My brother later marveled about Vince Martin: “Sis, the jasmine, the jasmine! Can you imagine, that guy smelled the same jasmine I remember so well!” And the smell came back to us and we smiled at our youth and the joys and good memories of the past. I'm going to get Martin's If the Jasmine Don't Get You ...for my brother. Thank you for a great article!
Marina Fernandez
Miami
THE YARDBIRD CHRONICLES
First came the Sex Pistols, then came Devo:
Nice essay by Brett Sokol on Vince Martin and the folk-hippie Grove of yore. Being a stickler for detail, though, I must clarify a little history about Michael Dean and Yardbird Records. Dean did indeed sell the first Sex Pistols record in Miami, as he said, but definitely not at Yardbird Records as the article implied. When the Pistols were saving the queen, Michael was the buyer at the Magic Minstrel in South Miami. I succeeded him as the import buyer for the Magic Minstrel and its sister store across from the University of Miami, Twin Sounds, both identified by storefront-window reproductions of King Crimson album covers. (As I recall there was a Magic Minstrel in the Grove in the early to mid-Seventies.)
My legacy: I sold the first Devo LP in Miami. I was fired by store manager (and former WBUS program director) Curtis Schwartz and was eventually succeeded by Michael Dean, back from L.A.
A few years later he opened Yardbird, but that was definitely after 1978. Though the new gear at Yardbird was heavy on punk, New Wave, and new romantic, he also had a pretty large inventory of vintage jazz, pop, avante-garde, and twentieth-century music. Yardbird moved to Bird Road and was bought out by Rich Ulloa's Yesterday and Today empire. Eventually Michael moved to Hallandale and reopened under the Yardbird moniker.
In the early Seventies Michael and Curtis entertained and educated me with their programming on the Magic Bus. In the mid- to late Seventies Michael and another Magic Minstrel employee named Marshall were great sources for new and old music from the U.K. and other points.
Edward Bobb
via the Internet
A Fine Mess
Georges William was fined $500 because his name was found in a pile of illegally dumped trash. Then New Times showed up.
By Kathy Glasgow
PROBLEM SOLVED
Here's lookin' at you,ti zanmi
I am writing this letter on behalf of the Haitian community and myself. The support that New Times has given to our community has been tremendous. While other media ignore us, you have the guts to look at our problems.
The March 2 article by Kathy Glasgow about my problem with the Neighborhood Enhancement Team bureaucrat (“A Fine Mess”) was later picked up by Florida International University media students and also by Channel 10. Without you I may never have found a positive solution about the problem. I sincerely thank you.
Georges Williams
Miami
