Category Archives: Miami

Better Hurry if You Want to See ‘Time Stands Still’ at the GableStage

Posted on May 26, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

One of the nicer things about living where I do is that there is a first-class regional theater less than 10 minutes away. If you live anywhere near Coral Gables and you don’t go regularly to GableStage, housed in an intimate space on the grounds of the Biltmore Hotel, you are missing out. It never ceases to amaze me when there are any empty seats – and it wasn’t quite a sellout at last night’s performance of Time Stands Still, a four-hander by Donald Margulies.

Joseph Adler, the play’s director and the general impresario of GableStage, is the Lebron James of regional theater – he’s so good that we risk getting spoiled. If Lebron scores only 26 points in a win, most fans don’t get excited. And there might be a similar risk with a very fine production like Time Stands Still which doesn’t quite reach the extraordinarily high standard set by this season’s earlier productions such as John Logan’s Red and Stephen Adly Gurgis’s The MotherF**ker with the Hat (which Terry Teachout said was better than Broadway’s version) but remains a very good night out at the theater. The run ends June 3rd so you don’t have many chances left to enjoy it.

This is a very solid production, lit up by a perfectly tuned performance by Betsy Graver as the seemingly gormless Mandy Bloom who, by the end of the play, may be the closest thing it has to a moral center – or maybe just a moral. Deborah Sherman is also very good as she inhabits Sarah Goodwin, the injured war photographer who is the story’s main protagonist. GableStage regular Gregg Weiner gets to play a lower-key role than has been his usual, Sarah’s friend and photo editor Richard Erlich, and as usual makes the most of what he’s got. Steven Garland has in some way the hardest job in this play as James Dodd, Sarah’s long-term boyfriend, and I still can’t decide what it was about him that made me wonder if he was quite right for the part; he has a certain softness that on the one hand works for someone shell-shocked, who wants some calm if not outright escapism, but on the other hand doesn’t seem to fit his backstory as a veteran war reporter. The dramatic engine in the story is the tension between James’s desire to settle down a bit and Sarah’s drive to overcome her injuries and get back on the horse of disaster journalism. We’re teased with hints of one work-related problem of James’s that turns out not to exist, and blindsided with another personal problem that the characters seem to work through, only to be confronted with something harder to compromise.

To the extent there is a fault in this production it is, I think, primarily in the script, which has some issues towards the end – yes, even if it got a Tony nomination on Broadway. While Sarah and Richard are re-working their relationship (against the backdrop of Mandy and Richard’s) the play examines the morality of doing ‘I am a camera’ journalism (rather than disaster relief), with a sideswipe at fluff journalism. Sarah’s flirtation with worry about her role as witness rather than helper seemed to me to be sudden and something out of character, although Ms. Sherman made the best of it that one could. And the very final scene, although completely believable, is nonetheless a bit abrupt.

But never mind. So Lebron didn’t score 40 points. It’s still a great thing to have a theater this good in our back yard.

Posted in Coral Gables, Kultcha | Comments Off on Better Hurry if You Want to See ‘Time Stands Still’ at the GableStage

First Robocall of the 2012 Political Season

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

Just got my first robocall of this political season. Joe Martinez’s voice, with decent sound quality, but still sounded a bit muddy.

Seems he wants me to know he’s running for Mayor of Miami-Dade County, that he’s against bureaucrats (is that the worst he can say about the incumbent?), against spending tax dollars and, most important, I should vote for him not because I believe in him, but because he believes in me.

B- at best, and only because the sound was fairly good. Then again, the ad may fairly reflect Martinez’s vacuous platform.

Posted in 2012 Election, Miami | Comments Off on First Robocall of the 2012 Political Season

Must-See Video for South Floridians

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

See what your neighboring wildlife is up to.

Hop over to Eye on Miami, Alligator vs. Python.

Perhaps not suited for the very squeamish. But what are the very squeamish doing in South Florida anyway?

Posted in Miami | 1 Comment

Geek Cool in Coral Gables? Who Knew?

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

Geeky and cool are not things I tend to associate with Coral Gables.

It is beautiful. It is relatively safe by Florida standards. It is relatively well-run compared to much of the County (ok, low bar, but still). Much of it feels very suburban; it’s a nice place to raise kids. The houses survive hurricanes in part due to our somewhat fanatical Building department. But not cool. Not real geeky either, despite having a major university pretty much in the middle of it.

Apparently, however, we have a new coffee shop, the Planet Linux Caffe, one that sounds like it might be both geeky and cool. Here’s how they describe themselves:

Planet Linux Caffe is a Tech coffee shop. Computers running Open Source OS and Applications, Google TV for tech webcast, web conferences, webinar, conferences, magazines and books to read in the place, play station 3 running Yellow Dog Linux…. excellent Italian style coffee, tea, soda, sandwiches, salads, cakes, pies (home made)… Welcome geeks, open source community, artist and every one that love to share information and love to chat.

