Wonder Boy
Listening to Martin Sexton's latest full-length, Wonder Bar, one is treated to something of a refresher course in classic American popular-music sounds. Shades of everything from late '70s AOR balladry and groovy pop-soul to gritty Delta blues and Southern spirituals color the Boston songwriter's catchy tuneage, all funneled through an inimitable style born of street-corner…
Having a Brawl
On a boiling August night, the amped-up, sweating, stinking, laughing, taunting crowd stuffed into Suite 1 of this Pinellas Park warehouse is impatient for the next fight to begin. Two guys in the corner work diligently between wrestling bouts, like roadies at a concert or a pit crew in auto racing. Only they're not stacking…
Letters
The Plane Truth Re: "Nuclear Reaction" by Matt Bivens (Oct. 4-10) I found this article to be very interesting as well as frightening. The position of the NRC is that only a "large" aircraft weighing more than 6.25 tons poses a threat to the integrity of a nuclear facility. Six and a quarter tons sounds…
The Wine List
Look here for wine tastings and dinner info.
White Lines
Location, location, location. It applies to real estate and French wine alike. In the 1930s, a prescient French government organization called Appellation d'Origine Controllee (AOC — "area of controlled origin") proclaimed certain areas better to grow grapes worthy of praise. Only 15 percent of French wines deserve this designation, and rigorous rules apply. The grapes…
Books
All Families Are Psychotic By Douglas Coupland Bloomsbury/$24.95 Meet the Drummonds, dysfunctional family of the apocalyptic now. With their diseases, criminal records, abusiveness, pregnancies, firearms and addictions, you might more accurately say the Drummonds are a tad psychotic. But as author Douglas Coupland points out in the title of this his latest novel, All Families…
Outtakes
Amazing Journeys (PG) IMAX films are about scale, size — from the unfathomably huge (the oceans, the cosmos themselves) to the microscopically small — and this latest IMAX production gives us a little bit to look at from both ends of the spectrum. Amazing Journeys examines the migration habits of various creatures. American Pie 2…
Top Pick
Urban gutbucket. These words pop into the writer's head as the perfect pithy description of Sex Mob's music. The phrase captures the quartet's intrinsic duality: a New York-based ensemble steeped in avant-garde jazz and the experimentalism of the "downtown" scene, but one that evokes a barroom bawdiness more associated with roadhouse blues. It remains to…
Road to Nowhere: Mullholland Drive
David Lynch's Mulholland Drive is certain to mean different things to different people. And too certain people, it won't mean much at all. Savor that certainty, because virtually everything else about Lynch's latest is thoroughly uncertain. Lynch's first film since 1999's sweet but slight The Straight Story is a return to form, for better and…
World Wide Weapon
While Americans tattoo Old Glory on their foreheads and overwhelm the FBI with tips about suspicious-looking Middle Easterners, Internet security experts say many are overlooking the most patriotic task of the time: securing their home computers from cyber-jackers, foreign and domestic. "If people want to be patriotic, don't come to New York and dig through…
The List
Halloween Fright Fest 2001, an eerie nighttime tour through Asylum Gardens (Adult Trail), takes place at Largo Central Park from 6 to 11 p.m. Oct. 19, 20, 26-31. There is also a Children's Trail, full of terrifying scenes to frighten the little ones. Also for the kids is Boo Bash, featuring storytelling, games and Halloween…
A Balancing Act
Maria Emilia Castagliola: In Praise of Federico Garcia Lorca (Gulf Coast Museum of Art) is an ambitious collection of paintings, drawings and a few mixed-media objects, all expressing the Cuban-born Castagliola's passion for the masterful uniter of Spanish literary traditions. Along with her esoteric and distant literary sources, not an easy alliance for any artist,…
Public Life
Talking with Your Children About Cancer Saturday, Oct. 20 9:30 a.m. The American Cancer Society along with the H. Lee Moffitt Center have designed a program to help children and their parents adjust to the emotional and physical changes that occur when a parent has cancer. This program is free and is held at the…
Music Venues
