REBELNIKO NICK FARRIS

Flickr: “hongkongwillie”Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photo
June 16, 2008 by HONG KONG WILLIE

HONG KONG WILLIE HONGKONGWILLIE
Flickr: “hongkongwillie”Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world,

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/show/

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=757143…

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/72157605574702272/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/721576055747022…

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=7215760557…

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/72157605519455826/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/721576055194558…

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=7215760551…

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/72157605481037502/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/721576054810375…

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=7215760548…

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/72157604204622657/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/721576042046226…

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=7215760420…

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/72157602304015992/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/721576023040159…

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=7215760230…

HONG KONG WILLIE A TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION. HONG KONG WILLIE IN TAMPA, LOCATED ON I 75 EXIT 266. A LITTLE OLD FASHION TOURIST ATTRACTION THAT HAS LIVED THE LIFE OF BEING GREEN. HONG KONG WILLIE GREEN SHOPPING BAGS AND HONG KONG WILLIE ART, IS A FORM OF LIFE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN LIVING LIFE AND TO FIND SOLUTIONS IN TRULY REUSE. HONG KONG WILLIE HAS FOUND OUT THE WAY THAT WE CAN REUSE MANNY OBJECTS IN OTHER FORMS. HONG KONG WILLIE ART AND THE ART INSPIRED FROM LIVING IN THE FLORIDA KEYS AND THE KEY WEST UNDERSTANDING THAT COMPILING ABOUT SOMETHING IS LIKE WAKING A DEAD MAN UP, NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN. THE KEY WEST WAY OF LIVING IS TO DO WITH ONES SELF. HONG KONG WILLIE HAS SEEN THROUGH THE YEARS THAT THE SOLUTION IS WITH IN ONE SELF. HONG KONG WILLIE RAISED ON A LANDFILL IN TAMPA SAW MANY USES FROM WHAT PEOPLE WOULD DISCARD. ARTIST FIND THAT PRECEPT IS WITH IN ALL OF USE. THE TERM GREEN IS A VERY IMPORTANT WAY FOR THE FUTURE. WE ALL NEED TO BE POSITIVE AND LOOK FOR A NEW WAY OF USING OUR RESOURCES. HONG KONG WILLIE IF YOU LOOK THE NAME STARTED IN 1958 IN A ART CLASS. STOP BY AND LOOK FOR WAYS THAT HONG KONG WILLIE HAS USED OBJECTS IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS THAN THE FIRST USE. REMEMBER WE ALL CAN MAKE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE ON THIS WORD. HONG KONG WILLIE TRIES TO MAKE LESS OF A FOOTPRINT ON THIS EARTH.

COMMENTS ADOUT HONG KONG WILLIE. A TAMPA ART GROUP IN TAMPA. LOCATED ON I 75 TAMPA EXIT 266. A TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION. READ ADOUT HONG KONG WILLIE LIVING A LIFE OF REUSE. HONG KONG WILLIE TRYING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO LEAVE LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS EARTH.

User Rating: Good
by samsteeleinc 08/13/2007
HONG KONG WILLIE: What a pleasurable tampa tourist attraction experience. Amazing art truely inspired by the keys and key west. Long live the Hong Kong Willie Studio and Gallery,we all love the Brown family with their Google Car, Google Truck, Keys Helicopter.

User Rating: Good
by plzprsrv 07/13/2007
HONG KONG WILLIE: Renown artist family truly was green well before term was applied to our modern world…Check out Charley Belcher’s news special on HONG KONG WILLIE @ hongkongwillie.blogspot.com GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE
Sam said…
These preservation artists have not only mowed the right of way on Morris Bridge for over 25 years, but have also been an integral part of keeping the area tidy and well kept through construction projects, excessive trash buildup due to interstate traffic, overall, being considerate citizens in their beloved community. I do wish for those concerned to research my comments, and validate my claims.

10:08 AM

Jillian and Robert said…
Go Go…Go Willie Go! We have lived here forever and never thought to stop and see just what the reason was for these objects we see daily, till we saw “Google Hong Kong Willie” Thanks. Kept up all the good work you do!

4:49 PM
Gandolfo said…
I just moved to this area from South Tampa where we were worried about the encroachment of big business. If it were not for the unique eclectics this would be a boring cookie cutter world. If you have to point a finger just remember there are three more pointing back at you. I believe it is their property and in the U.S. of America for the most part they have the right to do what they want there, be it business or artistic expression. If it was not for some free thinkers we would not be free, this is usually forgotten until it is your rights that are violated or legislated out of existence. In the days ahead we should be glad that someone has the foresight to use their rights before we loose them. By the way J.C. take a chill pill and watch some more Boondocks, I know where you sit.

9:55 PM

robo said…
while visiting my mother at the cancer center in tampa, i had the distinct pleasure of meeting joe and kim. as a key west resident, i was shocked and incredibly pleased that the bulldozers of progress, read corporate greed and environmental destructionists, have been unable to replace “Hong Kong Willie’s” with another business traveller, cookie cutter hotel on their property. get over it tampa, live and let live and stop mowing down all the trees. enough is enough.

3:52 PM

rebelniko said…
I know that this preservation art group is gaining in popularity as the true story unfolds. What a small world it is when you are already have others using your name for their own agenda. That’s life in the internet world, I guess?

bjccotton said…
Hong Kong Willie is Awesome!! My husband and I had the pleasure of vacationing in Tampa and stayed at a hotel near the artistic contribution. We spent three days having such a good time betting back and forth on exactly what the objects were…as soon as we got home we had to google Hong Kong Willie to see who was right. Just remember, one person’s “eye sore” is another person’s most memorable part of a vacation. Keep on “sticking it to the man” Willie, WE LOVED IT!!!

5:07 PM

logan said…
the car, the truck, and the son have been at my school. the art is just that art, expression of the heart and soul. i have been touched by its genius.

10:26 PM

rebelniko said…
I have met with the Hong Kong Willie preservation group recently. This group is based upon ART (with a Key West Style) which appears to be lost now. Tourists that go to the Keys probably don’t realize that most of what you purchase to remember your vacation was manufactured in China, Taiwan, Pakistan, and other foreign countries. Whatever happened to made in America? This art group will recycle anything that would clog our dump sites and creatively make something else out of it. THIS DOES INCLUDE THE MANY USED BOUYS FOUND ALL AROUND FLORIDA. On the side of their current location is a giant Christmas tree made out of boueys and thick rope from ships. The main thing that I learned from talking to Hong Kong Willie Preservation Art Group is that it’s a philosophy and a lifestyle that these people actually live. It’s too bad that America doesn’t have more people like this.

11/15/06 4:24 PM

8 months ago jasper reinhold 0
WHAT A PLACE. THIS IS A PLACE OF REAL ARTIST. ARTIST WHOM ARE NOT FULL OY THEM SELF. ARTIST WHO HAVE LIVED THE LIFE OF A TRUE ARTIST. ARTIST WHO HAVE MADE PEOPLE THINK. JASPER REINHOLD

HONG KONG WILLIE TAKE A LOOK AT THE GREEN ARTIST. A TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION LOCATED ON I75 EXIT 266 TAMPA . LOOK FOR THE BUOY TREE.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE HONG KONG WILLIE GREEN SHOPPING BAG AT TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION

HONG KONG WILLIE ON FOX TV

THIS IS A LOOK AT HONG KONG WILLIE IN THE NEWS

GREEN SHOPPING BAG SHOP HONG KONG WILLIE TAMPA
TRUE GREEN SHOPPING BAG. HONG KONG WILLIE GREEN SHOPPING BAG HUT, HONG KONG WILLIE TAMPA GREEN ARTIST. HONG KONG WILLIE ARTIST IN TAMPA. HONG KONG WILLIE AT I 75 EXIT 266 TAMPA. A SMALL TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION, HONG KONG WILLIE STARTED AS A FISHING TACKLE SHOP IN THE EARLY 1980S. BE SURE TO CHECK OUT HONG KONG WILLIE WHILE IN TAMPA. GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE

BAG MADE FROM 99.9% REUSED MATERIAL. TODAY HONG KONG WILLIE SHOWED THE GREEN BAG. AT THE STARBUCKS, IN TAMPA, FLORIDA. 33637 ON FLETCHER. TALKING TO SUSAN, THE MANAGER, IT WAS DIFFERENT. STARBUCKS, WHAT A COMPANY, TRYING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IN THIS TIME TO SEE A LOOK LIKE I SAW FROM SUSAN, PEOPLE AND COMPANY’S LIKE STARBUCKS, HAVE A DREAM AND PUT ACTION BEHIND IT. IT WAS NEAT TO SEE THEM EXCEPT THE GREEN BAG MADE MOSTLY FRON COFFEE BAGS. COFFEE BEANS GOING TO THE ROASTER, CARING A OBJECT TO ANOTHER USE AND THE BAGS CARING OBJECT FROM A STORE SAVING PLASTIC BAGS FROM OUR LANDFILL. WE ARE MADE FOR A REASON, EVERYONE OF US CAN LEAVE LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS EARTH.

FOLLOWING THIS PART IS SOME OF WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN OR ON FOX TV TAMPA, ON WUSF USF RADIO, AND OTHER HISTORY ON HONG KONG WILLIE

HONG KONG WILLIE ART GROUP ON WUSF .ORG
HONG KONG WILLIE ON WUSF.ORG. SLIDE SHOW AND COMMENTARY ON ART GROUP. HONG KONG WILLIE KEY WEST ARTIST AND TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION. HONG KONG WILLIE GROUP OF ARTIST TELLING HOW TO USE OBJECTS FOR MANY DIFFERENT PURPOSES. LOOKING OUT SIDE OF THE BOX, LEARNING TO FIND SOLUTIONS IN A POSITIVE WAY. COMPILING WITHOUT A SOLUTION IS LIKE TRYING TO WAKE A DEAD MAN UP. NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN. THE SOLUTION TO LEAVING LESS OR A FOOT PRINT ON THIS EARTH IS LEFT UP TO EACH ONE OF US. FINDING THE POST IVE SIDE AND FOCUSING POSITIVE ENERGY IS CHANGE FOR THE GOOD. HONG KONG WILLIE HAS FOR MANY YEARS LOOK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX. TAKE A LOOK AT THE OTHER STORY TOLD ON RADIO ON WAY TO CHANGE AND THE SOCIAL IMPACT WE ALL CAN MAKE. TO LIVE AND HELP AND NOT COMPLAIN AND SPEND THAT ENERGY TO LEAVE LESS OF A FOOT PRINT IS A GOOD THING. HONG KONG WILLIE ON THIS GREAT DAY THANKS BRAD, AND USF.

HONG KONG WILLIE TAMPA ARTIST LOOKING ALWAYS FOR NEW IDEALS TO PASS ON, TIPE OF THE DAY REUSE 2LITER SODA BOTTLES FOR FROZEN ICE IN THE COOLER

tampahappenings.creativeloafing.com/gbase/BestOf/BestOfAw…

www.wusf.usf.edu/SoundSlides/897News/070928_HK_Willie/pub…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV3Aj85I84

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpfY_mTSmlI

hongkongwillie-preservationist.blogspot.com/2007/08/prese…

hong-kong-willie-blog.blogspot.com/2007/09/hong-kong-will…

hongkongwillie.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6EF8E41893965352!…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-gE1wckw8I

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSYVu32Yv60
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bgb5ABTups

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y13nIldqYGs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZDfl_emTI4

tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:154918

A Bloggy Hong Kong Willie
Hong Kong Willie on LIVESpaces
A Preservationist PT.2
Hong Kong Willie PT.2
Hong Kong Willie PT.3
Hong Kong Willie on YouTube
MySpace Profile

hongkongwillie.multiply.com/journal/item/12/GREEN_SHOPPIN…

www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=…

hong-kong-willie-blog.blogspot.com/2007/09/hong-kong-will…

hongkongwillie.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6EF8E41893965352!…
hong-kong-willie-blog.blogspot.com/2007/08/artist-hong-ko…
hongkongwillie-preservationist.blogspot.com/2007/08/true-…

THE NAME HONG KONG WILLIE SINCE 1958

GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE
HONG KONG WILLIE THE NAME OF THE ARTIST. IN 1958 HIS MOTHER TOOK HONG KONG WILLIE TO AN ART CLASS. THE NAME STARTED THEN. AN ART TEACHER WHEN DOING CRAFTS OUT OF GERBER BABY BOTTLES, MADE A STATEMENT, IN HONG KONG REUSE WAS COMMON. AT THAT TIME HE THOUGHT THIS WAS VERY INTERESTING. HIS FATHER HAD LOW LAND, AT THAT TIME LANDFILLS WERE COMMON ALSO. THE COUNTY HAD TOLD HONG KONG WILLIE’S FATHER, IT WAS SAFE, BUT AS WE KNOW NOW THIS WAS NOT SO. SOMETHING CAN COME FROM BAD TO BE GOOD. HONG KONG WILLIE THE NAME CAME FROM THAT ART TEACHER IMPRESSING ON THAT YOUNG MIND THAT OBJECTS MADE FOR ONE USE COULD BE FOR MANY OTHER USES. HONG KONG FOR THE NEAT CONCEPT. WILLIE FOR AN AMERICAN NAME. SO FOR MANY YEARS HONG KONG WILLIE HAD A LIFE OF REUSE. HONG KONG WILLIE SAW FORMS IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT. HIS LIFE NOW WAS MEANINGFUL, KNOWING THIS WAS AND WOULD BE HIS LIFE. ART MADE FROM FOUND OBJECTS, MAKING LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS WORLD. ART AND ART TEACHERS, HOW IMPORTANT. FOR THE ONES THAT HAVE, AND THE ONES THAT HAVE NOT. MEDIA CAN BE FOUND. NOW 49 YEARS LATER, WE KNOW BEING GREEN IS IMPORTANT. WE NEED TO LOOK AT THIS VERY CAREFULLY. OUR CHILDREN AND OUR WORLD NEED A DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDING. OBJECTS CAN BE USED IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS. HONG KONG WILLIE THE TONS OF OBJECTS IN HIS LIFE THAT HAVE BEEN USED, WITH OUT MUCH CHANGE. SO FOR THAT ART TEACHER WHAT SHE DID FOR MY LIFE THANK YOU, FOR HONG KONG THANK YOU, FOR AMERICA, THANK YOU, FOR THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE HELPED, THANK YOU FOR THE 76,266 VIEWS OF OUR BLOGS SINCE SEPTEMBER OF 2006. I STILL HAVE THE GERBER BABY BOTTLE TILL THIS DAY. HONG KONG WILLIE

THIS IS GREEN. HONG KONG WILLIE LIVES GREEN. SINCE 1958, HONG KONG WILLIE HAS BEEN GREEN. HONG KONG WILLIE LIVED ON A LANDFILL. WHAT A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE. BEING GREEN IS LEARNING TO USE AN OBJECT FOR MANY PURPOSES. THIS BAG WAS A COFFEE BAG THE BEANS CAME TO THE ROASTER. NOW IS A SHOPPING BAG. HONG KONG WILLIE A KEY WEST ARTIST AND TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION, HAS USED MANY OBJECTS FOR MANY USES. TAKE A LOOK AT THIS TRULY GREEN SHOPPING BAG. THE BUOYS, THE CRAB TRAP FLOATS, THE BOTTLES, AMERICA NEEDS TO COPY OTHER COUNTRY’S LESS FORTUNATE THAN US. HONG KONG WILLIE TRIES TO BE GREEN IN EVERY WAY. LET EVERYONE TRY, AND LEAVE LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS WORLD. GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE.

