Published March 17, 2010
KROAKY’S KARAOKE
Kroaky’s Karaoke, 4400 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 926-3434 or kroakys.com.
If you haven’t yet realized, Sarasota loves it some karaoke. But there’s only one place in town where you can get your fix seven nights a week. Kroaky’s lets you rent out a room with your friends and pick the songs and singers yourself. The duet combinations are endless — just don’t hog the mic.
CABANA INN & LOUNGE
Cabana Inn & Lounge, 2525 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 955-0195 or opensarasota.com, Thurs. and Sun.
Cabana has one of the most popular and varied karaoke nights in town. You can expect to hear anything from ’60s folk to ’80s electronic to Kings of Leon. This is just as good a place as any to break out the Journey, so don’t stop believin’. (more…)
Category: Features
-
ShamWow: How Shamrock owner Derek Anderson is helping turn around east Ringling Boulevard
Published March 10, 2010
St. Patrick’s Day Block Party
Starts at 9 a.m. Wed., March 17, The Shamrock, 2257 Ringling Blvd., Sarasota, 952-1730 orfacebook.com/shamrockpub, free.
Head east on Ringling Boulevard and look to your left: You may spot a lonely hole-in-the-wall Irish pub with a green Volkswagon bus parked in the front. Iconic Sarasota watering hole The Shamrock has sat at this location since 1988. It’s a great spot to grab a quality craft beer, chat with some friendly bartenders and even catch a local live original band. But three short years ago, the pub served a vastly different scene.
“It was basically a hangout for the homeless,†says neighbor Cristy Owen of Cristy’s Custom Sewing. “The smell coming out of it was God-awful. You couldn’t even walk by the door. It still smells like a bar but it’s much cleaner. … It’s not like people sleeping in the back and getting drunk and passing out so I can’t get in my back door in the morning.†(more…) -
Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences teams with ShelterBox USA to help Haiti
Published March 3, 2010
Last Thursday the entire student body at Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences left their final class of the day 10 minutes early to send text messages. The kids were stoked, especially because cell phones normally must be kept in lockers during school hours. Seconds after the announcement came out over the P.A. the halls were filled with excited sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders scampering out to the athletic field for the school’s first Tents2Haiti.com text-a-thon. (First reported by the Observer’s Loren Mayo.)
After the devastating earthquake in Haiti last month, SSA+S’s Service Learning Club sprung into action, collecting blankets and medical supplies as part of their participation in the Red Robin Foundation’s U-ACT Program, an initiative designed specifically for junior high students aimed at inspiring random acts of kindness. SSA+S Art Director David Carr saw a big opportunity for the U-ACT team in modern technology. “My main focus was to get the kids to start the chain,†says Carr. “I specifically told the kids you can text it to as many people as you want, but when you go to that website you’re going to need a credit card to pay. It starts with the kids, it gets to the adults, then the adults start doing it. Once they see what it is I don’t see why they wouldn’t — out of all consciousness — just pass it on.†(more…) -
Making its case: How Mattison’s City Grille convinced the Sarasota City Commission to change its tune on downtown outdoor live music
Published February 17, 2010 Since the Downtown Partnership asked Paul Mattison to open his outdoor dining venue on the corner of Lemon Avenue and Main Street seven years ago, Mattison’s City Grille let live bands play until 11 p.m. during the week and midnight on weekends. The restaurant had received a half-dozen or so sporadic noise complaints over the years, but the city never took action. Which it could have, since city code states that the cutoff time for live music at a non-enclosed structure is 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends. When an anonymous noise complaint targeted Mattison’s in early November 2009, though, the Sarasota Police Department intervened, delivering a blow to the business’ bottom line. “We’ve been there for seven years and we’ve always done those hours and we never had an issue,†says Mattison. “Then out of the blue we got this one complaint and they were on us like white on rice.†The move had such a negative effect on business that Mattison felt the need to go before the City Commission to make his case for a legal extension of the cutoff time. “The other thing that I tried to get them to do, but they didn’t, is that you can’t complain anonymously,†he says. “It could be a former competitor. It could be anybody. … That’s the most frustrating part. You want to be able to pick up the phone and say, ‘Let’s talk about it.’†(more…) -
Online organizing: Music Scene and Be Seen launches a new website in an effort to unify supporters of original live music
Published February 17, 2010 If you turn your FM dial to WSLR 96.5 from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoons you will hear a pair of radio personalities that have become Sarasota’s biggest voices against unfair noise regulations. Terry “T-Bone†Rhodes and his sidekick, Chris “Quazi†Young, invite guests onto their community radio show, Music Scene and Be Seen, each week to listen to some local original music and hammer on the area noise ordinances, even more so recently with guests from the upcoming Noise Ordinance CD. “Quaz and I are the rebels of the radio station,†says Rhodes. “They say, ‘You’re talking about the noise ordinance again?’ And we say, ‘Yeah, it’s our pet peeve.’†While the radio show has been running for nine months, Rhodes says the idea came much sooner. He had developed a business plan in 2006 that included both radio and TV shows along with a website, all focusing on the Suncoast original music scene and the venues that support it. “Way back then I was talking about the noise ordinance,†he says. “When I got here I was so disappointed that people accepted the same cover crap. I was expecting this vibrant original scene.†(more…) -
Why a Sarasota painter removed a non-nude painting from a Sarasota Orchestra gallery (Corrected)
Published February 10, 2010 I’ll Be Seeing You Runs through Feb. 11, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Fri., Sarasota Orchestra’s Harmony Gallery, Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center, 709 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 953-4252 or sarasotaorchestra.org; Pablo Rodriguez’s next exhibit, featuring “Modern Venus†and works from recycled materials, runs Feb. 20-26 at Art Uptown, 1367 Main St., Sarasota, 955-5409 or artuptown.com, pablorodriguezmedina.com. “It was like an invitation to a date,†says Sarasota artist Pablo Rodriguez of his painting, “Modern Venus,†which he installed in early January in the Sarasota Orchestra’s Harmony Gallery as part of his exhibit, I’ll Be Seeing You. “This piece was supposed to be the centerpiece of the whole thing. It was a pretty big piece and in the Harmony Gallery that was the thing that was drawing your eye.†The piece hung uninterrupted for over two weeks after the exhibit opened on Jan. 12, but three mothers with children in the Sarasota youth orchestra deemed “Venus†too racy for their children’s innocent eyes and filed one formal and two informal complaints. (more…)