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This is the Rockstar issue. It sparkles with jewels from La France in the fashion shoot produced by the original V team. The X Factor brings soul to the pages of VERTICAL. Maria in Wonderland invites you to explore a whimsical garden. Kenyan Gold is to be sipped and savored—a true coffee treasure. One day a girl met a hero. That girl was me. Legendary moonwalker Buzz Aldrin was the Rocket Hero. Catch my close encounter with the man on the moon in Over the Moon. Photo by Wicked Lens Imaging
Rock on,
Publisher & creative director Leslie Joy Ickowitz
Art Director James Burgos of BLVD//creative
Contributing Photographers David Monroe ✵ Papergirl Press Susan Jeffers
Contributing Writers Carol Cortright ✵ Casey Brook McPhee James Burgos ✵ Leslie Joy Ickowitz Tracy Ann Guida
Digital retoucher Russ Robinson
Get VERTICAL...and be part of something fabulous! VERTICALTampaBay.com Copyright 2013 VERTICAL™ Tampa Bay. All rights reserved. Reproduction, either in whole or in part, is forbidden without written permission from the publisher. Articles and advertisements published in VERTICAL Tampa Bay do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher. VERTICAL Tampa Bay assumes no liability for the content and shall not be held liable for any errors or omissions. No responsibility can be assumed for unsolicited materials. All letters and press releases sent to VERTICAL Tampa Bay may be unconditionally assigned for publication and are subject to VERTICAL Tampa Bay’s editorial comment. VERTICAL Tampa Bay is not to be held liable for the quality or performance of goods or services rendered by the advertisers in this publication. Printed and distributed by Creative Loafing.
R O C K S T A R
Photographer: Susan Jeffers
Stylists: Pamela Bloomgren, MOD Productions & Leslie Joy Ickowitz Hair: Bill Baker Makeup: Pamela Bloomgren, MOD Productions Model: Karissa Gonzalez
Jewels & Corsets: La France Post Production: Russ Robinson
Maria inWo A Garden of Possibilities Story by Carol Cortright ❧ Photography by David Monroe
“There’s nothing more beautiful than what is in nature.” ~ Maria Saraceno
O
therworldly yet familiar, the spiky petals gleam like glass. The depth of sensuous color and texture draws you in. You want to touch them, slide your fingers over the smooth surface, feel the curves, the coolness. These giant blooms transcend garden variety adornment, summoning a magical rain forest with a splash of opulent hues radiating a shine beyond shimmering dew. Usually, when the lovely tropical coconut palm, the queen palm, and the Christmas palm have gone to seed, the remnants of their fruition fall to the ground or are removed and discarded. This is where Maria Saraceno intervenes. Her voice resonates with passion:“I love the dual nature of the pods.When they first come up,
they’re tubular, masculine—then they burst open, feminine, filling both functions.” Maria uses her artistic talent to preserve and give new life to these “reproductive vessels” which otherwise would be tossed aside. “Artists have been inspired by nature for years,” she says, explaining her penchant for repurposing the exquisite forms she discovers all around her. One installation, draped over a sconce at the Florida Craftsmen Gallery, glows from within. Pods fan out like dragonfly wings and capture a fading sunset, orange and red bleeding into a violet sky. Some of the edges curl slightly and show a green flash peeking from the underside. While the larger-than-life petals spiral and spring off the wall hangings, her stand-up arrangements mimic sensual dances, sporting titles like “Waltz” and “Tango.” Each pod in the seductively twisting cluster gracefully tapers to a fine point. Some are embellished with the additional texture of hundreds of tiny seed beads. The pieces are useful too, as Maria points out the individual pods. Brilliant in color, some adorned with sprays of beads and bejeweled buttons, they lend a slice of tabletop whimsy while holding lemons or other edibles within their fluted bodies.
onderland Maria explores social concepts through art, channeling her wonder and curiosity into acrylic, resin and other materials. Her skillful techniques result in things of pure beauty. Maria’s work can be seen at mariasaraceno.com. Florida Craftsmen Gallery, 501 Central Avenue, St Petersburg, FL, floridacraftsmen.net. Nuance Galler y, 804 S. Dale Mabry, Tampa, FL nuance galleries. com
THE
X
FACTOR
Soul Music by geri x Story by Tracy Ann Guida â?§ Photography by Sarah Kay Photography
Simmer down now, you’re worrying yourself today. Simmer down now, you never know what you’re gonna get. Cuz you’ve been pushing for a long, long time looking for things you cannot find. Don’t give up, don’t give up, don’t fall out of love.
