Weekend Top 10 May 13-16: Beach Boys, Roser Park Porchfest, American Stage “Uncaged” and… Kitties!
We’re rolling! Live performance is coming back in a big way.
Weekend Top Ten Oct. 29-Nov. 1: Frankenstein & Florida Orchestra live, Lucinda Williams & James Suggs livestreamed!
However you’re planning to spend your Halloween weekend — cowering at home with the lights off or roaming about in search of mischief — there are lots of ways to make either choice an entertaining one. Fall Magic at Imagine Museum. Saturday scavenger hunts, Sunday bargains and “Positive Reversals,” a new exhibition of sandcast glass artworks by Marlene Rose, make Imagine a top choice for an autumn escape. (Good spot to get some early holiday shopping done, too!) 1901 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, 727-300-1700, imaginemuseum.com. Palladium Live! James Suggs Quintet. The Palladium inaugurates its new livestream series with a performance tonight (Thurs. 10/29, 8 p.m.) by chart-topping local trumpeter James Suggs and his quintet performing music by Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Frank Loesser and more. Buy tickets then stream the show on your computer or another internet-capable device by creating an account on mandolin.com. If you miss the livestream at 8 p.m., your unique streaming link will still be active for 48 hours following the show. Lucinda Williams via Ruth Eckerd. The legendary Lucinda, goddess of gravel-voiced authenticity, kicks off a live-streamed, six-episode music series tonight called “Lu’s Jukebox,” a themed set of songs by other artists, with Runnin’ Down A Dream: A Tribute To Tom Petty, featuring songs from Petty’s celebrated career in advance of his 70th birthday. Single tickets and series tickets are on sale now at RuthEckerdHall.com. Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. Giles Davies, one of Tampa Bay’s best actors — and also one of Cincinnati’s, I expect, as he splits his time between both cities — brings us a one-man show that was a big success at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival and now comes to Jobsite. If anyone can fully embody the monster (and his creator, too?), it’s this charismatic, limber performer. Thurs.-Sun., 10/29-11/1, and Tues., 11/10. Jaeb Theater, Straz Center for the Performing Arts. Chef Susan Feniger on #ZestFoodTalk. dRTB readers were introduced to the zesty team of Ilene Mitnick and Alli Baldwin in our Health & Happiness issue a few months back. The essential oils mavens now have an IGTV series on Instagram@thezestzone, and on Friday their guest is chef/restaurateur/TV personality Susan Feniger of Two Hot Tamales fame. The Zesty Ones will dish with Susan on infusing the soul of the street into her iconic food. 10/30, 2 p.m., Instagram@thezestzone. Dirty John’s Screamin’ Sh*tshow. Whether the title makes you blush or pulls you in, I can guarantee this whacked-out variety show will make you laugh. A routine in one of the team’s previous shows, in which a couple took restaurant dining precautions to absurd lengths, had me in tears, and I know from a few sneak peeks of one of this episode’s segments, a zombie sitcom parody entitled “Guess Who’s Coming As Dinner,” that the laughter quotient will continue to be high. And we all need to laugh right now, amirite? 10/30, 8 p.m. on The Studio@620 Facebook page. This event is a fundraiser to benefit The Studio@620. Fairy Tales Reimagined at American Stage. American Stage’s School Tours have long delighted kids in our area, and now the shows have been reimagined as digital experiences. In their fall production, a family reimagines Grimm’s Fairy Tales when the power goes out. Created by three of the theater company’s talented young powerhouses, Sadie Lockhart, Patrick A. Jackson and Tiffany Ford. 10/31, 11 a.m., with additional dates on 11/1 and 11/7-8, americanstage.org. Opera Tampa’s “The Witching Hour.” Something wicked this way comes in this outdoor concert on the Straz Center’s Riverwalk Stage when the Opera Tampa Singers unleash the greatest coven of witches of all time. 10/29-31, 7 & 7:30 p.m. each night. strazcenter.org. The Florida Orchestra is back! After nearly eight months, Maestro Michael Francis presents five live concerts this weekend at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, each an hour long. Oct. 31 at 2 & 8 p.m.; Nov. 1 at 2 p.m.: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, with Jessie Montgomery’s Strum and Zoltan Kodaly’s Dances of Galanta. Oct. 31 at 5 p.m. & Nov. 1 at 5 p.m.: Legends from the Americas, featuring Aaron Copland’s original version of Appalachian Spring, Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer, Astor Piazzolla’s Serie del angel featuring TFO Principal Bassoon Joshua Baker. Info on tickets to live performances here. Also, the orchestra is debuting free live streaming on Saturday, beginning with the 8 p.m. performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Click here for livestreaming info. Halloween! So Halloweening is kind of, shall we say, fraught this year? But my friends at the Tampa Bay Times have amassed a whole bunch of fun-creepy options, including what may be the creepiest of all — at least if you’re like the guy in that mannequins-in-the-attic GEICO commercial — the St. Petersburg Museum of History‘s “Creepatorium,” in which a gaggle of spooky-looking antique dolls takes over the museum’s Odditorium space. Annabelle and Chucky, come home! St. Petersburg Museum of History, 335 Second Ave. NE, 727-894-1052. And don’t forget these ongoing treats: War of the Worlds at freeFall, the MFA reopening, Mort LaCort at Jobsite, Letters to Kamala at American Stage and Kitchen Witches at Early Bird.
