Weekend Top 6 Picks for January 10th and 11th.

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Saturday January 10, 2015

9am to 3pm Free. Sanford Farmers Market. A small farmers market on the corner of First and magnolia in Sanford. Right near the old historic clock.

1pm to 3pm Free. Art at the Casa. Casa Feliz 656 N. Park Avenue Winter Park FL. There’s No Place Like Home: Art Inspired by Winter Park’s Historic Architecture. Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum will host a juried art exhibit open to artists of all mediums. The goal of the exhibit is to celebrate Winter Park’s historic architecture – past and present – and to elevate the discussion on the importance of historic preservation. Ena Heller, the Bruce A. Beal Director of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, will be the judge and will award the top three cash prizes.  There will also be a ‘People’s Choice’ award determined by the votes of viewers.

A Special Community Celebration will be held on Saturday, January 10 from 1-3pm with lots of fun free kids’ activities, including crafts, story-telling and music, a ‘scavenger hunt’ quiz to encourage interaction with art, snacks and more!

9:30pm to 11:30pm. Get a drink or dinner. Son Flamenco. Ceviche Tapas Orlando, 125 W Church St, Orlando, FL. Weekly Flamenco performances.

Sunday January 11, 2015

Noon to 3pm Free. Music at the Casa. Casa Feliz 656 N. Park Avenue Winter Park FL. Shannon Caine & Beautiful Music. Established in 1989.  Offering from solo musicians to ensembles with custom instrumentation. Genres include classical, jazz and dance music.

1pm to 3pm Free. Script Reading Workshop. Sleuths Mystery Dinner Show, 8267 International Drive, Orlando, FL. Read and workshop plays.

9pm to 11pm Free.  Comedy Open Mic. Austin’s Coffee, 929 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL. Free comedy show! Come out & laugh, or give it a try yourself.

We finally have marriage equality in Orlando.

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On January 6th, at midnight, the ban on same sex marriages ended in Florida. At an event called Vowed and Proud, Mayor Buddy Dyer performed a mass wedding for over 40 same sex couples on the steps of city hall. Commissioner Patty Sheehan stepped up to the mic and proudly announced that she was the first openly gay commissioner in the City Beautiful. The crowd cheered. She pointed out that it was a long hard battle to get to this day. This was a day to celebrate love. Some of the couple had been together longer than many heterosexual couples.

I found a view where I could see the mayor and the row of couples waiting to be married. One of Buddy’s security guards however considered me a menace with my sketchbook and he told me to move. Sigh, he’s just doing his job. I moved much further back to sketch the huge crowd gathered. Originally the ceremony was going to be held in the City Hall rotunda, but the event was too big to be contained inside.  The Mayor Told all the couples to face each other and they recited after him, “With this ring, I thee wed.” There was a huge cheer from the crowd when the ceremony was complete. The Orlando Gay Chorus then sang, Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

There were two sad and sullen protesters, but their hateful shouts were downed out by the celebration of love. On a radio program on my drive downtown, the protesters were given a microphone to air their views. I turned the radio off. I don’t need to hear their hate. They shouted, “Jesus is coming!” “Good” I thought, “Jesus would appreciate this celebration of love.” The tides are changing. The brightness of joy outweighed the protests of a few. Florida Family Action filed a lawsuit against Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer
in an effort to stop the ceremony, as well as others across the state, reported WKMG in Orlando. The group fought for a gay marriage ban in Florida, which was approved by voters in 2008. That ban was found to be unconstitutional. They clearly did not succeed. Wedding planners, hotels and resorts feel that Orlando could become a wedding destination for same sex couples in the deep south. January 6th was a truly historic moment in Orlando and I’m happy I was there to sketch it.

The Treat House Cafe and frozen yogurt shoppe is a cozy retreat for children and adults.

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Over the winter break, I have been teaching Urban Sketching workshops at Elite Animation Academy (8933 Conroy Windermere Road Orlando, FL). The classroom is located in a strip mall on the corner of Conroy Windermere Road and Apopka Vineland Road above a pizza shop. I have four students to start and my main objective is to get them out of the studio to sketch on location every day. Trish Eakin the owner of Treat House Cafe and frozen yogurt shoppe (8935 Conroy Windermere Road Orlando FL.) gave us a warm welcome and invited us to sketch in her shoppe which was right downstairs. She has a table set up in front where children can work on crafts projects. Trish explained, “My
dream when I built Treat House was that it would be a warm comfortable
place for students and artists to relax, study and create.”

