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In our latest featured story, What Memory Does to a Man, Antonio M. Ginatta captures the longings of three Kendall teenagers caught in the stretch of time between the end of high school and the beginning of college.

Our current featured photo, Venetian Bridge, comes courtesy of Elisabeth Donovan, our first woman photographer.

In this update, Marci Lowman offers up We Could Live Here Only Twice, a wry look at the mechanics of, and motivations behind, childhood exploration.

Also, photographer Ramon Estevanell returns with Bay Reflections, our current Featured Photo.

This mini-update marks the first anniversary of our site launch!

To celebrate the occasion, we bring you a breathtaking and wintry new Photo of the Month: Pencil Lines, by Marc Kevin Hall. The photo reveals the night sky behind a pencil cactus, and was taken recently on a moonlit walk at Fairchild Tropical Garden.

In this update, we bring you a New Year's Eve story of questionable subject matter: "The bead was dark blue, faceted like a precious stone, and kind of see-through. A similar one, in orange, had fallen down the crack in the backseat of the car, the great black hole of my childhood. Now the blue bead was the only survivor of a necklace left in my Christmas stocking the week before. I held it and sucked on it and slipped it into my nose. It smelled kind of bitter, but it fit securely just inside my nostril." New Year's Bead, by Maud Newton

And Ramon Estevanell's Reading, the latest Miami Beach addition, is our current Photo of the Month.

Happy New Year, everyone!

In a MiamiStories Special Feature, Stickers, Pop, Postage, Hellfire, writer Bill Teck riffs on September 11 and its aftermath, when our overgrown Pop World was rendered meaningless by real life and death.

Sorry about the unplanned hiatus. Like you, we were distracted by the many delights of summertime! But we're back on track in this publication update, with a visitor's story about her recent vacation in Miami: First Day, by Mary T. Helmes.

Our first Hurricane Andrew story, Robert Moak, 32, Drowned, by Maud Newton, tells of a drifter friend who died in the storm.

Photographer Marc Kevin Hall took our August Photo of the Month, Storm Over Downtown, which is a testament to one of the many natural wonders of South Florida: the thundercloud.

Continued...

The first Miami Stories reading was a blast! Photos of some readers are posted, courtesy of Maximus Clarke, with more to come when the print photos are developed.

Also, posted July 8, Diana Bustillo tells about a field trip to the Parrot Jungle.

"He'd just been evicted, and needed to borrow a few bucks for a couple of days until payday." Rene by Marc Kevin Hall

"My grandmother arrived at the Coral Gables bus terminal in early November. After a two-day commute from Dallas, her face was blotchy with exhaustion. She carried a beige suitcase with tiny red and blue pinstripes across the front, a mystery novel, and a plastic bag filled with raisins, candy bars, and crackers covered with peanut butter." Modes of Travel by Maud Newton

Robert Morrison shot our latest City of Miami photo, Twilight's Last Gleaming, from a boat at sunset.

Mark your calendars for our upcoming reading, Truth is Stranger: Stories from the Real Miami, July 2 at 7:30 p.m., at The Wallflower Gallery! Also, the July 15 deadline for our Hurricane Stories Contest is fast approaching. See our News page for more information about the reading and the contest.

We're taking a week off for the holiday. See you in three weeks!

On July 2, The Wallflower Gallery hosts Truth is Stranger: Stories from the Real Miami, the first MiamiStories.com reading, from 7:30-9:30 p.m.! See our News page for details. Meanwhile, in this Update:

"I remember when Hialeah Cinema was something else entirely. Back before the boom of the megaplex boasting stadium seating and online ticket sales, Hialeah Cinema was state-of-the-art. Now it's a discount theater specializing in movies that have neared the end of their big screen run . . ." Hialeah Cinema by Lisette Alonso

"Whenever I think of Aunt Fern and Uncle Israel, my stomach starts to growl and all I can think of is true love and perhaps corned beef on rye." Cupid on Rye by Marla Hirsch Schwartz

Our June Photo of the Month, Ramon Estevanell's Pelican, Tower, Arena, juxtaposes some of our favorite Miami icons, large and small.

