What Are You Doing With Your Life?!! If You're Not Buddhist, You Understand This One Go-Around Is It.

I'm at South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center (now Dennis C Moss Cultural Arts Center) a lot.  We've talked about this many times.  It's not at all close to here.  The address is 10950 SW 211 St.  I know.  Boy, do I know.

On Friday, January 17, I was there for Cirque Kalabante.  I don't go to circuses that have non-human animals.  I've been to several Cirque Du Soleil shows, and one Circus Smirkus (the latter is in New England).  I would have said no circus is as good as Cirque Du Soleil.  Cirque Kalabante is as good, or possibly slightly better.  Its origins are somewhere in Africa, and I don't know from where all the performers come.  Some clearly had African accents.  The saxophone player had skin paler than mine.  So maybe he's not from Africa.  These people were spectacular.  The drummer, the saxophone player, and the electric bass (guitar) player only did that.  The rest were generally multi-talented.  The acrobatics were unspeakable.  It seemed none of the performers had bones, and all of them were very muscular.  One guy had neither bones nor cartilage.  His ability to contort was unimaginable.  Do it?  I couldn't even keep track of what he was doing.  And he had an amazingly engaging facial expression that left people laughing as much as they were breathless.  The guy who was sort of the MC or ringleader also played hand drums.  There were two women who also did acrobatics.  Another guy did several things, including acrobatics with a very large hoop.  They made pyramids.  They stood on each other three or four people high.  It really was breathtaking, and I felt a wish that it would never end, mixed with a wish that it would end soon, before anyone got hurt.  Which no one did.

Two days later, I was back for Allan Harris, whom I've seen there maybe twice before over the years.  He sings jazz alternating with reciting poetry.  Several of his recitations were Shakespeare, one was Maya Angelou, one Dylan Thomas, and there were others.  This time, he played guitar (great slide) during only one song.  He had a great backing ensemble, and it was different from his prior ones.  He's also a very charming and super friendly guy.  He's very flirtatious with his audience, and the energy is delightful.  He also had a female singer who's from out of town but staying here temporarily, and she was a knockout, singing-wise and in terms of appearance.  And similarly very connected to the audience, and to Harris.

Tonight (Saturday), I was there for Davina and the Vagabonds.  Davina sings and plays piano.  She's loaded with charisma, and charms her audience in a flirtatious way like Allan Harris charms his.  Someone before the show described Davina as being reminiscent, vocally, of Amy Winehouse.  I didn't hear much that put me in mind of Amy Winehouse.  I heard Mae West, Billie Holliday, Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman, Peter Wolf, a little Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, and Gregg Allman.  I thought Davina might be in her 30s until she mentioned something from 20 years ago.  So she's in her 40s.  Her drummer looked to be in his 30s.  Her bass player looked to be in his 40s.  And her trombonist looked to be in his 50s.  Yes, I know, you want to know about her trumpet player.  OK, also looked to be maybe 50s.  OK, so you didn't care about the age.  You wanted to know about gender.  Do you want me to guess?  I'd say male, in transition.  And an excellent trumpet player.  They were all excellent musicians.  Davina said they were off to South Carolina for their next show.  I caught up with her after the show to ask about her group.  They're all her regulars except for the bassist, who's newer to the ensemble.  And he was a fabulous bassist.

These are all shows you don't want to end.  And I didn't see you there.  You missed these spectacular presentations.  Come with me.  I'll pick you up, and we can either just go to the show, or we can stop off for dinner on the way.  You won't be sorry.  mosscenter.org, pick the shows you want to see, and either let me know, so we can get seats together, or just get your own.

Oh, Really!

I drive an electric car (electric vehicle, or EV).  I have to charge the batteries.  An argument against what I'm doing is that the electricity I'm putting into my batteries comes from an electrical network that relies on burning fossil fuels.  And I agree that's true.  I counter with 1) my electric car is much more energy efficient than is a gasoline car, and results in less production of greenhouse gases than would a gas car, and 2) FPL has the choice to produce electricity by some means other than burning gas, oil, or coal.  People who drive gas (internal combustion engine, or ICE) cars don't have a choice.

