The Motivation Blog

January 2010Monthly Archives

Los Van Van Come to Miami

2010 is going to be a great year for music.  Los Van Van, the Cuban empresarios of Timba, are touring again.  Although it will be spectacular to hear them play in Vienna and Berlin, cities which are known for a population with excellent taste in music (if we leave out Falco), it’s something else entirely to hear them play in Miami.  Luxury hotels will likely be hosting lots of their fans, and if you’re in Miami and don’t know the group, you will soon enough.

The last time they toured here was 10 years ago, and it was a bit of a rough reception.  There were protestors from the so-called Miami Mafia who obviously had not heard about how to properly treat guests, especially of musical stature as elegant as Los Van Van.  This time around, there is a younger generation that will be part of the mix of fans, and it will be exciting to see the torch of inspiration passed on in a live concert.  These guys are really good, and the comparison with Puerto Rico’s El Gran Combo is entirely justified.

They play a salsa that has become known as Timba.  The group has been together, under the guidance of Juan Formell, for over four decades now, and they keep evolving in new directions under the vision of the leader of the band.  The innovations in the musical style incorporate the spirit of improvisation from jazz, and the syncopated drum rhythms that come from African influences on the island.  It’s a very local kind of music that has an absolutely resonant global appeal, and when they play, it’s sometimes difficult to remember exactly where you are.  In Miami, this will be especially interesting, where their popularity has been very high but without the chance to watch diaspora work in the moment, something that only happens in the live event.

Lisa
January 28, 2010
Travel
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Business Relocation

Often when you have an established business you try to stay in the spot so that your customers know where to find you. But as time and business changes, sometimes that move is necessary. If the area becomes less than ideal or if the clientele no longer uses your services, it is a good sign that it is time to move on. There are several things to consider once you have decided to make the big move and a lot of that depends on the type of business.
Retail shops and other open to the public type businesses typically do not own the property; although there are exceptions. Before you terminate your lease or sell your property, it is usually a good idea to have a new place in mind. Transglobe property management can help you find a new location to move to. With the help of Transglobe property management you will be all set with your new property in no time.
With a new location in sight it is time to start packing up. If you have an office, the transition should be relatively easy with the help of a Uhaul and some movers. For shop owners, it is necessary to decide what you are going to do with all your product. If you have the ability to take it all with you, by all means go for it. Just make sure you get a really big moving truck. If you want to start fresh in your new location, this is the perfect time to have a sale and advertise for your new location. That is key if you want clients to follow you and not just assume you went out of business. You could also have a big grand opening sale with special deals once your new shop is up and running.
Moving your business is a long process but a well worth one when if it puts you in a better place to succeed.

Lisa
January 26, 2010
Business
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Homes of Knoxville

Any trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, would undoubtedly include the Sunsphere, the 26 story tall structure built for the 1982 World’s Fair.  You might also visit the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, taking a look at the history of the sport, as well as the world’s largest basketball that adorns the building, weighing in at ten tons.  But the city of Knoxville, which originated in 1786, two hundred and twenty-four years ago, is rich in history, especially about the 19th Century and the Civil War.  Once you’ve checked into one of the hotels Knoxville offers its travellers, you can start taking a look across the landscape to find a number of sites that have their roots in deep in the 1860s, or even earlier.
 
Perhaps James White’s Fort is the most visited historic site.  It’s a wooden log home that lets you look at the life of early settlers in this region, owned originally by the founder of Knoxville, who was paid for his services in the Revolutionary War with a land grant of a thousand acres.  Other homes in the area also serve as museums, such as the Mabry-Hazen House Museum (including the Civil War Bethel Cemetery), and the Marble Springs Historic Homestead.  The latter belonged to Governor John Sevier, and was variously a loom house, a tavern, a half-cantilever barn, and a smokehouse.  Today’s it’s used to educate visitors about this governor’s life and the times in which he lived.  In the former, you’ll find a home that displays not only the period of the Civil War, but also the Victorian age.  You’ll discover china and crystal and silver, in a building that once acted as headquarters for troops from both sides of the Civil War.
 
