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Edmonds Knows How To Blast ‘Em; Or, Finding Eateries In Pasco, Another Reflection

Posted Sep 17, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Sep 17, 2009 at 03:51 PM

The staff here at Everyday People has lost track of how many Pithy Pasco Reflections have been offered by retired Saint Leo University English professor Mark “Tiger” Edmonds over the last several weeks.

And if they weren’t too lazy to go back and see how many Reflections Edmonds has recited, our dedicated, if ignorant, staff does not know how to make Roman numerals higher than, like, XI. As we said: lazy and ignorant.

Anyway, this week we find Edmonds in a hammock and on his front porch, talking about eateries around the area.

In a nod to Elmer Fudd, he also has been keeping late hours, shooting the armadillos that attempt to dig beneath his house and tear up his heating and air system.

The author of several books, including “Longrider,” “The Ghost of Scootertrash Past” and “Hard Scrabble,” Edmonds also pens and reads “The Curmudgeon Chronicles” on an Orlando radio station every weekend. He still doesn’t know the call letters, but information about his work can be found at http://www.drmarktigeredmonds.com.

 

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Catching Up With Banjo Lulu

Posted Sep 11, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Sep 11, 2009 at 03:50 PM

Goats. Donkeys.

There are differences between the two animals, nuanced characteristics that the staff here at Everyday People can’t always identify.

Banjo Lulu, for example, has a donkey, not a goat, as you will learn if you watch the video below.

We decided to catch up with Lori Pegram, aka “Banjo Lulu,” because it had been more than a year since an actual visit – and no one should go that long without calling on the gregarious picker. She and husband Randy have each survived health scares in recent years, but 2009 has been relatively kind to the musical couple; Randy is a civil engineer and bassist who once toured with the bluegrass band Sweetwater.

Until recently, Lulu, of Wesley Chapel, was a sign-language interpreter at the Caminiti Exceptional Center in Tampa, but her student graduated. Now, she’s taking on as many banjo students as possible.

A Scotch Plains, N.J., native, Lulu was a high school senior when she started playing the banjo. It was the same year she was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease, which has impaired her hearing enough that she usually wears a hearing aid. Triggered by stress and intense weather, the disease, which also causes vertigo and nausea, is incurable.

The brutally hot summer months may have caused her symptoms to worsen, but you’d never know it by talking to Lulu.

She smiles and laughs as effortlessly as her fingers navigate a fretboard.

We imagine she always will.

(Tampa Tribune photo by Fred Bellet)

 

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Tiger Finds A Bargain, Talks Riding

Posted Sep 9, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Sep 9, 2009 at 03:39 PM

Mark “Tiger” Edmonds was as excited as his dog, Lucy, was sleepy.

“Take a look out there,” he said, nodding toward his garage.

I went out the door. Lucy lifted an eyelid – barely.

There it was, gleaming white and dangerous-looking to the untrained eye: Edmonds’ newest 1984 BMW motorcycle. This one had less than 42,000 miles on it. His other two ’84 BMWs literally have been ridden all over North America. He found the bargain last weekend through a seller in New Port Richey.

This week, Edmonds waxes nostalgically, yet briefly, about his favorite riding places in Pasco, most of them in the north part of the county, where there are still orange groves, lakes and (some) roads unburdened by heavy construction traffic.

A retired English professor at Saint Leo University and author of several books, including “Longrider,” “The Ghost of Scootertrash Past” and “Hard Scrabble,” Edmonds also pens and reads “The Curmudgeon Chronicles” on an Orlando radio station every weekend. He doesn’t know the call letters, but information about his work can be found at http://www.drmarktigeredmonds.com.

 

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Open Road Eases Tension, Congestion

Posted Sep 4, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Sep 4, 2009 at 01:32 PM

I was walking my kids to Sand Pine Elementary School a couple years ago when we overheard an early-morning motorist on congested County Line Road uncork the kind of angry, hate-filled language you’d expect at a health care debate.

Stuck behind a line of traffic in front of the school, a pickup driver asked aloud, to no one: “What the %@#& is wrong now!”

The problem was the same one faced by motorists in densely-populated areas every $%&*@#! day: traffic.

Happily, that congestion, especially on County Line Road through sprawling Meadow Pointe I and II, has recently been eased by the opening of State Road 56 to Mansfield Boulevard. (The photo illustrates construction on the road a few months ago.)

