South Beach and Miami Beach, Florida, have dozens of whimsical, colorful, and sometimes wacky lifeguard stands that have become media stars in their own right, including the "Lighthouse Guardhouse," the "Surfboard," and the "Putting Green Guardhouse." In 64 brilliant color photos, these amazing stands and the dazzling scenery surrounding them are beautifully portrayed. Manned by a cadre of professional lifeguards, these stations have become a famous backdrop for the fun-filled life on the sands and in the seas, as swimmers, boaters, para-sailors, and sun-seekers flock to the beaches with their cameras and their sunscreen. Engaging text provides the history of these colorful and fanciful lifeguard stands, and designed in 1992 after Hurricane Andrew, and again after the storms of 2005. The lifeguard stands currently on the beach and those lost in years past are all presented and preserved in this wonderful book.
Blending literature and travel, this book offers a look at 15 U.S. destinations featured in the works of famous writers. Designed as a guide to help avid bibliophiles experience, in person, the places they've only read about, award-winning journalist Terri Peterson Smith takes readers on lively tours that include a Mark Twain inspired steamboat cruise on the Mississippi, a Devil in the White City view of Chicago in the Gilded Age, a voyage through the footsteps of the immigrants and iconoclasts of San Francisco, and a look at low country Charleston's rich literary tradition. With advice on planning stress-free group travel and lit trip tips for novices, this resource also features beyond the book experiences, such as Broadway shows, Segway tours, and kayaking, making it a one-of-a-kind reference for anyone who wants to extend the experience of a great read.
NYC-based photographer Tommy Kwak brings Miami Beach to life After the destruction of Hurricane Andrew on Miami Beach in 1992, the lifeguard towers were commissioned to be redesigned in vibrant fashion to uplift the spirits of the town. In the tradition of the Becher's water tower series, this book of Tommy Kwak's photographs methodically examines the 30+ iconic towers that have become symbols of South Florida's revitalization. This award-winning series of photographs utilizes similar framing and long exposures to produce minimal sky and sea backdrops in order to highlight the traits of each tower, inviting the reader to appreciate and compare the electric color palettes and eccentric forms. This body of work shows Tommy's distinct approach recognizable by the composition of the pictures, sophisticated usage of the angles, and manipulation of light, shadow, and colors. Tommy's style of photography celebrates a kind of ephemeral beauty, and at the same time transforms these entities into more graphic forms, bringing a fresh perspective on the lifeguard towers of Miami Beach.
“Decadence has never seemed so sweet and innocent as it does in Brian Antoni’s lost world of deco and disco in pre-millennial Miami.” —Jay McInerney This second novel by the acclaimed author of Paradise Overdose, is a “candy-colored and warmhearted . . . story of one man’s moral and sexual flowering” (The New York Times Book Review). At the ripe old age of twenty-nine, globe-trotting, trust fund-endowed Gabriel Tucker is horrified to learn that all that’s left of his inheritance is a crumbling Miami Beach apartment building named the Venus De Milo Arms. Alone, penniless, and lacking any sort of useful skills, he heads to Miami to reconstruct his life. His new neighbors are an unlikely mix of tenants: an elderly Holocaust survivor, a lip-synching drag queen, a cynical two-bit gossip columnist, and a rebellious young performance artist who Gabriel starts to fall for. Quickly he is thrust into the outrageous world of South Beach, where temptations abound and quick fortunes, mountains of drugs, nonstop sex, and beautiful women (and men) for sale (or rent) are the order of the day. He becomes a ringside witness to the excesses and intrigues of Italian fashion empires, Cuban refugee supermodels, rapacious German developers, old-fashioned crooked politicians, and a cast of colorful characters that would make Caligula blush. South Beach’s debauched and seductive glow makes for an unlikely place to start over. But it is here, among the faded art deco buildings and eclectic residents, that Gabriel will find a home—and a love—that he never expected. “[Antoni] mischievously and triumphantly combines explicit sexual encounters with keen, hilarious social commentary and genuine compassion to create a love letter to a crazy place and a sweet tale of friendship, succor, and love.” —Booklist
Royalty has its privileges... but privacy isn't one of them. The author of Tales of a Hollywood Gossip Queenoffers a brand-new novel that girls across America will be talking about. Amber Fielding knows publicity. Rich, blonde, and totally hot, she's still got a year left in high school, and already she's Miami's newest it girl. The Fielding Hotel is the most happening address in South Beach, and its penthouse is Amber's personal paradise. When gorgeous Nick Crawford checks in for the summer, it looks like this princess has everything except a tiara. Nick's more than just eye candy-smart and ambitious, he's headed for film school at NYU. He says he's shooting a documentary about South Beach architecture. Amber wants a role in his life, so she hangs with Nick while he's filming. But this princess had better be careful just what gets caught on tape-because there's nothing people love better than the secrets of the young, fabulous, and famous.
