The Toy Monkeys Are Returning!

Cute, huh? I found this little toy monkey ay a rummage sale at the Congregational Church a couple of blocks away. My ex went there and my kids attended the Sunday school. Reverand Chuck Eastman and I were close friends for years, until he died of a heart attack a few years ago in his mid-fifties. They tell me that I'm an honorary member of the congregation but about the only time I attend services is when one out of town friend or another is visiting.

Well, every few months they hold a rummage sale and sell hot dogs, coffee, and home made pastries. I always stop in, have a coffee and a "something", chat with old friends, and find something that I simply can't live without, so I buy it. An electric broom, a toaster, a gaudy neck tie from the 1940's. Monkette had been wanting to have a baby anyway. I bought her a baby toy monkey. More toy monkey adventures will follow!

Monkey With His Girlfriend in 1965

Some of you remember when I started using my childhood toy monkey as a character on the blog, how he flew out to the San Francisco suburbs and stayed with Todd Frederick for a few weeks, and how he picked up this sexy young female toy monkey named Monkette and brought her back to Miami. Monkette of course got involved with local politics and worked her butt of on Mayor Kevin Burns' re-election campaign two years ago.

Meanwhile Monkey begged off, citing age and infirmity. He's been helping me go through these old contact sheets. I know! I know! This contact sheet is way to flat and light, and Monkey thinks we should dig out the negative and start over. Monkette's eyes widened whe she saw first the image! "You've been sleeping with TEDDY BEARS!" she screamed. "Tell me all about it and it better be good! Pervert!"

"Well, Al was living in Boston back in 1964, and him and me was sharing a pad on Willis Terrace right behind the Roxbury court house. Al's room mate Paul Band was out of town but this chick comes aknockin' on the door. She was lookin' for Paul and she'd hitched up from the University of Michigan with one of her girl friends. She needed a place to stay."

Monkette was getting more agitated by the minute! "And just where does the damned teddy bear fit into all this?" she demanded. "Well, she and Al hit it off and pretty soon they were living together, planning on marrying, and when she moved in so did her Teddy Bear! It wasn't like I'd been looking for a cute teddy bear".

I guess Monkette finally realized that this all took place over forty years ago. The teddy bear was no threat at all.

Nicholas The Story Teller

I first met Pat a month or so ago at one of Bonnie Schwartzbaum's campaign parties. Pat has passion for politics but she doesn't drive. I offered to drive her home. She lives just a few blocks from my house and I told her that if she ever needed a ride someplace just give me a call. I figured that was safe because her apartment was only a block away from Publix and within two or three blocks of both a Walgreens and a CVS.

A few days ago the phone rang. Pat needed a ride about forty blocks and and thanks to the good planning of Miami-Dade County's public transportation system that required two busses each way on a rainy day. I was free and she was ready when I was. I drove over there. She was waiting on the porch.

Almost as soon as she got in the truck she insisted that I take five dollars "for gas" and we did her errand. On the way back I was getting hungry and suggested that we go by Jimmie's Place and get some supper. While we were eating Nicholas came in so on the way out I introduced them to one another.

I first met Nicholas five or six years ago at the coffee house, the Lunastar Cafe,where he frequently tells stories on weekend nights, which is directly across the street from City Hall. He sometimes actually walks around town dressed like that, staight out of the middle ages. But then I frequently walk around town carrying my toy monkey, Monkette, and she too is well known at Jimmie's Place. The characters you see on the streets around here are almost as nutty as the ones you'll find inside City Hall.

Click on the picture and it'll get big enough to read Nicholas's contact information.

Time Travel ~ A Break from Reality

I've been way too involved in the recent North Miami political crap that's going on around here. One council candidate has a court hearing set, claiming that her opposition isn't a qualified resident. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is sending an investigator here from Tallahassee to look into that and some other problems with the recent election. Time for a change of pace!

The files turned up these shots from May 2006 when I had a photo exhibition at the local Starbucks. The other guy was the manager at the time and I think the woman worked there.

Thanks to James Mitchell my childhood toy monkey was becoming a regular character on The Price Of Silver. This was before Monkey flew out to San Francisco to visit Todd Frederick and returned to Miami with Monkette. Since Monkey was about 62 at the time I let him take early retirement and Monkette has taken over the Toy Monkey job on the blog.

