Florida is still showbiz 'terra incognita' just like 1970's: Conan O'Brian ignoring Sunshine State for upcoming comedy tour; Jon Marlowe, influential rock critic and confidant

Geography as entertainment destiny?
South Florida as unknown land?
It's déjà vu all over again.

Today's edition of The Wrap this morning carries the news that we all could have predicted almost
from the moment we first heard that Conan O'Brien couldn't appear on TV until this Fall as a result of his exit deal with NBC-TV, and would be keeping his name in the news -and polishing his material- thru a nationwide tour.

The Wrap TV Editor Josef Adalian reports that, among other things, the Sunshine State is nowhere
to be found on the itinerary, not even Gainesville or Orlando, which you'd think would be the state default.

The closest venue to South Florida where he's appearing on his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour is -wait for it -Atlanta.

Atlanta.
Like that's the first time that's ever been the case for something of interest, right?
That's an emphatic no!

It's déjà vu all over again, since that was the case with The Clash's first American tour, Pearl Harbor '79, which if I recall correctly, started at the Fox Theater there, as the great Jon Marlowe of the late Miami News was all over that story in a way that no reporter in South Florida today could be.

Just as Jon had been in-the-loop for The Sex Pistols before, during and after their first visit to our shores.
(Or maybe the Fox was where the Sex Pistols first U.S. venue was?)


South Florida kids today take it for granted that a group or entertainer who's hot or topical will perform in South Florida, even if that requires a trip up 95 to Palm Beach.

Back in the '70's, when the only South Florida venue large enough to handle crowds for big acts like Bob Seeger or Fleetwood Mac was the Miami Baseball Stadium, and then, only during certain part of the year, music fans down here who wanted to see LIVE performances had to consistently get in their car and make tracks for Tampa/St. Pete or Orlando.

This latest bit of news reminds me of fun weekend trips with friends in the late '70's and trips never taken because Atlanta was just a bit too far to get back to North Miami Beach Senior High in time for school on Monday morning.

While I was in high school at NMBHS, because I was such a good and reliable source for the Miami News' Sports Dept. in covering high school sports, esp. soccer and gymnastics, I was a frequent visitor to the newspaper, located inside of The Herald Building on Biscayne Blvd., with a killer view of Biscayne Bay and the Venetian Causeway.

There, I soaked up the atmosphere like a sponge, usually not venturing far from the Sports and Entertainment desks.
Sports was manned more often than not by Marty Klinkenberg, Tom Archdeacon and Charlie Nobles, later of the New York Times.

The Entertainment desk was often in the hands of the incredible Jon Marlowe, a South Florida institution who was a very influential national rock critic in our own backyard.

Jon became a sort of musical mentor for me, introducing me to many new and exciting performers I was unfamiliar with, even though I already subscribed to Rolling Stone, reading it cover to cover, as well as New Musical Express.
Performers like Eddie Money and Elvis Costello were among the performers that Jon turned me onto before anyone down here had ever heard of them.

Jon would think nothing(!) of simply calling me up at home at night around 10:45 p.m. on a school night and telling me that he had something in his hands that I "just had to hear."

Then he'd play the record and put the phone next to his speaker -that's how I first heard of a little band called The Clash, long before they were well-known and before their albums and EPs were available in the U.S.

He did something similar one night for Graham Parker on his 1979 "Squeezing Out Sparks" album before it was released. 
He played one song three times just to be sure that i got every reference! 

There has never been anyone in Miami before or since like Jon Marlowe.

See story on Miami News at bottom.
The Wrap
http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/coco-go-go-conan-tour-starts-april-15151

Exclusive: Coco A-Go-Go! The Conan Tour Starts April 12

By Josef Adalian
March 11, 2010

EXCLUSIVE
Conan O'Brien will begin his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour April 12 in Eugene, Oregon, working his way across the United States and Canada over the course of two months.
Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/coco-go-go-conan-tour-starts-april-15151

Conan O'Brien tour dates here:
http://www.thewrap.com/column/tv-mojoe


Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/arts/story/1427188.htmlTHE MIAMI NEWS
Reunion recalls good old days
BY RICHARD DYMOND
January 17, 2010

Richard Dymond, a reporter with The Bradenton Herald, did a tour of duty with The Miami News sports department from 1979-1980.

The Phone Caper Story and many others like it are surely being retold this weekend as 100 or so Miami News staffers gather in Miami for a remarkable, out-of-nowhere reunion -- 21 years after the demise of the spunky afternoon newspaper.

Here's how it goes:

Telephone connections weren't smooth shortly after The News moved its operations from a plant along the Miami River into the bayfront building of The Miami Herald in 1966.

While attempting to call out, News humor columnist John Keasler reached Gene Miller at the rival Herald through a phone operator's mistake. "City desk,'' Miller barked. Keasler recognized the voice. "I was trying to call out,'' he said. "That's OK. You reached City Desk. Tell me the story, and I'll relay it to The Miami News,'' Miller cagily responded.

Hoping to cause havoc, Keasler made up a story: "Twelve dead on the Palmetto. By the Big Curve.'' As he was hanging up, he heard Miller, whose competitive fires would carry him to two Pulitzer Prizes, snap, "What? What? We have to scramble. . . .''

Keasler and Miller are dead, but memories of that keen sense of rivalry are resurfacing as staffers reunite to swap old tales about the The Miami News -- born in 1896, died the last day of 1988.

In its heyday and beyond, The News was a raucous, feet-on-the-desk kind of place, known for its highly competitive poker games (sometimes in the newspaper's conference room), merciless pranks and beer breakfasts after a long shift. It was also famed for its colorful characters, such as the critic who wore leather pants and ballet slippers in the newsroom and the staffer who, kicked out by his wife, set up housekeeping in the back of a hearse.

