Tim Sukits

Category: Features

  • First up in my epic journey to remote towns of the Suncoast: Arcadia

    Mar. 23, 2009

    I invite you all to join me on a journey into some of the most desolate and isolated places on the Suncoast. Just because it has a dot on the map, doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything there. But you never know unless you go. So I made the drive to find out. Here’s the first in my six-part series. Tune back in later today for episode number two.

    ARCADIA

    When coming into Arcadia on State Route 70, stop a few miles short for a gander at Bulldog Roadhouse (4313 State Route 70, 993-9989, myspace.com/bulldogsroadhouse). Have a look at some sweet Harleys and swig a cold brew, out where the bikers hang in the front. This will get you in the mindset to peruse the quaint strip of antique shops down Oak Street, Arcadia’s main drag. Arcadia is best known for its antiques, of course, but to find the really good stuff you have to drive past the strip and go talk to Jeff at The Country Mermaid (317 W. Oak St., 863-494-3697, photo at right). This shop specializes in nautical and fishing antiques; stepping into the place makes you feel like you’re on an old whaler boat. Ahoy, matey!

  • Chillounge Night 2009

    Rainer Scheer, founder and president of Chillounge Night

    Mar. 13, 2009

    You would have to try pretty hard not to feel classy at this year’s Chillounge Night. The event, which originated in Sarasota last year, is returning to Historic Palm Avenue for a night of Cointreau cocktails. Hundreds of comfy daybeds and other outdoor lounge furniture will be placed in the street by JKL Design Group. Guests will also be treated to live jazz as well as opera and tango performances and even a Brazilian Samba Parade! Piper Heidsieck will present a fashion show featuring clothes from Kelietza and Juno and Jove. Café L’Europe will provide the cuisine for the V.I.P. lounge and numerous other local restaurants will have food available. The event will benefit United Cerebral Palsy who works to help adults with severe disabilities. Come downtown to have your “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” fulfilled – on the cheap!

    Chillounge Night, Historic Palm Avenue, Downtown Sarasota, 6-11 p.m. Saturday, March 21, $15 in advance, $20 at the gate, 448-0995 or chilloungenight.com

  • (icon)cept Fashion Show at Art Center Sarasota

    Intertube top and metal drill bit shavings bottom.
    Mar. 13, 2009
    Intertube top and metal drill bit shavings bottom.

    “Art couture” might be an understatement at the upcoming (icon)cept fashion show at Art Center Sarasota. The event was created to coincide with the three-part icons & idols art show, but quickly grew into its own animal. The Art Center asked 25 artists, mostly local, to try their hand at clothing design and (surprise, surprise) they came up with some highly off-the-wall outfits.

    Lisa Berger, co-chair for the fashion show and a board member at the center, says the show was originally created to help raise money and promote the Art Center to a younger audience. “Nobody’s giving to arts organizations these days,” says Berger, “so we decided we better do something to raise awareness and bring new, fresh blood into the center — to get away from the stigma that it’s a bunch of old ladies sitting in the back painting in watercolor classes.”

    The artists who made clothes for the show were specifically invited, and Berger says the goal was to challenge them. The first idea was to have everything made from recycled goods, but Berger decided to place no limits: “The artists just took it and ran with it.” The center mixed it up with young and old, photographers, sculptors, painters and every medium between. Jeff Schwartz and David Amos made graphic Ts and pants, Art Center education director Daniel Petrov made a shower-curtain dress, Joseph Arnegger did an overhaul on an old prom dress, and many artists contributed jewelry, handbags, hats and other accessories.

    Ray Peper, owner of John Carl Salon, made 18 items in the show. “He’s been over the deep end,” says Berger. “He just had lung surgery like a month ago and he’s just been going wild. This whole thing has been a recovery for him. He made the most outrageous stuff and he’s modeling in the show too. Their group is going to be the finale.” Xuxu the drag queen (you know, from drag queen bingo) will MC the event, so you can expect the diva-est commentary around. Six restaurants will be setting up food booths and, of course, Szambelan vodka has created a special “icon-tini.”

    Berger made sure to point out that this event is ultimately to help artists. “We want to promote the artists, too. That’s what it’s all about,” she says. “We want to create awareness for the local talent we have here and showcase them. They’re having a hard time. Nobody’s buying art, so we want to get them some publicity.”

    This outrageous runway spectacle will strut through Art Center Sarasota 7-10 p.m. Thurs., March 19. Tickets are $20 for members, $30 for non-members and $15 for students. Show up in style and dress chic.

