There’s an embarrassment of musical riches tonight in Tampa, of all places. Many national acts—excepting, of course, the deep-pocketed, jet-setting behemoths like U2 and Coldplay—never bother with Florida because they’d have to retrace their steps on the way back out, cutting valuable time out of their tour schedule. As a result, it’s pretty rare we get one decent show in the Bay area, let alone two on the same night.
I’m so excited I used italics. Phew.
So here we are, faced with a tough decision: At the Orpheum in Ybor City, we have the Detroit Cobras, Reigning Sound and the Unrequited Loves. Meanwhile, down the street at Masquerade, The Hold Steady tops the bill with Swearing at Motorists in tow.
After much fretting, I’ve finally made up my mind (no, I’m not telling, but there’s a hint below), so now I have a little time to help you make up yours—assuming you’re still on the fence at the 11th hour.
* The Cobras came out of the Motor City’s garage-rock scene and dig “deep into the well of vintage R&B and primitive rock & roll,” according to the All Music Guide. I can’t find any free MP3s on the Web, but I own a couple of their records and trust me: These chicks (and a dude) mean business. Don’t let the fact that lead singer Rachel Nagy used to be an exotic dancer influence your decision at all—that would be, you know, crass or something. Instead, consider the fact that their guitars are loud and their record collections are better than yours.
* 
The first time I heard Memphis soul kings Reigning Sound, the first thing I thought was, “I must see these guys live” (wink, nudge). So few bands manage to capture the energy of their live sets on wax, but 2002’s “Time Bomb High School” and 2004’s “Too Much Guitar” absolutely crackle with electricity. The songwriting is damn fine, too, and leader Greg Cartwright has one of those voices that leaves no doubt in your mind that he means every word. Check it out:
A tune from Reigning Sound, courtesy of Midheaven mail-order:
Reigning Sound: “If You Can’t Give Me Everything” from “Too Much Guitar” [mp3]
* Soulful ‘60s beat-punk junkies The Unrequited Loves are far and away my favorite local band of all time, and I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that their leader, Mike O’Neill, who works at The Tampa Tribune, did not pay me to say that. You can stream four songs at their Myspace page.
* The Hold Steady has been generating a loud buzz lately for its approach to rugged Americana (think early Springsteen, if he’d grown up in the ‘80s) with a refreshing punk-rock irreverance. The Village Voice called their music “literature with power chords.” In a Rolling Stone article, the writer made comparisons to the Replacements—and not just beause both bands originally hail from Minnesota. Their live shows are supposed to be intense. Here’s a taste:
A free Hold Steady MP3 from the band’s Web site:
The Hold Steady: “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” from “Separation Sunday” [mp3]
* Finally, Swearing at Motorists have a new record out (“Last Night Becomes This Morning”) and they’ve put an entire concert (albeit an old one from 2000) on their Web site available for free download in lossless FLAC format. If you don’t know what that means, prepare for your “music fan” membership card to be revoked.
I have been a little lax in exposing Bay area’s underbelly lately. I have been a little preoccupied with my karma. I feel I should change my name to Earl.
I blew a tire a few days back, on way home, and had to pull over the side of the USF golf course. I had my 11-year-old nephew with me, who despite being hungry and tired after a long day at school and after care, started to help.
I have never actually changed a tire in my life. I know how to, in theory, and have watched my father several times replace them on his car. He taught me one important thing though - always loosen the bolts on the tire before heaving the car up on a jack.
And although my memory doesn’t seem to be in top order, despite Sudoku puzzles and brain boosters, I remembered that.
I didn’t expect anyone to stop to help me, what with life in a country that supports independent living, DIYs and AAA.
But I was pleasantly surprised when a lady stopped to ask me if I needed help. I thanked her and said I was alright and she left.
Then two little boys on bikes stopped by and asked me if they could help. By that time, we were clueless how to turn the jack to raise the level of the car. So it was with gratitude and a sigh of relief that I handed the tire iron to the boys.
