Changes of scenery

May 9th, 2008

Tonight I'm headed to Maryland for my brother's graduation and my cousin's wedding. My brother goes (or went, now) to Mt. St. Mary's, a small Catholic university in Emmitsburg, MD. (No, he's not becoming a priest.) People often ask me a) where Emmitsburg is in relation to a place in Maryland they've actually heard of (i.e. Baltimore), and/or b) you're Catholic? The answer to a) is, I have no clue. Much of my family is from that area -- a place with restaurants with names like Chestnut Logs and in close proximity to the Gettysburg wax museum -- so I've been spending summer vacations in cities that end in "boro" and "burg" a long time, yet if you asked me to get in a car from Baltimore or D.C. (the closest airports) and drive there, I'm pretty sure I'd end up in Delaware. And the answer to b) is, yes, but only by association. And I'm pretty sure my brother has only been in the on-campus church once, and I think that was because he was giving my mom a tour. I was amused, however, by the 18-year-old boys in priest-garb in the cafeteria. (They eat chicken nuggest like everyone else!)

But how, might you be wondering, am I going to relate this all back to Miami? Well, for one, the weather in E-burg this weekend: highs in the 60s, rain. In May. Really, it's just wrong. I have no solution for the graduation, but this is why there are destination weddings. I could use a weekend in Cabo right about now. Wouldn't we all? Or, hey, why not just have it down here? I wouldn't have to schlep to MIA and everyone gets a tan. It's a win-win, really. But what I like about that area is the fact that you can be in another state in under an hour. Drive into D.C. or Baltimore for the day. Take a train from D.C. to Philly or NYC. Down the road from my grandmother's house (somewhere on a mountain), there was a Mason-Dixon Line marker, where of course I took a picture of me (sometime when "jams" were popular) with one foot on either side. Driving is actually an aesthetically pleasing activity, with winding roads and the occasional wildlife spotting (hopefully not as it's darting in front of your car). Florida, as you all know, is a flat, neverending stretch of nothing. Nine hours will get you no where you would actually want to go. Nor would two hours, for that matter. There's only so many times you can go to the Everglades. Naples closes at 6 p.m. And why trek all the way to West Palm when I can find rich, Botoxed cougars right up the street?

But here's to changes of scenery, even if it's only for two days and raining. And 60 degrees. In May.

-- miaeditor

PARTY WITH US

May 7th, 2008

If Miami had an official drink (and they really should), it would be the mojito. A cold, minty, rummy, sugary-as-hell mojito. And if Miami had an official website, it would be Miami.com. Hey, that's us!

Ergo, we're having a happy hour - our first ever - tomorrow night (Thursday, May 8) from 6-8 p.m. at Nikki Coconut Grove (2889 McFarlane Rd.; 305-476-3600) featuring their Fresh Sugarcane Mojito on special ($6).

Of course, we know you wouldn't show up if we didn't offer something for free, so the nice Nikki folks will have a mojito tasting bar, from which you'll be able to sample all the different kinds of mojitos they offer. Think of it like the tiny spoon of free sample gelato you get at Parmalat. Except a little bigger and with alcohol.

So yeah, free alcohol (sort of), cheap (by Miami standards) full-size mojitos and our company. What more could you ask for? (Don't answer that.)

-- miaeditor

It's new to me

May 5th, 2008

I feel like my weekend is successful if I discover one new place that makes me say, "I'm so coming back here." (Because, so often, it's more like, "Scratch this hell hole off the list.") This weekend, I hit the hidden gem jackpot with not one but TWO new spots to add to my off-the-beaten-path list. Because it's my job to know what's new and awesome in Miami, I'm often asked to play concierge (or anoint myself so we don't end up somewhere with bottle service or $80 steaks). My mission for Friday night: to find a low-key bar/lounge south of fifth street with lots of space to sit and affordable drinks.

Enter Abraxas Lounge. This place is adorable. It's in an old house (the bathroom has a shower) on 4th and Meridian - wood floors, lots of plush couches and not a beer menu but a beer book. Like 120 choices: everything from Hoegaarden (Belgium) to Golden Pheasant (Slovakian). Each night has a different music theme, and Fridays was house. When I read this on their website, I grimaced, because if I had the choice between a hee-haw country music festival in Davie and the Winter Music Conference, I'd be in a bedazzled denim vest before you could say "these colors don't run." However... the description also said that the music was low enough to carry on a conversation, which is always a must when I choose a place to spend the evening (unless it's a concert, of course, then please don't ruin my musical experience with your incessant chatter). Other nights include everything from jazz and blues (Sundays) to indie rock (Wednesdays). So yeah, Abraxas Lounge. Check it out, I think you'll love.

