Tampa Street Market

Makerr... Monday: Tin Can Planter

2011-05-17T16:09:00.003-04:00

[Charles] So I'm a day behind on Maker Monday. The good news is I found a super cool repurposed planter on Apartment Therapy that fit the bill today. They took an oversized vegetable oil can from a restaurant and fit a little tree in it. They had to do a little metal work to get the top off and roll the edges down, but all in all it's a pretty quick little project. Seems like the perfect thing for a miniature lemon or olive tree... Here's the link for the how to

Friday Forecast: Heatwave Heatwave Heatwave

2011-05-13T16:18:00.004-04:00

Photo from triumphant cover of the Austin Chronicle when Bright Light Social Hour cleaned up the awards last year
[Charles] If you have talked to me in the last few weeks, I've probably mentioned Heatwave. I go on and on about it but it hasn't disappointed me yet. 50 plus bands, outside and inside, tons of people that really love music, awesome food, and just the best hang out vibe around. I love this festival! They have so many great bands this year and I always miss many more than I can see. One way to catch more is to pay attention to the surrounding dates and some of the bands play other shows the day before or after...

Friday night you can hopefully catch me checking in on Jubal's Kin up at Ella's Folk Art Cafe in Seminole Heights. This is a really awesome family folk band from Florida. Tons of buzz around this crew at Heatwave and if you see them Friday night you can see somebody else at Heatwave yeah!

Saturday is the main event. Get there at 4:30 and you can stay until something like 2 am. There are so many bands - Carolina Chocolate Drops and Cracker are the headliners. I am even more excited for bands like The Bright Light Social Hour, Two Man Gentleman Band, Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade, The Only Sons, Alias Punch, Those Darlins, Hymn For Her, and well I could go on and on. Get to the website wmnf.org/heatwave - download a schedule, and get a freakin ticket. You won't be disappointed and if you don't like a band or it gets too crowded just walk five steps and the entire thing changes. They bring in so many different types of music it will blow your mind - folk, rock, americana, bluegrass, big band, latin, african, soul, blues, and even zydeco. I'll definitely see you there... Oh yeah and The Lambasters have just been added to the schedule!!! See our favorite front man Ernie Locke in his new rawkin band!

St. Pete Times Guide

CL Tampa Guide

Sunday you can catch The Flat Earth Society from Belgium over at the Palladium. I've heard all sorts of cool things about this 15 piece improvisational jazz band. It might be worth checking them out at Heatwave and then maybe heading over to see them for the cooldown on Sunday.

Getting Ready for Heatwave : The Only Sons

2011-05-12T12:48:00.000-04:00

Really digging this alt country band from Tennessee. Check em out this Saturday at Heatwave! Can you tell I'm excited?

Getting Ready for Heatwave

2011-05-11T14:17:00.002-04:00

One band I'm excited about seeing at Tropical Heatwave this year is Bright Light Social Hour. Check em out if you get a chance. Get all the details at wmnf.org/heatwave

Maker Monday: DIY Antennas

2011-05-09T15:50:00.006-04:00

Photo from Instructables
[Charles] So a couple of years ago when the economy really tanked and things got pretty financially tight at the house, we decided to cut all we could. Eventually that meant the cable. I know. The DVR. The movies. The constant flood of DIY shows and ideas. It all had to go. At $100 bucks a month or whatever, it just couldn't go on. So we got an antenna and luckily the digital channel conversion was underway so instantly we had some channels. The cheapie antennas we bought worked pretty well and got most of the channels because we apparently happen to live near a lot of channel towers.

However, eventually you will get to the point that the reception craps out in the middle of some critical point in a show that you are way too invested in because - if you don't watch much TV then apparently you get way more attached to the little bit you do watch (that's my theory anyway). So there you are watching the killer getting caught on Castle and it blips out right in the middle of the pithy comeback of our fantastic protagonist... ARRRGH!

Why am I telling you this? Because you too can cut the cable and join us and maybe you won't have to suffer like we have. I refuse to spring for a huge pole mounted antenna that can take down airplane traffic but I'd like a little better reception. Thank you internets! Doing a quick search for "DIY tv antenna" turned up all sorts of open source antenna plans and even a Make magazine video on how to do it. There was even an Instructable on how to add one to the Dish that you don't use anymore. Now if I can get this thing together and put in the attic without dying of heatstroke I might just get to see the end of Parenthood again without chucking my tv into the alley in a rage. It's not for the faint of heart folks but if you want to join us - it is awfully satisfying...

Friday Forecast: Will's Popsickle Injustice

2011-05-06T16:15:00.004-04:00

[Charles] Looking for ways to spend your weekend on something other than Wii and Law and Order? Maybe you should peruse the short list. This just might get you out of the house...

I typically don't send folks on a road trip to kick off the weekend but if you are in the vicinity of Orlando or don't really care about the price of gas and all that then here's a good one. Tonight at Will's Pub in Orlando you can catch the CD release party that you missed last weekend at NWB. Sleepy Vikings are playing with The Pauses and Fever and it should be an awesome show. I really am digging the new tracks from the Vikings and the Pauses have a fresh new release as well.

Tomorrow night there is a couple of shows- The Popsickle show at CZAR with Hank and Cupcakes is gonna be a doozy. I saw them a few months ago at NWB and they definitely should do well in a more club and dance type atmosphere. That being said - they even got the hipsters at NWB shaking it a little bit. I'll be interested to see how they do with a little larger sound system and people that are ready to party. They have some fantastic pop stylings with this fresh aggressive pop mixed with the stark drum kit of of an 80's band.

Also tomorrow night is a house punk show for local faves New Bruises, Devout, Injustice System, Ink and Sweat. I only know Injustice System and all signs indicate this is gonna be a hard edged fast paced punk show knowing those guys. Its a house concert at what's called the Hold Tight House in the SH Hood. I have almost no details and so that means it could go either way but, well sometimes that's just what you need.

Have fun out there!

Maker Monday: Compost Bin with Style

2011-05-02T12:39:00.004-04:00

Photo from Tiny Meat

[Charles} Saw this one last week on Re-Nest and knew it was gonna make the list. I have two - half -hearted composters for my leaves which are marginally ugly but also not totally functional. I built a three sided box for one that makes it easier to turn over the leaves but also they spill out and look pretty bad most of the time. The other one is a round piece of fencing that is chock full of leaves. It's prettier but also near impossible to turn the compost when it gets too full. So anyway, I like this idea. Way prettier and it should get a little more air circulating. The front boards are slats that can pulled out to access the compost. I wonder how to keep it from getting too dry? Maybe a solid bottom? Most of all, if I can make one like this, I should get a lot less weird looks from visitors about my strange composting attempts... Sounds like they got the plans for it here.

Friday Forecast: Ziggy Sleepy Baamo

2011-04-29T15:11:00.005-04:00

[Charles] Friday is for kicking the weekend off so if you don't know what to do then why don't you do what I would do if I got to do all that I want to do. Huh? Just keep reading... here's three for the masses.

Friday Night - Ziggy Marley is at the Green Iguana?! Really?! You read that right. Ziggy Friggy Marley is playing at the Green Iguana on Dale Mabry across from the Stadium. Not even Ybor Green Iguana? I don't know how this happened but you better get yourself down there before he figures out what has happened and heads to the Mons. Of course the tickets are $27.50 so I gotta think that the Iguana has never charged that much for a show ever. So get out there and shake it people. This should be memorable - one way or the other.

On Saturday night - How about the Sleepy Vikings cd release party for starters? Over at the Crowbar in Ybor there will be some serious rock out while they kick off their world tour or at least their long tour through most of the US. We've had the luxury of getting to hear them often here in Tampa but don't mess around and miss this because they might just blow up and the last thing you want to do is try and catch some "southern shoegaze" at the Forum downtown. Plus - the awesome Florida Night Heat is opening and they are a super cool funky trio that always guarantees a good time. I haven't seen the other opener Guiltmaker yet but I hear nice things as they say...

While you're down there in sweaty old Ybor, sometimes it helps to take a stroll to another venue to cool off and text your buddies or to tweet about how awesome Saturday night is to your followers. So anyhow, if you do manage to peel yourself away from the show at Crowbar then I would suggest heading to New World for the BAAMO showcase of local artists and the release of their new compilation CD. This one is called Tales of Highways and Low Roads and features such artists as Alexander and the Grapes, Rebekah Pulley, Will Quinlan, The Woeful Ones, and The Human Condition. All of those folks and more are on the cd and the show starts at 5:00. What better way to start a long Saturday night than in support of local music?

Also, don't miss out on the Seed Swap Anniversary Party at the Independent on Sunday from 4-6. Its a potluck kind of a thing so bring a snack and have a beer -

From the invite -

"Join us for our 2nd Birthday Party and 1st Annual Seed Swap! Bring your seeds to share and come listen to some great music and enjoy the fare of The Independent, along with bringing in your own dish to share! Show us what you can cook!
We will also be holding an awards ceremony to thank everyone who has been an integral part of the garden being such a great thing to be a part of."

Maker Monday: Concrete Storage

2011-04-25T12:36:00.003-04:00

Photos from Core77
[Charles] I did a little project with concrete resurfacing material last week and enjoyed it so much I thought I'd look for something even cooler. I was fixing the slope on a sill in our shower so the water runs back into the shower and doesn't puddle - pretty sexy right?! Well anyway it was well overdue, but I just happened to have some left over concrete resurfacer to use. I like this stuff because it is super strong even in thin layers without reinforcement wire. So lo and behold, today I'm looking for something to talk about and here is this cool thing over on Core77. I've seen tons of usb drive ideas, wood, plastic, star wars characters, old teeth whatever, but this is concrete. Concrete is cold and substantial and oh so modsexy. So see what you think of these little drives. I especially like that they carved little semiconductor board looking patterns in them. Now if only I had done that instead of just putting my handprint... Wait though - how cool would it be to put your thumbprint in the concrete as it sets up! Oh yeah, concrete project here we come.

Friday Forecast: Trashy Sun Earth

2011-04-22T08:51:00.005-04:00

[Charles] Hey it's Earth Day! Snuck up on ya right?! No worries - here's your cribsheet for the weekend - plenty of green to go around.

Friday night you've got the Trashy Fashion show in Largo at the Largo Cultural Center. This is, I think, the third year in a row they've done this and it really looks like fun. Designers get challenged with making their clothes from at least 75% recycled and reused material. Maybe its a little kitschy but it also gets you thinking about what you could reuse for something else. Also, get there early because they invite great green vendors out to share with the community as well. They setup the vendors from 5-7 and the runway show starts at 7 pm.

After that, you'll be heading back over the bridge but it might be a little early to turn in. Hopefully if you stop by Ella's Folk Art Cafe you'll be able to catch most of the set from my favorite young local band The Sun Society! I don't think they've played Ella's yet but I mentioned them a while ago and finally they are here. They are a super talented group of young players and the two leads are sisters which make for some amazing harmonies. The music is modern indie pop sort along the lines of Regina Spektor and Feist but really good. Don't miss out on seeing them and pick up their album or just head over to Bandcamp and download it.

Saturday is the big Earth Day Tampa Bay event at USF. It is a co-sponsored event by the Office of Sustainability and the Sierra Club out at the Botanical Gardens on campus. For the last few years the Sierra Club event at Lowry Park has been a little of the same thing over so I'm really hoping by tying it with the university that can infuse it with some excitement. The event at USF was great and I think it makes a lot of sense to put them together. Also, the Botanical Gardens are easy so hopefully that will help push the attendance up. I checked out the vendor list and there are tons of new vendors I've never even heard of so I'm really excited to see what they get this year. It sounds like they are going to have bands out there too although I couldn't find the specific times and dates on their site. Check it out and see the beautiful Botanical Gardens and help support a new era for Greens in Tampa.

Have fun out there!

Maker Monday: Make A Difference for Earth Day

2011-04-18T12:08:00.004-04:00

Photo from Trees for the Future on Flickr

[Charles] April 22nd is Earth Day - but I haven't heard much on the news this year? We're kind of growing numb to Earth Day as a society and it seems snarky negativism rules the airwaves. Why save the environment when the economy is in the toilet and all of the big companies just spew oil into the ocean, melt down their nukes, and turn Earth Day into a PR bonanza where they sell us some widget that is going to save the planet.

For me, I am completely frustrated with the current political state of our country and state and find it so hard to get excited about making a difference. I guess though, if I just lay down and stop fighting then they really do win.

So, instead of encouraging people to compost, or recycle, or to turn up your thermostat because I believe that most of us already are doing a lot, I want to encourage us to take a little bit of money and spin it into something positive. I'm advocating for what I believe is a very worthy environmental organization - one of the biggest groups involved in Earth Day - The Earth Day Network. They are doing really great work and I want people to get behind their call for A Billion Acts of Green, but especially their initiative called The Canopy Project.

Trees are really what got me into environmentalism as a kid. I remember seeing clearcut forests in my East Texas countryside and watching the trees get bulldozed and burned to make room for gas wells and sprawling pasture land. This project is planting trees in places that really can benefit from them and working with local groups to get it done. Places like Haiti, Brazil, and Mexico are all going to have plantings that will be tailored to the needs of the local communities. The group in Haiti is called Trees for the Future and they are planting beneficial trees on an island that has seen much of its good soil eroded through poor management of land and trees for generations. Take a few minutes to check them out or just get in there and drop $10 in their tank. These folks are making a difference and can use the support of all us that can't leave our under water mortgages and crappy commutes to join the fight in person.

Friday Forecast: Sixteen Record Sons

2011-04-15T12:09:00.005-04:00

[Charles] What to do, what to do?! It's Friday folks so maybe you'll peruse our short list of suggestions and maybe, just maybe, you'll have some fun this weekend...

Tonight marks the Sweet 16 show at New World Brewery and unlike the show that finally destroyed MTV, this one probably won't have a multi-million dollar budget or a hot pink dyed pool. However, what it will have is a really great collection of bands that tend to put on awesome shows on the patio and that is worth a heck of a lot more than a whole bunch of confetti and whiny teenagers to me. Head out to see Sunbears!, The Semis, Alexander and the Grapes, and Gentlemen Please. I've seen The Semis but have yet to catch any of the others and everything I hear about them is good. Sunbears! got some press for being on Yo Gabba Gabba but don't let that scare you away. Getting out and celebrating the coming of age for a friend like NWB is pretty sweet no matter what.

Saturday brings back around Record Store Day and it sounds like all of our local stores are gearing up for some pretty terrific shindigs. It's still a little bittersweet for those of us that are still stinging from the loss of Vinyl Fever last year. That being said, I'm happy to report that Mojo Records and Books up by USF is taking up the baton quite nicely for those of us in my area. They announced that they are expanding and adding a cafe in the store which has got to be a smart decision as far as I can tell. I love the combo of books and music and why not make it better for hanging out and spending some more coin while you're there. They are planning to have bands play all day and it sounds like they are in the middle of the move so you can see sort of how the expansion will play out. Record Store Day last year at Vinyl Fever had a line around the block to pick up the special releases and hopefully this year will bring even more attention to the stores we love and don't want to lose. Catch sets by King of Spain, Sons of Hippies, and lots of more awesome local bands. They are even having a vegan bake sale and Kahwa coffee for the folks waiting in line so seriously, get over there early. Doors open at 9 AM. Check out limited editions by Of Montreal, The Decemberists, Regina Spektor, Matt and Kim, Gorillas, even Foo Fighters - heck everybody is in on the action - here's the full list!

Saturday night there will be another event at the West Tampa Arts Center that sounds like a great time for a fantastic cause - Save Our Sons Benefit Concert. The group One City Ministries, which we've written about before is launching a new mission in Uganda and raising money. This is really a different approach because this actually involves taking at risk teens in Tampa who are in a cycle of drugs and alcohol and committing them to working in Uganda with people that truly have life and death choices before them every day. Applying their energies to helping people instead of the spiral of self-destruction should be life-changing for all involved. Our friends have teamed up with some great musicians and the awesome DJ Fuego to put on a concert and they will set up the Fair Trade wares from AfricaTraid to sell and raise money as well. Catch some cool local musicians like Cuba Luna, Matt Hires, and Nathalia Estrada and drop $10 to get this new project off the ground! Doors at 7.

Have a great time out there!

Maker Monday: Scrap Wood Honeycomb Shelves

2011-04-11T12:34:00.006-04:00

Photos from Arrow & Apple Blog
[Charles] Check out these cool honeycomb shelves out of scrap wood from Arrow & Apple. Saw this over on a post from AT. I like that you can use small pieces of wood for this kind of shelf. They didn't use a backer and they just screwed each one to the wall with brackets so I'm a little concerned about how much weight they'll handle. I guess the point really isn't to load these up and well, I 'm always overbuilding things because you never know when someone is going to try doing chinups on your stuff right? I really like this though because you can use all those small pieces of wood which are a problem for every wood shop. Any small wood projects are life savers and you hate building yet another tiny box to store more tiny pieces of wood... Great job folks. Head over to their link on the top to see the rest of the photos!

Friday Forecast: Paint Lambaster Gumbo

2011-04-08T12:22:00.003-04:00

Photo of Trombone Shorty in Creative Loafing
[Charles] Friday Forecast is your cheatsheet to the weekend's to do list. In need of a diversion? You found the shortlist...

