Creative Loafing Tampa — June 25, 2026 by Chava Communications

Now an entire month of prix fixe

PINELLAS COUNTY:

Allelo

Birch and Vine (at The Birchwood Hotel)

Driftwood Cafe

Dunedin Smokehouse

Flipside Pizza Clearwater Beach

Grace Restaurant

Hi-Fi Rooftop (at The Fenway Hotel)

Jimmy's Tacos - St. Pete

Juno & The Peacock

Latitude 28

(at JW Marriott Clearwater Beach Resort & Spa)

LUMA (at SkyBeach Resort)

Luna Lux Restaurant and Lounge

Madison Avenue Pizza

Melting Pot

Ocean Hai

(at Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach)

LIVE COMEDY SHOWS

THURSDAY, JUNE 25

7:00 PM: WMNF PRESENTS: WAVEMAKERS LIVE!

This installment features guest Daniel Rivero, who will discuss Florida's long history of denying voting rights to felons with host Tom Scherberger.

FRIDAY, JUNE 26

7:30 PM: THE CAPTAIN'S WHEEL: FOURTH OF JULY EDITION

Join your Captain and his crew of seaworthy improvisers for a competitive improv show like none other, where comedians are put through their paces by a wheel chock full of Independence Day-themed challenges!

9:00 PM: TAMPA UnHINGEd

Tampa unHINGEd is raw, real, and ridiculous—an improvised comedy show tackling the good, the bad, and the ugly of dating and relationships, created in the moment, just for you!

SATURDAY, JUNE 27

6:30 PM: FACE THE FENCE EP RELEASE SHOW

Tampa's up and coming rockers Face The Fence celebrate their new EP at The Commodore! Featuring support from Discord Theory, Gloomchild, and Good Gourd.

SUNDAY, JUNE 28

6:00 PM: 250 YEARS OF AMERICA'S VOICES

The Democratic Progressive Caucus of Hillsborough County presents a summer concert & art showcase, bringing together local artists and community to celebrate our voices and turn connection into collective action.

Help keep local

For 36 years, Creative Loafing Tampa Bay has amplified the voices others overlook. Now we’re launching the Tampa Bay Journalism Project to strengthen independent, local reporting on issues that matter—housing, transportation, arts, food, and accountability. Your tax-deductible support helps fund nonpaywalled journalism for our community. Help the Creative Loafing newsroom grow.

Donating is easy, visit bit.ly/anfCLTampa

• HIGH INTENSITY PILATES

• STRENGTH TRAINING

• VERSACLIMBER CARDIO

• CELEBRATING 11 YEARS

• FUN FITNESS

• BUILT BY COMMUNITY

• DRIVEN BY RESULTS

do this

Tampa Bay's best things to do from June 25-July 2. See more on p. 35, 43-44 & 47

Power to the people

If you’re sick of cops at Pride and corporate rainbow swag, there’s another queer celebration closer to its Stonewall roots. People’s Pride Coalition hosts a night of live drag and music, free food and an LGBTQ+ vendor market “all without police, weapons manufacturers, or big corporate sponsors,” per the event description. Get to know about a dozen local community organizations fighting for uncompromised queer joy and see performances from Zanzibean, Spirit.gze, Lilith Black, Mycena Fae, DJ M1ck and Dames. People’s Pride Night: Friday, June 26. 6 p.m.-10 p.m. $5-$20 suggested donation. Allendale UMC, 3803 Haines Rd. N, St. Petersburg. @peoplespridecoalition on Instagram—Selene San Felice

Papermaxxing

Hey kids, the mailbox isn’t just for bills, junk and Amazon packages. You can make your own mail, like a lofi, oddly satisfying slay version of DMs. The Paper Seahorse, whose employees actually know how to talk to Gen Alpha, hosts a free letter-writing workshop for kids and teens 9-15 this weekend. They’ll “discover the power of the written word, learn how to make their letters and cards stand out, address envelopes properly, explore the unique world of stamps, and more,” per the event description. They’ll leave with a letter-writing kit and maybe even a new pen pal. Lock in, chat! What the Snail? A Youth Letter Writing: Saturday, June 27. 2 p.m.-4 p.m. No cover (preregistration required). The Paper Seahorse, 211 S Howard Ave., Tampa. paperseahorse.com Selene San Felice

Love language

What if, by working on a crossword puzzle, you could help people who are literally at a loss for words? At the fourth annual Word Play on July 1, you can do just that. The Best of the Bay-winning gala benefits Voices of Hope for Aphasia, whose programs support people with language disorders due to stroke or brain trauma. The event includes dinner, live and silent auctions, and a crossword competition, in which tables vie to be the first to complete a puzzle by New York Times crossword constructor, Kevin Christian. The event also pays tribute to Merl Reagle, who stumped and delighted puzzlers around the world for decades with crosswords created from his Tampa home. They’re the same puzzles, in fact, that are in the back of this paper each week. Word Play 2026: Wednesday, July 1. 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. $95 & up. USF St. Petersburg Student Center, 200 6th Ave. S., St. Petersburg. WordPlayTampaBay.com—David Warner

DAVE DECKER

MICHAEL SCHUHMANN

Gay the pray away St. Pete is the gayest place to be in the Southeast U.S. this weekend. Before throwing the region’s biggest Pride parade on Saturday, St. Pete Pride’s Friday Night concert takes over Al Lang Stadium with Chinchilla, Flyana Boss and Cain Culto (see p. 47). Celebrations start at 2 p.m. with a festival in North Straub Park. The TransPride march starts at 5 p.m. from Vinoy Park, followed by the official parade at 6 p.m. from Albert Whitted Park north to Vinoy Park along Bayshore Drive. The party continues Sunday with the Sunday Street Fair on Central Ave., where just about every local business is having a rainbow-filled party. Cocktail tops them all with its Cocked N’ Loaded mainstage celebration running 11 a.m.-5 p.m., featuring musical headliners Pepper Mashay and Tommie Genesis, along with “RuPaul’s Drag Race” stars Kerri Colby, Olivia Lux and St. Pete’s own Discord Addams. St. Pete Pride Weekend: FridaySunday, June 26-28. See more info at cltampa.com/arts—Selene San Felice

Seems fishy Sardinecore is so hot right now. Maybe it’s the constant threat of recession, our obsession with protein, or the vague fantasy of a Mediterranean vacation. Ceramicist Nina Samuels explores the commodification of nature in her exhibit, Catch of the Day, turning the Morean Center for Clay into a fish market. For Samuels—who moved to the area from Savannah, Georgia, for the exhibit—the natural world is more than a trendy aesthetic. She uses wild clay and other natural materials foraged across the southeast for her work and creates ceramic sculptures that are submerged underwater, serving as artificial marine reefs. Nina Samuels: Catch of the Day Ceramic Exhibition— Wednesdays-Saturdays through July 3. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. No cover. Morean Center for Clay, 420 22nd St. S, St.Petersburg. moreanartscenter. org—Selene San Felice

“It really wears on morale when staff continuously see things like that happen.”

Unsettling

Tampa city council commends administrator accused in $650K discrimination lawsuit.

By Valerie Smith

Last February, Tampa City Council voted to pay a $350,000 settlement to Scarlett Lopez for pregnancy and disability-related discrimination and retaliation claims against her former boss. Lopez’ lawsuit accused Jean Duncan, administrator of the city’s troubled mobility department. This month, the same council voted to award Duncan with a commendation upon her retirement.

Duncan gave Lopez bad performance ratings and demoted her after she had to take leave due to a medically complicated pregnancy and other medical conditions, Lopez’ lawsuit says. Lopez complained about discrimination, and the suit alleges that Duncan retaliated by ensuring Lopez was terminated and not rehired. Her daughter-in-law, like Lopez, was employed in the mobility department and took leave for her pregnancy. Unlike Lopez, she was granted leave, and was not penalized for use of leave on her performance review.

Creative Loafing Tampa Bay first reported last month on the settlement, including allegations of potential preferential treatment towards Duncan’s daughter-in-law. Later that same month, Duncan submitted a retirement request to the city. Her last day was June 5.

At the June 4 city council meeting, Tampa Chief of Staff John Bennett announced Duncan’s retirement and asked that city council recognize her for her years of service to the city. Councilmember Charlie Miranda motioned to give Duncan a commendation and asked that she approach the dais for a photo op and speech. A commendation is an official public recognition of appreciation awarded by city council for exemplary service to the city or the public good.

“Jean’s legacy is defined by the infrastructure she strengthened, the colleagues she mentored, and her deep love for the City of Tampa,” reads the commendation, which was framed on a marbled plaque given to Duncan. Council voted to award Duncan with the commendation in a 6–1 vote, with Councilmember Bill Carlson voting against. “Have you guys read the Scarlett Lopez case?” Carlson asked. He then left the dais as Duncan approached.

“You’ve done the best you can with what you had,” Miranda said as he gave Duncan the framed commendation.

The praise for Duncan doesn’t sit well with some of her former co-workers.

“It was a hostile work environment where I was bullied and discriminated against despite all of the contributions that I made,” former Duncan subordinate Alana Brasier told CL. “It was clear that Jean cared more about looking good in front of the mayor and the chief of staff than doing the right thing.”

Brasier was hired by the city to eliminate deaths on roadways, and her work quickly got her promoted to oversee large portions of the mobility department. She left in 2023 along with several other women who claimed discrimination from Duncan and her subordinates. Brasier told CL that city council has little control over staff issues, but the least they could do is not commend employees who create a toxic work environment.

“It really wears on morale when staff continuously see things like that happen,” Brasier said. “It shows that their efforts are not seen, not appreciated, and they’re disposable. That’s exactly what I felt while working there. So what happens is people either leave or they just keep their head down and do the bare minimum. And neither is good for the city of Tampa.”

After the commendation, Carlson said discrimination complaints should have disqualified Duncan from receiving a commendation.

“That’s so disrespectful and it is indicative of the negative culture of this city,” Carlson during his comments from the dais. “We have to support our employees who have legitimate complaints, especially when we just paid one $300,000.”

matters involving complex wage-and-hour issues, cutting-edge disability-law claims, and matters involving constitutional issues,” Johnson Jackson’s website reads.

Johnson Jackson’s work helped the city get Lopez to take a settlement, meaning no jury had to decide if there was any legal wrongdoing.

Later in the meeting, John Bennett presented council with a slideshow on whistleblower protections. One slide reads: “Legal findings of retaliation – zero to date.”

LOCAL NEWS

In total, over $650,000 was spent due to the case. The actual settlement amount was $350,000, and records obtained by CL through a public records request show that the city paid more than $300,000 for the legal services of Johnson Jackson PLLC.

Johnson Jackson represents employers in legal battles against employees. “We have litigated cases involving a wide range of issues, ranging from straightforward employment-law matters involving claims of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation to more esoteric

Per the settlement agreement obtained by CL, one of the terms of Lopez’ settlement is that she cannot discuss the case with anyone.

“If Ms. Lopez is approached by anyone regarding the Settlement Payment, Ms. Lopez should inform the individual that she and the City had a difference of opinion at one time, but that the Parties have resolved their differences and have agreed not to discuss the subject any further,” the document reads.

