Category: Tampa Bay
An empty Tropicana Field for a Tampa Bay Rays game in September 2019.
It’s stuff that has to do with the region – from events, to news, to sports, to politics to music.
Watch the Lightning and be the thunder at Easter Conference Quarterfinal watch parties
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.
I don’t know if Game 2 against he New Jersey Devils will have any watch-party encounters by venues in and around the greater Tampa Bay metro area… I do know that the Bolts will be hosting their own watch party events on Monday, Aprile 16 and Wednesday, April 18th for games 3 and 4 when the Lightning play the Devils at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
The following scheduling and locations were released by the team on Friday afternoon in a press release:
GAME 3 – Monday, April 16
Playoff Beach Bash
Sugar Sand Festival at Pier 60 Clearwater Beach, FL
Party starts at 5:30 PM • Puck Drop at 7:30 PM
Live music, giveaways, Lightning Girls, ThunderBug & more
Parking: No reserved parking for media
Note: This one will be a little odd if not totally appropriate with thanks to temperatures. As it stands right now, the forecast is for a cold front to pass through Tampa Bay on Sunday with high tempeatures for Monday set to be only 65 degrees. Add normal, windy conditions on the waterfront on Clearwater Beach and it might get a bit chilly. Totally appropriate for a hockey game though…
GAME 4 – Wednesday, April 18
Playoff Block Party
Armature Works Lawn • 910 N. Ola Ave, Tampa, FL
Party starts at 5:30 PM • Puck Drop at 7:30 PM
Live music, giveaways, Lightning Girls, ThunderBug & more
While there are these two official watch party events, that doesn’t mean private venues won’t be hosting watch parties of their own for game 3 and 4 (or game 2 gor that matter).
Reacting to the Tampa Bay Buccaneer uniform ranking
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. By way of opinionated reactions to the opinionated ranking, let me give you my own opinion:
If there had been a 33rd uniform ranking, Bucco Bruce would rank below it. Bad uniforms and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a history that goes hand-in-hand with the mediocrity of the club and its lackluster competitive prowess.
Note to the Tampa Bay Times: The online archives shouldn’t be ad-free
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 more regional brand name of publication, the Tampa Bay Times.
And the Times is bleeding money by way of not synchronizing reading assets from the old site with the current one.
The Identity Tampa Bay launches as a sports and entertainment hub for the Tampa Bay region
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 of The Identity (www.TheIdentityTB.com), what is pegged to become a hub for sports and lifestyle. The site is pegged to be in phase one at the moment… Of course, it’s just starting out. From the press release:
“We’re excited to announce the launch of The Identity Tampa Bay,” said TBEP Chief Executive Officer, Steve Griggs. “While surveying the digital landscape of the Tampa Bay region, we believed the market lacked a hub for sports and lifestyle content. It is our goal for The Identity Tampa Bay to fill that void, becoming the authentic voice for the future of Tampa Bay sports and lifestyle content. Tampa Bay needs an authentic, community-driven home and The Identity Tampa Bay will fit that need.”
The fact of the matter is that the two other “hub” sites online – TBO/Tampa Bay Online and Creative Loafing Tampa Bay are not true hub websites. TBO is just an extension of the Tampa Bay Times, presenting news in a more online-tabloid format. Creative Loafing is much keener on entertainment and lifestyle than sports in and around Tampa Bay. It also may touch on politics but the “hub” moniker just seems wrong to identify it.
“The Identity Tampa Bay will provide Tampa Bay and its residents with digital content from around the region,” said Derrick Brooks, Ambassador for The Identity Tampa Bay. “It will be driven by the community, providing a voice for all things Tampa Bay.”
That’s one hell of a linebacking ambassador, now isn’t it folks? Yes, that is #55 and you can see his video speech on TheIdentityTB.com for more from him. The site is truly bare bones at the moment, taking sign-ups for e-mail based newsletters. That, the bare bones aspect, will change shortly.
A musical throwback: Music Tampa Bay’s Top 100 of 2008
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 them in text format when they’re already available online, albeit in image form?
The answer is pretty simple to me but it remains to be seen if I have actually accomplished it or anything near it with these previous posts. That answer is exposure. While these songs have aired on the online stream for MTB over the years, that’s a niche audience. While the songs have likely seen air-time with MTB’s broadcasts on the FM dial in St. Petersburg, Florida, that’s a limited potential audience in Tampa Bay or beyond.
While not all musicians dream of going big, there are those who want lightning to strike,Four Star Riot accomplished that with thanks to their inclusion on the Deadpool soundtrack in 2016. But others remain out there but no one has heard them beyond the niche in live performances and how far they’ve pushed their own exposure to the masses.
What’s posted below is the original Music Tampa Bay Top 100 representing 2008- The nine-year old list (released in 2009) features some songs that got somewhere – the “views” count on their music videos/audio streams show it. Others didn’t go anywhere beyond finally seeing time online in 2015 with thanks to CD Baby’s publication program. Others are a mystery – the fact they’re on this list in name-only shows that. They may be out there and I may have missed them in my web search but there’s also the high chance they aren’t.
How good these songs are don’t stand in their order, so listen to what music is available and be the judge yourself. Don’t look for performers you know because unless you know the music scene in the Tampa Bay region you likely won’t know anyone. Consider this post your opportunity at music discovery. If not this post, then the more recent Music Tampa Bay Top 100 lists from 2016 or 2017.
Read More
Of Tampa Bay sports and media focus
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 to Gasparilla festivities). It felt almost like the NHL and Tampa Bay Lightning are afterthoughts.
In fact, disappointment and issues with the Bucs holding the headlines in the fall of 2017 and through the early weeks of 2018 have taken away notice to casual readers of local headlines online than the Tampa Bay Lightning haven’t just been playing games, but have been (and this will floor you) winning. Read More
In response to inaction, an open comment toward Rep. Gus Bilirakis
In light of recent events from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. Day took on a weight even if the (alleged) remarks of Donald Trump were geared at people of color outside the United States.
There’s been mixed response and inaction by members of the Legislative Branch toward the slurs or attitude of the President. In fact, cover-ups or ignoring a precarious feat by Current Occupant seems to be the modus operandi from members of congress. In other words, the Legislative Branch holds to the status-quo. Read More
The idea of hockey players from Tampa Bay
Some of the history of Tampa Bay Lightning hockey was touched on with my endorsement and love shown in the Vincent Lecavalier piece last week. The seed that Phil Esposito planted has taken firm root in Tampa Bay as the true forefather of hockey in non-traditional markets. Yeah, the Atlanta Flames preceded the Bolts, but the franchise did not take root and relocated to Calgary, Alberta.
Tampa Bay really was at the forefront of a southern surge through expansion and relocation – the Florida Panthers, Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars, Phoenix (now Arizona) Coyotes, Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators, and Atlanta Thrashers (who ended up relocating to Winnipeg) and the neophyte Vegas Golden Knight.
This didn’t all come by way of Tampa Bay’s success – pro sports is a business; true expansion is to go to an untapped market – but the Lightning was at the start of it all. Starting play in a new market, new exposure to the game to the youth of the region.
