossing
http://www.bookcrossing.com
DVD Pick: George Washington
With any luck, the marvelous new Criterion Collection DVD of George Washington will familiarize a whole new audience with one of the best American films in recent memory. First-time director David Gordon Green's movie is a spare and lovely little piece of minimalist filmmaking about kids living in that last gasp between childhood and adolescence.…
