Blurbex

In addition to volunteering at public and community radio outlets as I wrote about in last week’s issue, I also got some (intelligent) TV in there, too. A year ago I volunteered with the folks at WEDU (they’re always in need of a few dedicated interns), where I delivered coffee and talk to Phyllis Busansky and listened to Ernest Hooper tell me why I (of the generation of non-newspaper readers) need to read the TBT*. (Insert clever jab at shitty paper here.)

Not that I even own a TV (or have time to watch with all my jobs), but when I do have some spare time, I am all about C-SPAN.org. You can watch archived programs and stream all three channels live 24/7.

Who needs canned/framed news when you can watch the rawness of politicos in action? Who needs grad school when you can watch the hip-hop summit and Bill Moyers delivering the keynote address at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Convention? I eat this stuff up! The exchange of information is awesome — back in May I watched a discussion between TNR’s Jon Cohn and the Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon, both of whom authored books earlier this year on health-care reform (I got a little story out of that, too.)

When I got word that C-SPAN’s Book TV Bus was coming to the St. Pete Times’ Festival of Reading, I was so there. I sent off an e-mail to the general info address and a week later got a call from a C-SPANner. Sweet Jesus, it was like speaking to God/Brian Lamb.

So I spent a few hours in front of the bus handing out tote bags and informing St. Petersburgers on the joys of C-SPAN Book TV. Surprisingly (or not), people under 53 have no idea what the heck C-SPAN is. I was happy to fill them in on its wonders. One passerby, a woman, 30-ish like me, had her hubby and two small children in tow. She took one of each of the brochures and signed up on all the mailing lists. I could see in her my sister-in-C-SPAN-obsession. I asked her to explain her love and she couldn’t, but I understood - there just aren’t enough words. Her husband rolled his eyes and continued pushing the baby carriage along as she and I winked our goodbyes.

Afterward, I headed home to pack. This is my last week at CL. I’m moving up north in search of ways to get paid for my public radio and TV fanaticism. Tampa Bay has been so good to me — I leave with an awesome resume, empty pockets and much love.

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Eat, drink and be merry.

Blackwater has half-learned Ben Franklin’s saying, “In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.”

With the whole global warming crisis thing, Floridians will need to eat their broccoli now more than ever before.

Ever feel like whacking a big, fat media conglomerate?

Edwards tells Bill Maher how “way not romantic” life is on the campaign trail and sends a love letter to Bill O’Reilly.

Who says you can’t have a partial birth, um, adoption in Missouri?

Remember that study a while back that said old people still get it on? They could have just asked the 84-year-old woman who was shtupping the 24 year old dude…

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Channelside’s attempt to Save the Arts (a fundraiser for Visual Arts for Students with Disabilities, the Education Channel and Gala Corina) this weekend looks to be a success. Adam Rose, the event’s creator and GM of Channelside IMAX, put the attendance at around 4000 throughout the day and the estimated net (from a Bennigan’s donation and StA T-shirt sales) at $8,000. He also pointed out that several groups approached him to make the event an annual occurrence, and plans are in the works to absorb the film festival of the newly impoverished Ed Channel into the next StA. (Their Independent’s Film Festival, which happened in September, screened at Channelside.)

Michael Mendolusky with dancing baby Olivia and Nikki Ferraro (d’Visitors lead singer) come to see Jay Giroux beautify an old CL box.

The locale, however, was less than ideal. On Saturday night Channelside was the eye of a meat market hurricane — frat boys and hot chicks swirled about as funky models and out-of-place creative types descended on the downtown Tampa nightspot. It was hard to tell if people were there for the arts, or because Channelside was their usual game. Auditorium frontman (and fellow Creative Loafer) Joran Oppelt, a self-proclaimed “jaded, bitter musician,” played late in the evening and couldn’t argue with the good attendance numbers. “At least there were people there,” he said. “[It was] smarter than doing it at a theatre and no one showing up.” But if the bodies aren’t paying attention, is art really being saved?

After watching the fashion show by Aleka Phoenix, Ivanka Ska, and (2007 Best of the Bay’s best designer) Ben Chmura, I literally had to run to Tampa Theatre (well, you know, park then run) to catch the screening of Itty Bitty Titty Committee at the second-to-last night of the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (just renamed the Clip Film Festival, by the way; their new logo will be unveiled early next year). The screening brought out between 700-800 people, mostly women.

