Gone Girl At The Tropic

The movie Gone Girl came to Key West a while back, stopping first at the rather dreary barn that passes for  a multiplex in this small town. The Regal Cinema Six sits next to Sears and Publix in the far reaches of New Town and attracts movie goers who seem more intent on a  date than on dialogue and haute cuisine in the lobby is represented by popcorn and soda sold at astronomic prices. Call me a snob but I like the Tropic where my membership buys me a discounted access to adult movie going.

It does not however always work out that way. Summers at the Tropic are glorious, the older entitled petulant winter movie crowd have returned to their eeries Up North, the cinema is a quiet thoughtful haven of cool air and alcohol away from the heat and humidity of summer. I like to swim, I enjoy boating (when the boat runs) but my afternoons off are a glorious opportunity to see a movie in peace and alone allowing me to get immersed in the pleasure of the giant silver screen.  

 Gone Girl deserves the concentration a screening rooms allows, as it is superficially a thriller, a story of murder, cheating and trickery on an epic and disturbing scale. I found it also to be a delightful and sardonic take on the state of journalism, public gossip and the power of personality driven "reporting" that has the power to emasculate the police. The movie raises so many issues and propels so much social commentary on so many levels that despite my initial reticence I found myself sucked into a story that as my wife said was pretty straightforward but that actually deviated constantly from the cliches of the plot. It is really worth a look.

However our carefully crafted strategy of waiting for the movie to play out at the Regal, and then allow it to be screened for a while at the Tropic failed us. There were two people in the small theater screening room when we arrived. We sat across the room from them but unfortunately a dozen more movie goers joined us, the last clump of elderly patrons plunked themselves down in the seats directly in front of us despite the wide selection of empty rows to sit in. And it was party time in the row in front of us. We moved to the back of the theater next to the two young women in the corner. In retrospect that might have been a bad move.  

One of them had a raucous deep phlegm-filled cough, such that you could hear the nicotine tainted sputum circulating in her mouth as she gasped and wheezed and retched. All I could think was a) glad I got my flu shot, diphtheria shot and whooping cough shot this year and b) she needs to drop the meth habit or she will cough herself to death before her teeth rot. The two twats talked of course, more during the slow scenes of reflection and speech making and less during the bloody murder and contrived abuse scenes. I paid them back by laughing out loud as a sex scene ended in a fountain of erupting blood and sudden spasming death, even as they sucked their witless breath in, in horror. Then a phone rang. At least the second half wit declined to answer even if she couldn't figure out how to turn it off.

 They weren't alone. The old fogies further up the aisles were twittering and explaining the plot to each other and it was a plot with lots of twists so the conversation was spasmodic but never quite ending. The bloody death scene ended it for a while.

Somehow I kept my shit together and the movie kept me absorbed in its convoluted story and well drawn characters, so I'm glad I didn't obey my early inclination to leave the theater and breathe fresh silent air.   

 So I ask myself why people think the movie theater is an extension of their home viewing experience?  Some entertainment doesn't merit a theater and the pause button is a beautiful thing, but the joy of the theater is the ability to immerse oneself in a story. Why pay eight or more dollars to pretend you are at home? Furthermore why is it okay to  spoil my night out? Especially with a great movie right up there on the screen? 

My wife the teacher had Veterans' Day off so we came out of the theater to crowds of people cheerfully waving flags and I noticed something I hadn't noticed before for some reason.  Key West suddenly looked like the garrison town it is. There were white Navy uniforms dotting the sidewalks, and the place looked like those black and white photos from seventy years ago when being in the military meant living in uniform and being seen in public as a member of the armed services.

 Then my wife saw this fine upstanding citizen toss his smoking cigarette out of his car. Sigh.

 I'm not perfect and my phone has been known to go off in a movie theater, but it all just seemed too much for one afternoon. We went to Santiago's and had delicious tapas: clams, ribs, fiery potatoes, and meaty empanadas, and  that took the edge off the bad manners elsewhere.

With the roof rolled back my wife did me the courtesy of driving us home in her Fiat 500 and I spent the thirty minute ride looking up at a gloriously starry night. This place would be Paradise- without the people!

Sister Noodle House

Seen at night in it's usual place on Petronia at Thomas Streets. Blue Heaven is always written up in tourist guides to Key West which point out the funky Caribbean atmosphere, the free range chickens in the open air dining room and the place has thrived. It's a bit pricey for my tastes but they do fine without me, a romatic place to eat al fresco and know you are in a classic Key West eatery. Mango pancakes, when on the menu should not be missed even at something crazy like fifteen bucks. The coffee, priced separately, is too strong and bitter for me but that's me, weak and watery. I like coffee that tastes like tea! On the subject of weak and watery check out this soup take out:

Finally it seems proper Vietnamese food has arrived in Key West. And when I say proper I mean the US version of noodle soup that has grown in popularity by leaps and bounds recently across the US. There is one place on Southard Street that has failed to enchant me, frankly. It's been a while since I went to Kojin and I found it over priced and not inspiring. Blue Heaven is, by contrast, expensive but inspired to my way of eating even though they are two completely different kitchens.

