Back in '07. Luv ya.

Special Holiday Post

It's not Tampa/St. Pete-centric, it isn't even new, but it is hilarious. Via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel it's time for some holiday trauma from the formative years:

Scared of Santa

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Store display at Milagros on Central Avenue for El Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Found Photo Series, No. 10

A pontoon
soap box
racer?

TBay Around The Net

Tampa in Red and Green:

• A True Dilemma (Henchman Mike/photo)
• Macro Colors (Android9/photo)
• The Captain That Ate Tampa (mattsabo17/photo)
• Straight Seasonal (Shooting Chris/photo)

Ghosts Of Tampa Past

An ad, circa 1920, enticing travelers to spend the holidays at the Tampa Bay Hotel, now the University of Tampa.

Open During Exterior Facelift

The storefront awning as Chinese paper umbrella, at Chiang Mai on the 1100 block of Central Avenue in St. Pete.

South Clearwater Beach At Night

Kinda pretty, almost as if they weren't rushing to be the next beachside concrete canyon...

TBay Around The Net

Flickr tags "tampa" and "mullet":

• "We watch mullets so you don't have to" (kuhnzaga/photo)
• Better than: "Bird Cage Liner" (Fancy Horse/photo)

Going All Out

At the beach, they're ready for the holidays, with decorations on the lamposts and on the sand itself with.....

Holiday Seaweed!

TBay Around The Net

Flickr tags "Tampa" and "Dog":

• Red Hots! (lumierefl/photo)
• Spotties (natural gas/photo)
• Immortalized Pet (Opiliones/photo)

Contemplate

Buddha statues at the Chua Phat Phap Buddhist Temple on 62nd Avenue in St. Petersburg.

Showboating

The Seafood Shack Showboat Cruise in Cortez. I wanted to give the paddle-wheeler a timeless look by going monochrome, and altering the color balance in Photoshop.

Also:

• Spare Parts in Cortez
• Old Florida Fishing Shack

Serendiptious

It was fitting to run into John Scott’s “I Remember Birmingham” on display at the Poynter Institute a few weeks back during the Times’ Festival of Reading. I noticed it, almost hidden in a recessed area of the wall, after a talk on the Freedom Riders, given by Ray Arsenault, a USF history professor who wrote Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. Somehow on the way to the talk, I walked right past a piece that made me draw a gasp when I first saw it.

Although the Poynter's display wasn't as dramatic as the one at the Museum of Fine Arts, with the illuminated blocks spread apart in a darkened room, the piece still retained its resonance. Maybe even more so after hearing other-worldly things like the incident at Anniston, Alabama. There, the local members of the Klan threw a Molotov cocktail on the activists’ bus and then tried to block all the bus exits. Following the attack, the Klan members wanted to burn down their own community’s hospital because it was treating some of the Freedom Riders.
Wow: The Reactionary Conservative’s Guide to Shitting In Your Own Bed!

Overheard before the talk were two old ladies behind me reading a handout that was a copy of an application to join the Freedom Riders, but was not dated. When they got to the part that warned about potential violence, the one lady remarked to the other:
“Well, I guess that leaves us out!”

Scott's piece is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts. Scott's from New Orleans, but the piece was created at Graphicstudio in Tampa.

Moonscape

Floodlights illuminate deflated slides at night on a deserted stretch of Clearwater Beach at Pier 60.

Outdoor Retreat

At the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg.

TBay Around the Net

Flickr tags "polk," "florida," and "signs":

• Silver Moon Drive-In, Lakeland (Domoni/photo)
• Scratch N Dent (Domoni/photo)
• Lakmar Motel (Uh...Bob/photo)
  

Found Photo Series, No. 9

No, the "Rum Cured Crooks" isn't a jacket cover for the latest book about an Ybor City bolito operation. This cigar label was found in a St. Petersburg antiques shop.

Also:

• Found Photo Series, No. 8
• Found Photo Series, No. 7
• Found Photo Series, No. 6
  

Due for a Revival

A trio of block patterns, throughout the bay area--an architectural use I'd like to see make a comeback.