Now here’s a question that coincides this: Who is Tampa Bay’s best-produced hockey player? Read More
Music Tampa Bay’s Top 100 list of 2017: Top 25
This is where the proverbial countdown of 100 acts from the Music Tampa Bay 2017 list comes to its pinnacle with the top-voted songs from their web site. These are the folks who’s songs represented here were most often voted to remain in the weekly Top 40 voting chart displaying on the site each week.
Fan support bolstered these numbers; Gypsy star is known for being among the high-rankings annually with thanks to their fans. Yet for popularity of all the songs, some can’t be found on the common media-embed sites like YouTube, SoundCloud, ReverbNation, BandCamp, MySpace, or others. In fact, the entire reason for this series has been to grant direct exposure to the songs for the general public (well… you the person who clicked to see this. Yeah, you. Hi.).
I encourage you to sample the songs if not here then on Part 1, Part 2 and/or Part 3. For the performing artists, it’s got to be nice to have a song that airs on the radio or an audio stream, but it’s even better when someone chooses to listen to it optionally and see what the artists or group sounds like.
Music Tampa Bay’s Top 100 list of 2017: #50-26
We’re now in the top 50 of Music Tampa Bay’s Top 100 from 2017 with today’s post. You can find 100 through 76 and 76 through 51 by clicking on those links.
Let me stress here that the Top 100 list was compiled by way of voting on the Music Tampa Bay web site. With that said, the order of the songs does not truly show rank or popularity of the songs as-so-much support that the artists gained on the Music Tampa Bay Top 40 vote each week. This also isn’t a listing of top current acts as-so-much recordings by local (Tampa Bay area) performers that may have been made at any time. While putting together this post I found two songs were from the 1990s. Others I could not find online coverage for and that seems to suggest they could come from any time (though I would not suggest the music is older than 20 years).
In the end, take this as a music and artist discovery opportunity as well as direct exposure for the performing artists and the songs that cracked the list.
Music Tampa Bay’s Top 100 list of 2017: #75-51
As the annum that was 2017 drifts off into the history books, its stories and stats are reflected upon in one way or another in a multitude of categories through the world. The facts of the year-that-was will be referenced and reviewed because… Well, it’s history and things that happen are relevant.
Like music.
It’s an annual thing from St. Pete, Florida-based community radio station did a reflection post on 2016 last spring to give people a taste (and the music optional exposure) of some of the local music created from Bay area artists. With a new (old) year comes a new list of songs that were successes on the Music Tampa Bay voting poll through 2017. Each week, users are able to vote on the Top 40 on the site and those votes are tallied up into what becomes this grander list.
Unlike the Top 100 listing on Music Tampa Bay, the list version here includes (when available) links to the artist personal web site or a social site (Reverb Nation, Facebook) linked to them. The song is listed of course as well as embedded on the post (when possible). 25 songs are listed on 4 seperate blog posts (100-76, 75-51, 50-26, 25-1.
So, if you have time, interest and a musical curiosity, may I present to you the second group of songs from the Top 100 Songs from Music Tampa Bay from 2017. Read More
Music Tampa Bay’s Top 100 song list of 2017
As the annum that was 2017 drifts off into the history books, its stories and stats are reflected upon in one way or another in a multitude of categories through the world. The facts of the year-that-was will be referenced and reviewed because… Well, it’s history and things that happen are relevant.
Like music.
It’s an annual thing from St. Pete, Florida-based community radio station did a reflection post on 2016 last spring to give people a taste (and the music optional exposure) of some of the local music created from Bay area artists. With a new (old) year comes a new list of songs that were successes on the Music Tampa Bay voting poll through 2017. Each week, users are able to vote on the Top 40 on the site and those votes are tallied up into what becomes this grander list.
Unlike the Top 100 listing on Music Tampa Bay, the list version here includes (when available) links to the artist personal web site or a social site (Reverb Nation, Facebook) linked to them. The song is listed of course as well as a hyperlink to a location you can listen to the song (when possible). 25 songs are listed on 4 separate tables below (100-76, 75-51, 50-26, 25-1.
So, if you have time and interest and a musical curiosity, may I present to you the first 25 songs from the Top 100 Songs from Music Tampa Bay from 2017. Read More
An annual Tampa Bay festival to coincide the NHL All-Star invasion
Happy New Year to one and all. May 2018 be an annum of achievement and positive happenings for you and yours.
A little note to precede the National Hockey League’s 2018 NHL All-Star weekend for those attending as out-of-town fans and those exposed to the event through national media covering things in Tampa:
There’s an annual event that goes down in Tampa each year, it’s not an official marking of the start of tourist season in town but it tends to coincide it and can be tied to marquee events happening in town like the NFL’s Super Bowl when it’s played at Raymond James Stadium or, say, the NHL holding its All-Star game.
In this event, a flotilla of ships, led by a pirate ship known as the José Gaspar, will cruise around the waters of the Port of Tampa before “invading” downtown Tampa to mark the official start of the Gasparilla Pirate Festival. It’s usually high level execs and political people playing the role of pirate aboard the José Gaspar (or aboard their own ships hanging out with those on the pirate boat) before they land in downtown Tampa and are given control of the city by the mayor of Tampa.
Gasparilla is many events strewn out for a few weeks of time, but it’s the flotilla and pirate invasion that is the visible event that can catch the attention. There’s also a parade event through the Tampa city streets in the early afternoon.
So, what gives with a blog post on New Years Day about it, and why aim the attention at NHL fans?
Everything with the invasion event scheduled for Saturday, January 27th. That’ll be the day of coverage of the NHL Skills Competition, alumni game and all the other lead-in events preceding Sunday, January 28th‘s NHL All-Star game. I wouldn’t be surprised if some pirate shenanigans are caught on film by visiting media – especially TSN or RDS. Hell, it wouldn’t shock me if NHL All-Stars and alumni find their way into the event as members of the invasion and parade (paging Alex Ovechkin, Mr. Alex Ovechkin…). If you’re scheduled to be in the Tampa Bay area for the weekend, you may want to look into events tied to the Saturday morning invasion antics in and around downtown Tampa…well, unless they conflict with events at Amalie Arena or directly tied to the All-Star weekend you’d rather attend.
For information on Gasparilla check the official site. For history on the festival and other info, I point you to Wikipedia.
Update (January 2nd at 2PM): Well, the NHL taste of the Gasparilla Festival event has taken on a taste. The Grand Marshall of the shindig was announced this afternoon by Ye Mystic Krewe, the organizers, governing crew and swabs, mates, and brooding Pirates of the José Gaspar: Former NHL center and Tampa Bay Lightning alumnus Vincent Lecavalier.
From the press release, quotes from the Krewe and Vinny:
“Vinny Lecavalier was the perfect choice as our Grand Marshal this year as we host the NHL All-Star Weekend in Tampa” said Christopher Lykes, Captain of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla. “Vinny was a force with the Lightning and a force as an NHL All-Star. He has continued his leadership by being an active and positive role model in our Community” added Lykes.
