FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Awesome! Miriam Bryant's musical talent is opening eyes and opening doors everywhere -even in the U.S.; video of Miriam performing LIVE Saturday night on TV4's Sommarkrysset at Gröna Lund in Stockholm, easily the best and most-compelling performance of hers I've ever seen; @MiriamBryant, @StereoscopeAB, @Zedd, #pushplay, #sommarkrysset, #happy

Miriam%20Bryant%20-%20Push,%20play

 http://www.tv4play.se/program/sommarkrysset-med-lottodragningen?video_id=2413163
This will be available for viewing internationally at the TV4 Play website until Sept. 2nd, Stockholm time.

One of our musical favorites, Göteborg's own, Miriam Bryant, performed on Sweden's TV4's Sommarkrysset TV show on Saturday night from Gröna Lund, mere hours ago, and as you can see, I have her most recent performance of "Push, play" from her Raised In Rain album
for you all to see

Miriam not only sang great but looked great!
Frankly, to me, she seemed much more relaxed and comfortable playing before an eager audience AND wearing shorts on a warm night, instead of walking around on stages wearing those long black/dark outfits she's favored so much the past few months, that seemed a little overly-dour during the summer. http://web.stagram.com/n/miriambryant
I was very pleased for her!

While I've known for a few days that Miriam would be performing on the show Saturday night, I was reminded of that again on Saturday afternoon around Noon by a handful of readers from Sweden coming to the blog and doing queries about it, even though all the people doing so from Sweden are, in fact, the ones who are 6 hours ahead of me in time, NOT the other way around.
So it seemed odd to me that they'd think I'd have something up on the blog before anything appeared online there.
Made me laugh, actually.
But maybe it's some sort of slightly askew compliment, no?

 This has been a very good week for Miriam all around, since she and her Raised In Rain album were tweeted about on Sweden's official Twitter site on Monday, @sweden.


She didn't even mention it or retweet it @MiriamBryant https://twitter.com/MiriamBryant
which made me think that perhaps she was so busy that she didn't even know about it.

As it happens, there was also a very interesting newspaper article on Saturday morning by Aftonbladet entertainment reporter Frida Söderlundin about Miriam's future plans that some of you may've already heard about and that concerns the details of her trip to Los Angeles in June.

Below, a photo Miriam shot in Santa Monica of an iconic Southern California spot:




Svenska stjärnskottet supersatsar - i USA, Miriam Bryant jobbar med Gagas producent: "Absurt"
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article17235906.ab

 She's going to be working with the producer of Lady Gaga's current album, Anton "Zedd" Zaslavski, who really likes her voice and her songs, and may well be releasing an EP in the United States, and, presumably, Canada.




As Maria Petersson wrote Wednesday in Miriam's hometown newspaper, the Göteborg Posten, which is also the second-largest national newspaper in the country, in her review of Miriam's performance there in town this week, 
http://www.gp.se/kulturnoje/recensioner/konsert/konsert4fyrar/1.1871851-miriam-bryant-taubescenen-liseberg
she said, more-or-less, paraphrasing:
Last summer Miriam was working as a waitress at Järnvägsrestaurangen at the very popular Liseberg Amusement Park in Göteborg, and this year she's singing there to very appreciative crowds.

 The closing paragraph is spot-on and, essentially, the comments said of Miriam, fortuitously, as history will likely show; again paraphrasing:
Before the concert a young man in his blue rain poncho spoke to the crowd and said that due to the poor weather, Miriam's show would probably be an I-was-there sort of gig that attendees would be bragging about years from now, because "small gigs may soon be history for Miriam Bryant. She's destined for bigger stages."
Nice!!!

See also::
"Framför allt får man lov att fucka ur"
Av Camila Astorga Díaz
2013-05-04 13:00
Miriam Bryant har blivit hyllad till tusen, om och om igen. Hon har blivit kallad "den nya Adele" och förväntningarna på henne är stora. Med debutalbumet lovar hon mer pop och mindre soul.
http://gaffa.se/nyhet/72003

 My two previous blog posts that mentioned singer Miriam Bryant were:

 APRIL 9, 2013
If Miriam Bryant isn't on your musical radar yet, she ought to be ;) Miriam Bryant - Push Play (Official), Finders Keeper (Official); @MiriamBryant
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/if-miriam-bryant-isnt-on-your-musical.html

 MAY 14, 2013
On Wednesday you'll be thanking me for introducing you to ANOTHER amazing singer from Sweden: Cecilia Nilsson, a.k.a Cissi or "See See"; Cecilia will sing two songs LIVE on Radio P4 Gavleborg on Friday at 15:30; @CissiNilsson, @andreasjismark, #inmyroom
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/on-wednesday-youll-be-thanking-me-for.html
-----
Here's the official video released months ago
Miriam Bryant YouTube Channel video: Miriam Bryant - Push Play (Official). Uploaded April 8, 2013. http://youtu.be/h6GgeK3irUs
Push, play, stop, rewind, you drown your heroes in red wine...


