Hallandale Beach Blog -A common-sense public policy overview offering a critical perspective on the current events, politics, government, public policy, sports scene and pop culture of the U.S. & South Florida, in particular, Broward & Miami-Dade County, and the cities of Hallandale Beach and Hollywood.
Sunday morning at 2 a.m. - Elvis In Memphis on QVC
1993 Elvis Presley Stamp -Watercolor of Elvis by Mark Stutzmamn
As those of you who come to this spot regularlymay recall, I'm not just a big Elvis fan, but actually livedin Memphis for three years growing-up, before my family moved to South Florida in July of 1968.
It was in Memphis specifically, and the Mid-South in general, on our weekend family drives around Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, where I first developed my deep and enduring love and preference for many things: the Mississippi River; rhythm 'n' blues; Al Green; The Andy Griffith Show; Dusty Springfield; Petula Clark; St. Louis Cardinals baseball on the radio in the summertime during one of their glory eras; smoky sweet Memphis-style barbecue ribs; cornbread, and, of course, The King - Elvis.
To a devout Elvis fan like me, who knows just about everything there is to know about him, the good and the bad, the best books ever written on Elvis -by far- are Peter Guralnick's masterful "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley" and the great follow-up, "Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley."
Each is written with honesty and empathy, free of the judgmental cant and analysis that doomed other books that purport to tell the tale. It was also while living in The Mid-South, that I first became greatly interested in the American Civil War, following a summer day-trip to Shiloh, the site of the bloody April 1862 battle.
It was on that summer day-trip that I had a chance meeting with a VERY old man on the battlefield itself. A man whose own father had actually fought in the battle -and lived to tell the tale! For more info on Shiloh, see http://www.nps.gov/shil/
Spending a day there is an awesome eye-opening experience and really puts things into their proper perspective, just as my later trips to Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry, Winchester, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania did as well.
Growing-up in South Florida in the late '60's and the '70's, I was always aware of the fact that South Florida lacked many if not most of the sorts of elements that bind a community, or historical sites that can give both kids and adults a very much-needed perspective and reality check on their own life when they are carried away with the weight of their own day-to-day problems, which, frankly, seems much more of a problem here than most places I've lived.
That's why the social significance and centrality of the Miami Dolphins on this community's consciousness can never be properly understood by anyone who didn't actually live here then.
The impromptu community support that caused so many thousands of us to swarm the Eastern Airlines tarmac at MIA to welcome the team back after their amazing 1971 Christmas Day double-overtime playoff victory in Kansas City, remains one the signature moments of the history of South Florida, even if you didn't already know that.
Similarly, the Miami Space Transit Planetarium, under Director Jack Horkeimer, was both so popular and so great not simply because of what it was, per se, but what it represented: one of the very few things that we had down here that was actually top-notch that people could take some pride in.
http://www.miamisci.org/
TCB, baby. ----------------
ELVIS TRIBUTE ON QVC
QVC will be airing a Live Elvis Presley Tribute show to commemorate the 32nd Anniversary of his passing. Among the various items being featured is an exclusive box set that can only be purchased on QVC.
Don’t miss this opportunity to pick up your copy and celebrate The King Of Rock n Roll.
Watch the show live, set your TiVo's, or log onto QVC on August 16th!
Eastern - August 16th, 2:00 AM
Central - August 16th, 1:00 AM
Mountain - August 16th, 12:00 AM
Pacific - August 15th, 11:00 PM
FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION
CELEBRATES 40th ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN STUDIOS SESSIONS, 36 TRACKS ACROSS 2 CDs, INCLUDING
10 ORIGINAL MONO SINGLE MASTERS
Elvis Presley's Memphis sessions proved that sometimes you can go home again. It was January 1969, and Elvis had not recorded in his hometown since leaving Sun Records for RCA in 1955. But the renewed focus and ambition sparked by his wildly successful TV comeback special the previous month propelled him back into a Memphis studio, where in just two weeks of sessions he made some of the most memorable and artistically satisfying music of his career.
This burst of inspired creativity resulted in the critically acclaimed album From Elvis In Memphis and its companion Back In Memphis. "Suspicious Minds," "In The Ghetto," "Don't Cry Daddy" and "Kentucky Rain" were among the unforgettable hits that resulted. This 40th anniversary Legacy Edition contains every track from the sessions recorded at American Studios in Memphis in January and February of 1969.
