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