My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.

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Nia Vardalos wrote this endearing and incredibly funny movie about the Portokalos family. I didn’t see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 1, so I went into this premiere rather blind. The line to get into the free screening wrapped around the building. I walked past a guard and asked him if that was the line for the wedding. He said, “That’s the line for the premiere. Not sure what movie it is.” I told him that I had confused the movie for Mama Mia, a musical with music by Abba that I hated. A friend let me know that My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, was probably going to be a fun ride. Everyone in line got a card for a free Baklava at Little Greek Restaurant! Not sure if, or when I’ll cash that in.

I was laughing out loud for most of the movie, and fell in love with this crazy family. Nia Plays the part of Toula, who married Ian, which must have caused some chaos in the first movie since Ian isn’t Greek. Probably the most heart warming moment in the movie came when Toula’s father, Gus, met his brother whom the whole family had chipped in with air miles, to fly in from Greece. The brother from Greece resented that his brother left his home country. Gus sent money over seas to prove his success to his brother but the money was always returned. These crusty old men faced off and finally years of resentment melted away and they hugged. I got choked up. After several shots of Ouzo they were laughing like children. In Greek, Gus told his brother that his son in law isn’t bad for a gringo. Ian responds in Greek, “You aren’t bad yourself for a grumpy old man.” They are shocked he has learned Greek and they all have another shot and laughed.

Still working in her parents’ Greek restaurant, Toula’s
daughter Paris is growing up. She is getting ready to graduate high
school and Toula and Ian are experiencing marital issues. It is hard to find romance with the demands of everyday life and the demands of an insanely close family. Toula’s struggle to give her daughter room to grow is beautiful an heart breaking. When Toula’s
parents find out they were never officially married, because a priest forgot to sign the marriage license. Gus wants to immediately get married, but his wife Maria, wants a proper proposal after 50 years together.

Hilarity ensues as the family chips in to make the wedding bigger and better with many tasteless touches. They forget to hire limousines and police officers volunteer get the couple to the church with sirens blazing. The women are jostled and panicked but the men in the back of their cop car are laughing up a storm drinking Ouzo which spills with each sharp turn. The wedding reception is boisterous, loud with plenty of Greek dancing. The movie is a joyous celebration of life with all of its laughter and drama. I had a grand time and the audience applauded when the credits rolled. Definitely get out and see this movie, you will laugh until you cry. The movie opens March 25th at a theater near you.

The Bloody Jug Band performed at the Hourglass.

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John Theisen, the lead singer of the Bloody Jug Band, ordered some cards with a sketch I did of the band at Fringe. We met behind The Hour Glass (480 S Ronald Reagan Blvd Longwood, FL) where we made the exchange. I decided to stay to watch the first set and have a drink. There must have been a comic con convention in town because folks at the next table were dressed in Star Wars regalia. i wish they had made it into the sketch, but they sat down after the scene was blocked in.

The Bloody Jug Band draws inspiration from historic Jug bands of the 1920’s and 30’s as well as the darker side of
Blues and Rock n’ Roll, The Band carves out its own niche in a genre of music that has
never seen such a bloody incarnation. Their high energy dark themed music is quite addictive. I love that tips go into a tiny coffin. Salvador Dali overlooked the performance with a smirk as if in approval of the sinister, surreal lyrics and driving beat.

Watching Basketball at Miller’s.

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It had been a long day. Terry let me know she was going to watch a basketball game at Craig Miller’s Field House (7958 Via Delagio Way Orlando FL). The Portland Pilots were playing the Golden State Warriors. The game was starting late, after 10pm. I arrived first. There was music thumping inside. I waited a few minutes for Terry to pull into the parking lot. We entered together and Terry found a large screen TV behind the bar that had the game on. There were dozens of TVs, each broadcasting a different game. A DJ however was in charge of all the audio. The bar maid couldn’t her us in our attempt to place an order. Terry typed on her phone and showed the bar maid what she wanted. I ordered a Stella. Mostly because I like shouting Stella!