Head Start for Horror

Hmmm...looks like the zombies are getting an early start this year.

TBay Around The Net

Flickr tags: "tampa" and "redneck":

• DIY Gone Bad? (yankeepez/photo)
• They Hate Us For Our Freedom Fries (shutterblog/photo)
• They Call It Getting "Tampa'd" (temporarySPASTIC/photo)

Afternoon Tea

At the Gas Plant Antique Arcade on Central Avenue in St. Pete.

Globe O' Booze

I needed a drink when I got home from TIA, so it's only fitting to start back up with the World Liquors sign on Central Avenue in St. Pete.

Going Out of Town

A brief interruption in posting -- gotta go out of town until Thursday.
Image courtesy of: Spell with flickr

Temporary Skyline

A cruise liner looms over the Bennigan's on the second floor of Channelside. In front, giving some scale, is the covered escalator to the second level.

TBay Around the Net

Tampa Bay in Orange:

• Nice photo, including setup details (jeremyallen35/photo)
• Polluted-looking (katiew/photo)
• Beach wedding in Anna Maria Island (thecharmedgirl/photo)

Ybor Collective

Among the images: details from Ybor City lamposts; the statue of writer, poet and Cuban independence leader Jose Marti; a cigar factory lector taken from a detail on an outdoor mural; and the Centro Ybor sign.

TBay Around the Net

Flickr tags: "tampa" and "photobooth":

• Facial Gyrations (photo/unaesthetic)
• Fully Loaded [I mean the booth!](photo/unaesthetic)
• Al (photo/NuckleheadEd)

Everything Changes

I never would have gone to something like the Home & Remodelling Show that was at the Trop last weekend before. But before buying a condo, I never would have spent three days painting indoor walls, either. I wish there had been more cool stuff, such that you might see on HGTV, but at any rate, here's a series of (relative) highlights.

Here is the Trop all luau-ed out at the Exotic Plumeria booth, followed by...

The Weekender

The Weekender outdoor grill, just under $9200, including deep fryer.

Hoffman Spa Collection

...and my favorite, the Rock Salt Crystal Lamps, made from 100% crystallized Himalayan salt.

Banner Ads

The midday sun illuminates the glass-ceilinged entryway to Tropicana Field.

TBay Around the Net

Flickr tags: "Tampa" and "crash":

• Only here (Iccee/photo)
• Don't Be Skeered and Confused! (flesh mcfeisty/photo)
• Note the Florida park job (futsoulja/photo)

Before

...and after at http://www.beachwalkgulfport.com/. It'll cost $445K to live across the street from the Gulfport beach.

Winding Up

A circular stairway wraps to the top of the water tower at Crescent Lake.

TBay Around the Net

Green, green Tampa:

• Murky (Mark A Jones/photo)
• Skyway (The_Architect/photo)
• Cross-Processed Croquet (Todd Bates/photo)

Peking Picnic

Pagoda picnic shelters at the beach in Gulfport.

Sidewalk Stencil

A pair of sidewalk geckos give play to Gulfport's arty bent.

TBay Around the Net

What's been flying over St. Petersburg? (chemkook/You Tube)

Color Grab

While in Gulfport the other day, this vibrantly-colored building made me stop to take a shot. But once I looked at the photos from that day on my laptop, those vibrant colors ended up looking washed out. Now, my camera's not top of the line, but I still felt cheated. So I cheated, and got out Scott Kelby's "The Photoshop Channels Book." And maybe it's too much for the rest of you, and maybe I swung too far in the other direction. But I wanted my color back, dammit!

Ephemera

Fish Spread To Go

Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish on Pasadena Avenue. It's one of the few remaining of its kind in Tampa Bay, making it as Old Florida as they come.

I'm partial to their burgers, which have the most perfect melted cheese I've ever seen on a burger.

