Highwire Days

May 30, 2015

Psychedelic Furs 

Becky, Beth and Kathy

 

Highwire Days

After the month of May, spent in large measure concerned with Indy 500 events, it was a breath of fresh air to return to Key West and get on with my normal life- whatever that is. It was really nice to get back home to my lovely wife and cats, job and friends in Key West and to get back on the fast-paced wheel that is my life.

Before departing Indianapolis though, I had an extra day, Memorial Day itself to hang out, see some more old friends and decompress a little after a thrill-packed race day and also collect the winnings from the annual Indy 500 race Calcutta- where I cleaned up by scoring both the winner and last place finisher with Juan Montoya and Conor Daly both of whom I collected in a single bid of $250. In clearing $2500.00 in prize money, I multiplied my investment by 10 times. I also scored some additional winnings when the collective that I was part of another Calcutta scored 5^th place with Graham Rahal.

Dan

Nothing like paying for your trip with the winnings from the Calcutta. Anyway on Monday I spent the day visiting my friend Larisa and her baby, who were visiting her parents my friends Dan and Zintra. It had been a few years since I had seen her and it was my first meeting of her adorable baby. It was a great little visit where we got to catch up and hang out.

Larisa

Next I was off to another annual Memorial Day tradition, one that has been going on over 20 years, but that I have never attended as I generally take a flight home the day after the race, The Luedeman Olympics. The afternoon long party features a series of fun and games along with drinks and food and a complete tradition of its own complete with a hilariously altered actual Olympics opening that is played as part of the traditional opening ceremonies. It is a fun and funny event and I was thrilled to finally be around to experience it.

Kathy, Chuck and Adriana

Upon arriving back in Key West and reconnecting with my wife Kathy and cats, it was right back in to the swing of things when we attended a surprise birthday party for our friend Eileen at Uva Wine bar. Not exactly sure how surprised she was, but it was an evening of good friends, food and fun…and tasty wine.

Eileen

Sue & Chuck 

Jim and Kathy

By the time the weekend rolled around, I was on the road again, headed this time to catch yet another of my favorite bands, The Psychedelic Furs at a show at the Culture Room in Ft. Lauderdale. I headed up a little early because I wanted to stop at the nearby Funky Buddha Brewery in Oakland Park. I was happily surprised to find that they just happened to be hosting their second birthday bash at Funky Buddha just as I arrived.

 

They had specialty brews from tons of Florida’s best breweries as well as many special releases of their own to honor the birthday and the party included live music, an assortment of food trucks and thousands of happy people partying the day and night away under huge tents they had brought in for the party. I stayed and had a nice selection of yummy beers before heading over to the Culture Room to catch the show.

 

The Culture Room is a small, intimate space that is a great venue to watch live music, I had been there a number of times in the past and it was the perfect spot to watch the Furs again. I have seen the band numerous times since the early eighties including a few times in the past four or five years and they never fail to disappoint. Ripping through their new-wave hits of the 80s the band looks and sounds as good as they ever have.

 

It was like a nostalgic trip back in time as big hair, new wave clothes and a crowd composed of older, slightly paunchier denizens of the new wave clubs of the eighties were the order of the evening. As retro as it felt, the music itself was still fresh and fantastic as the band hit all the right notes as they covered all of their biggest hits.

“Until She Comes”

 

99th Running of the Indianapolis 500

May 26, 2015

David Letterman

Patrick Dempsey 

Perry Farrell

99^th Running of the Indianapolis 500

The Indianapolis 500 is in my DNA, I literally grew up on it, first going to the track at age 4 with my grandfather and father, there is still a grainy 8 mm home movie taken that day somewhere that shows me holding my grandfather’s hand wondering through the original museum at 16^th & Georgetown, walking past the old wooden garage area, looking in at those classic 1960s cars and then sitting in the stands gleefully watching cars take practice laps on the historic oval.

Rick Mears

 

Jason

I have returned to the Speedway every year since and have attended every Indianapolis 500 since 1973, when my father & I sat in the tower terrace through three days of rain & wreckage in what most agree was the worst race ever. It didn’t deter me at all, I was hooked and every Memorial Day weekend since has found me sitting in the stands watching 43 straight Indy 500s.  I was back again this year as usual, under beautiful May skies to attend what is the 99^th running of the race.

Arie Lyendyk

Johnny & Betty Rutherford

Danny Sullivan

Colts' Robert Mathis

Since this is one of Kathy’s off years, (she is an every other year attendee), my friend Dakota had other commitments and my sister and her boys were all out of town, I found myself not having the usual crowd that go with me around. Rather than be disappointed, though of course I was a little, I had the freedom to go to the race with my friend Kevin who also has pre-race credentials that get him in the garage, pits and track prior to the start.

Al Unser

Michael & Ryan Briscoe

 

Ryan Hunter-Reay

This enabled us to mingle about freely for all the pre-race hoopla and activity as the teams, drivers, officials and “celebrities” all did their pre-race rituals in advance of the start. There is nothing quite like being on the grid as they line the cars up for the start of the race. The place is packed yet there are still celebrities milling around with the common folk and the teams struggle to get the cars last minute preparations complete amongst the chaos.

 

Paul George

The pre-race rituals are traditional at the Indy 500 and include such things as a parade of celebrities, former Indy 500 winners, a tribute to our armed forces, pre-race prayer, the playing of Taps, the singing of America the Beautiful, Back Home Again in Indiana and the balloon release, the National Anthem and Military fly-over and of course the most famous words in Motorsports, “Gentlemen (Drivers) Start Your Engines”.

Kevin

 

Kevin & I had a great morning, arriving early to check out all the pre-race fun. In the garage area we ran into the stars of the TV series, The Deadliest Catch. The long-time fishing show featuring boat crews fishing in Alaska. It was cool to hang out with them and they were nice and interesting as well and seemingly having a great time.

 

Kid Rock

Andrew Luck

Other celebrities that I spotted included recently retired David Letterman, Olympian Nastia Lukin, Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Ferrell, Kid Rock, Fuzzy Zoeller, Indiana Pacer all-star Paul George, Colts QB Andrew Luck and actor Patrick Dempsey. Of course Florence Henderson was on hand to sing again, though sadly Jim Nabors was gone, betwereplaced by acapella singing group Straight No Chaser, who could not in my opinion do justice to Back Home Again in Indiana.

Nastia Lukin 

Dario Franchitti

Florence Henderson

Fuzzy Zoeller

The race itself was spectacular, close racing from the drop of the green flag when pole-sitter Scott Dixon charged in to the lead. Dixon would lead the most laps and have something of a dominant car early on.  Penske teammates Simon Pagenaud and Will Power both had strong runs, leading many laps as did Tony Kanaan who was in contention when he crashed out in turn four late in the race.

Juan Pablo Montoya had early wing damage when Simona De Sivestro hit him on lap 7, dropping him to last place. He spent the rest of the race steadily battling back in to contention and when the race was restarted after a caution with 16 laps to go, he was part of an epic shoot-out between Power, Dixon and Montoya that may have been the best three car battle in Indy 500 history. With four laps remaining, Montoya was able to slip past Power and then hold him off the final laps for his second Indy 500 victory (in three races), he last won in the year 2000, before heading off to F1 and NASCAR.

It was a thrilling wonderful Indy 500 and after all the concern about cars flying around, nothing like that materialized. The only sad part was that the Honda teams were down on power or else we might have had even more cars in the crazy final battle. I cannot wait until next year when the Speedway will host the 100^th running of the race.