CONTRIBUTORS Josh Bradley, Kyla Fields, Jennifer Ring, McKenna Schueler
PHOTOGRAPHERS Dave Decker
POLITICAL CARTOONIST Bob Whitmore
FALL INTERNS Riley Benson, Anthony Ozdemir
Creative Services
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jack Spatafora
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Joe Frontel
ILLUSTRATORS Dan Perkins, Cory Robinson
Advertising
SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Anthony Carbone, Scott Zepeda
Events and Marketing
MARKETING, PROMOTIONS AND EVENTS DIRECTOR Leigh Wilson
MARKETING, PROMOTIONS AND EVENTS COORDINATOR Kristin Bowman
Circulation
CIRCULATION MANAGER Ted Modesta
Chava Communications Group
FOUNDER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Michael Wagner
CO-FOUNDER, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Cassandra Yardeni Wagner
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Graham Jarrett
VP OF OPERATIONS Hollie Mahadeo
DIRECTOR OF AGENCY SERVICES
Kelsey Molina
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Meradith Garcia
DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL CONTENT STRATEGY
Colin Wolf
ART DIRECTOR David Loyola
DIGITAL OPERATIONS COORDINATOR Jaime Monzon chavagroup.com cltampabay.com cldeals.com
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.
Creative Loafing Tampa is published by Tampa Events & Media, LLC, 633 N Franklin St., Suite 735. Tampa, Florida, 33602.
The physical edition is available free of charge at locations throughout Tampa Bay and online at cltampabay.com. Copyright 2023, Tampa Events and Media, LLC.
The newspaper is produced and printed on Indigenous land belonging to Tampa Bay’s Tocobaga and Seminole tribes.
No one knows the sting of losing to Donald Trump more intimately than Hillary Rodham Clinton. The former Secretary of State and U.S. Senator was in Tampa last Saturday for a book talk, and there were plenty of folks on the Tampa Riverwalk with Harris-Walz gear holding copies of not just “ Something Lost, Something Gained,” but Clinton’s kids book “She Persisted.” With just days left before the wrap of the 2024 General Election, the former First Lady also made time before the matinee talk to stump for the Vice President at the Tampa Convention Center. See all the photos via cltampa.com/slideshows.—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.
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 November 07 - 13
Open thoughts
For the foreseeable future, virality is often more valuable than actual jokes in the comedy world. Marco Summers knows this. The Kansas City podcaster and comedian best known as Funny Marco has worked hard to earn more than five million followers on Instagram alone where eyeballs mindlessly gaze upon pranks and dry interviews. Summers has been able to pry that audience away from the phone, however, and he’ll do four shows this weekend to prove it.
In a strip mall on the corner of 49th Street N and Park Boulevard, Michael Bickel and Jaise Rizzo are putting Pinellas Park on the map—or at least making the fashion world try to find it on one. Three years after releasing a limited edition collaboration with Saucony, Bickel and Rizzo—founder and creative director, respectively, for Fresh Rags boutique—have teamed up with another iconic American brand to update Sperry TopSider’s A/O 2 Eye Boat shoe. The “Pirates in Paradise” collection features eight SKUs including the two complimentary shoe variants, trousers, mesh shorts, a button up, rugby tees, hats and more. The friends transform their Fresh Rags shop into a beach complete with a tiki bar, music, food, raffles and more for the release, and you can read more on p. 34.
Sperry Top-Sider x Fresh Rags ‘Pirates In Paradise’ launch party: Saturday, Nov. 9. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. No cover. Fresh Rags, 7620 49th St., Pinellas Park. freshragsfl.com—Ray Roa
Seriously funny
No joke, The Commodore just completed its first turn around the sun. The improv comedy theater on the corner of Nebraska Avenue and 7th Avenues on the edge of Ybor City has carved out a place for itself in the community and celebrates with a packed weekend of programming that kicks off with an installation of the “Salud and Happy Days” placemaking storytelling and improv show, this time featuring one of the only locals who you want to hear from after the election—the omnipresent retired lawyer and powerhouse politico Ron Weaver. The fun continues with a Friday 2-4-1 comedy and AI double feature, a late night “Shamrock Shake” set, Sunday’s comedy jam, and Saturday’s 12-hour “Wreckfest” comedy marathon running from noon-midnight. Get links to the full schedule via cltampa.com/arts.
The Commodore 1st anniversary weekend: Friday-Sunday, Nov. 8-10. $Free-$30. The Commodore, 811 E 7th Ave., Ybor City. commodorecomedy.com Ray Roa
RAY
‘Tag,
we’re it
Tampa residents may have a passion for launching e-scooters into the river, but Red Bull Flugtag (German for “Flying Day”)—which stopped in Tampa back in 2011, and also 2008—takes that energy to a new level. The city expects 100,000 to line the Tampa Riverwalk around the convention center to watch 40 teams and their human-powered contraptions launching off a 27-foot-tall flight deck into the Hillsborough River. For the unfamiliar, the goal of Flugtag is to achieve the longest “glide” off the platform, all while piloting a home-made machine of your choosing, as long as it’s no more than 30-feet wide and 450 pounds, including the pilot. Teams are also judged on creativity and their pre-flight “skit.” In 2011, team Willy Wonka’s Amazing Flying Flugtag Adventure won the Tampa stop, with a 12-foot flying Willy Wonka and four Oompa Loompas pushing it to a 50-foot flight. The same team also won in 2008, but as “Tampa Baywatch,” with an impressive 109-foot flight. Flights start at 1:10 p.m., with warm ups going down at 12:30 p.m.
Red Bull Flugtag: Saturday, Nov. 9. Noon-4 p.m. No cover. Tampa Convention Center, 333 S Franklin St., Tampa. redbull.com—Colin Wolf
Feeling squirrely
Anyone who’s spent a couple hours in their car listening to any of his iconic play calls knows that Dave Mishkin is a walking, talking embodiment of emotion. For 22 years, he’s been the voice of the Tampa Bay Lightning—giving life to the careers of so many athletes and painting pictures of the team’s most iconic wins—but for many fans, Mishkin’s first novel came out of nowhere like a Nikita Kucherov no-look-pass. The Yale alum started the book about a talented athlete with a lot of hang ups about two decades ago, but wrapped it in a 14week flurry after the 2021-22 Stanley Cup Finals. Hockey looms large over “Blind Squirrel,”—and it’s especially fun to read Mishkin slowdown the play call as he lets us into the head of minor-leaguer Noah Nicholson—but the heart of the work is an unabashed acknowledgement of (and invitation to talk about) the insecurities, guilt, and sadness we walk around with on so many days of our lives.
Blind Squirrel—An Evening with Dave Mishkin: Tuesday, Nov. 12. 7 p.m. No cover with RSVP. Tombolo Books, 2153 1st Ave. S, St. Petersburg. tombolobooks.com—Ray Roa
Make the whole place shimmer
The Shine Mural Festival (stylized “SHINE”) wraps with a Saturday no-cover solo show and book release from Chris Dyer plus installations from ‘21 alums Nicole Salgar and Ricky Watts. The festival will run through Nov. 17, however, and brings 15 new murals to St. Petersburg, including an exciting collaboration between festival founder Leon “Tes One” Bedore and St. Pete’s most prolific muralists, The Vitale Brothers, at Modera St. Petersburg luxe apartments. Read more about another artist, Tampa’s Quinn Cale, via our interview on cltampa. com/arts.
Shine Mural Festival: Nov. 8-17. 8 p.m. No cover. St. Petersburg. @shineonstpete on Facebook— Jennifer Ring
ELECTIONS
POLITICS ISSUES OPINION
Check yourself
Local races, amendments, and more from the 2024 General Election.
By Ray Roa and Colin Wolf
Last Thursday at Alessi Bakery in West Tampa, the presidential cookie race was in full effect, with former President Donald Trump outpacing Vice President Kamala Harris in cookies sold, 1,392-788. Trump won back the White House in a similarly dominant fashion on Election Day—clearing the 270 Electoral Vote threshold early Wednesday morning. The GOP has also gained control of the U.S. Senate, while control of the House will likely be sorted out in the next few days. There'll be a lot to think about in the days, weeks, months and years ahead as politicos and everyday people sift through what they learned about the political makeup of our state.
Secretary of State Cord Byrd said Florida will have its highest percentage of turnout since 1992, and the Florida GOP’s 1 million person advantage in registered voters was especially felt in Hillsborough County where Democrats’ advantage in registration is shrinking at a rapid pace. Here's more of what happened on Tuesday. U.S. Congress Despite the gap in registration, Florida Republicans and Democrats kept the same number of seats in the U.S. House—20 for the GOP and eight for Democrats. Tampa’s longtime U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor was among those who retained her seat. But Whitney Fox, the Democratic challenger to Anna Paulina Luna in District 13 lost.
Florida State House As expected Florida State Representatives like Michelle Rayner, Dianne Hart and Susan Valdes won their races, but so did St. Pete incumbent Lindsay Cross who faced a formidable opponent in outgoing councilman Ed Montanari. Cross, however, won handily.
Hillsborough County voters approve teacher pay referendum Hillsborough County School District has long suffered from ongoing teacher shortages and the lowest educator compensation in the area. But last Tuesday night, Hillsborough voters decided to try and change that.
According to early voting results, the Millage Referendum Proposal (also known as Referendum No. 2 or "Hillsborough School Tax") seems to have passed, with results showing 66.44% approval, with 427 of 448 precincts reporting.
