Tim Sukits

Category: Health

  • The Green Issue: Life and death — from green sex toys to an eco-funeral

    Published April 14, 2010 LIFE Now, we all know how life begins. When mommy and daddy love each other very much they get it on and make a baby. But if mommy and daddy want to be green about their naughty escapades, there are a surprising number of ways to be sexually sustainable. If sex toys are your bag you should keep the environment in mind when shopping around for your dildos and vibrators. Stick with toys made from silicone, glass, metal or hard plastics, while avoiding toys containing plastic-softening chemicals like phthalates. If your toys are power tools, buy models that are rechargeable, or use rechargeable batteries to keep your little bedroom buddies humming. (more…)

  • Talking’ health care: Listening to what locals have to say about new health care legislation

    Published March 31, 2010 With all the misinformation and rumors flying around about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as the health care reform bill, we decided to hit the streets to find out what people are actually thinking about the newly passed legislation. We also went ahead and read through the bill for you to figure out what it really says, and we’re providing that information as well. What effects do you think the newly passed health care bill will have on people with pre-existing conditions? “My son has Tourette’s. It’s a pre-existing condition and it’s considered neurological. In fact, he was denied health insurance for having ADHD, not for Tourette’s. So that’s all he was denied for was a learning disability. My biggest thing about the whole bill going through and why I was happy about it is because of the pre-existing issue.” Annalise O’Brien Hometown: Sarasota Industry: construction Political affiliation: Democrat Current insurance status: self-insured Is the bill a government takeover of health care? “Not really sure.” What the bill says: Six months after enactment, insurance companies can no longer deny children based on preexisting conditions and children will be allowed to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26. Starting in 2014, they can’t deny anyone with preexisting conditions. (more…)

  • What next? Friends throw a benefit for Eddie Sager

    Published Dec. 29, 2009 CHARITY The story: A benefit called the “Kidney Koncert” is held for Eddie Sager on Nov.29 to help pay his medical bills after he was diagnosed with cancer over the summer and had no health insurance. What next? Everybody’s best friend in town, Sager is in much better shape these days, thanks to the Kidney Kincert at The Children’s Garden. Sager’s friends raised a total of $8,000 at the event, half from entry fee donations and half from the art auction that a number of local artists participated in. Sager has already spent over $3,000 to pay off previous bills and has over $4,000 in reserves to tackle his first round of follow-up tests, which go down Dec. 28. He expects the CAT scan and chest X-ray to run about seven grand, but he’s not worried. He’s felt like a new man since his urologist’s two complimentary kidney surgeries.

  • What next? A Sarasota karate instructor invents Handi-Capabale Karate

    Published Dec. 29, 2009 SPORTS The story: Shihan Donna Judge of Suncoast Karate Dojo launches Handi-Capable Karate, a DVD series thatteaches karate to the handicapped, after an Arkansas man with cerebral palsy named Jason Sasser contacted her about lessons. What next? Last month was the most encouraging month yet for Shihan Judge and her Handi-Capable Karate lessons. They sold their first six copies of the “white belt” lessons in November and Judge will be finishing up the “yellow belt” DVD over the holiday break. Sasser became the first Handi-Capable student to officially earn his yellow belt and Judge looks forward to properly promoting him over the phone when he receives his belt in the mail. After Judge was asked to be a regional coach for the American karate team in the Martial Arts World Games, she convinced the tournament board to include a handi-capable division for the first time in history.

  • Eddie Sager may not have health insurance, but he has plenty of friends, and they’re helping him fight cancer with a charity concert this Sunday

