Greater Ft Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau

Friday, December 30, 2005

Dec 30: Getting Toasted

It cracks me up. I mean, there I am in North Carolina for Christmas and the weather guy on TV is talking about how balmy it is. "The temperature right now is certainly warm for the holidays -- nearly 60 degrees!" he says. And I'm wearing a turtle neck and two layers over it.

I fly home to Fort Lauderdale the next day and click on the weather and our guy here is saying, "The deep freeze will continue for at least another 24 hours or so -- lows down in the 50s!" It's all perspective, isn't it? And after five days away, my perspective is, once again, "Hey, I like it better here!"

I go away to some place like Raleigh and it's fine and everything. Very pretty landscape. But there's too many syllables in the words people speak. ("So ya'll wah-ant mo-ah coffee?") Ok, I'm nitpicking. But it feels good to be home, where I'm now sitting this morning at my computer in toasty comfort -- not too hot, not too cold. Just right, as Goldilocks once wisely noted.

And now I'm ready to get toasted in another way -- New Year's Eve is almost upon us and I'm glad to be back here for it. I'm taking a very lovely lady to the Tut exhibit on New Year's Eve day -- what better way to see in a whole new year than to reflect on something so magnificently old?

That evening, we're going to sit around my fireplace (real wood, thank you!) with romantic music, and toasting the New Year with a nice French champagne, stone crabs with mustard sauce and great truffles and...well, you get the idea, I suppose.

I'll leave the big downtown party to others this year, though it's always fun. Getting out for a while to the exhibit, staying in for a while by the fire -- it all sounds to me, yep, just right.

So from toasty Fort Lauderdale, a clink of the glass to you all. (Y'all??) Happy New Year!

And if the low temp hits anywhere near 60 degrees this weekend, I'll be putting on my turtle neck again. I don't care what they think in North Carolina.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Dec 28: Fly Boy

Where else on earth can you almost land on the hood of some dude's BMW when you fly home? Or hear Calypso music and have the lights of a fiberoptic sculpture flash at the baggage claim when the conveyor belt starts to move and your bags are about to come around?

Man, I always feel lucky to live close to this airport. Um, the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, that is.

And yes, if you've been here, you know what I mean about the BMW bit. The planes land right over I-95 and it's sort of fun to watch the cars just below as the runway comes into view. It's safe of course but it scares the hell out of the idiot tailgaters in their luxury SUVs! This time we also flew in over the Atlantic shoreline and it was great to see the beach again. All looked calm and clear. And then inside the terminal on the way to baggage claim I passed this really lifelike sculpture inside a glass store window. I just thought it was a guy in a red T shirt relaxing quietly on a chair with headphones, but it is an unbelievably lifelike Duane Hanson sculpture. A slice of Americana in the most unexpected locale of Terminal 3. Been there for years, and I just noticed it yesterday.

Then, yep, the Calypso music. I'm not kidding. Actual marimba-band kind of stuff at the baggage claim. Welcome to the tropics, baby! Where's my rum runner?

I really always have gotten in to the FLL airport, honestly. Even during the big terminal construction/expansion thing a couple years ago, it felt so much better to use this airport than either Miami or Palm Beach. And believe me, I've flown from them all! Former national travel writer and all, you may recall.

So I blew out of town on December 22 for Christmas with my family. Got back last night. Holiday time and I kind of expected any airport to be a total mess. Lots of traffic, lots of delays, etc. etc.

For whatever reason, my trip was smooth as silk. No problem leaving, no problem returning. I even waltzed up to the taxi stand at 7pm and hopped in the first cab! Yet the airport had plenty of people buzzing around.

There's just something...I don't know. Easy, I guess, about this airport.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Dec 20: Where's the madness?

No, I'm not talking about Tutmania again! Today I'm talking about the holidays.

It's a wacky time of year. People always scurrying and scrambling for the one parking space that finally opened up or the last box of dark chocolate Godivas on the shelf or whatever.

I've just come back from Christmas shopping at the Galleria Mall, an annual thing for me always done in the last few days before the holiday. Something about the crowds, the music, the decorations -- I don't want to holiday shop in July, thank you! The last-minute rush is a different kind of rush for me. And hey, I expect stressed-out, rude people among the mix.

So what's wrong with everyone this year? I was at the mall yesterday and today both and it's almost weird, at least for South Florida. People are opening doors for me, people are smiling, people are wishing me a happy holiday. A sales clerk actually looked at me and said, in all sincerity, "Peace and prosperity next year to you, sir!" Wow!

I'm walking around the mall and buying stuff at the Pottery Barn (Not all of it for other people, mind you! New martini shaker, for example? That's mine!). I'm also pretending to be buying stuff, really just a window-shopper, at Saks and Neiman Marcus, where I can never really afford to buy much. (But I like to feel like I LOOK as if I can afford to buy all my gifts there, of course!)

And then I make my annual holiday tour through Victoria's Secret, seeming very earnest about finding the right something for my sister or girlfriend when I'm only gawking, just like the other guys walking around. Gotta love that store!

But honestly, nearly everybody is...nice! It really struck me today, suddenly. It's like, "Something isn't quite right about all this! Wait, I know! People are...well, nice!"

