EPISODE 13: VINYL MINT AND THE SUNSHINE STATE
Florida. That was the next station of Vinyl Mint. In her mind, she had connected that State with Death, the band. Due to that fact she expected to see anything else than the joyful "Welcome to the Sunshine State" sign right just as she landed on Miami. Vinyl Mint, the Metal Missionary and the Mexican Girl took a van and went to South Beach where they were about to spend their whole week.
The Mexican Girl who liked to drink and party had booked a room next to the Ocean Drive, where the heart of South Beach beats. Ocean Drive is a wide street with Art Deco buildings alongside the Atlantic Ocean. It is said that the chainsaw scene of Scarface took place in one of those buildings...Vinyl Mint decided to walk along the beach in order to explore the area. On the Ocean Drive Street she saw luxurious cabriolets with posers behind the wheel, pickup trucks full with hot half-naked chicks on them and open party-trucks with drunk cheerful dancing students on them who were loudly partying during their spring break.
Apart from the loud music that one could hear coming from all those moving cars and trucks one could also listen to different music styles coming from different local bars, restaurants and clubs. Rap, trap, techno, Latin music, everything except from Metal. Just like Vinyl Mint, any true Metalhead would feel like an alien at that place. As she was walking further she started seeing huge luxurious skyscrapers, Ken-like men with eightpacks and plastic women with perfect bodies and glowing smiles jogging or roller blading along the beach and wannabe stars flexing their expensive appearance. Watching those people while taking selfies of themselves she could see a total emptiness behind their showoff smiles. The huge palm trees, the endless sea, the sky and the fresh ocean breeze made her try to ignore the "life in plastic" around her. At that moment Vinyl Mint asked IRIS if there are any 80s metal bands from Miami and after a quick search IRIS detected on the humans' digital world the band Vastergoth and the song Eternity Float.
IRIS told Vinyl Mint that she could find that song in their demo cassette of 1986. Although Vinyl Mint really liked that song, she didn't manage to listen even the half of it and she stopped it. She had just realized that she couldn't stand listening to metal surrounded by a scene like that. Metal was not just a music style for her, it meant more for her. It was the music that had embraced her personal rebellion against social conformism. So in her mind it could not fit in such an ''atmosphere'' where many people seem to care extremely about how they look to others. While thinking that metalheads in Miami, or at least those living in this touristic "neighborhood" of Miami, are for sure made of true steel in order to be able to get inspired and create metal music under these circumstances, she kept moving forward under the beat of a rap song coming out of a mobile-cassette player that the hipster in front of her was carrying on his shoulder. Suddenly she met the other two girls posing on camera shooting photos and flirting with some well sculptured guys. Vinyl Mint and her friends later visited the Central Business District, the Little Havana, the Coconut Grove, ....they also toured on a cruise to watch the hyperluxurious residences of some famous people.
Vinyl Mint thought that it was really weird the fact that the Earthlings spend money in order to watch how excessively luxurious lives the real rich people of this world live while others on the Earth don't have even the basics like water and food. She also felt shocked to see in that place of abundance homeless people sleep on the streets next to well polished super cars...
They also visited the Everglades to see the local alligators in their natural environment and Fort Lauderdale, an other beautiful coastal city north of Miami, and finally they drove to the Southernmost Point of the Continental USA in Key West.
The general idea that Vinyl Mint created in her mind about Florida, at least about the places she visited there, was that it is a beautiful place with great weather conditions ideal for rich pensioners, with stunning beaches ideal for muscular showoff bodies and with great nightlife ideal for party animals. What she really liked about the local people that she met was their friendly, social and outgoing character.
The last day in Florida began and Vinyl Mint hadn't met any metalhead yet. She hadn't seen any long haired guy, she hadn't seen any metal T-shirt around, she hadn't visited any metal record shop. She thought that if Filthy Dog was there, he would have already found plenty of material, as he had a unique talent to "smell" the records... he had an inner, inherent vinyl detector and could discover records at the most unexpected places. As the Mexican Girl and the Metal Missionary were having their breakfast at the hotel restaurant Vinyl Mint started complaining that they had spent a whole week like common tourists without any metal hunting. The girls were still too drunk from last night to respond but the Metal Missionary somehow cleared her mind and said:
"Vinyl Mint, life is not only collecting records. Your records as well as any other materialistic thing can be destroyed by a natural disaster such as an earthquake, a flood or a fire...they can be stolen...they can be lost...they can even be violently taken from you together with your house in case that you wake up one day with enormous debts... there are also so many stories about great vinyl collections that were disappeared all at once as they were gifted to "crows" by wives when they found out that their vinyl-collector-husbands had cheated on them, haven't you ever heard of them?...do you know, however, what no one can take from you? Your memories!!! So relax and try to collect as many memories as you can during your trips on Earth..."
At that moment two hot guys- really good-looking but with an idiotic gaze at the same time- and a nerd came close to Vinyl Mint. The two guys started touching gently Vinyl Mint while whispering Spanish words with lust and the nerd with a Miami book guide on his hands was automatically translating the Spanish words into English just to give a reason for his existence. Although Vinyl Mint had already gone beyond her personal limits by touching the second hand records of Filthy Dog without gloves, she was still too hypochondriac to accept the touches of the two Earthlings. She moved a step backwards and decided to introduce herself as IRIS had advised her to do so when she sees people for first time on Earth.
"Hi there! I am Vinyl Mint coming from 68 Leto Asteroid. I came here to collect hot music stuff. Maybe I could find here in Florida interesting material by Waxwing or by Argus or..."
Although the two guys seemed not to understand much, they charmingly smiled at her, offered her their hands and asked her in poor English if she liked 3Sum. Vinyl Mint had never heard of that band and she followed them with enthusiasm in order to learn more about it... Some time later Vinyl Mint learnt that 3Sum was not a band and the Spanish guys from Ibiza learnt that Waxwing and Argus are not DJs on Miami Beach. Vinyl Mint then realized that speaking the same language with the Earthlings doesn't automatically means real communication, as the achievement of communication is a matter of mentality as well.
A couple of hours later it was time for Vinyl Mint to depart from Florida. Vinyl Mint finally hadn't gained any new metal record from that trip, but as the Metal Missionary advised her she had gained new memories that from then on would always remind her that Florida is the Sunshine State indeed... she got a last glimpse of a Cadillac that stood proudly on Ocean Drive Street and remembered the great nostalgic song Cadillac Dreams by the Greek band Cpt Neφos... another treasure that she discovered on Earth thanks to Filthy Dog... during her stay on Crete she used to listen to its later version played by Libido Blume, again and again together with Filthy Dog, as he was lucky enough to have the Brilliant Names And Dames Vinyl in his collection...
(...to be continued...)