“I am honored and grateful to Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla for selecting me to be the Grand Marshal of the 2018 Pirate Fest and Parade, especially at a time when the Lightning will be hosting the All-Star Game in our community,” said Lecavalier. “Tampa Bay is a special place with great traditions and the Lightning and Gasparilla are two of them. I look forward to representing both with pride in the parade.”
Volunteer assistance sought by Tampa Bay community station Music Tampa Bay
There’s a special community radio station based in St. Petersburg that airs local music, to say the least. the 2016 Top 100 list and a Top 40 from this past summer. EDIT: You can find the Top 100 page with each individual year of Music Tampa Bay here.
Yet Hurricane Irma did her damage and complicated things with the station that were already challenged in one way or another. The site representing Music Tampa Bay has long been in need of upgrading to improve accessibility and exposure for the artists and the station itself.
All that said Music Tampa Bay is looking for assistance of the high variety. Everything is voluntary but the open positions listed are basically everything. The MTB sit’s declaration shows it:
All Volunteer Staff Needed
General Manager – Sales Manager – Business Manager – Operations Manager – IT / Website Manager – Program / Music Director – DJs – all shifts
Here’s the official statement off the site about volunteers and the station:
Radio Station Volunteer Staff Wanted
The music stream on this website is now in its 13th year of continuous operation. 96.7 FM in St Pete is now beginning its 2nd year, since the FCC issued a non-profit broadcast license in October 2016. If these listening platforms are to continue serving the local arts communities as stipulated in the license, new management is needed in key revenue generating and operational areas. A new general manger being sought to work with the existing team and eventually assume control once the original license period is renewed in early 2020. Air talent is also needed to fill program positions and operate from the new live Radio Central in The Zoo Studios in St Pete. All air positions are currently open, 24/7. Interested beginners and professionals are encouraged to contact rick@musictampabay.com / 727-455-8848.
This is a great starter place for those interested in being part of the music business or working in communications; a prime opportunity for students. It’s also a great place for those who are embedded already in local music as performers to further expose themselves by working as DJs (or, if qualified, in one of the higher-up positions). Most importantly of all, it’s part of the community. While MTB isn’t available in terrestrial, traditional broadcast throughout Tampa Bay, the online stream is readily available for everyone to hear performers who were, and are part of music.
Daylight Standard Stupid
This is a simple public service announcement because of a pretty simple flaw I see repeatedly coming from businesses or those who are trying to be pretentious and official in declarations online (via social media or on their own web sites):
Unless you are in Arizona and a few other select locations throughout the United States, you cannot schedule things as happening at Standard Time currently.
It’s ridiculous to have to explain this but the United States of America is currently in Daylight Savings Time (or Daylight Time). That’s what the whole “spring forward” thing is in March. The country doesn’t move back to standard time until Sunday, November 5th at 2 in the morning.
So business posts something like this…
We can’t say no to a ? #waterfront view! Join @TBbloggers & Oystercatchers for a #TampaBayTuesday chat, 8/22 at noon EST. @OCsGHTB #OCsGHTB
— Tampa Bay Bloggers (@TBbloggers) August 21, 2017
…they’re basically saying the event starts at 1 PM EDT because we’re in EDT now. If you want to be pretentious on time and date and don’t understand the time difference, do yourself a favor and just list the time as ET, CT, MT or PT which applies specifically for the zone you’re in.
Really, it’s not rocket science to know the differences or to get around them entirely in listing a time. Don’t look so uneducated.
Dependability is offline at Tampa Bay Online
The site known as Tampa Bay Online – www.tbo.com – has been around for decades. TBO was once tied to both Tampa Bay NBC affiliate WFLA News Channel 8 and former print publication The Tampa Tribune (both media entities were owned by Media General). Let me stress that with the decades aspect of Tampa Bay Online as TBO started out in the early 1990’s in a form that was accessible through the Prodigy dial-up network and America Online. It’s sort of hard to explain things before the internet as you know it now – some people were exposed to it well before the general public. I was introduced to the Net through Prodigy and later AOL.
Back to the topic, TBO has been around a while as a media hub (to say the least). With the Tribune leading the charge so often, the flavor of news and writing from the Trib (with its right-leaning slant) was always on display but its general news coverage was complimented by video coverage of news stories that News Channel 8 reported on.
Yet a downfall has been rampant for a while: Media General sold the Tribune in 2012, and while the new ownership vowed they were here to stay, it didn’t play out like that. I’m not sure if there was an official end-partnership between the Trib and WFLA but things scaled back and ceased after the Tribune moved away to its own property. In the spring of 2016 the Tampa Tribune was acquired by print news rival, the Tampa Bay Times. The Tribune ceased to be while certain columnists, reporters and employees were imported to Times staff while others were dismissed. TBO.com has continued operations since then but has become a quizzical online destination for news information in the area. Read More
Best of the Bay and the Bolts for 2017
I may have touched on talking about music (sweet music…music everywhere) but the topic of note is the one that my name is usually linked to: The Tampa Bay Lightning. Creative Loafing’s 2017 reader poll doesn’t lack nor neglect notable aspects of the Bolts – directly or indirectly – which sets the table for Lightning fans to show support for cogs they know regarding the club.
Mind you, there may be more nominated aspects and assets with ties to the franchise (Amalie Arena, or perhaps a locale within the arena). What’s being cited here is from the section called People, Places, Politics which features categories pertaining to public figures, locations and sports. Read More
Members of the Tampa Bay music scene
I’m a regular in a Reddit subgroup that represents the entirety of the Tampa Bay area, /r/tampabay. Most of the citizens of the cities in the Bay area aren’t members of that group, they’re in the singular cities like /r/tampa, /r/stpetersnurgFL, or not in a city subgroup as all (hey, power to the people – it’s not like everyone goes on Reddit to talk about local life).
Anyway, a couple of months ago on the less-populous /r/tampabay subreddit, a new-resident sounded a disdain for the lack of original musicians in the Tampa Bay area:
So, I’m starting to think there just doesn’t exist any kind of local music scene here at all, unless you consider septuagenarians playing jurassic-rock covers a “scene”. Please tell me I’m wrong. The only show that I’ve gone to in a year and a half was when I flew back to Ohio to visit. This is depressing.
This opens up a question of where in the Bay area they were looking for performances and when – it’s not like it’d happen every day of the week. It’s also not like you can expect original music by local band members to be available at a golf resort or at a bar/pub/club/tavern deep in suburbia. Oh, it likely happens but you’re more likely to get cover acts in small time locales like that.
Lack of local music scene, though? No… That’s not the case. Read More
Music Tampa Bay’s Top 40 for June 26th, 2017
Earlier this year, I posted a list of the Top 100 songs from Music Tampa Bay for 2016: Converting the image list to text and linking to various locales where you could actually listen to the songs (side note: I’ll still take link and genre submissions for some of the unlinked artists/songs, thanks).
