Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

One Hundred Million Served 

In addition to a partnership with Sticks of Fire, you may know that the Tampa Marketing Company also has agreements with TampaForums, TampaGold.com, SoHoTampa.com, and a couple more.  Combined, it looks like those sites will reach 100,000,000 page views - yeah, one hundred million! - for the year of 2006!

At Your Service

Along with the holiday season, we are going to celebrate that milestone this Tuesday, December 12 at the 42nd St. Bistro.  All of you readers, writers, and lurkers are invited to join us on Tuesday and help yourself to free hors d’oeuvres, live music (two great bands!), and cash bar.  There will also be free goodie bags for those that get there the earliest (once they are gone, that’s it)!

Serviceman Returns

In addition to all that, there will be a great guest of honor.  US Airman, Sticks contributor, and local internet superstar Smitty is back from a tour of duty in Africa.  If for nothing else, come out and welcome Smitty home and buy the guy a beer.

Get more information from your personal invitation to the party, and we will see you Tuesday at 6pm at the Bistro!

I’m happy to announce that Sticks of Fire has been named as a proud sponsor for the upcoming VodkaFest w/Gin.  With proceeds to benefit KrewesKare and the Sky Ranch Foundation, this is guaranteed to be a good time and give you a good feeling about helping out.  You will find more than 40 different bottlings, including clear and flavored vodkas.  It’s going to be a great evening for any vodka or gin lover!

• DOZENS OF VODKAS AND GINS FOR YOUR TASTING PLEASURE!
• SPECIALLY CREATED CULINARY DELIGHTS!
• LIVE PERFORMANCES!
• SILENT AUCTION TO BENEFIT CHARITY!

The big party will be held at the Cuban Club on Saturday evening, November 18.  Here’s the skinny:

VIP hour starts at 6PM - Mix and mingle with experts, distillers and connoisseurs. Gift Bags (VIP’S ONLY) filled to the brim with minis and more will keep you celebrating the true ‘spirit’ of the holiday season.  Portions of all VIP Admissions benefit KrewesKare and the Sky Ranch Foundation.

General Admission begins at 7PM:

• Taste dozens of delectable hand-crafted Gins and Vodkas.
• Sway to the sizzling sounds of the Millie Puente Band.  
• Meet Sonic Records Recording Artist, Ryan Baysden! - Ryan is the hottest new up and coming country artist with his new Sonic Records CD, “What Turns You On”!  Get your very own autographed CD & your picture with Ryan at the TampaBay VodkaFest-with Gin!
• Proceeds from our Silent Auction, featuring fine spirits & other products, just in time for Gift-Giving Season, will 100% benefit the Sky Ranch Foundation, which has been assisting troubled youth for more than 40 years.

VIP Tickets $50 in advance (get tickets online) $60 at the door, cash only.

General Admission $30 in advance (get tickets online) $40 at the door, cash only

Event ends at 11PM

You must be 21 or over to participate, and a Photo I.D. will be REQUIRED

For more info, check out the Tampa Bay Vodka Fest website.

Don’t forget - the Jim “Kimo” West concert (sponsored by Sticks of Fire) is this Saturday night at the Kapok Special Events pavillion.  Drinks will be flowing, and many of you will listen to music you are not used to hearing around here.  So we’ve concocted a top ten (plus one) list of tidbits about Jim with which you can amaze and impress your friends:

1. Jim “Kimo” West produced the music track for “Weird Al” Yankovic’s smash hit, “White and Nerdy.” This song is currently #2 on iTunes!
2. Jim “Kimo” West has won widespread praise for his latest Slack-Key release, “Slack Key West.” Richard Bennett of the Mark Knopfler Band says: “Slack Key West, Jim’s latest album, is a record that is beautifully performed, written and recorded and shows Jim expanding the role of slack key guitar playing. It’s been said often that there are really only two kinds of music; good and bad. Jim West makes good music.”
3. “Slack Key West” is getting airplay on WMNF!
4. Jim “Kimo” West is from right here in Tampa! He attended King High School and USF! He was a co-founder of Tampa’s first all-original progressive rock band, Mythril! Similar to Clang some 15-20 years later, Mythril was centered around the USF Music Department, and even occasionally featured USF faculty members Hilton Jones and Art Woodbury.
5. Jim “Kimo” West recently was awarded the “LA Treasure” award by the Los Angeles Dept of Cultural Affairs for his efforts in bringing slack key guitar to a wider audience.
6. Jim West has recorded and toured with “Weird Al Yankovic” for over 20 years, earning 3 Grammys in the process.
7. Jim “Kimo” West will appear on “The Tonight Show” November 2 with Weird Al.
8. Jim “Kimo” West was a co-founder and engineer at the legendary Hitmakers Studio here in Tampa.
9. Jim “Kimo” West snuck into the USF Music Department to record an album in the 70’s.
10. Jim “Kimo” West has been on The Simpsons!
11. Jim “Kimo” West’s 70’s band, Mythril, developed a huge following performing at USF’s “Head Theatre,” a weekly on-campus event. Psychedelic images were projected on a huge screen while the band played their otherworldly music.

The music will be soothing and the drinks will be flowing.  Get your tickets now!

You may have noticed that tbt* recently did a story on Weird Al Yankovic.  Then this week you may have noticed that Weird Al’s latest CD, Straight Outta Lynwood, is in the Billboard Top Ten.  What you may not have realized, is that a musician on that CD, will be performing live here in Tampa Bay next weekend.

Al’s guitarist, Jim “Kimo” West, plays some of the most incredible Slack-Key guitar you have ever heard.  If you have never heard of the Hawaiian style sound, you are missing a real treat.  Go to the Jim Kimo West myspace page and give a listen to a few songs off the latest CD, Slack Key West.

