20060128 - Steve Williams holds his son Feyi Williams, 3, both of
Tampa, along Bayshore Boulevard as they scream for beads during the
annual Gasparilla parade. Claudia Aguado, 24, of Tampa is at right.
Gasparilla Day features an invasion of pirates from Ye Mystic Krewe,
an anonymous group of important locals, who take over the city of
Tampa. The invasion and parade, featuring massive quantities of beer
and beads, draws about half a million people downtown. (Brian Cassella
/ St. Petersburg Times)
20060128 - The Jefferson High School marching band passes through the
tunnel under the Convention Center as they near downtown towards the
end of the parade route. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060128 - Eric, 5, Brandon, 3, and Andrianna Newsome, 1, show some
pirate love while waiting for beads along Bayshore Boulevard. (Brian
Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060128 - An overpass provided a bit of shade on the hot January
afternoon. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060128 - Jon Benik, 7 gives his mom Jill Benik, of Brandon a kiss
while they wait along the parade route for the festivities to begin.
The bridges to Davis Islands are behind them. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060128 - Marlena Mitchell, 6, of Tampa waits for beads to add to
ones she brought in her hair along Florida Ave. downtown near the end
of the route. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060128 - It takes a lot of ammunition to invade a city, as the deck
of the Jose Gasparilla pirate ship shows after Ye Mystic Krewe
disembarked at the Convention Center. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg
Times)
20060128 - Times photographer Melissa Lyttle, better known as Cap'n
Jezebel Hatchetback on this day, finds an unwilling subject along the
route. (Plank Monkey Seamus / Ye St. Petersburg Times)
20060127 - Competitors practice on the vert ramp before preliminary
rounds of the Tampa Am 2006 at the Skatepark of Tampa, an event that
attracted talent from around the country. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20061020 - Contrary to the writing on the wall behind them, the young
women of Freedom High School don't seem to be showing much 'fear' as
they prepare to take the stage in the preliminary round of the Western
Conference Cheerleader Championships, held at Armwood High School on
Friday night in Seffner. Seventeen district high school cheerleading
teams were scheduled to compete for the championship, and several
thousand fans packed Armwood on Friday. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060120 - Bloomdingdale Senior High School cheerleaders try to peek
into the gym where their competitors were in action. (Brian Cassella /
St. Petersburg Times)
20060120 - The young women of Armwood High School pose for each
other's photos as they prepare to take the stage. (Brian Cassella /
St. Petersburg Times)
20060114 - Joe Stagi (left) performs with his band in the back
of the hall during the the Gasparilla Tea Dance at Palma Ceia Country
Club. Stagi is a Big Band-style bandleader has played at dozens of
Gasparilla balls, on the Gasparilla pirate ship, debutante balls - and
dozens of South Tampa weddings. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg
Times)
20060121 - Billy Swartz, 2 (right) waits for some more floats to pass
by along Bayshore Blvd. with Hugo, 1, and Annette Swartz during the
Gasparilla Children's parade. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060121 - Kids scream for beads from passing floats along Bayshore
Blvd. during the Children's Gasparilla Parade on Saturday, a week
before the big event. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060119 - Desmond Tutu, Nobel Prize laureate and former Archbishop of
Cape Town, South Africa, delivers a lecture on reconcilliation and
forgiveness at the University of South Florida's Sun Dome. (Brian
Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060119 - Nahla Al-Arian unexpectedly stops Desmond Tutu in a hallway
of the Sun Dome before his speech to hand him a book of poetry by her
husband, accused terrorist conspirator and former USF professor Sami
Al-Arian. She ran up to Tutu and and told him her husband was a
"political prisoner" before leaving him with Sami's book "Conspiring
Against Joseph." Tutu took the book into his dressing room with him.
(Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060119 - Desmond Tutu arrives in the Sun Dome and is greeted by
staff from the University of South Florida. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060114 - Kitana Silverlake, 9, of Gibsonton snacks on some popcorn
in the stands during an intermission of the circus performance
Saturday. The Showmen's Association held three shows on their grounds
with volunteer performers and the money went to charities that support
retired circus performers, many of whom have made their homes in
Gibsonton. Silverlake came dressed to perform, but had not worked her
way onto the schedule yet. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060114 - Children seated ringside crane their necks to catch a
unicycle performance at the Showmen's Association charity circus
performance Saturday in Gibsonton. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg
Times)
20060118 - The Tampa Bay Storm's Jonathan Ordway reels in an
interception as he slams into the wall in front of some excited
fans during Wednesday night's scrimmage at the St. Pete Times Forum
against the Orlando Predators. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060114 - 14-year-old Bernard Jackson performs on the saxophone with
the group Equality, a band made up of all local young men 18 and
under, during the Tampa Bay Black Heritage Festival held Saturday in
Al Lopez Park. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060104 - The sun sets over downtown Tampa on a winter evening, as
viewed from in front of the St. Pete Times Forum. (Brian Cassella /
St. Petersburg Times)
20060113 - Larry King waits offstage before beginning his speech
Friday night about his personal history with heart disease at a
pre-opening event for the Pepin Heart Hospital & Dr. Kiran C. Patel
Research Institute at the University Community Hospital. (Brian
Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060113 - Andrew Mulville, 9, holds a 3-year-old American
alligator under the watchful eye of Ronald McDonald after a launch
event Friday outside the St. Pete Times Forum. Launch of the Ronald
McDonald Care Mobile to provide free neighborhood pediatric medical
and dental care in Hillsborough County in partnership with the
University of South Florida's Department of Pediatrics. (Brian
Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060112 - Brandon's Eric Grajales goes against Durant's Sean Padgett
in the 103 weight class to open the match. Durant had high hopes of
breaking Brandon's national record 32-year dual match winning streak,
and a packed house of 2,000 fans turned out for a chance to witness
history. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060112 - Brandon's James Brown locks up Durant's Drew Atchison in
the 125 weight class. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060112 - The Durant student section was ready for an upset as they
cheered their team at the outset. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg
Times)
20060112 - TAMPA - Durant's Matt Wacaser (left) fell to Brandon's Alex
Araoz in the 135 weight class while also picking up a bloody nose.
(Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060112 - Late in the match, the Durant bench looks glum as their
upset hopes dimmed. Brandon extended its streak to 423 consecutive
dual match wins. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060111 - Pro tennis player Stacia Fonseca, 20, who grew up in Lutz
competes at the Grand Slam Futures of Tampa Bay at Hillsborough
Community College. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060110 - John Biddle, 53, of Clearwater is one of two North Pinellas
guys who are finalists in a 'best idea since sliced bread' contest
that is sponsored by a nationwide union. His suggestion to give
employees more flexibility in choosing how to invest their pension
money was originally one of 22,000 online submissions overall. Now
he's one of 21 people still in the running. The grand prize: $100,000.
(Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060107 - Brandon's Eric Grajales (top) twists Cardinal Gibbons'
David Mangold in the 103 weight class in the finals of the "Challenge
the Streak" tournament at Brandon High School. Brandon, who owns the
nation's longest winning streak in high school athletics at over 400
dual meets and dating to 1973, defeated Cardinal Gibbons in the final.
(Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060104 - Nikki Benoit, of Gainesville, and a member of
the Alachua County Animal Activists, protests outside the St. Pete
Times Forum on Wednesday night before the start of the Ringling Bros
and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Other groups represented at the protest
included the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida and the Animal
Protection Institute. API kicks off a campaign in Tampa on Wednesday
protesting what it calls animal abuse at the circus. API will unveil a
mobile billboard it plans to show in other cities that purports to
show chained Ringling elephants. The billboard will be around Tampa
during the circus' run in the city, through Jan. 6. The API has joined
a federal lawsuit against Ringing for violating endangered species act
regarding mistreatment of Asian elephants. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060102 - An elephant pokes outside the train car door while waiting
to unload near Union Station. The animals then marched through
downtown Tampa on their way to the St. Pete Times Forum in advance of
this week's 136th edition of "The Greatest Show on Earth" by the
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20051231 - Chantal Carnes delivers a lecture during the Muslim
American Society of Tampa's youth retreat on Saturday. The retreat was
to be held at at Cedarkirk camp and conference center in Lithia this
weekend. There will be two speakers, one of whom was once questioned
by the government for hosting a terrorism-friendly website. But
Mohammed Moharram, the head of MASTampa, says his organization is
trying to promote "real" moderate Islam, not extremism. That doesn't
matter to right-wing bloggers, who found out about the event and
publicized it this week; Mohammed has been taking death threats and
abusive calls ever since. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20051231 - Iowa fan Drake Fryenberger, 3, rides on the shoulders of
his grandfather Wayne Fryenberger, of Ainsworth, IA, to cheer during
the TECO Energy Parade through Ybor City in advance of Monday's
Outback Bowl. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