It’s a few blocks north of my usual stomping grounds, but I definitely intend to stop by as soon as I can, maybe for this Saturday’s meetup on WordPress Extensions And PHP Backdoors.

(No prices on the online menu, though…)

Posted in Coral Gables, Talks & Conferences | Comments Off on Geek Cool in Coral Gables? Who Knew?

It’s So Miami

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

I pick on the Miami Herald a fair bit, although not as much as it deserves given how far it has fallen from its glory days. But I guess that means I should also toss the occasional laurel.

Today’s paper has as its major above-the-fold story an item about how Miami leads the nation in ‘vanity’ — a trait measured in a not-very-serious-manner as follows:

Miami recently ranked as the most vain city in America, based on residents’ responses to a poll conducted by Mandala Research and released by LivingSocial.

The survey found that half of Miami respondents consider themselves an 8, 9 or 10 in looks.

Miami also topped the nation in such procedures as laser hair removal, tummy tucks, liposuction and collagen injections, according to the poll, based on the perhaps-unscientific percentage of respondents who know someone who had the work done.

You might think I would object to such pseudo-science dominating my front page. But in fact, the headline was perfect: “We’re so vain: We probably think this story is about us”. Not what I want to see every day in my paper, but it made me smile. And I imagine it will be talked about. Which actually makes it better than a lot of the dull stuff in that paper.

That said, I might mention two other somewhat bright spots: The Local section has degraded much less than front. There’s still real news there, just not enough of it. And as the news staff of the Herald shrinks, it is running more content from Bloomberg and from the political reporters at its partner newspapers in the state, some of whom are quite good.

As to the looks, I will say that it is often a shock to go back to the North East, especially in winter. Everyone is so pale and unhealthy-looking…

Posted in Miami, The Media | 2 Comments

“Birdseed Plot” Leads to Firing of North Miami Beach Police Officer

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Only in South Florida could a police officer be fired for the attempted spreading of birdseed in a boss’s office.

Because, as South Florida readers will surely have guessed, the bird seed wasn’t a prank but a bit of black magic. Let’s cut to the Miami Herald’s account:

The North Miami Beach police officer accused of trying to cast a Santeria spell over the city manager’s office to stop him from slashing police jobs was fired Monday.

City Manager Lyndon Bonner, the target of Officer Edith Torres’ allegedly magical plot, fired the 24-year veteran for conduct unbecoming of an officer.

Her attorney insisted the officer was simply behaving in a “lighthearted nature” and argued the publicity surrounding the Santeria escapade would hurt the veteran officer’s chances of getting another job.

According to an internal affairs report, Torres tried to recruit the help of a janitor to sprinkle birdseed in the manger’s office. Torres believed the birdseed held mystical powers which would make the city manager “go away.”

The janitor refused to carry out the birdseed plot and reported Torres to her boss.

An office manager with the police department was also fired after the janitor told city officials she was involved in the birdseed plot.

This sort of thing is almost routine down here, although I’ve never before heard of birdseed being used in an office to prevent a reduction in force. Usually it’s dead chickens on the steps of the courthouse to influence the outcome of a trial.

That said, there’s almost a nice legal issue here. On the one hand, if spreading the birdseed had no religious aspect, it’s hard to see how a prank of this nature would have triggered this dismissal. On the other hand, does making this a firing offense require the City to take a view as to the likely efficacy of the curse? Or of the propriety of invoking Santeria? I don’t think so: the malign intent plus the attempted break-in probably suffices, but it does lead to a few hypos.

Suppose the facts were different.

Version 1: Imagine that the facts were that the janitor overheard the police officer praying in church for the Lord to smite the city manager. Same result or different?

Version 2: The police officer carried out a curse ritual in some other minority religion — say, Satanism — that allows curses to be conducted entirely off the premises. Same result or different?

Version 3: The police officer attempted to enlist the janitor in an effort to put a banner in the City Manager’s office saying “NO CUTS”. Same result or different?

Version 4: The police officer attempted to enlist the janitor in an effort to put a “secret Santa” gift in the City Manager’s office. Same result or different?

What these examples try to get at is whether it the attempted intrusion + the curse that makes this an offense, or just one part or the other. I think most people would say (1) is not a firing offense. I would be prepared to argue that (2) is not a firing offense either, on First Amendment grounds. (3) is the hardest call for me. Breaking into people’s offices seems like it could be a good neutral principle for firing police officers. But shouldn’t that make us also ready to fire in case (4)? If pushed I could maybe invoke some theory of implied consent for the gift, but suppose that it wasn’t a gift, but prank Halloween decorations or something. Would that be a firing offense? If your answer is that (4) is not a firing offense, why does adding an intent to cast a curse change the facts? Or would you say that (2) — the Satanic curse with no attempt at a break-in — was a firing offense also? Then why not (1), the plea for divine smiting, as well?

Creative Commons photo copyright Kraftwerck. Some rights reserved.

Posted in Miami | 1 Comment