The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Just another day at the office…

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 18, 2023
No Comments on Just another day at the office…

Joey deVilla in his home office, playing accordion in a triceratops mask. — Tap to view at full size.

I got the mask for an upcoming fundraiser gala for the Glazer Children’s Museum, who recently became the home of the world’s largest triceratops.

Tampa Bay

The world’s largest triceratops is moving to Tampa Bay!

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 17, 2023
4 Comments on The world’s largest triceratops is moving to Tampa Bay!

Photo courtesy of Glazer Children’s Museum.
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Big John, the largest triceratops skeleton ever found (he’s in the Guinness Book of Records) is making his North American debut by moving to his new home: Tampa Bay, but more specifically, the Glazer Children’s Museum!

Banner: “Big John the Triceratops — Glazer Children’s Museum”

Named after the South Dakota rancher on whose land he was found, Big John is 8 meters (26 feet) long, 3 meters (10 feet) tall, and about the size of an RV. He’s also surprisingly intact, with 60% of his body bones and 75% of skull present.

Walter Stein poses beside one of Big John’s bones in the area where the skeleton was found. — Walter Stein poses beside one of Big John’s bones.
Photo courtesy of Glazer Children’s Museum.
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Big John is a recent find — 2014! He was found by Walter Stein, founder of PaleoAdventures, who are in the business of digging up fossils for commercial sale.

A lab worker works on one of Big John’s horns. — One of Big John’s horns.
Photo courtesy of Glazer Children’s Museum.
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The Italian firm Zoic srl purchased Big John, after which they removed the rocks from his skeleton and replicated the missing bones using a combination of sculpting, casting and 3-D printing.

Head-on view of Big John, a triceratops skeleton. — Photo courtesy of Glazer Children’s Museum.
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Big John then went on display in Europe and was put up for auction in 2021. He was purchased by the Pagidipati family of Tampa for almost $8 million. Rather than have it sit in a private collection which almost nobody would see, the Pagidipatis chose to find a place where everyone could see it, and that place is the Glazer Children’s Museum, located right on Tampa’s Riverwalk.

Detail view of the skull and horns of Big John, a triceratops skeleton. — Photo courtesy of Glazer Children’s Museum.
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“Our interest in purchasing Big John and other specimens is first and foremost to make them available to
the public and for research,” said Siddhartha Pagidipati. We want to do our part to help the Tampa Bay area become the best place in our country for families to live and raise their children.”

Artist’s concept illustration of the Big John exhibit for the Glazer Children’s Museum: “Big John Reveal”. — Illustration courtesy of Glazer Children’s Museum.
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Artist’s concept illustration of the Big John exhibit for the Glazer Children’s Museum: “Big John Side View”. — Illustration courtesy of Glazer Children’s Museum.
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You’d better believe there are big plans to show off Big John properly. He’s going to be the centerpiece of a brand new exhibit at the Glazer Children’s Museum, and I’ve included the exhibit designs in this article.

Artist’s concept illustration of the Big John exhibit for the Glazer Children’s Museum: A long hallway with displays about Big John. — Illustration courtesy of Glazer Children’s Museum.
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Artist’s concept illustration of the Big John exhibit for the Glazer Children’s Museum: A tunnel where visitors can see and touch dinosaur bones embedded in rock. — Illustration courtesy of Glazer Children’s Museum.
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Artist’s concept illustration of the Big John exhibit for the Glazer Children’s Museum: “Who Weighs More?” - a scale where people can compare their weight to the weight of Big John’s skull. — Illustration courtesy of Glazer Children’s Museum.
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You won’t have to wait long to see Big John — his exhibit at the Glazer Children’s Museum will open on Memorial Day Weekend (Saturday, May 27th)!

Want to know more? The Tampa Bay Times has an article: Tampa’s Glazer Children’s Museum to receive record-setting dinosaur skeleton for new display.

What’s the Glazer Children’s Museum?

The front of the Glazer Children’s Museum.
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The Glazer Children’s Museum is Tampa’s children’s museum, located in downtown Tampa. It’s the home of a lot of interactive exhibits, hands-on activities, and space to run around, climb, read, and make friends.

Need a kid-friendly summary of the triceratops? Click here, or click the pic!

Children’s museums are important. They provide a place to learn and explore interests through hands-on experiences and activities. When you’re young, nothing expands your mind like interactivity that engages all the senses, and that’s something that children’s museums do very, very well.

