Ever want to swim with sharks? If you were in on Saturday’s Tampa Tweetup you might have gotten the chance.

Mommy Musings and David Risley tell the story. So does Fox 13 news.

UPDATE: Forgot to link to my pictures, on Flickr.

It’s the biggest, roundest screen in the state of Florida, and one of the most advanced sound systems as well.

And it all runs on a Palm Pilot.

As part of MOSI’s Virtual Ambassador program, a group of Tampa-area Twitter users got a behind-the-scenes tour of the IMAX theater and projection room. I was too busy taking pictures to pay attention to many of technical details, but let’s just say that if the Palm Pilot goes down, you’d better hope the closed-caption system is working.

From the “mailbag” that is my comments feed:

Hey there!
My website includes a link to yours within my list of Tampa Blogs:
http://sticksoffire.com/about/tampa/blogs-more/
Would you be so kind as to return the favor?
You can cut & paste, if you like:
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa website
Thanks for your consideration.
tommy
Sorry to post this request in your comments but i could not find your contact information.

Well, Tommy, I don’t have a blogroll per se and haven’t for, oh, maybe four years. But I do want to recognize certain special blogs, so I’ve gone and created a whole new category just for you: Blogrolling. In this category (of which this is the first entry) I will periodically post short snippets about blogs that should be considered part of my “blogroll.”

So here’s yours: Sticks of Fire is not Tampa’s first weblog, nor its most prolific, but it may be the Bay Area’s most decorated. Showered with awards from local free culture papers like the Weekly Plant (or whatever it’s called now) Sticks of Fire is widely considered Tampa’s best blog about Tampa. Though reading Sticks, my wife and I had the chance to meet local author Wendy Boucher (and I got designated the “hottie husband” which is all good, ’cause the missus won’t take me for granted if she knows I got options, y’know)

Anyway, Sticks of Fire is the place to go if you’ve got a jones for Tampa-based weblog goodness. Enjoy.

(Oh, and by the way, tommy, and anyone else looking for my “contact” page, it’s here. Linked from the front page, too.)

Spring baseball is a significant perk to living in Florida. We have more teams training here than I could name, but every spring Tampa is home to the New York Yankees. Alex has asked more than once to go to a baseball game, so when Dineen had a chance to get tickets for a Tuesday afternoon game, we grabbed them.

We coudln’t have picked a better day to play hooky. Mild temperatures and clear blue skies graced us. We sat on the lower level, right behind home plate – a few rows up from “Mr. Steinbrenner’s seats” as some other folks, who tried move closer to the field, found out before being gently relocated.

Alex and Nate both had a great time, and I look forward to taking them to more games as they get older. I don’t think it will ever be too hard to get tickets since there were plenty of, um, suppliers in the parking lot before and after the game. So if you live in the Bay area, or have another training facility close by, why not check out a game this month?

Oh, yes… the Yankees beat the Twins 5 – 0.

In light of this past weekend’s Gasparilla festivities, some folks might think Tampa has an an unhealthy cult-like obession with pirates. But it’s all in good fun. (Especially when Peter Sarsgaard hosts SNL!

Sticks of Fire has just the shirt for you!

Growing up in Florida, we never had white Christmases, so we had to find or make our beauty elsewhere. Our neighborhood found it in the luminaria, a tradition from the Southwest that founds its warm to other warm climates.

Every Christmas Eve, we would get a bucketful of sand, a stack of paper bags, and some plain taper candles. Each bag got a one-inch cuff at the top, a couple of inches of sand at the bottom, and one candle. We lined the streetfront and sometimes the driveway with bags spaced about three feet apart.

At 7pm, the streetlights went dark and the candles came to life. Every street and home, on this one night, glowed as if by magic.

This year, for the first time in many years, I’m going to be doing this myself. My new neighborhood north of Tampa doesn’t yet seem to be aware of the tradition, but I’ve got years of experience as a kid and even better, I’ve got a corner lot.

It’s going to look fantastic. I’m hoping that within two years, this entire neighborhood will glow.

St. Pete Times columnist Sue Carlton writes about Redner and drops this juicy tidbit:

But here’s an ugly fact: We live in a place where being openly gay can be a political liability. That may be in part why some of our local public officials keep that information private when it’s an everyday fact to those around them, reporters included.

Closeted elected officials in Hillsborough County? Now there’s a real bombshell. I wonder if any of them voted on the county’s prohibition on gay pride partiticpation.

If your butcher told you he was vegan, would you doubt him? If your gun shop owner told you he was religiously opposed to killing? How about your rabbi with a deep faith in the messiah Jesus Chirst?

You’d wonder what kind of axe they had to grind.