Itty Bitty Titty Committee (directed by Jamie Babbit) is the first production of Power Up, a professional organization that promotes the visibility and integration of gay women in entertainment, the arts and all forms of media. The film, which proved a good counterpoint to StA’s skinny-thigh-dominated fashion show, follows the CIA (Clits in Action) as they tag L.A. plastic surgery clinics with slogans such as, “Women come in all shapes.” Interesting, since in this Hollywood-produced film most of the leads are as bite-sized as their mainstream counterparts. The character’s MO is “reclaiming public space for women,” even if many of them are vaguely (or completely) unaware of the effects of the societal demands on women’s lives. But it’s the thought that counts … right?

Pass the celery stalks, please.

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This afternoon for lunch I stopped into my favorite beans-and-rice place in downtown Tampa, priced just right for young alt weekly writer-types.

After I parked and was exiting my vehicle, I faced a moral dilemma. Upon spotting an empty Tupperware container on the passenger seat, I thought I could bring it in with me instead of getting the Styrofoam take out container. But the part of me that occasionally abides by the mores of society overruled that thought, and it was left in the car.

When asked by the pretty cashier with the Jamaican accent if I wanted a bag for the box, however, my inner environmentalist saw an opportune time to out herself. I declined the bag and she asked why, a little astonished.

I explained I thought the bag was unnecessary — it wasn’t as if I was taking out anything spillable. I read just this morning that it takes 1,000 years for a plastic bag to break down in a landfill and that earlier this year the entire city of San Francisco banned plastic bags altogether.

I wished aloud that Tampa would do the same, seeing as with almost everything else, we’re at least 10 years behind the rest of the country. Again, she had a look of astonishment and said she had no idea about all this stuff, adding that I should be the person to get the ball rolling.

Hmm…but how to educate and make others listen, care, etc.?

Some things I’ve already noticed in this vein: Pinellas County has dog-walking stations around town with biodegradable poo bags. Why not pay a few pennies more for non-plastic grocery bags that we use once that won’t hang out for the next millennium? And am I the only one who sees the pointlessness in buying plastic garbage bags? It’s literally throwing one’s money away.

Ideas? Suggestions?

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Looking for a new best friend? Dunedin Doggie Rescue, which I did a Curiouser on earlier this year, is just one of many local dog rescue groups sheltering many animals in need of homes.

If funky mutts aren’t for you, many rescue organizations specialize in certain breeds, like Greyhounds and Dalmatians. Dachshunds will be invading David Island this Saturday from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Michael Vick-types need not apply.

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Dan Mathews is the Vice President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the man responsible for the “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign. He stopped by the offices of Creative Loafing this morning to chat about his book, Committed: A Rabbel-Rouser’s Memoir.

The most obvious question to me was the way celebrities adopt causes like Angelina Jolie adopts babies. I had to ask which celeb was a flip flopper on animal rights. To my surprise, he only had one.
“Naomi Campbell. She thought we were the coolest thing to come along, but when her career faltered, she went back on her word. She’s a glaring example of someone greedy.”

Otherwise supermodels and actors have stuck by PETA and were a stepping stone into the world of fashion. Mathews, a former model himself, explained that engaging designers behind the scenes was more important than the passing era of supermodels. The designers were the ones after all making the decisions about whether or not to include fur in their collections. “PETA’s about keeping an eye on what people are paying attention to,” Mathews says. “Like fashion.”

Just last week Mathews was invited by the Liz Claiborne Company, which sells a high quantity of leather shoes and bags, to do a presentation to the staff. He says it was “a great sign of things to come. 15 years ago the only way to get attention was to take over their office. Now we get invited in. Most of the time.”

Committed spills the details of Mathews’ numerous times behind bars, among them for protesting without a permit in Harvard Square in his drawers for a “fur-out, love-in” in a mock bed with four other activists.

“Part of the point of the book is that you can devote your life to a cause without becoming a total bore. You can do serious work and still have a good time,” says Mathews. He’s learned that people want entertainment, not education. An energetic, mostly in-house team comes up with PETA’s campaigns with creativity that rivals any Madison Avenue advertising execs. They know they have to compete for attention with cable TV, celebrity headlines and myriad other distractions to get people to pay attention.

Which is why Mathews and PETA are so successful at reaching out to youth around the world. PETA2.com has a few hundred thousand street-teamers. At PETATV.com, pop star Pink narrates a video on wool. Mathews says of the video: “Most people don’t want to watch a sheep being mutilated. But her loyal fanbase will.”