Back then -- before blogs, Google, Twitter, cellphone cameras and Facebook made everyone a "citizen journalist'' -- reporters woke up with night sweats for fear that the competing paper was out scooping them. Today, with fewer newspapers but a more fragmented news media, a blogger working in his parents' basement could be the one who eats your lunch.

Among News veterans scattered around the globe and many still in the news business, there is a sense of pride at having fought the good fight, taken on a much bigger rival and, most days, held their own.

"We were always the underdog to the mighty Herald, and we played the role to perfection,'' says Pedro Gomez, an ESPN bureau reporter who was a member of The News' sports department under the late Leo Suarez.

"We consistently broke stories and, if you really look at the results, I would say The Herald was at its best when The News was around, because The Herald had to work hard and not get beat by the little stepchild that we were,'' Gomez adds.

Miami News staffers paint a portrait of a passionate newsroom that nurtured distinctive and edgy writing, that remains an important touchstone in their lives, even more so with the passage of time.

DeWitt Smith, on The News' night desk from 1984 to 1986, has worked on 11 newspapers in the last 30 years.

"What made The Miami News different was the esprit de corps,'' Smith says. ``It was palpable, particularly the night desk. The News had a spark to it. The News attracted people who liked the go-get-'em style and lived for that vibration and energy.

Former managing editor Sue Reisinger calls her stint at The News ``the most exciting time of my life. I have never cared so much about a room full of people as I did about those folks.''

Reisinger is one of a handful who labored for The Herald after The News. Another is Mel Frishman, who retired in 2007 as The Herald's Broward news editor.

Frishman's Miami News career began in 1959 when he was 17 and a senior at Miami High. His job, which paid a buck an hour, was taking raw copy off a wire service machine, gluing it to cardboard and shipping it to proofreaders through a pneumatic tube. (This was before electric typewriters, much less computers.)

BRASH HEADLINES
Frishman, who would have six job titles over the years and remained at the paper 'til the end, remembers The News' bold, sometimes sensational headlines -- a counterpoint to the more staid Herald.

"Miami News headlines were meant to grab you and set the tone. We were very picture oriented,'' he said. "We were a liberal light.''

The News attracted many colorful individuals, says reunion co-organizer Mary Martin, a business reporter from 1985 to 1988.

Jon Marlowe was one. He usually wore leather pants, purple blouses and ballet-like slippers that drew stunned looks from the formally dressed competitors riding the elevator with the rock-'n'-roll critic.

"When I hired Jon Marlowe I told him, `If I ever understand anything you are writing, you are fired,' '' says longtime News editor Howard Kleinberg, now 77 and one of the emcees at Saturday night's reunion dinner at Parrot Jungle. Not to worry.

"I never understood a goddamn thing he wrote,'' says Kleinberg, who started as a high-school correspondent in 1949 and joined the staff a year later. "But everyone seemed to love him.''

Keasler was one of the biggest devils in the newsroom. He was once photographed, in formal attire, presenting a rhinoceros with a bottle of bubbly, apparently as part of a sight gag to accompany a column about a new birth at the zoo. Other practical jokers included Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Don Wright and the late photographer Charlie Trainor Sr. They practiced practical trickery on their colleagues -- and each other.

"Wright used to toss his keys onto his desk when he'd come in,'' Reisinger says. "Every few days, when he left the office to go to lunch or even the bathroom, they'd slip an old key onto the key chain. This went on for a week, and his key chain grew immensely heavy with old keys. One day he came in, threw his key chain down on his desk, and was heard to swear because it was so heavy. He exclaimed, "What the hell! I don't even know what some of these keys are for!' ''

He retaliated by tossing confetti all over the photo department, says photographer A.G. (Gary) Montanari. Montanari, who became a court bailiff after The News closed, also remembers that he once caught Trainor putting marbles into the hubcaps of Wright's car.

What's up? Montanari asked. That's to distract Wright, Trainor explained, so the cartoonist won't notice the mullet that had been placed on his engine block.

Another character was the late Milt Sosin, ranked by News editors as the afternoon paper's top reporter.

"Milt had contacts all over the place,'' says David Kraslow, publisher from 1977 to 1988. ``I remember once that no one could find Meyer Lansky, he of Mafia fame. The phone rang on Milt's desk, and a voice said, `Miltie, it's Meyer.' ''

Sosin would score an exclusive interview with Lansky on the mobster's deathbed.

CBS4 anchor Elliott Rodriguez, who was hired as a Miami News reporter in May 1978 one week after graduating from the University of Miami, met Sosin his first day on the job.

"Milt was told to show me around. The first thing he did was show me his Jaguar sports car in the garage. Milt was tall, skinny and had a long neck. He was definitely Felix from The Odd Couple, but he looked more like Oscar. He always wore a sports jacket but hardly ever a tie. He preferred a neckband tucked into his shirt. He smoked a pipe and almost always had one with him.''

Julia Marozzi, who is coming to the reunion from Great Britain, was a neophyte copy editor named Jules Murphy during those heady times.

"All the night owls were a fantastic bunch of misfits and eccentrics who banded together after first edition, occasionally for a slap-up breakfast before heading home to try and get some sleep,'' says Marozzi, who became a high-ranking editor of The Financial Times in London and is now director of lifestyle media for Bentley Motors.

After 1966, The News and The Herald labored under a joint operating agreement in which two newspapers in the same market share business operations while maintaining separate and competitive newsrooms. As the afternoon newspaper, The News was at a distinct disadvantage.

