It’s only August, but Christmas will be here soon enough. Now is the time to plan your special Christmas events - be it booking travel to go to Grandma’s house, making kennel reservations for your pets, or buying Nutcracker tickets! I went to see the Nutcracker every year as a child, and now my own daughters go to see it. The Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker will be touring the US this winter, bringing the classic tale of the Nutcracker right to you! The two locations closest to Tampa that will have the ballet this year are:

St. Petersburg - Mahaffey Theater at Progress Energy
December 21st, 2007 at 7:30 pm
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:00 pm
December 22nd, 2007 at 7:30 pm

Lakeland - Lakeland Center
December 28th, 2007 at 7:30 pm

You can buy Nutcracker tickets online for these locations, as well as the other tour dates for the Moscow ballet. Larger cities are already selling out, so call now to ensure you can get your seats! It’s such a lovely ballet. I love the music, the costumes, the sets - and the story is easy enough for a child to follow, so it’s a great introduction to ballet for your little ballerina.

If you know what song I got the above title from, you might just be interested in a concert this Saturday, July 28th! Several bands will be performing at the Lost ’80s Live Tour, one of whom is Flock of Seagulls. The show is at Jannus Landing in St. Petersburg and starts at 8pm - tickets at $19.99.

Other bands scheduled to perform at Dramarama, Gene Loves Jezebel and When in Rome. (I’ll admit, I don’t know who they are, but I’m sure I’ve heard songs from those groups at one time or another.)

I just read that Marilyn Manson and Slayer will be in concert this Friday, July 27th, at the Ford Amphitheatre. Count me out! I think we saw Marilyn Manson YEARS ago at the fairgrounds (before the amphitheatre was built) along with Green Day and Nine Inch Nails. Not my cup of tea - not when I was 18, and not now. And Slayer - I didn’t realize they were still touring! All of the “metal heads” at Tarpon High in 1993 loved Slayer.

If you’d like to go, tickets are still available and start at $33.50. I’m actually shocked at how much they cost, considering we paid about that much for Jimmy Buffet (who has a HUGE following from upper class middle aged people) and we only paid $10 for lawn seats to see Gwen Stefanie.

We’ve got passes to Busch Gardens (as well as every other theme park in the state, or so it seems!) but we haven’t been in MONTHS! Disney has just been calling my name. I think we’re about due for a trip though, especially with their Summer Nights starting up again. Staying open late is a great idea, and I don’t know why more theme parks don’t do it. (I’m looking at you, Islands of Adventure. Open til 7pm on a Friday night - duh!) The B-52s will be in concert at Busch Gardens on June 2, and the park will stay open til 10pm on most weekends.

to country…!

This Friday night, the Charlie Daniels Band will be performing at the Ford Amphitheatre. Like the Gwen Stefani show, tickets start at $10, which is a heck of a deal. Considering how nice the weather’s been, I can’t think of a nicer way to spend the evening than sitting outdoors and listening to live music!

Last night the kids and I went to the Ford Amphitheater in Tampa to see Gwen Stefani on her Sweet Escape tour. Akon was one of the opening acts. The show was amazing, the weather was perfect (I can’t believe we needed sweatshirts at night. In May. In Florida!) and our seats on the lawn were cheap ($10!) It was my 2nd concert at the Ford Amphitheater, and it’s turned into one of my favorite venues, especially when you can get cheap seats on the lawn.

Livestock may be no more, but there’s a new version of the music fest being held this weekend in Tampa. Note the move from Zephyrhills and the fields of cows to the big city - this event is being held in the parking lot of Raymond James Stadium. Instead of a 3 day event, it’s down to one, so no camping. Two stages means less of a wait between sets. You’ll be able to catch acts like Hinder, Chevelle, and Daughtry, as well as Puddle of Mudd and Papa Roach.

Several years ago, my husband and I got the chance to see The Who, in concert, for free. Friends of ours had been offered tickets at work, and apparently couldn’t GIVE them away. Our seats were in the nosebleed section of the St. Pete Times Forum, but it was great seeing legends in concert. The fans who bought tickets for this week’s show at the Ford Amphitheater weren’t so lucky - minutes after The Who came on stage, Roger Daltry walked off, and the show was cancelled due to his illness. Pete Townshend announced that the show would be rescheduled for 2 weeks from now.

I bought Gwen Stefani tickets this morning for her May 8th show at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa. I’ve been a fan of hers for years (I even named my other blog after a No Doubt song) and have always hoped to see her in concert. I was MORE than pleasantly surprised to find that the most expensive tickets for the show were *only* $69.50, and more than that - there were general admission lawn seating tickets for only $10 each! Of course, I got four of those…since we’re taking my girls for their first concert experience, cheap tickets were the way to go.

We sat on the lawn for Jimmy Buffett and it was SO nice. We had 2 big screens in front of us to see the action, the sound was great, and for $10, I’ll definitely enjoy seeing Gwen from the lawn. We paid at least double that for Jimmy Buffett, so it’s nice to see a fan give those of us willing to sit in general admission a break on the ticket prices. Props to Gwen Stefani!

Technorati Tags: Tampa, Gwen Stefani, Jimmy Buffett, Ford Amphitheatre, Ticketmaster, Harajuku Girls, No Doubt

I was listening to Sirius (HairNation) on the way home from dinner tonight (PF Changs at Westshore Mall - yum!) and heard that Winger is doing tour dates in Florida this week. The band will be in St. Pete at the State Theater on Sunday, 2/11 at 7pm. Tickets can be yours on Ticketmaster for $14.99 to $18.00 plus fees. I’m just the right age to remember Winger…they were huge when I was in middle school and high school. Who could forget “Easy Come Easy Go”? “Seventeen”?

The State is a neat place to see your old rock idols too - it’s a small enough club that you can really enjoy the show. We were lucky enough to see Warren Zevon there several years ago, and Jill Sobule (she had the song “I Kissed A Girl” make it big in the 90’s) appeared that night as well. This was before Warren Zevon was diagnosed with inoperable mesothelioma, so we never imagined it would be our only chance to see him. But what a night it was - small venue, great songs…and he and Jill did a duet of “Up Where We Belong”, which was made famous by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes in “An Officer & A Gentleman”. It was an amazing night.

Technorati Tags: The State, Winger, St. Pete, Warren Zevon, Jill Sobule, St. Petersburg, Ticketmaster