Green Springs Eternal
I'm rarely speechless, except when people ask, "What's your favorite restaurant?" How can I rifle through my memory, a mosaic made up of thousands of marvelous meals eaten at places all over the map, and pick one restaurant? It's impossible. But if someone would ask me, "What's your favorite kind of restaurant?" I could answer…
Freebie of the Week
The name: 97X Spring Break Freebie Weebie (bit bizarre, sorta silly, but the thing's free so we're not complaining). Big-ass props to 97X, by the way, which might have a short play list, but the station makes up for it with all its cool free events of late. This particular hootenanny begins at noon Sunday,…
Outtakes
15 Minutes (R) Robert De Niro and Ed Burns play the pistol-packing Good Guys on the trail of a pair of mad dog killers with a mania for videotaping their crimes. Tough, exciting and just off-kilter enough to keep us guessing, 15 Minutes is a thriller that manages to transcend the buddy movie genre and…
Kind of Blue
There are many shades of the blues. The modern festival circuit has become a blue rainbow that showcases the music's many hues. Purists may cry foul, but, fact is, there aren't that many legends living anymore, so the blues scene has become bogged down with a plethora of Stratocaster-slinging fellas who rehash the same shuffle…
Planet Picks
Thursday 3.29 Get to Work! Short on cash? Oddly enough, employment helps with that. Check out your options at a 1 to 4 p.m. Job Fair, at the Holiday Inn Select. Dozens of Bay area businesses are looking for dependable employees, and Abilities of Florida has gathered them together under one roof. While everyone is…
Soul Brother No. 206
What is it with these Tillman boys? Last year, the elder Tillman, Sean, released his Dance Till Your Baby is a Man (Troubleman Unlimited), a wry, Stevie Wonder-influenced album of dark, soulful, smallpox-catchy indie-pop, under the pseudonym Sean Na Na. Now Sean's adopted younger brother, Harold Martin Tillman, has returned to St. Paul, Minn., to…
Public Life
Water Conservation Summit Thursday, April 5 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Southwest Florida Water Management District and their Water Con servation Task Force sponsor a Water Conservation Summit to raise awareness of the reasons for and benefits of water conservation. Representatives of agriculture, business, industry, environment, local government, public supply and recreation give presentations regarding a wide…
Spins
Shuggie Otis Inspiration Information He's one of the great mystery men of the early '70s. Multi-instrumentalist Shuggie Otis, son of West Coast R&B pioneer Johnny Otis, played with Frank Zappa and turned down an offer to join the Rolling Stones after Mick Taylor's departure. In 1974, he made one of the terrific, and thoroughly unheralded,…
Verse of Tampa Bay
In an aging building overlooking the cypress and moss-lined Hillsborough River, just upstream from the dam, David Croft is quietly making high art. He's recording local poets in the home studio he has spent years assembling. Croft has merged lifelong interests in sound and the written word in the form of Xeximian Records, which has…
Emotion in Motion
"Dance, when it works, when the dance conveys either a message or a physical, visceral kind of pleasure or excitement … is a euphoric experience," says Martin Kravitz, visiting professor of dance at the University of South Florida. "I remember when I was discovering dance, coming out of the theater and not being able to…
Brewing Demonstration
Brewing Demonstration Starbucks Coffee Co. has joined the likes of Nike and Wal-Mart in that rogue's gallery of American corporations that, activists say, exploit foreign suppliers and workers for fatter profits. The Seattle-based chain of gourmet coffee shops was the target of a March 20 national protest by consumer, environmental and other public-interest groups that…
Dining Guide
HILLSBOROUGH Tampa Carrollwood/Northwest Tampa Kaisen Sushi, 12785 N. Dale Mabry, in Mission Bell Square (813-969-3848). This friendly, casual and tiny cafe offers exceptionally fresh, artfully prepared, delicious and value priced sushi. What more can you ask for? A must-try is the calamari, thick slices of succulent grilled squid served in a dark, smoky sauce. Sweet…
Planetary Shifts
There's a downside to being an edgy alternative newspaper. You can't go around eviscerating the establishment and mooning the mainstream media without occasionally looking in the mirror. Case in point: Last October, the Weekly Planet made a big deal out of a big deal — our purchase of the group of newspapers that had originally…
Ghost Story
"You said we'd play and fantasize," says the disembodied voice at the outset of Liv Ullmann's best and very Bergman-like film, Faithless. "Play" is an odd word choice for the psychodrama that follows, but the more the voice speaks, the more its words give it shape and substance, much like the film itself. Faithless unfolds…
Letters to the Editor
Bust the Boor Re: "Pork Chop Politics" by John F. Sugg (March 22-28) Thank you for your article about Bubba the Blood Sponge. The maliciousness of the act — especially castrating the animal while fully conscious — coupled with the indifference and lack of integrity of Clear Channel executives is disturbing. Though I did listen…
Culinary Events
FOOD Fais Do Do It's Cajun party time, as the Cajun Cafe, 8101 Park Blvd., Pinellas Park, kicks into gear with its fourth annual Crawfish Festival. Enjoy delicious Cajun foods, everything from good-as-it-gets gumbo to crawfish etoufee, and stomp your feet to lively Cajun, zydeco and blues bands. Cajun Cafe was Weekly Planet's 2000 Best…
Eclectic Cowboys: Los Lobos, Blues Fest’s headliners
We're a garage band," says Steve Berlin, keyboardist/saxophonist for Los Lobos. "We actually rehearsed in a garage for years. All along, we've pretty much been refining the garage side of us." What was born in a garage in the East L.A. barrio was nurtured in the roots-punk movement of the early '80s, then thrust into…
Soundboard
Thursday, March 29 Shows Amphitheater Paul Oakenfold Frankie's Patio LTJ Bukem w/MC Conrad/PFM/ Om/Keith MacKenzie/DJ Skills/Daveaux Mahaffey Theater Marvin Hamlisch Ruth Eckerd Hall Patti LaBelle Clubs AJ's Ale House Sal Beliose Alley Cat's Cafe Diane Bahama Mama's ML2 Brass Mug Standing Eight/Krankin House Budious Maximus HiFi Lounge w/Madhatter/Alex Lugo Cadillac Jack's Straight-Up Blues Band Carlie's…
Music Menu
Blue Plate Special CD Release Party BPS is the jazz- and bluegrass-flavored side project of Lounge Cat's Eddie Rosicky (formerly of Bohemian Swingers). The party goes from 9 p.m. till 1 a.m. (March 29, Grand Finale) LTJ Bukem w/MC Conrad/PFM/Om/Keith MacKenzie/DJ Skills/Daveaux How often does this happen? Over at Amphitheater tonight, there's a house and…
Web Site of the Week
Smelly Poop http://www.smellypoop.com The Internet is filled with lots of useful, thought-provoking sites, healthy, God-fearing ones, even ones that might make you a better person. But where's the fun in that? So instead of visiting one of those spots, head on over to smellypoop.com, where the electrons are dedicated (at least partially) to your favorite…
The Spy Who Spanked Me
Once upon a time there were two spies who fell in love, quit their jobs and moved to the suburbs. Not the real suburbs, mind you. The suburbs in Spy Kids aren't located in actual physical space — the spot where the former secret agents now find themselves situated actually looks more like some choice,…
Books
The Adventurist: My Life In Dangerous Places By Robert Young Pelton Doubleday/$24.95 Called "the tourist with attitude," Pelton ventures into areas even the U.S. State Department fears. Known for his extreme travel show, The World's Most Dangerous Places (featuring interviews with assassins, hit men, rebels, prostitutes and cops), Pelton begins this mix of biography and…