ANGLERS TAKING THE BAIT

SHOPS LONG HOURS PAY OFF FOR COUPLE

JEFF STIDHAM
TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 22, 1989

North Tampa- The night light shines like a beacon on the bait shop’s buzzer, beckoning to early morning and nocturnal fishermen.
At A-24 Hour Bait the workday doesn’t end. The rustic store sits off the Fletcher Avenue ramp to Interstate 75 South. A windowless blue mobile home and worm bed are it’s companions on a one-acre slice of land.
The buildings are a sharp contrast to their new neighbors, Hidden River Corporate Park rising out of the woods on the north and growing Tampa Telecom Park on the west.
Owners Joe and Kim Brown work about 20 hours a day, occasionally resting in “the cave”, the mobile home they live in behind the store.
The couple’s shop is well stocked with shiners and worms.
“What we try to do here is carry the best of baits,” Joe Brown said.
He’s got night crawlers from Canada, salamanders from North Dakota and wigglers from his own worm bed behind the store. A refrigerated tank is home to cured shiners and minnows sedated by the cold.
“Wild shiners in a non-refrigerated tank would be going crazy,” Brown said as he peered into a tank of fish separated by size. “They’d be jumping around trying to commit suicide. With the cold water they’re pretty sedate, but you let the water (temperature) rise, a shiner would be like a race horse.”
Larger shiners are selling for $24 a dozen a dozen today because the fish are dispersed and spawning, so they’re are difficult to catch. Normally, large shiners cost around a $1.50 each, Brown said.
Good bait, proximity to the Hillsborough River and convenient hours lure in fishermen.
“It’s all the time,” Brown said. Catfish lovers are out early to snag popular fishing spots, and during snook season there’s a real run for shiners, he said.
It’s not uncommon for someone to ring the bell at 3 a.m.
“I stick my head out of the door real fast and tell them I’ll be there. It takes a lot for someone to ring a bell that time of the day,” Brown said.
The Browns opened their shop about two years ago with a top notch but small stock of bait and tackle. Born anglers, they knew it was hard to get bait late at night or early in the morning, so they decided to stay open 24 hours.
Now they think their hard work is paying off. The shop has gradually grown to include all kinds of lures and bobbers, rods and reels. Hillsborough River fishermen know they’re there. And others find out every day, Brown said.
“I’ve seen this place a bunch of times, off the interstate, but this is the first time I’ve been here,” customer Michael Walker said one afternoon. “We got a pretty good (fishing) hole near here, so this will suit us just fine.”
Walker said he’s been to a few saltwater bait shops that were open till midnight.
“But I don’t know any that stay open past midnight,” he said.
Although sometimes blurry-eyed when he waits on customers, Brown is never too tired to swap fish stories and other tips.
Normally when he’s fishing with a shiner, Brown hooks the bait behind the rear dorsal fin with a Khale hook. A bass usually grabs a smaller fish head first, so the gills and fins smooth back as the larger fish swallows its victim, Brown said.
But during spawning season, like now, he uses a straight hook and punctures the crease at the bottom of the shiner’s mouth, hooking upward through a hole in the snout.
“Now bass are eating and striking so hard they take him and swallow him,” Brown said.
The shop has given Brown more than a chance to make a living and tell stories. A former designer of conveyor systems, he gave up two houses, boats and other luxuries to move to the woods 10 years ago.
“I had what you’re supposed to want,” Brown said. “I just wasn’t happy.”
But he loved the river, and he lived for years on the Hidden River property north of his shop. Today he said he thinks the land surrounding his home will become Tampa’s version of Central Park.
“I had the foresight to have bait and tackle because there’s 25,000 acres of Southwest Florida Water Management district property adjoining the river that will always be public,” Brown said.
Lettuce Lake Park, Trout Creek, Wilderness Park, Hillsborough River State Park and other natural settings also are permanent parts of the landscape, he said.
As the area grows, the Browns hope their business will follow suit. They feel lucky that they’re in the middle of a developing area minutes from the pristine quiet of the undeveloped Hillsborough River.
Soon Joe Brown plans to have canoes for rent.
“We’re going to grow slow, we don’t believe in carrying debt,” he said. “It takes a lot to start a business.” We’ve had to sacrifice, but we wouldn’t trade it.”

HILLSBOROUGH RIVER ROLLIN’ ALONG
FRANK SERGEANT
Tribune Outdoors Editor

The Hillsborough River has seen some tough times, It’s been dammed and drained and polluted and sea-walled almost to the point of death.
But it keeps on hanging in there. Old man river just keeps on rollin’.
The upper river, above the Fowler Avenue bridge, shows fits and starts of the sort of thing that brought the lower river to its knees years back. But all things considered, its still got a whole lot to offer a city-world wearied soul.
I went up there a week or so ago with Joe Brown and his fishing guide pal Ted Sawyer, both Hillsborough River fans since they wore knee pants.
Joe asked ask me to ride along to take a look at some of the trashing problems that are starting to peak out here and there along the shore lines, and we saw more of it than you’d hope to.
But what we saw mostly was rich-looking black water and tall, thick cypress dams, lots of birds and fish and turtles. And solitude.
It’s not pristine wilderness. But considering it’s within shooting distance of the downtown towers of a major American metropolis, the upper Hillsborough ain’t bad. Not bad at all.
The river snakes through the backyards of a number of homes and an apartment complex or two until it slips under the Fletcher Avenue bridge. From there on up, city turns country in a hurry. There’s a landing at Tampa Palms, but you can’t see any buildings, and for much of the rest of it, the river swamp spreads out all around the flow, a lot like it must have when Tampa was a two-bit fishing village 10 miles away.
There are lots of interesting creeks to explore, including several that Joe said were excellent bassing spots.

HILLSBOROUGH RIVER ENDURES DESPITE TRASH

Lettuce Lake, the only open spot in the river, gave us a look at the county park tower where folks so inclined can view the swamp without getting their feet wet. And a little further up, we found the buzzards.
They come in hundreds, maybe in thousands, Joe said, every winter. They show up in November, they stay until March. They festoon the trees in dozens, fight and hold discussions along the banks, bath in the river.
Yep. Buzzards bath.
Apparently they get a bit too strong even for themselves after a time. We watched a dozen of them flutter like sparrows in a bird bath as they washed up along a sandy shoreline near Nature’s Classroom.
The birds roost in the trees along the river at night, fly out over the surrounding pasture land by day looking for assorted horribles to fill their stomachs.
Sometimes they go visit the downtown towers, where they whirl for hours on the thermals of heated air rising up the glass cliffs.
We found the trash piles, too. Heaps of plastic cups, beer cans, paper plates, the fallout from the civilization that bustles around the edges of this little piece of wilderness.
Joe said he can’t understand why folks would take the trouble to come out here, to get away from the pollution and the ugliness of some parts of the city, and then turn the shorelines into a dump wit their leftovers.
I couldn’t either.

FISHING THE RIVER

Joe Brown runs 24-Hour Bait, on Morris Bridge Road just off Fletcher Avenue. It’s the nearest bait shop to the river, and the only one that operates around the clock. (Well, sort of around the clock. If you show up at 3 a.m., you have to press the buzzer and wait a couple of minutes until Joe rolls out of the sack and comes on down to the shop to serve you.)
The folks who buy bait there return with stories of their successes, and this along with his own long angling experience has allowed Brown to put together a pretty good picture of what works, when, on the river.
Wild shiners, Joe says, are the choice offering for the river’s large mouth.
“We sell ’seasoned’ shiners that have been in chilled, chemically treated water for a week or two. This gives them a slightly silvery color, makes their scales a lot tougher and makes them stay alive on the hook longer than domestic shiners or even fresh-caught wild ones,” he says.
Brown says the way to fish the shiners is to use a Kahle-style hook with a big bend, made of light wire so the bait stays lively. The hook should be inserted under the skin back of the dorsal fin. The bait is then either free-lined, with no weight or cork, or with a cork only, around beds of floating grass and along the deeper cypress shores.
Joe says that simply putting a couple of the baits out behind the boat and letting it drift with the current will also turn up plenty of fish.
He says the side creeks are good spots to fish plastic worms, rigged Texas style with a slip sinker. Colors favored by river experts are tequila shad, red shad and crawfish.
Joe says that the waters above the “pop-off canal” dam, which shuttles water to the Palm River in time of flood, are good for top-water plugs early and late in the day.
Brown is also a catfish angler, and notes that there are plenty of spots where big channel catfish gather in the river.
“Every major bend has a deep hole along the outside bank,” he notes. “Most of these holes have big catfish in the bottom.”
In fact, some of the holes marked nearly 30 feet deep on Ted Sawyers LCD depth finder, and suspended dots showed there were plenty of cats waiting in the depths.
Brown said that cut shiners were the best bait for cats. He said the fish usually feed right on the bottom, so the bait should be weighted with plenty of lead to make it hit and stay put.

PANFISH PLENTIFUL

He said speckled perch or crappie have been biting well in the river for several months, and should stay active through March.
Some of the best spots, he noted, are the hole just below the Fletcher Avenue Bridge, and the island near the upstream end of Lettuce Lake. He said Missouri minnows about two inches long are the best bait in either location.
The river offers good fishing year around, but water levels drop in late winter and early spring.
This means possible problems for boatmen new to the river, according to Brown, because there are many unmarked rocks and stumps, particularly near the Fowler ramp.
Guide Ted Sawyer suggests using only shallow-draft aluminum boats during the low water period, and proceeding slowly until you learn the water.
If you’d rather let Sawyer show you around, he can be contacted at 949-7517. The number at A-24 Hour Bait is 989-2248.
Joe has one request, however you fish the river: take a trash bag with you.

‘FISH JOCKEYS’ HAVE RADIO LISTENERS HOOKED
Frank Sargeant
Tribune Outdoors Editor
Wednesday, July 19, 1995

They call themselves the Mutt and Jeff of Saturday morning fishing shows.
On the air they are argumentative, querulous and cantankerous by their own admission, but Jim Lee and Joe Brown of WFNS, 910 AM’s “GETAWAYS” radio program get along just fine when they hop into a boat and head out for some redfish and snook action, as they did a few weeks ago with captain Tod Romine of Bradenton.
Lee is an insurance man at his “real” job, while Brown runs Tampa’s only 24-hour bait shop. Both say the Saturday morning radio gig is more for fun than profit, but the 25 weeks since they started they’ve managed to collect enough sponsors to break even and enough listeners to put them in the ratings book.
“It ruins your Friday’s nights because you have to get up at 3:30 on Saturday morning to be on the air by 6,” Lee said. “And we usually like to get together at least once during the week to go over the next show and plan the sound effects.”
The program not only covers hunting and fishing, but also family adventures like locating shark’s teeth on the beaches near Venice and going on-site at Gatorland at feeding time.
” We enjoy a lot of foolishness on the air,” Brown said. ” We want to provide information, but more than that we want to entertain. It’s humbling to know you’re just a push of the button away from disappearing from your listeners.”
For a part of the trip on Sarasota Bay, the fish were somewhat humbling, too, with the temperature around 95 degrees and baits scarce, Tod Romine had to delve into his bag of tricks to turn the fish on. But after a few dry holes, he managed.
” The big problem with fishing this summer has been the bait scarcity in this area due to the red tide,” Romine. ” There’s lots of little stuff on the inside that are good for chum, but the larger sardines we want as bait are very hard to find.”
Fortunately, Romine had a “sardine mine” in a 15-foot deep hole in the grass flats where he managed to collect several dozen 4-inch baits with five or six throws of the 10 foot net. He then visited a spot near the mouth of the Manatee River where one toss of of a small-mesh net captured all the chum-sized sardines he could lift aboard.
” I like small sardines for chum because they turn the fish on but don’t fill them up,” Romine said. ” Once you get them popping on top, put out a bigger bait and you’re hooked up in a hurry.”
Lee caught the first fish, a snook of about 23 inches. He pulled it aboard and was still posing for photos when Brown nailed one of about the same size.
” That fish is just like mine, only an inch shorter,” Lee told him.
” Yeah , but it’s an ounce heavier,” Brown said.
” Mine has a higher IQ,” Lee said.
” He wouldn’t have hit if I hadn’t put it in there just right.
” Mine is better looking,” Brown said.
” Yours has a crooked nose.”
And so it went. We managed 15 snook total, all but a couple smaller than the legal 24-inch minimum, and a dozen redfish, six of them in the legal spot, six over the 27-inch maximum. In between was a mix of lady fish, jacks and undersized trout — a busy day considering the sweltering heat.
Romine fishes a mix of yellow holes on high or rising water, deep cuts and island points on the drop.
For more on fishing the Sarasota Bay area, Romine can be reached at (941) 747-3866. For more on Jim and Joe, their shows runs from 6 to 9 a.m. Saturdays.

ROADSIDE ATTRACTION
Jim Tunstall TAMPA TRIBUNE
January 26, 2002
A break with the mainstream led a couple to their own little corner of happiness from another day in time.

” I believe every individual has a purpose. When you start going on your journey to discover yours, you learn some things along the way.”
JOE BROWN

Joe Brown loves to express himself.
If you want to see how, take a spin by his place on the southwest corner of Interstate 75 and Fletcher Avenue. His yard is coiffed with a sassy blend of crab-trap buoys, bottle art, fishy wind socks and a dog and two cats that co-exist on a mainly peaceful basis.
Then there’s the man. Brown, a page out of the 1960’s better side, owns A-24 Hour Bait and Tackle.
On one hand, he’s private enough not to want his photograph taken, on the other, he’s gregarious enough to talk the ears off anyone interested in fishing. Fact is, this 51-year-old Tampa native is primed to gab about next best to anything on the minds of his visitors, including the way things used to be.
Like in 1983 when he and his wife, Kim, planted roots on this corner and the new Interstate was their only new neighbor.
Before that, Brown had been part of the establishment, but he chucked his mainstream career and spent 3 years on a 700-hundred acre spread across Fletcher, searching for himself.
I was seriously unhappy,” he says.
“I left (the job) Nov. 13, 1981. That Date, the moment I left the office, it blazed in my brain, I was 31 and dealing with severe depression.”
One day he heard a voice.
“People will tell you you’ve got serious problems when you hear voices,” he says behind a grin. “But this wasn’t that kind of experience. It just said, ‘Joe, what if it gets better?’”
Well, slowly it did.
He and Kim took an option on the corner that been home to a worm farm for 25 years.
” The worm business was at it’s ebb,” Brown says.
” I bought it to sell. I had no idea I was going to continue it.”
Over the years, neighbors started putting down roots to the west, including apartment complexes and more than a half dozen hotels, such as Extended Stay America and Residence Inn.
The bait and tackle business stayed reasonably strong until the economy went south last year, Brown says, adding that he still carries a full line of rods, reels, cane poles, lures, crickets, shiners, and shrimp.
” But we did a lot a wholesale and we lost 90 percent of that business Sep. 11,” he says.” ” That’s dead. It’s not coming back.”
Fortunately the Browns have branched out.
Last year, they opened a gift shop that sells gator heads, sea shells, stuffed critters, t-shirts, and other trinkets.
Brown also started dabbling in bottle art — melting everything from vodka to Sprite bottles, reshaping them then letting them cool and harden.
Through the last 20 years, he seems to have learned to be a survivor.
He’s also learned his reason for being on this corner.
“I believe every individual has a purpose,” he says, turning serious for a moment.
“When you start going on your journey to discover yours, you learn some things along the way. I like working with the public and making them happy. And if you’re doing what you want to do, it’s a beautiful thing.”

