November 27, 2014

Transcription

November 27, 2014

KEY NEWS
n WATERFRONT THEATRE
We wish we didn’t know
media have been in deep denial. So has
the majority of the population, especially
those who revere jet booms as “the sound
of freedom” and other emblems of state
power.
ey all so want to believe in the ability of our police to control themselves
that they have clung to the official story
that Eimers died of a heart attack that
had nothing to do with the way our
police arrested him. To that end, they
have believed that he was able to stand
after the take-down, that the sand was
inconsequential, that the 10 broken ribs
were from CPR and all police procedures
were acceptable.
But we now know that Eimers died
face down on the ground with our police
all over him, one proudly declaiming the
violence which put him there. And if
THE BIG STORY
BY RICK BOETTGER
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
e new video that has surfaced
showing Charles Eimers’ face covered
with sand and blood all over his ear is
such bad news that most of our society
just wishes it weren’t true.
A minority of people have been critical of the police action that resulted in
the new retiree’s death last anksgiving
on the day he was moving to Key West.
But the Key West Police Department,
the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the medical examiner, the state
attorney, the grand uury, our Civilian
Review Board, all our commissioners
and other senior city staff, and corporate
Cover • Fantasy Flight to North Pole, Dec. 4
e Key West chapter of the Silverliners along with Conch Flyer Restaurant
and Key West International Airport are making plans for the annual Fantasy
Flight to the North Pole. e Silverliners is a national organization that was
formed over 60 years ago by former Eastern Air Lines stewardesses who were
interested in retaining old and gaining new friendships and raising monies for
charitable purposes. Joyce Benavides and Bindy Blatt formed the Key West
chapter over 28 years ago. Since it was only the two of them, they have opened
up the chapter to non-flight attendants. ey currently have about 16 members.
• Every year the Silverliners host the Fantasy Flight to the North Pole. e Silverliners will transform the Conch Flyer restaurant into Santa’s Wonderland. Approximately 600 Pre-K children from Florida Keys schools will arrive by school
buses to attend this event being held this year ursday, Dec. 4. Children are
greeted by Santa’s elves as they enjoy games, crafts, snacks. ey are treated to
lunch, live music and a personal visit with Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Each child will
also receive a special gift from Santa. e organization relies on donations from
the community. To donate, contact Jan Kidwell. n INFO (305) 849-0143
3
www.konklife.com • NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 3, 2014
there is anything worse than the crime
itself, as we all know, is the cover-up
afterward.
e cover-up began as soon as Eimers
was with the EMTs. e police gave
them false information about the
circumstances of Eimers’ condition,
eliminating any chance the EMTs would
take the appropriate actions that would
have had any chance of saving him. e
second step was NOT getting witness
statements from the many people in the
area while their memories were fresh.
e cover-up continued with letting
Eimers’ body not only avoid a timely
autopsy, but letting him almost be
cremated. During that time, officers’
car cams were not collected by the state
investigators for weeks, by which time all
had been lost or erased. Proven witnesses
were not contacted — the critical video
of the sand and blood was retrieved in
two days after a phone call to a number
the police, FDLE, or SA never dialed.
Somehow the medical examiner made
a mockery of his profession by accepting
the police description of events, even
shredding pertinent witness statements
30 LET THE SEASON BEGIN!
n MEMORIAL
CHARLES EIMERS MEMORIAL 6 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 27, Thanksgiving
without reading them. He ignored the
sand and broken ribs, whitewashed it
all, and, appropriately, quit and left
the state.
e state attorney brought in a crack
police defense witness and no counterpart for the prosecution so a gullible
selection of your fellow citizens, representing the majority wish that this really
didn’t happen and would all go away, did
their best to accomplish just that. ey
accepted the police version of events,
ignoring visual evidence of the original
eyewitness video, instead believing the
charismatic police defender and the
write-and-run medical examiner.
Our hard-won Civilian Review
Board, facing the most vivid example
of why they were created, shamed themselves with their silence and inaction.
I don’t know how anyone in the state
can trust any investigation by our FDLE.
| Continued on page 12
E D U CATI O N N E W S
november 27-december 3
Published Weekly
Vol. 4 No. 48
PUBLISHER
Guy deBoer
MANAGING EDITOR
Ralph Morrow
NEWS WRITERS
Mark Howell, John L. Guerra,
Pru Sowers, Sean Kinney, C.S. Gilbert
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Larry E. Blackburn, Ralph De Palma
DESIGN
Dawn deBoer, Julie Scorby
CONTRIBUTORS
Guy deBoer Key News
Mark Howell Howelings
Rick Boettger The Big Story
Louis Petrone Key West Lou
Kerry Shelby Key West Kitchen
Christina Oxenberg Local Observation
Albert L. Kelley Business Law 101
Ian Brockway Tropic Sprockets
C.S. Gilbert Culture Vulture
Ralph De Palma Soul of Key West
Harry Schroeder High Notes
Morgan Kidwell Kids’ Korner
JT Thompson Hot Dish
Diane Johnson In Review
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Susan Kent|305.849.1595
[email protected]
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[email protected]
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CIRCULATION
Kavon Desilus ASSISTANT
William Rainer ASSISTANT
KONK Life is published weekly by KONK
Communications Network in Key West, Florida.
Editorial materials may not be reproduced without written
permission from the network.
KONK Communications Network
(305) 296-1630 • Key West, Florida
www.konklife.com
School Board names John Dick as
chair, approves contract with teachers
BY SEAN KINNEY
Monroe County teachers and school-related
personnel like bus drivers and janitors.
e teacher contract, negotiated by Superintendent Mark Porter and United Teachers of
Monroe President Holly Hummell-Gorman, is
retroactive to July 1 and ends on June 30, 2016.
e contract, which the UTM membership
ratified and the board subsequently approved,
includes so-called “re-opener” language that makes
the contract flexible enough to be adjusted along
with changing legislative mandates.
e new teacher contract includes performance
pay based on peer evaluation and student scores on
standardized tests, which accounts for 50 percent
of the “value-added model” that is used to determine incentive compensation.
Highsmith said he was “delighted” that the two
sides came to terms but questioned the percentage
of teacher performance based on test scores.
Meeting for the first time since the Nov. 4
general election, the Monroe County School Board
on Nov. 18 re-organized the chair and vice chair
positions while welcoming a new member
to the governing body.
Longtime board member John Dick was elected
to by his colleagues to serve as board chair for the
next year. Ron Martin, the former chairman,
shifted over to serve as vice chair.
Bobby Highsmith, who beat Stuart Kessler
for the District 1 seat, sat at the dais for the first
time. Highsmith replaced Robin Smith-Martin
who served one four-year term then decided not
to run again.
After the re-organization, the board proceeded
to approve a new two-year contract for unionized
CITY NEWS
Planning resignations rock department
BY PRU SOWERS
“We’ll figure out what to do from there,” Scholl
said. “Don [Craig] has so much invested in Key
West, he won’t cut us off.”
Indeed, Craig said last week that he will sign a
continuing services contract with the city to help
during the staff transition. He will focus on projects he has been involved with as City Planner, including the Peary Court housing development
plans, the proposed food truck ordinance and the
search for a suitable location for a new overnight
homeless shelter.
“It [continuing services contract] is the most
effective and efficient way to get things done
because we have two people leaving at the same
time. ere’s no way I’m not going to do this,”
Craig said.
One challenge in attracting top-quality candidates to fill Mallo and Craig’s positions will be the
cost of housing in Key West. Scholl confirmed that
one of the main reasons Mallo is leaving is because
of the high cost of living in the city, even on a city
salary of $44,402 with benefits.
“In the Florida Keys and Key West in particular, it makes it difficult to recruit people. You can’t
be a normally paid single household and think you
Two high level resignations in the Key West
Planning Department are leaving the city shorthanded during a critical time, but City Manager
Jim Scholl said he has a transition plan in place.
Both Don Craig, the city’s top planning official,
and Nicole Mallo, a senior planner who has been
with the department for six years, are leaving their
positions within two weeks of each other. Craig’s
last day was Nov. 21 and Mallo is leaving on Dec.
5. Coincidently, both planners are relocating to the
same state. Craig is returning to his home and wife
in Breckenridge, Colo., and Mallo to Denver,
Colo., her hometown.
Scholl said he has named Kevin Bond, currently a Planner II in the department, as the acting
city planner while a search is made to fill the position with a person who has 15 to 20 years’ experience in municipal planning. Scholl has reached out
to the Monroe County Planning Department to
see if they have any candidates to recommend and
Samantha Farist, Key West Human Resources Director, is also actively involved in the search for
candidates.
4
CITY NEWS
City Hall contract goes
to low bidder against
staff recommendations
BY PRU SOWERS
hall offices at Habana Plaza – costing
approximately $225,000 – commissioners voted a second time to hire Burke
Construction. Only Johnston and Commissioner Tony Yaniz voted against
Burke again.
“I feel like the emperor and his new
clothes and we’re walking around
naked. We were told we were on budget
and now we’re $1.8 million over,” Yaniz
complained.
Bender and his architecture staff had
assured commissioners repeatedly that
the project bids would come in at or
lower than his estimate of $15.5 million. Bender blamed the high bids on
rising prices that occurred between his
estimate and when the Requests for
Proposals went out. He said contractors
are so busy that builders in the Miami
area wouldn’t even bid on the project,
which helped push costs higher.
“We can [still] do it on budget. But
you won’t get everything on your wish
list,” Bender told commissioners at the
Nov. 18 meeting, saying that cutting
back on some of the design features
could possibly lower construction costs.
But City Attorney Shawn Smith
warned that the city could not award
the contract and then change the construction specifications without allowing all three contractors to resubmit
their bids.
“Costs went up,” said Scholl. “It’s
just a fact of life.”
Commissioner Billy Wardlow earlier
in the evening brought up another concern over hiring Biltmore Construction.
He pointed out that Biltmore was part
of Bert Bender’s team when the initial
design and cost estimates were made.
at early work may have given
Biltmore an unfair advantage when
Backed into a corner by higher than
expected construction bids for a new
City Hall, Key West City Commissioners went against staff recommendations
Tuesday, Nov. 18, and awarded the $15
million contract to the lowest bidder.
Clearly frustrated over construction
bids that came in $1.8 million higher
than predicted by project architect Bert
Bender, commissioners came close to
throwing out all three bids and starting
over. But warned by Bender and City
Manager Jim Scholl that it would take
at least six months or longer to redesign
the project, solicit bids and hear back
from contractors, Commissioner Mark
Rossi convinced his colleagues to award
the contract to low bidder Burke Construction Group, which came in at
$14,997,500.
at bid was $240,000 lower than
the bid recommended by planning and
engineering staff submitted by Biltmore
Construction. Although Burke Construction was rated the lowest of the
three contractors who bid on the project, which will retrofit the new City
Hall into the former Glynn Archer Elementary School building on White
Street, commissioners decided that price
was the overriding consideration.
“We’re sitting here discussing three
really lousy bids,” said City Commissioner Teri Johnston. “We’re being held
hostage here.”
Rossi’s first motion to hire Burke was
defeated, with Mayor Craig Cates casting the tie-breaking vote against the low
bidder. But after Scholl pointed out that
rebidding the project would have its
own costs, including another six
months of rent at the temporary city
5
CITY NEWS
Sunset deal swallows one tourist problem
BY PRU SOWERS
A hard-fought new contract between
the city of Key West and the Cultural
Preservation Society (CPS) that allows
the non-profit to continue operating the
Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square
solves one of the two problems that had
threatened the iconic tourist attraction.
City commissioners approved the new
five-year contract at their Tuesday, Nov.
18, meeting, settling the issue of whether
the CPS would be allowed to continue
its management of the 30-plus year old
event that attracts thousands of visitors
to Mallory Square every day. CPS has
been on a month to month agreement to
continue Sunset Celebration operations
since March, when its previous contract
with the city expired.
But the new contract also takes a
stand in the deep division that had split
the CPS membership both before and
during the negotiations. Performers at
Sunset Celebration, the sword swallowers, tightrope walkers and magicians,
performers who attended the City Commission meeting. Dale Pritchard, a
sword swallower who has performed for
decades at Sunset Celebration, as well as
festivals in Canada, Europe and the U.S.,
said he has never been asked to pay a fee.
“I have yet to see one anywhere that
charges a performer to perform. We don’t
get paid to perform. We draw the crowds
have traditionally not been required to
pay the daily set-up fee the CPS charges
the food vendors and artisans who also
are part of the Celebration cast. But the
new contract requires a flat $20 a day fee
from everybody, including the performers, to help bolster the CPS’s shaky finances.
at didn’t sit too well with several
for vendors to sell their wares,” he said.
Don Sullivan, a member of the CPS
board of directors, said the move to include performers, arguably the main
draw for tourists, in the fee requirements, was regrettable. However, it costs
the CPS $11,500 a month to manage
Sunset Celebration, including fees for
rent, insurance, pier management, cleanup and security.
“We don’t want to charge the performers,” he said. “We don’t know how
to make it more equitable for everyone.”
Some performers, however, were willing
to pay the fee. Mark Riggs, vice chair of
the CPS and a long-time unicycle and
ladder performer at Sunset Celebration,
said the event “is a goldmine” for performers, who can make hundreds of dollars a day from tips visitors give them.
Riggs said he makes a six-figure salary
from his performances. And City Commissioner Mark Rossi also weighed in,
saying the performers should pay something, even a donation towards the CPS’s
operational costs.
Concerns rise over for-profit use of public parks, beaches
BY PRU SOWERS
When it comes to Key West’s public
parks and beaches, just how far does the
term “public” extend?
at’s the question City Commissioner Teri Johnston wants to address
and which city staff is now researching.
