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EDITORIAL POLICY — Creative Loafing Tampa
Bay is a publication covering public issues, the arts and entertainment. In our pages appear views from across the political and social spectrum. They do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher.
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From instructor Angelo Spoto, Library Education Director: “Since its publication, after Jung’s death in 1961, MDR has been read and re-read both as a means to better understand Jung’s own individuation process and, equally importantly, as a comprehensive treatment of the evolution of the field of Analytical Psychology.
In this 10-part lecture/intensive seminar, we will approach MDR as an ur-text in the field of Jungian studies. Upon enrollment, a bibliography of biographies of Jung, numbering now over 20, will be provided. Each participant will be encouraged to select at least one to read along with our primary text. Barbara Hannah, one of the first generation Jungians, who also has written a notable biography of Jung, has gone on record as having read MDR 60 times. My goal as your instructor is to provide an in-depth treatment of this text this one time around. If I do my job well, I promise you will be reading MDR for yourself again and again.”
TAMPA BAY’S FILM FESTIVAL
Trump world
Photos by Dave Decker
The Trump Show 2 kicked off last Monday, and in the hours before his followers froze their asses off in frigid temps hoping to get into Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. The venue was the site of a Jan. 19 victory rally where Trump—a convicted felon with his own cryptocurrency and an adoration of dictators both alive and long gone—promised that, “Once and for all we’re going to end the reign of a failed and corrupt political establishment in Washington” (something he apparently didn’t get around to in his first term). Before the rally and inauguration, thousands of activists were in the streets to push back. The People’s March (a rebranded version of 2020’s Women’s March) saw less people protesting, but still made loud and clear that they will continue to work towards a nation that is inclusive for folks of all races, genders, and sexual orientations regardless of class, faith, immigration status, ability, and more. See all of Dave’s photos via cltampa.com/slideshow.—Ray Roa
Reasons We Lack Flexibility
• Inactivity reduces flexibility.
• Repetitive muscle overuse in sports like tennis, golf, and running also decreases flexibility.
• Accidents, injuries, or surgery can lead to loss of mobility. Want
Why Stretching?
• Stretching helps to enhance mobility and range of motion, speed up recovery, and improve posture and circulation.
• Top athletes regularly incorporate stretching into their lives.
• Stretching improves your general wellbeing.
do this
Tampa Bay's best things to do from January 23 - 29
‘Til Death
Tampa is the death metal capital of the world thanks to bands like Obituary and Cannibal Corpse which have connections to our neck of the woods. To celebrate that history, the Tampa Bay Museum of Metal brings artifacts—think gear, instruments, posters, flyers—for a two-day exhibition that includes guest appearances from members of Brutality, Heaven’s Gate, and more, along with a market and performances, too. Even Tarpon Springs' Savatage (founded in, and pictured c. 2015) gets a nod.
Historic Florida Metal Exhibition: Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 25-26. Donations accepted. Magnanimous Brewing, 6809 N Nebraska Ave., Tampa. tampabaymuseumofmetal.com—Ray Roa
Branch
out
American Stage’s spring offering gets attendees out of the theater and onto the trail. A nearly mile-long, wheelchairaccessible, one at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve to be exact. For this installment of “Tales By Twilight,” the cast—including Chad Jacobs (pictured, who plays Calvin)—works through Anthony Gervais’ “Don’t Feed the Animals.” Bring bug spray, your water bottle, and layers if you’re the kind who needs them. If you have a headlamp with a red light setting, then bring that to the 60-70-minute show, too (if you don’t, the company will share theirs).
Tales By Twilight ‘Don’t Feed the Animals’: Thursdays-Sundays, Jan. 30Feb. 23. $43. Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, 1101 Country Club Way S. americanstage.org Ray Roa
Yo, ho
Buddy Brew and Blind Tiger have Gasparilla roasts that’ll give you the energy to get through the festivities, but the Commodore has a roast that’ll leave you in stitches. For the second year in a row, the theater welcomes comedians to the stage to torch Tampa’s favorite pirate who never existed. The roast is the late show for Commodore and preceded by “The Captain’s Wheel” a one-night-only competitive improv show hosted by none other than Gaspar himself (played by Robert Ebeid).
The Roast of Jose Gaspar: Friday, Jan. 24. 8:45 p.m. $12. The Commodore Theater, 811 E. 7th Ave., Ybor City. commodorecomedy.com—Ray Roa
ANDREAS LAWEN, FOTANDI, CC BY-SA 3.0
Shell games
Organizers of Pinellas Taco Fest said that in 2024, attendees consumed 25,000 tacos. A smorgasbord of similar proportions awaits this year, with a rep for the festival saying that it hopes to dish out even more this weekend (with 50 vendors on the agenda, that’s totally doable). There’ll be a 20-chef battle for best taco on day one, with a taco eating competition going down on day two. Live music is on the docket, with a portion of proceeds going to Get Rescued, Inc. And don’t worry, there will be bathrooms.
Fourth annual Pinellas Taco Fest: Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 25-26. Gates at 11 a.m. No cover. England Brothers Park, Dave McKay Way, Pinellas Park. @pinellastacofest on Facebook—Ray Roa
Get a clue
Opening this weekend in St. Petersburg is a romantic comedy about two commuters (played by Debbie Yones and Michael Gregory) who meet, clash and eventually bond over a crossword puzzle. Yones, an ensemble member at the theater, is also executive director of Voices of Hope for Aphasia, a nonprofit that supports people with language disorders and holds an annual fundraising event called Word Play, the centerpiece of which is—ta-da!—a crossword competition. When Off-Central’s head honcho Ward Smith showed Yones the script, she remembers saying, “Omigosh, do you know this is perfect for Word Play? Yes, please, can I play this role and can we tie the two events together?’” Consider them tied.
‘Two Across’: ThursdaysSundays, Jan. 30-Feb. 9. $20-$35 (pay-what you can, starting at $10, on Wednesday, Feb. 5). The Off-Central, 2260 1st Ave. S, St. Petersburg, theoffcentral.com —David Warner
Smell the roses
The lies started pouring out of Donald Trump’s mouth pretty much the minute he took the podium beneath the Capitol rotunda last Monday. While the Democratic party continues to retool a strategy so unpopular that it led to the re-election of a convicted felon with a professed admiration for dictators, some political organizations offer a constructive place for anyone with that resistance energy inside of them. In the weeks after the election, Alec Wilcosky, an organizer for the Pinellas County Democratic Socialists of America told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that the number of his chapter’s dues paying members grew by 13% in a month and that DSA had added nearly 5,000 new members nationwide since Nov. 5. DSA’s Tampa chapter is hard at work, too, and hosts an organizing fair that seeks to shine a light on how politics can make change beyond the ballot box. More than a dozen organizations—like Tampa Bay Abortion Fund, Food & Water Watch, La Voz de Tampa Bay and local tenants unions—will table in the courtyard of Deviant Libation, which is also hosting a ticketed two-year anniversary concert the same night (more on p. 39). Anyone interested in mutual aid, anti-capitalistic organizations, or rights for workers and renters is encouraged to stop by.
Tampa Bay Organizing Fair: Saturday, Jan. 25. 5 p.m.-10 p.m. No cover. Deviant Libation, 3800 N Nebraska Ave., Tampa. actionnetwork.org—Ray Roa
On the clock
Hourly employees at the City of Tampa are at-risk of losing their union.
By Leah Foreman
Some hourly employees in the City of Tampa are at-risk of losing their union and their seat at the table for contract negotiations. Their situation stems from a 2023 law, SB 256, which changed the requirements for how unions register with the state and how they collect dues from members.
Before the law, teachers unions needed to present at least 50% of their dues-paying members to the state’s Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC).
No other unions had any sort of minimum membership threshold in place before SB 256—nicknamed the “Paycheck Protection Act”—upped that requirement for nearly all unions a to 60% and made it so that members have to opt in to pay dues to their unions, as opposed to union payments being automatic deductions from a member’s paycheck like with a 401K.
Still, SB 256 makes exceptions for law enforcement and firefighter bargaining units; there’s also an exception that allows PERC to waive certain SB 256 requirements for mass transit employees, but only as necessary for a public employer to comply with 49 U.S.C.
In just over a year, the law has led to over 60,000 thousand public sector employees across the state losing their union representation with the decertification of over 50 unions, according to an investigation by WLRN in Miami. McKenna Schueler, a reporter at Creative Loafing Tampa Bay sibling publication Orlando Weekly has followed this topic extensively and cites over 90 bargaining units (distinct groups of workers with a common interest represented by a union) that have been decertified since the law took effect. The law affects all public sector employee unions, except those for police officers, firefighters and correctional officers.
The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) represents over 200,000 members working in public transit, across the U.S. and Canada. ATU Local 1464 represents 2,000 City of Tampa employees under its bargaining unit. Members work in the city’s solid waste and park departments, and for Hillsborough Regional Area Transit.
To meet the new threshold, ATU Local 1464 must sign up 60% of this total unit, or 1,200 people as dues-paying members by the
end of January in order to re-register with the state and negotiate its next contracts in March, according to the local chapter’s president Stephen Simon.
