It’s Not Taking a Chance on Chance…..

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Okay, I was interrupted in writing this post and I can’t resist a good pun. We, as in the Homestead Center for the Arts (HCA), put together a special committee to work on an exciting project. They’ve been working very hard and it’s time to share the news. This is the centennial for the National Parks System and with Homestead being the Gateway to the famous Everglades and the less well-known Biscayne Park, we have a special relationship with them. For those who may not have been there, Biscayne Park is mostly underwater, but sitting on the boardwalk with a cup of coffee and watching the sun rise is a great view for we morning people. Anyway, there are obviously a lot of different things being done to celebrate the Centennial and based on a recommendation from one of our favorite park rangers, HCA has booked the ensemble Chance to perform Friday, Oct 21st at the Seminole Theater. Chance has played in many National Park settings, internationally, and on public television and radio. Their music is categorized as Urban Chamber, but think Celtic crossed with folk and a dash of country mixed in. They pay special tribute to John Muir, who is more well-known for his work with the Western parks.

Concert tickets are $35 each and went on sale last week. There will be a limited seating cocktail party before the concert also for $35, but there will be an opportunity to speak with the group after the concert as well. It’s going to be a wonderful evening and I would urge everyone to go ahead and book their tickets as soon as possible. You can go to either the HCA website or Seminole Theater. http://homesteadcenterforthearts.com and http://www.seminoletheatre.org or if you want to hear the details about the group, their website is http://www.chanceworld.com

If you have friends or family who come seasonally or visit occasionally, I recommend you talk to them about coming in time to share this experience.

A Little Tardy…..

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I intended to post yesterday and time slipped away amid multiple events and errands, not to mention getting soaked in a thunderstorm. In general, unless there is a serious weather system hanging over us, summer thunderstorms blow through in as little as ten minutes and it’s not at all unusual to be staring through the glaring sun as your windshield wipers are on full power. Or you cross three blocks down out of the pounding rain onto totally dry pavement because “isolated” means contained in a small radius. Yesterday was the exception. Two girlfriends and I are pretty good about making time for lunch once a month and yesterday we met at Ram’s Diner in Naranja (I think I’ve posted about Ram’s before). I had to make a run by the grocery store and fill the car before we left for an event in Key Largo that evening. I made my farewells a little early, noticing the clouds had become more threatening. Okay, maybe I could make it into the store. Nope – didn’t happen. It was obvious the rain wasn’t going to let up quickly, so fine, protect at least my head and cell phone clipped to my waist with the umbrella and not worry about from my knees on down. I didn’t need more than a few items and if the normal pattern worked, the rain would be either gone or much lighter as I checked out. Wrong again.

The driving rain and now standing water in the parking lot weren’t going to slacken and I simply didn’t have time to wait it out. I had decided not to stop for gas even though the tank area did have cover over it. My leather sandals were completely soaked as were my lower pants legs and somehow in juggling the grocery bags and umbrella, I managed to get part of my shirt wet. The relatively short trip home was pretty slow as the torrents hit the windshield and standing water geysered up when you drove through it. Forked lightening splitting the clouds was added to the mix. Once in the house, I gingerly tiptoed across the floors to remove my wet shoes, then stripped out of partially soaked clothes and into my robe. Shoes onto the window sill and clothes draped on a chair, I was glad to see we hadn’t lost power. It was almost another 30 minutes before the storm abated and then we had the typical South Florida clearing where the sun burst out and the heat sucked all but the deeper standing water right out of the hard surfaces. By the time I dashed back out to gas up the car, there wasn’t a trace of gray cloud left in the sky. Ah well, summer is our rainy season.

 

 

Even More Fun Than I Expected…..

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In promoting the Seminole Theater (http://seminoletheatre.org), we have mostly attended concerts, although I would have liked to have been in town when the What If Works one-act plays were performed. (Check out WIW as an affiliate member of http://homesteadcenterforthearts.com)

Anyway, the terrific Seminole Director was contacted by a member of the WLRN Radio Theater organization a few months ago about having a SciFi Summer after the regular season ended. Like many people, I wasn’t aware the Public Broadcasting WLRN had a Radio Theater component and I’ll get to that part later in the post. Although I never heard the radio drama, War of the Worlds, I had heard my grandparents and parents talk about it. The way the presentation at the Seminole was described was intriguing in that the “broadcast booth” would be on-stage and as the audience, we would be seeing inside as the historic broadcast took place. In reality, it was a bit different, and indeed even more fun than I expected.

The director came on stage to explain the concept and urged everyone to stay for a bit after the performance when they would elaborate about the production and take questions. The script they were using was the original with the customization of changing the location to Florida instead of NJ as written by Orson Wells. The marvelous sounds effects expert, absolutely vital to radio theater, not only had his array of equipment, he had cue cards for the audience. We were to be prompted with “Applause, Crowd Noise, and Scream.” The lights dimmed and we were all set for a thoroughly entertaining evening. Another slight variation was the actors did have some movements and costume additions to allow for visuals for the audience which of course wasn’t necessary back in the day of radio theater when no audience was present.

