Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

It’s June 30th and the Tampa Bay Rays are in first place, starting a three game series tonight against the second place Boston Red Sox, after which they could be anywhere from 3 1/2 games up to 2 1/2 games behind.

The biggest milestones in Rays history are March 9th, 1995 (the day the franchise was awarded) March 31st, 1998 (the first game) and August 7th, 1999 (the night Wade Boggs homered for his 3000th hit), but depending on the outcome, and what happens the rest of the season, the next three days could be somewhere among those momentous occasions.

With so much at stake, now is as good a time as any to assess what your level of support for the beloved home team is:

1) The Die Hard - Goes to games no matter how well or how poorly the team is doing. Knows the team’s winning percentage and batting orders against righthanders and lefties. Owns several jerseys.

2) The Fan - Goes to games frequently, or watches them on tv. Knows what place the team is in. Can name most of the starting line-up. Owns a cap.

3) The Bandwagon Jumper - Is aware of the team’s general level of performance. Goes to games when the team is doing well. Might buy a t-shirt. Often confused with The Frontrunner (see below) but is generally harmless and should actually be welcomed, as in most cases, there just aren’t enough of #1 and #2 to support any professional sports franchise (with the possible exception of some European soccer teams).

4) The Frontrunner - Roots only for teams that are in first place and switches allegiance frequently and easily. Wears several different teams t-shirts at the same time so they can change as the prevailing winds blow. This is the lowest form of parasite in sports (slightly above agents) and should be shunned and avoided at all costs. Where the Bandwagon Jumper says things like “I haven’t been to a game all year but they’re doing pretty well. I think I’ll get tickets this weekend”, the Frontrunner says things like “I haven’t been to a game all year but I’m blowing off work tomorrow to attend the victory parade”. If this is you, we don’t need you.

(Cross posted at Ridiculously inconsistent trickle of consciousness)

Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex is undergoing a change, and will soon bear the name of ESPN.  Makes sense since most kids these days have never heard of the long running “Wide World of Sports” brand and television show on ABC.

But anyway, in regards to that subject, Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer Scott Powers interviewed the senior vice president of global sports enterprises for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Ken Potrock.  The Q&A is mostly uninteresting drivel about how ESPN and Disney are going to take over the amateur sporting tournaments away from the rest of the country, and blah, blah, blah.  But there was one exchange that caught our eye:

Q: Any possibility that the Tampa Bay Rays’ schedule might be expanded at Champion Stadium?

A: We love having the Tampa Bay Rays play here. I would love to have them make a longer-term commitment to play here, and to play as many games here as they would like to play.

That sure is an interesting comment, given that the Rays are in the midst of trying to get St. Pete to build a new stadium.

Then again, I may be reading too much into it.  Champion Stadium holds less than 10,000 spectators.

Thanks to Mr. Media Bob Andelman, who originally found the quote at Mickey News, and passed it on to us.

PS:  Don’t look now, but exactly half way through the season, the Rays once again wake up this morning with the best record in baseball.

Eastern Hillsborough County keeps getting more and more interesting. Finally got myself out the Sunday Market at the Wat Mongkolratanaram Thai Temple in Palm River (5306 Palm River Road, just off 50th Street). It’s like taking a day trip to Thailand. The people are friendly, the temple is stunning and exotic and the shady grounds on the banks of the Hillsborough River are lovely.

And the food is great, plentiful and cheap. For ten bucks, you can get a fantastic array of food that feeds two or three with some left over to take home. They cook it right there and serve it fresh, and you just point to what you want. Most fun is to go with a group so you can buy a lot of different stuff and share at one of the picnic tables by the river. Among my faves were the deep-fried sweet potatoes, tarot and bananas; fresh mango; pad Thai and Thai curry dishes.

There’s also a small part of the market where they sell plants and fresh produce and a busy stage with all sorts of stuff happening, from singing to Thai Jeopardy.

Market’s from 11am-1pm, but my advice is to go early.

(check our previous review of Wat Tampa - ed.)

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On the way back to town, I hit my new favorite place to buy wine, West Palm Wines/Beaune’s Wine Bar (2009 N. 22nd St.) on the eastern edge of Ybor. It’s basically a warehouse with a cool industrial-looking lounge, a huge wine storage area, and some great deals on wine. No supermarket wines, actually no American wines, but you can get some really interesting wines for less than $10 a bottle. The owner knows his stuff but is not snobbish about it. He was just as nice to me as I rummaged through the low-price bins as he was to a millionaire who shall remain unnamed who was there at the same time spending what looked like thousands of dollars.

As many of you know, I’m the lead singer in a wonderful rock ‘n’ roll band. Check out our website at JGLB.net

A couple of these gigs were set up at the last minute, so in case you are wondering, here is where you can find the JGLB this weekend:

Friday
Blues Ship on Top
1910 E. 7th Ave. in Ybor City

Saturday
The Blue Shark
1502 E. Seventh Ave. in Ybor City

Sunday
FREE CONCERT!
Skipper’s Smokehouse
910 Skipper Rd. in N. Tampa

JUNE 29 SUNDAY
VINCE’S McGILVRA’S RETIREMENT PARTY
JOHNNY G. LYON BAND Johnny is a consummate showman and plays rollicking blues & rock.Johnny G. Lyon, founder and leader of the band, is one of Tampa’s most entertaining and polished musicians, providing his audiences with attention grabbing guitar licks, an incredible sense of wit and humor, crowd interaction, and synchronized stage choreography. 5PM

Read more about Vince’s retirement party from Tampabay.com and Creative Loafing. This is going to be a great party.