In an email to city council, Brasier said the commendation, while seemingly the easy thing to do given Duncan’s tenure, was “a slap in the face” to city employees hurt by her actions.

“(Duncan) set an example for others under her tutelage that you could behave this way and get away with it,” Brasier’s email reads. “This mess will be inherited by the next Mayor.”

FROM ME: Councilman Bill Carlson (missing from photo) was the only dissenting vote on Duncan’s commendation.

Together we rise

Tampa Bay union members join global Labor Notes conference.

By McKenna Schueler

More than 4,500 union organizers, union members, and non-union workers across virtually every sector of employment imaginable packed into a Hyatt Regency hotel in Chicago last weekend for a conference to strategize around the concept of putting the “movement” back in the labor movement.

Attendees of the three-day biennial conference, hosted by the nonprofit Labor Notes, included several union activists from Tampa Bay, including Adam Shils, a former middleschool teacher from Illinois who retired to St. Petersburg. He’s been attending Labor Notes conferences since the 1980s.

“I taught sixth grade for 41 years,” he told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “All that time, I was active in the teachers union, and we fought for better contracts to represent members who are being mistreated to improve wages, hours, and working conditions.”

He said, while many of the issues that workers have discussed at these conferences are similar—fighting back against anti-union forces and mistreatment on the job—what’s different is the sheer surge in attendees, particularly younger people, who are agitating for stronger workers’ rights.

While just over 11% of U.S. workers have a union today—compared to 33% of workers

in 1945—a majority of Americans view unions favorably and believe that unions’ decline is bad for working people.

The enthusiasm for a bigger, stronger organized labor movement was reflected last weekend in Chicago. Thousands of workers from 23 countries were in attendance.

“It’s so big, there’s not even a quiet place to talk in the hotel,” Shils remarked during an interview just outside on Saturday afternoon.

“We should tell some Creative Loafing readers that we’re having to stand in the parking lot”—on a shady median of grass, specifically—“because your a journalist and I can’t enter the hotel.”

build fighting unions. The energy is much different than what you would generally find in Florida, where fewer than 7% of workers even have union representation—and where, in the private sector, fewer than 4% of workers are unionized.

“It’s great to come up here and see all the solidarity among union workers and non-union workers,” said Norwood Orrick, a telecommunications worker for Frontier and IBEW Local 824 member from Tampa. “It’s something we rarely get in Florida.”

Part of the challenge, and explanation for this low number, is decades of Florida lawmakers instituting policies that discourage unionization and weaken the power of unions to form and survive. Florida is relatively unique in that it is one of six states to have collective bargaining rights enshrined in its state Constitution.

However, also in the state Constitution is a ban on public employee strikes—with fines and other consequences for violations—and a policy known as “right to work” that makes paying dues to a union voluntary, even if you’re represented by one. In practice, this starves unions of resources they need to be stronger, fighting unions rather than weaker ones surviving on scraps.

More pointedly in recent years, Florida Republicans—at the urging of Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of his failed bid for U.S. President—have gone after government worker unions. That is, unions representing librarians, public utility workers, bus drivers, code enforcement officers, public nurses, and teachers.

In 2023, Florida passed SB 256, a law modeled after a similar proposal in Wisconsin, backed by right-wing think tanks, that required more public employees to voluntarily pay union dues in order for their union to remain certified by the state, while simultaneously implementing a ban on the most convenient way to pay dues: through a paycheck deduction.

LOCAL NEWS

At least, we couldn’t find a quiet corner inside.

Indeed, an ocean of attendees wearing colorful labor swag—representing unions like Starbucks Workers United, the American Federation of Government Employees, the Teamsters, teachers unions and others—milled between dozens of rooms inside the Hyatt for workshop sessions to network, strategize, and build their skill-sets for cultivating a strong union.

The state of Florida labor unions

Unionists young, old, new to the labor movement or not, strategize over how to form and

More than 120 unions across the state have been decertified since, according to state records, including all of the state’s adjunct faculty unions that first organized through a flurry of union drives about a decade ago.

This year, another law (SB 1296) targeting public employee unions also passed. It bans most public employees (with exceptions for public safety unions) from forming a union through a process known as voluntary recognition, rather than going through a union election. It also raises the threshold for the percentage of public sector workers that have to vote in a union election for the results to even matter.

Under the 2023 law, public sector unions with a dues-paying membership of less than 60% have to go through annual recertification elections, unless the union represents majority

cops, firefighters, or correctional officers. And currently, just a simple majority of workers who vote need to vote in favor of unionizing or recertifying their union for the union to prevail—similar to any electoral election.

Effective July 1, however, under the new law,at least 50% of workers will have to vote, and at least 50% of those who do vote have to vote in favor.

Still, retired teacher Shils isn’t ready to give up the fight—and he doesn’t think others in Florida should either. “Even though the labor movement is weak in Florida, we still have a labor movement.”

At the University of South Florida, for instance, hundreds of blue-collar maintenance workers who saw their union decertified — then, their jobs privatized unilaterally by the university — after the passage of SB 256, have since reorganized new unions.

Starbucks workers in Tampa, Clearwater, and across Florida have also joined a flurry of Starbucks worker organizing efforts in red and blue states across the country for better scheduling and pay, as truck drivers employed by companies like 10 Roads Express in Tampa Bay have similarly flexed their muscles to secure union contracts to deliver higher wages and working conditions to care for themselves and their families.

Most recently, at the Tampa International Airport, nearly 200 food service workers at restaurants operated by contractor SSP, such as the Hard Rock and Ducky’s, just unionized with Unite Here Local 362, a hospitality workers union that also represents thousands of workers at Walt Disney World and Orlando International Airport.

“Many other trade unionists fight under difficult circumstances. We aren’t alone in Florida,” he added. In Utah for example, a coalition of 21 unions organized last year to repeal a law their Republican-controlled legislature passed to ban collective bargaining rights completely.

Union members got more than 250,000 people in Utah to sign a petition to get the repeal on the ballot, before Republicans just decided to scrap the controversial ban themselves.

“I just came from a meeting on organizing in right-to-work states, and Florida workers aren’t alone in defeating anti-labor measures like 1296,” Shils told CL. “We’ll get some help from our brothers and sisters here in Chicago.”

Working family

These workshops and panels, featuring rank-and–file workers and union officials from around the world, zeroed in on issues ranging from school privatization efforts around the globe—and the subsequent starvation effects on public school funding—to how to effectively organize a “march on the boss,” organizing a union in the U.S. South (where workers face continued on page 21

MCKENNA SCHUELER

UNION STRONG: (L to R) Barb Toepke, Norwood Orrick, Ruddy Pimentel and Adam Shils.

greater challenges), and even how to continue organizing when your union “breaks your heart.”

Emily Lumpkin, an electrical worker from West Virginia and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 968, said during a speech Sunday that joining a union changed her life.

“I joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in 2016 after years of struggling with unemployment and minimum wage or below jobs,” she recalled. “I was young, and I was filled with so much hope about what the union would be like.”

But Labor Notes isn’t a union propaganda conference. It’s also a place where disgruntled union activists can discuss how the labor movement can do better.

“In so many ways, my union delivered,” Lumpkin acknowledged during her speech. “A college dropout with few prospects, the IBEW gave me skills that will sustain me for a lifetime. It gave me wages higher than I ever imagined that I could make, health insurance, a pension, and the closest friends that I will ever have,” she said. “And despite all these gains, I found that I was functionally as powerless as I had ever been.”

When Lumpkin attended the Labor Notes Conference in 2024—where attendance was half the size—she recalled feeling “disheartened and frustrated.” She felt her voice wasn’t valued by union leadership and that important decisions made at union meetings were simply “rubber-stamped” rather than opened up to meaningful discussion.

Then, at the 2024 conference, a fellow IBEW member gave Lumpkin a one-page flyer promoting a new rank-and-file caucus of IBEW members, dubbed the Caucus of Rank and File Electrical Workers (CREW). Finally, she felt empowered to help improve her union.

“How many of us have found ourselves desperately wishing that there was some machine that could just turn all of this apathy and anger and grief into action? I have good news: That machine exists. It is the rank and file caucus,” she told an audience of hundreds Sunday.

While some frustrated, apathetic, or kicked-out union members have turned to the lucrative union avoidance industry—where they can make $400 an hour to persuade workers against forming a union—Lumpkin is one of many union members across the IBEW, Teamsters, United Auto Workers, and other unions who are organizing to make their unions more democratic, inclusive, and appealing to the estimated 60 million Americans who would vote to join a union if they had the chance.

And she said they’ve already had demonstrative success.

“We have been instrumental in passing resolutions for Palestinian ceasefire and in defense of immigrants,” Lumpkin said of her caucus.

“CREW members have spearheaded the aggressive organizing of workers many of our locals have traditionally ignored, like women and monolingual Spanish speakers,” she added, as one of the only women in Local 968. “In support of this, our members have fought for and have won Spanish translations of our contracts.”

Ruddy Pimentel, an electrician and executive board member of the IBEW Local 915 in Tampa, attended the Labor Notes Conference this year for the first time through a scholarship provided by the West Central Florida Labor Council. He described the conference to CL Saturday night, even ahead of Lumpkin’s speech, as “inspirational.”

Shils, the retired teacher and a member of the Pinellas Educational Employees Retired (PEER), said that he sees the Labor Notes conference as a critical tool in the fight against efforts by the union-hostile Florida government and federal Trump administration to crush unions—and by extension, the power of working people.

“I believe that Labor Notes is one of the central ways we can rebuild the American labor movement, and I believe that rebuilding the American labor movement is the best way we can stop Trump and [Governor Ron] DeSantis—is by building strong unions,” Shils argued. “And this is the best place to learn how to do that.”

Like Lumpkin, Pimentel spent years working low-wage jobs for companies like McDonald’s, before finding a union apprenticeship program about 25 years ago that secured him gainful employment in the electrical trades.

His career as a union electrician, today, has offered him an affordable health insurance plan that covers himself and his wife—a retired nurse with a disability—and a retirement plan that will allow him to retire with dignity, without having to rely on Social Security income just to get by.

Research has found that union members make 10% to 20% more on average, compared to their non-union, similarly-educated counterparts. Union membership is also associated with stronger job protections, such as protection from getting fired for no justifiable reason, as well as greater access to paid leave and stronger retirement benefits.

Scores of federal employees and union officials attended the conference as well, reflecting on the last year-and-a-half of unfriendly attacks on their collective bargaining rights.

The Trump administration’s “union busting” campaign, efforts to intimidate and purge immigrant workers from the U.S., and the strategies that workers have taken to fight back and build up stronger was a notable theme for this year’s gathering, with photos of “Labor Protest in the Trump Era” stationed near vendor tables throughout the duration of the weekend.

In 2022, the conference was energized by the electric victory of Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York—who had just unionized an Amazon warehouse for the first time in U.S. history—and the rapid-fire organizing efforts of Starbucks baristas.

