Nothing But Net. Well, Maybe the Occasional Rim Shot. Always a Goal, Though, and Most Often a Three-Pointer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK8f6GsmJa4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSVzuOvKTXI

(I'm sorry.   These are not live/hyper links.  You have to highlight them, then enter them as destinations.  Or, you can go to youtube.com yourself, and look for Dance Heginbotham.)

The South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center is 27 miles from my house.  That means it's 27 miles from your house.  It's in Cutler Bay.  It's a long way to go to hear a concert or see a show.  And it's very well worth the trip.  It's a magnificent venue, ticket prices are low, parking is free and easy, and the people who work there could not be friendlier and more welcoming.  You feel like a treasured guest at SMDCAC.  It's a treat and a joy to go there, for anything they put on.  Their managing director is Eric Fliss, who has an wonderful ear and eye for talent, and who lines up amazing show after amazing show, and incredible season after incredible season.  A couple of times a year, I wind up at SMDCAC two days in a row.  Once or twice, I have seen two different shows there on the same day.  I can't get enough of the place.

This coming Saturday night, they're presenting Dance Heginbotham.  Here's what SMDCAC says about this company:  "Dance Heginbotham is celebrated for its vibrant athleticism, humor, and theatricality, as well as its commitment to musical collaborations. For this Miami performance, Dance Heginbotham will be accompanied on stage by musical guest performers the Amernet String Quartet, guitarist Marco Sartor, and Celia Fonta of Siempre Flamenco alongside Castanet performers."  The music is by Lalo, von Dohnanyi, and Boccherini.

Ticket prices are $25-$45, depending on where you sit.  You will pay double or triple at the Arsht, for a less interesting show, you'll deal with parking, and you'll put up with a component of discomfort (seats are too small).

SMDCAC is offering a 15% discount.  The promotional code is DANCEH.  You're now under $40 for the best seats in the house.  Do yourself a favor.

And Then, I Listened to the Recording of the Rest.

Marlen, you correctly noted that we're "different" here in BP.  So why are you suggesting we staff up the way they do at the County, with their "zillions" of employees?  You can't have subordinates and helpers.  You are a subordinate and helper.  Are you aware that you have predecessors?  Do you know that all of them got your job done by themselves, and all or most of them did it better than you do?  I think you made a mistake applying to work here.  Presumably, you needed a job.  So your employment with the Village solves your problem.  But you're not welcome to make yourself, and your apathy and lack of devotion, our problem.  I suggest you find some other place to work, where you can be a smaller cog in a bigger wheel, and you can get away with not doing much, and no one will notice.

Harvey, what grotesque disrespect, disdain, and arrogance you showed in your decision to remove from the Agenda a discussion item that wasn't yours.  Clearly, you're part of the machine, and (most of) the other stooges will accommodate your scheme.  But that doesn't make it right.  It just means you're all disrespectful, disdainful, and arrogant.  I'm still trying to figure out what on earth you're doing on the Commission.  You don't seem to want anything, which is the disease you caught from the rest of the majority of which you're a part.

Jenny, you show a consistent discursive and sterile uselessness.  You have no meaning, except to be a number on which Tracy and the other bobbleheads can rely.  You're part of the majority in votes that are 4-1 or 3-2.  But you don't offer anything.  As is true of Harvey, you don't want anything.  You're just there, voting as Tracy needs you to vote.  Interestingly, though, you did at one point offer to donate your next Village check to Pelican Harbor, so the Village would not squander, as you seem to see it, Village residents' money.  What you were doing, in effect, is transferring taxpayer money from yourself to Pelican Harbor.  If what you're saying is that giving taxpayers' money to you is squandering it, but giving it to Pelican Harbor is not, I agree with you.  I think this was an apt insight you had about yourself.

Tracy, I don't think you understand.  The problem with your having been present at a meeting between Krishan and WastePro was not what you allege you said.  It was that you were there.  We don't know what you said.  You're not honest, so your reporting what you said doesn't mean anything.  And Krishan wants to keep his job, so he's going to agree to anything you claim.  You've made it very clear that you'll fire him in a heartbeat, if he doesn't do whatever you say, and back you up.  You claim to have transmitted concerns or complaints made by Village residents, but no one knows who these supposed Village residents are, or what were their complaints.  No one knows how many Village residents made a particular complaint, against how many said the opposite, or didn't complain at all.  No Village resident complained that WastePro trucks make too many right turns.  That was your idea.  And you told WastePro whatever you told them on your own.  You dominated that meeting the way you dominate every meeting that includes you.  Krishan was a silent partner.  The right way for things like this to happen is as a result of open meetings in the Village, with Krishan in attendance, some consensus from the Commission, and Krishan comes to understand the problems, and works out with WastePro the solutions.  Krishan is the Village manager.  You hired him.  Read the Charter.  Understand what is his role, and what is yours.  The Village is not Tracyville.  You're not allowed to do what you're doing.

