All News is Local

She’s a Dude, He’s a Dude, We’re All Dudes

2012-12-17T14:16:03Z

Last year I attended American Business Woman’s Association national professional development conference. I love conferences because I always learn something. Even if the presenters are terrible, I still learn- never do what they did. Fortunately the conference was informative, reiterating how far women have come in 30-plus years.

I was born in 1987 with parents who taught me anything was possible, if I worked hard enough. I don’t have the experiences of some of the conference attendees. I can’t know the feeling of being forced to be a stay-at-home mom and I’ve never been disrespected simply because I am a woman.

I’m not naïve though. I’ve heard women relate how a boss forced them to quit because they were pregnant and working made the customer “uncomfortable.”

At the ABWA Top 10 Business Women Luncheon, the main speaker was proclaiming how far we woman have come. She said something like, “You’ve heard of the good ol’ boys club, well it’s about time we got our own good ol’ girls club!”

Everyone cheered. I frowned.

This shouldn’t be our goal. Woman shouldn’t strive for “separate, but equal.” We want equality. We get so into fighting for our rights we sometimes forget the big picture: equal opportunity and respect for everyone on this Earth.

Girl power or guy power? I say human power!

Trust your Gut.

Lakeland Hammer Time

2012-12-06T02:32:19Z

Lakeland has an event going on downtown nearly every day – from food trucks to first Friday events – but did you know we have had a parachute pants dance off in our streets?

My boss moved her office above Mitchell’s Coffee House and Black Swan Bazaar in September and naturally became friends with the landlord Jerry Herring. He collects art and Lakeland history.

While exploring one of the vacant spaces for fun’s sake, my boss Lorrie and my co-worker Barbara found a framed newspaper clipping of when MC Hammer came to Lakeland to film a KFC commercial in 1991. After approaching Jerry about the article, he granted permission for the piece to be hung in Lorrie’s space.

The article, like many pieces of art in Lorrie’s office, has become a great conversation piece for the peanut gallery. While I was showing off the most coveted article to my friend, he confessed to being present for the filming.

“I think I was in my freshman year of high school, me and my buddies all went down to see if we could see MC Hammer – it was packed with spectators,” said Shane Mahoney of Lugo’s Travel.

This got me excited and I made him take a photo with the article. I love hearing stories of legitimately cool stuff taking place in Lakeland, no matter how trivial. So next time someone says, “ugh Lakeland,” slide in that Lakeland is not only cool, but freaking MC Hammer walked our streets.

Trust your Gut.

• Need Proof?

• Update

Karin Munkacsi-Whitley was there and she has the photo to prove it. Here she is standing in front of the “Lake Edna Barber Shop.”

Minnesota: A Man’s Home is His Castle. And an Execution Chamber, Too.

2012-11-30T21:09:17Z

I first heard Nick Coleman at a 2010 Poynter class for non-traditional journalists. He wasn’t presenting. The 36-year veteran of dinosaur media was sitting in the back of the room wondering why in the hell he was there. He’d recently started writing for his own site, or as Poynter’s Kelly McBride explained to the class, “joined the Fifth Estate.” (I insist we’re still members of the Fourth, but have only found a new medium.) Coleman was cynical about the future of journalism and unafraid to show his battle scars, with a wit that comes only from intelligence and experience. Of course I made a point to seek him out at the first break. He has patience for fools and we still communicate after two years. Wednesday he wrote a column I feel speaks to Floridians. He granted permission for All News is Local to reprint it in full.

“She laughed at me.”
That was Byron David Smith’s explanation for why he kept shooting a wounded teen — one of two he killed in his Little Falls home on Thanksgiving Day. If a law passed by the Minnesota Legislature last year had not been vetoed by Gov. Mark Dayton, Smith might not be in jail.

It probably doesn’t seem that the Thanksgiving Day killings of two teens in Little Falls, Minnesota, shot by a deranged but heavily armed home owner, could be any more horrible. But consider this possibility: If a gun law passed early this year by the Minnesota Legislature had not been vetoed by DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, the Little Falls killer would not be in jail.

Incredible, I know. But the “Stand Your Ground” bill — written by the National Rifle association, pushed by the Republican legislative majority and supported by many outstate DFLers — would probably mean that the 64-year-old man who shot the two teens in his basement, then left them there overnight because he didn’t want to disturb the cops on a national holiday, would be nearly immune to arrest or interrogation about the blood-curdling woundings-cum-executions he performed in his home.