Miriam%20Bryant%20-%20Push%20play

TV4 video: Miriam Bryant - Push, Play (with piano & bass only -NO drums!) on the Jenny Strömstedt Show. Originally aired March 4, 2013. 

 -----
More information on Miriam at: http://www.miriambryantmusic.com/

 Miriam Bryant  @MiriamBryant https://twitter.com/MiriamBryant

 https://www.facebook.com/miriambryantmusic

 http://web.stagram.com/n/miriambryant

 http://www.youtube.com/user/MiriamBryantMusic/

 Stereoscope Music Scandinavia @StereoscopeAB https://twitter.com/StereoscopeAB

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stereoscope-Music-Scandinavia/421176481278398

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, August 2, 2013

Flashback Friday returns to the Summer of 1980 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sing "American Girl" (LIVE) on ABC-TV's "Fridays" on June 6, 1980; remembering summer nights at Rum Runner Bay in North Miami Beach in the 1980's, soon to be the Marina Palms Yacht Club & Residences


shoutfactory YouTube Channel video: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sing "American Girl" (LIVE) on ABC-TV's "Fridays" on June 6, 1980. Uploaded August 1, 2013. http://youtu.be/b2nbHpF7-qk
Personally, I always thought that the camera-work done on this ABC-TV show when musical acts performed was better than over at NBC's Saturday Night Live.

I was just recently back from my freshman year at Indiana University in Bloomington when this particular program first aired, three years after the song had come out on Tom Petty's first album.
The night it aired I'd gone out earlier to the old Rum Runner Bay Bar & Restaurant that I used to visit with friends who were also going to college out-of-state when I was back from IU for Christmas Break or the summer in the early 1980's.

It was located on the water off of Biscayne Blvd. and N.E. 172nd Street in North Miami Beach -back before Aventura existed, and far too far south to be called "Turnberry"- to meet with some friends I hadn't seen since my visit home at Christmas, since they had a different week for spring break, when I'd driven down to Fort Lauderdale from Bloomington with some friends and would spend all day and most of the night at the excellent Yankee Trader Hotel or at the beach across the street, but would then go home to NMB most nights to crash.

(Loved, loved, loved the Yankee Trader Hotel pool scene!!!
That was like the "W" Hotel concept before there was a "W" concept, or the pool scene on the NBC-TV series "Vegas," but for college kids, and NOT a compete rip-off price-wise.

Every friendly and good-looking coed from a school my friends and I had never heard of, except perhaps from a couple of sentences from Street & Smith's College Football Preview issue, made a beeline from where ever they were for that pool up top with the great view of the beach: Eastern Kentucky University, Central Connecticut State University...
We couldn't believe our luck at being in a place that seemed like we'd literally dreamed it up on the drive down.

As one friend who was a Journalism major at IU remarked about the army of friendly and good-looking college girls in that pre-Internet era, before we could make the hotel Social Media Gold by tweeting about it, "What they lack in fanfare, they make up for in Quality and Friendliness." Yes.)

This was back before the State of Florida changed the drinking age from 18 to 21 -which meant that I could legally drink in my last semester of high school if I was so inclined- we'd meet there and a handful of other places in North Dade and South Broward where we'd all exaggerate how great everything was going for us back at school, especially relationship-wise.


The very big advantage that Rum Runner Bay had was its great central location -and on the water- very attractive wait staff and even better-looking customers, AND, beers from around the world. 
Plus the likelihood that at least one or two people we knew from North Miami Beach High School would show up. 
It was a very, very sociable place!

Now THAT was a relaxing place!
Wish we had something close to that on the water now in Hallandale Beach.

At some point, according to what Curbed Miami wrote a few months ago, that site of so much fun for me and my friends is going to be a condominium complex called Marina Palms Yacht Club & Residences, and as these things go, it actually looks attractive to me, or at least not hideous or unattractive like so many condos down here that I could name that screw-up or ruin perfectly good locations.
  