dR Daily 10/27/20: Need a laugh? Meet Mort LaCort
So much of the news this year has been bad, it’s time for a corrective: bad news that’s intentionally bad, and as a result hilariously funny. I’m talking about the inimitable Mort LaCort, the creation of actor and expert farceur Jonelle Meyer. Mort, a rumpled hack of a TV reporter, made his debut delivering the commercial breaks for Suncoast AIDS Theatre Project at American Stage and went on to gigs like Creative Loafing‘s Best of the Bay. Now he’s got a show of his own, but he’s been furloughed to his mother’s porch. That’s the premise of the half-hour video Too Far with Mort LaCort, part of Jobsite Theater’s “Digital Shorts” series, and at $1.99 for a 30-day rental or $4.99 to buy, it’ll be the best money you spend this pandemic since raiding the paper product aisles at Costco. And speaking of paper, Mort/Jonelle’s version of the anchorman-endless-paper-shuffle is a comedy bit that makes this video a must-see all by itself.
dR Daily 9/29/20: Tuesday Night Fights: Rays vs. Jays and Biden vs. Trump
You survived the Lightning’s big Stanley Cup win. Can your heart stand another bout of nail-biting, heart-stopping mano à mano drama? How about two of ’em? First up on this evening’s fight card: Rays vs. Jays at the Trop. The top-seeded Rays begin their playoff run in the best-of-three AL Wild Card Series against the Toronto Blue Jays. We’ve beaten them more than they’ve beaten us this season, especially at home, but they’ve got some scary hitters, so, just like those pesky Dallas Stars, they won’t make it easy. 5 p.m., TBS. And then there’s the Main Event: the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. If Trump does that stalking thing again like he did with Hillary, will Biden turn around and deck him one? Will Chris Wallace heave a Truth-O-Meter at them? Will any of these political theatrics swing even one undecided voter? That remains to be seen, but whatever happens, the debate is must-see TV. 9 p.m., ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, MSNBC and CSPAN. Or listen on NPR.
Home Design 2020: Steve Rogai wants to build your dream
When Steve Rogai builds a home, he pays attention to every detail. Even the view from the toilet. “I will try to explain this one to you without being crude,” he says as he shows me the underside of a windowsill that’s only visible from where he’s sitting — on the toilet in a luxury home he built in South Tampa’s Sunset Park neighborhood. “Every painter I have misses that strip,” he explains. “I tell my project managers I will come in here, I won’t use the toilet, but I come in here and sit down.” Because, he says, this is the view the homeowners will have, and he doesn’t want them to be confronted every day with an unfinished paint job. It’s the kind of care that clients can (or at least should) expect from a developer building them a multimillion-dollar custom home. And for Rogai, it’s personal — because he treats each home he builds as if it were going to be his own. “I get to build my dream home every time on someone else’s wonderful budget,” he says, “and then I get to get paid for it.” Modern Capital Development Group, which Rogai founded three years ago, is all about building dreams — on spec. “I start on speculation, find the lots on speculation, spec out a floor plan and begin to build,” he explains. “And if I’ve got a client by drywall or framing [stage], they can pretty much pick everything except the floor plan.” That’s what happened in the Sunset home. The owners, Cheryl and Harvey Adams, bought it last year when it was in the block stage — a 4,918-square-foot single-story shell on an oversized lot. And they did so without even having attended the “block party” — an open house Rogai threw for 100 guests in the unfinished structure, complete with red carpet, refreshments and virtual reality goggles so that guests could walk around the concrete slab and envision the space with furniture and flooring. The finished product turned out to be a shining success. Created in collaboration with architect Randall Smith and interior designers Allan Domagas and Effie Griffith, the home is a model of understated elegance. “Everything flows so beautifully,” says Adams, who was in Canada during much of the six-month construction period and communicated with Rogai via Facetime. “He has impeccable taste, and I trust him. He doesn’t do ugly.” Before founding ModCap, Rogai, 43, traveled down many career paths, but his skills in marketing and customer service were a constant. He started in retail, got into real estate and mortgage financing, dabbled in reality TV (a show about lottery winners), and forged a partnership with Kevin Harrington, launching products as seen on Shark Tank. It was a glamorous gig for a while — the company had offices in NYC and Toronto and London, he rang the NASDAQ bell twice and met celebrity spokespeople like George Foreman, 50 Cent and Suze Orman. But the “As Seen On TV” biz was eventually outdone by Amazon because people were taking their viewing (and their buying) online. When he returned to real estate, his experiences among the affluent drove him in a new direction. “I became more laser-focused on high-end luxury,” he says. Having dealt earlier in $250,000-$500,000 properties, he’s now building homes in the $2-$5-million range — with six under construction right now. On Beach Park’s Neptune Way, he’s on his third house; he’s there so much that he’s practically an honorary neighbor. “They call me the mayor.” Rogai has madea conscious decision to stick with a “modern, clean-lined flair” in his homes. “No one’s doing Mediterranean Tuscan anymore,” he says of Florida’s familiar architectural style. But, in the Sunset home and in a planned contemporary Tudor in South Tampa’s Golf View Park neighborhood, he is finding ways to merge modern with traditional. Sunset, for instance, is in what he calls a “transitional” style. Arched doorways and windows evoke Spanish architecture of the past, but the striking black and white color scheme is very much of the moment. The home he’s building in Golf View, he says, is “kind of an homage to what was there before”: a nearly 100-year-old brick Tudor he bought from the estate of its late owners. The house he’s planning to build in its place retains a hint of Tudor detailing — pitched rooflines, double-hung windows — but otherwise the vibe is pure 21st-century. He’d hoped to salvage some of the original hardwood from the interior, but it proved impossible