“In my opinion, it’s a union busting law… and for the city to not be able to deduct dues— which was a practice for over 40 years—we
Act, Florida teachers will be able to choose how their hard-earned money is spent. School unions will no longer be able to hold teachers’ paychecks hostage with veiled threats while hiding where the money goes,” he said in a post to the social network formally known as Twitter.
In the immediate aftermath, unions across the state took legal action against it. Including the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.
“Gov. DeSantis has made it clear that he is targeting educators because we exercise our constitutional right to speak out against attempts
were scrambling, you know, because now we have to collect dues ourselves from all of the members and we don’t have the personnel to really run around and touch everyone personally,” Simon told CL.
When Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law in May 2023, he praised it for giving choice to teachers (and other public sector employees in the state). “By signing the Paycheck Protection
by this governor and others to stymie the freedom to learn and to stifle freedom of thought,” FEA president Andrew Spar said at the time.
SB 256 has led to the decertification of all eight of the state’s adjunct faculty unions—including those at The University of South Florida, St. Pete College and Hillsborough Community College—affecting over 8,000 adjunct professors across the state, per Orlando Weekly.
In November, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker ruled partly in favor of the union members, recognizing their constitutional right to collective bargaining, or negotiate contracts and benefits with their employer through a union. “Prohibition on the collection of union dues through payroll deductions, as applied to Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association’s and Hernando United School Workers’s existing collective bargaining agreements, is unconstitutional,” Walker ruled.
Florida is one of only a few states which protects workers’ right to collective bargaining in its constitution.
“This ruling reaffirms that collective bargaining agreements are contracts that need to be respected. Over and over again Governor DeSantis and anti-worker, anti-public education politicians have tried to dismantle our teachers’ unions,” Spar said in a press release. “And over and over again teachers, staff, students, parents and communities have come together to reaffirm their support for educators and for public education.”
The 2023 law, which some have also touted as Florida’s “Teachers Bill of Rights,” and a piece of “glitch legislation” made to fill in loopholes, which DeSantis signed last March, have been supported by conservative think tanks like Americans for Prosperity, founded by the Koch brothers, as well as others–from out-ofstate–which the Kochs also support, including the Freedom Foundation, based in Washington, and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, based in Michigan.
Back in 2023, Skylar Zander, the Florida State Director of Americans for Prosperity called the then-bill “long overdue” and “an unprecedented legislative proposal to establish greater accountability for teachers’ unions and other public sector unions.”
For the past month, ATU Local 1464 has held a membership drive. The local union hosts inperson events and has reached out to prospective members online. Simon said this push got the union between 400-450 new signups. He also said that the percentage of the bargaining unit fluctuates as people get promoted and retire. But, as this article goes to press, the chapter is approximately 300 dues-paying members shy of reaching its 60% threshold.
“So we’re trying to use every platform that we can to get the word out, you know, and also impress upon everyone the importance of us making our 60%,” said Simon. “Because if we don’t, then we’ll be decertified. And if we get decertified, that means no union, no contract.”
THE WORKING LIFE: Some ATU Local 1464 members work in solid waste.
Tempest in the teapot
Harbour Island residents are ‘bystanders’ in case against hotel development.
By Leah Foreman
Harbour Island is one step closer to getting a major hotel development—along one of the community’s largest thoroughfares. Still, the contentious site remains the subject of ongoing legal battles between its developers and the city of Tampa after the city rejected the plan.
In a Dec. 19 ruling, Judge Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe, of the 13th Judicial Circuit Court, stated that the city of Tampa lacked quasi-judicial authority to make a decision on the development of this site, as it has for land use issues for decades. Quasijudicial proceedings are ones that require due process, so all involved parties can be heard and provide substantial evidence.
The judge does not say,” Premak said. If the ruling stands–and we don’t think it will–it would turn any land use exemption, exception, or variation into the wild west…it would be chaos.”
LOCAL NEWS
This was seen as a win for Liberty Group, the developer behind the proposed boutique hotel. Liberty issued a press release to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, which said, in part:
This ruling invalidates any rezoning or restrictions previously imposed by the City Council on theHarbour Island property, restoring the original CG + RMU-100 zoning classifications. The decision paves the way for Liberty Group to advance its development plans, contributing to Tampa’s ongoing economic growth and fostering new opportunities for the community.
“This decision is not only a significant milestone for us and this project, but it also reaffirms the legal framework for zoning authority in the City of Tampa,” said Punit Shah, CEO of Liberty Group. “We are excited to move forward with our development plans and remain committed to investing in the future of our dynamic Tampa community.” (See the full statement at cltampa.com/news.)
The case has also been moving through the Second District Court of Appeals. In a nine-page Jan. 16 filing, Liberty Group suggested that the court send the case to the Florida Supreme Court for an “immediate resolution,” citing how the case affects myriad municipalities with quasi-judicial power over land-use cases, not just Tampa City Council.
On the other side of that fight remains the city of Tampa and residents of Harbour Island. City officials declined to comment due to the ongoing legislation as it is pending a decision. And on Dec. 17, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Moe to the Florida Second District Court of Appeals, where this case is being heard. The development was first introduced in 2021 and Larry Premak, the president of Harbour Island’s South Neighborhood Association has been vocal against it since.
“What is most important in Judge Moe’s decision is if the city council does not have authority to rule on quasi-judicial proceedings, who does?
City council denied Liberty Group’s proposal in May 2022 and again that December. Back then, the neighborhood association cited Knights Run Avenue as a line of demarcation, which has marked the division between Harbour Island’s zones for 35 years. In a presentation to council, it was noted that high-density residential and high-density commercial only exist north of Knights Run Avenue. The proposed hotel would be at 800 S Harbour Island and run along the south side of Knights Run Avenue.
Campaign finance records show that Shah, the CEO of Liberty Group, also known as Liberty Hospitality Management, donated to the campaigns of two different judges of the 13th Judicial Circuit Court before Liberty’s case against the city was heard there. Shah donated $1,000 to Steven Scott Stephens in August 2020. Stephens ultimately lost that bid for reelection and works
at a private practice in Tampa. Shah donated another $1,000 to Judge Alissa Ellison’s campaign in February 2022, just two months after city council last heard and denied the proposal. Both of these donations were made from 800 S Harbour Island Blvd., which Liberty Group asserts was the address of the company’s headquarters until 2022.
When asked about these donations, Shah told CL, “We like to support leaders within our community that can help make a positive impact.”
Political Scientist and USF professor Dr. Ed Benton believes this is enough to affect the case.
“I would think that the appellate court would void the decision that has already been made by a 13th Circuit judge because of conflict of interest and possible bias and then direct that the case be re-heard by a judge in another judicial circuit in the state that is not close to Hillsborough County,” he said.
to hear a case, Smolker said it’s more a matter of what proper action should have been taken.
“It’s a bit of a tempest in the teapot because I think, at the end of the day, it’s just a question of what’s the proper remedy,” Smolker said. “Either way, I think Judge Moe had jurisdiction. It was just a question of whether she treated it as a petition for certiorari and reviewed the record only or whether she conducted a brand new trial.”
A petition for certiorari is a request for the Supreme Court to view a case from a lower court. Premak, for his part, believes this case will end up in the Florida Supreme Court, calling the ruling “broad” and something that affects not just Tampa, but all of Florida.
“If the city council does not have authority to rule on quasi-judicial proceedings, who does?
David Smolker Esq., of Smolker Matthews, represents the South Neighborhood Association.
“We are not intervened in any of the litigation,” Smolker said. “We’re, at this point, sort of bystanders.”
While there’s been a question of the subject matter jurisdiction, or the court’s legal authority
“When the last hearing in front of city council was held in December 2022, out of 4,000 residents on Harbor Island, exactly one spoke in favor of this development,” Premak said. “Hundreds literally wrote in or were at city council to oppose it. And the only one who did speak for it was Punit Shah, the developer.”
In the appeals case, Liberty Group and the city of Tampa—and, by extension, the South Neighborhood Association—await the judge’s decision in the appellate court.
Circling back
Hillsborough and statewide pot rulings going back to the courts.
By Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix
An attorney representing Hillsborough County has filed an appeal in the state’s Second District Court of Appeal of a ruling that could have statewide implications in solidifying protections for employees who are lawful medical marijuana patients under Florida law.
Angelo Giambrone was an EMT with Hillsborough County since 2008 who also happened to be a qualified medical marijuana patient, as he said he suffered from anxiety, insomnia, and PTSD. He was put on unpaid administrative leave in 2019 after testing positive for cannabis use following a random drug test.
Hillsborough Circuit Court Judge Melissa Polo ruled in Giambrone’s favor last month, declaring the county had illegally discriminated against him. She ordered the county to pay him $321,337 in backpay between 2019-2024, as well as $19,500 in interest and $60,000 in compensatory damages, including for mental anguish, loss of dignity, and other intangible injuries.
WEED
In 2020 he sued the county, alleging that it was a violation of the Florida Civil Rights Act for failure to accommodate him as disabled individual; that he was wrongfully terminated because the county refused to accept his state-issued medical marijuana card as justification for his positive test results; and that the county had failed to update its Drug Free Workplace Policy pursuant to the Florida Civil Rights Act.