Well, the Top 100 list for each year on Music Tampa Bay is built around a weekly running Top 40 list that Music Tampa Bay has going on. I’m not sure how it has functioned long-term but as of now you can vote once per day on a song that’s been placed on the Top 40 list. Voting ends at 6 PM ET on Sunday nights and the results make up the Top 40 list for the week ahead. How a performer or band get on the list to begin with is Music Tampa Bay’s choice while the songs listed aren’t all recent releases by Tampa Bay musical artists.
Now, exposure to the song is subjective to those who cross the Top 40 list. You either have to be a Music Tampa Bay listener (online streaming or over the airwaves in St. Pete, Florida at 96.7 FM), or have crossed the music by other means (like deliberately hunting down a listed song online, as I’ve done in the past).
Well, this article is a little twist on things. Below you will find the Top 40 list from Music Tampa Bay (released on Monday, June 26th) with embedded versions of the songs from the list. Not all songs are embedded. Omission like that is not a deliberate act as-so-much an inability to locate the song online. Some songs do appear on the web in sales locations or on streaming locations like Spotify. For the sake of accessibility, those instances aren’t linked. In other cases where a song can be accessed by anyone but the tune isn’t embeddable, things will be simply hyperlinked.
Many of these songs have been and will remain listed on the Music Tampa Bay Top 40 for some time to come, so if you like one of these tracks a lot then you should support it: Go to Music Tampa Bay and view the Top 40 list and cast a vote in favor of it (button next to the song on the Top 40 list). Read More
East Lake High School Class of 1997 Photo
I believe it was exactly 20 years ago today that I graduated from East Lake High School at a ceremony at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. It’ll be this weekend that a few dozen of the 600+ members of the graduating class get back together for a little shindig. I won’t be participating because I’m waylaid with physical disability to the point I’d just be a fly on the wall, sitting in the corner and feeling awkward.
It’d be like I was back in school!
At any rate, I make this post because I want to make public (in a means beyond a scope of constraint) something a few of my classmates have already seen online by way of me on Facebook , but it’s condensed (because… Facebook): Our stolid class picture.
I’m pretty sure I still have both versions of the class picture, but they are tucked in such a position in my closet it’s hard to get a hold of them. And the scanning / image merge function that I have to use to get the pictures scanned is a pain to do (it was tough with this one — and that process was a few years ago):
Click on the image to get a better view at imgur, or click this link to go to the page. And you can click the image there to get an even more close-up view of the image.
Note for Tampa Bay area indie musicians: WURK it out and submit!
If you’re a musician in the Tampa Bay area – a recording artists with your own records to show for it – you may want to take a look at WURK Radio’s web site and their submission process. WURK went on the air in May 2017 in the Tampa area and is a community, volunteer driven radio station. I don’t know how far and wide it is listened to in its fledgling status, but it remains important to spread your name and your talents locally and WURK is one of those opportunities.
Oh,they’re also on Twitter and Facebook (though the Facebook entry is a private profile).
The downside of submissions is that they require hard copies — Compact Discs, not digital submissions. If you’re willing to go that route and explore other positives for you and your act by way of WURK, click thru and have a read.
Non-basketball market judged as 2nd worst basketball market. What genius…
In my time as managing editor and lead writer at Raw Charge, I got pushed onto a load of public relation emailing lists with only a fraction of them being relevant. Though my contributions to Raw Charge are now vastly dialed back, I still get all the PR emails from the wide variety of lists that I’m on.
Case in point: Tuesday morning’s lead email in my inbox reads:
Tampa Is 2017’s 2nd Worst City for Basketball Fans – WalletHub Study
And my reaction to that is to roll my eyes while uttering, “Well, duh.”
This wasn’t the first time I had gotten this PR email – a variation of it, with different data had been sent out during 2017’s NCAA basketball tournament (or just slightly before) to declare the Tampa or general Tampa Bay marketplace the 2nd worst college basketball market (via WalletHub), which remains an eye-rolling declaration and a piece o information akin to drought conditions lacking water.
I mean, that’s it, isn’t it? Tampa/St. Petersburg lacks ties to the NBA and the local college basketball team (the University of South Florida Bulls) isn’t engraved on the collective consciousness of the Tampa Bay region like other major schools are in the country. This isn’t trying to say there aren’t basketball fans in Tampa Bay, it’s more a case of saying it’s a shallow market and with good reason: We’re not tied to the game in the way other markets are tied to basketball. The Orlando Magic may be all of 90 miles away, but that doesn’t mean a large fraction of the Tampa Bay metroplex commute that distance to games on a regular basis.
WalletHub’s full report on the Best and Worst cities for basketball can be found here, but personally? I encourage a click-thru. If they thought to put Tampa Bay, a non-basketball market, on the list and send out PR emails to drive home the notion, I put into question the entire notion of why they’re judging specific markets. Do they mark Reno, Nevada as a poor football town or Houston, Texas as weak with hockey? It’d help if the markets were involved in the sport before you push analytical judgment upon them.
Exposing songs from Music Tampa Bay’s Top 100 list of 2016
Indie music is…well, independent to the point it adds additional responsibilities to the artist to expose their tunes to the masses. Sometimes that comes with ease. Sometimes that’s an afterthought.
I cited the other day when talking about Gypsy Star, keeps a competitive Top-40 list (which listeners and web visitors vote on). At the end of the year, the songs that rank highest in votes on the Top 40 are piled into a Top 100 song list. The site has a page devoted to the listings from several years – though the lists are graphics and somewhat illegible. It doesn’t really get the songs out there or make it easy for you to actually find them online.
This post is an attempt at changing that. I’ve taken the 2016 Top 100 listing from Music Tampa Bay and converted the image to an actual list. To build on that, to actually expose the artists who ranked so well to make this list, I’ve hyperlinked to as many of the songs as I could find.
While these are supposed to be Tampa Bay based artists, some have national attention (Four Star Riot among others). Also, while this list was for 2016 – some of the songs were published before then and I don’t mean just a year earlier.
The ranking of the songs itself is based off of votes cast in the Top 40 listing. I can’t say this was pure song rankings, or as if there was no “fix” regarding the top 10; don’t take the order as an opinionated or fine performance ranking. It’s just voting.
As of this writing, 80 out of the 100 songs are linked to so you can take them in yourself. I’ve linked to YouTube most of the time, but other places such as Reverb Nation and Soundcloud also get linking. Spotify contains many of the songs, including non-linked songs (I decided against using Spotify due to the forced registration to use the service). Some of those unlinked songs also are readily available on commercial sites such as Amazon or iTunes – this isn’t a sales-pitch though, so I didn’t link to any of that either.
Some of these songs, despite being listed as Top 100 and having age and radio play on Music Tampa Bay (at least) had never been viewed on YouTube by the time I crossed them while compiling this piece. Some came off as deeply hidden. It sort of furthers the point of limited exposure.
This article remains an ongoing project as I’d like to get music genre listed next to each song… I mean, c’mon! You’ve likely never heard of most (if not all) of these artists and you’re not exactly encouraged to blindly click to a song. At least knowing it’s supposed to be pop, rock, country, folk, etc. will encourage where you go.
