Category Archives: CLICK HERE for Dishing with “Mark & Carrie”
Photos of the Week
Week 
Karen @ Green Iguana
The Women of La France
What will the color be
@ Cristino’s Coal Oven
Island Florist of Ybor
Our Favorite Officer on his Horse
Agora
TGIF @ Czar
Film Fest at MC
Roses from Ecuador @ MC Film
Happy Birthday Miss Joey Brooks
Happy Birthday Sheriff Mike
Great Tattoos @ Honey Pot
New York New York Pizza
Click for More Photos at Ybor City Wine Bar
Caught @ Steam FridaysClick for More Photos at Steam Fridays
Click for More Photos at Hamburger Mary’s
Click for More Photos at The Social
Click for More Photos atJJ’s Cafe & Bar
Click for More Photos at Centro Cantina
Click for More Photos at MC Film
Click for More Photos in GaYBOR
Dishing with Mark & Carrie 10-16-13
What a GREAT Week!!!
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October is Big Month in the LGBT Community
The month is full of historical GLBT events locally and nationally. Last week ended the 24th Annual Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Another great successful community event drawing thousands of attendees. This past weekend had Orlando PRIDE celebrating its biggest PRIDE event to date with over 120,000 participating. Congratulations to Orlando. We hope to start a Tampa PRIDE event soon!
The hopeful 2018 Gay (Olympic) Games in Orlando’s bid was lost to Paris, France was announced this week. They said they will continue to try!
The National Coming Out Day is October 11th. October is also National GLBT History Month. USF Tampa campus have events planned all month for National GLBT History Month education..
The other big events locally are ALL Hallows Ball, the largest private Gay party in Florida. Not to be out done to the traditional Halloween parties scattered all over the region and country.
Historically noted in 1979, the first National March on Washington For Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights took place, drawing an estimated 125,000 participants. The march itself was largely galvanized by the assassination of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician to hold office in California. Speakers at the event included Allen Ginsberg, Audre Lorde and Harry Britt.
Halloween In Ybor City
This year there are many more fun things planned for Halloween. There will NOT be a fence. There will be HUGE Parties at all your favorite clubs. The “Ybor Merchant Association” are planning “Fantasma Fest” There are many events planned including a “7th Ave Bed Race” http://ybornow.com/fantasma-fest/
The Ybor City Chamber of Commerce are planing on Fun Guavaween Eevnts. The full list is at http://www.yborcityonline.com/
Let the Count Down Begin!!!
The Christmas Holidays are right around the corner. “The Ybor City’s Historic Holiday Spirit” Celebrations have just been released. Visit the new fan page at https://www.facebook.com/SnowOn7th Check out the new video at http://snowon7th.com/.
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New at MC Film
2014 COLT Calendars have arrived and they are HOT….also arrived is the new limited edition 2014 December Diamond Mermen Ornaments and Magnets!!!
Stop in MC FILM and see all the new fall underwear & swimwear arrivals from UNICO, XUBA and Andrew Christian.
Week # 2: The Tampa Citizen Police Academy The Mark & Carrie Experience
Special edition
Week # 2: The Tampa Citizen Police Academy
The Mark & Carrie Experience
Communications Center
This week we were off to the Tampa Police Dept. Communications center. The building is just north of Hillsborough Ave in a hurricane bunker. The com center is run under TPD Retired Major Tom Wolff.
Into the training room. This room is also used for special comm event hubs like the RNC last year. Together the instructors have 130+ years of experience. Major Diane Hobley-Burney talked about the importance of a priority 1 call and how never to say there is a gun when there is not.
Officer Maginnis took us thru a variety of live call-ins and videos from TPD helicopter. He explained there are 3 different sections in the call center. The 911 calls. this is where the police and fire/EMS calls come in at. The second section is Dispatch. This is where they send out the police and or fire departments. the third area is non-emergency. this is the administration department and where the most irate calls come into.
Over 30,000+ calls come in every month. a priority #1 call is dispatched in 45 seconds or less. priority #2 are dispatched in 2 minutes and follow standard operating procedures. The peak time for calls is 5PM
Diana Hall a 16 years veteran took us into the main Comm Center. We were surprised at how small the room actually was. On the wall were 3 TV’s the outer two both had Bay News 9 on them. The center HDTV played Fox News. The supervisor is in the center of the room with the 3 different sections around it . On one side is also the fire department dispatch. Diana explained how greatly improved are the communications between FDLE and other agencies with the Tampa Police.