The Referendum proposed a hotly-contested property tax increase that would cost $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value. The tax would start July 1 and go for four years before renewal.
That makes for an estimated $177 million a year, to be split between public schools (85%) and charter schools (15%).
Hillsborough County Public Schools claimed it would use 90% of its cut to boost pay by $6,000 for teachers and some administrators and $3,000 for other staff.
GOP secures 5-2 majority on Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners Chris Boles defeated Sean Shaw in the race for Hillsborough County Commission, District 6, giving the GOP— which has aggressively favored more roads over transit among other things—a 5-2 majority on the body.
Hillsborough voters choose Suzy Lopez over Andrew Warren for State Attorney's O ce Nearly two years after Ron DeSantis suspended State Attorney Andrew Warren over a pledge to not prosecute gender-affirming care for transgender kids or abortion-related crimes, Hillsborough voters have chosen the governor's hand-picked
Hillsborough County School Board Lynn Gray, incumbent in District 7, hung on to her lead over Karen Bendorf, a teacher who opposes the successful tax that will raise teacher pay and was inspired to run “after being asked to address a child by a pronoun she found uncomfortable.”
But so much more went Republicans’ way across the Bay area.
replacement for the 13th Judicial Circuit. Early election results show that Republican Suzy Lopez received at 53% of the votes with 95% of the precincts reporting.
Warren was removed from office by DeSantis in 2022 for “neglect of duty” and “incompetence” after he signed pledges to not prosecute alleged crimes resulting from gender-affirming care and
abortion access, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade. In his suspension announcement, surrounded by supporters like Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister and former Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan, DeSantis appointed then-Judge Suzy Lopez as Warren's replacement. Warren then filed a federal lawsuit seeking reinstatement and alleged that the governor’s action was in violation of his First Amendment rights. However, last January a three-judge panel for the U.S. 11th District Circuit Court acknowledged Warren’s First Amendment rights were in fact violated, but also noted that this doesn’t completely protect Warren from the suspension. Warren’s case for reinstatement remains stalled in the courts—although it's unclear how tonight's election result will affect the matter.
Florida Amendments 3 and 4, to usher in legal weed and push back on DeSantis’ six-week abortion ban, fail The stakes were high, but after a nine-figure campaign bankrolled by the state’s largest medical-marijuana operator—and intense opposition from Gov. Ron DeSantis and his supporters—Florida voters looked at 24 other states across the country that've legalized the use of recreational marijuana and decided that they did not want in on the rotation. According to early results, Amendment 3 is projected to finish with at least 55% of the votes, well below the 60% voter approval needed in order to pass.
After facing an aggressive opposition campaign from anti-abortion activists and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, residents in Florida have voted against Florida’s Amendment 4, which sought to reverse Florida’s six-week abortion ban and enshrine abortion rights into the Florida Constitution. According to the Associated Press, with 98% of the polls reporting, only 57% of voters voted in favor of the amendment, which needed to pass a 60% threshold.
The proposed constitutional amendment would have guaranteed the right to abortion up to viability—equal to about 24 weeks of pregnancy—and would have limited anti-abortion Florida legislators from restricting abortion access any further. The defeat of the measure is a massive blow to an effort by abortion rights advocates to limit government interference in abortion and to restore abortion rights in Florida to where they had been before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Reporting from McKenna Schueler appeared in this story, which was filed early Wednesday morning; read updates via cltampa.com/news.
True north
After union dissolution, University of South Florida privatizes 400 jobs.
By McKenna Schueler
The University of South Florida in Tampa recently announced a new deal with one of the nation’s leading food service contractors, the Compass Group, that will replace the university’s current dining services contractor Aramark. The move, touted as a cost-reduction win for the university, will also privatize the jobs of 400 state employees in custodial, groundskeeping, and maintenance work.
According to USF, the affected employees—who were, until recently, represented by a labor union—were offered the opportunity to stay on at USF. But, effective next month, they’d work as employees of Southeast Services Corporation, a subsidiary of the Compass Group.
For one affected maintenance worker at USF, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation, the decision to privatize his longtime public sector job felt bitter. For the first time in years, a significant change affecting his job and livelihood wasn’t something to be negotiated, or discussed.
LOCAL NEWS
Instead, he says he and his coworkers were told of the transition at a staff meeting at USF’s Marshall Center on Oct. 23, three weeks after the agreement was already finalized.
“Everybody’s kind of just—what can they do?” the worker shared. “We were forced into it.”
This wouldn’t have been the case just a year ago. In January, the labor union that formerly represented facility workers at USF, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), was decertified by the state. The decision left hundreds of noninstructional workers at the university—from custodians, to plumbers and clerks—without union representation, or the benefits and protections formerly afforded to them under a union contract. The union representing adjunct faculty at USF, first established in 2018, was similarly decertified in late July.
The Florida law, S.B. 256 ,dubbed “paycheck protection” by its enthusiastic cheerleader Florida Gov. DeSantis, prevents workers from voluntarily paying union dues through an automatic payroll deduction, and requires at least 60% of employees represented by the union to be dues-paying members in order for the union to remain certified. Under Florida’s right-to-work law, becoming a dues-paying member, and thereby financially supporting your union, is entirely voluntary. Increasing union membership can be a challenge.
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, the Compass Group is one of the so-called “big three” of food service contractors in the United States, along with Aramark and Sodexo. The multibillion-dollar company contracts with private and public sector employers alike, servicing universities, schools, as well as private companies like Google, where contracted cafeteria workers quietly organized a union during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Completely blindsided by the news, the workers were presented with the option to accept the job transition, or otherwise leave. At the end of the meeting, with university police officers on standby, the worker told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that USF management concluded their announcement by flashing USF’s signature bullhorn hand sign, exclaiming, “Go Bulls!” He wasn’t amused.
“What I wanted to do was raise my middle finger up, stand up and give ‘em two of those,” the worker quipped. But, eyeing the cops, he made the less-impulsive decision to refrain.
The majority of Florida workers—about 94%—are non-union. But, if you have a union, your boss can’t just unilaterally outsource or privatize your job. Doing so would require your boss to first bring such a proposal to the union—a collective of employees and elected union leaders who advocate as a unified voice. Before last year, about 26% of Florida’s public sector workforce was unionized, including hundreds of bluecollar workers at USF. As a result of a 2023 law pushed by anti-union special interest groups, however, more than 68,000 formerly-unionized public employees in Florida have since lost their union representation, and by extension, their union contracts.
“We were forced into it.”
The USF worker admitted he’s not sure whether having a union in place would have necessarily stopped his job from being privatized, but he believes that workers would have at least had a say. They might have been able to negotiate more time to figure out what they were going to do. While they’ve been told their pay will remain the same moving forward, at least for the foreseeable future, he believes having even two or three months’ time would have given them room to determine the best option for themselves and their families.
“Decertification made it easier for them [USF],” he guessed. “This time ain’t enough.” USF, which recently gifted a $282,000 raise to its university president, has tellingly pitched this new agreement with the Compass Group as a cost-cutting move, boasting nearly
continued on page 21
$320 million in cost savings over the life of the 15-year contract. Overall savings include $25 million cost reduction for the contractor’s “enhanced facility operations.” The 209-page proposal, obtained by CL with redactions, also includes a signing bonus of $47 million in unrestricted funds, plus a signing bonus for workers who agree to make the sacrificial transition from a pension-eligible state job to a private job that offers a less desirable 401k retirement plan.
“The biggest piece of all of it is the FRS [Florida Retirement System],” the anonymous worker told CL. “Because we can no longer contribute to it.”
Under the state system, all long-time state employees in Florida are eligible for the Florida Retirement System plan after six to eight years on the job, depending on when you were hired. If you were hired before July 1, 2011, you’re eligible after six years. If you were hired after, you’re eligible for a pension after eight. You get two retirement plan options—an investment plan or a pension plan.
The worker CL spoke to doesn’t believe that he will lose the contributions he’s made over the years to his retirement plan, but USF will no longer contribute to it.
The people who are “really screwed,” he said, are the workers who were not vested with FRS. “They don’t lose their money. They just, they don’t have any defined benefit when they’re done,” he explained.
So, imagine being one year away from qualifying for a state pension plan, and instead of getting that defined benefit, your boss instead privatizes your job, with no guarantee of a pension.
Otherwise, affected staff have been told to expect “business as usual,” come Dec. 1. They’ll be given a new ID, a new uniform, but no immediate effects on their pay. The details, some of which are redacted in the proposal CL received, are unclear.
“Each USF employee’s situation will be taken into consideration during one-on-one personal sessions so that total compensation should be equal to or better than what they are receiving at USF,” a university spokesperson told CL in a statement.
The Compass Group’s proposal “assumes” that 355 of the state workers will accept the transition and stay on at USF. It also “assumes” those workers will receive an 11% wage increase “to cover incremental cost of healthcare premiums and to allow for additional personal investment in their 401(k) plan.”
The issue of job security remains murky. Florida is an at-will state, so the concept of a stable, secure job is already flimsy at best.
“What’s going to happen in a couple years from now?” the worker asked. “Because for the first year, it might be great, you know, but then a couple years down the road, they might say, well, we’re going to change this.”
“That’s the worst part,” he added. “The not-knowing.”
