Blurbex

An original work by Erica Ellis on display at West Tampa Center for the Arts.

1. More than a dozen graduating students of USF’s Fine Arts program are featured in a new exhibit at West Tampa Center for the Arts.

2. Going Green Tampa Bay Expo features eco-conscious presentations, demonstrations, film screenings and workshops at USF-Tampa.

3. Enjoy fine dining, fine art, and live jazz at Great Chefs Tampa Bay, a fundraiser for Family Resources.

4. See Jobsite’s latest production, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which CL Theater Critic Mark Leib gave a whopping 4 1/2 stars.

5. James Hunter, Robert Cray Band, Los Lonely Boys and Robben Ford are among the performers at the Tampa Bay Blues Festival.

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Metamorphoses (photo by Jemaar Graham)

1. TheatreUSF stages Metamorphoses, Mary Zimmerman’s contemporary take on Ovid’s classical tales of Greek mythology.

2. Wyoming’s Teenage Bottlerocket recreates Ramones-style punk rock at Crowbar.

3. Eckerd College welcomes guerilla journalist/filmmaker Mike Shiley, who talks about and presents a screening of his film, Inside Iraq: The Untold Stories.

4. Ronde and Tiki Barber talk about life, football and anything else that tickles their fancy at USF Sun Dome.

5. Royalty … Triumphs and Tragedies at St. Petersburg Museum of History features, among many other things, a collection of dresses worn by the late Princess Diana.

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The press box was full for the Tampa Bay Rays home opener — full, I presume, of baseball scribes familiar with the micro-strategies that seem to happen in slow motion during a baseball game. And then there was me, sitting in the press box’s back row.

My knowledge is pretty shallow — I don’t, for instance, know the best situations for a hit-and-run — but nevertheless I’m often fascinated by the cerebral nature of it all. I can listen to the Rays’ very fine TV announcers — Dewayne Staats and Joe Magrane — break it all down, explain stuff like why you don’t throw a slider after a change-up (although I can only hang for two or three innings).

That caveat established, I’m gonna weigh in on what I considered a strategic blunder by manager Joe Maddon last night. (Sure, you can read the sports columnists and get their expert takes, but this kind of neophyte analysis? Priceless.)

It was the top of the third inning with the Rays leading the Seattle Mariners 1-0. Young pitcher Matt Garza was on the mound. He gave up two singles, and then quickly registered two outs. With runners on second and third, Mariners clean-up hitter Raul Ibanez walked to the plate. Maddon called for Garza to intentionally walk Ibanez, presumably because first base was open. Bases loaded.

This seems to be a fairly common strategy in baseball, and I don’t get it. If it were a steady old veteran control pitcher on the mound, I’d say, sure, walk him and pitch to the supposedly easier guy. But this was Matt Garza, first-year starter, and he seemed to be struggling a bit. Next up for Seattle was No. 5 hitter Richie Sexson. Garza took the count to 3-2 and then … threw ball four. Walked in a run.

OK, so a 1-1 score early in the game is not that big a deal, but why not let Garza pitch to Ibanez instead of intentionally walking him? If he gets the guy out, he goes into the dugout with confidence, up 1-0. Instead, Garza got the yips and walked in a run.

It got worse. The next Mariners batter, Wilkerson, hit a sharp single and drove in two more runs. Seattle 3, Tampa Bay 1.

Garza walked off the mound one batter later with a nerve injury in his arm. This figures into the equation, I suppose, but it doesn’t change the notion that Joe Maddon set up his inexperienced pitcher to fail.

And it gets weirder. In the top of the 6th, Rays up 5-4, with two outs and men on second and third (first base open), Maddon instructed pitcher Gary Glover to intentionally walk Ibanez — again. Sexson came up, hit a bloop single to right and two runs scored. Mariners 6, Rays 5, which turned out to be the final score.

None of this is to suggest that Joe Maddon is a bad manager. I kind of like how he handles the team. But I think this time he relied too much on conventional wisdom. Both intentional walks clearly backfired. I especially think Maddon needed to consider Garza’s psyche in the first instance. Those types of small failures can really have an impact on a young pitcher’s confidence.