-----

On August 6th Shout Factory is releasing their best of Fridays DVD 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Girl_(song)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fridays_episodes
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, August 1, 2013

More troubling news re the Hallandale Beach CRA scandal and the curious conduct of Mayor Joy Cooper re FL's Sunshine Laws and public records, which further makes the case for why we need the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee (JLAC) to get involved and perform a thorough audit of the HB CRA ASAP

Above and below, looking north on south-bound U.S.-1/South Federal Highway towards Hallandale Beach City Hall, July 10, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.


 Taken within the context of a sweltering South Florida summer -above via a heat map photo- that's often robbed us of our desire to live in South Florida full-time, or at least get into our car any time after its been sitting in a parking lot under a brutal and unforgiving sun for hours on end, for fear of our skin melting, and literally having the life sucked out of us after opening the door, today is a real red letter day at the blog.

 The reason for that is that we have some genuine positive news to share with you all courtesy of Tom Lauder that actually advances the narrative that is the continuing drip-drip-drip scandal of the Hallandale Beach CRA, and what has gone on in this city the past ten years.

 Not just the public policy scandal of all the wasted time and squandered opportunities to actually do the right thing in this city to actually eliminate blight and improve the area economically in a way that's actually tangible, which is a scandal of sorts, of course, but the larger financial one that directly led to millions of dollars going out the door with near-zero scrutiny and oversight by the very people at Hallandale Beach City Hall who were supposed to provide it on behalf of the citizens, taxpayers and small business owners of this city.
But who didn't.
Year-after-year.

I sent the following out as an email this afternoon because it helps to tie together more information about those mysterious text messages between Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, HB City Manager Renee C. Miller and the mayor's pal and Broward lobbyist, Judy Stern, and their attempts to prevent an audit of the HB CRA from taking place via County Auditor Evan Lukic's office.
It also helps connects-the-dots more on how the city's elected officials and administrators handle public record requests that get a little too close for comfort.

 Rather than name every official I sent it to like I have sometimes in the past, let's just say that this time I've sent it to a wider variety of people than usual here and up in Tallahassee -and points-in-between- as well as some of the leaders of the Florida State Senate and members of the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, the latter of whom many of us in this city are counting on to get us the truth we've long been denied.
-----

 My comments are after this very timely article by Tom Lauder.

 Media Trackers Florida
Hallandale Beach Mayor Fails to Report Texts to Lobbyist During Meeting
By Tom Lauder
July 31, 2013
Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper exchanged multiple text messages with controversial lobbyist Judy Stern during a June 4 government meeting but did not log the messages on a lobbyist contact report as required by state law.
Earlier this spring, Hallandale Beach residents asked the Broward County Commission for assistance after a Broward County Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigation “identified numerous instances of gross mismanagement that stemmed from institutional deficiencies in the establishment, organization and function of the CRA [Community Redevelopment Agency].” Some of the residents raising concerns included Hallandale Beach Commissioner Michele Lazarow and former Hallandale Beach Commissioner Keith London.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://mediatrackers.org/florida/2013/07/31/hallandale-beach-mayor-fails-to-report-texts-to-lobbyist-during-meeting

-----
August 1, 2013

 I wanted to let you all know today that since I sent a formal request to the City of Hallandale Beach six weeks ago, it is refusing to fulfill my Public Records Request and comply with Florida's Sunshine Laws in providing me with all the text messages between Broward lobbyist Judy Stern and HB Mayor Joy Cooper and HB City Manager Renee C. Miller in their lengthy efforts to prevent Hallandale Beach residents from getting the true facts.

 This, even as the three of them lobbied Broward County Commissioners and staff, including County Administrator Bertha Henry on this matter, to prevent a thorough audit of the Hallandale Beach CRA via the Office of Broward Auditor Evan Lukic.
A thorough audit that HB residents desperately want so they will finally know precisely what really happened to millions of dollars.

 I was told Wednesday in-person by HB City Clerk Sheena James, prior to the city's CRA Budget Workshop, that the city would be unable to comply with my request because, rather conveniently, they say their phone carrier -that is, AT&T, the carrier who is paid tens of thousands of dollars every year by Hallandale Beach taxpayers for telephone services used by Hallandale Beach elected officials and staffers-DON'T have to provide requested public records without a court order, even if the parties 'owning' the phones request them.