THE LITTLE GUYS
"We were the little guys on the block and had to fight for everything,'' Kleinberg says.

Although this isn't the forum for a symposium on the future of journalism, Martin observes: `The current state of journalism is perilous. Many of our former colleagues have been laid off or are waiting for the next staff cutback or are hoping there will be an early retirement offer. We are all worried about what that means, not just to us, personally, but the quality of news and information available to all of us.

"I think The Miami News reunion is, in part, about honoring a tradition of news gathering that seems to be disappearing fast, to the detriment of all of us.''

The final headline of The Miami News on Dec. 31, 1988:

FAREWELL, MIAMI.

David Kraslow's front-page column ended: ``It hurts when any newspaper with a rich and proud history dies. But this is not just another newspaper. Not to me. And not to this town.''

After the last edition was put to bed, newspaper lingo for finished, the staff opened a case of champagne, and corks popped, recalls Merwin Sigale, now a journalism and mass-communications professor at Miami Dade College.

The champagne was good, but it left a bitter aftertaste.

Latest unethical lowlight at Hallandale Beach City Hall leads to cancellation of public Audit meeting

Above, the public notice posted at Hallandale Beach
City Hall that prompted the most recent ethical
low-light and anti-democratic action by City Manager
Mike Good and his highly-paid staff, who seem to
never quite recall that they work for me and other
HB taxpayers, not the other way around.
They're the hired help.

This afternoon I attempted to attend the city's publicly
scheduled meeting of the Evaluation Committee looking
at hiring an auditing firm, which has come about as
a result of a new state law.
This meeting was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in
Room 257.


But a not-so-funny thing happened when I tried to
get to the meeting via the building elevator, which
requires you to exchange an ID for a security card
to access the control panel inside.

I don't particularly like this arrangement of requiring
the public whose taxes built this hideous building
to have to hand-over ID in order to access public
meetings, but it's the system in place, and I've
got bigger fish to fry.

In any case, I've done this drill dozens of times
before over the years for public meetings,
esp. budget meetings, without any melodrama,
as the employees at the desk closest to the
elevator, involuntary key holders if you will,
recognize me on sight.
I even know their names, too.

But today, with someone else sitting there, I got
nothing but grief, as HB City Hall employees tried
to prevent me from accessing that publicly noticed
meeting thru deliberate obfuscation and an equal
mix of incompetence and unprofessional conduct.

It wasn't by accident, it was entirely
intentional.

After waiting more than 15 minutes in the ground
floor lobby, after TWICE calling the City Manager's
office to complain about my being forced to miss
the beginning of what might only be a half-hour
meeting, each time being assured that someone
would be "down in a minute," I called Comm.
Keith London to tell him about what was going
on with city employees trying to prevent the public
from getting to the meeting.

Well, it turns out that he had interesting news of
his own, too.
That was even stranger than mine.

He said that he was upstairs at the actual meeting
and that the meeting had just been cancelled by
the city staffers.

When I asked why, figuring that maybe one of
the vendors bidding for the job hadn't shown-up
or something like that, he said that the answer
was far different.
But much easier for me to understand given where
we live.

The city's public meeting was over because
Comm. London had shown-up -and was going
to observe only- and, perhaps, because I,
a member of the public, was trying to attend
their public meeting.

Apparently, the city's staffers on the Committee
hadn't counted on someone other than them
showing-up.

And rather than be honest, transparent and
ethical, they chose to do something else
-cancel the meeting.

I will have much more details about this later,
either tonight after the first of the city's myriad
Quadrant meetings, at the Hallandale Beach
Cultural Center at 6:30 p.m., or tomorrow.


Above, Room 257 at Hallandale Beach City Hall this
afternoon as it appeared after legally-mandated
public transparency met Hallandale Beach City Hall's
entrenched and brazen unethical and incompetent
management.

This being Hallandale Beach, of course, the guys
wearing the black hats, led by Assistant City
Manager Mark A. Antonio, won this skirmish.

But there are clearly going to more battles to come
in the months ahead with this crew, and I wouldn't
be at all surprised if the Florida Ethics Commission
and the Broward State Attorney's Office were
contacted and looked into this matter, just the
latest outrage imposed on this city's beleaguered
citizenry.
Actually, you can count on it.

A simple question re Dr. Nelson Santiago's no-bid contract in Hallandale Beach

Above, part of the crowd at the Hallandale Beach Eco-Fair
held at Hallandale Beach City Hall on February 27th.
Typically, though it would seem self-evident for such an
event, there were zero blue recycling bins present.
That's typical of what passes for planning at Hallandale
Beach City Hall, which is why things are the way they are.
February 27, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Don't know how I can connect-the-dots any
clearer than this.

Dr. Nelson Santiago is an academic PhD,
not a medical doctor.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/earqcom
http://www.ear-q.com/

Santiago was one of the three co-hosts of a
fundraiser for Kendrick Meek's U.S. Senate
campaign last Friday night at the HB home
of mayor Joy Cooper and her husband,
which was postponed the day before.

As it happen, rather interestingly, Dr. Santiago
is also a person who has recently been involved
in creating Cooper's personal website.

Unbeknownst to 99.99% of the city's taxpayers,
Santiago was also awarded a no-bid deal by
the City of Hallandale Beach, i.e. City Manager
Mike Good, regarding the 2010 Census.

I don't know the exact amount involved.

Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. at the HB Cultural
Center is the first of a series of scheduled
City Commission/City Manager Quadrant
meetings scheduled over the next few weeks.