In 2024, the United Auto Workers—fresh off their 2023 strike against the Big Three automakers and a major organizing victory at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee— stole the show, with a featured speech by UAW President Shawn Fain.

Fain, a new union president at the time who had campaigned as a reform candidate for union leadership, had gone viral for shooting a video ahead of the 2023 strike of himself literally dumping the automakers’ best and final offer for the union in the trash.

During the 2024 conference itself, the UAW announced the results of the Volkswagen union election in Tennessee—a highly-anticipiated affair, based in part on the decision by the union to invest so deeply in an organizing campaign in the U.S. South (where union membership rates are low) and the fact that workers at the same plant had voted against unionizing twice before.

Not this time.

Out of more than 3,600 votes cast, the union announced on April 19, 2024 that 73% of workers had voted in favor of joining the UAW, generating a purely electric moment hundreds of miles away from the victory itself at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Chicago.

“Just like Martin Luther King had a dream, we have a dream at Volkswagen that we will be UAW one day,” said Renee Berry, a 14-year Volkswagen worker, speaking to Labor Notes editor and organizer Luis Feliz Leon after the win.

The biennial conference isn’t without a little razzle dazzle. It’s peppered with arts and culture activities, including labor song jams, after-programming dance parties, Scabby the Rat puppetry, and documentary film screenings that uplift organizing campaigns, like the movement of unionizing Starbucks baristas depicted in the film “Partners.”

There’s also a reliable crowd of people chainsmoking outside the hotel between workshops, finding camaraderie in the casual conversations between puffs of cigarette smoke and the odd sheepish request from an overstimulated introvert to bum a cigarette (read: me).

Orrick, the telecom technician from Tampa, installs fiber internet in homes for Frontier. He found comfort in sharing stories with other workers in his industry from other parts of the country, who are similarly facing pressures such as higher rates of subcontracting that are reducing unions’ numbers and weakening workers’ ability to join together as a collective to improve their working conditions.

Orrick’s been attending Labor Notes conferences for years, like Shils, and said that, these days, he feels a greater responsibility to help welcome new unionists to the movement. “I feel like I’m here to help out, and to help smooth the way for the people that haven’t been here yet,”— like Pimentel—“or who are just discovering it for the first time.”

MCKENNA SCHUELER

LABORRGH: Ruddy Pimentel at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Chicago, Illinois.

Detour

I-275 widening project voted off planning program.

By Leif Helland

The fight against highway expansion in Hillsborough County feels endless for transportation advocates, but they scored a small victory this month. On June 10, Hillsborough County’s Transportation Planning Organization voted 8-6 to remove an Interstate-275 expansion between Hillsborough and Bearss Avenues from the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).

The highway project—which sought to widen lanes for I-275 as a resolution for congestion issues—came before the Hillsborough TPO meeting this month as the board made decisions about whether to keep it on the TIP.

improvement project.

Dayna Lazarus, an A.I.C.P. certified urban planner and co-founder of Transit Now Tampa Bay, serves on the Hillsborough TPO’s Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), which overwhelmingly voted to remove the expansion from the TIP. In public comment, she advocated for removing highway widening projects.

LOCAL NEWS

Widening proposals and plans from the Florida Department of Transportation have been a hot-button issue for transportation advocates for years who’ve long pushed back on highway expansion across various portions of the interstate, which cuts through neighborhoods like West Tampa and Seminole Heights.

The latest iteration of the BearssHillsborough Avenue expansion project is ranked No. 53 on the 2025 iteration of the TPO’s FY20272031 priority list.

The TIP is a federally-mandated program that displays the projects within a five-year plan that receive funding for major roadway infrastructure projects. The expansion project currently has zero funding allocated for the

“They are extremely financially wasteful and further burden disproportionately Black and hispanic communities while decreasing system-wide safety and doing very little to circulate people around our communities or alleviate traffic,” she told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.

She wasn’t the only person with a lot to say.

In public comment before the TPO board vote, Chris Vela, a CAC member said that since the ‘60s operational improvements to the highway since the ‘60s have “led to more crashes and congestion to the point where it looks like it hasn’t even left the era.”

Here’s how the TPO board voted on motions related to the Bearss-Hillsborough I-275 expansion

• During the June 10 meeting, the TPO board voted 6-8 to reject a motion by Hillsborough County Commissioner Josh Wostal, which sought to pass the TIP with the widening project on it.

• The next motion, to remove the single-lane Hillsborough-Bearss widening project from the TIP passed 8-6. No votes came from Wostal, Plant City Mayor Nathan Kilton, Port Tampa Bay’s Charles Klug, Tampa-HillsboroughExpressway

Authority CEO Greg Slater, Planning Commission representative Nigel Joseph and Temple Terrace Mayor Andy Ross.

• A third motion to approve the amended tip passed 11-3. No votes included Wostal, Joseph, and Kilton.

In discussion before the votes, Mayor Kilton advocated for the projects, suggesting that the TPO board had two options.

“We can stop being awesome, or we can make sure that we meet the demands of our folks,” Kilton said before acknowledging dissenting voices from public comment.

“I feel very badly for the people that are right here in this community that are getting the most impacted by it, but at the end of the day, we all have to recognize that you have to get folks from North County, from East County, from South County, from St. Pete over into Tampa,” Kilton added.

In response, Tampa City Councilmember Lynn Hurtak, who has strongly advocated against the project in the past, agreed with Kilton about the county being awesome.

“We’re awesome at killing people,” Hurtak said. “We are the eighth highest, most dangerous places for pedestrians in the country.”

Not everyone from public comment supported removing the expansion from the TIP.

Old Seminole Heights resident Keith Wagner wanted the project to move forward since it includes a large wall separating the neighborhood from the highway.

“Our physical safety is being completely ignored,” Wagner said. “Holding out for a perfect political compromise leaves my home and my neighbors entirely unprotected from errant vehicles. If state policy dictates that the only way to get a heavy duty concrete barrier wall built to shield our homes is to approve the widening project. Then I’m asking you to stop the gridlock, fund the project, and build the wall immediately.”

During the meeting, FDOT District Secretary Justin Hall told the TPO board that since the project has been removed from the TIP, adding it back on will require another vote.

If the project is approved for a federal grant, it will need to be re-introduced before the board for approval to move forward,” Hall added.

If approved the total cost estimate for the Hillsborough-Bearss expansion would be roughly $225 million dollars, according to a 2025 presentation.

The infrastructure project is a part of the Tampa Bay Next initiative spearheaded by the FDOT. The project was initially a part of the controversial $6 billion-dollar TBX program which was struck down in 2016 due to controversy surrounding tolled highways.

Lazarus said that while there are still close to a dozen highway-widening projects on the TIP, removing this one made the CAC feel more heard than it has in the last four years.

“Whether or not this is a victory for transportation as a whole, I wouldn’t go that far,” Lazarus added. “It’s not a leap, it’s a small step, and we have a lot of work to do. We hope the TPO board will commit to being a part of that community-driven process.”

A REALTOR ® HELPS YOU GET THERE.

Whether you're finding your first home or parting with one full of memories, a REALTOR® does more than guide you through the process—they walk beside you with local insight, trusted experience, and unwavering support. This isn’t just a transaction. It’s your next chapter. And they’re here to help you start it with confidence.

With everything from MICHELIN-starred restaurants to lively waterfront food halls, Tampa Bay turns every meal into a culinary journey. Visit to see how Tampa Bay’s dining scene is just as vibrant and unique as its culture.

MEET THE CHEFS

The Birchwood, St. Pete

June 18 | 6-9pm

Tampa Bay’s most celebrated chefs—all in one room. Sample signature dishes, sip craft cocktails, and go behind the scenes with the creative minds putting Tampa Bay on the national stage. A portion of proceeds benefits Feeding Tampa Bay. This event sells out every year–get your tickets today!

Bring your shades, our chefs really shine.

RESTAURANTS RECIPES DINING GUIDES

Lucky roll

Double Six debuts on the border of Tampa Heights and Ybor City, more.

By Leif Helland

There’s a whole ass new cafe in Tampa, and there’s free parking, too. Double Six opened inside La Sétima Club—located at 815 E 7th Ave. on the literal edge of Ybor City and Tampa Heights—this month.

From 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, the concept serves cafe staples, a trio of specialties (go for the coquito latte), and a limited menu that includes a breakfast burrito ($12) and a hangover burger ($15). Plant-based options are available.

Best of the Bay-winning barista Eileen Ramos also probably makes the most balanced cortado in Tampa Bay (at Double Six, it’s served in a 4-oz. chalice, making for a little extra indulgence).

Parking at the cafe—which is located on the literal border of Ybor City and Tampa Heights—is free inside the white fence on the north side of 7th Avenue facing The Commodore comedy theater.

The 1,200-square-foot La Sétima opened to much fanfare in 2022 as a natural wine bar proudly pouring offerings with zero additives or preservatives. Its happy hour is one of the best values in the Bay area, too, giving a group of four an easy opportunity to get wine drunk and eat extremely well for less than $100.

Before opening, La Sétima owners—including Coral Carrasquillo and Ryan Fouche—had already made a reputation in the natural wine space from their time at Seminole Heights’ Jug & Bottle. Carrasquillo was influenced to start her own all-natural wine bar featuring a plantbased kitchen and a variety of wine and beers.

Fouche told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that La Sétima had tried a test run on the cafe

concept over the last year but fully-committed with Double Six.

“We went in with our whole ass,” he said, adding that the restaurant is also developing its cocktail program. “So far, it’s working out.”

‘Food park’ opening at former Nebraska Mini-Mart

The site of Seminole Heights’ former Nebraska Mini-Mart is about to get its third tenant in less than a year and a half.

Today, a “food park” called Nebraska Roadside announced plans to open a “family friendly entertainment destination” at 4815 N Nebraska Ave.

“The experience will feature an outdoor environment that blends food, beverage, entertainment, games, and social gathering into a single destination,” the concept noted, adding that it is “cooking up something hot” at the mostly outdoor location.

has a location in New Smyrna Beach and a nowshuttered spot in Orlando’s Mills 50 district. Zepf and reps for Pep Rally Inc. could not be immediately reached for comment.

Nebraska Roadside would be the third concept at the address in the last 15 months.

In 2018, Tampa’s Proper House Group broke ground at the former convenience store and soon opened Nebraska Mini-Mart, a go-to spot for juicy handhelds (RIP kimchi philly) and knockout burgers. Mini-Mart shuttered in 2025 after six years in business, before hot-chicken staple King of the Coop had a six-month existence at the address.—Ray Roa

Tampa’s Rome + Fig closing after six years

North Hyde Park’s “globally-inspired bistro” Rome + Fig says it will permanently close later this month.

OPENINGS & CLOSINGS

Double Six Café

The popular NoHo concept, located at 301 N Rome Ave., did not give a specific reason for the abrupt closure, but made the announcement this morning on social media, citing an “industry filled with challenges.”

815 E 7th Ave., Tampa. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.

@doublesixtpa on Instagram

On social media, Nebraska Roadside said that Tampa-based Pep Rally Inc. is leading design and branding, and promised a 1960s vibe.