While there is a long history of private
events such as weddings, yoga classes
and free movies using Higgs Beach and
Bayview Park, the number of for-profit
businesses using public spaces for their
own use is rising to the point where it is
becoming intrusive, Johnston said. She
cited an unnamed gym owner who recently began using Bayview Park for
many of his fitness classes.
“How do we handle our residents or
visitors who are using public property
for private profit?” she said. “is type
of activity is increasing. It’s on a really
steep rise as rents go up.”
Johnston cited a proposed plan to create a fitness trail at Higgs Beach, where
the city would install different exercise
stations at intervals along the trail. e
fear is that local fitness trainers will use
the trail for their clients, perhaps monopolizing the facilities. ere is also a
concern about the city’s liability if someone is injured on public property during
a private exercise class.
Options include requiring private
businesses to register with the city to use
public property. at registration might
include a fee, insurance coverage and
licensing requirements.
“ere are a lot of new businesses
springing up right now. We either make
some policy decisions or we don’t,”
Johnston said.
“It’s about protecting ourselves,”
said City Commissioner Jimmy Weekley,
who agreed with Johnston to direct city
staff to research the issue and come back
to the commission with recommendations.
Commissioner Billy Wardlow said
that while he agreed with imposing some
insurance and licensing requirements
on private classes or weddings, he did
not think a fee was necessary.
“As long as they have a license and
insurance so the city is cleared, I don’t
have a problem with it. ey are paying
6
taxes to use the property,” he said.
But Johnston said there are many
non-residents who come to Key West
to get married on the beach and who
do not contact the city to learn the
logistics of using public property or to
ask permission.
She asked her commission colleagues
to direct city staff to hold a public
workshop with local business owners
and event planners to get their input
on possible use requirements for public
spaces. City Manager Jim Scholl said
he will do that.
“We will figure out a date and a
venue and a time. And if we can identify
the individuals, we’ll call them in and
have a discussion,” he said. n
COUNTY NEWS
Revamping VA health
system falls short for
Key West veterans
BY JOHN L. GUERRA
a local doctor and not have to go to
Miami anymore,” Brentnall told Konk
Life. “Of course, when I pointed out
that they were within a 40-mile radius
of the Key West clinic, they did not
want to listen to me.”
e unique geography of the Keys
means only about 350 veterans in
Marathon — which is further than
40 miles from a VA health facility in
either direction — will benefit from
the new law.
ere’s the VA clinic in Key West that
covers veterans to Mile Marker 40 and
another VA clinic in Key Largo at Mile
Marker 102, so vets living north of Mile
Marker 62 are within a 40-mile radius
of a VA facility, too.
e 350 veterans are a small portion
of Monroe County’s 10,000 veterans
of World War II, Korea, Vietnam,
the Gulf War and other missions.
e law does help Key West veterans,
however, if they can’t get a timely
appointment for Miami-based services.
But there’s a limit there, too.
“If a vet needs an appointment in
Miami and they cannot get in within
30 days, the vet can be authorized to use
a local doctor the VA will assign, not the
vet’s regular doctor,” Brentnall said.
“Once again, this is kind of ambiguous,
because if the veteran is seeing a doctor
for a non-service connected injury and
has insurance, his insurance is required
to pay first, and the vet will have to pay
the co-pay, with the VA picking up the
additional costs, if any.”
Key West vets can get chemotherapy
and dialysis on the island now, but for
many other services and medical tests,
they have to board one of the vans the
county VA provides and ride the long
highway to Miami for half a day,
Brentnall told KonkLife in August. n
Lower Keys military veterans
thought the Veterans Access, Choice,
and Accountability Act of 2014 would
end the 14-hour van rides to Miami to
get MRIs and other medical procedures,
but that’s not the way it worked out.
e law, which funds a $10 billion
overhaul of the U.S. Veterans Administration, will allow the VA system to hire
local doctors, specialists and labs to treat
vets who live more than 40 miles from
federal VA facilities. e law is designed
to reduce the waiting time for veterans
by providing doctors and clinics closer
to where veterans live.
Confusion over the bill led many vets
to believe they would be allowed to get
MRIs and other procedures in Key West
because the Miami Veterans Healthcare
System is more than 40 miles away, said
George Brentnall, director of the
Monroe County Veterans Affairs office.
ough veterans thought the long
distance to a VA hospital made them
eligible, they are close to a VA health
clinic. So it was the proximity to a VA
health facility that determines eligibility.
Key West veterans are not more than 40
miles away from the Veterans Administration clinic on North Roosevelt
Boulevard, which means they’ll still have
to make the trip for some services.
Brentnall had hoped the law would
improve lives for local vets. “We’re hoping we’ll get more services in Key West
so veterans won’t have to go all the way
to Miami for medical care,” he said of
the proposed law in August.
Interpretation of the law didn’t go
the way Keys’ veterans expected, he said.
“Unfortunately, all the veterans thought
they were going to get a card and go see
7
CITY NEWS
McKenzie trial postponements continue
Rescheduled for January
BY JOHN L. GUERRA
e trial that was to take place on
Monday, Nov. 17, did not happen.
Again.
e trial for the Rev. John Wesley
McKenzie, accused of stealing more than
$54,000 from St. James First Missionary
Baptist Church in Bahama Village, has
been delayed for the sixth time, the
Monroe County Clerk’s Office online
docket shows.
at’s because the pretrial hearing set
for Nov. 10, a week before the latest trial
date, did not take place.
McKenzie was arrested and charged
in June 2013 after the church learned it
did not have enough in its accounts to
complete extensive renovations to its
church. McKenzie pleaded not guilty.
Monroe County Clerk’s Office docket
records show that the court has set 11
pre-trial hearing dates and six trial dates.
e trial may be rescheduled for January
more than two years after the alleged
crime began.
According to the online docket, the
latest postponement occurred after a
“stipulated motion to continue” was
filed on Nov. 3, which means the
prosecution and the defense both agreed
the case should be continued. e
continuance was ordered Nov. 10; the
next pre-trial hearing is not yet on the
online docket.
e delays in the trial have made it
difficult for the church to move on, said
Peggy Ward-Grant, a church trustee. e
city closed the aging building for safety
reasons, which means its parishioners
have no permanent church home.
ey’ve been worshiping at the
e trial has been postponed over
the past 18 months for various reasons:
When McKenzie fired Merrell Sands,
his first attorney, just weeks before
McKenzie’s January 2014 trial; as
McKenzie made arrangements for a new
attorney; when his new attorney, Alan
Fowler, was hired and requested time
to prepare McKenzie’s defense and
for other reasons.
Witness pretrial depositions were
taken Oct. 15, more than 16 months
after his June 2013 arrest.
KEYS’ Customer Services relocates, Dec. 8
Keys Energy Services Customer
Services department will be relocating
to temporary facilities at 927 Eaton St.
on Monday, Dec. 8, in preparation for
upcoming renovations to the KEYS’
Service Building.
Customer Services will close to customers at 1001 James St. noon Friday,
Dec. 5, to accommodate the move.
e department will reopen at 927
Eaton St. at 10 a.m. Monday, Dec. 8.
After Dec. 8, KEYS’ Customer
Service hours of operation will return
8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday,
except for Wednesday when hours
will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“e proximity of our temporary
Customer Service Center to our current facility should make for a seamless
transition to our customers,” said
KWAHS received Marion Stevens Fund grant
he new educational outreach initiative
received $10,000 from the Marion
Stevens Fund at the Community Foundation of the
Florida Keys to bring the museums to the schools and
the schools into the museums. Marion Stevens was
philanthropist, activist, gallery owner and arts patron
who helped shape the island’s arts community before
she died in Key West in 2000. Her fund was established as a donor-advised fund at the Community
Foundation of the Florida Keys in 2001. Her fund
supports organizations and programs in Monroe
T
Roosevelt Sands Center.
Another church official, who asked
not to be named, said he’s been asked by
potential donors if the church’s finances
are in good hands.
St. James’ finances are under the control of a third-party overseer, the source
said. e church has raised enough
money to continue the architectural and
permitting processes for the renovation.
St. James also plans to apply for
Tax Incremental Funds from the city
to finish its renovation.
A St. James First Missionary Baptist
Church restoration fund at Keys Federal
Credit Union is open for donations. n
County that benefit children, the visual and performing arts, abolition of discrimination, and improvement of quality of life for humanity and future
generations. n
INFO
www.kwahs.org
Executive Director Michael Gieda and
Board President Shirrel Rhoades accepted the
Marion Stevens Fund grant from current
advisor Michael Ingram.
| TODD FEIT
8
Lynne Tejeda, KEYS General Manager/CEO. “Our remaining departments will relocate to temporary
facilities at our Stock Island Generation Facility throughout the month
of December and renovations will
commence in January to upgrade our
Service Building to a hurricane
Catergory 5 structure.” n
COUNTY NEWS
LOCAL SERIES
County working
on free pump out
for boaters
BY SEAN KINNEY
e Monroe County Commission is
working with officials from the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection on a funding solution that will
allow boaters anchored in waters off unincorporated parts of the Keys to enjoy
free sewage tank pump out service for
another two years.
Commissioners on Nov. 18 meeting
at the Murray Nelson Government Center in Key Largo, agreed to send a letter
to state administrators who oversee
funding from the Clean Vessel Act. For
the past two years the county has used
this state funding to contract services
with PumpOut USA; in turn, vendor
provides the service at no cost to voters.
e pump out service costs $25 a
pop. In 2013, the state gave the county
$539,000 toward the service and the
county kicked in $340,000. In 2014,
the state funding went to $436,000
with the county putting up $329,000.
Marine Resources Director Rich Jones
told commissioners that, based on conversations with state officials, funding
could be cut significantly more.
“ey anticipate cutting funding for
PumpOut USA for our program… cut-
n All is true:
The Naked Girl in the Tree House
Headed west with
a broken window
A Serial Novel by
MARK HOWELL
ting it probably in half or even more.
We will not have the funds necessary to
continue that program.”
As it stands, the current contract
with PumpOut USA ends on Dec. 31.
e Clean Vessel Act funding cycle
ends Jan. 31. To cover the one-month
lapse, commissioners approved a onemonth extension with PumpOut USA.
Commissioners will also send a letter
touting the success of the program to
Department of Environmental Protection higher-ups and requesting a twoyear continuation of funding.
“Hopefully this letter will spur them
on to provide the funding we need—the
same level of funding as last year,” Jones
said.
And with the service funded for an
additional month, “Hopefully by that
time, the beginning of January, we’ll
have some knowledge of what [Clean
Vessel Act staff] intends to provide.”
Commissioner Heather Carruthers said
the county may have to eventually rethink the economics of the pump out
program.
“We get this funding, let’s not wait
until two years. I think we’re going to
have to, at some point, re-evaluate how
we fund this and whether we continue
to do it for free.” n
CHAPTER X
e morning of our one-hundredth day heading west across the
United States as two of the
Rolling States was the very first
time that I, om One (Brian
Jones) and my pal, David Carpenter (Keith Richards) slept in.
e lazy morning was thanks
to the highway patrol of
Wyoming, who’d escorted us to
police headquarters in Laramie
when a motorcycle cop took note
of two bullet-like holes in our passenger-side front window and
took no notice of the car’s declaration that we were rock stars.
e holes happened because of
my pathetic efforts to punch out
the remains of the window, sliced
in two when we drove out of our
first-ever drive-in movie without
removing the speaker.
“e hell they are,” said the
cop back at the station.
“But we’re the Stones,” said
David, explaining the whole
thing.
“e hell you are,” said the
cop.
It took the rest of the day to get
to the truth — or the lie. A deeply
disappointing experience for this
couple of limeys (the police chief ’s
word) raised on Broderick Crawford as the hero of “Highway Patrol” in a TV series already long
since gone by 1964 but only now
a big hit in Britain.
e situation landed on four
5K Hog Trot • Nov. 29
Run off that anksgiving turkey at the 21st Annual Hog’s Breath 5K Hog
Trot on Saturday Nov. 29. 8 a.m. start. Course runs through Old Town and
Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. Online registration until Nov. 26, or register at
Hog’s Breath Saloon, 400 Front St. Race package pick up at the Hog’s Breath
Saloon 5-7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 28, and 7 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 29. Free t-shirt for
first 300 entries; after-race raffle. Proceeds benefit Southernmost Runners Club
and Key West High School Running Program.
n INFO www.hogsbreath.com, (305) 296-4222
9
wheels once the motorcycle cop
left for home and the chief asked
us for a song. We gave him “Eight
Days a Week,” the latest hit from
the Beatles. It was a stirring rendition by David strumming on the
guitar with a surprising countertenor falsetto from me, fueled by
our amazement that the Laramie
leg of our invasion of the west was
so much wilder than we’d anticipated.
e chief loved it. Before he
left for home he told us we could
park in the station’s yard overnight
and gave us the address of a local
repair shop that might give us a
good deal on replacing the offending window.
We slept deeply through an uninterrupted night, right through
the arrival of the 4 a.m. shift
change. We didn’t leave there until
almost noon, with a wave from
the chief, now a confirmed Stones
(or Beatles) fan.
e west turned wilder still on
our way to the repair shop on the
outskirts of the city. We were still
on Main Street when we first encountered them. A rusty old pickup truck overtook our car at a
leisurely rate so that the driver and
passenger in the cab could check
out the sign scrawled in white letters along the electric-blue side of
our Plymouth Savoy: “London to
Los Angeles: e Rolling Stones.”
