Here in the Sunshine State

This weekend was the first hot one after an unusually cold winter, a weekend of "tank tops and flip flops" as one of those commercially successful country guys sings. My tastes are, of course, more in tune with those commercially unsuccessful country folk, like Grant Peeples. He played a house concert Saturday way up past the sprawl of Tampa where thickets of natural Florida landscape still (somewhat) linger. I rolled out the yoga mats we stow in the trunk of our car and sprawled out under the trees and clear, blue sky to take in the music.

Sunshine State from David Fusselman on Vimeo.

I also just started reading Sunshine States by Tampa resident Patrick Carr. It's chock full of the non-Disney side of Florida. You know, the dirt-underneath-the-fingernails kind of stuff that makes this place real.