    08ae_feature_forweb1-1 Published Nov. 23, 2009   “It could have been a really ugly situation, and it’s turned into a really beautiful situation.” The Kidney Koncert: A Benefit for Eddie Sager 5-10 p.m. Sun., Nov. 29, The Children’s Garden, 1670 10th Way, Sarasota, 330-1711, $25 Six months ago Eddie Sager got home from his job taking care of plants at The Children’s Garden, then headed out to his night job as a bartender at Cork out on St. Armands. During the drive he started feeling a sharp pain in his right kidney. He tried to ignore it, and focused on setting up the bar for service, but the pain became so great he could no longer stand up. A co-worker rushed him to the hospital, where he received a battery of tests. After a painful six-hour visit, the diagnoses came back: Sager had a hernia, kidney stones in his left kidney and a tumor in his right kidney. And no health insurance. Sager moved to Sarasota in 1994 and met Joan Marie Condon his first day in town. The connection paid off: He bartended at Condon’s much-missed Rosemary District bar, The Alley Cat, for nearly a decade, and when she sold the bar to open The Children’s Garden, she offered him a job as gardener. While he loves his Children’s Garden gig and his shifts at Cork, neither offers health insurance. “I’ve had it most of my life, but I hadn’t had it for the last several years,” the 57-year-old says. “At the time I was very healthy. I was carefree and felt like I didn’t need it. But I’m getting older and I was in the process of working on it. Probably two months and I would have had something. Now I couldn’t get it. They wouldn’t cover cancer.” After the cost for that first round of tests surfaced, Sager was staring at $25,000 in medical bills. “I’d say 10 to 15 bills. Every few days a new one would come in and I was like, ‘Where did this come from?’ It took two months after that first hospital visit to get all my bills and then the final one, after I thought I was done, was the bill for $13,000.” Chris Fasching, a friend of Sager’s from back when he owned a Virginia record shop, wanted to help, and took his bills with her back to Sager’s hometown of Harrisonburg, Va. “People said, ‘What can I do?’ and she said, ‘Pick a bill.’ She passed them out among friends and the whole $25,000 was paid for. It was amazing.” Even more amazing was that Sager’s level of support from friends was matched by a complete stranger. The urologist that diagnosed his kidney cancer took a liking to good ol’ Eddie, and felt the need to perform his two kidney surgeries free of charge. “I was totally shocked, honestly,” he says. “I never knew the guy before. He just liked me. He said, ‘Eddie, it’s a pleasure working with you. You’re a BMW with parts that need work done. Your kidneys were inherited and you can’t do anything about that.’” Sager’s kidney problems were indeed inherited. His father passed away from kidney cancer at the age of 63 and those memories weighed heavily throughout Sager’s ordeal. But the love of his friends trumped all fears. “I went to see the specialist and he said it was 99.9 percent cancer. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Then the images of my father — watching him die and the pain he went through — and this could be me. All of a sudden the phone rings and it’s a really good friend from North Carolina. He said, ‘Eddie, you were on my mind and I just had to call you.’ It was the most beautiful thing. I just relaxed and said, ‘OK, everything is going to be fine.’ And then two days later two other friends called up and told me the same thing.” After three “Eddie Benefits” in Virginia and some donations and loans from generous friends, Sager is pretty much paid up. But he has to receive follow-up CAT scans and X-rays every three months for at least the next year; each round will cost roughly $10,000. And he has yet to have an operation for his hernia. He’s been out of work for three months, but has finally started back at Cork working a few nights a week. But in yet another show of kindness, Sager’s friends at Cork and The Children’s Garden have planned a benefit for Sager this Sunday called The Kidney Koncert. A number of local musicians (including, full disclosure, me) and restaurants are contributing to the effort. “It’s been amazing to see how people come together at a time when everybody’s hurting, and they still will come out and give their last penny. If I have anything left from the benefit money coming up I want to start a kidney fund. It could have been a really ugly situation, and it’s turned into a really beautiful situation.” Photo by Tim Sukits
     

  • As the Sarasota Film Society celebrates two decades of its popular annual film festival, Cine-World, we take a look at three of this weekend’s big features

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    Published Nov. 3, 2009

    A still from Delta Rising, which will be screened at Burns Court Cinemas at 5:45 p.m. Sun., Nov. 8

    Cine-World Film Festival
    Burns Court Cinemas: 506 Burns Lane, Sarasota, 1-10 p.m. Nov. 6-12; Lakewood Ranch Cinemas, 10715 Rodeo Drive, Lakewood Ranch, 7:45-10 p.m. Nov. 7-12; 955-3456 or filmsociety.org.

    The Sarasota Film Festival has become a sizable event in the movie-making industry and our city loves its brief time in the spotlight each spring. But in the off-season, another festival has been entertaining our film-feinding citizenry for the past two decades: Cine-World.

    This year’s edition features an impressive list of domestic, foreign and documentary films, screened at Sarasota Film Society’s Burns Court and Lakewood Ranch Cinemas. The Film Society continues its tradition of bringing in top-notch independent movies filled with big-name actors from countries all over the world, and mixing in local flicks and smaller projects that made it happen without the Hollywood budget. This year’s Cine-World selections reveal the many tiers of film production, and prove that no matter what kind of money, talent or location you’re working with, it all comes down to passion. We spoke with the directors from three of the festival’s films to get a glimpse into their process. (And don’t forget, we’re giving away to “Black Passes” to the festival.)

    Special O’Laughics
    Burns Court: 3:30 p.m. Sat., Nov. 7

    Sarasota filmmaker Ken Sons filmed Special O’Laughics at McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre. The movie highlights club owner Les McCurdy and his work with a group of mentally challenged adults trying to fulfill their dream of becoming stand-up comedians. McCurdy got the idea to start a comedy class for mentally handicapped people after a character in the film, Greg Bates, started showing up to perform at some of his amateur nights. At first McCurdy thought Bates was just quirky, but when he realized Bates actually had a mental condition, he saw it as a calling to do some good.