FINAL REPORT RE: GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH AND THE HB CRA
Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall Complex on S. Federal Highway/U.S.-1, where attention to details and appearances has never been their strong suit in the nine years I've lived here, since returning to South Florida after 15 years in the Washington, D.C. area. Thanks to the city's incompetent, myopic and poorly-managed DPW, the spotlights seen above in 2011 on the city's monument sign, at the corner of U.S.-1 & S.E. 5th St., have NOT worked since June of 2012. Which is to say that they have NOT worked since City Manager Renee C. Miller has been in place. But attention to details and appearances really DO matter when you are a government, and the situation with the lights is but the tip of the iceberg. The city's log of Visitors & Lobbyists, which is required by law to be up-to-date, was TWO MONTHS old as of last Friday. Really. August 7, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
BROWARD INSPECTOR GENERAL FINAL REPORT RE: GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH AND THE HALLANDALE BEACH COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
Broward Auditor looks at Hallandale Beach CRA with eye toward recovering misspent funds
By William Gjebre* BrowardBulldog.org
The Broward County Auditor’s Office has begun looking into whether Hallandale Beach should be required to repay some of the millions in tax dollars allegedly misspent due to “gross mismanagement” by city officials.
Broward Auditor looks at Hallandale Beach CRA with eye toward recovering misspent funds j.mp/11ysUve
Broward Inspector General: Hallandale leaders don’t know what they’re talking about, By William Gjebre* BrowardBulldog.org. The Broward Inspector General’s final report on the “gross mismanagement” of millions in tax dollars by Hallandale Beach is sharply critical of city leaders it says have shown a “basic misunderstanding” of what’s gone wrong.
Csaba Kulin re Hallandale Beach City Attorney Whitfield's comments re ethics at City Hall
HallandaleBeachBlog YouTube Channel video: Csaba Kulin re Hallandale Beach City Attorney Whitfield's comments re her role on ethics. Uploaded May 3, 2013.
http://youtu.be/dtpFnVOFA-I
From my May 3, 2013 blog post titled, "Csaba Kulin asks Hallandale Beach City Attorney Whitfield THE question HB citizens have long wondered, esp. as the Broward IG's Office has been busy investigating the city and turning-up mountains of incriminating and jaw-dropping evidence: Who at HB City Hall is supposed to make sure that applicable laws, ordinances and rules, especially those regarding ethics and conflicts of interest, are followed and enforced fairly? Teaser Alert: You won't like her answer" at
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/csaba-kulin-asks-hallandale-beach-city.html
____________________________________________ Hallandale Beach Blog is where I try to inject or superimpose a degree of accountability, transparency and insight onto Florida and local Broward County government and public policy issues, which I feel is sorely lacking in local media now. On this blog, locally, I concentrate my energy, enthusiasm, anger and laser-like attention on the coastal cities of Hallandale Beach and Hollywood.
If you lived in this part of South Florida, you'd ALREADY be stuck in stultifying traffic, paying higher-than-necessary taxes and continually musing about the chronic lack of accountability among not only elected govt. officials, but also of city, county and state employees as well. Collectively, with a few rare exceptions, they couldn't be farther from the sort of strong results-oriented, eager work-ethic mentality that local residents deserve and expect.
This is particularly true in the town I live in, the City of Hallandale Beach, just north of Aventura and south of Hollywood. There, the "Perfect Storm" of years of apathy, incompetency and cronyism are all too readily apparent. Sadly for its residents, HB is where even easily-solved, quality-of-life problems are left to fester for YEARS on end, because of myopia, lack of common sense and ineffective supervisory management. It's a city with lots of potential because of its terrific location, yet its citizens have become numb to its outrages and screw-ups after years of the worst kind of mismanagement and lack of foresight. On a daily basis, they wake up and see the same old problems that have never being adequately resolved by the city in a logical and responsible fashion, merely kicked -once again- further down the road. I used to ask myself, not always rhetorically, "Where are all the enterprising young reporters who want to show that through their own hard work and enterprise, what REAL investigative reporting can produce?" Hearing no response, I decided to start a blog that could do some of these things, taking the p.o.v. of a reasonable but skeptical person seeing the situation for the first time, and wanting questions answered in a honest and logical way that citizens have the right to expect. Hallandale Beach Blog intends to be a catalyst for positive change.
