Mafiosa

So it seems that even though Miami has the reputation for gangsters, Our neighbor, Tampa is the heart of the mob in Florida.

Pretty interesting story... I wonder how long it is until they host "godfather" tours in Ybor....

Transit Lounge

Transit is one of the best places to see/hear live music in Miami. Here are some photos from the art outside (another in the series of Miami Street Art):

The view of downtown from out back:

Jellyfish and Crabs Working Together?

This is from the Gulf Coast of Florida but who knows, these guys could pop up in our waters too - or maybe they already have. It looks like the crabs are using the jellyfish as a means of transportation. Maybe they get tired of scurrying around on the bottom. It's from a CNN iReport.

The Miami Herald

The Miami Herald made some big changes in their layout today and I have to say I like it alot better now....

Street Art - September Artwalk

Here is my first installment from the recent artwalk - street graffiti. It's all pretty awesome:

The HOLLYHOOD Series:

A good message:

The Movie Series:


Gangs of New York? I didn't expect to see Daniel Day Lewis on NW21st - pretty awesome:

UBike and Zipcar

The University of Miami has picked up on the trend across US college campuses of selling bikes and leasing "green" cars to students to alleviate the horrible parking situation. Recently there was a good article about this program in Veritas. It's a great idea!

BikeMiami

I have often ranted and raved about the absense of usable public transportation in this city. I have also lamented the fact that I drive so far for my job, and while I can take public transportation ALMOST there, I have to either walk or bike approximately 3-4 miles on a street that is not bike-friendly.

So this post by Transit Miami makes me happy.

IMO, one of the reasons why we have an obesity epidemic in this country is because we rely on our cars to go a quarter of a mile instead of walking or biking. Part of this is lazyness, another is that many cities are not pedestrian friendly. Our culture doesn't understand not wanting to use your car. I tell people that one of the benefits of my new apartment is that I can cycle to the gym, grocery and even the park or some shopping malls if I feel adventurous and I am usually met with a stare and a, "Why would you do that when you can drive"

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this event will become a regular thing, and perhaps we can change some perspective.

Return of the rooster

Yeah, you know me and roosters.... This weekend at work we had an event, and roosters were included (though not in any santaria form)


Baby!




Spotted rooster

L'Art Walk

Last week was the art walk, and it was packed! There were a bunch of new galleries and the ones that have been around were displaying different art than they usually do. These are some pics I snapped along the way...



These guys were awesome! there were others, but these pics came out the best



My love for graffiti



And again

Nothing says "art" like an old man doing math problems, right?

Delicias de Espana

This is one of my favorite restaurants in Miami - Delicias de Espana. It's a restaurant and a market with lots and lots of good stuff:

Off the beaten path: feeding Tarpon

Sometimes there is nothing better than a perfect, clear Sunday afternoon in the Keys. Most people in Miami will drive to Tikki Bar (which we did later) or, if adventurous, will drive to Key West.

We stopped in Islamorada for lunch, and ended up driving a little more south to feed Tarpon, under the recommendation of El Hombre's cousin, and it was definitely cool. Admittedly I was pretty disgusted with touching dead fish, but quickly got over it.


NOTE the evil bird in the background. I was enthralled with them until I turned around and had two pelicans less than 2 feet from me, flapping their wings and following me, trying to beg for fish. Not cool. Especially since I am a little terrified of birds. Especially big ones. And FYI, throwing a fish way out in the water does not make them go away. I tried.



Not exactly something you want to be surprised from. But the fish feeding was cool. Essentially you lay down on the dock and wave the fish over the water and the tarpon will jump out of the water from them.

Check it out:

Brewer Park

The other day a friend and I went searching for a place to play tennis since we were exiled from our usual courts due to "lessons," and he reminded me about a park on Miller near (?) South Miami called Brewer Park. This little jem of a park is a hop, skip and a jump from UM and is super serene and peaceful. I want to go there all the time now. There's birds, hungry geese, kids ballin', a canal which makes for a treacherous water hazard (it's like miniature golf for tennis), and is just really beautiful. It's nice to find these little pockets of peacefulness within Miami. I of course took a bounty of photos, and happened to be there around sunset:

There's giant rocks with plaques:

And lots of hungry geese and gosslings:

The little ones made a beeline for the lady with the bread:

The Water Hazard:

Sunshine:

Sunset:

Signs of the Times

I have always liked how classic and vintage the Gusman seems. And I love the part of downtown that it's in, it's like vintage-meets-South America. Very neat.



and people say there's no culture in Miami.... Our street signs (on the edge of the ghetto) know who famous composers are, at least! If there is a Beethoven street then I am sure there is also a Daddy Yankee Gasolina street somewhere too...



I don't even know. it just makes me laugh.