O
ne strum of her guitar, one sultry lyric sung and you become a voyeur—with a front row seat to Geri X’s world. Stories stream from her soul bringing the listener on an emotional journey. With a captivating presence and powerful sound, Geri X is a true musician—and every bit a rockstar. Drawn from personal experiences, Geri paints a dark background that is brought to life with moving guitar chords. In “Whiskey and Cigarettes,” she compares herself to the vices of her lover, thus paralleling love and addiction. I don’t want to be another tattoo you’ll regret; I don’t want to just be someone next to whom you slept; I don’t want to be a picture in your wallet you’ll forget; I want to be a gold slide, warm whiskey and your favorite pack of cigarettes. Classically trained in guitar, piano and voice, Geri X’s brilliant blend of jazz, blues and folk music enthralls audiences. Die-hard fans wait with bated breath for the next new thing to come from the prolific artist. Her evolution as a musician and a human being unfolds before us. Geri is a fixture on the local music
scene, playing at hot spots from Tampa to St. Petersburg (when she’s not touring elsewhere in the country). She adores performing live and shows up at The Local 662, Jannus Landing, New World Brewery and her favorite,The Ale and the Witch. When asked how she views the music scene here compared to other cities, she shares, “I always say this and in seven years it hasn’t changed:There is so much camaraderie between the musicians here and so much talent. I haven’t found that anywhere else in the country.” Since her arrival in Tampa Bay from Bulgaria as a teen in 2005, she has made St. Petersburg her home and has grown very fond of the eclectic city. She says, “I love St Pete. I love my family and friends who live here. And I love how the city is always awake and alive. It’s inspiring.” The same can be said about Geri X—she is always awake and alive and one of our brightest shining stars. Geri is currently recording a new album at RedRoom Recorders in Ybor City. You can find her catalog of albums and a calendar of performance dates on her website. www.gerixmusic.com.
Kiss On Both Eyelids Like a kiss on both eyelids you’re wonderful and safe. Like a sailing ship in the middle of a dead calm sea you’re far away. Like a moth to a flame I attached myself to you. I grew a giant spider in my head and named it after you.
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Kenyan
Gold Coffee and conversation By The snows of Kilimanjaro Story by James Burgos ❧ Photography by Papergirl Press
A typical winter day in Tampa is anything but typical. You are more likely to see sand angels on white sands and frozen margaritas before you see anything that resembles actual snow. But on occasion, and sprinkled throughout the season, the Bay area is prone to experience a cold snap every now and again. And on those thin-blooded days when flip-flops simply will not do, Café Kili in Temple Terrace is a welcome respite from a brisk day; a place where hot coffee and a warm smile will raise your temperature back to sub-tropical norms. Café Kili (named after Mt. Kilimanjaro) is owned and operated by Patrick and Rose Waruinge. They opened for business in 2007 and are a thriving mainstay of the Temple Terrace and USF communities. They roast their coffee in-house. Raw beans are imported from Kenya,Tanzania, Sumatra, Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala and Brazil. You haven’t tasted coffee as rich and flavorful until you have experienced the taste of a bean that has been brewed within a few days from the time it was roasted.
All of the usual varieties that discerning coffee of roasting coffee. She and Patrick bought a roaster drinkers are accustomed to can be found on the and spent a couple of years perfecting their roastCafé Kili menu. My personal favorite is the Café ing methods. If you come to the café on a Saturday Mocha. At the franchise coffee shops, I’m normally afternoon you might find Patrick roasting the beans a quad-shot-espresso kind of guy, but let me warn that will be sold for that week. you right now, the brew at Café Kili is of such a Because they roast their beans in-house, high grade that it makes the corporate swill seem Café Kili is able to offer better prices for their like watered down Prohibition-era hooch served at coffee than the corporate chains. Once a month they a speakeasy. So, if you’re like me, you might want have coffee tastings. It’s a great opportunity to sample to dial it back a couple of shots—I’m just saying. different blends.They value their customers’ opinions One would be hard pressed to find a barista and feedback. And like any good mom and pop shop, in the Bay area with the you can be certain that Rose intimate knowledge of and Patrick know the names the “sacred bean” as Rose and drinks of all their regular Waruinge—her passion for customers. coffee runs deep. “Rose can If the coffee alone weren't taste a bean and tell if it is reason enough to patronize an African bean or tell you Café Kili frequently, the decor where it is from,” says her will surely draw you in for an husband, Patrick. She was extended stay. Rose singleraised on a coffee plantahandedly designed the intetion in