As Tribune reporter Kevin Wiatrowski recently reported, the road’s opening has “freed school traffic to use the four-lane highway to reach Wiregrass Ranch High School and Long Middle School.”
Those schools are on Mansfield between S.R. 56 and County Line Road. Sand Pine is on County Line not far from Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

Construction traffic to and from Meadow Pointe III and IV, on top of heavy residential traffic, made Meadow Pointe’s two entrances rush-hour headaches for years. The road opening has eased that considerably, especially when parents are dropping off or picking up kids at Sand Pine.

The extension must also offer some relief for the teenage drivers leaving Wiregrass High five days a week.

And, yes, the road also makes it much easier for Meadow Pointe residents to reach the monument of commercial opportunity known as The Shops at Wiregrass.

I’m just glad the new road has eased tensions as my kids head to school. Learning is a good thing. But if I wanted them to learn how to swear, I’d let them spend an hour in a newsroom.

Tampa Tribune photo by Andy Jones

 

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Man With A Manifesto?

Posted Sep 2, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Sep 2, 2009 at 01:17 PM

We had an equipment failure last week as Mark “Tiger” Edmonds, former English professor at Saint Leo University, lamented the loss of his hunting grounds in Pasco County.

Mostly, he hunted quail.

Now, he is reduced to blasting armadillos that try to get under his house and somehow disrupt the heating and air system. This week, he talks about his latest kill, as well as his introduction to Saint Leo’s campus.

Edmonds has written three books – two about his long motorcycle rides around North America – and is awaiting the publication of a fourth.

Retired for more than a year, Edmonds also pens and reads one-page riffs of scathing social commentary he calls “The Curmudgeon Chronicles” for an Orlando radio station.

For information about Edmonds and his work, visit http://www.drmarktigeredmonds.com.

 

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Clifton Completes First Solo Album, “Entertwine”

Posted Aug 28, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Aug 28, 2009 at 01:38 PM

Multi-instrumentalist, dedicated Sounds Great CD store employee and die-hard fan of almost everything 1960s, Greg Clifton has taken his appreciation of Paul McCartney to encouraging new levels on his debut solo CD, “Entertwine.”

A self-taught multi-instrumentalist, Clifton took a McCartney-esque approach with his first official recording, playing almost every instrument on the record – guitar, bass, percussion, piano, organ, keyboards, vocals, etc. – with occasional help from a friend. The 15-track album offers a clear indication of Clifton’s musical inspiration, blending strands of folk, psychedelic and straight-up electric rock ‘n’ roll.

“You could also tag it as Christian, but it’s not like worship music,” Clifton said. “Listen to the lyrics and you’ll know what I mean.”

While he basically recorded the disc at home, Clifton seems to have mastered his equipment well enough to produce a polished, textured, sometimes-complex real-studio sound.

Clifton, who also has recorded with singer-songwriter Talesha Hogan, said he spent about six months making the album in his spare time. In recent months he also has helped Hogan cut her own solo disc at a Miami recording studio.

Most of the songs on “Entertwine” are originals, although he does a soulful cover of “Amazing Grace” (to the music to “House of the Rising Son”) and an inspired rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

While the national anthem is Hendrix-influenced, with its spoken-word opening and static-laden axe work, the track (and the album) is all Clifton – in all his quirky glory.

Clifton said the music is available on iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster and Amazon. It also can be heard on Clifton’s MySpace page: myspace.com/thegregclifton.

 

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Pithy Pasco Reflections, Vol. IV

Posted Aug 24, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Aug 24, 2009 at 01:32 PM

I met Mark “Tiger” Edmonds about two years ago at the Waffle House on State Road 52, just west of Interstate 75.

At the time, Edmonds was still teaching English at Saint Leo University and his third book, “Hard Scrabble,” an inspiring non-fiction work about his long friendship with Nancy Pacey, who died of cancer in 2002, had been published by Livingston Press at The University of West Alabama.

After a long talk, we spoke on the Waffle House sidewalk while he smoked two Winstons. Digesting a lunch of eggs with grits, sausage, bacon and coffee, he pointed to fenced-off land surrounding the restaurant where in bygone days he had spent long hours hunting quail.

Like many of his beloved hunting grounds in Pasco County, the tract was no longer accessible. In the fourth installment of Pithy Pasco Reflections, Edmonds, who also pens and reads one-page riffs of scathing social commentary he calls “The Curmudgeon Chronicles” for an Orlando radio station, laments that loss, among other things.

For information about Edmonds and his work, visit http://www.drmarktigeredmonds.com.

 

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MMA Comes To Wesley Chapel

Posted Aug 20, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Aug 20, 2009 at 04:16 PM

I’ll watch two ants fight over a crumb just to see which one wins.

