Last but not LEAST

My birthday was celebrated in Miami and here are the PICTURES. My friends Natalie and Madeline made sure I had some good times between murders. I hope you enjoy them. There was champagne involved.

Syonara

Later, Miami. Hope to be back soon. Stop by One-Eyed Mike's if you get to Baltimore.

4 No Reason

Should I Be Worried

Watch this video: CLICK HERE

Good thing I'm getting out of town!

Viewers / Readers

Apparently I have about three regular readers... and that's cool. Thanks Neil, Brian and V! I'm doing this for me and youse!

Ooooohhhhh!

Walk It Out

Neil turned me on to this!

... They call it MURDER

Gun Battle in KC, MO

The guys of KC SWAT Street Narcotics Unit were involved in two shoot outs yesterday. Two of the officers that I followed for most of a year were shot. One was treated and released the other wasn't so lucky and was rushed into surgery. I've been in touch with two of the Sgt's and the officer is doing well today. His long term prognosis is still unclear.

It was also one year to the day that I filmed the Street Narcotics Unit getting shot at while serving a narcotics search warrant. If we were there in KC filming the 4th season of SWAT we would have been with them... again. I think they should all take the day off in 2008.

These guys put their lives on the line every day they hit the streets. They are - real American heroes.

Happy Monday

Enjoy this. Was interrupted last night during my birthday partying with a murder! Can you believe that?

So anyway... there are birthday party pix to come in a day or two!

Birthday Song

The Difference

Above is South Beach Miami. This is what everyone thinks of when I say I'm working in Miami. Not so much.
This is from Overtown just north of downtown Miami. This is where I have been doing most of my work. Really. Not so different from Baltimore... just a different shade of brown.

Countdown

5 days until my birthday! How am I going to celebrate? Hopefully it won't be standing over a dead body.

Maybe I'll get a new tattoo.

Sunday Dinner

Sunday night was my first real night off in weeks. So I enjoyed it with some new friends at Prime One Twelve in South Beach. We sampled a few dishes including Tuna Tartare with Quail Egg, Steak Tartare, Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and NY Strip. All of this was washed down with Champagne.
The restaurant is located in The Browns Hotel - back in 1915 it was Miami Beach's very first hotel. And I'm told that as recent as 10 years ago it was a crack house!

Sunglasses One liners

Great One Liners

Being Driven Insane

Slowly...

Big Week for Killing

This was one crazy week. I worked more than 110 hours in the past 8 days... I really did stop counting. One stretch was 39 hours straight and another was 27.

There were 6 murders and we covered 5 of them. I rode in a truck with with one of the killers - elbow to elbow - making small talk as we toured various crime scenes with the detectives.

Dance Dance Rehabilitation

Out on the Town

Made the rounds last Sunday night. Hit several Miami spots with my coworkers and the gals of the O (the Oceanaire Seafood Room). We went to Finnegan's River, Ted's Hide A Way, The Room & Purdy Lounge for old school hip-hop nite.

See all the incriminating pix HERE!

Cool Video

glumbert.com - Come On Up To The House

Louis CK

glumbert.com - Louis CK really hates people

Public Schools have gone DOWNHILL

Sesame Street sure has changed.

Transformers

Went to see TRANSFORMERS last night. The special effects were a little primative... and it could have used more action.

7.7.07

The date that Tupac Shakur will return to the world from his faked death. Tupac's number is 7 and July 7th, 2007 will be the ultimate date for the greatest rapper of all time to make the greatest return of all time. This theory has been disputed much but the original credit belongs to Dr. Gurusamy.

You do the math.

Happy 4th

Why the fourth?

