• Issue Archive for
  • Nov 11-17, 2009
  • Vol. 22, No. 35

News & Views

  • Straight Dope

    • How did the states establish long straight borders before GPS?

    The lines aren't always nice and even. Study a U.S. atlas and you'll find many supposedly straight boundaries with slants and zigzags in them, the work of surveyors who were, and it pains me to say this, borderline incompetent. Still, the remarkable thing isn't how often the surveyors screwed up but how often they didn't. You never know when we might be called on to lay out another virgin continent, and Lord knows you can't always count on modern technology. So here's a primer on the old-fashioned way to draw a straight line on a bumpy planet.
  • Poet's Notebook

    • War stories

    In the summer of 2003, Jeanne and I took a cruise along the Neva and Volga Rivers, between St. Petersburg and Moscow, celebrating the symmetrical birthdays of our St. Pete (100th) and Russia's (300th). In St. Petersburg, I recited some poems, with translator and poet Ilya Foniakov, on a midnight poetry call-in radio program. What a country! I thought, when the calls started pouring in, many of them seemingly sober. (The only Russian I know is Nastrovya!, said before downing a vodka.)

Music

  • Features

    • What's next for Jannus Landing?

    "This didn't have to happen," says Rob Douglas, his 6-foot-4 frame slouched on a sofa in his south St. Pete condo, his raspy voice weary and tinged with bitterness. He's a linchpin of the St. Petersburg concert scene, his tenure as a promoter, venue operator and production manager dating back to the early '80s, when shows were put on by enterprising locals rather than megacorporations. He spent 25 years working at Jannus Landing, one of the Bay area's most beloved concert venues, until August when he severed ties with the downtown St. Pete institution. Douglas, 54, had reached the end of his tether with then-owner Jack Bodziak. "Even with the wreckage of the economy, we could have survived this," Douglas says. "It was due to piss-poor stewardship."

A&E

  • Theater

    • Smart new improv show The Dumb Show is a welcome monthly addition to American Stage

    Good improv requires a lot more than acting talent. It requires intelligence, a wide-ranging imagination, split-second decision-making and an unfailing instinct for what's comic in the human condition. Where Gavin Hawk and Ricky Wayne of The Dumb Show are concerned, it also means the willingness to appear utterly ridiculous in front of a crowdful of strangers. Whether impersonating Britney Spears trying to make up with Kevin Federline, a sadistic father and his horrified son playing racquetball, or two U.S. Airway pilots overshooting their destination by several hundred miles, Hawk and Wayne repeatedly aim for the dangerous heights — or is it depths? — of vulnerability, absurdity, insanity and just plain silliness. They're not always successful, but at their best they find more humor in their unscripted hijinks than most actors ever find in the most celebrated of comic texts. If you love to laugh, you ought to give them a look.

Food & Drink

Movies & TV

Blogs

  • Daily Loaf

    • Alex Sink says Florida ban on gay adoption has got to go

    For the reticent Sink, getting the LGBT crowd to enthusiastically support her candidacy can only be a boost; As the Herald reports, top GOP opponent Bill McCollum's Attorney General's office is defending the state's ban on gay adoption in a current court case that many analysts expect to see the Florida Supreme Court weigh in on.

© 2013 SouthComm, Inc.
Powered by Foundation

Web Analytics