Crush It
Ah, marketing. This just in from Creative Loafing staffer Joran Oppelt: CRUSHING THE HUMMERI arrived at work this morning to find the new marketing materials from Reeves Import Motorcars. They include a detailed scale model of a Hummer H2, along with a small wooden china cabinet and a tiny tea set (including a teapot, cups…
The Profit Margin
The Financial Times dissects just why the St. Petersburg Times is so successful in reinvesting money in its journalism, quoting extensively its CEO Paul Tash: … there are obvious differences between its mentality and that of competitors, who must report to Wall Street. Whereas [the Chicago] Tribune and other companies are trying to push profit…
Jennings Gets Late Push From EMILY
An e-mail blast to contributors for EMILY's List today should give some assistance to Christine Jennings, who is in a toss-up race for Congress in Sarasota against Republican Vern Buchanan. In the solicitation, headed "Late Breaking News: 5 New House Races We Can Win," the Democratic pro-choice, pro-women's group asks members to help out Jennings:…
Morning Roundup
For all of you here in the U.S., 300 million strong: Sure, I believe this headline. 100 percent. Bye-bye, Blob. His last words. The Times continues its "Gus is missing in action" motif. It would be nice if just one Florida newspaper would endorse Katherine Harris, wouldn't it? I mean for bloggers like me. The…
Afternoon Roundup
Why does work have to get in the way of posting to this blog?: The Buzz: Hillsborough Demo chief Janee Murphy will step down at the end of the year. Tampa Bay's 10: St. Pete's Reform Party governor's candidate Max Linn is in an Orlando hospital after making an emergency landing on I-4. Linn pilots…
Morning Roundup
Today's goodies: The Crystal Ball says the Democrats will take control of the House, likely the Senate. And while Jennings-Buchanan is now a toss up, Bilirakis-Busansky remains "likely Republican." Told you last week that Kelly Benjamin was out at the Joe Redner campaign. Seminole Heights blog updates. Down in Sarasota, FL House candidate Keith Fitzgerald…
Morning Roundup
Another day, another $0.86 (adjusted for inflation): I wasn't going to take a poke at this tightwad, but I'm glad that Sue Carlton did. Tampa stoners, you're still good to go; but Pinellas hop-heads, bummer. Somewhere deep in the bowels of the Tower of Power, there is a copy editor smirking with self-satisfaction this morning…
Today’s Top 10 Actual Spam Subject Lines That Would Make Good Band Names
10. Coca Epistolary9. Dine in Style8. Plagiarize Intermarriage7. Olympic Swat Bolshevik6. Cousin Carpet5. Primeval Taipei4. Swept Uldertu3. Digit Commission2. It's Never Too Early for Xmas1. The Superficial Emptiness
Spotlight on Herbs
SPECIAL EVENTS
Pimp Her Surgery
A Land O’ Lakes woman tries an innovative approach to losing weight — Internet sympathy.
New Kids On The Block
Straydogs makes its debut with a problematic script.
Arranged Marriage
The food’s well-prepared, but the mix of Asian and Italian is more bland than blend.
Another Central Avenue departure
Downtowns
King harvest
Bringing in the grapes with a master winemaker.
Upcoming Concerts
October 19 A Day To Remember/My Child My Bride 688 Skatepark 19 Jenny Lewis w/The Watson Twins Tampa Theatre 19 The String Cheese Incident Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center 20 Eric Clapton TD Waterhouse Center (Orlando) 20 Say Anything/Mewithoutyou/Piebald State Theatre 20 Jim "Kimo" West Kapok Special Events Pavilion 21 Insane Clown Posse Jannus Landing…
Another Dalí Party
SPECIAL EVENTS
Backspin
Soundgarden
Speaking of Iraq
A conversation about America and war.
Free ain’t free
And don’t you forget it
Say Cheese
Grab your hula hoops — String Cheese Incident is coming.
