The skinny on a socially conscious hip-hop show in St. Pete; sex toy story sends glut of readers to Times Web site; Chris Hart gets the political help he needs; and more hassles for Tampa’s public access cable.
Semi-Hip Happs
Nearly every single hip-hop show since Public Enemy's Welcome to the Terrordome tour has sucked. One expects them to suck. The Def Jux concert at the State Theatre July 28, comparatively speaking, did not.
About 350 young people turned out to see rappers El-P and Mr. Lif, turntablist RJD2 and the Tampa group Red Tide.
Red Tide's set was groovy and throbbing. Mr. Lif and El-P were surprisingly energetic, charismatic and intelligible. The same can't be said for either the two warm-up/backup holla boys or "surprise guest" Cage (standing for an absent Aesop Rock), who ate up time with sub-par routines.
Inferior affiliates aside, the show's biggest drawback was its length. RJD2's warm-up set could've been cut by two-thirds — by the time Lif took the stage, much of the crowd was restless and inattentive. And as talented (and inciting) as Lif and El-P may be, it all sounded the same after about 40 minutes. Arena-headlining rap stars are known for performing sets shorter than the average Allman Brothers song. Now we know why.
—Scott HarrellIt's Not a Virus; It's a Vibrator Hackers weren't responsible for crashing the St. Petersburg Times' Web site last Friday. It wasn't a virus, either.
The culprit: a vibrator story.
On July 26, Times courts reporter William R. Levesque reported on Clearwater resident Renee Koutsouradis' lawsuit against Delta Airlines for forcing her to remove a "sex toy," which was vibrating in her luggage, and hold it aloft while standing on the tarmac. Delta employees said "obnoxious and sexually harassing comments," and passengers on her flight from Dallas to Tampa witnessed the embarrassing incident, the lawsuit alleges.
Conservative commentator Matt Drudge, who runs the popular Web site www.drudgereport.com, linked to the Times article. The link sparked such a flood of traffic to the Times' server that network administrators took the Web site down and removed Levesque's well read article.
Times spokeswoman Anthea Penrose said network administrators could not confirm that Levesque's article caused the Web site to crash. However, as soon as Times employees removed the story, the Web site became stable, Penrose said.
"It certainly was highly viewed," Penrose said of the article, which was back online as of Monday morning.
—Trevor Aaronson
Hart Not in It
Hillsborough County Commissioner Chris Hart III really wanted to run for homeland security director this fall. But Tom Ridge's job isn't an elected post.
So Hart, who initially contemplated a congressional campaign, went from running for Tampa mayor to running for a south Tampa/Town N Country/Gibsonton county commission seat within a matter of days.
Hart's dizzying election-race shopping this year did nothing to erase his reputation, cultivated over eight years on the county commission, for being an erratic empty-suit.
An at-large commissioner representing the whole of Hillsborough, Hart was adamant almost to the end that Tampa Mayor Dick Greco's job was the one he desired. But after noticing that he was sprinting with fitness freak Donald Ardell to stay out of last place, Hart started looking around for another spot on the ballot.
By the July 26 election-qualifying deadline, the junketeering Hart was, fittingly, up in the air.
Hart flew to Washington, D.C., one of his favorite destinations, to join about 140 local officials who were rapping with President George W. Bush about homeland security at the White House, according to a county press release. In case that news got lost in the stack of PR notices around Tampa media fax machines, Hart had the National Association of Counties send another release from Washington.
The District 1 county commission election back in Tampa is going to be quite a comedown for Hart. But the contest is a natural for him.
Local Republican puppet-masters Sam Rashid and Dick Mandt had nobody on their strings in District 1. They had ordered rookie Commissioner Stacey Lyn Easterling to surrender the seat and try to settle a score for them by denying term-limited District 2 Commissioner Jim Norman victory in a countywide district.
Without Easterling, Rashid and Mandt had only Hart in reserve. When they tell Hart to jump, the commissioner not only asks how high but whether his landing should be on one leg or two.
Hart has little to show for taking up a commission seat since 1994, except a bulging frequent-flier account. But he isn't a bad campaigner. Plus, his son, Chris Hart IV, has represented a good chunk of District 1 in the Florida House of Representatives since 1998.
Inserting Hart into the District 1 race had an added attraction for Rashid. Hart will be battling Gene Wells for the GOP nod. Wells is backed by Ralph Hughes, a Rashid nemesis among conservative Hillsborough Republicans.
On the Democratic side, Mimi Kehoe Osiason had her party's nomination all sewn up until Easterling bowed out. That brought in Kathy Castor and John Dingfelder, who've been searching for a way into political office.
—Francis X. Gilpin
Disclosure: Mandt is a board member and investor in Weekly Planet's parent company Creative Loafing Inc.
Your Tax Dollars at Work
After spending at least $57,000 on legal research and forcing reporters to sit through tiresome press conferences, Hillsborough commissioners have reached a truce with Speak Up Tampa Bay, the nonprofit organization that runs the county's public access channels.
The commission still contends that Speak Up is in violation of its contract, said Executive Director Greg Koss. Speak Up still contends that it's not. "It's a semantic game," he said. Speak Up doesn't want to play.
"In the interest of moving forward, we came up with some cures for some concerns that were raised," said Koss.
Since the issue that really has Commissioner Ronda Storms' knickers in a wad is First Amendment-protected free speech, the issues that were addressed under the new agreement were of the nit-picky, scapegoat variety.
And still, the new agreement was barely accepted on a 4-to-3 commission vote.
Under the old policy, the producers were responsible for putting adult content warnings on their shows when warranted. Now the station will do that. "We're not inserting it into their programs," said Koss. "We're inserting it during station breaks."
Before, producers signed agreements that they would obtain all releases and permissions needed to air copyrighted material. They're still responsible under the new agreement, but the paperwork will be on file at the station, where management will conduct a weekly audit of a percentage of the shows.
In addition to releases, the station will also check to be sure that producers identify themselves at the end of the show. Recently, Charles "White Chocolate" Perkins was put on 90-day suspension for failing to comply with that practice.
The new policies satisfied county staffers, who recommended approval.
It's not a problem to do the additional work, said Koss, as long as it doesn't go too far. "We don't want to be put in the position of checking for content and pre-screening before the show airs," he said. It's not Speak Up's job to act as censors and stomp on producers' rights.
It seems that's the commission's job. At least as it's interpreted by Jim Norman, Stacey Easterling and Storms. Even though the remedies resolve all of the issues Storms has dreamed up so far, the three dissenters aren't going to let the matter drop.
Norman put Speak Up Tampa Bay on notice that he intends to flag its budget for scrutiny in August. County Attorney Emmy Acton kept trying to tell Norman that he couldn't bring up the budget during the July 24 commission meeting because it would look like censorship, said Speak Up President Louise Thompson.
"I think that if she could have kicked him under the table she would have," Thompson said of Acton and Norman. "They actually stand there and say that if they can't get us on censorship they'll get us on the budget. I don't think they have a very good grip on the law."
—Rochelle Renford
Disclosure: Planet President Ben Eason is founder and current treasurer of Speak Up Tampa Bay.
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2002.
