Thanksgiving in South Beach

What's it like to have Thanksgiving among the beautiful people? Well, I found out. This year I packed the family in the SUV and headed to South Beach Miami to spend Thanksgiving with some friends. They have a condo right on the southern tip of SoBe (trendy way of saying South Beach, actually everything is trendy in SoBe!) and they live on the southern side of the building with a spectacular view of the Atlantic Ocean from the 35th floor. Not exactly what you think of when you picture Thanksgiving in your head.

Growing up, Thanksgiving was about bundling up in a warm coat, going outside during halftime of the football game and working off all the turkey you just ate, so you could eat more pie. While I was in high school, I was always playing football on Thanksgiving, which meant I was always in a bad mood because my high school team stunk and we always lost. Now that I have my own family, we have created our own Florida version of T-Day (basically the same thing, except I fry a turkey)

In South Beach, it's all about how long you can stay at the pool before your pre-cooked turkey heats up! Tan and beautifully enhanced women and buff men are laying out by the pool like it's a normal day. Most are on their cell phones, some are ignoring their bratty kids and some are replaying the previous night's party.

Our friends made a traditional turkey dinner with all the usual sides so that brought back some sense of a real Thanksgiving. The football game was on and we had apple and pumpkin pie and we had our friends parents there too, so it felt like a family. But as we walked back to our hotel at 10 pm, we saw a restaurant full of people eating dinner outside. Who eats dinner at 10 pm on Thanksgiving Day?

The Beautiful people of SoBe.

Best Poet in the Universe

So you are thinking that maybe it's Emily Dickenson or Walt Whitman? Not in my poetry book. It's Irene Koronas. Never heard of the critically acclaimed Cambridge, MA poet/artist? She lives in the Hub of the Universe, so that makes her the Best Poet in the Universe. You might know her better as my mother.

Yes, she is the women who carried me for 9 months and gave birth to me. But, what you might not know is that she has been creating art, both visual and written, since the age of twelve. She has a fine art degree from the Mass School of Art, she is the Poet Editor of the Wilderness House Literary Review, the "word catcher" for the Bagel Bards (a weekly gathering of local poets) and most recently a finalist for the first ever Cambridge Poet Populist.



I have been exposed to art, in many forms, all my life because it was always around. Not only in my house, but in New England. Many a weekend days were spent being dragged to another gallery, outdoor sculpture garden or bookstore. Then I was a little brat, now I'm gratefull to have grown up in a region rich with culture. I love living in St. Pete, FL, but it's nothing like the Hub of the Universe.

Enjoy this poem by Irene Koronas:

the following poem is in gratitude to the people in the city I love:



tree line streets and gingko leaves pressed between pages

some refer to my city as the republic of Cambridge

when blizzard pounded my door, the funds needed to rescue

when other doors were shut, this city released relief

my groceries in reusable bags, an easy carry,

to the dead end street where I've lived forty years,

where maple and ash trees change from green to yellow

as often as good neighbors

resting at night beside great grandmother, grandfather,

students, doctor, architects, artists and a photographer.

conversations with mothers, computer programmer,

office worker and retired factory help. our street has seven addresses,

four houses and two abutters

where else can I meet the world on a small short street.

where else can I hear dialects, differences a close beat

where else can an old woman walk one block to a bus stop,

two to four blocks to grocery store, post office, coffee shop,

or pass by the elderly center for a yoga class, or just to ask,

is this the center of the universe

Irene Koronas

Gone Baby Gone

Have you seen the new movie, Gone Baby Gone? (or is it Gawn Baby Gawn?) It's the new Dennis Lehane movie set in Dorchester and directed by Ben Affleck and starring Casey Afflect, both Cambridge, MA boys. Dennis Lehane is also a MA kid (Dorchester) and wrote Mystic River. I had the great pleasure of seeing a pre-screening of Gone Baby Gone through an Eckerd College event with Dennis answering questions at the end of the film.

The film is entertaining, compelling and authentic. And by authentic, I mean, it's got a real Boston feel, not the usual fake accents and sets made to look like Boston. Ben Affleck does a great job at capturing the Dorchester attitude in his directorial debut and Casey Affleck is phenomenal in developing his character.

The film brings to mind other movies set in New England that are believeable and others that aren't. Obviously, Good Will Hunting is on top of the list. I'm on the fence about The Departed. Marky Mark does the accent justice, but not really on Martin Sheen. I'd so no on Fever Pitch. Too cute and other then the Fenway shots, it's not true to New England. Let me hear your comments on others. I know I'm missing a ton of movies. What was the one set in Maine with Kathy Bates?

Side note about the Pats: 9-0 Baby!! Thought the game against the Colts was going to be an offensive slugfest, but was way below the over. I can't really see them losing. Any takers on a bet?

Jesse