by Fat Hand | Jun 3, 2011 | Fort Lauderdale
By Fat Hand
So the FTLC has been covering the local scene for one year. In this day and age, a blog that lasts longer than a couple months, let alone a whole year, is something to be celebrated. Therefore, we are throwing ourselves a one-year birthday party on Saturday, June 11, and you are invited.
The Bubble (a real-world collective as opposed to our web-based collective) has agreed to host at its real-life domain at 810 NE 4th Avenue in FTL. The party kicks off early at 5:00 in the afternoon (remember, we are turning 1…think of it as a kids party). There will be a solid lineup of booze, bands, art, food, booze, photo booth, freeze pops, and I’m sure some other random madness as is common at the Bubble.
The bands:
Ryan Alexander
Retrocities
The Goddamn Hustle
Travalonia
Manifest Test Subject
Lavola
The exhibiting artists (more TBA):
Danny Hammontree
Tracy Mendy
Nancy Goldwin
Jayne Villamizar
Lauren Britz
Ari Justin Rothenberg
Luzalma Gonzalez
Rachel DeJohn
Live painting by Laura Atria
Don’t eat beforehand because we have BBQ from Jeremiah Lewis (better known as the guy with the smoker in front of Monterey Club) and vegetarian friendly fare from Frank McGuffin (formerly of Munchie One Food Truck). Photos will be taken by Valyn Calhoun and Penelope Lane Photography will be on hand with their infamous Photo FUN Booth with tons of tacky accessories. Digital Love DJ’s Mig and Andie Sweetswirl will be spinning indie and electro all evening.
The bash continues until 11:00 p.m. with an after-party at the Green Room downtown with the band Deaf Poets. It’s $10 to get in The Bubble, but that includes complimentary beer and FTL Mules (courtesy of Green Room). So stop by and have a good time, and do what the FTLC was created to do: support and enjoy the local scene.
Find out additional deets by clicking on the facebook event page here.
And who knows, maybe Russell Brand will stop by and sing us a rendition of African Child.
by Fat Hand | Apr 12, 2011 | Local Business, News
by Fat Hand
This past weekend after having just arrived at FTL beach, I caught wind of an unfortunate rumor: the Pirate Bar had closed down. I went to see for myself and indeed, the wooden pirates stationed along the alley were gone and the doors, or openings, or whatever you want to call them, were shuttered. Pirate vacation, perhaps. Temporarily closed by health inspectors, seemed likely. But a quick check of their website confirmed the worst: Pirate Bar on FTL beach is gone. Cue the violins. Leave a bouquet of black lilies. A bar that seemed more Ft. Lauderdale than Ft. Lauderdale itself often seems, is no more.
Now, there are a couple pieces of information that may provide some silver lining:
First, as you know, and as the website linked above points out, there is another version of the pirate bar located in the old Shirttail Charlies location downtown on the south bank of the New River. It’s a good bar, has a full menu, tons of space, a pool, and outdoor picnic tables right on the dock. But the vibe is more Shirttail Charlies than it is Pirate Bar on FTL beach. It can never compete with the grungy, laid back, rock & roll feel of the original. For this blogger, it will never replace wasting away late afternoons at the beach, alternating between sake bombs and buckets of Polar beer, dangerously playing that ring game across a public alley, listening to rock music turned up a little too loud.
Second piece of info: I stopped in the pirate gift shop next door and asked the young lass working the counter what she knew of the situation. She says the landlord is taking over the bar and is currently working on renovations. The bar (or some bar) will supposedly re-open in the future.
We shall see how closely the new bar will resemble the Pirate Bar, if at all. Maybe it will re-open, seem exactly the same, and we will forget the original ever closed. Maybe. But no matter what opens in that location, be sure to go back at least one time, order a couple sake bombs if they are available, and pour one out for your old pirate friends.
by Fat Hand | Apr 11, 2011 | Fort Lauderdale
by Fat Hand
Over the weekend the FTLC checked out Ft. Lauderdale’s newest professional sports team: The Strikers. The new NASL soccer team plays its home games in Lockhart stadium and this past Saturday was their season opener against Ft. Lauderdale’s traditional rival city: Edmonton, Alberta. Edmonton is basically the Tallahassee of Alberta. When people move out of Edmonton to try to find a little culture, you know where they move? Calgary, which is just a larger version of Davie.
A sizeable (approx. 6,400 attendance) and enthusiastic crowd filtered in after a lively tailgate to cheer on the hometown team, with much of the crowd donning Strikers colors: striker red and striker yellow. Enthusiastic supporters were everywhere, with the area behind the north goal being the focus of the stadium’s drumming and singing.
The first half featured several Strikers scoring chances, but no goals. The Strikers struck first on a header early in the second half, but Edmonton rallied with two of their own and ultimately held on for a 2-1 victory, a disappointing result to an otherwise successful opening match.
Great things about the Strikers game include exciting minor-league American soccer action, inexpensive general admission tickets, and an overall fun atmosphere.
My only complaint (other than losing to a team from that horrible craphole of a city Edmonton) is that the beer is a little overpriced, at $6-$8. These prices are not unordinary for professional sports, and concessions revenue is obviously important, but this is a Strikers game not a Dolphins game. It would be nice if we enthusiastic Strikers fans could get sloshed for our team at a more reasonable price.
But that one drawback aside, the FTLC wholeheartedly supports and endorses the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers. The next home game is Friday against another traditional Ft. Lauderdale rival, the Alberta of the US: Minnesota. Tickets can be had for about the price of a beer. So grab your drum, paint your face yellow, smuggle a couple airplane bottles of gin in your pockets, and we will see you at Lockhart.
Scope out a few pics we took, after the jump…
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by Fat Hand | Mar 29, 2011 | Local Business, News, Politics
A couple months ago the FTLC visited the National Lampoon Underground on Ft. Lauderdale beach just south of Sunrise Boulevard. While we enjoyed the comedy and recommended checking it out, we also questioned whether a sparsely attended comedy club could survive at an obviously expensive location without making certain improvements (our suggestions included losing the dreadful “Naitonal Lampoon” as well as hosting local music). Well, being from Ft. Lauderdale, we obviously should have considered another option: they could support an expensive and under-attended comedy club via Ponzi scheme.
Yes, the President and CEO of National Lampoon Inc was recently arrested for defrauding investors in a $200 million Ponzi scheme. Read about it here and here.
Now, the suggestion that the Ponzi scheme is an any way connected to the comedy club on FTL beach is pure speculation, of course. And we wish the Underground nothing but the best, although we would more enthusiastically support a locally owned comedy club in the same (or another) location rather than a club run by an out-of-state company controlled by a thief. But other businesses in this fine city have been supported (for a time) via Ponzi before. And using those businesses as a guide, you should probably check out National Lampoon Underground sooner rather than later.
by Fat Hand | Mar 9, 2011 | Music
Grace Potter’s publicist was nice enough to provide your nice local FTLC bloggers a couple of free tickets to her show this past Saturday night at the Culture Room and we are appreciative. Pay attention other local establishments/organizations (I’m looking at you Miami Heat).
Having never seen Grace Potter and the Nocturnals live before, I did not know what to expect. But her intensity and driving vocals were immediately apparent and kept the crowd enthused from start to finish. The packed house was rockin’, so much so that our photographer was unexpectedly forced to put real effort into his picture taking. Nobody seemed to care that for once, we were actually kind of working. And the Culture Room staff especially did not care that the word “PHOTO” was written on our plastic bracelets. Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics nearly as much as we enjoyed the show and consider checking out Grace Potter and the Nocturnals next time they grace the FTL.
