Izzard does Walken — badly
To plug Eddie Izzard's upcoming appearance at the Tampa Theatre, Monday's Metro section of the St. Pete Times recommended a YouTube clip of Izzard doing a "killer impression" of Christopher Walken. I was a bit skeptical, since as anyone who's watched Saturday Night Live knows, Walken impersonations can be all over the map. Well, after…
“Weeds,” “Call Girl” score
Well, I had to go a couple of weeks without my beloved pay cable shows, but last night Weeds kicked back in (10 p.m., Showtime) , so the world is getting back to normal. I also got a nice surprise from Secret Diary of a Call Girl, a half-hour import from England that follows. I…
Gogol Bordello rocks the State
Gogol Bordello at State Theatre; photo by Philip Bardi. The floor was overcrowded with a seething mass of bodies, arms alternately waving and pumping to the vigorous musical spectacle that shook the State Theatre stage last night. The band, NYC’s Gogol Bordello, played the sweaty sold-out show with such amped-up enthusiasm that the audience responded…
Gogol Bordello rocks the State
Gogol Bordello at State Theatre; photo by Philip Bardi. The floor was overcrowded with a seething mass of bodies, arms alternately waving and pumping to the vigorous musical spectacle that shook the State Theatre stage last night. The band, NYC’s Gogol Bordello, played the sweaty sold-out show with such amped-up enthusiasm that the audience responded…
Hydro-Tasty
From Justin Richards at CL Sarasota: After researching my UrbEx story about Hydro Taste farms in Myakka, where they grow fruits and veggies in vertical stacks using minimal resources, I brought a harvest home to try for myself. I put the veggies in fajitas, and while they were juicy and full-flavored, it was hard to…
My Morning Jacket CD review
Evil Urges MY MORNING JACKET Ato Records/Red Pundits have been trying to define My Morning Jacket since the band first arrived on the scene a decade ago. In the beginning, people filed the reverb-loving rockers under “alt-country” and even “southern rock” thanks to the band’s Bluegrass State homebase. A galvanizing 2004 performance at Bonnaroo and…
My Morning Jacket CD review
Evil Urges MY MORNING JACKET Ato Records/Red Pundits have been trying to define My Morning Jacket since the band first arrived on the scene a decade ago. In the beginning, people filed the reverb-loving rockers under “alt-country” and even “southern rock” thanks to the band’s Bluegrass State homebase. A galvanizing 2004 performance at Bonnaroo and…
Five Things to Do Today
1. UK cross-dressing comedian Eddie Izzard (pictured) brings his “Stripped American Tour 2008” to Tampa Theatre and kicks off a two-date run of comedy tonight. 2. Last chance to see St. Petersburg Opera Company perform a political adaptation of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. 3. Restaurant Week is almost over – make sure to dine at one…
My weekend getaway with The Bangles
During the 27 years that I’ve been writing about music, I’ve certainly hogged my share of hookups and swag. But last weekend took the prize. Ben Eason, CL’s CEO, asked if I would come down to a swank resort in Key Largo to help out during a retreat he takes with his business society, the…
The new new thing: My Brightest Diamond
Cross-posted from Tampa Calling. Who: My Brightest Diamond (aka Shara Worden) Seven-word description: Diva-voiced singer/songwriter delivers operatic pop. Should appeal to fans of: Joanna Newsom, Dresden Dolls, Regina Spektor Isn't she pals with Sufjan Stevens? Yes, she appeared on his Illinois tour. You might also know Worden from her first two My Brightest Diamond full-lengths,…
The new new thing: My Brightest Diamond
Who: My Brightest Diamond (aka Shara Worden) Seven-word description: Diva-voiced singer/songwriter delivers operatic pop. Should appeal to fans of: Joanna Newsom, Dresden Dolls, Regina Spektor Isn't she pals with Sufjan Stevens? Yes, she appeared on his Illinois tour. You might also know Worden from her first two My Brightest Diamond full-lengths, 2006's Bring Me the…
Stone Temple Pilots to play Tampa
Cross-posted from Tampa Calling: That's right. The grunge rockers have reunited (but you already knew that) and are scheduled to perform Fri., Aug., 22 at Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa. Here's the press release: WHO: STONE TEMPLE PILOTS “2008 REUNION TOUR” WITH: BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB
Stone Temple Pilots to play Tampa
That's right. The grunge rockers have reunited (but you already knew that) and are scheduled to perform Fri., Aug., 22 at Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa. Here's the press release: WHO: STONE TEMPLE PILOTS “2008 REUNION TOUR” WITH: BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB
More ad hoc thoughts about sports
Have you noticed that during the three NBA Finals games in Los Angeles ABC showed the player introductions, went to commercial and, when they returned, the players were still on the court warming up? WTF? After player introductions, ballers strip off their sweats, come out to the center jump circle and the game begins —…
Hulk smashes
I really liked Ang Lee’s 2003 big-screen Hulk, so I wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit like some other fanboys to see the 2008 “reboot” edition, The Incredible Hulk, which gives the would-be Marvel franchise a fresh start. I thought Lee’s version played like a hybrid of a summer blockbuster and an art film, what…
Debunking the Obama myths
No, he doesn’t refuse to wear a flag lapel pin because he hates America. No, he isn’t Muslim. No, he didn’t say if the political winds change he will stand with Muslim terrorists. Chasing and debunking the flat-out lies that have been hurled at Barack Obama is a full-time job for some folks, and yet…
Top 10: Mellow songs
It's a rainy Monday and I have a shit-ton of work to do this week. My former employer McClatchy just announced widespread layoffs, leading to the dismal of an editor I highly respected and worked with directly and indirectly — and drank with off the clock on his dime, and attended a couple shows with…
Top 10: Mellow songs
It's a rainy Monday and I have a shit-ton of work to do this week. My former employer McClatchy just announced widespread layoffs, leading to the dismissal of an editor I highly respected and worked with directly and indirectly — and drank with off the clock on his dime, and attended a couple shows with…
Top Chef = American Idol?
Can demonstration cooking sell-out a stadium? Probably not, but considering how much people shelled out for Food Network's old lady, uhm, Grande Dame last week, Top Chef's tour of 20 cities might generate a little buzz. I think it'll depend on who the "four cheftestants" turn out to be. Anyone buying a ticket — Sept.…
Will Quinlan, HGWT, Matt Butcher pack New World
Matt Butcher, of Orlando, performing Sat., June 14, New World Brewery, Ybor City. Photos by Alfie. Tampa singer/songwriter Will Quinlan and his ace, twang backup unit the Diviners packed New World Brewery in Ybor City on Saturday for the CD release party of the band's strikingly poignant new CD Navasota. Quinlan went on shortly after…
Top Chef = American Idol
Can demonstration cooking sell-out a stadium? Probably not, but considering how much people shelled out for Food Network's old lady, uhm, Grande Dame last week, Top Chef's tour of 20 cities might generate a little buzz. I think it'll depend on who the "four cheftestants" turn out to be. Anyone buying a ticket — Sep.…
Tomatoes and the MSM frenzy
Hate to make today a Bob Norman pimpathon, but this piece he wrote about how the media handled the tomato-salmonella scare is just too good not to share: First you must understand that the tomato story was perfect for newspapers. Think about it — nothing like deadly tomatoes on a dull news day. Tomatoes are…
Cong. 13: Vern pulls a Buddy Johnson
… and fails to pay his taxes, only in this case, it is employment taxes and not property taxes. Congressman Vern Buchanan owes the IRS some big cash, according to the Sarasota daily and our CL blog, The 941, down there: As reported in today’s Herald-Tribune, our local congressman, Republican Vern Buchanan, is again in…
The Grim Reaper to visit the Miami Herald
From Daily Pulp: What New Times reported last week is now official: The Herald is cutting 17 percent of its workforce, or 250 positions, which is actually 2 percent more than we expected. “These next few weeks will be some of the most difficult and emotional we have faced,” Editor Anders Gyllenhaal wrote to staff…
