Photo taken at Bird Road and US 1 about 9 this morning.

Next time you’re out at the airport picking someone up – take a ride east of the rental car lots – to the road along the Miami River. You will find Stone Age Antiques across from where the old freighters dock. Inside and out – there are tens of thousands of old and bizarre items for sale. Antiques,chakchis, bric-a-brac, junk,old signs,100 year old diving equipment,toys, medals,shipwreck salvage and treasure – you name it – they have it.

Stone Age Antiques.

It seems the publishers of Haute Living Magazine are creating news of their own–alledgedly, they aren’t paying their writers for stories they publish.

Magazine writing is a tough business; for a typical publication, ad sales barely cover the cost of the glossy paper they’re printed on. Magazines like Ocean Drive pay for themselves by replacing articles with ads, or “advertorials,” paid for by companies to appear as they are regular articles about their products.

So it comes as little surprise that a small, independent publishing company–without much of an identity (what is the point of Haute Living, anyway? New York and Miami luxury lifestyles? What is that, exactly?…)–would be suffering from money problems. That is, if it is in fact the truth. Read the controversy over Haute Living here.

The Wolfsonian Museum in Miami Beach is one of the cooler cultural locations in the United States. Definitely check it out for the great propaganda collections they have there.

After years of hype and dire predictions, the Coconut Grove Home Depot has opened with little fanfare. There are no huge traffic jams , nor garbage -strewn parking lots.I do miss the old K-Mart – often we made several trips a day there to buy anything from blank CD’s to diapers to swim goggles and everything in between. Since I am not a contractor , the only things I seem to need at HD are garbage bags and charcoal – both of which are cheaper than at a supermarket. Please comment below on your Grove Home Depot experiences.

Only about 150 miles southeast of Miami – Cayo Coco is an untouched paradise – frozen in time by the Communist dictatorship. In just a few years it will be a weekend getaway for Miamians. I snapped this shot out the window on the flight up from Medellín two weeks ago.

Metroblogging Miami invites up to ten new bloggers who can post three times a week. You can write about anything you want as long as it has something to do with Miami. This is a great chance to become recognized professionally and socially. Please click on the comment cloud below and we will have you signed up in a couple of days.

Colombia is an important trading partner with Miami. Hundreds of thousands of Colombians make their home in South Florida, and many return on a constant basis for business and family visits. I am here on a trade mission with Enterprise Florida. There’s lots of business in the free market atmosphere. We were first in Bogotá and now we are in Medellin.

Miami may be already experiencing its’ first Tropical Storm of the season. Check out NOAA for details.