Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Book Review: Historic Photos of Tampa
text and captions by Ralph Brower (Turner Publishing).

Remember those carefully-packed time capsules your fourth-grade class buried in the school’s playground all those years ago? The book Historic Photos of Tampa is a time capsule of sorts, a peek into Tampa’s history, carefully packed with a variety of photos from all walks of life.

In the book’s preface, publisher Todd Bottorff states that “this book seeks to provide easy access to a valuable, objective look into Tampa history.” Using photographs from the Burgert Brothers — some not often seen in other photo collection books — Historic Photos of Tampa presents local history in four parts:

(1) Beginning of Cigar City to the Turn of the Century
(2) Tampa at the Beginning of the 20th Century
(3) The Roaring 20s, Great Depression and Economic Recovery
(4) World War II and the Baby Boom

Each chapter gives a brief, one-page summary of the local history of that era and each photograph has a caption that gives additional historical information while explaining the photo’s origins, date and subject matter. The book’s photos are marvelous. There are pictures of famous buildings, waterways, horse-drawn carriages, store marquees, parties, industries, Ybor cigar factories, traffic, parades, carnivals, buildings under construction, and a variety of people: famous, not so famous, at work, at play and walking down the street.

I wish that the captions had received as much time and attention as the photograph selection process obviously did. The captions were oddly inconsistent: some gave a great deal of information while others were short and choppy; some were carefully written and edited, while other captions — too many of them, sadly — had grammatical and typographical errors.

Overall, however, the captions are a small part of the book. Beautiful, wonderful photos are the center of Historic Photos of Tampa. The photographs are black and white, but the Tampa Bay area history is colorful.

Book Buzzometer: B+

(cross-posted at www.tampabookbuzz.com)

I’m not sure you would be able to live here in the Tampa Bay area with a fear of bridges…

… my friend Carol believes in one thing,
her fear of bridges. Carol has decided she could never
belong to any of the Dark Age’s religions in which the soul
had to cross a thin, thread-like bridge to find paradise. Fall off
and you’re lost forever. Take Carol across the bay from Tampa
to St. Pete, or across the Cooper River into Charleston,
and you might as well ask her to cut off her arms.
It isn’t the idea of falling or even dying–it’s the bridge itself,
as if it represents the worst kind of modern haunting,
the technological prowess of steel and concrete a living
marvel of torture, atoms exploding beneath those Firestone tires…

Excerpted from Theoretically Speaking, a poem by Rick Mulkey. Rick Mulkey is not from around here, so your are unlikely to find tons of references to Tampa Bay, but you can pick up a collection of his poetry, Toward Any Darkness through Inkwood Books website.

If you have never read a Tim Dorsey novel, you are truly missing out.

You’ll have the chance to meet him at the Upper Tampa Bay Regional Library this month. That branch will host the Friends of the Library Board Meeting featuring author Tim Dorsey on Tuesday, September 11 at 7 pm at the Upper Tampa Bay Regional Library, 11211 Countryway Blvd.

Dorsey graduated from Auburn University in 1983 with a B.S. in Transportation. While at Auburn, he was editor of the student Newspaper, The Plainsman. He joined The Tampa Tribune in 1987 as a general assignment reporter. He also worked as a political reporter in the Tribune’s Tallahassee bureau and a copy desk editor. From 1994-1999, he was the Tribune’s night metro editor and night news coordinator. He left the paper in August of 1999 and has since written nine novels published in several languages: Florida Roadkill, Hammerhead Ranch Motel, Orange Crush, Triggerfish Twist, The Stingray Shuffle, Cadillac Beach, Torpedo Juice, The Big Bamboo, and Hurricane Punch.

His tenth book, Atomic Lobster, will be released in early 2008.

Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System Mission Statement:

Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System (THPL) promotes lifelong learning, an informed citizenry, individual intellectual freedom, enhanced quality of life and broadened horizons for all residents of Hillsborough County.

THPL maintains a network of neighborhood libraries with open access, a community focus, responsive service hours, welcoming environments, broad and relevant materials in a variety of formats and highly qualified employees.

But is that what a library should be? The Tribune says libraries have suffered from “mission creep,” or in other words, they don’t JUST do books anymore. In fact, there seems to be more emphasis on internet access rather than books. And that’s without considering that CDs, and DVDs fly off the shelf faster than books at libraries. Should libraries have more than books? Do libraries need books at all? Will we need a library in 20 years? Do we need libraries now?

