Adorable — Faith, the dog

Last night, I watched my little niece Ava working on her first steps. She was pushing this little walker all around the hallways. I could not stop laughing. She looked so cute and silly. So, it won’t be long now before she’s up on her own two feet. Cute. The video below shows a two-legged dog called Faith getting around on its hind legs. I watched it four times before my laughter subsided, so I figured it was worth posting here.

I want a dog!!! Gratuitous Bodhi shot!

OK, I am off to the beach to watch the blue moon rise with my mom. SoFLA? So fun!

Happy New Decade

The last decade of my life has been an adventure that hasn’t unfolded in the way that I expected it would when I was a 20-year-old college student watching the century turn over while hanging out with friends, most of them now engaged or married, who wanted nothing more than to find a stranger to kiss at midnight. Can you see my eyes rolling? The weird thing is that when I was 20 I really did expect that my life would follow along one of a few courses that I had in mind. None of them entailed living in South Florida. One of them saw me living in New York and working at a publishing house or magazine. Cocktail parties and book shelves spilling over with dogeared tomes (the show “Hoarders” terrifies me) were part of that vision. I did not enjoy New York when I lived there after graduation. Another vision saw me living in Paris, same parties, same books, just a slower pace of life. When I lived in Paris, I was homesick something awful. These circumstances, I believe, were possible for me the same way that the life anyone envisions is possible for him or her, but they were not my life.

Same thing three years ago when I moved to Los Angeles. I woke up almost every day and asked myself, “What am I doing here? Seriously where am I?” The imagination presents many possible selves, but there’s really not time, for me, to attempt to live out all potential identities. From the day I arrived at college, not in Florida, I was greeted with a world full of exciting and intelligent people with whom I could not identify. Getting “it” as I saw “it” was not their strong point. I thank providence for endowing me with the inclination to wander and explore, but I am truly grateful that it always leads me home to South Florida. The last year and a half of my life has been, by far, the most enjoyable. I could easily do without 80% of the culture on the southern tip of this peninsula — from tacky sports cars to vodka happy hours to dance floors that come to life when the DJ spins “Brick House” — but the other 20% of the wonderful people who compose my group of friends and acquaintances really keep my dance card full. They get “it”. It is enough for me. I can contentedly live my life within that little pocket of 20%. I am truly happy to be ringing in the decade right here in SoFla. Thanks to everyone for being exactly as you are, my touchstones.

Also, thank you to all of the remarkable bands and venues that have made wandering and blogging this year a real adventure. Poor House, Propaganda, The Bubble, Alligator Alley, The Dive Bar, Radioactive Records are amazing. And to the best bands ever, who demonstrate the vitality of S. FLa live music ,thanks for keeping me entertained. The Freakin’ Hott, Stonefox, Zombies Organize!!, The Pretty Faces, Quiet River, Dooms De Pop, Sweet Bronco, John Ralston (Invisible People and Invisible Music), Ketchy Shuby, The Methodaires, Surfer Blood, Murderous Rampage, Alex Nelson, Fusik, Retrocities. Ana, Misha, Jeremy, Erica, thanks for being suckers and reading my blog.

All that being said, I have no idea what I’m doing tonight!!!!!Agghhh!!!!!!!!!! Poor house???

Last Weekend Brent Indeed Bday show with John Ralston, Freakin’, Zombies, Timb. Then, Samba Lounge