Once they were past us and
their rear profiles visible in the
truck’s rear window, we caught the
sweetest sight west of Lake Erie
College for Women in Ohio. eir
ON S T A G E
UPDATE
Fringe presents
‘Alice’s Parlor’
at St. Paul’s
From the Keys to the Congo:
Saga of Rip Robertson
BY MARK HOWELL
students of the Keys connections
to the assassination of President
Kennedy.
In the fall of 1960, Rip moved
A recent edition of the Miami
Herald featured a detailed account to the Florida Keys and with a fellow CIA officer named Grayston
about a daring raid by CIALynch operated a company on
trained and-funded Cuban exiles
in the Congo in 1964 that rescued Stock Island named Mineral
Traders. It was housed in a buildseveral Americans, including missionaries, held captive by Commu- ing that served as the headquarters
of the ferry that in pre-Castro days
nist forces.
A reunion in Miami earlier this had run between Havana and Key
month had brought together some West.
e cover for Mineral Traders
survivors of that event, one of the
most obscure firefights in the Cold was that it explored for oil in the
Dry Tortugas — but most Keys
War that occurred during a
locals knew it was a CIA front
shadow conflict within Africa beoperation.
tween rival Cuban armies and inShortly before the Bay of Pigs
volving the United States.
operation, a CIA officer named
But the Herald’s article missed
Jake Esterline traveled to the Keys
out on the Keys connections to
and went straight to
the story, which Konk
Mineral Traders. He
Life can reveal this
revealed to Robertson
week.
and Lynch details of an
e CIA agent who
upcoming “Bay of Pigs
led the Congo raid was
invasion” and that they
the legendary William
had been selected to
Robertson, who went
captain the boats that
by the nickname Rip.
would carry members
Born and raised in
of Brigade 2506 in the
Texas, he served as a
invasion.
Marine in the Pacific
Robertson would
theater during the SecRip Robertson
captain
a boat called
ond World War and
the “Barbara J.” and
then joined the newly
Lynch a boat called “Zapata.”
formed Central Intelligence
Agency to become a counter-intel- But the invasion failed because
President Kennedy at the last
ligence agent.
minute balked at providing air
In 1954, Rip participated in a
cover for the anti-Castro ground
CIA operation that overthrew the
democratically elected government troops. Sixty-eight of them were
killed and hundreds captured.
of Jacob Arbenz in Guatemala. In
Both Lynch and Robertson
that effort, he was joined by a CIA
became outraged by Kennedy’s
propaganda expert named David
decision to withhold support
Atlee Phillips, a name that would
ultimately become well known to
n Dec. 3-4-5-7
| LARRY BLACKBURN
‘Alice’s Parlor’ includes Janeen
Gracer, left, Gayla Morgan, Rosi Ware,
Jeanne Tindel.
SPECIAL TO KONKLIFE
Need something to energize you, to
rouse you from your food coma? Fringe
eater of Key West presents “Alice’s
Parlor: e Short Plays of Alice Gerstenberg” at 8 p.m. on Dec. 3-5 and
Dec. 7 in the Historic Rectory at St.
Paul’s Episcopal Church. For tickets,
go to fringetheaterkeywest.org,
keystix.com, or call (305) 295-7676.
For a schedule of ART! Key West
performances, go to artskeywest.com
Fourteen women and two men turn
a genteel parlor setting into a verbal
10
fencing match, battling the confining
gender roles of the 1920s.
e program is a compilation of four
timeless short plays by groundbreaking
American playwright Alice Gerstenberg.
e first, “Fourteen,” takes place in
the elaborate dining room of a beautiful
New York residence, where a celebrated
hostess is preparing for a meticulouslyplanned but ill-fated dinner party. Ever
Young follows a group of feisty older
ladies full of life, zest, and vitality
vacationing at a plush Palm Beach
resort.
“He Said She Said” takes place
at the end of the Great War; the peace
of a couple’s relaxed evening with a
society-girl friend is shattered with t
he arrival of a notorious gossip and
troublemaker.
Finally, in “Overtones,” a well-to-do
lady and a less-fortunate counterpart
forge a battle of proxies as their
subconscious, primitive selves debate
their choices in life and love.
e cast includes Monnie King, Ross
Pipkin, Sarah Goodwin-Nguyen, Kitty
Clements, Jodyrae Campbell, Annie
Miners, Deborah Snelgrove, Susan
Dimbath, Merle Dimbath, Diane May,
Kate Miano, Jeanne Tindel, Rosi Ware,
Janeen Gracer, and Gayla Morgan.
Toby Armour, Judy Hadley, Karen
Leonard and Tammy Shanley direct.
Alicia Merel plays Alice in the introductory and linking scenes; the crew includes Cynthia Kemeny, Ruth Cahoon,
Betty Moore, and Bob Rowand. n
INFO
www.fringetheaterkeywest.org
www.keystix.com
O N STAG E
Sinatra, Martin live again at Red Barn eatre
n Nov. 29-30
Frank and Dean
SPECIAL TO KONKLIFE
Rear, any weekday 1-5 p.m.
“is is not a tribute show,” said
actor/singer Art Poco, who perfectly
recreates the lubricated cool of Dean
Martin along with his partner Bob
Hoose as the ultra-smooth Sinatra. “It’s a
high-level theatrical piece that not only
delivers these guys’ music via a 16-piece
band track, but also brings the men back
to life, with their banter and jokes, and
the way they interacted with audiences.”
Poco and Hoose’s personal chemistry
perfectly mirrors Sinatra and Martin.
Poco says it’s eerie sometimes when they
look at one another across the stage.
“We’ve studied these men relentlessly,” he said. “eir mannerisms,
movements, speech. We constantly watch
videos, tapes and film. We have to make
sure we don’t overstylize the songs with
our own styles, so we bring ourselves
It has been reported that when Frank
Sinatra and Dean Martin walked into a
room, the energy in the place tripled.
Such was the wattage of the two men —
both icons of their time, acknowledged
as superstars before the term was even
coined.
And man, could they swing.
Expect that wattage to shine and the
swing to fly at 8 p.m., Saturday-Sunday
nights, Nov. 29-30, when remarkable
reincarnations of the two crooners step
onto the Red Barn eatre stage in
“Frank and Dean: We’re Back, Baby!” for
a limited two-night engagement.
Tickets for the two-night run are $35
and can be purchased or reserved by calling the Red Barn eatre at (305) 2969911 or at the box office, 319 Duval St.,
back to them by watching them all the
time. We don’t want you to watch us
pretending to be Sinatra and Martin.
We want you to literally believe you’re
watching the real thing and start
swinging with us.”
And swing they do, in a fast-moving
mix of 22 of the singers’ best-known
hits, from Martin’s Volare, Everybody
Loves Somebody, Ain’t at a Kick in the
Head, You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody
Loves You, and I Got the World on a
String, to Sinatra’s Come Fly with Me,
Fly Me to the Moon, e Lady is a
Tramp, My Way, and New York, New
York. ere are also several duets that
Martin and Sinatra did in rare dual
concerts that are not normally heard.
Mixed in among all the great music is
the slick, Rat Pack banter the two were
Fringe’s ‘e Price’ to delight holiday audiences
n Dec. 26-28
1st showing
SPECIAL TO KONKLIFE
e holidays are a time for families to
come together — even after they’ve
driven each other apart. Fringe eater
of Key West’s second production of the
season, Arthur Miller’s “e Price,” is an
American classic that provides an
unblinking view of family dynamics,
already on our mind during the holiday
season. On Dec. 26-28 and Jan. 2-4 and
Jan. 8-11, shows start at 8 p.m. in the
Garret of the Mel Fisher Maritime
Museum at 200 Greene St.
Director Murphy Davis points out
the “qualities in “e Price” that
| MONNIE KING
The cast of ‘The Price’ includes Melody Moore, left, Michael McCabe,
Peter King and Bob Bowersox.
resonate for all of us throughout our
lives, but especially during the holidays.”
e play features an emotional
reunion between two estranged brothers
as they dust off and sift through an attic
full family possessions, old scores and
drama, offering them to an ancient
furniture appraiser who turns haggling
into a commentary on life and
consumerism. In this conflict between
defending family values and fighting
for one’s own success, the brother who
became a cop — sidelining his career in
order to care for his father — finds
11
himself yearning to connect with the
brother who escaped the yoke and
became a famous surgeon.
Murphy Davis directs the cast
of Michael McCabe (NYPD officer
Victor Franz), Melody Moore (his wife,
Ester), Bob Bowersox (his estranged
brother, successful surgeon Walter
Franz), and Peter King (Gregory
Solomon, the entrepreneurial and
philosophical furniture dealer).
Tickets are available for $39 ($67
for opening night and reception)
at keystix.com,fringetheaterkeywest.org
or (305) 295-7676.
is year for the first time, the Fringe
offers season tickets that include four
productions “e Price,” “Private Lives,”
“Orson’s Shadow” and “CONCH
REPUBLIC (e Musical!)” for $145.
Contact Joe Viana, [email protected]
or (305) 296-4761 or (305) 587-4175.
Also contact Viana for a special opening
nights season subscription, which includes the above plays plus bigger and
better receptions. Available for $250. n
COMMUNITY
THE BIG STORY
| Continued from page 3
I cannot imagine how any such agency
could have done a worse job. ey did
not attempt to collect evidence like the
dash cams until it had disappeared.
ey took so much time that evidence
and memories
degraded as they
slow-walked the
process for almost
a year.
Most embarrassing, something
that must make
every officer himRICK
self cringe with
BOETTGER
guilt by associaC O L U M N I S T tion, is lead investigator Kathy
Smith’s involvement. She had been
married to and shared a child with the
current police captain in charge of the
men being investigated. e only more
inappropriate relationship would have
been if she were, say, currently married
to one of the officers at the scene.
e recent revelation of her having
signed a false sworn document to get a
mortgage is the final straw for me. You
might ask what signing an Affidavit of
Continuous Marriage four months after
getting divorced has to do with her investigating the death of Charles Eimers.
Here is what I take from that. She
signed a sworn statement that was egregiously false just to get a better deal on
a refi, even though it would become a
public record. It took me now just 55
seconds to ring it up on the Clerk’s
website, being able to read the “Dissolution of Marriage” one slot away from
the “Affidavit of Continuous Marriage.”
How could you believe anyone who
could sign such an easily discoverable,
indubitably criminally false oath could
be trusted to sign off on more hidden
matters? I believe everything she has
signed off on in her position should
n Bahama Village Art Program
‘Just4Kids’
Q&A with Mary Parmley
of the Bahama Village Art Program,
conducted by Julie Hanson.
When did you move to Key West
& where are you from? Origi-
nally from California, then Denver,
Colo., in 1982, where I raised my
daughter, Erica. After she graduated
from University of Northern Colorado, moved to Atlanta, married and
had two amazing kids, I knew it was
time to get my life together, and put
Colorado in the rear view mirror for
awhile.
I moved to Key West in June of
2011 (I had never been here) and
rented this (furnished) house on
Petronia Street online with three photos. I thought, cool, I live in Bahama
Village. I always wanted to live in a
village! It’s close to the beach where I
will sit and drink fruity rum drinks,
listen to Jimmy Buffet and count my
disposable income.
How did you get involved with
Just4Kids & Bahama Village
Art Center? I’m certain it couldn’t
have happened any other way… I will
try to keep this short. My first call in
Key West was to Habitat for Human-
ity to see if they had a ReStore and
met Anna, who got me involved with
them. Joined their Fundraising Committee and went to work on their
float for Fantasy Fest with Rick
Worth. He was working with the kids
next door on a mural so I walked over
to, what I thought was a day care center to meet him. Met the director and
Genevieve, who was running the program at the time, and I knew that day
I was going to be a part of Just4Kids.
Took over as director, and, well, here
we are!
What kinds of programs are
held there and the age group of
kids? Well, we pretty much did it all
when I first took over, but none of it
very effectively. ere was no funding, and basically one person (Gen)
trying to hold it together. My focus
was to grow the art program, community outreach and holiday events
already in place and see where that
takes us. Just finished our first Summer Camp where, I’m happy to say,
we were able to bring all Keys kids
together. ey did some pretty great
art projects, learned to swim and
snorkel in the ocean, explored the
12
be re-investigated.
From “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa
Claus” to “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” we want
to believe in the best in us. It is time
our city faced up to our collective
guilt, come clean and started
to make amends.
I hope to see you at the Charles
Eimers Memorial at 6 p.m. anksgiving, where he died on the beach at the
end of Duval. It is NOT a police
protest. It is simply to say we are sorry,
taking a small step towards appeasing
his poor soul, and the hearts of his
survivors. n
PLANNING RESIGNATIONS
can come down here and live in a normal dwelling. Housing is the most critical factor to being able to live in the
Keys,” Scholl said.
Craig is resigning for other reasons,
saying he was leaving “with great sadness.”
“I must, however, recognize my responsibilities to my family and my
health. ese, at this time, have led me
to this decision,” Craig said in his resignation letter.
Craig and his wife, Susan, came to
Key West 27 years ago. She now splits
her time between Key West and their
home in Breckenridge, Colo. Craig said
he will look for consulting work going
forward.
“is is the first time in 15 years I’ve
spent more than six months with my
wife,” he laughed. n
CITY HALL
it worked up its bid, Wardlow said.
“It’s not a good precedent,” he said
about awarding the bid to a company
that, at least in appearance, may have
had an inside track. “I don’t think it’s
fair to the public or the other contractors,” Wardlow said.
But Bender and City Planner Don
Craig, who was part of the bid evaluation team and recommended hiring
Biltmore, both said Biltmore did not
have an unfair advantage.