First up on Saturday morning, get prepared to pop up early and do some painting. Wait... that sounds like work right? Ok, well I guess you could also garden if you prefer but here's the deal. We need volunteers for Paint Your Heart Out Tampa to help with the Seminole Heights Community Garden project. Our buddies at SHCG are not only doing the paint a whole house in a day thing, but they are also gonna plant a garden for the well-deserving homeowner. The house is at 1008 E. Crenshaw and breakfast, lunch, and t-shirt are provided. Get all the details on that link above. Don't worry you'll be done by 2 or so and you can get on out there and still rock the weekend while feeling like you've helped the world a heck of a lot more than any legislator has this week.

After that you could head to Dunedin for the Highland Games or even over get over to the Tampa Bay Blues Fest to catch James Hunter, but here's another option. How about heading over the bridge to catch The Lambasters at Dave's Aqua Lounge with J Roddy Walston and Casey Lee from Fake Problems. This will be a real Florida kind of night. I'd suggest stopping over at the Crab Shack for some real blue crabs or smoked mullet to keep it real FL style with some cold bucket beers to wash it down. That's right over the Gandy on your left with some real cool picnic tables outside to just get your mind off the week with good friends. Leave the Crab Shack and head a little further toward St. Pete and Dave's will be up on the left. This is a Florida music establishment so be prepared for a good time.

If you don't overdo it on Saturday night then maybe Sunday morning you'll make it to the free yoga class at the Sunday Morning Market at Hillsborough High. It starts at 9 and is run by local Jai Dee Studio so it should be a great way to start the day. If not, roll out late and get some awesome coffee and feed your munchies with some of the great food vendors at the market. If you haven't tried the vegetarian gumbo there, you are really missing out on something amazing.

After that your follow up is gonna be Ella's for The Cadillac Bombers or head over the bridge to the Blues Fest for the final day with Trombone Shorty.

Have some fun out there!

Maker Monday: Cinder Block Wall Planters

2011-04-04T13:23:00.004-04:00

Photo from Annette Gutierrez
[Charles] Here we go folks. I may have finally figured out how to pretty up the end of our ugly driveway... I've been thinking about this for a while but I haven't seen anybody ready (crazy enough) to try it until now... Take a bunch of cinder blocks which are cheaper than most pots and stack em and plant them to make a living planter wall. Super cheap. This one used landscape super adhesive which is really strong stuff - we used it on our $5 block seats a few years ago. They also used wire cloth and rocks to keep the soil from leaving in a hurry. We've recently started up a nice batch of succulents and I agree that would be the way to go on something like this... Thanks Treehugger!

Friday Forecast: Dos Living Animals

2011-04-01T15:56:00.005-04:00

[Charles] So here you find yourself on Friday, what to do? what to do? Here's the short version...

Friday Night - I would think heading to Ella's to check out Signals from Satellites and Los Dos Pistoles should be a great way to kick the weekend off. I'm not sure about you but I could definitely use an extremely large glass of gatorade and Ella's pours the best in the hood! Check out some local talent and soak up the flava!

Saturday - Good day to check out the Living Green Expo in St. Pete and its triumphant return to the St. Pete Coliseum which personally is a much cooler sort of a place to have the event and is a perfect stopoff point to St. Pete for the Saturday Morning Market. I've been pretty quiet on the green front lately while we mend up from closing the store but our personal commitment to the green movement and sustainability is still as strong as ever. I'm excited to hear about new developments and projects in the community and there should be lots of cool info seminars and giveaways as well. Check it all out here!

On Sunday since you went all the way to St. Pete the day before, why not check out a local growing festival in the hood?! The Talking Animals Festival will be at the Lowry Park Band Shell and in its second year it sounds like it is growing by leaps and bounds. Definitely WMNF is helping usher in tons of awesome local bands like my favorite The Sun Society, Bird St. Players, and Sons of Hippies and there will be lots of vendors there and apparently even a bounce house?! Sounds like a good time even though my four legged friend isn't too socially apt, maybe we'll check out the festival for her.

Have fun out there!

Maker Monday: Transformer Tables

2011-03-30T12:50:00.004-04:00

[Charles] I know it's a few days late but to be fair this project is a few years late. I spend a lot of time thinking about transformer furniture. Specifically, I think and sketch and conceive a lot on a transformer dining table. The slideshow from Treehugger here has a good cross section of what is out there and it also features the one that they all get measured against... The Capstan or Fletcher which is pictured above. My friend Nicole has been asking for her own version of a transformer table for years. I must have 5 different unrealized versions on my hard drive that were either too hard to make, too complicated to convert, or just too plain ugly. For people that like to solve problems though this is a fun one. Check out the slideshow and well if you have a good way to go from say a 36" round to a 72" round with less than 25 grand on the price tag - let me know. There's nothing cooler than being able to take your intimate little breakfast table up to Thanksgiving dinner size in ten seconds flat. You'll have to watch the video for that though...

Friday Forecast: Pause Overload Ecolution

2011-03-25T12:28:00.004-04:00

[Charles] So you can't go the Avett Bros because it's sold out and you're broke anyway well then here you go. You want to have fun in the bay and don't know where to start. Start here. Friday forecast is my little guide to three things every weekend in Tampa.

Tonight is the sold out show at Ruth Eckerd with the aforementioned Avetts. That's okay though, cause you saw them at the Cuban Club anyway before they were completely huge! So head over instead to catch Modern Skirts with The Pauses and Poetry N Lotion at New World Brewery. The Pauses and their sweet indie rock are returning from blowin it up at SXSW and Modern Skirts are another cool indie Athens rock group that has been to town before and is rumored to be really great. I'm digging the mix so head over and have some fun with all your buddies while the weather is still awesome for an outdoor show.

Saturday night is the annual Sensory Overload show and this year it's heading over to the new Children's Museum downtown. It's a big mix of art, music, and performance. There are bands like Infinite Groove Orchestra, the results from CL's Show Us Your Neighborhood contest, and always lots of craziness going on. It should be interesting to see it transition from a clubby setting like Ybor to a museum. It could be growing up or maybe growing apart - we'll have to check it out and see.

Also on Saturday is the Cigar City Criterium and Ecolution downtown. The criterium was interesting last year but as a vendor at Ecolution it seemed like it was lost on most Tampa folks why they should come to this thing at all. It's pretty cool to see the bike race and just get out and enjoy the vendors and music downtown. The folks at the Urban Charette work hard to put on a good event in a pretty harsh environment for sustainability and green mindedness. Cigar City stepped up to sponsor the Criterium so if bikes don't excite you, maybe awesome beers will get you going. I hope people continue to support it and in a time where bike accidents are at an all time high in Florida it is really important to get out and show how important bikers are to us.

There are tons of other things going on this weekend including especially the GIFF and Ybor Festival of the Moving Image for those movie buffs out there so get out and have some fun!

Maker Monday: Electric Umbrella

2011-03-21T09:47:00.004-04:00

Photos from Instructables user sockmaster

[Charles] It took me quite a few articles and digs to end up on an Electric Umbrella, but well here it is. I wasn't looking for it and that made it much more intriguing of course. I actually was just wondering how to make an LED light bulb. I dug into Google and Make magazine and Instructables and read quite a bit about LED reading lamps and flashlight circuits. It sounds pretty simple really - you get some LEDs and resistors and a DC power source and wire it up. Of course there are some simple calculations about getting the resistors right and well you have to keep in mind that LEDs are electrically directional. It doesn't sound too bad though. I still didn't find a lightbulb exactly but this umbrella is pretty cool and it might be just the thing for long walks home in a neighborhood that isn't too pedestrian friendly...

Friday Forecast: Kesstronic Movement Dap

2011-03-18T12:25:00.006-04:00

Photo from Tampa Museum of Art
[Charles] Friday Forecast is my survey of three awesome things to do each weekend in Tampa Bay. I try to find things I could stumble home from in my hood of Seminole Heights but sometimes I'll travel the bridges for the good stuff. If it's music, art, or a good time - I'm in. Check it out.

Friday night: Izzy and the Kesstronics are making another visit to Ella's Folk Art Cafe Friday night. This band runs the fine line between roots rock, rockabilly, and even a little large band type music. They have been known to burn the place down and should probably encourage some real live dancing in front of the stage at Ella's. I'd love to catch these guys mixing it up - they bring a sax and a trombone into their swinging groove so definitely be ready to shake it.

Before you head out to Ella's you should probably head down to the Tampa Museum of Art to check out the Art After Dark Party dedicated to the latest show opening - Degas - Form, Movement, and the Antique. The Degas exhibit is really great and is one of the biggest and most expensive shows at the new TMA. They brought the what I call "Tiny Dancer" sculpture down from The National Gallery in DC and quite a few of Degas's bronzes that are rough and unashamedly large figured. They take the abstract and rough sculptures but somehow capture the angles and balance of a dancer's movements in unexpected ways. I really enjoyed it and there are a few paintings that are truly fantastic as well with one of my favorites called Three Dancers in Yellow Skirts - a fuzzy abstraction with just enough detail to force you to carefully study it and really try to sort out what is going on while the colors are so much brighter than most of the drab world that we see in his pencil sketches. Also since you're there - check out the Herb Snitzer jazz photography exhibit which is every bit as fascinating as I wanted it to be.

Saturday night: Excuse me for a second while I mourn the fact that I'm going to miss this show. This is one of those shows that is pretty impossible to miss and I'm completely disgusted with myself for not making it. Sometimes the schedule just doesn't work out for you. So, anyway, if you have any way of making it to the Ritz on Saturday - do not miss Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. I have only been as close to them as Austin City Limits on PBS will allow me to but that was plenty close to see that this is one of the hardest working and smokingest shows that I will ever get a chance to see. They are getting pretty well known now but The Ritz is still small enough and open enough that you should be able to weasel your way to the stage if you wanna get in the middle of the sweaty mess. Sharon Jones takes everything that was soft and sexy about the 60's soul women like the Supremes and then grinds it through a Foxy Brown vibe that makes you wonder why the heck they ever stopped making music like this. More than a throw back, Sharon Jones picks up where the greats like Aretha left off and takes this soul into the future. Check out her updated version of This Land is Your Land or the floor-burner 100 Days and try and figure out when they were made...

Have fun out there!

Maker Monday: A Tiny House Blog

2011-03-14T13:58:00.007-04:00

Photos from Evan and Gabby's Tiny House Blog
[Charles] We've been a little fascinated by tiny houses, by which I mean, one room one bath sort of things that you can only fit the essentials in for a while. There are these things though Tiny Houses that are being built by a company that will also send out plans to you if you want to build your own. These houses are built on a trailer and are beautiful tiny cottage things with lots of wood and simple living in mind. Today I'm showing some bits from a blog where a couple shows how they are doing it themselves. This week they are sealing the deck which we just did last week on our house.

We uncovered some beautiful antique pine boards that have been hiding under our linoleum for years with us completely unaware. Maybe some day we'll ditch the 1100 sqft mansion that we inhabit for something this tiny - definitely would force us as Thoreau would say to "live deliberately".

Friday Forecast: Gun Chiseler Refinery

2011-03-11T15:35:00.003-05:00

Poster from Brokenmold
[Charles] Friday Forecast is a running feature here on TSM about what to do and where to go in Tampa for the weekend. I pick three things I would like to do if I could break away from my busy Saturday schedule. Check it out and let me know what you think.

There are tons of pre SXSW shows this weekend as bands continue to contend with higher gas prices and tapped out fans. I've seen a number of groups heading to Kickstarter to try and drum up some gas money so definitely see if one of your favorites is out there and drop them some coin if you can. One of the many shows is Have Gun Will Travel tonight over at the Local 662 in St. Petersburg. These guys are getting a lot of buzz and let's send them to SXSW with enough cash to do it right and hopefully get noticed.

Tomorrow is the Chiseler's Flea Market at the University of Tampa in downtown. I've never been to this but I drove by once and it was huge. Long lines and lots of people descend on UT for what is apparently a really great bunch of stuff that gets donated during the year as a fundraiser. It only happens once a year and a lot of vintage hunters in the area swear by this one. Maybe this year I'll finally see what all the hubbub is about...

Sunday marks the official celebration of The Refinery's one year in Seminole Heights! They are having drink specials and get this... a free buffet! Oh yeah! Greg and Michelle have done a fantastic job of promoting their place and getting really great and challenging food onto skeptical Tampa plates. The result has been an overwhelming success that even garnered them a James Beard Best New Restaurant nomination. They are having live music and the deck should be hopping. Have fun and as they say "Eat. Drink. Confabulate."

Maker Monday: Pallet Wood Desk from Funky Junk Interiors

2011-03-07T13:11:00.007-05:00

Photos from Funky Junk Interiors
[Charles] When I first saw the photos of this post on Apartment Therapy I wondered where the heck these folks got their pallets to get wood that pretty? Well as I read up, the top boards are actually cedar plank castoffs from their neighbor.

The framework is all from pallets so I'll let this slide but trust me if you're gonna use pallet wood for a desk top, you should probably have access to a planer. That being said, this thing is pretty - maybe a little bit too country for me but it would be a different story if the rest of the room was more industrial or modern. Imagine this desk in your high-rise window overlooking downtown - ahhh that's more like it...

And here I thought I was the only person who does their design sketches on the back of an envelope?! I love this photo cause that's exactly how it goes at my place!

Friday Forecast: Grace! Gasp! Mice!

2011-03-04T13:26:00.004-05:00

[Charles] Friday Forecast is my little blog series about happenings in Tampa Bay for the art, music, and get out and do something crowd. I pick three things that will make your life better - I promise!

Friday night you could have your face rocked off by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals at the State Theatre. Grace Potter actually showed up on my 2010 Summer Mix with her rockin anthem "Paris". I admit the song got a little tired after hearing it on lots of tv themes and getting overexposed but it's still pretty bada$$ if I do say so myself. Opening is Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights who I missed at last years Heatwave where they got plenty of rave reviews.

Saturday will bring the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts into downtown's Curtis Hixon Park. It is a little more family and Florida friendly than most of the fringe arts fests I prefer but it also has some really amazing stuff tucked in with the oversized flowers and manatees. Last year I saw some fantastic photography and sculpture that was worth the trouble of paying to park downtown and huffing it over to the then newly minted park. Also, the playground down there is pretty awesome and the weather should be great tomorrow. Check it out and represent Tampa!

Saturday night you can head down to Ybor and split your time between a couple of shows. Of course I'll recommend my local faves The Sun Society who are playing at Crowbar with Creepers, Young Egypt, and Seri Fana. If you're down there and one of those isn't doing it for you then just head on over to check out Country Mice at New World Brewery with Davy and the Gods and recently swapped in Aloha Model ( a solo project from Auto?Automatic??). I have it on good authority that this should be a pretty awesome show.

Have fun out there!

Maker Monday: CFL with Style - The Plumen

2011-02-28T12:23:00.004-05:00

Photos from Plumen website
[Charles] As I read discouraging politically charged posts about how phasing out incandescent bulbs is an assault on freedom, I am well... discouraged. I think of how people reacted to the idea of their whale oil being pulled off the hardware store shelves or how life might be if we just burned all of our trash to light our homes. Progress is inevitable and instead of just whining about it, some designers are actually working to make it part of a more beautiful world.

I'll admit that I've marveled at the fine details of an antique filament on bulbs I've found and replaced. They are beautiful in their insect-wing sort of detailing and I'll certainly wonder at movies that used them when they no longer exist on our store shelves. The thing is, they've got these things called CFL bulbs which are much more efficient and are probably the simplest thing in the world to do besides perhaps actually turning lights off to save energy indoors. Samuel Wilkinson a UK designer decided to take the long tubes of CFL lights and instead of spinning them tight so they can be hidden in a fixture - he's uncoiled them in a ballet dance of curving shapes. The bulb takes its name Plumen from the showy plume of a bird's feathers. These, to me, are the new romantic bulb and they look great in a room with no shade just throwing the maximum light. Let me know what you think of them. They managed to win a Brit Insurance Design Award for 2011 so I can't be the only person that finds them intriguing...

Friday Forecast: Greenland Dude Fest

2011-02-24T12:47:00.004-05:00

[Charles] Friday Forecast is a weekly series that I write to give a few ideas on how to spend the weekend. I lean heavily toward music and arts but you just never know what you'll find. This week I'm getting a jump on it today because I've got a schedule conflict tomorrow which basically means I'll have to hammer it out during today's lunch break and not tomorrow's.

The other reason I'm writing it on Thursday is because one of my suggested events is tonight. Don't miss Greenland is Melting with Tim Barry tonight at The Orpheum! I can't go so you suckas best get out there and represent TPA aight?! Greenland is Melting is a fantastic little bluegrassy sort of band from Gainesville with a nice mix of good musicianship and sarcastic lyrics (at times). After that - which would be plenty to justify heading out on a school night - stick around for the amazing Tim Barry. I'll give you a recommendation from Autopsy IV on Ninebullets.net who says "Every time I see him live, I walk away with my belief that a man with good songs and pure intentions can still do something in the music world."

