Friday Night In Key West

WARNING: This essay got away from me and devolved into a curmudgeon rant. Those of delicate sensibilities who have trouble with a dry sense of humor are advised to skip this page and check out one of the 3100 essays devoted to the Lower Keys available on this website. Normal photographic commentary will resume at midnight Eastern Time.

Cheers

Michael.

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Living as we do in a culture obsessed with youth a curmudgeon like myself might be forgiven for taking the contrarian line that experience- free fresh young things like these are of less than passing interest. But if you are debonair and charming and find the quality of your day is improved by the sight of children posing as adults, the boardwalk at Key West Bight is a good place to choose for dinner. Well it was in my case.

For a lot of people last week sitting inside was the preferred choice. My wife always asks where I'd like to sit, but in deference to her preference for sharing her food with any passing insect I loyally suggest outdoor seating is my preference too, as it happens. In this instance sitting outdoors at Alonzo's seemed like decidedly the better choice as indoors was crowded and very noisy.

And sitting outdoors means you can people watch, and watch people watching the tarpon swimming in circles waiting for breadcrumbs, while you wait for your own breadcrumbs to arrive.

Sean was dressed in the Alonzo's uniform of dark blue shirt and tan shorts similar in many respects to what I wear at my job though I wouldn't mind being allowed to sit In shorts all night. My wife likes Alonzo's and she is happy to send people who seek decent fish to eat here; that appetizers are half price during happy hour increases the appeal for my frugal wife.

We were celebrating her assignment for the next school year where she transferring to teach adults in the jail and is also setting up a new vocational type program (I think, her job descriptions are all a bit vague to me) for adult education across the Keys. It was her dream job and she was so excited to get the news from her boss. Only half priced shellfish would do, to celebrate her dream assignment.

Mussels, calamari (not pork bungs I trust!) oysters and fish fingers, oh my. That and a Yuengling set me steady for the second half of the program.

The idea was to catch the new Robert Redford vehicle The Company You Keep at the Tropic Cinema. It wasn't our first choice but the timing was right. I took this picture of the theater after the movie when darkness gives Key West's arts house a particular glow.

Every time I take a leak I regret not being swift enough to buy a plaque here. Mind you the mysterious Roger Westerlund gets around as you will find his name above your weenie in the theater as well. It took a bit of furtive lurking to get this picture as you might imagine.

The theater was quite empty when we sat down near the back. Then Eraserhead sat in front of my wife so we moved for a clear view of the screen, which worked until the credits came up and two last minus arrivals plunked themselves down right in front of us. Hmm, I started to wonder to myself, how soon will this movie be available on Netflix streaming?

The film is the story of a group of former Weathermen living modern lives out of sight of law enforcement, so when Susan Sarandon's character decides to give herself up the FBI, frustrated by thirty years on the run, moves in and arrests her using her surrender to nail the other killer members of the radical group. Parallel to this manufactured drama a cub reporter at the Albany, NY, newspaper is also hot on the trail of his first big story and in one of many yawning plot holes beats the FBI at their own game(!). The writing was awful the characters' motivations were mysterious and the outcome predictable. It was a group play period on screen for a bunch of elderly actor-friends to work together one more time. Definitely Netflix material, unless you are celebrating a promotion.

Had I been watching at home I would not have been obliged to listen to the couple nearby explaining the plot twists to each other in loud undertones. Sigh. At least no one answered a phone call which might have interrupted Eraserhead's loud guffaws as the predictable punch lines hovering view on screen.

The Tropic is a worthy institution but the downside is you have to share it with people who haven't been brought up properly. My advice is avoid big name movies, preferably choose flicks with subtitles which should keep most of the talkers and fidgetters at bay. And don't go in winter because the blue hairs love to explain the movie to each other like they are at home on the couch. I don't say anything, I know its too late to teach my neighbors any manners by the time they are old enough to buy their own movie tickets, and I'm just grateful I get to walk away and try to keep the movie in mind and not the distractions. God give me patience, but I love movies, sitting in the dark and getting absorbed into the story. I came to realize years ago the emotion and drama and fear and excitement I felt sitting in the dark was supposed to be what I felt at Mass on Sundays. That I never did, just increased my appreciation for the power of the movies. Which is why talkers annoy me. Imagine them doing that in your church services...