BUOY OH BUOY
BITS OF THE BEACH
BILL DURYEA
TIMES STAFF WRITER
JULY 5, 2005

A BAY AREA BUSINESS COUPLE SALVAGES DEBRIS FROM THE KEYS THAT CAN BUOY ANY ATMOSPHERE.

TAMPA– Every month or so, Kim and Joe Brown pile into the family flatbed truck, he one that’s decorated with multi-colored stencils of fern fronds, and drive down to Key West.
There, they inevitably find what they’re looking for: a few thousand discarded plastic foam crab and lobster buoys, maybe a battered surf board or a life preserver. After a week or so, they strap the whole load down, turn the truck around and head home to Fletcher Avenue at Interstate-75, where they have lived for nearly 25 years.
If you’ve driven by there recently, and you’d know if you’d had, then you have a pretty good idea, of what the Brown’s do with the buoys once they get them off the truck.
They wrap them around metal poles, until they resemble marshmellow Christmas trees. They festoon them outside the gift and bait shop they run. They line their parking lot with them.
“It can drive you crazy,” Kim Brown said as she stared at a mound of them. “There’s got to be something else to do with them. I was thinking maybe I’d cut them in half and make them into little planters.”
Occasionaly, a restaurant owner who fancies a nautical theme will relieve them of a few thousand buoys. Sometimes a home owner from New Tampa wants a dozen for his new poolside bar.
But generally speaking, the treasures of the Key West trips come in at a rate far faster than they go out. Doesn’t matter a bit to the Browns.
“I have a pretty good life. I don’t have to bust my butt,” Kim Brown said. “I don’t make a lot of money, but when someone likes my stuff, that’s cool.”
In a corner of Tampa dominated by late-arriving corporate parks and hotel chains, they live a life of enviable self-sufficiency. If they appear eccentric, it is only by the relelentlessly conformist standards of their neighbors. If the decor appears kitschy, maybe it’s because we’ve lost touch with what’s truly authentic.
On a recent morning, Kim Brown was giving an impromptu tour to a surprise visitor. She was wearing a loose-fitting white shirt and a long gray cotton skirt. Walking around in her tanned bare feet and sunglasses she seemed glamorous and unfussy. She casually mentions her age, 46, without a trace of self-consciousness.
The sky was threatening rain and that wasn’t doing much for sales at A-24 Hour Bait. “Fish are going to eat today,” she says, shaking her head at the squandered opportunity.
But it gave her time to tell some stories.
“Those rings, they came from a Cuban refugee raft,” she says, indicating a clump of artifacts outside thet baitshop. ” When I can, I take a picture of the man or the woman and that becomes part of the story of what we sell.”
She grabbed a bass lure dangling from the inside of a metal cylinder and gave it a good tug. It clanged loudly. “We make the bells out of dive tanks that were going to be thrown away,” she says.
“I’ve got a real nice anchor. It’s over 100 years old. That came from a Cuban who got it caught in his lobster traps.”
“The Lobster guys are lucky,” she says with real admiration in her voice. “They find this stuff all the time, just floating out there.”
Kim grew up near Lowry Park Zoo. Her husband was raised out on Anderson Road. They met in 1981, the circumstances of which are one of a few stories she’s reluctant to tell in detail. At the time she was boarding horses across the road in what is now the Hidden River Corporate Park.
“When I met Joe, he was in a suit and tie. He always had a thousand dollars on his back,” she said. He was in the materials handling business, but it wasn’t long for that corporate life.
They saw some land was available for sale on Morris Bridge Road, the part where it bends in the southwest corner of I-75 and Fletcher. The acre or so had a worm farm on it when they bought it. The previous owner had a Coca-Cola cooler out front, and fishermen on their way to the Hillsborough River would come by and fill a can with worms, leave a little money in a cup. All on the honour system.
“That tapered off. Fishng wasn’t simple anymore. You couldn’t just get a cane pole and a can of worms and go catch some dinner,” Kim says. “Now you’ve got to have permits and expensive reels and the latest lure.”
“That’s why we kind of went back to our art.”
In the early 1990’s they made their first trip down to the keys. They began to meet fishermen. They stayed in their homes, ate dinner with them. Joined in the parties at the beginning of stone crab season.
It wasn’t long before they saw all the buoys overflowing the trash cans. Buoys generally last a few years. Turtles gnaw them. Storms scatter them. Sun and salt bleach them.
“Hey, we can do something with those,” Kim remembers saying. “We make something out of nothing.”
The gift shop, known as Hong Kong Willie, is full of stuff that was perilously close to oblivion before the Browns identified some hidden potential.
Kim makes “coconut grams”. They’re painted coconuts with a space clearly marked for the address. There’s not much room for the message. But the U.S. Postal Service will actually deliver them, Kim says.
The gift shop’s ceiling is packed with coffee sacks. Glass bottles that have been heated in the Brown’s kilns sit on shelves slumped like Dali clocks. Gnarled pieces of polished Lignum Vitae are scattered about; Kim’s son Derek, 22, is responsible for that work.
Nothing has a price, because prices depend on too many variables for it to be worth specifying. (A string of five buoys will cost you $12.99, though the price drops for bulk purchases.) But whenever possible a piece will come with a picture of the shop, or of the person who provided the piece, to commemorate the item’s passage
through history.
“This telephone was on Duval Street,” Kim says. “It’s got all these names and numbers written on the side. And a picture of a raccoon on the front. Who knows why?”
The demand for items such as this is unpredictable. Ditto the 1961 mailbox with the rusted front. But the Browns’ customers tend to share their enthusiasm.
“I bought 1,200 buoys a month ago,” said Jimmy Ciaccio, owner of Gaspar’s, a restaurant on 56th Street in Temple Terrace that has a brand new patio with an aggressive Key West theme.
“I must have 3,000 of them around here,” Ciaccio says as he walks the deck, talking a torrent. “I got a raft, those traps, they all came from Joe. I’ve bought a lot of novelty stuff from them. That’s what they’re all about and that’s what we’re all about. And there’s always a story behind everything. I love that. He gave me that thing, it’s like a piece of wood or something I don’t know what it is, but it’s from Key West. We’ve got that chemistry.”
If there were a few more customers as fervid as Ciaccio, Kim Brown might not be toying with the idea of getting into the food business. But there aren’t and she is.
“Not everybody wants a buoy or a bell,” Kim says. “But everyone wants to drink a cup of coffee. I don’t want to be a Starbucks but maybe a little coffee shop. Maybe a good Cuban sandwich.”
“But then you get into hiring and firing. I’ve got friends in the retaurant business. I see how hard they work. It’s never-ending,” she says, beginning to argue with herself. “I just don’t want to work that hard.”
She circles back to a calm contentment with life as it is currently defined.
“We’re happy. We don’t want to sell. We’re not rich, but we pay our bills.

The zen of junk

A Tampa couple devotes itself to creating something from nothing

BY ALEX PICKETT

Published 12.06.06

Located off East Fletcher Road between hotel chains and high-end office parks is the gift shop and folk art gallery Hong Kong Willie’s.Drive south on I-75, look to the right around East Fletcher Avenue, and you can’t miss it. The tree appears first, hundreds of buoys wrapped around its branches, resembling a sort of Dr. Seuss-ian Christmas ornament. Then the rest of the 20,000 buoys come into view — thousands of strands of the multicolored foam balls stretching from the tree to two wooden shacks, hanging from their roofs and walls, and stretched out over the property.

Strewn about the lawn is a menagerie of surfboards, car doors, CB radios, wooden sculptures and painted signs. A 1979 Ford pickup sits in the front driveway, painted with a rainbow of colors, four racks of antlers affixed to its roof. An old stuffed caribou sits in a lawn chair beckoning visitors.

Of the thousands of motorists who pass by this eclectic landmark off Exit 266 every day, few stop in the funky gift shop and Key West-themed folk art gallery that is Hong Kong Willie’s. But this is not your typical roadside store selling cheesy Florida magnets and beach T-shirts (although they have those, too). From the moment the owners come out to greet you, it’s clear that for them this isn’t just a business — it’s a lifestyle.

As I step out of my car, Joe Brown ambles toward me wearing a red Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts. With his disheveled shoulder-length brown hair and strong jaw line, Brown, 56, looks a lot like Mel Gibson in Braveheart. He ends most of his sentences with “Do you follow me?” and stares with wild gray eyes until you nod in agreement. His 46-year-old wife, Kim, who bears a strong resemblance to Grace Slick, sits near the shop’s open sign, branding her latest creation. Wearing large sunglasses, she gives a smile, hardly looking up.

Joe and Kim — Tampa natives — bought the half-acre property off Fletcher Avenue and Morris Bridge Road in 1985. For the next two decades, the Browns operated A-24 Hour Bait and Tackle, living on the premises and bagging worms for K-Mart and Wal-Mart to make a few extra bucks. But in 2001, they decided to abandon fish food to pursue the fickle business of art, although they will tell you Hong Kong Willie’s was always “part of the journey.”

“We were artists,” says Joe. “We were born that way. We had no choice. You follow me?”

The underlying theme of Hong Kong Willie’s is creating art out of objects destined for the landfill, and while browsing the items, I get the feeling the Browns are trying to make a point rather than a sale.

“Thirty percent of the gifts given will be in the dumpster by next Christmas,” Joe says. “Most Christmas gifts will be given because they think they have to. Very few will have a social impact.”

Every item at Hong Kong Willie’s is either art made out of an object destined for the landfill or products that other companies were throwing away and the Browns retrieved before they made it to the dumpster. But don’t call this recycled art. The Browns prefer “preservation.”

Recycling implies the material will be used for the same purpose. “If you get stuck in that word, then you get stuck in that form,” Joe explains. Instead, the Browns create a whole new use for an item that would have been otherwise thrown away.

Kim looks up from her painting after Joe finishes his long ramble. “We’ve always been able to take nothing and make something out of it,” she says.

Although most people assume Joe is “Hong Kong Willie,” he says the name refers to the origin of junk: Hong Kong produces much of the useless merchandise that Americans buy and quickly throw away, he says. So it’s up to the Willies of the world — i.e. the Browns and other conservationists — to find new uses for the trash.

“All of us who believe what we believe is Hong Kong Willie,” Joe says.

The gift shop is a space not much bigger than a tool shed, cluttered with handmade candles, pottery, ceramic figures and deer skulls painted tie-dye style. Joe, who’s not content to allow me to wander by myself, darts from item to item, sharing each one’s origins. One of the first objects he shows me is an old scuba tank cut in half, stenciled with yellow and purple spray paint with a weighted rope attached on the inside. What would have been a heavy addition to a landfill or junkyard, the Browns now sell as a nautical-themed bell. Another popular item: a used Starbucks Frappuccino bottle filled with sand and shells, and the words “Florida Beachfront Property” written in paint on it.

“Is it really pragmatic to say this had one life — to have Frappuccino in it?” he says, holding up the $3 gift. “That’s not true. You follow me?”

Joe picks up a droopy glass vase — the result of an Arizona Ice Tea bottle stuck in a kiln for too long. He says it’s a collector’s item: Only 300 were made and none look alike.

“People really want something that is one of a kind and something that means something,” he says, holding up the vase and pointing to a stack of Beanie Babies. “Which one is the real collectible? The one that cannot be copied or the one that is mass-produced just on a small scale? You follow me?”

Most of the materials the Browns work with come from Key West. Every few months they hop in the pickup, drive the 425 miles to the Keys and start looking for the junk no one else wants: used dive tanks, the lobster trap buoys, burlap bags and even old wooden planks from ships or homes destroyed by storms.

In fact, the latter is one of their biggest sellers. They bring back an imperfect piece of lumber, slap some urethane on it and Kim paints everything from colorful fish and birds to old Key West landmarks on it. Every piece is branded, marked with a lobster cage tag and affixed with brass rings or forks with which to hang them. In the building opposite the gift shop, among stuffed animals and fish (Joe was once a taxidermist), 30 of these painted planks hang from the walls.

Customers are few at Hong Kong Willie’s, but the Browns say they’re doing well. They never try to push their art on anyone, figuring that if someone stops and buys something, it was meant to be. (”A piece of art is a love affair,” Kim says.) They count Gaspar’s Patio Bar and Grille in Temple Terrace as one of their best customers. Their other business comes from Tampa residents looking to add a tiki feel to their backyards. Among Joe’s most popular creations are old car doors outfitted with waterproof speakers. A few Key West bars bought the unique sound systems to hang from their ceilings.

But the Browns are not just content to sell their art to passersby — they want to live the ideals that inspire their art. The couple is working on getting their business off the electrical grid and powered completely by solar energy. Kim wants to start a coffee and ice cream shop with free wireless Internet to bring in likeminded people. Joe wants to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for hanging the greatest number of buoys to a structure (it’s not a category yet). And they’re always trying to find new uses for the trash they see lining area roads.

“We’re not just sitting out here being weird,” Joe says suddenly. “We’re actually taking objects and making these thousands of people say, ‘What’s that?’ We’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do.”

His eyes get wide.

“You follow me?”

the bloggy, bloggy dew
a nameless yeast

Monday, March 27, 2006
hong kong willie

Getting lost out of Tampa on the way to Gibsonton, we saw this structure just off the exit ramp. We turned around to investigate and met Kim and Joe of Hong Kong Willie, an artist’s collective that makes art out of buoys and burlap bags and other discards on Key West. Kim and Joe were a sweet couple and Bunny thought they wanted to adopt me. Joe explained that the name Hong Kong Willie comes from 1956, when the world changed and plastic turned this into a nation of nonbiodegradable disposables. I hesitate to call what they do outsider art because it can be a patronizing label; their work comes not from the inward obsession of much outsider art, but from a social conscience and a genuine desire to reach out and make the world a better place.

