Month: May 2019

 
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A conversation that needs to be had with sports fans in Tampa Bay

The Tampa Bay area is a sports marketplace that entertains itself so often through sports competition and tends to produce athletes for multiple sports at all levels. We’re fans through and through though.

You would not think that’s the case with attendance at Tampa Bay Rays games at Tropicana Field this season, though… or last season. Or the year before.

There’s a conversation that has to be had here in the marketplace. It’s been sidestepped to create a shallow build-it-for-me, Tampa-vs-St. Petersburg factor that pits the market against itself.

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A summarization of weather conditions in Tampa Bay through the title of a classic tune

We’re in the dry season, to say the least, at the moment. The one tradition of a Florida summaer is vacant at the moment and… well, Blind Melon’s 1992 alt/indie rock classic fits the situation in title:

I find the lack of #FAIL disturbing in this video incident

A tweet crossed by chance this afternoon that’s certainly gone viral by way of retweets — some by famous people, such as Luke Skywalker himself (Mark Hamill).

In short, pun esence: A child went rogue one while reciting “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. To say the least, the Emperor was pleased…

My love for hockey and the glory of the Stanley Cup

With the start of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals tonight, I got a wee bit nostalgic.

In 2014 the Raw Charge staff of Tampa Bay Lightning writers participated in a series of posts chronicling things that endeared each of us to the sport of Ice hockey.

My Five Things post was published on February 18th, 2014. The final topic that makes me love this sport is what I quote in full here.

One reason I love ice hockey and am tied to the game is my reverence of the Chalice of Lord Stanley and it’s history:

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WalletHub’s unfair judgment of Tampa Bay as a basketball market

WalletHub’s unfair judgment of Tampa Bay as a basketball market

“Tampa is one of the worst hockey markets in North America because of attendance to it’s super junior  and college hockey teams stinks.”

Anyone who sees that remark should either laugh or wonder who the hell would draw that kind of conclusion? Tampa Bay doesn’t host super junior league hockey, nor is it known for even competing in collegiate hockey, let alone drawing attendance. Why would they? Unless a college hockey team was playing at Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa, attendance is negligible at the other ice sports venues in the Tampa Bay area.

So, is the above statement fair market judgement?

What brings me to this isn’t hockey. Not at all. It is market critiques with sports and limited data that brings forth this judgment. WalletHub sent me an email showing Tampa ranking horribly as a basketball market.

Basketball market?

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A touch of rock history as an indie music radio “Experience”

I hear a lot of small-time, unknown artists on Lonely Oak Radio. I’ve been listening to that Internet streaming radio station for two and a half years now and while I’ve taken to some of the tunes and the performers that I’ve crossed on the station, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to someone of even moderate fame.

That changed today when I  heard a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member early this afternoon.

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Lack of writing is a visualization thing…

For those who are left wondering why Johnny Fonts hasn’t had new posts lately: I’ve been focusing on other aspects of the site and other web projects lately. In the case of this site, I’ve redone the logo and I’m trying to find a new theme for the blog:

JohnnyFonts.com Logo 2019 Edition

The theme issue… Well, that was a quirk I was thinking of dealing with, but it gets more interesting – and complicated – with the theme bells and whistles on the development end of new WordPress themes. Some themes are VERY powerful while others are arcane. Finding something visually appealing is a must, but finding something with a working backend goes along with it.

What to do with HockeyDaily.net?

I bought a domain name last week, one that I’ve thought about for some time: HockeyDaily.net. Yet with the site in my possession now, I’m not sure how I should go forward with it.

My original intention was blog syndication. I’m someone who used to rely on HockeyBlogs.org to show me content (headlines, not full stories) from around the blogosphere. Yet, is that the best idea? Is the blogosphere for the sport of ice hockey still active enough – with readers interested in the content – as it was in the past?

Is there already a blog aggregator site out there — one that shares blog headlines and not siping full articles? Is the majority of the fanbase out there now just tied to what they cross on social media from the bloggers themselves?

Another option would e to start a hockey blogger network of my own but… well,, that would require recruitment and crap that I’m not so good at.

Input from others on this topic would be appreciated. Perhaps there is something lacking for the sport that people could use online with regularity?

Poll: Does listening to Spotify Playlists lead you to buy music?

I posted a poll on Twitter on my Music Twitter account, it’ll be running until the evening of May 9th. It’s aimed at Spotify users, asking a bit about habit: