This book is a must read for anyone. Simply, the story line is this: Crew members of the Envoy, the first human attempt to travel to Mars. Their ship survives the trip to Mars, but then ceases transmission, and their fate is unknown for the next 20 years. The plot summary is a little more detached and surreal but non the less fetching. Valentine Michael Smith is the son of two of the eight astronauts of an ill-fated first human expedition to the planet Mars. Orphaned when the crew died (the full story of how this happened is not portrayed, but his parents were unambiguously murdered by his mother’s husband, who later committed suicide), a very Miami sub plot! Smith is raised in the culture of the native inhabitants of the planet, beings whose minds live in another world. Each day I spend in Miami I feel more and more like I arrived here as a crew member on the Envoy. In 1999 I was part of a magical time and crew that created one of the most infamous and well respected and recognized nightlife experiences in Miami, if not the United States. I met so many people whom I thought were good, just and right and many were. The good ones, the bad ones they were all crew members. I took them all in. We were all stuck, together as misfits in a strange land and somehow for a moment in time together and for just a moment we became fits. It just worked. Today, as I look back on my time on Mars, metaphorically I realize now that the things in the mirror that are the most disturbing are the crew members who lurk low and hide in the shadows. Like many influential works of literature, Stranger made a contribution to the language: specifically, the word “grok.” In Heinlein’s invented Martian language, “grok” literally means “to drink” and figuratively means “to understand,” “to love,” and “to be one with.” One dictionary description was “To understand thoroughly through having empathy with”. I will one day, probably sooner than later write a piece. Perhaps not a long piece but a piece. I was approached by New York Magazine to give the skinny on the true inside story of crobar New York. At the time and still the underbelly of night life is a a sorid rotting place that appears to be full of light but can be dark and dank where the scum and bottom feeders can flourish and prosper. The good ones that do survive are not always what they appear. I have had an amazing career and met remarkable people and have seen so clearly. Just short of seeing star ships off Orion. One thing i know for sure. Simply, a good man is a good man. A bad man can easily wear a good mans suit but will indeed always be a bad man no matter what the suit. I “grok” that. Read the book or wait for the piece.
