Wait Gain
It's a strange dignity that Samuel Beckett imagines for humanity in his brilliant play Waiting for Godot. In Beckett's view, we're all spiritual paupers, living in the desperate hope that God will take notice of us, and anxiously trying to avoid the conclusion that we've been abandoned. We'd like to distract ourselves with sensual pleasure,…
Books
Overlook Press/$28.95
The Cryonics Institute
http://www.cryonics.org
Citizen Sandler
There's a moment during the opening stretch of the new Adam Sandler movie Mr. Deeds when the film comes alive in a wholly unexpected and pretty wonderful way. Our hero, Sandler playing a small-town Everyman who's recently inherited a vast fortune, has just moved into his plush new digs on Park Avenue. The new place…
Bernie Mack
"I can play anything. It's one of the gifts God gave me. I have perfect pitch. I can adapt to anything." When such words come from the mouth of one Bernie Worrell, who's talking by phone from a Miami hotel room in between Lauryn Hill sessions, they don't sound the least boastful. All they are…
Pride, In the Name Fun
Pink triangles, rainbow T-shirts, men not wearing T-shirts, pop singers, foam machines, drag queens and pride — most of all pride. That's what's in store for the participants of Pride Tampa Bay's annual celebration of the area's gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community.Since Pride Tampa Bay began organizing the event in 1992, attendance has gone from 3,000 in '93…
House of Muse
West of the strip bars and east of the airport, in that section of Tampa's Drew Park that doesn't seem to know whether it's residential or industrial, a tired aluminum warehouse sits atop an otherwise vacant block of grit, grass and sand spurs. Forty-five years old and currently sporting a weather-beaten primer gray, the building…
BBQ Sauce
It's that time, when hot sunny days inspire the primitive urge to make fire and roast up large hunks of meat for tribes of hungry carnivores. In other words: barbecue season. Now when I say barbecue, I'm not talking about the kind they have in Memphis or Kansas City. No, I mean what you grill…
Maritime Merriment
A flotilla of international tall ships sails into St. Petersburg Thursday, June 27. The ships — anchored in Tampa Bay after completing the victory leg of the Americas' Sail competition from Curacao to Jamaica — are clippers, new variations of the mid-19th century vessels, with sharp lines and, as the name implies, tall masts. The…
Smoke and Mirrors
The Tampa Tribune latest allegations against Sami Al-Arian rely on unnamed sources and no documentation.
Jacking Up Junior
During the past year, 'energy drinks," also known in the business as 'functional beverages," have become part of the scenery at bars and convenience stores. The names of these drinks are usually aggressive: Whoopass, Venom, Piranha, Amp. The most successful, Red Bull, has already passed into pop-cult status, regularly used in TV shows and magazines…
Default Viewers
If Weekly Planet had the resources — and if PETA wouldn't put up such a fuss we would send out monkeys every Thursday morning at 6 a.m. to come to your home, jump up and down on your bed until you wake up and hand-deliver the current edition of this fine newspaper. Our readership would…
DVD PICK:Fuego/The Female
Fuego/The Female Ah, the sex kittens and goddesses of yesteryear. You've gotta love 'em. Monroe and Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren, of course. But how can we forget their heavy-breathing international sisters — Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Brigitte Bardot, Isabel Sarli. OK, did we lose you on that last one? Don't fret, you're not alone.…
Lick it Up!
As a child, I remember hearing a story about how ice cream was invented: Supposedly a great and spoiled French king decreed that his chef, under penalty of death, must create a magnificent dessert that was as "hot as summer, cold as winter." The chef quickly went to work in the royal kitchen, finally producing…
Monkeys on His Mind
In Chinese calendar speak, 2002 is the Year of the Horse; in Carl Cowden III's reckoning, it may be the summer of his monkeys. For that matter, this past season might have been called the year of his turtle. Cowden's fiberglass "Mr. Maestro," part of the wonderful public art Tour of Turtle project, occupied a…
Outtakes
Short reviews of films showing throughout the Tampa Bay area. ******************* Australia: Land Beyond Time (PG) One of the most fascinating IMAX documentaries yet, this anything-but-dry history/science lesson unfolds sort of like an Animal Planet look at how life might have developed on another planet. That planet happens to be our own, of course, but…