One of the boys had helped his father change many a tires and seemed to know what he was talking about. He changed the tire in minutes flat. I wish him a long and successful career on the race tracks and a degree from MIT.
Two other people stopped by to help me, but that little boy from Turkey (I was so grateful, I forgot to ask his name) had everything under control.
He must have been slightly embarrassed by my gushing thanks.
But I was reminded of another time when complete strangers had helped me for three days during a religious riot in my county.
So I thank that boy from Turkey, who stopped to help me on the roadside, to change a tire.
It is a sad fact that after I had told my nephew how he, too, must help someone in distress, if he can; I also gently reminded him of the dangers of stopping by a stranger next to a car, on a lonely stretch of road, especially if he is by himself.
It is a pity that we live in such times, where we curb our natural instincts and fret about helping someone.
My daughters are now 7 and 9. I looked forward to them getting a little older so that we could do more things together. For example, we went on a horseback trail ride in the fall. My oldest daughter was thrilled that she was big enough to get her own horse.
As I have mentioned, we also have gone kayaking in Puerto Rico and tubing in the Ichetucknee River. Stuff you wouldn’t do with toddlers.
But they still enjoy a good toddler-type recreation every now and then…
This is where Kid City comes in.
If you have never been to Kid City, it is a great place for little kids. Like 4 and 6 year olds.
It is a miniature city where the kids can dress up in uniforms to pretend to be firefighters, work in kid-sized Publix, or McDonalds or a bank. They can ride scooters through the streets and stop at the cafe, or a church. If they get a “boo boo” they can seek treatment at the hospital.
And the “City” has great shaded benches for moms who want to enjoy a good book while the kids run around. My personal favorite feature!
Ryan has pointed out that it is the perfect setting to film a local “Godzilla” movie.
I had a great time at the Bombshell Gallery last night. Gina Vivenetto, the former music critic for The St. Petersburg Times, owns the gallery, and Scott Harrell, the music critic for The Weekly Planet, played a set with his band Nessie. I was there representing The Tampa Tribune, of course. Between the three of us, we had all three major print media outlets in the area covered.
The Bombshell Gallery is a neat little place with all kinds of artwork, DVDs and books for sale. The place must have had dozens of Andy Warhol-era books, complete with stories about my all-time favorite band, The Velvet Underground. I saw one book that I had to have, a photo album tribute to the group famous for having Warhol’s seal of approval, but when I picked it up to buy it, I saw NFS (not for sale) scribbled across a sticker on the cover.
After Scott’s set, my boyfriend and I headed to Café Alma. I hadn’t been there for about a year and a half. I used to like going there mostly because the music was always good, but last night, I thought it was pretty bad. After a drink, we headed off to try to find The Vitale Gallery, but when we couldn’t find it, we headed home.
After her star turn in ‘Match Point’, Scarlett Johansson is garnering more than attention from critics. It seems Woody Allen has taken a personal interest in her, even going so far as to dictate her red-carpet makeup style.
Woody Allen has long had a rep for romancing his leading ladies, and he has called Johansson his ‘muse’ in print. They just wrapped up the work on their second film together, ‘Scoop’. We know the Wood-man likes ‘em young: Soon-Yi was only 22 when the story broke about her affair with papa Woody; this year, Scarlett will reach that magic number. Besides, nothing is more seductive to a man like Woody Allen than a fresh young face. Especially a fresh young face that expouses the great man’s genius in every interview:
Uh-oh! If I were Soon-Yi, I’d double check the pre-nup and start making a list of reliable private investigators.
Is this guy a member of PUTT (People for the Unethical Treatment of Trees)? You write the caption!