The Glazer Children’s Museum’s mission is to serve the children of Tampa Bay by providing a clean, safe, and fun outlet for imagination and discovery.

It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

Scenes from Common Dialect, Seminole Heights’ newest brewpub

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 16, 2023
1 Comment on Scenes from Common Dialect, Seminole Heights’ newest brewpub

Common Dialect’s front entrance. — Tap to view at full size.

Seminole Heights’ seal, which depicts a two-headed alligator

Common Dialect Beerworks, Seminole Heights’ newest brewpub, held its grand opening this past weekend. Located on Florida Avenue a few blocks south of Hillsborough, it’s the latest brewpub to appear our neighborhood over the past few years.

It’s also a hotly-anticipated arrival. The day I went, Saturday, January 14th, was its second day in operation. It wasn’t just their main parking lot that was full, but both overflow parking lots as well. It helped that it was a bright and sunny (if brisk, by Florida standards — 12° C / 54° F) day. The place was busy, but not uncomfortably so, at least in my extrovert opinion.

Common Dialect’s patio, viewed from the front. — Tap to view at full size.

Common Dialect is owned by a couple from the neighborhood — Kendra and Mike Conze. If you’re a local dog owner, you probably know Kendra from her other business, Health Mutt, which is probably the most-loved pet food and supply store in Tampa. Health Mutt recently moved from its corner store location on Central Avenue to very spacious digs nearby on Florida Avenue. This gave them a large warehouse space next door, and that space became Common Dialect.

Here’s what I saw when I stepped inside:

Common Dialect’s interior, looking leftward from the front entrance. — Tap to view at full size.

The place was hoppin’, even though it wasn’t any time near peak beer hours — I’d arrived at about 3:00 p.m. to check out the place after getting my hair cut just up the street.

One way they’ve decided to make themselves stand out from the other pubs in the area is by being the most brightly-colored of the lot.

Common Dialect’s wall mural, seen from across the room. — Tap to view at full size.

Make note of the people in the foreground if you want a sense of the wall mural’s size:

Common Dialect’s wall mural, close up. — Tap to view at full size.

After admiring the mural for a moment, I decided to help the bar fulfill its business purpose and buy a drink.

Common Dialect’s interior. — Tap to view at full size.

The line moved pretty quickly, and the staff were friendly and seemed experienced. If they were having opening-weekend issues, I didn’t see them.

The line for beer. — Tap to view at full size.

Common Dialect’s interior, looking rightward from the entrance. — Tap to view at full size.

With my freshly-acquired beer (alas, they didn’t have any darks or stouts on hand, so I decided to go for vitamin C with a citrus wheat beer), I made my way to the patio.

Common Dialect’s patio. — Tap to view at full size.

There isn’t space for a kitchen inside the pub, but there’s a designated area for food trucks, and it appears that they plan to have a different food truck on the premises most nights. On the Saturday I went, they had two: Queen B Ice Cream and the cleverly-named A Boy Named Sous:

The “A Boy Named Sous” food truck. — Tap to view at full size.

I lucked out and a seat on the patio freed up…

Common Dialect’s patio, looking outward. — Tap to view at full size.

…so I set my accordion down (remember, I take it with me to pubs and bars because it’s a magical machine that often turns music into free beer)…

Common Dialect’s patio, with my accordion in the foreground. — Tap to view at full size.

…and proceeded to enjoy my beer and some conversation with the people around me.

Common Dialect’s patio, as seen from my table, with my beer on the table. — Tap to view at full size.

There are a number of pubs and bars within cycling distance of our place, including the Corner Club, 7venth Sun, Southern Brewing and Winemaking, The Independent and Ella’s Americana Folk Art Cafe, to name a few, and we’re “regulars” at many of them. Because of this, I’ve become familiar with a lot of neighborhood faces, and there were many unfamiliar faces here.

I struck up conversations (and played tunes for) the people at the tables around me, and they turned out to be new arrivals to the area who’d moved here for the usual selling points: classic houses, tree-lined walkable streets, nearby places to eat and drink, local quirky shops, and so on.

If anything, these new faces are a sign that we haven’t yet hit “peak brewpub” in the neighborhood and all the existing places, each with its own qualities and charms, will be around. One of the reasons we moved here was for the healthy ecosystem of “third places,” and I’m happy to see another player in the mix.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Common Dialect!