Though the Fourth of July is iconic to Americans, some claim the date itself is somewhat arbitrary. New Englanders had been fighting Britain since April 1775. The first motion in the Continental Congress for independence was made on June 4, 1776. After hard debate, the Congress voted unanimously, but secretly, for independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain on July 2 (see Lee Resolution). The Congress reworked the text of the Declaration until a little after eleven o'clock, July 4, when the twelve colonies voted for adoption and released a copy signed only by John Hancock, President of the Congress, to the printers. (The New York delegation abstained from both votes.) Philadelphia celebrated the Declaration with public readings and bonfires on July 8. Not until August 2 would a fair printing be signed by the members of the Congress, but even that was kept secret to protect the members from British reprisals.

John Adams, credited by Thomas Jefferson as the unofficial, tireless whip of the independence-minded, wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

Adams was off by two days, however. Certainly, the vote on July 2 was the decisive act. But July 4, 1776 is the date on the Declaration itself. Jefferson's stirring prose, as edited by the Congress, was first adopted by the July 4th vote. It was also the first day Philadelphians heard the official news of independence from the Continental Congress, as opposed to rumors in the street about secret votes.

No Justice, No Peace

There is no true justice in this country. Bush pardons Libby. I'm disgusted.

glumbert.com - Bush and Cheney as the Dukes of Hazzard

Miami Sounds

GASOLINA by DADDY YANKEE

(Jo! Jo! Jo! Jo!)
(Jo! Jo! Jo! Jo!)
(Who's this?)
(Da-Ddy!)
(Yan-Kee!)

Zumbale mambo pa' que mis gatas prendan los motores...
Zumbale mambo pa' que mis gatas prendan los motores...
Zumbale mambo pa' que mis gatas prendan los motores...
Que se preparen que lo que viene es pa' que le den...
(Duro!) Mami, ya yo se que tu no te me vas a quitar...
(Duro!) Lo que me gusta es que tu te dejas llevar...
(Duro!) Todos los weekend'es ella sale a vacilar..
(Duro!) Mi gata no para de janguear, porque...

A ella le gusta la gasolina
(Dame mas gasolina!)
Como le encanta la gasolina
(Dame mas gasolina!)
A ella le gusta la gasolina
(Dame mas gasolina!)
Como le encanta la gasolina
(Dame mas gasolina!)

Ella prende las turbinas
No discrimina
No se pierde ni un party de marquesina
Se asicala hasta pa' la esquina
Luce tan bien que hasta la sombra le combina
Asesina, me domina
Janguea en carros, motoras y limosinas
Llena su tanque de adrenalina
Cuando escucha reggaeton en las bocinas

A ella le gusta la gasolina
(Dame mas gasolina!)
Como le encanta la gasolina
(Dame mas gasolina!)
A ella le gusta la gasolina
(Dame mas gasolina!)
Como le encanta la gasolina
(Dame mas gasolina!)

Aqui nosotros somos los mejores, no te me ajores
En la pista nos llaman "Los Matadores"
Tu haces que cualquiera se enamore
Cuando bailas al ritmo de los tambores
Esto va pa' las gatas de to's colores
Pa' las mayores, pa' las menores
Pa' las que son mas zorras que los cazadores
Pa' las mujeres que no apagan sus motores
Tenemos tu y yo algo pendiente
Tu me debes algo y lo sabes
Conmigo ella se pierde
No le rinde cuentas a nadie
Tenemos tu y yo algo pendiente
Tu me debes algo y lo sabes
Conmigo ella se pierde
No le rinde cuentas a nadie

Fire Water

Miami bars are open to 5AM. I have yet to stay out that late but its nice to know that I could.

Cuban Coffee

I have been enjoying the local Cafe Cubano. It is like liquid crack... or what I guess liquid crack would be like. When we're filming in to the 18th hour a little shot of the black gold recharges our batteries.

Good Cop, Baby Cop

Brickell Area Bank

Miami is full of banks. My bank is everywhere... but with no parking!

Working Weekends

(L to R: Me, Sgt. Herrara, Detective John, Detective Rojas)

Sundays are never boring when you hang around with homicide detectives.

Miami Down Time

Sometimes it gets boring between stories. Fortunately I've met some nice people in my building.