There are going to be a lot of HB residents
present who are not at all happy with the
recent and future direction of this city and
its anti-democratic, anti-transparency policies
under Cooper and Good, of which the
recent Diplomat LAC issue is but the most
recent and egregious example of the local
citizenry being both ignored and marginalized.

They wants some questions answered.

As you may recall from my previous emails
and blog postings, no-bid contracts awarded
to pals, cronies and political supporters of
HB City Hall are the specialty of Joy Cooper
and Mike Good, and this recent case with
Santiago is but the latest example of
thousands of taxpayer dollars being given
to people, thru grants and CRA loans,
whose degree of expertise is, perhaps,
rather secondary to their personal
connections and political support.

If there is nothing 'fishy' about this
particular contract, why was it made
a no-bid deal, without the benefit
of a vote by the elected HB City
Commission, instead of the unelected
Good, since the upcoming 2010
Census is hardly Breaking News?

This December community newspaper
"article" even has a photo of the mayor
next to her internet guru:
http://www.communitynewspapers.com/html/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3792&Itemid=77

Add it all together and it sounds to me
like a news story.

Look out world, here comes Timoteij! Thoughts on the pop group that rocked Melodifestivalen 2010 in Göteborg, in Stockholm next Saturday for Finals

Among the many hopeful performers last month
in Göteborg (Gothenberg) at the third Semifinal
of Sweden's extremely popular Melodifestivalen
singing competition -telecast LIVE by SVT-
http://svt.se/2.120908/melodifestivalen_2010
for the chance to represent Sweden at the 2010
Eurovision Song Contest in late May in Oslo,
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/home
was a very intriguing four-woman pop group
known as Timoteij, singing what I'd call a
folk-inspired pop song titled Kom.
("Come" as in a plaintive plea.)

The band only formed in the Fall of 2008,
from some music students in the Skaraborg
area of central Sweden: Cecilia Kallin,
Bodil Bergstrom, Elina Thorsell and
Johanna Pettersson.

Despite how talented each woman was known
to be individually, nobody could've honestly
predicted that Sweden as a whole would be so
knocked-out by them ensemble, but appealing
they are, and this has caused some pop culture
watchers to say that maybe the fog has lifted,
and that Swedish power pop has -finally-
returned to its roots, by doing what it always
did so well when it really mattered and was
actually popular outside of the country:
well-crafted songs with catchy hooks and
great harmonies that linger in your head
long after the song has ended.

Some Swedish music industry types have even
gone so far as to publicly say that this overdue
return to fun power pop is not just a very welcome
breath of fresh air, after an era where Sweden,
quite frankly, had really become a bit of a
tired afterthought musically, continually sending
performers to Eurovision that were clearly
too obscure or overtly theatrical than musical
-and sure to get hammered by judges and
millions of European TV viewers at home
for these very reasons- but an opportunity
for the entire Swedish music industry to regain
its balance.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that,
but certainly there's a palpable sense of new
confidence there that a certain degree of
competitiveness and interest has returned.

The group's tremendous performance last month
before a nation-wide TV audience has earned
them a spot in the Finals next Saturday night at
the Ericsson Globe Arena a.k.a. Globen,
in Stockholm, where they will be one of ten
acts vying to perform at this year's Eurovision
competition being held in Oslo, because it is the
home of last year's winner, Alexander Rybak,
whose Fairytale captured so many people's
attention last year, for both good and bad reasons.



Timoteij has created quite a buzz for themselves
all over Sweden and one reason for that, though
hardly the most important one, is that they sing
in Swedish and not in English, as so many other
acts have chosen to do over the years for all
sorts of practical marketing and voting
reasons.

Not that there's any consensus about the
issue, per se, since people clearly understand
why a Swedish singer or group hoping
to make it big would choose to go the
English route for the contest, but from
reading comments in different forums over
the past few weeks, people definitely seem
pleased that such a talented and immensely
appealing group has consciously chosen
to perform in Swedish, not Engelska.

Their harmonies are tight and heavenly,
as you'll hear for yourself when you watch
the video.



Melodifestivalen's homepage for Timoteij
is at http://svt.se/2.121002/timoteij?lid=puff_1786706&lpos=lasMer

Hanna intervjuar vinnarna i Göteborg Längd: 03:10

An SVT promo from December 21st, 2009 Timoteij utklassade alla

-----

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grThquUDlKs

----

Interview on SVT's Gomorron Sverige with
Cecilia Kallin and Johanna Pettersson of
Timoteij.


The groups's website is at http://www.timoteij.se/

And just when you counted them out, Slovakia,
yes, Slovakia, goes "Solid Gold" in its entry,
almost like they could get votes from South Florida
precincts, with the lovely Kristina singing her
heart out about Horehronie, a beautiful region of
Slovakia.
http://www.horehronie.com/

You know what they say, after the country girl
has seen the bright lights of Bratislava, there's
just no going back to the farm!

FYI: One of my former housemates from Arlington
is a member of the Foreign Service stationed in
Slovakia.
Slovakia shoots and it scores! Here's the travelogue version of the song

Sweet!

Curious doings: Kendrick Meek postpones fundraiser at Mayor Cooper's house; Alexander Lewy's postage gift from Hallandale Beach taxpayers

Above, two pieces of mail I received recently within
days of each other that had one common link:
Alexander Lewy, candidate for Hallandale Beach
City Commission.
One, the yellow postcard from Hallandale Beach
Crime Watch, the redoubt for what are arguably
some of the most bizarre people in the city -and
biggest defenders of the corrupt mindset
at City Hall- had its postage paid for by Hallandale
Beach taxpayers.
March 5, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

I guess it goes without saying that I've NEVER
given Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper
my email address or asked that she send her odd,
rambling, and largely incomprehensible comments
to me and others throughout the area.