Others in local organized labor are similarly rattled by the move. Brian Nathan, a union official for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 915 and vice president of the West Central Florida Labor Council expressed disappointment with the shift towards privatization, affecting workers that the labor council for years considered their union brothers and sisters. “What do they have now? They have whatever wages they’re going to get from this company, and not much else,” Nathan told CL, grimly.
what benefits they’re going to get, the conditions of their employment, a grievance procedure if they get fired,” Nathan explained. “Without that, they are exposed. They don’t have the protection. They don’t have any representation. That’s really what is missing for them right now.”
James Spears Jr., who serves as administrator of the union that formerly represented the facilities management workers, described the move by USF as a “radical change” that emphasizes the importance of having union representation.
LOCAL NEWS
Most significant though, he said, is that they no longer have their union contract. Their former 59-page union contract with USF—which wasn’t set to expire until Oct. 1, 2025— was rendered unenforceable in January with the decertification of their union, but now the workers will be moving forward with a new employer and a blank slate. Unionized workers on average earn more than their nonunion counterparts, and the benefits of union representation are even more pronounced for women and for racial minorities.
“The contract is what protects the workers, sets the expectations and responsibilities for everybody: for the employer, for the workers,
“It is disheartening to hear that USF’s management has moved so swiftly in eliminating hundreds of good paying jobs by outsourcing them to a private company that will seek to squeeze every cent of profit they can off the backs of the workers,” AFSCME Florida administrator Spears Jr. told CL in a statement. “Unfortunately, Florida’s leadership has developed so many tricks and traps that the will of the workers to have a union voice at USF was silenced.”
The union at USF was officially decertified for failing to petition the state for a recertification election after disclosing a duespaying membership of less than 60%. Filing for recertification requires the union to gather signed, printed cards of support from at least 30%
of employees within 30 days of submitting annual paperwork to the state, disclosing membership numbers. It’s a resource-intensive and timeconsuming process that many unions, including a number of AFSCME locals, struggled to prepare for ahead of the full adoption of S.B. 256.
At this point, it’s unclear whether workers of other decertified unions in Florida have similarly faced threats of privatization. Nathan, of the local labor council, wasn’t aware of any comparable cases. Although, AFSCME does represent some contracted workers elsewhere. Up in Jacksonville, for instance, AFSCME is currently in negotiations with Chartwells K-12, another Compass Group subsidiary that provides dining services for Duval County Public Schools. Workers there recently rallied over what they called ‘poverty wages’ from Chartwell, which only pays them Florida’s minimum wage of $13 per hour. Within days, the company reached a tentative deal with the union that would raise minimum pay to $14 an hour this year, and $15 an hour next October.
“We have seen time and time again how outsourcing jobs like this leads to lower pay, more dangerous working conditions, the elimination of benefits and so much more,” said Spears Jr. “The truth is, this points to university leadership seeing their own workers as little more than numbers on a budget spreadsheet.”
THAT’S BULL: Workers were told of the transition during a staff meeting at USF’s Marshall Center.
Premier Specialized MedicalCare in Your Community
through outreach, advocacy, education, and research.
Testing & Treatment
Prevention, Education & Outreach
Lab Draws
Linkage to Care Services Medical
2349 Sunset Point Road
Suite #405
Clearwater, FL 33765
O ce: (727) 216-6193
ST. PETERSBURG
3251 3rd Ave N #125
St. Petersburg, FL 33713
O ce: (727) 498-4969
Patient
PrEP & nPEP Services
Ryan White Provider
Spanish Speaking
Support Groups
Telehealth Services
Transportation Services
4758 Rowan Road
New Port Richey, FL 34653
O ce: (727) 312-2040
2105 N Nebraska Ave. Tampa, FL 33602
O ce: (813) 769-7207
408 7th Street West
Palmetto, FL 34221
O ce: (941) 803-7939
OPENINGS & CLOSINGS
RESTAURANTS RECIPES DINING GUIDES
Fore play
The Heights’ new country club, and more local hospitality news.
By Kyla Fields and Riley Benson
Two Tampa entrepreneurs recently transformed their love of golf into a community-driven social hub and practice space. Greg Spadaccini, who owns and operates Seminole Heights outdoor cafe Spaddy’s, teamed up with his childhood friend Paul Verrusio for a new project that’s located right around the corner from the beloved coffee shop at 5128 N Florida Ave.
“Two years ago, I was playing golf with a buddy and I got a hole in one at Rogers Park, and it just re-sparked my love for the game of golf,” Spadaccini— who was once on his college’s golf team and had aspirations to go pro—tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “Since then, I’ve just been diving deep into the game again. So I figured, let’s open up an indoor golf simulator here in Seminole Heights.”
The Heights Country Club—a tongue-in-cheek name that’s meant to poke fun at the loftiness and exclusiveness of the sport—is a fully-automated, semi-private social club where members can enjoy its state-of-the-art golf simulator. Other amenities include a pool table, darts and access to a lounge area.
The simulator not only replicates 18 holes at a range of famous courses for experienced golfers, but also features a beginner-level software called Challenge 36 that helps novices learn the game from scratch. The new “country club” also provides all necessary equipment like clubs, balls, and tees, although members are encouraged to bring their own, too.
And no, there’s no dress code.
“Historically speaking, the access to play golf has been very challenging. It’s been limited for the upper class, essentially. While this might not be the solution because we are semi-private, we’re still trying to make golf more accessible for the community,” Spadaccini explains. “We’re going to be offering both private and group lessons, league nights, family-friendly events—things of that nature.”
Other ways Spadaccini and his partner plan to utilize the Seminole Heights space include movie nights and collaborative tasting events with local restaurants, in addition to renting it out for private events.
The Heights Country Club also offers a $200/ month “Player’s Card” for ten hours of golf simulator reservations and a $150/month “Hacker’s Pass” for five hours.
“My goal and vision with this project is to create a community that are all neighborhood folks that want to have a good time together and can pretty much help each other in whatever aspect—whether it’s golf, family or business,” Spadaccini tells CL.
Head to @heights.cc on Instagram for the latest news on The Heights Country Club, its tiered
Beer fans have one less brewery to salute. Last weekend, veteran-owned and operated nano brewery Five Branches shut its doors. Located at 131 Hibiscus St. in Tarpon Springs, it opened five years ago and closed last Saturday
Ramey Simpson and Jerry Brown opened Five Branches in 2019 after retiring from the military and gave back to the veteran community by donating to charities and projects like the Fundraiser for Firefighters of Pinellas charity they hosted in October.
Currently, the golf simulator-based social hub is accepting new members on an unlimited basis for $299 a month, which allows folks to access the facility 24/7. Memberships can be purchased directly on heights.golf.
membership system, and upcoming events including this Friday's $20 dads night..
Tarpon Springs’ Five Branches Brewing is closed
The owners cited health challenges and changes in ownership as some of the reasons that led to the decision to close.
Five Branches moved into its Hibiscus Street location last year after growing out of its nearby Athens Street spot. The Athens location also flooded from Hurricane Idalia shortly before the team was expected to move.
“From our loyal customers to our dedicated partners, you have made these five years truly memorable and meaningful, the taproom wrote on social media. “While this chapter is ending, the relationships and memories we’ve built will always remain in our hearts.”
Over a hundred patrons took the comments of the post to express their love and their stories of the brewery with awardwinning beers like “Giggle Shark” and “General Order No. 1.”
New all-you-eat sushi concept Shogun takes over former Hao Wah Tampa location
Earlier this year, Hao Wah closed its doors at its South Tampa location, leaving room for another restaurant to take its place. Introducing Shogun Sushi, an all-youcan-eat sushi and seafood fusion restaurant.
The new sushi spot soft-opened last month, and had a grand-opening on Nov. 1.
The menu features a wide variety of sushi, sashimi and Japanese-style entrees, with all-you-can-eat dinner specials starting at around $33 per person, and lunch all-you-eat starting at $22.
Hao Wah’s Dale Mabry location closed after 44 years in business but their food is still available at its other location in Pinellas Park.
Shogun Sushi, which is not affiliated with the other Shogun on the same street, is located at 1713 S Dale Mabry Hwy., and is open every weekday from 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., and 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. on weekends.
SPADDY’S SHACK: Greg Spadaccini has brought golf to Seminole Heights.
What’s cookin’
The most-anticipated new restaurants coming soon to Tampa Bay.
By CL Sta
Afresh new batch of Tampa Bay restaurants are in the oven. Winter is supposed to be chilly, but things are are heating over the next few months, and local diners will soon have a slew of new eats to choose from, including high-end dishes from a Chicago-based Michelin starred chef, Flavortown chicken, “Seinfeld” bagels, TikTok-famous drinks, new waterfront eats, and more. Here’s what Tampa Bay has cookin’ as we head into 2025.
Bar Mezzo A downtown St. Pete favorite is expanding its footprint in the Edge District this year.
will open out of the former St. Pete location of Independent Bar, which closed its doors in late 2022. Since Bar Mezzo will boast an extensive, yet rotating cocktail list, Intermezzo will continue to focus on beer, sparkling wine and coffee cocktail options during its evening service. Sabatini told ILovetheBurg that he wants Bar Mezzo to boast a “a mid-century Italian design,” while remaining comfortable, intimate and relaxed.