Would you cluck for food?

THIS is the greatest thing I have heard all day! Thank you CBS4 and the brilliant people who cooked up this idea... I needed a laugh.

I love Pollo Tropical, but not that much!

I just want to know how many people go through with it... that would be interesting

Delray Beach - Sunday Sunset

Like my friend said, a perfect end to a perfect weekend. I went to Delray with some peeps today and it was wonderful. Need to go more often. The Art Walk last night was fantastic and I have so many photos to post from that. And I have some more from our day trip to Delray which included Boston's, the Red Sox, the Saints, the Beach, napping, body surfing, eating and of course more of the beach.

A perfect end to a perfect weekend

This was a much-needed weekend. I had to work a couple hours yesterday, but afterwards I hung with el hombre. We chilled out outside on the sidewalk like kids, playing with the cats, walked to the grocery for veggies and ground beef, and made dinner before heading out to the art walk.

ISM was closed, so we wandered around to galleries we haven't been before, and there's alot of new places that I really liked. And it was packed. Last month was dead, but apparently this was the start of the season. I love to see that this thing is so popular because it gives some hope that Miami will become a more cultural city. Anyway, pics to come in a later post.

After the art walk we scoped out a local indie bar for a bit (mainly to get water and AC... it's still HOT at night) before heading over to see the Spam Allstars play.

We completed the weekend by heading with M's cousin down to the keys for tasty lunch at the Islamorada Fish House, then went to feed tarpon (some of those fish were bigger than me!) and then to Tiki Bar to swim in the ocean and get some sun.

All this to come in a massive picture post later. But for now, I leave you with a dingy from a keys trip, a few weeks back

Moving in Miami

So a few weeks back, I moved out of my cute little apartment in the Gables to South Miami. And after two years, I have apparently amassed quite a bit of stuff. So after getting rid of/donating a bunch of things to the Salvation Army and Goodwill, I elected to rent my first uhaul. Let me tell you, that was an experience to remember! Oh.My.Lord.

So I booked online, and my reservation was made at this shady little gas station across from the airport. So el hombre and I went to pick it up (in the rain, thanks Tropical Storm Hanna!) We park and a man in a scooter is trying to talk to us in some strange mix of English, Spanish and who knows what. So we try to explain we are picking up the uhaul and he just stairs at us..... right.

So we walk into this tiny place, which probably should be condemned and are greeted by two older Cuban ladies with skin like Magda from Something About Mary. One woman was wearing a light pink v-neck shirt (with no bra) tucked into elastic pants from the 80s and the other with some really strange 50s horror movie outfit on.

So el hombre was relegated to speaking to them. Did I mention that this place should be condemned, by the way? ok. In addition to the structurally unsound and extremely dirty facilities, it also appeared to be a haven for Santeria, with dried roses, vases of dried flowers everywhere and multiple shrines to Jesus, Mary and other unidentifiable things, including a huge picture of a glaring Jesus with an unusually thick mustache staring at you from behind the counter.

Scary. So we get the truck (which of course was probably a death trap, complete with "check engine" light) and move all my stuff in a couple hours. Upon getting rid of the truck that same day, one of the ladies opened the back of the truck to inspect it and says to el hombre, "parece que ya botaron el cuerpo" (I guess you got rid of the body already) and he joked, "si, lo botamo en la esquina" (yeah, I left it on the corner.) Meanwhile, back in the shop, some people couldn't get their credit card to go through and the gentleman behind the counter (complete with big hair and thick mustache, big belly, skinny arms and legs, 80s jogging shorts, tight tank top and gold trimmed glasses) was not having it. As I pointed out on the way home, the lady probably wasn't joking. I'm just glad my credit card worked else they would have dumped us in the Miami River, a place from which nobody returns.

But at least I didn't have a bum sleeping in the back of my truck like one of el hombre's friends, which, ironically was the same day.

Did I take pictures? No, I was too scared.

Creative Advertising

I was delivering something for a work event on Friday, and as I was driving through Miami Lakes, I saw this fantasticness. Not only is it a psychic, but apparently they even come to you!
However, something about the fact that it's a psychic in a beat -up old brown van in the quasi-ghetto maybe makes me think this isn't the real deal...

Return of the Cluck

I'm back from the land of no internet! And what's a better way to come back than pictures of a run-in with Mr. Clucky on Lincoln Road?



Mr. Clucky with the paparazzi.... note HE doesn't smash camera's or hit cars with umbrellas.



He even posed for a picture for me! (Note the awesome outfit in the window behind the cluckinator)

Art Walk - Tomorrow!

The Wynwood Art Walk is tomorrow and I'm super excited! Haven't been in a while and am really looking forward to it. Here are some old pics that I never got around to posting from an Art Walk way back in June: