Daily Loaf

Match.com gone wrong: A 35 year old woman from Detroit was charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct for having sex with her biological son. Aimee Louise Sword gave her son up for adoption 10 years ago, and was reunited with him after finding him on the Internet. Free on bond, Sword’s lawyer says his client “maintains her presumption of innocence.”

Glittery Green=the wearer is willing to "69"

Is she or isn’t she?: Though two Australian newspapers have reported that Caster Semenya has no ovaries, uterus, and large amounts of testosterone, The International Association of Athletics Federations refused to confirm or deny the South African runner’s gender test results.The international federation asked South African track and field authorities to conduct the a gender verification test after Semenya posted a world-leading time of 1:56.72 at the African junior championships in July. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Fixing sprawl and redesigning suburbia- Grant Rimbey CNU explores a possible strategy towards improving existing sprawl. Fixing the sprawl that we have, along with sprawl demolition and recycling, are strategies that could be employed in the future as a new green industry.

Nation’s largest solar facility to be in DeSoto County by next year- Florida Power and Light is currently building the nation’s largest photovoltaic plant in DeSoto County, a $173.5 million, 25 megawatt solar generating facility.

Fresh: New Thinking About What We’re Eating screening – What’s wrong with the mega-industrial food industry- Struggling small farms, problems with food safety rules and the mega-industrial food industry, and a film about all of the above.
Read the rest of this entry »

Since 2006, one book has held a prominent position in my library, as well as my nightstand because of its eloquence and forthrightness. That book is E. O. Wilson’s The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth.  Environmental books have become as ubiquitous as Florida strip malls, so its position at the top of my all time greatest list (not included in this article) shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s a small book, which can be easily finished in a day, but it’s packed with such insight that its hard not to refer back to it. It has been my inspiration when I have strayed on past ventures in sustainability and good stewardship of the planet. In fact, many of my dinner guests have been subjected to readings from its pages.  So, I begin my article/commentary/blog in the same vain with an excerpt from the book.

According to archeological evidence, we strayed from Nature with the beginning of civilization roughly ten thousand years ago.  That quantum leap beguiled us with an illusion of freedom from the world that had given us birth.  It nourished the belief that the human spirit can be molded into something new to fit changes in the environment and culture, and as a result the timetables of history desynchronized.  A wiser intelligence might now truthfully say of us at this point:  here is a chimera, a new and very odd species come shambling into our universe, a mix of Stone Age emotion, medieval self-image, and godlike technology.  The combination makes the species unresponsive to the forces that count most for its own long-term survival.  (Wilson, 2006)

That part about the Stone Age emotion, medieval self-image, and godlike technology can fuel a discussion for hours. Welcome to the age of Homo sapiens, especially our last hundred years.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s interesting what people say when a famous person dies. Knee-jerk reactions, non sequiturs, unexpected memories. And it’s all there in the comments sections online.

The following comment appeared on the New York Times‘ ArtsBeat blog upon the death of director John Hughes today, and wins some kind of prize for combining heartfelt eulogy with out-of-left-field slam:

he was a great light, with an artisic vision that is unmatched. his way of seeing this has influenced not only how a generation of americans saw itself and society, but also continues to inspire film makers today.

plus, he never denounced any of his collegues as communists in a bitter moment of vengence, like some directors who died this week. Read the rest of this entry »

Things are looking up for Loren Cass, the St. Pete-made indie movie previously covered in CL by Alex Pickett and Scott Harrell, and nominated last year by NYC’s IFP Gotham Awards as Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You. In today’s New York Times, critic Nathan Lee flat-out raves about the film, which opens today in Manhattan in a single theater. “This sharp, gutsy indie is one of the year’s great discoveries,” says Lee, who goes on to say that writer/director/co-star Chris Fuller is headed for a career of “singular, exquisite promise.”