to remove safely. However, when the owners’ children reached out to him and asked for mementos of their parents’ home, he gave them each a chance to take one of the bricks that had graced its facade. Family’s important to Rogai. He’s divorced, but he and his wife share custody of their two teenagers. To be closer to their schools, he moved out of his home in Carrollwood (a 4,000-sq.ft. Mid-Century Modern he renovated himself) to a much smaller place in South Tampa. Though he sometimes misses the extra space, he doesn’t want the headache (or the staff) that a larger home requires. And besides, he gets to vicariously experience luxury living with every home he builds. Showing me around the Adams home, he’s as proud of its many distinctive features as if he owned it himself: the screen on the lanai (“there’s no horizontal or vertical bracing so it virtually disappears”); the line of fishtail palms that provide privacy for the pool (“it’s a complete sanctuary”); even the finishes in the garage, which he boasts are the same as those inside the house. But he seems proudest of the little extras, like the welcome packages he leaves for new homeowners, packed with tape measures, pizza coupons and other handy move-in items. And then there’s this small but ingenious detail: In each home he builds, he leaves containers of the paints used on the project, each one labeled by color and room. So if the owners decide to do a touch-up, they don’t have to make a trip to Home Depot — they’ve got the right colors already. It’s a touch that delighted Cheryl Adams. “Who does that?” she asks. “Nobody does that! “And did you see he made sure not to put it in paint cans?” The above story is in the Fall 2020 issue of duPont Registry Tampa Bay. Hard copies are due to be showing up in fine mailboxes near you any day now, but meanwhile, enjoy the digital edition.
Home Design 2020: The bold interiors of Rob Bowen
The client’s request was a bit startling, even to an interior designer known for making bold choices. “I want a tartan game room,” she said. “And I’m like, ‘A tartan what?’” remembers Rob Bowen. “She was like, ‘Tartan plaid. Like Ralph Lauren. I also want them to be all historic registered tartans.’” He was reluctant at first. “I love that you love this, but…” “Oh, you can do it,” she responded, “and it’s going to be the best version of this that’s ever been done.” She was right. You might think all that tartan would be overwhelming, but instead the room (above) is a dazzler. It’s at once witty, daring and — a favorite design word of Bowen’s — sexy, a mix of patterns and textures that shouldn’t work together but totally do. That sense of drama, tempered by a respect for scale and proportion, is one reason why Bowen has become the go-to designer for penthouses from Beach Drive to Manhattan and country homes from Aspen to the Hudson Valley (where the tartan room resides). He says there’s “a common underlying DNA” to his firm’s designs. “We don’t want to be predictable… but anyone who walks into any of the homes that we create could say, ‘Was Rob Bowen involved in this project?’ Whether it’s Mediterranean, or French Country, or super hip mod…” Or… Tartan plaid. “I’m going to give you your Tartan plaid, but I’m going to throw in some bronze, I’m going to throw in some fur, and I’m going to make sure those ceilings are the most spectacular ceilings” — coffered ceilings, to be precise, in navy and green hair-on hide. “At the end of the day we’re going to give you the best version of whatever you imagined times 10.” You can tell Rob Bowen (above) loves his job. Showing me around the offices of Rob Bowen Design Group near Beach Drive, he has the “Look at this!” enthusiasm of a kid sharing his favorite toys — albeit a tall, dark and handsome 42-year-old kid. “This is where we’d have your whole entire home set up,” he says, “basically on this board.” Swatches and samples have been methodically arranged on a countertop to show the finishes Bowen will be using in a client’s penthouse: squares of sea-green embossed leather “with a python vibe” for the dining room chairs; geometric floor paneling in wedges of grey wood; a shiny, aqua-tinged square of striated glass that will be used for the kitchen cabinets. “Isn’t that awesome?” he asks, holding it up to the light. “This is a custom piece of glass that we had made… three pieces of glass that have been sandwiched together to create this specific color temperature.” https://www.facebook.com/dupregtampabay/videos/688191861773206/ Later, he takes me to the site where all of these ideas will come to life — in a 3,338-square-foot residence on the 42nd floor of ONE St. Petersburg, purchased in 2019 for $4.1 million by housing developer M. Patrick Carroll. When Carroll bought it, says Bowen, “it was just a developer shell — concrete floors, basic ceilings, laundry, sink and a kitchen.” Now Bowen’s team is turning it into the ultimate bachelor pad, with accouterments like a massive shower with 150 water jets and an intimate media room with draperies that can be opened and closed at the push of a button. Those required, among other feats, raising the floors and lowering the ceiling for the media room and calculating how many gallons per minute the shower drain would be able to accommodate. Bowen emphasizes that every design project is a team effort — senior designer Marie Maldonado; contractors like Daren Masters of Axion Construction, who’s working with him on the Carroll home among other projects; Bowen’s husband and business partner Jason Teabout, a retired military man — all challenge him and help transform visions into reality. Because Bowen’s job is not just about sourcing fabrics and choosing color palettes. It’s about such mundane but vital considerations as where to put the light switch, where the air vent is — not to mention those gallons per minute. “It’s not just what a room looks like,” says Bowen, “but how is a client going to live?” Massive showerheads aren’t an issue in the next penthouse unit Bowen shows me at ONE. The challenge with this design, also still under construction, is making sure the walls will accommodate the owners’ large art collection — and that the space, which wraps around the north end of the building, is fluid and commodious enough for entertaining. Where the Carroll unit is all sharp angles and planes, this one is all curves — reengineered with sinuous walls and ceilings and a highly stylized bar. The two units couldn’t be more different — “like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” says Bowen — but that’s the point: While he brings his particular tastes and experiences to everything he does, his task for each client is to realize their dreams, not impose his own. The third unit he shows me in ONE, the only finished product I’m able to see in person, is much smaller than the penthouse units — Bowen calls it a “jewel box.” But it’s full of drama nevertheless, with flowing rivers of grey, black and white in the living room rug and the marble kitchen island; a streak of orange flame (actually water vapor in color-changing LED light) flickering in a low-slung black fireplace; an angular blue glass sculpture by Richard Royal from the Duncan McClellan Gallery on a glass dining table; a chandelier that looks like a cubist double helix; a marble kitchen backsplash with brass inlays. “Every single thing in here was custom-made specifically for this home,” says Bowen. “Every square inch of this place has been mulled over, edited, executed, edited again, executed, more editing…” Bowen was always interested in design and art, even when he was a little boy. “Starting around age 7 or 8, my mom [former Pinellas Schools Superintendent Julie Mastry] wouldn’t let me keep repainting my room, so I would cover it with construction paper to change the color.” He grew up in Belize, where his parents met as high school sweethearts, and after they divorced he moved to Florida with his mother and brother but spent summers and holidays with his father in Belize, where “I’d always be painting —big watercolors, with big broad strokes.” After graduating from Lakewood High, he studied business and communications at FSU; he didn’t take design courses because he didn’t want people to think he was gay. (He did come out in his sophomore year, but “laid very low.”) It wasn’t till 2008, after several years in
S is for Sports: Rays, Bucs, Bolts, Rowdies — they're baaack!
For the last several weeks, we’ve been teasing the content of this year’s A to Z Issue, a celebration of people and businesses who have been successfully riding the turbulent waves of change and offering service and hope to the community at large. The print edition is now arriving in local mailboxes, but if you can’t wait for the hard copy, here’s the digital version — and meanwhile, welcome to the letter “S”: The long hiatus is coming to an end, pro sports fans. Of course, we may not be able to attend games in person, but we can rev up our devices and watch as Tampa Bay’s teams return to action. Rays: The 60-day schedule began July 24-26 with a series win against the Blue Jays, followed by a 14-5 corker against the Braves, with Rays hitters delivering an 8-run 4th inning and pitchers breaking a club record with 19 strikeouts. The Braves series continues through Thursday, and then it’s on to the Orioles. But stay tuned; the coronavirus outbreak among the Miami Marlins is causing some to wonder whether the MLB season is already a goner. Buccaneers: Players are scheduled to report to camp today, July 28. A shortened pre-season follows, and then the Bucs kick off the regular season on Sept. 13 with a game against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints. And oh, by the way: Did you hear that Tom Brady’s our new quarterback? And that Jameis Winston went to the Saints? Oh, you did. Right. I guess it was in the news. Lightning: Playoffs are to begin in the two hub cities, Edmonton and Toronto, on Aug. 1, with the Lightning playing an exhibition game against the panthers on July 29 and opening the round robin on Aug. 3 against the Caps. Rowdies: The team resumed play July 11 against Atlanta United at Al Lang Stadium. As for pro basketball, you’ll be able to take in all the action just by driving up I-4 to Orlando for the NBA restart, which is slated for July 30 at the Walt Disney World Resort, or by heading down to Bradenton’s IMG Academy for the WNBA season. Next: T is for Travel: Safer staycations and great rates for Floridians
Weekend Top Ten 2/13-16: Ten Ways to Feel the Love
Is music the food of love? Maybe. Some might say that food is the food of love, or laughter, or a good ol’ yarn of love and intrigue. Find all these categories and more in this weekend’s top 10. Note: I’ve tried to avoid listing weekend events that are already sold out, like Willie Nelson and the Beach Boys at Ruth Eckerd and Whitney James at the Palladium, and though I link to dRTB’s list of romantic restaurants, better check with them first before making plans. 1. Dance! Jazz Theory: A Dance-Jazz Collaboration at The Studio@620. A promising marriage if ever there was one: projectALCHEMY, led by the brilliant dancer/choreographer Alex Jones, is teaming up with jazz saxophonist Jeremy Carter for an evening of music and dance, exploring favorites like “Killing Me Softly” and “My Funny Valentine.” Small appetizers and beer and wine from St. Pete local breweries. 2/14-15, 7:30 p.m., The Studio@620, studio620.org. 2. Dine! Choose from dRTB’s list of romantic restaurants — and check out Cindy Stovall’s love letters to two restaurateur couples who’ve found a way to mix love and cuisine. 3. Greens! Who makes the best collard greens in Tampa Bay? Head to the Deuces on Saturday to find out at the Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival, where you can also enjoy cooking demos, get gardening tips and lots more. And on the night before, there’s a reception and interview at Tombolo Books with the cookbook author and food historian Toni Tipton-Martin. Reception, 2/14, 6-9 p.m., Tombolo Books, 2153 1st Ave. S., St. Petersburg. Festival, 2/15, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Dr. Carter T. Woodson African American Museum, 9th Ave. & 22nd St. S., St. Petersburg, and surrounding streets, tbcgf.org. 4. Sax! Raschér Saxophone Quartet with the Florida Orchestra. There’s nothing saxier than good sax. I could go on with the puns, but no — I’ll just say that this remarkable quartet headlines an American Masters concert, playing Philip Glass’s Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra, Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Bernstein’s Candide Overture, and Theofanidis’s Symphony No. 1. Straz Center 2/14, 8 p.m.; Ruth Eckerd Hall 2/16, 7:30 p.m., floridaorchestra.org. 5. Joust! Tighten your bodices and polish your armor, it’s time to eat giant turkey legs and root for your liege on the jousting field. The Bay Area Renaissance Festival kicks off this weekend with a Wine, Romance & Song theme featuring special events like the Cupcake Crusades, Wedding Wars and a Chocolate Festival. Saturdays and Sundays 2/15-3/29, 10 a.m.