What's Big and Red and Gives Christmas Cheer?

If you spend any amount of time going north on Florida Avenue in Tampa for the last three months of the year, you know it's not Santa, but the ginormous Metropolitan Ministries holiday center tent. Since I've never been inside, I decided to see it for myself. Community relations manager Ana Mendez was my guide.

On Friday, December 11th, the holiday center opens for business. Pre-registered families already qualified for services will get to "shop" for two toys per child and groceries from the huge Metro Market, a makeshift grocery store located in the tent. With the help of dedicated volunteers, 1000 families will enter the tent daily until Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, more volunteers (who began signing up for these coveted spots back in September) will feed Christmas dinner to those who would otherwise have gone without.

Ana Mendez with volunteer Kit Carson

"We've got serving down to a science. We feed 100 families every 15 minutes."

In addition to the folks who visit the holiday center for assistance, Metro Ministries provides 47 community partners toys and holiday food. These days, there is always a need for food donations, and the most urgent need for toys is for teenaged boys and girls.

MP3 players, makeup, or "anything you'd buy for yourself or a friend," is what Ana tells youth interested in holding gift drives for their less fortunate peers.

"This is Barbie central," Ana said when we entered the part of the tent designated as a toy store. The shelves were labeled for age and gender. Toys overflowed the girls and boys pre-teen and infant sections, but were barren when it came to the 12-17 year olds.

Last year 26,000 people in Tampa Bay were served by Metropolitan Ministries and their partners.

This year, the number is projected to be 29,000. The need is great, but the volunteer requests keep coming in, too. And while Christmas Day is pretty much booked up (there may still be a need for traffic managers to guide vehicles and families in and out of the tent), the need continues year round.

Can't Get This on Corporate Radio

I spent the weekend with lots of friends and friendly acquaintances: my forthcoming birthday brought a few people over for brunch, followed by a couple of neighborhood Christmas parties. Then this morning Ronny, Bev and I sat in for Jennifer Hollowell on the ND Hour, oh favorite-est of shows of mine on WMNF.

We only had a days' notice to throw the show together, but Ronny burned some excellent Christmas and do-gooder tunes off the old iMac. On the way into the radio station, driving up Florida Ave., we listened to the CD of music. Just before Chip Taylor's "Michael's Song" started, we passed through downtown. I noticed some homeless folks still sitting in doorways, their overnight resting places and haven from last nights' cold.

Nothing to me is more disheartening than wanting to help but not knowing how. Then the Chip Taylor song came on, perfect timing, as we passed the crowd gathered around the Salvation Army building, then Metropolitan Ministries.

"Michael's Song" was going to be the last song of our show today, suddenly more important to me than even playing John Lennon (He died on the 8th, my birthday...what stupid irony.), but our burned CD skipped 10 seconds into the Taylor song, so it barely got over the air. I thought I'd share this awesome song and story with the blogosphere instead.

Here's the rest of the playlist:

Artist Track Album/CD
Huey "Piano" Smith & the Clowns Silent Night Cool Yule
Frank Turner Photosynthesis Love Ire and Song
Nancy Apple Creole Boy With A Spanish Guitar Shine
Bazza I'll Be Home For Christmas Christmas News
Amazing Rhythm Aces King Of The Cowboys Stacked Deck
Emmylou Harris Sweetheart Of The Rodeo Songbird
Johnny Cash Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream Live At Madison Square Garden
Bob Dylan Here Comes Santa Claus Christmas In The Heart
Beau Brummels You Tell Me Why Beau Brummels
benny joy I Never Want To See You Again Love Zone
John Lennon Happy Xmas New York City
Butch Hancock If You Were a Bluebird Eats Away The Night
Audrey Auld Pub With No Beer Australia

The Real Music City

I assume that Austin and Nashville each have more musicians per capita than Tampa, but quality outdid quantity once again this weekend.


Jeremy Gloff's CD release party for his 16th collection, 21st Century Love Songs, shook up the Magnum Opus art show Saturday night at the Ritz in Ybor.

Judy Tampa and her Bunko Squad had their release party for Tainted the following night at the lovely Springs Theatre, with music and magic by My Little Trotsky and Harry Hayward, respectively. (Full disclosure, my Ronny played on both CD's.)

