Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

It’s hard to write a post about Choxotica, a new chocolate store on Dale Mabry and Ehrlich, without it turning into a love letter. The small store sells exotic chocolate bars from all over the world and offers a small cafe setting to enjoy the above mentioned bars with chocolate drinks so strong they should carry a warning.

I’m not too proud to mention my chocolate addiction. Out of all the addictions to have, chocolate’s one of the most tame. I’ve been known to hide Mounds bars in my office at work and buy a Hershey’s bar on the way home. But, these are mass produced chocolates diluted with wax and milk. The chocolate offered at Choxotica is pure chocolate art.

The truth is, Choxotica isn’t for the casual chocolate consumer. At $5 or more for drinks and bars, it’s a store made for real chocoholics. The kind who look at percentages and prefer their chocolate imported from obscure countries with hard to pronounce names. Sure, there are white (blasphemy) and milk chocolate bars on sale next to the rest. But, the real draw is the store’s selection of real, dark chocolates from all over the world.

Have you ever wondered what chocolate would taste like with curry and coconut? They have a bar for you. (In fact, it’s my favorite and always out of stock.)

Has the organic craze hit you yet? You can buy an organic stone ground bar in a plain brown wrapper. There are chocolates with pepper, chocolates with ginger, chocolates with nuts. Basically anything you can imagine dipped in chocolate is offered, even in the drinks, which are created by melting chocolate in a saucepan and pouring fresh milk or filtered water over the hot liquid bliss.

Curry and coconut doesn’t translate as well in their iced drink, but hazelnut and coconut is a winner when added to iced chocolate milk. And, their Mud Shake tastes just like an ice cream bar. They even offer a Wasabi Ginger hot chocolate for the brave of heart.

They also offer an email list with coupons they send out for special promotions, which makes the price a little easier to bear.

In short, Choxotica is an oasis for chocolate lovers who are tired of the fare offered in drugstores and supermarkets. But, if you don’t get the urge to bite into a few ounces of a high quality, bittersweet confection every once in a while, Choxotica isn’t for you.

The current exhibition at the Dali Museum covers the topic of women, a topic any women’s studies major can tell you is more complicated than you would think.

The exhibition features Dali’s images of women, and there are plenty of special events designed to help explain the issues inherent in a study of gender issues. There are also going to be a number of films shown as part of the Dali & Beyond film series that focus on a female bent.

Here’s a breakdown of the upcoming events associated with Women: Dali’s View. You can find more information on the Dali Museum website.

Friday June 20 8pm
Irritable Tribe of Poets: “Dalí and the Women” – Spoken Word Concert
Spoken word, irritable poets, and improvational music.

Tuesday June 24:
Wine & Song XI - Poetry and Wine Tasting Series
If you don’t already have your tickets to this event, you might be out of luck. The website says the tastng sells out quickly. But, it’s a wine tasting mixed with poetry, and I’m sure, intelligent discussions about art and Dali.

Wednesday July 2:
Coffee with a Curator
Peter Tosh will guide a tour of the exhibit, with coffee and refreshments included in admission.

Thursday July 3
Dalí & Beyond Film Series
Lena Wertmüller’s Swept Away
Movie is included with admission to the museum, and there is a special $5 admission on Thursdays after 5 p.m.

These are only the events occurring in the next few weeks, so if you love museums, art, or Dali, check the Salvador Dali Museum site to keep updated on the latest happenings.

I had an opportunity Saturday to attend an Anonymous vs. Scientology protest in Clearwater. For those readers who aren’t familiar with the string of global protests occurring in the last few months, here’s a quick primer:

Anonymous is a loosely organized group of people from the internet who are protesting what they believe are Scientology’s human rights violations. Anonymous members also believe Scientology is run like a business and therefore shouldn’t qualify as a church for governmental purposes.

The church’s spokespeople have said Anonymous is a group of cyber terrorists and only one member stepping out of line could cause a religious war. They consider Anonymous to be more or less a group of religious bigots trying to take away Scientology members’ constitutional rights.

Tied in to all this is a video of Tom Cruise talking about the church, lawsuits, bomb scares and veiled threats from both sides. Type the phrase “Anonymous vs. Scientology” into any search engine, and you’ll come up with results ranging from pictures of protests to newspaper articles to YouTube videos. Anonymous has a large base of net savvy members to create content; one of the more publicized sites is Xenu.net, home of Operation Clambake. The church relies on spokespeople to release statements to the press when trouble arises and directs people to Scientology.org to learn more about the church and claim Anonymous is a terrorist organization in Anonymous Exposed, a documentary available online.

Anonymous organized a full day of activities Saturday, from ex-Scientologists speaking out about the church to pizza and cake at Coachman Park. I arrived around 2 p.m., just in time to watch the picketing and speak with a few Anonymous members. On an interesting side note, the street leading to Coachman Park was blocked off, which protesters assured me was a common tactic Scientologists use against them.

Anonymous members were constantly on the move during the protest, because it is illegal to block Clearwater sidewalks. They carried signs with slogans like “Religion is Free, Scientology Isn’t” and chanted as individuals and a group. At least one protester told various people “Don’t worry, we’re from the internet.”