-6 p.m, 11315 N. 46th St., Tampa, bayarearenfest.com. 6. Read! Randy Wayne White‘s latest Doc Ford thriller, Salt River, is all about love and intrigue and, um, semen. Hear him read at Haslam’s today to learn the details. 2/13, 3 p.m., Haslam’s Book Store, 2025 Central Avenue, St. Petersburg, haslams.com. 7. Sing! One City Chorus with the Alumni Singers at the Palladium. A concert by One City Chorus, the community chorale led with precision and wit by Jon Arterton, is a guaranteed source of joy, which will no doubt be doubled by the presence of the Alumni Singers. 2/16, 4 p.m., The Palladium, 253 5th Ave. N., St. Petersburg, mypalladium.org. 8. Stomp! Boogie Woogie Blues Piano Stomp at the Palladium. Two grand pianos, four great boogie and blues pianists. The Palladium’s Boogie Woogie Blues Piano Stomp returns with headliner Victor Wainwright, the “Piana from Savannah” (pictured), along with Key West legend Barry Cuda, Los Angeles boogie master Rob Rio, and St. Pete’s own Liz Pennock and Dr. Blues. 2/15, 8 p.m., Hough Hall, The Palladium. 9. Swoon! Andrea Bocelli at Amalie Arena. “Do not call him the blind bombshell. Do not call him the blind bombshell. Do not call him the blind bombshell.” OK, there, got that out of my system. The dashing tenor is many folks’ idea of swoon-worthy, so don’t be surprised at the prices for this Valentine’s Day show at the Amalie with the Opera Tampa Festival Chorus. 2/14, 8:30 p.m., Amalie Arena, Tampa, amaliearena.com. 10. Trocks! Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at the Cap. Testosterone in tutus. A mix of ballet expertise and inspired slapstick that never fails to delight. 2/15, 8 p.m., Bilheimer Capital Theatre, Clearwater, rutheckerdhall.com.
REALtor® LOVE: Janet & Larry Mendez
“We never started out thinking about working together,” says Janet Mendez. Before she and her husband, Larry Mendez, teamed up as real estate agents at Smith & Associates, she was enjoying her job as concierge for what is now Bank of America Plaza in downtown Tampa, and Larry was selling boats and acting as a fishing guide. “Then I had to get a real job as a Realtor,” said Larry, “and I don’t even like working for myself.” That line got a big laugh from Janet, as we sat talking by the dock at a friend’s waterfront home in South Tampa’s Belmar Shore neighborhood. He makes her laugh a lot, which is likely one reason they’ve been married for 37 years and are going into their 25th year as a real estate team. “I joined Smith in 1995 when I quit guiding,” said Larry, “and Janet joined me a year and a half later because she got jealous that I’m always looking at houses.” They’ve developed an effective partnership since then, judging by the comments on their website praising Larry’s negotiating smarts and Janet’s charm and perseverance. They share a clear sense of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. For instance, says Larry, “I am not good at follow-up thank-you notes. Janet is better at that.” “My mother brought me up right,” she explained. “You always have to write a note.” [She sent me a thank-you note a few days after this interview.] Larry also admires his wife’s work ethic. “Like when you’re working up a market analysis for somebody, you can do it in a few minutes, but with Janet it takes hours because she’s gonna go back and look at all the pictures.” (Another laugh from Janet.) As for Larry, says his wife, “He tends to be pretty straightforward with people — as you can tell. And I think he can be very creative in the way he presents offers and how to negotiate. There’s an art to that because there’s a lot of feelings involved.” They both allow that he’s a bit more patient with clients than he can be at home. She tested his patience big-time with one particular real estate transaction — their own. When they moved into a home in Parkland Estates, the South Tampa neighborhood where Larry grew up, he expected they’d only be there for two or three years until they found something else. But… “She looks around at houses for five years,” says Larry, “and nothing.” “I was the worst client you’d ever want,” says Janet. “I could never find a house that I liked.” (They wound up tearing down the interim house and building on the lot.) The couple has a grown son and daughter and three young grandsons for whom Janet is a regular Saturday babysitter; Janet’s parents (her father’s 99 and her mom’s 95) live in an expansion at the back of their home. Tampa natives and Plant High grads, they didn’t know each other in high school. “We probably wouldn’t have liked each other,” said Janet. “As a senior in high school I wouldn’t have paid attention to a tenth grader… please!” But commerce and blood ties prevailed. Their families were professionally connected — his father had a trucking company, her family had a tire business — leading to Larry and Janet being set up on a blind date by his brother and her father. They went to Bern’s. “Larry didn’t say but maybe three words the whole time,” remembers Janet. But then he took her on a ride to the beach in his 1974 Porsche Carrera (he’s a lifelong Porsche fan) and the romance kicked into gear. What are the advantages of working together as a couple? “The fact that we have the same life goals pretty much,” says Janet. “And there’s no one that you can be more honest with than your spouse.” The other advantage is what you might call the tag-team effect. “Sometimes one of us is going to click better with somebody,” says Larry. “I’m not a warm and fuzzy guy. She is.” And the disadvantages? “You don’t really ever turn it off,” said Janet. “You come home, but so much of your day is wrapped up in what you’re working on. We keep saying we should take a vacation together.” But there’s no question that they are together. The owner of the home where we met for the interview once hosted a Valentine’s dinner there during which she asked the husbands to write notes about what makes their marriages work. Guests then tried to figure out which husband wrote what. Neither Janet nor Larry remembers exactly what he wrote, but she says it was “the most romantic thing.” And it made an impression. “Larry,” she said, “was the hero of the night.” Want more REALtor® LOVE? Read about two other couples who’ve made love and real estate the perfect match: Don & Sarah Howe Tracie Mayo & Eileen Donovan
What Makes You Happy? We asked. You answered.