“Biltmore far outranked the others
by far, even the lowest bidder. In my estimation, it was a fair process,” Craig
said. n
IT‘S YOUR ENVIRONMENT
Mote Marine scientists seek
citizen input for Spotted
Eagle Ray research
TO THE EDITOR
TDB president responds
on Fantasy Fest
BY WILLIAM J. MURPHY
TOURIST DEVELOPMENT BOARD,
PRESIDENT
In light of recent criticism of Fantasy
Fest, I would like to address some of the
remarks made and detail what we do to
make Fantasy Fest the best event in the
Keys.
MARKETING
One common comment we have
heard is that our marketing efforts are
not promoting costuming. is could
not be further from the truth. We market Fantasy Fest through television,
print, radio, our website and in recent
years, through social media. Each year
we contract Digital Island Media to
produce a television commercial that is
aired in the South Florida (primarily
Dade and Broward counties) market.
is commercial, along with our print
ads, radio ads, and printed materials
promote Fantasy Fest as a 10 day party
for adults with a strong focus on fun
and creative costuming. In 2013, we
hired a full time Social Media coordinator to launch a large campaign promoting the event, again with a focus on
costuming. is campaign has generated over 6.3 million impressions over
the past year from our Facebook posts
alone, the vast majority of which relate
to costuming
COSTUMING, CREATIVITY
In addition to our marketing campaigns, we have taken additional steps
to promote costuming. For Fantasy Fest
2014, we worked with a new sponsor
for the Fantasy Fest parade, our marquee event. Our sponsor, 3Wishes.com,
is a large national costume and lingerie
company. Having replaced Captain
Morgan as the title sponsor, we worked
together to shift focus from alcohol to
costumes. On the schedule of events
page at FantasyFest.com, we even added
links below the majority of the parties
to costume pages on 3Wishes.com that
relate to the specific events. Together
with 3Wishes.com, we wanted to make
costuming as easy as possible for our
visitors.
To that end, we also chose a theme
that we felt would make for great costumes. In an effort to tap into the wildly
popular cosplay (costume play for the
uninitiated) conventions, we chose a
theme centered on anime. For 2015, we
want costuming to be even easier. With
the “All Hallows Intergalactic Freak
Show” theme, there is a great deal of
room for creativity, while those who just
want to buy a simple costume will have
limitless options. Between Halloween,
Space and Circus Freak Show theme elements, costumes will be easier than ever
to find. Whether they dress up as their
favorite Star Wars character, Ichabod
Crane or a bearded witch, costuming in
2015 will be simple, fun and will have
the potential for amazing creativity.
is focus on costuming and creativity
also applies to the parade floats. is
year, we had 28 floats from Key West,
six from the rest of the Florida Keys and
eight from outside of Monroe County.
We have received comments from
some who have been attending Fantasy
Fest since its inception saying that this
year’s entries were some of the most creative in recent years. Also, nudity on the
floats is strictly forbidden and we work
closely with the Key West Police Department to ensure that this is enforced.
Both the Police Department and Fire
Department inspect each float before
they leave the staging area.
BY ROBYN G. MAYER
ote Marine researchers are asking
for help from local citizens to contribute to their knowledge of spotted
eagle rays. Reports of any sightings
benefit the organization’s research on
the animal, and the team is particularly interested in Lower Keys sightings at this time of year.
Spotted eagle rays are sighted less
frequently or not at all in winter
months in the Gulf of Mexico but
seem to show up more frequently in
the Lower Keys when the temperatures start to drop.
Kim Bassos-Hull, a senior biologist at Mote Marine Laboratory, says
“citizen scientists” can prove very
valuable to the organization’s pioneering Spotted Eagle Ray conservation program. Local anglers,
snorkelers, boaters and divers report
sightings of the protected animal, researchers can add to data that the
team has been collecting since 2009.
Mote researchers initiated a conservation research project on the life
M
13
history, reproduction, and population status of the spotted eagle ray
(Aetobatus narinari) in 2009. is is
the first study ever conducted on the
species in the Gulf of Mexico.
Most of the study has so far been
conducted in the Tampa, Sarasota
Bay, Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound areas.
Citizens can use a form on the
Mote Marine website to report sightings.
“If you can get a photograph, that
would be great,” Bassos-Hull noted.
e nonprofit has tagged, released
and recaptured rays and also uses a
pattern recognition software that can
identify rays by spot patterns. e
study has made 476 observations of
1,140 eagle rays between 2009 and
2013. Most eagle rays are captured in
the Sarasota study area between April
and October. Bassos-Hull says they
likely migrate to the lower keys looking for food and warmer waters.
While the spotted eagle ray was
once considered a mostly solitary animal, it has been seen in groups of up
to 76 (Redfish Pass). Bassos-Hull said
THE
HOWELINGS
Listening in on Citizenfour
BY MARK HOWELL
quotes Snowden.
Snowden’s quote as Citizenfour
explains that: “e director of the
National Security Agency, Gen. Keith
ur nation has been
Alexander, lied to Congress, which I
graced, or perhaps
can prove. Alexander lied under oath
cursed, this anksgiving season with
that the NSA had ever engaged in the
one of the most important pieces of
mass surveillance of Americans that was
critical journalism in our history.
then going forward under the code
Written by David Bromwich, a pronames PRISM and
fessor of English at Yale UniKeyscore.” Citizenfour says
versity and author of a new
he could also demonstrate
collection of essays titled
that Gen. James Clapper,
“Moral Imagination,” it has
the director of national
just been published in the
intelligence, came no closer
December edition of e
than Gen. Alexander to
New York Review of Books.
telling the truth. When
“e Question of
asked, under oath by
Edward Snowden” is
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon
ostensibly a film review of a
MARK
whether the NSA collects
new documentary directed
HOWELL
data on “millions or
by
hundreds of millions of
Laura Poitras called “Citizenfour,” yet
Americans,” Clapper answered, “Not
it contains paragraphs regarding this
wittingly.”
country’s state of health so dire that
Clapper’s statement proved to be
your columnist is compelled to share
false in every possible sense of the
them with the general reader.
words “not” and “wittingly,” writes
Filmed largely in a Hong Kong hotel
Bromwich. e agency was indeed
room where the director met with a
collecting data, it was doing so in
whistle-blower who identified himself
accordance with a plan, and the
simply as “Citizenfour,” the film condirector had ordered no halt
tains information that “the American
to the mass collection.
public ought to know,” Bromwich
e film critic continues by quoting
O
he days are getting shorter and the breeze
in the air means only one thing — it’s
almost time for the 24th Annual Schooner Wharf Bar
& Galley and Absolut Vodka Lighted Boat Parade.
e nautical parade is 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13,
with festivities starting at 6 p.m. Enter your boat in
this community marine event, and parade your vessel
bedecked in lights and holiday spirit. Vessels of all sizes
— kayaks, dinghies, fishing vessels, sailing ships,
private yachts and charter boats — are welcome.
is year’s cash awards and prizes are $20,000 and
12 winning places awarded. Participating boats that did
not place entered in free raffle.
T
Calling all
captains!
Jacob Appelbaum, a freelance critic of
surveillance: “e extraction of private
information about Americans without
our consent makes one wonder how
it is that so many people associate
freedom with privacy while the same
people accept the idea that privacy
has been abolished.”
Regarding Snowden’s personal
history, Bromwich concludes that,
“He is mostly self-taught. He learned
to think, it seems, largely by using the
freedom of the Internet. So he cherishes
the memory of a better time. ‘I remember what the Internet was like before
it was being watched.’”
Snowden uses the English language
“with simplicity and precision — an
entirely different medium from bureaucratic sludge of Alexander and Clapper
and different, too, from the emollient
nothings spoken by President Obama
when he told us, ‘nobody is listening
to your phone calls.’”
Snowden is often called a “fanatic”
or a “zealot,” “a techie” or a “geek” by
“persons who want to cut him down
to size. Usually these people have not
listened to him beyond snippets lasting
a few seconds on network news. But
the chance to listen has been there for
many months. e temper and penetration of mind that one can discern in
full-length interviews scarcely matches
the description of fanatic or zealot,
techie or geek … Nevertheless, they
are likely to be repeated or anyway
muttered in semiprivate by otherwise
judicious persons who want to go on
with their business head-down and not
be bothered, as opposed to those who
do not recognize the constitutional
right of the government to put him in
prison indefinitely and bring him to
trial for treason. His action constitutes
a reproach to the many good citizens
who have learned what is happening
and done nothing about it.
e “strangest revelation” of
“Citizenfour,” says Bromwich in a
brilliant conclusion, is this: “Snowden
in his hotel room affords a picture of a
free man. It shows in his posture and in
a sense of humor touched by self-irony.
He is not haunted by any fretful
concern with what comes next. He is
sure he has done something he chose,
and sure that someone had to do it.
He acted in obedience to a principle;
and it was right that the actor should
disappear in the action.
‘e final value of action,’ wrote
Emerson, ‘is that it is a resource.’ It is
up to other Americans now to rouse
ourselves and find the value of Snowden’s action as a resource.” n
Entry forms now available at Schooner Wharf Bar
and the website. Registration $25.
Captains’ meeting will take place Friday, Dec.12,
on Schooner Wharf Bar’s upper deck with
complimentary Absolut Vodka beverages and
Schooner Galley hors d’oeuvres.
All captains encouraged to register by Dec. 11. n
INFO
www.schoonerwharf.com
(305) 292-3302
14
HIGH NOTES
n South Florida Symphony
Bailey provides
exciting opening
nIN REVIEW
with Harry Schroeder
e South Florida Symphony, formerly the Key West Symphony Orchestra, opened its season with a concert at
the Tennessee Williams eater, playing
music by Verdi, Prokofiev, and
Tchaikovsky. Sebrina Alfonso, the
group’s founder and music director, has
been temporarily sidelined by an injury;
her place on the podium was taken by
Piotr Gajewski, the conductor of the
National Symphony in Washington. As
substitutions go, it — and the concert
itself — could hardly have been improved on.
e Verdi, his Nabucco Overture,
opened with some full chords from the
lower brass and then from the entire section, all beautifully played. Later on, in
the Tchaikovsky, the brass section was
exceptional, one of the best I’ve ever
heard, here or elsewhere. Of particular
merit throughout was the playing of the
horns, especially that of its leader, Dan
Wions, which expressed musically a
wide range of emotions.
e Prokofiev piece, his Sinfonia
Concertante in E minor, written for the
great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, was played by Zuill Bailey.
Mr. Bailey is a local favorite, whose association with the Symphony goes back to
its beginning: He played at the
fundraiser dinner at Casa Antigua which
announced the founding of the Symphony, and since then he has appeared
here several times as soloist in concerts,
including an absolutely superb reading
of a Haydn concerto three years ago.
Reports of his playing elsewhere have
been highly enthusiastic, both for his
live performances and his many recordings: Over the years he has gained a reputation as one of the outstanding cellists
now on the scene. He certainly proved
that in the Prokofiev. His playing of the
many fast passages was exciting — the
man has technique to burn. But the best
parts of the piece, for me, were the slow
passages, simple, lovely melodies, where
he achieved a real sweetness.
e Prokofiev is an extremely long
piece of music, at least 40 minutes, but
Mr. Bailey’s endurance was equal to the
task—the energy and control didn’t flag
at all toward the end.
In the Tchaikovsky, the Fourth Symphony, the entire orchestra played with
an extra degree of precision, in part due
to Mr. Gajewski’s crisp conducting; this
was a considerable accomplishment,
since nearly all the players were firsttimers with the Symphony. e big
brass fanfares were of great strength
without ever being blown into distortion. e famous melody in the second
movement can easily be sentimentalized,
and often is. Not here: e emotional
import was kept within the bounds of
an honest intensity. e same could be
said of the entire concert.
Most of the principals, who played
the exposed passages, were new, but
there was no falloff in the quality of the
playing. In the Tchaikovsky’s first movement there was an elegant flute solo by
Mary Kerr; in the second, a bright
sprightly passage by Vince Pena on piccolo. In the Verdi, a short solo by the
principal trumpet, Jarrett Kocan,
sounded in style to be idiomatic to
15
people were getting a raise of $5,000
and other people were getting a raise
of $20.”
School-related personnel, as well as
non-union district staff also at the lower
end of the salary scale, received 50-cent
per hour raises.
Porter said all employees were treated
“equitably.” n
SCHOOL BOARD
SUNSET DEAL
“I would personally say I think that’s
one of the greatest flaws in the current
system,” Porter said. “It’s not only the
number itself but to put that kind of
weight and authority to it. I think
something that’s more like 35 percent
or something like that would be a far
better balance.”
Porter acknowledged that the new
salary schedule “gets a little bit confusing” but, “I think we have greatly simplified it and it’s an outstanding solution
that was, again, collectively and collaboratively reached.”
“Amen,” Martin, the former principal
of Coral Shores High School in Tavernier, exclaimed.
“e board’s stated goal was money
in the paycheck for Christmas and that’s
gonna happen,” board member Ed
Davidson said.
Dick noted that the teacher raises
range from $1,512 to $1,799 based on
the new salary schedule. He expressed
preference for the new system rather
than the former “step” salary schedule.
“With those steps, which were done
for all the wrong reasons, sometimes
“I honestly believe there should be a
happy medium. But, by the same token,
guys, if you’re using the services, you
should make a donation. ese people
[artisans and food vendors] are paying
the freight up there for people who are
tipping you,” he said.
e five-year contract also gives the
CPS the right to have an artisans-only
market in Mallory Square starting at 10
a.m. on days when there is a cruise ship
in port, another way to help the CPS
boost revenue. And Rossi suggested lowering the monthly rent the new contract
charges CPS from $6,566 to $5,000 as a
way to give CPS more flexibility in the
fees it charges its members. But no commissioner would second Rossi’s motion
and Commissioner Teri Johnston vetoed
the idea.
