Kevin Ups The Ante

Maybe it is something we do that we are just not very aware. This is our housemate from NH, Kevin. He had not been in Miami Beach for even 12 hours and this …occurred.

We had just dropped Bob off at the airport earlier in the day. Janice and Gini decided that the condo needed some ‘sprucing up’ so we planned to head to the mainland and tour Target’s, Marshall’s, et al in search of spruce.

These plans were a bit delayed when Kevin called at 11:00 AM to tell us that the sub zero temps in Manchester were still giving his 7:00 plane problems with freezing fluids. Gini went into travel-agent mode and verified that he was ‘protected’ for a 3PM out of Atlanta. So shopping-ho! First a lamp for the bedside ($12) to sit on the new plastic bedside table ($7) and what wonderful fold out chairs for the balcony ($8.95 apiece)!

Kevin’s new (first for him) cellphone allowed us to eventually find him outside Arrivals. The trip home (7 miles) took 90 minutes. As some of you may know, two Miami police were shot and killed last week. Well the funeral cortege was a little behind schedule and backed up traffic most of the day.

Having left -13 degrees to bask in 70 degrees, Kevin could care less about delays and traffic. Upon arrival martinis magically appeared and soon we were wending down West Ave towards Oliver’s Restaurant, a local haunt. After two carafes of Pinot Grigio Kevin anonymously paid for dinner. We took to the streets and soon Kevin was in the embrace of that banyan tree. Through careful instructions of Flamingo Park security we were able to extract him without any permanent marks.

Coffee at the Van Dyke on Lincoln Road ‘calmed’ everyone down and we managed to survive his arrival.

The next day, we walked to the ocean to verify its existence and wandered through the fresh under construction James Ave area that Janice and Bill came very close to putting in an offer. At the Albion Hotel we walked along the side of the bottom of the hotel pool and looked through the portholes in the walls with Kevin pleading for nude bathers.

The big excitement for the evening was to head to Lincoln Road for the opening of Soundscape Park and its Exostage outside the New World Center. The park would open Tuesday night with the concert hall opening the next night for its resident orchestra the New World Symphony.

The building was state of the art with the park intended for people gathering in the park to enjoy the sounds of the live interior performances along with video projected across the 7000 foot screen on the outside wall. It was a Spielberg moment:



This projector provided the video as we enjoyed its first emissions:



Notice along the left what looks to be some columns with a header. These were the left speakers (the whole column) that matched another set on the right. Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess filled the night – cool.

The whole project for the park from design to this evening was about a year. The benefactors wanted the cultural experience of the symphony to be a community experience. Pergola were designed to emulate the puffy clouds of Miami Beach and were seeded to be covered with bougainvillea (soon to come):



So as not to let the elite be the only one to experience live music we were soon koochee-koocheeing to a Cuban salsa band:



We had never heard Guantanamera played with such intensity, speed and rhythm. Yeah baby.

So tonight we will try and be good and stay home and Chris will cook spaghetti carbonara for Kevin, Janice, Paul and Gregg. The guys’ apartment is being painted, among other projects, and would appreciate benefiting from someone else’s kitchen.