 Personally, I think HB City Hall is laughing at the idea of their being able to successfully thwart my honest efforts to get to the truth on this matter, and get my hands on public records that I have strong reason to believe contain some very incriminating comments by the three of them, possibly, even about me.

 When I brought this up during my three minutes to speak prior to the actual meeting, I specifically mentioned that HB citizens would be very interested in hearing from CRA Attorney Stephen Zelkowitz in the future on why the city doesn't simply log those messages in a timely fashion, since it seems clear to me that the city is using the carrier as a buffer to not comply with legitimate Public Records Requests, and that in any event, there will be requests by
someone at some future point for text messages, since they are public records, so the city better figure out what they were going to do to comply with the law.

 After I returned to my seat, Mayor Cooper then responded in a semi-sarcastic manner that she only wishes she could get access to all those messages (Of hers!)

 I was not amused, chiefly because I know the truth is that she does NOT want those messages being made public.
In any case, Mayor Cooper then went on to say, rather tellingly, that those text messages between herself, lobbyist Stern and HB City Manager Miller, regarding their efforts to thwart an audit, were "private."

 No, those text messages about the City of Hallandale Beach and its CRA were and are public records that I'm legally entitled to see under Florida's Sunshine Laws.
But that callous and condescending response of hers shows you the caliber of the individual that the beleaguered citizens of this town are dealing with, in that Mayor Cooper is someone who has repeatedly shown in the past that she will use any means necessary to thwart both the spirit and the letter of  Florida's Sunshine Laws -even to the point of suing a HB citizen-
and she continues to do so today.

 You may also be interested in knowing that Wednesday night at the HB CRA Budget Workshop, where city management employees out-numbered actual residents in the room by a factor of 12:1, I told the assembled CRA Board of Directors and the CRA Executive Director (City Manager), along with the city's various Dept. heads a fact I had already shared with some
Broward County Commissioners and well over a hundred other interested parties before and after that June 4th meeting mentioned in the article above.

 To wit, despite the fact that the Broward Inspector General's final report was issued months ago, the city has refused to place a link to the report or the city's  own response to it on the city's website for residents, taxpayers and small business owners to read for themselves.

 But because HB City Manager Renee C. Miller and CRA Attorney Stephen Zelkowitz were going to be speaking at that June 4th County Commission meeting against the request by HB Commissioner Michele Lazarow and former HB Comm. Keith London, and thought that it was important for the County Commission to be able to see and review them, they transmitted
both, so Broward County actually had links to both on their agenda for the meeting.

 So, Broward County was given the information that the city has refused to provide its own citizens on the city's website, even though the city's taxpayers and the CRA paid the legal fees in the official city response, as well as for Zelkowitz to appear at the Broward County Commission.
So we can pay for all of that but we can't see it on the website that we're also paying for.
That's how things are done here, and it's not by accident.

 Yes, the Broward OIG report that characterized as "gross mismanagement" the performance of the City of Hallandale Beach officials to describe what they found when funds are given to people and groups in this city without anyone actually EVER following-up and checking to see what actually happened to the CRA funds, or even whether they were actually used for the purpose they'd been proposed for in the original application.
Yes, HB City Hall operated on the honor system with all that money.

 People and groups that claimed to be non-profits but who weren't according to the IRS, and who didn't file required documents, and yet who were quite content to not properly disclose all sorts of relevant basic information, even while they strongly resisted almost all attempts at basic transparency to the  citizens of this community, or to the public at large.

 Now you know why the concerned residents of this city so desperately want the Florida JLAC to perform a thorough audit that will tell us the truth, since the very people at HB City Hall who are supposed to be providing responsible oversight of the HB CRA are also the people almost entirely responsible for the mess it's in, and the great loss of confidence the community has in City Hall's ability to perform even simple tasks honestly, ethically and competently.

 Yet these people, like Mayor Cooper, are also the one who are trying their best to keep the public in the dark about the facts as long as possible thru intentional obfuscation, needless finger-pointing and serial misrepresentation.
And the community saw another perfect example of that very thing last night, as if we needed another reminder.

 Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, and please DO let me know when a decision is made regarding JLAC's future intentions on this important public policy matter to Hallandale Beach's VERY frustrated citizens.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

"Which European country has the most attractive citizens?" Sweden won in a landslide with almost four times as many votes as second-place France, with Spain third and Norway fourth. Yes, seeing is believing!; Norwegian.com's non-stop flights from Fort Lauderdale to Oslo start in 4 months! :)



A Boredpanda.com poll of Europeans asked, "Which European country has the most attractive citizens?"

As the above map on the tweet above shows, Sweden won in a landslide, with almost four times as many votes as second-place France, with Spain third and Norway fourth. 
Yes, seeing is believing!

 But trust me, Norway is a very, very competitive fourth!
Even the armed female Customs officers at Oslo Airport Gardermoen are very, very attractive, which at 6:45 a.m., in the middle of January, after a LONG overnight flight from Newark, was not something I was expecting.
But adapt I did!

 I really like the Oslo Airport, too, since it's very clean and tidy, and if you didn't know any better, you would think it opened last year.

Remember, too, as I've written about here previously, four months from now, low-fare carrier Norwegian Airlines starts non-stop flights from Fort Lauderdale to Oslo on November 30th.
With flights to Stockholm and Copenhagen days later.
No more need for pointless flights first to Newark, Chicago, Detroit or Dulles just to fly to Scandinavia.

APRIL 20, 2013
Scandinavian Delight! Starting November 30th, fly nonstop cheaply between Ft Lauderdale and Oslo or Copenhagen on Norwegian.com, and starting December 1st, fly from FLL to Stockholm Arlanda; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden, @copenhagen, @denmark

APRIL 22, 2013
Tourism game-changer for South Florida travelers & Fort Lauderdale-area businesses -but only if they're smart and start planning now. Ruminations on the upcoming Norwegian.com flights b/w Ft. Lauderdale and Oslo, Stockholm & Copenhagen, and the need for Broward's hospitality industry to take full-advantage of the opportunity; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden, @copenhagen, @denmark


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

First Day of Hallandale Beach's 2013 Budget Workshop on Monday is royal debacle for HB taxpayers in favor of more accuracy, financial oversight and prudent decision-making. And free speech!; On the plus side, the Hallandale Beach City Commission didn't declare war on Cuba or The Bahamas, so there's that; recycling in Sweden is SO much easier than in Hallandale Beach

Meanwhile, in another place and time, but also of this world and year... For someone like me who's a longtime recycling enthusiast, one of the best things about Sweden in general and Stockholm in particular is the average person's very strong personal commitment to keeping that beautiful city -and its public nature areas- free of trash and debris. You pay a few Kroner more for products packaged in recyclable plastic or aluminum, like maybe 20 cents on a 12-ounce Coca Cola can, at both retail stores and from street vendors in kiosks, but you always get your money back via self-serve machines like the ones pictured above at stores. (I did this myself with some Coke products at the the Hemköp grocery store in the basement of the Åhléns Dept. store at Ringvägen and Götgatan, across the street from the Skanstull T-bana in the southern commercial heart of trendy and fun Södermalm.)
This recycling system has the psychological advantage of creating a real financial incentive in consumers of all political temperaments or persuasions to return items to stores, as well as incentivizing people to pick-up any recyclables they ever see lying on roads or in parks -and get that found money themselves- which is one of the reasons that Stockholm is SO CLEAN! 
They make it as easy as possible to recycle, the polar opposite of the approach in Hallandale Beach, where the city itself puts up real and meaningful obstacles.

First Day of Hallandale Beach's 2013 Budget Workshop on Monday is royal debacle for HB taxpayers in favor of more accuracy, financial oversight and prudent decision-making. And free speech!; On the plus side, the Hallandale Beach City Commission didn't declare war on Cuba or The Bahamas, so there's that; recycling in Sweden is SO much easier than in Hallandale Beach
Only five Hallandale Beach citizens showed-up for the start of the meeting, including me, at 4:15 pm, so we few were significantly outnumbered by city employees by a factor of about 8:1, mostly Dept. heads.
Surprise! The meeting started late...

Hallandale Beach civic activists Csaba Kulin and Maggie Ivanovski each spoke for three minutes at the very beginning of the meeting after, a propos of nothing, Mayor Cooper felt the need to share her opinion on the George Zimmerman trial.

The mayor's comments were as predictable as they were completely unnecessary and inappropriate, and yet another reminder of the large obstacles this city faces in ever becoming a normal city instead of merely her personal plaything.