There’s a new family-friendly festival in the Tampa Bay area. Deep Carnivale: A Celebration of Words is scheduled for Saturday, September 8, on 14th Street and Palm Avenue in Ybor City from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Presented by the Artists and Writers Group, Inc. and Hillsborough Community College-Ybor. Deep Carnivale is free and open to the public.

According to the press release,

“This event will be a celebration of literature and writing in its many wonderful and diverse forms. The goal is to excite our community about the joys of literature, with a special focus directed toward our younger generations of children and young adults about the pleasure of listening, learning and using the written and spoken word creatively.

There will be three sound stages for readings, spoken word, original singer/songwriter performances and small theatrical performances. Areas of arts and writing activities for children and adults of all ages will add to the celebratory quality of the day. There will be visual arts components, such as the Books As Art exhibition, and the 20 arches of El Pasaje building transformed into pages by twenty artists and writers and based on an art concept from the 1920s called the Exquisite Corpse.

Thirty vendors or so will sell books and related literature. Numerous community organizations will provide information on their activities. Coupled with interesting decorations, live music and a wide variety of scheduled readings and performances that will appeal from the youngest to the most sophisticated, this inaugural event will be well on its way to becoming a flagship event for Ybor City.”

The schedule, names and bios of attending authors and more details on events will be announced soon. For more info, email David Audet at daudet(at)hccfl.edu or visit www.deepcarnivale.com.

I am on the Deep Carnivale planning committee. If you are interested in buying space for a vendor table or an ad in the program, please email me at tampafilmfan ( at ) aol.com and I’ll send you the details. Hope to see you there.

(cross-posted at www.tampabookbuzz.com)

Local author Wendy Boucher has added artist to her ever-expanding list of accomplishments (to list just a few: travel writer, lawyer, mommyblogger, fiction author, public speaker, former Sticks contributor and genuinely nice person possessing a wonderful sense of humor). Boucher’s first solo art exhibit opened May 1 at the TECO Public Art Gallery (702 North Franklin Street in downtown Tampa) and will run through June 29. All the exhibit pieces are mixed media/paper collages that convey her love of Asian culture.

On May 17, the TECO gallery is hosting a reception to celebrate Boucher’s art exhibit and the publication of her second book Letters From A Dead Armadillo. The reception will be from 6 to 9 p.m. and is free and open to the public. (Please RSVP to wendy(at)wendyboucher.com.) Copies of Boucher’s new book, along with her first book Parvenue Throws A Party, will be available for purchase at the reception, thanks to Inkwood Books. Boucher will donate ten percent of all sales from the reception to the Mental Health Care Foundation of Tampa.

I first heard of Letters From A Dead Armadillo about a year or so ago when Boucher was the guest speaker at a Barnes and Noble book club meeting I attended. I fell in love with the title instantly and have been anticipating its release, no matter what the plot. For the record, however, the plot sounds good too:

It only takes a couple of weeks for transfer law student Sally Cotton to become embroiled in an extortion scheme with one new friend and to become another new friend’s best hope for exoneration for murder. Sally and her friends will have to solve not one but two murders in order to save their own skins and keep their friend Karen out of prison. Suddenly, the philosophical debates they’ve been having at school about the death penalty and the criminal justice system aren’t merely academic.

Boucher’s other upcoming appearances include book signings at the South Tampa Barnes and Noble on May 19 and the South Tampa Borders on May 27. Visit www.wendyboucher.com to learn more. Don’t forget to mark your calendars for May 17!

(cross-posted at www.tampabookbuzz.com)

The Friends of the Library of Tampa-Hillsborough County, Inc. and the Development Committee invite you to meet author Ted Hull. You don’t know Ted Hull? Check it out:

“Mr. Hull, I think this is fate. It’s as if this were divinely guided for a reason! We need a tutor to travel with Little Stevie Wonder and you’re going to be perfect!”

The woman speaking to me on the phone said she was Esther Gordy Edwards, vice president of Motown Records. I got the call in September 1963. Not surprisingly, I’d never heard of her. But I’d also never heard of this “Little Stevie Wonder.”

Hanging up, I turned to my long-time friend, former college roommate and now my boss, Don Cardinal. “Have you ever heard of some kid named Stevie Wonder?”

“Are you kidding?” Don looked at me in disbelief. “You’re the guy with the song writing contract and you don’t know the number one song in the country? Fingertips is all over the radio. That’s Little Stevie Wonder. And he’s blind.”