On the subject of daily annoyances check out this parking job designed to preserve paintwork. Newcomers love to attach the Conch flag to their cars, but it takes more than a sticker to learn to fit in on a small overcrowded, tight parking island where every space counts and bad parking drives neighbors crazy. Another reason to ride a motorcycle.

 

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Truman Sunrise

A late cold front brought much rain to the Lower Keys and the north wind that followed has kept summer at bay quite successfully. Early morning temperatures have been close to seventy degrees and walking Truman Waterfront before the sun came up almost have me goosebumps, in my inadequate t-shirt. Sounds silly? Blood thins in constant heat, and May usually marks the start not only of rainy season but also high humidity season. Yet here we are, hot by day, cool by night and dawn brings crisp perfect sunrises against a cloudless sky.

Plans to develop Truman Waterfront are moving forward and this pleasantly disheveled 34 acre open space yielded to the city by a shrinking Navy will soon become something pleasantly bourgeois and landscaped and filled with useful activities. It is our communal fate in a world filling with evermore people recreation must be regimented.

Enjoying unspoiled landscapes in an urban setting is no mean feat in a town as small as Key West, so I come here as often as I can to make pictures and memories of this useless open space that will itself soon only be a memory.

I have no doubt tennis courts and shade trees, parking and bike paths are all worthy things and an amphitheater could provide a spectacular setting for outdoor performances, yet I still wouldn't at all mind something less organized. I like the idea bruited by some less orthodox souls that the city create a park with fruit trees and perhaps space for a local market and so forth but I suppose needs must and paving is coming.

The Navy fond the land to be surplus to needs but decided at the last minute to close the basin to civilian boats thus scuppering plans to build a marina, a development the developers proposed would pay for the park in a rather dubious lease back program that had the city paying the developers to manage the marina. That's all gone now thanks to the Navy so perhaps development plans could be moved forward perhaps a skosh less grandiose. I have enjoyed lovely open air concerts inside Fort Zachary, and I shouldn't mind so doing agin.

The cool morning air gave crispness and clarity to the air and I thoroughly enjoyed trailing Cheyenne in her endless pursuit of who-knows-what across the waterfront.

And we were alone, the bliss of summer in Key West. A good time to walk and think and say nothing.

Mornings have been good for a while. After the warm dry winter I expected by way of compensation an early hot wet summer. It has rained but the heat and humidity usually slow Cheyenne down quite a bit. Thus we have been walking quite a lot among the homes and trees of the Lower Keys.

Looking east from Big Pine Key dawn looks similar to anyplace else I guess.

Cheyenne tends to walk with her nose down, mine is up usually.

And then after the sun comes up the colors come to life in the city:

Camping in the mountains of California I'd wake up and watch the sun scale a line of granite, the shadows retreating as the sun progressed over the valleys. Here in the flatlands the movement of the sun is measured by the retreat of shade across a street.

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Mickens To Duval

A night off work often leads to an early morning in town walk for Cheyenne if I wake up before the sun. I got lots of pictures as I trailed around behind my eager dog, and they will show up here in the fullness of time. Starting with a rising sun on Mickens Lane, a right angled alley between Angela and Whitehead Streets.

The modern obsession with hydration leaves me puzzled, for instance when did thirst become a need to 'hydrate?' Indeed I can frequently be found hundreds of yards from potable water with not even one plastic bottle of commercial water about my person, and I may even drive home feeling thirsty. I carry water for herself in the trunk but on our walks we end up relying on the kindness of strangers, like this bowl outside the Green Parrot under some street art. david wegman's art and painting.