Before we headed over to the Springs, we stopped into the new Seminole Heights establishment, Ella's Folk Art Cafe, just down the street. Rebekah Pulley was playing and we can't ever get enough of her. It was great seeing a venue made for live, original music packing in the locals who came to listen and enjoy it, not just to drink and drown it out.

For a weekend at least, good music flourished around Tampa, and this season looks promising. I snagged a brief (by no means complete) concert report from Jennifer and Bev at WMNF's ND Hour (9-10 a.m. @ wmnf.org).

11/17 Awesome New Republic, Crowbar

11/19 Song writers night at Tre Amici @ the Bunker

11/19 Ronny Elliott @ Sloppy Pelican

11/19 Roy Zimmerman with Grant Peeples
@ Unitarian Universalist Church of Tampa (UU Dome) www.uutampa.org

11/19 Shawn Kyle @ 5 art Gallery 906 N. Armenia Ave, 210

11/20 Eilen Jewell/Sarah Borges at Skippers

11/20 Geri X, Pat Macdonald (Timbuk3) & Margot West at New World Brewery

11/20 Mustard Plug, The Toasters, Voodoo Glow Skulls at Crowbar

11/21 The Revival Tour in-studio on The Saturday Asylum 2 p.m. on 88.5 WMNF

11/21 Revival Tour 8:00 PM at State Theatre in St Pete

11/21 My Little Trotsky and November Foxtrot Whiskey @ Cafe Hey, 1540 N. Franklin St.

11/21 Poetry ’n Lotion, Jim Morey & Infinite Groove Orchestra at New World Brewery

11/22 GeriX Ella’s Folk Art Cafe, 5119 N. Nebraska Ave

For more local show listings, the Saturday Asylum (Saturdays from 2-4 p.m. on WMNF) has a nice, long concert report at 3 p.m.

Thanks to Jeremy Gloff & Khalid Hameed for the photos.

Key Wested

After nearly 31 years of (sporadically) living in Florida, it's always astounded me that I have never been to the Keys. Until last week that is, when Ronny and I headed down to Fantasy Fest for our belated honeymoon. Ronny's been numerous times, and he booked us at the Eden House, one of his favorite reasons for returning to Key West time and again.

Our small television-less room (various sized rooms and suites fit a myriad of budgets) was not just a comfy place to lay our heads, but also gave this do-gooder comfort because of its Green Lodging designation. It's nice to know that one doesn't have to leave their environmentalism at home when they head away for vacation.

Almost every morning we sat on the front porch or poolside to read The Citizen, a flourishing little paper that uses first names in some of its headlines and carries Nicholas Kristof's column.

We ate A LOT (mm, and drank even more), mostly at Pepe's, but we also loved The Cafe, which was darling, vegetarian, and unfortunately for them, mostly uncrowded. I kick myself for not getting a photo of the key lime pie at Blue Heaven, with what must have been five inches of meringue on top. But life is short and dessert must be consumed as soon as possible.

Eventually though, I was tired of not cooking for us so I hit Fausto's for fresh baked ciabatta, goat cheese, and hummus - a quick meal for two under $15. The cheapest of the trip, but one of the yummiest.

On our first day there we rode the touristy Conch train, and got around for the rest of the week by foot and bicycle. I couldn't get enough of the neighborhoods and the houses large and small.

Hemingway's was pretty quintessential, but we liked his cats (43 in all, each descended from Hemingway's six-toed kitty Snowball) even more than the fancy digs.

Fantasy Fest itself reminded me of a cross between Seattle's Solstice Parade and Pinocchio's Pleasure Island. I have a lot more photos of the outrageous costumes, but enough debauchery already. (Not that there's any shortage of pics around the web.)

The Cost of Growing Old in America

Howard Gleckman is a journalist who has covered health policy for the last ten years. Currently, he's a columnist for Kaiser Health News and a fellow at the Urban Institute. Earlier this year he wrote an article for AARP's Bulletin magazine on adding long-term care to the health care debate. Also this year he wrote Caring for Our Parents, an engaging book that provides a holistic look at the aged and frail (yeah, I'm talking about Medicaid here, not just the people it supposedly serves). I chatted with him earlier this week.