In court proceedings, the county admitted that there had been no allegations that Giambrone was ever impaired or used cannabis at work, before work, or during work hours. They also acknowledged that there had been no complaints or suspicions that he ever was impaired at work and that he had above average or exemplary performance reviews.
Polo also ruled that Hillsborough County is now prohibited from discriminating against and must provide accommodations to employees who present a valid Florida Medical Marijuana card after testing positive for marijuana “as long as there is no evidence that the employee used or possessed substances while at work or during work hours, on county property, in county vehicles, or reported to work impaired.”
The law is silent Florida’s medical marijuana statute does not require an employer to accommodate the medical use of marijuana in any workplace or any employee while working under the influence of marijuana but is silent about whether employers must accommodate off-site or offwork use of marijuana.
Democratic lawmakers have filed bills in recent sessions to give medical marijuana patients legal protections at work, although they haven’t moved in the GOP-controlled Legislature. A bill filed ahead of the 2025 regular
legislative session would protect public employees from positive marijuana tests — if they have a medical prescription.
Legal briefs in the case are not due for another 70 days, according to an attorney representing Hillsborough County.
There are now 896,635 medical marijuana patients in the state of Florida, according to the Office of Medical Marijuana Use.
Medical cannabis is legal in 38 states, while 24 have anti-discrimination employee protection, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
More than 71% of voters approved medical marijuana in 2016 as a state constitutional amendment. Recreational marijuana was on the ballot in 2024 but did not receive the 60% support required for passage. A new proposal to get the measure on the 2026 ballot was filed earlier last week.
Florida marijuana company appeals judge’s decision to ban pot dispensaries at gas stations
A Florida medical-marijuana company hasn’t given up on an attempt to start selling weed alongside convenience stores, after an administrative law judge sided with state health regulators who rejected the plan.
Green Thumb Industries, which operates RISE dispensaries in Florida, filed a notice last Thursday saying it will ask the 1st District Court of Appeal to review Administrative Law Judge Joshua Pratt’s Jan. 7 ruling.
As is common, the notice did not include details about the appeal. An October 2022 news release said the company — commonly known as GTI — intended to launch a “test and learn phase” of the plan with 10 dispensaries adjacent
to Circle K’s in various parts of Florida beginning in January 2023.
Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use Director Christopher Kimball, however, nixed the company’s requests for dispensaries in St. Petersburg, Orlando and Ocala, saying the plans did not comply with state law for a variety of reasons.
Lawyers for GTI filed an administrative petition accusing Kimball of unlawfully applying “unadopted rules” in denying the requests.
The petition pointed to other medical-marijuana companies’ dispensaries near or adjacent to convenience stores or gas stations, which were approved by Kimball and his predecessor. Pratt this month issued a ruling that supported Kimball and said the director made his decisions “on a case-by-case basis.”
News about the potential partnership between Circle K and GTI sparked national headlines and caused ripples at the Office of Medical Marijuana Use, which regulates pot companies.
Meanwhile, GTI has another case pending at the state Division of Administrative Hearings focused on the denial of a proposed Ocala dispensary, which would be in a building separate from an adjacent Circle K.
The pending petition, in part, questioned state health officials’ position that locating a dispensary adjacent to a convenience store would increase risks of crime.—News Service of Florida.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
TAKE IT EASY: A judge recently rejected a plan to sell pot at convenience stores.
Word is Bondi
Tampa woman remains on smooth path to confirmation for attorney general.
By Ashley Murray/Florida Phoenix
Former Florida Attorney General Pamela Jo Bondi remained on a smooth path to confirmation for the top spot at the U.S. Justice Department after senators last Wednesday closed the first hearing for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick.
Bondi promised the Republican-led Senate Committee on the Judiciary a “new golden age” of justice and “to make America safe again.”
But the career prosecutor faced repeated questions from Democrats about her loyalty to Trump, who has vowed vengeance against his political enemies and to exonerate his supporters who tried to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.
Bondi, who advised Trump during his 2019 impeachment trial, served as the top law enforcement officer in Florida from 2011 to 2019 and as a prosecutor in Hillsborough County for 18 years.
has promised to pardon the Jan. 6 defendants, whom he referred to repeatedly on the campaign trail as “patriots,” “hostages” and “warriors.”
Trump loss to Biden
Committee ranking member Dick Durbin of Illinois kicked off nearly five hours of questioning, asking Bondi about the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
“To my knowledge, Donald Trump has never acknowledged the legal results of the 2020 election. Are you prepared to say today, under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020?” Durbin asked.
ELECTIONS
Committee Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley praised the “highly qualified” nominee.
“When confirmed, Ms. Bondi will take the helm at a very turbulent time for this country and for that department,” which the Iowa Republican said is “infected with political decision making.”
Neither side questioned Bondi’s qualifications to lead the Justice Department, citing her work in Florida to eliminate a backlog of rape kit tests and secure over $3 billion for the state after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
But Bondi was not Trump’s first choice to lead the Justice Department. Rather, the presidentelect handpicked Matt Gaetz, the former Florida congressman accused of sex with a minor and who resigned from the U.S. House hours after Trump selected him.
Allegiance to Trump
Democrats pressed the former state prosecutor on the extent of her loyalty to Trump. Bondi was supportive of Trump’s false claims that he had won Pennsylvania after the 2020 presidential election.
Bondi, 59, who chairs the litigation arm of the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute, is poised to lead a department that has been in Trump’s crosshairs after he was charged with federal crimes for allegedly mishandling classified documents and conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.
The department also launched its largest-ever investigation, pursuing more than 1,580 defendants who breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, at Trump’s urging, to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
Just over 600 people were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement. Trump
“Biden is the president of the United States,” Bondi responded. “He was duly sworn in, and he is the president of the United States. There was a peaceful transition of power. President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024.”
“I think that question deserves a yes or no,” Durbin replied. “And I think the length of your answer is an indication that you weren’t prepared to answer yes.”
Moments later, Durbin asked Bondi whether Jan. 6 defendants who have been convicted of violently assaulting police officers should be pardoned.
“Senator, if confirmed as attorney general of the United States, the pardons, of course, fall under the president, but if asked to look at those cases, I will look at each case and advise on a case-by-case basis, just as I did my entire career as a prosecutor,” Bondi responded.
Durbin, who was one of many Democratic senators to raise the topic of Jan. 6 pardons, accused Bondi of not being able to clearly answer a “simple question.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham chided his colleagues across the aisle for “pre-judging” how the former Florida prosecutor would advise on pardoning the rioters convicted of violent crimes.
“You would look at the application and give (Trump) your best advice, and you don’t like people who beat up cops?” the South Carolina Republican asked Bondi.
“Correct, I hope no one does,” Bondi replied. “I’m not going to speak for the president, but the president does not like people that abuse police officers either.”
Revenge against Trump enemies
Democratic senators also pressed Bondi on whether she would refuse a request from Trump to dole out retribution against his political foes.
In early December the president-elect told NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” that Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie
Thompson and former top-ranking Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming “should go to jail.” Thompson chaired and Cheney co-chaired the U.S. House select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.
Vermont Sen. Peter Welch bore down on Trump’s threats, asking Bondi if she’s spoken to Trump about prosecuting Adam Schiff of California, a current member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who sat on the Jan. 6 investigation panel. Schiff also led the impeachment against Trump in 2019.
“Absolutely not,” Bondi said.
The president-elect has “said on a number of occasions that (Schiff) should be prosecuted, that everybody on the January 6 committee should be prosecuted for their lies and treason. No discussion about that?” Welch followed up.
“No, senator,” Bondi said.
“And Liz Cheney also, he’s said that she should be prosecuted for lies and treason as well,” Welch continued in the back-and-forth.
“We have had no discussions about Liz Cheney,” Bondi answered.
The FBI and the press
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, asked whether members of the press would be targeted under Trump’s new law enforcement leaders, particularly if Trump’s controversial FBI director pick, Kash Patel, is confirmed.
“If the president or, depends on who the FBI director is — I have some strong views on that
— tries to push to go after the media, how would you respond to that?”
“Clearly, he’s made some statements, but I haven’t talked to Mr. Patel about those statements.” Bondi said. “But going after the media just because they’re the media is wrong, of course.” Patel’s hearing has not yet been scheduled. Bondi’s signed ethics agreement and financial disclosure were not yet publicly available last Wednesday on the U.S. Government Office of Ethics database. A spokesperson for Grassley said the documents will be available over the coming days.
Senators from both sides of the aisle expressed confidence that the committee will advance Bondi’s nomination to the full Senate.
“One need not be clairvoyant to see that you’re going to be confirmed,” said Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana.
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California agreed: “I know how to count, and I know how to read tea leaves. It seems to me you’re very, very, very, very likely to be confirmed.”
The panel will reconvene Thursday to hear testimony from legal experts on Bondi’s qualifications.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
TRUMP BUMP: Pam Bondi (R) is Trump’s second pick for attorney general.
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It’s Mocktail Time
OPENINGS & CLOSINGS
RESTAURANTS RECIPES DINING GUIDES
Just cuz
Revered online sandwich shop opens storefront, and more food news.