The next day Legion Park on Biscayne Boulevard had their farmer's market. Small, but full of good stuff like organic mango custard with granola and homemade hummus. There's plenty to eat in the area now - Pineapple Blossom Tea Room, Kingdom, Karma, to name a few - but I had read about Garden of Eatin' on meatlessmiami.com and had been dying to try it out. Saying this vegetarian restaurant is off the beaten path is an understatement and a half. It's in a house (there's a theme forming here, I think), with a handful of tables and, when we went, a DJ playing in the parking lot (and, according to the owner, a jazz fest later that day). But you don't come here for the ambiance. You come for heaping portions of delicious curry tofu, stewed pumpkin, organic stir fry, tofu fritters and blazing hot scotch bonnet sauce. There's also ginger juice and lemonade and, on that particular day, vegan carrot cake. The earlier you get there the better, because once they run out of something, ain't no more in the back. It's a field trip, for sure, but so well worth it.

-- miaeditor

Ah, memories

April 29th, 2008

Like the Internet the day after an episode of Lost I have on TiVo, I tried to avoid everything that had anything to do with the demolition of the Orange Bowl. The video on the Miami Herald (have they no mercy?). TV news stories. The 836. The first two were pretty easy - after the day after the demo, the video would be buried and news would move on to the next tragic event. But the 836? At some point I would have no choice. That day was last week when I had to schlep to MIA. It wasn't as traumatic as I thought it was going to be, considering it's hard to look sideways for very long going, um, the lawful speed limit. But I felt its absence, the gaping hole where so many of my Saturdays were spent growing up. And it sucked. Warning: the rest of this blog entry is wicked sentimental and mushy.

I moved to Miami in 1980 when I was three years old. My dad accepted a job at the University of Miami and immediately bought football season tickets. Hence, I've been going to 'Canes games for a long freakin time. For a lot of that time I never saw them lose, thanks to their insane at-home winning streak. The people around us - though I don't know any of their names to this day and have never seen them outside of the OB - became our OB family, faces we'd see every other weekend, hands we'd high five after touchdowns, eyes we'd see well up after crushing defeats. It's the only place I've ever seen my notoriously mellow dad pump his fist, scream, yell things like "yeah, baby!"

When I went to college - at UM - I would spend the first half of the game in the student section, counting the seconds until halftime when I would head to the other side of the stadium to join my "family." I preferred tailgating with my dad's friends - fellow professors, mostly - to beer bonging with my fellow students. The food and booze were much better, anyway: those brutal noon games meant bloody Marys and omelets on the grill. Night games meant themes - Mexican fiesta, Oktoberfest, even Thanksgiving (one my mother was so not happy about). These were the people who watched me grow up - graduations, new boyfriends, new jobs, more new boyfriends.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this, but for me, the Orange Bowl wasn't just some dilapidated sporting arena. It was a second home. It was me and my dad's place. We have our season tickets for next season, of course (and the seats are decent, surprisingly), so new traditions and new memories will be made. But I'm still in mourning. Maybe I always will be - for Wide Left, for The Drive, for "the swagger." So in honor of the OB, here's some old-ass footage of the stadium in anticipation of a Police concert. Working on getting more footage, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, the University of Miami baseball team is ranked number one (yes NUMBER ONE) - go check them out against St. Mary's this weekend at Mark Light Stadium. (Which isn't going anywhere).

-- miaeditor

FREE MOVIE SCREENING

April 28th, 2008

There are weeks when I feel like I'm hemorrhaging money. Okay, every week. A little online shopping on Monday. Concert tickets on Wednesday. Dinner and drinks on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Which is why when the opportunity for free stuff presents itself, I hardly turn up my nose. (Squeal like a little girl is more like it.)

That said, here's your opportunity to save a little green and have a little fun in the process - if you like movies. (And who doesn't like movies?) Tomorrow night Books & Books presents a free preview screening of The Life Before Her Eyes, adapted from the book by the same name and starring Oooomah Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood.

Click here to download the coupon, where you'll also find a synopsis of the film and a link to the trailer. All you have to do is print it out and take it to your nearest Books & Books location for your free ticket, which is good for you and a friend. Just be sure to get to the theater early -- a ticket doesn't guarantee you get a seat.