But write them she has, completely out-of-the-blue.
(Or, as my smart screenwriting friends out
in Santa Monica are wont to say,
"apropos of nothing.")

To me, the reason for Cooper's crazy emails
is a simple one to diagnose: she's an obnoxious
bully and can't tolerate the fact that I and others
in the community -like many of you- continue
to tell the verifiable truth about what's really
going on in this city under her reign of ruin,
and she doesn't like it one bit.

So she sees conspiracies when there are none,
just Americans simply exercising their basic rights.
And does that ever make her angry!
It's what's caused her to lose her cool so much
at City Commission meetings, even more so
than in the past.

Just last month, for instance, at an evening
Commission meeting, while I was just minding
my own business in the back of the Commission
Chambers, video-recording the meeting and
trying to keep awake at what seemed like an
especially boring agenda, she decided,
out-of-the-blue, that she needed to vent.

While in the middle of hectoring Comm. Keith
London about something, likely for having an
opinion different than her's, she made a typical
snarky reference to "the videographer" in the
back of the the room.

Yes, she really said that and she really
is that petty and insecure.

I will try to post that video here soon so you
can see it for yourself.

I didn't crack a smile at the time but truth be told,
I could hardly contain my amusement at Cooper's
latest crack-up, and was almost tempted to pop
her ballon blurt-out the truth, which was that with
such a boring agenda on tap that night, the only
reason that I was there in-person was that there
was nothing particularly good on TV that night
until 9 p.m.
That's it.

I should mention that this was the same meeting
where before allowing Comm. London to speak
on something, she asked him how long he was
going to speak, saying she wanted to know
because she was going to leave the room.
And exit she did.

Slithering away like an angry snake.

That's the Joy Cooper School of Incivility
that's so tangibly creepy that over the years,
thru repeated childish public displays, she has
personally repulsed HB residents from even
thinking about attending City Commission
meetings, that they don't, which,
counter-intuitively, she actually likes.

Joy Cooper is so dis-connected to the reality
of this city and smugly anti-democratic by nature
that she actually believes -and has been heard
saying- that few people regularly showing-up
at these HB City Commission meetings is actually
a positive thing.

Really.

Even I was floored by this the first time someone
told me, but I've heard it from so many people
over the years by people with no tangible connection
to one another, or even an axe to grind with her,
that I've accepted it as Conventional Wisdom,
at least to the extent that something like this is
possible here in HB.

Cooper genuinely believes the lack of attendance
is a sign that HB residents are happy and the city
is well-run, which couldn't be further from the truth,
of course, as anyone could tell from a conversation
or two with any concerned residents who pay
attention, or from even a cursory drive around
town, where there is ample evidence that the
longstanding problems that have plagued
City Hall for years are actually getting worse.

Mike Good & Company are actually doing
a worse job than before because this unelected
person and his staff have gotten more brazen
about their spending decisions and general
managerial incompetence, which is scary to
contemplate.

But then Joy Cooper has to believe these grand
delusions of hers, doesn't she?

It's a coping mechanism, since she can't allow herself
to acknowledge the reality that her misanthropic,
thin-skinned personality wrecks civility here
-and where everyone but and her pals is wrong-
and is the real reason that residents of this ocean-side
city stay away from City Hall in droves.

The truth is that Joy Cooper herself is the reason!

In fact, since many of you may not be aware of this,
though I've known it for quite some time, let me give
you some insight into the upside-down world of mayor
Joy Cooper.

She believes -and has been known to tell
others- that the fact that so many Hollywood
residents show-up at Hollywood City Hall to
participate and share their opinions at Hollywood
City Commission meetings is actually a sign that
the City of Hollywood is poorly-run and managed
by Mayor Peter Bober and City Manager
Cameron Benson.

Incredible but true.

To that I would just say two things:
First, the reality is just the reverse of what Joy Cooper
believes, as any waking person can observe for
themselves, and, two, consider the source.

Even more than people like me simply telling the truth,
though, Cooper can't accept the simple fact that more
people than ever now see thru her preposterous lies,
falsehoods and fabrications, and her smugness and
condescension are now accurately seen by most residents
for what they truly are, instead of foolishly being labeled
'self-confidence.'
Time is definitely NOT on her side.

Personally, I've long suspected that Joy Cooper
and her acolytes and cronies in the community
have mined the city's email alert database for
names and email addresses, and have converted
and used that information for their own purposes,
despite the fact that it's illegal in Florida,
like it is all over the country, to use that info for
any purpose other than for which is was specifically
intended.
'Conversion of govt. property' for personal
use, i.e. the database.

When residents of a city or county sign-up for
an email alert from that entity, say, about Parks
& Recreation, they are NOT giving public officials
permission to use that information for the purpose
of receiving personal emails from them, which
the mayor's have to be, right, since she claims
so zealously that her particular email address is
NOT for city/govt. purposes.

She has to maintain that obvious fiction in order
to maintain the rationale of the city's lawsuit she
initiated against my friend, Michael Butler,
who has also received the same odd rambling
post-midnight emails from her over the years.

(Michael's fact-based website, Change
Hallandale Beach is at: http://changehallandale.com/
See Sun-Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo's
spot-on column about him from October 26th,
2009 here, aptly named,
Score another win for weirdness in Hallandale
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hallandale/sfl-activist-sued-mayocol-b102609,0,4978569.column )

Yet despite my NEVER having given that email
address to Cooper -and everyone here
knowing that I never would, for reasons
I hardly need get into here- I have recently
been receiving emails from Cooper soliciting
campaign funds for Kendrick Meek's U.S. Senate
campaign.

