Florida Film Festival Opening Night

Posted on by Thor

The Opening Night party at the Enzian Theater was a $100 a ticket posh extravaganza. I arrived early and was very pleased to find a parking spot in the theater’s usually overflowing parking lot. Such little things keep me happy. I stood at one of the tables in the bar area and considered doing a sketch of the Peroni Girl who would be handing out free beer all night. A guy behind me interrupted my thoughts by saying, “That is one dumb button you have on your bag.” After I explained where I got the button he pressed my sternum and waited for my response. It took me a minute to realize he had seen the word “Press” on my press pass and was taking it literally. He was pressing my buttons so I decided I had to leave. I located a choice seat at the bar.

As I started to sketch, a fellow with a “Filmmaker” ID around his neck sat beside me. His name was Tony Blass and he had just flown in from LA. He was here because a film titled “The One Man Beatles“, which he is marketing, is going to be screened on the final day of the Festival, Sunday April 17th at 12:30pm at the Regal Winter Park Cinemas. This film is about Emitt Rhodes, a rock star from the 60s who was a huge star at the age of 24 but he grew bitter after his recording company sued him and he disappeared off the pop cultural radar. Tony looked parched, so I grabbed a Peroni for him and myself.

Our conversation turned to a common memory of an old TV series called “Dark Shadows.” I remember being ten years old and lying in bed with my mother who had just returned from a New York City hospital. Tony had actually written several books which expanded on the story of the mysterious house called Collin Wood. He went on to let me know that Tim Burton is planning to make a feature film, starring Johnny Depp, which will resurrect “Dark Shadows.” Barnabus Collins may return from the dead.

I then learned that while he is here in Florida, Tony planned to start filming Venus D Lite, who he said, “Can give Madonna a run for her money.” She was in Atlanta on the night of the Film Festival opening, but Tony will be driving her to Miami for two shows and then driving her back to Orlando where she will perform at Pulse at about 10pm on Saturday April 16th. He hopes the footage he shoots here in Florida will be the start of a documentary about Venus’ ambitious and tireless career. I plan to sketch Venus at Pulse and then at the screening of “The One Man Beatles” the next day.

Robert Johnson, the lead singer of Everyday Ghosts stopped by the bar and got hugs from the staff of three bartenders. The last time I sketched at the Enzian he was bartending, but tonight he was going to be performing on stage. Later Beth Black showed up at the bar in her bright red volunteer’s T-shirt. She is a professional violinist who also volunteers for the Maitland Symphony. Ironically her assignment for the night was to be the “runner” for the band. She was getting drinks. At the time, I thought she was the band’s manager. She let me know that Everyday Ghosts had just started playing, so I rushed inside to sketch. Jeremy Meier played drums. Richerd Becker was on Bass and the lead guitarist, Austin, was the son of the band’s manager, Richard “Snake” Glatt. Someone said, “There’s nobody in front of the band”, but then Beth started recruiting partiers around the room to get on the dance floor. Soon there was a crowd of people moving, jumping and twirling to the beat. Some wore costumes like a pink zebra hat and Viking horns. I had sipped two white wines so the second sketch of the band was done with a loose splashing abandon. The whole time I rocked and swayed lost in the musics flow. Now I need to figure out which films to see. Anyone have suggestions?

Winter Park Art Festival

Posted on by Thor

My wife works for Merrill Lynch. To kick off the start of the Winter Park Art Festival, Merrill Lynch opened the Winter Park office for a kick off party. The office branch has a wide open rooftop patio that overlooks Park Avenue. More important, food and drink were on the house all night. When Terry and I arrived there were lines of people waiting for food. I started sketching immediately. Irving Radar McLean was playing steel drum music all night. He quite honestly never took a break. I caught him briefly between songs to grab his business card. He said, “You’ll be makin plenty of money from that sketch you did of me”. He actually hadn’t seen the sketch but he had noticed me working.

Clients and prospective clients of Terry’s came to the rooftop event. While she was being a social butterfly, I sketched. Looking over the rooftop ledge unfortunately didn’t offer a view of the art festival itself. The show tents began one block further north. With my sketch finished, I then loaded up a plate and grabbed a beer. Terry introduced me to a local magazine art director and I was surprised to find out she knew of my work. After another beer, I relaxed enjoying the sunset as the steel drum lifted me away to a Caribbean retreat.

Big Swinging Dicks

Posted on by Thor

There was something rewarding about announcing on Facebook that I was going to sketch Big Swinging Dicks. The full title of the play being produced for this year’s Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival is, “Big Swinging Dick’s Topless bar presents The Naked Drag Queen farting”. Now that is a mouthful! I was going to a staged reading of the play. Carl Gauze, the writer and producer, had invited me to the reading which started around 7pm at Breakthrough Theater in Winter Park. Since I work in Winter Park, and I got off at 5pm, I had some time to kill prior to the reading. I went to Shipyard Brewery to wet my palette. There I bumped into Brian Sikorski at the bar. I got to learn a little about his background as an artist. There was also an older couple there who had traveled the country searching for the best micro brewery’s.