“It seems really reasonable to me,”
she said about the rent the city is charging CPS, which will remain unchanged
for two years. “We’re leasing out some
of the most expensive real estate in
Key West. Is this a hardship?” n
Wine on the Water • Dec. 7
“Wine on the Water,” an annual event sponsored by Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, Monroe County Chapter, is on Sunday,
Dec. 7. Registration 4 p.m. at dockage area of
Conch Republic Seafood Company, 631 Greene
St. Boarding Fury Catamaran 4:30 p.m.; departure 5 p.m. sharp. $85 per person
includes five-course pairing of Epicurean delicacies from Key West Chef Jose
Hernandez from Santiago’s Bodega. Wines from portfolio of Southern Wine
and Spirits, entertainment, gift bag, raffle prizes, spa treatments, dinners more.
Proceeds benefit FRLA Monroe County Chapter Educational Fund, providing
support for Florida Keys Community College hospitality programs and ProStart
culinary programs in Monroe County high schools. Event has raised $50,000 to
benefit county schools through scholarships, equipment, supplies, curriculum,
textbooks and support for their events. n INFO Tickets, keystix.com
16
Key West Callaloo
A pot full of island flavors
BY KERRY SHELBY
ountless versions of callaloo,
the spicy stew made with
tropical leafy greens, are found throughout the Caribbean. Arriving from Africa
with the slave trade, the recipes for
callaloo were modified based on the
availability of ingredients on each particular island. Jamaicans use amaranth
leaves in their dish, also referred to locally as pepper pot, while the Trinidadians, where callaloo is the national dish,
insist on coconut milk and dasheen or
taro leaves. Much like its cousin gumbo,
callaloo can be any number of things
depending on who you ask. Helpfully,
with their brilliant sense of simplicity,
Caribbean islanders eliminate some of
the confusion by just calling all their big
leafy edible plants “callaloo” rendering
the exact type of greens used in the stew
moot. We could learn a few things from
our Caribbean neighbors!
Since there is no one definitive recipe,
callaloo is a great opportunity to create
and experiment. I took some of the fundamental concepts (leafy greens, fresh
seafood, hot peppers) and dropped in a
C
heat and an authentic Caribbean touch,
but other peppers may be substituted.
Okra works well as a thickener and
harkens back to the African origins of
this lush, tropical stew.
Key West Callaloo
Separate the leaves and stems of 1
bunch of rainbow chard. Shred the leaves
into a chiffonade by rolling and thinly
cutting across with a sharp knife.
Coarsely chop the stems.
In a large Dutch oven, cook 4 diced
thick-cut bacon slices until crisp. Remove to a paper towel. Add 1 diced leek
(white and light green parts), 2 finely
diced garlic cloves, the chard stems, 1
small diced bell pepper and leaves from 4
thyme sprigs. Sauté until the vegetables
few non-traditional elements to lighten
the stew and amp up the flavors. Rainbow chard provides an earthly, flavorful
and less formidable alternative to the
thick, jungle-like dasheen and bacon
adds a hint of pork without the cooking
time of pig tails (although I am a big fan
of porcine offal). e seafood is purely a
matter of choice, but I recommend at
least one shellfish (either lobster or
shrimp) to add a little sweetness. A
Scotch Bonnet pepper adds its unique
17
are barely softened. Add 4 cups chicken
stock, ½ cup dry white wine, 4 fresh
diced tomatoes with their juices,
2 anchovy filets, 1 cup thickly-sliced
okra and 1 seeded, stemmed and finely
diced Scotch Bonnet pepper and cook,
covered, for about 20 minutes.
Add 1½ pounds of any combination
of shrimp, Florida lobster or firm white
fish such as grouper or wahoo, cut into
1” chunks, along with salt and pepper to
taste, and cook until the shellfish are
opaque, about 8-10 minutes. Add chard
leaves and ½ cup shredded basil leaves
and cook until barely wilted. Serve the
stew by itself or over cooked rice, top
with bacon and sliced scallions. • Serves 4
Wine pairing An aromatic
Gewurztraminer or Reisling
ENVIRONMENT
LOCAL SERIES | Naked Girl
heads and their long, dark hair were each
haloed by great white Stetson hats.
“ Cowgirls!” yelled David from the
passenger seat. “Chase ‘em!”
I nudged us closer to the truck’s rear
end. e girls both looked around. Dark
skinned, black hair. Beautiful. I backed
us off a bit. David’s eagerness could put
them off. I smiled and waved. ey both
laughed but the driver speeded up. e
address of the repair shop was coming up
fast. At the rate the girls were now going,
I guessed it was time to wave goodbye.
We turned off the road into the garage
while David kept up his pursuit scenario.
“Lost ‘em!” he yelled.
e repair was going to cost us for
sure but we’d be losers if we didn’t have it
done. While we discussed this with the
mechanic, who took his time absorbing
what looked like bullet holes in the window and some kind of ad on the side for
the Rolling Stones, whoever they were,
plus a note from the police chief that
mentioned the Beatles, we were in for a
surprise: Not just the lowball estimate
for a new window but the return of the
Stetson girls in the pickup.
ey’d done a U-turn, left their vehicle on the repair shop forecourt with the
motor idling, then begun to sashay their
way toward us in their epically huge
hats. And they were laughing.
Guess what, dear reader?
We were about to meet the naked girl
in the tree house.
Or were we? n
Next week: Winona is Lakota for firstborn daughter. Hadi is Lakota for stream.
Let the water run free.
JUST4KIDS
island and made some longtime friends.
November and December are filled with
lots of projects both after school and on
the weekends. We’ll be posting our
schedule on Facebook at Just 4 kids Key
West.
How do you financially get things
taken care of? Honestly, I wish I
could say we have a lot of community
support, but we don’t. With the exception of a few local supporters and my
personal friends outside Key West who
help us with special events, the funding
comes from that “disposable income” I
was supposed to be counting on the
beach, which has run out.
Do you have any fundraising
planned? is is the time of year where
I have my work cut out for me!
Just4Kids and (Mike Donovan’s 13 year)
Angels Just4Kids will help make the holiday a special time for 100s of kids in
Key West and Stock Island.
I know you have helped many
other charities through Just4Kids
and the Art Center.
We’ve done numerous events for AIDS
Help, SMART Ride, Habitat For Humanity, Cancer Foundation Florida Keys,
and KWHS to name a few. It’s a good
lesson for the kids to give back.
that the study will help the identify behaviors such as if they tend to travel in
groups under certain conditions, such as
for migration, mating, etc.
Rays are susceptible to boat strikes
when they move closer to shore to feed
on mollusks and other invertebrates, and
have also been injured by fishing line.
It is illegal to fish for or kill this ray in
Florida waters but they are not protected
under federal laws and international protections are limited as well. ey are
harvested for food in Cuba and Mexico.
e International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an organization
that establishes the conservation status
of species worldwide, lists them as nearthreatened with a decreasing population
trend.
In a research paper Bassos-Hull cowrote on the ray, she notes that there are
many aspects of the animal’s biology and
population status that are still unknown.
She said in an interview that the study
needs to continue for longer before scientists can document more conclusive
data. Bassos-Hull said rays are often seen
around reefs, where they hunt for bivalves, small fish, shrimp and other bottom-dwelling creatures.
e spotted eagle ray is a meso-predator, which means it is in the middle of
the food chain. If the ray declines, it will
mean less food for sharks, and a possible
overabundance of species upon which
the ray feeds.
e Mote website notes that other
rays have been found to possess biomedical properties that may ward off cancer.
Carl Luer, a senior scientist who initiated
and manages a marine biomedical research program of sharks, skates and
rays, said he has not included the eagle
ray in his studies because it is difficult to
get permits to study the protected animal.
Citizens are asked to report such details as location (as detailed as possible,
e.g. channel marker, GPS coordinates,
mooring hulls, specific reefs), water visibility, cloud cover, water depth, number
and size of rays sighted, whether they are
tagged, type of ecosystem where sighted,
among other factors. Photographs are ex-
18
tremely helpful. Bassos-Hull notes, “is
information is important to help determine hotspots for spotted eagle rays in
the Florida Keys and areas for future results.”
For more information on the Spotted
Eagle Ray and to access the sighting report, visit www.motemarine.org and
choose Research Programs from the Research drop-down menu. Scroll down
and click on the Spotted Eagle Ray Conservation box.
Mote Marine Laboratory is one of the
world’s few remaining private marine research laboratories and, as a nonprofit
organization, is funded through federal,
state and local grants and through the
generosity of individual donors and
foundations. n
HIGH NOTES | Bailey
Italian opera. It is always pleasant when
a soloist adds something
beyond simply playing the
notes correctly.
e substitution of Mr. Gajewski
worked out extremely well. He got from
his players just about all the emotional
power that 65 musicians can produce,
which was appropriate since that is Sebrina’s own forte, or one of them. In the
Prokofiev, his conducting was consistently sensitive to Mr. Bailey’s playing.
roughout the concert, it was full of
nice touches, the last of which was that
at the end of the Tchaikovsky, powerful
as the earlier tuttis had been, he had kept
a little extra back for the finale. At the
end of the concert, the audience gave
him and his players a standing ovation,
calling him back three times and would
have done it again if he’d let them. All of
this was a quite wonderful way to begin
a season. n
SHORTANSWERS
BY J E F F J O H N S O N n P A U L A F O R M A N
Womens’ clothes
Dear Short Answers: A friend of
mine gave me a dress approximately six
years ago. We were trading clothes like a
lot of females do. She gave me a dress
that she no longer wanted. I later turned
that dress into a cute “Tinkerbelle” Halloween costume. Now, two years later,
she asked me if I still had the dress. I
told her I gave it away. She told me it
was proper etiquette to first inform her
before giving it away because it was expensive. I was under the impression that
when you give something away, you no
longer have the need for it anymore. Am
I wrong in not asking her if she wanted
it back? Girl Friend
Dear GF: Women have extraordinary
relationships with their clothes. ere
are books on the subject. We would have
asked permission before turning it into a
costume! And taken that opportunity to
clarify the fine points of “give” versus
“lend.”
Extra spicy
all the time?
Dear Short Answers: My boyfriend
likes to have sex anywhere except the
bedroom. He says it’s more exciting and
it turns him on to have sex in the kitchen
or the bathroom. He thinks it’s even
better if it’s kind of public like the
laundry room in our apartment building.
I tried to get him to have sex at least
once in a while in bed, but he says he
can’t sleep in the same place he “makes
whoopee” (although he said this in a
much more vulgar way). It doesn’t really
bother me, but it kinda does. Do you
think this is just the tip of the iceberg
of his weirdness? Worried
Dear Worried: We are worried, too.
Most couples enjoy a bit of variety or a
“surprise” from time-to-time, but it
seems like he is pursuing danger and exposure. And more importantly, it sounds
like this does not turn you on. Time for
a no-nonsense talk — in private.
Kids and dogs
Dear Short Answers: Do you think
that getting a dog is good training
for young children and will help them
learn responsibility? Mom
Dear Mom: Only if they really want
the dog and YOU provide thoughtful
and firm guidance throughout the
process. Otherwise, you are looking
at mom’s new best friend.
Ask her
Dear Short Answers: How do you
deal with people who are crabby all the
time (specifically, my wife). She is never
happy about anything. and nothing is
ever good enough for her. Do I ignore
her and pretend she’s not talking? Or is
there a secret way to make her (finally)
happy? Unhappy, Too
Dear Too: Tell her YOUR problem.
Living with someone who “is never
happy about anything” sounds like torture to us. Ask her if she can tell you
specifically what you can do to help. She
may not know, or you may not be able to
give her what she needs, but at least you
will know where you stand and can make
your own decisions about the future.
It doesn’t begin
with the mirror
Dear Short Answers: Am I pretty?
Not Sure
Dear Not Sure: We have a hunch you
are very pretty. Convince yourself and
you will convince the world.
friends/spouses/escorts. Spare him your
thoughts on this matter.
A really short
answer
Dear Short Answers: I read in the
newspaper this morning that you can fire
someone who works for you because
they are TOO attractive and you might
be sexually attracted to them. Is that the
most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard?
What Do You ink?
Dear What: Yes. n
A friend with
opinions
Dear Short Answers: A wealthy, older
man who is part of my social circle of
friends, recently got married (for the
THIRD time) to a woman who we all
think is an escort or a prostitute or, at the
very least, an opportunist who’s had a
LOT of plastic surgery. We can all ignore
her past or her motivations but we can’t
ignore how insufferable she is to be
around. All she does is talk about money
in the crassest way. Are we justified in
telling “Alan” not to bring her with him
to parties and social events? I know they
are married but I doubt it will last anyway
Speaking for All of Us
Dear Speaking: You can pick your
friends, but you can’t pick your friends’
19
PAULA FORMAN &
JEFF JOHNSON
Life is complicated. “Short Answersisnt. Send a
question about whatever is bothering you to
[email protected] or go to
www.shortanswers.net and a psychologist and
sociologist will answer. A selection of the best
questions appear in Konk Life.
K E Y W E S T L OU
COMMENTARY
Why decapitation
BY LOUIS PETRONE
hopping off heads has
become routine for
ISIS. ey kill many. Not all by
decapitation, however. Significantly,
more are shot to death than lose
their heads.
It used to be that severing the
head from the body was done by a
swift swing of a sword or ax. en
there was the guillotine.
