Is the current goal of the Tampa Bay Times to simply one-up Creative Loafing and not to actually be a news organization that reports on the Tampa Bay metro area the state of Florida, and the United States? Maybe the print version is more news-traditiona., but the online site and itsRead More

Ballpark speculation only causes local division.

Rumors, innuendo, speculation… It’s loomed since before the 2018 NHL trade deadline and now it’s on the forefront during the NHL offseason. Days after the start of the free agency season, Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson’s name started making headlines again. Karlsson is available on a revamping Senators franchise thatRead More

The subject of cross-movie cameos has been on my mind for a few weeks… actually it pops up often and I bring it up with friends and they don’t usually cite much nor have anything in mind on the topic outright. It piques my interest and amuses me when itRead More

Space Force. Space Force? Why? Is that a progressive attempt by an administration whose actions and deeds are too commonly regressive in ethical, moral, and social standards? No, no… It’s a distraction. Nothing more. There is a progressive argument for something like this, but the idea of taking warfare offRead More

Due to server issues created by me over-doing music embeds and such, I’m going to have to repost the Top 100 lists of songs from Music Tampa Bay’s top 100 for 2017 & 2008. Originally, the lists (which are both divided into several parts) worked okay and everyone had access,Read More

The Philadelphia Eagles boycotted the White House by-and-large to the point President Donald J. Trump “revoked” the team’s White House visit on June 5th. He had a needless, empty event in its place where he made an ass out of himself. It’s no surprise that participants in the NBA ChampionshipRead More

Save Ferris

Do you ever get a television theme song in your head? Y’know, earworm type deal? Yet you go further, looking at the lyrics, and suddenly they take a new weight to them or just seem fitting for the moment in time that you (or life around you) are in?  That’sRead More

In 2005, I penned a blog post that was inspired by the then-St. Petersburg Times had written an epic feature regarding the days of Jim Morrison,  lead singer of The Doors, had spent living in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Being a Morrison fan and living only a handfulRead More

I’ll invoke a name and that will inspire both groans of displeasure and distaste as well as defensive reactions from those who support their team’s player: Brad Marchand. Brad Marchand. Can I say it a third time? No, I’m not trying to apply a licking on your emotions (how grossRead More

With game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight at Capital One Arena, there are two words on my mind, linked together but entirely unlinked. They have nothing to do with each other and yet one causes another. The first word is pressure. Not in the way you think it’sRead More

I can’t recall the last time the threat of rain and weather was in place chronically over the Tampa Bay region. I’m not talking the typical summer storms, which brings rainfall either in the early morning or evening hours, but through the day. It was why, I think(?), Game 3Read More

I don’t know if it’s a casual fan base element, bandwagon fans or actually faithful of the Tampa Bsy Lightning who put on the panic hats if and when the Lightning struggle or fail to win… I know there’s an element of the die-hard fans who are like this –Read More

As the title says, the Bolts have formally announced two watch party locations for games 3 and 4 of the 2018 NHL Eastern Conference Finals. They are posted below. I still wish to know, for the sake of the fans, if there are venues — unofficial — holding watch partyRead More

Teams still in the NHL playoffs, Conference Championships: Vegas, Winnipeg = 0Nashville = 1Washington = 1Tampa Bay = 2 Stanley Cups:Nashville, Vegas, Washington, Winnipeg = 0Tampa Bay = 1 Your Tampa Bay Lightning, the standard bearers of NHL tradition. — clark brooks (@clarkbrooks) May 8, 2018

I’ve assembled a playlist on YouTubbe (and I may try to copy it at Spotify but no guarantees on that) of songs that I’ve heard from various artists through various sources that I consider “soft rock”. They’re not all rock songs, they’re not all adult contemporary, and they’re from a mixRead More

This poll (via Twitter) will be running until Saturday, May 12th. As an #NHL fan, do you find @NHLonNBCSports broadcasts partial toward one team over another? — John Fontana (@Johnny_Fonts) May 5, 2018

In March I ran an article aimed at the another shortcoming that continues to this day; no linkage in articles). Now, I don’t know how the Times operates its archives as this happened last year, I don’t know if the Times will be repairing the issue or took one ofRead More

We know who the Bolts are playing in the second round but as of this writing nothing has been announced regarding offficial team watch parties for games 3 & 4. I’ll try to get that information up when it becomes available. I’m also still interested in posting info on non-official watchRead More

I only crossed it this morning but NBC Sports revealed the top 10 markets for broadcasts of the 1st round of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Twitter Tuesday afternoon. Those top 10 are listed in the tweet below and my thoughts and such are below it: Here are Top 10Read More

Someone has to say it and I’m sure TSN, Sportsnet and the like will be mentioning this if the Toronto Maple Leafs advances to the Eastern Conference semifinals: The Leafs have not won a Stanley Cup in 51 years.

I was concerned going into the late minutes of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series between the Tampa Bay Lightning and New Jersey Devils. It was a concern grown out of the habit by way of the Bolts late regular season and continued into the 2018 Stanley CupRead More

It seems fitting that a sports element has mixed into the story of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen and his alleged ties to the Russian mafia in the New York area. They’re public figures with ample money that can become targets. Rolling Stone magazine has an extensive piece onRead More

There are many indie bands out there that never went anywhere, such as Desk. You’ve never heard of Desk (unless you got to this blog post by directly searching for the band, in which case I say “Hi!” ☺) and shouldn’t have at this point – the group called itRead More

With the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs underway, I was wondering if there are any watch parties taking place with the Tampa Bay Lightning playing at home at Amalie Arena? Not everyone can attend games, after all, and trying to rile up fans to cheer together would be a plus.Read More