If there's one constant gripe in South Florida, regardless of your age, race, nationality or political persuasion, it's about the fundamental lack ofPUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITYhere among Florida's state, regional and local govt./agency officials.Hallandale Beach Blogaims to be a small step towards regaining some of that needed accountability, whether it's thru simple public scrutiny, or requires a degree of follow-up investigation and public exposure of incompetency, cronyism or simple negligence -South Florida's usual governing style. "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen."-Preacher Purl encouraging the underdog Hickory High basketball team before the state title game against heavily-favored South Bend Central in 1986'sHoosiershttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091217/
_____________________________________ The South Florida I Grew Up In
Excerpted from Joan Didion'sMiami, 1987, Simon & Schuster: In the continuing opera still called, even by Cubans who have now lived the largest part of their lives in this country, el exilo, the exile, meetings at private homes in Miami Beach are seen to have consequences. The actions of individuals are seen to affect events directly. Revolutions and counter-revolutions are framed in the private sector, and the state security apparatus exists exclusively to be enlisted by one or another private player. That this particular political style, indigenous to the Caribbean and to Central America, has now been naturalized in the United States is one reason why, on the flat coastal swamps of South Florida, where the palmettos once blew over the detritus of a dozen failed booms and the hotels were boarded up six months a year, there has evolved since the early New Year's morning in 1959 when Fulgencio Batista flew for the last time out of Havana a settlement of considerable interest, not exactly an American city as American cities have until recently been understood but a tropical capital: long on rumor, short on memory, overbuilt on the chimera of runaway money and referring not to New York or Boston or Los Angeles or Atlanta but to Caracas and Mexico, to Havana and to Bogota and to Paris and Madrid. Of American cities Miami has since 1959 connected only to Washington, which is the peculiarity of both places, and increasingly the warp...
"The general wildness, the eternal labyrinths of waters and marshes, interlocked and apparently neverending; the whole surrounded by interminable swamps... Here I am then in the Floridas, thought I,"John James Audobon wrote to the editor of The Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science during the course of an 1831 foray in the territory then still called the Floridas. The place came first, and to touch down there is to begin to understand why at least six administrations now have found South Florida so fecund a colony. I never passed through security for a flight to Miami without experiencing a certain weightlessness, the heightened wariness of having left the developed world for a more fluid atmosphere, one in which the native distrust of extreme possibilities that tended to ground the temperate United States in an obeisance to democratic institutions seemed rooted, if at all, only shallowly. At the gate for such flights the preferred language was already Spanish. Delays were explained by weather in Panama. The very names of the scheduled destinations suggested a world in which many evangelical inclinations had historically been accommodated, many yearnings toward empire indulged...
In this mood Miami seemed not a city at all but a tale, a romance of the tropics, a kind of waking dream in which any possibility could and would be accommodated... _____________________________________________
Photo of Andreas Jismark, Anni Bernhard and Mats Jönsson, Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden. January 11, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
From my June 2nd, 2013 post titled, "Our 'Full of Keys' drought is finally over! Full of Keys (a.k.a. the amazing Anni Bernhard) will be playing a showcase in New York City at Cake Shop on June 10th as part of the week-long New Music Seminar. Her new album was recorded recently in Gotland, will be mastered in NYC, aiming for a September release -with lots of very big and exciting plans coming soon! @FullOfKeys, @AndreasJismark, #AnniBernhard, #MatsJönsson, #GrazingGrounds, #NMS2013, #NYMF, #CakeShop"
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/our-full-of-keys-drought-is-finally.html
Click the photo to read that post, watch her videos and learn more about this dynamic and original talent with personality to spare!
A fish rots from the head down, and so does local government in Hallandale Beach, FL
"Why do they need that in the Broward County charter?"
_____________________________________________ "Laws and Constitutions go for nothing where the general sentiment is corrupt." -New York Times,September 22, 1851
"Why do they need that in the Broward County charter?" -Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper at April 2, 2008 HB City Commission meeting, in discussing possible inclusion of Broward County Charter Review Commission's proposal for Ethics Commission to deal with Broward County Commission, on November 2008 ballot.