“We’re keeping the soul of the corner you love, but driving it into a whole new era, with some nostalgia mixed in,” the post added.

Nebraska Roadside hopes to open by fall 2026.

There’s not much more about Nebraska Roadside, but an active SunBiz listing for “NEBRASKA ROADSIDE LLC” was filed last April and is connected to Kevin Zepf, who’s tied to speakeasy-style N/A/ lounge Bandbox, which

“After six unforgettable years, we have made the difficult decision to close the doors of Rome + Fig,” says the post. “What began as a dream became so much more than a restaurant. It became a place where friendships were formed, milestones were celebrated, first dates turned into marriages, and countless memories were shared around our tables.”

Rome + Fig will operate with limited hours until its last day on June 28.

One of Tampa’s COVID openings, owners Eric and Kristine Zostant debuted Rome + Fig in July of 2020 with executive chef Rob Scott at the helm.

The neighborhood spot served up a wellreceived and eclectic menu spanning dishes like steak, seafood risotto, pan-seared scallops and lamb chops, tuna tartare, Asian-style wings, octopus fritters, lumpia, bison meatballs, and more.

Rome + Fig joins a seemingly endless list of local favorites calling it quits in 2026. So far this year, quite a few popular Tampa Bay restaurants have announced sudden closures, including Red Mesa Cantina, Tampa Bay Brewing Co.’s Ybor City location, and TNT Burger, just to name a few.—Colin Wolf

Pinellas Park’s Quaker Steak & Lube to close after 23 years

It seems Pinellas Park’s motor oil-themed restaurant Quaker Steak & Lube is out of gas. The chain restaurant’s last day will be Sunday, July 5, according to a social media post from the general manager. The announcement comes as parent company JDK Management is in the midst of closing Quaker Steak and Lube locations nationwide.

JDK, which also owns Perkins, currently has a total of 27 Quaker Steak & Lubes across the country, according to its website. The Pinellas Park location was Tampa Bay’s only Quaker Steak outpost.

Located at 10400 49th St. N., the Pinellas Park location debuted in 2003, and geared itself toward meat-focused offerings, spanning steaks, burgers, ribs, wings, tendies, and meaty salads.

The restaurant was also the site of quite a few local gatherings, like live music and car shows, as well as political stops. In 2022, the Pinellas Park Quaker Steak location hosted a campaign party for far-right congressional candidate Christine Quinn, which featured Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio—who was convicted of seditious conspiracy—and local MAGA rapper Fellatio Blow.—CW

BEST CORTADO IN TOWN: Eileen Ramos at Double Six Café.

RAY ROA

Come hungry

Meet the Chefs takes over The Vault in Tampa, and more food & drink events.

By CL Staff

There’s still time to e njoy Tampa Bay Restaurant Month, with special prix-fixe menus at nearly 60 restaurants and cafes across Pinellas and Hillsborough counties through June 30. To mark the occasion, Creative Loafing Tampa Bay—together with Visit St. Pete-Clearwater and Visit Tampa Bay—hosts “Meet The Chefs,” bringing readers and foodies face-to-face with the bright minds bringing new energy to the local restaurant scene.

The first event was last week in St. Pete, but there’s still plenty of food to try and chefs to meet on Thursday, June 25 at The Vault in Tampa.

The cocktail-style evening includes unlimited food and drink sampling, with a portion of proceeds benefiting Feeding Tampa Bay.

The extensive chef lineup includes Con Amor’s Taylor Dillon, Yanick Destine of Bulla Gastrobar, The Pearl’s Olivia Gieser, Mike Morales from Sunda New Asian, Bar Terroir’s Mac McKee, Felicia LaCalle of Quiote Tequilaria and Gerry Sizemore of CW’s Gin Joint.

cover. Polish American Society of St. Petersburg

Sip & Stroll Every last Friday. 5 p.m. No

cover. Corey Avenue, St. Petersburg

Bonsai & Brews Friday, June 26. 7 p.m.

$75. Bonsai Beverage Co., Clearwater. thunderstruckbonsai.com

Clearwater Wine & Cheese Pairing Friday, June 26. 7 p.m. $55. Aspirations

Winery, Clearwater. aspirationswinery.com

5th Annual St. Pete Pride Brunch & Bar Crawl Saturday, June 27. 11 a.m. $16.05.

Thirsty First, St. Petersburg

Christy’s Thirsty Mural, Brewery & Pizza Ride Saturday, June 27. 2 p.m. $30.

FOOD EVENTS

For more info on Restaurant Month, head to tampabayrestaurantmonth.com. See below for details on Meet the Chefs and lots more food events going down the week of June 25-July 2 and beyond. All events are at community. cltampa.com unless noted otherwise. Head there for more and list your own.

Meet the Chefs Thursday, June 25. 6-9 p.m. The Vault, Tampa

Thirsty Thursdays at the Polish American Society Thursdays. 5:30-9 p.m. No

Christy’s Thirsty Beer Rides, St. Petersbur g

Cold Tub Coffee Club 2

Year Anniversary Sunday, June 28. 10 a.m. $30 & up.

Caddy’s, Treasure Island

Funky Brunch Sundays. 11 a.m. No cover to RSVP. Bayboro Brewing, St. Petersburg. bayborobrewing.com

Gulfport Fresh Market Tuesdays. 9 a.m. No cover. Beach Blvd., Gulfport. visitstpeteclearwater.com

Hamachi & Spirits Omakase Dinner Tuesday, June 30. 5:30 p.m. $195. Ro, Hyde Park

Mayor’s Food Truck Fiesta Every first Wednesday. 11 a.m. No cover. Lykes Gaslight Square Park, Tampa. tampasdowntown.com

Sip & Shake (Hands-on cocktail class)

Every first Thursday through Oct. 1. 6 p.m.

$75. St. Petersburg Distillery, St. Petersburg

CUT UP: Pinellas chefs hammed it up with foodies at last week’s Meet the Chefs.

MOVIES THEATER ART CULTURE

Leaps of faith

Meet the Pasco County die-hards keeping skydiving alive.

By Kailey Aiken

The moment Kyle Salvato’s feet hit the ground after his first skydive, he knew he wanted to do it again.

“That one moment has changed my entire life’s trajectory,” Salvato told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. That was 19 years ago at a charity fundraiser in Long Island, New York—the same event where he met his future wife, Lauren Callanan Salvato, who began managing skydive centers at 18.

Salvato told one of his best friends, Rich Muscolino, about the exhilaration of skydiving, and Muscalino jumped about a week later.

Now Salvato, his wife, and Muscolino work together to own and operate Skydive City in Zephyrhills, which has become a hub for the tight-knit skydiving community to perfect their craft, share their culture, and shape the next generation of jumpers.

The Salvatos took over in 2023, but Skydive City has been around since the 1990s, when it was opened by a group of skydivers from the Northeast. Prior to that, the drop zone was run by sport military parachuters, who opened it in the 1960s.

“You’re more likely to get into a car accident and die driving 10,000 miles a year than you are doing a tandem skydive,” he said.

That doesn’t stop the dark jokes, more abundant than parachutes at Skydive City.

“What kind of car do you drive?” a tandem instructor asks their student while strapping them into a harness.

“Um, a Honda Civic. Why?”

“Can I have it if you don’t make it?” The instructor asks, straight-faced, pulling the straps tighter. Laughter breaks out across the observation deck.

The skydive community is small, but tightknit. In Zephyrhills, skydivers could run into the same people they met at Skydive the Ranch in upstate New York.

“We’re kind of like a tribe in a sense, skydivers. There’s a lot of carnal knowledge,” Salvato said.

SPORTS

“With me and my wife’s experience in the industry, we bring a handson management perspective to an operation that was already set up to be successful,” Salvato said, from a lone desk chair in Skydive City’s hangar.

But no matter how good you are at running a skydive center, there’s always risk. Every time a person steps into their facility to jump out of a plane, they’re entrusting the instructors with their lives.

Like many sports, skydiving requires structured training and demands physical, mental, and technical skill. But when you make mistakes in other sports, you go home and ice your elbow. When you make mistakes skydiving, you could die.

To become a licensed skydiver at Skydive City, students must complete an Accelerated Freefall (AFF) program, which includes a full day of ground school; a series of progressive jumps; and training on equipment, aircraft procedures, freefall, canopy (parachute) flight and other technical information, until the the student is deemed a competent skydiver.

While solo skydiving is notoriously risky, tandem skydiving is actually very safe, Salvato assures people.

Skydive drop zones are places that seem to transcend time and space. Many, like Skydive City, are middle of nowhere, campground-esque spots surrounded by grassy fields, where airplanes, parachutes, and tie-dye fill every corner. They’re more like 1960s hippie communes than recreational sports centers.

They’re the kind of place that, when you’re looking for the bathroom, instead of asking an employee, a random lady who’s living onsite in an RV walks you there herself and tells you skydiving is “the coolest thing you can do with your clothes on.”

Besides the free-loving adrenaline junkies and jokesters, there’s far more than one demographic of a skydiver, Muscalino said.

“I don’t think a lot of people know that dentists become skydivers. Doctors, lawyers, Congress…they become skydivers too,” Muscalino said.

Zephyrhills, and Central Florida in general, have a long history of training skydivers, and are credited for bringing higher exposure to the sport. Umatilla, Florida, was the birthplace of tandem skydiving, where the first jump with a purpose-built tandem system took place just over 40 years ago, in 1983.

That system was pioneered in part by Bill Morrissey, a skydiver who jumped regularly at the Zephyrhills dropzone—and at over 80

“The coolest thing you can do with your clothes on.”

years old, he still does. Salvato said jumping with Bill Morrissey is the equivalent of playing baseball with Babe Ruth.

Skydive City is working to make tandem skydiving increasingly accessible for everyday people.

“It’s amazing,” Salvato said, of tandem skydiving. “You are getting to experience what is likely somebody’s most terrifying moment of their life, and you’re six inches behind them.”

On the plane—it might be more accurate to call it a U-Haul with wings—two benches filled with skydivers and instructors sit in a single file line. During take off, instructors trade intricate handshakes, teaching them to students and newbies, and sharing jokes as the ground falls away.

“You can feel [the student] shaking sometimes,” Salvato said.

The plane empties out, with singles jumping first and tandems sliding forward to fill their spots. Upon reaching the door of the plane, the instructor asks, “Are you ready?” And the student tucks their neck back and might say a small prayer.

Freefall follows. Arms out, legs back, arch your body into the shape of a banana. Keep your eyes open. Try to breathe. Smile for the photos as your cheeks flap in the wind.

The instructor pulls the parachute, your legs swing forward and you float back down towards earth, heart still racing with a smile plastered across your face.

“The nerve, and then their reactions getting out, and then when the parachute opens and when they land… it is one of the most rewarding things you can do,” Salvato said.

For many first time jumpers, fear evaporates in the air. There’s no roller coaster drop sensation, Salvato explained.

In the spirit of training the next generation of skydivers, Skydive Cities hosts the University of Tampa skydive club regularly, led by President Jenna Miller, a senior at UTampa who earned her solo skydive license last summer.