How do you follow that up? How about a whole weekend of Lebowski Fest?! The Dude Abides! in Tampa as a matter of fact! We somehow have managed to attract the fine folks that bring Lebowski get togethers to bowling alleys and parties all over this great land to celebrate all things El Duderino. That's right there will be bowling, white russians, women in viking helmets, angry vets, guys in jumpsuits and hairnets, and maybe even a rug that really ties the room together. I don't know how to explain the draw of the Dude - either you get it or you don't but its definitely gone beyond a movie to be an entire philosophy of dudeness. Friday night is the movie party with newly formed band The Lambasters with none other than local hero Ernie Locke in full effect. Saturday night is the bowling party at University Lanes with the actual inspiration for the Coens' Dude - Jeff Dowd in attendance. Apparently the guy is really fun to hang and bowl with. Sounds like a fantastic time. Don't worry, if you don't make it through the weekend, I'll make sure your ashes end up in a coffee can.

Maker Monday: DIY Plywood Coffee Table from MAKE

2011-02-21T12:54:00.006-05:00

Photos reposted from MAKE
[Charles] I'm a fan of MAKE magazine for sure. Definitely this and Readymade are the go-to mags for me as a maker for ideas and cool projects. Through a bunch of random links, I ended up on this project today that is very similar to one of my concepts. I've always liked the idea of slanting the legs of a table with slots and allowing the weight of the top to hold it together. I like this one and with a little tweaking to lock in the top with another slot you could get rid of hardware all together. I love gypsy furniture that can just lay in the back of the car when you're ready to move. Let me know what you think...

Here's how they cut the slots - definitely good work for a router if you've got one...

Here's the base - supported just by locking into the slots that were straight in the legs and angled in the cross support. Pretty simple right?

Check out the entire how to on Make if you want...

Friday Forecast: Fair Baker Cupcakes

2011-02-18T12:27:00.004-05:00

Dueling Ferris Wheels from the awesome Elawgrrl's photos of the Florida State Fair this year.
[Charles] Friday Forecast is a fun little recurring blog post that I write every Friday at lunchtime to help plan three awesome things for the weekend. My recommendations often lean heavily on my neighborhood of Seminole Heights with music, art, and getting out the main thing. Thanks for checking it out.

Tonight at New World Brewery there will be a band that I've heard some pretty solid recommendations for and I'm excited to see how they sound in Tampa's favorite small rock venue. Hank and Cupcakes are a duo from NYC that remind me a little of an indie rocker version of Matt and Kim. They have really great beats but in this case the female drummer is doing the singing duties as well. Replace Matt's frenetic keyboard with a guitar and this band still manages to skirt the edge of dance and rock. Definitely this is one of the do-not-miss shows at New World this year. Plenty of hype around this group will keep them from playing a venue this small next time around.

Forecast: 75% chance multiple people might actually dance at New World tonight...

Saturday is probably the perfect day to check out the Florida State Fair. The weather should be awesome for trying such new fried food ventures as Maple Bacon cupcakes and what I'm really excited about - Red Velvet Funnel Cake! Right?! Gotta try this! The other thing I like about the fair is some of the more old-fashioned exhibitions you can check out. Apparently in Cracker Country on Saturday a guy is going to teach how to make a banjo out of a gourd. Also they have horse riding demonstrations and plenty of ag-related animals to visit. One year I saw an entire room of flower breeding competitions. Its an interesting part of Florida that you can see at the State Fair and I always try to catch it. Also, one of my work buddies is in a Southern Rock band called Boss Hawg and I promised I'd try to see them play the beer dome from 1-4. Turn it up guys...

Forecast: 90% chance you will see someone carrying a ridiculously over-sized stuffed animal from winning on the midway.

Looks like you might as well accept Sundays in the hood as a tradition at Ella's and get on over there. Sunday you'll hear local artist Kaleigh Baker who has a solid bluesy sound and storytelling style that is hard not to like. This should be exactly the perfect soundtrack for sipping beer under the trees and hanging with friends. The opening band is Shak Nasti who are described as a funky fun big band with influences of jazz, afro beat, pop, and funk that should definitely get the party going. They are well known to Florida audiences as they have played tons of shows and festivals in the area.

Forecast: 75% chance you'll completely lose track of time at this one and will have to call and have somebody pick you up...

Have fun out there!

Maker Monday: Wax Floors vs. Poly

2011-02-14T12:42:00.007-05:00

Photos from Christopherson Wood Floors

[Charles] This morning's post on Apartment Therapy got me thinking about our wood floors at home. A few years ago when we first bought our home, we were in love with the wood under the floors. We first uncovered our beautiful antique wood floors that were hiding under years of carpet, glue down tile, and lots of black nasty glue and found amazing heart pine wood.

Almost every book and Home Depot guy out there explains how to sand and polyurethane your floors. The thing is, I really don't like that nasty stuff and wrapping my floors in shrink wrap that scratches and stinks up the house with VOCs just didn't seem like the way to go. Amazingly enough, one guy that did recommend oil and waxed floors as an alternative was Ty Pennington from Extreme Makeover Home Edition (back then he was the carpenter on one of TLC's makeover shows). Anyway, I did some more digging and decided oil and wax was for us. If you want to do it, first off you have to sand your floors just like every other floor job.

The good news is that if you treat them right, you'll never have to use that sander again. We opted for Tung Oil although I've heard of plenty of alternatives with some truly eco-friendly options out there for more cash... You basically have to wipe down the whole floor with mineral spirits to get rid of any left over dust then you pour the oil on a soft cloth and wipe it on the wood. You need good coverage but you don't want it to build up to any real thickness. After a couple of coats of oil, you can wax the floor with floor wax and steel wool. Polish the wax and you'll have a completely different look to your floors. An oil and wax finish looks more matte and more antique to me. The other nice thing is that it can be scratched, but a little sanding or often just a little re-application of oil and wax can cover it right up. With polyurethane, when it gets scratched, it is hard to cover the damage without taking the whole finish off and starting over.

Now I read about how to clean up the wax finish from Apartment Therapy today and they were showing how to fix and clean up scratches and ground in dirt on cork floors. I didn't even know you could use the same stuff for cork, but why not? It's gorgeous and I'm still in love with our oil and wax floor after all these years...

Cork floor cleanup Photo from Apartment Therapy

Friday Forecast: Satellites Seance Sunday

2011-02-11T12:11:00.005-05:00

Actual photo of the sun from Nasa this week - apparently all those photos before were fakes...
[Charles] Friday Forecast is a little ditty about Tampa and weekends. I'll riff on three great things to do that I would do if I could fit them all in. If you don't know where to go this weekend and happen to like music, art, and exploring the city - you've come to the right place.

Friday night kicks off with some live music at Ella's Folk Art Cafe from Signals From Satellites. It looks like the shows at Ella's have gone from hit or miss when they opened to do-not-miss as they get into their second year. I love Ernie and Mel and think they have fantastic musical taste so it's nice to see bands getting over there and spreading the love around for the neighborhood. This Tampa band Signals From Satellites is a rockin trio with indie rock roots. They say they take influences like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. and mash them with more modern bands like Explosions in the Sky. Definitely head over and check them out tonight with opener Brahm Bones

Forecast: 80% chance of cool weather on the patio with smokin guitar inside - grab a Cigar City brew if they've got one on tap tonight.

Before you head to Ella's, I'd recommend checking out the show at Tempus Projects called Seance for No One. It's got new work by Joe Griffith and Kym O'Donnell who have been around for years working on their own and through the art group Experimental Skeleton. I have no idea what to expect which is sort of the draw with shows at Tempus. Tracy, the curator, is happy to bring in fascinating and interesting art of all types. I love that we have a gallery that will push the envelope here in our very neighborhood and I'm happy to walk down there and take a chance on something amazing.

Forecast: 90% chance you'll discover something strange and beautiful at Tempus tonight.

Get all your projects done on Saturday because Sunday is the next installment of the Sunday Morning Market in Seminole Heights at Hillsborough High School. The weather should be awesome - cool and no chance of rain which is just what we need after all these dreary days of late. I know with all the snowstorms around the rest of the country we don't seem to be able to complain, but as my buddies at work remind me "They make up for my crappy pay in Florida with sunshine and I intend to take my share." Get out and enjoy it folks - as a bonus in the Forecast - after you finish up at the market and enjoy a nice bike ride in the hood - head over to catch D'Visitors at Ella's. This world music / reggae local group is by all accounts really fantastic.

Forecast: 70% chance of amazing bike conditions at the market this weekend.

Maker Monday: A Modern Line @ New Shop Kaleidoscope for the Home

2011-02-07T12:40:00.009-05:00

Photos from A Modern Line

[Charles] It's hard to ignore the draw of beautiful mid-century chairs like those in the photo. We love mixing things like this into our modern and industrial style, but sometimes you find a piece of furniture that you just want restored exactly to its original glory...

Our neighborhood is getting a fantastic new addition this week with the design store Kaleidoscope for the Home. It's a joint venture of Sherry King from Sherry's Yesterdaze, designer Karen Brown, and Sherry's husband David Call. I wanted to feature them in Maker Monday because as you'll see from the photos they have some beautifully restored Heywood Wakefield pieces mixed in to their staging. One type of maker that often gets overlooked is the restorer. This shop a mix of creative talents from the area and one of those is David Call who owns A Modern Line . His business specializes as a refinishing and rescue service for Modern Line Heywood Wakefield furniture from the 40's to 60's.

Looking at the blog for A Modern Line, I can see that he also handles other brands of furniture from the period, but he really shines with some of the most amazing restorations of H/W I've seen. Most of you know we are not restorers and have our way with furniture that often makes our antiquing friends crazy, but I can appreciate the delicate and painstaking work that goes into beautiful restoration.

Also, if you're going to restore something - make it something truly worth the work like these pieces. I've attached a few photos, but be sure to check out the new shop if you are in the area. This Thursday they are having an opening from 6-9 pm at 6415 N. Florida Ave and it will definitely be a great day for the neighborhood to see another design business move in and draw traffic from all those "other" parts of town. Good luck David, Sherry, and Karen and keep up the great work!

Friday Forecast: Infinite Marley Modernism

2011-02-04T12:26:00.004-05:00

Photo from St. Pete Times
[Charles] This is a regular feature I write every Friday where I pick three things I'd like to do in the area and talk a little about them and hopefully pass along enough info to encourage readers to check one or all of them out. It can be overwhelming to find things to do in a pinch so I try to just stick to three...

Tonight at Ella's Folk Art Cafe there is a band that I don't know much about. The Infinite Groove Orchestra is what this spacey funk groove jazz group call themselves and it definitely sounds interesting. I read their interview with CL and they seem a bit more cerebral and studious than say bands like Phish which I just can't really get into. I bought a cd of the String Cheese Incident once and I liked it for a while but now I can't seem to stand putting it back on. I would say you've gotta be in the right frame of mind for this type of stuff and well that's not always me. That being said, a lot of folks think these guys are great and I listened to the one track I could find and it was cool. I'm not sure about three hours of it, but I'm willing to give it a shot anyway.

Forecast: 80% chance of man-made clouds at this one.

Also Friday night, the Tampa Museum of Art has found a law firm sponsor to pay the admission for folks to get in and is calling it Art "On the House". Since I am happy to take a law firm's money (as opposed to giving them some) and get some art in the process, this seems like a win-win. Hopefully I won't have to sit through a condo style hard press where they try to explain to me why I need a lawyer on retainer to protect me against car wrecks or slip and fall injuries. I'm thinking I'd like to just check out the new exhibit on Modernism in America. I love going to an art museum without the pressure of a ticket price. It is amazing to me that so many people never get exposed to this great art because of the cost of shows. I know it costs less than a movie and trust me I think it's worth it - I just think it gives a lot of people an excuse to do something else instead of switching their brains on and soaking up some creativity. Anyway, just check it out, here's the link to an article in the Times about the modernism show. Also, the show coincides with another cool show about jazz photography from Herb Snitzer in the sixties with some great shots of legends like John Coltrane and Miles Davis.

Forecast: 50% chance of having entire rooms to yourself at the museum to really soak it up.

Saturday night at New World Brewery is the "Bob & Tosh Fest" celebrating what I think would be the 66th birthday of Bob Marley. This should be much more than just another Marley smokeout - these bands are working to show tribute to both Marley and his collaborator Peter Tosh from the Wailers. There will be local bands Tribal Style, Badda Skat, D'Visitors, Ras Kana, and DJ Blenda playing and giving tribute to these reggae greats. The weather and chilled vibe of New World on the patio under the trees should definitely make this a great event.

Forecast: 75% chance of catching some fresh takes on classic tunes from some of the freshest bands in town.

Have fun out there!

Maker Monday: Salvage Loft Tour

2011-01-31T12:48:00.008-05:00

Photos from Sarah Rainwater on Apartment Therapy

[Charles] I was working on some plumbing this weekend and this piping just cracks me up. I ran into this post on Apartment Therapy today. I love rough and rusty salvage in the home, but these folks really did it right. I love everything about the place. They have old sinks and tables re-purposed but also they have lots of little funny artistic touches. I absolutely love the figure eight knot that they soldered in their copper pipes and the old steam gauges are fantastic.

Thanks for the inspiration, I hope you open to home tours because if I'm in Providence, I'm dropping by for tea on that cool antique stove...

Friday Forecast: Sleepy Sun Fever

2011-01-28T12:02:00.005-05:00

Photo of Sleepy Vikings from Elawgrrl
[Charles] This weekend in Tampa is the big Gasparilla day parade so that is definitely an option if you are in for drinking and partying downtown with thousands of people. If you're probably not gonna avoid that this weekend like me, then here's some other options.

First up, tonight at Ella's Folk Art Cafe, Sleepy Vikings are apparently playing an acoustic show. Regular readers know how much we love Ella's, but this makes tonight a definite do not miss. I think that Sleepy Vikings are really really fantastic and unlike the same old stuff that you can hear every night on American "Idle" these folks have a unique sound all their own. If you are anywhere within the hood tonight then definitely make it a point to catch this band and support them at Ella's.

Forecast: 65% chance of more Vikings than pirates at Ella's tonight.

Saturday might be the day for pirates, but as far as I'm concerned, the one send off I'd like to catch is the Vinyl Fever Sendoff. Vinyl Fever is shutting its doors after something like 30 years in Tampa and I haven't been able to get myself over and face it to even say bye. I love that place and I've spent hours just flipping through the cd's and vinyl before dropping stacks of new bands on the counter to take home. They are the place I could always count on for their solid local band section when I wanted to pick up bands I'd heard of. I took my daughter there for Record Store Day and still can't imagine next year's event coming round without the Feve. I know that they've struggled for years and Tampa's ridiculous real estate prices finally destroyed their chances of continuing. By the way, FU Florida real estate industry! You have no stake in your tenants and are happy to just let great businesses go out so you can continue to raise your rates. Congratulations. Anyway, the sendoff is going to have local bands like Will Quinlan, Matt Hires, and Guiltmaker as well as dj's from the shop spinning what else? vinyl of course. Head over any time on Saturday afternoon - bands start at 3:30.

Forecast: 95% chance of PBR consumed and poured out on the premises.

After that on Saturday, you might feel like continuing the music party and heading over to Transitions Art Gallery to check out what the next generation is up to. I'll keep harping over The Sun Society until you go see them so really quit screwing around and head over there. They are excellent. They take the best parts of say, Regina Spektor without being too heady and Cat Power without being too whiny. Oh yeah and they know how to Rock! with a capital R folks. This is another group I expect big things from so seriously, give them a chance. How many times can you watch that boat come in while your neighbor pukes next to you behind a lawn chair?

Forecast: 80% chance of snagging a new EP from The Sun Society at the show! If you can make it through the crowd...

Holy cow! I just found their EP on Bandcamp so check it out and download it right now!

That's the link to download their EP on bandcamp up there but if you missed it - here!

Friday Forecast: Will Worms Record? Post #200!!!

2011-01-20T12:31:00.007-05:00

[Charles] Looks like the weekend is going to cool off and chase the rain away just in time for some outdoor fun. I'm looking forward to awesome local music at New World, WMNF's record sale, and... learning how to make my own worm bin!

Tonight if you don't have cash or tickets for the Drive By Truckers show at the Ritz, you might be better off to head to New World for a really solid bill of local music. The headliner is the local band that gets a lot of well-deserved hype here but still hasn't quite blown up nationwide yet - Have Gun Will Travel. They just put out a video from their recent release - Postcards From the Friendly City. Check it out and head out there tonight. Will Quinlan is opening and Devon Vlasin from The Takers so definitely catch the whole show!

Forecast: 70% chance you'll drink up the money you saved from avoiding the DBT show in awesome craft beers.

After that, hop up early Saturday morning and head over to the Seminole Heights Community Garden on Violet Street to learn how to make your own worm bin composter! Exciting right?! I know, but seriously, I have a composter without worms and it stinks! Seriously stinks! Think rotting veggie matter or that smell of the dumpster behind the Winn Dixie... Anyway, the folks that use worms swear by them and they make nice clean fertile soil that you wouldn't mind picking up and getting your hands and plants into. Starts at 9:30 so bring coffee!

Forecast: 35% that you're gonna have to pick up a worm...

Also on Saturday, looks like WMNF has put together another version of their super popular Record and Book Sale. This one also has instruments and audio equipment for sale as well. This used to happen before Christmas with live bands and other vendors but this year it's gonna be a little different. Sounds like they will be live on the radio from the event from 10 to 5. Don't miss this event, I always score some fantastic vinyl and cd's from the station and its donors. They also have tons of books and you can probably pick up 100 Years of Solitude if you're lucky...

Forecast: 95% chance there will be a Herb Alpert album sold just based on its album cover tomorrow.