The shoppe opened on Valentines Day in 2014, so it is a little less than a year old. Trish used to operate three locations of TCBY as a franchise.  One of those yogurt shops was right in Universal Studios. She had a staff of up to 13 people at the time to keep the shops operating. Unfortunately the shops couldn’t stay open since they couldn’t sell enough yogurt. She decided to create her own yogurt shop using her creativity and experience to come up with something new. She decorated the shoppe herself making it feel like a seaside rustic retreat. She put in the weathered woodwork and picked out furniture from antiques shops. Every choice reflects her personal rustic aesthetic. 


Trish’s Treat House is right across the street from the Chain of Lakes Middle School. When the school has it’s big pride day, she had the schools band perform on the back patio of her shoppe and 15% of all yogurt sales went to school programs. Her cozy shop allows her to feel much closer to her local community. I hope to return to sketch the next Pride Celebration.

When my class arrived, there was a family at the table and scissors and cut paper on the table made it clear that snow flakes had been created recently. Dozens of snowflakes were suspended from the ceiling. My student Ali took to sketching the shoppe with gusto. Steve, an Elite instructor sketched the vintage Coke machine giving it a forced perspective to make it look immense and ominous. On the first day we only focused on the line sketch and then on the second day, we used color on the same sketch. Trish worked behind the counter, likely crunching end of the year numbers. She later had to work on one of the yogurt machines, taking it apart and replacing what looked like the mixing blades. Since she is the only person in the shoppe, she has to be a Jack of all trades. Support local entrepreneurs, operating a small local shop is a challenge when huge chains undercut prices.

When our sketches were done, Trish took pictures of us all holding our work.

Eugine Snoden performed at the Maitland Art Center.

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On September 12th, Eugine Snoden performed at the Maitland Art Center for their monthly “Culture Pop” music series. I went to the art center right after work, so I arrived early. The arts building had just been renovated and expanded. The band arrived and started loading in their equipment. Once all the mics were in place, one of the band members plugged in an amplifier and suddenly all the lights went out. A Maitland Arts Center staff member tried flipping the fuse box switch but that didn’t work. It was dusk and getting dark fast. I couldn’t see my sketch page.

Guests who arrived informed us that the lights were out all over Maitland. I recalled that on the drive to the event, I had passed utility workers working on a power pole about a mile away. The work had caused a major bottle neck on the drive north. Being a consummate performer, Eugine decided that the show must go on. The band brought a few chairs outside and they began to perform an acoustic set.  The audience sat in the grass and on the steps.  There wag a romance in listening to the music under the huge live oak trees covered in hanging moss.

After a few songs, the lights flickered back on. I quickly returned to my seat to continue the sketch I had started. Eugine is an amazing performer. He acts as a ring master inviting other performers to join him at any time. His music is soulful and verges on being a religious experience. He invited violinist Beth Black to join in for several songs and her music blended beautifully into the mix. If you ever have a chance to see Eugine Snoden perform you must jump at the chance.

Animation has lost veteran animator and teacher Larry Lauria.

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On a quiet Sunday to escape a barrage of football games on TV, I went through my phone sites that were bookmarked to thin down the list. I clicked on Animation World Network and was surprised to see a sketch from my former co-worker, Larry Lauria. The article, dated December 3, 2014 was titled “In tribute to my good friend Larry Lauria.” I read on, pleased that Larry was getting some much deserved attention. By the second sentence a numb realization dawned on me. The author was referring to Larry in the past tense. Larry, my friend and colleague had died. How had I missed this? Am I so self absorbed in creating sketches, that I would loose sight of friends leaving this world? Of all the billions of articles online, how had I come across this one article?  I couldn’t be real. Just a few months ago, Larry had taken part in a group that did a sketch every day and shared those sketches online. Larry was always open to embracing a new creative challenge. I went to his Facebook page in disbelief and found other loving tributes.

The sketch above, shows Larry in a typical pose as he hunched over a drawing in class. He would teach students by example, often having fun animating a scene to see how far he could push the assignment. He loved showing students how to construct characters using simple shapes.  When he found out about my sketch a day work ethic, he quickly embraced cafe drawings into his daily routine. He loved to go to coffee shops where he could relax to sketch and do thumbnails for scenes he was going to work on. While teaching the traditional animation class at Full Sail, he managed to storyboard and animate an entire Salty Dog animated short. His dedication and excitement to the medium of animation was contagious.

