Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

A couple of local bloggers are heading over to the Rock ‘n’ Sports cafe in Centro Ybor around 4pm, if anyone wants to chit chat about, well, anything at all…

We accidentally came across The Home Page for the Class of 1958 Henry B. Plant High School, “Dedicated to bringing the alumni of the Class of 1958 at H. B. Plant High School together no matter where they are in the World!”

Seems like the reunion is scheduled for April 18-20 at the Westshore Hotel.

The front page is brucemorehead.com, and it looks like the site is run by Bruce Morehead, an Airport Systems Integration Consultant who also tracks the Muirhead Clan Society. It also looks like Morehead is a bit of a gearhead, and raced in the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring. He now drives a Ferarri.

brucemorehead.com is our random local website of the week.

Tampa Bay Website Highlight: Art Squeeze

Art Squeeze — Get the juice on Tampa Bay’s arts scene!

Art Squeeze is a visual arts blog written by Megan Voeller, freelance writer and visual art critic for Creative Loafing Tampa.

From Megan:

I created this blog as a way of addressing the disconnect between different parts of the Tampa Bay area arts community. How many times have I heard an art lover from St. Petersburg tell me that she’s never heard of Bleu Acier? Or a Tampa resident admit that he’s never been to The Arts Center? Folks, we have a promising contemporary art scene struggling to thrive in this area, but we don’t have the social cohesion to support it.

Yet.

Each week, I write a print column about the visual arts in Creative Loafing, our alternative newsweekly. Here on Art Squeeze, you’ll find further coverage of events, story updates, and even multimedia features. (Yes—get ready to waste some freakin’ time on this site.)

The goal is always to support talent where talent has merited support. You won’t find me an uncritical cheerleader. There’s stuff that I don’t like and that I don’t think is very good; generally, I won’t be writing about that stuff. (On the other hand, just because I skipped your exhibit doesn’t mean I don’t like you.)

If you want to be on top of Tampa Bay’s visual art scene, check in at Art Squeeze.

Local recipe and food blogger Jaden Hair started her Steamy Kitchen blog in February of 2007. By August, she was getting big-time pub from the Tampa Tribune and the Wall St. Journal. Before that month ended, Jaden was looking for a logo for her brand new column in Creative Loafing.

Alas, it is over. In tomorrow’s weekly, she dumps Creative Loafing for a bigger paper:

There’s no easy way to break up, except to just tell the truth. He’s older, more mature and…sigh…has a bigger masthead. I’d be lying if I told you that size doesn’t matter, because right now at this stage in my life and career, it does.

Today we found Jaden in Jeff Houck’s Flavor section (more to come on this!), announcing her new gig at the Tribune. Who knows what’s next?

Of course, not everybody goes from being an unknown to a superstar, but earlier this year, Jaden gave Creative Loafing readers some helpful hints on how to begin your very own food blog. You can imagine one or more of those readers finding how easy it is to get it going, and just start blogging. And who knows, one day they too may become a media superstar like Jaden.

Creative Loafing might have an opening.

Brendan McLaughlin found that the metro area of Tampa currently holds the title of “worst cheating quotient”.

Uh.. uhmmmm….. uh..

San Diego is almost as bad? And St. Louis too?

According to the News Hounds, Fox News is still insinuating that the plane that crashed into the Bank of America (nee Barnett) building in downtown Tampa back in 2002 is linked to terrorism. In truth, it was a 15 year old boy who stole a plane and used it to commit suicide.

Received From Eric Deggans:

The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists is presenting its second annual session focused on multimedia reporting on March 8, featuring members who have done extensive work translating their newspaper or TV work into online platforms.

On deck so far:

• Ken Knight, multimedia reporter for Media General
• Demorris Lee, reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, who recently completed a multimedia reporting fellowship at the Knight Digital Media Center
• Boyzell Hosey, director of photography at the St. Petersburg Times
• Ken Irby, photography and multimedia expert at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies
• Eric Deggans, St. Petersburg Times TV/media critic and editor/creator of The Feed blog

Scheduled for 11 a.m. March 8 at the Tampa Tribune, 200 S. Parker St., Tampa, this seminar is free and open to anyone who wishes to attend.

During the panel discussion, we will talk about ways to think about expanding traditional journalism work to multimedia platforms, the advantages and challenges of blogging for journalists, the resources available for those who hope to learn more about this kind of work and more…

Last year, we got a great response from area bloggers of all ethnicities and had a chance to turn it into a wide-ranging discussion. Even if you don’t consider yourself a journalist, but would like to learn more about this new field, please feel free to attend.

As we all work to try and understand these new media platforms, sometimes the most fun comes from getting together and swapping ideas on what it all means. And fellow bloggers, feel free to post this on your blog somewheres…

The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists’ website is www.tbabj.com. Please remember, however, that you’re welcome even if you’re not a journalist. Or from the Tampa Bay area. Or black.

Hope to see you there.

(cross-posted at www.tampafilmfan.com and www.tampabookbuzz.com)

Back in December, Wayne Garcia said "Tampa Bay has jumped the shark."  At the time, he offered his views on Tampa Bay’s top 10 civic problems.  Garcia writes for Creative Loafing, and this week’s cover story is a follow-up to that column, saying we have to fix these things now.  This time, the entire CL staff was involved, and they offered helpful hints on what YOU can do to help.

In fact, they created an entire new blog devoted to FIX IT NOW: 

… each week from now on, in print and online, we’ll follow up with information, interviews and ideas aimed at making headway in the 10 problem areas. At the same time, we are launching a new blog, Fix It Now Tampa Bay, which will feature activists intimately familiar with the 10 issues we outlined, as well as information from Loaf staff.

It’s all part of an experiment in civic and citizen journalism, one aimed at providing solutions — and getting our government officials to take action.

And here are Tampa Bay’s top ten problems, according to Wayne:

1. Suburban sprawl
2. Urban density (lacking)
3. Transportation
4. Environment (weak protections)
5. Living green
6. Diversity (racial, ethnic, class)
7. Professional sports (over-subsidized and over-idolized)
8. Media consolidation (lack of independent voices)
9. GLBT Rights
10. Save our young (with economic opportunity)

Boy, if we just had some leadership within local government, you’d think some of these would have been addressed by now.  But we don’t, and they are not.

But are they the only problems here in Tampa Bay?  Are they even the most pressing problems in the area?  Which of the above ten issues would you say is most important, and what problems would you add to the list?