Australian author Max Barry is a busy guy. The author of the acclaimed 2002 book Jennifer Government, a book that came with its own game, has released his latest novel, Company, which also takes on the issue of “corporate oppression.” In another words, some miserable people work at a white collar job - although there’s a mystery to solve, as well. Donuts figure into it, somehow. Honestly, I wish I had time to review this one, but time marches on. Here’s the cover:
Another highly-praised author - this time of the contemporary literature variety - is T. Cooper, who is about to release her second novel, Lipshitz Six, Or Two Angry Blondes, about an immigrant family who loses a child at Ellis Island. Later, the mother becomes convinced the child grew up to be Charles Lindberg. There’s also a connection established between rapper Eminem and Lindberg. Cooper’s a fascinating writer who is worth your attention, if your up for something new and challenging. And of course you are!
There’s always something new in the non-fiction stack, which is now separated into two huge towers on my desk. Today Shake That Brain by Joel Saltzman (about finding solutions to difficult problems) and Horse: How The Horse Has Shaped Civilization by J. Edward Chamberlin (about, um, how the horse has shaped civilization) look the most interesting. (Although in all honesty the one about the history of pornography seemed to catch the most attention from people walking by my desk, both male and female. But I’m going to leave you find that one on your own, this being a family-oriented sort of blog).
Although sometimes it’s sort of hard to separate the adult from the young adult and children’s. Imagine, if it’s not too much trouble, my reaction when I saw the book Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall In Love arrive at my desk. Hmm, I thought. However, right there on the press release that came with the book is the stamp “young adult readers,” and it turns out the book is about a group of 14 year olds who like to write poetry.
Yes, yes, I know. You can’t judge a book by its cover. Or its title, apparently.
Just in time for you to make fun of the Oscars - and the pretentions of the film industry - comes The Film Snob’s Dictionary by David Kemp with Lawrence Levi. You’ll find definitions for terms like Italian Neorealism, as well as lists like The Ten Great Ubiquitous Overweight Veteran Character Actors of the Modern Cinematic Era (Joe Don Baker, Martin Balsam and Charles Durning make the list).
Durning is so ubiquitous that way back in college, a friend of mine wrote a (very good) song called: “What Does Charles Durning Make In A Year?”
For the same marketing reasons, i.e. Oscar season is upon us, Roger Ebert has released “The Great Movies II,” in which the famous midwestern film critic includes essays on his favorite films. Important if you want someone else’s opinion on what films to watch (and his is as good as about anyone else’s).
On a more literary note, Stephen Wright will release his second novel later this month, called The Amalgamation Polka. it concerns Liberty Fish, raised in upstate New York but also the grandson of slaveowners in the Carolinas. Holy torn asunder family, Batman! Fish takes a journey in an effort to reunite the family as the Civil War rages through the country. Good timing.
...just not me. However, I feel compelled to mention that Southern Methodist University has released “Engineering The World: Stories From The First 75 Years of Texas Instruments.” Eseentially, it appears to be 75 stories about what it took to be on the cutting edge of the semiconductor technology business. I feel compelled to mention this because I can’t imagine anyone wanting to read 272 pages about this topic, other than my brother, but he’s an engineer. So I guess this book is intended for that heretofore unheralded sub-sub-sub genre, engineers.
Speaking of geeks (just kidding, bro!), St. Martin’s Press has released The Sports Encyclopedia Baseball 2006, which actually lives up to its claim of being “the all-time baseball argument settler.” True enough. This bad boy has every stat you can possible imagine. Want to know, for some insane reason, what the Tampa Bay Devil Rays hit as a team in 1999? .274, friends. And Miguel Cairo led the team that year with 22 steals. The oldest guy on the team was Wade Bogg, at age 41. I mean this thing is crazy full of stats.
By the way, I’m at the office writing this entry today, listening to the new record from Arctic Monkey. If you like British mod/punk, check it out.
OK, finally for today, we have At The Controls, which is from The Smithsonian. It’s features pictures from inside cockpits, which you’d think would be silly, and I certainly thought so, but after flipping through this thing, it is full of interesting pictures from the air and inside cool planes. It’s interesting even if, like me, you sort of feel that if man were meant to fly, he’d have come with wings.