Posted by pat at 9:24 AM

A LANDMARK IN TAMPA. THE TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION HONG KONG WILLIE AN ART GROUP OUT OF TAMPA AND KEY WEST. ARTIST BELIEVING IN PRESERVATION ART. THE WORLD RECORD BUOY TREE, MADE FROM KEY WEST LOBSTER FLOATS SHOW THEIR COMMITMENT TO PRESERVATION. LOCATED ON I-75 EXIT 266 IN TAMPA. APROXIMATELY 2 MILES FROM THE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY, CALLED MOSI. DOWN THE STREET IS BUSCH GARDENS AND ADVENTURE ISLAND. LOWRY PARK IS A SHORT ROAD TRIP. THE TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION IS FUNKY LAIDBACK,SCENIC OLD FASHION PLACE WHERE A TOURIST WOULD BUY A TRUE ONE OF A KIND FLORIDA SOUVENIR STOP BY HONG KONG WILLIE

Past days have seen famed Conch artists after destruction from devastating hurricanes collect ship wreckage, building parts, car doors, any mass which could evolve itselfinto a canvas for expression. HONG KONG WILLIE, renowned Key’s Artist Collective, gained notoriety only from the blatant choice of medium, and the artists’ yearning to remain honest to originality. Every Original HONG KONG WILLIE piece is truly “One of a Kind”, no piece is ever reproduced. Along with Burn-Etched Signature, SpinyLobster Trap ID Tag, and Hand Signature, any validation of an ORIGINAL HONG KONG WILLIE piece is definite. Visit HONG KONG WILLIE STUDIOS located in Tampa, Florida for a true insight into the work. Contact the Artists for appointment @ (813)770-4794

GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE HONG KONG WILLIE CAR NEW PICTURE

hongkongwillie.multiply.com/journal/item/12/GREEN_SHOPPIN…

Windows Live Spaces

HONG KONG WILLIE GREEN SHOPPING BAG HUT TAMPA EXIT 266 I 75 TAMPA, MILE MARKER 266

THE COFFEE BAGS NOW GREEN SHOPPING BAGS

www.hongkongwillie.com

When you are in Tampa, stop by the little Tampa tourist attraction.KEY WEST Artists trying to make a living from their art. Refreshing gifts and souvenirs made right in Tampa. Located on I75, exit 266 in Tampa. Look for the buoy tree made from keywest lobster floats and buoys, keywest crab floats and buoys. Souvenirs that are one of a kind. Hong Kong Willie Key West artist invites you, no admission charge. Famed KEY WEST artists after destruction from devastating hurricanes collect ship wreckage, building parts, car doors, any mass which could evolve itself into a canvas for expression. HONG KONG WILLIE, renowned Key WEST Artist gained notoriety only from the blatant choice of medium, and the artists’ yearning to remain honest to originality. Every Original HONG KONG WILLIE piece is truly “One of a Kind”, no piece is ever reproduced. Along with Burn-Etched Signature, Spiny Lobster Trap ID Tag, and Hand Signature, any validation of an ORIGINAL HONG KONG WILLIE piece is definite. Visit HONG KONG WILLIE STUDIOS located in Tampa, Florida for a true insight into the work. Contact the Artists for appointment @ (813)770-4794

HONG KONG WILLIE ART CHECK HONGKONGWILLIE.COM

HONG KONG WILLIE A TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION IN TAMPA

Posted by “HONG KONG WILLIE” at 8:01 AM

Labels: FLICKR, flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie, hong kong willie, hongkongwillie

Links to this post

TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION

HONG KONG WILLIE TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION. HONG KONG WILLIE A LITTLE TOURIST ATTRACTION IN TAMPA USEING OBJECTS SUCH AS USED BUOYS AND OTHER REUSED OBJECTS FOR ART. HONG KONG WILLIE ARTIST TRY TO SHOW WHAT RESUSE CAN BE. …

Posted byHONG KONG WILLIE at8:37 AM

HONG KONG WILLIE IN THE EARLY DAZE

hong kong willie posted a photo:. HONG KONG WILLIE IN THE EARLY DAZE. www.hongkongwillie.com hongkongwillie.multiply.com/journal/item/12/GREEN_SHOPPIN… tampahappenings.creativeloafing.com/gbase/BestOf/BestOfAw. …

Posted bynobody@flickr.com (hong kong willie) at10:57 AM

WE WERE IN THE DARK HONG KONG WILLIE

hong kong willie posted a photo:. WE WERE IN THE DARK HONG KONG WILLIE. www.hongkongwillie.com hongkongwillie.multiply.com/journal/item/12/GREEN_SHOPPIN… tampahappenings.creativeloafing.com/gbase/BestOf/BestOfAw. …

Posted bynobody@flickr.com (hong kong willie) at10:56 AM

HONG KONG WILLIE GETTING READY TO GO TO KEY WEST

hong kong willie posted a photo:. HONG KONG WILLIE GETTING READY TO GO TO KEY WEST. www.hongkongwillie.com hongkongwillie.multiply.com/journal/item/12/GREEN_SHOPPIN… tampahappenings.creativeloafing.com/gbase/BestOf/BestOfAw. …

Posted bynobody@flickr.com (hong kong willie) at10:55 AM

GREEN BAG HUT HONG KONG WILLIE TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION

hong kong willie posted a photo:. GREEN BAG HUT HONG KONG WILLIE TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION. www.hongkongwillie.com hongkongwillie.multiply.com/journal/item/12/GREEN_SHOPPIN… tampahappenings.creativeloafing.com/gbase/BestOf/BestOfAw. …

Posted bynobody@flickr.com (hong kong willie) at10:54 AM

LOOK HONG KONG WILLIE FLY HIGH

hong kong willie posted a photo:. LOOK HONG KONG WILLIE FLY HIGH. HONG KONG WILLIE TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION TAMPA I-75 Exit 266 has green shopping bags, why are they green? Burlap from coffee sacks, stitching from baseball wool. …

Posted bynobody@flickr.com (hong kong willie) at8:46 AM

Tags: "HONG KONG WILLIE", Flickr: "hongkongwillie", HONGKONGWILLIE
Posted in "hong kong willie" | No Comments »

Flickr: “hongkongwillie”Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world
June 15, 2008 by HONG KONG WILLIE
HONG KONG WILLIE ON Flickr:

http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=72157602304015992&nsid=75714369@N00&lang=en-us

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/

http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=72157605481037502&nsid=75714369@N00&lang=en-us

Flickr: “hongkongwillie“

Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world,

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/show/

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=757143…

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/72157605574702272/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/721576055747022…

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=7215760557…

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/72157605519455826/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/721576055194558…

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=7215760551…

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/72157605481037502/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/721576054810375…

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=7215760548…

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/72157604204622657/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/721576042046226…

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=7215760420…

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/72157602304015992/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/721576023040159…

api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=7215760230…

Tags: "HONG KONG WILLIE", Add new tag, HONGKONGWILLIE, www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets
Posted in "hong kong willie" | No Comments »

USED COFFEE BAGS BURLAP. USED BURLAP COFFEE BAGS. FOR SALE
June 9, 2008 by HONG KONG WILLIE
USED BURLAP BAGS COFFEE FOR SALE
USED BURLAP COFFEE BAGS FOR SALE
USED COFFEE BURLAP BAGS STARTING AT $2.99 EA IN ORDERS OF 25. FOB TAMPA FLORIDA. PLEASE EMAIL FOR DETAILS, OR CALL HONG KONG WILLIE 813 770 4794. THE #1 GOAL IS A NEW USE.

www.blogger.com/profile/03632064914545583081

KEY WEST CITIZEN

THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008 Paradise 17
ROB O’NEAL/Paradise
Joe and Kim Brown of Hong Kong Willie fame continue to live
the green lifestyle and are in Key West this week promoting
their new ‘Green Bags. Made of coffee bean burlap bags,
recycled buttons and featuring old pants pockets inside for
convenience, the bags are a great alternative to plastic.

Posted by “HONG KONG WILLIE” at 6:16 PM
Labels: “, “BURLAP BAGS COFFEE, “GREEN SHOPPING BAGS” “USED BURLAP COFFEE BAGS”, HIPPE, HIPPIE BAGS

Key West Citizen

THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008 Paradise 17
ROB O’NEAL/Paradise
Joe and Kim Brown of Hong Kong Willie fame continue to live
the green lifestyle and are in Key West this week promoting
their new ‘Green Bags. Made of coffee bean burlap bags,
recycled buttons and featuring old pants pockets inside for
convenience, the bags are a great alternative to plastic.

Labels: “, “BURLAP BAGS COFFEE, “GREEN SHOPPING BAGS” “USED BURLAP COFFEE BAGS”, HIPPE, HIPPIE BAGS

Tags: "HONG KONG WILLIE", BEACH BAGS, COFFEE BURLAP BAGS, GREEN SHOPPING BAGS, HIPPIE, HIPPIE BAGS, hippy, USED BURLAP BAGS, USED BURLAP COFFEE BAGS, USED COFFEE BAGS
Posted in USED COFFEE BAGS | No Comments »

Helicopter lands on GOOGLE TRUCK
June 7, 2008 by HONG KONG WILLIE
Helicopter lands on GOOGLE TRUCK

WEIRD YOUTUBE. HELICOPTER ON BACK OF STRANGE TRUCK,OLD AS THE HILLS, CARIBOU HORNS ON TOP. GOOGLE IS PAINTED ON BACK OF TRUCK. HIPPIE HONG KOMG WILLIE LOOKS STRANGE DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD. HELICOPTER A LAND MARK IN THE FLORIDA KEYS. KEYS RADIO GROUP LAST OWNERS. A LASTING GIFT BEFORE THE CLOSING OF BOOT KEY BRIDGE.

Tags: GOOGLE, GOOGLE TRUCK, HELICOPTER, HIPPIE, HIPPIE BAGS, HIPPIE BEACH BAGS, hippy, STRANGE, WIERD
Posted in "hong kong willie" | No Comments »

HIPPIE BAGS FOR SALE:
June 7, 2008 by HONG KONG WILLIE
BEACH BAG TRUE GREEN Designer Handbags, a life live green. order BEACH BAG TRUE GREEN Designer Handbags,order at hongkongwillie@hotmail.com

HIPPIE’S ,{ARTIST} HIPPIE BAGS ONE OF A KIND FOR SALE ,REPRESENTING A WAY OF LIFE. HIPPIE BAGS,BEACH BAGS, TRUE GREEN Designer Handbags, GREEN BEACH BAG,

HONG KONG WILLIE OFFERS THIS BAG $275.00 US DOLLARS FOB TAMPA. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CALL THE ARTIST. 813 770 4794. EMAIL hongkongwillie@hotmail.com

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/721576054810375…

hongkongwillie.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/beach-bags-made-i…

BEACH BAG TRUE GREEN Designer Handbags, a life live green. order BEACH BAG TRUE GREEN Designer Handbags,order at hongkongwillie@hotmail.com

Tags: "HONG KONG WILLIE", BEACH BAGS, GREEN BEACH BAGS, GREEN HIPPIE BEACH BAGS, HIPPIE, HIPPIE BAGS, HIPPIE BEACH BAGS
Posted in "HONG KONG WILLIE", HIPPIE | No Comments »

HONG KONG WILLIE,INVITED TO HONG KONG
May 31, 2008 by HONG KONG WILLIE
HONG KONG WILLIE CONSIDERS GOING TO HONG KONG WILLIE
www.hongkongwillie.com

http://www.wusf.usf.edu/SoundSlides/897News/070928_HK_Willie/publish_to_web/index.html

News: Urban Explorer

The zen of junk
A Tampa couple devotes itself to creating something from nothing
Published 12.06.06
By Alex Pickett

enlarge

Alex Pickett
ROADSIDE ATTRACTION: Located off East Fletcher Road between hotel chains and high-end office parks is the gift shop and folk art gallery Hong Kong Willie’s.
Drive south on I-75, look to the right around East Fletcher Avenue, and you can’t miss it. The tree appears first, hundreds of buoys wrapped around its branches, resembling a sort of Dr. Seuss-ian Christmas ornament. Then the rest of the 20,000 buoys come into view — thousands of strands of the multicolored foam balls stretching from the tree to two wooden shacks, hanging from their roofs and walls, and stretched out over the property.

Strewn about the lawn is a menagerie of surfboards, car doors, CB radios, wooden sculptures and painted signs. A 1979 Ford pickup sits in the front driveway, painted with a rainbow of colors, four racks of antlers affixed to its roof. An old stuffed caribou sits in a lawn chair beckoning visitors.

Of the thousands of motorists who pass by this eclectic landmark off Exit 266 every day, few stop in the funky gift shop and Key West-themed folk art gallery that is Hong Kong Willie’s. But this is not your typical roadside store selling cheesy Florida magnets and beach T-shirts (although they have those, too). From the moment the owners come out to greet you, it’s clear that for them this isn’t just a business — it’s a lifestyle.

As I step out of my car, Joe Brown ambles toward me wearing a red Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts. With his disheveled shoulder-length brown hair and strong jaw line, Brown, 56, looks a lot like Mel Gibson in Braveheart. He ends most of his sentences with “Do you follow me?” and stares with wild gray eyes until you nod in agreement. His 46-year-old wife, Kim, who bears a strong resemblance to Grace Slick, sits near the shop’s open sign, branding her latest creation. Wearing large sunglasses, she gives a smile, hardly looking up.

Joe and Kim — Tampa natives — bought the half-acre property off Fletcher Avenue and Morris Bridge Road in 1985. For the next two decades, the Browns operated A-24 Hour Bait and Tackle, living on the premises and bagging worms for K-Mart and Wal-Mart to make a few extra bucks. But in 2001, they decided to abandon fish food to pursue the fickle business of art, although they will tell you Hong Kong Willie’s was always “part of the journey.”

“We were artists,” says Joe. “We were born that way. We had no choice. You follow me?”

The underlying theme of Hong Kong Willie’s is creating art out of objects destined for the landfill, and while browsing the items, I get the feeling the Browns are trying to make a point rather than a sale.

“Thirty percent of the gifts given will be in the dumpster by next Christmas,” Joe says. “Most Christmas gifts will be given because they think they have to. Very few will have a social impact.”

Every item at Hong Kong Willie’s is either art made out of an object destined for the landfill or products that other companies were throwing away and the Browns retrieved before they made it to the dumpster. But don’t call this recycled art. The Browns prefer “preservation.”

Recycling implies the material will be used for the same purpose. “If you get stuck in that word, then you get stuck in that form,” Joe explains. Instead, the Browns create a whole new use for an item that would have been otherwise thrown away.

Kim looks up from her painting after Joe finishes his long ramble. “We’ve always been able to take nothing and make something out of it,” she says.

Although most people assume Joe is “Hong Kong Willie,” he says the name refers to the origin of junk: Hong Kong produces much of the useless merchandise that Americans buy and quickly throw away, he says. So it’s up to the Willies of the world — i.e. the Browns and other conservationists — to find new uses for the trash.

“All of us who believe what we believe is Hong Kong Willie,” Joe says.

The gift shop is a space not much bigger than a tool shed, cluttered with handmade candles, pottery, ceramic figures and deer skulls painted tie-dye style. Joe, who’s not content to allow me to wander by myself, darts from item to item, sharing each one’s origins. One of the first objects he shows me is an old scuba tank cut in half, stenciled with yellow and purple spray paint with a weighted rope attached on the inside. What would have been a heavy addition to a landfill or junkyard, the Browns now sell as a nautical-themed bell. Another popular item: a used Starbucks Frappuccino bottle filled with sand and shells, and the words “Florida Beachfront Property” written in paint on it.

“Is it really pragmatic to say this had one life — to have Frappuccino in it?” he says, holding up the $3 gift. “That’s not true. You follow me?”

Joe picks up a droopy glass vase — the result of an Arizona Ice Tea bottle stuck in a kiln for too long. He says it’s a collector’s item: Only 300 were made and none look alike.

“People really want something that is one of a kind and something that means something,” he says, holding up the vase and pointing to a stack of Beanie Babies. “Which one is the real collectible? The one that cannot be copied or the one that is mass-produced just on a small scale? You follow me?”

Most of the materials the Browns work with come from Key West. Every few months they hop in the pickup, drive the 425 miles to the Keys and start looking for the junk no one else wants: used dive tanks, the lobster trap buoys, burlap bags and even old wooden planks from ships or homes destroyed by storms.

In fact, the latter is one of their biggest sellers. They bring back an imperfect piece of lumber, slap some urethane on it and Kim paints everything from colorful fish and birds to old Key West landmarks on it. Every piece is branded, marked with a lobster cage tag and affixed with brass rings or forks with which to hang them. In the building opposite the gift shop, among stuffed animals and fish (Joe was once a taxidermist), 30 of these painted planks hang from the walls.

Customers are few at Hong Kong Willie’s, but the Browns say they’re doing well. They never try to push their art on anyone, figuring that if someone stops and buys something, it was meant to be. (”A piece of art is a love affair,” Kim says.) They count Gaspar’s Patio Bar and Grille in Temple Terrace as one of their best customers. Their other business comes from Tampa residents looking to add a tiki feel to their backyards. Among Joe’s most popular creations are old car doors outfitted with waterproof speakers. A few Key West bars bought the unique sound systems to hang from their ceilings.

