Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

36, of Longwood, Fla.

assigned to the 3rd Battalion Support Company, 20th Special Forces Group, Camp Blanding, Fla.; died Dec. 5 at Landstuhl Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries sustained Dec. 3 in Taji, Iraq, from enemy indirect fire while conducting an escort mission.

what is this?

La Vie en Rose

(PG-13; 140 minutes; in French with English subtitles)

“I don’t get the Americans, and they don’t get me.” That’s how legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf explained her not-so-hot reception when she toured the States in the late 1950s.

“La Vie en Rose,” named for Piaf’s most famous composition, won’t do much to change that. Although she was a beloved cultural icon in her homeland, Piaf (a stage name that means “sparrow”) remains an obscure pop music figure elsewhere.

Her life story isn’t that much different from many other tragic talents. She had a miserable, lonely, impoverished childhood, from which she escaped by singing for her supper and being discovered. She then plunged into the typical maelstrom of heavy drinking, hard drugs and sour romances.

But she had a magnificently distinctive voice, and it’s the real Piaf who fills the soundtrack of this tear-soaked bio-pic.

The main reason to see it — aside from curiosity about the Piaf phenomenon – is the performance of Marion Cotillard. This astonishing actress portrays the troubled star from her late teens until her final years — she died at 47 but according to the film she looked about 70 by then.

Cotillard’s impeccable impersonation captures Piaf’s waifish charm that deteriorated as she sunk into paranoia, depression and physical illness. Her lip-syncing is perfect, and she conveys the singer’s spritely but compulsive personality with unexpected power.

The conventions of the star-biography are observed faithfully here, but the central performance makes it stand out anyway. Cotillard might be in line for awards at the end of the year, and we give this film a B+.

More movie fun at BobRossMovies.com

Vitale Design Syndicate is hosting a reception, open to the public, at 2200 1st Ave South, St. Petersburg, Saturday, June 30 at 7 PM.

Home owners and commercial clients are invited to examine a new fusion of art and construction. Brothers John and Joey Vitale will help guests explore creative expression through building, interior design, kinetics, custom furniture and fine art commissions.

“So much of our creative work has focused on independent fine art, but the commercial work has been our bread and butter,” says Vitale. “After putting so many shows together, we realized we have this passionate group of fine artists and large-scale contractors. It’s time to merge the two.”

Design installations and fine artwork from the Vitale Gallery will be displayed. Complimentary light beverages and entertainment will be provided until midnight.

Ratatouille

(G; 109 minutes)

As much as we dislike real-life rodents, that’s how much we seem to like them in movies. Think of Mickey Mouse, Mighty Mouse, The Great Mouse Detective or Rizzo the Rat on “The Muppet Show.”

But a street-rat gourmet? A cheese-stealing vermin who fancies himself a potential great chef?

It’s so goofy that it works.

“Ratatouille” does more than teach us how to spell an impossible French word for vegetable stew. It combines Pixar’s state of the art animation with director Brad Bird’s wondrous storytelling imagination. Set mainly in one of the great Parisian kitchens, this fanciful epicurean comedy turns an unpleasant premise – a rat touching human fare — into a fable about accepting every person or critter for his or her abilities, regardless of appearance, size or species.

The visuals are dazzling, the characters clever and the voice actors perfectly matched to their computer-generated images. Peter O’Toole, as the ultimate snobbish critic, steals the vocal show, while the kitchen sequences are wondrously realistic (except for the gourmet rat) but also vividly inventive.

Sure, it’s a silly story. So what? The jokes are plentiful and clean. And you may think twice the next time you want to call someone a rat.

“Ratatouille” gets a big B+.

Find more Bob Ross at BobRossMovies.com

21 of Miami

assigned to the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.; died Dec. 4 of injuries sustained from small arms fire while conducting security and observation operations in Ramadi, Iraq. Also killed was Pfc. Albert M. Nelson.

what is this?

It seems like just yesterday, Pam Iorio was creating new departments such as the Department for Arts and Cultural Affairs. Oh wait - that was back in 2003 and ‘04. Yesterday she was buying Trump Tower. Today she was laying people off. Like the first hire for that department, Manager Paul Wilborn.

Alas, the Department for Arts and Cultural Affairs (DfAaCA - say it with me: de-FA-ah-ka) had a good run. Why, DfAaCA was responsible for…

uh…

Let’s see…

um…

I’m sure DfAaCA did something over the last 4 years…

Art… Art.. THINK… Oh yeah - The art museum.

They built a new Tampa Museum of Art. They moved the Tampa Museum of Art to an old courthouse. They moved the Tampa Museum to the Big Dice next to the Beer Can. Something might happen regarding the Tampa Museum of Art. Of course there is much more art than the cool stuff at the museum.

For instance, there are artsy gardens, such as Kiley Park. Oooops. The city allowed architecturally important Kiley Gardens to disintegrate, then chopped down all the trees. But I don’t think DfAaCA did that.