By Julia Saad
Cousin Vinny is officially offline. After two years trying to hop off the hashtags and have a storefront with a name tag, Cousin Vinny’s Sandwich Co. opened in Tampa last Tuesday.
Executive Chef and co-owner Vincent “Vinny” Andriotti and co-owner Russell Leone first opened a to-go sandwich shop out of a small kitchen on Nebraska Avenue in 2023, operating for pickup only on Saturday and Sunday.
Andriotti told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay he noticed customers driving from places outside of the Bay area, just to try one of the sandwiches.
The online shop featured chicken cutlet and shredded beef sandwiches with a variety of sauces, in a grab-and-go-style. Vinny’s is saying goodbye to its ghost kitchen pick-up days and hello to its storefront.
In 2024, the duo, along with other partners, were preparing for a soft launch after signing a new lease on W Cass Street. As previously reported, zoning and other paperwork on the deli space delayed plans.
The current online menu includes cutlet and meatball sandos, wraps and Schiacatta bread sandwiches. Diners can also order a little something on the side with their meals. Promos and exclusive offers for the openings will be published on their social media.
The New York inspired deli Cousin Vinny’s Sandwich Co. is at 1331 W Cass St. Operating hours, for now, are Tuesday-Sunday from 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Indian street food spot Mowgli’s Tiffin opens in St. Petersburg
Nearly four years after it was first announced, new Indian street food concept Mowgli’s Tiffin has finally debuted in St. Petersburg. Located in the former Chi-Town Beefs location at 165 Dr. MLK St. N, just on the edge of the Edge District, Mowgli’s quietly opened on Dec. 31.
In a previous interview with CL, owner and Tampa Bay native, Amita Mukherjee, said Mowgli’s is inspired by her frequent trips to India with her parents in her early years, which helped blossom a love for Indian street food.
“I would crave that street food,” said Mukherjee. “But when I went to Indian places around here I noticed that you don’t get those
options. Most Indian places seem to center around curries.”
The 16-seat, 526-square-foot restaurant centers around Indian fusion dishes like kaati rolls, pani puri, and its signature Kolkati Roll, which is essentially a roti wrapped around a kebab. There’s also butter chicken rice bowls, grilled cheese naan, potato bhaji, paneer curds, and more.
Mowgli’s Tiffin is open Monday-Saturday from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.—Colin Wolf
Guy Fieri’s new Chicken Guy location in Wesley Chapel is open
Celebrity chef and “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” host Guy Fieri finally opened his latest chicken tender chain location in Wesley Chapel this month.
The new Chicken Guy! outpost, located at 25769 Sierra Center Blvd., was officially announced back in August as the first in the Tampa Bay region. Co-founded in 2018 with Planet Hollywood founder Robert Earl, the chain’s menu primarily focuses on chicken tenders and Guy’s “Big Bite” chicken sandwiches,
which are both served either grilled or “crispy fried.” There are also shakes, fries, mac and cheese, salads and more up for grabs.
The chain currently has 13 locations across the country, with more on the way. The closest outpost in Winter Park faced eviction last March over $38K in unpaid rent, and a location in Livonia, Michigan shuttered abruptly last June.—CW
Gulfport vegan scene staple Golden Dinosaurs is closed
Golfport’s Golden Dinosaurs has gone extinct. Owners of the beloved vegan deli closed their nearly-seven-year-old concept last weekend. The meteor that killed these dinos? Financial burden.
“This past fiscal year combined with back to back hurricanes was the final nail in the coffin, and we’ve had to make the extremely difficult decision to shut her down,” Golden Dinosaurs wrote on social media.
Owners, husband and wife, Brian and Audrey Dingeman created a deli-inspired vegan menu, serving sweets and sauerkraut pastrami sandwiches, everyday except Wednesdays, at 2930 Beach Blvd.
The space is informal, with less seating inside than outside. When creating the space,
Brian told CL he decorated the space with thrifted mid-century decor, bringing even more character to the deli.
Since 2018, the deli earned a passionate following on Instagram, where it asked customers to share their favorite memories at Golden Dinos as the deli reaches its final days. In the same post, the Dingemans wrote they will focus on their other vegan restaurant, Good Intentions in St. Petersburg, but they are already grieving their “little corner of the world” in Gulfport.
Golden Dinosaurs closure comes less than a month after Tampa said goodbye to vegan scene staple 3 Dot Dash.
ICYMI
The winter menu has launched at South Tampa’s Bulla Gastrobar (930 S Howard Ave.), with Chef Felix Plasencia adding dishes like caldo Gallego—a Galician soup composed of tender kale, hearty alubias (white beans), and rich, smoked pork shank—plus fried eggplant served crispy with Manchego cheese and honey truffle aioli. Chistorra a la Sidra, a thin Spanish sausage simmered in cider and served with a crusty baguette for dipping into its rich juices, also among the additions, alongside clams with pork belly, short ribs with tetilla cheese, plus a Spanish crème brûlée.—Ray Roa
A CUTLET ABOVE: ‘That Louie’ at Cousin Vinny’s Sandwich Co.
MOVIES THEATER ART CULTURE
Unusual suspect
The inevitability of St. Pete’s Raheem Fitzgerald.
By Anthony Ozdemir
Last May, Raheem Fitzgerald stood in the center of a dimly-lit, crowded rooftop at Tampa Edition (stylized “EDITION”). Wearing his trademark white tee tucked in black pants, the 27-year-old had a bag slung over his shoulder and a bushel of garden flowers in his right hand. He was surrounded by an eclectic array of people all brought together for one reason; to celebrate the fine art created by a man, his intense work ethic, his transitions through society, and an inevitable mission to pioneer a new cultural direction.
Fitzgerald was born in St. Pete, but spent some of his adolescence in Atlanta before returning to the Bay area after high school. The cultural differences between the cities shaped who he is today. “I was able to see myself in a lot of different shoes. Whereas here, there may be three pairs of shoes, or three ways you could live life,” he told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
INTERVIEW
into the work of Matisse, Henry Taylor and Théodore Géricault. He became obsessed with abstract impressionists and went through “a weird George Condo phase.” From 5 p.m.-10 p.m. every night, he would just paint. “Everyone says you gotta believe, but you really just have to go for it and make sure it happens. To become a great painter, I painted more than other people paint. I paint almost every day,” Fitzgerald said. He started with cowboy-themed work— revolvers, hats, and desert landscapes—then found his niche in portraits with the help of a close friend who let Fitzgerald paint them as a practice figure. It was around then that he realized the lack of Black representation throughout the history of fine art; he then made a distinct decision to paint mostly Black figures.
Someone’s possibilities weren’t limited by their race. “Every version of a person—Black, white, and Central American—there were people you could see living a life you might want to live,” he added.
Atlanta changed his views on society. After 10th grade, he bet on himself and decided he wanted to be an artist. Back in St. Pete, Fitzgerald worked with various local art studios, businesses, and creators before breaking through the scene himself with original creative collage works. “It was me filtering everything I had ever looked at in my life out into these images,” he said. “I was building my own world through these collages.”
From then on, Fitzgerald started painting the people around him and focused on capturing their leisurely moments with a goal in mind. “I wanted to make fine art that wasn’t just speaking to Black people in the way of imagery and representation, but speaking to the cultural nuances of America,” he said.
“It’s not an accident.”
One of his shows, built around collage, soldout. But it wasn’t enough. Fitzgerald was at the peak of his collage era, but he wanted to reinvent his artistic identity. “I wanted to make real quality art, something that someone could have in their house and give to their grandkids,” he said. Some people believe that if you spend 100 hours a year in any discipline, you’ll be more skilled than 95% of the world’s population. To Fitzgerald, 100 hours is less than a measly month’s work.
In 2021, he started painting with a simple mission: to be the best. Self-taught, he dove
By the time of his “Who Do You Know” exhibit at the Tampa Edition, which the artist described as “a show about the artistic lifestyle,” Raheem had painted enough portraits to fill a rooftop and keep hundreds of guests mesmerized by his work. In fitting fashion, a piece in the collection called “My Cherie Amour” was included. Its description read, “The title text from Raheem’s favorite Stevie Wonder song tucked behind Lundyn, the person Raheem portrays the most.” The highlight of the portrait, an ode to the same friend he first started painting, speaks volumes about the artist’s character.
Tampa and St. Pete are generally known for their vibrant art scenes, and as inclusive places to showcase creativity. Sitting inside Scott Andrew Fisher Design Studio in St. Pete, Fitzgerald points to pieces by Fisher, who is his favorite local artist. Zulu Painter, Gary Taylor (Rasta), Patricia Tierney Moses, and Steven Palladino also inspire him.
continued on page 33
PORTRAIT OF A MAN: St. Pete-born artist Raheem Fitzgerald.
continued from page 31
Besides Fisher’s studio, Fitzgerald enjoys the Dalí and the Museum of Fine Arts. The “Florida’s Historical Heritage” sculpture by Tampa artist Harrison Covington on the parking garage near Ruby’s Elixir is one of his personal favorites, too. “It’s like, there are these little hidden pockets where the St. Pete art scene shows signs of life, but then there are moments where I think it’s something I don’t want to necessarily be a part of,” Fitzgerald explained after being asked to think about the local art culture’s impact on him. “There are a lot of answers to that, and it has a lot of layers. A lot of it has to do with people’s understanding of art."
play in the reindeer games, so I started making a game of my own. Through people not necessarily including me, I learned how to include myself. I banked on greatness.”