I’d heard rumors that a restaurant was going to occupy the abandon gas station at the corner of Platt and S Boulevard. Then, while attending a City Council hearing, I heard of a new restaurant going by the name Smoke. I thought it was very clever, the name, Smoke. The lawyer, representing the owner’s of Smoke, declared it would be a barbeque restaurant unlike anything Tampa had seen. I made a mental note and filed it away, “try Smoke.”

Running errands, I found myself at this very corner today and remembered the buzz. Suddenly, I had time for lunch.

From all corners of Platt and S. Boulevard, one can see the red circle Smoke sign hanging from a chain. It reads: Smoke Barbeque and Grill

I rolled into the gravel parking lot and saw a few men sitting outside at the patio tables. It was just quarter past 11 A.M. They were sitting at a table, lined and ready for a large party. The patio was very nice, well kept. It felt kind of sheik, but this is BBQ isn’t it?

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As someone who covers current internet technology trends, especially those that have to do with social media, it was exciting to discover that right here in Tampa there is an innovative social media project underway right now: Kidz Connect. This three-week program through ZoomLab is a summer camp whose goal is to promote cultural exchange through theatrical performance.

At the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center’s Patel Conservatory, Bay Area teens in Tampa are hooking up with teens in Amsterdam (at IVKO Montessori School) via video streaming in the virtual world Teen Second Life where they are learning about each others lives, culture, and more. Together, through online collaboration, the 30 teens involved in this workshop will create a live theater and online performance based on the theme, “What is Real?” which will be performed on Saturday, June 28th (tomorrow!).

As they work together, the teens will also be learning how to craft digital art within Teen Second Life as part of the project’s goal to provide the students with an introduction to video and sound production. The students will also be participating in live theater, music, and dance presentations performed on stage at TBPAC as well as streamed to the internet and in Second Life.

To see just how the project has gone thus far, I recommend you read the camp’s blog at http://kidzconnect.org .  But to see the end result, watch the performance live on the net Saturday:

Saturday, 28 June at 2 p.m. EST / 8 p.m. Amsterdam (GMT+2)

Saturday’s show will be presented live in Tampa, Florida, at the Patel Conservatory at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. See the Patel Conservatory site for tickets to attend the Saturday show in person.

To watch the video stream:

During those times, the video stream will be broadcasting live. It will also be archived for viewing at a later date.  You must have QuickTime Player installed in order to view the webcast. Click here to watch the live video stream

To watch in Teen Second Life:

If you are a teen, you can also watch it in Teen Second Life. Go to http://teen.secondlife.com/ and click “Free Basic Account” to create your username. Then download the Second Life application, install it and log in with the username you just created. To go to the show, search for the “Kidz Connect event” group and join it, then you can click on this SLURL (Second Life URL) which will give you the option to teleport directly to Kidz Connect Island.  Click here to watch in Teen Second Life

This article was written by Sarah Perez, who writes for Microsoft’s Channel 10, ReadWriteWeb, and maintains a personal blog at sarahintampa.com

The Tampa Tribune, especially Dan Ruth, loves to refer to the St. Pete Times as an “out-of-town newspaper.”  When reading the subtle jabs, those of us in the shadows of the St. Pete Times Forum giggle and snicker, and look down our noses somewhere west, beyond the bridges.

Ah… fun times…

But you don’t really want to think about it too much, since the owners of the Tampa Tribune are not in Tampa.  They are not even located in Florida.  That’s right.  Media General has been taking money from the wonderful local businesses in Tampa Bay, and sending some of that dough to the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia.

But wait!  There’s MORE!

Ya see, it’s not enough to suck money out of Tampa Bay to enrich another part of the United States.  Now they are gonna be sending money even further.

Did you know that the Tampa Tribune has plans to send ad production work to Gurgaon?  In case you are wondering, Gurgaon is a suburb of New Delhi, India.  Check that map link, and you may notice that India is not quite in the Tampa Bay area, either.

The Trib’s new ad production team, Express KCS promises “World class offshore advertising production for newspapers.”  Without all the trouble of supporting your local community and stuff.

So that “out of town newspaper” joke starts to be a bit less funny, doesn’t it?

But wait!  There’s (even) MORE!

This April, Media General’s president and chief executive officer Marshall Morton told stockholders that they had successfully “outsourced circulation customer service and telemarketing.”

So I called Trib’s circulation department - (813)TRIBUNE.  When asked, phone answerer “Colleen New” does indeed admit that they are located “out of state.”  That bummed me out, since Tampa Bay is known as being Call Center central.  Turns out that residents of other cities can also have highly specialized skills such as an ability to answer phones.  But what city?  What state?  Must be Google Time.

According to one attendee at a 2007 SNA Circulation Managers’ Conference held in Tampa, Tribune President & Publisher Denise Palmer “gleefully” reported that circulation customer service would be outsourced to the Philippines!  The Philippines!  And, no - the Philippines can not be found in Tampa Bay, either.

Which makes that “out of town newspaper” reference absolutely morbid.

Barry Melrose is now officially the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, replacing the recently fired John Tortorella, under whom the Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004.

I don’t like it.

Having spent the last 13 years as a TV analyst on ESPN, promoting the mullet as a viable hairstyle and generally not being a hockey coach, in my opinion Melrose is as qualified to lead the Lightning as Willard Scott is to be the director of NOAA.

Of course, I should point out that it might be a good idea to ignore my opinion. After all, I once believed that signing Dave Andreychuk would turn out to be one of the dumbest things the Lightning had ever done.

(Cross posted at Ridiculous trickle of consciousness)