Skinny Dipping

An elderly man in South Florida had owned a large farm for several years. He had a big pond in the back, fixed up really nice, along with picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some fruit trees. The pond was properly shaped and fixed up for swimming.

One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while, and look it over. He grabbed a five gallon bucket to bring back some fruit.

As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing. When he came closer, he realized it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond. He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end to shield themselves.

One of the women shouted to him, "We're not coming out until you leave!"

The old man frowned and replied, "I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond." Holding the bucket up he said, "I'm just here to feed the alligator."

Moral of the story: Old men may move slow but can still think fast.

Happy Father's Day

They LOVE the COCK

My colleagues were enthralled by the six foot tall rooster outside the Mexican restaurant where we ate lunch today.

The Swear Jar

Guayabera

I bought my first Guayabera. It's comfortable in the hot & humid climate... plus all the thugs think I'm a cop!

You'd think she got LIFE

Taste it!

Cell Phone Sights

Pretty sunsets taken with my itty bitty Razr.

Autopsy

Got ya! Well its been a hell of a week. We worked at least 80 hours in the last 7 days. We filmed two homicides which have both been resolved already. It looks like both stories will make it on the show.

The picture above is from Hofbrau Beerhall, a German restaurant on Lincoln road. Gotta eat!

My First Murder

At about midnight on Thursday we got the call that the homicide detectives had a murder. I had already been working on another story for twelve hours at that point. I grabbed my gear and headed for my truck.

My pulse quickened as I wondered how I would react to what I was about to see. I got to the crime scene rather quickly. It was a robbery gone bad at a cafe in a rough neighborhood called Little Haiti. A customer was shot because he stood up to the robbers.
I walked up on the scene with my camera in hand - filming (Thats me in the far left of the picture above). The yellow crime scene tape was stretched out for half a block around the cafe. Blue and red flashing light from the police cars bounced off of every shiny surface. I slid under the tape and got close enough to see inside the cafe. Blood was pooled on the floor around the body of a man covered by a sheet. I knew it was a man because his hands and feet protruded from the sheet.
He had been shot several times. After seeing the body I became surprisingly calm. I continued filming. I discovered a strange beauty in the scene. I hope it translates to the tape I shot.

We covered the story until around 2PM on Friday. The detectives had some leads but were becoming tired. Needless to say I was on my feet and filming for nearly 26 exhausting hours. Thats when they decided to take me to the medical examiners office to check out the progress on the autopsy... (to be continued)

All-Nighter

I am posting this just after getting home this morning at around 6AM. We got a call about a homicide last night around 11PM. I was called in to the homicide division to film some witness testimonies and bits with the detectives. This is my first case from scratch.

FYI: My entries to this blog about my WORK exploits will be vague and general because of the ongoing investigations and the legalities with the TV series.

My Neighborhood

Memorial Day

Spirit of Miami

Partner in Crime

This is another Seabiscuit self-portrait with, veteran FIRST 48 producer, Andres Vasquez. He's showing me the ropes of shooting in Miami.

Chongalicious

What is chongalicious?

This Town is Crazy

Blogging

This is why I don't blog every day.

My New Place

I'm staying at the Camden Brickell apartments in the Brickell area of downtown Miami. Its a pretty cool neighborhood with a lot of things within walking distance.
My living room with a balcony & view.
This is the view of the pool from my balcony. No hot models sightings yet.
This is the view looking south west from my balcony.

Historic Bar

Ended up at Tobacco Road last night after a long day of filming.

The legendary nightclub, in operation since 1912, is also known for its colorful past. During the Prohibition era, Tobacco Road served as a speakeasy and a gambling hall. Its most famous patron was undoubtedly gangster Al Capone. Tobacco Road also has the distinction of holding Miami’s oldest liquor license…in spite of numerous attempts to have the neighborhood watering hole shut down.

And its walking distance from my apartment!

Day 2 w/ Bubbles

The Miami police department... just like it looks on TV.
The homicide division... just like it looks on TV.
Champagne... tastes better than it looks on TV.

Day One