Also, as this remains an ongoing project, if you can provide a link for a non-linked song that would be great. Just use comments below or contact me via email with a link. Read More
Indulged by the glimmer from Gypsy Star
I was on the Music Tampa Bay website yesterday. For those of you who don’t know, it’s an indie rock/music station in the Tampa Bay metro area (96.7 FM). I’ve interacted with the site before as I helped get the Pretty Voices on air on the station.
One key element on the Music Tampa Bay website is a Top-10 list of songs from local artists. It’s also directly tied to voting on the Top-40 of the station. I was looking at the list specifically to see if the Pretty Voices had any tracks listed at the time (nope). None of the listed artists or bands were familiar to me and that’s regularly the case with me and indie music.
What’s also regularly the case with me is checking out an indie artist because… why the hell not?
So, listed at #1 at the time on the Top-40 list was Gypsy Star, “I Feel Love”. I jumped to Google and typed that in and instead of pointing to a version of “I Feel Love” on YouTube, it pointed to the song Paramour:
All too often what I hear and what I see is bland rock. It’s not the lyrcs that make it bland, it’s just the non-riff of guitar and everything layered on top of each other to make the tunes forgettable. This was not that. I was taken aback by a violinist and accordion being part of the arrangement. Gypsy Star describes themselves as being “dynamic folk / rock” and this sure as shit felt like it. It transfixed me through Monday night.
Yet, listening to the opening of the song again, familiarity crept in. I’ve heard another variation of this before, haven’t I? Listen to the song alone for a minute, without the show distraction. Think about it for a minute.
It reminded me squarely of a song that “you can check out any time you like, but you can never” leave:
Don’t take that as a criticism, folks. I highly recommend checking out more of their tunes; they just released the album Under the Moonlit Night in January. Listening to “Paramour” and checking out some of their other songs (like the previously mentioned “I Feel Love”, you can find “I Feel Love” here, it is on YouTube… Not in concert version) I’ve been left curious and surprised. Gypsy Star is only a Tampa Bay local group? They sure as hell look an sound like a group that should be seeing a broader playing area in Florida, in the US and perhaps around the globe.
![Isolation and the Tampa Bay Rays quest for a new stadium [UPDATED]](https://www.johnnyfonts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Tropicana_field_from_air.jpg "Isolation and the Tampa Bay Rays quest for a new stadium [UPDATED]")
Isolation and the Tampa Bay Rays quest for a new stadium [UPDATED]
![Isolation and the Tampa Bay Rays quest for a new stadium [UPDATED]](https://www.johnnyfonts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Tropicana_field_from_air-770x200.jpg "Isolation and the Tampa Bay Rays quest for a new stadium [UPDATED]"){kind=small}
Insecure, narcissist and self indulgent. These words are commonly thrown toward current United States President Donald J. Trump (as they should be). Yet what’s inspiring these words at the moment is reflecting on a city; one town in a grander regional area that wants to be on top. It’s a town that wants prominence in the region through a national spotlight, even if that spotlight is dimmed by way of the city itself.
St. Petersburg, Florida’s population is almost 250,000, 16,000 more than Reno, Nevada (“America’s Biggest Little City”). It’s part of the grander Tampa Bay metroplex. Its quest to one-up Tampa (the larger city in the Bay area) was part of why the town constructed the venue known now as Tropicana Field. Never mind the fact there was no slated pro sports team to play within the building when construction was approved in the mid-1980s; St. Petersburg had to force the location if and when (if ever) Major League Baseball expanded or relocated to Tampa Bay.
Being a Tampa Bay resident for so long, having seen and experienced life with the Dome and St. Pete in general, I cringe and shake my head now. Topping another city to lock in control of a potential jewel only shows a lack of self awareness. St. Pete has one, basic fault that keeps it understated in a the wider region; a very simple fault that’s on display at Tampa Bay Rays games and which is why a new stadium is a hot point with the club and why relocation outside of the region is a possibility….
On Tampa Bay sports disappointment and media coverage
A disappointing season in sports – both professional and amateur — is just that, a disappointment, a downer. Things don’t go as planned and the results are lesser than you (as a fan) wish. It’s something that you can’t hold against a high school or college team while the pro sports competitive disappointments can be outright atrocities of a competitive kind, run asunder by a multitude of choices by management as well of incidents of both a competitive variety and by bad luck.
The 2016-17 Tampa Bay Lightning season is a disappointment of a competitive nature where bad luck (injuries) and a horrible schedule played part in the Bolts not roaring into a competitive, playoff-bound position that has become a constant the last three seasons. There was a noted attitude problem in the Lightning locker room, and once that was brought into check the team turned up its competitive vibe and is where it is now: Just outside the playoff bubble with a scant chance of making it and a growing chance of missing the playoffs.
It’s a disappointment, yeah. Yet the strength of the team hasn’t collapsed, things haven’t been put asunder with bad coaching or low quality management moves. For the casual fan that’s locked in on disappointment in the trades of Ben Bishop, Brian Boyle and Valtteri Filppula: They weren’t going to stick around long term by way o the salary cap and costs to do so. Bishop and Boyle will be unrestricted free agents come July 1st, Filppula was due to become one in the summer of 2018. With the club already working with a very tight salary cap, retaining them over retaining forthcoming restricted free agents Ondrej Palat, Jonathan Drouin and / or Center Tyler Johnson just couldn’t be done.
Disappointing to lose fan favorite players, especially Bishop who was such a steady hand in the crease. But when looking at the broad picture, at the “Yzerplan” that accentuates player development, it’s understandable as something that had to be done.
To cut that short: shit happens. Ho hum. Next season is going to be something worth checking out, just as this season was, and the season before…
In comparison to professional sports in the history of the greater Tampa Bay Metropolitan area which has existed 40+ years, this season of Lightning hockey ranks a hell of a lot higher on the disappointment list than oh-so-many others coming from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rays and Lightning. All that history, all the back-story of each club doesn’t gain web-clicks or sell newspapers at the immediate moment though.
See, Tampa Bay Times (and former Tampa Tribune) sports columnist Martin Fennelly made a bold decree that this Tampa Bay Lightning’s season is the biggest disappointment in the history of Tampa Bay sports. He does quick-quick takes of other top-tier disappointing seasons for local clubs, but highlights the current state of the Lightning as “desperation hockey” and the reason why this season is the top disappointment – ever.
That’s where I’ve been revitalized as a sports blogger, because something so limited in view, perspective and opinion got the green light from the only newspaper in the region. Something so inane, random and weak didn’t just get published – it’s going to get someone his paycheck because he put words down and it fit a column length requirement. Read More
The day when the Jose Gaspar is overseen by Cap’n Jack Sparrow;w
The Gasparilla season in Tampa, Florida is forthcoming. That’s weeks (if not a month) of civic events around Tampa tied to the grandiose kick-off celebration event: the invasion flotilla of locals, politicians and civic leaders and the “invasion” of Tampa, with the city being claimed by the pirates to officially start the whole season off.
