Blurbex

Breaking news from the Times:

TAMPA — Early this morning, someone swiped a 6-foot hot dog costume from a Sonic diner on Bearss Avenue.

The hot dog costume, worth $1,600, disappeared at 3:50 a.m., according to Hillsoborough sheriff’s officials.

A witness saw a man running from the restaurant with a big hot dog suit in his arms, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter.

So many possibilities with this one, folks …

(BTW, the photo above is not of the suspect. Apparently, the Internet is full of photos of people in hot dog costumes. This one is courtesy of Officergleason.)

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Thrice; photo by Myriam Santos-Kayda.

1. California’s Thrice plays a show at Jannus Landing with Pelican and Circa Survive – all badass experi-alt rock bands.

2. The next discussion topic in the 620 Round Table on Social Justice Series is “Race and Reconciliation.” Local leaders participate; Ray Arsenault moderates.

3. Get a makeover and find out about the latest non-curgical skin care techniques at the next TampaBay Pretty City spa party.

4. Four Days of Dance kicks off tonight.

5. Jean Davidson – granddaughter of one of the founders of Harley-Davidson, Walter Davidson – makes an appearance in St. Pete to sign copies of her books and raise money for her charity organization.

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The Band’s Visit

1. The Band’s Visit – a multi-award winning minimalist comedy about a band made up of members of the Egyptian police, and what happens when they find themselves in the wrong town – is screened at 1:30 p.m. at Beach Theatre, and 7:30 p.m. at Tampa Theatre.

2. Can you tell the difference between Bush and McCain? Find out this morning between 8 and 9:30 a.m. in downtown Tampa.

3. Ozomatli brings their Latin-infused hip hop to Jannus Landing.

4. The Alaska Experiment on Discovery Channel is a seven-part documentary series that deposits four volunteer groups of city folks at separate locations in the southern Alaska wilderness. Each group is provided with minimal supplies and shelter, and must learn to survive off the land for three months. It’s like Survivorman, only five times more nerve-wracking.

5. Weaving Time into Tapestries is the latest theater piece presented by TBPAC’s Patel Conservatory Education Department.

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White Denim; photo courtesy of Gorilla vs. Bear.

1. Worthy of the drive: Two out-there but interesting indie bands – Austin’s polyrhythmic post-punk trio White Denim and experi-pop foursome Tapes n’ Tapes of Minneapolis – play the Social in
Orlando.

2. Darfur Working Group co-founder Dr. Hamid E. Ali talks about his experiences as a native of Sudan and his U.S.-based umbrella organization during “Darfur – Stand for Justice.”

3. A new sort of chamber music concert, The String Art, is presented at Czar nightclub.

4. Wail like Axel Rose with back up provided by a live band at Crowbar’s Rock Star Karaoke night.

5. House and its bedside manner-free doc returns with new episodes on Fox.

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1. Sweetwater Organic Farm concludes its Friday Movie Series with a screening of the heartwarming documentary, The Real Dirt on Farmer John.

2. Artistic Director Donald Byrd brings Spectrum Dance Theater to Clearwater. The program highlight is a new modern piece commissioned by Ruth Eckerd Hall for its 25th anniversary, and performed to a jazz number that was composed for a previous REH anniversary.

3. Talib Kweli plays Jannus Landing this Sunday evening.

4. Ybor Cigar Theatre and Tek-Nique Entertainment produce State of the Art, a one-night show featuring a range of emerging visual artists as well as live music and spins, art demos, all-you-can-drink beer and sangria, and more.

5. Two Last Comic Standing alumni perform at Tampa Improv and Side Splitters Comedy Club.

Farm John shows off his huge head of lettuce.

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 1. ABC premieres the first of five new (post-strike) episodes of Lost, with the season finale to air May 29.

2. Have dinner at La Fogata Churrascaria, Le Bouchon Bistro, Backfin Blue or Pia’s Trattoria, or choose from 31 other Pinellas County restaurants participating in Dining Out for Life, a national AIDS awareness campaign and fundraiser; 25 percent of your check will be donated to AIDS Service Association of Pinellas (ASAP).

3. Austin’s Woodsboss perform their twangy, accordion-laced melodies at New World Brewery tonight.

4. Florida Holocaust Museum holds a special opening ceremony for its new exhibition, The Greatest Crime of the War: The Armenian Genocide during World War I.

5. See performances by six World Championship drum corps finalists from the past three years in DCI 2008: The Countdown.

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Ministry

1. Industrial metal makers Ministry brings their supposed final tour (inanely dubbed “C U LaTouR”) to Jannus Landing tonight.

2. Two old broads find love and a new lease on life in Bermuda Avenue Triangle; the national tour stops at Ruth Eckerd Hall for an afternoon and evening show.

