WHAT?!! This is for Us?! And It's In Our Back Yard?

I go to lots of entertainment.  My favorite place is South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center (SMDCAC), way down in Cutler Bay.  It's overwhelmingly worth the trip.  I'm there often.  Then, there are other places I go, depending on what I want to see and hear, and what organization is putting something on.  There's a ton of great entertainment in south Florida.  You can be busy most of the time.  And a lot of it, apart from whatever is at the Arsht, is very competitively priced.

I've mentioned one place I've been frequenting in the past couple of years, and it's very near us.  It's the Sandrell Rivers Theater (SRT), and more or less all programming is under the auspices of the Fantasy Theater Factory (FTF).  They put on their own stuff, and they sublease the theater to other groups. A common FTF tenant is the M Ensemble.  This is an African-American cultural organization that began in the '70s, I think, and one or two of the founders are still active.  The other main founder has died.  It's interesting and funky stuff, and some of it is absolutely top shelf.  I've attended concerts, plays, and other presentations at SRT.

The SRT, like SMDCAC, is a county-owned venue.  The county-- our Miami-Dade County(!)-- has, for whatever reasons, decided to get solidly behind culture in Dade County.  Not only did they build SMDCAC in Cutler Bay, where there is no reason to imagine very first rate cultural events, but they also built SRT, in an otherwise sketchy part of mid-county.  The building is on NW 7th Avenue at about 60th Street.  I told you this is in our back yard.  And not only did they build these two venues, but they-- the county-- are a very major supporter of many local cultural organizations which are private and/or non-profit.  The county and its Commission do plenty of things wrong, but I will be forever in their debt for what they have chosen to do for local culture.  It's unbelievable.

Shows at SRT are variably priced.  Some of them are as expensive as $30, although old people like me get a "senior" discount.  This is frankly dirt cheap, if you also take into account the free parking in the on site garage with the security guard, and the people who are beside themselves with how friendly and appreciative they are.  It's the same thing as SMDCAC.  You go there, and you think you're with close friends who are deeply pleased and honored that you chose to spend time with them.  And all they do is work there.  At SMDCAC, my main people are Eric, of course, who is the Director of the place, and Dora, Tom, and the charming Melody.  And really, everyone else.  At SRT, it's Rommel and Patricia and Shirley.  Yeah, it's like that.  And I'm Fred to all of them.

This year, I attended, among other things, a SRT/FTF concert put on by a group that calls itself Cortadito.  They had a wonderful Cuban-oriented band, and the featured guest performer was Sammy Figueroa.  Sammy freakin' Figueroa.  For the price of... nothing.  They say donations are welcome.  OK, so I leave $10 per person with them.  I suppose it should be $20 per person.  Next time.  And speaking of next time, on June 1, at 8:00 PM, it's Cortadito again, and this time, they're featuring Nestor Torres.  Right, Nestor freakin' Torres.  Right, for nothing.  Oh, yeah, the donation you're "welcome" to leave.

Technically, as I said, it's a sketchy neighborhood.  I have never felt anything but completely safe, and they do have security guards, but it's imaginable that someone, noticing the address, might assume it's not the first place they would want to go at night.  Sure, gentrification, which includes the SRT, but still, some people are skittish.  Maybe that's why there are usually very few patrons in the audience.  I really don't know.  It's certainly not the ticket "price."  They did better with Cortadito/Sammy Figueroa (yup, I said it before, and I'll say it again, Sammy freakin' Figueroa, and it was a wonderful concert, with and without him; he didn't participate in every song), and I have no doubt they'll do well with Nestor Torres.  Nestor Torres would fill any auditorium for any price he wanted.  We're talking here about Nestor freakin' Torres:

Fantasy Theatre Factory's Music@SRT series is back! Join us on June 1 at 8 p.m. as Cortadito with an extraordinary guest Nestor Torres, legendary flutist, take the stage for one night only celebrating the traditional music of Cuba in a lively jam session for everyone to dance! For this FREE special concert, Grammy Award-winning Torres and Cortadito will dazzle the audience a seamless blend of Latin jazz, pop, straight-ahead jazz, and classical styles. He has been described as "an exotic mix of styles that takes the listener through American, Brazilian, and Afro-Cuban jazz."

So, words to the wise, you know what I mean?  ftfshows.com.  305-284-8872.  You don't need any more help from me than I've given you already.  I'm leading you to water.  You know what to do.  FILL THE PLACE!  BRING EVERYONE YOU KNOW!  You'll feel foolish later, if you let this get away from you.

By the way, I owe an apology.  I didn't make a big deal of a recent M Ensemble play, "The Old Settler."  It was a wonderful play, and it was very expertly presented.  The actors and director were all local, and they all did a spectacular job.  I should have tried to send you to SRT for that.

John Herrin and I Get Our Comeuppance. Subjectivity Is a Beautiful Thing.

I suppose last night's Commission meeting had to be endless.  There was, in fact, a good deal of material on the agenda.  And when the person running the meeting can't focus on the agenda items, but is constantly aiming to make the meeting about herself, it just has to take a long time.  It took just over the allotted four hours, and we finished about 3/4 of the material.  Well, when I say finished... Two of the three variances got incomplete attention, and both were carried over to the next meeting for completion.  The third variance was never heard at all.  And neither were some of the meaty discussion issues.