Csaba and Maggie's spot-on comments came before any Dept. or subject budget presentation and concerned a.) the Parks Bond issue & cost overruns at B.F. James Park, and b.) the number of new city employees that have  been hired since City Manager Renee Miller was hired as HB's City Manager over a year ago, having pledged to at least some of us in the community of her best efforts to instill some real oversight on city activities and keep costs under control.

Not that either thing she promised me last summer is readily-apparent to even the most casual of observers, since I still see the same bad things routinely taking place in the same bad way
in the same exact places and circumstances.
I'll be doing a video on that soon that I think will give you a sense of how true this is.

After the two of them were finished, when it would have been perfectly appropriate and sensible to make a motion to allow the public to speak after each Dept.'s presentation of what their request is and why, since as the mayor is so fond of saying over the years about city Workshop meetings, which this was in part, they "have flexibility," no HB commissioner had the good sense to do so, least of all, the mayor.

For all his faults, to give him his due on this, even former City Manager Mike Good allowed citizens to ask questions after Dept. budget presentations when he and Mayor Cooper were running things up in the infamous and cramped Room 257 at HB City Hall.

I know because I was one of the handful of persons who regularly took advantage of the opportunity to remind him, the Commission and the staff about their previous promises to the public that had gone unfulfilled and in many cases, never even attempted, or if they had, as was the case with the city's recycling program after they bought tens of thousands of bins, done
haphazardly, unprofessionally or in a general half-assed fashion.

The city's ass-backwards recycling program and approach remains a very frustrating and disheartening mess in my opinion, given the resources they have now but don't properly utilize, to say nothing of their lack of effort to be intelligent about capturing more by using known consumer behavior in this small city.

Those budget meetings were one of the rare times in the year in this city when you got a chance to really hold Dept. heads to the fire and make them responsible or publicly acknowledge problems that they consciously ignored the rest of the year, which would now get a full airing.
Well, at least as much of an airing as you can have when City Manger Good and Mayor Cooper each had a microphone in a small room when you are about ten feet away, at most.

So, whatever good points you or I or anyone else had regarding the budget particulars were left unsaid Monday afternoon and night because Mayor Cooper refused to  allow any members of the public to speak once City Manager Miller ran  thru the agenda for the next three days and her 'laundry list of priorities, which really should've been a list of the Commission's priorities,
of course, but I digress.

Which is why a motion should have been made, so Cooper would've been forced to public defend her position that no taxpayers of this city should be able to talk about the budget after they hear the financial "facts." 

No, she doesn't want to hear from you until September when it's too late, because then it's a done deal.
The 2013 HB Budget train will have already left the station with her as conductor, and she will tell you if you ask that "you should've spoken up earlier" when you had the chance.
But, of course, you really didn't have that chance to make constructive suggestions and informed criticisms, did you?

But here's the thing: Not showing up at the meetings , though, only encourages Mayor Cooper, so it's important that you try to attend on Tuesday or Wednesday after 4 p.m., and see whether the tables are finally turned, since they'll be going on for hours.

If you think you as a Hallandale Beach taxpayer, resident or small business owner ought to be able to ask informed questions after hearing the Dept.'s presentations, instead of commenting without knowing all the facts, why don't you call the HB City Commission and tell them you want the budget process to be one where there's genuine community input, not lip service, and you want them to pass a motion making that a reality on Tuesday and Wednesday?

You can reach the Commissioners at these phone numbers:
Michele Lazarow   (954) 457-1320
Bill Julian   (954) 457-1317
Anthony A. Sanders   (954) 457-1319
Alexander Lewy   (954) 457-1315

It's your money after all, not theirs.

And don't forget to bring your cameras with you!
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, July 26, 2013

Trending at HBB with Sexy Swedish élan: Edda Magnason channels iconic Swedish jazz singer Monica Zetterlund for her upcoming biopic "Monica Z"; Edda Magnason - Sakta vi gå genom stan (Official Video); Opens nationally in Sweden on September 13th, but premiering at 'Way Out West' film festival in Göteborg from August 8-10; #monicaz, @PeterBirro


UniversalMusicSweden YouTube Channel video: Edda Magnason - Sakta vi gå genom stan (Official Video). Uploaded July 13, 2013. http://youtu.be/Ni5a6Q8D16I

 Monica Zetterlund was an exceptional artist with a unique place in Swedish life and pop culture, and this film shows how she went from an unknown to icon, yet even while living a fabulous life on stage, she led a turbulent private life away from the spotlight.

