The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

I’m starting it off here…

Then at 3:45 p.m., I’ll be here…

…and I’ll wind up here just before 7:

“It just seems that a billionaire and come in and get whatever he wants and run roughshod over average millionaires like myself,” says the Crescent Park Neighborhood Association president in the article above. These guys must think that Romney was lowballing when he said that he considered middle income to be in the range of “$200,000 to $250,000 and less”.

Found via Kirill Grouchnikov.

Burger 21’s Bananas Foster Shake

If you’re ever in the Tampa Bay area and want some great burgers, take a look at Burger 21. They’re a local chain and part of that “better burger” trend away from the sort you’ll get from the McDonald’s/Burger King/Wendy’s axis. For a little more than what you’d pay at “Raunchy Ron’s” (that’s my personal nickname for McDonald’s), you get better burgers with better condiments, better sides, better shakes, better service, better surroundings and better bathrooms.

Pictured above is one of their shakes — the Bananas Foster shake, topped with a caramelized banana. The only way it could be even more Bananas Foster-y would be if it were drizzled with banana liqueur and set alight. The Lady Friend and I split one, and its was delicious. I’m planning on dropping by Burger 21 on my next trip.

Being John Cusack (for an Evening)

In my previous Tampa Photo Diary, I wrote that I was at a birthday party complete with outdoor band gig, karaoke and gladiatorial drinking. What I forgot to mention was that it was an “End of the World”-themed party, in reference to the belief that the Mayans predicted that the world would end in late December 2012.

The birthday girl’s friends came up with a lot of “End of the World” ideas, including a variation on the “Who Am I?” ice-breaking party game. Each of us got a sticker on his or her back with the name of a person, place or thing associated with the end of the world, whether in fiction or non-fiction. The Lady Friend got “Global Warming”; I got “John Cusack”, whose relationship to the end of the world was a bit of a stretch. Needless to say, it took me a while to figure out who I was.

Unexpected Entertainment at the Office Party

My first activity in Tampa was to attend the Lady Friend’s office Christmas/holiday/end-of-year party. It was a pretty nice affair, taking up the entire upper floor of Brio in the International Plaza with good food (lots of appetizers, followed by salad, pasta, meat and dessert courses, each course being served family-style with two dishes) and drinks aplenty.

I asked the Lady Friend if the accordion was an appropriate bring-along, and she checked with HR. HR not only approved, but cleared it with the DJ so that I’d get an introduction and a chance to play a song on the dance floor, which is what’s depicted in the photo above.

Bearss Groves Farmer’s Market

On Saturday, we passed by Bearss Groves Farmer’s Market to get some food for dinner. Set in what used to be orange groves (people live there now), this market’s been running for nearly 20 years, with a great selection of fruits and vegetables.

In addition to fruits and veg, we also stopped by this place:

Snooties BBQ are two twenty-somethings, Janet Studer and Joe Hire, and half the year, from April to November, they’re based in Sandusky, Ohio. During the colder half, their mobile kitchen is based in Bearss Groves Market, where they server big, meaty ribs in excellent sauce.  We took a whole rack home and devoured them happily. I’ll be back for more.

A Birthday Party with a Band

Saturday night, we dropped by our friends’ place to attend their birthday party. They’re married, and their birthdays are close enough together that it made sense for them to combine celebrations. It also gave out friend a chance to debut his newly-formed band, Buddha Bandits, in front of a friendly audience.

It’s hovering around freezing right now in Accordion City, so attending a backyard party lit by a pool in a garden full of citronella torches, sipping a Jack and Coke under the stars beside my favourite girl as a band that sounds like a cross between Blues Traveller and Gish-era Smashing Pumpkins plays is a big treat.

Later that evening, we moved the party indoors. The indoor festivities began with “Guess That Tune”, a game where I played the chords and lead line of a pop or rock tune on accordion without singing any lyrics, while the others tried to guess for prizes. The one they had the most trouble with until I played the closing line: Closer, by Nine Inch Nails.

That was followed by karaoke…

…and gladiatorial drinking:

Lunch at Tampa Thai Temple

Its formal name is the Wat Mongkolratanaram, but it’s better known as the Tampa Thai Temple, a Thai Buddhist temple located on the south shore of the Palm River. It’s been there since 1981, but the present temple (pictured above and below) was built in 2007.