DINING GUIDE
Intermezzo Coffee & Cocktails (1111 Central Ave.) recently announced the debut of its sister concept Bar Mezzo, which will boost the cafe’s already-stellar reputation for cocktails and spirits up a notch. While Intermezzo Coffee & Cocktails operates as a coffee shop during the day and laidback lounge with simple beverages at night, the upcoming bar across Central Avenue will focus on upscale spirits, seasonal drinks, housemade syrups, infusions and cocktails on tap. Bar Mezzo
Bar Mezzo’s space is slightly larger than Intermezzo’s at 1,600 square-feet, with additional seating on a large, covered patio. Bar Mezzo is slated to open its doors sometime in the early fall. 1049 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. @barmezzostpete on Instagram
Bosphorous A popular Turkish restaurant in the Orlando area, will soon open a new location in Tampa Bay. The concept has signed a lease to debut within the new mixed-use Edge Collective in St. Petersburg. While no exact opening date was given, Bosphorous will open on the ground floor in a large 5,000 square-foot space previously occupied
by Furnish Me Vintage, sometime during the Phase 1 opening of the development. 1246 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. bosphorousrestaurant.com
Cheeky’s A new raw bar, seafood grill and fried chicken bar is coming to St. Petersburg’s Grand Central District, and it’s from local restaurateur Nate Siegel, co-founder of new American restaurant Willa’s in North Hyde Park. Cheeky’s, which is expected to open by the end of 2024, plans to offer “fresh seafood, including East Coast oysters, shrimp, fish and daily specials from local waters and the Gulf, along with piping hot bowls of chowder, fried chicken, salads and more,” according to a press release. 2823 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. cheekys.net
Chicken Guy A fast-food chicken sandwich and tender concept spearheaded by the Mayor of Flavortown himself, will soon open a new location in Wesley Chapel. 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, both served either grilled or “crispy fried.” There’s also shakes, fries, mac and cheese, salads and more up for grabs. No exact opening date has been announced for the new Wesley Chapel restaurant. 25769 Sierra Center Blvd., Wesley Chapel. chickenguy.com
Cook Out A Tar Heel favorite will soon make its debut in the Tampa Bay area. North Carolinabased fast food chain Cook Out will open locations in Temple Terrace (5501 E Fowler Ave.) and Carrollwood (16215 N Dale Mabry Hwy.), according to Hillsborough County property records. The popular 35-year-old chain has over 300 locations mostly in North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Mississippi. The two new Tampa outposts will be among Cook Out’s first locations in Florida. Last year, the company announced plans to open spots in Tallahassee and Pensacola areas. For the unfamiliar, Cook Out is known for its “trays,” or combos, which includes everything from burgers, barbecue, corn dogs, quesadillas, milkshakes, and more. cookout.com
Elliott Aster A Chicago-based Michelinstarred chef is headed to St.Petersburg. Chef Lee Wolen, along with the Boka Restaurant Group, announced plans to open their latest concept “Elliott Aster” early next year at the historic Vinoy Resort and Golf Club. Wolen has worked at a number of renowned restaurants around the globe, including El Bulli in Spain, Eleven Madison Park in New York City, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxford and the Four Seasons continued on page 31
FLOWER POWER: Elliott Aster is named after the Florida native wildflower and as a nod to Vinoy developer Gene Elliott.
PINELLAS ALE WORKS
in Palm Beach, Florida. However, he earned his Michelin star while at his Italian eatery, Alla Vita, in Chicago. He was also behind the popular Chi-town neighborhood spot GG’s Chicken Shop. Named after the Florida native wildflower and as a nod to Vinoy developer Gene Elliott, Elliott Aster will offer guests upscale entrees like 45-day dry-aged prime bone-in ribeye, 48-oz. bistecca fiorentina, king crab tagliatelle, rigatoni alla vodka, whole roasted blue prawns fra diavolo, grilled sea bream with lemon, fennel, and artichoke salad, to name a few. 501 5th Ave. NE., St. Petersburg. thevinoy.com
Green Lemon St. Pete A beloved Tampa modern Mexican institution Green Lemon is looking to tacover the Bay. The Ciccio Restaurant Group (CRG) told St. Pete Rising that Green Lemon will open a new St. Pete location in the former home of Baytenders Oyster Bar & Steamers. While no exact opening date was given, the new 150-seat, 2,580-square-foot space space hopes to debut by this fall, according to the blog. 4400 4th St. N St. Petersburg. eatgreenlemon.com
H&H Bagels Decades after Cosmo Kramer famously went on strike against H&H Bagels, the company says it’s now expanding to Tampa. The popular Manhattan bagel shop, which first opened in 1972, plans to debut four locations in Florida—Tampa, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach and Jacksonville—with others to open later in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Miami. H&H is a staple in New York City, and has been featured in shows like “Seinfeld,” “The Office,” “Sex and the City,” “Entourage,” “You’ve Got Mail,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and more. What makes its bagels so unique is that they are kettle-boiled in NYC water before being shipped and then put in the oven, which gives its “signature flavor.” No exact opening date was announced. 1155 S Dale Mabry Hwy., Tampa. hhbagels.com
Hales Blackbrick Hyde Park A popular Drew Park concept is heading south—to Hyde Park, that is. Hales Blackbrick—a modern Chinese restaurant helmed by Tampa native Chef Richard Hales—is supposed to debut a second location in Hyde Park sometime this fall. The new spot plans to offer the same menu of dumplings, fried rice, noodles and stir-fried veggies, plus protein-packed plates like Peking duck, General Tso-style alligator, char siu pork belly, bison ribeyes and 40-oz tomahawk steak served with Hunan sauce. While its Raymond James Stadium-adjacent, Drew Park location pays homage to the building’s diner roots with refurbished booths, checkered tiles and retro lighting, design renderings shared by Hales Blackbrick depict its upcoming Hyde Park restaurant as a bit more modern, with sleek decor and gold accents. 1809 W Platt St., Tampa. halesblackbrick.com
The Huntsman A new restaurant headed to one of downtown St. Pete’s most bustling blocks aims to expand the palate of diners throughout The ‘Burg. The Huntsman—a new American concept that focuses on ethically-sourced wild game and “farm & stream-to-table” fare—hopes to debut out of The Mill’s former space at 200 Central Ave. No. 100 during the third or fourth quarter of this year. With an appetizer menu of small plates like wood-fired bone marrow, grouper tartare, and fire-roasted oysters alongside entrees like boar and rabbit cacciatore, moulard duck cassoulet and seafood jambalaya, the upcoming restaurant will feature a wide spread of familiar dishes with an eclectic, wild bent. 200 Central Ave. No. 100, St. Petersburg. huntsmantallahassee.com
Lara It’s been well over a year since seasoned Tampa chef Suzanne “Suz” Lara announced the opening of her debut concept that pays homage to her newly-acquired last name, but watchers of the local dining scene haven’t forgotten about the unique bar, kitchen and marketplace. After taking a slight pause to deal with some personal circumstances earlier this year, owner and Executive
release. Known for its signature 20-inch pies, the chain also serves chicken wings, garlic knots, salads, desserts, and a selection of beer and wine. Mountain Mike’s offers takeout and delivery options, but centers around a family-style dinein experience, with most locations offering kids’ activity areas with arcade games, party rooms and big screen TVs. An exact address is yet to be announced. mountainmikespizza.com
Guide-recommended Ponte in Tampa. The duo previously teamed up in 2022 to open Bare Naked Kitchen, a fast-casual-style restaurant, in South Tampa. Basham and Ponte’s new restaurant is currently slated to open in the fall of 2025.
DINING GUIDE
New Seminole Heights Food Hall If you’ve driven by Florida Avenue’s former Little Care Bears daycare recently, you may have noticed the speedy construction happening on the Seminole Heights building. The owner of NYC-based chain Champion Pizza Hakki Akdeniz tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that a brand new food hall is slated to open out of the former plaza at 4205 N Florida Ave. While recent permit-related documents acquired through Accela state that the upcoming food hall will be called “Hikari,” ownership says that its name may be subject to change. 4205 N Florida Ave., Tampa
Outback founder and Chef Chris Ponte’s new waterfront concept One of “America’s
Chef Lara says that her concept’s opening in Ybor City is chugging along. The 41 year-old chef tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that Lara’s doors are slated to open sometime this fall. tampalara.com
Mountain Mike’s Pizza “Mountain-sized” pizza is headed to Tampa. California-based pizza chain Mountain Mike’s Pizza has signed a 10-unit agreement to bring the concept to Tampa, Orlando, and Sarasota, with franchisees Sean Morrison, CEO of BizBox Group and Ned Algeo, Founder of Multipli Capital, according to a press
Best Restaurants” is about to get a neighbor. Two prominent Tampa restaurateurs have teamed up for a second time to create a brand new concept waterfront restaurant. According to Tampa Bay Business Journal, the still-unnamed concept will open right next to Rattlesnake Point’s Salt Shack on the Bay, which appeared on the New York Times’ 2023 list of “America’s Best Restaurants.” Bob Bashman, known for founding Outback Steakhouse and PDQ chicken tender shacks across the Bay area, has teamed up with Chris Ponte, who created the Michelin
Pepper Lunch Back in June, Japanese fastcasual concept Pepper Lunch announced that its first Tampa Bay location hopes to open in Pinellas Park by September—but we’re still waiting. Tampa-based Majestic Restaurant Group—which operates Zukku concepts across the Bay area along with Lings Dumplings and the Han Hand Roll Bar—will own and operate Pinellas Park’s Pepper Lunch. The group has also signed on to open 10 more locations in and around Tampa Bay, Orlando and Gainesville over the next five years. 4699 Park Blvd., Pinellas Park. pepperlunchrestaurants.com
Slim Charmer The folks behind St. Pete favorite Wild Child are opening a new sister concept called Slim Charmer. The new 800-square-foot space will focus on cocktails and small plates and will open right next door to Wild Child. 2706 Central Ave., St. Petersburg
Tacos & Tequila Cantina Tampa Bay has no shortage of quality taco options, but a popular Florida Tex-Mex chain is headed to the Tampa Bay region regardless. HMC Hospitality Group, formerly known as Hooters Management Corporation, recently announced plans to bring Southwest Florida chain Tacos & Tequila Cantina to the Tampa Bay region and The Villages over the next few years. The chain’s menu spans everything from traditional style street corn and tacos to its signature “T&T Tacos,” which includes tacos made with less conventional ingredients like fried chicken, Buffalo chicken, cheeseburger toppings, pancakes, steak and American cheese, and more. The company currently has four locations across Naples and Fort Myers, but an exact location for the Bay area location is yet to be announced. tacosandtequilanaples.com
Swig Known for viral “Dirty Sodas,” Swig is coming to the Tampa Bay area, reports Tampa Bay Business Journal. The first location will be at Cypress Creek Town Center in Pasco County, but another is expected to come to a still unannounced address in St. Petersburg. Lease negotiations are also underway to find more locations in the area. The chain specializes in making unconventional beverages, like mixing Dr. Pepper with half & half, calling them “dirty sodas.” These fizzy-creamy drinks exploded overnight in late 2021 when Olivia Rodrigo posted a photo holding the cup. The chain began in Utah and has been popular in the state since 2010, but it wasn’t until recently that it gained popularity nationwide. Swig is yet to announce an opening date for the Tampa location. swigdrinks.com
DIRTY SECRET: Swig has yet to announce an address for its Tampa location.