the central province rior around the textures and of Nyeri, Kenya. Along with colors of Africa. Real bamboo her ten siblings, she learned trim, comfortable seating, free to cultivate raw coffee beans wi-fi and warm lighting create ~ Patrick Waruinge that would, in turn, be sold a welcome atmosphere spaexclusively to the Kenyan cious enough to be suitable government. “Growing coffor group meetings, first dates, fee was a family operation,” poetry readings, studying and says Rose. “Our father could not afford to hire even live music. If you really want an idea of what workers so he used us [his children] as laborers to I'm talking about, the photograph and colors used in care for the coffee plants, pick the ripe cherries this article’s layout were shot on location. and deliver them to the factory. He paid for our Café Kili was recently voted one of the Top 10 educations in this way.” coffee houses in the country by The Huffington Post— “Kenyan Gold,” as coffee is commonly known in well-deserved praise for Patrick and Rose and a Kenya, is one of the country’s top cash crops. It is grown testament to the foundation of excellence that they on family-owned plantations, but the prices are fixed have established and maintained throughout the years. and regulated by the government. Ironically, according Café Kili's location in Temple Terrace is on Fowler to Patrick, “Coffee growers are not allowed to process Avenue right off the corner of 56th Street behind the for consumption the beans grown on their own farms; Applebee’s. If you rarely visit or pass through Temple it is an export-only industry.” Terrace, consider making the trip if only to stock up The idea to open her own coffee shop came to on a bag or two of “Kenyan Gold” (their premium Rose after she observed the wild success of Starbucks. house blend which they sell by the pound). She recalls saying to herself, “I think I know more I'm certain that after an initial taste of the coffee about coffee than most people. I think I can try and and the hospitality, you'll find a reason to come back start a coffee shop.” Since she only knew how to grow again and again. and sell the raw coffee beans, she had to learn the art cafekili.com
“Rose can taste a bean and tell if it is an African bean or tell you where it is from.”
Over the Moon
A Close Encounter with Buzz Aldrin Story by Leslie Joy Ickowitz ❧ Photograph courtesy of NASA
Protected by a ziplock bag tucked inside an embroidered box is one of my most treasured possessions. It measures 2” x 3.5” imprinted with the words “Rocket Hero” and features a gold foil logo illustrating the concept. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, walks on the surface of the Moon near the leg of the Lunar Module (LM) “Eagle” during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA). Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera.
The item is merely a business card but it belongs to one of my personal heroes, legendary astronaut and moonwalker Buzz Aldrin. Seven distinguished designations including Astronaut, Explorer, Lunar Ambassador, Rocket Scientist and Space Advocate are listed on the card. Dr. Aldrin handed it to me during a chance encounter at Kennedy Space Center, where I remember thinking, “This man has walked on the surface of the moon and now he’s sitting here talking to me.” I walked away feeling so lofty I thought my feet would never touch the ground. Usually, I’m not the star-struck type but there’s something about hanging out with someone who has hung out among the stars that blows me away.You could say I’m a bit of a space groupie—I’ve watched Apollo 13 at least a hundred times (even though I’m well aware of how it ends) and recently, I combined references from both Star Wars and Star Trek in the same sentence. Although he is cool enough to have Disney and Pixar’s Buzz Lightyear named for him and MTV’s Moonman modeled after him, there’s nothing sci-fi about Buzz. Dr. Aldrin is the real deal and he has his eye fixed on a future that involves sending space tourists rocketing into the sky to experience a sliver of the moon for themselves.
“A-W-E,” he says, is the emotion that most closely resembles the feeling he experienced on the moon’s surface. “One of the purposes of my ShareSpace Foundation is to share space with as many people as possible,” Dr. Aldrin asserts. In his estimation, the first lunar resort should feature, “activities that boost visitors’ common experience,” rather than competitive games. Alliances with Omega Watches, Louis Vuitton and Snoop Dogg, with whom he recorded a rap song, position Aldrin fashionably front and center, enabling him to share his passion with the public.To inspire the next generation of space explorers, he has authored two children’s books, Look to the Stars and Reaching for the Moon. Never one to shy away from the glory of technology, he also tweets on Twitter and blogs for The Huffington Post. One simple observation Dr. Aldrin shared truly applied perspective to the sheer exclusivity of his lunar excursion. “Dust behaved differently on the surface of the moon,” he said. Now honestly, how many people can say that and actually know what they are talking about?
Alan and Leslie with Buzz Aldrin at Kennedy Space Center.