Now, via Sticks of Fire, comes the news that Joe Redner claims to be gay. Redner, for those who didn’t grow up as adolescent males in the greater Tampa Bay area, is the king of strip clubs in a city renowned for its strip clubs. Joe is also a plaintiff in a federal civil-rights lawsuit against against the Hillsborough County commission, who recently banned the county from acknowledging or participating in gay pride events. Redner’s lawsuit risked being thrown out because, unless he could show the county’s policy specfically affected him, he would have no basis for the suit.

Hence, Redner has filed papers with the court claiming to be gay. He has publicly stated his confimation of his sexual orientation. But most folks, who associate Redner with the gyrations of flat-bellied, large breasted, taut-buttocked dancers of the undeniably female persuasion, have their doubts.

Consider: Redner told the Tribune he has been married twice and has five children. He said he has had no homosexual partners. He said he has known he was gay his entire life.

Responding to another question Tuesday, from News Channel 8, he said yes, he was gay two weeks ago – before the legal papers were filed. Then he added: “If I told you no, I’d be committing perjury. If I told you no, they’d have something to stand on. I’m not going to do that.”.

Married twice with five children. No homosexual partners, ever. Either this guy was so deep in the closet he could have been the White Witch of Narnia, or he’s doing this now for political and legal reasons. Other of Redner’s statements make it seem the latter is the likely answer:

If I’d have been in Nazi Germany and I thought I could use the court system to help the oppressed, I would have become Jewish.

He does have a point – one who observes discrimination against a religious group, then joins that religion by choice, in the face of discrimination agaisnt that group, could make at least a plausible claim that he had standing to move forward. (He would still have to show that he was specifically affected by the challenged policy once he affiliated.) In this case – Redner has chosen to become homosexual. After all, many people think being gay is a choice – if this is true, Redner is calling their bluff by making this very public choice in the name of of defending gay rights.

Here’s Redner’s problem. He’s admitted to knowing he was gay “his entire life.” I think he could make a case now, that he chooses now to be gay – but I think he’s going to have a tough credibility problem by saying that he has always been gay but never disclosed it, espcially in light of his admitted willingness to “become Jewish” to defend religious rights. Redner’s attorneys had better sit down with him and re-examine whether they’re exposing themselves to perjury charges.

I really tried to work a “straight face” pun in here, but if I leave that as an exercise for the reader you’ve no one to blame but yourselves for your wretchedness.

Well, not dead, but badly in need of resuscitation from the Northern cold. If you’re planning a trip to Tampa from the wintry climes, here are some ways to make your time more enjoyable.

I don’t know if I can take it
I’m not easy on my knees
Here’s my heart you can break it

I need some release, release, release

We need Love and peace
Love and peace

Those of you living in a cave might not know that U2 stormed through town last Wednesday night. I’ve been looking forward to this show since last March, when my lovely wife bought the tickets for my birthday.

Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. U2 has been around for more than a quarter century, and the reason is that they are not just musicians, but showmen of the highest order. There are a lot of people with musical talent. There are not a lot of people who can keep a crowd rocking for a twenty song set, including a six-song encore, like this band. They opened with “City of Blinding Lights,” moved quickly into “Vertigo,” rolled into “Elevation,” and shifted into “Mysterious Ways.” Remember that video arcade boxing game, the one that would say “Body blow! Body blow!” every time you threw a punch? That’s what this opening set felt like – a relentless torrent of punches to the “Rawk!” center of the brain. Each song, the crowd took over Bono’s singing duties for the parts that went “Whoo-ooo” (except for “Mysterious Ways” which inexplicably lacks a “Whoo-ooo” part).

The crowd connection didn’t end there. A circular runway from the stage allowed each of the band members to roam deep into the floor section. Towards the end of the show, Bono began pulling audience members up to sit on the stage for a song, and in one almost creepy instance, to slow dance with him. The connection went wireless, too – an onstage screen flashed names of some of those who sent a text message of support for the band’s anti-poverty campaign during the show.

Always political, the band praised America’s efforts to provide AIDS medication in Africa and rescue workers’ efforts in New Orleans. They dedicated a song to the U.S. military, tweaked the NRA, and urged the children of “Father Abraham” to coexist in peace. If the Irish and the English can do it, then hey, Middle East peace ought to be a snap, right?

But rarely did the activism threaten to overshadow the entertainment. All the elements came together for one of the best shows I’ve ever seen – unwavering enthusiasm from band and fans alike, creative and technically excellent staging, lighting, and effects, all built on a foundation of decades’ worth of solid material. If this show in coming to your town, get a seat even if you have to proposition a roadie to get in.