The 5:30 Sound Check

Please help Haiti in their darkest hour!!! Text 90999 on your cell and donate $10.00




Every Friday at 5:30, The Green Parrot Bar has it's 5:30 sound check, usually from the band that's playing that evening, as well as Saturday. This isn't always the case. There are also times that a different band will play the 5:30 Sound Check. You may very well see a local artist there at 5:30 as well. This last Friday however, it was the Friday/Saturday band doing the 5:30 slot.

The band this week were The Blue Vipers from Brooklyn. A fun, acoustic Jazz/Swing/Blues band doing music from the '20's and '30's with guitar, upright bass, percussion, and clarinet/saxophone. Loads of fun. If the front man on guitar told you he was the grandson of Jack Larson, who played Jimmy Olson on the '50's tv series Superman, you wouldn't question it.

They had the crowd dancing in front of the stage and "everyone was having a good time and smoking cigarettes". Some girls were doing Flapper style dances, perhaps it was The Charleston... Next to me was a woman who looked exactly like a 5'4" Olive Oil, right out of Popeye. The Epileptic Scarecrow also jumped out several times and did one of his wild, patented 45 second dances, just to give additional color to an already interesting evening.


At 7:00 it all wraps up. Try to close your bar tabs before then, as the staff has a shift change.

Regardless of who's playing at the 'Parrot, you will have a great time at the 5:30 Sound Check!!!

HEAVY HEART FOR HAITI

HEAVY HEART FOR HAITI

In respect to the massive loss of life, pain, and suffering due to the earthquake in Haiti on Tuesday, this blog will abstain from the goings on in Key West today.

Key West has a substantial Haitian population, as does all of South Florida and to our Haitian friends and neighbors, you are all in our thoughts and prayers in your darkest hour, of darkest hours.

To our neighbors all around the world please join us in sending aid to our stricken neighbors in Hispaniola, immediately.

Thank you.


Chris Rehm

The End Of The Line – Key West

Key West. You just can’t go any further. The road stops at Mile Zero. Or, it may start there, if you prefer? But to so many living here, like myself who moved here from elsewhere, it ends. After Key West, you’re on a boat, or a plane to another country. The car has finished it’s run.

Because of this, there is a wide assortment of individuals who come here. Of course you have the noteworthy artist who have landed here over the years. Ernest Hemingway did so in 1928 and to this day his home is a nucleus of Hemingwayphiles, literary laureates, and tourists in general. Additionally, the Tennessee Williams found a home here, as did Jimmy Buffett, who actually, unlike the two aforementioned authors, actually made his fortune partially because he actually came from here.

However, in a place that is considered the furthest outpost, it also draws additional sorts. In 1980, the first of the current series of new, much safer bridges were constructed off of Bahia Honda. This lead to a much greater accessibility for the masses, when the entire archipelago of islands were connected with these bridges allowing everyone to come down.

Who has the frame of mind to head the Southernmost outpost? There are many, all of which are interesting and unique, however, today we’ll look at one sort, which does stand out and is prominent. We’ll just call them “Runners” for this blurb. Yes, they may fall into one of several different social categories, however, they all have one thing in common when they land in Key West: They’re running away from something.

The vast majority of these Runners arrive alone, They’re, for the most part not attached to a lover or a friend, though, of the Runners, perhaps between 5 and maybe 10 percent are traveling with, what can be best described as a “Shotgun Partner” or even a “Wing Man”. By the numbers, you can see however, it’s not common. Mostly they are alone.

Why they are referred to as Runners is that there is something in their past that they are running away from. In most cases this starts out as a secret, known only to them. A couple of hints you might come across could be “Oh! No! Don’t take my picture!!!” or “What? You’re putting my picture on the Internet? Oh… you have to call me Beelzebub Bud, Don’t use my real name!!!” “What? You’re traveling back to my home city? Hey, No! You don’t know me! Never heard of me!”

I could go on for centuries on the walks of life these people come from or the things they’re running from, or the crazy situations they’ve gotten themselves into, both plain old screwy, or criminal, but they all have something in common: They’ve run away from something and have gone as far as they could go: The End Of The Line, Key West.

Live Music - Key West

One of the greatest things about living in Key West is the live music!!! Bars such as The Green Parrot, Hog's Breath Saloon, Schooner Wharf, Margaritaville, Cowboy Bill's, Finnigan's Wake, and Sloppy Joe's are constantly bringing in bands from around the country. We're talking national acts here. Then, there's the local performers, who are of such a high caliber that the bar is just about as high as it can go. These folks can also be found at the aforementioned, plus there's Captain Tony's Saloon, Island Dogs, Rick's, El Alamo, The Bull, The Lazy Gecko.... ex.