Six YEARS after the county's voters had overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the County charter requiring its adoption, the Broward County Commission had yet to live up to its legal responsibility. That's why!
________________________________________
Me describing HB Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew in 2008
Wednesday night's Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting captured Mayor Joy Cooper at her absolute brazen worst: by turns condescending, accusative, arrogant, sneering, abrasive and totally full of her bullying self, once again over-playing her hand.
Naturally, as this observer has seen on far too many occasions over the past few years, the mayor, as is her established custom, tried to turn the events into one where she could try to play the 'victim card' as well.
"I take offense at..."
She never really quites pulls off the victim card, though, because more often than not, Cooper is the aggressive bully, upset that people are remaining independent and not bending to her will.
It was all so unseemly and un-necessary, yet it's representative of why Hallandale Beach needs fresh faces of reform come November to prevent the continuing sense of democratic decay under the older, sclerotic members, who are not only not friends of government reform, accountability, transparency and increased citizen participation in city business, but are, by their own recorded votes, their sworn enemy.
They are the very portrait of status quo for the well-connected and the well-heeled in this community, who like things done one way - their way!
Corruption Isn't Unique to South Florida, It's the Level of the Stupidity That Is
Corruption Isn't Unique to South Florida, It's the Level of the Stupidity That Is "[Chicago Mayor] William Hale Thompson was defeated Tuesday after a campaign which he alone made disgraceful. The election was an ejection, a dirty job, but Chicago has washed itself and put on clean clothes. Thompson recognized the [Chicago] Tribune as his chief enemy. The Tribune was glad to earn that opinion. It certainly tried to do so. It has taken the fight to him on every occasion during the long and depraved course of his administration. It is unpleasant business to eject a skunk, but someone has to do it. For Chicago, Thompson has meant filth, corruption, obscenity, idiocy and bankruptcy. He has given the city an international reputation for moronic buffoonery, barbaric crime, triumphant hoodlumism, unchecked graft and a dejected citizenship. He nearly ruined the property and completely destroyed the pride of the city. He made Chicago a byword for the collapse of American civilization. In his attempt to continue this he excelled himself as a liar and defamer of character. He’s out. He is not only out, but dishonored. He is deserted by his friends. He is permanently marked by the evidences of his character and conduct. His health is impaired by his ways of life and he leaves office and goes from the city the most discredited man who ever held place in it."
-Excerpts from April 1931 Chicago Tribune editorial following Republican "Big Bill" Thompson's loss to his Democratic rival Anton Cermak. A friend of organized crime during the Al Capone era, Thompson was the last Republican elected mayor of Chicago. But less than two years later, Mayor Cermak was shot while shaking hands with President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt at Miami's Bayfront Park. He died from gunshot wounds to his lungs three weeks later. See http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/3686.html
Hallandale Beach. Actually, it's a city of gross incompetency, red-tape & myopia
Hallandale Beach in The Miami Herald over 25 years ago "For years people living in and out of its condo-walled sector east of U.S. 1 have wondered what to do about the city of Hallandale. In the 19th Century the condo giants would have served as ideal fortresses. From top floors of the towers, enemy ships could be readily spotted and blown out of the Atlantic. Oceanfront dwellers could have been protected from the west by the Hallandale Beach Boulevard drawbridge and moat called the Intracoastal Waterway. But this is the 20th Century..."
-Miami Herald Broward Columnist Bill Braucher's first paragraph from July 24, 1983. To which Hallandale Beach Blog can only say, Bulls-eye!
The Related Group's The Beach Club, consisting of three condo towers
North Miami Beach Senior High School, the Home of the Chargers
Before I was a Hoosier, I was an NMB Charger, Class of 1979
In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation
"In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation." -South Beach Hoosier, 2007.
The NCAA Championship Banners
Assembly Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. I was there in 1981 for NCAA Title #4 vs. North Carolina. Click on photo to go to the IU Basketball homepage.
Let's end the 27-year NCAA title drought!
