Ernesto Londo

The Water Children, a play by Wendy MacLeod, is about a 36-year-old unmarried actress named Megan who is offered the leading role in a series of anti-abortion commercials for a pro-life organization. Accepting the role becomes a complicated moral decision when she must choose between her own morals and her need to pay the rent.

The decision is further complicated by the fact that she once had an abortion. As she struggles to make up her mind, she is forced to confront her own conscience and feelings of guilt and to face her financial needs, bringing to light an example of the often compromising situations women are forced to encounter.

While the play begins with a topic that is one of the most controversial of our times, it does not succeed in challenging the audience beyond the same old and tired arguments: The hypocrisy of pro-life organizations who claim to defend lives while acting in a violent manner toward those who do not agree with their views; the fact that it is ok for a woman who has been raped to have an abortion, but not one who is too young and incapable of providing her child with a decent life; and the idea that men should be allowed to pass laws concerning a woman’s body.

Jackie Schmillen’s performance helps the production immensely, as did Marcos Sanchez’, who plays a gay hairdresser and adds some deeply-needed spice to the story. Elise Wincorn, also comes to the rescue by playing a talking cat. In this slightly psychedelic scene, the cat opinionates on the fate of her own kittens who have been taken away by her owner, blurring the line between fiction and reality and providing evidence that MacLeod did not completely forget to play with her imagination.

The romantic relationship between Megan and Randall (Doug Ghizzoni), the leader of the pro-life organization, is less than convincing as one wonders why on earth they are attracted to each other.

One aspect that was much appreciated was the introduction to the Japanese perspective on abortion, from which the play takes its title. In Buddhist mythology, the water children are unborn souls who are not ready to be welcomed into this world and are returned to the spirit world in order to await a more propitious time to be born.

This introduces the idea that it is the souls in the spirit world that chose their parents and not the other way around. This alternative approach to the issue of abortion is an important one to consider- especially for women who feel that they are nothing but hopeless and unheard pawns in the political struggle between those who feel they own the right to define what is right and what is wrong for a woman to choose.

While The Water Children does a good job at showing the struggles of conscience, guilt, fear and the isolation of women who choose to abort a child, it needs to take a more challenging approach and give the audience a bit more credit.

The play will be showing thru March 2 at the University of Miami Ring Theatre.

For some South Floridians, civilization does not exist west of I-95 or south of UM. But for others, this is the very region where life is nurtured.

Hiking and canoeing through this once-rich realm of magnificent tree hammocks, piney rockland forests and stiff sawgrass, local naturalist and botanist Roger Hammer is partly driven by a passion for native orchids.

After doing a couple of solo, 100-mile Glades treks (with more on schedule), there’s “hardly a plant” he can’t identify, and he’s written parts of books like Butterflies Through Binoculars and other articles in varied media. The first book he has authored alone is a native wildflowers guide (due out soon). With only an estimated 25% species overlap, Hammer notes a definite difference between Keys and Everglades botany.

Incidentally, the naturalist points out, the Keys are a little more exciting to explore – there, the bars are much better than the Everglades (which has practically none).

Frequently a volunteer teacher and trip-leader for groups and parks, such as Fairchild Tropical Garden, Hammer’s full-time job is directing Castellow Hammock in Homestead, a Miami-Dade County park. Castellow is a tropical hardwood hammock, a rarity in urbanized South Florida. Interestingly, the park’s plant-life has overgrown its original boundaries to become a 102-acre mass of interconnected wood.

When Hammer talks about how he got where he is, one can’t help but smile. As a boy in Cocoa Beach, he was partly influenced by the surf culture, and competed in some amateur titles. But his mom had also “noticed [his] inquisitiveness about wildlife” and gave him a bird book one Christmas.

He watched shorebirds intensely, correcting friends based on the avians’ tail-bobbing. They thought he was weird. His grandfather taught him how to create gardens and how to fish , and Hammer also hunted, which “pressured” him to identify wildlife on the spot. But, he notes, “It’s harder to photograph a duck than shoot one.”

One of his stirring stories from the bush was in being chased by Big Cypress wild hogs. Hammer recounts this only briefly: “I sat up in a tree as they circled below.” He served in the military, then returned and worked at Turkey Point, first to gauge the commercial feasibility of a saltwater-shrimp cultivation project, then in raising native plants for the area. From Turkey Point, Hammer made his move to Castellow, which he has overseen despite deep funding cuts. Among his other accomplishments: The radiant, endemic Atala butterfly was once thought extinct, but through a non-scholarly effort Hammer helped restore its red-orange-bellied population.

The feeling Hammer has for the outdoors may be likened to the groove musicians reach; albeit Hammer’s is one of contemplative quiet, vivid scenery and smells. It’s that inimitable, bright wildness: the glory of a sun-kissed lake, murmuring and rapturous under a morning sky; or the syncopated tangle of red and black mangroves trembling at us, roots and leaves and branches enriched with life-forms.

Yet, these days, rather than being outside to hunt, Hammer goes outdoors for no other reason than to be and enjoy it. He happily reports that in the time in takes us to reach South Beach without traffic, he can be at Castellow, or either Biscayne or Everglades National Parks. Nearby, too, are Strand and Big Cypress, which in his opinion proves there’s no place with more state and federally protected lands.

Still, Hammer remarks, “It’s hard to imagine that here you are, as far away from civilization as you can be in South Florida… and there’s the glow of Miami in the distant horizon.”

