The masquerade's forever…

March 10, 2020









Big Country



The masquerade's forever…

I was trying to remember the last time that I went and saw the band Berlin in concert, my best guess is that it was in 1983, but unlike many bands that I saw back in the day, I don’t have a great memory of seeing them. I believe it was the Pleasure Victim tour and that they opened for Adam and the Ants, but it is a vague memory and one of the reasons that I really wanted to see them again, all these years later. I had the opportunity this week as the band was playing at a club in Miami with opening act Big Country and I snapped up tickets and planned for a weekend getaway in Miami with Kathy.

  Big Country- “In A Big Country”

Berlin was huge in the early 80s and this year are embarking on their 40^th anniversary tour. The band features original founders Terri Nunn, David Diamond and John Crawford and recently released their 8^th CD. Of course it is those early 80s hits that the crowd wanted to see and the band did not disappoint, I was actually almost as interested to see the opening act Big Country.

Berlin
Big Country was a band that I was also a big fan of back in the early 80s. The Scottish rock/folk outfit’s music incorporates Scottish folk and martial music styles, and the band employs their guitar-driven sound that evokes the sound of bagpipes, fiddles and other traditional folk instruments. They maintain a large cult following in spite of the tragic death of their original lead singer, Stuart Adamson in 2001 and have continued to tour with the surviving original members and the sound is still pretty close to what it was during their heyday.

Big Country





While Big Country was a great opening act, it was immediately clear when Berlin took the stage who the headliner was as the crowd crushed forward to watch Nunn and Berlin cruise through a set heavy with their 80s hits and still sounding and performing like they were still in their prime. It was a terrific performance and the crowd loved it. Terri Nunn came out into the crowd a couple of times, once riding on the shoulders of a security guard and really seemed to enjoy the adoration that came her way from the crowd, which definitely trended in the over 50 something range.

Kathy

Berlin



 



Taking advantage of being in Miami for the weekend we spent the next morning at the Perez Museum of Art Miami (PAMM), which we are members of, but had never actually visited. It is a cool art museum that has been collecting art since 1996. The focus of the museum is 20th century and contemporary art, as well as cultures of the Atlantic Rim, which it defines as the Americas, Western Europe and Africa.











At the time of the new building's opening, the museum's holdings included 1,800 objects, nearly 500 of which were acquired in 2013, including pieces by John Baldessari, Olafur Eliasson and Dan Flavin.  In its permanent collections, there are second half of the twentieth century and Contemporary works by Purvis Young, Joseph Cornell, Kehinde Wiley, James Rosenquist, Frank Stella, and Kiki Smith.  The museum includes pieces by the Cuban painters José Bedia Valdés and Wifredo Lam as well as the Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Damian Ortega, the Uruguayan Joaquín Torres-García and the Colombian Beatriz González.













After visiting the museum we walked down the street to the Arsht Center to catch the matinee performance of the smash Broadway touring show “Hamilton”. I had seen the show a few years back in Chicago, but Kathy had never seen what has been hailed as one of the best musicals on Broadway in ages and this show did not disappoint. The play was nominated for a record 16 Tony awards in 2016, winning 11 awards, including Best Musical. It also received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.









It all made for a splendid visit to Miami for a quick but packed weekend. Of course there were also still events happening in Key West that we participated in in Key West this week that included a lecture by our friend and visiting artist in residence at the Studios of Key West, Alice Hargrave. Alice presented at the Key West Library as part of the Key West Audubon Society speaker series.





Alice

We also went to see the movie “Primary Colors” at the Tropic on Super Tuesday.  1998 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Elaine May was adapted from the novel” Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics”, about Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign in 1992  which was originally published anonymously, but in 1996 was revealed to have been written by journalist Joe Klein who had been covering Clinton's campaign for “Newsweek”. The film starred John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, Maura Tierney, Larry Hagman and Adrian Lester.

