Bob Hudson and I hit it off when we met fifty years ago; maybe it was the edgy humor thing that we both enjoyed. The two of us were heading to the University of Florida and he wanted me to join his fraternity. While I did not (I thought the ATO's had better parties), our friendship endured until his death last Monday.
During a 1970 law school break we headed to London. Bob met his future wife, Edith, while we were choosing food in a university cafeteria. I'd often tell him that "I would have married her" had I been ahead of him in line.
It was a joke of course, the two of them were meant for each other. They married in Coconut Grove's Plymouth Church. Afterwards we had a funky reception in one of the long-gone picnic shelters in Peacock Park. (above, Bob and Edith sailing out of Dinner Key Marina, 1978)
We headed in very different directions as Bob became an expert in international tax law. His downtown office -with the big bay view- gave me vertigo.
From my 1970's law office, above the Grove's Bird Bath Laundry, I could see tired people carrying dirty clothes.
Bob and Edith had a great life together. They raised two fine sons (Patrick and Daniel) and a played leading roles in local charitable organizations. Bob headed the Concert Association of Florida for many years. He wasn't much of an artist but was a huge supporter of the arts.
The Hudsons loved to entertain in their spacious, South Grove home on Biscayne Bay. Wine was always a big deal. At formal dinners they'd serve a different one with each course. I'd be tanked after two.
Were you at our backyard wedding reception when Francesca and I got married? Bob and Edith tended the bar. Much of the wine came from their well-stocked cellar.
When we invited the Hudsons to a Christmas gathering three weeks ago Bob replied with a short note, "I'm sorry we can't make it. We'll be spending the holidays in Europe".
He spent his last days there too. He had a heart attack while strolling in Paris with his wife. Not a bad way to go, in the City of Love with the woman he adored. All around him was the art and culture that filled his glass and dazzled his life.
I'm gonna miss you, Bob. You were a great husband, father, and friend.
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Local merchants association will do anything to draw warm bodies to Coconut Grove. Last October they gave us three festivals that churned Peacock Park into a field of dead grass and mud.
Taking advantage of this unfortunate situation,
we will have the Grove's first dirt festival, "DirtFest" this weekend.
City workers have bulldozed the dead grass into four-acres of pillowy, black soil.
Like October's Pumpkin Festival, it will bring out the kids (and the "kid" in the rest of us). What youngin' isn't happy playing King of the Dirt Pile?
Small orange flags have been placed strategically to encourage Capture the Flag competitions.
Thanks to yesterday's rain, there is also an amazing mud pit. Splash through it or stare at your reflection. Wallowing in it could be a Woodstock experience.
Unlike other festivals, the "Dirt Fest" is un-fenced and free. It is brought to us by feckless promoters and poor park management. They turned grass into dirt. We're turning lemons into lemonade.
There will be no live music or food for sale. Bring a picnic basket, kazoo, and a very old blanket. It will probably get dirty.
There are acres of rich soil for you to enjoy. Tons of it to climb, toss, and and make festive dirt angels in.
Dig it while you can.
Peacock Park's dirt festival will continue until next month. That's when the city is planning to cover it with fresh squares of grass.
Once the new sod takes hold, the Grove art festival will come in with tents and trucks to tear it up once more.
That's when DirtFest II begins.
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MORE ON PEACOCK PARK
Three years ago our former city commissioner, Mark Sarnoff, gave the southwest corner of Peacock Park to the private school next door. The school fenced off the basketball and soccer courts for their exclusive use. I'm happy to report that when I visited last weekend the gates were unlocked, open to the public.
The City of Miami closed down the Park's community center, the "Glass House" four years ago.
Earlier this year it started showing signs of life when the western half opened as a gathering space. There is an after-school program and rec room.
On a Sunday afternoon it was empty, waiting for you to enjoy a game of Ping Pong, air hockey, or Foosball.
The other half of the Glass House faces the bay. S l o w l y it is being
turned into a restaurant, the "Glass & Vine".
It's taken years for this transition. Why they gave the job to snails in hard hats I'll never know.
Being snails, they'll love DirtFest.
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M e r r y C h r i s t m a s
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Our neighbor, Bobby Ingram, is profiled in the Miami Herald today.
It's two pages but not quite enough to cover all of his long,
illustrious life.
Read the Andres Viglucci's article (with photos by the Grove's Pat Farrell) here,
It includes links to some of the songs on his new CD "Postcards from Coconut Grove".
It's terrific. If you'd like one Francesca and I are a part of the distribution network.
Three of Bobby's biggest fans,
Francesca, Glenn, and Pi
Florida is a state with mega-traffic problems. It has a citizen's group -appointed by the governor- to make recommendations on all things pertaining to transportation policies. It's our Florida Transportation Commission.
The group should be composed of our state's best and brightest, people with extensive experience in leadership, the formulation of policy and strong educational backgrounds.
On Friday Florida's least-loved governor, Rick Scott, appointed Coconut Grove's Teresa Sarnoff to serve a four-year term on the commission. While the former secretary has never held a position of leadership (or a college degree), she and her husband are strong Scott supporters and helped raise money for his recent campaign.
I know Teresa. She drives a in Miami traffic and I saw her on a bike once. Maybe that -and raising money for awful politicians- is enough.
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"The Polar Express" was shown in Regatta Park Friday night. They
couldn't have the movie in Peacock Park, the Grove's usual outdoor venue.
No one likes to sit in mud.
This fall Coconut Grove's central park has been severely damaged by poor management and greedy promoters. Two months ago our 8-acres on the bay was lush and green. People were using it for baseball, kite-flying, and soccer.
Then, "the season" started and a series of commercial events turned our village green brown.