INTERVIEW
What can anyone really understand about Fitzgerald when he explains that he’s from St. Pete? “Do they think I’m making bright paintings of flamingos? Or Alec Monopoly ripoffs combined with Basquiat? So it becomes a little bit of that,” he said. Fitzgerald—who’s also working on a coffee table book—sometimes feels Tampa Bay’s fine arts culture isn't taken as seriously as the scenes in other cities. He wants to work with others to change that—and wonders about his place here.
“As an artist in the Tampa Bay area, there have been times where I feel like this isn’t the best place to be in the world as a young, Black painter, at all,” Fitzgerald said bluntly. “I think there were times that people didn’t want to let me
So he put himself in places where he would have access to not just paint and brushes, but people who could help him follow the dream, including Carol Bristol, who opened Gallerie 909. He also hosts a show on St. Pete’s underground Sector.FM. Fitzgerald was even in Miami for Art Basel where he collaborated with Cassina, an Italian high-end furniture shop. He hopes to inspire others who look like him, but sees many social transgressions in the world of fine art that continue to hinder that process. But obstacles are nothing new. “It is what it is. I think recently I’ve been able to put my blinders on to it all, but after the intensity of the election, everything is so in the forefront that you can’t really look away right now,” Fitzgerald added.
The difference between Raheem’s first and most recent exhibit shows just how far he’s come. And he’s just getting started.
“I got to see different levels of society. The people I interacted with on that rooftop who were buying the work, and the people at my first art show are very different, and in different parts of society,” he said. “Art has been able to change my life. I found a living doing something I really love, and that I’m very thankful for, but it’s not an accident. I am inevitable.”
NOT A HOBBY: Raheem Fitzgerald paints relentlessly in pursuit of greatness.
Thursday Jan 23, 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Chamber After Hours with Tampa Bay Brewing Company @ Tampa Bay Brewing Company 1600 E 8th Ave Tampa
Free to Members, $10 for Non-Members bit.ly/4hqvDht
Friday, Jan 24, 2025, 10:00 PM
Audien @ The Ritz Ybor
1503 E 7th Ave, Tampa
GA - $20 bit.ly/audien0124
Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, 8:00 PM
Rap Slam @ Crowbar
1812 N 17th St Tampa
$10 Cover crowbarybor.com/calendar/#/events
Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025
Nick Shoulders and The Okay Crawdad “Land of the Freak” Tour @ Crowbar 1812 N 17th St Tampa
$20 General Admission bit.ly/3Cdtqab
Friday, Jan 24 - Sunday, Jan 26
See website for showtimes
1600 E 8th Ave C-112, Tampa
Tickets start at $48 bit.ly/40qlzxX
DL Hughley @ The Funny Bone Comedy Club
Sunday, Jan 26, 2025
See website for showtime
Queer Comedy Queens
@ The Funny Bone Comedy Club
1600 E 8th Ave C-112, Tampa
Tickets start at $42 bit.ly/3Wr1vu4
Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, 8:00 PM - 12:00 AM
COLORS Worldwide Presents: R&B ONLY LIVE
10-Year Anniversary @ The Ritz Ybor
1503 E 7th Ave, Tampa
$60 General Admission tampa.rnbonly.com
Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, 9:30 AM - 2:30 PM 14th Annual Cuban Club Bocce Ball Tournament
@ The Cuban Club Patio
2010 N Avenida Republica de Cuba Tampa
$1,000 per team, Free to spectators bit.ly/40IaWI0
Thursday, Feb. 6, 9:00 PM - 1:00 AM
Mission Thursday @ 7th + Grove Ybor City
1930 East 7th Avenue Tampa
$12 for General Admission bit.ly/40DkjJc
Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, 7:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Knights of Sant’ Yago Knight Parade Parade begins on 7th Avenue in Ybor Free to the public krewesantyago.org/knight-parade
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE MFA COLLECTION ON VIEW THROUGH MARCH 16
Installation of Ansel Adams: Photographs from the MFA Collection
EXPLORE THE VAULTS
THE ART OF NEW GUINEA ON VIEW THROUGH APRIL 12
Iatmul artist, Aibom Village, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, Pot 1980, Earthenware with ocher and lime, Gift of Ivis J. Calvet
ART AFTER DARK
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23 | 5-8 PM
Join us for Art After Dark on select Thursday evenings throughout the year! Enjoy discounted admission and exclusive programming, including engaging docent-led tours, thought-provoking lectures, film screenings, and more. Explore the galleries after hours, soak in the distinctive ambiance, and experience art in a fresh, captivating way. It’s the perfect night out for everyone to enjoy!
AUTHOR TALK
THE BIRDS THAT AUDUBON MISSED WITH KENN KAUFMAN
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23 | 6-7 PM
Join renowned author, artist, naturalist, and conservationist Kenn Kaufman for a closer look at John James Audubon’s life and work, including his time spent studying the birds of Florida.
DEAD COOL
REVIEWS PROFILES MUSIC WEEK
And the angels sing
Kitty Daniels, a beloved fixture of the Tampa jazz scene, has died at age 90.
By Eric Snider
Kitty Daniels, a singer and pianist who was a fixture on the Tampa Bay music scene for nearly seven decades, died on Jan. 2. She was 90. The cause was lung cancer, said her grandson Michael Reed. She passed away at Moffitt Cancer Center with drummer Majid Shabazz—her musical and life partner of 45 years—at her side.
Daniels is probably best known for her residency at Donatello in Tampa, where, starting in 1999, she entertained diners and bar patrons of the Italian restaurant several nights a week. She was revered for her warm, lively stage presence and willingness to take just about any request presented to her.
“I feel like I know 90% of the songs people request,” Daniels told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay in a 2020 interview.
She sang and played piano, and was sometimes supported by Shabazz on drums. Daniels had a pliable singing voice—she drew comparisons to Billie Holiday—and was a capable improviser on piano. Most of her repertoire came from the Great American Songbook, a vast cache of tunes written primarily in the first half of the 20th Century. Daniels mastered the canon, and could play countless numbers on command. But she could also knock out pop and rock songs by The Beatles, Billy Joel and others.
She was born Dorothy Alexander on Oct. 5, 1934, but was called Kitty from the outset. A midwife delivered her in a house on 8th Avenue in Ybor City, according to Reed, her grandson. Daniels would call Tampa’s Latin section home for nearly all of her life.
Kitty grew up in a rooming house passed down to the family from her grandmother. As a toddler with a natural musical ear, she would play a piano owned by one of the tenants. When he moved out, Kitty’s mother scraped together the money to buy the piano. Kitty started taking lessons at age six.
As a student at Middleton High School, “her music teacher would take her to society tea parties and things, and Kitty’s job was to read poetry,” Bob Seymour, the former Jazz Director for WUSF-FM and a longtime friend of Daniels, told CL. “She always credited that experience to how she would approach a lyric of all the standards she sang through the years.”
According to the documentary short film “Kitty Daniels with Majid Shabazz: Jazz Legends,”
Daniels started out working as a bartender at the Cotton Club on fabled Central Avenue in Tampa, which was the epicenter of Black cultural life. In her 20s, she was the only female member of two of the most in-demand bands on the scene—Charlie Brantley’s Honeydrippers and Doc’s Skyliners. When the men hung out between sets, Daniels wanted no part of their ribald banter, so she played piano during breaks.
In the early 1960s, Daniels was frustrated that Black musicians were not permitted to join the local chapter of the American Federation of Musicians, and were therefore cut out of jobs that paid union-scale wages. She wrote a letter of complaint to James Petrillo, the national head of the union. He dispatched a representative to bring the local chapter in line, opening up union gigs for Black players and singers.
Daniels was an activist on a smaller scale as well.
“My grandmother would loan money to people in the neighborhood, help people out,” Reed told CL. “She’d make sure they had groceries, stuff like that. She was generous to a fault sometimes.”
Country Club in northern Pinellas County, she recalled in her CL interview. Due to raising children, a husband who didn’t want her to travel and a fear of flying, Daniels’s career stayed close to home. She found her niche as a solo act, and gigged regularly.
IN MEMORIAM
Daniels owned a rental house next door to her home at 1202 E 15th Ave. “She provided housing for folks for almost nothing,” Reed said. Daniels took the lead in raising her grandson.
“She was the first person to hold me when I was born, and she took me in,” Reed added. “She was more like my mother than my grandmother. She let me grow and find things out on my own. She was just there to guide me and provide me a safety net. My grandmother was an artist, and she fostered art within me.”
Reed, 33, lives a few doors down from the family home and works as a labor organizer for the Service Employees International Union.
Daniels’s career as a solo artist can be credited to developing her style during band breaks—as well as her passion for dog racing. She was a regular at the Derby Lane, and never missed a race when a dog named Rinaker was chasing the mechanical rabbit. As a result, she was late to too many gigs and got fired from the Skyliners, she told CL.
