Category Archives: Writings

Saturday in Review

Posted on November 17, 2013 | 1 comment

This is a pretty standard weekend day for me these days. Pardon the quality on these photos, they are from the phone.

Of course, the first thing is always updating Soul Of Miami with new events and such. Never ending. Then onto working on our upcoming Life Is Art events. Finishing up details on the Arts and the Affordable Care Act seminar and working on promotions for our T-Shirt Award and Art Basel Welcome Party.

Far before I was ready, it was time to head out to cover as many of the events happening that day as possible. It seemed like every event we hit was just ending, but we still got some shots.

Started off at Downtown Miami Riverwalk Festival. It was very nice, but I did not even manage to get a phone photo. Was not even really all with it at that point.

Down to Coconut Grove for the Mad Hatter Arts Festival, a fun and funky festival put on by the artists of the Grove. It hearkens back to the good old days when Coconut Grove was a mecca for music and art. It was nearly over by the time we got there, but we did catch some nice music and get to chat with most of the artists.
madhatter

Off to the Miami Airport Convention Center for Sabor Peru. Again, got there just as it was ending, but we got to see a really cool traditional dance show.
saborperu

After that, we headed up to Fort Lauderdale. MAC Fine Art grand opening was the first stop. We loved them in Wynwood, and their new space is huge. Really nice event and some great artwork.
macart

We stopped by the FAT Village Art District. Of course, nearly everything was closed, but it looks like a really cool place. The Art Heart for Rwanda was still going and had some very interesting pieces.
fatvillageart

And our buddies from C&I Studios have added this super hip coffee shop / mixology bar, where we also got some great BBQ ribs!
cistudios

Finally, it was off to the Bar Stache 1920’s Drinking Den grand opening. I like this place a lot.
stache

Finally, back home. Now on Sunday, @thepumagirl is hard at work posting photos and I am back hard at work on the Life Is Art shows. Hoping to have time to update our woefully behind Art Basel Guide.

17/30 #SMCSFblog

1 Comment

Posted in Writings

Tagged , ,

How to be Great!

Posted on November 17, 2013 | 1 comment

For those that do not know, I make amazing Guacamole! I’m a good cook, in general, but my guacamole is awesome, if I do say so myself. Guacamole is SO good for you and so delicious, we love it as a snack.

So, I thought I would share my recipe, such as it is. Like any good cook, I cook mostly by feel. After lots of experience, you learn to just kind of know how much of each item goes in.

So, start with a couple of nice avocados. They should be firm, but just slightly squishy when you squeeze them. Cut them up into chunks and dump in a big bowl. Add in a couple of slices of tomato, a slice of onion and some pickled jalepenos. All of those should be chopped up fine. For bonus points, add in a couple of slices of yellow or red pepper, also chopped.

You want a liberal dose of cilantro. Fresh is best, but the dried stuff will do, too. Squeeze a few dribbles of lemon or lime juice into it. Add a few drops of balsamic vinegar. Pour in a bit of the jalepeno juice. Shake in a few big shakes of garlic powder, a little salt and a goodly amount of pepper, both preferable freshly ground. Top off with some grape seed oil (Olive Oil will do if you don’t have grape seed), not too much, just a nice dizzle to help smooth it up.

Mush it all up with a big fork. Don’t use a mixer! Stir it around until some of the avocado turns creamy, but some is still left chunky. The reason you want to use a large fork is to let some of the avocado slip through to stay chunky. After it is mashed, lightly whip it a bit by hand to aerate it a little. Then serve it up!

I highly recommend service with Xothitl chips. These are, by far, the best totilla chips available at the grocery store. This is a fast and easy snack that is super healthy!

So, there you go! My first recipe published.

guacamole2

guacamole1

guacamole3

16/30 #SMCSFblog

1 Comment

Posted in Writings

Tagged ,

Changing the World One Day at a Time

Posted on November 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

You see this is what our banner says. You might wonder what we mean by it. This came up in a PhilanthroFest steering committee meeting a while back and I liked it so much, I appropriated it as one of our slogans. Essentially, it means that every day everyone can do something to make the world a little better, and if everyone does a little something, the cumulative effects will be huge.

In the circles I run around in, there is a lot of talk about being a “leader” or “innovator” or “changemaker” (a buzzword I cannot stand), et cetera. All of this is a lot of pressure and may lead some people to not do anything because they cannot do everything. They are nonsense, you do not need to be a “leader” or an “innovator” or a friggin’ “changemaker” for pete’s sake to do something to help make the world a better place. You just have to be a concerned human. That’s all.