Then go get some tickets for the show next Friday, October 20 at the Kapok Special Events Pavilion in Clearwater.  Tickets are only $10 ($15 at the door).

Sticks of Fire is proud to sponsor this Downtown West Events concert featuring long-time Tampa resident Jim West.  That’s right - Kimo went to King High School as well as the University of South Florida, and former JGLB bassist Max Van Laundromax is on the Slack Key West CD as well.

For those of you who are constantly looking for something different, this is an excellent opportunity to find that new sound.

The agreement with TampaGold.com goes into effect this weekend.  There may be some glitches as we clean up a few things, but hopefully we will have them all worked out by Tuesday morning.

In the meantime, you may see some wacky changes on this homepage.  Some of the changes are intentional (check out the new design by Brett and his Ten Million Monkeys), some will be unintentional, I am sure.

A quick thank you is in order for a bunch of people who have helped and are continuing to work behind the scenes.  Lots of love to Brett mentioned above, as well as John, and the Tampagold team of Bill, Dale, and Sean.

Please be patient as we try to cross all the I’s and dot the T’s.  But most importantly:

Please let me know if you see things that are not right, things that are good, things you don’t like - anything you want to tell us.  I look forward to all your comments…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

TAMPA, FL – August 23, 2006 – Bill Sharpe, president of Tampa Marketing Company and Tommy Duncan, owner of Tampa-based Web site sticksoffire.com  recently announced the implementation of a strategic alliance.

The marketing and content relationship between sticksoffire.com and Tampa Marketing Company’s TAMPAGOLD.COM will allow the two Web sites to provide additional information about Tampa area events and people, and allow each greater use of the internet’s capabilities.

This arrangement brings together Tampa’s two best locally-focused independent Web sites and expands the capacity for both. Current and future visitors to both sites will find additional news and information about the Tampa Bay area that is not currently available on the other site.

“STICKSOFFIRE.COM provides the day to day information about what is happening in the Tampa Bay area that we just have not had the resources to cover as the people of Tampa deserve,” said Sharpe. “Tommy and his team do a superior job of pointing out stories and events important to every Tampa neighborhood, and offer those neighbors an area to facilitate intelligent conversation regarding these events.”

“Through TAMPAGOLD.COM, SOHOTAMPA.COM and their other Web sites, Tampa Marketing Company has shown the ability to put together a plan that can generate additional traffic with a viable advertising and marketing strategy that has been unmatched by any independent Web site in the Tampa area.” said Duncan. “This agreement will enable the promotional support that Sticks of Fire has needed.”

“In addition, the Tampa Marketing Company team has found unique ways to make greater use of the capabilities of the internet,” said Duncan. “This is a big win for those folks who want to know what is going on right in their neighborhood.”

Tampa Marketing Company will be directly responsible for advertising sales and production for STICKSOFFIRE.COM. Additional marketing and traffic generation of STICKSOFFIRE.COM will be accomplished through TAMPAGOLD.COM.

TAMPAGOLD.COM will feature STICKSOFFIRE.COM as “THE” Source for Tampa area news and information in order to provide more complete news coverage in addition to TAMPAGOLD.COM’s current news, event and information coverage.

STICKSOFFIRE.COM was recognized by the Weekly Planet as the best local website in 2005. STICKSOFFIRE.COM has been called “Tampa’s premier blog,” the “one [website] that is essential to have on your… list,” and “a must-read for Tampans.” STICKSOFFIRE.COM averages over 18,000 page views per month.

TAMPAGOLD.COM has welcomed more than 1,300,000 page views in the last 12 calendar months and more than 600,000 page views at SOHOTAMPA.COM in the last 12 calendar months.

Tampa Marketing Company is a member of the West Tampa Chamber of Commerce, the Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau, the North Tampa Chamber of Commerce, the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce, and the Davis Island Chamber of Commerce.

For more information, contact Bill Sharpe bill [at] tampagold.com or Tommy Duncan tommyduncn [at] yahoo.com.

HarmonTampa PR 
4100 W. Kennedy Blvd., Ste. 206
Tampa, FL 33609
813-288-6909
www.harmontampa.com

Don’t forget late this afternoon you want to go check out the adult sketch comedy play Grimm’s Faery Tales at Jobsite Theater.  It’s Sticks of Fire Night! The show starts at 4pm.  Maybe we’ll hit a nice dinner afterward too.
Wifey will be there too - make sure to ask her about meeting Poison last night.

Oh, by the way, DCDave gets the free pair of tickets, since he is the only one who had a suggestion.

An Otter World asks “How many blogs before there are too many?“  Otter surmises that “most of the readership comes from fellow bloggers.” Is the Otter right?

A recent TBT included a story about blogs and bloggers ripped from the Washington Post. The teaser on the TBT cover was something like:  Blogger: a 14-year-old girl writing about her cat.  Taxi Shots Tim took offense with the headline, but the story is a lot more than just that.

The article is based on a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project: The Pew Internet Project, and includes a bunch of information on blogs, bloggers, and blog readers. More from tbt/wp:

Bloggers have become influential fixtures in cyberspace, but the term covers about 12-million people who write blogs.

The Orlando Sentinel also wrote about the report, Even quoting O’Blogger Bob O’Malley. He notes that the number of people reading blogs in the US has reached 57,000,000 - 20% of the population.

So there you have it, Otter: 57 Million people are reading 12 Million Blogs.

Hmmm… That’s 5 readers per blog. I feel very fortunate to have 14,000 readers each month.

Other links:  Poynter chimes in on the report with some stats they found noteworthy.  Pew has the report on bloggers online, and the original press release directly from Pew:  You can also read the Blogger Callback telephone survey - they invite participation from the general public.