The only other newsworthy thing to relate is that I have an appointment at 10 AM tomorrow for my first haircut since late October of 2008. I'll try for some before and after shots. Maybe even some during shots!

Paranoia!...But Why Is It Banana Yellow?

Monkette freaked when we came out of the post office. "CRITTER CONTROL" was right there on the door of the banana yellow truck that was parked right next to OUR truck.

It took awhile to calm her down. Sometimes it ain't all that easy explaing things to the cotton stuffed head of a toy monkey. First off, I told her that she wasn't "Wildlife" in need of management. She was a very civilized toy monkey and lived with me in our house, not in a tree in the back yard. "See, that's a picture of a racoon, and they live in the woods when they're not knocking over garbage cans!" I told her. She'd never seen a racoon but she'd seen knocked over garbage cans before.

In retrospect, though, I think that her making a scene was just a ruse. I stopped off at Publix on the way home and picked up some fresh bananas and a box of Devil Dogs. Everything was good again.

Look What Monkette Found ~ WILD BANANAS!

We had about half an hour to kill before Monkette and I would head over to city hall and listen to the mayoral and council candidates tell us about all the things that they thought we wanted to hear. It would be mostly a litany of self-agrandisement as one after the another would get cut off in mid-sentence by the moderator as they exceeded the alloted two minutes to respond to questions from the audience.

We decided to check out the back yard. Janis had told Monkette that she'd spotted a couple of stalks of bananas in the jungle that passes for our back yard. Code Enforcement hates my back yard, but I keep pointing out that it really looks pretty much the same as the Enchanted Forest park a couple of blocks away. They don't have much of a "lawn" either. One time they tried to cite me for over height "weeds" in the front yard but I made the officer kneel down and identify exactly what kind of "weeds" they were. He agreed with me that they were live oak seedlings, a protected species, and that getting permits at $25 each for a few hundred live oaks would be a major imposition on our banana budget. A week later I mowed the lawn anyway. The fine print exempted newly sprouted acorns.

These banana plants were already growning here when I bought the house back in '67. Some years there are a few stalks, some none. The soil isn't really conducive to raising bananas. There's pretty much solid coral rock just a few inches below the surface and bananas like deep thick rich soil. That's why we can't get a full stalk of fruit. Too little water and not enough nutrients.

These bananas are a small thin skinned variety called "apple bananas", and they have a smell and taste very much like apples. I like them sliced up on a bowl of corn flakes. Monkette just plain likes them! And I suppose we'll share them with Janis. That's probably why we got blessed with two stalks this year.

Schmoozing With The Candidate

There was an immediate rapport between Monkette and Bonnie, total and complete! They really seemed to hit it off together.

I decided to circulate a bit. There were people there that I hadn't seen in awhile and people there that I'd just love to see again, but Monkette would never forgive me for dating a thirty year old chick! I decided it best to just stay away from the wine. I don't handle any sort of booze too well. It's bad enough just wandering around town with a toy monkey at my age! I'm not all that sure that I could get away with it being drunk too.

Monkette was intrigued with the diversity of folks we met, for the most part a younger crowd than we usually run into at these functions. In the background is a surgeon still in scrubs, on his way home from the hospital, but for the most part the guys were dressed in jeans and shirts (and a yarmulke or two) with only one guy in suit and tie. The ladies were a bit more formal in their attire, mostly skirts and dresses with heels. Pants on women seems to be a thing of the past.

Me And Monkey

Photo (c) James Mitchell

This charming sensitive portrait of me and Monkey (that's me on the left) is actually a few years old, shot when I was a youthful 63 and Monkey about a year younger. We were sitting around outside of Starbucks on Biscayne Blvd. and 135th St., me smoking cigarettes as usual. Monkey doesn't smoke, never has, but he does seem to enjoy being around smokers. He prefers ganga smokers though. Starbucks doesn't allow that on the patio.

I'll be turning 66 in a couple of weeks on the ninth of November. I'm not sure about Monkey's birthday, though. He keeps it a secret. He and I have a long history together!

