Lots going on in the Grove today.
Snow Days starts at noon at the Mayfair Promenade. This is the third year for the highly popular event. The kids get to play in the snow under our nice Miami sun, Santa and Frosty the Snowman make appearances and there is candy, snow cones and lots of fun.
Also, at noon, the City of Miami Police Department will be battling the Florida Highway Patrol in Peacock Park in a softball tournament, remember the days of the Orange Bowl Pig Bowl? It's something like that, but these days, there is much more of a rivalry between the two departments than back in the Pig Bowl days, which I believe was Miami and NY departments.
At night, the Grove turns on the art with the Art Basel event called Art Starts in the Grove. All the Coconut Grove galleries will be open and will feature great new art along with a party at the Mayfair Atrium, where Manuel Carbonell sculptures take center stage (shown above). They have been installing them all week and they are really something great to see. It's a magnificent sculpture garden.
Other featured art include the Marilyn Monroe exhibit at AC Fine Art, see how many incarnations of Marilyn there are, we also hear that an original Andy Warhol will be auctioned off, check it out at AC Fine art at 2911 Grand Avenue.
"Fact or Fiction: The Works of George Rodez" (left) is featured at the RODEZ Art Gallery, including three pieces from George's "Dream" series. The gallery is at CocoWalk, second floor.
"Imagine-Let the Inner Artist Out" is at GroveHouse Artists Gallery. The feature works of Isabelle "Izi" Schuette, a local Grove artist are on display, the gallery is at the Mayfair Promenade, we're hoping the snow from Snow Days is gone by gallery time!
A Fundraiser for Miami Children's Hospital is at Cristina Chacon Gallery on Commodore Plaza. The dynamic works of internationally-known contemporary, Latin American artists Milena Arango, Julio Nieto and Angelo Valenzuela are for sale.
The Max Gallery (2996 McFarlane Roade) is displaying original works from Peter Max, Les Roberts, Romero Britto and Tadeo De La Barra. A variety of artistic pieces including lithographs and serigraphs, glass vases and plates, and hand sculpted statues and sculptures are for sale.
FrameWorks Gallery (3196 Commodore Plaza) is supporting Art Magnet Programs. They will present over 100 pieces by students from South Miami Middle School Magnet Art Program. Enjoy refreshments as you journey through the eyes of our youth, witnessing free expression of art through a collage of genres.
Multiple award-winning photographer Patrick Farrell will be featured at the Hunter Gallery, at the Mayfair Atrium, displaying works by the same series that earned him the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.
Inviting its 2011 Best of the Best winner back for special showcase exhibition, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival Gallery (at the Atrium) presents the newest pieces by award-winning, Florida glass blower Duncan McClellan.
Alfredo González-Alvarez, also known as Agapop or Alva, will be showing some of his paintings at The Loft (3190 Commodore Plaza), which range in style from the decidedly photo-realist to figurative surrealism and examples of representations of film and television subject matter that the artist calls Photo- Impressionism. One of his pieces, "Exit B2" is shown below.
The Gallery Walk starts at 7 pm and ends at 10 pm.
Groupon's deal this weekend is Comedy Night at The Improv for Two with One Appetizer for $47.00, that's 51% off the regular price.
Stand up comedian Jeff Garcia is featured. Jeff has lent his voice to animated characters as Rinaldo from the Happy Feet movies and Sheen Estevez from the Jimmy Neutron series. Since beginning his madcap assault against funny bones at age 15, Garcia has coaxed guffaws from audiences nationwide with a steady diet of sarcasm and street jokes about real-world problems, such as hard-to-read stop signs. The comic's presence as a 16-year-old on HBO's Loco Slam sent him into the television spotlight, where he's appeared on NBC's Friday Night Videos, Vibe with Sinbad, and Galavision's Funny is Funny and two Showtime specials. Guests find an antidote to hyperactive laugh muscles in shared platters of coconut shrimp, smoked-chicken nachos, or cheesburger sliders from Miami Improv's All Time Favorites menu.
Shows are available on Thursday, December 8 and Sunday, December 11, both 8:30 pm shows. A two-drink minimum is required per person, which is not part of the Groupon deal.
Other dates available are Friday, December 9 at 8:30 pm and 10:45 pm and Saturday, December 10 at 8:30 pm.
The Improv is at 3390 Mary Street, at the Mayfair Promenade. To get the Group deal, visit their site here.
It's sure not the News Cafe anymore. Villa Mayfair, the new upscale dining spot at 2901 Florida Avenue, is set to open tonight, December 2. There was a soft opening earlier in the week with family and friends trying the new spot out, but the public is invited to the new elegant restaurant tonight.
It's got an old-world elegance about it, sort of the 1920s. At least, that's what I get from seeing the bar and the main dining room layout, a vison of designer Francois Frossard, the master artist behind Miami Beach's The Forge, Liv and Arkadia. He also designed three dining spots inside Brickell's Icon building.
Executive Chef Frederic Joulin has created a Mediterranean menu for Villa Mayfair, which will include fresh seasonal products. Featured is jamon iberico, patanegra, with red and yellow roasted pepper confit as appetizers. There's an oyster and raw bar, too. And meals such as Arborio risotto with foi gras; poached Turbot flavored in lemon confit, Maltaise sauce and semolina coucous; and olive encrusted rack of lamb with tomato confit. There's an official dessert called the Villa Mayfair Raspberry Macaroon.
After hours the restaurant will become a club and offer bottle service and have a DJ spinning. Following the December 2 grand opening, the normal operating hours will be Tuesday through Saturday from 7 pm to 3 am. To make reservations, please call 305-774-1500 or 305-774-1555.
This year's King Mango Strut Grand Marshal was chosen by the Mangoheads and it's long-time Miamian Ron Magill (left), from Zoo Miami. Ron is Communications Director of the zoo and has been with them for over 30 years and is there any wilder zoo than the King Mango Strut? Perfect team up as far as we are concerned.
Meet Ron on Wednesday, December 7 at the next King Mango Strut meeting at Greenstreets (3468 Main Highway) at 8 pm.
As Grand Marshal of the 30th annual King Mango Strut, he'll reign supreme to "Occupy the Grove" on Saturday, December 31 at 2 pm in Downtown Coconut Grove for the actual King Mango Strut parade through the streets of the Center Grove.
This year's Strut Celebrity is Katy Sorenson, the never recalled/never indicted/never removed-by-the-governor, former commissioner of Miami-Dade County. Katy has been much closer to King Mango than Facebook's 4 degrees of separation. She was Strut's co-founder, Bill Dobson's, boss.
The annual satirical street parade has been a model of civic engagement and civil uprising with enough material for a pickapeppa spray and sauce combination. In this interactive parade, the spectators, the true occupiers, are encouraged to bring tents, lawn chairs and cardboard signs. For the King Mango royal watchers, it's the big hats and fascinators (you know, those funny things the ladies wear on their heads at royal weddings).
King Mango is still looking for a few good Mango Heads to strut in the parade. There are no entry fees, no special skills or x-factor auditions required; just join the fun and strut your funny.
If your group needs ideas or people, come to the next Disorganizational meeting at Greenstreet Café. They also need behind-the-scenes help.
If you want to participate, contact the King at kingmangostrut@gmail.com or call the Mango Hotline at 305-401-1171. For more information check out their new website at www.kingmangostrut.org and you can follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kingmangostrut for the latest Mango news and tidbits.
Wonder if the Grove big shots will allow Ron to slither around town with his big snake as they drove Trevor, our "real" snake guy out of town.
The Miami Parking Authority has announced a new, expanded Holiday Parking Rewards program. For the entire month of December, one on-street parking customer per day will be selected at random to receive one week of free, unlimited on-street parking.
Winners must be registered with MPA's Pay by Phone service to redeem their free parking reward. Users of MPA's parking garages also have the opportunity to win free parking. The Oak Avenue garage in Coconut Grove is one of those garages.
One monthly-contract parker at each of these four garages will be selected at random to receive a free one-month extension of their contract, for a total of four awards.
MPA’s traditional Holiday Courtesy Citation program also returns for December. On-street parkers whose meters have expired will be issued a special “Holiday Courtesy Citation” explaining that they have been granted up to one free hour of parking beyond their expiration time, thus avoiding a parking ticket.
The Holiday Courtesy Citation program runs 24 hours per day, every day throughout December. Parkers must have purchased parking at a single-space meter, a Pay & Display master meter, or via Pay by Phone in order to be eligible for the courtesy time extension.
A winner will be chosen each day, starting today, for a total of 31 winners for street parking and 31 for garage parking.
If you have any questions, please call 305-756-0735 for info.
Ask Charlotte about the signed and numbered originals. The set of nine is #146 out of a total of 175 copies created in 1974. Charlotte is selling them all as one lot for $10,000.
