Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Just before the turn of the century, I was hanging out in Ybor City all the time. The band was playing at either Castillo’s (now the BoneYard) or the old Blue Shark (now a clothing store) every weekend. Oftentimes, a bunch of swingers would come in and dance a bit. Not THOSE kind of swingers, but those that were doing the jitterbug and lindy hop over at the Sugar Palm Club (now part of HCC?) at the corner of 15th and Palm. At least one of those great dancers now has a blog, and dug up some old photos of the Sugar Palm Club.

Those photos and flyers brought back memories for me, too. So Lanie is the subject of this week’s Meet the Blogger:

NAME: Lainey
BLOG NAME: Random_Speak
URL: http://randomspeak.blogspot.com

Describe how did you come to live in Tampa Bay? My father’s family has been in St. Petersburg for several generations, and there is rampant speculation that our murky background is actually quite sordid and scandalous. However, references to Al Capone, fistfights in front of the Vinoy, and terribly wild parties in the 1920s are probably best left out of a family-oriented site. My mother barely escaped from New Jersey and also tortures herself by maintaining a local blog (http://rhodent.blogspot.com)

Why did you stay here? Well, I tried to leave, but I couldn’t get my car to start.

What’s the best & worst thing about Tampa Bay? There isn’t really one best thing about the Tampa Bay area, but some of my favorites include: drinking beer with the local Ultimate Frisbee players, making out in the Tampa Theater, admiring the enormous cheeses at Mazzaro’s Italian Market, wearing obnoxious clothing at the Dali Museum and running amok on the beaches.

The worst thing about the Tampa Bay area is the painfully slow and protracted death of the local art scene (sob). Many of us are in mourning.

In which neighborhood do you live? I currently rent in charming Old Northeast (St. Petersburg), but I plan to buy a tiny house in a crime-ridden, termite-infested, flood-prone neighborhood quite soon.

What’s the best & worst thing in your neighborhood? The best thing about my neighborhood is the fact that I can easily walk to all sorts of lovely places: I can buy exotic ales from Shep’s, browse very old books at Wilson’s, pretend to act all Euro-trashy at the Independant bar, play with kittens at the Beehives salon, and stuff myself silly at the Saturday morning St. Pete market.

The worst part about my neighborhood is either the fact that Johnny Depp doesn’t live next door or the fact that our city is still struggling with the issue of homelessness.

What is your blog about? My blog is occasionally about vintage pinups, brilliantly incisive social/political commentary and fart poetry. At times I discuss the charm of painting on black velvet, the latest scientific discoveries, very odd books and completely useless trivia. But usually it’s all about nothing.

Why did you start your blog? I wanted to torture myself.

Is it successful? Random_Speak is truly one of the great success stories of our time. As of late, however, there have been remarks that my blog does not contain enough sex and violence to retain market share among its target audience. Therefore, we are currently working on a new and exciting blogging strategy that will better align with our corporate mission statement, which is:
1. To improve customer satisfaction
2. To retain our high-value customers
3. To increase brand awareness
4. To eat, drink and be merry
5. And much, much more!
As soon as we figure out what this means, we will be sure to let you know.

What else about blogging? Caffeine is the single most important part of maintaining my blog, and I cannot live without it. To be perfectly honest, the most difficult part about maintaining my blog is the fact that sorting through all the love letters and marriage proposals is quite tiring. I’ve already sprained three fingers that way.

What’s the coolest thing you have ever done? Everything I do is amazingly cool, so I suppose I don’t understand the question.

What else? I am highly addicted to kung fu movies and must absolutely recommend Master of the Flying Guillotine, Duel to the Death, Drunken Master II, Iron Monkey and Rikie-Oh: the Story of Riki to all and sundry. Anyone who would like to trade film recommendations (of all sorts) may enquire on my blog. I am an equal opportunity offender.

So, that’s Lanie. Fart Poetry. Nice to have made your acquaintance.

Oh… a special “thank you” is owed to the initial subject of Meet the Bloggers, Robert LaFollette, who created the “Meet the Bloggers” logo/image you see above. Thanks Robert!

Meet the bloggers.

Possibly related posts (auto-generated)

• No related posts.