Limin' At Higgs Beach

We were hanging out at Higgs Beach, the county park embedded in the south shore of the City.

Coast Camp, a summer of fun, the poster promised. I am interested to check out the artistic space on Stock Island before too long.

 On Facebook I quoted the lines from Macbeth to accompany this picture of a walking shadow:

Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Salute, the Italian restaurant on the beach operated successfully by the owner of Blue heaven, not yet open for business:

 Summer thunderclouds building:

 Limin

hanging out or chillin,even partying 

(a word frequently used by trinidadians)

(Eg) we were limin on the corner 

we were hanging out on the corner 

(eg) i was limin with some friends 

i was hanging out with some friends 

(eg) me an my friends went out to lime last night 

me an my friends went out to party last night 

by trini boy January 09, 2009 

That Urban Dictionary definition defines most of the car occupants staring at the beach with glazed eyes:

 The dog park, after all the dogs have left for the morning, just how Cheyenne likes it.

 She is as anti-social as I am.

Good dog.

Cuba Inches Toward Change

Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama recommended Tuesday that Cuba be removed from the U.S. government's list of state sponsors of terrorism. Long sought by the Cuban government, Obama's decision, expected for weeks now, will likely expedite plans to re-establish embassies in both Washington and Havana.

In a brief message to notify Congress of his recommendation, Obama explained his action was based on specific criteria that warranted Cuba's removal from the list.

"The government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding six-month period; and the government of Cuba has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future," the President said in the message.

Exploring Cuba's old world charm10:17

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Obama's move drew criticism from Republican contenders in the 2016 presidential race.

"We're not a step closer to freedom in Cuba because of the steps the president is taking," former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters after an event in Ohio.

But Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said it's wise to remove Cuba because "that list ought to mean something," and that it could help diplomatic relations with Cuba.

"I know [Republicans] don't agree with me on this issue, but I think it was the right move to make and I'm glad the president did it," he said on CNN's "The Situation Room."

Cuba was placed on the state sponsors of terrorism list in 1982 when Havana was busy supporting armed insurgencies in Latin America, during the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Last December, Obama announced his intent to normalize relations with Cuba, insisting that previous U.S. efforts had failed to topple the governments of Fidel and Raul Castro through diplomatic isolation. Instead, the President argued a new approach of engagement was needed to ease tensions between Washington and Havana.

9 questions you wanted to ask about the Cuban embargo

Almost as soon as the new discussions began, however, Cuban officials complained their nation's placement on the list of state sponsors of terrorism was unfair and outdated.

Last week, the State Department recommended to Obama that Cuba be removed from the list, concluding Havana was no longer a sponsor of terrorist activities abroad.

"Circumstances have changed since 1982, when Cuba was originally designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism because of its efforts to promote armed revolution by forces in Latin America," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement on the President's decision.

"Our Hemisphere, and the world, look very different today than they did 33 years ago," Kerry added.

The most dramatic sign of the improved U.S.-Cuban relationship came last Saturday, whenObama and Raul Castro sat down for an hour long discussion on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in Panama. It was the first such meeting between U.S. and Cuban leaders since 1959.

Congress has 45 days to pass a joint resolution blocking the President's decision. But a senior administration official said it was unlikely lawmakers would be able muster the votes needed to override a presidential veto.

Obama and Castro meet, launch new era of U.S.-Cuba ties

Follow @CNNpolitics

And from Al Jazeera this commentary on the Internet in Cuba. Interesting stuff (that would drive me crazy!):

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/05/cuba-internet-cold-150525120242435.html

Rock Solid Key West

                           

The sun coming up on a few  Key West monuments. The San Carlos long a symbol of  the connection across the sea may get that status back one day. These days anything seems possible, even likely when it comes to Cuba.

              

The Strand was once a theater, now its just a lovely facade with a banal chain pharmacy inside. Oh well. Nothing possible there.

                                

Fausto's  Food Palace is a survivor in a world of conformity. Still there. LINK

                     

Churches everywhere.

                                   

Public laundries. Dog water water bowls too. Helpful institutions both.

                                

Flame trees burning orange to usher in summer.

               

The pineapple a symboil of welcome in Key West, now framing a godawful cheap ugly plastic Bugger Off sign. Irony and bad taste rolled into one. Keep Key West ugly.

                                

Pineapples were a Keys export on the railroad. Nowadays tropical fruit is standard everywhere but once it was an expensive thing to eat, a luxury. This vehicle has a Key West business on an out of state tag, thus not paying road taxes in the Sunshine  state. Thanks, but not exactly one human family.

                                  

Long shadows across what was once a  shrimp fleet harbor.

                                  

The view from Alonzo's into what is now a recreational harbor:

                     

Institutions come and go and new ones take their place. A short memory helps.

Bridge Sunrise

The color of sunrise, the land shaded in black the sky still dark blue and the sun promising a rapid and permanent change to the landscape at West Summerland Key.

