Tag: palm harbor

 
Community radio exists in the soundscape of northern Pinellas County

Community radio exists in the soundscape of northern Pinellas County

I didn’t know North Pinellas County has a community radio station all of its own..Did you?

While I’ve done much radio research, know Tampa Bay radio as a resident, h and know of three community stations in the metroplex off the top of my head – WMNF, WURK, and Music Tampa Bay -I have been shocked since making the discovery of WZIG 104.1 FM-LP in Palm Harbor which has been on-air since 2014..

It was only by chance I discovered tje statuim while doing a casual music search on Lycos – a 3rd party site’s ad touted providong WZIG’s stream. I’d never crossed a listinkng of the station radio research, general Bay Area web searches, or heard of it though friends or local news.It would seem WZIG is mute with its search engine disposition and media relevance in Tampa Bay.

That’s not meant as a shot. WZIG is mostly run by one fellow. Volunteers and donations are accepted… And necessary. This is a community station after all..How many in WZIG’s broadcast radius (folks in Countryside, Dunedin, East Lale, Holiday, New Port Richey, Oldsmar, Ozona, Palm Harbor, and Tarpon Springs) have and are willing to step up for the task and perhaps raise awareness of the station? How do you appl for a role? I’m not sure……

Alternative music is what’s claimed as WZIG’s preference, but Free Form is what fills airtime in what I’ve. heard That’s how community radio tends to roll. WZIG Is on Twitter and also accepts music submissions from locals — they don’t say how local though. Is the Tampa Bay area’s musical population welcome or are things restricted to northern Pinellas/southern Pasco residents?

So… there’s more community radio in Tampa Bay’s music spectrum tjan people know. It piques my curiosity about elsewhere in Florida and cities across the US.

Can I get your station on the internet?

FL-09: Roll over, play dead

Dear Rep. Gus Bilirakis:

Congratulations! From the looks of things, Democrats have once again conceded your home base of Palm Harbor and Pinellas County. During this primary season, I have gotten more mailers (2) from you than from the three Democratic primary challengers (none). No signage was put up, no canvasing took place, no interest in GOTV efforts, no intention to help down ballot candidates in turning out voters. Are you listening John Dicks?

It happens annually – my district race turns into a farce where no one presents themselves (tactically or politically) as worthy congressmen. Oh, this includes you Gus, but you’re the incumbent. It says volumes if others don’t present themselves as a better choice than yourself – let alone their primary opponents.

Signed,
Disgruntled

Albertsons to Publix for Cash Considerations

It finally happened.

Albertsons Tampa Bya locations have been sold to Publix supermarkets. Why do I say it finally happened? Because I had posted in the past that East Lake Woodlands publix was done for in it’s current incarnation. Now it is assured.

Meanwhile I hope everythign turns out ok for long time friends who work at the 500 East Lake Road Albertsons that will become Publix.

Palm Harbor, Yahoo'ed

I’m a regular user of Yahoo! Local as a tool… Pretty good for looking up local information and I find the interface a lot better than online Yellow Page listings in general.

That being said, there are still problems there…

Local businesses need to be reviewed and sometimes listings need to be removed. For instance, Jaguar Coffee has been gone from Palm Harbor for years upon years (how I miss Java Jungle — Jaguar Coffee’s predecessor) and yet their listing still exists. Same with the now-closed Palm Harbor Ale House as well as other businesses.

The Yahoo Local listings are very much an online social network of reviews and user driven content… But of course users have to be willing to get active on their own Yahoo Local area in order for the content to be accurate.

Palm Harbor Ale House — Gone!

Our lease was up some it was a business decision. Please try us at
STPete or Brandon or Tampa.

Thank you for your patronage!

That was it. In a short, snappy, out-of-the-way-but-we’re-ok explanation, someone at Miller’s Ale House let me know why their Palm Harbor location (near Coral Landings shopping center) was closed and boarded up.

Palm Harbor Ale House has been the neighborhood gathering place for teens, young adults, sports fans and just those hungry for some grub. It’s been that way since it opened about 15 years ago.

