Bribes for Vaccines in Florida

Posted on by Thor

At a time hen many of Florida’s elderly were smuggling to find COVID vaccine doses, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is making sure rich donators get first dibs on COVID-19 vaccine shots. An ultra-wealthy and exclusive community called Ocean Reef Club, on the northern tip of Key Largo received enough coronavirus vaccine doses for 1,200 residents over the age of 65, according to a Miami Herald report on March 3, 2021. Homes at Ocean Reef range from $900,000 condominiums to homes worth more than $10 million, according to the club’s website.

Former Illinois governor Bruce Rauner (R), who is from that exclusive community, was inspired to donate $250,000 to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s war chest. 17 other Key Largo residents have contributed to the Friends of DeSantis committee over the past four years.

Last month,  he organized a COVID vaccine pop up site in a mostly White, affluent part of Manatee County and then threatened to take vaccine away from counties where officials criticized his approach. Residents could only get the vaccine if they were from that exclusive zip code. “If Manatee County doesn’t like us doing this, then we are totally fine with putting this in counties that want it,” DeSantis said at a news conference in February 2021. “We’re totally happy to do that.”

Critics have also accused DeSantis of using the vaccine distribution plan to appeal to donors; he has raised more than $2.7 million in February alone since he began the “pop-up” clinics, the Herald reported. Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried called for a federal investigation into Governor Ron DeSantis’ handling of the vaccine distribution.

Pop Up Discos in Miami try Stayin Alive.

Posted on by Thor

Terry’s friend Elaine Pasekoff organized monthly Pop Up Discos in Miami. Her thought was that 50 somethings aren’t interested in the modern club scene, but they have fond memories of their disco days. Elaine had a birthday Disco party that was a blast, and she wanted to keep the party going. She used to work for the Miami Herald, so she called in favors to get ad space for her Pop Up Disco concept. During Art Basel, this disco had a fair attendance, but it was to far from the main arts scene to really pull in a huge crowd. The venue changes month to month and this one was in a small back room of a bar. A friend of Elaine’s was the DJ.

When the evening was over, Elaine confided that she is about to give up on the Pop Up Disco concept. It is a full time job to promote the event on social media and the newspaper. Attendance was never as high as she had hoped so the profits don’t justify all the hours she puts in to keep the concept alive.  A young crowd had been offered a discount on the cover charge since they livened up the dance floor. Unfortunately most 50 somethings are content to stay at home rather than kick up some dust on a disco dance floor.

Art Basel is a yearly crucible to experience the art market.

Posted on by Thor

Once a year, Terry and I drive down to Miami Beach to experience Art Basel. Art Basel draws tens of thousands of visitors, collectors, gallerists,
artists, curators, and other art enthusiasts from across the globe,
all coming to experience the highest quality of Modern and contemporary
art. Terry and I stay with friends Elaine Pasekoff and Derek Hewitt. Elaine and Derek purchased three apartments in the same Miami Beach building, and they decorated them with themes from their world travels together. I believe this is the Africa suite. There is also a Paris themed suite. All of the floors were resurfaced and the kitchen was opened up by removing part of a wall to create a corner counter. The amount of work that went into these units is amazing, especially since Terry and I have had color swatches on our living room walls for the past decade.

The drive to Miami beach is a long one and we had to drive through torrential rain and the infuriating impatient Miami traffic around rush hour. By the time we arrived, we just wanted to relax. Elaine always has the Miami Herald, which is a good place to research which Art exhibits were generating some buzz. It is also fun to read about which celebrities were in town for the exclusive all night parties. Elaine and Derek know where all the best local restaurants are, so we eat out when we are there. The apartment is just a few blocks from the beach, so walking down to the beach as the sun sets is always an appealing way to end the day.

Art Basel Miami

Posted on by Thor

Terry, Mark Baratelli and I drove down to Miami to see Art Basel. Basel is a city in Switzerland where art galleries from around the world gather to show their art. This was the tenth year that the art exhibition has taken place in Miami as well. Terry’s friend Elaine Pasekoff was gracious enough to let us stay in one of her South Beach Condos. When we arrived in the late afternoon we all relaxed and read the Miami Herald entertainment section to get an idea of what we might like to see. Art Basel is centered in the convention center but also has satellite tents and exhibitions all over town. It is impossible to see everything.

I was intrigued by a performance piece by Glenn Kaino. In a park near the convention center he was asking people to help him levitate a 20 by 20 foot platform with a representation of the 1934 Worlds Fair perched on top. Called “Levitating the Fair“, it was to be held up for the entire four day duration of the Art Basel. Derek Hewitt dropped Mark Baratelli and myself off in the park. As Mark photographed desert food bikes, I searched for a crowd holding up the Worlds Fair. I never found it. I did see the platform but it didn’t appear to be levitating. Perhaps everyone was on a bathroom break.