Many picketers wore masks or bandanas across their faces, because they said they were afraid of Scientology’s retaliation. The crowd was composed largely of college-aged men and women in their late teens to mid 20s, with a few older protesters scattered among them. As a whole, they seemed to have a healthy sense of humor; one of the publicized goals of their campaign is to make the world laugh at Scientology.

Protesters were quick to point out that they weren’t protesting Scientology as a religion but were instead protesting the leaders who dictate church rules, practices and doctrine. The practice they focused on Saturday was “disconnect,” a practice Anonymous says the church uses to separate families.

Pat Harney, a Scientology spokeswoman, emailed me a prepared statement that says in part:

The Church encourages and helps its members to have excellent family relationships, whether their relatives are Scientologists or not. In fact, relationships between a Scientologist and the rest of his family routinely improve after his involvement in Scientology, because through Scientology one acquires the means to increase communication and resolve any problems that might have existed before.

Over the phone, Harney assured me that Scientology builds connections between families instead of destroying them and reiterated that she was worried a few Anonymous members might take matters into their own hands and ignore directives for peaceful protest by group organizers. She stated that the church has received bomb threats, death threats and harassing phone calls over the last few months and will not stand idly by if it comes under attack.

The statement she provided also says

For the past 3 months, members of Anonymous have been conducting a hate campaign against Scientology churches and their members.

Behind their self-serving statements, they are perpetuating criminal acts.

Why this matters to Tampa residents:

The future is here, and it’s right in our own backyard. The group Anonymous is an internet based group that has no real leaders and no central organization. It is a group of individuals who will do whatever they can to achieve a common goal. While the number of protesters in Clearwater has gone down with each protest, they still drew in approximately 170 people from across the state on Saturday. Take into account this was a global protest, and the numbers jump exponentially.

Some members are looking into nonprofit status for the group and are starting an advertising campaign. Often, members who are in constant contact with each other online do not know the identities of their comrades in real life.

Also, Scientology has some major resources at its disposal. They aren’t afraid of getting their legal team and the police involved when problems arise and are adamant about protecting their rights and members.

Both sides have their own PR campaign to paint the other side as ugly as possible. And, because Anonymous has no central authority to call a halt to the campaign against the church, it could potentially go on forever.

Since protesters are anonymous and loosely affiliated, the church can work to stop individuals who break the law, whether it be through vandalism or threats, but they can’t do anything against the group as a whole.

What happens with Anonymous now could influence the way groups organize well into the future.

I was fully prepared to write a post extolling the virtues of Megacon and listing the one-stop-shopping convention as the best option for nerdy fans of gaming, anime, comics, and sci-fi for another year. The truth is when I got to the con, I realized I enjoyed FX more than I enjoyed Megacon this year.

FX International offered up bigger stars, was less crowded, and had a congenial staff. Katie Jarvinen, the general manager of the con, personally worked with me to get me what I needed, smoothed out issues over the phone and through email, and was always polite and helpful, even when she was busy with keeping celebrities happy at the event’s autograph alley. I felt like a valued guest of the event.

From Megacon, I received one generic email.

While FX was centralized, Megacon was spread out over two floors. And then, there were the scheduling conflicts.

I joined up with One World by Night, a Live Action Roleplay group I’m a member of. In the convention program, the group was scheduled until 1:30 a.m. all three nights of the con. Before midnight on Friday, we had security guards telling us to leave, even after we showed them our scheduled time in the event’s official booklet. Saturday was worse, with a security guard asking if we were in a seance and having a party and then readjusting our lighting to full bright before 11 p.m. Anyone who’s LARPed or table topped before will understand why some angry members who traveled across the country to attend Mega just to game asked for their money back. For everyone else, imagine a security guard turning on the lights during a play or movie and asking the audience why they’re all sitting around.

There were also problems securing passes for game staff and the expected annoyance of paying $6-$10 for a day’s worth of parking. Fortunately, myself and others staying at the Days Inn across the street could walk to the convention center in around 10 minutes. Note to anyone attending a conference or convention at the Orange County Convention Center: the Days Inn is a good choice for a price that shouldn’t eat your wallet.

For me, there were three highlights to the con. There was a miniature game piece painting room, which offered up free classes and free miniatures to paint for different games. I spent at least an hour painting a tiny warrior woman brandishing a pair of swords. There were also a number of people carrying around ball-jointed dolls (china dolls that can be posed and which can cost thousands of dollars when fully painted and accessorized). I even got to hold one, realizing they’re much creepier in person. There were also belly dancing lessons and performances throughout the day. I’m not sure how they fit into the overall theme of the event, but they were fun.

There are more cons coming up this year. Here’s a brief rundown of those closest to us.

Jacon

This is a 24-hour anime con in Orlando. Their guest of honor is Tara Strong and features anime related attractions, from artists to musical guests. They have some guest related info up, but the site’s a little sparse on details.

Oasis 21

Authors and artists will be on hand for the Orlando Area’s Science Fiction Society’s convention. The con runs May 23-25 and has David Gerrold and Paul Vincenti as guests of honor. Their website has a full listing of guests and events.