When I started sketching, Terry moved three bar stools away. Since the sketch was started I stayed where I was. A guy ordered a beer and dropped it on the floor between Terry and I. Glass shards and beer splashed everywhere. There was the frantic activity of sweeping up the glass and mopping the beer. On TV the sweat was being mopped off the court. I wondered who each person was at the bar. A couple of women danced to the DJ’s beats. A cheap light show illuminated my sketchbook pink and then blue. The bar maid was quite entertaining. She danced to the songs she liked, and kept dancing as she poured drinks with a flourish. As I finished up the sketch, I paid more attention to the game. The warriors were way in the lead, like 90 to 60. There was no way Portland would catch up in the fourth quarter. The seat beside Terry was leaning forward against the bar like it as reserved. I decided to call it a night. I paid for my $11 drink and went home to get some sleep. I had to teach the next morning.

All about-Race and power near Blue Box 6.

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I had arranged to meet Hurricane Maria at Blue Box 8 near the Lynx Bus Station. 27 Blue Boxes are painted on sidewalks in Downtown Orlando. These boxes
are for panhandlers and buskers. Busking is possible only during day
light hours. Although set up for panhandlers, police often insist street
performers must use the blue boxes. Performing outside the boxes can
result in 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

I arrived a little late and didn’t see Maria. I assumed she was running late and started sketching. My darn cell phone was dead because my car charger was broken. There was no way to contact her. I finished as much of the sketch a I could, and assumed that I could place Maria in the sketch when she arrived. She is a caricature artist and she planned to set up shop in the Blue Box. I probably sketched for an hour and a half, completing most of the watercolor with an open space that I left blank. If anyone reading this is interested, I could sketch you into this incomplete sketch in about half an hour. I will not post the sketch until it has a performer utilizing the box. Become part of The Blue Box Initiative.

I packed up an decided to head home. As I approached a huge construction site near the Bob Carr Theater, I saw Maria talking to several construction workers. She had gone to the wrong Blue Box and was deep in conversation about race and power. Blue Box number 6 had been ripped up due to the construction. As the conversation went on, I realized that the blue boxes represent first amendment zones, where freedom of express to is allowed.

The construction worker was explaining how blacks have been marginalized throughout history. The us Census would redefine the race every time there was census. They were redefined as blacks, negros, African Americans and other names. Poor neighborhoods were fractured and split up with redistricting. He asked each of us where our ancestors came from. Regardless of our past, he said we all have Moorish blood in us. Maria responded, “I prefer to just think of us as the human race.”

He spoke of a true and divine knowledge of yourself, historically speaking. People have been calling themselves everything but what they are, and so they are never able to take their proper place
in the national and international
affairs of men all over the world. they have been mentally robbed of their
inherent
and invincible manhood, by being
robbed of their nationhood.
The west African Moorish Empire expanded into Europe conquering Spain in 711 AD. This was the greatest power in Europe at the time and its influence spread resulting in the Renaissance. Apparently Abraham Lincoln was assassinated because he understood this Moorish commonality. The same was true of Dr. Martin Luthar King. One of King’s aid stepped aside to open a pathway for a sniper’s bullet.

The local school the the worker used to go to used to inspire students to greatness. Then teachers were brought in from out of the community and the students were no longer taught civic pride. Drugs ravaged the neighborhood causing further collapse. These drugs were specifically introduce in impoverished neighborhoods. This backfired however because then others could get cheap drugs there and the drug plagues spread could not be stopped.

With my sketch done, I decided to slip away. Free speech was very much alive near Blue Box number 6. I asked Maria if she was willing to set up for a short time in Blue Box number 8, but she had to get over to Audubon Park where she would be doing caricatures at the Monday night farmers market in the Stardust Video and Coffee parking lot.

The Whale pulls at every heart string.