Larry and his family traveled to Dublin Ireland where he became the Course Coordinator and an Instructor at
the European School of Animation, one of the top
three animation programs in the world.  He had students create an animated film that transcended the differences between North and south Ireland. The film was a crowning achievement. Lauria went on to become the head of animation at the Disney Institute in Orlando, FL.  As Disney began lay offs, Larry was saddened to have to let go the talented people he had hired. It was one of the most difficult things he had to do.

On the last day of each months animation class, Larry would often call up animation veterans to give the students a behind the scenes view of the productions they worked on. Larry was never shy about asking advice from animation veterans. When he moved to California he looked in a phone book to find Ward Kimball one of Disney’s revered nine old men. In the nervous moment when he introduced himself, Larry stammered, “Hi, this is Ward Kimbal.” Ward responded, “No, I’m Ward Kimball.” The blunder resulted in laughter on both ends of the line. Ward invited Larry over to his studio and Larry was able to ask any question he wanted of the animation legend.

Larry always said that all of his career moves were tempered by his family’s needs. He was blessed that his wife and family always wanted to be a part of the adventure. Larry’s son Matt has found success working as an actor in Hollywood films and stage productions. Larry loved to share the air times of any program like Parenthood, that his son was starring in. It made sense that his son would be inspired to follow in his father’s footsteps to embrace the entertainment industry. Larry was just as enthusiastic when he introduced me to his daughter at an outdoor concert in Winter Garden.

Larry founded an animation studio in Washington DC because there weren’t any studios there. When he moved to Orlando he realized there wasn’t an animation festival there. Rather than accept those limits, he felt the need to found an animated festival. When students expressed an interest in having a traditional animation club, Larry talked to school administrators about getting the club started. Larry instilled in me an excitement about getting a chance to experience large animation festivals like the one in Annecy France. He truly loved the medium of animation and he shared that love. He left a mark on every student and he has inspired me to want to be a better artist. Though I find his passing hard to accept, I’ll always miss his  humor and excitement about a medium in which anything is possible.

Lottery tickets at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Certer.

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There are affordable tickets to the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center. Brian Feldman a performance artist who now resides in Washington DC, returned to Orlando to surprise his parents this holiday season. The family decided to see “The Book of Mormon“. At 5:30pm there is a lottery for $25 tickets to the show. The Feldman family was at the front of the line. Names were taken and placed in one of those rotating lottery ticket cages. Perhaps 30 people stood in line.

A group of teens were playing, “Name that Sondheim Show”.  The MC knew all the shows, but her friends were Steven Sondheim illiterate. I felt like I should shout out the answers but I kept to myself. She tried to explain “Sunday in the Park with George“. “Its difficult to explain, the whole show is about this large painting of people in a park.” she explained. At 6pm the first names were drawn. Everyone crowded around the announcer hoping their name would be next. When a name was called out there would be gleeful cheers and clapping. The last name called only got a few disappointed claps. The lottery losers dispersed. None of the Feldman’s won the lottery.

Brian had wandered off to find a cash machine because lottery tickets could only be paid for with cold hard cash. I never did see him that night. His Mom, Marilyn, was in the box office in a bit of a panic. She didn’t have cash and so she couldn’t purchase fer full price ticket.  A friend offered to pay for her. Since so few people know about this lottery, your chances of winning are pretty good. As I hiked back to my car, I over heard a couple who had lost the lottery but had been offered winning tickets from another group that had won to many times.

Eric Schlosser spoke about his new book Command and Control at Rollins College.

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Eric Schlosser‘s new book, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety is about the insanity of keeping a nuclear arsenal. He began research on the book after hearing horror stories from enlisted men who are tasked with maintaining these aging nuclear weapons. Many documents have recently been declasifIed, making research possible. He told a story about a simple maintenance worker in a launch silo who was tightening a bolt and accidentally dropped his wrench. It clamored downward and just missed hitting a device which would have caused the bomb to explode.

The nuclear bombs that exploded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were apparently very inefficient devices. Only 30% of the uranium was part of the nuclear fission used in the blast. The rest of the uranium was just dissipated by the explosions. Had these bombs been better designed, the devastation of the blast would have been much greater. I didn’t realize that an atomic bomb is designed to explode in the air just before impact. This means that none of the blasts downward percussive force was wasted.