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Tampa in Blue:

• Blue Awnings (andertho/photo)
• Blue Vein (ap&/photo)
• Ghost Hand (kbot=cool/photo)
  

Industrial Chic

The complimentary complementary neatly-piled stacks of stone...the glass block...and the weird oversized slats on the door... I guess these elements are why I took a photo of this doorway. That, and I'm still not sure if this is operational, or if the overgrown weeds in front indicate an abandoned building.

Peeking Through

A hole in a cloud lets the sun shine through during a sunset over Tampa Bay.

TBay Around the Net

This week, travel back in time to the Big Sombrero, where U2 plays under a giant McDonald's arch:

Merger

I-275 in St. Pete, north of the I-175 connection from downtown.

John's Pass Makeover

I had a positive reaction to the new parking garage at John's Pass. Well-disguised by shops, the exterior of the garage is punctuated by nice touches like high-ceilinged walkways past shops done up in a multi-color scheme. Wooden shutters at the top of the stairwells look nice too.

More interesting is that the new structure presents, in actuality, a difference from the rest of the tourist compound. You can't get more of difference than between a new creperie and the paintings of Red Skelton. Maybe kitsch and upscale can co-exist harmoniously!

It looks like a changing of the guard, and yet it feels strangely integrated. I wonder how the existing shopowners feel about it.

Also, a John's Pass bonus shot...

...for documentary purposes, I'm posting this photo of a view of Hubbard's Marina, which is also slated for some changes.

TBay Around the Net

It's Friday--when's the last time you went night fishing?

Forgotten Tracks

Near Tropicana Field, South of Central (SOCA, anyone?), along the Interstate, is an area with storage warehouses, auto collision shops, fur storage, and food distributors that stages innumerable industrial backdrops.

Also:

• More Industrial
  

Doing the Job for Two

One span handles traffic for both directions as new bridge construction begins at John's Pass.

Traffic was conveniently light, a lucky happenstance, for having forgotten about construction here.

Fresh Tracks

Morning sand at St. Pete Beach.

TBay Around the Net

Oh! So that's what that bridge is for! (Video/danmele)

Harbor Lights

A crop of a photo shot last winter during the early morning hours of the waterfront in front of the Pier. It was as still as it looks.

For the photo, I moved up the brightness and nudged the contrast.

A St. Petersburg Story

So this past weekend, there was apparently a mint shortage in North St. Pete. It took two stores to get some, and I almost missed some in the second store. In talking with other people looking for mint, I know of at least three grocery stores that were out of it. For a moment there, it sure looked like the after-work mojito was in jeopardy.

Is everybody drinking these? Next time, instead of making simple syrup ahead of time, I'll shop for the mint. On Wednesday.

TBay Around the Net

Tampa Bay, the Body of Water:

• Stormy Bay (tpl108/photo)
• Dolphins (clorenz41/photo)
• The View from Weedon Island Preserve (mbarrison/photo)

Golf Courses and Jim Morrison

Looking toward the Renaissance Vinoy Golf Club on Snell Isle Boulevard in St. Petersburg. The Mediterranean Revival style of this historic landmark is accented by a Moorish style of architecture, which brings to mind the minarets of UT. Wherever you look for the Moorish influence, its presence here imparts an other-worldly feel here. Jim Morrison, who visited the Tampa Bay area frequently, by hitching rides from FSU down to Clearwater, was right:
"To me, it was a strange, exotic, exciting place"
(See Photo # 10 of Photo Gallery).

Doors of Perception

I do like back alley doors. Like the way we all hide certain character traits when we present ourselves to the world, alley doors often have more character on the surface than their doorway cousins on the street. This one's in St. Pete--and it has that icon of the Florida landscape: the shopping cart.

Also:

• More: Alley Doors
• More: Shopping Carts
  

TBay Around the Net

This week's Friday tour sees red:

• St. Pete Beach (LINDAC928/photo)
• Target (BB/photo)
• Red Sony (Fabricio Buonomo/photo)

Snell Arcade

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Snell Arcade is located at 405 Central Ave., in St. Pete. There were 18 images used to assemble this panography (some of the individual shots are included below this post).

• Learn to how to make a panography