As a kid, I had fistfights with friends over four-square.

Thanks to boxers like Aaron Pryor, “Sugar” Ray Leonard, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini and Marvelous Marvin Hagler, I was seduced by the flash and violence of boxing at a young age. I followed the sport for years before I started covering it, freelance work that eventually led to a full-time career.

And, I still remember the first Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) in the early ‘90s. It was fascinating to watch Royce Gracie, a 170-pound Brazilian jiu-jitsu master, twist much larger men into tapping, writhing, red-faced knots.

Once decried as “human cockfighting” by Arizona Sen. John McCain, mixed martial arts (MMA), which combines aspects of wrestling, jiu-jitsu, boxing and other fighting forms, has exploded in popularity, thanks mostly to the UFC.

Recognizing the sport’s increasing acceptance, Brian Wethington has offered MMA classes at his Wesley Chapel karate studio for about a year. While he wants the business to flourish, Wethington said he is not looking for students who want to unleash newfound skills in local bars and parking lots.

“We’re not trying to attract 18- to 26-year-old guys with foul mouths and no money,” he said. “Everyone else, we’re trying to attract. This is a family atmosphere. We have after-school programs and summer camps. “We want everyone in our classes to learn respect, discipline and manners.”

(In the photos, Ravi Seemananda, bottom, works with Cody Cottrill during an MMA class at Wesley Chapel Mixed Martial Arts.)

I watched a class this week.

Instructors Raz Sarsour and Mike Spielberger, black belts in karate who travel to Jupiter three times a month to train with UFC lightweight contender Hermes ÖFranca, led about a dozen students through 45 minutes of jiu-jitsu, teaching them how to reverse positions when someone is on top of you, among other things.

No one left the school on State Road 54, just east of I-75, with a concussion, broken bone, bloody nose, or even a bruise, as far as I could tell.

Among the students was first-timer Ravi Seemananda, a 40-year-old accountant, who broke a healthy sweat struggling to get out of arm bars and tussling on the mats with younger training partners. “It was very good – 45 to 60 minutes is a good workout,” he said. “I want to learn some defense and better breathing. When someone is struggling with you, you have to breathe.”

The man has a point.

On Aug. 29, instructors from Wesley Chapel MMA will do demonstrations at Winner’s Grill at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and State Road 54. That night, Winner’s also will show the live broadcast of UFC 102 headlined by heavyweights Randy Couture, an MMA legend, versus Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria, who starred last year in season eight of “The Ultimate Fighter,” a reality series on Spike TV.

With live and replayed MMA events being shown on television almost every night of the week on multiple channels, the sport’s popularity only seems to be growing.

“In the ‘70s, you had Bruce Lee,” Wethington said. “In the ‘80s, it was ‘The Karate Kid.’ In the ‘90s, you had ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.’

“Now, it’s MMA.”

For information about Wesley Chapel Mixed Martial Arts, call Wethington at (813) 973-1403, or visit http://www.wesleychapelmma.com or http://www.wesleychapelkarate.com.
(Tampa Tribune photos by Jason Behnken)

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‘Varicose Vein Festival’

Posted Aug 17, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Aug 17, 2009 at 12:42 PM

Retired Saint Leo University English professor Mark “Tiger” Edmonds is back with another Pithy Pasco Reflection. This week, the words “varicose vein festival” have been weaved into his prose.

Besides these “reflections,” Edmonds is the proud writer of The Curmudgeon Chronicles, one-page riffs of scathing social commentary that he regularly reads on an Orlando radio station, the call letters of which he doesn’t recall.

He also is the author of “Longrider,” an account of his million-mile motorcycle trek across the United States and Canada, “The Ghost of Scootertrash Past,” another series of biker tales, and “Hard Scrabble,” the story of his relationship with the late Nancy Pacey, a longtime friend and cancer battler who helped him kick alcohol more than 30 years ago.

Each of his books was published by Livingston Press at The University of West Alabama. He said a fourth book awaits editing.

Information about Edmonds’ work can be found at http://www.drmarktigeredmonds.com.

This week, Edmonds reflects on the potential pitfalls of living and driving in and around Zephyrhills.

 

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Bourbon Street Back After Blaze

Posted Aug 12, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Aug 12, 2009 at 05:03 PM

As the owner of a bar and concert venue, Greg Serio has plenty of hassles, like dealing with nationally known bands that have passed their prime, but still insist on green M&Ms being removed from their candy dish in the dressing room.