Skydive UT has been working with Skydive City since the club’s inception in 2019.

In the coming years, Miller said she hopes for the club to expand, getting more students involved in AFF training, and getting more students to jump for the first time.

“It’s a gift,” Salvato said, of taking someone for their first jump. “Enjoy how you feel right now, because I’ve been chasing it for 17 years.”

FREE FALLIN’: Reporter Kailey Aiken jumps for joy.

COOK & CR COOK & CR EAT EAT E EATE

Unlock a world of flavor and creativity with our Food Arts Classes!

Beyond the ballroom

Amidst America 250, three productions explore freedom and its threats.

By David Warner

If MAGA’s notion of sesquicentennial patriotism is all about UFC matches and rah-rah birthday bashes, many local theaters have a different idea. Three Tampa Bay companies are observing America 250 this summer with plays that raise key questions about the country’s founding principles.

‘Some cool twist of fate’

As its title foretells, The Beach Theatre’s production of “What the Constitution Means to Me” gets right to the point. Heidi Schreck’s Pulitzer and Tony-nominated play drew inspiration from the playwright’s experience as a 15-year-old contestant in Constitutional debate contests. As she recounts and relives those teenage moments, she considers what she’s come to understand about the Constitution’s meaning in her own life today— and in all our lives—and whether the freedoms it promised have truly come to pass. In the second half of the play, there’s an actual debate between Scheck and a teenage opponent, asking if it’s time to replace the Constitution altogether. The winner is decided by audience vote.

“Constitution” will be Beach Theatre’s first-ever full-length theatrical production. Hannah Hockman and her parents famously restored the St. Pete Beach landmark last year, returning it to its former glory as a movie house. But Hockman’s intention from the outset was to make the cinema a home for live theater as well. In fact, she and her father talked about doing Schreck’s play there while they were in the midst of the restoration—because, she says, “This is a play I’ve never shut up about” since seeing the Broadway production (which starred Schreck herself) in 2019.

and Combs’s own voice. Joe Condon, who plays a Legionnaire in charge of the debate, also dips into more personal territory as the play goes on.

Ever Whittinghill plays the teenager who vies against Schreck in the audience-decided debate; she was recommended for the role by her teacher at John Hopkins Middle School.

Hockman says all three are up to the play’s considerable challenges. As for doing a show in “an 86-year-old theater that never did theater before,” she’s happily dealing with that challenge, too. And she’s excited about the potential impact of “Constitution.”

“A lot of people might have conflicted feelings about the 250th Anniversary,” she acknowledges.

“This play literally opens and inspires conversation, whatever that may be.”

‘Please don’t let these things happen’

LOCAL ARTS

Conversations will very likely abound after audiences see “The Cross and the Saber” at LAB Theater Project (July 2-19). Although playwright Wendy Graf began work on the script 14 years ago and LAB Executive Director Owen Robertson read an early iteration in 2012, it could have been written last week. With Pete Hegseth dictating soldiers’ religious preferences and the Trump White House backing Christian prayer rallies on the National Mall, LAB’s description of the play’s milieu sounds distressingly plausible: “a near-future America where nationalism and religion have fused into a weapon of political control.”

“We asked her to give us her very best Pam Bondi behavior.”

“I made the decision to do this show last summer,” says Robertson. “We weren’t in the chaos we’re in now. Now I’m sitting on a show that every day is more topical and more prescient than it was before.”

When she saw that the first slot in the Beach theatrical season (June 26-July 6) would intersect with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the choice of an opener was a no-brainer.

“Once I realized the timing would literally be across the 250th celebration, we had to do it. It was some cool twist of fate there.”

Another twist: Hockman is directing her former teacher, Katie Combs of Bay Area Performing Arts and Casting, in the role of Schreck. Combs was Hannah’s voice teacher when she was 16.

“It’s very funny when I give her notes,” says Hannah. “She takes them very well.”

As Schreck, Combs must shift between the playwright’s teenage persona, her adult self,

In Graf’s scenario, a progressive reverend named Isaiah Profitt refuses to turn his church into a mouthpiece for the state and is charged with treason by an authoritarian regime. Even more of the current moment: A.I. has taken over the legal system. The defense attorney is an android who rejects Profitt’s “not guilty” plea, explaining, “All our data says you should plead guilty,” and the grand jury system has been completely automated to speed the process.

However, says Robertson, “We don’t want the play to come off like we’re preaching. Yes, we’re holding up a mirror, but Wendy does a good job injecting humor” into the proceedings. The trial, he says, “descends into theater of the absurd.”

No wonder, with legal teams made up of androids, who are meant to appear human until they identify themselves as not. Tasked with

finding their inner robot are actors Zach “Hippie” Griswold, Cameron Rovillo, and Holly Marie Weber as the prosecutor. “We asked her to give us her very best Pam Bondi behavior.”

Aaron Ford, a relative newcomer to local theater, takes on the role of Profitt, while veterans Katherine Yacko and Michael C. McGreevy play his wife and father. Amanda Capello, Dave Malloy and Samantha Martí-Parisi round out the cast as, respectively, a Fox TV host, a crosswielding judge, and a disembodied Alexa-type voice.

And then there’s The Great Leader. But we never see him except on The Great Leader channel, which plays all the time.

Could happen. But, as Robertson says, “Please don’t let these things happen.”

‘We haven’t moved far beyond the challenges women faced in the 1960s’ At Powerstories Theater, Jennifer Blackmer’s “Predictor” (July 17-26 at Stageworks) deals with something that did happen: the invention of the home pregnancy test. A revolutionary step forward in reproductive health, it was also a triumph for women’s rights to privacy and bodily autonomy. (These so-called “penumbral” rights figure prominently in Heidi Schreck’s Constitutional debates, too.)

continued on page 40

‘THEATER OF THE ABSURD’: LAB Theater Project’s ‘The Cross and the Saber’ runs July 2-19.

continued from page 39

And whaddya know: The test was invented by a woman, Meg Crane, in 1967. Powerstories’ Executive Artistic Director Clareann Despain discussed Crane’s discovery in a recent interview with Maggie Duffy and Jana Henson, co-hosts of Tampa Bay Arts Passport’s new podcast “The Peanut Gallery.”

Crane was a graphic designer for the pharmaceutical company Organon, hired to pretty up the packaging for women’s cosmetics. Her office, Despain said, was located in a small building on the company campus nicknamed “The Rabbit House.” Its basement was a lab, where techs would inject rabbits with urine samples sent to the company by doctors whose patients were expecting (or wondering). Then they’d kill the rabbits and examine their ovaries to see if the pregnancy hormone in the urine had caused the rabbits to ovulate.

insisted a home test would raise moral questions. “And she’s like, ‘Well, really, it’s a finance question,’ says Despain. “It’s just about getting it out there.”

Crane is grateful to Blackmer and Powerstories for bringing her story to life. “I was a young woman with an idea that was not acceptable to the male-dominated company I worked for. That idea, that a woman should be able to test herself for pregnancy. Today, we haven’t moved far beyond the challenges women faced in the 1960s.”

LOCAL ARTS

Crane, sitting upstairs in her office listening to the rabbits scream, decided there had to be a better way.

“She happens to see how the test is done,” says Despain, “and she’s like, ‘Oh that’s crazy simple. How do we get it in the hands of women at home? She realizes it’s not a science problem, it’s a design problem, and she can solve it with her skills as an artist.”

Which she did, but not without resistance from the men who ran the company, who

Like the plays mentioned previously, “Predictor” may deal with serious issues, but it also promises to be funny. Promo materials describe the play as “an absurdist comic romp, a game show, and a heartfelt exploration of what it means to fight for agency in a world determined to silence you.”

Gigi Jennewein directs a cast of seven, featuring Jenna Jane as Crane with Ivy Sunflower, Kari Velguth, Jill Schroeder, Landon Green, Will Chamblee, and Matt DePasquale playing multiple roles.

And here’s a bonus: Meg Crane herself will be on hand for a July 24 meet-and-greet and a July 25 talkback, both included in the ticket cost. She’ll also be taking part in a pre-show Zoom at Powerstories Studio on June 28 at 4 p.m. It’s a free event, but RSVP is required. Info at powerstories.com/predictor.

‘COOL TWIST OF FATE’: Hannah Hockman directs her former teacher in The Beach Theatre’s ‘What the Constitution Means to Me.’

Besides the events listed in our Do This section on pp. 12-13, the food happenings on p. 35, there’s lots to do in town this week. Have a look at what’s going down June 25-July 2 and beyond. All events are at community. cltampa.com unless noted otherwise. Head there for more and list your own.

ARTS

Paint and Sip: Paint Night Done Right Every other Thursday through Sept. 24. 7 p.m. $43.99. Aloft by Marriott Tampa Downtown, Tampa Fresh Squeezed 10: Emerging Artists in Florida Runs through Thursday, June 25. 10 a.m. No cover. Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg.

Realm Thursdays-Mondays through June 28. No cover. FloridaRama Gallery, St. Petersburg Zubrick Magic Fridays and weekends. 7 p.m. Friday & Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. $50 & up. Zubrick Magic Theatre, St. Petersburg After Hours: The Alchemist Friday, June 26. 7 p.m. $50 & up. Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg Double Play Friday, June 26. 5 p.m. No cover. 1983, Tampa

The Beauty of Inclusion (Fashion show) Saturday, June 27. 6 p.m. $30 & up. The Portico, Tampa Building Community Through Culture Gala Saturday, June 27. 6:30 p.m. $175. Florida Aquarium, Tampa Expressive Poetry Saturday, June 27. 10 a.m. $50. Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa Hammered Hoops with MJ Hodges Saturday, June 27. 10 a.m. $70. Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg. moreanartscenter.org

Painting Seabirds at Sunset in Acrylic with Shawn Dell Joyce Saturday, June 27. 1 p.m. $80. Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg

ProjectAlchemy: What RemainsDance, Visual Art & Photography

Saturday, June 27. 7:30 p.m. $15 & up. Hough Hall at Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg. Projectalchemy.dance

What the Snail? A Youth Letter Writing (for 9-15 y.o.) Saturday, June 27. 2 p.m. No cover with RSVP. The Paper Seahorse, Tampa Make & Mingle (Craft day) Sunday, June 28. 4 p.m. $45. Music4Life Living Arts Center, Clearwater. wileyhouseconcerts.org

Sound Garden Session: Sound Bath

Sunday, June 28. 9 a.m. $30. Tampa Heights Community Garden, Tampa Heights Studio55: Encaustic Explorations

Monday, June 29. 10 a.m. Sold out. Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa

Artist Talk with Zack Wittman Thursday, July 2. 5:30 p.m. $12. Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Ybor City

Celtic Throne II Thursday, July 2. 7 p.m. $42.30 & up. Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg

Studio55: Encaustic Explorations

Thursday, July 2. 10 a.m. $80. Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa

Jun Kaneko: Silence Before Sound Through Aug. 23. $5 & up. Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa

Dalí In America Daily through Sunday, Oct. 18. 10 a.m. $32 & up. Dali Museum, St. Petersburg

