Cafe Hitch-hike

2022-09-19

If I ever need a little escape

My neighbor Tex and I sat in the shade of a closed snack shack on the beach, enjoying a spliff and watching the people scattered along the shore. We decided to sit out the first couple of acts of the reggae festival in the bandshell next to the beach, but the music drifted through the air and the sparse raindrops. Since the weather was cloudy and with a chance of rain, Miami Beach was much less busy than usual. We saw some families enjoying the day, and a few coupled-off women drinking wine and having animated conversations. Most of us ignored the sprinkles and it was probably our reprieve from busy weeks. In our case, it was a break from our frantic work lives, and I had to celebrate almost being finished with my summer group project from hell.

Tex was enjoying the scenery (women of all shapes and sizes), but I'd say we both were sipping in the moment.
Sometimes we talked, sometimes we didn't, and that was ok. As we sipped our beverages, we had a little laugh. He had a Gatorade and I had a coconut water. Thirty years earlier, we would have an alcoholic beverage, but we chose to drink something that would hydrate us. Miami Beach's warm air tends to slowly boil the blood, even on a moderate or not so sunny day. I guess that's one sign of maturity! That, and we had a bit of a drive back home after the concert.

It was an all-ages show with a few reggae acts with one of the main acts being Inner Circle. It definitely relieved us of the stresses of the week to see people dancing, swaying and having a chill time. I got to update my exit visa from Miami; I joke that I must report back every so often to keep it current. Well, no, I just need to go back to get my fix of caffeine, Latin food, and the vibe of a crazy town on multiple edges of this continent. It is always good to get lost in a moment of music, led by a band leader and their crew, to hypnotize us and dissolve us into that sea for a little while. In a way, it's almost like making love. Maybe it really is another form of it?

Tex has cousins who lived in that area and he had been going there since he was a kid, but he said he had never seen anything like the show or the venue. I quietly smiled. So I got to drag another person into Miami's cultural underbelly. It made me think of all the other times I got to see around there...

1. Getting hypnotized by a Cuban siren-songstress on Calle Ocho in a set of 3 songs. Even Rafael, who was with me, was a little shocked by the spell. What makes that memory more precious was the pandemic and lockdowns began 3 weeks later.

2. Spending a quiet Friday evening next to a lifeguard stand near midnight, where the sky was so dark and everything was so quiet that one would have no idea they were in a region with 2.5 million people. All you heard were waves, no traffic, no noise.

3. The Latin Pride festival was actually an all-ages event where we saw old men playing chess and grandmothers walking kids in strollers while techno music and dancers played on 4 stages scattered through the neighborhood. I had no idea it was taking place, my friend and I went to a restaurant known for their arepas and saw the festival taking place a couple blocks away.

There's quite a few more but those are the ones that came easily into my mind.

I guess if I ever need a little escape and want to visit another world for a little while, I have a place to go, and music will always be there.

downwind | upstream