Assignment: St. Petersburg » Just For Fun

Pops in the Park Saturday Night

Bob Horn — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:42:34 +0000

The Florida Orchestra’s Annual Free Pops in the Park concert takes place tomorrow, October 16th, at 7:00 PM in Vinoy Park in downtown St. Petersburg. Once again this year, it looks as though the concert timing coincides perfectly with our new cool front that arrived just last night, so it should be a glorious evening to throw down a blanket, eat a picnic dinner (or maybe just dessert), and enjoy the wonderful music that the Florida Orchestra always delivers. The park setting is just a very fun way to listen to the Orchestra, and the musicians always seem to thrive on this outdoor setting – I guess it’s a nice change of pace for them. If you want to get a good spot for your blanket, go early – this is a very popular happening! And, as always, the concert finishes off with the 1812 Overture, played at the same time as a nice little fireworks display is set off over the Vinoy Basin – it’s a perfect pairing! If you’d like to go, and you’re not familiar with Vinoy Park, it’s at the far east end of 5th Avenue North, where 5th Avenue dead-ends at Tampa Bay. Parking will be available at lots around the downtown area, or along Beach Drive or along NorthShore Park…

This concert has been presented for free, outdoors, each year for the past seventeen years thanks, in large part to local Realtor Helen Torres who seventeen years ago pledged $20,000 per year to the Florida Orchestra for the next twenty years in exchange for this annual outdoor concert/gift to St. Petersburg. Three more years in her pledge – I hope that, at the end of the twenty years, someone else steps up and takes over for Helen. In the meanwhile, we’ll continue to attend each year and to enjoy the music. In the words of Joni Mitchell, they’ll be ”playin’ real good, for free”. Just another one of the many reasons that St. Petersburg is a fantastic place to live and play!

Presentation is Everything

Bob Horn — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:07:18 +0000

I’ve driven past this little apartment unit on 8th Street North hundreds of times, and it never fails to catch my eye. What could be a very unremarkable 1939 four-plex is, instead, a little gem in an area of otherwise ordinary buildings. It reminds me of a little story that we read in elementary school called, “Clothes Make the Man”. It was about a down and out bum who found some sort of crisp uniform in the garbage. He put on the uniform, and suddenly everyone was smiling at him, giving him respect, treating him differently. In response, he went out of his way to be nice to people, he cleaned up his act, and he was a transformed person.

I guess it’s also like taking a small gift for someone and giving it a fantastic, shiny, happy gift wrap. Suddenly, it’s intriguing and exciting and it can’t wait to be opened!

I have no idea what the inside of this building looks like, but that’s really not the point. I just want to salute the owners of this building for this unique, art-deco esque paint job, the great sign for the Glory Apartments, and for generally going out of their way to let this building shine! If you want to see this building for yourself, it’s at 340 8th Street North. And, by the way, there’s a sign out front that says that there’s an apartment for rent! [Please click on the photo to see a full sized image.]

St. Petersburg Vodka

Bob Horn — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:30:27 +0000

I was working with some friends recently to find a house for them. We found a great place in the Euclid Park neighborhood – an old bungalow in a peaceful neighborhood with a nice detached garage apartment. Their friend, a contractor, is updating it now, and they’ll be moving in soon. My friends are actually co-owners of the home, along with her dad. Her dad moved to Moscow sixteen years ago, after the fall of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, to operate the first Caterpillar Construction Equipment operation in Russia. Interesting man, and fun to talk to. After the closing, I arrived home to find a present on my front porch – it was from, as the card put it, “The Russians”. It was a bottle of vodka, but not just any vodka. It’s from St. Petersburg, Russia! Just so cool! Click on the photo below and you’ll get a larger image and then you can see “St. Petersburg”, both on the main label and the small upper label. I know we’ll start sipping it soon, but I just have to wait a little longer so that I can enjoy the wonderful bottle! I have to say that any transaction that ends with me receiving a bottle of vodka from my clients is a great transaction!

Gimme A Head With Hair!

Bob Horn — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:51:26 +0000

Long, Beautiful Hair – Shining, Gleaming, Streaming Flaxen Waxen…

I can’t begin to tell you how much I love this play! It would surely reveal my age if I were to tell you that I first saw the play during its original Broadway run, in 1969, while traveling around the country with my good friend. We didn’t have great seats, but, really, there was not a bad seat in the house! The music was amazing and the energy was overwhelming – I had just never experienced live theater like this before. And, oh, yeah, at the end of the play, when many of the cast members opted to strip off their clothes and walk into the audience as they sang, “Let the Sunshine In”, I’m sure that my jaw dropped. I was NOT a New York City kid! I came from sleepy St. Pete!

Anyway, the play was totally fun and the music has stuck with me for forty years. I saw Hair again a few years ago in Tampa in a MAD theater production. Extremely well done, just as much energy and enthusiasm on the part of the actors and the audience.

