Sense and the City: Picking the winners at this year’s Sarasota Film Festival

My column in this week’s Ticket is all about settling into the dark of the movie theater and enjoying some high-quality flicks, just in time for this year’s Sarasota Film Festival. Here’s a taste:

My brain is a sieve when it comes to remembering people’s names, the ticker symbol for my miniscule retirement investment and what I had for dinner last night, but just say the words, “Leave the gun; take the cannoli,” “I’ll have what she’s having,” “Do I laugh now, or wait till it gets funny?” or “Yippee-ki-yay [INSERT WORD THAT’S UNPRINTABLE IN A FAMILY NEWSPAPER]” and I can tell you the film title and character speaking without even scratching my head.

I live for those rare moments when the person I’m talking to nods, gives me a knowing smile, and says simply, “De Niro in ‘Casino’ ” after I toss the line “And the eye in the sky is watching us all,” into a conversation about Google or Facebook.

In other words, I’m a cinephile — a nut for movies and films (and yes, there is a difference). So of course, I love the fact that my hometown has its very own film festival, with its ever-growing film industry bona fides. Though I generally eschew the glitz, red carpets, celebrity appearances and pricy parties — give me a ticket, a dark theater and a film that makes me laugh, cry, cringe, grab hold of the person sitting next to me, feel like falling in love or think about changing my life — and I’m golden.

Read the rest — including the films I’m most pumped about — over at the Ticket website.

Satisfy your jazz jones in Sarasota

“Jazz gets under your skin like a sultry and slightly mysterious woman – improvising, free-form, leaving you never knowing what to expect next.” Read the rest of this week’s Sense and the City column … about all that jazz! Click here to read the online version.

Would you rather go naked? Does anyone love a bare-faced woman?

Somewhere along the line, women bought into the idea hook, line and sinker that to be “professional,” “sexy,” and most of all “acceptable” — we had to put paint all over our faces. Not all women feel this way, of course, but with billions upon billions of dollars spent annually on makeup in the U.S. alone — it’s a fair bet a lot of them do. Read today’s Sense and the City column on the conundrum of the made and unmade face!

March Birds Herald Sing

Several nights, I’ve slipped quietly from the house to stand in the yard and listen. My eyes wide and searching what I call the “forest” of oaks, practically holding my breath, and unable to resist smiling; but for the life of me …
Read the rest of this week’s Sense and the City column in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune TICKET today

Women Make Great Entrepreneurs!

My Sarasota Herald-Tribune Sense & the City column this week profiles Flori Roberts, co-founder of Smart Cover Cosmetics and an honoree this year for Girls Inc of Sarasota County’s She Knows Where She’s Going award. Roberts is a fascinating, charming woman — the kind you’d like for your best friend. Click here to read Flori Roberts Serial Entrepreneur

Spring Break When You’re No Spring Chicken!

Ahhh, spring break. For the college-age set, those words signal a week of carefree bliss at the beach. It seems a tad unfair that once you grow up and leave college behind, spring break is expected to be a thing of the past. So, with that in mind, here are my top three picks for taking a well-deserved mini-break — just a few hours out of your month — guaranteed to restore your sanity and give you the glowing equivalent of a week of fun in the sun … without the sunburn.

Click here to read my suggestions — everything from Nautical Nights at Sarasota Architectural Salvage to benefit Mote Marine, Family Promise of Sarasota’s Just Desserts, and getting some meditation mojo from none other than Gary Halperin.Take a Break for Spring!

Ringling’s Town Hall: Inspirations in Creativity

In today’s Sense and the City column in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune I write about what I learned by going to the Ringling College Library Association’s Town Hall lecture with General Stanley McChrystal. And I give a shout out to Ringling alumnus Brandon Oldenburg whose short film “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” has been nominated for an Academy Award. The film is a “love letter to books” — sounds like my kinda flick.

Click here to read my column or look for it in today’s TICKET section. Town Hall: Inspirations in Creativity.

Click on the image below to watch The Fantastic Flying Books …

Things to do in Sarasota over the next few weeks

Lots of interesting people to see and learn about over the next several weeks, and this week’s Sense and the City column gives my top picks. From the Author’s Luncheon put on by the Literary Council of Sarasota to the Sarasota County Democratic Party’s annual Kennedy-King Dinner to learning about African-American Sarasotans … just click here to read Fascinating People of — and in — Sarasota

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I ♥ Hart’s Landing

Honesty and integrity are the only things we leave behind when we die. Work on it today.”

I’d like to have met the man who thought like that. But Hart seems to have left one more thing behind: A much-needed legacy of a simpler time – and a place where the heart of Sarasota lives on.

That’s an excerpt from this week’s Sense and the City column in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Hope you’ll take a moment to read it in its entirety either in the paper (Feb. 3 TICKET section) or online by clicking here: I ♥ Hart’s Landing

New Year, new me, new you … same old (wonderful) Siesta Key Beach

I love me some Siesta Key sand … read my homage to the #1 beach in the country in tomorrow’s Sense and the City column in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Siesta Key, Florida beach rules!