Which is not to say that the film or the review, headlined “Down and Out (and Disaffected) in St. Petersburg,” are likely to be used as lures for local tourism. (Video after the break) Read the rest of this entry »

For USF men, the new mantra seems to be “Take it off. Take it all off.” According to a New York Times article about the rise in heterosexual manscaping, a University of South Florida grad student has done two (yes, two) studies that show a high percentage of male USF students prefer to go smooth like Brüno. Read the rest of this entry »

As someone who happily slaps Simpsons stamps on the few bills I still pay by mail, it made me proud to read that Roberta Smith, the formidable NY Times art critic, likes them, too. “Really,” she asks, “are these not among the best American stamps ever?” Then, in true NYT art-critic fashion, she talks about “palette” and “tonal distinctions” and drops art-history names like crazy:

The Simpson palette has always seemed as radical and subversive as the show’s social commentary. It’s similar in artifice to the innovative color of artists like Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman and Matthew Barney… Like Richard Serra sculptures, only smaller and a whole lot cheaper, the stamps prove the adage that scale has nothing to do with size…

Here’s something else that feels subversive about Simpsons stamps: Read the rest of this entry »

[Ed. Note: We've got plenty of Transformers stuff going on on Daily Loaf. In addition to my review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, we've got more posts about Megan Fox than you can shake your wank at. Enjoy.]

My worst fears have come to pass. The God-awful Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has opened with a huge $16 million take from Tuesday night’s midnight screenings. That’s not a record-breaker for a midnight opening, as The Dark Knight cleared $18 million in its late-night bow, but TDK debuted on a weekend-kickoff Friday and not a lame, non-holiday hump day. The $55 million the film grossed on Wednesday is a new high for an opening on that day of the week, besting Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which grossed $44 million on a Wednesday way back in 2007. The conventional wisdom has the film grossing at least $160 million over the five-day weekend. (The news isn’t all bad: Director Michael Bay has said he won’t make a third Transformers film. Woo hoo!)

What a crock of shit! This would be a national embarrassment, were it not for the fact that the movie is already doing huge business overseas as well. I guess that makes this an embarrassment for the entire human race. In case you’re on the fence about hitting the multiplex this weekend, here’s a sampling of the critical reaction to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen:

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a cryptic dispatch from the Times‘ ArtsBeat blog:

As dedicated readers of The New York Times already know, the newspaper and its Culture report are traditionally produced each day from a 52-story building between 40th and 41st Streets in Manhattan, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. On Wednesday, the Culture department is trying something slightly different: We’re working from an office in New Hyde Park on Long Island, designed by the architect I.M. Functional, and located just next door to the ambulatory surgery ward of a major North Shore hospital.

Why we are doing this, we cannot entirely say. It may be for emergency preparedness purposes. It may be someone’s idea of a field trip. It may be to entertain the unseen viewers of a hidden-camera reality show that we don’t realize we’re a part of.

The post goes on to say that the dislocation is temporary. Let’s hope no arts staffers (like classical music editor James Oestreich, pictured) get lost in the shuffle.

Calatrava's vision for a Port Authority transit hub in NYC.

Renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava — the man behind perhaps the most controversial yet-to-be-built building in America — has been commissioned to design the first building on the new Lakeland campus of USF Polytechnic.  With Lakeland’s Florida Southern College already renowned for its unique collection of Frank Lloyd Wrights, the city stands to burnish its unlikely rep as a trove of internationally significant architecture.

Calatrava can only hope that the USF job doesn’t create the headaches he’s encountered in realizing a new NY/NJ Port Authority transportation hub at Ground Zero. His vision won admiration at first for its dramatically wingéd roofline, but has since become mired in the politics of rebuilding the World Trade Center. When the architect unveiled his revised design for the structure earlier this spring,  NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ourousoff characterized it as a “heart-wrenching” failure, “a monument to the creative ego that celebrates Mr. Calatrava’s engineering prowess but little else.”

USF Poly is hardly as much of a political minefield as post-9/11 New York. But that doesn’t mean the design process is going to be clear sailing for Calatrava’s firm. Funding for the new campus has already raised questions, and we can never understimate the fuck-up potential for any project involving higher education and the Florida legislature. Let’s hope that the end result means architecture fans have yet another reason to make a pilgrimage to Lakeland.

You’d think so from the way the judges have been fawning over him; in fact, Simon Cowell says a Lambert win is already in the bag. And according to some critics, the St. Petersburg Times‘ Eric Deggans among them, American Idol needs Lambert to win to retain some measure of cred.