ISIS today uses a small knife.
e perpetrator saws through the
victim's neck. It is not a swift
procedure. Takes about a minute.
We live in a digital age. e
terrorists are then able to flash a
video of the execution world wide.
Why this method of execution?
Why not a shooting? Why not the
swift swing of a sword?
Terrorist experts suggest three
reasons.
e first is that ISIS wants
attention. Prior to head chopping/
neck sawing, terrorists relied on
plane hijackings, car bombings and
suicide bombings. e three events
became so commonplace that the
worldwide media was giving less
and less attention to them. Less
attention to the act meant less
attention to the cause.
e second reason is that the
Koran mandates decapitation. is
is questionable. However, there are
a few brief passages in the Koran
to support the position. e most
relied on can be found at Sura 47.4…
When you meet unbelievers, smite
their necks. Perhaps also the basis
for when Christians are captured
and given the choice to convert
or die.
C
UPDATE | Rip Robertson
e third reason is sick. Some
of those sawing away at the victim’s
neck actually relish the act. It is
emotionally pleasing. e reaction
has been described as an intimate
moment.
e United States and the
Western Democracies view with
horror the decapitations. Middle
East societies become more fearful
of ISIS.
Certain terrorist experts believe
that if decapitation were to become
as common place as hijackings,
car bombings, and suicide bombings
and receive less media attention,
that ISIS will be responsible
for less and less beheadings.
Let us hope so. May we get there
sooner than later. n
for the exiles on the beach. Lynch
eventually authored a book blaming
JFK, which he titled “Decision for
Disaster: Betrayal at the Bay of Pigs.”
e CIA Congo raid that Rip
Robertson would later lead is discussed
in another book, “Shadow Warfare,”
written by JFK assassination scholar
Larry Hancock, a long-time associate
of local researchers of the Keys’ connections to the killing of Kennedy.
Hancock is one of several of today’s
researchers who believe that Robertson
may have played a behind-the- scenes
role in the assassination.
Hancock has recently communicated
directly to those researchers about his
personal knowledge of Rip Robertson’s
involvement in the Congo and the raid
whose anniversary was celebrated in
Miami this month. His communiqué
reads in part as follows:
“We do know a good deal about
Robertson’s 1964/65 activities from
several new sources. ere was a U.S.
Military Assistance group active incountry whose role was working with
the Congo’s central government but it
did not have military people out in the
field doing rescues. e big hostage
rescue effort in 1964 involved
Robertson’s team of Cuban exiles
and Robertson was definitely the
team leader. It succeeded in rescuing
a group of priests and some nuns.”
(“I’ll do it,” he is reported to have
declared; and he was was also the only
American on the ground and his team
the only one doing hostage rescues.)
ere is one other missed Keys’
connection to the Miami Herald story
about the reunion of those rescuers. e
gathering was organized by Janet Ray
Weininger, who felt that Cuban heroes
and people such as Rip had never been
given the recognition they deserved.
LOU
PETRONE
COLUMNIST
20
“When I first heard about the rescue,
chills went down my spine,” said Janet
Ray, the daughter of a CIA pilot.
Here’s the connection: Five years
ago, two Key Westers, this writer, Mark
Howell, and Timothy Gratz, who
together have written and published
extensively on CIA and Cuban affairs as
part of their investigations into Castro’s
Cuba and the assassination of President
Kennedy, once shared a fascinating
lunch at Little Palm Island with Janet
Ray and several other women from
throughout the country.
ose women had one thing in
common: Each had lost a father in the
early 1960s CIA fight against the Castro
regime.
Weininger’s father had been a CIA
pilot whose plane was shot down
during the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
Several times, Weininger told us,
she had written Fidel Castro demanding
information on the fate of her father.
In 1978, Castro finally responded
to one of her requests.
“He answered me by sending me a
bloodied back-and-white photo of him.”
e photo showed the lifeless body
of omas “Pete” Ray in a coffin.
In an accompanying note, Castro
had written: “I have your father’s body;
I’ve kept him in a morgue.”
Castro eventually allowed her father’s
body to be returned to the United
States. Weininger was shocked and
saddened when the autopsy indicated
that none of the
injuries he suffered when his
plane was shot
down were life
threatening. He
was executed,
she discovered,
with a gunshot
fired at pointblank range to
the head.
Outraged, she filed a suit against the
Cuban government that Cuba did not
defend.
She ultimately collected a judgment
of more than $20 million.
Rip Robertson, by the way, died
in 1973 in Laos due to the effects
of malaria. n
CULTURE
VULTURE
By C.S. GILBERT
Painting and acting
and singing, oh my!
ast week we reported the art scene
heating up. is week it seems more
like a conflagration. It is as if there’s been an
explosion of the arts, and it’s not just Key West
but throughout the Keys. At the annual retreat
hosted by the Florida Keys Council of the Arts
at the Marathon Community eater, Nov. 20,
the 2015 edition of Culture Magazine was introduced, detailing a wide variety of cultural
events happening throughout the Keys from
October 2014 to September 2015. Resorts,
hotels and inns will distribute 35,000 copies
of the guidebook and — full disclosure —
I’m delighted to have written an article about
hands-on opportunities in fine art, music,
dance and theater.
L
***
Arts Council board member Ganine
Giorgione Derleth of Marathon is well known as
an international champion ballroom dancer and
teacher but explained, “I’ve been an artist my
whole life and at this point I wanted to put more
emphasis on it, so I decided to make it my
business.” To that end, retreat day also marked
the evening reception for her solo show at the
Marathon Community eater. While the
collection included some nicely done tropical
standards such as palm trees silhouetted against
the sunset, a variety of other subjects demonstrated a lovely, evolving impressionism. I was
especially drawn to two small seascapes —
Sailboat and Naples Pier — but, she said, her
newest work will be on a larger scale, such as
Crane Point, Adderly Lane and especially
Metamora, Mich.
See her work, giorgionefineart.com
***
e 300 block of Petronia Street in
Old Town offers some exciting viewing.
At Lemonade Stand Gallery, technology junkies
and drag queen fans will be fascinated by Johnny
White’s lenticular photographs, an amazing
before and after parade of local performers,
mostly in and out of drag (Gassy Winds, aka
Equity actor J.B. McLendon, is the exception —
no surprise there), which shift, appear and
disappear as the viewer moves through the
gallery. I could attempt to explain the process
whereby photos are electronically sliced into
miniscule strips and reassembled as a merged
image, but you just have to see for yourself.
e show runs through November. Don’t delay.
Ganine Giorgione Derleth’s oil painting, Crane Point, Adderly Lane
21
KEY BUSINESS
KEY WEST
What is the future you see for
It’sJust4Kids? Well, I have and will
RED BARN THEATRE
famous for, plus a few comic sketches
Martin loved doing on his variety show.
“I loved the old variety shows as a
kid, and Dean’s was the best,” Poco said.
“As I got older, somebody said I looked
like Dean Martin and I realized I could
sound just like him. So I started doing a
solo Dean Martin show – corporate
things, casinos, special events. Bob was
doing the same thing with a Sinatra
show, and we were both hired to do a
Rat Pack kind of thing in Las Vegas.
When we were done that night, we knew
we had to do something together – it
was just too much fun and sounded too
good.”
ey haven’t stopped since, doing upwards of a hundred shows a year from
New York to San Francisco, with several
stops in Las Vegas, the town some say
the Rat Pack’s entertainment wattage
helped build back in the day.
“You want to see the lively, slick fun
of a Sinatra-Martin Vegas show, this is
it,” Poco said. “We definitely swing.”
And the fun doesn’t end after the
show, either, as “Frank” and “Dean” will
join the audience for cocktails and photo
ops in the theater’s courtyard following
each night’s performance. Just be ready
to swing, baby. n
JUST4KIDS
How can someone donate to this
program? We need volunteers and art
supplies throughout the year, but especially during the holidays. Also we are in
desperate need of funding this time of
year. I can be reached day or night, (305)
432-7402 or email, [email protected]
TO THE EDITOR
continue to put my heart and soul into
this program. I have to make some serious changes next year as my personal
bank account is not an option for funding any longer. e programs are important and like every other charity it needs
to be managed like a business, and be
supported by the community it has
served so well for so many years. At this
point, I’m just hoping there is a future.
NUDITY
What’s coming up? Working on our
float and costumes for the Holiday Parade, but don’t have a flatbed trailer or
truck. If anyone can help us, please give
me a call. We need artists to work with
the kids on the tables and chairs we got
from e Hard Rock. We’re hoping to
have them painted and ready for sale by
Dec. 1. Friday, Nov. 28, we will be putting out our toy collection boxes
throughout Key West. If anyone is hosting a holiday party, we are happy to provide a toy collection box and information
about our program. Toys can be delivered to the Art Center, 727 Fort St. at
Petronia. Just give me a call at 305-4327402. Now through Nov. 30, Southernmost A.B.A.T.E. Toy drive, motorcycle
run. Look for toy collection boxes
throughout the Keys; Kmart, First State
Bank of e Florida Keys and Coldwell
Banker Schmidt Real Estate Offices
(Lower Keys). Run Rolls out of Kmart
Key West on Nov. 30 at 10 a.m., which
benefits numerous charities throughout
the Keys. On Dec. 6, Key West Christmas Parade. Dec. 7, Key West Woman’s
Club Holiday Open House. Bring a toy!
Benefits the Wesley House and
Just4Kids. Dec. 15, Trolley Tour and toy
pick up hosted by Angels Just4Kids and
Mike Donovan. is is a blast and just
for adults! Contact Mike Donovan at
305-896-9259. (We will continue to collect toys until the Just4Kids Christmas
Party on Dec. 21 at the Douglass Gym.)
Contact information is Mary Elizabeth Parmley, Director It’sJust4Kids,
Inc., a non-profit corporation,
(305) 432-7402, email at
Just4kidskw@hotmail
Occasionally, despite our efforts to
promote fun and creative costuming
events, a few festival attendees do cross
the line and disregard the City of Key
West’s nudity ordinance. We have taken
several measures to combat this. We provide a message on our brochures, rack
cards, social media, web site, print ads
and schedule posters informing participants that public nudity is illegal. In addition, this message is placed front and
center on the code of conduct cards that
we give to local hotels for distribution to
their guests during Fantasy Fest. We also
post signs throughout the “Fantasy
Zone” with anti-nudity verbiage as dictated by our contract with the City of
Key West.
BODY PAINTING
We do not work with body painters.
However, we understand that many who
attend our festival choose to don paint as
their costume. Because of this, our code
of conduct and website inform potential
body painters that painting must be
done in enclosed or screened in areas and
entirely out of public view. ose private
businesses which choose to host body
painters do so of their own accord with
no encouragement from Fantasy Fest
staff.
CHARITIES
Let us not, however, let a few bad apples detract from what Fantasy Fest
brings to our community. e festival
helps local charities bring in large revenues with some of their biggest fund
raising events of the year. is year,
AIDS help raise over $235,000 through
their Fantasy Fest King and Queen campaign. Also, several other events, like
Womankind’s Brazaar, the Pink Bras &
Claws Party at Pincers Crab Shack, Fogarty’s Red Party and many more, donate
money to charity. And finally, the beer
booths on the street during the Fantasy
Fest Street Fair and Duval Street Promenade all go to local charities.
INFO
(305) 432-7402
22
ECONOMIC IMPACT
While Fantasy Fest is great for charities, the overall economic impact on the
Florida Keys should also be remembered.
e event is responsible for the highest
hotel rates and occupancy throughout
the year. While overall hotel revenue for
the 10 day event was down 3% this year
compared to 2013 (due to inclement
weather), Fantasy Fest 2013 brought an
additional $3.6 Million in lodging revenue to Key West alone as compared to
the rates and occupancy for the weeks
preceding the festival. In addition to the
lodging revenue, Fantasy Fest is responsible for a great deal of media coverage for
the Florida Keys. Preliminary reports
provided by Newman PR show the value
of the media coverage generated during
this year’s festival at approximately $3
Million. Overall, the Monroe County
TDC estimates the economic impact of
Fantasy Fest on our county to be $33 to
$35 Million.
RELATIONSHIP WITH CITY
Despite the overwhelming success of
Fantasy Fest, we will not rest on our laurels. We work closely through numerous
meetings with the City of Key West’s
management to keep Fantasy Fest moving in a positive direction. We have done
everything city officials have asked of us
for the past 35 years and will continue to
do so. We will continue to evaluate our
process and continue trying to make
each Fantasy Fest the best yet.
STRUCTURE
Fantasy Fest is a trademark owned by
the Key West Tourist Development Association, Inc, a Florida not-for-profit
corporation. e TDA hires e Market
Share Company to produce and promote
the event with supervision from the
TDA Board of Directors. e Market
Share Company is also contracted by the
City of Key West to manage the event.
rough the numerous meetings attended by the Market Share Company
and city officials and staff, any issues and
concerns related to Fantasy Fest are
brought to discussion. Any course of action suggested by the City of Key West is
followed by the Market Share Company.
• William J. Murphy | TDB PRESIDENT
Aqua Nightclub’s 12th Anniversary Celebration
LARRY BLACKBURN | PHOTOGRAPHER
23
www.konklife.com • November 27 - December 3, 2014
TSKW Program Preview and Walk on White
LARRY BLACKBURN | PHOTOGRAPHER
24
WHAT‘S HAPPENING
branched out into other genres,
blending contemporary and classic
rock, country, pop and alternative
music. With a unique blend of
acoustic and electric instruments,
their enthusiasm makes you feel a
part of the music itself. Often joined
on stage by sisters Nina and Naomi
Newton, as well as younger members
of both families. Music fans of all
ages enjoy fun filled shows.