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Some people hydrate by sitting at a bar all afternoon despite the warning that alcohol kills cells and dehydrates the body. It also can lead to some really stupid behavior like walking onto a strangers porch, hammering on the door and then proceeding to take a leak under the gaze of the astonished visitor to Key West renting a cottage for a peaceful vacation. Sometimes a well hydrated driver will go off the rails, like the ick up truck driver who missed the intersection the other night and hit a palm tree and a house instead. I kid you not, there was a hole in the house on Eaton Street to prove it. The driver slept it off at the jail and will end up paying thousands for drinking and driving after conviction. The good news is that alcohol brings money to town and employs people to clean up after the booze has been poured.

I've been riding motorcycles since 1970 and I have come to loathe drunk drivers for their unpredictability and weird aggressive behavior. I met another one last night riding home at two in the morning. The car came up behind me at speed on the highway, high beams blazing, and I pulled off to let them by. That they had no tail lights at all was a bonus act of stupidity but after passing me they slowed down, typical for drunks behind the wheel struggling to find their way in the dark. For a while the car slowly straddled the yellow lines then at Baby's Coffee they sped up madly and even though I was doing sixty in the fifty five they disappeared far into the distance even as the speed limit dropped to forty five and I dropped back while they disappeared up ahead. I fully expected to come across them doing field sobriety checks up the road but they were nowhere to be seen when I turned off up my street. That far they had got away with it, as had any unsuspecting unfortunates whose path they crossed and who they did not kill in a weaving head on.

The former motorcycle dealership shown above on Southard Street has moved to White Street. Motorcycles crowded the parking on this block of Southard much to the irritation of some vocal neighbors, and now the building s shuttered up and cars have returned to the on street parking. Neighbors at the White Street location have been telling he newspaper the motorcycle shop has cleaned up a formerly blighted spot! Change can be good.

There are so many odd little corners of Key West that go unseen and unnoticed in the rush to serve the tourists. Above - carpets for sale? Below, an empty early morning street reflected in the windows of one more store that will likely be busy later in the day.

The Strand, now a pharmacy once a theater is also abandoned by people. You have to be on Duval fairly early to see the five hundred block this deserted.

It's the five hundredth anniversary of the arrival of white people in Florida, the flowery state, the Spaniards called it, and much of he state is celebrating. Key West has a hard time celebrating history, last year's centennial of the arrival of the railroad passed almost unnoticed and this year five hundred years of Florida settlement merits little flags draped off street lamps. This town, chartered in 1828, is very focused on the present, not the past.

By the time I steered Cheyenne back to the car on Olivia people were starting to appear on the street. This guy strode past me in shoes of a shade of electric blue that they eclipsed my pink Crocs.

I am no longer alone as Cheyenne takes her next pause on Angela at the corner of Duval.

 

The weird shaped shed is actually a ticket booth for tour boats and the day's occupant was setting up shop. Peop,e think I have a high stress job answering police phones but I can't imagine sending all day answering questions and selling tickets like that. It remains a source of amazement to me that I landed the job I did when I did. Cheyenne's job in retirement is to check out absolutely every single thing everywhere.

She spent her first eight years producing puppies and being kept in her rather uncomfortable place in the home of some freaks that dumped her for the crime of being too old. Nowadays she gets her daily walk where she sets the pace and the direction. It is hard work and she had to stop off for a drink at the 801. That is to say she stopped to hydrate.

And then she stopped for a final rest on this lengthy walk on the sidewalk between the car and the Hemingway House wall. She likes to end her walks with a pause to people watch. I get the feeling she never got to spend much time just watching the world in her former life. These days when not sleeping she likes to sit on the porch and watch the boats on the canal at home.

I don't think she noticed the rather anxious Hemingway cat perched on the wall. The cat sure noticed her.

Back home she passed out snoring on her grass bed. It must have been a good walk.

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Dale Owen, Bob Brozman, RIP

It is I have long been told, a sign of aging that one turns first to the obituaries when opening the newspaper, to see who's dead and to reassure oneself about one's own status among the living. In the digital age one ends up opening Google and never quite knowing who will come across the page, by accident or by remotest coincidence. The other day I found a 94 year old Italian politician, Giulio Andreotti had fallen off his perch. That was cause for reflection for a moment considering he dominated the news cycles when I was a youngster in Italy.

