Art IS for the people!

As part of the Art Basel events, this exhibit, "Giants in the City" , was on display in downtown Miami.  What a surprise for me and Kashmir on our evening walk!
Also, the lady in the "dress" in the top picture, is also an artist who fashions clothes/costumes and jewelry out of reusable materials.  She is wearing one of her creations which is made entirely of plastics from packing materials to the squeeze foam used for insulation.

Upcycling Fashions - The Lady in Plastics!

Occupy Miami...maybe a little confused

The Occupy movements got a lot of flack from the media about not having a clear message about what they stand for or what they are trying to accomplish.  Of course, here in Miami, they take it a step further and really don't have a clear understanding of who they are representing....which appears to be all of South America.

NPR keepin' it real...and relevant!

I have to give a shout out to NPR for airing the story about the Nando Peri-Peri food chain's holiday commercial featuring the fallen dictators and how it can be lonely for those that are still standing.


Here is the commercial

Seriously, what clown rode up on this thang?

and then did he/she go shake his/her booty at Mecca?

 

Kashmir gettin' all cute

Just some pics were she makes you go awwwwwwwwwwwww....

Kashmir in her "Miami Vice" pose with a little Miami "snow"

Anything to go for a ride, even if its to Salvation Army/Goodwill! Sorry Kashmir, but I don't get a tax deduction for you.

 

A Plentiful Bounty

  So with the extra time on my hands, I made rice krispie treats with pumpkin spice marshmallows topped with caramel flavored candy corn.  Yummy, but wow!, even I thought it was sugar overkill!!  There is a definite pumpkin taste to it all.

AND, for the first time EVER, me and the hubby hosted Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a 10 lb. turkey and all!  He had the genius notion of using our Showtime Rotisserie grill to make the Turkey.  I was doubtful as we had not used in the grill in at least 4 years and how can it cook the Turkey in 2.5 hours when I remember it always taking like 9 hours for my mom in the oven?!!  Miracles of miracles, it was the prettiest (damn! I wish I taken pics of it before he carved it as seen on the front plate next to the mashed potatoes) sight, smelled delicious and was absolutely scrumptious!  Great job honey!!  We definitely had a cornucopia of food including: green bean and sweet potato casserole, stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes (thanks for the contribution!), macN'Havariti with dill (thanks for the contribution!), Mom's yeast rolls, apple coleslaw, cream cheese veggie pizza, pig n' blanket, and cream cheese with cranberry relish.  Would you believe there were items that I held back on making?!  My family did look at me as if I was a little nuts when I was still baking pumpkin tarts/pie two days after...but my sister had done such a beautiful job with the pie shells, that I could not let it go to waste!!!  To be sure, she was also sent home with at least a half-dozen pumpkin pie tarts!


We also had an almost entire dessert bar! I made ambrosia salad, orange crush pound cake and then contributions included key lime pie (from true key limes!), pecan with Ghiradelli chocolate chips pie, pumpkin pie and some leftover red velvet cupcakes!

Even more amazing, I thought, was that, after taking about 12 plates of food to building security, we fit ALL of the leftovers into the fridge!!  Although we have a a la-ti-da sub-zero fridge, I should point out that its more of a "european" model, which usually translates as smaller to fit into the condos!  It was truly a Thanksgiving were we were happy to be stateside and able to share it with family and friends!

Upcycled dishes for the turkey included, pad thai with turkey and quesadillas and then the rest to Miss Kashmir who was happy to be seduced into a tryptiphan coma.

Eat with the Heat and assorted nonsense

In the Miami Heat's attempt to garner some fan goodwill, while the negotiations continue at a stalemate, they sponsored a "Eat with the Heat" lunch one day.  Most of the food trucks in the city were present, but the food wasn't free.   The DJ was good and the Heat mascot was entertaining.  Me and Kashmir entered the contest to try and win Jay-Z/Kayne concert tickets (not a winner...yet).

Monkey Getting Funky

One of the two toys that Kashmir has torn apart with love.  Oddly enough, I walk into the bedroom and the monkey was positioned like this!  No tampering on my part!

My new hero!!!

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2011/11/molly-katchpoles-victory-over-bank-of-america/

What's even better is that a Bank of America bank officer, when I complained about this fee because I am a long-time customer (more than 25 years!  back when they were previously known as Soverign Bank and then Nations Bank) in addition to my mortagage (too much!) and always carry the needed savings balance for the high-end accounts and that officer told me this was a  Congressional mandate to all banks and that BoA did not have a choice.  I guess the banks can do whatever they want including giving a middle finger to Congress.

What. A. Headline.

Save the ta-tas and your memories

I have been lax in mentioning that October was breast cancer awareness month (save the ta-tas!) and Alzheimer awareness month (please consider a donation for research) both of which are very important to me.

I participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Miami and wow! there was some enthusiasm for saving "your girls"!

The guys in the pink bikini undies were probably the most popular of dressed up teams!

Step off Burn Notice!

 I can't believe it has taken me a week to get this down!  Last week I was at Michael's Crafts waiting in line for one of two registers.  Then, another cashier announces that she'll take the next person in line.  I hate this.  I somehow always get screwed.  However, she made eye contact with me and waved me over, so I begin to walk over and this guy in hat and sunglasses saunters ahead of me.  To his credit, he did not have a clue about me and the cashier's pre-arranged agreement.  But the cashier was about to let me down!  She looked at me and then looked at him....and I knew she was not going to take action, which required me to do so.

