COVER STORY
NEWS & VIEWS
— .Com-ments: Fallout from Creative Loafing’s Noise Issue.
— Don’t panic! Your war questions answered: Is the U.S. really going to withdraw from Iraq in August?
FOOD & DRINK
— Alternatives to dinner out on Valentine’s Day.
Sun Layover & Jake” by Craig Rubadoux is on display at Dabbert Gallery
Ed. note: This piece was compiled by Danielle Favreau.
VISUAL ARTS: OPENING
ALLYN GALLUP CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY 1419 5TH St., Sarasota (366-2093 or allyngallup.com). Photographs by Tom Carabasi and collages and monotypes by Gustavo Ramos Rivera will be displayed through Feb. 27. Regular hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Free.
ART CENTER SARASOTA 707 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota (365-2032 or artsarasota.org). F.A.B. (Fabulous Arts Boutique) Sale and Exhibit will be held Feb. 11-14 with an opening reception 6-8:30 p.m. Feb. 11 and closing 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Feb. 14. Contact Kathie Hayes at 923-8554 or visit fabsarasota.com for more information. Red Hot! Love, Romance and Humor will be displayed through March 6. Regular hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tues.-Sat., noon-4 p.m. Sun. Free.
Mike Doughty performs at The Orpheum Thurs, Feb. 11
Ed. note: This piece was compiled by Jennifer Almond.
THURSDAY, Feb. 11
ACE’S Swamp Donkie (Early)/DJ Cliff (Late)
AMERICAN LEGION POST 312 Wings & Strings w/Smokey & Duane
THE BOX SOCIAL Dean Johnson
THE IRISH ROVER Paul Duffy
LEBARGE Dan Crawford
NEW WORLD BREWERY Matt Butcher/Rebekah Pulley/Red Shepherd Americana musician Matt Butcher has only been living in Florida since 1999, but within those 11 years he’s had some success as part of The Heathens — an Orlando-based band that made waves in 2006 when the music video for their song “Stickin’ Around” was featured at the Los Angeles Film Festival — and earned a two-night solo gig opening for The Avett Brothers in Tennessee. His 2008 album, Me and My Friends, received stellar reviews and is available on Butcher’s website for a “pay what you can” price. Butcher is joined multi-Best of the Bay award-winning songstress Rebekah Pulley, and sunny folk-pop quartet Red Shepherd. —Matthew Spencer
— Rep. Vern Buchanan shows Panama’s ambassador to the United States around Port Manatee, in an effort to help solidify stronger trade between the Central American nation and the Suncoast.
— In a Sarasota speech, Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice talks about failed states, the recession and how history will judge that President Bush made us a “safer” nation. One word is missing from Jeremy Wallace’s story, though: Iraq.
— The Sarasota Film Festival: officially set to go down April 9-18.
— Hannah Wallace discusses downtown business affairs with Karen Magee, one half of the ownership team behind the now-defunct Jake’s Downtown. Best quote: “It’s not the customer’s job to support your business. It’s your job to provide them with something they want at a price they want to pay.”
The painting at the center of the controversy, Pablo Rodriguez’s “Modern Venus”
I’ll Be Seeing You
Runs through Feb. 11, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Fri., Sarasota Orchestra’s Harmony Gallery, Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center, 709 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 953-4252 or sarasotaorchestra.org; Pablo Rodriguez’s next exhibit, featuring “Modern Venus” and works from recycled materials, runs Feb. 20-26 at Art Uptown, 1367 Main St., Sarasota, 955-5409 or artuptown.com, pablorodriguezmedina.com.
“It was like an invitation to a date,” says Sarasota artist Pablo Rodriguez of his painting, “Modern Venus,” which he installed in early January in the Sarasota Orchestra’s Harmony Gallery as part of his exhibit, I’ll Be Seeing You. “This piece was supposed to be the centerpiece of the whole thing. It was a pretty big piece and in the Harmony Gallery that was the thing that was drawing your eye.” The piece hung uninterrupted for over two weeks after the exhibit opened on Jan. 12, but three mothers with children in the Sarasota youth orchestra deemed “Venus” too racy for their children’s innocent eyes and filed one formal and two informal complaints.
“They gave me two options,” Rodriguez says. “It was drape it or take it down. I chose to take it down.” Rodriguez removed the painting — a mild, not-nude ode to his wife — on Jan. 29.