Changing The World One Day at a time just means do something small every day to make a little difference. Maybe you cut your shower short a couple of minutes. If everybody did that, imagine how many billions of gallons of water we would save. Maybe you bike to the market once a week, instead of driving. Maybe you give one dollar per month to your favorite charity. Seems like a little? If all 300 Million USA citizens did that, it would add up to over three-and-a-half BILLION dollars for good! Just for one dollar a month. Just a small thing, but it adds up so much.

So this is it. Don’t feel overwhelmed by trying to do ridiculous stuff. Just do a little every day and the cumulative effect will be enormous.

070203 Everglades Deep Lake Hike 003 DELICATE DETAIL
I use this photo as the accompaniment for this particular writing because it is a perfect example of what I am saying. Those look like full-sized plants, but actually, those leaves are barely a quarter of an inch across.

15/30 #SMCSFblog

Leave a comment

Posted in Writings

Tagged , ,

Mean to Brag

Posted on November 15, 2013 | Leave a comment

The other day I was talking to a very nice lady who had recently moved here from a much colder climate. I asked her what the temperature was there and she said 21. So, I asked her if she was going to start posting photos of how amazing and warm it is here to taunt her family and friends back home. Everybody does that, right? She said, no, she was not going to do that. She said her father had done it when he moved to South Florida years ago, and so she did not want to do the same to her friends.

So, what do you think, do you taunt your friends from back where you came from? Post pictures of yourself on the beach while they are posting pictures of themselves digging their car out of six foot snow drifts? Do you complain about how cold you are at 65, while everyone else is wearing parkas? Even in the summer do you post about our balmy 85 degree weather, while places like New York swelter at near 100 degrees? Yes, it does get warm here, but other places are much hotter.

I eventually quit doing direct taunting, after about the first three years of living here, but I do still like to post about how amazing the weather is. It’s hard not to!

#SMCSFBlog 14/30
DSC02449

Leave a comment

Posted in Writings

Tagged , ,

“I don’t have time to blog”

Posted on November 14, 2013 | 2 comments

I get this a lot. As I mentioned in my first post “Start a blog,” I am a big blogging evangelist. But, I get this response a lot, “I don’t have time to blog!” Bullshit.

Let me ask you this, who is your favorite on “Desperate Housewives”? Who is winning on “America’s Got Talent?” Who’s your favorite sports team? Are the dead winning over at “Walking Dead”? Yeah, you have time to blog, don’t give me that nonsense.

I have two Life Is Art events coming up in the next couple of weeks AND I have to keep up with all the events added to Soul Of Miami AND I have to create our ever popular Art Basel Week Guide, and here I am writing. Yeah, I’m late for my daily blog post, and it is past 2am, but I’m doing it. Here’s a couple of Meme’s to piss you off and hopefully get you motivated:

Oscar Pistorius from memegenerator.net

credit: memegenerator.net

Paints Epic Murals Without Hands or Feet - Your Excuse In Invalid via cheezeburger.com

credit: www.cheezeburger.com

13/30 #SMCSFblog

2 Comments

Posted in Writings

Tagged , ,

A bad month for a blog challenge

Posted on November 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

So, for those of you who do not know, Social Media Club South Florida issued a challenge for the month of November to blog every day. I took this challenge and I am damned determined to see it through.

Unfortunately, November is INSANELY busy for me. I just quit my regular job to focus on my own businesses full-time and I am WAY behind. We have an event on November 18th and another on December 2nd. I have seriously been working from the second I get up until the second I can no longer see the computer screen. And, then I made this commitment to blog every day.

So, today I am blogging about how I just don’t have time to blog. But, I committed to do it every day, so I am doing it. That is what perseverence is all about, and that is what creates success. You commit to something and you see it through. So, even though I am barely coherent and 21 minutes behind, this is my day 12 of 30 #SMCSFblog post and by dammit I am going to make all 30 days.

061008 Miami Carnival Center Opening Carnaval Parade 001 WELCOME TO MIAMI

Leave a comment

Posted in Writings

Tagged , , ,

Full Circle

Posted on November 11, 2013 | 2 comments

As you can imagine, we have been watching the Miami event scene for many years. Even before we started Soul Of Miami, we got out and about on a regular basis. And now, Miami has finally closed the circle.

Years ago, I can remember when THE thing to do on one Thursday a month was JAM at MAM. That was really the start of mid-week evening events. People moved their art shows, networkers, happy hours, grand openings and other special events off the weekends because they started to get too busy. There was a time when Thursday was king. You would sit around the house Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then have a dozen events to choose from on Thursday. There was a time when full days would be empty on Soul Of Miami, just no events listed at all.