BOOKISH

Conor Knighton Saturday, June 27. 10:30 a.m. No cover. Starkey Ranch Theatre

Library Cultural Center, Odessa. pascolibraries.org

Storytelling with Jim Kissane/Darrell Nicholson/Victoria Dym Saturday, June 27. 7 p.m. $12.51. Kerouac House, St. Petersburg Coffee and Poetry with Gregory Byrd Sunday, June 28. 3 p.m. $12.51. Kerouac House, St. Petersburg

Eliza Knight and Sarah Penner Sunday, June 28. 3:30 p.m. No cover with RSVP. Oxford Exchange, Tampa Black History Book Club: ‘Bourgeois Blues’ by Jake Lamar Monday, June 29. 3 p.m. No cover. Tampa’s Black History Museum, Tampa. tampabayhistorycenter.org

Vintage St. Pete & Pinellas - An Evening with Bill DeYoung Monday, June 29. 7 p.m. No cover with RSVP. Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg

Jen Ruiz Tuesday, June 30. 6:30 p.m. No cover with RSVP. Oxford Exchange, Tampa

Retro Recipes - An Evening with Bobby Hicks Tuesday, June 30. 7 p.m. No cover with RSVP. Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg

COMEDY

Dennis Regan Thursday-Saturday, June 25-27. 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday. $23.80. Side Splitters, Wesley Chapel

Joe Machi Thursday-Sunday, June 25-28. 7 p.m. Thursday; 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Friday; 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday; 6 p.m. Sunday. $28.80 and up. Side Splitters, Tampa Dirty John’s Dirty Disco Thursday-Saturdays. 8 p.m. The Studio@620, St. Petersburg Godfrey Friday, June 26. 7 p.m. $32. Funny Bone Comedy Club, Tampa Treacherous & Monumentally Inadvisable: The TMI Anniversary Stuntacular Friday, June 26. 7 p.m. $5. Carrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa Comedy Night Fridays. 8 p.m. $19.10. R2 Pub, New Port Richey Friday Comedy Open Mic Fridays. 8 p.m. $6.57 & up. Gimmick Comedy Club, Ybor City Jimmy “Nerdork” Sowell Sunday, June 28. 8 p.m. $25 & up. Oscura, Bradenton New Material Night Wednesdays through Oct. 28. 8 p.m. $8. Gimmick Comedy Club, Ybor City

FILM & TV

The Sandlot Thursday, June 25. Various times. $5.35. Gigglewaters, Safety Harbor Reservoir Dogs Friday, June 26. Various times. $5.35. Gigglewaters, Safety Harbor Raiders of the Lost Ark Saturday, June 27. Various times. $5.35. Gigglewaters, Safety Harbor

High School Musical singalong Sunday, June 28. 6:30 p.m. No cover. Sparkman Wharf, Tampa Parenthood Sunday, June 28. Various times. $5.35. Gigglewaters, Safety Harbor Scooby-Doo Monday, June 29. Various times. $5.35. Gigglewaters, Safety Harbor Jumanji (1995) Tuesday, June 30. Various times. $5.35. Gigglewaters, Safety Harbor Movie on the Deck: Independence Day Wednesday, July 1. 8 p.m. No cover. Lower Deck at Harbour Island, Tampa

LEARN

2026 Hurricane Preparedness Expo with Greg Dee Thursday, June 25. 5:30 p.m. No cover. City Hall, Dunedin. dunedin. gov Friends & Neighbors: A Meetup To Make Friends and Build Community Every fourth Thursday. 6 p.m. No cover. Deviant Libation, Tampa. deviantlibation. com

WMNF WaveMakers Live feat. Daniel Rivero Thursday, June 25. 7:30 p.m. $10. The Commodore, Ybor City Cafe con Tampa Fridays, 8 a.m. No cover. The Portico, Tampa Southern Road to Freedom Saturday, June 27. 2 p.m. No cover. Tarpon Springs Public Library, Tarpon Springs America’s 250th: The Revolution’s Hidden Stories and How it Still Defines America Today with Alan Kay Tuesday, June 30. 2 p.m. No cover. East Lake Community Library, Palm Harbor Coffee with a Curator Every first Wednesday. 10:30 a.m. No cover. The Dali Museum, St. Petersburg

MARKETS

Dunedin Markets Fridays & Saturdays. 9 a.m. No cover. Pioneer Park, Dunedin Secondhand Market Every last Saturday through May 30. 9 a.m. No cover. 1664 12th Street South, St. Petersburg St. Pete Street Market Every fourth Saturday. 12 p.m. No cover. Pinellas Ale Works Brewery, St. Petersburg We’ve Got Your Back (Backpack and school supply drive) Saturday, June 27. 2 p.m. No cover. Golden Isles Brewing Co., St. Petersburg. sweetfriendfoundation.org Vibes Vintage and Artisan Market Sunday, June 28. 11 a.m. No cover. St. Pete Shuffleboard Club, St. Petersburg St. Pete Night Market Every first Wednesday. 6 p.m. No cover. Ferg’s Sports Bar and Grill, St. Petersburg

PRIDE

Transtastic Thursday, June 25. 6 p.m.-9 p.m. $26.90 & up. James Museum, St. Petersburg

Dirty John’s Dirty Pride ThursdaySaturday, June 25-27. 8 p.m. $20. The Studio @ 620, St. Petersburg

People’s Pride Night Friday, June 26. 6 p.m. $10 suggested donation. Allendale UMC, St. Petersburg 5th Annual St. Pete Pride Brunch & Bar Crawl Saturday, June 27. 11 a.m. $16.05. Thirsty First, St. Petersburg

Tommy Genesis, Discord Addams & more Saturday, June 27. 11 a.m-5 p.m. No cover. Cocktail St Pete, St. Petersburg St. Pete Pride: Friday Night Concert & Market on the Waterfront Friday, June 26. 6 p.m. $85-$97. Al Lang Stadium, St. Petersburg

TransMarch and Festival Saturday, June 27. 2 p.m.-10 p.m. No cover. Marching from Vinoy Park to Albert Whitted Field, St. Petersburg

continued on page 44

Out and about: Events happening in Tampa Bay (cont'd)

St. Pete Pride: Parade and Festival Saturday, June 27. 2 p.m.-9 p.m. No cover. North Straub Park, S t. Petersburg Bend(s) & Snap (Pride party) Sunday, June 28. 6 p.m. No cover. The Bends, St. Petersburg St. Pete Pride: Sunday Street Fair Sunday, June 28. Details TBA. Drag Trivia Tuesday, June 30. 8 p.m. No cover. The Ball, St. Petersburg Drag Bingo Every first and third Wednesday. 9 p.m. No cover. American Legion Seminole Post 111, Tampa

SPORTS

Tampa Tarpons vs Fort Myers Mighty Mussels Thursday, June 18. 11 a.m. $11.10. Steinbrenner Field, Tampa US Soccer Watch Party Friday, June 19. 1:30 p.m. $15.62. Jannus Live, St. Petersburg

Tampa Bay Rays vs Washington Nationals (Pride Night) Saturday, June 20. 4 p.m. $32 & up. Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg 2026 Go Skateboarding Day Sunday, June 21. 10 a.m. No cover. Skatepark of Tampa, Tampa

THEATER

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical Thursday, June 25. 5:30 p.m. No cover. Carrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa. carrollwoodcenter.org

Bye Bye Birdie Multiple times FridaySaturday, June 26-27. $20 & up. Central Park Performing Arts Center, Largo Catch Me If You Can Saturday, June 27. 2 p.m. & 7 p.m. $48 & up. Ferguson Hall at Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa Rent Various times Fridays and weekends through Saturday, June 27. $27 & up. Carrollwood Players Theatre, Tampa The Hot Wing King Select times Wednesdays-Sundays through June 28. $63. American Stage Theatre Company, St. Petersburg I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change Select times and dates through June 28. $30$50. Stageworks Theatre, 1120 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa. stageworkstheatre.org Theatre of Tampa: Come From Away Select times and dates through Sunday, June 28. $38.40. Shimberg Playhouse at Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa 1776 Thursday, Friday & Sunday, July 2-5. 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday; 2 p.m. Sunday. $17 & up. Central Park Performing Arts Center, Largo

TRAVEL & LEISURE

11th Annual Zephyrhills Summerfest & Fireworks Show Saturday, June 27. 2 p.m. No cover. Zephyr Park, Zephyrhills

Interested in advertising around this listing? Contact jhoward@cltampa.com and acarbone@cltampa.com for details.

continued from page 43

The Alchemist ON VIEW NOW THROUGH JULY 12, 2026

Ali Banisadr: The Alchemist is organized by the Katonah Museum of Art

This exhibition is curated by Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, Director and Chief Curator, Katonah Museum of Art

Generous support provided by

Ali Banisadr (b. 1976), These fragments I have shored against my ruins 2023, oil on linen, 86 x 180 in. Mohammed Afkhami Foundation. Photography by Genevieve Hanson.© Ali Banisadr

Ward Shelley (American, b. 1950) and Douglas Paulson (American, b. 1980), The Last Library IV: Written in Water (detail),

Upcoming Shows

JULY

SEPTEMBER 26

OCTOBER

By Ray Roa

THU 25

C Todd Rundgren Fans disappointed in not hearing their preferred Todd Rundgren song on recent tours might be in luck at this twonight stand. The 77-year-old prog-rock wizard promises to play more familiar songs when his “Damned If I Do” band—which includes bassist Kasim Sulton and drummer Prairie Prince in addition to keyboardist Gil Assayas, guitarist Bruce McDaniel, and horns master Bobby Strickland—comes to the Cap. He’s even going to let a fan onstage for one song to, um, bang the drum. Thursday-Friday, June 25-26. 8 p.m. $65.50 & up. Bilheimer Capitol Theatre, Clearwater

FRI 26

C Florida Night Heat w/Soft Cuff/ Hovercar Nearly 16 years after the band’s first jam, this might actually be the final gig for Florida Night Heat. “It’s a publicity stunt. However it’s pretty plausible,” bassist Andre “Black Viking God” Jones told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay about the auspice of this really being the end. Plus, he noted, his commute from Brooklyn is a motherfucker. “I’ve been in LaGuardia since 2pm yesterday,” Jones aid. The Tampa-born instrumental-rock trio includes guitarist Jensen Kistler and drummer Chris Wood, and last reunited for the 75th anniversary of downtown dive The Hub (2024) and the final show at New World Brewery’s Ybor City location (2017). Wood told CL that there’s only a 10% chance this isn’t the last time. “It would have to be a Bill and Ted type situation where aliens tell us only our music can unite the universe. And then maybe,” Wood added. “But people should definitely come out to Crowbar cause there’s a good chance the aliens just like Smash Mouth or something.” The Heat boys are in good company, too. Daptone and Linear Labs-flavored St. Pete instrumental quartet Soft Cuff is on the bill and celebrating the release of the first single off the band’s debut full-length while homegrown grunge trio Hovercar rounds things out. 9 p.m. $15. Crowbar, Ybor City