So my advice is to get out and enjoy it while it lasts. But prepare yourself.

If you're expecting normal behavior this year at the mall, all that niceness can feel just a little bit scary.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Dec 16: TUTMANIA!!!

So yesterday it's the opening cannon shot for the big Tut exhibit here, first day for this huge deal, and I'm just driving to the gym in the morning, minding my own business and not thinking one thing about the carcass of an ancient dead pharaoh.

And I look through my windshield, a little bleary eyed (remember, I'm not much of a morning person!) and what do I see? A newspaper vendor for the Miami Herald at the corner of Broward and Federal and he's wearing a gold Tut headdress or whatever the pharaohs called those royal head pieces. I mean, he's walking between cars hawking newspapers and trying to look like Tut, for Pete's sake!

To me, that about sums it all up. South Florida has gone stark raving Tutmad!

And let me just say this, because I've heard about some serious art aficionados elsewhere who think we're having too much fun with this Tut business. Get over it! No one feels the extraordinary exhibit is anything less than a major event in the art world. But hey, come on! We're also talking about the mummified liver of a kid who died more than three millenia ago. If that's not fodder for a good joke, I don't know what is.

So yes, we've got Trina Restaurant serving Tut-inis (cocktails, of course! 12 bucks each) and Tut bobblehead dolls (who could possibly resist this one?) and Tut's face on everything from McDonald's cups to Papa John's pizza boxes to Muvico ticket stubs. They're even selling tissue boxes with an ancient Egyptian motif. (As one lovely lady friend of mine quipped, the proper comment when passing someone a Kleenex from that box can only be,"Gesund-TUT!" I like that one!)

And you can get the "King Tut Mummy Wrap" treatment at a Fort Lauderdale lux-hotel and King Tut Truffles at the Galleria and who knows what else?

So I say, lighten up and have a laugh at Tut's expense -- he can take it. A man with that much money isn't easily offended anyway.

Even if we've got streetcorner newspaper vendors trying to imitate our Golden Boy King. All I know is, for pure style points, my prize for Best Tut Kitsch definitely goes to this newspaper-selling dude.

At least he knows how to have fun!

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Dec 15: TUT Lauderdale

Deck the halls with King Tut tickets, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

After months of seeing Tut promotions, hearing Tut news, going to parties and events with Tut-themed decor, I was excited for "opening day." And I'm a sports guy. Opening day for me usually involves a Florida Marlins hat, beer and a hot dog.

With ticket in hand, and Steve Martin King Tut song in my head, I entered the Museum of Art's Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition. First there's a short video presentation to set the tone (actually it's the same video that you can watch on www.sunny.org/tut). As the video concludes, the curtains open and we proceed into the exhibition. I won't give it all away here, because it is something I want you to see for yourself. But I will say that it is a quite impressive display. One of the largest exhibition I have seen...the entire Museum's dedicated to the Tut gallery. You'll find interesting history, mystery, intricate and ornate items and even feel a sense of spirtuality. There's a great gift shop with everything Tut, from jewelry, figurines and prints, to quirky things like Tut tissue boxes and tic-tac-toe mummy games. And it's surprisingly reasonably priced.

I can recommend the King Tut exhbition with confidence to my friends, family and out-of-town guests. It is a true bang-for-your-buck experience. I'd like to know what you think....send me a comment if you've seen the exhibit.

Dec 15: Walkin' the Walk

I was reminded this weekend about the Las Olas Riverfront. Not that I ever really forgot, mind you.

But when you live in a vacation destination like Fort Lauderdale, you tend to fall into patterns. There's lots of cool places to go anytime. Some cool places you visit often, some cool places you don't. For whatever reason. We're all creatures of habit anyway.

So I was at a movie Sunday afternoon ("The Ice Harvest" -- dark comedy, but very funny!) at the Riverfront and walking around after and thinking, "Hey, why don't I get here more often?"

They had some kind of crafts festival at the time. But kiosks with crafty stuff-for-sale are always around Riverfront, with or without a special event. And festivals seem to come and go there on weekends frequently, so you've got a good chance to catch one, if that's your sorta thing.

But yeah, I'm walking along in the late afternoon, soaking up a pleasant sun, and just taking in the great sites around Riverfront: massive yachts on the New River and scads of people of all ages wandering along the brick-paved walk that winds beside the water. And of course, there was my own personal favorite -- plenty of lovely local women to help reinforce the idea that life really is good!

I drifted into Vogue Italia and checked out some fairly amazing shirts and drifted out again among the crowds, walking by the people eating and drinking and laughing. And that was it for me this day. Nothing wild that afternoon. I had to get home.

But it was enough to remind me that, well, yes -- "Hey, why don't I get here more often?"

I guess maybe now I will.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Dec 12: Book Review

Book Review: The Dead-End Job Mysteries by Elaine Viets
Signet Books, New York 2003-2005

Elaine Viets's Dead-End Job Mysteries: Shop till You Drop, Murder Between the Covers, Dying to Call You, and Just Murdered, are all set on Fort Lauderdale's posh Las Olas shopping boulevard. Her heroine, Helen Hawthorne, has escaped from a bad marriage in Kansas City to a life on the economic margins of high society (or what passes for it here.) The result is four entertaining mysteries with humor, an engaging amateur sleuth, solid plots, all set in our tropical paradise. We recommend them highly as really great reads.