I ordered a vegetarian mushroom sandwich which I washed down with several beers. I was satiated and ready to sketch. I walked several blocks over to the Breakthrough Theater. I had never been inside this theater. In the tiny entrance foyer,the cast was seated on the couch and chairs and they were doing a practice run through of the reading. There was one empty chair so I quietly sat down. Several of the actors I knew. Mike Maples was playing the part of a bigoted bar owner who had to change his world view when a drag queen starts bringing in audiences that could not be ignored. Sarah Lockhard landed the choice roll of the drag queen diva. She had the odd distinction of being a woman playing a man playing a woman. She rubbed her hands together as she read. I have seen her perform some insanely funny comedic rolls in the past. I agonized for a moment wondering if I had enough time to sketch. I decided to just jump in. The reading was laugh out loud funny.

When the first reading was finished, the director, Desmond Flynn, offered some notes. Soon people started to arrive. The Breakthrough Theater is a small intimate space. The stage set resembled a quaint 1950’s living room. The second read through was just as funny as the first. This is going to be a fun Fringe show!

Show times…

5/20 FRI 9:25PM

5/22 SUN 12:00PM

5/24 TUE 6:45PM

5/28 SAT 8:25PM

Flash 2

Posted on by Thor

A second Flash Mob was planned to promote Orlando, The City Beautiful. Secret rehearsals were held at the Orlando Convention Center. I was happy there was Free parking available behind the West building. I don’t sketch many Convention events because of the price of parking. There was a long walk from the back entrance first up and then down frozen escalators. I followed a man who looked to be in his 80s and when I passed him, I followed two high school girls that looked like they knew where they were going. When I entered the convention room I was stunned by the vast empty space. The rehearsal took up less than a quarter of the space. When I entered, Randy Ross was speaking with all the volunteer dancers letting them know that they had to mingle and act natural prior to this flash mob performance. The last Flash Mob at the Millenia Mall, people stood around in a circle leaving the staging area wide open. It was painfully obvious that a staged performance was about to begin. This time they planned to do it right. Linda Elchak of NAO Dance then took over the rehearsal getting two large groups formed. This was the second rehearsal so most people quickly took their places. New arrivals were instructed where to line up.

I love the music they choose for these flash mobs, it is fun to sketch to. My favorite moment in rehearsal came when a group of about 20 retirees took center stage and shook their booties to Whoop There It Is! All the younger performers cheered and whooped. The youngest performer was the nephew of Linda Stewart and he held his own keeping up with the best dancers. Enthusiasm and a lust for life has no age limit. I decided not to publish the sketch prior to the Flash to keep the performance top secret. At one point Linda said, “Don’t go past the grid, you will fall into the water.” At that point I assumed they would perform at Lake Eola. I had to work during the time the Flash Mob happened. In hind sight it would have been an impossible sketching situation. If you went to Spring Fiesta at Lake Eola at the right time then you got to experience a high energy treat!

Spring into Dance

Posted on by Thor

I returned to Seminole State College to see “Spring into Dance” presented by Yow Dance. I requested a seat in a back row with no one near by. I didn’t want the glow from my tablet to disturb any audience members. The Artistic Director, Eric Yow was seared a few rows in front of me. The performance was a collaboration between Eric’s dance company and some very enthusiastic College students who were studying modern dance under Eric’s supervision. There were a total of eight dance pieces. Some were so high energy, like Word Up, that I was amazed by the stamina of the dancers. The dancers wore blood splattered wedding dresses and moved with zombie like loose muscled fluidity. The stage lighting gave the dresses an eerie iridescence. This was the world premiere of this piece and the audience loved it.

In one piece the dancers interacted with a lone spotlight. They would dance close to the mysterious light with tentative trepidation. By the end of the dance they formed a human pyramid allowing one lone dancer the chance to reach up to the illuminated heights. The last piece was called Blackberry Winter. It was an inspired incessant driving piece that kept a face pace throughout. Groups moved together in unity and just as an action felt complete another group would spiral into action.

Johnny Cash Tribute at Redlight Redlight

Posted on by Thor

Redlight Redlight, (745 Bennett Rd) is a hip bar that often has themed shows of local artists’ work. On this night the walls were covered with Johnny Cash portraits. Plineo Pinto had several sweet watercolor caricatures that I liked. I bumped into Leslie Silvia who showed me the nasty blisters she got on her hands from a recent crewing competition. She had some nice silhouettes of Johnny Cash. American Destitution, was on stage playing Johnny Cash songs. I asked Jared Silvia how long they had been playing to try and gauge how long I had to sketch. The place was packed so I sat on the floor right in front of the stage to get my sketch.

After the set was over, I talked to one of the performers and he told me this was the first time the band members had performed together in a very long time. I still hadn’t ordered a beer so I muscled up to the bar and ordered a Cony Island Mermaid. The beer was dark and strong. I settled into a corner table and started a second sketch. A movie screen was set up on the stage and Johnny played for the crowd flickering and a bit distorted. His music and the swift kick from the beer made me blue. I wondered what lively conversations were flaring up around me. My hand moved over the pages involuntarily. With my second sketch finished, I decided to get home. As I left a group of graffiti artists stopped me to say hello. I had sketched these artists at Frames Forever and Art Gallery as they worked on large mural panels. I was fading and a bit depressed from listening to Johnny Cash for several hours so I didn’t socialize long. Terry was away at some conference in Texas so I could have stayed out much later. But my work was done.

Yow Dance Tech Rehearsal

Posted on by Thor

I went to a Yow Dance Tech Rehearsal at Seminole State College. When I arrived scaffolding was in place on stage and the stage lights were being aimed and adjusted. The dancers had not yet arrived. The scaffold had to be moved each time a new light had to be adjusted. The process became a learning experience for the college age stage hands who took their directions from Ellen Bone, the seasoned lighting designer. She took the time to explain why certain adjustments were made and she even walked a student around to give pointers.

When the dancers arrived, the house wend dark and the only thing I could see was the glow of Ellen’s laptop. I switched to drawing on my digital tablet. Apparently the headphones she was wearing didn’t work since she had to shout out her sound cues to the lighting booth at the back of the theater. The dancers performed and lighting adjustments were made on the fly. Sometime the dancers had to stop and wait while the right lighting combination was found.

One of the dance numbers called “Little Boxes” made a strong statement about how children are taught to behave and conform to societies expectations. The dancers shuffled in a chain gang style line. The dance offered a great social commentary about how our suburban society expects us all to be the same. A life of ticky tacky conformity as we move from one box to the next.

How to Look at Renaissance Art

Posted on by Thor

Karen Love Blumenthal invited me to attend a fun interactive talk about how to look at Renaissance Art at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum on the Rollins College Campus. The workshop was conducted by her husband Arthur Blumenthal the Director Emeritus of the museum. He began his talk by outlining the five steps that are needed to truly look at a work of art.
1. Become fully present and put aside your opinions. Usually when we enter a gallery, we immediately say, “Oh, I like this painting or I can’t stand that painting.” He insisted we curb such opinions until we fully studied the art.
2. Move into the objects “Looking Space” and move around the object while looking. At this point the first impression can be stated.
3. Determine the medium used.
4. Observe and describe the art in meticulous detail offering subject matter, composition, the light source. It is important to describe the art as if no one else had ever seen it.
5. Restate or sum up the main points or total impact.
The 20 or so patrons were then split up into groups and each group was assigned a Renaissance work of art to study. One person from each group was then given the task of describing the art using the five rules of observation. It was fascinating listening to people describe the art. Each person brought their own viewpoints and background into the process. One man truly didn’t like the portrait he was asked to discuss but in the end, Arthur let him know it was a rare Tintoretto portrait and probably the most valuable painting in the collection. It was good that such information did not distort the patrons’ view.
Lunch served at a long table in the front gallery. The scene was reminiscent of Leonardo DaVinci’s Last Supper. The man seated next to me let me know that he spends the five summer months out of each year living on an island in Maine. When we got back to the Renaissance gallery, he had to describe a complex painting of Noah’s Arc. He described the chaotic collection of animals and when he backed up, he was able to see the overall flow of the piece. Arthur went on to describe the umber under painting which was allowed to show through in spots.

Renaissance came from the Italian word rinascita meaning “Rebirth.” This rebirth came about as ancient Roman and Greek statues were being discovered. Michelangelo sculpted amazing forgeries early in his career. There was an astonishing confluence of artistic genius in that era. There was also powerful banking families like the Medici who appreciated and paid for art. Ahhh… Those were the days. Of course there was also the plague, inquisition and plenty of wars, but that is a small price to pay.

Mediterranean Deli

Posted on by Thor

If there is one thing I love, it is a juicy Gyro or stuffed grape leaves and a salad with feta cheese. The Mediteranian deli (981 West Fairbanks Avenue in Winter Park) is a true New York City style hole in the wall. It doesn’t look like much from the street being a tiny store front in a small strip mall just West of I-4 on Fairbanks. At the order counter there are hundreds of business cards shoved in a slot in front of the mouth watering salads and sides. I couldn’t resist. I pulled out an Analog Artist Digital World card and slipped it in. The owner is very friendly often asking about friends and family while offering up a free sample as I wait. I decided I would eat light for once, maybe some humus and pita. But after tasting the club wrap I ordered the club with a side of humus. I have had the gyros before and they are amazing, stuffed so full that you have to wrestle it into your mouth. Mediterranean music is playing constantly tempting the occasional amateur belly dance. Posters from Greece try to catch some Mediterranean warmth. A sign announces, “Americas #1 Gyros” and I do believe these are the best gyros in Orlando. I stop by anytime I am on or near Fairbanks Avenue. There can be a line during the lunch time rush since anyone who has been here always returns.