Better yet, how many people have a first-hand account of how anything behaves on the surface of the moon? The same man who planted and saluted the American flag up there, and who demonstrated mobility by “prancing around and bouncing up and down” in front of the video camera. “We didn’t do it for the fun,” he says seriously. “It was a learning experience.” Aldrin’s dramatic life, including his battles with depression and alcoholism, is an open book. His memoir, Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon, provides a fascinating view of his experience both out of this world and back again.
His existence after the Apollo 11 mission was a very lonely time. His mother, Marion Moon, tragically committed suicide the year before his lunar landing. And after a hero’s welcome home here on earth, Aldrin eventually felt used up and spit out. So what frightens the man who strapped himself to a Saturn V rocket to forge the footsteps of history? “Loneliness, discouragement and disappointment,” Aldrin says. “Things that could lead me back to the very dim parts of my life of depression and alcoholism.” Sharing is at the core of Aldrin’s life-long dedication to educating, inspiring and broadening the horizons that lead to future exploration and further discoveries. His captivating stories shed light on both the triumphs and the frailties of the human experience. Despite frustrations, what impresses him most about humanity is, “the individual freedoms to have differing points of view on our experiences but then the challenge to come together for the common benefit of each of us.” These days, his journey centers around, “seeking out and sharing new experiences that cause you to think,” Aldrin says. “I marvel at the coincidental nature of chance, and of statistics. How that tempts many people to think that something was somehow destined to be. There are sudden changes of good fortune and not-so-good fortune that we have to experience that cause us to learn and to educate following generations.” After traveling 250,000 miles into outer space and 2.5 miles beneath the ocean’s surface to Titanic’s resting place on the Atlantic floor, Aldrin’s radar is locked on future adventures.The avid explorer, who admittedly, “got rather distracted by things like the moon,” visited Antarctica in 2010 and his son, a successful businessman, offered to sponsor a diving trip to the Galapagos Islands.“There’s an infinite number of locations under the ocean to explore.” “My life has been driven by certain pursuits,” Aldrin says. “Aviation was one, the military another, human space activity the next. Then I’ve chosen to share those as my ongoing purpose for the benefit of our country and the world.” Visiting with Dr. Aldrin reminded me to dream dreams, have hope and believe that anything is possible. Not long after that day, VERTICAL launched. Since then, I try to live by what I have come to believe as a direct result of my Buzz encounter:The sky is not the limit. In fact, we can reach for the stars.
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I
saw a bumper sticker the other day that read, “Little Red Riding Hood Lied.” At first it seemed like a bold statement about a beloved storybook character who is typically seen as the victim. When I thought about it a little more though, I began to understand why some animal advocates feel that wolves, bears and other forest creatures have gotten a bum rap in classic literature. Fortunately, publishing trends seem to be focusing on story mash ups, plot twists, and spinning bedtime yarns into something new. In Lisa Campbell Ernst’s Little Red Riding Hood—A Newfangled Prairie Tale, the author creates a vegetarian wolf character who is still wily and persistent, but doesn’t want to eat children—a sigh of relief for parents who would rather not provide fertile ground for nightmares when snuggling up for story time. Another great book that provides the retelling of a classic is Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson. The cover says it all with a picture of a penny loafer on the Prince’s pillow instead of a glass slipper. The alternative heroine in this story will appeal to girls without the princess fascination and boys will appreciate its humorous twists. The story portrays step-families in a slightly more positive light than the original, but hey, there has to be some semblance of a bad guy and adversity to create tension. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas puts a negative spin on the pig character in this rendition of the classic, but in the end he transforms into a friend of the wolves. My favorite title among the fairy tale revisions is Susan Lowell’s Dusty Locks and the Three Bears. Dusty is a very naughty girl who runs away from her mother at bath time. She happens into the three bears’ house wreaking all kinds of havoc.The bears are cleverly drawn and described by the author. Baby Bear is knee high to a bumblebee and Papa Bear is as cross as two sticks. In the end, Dusty finds her way home and into her bath water, a slightly better behaved little girl than before her adventure. The bears don’t even recognize her when they pass her on the street in town. In these days of renew, recycle, reuse, it seems fitting that the classic stories become new again and that the message is modernized for our times. Reach for one of these funny fairy tales the next time you read to the child in your life.You may find that you like them more than the original. Casey Brook McPhee is an avid reader who has worked in libraries for twenty years. She is torn between her love for the scent and tactile pleasure of books and the instant gratification the Amazon Kindle provides.
FLIPPING the Script On Storybooks
By Casey Brook McPhee, Director Largo Public Library
VERTICAL IS… A CELEBRATION VERTICAL IS… A MOVEMENT
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