Garza will have plenty of time to mull it over. He was put on the 15-day disabled list, and could possibly be out of the rotation until June.

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1. (Pictured from left): Zach Nadolski, Darrel Blackburn and Gina Varchetto star in a new American Stage in the Park production of The Pirates of Penzance, which kicks off tonight with a “Pay-what-you-can” preview.

2. Honey Pot presents Da’ House Party, a recruiting and networking event with food, giveaways, an art exhibit, and a performance by local hip-hop duo Blac Soap.

3. The Studio at 620 screens Mardi Gras: Made in China as the first selection of its Indy Film Café series.

4. Black neighborhoods and churches are the focus for the USF Institute on Black Life 2008 Spring Symposium.

5. The 2008 WNBA Draft is held at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club and broadcast live on ESPN2. 

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Golem

1. New York-based Klezmer/rock sextet Golem plays a WMNF show at Skipper’s Smokehouse.

2. The NCAA Women’s Final Four tournament comes to a head tonight – see who takes home the glory on ESPN.

3. C. Vivian Stringer, head coach of Rutgers University’s women’s basketball team, signs copies of her new memoir at Inkwood Books.

4. Florida Championship Wrestling presents several championship matches at Bourbon Street.

5. Singer-songwriter David Pomeranz schedules a last-minute Tampa performance of his piano-driven show, Chaplin — A Life In Concert, which is presented at HCC-Ybor’s Mainstage Theater tonight.

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(Above: Honda Grand Prix winner Graham Rahal, the author’s grandsons David and Sam - the latter a little miffed because his brother, not he, had just caught one of Rahal’s autographed caps - and an unidentified fan, also hoping for souvenirs. All photos by David Biddle.)

If you’re a complete ignoramus when it comes to auto racing, it helps to have with you as your guide and your photographer a complete racing freak. My partner’s son David is just such a freak, and my first experience at the Honda Grand Prix (gotta get those brand names in – the Grand Prix is nothing if not an intensely branded event) benefited immeasurably by having him on hand to interpret.
After our edifying encounter with Gene Simmons, we spent the next day at the Acura Sports Car Challenge, part of the American Le Mans Series, or ALMS (“Alms! Alms! Alms for the poor!”). Though essentially just the pre-show to the main event on Sunday, the ALMS race proved useful as a way for me, racing dumbass, to pick the brain of David, racing connoisseur. He showed me a lot, and also took pictures of it.
Some of these pictures were of merely prurient interest (for me, not for David) Like this one (below) of Penske driver Ryan Briscoe, who makes a good argument for orange jumpsuits. Which brings me to an important point for all potential race-car fans of the female or gay persuasion: The eye-candy factor. Between the drivers and the firemen and the weekend jocks, well, you need to attend more races, honey, I’m tellin’ you.
But David, being knowledgeable, was also able to spot some historic moments which had no (well, only a little) prurient interest, like this meeting (below) of race-car royalty: Michael Andretti, his son Marco and racing godfather Roger Penske.

(more…)

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Doesn’t sound like such a great idea since that Celebrity Apprentice thing, does it? But that’s what we got the other night in St. Pete. Or rather, that’s what my 10-year-old grandson David got.

On Friday night, Grand Prix Eve, we were on the verge of getting a table for six at St. Pete hotspot Parkshore Grill when the hostess told us, “I’m so sorry. Gene Simmons just took your table.” It was kind of an honor, in a perverse way, to have your table swiped out from under you by a quasi-celebrity, and since Gene Simmons was apparently the only quasi-celebrity other than the drivers to show up for race weekend (no Dempsey, no Letterman), this qualified as a brush with semi-greatness.
But David, the grandson, wanted more than just a brush. An aspiring rock star, he took it upon himself to ask the long-tongued one for some gen-yoo-wine rock-star counsel.
After we’d been seated at our own table for six, David went in search of Simmons’ table and proceeded to interview him.
“Excuse me, Mr. Simmons, I don’t mean to interrupt your dinner, but I just got my first electric guitar and I have my own band called Lack of Focus, and do you have any tips?”
Simmons, in his sans-KISS-makeup, bushy-black-hair, reality-TV persona, paused for a few seconds and answered, politely, “First off, change the name of the band to L.O.F., because Lack of Focus is really kind of long, and when you’re signing papers, you don’t want it to be long.” Then he asked, “How many people are in your band?” David told him four, not including himself.
“OK,” he said. “That’s a good amount. What kind of music are you going to play?”
“Kind of like your kind of music,” David replied.
“Aerosmith…. Classic rock,” Simmons offered.
“Yeah, yeah.”
And then Simmons said, “Remember this: It doesn’t matter how many bad choices or good choices that you make because you have so much time ahead of you to make up for it.”
Then he autographed David’s napkin.
Autograph? $XX on EBay. Career advice from a man who knows how to stretch out a career beyond all reason? Priceless.