Maker Monday: Tampa Street Market Coffee Table

2011-01-17T12:33:00.005-05:00

[Charles] Here's a recent custom piece that we made for a Tampa home. The piece was made entirely from salvaged wood and was built to customer specific dimensions. Finding wood that is the correct size and will give the right look can be difficult on short notice, but we turned this table around quickly in just a few weeks.

The top and skirt pieces are pine 3/4" planks that I sanded and biscuited together. The skirt was done in a wrap around primitive table style. This idea was borrowed from many of the old farmhouse tables that we see in our searches. It's a strong method to secure the table without fussy angle cutting and miters. I drilled through the outside pieces and nailed in square nails that I found a while back and have been keeping in the cabinet just for projects like this. They give the piece a nice antique look but have to be predrilled carefully because they are large and tapered with a real tendency to split the wood.

The legs are cypress wood that was taken from a roof beam we purchased at Schiller's Salvage in Tampa. Finding wood for nice sized chunky legs is usually the hard (and expensive) part. Luckily the dimensions of coffee tables are shorter so we don't need as long a piece. The beam was cracked on one end but there was enough good wood to give us four legs. Definitely measure and plan out your idea well before you go searching or you will buy material you can't use. I almost bought both of these beams until we got a confirmation on the table height at the last minute!

Hope you like the piece. I think it turned out really nice. We stained it with a custom mix of stain colors to match the room per the designer's request and finished it with a hand oiled and waxed finish. The oil and wax again add to the antique look and luster of an old piece of furniture. All the little nail holes and damage of the old wood show up better with the stain and help give this table elder statesman cred right away. Thanks for checking it out!

Friday Forecast: Bob Montreal Jons

2011-01-14T08:12:00.006-05:00

Photo by Jamie Mauk-Olson from Christabel and the Jons website

[Charles] This winter weekend in Florida has plenty to keep us busy like a Bob Dylan tribute in St. Pete Beach, big production band Of Montreal, and Christabel and the Jons swinging at Ella's in Seminole Heights.

Kick the weekend off right with a drive over the bridge to St. Pete Beach. Over there some of our favorite local bands are playing 3-4 song tribute sets to Bob Dylan. Expect to see folks like Bradenton's Have Gun Will Travel, my favorite - Rebekah Pulley, Ronny Elliott, Radio Free Carmela, Steve Arvey, Blind Buddy Moody, and Grant Peeples. The show kicks off at 7:00 and is bookended by parties at The Wine Shop and The Swigwam. I gotta say that I love Bob Dylan's music even more when great singers take their turns at it. This should be a great time and a nice primer to some of our best local acts if you are new in town!

Saturday night, if you can get tickets, you could do a lot worse than checking out Of Montreal at the Ritz Ybor. I have to hand it to the Ritz, they've really been bringing in some nice mid-sized acts to town and they have a nice old theater setup that makes seeing a show there really special. It's like a large club and you can get close to the stage if you want, but most of the room has a great view. They've got Galactic, Drive By Truckers, and Jimmy Eat World in the next months coming up at the Ritz. I've never seen Of Montreal live but people that have say their show is quite the spectacle. You can read the CL Tampa interview with lead singer Kevin Barnes here and get some insights. People call them psyche pop and they have been compared to Prince and other cinematic acts with huge stage shows, costumes, and lots of crazy on-stage storytelling antics. Here's one of my favorite songs to give you an idea of the funky grooves to expect...

Finish up the weekend right on Sunday - I love it when Ella's Folk Art Cafe puts a great band together for us. Sunday's were made for Ella's. That is the perfect place to hang, drink, eat, and run into friends. They literally have to kick us out of there some days after the continuous rounds of chatting and drinking. Ernie and Mel couldn't be better hosts and when you add in a great band like Christabel and the Jons well all I can say is, I hope to see you there!

Maker Monday : Soap Flakes?!

2011-01-10T13:36:00.004-05:00

Photos from Core77 blog

[Charles] I love this idea. All of the best soaps you find come in bars. All those interesting homemade soaps that you can't pass up at the market. Unfortunately they get wet and soggy and then you need someplace to set them down so the sink gets gross where they sit. Then you go out and buy a soap dish and you have to wash it every so often and all of this because the soap gets wet when you use it. What you really need is just the smallest bit of the soap to actually do the work.

This came from Core77's blog and it is a project of a designer Nathalie Stampfli who I think did this for her graduation project at Eindhoven Design Academy in the Netherlands.

You get this cool little cheese grater thing going on and all you get are flakes. You push on the bar and it grates the bottom of the bar into your hand. Now you have no plastic bottles for your liquid soap which is mostly water anyway and you can make your bar soap last as long as it should and actually work like a liquid soap by making it into small easily soluble pieces! The other one is like a winding pepper mill for the shower which I'm a little less excited by but I could come around to.

Mechanically it looks a little simplistic and I wonder how it does if your soap gets too small but honestly those concerns are pretty tiny. The complicated squirting devices we see everywhere for liquid soap are much worse than this with their plastic parts all working to annoy you. Congratulations, I would love to see this in production!

Friday Forecast: Hey Pauses Kale

2011-01-07T09:09:00.004-05:00

Image from Last Year's Gasp!arilla Art Show at Cafe Hey
[Charles] Florida in January can be a little chilly but that's no reason to sit at home and wish you had a fireplace! Apparently it has something to do with too much snow in Siberia. Whatever it is, it means to wear layers when going to New World and Skipper's!

Before you go to the show at New World tonight, head over to Cafe Hey first and warm up with some fair trade coffee and a new songwriter's night. Tonight they have a couple of intriguing ladies Cuba Luna and Jun handling the music duties. You know how much I love Cafe Hey and it is a great place to start off for a long night of music. Load up on espresso or tea for the cold night out. Check out Cafe Hey's Facebook page for updates on what's in the oven and tasty. I would recommend getting dinner there or if you've never been - right around the corner at the Grass Root vegetarian restaurant.

Forecast: 70% Chance of an empty soup bowl in your future tonight! Get there too late and No Soup For You!

Tonight I would highly recommend heading to New World Brewery in Ybor to catch The Pauses with Sleepy Vikings, Gordon Withers, and Rec Center. Honestly, Sleepy Vikings would be enough to get me out and headed for an 8 Ball Stout at the New World, but adding in the eclectic indie rock folks in The Pauses from Orlando and you've got a do-not-miss show. In a strange interview with Curtis Ross this morning that seemed a bit too obsessed with making theme show music, they discussed their Kickstarter work and how it has funded the CD release. This show tonight is the first part of the CD release party which continues tomorrow in Orlando. Head over to the Creative Loafing article and check out the first single from Cautionary Tale called "Go North".

Forecast: 60% chance you'll wanna ditch your coat tonight after the music gets cranked!

Finally on Sunday don't forget to kick off the new year at the Sunday Morning Market at Hillsborough High School! Every time I visit I discover something new and always leave feeling energized and excited about the potential for our neighborhood. There will be prepared food, veggies - organic and conventional, and lots of local vendors selling their own creations. Last time at the market I ran into Magnolia Organics which is running an interesting type of CSA and making the most of the internet by emailing their weekly offerings and even allowing online ordering. That's pretty exciting stuff for Tampa and I'm glad to see people letting their entrepreneurial spirit drive new ideas for businesses like this. Check it out here or go talk to them in person at the market!

Forecast: 50% chance you'll be typing Kale into your Epicurous app this week!

2011: Who's having the best year ever?!

2011-01-06T12:17:00.004-05:00

[Charles] Okay, seriously, I had to get that out of my system. I don't expect that when the new year rolls around that everything is going to magically get better, I just wish it would. I'm not really up for one of those "it's a new year" kind of posts but I would like to help set the tone for the year. Besides, it's already the 6th and I haven't posted yet?!

So, 2010 saw the end of our retail shop in Seminole Heights and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still bummed about it. I drive through the neighborhood every day and see some things that make me optimistic and some that make me sad. I wonder if we'll ever get mass transit moving in Tampa. I wonder if this year's leaders will actually listen to the people. I wonder if we'll be able to manage being parents and designers and get to see our friends more this year. I wonder all this and hope for more.

I finally committed to writing regularly last year on this blog and it has been very cathartic for me. I'm not sure if all the posts make sense or fit, but I'm going to keep going as long as I can. I like doing Maker Monday where I post something awesome that someone else made or show something that we've made. I really love doing Friday Forecast and talking about what not to miss over the weekend. I always hate trying to find something to do at the last minute and feeling like I miss out on so much good stuff. It's my cheat sheet and I'm glad you like it. We posted 117 posts in 2010 which is about double the year before and if I can write three times a week, I'll get to around 150 or so. That's my goal so here's hoping and please keep the comments coming, I may not get paid to do this but those comments are like money in the writing bank to me! I like to write about music and the arts so expect more of those posts and let me know if you have a cool event coming up - especially in Seminole Heights.

-Charles

Friday Forecast: New Year's Eve Edition

2010-12-31T08:26:00.004-05:00

[Charles] I never really know what to do on new year's, have a party, go out, stay in? Driving on New Year's is scary no doubt about it. So here's some things happening within walking distance of the hood. If you don't live in our hood then I guess your outta luck and will have to catch a cab! Yikes! Cabs dropping people off in our neighborhood? Thought I'd never see that!

First up: Ella's Folk Art Cafe is having a bash and last year it sold out. This year I expect the same so if you haven't got a ticket, you better scramble. Head over to their facebook page and ask around. Ernie, Melissa, and the gang have put together a great set with Dex Romwebber Duo and Roppongi's Ace. The $25 advance ticket includes dinner, music, and a champagne toast. All that and you can stumble home when it's all done. Ella's has such a nice vibe and I always run into more and more friends there so you definitely can't go wrong with this one.

Forecast: 85% chance of a sellout crowd on the porch tonight.

If that's more commitment than you had in mind for tonight, then I would suggest walking down Florida Ave to the Independent Bar. Sounds like for $10 you can get in on a nice buffet of food (pot roast tacos and indian curry anyone?) and get some $4 drafts underway. The beer is always fantastic at the Independent and again, you will always run into people you know or people who want to chat. With the weather cooperating, this should be a really great and chilled out way to spend New Year's Eve .

Forecast: 90% chance of fancy beer sightings at this one.

Last but definitely not least is the Refinery's New Year's Eve. This is for folks that don't want to get locked in to a party but want some awesome traditional New Year's grub. Well not too traditional knowing Chef Greg, but here's the highlights. "Pork Chop with a Malta and Spice glaze, smokey bacon black-eyed peas, chile-candied turnip, and braised turnip greens." That should get your evening started right especially if you are headed out of the hood tonight. If not, then just head on upstairs to the bar and celebrate this beautiful night on the deck. I would expect a crowd...

Forecast: 70% chance you'll actually want to eat these black eyed peas.

Swim, Soak, and Sigh Part 3

2010-12-30T12:20:00.004-05:00

Let's keep it rolling - It's day three and tracks 1 through 5 are up. Track 1 is always critical in a mixtape as it really has a lot riding on whether people will stay interested or not. The next few tracks have to keep that momentum and really hook people in. See what you think.

1. "Swim Until You Can't See Land" - Frightened Rabbit

This song got my attention from the first buzz of noise that quickly overlaps with guitar and bells. I couldn't and can't stop listening to it. This is as close to an anthem as I'll probably come to this year. I can think of no better way to express my way of asking myself and others to take risks and try things than to say "Swim until you can't see land. Are you a man or a bag of sand?" Are you going to sink? Eventually we all will sink and pass on, but right now, do we chose to sink now or to swim? This one I can listen to on repeat and I am so embarrassed to say I didn't catch these guys in concert in Gainesville because I didn't want to make the drive on my own. My musical resolution this year is to quit making excuses for missing shows I know will be great and get out there. It's time to quit letting my self feel like a bag of sand and find my long swimming stride again.

2. "Generator (Second Floor)" - Freelance Whales

I love this kind of lo-fi indie rock that plods along with interesting instruments like xylophones and glockenspiels mixed with guitars and odd percussion. This band has had quite a run - a year ago they were playing subway platforms in NYC and now they are on a European tour. I even heard this song was on some TV shows as well which is no surprise as corporate america continues to mine indie music to make their products seem cooler. I like the idea that the joke is on them as these bands fuel their vans with big cash from these deals but I'm not sure if it always works out perfectly for the band either. If you can get heard and get an audience and get people to the show and over to bandcamp to download your album then I guess it's all worth it. Why does this matter? Because I'd never heard of this band before coming across them on another blog and here they are #2 song on the mixtape.

3. "You" - Gold Panda

I'm a sucker for a good electronic beat and world music mix and this song really nails it. To me there is a mix of Asian and Indian flavors in this song and it manages to pull of its 3 plus minutes of beats without getting tired or boring. This is basically instrumental music as even the voice samples are stripped down to just another layer of music but it just continues to drive on and keep you interested until the end. I have a hard time finding electronic music that I can listen to over and over (which is a definite mixtape criteria) but this one never drags.

4. "Excuses" - The Morning Benders

This song has some of the best singalong harmonies I've heard this year. Just try and not harmonize with this song in the car. You know those songs that you try to kind of make the sound along with the words before you really know what they are saying the first couple of times you listen to it? It's okay, you can admit it to me. I'm not judging. I singalong in my car and people can feel free to make fun of me in traffic and go back to hating their lives immediately after. This is another of the tracks on this list that feels very timeless to me and helps renew my faith in new music. I get so tired of people that whine about never hearing any good new music that miss out on amazing pieces like this. Go ahead singalong, I won't tell anybody..."We'll still be best friends when it all turns to dust."

5. "Harlem River Blues" - Justin Townes Earle

There's a funny shuffle to this song that refuses to let this just turn into a suicidal dirge. One of my favorite dj's commented "This has to be the most upbeat song about suicide that I've ever heard." I have to agree. It's almost got this comic feel that you just know that he's not gonna really go through with it. Anybody this happy about tossing themselves into a river is more likely to make a turn into the Tavern before they make it to their final destination. After a couple of pints I'm sure Mr. Earle will forget all about his plan to "let the dirty water cover me over". This guy has an interesting take on what is the fine line between alt-country, old country, and rock which is very appealing. I am still kicking myself for missing this show at Crowbar this year and reiterate my plan to catch more shows that I know will be great in the new year.

So that's it. The whole thing. Three days of marathon, type as fast as I can, research, 14 webpages open, lunchbreak hour, blog writing. I hope you like the mix and now if you click on the first track, you should be able to let them all play through the fancy yahoo player that will pop up on your computer. That should let you play them in order as I intended. Let me know what you think and hopefully next year I'll get to add a little more music writing to my Friday Forecast and Maker Monday regular posts. Thanks for all the support this year and please leave a comment if you want, I love those!

2010 Swim, Soak and Sigh Part 2

2010-12-29T12:33:00.004-05:00

Photo credit unknown but awesome.

Let's continue the mixtape with the middle five tracks starting off with a local band - The Grecian Urns...

6. "We Are Stories" - The Grecian Urns

This collection of young musicians from St. Pete comes together during the summers and breaks off into separate colleges during the fall. Catching them in concert becomes a little tricky due to this, but this year they decided to get together and release an album. They played a few shows over at Ella's Folk Art Cafe in my hood too so I've really got no excuse for not catching them live. This song captures a lot of the multi-instrumental joy of this band which is making music as good or better than a lot of "discovered" bands out there - just see Track 8 for similarities. Anyhow, enjoy the track. It's a lot of fun and right after the 3 minute mark it changes over from a simple pop song to a big chorus of whistle-along fun that makes me glad to announce that whistling is definitely back. Thanks Peter Bjorn and John.

7. "Thistled Spring" - Horse Feathers

Thanks Jordan, good call on this one. My buddy up in Cinci said I should check out this band Horse Feathers and at first listen I thought it was maybe a little too moody and depressing for this mix. That was until I realized that this whole mix is a little moody and depressing. After that, I was all in... and why not? This song is painfully gorgeous. The piano hammers away at your insides sharply and it begins the same way it ends with that sharp piano rapping loudly. It reminds me of taking piano lessons with Ryan Adams and David Gray. After a few listens I'm sure you'll be drawn in.

8. "Janglin" - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes

This band I'd heard a little bit about when I discovered they were playing at the Ritz. My friend Nicole "Elawgrrl" was of course going in her official photographer capacity and was pretty skeptical of the "dirty hippies" we were about to find onstage. They fielded a huge band with two drummers, xylophone, trumpet, guitars, accordion, piano, and a male and female duo trading back and forth on many of the songs. This had to be the nicest group of fans I've ever been packed in with. It was crazy. I even was able to make my way to the front without the typical fistfights and stabbings that usually accompany that sort of thing. This song was featured in a commercial and hopefully that helps pay the gas in these guys monstrous bus because they definitely are worth catching in concert. If they come anywhere near you, definitely get out there and see the spectacle for yourself. When they sing the chorus "We want to heal your janglin souls" you might just find you've joined in and started wishing to be a Magnetic Zero yourself.

