Wash Out

February 29, 2012

Dale Earnhart, Jr.





Kate Upton

Wash Out

I have always sort of wanted to attend the Daytona 500. I am not a huge NASCAR fan though I have been to a number of races at Michigan International Speedway and of course the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis which were fun, though not enough to hook me. I am born and breed Indy Car fan and have never caught the NASCAR bug, not that I can’t appreciate the racing, it just never has grabbed me.







The Daytona 500 though has long appealed to me, as the unquestioned most important race on the NASCAR calendar, I have always wanted to check it out and see how it compares to the Indy 500 which I will be attending for the 40th straight year this May. Daytona has the most history and prestige of any race on the NASCAR schedule and is one of the few races in the series that I do make a point to watch each year (the others being the short track at Bristol and the road courses). I am also interested in attending big events, which Daytona certainly qualifies as. It is an event that is larger in magnitude than the race itself, people may know nothing about racing, but they have heard of Daytona.







I drove over from Orlando early Sunday morning under cloudy, overcast and threatening skies as I wanted to take in as much as the pre-race hoopla as possible. I’d purchased a pass to get access to the garage area and fan friendly infield where I could watch the pre-race interviews, concert featuring Lenny Kravitz and driver introductions.





Regan Smith



While certainly not even close to the size and scope of the Indy 500, or actually even the brickyard 400, Daytona is a pretty spectacular setting. I think I may have been the only person in attendance not wearing some sort of swag of a favorite team or driver. These fans are nothing if not dedicated. The sheer scope of haulers and souvenir stands dwarfs anything found at Indy, but that is about it. The crowd size, facilities and amenities seem almost quaint by comparison, though the passion is about the same.









I had a great morning wondering around the garage, pits and infield checking stuff out. The access was better than I had imagined and I was able to get fairly close to all the action while trying to avoid a slight drizzle that came and went throughout the morning. I saw a number of celebrities including GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who was out pressing the flesh, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit covergirl Kate Upton and TV’s Glee star Jane Lynch.

Mitt Romney with fans

Kate Upton & Jane Lynch

Tony Stewart & Danica Patrick

I was also on hand for the short concert featuring Lenny Kravitz, who seemed a bit out of place in front of this crowd, but played a great short set. Next up were the driver introductions, which enabled me to get a pretty close view of all the drivers including defecting Indy Car star and the center of attention, Danica Patrick. It was all pretty cool and all seemed well as the track dryers were just about finished drying up the latest drizzle when the skies opened up and a deluge struck. It was all downhill from that point as there was nowhere to escape the monsoon and even under the stands wrapped in a raincoat I was drenched. It was misery.

Lenny Kravitz





After a couple of hours, I could take it no more and even though they had not officially called the race; that was it for me. I was on the road back to Key West two hours later when the official word that for the first time in 54 years, the race was postponed until Monday, I had neither the opportunity or much desire to stay, especially since Monday’s forecast was just as bad.

Brad Keselowski, Dave Blaney & Dale Earnhart Jr.

Kasey Kahne

Kyle Busch

Something about the East central coast of Florida has it out for me as I drove home frustrated again, just as we have on three attempts to watch a shuttle launch. At least this time I got to see the pre-race activities and to see what Daytona is all about. Who knows, I may actually return someday and see an actual race. Until then I will just have to keep my sights on being back in Indy in May.



Tony Stewart

Four times is once too much for luck...

February 26, 2012



“Four times is once too much for luck
That's how many times the clock struck
I wandered home, saying your name”
-Blind Pilot





With the surreal atmosphere of the NBA all-star game as a back-drop, the real reason I traveled to Orlando was a small club show by one of my favorite recent bands, Blind Pilot. They were making a stop at the intimate small club on Orange Street known as The Social. When I first made plans to attend the gig, I had hoped that Kathy & I would be taking our friend Dakota, to the show, but Kathy ended up remaining in Key West as we had visitors and then Dakota had to cancel at the last minute, so I ended up going solo.

Cotton Jones



I was disappointed, not so much that I mind attending shows alone, but that it just seemed like circumstances were not coming together and I had a feeling that the show was going to be good and I always enjoy sharing awesome musical experiences. My feelings about the show turned out to be a huge underestimation. It wasn’t just good; it was easily one of the best shows of any kind that I have seen in years.

Cotton Jones

Blind Pilot



Cotton Jones, an indie-folk/rock band opened the show. I had listened to their most recent CD in the week leading up to the show and it just did not grab me, the ultra-quiet low-fi recordings make Blind Pilot seem positively pop-like, but seeing them play live totally changed my opinion. They were fantastic and songs that seemed too hushed and quiet on disk, became infused with a haunting, beautiful quality when played live. I immediately thought that the show was off to a great start.