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1. Comedian Billy Gardell (pictured) brings his stand-up to Floyd’s at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

2. Three local, singing-songwriting ladies play a gig at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center’s Jaeb Theater.

3. Gorilla Theatre produces a staged reading of Mark Leib’s new play, American Duet.

4. Beach Theatre continues its Indie Mondays Series with a screening of
Nanking.

5. Austin purveyors of instrumental dub reggae Grimy Styles perform at New World Brewery with support provided by Tribal Style and Tatty Dread & Rastafora.

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Cruise on over to fixitnowtampabay.com to help us with our upcoming green issue:

Creative Loafing is gearing up for its upcoming Green Issue by assembling a list of “100 Ways to Go Green Right Now.” Got a surefire suggestion? A hint for saving energy, saving trees, saving the planet? Post your idea as a comment below, and we’ll include it in our Green Issue Apr. 16.

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The guys over at St. Petersblog continue to push the St. Pete curbside recycling issue in their own snarky way. Yesterday, they posted a link to a form letter you can use to write Mayor Rick Baker urging him to adopt curbside recycling. Today, they’ve added a scathing response to a form letter they received after e-mailing Mayor Baker.

Particularly galling to the bloggers is this paragraph written by Sanitation Coordinator Bill Sundstrom:

A curbside program would have an annual operating budget in excess of $3 million dollars; generate environmental detriments associated with additional fuel consumption (20,000 gallons per year), vehicle air emissions and potable water usage, with minimal impacts to extending the life span of the Pinellas County Landfill. The high cost of operating a curbside program must be compared to the low resource return, typically from a 2%-4% reduction of the waste stream. This imbalance represents a negative influence on resource conservation, which is the goal of recycling.

That’s my bold up there, because I’m calling bullshit on this one, too.

Last December, during a tour of Pinellas County’s Bridgeway Acres, I interviewed sanitation technician Rick Clarke, who told me recycling is crucial to the longevity of the county’s landfill.

“Seventy percent of this doesn’t need to be here,” he said as we stood on top of an 80-foot mound of trash (the highest point in Pinellas County, I might add). “If all we did was recycle paper, we’d chop a third of it right there.”

When I questioned him on his feelings about the lack of curbside in St. Pete, Clarke didn’t want to comment, though he did say, “Where cities have curbside, there is a lot less recyclables [at the landfill].”

The fact is, St. Pete adds a disproportionate amount of recyclable trash to the county’s landfill. Even the county has recognized this: they’re considering taking care of St. Pete’s recycling themselves.

I don’t blame St. Pete officials for not wanting to start an expensive program when the county might go ahead and pay for it. But tell citizens that and don’t spoon us bullshit like the letter above.

In the meantime, maybe environmental types should take a look at St. Pete Recycling Solutions.

(photo credit: Peter Kaminski on Flikr)

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“The Snake Search,” by Creative Clay member JJ H.

1. Creative Clay presents a new exhibit, Games We Play: Purely Unique Depictions and Alterations of Past, Present, and Imagined Games.

2. Caribou returns to Crowbar this Sunday night. Definitely a must-see show.

3. The 2008 Honda Gran Prix brings a lively buzz to the streets of downtown St. Petersburg.

4. Pay a visit to a charming Tampa neighborhood featured in our Urban Explorer issue and enjoy stops at some of its most architecturally appealing homes during the 10th Annual Old Seminole Heights Home Tour.

5. The 30th Annual Bay Area Renaissance Festival draws to an end this weekend.

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