First, a quick Medicare/caid rundown: Medicare is the goverment's health insurance plan for persons aged 65 and over. Medicaid was designed for poor women and children, people with (designated) disabilities, and those few folks in need of long-term care. Both were created by Congress in the 1960's. Gleckman explained why long-term care is consuming more and more of Medicaid:

"In the 60's, Congress drew an artificial line between long-term care and medical care. For the most part, health care reform is focused on insurance and acute care. Not chronic and LTC. Congress is still in that box. It's not two different issues for families."

As Caring for Our Parents highlights, long-term care insurance is so expensive and plagued with all the same problems as health insurance (pre-existing conditions and the like) that several of the big companies selling it have gotten out of the business. Yet, countries like Germany, France and Japan (you know, the ones with decent health coverage for all their citizens) rely on government long-term care insurance - and their populations are almost twice as old as ours. The late Senator Edward Kennedy introduced the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act as a possible solution.

"It would be the first time a government program would help people finance long-term care needs," Gleckman said.

93-year old Natalie was among those featured in the book. A three-time widow who was left very well off, she lived at a nonprofit assisted living facility, then later moved to its nursing home unit. Over a period of just a few years, she used up half a million dollars and ended up on Medicaid. Because she outlived her money, spending $16,000 some months just on her care, now she lives among the impoverished, sharing a room in that same nursing home. Isn't that the opposite of the American Dream?

"While there's an urban myth about people hiding money to get on Medicaid, the truth is most don't have it. Natalie had half a million. You get dementia, you spend all your money," Gleckman said.

According to Gleckman, 1/3 of those 65+ will not need any long-term care before they die. But 2/3 of those will need some to varying degrees, from an extra pair of hands to help with activities of daily living like dressing, cooking and cleaning, to those who can't do anything for themselves and require skilled nursing care. Often times, those who need just a little help end up in nursing homes because Medicaid in some states doesn't pay for adult day care or home health care.

Currently 1.4 million people are in nursing homes. Another 1 million are in group homes, and the biggest group, 7.5 million, are getting long-term care at home, with lots of the help provided at no or low cost by family and friends (perhaps one of the places the government saves the most money right now). Less than 10% have long-term care insurance.

Things Not Normally Heard on the Radio

Inspired music and informative public affairs not propelled by PR firms and a broken music/media industry...Which is why community and public radio are priceless. Of course, it's not free, so throw your favorite station a bone every once in while to keep its lights on and transmitter running.

Ronny and I subbed for the alt-country ND Hour this morning on WMNF. Check it out in the archives for the next week. Here's the playlist:

Hank Penny	Bloodshot Eyes	Hillbilly Be-Bop
Bob Dylan	Boogie Woogie Country Girl	Til The Night Is Gone
Sam Baker	Mennonite	Cotton
Conner Oberst	I Don't Want To Die
Cowboy Jack Clement	Ballad Of A Teenage Queen
Kris Kristofferson	Let The Walls Come Down	Closer To The Bone
Don Gibson	Sea Of Heartbreak	RCA Country Legends
Doug Sahm	Get A Life	Get A Life
Tom Russell	Criminology	Blood And Candle Smoke
Iris Dement	Gospel Ship	Lifeline
Jesse Winchester	That's What Makes You Strong
Wes McGhee	Train Time	Wes McGhee
Ramsay Midwood	Hobo Man
Woody Guthrie	Bad Repetation	My Dusty Road

Everybody Loves Jules II

Jules played his own benefit show last weekend at the Whistle Stop Bar & Grill in Safety Harbor. Sick with cancer, his health insurance premium doubled, though they didn't drop him. (Does that make him a best case scenario?) His son Joe, 25, has been working with Jules as a mortgage lender since he graduated from USF in '06. (Jules takes the apps, Joe does the rest.)

Last Saturday, Joe chatted with me about his dad and the tough financial times.

"It got scary when we realized we couldn't meet our end...what are you gonna do? Keep the lights on or make sure the health insurance is paid?"

Below is a short video I produced of the benefit show, including the interview with Joe. (It'll also be available on Vimeo later tonight.)

Ronny Elliott and avid WMNF

volunteer Bert Gunthner

Kathy Stafford