The arms race resulted in countries hoarding as many weapons of mass destruction as possible. There is something known as the Titanic Effect. Basically every machine eventually fails which is why we need to buy new cars or build new planes. No matter how many safe guards there are, a device will fail because of aging outdated components, or human error. If you have ever driven on the roads in Florida then you know that humans can’t be trusted to use machines with safety in mind. A recent airplane crash wasn’t caused by pilot error or the engine failing, instead the crash was caused by the seat back entertainment system failing and causing a fire. An airplane was used to transport a nuclear warhead from one storage facility to another. The plane crashed in the Carolinas and thankfully the bomb didn’t explode. A huge disaster was narrowly averted. Luck only lasts so long.  The bulk of our nuclear arsenal is using outdated technology from the 60’s and 70’s.

When the first nuclear bomb was exploded as a test, the scientist weren’t sure if it might burn away the entire atmosphere leaving a dead planet. Thankfully that didn’t happen but the incessant testing through the years has littered the atmosphere with harmful radiation that will last for centuries. Our need for bigger bombs as security is slowly killing us all. The Russians have created the largest bomb to date, the Tsar Bomba, with a 100 Mega Ton yield. If that puppy were to detonate above Disney World, the air blast radius would go as far north as Mount Dora and as far west as Bithlo. At 5 psi overpressure, most residential buildings
would collapse, injuries would be universal, and fatalities widespread. Of course the radio active fallout would drift further killing many more. Oh, Happy New Year!

Weekend Top 6 Picks for January 3rd and 4th.

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Saturday January 3, 2014

9am to 3pm Free. Orlando Elks Vintage Faire. Elk Lodge 1079 12 N Primrose Drive Orlando FL. Imagine the vintage and antique items to be found.

10am to 3pm Enrollment required. Urban Sketching Workshops. Elite Animation Academy, 8933

Conroy Windermere Road, Orlando, FL. On the second floor of a shopping complex above a Pizza Shop. All this week (Mon 12/29 to Friday Jan 9 with no workshop Jan 1)  I am teaching Urban Sketching Workshops for middle school and high school students, however any age and skill level is encouraged to join us. Contact Elite Animation for details. 407 459-7959

10am to 5pm Free. New Year First Friday and Saturday at FAVO. Faith Arts Village Orlando 221 E Colonial Dr, Orlando, Fl. Art Show and Market.

Sunday January 4, 2014

10am to 3pm Urban sketching Workshop. (See above.)

1pm to 3pm Free. Yoga. Lake Eola Park, 195 N Rosalind Ave, Orlando, FL. East side of the park near the red pagoda. Weekly. Bring a mat.

9pm to 11pm Free.  Comedy Open Mic. Austin’s Coffee, 929 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL. Free comedy show! Come out & laugh, or give it a try yourself.

Voci Dance presented Whisper-Roar at the Orange Studio.

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On September 5th and 6th Voci Dance presented Whisper-Roar at The Orange Studio, 1121 N Mills Ave, Orlando, Fl. V Whisper/Roar was two collaborative evenings of modern dance, music,film, costume couture and installation art. The collaborators were Voci Dance, DJ Nigel John, Tamara Marke. 

Admission: was $15 at the door.

Wine was available as well as lite bites from Happy Chow.

The most unique feature of the space was a huge sculpture that consisted of wooden slats that were all interconnected by bolts. This sculpture by artist Mario Shambon looked like it was articulated. Had any section moved, it would affect every other section. Yellow florescent lights were also suspended throughout the space. I arrived early when the dancers were just warming up. A black and white video was projected on the far wall. In the video the dancers stood in a line, erect like soldiers.

The audience became an integral part of the space as they filtered in. Dancers might coach a few people to move forward but in general there was no set stage that separated the audience from the dance. Several free standing doors were also set pieces for one of the dances. My favorite dance number involved one dancer, Leah Marke, shedding multiple layers of robes and light frilly fabric covered with words. A bold spotlight illuminated her from the side. It was as if she were shedding layers of judgement or self criticism. An aluminum staircase on wheels was rolled in slowly by a procession of dancers. The dance ended with her ascension to the top of the stairs and then the room blacked out.

While sketching I felt like I was trying to capture fleeting gestures against a stark industrial setting. The strong verticals implied in the black and white video strengthened that premise.