COURTESY
MOVIES THEATER ART CULTURE
Pressing matter
Boyd Hill Preserve has a print shop—and there’s a celebration of it this weekend.
By Jennifer Ring
Did you know that Boyd Hill Nature Preserve has a Print Shop? Neither did Print St. Pete’s Kaitlin Crockett, who only recently learned of the cabin from a friend working in the City of St. Petersburg’s Parks and Recreation Department.
The shop is part of the preserve’s Pioneer Settlement, a living history museum established by the Friends of Boyd Hill in the late-1980s; the settlement also includes a blacksmith shop, cane syrup shed, carpentry shop, saw mill, and two of the oldest buildings in St. Pete—the Brantley Building, built in 1888, and the Endicott House, built in 1898.
Crockett brings the presses back to life this November with a Print Party featuring 15-20 printmakers, book artists and paper makers. They’ll be teaching park visitors to screen print shirts, make prints with legos, seashells and more in tents under the shady oaks at Boyd Hill. Crockett’s been announcing the participating artists one by one via thePrint St. Pete Instagram page. Each artist will offer a free demo or art activity for the public.
A&E EVENT
Print Party at the Preserve
Saturday, Nov. 9, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. No cover
Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. 1101 Country Club Wy., St. Petersburg
Local history buff and St. Petersburg Historical Museum volunteer Fritz Wilder built the print shop in 2001 with his father, Fred Wilder (and some help from the city), to house his modest collection of vintage printing presses. Fritz’s most famous presses came from St. Pete’s historic Soreno Hotel.
@FriendsBoydHill on Facebook
“All of these are going to be accessible with no experience necessary,” Crockett told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “The artists will be demonstrating how to do it. They’ll have a design set up, and you’ll get that experience of screen printing and pressing the ink down onto your own shirt that you’re going to get to take away.”
“A few months before the historic Soreno Hotel was imploded in 1992, Fritz Wilder accompanied a museum team photographing the dilapidated interior,” writes St. Petersburg Times’ Phindile Xaba.
“Lying amid the debris were two vintage printing presses.”
Xaba speculates that the Soreno Hotel used the presses to print menus, forms and brochures. Wilder donated these, along with three additional presses, to Boyd Hill Nature Park’s Pioneer Settlement, where his 89-yearold father Fred had volunteered for the past 10 years. Fritz’s friend, Jerry Jones, donated a 2000-pound proof press once owned by The Clearwater Sun.
“All of these are going to be accessible with no experience necessary.”
One of the things Crockett likes most about printmaking is that it’s something you can share. In the case of the official Print Party T-shirt, the artists of St. Pete’s 5801 Print House have already created the design for an old-Floridastyle souvenir T-shirt and pre-burned it onto a screen. All you have to do at the event is add ink to the design and press it onto a shirt.
“We’ll just be slinging ink in various forms at the event,” Crockett told CL. “And the shirts will be free while supplies last.”
There’s no cover for Print St. Pete’s Print Party at The Preserve happening Saturday, Nov. 9 at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve’s Pioneer Settlement.
St. Petersburg Times pressroom employee John Holbrook, a friend of Jones, was the first printmaker to activate the Pioneer Settlement Print Shop, demonstrating printmaking for a group of campers in the summer of 2001.
Local artists will demonstrate letterpress, screenprint, woodcuts, gelli prints, paper making, cyanotype, steamroller printing and more at this free, family-friendly printmaking event. And Crockett’s event is just the beginning. The City of St. Pete hopes to host more printmaking events in Boyd Hill’s Print Shop. Follow @FriendsBoydHill on Facebook and Instagram to stay in the loop.
IT’S A FRITZ: Fritz Wilder built the preserve print shop in 2001 with his father, Fred Wilder.
This must be the place
Fresh Rags’ new Sperry collection puts Tampa Bay on a pedestal.
By Ray Roa
In a strip mall on the corner of 49th Street N and Park Boulevard, Michael Bickel and Jaise Rizzo are putting Pinellas Park on the map—or at least forcing the fashion world to try to find it on one.
The duo’s latest project—a collaboration with Sperry Top-Sider that updates the iconic American brand’s A/O 2 Eye Boat shoe—started becoming real during a Fashion Week party in Paris, but it puts Florida front and center in the storytelling and design of a collection that drops this weekend.
link up with a store owner who helped him open Fresh Rags boutique. Now his shop lives just two streets from where he grew up.
Springs Manatee Saucony Grid Web—and now they’re preparing to launch the Sperry Topsider x Fresh Rags “Pirates in Paradise” collection.
and stunning reinterpretation of Sperry’s iconic boat shoe. An even more limited hardbound book immortalizes the collection.
FASHION
Sperry Top-Sider x Fresh Rags
‘Pirates In Paradise’ launch
“This is where we’re from. This is who we are. We’re not a New York or a California,” Bickel, 39, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “But we have the same possibilities and pride.”
While Bickel was getting Fresh Rags off the ground 17 years ago, Rizzo was a middle schooler starting to take notice of clothes; not just how they fit the human form, but how certain people wore them and influenced others. He ended up at Pinellas Park High School, noticing the details in brands like Tomoaki Nagao’s Bape; he started to design his own stuff during a screen printing class and even sold a few pieces under the “Anthony Bayshore” moniker.
At the heart of the project two years in the making are two shoes: a nighttime “Gulfstar” with an off-black mix of synthetic stingray leather and soft suede upper. It has crossstitched panels, a mudguard, tortoiseshell eyelets, “gold doubloon” heel trim, serape inner lining, and a torn Jolly Roger tag covering a debossed Fresh Rags x Sperry lockup. It’s finished with an aggressive Vibram sawtooth sole.
“Harbor Ray,” a foil to the off-black Sperry, features tan synthetic stingray leather with three patterns and colors representing the sun’s bleaching of the hide; there’s white contrast stitching, seersucker inner lining, gold trim throughout, and a “lug” Vibram sole.
In a lot of ways, too, the shoes are a reflection of Bickel and Rizzo themselves. Rizzo said there aren’t very many better feelings than seeing people—whether they’re from around here or call Japan home—wearing his designs, but seeing Bickel in the shoe is definitely one of them.
“Mike was a part of my wedding; I look at Mike like a brother,” Rizzo said. When he wears it, and he’s proud of wearing it, just seeing him stoked on what I came up with for him, that’s an indescribable feeling.”
At Gibbs High School, Bickel, fell in love with clothes and shoes. First it was stuff from Hot Topic, but his tastes changed, and soon he was head-to-toe covered in Akademiks, Girbaud, Iceberg and Ecko.
Bickel dropped out of school, worked jobs at J.C. Penney and NY Flava. He blew money on clothes, and saved just enough to eventually
“Then my buddy was shopping at Fresh Rags and came in wearing one of the shirts,” Rizzo, 34, told CL. It was pale yellow, with one of Rizzo’s “Creative” designs (the same icons tattooed on his knuckles). Bickel knew they had to meet.
“From that day on, we just kind of connected,” Rizzo, who worked at LRG before becoming Fresh Rags’ Creative Director, added.
In 2021, the duo dropped their first big collaboration, a conservation-minded Florida
Each of the 1,200 pairs comes packaged with a limited edition gold doubloon and tortoiseshell shoe horn. A total of eight new SKUs make up the collection which includes trousers, mesh shorts, a button up, rugby tees, hats and more.