But the Browns are not just content to sell their art to passersby — they want to live the ideals that inspire their art. The couple is working on getting their business off the electrical grid and powered completely by solar energy. Kim wants to start a coffee and ice cream shop with free wireless Internet to bring in likeminded people. Joe wants to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for hanging the greatest number of buoys to a structure (it’s not a category yet). And they’re always trying to find new uses for the trash they see lining area roads.

“We’re not just sitting out here being weird,” Joe says suddenly. “We’re actually taking objects and making these thousands of people say, ‘What’s that?’ We’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do.”

His eyes get wide.

“You follow me?”

COMMENTS

RE: The zen of junk

Posted by Freegan on 11.21.07 @ 01:52 PM

It’s almost impossible to make a living as an artist and support a family. Hong Kong Willie needs to have another job like the A-24Hour Bait Shop they use to have. That is where lies and threats enter the picture do to the pressure to make money. The truth about Hong Kong Willie is right here: Hong Kong Willie

RE: The zen of junk

Posted by Pat & Bob Jordan on 07.02.07 @ 08:25 PM

the title says it all; appropo of Kim & Joe too. Good people, artists extraordinare

RE: The zen of junk

Posted by DAVID WANG on 03.02.07 @ 01:10 PM

THE TRUE FORM OF ART. WHAT TO REALY SEE.

Tags: "HONG KONG WILLIE", BEACH BAGS, GREEN BEACH BAGS, HIPPIE, HIPPIE BAGS, HONG KONG, HONGKONGWILLIE
Posted in "hong kong willie" | No Comments »

HONGKONGWILLIE, “HONGKONGWILLIE, “HONG KONG WILLIE”
May 23, 2008 by HONG KONG WILLIE
www.hongkongwillie.com

HONG KONG WILLIE ON FLICKR
HONG KONG WILLIE ON FLICKR
HONGKONGWILLIE ON FLICKR

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/sets/72157602304015992/

www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongwillie/420695139/in/set-721…

Posted by “HONG KONG WILLIE” at 11:19 AM Links to this post
Labels: beach bags, FLICKR, GREEN BEACH BAGS, hong kong willie, hongkongwillie
Tags: "HONG KONG WILLIE", HONGKONGWILLIE
Posted in "hong kong willie" | No Comments »

TEMPLE TERRACE BEACON HONG KONG WILLIE
May 16, 2008 by HONG KONG WILLIE

TEMPLE TERRACE BEACON HONG KONG WILLIE

Buoy, oh buoy – Hong Kong Willie snags drivers’ attention

on 17 October 2007 (56 reads)
What’s with all the buoys? Hong Kong Willie beckons motorists from I-75 at the corner of Fletcher Avenue and Morris Bridge Road. The Temple Terrace area business has turned a bait shop into a tropical gifts store.

By Courtney Allen, Correspondent

Tens of thousands of commuters and tourists pass by the large buoy tree daily, visible from Interstate 75 and Fletcher Avenue. The buoy tree is more than just a creative landmark. It represents a movement towards preservation as an art and tropical conch way of life.

Joe and Kim Brown are originally from Key West. Natives of the Keys are nicknamed conchs. They bought the half-acre property in 1985. It was once a bait shop but since fishing has evolved into a more expensive hobby involving permits and increasingly sophisticated fishing gear, the Browns trasnformed their business into a gift shop in 2001. They call it Hong Kong Willie.

They’ve been building onto the tree strung with buoys ever since.

“All buoys are numbered and have a specific color when they are made,” said Brown, pointing to her toppling creation. “They have to.”

The colorful floats have a new life beyond fishing and navigation. The Browns have been salvaging unwanted items since their move from Key West and they proudly display their works before the eyes of Florida residents and visitors.

And just as important as each buoy is, so too are the rusty surfboards and wrecked ship relics carefully positioned about the lawn. They all tell a story that couldn’t be told from any landfill. No wall goes unpainted, no corner undecorated on the tiny property off Morris Bridge Road.

Kim Brown finished sewing a handbag she made from a coffee bag, stacking them on top of each other in preparation for their sale.

“If people bought these to go shopping, it could save 300 to 400 plastic bags that would otherwise go to a landfill,” Brown said.

Their small gift shop is filled with original glasswork, ceramics and candles.

Although their business isn’t bustling with tourists, they make decorations for restaurants such as Gaspar’s, a restaurant on 56th Street in Temple Terrace that connects to a deep-sea theme.

“I always wondered what this place was because I see it every day. I think it’s cool that they don’t need to buy anything to make a living,” said Corey Lyons, a sales representative who passes the shop on his daily commute.

The preservation art movement the couple partakes in is not just about reusing old items. They convert artifacts into entirely new concepts. “We don’t like to use the word recycling. We are conservationists,” Brown said.

Tags: "HONG KONG WILLIE", Add new tag
Posted in "HONG KONG WILLIE", "hong kong willie" | No Comments »

HIPPIE BEACH BAGS MADE IN FLORIDA
May 13, 2008 by HONG KONG WILLIE

www.hongkongwillie.com

HIPPIE BAG OFFERED $275.00 US DOLLARS FOB KEY WEST. EMAIL hongkongwillie@hotmail.com or callthe artist hong kong willie 813 770 4794

BEACH BAGS FLORIDA MADE GREEN ARTIST
BEACH BAGS MADE IN FLORIDA. GREEN ARTIST HONG KONG WILLIE.

BEACH BAGS MADE IN FLORIDA

HONG KONG WILLIE BEACH BAGS

BEACH BAG HONG KONG WILLIE GREEN ARTIST

BEACH BAGS MADE BY GREEN ARTIST HONG KONG WILLIE

GREEN SHOPPING BAG IN THE NEWS HONG KONG WILLIE Oct 8, ‘07 12:02 PM
for everyone

HONG KONG WILLIE IN THE NEWS GREEN SHOPPING BAG

GREEN BAG MADE FROM 99.9% REUSED MATERIAL. TODAY HONG KONG WILLIE SHOWED THE GREEN BAG. AT THE STARBUCKS, IN TAMPA, FLORIDA. 33637 ON FLETCHER. TALKING TO SUSAN, THE MANAGER, IT WAS DIFFERENT. STARBUCKS, WHAT A COMPANY, TRYING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IN THIS TIME TO SEE A LOOK LIKE I SAW FROM SUSAN, PEOPLE AND COMPANY’S LIKE STARBUCKS, HAVE A DREAM AND PUT ACTION BEHIND IT. IT WAS NEAT TO SEE THEM EXCEPT THE GREEN BAG MADE MOSTLY FRON COFFEE BAGS. COFFEE BEANS GOING TO THE ROASTER, CARING A OBJECT TO ANOTHER USE AND THE BAGS CARING OBJECT FROM A STORE SAVING PLASTIC BAGS FROM OUR LANDFILL. WE ARE MADE FOR A REASON, EVERYONE OF US CAN LEAVE LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS EARTH.

THE NAME HONG KONG WILLIE SINCE 1958

GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE
HONG KONG WILLIE THE NAME OF THE ARTIST. IN 1958 HIS MOTHER TOOK HONG KONG WILLIE TO AN ART CLASS. THE NAME STARTED THEN. AN ART TEACHER WHEN DOING CRAFTS OUT OF GERBER BABY BOTTLES, MADE A STATEMENT, IN HONG KONG REUSE WAS COMMON. AT THAT TIME HE THOUGHT THIS WAS VERY INTERESTING. HIS FATHER HAD LOW LAND, AT THAT TIME LANDFILLS WERE COMMON ALSO. THE COUNTY HAD TOLD HONG KONG WILLIE’S FATHER, IT WAS SAFE, BUT AS WE KNOW NOW THIS WAS NOT SO. SOMETHING CAN COME FROM BAD TO BE GOOD. HONG KONG WILLIE THE NAME CAME FROM THAT ART TEACHER IMPRESSING ON THAT YOUNG MIND THAT OBJECTS MADE FOR ONE USE COULD BE FOR MANY OTHER USES. HONG KONG FOR THE NEAT CONCEPT. WILLIE FOR AN AMERICAN NAME. SO FOR MANY YEARS HONG KONG WILLIE HAD A LIFE OF REUSE. HONG KONG WILLIE SAW FORMS IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT. HIS LIFE NOW WAS MEANINGFUL, KNOWING THIS WAS AND WOULD BE HIS LIFE. ART MADE FROM FOUND OBJECTS, MAKING LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS WORLD. ART AND ART TEACHERS, HOW IMPORTANT. FOR THE ONES THAT HAVE, AND THE ONES THAT HAVE NOT. MEDIA CAN BE FOUND. NOW 49 YEARS LATER, WE KNOW BEING GREEN IS IMPORTANT. WE NEED TO LOOK AT THIS VERY CAREFULLY. OUR CHILDREN AND OUR WORLD NEED A DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDING. OBJECTS CAN BE USED IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS. HONG KONG WILLIE THE TONS OF OBJECTS IN HIS LIFE THAT HAVE BEEN USED, WITH OUT MUCH CHANGE. SO FOR THAT ART TEACHER WHAT SHE DID FOR MY LIFE THANK YOU, FOR HONG KONG THANK YOU, FOR AMERICA, THANK YOU, FOR THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE HELPED, THANK YOU FOR THE 76,266 VIEWS OF OUR BLOGS SINCE SEPTEMBER OF 2006. I STILL HAVE THE GERBER BABY BOTTLE TILL THIS DAY. HONG KONG WILLIE

THIS IS GREEN. HONG KONG WILLIE LIVES GREEN. SINCE 1958, HONG KONG WILLIE HAS BEEN GREEN. HONG KONG WILLIE LIVED ON A LANDFILL. WHAT A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE. BEING GREEN IS LEARNING TO USE AN OBJECT FOR MANY PURPOSES. THIS BAG WAS A COFFEE BAG THE BEANS CAME TO THE ROASTER. NOW IS A SHOPPING BAG. HONG KONG WILLIE A KEY WEST ARTIST AND TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION, HAS USED MANY OBJECTS FOR MANY USES. TAKE A LOOK AT THIS TRULY GREEN SHOPPING BAG. THE BUOYS, THE CRAB TRAP FLOATS, THE BOTTLES, AMERICA NEEDS TO COPY OTHER COUNTRY’S LESS FORTUNATE THAN US. HONG KONG WILLIE TRIES TO BE GREEN IN EVERY WAY. LET EVERYONE TRY, AND LEAVE LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS WORLD. GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE.

FOLLOWING THIS PART IS SOME OF WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN OR ON FOX TV TAMPA, ON WUSF USF RADIO, AND OTHER HISTORY ON HONG KONG WILLIE

HONG KONG WILLIE ART GROUP ON WUSF .ORG
HONG KONG WILLIE ON WUSF.ORG. SLIDE SHOW AND COMMENTARY ON ART GROUP. HONG KONG WILLIE KEY WEST ARTIST AND TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION. HONG KONG WILLIE GROUP OF ARTIST TELLING HOW TO USE OBJECTS FOR MANY DIFFERENT PURPOSES. LOOKING OUT SIDE OF THE BOX, LEARNING TO FIND SOLUTIONS IN A POSITIVE WAY. COMPILING WITHOUT A SOLUTION IS LIKE TRYING TO WAKE A DEAD MAN UP. NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN. THE SOLUTION TO LEAVING LESS OR A FOOT PRINT ON THIS EARTH IS LEFT UP TO EACH ONE OF US. FINDING THE POST IVE SIDE AND FOCUSING POSITIVE ENERGY IS CHANGE FOR THE GOOD. HONG KONG WILLIE HAS FOR MANY YEARS LOOK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX. TAKE A LOOK AT THE OTHER STORY TOLD ON RADIO ON WAY TO CHANGE AND THE SOCIAL IMPACT WE ALL CAN MAKE. TO LIVE AND HELP AND NOT COMPLAIN AND SPEND THAT ENTER THOUGHT TO LEAVE LESS OF A FOOT PRINT IS A GOOD THING. HONG KONG WILLIE ON THIS GREAT DAY THANKS BRAD, AND USF.

ANGLERS TAKING THE BAIT

SHOPS LONG HOURS PAY OFF FOR COUPLE

JEFF STIDHAM
TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 22, 1989

North Tampa- The night light shines like a beacon on the bait shop’s buzzer, beckoning to early morning and nocturnal fishermen.
At A-24 Hour Bait the workday doesn’t end. The rustic store sits off the Fletcher Avenue ramp to Interstate 75 South. A windowless blue mobile home and worm bed are it’s companions on a one-acre slice of land.
The buildings are a sharp contrast to their new neighbors, Hidden River Corporate Park rising out of the woods on the north and growing Tampa Telecom Park on the west.
Owners Joe and Kim Brown work about 20 hours a day, occasionally resting in “the cave”, the mobile home they live in behind the store.
The couple’s shop is well stocked with shiners and worms.
“What we try to do here is carry the best of baits,” Joe Brown said.
He’s got night crawlers from Canada, salamanders from North Dakota and wigglers from his own worm bed behind the store. A refrigerated tank is home to cured shiners and minnows sedated by the cold.
“Wild shiners in a non-refrigerated tank would be going crazy,” Brown said as he peered into a tank of fish separated by size. “They’d be jumping around trying to commit suicide. With the cold water they’re pretty sedate, but you let the water (temperature) rise, a shiner would be like a race horse.”
Larger shiners are selling for $24 a dozen a dozen today because the fish are dispersed and spawning, so they’re are difficult to catch. Normally, large shiners cost around a $1.50 each, Brown said.
Good bait, proximity to the Hillsborough River and convenient hours lure in fishermen.
“It’s all the time,” Brown said. Catfish lovers are out early to snag popular fishing spots, and during snook season there’s a real run for shiners, he said.
It’s not uncommon for someone to ring the bell at 3 a.m.
“I stick my head out of the door real fast and tell them I’ll be there. It takes a lot for someone to ring a bell that time of the day,” Brown said.
The Browns opened their shop about two years ago with a top notch but small stock of bait and tackle. Born anglers, they knew it was hard to get bait late at night or early in the morning, so they decided to stay open 24 hours.
Now they think their hard work is paying off. The shop has gradually grown to include all kinds of lures and bobbers, rods and reels. Hillsborough River fishermen know they’re there. And others find out every day, Brown said.
“I’ve seen this place a bunch of times, off the interstate, but this is the first time I’ve been here,” customer Michael Walker said one afternoon. “We got a pretty good (fishing) hole near here, so this will suit us just fine.”
Walker said he’s been to a few saltwater bait shops that were open till midnight.
“But I don’t know any that stay open past midnight,” he said.
Although sometimes blurry-eyed when he waits on customers, Brown is never too tired to swap fish stories and other tips.
Normally when he’s fishing with a shiner, Brown hooks the bait behind the rear dorsal fin with a Khale hook. A bass usually grabs a smaller fish head first, so the gills and fins smooth back as the larger fish swallows its victim, Brown said.
But during spawning season, like now, he uses a straight hook and punctures the crease at the bottom of the shiner’s mouth, hooking upward through a hole in the snout.
“Now bass are eating and striking so hard they take him and swallow him,” Brown said.
The shop has given Brown more than a chance to make a living and tell stories. A former designer of conveyor systems, he gave up two houses, boats and other luxuries to move to the woods 10 years ago.
“I had what you’re supposed to want,” Brown said. “I just wasn’t happy.”
But he loved the river, and he lived for years on the Hidden River property north of his shop. Today he said he thinks the land surrounding his home will become Tampa’s version of Central Park.
“I had the foresight to have bait and tackle because there’s 25,000 acres of Southwest Florida Water Management district property adjoining the river that will always be public,” Brown said.
Lettuce Lake Park, Trout Creek, Wilderness Park, Hillsborough River State Park and other natural settings also are permanent parts of the landscape, he said.
As the area grows, the Browns hope their business will follow suit. They feel lucky that they’re in the middle of a developing area minutes from the pristine quiet of the undeveloped Hillsborough River.
Soon Joe Brown plans to have canoes for rent.
“We’re going to grow slow, we don’t believe in carrying debt,” he said. “It takes a lot to start a business.” We’ve had to sacrifice, but we wouldn’t trade it.”