And what do you know, back in 2008, I received
numerous emails at the same email address from
a Boca Raton woman I've never met or spoken to,
who turned out to be Cooper's campaign consultant.
She was actually soliciting funds for Cooper's
2008 campaign!

Sent to me at the same email address, again,
despite the fact that everyone knows I'd NEVER
vote for Cooper, much less, give her a campaign
contribution.

So, where would she get that email address
and that of so many others in this city who
share my antipathy towards her, who also
have received them?

Curiously enough, over the past ten days, despite
the fact that I have NEVER ever contacted them
before, NOR have I ever received mail from them
before, two separate groups have suddenly chosen
to send mail to yours truly at the same time:
the Hallandale Beach Crime Watch and the
Hallandale Beach Democratic Club, as you
can see from the photo at the top of this posting.

And what a coincidence, both have a connection
to Joy Cooper acolyte/apologist and Kendrick
Meek aide and community hand-holder, Alexander
Lewy, who just happens to be running for HB City
Commission.
Again.

One, from Crime Watch, even has a salutary
message from him, despite the fact that in the
opinion of many, including myself, this group has
very little to actually brag about, especially when
you know what their track record actually is,
and where their personal sentiments lie.

It's a track record and public persona that their
members don't like to hear about from outsiders
who can readily see the facts for themselves.

Yes, the same thoroughly loathsome and self-serving,
back-stabbing Alex Lewy I wrote about in some
detail last Fall in emails to many of you, where I
connected-the-dots on his documented past creepy
behavior and loathsome words.

Frankly, to simply call him a jerk and be done with it
is to lose sight of what he is really all about.

And guess who just happens to be sending out mail
from Crime Watch that HB taxpayers are forced
to pay for -just months from November's
City Commission election- since, conveniently,
they are the only community/advisory group that
HB City Hall pays postage for?

Yes, the answer is Alexander Lewy.

That's how voter outreach and name recognition
works here in Hallandale Beach when you're a friend
of our scheming and misanthropic mayor, Joy Cooper.

Strange things just happen out-of-the-blue and
we're all supposed to believe that it's just our
old friend, randomness.

I get nothing for six-plus years, and then, suddenly,
two things arrive in my mailbox within days of
each other, each with a direct connection to
Alexander Lewy, with his name on one of them?

You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to know
a fact pattern when you see it right in front of your
face.

And when you do a Google Search for Hallandale
Beach Democratic Club, whose name do you see
on the very first result?
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=99414447993
Exactly.

Accordingly, within the next ten days or so,
I'll be re-visiting that email I wrote last Fall
about candidate Lewy's thorough lack of
character and integrity here on my blog,
with updated information, and it won't be pretty.
Especially for those of you who don't know
the story thus far.

Like his pal the mayor, Alexander Lewy's
biggest fears are the truth, and concerned
citizens/voters like you actually knowing
what he says, does and thinks.
The truth is not his friend.
It's ours.

Forwarded message
From: Mayor Joy Cooper & Dr. Nelson Santiago <invite@eventbrite.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 4:47 PM
Subject: EVENT POSTPONED!!!: CONGRESSMAN KENDRICK MEEK for U.S. SENATE

Due to scheduling conflicts we have postponed the event in Hallandale Beach. If you were planning on attending please call (305) 655-3213 for alternate arrangements. You are invited to the following event: KENDRICK MEEK for U.S. SENATE Location: Home of Mayor Joy & Dr. Harry Cooper 301 Holiday Drive Hallandale Beach FL Can you attend this event? Respond Here For more information click here

Perennial defender of the unethical and the slipshod: Joe Gibbons. Call him a serial apologist and be done with it!

My pithy comments about my embarrassing
State Representative, Joe Gibbons, follow the article.

St. Petersburg Times
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/psc-ethics-reforms-sail-through-senate-bog-down-in-house/1077245#
Ethics bill for PSC stalls in House By Mary Ellen Klas and Steve Bousquet,
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — A bill aimed at tightening the ethics rules at the Public Service Commission flew through the Florida Senate Wednesday and then became snagged by a House committee, which raised red flags about some parts of the measure.

With no debate, the Senate passed the bill aimed at ending improper communications between commissioners or senior staff members and the utilities the agency regulates.

The vote was 39-1 with Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, the lone no vote.

Senate President Jeff Atwater applauded the measure's sponsor, Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, for championing the issue. The Senate made the issue a top priority by approving the bill on the second day of session.

The bill would ban private conversations between commissioners or their staff aides and anyone with a pending rate case. Last year, PSC staff members and commissioners communicated through text and BlackBerry messages with Florida Power & Light representatives as they were awaiting PSC rulings on several issues. A PSC lobbyist also attended a Kentucky Derby party last May hosted by a Florida Power & Light executive.

Fasano called the episodes "egregious violations of the public trust."

The measure doesn't prohibit all communication between commissioners and staffers with utility officials. Instead, it requires that any conversations that take place must be written down and posted within 72 hours.

The bill also requires commissioners to apply the same ethical standards as judges when ruling on a rate case, and it would ban senior staffers and commissioners from leaving the agency and going to work for a utility company within four years.

Minutes after the Senate vote, the House Energy and Utilities Policy Committee debated but did not vote on the companion bill by Rep. John Legg, R-New Port Richey, as well as two other PSC-related bills.

Several House Democrats led the opposition to the four-year employment ban in Legg's bill. The ban would not affect current PSC members or staffers but would apply only to anyone hired after July 1.