Diet & Excercise? Nah
Creative Loafing: What is a typical day for you, eating-wise? Kelly Brown: I don't eat breakfast. At lunch, I eat a lot of Chinese food. I might have beef broccoli. Or the girls at work might go somewhere else so I might have like a Big Mac and fries. You know, that's a normal meal.…
Going Postal
Life of Brian Every meal I have enjoyed at Nordstrom's Café Bistro has been wonderful (Food Review, "Simply Perfect," by Brian Ries, Oct. 4-10)! The food is excellent and the prices are very affordable. The General Manager, Michael Gross, has made the café a huge success. His dedication to excellence to the food and his…
Spins
Okonokos MY MORNING JACKET ATO/RCA A couple, three years ago, Kentucky's My Morning Jacket was playing punk clubs; these days, the band is a festival highlight with a reputation for incandescent live sets and a fanbase that includes everyone from roots-rock purists to jam-band heads and indie kids. It's one of the few modern-rock scenarios…
What a Difference a Year Makes
1998 "The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president." — Hillary Clinton in Jan. 1998 on NBC's Today Show, explaining the motives behind the Monica Lewinsky story.…
Crime Story
Despite the fact that Martin Scorsese's new movie is actually a remake of a popular Hong Kong import (Infernal Affairs) — with the action resituated here to a largely Irish-American Boston several removes from the director's familiar New York/Italian stomping grounds — The Departed is nothing if not a sure-footed return to form. The Departed…
Reynolds’ Acousti-Rap
MUSIC
In warmed-over Blood
Infamous is a bauble that can’t compare to Capote.
Shameless
Mark Foley getting all creepy about teenagers and sex? Been there, seen that. Congressman Foley's mixed-up notions about truth and adolescent sexuality surfaced in the press as far back as 2003. That summer I wrote a story for Creative Loafing (then the Weekly Planet) about the Lake Como Family Nudist Resort in Land O' Lakes…
Outtakes
Upcoming Releases THE GRUDGE 2 (R) Black-haired, dripping-wet ghost-girls may already be yesterday's news in Asia, but they're still hot stuff (for the moment, at least) in the megaplexes of America. This latest dose of Japanese horror, remade Hollywood-style, amplifies the original Grudge's tale of a supernatural curse that seems to strike at random, causing…
Music Menu
THURSDAY, oct. 12 BERTIE HIGGINS & THE BAND OF PIRATES A quarter century ago, Tarpon Springs' own Bertie Higgins landed a Top 10 hit with a slight little ditty called "Key Largo." He continued his tropical theme the following year with "Just Another Day In Paradise," which peaked at No. 46. Bertie's been flogging the…
The Doomsday Machine
MADMAN WITH A NUKE No, not you Kim. No, not Mahmoud, either. Yes, you, Dubya. NIP/TUCK/BURN We accidentally watched Julian McMahon make love to Rosie O'Donnell on F/X. Does anyone have some industrial-strength eye wash? NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF NERD Star Trek auction nets an astounding $7.1 million. We got outbid for Spock's brain.…
Just Say it
The Times should admit it blew the Foley story
A Frank Black
That guy from the Pixies about songwriting, his latest release and the band that made him famous.
Stage Fright
THEATER
CL’s must-do list for the week of
Thurs., oct. 12-Wed., Oct. 18
A trail to nowhere?
Beaches
Vibrant Visions
Two artists combine familiar images to stimulating effect.
Paradise Found
Discover what the snowbirds already know.
The Florida Orchestra Pops!
With the fall arts season currently underway and the usual Florida humidity somewhat lessened by occasional (and fleeting) cold fronts, Bay area folks can once again look forward to seeing The Florida Orchestra perform its free Pops in the Park concerts. Associate Conductor Susan Haig leads the 80-piece orchestra through five separate concerts to kick…
Cheap Thrills
SPECIAL EVENTS: HOLIDAY
Events around the city
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@creativeloafing.com. CALIFORNIA CRUSH HOUR Taste eight to 10 wines from up and coming Central Coast wineries Paige 23, Silver Stone, Clautiere and Donatia. Special guest is Chris Keller, winemaker of Paige…
