Down(and out)Town

On any given Sunday afternoon Downtown Miami is a ghost town, just a few obscure shops open for clueless tourists lured by cheap merchandise and luggage. Downtown street rhythm is mostly a mainstream tick-tock schedule of Monday through Friday 9am to 6pm.

Just taking up public space, all county and federal buildings are surrounded by inhospitable walls and barricades, presumably to keep bad people out.

On the weekends it seems that most people on the STREET are homeless, and there are plenty out there comforted by the mild South Florida winter climate.

Like great sundials of progress, unoccupied condos loom in the near distance casting their long imposing shadows on Camillus House and parking lots.

No meter maids here. Of course , more people on the STREET... until the sun sets and the party people bring life back to a city center, but downtown nightlife is for another post. Sometimes quiet is good.

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Why Not Fight

Swampsters

...have asked for a gawk at my first shiner.

Mouse-Trap

Here it is in all it's meat-tenderized gory glory.
The result of an enforcement altercation turned ugly at my daughter's annual teen dance party.

While convalescing I wondered about the nature fighting.

Stellar

You got your iconic battle between good and evil in all it's transparent manifest polarize kind of fighting.

Gymstinks

You got your boy wrestling, boy playing killer vids and growing up in a winner-take-all culture of violence.

Art of War

You got your basic man-on-man pummel brawling that goes back to the stone age fighting.

A Tribe Called Tribe

You got your spectator sport gladiator chest thumping super tribal ritual fighting.

What doesn't Kill You.

You got your dawg poverty-is-the-mother-of-the-boxer-hero fighting.

Naughty By Nature

Hell, you even got girls fighting.

The blood-sport of fighting permeates our mass culture.
It is a sure sign of a civilization in decline.

Self-Deference

So the attack on me was not surprising. The assailant kept calling me a '40 year old bitch' as I bounced him out the door. So I ( actually a 50 year old whore) should have seen the sucker-punch coming but what i saw was stars. Soon after cooler heads prevailed as the punk and his chums were 86'd from the party that was then a huge happy crush groove. I got tons of sympathy for at least a week after, while punchy the kid was practically ostracized from the teen party scene.

Curious how girls dig a guy with a black eye but somehow they look really bad on girls.

Sewer Mouth Spoiler

Here is one of several incriminating photos from facebook of the thug-kid that gave me a black eye. That's a bottle Jack in hand and his bar mizvah portrait backdrop. I would sue the chump but Joshua Wise Rauner is already morally bankrupt.

you should see the other guy

Here is the vulgar Josh wearing his new screw-on neck brace.

We live to fight another day.



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Coast with the Most

Land of the Golden Freeways.

California is many things. It is a coastal desert oasis battered by frigid unforgiving surf. It is a mighty redwood in an undisclosed location near an active volcano. It is the salad bowl of America where truck-loads of produce blanket fertile acres. It is Hollywood where the HeeboAmerican dream is packaged. It is a hot-tub of bleeding-heart liberal progressives with a cartoon governor. It is a "gift" from Mexico.

But one thing that it is not is disappointingly flat. Go see for yourself.



Gold Rush - Boom Chika-boom-boom Town.

If the road to the revolution lead through Mexico, then the wagon trails from the east were the alleyways to a promised land. Where it once took months of trekking the perilous continent from swamp to shining desert, today you can get there in five hours, but first you gotta get through airport insecurity . Once there, look for your pot of gold, prospecting is the art of foraging and fantasizing about a better tomorrow.



Youth Worship.

Ronald Reagan once said America is the Land of Tomorrow. I think what he meant is that it is not about you and me today but more about some imaginary future that never materializes. Fair enough, let the dreaming begin!




At the Intersection of Hell Street and Heaven Blvd.

Is there a god in the great 31? maybe maybe not, but there is a health club in Oakland with His namesake. The Bay area is one of the most interesting and delightful places out there. From SanFransisco to Berkley, honestly I cant say anything bad about it.



Do Animals Have Soul?

You betcha. But don't tell the humans who are told otherwise by their demagoguery. This super-cute pet cemetery is not on the tourist map.



Arts & Crafts and My Old Art Teachers.

California College of Arts is one of the most enchanting and instructive schools for a liberal arts education. Our fragile future depends on their ability to produce tomorrows conscientious thinkers and leaders. They gave my kid the invaluable motivational gift, aka money for college.



Community Development - No Pain? No Problem.

Back in the early 80's, I worked in the art department at HighTimes magazine. There is where i met some of the good folks who are directly responsible for the decriminalized marijuana available in Cali and several other states... for medicinal purposes of course.



House and Garden.

It's high time Florida got on the green-wagon and ended the indignity of getting busted for one lousy joint. People are not going to gateway to crack hell or jump out of windows. Zero tolerance is a harsh and lame attempt to ruin families and pad the pockets in Tallahassee.




Play with Clay all Day.

My muddybuddies out west know all the well kept secrets in the land of plenty. Here we are in Ojai near Ventura just an hour from downtown LA.



Soaking in the Sulfur.

What you don't smell can't hurt you. Drifters and Hollywood stars converge in the hot springs to soak in natures goodness and sooth the rheumatisms.




American Landscape.

What is more California than making new friends while naked.