I agree with Deggans that it’d be cool if America made a “semi-kinda-sorta-openly gay man” its Idol, even if, as the New York Times‘ Stephen Holden suggests, the whole sexuality angle has been “overhyped.” But if Lambert doesn‘t win, I’d hate to see the blame fixed on the is-he/isn’t-he question. Because the potential problem with Lambert isn’t that he’s so out-of-the-box — it’s just the opposite. His performances have become predictable. Read the rest of this entry »

Lost Season Finale. The penultimate season of J.J. Abrams’ time-travelogue series has proven to be nothing if not debatable. Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff Jensen thinks it’s been “a pretty freakin’ fun and altogether fulfilling year.” But the Tampa Tribune’s Walt Belcher dismisses the season as “tiresome,” and the New York Times‘ Ginia Bellafante says the show has become “mind-bendingly nonsensical” and “dispiriting.” (Whether you agree with her or not, her assessment is pretty funny — I especially like the reference to “a bungalow compound where the survivors are forced to wear orange jumpsuits and deal with people trying to look like Allen Ginsberg.”) Then there’s the intrepid band of superfans and skeptics who meet each week to discuss the series on Creative Loafing’s Lost podcast; you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to find out what we thought of the finale, but you can catch up on our previous bouts of brilliant theorizing and tangent-following here. Tonight’s shamelessly drawn-out three-hour farewell begins with yet another recap show at 8, followed by the two-hour season-concluding episode at 9.  ABC (WFTS-TV), Wed. May 13, 8-11 p.m

If you are among the few remaining humans who still use postage stamps, then this is a no-brainer (d’oh!). I mean, why wouldn‘t you want stamps commemorating America’s First Family? No, not the Obamas, whose turn will undoubtedly come, but Homer, Marge, Maggie, Bart and Lisa.

The U.S. Postal Service officially released the new stamp designs on Thursday (though voting on America’s favorite Simpson stamp has been going on since April 9). The Simpson family’s godfather was understandably touched by the attention, reported the New York Times via Reuters: Read the rest of this entry »

“Likely to be the movie of the summer.” “A hard act to follow.” “A satisfying summer blockbuster.”

And that’s just the Tampa Bay critics (the Tribune’s Kevin Walker, the Times’ Steve Persall, and CL’s own Joe Bardi, respectively). Star Trek’s status as this summer’s movie to beat has been confirmed with surprising unanimity across the board, from the big guns to the blogosphere (with a whopping 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, certifying Trek as the best-reviewed movie to date in 2009). And this time the critics are likely to be right. Star Trek fires on all cylinders with  good acting, witty script, characters you actually care about (and $7 million in box office on Thursday alone), while from the looks of previews the rest of the season is going to be one long CGI explosion of little interest whatsoever.

Read on for links to Star Trek reviews. Note: Not everyone was enchanted. The Chicago Sun-Times‘ Roger Ebert and The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane were distinctly underwhelmed. (Funniest, if meanest line: Lane says that these days Leonard Nimoy “makes Bela Lugosi look like Zac Ephron”). Read the rest of this entry »

Kalup Linzy in a scene from his work "Keys to Our Hearts." (Kalup Linzy/Taxter & Spengemann)

Fucking with gender, race and even All My Children, video/performance artist (and USF grad) Kalup Linzy gets a rave today from the NY Times’ Karen Rosenberg for his solo show at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

“Beneath all the clichés, costumes and sass,” says Rosenberg, “Mr. Linzy connects with his audience in a deeply satisfying way… Mr. Linzy’s displacements of voice and gender come from the world of drag, but  because they infiltrate other spheres — mainstream television, the art-star system — they become less about a man dressing as a woman and more about the everyday role-playing and ventriloquism enabled by digital culture.” Read the entire review here.

Born in Stuckey, Florida, the 31-year-old Linzy has been a rising star since getting his MFA from USF in Studio Art in 2003. Now based in Brooklyn, he’s due to pay a return visit to the Bay area later this spring in connection with two fundraisers: the Tampa Museum of Art’s ever-fabulous Pride and Passion and the launch event for a new independent art space in Tampa — stay tuned for details.

