The Wine List
Work Week Wine Down Grand Cru Wine Cellar presents a wine tasting with snacks. Sample six to eight wines, a few beers and artisanal cheeses. $12 with $5 coupon for purchases night of event. 6-9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30. 11724 N. Dale Mabry, Tampa. 813-269-VINE. Champagne Celebration Vintage Wine Cellars offers a tasting of 10…
Culinary Events
Beer Festival Sample over 100 beers from over a dozen countries at the third annual 99 Bottles of Beer, Tampa's biggest beer festival. Includes artisanal cheeses, door prizes and live music. $10 in advance, and $12 at the door. 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1. Grand Cru Wine Cellar, 11724 N. Dale Mabry, Tampa. 813-269-8463. Advanced…
Freebie
The Art of Wine Atlanta-based artist Thomas Arvid is quickly gaining a national reputation as today's premier painter of fine wine. A self-taught painter of oil on canvas, he began by painting still lifes and portraits, but eventually narrowed his subjects to red objects — Radio Flyer wagons, toy fire trucks and compositions of red…
Website
American Red Cross Donationshttp://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html Let's begin this with an admission: The holiday season annoys me more than Carrot Top, bordering on a rage that burns hotter than Ron Jeremy's pee. If this time o' year is your bag, great, more power to you. Personally I don't think chronological imperatives should dictate when you give a…
For the Winos on Your List
We hate to tell you this, but the holidays are lurking just around the corner, waiting to pounce on gift procrastinators (like you) who haven't even thought about what to buy the winos in their lives. Since you can't always depend on that red-suited-fat-guy to save your butt at holiday time, we're here to help…
Planet Picks
Thursday 11.29 The Movie Guy A lifelong movie fan, comedian Harry Basil relives famous scenes — such as Tom Cruise's tighty-whities scene from Risky Business — in a whirlwind of impersonations and comic acting. Basil has several film credits to his name, including a small role in Peggy Sue Got Married, but that hasn't kept…
Books
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things By J.T. LeRoy Bloomsbury/$23.95 There may be no rest to former hustler J.T. LeRoy's compulsion to exorcise his abusive past in autobiographical detail, but this new collection of stories shows it doesn't matter so long as he continues to write without restraint. The Heart Is Deceitful Above All…
Terrorizing the Bill of Rights
Congress has overwhelmingly passed, and the president has enthusiastically signed, an anti-terrorism bill that, as the ACLU says, gives "enormous, unwarranted power to the executive branch unchecked by meaningful judicial review." Moreover, "most of the new powers could be used against American citizens in counterterrorism investigations and in routine criminal investigations completely unrelated to terrorism."…
Deck the Performance Halls
Hold that mistletoe and pause that dreidel; it's time for a peripatetic look at the holiday season, brought to you by local theater, dance and classical music organizations. Let's start onstage. The season opened last weekend when Scrooge and the Cratchit Family returned to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in A Christmas Carol: The…
Singular Sensations
Instead of spending your hard-earned money on some assembly-line gift made by hungry children in a third-world sweatshop, how about buying a one-of-a-kind piece of original art this year? From galleries and museums to arty gift shops and artist studios, you'll find fewer crowds, a lower guilt factor and a much pleasanter atmosphere when shopping…
Spins
Kittie Oracle When these female Canadian youngsters appeared on the then-burgeoning nu-metal scene a few years back with Spit, they were greeted with the kind of suspicion and disdain you'd expect from a genre dominated by lunkheaded penis-brandishers. They don't play their own instruments. They don't write their own songs. It's a gimmick. Spit surfed…
Outtakes
13 Ghosts (PG-13) 21st century remake of the old William Castle spookfest about a family trapped in the haunted house they've just inherited. Stars F. Murray Abraham, Tony Shalhoub and Shannon Elizabeth. (Not Reviewed) Amazing Journeys (PG) IMAX films are about scale, size — from the unfathomably huge (the oceans, the cosmos themselves) to the…
The List
Holiday Happenings 17th Annual Family Christmas Festival Attending this concert has become a tradition for many families of the Tampa Bay community. The featured performers this year are the UT Collegiate Chorale and the Mostly Pops Orchestra, playing seasonal songs both old and new with full orchestra and a grand pipe organ. The festival takes…
Open Season
Where, When and how to shop at Bay area retail outlets
Looking for My Mambo in a Mojito
It takes more than a new skirt to mambo with the crowd at Pipo's on Davis Islands. By RhondaK All summer I called on La Lupe, my new patron saint, to help me dance. La Lupe was Latin singer Victoria Raymond Joli. Her performances were legendarily controversial. She'd beat herself and her band, tear her…
Digital Stocking Stuffers
With the holiday season fast approaching and some 50-million DVD players now firmly entrenched in America's homes, DVD movies are looking more than ever like the gift that keeps on giving this Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwaanza. Provided your pockets are deep enough, there are tons of extravagant ways to put a big, fat smile on the face of…
Merry Munchables
By Sara Kennedy
The holiday season carries with it so much emotional meaning because it generally entails some combination of family, friends, festivity — and food.
Music Menu
Kenny Loggins Prepare to get footloose in the danger zone. The man, the myth, the sexual-orientation enigma that is Kenny Loggins brings over 30 years of toe-tappin' sing-along tuneage to the Bay. Take that, Messina. (Nov. 29, Ruth Eckerd Hall) Jay Black & The Americans/Little Anthony & The Imperials Sixties rock 'n' roll hitmakers Jay…
Letters
Blood on Our White Hat Re: "Knee-jerk Nation" by David Bramer (Nov. 15-21) I was disappointed to see a usually intelligent Weekly Planet join the St. Pete Times and other media in parading out supposed "peaceniks" who have now seen the light and the error of their ways in the face of Sept. 11 and…
Dining Guide
HILLSBOROUGHBrandon Joto Japanese Restaurant, 905 Lithia-Pinecrest Road, Brandon (813-684-0221). Belly up to the sushi bar or grab a seat on the floor while a kimono-clad waitress serves traditional Japanese dishes. Try the special sushi and sashimi platters. $ La Septima Cafe, 140 N. Parsons Ave., Brandon (813-684-1948). You'll find a taste of the original Latin…
Soundboard
<font Thursday, Nov. 29 Events Orpheum Unitas/Gunmoll/The Timversion Ruth Eckerd Hall Kenny Loggins Bars/Small Stages AJ's Ale House Sal & Zoom Alley Cat's Cafe Diane Cadillac Jack's Baby Huey Carlie's The Autorities Chase Club Derrick Williams Club America United We Dance w/DJ Sloan/DJ Frequenz Daiquiri Deck Groove Altar Dan Marino's Martini Bar & Tavern Green…
Shark Bait
In July, 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast was attacked by a bull shark off Pensacola. His arm was severed and he lost nearly all his blood, but he survived. His is just one of many stories that stirred up a public frenzy last summer about shark attacks in Florida waters. Opinions differ as to whether the number…
Public Life
Holiday Tribute Gift Program H. Lee Moffitt offers this program as a meaningful way to recognize and honor family, friends, employees and clients. For a minimum $25 per honoree, Moffitt will make a donation in their name and send a personalized holiday card notifying the honoree of the gift. The center's on the USF-Tampa campus,…
Run From the Border
The nationwide Taco Bell Truth Tour was canceled after the events of Sept. 11, but the struggle to get the fast-food giant to stop the exploitation that produces its tomatoes continues. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers contends that if Taco Bell were willing to pay just one penny per pound more for their tomatoes, the…
Red-nosed, indeed
Holiday gifts for the winos on your list
