Shady Pictures
Had the pleasure of being a fly on the wall this afternoon listening to these two legends talk about the old days in Key West.
John Martini is perhaps the most recognized and accomplished artist on the island, and John Vagnoni is the owner and face of the fabled Green Parrot Bar.
They both showed up to the island from the Northeast in the 1970s with an open mind and the idea that the end of the road might, in fact, be just the beginning.
It’s inspiring to see them both still really happy living where they live and doing what they do.
I’ve been lucky enough to work with and get to know both of them over the years and can only hope I’ll accumulate a fraction of the catalog of work and wisdom they’ve generated through the decades.
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#keywest #makingitintheend
We were flattered and honored to learn this week we were named the number one dive bar in the South by Southern Living magazine.
We know that of late, "dive bar" has become a wildly misapplied and overused appellation and, we also know that, for a few reasons some may even feel that the Green Parrot may have strayed too far from our roots to qualify.
For example, some say a true dive should never appear in print unless it is closing, or mentioned as a crime-scene.
Others say that a clean, safe, well-run joint, (which we are), without the sense that shit could get dangerously strange at any moment does not qualify.
It should also be noted as other potential disqualifiers that we no longer have a condom machine in the restroom, nor are there discarded whippits strewn about.
While we do have a pinball machine and a great jukebox, as well as having a string or two of year-round Christmas lights, all dive staples, we do understand and concede that just having them doesn’t make you a dive.
What we do understand however, and here’s where I think we do qualify, is that a dive bar is one of society’s best accidentally-created things ever and we believe it’s clear to even the most casual observer that no one could ever have planned this place.
In reality, dive bars are, put simply, neighborhood places that serve reasonably-priced simple drinks with no pretense and have no-nonsense attitudes where, to name just one example, it's patently understood you can choose to be social, or can choose to be left alone to drink in private.
These are the places that pretty much say, “don’t F*** with anyone here and everything will be fine.” Our decor was once described as being whatever the clientele was wearing that day, and we acknowledge that our clientele is motley and changes according to the time of day.
In the words of local author Joy Williams, "The Parrot has an engagingly louche clientele, a pool table and a dart board, odd art, and an attitude best described by the sign over the booze shelves: 'No Sniveling'”
#southernliving #divebars #greenparrotbar #localsbar #keywest #keywestlife #joywilliams#divebar#keywestbars #divebarlife #corner-bar
We are looking ahead to October and what is shaping up to be yet another month of great music and cultural activities here on our little corner of Franklin and Einstein.
First up, Spred The Dub, Awarded “Best Reggae Band” by Broward-Palm Beach New Times as well as a win in the “Best Band” category from Miami New Times. Look for another dose of infectious ska-fueled shenanigans and plenty of that “Good Time Reggae” we all know and love.
Next four-time Grammy-winner Trae Pierce and his 9-piece bass-driven mix of funk, hip-hop, blues, and rock, who all but tore the roof off the place on his last Green Parrot visit.
Following right behind Trae don't miss Miami Blues-Rocker Albert Castiglia.
Next we host the "Your Favorite Band!", Siberian Surf-Rockers Igor and The Red Elvises, returning with their unique blend of Russian folk music, 50’s rockabilly, and surf. rock. The month wraps up with Xperimento, the Grammy-Nominated Latin/Rock Fusion troupe that promises to turn up the heat on the dance floor for two steamy nights.
There's 100% for Charity Bingo every Monday Night, Live Jazz on the first Sunday of the month and on the first Wednesday of the month it’s Green Parrot Ukulele Night, Key West's only Uke-powered jam session.
We present as well local talent that continue to mix blues, rock, reggae, and jam, supplied by Andy Westcott's Electrified Trio, Tony Baltimore's Wilde Awake, as well as inspired performances by Key West chanteuse Claire Finley, Myles Mancuso and Jason Lamson, jam-rocker Jesse Wagner, and Key West's King of Soul Robert Albury. Look for Rolando Rojas' "Mojito" to create a Salsa dance party and be here as we introduce a some late night sets with DJ Sanaris, fresh off his Bubba's People Choice award as Key West's Best D.J.
The Green Parrot Bar: "No Cover, No Minimum, No Wonder", free popcorn, spine-tingling cocktails, great live music, classic jukebox, pool, darts, and pinball, all for the price of a beer, Your Southernmost Center for Culture of All Kinds.#greenparrotbar #localsbar #bestbar#bestlivemusicvenue#divebar #nocovernominimumnowonder #firstandlastbaronus1#keywest #keywestmusic@greenparrotbar
throwing back to january 2019 @officialdonnathebuffalo @jimfossumphotos #donnathebuffalo #greenparrotbar #bestlivemusicvenue #keywest #jimfossumphotos
The top photo was taken in The Brown Derby over 60 years ago and the one below it was taken in The Green Parrot last Veterans Day.