On the Vietnamese front: Sister Noodle House struck me when I walked in, as being as close to a street noodle stand as the health department would allow.  It's family run in the style of a cheap and cheerful Chinese eatery, not designed as haute cuisine or a romantic rendez vous. I was buying food to go so that suited me just fine. Dinner for two filled the front seat of the Fusion and attracted Cheyenne's interest.

Sister Noodle House is not downtown and is thus not seeking the tourist trade. It's an undistinguished store front in an unremarkable strip mall that goes by the name of Conch Plaza and is anchored by Gordon Food Service, the closest Key West gets to a warehouse type store.  That puts this eatery two miles or more from Duval Street, but I know it has already generated a fair bit of interest among locals. When I placed my order for two soups I asked if they were related to Tong's Garden, my preferred Chinese eatery and they smiled. How did I know? Key West is a small place and the word is out...Apparently this is a new venture by family members branching out. Good for them.

I bought two small soups, pho pronounced pha we are told, as the word is derived from the French "pot au feu" as the original broth is believed by some authorities to have been developed from recipes taken to Vietnam during the French Colonial era. Luckily for us the authors of this deliciousness are patient and asking for pho will get you excellent pha. And get this, with two ten dollar soups we made two meals for my wife and I. Inexpensive, filling and delicious. 

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Key West Cemetery

The problem with the Key West  Cemetery is that its so picturesque you can hardly move there without tripping over a picture. Including of course the iconic monument to the sinking of the USS Maine... 

...the event in Havana harbor that at the time was viewed as sabotage and an invitation to war.  Key West took care of the sailors wounded in the coal explosion and buried some members of the crew in the city's cemetery.  From the Key West City website:

The U.S.S. Maine Monument - On February 15, 1898, the U.S.S. Maine blew up in Havana Harbor, killing some 260 American sailors, a disaster that led to the U.S. declaring war on Spain. Two dozen of those dead are buried on either side of the central copper statue. Also in the plot are other Spanish-American War veterans, Civil War era markers, and veterans of other wars including two British airmen, a Brazilian sailor, a woman, and a baby. The iron fence and gates were manufactured by a foundry in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Navy maintains the plot. 

The inquiry into the explosion was also held in Key West even as the US invaded Cuba to liberate the island from Spain (remember the Monroe Doctrine!) and took over Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines as a precaution. 

I was greatly impressed to see a traditional Armistice Day Poppy planted at the two foreign graves, airmen who died in the 20th century and were buried here.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

One cannot help but wonder what kind of stewards we have been of those principles espoused by President Lincoln at Gettysburg considering the monstrous corporate expense of the last election, a modest mid term, with relatively little legislator turn over and a pathetically small voter turn out.

Mario Sanchez, Key West's most renowned folk artist has a freshly refurbished marker with his iconic signature embossed on it, as well as his own commentary on his art celebrating daily life in early 20th century Key West: I know my art isn't great but people like it, right?

And then there are the Cuban martyrs, honored by the exiles in Florida for their struggle to free Cuba (from Spain) and honored in Cuba for their struggles also (against foreign Fascism). 

 Scattered throughout are the markers of a different era,

 ...a different struggle, now relegated to history.

In Key West's own burial style.

And outside the gates the daily search for meaning as fascinating as that found inside the gates. Key West chickens, always a source of wonderment observed on the street. Life goes on in a tourist  town.

"...and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions."

Armistice Day

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One in Europe, and the 96th anniversary of what used to be called Armistice Day, the day the guns fell silent after four years of slaughter in  fighting conditions unbearable to modern eyes. Soldiers fought in the dirt under fire, with the constant fear of gas, high explosive or physical attack and their terms of service lasted until they were killed, invalided out with horrible wounds, or the war ended. It was out of this savagery that some great poetry emerged. 

This BBC  article offers a fascinating, if mild, view of life was lived in  the trenches in this four years.(Link)

Perhaps people were made of sterner stuff but I don't think trench life was a picnic in 1914-1918. When it rained the trenches turned to mud holes, when it snowed soldiers froze, when it was sunny they lived in dust holes. Every gallon of water had to be carried to the front lines, food was not so great, and the constant stress of the fear of being killed or injured never left you. Your feet rotted from trench foot, wounds went septic as antibiotics had yet to be invented and anesthesia was not a very refined art at all when it was available. I read an eyewitness account of life in the trenches decades ago so vivid it never left me. Now it's offered free on Amazon: Between The Lines Link. If the dialect is sometimes too thick I can at least advise the book is free!