PoHo on Flashpoint
For those who (like me) were distracted by the whole Father’s Day thing and forgot to set their DVR to tape PoHo on Brendan McLaughlin’s Sunday public affairs news show, here’s a link (unable to embed the video so far) to me and Renee Dabbs of The Victory Group on Segment 3 of this week’s…
Ad hoc thoughts on the weekend in sports
• The Tampa Bay Rays went 3-6 on a road trip before returning home and taking a series (2-1) against the Florida Marlins over the weekend. I wondered how a losing road trip might hurt attendance when the Rays returned home. Turns out, not so much. The Marlins series drew 79,393 fans to the Trop.…
Musician Mustache Match
In honor of Gogol Bordello’s show at State Theatre tonight, I decided to pay tribute to lead singer Eugene Hütz’s luxurious handlebar mustache. But my ruminations got me thinking about other great mustaches in music, and then it got me thinking about how a mustache can truly define a man (and in many instances, his…
$20 Menu Challenge – Elements Global Cuisine (#2)
Elements Global Cuisine — my new heroes of frugal cooking — have another $20 Menu Challenge dinner to serve up. This time, beef-eaters can get their nosh on, all for less than a double sawbuck. Recipes after the break:
Five Things to Do Today
1. Mike Myers sits down with James Lipton at 8 p.m. tonight on Inside the Actors Studio (photo by Caroline Bonarde Ucci, from Wikipedia.com). 2. NYC gypsy punk purveyors Gogol Bordello plays State Theatre. 3. Support a local charity and enjoy a Night of Alternative Theatre, Prelude to Pride at American Stage. 4. More from Restaurant Week!…
Will Quinlan, HGWT, Matt Butcher pack New World
Matt Butcher, of Orlando, performing Sat., June 14, New World Brewery, Ybor City. Photos by Alfie. Tampa singer/songwriter Will Quinlan and his ace, twang backup unit the Diviners packed New World Brewery in Ybor City on Saturday for the CD release party of the band's strikingly poignant new CD Navasota. Quinlan went on shortly after…
God bless Tim Russert (and The Boss)
Teared up during Meet the Press, one of my favorite shows for years, which is saying something since it airs 10 a.m. Sunday and my Saturday nights typically don't end until about 4 a.m. Watching Brokaw, Carville, Ifill and others lovingly remember their old pal was truly moving. And the closing montage, with Russert's favorite…
God bless Tim Russert
Teared up during Meet the Press, one of my favorite shows for years, which is saying something since it airs 10 a.m. Sunday and my Saturday nights typically don't end until about 4 a.m. Watching Brokaw, Carville, Ifill and others lovingly remember their old pal was truly moving. And the closing montage, with Russert's favorite…
Hair metal has-beens Warrant cancel tour
What a bunch of clowns. Considering Warrant, which appeared to be the original headliner, could have found another 80s bullshit band to fill Cinderella's slot, you can't help but think the real reason this arena tour got axed is because all of three people expressed interest in it. Here's the press release: CINDERELLA, WARRANT, LYNCH…
Testaverde inked for season 2 of Ax Men
June 13th, 2008 by Ben Fry The shortage of trees in the bay area got a little shorter recently when former Tampa Bay Buccaneer/Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens/New York Jets/Dallas Cowboys/New England Patriots/Carolina Panthers quarterback Vinny Testaverde cut down a few on his new lakefront Odessa property. By a few I mean around 40 or so (not…
Testaverde inked for season 2 of Ax Men
The shortage of trees in the bay area got a little shorter recently when former Tampa Bay Buccaneer/Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens/New York Jets/Dallas Cowboys/New England Patriots/Carolina Panthers quarterback Vinny Testaverde cut down a few on his new lakefront Odessa property. By a few I mean around 40 or so (not Vinny's ex-trees pictured at left; the…
Homegrown event of the weekend
Alt-country all-stars Will Quinlan; Have, Gun Will Travel; and Matt Butcher on Saturday at New World Brewery, Ybor City. Click here for more info and my interview with Quinlan. Quinlan offering a poignant reading of the folk standard "Moonshiner" with backing by The Diviners.