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The Whale, written by Samuel D. Hunter, and Produced by Beth Marshall Presents will make its Central Florida Regional Premiere on March 18th. I arrived at a dress rehearsal about an hour before the run through of the show. Director, Rob Winn Anderson, wanted to revise several scenes that had kinks to be worked out. Ellie,Rachel Comeau read a book review she had written about Moby Dick. The play is book ended by her heart felt review, and it’s significance only becomes clear as her relation ship with her father Charlie, Michael Wanzie comes to light. The stage set by Tom Mangeri, felt like a diorama on stilts. At key moments in the play, blue and green lights would flicker on beneath the stage making it seem like the set were floating above dock moorings.

Charlie is effectively eating himself to death. His marriage to Mary, Beth Marshall, fell apart when he fell in love with another man. Estranged from his daughter, he wants to get to know her at the end of his life. He bribes her to spend time with him, by offering to help her with her school work, and offering her what turns out to be a sizable inheritance since he never leaves his apartment. Ellie is strong willed, smart, vicious, and sharp tongued but bored by school and her classmates.  She created a blog in which she complains about everyone she knows. 

Liz, Jamie Middleton, is Charlie’s health aid. She also seems scarred by life, and her morose barbed dialogue offers some of the shows biggest-laughs. Elder Thomas, Anthony Pyatt Jr. a Mormon missionary enters Charlie’s apartment to give Charlie gods word. When Liz finds Thomas preaching to Charlie she rips into his beliefs. When Ellie an Thomas meet, she manages to erode his holy facade and she has him smoking weed and confessing that he isn’t exactly who he claims to be. 


Ellie’s harsh embittered view of the world is fueled be be parents divorce. Charlie teaches an online writing course, and his lessons to his students reflect what he wishes he could pass on to his daughter. He implores his students to stop editing and rewriting every sentence. Instead, he begs them to just write from the heart. This brings us back to the moment when he asks Ellie to read her book review. The paper had been given an F because it was a review of the wrong book. Ellie was furious at her father and hadn’t bothered to read the review. She cursed her father’s request to read, not because she hated him, but because she loved him and was furious at how he had let his health go. She had written the book review years before and it highlighted how the book seemed to reflect what was happening in her own life. Although she was angered by life, this paper proved that she had a heart and cared a bout everyone around her. Anyone who could write such a heartfelt review would also have the talent to share many more stories that would touch others. My eyes welled up as she read her paper. Ellie’s eyes welled up as well. For the first time, Charlie rose from his chair and he struggled to cross the room to reach out the his daughter. She was amazing, beautiful and his life’s greatest accomplishment. 


The show combines humor with absolutely heart wrenching sadness. It celebrates what it truly means to be alive, and the strong bond of family even when it is dysfunctional. Although dark and bitter, the show also exudes hope, despite all odds. This
play was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding
New Off-Broadway Play. It won a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play and
won a Drama Desk Special Award for Significant Contribution to Theatre.


The Whale 

March 18 to April 3, 2016

Thursday 8pm, Friday 8pm, Saturday 2pm (April 2) & 8pm, Sunday 2pm
Industry Night: Monday, March 28

Winter Garden Theatre 160 W Plant St, Winter Garden, Florida

Tickets: $21 – $28

Weekend Top 6 Picks for March 19th and 20th.

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Saturday March 19, 2016 

9am to 2pm Free. Transference. Galloway Community Gallery at the Winter Park Welcome Center, 151 W Lyman Ave,Winter Park, FL. Transference reflects the notion that a contemporary artist’s practice is born of influence, transference, exchange and inheritance. Art is not created in a void; it’s a product of our current time and the place and develops from an awareness of individual and collective experiences. It is a phenomenological exchange, a transference of understanding between artist and viewer. Exhibition opens March 7 and runs through April 3.

List of artists:

Rachel Simmons

Martha L. Lent

Dina Mack

Brittany Metz

Patricia Lois Nuss

Dawn Roe

9am to 6pm All weekend. Free. Winter Park Art Festival. Central Park (Winter Park’s first amendment-zone). Be sure to create something on the opposite side of Park Avenue, or boycott.