As far as venues go, there are a myriad. All over town live music is playing. All along the tourist main drag of Duval establishment after establishment has live performers.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about this is that none of this costs you one cent to enjoy! Door cover charge? Are you kidding? In Key West? They'd go out of business in a week! In Key West, you just walk through the door, grab a beer and enjoy and have fun!

Key west also has a slew of streaming web cams broadcasting live!

Enjoy!

Cold ... still

In short, this last week, with the exception of Thursday, was "Bite your ass" cold in Key West! This morning, Sunday, January 10th it was 46 degrees when I took my dogs for a walk at 9am! As I've stated before, this is not in my contract! A kid on a bike passed me singing a song that went "You gotta freeze to breath..." We're looking at a high of 53 today. Uuuggghh. Around the end of the week we're back to normal however, but this has certainly been a cold year thus far!

Last evening I didn't feel like cooking, as everything was frozen. So I started to think where I could grab a bite to eat. Around the corner is The Bottle Cap Lounge, however, I was up for something more quiet.I started thinking of places I could go and then, on this cold evening, I thought of the perfect place, Finnigan's Wake. An Irish pub named after the James Joyce story about Tim Finnigan who supposedly died, but woke up at his wake when someone knocked over the whiskey on him. Perfect! So I hopped on the bike and off I went to Finnigan's Wake. When I got there they had an Irish woman playing guitar and singing like a canary. Fiona Molloy was her name and she had a great command of the bar ant the undivided attention of it's patrons. Just what the doctor ordered! I ordered a Murphy's Stout on "Draught", to utilize the Irish and Commonwealth spelling of the word we spell "Draft".

I love all of the Irish Stouts. Beamish, Murphy's, and of course, Guinness. Murphy's is from my maternal grandparent's home county of Cork, so it has a melancholy attachment for me, when available. Both of my mother's parents were off the boat from County Cork in Ireland, Connolly and Flynn being the family names of my grandfather and grandmother.

A marvelous evening was had with Ms. Molloy playing all sorts of Irish and American, songs, plus a song from Newfoundland, as well as Germany (Lilly Marlene!!!... in German, French, and English!). One Irish song she brought up fans to sing verses she fed them about a woman who sits and fits... needless to say it ended up on the boarder of profane with the entire pub laughing their butts off! Ms. Malloy finished off her evening with "God Bless America" and there really wasn't a dry eye in the house. Thank you Fiona Molloy!!!!

The ride home was bitterly cold with a temperature of 49 around midnight or so, but with a belly full of beef and potatoes and stout and a heart resonating from a great performance, who could complain?

A real mind scramble also happened this week! Tim Garrity, my friend from all the way back, calls me and asks if I got the package he sent. Make a long story short, it was in my mailbox.Back when we were nineteen or so.. this wasn't last week... Tim was in the Navy and asked me to send him his guitar to San Diego. I bought him a strap to go with it... kinda cool in that it had a pouch for picks in it! So I sent that along with it.

Well, the package Tim sent was the strap I sent him 30+ years ago, as my dogs ate one of my straps recently!!! Holy Smokes!!! I truly was at a complete loss for words. It certainly warmed me up a good deal!

The week is supposed to climb gradually in temps and by Thursday we should be back to normal.

Bobby DeVito is sick, so unfortunately there will be no Sunday Afternoon Blues at Captain Tony's. Get well Bobby!!!!!

Ms. Sheila Sharkey Griffith was kind enough to invite me to go and play on the Trop Rock Cruise "Puerto Los Somewhere Cruise", leaving out of Tampa this week! Wow! Nice! Regretfully, I had to decline because of my own scheduling however. Big Bummer! Nevertheless, Thanks Sheila!!!!

However, hopefully with warmer weather heading this way and more, next weekend holds a lot of promise of great things to come!

All The Best From Key West!!!

Chris

Cold, Stolen Flag, Jesus Freaks, Hare Krishnas, Chinese, Indians, Euros, and Brits

Okay! Christmas, New Years, and Birthday are all out of the way, so now it’s off and running to the next break… is there a break? I don’t think so. If you’re not doing something in this town, you’re looking for something to do.

One thing we have to keep in focus is to try not to allow life to get in the way of doing the things we want. No. It’s not always in our control, however we at least have to make a sincere effort and not just go through the motions.

The New Year here started off with a cold front that staying with us for a bit. Low 60’s during the day and low 50’s at night. This will continue to the end of the week, where the long range says we’ll hit 70 on Friday, but plummet back down to what we have currently and continue for another three days after that.

This is not in my contract!

I’m currently wearing long pants and a jacket. I much prefer shorts and a T shirt, frankly!