News breaking all over the place
It's good new/bad news this afternoon: Good news: Fans of horrific R&B ballads can breathe easy as pop-pisser R. Kelly is free after a Chicago jury found him not guilty on all 14 charges related to child pornography and a famed sex tape. Bad news: NBC News icon and Meet the Press host Tim Russert…
Hillsborough County’s blurred vision
Our Planning Commission recently proposed a Visioning project to our Hillsborough County Commission. In a nutshell, this would consist of coordinating land use with transportation planning. Historically, transportation drives land use; just drive along any toll road plopped down in an area that was previously rural in this state and you can see the Monopolyesque…
What’s the big secret at Tampa City Hall?
In a slight to both neighborhood leaders and city council, the administration of Mayor Pam Iorio decided that it had better things to do then to televise the ongoing city budget discussions. The administration, which has restricted citizen access to council and administrative staff by not allowing staff to attend meetings in the Mascotte conference…
Feel free to walk here…
You may want to invest in a good pair of walking shoes, because we will all be walking a lot more in the near future. The website Walkscore.com lets you input an address and calculate a score for a neighborhood based on how close it is to grocery stores, restaurants, entertainment, schools, parks and a…
Media Watch — afternoon edition
From CIA secret prisons to the Bush administration's "secret plan" to stay in Iraq, Huffington Post has the news the mainstream media forgot to report. According to Cockburn, the U.S. is "holding hostage some $50 billion of Iraq's money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing" the…
The Bamboo Shout
Here is a very advanced (oral) Kama Sutra position that will certainly take some balance and dexterity to accomplish. It begins by the man performing a headstand against a wall, holding his weight by his arms. He can then carefully lower himself down to where he is supporting part of his weight with his head…
Lunch with Doug Benson: An Online Exclusive
You probably know comedian Doug Benson as a Last Comic Standing 5 finalist, where he was among the show's top six performers. Or maybe you’ve seen him on VH1’s Best Week Ever, where he provides amusing commentary on the week’s pop culture news and events. But there’s more to Benson than his TV appearances. In…
Leonard Cohen is the man
I'm hoping Cohen's current tour is miraculously extended to include the United States and a Tampa Bay date, for which I would wait in line all night for a ticket. In the mean time, I'll have to settle with these awesome interviews he's giving and whatever I can find on YouTube. From MacLean's.CA: Q: Why…
Media Watch — morning edition
Here at the Loaf, we have Dance Party every Friday, usually beginning around 4 p.m. (with tunes selected by yours truly and resident PoHo, Wayne Garcia. Good Morning Cincinnati has one, too, after a fashion. This guy does a mean Billy Idol. Boston.com recently launched its Do Good site, in an effort to get readers…
Five Things to Do This Weekend
“Plate 49 (Pygmalion),” by Len Prince, from his Jessie Mann Self Possessed Series. 1. Masks & Identity: Len Prince in the Collection of William K. Zewadski is the latest exhibit of fine art images at Florida Museum of Photographic Arts. At 10 a.m. Saturday, Prince leads a gallery tour of his photos and offers an…
Boulud And Keller Want To Rule The World
New details have emerged about this year's American Bocuse D'Or chef team, to be coached and managed by Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud. Keller, Boulud and other chefs have created a non-profit organization to take care of the details of making a team that can beat the world's best chefs. Some of those details: a…
Midnight musings on a great night
Pearl Jam killed. After this long in the biz, I don't often use the word "great" to describe a show, but it fits here. My esteeemed colleague Wade Tatangelo will be writing more about the concert, but let me make a coment on two on on Eddie Vedder. Except for PJ's transcendent Bay area debut at…
Pearl Jam blogging
My plan, and I say "plan" because anything that relies on an Internet connection is never a sure thing, is to blog live from the Pearl Jam concert tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum. If all goes well, it will resemble what I did at Van Halen.