Daniels went out on her own, and quickly landed a residency at the Silver Lake Golf &
Daniels’s local profile surged in her 80s when luminaries on the jazz scene like Seymour, Belinda Womack and members of La Lucha touted her as an artist due more attention. In 2018, Mayor Bob Buckhorn proclaimed Aug. 27 Kitty Daniels Day in Tampa. Daniels’s profile got another significant boost in 2020, when the documentary produced and directed by Louise Krikorian, played at local film festivals.
Despite late-in-life recognition, Daniels never found her way to easy street. Reed said that his grandmother was the primary breadwinner for her extended family. (Daniels had four children and helped raise two stepchildren.) The financial situation was mostly tough, sometimes dire, but Daniels never let on.
“She was taken advantage of by one of these mortgage companies with a reverse mortgage a while back,” Reed said. “And she fell behind on the payments. I wish I had known how bad it was. You shouldn’t have to wait for things to be bad for you to be present more.”
Daniels was also secretive about her illness. “I’m not actually sure how long she [had cancer] because she didn’t tell me until about a year-and-a-half ago,” Reed said. “Even then, she said she had a small nodule on her lung and it was nothing.”
Daniels continued to gig at Donatello as her condition worsened. Last fall, she collapsed
at the piano, Reed said, and had to be helped up by Shabazz.
“Gino [Tiozzo, the restaurant’s owner] had to retire her because she would have tried to keep playing,” Reed added. “The great thing about the Donatello family and Gino is that he continued to pay her salary up until her death.”
But Daniels had lost a lifeline.
“We used to say in my family that the music keeps her alive,” Reed said. “I used to ask her, ‘Grandma, why are you working so much?’ And she would say, ‘I love this. It’s not work.’ So when she couldn’t play at Donatello anymore, I think deep down I knew it was getting to an end.”
The Daniels family home is under threat of foreclosure. “My grandfather [Shabazz], my mother and my sister currently live there,” Reed said. “And there’s just no money left.”
Reed has started a GoFundMe page, Kitty Daniels: Funeral Cost and Home Preservation Fund. He wrote in the post, “Unfortunately, because of her long fight with this terrible illness, she died penniless. No money to pay for funeral arrangements or save her home in the heart of Ybor City from the bank.
“The money donated will be used to pay for funeral expenses and to save and restore the home that she built in the neighborhood that she loved and fought for. This home will be preserved for her long time romantic partner Majid Shabazz and her children and grandchildren. Ms. Kitty always wanted her family to live and build back her property in historic Ybor.”
As of Monday afternoon, Jan. 20, the fund had raised $9,120. Kitty Daniels was laid to rest on Saturday, Jan. 18 at Garden of Memories cemetery in East Tampa, three miles from her home in Ybor City.
NEARNESS OF YOU: Majid Shabazz (L) and Kitty Daniels.
THU JAN. 23–THU JAN. 30
THU 23
C Dweezil Zappa While fans enjoyed Zappa at last year’s Experience Hendrix tour stop at Ruth Eckerd Hall, it was mutually agreeable that the 55-year-old’s rousing performance of “Stone Free” wasn’t anywhere near the amount of stage time he deserved. For what appears to be his headlining first show in town since a 2017 stop at Jannus Live, Dweezil dusts off a healthy array of his late father Frank’s ultra complex material, as well as a fistful of cuts from his own versatile catalog that has been graced by the likes of Steve Vai, the late Chick Corea, and of course, Spinal Tap. (Bilheimer Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)—Josh Bradley
Jarv w/King Green/Damn Skippy Nathan Jarvis is a better rapper than skateboarder, which’ll bode well at New World where there’s really nowhere to push a board around anyway. For fans of RA The Rugged Man and Masta Ace, the 31-year-old Brooklyn-based emcee is also a producer who can beat off with the best of them. He’s in Tampa on the heels of a new boom-bap, one-take single, “Rap 101,” as he kicks off a month-long tour of the Southeast, Midwest and Eastern Seaboard. (Music Hall at New World Brewery, Tampa)
C Paul Thorn w/Marc Broussard When it comes to Southern songwriter tours, it might not get more appropriate than this bill headlined by Tupelo’s very own boxersongwriter Paul Thorn and Carencro’s gravel voiced soul-pop troubadour Marc Broussard. Together the fellas have half-a-century’s worth of recorded music under their belts. Broussard even arrives in support of his new album in seven years, Time is a Thief, produced by Grammy-winning (Eric Krasno) and nominated producers (Jeremy Most) who’ve worked with the likes of Soulive, Lettuce and Emily King. (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)
FRI 24
The California Honeydrops While toying around with reggae, classic jazz, and heartland rock-esque sounds and tempos, the Honeydrops lives up to their name for Keep On Diggin’ . The Oakland outfit’s 10-tracker has the soul of a ‘70s Stevie Wonder record, a horn section that could have been imported directly from E Street, and organ bits punchy enough to make the drive home from work just a little bit bearable. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg)— JB
C Deviant Libation Benefit Show: The Curse w/Chulismo/Last Bias The Deviant faithful are breathing a little sigh of relief after a GoFundMe to help founder
Tim Ogden met its goal, but it’s not stopping them from organizing a benefit concert to add more cash to the pot. A trio of rock outfits (including Chulismo, making its live debut) play a benefit show on Friday, ahead of the venue and brewery’s second anniversary on Saturday. To celebrate the milestone, Ogden’s own metal outfit The Path of Increased Indifference joins Gainesville postpunk band Ill Star and a one-two punch of Tampa band’s—Big Sad, fronted by CL photographer Dave Decker, plus Unruly Industry featuring vets of the local punk (and culinary) scene. (Deviant Libation, Tampa)
Phenomenal Animal The funk of Minneapolis, the blues sounds of St. Louis, and the twang of Nashville are just part of what influences the Phenomenal Animal, a Southwest Florida foursome known for massive live shows. (Bayboro Brewing, St. Petersburg)—JB
SAT25
Shipwrecked Music Festival: Daily Bread w/Prunk/Eprom/Justin Jay/more Less grunts and more wubs please. The Shipwrecked festival at the Cuban Club is the bassiest parade opener, happening a day before and on the day of the parade of pirates. The lineup consists of over 20 EDM headliners across two days. (Cuban Club, Ybor City)—Julia Saad
Dead Cool w/Vazum/Guilty by Design/ DJ Winters Cool isn’t dead in this darkwave husband-and-wife duo. A few years ago, the police were called on Johnny and Angela Yeagher while filming a music video for a single, “Stranger Kind” (another ‘80s-esque banger that sounds like it could have easily served as a lead single on a Howard Jones Halloween album). As if that isn’t enough of a rock and roll story to tell, a fan recently showed the two her tattoo of the song’s title written in cursive, which lead to said fan being added to every Dead Cool’s guestlist for life. Dead Cool is still new enough to rip through its entire discography at what appears to be its Tampa debut—but with less poppy but just-as-dark rock outfit Vazum and Brooklyn’s Guilty By Design also by the bill, you might as well pay the sitter a little extra. (Music Hall at New World Brewery, Tampa)
C The Dirty Nil w/Grumpster/House & Home We’re hardly a month into 2025 and The Dirty Nil—a punk trio based in Ontario (lucky bastards)—has already penned the most poignantly relatable song of the year. In crisp, latter-day Warped Tour fashion, the brand new “I Hate The Internet” compares Wi-Fi to God and predicts how the future has no meaning except for next-day shipping, which is also pretty iffy these days (thanks a lot, Joe Biden). Considering the TikTok ban that hardly lasted 16 hours and Meta ixnaying fact checkers, shit’s about to get even weirder, so if the band’s new single is played in between tracks from its latest album Free
Rein to Passions this weekend, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to take that as a sign to sell your computer and buy a guitar (h/t Tom Petty) in 2025. (Orpheum, Tampa)—JB
C Kathleen Edwards w/Lauren Morrow
On a late-2024 cover of “Hello In There,” St. Pete resident and folk favorite Kathleen Edwards adds another layer of tenderness to the John Prine classic. Edwards gets help on the track from Whiskey Gentry’s Lauren Morrow (another adopted daughter of the Bay area), and they’re both at the 'Burg’s finest listening room show for this gig that benefits the Prine family’s nonprofit which has helped out a whole lot after back-toback hurricanes ravaged our neighborhoods. Feeding Pinellas Empowerment Center is the recipient of the evening’s proceedings, and the foundation will match all donations up to $10,000. “Which means we have an opportunity to raise $20,000 to help our friends and neighbors, so many of whom have lost so much this past year,” Edwards added.