And then there was Dale, a colleague who used to sell underwriting on KUSP, what was the public radio station in Santa Cruz in the 70s and 80s. Terry Green Blogs About KUSP » Blog Archive » Dale Owen passes away He was gifted with the rich deep basso profundo tones that were perfect for his classical music shows, the sort preferred by program directors. He had the thankless task at KUSP, that of selling the counter culture organization whose rambunctious members were always ready to spot and denounce a sell out as soon as they sniffed one. Dale worked the community like crazy and never lost his cheerful smile when sales came under fire for violating those protocols. He lived his life on crutches working paradoxically in a building that was as inaccessible as any second floor office could be and he never complained or turned away from the daily struggle to climb the shiny wooden stairs as steep and shiny as a granite mountain face. I was twenty-something and ran up and down easily, mindless if I forgot a microphone in the studio or needed to "run back up" for some other thing.

Sitting here, 3200 miles away, pondering the quiet, sudden illness and death of the unassuming Dale, I came across a connected death from a few weeks ago. KUSP, in it's role as a community voice was naturally a voice for resident and visiting musicians and Bob Brozman was a close friend of the founders of the station. It turns out he died in April, apparently by his own hand in an untold story, and was I surprised to see worldwide obituaries including the august New York Times, Bob Brozman, Guitarist, Is Dead at 59 - NYTimes.com and a Wikipedia page devoted to his tireless pursuit of what we used to call World Music.

I cannot say my life will be directly impacted by these disparate deaths, but they do provoke thought I guess is the best way to put it. I look back and feel an incredible sense of waste. I was a young man impetuous and let loose in the cultural playground that was California in the 80s and I had everything to learn and to do. I was so busy I missed so much of what the people around me every day had to offer. I read their obituaries and as brief as they are they reveal a large slice of details I never had the wit to enquire after at the time.

In many respects I feel fortunate with the way my life has unspooled, especially considering some of the turns it could have taken but those small insistent niggling regrets pop up in my life at the least expected moments.

 

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Parrotdise Unraveled

It is unusual for me but I find myself missing the oddly named Parrotodise bar and restaurant on Little Torch Key. I see so much change, people come and go as do businesses, but this one I miss.

It's been closed for almost a year and already the signs of entropy are closing in on the formerly bustling eatery. Rather than pay the modest fee to dump a bed at the ...dump, some kind soul chose to drop it off in the parking lot. Much better.

It's as though when the place closed no one came back for any reason, to clean up or remove any decorative touches left by the ancien regime. The decorations are in place...

...the signage hasn't changed. I used to park here from time to time and I appreciated the convenient space for the Vespa or the Bonneville.

It's difficult to discern what made this place attractive. The food was okay, simple but not terribly brash or exciting, the service was cheerful and the owner was always to be found wandering the bar and restaurant keeping an eye on things and apparently enjoying the life of a restaurateur.

Key West Diary: Parrotdise

Looking back Parrtodise had its own place in the pantheon of Lower Keys restaurants, not as fancy as Square Grouper and not as organically hip as the Wharf, but they had a nice bar, good beers and fresh fish and locals flocked to it.

I also liked the view, unique to this place with its panoramic windows overlooking the channel. I enjoyed bringing visitors here and eating coconut lobster bites, or lobster mac and cheese and the ridiculous breakfast burger with bacon and a fried egg (!) drinking a draught Smithwicks while looking out over the water. I felt rather melancholy as I wandered around kicking abandoned dead palm fronds and remembering good times.

This was one place I didn't mind coming to have a beer and a meal by myself at the bar. The staff were friendly but not intrusive and the prices were good value. All gone.

The end came abruptly in June 2012 ironically while my wife and I were eating at Square Grouper we heard that this place was closing. It was not a happy moment, checks were left unpaid as te rumor had it and the operation closed on a sour note.

So there it is, abandoned but not forgotten, though a neighbor mentioned to me there is a rumor of a potential new tenant in sight which may reverse the gradual decay which is making it unlikely I will stop off again until something actually changes. Soon,  I hope.

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