Miami Book Fair, Day 2

Sunday was another glorious Florida day. The Atlantic from the hotel room:


and looking the other way, Biscayne Bay and downtown Miami:



First on the Book Fair agenda was a panel of writers who wrote books about musicians. Crystal Zevon, one of Warren Zevon's ex-wives who wrote a book about him at his request, was the main attraction for me. I love his music, and read her book (skimmed it, rather, because I had to get it back to the library), and Carl Hiaasen wrote the introduction and was interviewed for it. The whole book is in interview form, which makes it a quick read, but in some ways makes it a bit harder to get a cohesive sense of Zevon's life - which was quite bizarre. He was a strange guy. Crystal seemed quite down-to-earth, unassuming. She told about how Warren's girlfriends, who were many, payed court to her, as the ex-wife, at his funeral - but they didn't talk to each other. She read a couple of excerpts from the book, which were quite humorous. One was about his obsession for buying Calvin Klein gray T-shirts, and how he felt vindicated when they stopped making them, and he had thousands still wrapped in plastic.

Susie J Horgan authored a book about punk rock called Punk Love. She is a photographer, and met Henry Rollins when they both worked at a Haagen Dazs store in Georgetown. She showed the photos, some accompanied by punk rock. Interesting - I've heard of Rollins but didn't know much about him, and I'm not a big punk rock fan - but the photos were quite good.

The author who spoke first was David Meyer. He wrote a book about Gram Parsons called Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons. We were a little late, so missed some of his presentation, but what I heard was fascinating to me. His main thesis was that Gram was influential in crossing the boundaries of what was labeled as rock, country, gospel, blues in his day, and that his influence was still felt today. I realized that I didn't know much about Gram, other than his time with the Flying Burrito Brothers and his association with Emmylou Harris. I bought the book, and when I was looking at it later that night, found lots of references to Leon Russell, another influential musician who doesn't get the recognition he deserves. So that was quite exciting for me. I haven't had a chance to read much of the book yet, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Gram crossed paths with a lot of folks. When I got home I searched YouTube for videos - this is a good one (Gram is on the left, in the white suit and black hat, with the hair in his eyes, and the pretty smile - OMG ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BITiY8M_oDo&feature=related

There was more. We went to the International Village, where kb found me a free (!) book called Essential Guide to Spanish Reading, which I hope will encourage me to read in Spanish. No excuses now.

We went to a talk on the Changing Face of Journalism, which was a freewheeling, funny, outrageous discussion (we were expecting a more somber look at the future of journalism). Then we heard Tom Hayden and Craig Unger talk about the anti-war movement and the Bush administration. By this time, we were burned out, so walked around downtown Miami a bit. It was deserted and bleak, in contrast to the frenetic activity at the mall by the bay.

Then on to South Beach, another place crowded with people and traffic. Beautiful beach. We were mainly looking for food, which we found (for half price!) at the least noisy restaurant with seating off the sidewalk (the seating at these places spills onto the sidewalk, so you kind of walk through the restaurants).

Finally, back to the hotel and sleep, since my plane left early Monday morning. I can't thank kbertocci enough for the opportunity to spend time with her and go to the book fair. I wish Seattle still had a book fair - I never went when it did, so I suppose I'm the reason why.

I took this picture at the Seattle airport, near baggage claim. Last year there was great controversy about the holiday decorations being too religious, so this year they went with this:

(It was under construction, but still.)

Miami Book Fair, Day 1

Saturday kb and I went to Miami, to the Miami Book Fair. The first famous person I saw was Cal Thomas. I know him as a regular panelist on Fox Newswatch (the only show I watch on Fox News, and it hasn't been on recently). I pointed him out to kb, and we did our best to avoid him. He's very tall and well-preserved looking. We headed out to the booths - books, books, and more books. Books from Books and Books, a much-loved independent bookstore in Miami. Books in Spanish, books translated, fiction, non-fiction, children's books.