Judging by the comments on some public forums, a lot of Minnesotans would be hailing him as a hero for his use of a high-powered Ruger Mini-14 military-style rifle to bring down his victims, and then finishing them off with a .22, fired into their chests, faces and under their chin into their heads.

“A good clean finishing shot,” the obviously demented homeowner, Byron David Smith told the cops in one of many bizarre touches that make the veracity of his story impossible for the public to assess.

One horrifying part of his story, as told to the authorities, led to murder charges: His clueless bragging about deliberately killing each of the teens, one by one, after they had been wounded. “The law doesn’t permit you to execute somebody after the threat is gone,” said the Morrison County Sheriff.

But it would have. If Dayton hadn’t vetoed the bill that was passed last spring.

UPDATE, Thursday: I have heard from a number of disgruntled gun owners, on Twitter and in the comments here, who seem embarrassed to have their number represented by the patently deluded Little Falls shooter. They defend the vetoed gun bill by arguing that the shooter would have been prosecuted even if the Stand Your Ground bill had been signed by the governor. Essentially, they are defending the terrible bill that was vetoed by citing the law as it stands, unamended. I agree that if the story told by the shooter after his arrest turns out to be true — a big if — Mr. Smith probably would, eventually, have been charged. But that’s not the point. The point is that if the law had not been vetoed, the cops would not have been allowed to take him into custody until after the investigation was complete. They wouldn’t have been able to interrogate him in depth; they would have had to take his word that he felt under threat of serious harm, and they would have had to act as if a guy with two dead teens on his basement floor was above suspicion. The fact that justice might eventually be served would be cold comfort to the families involved. The fact remains: It was a terrible law, cooked up by a gun lobby that won’t be happy until it is legal to shoot any one, any time. The shooting of Trayvon Martin has led to a soul-searching review of Florida gun laws. If this flawed Minnesota law had not been vetoed, we would find ourselves in Minnesota undergoing the same painful process. Disclaimer for the Dull-witted: I am a licensed Minnesota gun owner and am not “anti-gun.” I am only against gun laws that are designed to make guns into gods.

Current state law allows a homeowner who fears for his life to use lethal force to defend himself. But it is up to a judge to determine whether that fear was “reasonable” or not. The bill passed last spring would have bypassed the judge and taken the shooter’s word as Gospel: “I was fearful, so I killed ‘em” would have been good enough.

More than that, the law put handcuffs on the cops, requiring them to presume the shooter was innocent and prohibiting them from making an arrest unless — and only if — they found probable cause after an investigation. If that law had taken effect Aug. 1, as it would have without the veto, the Little Falls shooter would not have been taken into custody, would not have been interrogated and might well still be sitting in his house, cradling his Mini 14 in his lap while Minnesotans scratched their heads. True, a forensic investigation would eventually have produced evidence that the teenage victims had been shot multiple times, and at close range while lying on the basement floor. But there is no telling what would or wouldn’t have happened after that. If Byron David Smith was still puttering around the house, keeping his mouth shut, he might never have been arrested.

“Most sane people shut up,” said Tom Weyandt, a retired St. Paul city prosecutor who wrote an excellent analysis of the flaws in the gun bill for MinnPost last spring. “That law would, in effect, have proved criminal immunity in cases where a defendant claims self-defense. It was such a poorly worded statute, with such strange things in it, that it would’ve taken decades to straighten out. It was a stupid bill.”

Fortunately, it did not become law, because the governor killed it on his desk, with the urging of most law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in the state, who uniformly opposed it. And, now that the GOP majority in the Legislature has disappeared, the bill is not likely to come back.

Let’s be grateful that it didn’t happen. Minnesota, just barely, escaped becoming Florida North.

–30–

Nick Coleman writes that he “is a career journalist working now as the news editor of The Uptake, a non-profit citizen journalism web site based in St. Paul-Minneapolis.” Coleman also runs his own site, The State I’m In. He’d call it a blog and note: “All opinions expressed on this blog are no one’s fault but my own”. He adds he “is a life-long Minnesotan whose ancestors came to the Minnesota River Valley as refugees from The Great Hunger in Ireland before Minnesota was a state, and who later settled in St. Paul, which now is overrun with Colemans.” I would add that his work is interesting and informative no matter where you live.