Two Saturday nights ago, SB and I went to Brent Indeed’s birthday party at Propaganda to see Brent Indeed (who rarely plays out, so it was definitely a treat), John Ralston and a very curious and entertaining hybrid of TIMB, The Freakin’ Hott and Zombies Organize play. What’s with the supergroups popping up around town these days? I like it, and I want more. First, John Ralston added two members of Blackfinger to his project and renamed it Invisible Music and now…now this slow-thighed (and many headed) beast has slouched toward Propaganda to be born. It calls itself “D*ckknuckle”, and many other obscenity-filled nicknames, and it is well worth seeing. The group performed three songs from each of the three bands from which it was composed. Good times. Really want to see Dknuckle rear its head again, hopefully at Poor House. John Ralston’s set was also amazing! He had Jon Wilkins, fresh from a European tour with The Postmarks, pop up to play drums with him on two songs.
On Sunday night, we went to Samba Room for the Samba Lounge party put on by local DJs Adam Foster and Esoteric. They play funky indie jazzy poppy mixes of current stuff that you can dance to or relax to or tune out while you converse. I’m not a huge Las Olas person (though most of them are tiny), but I have to say that I was surprised by how much I enjoyed myself at this event. It was so relaxing to sit outside on Las Olas late on a Sunday evening after it has been abandoned by the faux high brow riff raff that calls it home during reasonable hours. I like this event because it’s perfect whether you’ve had an active weekend, and want to pop out for one more quick social experience, or not, and you want to squeeze in a little face-to-face time with cool people. I will do this again. Chris and I bumped into our friend Evan (of Catalonia), for example, and he showed us many of the floor-clearing dance moves for which he has become well known in certain circles of South Florida nightlife.

Tonight — What We’re Gonna Do…

Pretty sure Sweet Bronco and I are going to go to check out Ketchy Shuby and Fusik at Dive Bar. Ketchy Ketchy, Shuby Shuby. That show starts pretty soon! Sweet Bronco is bummed that he didn’t go surfing today. Poor guy. ;( The waves did look nice, but I won’t tell him about the tubes that I saw out there when I drove by the beach.

Coffee. Saturday. Moodvane Wakes Up From a Two Week Sleep. Good Afternoon.

Well, that was quite the extended vacation from Moodvane that I just took. I couldn’t find my pictures from the Zombies Organize show for the longest time, but check out Magnificent Mary below. Drama from every pore.

Sweet Bronco swears that he put them on my computer, so I’m going to take three minutes to do my 18th search. It is a crime against the virtue of beauty itself not to publish images of these glamorous local rap rockstars. Plus, it must be documented that they put on such an amazing show. PHOTO GALLERY FOR ZOMBIE ORGANIZE/SWEET BRONCO AT DADA IS FINALLY UP!

Tonight, Sweet Bronco and I are going to try to do it all. First, we’re gonna go to Colee Hammock Park to check out the Fort Lauderdale Winterfest Boat Parade. Then, we’re going to pop over to IWAN to catch a set or two. Trav is partnering with IWAN to put on a show on Saturday night for his birthday and The Bubble’s opening for the winter season. Bands that will play include the following: Catalonia, Trav, Amy Shaw, Manifest Test Subject and Brady Newbill.Then, we’re going to head up to Lake Worth to attend Brent Indeed’s band-filled birthday party at Propaganda. It would be hard for any live music show in South Florida to compete with the line-up that we’re going to check out tonight: Brent Indeed, Zombies Organize, The Freakin’ Hott, TIMB and John Ralston, whoa. I see that it’s Steev’s birthday too. Who knew that all of these Sags were going to surface this year? Guess who else is a Sag? SB.

It looks like Sweet Bronco (the man whom I will probably have to start referring to as just plain old Chris) and I will spend the next three Saturday nights at Propaganda. Surfer Blood is back in town to play a show next weekend, on Saturday the 19th, and Sweet Bronco (the band) will take the stage the following Saturday with The Pretty Faces, A Hunter’s Pace (featuring Paul from Quiet River), and Retrocities.

If tonight weren’t the most show-filled night ever, I would definitely go to A Christmas Ghost at Culture Room. Local DJs (12 of them, including Sean Weeks, Sweet Swirl and Esoteric) and 4 local bands (Astari Night, Daehite-ae, Rebel and Leading the Heroes) will entertain.  I long to hang out at Culture Room on a non-concert night, so I would love to see venue all decked out for a local holiday show. If we’re not completely exhausted by all of our running around, we might try to pop in at the end of the night. Good luck, Court!