What do small business, local art scene, and skateboarding have in common? Breezy Boards. St.Pete entrepreneur taps into into the city’s art scene one skateboard at a time. Breezy is a USF grad and avid longboard skater. Now in her mid twenties, Breezy has been skating longboards since she was 10. 5 days after graduating… Read more »
Although murmurs of Leonard Cohen’s failing health had occasionally filtered through in the last twelve months or so, his passing did catch most of us by surprise. The loss of a true artistic giant in our ever-evaporating world seemed all the more poignant as the same world shuddered mere hours before when the results of… Read more »
On a recent trip to Target, Life Elsewhere host, Norman B was struck by the overwhelming, if not overbearing cacophony of Halloween merchandise. The dizzying displays of giant spiders and skeletons and ghosts and witches and mountains of garish colored candy and mothers being harangued by their kids over which ready-made costume they wanted, prompted… Read more »
The Dali Museum has cooked up an exhibition aimed to whet all the senses. “Ferran Adrià: The Invention of Food” will showcase the gastronomic genius of Ferran Adria. He like Dali, is a Spaniard hailing from Catalonia. The exhibit plunges the visitor into a experimental culinary landscape and draws comparison to the artistic mastery of… Read more »
Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve. This is the premise for Designing Your Life: How To Build A Well-Lived Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. In this book, the authors show us how design… Read more »
“Samana are a nomadic duo who recently returned from a year-long trip living and writing on the road. Having taken residence in a farmhouse in the Brecon Beacons, Samana have since built an analogue studio and darkroom where the duo create all of their work.” That was the only information to accompany four beautiful tracks… Read more »
“I went to most of The Grateful Dead’s early shows, 66 to 68, completely straight if you doubt my take on the band, and I did love them, either I’m a liar or I have no taste whatsoever. I was often told, I liked them because I was high, but I wasn’t high at all!” The… Read more »
The first Presidential debate between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump, scheduled for Monday, September 26th is being hailed as the biggest event since the invention of sliced bread. The audience could exceed 100 million people, according to experts, something never seen before in U.S. politics and will be a figure close to what the Super Bowl… Read more »
Twenty one murals are being created in downtown and midtown St. Pete as part of the second annual Shine Mural Festival and SPF16. Here are pictures of some of them in progress. You can get a map here. There is a big celebration this Saturday, 9/10, in the humungo parking lot on Central Avenue just east… Read more »
Hermine delayed the beginning of the second Shine Mural Festival in St. Petersburg, but artists made up for it all weekend long. Murals are being worked on at all hours. Here are some pictures of the progress, with information about the festival at the end of the post. Shine is part of a month long… Read more »
“It was Seattle circa 1984, I had an early version of Life Elsewhere on KCMU (now KEXP) radio. A teenage listener would call my show regularly, he’d say, “Can you play that Folk Devils record again? That young music fan went onto form his own band and a decade later he was a worldwide sensation, but sadly died… Read more »
“What would happen to the arts if this country turned to authoritarian leadership?” That is the opening line from a perceptive commentary in the Washington Post, authored by Philip Kennicott, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Art and Architecture Critic. Mr. Kennicott imagines with clever wit, what would happen to the Arts in America if Mr. Trump becomes… Read more »
Over the last century, the search for human ancestors has spanned four continents and resulted in the discovery of hundreds of fossils. While most of these discoveries live quietly in museum collections, there are a few that have become world-renowned celebrity personas – ambassadors of science that speak to public audiences. With wit and insight,… Read more »
“Two thousand years ago, an aristocratic Roman matron named Vistalia faced a trial for adultery. Vistalia was notorious for conducting multiple extramarital affairs, but her husband, Titidius Labeo, refused to divorce her. Eventually, the Emperor Tiberius himself accused her of adultery, a crime punishable by exile to a remote island. Vistalia responded to this charge… Read more »
The pageantry of the weird and the wonderful were in full regalia this weekend at the Tampa Bay Comic Con. The event coordinators are anticipating nearly 60,000 attendees to pass through the halls of the Tampa Bay Convention Center. Collectors, vendors, artists, celebrities, and cosplay enthusiasts came out to geek out and have some fun…. Read more »
Nothing had worked. Not threats or negotiations, not shutting down the betting parlors or opium dens, not house-to-house searches or throwing Chinese offenders into prison. Not even executing them. New York’s District Attorney was running out of ideas and more people were dying every day, as the weapons of choice evolved from hatchets and meat… Read more »
On Sunday, July 10, about 70 people marched from the Uhuru house in South St. Pete to the St. Petersburg Police station. Khalid Hameed is a St. Petersburg/Bradenton based photographer who finds his voice in pictures where people and their environment collide, dance, swoon and fight, You… Read more »
Sorcha Richardson, the extraordinarily talented Irish-born singer-songwriter is one of our favorite discoveries of the past year or so. So, we were especially delighted when a package arrived from Sorcha, containing a thumb-drive with a new song, beautiful limited edition artwork she has created and a hand-written, heart-felt letter. Here is an excerpt: The music that I’ve… Read more »
“May 21 rolls around again, and another year in my journey through life has passed,” says Norman B, referring to his birthday. “Looking back over the years,” he continues, “I’m fortunate to have wonderful memories, each with their own soundtrack!” In the next edition of Life Elsewhere, Norman B recalls the music that has made… Read more »
The PR package for Brian Cullman’s new album, The Opposite Of Time caught Norman B’s attention not only for the music, but also the extraordinary bio accompanying it. Brian’s story reads like a rock ’n’ roll fairy tale. He is was still a teenager when he bumped into Edie Sedgwick clad only in a bra… Read more »
http://sound.wmnf.org/sound/wmnf_160505_110618_radioactivityR1_191.MP3 By Rob Lorei On Radioactivity Thursday our guest is nature photographer Benjamin Dimmitt, whose recent work includes photographs of the examines the impact of saltwater intrusion on the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge just north of the Tampa Bay Area. Over the years rising sea levels, along with weak flow from nearby freshwater springs, has… Read more »
May 12 is the birthday of Ian Patrick ‘Mac’ McLagan. Just a week or so before Mac’s birthday in 2014, Norman B ran into his old art school friend at a prestigious charity event in Seattle. In the green room, backstage at the Experience Music Project Museum, the two silver-haired Londoners, chatted away, reminiscing and… Read more »
http://sound.wmnf.org/sound/wmnf_160429_110618_radioactivityF1_337.MP3 BY Rob Lorei On Radioactivity Friday we look at the life and legacy of Chilean folk singer Victor Jara. Jara was a well known musician, theater director, teacher and advocate for social justice in his home country, considered by many to be the Bob Dylan of Chile. During the US-backed Chilean coup of 1973, Jara… Read more »
http://sound.wmnf.org/sound/wmnf_160420_110618_radioactivityW1_189.MP3 By Rob Lorei Jose Yglesias is probably the most famous Tampa-born writer that most people have not heard of. Born into a Spanish-Cuban family of cigar workers in Ybor City, his work often dealt with Latin Americans who are exiled from their homelands and how revolutions affected their lives.Now his 1963 Novel, A Wake… Read more »
Dr. Julie Armstrong is in Birmingham, Alabama, her home town. She is blogging about following the official and unofficial Civil Rights trails through a town that starkly flaunts its contradictions. She had a wonderful surprise while following the trail yesterday, which led her farther afield, and yet right back to the beginning. Beautiful Freedom Surprise… Read more »