And, yet, it’s just local. It’s not a recognized event nationally. This seems contradictory because there’s an odd timing coincidence: The invasion can also be deemed as a physical representation of the tourist season. From February through April, much of the state of FLA is invaded by that dubious, pirating lot of vacationers and spring training nuts who spend money and relax while also crowding up roadways and areas of commerce. A pirate invasion? How about snowbird invasion?
(Note: If you couldn’t tell, I’m playing around here with negatives; tourism is a grand part of Florida)
The NFL’s annual championship rite, the Super Bowl, has been played in Tampa more than a few times, and while the game has begun being played later in January and now February, there was never a schedule shift of Gasparilla and the pirates to coincide the hype of Super Bowl Weekend… While that’s a grand marketing failure, it also makes sense: Tampa Bay is represented by the Buccaneer franchise in the NFL after all. Forcing a pirate image / entity down the league’s throat when it’s a celebration of two teams playing for the Lombardi Trophy… Well, it seems like a bad move that will be hit with criticism nationally.
That doesn’t mean always keep the damn thing hoaye, local and low key though.
I’m not here to lobby for much, but there is a point I do want to make that could raise local leaders’ thoughts on the invasion event that earns it a spot in national attention in a positive, tourism-inviting sense. Since the release of “Pirates of the Caribbean” by Disney Films, and with actor Johnny Depp’s has embraced his Captain Jack Sparrow. I’ve wondered why we haven’t heard of Depp being in town for this Gasparilla invasion. Not necessarily in-costume (which he seldom dawns for more intimate events) but just out of his personal “connection” to piracy (in show, not in plundering and looting) by way of Sparrow.
The fact Disney is so invested 90 miles away adds a little touch to the idea. It’s not like Depp has to stick around longer than he wants to (unless he’s in-character). I also want to say Tampa residents/politicians or civic strong-guys shouldn’t actively push to make this happen, or if they do to not make a public marketing push (“See Johnny Depp at Gasparilla!!”). That turns down and ruins the surprise of something like this happening.
Gasparilla is this Saturday, January 28. I don’t expect the presence of Cap’n Jack Sparrow this year… It would be grand if some other star (who is not a local resident) would make their presence known.
Relevant Reddit for Tampa Bay and mixed relevance in subscriber counts
Perhaps this reflects the small population of the town/city, but Oldsmar is represented on Reddit with its own subreddit…
…with only 4 subscribers and 2 posts all-time.
It’s a messed-up aspect of geographical life on Reddit. Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater all have their own sub-groups on the site, as does the more general, region-representing Tampa Bay…which has a fraction of the subscribers compared to the above listed burgs. Palm Harbor is represented on there and hasn’t had a new post in 4 months. It does have 5 times the subscribers as Oldsmar though, so that’s saying something….
Sports journalism that hasn’t quite been “honest…and unmerciful”
For a very long time I’ve had problems with reading local newspaper reports about the local teams. It’d usually be Marc Topkin that’s rubbed me the wrong way — assuming tthe Atlanta Braves were Tampa Bay’s team in the early 1990’s, reporting personal favoritisms as fact with Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays (which seldom goes on today ) and is often proved wrong. This has nothing to do with Topkin as a person, it had everything to do with how an “inside” story was being presented, or from the angle in which the facts were aligned up (that Atlanta Braves angle, which I mentioned).
This is an example of how the media sometimes gets things lumped on it for setting the narrative. Stories that are carried, stories that are ignored, angles that are looked at and the “factual” narrative. I’m not going to even try to take on the general perception of the media and news reporting, by doing it I open myself up to the same criticism after all.
The point of this story isn’t about that at all anyway. It’s another thing I am noticing that hinders traditional media reports as well as gives a narrative that fans start following, the message that they start following. Â It’s their personal relationship with who they are writing about. Read More
Coming not quite soon (final)
About 14 months ago, Albertson’s at Boot Ranch Plaza closed shop. Just before it happened, I lamented in nostalgia about that happening. Having had worked there in the past and what not.
But one thing that was not said was the fact I was excited about the upcoming change of the store from one brand to another. I was thrilled that the retail location at 400 East Lake road was going to get the traffic that the site had long deserved.
That’s part of the reason I began chronicling the renovation at the location. Because what was a caterpillar would be a butterfly soon enough.  So twice I’ve posted about the cocoon that was the dormant retail space in Boot Ranch. What I failed to do was actually announce when work crews started to show up at the address in May. What I failed to address 0 with pictures and what not – was when the fences were put up, when the stucco facade was stripped and repainted over the summer.
Publix should be rising from the ashes of Albertsons the second week of December. A year after I observed the in-waiting voidness of the location. Painted, with untold renovations having happened inside and trees actually planted in the parking lot (which has long, long needed some shade trees), the building’s transformation is all but complete.  It looks splendid and I’m eager to check things out.
The Unpublished Works
Everyone likes seeing their name in print.
Well, unless of course it’s trash tabloid-ism or an arrest warrant… But I’m not talking just-printed-on-paper but I mean a by-line of one sort or another. I can say that from experience as I’ve gotten that kick — seeing “John Fontana” linked to letters-to-the-editor, or being sourced/interviewed by USA Today, being quoted in The Hockey News, The New York Times Slap Shot blog and la-de-da.
But I can also say that wasn’t where I intended to go with writing when I started out as a kid. My intention wasn’t to be a face-in-the-crowd (though no matter what you write or publish, you are another face in the crowd of literature) in the newspaper. Not another source for magazines and what not. Not a weblogger. I planned on doing things creatively and having my own book. Or books — plural. Take your pick.
But that never happened. See, when i was a teen I got away from story writing so much and was writing poetry most of the time… a habit that’s followed me into adulthood. Lyrical verse more-so than deep observations and perspectives.. Well, yeah they are perspectives but they are my perspectives. Sometimes just pop, sometimes inspired by events or people or feelings in my life.
Over the years, I’ve had some of them available to the masses through the web… Certainly you can find a couple of them on this site and probably elsewhere on the web… But they’ve never really been published in the sense of print. Never published in the sense of being out there for any traditional form of mass consumption. I haven’t bothered to take the time with sending out poems to magazines who have niches all of their own (and aren’t available unless you pay for a subscription or pay for a copy — while you’re not getting paid for your contribution).
I ought to put together a manuscript and do something with it. But I’m hesistant.
Catherine Durkin Robinson, local blogger and Creative Loafing contributor, has written two book manuscripts. Her first one is being published, chapter-by-chapter, on a blogspot site. The other, a more recent work based on her life as a teacher in Hillsborough County, is being sent around to literary agents in hopes someone will pick up the work and mass-market it. Sadly, that has not been the case and the rejections have been comical at best.
Their loss. I’ve read the book and it’s not only a good read, it’s provocative and controversial enough to be read widely by those fearing school-district scandals.
I also have another friend, in the Pacific Northwest this time, who went out and self-published her first novel. The book, Steel Goddesses, is currently available on Amazon.com for purchase. It takes a lot of courage to go out on a limb like that and self-publish any work… But it sort of cuts out the middle-man of having to appease literary agents who tell you what a proper market for your writing is-or-isn’t and tells you to change your work to fit that niche. At least that’s what I’ve seen with rejections served up to Catherine.