Sunday 1130
Marty Stonley/Toko Irie 6:30-11pm
Monday 1201
The Happy Dog Band 7-11pm
Tuesday 1202
Raven Cooper 7-11pm
Wednesday 1203
Tim Hollohan 7-11pm
Smokin’ Tuna Saloon
Schooner Wharf Bar
202 Williams St., 292-3302
n
Thursday 1127
Taylor & Clayton 7-11pm
Friday-Saturday 1128-29
The Doerfels 7pm-Midnight
Growing up in a musical family these
five brothers were playing instruments
from the time they could walk. Started
out playing bluegrass, they have
4 Charles St., (305) 517-6350
n
Thursday 1127
Scott Kirby 5pm
Caffeine Carl/Ericson Holt 9pm
Nick Norman 5pm
Caffeine Carl & Friends 9pm
Sunday 1130
Leetu 5pm
Chad Burtch & Friends 9pm
Schooner Wharf Bar
Biscuit Miller & The Mix
26
Caffeine Carl and Ericson Holt
9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 27, and Thursday, Dec. 4
WHAT‘S HAPPENING
J.W. Jones Band 10pm-2am
Canada’s top touring blues band
Monday-Sunday 1201-03
Chris Gelbuda 5:30-9:30pm
Singer-songwriter, one of Nashville's
brightest musicians. Fronted bands
across the United States bouncing
between reggae and ska, pop, rock,
country, world music and folk.
The Coal Men 10pm-2am
Dave Coleman’s Nashville smart-rock
Smokin’ Tuna Saloon
4 Charles St., (305) 517-6350
n
Monday 1201
Scott Kirby 5pm
Caffeine Carl/Nick Norman 9pm
Tuesday 1202
Scott Kirby 5pm
Chad Burtch & Friends 9pm
Wednesday 1203
Scott Kirby 5pm
Key Lime Pirates 9pm
Thursday 1204
Scott Kirby 5pm
Caffeine Carl/Ericson Holt 9pm
Nick Norman 5pm
Caffeine Carl & Friends 9pm
Sunset Pier
n Zero Duval St., (305) 296-770
Thursday 1127
C.W. Colt 1-4pm
Rolando Rojas 5-7pm
Friday 1128
Rolando Rojas 5-7pm
Saturday 1129
The Doerfels 1pm
CXL
Sunday 1130
Nina Newton Band 1pm
Robert Albury 5-7pm
Monday 1201
C.W. Colt 1-4pm
Robert Albury 5-7pm
Tuesday 1202
Tony Baltimore 1-4pm
Robert Albury 5-7pm
Hog’s Breath
La Te Da
Chris Gelbuda
Hog’s Breath Saloon
400 Front St., (305) 296-4222
n
Thursday-Sunday 1127-30
Jimmy Parrish 5:30-9:30pm
Native Floridian singing and playing
for 27 years, performing East Coast
since 1990. Formed The Ocean
Waves in 2000, entertaining Parrot
Heads with island-style tropical flavor.
Hog’s Breath
J.W. Jones Band
n 1125 Duval St., (305) 296-6706
Thursday 1127
Cabaret: Christopher Peterson’s
EYECONS, 9pm
Piano Bar: Dave Bootle, 9pm
Friday 1128
Cabaret: Randy Roberts LIVE! 9pm
Saturday 1129
EYECONS, 9pm
Piano Bar: BOYZ, 9pm
Sunday 1130
Tea Dance/ DJ Rude Girl, 4pm
Piano Bar: Black & Skabuddah, 9pm
Monday 1201
Tuesday 1202
EYECONS, 9pm
Wednesday 1203
28
WHAT‘S HAPPENING
MUSIC
LISTING
n Larry Baeder
Sitting in with Muddy
Waters almost spiritual
900 Duval St., (949) 777-6616
n
Mondays 8-11pm —
Eric from Philly
Tuesdays
8-11pm — Fiona Malloy
Wednesdays
8-11pm — Tom Taylor
Thursdays
7-9pm — Trivia Mania;
9pm-1am —
Chris Rehm/Open Mic
Fridays 8pm-Midnight —
Love Lane Gang
Saturdays 9pm-1am —
Eric from Philly
Sundays (Brunch) 11am-2pm
Rick Fusco/Oscar Deko/
Kerri Dailey
9pm-2am —
Industry Appreciation
“You can’t play American music
without feeling you’re a link in
the chain.” Larry Baeder
BY RALPH DE PALMA
arry Baeder was born
in Philadelphia and
raised in Kansas City/KC. Many
of the older jazz greats were from
KC and were still performing
when he was growing up —
Count Basie, Charlie Parker,
Lester Young. As a teenager, Larry
played a classical violin. At 15, he
could not get a girl to even talk
to him. After taking up the guitar
two years later, he was playing
almost every night and had a
22-year-old girlfriend who drove
L
McConnell’s Irish Pub
a Corvette. He thought, “Screw
the violin man.” e electric
guitar was invented in the United
States, it’s loud, and since the
1950s the guitar has been the
dominant instrument of our music
culture. It’s affordable, easy to take
it anywhere. From Baeder’s
perspective, the possibilities that
are playable on a guitar are,
mathematically, a lifetime’s work.
Baeder tried California for a
while, then quickly moved to
Boston playing with e James
Montgomery Band for six years.
Later he started doing studio
work, playing guitar for Buddy
Guy, Carly Simon, James Taylor
and many others.
At a point in his career he realized, if you’re a good jazz player,
you need to be pushed to raise
your talent level. He realized you
won’t get pushed by other players
like you would in New York.
Baeder moved to New York,
started playing guitar for the Soul
Legend, Chuck Jackson (Any Day
Now), a staple at the Apollo
eater, and he still plays with
Jackson in New York. It has
become the longest relationship
of his musical career.
Baeder was part of the rhythm
section for Isaac Hayes along with
Tony Garneir and Richard Crooks.
e Interludes, when Baeder got
to sit in with Muddy Waters, were
almost spiritual in nature. Another
Pinchers
712 Duval St., (305) 440-2179
n
Carl Hatley 1-5pm
Bobby Enloe 1-5pm
Carter Moore 7-11pm
The Cork & Stogie
1218 Duval St., (305) 440-2179
n
Friday 1205
December Upper Duval Art Stroll
6-9pm
Featuring the artistic creation of book
purses by Christine Bivens. Festive
whites and holiday reds, wine and
food pairing music by Greg Trudeau
and Lynn Dalton. Alice Weingarten
joins us for this special evening.
Free to attend.
Bourbon St. Pub
724 Duval St., BourbonStPub.com
n
Friday 1205
Turkey TurnAbout 5pm
30
75 years!
he 2014-15 season of the
Waterfront Playhouse will
mark 75 years of entertaining the Keys
community. Beginning as a group of
local citizens and military personnel
putting on theatrical productions, the
Waterfront has developed into a highlyregarded professional theater. To celebrate this major milestone, the
Waterfront has a smashing lineup of
large-scale productions. What’s in store:
• NOISES OFF by Michael Frayn
12/18 to 1/10
• SHE LOVES ME, In Concert, Joseph
Masteroff (book), Jerry Bock (music),
and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics) 1/20-24
Vincent Zito (Key West Pops) conducts
10 musicians in this musical about two
bickering co-workers who are in reality
anonymous romantic pen pals. Winner
of the Olivier Award for Best Musical.
• NEXT FALL by Geoffrey Nauffts
2/12-28. One of the most celebrated
plays in recent Broadway history.
• MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT
Eric Idle (book/lyrics) and John Du
Prez /Eric Idle (music). 3/19 – 4/11
ME AND JEZEBEL by Elizabeth
Fuller. 4/30 – 5/16
Special events include:
• TWO SCORE — A concert with
Broadway star, Terri White (Follies,
Barnum, Finian’s Rainbow, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and many more). April 14. 8pm
and sponsored by Keynoter.
• HERE’S TO US — Grand finale of
the 75th season celebration featuring
past Waterfront musicals with a host of
Key West talent. 8pm May 24. Sponsored by Konk Life. n
INFO waterfrontplayhouse.org
T
WHAT‘S HAPPENING
Birdman
he eccentric and semi-reclusive actor Michael Keaton
gives a breakthrough performance as
the one-time action star Riggan omson in Alajandro Gonzalez Inarritu's
"Birdman". Riggan is a mainstream
actor, attempting a Broadway run, with
his adaptation of Raymond Carver's fiction. omson is driven dyspeptic and
ulcerated by low self esteem. Perhaps as
a joking commentary of Keaton's own
role as e Batman, Riggan attempts to
dismiss his Pop history while at the
same time wanting to protect his legacy.
e actor is surrounded by mediocrity,
from the egocentric method actor (Edward Norton) to his slacker daughter
(Emma Stone) and his hen-pecking ex
girl (Andrea Riseborough) and feels stifled. Enclosed within the corridors of
the shabby but time honored theater,
Riggan is a Minotaur lost in a maze.
While the dialogue feels intentionally
long winded and circular, Keaton is
transformative as an acidic and fuming
big bad wolf trapped in the exhausting
fairy tale that is his life.
e acting is stellar, but where the
film really succeeds is in its magical realism as menacing buildings threaten to
overtake him, echoing the fantasies of
Terry Gilliam. Riddled with self doubt,
Riggan nonetheless has the aggressive
yet fanciful ability of telekinesis, hurling objects against the wall in menace.
It is possible in watching the film to
dispense with the plot, and just let the
kaleidoscopic verve of the Hitchcockian
cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki
absorb your eye. Shot in one continuous take throughout the two hours,
Lubezki shows us an inferno of Broadway, peopled with pale and eerie creatures reminiscent of Hieronomous
Bosch.
e final piece d'resistance of "Birdman" is in giving Riggan something of
the great Antonin Artaud in making the
theater a violent and propulsive act.
Like a cartoony and surreal shaman,
Riggan executes a Taoist pantomime,
highlighting a double world that exists
T
within our routine shadow play.
Whiplash
irector Damien Chazelle
(Guy and Madeline on a
Park Bench) has given us a spellbinding
quasi-autobiography with "Whiplash,”
zeroing in on a young music student
with heart, intensity and a squeamish
sense of detail.
Andrew (Miles Teller) is enrolled as
a jazz drummer at a prestigious New
York school. His footsteps are hesitant
and half hearted. Like Franz Kafka he is
pale and timidly-toned, invariably looking over his shoulder, for the aggressive
onslaught of sheet music that attack his
eyes like a family of bats. Andrew is
small and hunched despite his muscular
form. e camera is often low to the
ground. Andrew sees flies buzz about.
Shiny saxophones and trumpets seem
like lusty monsters that exhale asthmatically, needy and selfish. e soundproof walls transform into sheets of
medieval iron. With these microscopic
details that singularly make the film, we
have echoes of Darren Aronofsky's
"Black Swan."
e terrified and drooling Andrew
crosses paths with the snarling and militant Fletcher (J.K. Simmons). Fletcher
makes "Bad Santa" into Mister Rogers.
He is uncompromising, violent and frenetically scary. He would be right at
home in "Apocalypse Now."
An earnest and diligent pupil is no
match for the beast that is Fletcher who
just misses being dressed in the smoke
of satan.
Enduring insult after insult to the
point of collapse, Andrew drums on,
sweating and puffy like a refugee from
D
31
war.
In a few brilliant strokes like an
angry Expressionist painting there are
gobs of blood on cymbals. e student
tapes his hands like Jake LaMotta before a fight. Andrew becomes a machine
to the point of callously dismissing his
girlfriend Nicole (Melissa Benoist).
As tense as this story is, there are
moments of beauty. e drum set is as
much of a sorcerer's conjuring box that
pulses with valentine life as it is something to be feared and conquered.
e music itself is a force in this film
which features Hank Levy's Whiplash
and Ellington's Caravan.
While it at times flirts with a malevolent toxicity and harshness that is very
nearly grotesque, this is J.K. Simmons's
best film to date. Just when you think
Fletcher is about to grow permanent
horns, he backs away and becomes
human.
TROPIC CINEMA
416 Eaton St. • 877-671-3456
Week of Friday, Nov. 28, 2014
through Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014
Rosewater (R)
Digital Presentation
Fri - Thu: (4:10), 9:00
The Theory of Everything (PG13) Digital Presentation
Fri - Thu: (1:30), 3:50, 6:20, 8:50
St. Vincent (PG-13)
Fri - Thu: (2:15), 4:20, 6:35, 8:45
Birdman (R)
Fri - Thu: (1:45), 4:05, 6:30, 8:40
Whiplash (R)
Fri - Thu: (2:00), 6:45
WHAT‘S HAPPENING
CULTURE VULTURE
Another delightful visit on Petronia was across the street at Blue Turtle Gallery. Proprietor Teresa Willis
was, in another fairly recent life, a
very successful graphic designer I first
met when working on marketing and
PR for Impromptu Concerts. She
was very good at that, so there was a
bit of a stir when she turned entirely
to fine art. I’m happy to report that
her recent paintings are really lovely,
with a mix of visitor-pleasing icons
— her roosters, for example — and
some delightful originals.
Check them out, blueturtlegallery.com
| RALPH DE PALMA photos
MUSIC SPOTLIGHT
special moment for Baeder happened
while playing with the Temptations before an audience of 100,000 in a soccer
stadium when everyone began to sing
along with “My Girl.”
From Baeder’s perspective, “You can’t
play American music without feeling
you’re a link in the chain.” By that he
means a musician needs understanding
of musical history, not just who did
what when, but an understanding of the
intricacies of the differences that separates musicians from one another and
most importantly an appreciation and
thirst to learn those differences.