HILLSBOROUGH RIVER ROLLIN’ ALONG
FRANK SERGEANT
Tribune Outdoors Editor

The Hillsborough River has seen some tough times, It’s been dammed and drained and polluted and sea-walled almost to the point of death.
But it keeps on hanging in there. Old man river just keeps on rollin’.
The upper river, above the Fowler Avenue bridge, shows fits and starts of the sort of thing that brought the lower river to its knees years back. But all things considered, its still got a whole lot to offer a city-world wearied soul.
I went up there a week or so ago with Joe Brown and his fishing guide pal Ted Sawyer, both Hillsborough River fans since they wore knee pants.
Joe asked ask me to ride along to take a look at some of the trashing problems that are starting to peak out here and there along the shore lines, and we saw more of it than you’d hope to.
But what we saw mostly was rich-looking black water and tall, thick cypress dams, lots of birds and fish and turtles. And solitude.
It’s not pristine wilderness. But considering it’s within shooting distance of the downtown towers of a major American metropolis, the upper Hillsborough ain’t bad. Not bad at all.
The river snakes through the backyards of a number of homes and an apartment complex or two until it slips under the Fletcher Avenue bridge. From there on up, city turns country in a hurry. There’s a landing at Tampa Palms, but you can’t see any buildings, and for much of the rest of it, the river swamp spreads out all around the flow, a lot like it must have when Tampa was a two-bit fishing village 10 miles away.
There are lots of interesting creeks to explore, including several that Joe said were excellent bassing spots.

HILLSBOROUGH RIVER ENDURES DESPITE TRASH

Lettuce Lake, the only open spot in the river, gave us a look at the county park tower where folks so inclined can view the swamp without getting their feet wet. And a little further up, we found the buzzards.
They come in hundreds, maybe in thousands, Joe said, every winter. They show up in November, they stay until March. They festoon the trees in dozens, fight and hold discussions along the banks, bath in the river.
Yep. Buzzards bath.
Apparently they get a bit too strong even for themselves after a time. We watched a dozen of them flutter like sparrows in a bird bath as they washed up along a sandy shoreline near Nature’s Classroom.
The birds roost in the trees along the river at night, fly out over the surrounding pasture land by day looking for assorted horribles to fill their stomachs.
Sometimes they go visit the downtown towers, where they whirl for hours on the thermals of heated air rising up the glass cliffs.
We found the trash piles, too. Heaps of plastic cups, beer cans, paper plates, the fallout from the civilization that bustles around the edges of this little piece of wilderness.
Joe said he can’t understand why folks would take the trouble to come out here, to get away from the pollution and the ugliness of some parts of the city, and then turn the shorelines into a dump wit their leftovers.
I couldn’t either.

FISHING THE RIVER

Joe Brown runs 24-Hour Bait, on Morris Bridge Road just off Fletcher Avenue. It’s the nearest bait shop to the river, and the only one that operates around the clock. (Well, sort of around the clock. If you show up at 3 a.m., you have to press the buzzer and wait a couple of minutes until Joe rolls out of the sack and comes on down to the shop to serve you.)
The folks who buy bait there return with stories of their successes, and this along with his own long angling experience has allowed Brown to put together a pretty good picture of what works, when, on the river.
Wild shiners, Joe says, are the choice offering for the river’s large mouth.
“We sell ’seasoned’ shiners that have been in chilled, chemically treated water for a week or two. This gives them a slightly silvery color, makes their scales a lot tougher and makes them stay alive on the hook longer than domestic shiners or even fresh-caught wild ones,” he says.
Brown says the way to fish the shiners is to use a Kahle-style hook with a big bend, made of light wire so the bait stays lively. The hook should be inserted under the skin back of the dorsal fin. The bait is then either free-lined, with no weight or cork, or with a cork only, around beds of floating grass and along the deeper cypress shores.
Joe says that simply putting a couple of the baits out behind the boat and letting it drift with the current will also turn up plenty of fish.
He says the side creeks are good spots to fish plastic worms, rigged Texas style with a slip sinker. Colors favored by river experts are tequila shad, red shad and crawfish.
Joe says that the waters above the “pop-off canal” dam, which shuttles water to the Palm River in time of flood, are good for top-water plugs early and late in the day.
Brown is also a catfish angler, and notes that there are plenty of spots where big channel catfish gather in the river.
“Every major bend has a deep hole along the outside bank,” he notes. “Most of these holes have big catfish in the bottom.”
In fact, some of the holes marked nearly 30 feet deep on Ted Sawyers LCD depth finder, and suspended dots showed there were plenty of cats waiting in the depths.
Brown said that cut shiners were the best bait for cats. He said the fish usually feed right on the bottom, so the bait should be weighted with plenty of lead to make it hit and stay put.

PANFISH PLENTIFUL

He said speckled perch or crappie have been biting well in the river for several months, and should stay active through March.
Some of the best spots, he noted, are the hole just below the Fletcher Avenue Bridge, and the island near the upstream end of Lettuce Lake. He said Missouri minnows about two inches long are the best bait in either location.
The river offers good fishing year around, but water levels drop in late winter and early spring.
This means possible problems for boatmen new to the river, according to Brown, because there are many unmarked rocks and stumps, particularly near the Fowler ramp.
Guide Ted Sawyer suggests using only shallow-draft aluminum boats during the low water period, and proceeding slowly until you learn the water.
If you’d rather let Sawyer show you around, he can be contacted at 949-7517. The number at A-24 Hour Bait is 989-2248.
Joe has one request, however you fish the river: take a trash bag with you.

‘FISH JOCKEYS’ HAVE RADIO LISTENERS HOOKED
Frank Sargeant
Tribune Outdoors Editor
Wednesday, July 19, 1995

They call themselves the Mutt and Jeff of Saturday morning fishing shows.
On the air they are argumentative, querulous and cantankerous by their own admission, but Jim Lee and Joe Brown of WFNS, 910 AM’s “GETAWAYS” radio program get along just fine when they hop into a boat and head out for some redfish and snook action, as they did a few weeks ago with captain Tod Romine of Bradenton.
Lee is an insurance man at his “real” job, while Brown runs Tampa’s only 24-hour bait shop. Both say the Saturday morning radio gig is more for fun than profit, but the 25 weeks since they started they’ve managed to collect enough sponsors to break even and enough listeners to put them in the ratings book.
“It ruins your Friday’s nights because you have to get up at 3:30 on Saturday morning to be on the air by 6,” Lee said. “And we usually like to get together at least once during the week to go over the next show and plan the sound effects.”
The program not only covers hunting and fishing, but also family adventures like locating shark’s teeth on the beaches near Venice and going on-site at Gatorland at feeding time.
” We enjoy a lot of foolishness on the air,” Brown said. ” We want to provide information, but more than that we want to entertain. It’s humbling to know you’re just a push of the button away from disappearing from your listeners.”
For a part of the trip on Sarasota Bay, the fish were somewhat humbling, too, with the temperature around 95 degrees and baits scarce, Tod Romine had to delve into his bag of tricks to turn the fish on. But after a few dry holes, he managed.
” The big problem with fishing this summer has been the bait scarcity in this area due to the red tide,” Romine. ” There’s lots of little stuff on the inside that are good for chum, but the larger sardines we want as bait are very hard to find.”
Fortunately, Romine had a “sardine mine” in a 15-foot deep hole in the grass flats where he managed to collect several dozen 4-inch baits with five or six throws of the 10 foot net. He then visited a spot near the mouth of the Manatee River where one toss of of a small-mesh net captured all the chum-sized sardines he could lift aboard.
” I like small sardines for chum because they turn the fish on but don’t fill them up,” Romine said. ” Once you get them popping on top, put out a bigger bait and you’re hooked up in a hurry.”
Lee caught the first fish, a snook of about 23 inches. He pulled it aboard and was still posing for photos when Brown nailed one of about the same size.
” That fish is just like mine, only an inch shorter,” Lee told him.
” Yeah , but it’s an ounce heavier,” Brown said.
” Mine has a higher IQ,” Lee said.
” He wouldn’t have hit if I hadn’t put it in there just right.
” Mine is better looking,” Brown said.
” Yours has a crooked nose.”
And so it went. We managed 15 snook total, all but a couple smaller than the legal 24-inch minimum, and a dozen redfish, six of them in the legal spot, six over the 27-inch maximum. In between was a mix of lady fish, jacks and undersized trout — a busy day considering the sweltering heat.
Romine fishes a mix of yellow holes on high or rising water, deep cuts and island points on the drop.
For more on fishing the Sarasota Bay area, Romine can be reached at (941) 747-3866. For more on Jim and Joe, their shows runs from 6 to 9 a.m. Saturdays.

ROADSIDE ATTRACTION
Jim Tunstall TAMPA TRIBUNE
January 26, 2002
A break with the mainstream led a couple to their own little corner of happiness from another day in time.

” I believe every individual has a purpose. When you start going on your journey to discover yours, you learn some things along the way.”
JOE BROWN

Joe Brown loves to express himself.
If you want to see how, take a spin by his place on the southwest corner of Interstate 75 and Fletcher Avenue. His yard is coiffed with a sassy blend of crab-trap buoys, bottle art, fishy wind socks and a dog and two cats that co-exist on a mainly peaceful basis.
Then there’s the man. Brown, a page out of the 1960’s better side, owns A-24 Hour Bait and Tackle.
On one hand, he’s private enough not to want his photograph taken, on the other, he’s gregarious enough to talk the ears off anyone interested in fishing. Fact is, this 51-year-old Tampa native is primed to gab about next best to anything on the minds of his visitors, including the way things used to be.
Like in 1983 when he and his wife, Kim, planted roots on this corner and the new Interstate was their only new neighbor.
Before that, Brown had been part of the establishment, but he chucked his mainstream career and spent 3 years on a 700-hundred acre spread across Fletcher, searching for himself.
I was seriously unhappy,” he says.
“I left (the job) Nov. 13, 1981. That Date, the moment I left the office, it blazed in my brain, I was 31 and dealing with severe depression.”
One day he heard a voice.
“People will tell you you’ve got serious problems when you hear voices,” he says behind a grin. “But this wasn’t that kind of experience. It just said, ‘Joe, what if it gets better?’”
Well, slowly it did.
He and Kim took an option on the corner that been home to a worm farm for 25 years.
” The worm business was at it’s ebb,” Brown says.
” I bought it to sell. I had no idea I was going to continue it.”
Over the years, neighbors started putting down roots to the west, including apartment complexes and more than a half dozen hotels, such as Extended Stay America and Residence Inn.
The bait and tackle business stayed reasonably strong until the economy went south last year, Brown says, adding that he still carries a full line of rods, reels, cane poles, lures, crickets, shiners, and shrimp.
” But we did a lot a wholesale and we lost 90 percent of that business Sep. 11,” he says.” ” That’s dead. It’s not coming back.”
Fortunately the Browns have branched out.
Last year, they opened a gift shop that sells gator heads, sea shells, stuffed critters, t-shirts, and other trinkets.
Brown also started dabbling in bottle art — melting everything from vodka to Sprite bottles, reshaping them then letting them cool and harden.
Through the last 20 years, he seems to have learned to be a survivor.
He’s also learned his reason for being on this corner.
“I believe every individual has a purpose,” he says, turning serious for a moment.
“When you start going on your journey to discover yours, you learn some things along the way. I like working with the public and making them happy. And if you’re doing what you want to do, it’s a beautiful thing.”

BUOY OH BUOY
BITS OF THE BEACH
BILL DURYEA
TIMES STAFF WRITER
JULY 5, 2005

A BAY AREA BUSINESS COUPLE SALVAGES DEBRIS FROM THE KEYS THAT CAN BUOY ANY ATMOSPHERE.

TAMPA– Every month or so, Kim and Joe Brown pile into the family flatbed truck, he one that’s decorated with multi-colored stencils of fern fronds, and drive down to Key West.
There, they inevitably find what they’re looking for: a few thousand discarded plastic foam crab and lobster buoys, maybe a battered surf board or a life preserver. After a week or so, they strap the whole load down, turn the truck around and head home to Fletcher Avenue at Interstate-75, where they have lived for nearly 25 years.
If you’ve driven by there recently, and you’d know if you’d had, then you have a pretty good idea, of what the Brown’s do with the buoys once they get them off the truck.
They wrap them around metal poles, until they resemble marshmellow Christmas trees. They festoon them outside the gift and bait shop they run. They line their parking lot with them.
“It can drive you crazy,” Kim Brown said as she stared at a mound of them. “There’s got to be something else to do with them. I was thinking maybe I’d cut them in half and make them into little planters.”
Occasionaly, a restaurant owner who fancies a nautical theme will relieve them of a few thousand buoys. Sometimes a home owner from New Tampa wants a dozen for his new poolside bar.
But generally speaking, the treasures of the Key West trips come in at a rate far faster than they go out. Doesn’t matter a bit to the Browns.
“I have a pretty good life. I don’t have to bust my butt,” Kim Brown said. “I don’t make a lot of money, but when someone likes my stuff, that’s cool.”
In a corner of Tampa dominated by late-arriving corporate parks and hotel chains, they live a life of enviable self-sufficiency. If they appear eccentric, it is only by the relelentlessly conformist standards of their neighbors. If the decor appears kitschy, maybe it’s because we’ve lost touch with what’s truly authentic.
On a recent morning, Kim Brown was giving an impromptu tour to a surprise visitor. She was wearing a loose-fitting white shirt and a long gray cotton skirt. Walking around in her tanned bare feet and sunglasses she seemed glamorous and unfussy. She casually mentions her age, 46, without a trace of self-consciousness.
The sky was threatening rain and that wasn’t doing much for sales at A-24 Hour Bait. “Fish are going to eat today,” she says, shaking her head at the squandered opportunity.
But it gave her time to tell some stories.
“Those rings, they came from a Cuban refugee raft,” she says, indicating a clump of artifacts outside thet baitshop. ” When I can, I take a picture of the man or the woman and that becomes part of the story of what we sell.”
She grabbed a bass lure dangling from the inside of a metal cylinder and gave it a good tug. It clanged loudly. “We make the bells out of dive tanks that were going to be thrown away,” she says.
“I’ve got a real nice anchor. It’s over 100 years old. That came from a Cuban who got it caught in his lobster traps.”
“The Lobster guys are lucky,” she says with real admiration in her voice. “They find this stuff all the time, just floating out there.”
Kim grew up near Lowry Park Zoo. Her husband was raised out on Anderson Road. They met in 1981, the circumstances of which are one of a few stories she’s reluctant to tell in detail. At the time she was boarding horses across the road in what is now the Hidden River Corporate Park.
“When I met Joe, he was in a suit and tie. He always had a thousand dollars on his back,” she said. He was in the materials handling business, but it wasn’t long for that corporate life.
They saw some land was available for sale on Morris Bridge Road, the part where it bends in the southwest corner of I-75 and Fletcher. The acre or so had a worm farm on it when they bought it. The previous owner had a Coca-Cola cooler out front, and fishermen on their way to the Hillsborough River would come by and fill a can with worms, leave a little money in a cup. All on the honour system.
“That tapered off. Fishng wasn’t simple anymore. You couldn’t just get a cane pole and a can of worms and go catch some dinner,” Kim says. “Now you’ve got to have permits and expensive reels and the latest lure.”
“That’s why we kind of went back to our art.”
In the early 1990’s they made their first trip down to the keys. They began to meet fishermen. They stayed in their homes, ate dinner with them. Joined in the parties at the beginning of stone crab season.
It wasn’t long before they saw all the buoys overflowing the trash cans. Buoys generally last a few years. Turtles gnaw them. Storms scatter them. Sun and salt bleach them.
“Hey, we can do something with those,” Kim remembers saying. “We make something out of nothing.”
The gift shop, known as Hong Kong Willie, is full of stuff that was perilously close to oblivion before the Browns identified some hidden potential.
Kim makes “coconut grams”. They’re painted coconuts with a space clearly marked for the address. There’s not much room for the message. But the U.S. Postal Service will actually deliver them, Kim says.
The gift shop’s ceiling is packed with coffee sacks. Glass bottles that have been heated in the Brown’s kilns sit on shelves slumped like Dali clocks. Gnarled pieces of polished Lignum Vitae are scattered about; Kim’s son Derek, 22, is responsible for that work.
Nothing has a price, because prices depend on too many variables for it to be worth specifying. (A string of five buoys will cost you $12.99, though the price drops for bulk purchases.) But whenever possible a piece will come with a picture of the shop, or of the person who provided the piece, to commemorate the item’s passage
through history.
“This telephone was on Duval Street,” Kim says. “It’s got all these names and numbers written on the side. And a picture of a raccoon on the front. Who knows why?”
The demand for items such as this is unpredictable. Ditto the 1961 mailbox with the rusted front. But the Browns’ customers tend to share their enthusiasm.
“I bought 1,200 buoys a month ago,” said Jimmy Ciaccio, owner of Gaspar’s, a restaurant on 56th Street in Temple Terrace that has a brand new patio with an aggressive Key West theme.
“I must have 3,000 of them around here,” Ciaccio says as he walks the deck, talking a torrent. “I got a raft, those traps, they all came from Joe. I’ve bought a lot of novelty stuff from them. That’s what they’re all about and that’s what we’re all about. And there’s always a story behind everything. I love that. He gave me that thing, it’s like a piece of wood or something I don’t know what it is, but it’s from Key West. We’ve got that chemistry.”
If there were a few more customers as fervid as Ciaccio, Kim Brown might not be toying with the idea of getting into the food business. But there aren’t and she is.
“Not everybody wants a buoy or a bell,” Kim says. “But everyone wants to drink a cup of coffee. I don’t want to be a Starbucks but maybe a little coffee shop. Maybe a good Cuban sandwich.”
“But then you get into hiring and firing. I’ve got friends in the retaurant business. I see how hard they work. It’s never-ending,” she says, beginning to argue with herself. “I just don’t want to work that hard.”
She circles back to a calm contentment with life as it is currently defined.
“We’re happy. We don’t want to sell. We’re not rich, but we pay our bills.