(Bayboro Brewing, St. Petersburg)
Melissa Etheridge w/Lisa Loeb/Maggie
Rose Etheridge’s music has always been good for some perspective, and the 63-yearold brings an extra dose of it this return to Tampa Bay, as she’s just weeks removed from having to evacuate her Calabasas home in the wake of the L.A. wildfires. Bespectacled darling of the mid-’90s pop scene, Lisa Loeb, opens along with Maryland soul-country crooner Maggie Rose. (The BayCare Sound, Clearwater)
C Nick Shoulders and The Okay Crawdad It’s the end of an era for the Okay Crawdad. Last weekend, bandleader Nick Shoulders said this tour would be the last for the foreseeable future alongside multiinstrumentalist Grant D’Aubin and drummer
Cheech Moosekain, who’ve played on every album by the y’allternative band. “...we all love each other enough to take steps not to lose friendships to the grind of relentless touring. The road is unkind, this industry is unkind, but we’re going to do our best to remain kindred,” Shoulders wrote on social media. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
SUN 26
C Michigander w/Sydney Sprague The Jason Singer-fronted indie-rock project is the latest name to join Sufjan Stevens and Lizzo in the Michigan wing of our current favorites from the Great Lake State. Michigander is going on a decade of singing cautious yet optimistic love songs, and tunes about how it’s all downhill from the end of every great moment. After amassing over 100 million streams across a number of EPs—seen by Singer as TV episodes of his life—the band is only days away from finally releasing its debut, eponymous album, which will be the center of an Ybor City gig on the one-year anniversary of its Florida debut in the same room. Ahead of this show, Singer told CL about the best gig he ever saw. Read his full quote at cltampa.com/ music. (Crowbar, Ybor City)—JB
Nick Dittmeier & The Sawdusters All y’all headed to the Nick Shoulders gig on Saturday night should probably get another dose of twang at Indie where Indiana songwriter Dittmeier and his band play a no-cover roots-rock show. (Independent Bar and Cafe, Tampa)
TUE 28
C Molchat Doma w/Sextile Belarusian coldwave export Molchat Doma is ripe for disciples of The Cure, Depeche Mode and Talk Talk, but Americans long-addicted to TikTok might know the trio from 2020 when the guys went viral for their song “Sudno” (“Vessel”), which appeared in more than 150,000 clips that year. On the road in support of a 2024 album, Belaya Polosa , Molchat Doma—which knows a thing or two about dictators—brings Los Angeles post-punk outfit Sextile along for the ride. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg)
Roger Harrison Harrison swears that Pablo Picasso was spitting knowledge when he said that art is what washes off the dust of everyday life. That line and just about anything by John Coltrane are what keep the jazz pianist—a California expat—going, and he recently revealed a secret to putting together a killer piece of music: Work on it for 15 minutes a day. If you’re having a shit day, you can always give it up for the day and try again tomorrow. But if you’re in a good headspace and feeling creative enough, 15 minutes turns into an hour right under your
continued on page 40
By Ray Roa
C CL Recommends
Kathleen Edwards
nose very quickly. Attendees, along with Harrison himself, will be surrounded by the glass collection that makes Imagine Museum a Central Avenue must-do during this intimate performance. (Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg)—JB
WED 29
Vitamin String Quartet In the age of remote work, there’s seriously nothing more peaceful than sitting in a coffee shop on a laptop with L.A’s Vitamin String Quartet in your ears. If you have trouble focusing with lyrical music playing, thiss discography full of tribute albums to a good number of bands and artists goes back to the late-‘90s, and features salutes to the likes of Weezer, Tori Amos, and even full albums like The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds , or Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill . Though VSQ’s current focus is providing covers for “Bridgerton” and paying as much tribute to Taylor Swift as possible, the group is under the national touring spell, from which it abstained from for years. Oh and, there was a Bob Dylan tribute album in 2003 as well, so with any luck, Bobcats will get a nod in honor of the recently-released “A Complete Unknown.” (Bilheimer Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)—JB
THU 30
C La Tropicana Hi Fi Music Lounge: Okay Benny w/Svntos Just Some Friends, a newish collective of music and event curators, takes over Café Quiquiriqui at this pretty
Ybor City hotel and turns it into a lounge. The soundtrack comes courtesy of Dove Awardwinning producer Okay Benny (stylized “okay. benny”) and Svntos (stylized in all-caps), both spinning nothing but vinyl records from their Latin, soul, funk and jazz collections. (Café Quiquiriqui at Hotel Haya, Ybor City)
The Taphouse Turns Five in ‘25: Chris Sussman and The Vital Groove While we’re still hurting for our friends in Gulfport who lost so much during last year’s hurricane double-feature, The North End Taphouse and Grill continues to hold strong while serving outrageous hot dogs and divine Cuban sammies. The space and its glorious backdrop is a staple spot for musicians to entertain diners almost every day of the week, and in honor of the fifth anniversary of the eatery quietly opening its doors, bassman Chris Sussman (who recently became a grandfather) leads his band in a wooden anniversary set. (The North End Taphouse, Gulfport)—JB
C Taylor Hollingsworth w/The Burke Brothers/Shawn Kyle Tampa Bay is rich in songwriters, and there’s never any shortage of troubadours trudging through either. Hollingsworth’s gig is cream of the crop. The Alabamian’s 2024 album, Yahola , is a fingerpicked love letter to the miracle that is getting up every day. On it, he cuts his soul open (“Symphony From God”), plays barnburners (“Double Trouble”) and deploys the slide to great effect, too (“Lickity Slim”). A couple of OGs of the Bay area scene open. (The Nest at St. Pete Brewing Co., St. Petersburg)
See the full version of this listing via cltampa. com/music. continued
Taylor Hollingsworth
FRI., FEB. 28 KICKOFF PARTY
from 6-10 p.m. with performances from Flow Tribe and more.
SAT., MARCH 1
The Shaelyn Band
Caitlin Krisko & The Broadcast
Eddie 9v
Mr. Sipp
Eric Gales
SUN., MARCH 2
Dig3 Band
Chris O’Leary Band
Ally Venable
Blood Brothers
Gates open at 2 p.m. each day
HAPPY HOUR AT AMSO
Monday - Friday, 4pm-7pm
Saturday 3pm-6pm
$4, $5 & $6 Liquor, Beer & Wine
$8 Hand-Cra ed Cocktails
Grab your wigs, cool kids, one of the mostbeloved bands in indie-rock is headed to Clearwater. Khruangbin announced a new run of U.S. tour dates last week, including three springtime stops in the Sunshine State.
The Texas trio released its debut studio album in 2015, but is nominated for Best New Artist in the 2025 Grammy Awards (Tampa rapper Doechii is in the same category). Known for its wiggy aesthetic and genre-defying instrumental sound that travels between funk, psych-rock and even disco, Khruangbin last played locally in 2022 and is adored in both indie-rock and jam scene circles. Its new album, A La Sala (stylized in all-caps), even features ‘60s Brazilian MPB vibes.
Florida-born experimental Latin-folk producer Roberto Carlos Lange, aka Helado Negro, opens the shows in support of his own 2024 album Phasor
The Khruangbin booking is yet another score for Tampa Bay live music lovers that might’ve never come to fruition without the BayCare Sound. The venue, which
Alexsucks w/TBA Friday, March 28. 7 p.m. $15. Bayboro Brewing, St. Petersburg
Murs w/Platinum Max Friday, March 28. 7 p.m. $15. Music Hall at New World Brewery, Tampa
Corey Kent Saturday, April 5. 8 p.m. $25. Jannus Live, St. Petersburg
Denzel Curry w/Kenny Mason/454/Clip Tuesday, April 8. 8 p.m. $39.50 & up. Jannus Live, St. Petersburg
Barely Alive w/Rated R/Myr Friday, April 11. 10 p.m. $10. The Ritz, Ybor City
The Millennium Tour: Trey Songz w/ Omarion/Bow Wow/Rick Ross/Boosie
opened in 2023, can accommodate 4,000 people under cover and another 5,000 on its lawn. Khruangbin’s Florida tour includes dates at the award-winning St. Augustine Amphitheatre and Miami’s FPL Solar Amphitheater at Bayfront Park, venues that can accommodate just under 5,000 and 8,500 guests, respectively.
“We said they are our sister in the woods, and we are the brother on the water,” Bobby Rossi, Executive Vice President for Entertainment at Ruth Eckerd Hall, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay about the need for a St. Augustine Amphitheatersized venue in the Bay area. An act like Khruangbin (a Thai word for “airplane” pronounced “k-rung-bin”) that’s outgrown large clubs but not yet graduated into arenas might’ve skipped over our neck of the woods had a venue with BayCare Sound’s seating capacity not opened.
Tickets to see Khruangbin play the BayCare Sound in Clearwater on Friday, April 18 are on sale and start at $35, according to a press release. See Josh Bradley’s weekly roundup of new conerts coming to Tampa Bay below.—Ray Roa
BadAzz Saturday, April 12. 8 p.m. $69.75 & up. Yuengling Center, Tampa
Poppy Sunday, April 13. 7 p.m. $36.50 & up. The Ritz, Ybor City
D’Aydrian Harding Friday, April 18. 7:30 p.m. $39.50 & up. The Ritz, Ybor City
Michigan Rattlers Saturday, April 19. 8 p.m. $22. Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa
Meshuggah w/Cannibal Corpse/Carcass Saturday, April 19. 7 p.m. $44.75 & up. Yuengling Center, Tampa
Elderbrook Saturday, May 10. 7:30 p.m. $41 & up. The BayCare Sound, Clearwater
Quickies
By Dan Savage
Would you be willing to share my list of proposed gender-free pronouns with your readers, listeners, and followers? I’ve enclosed a graph listing them that details how they should be used. They are very liberating.