It’s an icon of sorts, and it’s gone now… My favorite local eatery is gone and all they can suggest is I drive 20 miles to their nearest restaurants. Bah.

You can email Miller’s Ale House here to complain about them closing up shop in Palm Harbor.

Man on the Run

Johnny’s been on the go a ton lately.

Yes, I haven’t updated Stoengauge very muchand with good reason as some can see through the last few posts on the blog… I’ll try to fill you all in more about things but then again I’d bore the shit out of most because they are looking for soft porn or kinky shit or something else.

Not John Fontana from Palm Harbor, Florida… :p

Der Vote

I voted — have you?!

Hour long wait in der suburbs here in Palm Harbor…. This comes after 2 weeks of 3 hour long waits at early voting centers throughout the county….

Get out and vote, America…

A certain State of Mind


It was so easy living day by day
Out of touch with the rhythm and blues
But now I need a little give and take
The New York Times, The Daily News

It comes down to reality
And it’s fine with me ’cause I’ve let it slide
Don’t care if it’s Chinatown or on Riverside
I don’t have any reasons
I’ve left them all behind
I’m in a New York state of mind


–Billy Joel, New York State of Mind

Home.

That’s what I’m thinking of on my next sojourn out fo the Suburban sprawl that is Palm Harbor, Florida. Not the fact those Yucking Fankees got their asses handed to them by the Bosox (can someone give me a “Hallelujah”? Can somebody give me an “Amen”?)… The fact I’m going home to the state of my birth. To the palce I spent nearly 10 years before I came to this ill ile of torment.

I’m going up with my father next week for my grandmothers birthday. Nice timing, as I had planned on going 2 weeks earlier but alas – scheduling conflicts and what not prevented that from happening. Not only will this be the first time I am in New York since 1995, but the first time I am in autumn weather (REAL autumn weather, not the sun-dried shit in Florida where everything stays green) since 1994 (ok, 2001 I was in Reno, Nevada in October… But I don’t want to count that).

I ventured 2300 miles on my own to LA, got around the city pretty good and yet thinking about going around New York intimidates me moreso than LA. It’s not the fact New Ork is a big place (which it is) but the fact so many people are crammed into such a tight spot in the city…

And that’s where I want to go in my free time — the city. Well, that and Montauk…. but I’ve already alluded to that

A certain state of mind — the mind of an escapist? That doesn’t seem right. The mind of a fugitive from justice? Nah, I ain’t no Richard Kimble…. A pilgrim? That doesn’t feel right either but it feels more accurate and along the lines of what I am looking for…

Tampa Bay Bigotry

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Sometimes I hate it when I am right. For ego reasons, this time I am sorta pleased about it but at the same time, looking at the area I live in and their level of tolerance — I hate how I could predict the intolerance of others.

The St. Petersburg Times started running some feature stories on Scientology in downtown Clearwater, Florida on Sunday… This was part of a two part feature that completed on Monday.

…And I couldn’t help but know the St. Petersburg Times would be inundated with letters-to-the-editor denouncing Scientology and / or bashing them all together like it was today.

Oh, of course there was a little letter published that predicted this fiasco by some guy in Palm Harbor. Short, subtle and to the point:

Seeing a feature story on Scientology’s hold on Clearwater made me think of one thing and one thing alone last Sunday: How many letters will the newspaper publish in the coming days that border on bigotry?

Damnit, that guy is good :wink

The Fundrace

The thing that sucks the most about living in Palm Harbor is not the fact that this neighborhood is “the boonies” when it comes to having my friends come over (it’s far removed from Tampa, St. Pete and other areas, or so it seems) but the fact that I am living amid Republican Hell. I can see it in the local politics but I can also see it with Fundrace 2004. Half of the entires posted were backing George W. Bush while the other half was backing Howard Dean.