Not exactly a surprise, but it feels good to hear it confirmed: Bernie “I ripped off everybody, even Elie Wiesel” Madoff is reportedly going to plead guilty to 11 charges of fraud, perjury, money laundering and “theft from an employee benefit plan” — yep, you name it, he did it — that will add up to a life sentence. I love the gentlemanly courtroom exchange reported in the New York Times:

Lawyers for the disgraced financier Bernard L. Madoff told a federal judge on Tuesday that Mr. Madoff was expected to plead guilty later this week to charges that will result in a life sentence.
“I gather it is the expectation that he will plead guilty” on Thursday, Judge Chin said, referring to Mr. Madoff.
“That’s a reasonable expectation.” Mr. Madoff ’s lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin, replied.

Read the entire story here.

Today’s New York Times Arts & Leisure section is all over Dwayne Johnson, the artist formerly known as The Rock, with a big front-page photo and an analysis of his somewhat mystifying stardom.

But forget The Game Plan and The Scorpion King. Johnson’s finest on-screen moment to date is his impersonation of the Prez from last night’s Saturday Night Live:

Senate Republicans blocked passage of the $410 billion ominibus spending bill last night. This is not to be confused with Obama’s $787 stimulus package, which has already passed; the omnibus bill represents the balance of the federal budget for this fiscal year, and includes nine spending measures that Congressional Democrats and President Bush could not resolve during his administration. Not even President Obama likes the earmark-heavy bill, explains the Washington Post, though he is expected to sign it. And it’s not just Republicans who have objections. Senators Evan Bayh and Russ Feingold voted no because of concerns about earmarks (8,750 of ‘em, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense). And NJ Democratic Senator Robert Menendez objected to the bill’s relaxation of Cuba travel restrictions. The bill goes back to the drawing board now, with passage expected next week after Republicans are allowed to add amendments, said the New York Times.

Big news out of Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center this morning: As the first initiative of its Broadway Genesis Project, TBPAC is producing a new musical by Frank Wildhorn (The Civil War, Jekyll & Hyde) with hopes of taking it to Broadway. Wonderland: Alice’s New Musical Adventure is an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland “set in present-day Manhattan and a timeless Wonderland” in which an author named Alice Corwinkle travels “through the Looking-Glass from New York City to a strange-yet-familiar place where she must reclaim her daughter, defeat the Queen of Hearts and learn to follow her heart.” Wildhorn (pictured) is writing the music, with lyrics by Jack Murphy and book by Phoebe Hwang; the show has its world premiere at TBPAC in December.

Getting a show ready for Broadway is no easy task, but TBPAC President Judith Lisi says in a release that it’s “the next logical step in TBPAC’s artistic development.” With Wildhorn, the center has a proven commodity of sorts, a Tony-nominated composer with a strong fan base who once had three shows running simultaneously on Broadway. But as John Fleming noted in his story in today’s St. Pete Times, Wildhorn’s Broadway reviews have been “lukewarm at best.”

That’s putting it mildly. Read the rest of this entry »

Lauren Graham with Craig Bierko in Guys and Dolls/NY Times photo by Sara Krulwich

Lauren Graham and Oliver Platt won critical raves for their roles in TV cult hits Gilmore Girls and Huff, but the New York Times‘ Ben Brantley says they’re not exactly lighting up Broadway in the new revival of Guys and Dolls. Gilmore and Platt are the latest TV stars to get bashed by the Times this season; Charles Isherwood eviscerated  “a staggeringly miscast” Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under) and an “ill-used” Jena Malone (The Office) for their performances her performance in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra (see the review’s truly scathing opening paragraph after the jump), and Mary Louise Parker (Weeds), usually a B’way darling, got slammed for her Hedda Gabler.

But the big names keep on coming: Read the rest of this entry »

A new article by the New York Times proves that Creative Loafing is not the only alternative print news source going through some changes as it adapts to a world of electronic news. Contrary to popular thought, pictures of beautify nude women don’t guarantee high profit margins.

As it posted a big quarterly loss, Playboy Enterprises indicated Wednesday that it would be willing to sell the company or change the direction of its flagship magazine, a surprise to some investors. But a Playboy spokeswoman, Elizabeth Austin, said Thursday that “this is no change in policy. We’ve always been open to discussion.”