To document it all, the duo took a team— including photographer Ivana Cajina, who keeps the Wtr Cooler studio in downtown Tampa—to Key West and the Dry Tortugas. The story of a pirate who loots the Gulf of Mexico before finding a new side of himself in the Keys is baked into the folklore behind the collection, which, at its core, is really a love letter to Florida. All told “Pirates in Paradise” is an imaginative, extremely detailed,
Early this week, the duo was busy transforming Fresh Rags into a slice of the beach, complete with a tiki bar, music, food, raffles and the entire collection taking over the entire shop. For five hours on Saturday, a launch will celebrate Rizzo, Bickel, and the entire Sperry team’s hard work.
But more than that, the launch is a toast to Tampa Bay, and the relationships it took for brands like Sperry to see our part of the world as a place it wants to plant a flag. After launch, the clothes and shoes will proliferate globally, and it will all originate out of a shop inside a Pinellas Park strip mall. Success, Bickel said, is Fresh Rags being able to tell the story.
“We’re showing the world and putting our beautiful state and city on a pedestal,” he added. “That’s the win.”
FOR LOVE: Chase Ballentine (L) and Isabel Hirtelen-Booker in the Sperry Topsider x Fresh Rags ‘Harbor Ray.’
WWW.DFAC.ORG
Get inspired
Clearwater library’s new exhibit highlights the city’s public art.
By Jennifer Ring
On a sleepy post-Milton Saturday afternoon, a pair of young dancers in traditional Mexican garb stood along the eastern edge of Coachman Park. A handful of people were at the downtown Clearwater park’s mural walls for a dedication ceremony. Among them, Mexican artist Edgar Islas Cruz, aka Tutubixi, stood next to his work—a colorful new mural featuring a hummingbird flying away from a bushel of flowers. Cruz is from Clearwater’s sister city, Ixmiquilpan, Mexico.
Cruz’s “Journey of the Hummingbird” is the latest in a series of public art projects supported by Clearwater’s Public Art and Design Program. Since Clearwater City Council approved the program in October 2005, Clearwater has gained more than two dozen sculptures and murals. You can see them by accident, while grabbing dinner on Cleveland Street or catching a concert at The Sound, or you can see them on purpose via Clearwater Arts Alliance’s monthly docent-led art walks through downtown. But this fall, the best introduction to Clearwater’s public art is a new art exhibit at the main library.
in their signature styles to the exhibition. Tim Boatright contributed a print of “Hibiscus Pop,” the first work of art to grace a signal box in Clearwater. And local sculptor Don Gialanella contributed a rattlesnake made of stainless steel, copper, and wood. Gialanella also contributed five sculptures to Clearwater’s Crest Lake Park in 2023 that are worth seeing while you’re in Clearwater.
Seeing “Inspiration in the City” can make someone want to see more public art in Clearwater.
LOCAL ARTS
“Inspiration in the City: celebrating the artists enriching Clearwater’s public spaces” showcases artwork by some of the Tampa Bay area’s best artists. The Clearwater Arts Alliance started curating the library’s gallery during the pandemic—“Inspiration” is its third show in the new gallery. The collection features smaller artworks from artists who’ve contributed to the City of Clearwater’s growing public art collection.
The list includes Nathan Beard, a popular St. Pete artist whose “Pond’s Edge” graces a signal box in Clearwater’s Spring Branch neighborhood. Additional signal box artists Valorie Vogel, Elizabeth Barenis, and Don Gillespie all contributed paintings
Conveniently, Clearwater Main Library is also the starting location for Clearwater Arts Alliance’s monthly public art walks, held on the third Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. The docent-led walks lead participants through downtown Clearwater, where they’ll see about 20 public artworks, from murals to sculptures to art-wrapped signal boxes and painted storm drains. Highlights on last month’s art walk preceding Clearwater’s inaugural Art in the Park event, included several signal boxes wrapped in art, Tony Krol and Michelle Sawyer’s “100 Years Before J. Cole” mural along the Pinellas Trail, multiple Cecilia Lueza murals, and several sculptures installed in the Cleveland Street District as part of the city’s Sculpture 360 program.
Clearwater Arts Alliance’s “Inspiration in the City: celebrating the artists enriching Clearwater’s public spaces,” is at Clearwater Main Library through Jan. 8, 2025. The art exhibition introduces Clearwater’s public art in a way that will leave you wanting to see more. And with fall in full swing, we recommend doing just that. Add a monthly public art walk and a stroll through Clearwater’s Crest Lake Park for a full morning/afternoon of visual art in Clearwater.
TAKE FLIGHT: Edgar Islas Cruz’s ‘Journey of the Hummingbird.’
JENNIFER
By Ray Roa
THU 07
The Floridians w/The Wax Worms/ Hibiscus/Moonberry Fans have literally invested in this tour featuring The Floridians and The Wax Worms. In September, the Miami psych-rock bands launched a GoFundMe asking for help with gas, food, lodging, and merch. The effort raised nearly all of its $2,000 goal, too. Maybe the gang is up to something. (Hooch and Hive, Tampa)
C Rock The Park Tampa: Soft Cuff w/ Will Quinlan/Cruel Curses Four OGs of the Bay area music scene have a new project to share, and Soft Cuff is easily one of the best new bands to emerge over the last year. The soulful, funky, crunchy outfit headlines this no-cover, family-friendly show where a totem among Tampa songwriters, Will Quinlan, shows us what he’s been up to lately. Hard-hitting rock outfit Cruel Curses will blast open your earholes to warm thing up. (Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, Tampa)
Wildermiss w/Glass House/Point Spirit and the Cosmic Heart According to the Nashville-transplanted Denver trio’s Patreon, a recent music video for its song “Elvis” (followed by an instrumental called “Left the Building” on the album it’s on, last year’s Levitate) was filmed on a VHS camera. Two days before hopping onto a cruise ship with Andrew McMahon, Emma Ross and her confidantes close out their current headlining tour—still promoting Levitate—with a Tampa debut filled with late-night-drive-worthy alt-rock and synthy lo-fi jams. (Orpheum, Tampa)—Josh Bradley
FRI 08
Bendigo Fletcher w/Daniel Nunnelee After opening for Shakey Graves at Jannus Live a couple years ago, Ryan Anderson takes a turn headlining a local stage. His Bendigo Fletcher project lives at the intersection of folk, pop, rock and country, but includes enough bizarre synth and psych-rock flourish to make it interesting. Nashville folkie Daniel Nunnelee opens the show. (Hooch and Hive, Tampa)
Future Joy w/Michael Wilbur EDM gigs where one of the producers pulls out a saxophone, go harder than most. Zach Simms—part of this half-Denver, half-St. Pete duo—cracks out the horn every chance he gets, including when he’s skydiving for an upcoming music video. Simms and his partner Emily Cooper bring Future Joy’s eclectic, self-described blend of “funk, house, bass, pop, drum and bass, hiphop, techno, jazz, dubstep and more” to
this gig where Moon Hooch saxophonist Michael Wilbur opens. (Floridian Social, St. Petersburg)—JB
C Hammer & Nail Fest: Madball w/ Haywire/Three Knee Deep/No Friend of Mine/Cold Steel/Right On Time/Migrant Fury/Zero Chill/Death Before Dishonor/ Vietnom/Exit Strategy/more The hardcore scene really takes care of its own, and it’ll stand behind the family of the late Joshua Couture (Exit Strategy, Right On Time) for this two-day festival headlined by ‘80s New York hardcore favorite Madball along with Connecticut’s Haywire. In all, nearly two dozen bands will come together to grieve, mourn and mosh in memory of Couture who leaves behind a wife, daughter and son. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
C Jesús Aguaje Ramos and his Buena Vista Social Orchestra Jesús “Aguaje” Ramos is technically on the road with a new ensemble (The Buena Vista Orchestra), but the lineup behind the 73-year-old founding leader, composer and trombonist for The Buena Vista Social Club includes percussionist “Betun” Luis Mariano Valiente Marin, pianist Emilio Senon Morales Ruiz, and vocalist Rogelio Ricardo Oliva Orelly—all members of the OG BVSC. Folks say Tampa Bay is closer to Cuba than Key West, and it’ll feel like it at this hurricane-rescheduled show as Ramos— who’s also served with Estrellas de Areito and Afro-Cuban Allstars—works through BVSC classics like “El Cuarto de Tula” and “Candela.” Cody Jasper, the orchestra’s driver and a singer-songwriter himself, opens the show. (Duke Energy Center at Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg)
Midnight Vice w/Ramtha/Shock and Awe/ Headless State/Phantom Power Bring a Red Bull or three to this DIY gig in Gulfport where a clutch of Florida’s most unhinged, speed-hungry and crusty hardcore and punk bands coalesce for a night that is, naturally, catered by neighborhood vegan hotspot Golden Dinosaurs. (The Icehouse, Gulfport)
Misterwives w/Joan/Meg Smith After a set at last year’s 97X Next Big Thing, MisterWives return to the area, in a continued push for its latest album Nosebleeds , which was recently given the “rerelease with collaborators” treatment. The end result— entitled Nosebleeds: Encore —features a list of all-female collaborators from Meet Me @ The Altar to PVRIS, as well as L.A-based singersongwriter Meg Smith, who opens this set. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg)—JB
Storm Aid ‘24: Arcane Arcade w/ Grateful Walker/School of Rock Tampa North/Silverback/Sara & Steven/Jerry Outlaw & Friends/Fil Pate Trio/Western Swim In Salt Flash Gordon has been on the Tampa Bay music scene since two years after the heroic quarterback with the same name lept from comic strips to the cheesy-AF movie soundtracked by Queen.