Here’s what the temple looks like from the back:

Here I am, on the grounds behind the temple, looking all meditative:

Many Buddhist temples have miniature temples somewhere on the grounds. Typically there are offerings placed around their base.

Every Sunday, they hold an open market where you can purchase all sorts of Thai food, as well as plants and flowers. The proceeds from the sales go to the temple’s upkeep. You can eat on the premises; they’ve set up dozens of picnic tables on back part of the grounds facing the river. The people who came for lunch were widely varied: not just Thais, but just about every race, color and creed who wanted some delicious Thai food were there.

Photo from Creative Loafing.

Among the dishes available are:

• Grilled pork or chicken on a stick
• Grilled chicken
• Pad Thai
• Various chicken curry dishes with vegetables
• Egg rolls
• Guiteow – beef or pork noodle soup
• Som Dom – papaya salad
• Fried bananas, taro root, and sweet potatoes
• A wide selection of Thai deserts
• Thai tea and coffee

Photo from Meals and Miles.

The food is cheap, cheerful and delicious. Most of the stalls will sell you three dishes served on a bed of rice for about seven bucks.

Many of the best Christmas carols have been penned by Jews, so why can’t they get in on some sweet Santa action? It’s only fair:

Photo courtesy of the Santa, NO! Tumblr.

This seems an appropriate moment to bring up Sarah Silverman’s slight-not-safe-for-work tune for Santa: Give the Jew Girl Toys:

…and as I’ve pointed out before, there’s evidence that suggests that Santa is from India:

I’m in Tampa this week, and I thought I’d share some random photos I snapped over the past couple of days…

YOLO Shot Glasses

You can find these at the souvenir shop at Tampa’s airport:

YOLO probably started as a less bookish way of saying “Carpe diem“, but it’s devolved into a battle cry you yell out before doing something dangerous or embarrassing while drunk or stoned. But taking a dumb catchphrase putting it on a shot glass and still selling it after Ervin McKinness’ infamous tweet made minutes before he died in a drunk-driving accident:

Drunk af going 120 drifting corners #FuckIt YOLO

— 2.7.5 Inkyy(@ink2flashyy) September 2, 2012

That’s marketing genius!

I’ll Meet You at the Usual Place

I’ve seen this particular view for the past year: it’s where the Lady Friend picks me up when I visit.

Everything’s a Touchscreen Now

I like taking pictures of up-and-coming technological goodies, especially if there’s some connection between them and the work I do. This pop vending machine, which I saw at Tampa’s International Center, is controlled completely via its large touchscreen, which also plays promotional games and videos. It’s not all that removed from mobile device software, which happens to be my line of work.

How the 1% Get Around

Moments after taking this photo in a parking lot in Brandon (referred to in Wikipedia as “Tampa’s premier bedroom community”), a young fella who didn’t look as if he’d seen his twentieth summer hopped into this Lotus and peeled out.

Cider

They’re getting creative with their cider-labelling south of the border (which, to us Canadians, means the U.S.).

Remembering the War of Northern Aggression

When the people who applied for the variance to build this monument, they provided the vague description a lighted park with monuments and a “flagpole to commemorate American veterans”.

“They never asked the question, ‘Well, what flag you going to put up?’ ” said Marion Lambert, a member of Sons of Confederate Veterans (whose aim is to ensure “a true history of the 1861-1865 period is preserved”) and who applied for the variance, said. “I never lied to them.”

You Know You’re in Florida When…

That’s why it’s called “God’s Waiting Room”.

Chuck E. Cheese is Ben Hur!

Chuck E. Cheese’s is full of surreal sights — An audio-animatronic band made up of four animals and a human pizza chef! A giant Habitrail for kids! The greasy wheels they try to pass off as pizza! — but the most surreal of all is this portrait of Chuck E. Cheese as a Roman chariot driver racing over piles of game tokens.

Giant Promotional Balloon Figures

I haven’t seen a wacky waving inflatable arm tube man in the past few visits, but I have seen these in the past couple of days…

For those of you who are unfamiliar with outdoor cooking, the Big Green Egg is the greatest outdoor cooking invention ever. I have seen it in action and tasted food prepared on it at Richard Campbell’s house, and it’s stunningly good. Someday, it will be mine.

I took these photos in 2009 while having dinner at Richard Campbell’s place in Vancouver.

But is it Art?

Burger 21 is a craft burger chain in the Tampa Bay area, and it’s one of the better burger places I’ve been to. I love the photos on their walls.