It’s a seemingly simple question. For duPont Registry Tampa Bay’s first Health & Happiness Issue, we asked readers and advertisers and Facebook friends, and asked ourselves, too. Some of the answers were expansive, some short and sweet, some clipped and just faintly sarcastic. But is the question really all that simple? It might prompt you to consider the whole of your life — and whether your answer is a laundry list or the first thing that comes to mind, just thinking about it can be its own reward. Or reading about it. That’s been making us happy at dRTB, and we hope you feel the same. Browse through the gallery, where you’ll find the respondents in alphabetical order by last name. Or read the list below, which is ordered in more or less random fashion. [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”40″ display=”basic_slideshow”]Rick Kriseman, Mayor of St. Petersburg My family comes first and makes me happiest. I love when my daughter visits from college, or when I get to spend quality time with my son on a golf course. My wife Kerry is my best friend, and we are proud of our children and find joy in spending time with them and our dogs (there’s been many over the years, thanks to our role as ‘puppy raisers’ for Southeastern Guide Dogs). As a public servant, happiness is hearing positive feedback from a constituent or city employee. It is gratifying to be mayor at this pivotal moment in St. Pete’s history, as we truly come of age. There are, of course, many challenges and stressors running one of Florida’s biggest cities, but it remains the best job in the world and coming to work always makes me happy. Chelsea McMillan, Founder, Sunshine State Goods Anytime I witness a child smile authentically at something, it feels magical to me. Catherine Chavanne, French instructor Any moment spent with my adult daughters who live here in Florida, but also my yearly trip to Paris to see my parents and friends over there, and of course my strolls in the city. Or, to put it another way… Tout moment que je peux passer avec mes grandes filles qui vivent ici, en FL, mais aussi mon voyage annuel à Paris pour voir mes parents et mes amis, et bien sûr mes promenades dans la ville. Laura Fage, Signature Events/Patina A Sunday afternoon at home with my nose in a book and a cocktail by my side… poolside. Day turns into night, the pool is illuminated, and I float in the warm water in perfect silence looking up at the starry, starry night. Bill Brown, President and Chief Chocolate Officer, William Dean Chocolates Honestly, I am somebody who wants others to be happy. That makes me happy. And I am always happy on Friday nights when I make my traditional trip to the movies, get my popcorn and sit down and watch whatever is playing. It makes me nostalgic and happy! Whitney Murphy, Studio Manager, Orange Theory Fitness Largo As cliché as this is, fitness makes me happy. I like to sweat, I like the feeling, I love the people in the community. If I’m not working out, I’m not happy. (Answered during dRTB Live 4/2) Bob Gualtieri, Pinellas County Sheriff Spending time with my daughters: Watching the Lightning with Lauren and any chance I get to spend time with Jordanna and Christina. Michael Tomor, Executive Director, Tampa Museum of Art Working in my garden. We live in this great little paradise. I had a greenhouse attached to my garage in Pennsylvania. Now all my pots are outside in my yard. David Yates, Chief Executive Officer, Clearwater Aquarium; Co-Producer, Dolphin Tale; Executive Producer, Dolphin Tale 2 How Winter the dolphin’s story brings transformative encouragement to sick and injured kids and wounded soldiers. It doesn’t get old….happens every day. Ian Prosser, Botanica International Design Studio Being able to work with flowers, of course, and create beautiful moments in families’ lives. I love to potter in the garden. My grandchildren are a source of great joy. Cindy Stovall, Host, Beauty & The ‘Burg podcast; Columnist, St. Pete Life Besides just being grateful that I woke up this morning in St. Pete, there are several things that make me truly happy. As a Mom, my son living and thriving in London, on the adventure of a lifetime, makes me happy. As a sister, aunt and friend, when I get to be in the presence of people I love, it makes me happy. As a journalist, interviewing people I would otherwise just fangirl over makes me downright giddy. As a lap swimmer, hitting that mile marker without requiring oxygen makes me feel like a boss. As an art lover, passion on the stage, color on the canvas and music in my ears makes me happy. Turns out, I’m a pretty lucky girl. Jon Arterton & James Mack, One City Chorus We give thanks every day for the opportunity to live and make music together in such a supportive, vibrant city. Michelle Wilder Larson, Executive Director, Theatre eXceptional Happiness wrapped up in the joy of others knows no comparison. For me, creating Theatre eXceptional, a professional theater company that actively recruits actors with disabilities to share the stage with area professional actors, musicians, designers and technicians, has been a source of real happiness not only for me but also for the incredible staff who works with us… Watching our actors with disabilities working hard to hone their craft, becoming more confident and creative and showing strong abilities and talents that might otherwise go unnoticed, shows me the work we do is important. Watching our professional cast and crew work side by side to mentor, encourage, support our actors with disabilities is truly remarkable. Unfulfilled dreams are the saddest aspect of anyone’s life; knowing that I have a part in giving deserving, talented actors the opportunity to learn and to perform in a professional environment — to fulfill those dreams — is a source of incredible