Uncaring promoters fenced it, ran their heavy trucks through it, and invited thousands of people to stomp the lawn to death. The heat of a parked vehicle engines created patches of burned grass.
Why does the city allow promoters to do this? In just eight days Peacock Park suffered the beer-swilling "Grovetoberfest" (Oct. 17), a seafood festival (October 18) and a pumpkin festival (October 24-25). These heavily-promoted, crowded gatherings ripped up and killed the lawn. 
Peacock Park's field is now off limits. The only healthy grass is a thin rim running around the perimeter.
You will not see anyone playing kickball, soccer, or baseball there. The City of Miami's parks director, Kevin Kerwin, has declared the field closed. He plans to re-sod the park and open it again in January.
Who will pay for that? Who will pay for the lost revenue from legitimate groups using the park?
Commercial events should not be allowed on our village green. Put them elsewhere, in a fairground or parking lot. The Grove's Peacock, Kennedy, and Regatta Park are not "fair grounds". They should be free of truck traffic and open to the public every day of year.
The Grove's business improvement district ("The BID") supports these events because they cause thousands of people to buy beer and pumpkins in the Grove's central park. So what? Their spending does not trickle west to the Grove's business district. Have you ever seen anyone eating at Greenstreet's with a newly purchased pumpkin?
These events only earn a city fee while putting the big money in promoters' pockets as they fence off and tear up our park.
The pictures you see here were taken ten days ago, before the week of rain and six weeks after the last Peacock event. Would you want to fly your kite there? And more seriously, is this any way to run a park?
Miami can do this better. We have a new city commissioner and a new parks director. Both seem keen on improving the way the Grove's parks are managed. Representatives of The Friends of Peacock Park and Grove 2030 will meet with city park officials on Thursday.
Hopefully they will come up with ideas to make Peacock Park the gem it should be. In six weeks the new grass will be installed and ready for the public to enjoy again. Unfortunately, two weeks later fences and tents will go up as trucks roll over the fresh, fragile lawn for the the Grove's mega art festival.
It's too late to stop that. Hopefully, a year from now all of the pumpkin, beer and art festivals will be sent elsewhere. Maybe Peacock can be a park again.
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We got through Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Tomorrow we'll be facing our next mandatory shopping event, T-Shirt Tuesday.
I dreamed I walked the Spanish Steps in my Mango Republic t-shirt.
Why not buy one (or a dozen) from the Mango Republic? They make great gifts.
We started selling our designs two years ago and they're still quite popular. It's a great feeling wearing the world's favorite fruit on your chest.
The Mango Republic Emporium is located in our South Grove home. "The goods" are explained on our "Mango Republic" Facebook page. Write us at bettermiami1@yahoo.com should you have any questions. The phone works too, 305-448-3775.
While I dreamed I walked the Spanish Steps in mine, your mango destinations can be boundless.
T-shirt Tuesday, think of the possibilities.
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Thank God for Art Basel publicity. Reading about its fans spending this weekend fighting traffic in never ending downpours to pay millions for foo-foo art made most of us stay home. Most Miamians are enjoying a quiet weekend rearranging their spice shelves or watching their screens of choice.
You just might be staring at one now.
Francesca and I aren't made for that. We loaded up rain gear and umbrella'd our way to our deep-water SUV. In a questionable part of residential Wynwood we actually found a parking spot and endeavored to do our Basel thing.
After a fifteen minute walk we were passing the Locust Gallery in the Design District. A sign on the door told us "First performance, 11 a.m.". We were right on time to see a naked man fooling around with large, odd, sculptures. After ten minutes of that we headed east to see how badly the District has gotten Gucci'ized over the last three years. Lucky we were walking, no cars are now allowed unless they are very long and are driven by uniformed chauffeurs.
We enjoyed seeing their new icon, the 30-foot Buckmisnster Fuller dome. Bucky would be embarrassed to see it beckoning people to buy $75,000
watches.
Our walk back to Midtown's Art Miami was delightful. The rain had kept enough people away to make it easy dodging everyone else's umbrellas.
A sign man pointed the way to the Christmas Store where we saw Miami's new holiday shrine, "Jesus Under Black Light.
When we reached our main objective, Art Miami's tent that is barely smaller than an airport, we noodled our way into its crowded interior.
Ah... now we could see what people had come thousands of miles to see,
the iridescent walrus.
the monkey who followed his dreams,
and my person fave, "Super-sized Pizza Slice" .
Forget the art , we were happy to be in a dry place in a city where rain clouds have been parked for days.
We took our obligatory Art Basel selfie,
popped our umbrellas,
and hurried home.
There were still spices that needed arranging.
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Like the tide, the water slowly rises and falls in the bathroom-size plexiglas tank.
Inside are people like you and I trying to cope with Waterworld.
Get out your gondolas, much of Miami will be underwater by 2050.
Last night we were enthralled by "Haloscenes" the performance piece now at MDCC's downtown campus. Every hour from 2 to 8 today actors will climb into the empty tank. The audience will sit comfortably on its three exposed sides.
The performers inside will do what we might do, prepare for work, text, or tune a guitar. As music plays, spectators will watch them cope as 30,000 gallons of water are added to the tank. Eventually they are floating, gasping for air, or diving for a cell phone.
Today is your last chance to see Haloscenes before it continues on its world tour
Its a great way to enjoy a little Art Basel without the crazy crowds and parking problems.
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During a 1970 law school break we headed to London. Bob met his future wife, Edith, while we were choosing food in a university cafeteria. I'd often tell him that "I would have married her" had I been ahead of him in line. 
We headed in very different directions as Bob became an expert in international tax law. His downtown office -with the big bay view- gave me vertigo. 
