Tampa was the city of my college years.  It is where I met friends that became family, and some that still are family today.  Others, have faded into the memories of those days.

I was fortunate to travel up to Tampa with my best mate Jerry, his father Cliff and Cliff’s wife Doris from Miami.  We were on a mission to go to Bern’s Steakhouse.  But for me it was a chance to see the some streets and fragments of memories from those South Florida days.

We had a bit of time before our reservation, so we headed down to Ybor City to see if there would be anything that I would remember.  We used to head to Ybor to  hit one of the only live venues where once upon a time I saw the Lemonheads.

Walking up and down the main street, I thought I had stepped off in another world more akin with South Beach than anything I’d remembered from Tampa.  The street was now lined with venues, clubs and cigar shacks.  The cigars  I do remember, but these were new, clean, and with lots of neon signs.

Like most places, when I was in school, the early 90’s were not the best of times.  Stores were shuttered across south Florida after the excessive building of the 80’s.  Now those times have come again.  There also were dusty closed store fronts in this new hip neighborhood.  That was the Tampa I remember.  Dusty store fronts with a FOR RENT sign duct taped to the window.  I did catch a glimpse of that down on Seventh Avenue.  The gray cinder blocks with the bright blue sky overhead.

I really want to thank Cliff and Doris for spiriting us away to Tampa.

Sunday was a bit of a hectic day, but I got a little bit of a chance to go out and shoot on my way to and from some engagements.  Japan is in the middle of the annual long holiday Golden Week, so the city is a on the empty side.  All the city folk go out to the country and all the country folk come into Tokyo.

Looking closely at some items in and around the station of Kasai.  Enjoy the day off, seek out your personal journey.

Looking into some of the window of Shibuya, I get the feeling that there is no rhyme or reason why some of these store fronts still exist.  Shibuya is full of trends.  The trendy teen’s mecca for shopping and clubbing, yet in the heart not far from the station, there is a shop that is selling clothes for the over 70 crowd.  It looks as if no one has actually stepped into the shop for 15 years.  So, wander, get lost and see what turns up when you turn the corner.

Shibuya is a neighborhood that is in all he guide books about Japan, and Tokyo.  It is suppose to be the hip happening spot.  The spot all the teenagers want to hit.  The spot filled with clubs, clothes and parties.  For me this is only one side of Shibuya.

I like to wander and get lost amongst the backstreets.  Finding those little nuggets of the forgotten, or lonely.  By chance, I follow my instincts when wandering the streets.  I veer left when i feel I should go left.  Right when the vibe is right.  You usually will never get that lost.  You are never that far from popping back on a familiar street or another station.

So do it.  Get out there in the city and lose yourself on the streets.  Let the vibrations of the city to guide you to find your treasures.

A Meeting of the Ghost Buffalo Shirts was an event I attended on Friday night.  It was a gathering of the tribes of different methods of artistic expression.  We had Frank Spignese reading some painful, and alternatively hilarious poetry.  Samm Bennett performing with mouth harps, homemade guitars, and a foot box hooked up to a mic.  Also was the energetic vibrating Marcellus Neally who flowed with a group of musicians on stage at the Pink Cow.  Also there was Taylor Mingon reading some passages from his upcoming new book of poems.  All in all it was heights event, people dug the vibe, and could just cool out away from the hustle of Shibuya in a quiet corner filled with word, sound and power.

I will surely head out to the next Meeting of the Ghost Buffalo Shirts