So long summer...

August 28, 2007

Gloria Estefan

Michael

Fantasy Fest King & Queen Candidates

So long summer….

Returning home from Colorado, we were immediately faced with the reality that summer has run its course and the fall season has begun. This was readily evident when Kathy had to return to work at the Key West Preschool coop as the school year is back in session. There are plenty of other indications that a change in seasons is in the offing as the local elections are heating up and the kick-off event for Fantasy Fest was held over the weekend.

Fantasy Fest Kick-Off



The Fantasy Fest king and queen kick-off event was held at the southernmost house on Friday evening. The King & Queen candidates compete to raise money for AIDS help, with the leading money raisers being coroneted King & Queen at the beginning of Fantasy Fest week in October. The kick-off party was well attended, but it seems as if they are having trouble attracting candidates as only 5 people are competing this year. Each one will hold any number of fund-raising events leading up to Fantasy Fest. The kick-off party itself was pretty good; the beautiful location of the southernmost house was a perfect setting. Sadly, on our way in, we walked by the construction site that was until recently the Atlantic Shores resort. The Shores, which was once home to delightful Tea Dances and outdoor movies, has gone the way of much of Key West, demolished to make way for high-end condos.

Site of Atlantic Shores

After the party, I headed over to Tommy Roberts stadium for another harbinger of fall, the start of the high school football season. The Key West Conchs were demolished 50-0 in their opener against the much larger and more powerful Boyd Anderson Cobras from Ft. Lauderdale. The good news is they only have one way to go from this point.

Friday Night Lights

Gloria

Saturday morning, we went down to the Westin resort to attend the taping of a television special celebrating the release of Gloria Estefan’s newest CD, “90 Millas”. The title of her new release is Spanish for 90 miles, the distance from Key West to Havana. A crowd of excited fans, many of them Cuban-Americans waving Cuban flags, were on hand to watch as Gloria performed cuts from the new CD along with her band The Miami Sound Machine. Kathy & I sort of lucked into a front row center location. It just happened to be right next to where her husband Emilio was filming and Gloria even came over and shook hands with us at one point. I’ve never been a huge Gloria fan, but she was amazingly good, smooth and professional and it’s easy to see how she has reached iconic status. She was also very friendly and appreciative of the enthusiastic crowd, it was reported in the paper that she brought many of the Cubans in the crowd to tears with her songs about their homeland.



Emilio Estefan, Jr.



The rest of the weekend was fairly relaxed, we went to see the new teen sex farce “Superbad”, which was much funnier and had more heart than one might imagine. We both enjoyed it. We also spent the day on Sunday at the pool at the Grand Key, enjoying the last day of summer in the sunshine, poolside.

http://www.gloriaestefan.com/

http://www.areyousuperbad.com/