Star Wars paratroopers were guarding the balconies of an apartment complex across the street from the park. Picasso held a house painting brush loaded up with bright pink paint. “Love is the answer” billowed in the ocean breeze. A huge Mr. Potato Head had a green Swiss alps hat on and for some reason he was pleased to be holding a squeeze bottle of ketchup. “Brainwash” was printed above the doorway. After I finished my sketch, I hiked over to the convention center. The art marathon had begun.

The Herald Hunt

Posted on by Thor

An estimated 5000 people showed up for the Miami Herald Hunt. The hunt offers teams of players a chance to win a 7 day Costa Caribbean cruise if they can find all the clues located around downtown Miami. The insanity began with a print out in the Miami Herald. There opening multiple choice questions were posted which would help locate coordinates on the supplied map to help pinpoint where clues were located. Here is one of those questions…
In August Sen Mel Martinez resigned as one of Florida’s U.S. Senators. Whom did Gov. Charlie Crist appoint to replace him.
D. Gloria Estifan.
G. A live six foot nurse shark.
H. Some Lackey.
Well it wasn’t Gloria, and not a nurse shark, so it had to be some lackey. Even I got this one right. The answer of H was then combined with a number given by Pulitzer prize winning author Dave Barry from the main stage to give a coordinate on the hunt map. This clue lead us to Trinity Cathedral a block away. Most of the crowd scattered. Terry and I were working with Hailey and she was the one who quickly got the map coordinates in place. As soon as the hunt began however some Carolers stepped out on the stage and started singing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. Well hark means listen and this event was put on by the Herald so we stayed and listened. It soon became obvious that the two singers dressed as angels were not singing all the verses. They only sang verses 3, 5 and 11. In the paper 3511 was one of the clues. I thought, hey this is easy! We were off and running.
When we got to the Trinity Cathedral however we got bogged down. There volunteers gave each team a rubber bracelet and said “put it on your wrist”. P 3 was stamped on to the bracelet. While everyone sat around looking at page 3 in the paper, trying to solve a letter jumble, I decided to just count the number of letters in “Put it on your wrist.” That made the answer 16. I was excited and sure I was right but the rest of the team didn’t agree. After half an hour of agonizing we decided to move on having not solved the puzzle. We even went so far as to count the number of bracelets on a mosaic located at the front of the cathedral but that was a false lead. After the event was over I found out 16 was the correct answer but for an entirely different reason. The jumble had “Put it on your wrist” within the jumbled letters and if you put the bracelet on the answer 16 letters were contained in the space. Ugh!!!
At this point I felt our team had no chance of winning and I started hunting for a sketch instead. At the Arsht Center Plaza, Juliet began calling out to Romeo from a balcony high above the crowd. She was so high up that Romeo has trouble hearing her and he yelled out that Juliet should call him. This clue lead astute hunters to a fake ad in the paper for an Italian restaurant called “The House of Montague“. When the phone number in the add was called a message said “Where fore art thou has four syllables No, yes, no, yes.” In other words pay attention to the second and fourth syllables. fore thou or 4000.
Another clue was given in the theater where a young white man named Jack was lying on the stage with a sword stuck in his chest. His friends tried to figure out who murdered Jack before the police arrived. As the actors were reenacting the events of the evening the house lights went out and the audience was told to stay seated while they fixed the problem. When the lights came back on the actors became concerned that something had changed. The murdered Jack had been replaced by a black actor. The answer to this puzzle was Black Jack or 21.
Other clues scattered about downtown consisted of an IV bottle and stand located outside the theater and a radio broadcast of a field goal. The answers would be 4 and 3. These were to help solve a Sudoku puzzle found down by the docks. Since my main goal now was no longer to win but to sketch, I returned to the main stage to sketch the carolers who had been performing every 15 minutes during the the event. As I was sketching, Dave Barry walked onto the stage and offered the final clue of the Hunt. He said, “I’d like to give you the final clue but it’s just too gross.” A gross is a dozen dozen or 144, two gross would be 288 this lead to a 6th clue in the paper that said “If words were inches”. The insanely clever souls that had solved the 5 clues from around the city then counted the words in the 5 clues and got the answer of 48 words. 48 inches is 4 feet. On the Herald Hunt map, 4 feet were drawn near the theater and several teams sprinted in that direction. The location offered 4 bricks which were inscribed with the names of 4 made up donors all named Foot. The winners had to figure out the donors ages from dates inscribed on the bricks and from that they could assemble a phone number which when called announced them as the winners. Of course I never got that far, I was too busy sketching. Perhaps next year the Orlando team will be more of a contender.
It is a shame Orlando does not have such an exciting, fun, quirky way to get people excited about the arts and discovering the treasures of downtown. When the event was over I met Dave Barry and had him sign my sketch.