C St. Pete Pride: Slay the Bay Friday Night Concert: Chinchilla w/Flyana Boss/Cain Culto Before the big parade, St. Pete Pride brings queer viral sensations to town. British singer/rapper Chinchilla, elf-eared hip hop duo Flyana Boss and ICEmelting viral pop star and violinist Cain Culto will play Al Lang Stadium in an evening that also includes a waterfront market. A special guest DJ is teased in flyers, but has still not been announced. Chinchilla was on “The Voice UK” in 2023 before releasing her TikTok-viral single, “Little Girl Gone.” L.A.-based duo Flyana Boss also went viral

around the same time for their hit, “You Wish,” after a series of videos of the two running to the song throughout different locations. They’ve since collaborated with Missy Elliot and opened for Janelle Monáe. Florida-born Cain Culto honors his Colombian and Nicaraguan heritage while blasting the toxicity of an evangelical upbringing in Kentucky. Culto left the church after coming out as gay and began making music in 2021. His career took off last year with the violin and rap hit “KFC Santería” followed this year by the anti-Trump and ICE hit, “¡BASTA YA!” with Xiuhtezcatl and Snow Tha Product. His next EP, occulto 002 , drops July 10. 6 p.m. $85 & up. Al Lang Stadium, St. Petersburg—Selene San Felice

Ye Perhaps the most controversial concerts Raymond James Stadium will ever host happen this weekend when the “Heil Hitler” rapper formerly known as Kanye West brings a mediocre new LP, Bully, to the football field that taxpayers helped build. The show’s been a lightning rod since it was announced (literally, catastrophic weather is the only thing that might cancel it), and CL has a timeline of how the shows on Friday and Sunday got booked. Read the story at cltampa.com/music 8 p.m. $72 & up. Raymond James Stadium, Tampa

SAT 27

C Pride: Love on the Edge w/Mystic Bill A MIami producer and DJ with roots in the late-’80s Chicago house scene comes to the Edge District. Bill Torres (Trax Records) is known for his mix of underground acid and house music and has recently played what the booking calls for, which bodes well for followers of homegrown promoter Open Conspiracy as it stages this first of two Pride Weekend shows. 9 p.m. No cover. Bar Mezzo, St. Petersburg

SUN 28

C Hillsborough Progressives: 250 Years of America’s Voices, a Summer Concert + Art Showcase w/Antro Banks/ Mia Marlene/Javier Solaris/more Florida Democrats are rallying around a former Republican in the governor’s race, but not all lefties are rolling over. The Democratic Progressive Caucus of Hillsborough County gets its ‘Murica 250 on with a showcase featuring a talk from Florida Rep. Angie Nixon (now running to unseat Sen. Ashley Moody in Washington D.C.), an art auction, plus sets from a diverse slate of musicians including Bethune-Cookman grad and R&B songwriter Javier Solaris, Danish-American indie pop songwriter Mia Marlene, Antro Banks (guitarist for Katara and Actual Bank Robbers), and more. 6 p.m. Donations accepted. The Commodore, Tampa

THU JUNE 25–THU JULY 02

MON 29

C Subhumans w/The Iron Roses/Except You We love Dick Lucas. One of the most recognizable voices in punk is also the glue that has held Subhumans together after it was initially formed in 1980. From its 1982 debut, The Day The Country Died, to its last outing, 2019’s Crisis Poin t, the U.K. band connected the dots between The Clash and Crass all while being the prototype for anarcho-punk that inspired American bands like Neurosis, Queens of the Stone Age, MDC and others. East Coast sparkle-punk outfit The Iron Roses opens along with Florida’s Except You, fronted by Babefest creator Angela Page who founded Fort Myers DIY venue The Rebel. 7 p.m. $30.45. Crowbar, Ybor City

WED 01

C SeptemberIsTheOnlyTimeIDontThinkOfYou w/DepartMeFromBearIsland/ Salvinorin-A/Flowers For Emily/ Ceilings The screamo revival is real, and it comes to the skatepark thanks to SeptemberIsTheOnlyTimeIDontThinkOfYou whose 2026 LP, Scars Like Kimberly, includes art reminiscent of early Poison The Well CD-Rs and a sound that certainly harkens to the golden age of ear-splitting emo. More space bar-averse bands support along with homegrown favorite Flowers For Emily and Ceilings, which nods its cap to midwestern, mathy, rock on its self-titled Armageddon Records release. 6 p.m. $18.46. Skatepark of Tampa, Tampa

C Simon Lasky New York Quintet featuring Allison Nash Since 2021, St. Petersburg’s Palladium Theater has doled out cash as part of a “Creative Fellowship”

program for homegrown artists. Pianist and composer Simon Lasky got support last year, and in response, he created new works meant for New York musicians including saxophonist Lucas Pino, trumpeter Dave Smith, drummer Jimmy MacBride, and bassist Peter Slavov. On vocals for Lasky’s New York Quintet is his frequent collaborator, Allison Nash. The troupe lets New Tampa get a taste of its fruit on Wednesday before a set at Palladium on Thursday. 8 p.m. $30 & up. New Tampa Performing Arts Center, Tampa

THU 02

C Rock The Park: The George w/Indigo Lane/Lance Markeith To kickoff the new year, CL called Lance Markeith one of the Bay area’s artists to watch, adding that he’s “incapable of making a false move—on stage, at the mic, or in the classroom.” This writer watched Markeith inspire a theater full of high schoolers during a special performance of “When the Righteous Triumph,” and this week he taps Blake High School students like vocalist Sherri Richburgh to help bring a new album, Emancipation , to life. “I was imprisoned by my own self doubt, imprisoned by the idea that I had to perform a particular way, record music in a particular way in order to ’make it,’” Markeith told CL. Emancipation , he added, is the manifestation of a bigger, cinematic sound that he found when he stopped getting on his own way. “Emancipation is about finding me. It’s about giving that sense of uplift and that sense of freedom that comes when I’m doing what I know in my heart is the right thing to do.” 6:30 p.m. No cover. Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, Tampa

See a fuller version of Music Week via cltampa.com/music.

C CL Recommends

MICHAEL M. SINCLAIR

Florida Night Heat

The final week of events at Crowbar is starting to take shape, and right now, it looks like a jellyfish. Tampa Bay-based filmmakers behind “Jellyfish Season” said they’re taking over the famed Ybor City venue on its last Monday in business. The gig kicks off the beginning of the last week for Crowbar, which will close before August following 20 years in the historic district.

The Florida-made feature-length film started production a year ago and hopes for a wide release this fall after it makes rounds in the festival circuit. Shot entirely on Kodak 16mm film, the movie directed by Dylan Melcher and written by Matthew Walker follows a trio of friends who go on a beach vacation. The getaway quickly becomes a series of weird, cosmic occurrences (“from mistaken identity and extraterrestrial abduction to shady lovers on the run”) that force the boys to confront the realities of their own lives. “Jellyfish Season is a surreal comedy about midlife crisis, identity, and the strangely divine nature of being human,” press material for the film adds.

Behind the scenes stills shared with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay find the crew—which includes Kristofer Atkinson, Zachery Howard, Taylor Prater, Destiny Greer and others—in local spots like Tampa’s Sunshine Thrift, off the main drag in Clearwater Beach, and at Smuggler’s Cove mini-golf.

The film was also scored by Chance Reynolds, the drumming, singing, impossible-to-lookaway-from, frontman of the eccentric jazz band Chaunces. Melcher told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that after he cut the film, he added scratch jazz tracks, then handed the work over to Reynolds who teamed up with Eric Zabala (vibraphone and piano). Alex Malkovich (saxophone and guitar), and Cooper Madden (bass) for the final product.

“He turned all the music off, and essentially cut it in his studio with his band, watching the film and playing music to it, and even like working with the moments— as the emotion rises in the scene, like he would rise the music and then bring it down, then kind of do these like really choppy things based on the actual film itself,” Melcher said. “He’s not in it, but he wrote direct to it.”

All but two of the tracks on the album were composed by Reynolds, who is joined by some of the actors and composer Will DeHaan on the 13-track outing. Melcher pressed 200 of the pink vinyl, which comes with a red splatter as an homage to a comedic scene in the film. The release show will feature a DJ spinning the record, previews of the film with commentary from the cast, and close with Reynolds leading a set of live music.

Melcher thought they would do a vinyl release in July, but went out on a limb by calling Crowbar co-founder and owner Tom DeGeorge to see if they could do the release there. “I’ve spent so many years there and seen so many legendary shows and whatnot. It seemed like a perfect place to try to get the vinyl release into,” he added.

DeGeorge had one date, July 27, left to book. “Crowbar is all about local community, bringing everyone together, and that’s exactly why we made the film. So it worked out perfect” Melcher said.

Tickets to the “Jellyfish Season” album release show on Monday, July 27 at Crowbar in Ybor City are available for $10$15. See Josh Bradley’s weekly roundup of new concerts coming to Tampa Bay next week.—Ray Roa

6/25: USA WORLD CUP (PAVILION)

RAYS VS. ROYALS (WATCH PARTY)

FERG'S TRIVIA (INSIDE)

6/26: RAYS VS. D'BACKS (WATCH PARTY)

SECOND RODEO BAND (PARTY DECK)

COMEDY NIGHT (UPPER DECK)

6/27: RAYS VS. D'BACKS (WATCH PARTY)

NIGHTBREAKERS (PARTY DECK)

LATIN NIGHT (UPPER DECK)

6/28: RAYS VS. D'BACKS (WATCH PARTY)

ANTELOPE BAND (POST-RAYS CONCERT)

LOVE ISLAND (WATCH PARTY)

6/29: WORLD CUP (WATCH PARTY)

6/29: FERG'S TRIVIA

6/30: WORLD CUP (WATCH PARTY)

LOVE ISLAND (WATCH PARTY)

BOB HOPE DUO WITH HAROLD (PARTY DECK)

7/1: USA SOCCER (FERG'S PAVILION)

OPEN JAM NIGHT (PARTY DECK)

W/ BAREFOOT BOB & THE HOPE

7/2: WORLD CUP (WATCH PARTY)

LOVE ISLAND (WATCH PARTY)

FERG'S TRIVIA (INSIDE)

7/3 : DANNY BUB COMBO (PARTY DECK)

WORLD CUP (WATCH PARTY)

LOVE ISLAND (WATCH PARTY)

Fostering is free: all supplies provided!

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Earn 4 volunteer hours per day

Red wedding

by Dan Savage

Iam planning my wedding, which is happening this summer. My partner and I are trying to plan an event that’s casual, fun, and full of love. Unfortunately, my parents are MAGA. And they relish trolling me. The other day, on a very rare phone call, they started going on about wearing MAGA gear at the ceremony, and ranting about people with tattoos, and using the t-slur to insult my trans friends. Of course, I said that was NOT ok. Given that we and many of our friends are queer, trans, and non-conforming in many brilliant and lovely ways, I’m deeply uncomfortable with them coming. (I should NOT have invited them) My parents are old, and I hold out for having a relationship with them, despite all evidence that they think I’m trash. But this seems like a bridge too far. I can handle their insults, but my friends don’t deserve this. Even though I may sever the last remaining shreds of a relationship we have, I feel like they should NOT come to this event. Am I right to un-invite them? It seems like the only real choice. Would lying and saying the event is cancelled be OK? Why am I so fearful of alienating people who aggressively try to alienate me? I wish I had a therapist!—Wanna Have a Therapist

Your wish is granted: Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and the co-host of the popular “Dear Therapists” and “Since You Asked” podcasts. Gottlieb also writes a terrific “Ask the Therapist” advice column for the New York Times and her bestselling memoir—"Maybe You Should Talk To Someone"—has sold more than three million copies.

