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Arguably the best culinary competition reality show, Bravo’s Top Chef has embarked on a 20-city national tour, which happens to be stopping at Ybor’s Saturday Morning Market on Sept. 20. No telling which chefs will take part (the info is noticeably absent from both the press release and the Top Chef site), but previous appearences have featured Season 5 finalist Richard Blaise (pictured at left) and Betty Fraser from Season 2. Locals are invited to come out and enjoy cooking demos, gourmet tips, and show secrets.

Bookmark to:

1. Crowbar presents a bill of alternative music, with sets by The Sleeping and Envy on the Coast, both of Long Island, New York, Asheville’s Secret Lives of Freemasons, and New Jersey duo The Gay Blades (pictured).

2. Make hurricane preparations.

3. Celebrate International Lighthouse Day with some lighthouse appreciation.

4. Week two of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games; tonight’s excitement includes the women’s trampoline final, the second night of individual event gymnastics (men’s rings and vault, women’s uneven bars), women’s beach volleyball semifinals, and several track and field competitions: the men’s steeplechase, 400m hurdles and long jump, and the women’s pole vault.

5. The Tampa Bay Rays kick off a three-night stand of home games against the Los Angeles Angels tonight at Tropicana Field.

Bookmark to:

1. Leepa Rattner Museum of Art opens its 2008-09 season this Saturday with Playing a Hunch, a new exhibit of 90 images by NYC award-winning photojournalist Mel Finkelstein.

2. Indianapolis indie collective  Margo & the Nuclear So & So’s play a show at Crowbar this Sunday with Audreye Sessions of Oakland, Calif.

3. Suds lovers unite at Limey’s Pub in St. Pete for the next installment of Beer Club, a monthly Creative Loafing beer tasting event. Tonight’s featured brews: Michelob Hefeweizen, Beach Bum Blonde, Red Hook Sun Rye, and Red Hook ESB.

4. Beach Theatre continues its Friday Night Cult Flicks series with a screening of The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965.

5. Comedian Jim Gaffigan brings his “Sexy Tour” to Ruth Eckerd Hall and performs two shows on Saturday.

Pictured: “Marilyn Monroe with Arthur Miller,” Mel Finkelstein, 1957.  

Bookmark to:

1. The Hush Sound, a Chicago indie quartet who craft blissfully saccharine pop songs marked by the throaty vocals and lively piano playing of Greta Salpeter, headlines a show at State Theater tonight. They are joined by The Cab, Steel Train and the Morning Light.
The Hush Sound; photo by Matt Wignall.

2. Comedian Jim Florentine of Crank Yankers fame (remember Special Ed and belching, blazing Bobby Fletcher?) brings his stand-up to Side Splitters Comedy Club; he performs tonight through Sunday.

3. Author William McKeen talks about and signs copies of his fantastic new book, Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson, at Inkwood Books this evening.

4. HCC-Ybor Art Gallery opens a new exhibit featuring two exceptional visual arts students: Eric Lawson and Laura Mendes. 

5. For the next installment of WMNF’s Live Jazz Series, the station welcomes Larue Nickelson, a preeminent Bay area jazz guitarist and composer.

Bookmark to:

1. Twenty@620 presents Descending Sideways, a night of theater readings and performances created by writers Jordan Stovall and Jared O’Roark (pictured artfully below).

2. Another Wednesday evening St. Pete for Peace documentary screening at Café Bohemia, this one Hamas: Behind the Mask, a one-hour Canadian documentary shot during 2004 and ’05, when Hamas emerged as a political force despite the systematic assassinations of its key leaders.

3. More than 20 local wannbe comedians test their chops at Comic’s Night Out, an open mic free-for-all at Side Splitters where performers can say whatever the hell they want. The $10 cover includes a drink at the bar and a slice of pie from Garlic Jim’s Gourmet Pizza.

4. Tampa Bay Sierra Club welcomes nature photographer/Tampa Audubon Photo Club head/Florida Museum of Photographic Arts instructor Dan Harnly for its August General Meeting. Harnley presents “Get That Shot! Wildlife Photography Made Easy,” a program geared towards beginner to intermediate photographers.

5. Jobsite Theater offers a $10 preview of its latest production, Embedded, Tim Robbins’ drama-satire about the Iraq war. The show has its official opening tomorrow night.

Bookmark to:

1. Tampa Theatre continues its extended run of Brideshead Revisted, a film based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh that takes place in pre-WWII England and follows a young man who becomes hopelessly involved with a noble family. 7:30 p.m., 711 N. Franklin St., downtown Tampa, $9 adults/$8 students/$7 seniors and military, 813-274-8981.
Ben Whishaw, Matthew Good and Hayley Atwell in Brideshead Revisted

 2. Gulf Coast Museum of Art opened two new exhibits this past weekend – Victoria Block: Narrations, large-scale impressionistic landscapes paired with ceramic vessels other forms by the Canadian artist, and Studio Works, the museum’s annual juried show of works created by instructors and artists who have taught or taken classes or workshops at GCMA over the past year. Both can be viewed today. 10 a.m.-4 p.m., 12211 Walsingham Road, Largo, 727-518-6833, $8 adults/$7 seniors/$4 students and youths.

3. Wine, Dine, Canine is a happy hour fundraiser at Global Elements Cuisine held to raise money for “Get Rescued … Gulfport,” a nonprofit animal rescue organization that serves numerous area pet groups. Pets are welcome. 5-7 p.m., 3121 Beach Blvd., Gulfport, 727-343-9894.