A little request aimed toward the media and: Can we show the Dotard in Covfefe a little respect and instead of using James Comey’s “mob boss” description, call the man a “would-be Mafia Don” instead? I mean, he — Donald Trump — is the president. I guess being a bitRead More

This is 2018 and the about their archives and a lack of generic advertising to go along with the content that continues to draw in web traffic. There’s another issue that I’d like to point at the Tampa Bay Times content that is #FAIL on the most basic level forRead More

14 dead, 14 injured in a horrific collision in Saskatchewan. And a small town — a population around 6,00 – is put in shock. It may be much more personal for Humboldt, who know these teens and young adults quite personally, but the hockey community is just as shocked andRead More

Via the Tampa Bay Times: “Bucs uniform ranked 32nd among NFL teams, because there isn’t a 33rd” To be fair to begin and give context, this piece is inspired by a ranking that was done in The Sacremento Bee, so it’s a reaction column inspired by an opinion piece. ByRead More

The Tampa Bay Times has tens of thousands of articles, some mundane news and some as feature reading, on its former site domain. SPTimes.com represented the newspaper under its old brand name, the St. Petersburg Times. The publication moved operations to the regional domain name TampaBay.com before adopting the moreRead More

I’m trying a new avenue, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve long had poetry and lyrical verse posted online, but I’ve never really pushed myself into music. Oh, sure, I’ve had my hand in helping to promote the indie rock group the Pretty Voices, but besides that? Okay, okay, blogging about musicRead More

To tthe Honorable  Representative Gus Bilirakis, It’s too easy for words posed toward one’s own elected congressional representative to be brushed off or outright dismissed with no true response or acknowledgment. This writer has experienced that too many times over the years, if not from your office then from thatRead More

I have this habit of promoting music that I’ve crossed from one indie station or another. “Promoting” means sharing songs on one form of social media or another. Sometimes I post the act here on my blog (Tomas Fornstedt is who I’ll cite) and there are also the write-ups IRead More

Another media hub online for the Tampa Bay area has launched. Seeing it’s a newborn, it’s going to take a while before it takes a hold in the marketplace. The Tampa Bay Entertainment Properties LLC, a company founded by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, announced Tuesday the launch ofRead More

Though it literally does not play out like this: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers make the playoffs on average less than once every four seasons of play. I’ve already pointed out the Bucs annual win percentage is abysmal and this just illustrates the club has only made the playoffs 10 timesRead More

Two gentlemen singing in harmony to create a fantastic melody in a song titled “Eight Days a Week”. That was John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and it happened on many songs for a decade. Yet I’m not talking about John and Paul in this case. I’m talking about a duoRead More

Back in January, I posted a song by Tomas Fornstedt here because I had been listening to it for a year after crossing it on Lonely Oak Radio…and discovered that was on YouTube but never had been accessed by a listener up until I found it. In fact, Tomas’ YouTuveRead More

I listen to music almost nightly on my iPod Nano Touch. I’ve been doing that for a while now and one thing bugs me. Not from the songs, but from the sorting options and the shuffle on the iPod. The former has resulted too often in repeat order and theRead More

Russia. Collusion. Obstruction of justice. “Act of War”. You can’t dismiss this stuff and it’s still coming to fruition through Special Counsel Robert Mueller as well as House Intelligence committee hearings and such. Perhaps you look past this or perhaps you turn away from politics in general; there are otherRead More

It’s silly season in the NHL, where fights are going to be more common along with outlandishness on ice and off. Yet there’s been a consistent issue on-ice of outlandishness that has baffled players: Officiating and rule enforcement.

America is, at the moment, mired in a reaction to the Valentines Day Massacre at Parkland, Florida. There are a dearth of reads you can cross in media and on social networks… Hell, I hosted one “read” in comments reacting to a status I posted that night. It was theRead More

The Wonder Years  is on my mind. If you grew up in the 1980s/1990s, you should know the show pretty well. The original broadcast/premiere of the period-piece show (with its heavy nostalgic opening credits complimented earnestly by Joe Cocker) was on January 31st, 1988… …but the writers strike in HollywoodRead More

Again, this is an act I caught on Lonely Oak Radio. I wanted to revisit a song and was surprised to discover I’m the first person to cross the music on YouTUbe. The difference here compared to Tomas Fornstedt and “Be My Friend” is that “Spin the Wheel” by PintRead More

I’ve been participating on Reddit’s /r/softrock, a community that posts a wide variety of toned down songs from rock’n’roll to pop music. It introduces people to tunes from days-gone-by more so than current music. I’ve had a habit of trying to mix in songs that I cross that are fromRead More

Is Donald J. Trump operating with Ferris Bueller in mind? I hate the comparison — it sullies the film — but one scene inspired the question.

I’ve posted two of Music Tampa Bay radio’s “Top 100” lists. Let’s be honest to start here: It’s an unknown station for the most part and the acts being highlighted are mostly enigmas. The question that could be asked about these blog posts is: Why do it? Why post themRead More

I made a name and reputation for myself with 12-and-a-half years of blogging about the Tampa Bay Lightning. I was a pioneer in hockey blogging in general (starting what will be fourteen years ago in a matter of days). Want proof? I’d send you to the archives of Raw ChargeRead More

Dick Cheney, former Vice President of the United States of America, a Republican war hawk with war criminal allegations tied to his name, declared that the country was practically at war with Russia regarding all the political and democratic dysfunction and looming evidence after the 2016 US Federal Election. No,Read More

I’ve been put off since last week while scanning headlines and online coverage of news in the Tampa Bay area and seeing a greater-than-usual focus put on the Gasparilla Pirate Festival than usual, while the marquee mid-season event of the NHL All-Star Weekend was an afterthought (or a complication toRead More