"We're going to run people out of the industry or run people out of state," said Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach. "By making it four years, we make the industry less attractive."

Legg argued that when commissioners or key staff members cross over and work for utilities they once regulated, it smacks of "consumer exploitation."

Another PSC-related bill by Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Dunedin, would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment to make commission seats elected positions rather than appointed. State law now requires a nominating council to recommend candidates to the governor, who selects from that list to choose appointees to the five-member commission.

The measure would also ban candidates from accepting campaign contributions from regulated utilities. Florida had an elected PSC until the 1970s.

Also Wednesday, the rate case was back in the news as the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee overruled the PSC's order to force FPL and Progress Energy of St. Petersburg to disclose employee salary and benefits packages as part of their rate case requests. FPL's rate case ended with the company getting $75 million of the $1.3 billion it requested. Progress got none of its $500 million increase.


See also, Sansom wants Rep. Joe Gibbons off panel, from
The Buzz politics blog of Feb. 15, 2010
http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2010/02/sansom-wants-rep-joe-gibbons-off-panel.html

Way to bring attention to yourself, Gibbons!
Another sad and pathetic example of the Hallandale Beach ethical taint,
writ large, as yet another Akerman Senterfitt consultant shows his
version of thinking 'big picture' -creating jobs for pals, cronies and
prospective clients.

For me, this recalls so many exasperating Hallandale Beach City
Commission meetings I've attended in the past where, rather than
do what was right, Gibbons continually tried everyone's patience
and credulity by trying to simultaneously appear both publicly
above-the-fray, yet also a savvy insider and wheeler-dealer,
the latter role of which he was eminently laughable in.

(Not unlike present-day HB Commissioner Anthony A. Sanders'
recent attempts to appear savvy and demanding with the Westin
Diplomat Resort & Spa over their preposterous LAC proposal
rubber-stamped and wink-winked by the HB City Commission.)

In Gibbons' particular case, his two-faced strategy was never more
obvious or absurd than in his long-winded attempts at HB City
Commission meetings to gain concessions or some small handfuls
of sugar from Magna Entertainment's Gulfstream Park
Race Track & Casino.

Instead, all Gibbons accomplished was looking like a two-faced
pol who argues not over matters of principle, but rather over price
-Where's something for me and mine?

Honestly, why do ethical issues continue to be such a serial problem
for my State Representative, Joe Gibbons?

Per my blog post here on Saturday, February 27th,
Missing voices in Broward County's ethics debate are ignored
by South Florida news media. It's our old media friend:
Mr. Lack of Curiosity!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/missing-voices-in-broward-countys.html
discussing last month's very important Broward Legislative Delegation
meeting at the downtown Fort Lauderdale campus of FAU/BCC
on Las Olas to discuss State Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff's common sense
ethics proposal for an IG for Broward County, Gibbons, just like
State Sen. Chris Smith and State Rep. Perry Thurston III,
were no Profiles in Courage, though Gibbons at least voted for it
in the end, unlike the other two, though doing himself no favors with
his comments or attitude.

Plus, Gibbons has always been perceived as an apologist for
Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper and city manager
Mike Good serial incompetence and has consistently looked
the other way when unethical and anti-democratic things
happened either right in front of him, or in his district,
as continues to this very day.

Seriously, when was the last time Gibbons publicly spoke-out
against what everyone paying serious attention knows has been
taking place at Hallandale Beach City Hall for years?

The answer is that Joe Gibbons NEVER has.
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/representatives/details.aspx?MemberId=4400&SessionId=64

Whether coming or going, as a Hallandale Beach City Commissioner
or State Representative, Joe Gibbons has never ever been a
Profile in Courage.

He is imminently replaceable in the State Legislature, even if he doesn't
quite have the good sense to realize it.
Fine -all the better.

If a candidate with integrity and smarts ran directly at Joe Gibbons
and his dismal track record, I'd vote for them in a heart-beat and
so would most of the well-informed people I know and respect in
Southeast Broward County.
Just saying...

Hollywood's Johnson Street Beach Project Evaluation Comm. to hear Developer Presentation and Consultant Findings on Thursday morning at City Hall

I'll have more comments here later tonight about this
matter but wanted to post this basic info before 6 p.m.
just in case it caught someone's attention who had
forgotten it was scheduled for Thursday.

My comments follow the press release about Thursday's
very interesting foray into planning, economic development
and public policy, Hollywood-style.

It's the next step in a process of getting something in place
over at Johnson Street and State Road A1A that is appealing
and captures the imagination of both tourists and Hollywood
residents alike, creates jobs, is aesthetically attractive if not
iconic -and F-U-N!

FYI: The Margaritaville Casino Resort project in Biloxi,
Mississippi, backed by Harrah's Entertainment, is currently
on hold
http://www.grandcasinobiloxi.com/casinos/grand-biloxi/casino-misc/margaritaville.html

See what their Orlando complex looks like:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Citywalk/Restaurants/jimmy_buffett_margaritaville.aspx
-----

The Evaluation Committee meeting for Johnson Street Beach Stage II Detailed Development Proposals has been scheduled for Thursday, March 4, 2010 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Hollywood City Hall, Room 219. The public is invited to attend, but not speak at this meeting.

The meeting will be taped and later aired on the Government Channel 78 and also on the City's website at www.hollywoodfl.org. RSVP's are not required to attend either meeting.

A Community Forum has been set for Monday, March 15, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Hollywood City Hall, Room 219. Developer presentations to the public followed by a
Questions/Answer session. Refreshments will be served.

Please be advised the "Cone of Silence" remains in effect preventing Developers from communicating with Members of the City Commission and most City Staff.