Metrocon

Tampa’s anime convention is being held July 18-20 at the Tampa Convention Center. Expect a bunch of otaku (hard-core anime fans) in costume. There are also costume contests, a human chess match, a masquerade, and a host of other visual draws. Check out the Metrocon site for more info.

Necronomicon

Necronomicon has had some problems in the past, partly because of rowdy con attendants and overflow from Guavaween. This year, the horror party is going to be at the downtown St. Pete Hilton Oct. 10-12. I’ve always liked Necro for not overlooking literature, as other cons usually do. This year the guests of honor are Frederick Pohl, Julie E. Czerneda, and Rick Wilber (who, for reasons of disclosure, is a former professor of mine.) Necro is another RPG friendly con. Necro’s site has a few tidbits about this year’s events.

Screamfest

Screamfest is another horror fest in October, but this one’s in Orlando. It runs from Oct. 17-19 and has a line up of film festivals and bands as well as stars and writers in attendance. The site doesn’t have much info yet, but if you’re interested bookmark it and check it out in a few months.

FX 2009

Yes, next year’s FX in Orlando is already in the works. The website already has a few juicy tidbits about next year (including info about a poker game where comic book professionals raise money for a good cause) but won’t be up in its full glory for at least a few months.

The Vitale brothers are holding the grand opening of their new gallery on Saturday. Expect free food, drinks, and admission to a night of fashion, music, and artistic display.

I promised not to reveal any spoilers, but I can say this: the new St. Pete location is going to highlight a melding of high-brow and commercial art that should appeal to connoisseurs and 20-somethings looking for a hip place to party. The gallery space has a flexibility that lends itself to a variety of shows and performances, while the Vitale brothers’ attention to detail has assured a quality experience. The brothers are also offering up wall space to local artists and are willing to negotiate on the price.

With a business that dates back 15 years, the Vitales, John, Paul, and Joey, have become a staple of the local art scene. With their St. Pete office combining local commercial art and printing capabilities as well as studio and gallery space for artists, they hope to make the purchasing of art accessible to everyone.

The opening, entitled Family Business, will include art by Frank Strunk, music by Lounge Cat and DJ Mega, fashion by Blackbird & Raven and JJ, and much more. Wine, beer, and food is free. There is also going to be an area set up to buy prints and other Vitale merchandise.

The show is being held at 2740 25th Street North in St. Pete. It starts at 8 p.m. and ends at midnight. Check the website to find out more about the event or their gallery: vitalestudio.com.

Nova Art Lounge 535 is hosting its grand opening on Saturday. Admission is free; there will be refreshments, belly dancers, a DJ, and living sculptures.

“See art. Enjoy yourself.” With that tagline, Nova may prove to be a step in the right direction for the Bay Area art scene.

With a full-service bar, a catering kitchen, a DJ booth, and a set-up that allows for film screenings in addition to gallery space, the lounge promises to be one-stop-shopping for the local scene and people who want a nontraditional setting for their next event (Nova can be rented out for anything from live performances to weddings). The Nova Web site has a short sneak peek video about the current exhibiting artists for snoops who can’t wait for Saturday to get a glimpse of artwork or the space.

Whether or not the lounge is the Bay Area’s hip, fresh answer to nightlife will be answered on Saturday.

For information on renting space at Nova or submitting works of art to be displayed, contact Jennifer Silva at Jennifer@Nova535.com or 727.821.NOVA. Artists should include a short bio, contact info, and digital files of their work.

Now that the Tampa Museum of Art is closed until March, it’s time to spread our wings and discover other art installations the area has to offer.

Trying to escape drunken crowds and invading pirates? Dunedin Fine Art Center is holding a two day event called Contain It! Friday and Saturday.

The opening party starts at 8 p.m. Fri. and is $10 for admission. The event from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday is free.

The exhibit is a series of 10 PODs (storage units) transformed by artists. For the party Friday night, there will also be DJs, Red Bull lounges, and artist/performer John Kilduff.

While you’re there, take some time out to view DFAC’s other exhibits, like the privacy squashing pictures from Les Slesnick’s Private Spaces and Elizabeth Faubert’s whimsical photographic take on words in The Light of Language.

For more information on Contain It!, current exhibits, or attending a workshop with John Kilduff, call DFAC at 727.298.DFAC .

DFAC is located at 1143 Michigan Blvd., Dunedin, FL 34698.

My Myspace has been abuzz with friends reposting a bulletin over, and over, and over. Apparently, there will be an undisclosed production company at The Castle on Monday, January 7. They will be scouting the club as a site for a reality TV show.

I traced the bulletins back to the official Castle Myspace profile, so it seems this rumor is legit.

If being in a show about constant drama in a setting where every night is Halloween appeals to you, Monday may be a good night to dust off your liquid eyeliner and black platforms and head out.

As much as I love The Castle, I’m not sure how I feel about it being chosen to be displayed in the national spotlight. Do we really want The Senator to be our posterchild? Maybe Randy Constan, aka Peter Pan, will be a sufficient diversion to keep the cameras from focusing all of their attention on The Senator’s package.