Heritage Square Receives Top Nod
The Armory Review Committee's rankings are in: The Heritage Square project received top nods from the six committee members to redevelop the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in West Tampa. The Armory Partners' film and television sound stage and Reliant's ice rink and condo development received no. 2 and no. 3 spots, respectively. The rankings now…
‘Not Applicable’
Not since Spicoli uttered his famous phrase "I don't know" to Mr. Hand in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" have I heard such a brilliant take as this from the Katherine Harris campaign this morning: Yesterday's leak of a GOP letter urging her not to run for office is "not applicable." In a news release,…
Armory Decision Today
The review committee examining six proposals for redeveloping the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in West Tampa is set to meet this afternoon, and top city officials expect it to make a selection of the best plan. We'll post an update as soon as we know its decision. In the meantime, the Tampa Tribune weighed in…
Gaye Rights
Can't stop watching this clip of Marvin Gaye from a 1973 documentary film, "Save the Children," since Eric Snider in our office got a review copy of a Gaye DVD that includes the long-lost footage. Since he bogarted the disc, I found the clip on YouTube. Tell me what's going on.
Katherine Harris Watch
The AP has obtained a copy of a letter from state Republican officials begging Katherine Harris not to continue her run. She ignored it. Read the account here. (via Drudge) This comes a week after Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean compared Harris to Joseph Stalin. Personally, I don't see the resemblance, except around the mustaches.
Gov.’s Race Watch
Two quick thoughts: Jacksonville is the most conservative region in Florida, polling has shown time and time again. So how bad off does Tom Gallagher have to be that the JaxGOP blog features this headline this morning?: "Time to pull the plug on the dying Gallagher campaign." JaxGOP has not been a Gallagher fan throughout,…
John Henry saved my life
The Planet's Leslie Mattern offers another installment of our reflections on life-changing albums: They Might Be Giants, John Henry.I’d just like to get this out of the way up front, so it’s not over our heads the whole time, looming: I’m a cool kid. Always have been. Okay with that being said, some people have…
Helm at the Helm
Ed Helm has been elected chairman of the Pinellas Democratic Executive Committee, a strong move to the left for that group. There is no doubt that Helm has a strong following among the most liberal of the Pinellas Democrats, the take-no-prisoners types who are adamantly anti-war, anti-Bush and anti-fellow Democrats who support local Republicans. For…
A clue afoot
Next clue: 27*46.276N082*38.563W Good luck!
Following the Impulse
A book and a box set chronicle one of the great jazz labels.
Three’s Company
THEATER
In search of the right GPS
eXplorist 210, GPSMap 60CSx, iQue 3600
In The Belly of the Beast
Tip-toeing through the Tampa FBI’s new fortress.
Four Letters, ends with a “why”
It’s Mike O’Neill’s life, not the way it ended, that matters.
Lotsa Pasta
Rigatoni’s Italian-American fare is good and hearty.
Hot Hot Heat
A series of summer shows at Clayton Galleries
Backspin
Memory Serves MATERIAL Celluloid/Elektra Musician Bassist producer Bill Laswell provides the thunderfunk bottom for this slab of avant-jazz-rock by his Material collective. Contributors include Fred Frith, Sonny Sharrock, Henry Threadgill, Olu Dara, Henry Kaiser, Billy Bang, Fred Maher and others. Angular, chaotic, but always grooving — and melodic in its own way (there are even…
Walking Stick
Visually, it's just a stick, tall, wooden, of irregular width. Though knotted, it looks smooth, oiled from the many hands that have touched it. It's called the Spirit of Florida, and it's a Travelbug. Travelbugs are everyday objects that take on life through their geocaching travels. At their simplest, the bugs are serialed dog tags.…
I’m Only Sleeping
BEATING THE HEAT Just watched the Arctic circle episode of Survivorman on Discovery Channel for the 15th time. Feel cooler now. BLACKOUT IN QUEENS Councilman wants Con Ed CEO to resign; the utility blames unauthorized underground digging by "team of scientists who call themselves the Ghostbusters." SMITH, DAVIS DEBATE Paramedics treat more than two dozen…
Hide That Acronym!
