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Parking in Downtown Clearwater

Station Square Parking Garage is Now Open

CLEARWATER, FL (April 7, 2009)  - One hundred public parking spaces are now available in the Station Square Parking Garage located on Laura Street in Downtown Clearwater. Parking rates are $0.50 per hour with a $5 per day maximum rate.

Monthly permits are also available. The garage is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week; however, parking is enforced from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday thru Friday. Multi-space Pay & Display parking meters are located throughout the garage for customer convenience.

For more information about parking, enforcement, or permits, please call the Parking System office at (727) 562-4704 or visit www.MyClearwater.com.
Published in Pinellas County
Sunscreen Film Festival Announcement Party. Photo by Wayne Cathel. St. Petersburg, April 1, 2009 - The Sunscreen Film Festival held the announcement party of their fourth annual festival on April 1st at Nova 535 in St. Petersburg.

Each year the event gets bigger and better. Last year, John Travolta attended the festival. This year, Patrick Wilson plans on attending (his film, Passengers, is the opening night film this year). Mayor Baker showed his support by putting in an appearance at the party while also talking about how excited he was for the Grand Prix in St. Pete that weekend.

The festival began five years ago when friends Derek Miner and Tony Armer got together while working on an indie film in their kitchen and decided to put on a film festival to meet more people in the industry. The first Sunscreen was held at Studio 620 and had many local filmmakers and a total of 600 people in attendance. This year’s festival will be held at Muvico Baywalk, and the festival’s 68 independent films come from all over the country and the world.
 
Published in Film

Japanese Culture and Lantern Festival to Celebrate Sister Cities’ 50th Anniversary

CLEARWATER, FL (April 2009)  –  The City of Clearwater will commemorate the 50th anniversary of its Sister Cities relationship with Nagano, Japan with their Japanese Culture and Lantern Festival on April 25th from 4-8:30pm in Station Square Park, downtown Clearwater. It will feature all things Japanese including cultural displays, demonstrations, musical performances and the festival’s highlight: a lantern lighting at dusk.
Published in Events
Chad Moore (left) and Eric Odum (right) - Photo by Simaen Skolfield
Chad Moore (left) and Eric Odum (right) - Photo by Simaen Skolfield

Tampa, FL (March 2009) - The Gasparilla International Film Festival came and went, leaving a very exhausted but pleased Eric Odum at the end of the after party at the Old Firehouse in Tampa. When I first spied the man who helped found the GIFF at the opening night party, he was the festival’s President. When we were actually able to sit down to an interview at the closing night party, he had turned his crown over to Chad Moore.  

Eric Odum spoke passionately about his love of film, a love he developed when he lived in Brazil and was made to watch a Pedro Almodóvar film. He watched it over and over until he not only learned Spanish, but developed an appreciation of artistic cinema. His purpose in co-founding the GIFF was to fill the gap left by the absence of art house cinema in Tampa, to give local filmmakers a chance for exposure and bring to the Tampa Bay Area the films audiences wouldn’t otherwise get a chance to see, like Il Divo, the controversial biopic based on former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.

Published in Hillsborough County
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Home Run for a Drug Free World

Photo by Jesse Chalupsky
Photo by Jesse Chalupsky
Clearwater, FL (March 2009) - The Drug Free World fundraising event was held at the Toronto Blue Jays vs. Detroit Tigers spring training game. About 3,000 “Truth About Drugs” booklets were handed out to the game attendees, and 40 children signed up to be Drug Free Marshals. They were brought out to the field at 12:30, just before the game began, and pledged to not do drugs.
Published in Pinellas County
(left to right) Vice-Mayor George Cretekos, AIAI President Jack Potter and Executive Director Pat Luefan - Photo by Simaen Skolfield
(left to right) Vice-Mayor George Cretekos, AIAI President Jack Potter and Executive Director Pat Luefan - Photo by Simaen Skolfield

Clearwater, FL - On March 21st, Artists in Action International (AIAI) celebrated their anniversary in addition to having a Grand Opening of their new Mission: Beautification Gallery space located conveniently downtown at 400 Cleveland Street.

The Mission: Beautification Gallery provides an opportunity for local artists to be seen. A few people I talked to had this as their first showing of artwork. Like Andrejas Lazdins, who found out about AIAI through Craigslist. He attended The International Academy of Design and Technology and does photographic and graffiti art, but this is his first time displaying his artwork.

Published in Events
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Crisis Buster - "The Art of Pull Selling"

Patrick Valtin THE ART OF “PULL SELLING”

Part 1 - Three Secrets that can Help You Boost Your Income... with your Customers‘ Blessing!

In a previous article, Patrick Valtin provided useful tips on how business owners should deal with the economic crisis. In this article he shares very powerful principles on successful salesmanship. What attitude is right, if you life depends on selling something? What selling skills are vital if you want to succeed in difficult times?

In the first part of this in-depth article, Patrick Valtin presents vital principles of selling in over-competitive, saturated markets. Recognized as an international expert in sales strategies, Patrick has trained over 45,000 sales professionals and executives on the subject of salesmanship. Here, he presents how you what customers consider as most important in their relationship with you, the sales Pro, and how you can pull them into wanting your product…without pushing!

Published in General

Desiree Lotz

You wouldn't want to raise race horses in Wisconsin because the soil there is high in calcium, which makes them way too relaxed. Cattle raised in Wisconsin are big, easy-going and relaxed.  In contrast, breeders in Kentucky don't raise contented cattle but race horses - nervous, jumpy, raring-to-go race horses.  That's because the soil is high in phosphorus and low in calcium, which results in wound-up, chomping-at-the-bit, high energy horses. They can't relax and that's what you want in a race horse. 

Published in General

The red carpet at the historic Tampa Theatre. Photo by Simaen Skolfield. Cupcakes, Red Carpet and Armand Assante  What More Could a Girl Want?

Tampa, FL (February 2009) - For ten days, The Gasparilla Film Festival turned Tampa into Hollywood, with all those film types hanging around. For a second it felt as if the Superbowl was back in town; having the nervous feeling that you’ll turn around and bump into Matt Dillon.

Emmy Award winner Armand Assante was honored at the festival with the Career Achievement Award, and was a very pleasant gentleman. We sat down for an interview and ended up chatting endlessly about our acting training and techniques. His advice for young actors was, “If you chose to act, act, and don’t look back.”

In a full-length dress reminiscent of a cloud, Gasparilla Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Terry Moore floated by. In her 80s, she still managed to radiate that vintage sophistication and beauty. She had been married to Howard Hughes, and I wanted to go up to her and verify a few Old Hollywood rumors, but I was whisked off to another interview.

Published in Film

Station Square Park Downtown Clearwater FL. Photo by Simaen Skolfield Fountain in the Park
Station Square Park Opens in Downtown Clearwater

Clearwater, FL (February 26, 2009) - Throughout history, fountains have served to fulfill both the practical and aesthetic needs of society. Public fountains were a social gathering point for people while they also collected water for drinking or bathing.

Today, in many great cities, fountains still symbolize artistic and social ideas. It is therefore only fitting that part of the City of Clearwater’s Revitalization Project included an invigorating fountain as the entrance point to Station Square Park.

Published in Pinellas County
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