MC (and Coco) in da house
Clearing out a folder of photos and came across these. Just goes to show the fact that at least in 2008 and early 2009, I actually did get out of my house and into “da house!” (more…)
Getting in bed with the wrong guys — Sarasota’s vote on the Economic Development Ad Valorem Exemption makes me wonder
I voted no on Tuesday — against giving our local government leaders the right and power to decide whether some new or growing businesses will be eligible for property tax exemptions for as long as the next decade. Proponents of the Economic Development Ad Valorem Exemptions call these tax breaks “incentives.” I just call them kick-backs. (more…)
My Vote is No on Economic Development Property Tax Exemptions
I’m voting no tomorrow, August 24 — against giving our local government leaders the right and power to decide which businesses will be eligible for property tax exemptions for as long as the next decade. They’re calling the tax exemptions “incentives” to attract businesses, ostensibly to create jobs.
I’ve never believed in paying somebody off, bribing somebody, or giving something to someone to encourage them to do business with me personally, and I don’t believe in doing it as a city or as a county. Really, bottom line, if it wouldn’t be okay behavior for you personally, or for yourself professionally, then why is this kind of behavior okay when a government does it? (more…)
All signs point to stillness
Signs come at you in little ways at first, right?
Someone mentions their timing belt blew out on a drive to Orlando. You pass by a car on the side of the road with it’s hood up and a guy standing beside it with his cell phone out, looking hot and late for wherever he was headed. Later, you hear an ad on the radio for a discount on oil changes. Damn, you think. I’m definitely taking the car in on Friday to check out that rattling in the engine. But you don’t.
The weekend arrives. You’re at Publix and your car won’t start. You have to pay to get it towed; you have to call friends for a ride. And your borrowing your Mom’s car for work on Monday. (more…)
Heads up
I know, know for sure, I’m going to alienate some friends, family, maybe even a paramour or two with this blog.
But, HELLO!!? Can we please eat with our heads up? (more…)
Word of mouth works!
A month or so ago, I was on Cliff Roles’ radio show and he and I got into a conversation about service at local eateries in Sarasota. I chimed in about my experiences at the Word of Mouth restaurant on Osprey Avenue saying that I’d stopped going to the restaurant because of the repeatedly very unfriendly welcome my guests and I always received.
photo courtesy of WOM website
Sarasota: nearly seventh heaven
Who knows, really, what that phrase means anyway? But whatever it is, I think I’m entering it.
Yup. Today is the first day of my seventh year back here in Sarasota — and also the beginning of my seventh year of being in business for myself.
When I left Boston six years ago, I really didn’t have any idea what was ahead for me. I just knew that the city I’d loved — and the man I’d loved in it — had kind of beat the stuffing out of my heart. It was time to leave. With no expectations beyond surviving and carving out a little life for me and my cats, I arrived in Sarasota at the height of humidity and with the skies fraught with the maelstrom that would be Charley.
I slept on the floor that night; furniture not yet arrived from Boston (and wouldn’t show up for another two weeks). Einstein and Coco weary from their 30-something hour sojourn.
I bitch a lot about Sarasota — my hometown, really, and that of my family — but I’ve grown to love it, warts and winds and wackadoodles, all.
I still haven’t reconciled myself to the superficiality of what passes for relationships in this town, though; — god how I’d love to have a real conversation with someone that didn’t become something regretted or ignored or discounted later. Every now and then someone speaks something really real — but then they quickly withdraw and it — whatever that real thing was — is never mentioned again. And that continues to trouble me. Everyone in this town keeps everyone else at a considerable arm’s length. People dance around their emotions here. In my experience, nobody really says what they really think. It’s hard to get to the real person. If I ever leave it will be for this reason. Oh, and rising sea levels.
But, there are some genuinely lovely, nice people in this town, too. Men and women with whom I’ve shared drinks and walks and kisses — I just wish I could say I knew any of them better. What makes their hearts beat. What makes their hearts skip a beat. What their fears are; what made them fall in love and what makes them think they’re falling out of love. What makes them feel as if they’re breaking into a million little pieces and how they somehow pick all those pieces up again and get back in the game. I know they do it. They just don’t talk about it.
Want to know what makes my million little pieces stick together? I went on a drive over the weekend and captured just a few of the parts of Sarasota that have become my heart’s glue. I think this is going to be my best year yet.
Circle Books -- one of the first places to sell my book!
The view from the pier under the Ringling Bridge.
The fairy at the intersection near Florida Studio Theatre.
The catcus garden in my yard. I planted one tiny cactus that first August and now there are probably ten or more offspring. I actually love these plants.
The quiet place in my yard where lizards lounge on the Buddha and the jade plant seems to know all.
The view from my yard, late in the evening; not yet night.
Fear and loathing in Sarasota
Last night, I worked a bit late, stopped for dinner, and then was going to head back into my office and do a bit more, but stopped first in the kitchen to cut up some roasted chicken I’d bought as a treat for my cats. I stood there for some time at the counter, cutting, looking out the big kitchen windows into the yard, watching the dusk-feeding cardinals at the feeder which hangs at the edge of the carport. Calm night. I was looking forward to going outside around 11 pm and watching the Perseid meteor shower.
I fed the cats, cleaned the kitty litter, and stepped out to the carport area to throw the trash in the garbage can.
As I reached the garbage can, a black man suddenly appeared beside the bushes (not sure if he’d come through them or been walking along them), but it scared me so much — completely startled me, he was only a few feet from me, I hadn’t heard him coming — it was in my yard very close to the door, and I just dropped the trash and ran inside. (more…)
The “Summoned Life”
If you missed the David Brooks op/ed in Thursday’s Sarasota Herald Tribune, you might want to check it out online at “Two Ways of Looking at Life.”
This is the kind of writing I like to see and read in a newspaper. Provocative. Not appealing to the lowest common denominators, the trigger-pullers of sex, sensationalism, slamming, and sordidness, that far too often populate the ever-decreasing pages given to opinion and editorial writing.
Here’s an outtake:
Life isn’t a project to be completed; it is an unknowable landscape to be explored.
Wow. Lovely writing, and for someone like me — who lives by a to-do list and who rather stupidly takes very little time to enjoy life because “oh, I’ve got too much to do!” — well, this sentence stood out like a big blinking neon sign.
I wonder what would happen to my life if instead of waking every morning and saying “What can I accomplish today?”, I asked, “What can I explore today?”
Read Brooks’ column today — seriously. It’s worth your time.
Dog Days turn to Deal Days in August Heat
Yesterday, the Sarasota Herald Tribune ran an article I wrote about all the fun, completely FREE, things to do during the dog days of summer.
It’s got everything from free “street” music to where to find a summer-ending splash bash for your kids, complete with a free dinner from Lee Roy Selmon’s, free movies, free ways to fire up your brain cells, to getting your thrills watching Nik Wallenda doing a high wire act and maybe being filmed by the Discovery Channel in the process …
Photography by Herb Booth Booth Studio, Inc. Sarasota Florida; courtesy of Lazy Fairy Improv
including how to get free lessons in “improv” — with the Lazy Fairy Improv teaching you how to make ’em laugh — yes, all for free.
The story was the cover story in the paper’s TICKET section. You can read it online at: Free Fun!