IU All-American and U.S. Olympian Steve Alford on the cover of the 1987 Indiana University basketball media guide, months after IU won the NCAA basketball title.
Kevin Wilson said he told his players summer conditioning is voluntary "but so is winning and losing."
This is positively HORRENDOUS; as bad, if not worse, than the Dolphins ill-inspired logo and uniform changes that are courtesy of owner Stephen Ross, which, BTW, only small children and stupid people like.
No word yet on when Hoosiers will wear each of the helmets. Expect a Twitter meltdown when striped metallic lids debut.
Like longtime U-M fans everywhere, including me, Sebastian the Ibis, the U-M mascot, hasn't had very much to cheer about lately, given the general state of mediocrity and underwhelming performances coming from the Hurricanes. Isn't it about time for fans to finally see some tangible signs that the new AD is moving things in the right direction? Where are the signs? I'm NOT seeing them. The woeful U-M Women's program is largely composed of teams that are NOT even close to being competitive for NCAA titles like their ACC competition, and they don't even field Women's Lacrosse or Field Hockey teams. It's embarrassing! Click on Sebastian for retrospective photo gallery of The Orange Bowl
The Marlins are responsible for 40 percent of MLB's attendance drop
The Marlins are responsible for 40 percent of MLB's attendance drop: deadsp.in/M68nU1K
Anouk - "Birds" (The Netherlands) - LIVE at 2013 Eurovision, Mälmo, Sweden
eurovision YouTube Channel video: Anouk - Birds (The Netherlands) - LIVE - 2013 Grand Final, Eurovision Song Contest 2013, Mälmo, Sweden, Uploaded May 18, 2013.http://youtu.be/n5iazXvMw5o
This wonderful understated and melancholy song was featured in my May 18, 2013 blog post titled, "Demark's Emmelie De Forest wins 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Mälmo, but Anouk gets 12 points from Hallandale Beach Blog, and around here, that matters more; all blog-related emails from readers today were from readers who LOVE Anouk's song, and who'll now consider purchasing the new CD of the talented Dutch singer they'd never heard of until today -but have since "discovered"; 'Sad Singalong Songs'"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/demarks-emmelie-de-forest-wins-2013.html
And besides me, guess what other South Florida resident is an Anouk fan?
And besides me, guess what other South Florida resident is an Anouk fan? Matt Drudge of The Drudge Report:
She didn't take Eurovision, but Anouk was real winner. 'BIRDS' haunting; new CD perfect for state of things. Brava!! bit.ly/14CLq2u
Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio - "If I Didn't Know Better" (entire song)
'Nashville' stars Clare Bowen (Scarlett O'Connor) and Sam Palladio (Gunnar Scott) sing "If I Didn't Know Better" (entire song) Uploaded October 2, 2012. http://youtu.be/gAI_1FsJ8rE
Juliette Barnes - Consider Me (Live Performance)
Juliette Barnes YouTube Channel video: Juliette Barnes - Consider Me (Live Performance),
Uploaded February 11, 2013. Written by Ashley Monroe & Brendan Benson, Performed by Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere)
http://youtu.be/hqpSxH-3j6c
Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere) performs "Nothing In This World" from Nashville's season-finale
ABCNetwork YouTube Channel video: Nashville - "Nothing In This World" - ABC Music Lounge: Juliette Barnes (Hayden Pantierre) performs "Nothing in this World" (Will Ever Break My Heart Again) at the Bluebird, from Nashville's Season 1 finale.
Uploaded May 23, 2013. Wtitten by Kate York and Sarah Buxton.http://youtu.be/zZoonVB3IsM
Hayden Panettiere - The Fabric of Our Lives
The Fabric of Hayden Panettiere's Life (Cotton Commercial)
TV commercial version
Hayden is the newest entertainer featured as a spokesperson for Cotton Incorporated's very successful and long-standing advertising campaign, featuring their iconic musical jingle -"the touch the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives"- that's known by nearly every American adult.
Long version:Hayden Panettiere - The Fabric of My Life (Official Music Video)
CottonFabricOfMyLife YouTube Channel video: Hayden Panettiere - The Fabric of My Life (Official Music Video). Uploaded April 15, 2013.
http://youtu.be/4x6P_ismccQhttp://www.thefabricofourlives.com/
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