Just a few words on the 2019 Tampa Bay Lightning alternate jerseys. #DisrupttheNight doesn’t do it for me.

I was asked to contribute “my story” as an NF2 patient. In summary, in rief, you can find it here.

There’s a new Spotify playlist that highlights adult contemporary songs by Tampa Bay based musical artists. I’m looking for more to highlight too.

Just over half of the 100 songs featured on the 2015 list are available on a new Spotify playlist.

Donald Trump is coming off far too much like Veruca Salt and Salt’s send-off song is all too fitting.

Edmonton Oilers fans have errupted over mediocrity ongoing with the club. Yiou don’t see the same for fans of the football team in Tampa Bay.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are among NHL attendance leaders. Their attendance numbers top the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

#8 being a fan of the Russian President raises questions (and blurs the politics/sports divide more than protesting players.

The halfway point of the 2018-19 NHL season hasn’t arrived, but the Bolts are on a OMGWTF pace.

In 2015 I got Kevin Pollak to allude to a little anecdote he had during filming of “A Few Good Men”.

A playlist of current soft rock and easy listening on Spotify – open to listeners and for submissions.

Some have talked down the effort of Louis Domingue serving as Bolts netminder . Dommer’s done the job and done it well.

Late this summer, before the NFL season was underway, the Tampa Bay Times did the Tampa Bay-media thing and played up the Tampa Bay Buccaneers season ahead. “Most talented offense ever?” discussion before a regular season game had been played seemed like… well, an attempt to raise expectations. I’m notRead More

Are you into the independent music scene or do you have curiosity into what’s currently going on in that music realm? Perhaps you’d like to discover a new flavor of rock/alternative/pop music? I’d like to recommend a radio stream for such. I’ve been listening to Underexposed Soft Rock and EasyRead More

Just a heads up for musical artists who are looking to promote their tunes on Spotify as well as for people running niche playlists who want to promote that list, there’s a place for that. The Spotify Community is a message forum area devoted to the Spotify platform, covering aRead More

A season in professional sports is played with the intention of winning a championship. That’s basic sport, ain’t it? You play a regular season with the hope of making it to the proverbial second-season: The playoffs. To make it to the post-season, to contend during the marathon of the regularRead More

Reviewing morning headlines… I’m not sure if I should be laughing or cringing at this one. Woman chokes a McDonald’s restaurant manager over ketchup Police are seeking a woman who pushed, punched and choked a McDonald’s manager because she wanted ketchup. Police in Santa Ana, California, say the assault took placeRead More

The world has changed quite a bit in 50 years but a song has regained immense relevance. It’s a song that societies around the world and pop culture has found relevance time and time again during its existence. Sometimes it’s just figuratively relevant while other times it’s very much directlyRead More

2018 election year campaign contest… Nikita Kucherov vs. Jack Eichel. Seeing I’m a Kucherov supporter, I’m sharing his ad here.

Music Tampa Bay‘s annual Top 100 lists (which ran from 2008 through 2017) featured a wide swath of music — we’re talking genres and time-of-publication. Some of the songs were relatively new releases, some were much older. All of them were from artists derived from the Tampa Bay and west centralRead More

Anyone ever wonder what happened to Ruslan Fedotenko? Real estate. He's involved in townhomes on Treasure Island. Read about it here https://t.co/b4CUMNcFmc #TBLightning #TBLightningAlumni — John Fontana (@Johnny_Fonts) October 15, 2018

In spring of 2017, I took to the task of taking aMusic Tampa Bay Top 100 list of 2016 post was an attempt at exposure for the artists and their work that went further than the hyper-local radio broadcasts and its online music stream. I’m taking things a step furtherRead More

Just a heads up: When I started blogging about hockey, the posts were published on Boltsmag.com. Upon me founding Raw Charge, I pointed the domain name at the new SB Nation site. All my archives are posted over there, after all. It’s been set up like that since 2009. WithRead More

Right now, a modern retelling of a 1960’s television show is on my mind and yet modern retelling limits it unless it’s done right and framed properly. That, in itself, is a tough task. Before I move to that and the show on my mind, let me touch on aRead More

Twas the night before hockey In old Tampa Bay With Lightning comes thunder…And sometimes, even rain!   The fans were all curious; what on Earth is the plan? Could success still be found, without the jolly Yzerman? On the verge was the end of 2018 — A loss to theRead More

It’s a shell game at quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season with Jameis Winston and Ryan Fitzpatrick sharing time at QB. Not that they planned it, not that they intended it that way, and not that the Bucs have found success with either man behind center. Oh, TampaRead More

The laughter by those attending the U.N. speech was fitting and appropriate. The geopolitical knee-jerk response by Donald Trump likely won’t be.