The above excerpt is from his book, The Wonder Years - My Life & Times With Stevie Wonder. More on the author:

Ted Hull, who is legally blind, is a motivational speaker and lecturer on the “Wonder Years”. He is an expert witness on disability issues relating to the education and employment of persons who are blind or visually impaired. Ted has spent his career working to better the lives of individuals who are blind. For fifteen years, he administered Florida’s West Central Region of the Division of Blind Services. During the growth of Motown, Ted spent six years shaping Stevie Wonder’s life, as his private teacher, advisor and road manager. Since leaving Motown, Ted has appeared occasionally on Stevie’s behalf at functions, including the 1976 American Music Awards. In May 1996, he was an “alumni” at ceremonies opening the Motown Historical Museum. In 2003, Ted was presented the “Man of Motown” award for his contribution to Stevie’s education and to Motown.

You read it right - “Florida’s West Central Region of the Division of Blind Services.” Ted Hull is a Tampa resident, and he’ll be at the Jan Platt Regional Library (South Tampa) to sign his book and chat with you on Tuesday, May 15 at 7pm.

Light refreshments will be served. Books will be available for purchase and author signing. No reservations needed - just show up. You know he will have some great stories to tell.

Related links:

• Motown Museum
• Motown Records

As always, there are many local events for book lovers this month. Here’s a sample:

• May 2 — Local author Neal Schupbach (Flying the Canyons of the Sky:Navigation of an Aviator’s Soul) is the guest speaker at the Tampa Writers Alliance’s monthly meeting. Schupbach will discuss self-publishing and share tips he’s learned through self-publishing his book. Visit www.tampawriters.org for more info.
• May 3 — Author, journalist and publicist Frank C. Strunk will be the guest speaker at the Florida Writers Association meeting. Strunk will present some of his writing tips. Visit www.floridawritersnet.net for more info.
• May 5 — Local author Scott Deitche will sign copies of his new book Cigar City Mafia:A Complete History of the Tampa Underworld at Haslam’s Book Store in St. Pete. Visit www.scottdeitche.com for more info.
• May 10-18 — The Studio(at)620 in St. Pete presents the third annual SAY WHAT? spoken word event, featuring poetry, dance, youth slam, music, rope art, a fashion show and more. Click here for the Studio’s events page.
• May 27 — Local author Wendy Boucher (Parvenue Throws a Party) will sign copies of her second novel, a mystery called Letters From a Dead Armadillo, at the South Tampa Borders. Visit www.wendyboucher.com to learn more.

Visit www.tampabookbuzz.com/blog/calendar-of-events/ for more events. Feel free to send me local author events and book signings that you don’t see on my list. See you around town!

(cross-posted at www.tampabookbuzz.com)

As always, there are plenty of book-related events coming up in the Bay area this month. Here’s a sample:

• April 11 — Amy Richards at Eckerd College — The feminist author, activist and researcher will give a lecture titled Barbies and Boycotts:The Future of Feminism. 7:30 p.m., Raymond James Room, Fox Hall, Hough Center, Eckerd College. Free and open to the public.
• April 13 — Sports writer and biographer Peter Golenbock at the John F. Germany Public Library as part of the Four Seasons Author Series – This series is a ticketed luncheon featuring local and national authors. For more info or to purchase tickets, call 813-273-3616. 12-2 p.m., John F. Germany Public Library.
• April 15 — Rhythm and Rhyme Spring Festival — The Safety Harbor Public Library is hosting the fourth annual Rhythm and Rhyme Spring Festival from 2-4 p.m. Activities include a poetry reading by Greg Byrd, music, face painting and door prize drawings. Free and open to the public.
• April 15 — Regency Park Library’s Grand Opening Ceremony — The newly renovated and expanded library’s celebration begins at 1 p.m. Regency Park Library, 9701 Little Road, Pasco County. Free and open to the public.
• April 15-21 — National Library Week — To celebrate National Library Week, the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative is offering tours of various libraries. For dates and locations of the open houses, call 813-273-3652, ext. 2. Free and open to the public.
• April 26 — Inkwood Books presents Anna Quindlen — This non-fiction, fiction and children’s book author is touring to promote the paperback release of her latest novel Rise and Shine. 7 p.m., Tampa Tribune auditorium. Free and open to the public. I want to camp out in line today. She’s one of my favorite authors!

Visit www.tampabookbuzz.com/blog/calendar-of-events for more event listings. See you there!

(cross-posted at www.tampabookbuzz.com)