The impulsive trip to Miami turned out to be a great little adventure. Around the film set, it was mostly a bunch of waiting around. You wouldn’t believe how much time and effort goes in to making each scene just so and how much stuff goes wrong in the process. The state-wide power outage is just one example, haha. Still, it was pretty fascinating to see the process and how things come together. In times of potential boredom, people tend to group together and entertain themselves through good old fashioned conversation. We ended up meeting some really interesting people this way.

We did get some time away from the set and explored Little Havana which had some incredibly inexpensive tasty Cuban nosh. I highly recommend Exquisito if you are ever in the area. The specials are like 6 bucks, home cooked and portioned in disgustingly indulgent portions. The cafe con leche practically everywhere in Little Havana is divine. I am actually craving it as I type this.  Also, make sure to bring a bat.  No, not because the area is dangerous, but so you can bludgeon giant fiberglass painted roosters.  Apparently, they were installed in the area for tourism purposes, but the drug dealers suspected cameras were installed in their eyes and took to smashing and tearing the roosters to bits.  I guess eventually the rumor was squelched though, because i saw about 6 or 7 of the things in tact.

We also wandered around South Beach which had some cool shops, 99% of which are way over-priced. Boo!Hiss! We passed by Miami Ink‘s new digs: Love Hate and gawked for about 5 seconds through the window just because you have to. It was kinda neat since I watch the show occasionally.

Later, we learned that Love Hate is also bar/lounge (different location). We headed over to check it out and Jim actually ended up jamming with singer/songwriter Jesse Jackson who was performing that night. I really liked the place. It’s not all pretentious like a lot of Miami nightlife. It’s small, a nice little venue for live music and they make good drinks at reasonable prices. Plus, the tatoo decor on the bar and walls was fun to take pics of. Wee!

After just under a week of sleeping in the back of an SUV or on the floor of a warehouse, (thanks Joe!), we were pretty damn wrecked but upon returning to St. Pete Jim had a gig at an art opening for metal sculpture artist Paul Eppling.  Eppling does amazing work so I dragged my tired butt over and checked it out.  What an incredible imagination and amount of foresight Eppling has.  He uses a lot of scrap metal in his work and found objects to create wonderful creatures, animals and foliage.  I don’t know how he does it but I’m glad he does and i was able to see so many pieces up close.

That’s all for now.  See you next week.

<3 calan

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