Before you finish your trip to Knoxville, you’ll definitely want to take a look at Blount Mansion.  This 1792 home belonged to Governor William Blount, one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States.  You’ll be able to take a guided tour of this home, which is now a National historic Landmark, enabling you and your family to learn about how frontier government worked and to see antiques from the 18th Century.

Lisa
January 25, 2010
Travel
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Lost Generation Meeting in Manhattan

We’re meeting after midnight.  It’s always after midnight.  I don’t know why it has to be like that, but it is that way.  We don’t know why.  No one really knows why.  It doesn’t matter.  It really doesn’t matter that we don’t know why.  We’re meeting after midnight.  That’s just how it is.  And even if that’s not how it is, it’ll still have to do.  Because then the way that it’s not will become that’s how it is, and how it is is always how it has to be.  We’ll be meeting, and we’ll be talking about the things we need to talk about and that will be that.  

We might be meeting somewhere elegant.  Somewhere where the people are elegant and the things are elegant.  Maybe it will be Manhattan, in a business hotel.  Those are the kinds of places where we can do the kind of talking we want to talk about.  There, people can talk about Ernest Hemingway like they want to talk about him.  No one will have to talk in a quiet voice.  The voices people use when they are embarrassed, we won’t have to talk like that.  Because there’s nothing embarrassing about this. Not this, not at all.

Then again, if we are embarrassed, we can move.  We can move from the inside of the hotel to the outside.  We could go from the room to the places outside the room.  The hallway, or the terrace.  It would be nice if our room had a terrace, because then we would have options.  Some of the best times happen on the terrace.  You can look it up.  I wouldn’t make that up.  That’s the kind of thing Hemingway used to get angry about, when people made things up.  But we won’t make them up.  What we say will be real, and it will be true, and even if it’s not true, it will have to do.  Because that’s exactly how it will be.

Lisa
January 21, 2010
Travel
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Vinette Carroll in Fort Lauderdale

All the old theaters in the world have ghosts, or so they say, and some of the newer theaters also have their share.  Along with the ghosts, there are also a vast number of ancestors who haunt the stage, not necessarily in a spectral form, but in terms of their legacy, and our memories.  They become inspirations for us, and influences, and for many of the most inspired and committed theatre practitioners, their effects live on much longer than their lives on the boards.  This is certainly the case with Vinette Carroll.  She died in 2002, so the extent of her legacy can’t be measured, but for the few years that have passed, it would seem as though this will be a very important one.

She was born in New York City in 1922, and did a lot of her early work there, including an education that included doctoral work in psychology.  She also began to study acting, and became one of the most prominent actors of her time.  In her middle years, she spent her time working in New York and the West Indies.  She was the first African American to direct a Broadway production.  In later years, she would spend most of her time in Fort Lauderdale.  Her influence on the local scene here is tremendous, and visitors coming to look at her legacy will find themselves in a pretty lively city. There are plenty of accommodation possibilities, and some of the best can be found right here.

In the middle of one of the world’s great tourist centers, where thousands come out every year for spring break vacations, there is also a thriving theatre scene.  This is, in large part, due to her efforts.  When she bought a house here in the 80s, she also helped to found a new theatre, which also took her name, the Vinette Carroll Repertory Theatre.  Today, this building is the home to Fort Lauderdale’s independent films, Cinema Paradiso, and is a major focal point for the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.  Even here, her name has a resonance.

Lisa
January 21, 2010
Travel
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Tampa’s New Museum of Art

If you’re going to be anywhere near Florida early next month and staying overnight in the luxurious hotels in Tampa, you may have the chance to see the public grand opening of the new Tampa Museum of Art, which will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebration on February 6th, 2010.  Part of the celebration will include activities such as creating jewelry, making your own collage and designing your own museum.  In this new building, the Tampa Museum will have a variety of exhibits and galleries, including Greek and Roman antiquities, paintings, photography, and recent acquisitions.