Okay, c'mon now, be honest. You always thought of lifeguards as total goof-offs whose only mission in life was to seek out and score as many chicks as possible. And in a sense, you'd have a point. But what if I also told you that during the 1950's and 60's, when I served as an ocean lifeguard with the Atlantic City Beach Patrol, we averaged 5000 rescues a summer. With a lifeguard force of approximately 125 men, with two to each station, and 62 stations, we averaged over eight hundred rescues, per crew, a summer. Many of these rescues were routine, some serious and others downright dangerous. You will witness and experience all three categories as I take you along for the adventure. But basically, your initial assumption had some merit. This was a fun job, the envy of all who came in contact with us. As observers of people, we were privy to an unending goldmine of characters. A case in point was our thirty, something year old mascot whose job, he thought, was to make life as difficult as possible for us. There was the attractive lady who showed up one day to serenade my partner and me and then wouldn't leave. You'll get to know a group of women who fondly became known as the "bitches." Or, of the lady, who, in her search for ocean treasures, got much more than she bargained for. Following a lifeboat crew, you'll engage in the rescue of a bare bosomed woman whose "heroic" Lothario deserts her, for the safer confines of shallow water. There is much more however... Romantic liaisons, between guards and gals, were a common occurrence and I would prove to be no exception to this inevitability. My soaring love affair came in the form of a beautiful dancer and model, from Manhattan, whose beginning held the promise of an enduring soul mate love match, only to be scuttled by unforeseen events that would lead to heartbreaking consequences. Where else could you work where each day brought a new set of surprises; like the day Dean Martin showed up to shoot the breeze. Or when visiting movie screen goddess Esther Williams, swam for publicity shots and some of us were picked to accompany her. And there was Bert Parks, who came each summer to emcee the Miss America Pageant and parked his belongings on our lifeguard stand before setting out for his daily stroll along the beach. Each September brought in the beautiful girls who would compete for the coveted title of Miss America. These same girls stayed at hotels that lay just beyond our lifeguard stations where they'd come each day for publicity shots. Additionally, we had the boardwalk with its Convention Hall that housed the famous Ice Capades, billed as "Magic on Ice" and came to the city every summer for forty years. There was the World Famous Steel Pier, featuring all the top name bands and celebrities of the day e.g. Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra. Farther south was the Million Dollar Pier, a virtual fantasy land for kids featuring two movies, stage shows, a haunted house, a huge horizontal revolving "barrel" to try and walk through without falling, and best of all, a Giant Slide, that for the stout hearted became the ultimate test of one's manhood--or--womanhood. The night life was second to none and only complimented the already glamorous existence of an Atlantic City lifeguard. Places like the Opus 1, Senator Bar and Grill, Lafayette Lounge, Georges Hometown Tavern and The Tropics Cocktail Lounge, just to name a few, all offered their own unique brand of excitement. But for the most part they engaged in a healthy competition of seeing who could attract the most females, in turn attracting the most males-who drank. It was not unusual for an enterprising male to try his luck with several girls a night. Like a taxi service he'd shuttle them to and from his apartment until the Bingo light went on. My college roommate held his master's degree in musical girlfriends. You'll read all this and more in this highly adventurous, exciting, romantic and humorous memoir.
South of South Beach takes the reader back in time to the 60's and 70's during a time when South Beach was nothing like the glitzy, Art-Deco district it is today but more of a dilapidated, run-down section of real estate where Chris Dundee runs the 5th Street Gym and many transplanted prizefighters, Muhammad Ali among them, roam the streets looking for "something" to while away the hours while they prepare their bodies for the task of fighting another highly-trained boxer who wants to beat their brains out, even as they wish to do much the same to them. The girls stroll parts of South Beach in bikinis and the Beatles have even visited the 5th Street Gym recently; the beat generation is giving way to the hippie, free-love generation so come back in time and visit what today is one of the world's great vacation centers but, at this time during the 1960's was more of a slum or a ghetto --- to avoid at your own peril, especially a small stretch of beach just south of South Beach.
Dear Reader, For six months I've been lifting weights with the "Muscle Mafia" at Gold's Gym and hanging out with bar bands writing songs hoping one of my lyrics make it to the big time. This book is about people's private side they seldom share their family and friends. The songs were inspired by hundreds of wonderful people I interviewed in South Beach. It's been said that a vacation in South Beach is like a trip to a movie set, a fashion shoot, and a tropical paradise all rolled into one. That's a pretty good description of the way it feels in South Beach. Fun in the sun, excitement, glamour, everlasting pampering of the body, soul, and mind, believe me folks South Beach has it all! To all the fans of "Along The Road To Heaven", and "A Sense of Wonder" who sent me e-mails begging for a third poetry/song book of Florida here it is. Jeff Langer "Beautiful Reward" is Mr. Langer's tenth book. He's written songs for hundreds of bands in South Florida. In 2006 Mr. Langer won the prestigious, "America's Brightest Songwriter Award" and has received lavish praise from the "International Poets Society, and Rolling Stone Magazine".
DK Eyewitness Travel Family Guide Florida offers you the best things to see and do on a family vacation to Florida. Each spread bursts with family-focused travel tips and ideas for activities that will engage children, from exploring Disney World to touring Miami Children's Museum. What's inside: + Each major sight is treated as a "hub" destination, around which to plan a day. Plus, DK's custom illustrations and reconstructions of city sights give real cultural insight. + "Let off steam" suggestions and eating options around each attraction enable the entire family to recharge. + Maps outline the nearest parks, playgrounds, and public restrooms. + "Take shelter" sections suggest indoor activities for rainy days. + Language section lists essential words and phrases. + Dedicated "Kids' Corner" features include cartoons, quizzes, puzzles, games, and riddles to inform and entertain young travelers. + Listings provide family-friendly hotels and dining options. Written by travel experts and parents who understand the need to keep children entertained while enjoying family time together, DK Eyewitness Travel Family Guide Florida offers child-friendly sleeping and eating options, detailed maps of main sightseeing areas, travel information, budget guidance, age-range suitability, and activities for Florida.
