Upside Down World

I think my graduation today has tilted the axis of the world slightly. Check this out (from Bloomberg). The Dow Jones is currently over 8500, and at the same time:
New US unemployed last month were officially at 539,000 ("better than expected"):
Ford begs loans from the Dept of Energy, that's Ford of "we don't need no stinkin' loans " fame:
The stress tested banks officially need "only" 75 gazillion more to continue as zombies:
Pakistan is officially immolating itself one last time against the Taliban in the Swat Valley:
Umm, what would the Stock Market do on a good news day?

Seen On Lower Duval

It was long overdue I thought, an essay even more than usually about nothing in particular. I could have called it a vignette but the unifying theme was me hanging around Lower Duval and neighboring alleys one sunny afternoon with nothing much to do. So I took some pictures of course.I have never found Duval Street to be especially photogenic, and every time I try to take a street scene it ends up looking rather blah. So I turned my camera on things and people closer to hand. Hog's Breath yielded a couple of stereotypes,two riders of BMW motorbikes who were somewhat overdressed by local standards. Helmets, gloves, jackets...phew!This cool cat is more like it, with it seems, skin to spare in case of a wreck:He was also playing loud music as though he thought he was riding a cruiser, and I don't suppose it would be surprising were I to confess loud speakers are second only to loud pipes in the noise pollution stakes. Grump. There, that's better. Strolling Duval you never know what you might see. A man balancing a sidecar on his Vespa 150, for instance:As you can tell I barely caught the picture, such as it is, and I missed entirely his dutiful wife following along behind on her yellow Vespa. Very cute I'm sure. This dude collects money for parking and doesn't he look like he's been sitting under the sub tropic sun for quite a while:And this man was not apparently getting the information he needed so he glued a phone to his ear:For some this is all they need on Duval Street,or indeed Key West as a whole:Which prompted me to photograph a store advertising "Fine" Silver Jewelry, and if that wasn't inducement enough to enter they had this sign up as well:Elsewhere look for the mannequin if you are an energetic shopper:Or an Adirondack chair if not so much:Dogs are welcome in Key West more than many cities though the Health Department has stepped up enforcement as far as dogs in eating establishments goes and generally they aren't welcome inside. They show up on Duval nevertheless:And then there are those working scooters, frequently Chinese made, that give sterling service yet are so often the object of scorn from people who ride flash Italian scooters. I like my (wife's) Vespa but scooters like these are the back bone of Key West's rental fleets and they are abused day in and day out:And on the subject of food... you know those little rolled up napkins with cutlery in them? Someone has to do that rolling up every day, like this worker at the Lazy Gecko:And even though it may not look it, I'm sure working the bar at Captain Tony's ("Florida's Oldest Bar") has to be hard work. He's the one leaning up against it, not the dude with the back pack who is I think a customer and was probably hoping his mom didn't know where he was:Perhaps it's the not-so shorts, they are youth enhancing. I should take notes I suppose for my wardrobe. And what would Duval be without it's energetic cyclists?On the subject of bicycles i saw this rather trim cruiser propped up against the wall. Then I saw the No Trespassing sign and then I thought how valuable that sign is. I was just about to consider trespassing up that manky moldy looking wall on Telegraph Lane, but I was saved by the presence of that stern signage:I stayed on the street and mold free. Kino Plaza was around the corner and looking good in the sunlight:Sunlight there may have been, all over downtown, but not enough apparently for this spendthrift:By the time I was back on Greene Street I had time to wonder how lucky, or smart one might be to make a living selling kites and similar apparatus:And for the love of Art someone built this biplane, not for sale but decoration: Gotta go, I hear my wife calling, Duplicity's playing at the Tropic. Tour's over.

Clinton Square (or Place)

Clinton Square (or Place), almost on the waterfront in Key West, at 3:30 in the morning:

This little triangle, called Clinton Place in J Burke Wills' book Streets of Key West, is one of the first things a visitor will see once they step off a cruise ship docked at the Westin Pier B. Some of it is quite attractive, like the Mel Fisher museum parked behind my Bonneville:And the Clinton Square Market which is Key West's answer to modern indoor shopping malls:Wedged between those two great piles is the third brick building on the Square (or Place, though I've never heard it spoken of as such), which is the red Customs House, now a museum:Currently displaying a series of Seward Johnson's life sized trompe l'oeil (in a three dimensional sense) statuary, one of whom is seen here permanently photographing the actual bronze statue of Ernest Hemingway:On the other side of Clinton Square (or Place) are the t-shirt shops, without which no waterfront resort would feel complete. At least this lot wasn't showing off the usual penis jokes and hilarious fart one liners that plague Duval Street, though you'd think someone could pull out a paintbrush and perhaps some nails and spruce things up a bit. This is not enticing, plywood over the upstairs window speaks of dissolution and decay:Ah yes the "bar hopping Key West" t-shirt, without a doubt the ultimate fashion accessory. Personally I'd be just as happy to see the visitors reading the Historical Marker stuck in the apex of the triangular pocket park in the middle of the Square (or Place). The marker discusses the nearby home of Stephen Mallory whose claim to fame (outside Mallory Square) is that he was Secretary of the Confederate Navy,when there was such a thing. The monument itself, in the middle (as middle as it can be) of the triangle was erected to honor the military who died in service to their country, the US, not the Confederacy which never governed Key West thanks to the intervention of the garrison that prevented secession from taking root: If the park, such as it is, wasn't closed, it would be bulging with sleeping human forms. Perhaps my nose has lost it's sensitivity but the little park doesn't smell the least bit like a toilet as it did of old. The Square (or Place) is named in honor of a New York Mayor, a charmer called DeWitt Clinton, who according to Wills helped build the Erie Canal making New York connect to the interior of the country. Which helped it prosper apparently, though what that has to do with Key West I couldn't say. Then of course there is all the hubbub about pirates who aren't it seems to me historically affiliated with Key West at all. Pirates are a way to make money in the modern era of commercial trinket selling, but before the arrival of city builders in Key West there wasn't much here to entice pirates- no drinking water and no trees to repair wooden hulls and spars . Thus after the city got going so did the US Navy making the harbor a base for pirate hunting in the Straits of Florida.I can't imagine a booming trade in t-shirts depicting the strait laced Commodore Porter, so from a t-shirt shop's perspective, and from that of the bars and the Tourism council, far better be it to stress snazzily clad pirates and "wenches." Oh well, trade still goes on strong in Key West and prices sometimes seem to reflect the would-be piratical past. Booty brought by truck these days:

I have always found the excuse that prices are high because products have to be trucked down the Overseas highway to be rather lame in an age when food is shipped all over the world, just as are raw materials and finished trinkets. A 150 mile drive down a bunch of bridges seems a poor excuse for price gouging. Nevertheless I seem to have strayed rather far from the confines of Clinton Square (or Place) so it must be time to return to work. The lunch break is ended.

Salt Ponds

On May 28th 2008 I posted an essay on the Bridle Path, the strip of sandy roadway that parallels South Roosevelt Boulevard across from Smathers Beach, and the path is still there:

And the city signage is still there promising hellfire and brimstone to any forlorn soul daring to park, camp, drink or anything else (including "tresspass," sic) along this scenic strip:There was a time when tents popped up along the Bridle Path and people took to living in the mangroves, which prompted the city to declare the area, including the salt ponds behind the bushes, an area of critical environmental concern so they could force the campers off the land and restore South Roosevelt Boulevard to it's pristine state for motorists to enjoy an uninterrupted view of nature.
The unfortunate part of the story is that by prohibiting parking the city has discouraged people, vehicle dependent people, from stopping by and enjoying this natural wilderness.So I decided to break the trend by dropping a couple of quarters in the meter, and with an hour's safe parking, I went for an explore.Visitors tend to think that coconut palms are native to these islands but they aren't. They are well liked by many people because their traditional "palm of hand" shape denotes the exotic tropics and coconuts are wilderness survival food. But in fact sub tropical islands like the Keys and the Bahamian Out Islands are covered by scrubby little trees, torn bushes and mangroves. The buttonwoods and mangroves surrounding the salt ponds are typical of these limestone islands:I have the greatest difficulty telling apart black or white mangroves and buttonwoods, which all look much of a muchness to my anti-botanist's eye. White mangroves have yellowy-green leaves and little salt glands supposedly, while black mangroves are easier to identify because they sprout needles out of the ground called pneumatophores like these which feed air to the roots!While I started my walk by finding an elderly path through the bushes, I straightened up as I came into the more open canopy under the trees, and thought I was observing a dead man in an attitude of prayer: It was actually an empty, abandoned wet suit, and it was indicative of the general lack of care of the mangrove forest, for though there was a trash can on the Bridle Path humans seem to prefer to dump their trash:It seemed an especial shame to see my favorite brand of beer bottle nestled in the leaves. For all the litter the salt ponds are a pretty spot once you work your way out of sight of the road. Naturally the sounds of traffic can be heard over it all, but it is remarkably rural:The salt ponds are a remnant, even though they extend across a fair bit of acreage between the airport,...and Key West By The Sea condos:The salt ponds on other side of the island were filled in to make rail beds for Flagler's rail/ferry terminus at Trumbo Point. These ponds have suffered from being enclosed by development but the canal access across the island has been cleaned out in an effort to encourage tidal flow and the ponds themselves might well be a bird watcher's paradise, not that I would know. I just like the beauty:It has been a particularly dry Spring with very little rain and lots of dry south east winds. All of which has helped keep the mosquito population down, and the mud flats dry. Soon it will be rainy season again and the mud will disappear underneath the rain waters. The view to the north is much the same, looking towards Government Road and the houses along the Riviera Canal beyond that:I found a log to sit on, and get my feet out of the mud, which allowed me a happy ten minutes to admire the antics of the bait fish swarming in the shallows......which hard as I tried, only appeared in my camera as darting shadows:The view across the water was delightful, far from the proverbial crowds:A far cry from the bed races of Duval Street a mile away.