Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

24, of Jacksonville, Fla.

assigned to the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died Jan. 18 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations in Baghdad.

William Rechenmacher’s family liked to call him by his middle name, Joshua… Joshua was a lot of things: a father, a son, and a big brother. Kathrinne Rechenmacher is his 8-year-old sister… “He would play with me all the time, whenever I was like a baby, and like 2 and 3. But he didn’t come to our house that much. He was busy in the war,” said Kathrinne.

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35, of Tamarac, Fla.

assigned to the 775th Civil Engineer Squadron, Hill Air Force Base, Utah; killed Jan. 7 by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device while performing duties in the Baghdad area. Also killed were Senior Airman Elizabeth A. Loncki and Senior Airman Daniel B. Miller Jr.

Weiner… graduated from Piper High School in Sunrise… Weiner loved computers and planned to retire in three years… He enlisted in the Air Force in 1990.

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Evening

(PG-13; 117 minutes)

As ill, elderly Ann Grant Lord lies in her deathbed, her mind takes her back 50 years, to an eventful summer and a romance that she never forgot. Downstairs, her two grown daughters wonder what their dear mother is thinking about, while flashbacks to the ’50s explain it to the audience.

Have a lovely “Evening” — if you’re a chick-flick fanatic.

Written by Susan Minot (who wrote the novel it’s based on) and Michael Cunningham (”The Hours”), directed by Hungarian cinematographer Lajos Koltai, this feminine tear-jerker stars Vanessa Redgrave as the fading Ann and Claire Danes as the her youthful incarnation. Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson (Redgrave’s real-life daughter) play the worried daughters, and Tampa’s own Patrick Wilson appears in the flashbacks as the man who captivated Ann so many years ago.

Glenn Close and Meryl Streep add even more thespian power — although they have brief roles in different time frames and don’t appear together on screen.

Although the film looks lovely and the cast members are all outstanding, “Evening” comes off as a hanky-soaking trifle. It teaches us that even the well-off have emotions and heartbreak, but that’s scant comfort when sitting through the painful conversations and class-conscious confrontations.

The ’50s sequences are artfully presented — the scenery is as delicately designed as the fine performances — but the story is essentially very high-toned soap opera.

Mothers and daughters are this film’s most likely audience. Because we are neither, we found it a bit mushy and we give it a C+.

Find more movie fun on BobRossMovies.com

20, of Jacksonville, Fla.

assigned to the 2nd Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.; died Dec. 27 of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated during combat operations in Baghdad.

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For those who missed it, one of the more entertaining NBA Drafts in recent history went down last night. The draft had All-Stars being traded, known commodities being drafted, and Noah’s bowtie. Here’s a quick recap of relevant local players and teams……

Horford Goes #3

Big Al goes to the ATL, where he will compete with the slumlord aka Sheldon Williams, whom the Hawks drafted just last year, for a starting position.

Brewer In Minnesota

Corey heads north to play for a team on the decline. Kevin Garnett wants out, and the T-Wolves could be paying in Oklahoma City within a year or two. At least Brewer gets to play with Gators teammate Chris Richard.

Windy City Renaissance

Joakim Noah and his bowtie are drafted by the Bulls who made two huge upgrades by picking up Noah and Pitt center Aaron Gray. Chicago has far and away the most talent in the East.

Richard Picked Before Green

Gators 6th man Chris Richard is picked 11 spots before Florida’s starting point guard Taurean Green. There were plenty of questions about Green and he may have been better served to stay in college for another year to develop his game.

A Buckeye in Florida

Miami was the only Florida team with a pick in the first round, which they used to get Ohio State guard Daequan Cook, a talented freshman who still needs a lot of work before he is NBA ready.

In 2004, Creative Tampa Bay commissioned a study “to determine how the Tampa Bay region ranked in attracting the young, well-educated workforce that will be the economic driver of the future.” Three years later, two major national financial publications have come out with their studies. The result is not good if you’re under 35 here in the Bay area.

Local Effort

First, let’s look back at the report from Creative Tampa Bay (pdf).

INSIGHTS:
• Tampa Bay’s share of the important 25 to 34 year-old population is relatively much smaller than most large metropolitan areas, ranking 47th out of the top 50 areas.
• Educational attainment for 25 to 34 year-olds in Tampa Bay lags far behind its counterparts in the U.S.’s top 50 largest metropolitan areas. The educational level has improved in the last decade, but just managed to keep pace with the national trend.
• Tampa Bay’s benchmark regions, particularly Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, and Nashville, have more young adults and have gained more 25 to 34 year-olds (while Tampa Bay lost them).
• Tampa Bay attracts more young adults from 35 of the 50 largest metropolitan areas than it loses. The largest share comes from New York, but generally, Tampa Bay loses population to larger metro areas in the South, particularly its benchmark regions.

Ouch. The study didn’t paint a rosy picture of the young professional climate here.

National Image

The “Best Cities” reports from Kiplinger’s is not kind. Tampa Bay is not on it’s list top 50 Smart Cities to Live from 2006. It’s also not on the top 5 Best Cities for Young Singles. Cost of living, salary levels, and other quality of life measurements went into these lists - so it’s not really a surprise that Tampa Bay didn’t make the cut. However, if you are over 65, then Tampa Bay is the place to be:

Florida has many fine places to spend a restful retirement. But if you don’t define retirement as golf, white belts and canasta, then Tampa Bay is the place to go to kick-start a second (or third) act. Says Katee Tully, a recent transplant to the area: “This is a rich, fertile place for people who are reinventing themselves.”

Sigh. Yes, we still live in God’s waiting room.

Okay, so what about the venerable Forbes magazine? It’s list should be better right?

Nope. Dead last.

