Go Heat

The swamp is a steaming caldron of animal, vegetable, mineral...

Summer is here and people are screaming Go Heat ! %&$#?...  I say go get some A/C.  The rains are a welcome drenching but then we are in an evaporating puddle of tropical proportions.  The news says it is hotter than Haiti from Key West to Maine.   Relax and seek swampy shades of green canopies to sip refreshments and gulp at menus.  Avoid all tar and concrete if possible.  Summer in the swamp is the opposite of winter in Antartica. 

A parking lot under 24 hour surveillance near Wynwood ... 

One man's eyesore is another man's art.

Foot-loose on a warehouse wall...



Save your seats at Sun Set seat covers...

 

Hot and Jazzy corner club at high noon...

Shuttered homes are definitely NOT swampy...

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Fete ala Haiti

Miami is a place in transition, an anthropology that moves like molasses.

I am old now but my recollections of Lemon City are forever etched in a bitter-sweet affection for the swamp that shaped me.

Better known today as Little Haiti, the hood just north of fabulous Design District is home to an up-rooted people coping with assimilation while clinging to the spiritual heart of their beloved island. The source of their strength the spiritual capital of the Caribbean.

With all the "progress" that Miami has endured, it is still possible to find a main avenue that has not been paved in ages. In fact there isn't even a curb, until now. Little Haiti is primed for urban development.

The immigrant experience is unique to each group that is transplanted in mass. For many Haitians the conversion to catholicism was easy, their churches were infused with bush's faith-based dollars. Fair enough. The employment opportunities were plenty as few others were willing to do the work for such offensive wages. From the nurses that care for our aged to the house-keepers that polish up SOBE, Haitian humility has a lesson for us all, hard work is the corner-stone of any good home.

I have said that art is the most powerful force on earth. Indeed man is but a passing shadow without the rituals of music, dance, sculpture and painting. At the top of the class is the inimitable Serge. Muralist and political activist with his feet on the street and his heart in all things Haitian.

Herve Di Rosa is a French painter and long time friend. Through his nomadic adventures and prolific style, Di Rosa has chronicled multiple cities with his unique perspective. With deft naivety his paintings of Little Haiti can be found courtesy of The Bass Museum on Miami Beach. Though Herve has moved on, his delightful view of the swamp is everlasting.

The third pillar is Edouard Duval Carrie, the ardent proponent of all things Haiti. Duval rules with the irons and potions of a modern shaman. His tireless work in helping to realize the Little Haiti Cultural Center is noteworthy. His artwork is a wellspring of the mystical.

Today the Center is a reality, a reality not yet formed for it takes time to build the virtual edifice by a people in flux. Last night another brick was added to the effort by Miami's own Rhythm Foundation.

The Rhythm Foundation is hosting monthly happenings at the Little Haiti Cultural Center.

The plaza was jamming to the beats. On stage were several legendary percussionist and some very energetic dancers.

My pal RaRa the rabbinical rapper tore up the joint with hypnotizing smoothness and of course his own brand of hebrew hollering. RaRa is awesome.

What South Florida event would be complete without plenty of FooooooooD for everyone.

The BigNight in LittleHaiti is no exception. Visitors were fed and feted most satisfactorily.

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Forking the Road

Microwaved Nation

With all the technology we ingest it is no wonder that our culture is festering with internet indigestion. The more we embrace the spoils of the information age the farther we get from the nature that is our very substance. Let us not conflate true sustainable living with the too big to fail, feel-good catch phrase trumpeted by the business as usual.



Office Bldg. of Cards

Finally construction is at an all time low. The few structures getting erected are of the prefabricated "tilt slab" variety that typify loss of jobs and stunning architecture. The arrested development due to the bursting of the credit bubble is a thawing that comes not a minute too soon to this hot forsaken heaven. 'Poop go the weasels' could be the term that defines the current end to the recent swarm of swamp speculators.




Cement or Sanity?

A short drive from the intersection of Surveillance Blvd. and Deforest Ave. is a fork in the road. There you will want to be the decider. Chose between a newly paved world or an organic world of days gone by, or make a u-turn and take the road less traveled. All rivers indeed lead to the ocean, but a tared road ends at the precipice of self-denial. The spiritual is a golden parachute for materialism, our understanding of the physical world.




Nomadic Yes, Yielding No

Young folk all around the world are not waiting for blessing from corporate media to shed taboo inhibitions and embrace the possibility of the vision thing. With the promise of bio-fuels and new horizons, they are taking the back-roads less traveled, the diligent path to sustainability. It is no longer a a question, it is a directive that Thomas has embraced with a full tank of vigor.



Compost for Humanity

Q:How did Corporate eat Organic?
A; One bite at a time.