In 11 years of owning Bourbon Street on U.S. 19, Serio, a straight-shooting Cleveland native, has hosted rock ‘n’ roll shows, weekly pro wrestling events and open-mic nights for local bands to practice their chops.

If not for an eagle-eyed, off-duty Pasco County firefighter, Serio’s beloved bar might have been reduced to rubble a couple weeks ago when an electrical fire started in his office.

”The guys closed up at about 2:45 a.m. By 3:24 a.m., Pasco Fire had entered my building and put the fire out,” Serio said this week. “Some off-duty guy was just driving by when he saw smoke billowing from the front of the building.” Firefighters saved the venue, but Serio’s office was destroyed, along with paperwork, office furniture and equipment, and all liquor not stored at the bar. Happily, the business was shut down only two days – and a rock show relocated to the nearby Insomniacs all-night coffeehouse – while the office was renovated.

“We were closed Sunday and Monday, the two slowest days,” he said. “We re-opened on Tuesday in time for our ACW [wrestling] show.”

Serio said he didn’t have insurance on the contents of his office and is awaiting invoices on all of the work that was done.

“Once word hit the streets, the local bands here really stepped up to the plate,” he said. “It’s their place, too. They want to do a fundraiser for me on Aug. 22, but I don’t have all the details yet. They want to make it an all-day event.”

Check Everyday People for an update on the fundraiser.

For information about Bourbon Street, call (727) 843-0686 or visit http://www.clubbourbonstreet.com.

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Pithy Pasco Reflections, Vol. II

Posted Aug 10, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Aug 10, 2009 at 12:48 PM

Retired Saint Leo University English professor Mark “Tiger” Edmonds is back with another Pithy Pasco Reflection.

Besides Pithy Pasco Reflections, Edwards is the proud writer of The Curmudgeon Chronicles, one-page riffs of scathing social commentary that he regularly reads on an Orlando radio station, the call letters of which he doesn’t recall.

He also is the author of “Longrider,” an account of his million-mile motorcycle trek across the United States and Canada, “The Ghost of Scootertrash Past,” another series of biker tales, and “Hard Scrabble,” the story of his relationship with the late Nancy Pacey, a longtime friend and cancer battler who helped him kick alcohol more than 30 years ago.

Each of his books was published by Livingston Press at The University of West Alabama. He said a fourth book awaits editing.

Information about Edmonds’ work can be found at http://www.drmarktigeredmonds.com. While you’re there, click on his e-mail and tell him happy anniversary. He and Juanita the Tall Girl have now been married a year.

 

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No Job Too Small For Miguel

Posted Aug 7, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Aug 7, 2009 at 03:51 PM

Miguel Perez says no job is too little.

Actually, I didn’t hear Miguel say it, but it’s on his business card.

Until today, I didn’t know Miguel had a business card.

I had just devoured another wet burrito platter at La Pequena, the Tommytown restaurant Miguel has owned for nearly seven years, when the card was passed this way. He explained that business at La Pequena on Lock Street (Calle de Milagros) has been so slow that he started his own lawn business to help make ends meet.

“We do it all,” says the card for Perez Lawn Service.

While Miguel pursues the lawn business, he said his wife and family will continue to run La Pequena. That’s a huge relief, as the piping-hot authentic food has made the location a semi-regular destination for the dedicated staff here at Everyday People. About 10 months ago, we wrote that if “you’re used to Mexican restaurants where you can see other diners dressed in post-yuppie fashion, hear mariachi music and view soccer games on one of several flat-screen TVs, La Pequena might not be the place for you. The décor isn’t festive, the space isn’t large, and the parking lot is accessed by dirt road.”

Actually, the dirt road is now being paved, a big improvement in the blighted area. And if business is slow, at least the food isn’t suffering.

The wet burrito burned the roof of my mouth, as always, and those ordering enchiladas and a chile relleno nearby left the tiny restaurant happy and full.

I don’t know Miguel very well. Actually, I’m confident he doesn’t even know my name.

So, maybe it’s just selfish, but I find myself pulling for his restaurant to survive.

La Pequena has brought outsiders to Tommytown to spend money. For an area known for its high crime and poverty, that’s no hollow boast.

For information about Perez Lawn Service, call (352) 424-0340 or (352) 206-2532.

 

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Herb Green’s Big idea

Posted Aug 5, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Aug 5, 2009 at 02:46 PM

He’s 82, believes in the benefits of ginkgo biloba and works tirelessly to transform Trilby from its current state as an impoverished, blighted rural community in northeast Pasco to the thriving center of commerce and industry it was in the 1920s.