One day after my little piece on that shitty thing called Gritty, I got a PR email regarding the mascot that seems to have a different take on how the public reacted toward Gritty than what really went on.

Mascots and pro sports are a way to rile up the fans in a good way, a caricature personality that associates with a sports team. Some of those mascots are fitting-yet-playful parody characters who embody the franchise, like Roary the Lion with the Detroit Lions of the NFL, Osceola (andRead More

Poetry and I are not strangers, the evidence is here on the site in the “Creative Writing” section and elsewhere if you look around. I’ve been penning prose of one variety or another since the 1990’s. Yeah, I’m old. Deal with it. There are some that have inspired musicians to actuallyRead More

I want to recycle Cochlear sound processor technology as well as accessories and Cochlear doesn’t lay out how to do that. And that’s bad.

“Here’s a truism – everything is a big deal up until you actually do it. Don’t dwell or dread on doing something, making it so monumental that you make yourself sick. Just do it. You’ll deal with what comes next as it happens.” — John Fontana on Facebook, originally writtenRead More

I don’t know what was worse: How the news of Tuesday and the stepping-down of Steve Yzerman laid out one hell of a road bump for the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018-19 and the general road ahead… or the realization through that event that I’m not a hockey blogger anyRead More

A poem I wrote tied to lack of confidence and self-doubt.

We stood together. In shock, in disbelief, in mourning, America stood together with social and political divisions irrelevant.   We stood together as Americans. That continued for I-don’t-know how long or brief. We stood together.   Now, today, we are foreign to each other. Enemies over what differences we canRead More

It’s a foreign word in the history of sports in Tampa Bay, really. Oh, there are numerous athletes that the Bay area has produced who met and had relations with the word. There are plenty of high school athletic organizations who have known the word but single teams don’t representRead More

The Internet is the land of opportunity for musical artists. Any artist/group of any music genre from any location who has access to the Net can communicate with producers and other artists to hone and refine their work. You can see this playing out daily on Reddit’s WeAreTheMusicMakers subreddit messageRead More

In recent days I’ve been rowing more wary of general society with thanks to some of the content and crimes being highlighted by a local television station website. That’s not faulting ABC 28 Action News, that’s faulting society and how we — the American people, humans in general – areRead More

This is an ongoing playlist build of songs by indie musicians that are unknown or not widely known of in pop culture. It’s also a variety of music – pop and rock of a more casual variety – that doesn’t get the kind of exposure it once did in music.Read More

Brett Connolly was Steve Yzerman’s first draft choice as general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2010. Connolly started a tend, though, that too many of the 1st round picks by the Lightning have followed in recent years: He moved on. Connolly was traded to the Boston Bruins atRead More

Does it reflect poorly on me that my reaction to the Tampa Bay Times asking “Is This Tampa Bay’s Most Talented Offense Ever?” is “Who gives a shit?” Defense wins championships and this franchises only successful era was founded by a defense-first coach and highly stocked and well-coached defense. TheRead More

It’s wishful thinking, really, inspired by both Ol’ Blue eyes cover of the Beatles as well as Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged sessions.

I could kvetch here about conglomerates and how mega companies merging – even entertainment companies – is not ideal in many ways, but I just shared my opinion of that and should move on to the point of this post… Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox. No, not all holdingsRead More

Creative Loafing’s annual Best of the Bay is here for the 2018 season. I won’t tell you what to vote for and all that jazz (I’m not a nominee, nor is this blog. Not like that would have happened anyway). What I would like to provide here is a littleRead More

I’m at a loss. I know one thing about the Star Trek universe, at least for the original series’ (plural – as the true- prime universe has had many impactful shows): They draw fans and draw media attention for when they’re out and about in a public event. With theRead More

Tariffs are on the scene in many ways and that is being discussed in many places — factual reports and opinion pieces and such. The world is affected, United States product costs are affected. Farming is affected. The Trump administration continues the plan, with the remedy being everything will beRead More

I’m not comfortable talking about my faith and personal ties to religion but here’s back story on…me. It’s where I stand and what I believe and in some ways, how I came to it.

This is a touchy subject — the handicap parking shooting in Clearwater, Florida. “Touchy” as I’ve seen the reaction that there was no crime, it was simple self-defense. I’ve also seen those who declare it murder. None the less, there’s a charity fundraiser to raise funds for those affected byRead More

Just a quick note: With how articles sometimes disappear — you have the link but error messages pop up when you click on them – – you need to be aware that you might be able to access the story/article/page still. The Wayback Machine on Archive.org sometimes has previous versions ofRead More

If you’re an indie musical artist or even one under a label and looking for exposure, you may see Radio Airplay, which powers the Jango music streaming service, as an option. Indeed, it is an option to get heard around the world by music listeners who listen to stations alignedRead More