Media Watch — afternoon edition
The Project for Excellence in Journalism has an insightful breakdown of the media's coverage of the Democratic and Republican primary races, focusing on the candidacies of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. The report puts to bed the notion that Obama received more favorable coverage in the press than Clinton. However, it also points…
Rays return, down but not out
In a blog post 10 days ago, I referred to the Tampa Bay Rays’ nine-game road trip (just-completed) as maybe the most crucial in the team’s history. Come back 7-2 or 6-3, I reasoned, and they could anticipate a sold-out Tropicana Field. Lay a 1-9 or 2-7 egg, and “the air’s out of the balloon,”…
Parade makes a political statement
No big name in the grand marshall’s seat for the annual St. Pete Pride as parade organizers have chosen to make a political statement instead. This from the organization today: St. Pete Pride is please to announce that Janice Langbehn has agreed to be our Grand Marshall this year. Janice is not a house hold…
Belgian Budweiser?
This can only make the King Of Beers better, I imagine.
Obligatory Top Chef Finale Post — Justice is Served
Since I can't summon enough energy to care about this season's Top Chef, here's a missive from CL Sarasota's Amanda Schurr to fill you in on last night's finale: Those of you who indulge me enough to read this week's Morning After column are aware of my general disappointment with this season's Top Chef. It…
New Dew Review From The SRQ
Twelve cans of the stuff arrived to our office today from Mountain Dew headquarters, high in the mountains. We got four of each flavor. Our editor (at CL's Sarasota paper) Jonathan Maziarz was the first to try it. He opened the bright blue can that’s Infused with Wild Berry Fruit Flavor and Ginseng. I overheard…
Media Watch — morning edition
When I was a graduate journalism student at USF St. Petersburg, my most rewarding course focused on constructing user-friendly websites. The main text we used as our guide, Designing Web Usability, was written by Jakob Nielsen, whose useit.com is an essential resource for improving your site's interactivity. Simplicity seemed to be Nielsen's mantra, and his…
Lock up your gas
"Do you have a lock on your gas cap?" asked my buddy Buck. "No," I replied. "Well, you better get one," he scolded. "When gas hits $4-a-gallon people are going to start stealing it." This was a few months back. I blew Buck off. Thought the odds of guys in ski masks running around siphoning…
Radiohead, Rancid, Will Quinlan and more in new CL
Here's what I have running in the new Creative Loafing: Bar Tab: Getting burned on the beach at Caddy's. Music Feature: Will Quinlan's dark spaces. Singing about love and loss in finest album of his career. Al Green (by Eric Snider) and Radiohead (scroll down) reviewed in Spins. Rancid punks up Jannus Landing. Cyndi Lauper…
Five Things to Do Today
Pearl Jam; courtesy PearlJam.com. 1. Pearl Jam plays the St. Pete Times Forum. 2. Creative Loafing launches Restaurant Week, a celebration of the Bay area culinary scene with special “Prix fixe” menus put together for the occasion. Today’s featured restaurant is: Pacific Wave. 3. Comedian Doug Benson (Last Comic Standing 5, The Marijuana-logues, Best Week…
It’s official, you can’t pop corn with your cell phone.
