the 941

I spent a day with Justin Matthews of Matthews Wildlife Rescue to meet some of his friends from the animal kingdom and talk about his quest to bring attention to Florida’s Burmese Python problem. Matthews garnered international attention when he admitted to planting his pet 14-foot, 110-pound Burmese Python in a Bradenton storm drain and calling the local news outlets to the scene to witness the capture.

Matthews has given educational wildlife presentations at Mixon Fruit Farms for the past three years. These photos provide a glimpse into the bonds he has been able to form with these still very wild animals. Click through to check them out:

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Creative Loafing Half-Hour Variety Hour: Episode #29 (Part 1)

Creative Loafing Half-Hour Variety Hour: Episode #29 (Part 2)

It’s that time again! Time for more of the best banter on the Suncoast!

This week, Food Editor Brian Ries, Events Editor/Staff Writer Tim Sukits and I preview the Best of the Suncoast, on stands Oct. 21, then we chat about what we’ve got in this week’s issue: Tim talks about the time he spent with Justin Matthews, “The Python Hunter,” in part one, and in part two, Brian fills us in on his thoughts about the new Indian restaurant Gateway to India, and then discusses some recent restaurant openings that have us excited.

Listen up!

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Donning my best red dress on Saturday (a fitted secondhand Prada number), I set off for the wild and wondrous land that is Lakewood Ranch. A close friend has invited me to A Night of Red (aka “Drag Queens for Red Ribbons”), a benefit for the Community AIDS Network, whose mission is to raise awareness about the disease. I do sort of feel like I’m in an alternate reality out here in the Ranch, what with the perfect prefab buildings and shiny late model cars as far as the eye can see. Putting aside my Stepford-inspired fears, I head on into the ballroom at Polo Grill to what looks like my high school prom. Round tables fill the large room, red tulle swags the walls, and the lights are very, very bright. I have arrived on time, for once, so I grab a seat and wait for the show to get started.

Before long MC Daja Dupree appears onstage, stalking the runway in giant red hooker-heels and warms up the crowd for the fashion show, during which a parade of young ladies and men trot up and down the runway in fall-inspired fashions. My favorite look from the show, a sleeveless high-necked cream lace top paired with a short army-green poof skirt, is actually from a boutique I was previously unfamiliar with, Heather’s Closet in Paradise Plaza. This style will be super cute in a few weeks when we are no longer clocking 100-degree temps daily. (more…)

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In the hour of it’s genesis, a prophetic implication was already evident in Jeff Tweedy’s ironic sense of humor when he helped name Wilco — a shorthand radio term for “Will Comply.” Nothing could have been further from the truth.

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Ever since the Wii was released third-party attachment and peripheral makers have been having a field day. If it’ll attach to your Wii remote, it’ll sell. If it’ll make you feel like the hero in the game while simultaneously making people question your mental faculties, it’s a hot item in the minds of third-party peripheral and attachment makers. There have been sword, light saber, golf club, tennis racket and bowling ball attachments to name a few. But none shame gamers as much as the add-on above. (more…)

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Without any justification, I’m a champagne snob. An ex-girlfriend introduced me to the wonders of French bubbly, a moment I shall never forget. That first sip was non-vintage Moët et Chandon, just like the bottle in the picture. Oh, the nose; WOW, the bubbles; and OMG the taste. I’m sure Taylor, our local wine guruette, would use more technically appropriate language, but there is nothing else that compares to champagne from Champagne.

Which is why it pains me so to see this mixing of the best of France, and the best of Florida. Sacré bleu! Whatever where they thinking? The young couple were just that weekend engaged, and I was driving them to their celebratory dinner at Euphemia Haye.

Bravo, congratulations, good for you and all that. But why did they have to ruin the champagne with a Pepsi product?

It’s enough to make me want a martini.

To contact Tom, email him, or comment below. To read past Driven Mad columns, click here.

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Creating edible gardens is now the rage! Even the White House has one. Creating an edible garden becomes a feast for the eyes as well as taste buds. It can be both economical and healthy. As Michael Pollan pointed out in his NYTimes editorial, “the American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the debate over health care”. Growing what you eat can help you live long… and maybe prosper.

Except… I have a black thumb. At our house we try to grow things. We buy small herb plants, especially basil, and hope they will grow into large ones. Sometimes we even plant seeds, but are usually only successful in growing tall weeds in pots.

Every few months we get excited about the prospect of growing our own food (more…)

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October is just around the corner, which for me brings with it an exhilaration of my favorite month and Halloween. There are various Halloween festivities going on the next few weeks leading up to the big night of supernatural vibes. Coming up this month, I have the Iron Painter competition at the Dark Side this upcoming Saturday. I also have the Zombie Pub Crawl, and the Guinness Book  Thriller dance this month also. Very busy time with the undead indeed. This past weekend, while feeling blah due to my girlfriend being out of town for a while, we decided on  having a virtual date of sorts,  a little dinner, some wine and a movie just before she heads off to work. All of this done over the phone, yet close in heartbeats.

We watched a quirky black comedy that was set in the near future, and concerned a curious spike in cases of spontaneous human combustion. The Jeffers Corporation is the largest business in the history of mankind, and they got that way thanks to their strict philosophy of happiness through mindless productivity. But when people begin literally exploding due to unhappiness, a Jeffers Corporation Level Three TUNT George Washington Winsterhammerman (Zach Galifianakis) begins to fear that his time will come sooner rather than later. George lives a comfortable yet completely uneventful life, and when he starts having dreams in which he’s the first President of  the United States, his doctor informs him that they could be signs of impending explosion. Later, as the dreams become more frequent and his co-workers continue to detonate, George is prompted to reevaluate his mundane existence.

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Is the market overbought as some experts infer?  We already see that the housing market is over built and over the past five year over bought to the point that inventory volume, lack of funding and depreciation have left the average American in a world of hurt.  Dragged into this is the rest of the stock market that may individuals depend on for the financial stream of their retirement.  I am not in real estate.  I therefore do not talk like a salesman.  You can have too much inventory.  If people don’t make enough money, lending practices must be skewed to facillitate growth.  I remember a time when you could finance and pay off a car in three years.   As the prices of cars went up, auto financing merely extended the length of time you could finance your car.  Our country got upside down in cars, and upside down in housing.  A readjustment was needed, and it happened.

Now remember, if you are reading this and are an average American, that there are people with financial means so far above us that we can barely conceive the economics that drive our world.  When I used to trade currencies I noticed that at the time the UK exchange took lunch, that the ticker for a currency would tick up and down like a saw.  This was one of those moments where the realization of immense finance at play came to light.  Invest a million and it ticks up, sell and you’ve made a million.  Short the next tick, you’ve made another million.  With enough money, you could trade to the point of making a fortune on everyones lunch hour.  Conceiving of that much money is a stretch for me.  When everyone else returns from lunch, let them have the sandbox again until the next day.

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— SCAT and MCAT consider joining forces, but the proposal might crash up against the conundrum of how to tax Sarasota and Manatee fairly to pay for the joint service.

— The City of Sarasota donates $25,000 to help the downtown holiday parade go off this year.

— President Bill Clinton speaks at the Van Wezel tonight, but tickets sold out on Monday. So if you don’t already have a pass, you ain’t goin’.

— OK, this is just more paranoid, homophobic hyperbole from Red County Editor Richard Swier. What I think Swier fails to understand in all his posts on homosexuality and HIV/AIDS is that the common denominator underlying the spread of the disease is unprotected sex. To say that homosexuality spreads HIV is an irresponsible slur.

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