No time to be negative—too many fun things going on.

 By Hannah Wallace

 Wow, Landlord Bob (a.k.a. Mr. Chatterbox, senior editor Bob Plunket, Bossman Bob) sure had a helluva turnout Friday night in honor of his “Decorating Can Be Murder” series. Home Resource was packed with the most interesting variety of prominent locals. As Kay Kipling just pointed out, to have Peg Nadel and Virginia Hoffman at the same event is quite a coup. Also in the crowd were Kelly Kirschner and the grandson of Charles Eames, Carolyn Michel and Howard Millman, John Scalzi, and probably a bunch of other people whose power is simply outside my range of perception.

Afterwards we grabbed a meal at Mattison’s and then frozen yogurt and tipsy chess at Whiteberry.

Even though it’s summer—traditionally sleepy time for Sarasota—things feel strangely volatile right now. I guess it’s the combination of A) expecting things to be slow this time of year, when B) there’s actually a lot going on right now and Main Street still seems so busy and alive with pedestrians, although C) several businesses have closed for good while D) several others have opened and are even thriving in what seems like the worst time of year and the worst time of the decade. It’s like a tug-of-war between Captain Enthusiasm and Dr. Dour Recession of Doom.

Apropos of nothing, I've been practicing my WTF face. Good, right?

I guess if you’re like me—still here, still have a job, no plans to leave town, no pressing financial obligations or expensive dependents (ah, there’s the kicker)—then it’s not like you’re going to hole up in your house and wait for better times. There’s a lot of fun to be had out there. Or maybe getting out and about is just a way of not dwelling on the negative—active denial. That certainly sounds like me, anyway. And maybe a lot of people feel that way, which is why my life is now an unlikely frenzy of social activity. Like the Swamp of Sadness in Neverending Story: Must keep moving, think happy thoughts…

 In that vein, Matt Orr (oh yeah, he was at Bob’s Party, too) has been touting this weekend’s Vinyl Music Festival (I love this steady stream of new and different events, so exciting). Not that it’s at all my area of expertise, but it sounds like they’ve lined up some pretty notable DJs, who’ll be spinning at venues including Esca, HorseFeathers and Evie’s. (By the way, Mrs. Harrible just told me that Evie’s owner Mike Evanoff is a pretty good player in Ellenton’s highest-level hockey league; you see, hockey players are everywhere.) So that’s on our list of activities for the weekend. So far it’s shaping up to be a pretty cool summer.

Oh, and speaking of: Thanks in no way to my inability to stay upright, our Revolution hockey team is playing for the C league championship in Ellenton next Sunday (in fact, CCB scored the game-winner in a shoot out this past weekend), capping a marathon nine-month season. It’s better-than-novice and includes some pretty decent skaters, so it should be not-irredeemably-ugly hockey. Anyone who’s ever expressed an interest in coming out to a game, this is the one to go to (I’m looking at you, SH-T Kickers). Hit me up for the details—we need fans!