9. "St. Christopher is Coming Home" - Frank Turner

This song isn't the typical singalong rocker that Frank Turner is becoming known for in these parts. He toured pretty heavily around his show opening for Social Distortion and Lucero this year and could be seen at many places in Central Florida. This song got stuck in my head and quite honestly fits better with this group of songs than many of his others that I love. Check out "Photosynthesis" on this Irish blog if you're curious. This song is more about the sadness and longing that comes from a life on the road. Nicole heavily recommended Mr. Turner and this song was one of the tracks that stuck out in my mind because of great lines like "And that's how I miss out, on another night. The kind of night where nothing really happens, yeah, but everything goes down" when talking about the difficulty of getting phone calls from friends while being stuck working and out of town. This is great songwriting and even though this album wasn't released in 2010, I'm giving this one a pass because I hadn't heard of it until this year and it is fantastic.

10. "Goodbye Girl" (Squeeze Cover)- The Shins

Okay, I'm letting a cover on here. I couldn't get this version out of my head and WMNF played it a few too many times and now I'm stuck with it. I love it though and since Squeeze just celebrated a cool documentary on them recently I felt okay slipping it in here. The Shins are a family favorite anyway so it's nice to hear them making some music again.

The last three will hopefully be up tomorrow!

2010: Swim, Soak, and Sigh Part 1

2010-12-25T14:43:00.011-05:00

[Charles] The End of the Year Mixtape is one of my favorite things to do each year. I look forward to putting together a group of songs that can play through together and make the year proud. I've never posted the links before, but I think I've finally got it figured out so please don't ruin it for me.
Disclaimer: The links are up for a limited time and then they'll come down. They are meant to get you hungry for more music and to send you off on your own search for music. This is a jumping off point for an adventure into bands and cd's you may have missed last year. If you want your music taken down, just let me know and I'll pull it.

This list is also personal and completely arbitrary. I don't try to do a "best of" - I like to think of this as a solid bunch of songs that work well as a group. That's why I call it a mixtape.

Let's start with tracks 11-15...

11. "We Used To Wait" - Arcade Fire

I came late to Arcade Fire as I know I naturally am resistant to bands that get too much hype and all this "yeah the next great indie band" baggage. That being said, I'm sorry, this band is really good and has been good the whole time. I missed out, and I'll do my best to make it up to them. If they'd like to drop by the house, I'd happily set up a grill out or whatever they like and we can patch it up over beers. Seriously though, they also do some really amazing work in Haiti and the money they funnel to other worthy causes. This song builds from something so small and makes me think of the frustration of growing up somewhere that waiting feels like all you can do. Also, I'd like to mention the creativity we've seen from them as this song has an interactive video and the Spike Jonze video of The Suburbs is pretty awesome as well.

12. "Terrible Love" - The National

The National also fall into that group of bands that get so much hype and play that it is hard to treat them fairly. To get a fair trial, I had to move them away from all of the craziness around their touring and fans. I listened to plenty of their tracks and I liked them okay but I never got that goosebumps sort of feeling that great music can give you. That was until I heard this version of "Terrible Love". All of a sudden, away from the heavy production and drama, there was just this band and this voice, and it was amazing. I listened to it over and over and it was the same song but it wasn't. This band definitely deserves the love they get and I hope they are around for a long long time.

13. "Ways of Looking" - The Mynabirds

When I first heard this song, I knew it would make this list. Sometimes a song just burrows under the skin and stays inside and that was definitely the effect of Laura Berhenn's voice on me. After many listens I've resigned to the fact that this reminds me of past favorites like Cowboy Junkies and Mazzy Star and all those rock-soul girls that ever drowned their sorrows in a slow slow electric guitar and forced me to buy their albums and put them on whenever I'm feeling particularly moody. The difference here for me is that there is a hopeful up-turn in this song when she "counts 1 to 10" at about the 1:20 mark and reminds us that "it can be easy, if you let it." I keep thinking about that. Like a little bit of hidden zen master advice, she reminds us all how important it is to just "let it."

14. "Soak it Up" - Houses

I don't know much of anything about the guy that made this. The story I heard was that he got laid off from Apple and headed to Hawaii with his girlfriend and made this. All I can say is, that if that is true, then sometimes getting laid off is the best thing ever because this music is amazing. It is transcendent, beautiful, electronic music that doesn't feel like it needs to pumped from speakers at a million decibels so much as it should be quietly poured over the heads of clubgoers like a baptism in light. I can't remember the last time I wanted to listen to an electronic song on repeat like this. This feels like a new type of lo-fi, ethereal electronic music that has made me look forward to new music again. This is music that needs no translation.

15. "Sigh No More" - Mumford and Sons

Because this is a mixtape, I feel that order and pacing is important and even more important is the correct ending song. This was one of my favorite albums of the year. I received it on Father's Day and it was the best gift I could hope for. This music reminds me of Amy and Ella and all that is great about being alive. It feels like the hymn book from my church - the church of music where everybody is welcome and all you have to do is sing and be good to each other and go out and try to be good and honest to people in the world. I think of this song as a hymn and a poem and truly something different than most of what is available in music today. This song was overlooked for catchier songs from their album on most lists, but for me, this is exactly what this band is about. It builds and builds and crescendos to a fantastic yell-along finish that feels exactly like the end of a mixtape should.

"Love it will not betray you

Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free

Be more like the man you were made to be

There is a design, an alignment, a cry

Of my heart to see,

The beauty of love as it was made to be."

-From Sigh No More - Mumford and Sons

Maker Monday: Re-Nest Best Sustainable Bedroom Furniture

2010-12-21T12:29:00.005-05:00

Photo from Apartment Therapy Re-Nest
[Charles] When it's cold like this week, I want to go to bed early and sleep late. Lots of blankets and lots of snooze button action seems to define my winter pattern. I would love to get up early and go for a run and feel good about myself but... until then, I'll be dreaming of how to make our room more lovable and less leave-able. Here's a re-post from Apartment Therapy of the best sustainable bedroom furniture of 2010. One piece that stood out to me is the nightstand that looks like we could make a chair-hacked version from some of the broken chair pieces we find. What do you think?

See the chair-like side pieces? The salvaged screen or grate? This one gets me thinking...

Here's the full article link.

Friday Forecast: Legendary Life Market

2010-12-17T16:16:00.004-05:00

[Charles] I'm running behind today and it's been a long day to say the least. Here's a couple of quickpicks and then I'm done. I'm sure you've got plenty of "non-voluntary" Christmas parties to make sure you miss stuff you want to do so I'm not gonna try and rub it in. I'm also working on my end of the year mix CD so that takes up a lot of my "research" time. So tonight, get out to see the Legendary JC's at Skipper's - word is they are releasing a cd?! That and the Lee Boys open so definitely they will make the most of the awesome temps tonight under the stars.

Forecast: 85% chance of James Brown's ghost shaking it in the crowd at Skipper's.

On Sunday you've got a double down. First off, head to the Sunday Morning Market to pick up some handmade gifts for your favorite folks over in front of the Hillsborough High School.

Forecast: 90% chance of awesome gift opportunities fo sho!

After that, head over to the Tampa Theatre to get your annual dose of Christmas spirit. It's A Wonderful Life always gets me choked up - okay I said it. Anyhow, it's a beautiful place and it will be awesome to see a classic on the big screen! 3 PM downtown

Forecast: 65% chance you'll need a kleenex for this one!

Have fun out there!

Maker Monday: Screw Screws Here Comes the Swiss

2010-12-13T12:25:00.006-05:00

[Charles] I sometimes get obsessed with the idea that furniture doesn't really need screws and nails. Designs turn over and over in my head as the pieces lock together with tabs and holes and the weight of each piece locks the others together. And then every once in a while I see somebody who does it really really well. This popped up this morning on Treehugger - designer Colin Schaelli is building con.temporary furniture that does just that. It does it in beautiful raw wood that is designed around a tatami mat size that fits in a car easily and can be transported for the new mobile gypsies that we have turned out to be. Apparently it's good for sleeping... those silly swiss, they are so artsy? I guess you do what you can to show off the furniture. See what you think - me, I'm in love.

Friday Forecast: Atomic Studio Harvest

2010-12-10T13:58:00.004-05:00

Photo of Carved into Wood ring from Nested Yellow on Etsy
[Charles] There are some benefits to not working every weekend during the Christmas season like we have for the last few years, and this weekend brings one of those to the forefront - holiday shows! Tonight we'll kick off the weekend at the West Tampa Center for the Arts over on Armenia with an open studio at Studio 313 and the Bay Area Art Collective Party. This will be your best opportunity to meet Anna from Nested Yellow and see the gorgeous jewelry she has created this season. Her jewelry is so unique and amazing that it eclipsed everything else we sold last year for Christmas. If you are looking for something special for a loved one, you really can't go wrong with her designs. I'm hoping to see in person some of her men's designs as well that I've only seen in photos so far.

Forecast: 95% chance that something will end up under our Christmas tree after this show.

To keep this weekend from turning into one long shop-a-thon, I'd like to put in a shout out here for the Seminole Heights Community Garden and their work on the first ever - Harvest for the Hungry in our neighborhood. At 9 am on Saturday, you can get down to the lot next to Sherry's Yesterdaze and join up with a roving band of fruit pickers that are going to well... pick fruit and deliver it to Metropolitan Ministries. If you have fruit that needs to be picked, we need your help too - let them know where it is and they'll come get it! Email robin@greenerpixels.com if you want to get involved. Let's make this one a success and a positive event for the neighborhood!

Forecast: 60% chance they'll be having fresh squeezed orange juice and grapefruit for breakfast at Metropolitan Ministries this week - IF we get it together! C'mon neighbors!!!

After that, we'll have to pop up tomorrow afternoon and head south to the Atomic Holiday Bazaar in Sarasota. Unfortunately interesting craft and art shows are few and far between in Florida. Sure there are plenty of country basket/manatee/dachshunds made from old metal shows, but not many fun, edgy, crochet/scrap/recycle/goth/alterna-shows. I work in Florida and don't go to the beach every weekend and sure as hell have no desire to decorate my house with shells and beachery so I'm really looking forward to it. I'm excited to see what unique screenprint art group Clothesline is up to this year in addition to being one of the sponsors. It'll probably have some "strange goth stuff" as my co-workers say, but it'll also definitely have some really cool and beautiful things. This is exactly where I'm happy to do my Christmas shopping and support great artists that are not just local but include people from all over the country.

Forecast: 65% chance that you'll be rubbing elbows with hipsters, youngsters, and goths alike and having a fantastic time!

Maker Monday: Reclaimed Wood Platform Bed - TSM Original Design

2010-12-06T12:08:00.015-05:00

[Charles] I've wanted to document the construction of some of our furniture pieces for a while now and this platform bed has been a long time coming. I've been promising to build this one for way too long now and finally the confluence of time, the right sized wood, and inspiration came together a few weeks ago. Hopefully you'll get a kick out of the photos. It's a pretty simple piece but every piece teaches me something to look for the next time. I'm not kidding about the wood either - in Florida, reclaimed wood is hard to come by and often chewed up, bug ridden, too short, or just plain ugly. These wood pieces were cypress wood and they didn't look like much before sanding and oiling but after they were done - these were amazing.

This plan isn't much, but I can't say how important it is to have one. Especially if you are using reclaimed wood or even just need to plan with what you have to avoid making one more

trip to pick up materials. Take a few moments and sketch out something as well as you can.

This is the rough looking wood that I chose, basically based on the size of it and the fact that it was pretty solid. I also know how well this stuff cleans up after using it for a few things. You can also sort of see the large circular saw mill marks in these which can be country in the wrong setting but on this bed will contrast the modern simplicity nicely.

This photo shows the basic idea, as I mocked it up on its side. Basically I'll attach a plymood piece around the inside of the wood sides. This will support a plywood top for the bed. I decided to toss the box spring and just put the mattress on top. This will also have a center rib that spans across the bed which I'll make from leftover plywood pieces glued together.

If there's one thing I've learned with wood working - it's that you can't have too many clamps. It seems like I'm always using almost every stinking clamp in the place for even simple jobs. Wood glue does its job better under pressure so just suck it up and clamp away. This is when I glued the sides to the support pieces. After they were clamped, I countersunk some screws from the inside just for added strength.

Here's the beginning of the assembly in place. Because I think a good bed should be able to be broken down and moved, I made this with the idea of simple disassembly and assembly. I wanted to use hidden brackets, but I wasn't happy with what I had in the shop and just went for countersunk screws at the corners. I think it looks okay because they are really set in far, but I would like to improve this on future models. You can see the holes in the next few shots.

Since plywood comes in 4X8 sheets and beds are 5 feet wide, you get this. This is why the plan is important and I had decided to take advantage of this and actually set the wood to one side and add doors for hideaway storage. Try not to notice the stupid mess of wires behind the bed because this is an old house without a lot of plugs...

These door pieces were made much more awesome by the fact that they were from a painting that Amy did before and wasn't happy with. It had a mixture of tree and stenciled numbers in a bright green which makes for a nice surprise when you open the door. Notice how the doors both sit halfway on the rib across the bed. The larger piece of plywood is screwed down to the sides for added strength. I used simple hinges left over from some furniture I'd salvaged before on the doors and I drilled finger holes to use for pulling them open.

Here's the bed done, but unfortunately not made yet. I didn't want to hide the sides for the photo. Ignore the mattress tag - I'm still afraid to remove it. I shortened the custom floating shelves on the side also. The headboard is now a rusted steel pan that we had planned to make a table with, but it looks amazing on the back and is a great reminder of Amy's amazing talent!

After making this, I would shorten the length a little and do something different to hide the assembly better, but I love the way it looks. Our dog Baci is a fan too. It is about the height of a low bench so she can just hop right up and head to dreamland. Thanks for checking it out, and send me questions in the comments if you'd like more info...

Friday Forecast: Jukebox, Superchunk, and Jobsite

2010-12-03T14:32:00.005-05:00

[Charles] Lots to do this weekend folks, and not just Christmas shopping and movies at the mall... This time of year brings bands from the north that are happy to escape the cold weather and soak up the warmth of Florida crowds.

The problem this weekend is that all three of these shows are on the same Saturday night. The good news is that they are all within walking distance of each other in Ybor. How about we make it a little mini fest and get some comfortable shoes for a little rock hopping?

Superchunk came out of the late 90's from Chapel Hill, North Carolina and really trail blazed their own indie label Merge and toured like crazy for years. They don't tour much now even with a new album out but they've been tapped by Skate Park of Tampa to play their anniversary show this Saturday. This show is at Czar just down the street from The Bricks and the SPOT skate shop on 7th. Forecast: 90% chance at $10 this one will sell out and this crowd won't be giving away their tickets to any "Slack Motherf-er" without a fight.

Maybe first you should head over to New World Brewery and check out some of the bands playing in support of Jobsite Theater. This is the combo wrap season party and rock out that they use to raise money for the coolest theater group in Tampa. After working hard all year for a less than supportive *ahem* city as far as theater goes, it's time to let them know that we appreciate what they do. $8 gets you some Famous Monsters of Finland, Vodkanauts, Pale Orchestra, and they have raffles!!! So go ahead and check it out and get some good fuel for the evening. Forecast: 25% chance The Vodkanauts will mashup Neil Diamond and David Bowie.

After the first two shows, or if you are getting to Ybor late, you'll want to head to Crowbar to checkout Jukebox the Ghost. They get a lot of Ben Folds comparisons but after seeing Matt and Kim this year, I think the piano is getting a little more street cred than you might think. This should be a lot of fun and according to Soangelicate's review on Ninebullets, they put on an awesome show. Forecast: 60% chance of somebody getting a keyboard for Christmas after this show.

Have fun out there!

Also congrats to Cigar City Brewery for getting their wet-zoning approved this week! I'll have to remember to head over and pick up a growler and congratulate them in person. If you still haven't tried them... you're missing out!

Double Down Friday - WMNF's All Commercial / Non Commercial Show

2010-12-03T09:56:00.004-05:00

Photo from tampabay.com
[Charles] Okay, so I was out this last week and missed a couple of posts, so to make it up to you fine folks, I'm dropping an extra post today. What would drive me to such extremes? Only my favorite show of the season on WMNF - Flee's "All Commercial/Non Commercial" Post Black Friday show on Monday.

I can't help that I find myself looking up music from commercials if a song catches my attention. This is what bands have to do now to get attention and I'm not judging. I knew Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes song "Janglin" before I knew who they were. I got The Heavy's "How You Like Me Now?" stuck in my head after the Super Bowl. I've seen some good bands get grabbed and ruined by overplay as well so I know it's a tricky game. You've got to find something that will help your music advance while not alienating new fans with associating your new jam with an annoying commercial about air fresheners or how friendly banks are. So anyway, Flee knows I love this show and I always send him a list of songs that I get into during the year. It's fun for me and if you've never listened to WMNF on the archives while you're working or cleaning the house, then head over and give it a try.

If you take the link, you can check out the playlist and play the show in your computer's music player. Don't wait though, it's already Friday and the shows only stay up for a week. After next Monday, they'll be on to the next show...

Maker Monday: Making Memories in the Kitchen

2010-11-22T13:03:00.006-05:00

Photo from Foods For Long Life Blog which has some excellent info on the healthiness of pumpkins!

[Charles] This week with Thanksgiving coming up, my thoughts have turned to the tradition of making something from scratch in the kitchen with family. We lost my wife's Grandma yesterday and with her a lot of amazing homemade cooking knowledge. Some of those recipes were passed along but many of the best were never written down and apparently her Chocolate Pie recipe yielded a legendary dessert that tasted like a gigantic Hershey's bar had been melted down and poured into a pie crust.

