Here is another shot of the Design District, just north of downtown Miami. It is deserted as usual. The game-plan is a mystery, placing such high prices in an area where there are no natural customers. I don’t know many people who will pay $450 for a table lamp. I was down there to hand out fliers because my 10:00 a.m. didn’t show and I needed the money. The office on the corner was closing and I was recruiting.
To patronize the arts, I had a sandwich and a coffee. This set me back $9 so I decided I like the décor at Burger King. I took a look at most of the shops in the area. One gallery featured nothing but paintings in the styles that were already old in encyclopedias I read as a child. Absolutely nothing original, there or in the area.The shopkeepers all over had that lean and hungry look so I did not dare snap a photo. I got a laugh out of reading anything about the artists where posted in the windows. About how their “influences” were Florence, Paris and generally wherever you’d expect to find the idle rich sitting around getting influenced. Never Ash Flat, Arkansas, or Elwood, Nebraska. There are clear advantages to being so flush that you can afford to wait out a couple of big sales per year.
But things picked up. Back to Jimbo’s for the Saturday birthday party, and I am now the proud recipient of my fifth $100 tip in my lifetime. I used to say three, but the Canadian dollar has climbed to $1.06 recently so that tip I got in Hawaii now counts, making today number five. A crisp new c-note in the tip jar, folks. The last one was 19 years ago and I had a three piece group; this time I earned it myself.
So, if you think I was difficult to talk to about the “right” way to play in a band before, try to even get my attention with the BS now. Just try. Especially with that Clapton/Hendrix angle. Ha!
It was a five-hour show, that is, I my play time was just over five hours during a six hour stint. The longest break was a stripper show for the birthday boy. Also, there was an eight minute harp solo by Gary, a patron who is finally starting to take my act seriously. Mind you, he did not go home (100 yards away) and get his guitar. I had the dance floor packed. Around 45 people fills up the place with room for a few more.
Afterward I went downtown and found Jeanie. We lost contact during the week, but within moments we were talking on cell phones ten feet apart and facing away from each other. She is easily distracted but listened up when I mentioned the hundred bucks and New Year’s around the corner. (I have not idea if she is capable of throwing an act together in so short a time.) Music still beats standing in the sun handing out petitions.
Tomorrow, I’m going out for breakfast on Jimbo’s. The fine weather is back and so are some of my Canadian neighbors. How do they know?
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