Miami Life: Sushi, Art Shop, Yoko, Maria
This is one of the strangest experiences you will ever have. There is a restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale where you eat sushi blindfolded. I have a very special place for you to visit. It’s a high-tech custom art shop you need to see in person. If you can think it they can make it. Attention boomers: there’s a new biography about the fascinating Yoko Ono and you can meet the author at Books & Books. And guess who else will be at Books & Books? The much beloved Maria Shriver will talk about her new book.
Dining in the Dark: Sushi “Omakase” 
This is one of the strangest experiences you will ever have. There is a restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale where you eat sushi blindfolded. The whole idea is to heighten your senses of taste and smell.
Before we go any further, I have to admit that I eat sushi several times a week, usually for lunch or dinner. It’s definitely my most favorite food to eat. I can eat sushi or sashimi from the supermarket (Whole Foods or Publix) just as easily as dining in the most expensive restaurants. Yes, I can tell the difference in the quality of the fish but they both truly satisfy my palate.
I would definitely be interested in tasting sushi in a mysterious environment but I’m not a trusting soul. I always want to see what is going on. I must check out the cleanliness of everything around me before I put anything in my mouth. If l can’t do that, I would instantly get a stomach ache. I’m a definite control freak about my personal safety.
For those of you who are adventurous, you should try this and let me know if it’s really worthwhile. You get a secret 12-course sushi meal, a blindfold, and experience an Omakase adventure, a form of Japanese dining in which guests leave themselves in the hands of a chef.
The meal includes shellfish, as well as raw and cooked seafood. Here’s a warning. Any fish or shellfish allergies by contact cannot be accommodated. They also cannot accommodate aversions to raw seafood or vegetarians/vegans. The most you will be in the dark for is approximately 90 minutes if you manage to skip restroom breaks! The restaurant does advise that you remain in the dark for the full event to experience the true and fullest experience.
Sushi By Bou Salt 7 | 500 E Las Olas, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Check out Sushi by Bou – Las Olas Fort Lauderdale @ Salt7 on OpenTable –
A High-Tech Custom Art Shop You Need To See In Person
If you live in Miami, or you will visit soon, I have a very special place to show you. My girlfriends own a custom art shop that can create any type of decorative art piece for your home, office, boat, hotel, movie studio, theatrical stage, or even outdoor settings. The owners, Claire Lardner and Cris Sweeny, have turned their state-of-the art facility into one of the most advanced, high tech production factories in the world. Called LS Art Consulting the 20,000 square foot plant, houses machinery that can produce anything your imagination can dream up. Every time I visit them, I feel like I walked into the future. I had no idea that their creative services were so extensive. Everyone who has a creative bone in their body has to see what the art of the possible is all about.
This is a must-visit for every artist, interior designer, theatrical producer, business owner, real estate developer or agent. LS Art Consulting is well known in the hospitality, (cruise), social events, and design industries. They work on single pieces or complete art programs
I would be happy to accompany you if you wanted to visit Cris and Claire. They are always updating their equipment so every tour is like a whole new experience.
M – F 8:30 am – 6 pm
FrameWorks, LS Art Consulting | 4150 SW 74th Ct, Miami, FL 33155
CONTACT INFO:
info@ls-artconsulting.com | (305) 443 4581
If You’re a Baby Boomer, This One Is For You
Enough with Meghan Markle. If you’re in your 50s to 90s, you might want to revisit the time when Yoko Ono was blamed for breaking up the Beatles. Unfortunately, that won’t happen again. So, how about the chance to hear and read about the intimate and revelatory biography of Yoko Ono? On March 26 at 7 PM, the Books & Books Literary Foundation of Miami is proud to present an evening with David Sheff in conversation with Amanda Keeley discussing Yoko: The Biography (Simon & Schuster, $30).
Yoko’s life, independent of Lennon, was an amazing journey. Yoko’s spans from her birth to wealthy parents in pre-war Tokyo, her harrowing experience as a child during the war, her arrival in the avant-garde art scene in London, Tokyo, and New York City. It delves into her groundbreaking art, music, feminism, and activism. We see how she coped under the most intense, relentless, and cynical microscope as she was falsely vilified for the most heinous cultural crime imaginable: breaking up the greatest rock-and-roll band in history.
This is how Books & Books spells it out. “This book was nearly a half-century in the making. In 1980, David Sheff met Yoko and John when Sheff conducted an in-depth interview with them just months before John’s murder. In the aftermath of the killing, he and Yoko became close as she rebuilt her life, survived threats and betrayals, and went on to create groundbreaking art and music while campaigning for peace and other causes.”