Among the recent acquisitions, patrons of the museum may find six works of interest: Leslie Lerner’s My Life in France: The Oceanside: The Green Day, from 2002.  Lerner was an American artist who lived from 1949 to 2005.  The work is acrylic on ragboard.  There’s Bruce Marsh’s Escalante Study, Road to Boulder #2, an oil on panel.  He’s an American artist, born in 1937.  Also in the acquisitions is Alamar, 2007, a color lithograph, a representation of a sandal.  There’s a mixed media assemblage known by Rocky Bridges, titled Transitional Desire, also from 2007.  Then Horst & Daniel Zielske provides a photograph known as Nanjing Donglu III, Shanghai, from the series Megalopolis Shanghai, 2006.   Finally, and perhaps most intriguingly, there is Burk Uzzle’s Kitchen with Wedding Cake and Alligator, from the John Herrmann Series, 2006.

In the permanent collection, you’ll find a number of interesting works, including such paintings as Sylvia Plimack Mangold’s Trees at the Pond from 1985, William Pachner’s Landscape from 1976, Willie Cole’s Sunflower from 1994, Jon Corbino’s Preliminary Study for the Centurion, from 1950, and Neil Welliver’s Cedar Pole from 1979.

Whether you arrive in February or March, there’s something to do at the Tampa Art Museum.  In upcoming events, on March 6th and 7th, the museum will host the Raymond James Gasparilla Arts Festival.  Included in the 40th year of the festival will be the annual Children’s Activity Tent with activities which are eco-friendly.

Lisa
January 19, 2010
Travel
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The South Street Seaport in the City of New York

On my first trip to New York, I spent ten days in the city, but did not really have the opportunity to see much.  We were rehearsing all day, and performing all night, and the only time off I spent going to the other shows on 42nd Street.  I did go to Central Park, and the top of the Empire State Building, and spent a couple afternoons walking around the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but always had to head back to our beautiful hotel in the East Village of New York. No one I was with on that trip had spent much time in the city so we were all just kind of wandering around a bit lost.

A few years later I went back just for three days, and stayed with my friend who was born and raised in the city.  That is when I got the full tour, of the small hidden treasures, as well as the history, and a bit of the touristy things too.  We walked all around the city one night, and ended up at Five Points, the legendary stomping grounds of the terrible gangs from the late 1800′s and early 1900′s.  But then we made our way just a bit more South, and ended up walking through the South Street Seaport.

This is a great place for finding restaurants, and very good spot for shopping, but we were there manly for the view.  The Brooklyn Bridge and the borough can be seen standing at the edge of the dock, and at that time of night the bridge was lit up and incredible breathtaking.  When the bridge was first opened, activity at the port sharply declined, as before there was a ferry service, and now people could get there themselves.

However, after years of falling into decay, the Seaport was renovated in 1983, and is now not only great place to find some peace, but during the operating hours of the stores, the restaurants and the nightclubs, this has become once again the hopping place it was in the 1920′s.  Walking through a city such as New York is a great way to learn about it all, without the hustle and bustle of the daytime activity, but just be sure you have a guide as knowledgeable as the one I found in my friend.

Lisa
January 18, 2010
Travel
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Atlanta Ghost Stories

All the interesting cities have them.  They can get into everything, and they don’t always have a lot of manners.  In Atlanta, however, you’re more likely to find the ghosts who do observe some of the cultural niceties, because some of these inborn things last past a lifetime.  Atlanta is, by any measure, one of the most well-mannered big cities in the country.  There is a true sense of hospitality and old-fashioned charm here, and it’s something that’s not just on the surface to make the tourists happy.  Southern hospitality is deep, and it’s something that gets ingrained over many generations.