Sorry, but I’m unwilling to share your list of new pronouns with my readers, listeners, and followers, as there are currently more than enough gendered pronouns, non-gendered pronouns, and neo-pronouns in circulation. I don’t see any point in adding more to the mx.
Should I get on Grindr?
“Every gay man should know how to use Grindr but we all need to remember that it’s just like any social media app: useful, addictive, toxic and it should never, ever replace real life interactions,” said queer author and filmmaker Leo Herrera. “The apps are simply one tool in a huge sex arsenal that we’ve developed for hundreds of years. And right now, gay men of all ages are walking away from the apps and embracing tradition: picking up strangers in bars and bathhouses and parks. So, before you download Grindr, learn the basics of analog cruising—traditional cruising—so you’re not dependent on Grindr.”
if you haven’t already gotten under someone new, go throw yourself under someone ASAP!
Would you please talk about the movie “Babygirl,” Dan!
Writer Rebecca Woolf will be joining me on the Lovecast to talk about “Babygirl,” the new film starring Nicole Kidman as a powerful corporate executive who gets into a D/s relationship with a hot male subordinate. Woolf wrote a (spoiler-packed) essay about the film on her website that I can’t wait to discuss with her on my show!
What’s the best way to describe DP?
Two men enter, one man cleaves.
SAVAGE LOVE
Leo Herrera is the author of the book “Analog Cruising,” a great resource for younger gay men who never learned how to pick someone up in person and older gay men who forgot how after the apps came along. Follow @herreraimages on Instagram and Threads.
How can I meet you, Dan?
You can meet me in person—in the flesh— when I host the Part One premiere of the HUMP! 2025 Film Festival in Seattle on Feb. 14-15. I’ll also be hosting screenings in San Francisco on February 20-22, and Berlin on April 22-23! To find out more about the amazing films in HUMP!’s 20th anniversary season—and to get tickets to see HUMP! in a theater near you—go to humpfilmfest.com!
How do you get over the proverbial one who got away?
You know what they say: “The fastest way to get over someone is to get under someone new.” And it turns out they—the proverbial they—were on to something. In a 2023 piece for The Atlantic defending rebound relationships, Faith Hill cited research done by Amy Hackney, a psychology professor at Georgia Southern University, which found that the sooner heartbroken people started dating— the sooner they got under someone new—the faster they healed from their heartbreak. So,
I fell in love with an unhappily married man in an open relationship. He ultimately decided to divorce his wife to be with me. When he told her he wanted a divorce, she told him she was three-months pregnant. They had an agreement to not have kids for the time being, given their issues. Now he says he feels stuck. This was messy before the pregnancy, and it’s extra messy now. It’s hard because I’ve never loved someone so much, and he says the same about me. I can’t imagine moving on from him. He won’t consider getting a divorce and co-parenting with her and I’m not sure why. What should I do?
You have two (legal) options: You can wait for this man to divorce his wife—a wait that will probably never end—or you can get under someone new.
It seems reasonable to ask... given who’s returning to the White House... that you revive your ITMFA campaign? My ITMFA buttons and t-shirts are a little tattered, and I could use a fresh stash for handing out. Please?
I raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and the International Refugee Assistance Project selling ITMFA (“Impeach the Motherfucker Already”) buttons, t-shirts, lapel pins, and mugs after that man entered the White House in 2017. I believed at the time that impeaching him might save the country. But seeing as that motherfucker was impeached twice—and indicted dozens of times—and it didn’t make a damn bit of difference, I don’t think calling on him to be impeached a third time is going to help. We’re going to need new strategies, new candidates, and new merch.
Is there anyone in the Montreal area who can safely inject saline into a man’s scrotum?
Scrotal inflation is a niche kink—not many
people are into it—but Quebec wouldn’t be Canada’s kinkiest province if it weren’t for the critical mass of kinksters who call Montreal home. So, I’m guessing there’s probably at least one pervert in Montreal who can safely blow your sack up to the size of a basketball. But that particular pervert isn’t in my list of contacts, which means you’ll have to find them yourself.
When my girlfriend eats my pussy, there’s no problem! When my husband eats my pussy, I invariably get a yeast infection. It’s actually starting to piss him off. Help!
Wait, your husband is giving you yeast infections—or his epidermal microbiome is—and he’s pissed off? Aren’t you the wronged party here? Maybe a dermatologist could help and/or maybe your husband could go down on your girlfriend a few times in the hopes that her epidermal microbiome re-seeds his. But if your husband can’t go down on you without giving you a yeast infection, then he doesn’t get to go down on you. I had a serious boyfriend who was allergic to my semen (that’s a thing) but loved facials. I couldn’t come on his face, but other guys could. And did I whine about it? Did I get pissed off? No and no. I arranged for other guys to come on his face right after I came on theirs.
May I ask a personal question? What is your relationship like with your husband’s boyfriend? I can only imagine that it must be complicated.
My relationship with my husband’s boyfriend is a lot less complicated than my relationship with my husband.
Could you please recommend a lube that doesn’t irritate vulvas/vaginas?
Some women swear by water-based lubricants, others swear by silicone-based lubricants. Water-based lubes can get tacky and need to be reapplied but are easily washed off; silicone-based lubes stay slick a lot longer and require fewer reapplications but they’re harder to wash off. Individual results/preferences vary. Women and other readers with vulvas/vaginas are invited to shout out their favorite lube brands in the comments.
Me and my new partner—great sex begins at 49 (and after divorce!)—do a lot of pretend breast feeding. The pretend breast feeding is intimate, erotic, matronly, and so sexy for both of us. But the guilt after sucks. How do I not feel guilty about this?
As perversions go, your kink barely registers as a kink. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy sucking on their partner’s nipples? Most of us aren’t consciously invoking (or acting out) pretend breast-feeding sessions, but on some level we’re latching onto distant sense/sensual memories. And even if this is weird, which it
isn’t, who cares? You enjoy it, she enjoys it, it gets you both off, and you’re not forcing anyone to watch or participate who doesn’t want to watch or participate. And if it makes you feel better, there are far worse kinks out there. Enjoy your partner’s tits and thank your lucky stars you’re not into coprophilia or crypto.
What cautions should I take as a gay Dom to prevent consensual kink and pain play from being misconstrued later as abuse or assault? A sub wants to be slapped, trampled, and fat shame him. Do I need some sort of contract?
“Communication is the best caution we Doms can take,” said The Funny Dom, a kink educator, author, and content creator who lives—and dominates subs—in Australia. “Things can’t be misconstrued if they’ve been plainly and specifically discussed and planned—and safewords agreed to—before they’re carried out. But absolutely he could look at drawing up a ‘contract’ that they both read and sign, as a way of really formalizing consent, and making sure they’re literally on the same page.”
The Funny Dom and I both wanted to emphasize that slave contracts or play contracts aren’t legally binding—because of course they’re not—and your sub is free to withdraw his consent at any moment. If you keep going after he uses his safeword or tells you to stop, you will have crossed the line that separates kink play from abuse and assault.
Follow @TheFunnyDomReturns on Instagram and Threads. The third installment of The Funny Dom’s Guide to Kink is out now!
How many times have you seen “Wicked?”
Just once—but I plan to see it again, the same day that “Wicked: Part Two” is released, because I’m only getting gayer.
When and how do I bring up when a stranger smells bad when meeting for a hookup?
Before you ask them to shower—assuming you want them to stay—or after you tell them to leave if they ask for a reason and you feel safe sharing the real reason.
Is using a dating app cheating?
A single person wouldn’t be asking me this question—for obvious reasons (no one to cheat on)—which means you’re not single. And if your partner was a stag or a cuck or your relationship was open and you were allowed to be on the apps, you wouldn’t be asking me this question. So, in your case, using a dating app is definitely cheating.
Got problems? Yes, you do! Email your question for the column to mailbox@savage.love! Or record your question for the Savage Lovecast at savage.love/askdan! Podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love.
Legal, Public Notices
NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE Pursuant to Section 715.109, notice is hereby given that the following property will be offered for public sale and will sell at public outcry to the highest and best bidder for cash: a 1980 MANA mobile home, VIN F060710D4786 and the contents therein, if any abandoned by Sean Loren Troyer (deceased), Known Heirs of Sean Loren Troyer, and Unknown Heirs of Sean Loren Troyer. on Friday, January 31, 2025 at 9:30 a.m. at 1114 Fountainview North, Lakeland, FL 33809... ICARD, MERRILL, CULLIS, TIMM, FUREN & GINSBURG, P.A. Alyssa M. Nohren FL Bar No. 352410 2033 Main Street Suite 600 Sarasota, Florida 34237 Telephone: (941) 366-8100 Facsimile: (941) 3666384 anohren@icardmerrill.com smenasco@icardmerrill.com Attorney for Fountainview Estates, LLC
NASA doll that sings “When You Wish Upon a Star”?
43 Space-station toy with cosmonaut action figures?