Prefuse 73:
Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives
Scott Herren rises above the din of frantic sample loops to make sense out of instrumental hiphop. Herren’s experimental endeavor pushes into leftfield territory. Juggled between choleric scratching and raregroove samples, at moments the listener is reminded of a five-year old playing the dial on the radio, but it is the organic element that defines and authenticates the album with unblemished vocals by the likes of Aesop Rock, MF Doom, and Mikah 9.

Chemical Brothers: Come With Us
After the cheery “heeere we go” of Exit Planet Dust, the fourth effort by the Chemical Brothers tests their ability to reinvent themselves in the middle of a lukewarm electronic season. Beckoning all in the first track to depart from solid rave ground, announced by sirens and cymbals, the Bros. launch into big-beat territory. It is here that their sequencing skills give the work a cohesive mix, making lush synth in Star Guitar fit with drill-beats in It Began in Afrika and inspired vocals by Beth Orton in The State We’re In. Collectively, the album is stronger than their previous effort, Surrender, and sees the duo in great shape.

DJ Baby Anne:
Tightly mixed live at Club Icon in Orlando, Baby Anne’s hometown, this is her third mix. Baby Anne rose to fame in the breakbeat scene with the release of Trippin on Da Bass. She defends her title of “Bass Queen” with an A-list of beats such as DJ Huff’s I wanna Dance, Elektrosmog’s Enter the Dragon and a noteworthy minimal electro by DJ Icey, The Number System. The best thing about this album is that Baby Anne knows enough about fat beats to realize that variation is key to continued listening pleasure, but she also avoids clash between tracks, subtly easing into each.

F@%k Ibiza:
Tweaking trance tracks tailored to titillate the testiest tentacle-thumping truants, this title takes time to turn tepid. Remarkable tracks include Breathe into You from Lucy Cotter, aggressive Storm Animal from Storm and lounge-y Release the Pain/Vamonos from Carioca. Anything that takes aim at debunking the Sodom in the Balearics deserves attention, especially if the emphasis is on our very own South Beach.

Despite the ticket prices complaints, what many considered as an unfair system of obtaining a seat at the front section, the parking and remote location of the venue, last Monday Weezer, together with Saves the Day and Ozma, fulfilled almost every single element of a spectacular concert.

Mars Music Amphitheater in West Palm Beach had very few empty seats, with waves of bodies, mostly young teens, tightly close to each other blocking away part of the uncanny cold air. At 7:30 p.m. sharp, Ozma showed up on stage, while the members of Saves the Day pulled a prank on them by having the Village People’s Y.M.C.A served as background music to their arrival, instead of their usual song. The California quintet played a 30-minute set, that included mostly heavy guitars, songs with dual vocals and sudden changes in tempo. Although many of their songs sounded similar, Ozma managed to warm up the audience for the rest of the night.

Almost 20 minutes later, the lights dimmed and Saves the Day, with Chris Conley singing, Dave Soloway and Ted Alexander playing the guitars, Eben D’amico in the bass, and a replacement drummer, walked casually into the stage, while the audience cheered wildly. The New Jersey five piece proceeded to enthusiastically perform their set of songs, mostly from their last album Stay What You Are, with very little interruption between tracks.

Saves the Day played for more or less 45 intense minutes, and displayed their unique style of pop rock, punk- influenced music, loaded with guitar riffs and catchy melodies. Songs like At Your Funeral, which closed their set, their next single, Freakish, and Certain Tragedy pleased the crowd and satisfied the expectations.

What almost felt like midnight was actually 9:35 p.m. and the crowd of teens with rainbow colored heads and indie band T-shirts were on their feet awaiting the slightest strumming of a guitar signaling the presence of Weezer.

Seconds later lead guitarist, singer, songwriter and cult hero Rivers Cuomo, sporting a new full beard, and without his signature thick framed glasses, walked on stage, greeted the crowd with a hand wave, and grabbed his guitar. Rhythm guitarist and backup vocalist Brian Bell, drummer Pat Wilson, and new bassist Scott Schreiner, joined Cuomo in performing the opening song of their set Island in the Sun, from the Green Album.

Weezer carried on their show with their most known tracks from their Blue Album and Pinkerton, such as The Good Life, Undone, Why Bother? and Say it Ain’t So. Their play list was also loaded with new songs like Dope Nose and Keep Fishin from their soon to be released album Maladroid. Not knowing the words, the crowd didn’t sing along as they did with the rest of the songs, but nodded and clapped enthusiastically in approval. Still suffering from a flu that spread through many of the band and crew members, Cuomo tried to recover his full voice by not saying almost anything between songs, and only singing.

Definite highlights of the show were the lighting coordination and stage set. Even though at times the audience could barely see the members of Weezer through the thick smoke, the bright blue, pink and green lights behind Wilson’s drums and the white dazzling “W” under his drums, the large, flashing light that came down from the roof, the confetti thrown to the first rows raised the show’s level of energy and intensity.

The band left the stage after a powerful rendition of Only in Dreams, but came back for an encore and played Buddy Holly and Surf Wax America, during which the members of Saves the Day suddenly appeared dressed in wacky costumes, and jumped all over the stage.

Cuomo, Bell, and Schreiner ended the night by distorting their instruments and causing loud feedbacks that lasted for almost five minutes.

The concert didn’t present any apparent disappointments, except the frustrating disregard of El Scorcho, which left the audience whispering as they left the venue, but at the same time leaving in them an utter satisfaction of having witnessed an amazing display of great rock music.