The March 4, 2010 Evaluation Committee Meeting sequence was determined as follows:

Margaritaville Resort at Hollywood Beach, LLC

Presentation from 9:15 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.

Consultant Reports and Question/Answer session from 10:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Lunch Break 12:15 p.m. - 12:45 p.m.

Hollywood Beach Partners, LLC

Presentation from 12:45 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

Consultant Reports and Question/Answer session from 1:45 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.

Evaluation Committee will begin deliberations and rankings at 3:45 p.m.

The March 15, 2010 Community Forum Agenda:

1. Introduction and Opening Comments

2. Oral Presentations from Proposers:

Hollywood Beach Partners, LLC

20 minute presentation

20 minute question and answer session with the Public

Margaritaville Resort at Hollywood Beach, LLC

20 minute presentation

20 question and answer session with the Public

3. Adjournment

We look forward to seeing you at these very important meetings!

----------
And this related bit of news from Terry Cantrell, President
of the Hollywood Lakes Section Civic Association

http://www.hollywoodlakes.com/

NEXT HLSCA MEETING:
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010.
Time 7:30 p.m. at the Hollywood Beach Community Center,
1301 S. Ocean Drive.

Guest speaker: Asst. City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark
on the Johnson Street Beach project and other important issues.
Refreshments will be served.
For info, call 954-923-1940.

Free parking.

ALL RESIDENTS are always WELCOME!

----------
I hasten to add that Terry Cantrell has been a great friend
to the concerned citizen taxpayers of Hallandale Beach even
while we have been sold-out by our own mayor and
Commissioners Ross and Sanders and most of the
Hallandale Beach business establishment, such as it is,
led by HB Chamber of Commerce head Patricia Genetti,
a woman who has continually spoken publicly in favor of the
Diplomat's absurd and incompatible proposals for turning
this small ocean-side city into a pinball machine, with multiple
towers towering over residential neighborhoods and plunging
them into near-permanent darkness, while their thousands
of additional cars make the current gridlock even worse.
As if that was possible.
But we all know it is.

Here's the statement put out by HLSCA

-Lakes Residents:

The Broward County Planning Council heard the Diplomat Golf and Country and City of Hallandale Beach request for a land use change to Local Activity Center (LAC) on Thursday and voted 12 to 4 to approve the plan despite the Council's Staff recommendation of denial. The plan consists of 950 new condo units in a number of high rise buildings (from 20 to 27 stories) spread out along the perimeter of the existing golf course. The golf course would remain as is. In addition, a new hotel would be built for approximately 500 rooms. The HLSCA as well as many Hallandale Beach residents and condo associations urged the Planning Council to deny the application due to incompatibility with the surrounding neighborhoods as well as a potential increase in traffic and congestion. The Planning Council vote of approval is based upon the applicant working with the City of Hallandale Beach to further refine the plan by lowering the building heights and creating a workable traffic plan. The plan will ultimately come before the Broward County Commission for final approval in late March.

It should be noted that the City of Hollywood Dept. of Planning and Development also supported the Planning Council's Staff recommendation of denial. The HLSCA thanks our City's Staff for their support. They recognize that this project, if and when if ever gets built, will, indeed, increase traffic through the Lakes neighborhood. Currently, many Hallandale Beach residents use the Lakes streets to cut through to the north as no one wants to drive on the very congested Hallandale Beach Blvd.

The HLSCA would like to recognize the well organized United Condo Association of Hallandale Beach led by Luis Paredes for all their hard work on this issue. They are truly a force in Hallandale Beach and deserve respect and admiration for strongly advocating on behalf of their membership and all the residents of Hallandale Beach.

We will continue to monitor this project as it, hopefully, morphs into an acceptable development that will not negatively impact the surrounding residential neighborhoods. Stay tuned....

www.hollywoodlakes.com

GSA's plan for a new Federal building in Broward -know anything about this absurd plan?

Meant to post this on Tuesday morning after
sending it out as an email to some concerned
citizens throughout the state watching what's
going on in South Florida with planning and
mass transit.

Published in Miami Herald on 2/21/2010


View Larger Map

Seriously, Davie as the home of a giant Federal building
with hundreds if not thousands of workers?

Wouldn't common sense environmental policy be better
served by a location near an actual or proposed home of
Mass Transit?
All new Federal agency offices in the Greater D.C. area
are required to be near a WMATA train station.

But naturally, this being South Florida, logic goes out the
window and we have to repeat mistakes that other cities
and areas have been avoiding for years.

Seriously, does the South Florida Regional Planning Council
know about thsi dopey plan?

As I've mentioned more than a few times here, I used
to live near the Ballston Metro station in Arlington County, VA,
which was located a block from the NSF (National Science
Foundation), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife HQ and many
federal offices.

That includes the people who guarantee your bank, the FDIC,
just a few blocks away, which happened to be right next door
to the GIANT grocery store I frequented.

Why would you not want to be even consider being integrated,
somehow into Tri-Rail and a future FEC commuter train?

This short-sighted move reminds me of when the headquarters
for USA Today/Gannett foolishly moved from their iconic
tower in downtown Arlington, two blocks from the Rosslyn
Metro station, across the river from Georgetown, and moved
to past Tyson's Corner.

Lots of their employees who lived near the HQ in Arlington
-as was the case with my then-girlfriend- got very
frustrated at suddenly having to drive thru grid-lock traffic
twice a day, instead of simply walking the 10-15 minutes
to work, or slightly longer if they were across Key Bridge
in Georgetown.

Instead of being relaxed when they rolled into work in the
morning, they were already highly-stressed.
Just saying..