Your Evening Sift [UPDATED X2]

Tonight's Sift begins with a video that demonstrates the power of good blogging and a passion for a cause. I don't think I've ever included a video in a Sift, but then I'm thinking this kind of thing is unprecedented. It's great when bloggers are recognized for the work that they do. Enjoy your evening Sift.

A- This, fellow South Florida bloggers, is big.






Big ups to Eye on Miami. who, ironically enough, was not invited to a a recent local political blogger's conference on how "dogged individuals working in the unstructured blogosphere seek to fill the information void." Hey, Seth Gordon: OOPS!*

B- Transit Miami shares an important billboard PSA that appears at 67th and Flagler.

C- The Miami Short Film Festival is happening this week and Miami Beach 411 briefs us.

If last night’s selection of films is any indicator, the Miami Short Film Festival is anything but short on quality.

A total of seven short films were presented during the opening night of the festival at the Colony Theater Monday evening, combining for a total time of less than two hours – the same amount of time you’ll spend in a typical mediocre feature film from Hollywood.

But here audience members were treated to a diverse set of plots, storylines and concepts from Russia, Spain, Slovenia, Denmark and the United States.

D- Random Pixels links to two Miami New Times articles that can help us cope with Art Basel.

E- Pianist Nikolai Lugansky's weekend appearance at FIU receives a verbal flourish from South Florida Classical Review.

His performance of Liszt’s Vallee d’Obermann was the most impressive technical accomplishment of the evening, a thundering exercise in old-fashioned 19th-century virtuosity. He brought it to an almost symphonic climax, his hands a blur in the lightning double octaves. If anything, the music seemed to come too easily to him, robbing the performance of the intensity that comes with effort.

F- Restaurant patrons who linger and spend next to nothing can torment servers, as Restaurant Gal demonstrates.

A fifth man showed up and ordered, you guessed it, water. A sixth followed 10 minutes later and ordered a beer. Two others completed the group 15 minutes later–an hour and a half after the first guest had pulled my best tables together and been seated. The newly arrived ordered the night’s drink special–waters with lemon.

G- After winning a whole two games in a row, PhinPhanatic may be exaggerating just a little, I think. At least I hope so.

The Miami Dolphins have a little get up in their step these days after ending first a ten game losing streak and then ending a seven game home losing streak. Suddenly after an 0-7 start the Dolphins are walking with a little bit of swagger. A little more pep in their step.

H- Political Cortadito reports that voting was low today in Hialeah primarily because of the huge number of absentee ballot votes that were cast stolen.

Voters trickled in one and two at a time Tuesday morning at three of the bigger polling places: The Salvation Army, the Moose Lodge and the JFK Library. And that spells doom for former Mayor Raul Martinez, who is in the fight of his life against a scheming alcaldito Carlos Hernandez. Unless those who got outraged and became indignant over the abuse of absentee ballots and AFL residents come out en masse, the election will be decided by the more than 13,000 mailed-in ballots -- and we all know who has more control (read: fraud) over those.

I- Tropicult previews Design Miami.

Each year, Design Miami recognizes an internationally renowned architect, designer, or studio whose body of work demonstrates unmatched quality, innovation and influence, while expanding the boundaries of design. The winner is determined by a diverse selection committee comprising individuals who significantly impact international design discourse.

J- D’Angelo Trattoria is open in Delray beach, according to Eater Miami.

Antipasti dishes range from $9 to $16; salads range from $10 to $12 and pasta dishes range from $14 to $19. There’s also thin-crusted pizza on the menu with prices ranging from $13 to $18. The deserts, which change daily thanks to an in-house pastry chef, include baba, a rich sponge cake soaked in liquor syrup; and delizia al limone, a light Limoncello-filled cake with cream topping.

K- Everything you wanted to know about Cuban floor tile is at Miamism today.

There are many stories why cement tile is called “Cuban Tile” here in Miami and one of the theories is that Cuban Tile was entrusted as a special order to Cuban manufacturers who would hand make these tiles for residential applications in Miami. Next time you walk into a historic home in Miami or read a miami real estate description that includes “cuban tile”, you will know a little about the history of Cuban Tile, how these were made and how it is possible to restore them.

L- Whoa. Bark Bark Woof Woof takes it to the alleged Penn State serial rapist.

Oh, and thanks for nothing for once again providing the Morality Patrol with another poster-boy, so to speak, for their inevitable execrable linking of being gay with pedophilia. Even if Mr. Sandusky claims to be straight, he's feeding the hysterical myth that gays have to recruit unsuspecting kids to join the ranks. For that Mr. Sandusky can do to himself what he's accused of doing to those boys, preferably with a garden rake.

* Well, one half of Eye on Miami claims that they never got an invitation, but Random Pixels has forwarded me a copy of email correspondence that indicates that the other half did.

* So now they acknowledge receiving the invitation but did not realize what it was or they ignored it or one didn't talk to the other. I'm done.


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