Flower Power: The generous vision of painter Jane Bunker
I’ve never been much of a fan of lilies. Beautiful, yes, but indoors their scent is invasive, the funeral association hard to ignore. But I may have to reconsider now that I’ve seen Jane Bunker’s paintings. A nationally recognized artist who works wonders with light and color, she makes lilies seem at once voluptuous and evanescent. From Feb. 4-28, Bunker’s gorgeous blooms will be on display at the Mahaffey Theater in the second-floor gallery space curated by Galleria Misto. But that’s just the opening act. On March 9 at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American History Museum in St. Petersburg, the paintings will be sold in a silent auction, the proceeds from which will go toward the new Woodson Warrior Scholarship for college-bound youth with at least one parent of African American heritage. “When you only have two pennies left in the world,” says a Chinese proverb quoted on the cover of the auction catalogue, “buy a loaf of bread with one and a lily with the other.” Buy a painting from the Bunker Scholarship Auction and you will, in essence, be doing both: providing nourishment and embracing beauty. Bunker, a sparkling, youthful 73, began painting at the age of 10 alongside adult students at the Farnsworth School of Art in North Truro, Mass., where her family summered and where she met her husband, photographer Mason Morfit. (Married 50-plus years, they both remember what the other was wearing the day they met.) The couple splits their time between homes in Gulfport and Cape Cod. Bunker earned a degree in art at Stanford but, worried that she wouldn’t be able to support herself by painting, got a master’s in health education and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology. She only returned to painting after retiring from psychology 20 years ago, and since that time has been represented by galleries in Santa Fe, NYC, Aspen and Boise, and had a major one-woman show in 2013 at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut. She’s particularly known for her haunting, seductively blurred landscapes. I’d gotten to know Bunker and Morfitt through mutual friends, but until one Sunday afternoon last December I’d never had the chance to sit and talk with her at length. She’d been on her feet all day, having welcomed a stream of visitors to her home studio during Art Jones, Gulfport’s annual studio tour. She was as relaxed and candid as ever; excerpts from our conversation follow: DW: Talk about the intersection between being a psychologist and being an artist, and how they feed each other. JB: I would say they’re both based in love. And they definitely feed each other, in inspiring me to connect beyond the place where I have human patterns, where I go deeper into a sort of soul place, and that’s what inspires my art — so that I can be in that place of oneness and truth and love that allows me — did allow me — to be a better therapist, and also it’s what I want my paintings to be about. So they’re very inter-connected. And another way they’re connected is that when I was a therapist, I worked in East Palo Alto in the black community — that was part of the volunteer work that I did, doing empowering work for women. And I got to be connected with a lot of the young people, as well as the children of these women. That inspired me to want to come and connect with the African American museum here — it’s sort of in my blood, part of what I really, deeply care about. So that got me thinking, how could I do what I love in painting, and also be in service? And that’s how the auction idea came about. So I think my work as a psychologist and my work as a painter really have fed each other in helping me learn about who I am and what matters most to me. And realizing that to be the kind of therapist I wanted to be, and the kind of artist I wanted to be, I needed to clear away my own junk, basically get out of my own way — so that I could let the paintings paint themselves, and really be able to see clearly what was going on with the other person, and come from a place of love. How did your subject matter evolve when you returned to painting after so many years? When I knew that I was not going to be working as a therapist anymore and I was finally going to get to paint again, I was somewhat paralyzed. I’ll bet. I thought, omigod, now what am I gonna do? I’ve got the chance, oh, no! Really. I was paralyzed. So I thought about Vincent Van Gogh and how he just painted his shoes — and I thought, you know, this doesn’t have to be anything amazing, just paint anything in the house. So I started out painting pots and pans — little still lifes. And actually my earlier training had been in still life back when I was 10, 11, 12… That sounds so funny to say you trained in still lifes when you were 10. Do you still have any of those? We do — on Cape Cod. Are they good? Mason Morfit ( who’s been listening to our conversation): Yes, they are. JB: And I only was allowed to use a palette knife in the beginning. Wow — not a brush? No, because my teacher was sure that I would get all the paints all muddied up together and wouldn’t clean the brushes well enough. So the palette knife kept everything much cleaner, with the colors all separate. So for about the first three or four years I was at the art school, I was only allowed to use the palette knife. That’s interesting, because one of the things that’s striking about a lot of your work is that the
The Joys of Art Collecting: Stories & surprises