I took the dogs out this morning and found that someone stole my Conch Republic flag that I had outside my door. I’m not sure if I’ve been complemented or violated?
Here’s a picture of it with my friend Tim, who orchestrated the entire flag/outside set up outside my place when he was down in November.



If anyone sees the flag, you have my permission to steal it and send it back home.

:-D

Way, way back when I first moved to Miami, I would see these people walking south on U.S. 1 dressed in biblical garb. They looked as though they belonged in the movie Moses, or a movie about Jesus Christ. Long, white robes, sandals, and a small bag to carry their worldly possessions. They looked like Christ, Moses, or Mother Mary in their hair, be it facial with the men, and or otherwise. This was some kind of a Jesus cult, it turned out and the reason they were heading south on U.S. 1 was…. You guessed it. They were heading to Key West. This pilgrimage went on for maybe three years, to my recollection. However, after that I never saw them again. Until last week, that is, when I saw a group of them… thirty years down the pike, mind you, walking up Duval St! Huh?

More on this fascinating story as it develops.

Come to think of it, Hummm. Been a while since I saw Hare Krishnas as well. They were the bane of so many in airports for years. Well, fear not. Just tonight we had three marching Duval in their robes, one playing a percussion drum-type instrument from India (where else?), while another played a sort of tambourine with the cymbals ringing away, while yet a third lead them up and down Duval singing…. Hare Krishna , of course!

No one can really explain another phenomenon that is happening, this time in the tourist industry in Key West. The percentage of guests from China and India has skyrocketed since last year! This blogger’s guess is for every individual guest from China, or India last year, there are between forty and sixty this year. Not sure how this will effect the local economy. The motels, and guest houses I imagine will be full, so for them it’s a good thing, providing my hypothesis on where they are staying is correct in the first place. However, Key West’s largest commodity is found in the bars and these guests are not setting foot in them. I can say that in the gallery that’s my daily gig, nothing whatsoever has been shipped to India or China. Could the dwindling dollar have something to do with it?

The Europeans are as strong as ever, as are our guests from the British Isles, fortunately! They of course, march excitedly into all of the tourist attractions and bars, adding their converted Euros and Pounds to the local economy. This is what Key West needs to survive.

The Conch Republic depends on the tourist industry, much to the chagrin of Papa Hemingway’s opinion, back in the day. However, it is what it is.

The Blue Heaven

Well, things change, don't they? Last year I went to several events at The Blue Heaven Restaurant here in Key West and they were nothing short of stellar events in a fantastic surrounding! The Blue Heaven, of course is like no place on the island whatsoever! It goes so far back that Ernest Hemingway used to go there and referee boxing matches held in the '30's. Up stairs there is a bar that was a bordello, back in the day, with three very small rooms off of it, just large enough to do the deed in. Outside, where today just about everything takes place, is a sand floor with a water tower that used to be part of Flagler's Railroad, above the outside bar. Did I forget the two stages?

Well, the last event I attended last year was the New Years bash they had. The place was packed and everyone was full of cheer and good tidings, The atmosphere was second to none.

Naturally, I was very much looking forward to this years New Years there as well!

My mode of transportation in Key West is bicycle, unless I'm taking the dogs to the park or going shopping, where the car is more practical. New Years Eve was no different. Blue Heaven is only about three or four blocks from home, so I arrived in no time. I was kind of surprised when I pulled up to the bike rack and there was plenty of space to "tie up" on Thomas St.

I went inside and to my additional surprise, the place was almost empty! Half the stools at the bar were available as well. I moseyed on up to the bar and ordered a Stella Artois from Alanda, who was holding court behind the bar. Mary Spear was just finishing up her set on stage with Cayman on percussion and a guitarist whom I didn't know. That was just before ten pm.

I met a nice family from Detroit there, Denise and Rocky. She and I share the same birthday, it turned out, so it was an instant bond for us. We had fun as I plowed down Pilsner Urquells, which followed the Stella.

I was in the men's room when the clock struck the hour of the decade! Fitting. What a relief that was! "Out with the old and in with the new!!!" I hollered and I made my way out of the men's room and headed back to the bar, ordering, yet another Pilsner Urquell.

Shortly after that, The Junkanoos of Key West came marching into the Blue Heaven in their complete regalia and the cacophony of marvelous sound which accompanies them! They stayed about ten minutes, or so, before heading off to their next destination.

A little after that I left. I was a bit bewildered at the lack of people there since last year. The owner has purchased another restaurant in town, Salute, over on Higgs Beach. Naturally, he's focusing his energy on getting that place off the ground, however, I think they may be doing it at the expense of The Blue Heaven.