Don't say we never gave you nothin'.

-- miaeditor

Lessons from Boulder

April 22nd, 2008

I just got back from a weekend jaunt to Boulder, Colorado to visit a friend, who has been there for a year writing a book about running (among other things). Boulder is the running capital of the U.S. Or something like that. What is certain is that this city loves it some fitness. Bike racks, I'm convinced, come standard with every car purchased, and there were people - lots of them -- actually biking up a mountain. A steep one.

Now, there are plenty of hardbodied folks in Miami - Miami Beach, at least - but they're mostly of the gym rat/lipo variety. They work out because they want to look good in clingy clothing, not to eventually one day compete in Iron Man. Granted, I have no desire to run a marathon - last year my New Year's resolution was to be able to do one pull up by the end of the year. Let's just say lifting my suitcase into the overhead compartment is still an issue. But I admire Boulderites' commitment to an active lifestyle, and a few other things:

They recycle. Big time
Not just bins at home, but plastic/aluminum and paper containers on pretty much every block. And people actually use them. Correctly.

They conserve energy
A ridiculous number of residential homes sport solar panels on their roofs, and the city now requires all new construction to obtain a certain number of "green points," earned by installing things like solar panels, energy-efficient windows and shade trees.

They fight the big chains
Boulder's equivalent of Lincoln Road is still all mom-and-pops - indie music and book store, microbrewery, candy shop - except for the new Cheesecake Factory, which apparently residents fought really hard against and most hate like poison.

They show their college football team some love
With a really awesome stadium. UM fans cheered in squalor, knowing a balcony railing could come crashing down from above at any moment, only to see the OB demolished instead of built back up to its original glory.

They're the headquarters for Wild Oats
Which was bought out by Whole Foods, I know, but it represents the city's emphasis on healthy living. This place is vegetarian heaven. I actually overheard some dude tell someone his wife was gluten-free, as if he were telling them she had two legs. I ate a tempeh Rueben in a pub.

All that said, I'm not moving to Boulder tomorrow. It's full of yuppies and hippies. You can't buy alcohol on Sundays. The official wardrobe is running shorts and hoodies. There's bizarro crime, like crazy janitor stabbings and Jonbenet Ramsay. And, well, it gets cold. But I realize when I travel to other cities how backward Miami can be and how far this city has to go when it comes to city planning. Sure, we can brag about our sunshine and our beaches, but take those away and I'm pretty sure we'd have something resembling Detroit.

I suppose this is where I give some motivational call to action. Write the mayor, ride your bike to work, blah blah. Instead, I'll leave you with an inspirational quote from the inspirational Boulder-to-Miami in-flight movie, The Great Debaters (think Remember the Titans but with famous author quotes instead of locker room antics), starring Denzel Washington and Forrest Whitaker: "We do what we have to do in order to do what we want to do." Discuss.

-- miaeditor

Bacardi B-Live VIP winners!

April 18th, 2008

Congratulations to the following registered Miami.com users who won VIP tickets to Saturday's Bacardi B-Live concert at Bayfront Park.

jrsnipe003 / cina07 / teekvo

They and their possee will enjoy the sold out show. Thanks to all who entered and registered.

We got your hook-up right here at Miami.com. Stay tuned for more giveaways and contests.

Win VIP tickets for Bacardi B-Live

April 17th, 2008

You heard the Bacardi B-Live concert is sold out? Don't worry. We got your hook-up right here at Miami.com.

We have a limited amount of VIP wristbands to get you into Saturday’s show at Bayfront Park. So click on the headline and down below in the Post a Review part of this blog entry write “HookMeUp Miami.com” and click Submit to be eligible. We’ll go in order, so once we run out of wristbands you’ll have to watch the show on the web.

Remember, you have to be a registered on Miami.com to enter, and only two wristbands per registered user.

Good luck.

Poppin' fresh features

April 7th, 2008

Everyone has their favorite websites. Some of us go through gossip withdrawal without a daily hit of thesuperficial.com. For others, it's a blog that makes you wish the author was your bff/neighbor/cube mate/hipster knitting circle buddy, like Mindy Kaling's (The Office) mindyephron.blogspot.com. Okay, maybe that's just me.