And now, courtesy of St. Petersburg’s own local professional theater company extraordinaire, Hair will be presented outdoors, at Demens Landing, for this year’s American Stage in the Park. The play will run from April 21st, tonight, through May 16th. For more information, ticket prices, or to purchase tickets, visit the American Stage website.

And when you go, be prepared to sing! Each time I’ve seen the play, it amazes me when I realize how many hit songs came from this play. Of course, there’s Hair, for which the play is named (and if you need to be reminded, you can hear the Original Broadway Soundtrack recording at this link.) But, in addition to Hair, there were so many other hits: Aquarius, Let the Sunshine In, Easy to be Hard, and Good Morning Starshine to name a few. I hope that you make it a point to go and see this play. You’ll be helping to support a great theater company and you’ll have a great time enjoying St. Petersburg’s beautiful outdoors while you’re at it! The photo below is a shot of the Hair stage in Demen’s landing taken earlier this week. (Click on the picture for a larger view)

The Awesome Original Second Time Arounders

Bob Horn — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:58:50 +0000

St. Petersburg has a lot of great things going for it. Of course, if I didn’t think so, I wouldn’t have created this blog. Most of what I talk about and show here in my blog are things that I love about St. Pete.

One of the things that is uniquely St. Petersburg’s is the Awesome Original Second Time Arounders Marching Band! The first time that I saw this band perform was in the Festival of States Saturday morning parade, more than twenty years ago. They were not a huge group at that time, but I just loved seeing them march by, playing their instruments, twirling their batons, and making their flags dance through the air. The band’s beginnings date back to 1983 with an ad in the St. Petersburg Times, looking to see whether any former school band members might be interested in creating a ‘Second Time Arounders’ band. Lots of people responded, and the band grew every year. In addition to local events, they’ve played at many other events around the country, and in 2008, they marched and played in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! With around 500 members ranging from ages 18 to 85, this is a group that loves to play, loves to show what they’ve got, and loves to have fun! If you ever have a chance to watch them play, you’ll see that you can’t help but be caught up by their intense enthusiasm…

The Sunshine City

Bob Horn — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:18:48 +0000

We don’t hear it so much these days, but St. Petersburg has been known as “The Sunshine City” since the early 1900′s. There was a great desire to grow the city back in those days, to add both residents and tourism. Because our fantastic weather has always been one of the big selling points of our city, and because we have sunshine almost every day of the year, the city fathers decided to adopt the slogan of “The Sunshine City”. Back then, we had two newspapers in town – the morning paper, which was the St. Petersburg Times, and an evening paper, independently owned and not in any way affiliated with the Times. It was called the St. Petersburg Independent and, later, The Evening Independent. The owner of that newspaper made a public pledge, printed in the paper, that if there was ever a day where the sun did not shine here at all for the entire day, the next day’s newspaper would be free! For the 76 year life of the newspaper, a total of 296 editions were given away – not bad for 76 years! (In the 1960′s, the Independent was purchased by the St. Petersburg Times, then finally shut down in 1986.)

This public art sculpture, situated outside of the St. Petersburg Museum of History, celebrates the “Sunshine City” name, as well as our famous green benches, and even the pledge for free newspapers if the sun didn’t shine. With the Sunscreen film festival in town this weekend, it just seemed an appropriate opportunity to salute our sunshine!

Mainsail Arts Festival This Weekend!

Bob Horn — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:57:27 +0000

The west coast of Florida has a number of great outdoor art shows throughout the fall, winter, and spring seasons. For St. Petersburg, our premier outdoor art event is, unquestionably, the Mainsail Arts Festival.

Held on the waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg, this year’s Mainsail will be the 35th instance of this show! That’s pretty remarkable, but you can be certain that it’s no accident. I’ve been attending the show since the very first one, and I can tell you that the planning that goes into this event is phenomenal, as are the artists who exhibit in this venue. It’s a juried art show, so there is intense competition just to be allowed to exhibit in the show. That means that the public gets a chance to see the best of the best, all in one place, and in a gorgeous outdoor St. Petersburg setting!

This year’s show will take place this Saturday and Sunday, April 17th and 18th, at Vinoy Park, located just east of the Vinoy Hotel on the Tampa Bay waterfront. There will be over 200 artists, covering a wide range of media, including Ceramics, Fibers, Glass, Jewelry, Metal, Mixed Media, Oil/Acrylic, Photography, Sculpture, Watercolor and Wood.

The show is free to attend, and you can go just to enjoy, or you can go with the idea of finding your next treasure. Mainsail is truly a wonderland of creative energy, and it shows in the works that are exhibited. If you have kids, you can bring them by the children’s art tent, where they’ll have a chance to do interactive activities and get in touch with their inner artist.