So this is what it’s come to. Sunday night, blogging. But I feel the need to do so before Monday morning, with all that entails (meetings, “how was your weekend” conversations, more meetings, post-Gasparilla stories - “I haven’t drank that much in years!’‘, and so forth). So much for the work-free sanctity of the weekend. On the other hand, someone somewhere in the house has “Forrest Gump” on, I can hear it in the background (“You don’t need to take a bus, Harris street is only five blocks away!”), so I’m not missing much.
First up is Deborah Eisenberg’s “Twilight of the Superheroes,” which was a good read for the 88 pages I got through. Eisenberg is, as advertised, a master of the short story, but I personally cannot take too much of overly bright, over neurotic New Yorkers who feel the world ends at the Hudson. Still, the title story and “Some Other, Better Otto” are worth your attention.
Speaking of neurotic and, perhaps, not as sophisticated as they think New Yorkers, Jay McInerney has a new novel out, “The Good Life,’’ which, like the title story in Eisenberg’s book, focuses on life in the Big Apple post 9-11. (Gump just married that childhood friend, I can hear him talking to Lt. Dan). I love much of McInerney’s work, but it’s become obvious to me that I’m not going to get around to this one any time soon, especially since an advance copy of the new Phillip Roth book just arrived, and I have to read two books about Cuba for an upcoming books page, so rather than a review I simply want to pass along the knowledge to you that it exists. I play on putting it on my “rainy day, lots of time” stack.
The same goes for “The Book of Trouble” by Ann Marlowe, which is subtitled “A Romance” but….Oh man, now Gump is giving that teary-eyed speech at the grave, I have to go turn this down…OK. that’s better. (No one was in the room, by the way, just an empty room with Forrest Gump on. I have to admit I almost got sucked in for a minute, I can’t help it, Tom Hanks crying and the wind blowing and that cute little fella at the bus stop, argh!). Where were we? Ah yes, Marlowe’s book is more than a romance, it’s about the “clashing of cultures” when a Jewish American girl falls for an Afghan man. Here’s the cover:
Further demonstrating that it just keeps getting harder and harder to build a ruthless empire without some guttersnip taking shots at you, Anthony Bianco has just released “The Bully of Bentonville,” about how Wal-Mart is “hurting America.”
Finally, I never forget the Star Wars geeks, because I counted myself among their number before that “Phantam Menance” thing, so I’ll pass along that the latest Star Wars novel, “Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn, hits shelves Tuesday. I’d tell you what it was about, but the ninth through twelfth words in the opening sentence of the book description are Jedi Master Jorus C’baoth, and just couldn’t get past that. But I know you maniacs will. Enjoy.
I had so much fun at Gasparilla yesterday. If you’ve never been there before, than I suggest you plan to attend next year. Oh, and I’m sorry we trashed your apartment, Jenn.
I have a photo album’s worth of pictures that I plan to post on my blog soon. I hope I can get them on here sometime next week. They’re an accumulation of all of the nights I’ve spent at watering holes around Tampa Bay.
Just in case you’ve been locked in an empty room for the entire football season, I thought I should remind you that the Super Bowl is a week from today. Start making plans.
Poor Oprah. It had to happen sometime. After all no good deed goes unpunished. Here she is, just trying to make us poor slobs a little more well-read, and this is the thanks she gets. Duped by hack writer who has watched one too many after-school specials, reviled by the general public for leading her loyal subjects on a literary snipe hunt. No wonder she took a hefty chunk out of James Frey’s backside on her show the other day. Who can blame her? Frey committed the unpardonable sin:embarrassing a media mogul. Oprah’s army has a long reach and a tight grasp. You may as well spread a stick of butter on James Frey, because his career is toast. I hope for his sake he’s putting aside his pennies right now, not blowing them on a wild drug spree through the cold-medicine aisle at CVS.