MiamiStories.com was voted Reader Choice for Best Local Website in the Miami New Times Best of Miami 2002 Poll! We'll aim to keep you reading into the next year and beyond, with stories that evoke the music of the city. Fine, moving stories, like this one:

"My mom gave me the keys to the universe in a radio knob and the shotgun seat next to her, as we drove dark Miami streets in a '76 Charger, special edition. It was during her single-parent drives through las calles that she taught me to listen to music, and it's on the radio that she comes to me now." number one with a bullet by Bill Teck

Two new photos from Maximus Clarke capture the movement and light of everyday city life: Peace Rider and Allen's at Twilight.

"We were wheeled up US 1 in old school buses, shabby motor coaches, vans and cars. Like mice pouring out of a burning building, we spilled into Miami--small and gray and cowering." Welcome to Miami by Lissette Mendez.

"It was 1946 and Hollywood had just finished making the movie They Were Expendable, starring a fairly new guy named Morrison. They didn't think his name had pizzazz so they changed it to John Wayne. The movie was pretty good, and the battle scenes were too, but not as good as the ones that me 'n my buddies had on the movie set they'd left behind in Key Biscayne." A Child's Playground by Rick Magers

Our May Photo of the Month, Milan Balinda's Sitting, is a tribute to all Miamians scraping to get by.

We’re thrilled to bring you our first Spanish-language feature: “Cuando me preguntan si siento nostalgia por Cuba suelo ser esquivo en mi respuesta para no perturbar al interlocutor cuando respondo que mis seres queridos caminan por esta ciudad, con lo que queda de patria a cuestas y, de cierta manera, el país está donde moran: la familia, los amigos y los amores”. Pepe Nostalgia, by Alejandro Ríos

We’ve also published two new English-language features:

“My father tented his house a few years ago and unwittingly transformed it into a concentration camp for frogs--the little, bug-eyed ones familiar to any South Florida homeowners who haven't covered their entire yard with concrete.” House Tenting, by Brooke McQuale

“I last ate chicharrones from Futuro Supermarket about three months ago, on a football Sunday. I hadn't ventured into the place since Sarita and I broke up, about two years before . . .” Chicharrones, by Arjay Kay

Finally, pull out the pen and paper! We've announced our Hurricane Story Contest.

“Now, I wish I'd held on to the sketch. It's not that it was particularly good. A bit on the amateur side to be honest. But then a homeless man who drew on whatever piece of paper happened to be around and sold it to you for a dollar is not the guy you'd normally turn to for fine art.” I’m Joaquín, You’re Joaquín, by Virge Castillo

“I grew up on the Miami River and went to school at Ada Merritt Elementary during World War II. At eight years old, I was as scrawny as a kid could be.” Odd Jobs in Wartime, by Rick Magers

Our April Photo of the Month, Peter Ostrowsky at the Fair, was shot by Ben Ostrowsky, and celebrates the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition.

"As the sun was beginning to set, a large, white Cadillac pulled into the driveway and a wisp-thin woman stepped out. She was in her sixties, and had the air of an earlier generation of well-heeled Miami women." Miami Condolences, by Darice L. Moore

"I delivered yesterday's news in tomorrow's newspaper. At least that's what we mockingly called the Diario Las Américas. It was a morning newspaper printed in the afternoon, which meant the newspaper was predated and its contents outdated." Old News is Good News, by Valentin J. Prieto

Armando Bellmas brings us two new photographs, "Waiting," a compelling South Beach photo, and "Latin American Restaurant," our first taken in Westchester.

"You have to hand it to my mom. On Friday nights, when she could have been clubbing with the under-30 disco set somewhere between the Grove and Turnberry, she chose instead to indulge her son's interests with a trip to the museum observatory." Heaven and Earth by Ted Myers

"At 23, I went to jail for allegedly shooting a pigeon." For the Birds by Robert Morrison

Milan Balinda, former photographer for The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, brings us our first Coconut Grove photograph, "Grove Girls," and adds another gem, "Back," to our growing collection of beach photographs.

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