Will, what you typically have to offer is stumbling, bumbling, rambling empty nonsense.  No one missed you the last two Commission meetings, when you weren't there.  There was just a little bit less time wasted in your absence.  Tracy had her majority without you, and you don't add anything.  This time, though, you had something to say.  You observed that nothing has gotten done since you took office (which is correct), and you tried to blame it on "infighting."  Let me explain something to you, Will.  You are part of a very reliable majority which is usually a supermajority.  The good news about being part of a majority is that you get to do whatever you want, and you can't be stopped.  The bad news is that whatever is done, or not done, is on you.  You can't blame anyone else.  The only thing different from the foolish and destructive drone that comes from Tracy, you, Jenny, and Harvey, is the voice of reason, perspective, and intelligence that comes from Roxy.  But the four of you ignore her and outvote her, and she's not your problem.  She's not an excuse for you.  If the present Commission is a gross failure, which it is, it's not because of any "infighting."  It's because four of you are inept, you have no aim or agenda, and three of you simply do what one of you says.


It was actually mildly less sickening to listen to the recording than it would have been to have stayed there.  At least you can't confront anyone, when there's no one else there.

I Was Wrong. I Thought We Had Hit Bottom.

I stayed at the Commission meeting tonight for a very short time.  I got to the beginning of Public Comment, at which point it was already too sickening to watch.  The part I heard was the Additions and Withdrawals section.

Harvey Bilt wanted to withdraw something.  He wanted to withdraw one of Roxy Ross' New Business items.  I still have no idea how this works: that one Commissioner can propose to withdraw another Commissioner's item.  And in any normal group of normal Commissioners, it wouldn't work.   But this is no normal Commission.

Harvey's motion was to "pull" Roxy's item.  Before the complete insanity set in, it appeared Harvey's motion to shut Roxy up would go unseconded, and therefore die.  But Jenny Johnson-Sardella came to Harvey's rescue, and offered a second.  She didn't really give any reason, and she only mentioned some theory of "deferring" the item.  (Why?  Until when?)

At that point, Tracy "Big Mama" Truppman stepped in and started griping about "50 pages" of backup, and "not enough time" to read it.  By my count, Big Mama and two stooges/bobbleheads/children settles the matter.

Roxy tried to say that she extracted from a possible 50 pages (it was unclear where Big Mama got the "50 pages" from, since there were no 50 pages, and Big Mama was complaining she didn't have time to review what she was given) about 7 pages of material she hoped the Commission would discuss.

Roxy is apparently not a baseball fan.  She doesn't understand what three called strikes and a crooked umpire are about.

But Big Mama didn't want to come across as entirely cold-blooded (starting when?), so she suggested that maybe deferring the matter to some other time/year/decade would be a good idea.  "Yeah," parroted Harvey, "that's what I said; let's defer it."  No, Harvey, you did not move to defer the matter.  You moved to pull it.  Never mind that it's not your call, except in Big Mama's universe.

Big Mama consulted with the Attorney for a ruling (like she really needs a ruling) about one Commissioner's moving to pull another Commissioner's item.  Well, said the attorney, Robert's Rules of Order says...  (Except we don't use Robert's Rules of Order in the Village.)

So Big Mama and her two stooges/bobbleheads/kids muzzled Roxy, Big Mama moved on to Public Comment, and I moved on to reality.  As I was leaving, I heard Big Mama remind whichever Village residents wanted to speak that they should keep in mind "decorum."  (We don't have a decorum resolution, either.)

The Oscars

I have no use for the Oscars.  I don't think they mean anything, or at least not anything that has to do with the quality of movies and the talents of the people involved with them.  And since I don't even care what gowns which women are wearing, who's there with whom, and what's behind Jennifer Garner's change of clapping pace and facial expression, there isn't much left for me.