A friend e-mailed a YouTube video to me today, showing a group of folks popping kernels of corn with their cell phones. There are actually several of them spiking everybody's interest, and here's a typical one: Here at the office, we were intrigued and a little freaked out. If a few cell phones could pop…
Favorite Beach Boys songs
In honor of the recent release of the Beach Boys box set, Political Whore Wayne Garcia and yours truly, humble copy editor Anthony Salveggi, have put together our individual Top 10 lists of our favorite Beach Boys songs. Anthony's list 10. Our Sweet Love — Carl Wilson’s high vocals sell this gorgeous affirmation of romantic…
Pearl Jam take bootlegs to a new level
Don't know about you, but I'm amped that Pearl Jam's coming in tomorrow night. This info hit my inbox today about Pearl Jam's expanded program for concert bootlegs. I was mailed several of the first batch a few years ago, and the quality was terrific. Looks like it'll be even better now: Pearl Jam will…
A Gallery of Sons of Bitches, Assholes, etc.
The July issue of Esquire has a funny and insightful series of stories on epithets, with an intro by Roy Blount Jr. pining for the return of “son of a bitch” over “asshole.” The package's last feature is a hilarious flow chart called “A Taxonomy of Epithets,” and runs on a continuum from More Respectable…
Confirmed Warped Tour lineup for St. Pete
Here's the "confirmed" lineup for the Vans Warped Tour stop on July 11 at Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg. Note Gainesville's Against Me! (my favorite band on the roster) and Tampa Bay's own We The Kings, which I profiled here. From the press release: Please see below for bands that are confirmed to play Tampa and…
Nathan Thurm, evil big business lawyer
With all due respect to Joe Bardi's post of the obnoxious anti-Republican video, I think this makes the Democrats' case much more succinctly:
Reading The Menu
For the Food Issue this week, I looked into the century-long trend towards menu description creep, from simple terms like "salad" in the early 1900s to the current florid menu at Mise En Place. In the process, I wasted a solid ten hours perusing images of menus from library archives. It's fascinating stuff. Here's where…
La la la la la la, act the whole day long …
Word from the BBC is that '80s cartoon faves The Smurfs are headed to the big screen in a film that will mix animation with live action. No word on if the Smurfs themselves will be portrayed by actors or drawn by animators, but I'm pulling for real people. Ah, but who would you cast?…
My search for iced coffee
In this week's Food Issue, I take a look at my favorite summer treat: iced coffee. Unfortunately, finding a decent cup of iced java in the Tampa Bay area is a frustrating venture. Read about my findings here and then add your own comments.
Growing Your Own Won’t Save The World
The killer Freakonomics blog at the NYT profiled the economics of growing your own food a few days ago. Blogger Stephen Dubner comes down against the locavore dream of backyard farms (largely, it seems, due to his own ill-fated experiment making sherbet), but his evidence is largely anecdotal. Until, that is, he quotes a study…
$20 Menu Challenge – Grass Root
Grass Root is by far the best vegan/raw restaurant in the Bay area. Ok, it's the only vegan/raw restaurant around these parts, but you'll still find a bevy of dishes that even an omnivore would love (especially that delectable miso soup). Owners Spencer and Sabrina Sterling "cooked" up this part vegan/part raw menu for a…
The Hold Steady streaming new album
The country's greatest bar band unleashes (digitally speaking) its excellent new album Stay Positive. Click here and enjoy. More details on the street date to follow.