Herb Green may be conservative politically, but he makes liberal use of his imagination when it comes to improving his adopted hometown just east of U.S. 98.

This week, I toured the area with Green, the president of the Greater Trilby Community Association who masterminded the association’s thriving Security Patrol, which was assembled a few years ago to combat prostitution and drugs.

The patrol started with a little more than a dozen volunteers. Now, there are more than 70, including some who patrol on horseback. As we drove down Trilby Cutoff Road, a dirt road that runs along the Withlacoochee Trail, Green had me stop the car to look between kudzu-covered trees. In the distance was a dried lake bed, overgrown with tall weeds and grass.

That’s where downtown Trilby stood until a May 1925 fire started on the second floor of Bradham’s Dry Goods Store, spread through nearby buildings and leveled the unincorporated community. Bankston’s Grocery, Pitts’ Meat Store and Hilliard’s Barber Shop were among the businesses that went up in smoke – along with the community’s identity.

As usual, though, Green, a North Carolina native and longtime member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, has an idea.

“We want to rebuild it just like it was,” he said of downtown Trilby.

Green doesn’t know how much that might cost. While the area is near U.S. 98 and U.S. 301, and railroads tracks bisect nearby Lacoochee, Trilby hasn’t exactly been synonymous with economic development.

Still, Green and other members of his association recently had the ears of county officials during a well-attended redevelopment meeting at Lacoochee Elementary School. At the very least, he hopes the county will pave the community’s roads and install street lights.

Of course, Green has grander visions. The area’s train stations could be rebuilt, he said. One could be transformed into a family restaurant and the other could be a mercantile store.

“Everything would have to be done in phases,” he said. “If we can’t get it in as part of the county’s redevelopment plan, we can always pursue grants independently.”

 

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Pithy Pasco County Reflections, Vol. I

Posted Aug 3, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Aug 3, 2009 at 11:06 AM

The staff at Everyday People went on an extended vacation recently, and returned with one printable realization.

While other parts of the country boast their own attractions – Cedar Point in Ohio, Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky – and traditions – the easily skewered game of Cornhole around the South and Midwest, stopping one’s vehicle for no discernible reason on the interstate outside McDonough, Ga. – only one area of the country can claim Mark “Tiger” Edmonds as a full-time resident.

Recognizing and appreciating the quirks of Edmonds’ breezy “Easy Rider” appearance and personality (Greg Allman thought he had nobody left to run with anymore – because he never met Edmonds) is as simple as giving into temptation.

Harnessing that vibe in a Pasco-centric way is an entirely different proposition.

But our dedicated staff, to steal a line, endeavors to persevere.

Here, then, is the debut of “Pithy Pasco County Reflections,” written and read by Edmonds, biker, retired Saint Leo University English professor and recurring character in this space. These will continue on a basis as regular as the staff at Everyday People can handle, and as long as Edmonds can write them down and recite them.

 

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Snakes In The Office

Posted Jun 25, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Jun 25, 2009 at 01:27 PM

I don’t mind a little blood.

Spiders? No problem.

Ghosts? Unlike Bigfoot, I doubt they exist.

Snakes scare the hell out of me.

Happily, I was waiting (and waiting and waiting) in court for a jury to return a verdict this week when a small snake was seen slithering in one of the overhead lights at our new “office.”

I share the space with five women, and, not to be xenophobic (just stating a fact), I would have been called upon, as the man, to handle the little serpent; I’m also called upon to hang things around the “office” and heft things in and out of cars, among other odd jobs.

What any man was to have done with the snake is beyond me. It was stuck between a beaming fluorescent tube and its cover. I’ve been told by dedicated Florida Fish and Wildlife officials not to handle snakes, and I likely wouldn’t have gone against their word. Eventually, it just slithered away. Somewhere. It hasn’t been seen since Wednesday. (That’s a rat snake above.)

Unhappily, that wasn’t the only snake seen at the complex across the street from Skydive City.

Biker chick and ad rep Pat Pennington doesn’t seem like the squeamish type, but what she saw this morning, as she was about to stub the butt of her Pall Mall 100 into the cement ash tray outside, gave her pause.

Orange, coiled and ugly, the rat snake stared up at the ember and didn’t flinch.

Turns out, it was dead. Pat eventually flung its limp corpse into a nearby ditch.

I’m going on vacation in a few hours and won’t be back for a couple weeks.

If all the snakes at work find different jobs in the meantime, my return will be much happier.

 

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