I grew up in the shadow of World War Two and have seen the 20th century conflicts in the arena of television. I have found myself in the middle of armed conflict, as a reporter, and have found myself not liking it at all. To feel alive I'd rather be riding a motorcycle than to be shot at, even without effect to paraphrase Winston Churchill. However the awfulness of World War One, particularly on the Western Front has remained impressed on me, above all other wars of the 20th century. None of them were nice, this one was the worst, inasmuch as an observer through time can gauge these things. Battlefield stress was treated as cowardice and cowards were shot, not treated. And after the war millions died from the Spanish Flu which further wrecked the chance at delayed happiness for millions more. And now, none are left who lived it.

This past weekend was Remembrance Sunday across much of the English speaking world, a time in Britain and the Commonwealth when people buy paper poppies in support of veterans' causes, the poppies a symbol of the flowers found in the fields of Flanders where the trenches were dug. Symbolic too of the blood that flowed. November the Eleventh is known as poppy day.

 

The Armistice it was agreed would end the war at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, a  stupidly  protracted agreement that was supposed to give both sides time to lay down their arms. In the event it allowed a couple more days of killing as the slaughter continued until that very moment. Canadian George Price was killed two minutes before eleven o'clock that morning after serving throughout the last year of the war. Better known  poet Wilfred Owen was shot and killed on November 4th, a week before the Armistice took effect. He had a rather ironic take on the idea that it is right and proper to die for one's country.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Fort Zachary Taylor

The weather forecasters talk blithely about the folks Up North being caught in a giant deep freeze this week. We are battening down for temperatures to drop below local freezing, which is estimate din Key West around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Last week the beach at Fort Zachary (Link) was in the mid 80s as it will be again soon enough.

I took Cheyenne for a walk as we hadn't been there in a  while.

We wandered under the casuarina trees, known locally as Australian pines, an invasive species much prized locally for their rugged ability to grow anywhere and give shade. The ability to grow anywhere and reproduce by shooting roots underground give some people who prefer local fauna the hives of anxiety. A plan  years ago to replace this robust shade with new  plantings of local vegetation got people so riled it was scrapped over the desires of the State Parks Headquarters which has such a policy in place. 

Even with the beach closed to Cheyenne we had lots to see with trails to walk and open space to wander.

We followed her nose for an hour and we never did get to the fort itself, the hardwood hammock next to the moat, or the open space at the north of the park where typically Sculpture Key West exhibits it's art work in the Spring. 

It was the wrong time of day to get a sandwich and a soda at the Cafe Cayo Hueso, and because I am an 80/80/80 type of pansy I rarely go swimming in November, so I had no need to rinse off.

 Cheyenne liked the puddle of fresh water and sat in it for a while, idly drinking her bathwater.

 80/80/80 is a designation on the tropical scale I learned while sailing the Caribbean.

It means you like 80 degree air temperature, 80 percent humidity and 80 degree water temperature minimum. That would be ideal, and we get close enough much of the year. If that doesn't work for you, try yoga: 

 I enjoy the woods at Fort Zachary Taylor but mostly one comes for the beaches and the views.

The park closes at sunset so this isn't entirely satisfactory as a spot to rival Mallory Square (some people like the White Street Pier for sunrise and sunset). But the daytime views to the west are quite beautiful across the entrance to Key West harbor. The boat below is heading south, out of Key West.

You don't even have to take your clothes off to enjoy the fort. Which, after fantasy Fest is a bit of a relief actually.

Enjoy the snow wherever you are. We are supposed to see a slight dip tonight to 69 and a rather more pronounced front in a week or so.  Otherwise its business as usual at Fort Zachary Taylor, southernmost state park.

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Walmart In The News

From October 31st 2011:

Walmart On Rockland

Among the 23 comments there is, as usual, a fair bit of irritation at me, mixed in with misinformation and wrong headed reading of what I wrote. But as it turns out the newspaper wrote a story three days ago on the same subject, with all interviewed parties being very coy about whether or not Walmart really is applying for planning permission for the proposed mall to be built at the former porn shop on Rockland Key, just south of Big Coppitt, at MM9. The sense I get is that Walmart really is working on it, though whether or not they get there remains to be seen.

There are two schools of thought (at least!) on the subject, as far as I can hear. One is the white middle class moneyed approach that I share even though I can't be said to be moneyed, which is that Walmart is bad for workers and the planet and makes for a dismal shopping experience therefore keep them away. Q.E.D.

However the second school of thought which tends to be underwritten by lifelong residents of the Lower Keys is that its about time locals got a chance to shop and save money by having a Walmart closer than Homestead.  And it is possible to empathize with this position. For me its no big deal to drive to Miami but for some people 150 minutes in the car is agony, and driving Highway One is purgatory. 

Because the second group tends to belong to the leadership class in the Conch Republic I suspect that if Walmart wants to set up shop here they will get a swift green light.