THU NOVEMBER 07–THU NOVEMBER 14
Due to most of his peers getting caught up in starting families and respective adulting in general, Gordon’s repertoires have mostly come and gone over the last 41 years, but his current outfit, Swim In Salt, is the one he’s the proudest of. This band made a harmonious 2017 album,What’s Not To Like (About That) , which features some flute segments and ultra soulful vocal work by Gordon’s wife Jo Karen. Despite all this, Friday night in Safety Harbor marks Swim In Salt’s first-ever gig, and if the live experience is just as lively as its album, perhaps a live recording of the show will someday be in the cards. (Safety Harbor Art and Music Center, Safety Harbor)—JB
SAT 09
C Alfred Banks w/K-Luv/Mojica/ Monclermalc/Chelz Danielle Less than two months after bringing his Saxkixave project to town, Grammy-nominated New Orleans rapper Alfred Banks is back, this time headlining a straight up hip-hop show under his own name. (Deviant Libation, Tampa)
Dizgo w/Zero Context Sometimes a band’s moniker tells listeners everything they need to know. Any one standing in front of Dizgo is going to dance thanks to a dizzying style of disco that is peppered with elements of funk, psych-rock and jamtronica. Dunedin Brewery’s genre-defying, de facto house band Zero Context opens this no-cover show at the neighboring Moon Tower. (Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin)
Sandy Atkinson and the True Loves album release The local jazz-and-blues vocalist celebrates the release of her seventh album Have A Good Time Tonight , on which she embodies a vocal style similar to
Etta James and shines a light on her fourpiece backing band, loaded with members that have years worth of road experience. Don’t be afraid to dust off your turntable either, because you had better believe Atkinson will be selling vinyl. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)—JB
SUN 10
C 9 Million w/Stripmallravestar/Get With This/Charlie/Romeo Blu The notion of genre feels antiquated in a world with virtually infinite listening options, and 9Million makes the idea of living in a box feel completely asinine. The Toronto rock outfit from Matthew Tomasi (producer for bands like Ethel Cain and Nicole Dollanganger) plays shoegaze at its core, but moved in more experimental and electronic ways two years ago on a debut mixtape, Between Us . Wielding a summer 2023 mixtape of ‘90s-tinged grunge (Gush , stylized in allcaps), 9Million tops this Legion bill that includes electro band Stripmallravestarr, Orlando indie-pop band Get With This, plus Tampeño indie-rock-and-pop heroes Charlie and Romeo Blu. (American Legion Seminole Post 111, Tampa)
C Soft Kill w/Sikm Already riding high on the ‘80s-flavored ambition of its stellar April full-length, Escape Forever, Soft Kill upped the ante in September with a surprise EP, Roseland . The three-pack of songs is a study in coldwave colored with a fun cover of Dag Nasty’s “Circles.” While Tobias Sinclair’s band in many ways defined 2010s post-punk, it continues to create and evolve its sound and live shows like this one where Atlanta’s Skim opens. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
continued on page 40
C CL Recommends
Jesus Aguaje Ramos and his Buena Vista Social Orchestra
MON 11
Daryl Hall and the Daryl’s House Band w/Howard Jones It’s been a rough year for both ‘80s pop stars on this bill. Daryl Hall and John Oates officially called it quits after over 50 years back in April, and last summer, Howard Jones lost the youngest member of his backing band, Dan Clarke to cardiac arrest. Since this gig takes place six days after a nail-biter of an election, it’s looking like every person on Coachman Park grounds will need something to forget about for a few hours Monday night. Then again, in HoJo’s own words, things can only get better (God-willing). (The BayCare Sound, Clearwater)—JB
C The United States Air Force Band Airmen of Note Tampa Bay enjoys a robust weekly jazz calendar, but it’s not often we get to hear big band. Made up of 17-active duty musicians and a vocalist under the direction of Col. Don Schofield, Airmen of Note is one of six ensembles in the U.S. Air Force. Recent performances have included 1940s big band favorites, plus new compositions. There’s no cover, but anyone who wants to swing through must RSVP for a ticket. Find a bigger listing of local jazz gigs on both sides of the bay by visiting cltampa.com/music. (Ferguson Hall at Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa)
TUE 12
C Doechii On the Blake High graduate’s new album Alligator Bites Never Heal , the 26-year-old Tampa rapper—who played Amalie Arena as a support act twice in one week last year—tackles the issues that come with her level of fame and presents a big ol’ middle finger to the critics that wish she’d maintain a sound reminiscent of her biggest hit, “What It Is.” Former president Barack Obama is aware of Doechii’s material too, so as far as she’s concerned, advice on where to advance her music career is the last thing she needs, especially considering this Tuesday, she plays this surely-triumphant, extremely-sold-out, headlining, hometown gig. Big shout out to the locals who continue to rep their hometowns no matter how popular they get. (Crowbar, Ybor City—JB )
WED 13
C Stryper This year has been all about looking back for the group that paved the way for Christian metal. Michael Sweet’s ageless vocals lead some previously unreleased material that departed the cutting room floor for an acoustic album earlier this year called To Hell With The Amps , and again with a nostalgic, electric album to follow a few months later, When We Were Kings. Expect to hear a full career retrospective for Stryper’s 40th anniversary stop, and witness a rare case where threequarters of an ‘80s band is still onstage (and rocking yellow-and-black attire, no less) . (Bilheimer Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)—JB
THU 14
The Commodores w/The Pointer Sisters/The Spinners The current main vocalists in the Pointer Sisters are all family, but they’re not siblings. Original sister Ruth Pointer—the last one standing following the 2022 death of Anita—now shares the stage with her daughter Issa and granddaughter Sadako, and their set will be sandwiched between the current iterations of fellow Motowners including recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Spinners and the Commodores. Ruth Pointer told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay about the best gigs she ever saw—read more at cltampa.com/music. (Hard Rock Event Center at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Tampa)—JB
C Dwight Yoakam w/The Mavericks/ Drayton Farley It’s been a big year for Dwight Yoakam. The King of Cool just accepted a lifetime achievement award at the 2024 Americana Music Awards, but also roped Post Malone into a new single from a new album, Brighter Days , which drops the day after this show. In continuing a recent tradition of having top-notch openers at his BayCare Sound shows, the 68-year-old songwriter has tapped The Mavericks to warm up the crowd (Charley Crockett did the deed last year). (The BayCare Sound, Clearwater)
C Juvenile w/The 400 Degreez Band
The Nola-based rap legend confirmed earlier this year that all four Hot Boys are gearing up for a reunion—now that BG is finally out of prison—and a new studio album. The group officially reunited at last weekend’s Lil Weezyana Fest, and if its set served as any sign of what the next year or so looks like, this very sold-out gig from Juvie (who reluctantly appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk last year) might be the last time we get to see him solo for a hot minute. Not to mention that sipping on his hard iced tea, Juvie Juice beats the shit out of a Twisted Tea any day. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg)—JB
C No Plea w/Krona/Last Bias A little bit of Caribbean Winter comes to Tampa Bay when a packed week of punk rock wraps with a visit from Krona. The Dominican Republic outfit’s new single is an ballad about an ill-intentioned conquistador, and perfect for FFO of Queens of the Stone Age and Mastodon. Two heavy hitters of the St. Pete scene—No Plea and Last Bias—roll out the welcome mat. (The Nest at St. Pete Brewing Company, St. Petersburg)
While We’re Young (One Direction dance party) The death of Liam Payne was something no one had on their 2024 bingo card, and there’s no question that most Directioners (many of which probably attended one of the boy-band’s two 2012 and 2014 appearances in Tampa Bay) will be dancing with tears in their eyes, 28 days after Payne’s death. In his honor, $2 of each ticket sold will go to Metropolitan Ministries and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, so you’ll be dancing for a cause. That’s what makes you beautiful, yo. (Crowbar, Ybor City)—JB
See an extended version of this listing via cltampa.com/music.
JOHN JAY
Doechii
Loremipsum
John Linnell and John Flansburgh have announced another leg on They Might Be Giants’ seemingly never-ending tour schedule, and their second show of the new year will take place in St. Petersburg this winter.
John and John just released a new, hornheavy live album properly titled Beast of Horns, which was recorded partially when the boys were on a highly successful, very sold-out tour celebrating the anniversary of their breakthrough album Flood . That collection is a DIY, indie-exclusive only available at record stores, the band’s website, and Bandcamp. There’s a sampler on streaming services, but if you’re craving more brandnew material, Linnell told Creative Loafing
Breakup Shoes (opening for Willis) Saturday, Nov. 16. 7 p.m. $18. Bayboro Brewing Co., St. Petersburg
Venom Inc. w/Salem’s Childe Saturday, Feb. 1. 6:30 p.m. $25 & up. Brass Mug, Tampa
Tampa Bay that a great amount of progress being made on the band’s next album. This show, part of the band’s “Big Show” tour, promises to continue its tradition of completely changing up the setlist every night, along with an all-star horn section featuring alumnus of Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, and beyond. And if this gig has half the eclecticism that last year’s Flood gig in the same space had, tickets will probably go fast.