Ms. Austin emphasized that Playboy was not looking to sell the magazine by itself. “The magazine is not for sale,” she said.

On Wednesday, as Playboy reported a fourth-quarter loss of $145.7 million, a steep decline from the $1.1 million it lost in the fourth quarter of 2007, analysts sensed a strategy shift. Christie Hefner, the company’s longtime chief executive and the daughter of the Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, resigned last December. She was replaced by an interim chief executive, Jerome Kern.

When an analyst asked if Playboy was open to an overall sale of the company or change in the Read the rest of this entry »

“The sky was red,” say one witness in the New York Times report on the crash of commuter flight 3407 out of Newark, NJ.The National Post gathers Twitter records of in-flight audio, a YouTube video of the crash aftermath and detailed information about the flight path and the plane. Forty-four passengers, four crew members and one person on the ground were killed in the crash.

The Times report includes details from a chilling TV interview with a man whose sister was a passenger, held before the deaths were confirmed:

At a command center where officials gathered after the accident, Chris Kausner told CNN that his sister was on the flight. He said she was connecting from Jacksonville, Fla., where she was a law student.

“Right now I’m thinking the worst,” Mr. Kausner said. “And I’m thinking of the fact that my mother has to fly in from Florida and what am I going to tell my two sons.”

When a reporter asked Mr. Kausner how his family was taking the news, he said: “I heard my mother make a sound into the phone that I had never heard before. So, not good.”

UPDATE: Reports this morning up the death toll by one, putting the crew and passenger total at 49 instead of 48. One person on the ground died.

It didn’t take long for the nickname to change, reports CBC Sports. After SI.com revealed Saturday morning that Alex Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids in 2003, the Yankee third baseman was almost immediately re-christened A-Roid by the New York Daily News — and also by the Dallas Morning News, the Seattle Weekly and the Star Telegram. (And another Post columnist threw in a “Roid-riguez” for good measure.) The New York Times ran an interesting piece of analysis of what might have led Rodriguez into this mess, while the blog Out of Left Field discusses why the A-Roid headlines are just going to distract from the bigger issues: the anonymous testing that wasn’t, and what that means for labor-management relations in Major League Baseball, and the “kindergarten view of the world” that leads to the “shocked, shocked I tell you” reactions to the A-Roid revelations.

This morning’s report in the New York Times is full of good news:

Worse-than expected job loss:

The country moved into its second year of uninterrupted job losses last month, with companies shedding another 598,000 jobs — the most since December 1974… Economists had forecast a loss of 540,000 jobs..

Worse than-expected unemployment: 7.6 percent instead of the predicted 7.5

Dire statistics: “The jobless rate is at its highest since September 1992.”

And dire predictions:

Many economists expect that the economy will continue to contract until July at the very least, but at a slowing pace in the second quarter. That would make it the longest recession since the 1930s, outlasting the two record-holders, the mid-1970s and early 1980s downturns. Each of these recessions lasted 16 months. The current recession, which started in December 2007, would reach that milestone in April.

Enjoy.

The New York Times‘ Stuart Elliott says the ads ranked with such disappointments as the movie “Australia” and errant airport birds. The Washington Post’s Tom Shales marveled at the expensive-looking production values. For a quick overview, check out Creative Loafing’s live blog of the game.

Watch the vids below and vote!

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“My gold hip replacement!”

More videos after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

Mary-Louise Parker of Weeds fame is usually (and deservedly) a critics’ darling. But her performance in the title role of the new Broadway revival of Hedda Gabler has been royally trashed. Ben Brantley in the NY Times says Parker “has traded in her usual air of easy, quirky spontaneity for the robotic petulance of an I-hate-everybody adolescent in a yearlong sulk.” David Rooney of Variety says she plays Ibsen’s tragic heroine as a “seething kook.” Other reviews have been kinder to Parker, but not to the production.

In other NY theater news, Anne Bogart’s SITI/ Women’s Theater Project production of Virginia Woolf’s only play Freshwater (which we wrote about here) was also the victim of a NY Times pan. Sorry, Virginia.