It makes me think of how important it is to really enjoy those times when we can all be together and cooking in the kitchen at Thanksgiving is probably the single best time of the year for that. I'd like to encourage everybody to spend some time in the kitchen this week and take a few moments and maybe an index card so that you can record your mom's thoughts on how to get the turkey perfect or what exactly your grandma sneaks into the cornbread stuffing. Also, this is a great time to drag the kids into the kitchen and get them stirring, or pouring, or whatever they can handle. The memories of being in the kitchen, the smell of pumpkin pie cooling on the counter, the arguing over which casserole should go where in the oven, and the table that sags with the weight of all the well-loved platters and dishes all get recorded by young eyes and will be the memories that comfort after the other people at the table are gone.

I set out to write about making things and the one thing I'd like to try this year is to make a pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin. There was a fun story on this in Creative Loafing this year that was shy on details but at least inspired me to start looking for where to buy a Sugar Pie Pumpkin in my area. Apparently they are the best for making pies with and they are smaller and denser than the ole Jack O Lanterns I'm usually in search of. I'm guessing our daughter could at least help with scooping out the pumpkin this year. I'd like to start a tradition of cooking something like this with her and maybe someday when she smells pumpkin pie she'll remember the year we made one from a real pumpkin!

Friday Forecast: Pulleys, Bricks, and Toots

2010-11-19T12:13:00.006-05:00

Inside Cafe Hey Photo from Brett F on Flickr
[Charles] Looks like this weekend isn't gonna slouch and stay inside watching Ghost Whisperer, so you've really got no excuse.

First off, let me say thanks to Cafe Hey for the shout out on FB professing their love for this blog. I've been really working to keep my regular posts coming and worth reading and I'm glad they've noticed. I've had a thing for Cafe Hey since I first hesitantly parked my car on the part of Franklin street that most Tampa residents can't locate even with Google maps. Cafe Hey is everything that you want in an indie coffee shop/cafe/art space/hangout spot.

Somewhat hidden location so that you can brag to your friends when they say they have no idea where it is? - Check.

Amazing coffee and food (preferably healthy and veg options) - Check.

Tiny tables to encourage cozy mingling, chatting and noshing - Check.

Engaging staff that is equal parts hilarious, smarmy, and confident - Check.

Rotating art shows of affordable and cutting edge work - Check.

Did I mention that their Cafe Con Leche kicks your BigBucks cappucino's a$$? - Nuff said.

Okay, on to the forecast!

Tonight at Jannus Live will be legendary Toots and the Maytals rockin the reggae vibe. Toots Hibbert is a legendary performer who some people credit with coining the word reggae back in the day. I don't know about that, but I do know that he has been a consistent hitmaker and performer that has outlasted many of his contemporaries with songs like "Pressure Drop" and "54-46 was my Number". I really got re-hooked into Toots when he did an album called True Love in 2004 and won a Grammy for it with a lot of other singers like Bonnie Raitt and Ryan Adams pitching in on his hit songs. Everybody I've heard from says he puts on a great show and really exudes the joy and love of great reggae music. I just visited the new Jannus this week and it has really cleaned up nicely. If you've only heard the Clash do "Pressure Drop", you should really check out the godfather of reggae's version in person.

Forecast: 35% chance you'll fail your next zero tolerance test at work if you get too close to the stage at this show.

Tonight also is the opening of the new art show from the Bricks of Ybor and Kickstart My Art called "Not Playing with a Full Deck". This one has brought out local and non-local artists to contribute art created from and on broken skateboard decks. I've enjoyed the other shows at the Bricks like the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" show recently so this should also be a lot of fun. I'm glad to see them getting some good shows together. The food and drinks at the Bricks are definitely worth checking out when you get some time too. I'm adding them to my list of pre-New World Brewery spots for dinner. I've been there a few times since they opened and really enjoy the chilled out vibe and punk rock jukebox. I'm glad to see another spot that folks who want to hang in Ybor but not hit the clubs can find a home.

Forecast: 25% chance somebody is going home with a skateboard painted like the Abominable Snowman

On Sunday, you'll have a hard time finding a better spot to chill out and nurse a hangover than Ella's with local singer/songwriter Rebekah Pulley on the stage in the afternoon. I won't work too hard to convince you that she is awesome because we all know I've been following her from gig to gig for years anytime she's on this side of the bridge. She says that she's working on some material for a new album coming out soon, so I'd get by there for a preview. It won't hurt that you'll be munching on some of the best barbecue in the city from Mr. Ernie Locke. Finally last weekend I tried the Chicken and Waffles and it's definitely one of those flavor combos that gets under your skin and builds to the kind of craving that you'd sell the gold in your fillings for.

Forecast: 75% chance somebody's gonna settle in to a corner booth at Ella's and have to be pried out of it 4 hours later...

A little harmonica with your Avetts?

2010-11-18T16:55:00.001-05:00

Just had to share a little from the G.Love collab coming up with the Avetts. I was skeptical but I like this - see what you think...

Maker Monday: Etsy Instruments

2010-11-15T16:09:00.006-05:00

[Charles] Photo from Etsy InBloom Designs Shop

I was looking for a gift for my daughter last night and was thinking of musical instruments. I like the idea of something simple like a tambourine or xylophone that she can beat on and at our venerable Big Box retailer all of

the kids offerings are ridiculous

amalgamations of plastic junk. There are tons of cheaply made drums and kazoos and harmonicas and something called an ocarina? There wasn't a simple wood shaker to be found.

Today my lunchtime surfing took me into the world of acoustic guitar construction and I learned a lot, but then I thought what about Etsy?! And sure enough there are lots of makers out there making all sorts of cool instruments just for people like us. So, here you go... if you want to buy yourself or your little ones an instrument I suggest you check a few of these out and support a handmade DIY person just like yourself!

Try All Natural Acoustics Shop and find cool items like this beat box called the Knuckle Knocker

How about some Claves from Ile Tambour's Shop?

These just scratch the surface of what is out there - There's even kid-specific drums

Beat Creatures are what is really fun about Etsy - strange and imaginative!

Friday Forecast: Lucero Turner Distortion, 615 Souls, and Market Sunday

2010-11-12T12:13:00.006-05:00

Photo from Elawgrrl shots of Frank Turner
[Charles] This weekend brings a lot of choices, but I believe you can fit them all in! Tonight brings a bada$$ group of bands together on the same bill at Jannus Live in St. Pete. Any one of these bands would be worth the price of admission which explains why the show has been sold out for weeks. First off, you can see Frank Turner who has wormed his post punk way in to the hearts of many of us that cut our teeth on hardcore but now can appreciate a nice rebellious sing-a-long mixed in to our rock soup. This is the kind of guy that you would follow out the door of his concert and across the street to a parking lot just to get to spend more time with him. Don't believe me? Read about his Fest show here from the excellent first person account of none other than Andy Stern whose Beard rating system should be applied universally to most of the shows I attend. "Frank Turner’s fest performance encompassed everything you expect from a Fest show. Sing-a-long songs, drunken celebration, crowd surfing, and surprises." After a bar-raising and bar-drinking opener like Frank Turner, you can expect a hell of a show from Lucero and Social Distortion. I hope they bring it because this opener is no slouch and is really developing a following in the area.

Forecast: 95% chance of some bearded dudes clutching beers and getting their faces melted off!

Saturday, after you've risen from the dead in the late morning hours, I would recommend a big greasy brunch at somewhere like Nicko's and then I'd send you on down to the Independent for an easy relaxing bit of beer sipping. Before you head out of the hood, definitely check out the art show over at Tempus Projects - Calling (615) with a group of artists from Nashville bringing a little show round that you won't want to miss. Tempus has really taken no shortcuts in bringing terrific new art to their space and I'd really like the neighborhood to turn out and take notice.

You'll want to be ready when you start making your way to New World Brewery for The London Souls a rock band from NYC that's been called "amazingly tight" and "swampy rock music". I suck at all those kind of cool music descriptors but I know good music when I hear it and trust me, this is really good. Check 'em out for yourself.

Forecast: 50% chance of needing a designated driver on Saturday - where'd those electric taxis go anyway? Oh yeah the City of Tampa killed those - make sure they don't kill Cigar City Brewery in the same way... take that link to read about it and be sure to send an email along to our wishy washy City Council.

Sunday is the Sunday Morning Market at Hillsborough High School. Dry out, buy some local honey, find some organic produce, and maybe even shake your hula hoop a little that day. It should be fun and the weather will be perfect. Winter in Florida means a rain jacket is your heavy coat...

Forecast: 40% chance some fancy coffee will be sipped while perusing the local wares and catching up with the neighbors - Enjoy!

Maker Monday: Finally a bookshelf that works...

2010-11-08T12:36:00.003-05:00

Photo from Core77

[Charles] It seems like bookshelves have it pretty easy. They sit there against the wall and just wait for you to pull a book down. They might allow room for other stuff on the shelf but they consist of a lot of space that is sort of off limits to dual purposes. The bookshelf that Raw Edges' designers made for their own uses finally gets those books out and doing something while they lay around waiting for your interest. The simple wooden piece has grooves that the wooden slats drop into with books wrapped around them. The little slats can serve as bookmarks and the spines line up to make for an interesting table surface. Shelf gone - just like that! I like it, and I'd like to start building one of these for all the ridiculous magazines that we seem to amass.

You can see the original photos at Core77 in their post.

Friday Forecast: Vodka, Bash, and Films

2010-11-05T12:41:00.006-04:00

[Charles] Tonight should usher in a nice chilly breeze to help motivate those brave souls that are biking the 40 miles roundtrip out to Flatwoods on Sunday morning. If you are going to bike it from Seminole Heights then plan to leave from the Garden Center at 8:30. The Bicycle Bash is a huge bicycling event and has a new location in Flatwoods County Park which apparently has some really nice bike trails and a large (car-free) loop. Expect tons of bike vendors and groups, lots of other bicyclists, and a couple of my favorites - Cafe Nola and Buddy Brew Coffee to warm up and motivate you for the ride home. You can park and ride from Branchton Park and bike in from a closer distance if you want. Forecast: Chances that I'll be biking all the way from Seminole Heights at 8:30 am are maybe 20%. I'm thinking I'm still a ways off of a 20 mile hungover ride... More info here

The reason for that hangover will most likely be the band playing tonight at Ella's Folk Art Cafe in the hood. The Vodkanauts are a self-described "lounge rock" band which always promises a good time. They feel a little like if a young band invaded Vegas and kicked out Wayne Newton and performed his playlist for the night with a little Rat Pack and 80's mix thrown in. They effortlessly jump genres in their choices and don't take themselves too seriously while promising a seriously good time. Forecast: 80% chance that martinis will be shaken and not stirred at Ella's tonight.

Last of all is a small but well-stocked film festival over by the University of Tampa. I don't know much about the films at the Tampa Independent Film Festival, but judging by the awful state of Hollywood movies these days, I'll drop $20 to see some new talent and open my mind. It sounds like you buy a day pass and get in to all of the movies that day. Friday is the Florida Film Showcase and then Saturday is the Best of the Fest Awards and movies - that's what I'm thinking. Check out their site and see if there is something that interests you, or better yet, just buy a ticket and take a chance on somebody's dream of making movies that still matter. Some of these are from students at USF and Ringling so it's really a chance to see some local talent as well. Forecast: 70% chance you'll see a movie that you'll be talking about for years.

Maker Monday: Big Banquette Build from Core77

2010-11-02T12:57:00.004-04:00

Photos from hipstomp on Core77

[Charles] Here's a re-post from Core77 on how the process of building a huge built in banquette can go. I especially like that he includes all of the screwups and lessons learned in the process. Hopefully next week I'll have some photos of my platform bed build that I can share.

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/monster_post_crap_ive_built_-_banquettes_poor_mans_couches_17752.asp

Friday Forecast: Refined Halloween, Bird St., and John's Festival

2010-10-29T12:39:00.006-04:00

[Charles] Halloween is a favorite weekend for lots of folks and the fun is happening everywhere. The one do not miss event as far as I'm concerned is going to be the party on Saturday night at the Refinery. Greg and Michelle love Halloween and are going all out this year to make sure everyone has a great time. Definitely dress up and get ready for a costume contest with some great food and drink specials. Performing at the show will be November Foxtrot Whiskey and the Rock N Body Pole Dancers so it should be a lot of fun. When asked what pole dancers have to do with Halloween, Michelle replied "Everything has to do with Halloween!" Don't miss out on a great local event! Forecast - 60% chance somebody dressed like Dick Cheney will hit on a pole dancer.

My forecast is out of order but whatever, tonight will find The Lee Boys and the Bird St. Players kickin out the jams at the Crowbar tonight. The Lee Boys are what is called "sacred steel" which to me sounds like the best combo of blues and gospel that you could put together. The Bird St. Players are a local funk and soul group that always promise a good time. Forecast of some face melting blues riffs - 85%. Definitely some of the best music in town this weekend. Here's a little video of The Lee Boys from Bonaroo...

Last of all, I want to offer up a chance to be a tourist for once in our little town and enjoy something that most of us normally shun. Over at John's Pass they are having a seafood festival with all sorts of artists and activities for the kids. If you've never done the touristy thing and you live here, now's your chance to check it out and have some fun. Buy a stupid t-shirt and enjoy the cool weather off the water. You might surprise yourself. Forecast of art involving manatees - 75%.

Maker Monday: Not a Lamp - David Graas

2010-10-25T12:27:00.005-04:00

Photos from Studio David Graas

{Charles} This little lamp caught my eye the other day in a blog post on Re-nest and I started checking out the other studio work from David Graas. I like this quote about making environmentally friendly designs -"My ambition is first and foremost to make simple, beautiful,

affordable and smart products." I like that idea and that is a common discussion I've had with friends. I don't want to complicate a thing unnecessarily. I like that his designs enjoy some sense of humor as well. Check out this one, which I wish I had thought of when I found that broken trombone a few months ago...

Friday Forecast: Altars, Rabbits, and Grub

2010-10-22T12:18:00.005-04:00

[Charles]

How do you celebrate the Day of the Dead in Tampa? How about heading to the new TMA and checking out some altar art from local artists and maybe leaving a little something for people you've lost this week? We lost my Uncle Gary this week and I plan to leave a University of Texas hat down there for the gruff guy from coal-mining country that always knew how to make me laugh.

50% chance somebody is gonna be dressed like Frida Kahlo or Mr. Goodbody down there...

Ever done a ride thru on your bike? Saturday might be your chance. The Hub Grub III (The Grub Strikes Back) is going to take anybody with a bike and an appetite through a tour of SemHeights faves like Ella's, the Shindie, and the Refinery and new guys like Nani's. You'll even get something at Publix this time so head over to the Garden Center at 2:30 to get it going. Here's the link to the page from the SHBC for more info.

I predict a 90% chance somebody will have too much fun and have to walk the bike home!

Last but not least, there's a small - let's say 20% chance that I'm going to drive out of town to see Frightened Rabbit this weekend. I didn't grow up in Florida so driving to shows used to be pretty common for me, but I'm not sure if I'll pony and head up the road. It'll be a real shame to miss these guys if I do. They've been a lot of inspiration to me lately on days that really feel like a continuous kick in the teeth. If you go see them either in Gainesville on Saturday or in Orlando at the Social on Sunday, be prepared to rock your face off!

Hope to see you out there!

Here's a little Frightened Rabbit that I'll dedicate to my Uncle Gary who definitely was a real man and not "a bag of sand".

Maker Monday: Fisheye for IPhone

2010-10-18T12:26:00.005-04:00

Photos from Elawgrrl's Blog Post on her Iphone Fisheye Lens

[Charles] After following Elawgrrl around this weekend to see just how she gets her awesome live shots at concerts, I was definitely feeling like it was time to read my Digital SLR's manual and see what I'd been missing. I'll post separately about the concerts themselves but today I wanted to point everybody over to a great post she did a month or so ago about adding a fisheye lens to the Iphone.

She has been using the Iphone for her 365 photos in 365 days project this year and decided to make some modifications to the camera to push the creativity beyond what Hipstamatic and some editing can do. The post was great and showed a simple way to take something that's cheaply made and modify it so it is useful. If you want to see how her 365/365 project is going, check it out here -

Here's a shot she made after properly installing the lens with an Iphone (I still can't believe some of the shots she gets with her phone)

Friday Forecast: Injustice, Problems, and Vikings

2010-10-15T12:22:00.007-04:00

Photo from Elawgrrl of Sleepy Vikings and friends at Summer Jam
[Charles] This Friday I've got to make some decisions. Why does it seem like every weekend we get more and more good bands here? I don't want to sound optimistic about the scene here but I kind of am. Pretty cool to have enough great shows to cause trouble deciding which I'm going to hit -

So anyhow the Forecast is:

20% chance I'll drive the bridge and see Matt and Kim with Fake Problems although it really sounds like a great show and my buddy Elawgrrl will probably almost certainly be there snapping away with her music hungry lens.

35% chance I'll head over to the Brass Mug to catch Injustice System and their speed punk with the rocktastic Andy Stern on drums - who you may also know from Porch Fire or many of the other bands he's been kicking a$$ with for years.

50% chance I'll head down to The Bricks in Ybor to hear Sleepy Vikings in support of Glitter of our own Tampa Bay Derby Darlins and her mounting hospital bills from being hit in an accident while riding her scooter.