Without that, you are a “technician”
of music.
Later, Baeder married a lady from
Key West who didn’t want to raise kids
in New York. After 9/11 things really
dried up in New York and there was
plenty of work for a musician in Key
West so they moved here in 2002.
For Baeder, there is a sense that Key
West has a special appreciation for its
musicians. e music scene in Key
West is a living thriving organism. New
influences come in periodically.
Younger musicians keep the body of
music alive and growing. Larry Baeder
describes the Key West music scene as
“this living, beautiful thing that is truly
unique. It’s really a gift to be recognized
and embraced and should be treasured
and celebrated by Key Westers. e real
beauty is that ‘they do’.”
Don’t miss Larry Baeder’s tribute to
one of the greatest guitarist ever — Jimi
Hendrix, 9 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 26,
at the Green Parrot. is is becoming a
tradition that Baeder started in 2012 on
what would have been Hendrix’s 70th
birthday. is event usually attracts the
best guitar players in Key West playing
every Hendrix song you can imagine. n
***
As eatre XP’s lauded “e Poetry of Hearts” closed Nov. 22, a
flurry — no, a blizzard — of dramatic art was hovering on the near
horizon. Waterfront Playhouse’s seasonal kickoff, An Evening with Cole
Porter, ran last weekend and Key
West Fringe was gearing up for Alice’s
Parlor: e Short Plays of Alice Gerstenberg in the rectory of St. Paul’s
Episcopal Church on Dec. 3-5 and
Dec. 7. ere will be previews as part
of Art! Key West anksgiving weekend. Cited were Gerstenberg’s “feminism, involvement with the Little
eater Movement and tendencies to
question constraining social roles.”
Clearly my kind of woman.
Visit fringetheaterkeywest.org
***
Last, but certainly not least, the
Keys Chorale at FKCC is presenting
the community with a holiday gift: A
free concert of a wide variety of
music, from classical favorites to classic Christmas carols, usually in fresh,
new arrangements and a stellar new
Hanukkah number with special
effects at 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 5,
Footnote:
Larry Baeder is the president of the
Bahama Village Music Program and
teaches young people his love of music.
32
on the campus patio. e community
chorus, both a credit and continuing
education course, is this semester
over 60 voices under the hand of new
director Jim Cutty. It’s magical —
and, yes, I sing (or try to sing) tenor,
but often as not I’m tempted to just
enjoy being surrounded by music and
listen. Come bring a picnic supper
beforehand!
at’s all for now. Gotta fly! n
TROPIC CINEMA
Andrew, too, is very, very vulnerable
with a kind of Black Majick within as
he becomes an absolute Judge Dredd
of drumming, bloody and deliberate.
While such scenes veer into acidic
comedy in the tradition of the gore
soaked Amy in the recent "Gone
Girl," with the kid just short of leaving his skin by his drum box, the moments of Andrew leaving an empty
and dim hall, his shoulders whittled
down in exhaustion recall the solitary
of Edward Hopper or a painting of
the ashcan school.
ese painterly moments of
melancholy and heroic motion is reason enough to guard your neck and
see "Whiplash,” despite a Grand
Guignol shade of Buddy Rich.
Write Ian at [email protected]
n Dec. 5
Turkey TurnAbout
for Sister Fund
Enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner, 5pm,
and your favorite Bourbon Street
bartenders as drag queens in one
of the craziest drag shows, 10pm.
Side dishes for the buffet accepted
the day of the event. Donations
appreciated. Money raised goes
to the Sister Season Fund. The
Sister Season Fund is the charity
in Key West devoted to help locals
employed in tourist related industries when a temporary financial
emergency occurs through no fault
of their own. Sister Season is there
to assist with rent and utilities. As
these individuals represent the infrastructure of the tourism industry,
we do not think our island can
afford to lose them.
INFO sisterseason.com
Magnificent Casa de Mariposa
by C. S. GILBERT
KONK LIFE REAL ESTATE WRITER
fter writing real estate
features about lovely
Lower Keys homes, estates and condo
compounds month after month, it’s
hard to knock my sox off. The
elegant, expansive Casa Mariposa at
1401 Tropical Street, however, does
just that. Built in the 1950s but
gutted and lovingly redone in 2006
by the current owner, a landscape
architect and designer, the nearly
3,400 square foot home is situated on
a double lot of just under 9,400
square feet. Not a square foot of that
space fails to fill a specific functional
or decorative purpose.
This home is situated on the
corner and originally carrying a
Washington Street address. The main
gate is still located there, in a six-foot
wall landscaped all around with
plants comprising a butterfly
habitat—hence the home’s name:
Butterfly House. A secondary
pedestrian entrance from Tropical
leads between the two story guest
cottage (and enclosed double
carport) and the main house to the
pool patio and multiple doors into
the living room of the primary
residence. There is also a private
entrance into its first floor bedroom
wing, a generous space containing
two bedrooms (one huge), a hall bath
and a laundry closet.
Let me say up front that this
home simply contains too many
deliberately exquisite touches, large
and small, to detail in the space
allowed. One is the matching for
contrast of dark and light woods,
mahagony and maple; another is the
A
The Washington Street main gate to the
walled property, with its exterior butterfly
garden, here offers a view into the music
room and the living room beyond.
Soaring two stories to the vaulted ceiling,
the foyer/music room provides space for
performing and for listening.
One of the largest private pools in town graces the rear patio.
33
terrazzo tile flooring and bathroom
accents throughout, “custom designed
with bits of mother of pearl for the
sparkle,” the owner said. And it goes
without saying that all landscaping is
perfection, both for controlled
tropical ambiance and privacy.
The main door opens into a
17-foot square foyer/music room
containing a grand piano, seating
and a soaring, two-story ceiling
enclosing the front stairway and a
balcony housing an office and library,
part of the master suite above.
“Where we could vault ceilings, we
vaulted them,” he said, smiling.
Beyond the entry is the very large
living room, and to the right are the
dining room and kitchen, both
spacious.The kitchen is notable in
both design and appointments: two
walls are windows and doors opening
to the patio, which contains three
separate dining and/or gaming areas
plus roofed seating and open
sunning spaces. Most dramatic is
the L-shaped, 40-foot pool, seven
feet at its deepest and “one of the
largest private pools in town.”
A large island of Juparana granite,
containing a breakfast bar and a
stainless steel double sink, dominates
the kitchen, which the owner calls
“the heart of the house.” Above
granite counters, the backsplash is a
mosaic of complementary composite
granite tiles. The two ovens include
both an Advantium oven with both
convection and conventional
capabilities, as well as a flat cooktop
range, with cabinets and drawers in
the same warm mahogany of the
living room accents. “We love the
play of dark against light,” he said.
Continued on next page.
Magnificent Casa de Mariposa
Continued
“The heart of the house,” says the owner, is the gorgeous kitchen.
An umbilicus over the patio,
seen at right, connects the
master bedroom suite with
the second master-sized
suite in the guest house . . .
. . . which contains its own
roofed and curtained lanai.
The two-story auxiliary “cottage”
is accessed either from patio-level
doors (“our basement,” containing
storage and a large workshop with
room for a caterer’s staging kitchen;
light from a glass wall facing the
carport suggests possible use as an
artist’s studio), from a spiral staircase
from the patio or from a second floor
umbilicus from the master suite, a
very flexible space used as an exercise
room. The second floor houses a large
guest bedroom suite, also called a
second master suite, with a roofed
and curtained lanai/balcony and a
bath with the same upscale French
limestone vanity, bamboo cabinets
and tumbled travertine tile borders as
the other two full baths.
The 2006 renovation included
totally new “electrical, plumbing and
mechanicals” and exterior accents of
“Keystone caprock, the native
bedrock of the Keys” on stucco over
concrete—impervious to hurricane
winds. The renovation was done postWilma, with an eye to hurricane tidal
surge. “There won’t be any water in
here,” the owner said confidently.
This is a small estate with exquisite
attention to details, ideal for a
growing family, for people who
entertain lavishly or for a semiseparate in-law wing. It’s perfect as
it is—pristine move-in condition on
steroids—but there’s always room for
different tastes and more creativity.
To see if your chemistry connects
with that of Casa Mariposa, contact
listing agent Jimmy Olson of
Compass Realty at (401) 439-7021
or (305) 296-7078.
Konk Life welcomes subjects for
other articles about Keys homes
currently for sale. Contact Guy deBoer
at (305) 296-1630 or (305) 766-5832
or email [email protected].
The dining room opens to one of three additional, outdoor dining areas.
Note the contrast of maple and mahagony in the spacious living room’s woodwork.
34
1
2
3
4
5
Featured Home Locations
2
1
5
7
4
3
6
Key Haven
Stock Island
Featured Homes – Viewed by Appointment
Map # Address
1
#BR/BA
Listing Agent
Phone Number
Ad Page
1101 & 1103 Petronia St., Key West
Ronald McGregor, Beach Club Brokers, Inc.
305-294-8433
800-545-9655
35
2
4 Units
+ Cottage
3717 Cindy Ave., Key West
3BR/2BA
Roberta Mira, Florida Keys Real Estate Co.
305-797-5263
35
3
414 Louisa St., Key West
2BR/2BA
Frank Kirwin, Preferred Properties Key West
305-294-3040
305-304-5253
36
4
1401 Tropical St., Key West
4BR/3.5BA
Jimmy Olson, Compass Realty
401-439-7021
36
5
113 Front St., #206-7, Key West
3BR/4.5BA
Jimmy Olson, Compass Realty
401-439-7021
36
6
711 South St., Key West
4BR/4.2BA
Doug Mayberry, Doug Mayberry Real Estate
305-292-6155
38
7
12 Evergreen Ln., Key West
4BR/4.5BA
Doug Mayberry, Doug Mayberry Real Estate
305-292-6155
38
37
Key West Association of REALTORS®
keywestrealtors.org
Phone (305) 296-8259
Listing Agency
Lower Keys
A Key Real Estate
Prudential Knight & Gardner
Century 21 Schwartz
Coldwell Banker Schmitt
RE/MAX All Keys
Waterfront Keys Realty
Preferred Properties
Keys Commercial Real Estate
Engel & Voelkers
Sellstate Island Properties
Key West Realty
Key West
Bascom Grooms Real Estate
Truman & Co.
Island Group Realty
Lee Hanke Realty
Key West Realty
Sellstate Island Properties
Fax (305) 296-2701
Selling Agency
Sold Date
List Price
Sold Price
Street # Street Address
A Key Real Estate
Century 21 Schwartz
Key West Sunshine
RE/MAX All Keys
Waterfront Keys Realty
KeyIsle Realty
Keys Commercial Real Estate
Singh Real Estate
At Home in Key West
Century 21 Schwartz
11/14/14
11/14/14
11/14/14
11/17/14
11/19/14
11/19/14
11/14/14
11/14/14
11/14/14
11/19/14
11/17/14
11/18/14
11/17/14
$ 74,900.00
$139,900.00
$315,000.00
$199,500.00
$449,000.00
$315,000.00
$145,000.00
$829,900.00
$340,000.00
$399,000.00
$152,900.00
$279,900.00
$275,000.00
$ 70,000.00
$111,400.00
$287,000.00
$190,000.00
$433,000.00
$302,500.00
$120,000.00
$789,000.00
$325,000.00
$378,000.00
$130,000.00
$302,000.00
$275,000.00
Truman & Co.
Truman & Co.
Island Group Realty
Doug Mayberry Real Estate
11/17/14
$375,000.00
$350,000.00
2928 Seidenberg Ave
Key West
11/18/14
$949,000.00
$900,000.00
3725 Eagle Ave
Key West
11/12/14
$429,000.00
$415,000.00
1525 Von Phister St
Key West
11/14/14
$404,000.00
$390,000.00
906 Truman Ave #2
Key West
11/14/14
$599,000.00
$580,000.00
923 Angela St
Key West
11/17/14
$795,000.00
$750,000.00
1005 Watson St #1
Key West
11/19/14
$199,000.00
$199,000.00
1010 Grinnell St #C
Key West
11/19/14
$945,900.00
$925,000.00
811 Washington St #101
Key West
Based on information provided by the KWAR MLS from 11/13/2014 to 11/20/2014
31053
30411
29051
1646
27394
24740
701
70
131
530
5950
1
34
Avenue I
Seagrape Trl
Bigonia Dr
Pine Channel Dr
Barbuda Ln
Park Dr
Spanish Main Dr #651
Bay Dr
Sea Ln
Avenue D
Peninsular Ave #607
8th Ave
Miriam St
Island
Built
Description
Big Pine Key
Big Pine Key
Big Pine Key
Little Torch Key
Ramrod Key
Summerland Key
Cudjoe Key
Saddlebunch
Boca Chica Key
Big Coppitt
Stock Island
Stock Island
Stock Island
1973
1984
1989
1973
2014
1991
1989
1993
1973
2014
N/A
2006
1973
Mobile Home
Single Family
Single Family
Mobile Home
Single Family
Single Family
Mobile Home
Single Family
Mobile Home
Single Family
Boat Slip
Single Family
Mobile Home
3
3
2
2
3
2
2
4
2
3
0
3
2
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
31
30
29
28
27.5
25
23
15
10
10
4
4
3
1953
1958
1947
1933
1933
1933
1943
2007
Single Family
Single Family
Single Family
Condo
Single Family
Condo
Condo
Townhouse
3
3
3
2
2
3
1
3
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
Good Deeds sponsored by
6
Bdrms Wtrfrnt
MM
7

November 27, 2014

Transcription

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