"Excuse me, she just called the next person in line and that's me.  Thanks." and I plunk my 2 items down.  He just drawled a "Well, alright."  Yeah, I asserted myself!  I'm trying to hurry up and pay since I kinda felt like a bee-yotch by being so bold. 

The cashier meanwhile begins to ask the guy, "Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Johnny Depp?" 

The guy replies, "No, I've never heard that one."

"Are you sure?"

Well, now I have to take a look at this character since I think I'm pretty good at pinpointing what celebrity you most closely resemble.  Oh lordy.  He resembles a celebrity because HE IS A CELEBRITY!!!  I just told Burn Notice's (interestingly known in Brazil as Operação Miami)
Michael Westin (his true name is Jeffrey Donovan) to step off!!! 

The hat and sunglasses could not hide his strong jaw, that usually looks perpetually clenched, and as he continued to assure the cashier that he did not resemble Mr. Depp his voice was also unmistakable.  On the show, his character usually sounds annoyed as explains the ins and outs of a proposed operation to whatever hapless individual has gotten themselves into trouble.  Yep, he sounds like that in real life.

Now, I'm practically snorting and giggling at the fact that the cashier is still trying to convince Donovan/Westin of his celebrity doppleganger-ness!  I suppose his girlfriend guessed that he was getting too much attention and proceeded to shower him with hugs and kisses. (Calm down honey, we know he's taken.)  And also remind him to use their Michael's 40% off coupon!  They use coupons!

He was a little scruffy as he appeared unshaven, but he's taller than I imagined (he's at least 5'11" MAYBE 6' which is pretty tall for Hollywood).  Trust me, he may look slim on the show but he's even slimmer in person.  They aren't kidding when they say the camera adds 10 pounds.   

Believe me, I soooooo wanted to get a pic with my iPhone, but I felt awkward particularly because I am not smooth with the app.  I know this was a special moment for Donovan/Westin as well since celebrities are always claiming that they just want to be treated like everyone else! Right?

Rubbing elbows with "Royalty"

Kevin and I attended the Chivas Brotherhood event since it combined  some of our favorite things: free event, free alcohol and checking out a Miami penthouse.   Kevin had his beverage on the rocks.  I tried their version of Blood & Sand martini (3/4 oz Scotch whisky; 3/4 oz rosso vermouth; 1/4 oz cherry brandy and 1 1/2 oz orange juice) which was delicious.  It was relaxing on the rooftop with our drinks (free!), beautiful view of the city lit up at night while enjoying our cigars.  The penthouse was beautifully decorated by Chivas with personalized Chivas items included in the decor, like poker chips, the lights you see in the background and beautiful leather barstools (like butter I tell ya!) with the Chivas lion in doorknocker form on the back of the barstool.

 

Mario, the host of the event in Miami til the end of the month, told us some very interesting tidbits about Chivas whisky's history. Not sure if any and all of the following are true, but interesting....

• During Queen Victoria's rule she granted a Royal Warrant for the Chivas Brothers to provide her with continued goods.
• All royality in Britain have a designated blend made by Chivas in their honor.  Sometimes these blends are then made available to the public.  So who do you think will age better William or Harry?
• Chivas Regal is number one scotch/blended whiskey in South Korea.
• This was Frank Sinatra's preferred drink.

Not quite Hoarders, but....

Oh Lordy help me.  THIS is our living room for the next couple of weeks?!  Do we really have this much crap?  AND we took at least 25 boxes to storage already!!!!  Alright, alright, I guess it is time to purge.  Luckily, Kevin made it a priority to hook up the cable and TV so I can have some "company" while I work through this project.  Thanks honey! 

Maybe I should watch a few episodes of "Hoarders" for some inspiration or maybe some HGTV for home organizing ideas...or maybe the "Project Runway" season 4 marathon...um yeah, the boxes may take longer than I thought......

Miami Hollywood Colliding

This week during me and Kashmir's daily sojourns, we ran across not one but TWO TV crews in downtown Miami filming!!!  Really exciting watching TV shows being filmed, right?  Nope. Lot of hurry up and wait.  Alas, I did not catch a glimpse of Michael, Fiona or Sam on site.  However it was interesting that they set up "Alice's Cafe" in an abandoned shop and made it look workable for that scene.  However, if Alice's Cafe was really set up in that location 90% of her customer base would be the homeless population as that seemed to be the mainstay for that neigborhood once the tv crew departed.

Kashmir was really exasperated with the "Burn Notice" crew as they a) took almost an hour to set up a car chase scene (which lasted all of 15 seconds) and b) that I made her sit there with me and watch it all.  These are the pictures of the crew setting up the stunt driver for a "speed test" where there was some "explosion" at the end.  We weren't allowed to peek around the corner from our observation area for safety and shooting reasons (i.e. we would be in the frame), so I'm not sure if the car had a blow out or they used the CO2 tanks to make the car "erupt".

Also, "Magic City", a TV show slated for release in 2012 (see more here ) was also filming using some great historic locations in downtown Miami like the DuPont building.  They trotted out some era appropriate cars as well!