Gator’s Dockside

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Terry and I went to Gator’s Dockside, (5142 Dr. Phillips Blvd. Orlando, FL), to watch the football Playoffs with the San Francisco 49ers playing the Atlanta Braves. Surprisingly the place wasn’t very crowded. As the game went on more people gradually filtered in. The guy at the table next to us watched the game alone and he argued with Terry about certain calls the referees made. Very late in the game, his wife and children joined him. Don’t ask me who won the game, I wasn’t facing the large flat screen TVs.

The guy at the table in front of us had an iPad still in its cardboard box. I guess he never takes it out to protect it from harm. He checked the iPad constantly throughout the game. Maybe there is a game statistics site that updates as the game is happening.  His girlfriend was busy talking to friends on her phone. I did my best to avoid catching any one’s gaze as I sketched them. The second you catch someones gaze, they consider that an invitation to see what you are up to and your clandestine cover is blown.

I ordered a Tail Gate Burger and it was so big I couldn’t open my jaw wide enough to take a bite of it. I ended up eating half of it using a knife and fork. The waitress kept me well stocked with Mountain Dew. Whenever there was an uproar I would glance at the TV screen. There was a moment when a players knee gave out and his leg twisted with horrific torque. It was played back repeatedly in slow motion. It was horrible to watch, but obviously I did watch when I could have been sketching. Today is the Super Bowl. I don’t know who is playing but I’ll be there to sketch and watch the commercials.

I just came back from the supermarket where I found out that the Ravens are playing the 49ers based  on all the helium balloons in the produce section.  I’ll be rooting for the 49ers since I like their red and gold uniforms. As a kid I used to get a mini NFL helmet from a gumball machine every Sunday and I always liked the 49ers helmet logo. Mark my words, they can’t lose.

Star Lite Film Festival

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The Star Lite Film Festival, now at the Winter Garden Theatre (160 West Plant Street • Winter Garden, FL), features independent films produced for less than $200,000. Film maker and Festival organizer, Michael Poley invited me to the opening night kick off reception on Thursday January 31st. I got there a bit early, so after I picked up my lanyard, I went next door where Kelly DeWayne Richards was playing piano. The place was called Pillars and it was the opening night. Blue neon laced its way along the curvaceous bar and large stage lights were set up behind the piano. I really wanted to draw but there wasn’t enough time.

A red carpet lead into the reception room. A photographer took shots of people as they arrived in front of the Star Lite poster.  The round tables has tiny golden Oscars, pop corn and incredibly small cards with the schedule printed on them.  The type was an infinitesimal two points in size which made it near impossible to read with the naked eye. Small magnifying glasses were there but the plastic lens distorted the view more than it magnified. Film makers and patrons arrived and soon the room was buzzing with conversation.

At 8pm, Robin Cowie, the producer of the “Blair Witch Project“, will introduce the festival as well as a micro budget film that his company, Haxan, produced called “Midnight Son“, a successful Micro budget Film that received distribution. “Midnight Son” cost $50,000 to shoot and when everything was wrapped, it cost $149,000 in total. Ed Sanchez another Blair Witch contributor was the writer. The film featured a ravenous artist who couldn’t satisfy his hunger. Skin on his arm was horribly burnt from being exposed to sunlight. His night security guard job kept him from ever seeing sun light. He finally realizes that the only thing that could satisfy his hunger was blood. He meets a girl who is addicted to coke but his addiction to blood is kept secret. Every time they get close to intimacy, his blood lust gets in the way. You are left wondering the whole time whether he is a vampire or just anemic. He never gains any supernatural strength or powers, he is just an addict who needs his next blood fix. It sucks to be a vampire.

After the film, Robin took questions from the audience. When asked what he looks for in micro budget films, he responded that he looks for scripts with audacity, he likes writers that take risks, doing something unexpected. More than anything he likes to be surprised. He feels that the new global digital world makes it easier for a film maker to find his audience.

Today, February 2nd, is the third and final day of the festival. There is a full day of films being screened and panel discussions. Go check out some films. Individual tickets are $5-$7.