So the idea I am kicking around is actually putting together a manuscript of poetry I’ve written over the past decade and self-publishing it. I realize that poetry is not exactly a hot seller and not going to lead me to riches… It’d cost me more to publish than the commissions I’d get in the long run from doing it… But it does what I have long sought to do — take the writings jammed in Mead notebooks that I’ve carried around since High School and take some of those verses and show them to the masses. Will people connect? I have doubts. Will strangers read what I’ve written? Even more doubts… But it’s mine, and it’d be out there. My claim. My piece of literature.
My book.
It’s a thought, at least.
Next of the Bay: Creative Loafing’s Best of the Bay 2009
It’s a yearly rite. Much like back-to-school shopping, or perhaps August thunderstorms (or even more appropriate, blown-out-of-proportion optimism for local football teams – be they high school, collegiate or professional): the Best of the Bay awards.
The 2009 edition of said-awards is out there right now, with the opportunity to vote through August 31st, 2009. There’s a whole slew of subject matter to vote on, including best and worst local politicians, best restaurants, best local TV personalities, best sports figures and even more risque offerings.
Only catch is that you need to fill 20 of the items on your ballot. Ballots with less won’t be counted…. So look over everything – EVERYTHING – and vote.
west central Florida Segway sales
I’m one of the only local bloggers who have any reference to the Segway and dealings of the Segway in Tampa Bay… Of course my last post on the subject was pretty negative toward the dealer. It was also published a long time ago.
So — that being said, for those looking for Segway scooters, their are two dealerships outside of the Tampa/St. Pete market, but relatively close by in West-Central Florida for you to check out if you are shopping for a Segway:
Chrysler of Sarasota
6826 S. Tamiami Trail
941-922-1521 (no web site)Segway of Central Florida
Office 352-383-9900
Both of these dealers were provided to me by Tampa Bay Segs – which is a tour operation based in St. Petersburg. Across the bay, if you’re interested in seeing Tampa from up close, check out Magic Carpet Glide.
Watering Restrictions for Unincorporated Pinellas County
I forwarded the below email out on Thursday evening to my friends in Pinellas County)
For years, I’ve believed a generalization with lawn watering, and for years I and others have acted without much thought to watering rules and restrictions. It’s always been a very ambiguous thing that was believed (and seldom republished in community newspapers): You can water on X and Y day, it applies for all odd-numbered houses on the block and all the even-numbered houses can water on days A and B).
But as of late, as the drought locally has raged on, I’ve been seeing neighbors apply the above ambiguous rules to different days with thanks to word-of-mouth watering rules. Everyone seems to think they are supposed to water on a certain day, and it applies for everyone on their side of the street… Though that day varies depending on opinion or neighbor gossip.  Or there are no hour-restrictions to watering – run the sprinklers as you please.
That’s NOT the case.
Please visit the Pinellas County Utilities page and familiarize yourself with the rules that apply for you and your yard. This was the first time I’ve ever gone to this web page and actually seen the rules in place… Chances are, that might be the case for you as well.
Coming not quite soon (ongoing)
A couple of months ago I brought up the lack-of-movement in renovating the super market space at Shoppes at Boot Ranch that formerly housed Albertsons. Blame it on the economic downturn or perhaps on the fact Publix has to convert a total of 49 locations, but the Shoppes at Boot Ranch remain untouched more than six months after the final closing of that location.
Yeah, the mess on the windows still remain, along with laminates that display hours of operation for Albertsons and the OPEN signs bold and in white. The store is a void, though. 
It was Saturday (March 14) when I stopped by and another sign of the dormancy of the plaza was the parking lights being on the fritz. That’s one minor, yet significant thing Publix would not play around with: lighting in the parking lot.
No interior work was going on, Albertsons signs in the Deli and Bakery area faccade were still up. I could go on with details but the fact is the building is untouched, sans for the “Coming Soon” sign in one of the enterance ways. Last time I was at the store, the sign had fallen down. It was back up.
At the same time, I didn’t notice until this very post, that there had been some chairs brought out and a table, minor things moved around. This isn’t significant and you can only guess the why for each but it was something… even if the store changes at current are a whole lot of nothing.
For those of you as curious about this as me, Publix keeps a very small list of stores and their opening dates. There is no information on Boot Ranch on that link… There’s also nothing suggesting right now that the store would be converted into a Greenwise location instead of a standard Publix store… But then again, with so many standard stores in close proximity (Coral Landings, Seabreeze Plaza, East Lake Woodlands – which will likely close regardless, Brooker Creek, Riviera Plaza) Publix must have at least flirted with the idea.
Indifferent on history
There are a lot of people around Tampa and the greater Tampa Bay area who know more about the historic Floridan Hotel in Downtown Tampa (it’s distant past, it’s declining years, it’s failed restoration attempts in the past, it’s present, etc) than I do. That being said, why does the hotel have such a sorry ass Wikipedia page and why am I the one updating it?
…And not even doing a good job of it, but it’s better than it was just a few hours ago.
Stimulating idiocy
The St. Petersburg Times took local area governments to task on their requests for economic stimulus project funds. Most of them were low key, beautification projects that would neither create jobs nor serve a purpose.
I want to know if the TECO Line Streetcar is on this list of projects. I don’t mean the quarter-of-a-mile extension. I mean funding to complete this sucker so it runs through downtown to the north.
Seriously, Tampa doesn’t seriously link it’s new residential units in the Channelside district to central downtown. it hasn’t linked it’s new downtown condos with the entertainment district to the east. How do you do that, stimulate foot traffic in all markets AND potentially stimulate the retail sector? Extend that street car.
That or you can try to get a windfall of cash to do ornate bullshit that shows no vision, no ingenuity, and no long term planning. That’s the usual in Florida…
Eighty-One. Bah, Humbug.
The high for December 24th
81 degrees in Pinellas County, Florida on Christmas Eve. There are millions of Americans that have endured the cold of the late fall and the first few days of Winter with sub-freezing temperatures, snow, ice, and all the weather that marks the season (and the problems they cause).
I get eighty-one degrees… And I’m not in the seasonal mood one bit because of it.
I don’t mean to play the Grinch, or make those up north jealous and play out like I’m ungrateful for having temperate weather as we pass the winter solstice… But I don’t get into the seasonal spirit any more seeing green trees around me (where trees won’t finish shedding leaves until February/March and grow them right back again). In fact it makes Christmas displays feel like Las Vegas light shows instead of the true time of the holiday that I know. It’s easier to tell the season by looking at store displays than with the weather outside.
In Florida you get two seasons: Spring and Summer. Oh, it gets chilly once in a while but every Spring has it’s cold days. And while some may want to defend the fact that it’s winter right now, even in Florida, I must ask how many places consider winter a growing season? In the northern hemisphere, I mean…
Eighty-one degrees… On Christmas eve. I’m sitting here with the grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side-of-the-fence mentality. 20 years ago I was jealous of my father being in Florida while we froze our buns off in New York. Right now, I’d rather endure the seasonal shift to cold — because not only would it ring in the time of year better, but it’d make me more appreciative of the warmth of summer. It’s hard to do that when your average temperature is 90 degrees with a sixty percent humidity for most of the year.
