Tampa Photo Diary, Part One

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.