To Life

October 12, 2009

Fiddler on the Roof

Artist Steve Beck

To Life



Kathy & I celebrated our sixth anniversary on October 11th. Being up in Homestead for the Indy Car race, we were able to plan a short trip from there up to Ft. Lauderdale to catch the farewell tour performance by the incomparable Topol as Tevye in the traveling Broadway production of “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

Redland Hotel

Before leaving Homestead, we were able to spend some time in the downtown area which was very close to the nice little historic hotel where we stayed, The Redland Hotel. The downtown area is full of delicious Mexican restaurants which are common in the Redlands area due to the large Mexican population. We ate at a couple of them and they were both excellent.

Homestead

Steve

We also stumbled across a fantastic and unexpected art gallery, The Gallery Space, at Antique Mall at 115 N. Krome Avenue in downtown Homestead. The gallery was featuring an exhibit by four artists including the curator Steve Beck, who is a fabulous, talented, funny and witty artist who maintains his studio there. Steve took the time to give us a tour of the gallery and his studio. His work is incredible and took us completely by surprise.

Our new sculpture!

We also loved the ceramic sculptures of artist Jim Parker, so much so that we purchased one as an anniversary gift to ourselves. It is impossible to truly describe, but it totally fits the wacky sensibility that Kathy & I share. I have included a link to a recent Miami Herald article about the Gallery Space. Well worth checking out if you are in the Homestead area.

Museum of Discovery & Science

Kathy

Next up was a trip up to Lauderdale for the Sunday matinee of “Fiddler on the Roof.” The show was at the beautiful Broward Center and featured a great cast led by the amazing Topol who has playing the role of Tevye since 1967 both on stage and in the 1971 film for which he received a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.

Topol



This tour is being billed as a “Farewell Tour” though Topol shows no signs of slowing down. His voice and overall performance were both as strong as ever. It was a great production of a wonderful play that had the audience roaring its approval during a well deserved standing ovation. It was a nice cap on our wonderful anniversary weekend. Thanks Kathy for six fantastic years of marriage!!





The Gallery Space article

Tortoise vs. Hares

October 11, 2009





Tortoise vs. Hares



The Indy car season finale was an amazing example of the old fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, except in this case there were two hares, but as in the classic tale, it was the Tortoise (if you can call someone averaging over 200 mph a tortoise) that claimed the victory as Dario Franchitti used patience, luck and an excellent fuel strategy to capture the race win and with it the 2009 Indy Racing League Championship.

Dan Wheldon



Ryan Briscoe

Race day at Homestead was another blistering record hot for October day with temperatures at the track in the 90s and the track temperature well over 100. Kathy came with me to the track to attend the Indy Downforce Party at noon before heading off for an afternoon of shopping at the outlet mall before returning in the early evening for the Indy Car race.

Ed Carpenter & Lauren George

Pippa Mann

Marco Andretti

The Downforce prerace party featured drivers taking questions from attendees and included appearances by the likes of Tony Kanaan, Pippa Mann, Ed Carpenter & Lauren George. It was a nice, though hot event where I remained until the start of the Rolex Grand Am Grand Prix of Miami sports car race which utilized the road course at Homestead.





Victory Lane

I watched the early portion from the stands before heading down to the pits to see the action close up. The race was won by the Brumos Porsche team with drivers Joao Barbosa and Hurley Haywood with the Gainsco Team winning the season championship. With my passes, I was able to be in Victory Lane for the trophy presentation which was cool and was also able to get close to one of my wife’s favorite actors, Patrick Dempsey. Dempsey stars on the hit show “Grey’s Anatomy”, but is also the owner and driver for his own race team in the GT division of Grand Am.

Patrick Dempsey

Patrick Dempsey



After the race, I hung around in the pits as the Indy Cars were prepped for their race, before heading over to watch some of the prerace concert featuring the band Better Than Ezra. The band was really good and the crowd seemed appreciative as they played many of their songs from the 90s including their big hit “Good”.

Better Than Ezra







Then it was up to our seats, where Kathy was waiting, watching the driver intros, fighter jet flyovers and other festivities. The race itself got off to a great start as all three of the drivers fighting for the title jumped to the front. Scott Dixon led early, with Ryan Briscoe and Dario behind and by lap 100 only those three were left on the lead lap. Briscoe took his turn dominating as he and Dixon pulled away and were clearly the class of the field.

Dario celebrates victory



Ashley Judd



Dario and his team made the decision to play a fuel saving strategy and dropped well off the pace as Briscoe and Dixon rocketed around the track. In what can only be described as sheer luck, the race turned out to be the first time in history that there were no yellow flags (which would have destroyed Dario’s plans and delivered the race to Briscoe). Instead, it stayed green and both Briscoe and Dixon had to make an extra fuel stop with less than ten laps to go and Dario drove to victory, winning both the race and the championship.

Grand Marshal

October 10, 2009

"Drivers Start Your Engines"

Dario Franchitti

Grand Marshal



This year, the Indy Racing League changed their schedule and switched the race at Homestead Miami Speedway from the beginning of the season in March to the last race of the season in October. This means that the championship for the IRL would be decided at Homestead, along with the championships for the Indy Lights series and the Rolex Grand Am series. It also meant that Kathy & I could attend both the St. Pete race and the race at Homestead as they are no longer on back to back weekends.

Tony Kanaan



Sarah Fisher

We headed up early Friday morning to be able to catch both some of the Indy Car practice and the qualifying and the Indy Lights race on Friday evening. Once at the track, we were walking through the paddock when we were approached by three young women from the track who asked us if we would like to serve as the Grand Marshal for the Indy Lights race. Serving as such, I would give the traditional command to start engines and then Kathy & I would ride in the Pace Car just prior to the race.

Grand Marshal



In more than 40 years of attending races, I have never had such a cool & unique opportunity (which by the way included hot pit passes). Kathy & I quickly agreed to meet at the media center to serve as Grand Marshalls prior to the evening race.

Kathy in the Pace Car



In the interim, we spent the day watching Indy Car practice and Grand Am practice before watching the Indy Car qualifying from pit row. The weather was unseasonably hot, with record high temperatures in the low 90s which had us sweating in the heat, but the qualifying was good as championship contenders Dario Franchitti & Scott Dixon claimed the first two spots. The championship chase featured those two and Ryan Briscoe separated by only 8 points meaning whoever won the race, would capture the championship.

Graham Rahal

TK's helmet

Graham Rahal

Marco & Michael Andretti with Tony Kanaan


After watching Dario celebrate his pole position award in Victory Lane, it was time for us to assume our duties. It was strange being in Victory Lane and being featured on National television on the Versus network as we were introduced to the crowd. Next we were led out to the start finish line where I delivered the command “Drivers Start Your Engines” with as much gusto as I could measure. It was a pretty cool and special moment for me, yet the coolest part was getting into the pace car and leading the field around at speeds near 100 mph. We did two laps before pulling off as the cars took the green flag. It was amazing.

Dario wins the Pole

Ashley Judd (Dario's wife) celebrates!

Dario

The race was pretty damn exciting as well as Mario Romancini beat J. R. Hildebrand to the finish line by 0.0057 of a second ( The second closest victory in Indy Lights history). Hildebrand won the Indy Lights championship and we really enjoyed our first day at the track.

Kathy

My buddy Jason