I first decided the Oscars were meaningless, at least for the purpose I imagined them to have, when Jane Fonda won best actress for "The China Syndrome," which I happened to have seen that year.  She beat Bette Midler, who was unbelievable in "The Rose," which I also saw that year.  But Bette Midler was new, and Jane Fonda was established (Jane Fonda, of the Fonda Fondas?), and Bette Midler's character was a bad girl, and "the Academy" decided, for completely non art-related reasons, to honor Jane Fonda.  That was it for me.  I saw "The China Syndrome" once, when it came out.  I was not interested enough ever to see it again.  I've seen "The Rose" many times, I own it, I love it, and no actor/actress was ever better than Bette Midler.  Alan Bates was fantastic, too.

The fact is, I don't typically see movies that much.  I used to rent them sometimes, when you could do that, and if I find something intriguing at Goodwill, I buy it for $3.  But I'm not big on spending $10 or more (only $9 at O Cinema, me being old and all), plus parking, to see a movie I might well not like.

This past year was slightly different.  I didn't see many of the movies that got nominated for awards, but I saw some of them.  I saw "The Shape of Water," "Lady Bird," and "A Fantastic Woman."  I wanted to see "Three Billboards..." and the thing about Churchill, but I was just too busy.  Maybe some other time.

"The Shape of Water" was an excellent movie.  I really liked "Lady Bird," which was more quirky than great, until the last few seconds, when the lead character calls her mother on the phone from big, bad NYC.  That was not the way I wanted to see her evolve.  It killed the movie for me.  And "The Shape of Water" had a flaw in the plot, too.  How could the lead actress get into the special room where the beast/man was?  It was a high security room.  They wouldn't allow her access to clean the room alone, and certainly not to eat her lunch there.  Ridiculous.  But it was still a very well put-together movie.  Spectacularly acted, too.

So, was "The Shape of Water" the best movie this year?  How should I know?  I didn't see the rest of them.  It was good, though.  Better that "Lady Bird?"  Yeah, OK, better than "Lady Bird."

"A Fantastic Woman?"  "Best Foreign Film?"  Pu-lease.  It was an interesting premise, but the movie was very poorly constructed/directed and poorly acted.  What might have been an interesting punchline fell completely flat, because it wasn't developed properly.  The story-telling quickly became idiotic.  And the camera work was awful.  Although it's true I didn't see the others, so maybe it was better than they were.  If it was, they must have been pretty bad.  Do they have to nominate movies, etc, if they're all bad?  What is it, like grading on a curve, so someone, no matter how deficient, has to get an A, and someone, no matter how accomplished, has to fail?

Here's the thing about "A Fantastic Woman," though, at least this year.  The lead character was transsexual, and in real life, so is the actor/actress who played her.  And this is the year of hating men, who are sexual beasts and predators.  It's "MeToo," destroy someone first and ask questions later*, and it's a real lynch mob mentality.  So there was a huge sentimental and politically correct factor that operated in favor of "A Fantastic Woman," no matter how unworthy was the cinematographic effort.  Well, in my opinion it was unworthy.

So, no, I don't watch the Oscars.  I don't care about them.  And everything I hear, including this year, reinforces for me why I'm right not to care, and not to waste my time.


*I was a very big fan of John Oliver.  I watched his shows on youtube more or less faithfully.  That was until I saw his panel discussion which included Dustin Hoffman, who was in the midst of fending off accusations about himself as a former masher.  At least he was said to have engaged in some relaxed conversations with women with whom he worked.  Oliver said he simply had to raise this issue, even though it had nothing to do with the panel discussion, and he was tenacious with Hoffman.  Hoffman tried to deflect a bit, really mostly by asking Oliver if he believed everything that was said about Hoffman.  Yes, Oliver asserted, he did believe it all.  And he was willing to indict Hoffman on what rumors and allegations were coming through the grapevine.  No "process," and certainly no due process, necessary.  You couldn't describe a lynch mob mentality better than that.  So I have stopped watching John Oliver entirely.

One Free Ticket

I have one ticket for March 17 at Miami Light Project.  The show starts at 8:00 PM, and the theme is their yearly Global Cuba Fest.  The performer that night is Omar Sosa.  I don't know what Omar Sosa does, but you can look him up.  I've never seen a less than excellent production for MLP's Global Cuba Fest.

Seating is general seating, not reserved seating.  So if two people want to go, and they have one ticket, they can just buy another ticket, and sit together.

If you've never been to MLP/The Lightbox (in Wynwood), you really should.  It's a very unusual venue.  Very funky, nice crowds, good entertainment.  Some of it is experimental, and not all of that is great in itself.  Global Cuba Fest is not experimental.  It's established and high quality artists.

Let me know if you want my one ticket.