In their survey of Best Cities for Young Professionals, Tampa came in at #40 out of 40. With that placement, Forbes provided an in-depth review of just why Tampa is so far down the list. I normally don’t like to quote so much material from a source, but they did a great job with the bad news:

Sunshine most of the year and beaches nearby make Tampa a good place to live or have a second home, but neither counts for much in the eyes of those looking to climb the corporate ladder.

Tampa came in last on our list of cities best for young professionals. Behind Detroit. Behind Indianapolis.

The main reason? It’s just a slightly older person’s town. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Tampa sits second-to-last among cities ranked for the number of those aged 20 to 35 and last for how many people in that demographic have never been married.

Digging a bit deeper, just over a quarter of Tampa’s housing stock is comprised of investment and second home buyers, according to Moody’s Economy.com. Snowbirds and out-of-towners don’t do much for young professionals looking to let loose. On the business side, Tampa tied Detroit and Indianapolis for third-to-last in the number of 400 best big businesses and 200 best small businesses that call the city home. This significantly hampers Tampa’s ability to attract top-flight grads and young professionals, as our graduate tracking metric indicates.

“Behind Detroit.” The truth hurts, eh?

Now to be fair, the methodology could be a bit biased:

Our list was compiled by tracking where the graduates of top universities across the country ended up 10 years after commencement; where the best business opportunities exist; which cities had the most young and unmarried people; and which cities paid young professionals the best. … The goal: to determine which cities offer such strong opportunities for young professionals that they’re willing to pick up and move across the country for them.

We’re Working on It

It’s not for lack of trying.

Eric Sturm’s TampaOptions.com has been compiling a list of local events for the young professional community — if you’re not on his mailing list, sign up today. Eric even wrote a book entitled Access Tampa Bay, with information on more than 700 organizations - volume two will have 2,500.

To be sure, the people behind Creative Tampa Bay started the right push - they prompted the Tampa Chamber of Commerce to create Emerge Tampa, they helped form Verve, their energy caused more people to act through groups like the Tampa Jaycees, Avante Garde, and other groups.

Additionally, the Creative Tampa Bay study identified things our community leaders could do to rectify the problems.

OPPORTUNITIES:
• Work to improve the region’s central city – downtown Tampa.
• Build vibrant, connected places so that street life is palpable.
• Capitalize on the variety of Tampa Bay’s regional assets. Connect the dots.
• Increase educational attainment.
• Improve marketing materials and websites to showcase active lifestyles, diversity, and the young adult culture.

Now, we’ve started down the list. Well, some of them. Although, in truth, not much has really happened on the list.

Membership in both Emerge and the Jaycees has declined significantly and Verve no longer exists. Young professional groups have simply not gained strength.

So, if you’re a young professional how does this make you feel? Are you ready to pack your bags for Austin or Atlanta? Boston or Minneapolis?

(Crossposted from the wayward internet island that is ninebullets.net…)

The Legendary Shackshakers are one of my favorite bands, so every time they come to town I start to get nervous and excitable a week in advance. In the days leading up to the show, everyone from my cubicle neighbor to the toll booth operator on the Skyway knows the whens, wheres, how muches of the show and an entire list of reasons why they should go. This time through was no different. I even guaranteed a great show on ninebullets.net. I was not wrong…

Due to the rarest of rare events here in Tampa (show starting on time) I missed each and every opening act and walked in just as the Shackshakers were finishing their first song.

The scene was familiar. Newbies to LSS standing up front. Veterans of Shaker shows standing out of range of snot rockets, but with their hand covering the top of their cups just in case they underestimated J.D.’s prowess. The bean pole that is J.D. Wilkes preaching to the crowd with a fire and brimstone to rival any Penecostal preacher, sometimes using old-fashioned microphones or a harmonica, all with a frenzy that surprising everyone, rookie and vets alike. All being backed by his choir, featuring the ever popular David Lee (guitarist), Mark Robertson (bass) and the new guy on drums banging out a gothic-rockabilly-polka version of southern rock/punk.

They played the crowd favorites such as Agony Wagon, Blood on the Bluegrass, CB Song and Pinetree Boogie. However, this time through they also played a couple of new songs that, at least live, were a lot heavier than most previous material.

Look, have you ever tried to tell someone a really funny story and when you were finished they just looked at you, so you drop the “you had to be there” gimmick? That’s what trying to explain a Shackshaker show is like. You should have been there. An LSS show is part rock show, part circus side show and part tent revival and, for those lucky enough to witness them, they are never forgotten. This show was no different.

Next time, be there.

Legendary Shack*Shakers - All My Life To Kill
Legendary Shack*Shakers - Something in the Water
Legendary Shack*Shakers - Blood on the Bluegrass

PICTURES FROM THE SHOW ARE AVAILABLE HERE

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A few days prior to the LSS show the wife and I went down to Jannus to see Two Gallants open for Les Claypool. A pairing I found odd prior to the show only got odder when we showed up. Most of the crowd had obviously never heard of Two Gallants and really had no interest in getting to know them either, which really was a shame because the band kicked ass. I decided I was gonna look at this show as a study of how a shit crowd can turn a good show into an “ehhh” show. The Two Gallants put on a fantastic show but I had no passion for it because the crowd was totally unreceptive and crap. One thing is for sure though; I can not wait for Two Gallants to come to town by themselves.

Two Gallants - Steady Rollin’

You reap what you sew.

Buried at the bottom of the Tribune article detailing the City of Tampa Job Cuts is this little nugget:

Iorio has added 175 positions since she took office in 2003.

Considering the news plastered all over your local media today, is this not a part of the story?

We have seen the list of 219 positions and salaries that were cut (pdf). I’d like to see a list of those 175 positions she invented along with the salaries. Anyone else?