If you look behind them as well as over their left shoulders you can see both photos were taken with the front-corner windows of our building with the overhang visible over their left shoulders through the open front door.
After so many years, we are proud to continue to welcome America’s finest through our doors.
This Veteran's Day, all of us here at The Green Parrot Bar would like to take the time to thank the men and women who have served in the U.S. armed forces and express our gratitude for all the sacrifices they have made and continue to make.
Today and every day, we couldn't say thank you enough.
To those seaman pictured in the recent photo, Matt, Greg, and Steve, stay safe, God bless, and thanks for all you do. To those in the older photo, we remain forever grateful for your service.
#thankavet #veteransday #keywest #armedforces #greenparrotbar#brownderbykeywest #submarineservice #submariners #keywestnavalbase
Today, 7/7, is National Dive Bar Day, and below we re-print a post from when we were named Southern Living Magazine's number-one dive bar in the South.
"We know that of late, "dive bar" has become a wildly misapplied and overused appellation and, we also know that, for a few reasons some may even feel that the Green Parrot may have strayed too far from our roots to qualify.
For example, some say a true dive should never appear in print unless it is either closing or mentioned as a crime-scene.
Others say that a clean, safe, well-run joint, (which we are), without the sense that shit could get dangerously strange at any moment does not qualify.
It should also be noted as other potential disqualifiers that we no longer have a condom machine in the restroom, nor are there discarded whippits strewn about.
While we do have a pinball machine and a great jukebox, as well as having a string or two of year-round Christmas lights, all dive staples, we do understand and concede that just having them doesn’t make you a dive.
What we do understand however, and, importantly, here’s where I think we do qualify, is that a dive bar is one of society’s best accidentally-created things ever, and we believe that after just one look at The Parrot it’s clear to even the most casual observer that no one could ever have planned this place.
In reality, dive bars are, put simply, rather unambitiously-assembled neighborhood places that serve reasonably-priced simple drinks with no pretense, maintain no-nonsense attitudes where, as just one illustration, it's patently understood you can either choose to be social, or can choose to be left alone to drink in private. These are the places that pretty much say, “don’t F*** with anyone here and everything will be fine.”
Our decor was once described as being whatever the clientele was wearing that day, and we acknowledge that our clientele is motley and changes according to the time of day.
In the words of local author Joy Williams, "The Parrot has an engagingly louche clientele, a pool table and a dart board, odd art, and an attitude best described by the sign over the booze shelves: 'No Sniveling'”@nationaldivebarday#greenparrotbar
With a patriotic guest appearance familiar to anyone who lives here, and after a 2020 hiatus, signaling some sort of return to normalcy, the annual Veterans Day Parade returned to Key West yesterday to recognize and thank those who have served in the armed forces.
#thankavet #veteransday #keywest #douglas #armedforces #greenparrotbar
We would like to congratulate our friend Diana Nyad on the 8th anniversary of her historic Havana to Key West open-water swim, one that encompassed roughly 110 miles and over 50 hours.
Nyad became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, fulfilling a dream that began 37 years ago. In the process, she also became a hero to baby boomers everywhere, finally accomplishing her endurance swim on her fifth try, 11 days after her 64th birthday.
A little woozy and weary but nonetheless triumphant she waded ashore on Smathers Beach at 2:00 pm on September 3rd, 2013 and supported by a crew member and surrounded by hundreds of cheering Key Westers, she spoke briefly, “I’ve got three messages,” she said. “One is we should never, ever give up. Two is you’re never too old to chase your dreams and three is it looks like a solitary sport, but it’s a team effort.”
We are extremely proud to be associated with her and grateful to our good friends Buco and especially to our greatly missed friend Pat Marshall, who were two of her kayakers, for fostering our relationship with her.
Of her kayakers Diana said, "my.....kayakers , are to the side and behind me. I love when the kayaks come sweeping into formation. After my Handlers, these are the people closest to me throughout.... the paddlers are always there. They know me well, the paddlers. They know when to say something encouraging, when to be silent..."
#diananyad#havanatokeywest #openwaterswim #keywest#greenparrotbar#greenparrotkayaksociety @diananyad
Continuing with great live music at the Green Parrot Thursday,March 11th at 5:30 and 9:00 with Kim Jade’s “The Good Thing” featuring Randy Stindt, as well as Jose Elias from The Spam AllStars.