During the post-performance session, we learned the company has revived many radio dramas and adapted numerous movie/play scripts to the format. I knew the second part of SciFi Summer was to be Plan Nine From Outer Space (called the worst movie ever made). I had told Hubby I wasn’t going even though he said he wanted to. I will now be buying tickets for us both because I am a total convert and look forward to any future events with WLRN Radio Theater at the Seminole.

 

Supporting New Small Businesses….

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A tiny sigh because I had set aside to go diving yesterday, but the weather wasn’t as cooperative as I would have liked. (Okay, I was wimpier about it than I probably should have been). Setting that aside, we made sure there were umbrellas in the car and did this terrific loop down to Islamorada and back. First stop (after really slow traffic) was Olive Morada that I’ve posted about before. If you haven’t been yet, make the trip. We’ve purchased most the different flavored oils by this point and added the new Chipolte one this time. Oh, and the smoked onion mustard is terrific.

We then came back up to have lunch at M.E.A.T, the subject of another of my posts, and it was delicious as always. By the way, they now bottle and sell their homemade mango catsup. All right, the other objective for the day was to stop into a very new place called Corks and Curds in Key Largo, oceanside at the blinking light (99201 Overseas Highway). Jill and Mike Atwell have a lovely shop and I would urge everyone who can to give them a visit. In chatting with Jill, they’ve consulted in a couple of other places about such ventures and as she said, “Our goal is to turn passion into profit.” They are especially attuned to having reasonably priced wines that aren’t well-known among the more expensive varieties they offer. The carefully considered cheese and sausage collection is the kind you find at places like Whole Food and the Valencia fried almonds are a real treat. There are other selected items, too, but you get the idea. You no longer have to make the trek up to Pinecrest, etc., to add a few gourmet touches to your table. They don’t have a website up yet, but the telephone number is 305 451-0995 and you can email them corksandcurds@gmail.com

 

An Interesting Coincidence……

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“Okay, why would someone who is assigned to Hawaii come to Key Largo to get their scuba certification?” When Hubby is notified about an upcoming class, he’s provided as much background as is available, but in some cases, that isn’t much. In some cases, details get a bit mixed up, and when he was told there were some Navy guys from Hawaii he would be doing an Open Water Certification for, that seemed odd. Open Water is the basic step in certification and there are dive shops all over Hawaii. However, once he learned the situation, it not only made sense; it is a particularly cool  story because of a professional connection.

For starters, the individuals are in Key Largo to receive critical training for something else and the timing was right for them to dovetail scuba classes with that training. Okay, sure. The professional reason they’re taking scuba is because they are members of a unit called Joint Task Force Full Accounting. This isn’t a well-known unit in general, but they do make the news periodically. When you read or hear a story about the long lost remains of American military being located and returned home, in all likelihood, JTF Full Accounting is involved. Their mission is to follow every lead and physically go around the world investigating missing service members and recovering the remains whenever possible.

Their capability is fascinating and while military personnel of all services (that’s the Joint part) rotate through the unit, there are civilian experts who have been there for years. They are forensics and other experts such as in military equipment. Based on their experience, they can take scraps of metal or pieces of fabric and determine what type of aircraft or uniform the items came from. The teams from JTF have been up in mountains, deep in jungles, and in tiny villages where planes might have crashed or wounded servicemen might have died and been hastily buried. As technology advances and more places in the world are accessed, there are increasing discoveries of information about missing military personnel. Being scuba certified comes in since some of those missing includes personnel who perished underwater.

Neither Hubby nor I have been personally involved in a recovery, but a good friend of ours was with JTF Full Accounting while we were in Hawaii and we had the opportunity to learn details about their work. For some families, they vaguely knew where a member was lost, but the resources to pinpoint and bring the individual home did not exist at the time. For them, even decades after the loss, to have that loved one honorably returned to them is incredibly important.

Happy Bastille Day……

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With everything that’s been going on, I wasn’t paying attention to the fact today is Bastille Day. We usually celebrate and under the circumstances, I just can’t pull together the really fancy meal. That would be beef tournedos with peppercorn sauce, potatoes dauphinois, haritcots vert, and tart tartin (or chocolate mousse made from scratch). Tonight’s menu will be the less intense modern version of coq au vin although I did get bacon to render, shallots, and I am using bone-in, skin-on chicken. What I am not doing is cutting up a whole chicken, finding lardons, and making a bouquet garni. I also confess to having bought chocolate mousse cups from Jello, but I did look in the dessert freezer section just in case there were some authentic ones there.

Anyway, this gets us close enough. In actuality, the way we started celebrating Bastille Day was many years ago the first summer we were together. The wonderful Baltimore Aquarium did a Bastille Day sunset harbor cruise and we were able to enjoy that two years in a row. Although we’ve missed a few years because of schedules, we’ve been able to celebrate properly most of the time. I don’t actually think there’s any French ancestry on Hubby’s side of the family and I don’t recall where it is on mine. I’ll have to check that out again one of these days. I know there was someone on my paternal side and it might be maternal as well.

