Dinner with Beka tonight, this activist girl I met down in Miami protesting the FTAA meetings last year. she is starting an art gallery that focuses on art for activism. Great idea. I have been so pleasantly surprised how much fuller my social calendar is here in New York after only living here for three months, when I had lived in Miami for three years. But I find that the city is so aligned with who I am and what I represent. So much going on here you can never be bored. so culturally and intellectually expanded. The city has its downsides, to be sure. But they will never outweigh the pluses. You immediately find yourself a New York snob, feeling almost subconsciously obligated to believe that if anyone or anything is happening outside of New York or L.A. then it really isn't worth knowing about. True? nah. But you still cannot help but feeling that way.

Went to an amazingly fun party today with the band. many synchronistic events with several of the people there, who I didn't know at first and then after more careful exploration we realized that we had all these connections between us. cool. One thing I have noticed with no particularly air of importance attached to it is that as soon as I made a firm commitment to sell the house and car and move to NYC, all of a sudden I am making all of these really great new friendships here in Miami. so strange.

Juliet called today. spoke like old friends for an hour or so. Time whizzing by. She comments that the mind is the ultimate erogenous zone, the mental is the ultimate aphrodisiac. I would agree. Style is important. God knows I believe that one. insert chuckle here. But it is the mind that really turns me on. I think a lot of people here don't realize that yet. hence its reputation for shallowness. Certainly not unwarranted in its current stage of infancy. But South beach is growing on me. the other city that never sleeps. You feel it creeping up on you unexpectedly. One minute I'm selling everything I own to in order to move to New York; two days later I'm looking at properties to buy so I can “have a place to come back to here.” you know, its just kind of an addictive place. the city is growing so fast its unbelievable. You can be smack dab in the middle of a burgeoning business development area and still see wild chickens crossing the street and vendors selling things on every corner of the busy streets---old Cuban guys in little tank tops holding up five mangos for a dollar or bottles of water. That's Miami. it’s a crazy place. as Bas likes to say, it feels like we live on a remote island here, far away from the rest of the country. there is this ‘you can do anything you want to as long as you don't hurt anybody else’ attitude in Miami that is probably the most predominant aspect of the city besides its primarily-Latino culture. Anything goes in Miami. and everyone knows it. including the governmental officials and the police etc. its very relaxed like that. office buildings are filled with people who come to work in jeans and sandals. Fashion is everything to the average Miamian. And because its so goddamn hot here fashion can mean something as simple as how low your jeans are hanging off your ass or how high a girl’s halter top rises from her belly. That's one of the cool things about Miami. but it gets old pretty fast. you miss real fashion. 

Current Read: Studying Morocco now.