FAMOUS Aquarius: Rapper Dr. Dre was born Feb. 18, 1965
AQUARIUS
The Water-Bearer
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
Happy Valentine Daze, Aquarius! In my search for the counsel that would be of greatest help to your love life in the coming months, I decided on this observation by psychologist Albert Ellis: “The art of love is largely the art of persistence.” I hope you take that in the spirit in which I’m offering it. It’s not meant to suggest that you will be deprived of love’s burning, churning pleasures; I just want to make sure you know that your best bet for experiencing burning, churning pleasures is to be dogged and devoted and disciplined in your cultivation of burning, churning pleasures.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 2010, you will have more cosmic assistance than you’ve had in a long time whenever you seek to increase your experience of pleasure. Do you want to get more sensual joy out of eating and drinking and dancing and listening to music? This is your year. Do you want to heighten your perceptiveness and find more beauty in the world? This is your year. And the coming weeks will be one of the best times in 2010 to move from charging up your pleasure to supercharging it.
LEAD STORY: In January, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers confiscated a live, jeweled beetle that a woman was wearing as an “accessory” on her sweater as she crossed into Brownsville, Texas, from Mexico. Blue jewels were glued onto the beetle’s back, which had been painted gold, and the mobile brooch was tethered by a gold chain attached to a safety pin. Even though the woman orally “declared” the animal, the beetle was confiscated because she had not completed the bureau’s PPQ Form 526, which is necessary to bring insects into the country. Reportedly, such jewelry is not that rare in Mexico. A spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was, of course, appalled.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit: 1. Jeweler Colin Burn, of Broome, Australia, announced in October at the Asia Adult Expo in Macau that he will make the world’s most expensive “personal vibrator,” in 10 limited editions, out of smooth platinum, each with 1,500 white diamonds. He said he planned to shoot for a price of $1 million (U.S.) and noted that he currently offers a similar sex toy with only 450 diamonds (but with a handle made of rare conkerberry wood) that he sells for $38,000. 2. Professor Yevgeny Moskalev of Russia’s St. Petersburg Technological University announced in November that he had perfected a somewhat-useful powdered version of Russia’s favorite drink (vodka). However, after much experimentation, he had found that the only way to preserve the alcohol was by mixing the liquid vodka into a special wax and letting it harden. According to a November report in the English language version of Pravda, the resulting shaved chips could then be flavored to counteract the wax’s insipidness, and might be used for cooking or medicine. “Instant vodka” mix for straight drinking does not appear to be in professor Moskalev’s plans.
— “Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice comes to Sarasota today, warning of the threat posed by rogue nations.” Hope she uses the phrase “mushroom cloud“!
— The architect designing the new Palm Avenue garage unveils two new modern designs, and they look pretty snappy. Will it satisfy the common man, though?
— A Bradenton City Councilman floats the idea of giving the city clerk and treasurer “oversight of all departments,” essentially transforming the role into a city manager one.
After experiencing T-Pain’s superb spinning the previous night, Friday I hop a cab to Fointainebleau Resort for ESPN The Magazine’s NEXT event. Despite the cool weather, skin is in on South Beach — was it ever not? — as sparkling stilettos and lengthy legs vie for attention outside the party. The line seems to snake for miles but I finally make it to the red carpet just as Josh Duhamel flashes a charming smile at the many photogs (no sign of wifey Fergie in site). The party tent is probably a football field long and is wall-to-wall revelers, packed all the way up to the front stage where dime-diva Keri Hilson is performing. She is one hot mama in a lace bodysuit unzipped almost to the navel and engages the crowd in some casual banter until the sound guys fix the terrible feedback and she can bust out her hits “Turnin’ Me On” and “The Way I Are.” I spot former ‘N Sync-er Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo enjoying the show and a few cocktails each and, as she is want to do, Audrina Partridge of The Hills talking to a greasy lookin’ dude when Ne-Yo hits the stage. Photos after the jump! (more…)
I’m in Miami (bitch) for Super Bowl XLIV and started the weekend off on Thursday night with dinner at STK, where the Kardashian sisters also happened to be dinning, dressed in Herve Leger. Wow, short, tight dresses on Kardashians? Who’da thunk it?
While the ‘Dash sisters headed to neighboring hotspot Coco Deville, I bopped down the street to the GQ Party at the Bud Light Hotel, where what’s usually the Doubletree Surfcomber Hotel has been taken over by the Budweiser marketing gurus and turned into a beery extravaganza, down to the monogramed towels and mints. The party was a bit of a sausage-fest, aside from the paid hostesses shakin’ it in little tiny shiny dresses. Chart-topper T-Pain arrived shortly after I did with a twelve-deep blinged-out posse, and I am sad to report that I did not recognize the singer and failed to snap a photo. I thought he always wore a big stupid top hat.
Anyway, I watched T-Pain “DJ” from the VIP lounge with retired footballer Clayton “Vince” Holmes and his big shiny diamond Super Bowl ring until I couldn’t stand the hype man cutting into the beats anymore and got the hell out of there. Check out all my photos from night one after the jump. (more…)