Central among many other co-stars of the film is the City of Stockholm itself, given that the name of the film is a direct reference to an an iconic Swedish song sung by and made famous by Zetterlund that's a variation of the 1930's hit, Walkin' My Baby Back Home.
With new Swedish lyrics by Beppe Wolgers, this old song became Slowly we walk through town -Sakta vi gå genom stan.  

 It's a song that every reasonably well-educated person in Sweden and environs knows and recognizes instantly, regardless of their age or political ideology or musical tastes.
It's that big. 

 Monica Zetterlund recording of Sakta vi gå genom stan, with lyrics at:
http://www.stockholmskallan.se/Soksida/Post/?nid=24283

 Given such a name, this film doesn't pretend that it is not steadfastly in love with a certain place and je ne sais quoi attitude at a certain time in history, and that place and time was Stockholm in the early and mid-Sixties.

 It's a film that like Woody Allen's best movies about New York City, is not not afraid to romanticize its beloved Stockholm, always one of the most beautiful cities in the world, then as now, which anyone who goes there sees and feels.
Even when like me, it's in the middle of January

 It's part of why SO MANY PEOPLE who live there genuinely LOVE being part of it, and in a way that would surprise people living elsewhere, could NOT imagine ever wanting to live somewhere else, even New York, London or Paris.
They'd visit there on holiday, of course, but Stockholm is for them, and they have no intention of leaving.

 In this film playing Monica Zetterlund, I can clearly see that singer/actress Edda Magnason can cause that involuntary "Julie Christie swoon" that comes over me sometimes that I've spoken about at various times and places, including this blog. 
I can tell you without reservation that is NOT a feeling to be trifled with.



And yes, before you ask or write me about it, I DO see that resemblance to American actress Alicia Silverstone, back before she went completely off-track and Hollywood wild child, 
Don't pretend you don't see it, either. (See more at bottom.)

ABSvenskFilmindustri YouTube Channel video: Monica Z - official trailer (In Swedish)
Monica Zetterlund stars as Swedish singing/acting icon Edda Magnason; directed by Per Fly, written by Peter Birro. Uploaded May 15, 2013. http://youtu.be/H7qb41FaTXw

Monica Zetterlund died on May 12th, 2005 at the age of 67, as the result of injuries sustained in a fire in her Stockholm apartment. Confined to a wheelchair the last few years of her life by a severe case of scoliosis, she called the Fire Dept. to report the fire and urge them to hurry because the fire was rapidly spreading, but the first firemen arriving on the scene found her already dead, her wheelchair still next to her bed. So sad...

The film officially premieres in Sweden on September 13th. but it will be shown as part of the featured films at the 'Way Out West' film festival in Göteborg from August 8-10th.
In Swedish: http://www.wayoutwest.se/
In English: http://www.wayoutwest.se/en/








Official film website: http://www.sf.se/filmer/Monica-Z/

 Edda's official website: http://www.eddamagnason.com/











viasatsverige youTube Channel: Edda Magnason intervju Hans Wiklund. Uploaded May 20, 2013. http://youtu.be/7VLEyB94DEg
-----



ABC-TV video: Jimmy Kimmel's YouTube Challenge - I Silverstoned My Kid. Uploaded April 3, 2012. http://youtu.be/G4qAVY5RSR8

There was a certain moment in time in the 1990's where, with nothing more than a little black dress or something suitably chic and simple, Alicia Silverstone could, sometimes, stop a crowd cold with just a look.
And people would freeze.

 Yes, though it's hard for some of you to believe it, a moment really did exist in our pop culture zeitgeist when it seemed that almost nothing could stop Alicia Silverstone from becoming one of the most popular and highly-paid actresses in the world, other than self-sabotage.

 Silverstone didn't get that last big film contract of hers for nothing, because she really DID have genuine charisma, good looks and talent to spare, and was generally considered easy to work with on set, NOT a young diva.

 But then for reasons known largely to her, she made some bad decisions, seemed to stop caring quite so much or trying so hard -and audiences suddenly felt let down by her.
It's not called Show Business for nothing.
It's a business, not a place for hobbyists or people indulging whims or people going thru a "phase."