One final note – a new Mainsail Arts Festival poster is created each year for the show. This year, the poster is the work of Duncan McClellan, an amazing glass artist who I have the good fortune to know. (And, even more good fortune, I have one of his beautiful creations at home, and I get to enjoy it every day!) Duncan’s work is well-known and very highly regarded throughout the country. He will be exhibiting his glass works at the show this weekend. And he is a great example of the caliber of art and craft work that you can expect to see at the show from over 200 artists.

If you need more information, please check out the Mainsail Website. Then, get out and enjoy our beautiful weekend!

Canoeing at Weedon Island Preserve

Bob Horn — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:28:36 +0000

One of the huge attractions of St. Petersburg is the abundance of water for sport and for play. Within 30 minutes of us, people can get to the Gulf, the Bay, Hillsborough River, or any number of lakes. And once they get to those bodies of water, there are any number of activities that they can engage in to enjoy the waterways.

One of my favorite water activities is getting out in our canoe. Living in Northeast St. Petersburg, there are plenty of places that I can go to canoe, but one of my favorite areas is the Weedon Island preserve, at the north and east end of the city, just this side of the Gandy Bridge on the edge of Tampa Bay. There’s a nice launch area, and parking just a few feet away, so it’s ideally suited to canoes and kayaks. And, although you can just head out and paddle wherever you want, there are actually two canoe trails laid out, marked with numbered signs. They lead you through some areas of open water plus a lot of little canals that crisscross through the mangroves. It’s a beautiful place to go, and it truly feels as though you’re far away from city life, out in the wilderness. You can print out a map of the canoe trail, just for moral support, at this link. But there’s no need to – the trail is clearly marked from start to finish.

If you don’t own a canoe, there is a local outfitter that has a roadside rental concession just a short distance before the launch point. If you drive toward the launch point on Weedon Island, you’ll find the outfitter and you can rent a canoe or a kayak.

To get to Weedon Island, you can either turn east off of 4th Street North onto 83rd Avenue, continue on as it turns into Patica Rd NE, then turn onto Weedon Drive NE – you’ll see a sign pointing the way. Or you can turn south onto San Martin Drive off of Gandy Blvd (just east of Derby Lane Dog Track) and then turn onto Weedon Drive NE when you see the sign. It’s a fun adventure, it doesn’t cost much, it’s good for your soul, and it’s right here in St. Petersburg!

Saturday Morning Market

Bob Horn — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:35:02 +0000

I’ve been wanting to get down to the Saturday Morning Market for weeks, but each weekend, there has been something getting in my way. This past weekend, I finally made it down there, and what a treat it was! Beautiful blue skies and sunshine, temperatures right around the low seventies, live music, lots of fresh produce, incredible aromas of baked goods, fresh roasted coffee, fresh cut flowers, fresh sliced pineapple, and more – the scents blended, at times, into a potpourri that was just luscious! In addition to all of that, there were lots of craft booths of all types with great handcrafted works for sale.

The atmosphere was almost like a festival – I think that, even though it’s only mid-March, the weather was just so great that people couldn’t help but smile. If you haven’t made it down to the Market, make it a point some Saturday morning. It’s there each week, in the parking lot next to Al Lang Stadium, and there’s no charge to get in. But do bring money, ’cause you’re going to want to be bringing some things home! (Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the huge, warm, sticky, delicious cinnamon-raisin bun that my wife and I split as a mid-morning treat. Yum!)

For details on the market, check out their web site. This weekly event is just one more of the reasons that it’s so nice to live in St. Petersburg…

HDR Photos at Museum of History

Bob Horn — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:50:32 +0000

There is a relatively new technique available in the world of photography called High Dynamic Range, or HDR. There have been entire books written about HDR photography but, simply put, it allows a much broader range of light to be captured in a photograph than was ever possible in the past.

A new exhibit opened at the St. Petersburg Museum of History last Friday night, blending HDR techniques with history in a way that should be very appealing to anyone who appreciates St. Petersburg’s past. The exhibit is called “Images of the Past Meet the Photography of the Future”. A museum curator selected 32 historic photos from their archives, pictures of notable St. Petersburg places from many years ago. Then, a group of 14 photographers from the North Pinellas Photography Forum set out to recreate the historic photos in today’s world, using modern equipment and HDR techniques. The exhibit involves the pairing of the historic image next to the new HDR image for each photograph.

I attended the opening reception on Friday night and I was extremely impressed. Many of the new photographs were stunning, and it was just very fun to see the old images recreated in this manner. If you’d like to see the photographs, the exhibit will continue at the Museum for awhile – it’s definitely worth a trip downtown to see these photos! For information about the Museum, including location, hours, etc, go to their web site.

And if you would like to see a few examples of HDR photography that are my own work, check out these examples in earlier blog posts of mine: example 1, example 2, example 3, example 4.