Urban cool, heroes in pinstripes, and Mr. Potato Head

Tampa columnist HOOPER E-mail: Click here Archive

By ERNEST HOOPER

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 25, 2001

Say two simple words to any fashion connoisseur, and the eyes brighten, the smile broadens, the voice goes higher.

Urban Outfitters.

Tell someone the Philadelphia-based retailer is putting one of its eclectic stores in Centro Ybor this fall, you get that reaction.

One friend couldn't stop raving about the neat little lip gloss/eye shadow kit in the shape of a CD holder she found at the Boston store.

The Ybor City store, the first on Florida's West Coast, is supposed to provide the essential ingredients for twentysomething men and women living in an urban residence, such as a Greenwich Village loft -- or perhaps a renovated hardwood-floor home in Seminole Heights.

Tampa joins such Urban Outfitters cities as South Beach, San Francisco and London. So we can boast about being a little more hip, a little cooler.

Not that we weren't cool already.

An invitation-only screening of 61* will be held tonight at the Tampa Theatre. The movie, which chronicles the historic chase by Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in 1961 to beat Babe Ruth's home run record, debuts Saturday on HBO at 9 p.m.

The Maris family will be in attendance tonight along with Mayor Dick Greco.

At the urging of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Tampa was chosen for the premiere because it's the Yankees' spring training home.

It's not just the right night, it's the Wright Night. That's the message Adrian Wright has put on the grapevine about a new R&B/hip-hop Thursday night he's promoting at Club Joy (11921 N Dale Mabry) in Carrollwood.

Wright, who has helped promote such successful evenings as Wind Down Wednesday at Hollywood Nights, hopes to draw an upscale crowd on a night when it's not easy to find good R&B to groove to. Doors open at 9 p.m. and proper dress is required. Whoa: Hip-hop in the 'burbs.

What excites me about Urban Outfitters is those Mr. Potato Head T-shirts. The Pac-Man tee I bought years ago at Decades a Go-Go still draws raves. Except from my wife.

It's not too late to purchase a seat or a table for Metropolitan Ministries' Bridge Builders Breakfast. The charity's largest annual event is Thursday at 7:30 a.m. at the Tampa Convention Center. Learning new ways to help the homeless might be better than continuing to hand out dollar bills to the guy on the street corner. Call 209-1000 for more information.

Anchors Brendan McLaughlin (guitar, harmonica), Bob Kendrick (guitar, vocals), Martie Tucker (vocals) and Linda Hurtado (vocals) sparked WFTS-TV to victory in last Friday's Battle of the Media Bands. Since when did Abba start doing the news?

So it's been explained to me that the really hip, cool people shop at Urban Outfitters. See you at Wal-Mart.

- Ernest Hooper can be reached at (813) 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com. His column will appear on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

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