The zen of junk

A Tampa couple devotes itself to creating something from nothing

BY ALEX PICKETT

Published 12.06.06

Located off East Fletcher Road between hotel chains and high-end office parks is the gift shop and folk art gallery Hong Kong Willie’s.Drive south on I-75, look to the right around East Fletcher Avenue, and you can’t miss it. The tree appears first, hundreds of buoys wrapped around its branches, resembling a sort of Dr. Seuss-ian Christmas ornament. Then the rest of the 20,000 buoys come into view — thousands of strands of the multicolored foam balls stretching from the tree to two wooden shacks, hanging from their roofs and walls, and stretched out over the property.

Strewn about the lawn is a menagerie of surfboards, car doors, CB radios, wooden sculptures and painted signs. A 1979 Ford pickup sits in the front driveway, painted with a rainbow of colors, four racks of antlers affixed to its roof. An old stuffed caribou sits in a lawn chair beckoning visitors.

Of the thousands of motorists who pass by this eclectic landmark off Exit 266 every day, few stop in the funky gift shop and Key West-themed folk art gallery that is Hong Kong Willie’s. But this is not your typical roadside store selling cheesy Florida magnets and beach T-shirts (although they have those, too). From the moment the owners come out to greet you, it’s clear that for them this isn’t just a business — it’s a lifestyle.

As I step out of my car, Joe Brown ambles toward me wearing a red Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts. With his disheveled shoulder-length brown hair and strong jaw line, Brown, 56, looks a lot like Mel Gibson in Braveheart. He ends most of his sentences with “Do you follow me?” and stares with wild gray eyes until you nod in agreement. His 46-year-old wife, Kim, who bears a strong resemblance to Grace Slick, sits near the shop’s open sign, branding her latest creation. Wearing large sunglasses, she gives a smile, hardly looking up.

Joe and Kim — Tampa natives — bought the half-acre property off Fletcher Avenue and Morris Bridge Road in 1985. For the next two decades, the Browns operated A-24 Hour Bait and Tackle, living on the premises and bagging worms for K-Mart and Wal-Mart to make a few extra bucks. But in 2001, they decided to abandon fish food to pursue the fickle business of art, although they will tell you Hong Kong Willie’s was always “part of the journey.”

“We were artists,” says Joe. “We were born that way. We had no choice. You follow me?”

The underlying theme of Hong Kong Willie’s is creating art out of objects destined for the landfill, and while browsing the items, I get the feeling the Browns are trying to make a point rather than a sale.

“Thirty percent of the gifts given will be in the dumpster by next Christmas,” Joe says. “Most Christmas gifts will be given because they think they have to. Very few will have a social impact.”

Every item at Hong Kong Willie’s is either art made out of an object destined for the landfill or products that other companies were throwing away and the Browns retrieved before they made it to the dumpster. But don’t call this recycled art. The Browns prefer “preservation.”

Recycling implies the material will be used for the same purpose. “If you get stuck in that word, then you get stuck in that form,” Joe explains. Instead, the Browns create a whole new use for an item that would have been otherwise thrown away.

Kim looks up from her painting after Joe finishes his long ramble. “We’ve always been able to take nothing and make something out of it,” she says.

Although most people assume Joe is “Hong Kong Willie,” he says the name refers to the origin of junk: Hong Kong produces much of the useless merchandise that Americans buy and quickly throw away, he says. So it’s up to the Willies of the world — i.e. the Browns and other conservationists — to find new uses for the trash.

“All of us who believe what we believe is Hong Kong Willie,” Joe says.

The gift shop is a space not much bigger than a tool shed, cluttered with handmade candles, pottery, ceramic figures and deer skulls painted tie-dye style. Joe, who’s not content to allow me to wander by myself, darts from item to item, sharing each one’s origins. One of the first objects he shows me is an old scuba tank cut in half, stenciled with yellow and purple spray paint with a weighted rope attached on the inside. What would have been a heavy addition to a landfill or junkyard, the Browns now sell as a nautical-themed bell. Another popular item: a used Starbucks Frappuccino bottle filled with sand and shells, and the words “Florida Beachfront Property” written in paint on it.

“Is it really pragmatic to say this had one life — to have Frappuccino in it?” he says, holding up the $3 gift. “That’s not true. You follow me?”

Joe picks up a droopy glass vase — the result of an Arizona Ice Tea bottle stuck in a kiln for too long. He says it’s a collector’s item: Only 300 were made and none look alike.

“People really want something that is one of a kind and something that means something,” he says, holding up the vase and pointing to a stack of Beanie Babies. “Which one is the real collectible? The one that cannot be copied or the one that is mass-produced just on a small scale? You follow me?”

Most of the materials the Browns work with come from Key West. Every few months they hop in the pickup, drive the 425 miles to the Keys and start looking for the junk no one else wants: used dive tanks, the lobster trap buoys, burlap bags and even old wooden planks from ships or homes destroyed by storms.

In fact, the latter is one of their biggest sellers. They bring back an imperfect piece of lumber, slap some urethane on it and Kim paints everything from colorful fish and birds to old Key West landmarks on it. Every piece is branded, marked with a lobster cage tag and affixed with brass rings or forks with which to hang them. In the building opposite the gift shop, among stuffed animals and fish (Joe was once a taxidermist), 30 of these painted planks hang from the walls.

Customers are few at Hong Kong Willie’s, but the Browns say they’re doing well. They never try to push their art on anyone, figuring that if someone stops and buys something, it was meant to be. (”A piece of art is a love affair,” Kim says.) They count Gaspar’s Patio Bar and Grille in Temple Terrace as one of their best customers. Their other business comes from Tampa residents looking to add a tiki feel to their backyards. Among Joe’s most popular creations are old car doors outfitted with waterproof speakers. A few Key West bars bought the unique sound systems to hang from their ceilings.

But the Browns are not just content to sell their art to passersby — they want to live the ideals that inspire their art. The couple is working on getting their business off the electrical grid and powered completely by solar energy. Kim wants to start a coffee and ice cream shop with free wireless Internet to bring in likeminded people. Joe wants to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for hanging the greatest number of buoys to a structure (it’s not a category yet). And they’re always trying to find new uses for the trash they see lining area roads.

“We’re not just sitting out here being weird,” Joe says suddenly. “We’re actually taking objects and making these thousands of people say, ‘What’s that?’ We’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do.”

His eyes get wide.

“You follow me?”

the bloggy, bloggy dew
a nameless yeast

Monday, March 27, 2006
hong kong willie

Getting lost out of Tampa on the way to Gibsonton, we saw this structure just off the exit ramp. We turned around to investigate and met Kim and Joe of Hong Kong Willie, an artist’s collective that makes art out of buoys and burlap bags and other discards on Key West. Kim and Joe were a sweet couple and Bunny thought they wanted to adopt me. Joe explained that the name Hong Kong Willie comes from 1956, when the world changed and plastic turned this into a nation of nonbiodegradable disposables. I hesitate to call what they do outsider art because it can be a patronizing label; their work comes not from the inward obsession of much outsider art, but from a social conscience and a genuine desire to reach out and make the world a better place.

Posted by pat at 9:24 AM

tampahappenings.creativeloafing.com/gbase/BestOf/BestOfAw…

www.wusf.usf.edu/SoundSlides/897News/070928_HK_Willie/pub…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV3Aj85I84

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpfY_mTSmlI

hongkongwillie-preservationist.blogspot.com/2007/08/prese…

hong-kong-willie-blog.blogspot.com/2007/09/hong-kong-will…

hongkongwillie.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6EF8E41893965352!…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-gE1wckw8I

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSYVu32Yv60
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bgb5ABTups

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y13nIldqYGs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZDfl_emTI4

tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:154918

A Bloggy Hong Kong Willie
Hong Kong Willie on LIVESpaces
A Preservationist PT.2
Hong Kong Willie PT.2
Hong Kong Willie PT.3
Hong Kong Willie on YouTube
MySpace Profile

www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=…

hong-kong-willie-blog.blogspot.com/2007/09/hong-kong-will…

hongkongwillie.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6EF8E41893965352!…
hong-kong-willie-blog.blogspot.com/2007/08/artist-hong-ko…
hongkongwillie-preservationist.blogspot.com/2007/08/true-…

THE NAME HONG KONG WILLIE SINCE 1958

GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE
HONG KONG WILLIE THE NAME OF THE ARTIST. IN 1958 HIS MOTHER TOOK HONG KONG WILLIE TO AN ART CLASS. THE NAME STARTED THEN. AN ART TEACHER WHEN DOING CRAFTS OUT OF GERBER BABY BOTTLES, MADE A STATEMENT, IN HONG KONG REUSE WAS COMMON. AT THAT TIME HE THOUGHT THIS WAS VERY INTERESTING. HIS FATHER HAD LOW LAND, AT THAT TIME LANDFILLS WERE COMMON ALSO. THE COUNTY HAD TOLD HONG KONG WILLIE’S FATHER, IT WAS SAFE, BUT AS WE KNOW NOW THIS WAS NOT SO. SOMETHING CAN COME FROM BAD TO BE GOOD. HONG KONG WILLIE THE NAME CAME FROM THAT ART TEACHER IMPRESSING ON THAT YOUNG MIND THAT OBJECTS MADE FOR ONE USE COULD BE FOR MANY OTHER USES. HONG KONG FOR THE NEAT CONCEPT. WILLIE FOR AN AMERICAN NAME. SO FOR MANY YEARS HONG KONG WILLIE HAD A LIFE OF REUSE. HONG KONG WILLIE SAW FORMS IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT. HIS LIFE NOW WAS MEANINGFUL, KNOWING THIS WAS AND WOULD BE HIS LIFE. ART MADE FROM FOUND OBJECTS, MAKING LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS WORLD. ART AND ART TEACHERS, HOW IMPORTANT. FOR THE ONES THAT HAVE, AND THE ONES THAT HAVE NOT. MEDIA CAN BE FOUND. NOW 49 YEARS LATER, WE KNOW BEING GREEN IS IMPORTANT. WE NEED TO LOOK AT THIS VERY CAREFULLY. OUR CHILDREN AND OUR WORLD NEED A DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDING. OBJECTS CAN BE USED IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS. HONG KONG WILLIE THE TONS OF OBJECTS IN HIS LIFE THAT HAVE BEEN USED, WITH OUT MUCH CHANGE. SO FOR THAT ART TEACHER WHAT SHE DID FOR MY LIFE THANK YOU, FOR HONG KONG THANK YOU, FOR AMERICA, THANK YOU, FOR THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE HELPED, THANK YOU FOR THE 76,266 VIEWS OF OUR BLOGS SINCE SEPTEMBER OF 2006. I STILL HAVE THE GERBER BABY BOTTLE TILL THIS DAY. HONG KONG WILLIE

A LANDMARK IN TAMPA. THE TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION HONG KONG WILLIE AN ART GROUP OUT OF TAMPA AND KEY WEST. ARTIST BELIEVING IN PRESERVATION ART. THE WORLD RECORD BUOY TREE, MADE FROM KEY WEST LOBSTER FLOATS SHOW THEIR COMMITMENT TO PRESERVATION. LOCATED ON I-75 EXIT 266 IN TAMPA. APROXIMATELY 2 MILES FROM THE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY, CALLED MOSI. DOWN THE STREET IS BUSCH GARDENS AND ADVENTURE ISLAND. LOWRY PARK IS A SHORT ROAD TRIP. THE TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION IS FUNKY LAIDBACK,SCENIC OLD FASHION PLACE WHERE A TOURIST WOULD BUY A TRUE ONE OF A KIND FLORIDA SOUVENIR STOP BY HONG KONG WILLIE

Past days have seen famed Conch artists after destruction from devastating hurricanes collect ship wreckage, building parts, car doors, any mass which could evolve itselfinto a canvas for expression. HONG KONG WILLIE, renowned Key’s Artist Collective, gained notoriety only from the blatant choice of medium, and the artists’ yearning to remain honest to originality. Every Original HONG KONG WILLIE piece is truly “One of a Kind”, no piece is ever reproduced. Along with Burn-Etched Signature, SpinyLobster Trap ID Tag, and Hand Signature, any validation of an ORIGINAL HONG KONG WILLIE piece is definite. Visit HONG KONG WILLIE STUDIOS located in Tampa, Florida for a true insight into the work. Contact the Artists for appointment @ (813)770-4794