I don’t know how often this thing is updated and I am not listed even though I have made a few contributions to a candidate thus far… But interesting none the less

Poetic Meanings — just found out

You know, I was just going through something or other on the web and I came across a little factoid that just hit me a certain way that made me laugh and think at the same time about a poem I wrote a few years ago (song Poem) and how true the lyric is, in a sad way…

The song-poem was Java Jungle which I wrote at Palm Harbor’s “Java Jungle” coffee shop years ago when I was still very much a lyricist and poet. The song is just rambling verse that makes sense to me and probably me alone in some of it’s meanings but has a little niftiness to itself… if you can find the rhyme scheme and what could have been the beat or what the music could have turned into with the song…

At any rate, I’m going to post the lyrics now – then I will tell you more about that “ironic and funny” little meaning I didn’t intend that I just found out about…

Java Jungle

Sally-man say:
“Who led the way,
“Across the Great Red Sea?”
Way back,
The long way back,
Back home

Tell Mom and Dad
That I’m going mad
Sitting here on the porch
Deep toking’ a dead roach
Fabulon

And Mickey and Brand,
Across the great land
Living at the center of life
Metropolitan life

Ju-Ju-Ju-Ju-Juniper chaos,
Had a little seance
To find her kindred soul
(Only she’d be so bold)

Cold hard wind, yeah
It’s stained with sin, yeah
Only known as the doldrums

The silence hums

Play on

Easter day
Saint Jude’s Parade
Lennon Lad,
Lennon Lad,
Lennon Lad
The kingdom’s your to have

Silence abounds

© 1997 John P. Fontana

So what’s the big deal? Well, I could break down the meaning of each stanza and verse to you but some of it is boring and some of it – as I already alluded to — should make sense only to me (Mickey and Brand across the great land, for instance, is a reference to friends of mine who used to come down to be with family here in Florida, I would see them every summer).

The lyric that I found funny is one of the closing lines… I talk about Easter Day and St. Jude’s Parade and then make a reference to “Lennon Lad”. This is all talking about Julian Lennon. “Jude” being direct reference to “Hey, Jude” which was written by Paul McCartney for Julian during the time John Lennon was divorcing Cynthia Lennon.

The entire line was actually supposed to be reference to St. Crispian’s Day, I believe I had seen Renaissance Man not very long before I had written this poem and I was very fond of Shakespeare at the time after a year of his works being passed on to me through Ms. Ciccone at East Lake High School.

Well, St. Jude got worked in there and the reference to Julian was made — “The kingdom’s yours to have” and silence abounds… That’s saying that Julian could have easily followed John Lennon’s footsteps and gone to the top of Rock and Roll but failed to do so… Of course, Julian is still involved with music and still battles demons involved with his father and his childhood… That being said, there are reason the kingdom was never entirely inherited by him or by Sean Ono Lennon for that matter.

The ironic – funny twist that I keep making reference to is St. Jude. I didn’t know who St., Jude was nor did I ever think to find out… I just threw the name out there for the rhyme and for the reference (Jude, Jules, Julian) and only recently (reading another Rick Reilly article) found out who St. Jude is:

The Patron Saint of Lost causes.

So, Lennon Lad, the kingdom may be yours to have but from what the Java Jungle tells you, it’s a lost cause trying to inherit it…

Letters make up words

Opinion: Dean’s outreach

Dean’s outreach
Letters to the Editor
Published November 16, 2003

Re: Howard Dean and the Confederate flag.

The Nov. 13 letter writers who were critical of Howard Dean and his Confederate flag comments are missing the point of the statement that Dean made. He was not blessing bigotry, nor was he showcasing a need to push for racial insensitivity.

Gov. Dean is looking to bring back the Southern voter who traditionally votes Republican. The Confederate flag comment was a poor way to describe whom he is trying to reach, but it was painfully obvious that poor white Southerners were his targeted group. Maybe that can be looked at as a stereotype (that all Southerners drive pickups and have the Confederate flag somewhere), but how often do you see the stereotype that a Southern citizen has to vote Republican
?
The issue isn’t about bigotry or racism with Dean’s comments. It is about trying to reach out to a voting segment and show that he isn’t turning a blind eye toward them, as Republicans have traditionally done once elected.

— John Fontana, Palm Harbor

Oooh, oooh! Look! I’m famoous! :smile