    Sons and McCurdy have been friends since childhood, and have performed as a comedy duo for the past 24 years. So when McCurdy thought they should make a documentary about his new comedy classes, Sons jumped on board. “It was a great experience for us personally,” says Sons. “We didn’t know what it was going to end up being, but they just got better and better and really blossomed. And it was great to have my best buddy in the lead role.”

    McCurdy may play the lead, but the stars of the show are his students. It’s inspiring to watch how these people with disabilities are able to overcome their insecurities little by little each class. In the beginning they are very timid and quiet. McCurdy goes around the room asking each member to tell a joke, and it’s hard to imagine some of them performing, let alone delivering a complete comedy routine. But by the end they are all on stage in front of a packed house, hamming it up like pros.

    “For us the biggest thing was the final performance,” says Sons. “They all went higher than anything we had seen to that date. Each class they were getting more comfortable with themselves, but the night of the show they all rose to the occasion and far exceeded anything we could have imagined. It’s been a really uplifting story to see them experience these lofty goals.”

    Delta Rising
    Burns Court: 5:45 p.m. Sun., Nov. 8

    The documentary Delta Rising focuses on the impact that blues music from the Mississippi Delta had, and still has, on history and culture. The film revolves around the small town of Clarksdale, Miss., where blues legends such as Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker developed a sound that would ultimately change the course of popular music. The movie, co-directed by Michael Afendakis and Laura Bernieri, introduces some of the memorable characters that make up the modern Clarksdale blues scene.

    The project began seven years ago when Afendakis started making a documentary about a San Francisco blues musician named Chris Cotton, who was embarking on a musical pilgrimage to Clarksdale. “We really picked up on this vibe going on,” says Afendakis. “We found out that Morgan Freeman owns a club there called Ground Zero. So I spent a year tracking him down. That Morgan Freeman interview just led to the whole thing. He is so ingrained in that community.” When Bernieri heard about the project she jumped off a feature film she was working on to join the effort. “I was scouting in Clarksdale on a different project and Michael had put together an hour-long piece on Chris Cotton,” she says. “I told him we should cut out 50 minutes of Cotton and add in the Ground Zero stuff. We decided to make it more about the evolution of the music and where it is now.”

    The film showcases a number of lovable personalities: Willie Nelson, James Montgomery, Jimbo Mathus, Ruby Wilson, Pinetop Perkins, James “Super Chikan” Johnson and other blues greats who tell stories that bring home the real spirit of the Delta. “I had never wanted to go to Mississippi but it really opened my eyes,” says Afendakis, “just meeting those musicians and hearing about these amazing lives they led. They were picking cotton and blues was just part of their lives.” Bernieri says the goal was to show people where the true origin of modern music came from. “We had Pinetop Perkins and Honeyboy Edwards on there, who are both in their 90s. They’re considered some of the last original bluesmen. They were the roots music. It started with black people and that translated into rock and roll, and the black music went into soul, which led into rap. So we wanted to give people an idea of the roots of music.”

    Looking for Palladin
    Burns Court: 3:15 p.m. Fri., Nov. 6 and 8 p.m. Mon., Nov. 9; Lakewood Ranch: 7:45 p.m. Wed., Nov. 11

    Looking for Palladin is a feature film by director Andrzej Krakowski about an arrogant young Hollywood agent named Josh Ross (David Moscow) who travels to Guatemala to offer a million-dollar movie role to Jack Palladin (Ben Gazzara), a two-time Oscar-winning actor and the former husband of Ross’ late mother. Ross expects the trip to be quick and painless, but locating Palladin is a feat, and getting him to accept his offer even more so. The encounter ends up becoming a soul-searching journey for both characters.

    Krakowski spent four months in Guatemala working on the film: “You’re fighting two stereotypes,” he says. “One is the ugly American and the other is the movie industry.” The Guatemalan government was hesitant at first due to money issues, but Krakowski assured them their cooperation was more important than any funding. “What our film did for Guatemala is amazing. They wanted to open Guatemala for film production, but they had no infrastructure. So we put together their first insurance program and the actual film infrastructure and the government funding… It was like a dream. Until you go there you don’t have an idea. The way the U.S, media presents it, Americans remember a junta in Guatemala. They don’t realize it has been a stable democracy for the past 20 years.”

    Assembling the multinational cast and crew was challenging, but experience paid off. “In terms of the actors, I knew that Ben would be perfect for this role. He’s an icon. I mean this is the guy that played Stanley Kowalski on Broadway before Marlon Brando took it over. In terms of the crew we decided that it should be a Guatemalan project. I learned a long time ago that if you are shooting in a foreign country you want to get as many local people as possible because they know where everything is at.”

    Krakowski’s main goal with the film was bringing generational issues to light. “The ability of self-analysis has been lost on us. It’s never our own fault. Our generation was all about being free, but the freedom got to us and in the process it has destroyed the structure of the family. That’s why this film is so important for us. It’s a social statement about how we screw up as parents and as children and as human beings. Let’s face it — it’s our own fault.”