Yes, it’s another one of my regular reminders to double-check your work (or better yet, have someone else double-check it) before putting it out into the world.
Small Business Saturday (which took place yesterday) is an excellent opportunity to check out local places that I don’t usually go to, or places that I’d been meaning to go to for some time. Tiger Dust, which has been in Seminole Heights for several months, falls into the latter category.
Tiger Dust calls itself a wunderkammer, a German term meaning “wonder room” or “room of wonders.” There’s a similar term, kunstkammer, which literally means “art room” but it often interpreted in English as “cabinet of curiosities.” This is from a time when “cabinet” was used more often to refer to a room than furniture for storing things (our modern usage of the word is a sort of downsizing).
If you’re looking for a gift for an unconventional friend, Tiger Dust just might fit the bill.
Need an interesting taxidermy piece? Tiger Dust has ’em in spades.
Kitschy art? Oh yeah.
Housewarming present for a friend whose wardrobe is entirely black? They’ve got ’em.
Need the complete works of Anton LaVey or Aleister Crowley? Do what thou wilt.
I almost bought the tiger kite pictured above. I may yet return to complete the purchase. I did buy a skull ring, because it’s a key part of the accordion rock and roll lifestyle.
Tiger Dust is located at 4222 North Florida Avenue, a couple of blocks north of M.L.K. Boulevard. Their hours are listed online as 12 noon to 7:00 p.m. daily, but the sign on their door might be a little more accurate — it says they’re open noon-ish to 7-ish.
Want to know more about Tiger Dust? Check these out:
- Tiger Dust’s website, tigerdust.party — they’re the first people I know who use the .party domain
- Creative Loafing: Tiger Dust, a new pinball arcade and gift shop, celebrates grand opening in Seminole Heights this weekend (March 15, 2022)
- Only In Your State: The Oddities Shop In Florida Brings Wonderfully Eclectic Items In One Space
- Bay News 9: Oddities galore at this creepy book shop in Seminole Heights
- That’s So Tampa: Tiger Dust brings a pinball arcade to Seminole Heights
With Thanksgiving having come and gone in the U.S., we’re now in the holiday shopping season, which starts with Small Business Saturday!
Small Business Saturday is an annual event whose purpose to encourage people to support their local small businesses. Instead of going to a “big box” store or chain, we’re asked to support local businesses, either by going to their local brick-and-mortar shop or shopping online. This event takes place every November and represents a significant opportunity to increase sales for small businesses during the holiday shopping season.
I live in Tampa’s Seminole Heights neighborhood, where we’re fortunate to have a number of small businesses that do provide goods, services, and those less tangible “neighborhood-y” things that chains and big box stores can’t or won’t.
The day is young, but we’ve already picked up some goodies at Gott Glass, the local glass-blowing studio and shop.
If you’re in the area, check them out! The shop is a lovely mix of indoor and outdoor, Susan Gott and her staff are nice, and they do glass-blowing demos and even have classes (which I plan on signing up for).
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Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S., so here’s an appropriate comic. Savor the holiday, have some gratitude, share your blessings if you’re able to, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Another Wednesday, another fun gig with Tom Hood and the Tropical Sons, the house band for open mic night at Bayou Bistro in Tarpon Springs. It was a fun pre-Thanksgiving celebration, and a chance to play some good ol’ classic rock with great local musicians at a very friendly bar with tasty seafood.
I’m thankful for the opportunity to rock out!
A scene from an old comic book came into one of my social media feeds, and now I’m feeling nostalgic for comicdom’s most over-the-top decade.
Just look at how incredibly “nineties” the cover of The Incredible Hulk vs. Venom #1 from April 1994 is! Illustrator Jim Craig did a very good impression of Todd McFarlane, who’d left Marvel a couple of years prior to found the even-more-1990s publisher, Image Comics.
The only way it could be more a product of its decade is if it featured someone with a comically large sword (or a comically large number of regular swords) and pouches, pouches, pouches.
The comic starts with the classic team-up plotline of “first we fight because of some misunderstanding, but then we team up to take on a big bad villain.”
This being a comic from that era, writer Peter David managed to fit in an STD joke into the battle:
In case you’re wondering why the Hulk is so quippy, it’s because Bruce Banner managed to merge his personality with Hulk’s, resulting in his becoming a big green scientist with a bad attitude. As for Venom, he’d already made the transition from villain to anti-hero.
Venom and Hulk are both in San Francisco to lend a hand after an earthquake. A local TV station gets a letter from someone going by the name of “Dr. Bad Vibes” — he claims responsibility for the earthquake, and unless his ransom demands are met, he’ll make an even bigger one!
Hulk and Venom barge into the TV station during a live on-air reading of Dr. Bad Vibes’ ransom note and trash-talk him ’80s/’90s wrestler style. This scene also provides us with a view of Hulk’s totally ’90s “rad” haircut:
In case you’re too young to remember, Hulk and Venom’s simultaneous “beat (clap) you up!” line comes from the “Hans and Franz” skits from Saturday Night Live at the time:
In the end, Hulk and Venom find Dr. Bad Vibes, who actually can’t control earthquakes. He’s a delusional guy with a cardboard box labeled “Earthquake Machine.” He sent his threatening letter prior to the quake and by comic-book-coincidence, the earthquake followed, with “hilarity” soon ensuing:
What a decade!