Normally with a headline like that I’d be talking some serious shit and laughing at people. However, I happen to be a fan of REAX and have been pleasantly surprised that they’ve lasted as long as they have. But guess what? Putting out a free awesome magazine costs money and money doesn’t grow on trees. So the crew needs your help and dammit, if you’ve read the magazine before, or read this blog and gone to a music or art show that we’ve listed, you should donate to REAX. Even if it is just a few bucks it is called being “part of a community.” Crazy thought, I know, but the way these things work is that we all need to chip in to make sure that things like this remain. Below is a link to their donate page and below that is the e-mail that Editor Scott Harrell sent out.

So really, don’t be a dick, donate.

Click here to donate

Homegrown Music Monthly’s Editor Asks Bands And Fans For Help

Tampa, Fla. - (August 13, 2009) - In journalism classes, they tell you to lead with the most important information, then continue the story by listing the facts in a descending order of priority.

So here’s the long and short of it: REAX Magazine needs your help.

REAX is and always has been a fiercely independent entity, beholden to nothing but the tastes and imaginations of its staff and readership. Unfortunately, these days, “independent print media” has become a euphemism for “pretty much screwed from the get-go.” Budgets and assets were basically nonexistent when the mag started, and they’ve only gotten tighter as the media and publishing industries have gone into a tailspin.

We’ve done more than just get by. We’ve managed to support local music and art in communities all over the state of Florida while simultaneously covering the national scene and exposing homegrown talent to readers all over the country and beyond - the vast majority of our subscribers at issuu.com reside in other countries. We’ve given aspiring writers an opportunity to interview their heroes and hone their craft while adding cover stories and other prominent features to their resumes.

We’ve thrown some most excellent parties.

And we want to keep doing all of those things.

Now, I’m supposed to write a press release that asks for donations without sounding like we’re in trouble. That inspires the scene to rally around REAX without making it seem like we think the scene owes us something. That lets the bands and fans and readers know that we really need their help without scaring advertisers.

Well, you know what? We are in trouble. We do need your help. And if some of our advertisers paid what they owe us, we wouldn’t have to play the “incredibly handsome free magazine asks its readers to give a little back” card.

Rest assured, REAX isn’t going anywhere. We’re still committed to providing local, regional and national music and lifestyle news. But we’re having a really tough time paying the bills right now. So we’re asking every fan, band, artist and writer to help us out a little bit. If you’ve ever gotten something out of REAX, or support the idea of independent media in an increasingly conglomerated industry, throw us a few bucks for toner or printing costs or gas. Donors will automatically be entered into a series of special drawings for swag like clothes, event tickets, gift certificates, maybe even a bar tab or two. We’ll print your name in the mag’s masthead as a thank you, too, if you want. Many of you have asked over the years what you can do to help REAX and how you can get involved. Well, this is your chance. We’ll be eternally grateful.

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Chris over at Pale Horse has managed to bring the rad once again with his Luchadoreligious mashups now available as prints and on skateboards. The first in the series, Our Lady of Lucha Libre is available now.

He has also been sharing progress shots on his blog, and next up in the series is Christos Mysterio Jr.

Remember, kids, there are cool things afoot, you just gotta dig a little to find them.

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St. Petersburg’s latest burglary victim: the mayor

The city’s rising tide of burglaries has claimed a new and prominent victim: Mayor Rick Baker. The mayor interrupted the burglars himself, according to St. Petersburg police, when he returned to his home on 25th Avenue N about 12:20 p.m. Thursday.

Nice. I bet being tough on crime is suddenly on that dude’s radar now that it is too late. Can we get a few more cops, please? As the story points out, property crimes rose 10 percent in the first half of 2009 compared to the first half of 2008. The ‘burg is turnin’ ghetto!

According to our boy Scott Wagman the ratio of police to peeps in Tampa is 3 police officers for every 1,000 citizens while St. Pete is rockin’ a low 2.14. With the national average being 2.54 we’re sort of sucking on this front.

There are a million critical issues for our next mayor, but there’s no question crime is going to be sitting damn close to the top.

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Wow, it looks like our boy Scott Wagman is better at getting press than we previously thought. This from today’s Wall Street Journal:

For State, Local Office Seekers, Web Ads Present Potential Pitfalls

Looks like that pesky disclaimer that all political ads are required to display was missing from ads the Wagman campaign placed on Google and Facebook and the Florida Elections Commission was none too happy about it.

I’m pretty impressed that the WSJ is saying “the Florida dispute is likely to set a precedent for how state and local politicians advertise on the Web.” If nothing else I’m just happy our boy Scott has put us on the map without a python having to kill a baby.

Wagman’s team is trying to insinuate that the ads aren’t actually ads, but instead links to ads and the ads (which are not ads, but links) that link to ads actually link to ads that contain the appropriate disclaimer. Yeah, I’m confused too. They get points for creativity, but it is pretty clear that they violated state law.

At this point it looks like they can either plead no contest and pay a small fee, or fight and end up with a much larger financial penalty. Based on Wagman’s spending so far I don’t think either of these is anything that will have a significant impact on his campaign. The interesting thing to me is that you can’t put the genie back in the bottle, the vast majority of people that saw the ads won’t see this story which means in the end he wins.

Tip of the hat to Peter Wahlberg for alerting us to the story.

UPDATE: Check out a story from the other Saint Petersblog that was posted in the comments to see the ads in question.

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What the hell are the people at Busch Gardens thinking? First a dude that scares you by txting ur ass, then a creepy DJ, then a pair of ridiculous supposed-to-be-sexy-but-also-scary Siamese twins and now Mugatu from Zoolander? WTF?

They’ve released a teaser trailer, which I must admit is very well shot and edited, but their mascot this year is some kind of an evil fashion designer?! What are these people smoking?

I’ve always pulled for Busch Gardens, who has a hard time competing with Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. Busch does a damn fine job with their haunted houses which are usually top notch, but they continue to force these lame mascots on the event which probably sends people driving to Orlando.

Please hire some new folks to pull the theme together, refresh your haunted houses more frequently (Universal replaces every year, you guys are still rocking mazes from 4 years ago) and put yourselves on the map as a real competitor to HHN. You do get points for Twitter usage, though, so I’ll give you that.

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