Interesting Entrepreneurship……

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Somewhat “dark humor” alert. It isn’t really, but some might take it in that vein. I’ve been involved in a couple of different programs that focus on entrepreneurs and the various pitfalls of trying to start a new business. For every idea that catches on, there are many that either don’t get off the ground or splutter soon after launch. The TV show Shark Tank and however many variations there are of it have certainly shed light on the process. One path to success is of course to see a need for something that others do not necessarily see and take action. I’m on my way back to Florida and I saw a great example of such a niche yesterday. My stepmother passed away last Wednesday and the funeral was Saturday. In yesterday’s mail (Monday), my dad received a letter from a company whose name I paid no attention to since I wasn’t the one who opened the envelop. Inside was a complimentary laminated copy of my stepmother’s obituary with instructions about how to order additional copies. One of my stepsisters immediately said, “Oh yes, we got that after Daddy died (and that’s been quite some time ago), and we ordered some.”

It makes perfect sense. Newspaper paper does not hold up well over the years as anyone who has handled fragile articles knows. A laminated copy will endure for a very long time. I have no idea who first came up with this approach, but think for a moment about the fact that the letter was quite possibly mailed on the Friday and certainly not later than the Saturday before Monday arrival. That means the obituary was noted, the product created and mailed within around 24-36 hours in all probability. It does provide a practical service and while I have no intention of doing any research to discover how well the company performs, it is about as entrepreneurial as one can be.

The Day Does Come…..

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Serious content alert. Yesterday was a long day as I flew to Louisiana after getting word a few days ago of my stepmother’s passing. The event was not unexpected, although there was thought it could be a bit in the future. The point to this post is something I’ve written about before. Once an individual goes into genuine decline, you don’t know what the timing will be.  Without being alarmist, that’s when we should figure out how to make a visit or strengthen contact as a “just in case”. One of the aspects of hospice is to provide that framework since entering into hospice essentially makes the announcement of, “I don’t know when, but I am accepting the approaching stage.” Although I say, “our culture tends to make discussing approaching death an uncomfortable subject”, I’m not certain other cultures do a better job of it.

The concept of “Celebration of Life” does make sense and most people embrace that now, for that is what we hope family and friends can remember of an individual who is departed. I don’t know which culture is responsible for the old questions  of, “Did you find joy in life and did you give joy?” as a measure, but it is a good one to keep in mind.

Painting Parties…

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I don’t know who came up with the idea of “Painting Parties” or even where it really got started, but it does appear to be a trend. It’s especially nice to see that the two great ladies of Art for Good seem to be doing well with them. Let me explain a bit if you’re not familiar with either. I’ve posted about Art for Good (https://www.artforgoodusa.org) previously and yes, they are an Affiliate Member of Homestead Center for the Arts. Suzanne Moe and Marcela Noriega are truly awesome women and to quote from their website, “Here at Art For Good we believe art can help integrate community, build self-esteem and promote mutual respect. We recognize art and creative thinking as valuable tools to find solutions to social problems in our community and to benefit society.

We invite and inspire people to be agents of positive change by staging fun art events and activities which bring community together for the common good. These events help raise awareness and funds for Art For Good projects and programs.”

Of course they accept straight out donations, but their Paint Parties are growing in popularity and they fall into the category of being what I call a, “Fundraiser with the emphasis on Fun“. The concept is remarkably simple and the party is usually held in a place where wine (or your preferred beverage) can flow along with the paint and laughter. You start with a blank canvas and an image to work toward. You don’t need to have ever held a paintbrush to be part of the fun and you might surprise yourself as Suzanne and Marcela give you pointers. They hold private and public events and three public ones are scheduled for 6, 19, and 21 July. The price is around $30 per person, but that varies depending on what food and drink are included. Pop onto their website for details.

If you’re looking for something interesting for the summer, I highly recommend checking  this option out.

It Should Be Fun….

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I have of course posted about how thrilled we are to have the Seminole Theater open again and some of the events we’ve attended there. (http://seminoletheatre.org) The regular season has concluded, but there are several events during the summer and more will be added as they become available. Not long ago, a representative from WLRN Radio Theater contacted the on-site manager. I’ll admit I didn’t know there was such a thing, but there is, and the gentleman was excited about the Seminole being open. So, on July 22d, War of the Worlds will be presented. From what I understand, the stage will be the “broadcast station” that is doing the original broadcast from 1938. As the audience, we will be seeing into the radio station. I’m not sure how much lead-in and close-out there will be on either end of the broadcast, but it ought to be a fun evening. It is another 8-9:30 p.m. show and we’ll plan to either have appetizers somewhere before and dine late or eat before hand if we can make the timing fit. It will all depend on whether Hubby has afternoon boat that day. While it’s possible he might be off, this is peak dive season and it isn’t likely he won’t be working.

The are also doing Plan Nine From Outer Space in August, but we have no interest in that one. And speaking of no interest – Rocky Horror Picture Show (stage version) will be on-stage in October. I know I may be one of the few of my generation who has never seen it, but it’s true, and I don’t intend to change that. Hubby may go without me though and that’s fine – we do that sometimes.