I also have solar panels on my house.  And the argument against my relying on them, apart from what environmental damage is reportedly done to make the solar panels, which is like the argument about what happens to eventually spent and unrevivable batteries for my EV, is that they don't produce electricity at night, or not as much when it's overcast.  So I'm relying on FPL at those times anyway.  That's true, too, but again, FPL has a choice about how to create electricity.  They can burn stuff that will damage the environment and all the living things that rely on it, or they can find some other way of creating electricity.

(I should also note that I have on order a new EV, and it will have solar panels on it, and reportedly enough to put 45 miles of power per day into the batteries.  Unless I take a long trip -- the car I ordered has a range of "400 miles," which will mean about 200-300 miles -- I'll never plug in to charge the car with electricity.)

So, I got an e-mail a few days ago from FPL.  It let me know FPL was making a surcharge of just over $23 to cover for something or other due to hurricane damage in central and north Florida (but not here), and that my regular monthly bill will be going up for another reason.

After I got the solar panels on my house in the fall of 2019, my monthly bill quickly enough dropped to $10.05 per month, every month, all year.  This was FPL's state-permitted minimum monthly bill.  My net usage -- amount used against amount created -- was negative, in the sense that I created more electricity on a daily or weekly or monthly basis than I used.  As a contrast, my daughter lives in Massachusetts, where they do not allow the electric company to charge a minimum monthly amount.  My daughter and son-in-law have solar panels, as I do, although not as many as I have.  Their electric bill is frequently zero, and they occasionally get a small check from the electric company, which is effectively buying their excess electricity, which it sells to other people.

In 2022, FPL greased enough legislative palms to get permission to triple their minimum monthly bill, so that I was then suddenly paying $30.17 per month.  Every month.  All year.  But now, FPL has raised rates again.

The e-mail I got a few days ago mentioned solar panels, but it was a very ambiguous e-mail, and I had the impression FPL was increasing the bill on people like me, who had solar panels, to punish us for not buying enough electricity from FPL.  I tried to contact them for clarification, but they have constructed a system whereby you can't talk to anyone.  But today, I got another e-mail from FPL.  This e-mail reiterated the current increase -- to just over $41 per month -- and said there'd be another small increase beginning next month.  And this time, they explained why they've decided to pick the pockets of their customers.  They're getting solar panels.

After all this time of avoiding doing the obvious, that will be cleaner and cheaper, and overcharging their customers for the fact that they have steadfastly refused to do what they should do, so they can continue to make a great deal of money, they've decided to modernize.  And we, their customers, have to pay them to do what they could easily afford to do themselves.  Because they bribe the state legislature to direct the PSC to let them take what they want.

Helluva system.  Helluva legislature.  Helluva state.

The Very Sad End to a Magnificent Story

 Jose Luis Rodriguez (Jose Luis "de la Paz") has died.  I'm told he was in his 50s, which is probably about right.

Jose Luis was a breathtaking flamenco guitar player.  It's likely he was the best I've ever heard in person.  He was from Spain, as most of the best are, and he lived in Miami.

I used to see Jose Luis at various venues, and he played with rotating flamenco ensembles.  Ilisa Rosal's Ballet Flamenco La Rosa was one of them.  Siudy Garrido is a local flamenco dancer who might have been Jose Luis' agent or helper for a while.  One of his more common "band mates" was Adolfo Herrera, who is a delightful person and a spectacular percussionist.

Jose Luis' English was labored, but he was friendly and humble.  Talking to him, you would never get a sense of the massive talent he had.  If you listened to him play, your mouth would be agape.

One of my friends who knew Jose Luis well called to tell me he had died.  I knew he had a serious illness, but I didn't realize it was so imminently terminal.  Jose Luis did not know me personally well enough to have contacted me about his condition, but if he had, I would have visited him as much as he might have needed.  He died at home.

The effect of the news of his death was not dramatically different from the news of the death of Francisco Sanchez Gomez (Paco de Lucia), who died suddenly of a heart attack in Mexico in 2014.

There are very many flamenco guitarists.  I have heard a number of them here in Miami.  But none of them was like Jose Luis.  He will be deeply missed.