Miss Oprah should learn a little lesson from this as well. I am sure there was quite the little powow in her camp when this hit the fan. “Let’s see…what to do…think, Gayle, think…Steadman, dear, run along to the kitchen and make us a few margaritas, please.”
Now, I am sure that jumping to Frey’s defense, trying to use her power to make it all seem like much ado about nothing, would seem like the logical thing to do. Make it go away fast and it won’t look like she was a prize nitwit for crowning the little snake with the treasure of her regard. (Oh, and make no mistake, a nod from Oprah is a treasure. A writer who gets an Oprah book club pick basically has alicense to print money. ) But let’s face it, with her reputation and image on the line, until she got a real handle on the way her fans were reacting to the scandal, she should have fallen back on the cushy pillow of ‘no comment’ for a few days.
OK, we’ll get you started on this one. This man is a Guinea soccer fan cheering on his team in a recent match.
But what’s with the pipe? And the look on his face? There’s more than a big goal or controversial penalty kick going on here.
So what’s up? You tell us.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the papers, you may have missed this story about the Miller Corporation pulling out of Gasparilla at the last minute. It seems crazy to expect people to bake in the sun while drinking liquor instead of beer, but I suppose there isn’t much anyone can do about it now.
One of my pals has a place over on Bayshore Blvd., so I don’t have much to worry about (except where to park). We’ll have a refrigerator full of beer to keep us busy. Say hello if you see me. I’ll be on the balcony, screaming.
When our family went to Puerto Rico this past summer, my girls and I really enjoyed a sea-kayaking trip that we took off the beach. It was great exercise and a good team-building experience for my highly competitive daughters.
As soon as we hit the sand they were clamoring about when we could do it again.
Of course, I promised we would again “soon” but once back home, opportunities didn’t present themselves.
Now they have.
Weedon Island Center offers guided canoe tours, canoe rentals and kayak rentals and classes. See descriptions below:
Guided Canoe Trip
Saturday, February 18, 2006 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center Staff and Volunteers
Take this opportunity to explore the south canoe trail of Weedon Island Preserve. This trail offers a rare look at some of the aquatic ecosystems that make west-central Florida so special. Trained canoe guides lead you through mangrove stands and over seagrass and oyster beds while pointing out various flora and fauna that live here. The cost for this unique experience is $10 per person or $20 per canoe (maximum of 3 people per canoe). Recommended ages: 6 and up. Spaces fill quickly, call (727) 453-6500 and pre-register today!
Guided Canoe Trip
Friday, February 24, 2006 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center Staff and Volunteers. Take this opportunity to explore the south canoe trail of Weedon Island Preserve. This trail offers a rare look at some of the aquatic ecosystems that make west-central Florida so special. Trained canoe guides lead you through mangrove stands and over seagrass and oyster beds while pointing out various flora and fauna that live here. The cost for this unique experience is $10 per person or $20 per canoe (maximum of 3 people per canoe). Recommended ages: 6 and up. Spaces fill quickly. Call (727) 453-6500 to pre-register today!
Self-Guided Kayak/Canoe Tours
Every Saturday and Sunday, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Kayak rentals are available at Weedon Island Preserve on Riviera Bay. Paddle beautiful mangrove tunnels that lead through the tidal forests into private lagoons. The marked South Paddling Trail is easy to follow. Expect to see an amazing array of wildlife including great blue herons, great egrets, roseate spoonbills, yellow-crowned night herons, white ibis, osprey, and belted kingfishers. Watch the water for jumping mullet, stingrays, manatees, and Eastern bottlenose dolphin. Rental kayaks and canoes do not require paddling experience and are user friendly. Every weekend, kayaks and canoes are on site at the Preserve. To arrange a drop off during the week, call Sweetwater Kayaks at (727) 570-4844. Fee: Single: $35 for up to 4 hours or $15 per hour. Double: $50 for up to 4 hours or $20 per hour.
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