Maybe the new year will afford me the chance to escape Tampa Bay. I’d take it, but I don’t think that’s in the cards.
So this is what it's like running the local blogroll…
Almost a year ago, Tommy over at Sticks of Fire and Brett Glisson worked out a deal where Tommy… well, he bought / took over Brett’s brainchild TampaBLAB. For the uninformed, uninititated or the plain flat out uncurious (helloooo Bush family!) the TampaBLAB is an aggregator / blog reader. It shares new posts from blogs in the greater Tampa Bay metropolitan area.
It sounds really complex but really, it’s not.  It’s simply like this: You have a blog, most (if not all) blogs provide feeds — ways to syndicate or share their content with other web sites. If you’re a blogger living in the Tampa Bay area and you wanna’ share your blog with the rest of the Tampa Bay blogosphere, you submit it to TampaBLAB and lo and behold — every new post you write gets published at the BLAB (not in it’s entirety, mind you, just a lead in).
Of course, someone has to be in charge of the BLAB (acronym for Bay Local Area Bloggers). Tommy didn’t have the time to update the theme and add newly submitted blogs, nor maintain the main blog page on the BLAB. That’s where I’ve come in… Running the day to day and keeping an eye on things… Dropping defunct blogs that haven’t updated in a long while… Adding newly submitted sites. Occasionally posting on the BLAB Blog and fixing technical SNAFU’s that show up from time to time.
…Well, more often than not with thanks to the number of upgrades WordPress has gone through in the last few months and compatibility issues that arise because of it. But that’s techno-jargon you could do without.
So it’s been good so far, a little slow. Know someone who blogs in Tampa Bay and wants more readers? Suggest they submit their site to the BLAB. Brand spanking new blogs with no posts need not apply, though… Sorry. Blogs come and go so quickly that we can’t accept the newest of new kids on the blogging block.
Also, I’m trying to figure out if I should make the Skyway theme that’s employed at the BLAB available to the general WordPress-blogging public for download. It’s cute but not cutting edge, you know?
Coming not quite soon
Riviera Plaza Publix opened at the corner of Alderman Road and US 19 before the Holiday season came out in full force. Sunset Point and Belcher Road Publix in Clearwater opened on the same day. The latter of the two stores was a former Jewel Osco location, that later became an Albertsons.
I happened to check that store out last week while in the area and, while I thought they wasted a ton of space and hadn’t put everything together in the best way possible (which is what one would expect from Publix), I thought it was nice. It was nostalgic in fact, because of how much it resembled the Tampa Road/East Lake Road Albertsons location to a T.
This made me curious to see how things were progressing at Boot Ranch and the conversion between Albertsons and Publix.
What I was left wondering was, what conversion?
The ghost of the old sign for Albertsons as still prominent when I looked at the retail space from a distance… The parking lot directly in front of the store was void, of course. All the retail shoppers focused on CVS or Target in the northern part of Shoppes At Boot Ranch. To the south, it was also busy with people coming and going from Blockbuster Video, Subway or the other boutique restaurants in the plaza.
The missing signage was my focus, though. Missing signage and lack of changes to the storefront. I walked in for a closer look.
While the promise was there that Publix would be taking over 400 East Lake Road… But from the looks of things, no one had messed with the building for quite a while besides putting up the sign behind the glass. The glass doorways at the right and center entrances were strewn with cobwebs and the disgusting things that got caught in them. Plenty of Albertson’s laminates were still covering the doors and windows… Including the bold white-faced “OPEN” sign that contradicted the truth: this location hadn’t been open in months and wouldn’t be for some time to come.
I wondered from the start if Publix was simply going to renovate the location or perhaps tear down the front and interior of the building and start from scratch? Of course, there is also the negotiations with the owner of the Shoppes at Boot Ranch plaza if they wanted to make even simple changes to the structure (read: a paint job) or even reconfiguring the parking lot for better traffic flow. All that could be a drag on things…
Oh, and there is that little issue with the economy, right?
But peering into the windows and seeing the proverbial ghost of a supermarket, I wonder what is the deal? No painting had taken place, no demolition. No obvious signs of re-wiring or electrical work. The store simply sits in silence as the world bustles on around it.
Yeah, it might be strange to take a keen interest like this in a forthcoming supermarket, but color me curious. I wanna’ know what’s next.
What’s the deal with Sprawlparks?
For a couple of years, there has been an ongoing story in northern Pinellas County about the need for additional playing fields for local youth sports. Every plan takes a huge tract of land and creates multiple fields at one location. Thus the term “sprawlpark.”
Heck, look at the city of Oldsmar’s description of it’s Canal Park complex — “Sprawling” over 46 acres. 46 ACRES!
What ever happened to neighborhood parks? Or neighborhood playing fields? Why put multiple fields in one location and treat it like a friggin’ mall (one stop shopping!) instead of a more localized situation?
First of all, I guess developers are in part to blame, as well as the county. The county, while trying to address needs, puts for the most cost effective plan — as multiple fields in one location can be maintained easier. Of course, the concept of civic and neighborhood pride doesn’t play into this… But from an administrative level, it makes as much sense as putting bus stops in easily reached logistical locations without thinking about traffic (the old busing plan for the county that resulted in anarchy and deaths of students who had to cross multiple lanes of traffic to get back home).
The developers get the blame for, and this is common in Florida, not helping the county by providing infrastructure and space. Where neighborhoods like Lake St. George, Lansbrook, Ridgemore and so many others were built to the brim with housing styles… Public space wasn’t offered outside of clubhouses paid for in part by home owners association fees.
Logistically, it might be easier to have several ballfields in one location instead of them dotting the landscape — one here, one there, several miles apart — but at the same time, you will not have the same volatile reaction by putting a baseball field in an already estabilished neighborhood compared to building large scale park complex and bringing development, noise and light pollution into a sparsely developed corner of the county.
FL-09: Roll over, play dead
Dear Rep. Gus Bilirakis:
Congratulations! From the looks of things, Democrats have once again conceded your home base of Palm Harbor and Pinellas County. During this primary season, I have gotten more mailers (2) from you than from the three Democratic primary challengers (none). No signage was put up, no canvasing took place, no interest in GOTV efforts, no intention to help down ballot candidates in turning out voters. Are you listening John Dicks?
It happens annually – my district race turns into a farce where no one presents themselves (tactically or politically) as worthy congressmen. Oh, this includes you Gus, but you’re the incumbent. It says volumes if others don’t present themselves as a better choice than yourself – let alone their primary opponents.
Signed,
Disgruntled
Creatively loaf your way and vote for the Best of the Bay
If you’re a Tampa Bay area resident, you might want to partake in Creative Loafing’s annual “Best of the Bay” awards before voting ends on Wednesday. It gives you the opportunity to vote on best restaurants, best clubs, best TV personalities… worst politicians, favorite players for the three Major League sports teams in town…
Not sure when the results will show up… But take some time and mark a ballot with your personal faves from around the area.