Drawing from his experiences and interviews with her, her family, closest friends, collaborators, and many others, Sheff shows us Yoko’s nine decades-one of the most unlikely and remarkable lives ever lived.
“Yoko is a harrowing, moving, propulsive, and vastly entertaining biography of a woman whose story has never been accurately told. The book not only rehabilitates Yoko Ono’s reputation but elevates it to iconic status.”
About the Author: David Sheff is the author of multiple books including the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Beautiful Boy, which was recently turned into a movie starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Outside, Rolling Stone, Wired, Fortune, and elsewhere. His piece for The New York Times, “My Addicted Son,” received an award from the American Psychological Association.
About the Moderator: Amanda Keeley is a Miami-based visual artist, curator, and publisher. She is the founder of EXILE Projects, a nonprofit organization that champions independent publishing and fosters creative community engagement. Keeley has held key roles at The Sackner Archive of Concrete & Visual Poetry, National YoungArts Foundation, and Printed Matter, Inc. in New York. She also served as Studio Manager and Chief of Staff for Yoko Ono Lennon, overseeing global exhibitions, publications, and public art initiatives. Her work has been recognized with numerous grants and awards, including support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the Annenberg Foundation.
“I Am Maria” Is Coming to Miami
Miami is going to be celebrating Maria Shriver’s I AM MARIA: My Reflections and Poems on Heartbreak, Healing, and Finding Your Way Home. Books & Books, the dominant Miami book chain, is bringing Maria Shriver to Miami for the debut of her book, I AM MARIA on April 5. The marketing copy says the book blends Maria’s hard-earned wisdom with deeply personal poetry, reminding readers that strength, love, and hope await on the other side of our hardest days. Maria will be joined in conversation by Ana Navarro, and the evening will feature meditation, music, and intimate discussions about life’s defining moments—the heartbreaks that shape us, the healing that transforms us, and the journey back to ourselves.
Drawing from her own life experiences, I AM MARIA tells the story of how Maria emerged from heartbreak and uncertainty—universal moments in every life lived fully—with renewed clarity and strength. The poems in this collection speak to timeless themes of love, loss, longing, and healing, offering readers a comforting reminder that hope can be found even after the most difficult moments.
The release of I AM MARIA, offers deeply personal poems as a guide for those navigating their own life journeys. Through her intimate reflections, Maria invites readers to shed self-criticism, embrace every part of themselves, and discover the profound healing that comes with forgiveness and self-compassion. The book encourages readers to rediscover poetry as a tool for self-exploration, paving the way to uncover a deeper version of themselves.
Maria Shriver is a mother and grandmother, a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist and producer. She is the author of seven New York Times bestselling books, the former First Lady of California, an NBC News Special Anchor, founder of Shriver Media, The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement, the brain health brand MOSH, and the publisher of The Open Field. When she’s not thinking or writing, she can be found hanging with her kids and grandkids.
About the Moderators:
Ana Navarro was named co-host of “The View” beginning in season 26 in 2022. She had previously joined the show in 2015 for season 19 as a contributor. Navarro has made recurring appearances on the panel as a guest co-host since November 2018 in season 22. She appeared on the show for the very first time as a guest co-host in 2013.
Navarro is a political strategist and commentator. Born in Nicaragua, she immigrated to the United States in 1980 at 8 years of age. She is a Republican commentator with expertise on Latin American, Florida and Hispanic issues.
Navarro also has vast expertise in supporting losing but principled Republican candidates. She was the National Hispanic co-chair for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. She has advised numerous federal and state campaigns in Florida and nationally.
She is one of the leading Hispanic political voices in the United States. In addition to “The View,” she is a political commentator on CNN. She is known for her honest and blunt commentary and for speaking truth to power.
Anthony Kennedy Shriver is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Best Buddies International, an organization he founded in 1989 to foster one-to-one friendships between people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Recognizing the potential of university students, Shriver inspired his peers to help expand opportunities for people with IDD. Under his leadership, Best Buddies has grown into a leading nonprofit, with a global reach across six continents, offering friendships, employment, leadership development, and family support for individuals with IDD. A Georgetown University graduate, Shriver has received numerous international accolades for his work and resides in Miami Beach, Florida, with his five children
This book event is a collaboration with the Prologue Society. The event will be held at the Coral Gables Congregational Church. Tickets are mandatory. Each ticket allows one guest to enter the venue and includes a copy of I AM MARIA ($30 + tax). Books will be distributed upon entry.
