The New Fontainebleau Hotel

• filed under Misc.

The New York Times had a piece today about the Fontainebleau Hotel’s renovation in Miami Beach.  It described a glamour palace that by the time I went down in the 70s with my family no longer existed.  I remember it as a hotel for families, catering to kids.  Maybe the glamour got turned on at night, after we went to sleep, but if so we never heard about it.

With its decline, and the demise of the Sonesta Beach Hotel on Key Biscayne, the Loews on South Beach has become the destination of choice for families with young kids in South Florida.  It will be interesting to see if the refurbished Fontainebleau will be able to compete with the Loews, which, in my experience, has been doing all the little things to accomodate little people.

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Sunday Morning Flashback

• filed under Music

Boston band Moving Targets made two great album in the late 80s, Brave Noise and Burning in Water (If you look hard you can find them combined on a single cd).

They were led by singer and guitarist Kenny Chambers, who also logged time in another band from Boston, Bullet LaVolta (a band that also shared members with the Lemonheads).

Brave Noise and Burning in Water combine the energy, aggression, and speed of punk with the melodies of traditional pop.  The albums could be soundtracks: moody and pensive instrumentals follow melodic speed boilers where Chambers sings like he is coming out of his own skin.

I saw Moving Targets open for Buffalo Tom (another Boston band) in July of 07 in New York City. Chambers sang like it was still 1987, angry, but still tuneful.  On his MySpace page he writes that he is “itching to play some rock in L.A.” Here’s hoping that itch is scratched.

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Less Than Gravity

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