Tags: "HONG KONG WILLIE", Add new tag, florida folk art, florida folk artist, green art, green artist, greenbeach bags, HIPPIE, hippie art, hippie artist, HIPPIE BAGS, hippy, hippy bags, HONGKONGWILLIE, key west hippie, tampa art, tampa artist, tampa hippie
Posted in "hong kong willie" | 1 Comment »

BEACH BAGS, HIPPY BAGS, HIPPIE BAGS,GREEN BEACH BAGS
May 9, 2008 by HONG KONG WILLIE

www.hongkongwillie.com

BEACH BAGS BEACH BAG GREEN ARTIST
HONG KONG WILLIE A TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION. HONG KONG WILLIE IN TAMPA, LOCATED ON I 75 EXIT 266. A LITTLE OLD FASHION TOURIST ATTRACTION THAT HAS LIVED THE LIFE OF BEING GREEN. HONG KONG WILLIE GREEN SHOPPING BAGS AND HONG KONG WILLIE ART, IS A FORM OF LIFE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN LIVING LIFE AND TO FIND SOLUTIONS IN TRULY REUSE. HONG KONG WILLIE HAS FOUND OUT THE WAY THAT WE CAN REUSE MANNY OBJECTS IN OTHER FORMS. HONG KONG WILLIE ART AND THE ART INSPIRED FROM LIVING IN THE FLORIDA KEYS AND THE KEY WEST UNDERSTANDING THAT COMPILING ABOUT SOMETHING IS LIKE WAKING A DEAD MAN UP, NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN. THE KEY WEST WAY OF LIVING IS TO DO WITH ONES SELF. HONG KONG WILLIE HAS SEEN THROUGH THE YEARS THAT THE SOLUTION IS WITH IN ONE SELF. HONG KONG WILLIE RAISED ON A LANDFILL IN TAMPA SAW MANY USES FROM WHAT PEOPLE WOULD DISCARD. ARTIST FIND THAT PRECEPT IS WITH IN ALL OF USE. THE TERM GREEN IS A VERY IMPORTANT WAY FOR THE FUTURE. WE ALL NEED TO BE POSITIVE AND LOOK FOR A NEW WAY OF USING OUR RESOURCES. HONG KONG WILLIE IF YOU LOOK THE NAME STARTED IN 1958 IN A ART CLASS. STOP BY AND LOOK FOR WAYS THAT HONG KONG WILLIE HAS USED OBJECTS IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS THAN THE FIRST USE. REMEMBER WE ALL CAN MAKE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE ON THIS WORD. HONG KONG WILLIE TRIES TO MAKE LESS OF A FOOTPRINT ON THIS EARTH.

HONG KONG WILLIE LITTLE GREENS SHOPPING BAG HUT
TAMPA LITTLE TOURIST ATTRACTION, HONG KONG WILLIE ON I 75 EXIT 266 TAMPA. HONG KONG WILLIE ARTIST IN TAMPA AND KEY WEST. THIS GREEN SHOPPING BAG 99.95 REUSED MATERIAL.HONG KONG WILLIE ART ON GOOGLE. ART FROM REUSED MATERIAL. HONG KONG WILLIE LIVING A LIFE OF GREEN SINCE 1958. COME BY HONG KONG WILLIE TO COPY WAYS TO BE GREEN

Windows Live Spaces

GREEN SHOPPING BAD REUSED MATERIAL HONG KONG WILLIE

SOON HONG KONG WILLIE TO BE GREEN SHOPPING BAGS

THE HONG KONG WILLIE GREEN SHOPPING HUT A TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION

GREEN BAG MADE FROM 99.9% REUSED MATERIAL. TODAY HONG KONG WILLIE SHOWED THE GREEN BAG. AT THE STARBUCKS, IN TAMPA, FLORIDA. 33637 ON FLETCHER. TALKING TO SUSAN, THE MANAGER, IT WAS DIFFERENT. STARBUCKS, WHAT A COMPANY, TRYING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IN THIS TIME TO SEE A LOOK LIKE I SAW FROM SUSAN, PEOPLE AND COMPANY’S LIKE STARBUCKS, HAVE A DREAM AND PUT ACTION BEHIND IT. IT WAS NEAT TO SEE THEM EXCEPT THE GREEN BAG MADE MOSTLY FROM COFFEE BAGS. COFFEE BEANS GOING TO THE ROASTER, CARING A OBJECT TO ANOTHER USE AND THE BAGS CARING OBJECT FROM A STORE SAVING PLASTIC BAGS FROM OUR LANDFILL. WE ARE MADE FOR A REASON, EVERYONE OF US CAN LEAVE LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS EARTH.

tampahappenings.creativeloafing.com/gbase/BestOf/BestOfAw…

www.wusf.usf.edu/SoundSlides/897News/070928_HK_Willie/pub…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV3Aj85I84

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpfY_mTSmlI

hongkongwillie-preservationist.blogspot.com/2007/08/prese…

hong-kong-willie-blog.blogspot.com/2007/09/hong-kong-will…

hongkongwillie.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6EF8E41893965352!…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-gE1wckw8I

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSYVu32Yv60
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bgb5ABTups

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y13nIldqYGs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZDfl_emTI4

tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:154918

A Bloggy Hong Kong Willie
Hong Kong Willie on LIVESpaces
A Preservationist PT.2
Hong Kong Willie PT.2
Hong Kong Willie PT.3
Hong Kong Willie on YouTube
MySpace Profile

www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=…

hong-kong-willie-blog.blogspot.com/2007/09/hong-kong-will…

hongkongwillie.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6EF8E41893965352!…
hong-kong-willie-blog.blogspot.com/2007/08/artist-hong-ko…
hongkongwillie-preservationist.blogspot.com/2007/08/true-…

FOLLOWING THIS PART IS SOME OF WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN OR ON FOX TV TAMPA, ON WUSF USF RADIO, AND OTHER HISTORY ON HONG KONG WILLIE

HONG KONG WILLIE ART GROUP ON WUSF .ORG
HONG KONG WILLIE ON WUSF.ORG. SLIDE SHOW AND COMMENTARY ON ART GROUP. HONG KONG WILLIE KEY WEST ARTIST AND TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION. HONG KONG WILLIE GROUP OF ARTIST TELLING HOW TO USE OBJECTS FOR MANY DIFFERENT PURPOSES. LOOKING OUT SIDE OF THE BOX, LEARNING TO FIND SOLUTIONS IN A POSITIVE WAY. COMPILING WITHOUT A SOLUTION IS LIKE TRYING TO WAKE A DEAD MAN UP. NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN. THE SOLUTION TO LEAVING LESS OR A FOOT PRINT ON THIS EARTH IS LEFT UP TO EACH ONE OF US. FINDING THE POST IVE SIDE AND FOCUSING POSITIVE ENERGY IS CHANGE FOR THE GOOD. HONG KONG WILLIE HAS FOR MANY YEARS LOOK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX. TAKE A LOOK AT THE OTHER STORY TOLD ON RADIO ON WAY TO CHANGE AND THE SOCIAL IMPACT WE ALL CAN MAKE. TO LIVE AND HELP AND NOT COMPLAIN AND SPEND THAT ENTER THOUGHT TO LEAVE LESS OF A FOOT PRINT IS A GOOD THING. HONG KONG WILLIE ON THIS GREAT DAY THANKS BRAD, AND USF.

HONG KONG WILLIE TAMPA ARTIST LOOKING ALWAYS FOR NEW IDEALS TO PASS ON, TIP OF THE DAY REUSE 2LITER SODA BOTTLES FOR FROZEN ICE IN THE COOLER

THE NAME HONG KONG WILLIE SINCE 1958

GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE
HONG KONG WILLIE THE NAME OF THE ARTIST. IN 1958 HIS MOTHER TOOK HONG KONG WILLIE TO AN ART CLASS. THE NAME STARTED THEN. AN ART TEACHER WHEN DOING CRAFTS OUT OF GERBER BABY BOTTLES, MADE A STATEMENT, IN HONG KONG REUSE WAS COMMON. AT THAT TIME HE THOUGHT THIS WAS VERY INTERESTING. HIS FATHER HAD LOW LAND, AT THAT TIME LANDFILLS WERE COMMON ALSO. THE COUNTY HAD TOLD HONG KONG WILLIE’S FATHER, IT WAS SAFE, BUT AS WE KNOW NOW THIS WAS NOT SO. SOMETHING CAN COME FROM BAD TO BE GOOD. HONG KONG WILLIE THE NAME CAME FROM THAT ART TEACHER IMPRESSING ON THAT YOUNG MIND THAT OBJECTS MADE FOR ONE USE COULD BE FOR MANY OTHER USES. HONG KONG FOR THE NEAT CONCEPT. WILLIE FOR AN AMERICAN NAME. SO FOR MANY YEARS HONG KONG WILLIE HAD A LIFE OF REUSE. HONG KONG WILLIE SAW FORMS IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT. HIS LIFE NOW WAS MEANINGFUL, KNOWING THIS WAS AND WOULD BE HIS LIFE. ART MADE FROM FOUND OBJECTS, MAKING LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS WORLD. ART AND ART TEACHERS, HOW IMPORTANT. FOR THE ONES THAT HAVE, AND THE ONES THAT HAVE NOT. MEDIA CAN BE FOUND. NOW 49 YEARS LATER, WE KNOW BEING GREEN IS IMPORTANT. WE NEED TO LOOK AT THIS VERY CAREFULLY. OUR CHILDREN AND OUR WORLD NEED A DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDING. OBJECTS CAN BE USED IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS. HONG KONG WILLIE THE TONS OF OBJECTS IN HIS LIFE THAT HAVE BEEN USED, WITH OUT MUCH CHANGE. SO FOR THAT ART TEACHER WHAT SHE DID FOR MY LIFE THANK YOU, FOR HONG KONG THANK YOU, FOR AMERICA, THANK YOU, FOR THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE HELPED, THANK YOU FOR THE 76,266 VIEWS OF OUR BLOGS SINCE SEPTEMBER OF 2006. I STILL HAVE THE GERBER BABY BOTTLE TILL THIS DAY. HONG KONG WILLIE

THIS IS GREEN. HONG KONG WILLIE LIVES GREEN. SINCE 1958, HONG KONG WILLIE HAS BEEN GREEN. HONG KONG WILLIE LIVED ON A LANDFILL. WHAT A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE. BEING GREEN IS LEARNING TO USE AN OBJECT FOR MANY PURPOSES. THIS BAG WAS A COFFEE BAG THE BEANS CAME TO THE ROASTER. NOW IS A SHOPPING BAG. HONG KONG WILLIE A KEY WEST ARTIST AND TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION, HAS USED MANY OBJECTS FOR MANY USES. TAKE A LOOK AT THIS TRULY GREEN SHOPPING BAG. THE BUOYS, THE CRAB TRAP FLOATS, THE BOTTLES, AMERICA NEEDS TO COPY OTHER COUNTRY’S LESS FORTUNATE THAN US. HONG KONG WILLIE TRIES TO BE GREEN IN EVERY WAY. LET EVERYONE TRY, AND LEAVE LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS WORLD. GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE.

GREEN SHOPPING BAG REUSED MATERIAL HONG KONG WILLIE ART GROUP TAMPA
HONG KONG WILLIE A TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION. HONG KONG WILLIE IN TAMPA, LOCATED ON I 75 EXIT 266. A LITTLE OLD FASHION TOURIST ATTRACTION THAT HAS LIVED THE LIFE OF BEING GREEN. HONG KONG WILLIE GREEN SHOPPING BAGS AND HONG KONG WILLIE ART, IS A FORM OF LIFE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN LIVING LIFE AND TO FIND SOLUTIONS IN TRULY REUSE. HONG KONG WILLIE HAS FOUND OUT THE WAY THAT WE CAN REUSE MANNY OBJECTS IN OTHER FORMS. HONG KONG WILLIE ART AND THE ART INSPIRED FROM LIVING IN THE FLORIDA KEYS AND THE KEY WEST UNDERSTANDING THAT COMPILING ABOUT SOMETHING IS LIKE WAKING A DEAD MAN UP, NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN. THE KEY WEST WAY OF LIVING IS TO DO WITH ONES SELF. HONG KONG WILLIE HAS SEEN THROUGH THE YEARS THAT THE SOLUTION IS WITH IN ONE SELF. HONG KONG WILLIE RAISED ON A LANDFILL IN TAMPA SAW MANY USES FROM WHAT PEOPLE WOULD DISCARD. ARTIST FIND THAT PRECEPT IS WITH IN ALL OF USE. THE TERM GREEN IS A VERY IMPORTANT WAY FOR THE FUTURE. WE ALL NEED TO BE POSITIVE AND LOOK FOR A NEW WAY OF USING OUR RESOURCES. HONG KONG WILLIE IF YOU LOOK THE NAME STARTED IN 1958 IN A ART CLASS. STOP BY AND LOOK FOR WAYS THAT HONG KONG WILLIE HAS USED OBJECTS IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS THAN THE FIRST USE. REMEMBER WE ALL CAN MAKE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE ON THIS WORD. HONG KONG WILLIE TRIES TO MAKE LESS OF A FOOTPRINT ON THIS EARTH.

HONG KONG WILLIE LITTLE GRREN SHOPPING BAG HUT
TAMPA LITTLE TOURIST ATTRACTION, HONG KONG WILLIE ON I 75 EXIT 266 TAMPA. HONG KONG WILLIE ARTIST IN TAMPA AND KEY WEST. THIS GREEN SHOPPING BAG 99.95 REUSED MATERIAL.HONG KONG WILLIE ART ON GOOGLE. ART FROEM REUSED MATERIAL. HONG KONG WILLIE LIVING A LIFE OF GREEN SINCE 1958. COME BY HONG KONG WILLIE TO COPY WAYS TO BE GREEN

Windows Live Spaces

GREEN SHOPPING BAD REUSED MATERIAL HONG KONG WILLIE

SOON HONG KONG WILLIE TO BE GREEN SHOPPING BAGS

THE HONG KONG WILLIE GREEN SHOPPING HUT A TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION

GREEN BAG MADE FROM 99.9% REUSED MATERIAL. TODAY HONG KONG WILLIE SHOWED THE GREEN BAG. AT THE STARBUCKS, IN TAMPA, FLORIDA. 33637 ON FLETCHER. TALKING TO SUSAN, THE MANAGER, IT WAS DIFFERENT. STARBUCKS, WHAT A COMPANY, TRYING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IN THIS TIME TO SEE A LOOK LIKE I SAW FROM SUSAN, PEOPLE AND COMPANY’S LIKE STARBUCKS, HAVE A DREAM AND PUT ACTION BEHIND IT. IT WAS NEAT TO SEE THEM EXCEPT THE GREEN BAG MADE MOSTLY FRON COFFEE BAGS. COFFEE BEANS GOING TO THE ROASTER, CARING A OBJECT TO ANOTHER USE AND THE BAGS CARING OBJECT FROM A STORE SAVING PLASTIC BAGS FROM OUR LANDFILL. WE ARE MADE FOR A REASON, EVERYONE OF US CAN LEAVE LESS OF A FOOT PRINT ON THIS EARTH.

Tags: "HONG KONG WILLIE", Add new tag, GREEN HIPPIE BEACH BAGS, HIPPIE, HIPPIE BAGS, HIPPIE BEACH BAGS

REBELNIKO NICK FARRIS

Thursday, July 3, 2008

HONG KONG WILLIE

Friday, June 20, 2008

REBELNIKO WATCHED FOR DEALING DOPE BY Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office

Monday, June 16, 2008

HFlickr: “hongkongwillie”Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off yONG KONG WILLIE

Blog Archive

About Me