Florida is the new Pakistan
It's not often I'm surprised by an article in one of our local papers. As a native Floridian, few things surprise me about this state anymore (News of the Weird — that's all I have to say). But a front page story in today's Times did it: Celebratory gunfire is a statewide problem What?! From…
Scarlett hearts Barack
Left Coast alert: Silver screen siren Scarlett Johansson is pen pals with Democratic nominee Barack Obama. No surprise, since she can be seen in Obama's Yes We Can video. Seems Barack is a "huge movie lover" — well, who isn't? — and loves Johansson's Lost in Translation. So what are Barack's favorite movies? Well, after…
FROM THE STREET (Everybody was Cornholing)
"That ain't even my beat," Laws told DJ Knuckles, who he nicknamed DJ Unprepared for the night. "Fuck it. I'll rap to it anyways." Friday at Crowbar Laws laid down aggressive rap that commented more on socioeconomics than hip-hop culture. He spent a good part of the show off stage, rapping face to face with…
Download: “Evil Urges,” My Morning Jacket
The title track to My Morning Jacket’s new album Evil Urges, which dropped June 10, might be the greatest pop/rock song since Gnarls Barkley blew our minds with “Crazy.” What makes “Evil Urges” so genius? It’s a singular slab of plastic soul, country, rock and funk that ebbs, flows and soars like a sublime mash…
Five Things to Do Today
Android 207, an animated short by Paul Whittington. 1. The Studio at 620 continues its Indy Film Café screening series of socially-conscious documentary films with The Future We Will Create: Inside the world of TED, and the short, Android 207. 2. Duncan Straus welcomes Moby to his NPR show, Talking Animals, which is broadcast today on…
From the Street with Alfie: Everybody was Cornholing
"That ain't even my beat," Laws told DJ Knuckles, who he nicknamed DJ Unprepared for the night. "Fuck it. I'll rap to it anyways." Friday at Crowbar Laws laid down aggressive rap that commented more on socioeconomics than hip-hop culture. He spent a good part of the show off stage, rapping face to face with…
Feel the Scotch burn
Surviving a whisky primer.
Barack-ing the vote
"Think of all the ambitious Democrats who have eyed the White House in this decade — John Kerry, John Edwards, Howard Dean and all the rest — and realize how Obama just blew past them without ever working up a sweat." –—Walter Shapiro, writing on Salon.com about Obama getting the Democratic nomination "Hillary Clinton didn't…
Culinary: Restaurant Week
Sunday, June 15
Culinary: Restaurant Week
Thursday, June 12
Cold caffeine comfort
Searching for a decent iced coffee in Tampa Bay
Don’t Panic
Is al-Qaeda near defeat?
Music: Gogol Bordello
Monday, June 16
Culinary: Restaurant Week
Tuesday, June 17
A history of Tampa in 10 Meals
You can tell a lot about a city by the way it breaks bread (Cuban and otherwise).
Exhibit: DINOSAURS! The Exhibition
Wednesday, June 18
Culinary: Restaurant Week
Friday, June 13
Art: Women: Dalí’s View
Friday, June 13
Marion Lambert: “The flag is going up.”
Who? Marion D. Lambert Sphere of influence: Before June 3, only a few neighbors and natural food stores knew the 60-year-old beekeeper and South Tampa resident. But after the Sons of Confederate Veterans member announced his intention to fly a huge Confederate flag at the junction of I-4 and I-75, it seems everyone has an…
Simply delicious
Pelagia Trattoria’s Fabrizio Schenardi works wonders with simple ingredients.
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 brian.ries@creativeloafing.com. ONGOING EVENTS A&L FINE WINES WEEKLY TASTINGS A&L hosts weekly tastings on Friday nights (5-8 p.m.) and Saturday afternoons (1-4 p.m.). A&L Fine Wines, 35249 U.S. 19 N., Palm Harbor…
Reality bites
Coping with a young addiction.
Dinosaurs! The Exhibition
MOSI goes Mesozoic.
Special Events: IMAGINE 2008
Saturday, June 14
The $20 menu challenge
A taste of the good life — on the cheap.
Hillary drops out, Big Brown pulls up
And the Rays get punchy
Drop out, heat on, plate up
Savant’s David Miller cooks up an edible work of art.
Tampa loves Orlando
Theater vet Rosemary Orlando talks about the state of local stages.
Turtle Island Quartet swings at USF
Stringing jazz along with classically informed compositions.
Ringling Museum time-travels
Fast-forwarding to the 20th century (and beyond).