4. Ybor City Chamber of Commerce welcomes Shelton Quarles as the guest speaker for its Membership Luncheon. Quarles is Chair of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA), which was formed by the legislature to develop a regional plan for a Bay area mass transit system. 11:45 a.m., Columbia Restaurant, 2117 E. Seventh Ave., Ybor City, $24.

5. At this evening’s Arabian Nights Belly Dance Show and Party, Hip Expressions Belly Dance Studio welcomes Ophelia Tzighan, a 22-year veteran of belly dance who’s performed in 13 countries around the world and was a dancer on U2’s ZOOTV Tour. Other performers include Johanna ‘Xenobia’, Karen Sun Ray, Loud Zoo Tribal Belly Dance, Kimshara, Maritzina, the Three Gypsies and several others. Guests also enjoy Eastern European fare, a bazaar and a hookah lounge. 7 p.m. dinner, 8 p.m. showtime, St Petersburg Nights Russian Restaurant & Lounge, 6800 Sunset Way, St Pete Beach, $5 general/$3 ages 11 and under, 727-644-4839.

Bookmark to:

1. Start your Monday with some good old fashioned absurdity  – check out Rockafire Explosion, an animatronic band of animals (formerly of ShowBiz Pizza Place restaurants) who are enjoying a YouTube revival with performances of anything from the White Stripes’ “Conquest,” to Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” to Usher’s “Love in this Club.” Pictured: Comedian/cymbalist Rolfe deWolfe.

2. See the Girlie Show at the Studio at 620.

3. Listen to “Id Engager,” the new single from Of Montreal’s forthcoming release, Skeletal Lamping.

4.  For tonight’s edition of Poets Live! at Largo Library, the group focuses on the late poet William Stafford and the topic “Order.”  

5. Night three of the 2008 Summer  Olympic Games on NBC includes gymnastics (men’s team final), swimming (men’s 200m free, men and women’s 100m back, and women’s breaststroke final), women’s beach volleyball (a U.S. match) and men’s diving (platform synchronized final).  

Bookmark to:

1. See photos taken by Bay area youths, works by more than 60 local artists, wine and more during Tampa Artist Emporium’s monthly Arts Mixer on Saturday evening. Pictured below: An original shot by Megan of Alpha House.

2. Nervous Turkey hawks its new album, Fat Boy Likes to Roll, at a CD Release Party at New World Brewery this Friday night; Big Jef Special provides support.

3. Last weekend to see the Diversity in Aviation juried art exhibit at St. Petersburg Museum of History. A closing party on Sunday features talks by an assortment of aviation experts as well as an awards ceremony announcing the exhibit winners.

4. Amanda Shaw returns to the Bay area and plays a show at Skipper’s Smokehouse.

5. Musicians who peaked in the 1960’s and early ‘70’s — Jack Bruce of Cream, The Turtles feat. Flo & Eddie, Badfinger, Eric Burdon & the Animals, and a few others – take the stage at Ruth Eckerd Hall for Hippiefest.

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After Suncoast Resort announced it was closing last year, Gypsy Productions — the Bay area’s sole purveyor of gay alternative theater — found itself without a home. Gypsy Artistic Director Trevor Kellor has recently returned to the scene and stages his company’s first production in more than a year later at The Ritz in (Ga)Ybor. The play is Moisés Kaufman’s Gross Indecency: The Three Trials Of Oscar Wilde, which uses trial transcripts, personal correspondence, interviews and other source materials to document Wilde’s downfall. The show runs Aug. 29-Sept. 14.

Bookmark to:

1. New York prog rockers Coheed and Cambria (pictured; photo by Chapman Baehler) play a concert at Jannus Landing ronight; Russian Circles and the Secret Machines provide support.

2. See the country’s top 15 drum corps teams compete during Big, Loud & Live 5, a five-hour simulcast of the 2008 DCI World Championship Quarterfinals.

3. The Ritz Ybor hosts a new Thursday night series of “Remember, Recapture, Reinvent” arts events. Tonight, attendees enjoy live music and performance art.

4. At Tech Jam 2008 – a fundraiser to support Tampa Bay Technology Forum scholarships – guests enjoy live music by Sister Hazel’s Ken Block and Drew Copeland, food and drink, and a silent auction.

5. This afternoon, author Alexandra Everist signs copies of her new novel, A Katrina Moment, at the Oaks of Clearwater.

Bookmark to:

1. Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Education Center presents Living Things We Love to Hate, a film that focuses on slugs, snakes, bats and other creepy creatures.

2. California-by-way-of-Cincinnati comedian Gary Owen brings his stand-up to the Tampa Improv for a single-night show.

3. On tonight’s episode of Project Runway, the designers must create a sports-themed outfit. See a preview here. 

4. Ophelia Project-Tampa Bay presents its third Conversations & Cocktails, part of a networking and social programming series.

5. The selection for this Wednesday’s St. Pete for Peace documentary screening is Toxic Sludge is Good For You. Narrated by Amy Goodman, the doc tracks the development of the public relations industry and reveals the amount of biased, PR-produced news and info that is fed to the general public via the media on a daily basis. The screening starts at 8:30 p.m. and is held at Café Bohemia in St. Petersburg; admission is free.

Bookmark to:

1. Pick up a copy of Phish Walnut Creek, a new two-DVD set recorded live on July 22, 1997, during the band’s raging “cow funk” era. To see clips from the DVD, click here.

2. Gainesville’s Chris McCarty plays Skipper’s Smokehouse with Mark Gaignard.

3. Free Networking International hosts yet another of its cocktail networking hours, this one at The Venue in Clearwater and to benefit the Abilities Foundation.

4. Learn to whip up some tasty Thai dishes at this week’s