Category: Uncategorized

and none of my music, and no computer, and 1/2 of my clothes. It was actually a blind, dumb-arse mistake of mine to put my music CDs in the wrong suitcase, but oh well. Originally though my air shipment was supposed to arrive a few days after I did (it is an air shipment after all) so I wasn’t really that worried. However, that isn’t the case as I’ve been here for nearly 2 1/2 weeks and I ain’t seen anything yet. Yeah, whinge whinge whinge, I know 🙂 Supposedly it’s in customs at Miami airport still… those buggers are playing my guitar (good luck it’s left-handed), wearing my clothes (good luck that’s mostly my winter stuff) and listening to my CDs (yeah, um, good luck).

There are some album releases I am waiting on that may tide me over if my stuff never arrives. One of them is Way out West’s “Don’t look now”. There is a little article here. I’ve been listening to some of their songs using Distinctive Records’ streamer. I’m also waiting on some more CDs I ordered through Amazon, namely an earlier CD of Way out West’s and the new album by Brit group Keane.

I was waiting on some pictures from somebody else’s camera before writing this update, but due to technical difficulties, that’ll have to wait!

Friday night I didn’t have anything planned. I was sitting home, absolutely buggered from the week and I nearly went to bed. Note that I said nearly. There is a switch in my brain that comes into effect on the start of the weekend. It says “Don’t stay home on a Friday or Saturday night by yourself you friggin loser or I’ll give you nightmares and make your sleep general hell”. I payed heed to that switch, so I called up some friends and met them at Delray Beach. It’s half-way to Palm Beach and I found it was a pretty nice place to go to. Beers were a flowing everywhere when I arrived at the pub, so I joined in. A couple of hours later we moved on to somewhere else and I had a couple of Jagermeisters. That’s because they didn’t have any Absinthe (it’s prohibited) or Chartreuse. So after all that I couldn’t drive anywhere and I had to get a lift back to my apartment, which was ok since the people I was out with were staying in a hotel not far from me. The problem is I had parked my car next to the beach in a pay-zone, and I was worried I would get a fine the next day…

Anyhow, I got a lift to Delray Beach and arrived early afternoon – thank God I didn’t get a ticket! We then drove to Ft Lauderdale and continued on to South Beach in Miami. In a few words, I had a friggen awesome time there! We went for a bit of a swim and then went to the Clevelander. Uh, that place was out of this world. You can look around their website and, uh, see what I mean. I got some good pictures too! I’ll update my webshots account with those asap. The pork rib meal there is excellent. It was commented that I had a smile on my face the whole time – actually, I’ve got that smile cranking again as I think back on it 🙂 We headed home at about 8pm or so.

That switch was on in my head again so I met up with some other friends for line dancing at Roundup. I don’t know any line dancing moves but when the more conventional nightclub music starts I’m out on the dancefloor in a flash. Roundup is where I met the guy who wanted me to try out for the reality show. His girlfriend also gave me her business card – she’s a massage therapist and offered me a discount. Sweeeeet!

This is all a bit surreal as I write this, but Saturday night (at line dancing of all places) I was asked if I wanted to try out for a pilot of a reality show. I thought I may as well check it out first and so I called up the production company involved. The deal is a printing company who were funding/creating the show were looking to cast a white, single, heterosexual male. They couldn’t tell me much more than that because of the non-disclosure agreement. The thing is I couldn’t take the opportunity due to the Visa conditions that I’m over here on. Bugger, eh?

I’m also inclined to think – what sort of reality show was this? 🙂

I am absolutely blown away by this place (and I ain’t only talking about Tobacco Road). It’s true when they say that everything is bigger in America. I was driving to Miami last night with a pretty good set of directions, thank God, and I was amazed by the sheer amount of concrete used in the construction of the highways. As an engineer (or just a generally inquisitive person), I am in awe at how all of this stuff is designed and built. I start thinking about it and then give up because it hurts my head.

I must also add however how unimpressed I am by some engineering efforts, especially in car design. I will have to review the Oldsmobile Alero in a following post and give my thoughts on just how crap I think it is. Thank *GOD* I am not paying the rent for that thing.

Anyhoo, I found my way to Tobacco Road ok. It’s a very narrow, long, 2 story building and its claim to fame is being the oldest bar in Miami. The place just absolutely oozes character. It has an outdoor beer garden, a downstairs section which normally accommodates a Jazz/Blues band, and upstairs is normally reserved for the rockier acts. Both floors have acts going at the same time. I started my night in the beer garden and some guy says to me “where are you from, Australia?” after he heard me talking on the phone. Now I befriended this guy called Mark who originally was from England but has lived in the US for the last 15 years or so. He’s a pretty funny chap – early 40s I think and an absolute geezer. He’s been going to Tobacco Road for the last 10 years and was absolutely amazed that I’d discovered Tobacco Road already, as it took him years before he found the place. I guess I’m just ahead of the curve 🙂 One very interesting thing that Mark the Englishman said was that Miami has very little original music performers. Most of the bands are cover bands, and he said this was probably because they get paid a lot more for that than they would performing original songs. Personally, I’m not a huge cover band fan, nor would I like to be in one. There is only so far one can go regurgitating other people’s songs.

At around 10:30pm I headed upstairs to because Santos Renuentes were supposed to have already started playing. I don’t know where Mark the Englishman had gotten to at that stage, I think he was off having a smoke somewhere. Santos Renuentes were fantastic. The lead singer, Sophia, had an absolutely fantastic voice. In fact, she sounded a lot like Gwen Stefani from No Doubt. That’s pretty darn good! Omar is a great bassist too. He’s got that whole bass player groove thing going on, and actually has a 5-string custom made Fender bass guitar. It sounded really, really good. The group as a whole was just amazing – hats off to Santos Renuentes!

The next act was called Cana. They most certainly didn’t look like a real rock band, but they sure as hell sounded like one! I must admit to start with I was only mildly impressed. However after they had warmed up they were fantastic! The lead singer sounded a lot like the singer from Hootie and the Blowfish. Good stuff!

I didn’t get the name of the last act. I don’t think they were on the list as three bands had already played for the night. They seemed to have a significant goth influence but their music still sounded pretty good. I had a chuckle to myself because when they were setting up there was a geeky goth band member with a Legend of Zelda t-shirt on. Ok, I’ll admit, I wanted that shirt. Truth be known, I wouldn’t mind that shirt and another one with Kid Icarus on it. That would rock! Anyway, the geeky goth was the gizmo guy in the band who used his laptop to generate effects sounds over the top of the guitars. It seemed to work pretty well.

I ended up leaving at around 1:30am to the most vicious rain I’ve ever been in. It was absolutely *bucketing* down. I couldn’t see 10 metres in front of me and I don’t know how the hell I navigated my way back home. I think that sort of rain is going to be the story of the weekend what with all these tropical storms and hurricanes hitting Florida. One really unusual thing I did see driving home was the clouds being illuminated orange and blue by the lightning. I haven’t seen that before. Weird.

Hasta luego