3. CLIP Film Series presents a screening of The World Unseen at Muvico Baywalk in St. Petersburg.

4. Amani Africa President Gasana Mutesi talks about her experiences – growing up in a Rwandan refugee camp, losing both her parents to the genocide at age 16, raising her five siblings while attending college and becoming the youngest and most influential human rights activist in the region, and heading up Amani Africa, a grassroots sustainable peace organization that focuses on the children and youths of Central Africa’s post-conflict communities. This presentation at the Studio at 620 precedes two upcoming Amani Africa fundraisers in Tampa.

5. A collection of dresses owned by the late Princess Diana are paired with related films and displays in Dresses for Humanity II at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The 10-day exhibition opens today.

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… and now it’s time to think about the animals on it.

Florida Voices for Animals is holding an educational event at University of South Florida-Tampa on Thursday, April 24. The animal rights activists will hold a demonstration in front of the university library between 9 a.m. and noon.

From their release:

In honor of World Week for Animals in Laboratories (WWAIL April 20th-April 27), Florida Voices for Animals (FVA) is organizing a leafleting event at USF Tampa’s library. World Week for Animals in Laboratories (WWAIL) is an annual event designed to expose the plight of animals used for testing and research. WWAIL seeks to arouse concern for animals in laboratories as well as educate the public about the scientific, moral, and economic objections to animal experimentation, also known as vivisection. Although recent changes worldwide have brought major advancements for animals in labs to end their use in drug and chemical screening tests, millions still remain captive in laboratory cages, subject to intolerable cruelty. Scores of innocent beings endure torture, life long enclosures and ultimately death for obsolete, imprecise, and heartless animal experiments.

Lab testing is a sensitive subject — this demo could get interesting.

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Gwendolyn Reese, one of the candidates running for St. Petersburg City Council’s vacant seat, returned my call today, offering up some insightful comments not only on her candidacy, but also the politics surrounding the selection process.

Reese, a longtime community activist and CEO of Infinite Solutions, has never run for office before, but after Ernest Williams vacated his council seat, she felt compelled to apply.

“I would not be a politician, I’ll be a public servant,” she says. “There is a distinction.”

Reese says many residents in District 6 — one of the most diverse districts in the city — did not feel they had been represented well over the last eight years.

“I had been hearing that many white people in the community felt that they had not been represented at all,” she explains. “They felt very excluded, but that was also the case in the African-American community. We did not feel like we had the ear to our representative and that there was somewhat of a disconnect.”

As for her priorities, Reese echoes the other applicants I talked to: the threat of budget cuts and the Rays’ stadium proposal.

“A major concern for the African-American community is the redevelopment of Tropicana Field,” she says. “Many in the community feel promises made to them [when the stadium was first built] were not kept.”

(Earlier this year, I highlighted those concerns in a story about the old Gas Plant neighborhood leveled for Tropicana Field. Read it here.)

But Reese’s most interesting comments were on the politics surrounding this campaign-less election. As Darden Rice, who ran for the District 6 seat in 2005, told me last week: “Mayoral politics is the real 600-pound gorilla in this room, which is determining how [the councilmembers] will vote.”

Reese echoed some of those concerns.

It’s almost as if there are “gatekeepers” that a candidate must get permission from in order to run, she says, “and that’s just not something that I do.”

“I’m surprised by people who feel a candidate is an excellent choice, but don’t feel like they can support them openly or at all because of a system that is in place,” she says. “… Experience should be the requirement, not loyalty to something or someone.”

That kind of thinking is not only detrimental to constituents, she says, but “our whole democratic system.”

The City Council appoints their next colleague on Thursday.

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Chicago’s Millennium Park, a green project helmed by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley; featured on an e2 episode that’s screened at TBPAC.

1. See the sun set on Hillsborough river and enjoy an ECO.lution Earth Day screening on the lawn at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. The featured selections are three episodes of e2, a new PBS series about sustainable energy innovations.

2. Earth Day in SoHo: 360 Eco Vodka debut and a fundraiser for environmentally sensitive land. 

3. Eat a free-range steak burger and sip a complimentary soy milkshake at Evo’s.  

4. Marvel at the variety of eco-friendly designs at the Trashy Fashion Show in Largo. 

5. Watch: a new episode of the eco-documentary series, Big Ideas for a Small Planet, which offers a glimpse of Generation Y’s habits, attitudes and eco-conciousness (9 p.m.), and the Greening of Southie, about Boston’s first green residential building (9:30 p.m.), both on Sundance Channel; Earth Report: State of the Planet (9 p.m.), about the planet’s current environmental health, and Human Footprint (10 p.m.), which tracks humanity’s consumption of natural resources, both on National Geographic Channel; and Frontline on PBS, which investigates the politics guiding the federal government’s global warming measures, and the stance of local and state governments on the issue.

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