Any one of these shows will be worth spending an awesome Friday night out in the Bay Area so really folks just pick one, get out of the house, and you can't go wrong. Hope to see you out!

Are you sure you've never heard of Solomon Burke?

2010-10-12T12:29:00.003-04:00

[Charles] I mentioned the death of soul legend Solomon Burke to a few people since Sunday and not many people seem to know him without some prodding. Unfortunately he never received the same name recognition as guys like Otis Redding or Marvin Gaye, but he was definitely a legend. It was interesting that because he outlived so many of those singers, he went on to have a real job and brought something like 19 children into the world. If you still can't place him, then here's a couple of things to help you remember. Let's start with the Dirty Dancing movie - you'll have to follow the link to see this one, but it's worth it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pouIFiaIig&feature=related

That was one of his biggest hits released back in 1962 and revived in the 80's.

Next off, remember the Blues Brothers? They covered one of his biggest hits from 1964. "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" You might remember the band here that also covered the song and made a huge hit of it on tour.

If you happened to read Nick Hornby's High Fidelity then you probably caught on that he's a bit of a fan of Solomon too. Here's the song that he said was "responsible for Rob and Laura's whole relationship" in the book because Rob would play it as a DJ and only Laura could dance to it.

I remember one day I was driving home from work and heard Jeff Stewart from WMNF 88.5 interviewing Solomon Burke on the radio - I almost wrecked the car. It was fantastic, and he sounded like such a nice guy and really cool. He'll definitely be missed and hopefully with a little help from all of his fans, he'll be remembered as the amazing man he was.

Here's a song from the last big album that resurrected his career and even won him a Grammy. It was an all-star album with many people writing songs for him to perform. My favorite is the most amazing and soulful track on the album- the title track "Don't Give Up On Me" - Enjoy

Friday Forecast: WMNF Fund Drive, 9Bullets Anniversary Show, Sunday Market

2010-10-08T15:16:00.004-04:00

[Charles] A couple of quick things to check out this weekend. First off, this week was the WMNF fund drive and if you didn't chip in then let me remind you of the vast wasteland of other music that awaits us if you don't. Just get off your wallet and send em $10 or whatever. Find your favorite show and put money in the tip jar so they know what you like. They are stopping the drive today and they are still really short. If you need a show to check out, then go to the archives and see either Saturday Asylum, Grand National Championships, or Artful Dodgings. There are lots of great shows, but these to me are the never miss, indie shows that always introduce me to new music. They definitely deserve some love.

On Saturday, over in St. Pete is the 9Bullets Anniversary show with a lot of cool bands and one of my favorites - Will Quinlan and the Diviners. Show these guys some love and enjoy some nice rock and alt-country in the process. This blog puts out consistent reviews on albums and shows that don't get much press here or anywhere else. I can't go, so buy Brian a drink for me. If you really want a taste, then go to the pre-show at Ella's tonight to see The Only Sons. They are a solid alt-country band in the Lucero family of bands that should get the place rockin.

On Sunday, hit up the Sunday Morning Market at Hillsborough High School. It is the first market of the season and should be a great one with lots of vendors and amazing weather. It sounds like Greg and Tiffany have some more surprises this year with lots of fresh local produce and even more prepared food vendors. I'll be there loading up on some awesome coffee and hopefully the gumbo that got me hooked last season. We aren't setting up this time around as we are still getting our act together on what we are making these days, but it will be nice to just enjoy the crowd and actually enjoy hanging out with our neighbors. See you there.

Maker Monday - Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations'

2010-10-05T12:45:00.004-04:00

Photo of the Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly by James Hampton from Mike Black on Flickr in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art

[Charles] Washington D.C. can lead to serious museum overload, but I'm really glad we saw so much this weekend! We had a little trip for a family wedding and in the bride's guide to town, this piece of art was listed as her favorite. It is an amazing and arresting installation with an even more unbelievable story. This was the only known piece of art from James Hampton, a DC man that worked as a janitor during the day and built this piece at night in secret. It is constructed from found materials like cardboard, paper, thumb tacks, old furniture pieces, and covered in aluminum foil. It isn't known why he was inspired to create this religiously inspired piece. He worked on it in a rented garage for 14 years and it was only discovered on his death by the landlord. If you want to read more about this, check it out here on the Smithsonian's website. I was struck by the sort of commitment and obsession that something like that would require. Thanks Katie for suggesting it, the whole folk art section of that museum was a highlight of our trip!

Maker Monday - Tiny Details

2010-09-27T12:34:00.003-04:00

Photo from Core77
[Charles] Sometimes it's the small details that make all the difference. These light up numbers don't look like much when they are in use, but taken apart they have a really beautiful and timeless look. I love the idea that these were made by engineers years ago and they took the time to not only think of their function but also their form.

Here's a link to the Core77 article...

Friday Forecast - Museum Free Day Tomorrow!

2010-09-24T12:36:00.004-04:00

[Charles] Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, if you live in Tampa and believe in 60% chances of rain which isn't very committal anyway but whatever. So instead of having a yard sale or going for a run on the beach, why don't you check out that museum you haven't forked over the cash for yet?Most museums these days run in the $15 range for tickets so we're talking $30 savings easy. How does it work? Just head over to the Smithsonian's website and find your museum of interest. Type in some details about yourself and decline all those helpful ads they want to send you and 30 seconds later you'll have a printable flyer in your little inbox. So, if you haven't checked out the new Tampa Museum of Art because "it's too small" or "there's too many greek pots" or whatever, now's your no obligation chance. I am finally going to try and cross that bridge to the St. Pete side of our little bay and check out the Museum of Fine Arts there. I've heard it's really nice, but I'm too cheap to drive over there and drop the coin on it. Here's the link to check out your local options. H/T to Recreating Tampa for the kind words about our shop (lord rest her soul) and the reminder about this event. In Tampa you've got the Ybor History Museum, The Museum of Photographic Arts, The Plant Museum, and the Scarfone Gallery at UT in addition to the TMA so why not take your rainy day on the inside? Insider tip, I know the TMA has a fantastic cafe with gelato on the ground floor. Have a great weekend!

Oh yeah and if you've still got some energy to burn after that, you should really check out Los Amigos Invisibles over at the Crowbar on Saturday. This Venezuelan group is known for a super danceable show that should be a great time. Don't plan to lean on the rail and sip beer at this one.

Treehugger Tuesday: US Pledges $50M for Cookstoves

2010-09-21T12:30:00.004-04:00

Photo from Adriana Lukas on Flickr

[Charles] In the news today there was a subject that we've talked about a little here on the TSM blog. Let's hope that this money is used wisely. Inefficient cookstoves are in use in millions of homes around the world where families and children are exposed to toxic soot that causes shortened lifespans to the users and environmental damage for the area. The research going into the area of efficient cookstoves is helping to cause less fuel to be used and to generate less soot in the process. Most homes in places like Ethiopia in the picture use an open fire to cook food and boil water. The women and children are most often the wood carriers and their bent backs show the strain of this daily job. Rapid deforestation which leads to erosion and floods is just one of the environmental problems from this practice. The recent NASA study discussed in Treehugger today also talks about soot and its effects on glacier melting and cloud formation. Check it out if you'd like more info. This is definitely something that needs more research and testing. It is one thing to spend money to build a better stove but it is still an uphill battle to have them accept it and use it.

Maker Monday - Nightwood

2010-09-20T16:33:00.004-04:00

Photos from Nightwoodny.com
[Charles] Strange and beautiful mixes of old wood and fabric are incorporated into Nightwood's collections. This dreamy mix of pieces takes salvage and leaves it rough enough to appreciate where it came from and to show how cool it can be to let it all hang out - if you're a coffee table. Check em out. I like it a lot. From NYC of course...

Nightwood's site is definitely worth checking out.

Friday Music Forecast: So much music!

2010-09-17T11:54:00.006-04:00

[Charles] This weekend has lots of good musical options for you. The best deal has to be WMNF's birthday bash for an awesome array of bands at the Ritz Ybor. Read on to hear the whole forecast:

Friday night: If you just want to walk in Seminole Heights then you have a few choices...

My top pic tonight is a band of young musicians called The Sun Society - a four piece band led by a pair of sisters with one on keys and the other on bass. They sound to me a little like Florence and the Machine with a really strong Regina Spektorish vocal. They start at 9 pm so forecast is... 90% that this show will be the best show you've seen by people young enough to be your kids that doesn't suck in some Jonas Brothers/Miley Cyrus kind of way.

Also, check out Ted Lukas and the Misled over at Ella's tonight if you want something rockin with your award-winning Best New Restaurant dinner!

If you're up for a drive then you couldn't do much better than heading to Skipper's to see Paul Thorn tonight in a solo acoustic show. I've heard his live stuff on the radio and he is hilarious and quite a rocker. Also, Rebekah Pulley and Ronnie Elliott are opening so ya know it's good.

Saturday night: 85% chance of your head exploding by the diverse group of musicians that WMNF has amassed at the Ritz. Paul Thorn with his full band. Suenalo jamming out and the Hip Abduction which packed the Orpheum at Heatwave will be great. The band you should be watching for is Sleepy Vikings. They sprung from the break up of one of my previous favorite rockers Giddy Up Helicopter. Check em out before they hit it big and you can't see em here any more. Hit the link below to check em out on Paste.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2010/08/live-at-paste-sleepy-vikings.html

Also, if you're in Ybor, sneak over to New World Brewery and check out a really cool florida band that reminds a little of the Avett Brothers - Greenland is Melting - this is definitely the "Nicole's Pic" of the weekend so don't miss out!

Sunday's forecast includes a 50% chance of sleeping in late and needing something a little light to keep you going through the day like the Independent's bluegrass Sunday School for Sinners from 4:30 to 7:30. If you didn't overdo it on Saturday then you should probably grab some barbecue or chicken and waffles at Ella's and check out blues rocker Kaleigh Baker.

How's that? Pretty awesome right?! No excuses folks so have some fun out there and congratulate all those Best of the Bay winners!

Here's your homework to get you going for the weekend...

Tampa Street Market at Creative Loafing's Best of the Bay

2010-09-16T16:47:00.003-04:00

Love this photo from Clark at the Loafies

[Charles] We purposefully avoided campaigning this year for BOTB for lots of reasons but when I got in today, I had to know the outcome. I'm curious right? Well apparently we got the most votes for eco-friendly store but they didn't give us the award because we are closed. Fair enough. Actually it's really cool that they even mentioned us because they didn't have to. I kind of always felt like we operated our little corner of the world in the shadow of much more interesting developments as far as the published world of Tampa was concerned. So much to my surprise, as I'm reading along the rest of the winners and newsmakers, I come across a little note titled "Saddest Loss to Seminole Heights". I almost went right past it before I saw "Tampa Street Market". Then I read on, and it was good, really good. It was like they finally got it. Not cheesy and they actually even mentioned our little blog. All I can say is thanks. It really does mean a lot to us. Oh yeah and I've always wanted to say this - "They like us, they really like us!?"

The text here:

Tampa Street Market owners Amy and Charles Haynie embody the best
qualities of Seminole Heights: They look to the future while
respecting the past; they have an eye for cool trends without
compromising warmth and rustic comfort; they give back to their ‘hood
and to the planet with salvaged and refurbished furniture painted with
low VOC paints or pieces built from salvaged and sustainable
materials. Their furniture and gift store at Florida and Osborne
specialized in eco-friendly, fair trade and local products, and was
open for 3 1/2 years with a brief hiatus in 2008, and, sadly, closed
at the end of last month. But examples of the Haynies’ work live on in
the community, including metal tabletops and fixtures at Ella’s Folk
Art Cafe and a bench featured in a 2008 exhibition at the Tampa Museum
of Art. And the couple maintain a cool, artsy-community-minded blog at
tampastreetmarket.blogspot.com.

Tuesday Treehugger: Sign-O-Bike Turn Signal Belt?

2010-09-14T12:22:00.004-04:00

Today's featured Treehugger article concerns this invention from the bike safety obsessed and creative geniuses from California company Sign-O-Bike. This thing fits on your waist and has light up turn signals with batteries that will apparently last "3-4 years" according to them (unless you leave your blinker on). It looks like a great idea and with the daily news in Tampa reporting accident after accident involving bicyclists and cars, I definitely am looking for more visibility. It does remind me a bit of Hulk Hogan's champion ship belt though and hopefully it can do double duty this year for my costume...

Here's the Treehugger link to the full article on visibility devices.

Also, the local bike blog - Bicycle Stories which had an insider's view of a bike accident involving a fellow rider this week.

Friday's Forecast - Weekend Music Planner

2010-09-10T13:01:00.005-04:00

Well here you go - I got nothing better to do than try and talk you into seeing some live music this weekend. Don't miss out kids. I'll post some links and stop rambling on...

Friday - El Ten Eleven at Orpheum - Forecast 30% chance I'll actually get out to Ybor and go

Saturday - Legendary JC's at Skipper's - Forecast 90% chance of smoking funk and blues

Sunday - Cristabel and the Jons @ Ella's - Forecast 75% chance of tasty barbecue and beer accompaniment

Create:Freedom Event at Springs Theatre this Friday Sep. 3rd

2010-08-31T12:22:00.004-04:00

[Charles] This Friday I'll finally get a look inside the Springs Theatre up on Nebraska Ave in Tampa. I've been looking for a good excuse to get in there since the first time the old building just north of the Hillsborough River caught my eye. It's an intriguing old building that was a movie theater in the hey day of Sulphur Springs and now hosts a large recording studio and is used for special events.

The show this Friday is an interesting mix of vendors, music, and artists that are raising money for a group that does mission work in Cambodia. The child prostitution and human trafficking that Tampa Street Market works against is central to their work. The door charge is $5 and goes to help this group and to work with Joy Engdahl who is moving back to Cambodia to work with young women in the country. There will be art and craft vendors as well as plenty of information about fighting human trafficking and slavery.

The other thing that looks pretty interesting about this show is the music. I'm especially excited to hear The Sun Society that consists of some family members of The Grecian Urns. The Sun Society sounds pretty amazing - just head over to Youtube and check out a few of their tracks. Here's their myspace page as well. I don't know much about the other two players MrENC or Preson, but they sound interesting and should definitely be a good time in the neighborhood for a good cause.

I also snagged a photo of the theater from its earlier days from a blog about historic theaters in the area, so here's a bonus link!

WMNF Peace Awards This Saturday Aug 28th

2010-08-24T12:26:00.004-04:00

Photo from Jeff Wignall on Flickr

[Charles] It's easy to get hung up on the big names that get attached to causes like Wyclef in Haiti or Brad Pitt in New Orleans. Sometimes the people doing the hardest and most important work get lost in the shadows of those celebrities. I noticed that most of the promos for the Peace Awards this weekend on WMNF center around the celebrities Amy Goodman and Eliza Gilkyson attending. I think that both of them are amazing people that really deserve recognition and I'm glad they are rubbing elbows with our little radio station. I'll never forget watching Amy Goodman getting arrested and hauled in during the overzealous policing at the Denver National Convention and I get chills every time I hear Eliza push back at "the cowboy" W. with her song "Man of God".

This event is about the other people though - the ones that don't make the news. There are plenty of behind the scenes, hard-working folks that are pulling more than their weight in our world's endless tug-of-war between the warmongers and the peace makers. Recognition of those quiet and not-so-quiet fighters for the disenfranchised is the whole point of the event. The other reason for the event is to raise money for the station so that it can keep doing its part in the struggle. Without 88.5 there would be a complete lack of coverage for events that the major media avoids while covering the same awful stuff they cover every night. If you want to hear about the protests of St. Pete For Peace or the Immokalee Workers, don't bother tuning in to the major media. Most radio stations don't bother with news at all anymore. I can't remember the last time I heard news at the top of the hour on a mainstream station.

They nominate people like Faith Fippinger who has worked as a human shield in Iraq and Rev. Bruce Wright who works with the homeless. They also nominate groups like Equality Florida that works tirelessly for those whose orientation or gender are discriminated against. They also present Legacy Awards to people who've been involved with numerous causes - I sort of think of it as the equivalent of a Lifetime Achievement Award.

So if you've got the cash to blow ($60 a non-vip ticket), want a great way to support WMNF, or just want to rub elbows with one of the best singer-songwriters ever to come out of Austin, Saturday is your night. It will be held down at the newly renamed Straz Center and the party kicks off at 6:00.

Here's a couple of links about the event:

WMNF

Link to the event info

Cool Idea for Paint Touchup Storage

2010-08-23T09:27:00.002-04:00

Photo from Re-Nest
Here's an idea I saw over at Re-Nest this morning. As we're cleaning up the workshop and consolidating paint colors, this actually looks really interesting...

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/boston/painting-fixing-repair/store-leftover-paint-in-jars-125039

Music Videos? Who sees these anymore?

2010-08-19T12:43:00.004-04:00

[Charles] I was caught up on a music blog the other day that showed a few recent music videos. I was first struck by the strange idea that people still even make music videos. Of course they do, but I stopped affording cable years ago and gave up on MTV actually playing videos well before that. I guess I thought they just gave up caring but every once in a while I get caught up on youtube watching what feels like a dying art to me. Here's one from the Black Keys - "Tighten Up" that gave me a good chuckle and it doesn't hurt that it's a pretty awesome song from their new album.