Mathews is ever optimistic and only let defeat creep into conversation once. He says PETA focuses primarily on reaching the younger generations because breaking habits of someone who’s eaten a steak a week for the last 50 years is nearly impossible. “I ask the kids to look at how unhealthy their grandparents are and if they want to end up like that,” he says.

Dan Mathews will do a book reading and signing Tuesday night at 7 p. m. at Barnes & Noble, 11802 N. Dale Mabry, in Tampa at 7:00 PM.

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How old must a female be before she is referred to as a woman and not as a girl? In a story on Chelsea Clinton in today’s New York Times, loyal Clinton supporter John Catsimatidis calls the 27-year old former first daughter a “very talented girl.”

This caused me to put the paper down, look over to several co-workers, three males and one female in their 20’s and early 30’s, and ask if they think referring to a female adult as a ‘girl’ is as inappropriate as I do.

The other woman in the conversation said it didn’t bother her. The three men in the conversation didn’t get my side at all.

“You mean, if I went up to you at a party and said, ‘Hey girl!’ you’d be offended?” one male coworker asked.

Would you if I called you a boy? What about our 21-year old male intern?

“No way! That’s an insult.”

Why the difference? The men offered it’s because there’s no female equivalent to the term ‘guy.’ I argued guy could be male or female, but still, what did that have to do with calling a woman a girl?

I also argue that this is not about my being offended or my female coworker being indifferent, rather it’s about society being so unaware of this inequality that ‘girl’ is a mainstay in our acceptable language.

Dictionary.com defines girl as: 1. a female child from birth to full growth and 2. a young, immature woman, esp. formerly, an unmarried one.

For years, I have been a one-woman force trying to even things out. I’ve always used the term ‘boy’ when referring to any man I’m romantically involved with who pisses me off, as in “Boys are dumb.”

Conversely, I also use ‘boy’ as a term of endearment for guys I like, as in, “Wow, that George Clooney. He’s the cutest boy ever.” That no doubt stems from growing up on Sassy’s Cute Boy Alert.

The deal is, I’ll grow out of my immature teenage ways of referring to men as boys when society grows out of calling women girls.

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ABC News’ Senior White House Correspondent Martha Raddatz and Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran — veteran Iraq War correspondents with recently published books about their experiences — joined about 200 people who braved an afternoon downpour at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg Saturday.

The crowd paid $25 apiece to attend the lecture series, which was held theater-in-the-round style.

Chandrasekaran’s book, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” writes of the heavily protected Green Zone, the place where non-military government administrators stay while in Iraq. He called the Zone a bit of “D.C. on the Tigris” and a “bubble” where civilians make decisions for the U.S. military, often without communicating with them.

In early 2004, for example, American administrators signed a decree against Muqtada Al Sadr, a popular cleric supported by the majority of Iraqis in Sadr City, a Baghdad slum home to 2.5 million people. They shut down Sadr’s newspaper, prompting massive protests. To that point, only one American had died in Sadr City in the previous 12 months. After the decree, guerrilla warfare broke out. One night in March 2004, an American armored vehicle was pinned down in an alley in Sadr City, and the 1st Calvary, in open trucks, was sent in to make the rescue. 8 men died and 70 were wounded in that operation.

(more…)

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Many terrific benefits and shows are going on this weekend, among them Lorna Bracewell’s On This Earth, a concert series she started a while back to raise money for various local causes.

On This Earth, tomorrow night at Ruth Eckerd Hall, will feature Bracewell, her cute wife Lexi Pierson, Rebekah Pulley and Geri X.

Pulley was a guest on my early Monday morning radio show on WMNF, which can be streamed until this Monday morning. My guest host for 7/30 is Flashpoint-er Brendan McLaughlin. (Yes, it’s already been recorded and no, Wayne Garcia was not allowed in the studio.)

Speaking of PoHo, he’ll be on Rob Lorei’s Florida This Week on WEDU tonight at 8:30 along with Patrick Manteiga, Mary Anne Stiles and Andrew Skerritt.

And if that’s not enough reporters in one room for you, stop by St. Pete’s Poynter Institute Saturday afternoon from 1-3 for a conversation with ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz and Washington Post assistant managing editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Both have recently written books on the war in Iraq.

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