He got really excited yesterday when we got an email from James telling us that he'd be in town toward the end of January or beginning of February. He wants to get James to photograph him together with Monkette. He said that James shoots better portraits than I do. Thanks a lot! Hell, at this point James probably had my 85mm f/2 Nikkor on his Leica, judging by the contrast and bokeh. He fell in love with that lens, and ended up buying two of them, one chrome, one black. Mine is chrome. I love it dearly, but when it comes to cuddling a toy monkey is much better than any silly old lens, don't you think?

Flying The Stars And Stripes!

Councilman Scott Galvin got this great idea that our North Miami residents should try to make the city look more patriotic by getting everyone to fly the American flag on national holidays. He made a deal with a local flag company and got a "wholesale price" on a mess of 3x5 foot flags complete with aluminum poles and brackets. Anybody stopping by his office could pick up a free flag. He was hoping to see the streets lined with flags on the Fourth of July. It didn't happen. Oh, there were flags flying, but nowhere near what he'd hoped for.

I was driving down the street and saw this house, probably in foreclosure, all boarded up, and a huge pile of trash out in front. I stopped to check out the pile for treasures. The only thing I salvaged was that cute little toy monkey sitting on the shoulder of the dressmakers' form. Monkette was sitting on my front seat and she suggested that I get a photo of the little toy monkey showing her patriotism by holding up the American flag.

Next year I'm going to suggest to Scott that he should get a whole big bunch of little American flags. Maybe we can convince all the toy monkeys in town to go out in their front yards and wave the red, white, and blue.

Best Friends Since 1943

That's me on the right. Monkey is on the left. I was told that about 64 years ago I pulled Monkey's nose off. I have no idea what happened to it. I probably swallowed it. Simpler times, back then! The doctor probably told my frantic mother not to worry, the nose would pass through me, no harm done.

Once in awhile he likes to get up off his little rattan chair and check out what's going on in the world. Back when he was a young monkey women didn't chair municipal advisory boards. Toy monkeys didn't attend the meetings. Board members like myself would have short neatly combed hair, no beard, and wear a suit and tie, and certainly not let a soul know that they still had their childhood toy monkey, nor would they dare take the monkey to meetings with them! After all, what would people say?

All that changed a bit over a year ago, following Monkey's visit with Todd in California. He came back with Monkette. He was wearing an earing. His face wasn't wide enough to hold his smile. I'd never before seen such sparkle in a pair of glass eyes! But it must be more than just the good loving. He was proud as can be of her political involvment, being the brains behind the mayor's re-election campaign, but like I said, he's old. In "monkey years" he's well past the century mark. Mostly he stays at home these days watching TV or thatting about the good old days with his friends, the days when we still had lots of coconut trees to climb. Now he lets Monkette handle the politicking. This night there were a couple of items on the agenda that interested him. Monkette said "That's OK, Dear. You go keep Al company tonight. I don't mind staying home, and there's a TV special that I wanted to see anyway."

It really gets you to thinking when you realize that you and a toy monkey are the oldest people at a city advisory board meeting. Oh well, we give it our best shot.

A Love-In At Greynold's Park

When I found out about the love-in at Greynold's Park I told Al that he's gotta take me! No excuses! I'd heard so much about hippies and the culture of the late 60's, love-ins at Greynold's Park, live rock music, free love, pot, the smell of incense, wildly painted VW Microbuses, miniskirts and bell bottom jeans...but to hear Al tell it? Girls, free love, ganga,girls, free love, ganga, girls, free love, ganga...Oh yeah, and rock music! Lots of great Rock Music (and girls, freelove, and ganga)

So here we were at Greynold's Park. No it wasn't in a time machine. Somebody came up with the bright idea of holding another love-in after a hiatus of forty years. And there weren't all that many sexy teenage chicks in miniskirts and love beads either. But what the hell. I'm a toy monkey and I'm female. I wasn't too happy to discover that all those handsome young guys depicted in Al's vintage photographs, the ones with shoulder length hair, fringed leather vests over tie dyed T-shirts (or even bare chests - yummmm!) still a few years from being hairy, bellbottom jeans, and sandles were now for the most part grey haired (those that still had hair anyway) old men with paunches spilling over what was left of a waist line.

Of course a lot of the ladies weren't in much better shape, but at least they had the excuse that making babies isn't exactly kind to a woman's figure. And there were the usual guys with chicks young enough to be their daughter, or grand-daughter even! Well, maybe they were. Let's give them the benifit of the doubt, OK?