Blind Pilot, “Three Rounds and a Sound”

When the six piece Blind Pilot took the stage, the packed house was bristling with anticipation. The band is based out of Portland, Oregon and has been busy touring the US in their classic 1951 tour bus that has been converted in to a fairly comfy looking traveling home. The character of the bus, with its faded paint, dents and bullet holes accented with incredibly beautiful wood work throughout the interior pretty much matches the band and their music. They are certainly an acquired taste, but seem to have an ever-growing cadre of devoted followers who appreciate the amazing talent and quiet brilliance that their songs deliver.

“New York”

For a band with only two CDs released the band played an incredible and long set that stretched almost two hours, delivering almost every song in their songbook. The appreciative crowd seemed to hang on every note and the sound quality was fantastic. It was a wonderful, wonderful show. I just wish that Kathy & Dakota had been there, but such is life and hopefully somewhere down the line, we will have another opportunity to see them. In fact in was such an amazing show, I gave a moment of thought to heading over to Tampa to catch their show the next night.







Instead I found myself driving up to Gainesville the next morning and visiting one of my favorite places, the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. I was in a reflective mood and actually somewhat depressed and the quiet beauty and solitude of the gardens was just what I needed to escape from the artificiality of Orlando where I was staying. I was planning to head over and attend the Daytona 500 the next day so the gardens seemed a great option.







I have visited them more than a few times and had a lot of great times there, but it had been some years since I was last there, there have been a ton of renovations and additions including a huge new visitor center. The gardens are as beautiful as ever though and there were thankfully few visitors around early Saturday morning so I had the place pretty much to myself.







Blind Pilot website

Kanapaha Botanical Gardens

Everybody Cut, Everybody Cut…..

February 25, 2012









Everybody Cut, Everybody Cut…..

The last weekend in February was a chance for a mini-getaway as I headed up to Orlando for a couple of days and then over to Daytona Beach, where I had hoped to witness my first Daytona 500. The weekend seemingly held great promise, but did not exactly go as planned. There were still some good moments and they began on Thursday evening when Kathy & I along with our friend Gae walked over to the auditorium to check out the presentation by Keys Kids, the theatrical group made up of the youth of the island, of the play “Footloose”.







We are big supporters of Keys Kids, trying to catch as many of their shows as possible and this performance of a play based on the popular Footloose movies looked to be a winner. While it wasn’t the smoothest production we have ever seen as there were all sorts of technical issues that plagued the opening night performance we saw, we still enjoyed it thoroughly.







The poise that the kids displayed while things went wrong around them was incredible; they did a spectacular job, continuing uninterrupted even as the stage lights and house lights went dark for a few moments. The show we saw (cast A) featured some fantastic young talent led by a wonderful female lead in the role of Ariel played by Eva Hooten. She has a remarkable voice and great stage presence and was just pretty fantastic all around.





There were some other stand-outs in the cast including Lexi Hoyes, Belle Jampol, Lea Rose Hay, Lucia Prada Bergnes and Kai Murphy, who were all great. The majority of the cast was filled with younger kids who seemed to be happy just to be there. No matter what the talent level, the kids all give their all and it is a really fun experience to see a Keys Kids production, congrats to all involved.

At 2 Cents

After the show, I headed downtown to meet up with friends at 2 cents. My good friend Kerry and her boyfriend Matt were out celebrating the final night of their visit to Key West and we hadn’t had that much of an opportunity to hang out. The good news is that they were in need of a ride the following morning to the Ft. Lauderdale airport, which was right on my way so I ended up getting to hang out with them for a wonderful car ride complete with a stop at the famous Card Sound Road roadhouse in the upper Keys, Alabama Jack’s.

Matt & Kerry

The ride up was awesome, Kerry has been one of my best friends since I moved to Key West some twenty years ago and we had an opportunity to reminisce and reconnect and it renewed my appreciation of the importance of having such amazing friends. It was a great way to start a weekend and we had a great time.





Arriving in Orlando was like stepping from the sublime in to the surreal. The place was jam packed with people in town for the NBA Allstar game and all of the events and parties that lead up to the game itself. The entire downtown area including all of the bars and nightclubs along Orange Street and Church Street was packed with revelers. The city had most of the streets blocked off creating one mega party zone that was hopping.





It was some sort of crazy fun party, the likes of which I had not seen since I attended Freaknik in Atlanta some years ago. NBA fans, most dressed to the hilt with women wearing barely there cocktail dresses and high heels that I can hardly see how they walked and men all trying to look cooler than the next. Into the mix throw NBA players, celebrities and enough security to fight a small war and it was a wild scene all around.





I had a minor brush with celebrity when a large van/limo pulled up in front of Tier, a swanky downtown nightclub and out stepped NBA all-stars LeBron James and Chris Paul along with a large entourage. They were hustled quickly into the club, which I wasn’t keen on paying the $450 cover charge to enter, but I did get a quick glimpse. Personally the street party was probably more interesting and certainly had better people watching opportunities.

LeBron arrives



Lebron James & Chris Paul