Joe Klein

 

The coolest part about it was that author Joe Klein was on hand to watch the film with us and then spend a good hour afterwards answering questions about the book, his time covering the Clintons and the current state of politics in the world today. It was a fascinating evening and the movie really holds up quite well after all these years.







http://berlinpage.com/

https://www.pamm.org/

(Going back to find) A simpler place and time…

March 4, 2020

(Going back to find)
A simpler place and time…

Gladys Knight

Jed, Alice, Sarah, Naomi and Elena

Gwen Filosa

Karri Daley



There is an iconic singer that I have wanted to go see live for many, many years and for one reason or another, I have never been to see perform. There have been more than a few times that I had a chance to go and see the legendary Gladys Knight, most notably when I was in Las Vegas during one of her residencies there, but I never was able to actually go and see her, so when I saw that she was going to be appearing in Key West as part of the terrific season of entertainment at the Tennessee Williams Theatre at the College of the Florida Keys, I immediately bought tickets for Kathy and I and have been waiting patiently for this week to arrive.







I was not sure what to expect, at 76 years old, Gladys Knight could have possibly been a shadow of her former self, but I wanted to go regardless. If she was a shadow of her former self, then she must have been the most amazing performer ever, because her show was simply stunning. I could not believe the vitality and energy the woman displayed not to mention the pitch perfect voice that sounded every bit as astounding as ever. She bounded around the stage (in high heels no less) like a twenty year old and had the energy and enthusiasm of the legend that she is.







She had a terrific band and a duo of much younger but equally gifted young women singers with her and she went through a terrific 90 minute set full of all the classic songs from her iconic career with the Pips and her long solo career. The seven-time Grammy award winner was the show of the season at TWFAC and one of the better concerts of any kind that we have seen.

Michael and Howard



While certainly the highlight of the week, seeing Gladys Knight was only one of a myriad of entertaining and fun events going on in Key West as the season continues in full swing with events almost every night. My friend and colleague Howard was in town, staying with us for a few days as he had some work in the RPM office this week, so that was fun. He joined me at the monthly potluck to welcome this month’s artists in residence at the Studios of Key West.





Alice and Howard





This month’s artist include painter Sarah Williams, from Missouri, Alice Hargrave who is a photo based artist from Chicago and Naomi Gordon-Loebl who is a Brooklyn based writer. Kathy and I have been assigned as community host for Naomi and have had a chance to get to spend some time helping her get assimilated to Key West life while she is here and we have been fortunate to befriend all of the artists.

Naomi

Gwen, Elena, Kevin and Mark





The potluck is a chance for supporters of TSKW to meet the artists, see their work and interact with them. We also were able to attend Naomi’s awesome lecture at the Tropic Cinema as part of the Friends of the Key West Library’s lecture series. It was an awesome talk and the first of a few opportunities this week we had to support our friends and their creative endeavors. Our friend Katrin just released her new novel, “This Terrible Beauty” and we went to her first book release event at Shakti Yoga where she read and spoke about her brilliant new book.







Katrin



Stephanie

Gwen

We also went to see our friend Gwen Filosa, one of the funniest people in Key West and one hell of a reporter as well as she performed as part of Comedy Key West at the Bottlecap Lounge and went to see our friend Karri Daley perform an amazing set of live music at the Key West Theater to celebrate the release of her new CD, “Unapologetically Me”. And attended the 4^th anniversary birthday celebration at Judy Blume and George Cooper’s amazing book store, Books and Books at the Key West Studios.

Judy and George



Karri Daley



It was a busy week celebrating some truly talented, smart, entertaining and beautiful women who make our community a better place. How fortunate we are to either be the home to or to attract such creative talent and any of these events this week, may well have been a highlight of many weeks and here they were all jammed into a quick week of truly inspiring and enjoyable events.

Karri





https://sarahwilliams-paintings.com/home.html

https://www.alicehargrave.com/.

https://www.naomigordonloebl.com/

https://katrinschumann.com/

https://gwenfilosa.com/
https://www.karridaley.com/