The dudes all thought that Al was a complete nut (or REALLY stoned!) walking around carrying a toy monkey at his age. Toy monkeys? twenty year old chicks? Pretty much the same thing, isn't it? Reliving their earlier years, their childhood, the youth that's long lost but not forgotten.

Now the chicks, they're always fascinated by me, and they think that Al is one cool dude for having the guts to carry me around like that! I got more kisses and hugs from all those chicks than I've had in ages. I was hoping to catch a whiff or three of that ganga smoke, find out what that's all about, but these grey haired old fuddyduddies have all turned into beer drinkers just like their dads before them. Why can't they brew beer from bananas?

Just Another Typical Afternoon At Starbucks?

Robin went back to Vero Beach today after a ten day visit. "You sure know a lot of strange people here!" she remarked after the first couple of days here. My first inclination was to reply with a "Really? Who else beside you?" but I was afraid of getting my face slapped or worse. The truth is we really do have a lot of strange people here, and I guess you'd have to say that I'm one of them.

This guy is the only person I've ever seen at Starbucks carrying a conga drum. He stayed for maybe fifteen minutes and he was a good player! Then he wandered away and I haven't seen him since. But I suspect she was referring to my friends, the local politicians she met, my doctors we went to, the folks at the post office and the bank. I mean, where else can youi go and find a sixty-something guy carrying around a toy monkey? And when I don't have Monkette with me everybody asks "Where's your monkey?" They're all concerned that it's too hot to leave her in the truck this time of year. If I say that the truck is parked in the shade they say "I hope you left the windows cracked open a bit so she gets some fresh air!" I sometimes wonder if it just might be easier to carry around a conga drum? "Strange people"? Hell, this town is full of crazy people!

Another day without a picture...

This morning I took a few of my new prints over to the Suyu Gallery to get some feedback from Mario. He loved them and he plans to show several of them along with some of my older work. Believe me, the new stuff doesn't look anything at all like my older work! Mario said that he'd never seen anything like it before. He wanted to know how I got those effects. I ain't giving away my secrets, no way!

Now in addition to Todd and Monkette getting on my case to spend more time printing in the darkroom I'll have Mario bugging me also.

We're cutting back the schedule of posting photos on the blog to three days a week. There should be another one posted tomorrow. Whether I'll be able to resist the opportunity to write about something on those off days anyway, that's another story.

In addition to using some of my new black and white work starting in a few weeks Monkette wanted me to mention that she has a cute little itty-bitty toy monkey herself now! He still doesn't have a name but I'm sure that Monkette will think up a good one for him. He'll soon start showing up here in the pictures.

Hang A Left. It's The Main Road To Maine...LOL

Everytime we drive under one of these I-95 bridges Monkette starts muttering about missing her friends, the two toy monkeys that got to fly up to Cambridge, Massachusettes to live with my granddaughter Gabriella. As long as it was still winter I could tell her that she wouldn't like temperatures in the teens and a couple of feet of snow on the ground. Well, now spring is here and summer is but five weeks away!

Tomorrow I'm going to make an attempt to distract her. We're going to a Love-In at Greynolds Park, just like they had back in the sixties. Back then they were a weekly happening, every Sunday. Not now. It's not free anymore either, but seven bucks ain't all that bad. And I'm not expecting to see the likes of The Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix is gone for good. There was a Love-In last year, and I missed it.

I was told to wear bell bottoms and a tie dyed T-shirt but I have neither anymore. I still have all my hair, but since I didn't know about the upcoming Love-In I had seven month's worth of growth wacked off just a couple of days ago. I guess I'll just leave a day's stubble on my face and wear one of those Chinese silk sportshirts with the palm frond pattern over faded black jeans. A couple of good tokes of ganga and it'll look close enough to tie-dye to pass. Supposedly last year the tell-tale odor of the smoke was everyplace, but the cops ignored it. I guess if they were standing down wind they didn't want to spoil a good thing. Or maybe they were concerned that they might accidently bust some of the "wrong" stoned out people in the crowd of fifty and sixty somethings. You know, community leaders, politicians, perhaps a judge or two...nah, better to just let them groove to the music. Now where in hell did I put my damned roach clip?