Florida is getting some love from the toughest audiences in the world: New York City dance fans. The Miami City Ballet, headed by legendary dancer Edward Villella, is making its NYC debut this week, and the reviews have been ecstatic. Alastair Macaulay, the New York Times‘ usually hard-to-please critic, followed up his enthusiastic review of the troupe’s first program with an even more admiring writeup of their second, describing one dance as an “an accumulating series of… wonderful shocks” and proclaiming that “these dancers made these dances young again.”

Accolades like these are a big deal for a regional company. But I have to admit to a little intra-state jealousy. Miami gets all the attention. What about Tampa Bay? Will any of our homegrown dance or theater companies, our museums or our festivals or our individual artists, ever reach this same level of undeniable national importance? Maybe some already have — remind me if I’m overlooking someone. But I’m also wondering what needs to be done to ensure that this kind of progress occurs.

Money is one answer, of course. And it’s worth noting that even with all the support from critics and audiences, MCB is facing “one of the most difficult financial periods in its history,” according to the Miami Herald.

It’s tough all over. Go see some local art or dance or theater or there won’t be any left to see. Use it — or lose it.

Somehow we knew that Paul Blart: Mall Cop would be less than a critics’ darling. But among the many other bad reviews sure to come, this one by the NY Times‘ Nathan Lee is a small masterpiece of deadpan destruction. I especially like “…directed by Steve Carr, a man who knows how to put a camera in front of things, if little else…” Lots more like this one to come, we’d wager. And it’ll still win the weekend box office.

The New York Times is reporting that 20th Century Fox will try to delay the release of Watchmen. Deadline Hollywood Daily has a statement from Warner Bros. on the lawsuit.

This week’s DVD releases: Rope of Silicon runs down Paramount’s new Blu-Ray titles, including the Patrick Swayze stupid-face fest, Ghost; Tom Cruise going vroom vroom with Nicole Kidman in Days of Thunder; Event Horizon and The Truman Show.

Q: Who’s the most reviled movie critic? A: Ben Lyons. He’s so hated (and with good reason), that CriticWatch’s Erik Childress has a blog dedicated to using Lyons’s own words against him:

Is it possible that New York publicists have a poster of Ben Lyons in their office with the slogan that reads “Put critics in a theater full of people laughing with free tickets and one of them may laugh too?” What if the Bedtime Stories crowd was laughing at Ben Lyons laughing? Or just Ben Lyons? I guarantee he’s produced more unintentional laugh lines than Sandler & Co. did this year. Take for example:

Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s New York Times food section, all wrapped up.

Kim Severson says Obama might be a foodie. Wine critic Eric Asimov suggests a few inexpensive bubblies for NYE. Julie Scelfo writes about how the FDA ia reconsidering the plastic bottle risk. Steven Stern wallows in nostalgia for punch. Pete Wells pays homage to bacon. Holiday party flub ups – it’s the booze talking, by Glenn Eichler.  

This week’s recipes:
No Knead Whole Wheat Bread, Blender Eggnog, Pranna Winter Spice, Winter Berry Punch, Manhattan Bay Scallop Chowder with Fennel, Stuffed Duck Breast Sienese Style (Ducketta) (shown, courtesy of NYT)

I was originally going to go with the hilarious “nobody wants to shake Bush’s hand” video from a few days ago, but then I saw Sarah Palin soon to be infamous Turkey Interview. Warning! This gets kind of gross.

• Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapses while on stage in D.C.
• The stock market collapses in late-day trading in New York.
• How you feel about telecom immunity now, Barack?
• Hillary announcement after Thanksgiving?
• I hope you already sold your Citibank stock.
• Hal Steinbrenner takes control.
• Surprised by the NFL season? You’re not the only one.
• The New York Times doesn’t like Chinese Democracy as much as Rolling Stone does.
• … but its release will get you a free Dr. Pepper!
• Fred Thompson is going back to a job with unlimited power, willing young girls, and all the money you want. (No, he’s not going back to the US Senate)
• “Taxes are anathema.”
• The answer to this question is: No.
• I’m surprised to not find Irwin Mainway’s “Bag o’ glass” on this list.
• RIP Ybor City the nightclub district.
• The time has come to forge a real “liberal media.”

