TampaBLAB

Due to the drastic downturn in the economy, Lakeland Local can not afford to present our traditional shenanigans.

Instead, please take a moment to read our thoughts on the origin of April Fools’ Day.

Post from: Lakeland Local

Originally Published as April Fool’s

With all the hubbub around the World Agile Qualification Boards and other certifications, I wanted to make sure that teams were getting the most out of their capabilities. So I've created the Agile Object-Oriented Maturity Model Certification. You can get all the details at the site. Sign up today!

This is just about my favorite modern building in downtown Bradenton, Florida: a city-owned parking garage at the corner of 12th Street West and Eighth Avenue West across the street from the Bank of America building. Many government buildings here are ugly. This one, despite its humble purpose, looks great.

Last.fm has the entire Greg Dulli live album "Live at the Triple Door." The tracks are from two benefit acoustic shows in Seattle. Dulli performs with Petra Haden, Jeff Klein, Barb Antonio and Shawn Smith. Dulli made his career playing in the famously loud Afghan Whigs. No one would ever mistake Dulli for a folk singer.

Haden and Smith are naturally gifted singers. The Triple Door shows forced Dulli to be a more disciplined and rid his voice of his punk rock tendencies. The results are the best vocal performances of Dulli's career. Dulli still strains to hit the high notes in The Killer. The difference is Dulli isn't screaming the chorus with Springsteen-level bombast.

As with any Dulli live show, the covers are the highlights. Dulli reinvents José González's Down the Line. Dulli's version builds on the tension of percussive guitar strumming, pianos and violins to capture the lyrics message of "don't let the darkness eat you up." Nina Simone's Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair is the closest Dulli will ever come to being a jazz man. The arrangement and playing are ace. The bonus is Dulli are hits the high notes. The Faces R&B tinged Tell Everyone becomes a country song.

The quiet call and response vocals between Dulli, Haden and Klein on Candy Cane Crawl and Bonnie Brae are a treat. A Led Zeppelin reference is thrown in at the end of King Only.

Summer's Kiss explains how the shows happened.

“I was originally asked to perform alone but that prospect was terrifying to me, so I asked Petra to come along,” commented Dulli. “Then I thought ‘Jeff’s done this a million times, I’ll bring him too.’ I hadn’t played with Shawn or Barb in ten years and they lived in Seattle, so I called them and what started as a potentially scary situation turned into a beautiful band without all the clanging and banging. And I could actually hear myself onstage for once and sang (mostly) in key.”

Take a drive with me through the Oakleaf subdivision. Looking for a newer home? Want to be within 15 minutes of the beach? Want a sense of community? Want a neighborhood with a price of ownership? ...

One of the best friends to bicycling in the Tampa Bay area is Tom Singletary, a gentleman lawyer from Tampa who is a member of SWFBUD.

Let's send out fast recovery wishes to Tom, who crashed in the Strawberry Ride on Sunday and broke his collarbone and left his ribs feeling mighty sore.

Feel better soon Tom.

Looking for a great place to live in Sarasota, Florida. Put the Southfield subdivision on your list. This neigborhood of 123 homes is located just off Proctor road in central Sarasota. Home Depot and Wal ...

Want a take drive with me? Take a spin through this great Sarasota neighborhood. The Country Manor neighborhood is made up of homes built in the 1990’s. The community is convenient, clean, has mature landscaping ...

"I say on the air all time, ‘if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’ "

Glenn Beck

I wonder how many of Beck's viewers and listeners to his words as gospel.

April is SustainAbility Month at the Libraries:

The Libraries are hosting many interesting events in honor of SustainAbility* Month. Get more information here:

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*I think the “A” is capitalized to emphasize that we all have the “ability” to live sustainably.

The Onion obviously does not live in Florida where increasing development as a response to over-development is just good legislative sense and not ridiculous parody.

“This is the greatest country in the world, and still, none of these eggheads in the government can figure a way out of this mess? Come on.

“Fortunately, I have the medicine for what ails us all. It’s so simple, I can’t believe no one thought of it until I did, just now. Ready?

“We build more houses.”

UPDATE - Here’s a perfect example of how some people imagine Florida will build its way out of this overdevelopment -

“The unanimous decision by the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s board marked an important benchmark for developers, who consider the deal a key piece of their effort to gain state approval on their proposed 2,400-home golf course-and-marina project on mine property in northwest Pasco County.”

With all the hubbub around the World Agile Qualification Boards and other certifications, I wanted to make sure that teams were getting the most out of their capabilities. So I’ve created the Agile Object-Oriented Maturity Model Certification. You can get all the details at the site. Sign up today!

"At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?

"At some point soon, it will happen. It’ll be over an innocuous issue. But the rage is building. It’s not a partisan issue. There is bipartisan angst at out of control government made worse by dumb bans like this and unintended consequences like AIG’s bonus problems."

Erick Erickson, saying there will soon be a violent revolution in America.

Bonus quote from Erickson:

Were I in Washington State, I’d be cleaning my gun right about now waiting to protect my property from the coming riots or the government aparatchicks coming to enforce nonsensical legislation.

The cause of Erickson's rage is Spokane County, Washington has banned phosphates from dishwasher detergent. Erickson claims "Washington State has turned its residents into a group of drug runners — crossing state lines to buy dish washer detergent with phosphate." Apparently, Washington residents need to get on a 12 step program to cure their collective dishwasher detergent fix. The more likely answer is people aren't going to riot over dishwasher detergent.

The body needs a certain amount of phosphate. However, overexposure can cause kidney failure, bone diseases and other complications. Most people would agree safe dishwasher detergent is a good thing. Erickson is willing to shoot someone to put potentially unsafe detergent back on the market. Erickson sounds more like Travis Bickle than a grassroots political operative. Erickson's rant is insane and should be treated as such.

"Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up."

Travis Bickle, from the movie Taxi Driver. The Bickle quote doesn't strike me as different in tone from the Erickson post.

Update: Tas offers his take on Erickson's post.

The Greater Tampa Association of Realtors has released the following information on the average Tampa home prices for homes sold in February, 2009:

Hat tip to Incertus for pointing to conservative protesters having a crisis of spelling competence.