“Instead of disinviting her parents,” Gottlieb told me, “WHAT should set the terms of the invitation and leave the decision to her parents on whether they choose to come—in other words, she should let her parents disinvite themselves.” Gottlieb—who always goes the extra mile for her readers and callers—was so kind as to draft an email that you could send to your parents: “I’d love you both to be at my wedding, but given our call the other day, I want to be clear that the invitation comes with expectations to make the day a happy one for me, my partner, and our guests: keeping your political views and views on sexuality and gender to yourself, not making comments about any of the guests either indirectly or directly, and not wearing anything that signals these views—and no ‘jokes’ on these topics. A wedding isn’t a place for this. If you can commit to this, great! If not, please decline the invitation and we can celebrate another way at another time.”

Now, I could see your MAGA parents—I could see anyone’s MAGA parents—agreeing to your terms and then showing up at your wedding and acting like assholes… and then playing the victim when they’re told they’re being assholes. That’s how our MAGA relatives

roll: they can say anything they want because MAH FREE SPEECH, but no one is allowed to say anything back to them.

So, what do you do if your parents—after a glass or three of champagne—revert to form and start acting like the assholes you know they are?

“WHAT should ignore them,” said Gottlieb, “which should be simple enough to do, as she will be surrounded by a community of loving friends—and be done with inviting them to anything in the future. WHAT should remind her parents that they made the choice to be excluded going forward, not her: ‘The wedding invitation came with a clear set of expectations that you chose not to meet, so we are no longer offering invitations to you.’”

Here's a second opinion: While the thought of disinviting your parents from your wedding causes you stress, allowing them to attend your wedding means living with the stress of how they might behave at your wedding.

My husband’s younger brother’s fiancé was on Grindr while we were on a big family vacation together on a cruise ship. And what was I doing on Grindr? The same thing. I’m older than my husband by fifteen years.

I’m very sexual, he is not.

I hopped on Grindr to see what was out there. Would I have done something?

SASSY, and I had a hard time keeping the players, erm, straight.

Second, if you would welcome a conversation about whether your marriage is open or closed—with your husband, not me—there are easier ways to initiate that conversation than waiting for some twink to blab to your husband about spotting you on Grindr.

SAVAGE LOVE

Honestly, I might have if the right opportunity presented itself. I don’t know if my husband and I are in an open marriage or not. We joke about it all the time. I created a profile and put my pic up. I wasn’t worried about being recognized. That’s when I came across the profile of my brother-inlaw’s fiancé. It was definitely his pic. His profile stated that he was looking for a dom daddy. (He’s the younger one in his relationship.) I didn’t say anything to my brother-in-law because it’s not my relationship, and I am not privy to the nature of theirs. I have no idea if he said anything to my husband’s brother about spotting me, but I would assume he did not due to the threat of mutually assured destruction. I know he saw me look at his profile because his profile disappeared immediately. I’m not worried he’ll say anything to my husband—and in all honesty, I wouldn’t mind if he did, as I would welcome having that conversation with my husband. I wouldn’t say anything to this young man’s fiancé—that is, I wouldn’t say anything to my brother-in-law—even if he, my brother-in-law’s fiancé, said something to my husband because, again, their relationship is not my business. But am I in the wrong? Should I say something to my brother-in-law before he marries this man?—Somewhat At Sea Since Yesterday First, reading your question gave me a migraine. Your prose style is convoluted,

Third, getting on Grindr to take a look around isn’t wrong—or it’s not any worse than the way people in monogamous relationships would wander into bars (gay or straight) before the apps came along. Married and/or partnered people who had no interest in cheating might visit pickup joints to have a look around, to get a quick ego boost, or to fantasize about the possibilities. But they ran the risk of being spotted by a friend, a neighbor, or a family member. If that friend, neighbor, or family member was also in a monogamous relationship, both parties could rely on the doctrine of mutual assured destruction to keep them safe: if they nuked your relationship, you could nuke theirs. (If the person who spotted you at the pickup joint was single, you either had to fuck them or have them killed. Those were the rules.) The other risk of wandering into a pickup joint way back was or getting on the apps today was and is… well, it wasn’t and isn’t encountering temptation. People who get on the apps or go to pickup joints are leading themselves into temptation. The risk was and is encountering an opportunity you couldn’t resist.

Fourth, since it’s entirely possible your brother-in-law and his fiancé are in an open relationship—many if not most gay relationships are open—you can rationalize keeping your mouth shut. If the players were straight, my advice might be different, as most straight relationships are closed. And if it was your sister-in-law’s future husband you spotted on Grindr, you would obviously need to say something to someone.

Since my boyfriend moved into his ground floor apartment nine years ago, his apartment has been flooded at least twenty times by his upstairs neighbor, a guy in his fifties. Every time he goes to knock on his neighbor’s door and say, “Hey, it’s happening again,” the guy opens his door wearing a dress or some weird underwear that my straight, vanilla boyfriend struggles to describe. His neighbor always starts apologizing profusely before my boyfriend can even say anything, as if he already knows he caused a flood. I’m trying to help my boyfriend resolve this legally and sell the apartment. I’ve also found myself expending a lot of mental energy trying to work out exactly what’s going on. Is there some kind of kink where people get off on tubs overflowing? Do people masturbate to the sound of running water? I can’t understand why he opens the door fully cross-dressed if he’s

legitimately planning to have a bath. It always happens when this guy’s wife is away, and afterwards he emails an OTT apology to my boyfriend, saying he is so annoyed at himself and that he just lost track of time, which is why the tub overflowed. I’ve seen these emails, and they read like they were written in some kind of post-wank shame spiral. What’s going on here?—Freaky Looking Overflowing Old Dude

Your boyfriend’s upstairs neighbor doesn’t get off to overflowing bathtubs or the sound of running water. He’s a cross-dresser with a humiliation kink, FLOOD, who gets off on getting “caught” wearing a dress or underwear so weird it defeats a straight boy’s powers of description. At some point—maybe even before your boyfriend moved in—this old pervert realized that letting his tub overflow would bring his downstairs neighbor to his front door. So now, when the old pervert is home alone, he checks to make sure your boyfriend is home too. If your boyfriend is home, FLOOD, the old pervert stuffs something in the drain specifically designed to prevent his tub from overflowing— overflow drains have been a standard feature on tubs for more than a century—and then he opens the taps. He puts on a dress or some of his weird underwear while the tub fills, and then he goes and sits in his living room, stroking his cock while he waits for your boyfriend to knock. After getting “caught” again, and offering up the same lame excuses again (read: after the thrill of exposing himself to your boyfriend yet again), the old pervert closes the tap and then resumes his wank while he thinks about the look on your boyfriend’s face, simultaneously draining his tub and his balls.

While there’s nothing wrong with thinking about a neighbor while masturbating—each of us is free to masturbate about anyone and anything we choose—forcing a neighbor to make a cameo appearance in your apartment while you’re having a wank is not okay. Two more things that aren’t okay: the old perv leveraging neighborly social norms (being polite, avoiding conflict, etc.) against someone he’s put in an uncomfortable position for his own sexual gratification (so wrong) and then sending emotionally manipulative “apology” emails that frame the old perv as the victim (that’s lowkey DARVO shit.)

You say this started as soon as your boyfriend moved into the apartment, FLOOD, which means the old pervert was probably doing the same thing to whoever lived in your boyfriend’s apartment before he moved in. I’m not a real estate lawyer, FLOOD, but if you’re trying to build a legal case against your upstairs neighbor and/or your boyfriend’s landlord, it feels like an affidavit from the previous occupant of your boyfriend’s apartment combined with those OTT apology emails would make for a slam-dunk case. Got problems? Email mailbox@savage.love! Podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love

Legal, Public Notices

Notice of Public Sale Notice is hereby given that the undersigned will sell, to satisfy lien of the owner, at public sale by competitive bidding on www.storagetreasures.com. ending on July 10th, 2026 at 10:00 am for units located at Compass Self Storage 1685 Hwy 17 N Eagle Lake Florida 33839 . Purchases must be made with cash only and paid at time of sale. All Goods are sold as is and must be removed at the time of purchase.

Compass Self Storage reserves the right to refuse any bid. Sale is subject to adjournment. The personal goods stored therein by the following may include, but are not limited to general household, furniture, boxes, clothes and appliances, unless otherwise noted. Unit 1101-1092 Jessica Evans Unit 2028 Mariah Velasquez Unit 2051 Michael Occhino Unit 2120 Natara Calhoun Unit 3127 Edmond Williams Jr. Unit 3144-3161 Kristan Edwards Unit 3166 Edgar Brito. Run Dates 6/25/2026 and 7/02/2026.

S. Frontage Rd, Plant City, Florida 33563 Purchases must be made with cash only and paid at the time of sale. All goods are sold as is and must be removed at the time of purchase. Compass Self Storage reserves the right to refuse any bid. Sale is subject to adjournment. The personal goods stored therein by the following may include, but are not limited to general household, furniture, boxes, clothes and appliances, unless otherwise noted. Elizabeth Trice Unit 2041 Whidlean Hyppolite Unit 2074 Robert Ostwalt Unit 204 Evelyn Magadam Unit 200 Mercedes Milton Unit 2054 Michael Kaidel Unit 2250 Melinda Burnham Unit 1083 Run dates 6/24/2026 and 7/02/2026.

Notice of Public Sale Notice is hereby given that the undersigned will sell, to satisfy lien of the owner, at public sale by competitive bidding on www.storagetreasures.com ending on July 10th, 2026, at 10:00am for units located at: Compass Self Storage 3000 Mulford Rd. Mulberry Fl, 33860 Purchases must be made with cash only and paid at the time of sale. All goods are sold as is and must be removed at the time of purchase. Compass Self Storage reserves the right to refuse any bid. Sales are subject to adjournment. The personal goods stored therein by the following may include, but are not limited to general household, furniture, boxes, clothes and appliances, unless otherwise noted. UNIT 1012 - DOMINGUEZ, RACHEL UNIT 2031 - POLK, JEDD UNIT 2169TINSLEY, SAPHYRE UNIT 2005 - BERG, CHRISTINE UNIT 1015 - YZQUIERDO,

VICTORIA UNIT 1134 - CATLETT, CARMEN UNIT 5007 - TAYLOR, THOMAS UNIT 3007 - WATTS, JEREMY UNIT 4002 - WATTS JEREMY UNIT 2142 - BARRETT, ONEIL. Run dates 6/25/2026 and 7/02/2026.