Adam's MarkClearwater 727-443-5714 Alley Cat's Cafe Clearwater 727-797-5555 Amphitheater Ybor City 813-248-2331 Bahama Mama's St. Pete Beach 727-360-1811 Barracuda's Dunedin 727-738-0408 Beach Bar Clearwater Beach 727-446-8866 Beach Place (Whitey's) Indian Rocks Beach 727-596-5633 Big J.R.'s Oldsmar 727-855-1052Billy G'ZClearwater 727-449-2455 Borderline Tampa 813-935-5339 Bourbon Street New Port Richey 877-843-0686 Brass Mug Tampa 813-972-8152 Cadillac Jack's Treasure…
Spanish Steps
Esther Suarez, flamenco dancer, is explaining her art form. "Flamenco is improvised, first of all," she says. "So what you always hear first is the guitar start, then you hear the singing." The singing, she says, is often about profound loneliness or loss, and the dancer must somehow find the equivalent in her movements. "You…
Music Menu
Clearwater's Jazz 2001 Music Marathon It's not clear whether this event, boasting 101 hours of jazz and setting a new world record, is meant as companion or competition to the 21st edition of the Clearwater Jazz Holiday, but it smacks of being a bit foolhardy nonetheless. Are jazzbos going to skip John Scofield and Jane…
Website
All Music Guidehttp://www.allmusic.com Sit around the workplace long enough and the conversation du jour will turn to music. The Planet is no exception to this, but takes it a step further; to say music lovers roam these halls would be an understatement. Hell, there's even a couple of music snobs, maybe even a fascist or…
Culinary Events
Epcot International Food & Wine Festival continues almost a month, featuring culinary demonstrations, seminars, food samplings, wine tastings, special dinners, appearances of celebrities of the food and wine world, and live entertainment. Epcot expects 200 sommeliers and more than 20 of the nation's most celebrated chefs. From Saturday, Oct. 20, through Sunday, Nov. 18. Epcot…
Spins
Fugazi The Argument Following the career-definitive film Instrument, and its accompanying (and rather austere) soundtrack, postrock's favorite Island Unto Itself has once again taken up its longest thread: reconciling rhythm and riffage. That the foursome produces some of the most substantial and thought-provoking lyrics in contemporary music is beyond debate. Musically, however, Fugazi has traditionally…
Dining Guide
The following is Weekly Planet's reliable guide to restaurants throughout the Bay area. We hope this bite-size reference will serve as a quality source to aid in your dining pleasure. Our critic dines anonymously and all meals are paid for by Weekly Planet. The dollar sign rating in The Dining Guide is arrived at by…
The Al-Arian Factor
Nearly three weeks after computer engineering professor Sami Al-Arian's appearance on The O'Reilly Factor, faculty and administrative leaders at the University of South Florida are still dealing with the fallout. Al-Arian was placed on paid leave immediately after the show aired and last week he was barred from the campus. USF President Judy Genshaft said…
Planet Picks
Thursday 10.18 The Mohr the Merrier Actor Jay Mohr is a quadruple threat, having worked in film, television, radio and stand-up during his 13-year career. He's most recently completed three films: Simone, with Al Pacino and Winona Ryder; Pluto Nash, starring Eddie Murphy; and Speaking of Sex, featuring Bill Murray. Mohr is perhaps best known…
Freebie
The rule that accompanies giving things away for free is that you should always charge something. 'Cause some people will take it and sell it for next to nothing. And other people will think that anything free isn't worth the taking. Freebie is wont to test that adage, and test it we shall at 8…
Soundboard
<font Thursday, Oct. 18 Events Coachman Park Clearwater Jazz Holiday w/Jane Monheit/Cecil Brooks III & the CBIII Band/Bogus Pomp New World Brewery Unitas/Teddy Duchamp's Army/Pseudo Heroes/Creta Bourzia Orpheum Martin Sexton Bars/Small Stages AJ's Ale House Sal & Zoom Alley Cat's Cafe Diane Beach Place (Whitey's) Paul Anthony Band Big J.R.'s Sequel Billy G'Z (Clw.) The…
Go Deutsche
WILLKOMMEN: Owners Martina Psarras and Klaus Seidel spoil diners with friendly service and hearty fare at Martina's German Cuisine. He said (grumpily): "I'm too tired to go out to eat." She said (nonplussed): "Uh-huh." He said (building his case): "I don't feel like driving." She said (smugly): "It's Martina's." He said (total surrender): "OK." Even…
Deciphering French whites
It’s all about where you come from