Slow down look around

2010-08-12T13:08:00.004-04:00

Art from Al Page
[Charles] I've been avoiding writing about the store closing. I know that. I have some crazy notion that it isn't happening or that something will stop it, but it won't. When I finally sat down to write the "last email" to our customers and fans last night, I had been thinking about it for weeks. Honestly I'm tired of thinking about it, and talking about it, and stressing about it. I'm ready to finish something and move on. We have had a great time and loved having a shop. When it was good, it was really good. We met some of the most amazing people and made friends that we will carry the rest of our lives. Also, we aren't going away so the finality of it isn't really real. Yeah, we won't go in to that location any more, but it isn't really the place that makes us who we are. We'll still be here, working to make the neighborhood and city what it can be. We will still be building furniture in the garage and pi$$ing off the neighbors for running the table saw at 11:00 at night. We love what we do and hope to keep doing it for as long as we are able.

I'm happy. I won't have to write over another check to the landlord that can't bother to repair the building so that it doesn't smell like sewer when the wind blows or so that it doesn't flood the front room when it rains hard. The same guy who can't squeeze out the cash for a real air conditioner won't need any more cash from us. Thanks but no thanks to all the folks that ran up the price of real estate in our city. I don't know how we little guys are supposed to make it.

The part I really hate is not being able to offer space to all of the great artists we've met and loved over the years. So instead of rambling on, I want to give you fine folks a guide to how to find a few of them. We'll keep our Etsy site up so keep checking in on us and who knows where we'll turn up next...

Anika Easter - An amazing artist (remember the "birds on a wire") and beautiful person, you can find her on her website and her Etsy site here.

Anna Vasquez - Nested Yellow - She has turned out some of the most creative and fascinating jewelry we've ever seen. A great friend as well, find her on Etsy here.

Brandt Peters and Kathie Olivas - Super cool celebrity couple who've been so supportive of us over the years and have brought amazing pieces into our shop and have inspired us more than they know can be found here and here.

Al Page and Lynn Manos - Another fantastic and supportive couple who've been so great to us and whom we will continue to be friends with for a long time. I'm sorry I don't have a link to Al's colorful and thought provoking work so I showed a piece at the top of this article. I think it covers how we're feeling pretty well. You can check out Lynn's work here.

Thanks to all the artists that have taken us under their wing and to all those that I didn't single out!

Industrial Style Roundup

2010-08-10T12:34:00.006-04:00

Photo from Design Sponge[Charles] Here's a roundup of a few cool creative re-use projects I've seen lately.

Check out this scaffold tube bed from a Dutch designer I saw on Re-Nest. Also check out their whole place on Design Sponge.

Photo from Re-Nest

How about using those loose pennies from that silly jar you keep around for your next tiling job? These should patina nicely too...

Who should host this year's Loafies? - Clark J. Brooks

2010-08-03T12:44:00.004-04:00

[Charles] So I missed the start of the voting for Best of the Bay last week and I feel a little behind. It will take me a few days to finish generating 700 fake email addresses to win Best Eco Friendly Store this year. You fine folks could save me the trouble and just head over there and vote for us, wink wink, nudge nudge. No pressure.

I don't want to talk about that yet though, just think about it while I stump for something real important.

On one of the forms as I was reading through the same old hashed over boring categories like Best Politician (as if that were possible) and Best Dry Cleaner ( like we can afford dry cleaning this year) and I came across one that caught my attention...

Who should host this year's Loafies? - Clark J. Brooks

Having just read Clark's fantastic call to action to help him destroy the competition and recalling that slightly awkward photo of him towering over Rebekah Pulley from last year's party I thought to myself, self, why not have Clark host it? Of course! Brilliant! If he loses his category, not only will he have to announce his crushing defeat himself with thousands watching around the globe, he'll have to do it with the witty style and grace we've come to love from him! I decided to rush over to my tiny little blog and do exactly what busy body people with boring lunch breaks and internet access must do at times like this and rush to his aid! (I promise to stop with the exclamation points soon!)

So here goes... Clark J. Brooks for Host of the Loafies!!!!!! Yep, I said it. Get him on the ballot folks. I won't be happy to see him simply crush that Durkin Robinson woman in the best blog category or to rocket to the top of the most Tweetalicious Guy in Town, no as his great uncle Meatloaf might say we want him, we need him to lead us at the Loafies. If you haven't read his blog lately then you have no idea how funny, endearing, and creative this guy is. Please don't put some useless Florida weatherman or laid-off sports hack up there... let's see one of our own. Somebody with a crappy car, a wonky computer, a ridiculous job, and the amazing ability to make life entertaining and a little brighter for those of us slogging along right next to him in line. Here's to a blogger who is happy to video himself making corn dogs at the state fair or even to plunge into his own bouts with the Big D. Thanks Clark and Good Luck!!! (consider that my endorsement)

Inspiration Thursday: Austin, Africa, and The New Imperialism

2010-07-22T12:41:00.006-04:00

[Charles] Owning your own business is not for the faint of heart. It sounds great, work your own hours and do what you like, but somedays it just means staring at the door hoping somebody, anybody is going to walk in and buy something while all the while trying not to let your 1 1/2 year old screaming for attention drive you crazy. Somedays you really need some inspiration. You need some reason to go back in and face the ridiculous odds that seem desperate to crush you and your finances.

Thank goodness for the internet where you can connect with other businesses that are doing the same thing and joining the fight and making amazing things all over the world.

Our first stop would be the awesome Re-Nest blog on Apartment Therapy which comes through all day with a steady stream of great ideas and stories.

That lead me to Ref-Use, a company outside of Austin that makes something that I've thought about but yet to make - a stack of small scraps of plywood built into a beautiful chair. Trust me, in the shop there are so many small scraps of wood that are just dying for me to try and put in the saw and chop off some of my fingers in the process.

Last stop, for some true inspiration is a blog called Afrigadget where you can read about the ingenuity of people in Africa as they work to solve problems like building a radio from trash to trapping sewage waste and building your own personal biogas plant for sustainable cooking.

I was led there by the blog discussions I've been reading about the debate over "Humanitarian Design: The New Imperialism". Interesting stuff if you find yourself wanting to help the world but torn on whether helping in some far off place is really the sort of help you should be doing.

Happy reading! Hope some of these inspired you as well!

Rail in Tampa Vs. Rail in China

2010-07-20T12:04:00.004-04:00

Photo of Shanghai rail station from bennettdesigns on Flickr
[Charles] Okay it's not really a fair comparison. In Tampa we are putting up a vote for a 1 cent sales tax for public transportation improvements. In China they are putting the finishing touches on a 6.7 MW power generating solar roof for their new high speed rail station. While the mayor here argues whether it should be high speed rail vs. light rail to the airport, the Chinese happily knock out a state of the art facility that will probably shame whatever rail station we can scrape together. We might have money for a new baseball stadium but lets definitely think hard about getting people where they want to go. People on the roads are unproductive and mad and more likely to end up dead quicker! So let's get off our seats, literally, and get this rail thing going! This is the chance to do something amazing and ENDURING in downtown Tampa that isn't a parking lot! If you've seen the new airside at TIA or the new art museum downtown you bear witness to some of our city's momentum. I'll finish up my little pep talk with a link to a group called Moving Hillsborough Forward and their upcoming meeting at TMA. Below is the video they made to start getting people talking about the vote coming up.

WMNF Fund Drive - Give Now or Don't Complain When It's Gone

2010-07-16T09:14:00.003-04:00

[Charles]
Reach over to your radio and tune in to 88.5 or go to wmnf.org and hit Listen Now. I know, it's way down there on the dial. No, it's not a religious station unless of course awesome music is your religion. If it is then I'll see you on Sunday. If you haven't heard of WMNF yet then I probably can't say anything in this blog that will convince you to unlock your piggy bank and send them your hard earned pennies but I will try. WMNF is the only, I repeat, ONLY radio station in the entire Tampa Bay area that plays independent music, local music, and indie music from bands that will never ever make it to commercial radio. They play genres of music that corporate radio like ClearEverythingElseOffTheDialChannel can't even pronounce. Not only do they represent small genres of music like Native American music, Jewish music, Polka music, and World music but they also play acid jazz to zouk and afrobeat to zydeco. If you love music and have an open mind for new genres then there really is nowhere else to go. I think that a lot of people here don't get how rare it is to have a station like this. If you grew up in a wasteland of commercial radio like say East Texas then you might never have heard of this music. Robert Earl Keen is from Texas and I never heard him on the radio before I moved here.

On top of that, WMNF goes out of their way to have talk programming that serves the people of our community. I want to take it down now and talk about one particular show and how you can support the station and the arts at the same time. If you have heard of WMNF and haven't sent them your hard-earned pennies then you are exactly who I want to talk to.

Have you paid $5-$10 to get into an art show or a concert this year? Do you drop $12 for a couple of beers at the Independent on Saturday night? Well then, I need you to pony up and pay the cover charge for Art In Your Ear today at 1:30. This show is the only place that actually takes the time to bring artists on the radio and talk and interview them here. JoEllen is an engaging and quite often hilarious interviewer who brings on people from the visual arts, stage, and music every week to discuss what is happening and get people involved in the arts discussion here. You can hear about what's going on at Tempus Projects, TMA, the Museum of Fine Arts, or maybe Jobsite Theater or the Silver Meteor or in Ybor. I hear the complaints, nobody supports the arts here, heck I do a lot of complaining myself but trust me, she supports the arts and believes in it! You need to put your money where your mouth is and send her $5 or $10 today. There are 476 fans of Art In Your Ear on Facebook and if each of those sent $5 that would be $2380. I'm pretty sure that would open some eyes to the amount of support that she gets from us in the community.

If every person that ever whined about the lack of arts support sent her $10 then there would be no talk of layoffs. You know who was the first to call volunteers to action after the layoffs? You guessed it... JoEllen, and she didn't rest until they made it right! With the money that we send WMNF, they would be able to do more shows and more music and get larger live acts! So get off your wallet and spend the first round of drink money on Art In Your Ear today. You don't even have to wait until 1:30 to do it. They make it so easy that you just drop it in the tip jar. Here's the link. Tell JoEllen that I sent you. Did I mention that she's also the owner of the Globe Coffee Lounge in St. Pete?! That's right, and you know how busy indie owners are because you listen to me whine about it. So she takes time out her week to inform us slackers who don't want to scour the internet for shows on the best arts happenings! Okay, I'm done, if that doesn't convince you then nothing will. But just in case you're on the fence let me list a few of the bands that you will never hear anywhere besides WMNF 88.5.

MGMT, Robert Earl Keen, Avett Brothers, Mumford and Sons, The National, The Beauvilles, Okkervil River, Rebekah Pulley, Nervous Turkey, Gorillaz, Frightened Rabbit, The Flaming Lips, Wilco, Sons of Hippies, Richard Thompson, The Watson Twins, Gotan Project, Candy Bars, Tokyo Police Club, Refugee All-Stars of Sierra Leone, Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams, Ryan Bingham, Of Montreal, Light Yourself On Fire, Ratatat, The Black Keys, Rogue Wave, Band of Horses, Grizzly Bear, Sparklehorse

What's it like to make cool stuff out of crap stuff in zero space?

2010-07-13T11:43:00.004-04:00

Photo from Daniel at Manhattan Nest Blog
[Charles] People ask how we make cool furniture out of beat up junk pretty often but I think our descriptions fall kinda short. Yeah, sometimes I take them into the workshop and say, that old rusty sink will someday be an amazing couch or table or something. Honestly though I get a lot of those blank "that piece of junk?" looks there. So my point is, I can appreciate somebody who does it well and explains it well with lots of photos. The best take away for me is to do it with a sense of humor. Check out this guy Dan's conversion and explanation on his blog. It was cool enough to get him on Apartment Therapy so maybe I should stop whining and get to work on taking more photos of how we make stuff...

Can I Avoid BPA While Canning?

2010-07-12T12:19:00.005-04:00

Photo from Treehugger
[Charles] I've never canned anything before. Heck, I am just now getting good at growing things in the garden. We recently got one of those free mags that the big box stores ship out to inspire you to come in and buy some stuff and "change your life". This one had an "article" (read - wordy advertisement) about canning your own vegetables and fruit from the garden. Well actually this is something that was on my mind lately because the discussion around the garden often centers on what is available each season. Canning allows you to take things like those awesome tomatoes from summer and bring them out in winter for tomato soup. So anyway, basically all of the traditionally canned stuff in the store has BPA lining the can, yep even the green beans that we eat almost every week!

So canning avoids that with the glass jar right? But wait... what's on that metal lid ? You guessed it! Friggin BPA again! Until our government and all of its corporate arms get rid of this stuff, we are going to have to be dilligent to avoid it. So here you go. I found some lids that don't have them so you can avoid the nasty stuff when you finally get around to storing those awesome strawberries that will make the most amazing pie for Thanksgiving.

One place is called Lehmann's which doesn't come out and say it's BPA free but according some they might be - I'm not convinced yet. The option that most people seem to agree on is called Tattler which is very vocal about its lack of BPA. There are also some jars called Weck that are apparently more expensive but might be found at yard sales. So good luck folks on all that canning (here's the how-to), it sounds like a lot of work but just like gardening the rewards are well worth it.

Recycled Rubber Chaise... Awesome

2010-07-09T12:43:00.005-04:00

[Charles] I read a lot of other blogs and lists that show what other people make from recycled materials. This chaise is so awesome and I'm just completely jealous that we don't have it in our little shop. It was on Great Green Goods which does a decent job of finding unique things online although most things are still in the Lebron James price range - (see I can put in random sports news references too!)

http://www.greatgreengoods.com/2010/06/05/recycled-rubber-chaise-lounge/

http://en.dawanda.com/shop/PunctureBags

The second link is to the Berlin artist Jaap Wijnants website for the Puncture Bags from inner tubes. It sounds like furniture designer Patrick Kerti was a partner on this one although my german is a little rusty. Very cool although a little out of my price range still... and shipping from Germany...

Candy Bars Live Tonight at Cappy's? Oh Yeah...

2010-07-07T12:44:00.006-04:00

Candy Bars - Photo by Elawgrrl
[Charles] I can only assume that the bossman at Cappy's is out of town on vacation this week because as far as I know this has never happened. There has never been a live show at our own Seminole Heights Cappy's restaurant. Our local pizza shop is an awesome open space with high backed booths that easily recalls the feeling of "Arnold's Drive In" on Happy Days - maybe with the pinball machine replaced by a Donkey Kong game. The staff at Cappy's are all really cool and welcoming and the quiet one in the gang is usually the aforementioned bossman "Scooter." He's usually working too hard in the back making pizzas to make the rounds and schmooze which is fine because the pizza is great and he works hard to keep it that way.

Anyway, besides the small plug for one of my favorite independent businesses, this post should encourage you to get there tonight for this one of a kind show from one of the most interesting bands you've only sort of heard of - The Candy Bars. This is an experimental rock band with a sound that is often referred to as "baroque" which may have something to do with the inclusion of a cello player or the lack of good comparisons. They are unique, hard-working, and amazing. I'll attach an old link to a show of them at New World although it doesn't really do them justice.

So if you are tired of complaining about the lack of concert venues and things to do in the hood and finally ready to be part of the solution, then check them out tonight. Drop your $2 and grab a slice and help this band gain the following they so definitely deserve. These guys believe in the need for support of the arts and hopefully won't mind me telling a story on the lead vocalist Daniel Martinez.

When we had first opened our doors, right next to Cappy's Pizza almost four years ago, Dan was one of the first guys to visit us. We were in over our heads with no idea what we were doing and lots of cool inventory but no customers. Dan came over and bought an amazing bench from us (one of our all time faves) and even split up the payments on two cards just so he could get it. He'll probably never know how much that meant to us that somebody would take a chance on us, but as I listened to his CD a few weeks later I knew that this guy and this band was somebody worth sticking your neck out for.

See you tonight 9:30 at 4910 N. Florida Ave.

Independents Week.

2010-06-30T12:21:00.004-04:00

[Charles] Some weeks it's hard to face my inbox. This last week I got two doses of bad news from shops we really like. Mina over at Bohemian Vintage is closing her shop in July and so is Healthy Home in St. Pete. Economic conditions are extremely difficult for indie shops right now without the sort of corporate deep pockets that can keep the big guys in business when a local market is hurting. We hate seeing shops like these go away and just want to re-emphasize how important it is to shop local, and keep what is unique and special about our cities alive. Mina sounds like she is going to be fine as she is heading back to teach, which she loves. The loss is really ours in both cases. Don't get me wrong, it is expensive to risk your savings and put it all out there for people. The individual risk to your heart and pocketbook in having your own business is dangerous.

For a minute though, as we celebrate Independents Week here at Tampa Street Market, try to imagine a world where everything you bought came from Target. Maybe it's not so bad right? We could all wear the same poorly made clothes from a sweatshop. We could all eat the same few frozen dinners each night generated in a factory. We could all watch the same hundred movies they carry or listen to the same bands they support. Yay there's a new Christina Aguilera cd!

A monoculture where you have less and less choice every day is not one that I would want to live in! Let's get out there people! Explore those little indie shops that you've been eyeing and buy a cd from the actual musicians. Try out the glass company down the street or the plumbing store in your neighborhood. Just don't keep putting it off or one day when you finally get around to visiting those places, they will be gone.