“You look at every painting and you say, ‘Oh, wow!’” Bob Brvenik loves his art collection so much that when he returns to his Sand Key condo after being away for a while, it’s like a family reunion. “You walk in and you look at every painting and you say, ‘Oh, wow!’” says Brvenik. A 63-year-old retired real estate exec who didn’t know he was interested in contemporary art until he met artists’ agent Alison West Brown, he built his collection according to a rule I heard from everyone I spoke with for this story: Don’t buy a work of art because it matches the couch, or because you think it’ll make good money on resale, or because you want to impress your friends. Buy what you love. Bob Brvenik: “Around every corner there’s a surprise.” Three years ago, Brvenik (pronounced Brenik) bought his condo and enlisted interior designer Suzan Decker Ross to help with a radical rebuild. “I was always a traditionalist,” he says, but the look he was going for now was anything but traditional. “I guess I’m discovering new things about myself ”—including, once Decker Ross connected him with Brown, new things about his taste in art. “Bob came in through my front door,” remembers Brown, “and he started turning around in circles.” The view from the doorway of her imposing Clearwater home is a testament to Brown’s passion for collecting. The walls, the bookshelves, the tables are stacked and double-stacked with art of all kinds, from solemn to wacky, traditional to pop. “I was overwhelmed,” he recalls. “Five minutes into it I was ready to leave.” But then Brown showed him her gallery—a smaller space over her garage in which she shows works by the artists whom she represents. “I didn’t know I liked this kind of art,” she recalls him saying. He’d thought he was going to fill his condo with faux Impressionists, but she had other ideas—like a big abstract called “Thought Bubbles” by St Petersburg-based artist Kate Cummins, with a central block of golden, glowing color. “At first I thought it was like a New York City taxi coming to run me over,” says Brvenik. “Then the moment we put it up, it was like, wow.” Brown can sympathize with his evolving tastes. “I went from a lot of very traditional Southern art to being in love with pop art, colorful art, art that tells a story and even art that doesn’t make sense.” And art with a sense of humor, a quality Brvenik looks for, too—hence their mutual fondness for painter Marc Levasseur, whose flamboyant rooster, “Big Papa,” greets Brvenik’s visitors as they get off the elevator, and whose Andy Warhol sendup, “Be Yourself or Go Bananas,” triggers surprised laughter from visitors in the guest bathroom. The placement of both paintings reflects an aesthetic Brvenik attributes to the Florida hotel designer Addison Mizner: “Around every corner there’s a surprise.” It’s in evidence throughout the apartment, most stunningly with the way he and Brown have hung Carrie Jadus’s gorgeous “Tranzlucid Intentions,” an oil portrait in near-psychedelic colors of a woman’s face. It takes up almost an entire wall, but you only come upon it when you look toward a bedroom corridor off the living room—and then, well, wow. Alison West Brown: “I will only try to sell something I am passionate about.” “I will only work with and try to sell something that I am passionate about and have in my own home,” says Brown. So it’s no surprise that, when we visit another of her clients, a family living in a sprawling mansion in Belleair, their collection includes some of the same artists as Brvenik’s. The owners planned for art in advance. Working with architectural firm FleischmanGarcia three years ago, they asked that the home include a gallery. The result: a beautifully lit corridor that serves as a showcase for works by Cummins, Joan Duff Bohrer and other artists represented by Brown. Art is integrated into their three young children’s lives, too. In an upstairs family room, the TV shares wall space with a Marcel Kahhak painting of a skier (reflecting a family interest) and a few steps away near the game table Greg West’s portrait of a man nose-to-nose with a rhino is a surefire laugh-getter. (Its title: “Ooh, You Need a Breath Mint.”) The furnishings came primarily from Design Interiors in Tampa, but just about all the art came from Brown — so the juxtapositions are pleasing and often surprising. The formal dining room evokes the home’s French Renaissance architec- tural style with its ornate fireplace and generously propor- tioned windows looking out on landscaped greenery. In the hallway as one enters the room, Jeff League’s “Grackle”—a photo/encaustic of a lone bird on sparse branches—echoes the natural beauty outside but also offers a bracing contrast with the interior’s opulence. “Art just makes everything pop,” says the homeowner, and her home is a marvelous case in point. Liz Dimmitt: “I have these little love affairs with the artists I collect.” Liz Dimmitt and Piers Davies know all about unexpected juxtapositions. Their marriage is a partnership of two internationally known art consultants whose spheres of interest are literally centuries apart. Dimmitt, who ran NYC’s prestigious Lehman Maupin Gallery before opening her consultancy, advises private and corporate clients interested in contemporary art. A passionate collector herself, she’s particularly interested in younger, emerging artists. Davies is an expert on artists of a different vintage—the Old Masters. His company, NYC-based Piers Davies Fine Art, helps individuals and institutions add to their collections and assess the value of works they already possess. Dimmitt describes what she does as “sort of a dating process. You get to know collectors and their tastes and get them out to see shows.” She also provides access. “A lot of times if you’re working with an art consultant, you’re in the know about what’s avail- able. Art galleries trust me to place artwork into collections that are exciting and good.” And