5pm to 11pm Free. Cfl Creates the Crooks Club and EDEDRON. The Imperial at Washburn Imports-Sanford 116 E 1st St, Sanford, Florida. Apartment E Frankie presents in the round room “Ededron” inspirational original local artwork. One night only!, CFL creates Collective presents their debut event “The Crooks Club”,and special guests. Acoustic performances throughout the evening in the main room. also: the Apartment YOU installation “works in progress” and as usual we have the room in the back where all are encouraged to bring up to (3) three pieces of art ready to hang that night! No prior drop off on this one.. spotlighting a solo artist in round room monthly, and filling the room on the spot in the back galleries..all mediums accepted! 5-11pm, all ages, meet and greet spotlighted artist meet and greet at 8pm,and the stage shows begin!

Sunday March 20, 2016

1pm to 11pm $8 Will’s A Faire at Southern Fried Sundays Presented by The Lovely. Will’s Pub 1042 N Mills Ave, Orlando, Florida. Will’s A Faire at Southern Fried Sunday Presented by The Lovely. Sunday March 20th. A one day retro, vintage, local and handmade market with live music, food and fun indoors and out!

Bands performing outside from 1:30pm-8:30pm: JUNO smile, Fast Preacher, SKIP, Zap Dragon & The Attack, Oak Hill Drifters, Circa and Timothy Eerie. Inside Will’s, after 7pm: Ben Prestage and The Downgetters! The outdoor music is free to the public and all ages are welcome. Bring the Family! The later inside show is an $8 cover & 21+. Food Trucks: Daydream Pizza, Caro-Bama BBQ and more.

2pm to 5pm Potluck. Crow – Coordinated Response on Wellness. True Serenity, 1100 Montana St, Orlando, FL. Crow – Coordinated Response on Wellness will be born on March 20th.   An explanation of Crow, the principles of Crow and vision will be laid out.  It will be pot luck style.   Please bring something to share or contribute $5 to the space.  “Practice is the hardest part of learning, and training is the essence of transformation.”

― Ann Voskamp

2pm to 4pm $24 – $28. The Whale. Garden Theatre 160 W Plant St, Winter Garden, Florida 34787

On
the outskirts of Mormon Country, Idaho, a six-hundred-pound recluse
hides away in his apartment eating himself to death. Desperate to
reconnect with his long-estranged daughter, he reaches out to her, only
to find a viciously sharp-tongued and wildly unhappy teen. In this
gripping and big-hearted drama, The Whale tells the story of a man’s
last chance at redemption, and of finding beauty in the most unexpected
places. This play was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for
Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play. It won a Lucille Lortel Award for
Best Play and won a Drama Desk Special Award for Significant
Contribution to Theatre.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational snarls traffic in Bay Hill.

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I live in North Bay which is directly adjacent to the Bay Hill Golf Course. Once a year my quiet suburban street becomes a driveway for all the manic golf fans intent on finding a parking spot right at the Bay Hill Golf Club. A residents pass card comes in the mail that must be kept in my car so that I am not turned away from access to the drive home. Parking at Bay Hill is very limited. Some neighbors allow parking on their lawns and then golf cart access to the entrance. Ten temporary lots are created just for this event on the golf course greens. Cars park all over the rolling greens with black mesh fencing put in place probably to protect some cars from stray golf balls. I took a stroll down to the course one evening to get a sketch of the circus atmosphere. Cars were leaving in a steady stream. Mini buses were parked to transport workers, volunteers and attendees to off site parking lots.

It was the golden hour right before the sun set. Trees lit up y warm orange. A Peregrine falcon swooped over the golf course. Puzzle piece foam pads try to protect some grassy areas from the worst of the automotive tire damage. I decided to set up across from the Invitational entrance. Historic billboard photos lined the drive with photos of past Invitational winners. The competition began in 1954. A family waited to be picked up. Clearly the competition for the day was over and this was the time of the mass exodus.