  • Townie Q&A: Local horror filmmaker Neil McCurry

    Neil Davis, director of Night Scream

    Mar. 13, 2009

    Neil McCurry is the director of Night Scream, a new vampire movie that was filmed and produced entirely in Sarasota. The film will be released as one of five shorts on a DVD titled Slices. A party celebrating the release of the disc will hit Club Phoenix Nightclub this Saturday. (See See&Do for full details.) Here’s McCurry on:

    How the movie came about:
    “About two years ago, some filmmakers, friends of mine from Los Angeles, called me and they had the idea of getting five filmmakers, all making independent films that have their own feel and flavor and story, and then bundling them all onto one DVD, but having a wraparound story to tie them all together. The reason is when you make shorts, there really is no outlet for them. So you really need to have 60-plus minutes of content if you want to have any sort of commercial viability with them. They would call the whole film Slices, which I thought was a good play on words: There’s five slices to it all and it has a horror kind of theme as well. So, the films are all completely different but they did a wraparound story of a guy who’s got insomnia and he’s sitting up at night watching each of these films. Then at the actual end of the movie somebody comes in and kills him, the guy watching them. They really did a good job with it.”

    Why he makes movies:
    “The filmmakers I did it with do it for a living. I do it because I love art. I love creating something. I don’t do it with any expectations of financial gain. I always say, ‘I don’t golf, I don’t boat. This is what I like to do as my outlet.’”

    Why a vampire movie:
    “They said, ‘Hey, what about a werewolf movie? Nobody makes them anymore.’ So Night Scream started as a werewolf movie. I started thinking about how to make a werewolf and not make it look too bad. Even though it’s low-budget you don’t want someone coming out with a rubber mask. So I started talking to a couple special effects people. I switched it to a vampire, really, because of all the creatures, some colored eyes, some fangs, some blood ­— you got a vampire.”

    —Tim Sukits

  • The 2009 Sarasota Folk Festival: Grant Peeples

    Grant Peeples
    Mar. 12, 2009
    Grant Peeples

    As we mentioned previously, The 6th Annual Sarasota Folk Festival will be a whole new show this year. It has expanded to a two-day event and is now being held at Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey. The boogie is going down March 14 and 15 and will feature 30 acts on three stages. The theme this year is “Go Green” and all the vendors have pledged to use biodegradable consumables and recycle all their waste. We had a chat with a few of the artists who will be rocking out the crowd:

    Grant Peeples

    One of many artists making the drive to play the festival, Peeples has been described as a Leftneck – a left-wing redneck – and writes politically driven songs in a traditional country style. “I come from very southern stock,” says the seventh-generation Floridian, “but environmentally, socially and politically I’m a little left-of-center. I’m a liberal with a gun.” He says his songs are mostly social commentary: “I call it ‘finger-in-your-eye’ music. I like to challenge listeners.”

    Peeples comes from a small town outside of Tallahassee called Sopchoppy: “I tell people it has two stop signs and three recording studios.” Musically, John Prine and Hank Williams are big influences, but he finds just as much inspiration in Edgar Allan Poe, Flannery O’Connor and Tennessee Williams.

    Peeples says he started writing songs at a very young age, but didn’t pick up a guitar until he was 20. “I was writing songs and trying to get people to play them and nobody would,” he says, “so I started singing them myself.” He’s cut two albums so far — the latest is titled It’s Later Than You Think. To him, it’s all about original material. “I don’t do any covers, not a one, and I don’t make up any songs. It’s stuff that happens to me; I write about stuff I see.”

  • The 2009 Sarasota Folk Festival: Al Fuller

    Al Fuller
    Mar. 11, 2009
    Al Fuller

    As we mentioned previously, The 6th Annual Sarasota Folk Festival will be a whole new show this year. It has expanded to a two-day event and is now being held at Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey. The boogie is going down March 14 and 15 and will feature 30 acts on three stages. The theme this year is “Go Green” and all the vendors have pledged to use biodegradable consumables and recycle all their waste. We had a chat with a few of the artists who will be rocking out the crowd:

    Al Fuller

    Bluesman Fuller has been playing around the area for 15 years, and this will be his fifth folk fest. “I play a lot of my own songs, but I’m kind of known for my blues stuff,” he says. “I don’t know what I’m going to play this year, but I have about 300 songs to choose from.” Fuller’s biggest influences were the great old blues guys like Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy. He grew up playing piano, but at the age of 11 his parents brought home a guitar. He was hooked.

    Fuller has released five albums. His first was a solo joint, then he produced three with a full band before returning to his solo roots with his latest all-original disc, Coming Home. “I’ve had different variations of my band over the years,” he says. The current members gather together for Al Fuller’s Blues Jam at the Five O’Clock Club every Monday night. Dude is also a full-time guitar instructor at Fogt’s music store.