Crap! I Just Might Have To Get A Haircut

Councilman Scott Galvin said that he was going to introduce a resolution at the next city council meeting to give us poor starving advisory board members our first raise since 1961. I've been going all over town telling people that there's just no way that I'm going to squander two months pay on a haircut. As Judy Feldman told me Saturday "What! You mean that they're still paying the same $10 that they were 35 years ago when you and I were on the planning commision together?"

"Yup, still ten bucks" I said. "That's absolutely rediculous!" she replied.

Well, tomorrow night is the council meeting, and I've been sitting here scheming, thinking of people who might be talked into running against the incumbants next year, and contemplating ways to assure the success of The Revolution if it has to come to that. Hell, I just might tell a group of already organized people "YES! I will run for mayor!" Then I could afford a haircut. The mayor and council just gave themselves a huge raise and a ton of generous benefits. I might even be able to start dating again without having to do it Dutch Treat.

The Working Folks Subsidize The Wealthy

No, I'm not referring to distribution of tax dollars back into the community, I'm talking about private enterprise here. American business. The Publix chain of supermarkets is the biggest one in the region and it seems that you just can't get more than a few dozen blocks away from the closest one. Most people live within walking distance of one (if you really had to walk).

I'm about halfway between two of them and I could walk to either one in fifteen minutes at most. Both stores were built in the early 60's, have asphalt parking lots with the usual age cracks, minimal and poorly maintained landscaping, worn and faded striping marking the parking spaces. The concrete walkways were last pressure cleaned decades ago. In general, ugly and unappealing places to visit.

But go off in a third direction, north past the post office, to the strip mall fronting a pricey new high rise development, and there's a pristine brand new Publix market. The lush tropical landscaping is lovingly trimmed and cared for. Well it's new. You'd expect that. What isn't expected, though, is the amount of acres of driving lanes that consist of these pretty hand placed pavers. They cost a fortune compared to asphalt, and it has to be pressure cleaned on a regular basis.

Inside the store it looks new and clean but they have the same advertized specials as the other Publix markets, and as far as I can tell the prices throughout the store are the same as other Publix prices. That means that the fancy store with the higher taxes, the higher insurance costs, all that good stuff, has to get paid for by someone, and the money must be coming from the profits of the other stores. We're paying for the posh rich folks' store!

Karl Georg Wolf's Photography Collection

More likely just part of his collection appears in this photograph. The six prints on the left are some that he purchased from me when he and his wife visited Miami a year or two ago. Scroll down two postings for more about about the pictures. It really does something for my self esteem to know that these photographs are being displayed and enjoyed in Germany. The simple matting and narrow silver frames really show them at their best.

Karl, I hope that you and your family and friends get much enjoyment from my photographs. These images were all taken in the 1960's and early 1970's, and most of the actual prints were made then too.

Thanks, Karl, and thanks for sending this photo!

The Shaman Greeting The Non-believers

As usual I was the first to arrive at the meeting and rather than waste twenty minutes I decided to get my system loaded up with enough nicotine to get through two hours of boredom. At one time you could actually smoke anywhere within public buildings. Then they went to the "smokers on this side, non-smokers on that side" concept, followed by having a break every so often, but God forbid it should be called a cigarette break! Over the years the gaggle of people rushing for the door dwindled to a trickle. People waggle their finger in your face while reciting the mantra "Smoking is bad for you". The formal breaks gave way to sneaking out for a quick smoke.

Tobacco was first cultivated by the American Indians and introduce to the European colonists. The Indians enjoyed the mild euphoria, the calming effects, and looked upon the plant as, well, perhaps sacred. Passing the pipe around was a often a ceremonial way of greeting or making friends, hence the term Peace Pipe.

The definition of a shaman is a mystical spiritual leader who uses a mind altering substance, which includes alcohol according to the literature that I consulted. Yup, it says that a Catholic priest is a shaman, it actually does. It's those sips of wine! Recently it's been found that the nicotine in tobacco not only increases cognitive ability but also delays the onset of Alzheimers. It's not all bad after all. Judging by the thinking processes that I'm assaulted with at some of these civic and government meetings they should not only allow smoking, they should insist on it. I try my best though to make sure that there's at least one brain present with functioning neurons. It's my civic duty.

...And Computers Were Supposed To Simplify Life?

