Your Evening Sift

You guys are killing me with the volume of posts. Thank God tomorrow is Friday when things traditionally start to slow down for the weekend. Here's your voluminous evening Sift...

A- Shorter babalu...

Staying together and holding on to each other aboard a sinking ship will ultimately refloat it.

B- Count Blind Mind as yet another South Floridian who thinks the new Marlins stadium is a huge waste of money.

People will still have to drive to the game, sit in traffic, and then have nowhere to go when they get there but spend $8 on a goddamn hot dog inside the stadium walls. Businessmen and women in the Brickell/Downtown/Gables area will likely just stay put for happy hour, spending their money in a nice, clean area with established businesses that have their followings already, then head over to the game and head back to Brickell/Downtown/Gables after or go home. The ballpark area just gets raped.

C- Miami Condo Investments lists the location and price of 13 "distressed" condos in Miami.

D- Today was Hidden City's first day of his last year as a 40-something. You know what to do.

This is shaping up to be a year in motion for me, with quite a bit of change in my life, leading toward my fiftieth birthday. The two, though, aren't intentionally related; there are no red sports cars or besequined blond nymphettes in my future. Sometimes fate just conspires to bring symbolic gestures to life without our planning them.

E- Emeril is celebrating 5 years at the Loews Hotel, according to South Beach USA.

Start February with a BAM! as Emeril Lagasse returns to South Beach to celebrate the 5th year of his successful Emeril’s Restaurant at the Loews Hotel. A cocktail reception kicks off the evening at 7:30 Wednesday, February 4 with New Orleans jazz vocalist Jeremy Davenport performing along side 7 year old piano prodigy Ethan Bortnick.

F- Balans has opened up another restaurant in Mary Brickell Village and it has some cool bathrooms, says All Purpose Dark.

G- One thing that has become apparent with the latest kerfuffle involving Rush Limbaugh is that Rush Limbaugh IS today's Republican Party, according to Bark Bark Woof Woof.

So every time Rush Limbaugh comes out with one of his whoppers, like "I hope Obama fails," or "we have to bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward whichever, because his father was black, because he’s the first black president," or plays "Barack the Magic Negro," we should all turn to the Republican leadership in the House, the Senate, and the RNC and say, "And your thoughts on this are...?"

To put it in the pithy argot of the street: Hey, GOP, Rush owns your ass; title, taxes, and license plate included.

H- Miami Metblogs daydreams and tells us his vision of a downtown Miami Public Market.

Across the street and down NW N River Dr. there are three areas for the new buildings of the Miami Public Market. Across the old fish market/Visitor Center, Market Area 1 sits in a small island surrounded by SW 1st Street. The new building constructed here, perhaps a two-story structure, would be the new fish market building, housing vendors selling fresh fish and seafood, highlighting local and seasonal options when available, frozen as a second option to carry the vendors through the lean times. Ideally caught by local fishermen and brought to the market via the Miami River, the merchandise is unloaded at the landing right next to the Visitor Center.

I- Tons of pictures capturing what it was like on South Beach today can be found at The South Beach Bum.

J- Kids were being recognized for their artwork this week in downtown Miami, according to Swampstyle.

Currently on view in a 'salon style hanging' is an exhibition of selected works sifted from the avalanche of artworks submitted by local students from public, private and parochial schools. All kids, ages 7-12, are encouraged to submit their work... many of the participants featured are from the handful of public magnet schools.

K- The South Florida Theatre Scene has their wrap-up for this week.

L- Miami, bro is fed up with the attention her now-infamous Matt Damon post brought her. But think of all the new readers you picked up, bro!

I am shocked at how people are so willing to defame me (an anonymous woman) while deifying him (a privileged male), both strangers. It's not like I don't know how sexist and classist people can be, it's just surprising how savage they've been here. Let's just call these hypocrites, "people who read People."

M- Eye on Miami asks "Does the GOP stand for anything?"

If you are going to be the minority party, the party of opposition, then stand for something constructive along the lines of reviving the economy by supporting new industries and, above all, transparency and accountability in the disposition of a trillion dollars or more of future obligations to taxpayers. Don't whine about the nationalization of industries, when it was your party's policies that so badly miscalculated risk. Abjure the fraud and corruption that took over financial markets. Reject the K Street Project.

N- Everything you want to know about Tailpot palms can be found in this post from Volunteering at Fairchild.

O- Embedded in this well-written post about the characteristics of the Republican Party, Incertus pens these couple paragraphs of gold that sum up quite nicely the idiocy of yesterday.

So now, when the entire country has rejected Republican ideas and has embraced Barack Obama, the Republican party has further united to not vote for the stimulus plan with Obama's name on it. (Bush's name, yes -- Obama's name, no). They did this knowing that the plan would pass anyway. They're doing it for show: to make a statement. To show that they will not compromise, they are right dammit, and they will act boldly, no matter the cost!

But here is the gamble: the stimulus package did pass the House, and will pass the Senate, and will be signed by the president. The Republican party just bet its reputation on that package's failure. If the economy improves, and people perceive that the stimulus package helped, then the fact that not a single Republican voted for it becomes a symbol of how partisan and party-before-country they have become, and will further reduce their popularity.

Go read the whole thing.

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