Lakeland Too Close to Call; but Obama Probably Won

2012-11-22T21:07:03Z

Who won Lakeland in the presidential election? That’s hard to say.

In and of itself, that fact illustrates of a point I’ve tried to make for a while about Lakeland, to ideological allies and foes alike. It is much more politically and culturally in tune with the urban politics of Tampa, Orlando, and most cities than the conservative stronghold of unincorporated Polk County.

Even more than that, it shows that Lakeland as a city is an important political bellwether of the country as a whole. You show me how Lakeland votes in a presidential election, and I bet I can tell you who wins.

People who propose and vote on issues before the Lakeland City Commission — such as, say, same sex benefits for city employees, or protecting our socialist power plant – should remember this. Rush Limbaugh does not rule this city.

Let me stipulate from the start that these percentages are almost impossible to verify empirically. “Lakeland city limits” is not a category that anyone tracks in presidential elections. Instead, votes are reported on the precinct and county levels.

So one needs to perform quite a bit of spreadsheet chicanery to get a city-based picture. But you get a picture. It’s a tie, with the victor depending on a bunch of factors I don’t have the time and ability to verify.

From an Obama point-of-view, my numbers are very conservative. I would bet that I’ve erred on Mitt’s side, perhaps significantly. I’m putting my methodology at the bottom of this post so as not to bore you with numbers.

Let me make clear that the “city of Lakeland” and “the Lakeland area” are very different animals. In fact, they are three different animals: northern suburbs, southern suburbs, and the city itself. Each of those areas makes up roughly a third of what we’ll the “Lakeland Area Vote”. These are votes cast by people belonging to a precinct

Taken as a whole, the Lakeland Area strongly supported Mitt. See the chart below.

North and South Lakeland both topped 60 percent for Romney. See charts below.

The south truly delivered a thumping, holding Obama below 35 percent. The 31-point margin in the south was eight percentage points greater than the margin in the north.

That makes total sense to me culturally. The north and south seem to me different types of red. In terms of schools, it’s McKeel red versus Lake Gibson red. Country club versus country. Overwhelmingly white versus mostly white. These are my hunches based on living here. A better person than me can go crunch the demographic numbers and test them.

Of course, the reason Obama can lose north and south handily and still potentially win the city is that most of these votes, I hypothesize, are outside the city limits. These are Polk County votes.

You see the difference immediately as you move toward the center of the city, where I live. Here is how Central Lakeland voted:

I assume that every single of these votes came from within the city, but that could be wrong. Precincts to the east or west might contain votes outside the city limits. But I think it’s obvious that the Central Lakeland votes account for by far the largest portion of the 39,500 votes the city likely cast. And we know that Central Lakeland precincts cast about 17,300 votes on Election Day. That does not count early/absentee voting, in which 47 percent of all Polk County votes were cast – 117,000 of 247,000.

The Obama campaign targeted urbanish voting – and not just black urbanish votes – for early turnout. So I think it’s likely that early voting in Central Lakeland both exceeded the county early vote rate and gave Obama a much bigger margin than Election Day. But I can’t prove that, and I haven’t built it into my figures.

All in all, the mix of Central Lakeland Election Day votes + early vote projections + the 7000 or so north and south Lakeland votes I think came from the city give me my final margin. Small differences in each category of vote – and margin — will get you different winners. But I think the likelihood of a big Central Lakeland early vote tips the balance to Obama.

My favorite finding came from my home precinct of the Lake Mirror Center. My neighbors and I voted 50.9 to 46.8 on Election Day for President Obama.

The national popular vote, as of now, stands at 50.7 to 47.6 for Obama.

Only the Medulla Community Center among Lakeland-area precincts came closer to matching the national total. But vote-counting continues in a number of states, and Mitt continues to inch downward toward 47 percent (isn’t that delicious). So Greater Lake Morton may get Medulla yet

I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to live in the bellwetheriest of precincts within our bellwether city. If you spend any time at all in my neighborhood, you’ll see that we earn our American self-portrait. Classes mingle, races mingle, sexualities mingle, and ideologies mingle. And there’s not a gate across any of our roads or sidewalks. We see each other and are accountable to each other for our behavior.

Next door and cross-the-street neighbors of mine had Romney signs. My house and another across the street neighbor had Obama signs. We never spoke of it. The sign battle – which is always a somewhat dubious indicator — was like that throughout our neighborhood. House-to-house.

