We all know the drama over the murder of 110+ trees in GaYBOR/Ybor City. We still can not believe all the tree haters! That’s another story. On October 31, 2012 Halloween they came to plant a new olive trees in front of MC Film.

    One of the trees that had been cut down and the stump had already removed. The workers started to dig out a hole. There was a tree root in the way. They chopped the root and pulled it out of the ground. The root was in the form of a Tree Person!!!! All the workers stopped, one even ran away.

    We saved the picturesque humanoid like root and put it on display inside MC Film. Our good friend Diana said it was a gift from the Tree Gods to us for fighting for the trees. Stop by and tell us what you think?

    Tea Cup has bartended at many places across Tampa Bay. The most strange and unbelievable place was at “The Vault” on Central Ave in St. Pete. I will never forget the first night there. I asked the owner where the ice machine was and he looked at me very surprised and actually said “WHAT!!! you didn’t stop on the way in and buy some?!?!?” I laughed and said your joking! He wasn’t!!! The promoter pulled some cash from his pocket and sent guys to buy some ice. That wasn’t the strangest part. I was set up in the small back room bar. There was one red strand of Christmas lights over the bar. I complained that we couldn’t see the keys on the cash register. He said it doesn’t matter. Just put the money in the drawer. I then asked what do we charge for drinks. He said, “What ever you think you can get from them?” LOL LOL LOL

    The next week started the Judy B. Goode Show with Paul Thomas. For some crazy reason the owner liked Tea Cup and they got along fine. Over the next 9 months he did crazy strange things. One night at 2AM he said nobody leaves until he does inventory to see how much liquor was used. OK Tea Cup asked “What is the starting inventory?” He said ‘it was in his head”??? LOL LOL

    The night before St. Pete Gay Pride in 2003 or 2004 the owner fired all the bartenders except Tea Cup. He said that all the other bartenders were stealing from him. Tea Cup said he quit too. The owner told Tea Cup that he would not pay Judy B. Goode if Tea Cup didn’t bartend the next day. The next day Tea Cup bartended and Judy was paid.

     The day after that the Vault closed.

    There was this famous drag queen in Tampa who was an alleged coke dealer. We will change her name and call her Carlotta. When not in full drag she looked like woman down on her luck. One day our uncle was visiting us. Carlotta was walking down our alley when she stopped to yell ” hello” with her very heavy PR accent.

     Our Uncle Gale smiled and said, “I have to tell you guys… my god the women in this town are ugly!!!” 

     One night we were coming home from our first MC Film store located across from the University of Tampa. There was a huge two story house fire. We stopped and there in the front yard was Carlotta. She told us that she had just bought new furniture for her whole apartment and of course was very upset. The next day we heard a very different story. Allegedly…. she did not pay her coke supplier and spent the money on new furniture. When he found out the supplier set the house on fire. Who knows if this is true or not but that was the last time we saw Carlotta.