Slowly, it creeped across the week. After competition got too fierce on Thursdays, people started Wednesdays. I remember, a few years back, talking to friends about it. “Oh, this is as far as it can go, nobody would do Tuesday. Nobody would go out on Tuesday.” Well, needless to say, we were wrong.

Eventually it did creep across Tuesday. I think it was the Brickell Art Walk that finally sealed Tuesday’s fate. After they started hosting their walk on one Tuesday a month, more and more people started testing Tuesdays. We even plan to hold regular Life Is Art events on Tuesdays starting in 2014, whereas last year, we would not have entertained that idea at all.

We thought Monday would be the final hold out. There was a time when we personally designated it “Movie Monday” because nothing ever happened on Monday and we could actually take a personal day and attend a movie. Surely, nobody would be crazy enough to host events on Monday. The day after a big weekend in Miami, nobody would come out, right? Everybody needs a break, right? Wrong, again.

For the past several weeks, we have been attending events pretty much every night of the week, including Mondays. We are even contributing to the situation, our next two Life Is Art are on Mondays. Tonight (Monday, November 11), there are several nice events to choose from.

Can this continue? Will people continue to populate events every night of the week? Where do we go from here? Will we need to invent a new day just to cram more events into the week? So, I ask you, what are you doing tonight?

061116 Miami Krelwear Fashion 001 DOWNTOWN GIRLS

11/30 #SMCSFblog

2 Comments

Posted in Writings

Tagged , ,

Most Nights, I Don’t Know

Posted on November 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

There are times when I feel like this. “Some nights I wish that my lips could build a castle, some nights I wish they’d just fall off.”

It’s funny, the first time I heard this song, I had to check the radio station. Was the local Pop40/Rap/EDM station really playing a screaming Celtic march song? What was going on here? I mean, it comes on between Avicii and Kanye West, and you’re like what? Real drums. Meaningful lyrics? Even a pipe at the end? Seriously? Then you watch the video and it is a telling story of a tragic war. It’s rare these days you see an actual song with meaning and power.

I was having a rough time when this song came out and it really spoke to me. Sometimes, even if you are not quite sure what you stand for, the important thing is to keep fighting. Or maybe the important thing is to know when to quit. See, most nights, I don’t know.

Leave a comment

Posted in Writings

Tagged , ,

People are people

Posted on November 9, 2013 | Leave a comment

It has always been my philosophy that everybody is exactly the same and everyone is completely different.

I just sent out an email to our Life Is Art list regarding our Arts and the Affordable Care Act seminar and I received the following two responses almost simultaneously.

“Great work and idea. We will definitely be in support. Thank you for
putting this together.”
and
“Crap
I am unsubscribing from this which has NOTHING to do with what I signed up
for”

I just thought it was kind of funny and had to share.

070203 Everglades Deep Lake Hike 004 IT'S A DELICATE BALANCE

#SMCSFblog 9/30

Leave a comment

Posted in Writings

Tagged , ,

Art Basel Killed January in Miami

Posted on November 8, 2013 | 2 comments

I think this will come as a surprise to many people.

As host of one of the most popular calendar / event websites in South Florida, Soul Of Miami, we have a fairly unique barometer of the activity of the local residents. We can see how active everyone is by the rise and fall of our traffic. We also can see how busy the scene is by the number of events listed each month.

When we look at our numbers to see the slowest month, many people would guess August or September because they are the height of summer and supposedly the slowest months of the “off-season” in Miami. But, the fact is that January is our slowest month, in terms of visitors. There are still approximately the same number of events in January as other months, just fewer people looking for them.

Going into January, we have Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving, followed by Art Basel, followed by Christmas, followed by New Year’s Eve. There are other big events thrown in there like Miami Book Fair. No wonder everyone is tired by January!

So, how about our busiest month? Again, a surprise. You would think it would be November/December, as everyone is coming in for Art Basel, and we have an excellent roundup of the happenings. But, it is actually October.

In this, we can see an opportunity. Everyone is looking for haunted houses. By far, our most-visited page that month, or any month, is the International Mall House of Horrors. Miami has a significant lack of haunted houses, as compared to other similarly sized cities. But, this is something the residents obviously want. There are a couple more that have popped up, but still very few.

So, there is a little Soul Of Miami resident analytics for you. Do with it what you will.
070325 WMC 2007 Sunday Miami Beach Surfcomber Hotel Radio One 002

8/30 #SMCSFblog challenge

2 Comments

Posted in Art, Writings

Tagged , , , ,