What I love most about America, I think, is the multitudes it contains and the places where they dance around each other – both warily and curiously. I find this happens most often both in urban settings and very small towns. That’s why I love coming from my hometown of Palatka. And that’s why I love living in the core of Lakeland. Both places, I find, produce experiences far less constrained than Christina.

Increasingly, the interior of our city – especially from Memorial Blvd. to the Parkway – is becoming what we think of when we think of a city. Or at least what younger people think of when they think of a city. And Lake Morton is a genuine creative class neighborhood, with its upper-middle class slots filled with people who write or think or build or teach for a living and who want their surroundings to feel alive and open. It’s a place of ferment. Fermentation is the essence of urbanism, in my humble opinion.

Lakeland’s urban elements, its fermenting elements, like those of our country, are in ascendance. I consider myself very fortunate to live among them.

———————————————-

Methodology:

As I mentioned, a large chunk of Polk’s votes — 117,000 of 247,000, 47 percent — were cast either early or by absentee. These non-election-day votes are posted in a single mass on the Supervisor of Elections website, so you can’t differentiate between precincts or cities or anything else.

But you can figure out some useful ratios. There were 247,000 total votes cast in Polk County from a population of 609,000. The city of Lakeland has a population of roughly 98,000. Assuming a constant vote-to-population ratio, it should have cast about 39,500 votes.

However, the Supervisor of Elections website says there are 55 “Lakeland” precincts, which cast a total of 54,000 votes on Election Day alone, not even counting early/absentee. Clearly, the “Lakeland” precincts reflect a population closer to the Lakeland Electric service area – a population that includes thousands of people in the unincorporated suburbs.

I took these “Lakeland” precincts and divided them into north, south, and central, based on the location of precinct. Each geographic area had roughly a third of the vote.

In approaching this, I made two big and potentially troublesome assumptions:

1.) Every vote cast in Central Lakeland came from the city limits.
2.) Early and absentee voting occurred at the same rate and same margins for each geographic location.

The benefit of these two assumptions is that any inaccuracies likely cancel each other out. But I suspect that the second assumption is more harmful to Obama than the first is to Romney in my calculations.

From there, it was just a matter of calculating how many north and south Lakeland votes I needed to get to 39,500. That comes to about 7,000. And then you’re left guessing about the margin of those votes. If they are the margin of the overall “Lakeland Area Vote,” and there’s no Early Vote bounce in Central Lakeland, Mitt ekes out a win by a few hundred votes. But that’s really the only circumstance under which he can win. Obama has many more plausible numerical paths to victory in Lakeland.

Lakeland Commissioners to Vote on New Red Light Camera Contract

2012-11-18T01:35:53Z

This link takes you to the proposed red light camera contract the city commissioners will vote on Monday.

I urge you to read it and contact your commissioner. Give them your thoughts and questions on the contract.

An example question: If the city has four intersections that lose money and those cameras are fully ammorized, could the city close or move those cameras before signing a new contract?

Another example question: Of the 30 potential new RLC locations, what are the numbers of accidents at each attributed to a red light violation?

Yet another example question: What are the number of red light violations that have led to accidents in 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and how do those numbers relate to before the city installed red light cameras?

At Lakeland Local, we did a considerable amount of reporting on the original red light cameras. You can read some of those reports for background.

Start with these two:

Red Light Camera FAQ (2009)

Red Light Cameras: The Dilemma Zone? (2007)

Here is the original series:

1) Series Introduction
2) Why Lakeland? Why Now?
3) The Dilemma Zone?
4) Update
5) City Green Lights Cameras
6) Full Size Lakeland Red Light Camera Locations
7) Red Light Cameras Appear a Lock to be Installed
8) Red Light Cameras in Lakeland: The Costs and the Contract Approved
9) Red Light Camera Update

Mute Swan Protecting Her Cygnets Lands at Lake Mirror

2012-10-16T12:25:57Z

Art is relative. The piece I find a masterpiece, you’re sure to call a waste of materials. The piece you hate today, you may grow to love. I’m hoping that’s the case for “Mute Swan Protecting Her Cygnets” or as I currently call it, “Tribute to Tchotchkes.”

The statute was installed last week in Allen Kryger Overlook Park. Which, you may not know, overlooks the Frances Langford Promenade and Lake Mirror.

The piece sits upon that huge black mound at the base of Main Street. Over the last few months many wondered about that dome of asphalt*. Originally intended to be a reflecting pool, the asphalt mound sat alone for months. It was empty so long, Lakeland Local Downtown magazine once suggested a temporary statue, but we can now see it was destined to be “The Nest.” A base in search of a statue. A very particular statue.

I’ll be blunt. I don’t care for the swan. It is a matter of taste and I am sure there will be plenty of people — I’m betting the majority — who will love it.

After all, we live in Swantown, Florida, The Birthplace of Swans. A city that never fails to “put a swan on it.” A friend, who for his safety I will not identify, recently related that if Lakeland were to be covered in some Pompeii-type disaster, future historians would assume we worshiped water fowl.

Before you comment on how the swan was purchased, I’ll stop you. I know a fair bit of the history. The city press release related how Sandra Trattner and Steve Wolfson, the very good children of Elaine and Wil Wolfson, donated the bronze sculpture to the city.

Steve Wolfson said, “This piece of art tells our family story with the mother swan protecting her young and it will rest near the place where my grandfather stood when he first came to Lakeland in 1909.” He added, “My sister and I are grateful to dedicate the sculpture in honor of our mom and dad. Although we don’t live in Lakeland, the City has been such a huge part of our lives.” — City press release

Though I shouldn’t have to write this, my criticism of the piece in no way reflects on my thoughts about Sandra Trattner, Steve Wolfson or Elaine and Wil Wolfson. I never met his children, but one of my journalistic regrets is that I didn’t interview Wil Wolfson for Lakeland Local. I once met him and knew I should ask him for an interview. I’d often set reminders to call, but I missed my opportunity.** He seemed like a fine man and his influence in Lakeland is without question.

That said, the beauty of the piece is a matter of taste. I find it pedestrian. Something I’d see in miniature on my great-aunt’s knick-knack shelf. It’s yet another swan sculpture in a sea of Swantown swan sculptures.

It wasn’t commissioned to sit upon the shore of Lake Morton, the lake where the majority of our swans reside. It wasn’t even commissioned for our fair city. The artist’s website doesn’t claim it was commissioned for the Queen. If you get to the site in time, you too can purchase one of the nine original room-friendly castings for a mere £6,470 GBP.

Personally, I would have preferred the original reflecting pool or better, a statue of Wil Wolfson created by a local artist. Maybe, with time, I will grow to appreciate it. After all, there are a few Lakelanders who changed their minds about Paley’s “Tribute to Volunteerism.”

I am sure tonight’s dedication will go without a hitch. Tomorrow morning I am positive drivers heading East on Main Street will gaze in wonder of the beauty of the sun rising over the bronze symbol of love. However, I noticed something else this afternoon.

Drivers stopped for the eastbound light on Main at Kentucky get a different view of the swan. Though they’re separated by the lake, Paley’s statue looms over the swan. Like a scene from a 50′s science fiction movie, Volunteerism appears to have two limbs lifted to crush a swan grown gigantic through some mad radioactive accident. The thought of the statues come alive made me smile.

Maybe that swan is already starting to grow on me….

•

* – Or whatever that material is.

** – Journalism students: Rule #1 should be “Never wait to ask for an interview.”

Now This is Important Election News

2012-10-09T17:20:41Z

There are two men up for election and you can make a difference.

They may not be household names, but Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider could use your vote.

If you’re over 40 you know Hütter and Schneider. You’ve called them to mind on some endless expressway drive in the hot Florida sun. Still can’t place them? Let me help…

Vor uns liegt ein weites Tal Die Sonne scheint mit Glitzerstrahl

Die Fahrbahn ist ein graues Band Weisse Streifen, gruener Rand

Jetzt schalten wir ja das Radio an Aus dem Lautsprecher klingt es dann:
Wir fah’rn auf der Autobahn… *

Ah, German isn’t usually music to my ears, but the vocoded drone of Wir fah’rn fah’rn fah’rn auf der Autobahn over the electronic beat-and-hum of Autobahn was the stuff the angels sang in my personal Der Himmel über Berlin.

Yes, you remember now. Kraftwerk! Surely those two syllables bring back memories of some nerdy young male friend with the 22-minute version of Autobahn on his ~~eight-track~~ ~~cassette~~ CD MP3 player. He’d turn it up too loud as he drove everyone South to the beach. Or West through Texas. Or just to school in the morning.