I was actually sitting at the table next to the one where this guy had his two laptops set up. I have no idea what he was doing, but it reminded me of a musician playing two different keyboards at the same time, sometimes both hands on one, sometimes each playing its own keyboard.

The think that I like best about computers is the internet, looking up stuff, and emails. Today was an exciting day! It started out with an email from a Kay, woman I last briefly saw about twenty-five years ago, but in my mind she'll always be the cute little toddler that lived on the other end of the block back when we were both in nursery school, maybe even a bit before that, and kindergarten too. Funny, because a couple of days ago I started thinking about her, the first time in a long time. Well, she tracked me down! She'd flying from her home in Arizona to Peru, with a stopover in Miami next Tuesday. I guess that we'll meet up at Miami International Airport and try to catch up over coffee during the brief few hours she'll be in town. It should be interesting! I'm looking forward to it, and then I might dig out some old pix from the 60's to juxtapose with new ones. I still have Monkey from our childhood. I wonder if she still has any of her dolls.

Another exciting happening today was getting a photograph of his collection of photographs from Karl Georg Wolf in Germany. He was in Miami a couple of years ago and we met for coffee. http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6344/1997/1600/Blog%20152%20e.jpg That's Karl on the left. He bought a few of my black and white prints that day. Well this morning's mail brought a photo that Karl shot in his house, showing a lot of framed photos on the walls. He has a nice grouping of six of my photographs, next to a number of photographs by photographers of international fame. He has an Henri Cartier Bresson print of the artist Matisse holding his pet dove right next to my photograph of a boy looking into the cage of his pet dove. Thanks, Karl!

(I'm planning on putting Karl's photo of his photography collection here soon.)

Leaning On Shovels, Raising Your Electric Bill

I was watching that bunch of guys down the street. They work for a contactor working for Florida Power & Light. FP&L was installing a row of humongous ugly poles through the city of North Miami to carry high tension power lines connecting two substations. That gaggle of nine or ten guys? One operated a back hoe that lifted the base section of the pole into place. Two guided it into exact position. The rest stood around with their shovels and watched. We pay for that extravagance in our electric bills.

This make-work charade was repeated for each pole in turn, as the route snaked its way three plus miles through the city bringing cancer causing electro-magnetic radiation through our residential neighborhoods. Why use an outside contractor, though? It opens up the way for FP&L executives to choose the contractor, and judging by the exposes turning up from time to time in the Miami Herald, a lot of palms get greased in the process. Mind you, I'm not making any accusations here. I'm not saying that there was any wrongdoing in this project. I'm just saying that it makes you wonder. Little details, like is the contractor's wife related to an FP&L executive's third cousin on his mother's side, or some-such.

Ah, well, like I said, we pay for it all in our electric bills, just a measily few cents a day, and we can all get that nice warm do-gooder feeling just from knowing that all those nice guys standing around leaning on their shovels aren't standing around in the unemployment line.

"Just A Little Something Light, Nothing Fancy!"

My cousin Larry was visiting South Florida with his wife Margie. We hadn't seen each other in years and they were staying with Margie's aunt in her condo. I got invited to brunch and Monkette said that she'd never experienced Jewish style home cooking. She's had Greek, Cuban, Chinese, Indian, Colombian, German, Jamaican, etc., but never Jewish. I only seem to date and marry shikses. Anyway, after her usual lecture on how much healthier it is to eat only fresh fruit, and besides, "it grows on trees! Money doesn't grow on trees!" I have to hear that every time we go to the grocery store!

So that's Larry's arm on the lower left, then Margie, Margie's aunt, me, and Monkette is perched on my shoulder. Scroll down to yesterday's post if you want to see more of Larry.

The usual mantra greeted me as I went into the dining room. "Come. Sit down! You'll have a little something light. Nothing fancy!" and Margie and her aunt proceded to pile enough plates of food on the table to solve the famine in Haiti. It was delicious, it reminded me of my childhood when Larry and I were little kids trying to out eat one another at family get togethers. But I'm not a big eater.

I had to listen to the usual "but you could use some meat on your bones!" and "you're way too thin. It's not healthy to be that thin!" Monkette just sat on my shoulder and giggled. She also concluded that Jewish cooking is no match for fresh fruit, but it's all based on what you grew up with. Me? I enjoyed that brunch big time! I might even consider finding myself a Jewish girlfriend for a change.