We headed to our first authors' talk - Wesley Clark and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, from the Washington Post. Very long line to get in to the room - most people seemed to be there for Clark, I suppose because he ran for president. Rajiv spoke first, about his experiences in Iraq, and how the people put in charge there had no idea what they were doing, while experienced, competent people were turned away because they were perceived as not sufficiently loyal to Bush. He told how the Maryland traffic laws became Iraq's traffic laws, which seems a bit incongruous. Clark talked about his military experience, how after the Cold War ended abruptly and unexpectedly, the US no longer had an effective military strategy for maintaining its superpower status. Or something like that (I didn't take notes and my memory is fading). Clark is a good speaker, but I'm not sure that he presented a direction the US should take at this point. He's also supporting Clinton, and answered some questions about that.

Next, in the same room (we moved closer to the front), Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Dave is so funny, as expected. I got a kick out of seeing Ridley crack up at everything he said. Afterwards, kb and I got our Achenblog bookbags signed, and got our picture taken with them. Very cool. We went to get lunch, and saw Dave and family at the next booth (we were not following him, honest).

On to Mark Halperin, of ABC News and Time. I've seen him on the Charlie Rose Show - he's very funny and cute, to boot. He's written a book with profiles of the presidential candidates, which he's hoping will help people figure out who is the best candidate for them to vote for. It sounds interesting - he asks them some unusual things, like favorite junk food, in order to get an idea of who they are. He says Mitt Romney waxes on about pie. I didn't buy the book - thought I would get it from the library - but they don't have it, at least not yet. Ah well.

Then it was time for the Rock Bottom Remainders, Dave Barry's band. They were very good - lots of fun, and better musically than I would have thought beforehand. Scott Turow was one of the vocalists, as was Crystal Zevon, and Jeff Toobin even joined in toward the end (possibly ending his career as a serious legal analyst).

When they were done, it was about 6:30, dark, booths shuttered. We needed dinner, so we went across the street to the Bayside Market Place. It's a very lively shopping mall, all kinds of music and entertainment and things to buy, from tacky T-shirts to art and upscale clothing. They have parrots you can get your picture taken with, and fishing boats to charter. We eventually decided to eat at the Mambo Cafe, a Cuban restaurant with outdoor seating. We both had Ropa Vieja, which I had never had before - it's wonderful. Along with black beans and rice, and fried plantains, and salsa music, it was a good way to end the day. Then to the hotel to fall into bed.

What I did on my November vacation

I took a short vacation to visit an internet friend from the Achenblog and go to the Miami Book Fair. This is what my yard looks like in November:



and this is what kbertocci's looks like:

Along the way, in the Dallas airport, I ran across Achenblog reminders: the Cowtown Bar, lunch at the Au Bon Pain, Vonnegut in the bookstore. kb met me at the airport with Achenblog bookbags! We talked and talked, took the scenic beach route to kb's house, listened to Paul McCartney in the car. I had to ask who it was - I blame the disorientation of a cross-country trip, and also that it was an album that I haven't listened to much - Flowers in the Dirt - which came out after his Wings period. At any rate, I liked it! Mr kb was waiting at home with dinner. He's a good cook and an entertaining guy.

I got in after dark, which threw me off a bit. How could it be so balmy when the sun goes down at 5? It was warm enough to keep the doors open to the screened porch off the guest room. I woke up to bright sunshine and flowers beckoning in the backyard. Really beautiful - bougainvillea, crotons, palms, banana trees, diefenbacchia - houseplants gone wild. I wish I had taken more pictures - it is so lovely.

We spent the day sightseeing in Fort Lauderdale - visited Mr kb at a resort where he's the resident artist, walked along the beach and the river walk. We planned our book fair strategy.


We walked to the Science Museum and watched the gravity clock, then went to the library, which is quite beautiful - fountains, public art that changes color depending on where you view it from. The building is striking. We went to the 6th floor to take in the art exhibit, and did not allow ourselves to browse the used books for sale. We had a book fair to go to!