Slow Down, You Crazy Child.

February 6, 2015

Billy Joel 

Erin

Slow Down, You Crazy Child.

The New Year is speeding by, already the first month is behind us and we move closer to the spring season. The month of January was busy for us, we had the 33^rd annual Key West Literary Seminar that preoccupied us early in the month and then the start of the weekly Friends of the Key West Library lecture series that I have worked on for the past three years. These events limit the amount of travel that I can do during this time of year, which happens to coincide with the busy Key West season so it sort of works out.

The lecture series happens every Monday night from January to March and it keeps me anchored in Key West for the most part. We are already coming up on our fourth lecture this Monday with cultural historian David Garrard Lowe having already featured Michael Mewshaw, Alison Lurie and Phyllis Rose to date in what have been amazingly successful presentations. The first two were held at the old Eaton Street Theatre, now the Key West Theater and the series is now being held at St. Paul’s church on Duval Street as new The Studios of Key West continues to be constructed.

Michael Mewshaw

Bruce & baby 

We had to move because of the first official theatre production by the new company, On the Rock Productions, “Bones and Pie” We attended opening night of the new play which featured short plays written, produced and acted by an all local team. It was a stellar show that featured many of our favorite and Key West finest actors including Chad Newman, Erin McKenna, Pony Charvet, Lliam Dufresne, Brandon Beach and Landon Bradbury. 

Caitlin & Effie

They were each fantastic in their own right, but the final play, written and directed by Michael Marrero and performed by Bradbury and Beach was one of the finest pieces of theater that I have had the privilege of seeing on a Key West stage. I hear they may develop it into a full length stand-alone play- I certainly hope this is the case- it was splendid. 

Fran Ford's 92nd Birthday

Kathy and I headed to Miami last weekend to see the latest Billy Joel tour. I have seen Joel a number of times, but it has probably been since his 1994 Face to Face tour with Elton John since I saw him last – which was over 20 years ago. I was curious how well he and his voice would hold up after all this time, but I should not have worried. He delivered a two and a half hour performance that was packed full of hits and sounded as good as ever. It was truly remarkable, especially since he mentioned that he has not released any new material in twenty-three years. He still managed to pack the American Airlines Arena in downtown Miami for a sold-out show that was really, really fantastic.

Joel looked and sounded terrific as he played through most of his biggest hits, frequently dipping in to his catalog for songs from his best album, “The Stranger”. We both loved the show. Before heading to the arena to catch the show, Kathy & I did a bit of shopping in Miami and I checked out an event called the Miami Beer Fest.

The beer festival was held at the home of the Miami Marlins baseball team, Marlins Park and it featured about 40 breweries mostly from South Florida and was a pretty enjoyable afternoon. The best of Florida, Cigar City and Funky Buddah were both on hand as well as a collection of the rest of the area breweries. South Florida continues to follow the trend that most of the nation is experiencing with the explosion of craft breweries that seems to grow by the minute.

 

Many of the booths featured at the beer fest were breweries that have yet to open permanent locations and others that have only been open a few weeks or months. The beer was hit and miss as you might expect, but the overall quality and abundance of the Florida beer scene continues to improve.

 

Miami