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Gallery offerings for body and soul

The Lotus Room is a combination yoga studio and art gallery that also sells the locally made Natural Mystic soaps.

ART WITH A TWIST: Yoga studios and art galleries are nothing new to South Tampa. But you've probably never seen a yoga studio and gallery rolled into one.

If you have, then how about a combination yoga studio/art gallery with a soap factory in the back?

The Lotus Room opened Dec. 1 at 1101 W Kennedy Blvd. on the northwest corner of Delaware Avenue. Business partners Val Spies and Joanne Karpay chose the spot as much for the roomy 1920s brick building as for its location along the slowly evolving downtown Kennedy corridor.

As a yoga studio, Spies intends the Lotus Room to be all encompassing. It offers many yoga styles, including hatha, iyengar and ashtanga. Classes, which are still evolving, cater to everyone from beginners to veterans, including seniors and clients who are overweight, pregnant or have special needs. The airy, old building has two classrooms - a small one for up to four students and a large one for 35 students.

In the lobby, the studio sells yoga clothing lines for men and women and the locally produced Natural Mystic brand of soaps, bath salts and oils. Spies and Karpay plan to sublease space at the back of the 3,680-square-foot building to Natural Mystic producer Deby Ciacciarelli.

Eventually, Karpay, a muralist, oil and acrylic painter, will hang her works in the lobby. Her work studio occupies another 800 square feet behind the main yoga classroom.

The Lotus Room will hold a silent art auction Jan. 24 to benefit local art veteran Bud Lee, who recently suffered a stroke. Paul Wilborn and the Pop Tarts are slated to perform.

Call the Lotus Room at 254-6777 or visit www.yogalotusroom.com

FORMER GYM TRANSFORMING: Metroflex gym closed in April after a nine-year run in South Tampa, a victim of the economy and competition from nearby Xtreme Total Health and Fitness.

But owners Alan Johnson and Greg Arbutine have kept the building on the northeast corner of Swann and Tampania avenues and intend to redevelop and lease it.

Construction recently started on the 4,500-square-foot structure, and Johnson says it will be converted into four or five units. New stucco and columns will be added to the exterior, but Metroflex's old silver mushroom color will remain. "It's kind of our signature color," he said. Three new storefronts will face on Swann and one on Tampania.

Johnson won't name any names yet but says he's negotiating with potential tenants. He's hoping to attract primarily retail tenants and perhaps an office tenant.

THE MAN SHOP: If it shoots, burps, farts or otherwise offends and propagates male stereotypes, there's a good chance you'll find it at Cool Guy Gear.

The 1,400-square-foot toy store and gift shop for dudes opened Nov. 28 at 3401-C W Bay to Bay Blvd., in the Bay to Bay Centre. Owner Michael McGann has decked out the store with a black concrete floor and chain link fence on the walls to let everyone know this ain't touchy-feely Hallmark land.

McGann says his biggest sellers so far are the Hyperdog tennis ball slingshot, along with 1970s nostalgia games Rock Em Sock Em Robots and Mattel's Football 2. He also stocks the America's Real Action Heroes line of talking dolls, including George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Donald Rumsfeld, Dennis Miller and Ann Coulter.

There's also shot and beer glasses, cooking aprons, bug zappers, hot sauces, nostalgic tin signs, BB guns and accessories, "farting" salt and pepper shakers, greeting cards and a small armory's worth of semiautomatic rubber band launchers.

Face it, guys never really grow up.

A favorite one-liner in the store: a personal urine receptacle supposedly designed for computer junkies that's labeled, "Internet Urinal. Your personal IP address." (As in I pee.)

Bada-boom.

DALE MABRY QUEST: Billie Katibah loves the exotic arts and crafts of her native Peru. So, to show them off, she and husband, Greg, opened the Quest Shop on Nov. 26 at 2120-B S Dale Mabry Highway.

Then she added a few things from Ecuador, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Bali, China, Russia and England. "We wanted a little version of the Epcot center," she said.

They're off to a decent start. The 2,600-square-foot store next door to Deborah Kent's boutique features Peruvian wares, such as Chulucanas ceramic pottery, Arequipa lava decor, leather goods emblazoned with figures from the famous Nazca plain, gloves and hats made from Alpaca wool, jewelry made from seeds, stone, silver and bamboo, and the oil and acrylic paintings of Maria Josefina.

There's also Balinese bamboo wind chimes and picture frames, silk-bound photo journal books with rice paper pages from India, Ecuadorian Tagua decor fashioned from palm tree seeds, Ecuadorian furniture, optical crystal laser art from China, tea sets from England and nesting dolls from Russia.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

- Do you know something that should be everybody's business? Call 226-3382, or e-mail mikecanning@hotmail.com

Eight candles will burn bright in this fire engine menorah made out of red wire. You can buy this Hanukkah novelty item for $60 at the Rodeph Sholom synagogue gift shop, 2713 Bayshore Blvd. The store also carries a silver wire dreidel that spins on its own stand for $28. Call 837-1911.

- AMY SCHERZER