Before they turn the lights out.

It's a busy night. Many conversations happening around me as I walk towards the bar. People talking about their day, what they plan for the weekend, and dreading having to go back to work on Monday. My eyes wander around, observing my surroundings. I glance towards the floor making sure I don't step on anyone's feet. As I start looking up they catch my attention. I focus on her pumps, classic black and I notice a hint of red soles. "She's got taste" I thought. My eyes slowly look up. Her calves are smooth and nicely toned, with a shine to them. Her dress comes below the knees, royal blue in color. Not very common to see. Usually it's a little black dress or a red one. But not hers. The dress hugs her body, complimenting her curves gracefully. Her hair, so dark it shines blue in the light. Wavy, layered, reaching her neck. She seems to be looking for someone at the bar. No, she's not looking for anyone. She's looking for an empty seat. None available. She turns, facing my direction. Her lips are luscious, covered in a crimson red lipstick. Her face has this look of delicacy with a hint of maturity. She smiles. Beautiful smile with the cutest dimples. I smirk at the sight. I noticed she's looking right at me. We make eye contact. Her sparkling blue eyes piercing right through me. "This is no ordinary woman" I think to myself. I smile at her and start making my way towards her. She glances me head to toe. Navy suit, white oxford shirt with a gray tie. Brown leather wingtip shoes to finish. She smirks with approval. I'm standing in front of her. Our eyes gazing at each other. Even with her heels she's about an inch and a half shorter than me. "Hello." I said, with a friendly tone. "Hello" she smiled. That smile...those eyes...that look...this feeling...something I haven't felt in years. I was right, she's no ordinary woman.

The moon of my life

As I sit here in darkness staring at the moon with Mars in the distance, listening to the crickets chirping, the rustling in the bushes, I can't help but wonder if you're looking at it too. The way the moon shines reminds me of the light you filled me with, the joy you gave me from the sight of your smile and the sound of your laughter. The way you pronounced certain words with a hint of English accent that I found most endearing. They still haunt me. Sometimes I can control it, but other times I succumb to these memories. You were bad for me. Far from perfect...but in your imperfections I was able to find the light and in that short time I was forever yours. That's the beauty about you. You were perfectly imperfect. A cloud is rolling under the moon now. Its distorting the light, most likely a sign that I should do the same with my memories of you.

Jose Alexander

Sweet Art by Lucila, nothing sweet or artsy about it.

Being a fairly new resident to South Florida, I have been looking around for well known places with good, delicious food. A place that sells good sweets is hard to come by. Not a lot of people specialize in baking and pastry, so its not common to find a local shop that sells them alone. Sure there's Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme to get your sugar tooth on check, but donuts can get boring after a while. My mother and I have heard of a famous local shop that sells "delicious" cakes and happens to be famous here in Miami. A few days ago we happen to drive by one of their locations so we decided to stop in and check it out. Upon entering the store, nothing really stood out. The place was nearly empty. The front display looks barren. There were a lot of small 4" cakes on display, along with some cookies and other little treats just sitting there. One display case was even empty with just a tres leches sitting there. I did not even want to know if it was still good or not. The cake dummies that were on display in the front window weren't anything attractive. There was an average wedding cake, along with a chocolate cake and a Picasso inspired cake that was lacking art. It tried to be artistic, but just came out looking ugly and badly done. My mom went on to discuss prices for cakes and what was included with the prices. For what the cakes cost and what is actually included with the price, it is definitely not worth it. We take a look at the 10" demo cakes and off the bat, we can tell that the "buttercream" that was supposedly on the cake, was not buttercream at all. It was a cream with a shortening base, basically a cream made from Crisco. We bought one to go to try out and see how the cake itself is. When we get home, we open up the box and take out the cake. Out of the box, the cake had a HUGE dent in the back that was not visible through the display. This was a complete disappointment. Being a business that relies on its reputation, we would've thought that the lady who attended us would've told us about the dent and change it, but that was not the case. I wonder if they sell wedding cakes with dents in them as well? Anywho, on to the cake. We each get a quarter of it, and eat it. Right away we can confirm the cream is not buttercream and in fact it's a shortening based cream. It had no flavor what so ever and felt greasy. The cake was not from a box, it was actually home made, which was surprising from all the disappointments so far, but lacked flavor. It was a rum cake supposedly, but there was no hint of rum. It wasn't moist either, mostly dry. Overall it wasn't a good experience at all. Location lacked art, it was rather plain and boring looking, cakes were the same. Customer service was horrible. Who sells a dented cake? Apparently someone who doesn't care about getting returning customers. Cake was horrible. I have no idea why this place is so famous. I hear Edda's Cake Designs is good, but I also hear they used to be partners with Sweet Art by Lucila and from the experience we've had with Lucila, I dont think Edda will be any better. I will review Edda once I try her cake, but I'm not expecting to be blown away.

Wynwood Art Walk

Hello forum. This is my blog on the Wynwood Art Walk here in Midtown Miami, Florida. Wynwood is an art district and holds an art walk once a month. I had to come to one for my art appreciation class so i can see different types of arts and meet different artists. To be honest, i have never heard of this art walk let alone knew about Wynwood. So on March 13th, 2010 i went with my uncle to the art walk. We got a bit lost on the way but managed to arrive around 7:30pm. We started from on end and walked down to the other end. I wasn't sure what to expect from this since I've never been to an art walk before, but i gotta say, i was amazed at all the amazing art works that were displayed. I have to say my favorite pieces of art are the Wynwood Walls paintings. They were enourmous in size and had many different shapes and colors. Some were wild and others were contemporary. It was an amazing sight. Another favorite of mine were the arts pieces by Peter Tunney. The paintings that stood out to me the most were the ones by Jean Marc Calvet. I learned that the artwork that were displayed in his studio were ideas he worked on while in the military. The art works show anger and have very vivid colors to represent that emotion. It was really outstanding. You could feel the anger by looking at the paintings. There was one studio that i was not too fond of. I forgot the artists name but she used video cameras to make film art. I was not a fan of those. I found them to be completely weird and just not artistic, in my opinion. Now i was not able to speak to the artists because they were either talking to other people for a long time or were not there, but i did get to enjoy the art. So if you find yourself in Miami with nothing to do on the 2nd saturday of the month, find your way over to the Wynwood art district. It was alot of fun and some studios have complimentary drinks. Who can say no to that?