Spins
The Last DJTom Petty & the Heartbreakers Warner Bros. At 53, Tom Petty can be one cranky fucker. He does, however, have his sentimental side. Both of these characteristics, and others, are represented on The Last DJ. Overall, the disc is a solid outing for the veteran artist and his ace sidemen. While not exactly…
Classical for the Masses
The program for The Florida Orchestra's ninth annual free concert in Vinoy Park consists of light classics. The popular songs are perfect for a mixed crowd of classical music buffs and orchestra newcomers alike. The Florida Orchestra, led by guest conductor Scott Speck, is not going to be so loud that you can't make polite…
Causes and Effects: Billy BraggShards of Rock: Glassjaw
"I think life would be really boring if it was all politics. No, I need to watch The Simpsons, I need to watch soccer, even MTV sometimes," says Bragg. "I'm more interested in life. My job is to try and reflect what's happening around me. Some of that comes from the newspapers, and some of…
Bard Gore: Titus Andronicus
It's not the excessive gore that makes Titus Andronicus a minor play in the Shakespearean oeuvre. Yes, Titus does contain multiple amputations, cannibalism and many murders. But there's also a lot of carnage in Hamlet, as well as an onstage eye-gouging in Lear, and a severed head in Macbeth. No, what makes this early Shakespeare…
Pearl in the Shell
So long, shuckers! Relax at Zax for fresh seafood fare.
Tricky Treats
It's that time of year when orange Halloween tchotchkes are everywhere, and costumed kids beg for candy at your door. Just for fun this year, plop down on a lawn chair with your plastic pumpkin filled with various candy, grab a glass of wine and harangue the Sponge Bob and Monsters Inc. characters passing in…
Orbitals
National Broadcast? Last month, local modern-rock band 2nd Day Broadcast was informed that it survived the initial cut in the competition for the Coca-Cola New Music Award, a prize given to whatever undiscovered act is deemed the nation's best through a rigorous and multilayered submission and judging process. Prior to this year, no unsigned band…
Love Is Strange: A review of Punch Drunk Love
Don't expect miracles here. After wowing the moviegoing world with the cinematic razzle dazzle of Boogie Nights and Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson wasn't out to top himself again with his new film. And frankly, after something as epic, intricate and ambitious as Magnolia, where else was there to go but down?Since expanding on something as…
Ghoul in Them Thar Hills: Macabaret
The only thing funnier than sex is death. At least that's what you might conclude after watching Scott Keys and Robert Hartmann's Macabaret at St. Petersburg's new Central Stage Theatre. This short (70-minute) revue features such characters as Helena Handbasket, Phil Graves, Maude Lynn and Paul Bearer singing such clever and melodic songs as "Stage…
Snap, Click & Print
Talk about late bloomers. Photography may have been invented in 1839, but for well over a century it struggled to gain acceptance as a fine arts medium. Evidence of its triumph as an art form is spilling across the Tampa Bay area in three strong exhibitions. Two shows are in St. Petersburg. The Museum of…
Music for the Masses (and Asses) the Guavaween Music Lineup
What percentage of the tens of thousands of patrons dancing, parading, and stumbling through the streets of Ybor City on Guavaween, do you think, are aware that they're attending a fundraiser for the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce? It's a bit funny — where some cities barely tolerate their more raucous traditions, this burg created…
The Last Zap: A final romp for Bogus Pomp?
For want of a drummer …That's why one of the most remarkable bands in the annals of Tampa Bay is packing it in after shows on Oct. 26 and 31. Bogus Pomp has been playing exclusively the music of Frank Zappa for eight years. Currently nine- members strong, the ensemble has built a book of…
Buby Trapped
John Morroni and Dave Buby, who are vying for the Pinellas County Commission, are both middle-aged white guys qualified enough for the office. They're both affable and charming in that way a good neighbor would be. They're both able to tackle complex issues and sift through government bureaucracy. But they don't grab attention.Morroni, 47, has…
Educating Race
The Pinellas County School Board's District 4 election race slipped out of the Republican Party's control long before the September primary.That came as a shock to local Republicans. After all, their campaign strategy seemed foolproof: When Tom Todd died last October and left a vacancy on the school board, Gov. Jeb Bush appointed 38-year-old Janice…
Outtakes
Abandon (PG-13) A much better film that those horrible trailers would lead you to believe, Abandon spends a good portion of its running time pulling the rug out from under our feet and keeping us guessing. The plot elements here are standard — a pretty grad student (Katie Holmes), a vanished ex-boyfriend who might be…
10 Reasons Not to Vote for Jeb Bush
Make no mistake. Americans do love their royalty. Our founding fathers may have given the finger to the royals in England, but generations later the monarchy still rules. The lack of an official king and queen has only allowed the American public to anoint several unofficial royal lines instead. As much as Americans extol the…