The first long segment was Public Comment.  It seems the natives are not at all happy.  Well, some of them are not happy.  Other recruits, who are never seen at meetings, appeared last night seemingly for the purpose of reporting how pleased they are with the current Commission, how unfair and out of line are the people who aren't pleased, and how the most important thing in life is mindless harmony.  Om.  Usually, Big Mama simply allows her detractors to speak their peaces, then she ignores whatever they said.  This time, Big Mama had a different strategy.  Not only did she scare up a few of her friends to criticize her critics, but Big Mama herself became more of an activist.  She interrupted generously, and worked actively to shut people down.  She beat Dan Schneiger out of so much of his allotted three minutes that he was unable to finish his timed comment in the time given.  So Big Mama tried to have him removed from the meeting when he kept going.  Luckily for Dan, and for democracy, the police ignored Big Mama's orders to remove him, have him killed, or whatever she wanted.  Big Mama just don't brook no sass from no commoners, and Dan, and a number of us, clearly overstepped.  Big Mama also had her Gray/Robinson attorney to pseudolegalize the suppression of Village residents.  Attorney Julie Mandell also wasted a good deal of time explaining why Village residents are not allowed not only to say "you, Tracy, shouldn't..." etc, but are not even allowed to say "Tracy shouldn't..."  I forget the phrase about not taking someone's name something-or-other, or even uttering it.  But it clearly applies to our Commission, at least in Tracy's opinion.

The second long segment was the battle of the attorney applicants.  It was John Herrin and his (male) business partner against Julie Mandell and two of her (female) business partners.  Each applicant for the job of VBP attorney made its case for why it's the best choice.  And each presentation was about equal.  There were only two differences (three, if you think gender is an important variable).  One was that one applicant included John Herrin.  The other was that although the new Gray/Robinson, the one that doesn't include John Herrin, reassured us that they have 15 offices, of which 14 are in Florida, so we are guaranteed abundant "local" representation, they again had to get the attorney for the evening to fly in from Tampa.  If they have so much Florida staffing, it's hard to imagine why they don't just have people in Miami.  They had two other attorneys on hand and active last night, and they were based in Miami.  So why have to bring in Julie Mandell from Tampa?  It was never addressed or explained.  Anyway, in making his presentation, John Herrin mentioned that if you google him, you'll find some negative publicity.  One of his detractors is a former Councilwoman from Doral (I think), and John offended her by telling her that one of her proposed schemes was illegal.  Apparently, she went on a campaign to punish John for disagreeing with her.  What John seems to have forgotten is that this is not the last time this has happened to him.  He offended Big Mama in exactly the same way, and Big Mama don't forget stuff like that.  So, it didn't really matter what John said, or what his business partner said, or what the the three current Gray/Robinson applicants said.  Tracy, and her pet, Betsy, and, if I remember correctly, Will Tudor, were simply going to judge that Gray/Robinson was the best choice.  Which is what they did.  John made the mistake of disagreeing with Big Mama about something, and he paid the price.

At some point, we made our way to two of the three variances.  The first one was left over from two months ago, because the Commission botched the presentation by illegally changing the original meeting date.  Most of the presentation was made on March 19, it was made again last night, and the Commission learned that when there's ambiguity, and two seemingly legitimate sides to an issue, it's hard to make a decision, and take responsibility for that decision.  Unfortunately, none of the current Commissioners, except Dan Samaria, has ever before sat through Commission meetings, so they don't know about things like making decisions and taking responsibility.  They couldn't do it last night, either, and they agreed to carry this matter over to next month.  They have no apparent awareness of how they're being unfair and jerking people around.  They're just trying to avoid the moment of the stopping of the buck.

The next variance request was mine.  Now, of course I know at the outset that this Commission is not going to approve any request I make.  I'm the one making it, like John Herrin wants something.  You do not challenge Tracy "Big Mama" Truppman, then have her do something in your favor.  It just doesn't work that way.  So, I made my case, and Big Mama, and her pet, Betsy, decided that it just didn't add up for them.  Will Tudor and Dan Samaria thought my request was worthy enough, and they could vote in my favor.  But Big Mama and Betsy just thought I hadn't offered compelling enough proof of need for this variance.  And that's what it comes down to.  It's like a jury.  They can choose to believe one side, or they can feel the other side was more believable.  Of course, with a jury, the idea is that they're supposed to be impartial.  It don't work that way with the current BP Commission.

But, there was an interesting problem for the resolution of my variance application last night.  It seems Jenny Johnson-Sardella was either not feeling well, or there was some other issue.  Because she wasn't there.  So the vote was 2-2.  And that means this will get presented and voted again next month, when someone can break the tie.  What are my chances, with both of Big Mama's girls, instead of just one of them?  Um, this is not a bet I would take.  But, Jenny has on rare occasion very recently shown something that looked faintly like very subtle independence from Big Mama.  So, I suppose there are actual odds.  They're not in my favor, but they might exist.

This is all very personal to Tracy "Big Mama" Truppman.  She takes it all very personally.  Her tenure on the BP Commission is about her, and it has essentially nothing to do with BP.  She likes to be complimented by her sycophants, and she punishes and acts out vendettas against anyone who confronts her in any way.  She thinks she knows everything, better than anyone else, and she likes personal control of everything.  That's how she rolls, and it's who she is.  Nothing is about anything, except it's all about her.  And that's why John Herrin is out, and I'm not winning my case, and uncomfortable decisions about other matters don't get made.