 Whether Alicia Silverstone will ever decide to take advantage of her talent and natural likeability in the future again and have a Second Act in Hollywood is a decision known only to her.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Some prescient mid-2013 thoughts re 2014 Florida House 100 race: Sunshine State News calls it a "Democratic Battleground" for next year's open seat, with carpetbagger Joe Gibbons term-limited, but the new FL-100 district is now more Moderate and MUCH MORE Hispanic than old one was; Liberals Joe Geller and Alexander Lewy DON'T want to amend 'Stand Your Ground' but to kill it, putting them in a sub-minority position within both the state and the area -the 13%. Residents are NOT interested in giving away useful tool that makes at least some criminals think twice before attacking them; This seat is tailor-made for a certain kind of smart, personable and articulate Moderate interested in public policy that works, not partisan politics, but will one emerge, and if so, will they be from Aventura or Sunny Isles Beach? And will that Moderate candidate be a Female?



Sunshine State News
Democratic Battleground Emerges for South Florida Open House Seat
By Kevin Derby
Posted: July 24, 2013 3:55 AM
With Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Pembroke Park, facing term limits in 2014, three Democratic candidates are already running hard to replace him in the Florida House. Gibbons, who is now running for the Broward County Commission, represents parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
So far, former North Bay Village Mayor Joe Geller, Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor Alex Lewy and teacher John Paul Alvarez are seeking the Democratic nomination to replace Gibbons. 
Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/democratic-battleground-emerges-south-florida-open-house-seat

That's curious!
Voluble former Florida Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller's name never gets mentioned once in this interesting Sunshine State News article I read this morning, and neither do any of his very helpful friends in the area and their well-financed groups & PACS they represent, most of whom will be involved with his brother Joe's FL-100 campaign at some point.

Also never mentioned -whether another more pragmatic candidate from either Aventura, Miami Beach or Sunny Isles may yet emerge and get into the race against three very Liberal candidates, all of whom are Men.

In my estimation, an articulate and personable Moderate candidate focused more on genuine problem-solving, more Transparency and common sense in government, and decidedly less-inclined towards the sort of knee-jerk liberal orthodoxy in the year 2013 that the three current Democratic candidates continually exhibit -candidates who despite lots of time to think of a good answer, STILL CAN'T explain how they'll differentiate themselves before next August's primary- would do quite well in a much-changed legislative district presently represented by term-limited carpetbagger Joe Gibbons.

A district that's changed in important ways and that as of this past November, encompasses everything in the area east of U.S.-1/Biscayne Blvd. at Sheridan Street to State Road A1A, from just south of State Road 84/ Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale on the north, south from Dania to Hollywood and then HB, past Aventura, Eastern Shores, Sunny Isles Beach, North Miami and south of Bal Harbour and Surfside on the east, to the northern parts of Miami Beach.

Among other things, not that you've seen it mentioned anywhere by the South Florida news media, but the new FL-100 has six times as many constituents who classify themselves as Hispanic as African-American.
Hmm-m...

One of the good points of this profile of the candidates is that it specifically brings up Stand Your Ground, SYG.
Contrary to some Dems & Reps legislators who want to "Amend" SYG to make it "better" by being more specific about the exact circumstances under which it can be employed and used as a valid defense in court -regarding the initiation of contact or what is a reasonable, perceived threat, et al- as the link above says quite clearly, "Amend" is currently supported
by only 31% of FL's population.

So in that respect, both Lewy and Geller are real outliers on this issue by being within that 13% sub-minority that want to kill it entirely by repealing it, putting them in a minority opinion position not only within the state, but in my opinion, also within the immediate area.

Seriously, why would anyone in this area with its constant and well-founded fear of opportunistic crime want to help the criminals and actually make it harder for innocent people to defend themselves?

As a Moderate-to-Conservative person, I think that stand of theirs only further highlights their general incompatibility with this changed district, and their future ineffectiveness if somehow elected to the position.

It's for reasons like that that I continue to believe that a reasonably well-financed Moderate candidate, one who's properly focused on actually fixing problems in the state and improving the area's overall Quality of Life -which HAS clearly been diminishing- and bringing middle-management jobs to Florida, could win the race in November, whether a Democrat or a Republican. 

Even while Geller and Lewy cannibalize each other over the next 12 months over who can be the biggest Liberal before the party primary.

And if that candidate to enter the race believes in what I've set forth as a very sound platform is an articulate and personable Moderate Woman, possibly a savvy and telegenic businesswoman from Aventura or Sunny Isles Beach, even more so.

Sunshine State News, @SSNAlerts  https://twitter.com/SSNAlerts 
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)