Culinary: Restaurant Week
Saturday, June 14
Pearl Jam brings its grunge to the Forum
No one who was there will ever forget Pearl Jam's Bay area debut at Jannus Landing in the early-'90s, what with Eddie Vedder climbing and jumping into the crowd and the band ferociously pumping out songs from its debut album, Ten. It was the epitome of concert catharsis. That gig made me a fan for…
Rancid Punks up Jannus Landing
San Francisco Bay area punk revivalists Rancid took their cue from The Clash and The Specials, augmenting rock rhythms with a ska bounce — and never forgetting the hook. Singer/guitarist (and owner of Hellcat Records) Tim Armstrong's lyrics alternate from lefty politics to more personal and even playful numbers about a girl's charms and such.…
Keeping up with The Smiths
A look back at The Queen is Dead
Culinary: Restaurant Week
Monday, June 16
Third wheel
Getting burned on the beach at Caddy’s.
.com-ments
Sirens went off for many who read Megan Voeller's report on the West Tampa Center for the Arts' run-in with a fire inspection that nearly got artists evicted on the day of an opening. The troubles were smoothed out, but the story still drew some angry comments — some criticizing the city for cracking down,…
Film: Body of War
Friday, June 13
Al Green returns to form
Lay It Down, plus Radiohead’s Best Of.
Body of War shows the personal price of the Iraq conflict
Plus other new and recent movie releases
Will Quinlan’s dark spaces
Singing about love and loss in the finest album of his career
Chef Schenardi’s $20 Menu
Recipes for Polenta with Sautéed Mushrooms, Open-Faced Ravioli with Shrimp and Tomatoes, Seared Salmon and Green Beans, and Fruit Crepes
Seble Gizaw’s $20 Menu
Recipes for Lentil Soup, Tomato and Onion Salad, Mashed Potato Salad and Lamb Tibs
Chef Miller’s $20 Menu
Recipes for sweet potato soup, heirloom tomato salad, braised lamb and chocolate foam
Seeing the Daylight District
An Historic release by the Orlando/Bradenton quartet
Theater/Classical Music: Don Giovanni
Tuesday, June 17
Ingrid Michaelson, Melissa Etheridge
Plus Less Than Jake
Art that’s in fashion
Dalí, Tampa Artist Emporium and more.
Culinary: Restaurant Week
Wednesday, June 18
Cyndi Lauper shows her True Colors at Ruth Eckerd Hall
It's been more than two decades since Cyndi Lauper and the B-52s were issuing some of the most beloved pop tunes of the 1980s. Lauper's landmark debut disc, She's So Unusual, dropped in '84 and produced four Top 10 hits, including "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and the timeless classic "Time After Time," plus a…
Mel Tillis is a Pepper, too
In this lush, countrypolitan classic
First course: politics
Restaurants for politicians to see and be seen.
A Queen’s ransom (for $17.29)
The Queen of Sheba’s Seble Gizaw converts a skeptic.
Body of War goes skin deep
An earnest but one-sided look at a casualty of war.
Breaking the ice
Of a father, a son and meetings over martinis.
Ashlee Simpson, PM Dawn
Plus Tom Waits
Menu madness
How did today’s menus get so wordy?
Festival/Beer: SudsFest 2008
Saturday, June 14
Comedy: Doug Benson
Thursday, June 12
Pop music hits new low
Here's a rambling CD review that'll probably run in print at a later date, at a shorter length. Or maybe it won't run at all. It's kinda nasty. Basically, it serves as an excuse for me to carp with profanity about mainstream taste in music, which has blown barnyard dick at bargain prices for a…
Beach Boys box set: reviewed
U.S. Singles Collection — The Capitol Years (1962-1965) The Beach Boys Capitol/EMI (released June 10) Summer’s here and the time is right for another Beach Boys best-of. Granted, there are already quite a few to choose from but this one’s, well, special. Like its title suggests, U.S. Singles Collection — The Capitol Years (1962-1965) remains…