Tonight’s the night! After two frickin’ years of Barack and McCain, Hillary and Huckabee, “bitter” and “you betcha!,” it’s finally election day. Get out there an vote! Your country needs you. In the meantime, here’s NBC’s great Chuck Todd on what to look for after the polls close.

• Your polling location: For Hillsborough residents, for Pinellas residents.
• Got voting questions? Here’s the answers.
• Bring on the sports metaphors: The candidate’s turn up on Monday Night Football.
• If McCain’s going to win, this is how.
• If Obama loses, “It would mark the biggest collective error in the history of the media and political establishment.”
• It’s election day: Free coffee and donuts for everyone!
• Instant nostalgia: The New York Times remembers Election ‘08.
• R.I.P. Obama’s Grandmother. Madelyn Dunham.

Will Farrell turned up on the Thursday edition of SNL, reprising his role as the strategerizer in chief. In this clip, Dubya meets with Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin and gives John McCain an uncomfortable endorsement. Interesting how with less than two weeks to go until the election, SNL is really out of material on the subject. Though amusing, this is the least of the Fey-Palin appearances. Still, it has its moments. Enjoy.

• The Rays win game two 4-2, even the World Series at one game a piece.
• Obama up seven in Florida.
• What’s it sound like when you are a Congressman who is firing his mistress? Take a listen.
• Alan Greenspan’s mea culpa.
• The Old Gray Lady squeezes in an endorsement of Barack Obama for President.
• Bullish on Bloomberg: NYC mayor wins right to run for third term.
• And today’s Florida teacher convicted of gettin’ it on with the kids hails from … Tampa!
• Bill Shatner unleashed.
• Those cutting edge antibiotics your doctor just gave you? They might be sugar pills.
• Going to Clearwater Saturday night? Beware the DUI checkpoint.
• Sarah Palin in Tampa on Sunday.
• Here’s the GOP death list, as obtained by DailyKos.
• You’d think that opponents of the anti-gay Amendment 2 could muster just over 4 in 10 voters to defeat the measure, but it is starting to look like you would be wrong…
• … and you can blame Obama and African-American voters.
• Regarding one Tampa neighborhood association: “Never have I observed the viciousness, sneakiness, name calling and just plain ugliness”
• AP giving in on its new, higher rates.

Until Dexter Filkins’ riveting The Forever War, I hadn’t been predisposed to reading much about the War in Iraq, and I’m not sure why. Maybe because it’s still going on, and the whole thing’s so raw and in the news that I didn’t feel the need to wallow any further.

I am very glad, however, that I gave this New York Times foreign correspondent’s memoir a shot. I was hooked after five pages. I can’t recommend the book enough.

The Forever War is not an anti-war screed. Filkins allows you to draw your own conclusions, although it’s clear that his experiences were so fucked that he was lucky to get out of there with his head screwed on halfway straight. Fact is, he was lucky to get out at all, but I won’t give details away.

Above all, this fast-moving narrative captures the madness and dysfunction that resulted from the American invasion. It ends before the surge, at a time when sectarian rivalries made it nigh impossible to sort out who was fighting who.

Filkins puts the lie to the notion that Iraqis were grateful for their freedom. But his vignettes illustrate a much more nuanced situation than mere love-us-or-hate-us.

He recounts an interview with a record keeper, Hassan Naji, at a decimated hospital where infant mortality rates had risen dramatically:

Read the rest of this entry »

The New York Times Sunday travel section features a glowing report on St. Pete’s new vibe. Nothing here that hasn’t been written and rewritten before, but it’s a nice slice of national recognition, with great quotes from Bob Devin Jones of Studio@620 and Raphael Perrier of Kahwa Coffee. Let’s just hope Times readers do their own research instead of relying on the ‘Travel Guide,’ which recommends Saffron’s (closed for over a year) and includes a user’s rave about Redwoods (also closed). Next time, Times, check out the promising new restaurant now open in Redwoods’ place: Chappy’s Louisiana Kitchen, another from St. Pete restaurateur Craig “Chappy” Chapman of Grillside Central fame.