My grandma died at 103. She, like all cave-people, ate only organic food. But today we all eat corporate food, otherwise know as caloric junk in individual portions with shelf-life. Surely any balanced neighborhood aught to have the ware-with-all and a few individuals willing to develop a community garden linked to a network of new urban farmers that embrace local solutions to our dietary needs. Murial of the Little River CSA is one such shining light of hope.
We all know what to do with bag of mangos but what do i do with 50 lbs of zucchini!
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If Not Art, What?

Haitian Invasion

Like the early days of Little Havana in the 70's, Little Haiti is a weird place in transition. Old habits slowly erode when assimilation and gentrification take hold of a people. Some of the most inspiring artistic expressions pop up in the most unexpected places.



Old Urbanism

This building of my childhood has remained unchanged, i often wonder what has gone on inside. It is a gem on NE second avenue... a main north/south thruway street that is yet to have a curb or any other sign of tax benefit in terms of progress. That is not a bad thing; where other neighborhoods are plagued with endless roadwork, (sidewalks torn out n replaced w same), Little Haiti has been in a doldrum, free of FDOT... until soon.



Britto Perversions

Several intrepid graduates from New World School of the Arts in downtown Miami recently installed their works for an end of year one night only exhibit of .... well their stuff.



Concept and Craft

Art is many things today, but one thing that it is not is your grandmother's watercolors.
With little prospects of sales, young artist just do whatever they want. Another good thing.




18, 19, twentys, thirtysomethings and foggies

From Sarasota to South Miami artist types are scrambling to find a balance between aspirations and realism. There will always be a creative force that brings like-minded people together; artist, writers, performers, our collective effort is indomitable.



Memorial Day Breakfast Time in the Swamp



Temporary Space Available

A short ride up Miami Avenue there is a commercial district that abound with empty real estate due to the dollar in the dump. This is not the time to talk of markets crashed n greedy developers, it is a time to make good and seize on the opportunities that lay just beneath the surface slurry of a global economic meltdown. Artist and property owners are forming allegiance to ride out the slump.






Like Swiss Cheese

We are punching holes in the veneer of mass culture market driven conspicuous consumption and conventions, we are making do without, artist are good at that.

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Wetfoot, Whitefoot

Little Prez That Could

While vice president Joe Biden visited Little Haiti to assure our neighbors that the feds were determined to helping the earthquake rattled caribbean island and their diaspora here in the swamp, more so after Haiti is off the front pages of the lamestream media...




Bigfoot Cometh

... Presi Obama will be meeting with the Ladies in White Auxiliary across-town in Little Havana. (unless a coal mine collapses...)



Walk in Their Zapatos

While the Ladies in White march in silent protest down the streets of Havana (no photo available)...




Domino Theory

... old cuban men play dominos and gulp cafesitos while complaining about the old crab's sibling back home as their wives march down calle ocho in silence.



Who is More Macho

Blasted old men, they sit in the way of progress, they make this old man weary.
Ladies deserve better, just ask the Bidenator.




Sink and Swim

Perhaps the Ladies in White will be another tipping point in the balance for fairness, a less violent world...




... perhaps the swamp will bloom with the spectral colors of HOLI...

that would be "bLiNkin BiG"

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Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

Shame on High Seas

Cruise Ship passangers with their heads in the Haitian sand

"I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water," one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum...."

from the Guardian UK

Fun on Standby

Port of Myopia - Cruise ships sit idle waiting for "better weather" in the Caribbean.

Bombs or Butter?

Sharp words from Greg Palast:

Send in the Marines. That’s America’s response. That’s what we’re good at. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson finally showed up after three days. With what? It was dramatically deployed — without any emergency relief supplies. It has sidewinder missiles and 19 helicopters.

There’s no such thing as a ‘natural’ disaster. 200,000 Haitians have been slaughtered by slum housing and IMF “austerity” plans.


We report, you decide.


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Haiti Relief

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature,

but by our institutions, great is our sin.

~Charles Darwin


The Physical World

We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them. ~Charles C. West



The Material World

Affluence creates poverty. ~Marshall McLuhan


Throw Money at the Problem

Bad is never good until worse happens. ~Danish Proverb



Obama's World

You can't run away from trouble. There ain't no place that far. ~Uncle Remus

The Human Condition

Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit. ~ Eli Khamarov

The Look of Love

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle.
I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. ~Mother Teresa

Words for the Child

The darkest hour has only sixty minutes. ~Morris Mandel

Many Hearts Beat as One

I have woven a parachute out of everything broken. ~William Stafford

Eternal Beauty

“I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots.
Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands.” Zora Neale Hurston

Shakeable but Unbreakable

When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful. ~Barbara Bloom

Parting Words

Life didn't promise to be wonderful.

rip ~Teddy Pendergrass



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