The Invitational began on March 14th and continues through March 20. A Practise, Pro-Am badge is $50 for the week, allowing you to follow your favorite player on their practise rounds on Monday through Wednesday. A weekly club house badge is $250 allowing on site parking, access to the clubhouse and great views of the greens.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational holds a place of high stature in professional golf. The tournament, one of the premiere-event
jewels on the PGA Tour, annually attracts one of the strongest fields of
the season to one of the circuit’s finest courses with the entire
production overseen and directed by one of the game’s all-time greats,
Arnold Palmer. Its stature is attributable primarily to Palmer and
the tremendous respect that he has among his peers in tournament golf.

I hare never actually sketched and reported on the tournament. I only realize it is going on when traffic gets crazy and blimps circle overhead. Some year, I need to get a press pass and spend a solid day sketching the event.

The Best of Orlando Party.

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Every year, The Orlando Weekly has its readers vote on the Best of Orlando. The Best of issue is a great way to scan the best restaurants, bars, shows, and all other venues. It is a great resource that helps me decide where to sketch. All of the 2015 winners were invited to The Beacham (46 N Orange Ave, Orlando, Florida). This is the biggest, bad ass, invitation-only party of the year. I didn’t win an award in 2015, but I pulled strings to get in to document the party. I immediately wanted to get up above the crush of the crowd. There was a bouncer at the staircase that wanted a password, so I searched for an Orlando Weekly staffer to get the needed word. I met friends on the ground floor, but the music was so loud that we couldn’t talk.

The two bars downstairs were constantly packed. I admired the bar staff that had to work at lightning speed to keep up with the demand. Obsessionally friends would stop to say hello. Some were Facebook friends I had never met in person. An artist, is far more approachable than a photographer. Photographers have more fun getting people to pose. Some people are just curious. It is always rewarding when people know what it is that I am doing. It makes my life as an artist so much easier. The music pulsed an the disco ball twirled. Besides the Beacham, four other clubs were tied into the party, including, The Social, Aero, Olde 64, and The Patio.

Since I didn’t have an award to pick up, I didn’t stay long after the sketch was done. It felt good to unwind walking around Lake Eola after all the noise of the party. All the activity inspires quick decisions and thus a rougher sketch. But I also love the calm of being alone and enjoying quiet scenery. I got to experience both in one night.

National Dance Day at the Orlando Ballet Central Campus.

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The National Dance Day free morning dance sessions consisted of creative movement in the Orlando Ballet Central Campus. Dancers lined up at the barres to warm up and stretch. Besides this main room, there were many smaller dance studios in the same building. By lunch time the place was packed. There was seating along one wall of the dance studio, and many of the sketch crawlers sat there along with the stage moms.

Some artists did gestural studies of individual dancers while others, like myself, focused on the overall scene. Dancers stretched not only on the dance floor, but in the hallways as well. The room cleared a bit when lunch time rolled around, but I kept throwing watercolor washes on the page until the afternoon sessions began.

A Day Devoted to Dance.

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Holly Harris, a talented local choreographer and dancer helped bring National Dance Day to Orlando.  National Dance Day celebrates dance by offering a whole day of free dance instruction to anyone who attends. This incredible event just happened to fall on the same day as the 48th International Sketch Crawl, so I contacted Holly, a she agreed to allow artists to sketch the entire day’s activities.

This year’s event encouraged families and friends to begin the morning of July 25 at the National Dance Day Orlando (NDDO) Community Celebration, located at Orlando Cultural Park, (the lawn in front of the Loch Haven Neighborhood Center) to participate in exercises, dance routines, and performances by Central Florida dance professionals.

Within walking distance of the park is the Orlando Ballet Central Campus where 30 free specialized dance classes will be offered throughout the day to ages 3-100, including special needs movement classes. Central Florida dance company directors, choreographers, and fitness instructors will share different styles of dance through body conditioning, dance technique, and choreography at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.

National Dance Day Orlando desires to bring educational, community-driven dance opportunities to non-dancers and dancers alike! About six artists came out to sketch for the day.

The day began at 8:30am with  Stretches and Cardio

9:00am – 1st National Dance Day Routine

9:30am – Performances by Professional Central Florida Dance Companies

10:00am – 2nd National Dance Day Routine

10:30am – Performances by Professional Central Florida Dance Companies