O Captain, My Captain

If the Dunkin Donuts folks tried to charge you $100 for a Boston cream, you'd laugh in their faces, but if your mortgage company offered to reduce your monthly payment to the same amount, you'd jump for joy. Point being: There are some things that make a Benjamin seem insignificant,...

By P. Scott Cunningham

April 23, 2009

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "19274298",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17482312",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18711090",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17482310",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18711090",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17482313",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

If the Dunkin Donuts folks tried to charge you $100 for a Boston cream, you'd laugh in their faces, but if your mortgage company offered to reduce your monthly payment to the same amount, you'd jump for joy. Point being: There are some things that make a Benjamin seem insignificant, and a Les Standiford book-reading at Stiltsville is one of them.

If you've never been there, Stiltsville is a group of seven wood houses a mile off the coast of Miami. Back in the day, people who really liked the ocean lived there, and then for awhile it was a place where drunken boaters stopped to party. Now it's off-limits, so the only way to visit is through a sanctioned event such as a literary reading sponsored by Tigertail Productions.

And really, who's more perfect to read at Stiltsville than our own Les Standiford, who has memorialized the location in his John Deal novels? The king of "Miami noir" and now a celebrated nonfiction writer, Standiford is the director of FIU's creative writing program and an all-around grand poobah of the book scene. Guests will board a boat at Dinner Key Marina at 5 p.m., so being late is obviously not an option.
Sat., April 25, 5 p.m., 2009

KEEP NEW TIMES FREE... Since we started New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Miami, and we'd like to keep it that way. Your membership allows us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls. You can support us by joining as a member for as little as $1.