Autobahn is a song designed for the cruise control world written when gas was cheap. It’s not just a classic. It has the power can grab the youth of today. Tune to it on your “Long Drive” playlist and watch your kids suddenly stop to listen intently. You’ll smile as they rock out to the chorus.

Yeah, they may sing “fun, fun, fun on the auto bomb!” but they’re not quoting the Beach Boys out of their Justin Beiber-addled minds. Play it a couple of more times and they’ll be hooked. It’ll become your go-to tune to relieve every tedious car ride. Warning: Make sure they don’t listen to too much Kraftwerk or you’ll wake one morning to find them decked out in black turtlenecks and tight black jeans muttering about Rilkie. (The cure is a lot of Pet Shop Boys, but that has side-effects.)

Now that I’ve reminded you about Kraftwerk, it’s time for the election ad:

Vote Kraftwerk for the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class. No, they won’t improve the economy, healthcare or end the war, but they will raise the speed limit on I-75 **.

Vote now. Please. Think of the turtlenecked children.

•

* -English translation:

In front of us is a wide valley The sun is shining with glittering rays

The driving strip is a grey track White stripes, green edge

We are switching the radio on From the speaker it sounds:

We are driving on the Autobahn

** – That is a lie. Kraftwerk can not raise the speed limit on I-75

Still Watching the Watchers

2012-09-25T09:01:41Z

Someone recently mentioned that closing Lakeland Local was a good thing because I’d stop holding the paper to task. Well…

I still firmly believe that a strong local newspaper, not term limits, is the greatest threat to a corrupt, lazy or inefficient government. It’s the duty of the local newspaper to listen, probe and question everything that comes out of city hall.

It’s the duty of citizens to expect much from their local news source. We have to financially support good journalism and we have to hold the newspaper to task when we feel it has become apathetic or derelict.

Last night The Ledger published Gow Fields to Seek Re-election as Mayor in 2013 Election

News? Not quite. Fields announced his intention on September 15th.

Why does it take nine days to get that story into the paper?

It sounds like a small issue. After all, no one’s life is threatened if that news isn’t published immediately. Still, it speaks to priorities.

Take a look at the Ledger’s archives for the 15th through the 18th to find one priority:

More Papers, Magazines to Publish Kate’s Nude Pictures

Royal Family Fights Spread Of Duchess’ Topless Pics

Palace to File Criminal Complaint Over Kate Pics

Court Orders Magazine to Give Royals Topless Photos

Not to mention 75 photos for this: NFL Cheerleaders, Week 2

Maybe the next time the Mayor should send out cheerleaders to get the Ledger’s attention.

Photos from the Opening of Edgewood Drive West

2012-09-21T14:13:59Z

Looking West on Edgewood Drive West

Bike Lanes on both sides of the new road

CC Keith Merritt talks to City Information Director Kevin Cook before Edgewood opens.

Kevin Cook, Former CC Glenn Higgins, Former Mayor Buddy Fletcher, City Manager Doug Thomas

A multi-use path on the South side of the road from Hardin Blvd. to Lincoln Ave.

Clairy Browne & the Bangin’ Rackettes Wrote a Love Letter

2012-09-13T15:23:16Z

Don’t say “Amy Winehouse.” Don’t even whisper “Adele.”

Clairy Browne’s voice is her own and is so 2012 it’s the 1960s. Darcy McNulty’s sax is dirty and will weave in-and-out every time you think of “Love Letter.”

Watch the other vocalists — Camilla, Ruby Jones & Loretta Miller (No, they’re not just the backup singers) — in the video. They’re in their own world and right in the moment each time the song needs their harmony.

I’ll have to ask Kemp Brinson how proficiently Jules Pascoe plays the bass guitar. I just know Pascoe and Ricky Martyn make a beat I can dance to…and normally I can’t dance.

The guitarist is Peter Bee, and a lesser writer would make a buzz about how well he and Gabriel Strangio fill the room with the details and the spaces to create that 3D sound that makes a song fill your chest.

The band’s from Australia and has played for together for more than three years. I didn’t discover them on the radio. Too often American radio fails to search past our “Welcome to America, Land of the Free, etc” signposts. It took a beer commercial to catch the ear of a friend, who posted a note and I jumped on the bus.

Stand right there, it’ll be back around in three minutes and you can jump on….

PS: At the bottom of the home page, All News is Local will rotate some favorite local and international songs & band interview videos. Refresh if you don’t see one you like.