With that in mind, Miami.com is constantly trying to come up with stories that'll both inform and entertain. And hopefully amaze you with our Miami-loving savvy-ness. So, here are a few features we think you'll enjoy and will be seeing on a regular basis. Let us know what you think, and if you don't see something you wish you saw, well, then tell us, silly.

Under deconstruction: One of our resident wine lovers (we like the grape around here), Danny Brody, thanklessly visits high-end restaurants and tells us which bottles are a deal and which ones are just overpriced Ernest & Julio Gallo (no offense).

Culinary cage match: It's Brody once again, this time pitting a dish at a high-end resto against a mom-and-pop fave, like this week's Meatball battle with DeVito South Beach in one corner and Italian market Laurenzo's in the other.

Wino confidential: You don't need to sip car payment-priced bottle of wine in a chi chi South Beach lounge to have a good time. Our other resident wine lover, Dinkinish O'Connor, proves this with her new series. Wine makes a cameo in each of her tales, her first being a "wine spliff" of Sutter Home while encountering a cheating brother-in-law and cab sav-drinking stripper.

Save the date: South Beach isn't the only place to take a date. In fact, some girls might think that's downright cliche. So, we're compiling the "perfect date night" in 'hoods all over Miami: Coral Gables, Homestead, even Kendall (and it doesn't even involve going to Chili's or Town & Country mall).

These are just a handful of the new things we've got on the site. There's more to come, so keep checking back. In the meantime, I'll crack open this bottle of E&JG I've got under my desk. Cheers.

-- miaeditor

Quit playin' Games

April 2nd, 2008

A while back, a good friend of mine was reading a book (which he usually does). He was so intrigued/enamored/fascinated with it that he borderline forced me to read it. It was Neil Strauss' The Game. I like social experiments as much as the next guy. Nickel and Dimed & Stiff are two of my faves. For those of you who don't know, The Game is about how Strauss finds this cult/club (actually, I think his editor found it) in which below average Joes are taught the "formula" for picking up women. There are a lot of glossary terms that I won't bore you with, but the idea is to teach socially awkward guys how approach women using various tactics. It basically reduces human relationships to a math problem. I got about 3/4 of the way through the book before getting bored. Yeah, yeah, I get it -- you learned a new trick in school and now you can date a Playboy model but yet for some reason you're still unhappy. Because -- revelation! -- after playing the game too much, it gets old. Anyone who's played Scrabulous could've told you that.

Fast forward to last night. Strauss made an appearance at Books and Books in Bal Harbour to promote his latest gem, The Rules of The Game. I only went because my friend was putting on the event and she was worried there wouldn't be a big crowd, and "this guy is used to big crowds," she informed me. When I arrived, it was apparent my presence was totally not necessary. The crowd spilled out of the store, and it was 98 percent men, most of whom were under the age of 25 and under 5'8". I could immediately feel the little robot gears in their little robot heads turning, thinking of possible "openers" and whatever else they've been programmed to regurgitate. Thirty minutes late, Strauss strolls in, a statuesque 5'2" and 100 pounds (we could share clothes), wearing baggy black leather pants, suspenders, a crimson-colored tie and grey cardigan sweater (and then proceeded, multiple times during his presentation, to complain that it was hot). He kind of looked like Harry Potter, had Harry joined the Hogwarts alternative rock band. Of course, behind him was his entourage, which included an Asian girl with extensions and blonde streaks and a non-Asian girl with a video camera attached to her eye (apparently someone is making a documentary about Strauss).

I won't bore you with the details of his reading. He showed some Jackass-type MySpace videos, read some emails from guys wondering how to get unfortunate stains out of their clothes and what to do when a 5-year-old girl calls them ugly, then took questions from the audience. How/when do you go in for the kiss on a date? Why don't high school (yes, there are boys in high school using Game tactics) girls respond to the Game formula? I didn't know whether to think it was cute or sad. Probably a little of both. What I do know is that most of these guys don't need complex strategies, they need some basic social skills. I knocked over a book on my way in to the store -- not one guy offered to pick it up. I carried an empty champagne glass for most of the night, not one guy offered to get me a refill. I was standing (as were several other women) in a packed house. Not one guy offered me their seat. Call me old fashioned, but it's these gestures, not the ones found in Strauss' book, that'll get me to pay attention to a guy. I don't want to resolve some debate with your buddy you made up to start a conversation, and no, your big belt buckle and black nail polish (peacocking accessories) don't make you stand out, they make you look tres Daughtry. In other words, they make you look like a douche. 'Nuff said.

-- miaeditor