Ybor City in Tampa, Florida

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Ybor City in Tampa, Florida

I was in Tampa over the weekend, took the girls to BUSH Gardens. While there, I decided to do some "research", and go to YBOR City, the oldest and best part of Tampa. For over a Century there has been excitement that comes from that neighborhood. The early Cuban settlers in the late 1890's settled this area. From the COLUMBIA restaurant Jose Marti plotted ans stratigized Cuba's Independence from Spain. Then it was the cigar making capitol of the United States. SANTOS TRAFFICONTE made the Mob's decisions from his table there. It remains one of Tampa's best and most popular restaurants. A walk up the street and you see the HISTORY. Then there is the STRIP. A closed off street that stretches for close to a mile, that at night lights up and comes alive.

There are lights, a Gay, Festive atmosphere full of street performers, live acts, carefree dancers and people everywhere. There are Clubs and bars on both sides of the street. The music blares out of these clubs, and fills the street as you walk by. Most are small, some have live bands, some are in the style of the old-time DISCOS we loved so much. It appeared to me that it tries to imitate the Key West festivals and/or South Beach which ALL try to be similar to MARDI-GRAS.

So as I walk down the crowded streets, taking it all in, enjoying all that I see, hear and smell. I find a reggae band playing in the corner. I get a slice of pizza, almost $5 bucks!! I lean back and enjoy. Maybe a hundred people stopped and listened. I moved on, the pizza was better than I expected. But there is no such thing as BAD pizza. Bad Pizza is still pretty good, exception to the rule being LAS VEGA'S!

Anyhow, I pass a red-neck bar, full of idiots listening to country/rock. Not for me, I kept walking. I pass a "Disco" and hear something vaguely familiar. It is KAREN YOUNG'S DISCO CLASSIC, "Hot Shot". But it is the recently released New version , a remix by Deejay Ralfi. I had to stop and check this out. Full of young kids, most couldn't be old enough to be there. Thank God for false ID. I danced my way to the deejay booth, and asked the deejay to play the original 1978 Daddy remix as well. This modernized version, I was sure, would work, right now. I gave the deejay a twenty, watched as he touched some buttons on his lab-top, some more buttons on his mixer, que'd something, though I could see NO record, or CD. Then it was on! The ORIGINAL sounded fantastic, strong and full of energy, I watched as more people came on the dance floor than left it. A lot more, the floor over-flowed as a few dozen more dancers joined in. After 30 years, this DISCO CLASSIC still had what it took to take over the place during PRIME TIME HOURS!! I felt proud.

Soon it was over, I didn't like what he played afterwards. Still never saw a record or a CD?? All computerized??? This is very lame, at least everything was on beat. So out of there I went, and I was back on the street continuing my "research". I come across three "girls" who promise all sorts of things. I'm to old. I move on ,and find this old club that I had been to before, many years ago, EL CENTRO LATINO, where some great Salsa Band used to play. Inside I went. To my horror, it was "Reggeton" being played!!AAHHHH, get me outta there!!

Back on the street, there is a street band playing Old-Disco songs. Not as good as the originals. Their version of BOOGIE WONDERLAND was nothing close to Earth Wind and Fire!!! I walked some more, a few clubs playing rock, a few playing Hip-Hop. Then I see this old theater that used to be a great club once. I go inside, and see naked women everywhere, with these stupid idiotic men giving them money. It was a huge Tittie Bar now!! A stayed to check out some "Tampenias" what these women from Tampa call themselves. They were young, beautiful and full of energy. They could move, and shake it all right. Then they came over to me and me all sorts of promises, for some money. Too OLD, plus How would I explain it to my wife??

As I am back walking still further down the street, I see another $5 dollar slice of Pizza. I have one! And a beer or three! I hear Dance music coming from this one tiny place. Finally, I see a piece of VINYL!! Like a JUNKIE, I run inside and watch as this guy posing as a deejay actually mixes a record. It is on beat!! I sit at the tiny bar and pay $8 bucks for a "Mojito". I listen and watch as this deejay spins records, barely, but at least he is using two 1200's!! The mixes are all on beat, but he was lame!! Still I spent two hours there listening to music that had few lyrics, and hoping a time machine could take me back to the good-old-days. This was pointless! I left, back out in the street, the placed was packed, wall to wall people. Now these streets started getting uglier by the minute. Too many gang-bangers, too many cops, too many fat ugly women!What did I learn from my "Expedition"?? Gone are my "Glory Days". gone was the music, even the experience is different. There were no DISCOS, just a place full of party-goers who no longer had a passion for music, just for sex, getting wasted and apparently for throwing up. There was plenty of that everywhere I looked. No YBOR CITY isn't for me!! Time to go!!

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