Don’t know a YACIDKA from a YAPIDKA? Read on.
Upcoming Releases
The following releases will be in stores Tues., Aug. 1: Allison, Allison (Sony International) The American Black Lung, …and They Rode Their Weapons into War (CD Baby) Brian Auger/Oblivion Express, Closer to It (Fuel 2000) Franco Battiato, Pollution (Water) Beautiful Sin, Unexpected (Locomotive Music) Body Count, Murder 4 Hire (New Media Studio) DMX, Year of…
Outtakes
UPCOMING RELEASES JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE (PG-13) Hell hath no fury like — well, you know the rest — in this anti-romantic comedy about three high school girls taking revenge on the guy who cheated on all of them. Stars Jesse Metcalfe, Brittany Snow, Ashanti and Jenny McCarthy. Opens July 28 at local theaters. (Not…
Going Postal
NO PLACE TO GO I belong to a nonprofit group in Bradenton that used to use the Homer Hesterly Amory (Cover Story, "Elvis Has Left The Building," July 19-25) for model train shows. With the larger population base in Hillsborough County, these shows were some of our more successful events. We did our last event…
Bon Appetit
Dinner With Friends is enjoyable and comfortable but still not insightful.
Celebrating Mike
As most of you who are seriously plugged in know by now, the Tampa original-music scene suffered a heartbreaking blow two Mondays ago, when singer-songwriter and Unrequited Loves frontman Mike O'Neill took his own life. Mike played in uniformly top-notch bands around the Bay area for the better part of two decades; while he of…
Vote in this year’s Readers’ Poll right now.
See the future on Sept. 20.
Music Menu
FRIDAY, JULY 28 THE LEGENDARY JC'S Super-funky Orlando soul favorites The Legendary JC's make another of their regular Skipperdome stops. The JC's aren't funky in the post-jam P-Funk sense of the word, but rather in the snappy, electrifying old-school soul-revue sense, and they've been wowing audiences locally and statewide for a while now. If you…
Music for Big Hearts
MUSIC/FUNDRAISER
Go, Geoteams!
How environmental activists and business groups are getting into the hunt.
Better Dead Than Red
DISCUSSION
SOBER WINE
What’s the point of non-alcoholic wines?
Miscellaneous Debris
Notes from the music newswire.
The Blotter
THE BARTER SYSTEM: A man went to the Central Park area to buy some cocaine. There he met with his dealer and learned that he did not bring enough money. The two men came to an agreement that the buyer would trade marijuana he had at home for the cocaine. The two men then drove…
Cache Me if You Can
Geocaching is addictive — even on a hot Florida afternoon.
Million-Dollar Sledgehammer
Ralph Hughes gets serious; also, April Griffin defies expectations.
I, The Stripper
Unraveling the plot to murder Hillsborough County’s adult entertainment industry.
Thailand Reject
There's been plenty of controversy over the years regarding how accurate Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King & I is in relation to what actually occurred. The musical — based on the autobiographical account of Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher who lived in Siam in the mid-19th century and tutored the wives and children of King…
Wine List
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@weeklyplanet.com. CELEBRATE SAUV BLANC Vino 100 celebrates its opening with a tasting of six sauvignon blancs. Free. 4-7 p.m. Thurs., July 27. 5056 Fourth St. N, St. Petersburg (727-522-8466 or www.vino100tampabay.com).…
Practically Perfect In Every Way
SPECIAL EVENT/FILM
Signs of Life
Masterpieces from Yang and Zurlini re-emerge on DVD.
Spins
American V: A Hundred Highways JOHNNY CASH American/Lost Highway It may be hard to believe, but 12 years have gone by since producer Rick Rubin helped make The Man in Black hip again (but not for the last time) via this raw, often acoustic series of covers-and-originals releases. It's also been three years since Cash…
Antic Behavior
If Antz was Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead tweaked as kiddie animation, then The Ant Bully might just be Das Kapital for tykes. Both movies put us up close and personal with a colony of plucky, stylized ants, but the inevitable life lessons learned seem to point in different (albeit equally warm and fuzzy) directions. Antz…