            

The Old Bahia Honda Bridge is one of the more recognizable landmarks in the Lower Keys and yes, I still find it as photogenic as ever.

           

So I thought to myself I wonder what the textures would look like in monochrome (black and white).

            

I really like the "noir" setting on the iPhone camera as it gives sharp definition that suits the bright natural light of the sub tropics. Here the weathered chalk looked to my eyes like a lunar landscape.

                        

Even the mildest of cloud formations over the old pump house get a wildly mysterious and ghostly cast:

                  

The scene looks banal and pretty in color. 

                 

In black and white and even with Cheyenne, you'd have expect Orson Welles to come stumping into the scene. Which reminds me. its time to order the The Third Man disc  from Netflix.

                         

Great scenery standing on the shore.

                

A good walk.

                            

Keeping Key West Weird- A Meditation

                             

Picking up from my essay earlier this week on Cuba I saw that rather startling piece of art work. I think it was at the Gallery on Greene. It set the tone for my wanderings early in the morning. A man sleeping in the bus shelter on Caroline Street across from the Bull:

                             

The Blue Paper keeps stirring it up, even in the quieter season called Summer. They use oddly innovative bill board type news stands to promote their online paper:

                 

"Give the Gift of Fun" -  what a weird tagline for a product. What an odd place for an empty display box. 

                

I don't think much of cities that promote themselves with the tag "Keep So-and-So Weird/" I think by the time Portland or Taos or Boulder or Santa Cruz  has to invoke the activists to keep working to keep the place weird, the weird factor has already fled. 

                                 

I'm not sure how weird Key West really is. The stores aren't even that unique  and far too many are chains. The gay community, a bastion of weirdness in decades past is not only properly amalgamated in Key West, its also a shrinking community thanks to the silly cost of housing and besides being gay in America is hardly of itself, weird any more. High time of course, but still the mainstreaming of homosexuality has left a weirdness gap in the popular culture.

                   

I think Key West is pretty, especially when the sun is barely over the horizon. I think Key West and the Lower Keys still manage to offer a certain amount of what matters most to me, being allowed to live on my own terms. I can wear pink Crocs, I can ride a scooter and not raise any questions about my sanity even if I choose to commute 25 miles by said scooter. The fact that I am boringly mainstream in Key West pleases me. This past weekend when outsiders flooded the road I had to take to my motorcycle to avoid being run off the road. Idiots from Up North could not stand the idea of being followed by a faggoty scooter on the highway, an attitude I don;'t have to deal with normally and I found myself offended by the attempts to run me off the road. So I defended myself by riding my motorcycle and the harassment stopped. I had to modify my behavior to accommodate the youn g bucks from Miami. What a drag.

                     

Keep Key West weird, sure. When I grumble that I'd like it cleaner too, they grumble at me sating shabbiness is home to the off kilter. If that is the case I suppose I shall have to submit to the tyranny of filth.

The 100 block of Duval, abandoned, graffitti'ed, scrofulous paint peeling, chickens shitting, palms fading. Weird or not it sure is ugly and the city doesn't care. Now that's weird.

Home Sweet Home

                                         

Stock Island has its moments and its places. Above I saw a row of neatly parked covered jet skis. Wholesale jet skis. That struck me as slightly bizarre until I remembered they rent these things. Wholesale sales for fleets I suppose. Only on Stock Island. 

                                            

Then you have Oily's shop. My wife likes bringing her Fiat here as she grew up in California and Mike came to Key West from Santa Barbara, so they have that in common. Mike relives his youth with his muscle cars. Imagine cruising the other Highwsy One in those primary colored toys. And then there are the dreams of childhood still being created on Stock Island:

                                             

Mind you this is a place that makes no concessions to beauty. Joy is how you make it under the Christmas Tree of wires overhead:

                                             

Remember, dogs are only as bad as their owners make them.  People are bad, dogs don't rob pillage or murder. This one at least isn't trapped on a chain. Cheyenne ignored him of course. 

                                               

I loved this truck. "Runs good." I posted it on Facebook because it made me smile. The eternal hope of humanity. Runs good, ungrammatical, probably not true but always hopeful. 

                                                 

I also posted this picture of a dashboard ornament powered by solar energy. God forbid  we should be encouraged to power our homes with renewable energy. Dashboard ornaments?  No problem!

                                                  

Sanford is alive and well on Stock Island. This is a front yard, not normal but not a total outlier. This nightmare represents a messed up psyche to me! Perhaps it's just money in the piggy bank.

                                                 

A friend of mine bought a house on Stock Island. She is over the moon. It's affordable and means a secure future for her dogs no longer threatened by unsympathetic landlords. She and her fiancé and their three dogs are counting the days until they move in. Worker housing.

                                                 

Stock Island home to some, home to the people who make Key West work. Cool.