Atlanta is also one of the most interesting urban spaces in the country, and has been experiencing a boom in popularity that’s very well-deserved.  For visitors looking for a sense of old-world charm with all the luxuries, Atlanta’s hotels have plenty to offer, and there’s so much more to see in the city.  More than one visit can offer, surely, helping to demonstrate that this is more than a stopping place for a layover, or to change planes.  The local culture is likewise as charming, and also as deep as the rest of Atlanta.  The artists working here are serious, and very talented.

Apparently, so are the ghosts.  There is enough paranormal activity that it has its own ghost hunters.  Considering the amount of time that human beings have inhabited the area, and also considering its complex and sometimes tumultuous history, it would certainly make sense that if there is such a thing as ghosts, you’d find some here.  Many Atlanta ghost stories are fairly typical.  Tales of furniture moving in old houses with a lot of mysterious history, with the usual kinds of annoying, and sometimes even charming, poltergeist behavior, are relatively common.  If you like to be scared and haunted, this is a perfect way to tour the city.  If you like to hear stories, then this is also a good way to get some good tales.  People from Georgia are famous for being marvelous story-tellers, and everyone knows a good ghost story, just like everyone can tell at least one good joke.

Lisa
January 12, 2010
Travel
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Romance in NYC Restaurants

There are no better places for a perfect romantic moment than a cafe in a big city.  Cafes and restaurants are built for enchantment, and if there’s nothing charming going on, then at least you know that there will be food coming.  It’s the perfect place for a first date, or even a seventh date, as well as a wonderful place to take yourself after a bad date to get some honest consolation from your friends.  Any big city will work, because they all have their own peculiar charms, but New York is the king of the big cities, and has its own history and revolving cultures that make it particularly hospitable to hosting beautiful romantic moments.

Thinking about New York restaurants and cafes, I usually start running through a visual history of my New York memories.  They are iconic places to meet and talk about love, and I have a half dozen memories of my own, but I always find it hard to get the famous scene in When Harry Met Sally out of my head.  That never happened to me, but I always hoped it would.  Instead of Meg Ryan, I usually end up meeting Rob Reiner’s mom, but we still have a lot to talk about.

Despite the present moments, which continue to slip away much more quickly than I can savor them, the past speaks volumes about what NYC means to me.  In the evolution of my own romantic life, I remember two first dates there, and one very intense conversation.  The other moments were where my friends and I were sitting around and making fun of our own bad luck.  So although my partner now didn’t meet me in a New York cafe, we still know we have the chance to have a life-changing conversation in a restaurant some time, so we go as often as we can, wondering when the other one will begin to flirt with abandon.

Lisa
January 8, 2010
Travel
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January Theatre Festivals in New York City

At one time, the few weeks following the end of the holiday season, were a slow time for the world of the performing arts, and their audiences, as the citizens of the city of New York recuperated from the long haul that had begun in November.  However, over the last few years, many theatre and music festivals have been popping up during those first few weeks of January, surrounding the schedule of the Association of Performing Arts annual conference.

What was once a dead time for not only the world of the arts, but for businesses such as the restaurants, the retail shops and most of New York City’s best hotels, has now become an incredibly busy and prosperous time.  Now, if you throw a dart on a map of Manhattan, chances are there will be a show playing where your dart lands, and if not right there, then very close by.  This is a great time for the public to see some of the more famous productions and performers, and a great time for those who are up and coming in the business to get seen, in front of the worldwide audience provided by the more than two thousand members of the Association of Performing Arts.  These performances are well written about through reviews, and the life of those shows going up at this time becomes much longer and more visible.

Of the many festivals around town, one of the most attended is the “Under the Radar” Theatre festival. The shows in this festival are innovative and cutting edge, and many of them end up with solid runs on Broadway following these first few weeks of January.  Anytime you visit this city, you will find a great show, however this is one time for true theatre lovers to find their way to the smaller stages, and find their way to some of the most brilliant and talented new playwrights, companies, and players in the world of theatre and the performing arts.

Lisa
January 8, 2010
Entertainment, Travel
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