Dateline: Park by the Bay. the “Magic City,” Unanchored by Time. “Paul’s Safari Into Miami’s History.” ______________ Yes, We Here in Miami Have Always Tended to Get a Little Carried Away, And Your Point Was, What? There is just no explaining things to some people, who come to the table fully prepared to be unable to even comprehend Miami, in all of its divine madness and inspired lunacy. Do you know what I mean? So Yes, of course we get carried away here sometimes, captivated by one or the other of any number of utterly intoxicating and romantic notions as we are likely to be, at any given moment. Yet we surely cannot be to blame; it must be something in the air! It has got to be, for it has always been so, since even before the first stories were told of Conquistador Errant Ponce de Leon, and his search for youth that one might find and bottle, bubbling up in some sacred hidden place from deep within the Earth. Perhaps it mattered less that he failed to find that which he dreamed of, than that he dared to dream the dream, because in taking the journey he caught glimpse of something nearly as fine, elusive, and close to Gold as that which he sought expressly. He found Hope, there! So lets just say that here in Miami, where enough is only a beginning, wide latitude is given to Dreamers and their dreams, and always has been. Consequently we find amidst the green palms, blue bay and shimmering heat, mirages in clusters: a refined gem of an Italianate Villa nested by the shore in an ancient tangled forest; a timeless spring-fed pool and its own barrel-roof tiled Venetian casino presiding; whimsical riffs (in Coral Gables alone) on Chinese, French Provincial, American Colonial, and Dutch/ South African architectural styles, not even to mention the classic Old Spanish” that seems at least as “at home” here as the native oaks draped in moss; and even, to the north, a crumbling but once-proud vision of a gated fortress City topped by spires and minarets, given life by stories told in Arabian myth! I am not certain that the two band shells shown are the same structure, but the images are of the same vintage and I believe that they are. And Id kind of like to think so, because they each very much have a place, and belong together, in the restless waking dream of this “Magic City,” rare and true. Thank you.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 05:27:36 +0000
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