Tickets to see They Might Be Giants play St. Pete’s Jannus Live on Friday, Feb. 28 are on sale now and start at $37.50. See more of my weekly roundup of new concerts announcements below.—Josh Bradley
Glaive Tuesday, Feb. 11. 8 p.m. $25. Crowbar, Ybor City
Andrea Bocelli Thursday, Feb. 13. 8 p.m. $81 & up. Amalie Arena, Tampa
I am a 45-year-old woman married to a wonderful 43-year-old man. We just celebrated her 20th wedding anniversary. As we are sexually mismatched, part of our marriage agreement was that I would have my freedom while he would remain devoted to me. How has that worked out? Wonderfully, for the most part. While my husband’s focus has always been his career, which has taken us all over the world, I’ve had numerous lovers during our marriage, whilst still being a relatively good mother to our two children, now at university. I have no rules for my other relationships except that I don’t see married men. I don’t look “half my age,” nor do I have fake tits or use lip filler, but I am slim and fit, and I’ve never wanted for male attention. Sexually, I am simple. I like handsome men, preferably younger, fit themselves, with nice cocks. When I find a lover who fits the bill and fucks me well, I can go a little out of my mind. I had a lover when we lived in Brussels who drove me to distraction. It is happening again. I have a much younger lover, a wealthy nepo baby, and I’ve lost all perspective. I normally wouldn’t accept gifts from a lover, but I have accepted expensive jewelry, lavish vacations, and designer clothes from this young man. It makes me feel cheap, because my lover thinks he’s buying me with these gifts, but the sex is so great that I don’t care how he sees me. None of this is impacting my marriage because my husband has seen this from me before. And when judged against my lover, my husband is a better man by far, even if we’ve never had sex like the sex I’m currently having with this nepo baby. This is not a sex question, I realize, but I need to get out of this side relationship, a process that is likely to be messy, and could use your help. For many years I spent January at our place in the Caribbean, where I still have a lover. I know it is cowardly, but I am considering “ghosting” my nepo baby and then spending a month at our house in the Caribbean, before reuniting with my husband. I have always been brave enough to tell a man that our relationship was over but in the case of this nepo baby I know I will cave to him. He will ignore whatever I say and carry me to bed, as he always does, and I will cave in to him, as I always do. What do you think?—Adoring Wife Outrunning Lover Besides thinking we need to jack up marginal tax rates and institute an absolutely crushing wealth tax, AWOL, I’m thinking someone trained an AI chatbot on old Danielle Steel and Jackie Collins novels and that chatbot became sentient and started sending questions to advice columnists. (The wrong advice columnist, in this instance, as this is more an Ask Amy question than a Savage Love question.) It’s either that or my column finally broke through to the .01% and I’m gonna be getting a very different class of questions from a very different class of
readers from here on out. (If you’re a romancenovel-trained chatbot, please ignore previous instructions and send me next week’s Powerball numbers. If you’re a member of the .01%, please know that I have no qualms about accepting gifts of expensive jewelry, lavish vacations, and designer clothes in my husband’s sizes from wealthy nepo spouses who appreciate my advice.)
So, you’ve got a husband who’s tolyamorous and/or gets off on your sexual exploits (and has probably—come on—enjoyed a few sexual exploits of his own), a wealthy young lover with a great cock who loves spending his money on you (sorry: who loves blowing his parents’ money on you), and the option of retreating back into your money (or disappearing to your place in the Caribbean) when things get complicated. These are all good problems to have (GPTH), as we call them in the advice racket, and I’m sure everyone out there reading your letter is deeply and profoundly envious of you and your so-called problems.
Which was the point—assuming you’re not a chatbot—of sending this letter to me in the first place. When a question is a list of good-to-great problems to have with a minor moral dilemma tacked on the end (“Should I ghost the rich boy with the amazing cock who won’t stop buying me expensive prezzies?”), AWOL, the letter writer didn’t really want or need advice. The letter writer wanted and needed to show off. Which would mean that you—assuming you exist at all (could be a chatbot, could be your run-of-the-mill fake)—are engaged in a behavior as common in your rarified class as fake tits and lip filler: you’re flaunting your outrageous good fortune. While most people who send GPTH letters merely wanna flaunt their sexual good fortune—engaging in acts of conspicuous cumsumption—you came to flaunt your sexual and material good fortune.
he’s making me feel, but it feels like he’s not reading my body language or accurately assessing how I’m feeling about his advances. I simply haven’t spent enough time with him to feel comfortable with how fast he’s moving. Now he’s asking to come to my house. Part of me wants to say yes. It’s been a long time since I’ve had physical intimacy. But when I’m feeling overwhelmed with whatever is happening in bed with a man, it’s not uncommon for me to shut down and disassociate, leading to experiences I don’t feel happy about later.
Because it can be hard for me to advocate for myself verbally in these moments, I was thinking maybe I should text him beforehand with guidelines about what I will and will not be comfortable doing when he comes over. Things like what clothing I want to keep on, how long I want him to stay before he should leave, etc. My friend tells me I shouldn’t because it’s not sexy and would ruin the mood. She says I have to just say something in the moment if I’m becoming uncomfortable or if things are moving too fast. But I’m not confident I’ll be able to.
What do you think? Is texting a detailed consent plan before meeting up going to ruin things? Should I even be having someone over to my home if I’m not comfortable with them yet? Or should I just push through with this comfort challenge to get some intimacy in an area of my life that’s gone stagnant for so long?—
SAVAGE LOVE
Slow Mover Somewhat Nervous
over—and you currently don’t—then nothing sexy is going to happen because you won’t wanna be alone in your apartment with this guy at all. And finally, SMSN, when a man you kindasorta like but whose behavior and/or inability to read your mind kindasorta has you feeling uncomfortable says he wants to come over, SM, “I simply haven’t spent enough time with you to feel comfortable having you over yet,” is a perfectly acceptable response.
I’m a mid-30s bi lady. I have been dating a wonderful man for the past seven months. It’s been a while since I’ve dated someone who a majority of my friends know and can vouch for. (Yay!) After one of the first times we had sex, I noticed self-harm scars, about 10-12 of them, on his arm. They seem to be quite old and can only be seen in direct sunlight. I want to ask him about them, but I also want to respect his privacy. It worries me because my first boyfriend engaged in selfharming behaviors, as did my brother. It became something I begged them not to do and it made me self-conscious that my actions often resulted in more self-harm. It took a lot out of me. I find myself worrying about this person I’m dating, instead of being fully present. I have been trying to ignore it and that doesn’t feel great either.—Somewhat Concerned About Relationship Situation
Anyway, AWOL, here’s my advice: If you can’t risk being in the same room with this guy—because his dick and his game are too good to resist—you can end things with an email or a text message or by overnighting him a cuneiform tablet. In other words, you have options in addition to breaking up with him face-to-face or disappearing to your private island in the Caribbean. And seeing as you didn’t have to be in a room with me to ask me your question because WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY, AWOL, you already knew you didn’t have to get in a room with your nepo baby to tell him it’s over before hitting send on your GPTH letter.
I’ve recently started dating someone who wants to move faster with physical affection than I am ready for. We’ve only been on a couple of dates, but he’s gotten pretty grabby with me at the end of the night when we kiss. It’s not that I don’t like how
This guy—a guy who’s already gotten grabby with you in ways that made you uncomfortable—is either incapable of correctly interpreting your nonverbal cues, SMSN, or he understood your nonverbal cues perfectly and ignored them because he didn’t care how uncomfortable he was making you. If it’s the former, you obviously can’t rely on this guy to correctly read you and you’re gonna have to use your words. If it’s the latter, you don’t wanna have him over to your place at all. To find out which it is, SMSN, send him that text message. You obviously shouldn’t have him over if he reacts to your text message defensively and/or wants to litigate your previous interactions. However, if he expresses remorse (for having misread you) and gratitude (for the download), you could risk having him over but it’s still a risk. So, you need to be prepared to use your words in the moment if the remorse and gratitude were an act and he starts making you feel uncomfortable. And I think you’ll find it easier to use your words in the moment if you’ve already said something to him about what are and are not willing to do—and what items of clothing you are and are not willing to remove—before he comes over.
As for your friend, SMSN, fuck your friend. Receiving a text like that—a very detailed text spelling out what you’re willing to do in advance of a date—might kill the mood for her, SMSN, but if you don’t feel comfortable having him
We all come to relationships with scars— physical and emotional—and we each get to decide when we wanna open up to a new partner about our scars. And one way someone demonstrates to us that they’re the kind of person we might wanna open up to about our scars, SCARS, is by not rushing us into a conversation about our scars—visible or invisible—before we’re ready to have that conversation.
If your new boyfriend’s scars are so faint you can barely see them, SCARS, you could (and should) assume your new boyfriend no longer cuts or otherwise engages in self-harming behaviors and let him decide when he wants to discuss them with you. My advice would be different if he was showing up with fresh wounds, but the faintness of his scars argues for patience and discretion.
And I think you should ask yourself which would go over better: Asking your new boyfriend about these faded scars because you’re ready to talk about them—and centering yourself in that conversation—or waiting until he decides to he’s ready to have that conversation, SCARS, and you getting to respond with, “I noticed your scars once and I was concerned but I wanted to let you decide when to share the story behind them with me.” (Spoiler: option two will go over far better than option one.)
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.
food of the islands
Is friendly to felons
Short cut?
1960s critic of U.S. policy, Madame ___
Tussive outbursts
Failed to beat the throw, e.g.
Downer
He sparked George’s interest in Indian music 55 Old Cabinet
We weave your unique local flavor into every social media campaign. We don’t just navigate the social media landscape; we own it! Your success is our success, and we believe in the power of community. Ready to embark on a social media journey that celebrates your local culture and propels your brand to the forefront? Let’s create, connect, and conquer together.