There were many different screens for an assortment of things. Phone calls pop up with maps & locations. Many times the callers are confused and give the wrong locations. They speak English & Spanish but do have translators avaliable a short call away. Everything seemed to going great but new software would help here.
Officer Alicia Kaufman of TPD Forensics Investigations was a real hoot. The TV’s portrayal of CSI and actual local forensics are as different as night & day. No 60 minute results! The Tampa department is made up of 17 officers, 3 supervisors and one manager. This group has covered an impressive 6,500 calls last years.The officers are usually the last to the crime scene. Here they collect finger prints, DNA & misc thing. 100’s of photos are taken. Then everything goes to the Tampa crime lab with the results given over to the detectives.
Next week we will be with the TPD K-9, Mounted Horse Patrol & Air Service Demo. Can’t wait!!!
Tea Cups Birthday
A HUGE Thanks You to the hundreds of people who sent me Birthday Wishes on facebook and in person. The Celebrations started on Thursday and went full power into Monday Night! WOW what a Crazy Fun weekend!
Again, Thank You for a memorable Birthday!
NEW at Carmine’s on 7th Ave.
Who can go a week without Carmine’s famous baked chicken, yellow rice and black beans? Not us! The Great Food is still there but the are many new changes inside. Owner Gino gave us a glimpse of some of the new changes in the works.
There is retro Edison lighting and retro light fixtures, white subway tile in the newly relocated sandwich area and fun collectibles everywhere. A private room for special events and parties is also an added feature.
The new upgraded seating comes with comfortable chairs and an old world charm.
Through the knee high to ceiling windows is still one of the best views of 7th Ave. Best of all the friendly management and staff are all there to make you feel right at home.
Stop in and see the changes right here in GaYBOR/Ybor City.
Mark & Carrie Nephieu/Niece of the Week
Jeff Shepetuk
Born in New York, Jeff now calls Tampa his home. A recent USF graduate who enjoys hockey & good times with his friends.
You Can Not Make This Up
The Ye Mystic Krew of the Umbrella
Our entire life together we have been active in Human & Equal Rights organizations and fighting homophobia. Just this week we were criticized for being way to controversial. But being controversial is all part of being a journalists and a great writer.
We remember back in the 1990’s. We were in a Gay Krewe called, “The Ye Mystic Krew of the Umbrella’s”. The Krewe helped in local charity benefits, praised by HRC and Ellen DeGeneres for representing the GLBT community and a sponsor of a Gay play, “Mama’s Ghost” at the Silver Meteorite Theatre in Ybor City. (This theatre is still here today). This play went onto NYC Times Square for a major theatrical run.
On a super fall Sunday afternoon after the play we all walked down the Ybor City sidewalks with our Rainbow umbrellas open. The after party was at a new fun beer bar. Our group of over 60 members and friends had made arrangements in advance for a private party in a private room. The party went off with out any problems. Our bill of over $1,700 was paid in full.
The bar was also offering a fun beer mug group. You purchases a beer mug and then got discount & samples over the year. These purchased mugs were all displayed on the wall and were all over the top decorated up. A large number of memebers in our group purchased the bar mugs including us (Mark & Carrie).
Back at our MC FILM Gay Pride Store on Kennedy Blvd., Mark took two rainbow stickers and cut out a “M” & “C” stickers for the mugs. We took the mugs back with us and had a fun time. I think the 1st beer was 1/2 off.
A close Gay couple friends of ours were visiting us in town the next week. We went with our visiting friends and 4 other couples back to show off the bar establishment. Ybor City is a fun unique district and yes is very historical!
For some reason the bartender could not find our mugs anywhere, yet there was plenty of empty shelving.
Finally the owner? manager? came over to us & said, “You know we can not allow that in here!” with a surprise look we asked, “Allow What?”.
He then replied, “You know all the Gay stuff, your stickers on the mugs was making our customers too uncomfortable.”
Embarrassed, the 10 of us all got up and left. To this day we have not spent another penny in that bar.