Here we go… I think DfAaCA created the photographer laureate program. I’m pretty sure DfAaCA helped to coordinate a downtown light show, best seen from a dark, scary, empty park shrouded in darkness* - look out for the muggers! And of course, the DfAaCA was responsible for the big Badonkadonk art festival.

Oh - and MUSIC! Of course. What the DfAaCA did for my favorite kinds of artists, musicians? Let’s see… There are still no local artists CD’s playing in the elevators at City Hall, or on the telephone hold music. I don’t recall any big DfAaCA music festival in town. And live music is damn near outlawed in Ybor City.

Oh - that reminds me - as of today, it has now been 365 days since I received my Ybor City NOISE METER WARNING. No more Lip-Syncing for me - tomorrow night we’re gonna use VOCALS! F#rget the cops! JGLB at Blue Shark Ybor - be there!

Where was I? Oh.. the end of DfAaCA. We’ll miss DfAaCA. Alot.

*Curtis Hixon Park still has more than half the lights out. 3 years and counting (but now we’re in a budget crunch - may as well forget about it).

Florida has been known to produce a prodigious amount of football talent but for the first time ever, four players from Florida schools will be drafted in the first round tonight (although much to Tommy’s chagrin none of these players will be from USF). For now we will conveniently overlook the question of whether or not Florida’s universities can maintain both high quality basketball AND football programs, and instead take a closer look at the players who will be drafted tonight.

Al Horford: The most underrated player from Florida’s Oh-Fours, Horford was the backbone of the Gators team. When Horford was injured at the beginning of the season the Gators struggled, including racking up a loss to FSU. Additionally, when the Gators needed a basket they got the ball down low to Horford and cleared out to let Horford beat his man one-on-one, which he almost always did. Horford has all the tools to be an all-star power forward along the lines of Carlos Boozer and Zach Randolph. Horford is almost certainly a lock to go third overall to Atlanta but will not drop beyond fifth.

Corey Brewer: The depth of this draft is in its forwards, with a special abundance of T-Mac/LeBron-style point forward hybrids. When we look back at this draft in five years we will be amazed at the number of quality small forwards it produced. Durant, Brewer, Jeff Green, Al Thornton, Julian Wright and Thaddeus Young all have the potential to be stars in the NBA, and with the exception of Young all these players have already proven themselves on the college level. The biggest knock on Brewer has been that he didn’t put up the best stats at Florida which can quickly be explained away by the fact that Brewer often deferred to his talented teammates. The best NBA comparison I’ve seen of Brewer is Shawn Marion, an all star who can do a little of everything while fitting into the team. Brewer could go fourth overall to Memphis and no lower than seventh to Minnesota.

Joakim Noah: My favorite player from the Oh Fours Noah has been the most polarizing player in college basketball, you either love him or hate him. Due to Noah’s personality and energetic style of play most sportswriters and talking heads considered Noah to be the Gators best player at the beginning of the season. Much like Paris Hilton, Noah’s constant pleas for attention have been rewarded by a sports media all to ready to sniff his jock. What most people overlooked is that it was often Horford, not Noah, that guarded the best bigman. That being written Noah has almost all the skills a team looks for in a big man, he can block, rebound and pass the ball. His offense needs to be improved (he has one of the ugliest shots in college basketball) but Noah will still go somewhere between fourth and ninth overall.

Al Thornton: The most overlooked player in Florida, Thornton is also the most sure thing of the above named players. The Florida Oh-Fours have had the benefit of playing with other extremely talented players while Thornton has been stuck on a lousy FSU team. Thornton’s coming out party was a year ago against an 8th ranked Duke team when Thornton single-handedly beat the Blue Devils with 37 points and 15 points. Thornton reminds me the most (and this may be blasphemy) of Kobe Bryant, a player who can launch his shot from anywhere on the court against any defender. Thornton could go as high as ten to Sacramento or as low as fifteen.

Taurean Green: EDSBS had the best description of the Gators point guard, as a random event generator. With Green you could never be sure what he would do, would he make an ankle breaking crossover drive to the basket or trip over his own feet and turn the ball over? Throw in Green’s height (only 6 feet) and the fourth Oh-Four is likely to be drafted early in the second round. He would probably go lower but the weak point guard class will lift his draft stock.

Update 3:20pm Clarifications and corrections - strike the deletions, new text is bolded.

Mayor Pam Iorio just announced the expected City of Tampa layoffs in response to recent budget cuts. Here are the raw numbers:

219 employees full time positions including 120 existing employees and 99 open positions including:
1 Director
4 Deputy Directors (including the recently retired Fred Hearns - he will not be replaced)
6 managers
24 supervisors
26 professionals

From the public safety area, Iorio says 47 will be layed laid off from the Police Department, including 13 sworn officers. Also, 14 will be let go from the Fire Department.

More info as it comes.