Thanksgiving dinner
phew.
It was fun and now its over. The last of the turkey was fed to the cats. and the raccoons, our guests have left, its quiet. Iona misses her friend Amanda and the twins are bummed, they love a full house, parties, action, and opportunities to dress up in glitzy gowns. Yes i said raccoons. And cats. Just up the street, at a large abandoned theater, there live a dozen homeless cats and four raccoons with their two raccundles. and every evening we collect our leftovers, get in the car, and park in the lot and i sneak out, weary of those either maternal or rabid raccons, and dump the food. Usually one tiger-striped cat with huge serious eyes walks out and sits right under our rolled down window. and stares. She stares us right down and we try to figure whether its a grateful stare, or a take-me- home-with-you stare, or a fuck-off-we-dont-need-your-food stare, or a I-remember-the-humans-who-abandoned-me-here-stare. or just a meditation stare before she tucks in. Then there’s the black alpha cat who always gets first dibs, and a ginger one who lingers until there’s the invisble sign that she too can join the feast. Tonight one raccoon was eager, it may have been the liver laced, wine soaked, cranberry dotted gravy smell, and tiptoed like she was drunk in high heels across the beam from my headlights, dove into the food, found a large turkey bone heavy with meat and carried it, head held high as if she was afraid to get her loot dirty, into the bushes where one youngster waited for her like a Tim Burton shadow against the white wall.
I have a hunch that this ritual of feeding cats and coons will be the sole reason my twins will finally fall in love with Miami.
Last night we held a small screening here, at our candy-land-bachelor-pad, of the movie that Roland, dear friend and godfather to all our kids, has made. This film follows three of his Bronx high school students over several years in their attempt to escape the ghetto through writing poetry. The movie is a powerful and touching piece of work, which will be shown by PBS sometime next year. As all twenty of us sat quietly and watched and listened to loud, intense rapping and slamming, another, even louder noise, seeped in through the open windows. Alastair and I looked at each other. WTF? A street fight? On our ultra secure Aqua island? A spousal argument? The new neighbors?
Rowdier shouting and hooting competed with the rap poetry that echoed from Tiesto’s Bose sound system.
Words like: You cant have sex!!! Bounced from the street walls. And no masturbation!!!
I peeked outside and through another open window across the street I saw ten young Hassidim men and their Rabbi sitting around the dinner table. The ten men cheered as if the Rabbi had just scored a goal.
As we finished Roland’s movie and ate a second Thanksgiving dinner, more loud and explicit sexual warnings about the pre-marital relationship were delivered across the way, whether we liked it or not, as we wondered what was going on, how long it would last, and where it would lead. (Any explanations? )
Tomorrow is the day before Art Basel Miami launches into its week of over-the-top art events. Alastair and I will be blogging it all. Both here and at his new blog, Alastair Gordon, Off the Wall, so stay tuned for more from rabid Miami….
the godfather
roland, leila, evonne, turkey chef and tom
here he comes again. i cant stand it anymore. i’m gonna cut his gas line. since nine this morning, there have been outside my window the following: man worker with noisy gas powered bush clipper cutting to shreds a perfectly lovely bush, half an hour later same worker with noisy gas powered lawn mower mowing 1″ high grass, half an hour later same worker with noisy gas powered weed whacker whacking 3/4″ grass, and an hour later another worker with noisy gas powered leaf blower blowing one visible and several microscopic leaves across the pavement. this process of curbing and preening nature takes at least two square inches out of the ozone layer, and therefore shortening the survival chances of nature by several what? Minutes? Hours? Years? but. this is what I find. some in miami think green is just a color. GREEN as a movement for sustainablity is not a prevailing concept. its a color that you cut and mow and whack and blow. hummers are STILL the car of choice for the rich and richer. recycling at my condo means separating your garbage and then having it all thrown together again by waste management so why bother. at publix, the local supermarket monopoly, the baggers give me a foul look when i bring my reusable set. i’m scared of those baggers. they yell at each other, so surely they’ll yell at me. the beach gets cleaned every day, morning and afternoon, by giant scoopers. this does not make anyone responsible for the crap thats left behind. THEY, a force which is not generally seen as another human, cleans it up and as a result waste is left where it was used in its process. parks, streets and shoulders are littered before THEY clean them up and what doesn’t get picked up in time ends up blown into the ocean or the canals, like floating publix bags, styrofoam cups, coke bottles, halloween candy wrappers, tide containers and so on. the city itself makes an enormous effort to keep miami clean, and it’s a beautiful city, but this process of constant cleaning and controlling of litter seems wasteful and doesn’t motivate individuals to take responsibility in creating a sustainable lifestyle. one that uses less and recycles and reuses more. this is my observation after six weeks, i’d love to be proven wrong, and will join any local group that is working to teach greener policies…
Barbi Does Miami 