#greenparrotsoundcheck #greenparrotbar
#localsbar#keywestmusic#keywestmusicians#southardandwhitehead #divebar#bestbar#bestlivemusicvenue #livemusic #spamallstars #joseelias
#livejazz#keywestlife
#maskup#putyourmaskon
#jimfossumphotos
Green calm below, blue quietness above.
John Greenleaf Whittier
Credit 👉richie_nobilis
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#amazon #parrots #green #macaws #macaw #macawparrot #amazonparrot #macawlover #instaparrot #greenparrot #greenparrots #macawbird #hybridmacaw #parrotjungle #jungleparrot #greenparrotbar #macawfeathers #macawsoninstagram #featherarena #birdasapet
soundcheckin with the beatle band. two more sets and a visit from bad santa and mistress clause starting at 9pm @tonybaltimoremusic @hiramgarzaro @orenmusic @christhomasmusic #greenparrotbar #christmasparty @jimfossumphotos
Pictured, from 2006, the Halloran brothers, former city commisioner and old friend George and visiting brother Andrew drop in ostensibly to check to see if the Boca Chica Bar sign George had put on loan to the bar was still on display (it was) but we think it was just a chance for them to grab a beer (they did).
George looks rightfully proud, Andrew looks down right Heminwayesque as they stand under the sign George had spotted in a Havana, Cuba boatyard while he was having his boat hauled out there a dozen or so years ago. George managed to salvage the sign, which was being used at the time to keep a cuban boat mechanic’s head out of the dirt while he crawled around under some dry-docked vessel. George recognized the valuable piece of Key West memorobilia for what it was, and hand-delivered it to us at the Parrot where it hangs today.
For those who don’t remember the Boca Chica Bar it was located right on US 1 in Stock Island that saw it’s hay-day in the seventies and eighties and was kind of like Stock Island’s own little Barbary Coast, rife with smugglers, hookers, cops-on- the-take,fisherman, gays, thieves, writers, musicians, the occasional slumming or over-dosed celebrity and pretty much everything in between. Unless you’ve spent some time in there or maybe even been woken up out front of the place in the bed of a pickup truck at 7 AM with the tropical sun blazing down on you it’s pretty hard to describe.
There is nothing in town today to compare it to. It was a cross section of a Key West that has all but vanished and could certainly never be recreated .The stage was wrapped in cyclone fencing the bartenders and the bouncers didn’t suffer fools gladly, the place didn’t really come into it’s own until 4 AM or later, when all bars in key west let out and all the not yet sated revelers poured over the Cow Key Channel bridge for a nightcap. I believe Hunter S. Thompson made mention of it on occasion as the “soft underbelly of Key West”.
Anyway, thanks George, for thinking of us.
#greenparrotbar #keywest #georgehalloran#laststand#bocachicabar#keywestbars #divebars#localsbar#endoftheroad #nocovernominimumnowonder
which way to the beach? shop.greenparrot.com @greenparrot #greenparrotbar #nosnivelling #excessinmoderation #firstandlastbaronus1 #bestbarontheplanet #keywest
A special thank you and a big hug to Janet and Kevin Life from The Angelina guest house around the corner for their annual holiday delivery of their homemade cinnamon ring (of course delivered still warm).
It seems they’ve outdone themselves again this year with a family size ring Kevin dropped off and we still remember very well a few years back, when there was not a single tree to be had on the entire island, their donation of an awesome Christmas tree saved Christmas for The Parrot and we now use that tree every year!
Angelina, we love you and Merry Christmas from all of us.
Love you guys!
Great neighbors in a great neighborhood!
#keywestpeople #keywest #greenparrotbar #greatneighbors #angelinaguesthouse#merrychristmas #christmastree #christmasspirit
The Florida-based Jam-Rockers The Heavy Pets make their much-anticipated return The Green Parrot, one of their favorite haunts with electrifying shows on Friday and Saturday, January 21st and 22nd at 5:30, 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. and at 5:30 p.m.on Sunday, January 23rd.
Says Dennis Cook, of Jambase.com. "The greatest jamband to come out of Florida since, well, ever."
@theheavypets #theheavypets #greenparrotbar #bestlivemusicvenue #bestbar #keywest #floridamusic #localsbar #livemusic #divebar
Great music lives here on the corner of Franklin and Einstein and this weekend we turn up the heat on the dance floor with Xperimento, one of our patron’s most yearned-for bands this past year, pictured here getting the crowd on their feet!
Don’t miss out when they return for a seismic, pelvis-grinding, meringue-filled weekend with shows at 5:30, 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday July 16th and 17th, and 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 18th.
#greenparrotbar #greenparrotsoundcheck #xperimento #miamimusic #305#timetofunkitup #miami#cumbia#latinfunk #reggae #reggaeton #salsa #dub #fusionmusic #fusionjazz#jimfossumphotos
