Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Because I work most Friday and Saturday nights, I am unable to partake in some of the area’s special events.  Many great plays open on Friday nights, as do movies.  The biggest recent thing to take place on a weekend evening was Lights on Tampa.

The big deal was on Saturday night, Jan 7 when the city displayed Jorge Orta’s apparently fantastic production (TampaGold has a little video of the stuff, and here are some photos). I knew I’d miss that, but figured I could catch most everything else within the next couple weeks or so.

With that in mind, wifey and I went downtown last Thursday evening to see those Lights.  We met at Spain, and after delicious conversation and excellent food (by the way, the service was very good too, although I’m not sure they expected the crowd they had), we wanted to walk to each display.  Unfortunately, one of the first things we found was that the City of Tampa still has quite a ways to go if they want people to hang out downtown in the evening.

Editor’s notes:  The main website for Lights on Tampa includes heavy doses of Flash.  Because of that, I’m unable to link anywhere within that website.  You can follow along in another tab/window if you like.  The other links are to UNOFFICIAL photos and other media I was able to locate on the web.  Also, for clarity I attempted (rather lamely, really) to use this pdf map (go to page 8) I found via Lights on Tampa.

From Spain (Tampa St.), we went south to Madison, and took a quick look across Gaslight Square at the City of Tampa Municipal building (on the pdf map on page 8, it’s #1) A spotlight shining through as well as reflecting off of different color pieces of glass made for a very unique and intriguing display.  This piece was pretty cool.  “Cool,” I thought.  “This might just be a decent night.”  Then we made our way to the Performing Arts Center.  Carefully. 

After going north on Tampa and east on Zack across Ashley, we stopped at the southeast corner of Curtis Hixon Park.  It sure would have been a nice walk northwest across the park to the river, but of about 50 streetlamps in the park, maybe half were actually working.  The entire northwest portion of the park was swallowed by darkness.  Having already passed one or two foyer-camps, and seeing a number of seedy-looking guys sitting on a park bench, I wasn’t about to make wifey walk through a pitch black abyss.

We ended up walking around the Poe Garage to find the TBPAC (#6) with completely straight lights along each horizontal edge.  Ever so slowly, the lights would change colors.  Not a horrible sight, but quite unimpressive, really.  I mean, the neon sign at the Blue Shark is missing it’s “s,” and still has as much excitement.  The light show was going downhill fast. 

We saw absolutely nothing on the Cass St. Bridge (#8).  Likewise, we saw nothing under/around the Poe Garage (#7).  We saw nothing on the Tampa Museum of Art (#9).  Walking south on Ashley, it’s impossible not to see the Pavillion at Rivergate Tower (#3).  This one contains thousands (millions?) of little lights slowly changing from blue to red.  Impressive in its size (it takes the entire north side of the cube), but then again my screensaver has more action.

Crossing Ashley again at Kennedy we watched the show at the National Wall Art Gallery (#2).  Videos of Weeki Wachee mermaids and manatees broadcast through the windows of the gallery.  Well, come on, now – it’s a freaking video loop.

 Not wanting to cross the bridge on foot (further away from the car), we decided to drive over to The News Center (#4).  Nothing there, either.  We drove north on North to give the Cass St. Bridge another shot, this time in our vehicle.  Nothing.  So we drove to the new park on Ashley, across the river from The News Center.  We pulled in right behind the hotel there – you know, where they keep their dumpsters.  There we could see the dancing lights.  This display was excellent, but I still felt like I was missing something.  It seemed there was probably music that was part of the experience, so I rolled down my window to hear… nothing.

Upon leaving that spot, we passed a sign explaining we should tune our radio to 89.3 (or something close).  We did so, and parked on the other side of the park – behind a different dumpster.  I suppose we could have gotten out and sat in the park to watch, but then we couldn’t hear the accompanying music.  At any rate, the display there, along with the soundtrack made this the best of all night.  An excellent job, and the most entertaining “light show” on the agenda. Further driving led us to the Forum, which is just as purple as it has been for months, and I’m not sure it is part of the tour, anyway (some posters seem to indicate it is).

With four of nine not there, and three of the remaining five unimpressive, I wouldn’t go out of my way to see these Lights.  Spain is worth it, though.

So, in a nutshell, if you happen to be downtown at dark (don’t go out of your way), drive south on Ashley past the huge glowing red and/or blue panels.  While stopped at the red light at Kennedy, glance to your left to see the mermaids on TV, then make your way to behind the Sheraton riverside hotel, and turn right.  Ignore the dumpster, and tune the radio to 89.3 (or something close), and enjoy the show for about ten minutes.  On your way out of downtown, take a glance at the municipal building for another unusual site.  Head back to your suburb.

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