Yes, they follow a formula. Part of the fun is knowing, or thinking you know, what is going to happen, and then getting tweaked by an author who is one or two steps ahead of you.

Poor (literally) Helen has to work off the books so her rotten ex-husband and the Kansas City cops can't trace her. Her meager earnings allow her to live in an old apartment building in walking distance of her employment. Viets has worked in all the jobs she puts Helen into and has a great eye for the setting and the people Helen encounters: her friends, lovers, employers, and the high strung, up scale customers she has to deal with in, respectively, a dress shop, a book store, a telemarketing sweat shop and a bridal salon. While the books are not meant to be serious literature, Viets does not skimp on plot, character or setting just because she has hit on a great genre hook. The vicissitudes of Helen's precarious circumstances are dealt with honestly although with a lot of humor. As in all series like this, the police, while always either giving her a hard time or ignoring her, never seem to wonder how she just happens to be around all these dead bodies. And, of course, her intrepidity wins out in the end with the villain in cuffs.

We have heard Elaine speak several times, at book signings and at meetings of the South Florida Mystery Writers Association and she does great stand-up comedy, recounting either her own experiences in these dead-end jobs or Helen's predicaments. If you ever get a chance to hear her, at a book signing or whatever, grab it, she is as funny as anyone who shows up on the Comedy Channel (OK maybe that's not much, she is better than most of them.)

There is a whole world of mystery writers here in South Florida and Elaine, who lives in Hollywood, is one of the divas of that group, frequently lecturing to newcomers in the field on the intricacies of the business. If you have any illusions that writing mysteries or other genre books is easy, glamorous or even financially profitable, you need to hear her, too. It is a grind, and you can only be successful and enjoy it, if you love it, because the odds are against you.

I will be doing a mystery review monthly to introduce you to some of the best of our South Florida writers. Stay tuned to this channel.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Dec 7: Crafting A Great Bargain

It might go without saying but, well, I'll say it anyway...I love art of all kinds. Music. Painting. Sculpture. Photography and film. Of course, literature. Remember, I write books and plays for a living.

But I forget sometimes how many people are into a totally different type of creative endeavor -- crafts.

I was reminded of this recently when I heard from a friend who has a thing for both arts and crafts, a lady who often buys new art during the shows held each year on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. As she says, "I refuse to pay full-price for art anywhere when I can get it at the show for less and from the original artist."

There ya go! Good point, huh?

Now she's gearing up for the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Craft Show, which is a deal she's attended for many years. Something of a family tradition for her, I guess. Her parents will be in town for this thing, even though it's being held on a Wednesday and Thursday this time because of scheduling issues.

As she told me, "We enjoy it each year and will continue to, no matter when or where it's held! I plan to be there January 4 and 5."

I'm glad for her and all the crafties who line up for these shows but I guess I'll skip it. Not really quite my personal thing.

But the next Las Olas art show is coming up just a few days later, on January 7 and 8. It's always fun people-watching and I enjoy the downtown boutiques and outdoor cafes too.

So that show, I'll try to catch for sure. And I'll look for that piece of art I just have to have, naturally!

Meantime, I don't know about you, but I'm bigtime ready for another kind of art show that's about to open in Fort Lauderdale.

One word: Tut!

Friday, December 02, 2005

Dec 2: Who needs snow anyway?

I always think you never really know a place until you've seen it at the holidays. But for sure, you don't know Broward County until you've caught our very different act this time of year.

It's happening already. Has been for a couple weeks, in fact, and the margarita-meets-candy-cane atmosphere just gets more noticeable each day as we wade farther into December. I've watched the decorations going up at places like the Galleria Mall with its huge lighted reindeer or along Las Olas with its twinkle-light charm. When I drive around town, though, it's the wacky and funny stuff that gets to me most.

Ever seen a palm tree encrusted with pink Christmas bulbs, hundreds of lights on all sides outlining the thing? Or how about flashing icicle-lights dangling from the vines of a banyan? Who could feel holiday blues around a beaming pink palm tree anyway?

But you haven't really done this season in greater Fort Lauderdale 'til you sit by the water, maybe at Bahia Cabana in Fort Lauderdale or Le Tub in Hollywood -- and you watch the lighted boats cruise past.

There you are, sipping that margarita or maybe something with rum, and it's a parade even weeks before (or after) the official big boat-fest. (By that, I mean the Winterfest Boat Parade, of course -- December 17th this year, FYI.)

So anyway, you're having this nice cocktail and drifting near you are these yachts with choppers on the back, with actual helicopters and things, all covered in white lights. And you watch one of these mega-boats slide by some small speedboat with a Christmas tree where its flagpole used to be.

It's all just fun. And it helps make this part of the world a very cool spot to be for the holidays. Which only goes to prove you don't need snow to get in the holiday spirit. Though a nice margarita now and then sure doesn't hurt!