11:30am  The Racket Boys

1:30pm    Social Media Panel

2:30pm   The Spacewalk

4:30pm   2xUno

6:15pm   Equipment Panel

7:30pm   Waterhole Cove

9:30pm   Less Loss

11:15pm  Awards Ceremony

Miller’s Field

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Terry wanted to go to a sports bar to watch the payoff games. We decided to go to Miller’s Field (7958 Via Dellagio Way Ste 10 Orlando). The Redskins were playing the Seahawks. If you are a football fan then you know who won. If you are a bystander, like me then you don’t really care. As I recall it was a close game with an incredible drive in the final minutes of the game. Banks of flat screen TVs covered every wall of the bar. Terry and I ordered burgers and beer and I settled in to sketch. I would glance up at the TV screens whenever there was an uproar. This place actually has purse hooks at every spot at the bar.

Before I was completely finished with the sketch, the restaurant manager, Craig Miller, informed Terry and I that we would have to move. A large group from Lincoln Financial was going to take over the room. We were pushed aside to a side table and I grudgingly abandoned the sketch. Terry let the manager know that it wasn’t a good practice to push aside paying costumers.  I simply will never go back. Eventually, the financial crowd did show up filling the room. At the end of the game when we got our bill, the manager did take the cost of the drinks off the bill so he did try and make things right. The next weekend Terry and I went out to watch the play off games again. We didn’t return to Miller’s Field.

Monday Night Jazz at Taste

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I have been working a late shift at Full Sail from 5PM to 9PM. That means I’ve had to search for events that go late into the evening. Jazz at Taste (717West Smith Street in College Park) fits the bill. Danny Grudal, Chris Muda and Michael Wells started a set when I arrived. I ordered some crispy tater tots, a beer and got to work. Different musicians joined in for different jams. A saxophone player I had met at Terrace 390’s Jazz event said hello.

This is a great way to relax after a hectic day. Soloists would take the music and improvise their own riff on top of it. When a performer got lost in the moment, the audience at the bar and tables would root him on with laughter, clapping and shouts. It is quite addictive. I nodded my head to the beat and tapped my foot as I sketched. I tried to let the lines flow unhindered.

These Jazz sets happen every Monday Night from about 9PM to 11PM. There is no cover.

Tenth Annual Grandma Party Bazaar

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On December 16th, I went to Stardust Video and Coffee (1842 E. Winter Park Road, Orlando) to sketch the tenth annual Grandma Party Bazaar. The Grandma Party is a fusion of arts, crafts, rummage sale and performance. Tents were set up everywhere in the Stardust parking lot. The Death by Pop-Up Shop was open, so I stopped in to look at the art. Several artist were at work inside the store. Christie Miga was talking to Skip who was pealing up a mask from his painting.

Doug Rhodehamel had built a bright green and blue “Free Hug” booth out of a large corrugated box.  I got my hug and then we talked art for a while before I scouted out a spot to sketch. Dough has had an amazing number of gallery showings in the last few years. He wants to try something bigger with his art. He is one of the contributing artists in the upcoming “Cardboard Festival” happening January 25-27 at Say It Loud (1121 North Mills Avenue). Work by Jessica Earley, Brendan O’Connor, Christie Miga, Adriaan Mol, and Nathan Selikoff will also be featured.

I never caught the name of the band I was sketching. As I worked, I heard the strange surreal sound of a Sci-Fi zither. A couple was lying in the grass and they were both covered with a wedding veil. The were both holding dolls and a woman waved a wand above them. A cardboard sign announced that this was a non-surgical vasectomy station. I wondered if I was seated too close. I might catch some stray radiation from the home brew procedure. Everyone was smiling, laughing and taking pictures, so the vasectomy seemed painless enough. If the procedure didn’t work, it might be hard to find these snake charmers nine months down the road.

DRIP Sold Out Performances

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There was a performance of Drip on founder Jessica Mariko‘s birthday. Appropriately this was the first sold out performance. There was a waiting list of people who hoped to get in. The Drip venue is located in a dark warehouse and you enter via the loading dock (8747 International Dr. Suite 102, Orlando, Fl 32819, behind Denny’s and Senor Frogs). The place used to be an indoor miniature golf course but now it is one of the hippest spots in Orlando. January 5, 12, 18, and 19th’s shows were all sold out. A second show is being added on January 26th to accommodate the crowds.

This performance was so crowded, that I had to stand on my artist stool to see well enough to keep on sketching. This isn’t a passive show to sit and watch. The audience stands on either side of the huge warehouse interior and at times is involved by lobbing water balloons at dancers and at each other. The hip energetic dance has a story line that anyone can relate to. A hot romance ignites with a male dancer, Marcus Alexander Cartier, throwing blue sand and the female dancer, Jessie Sander, throwing yellow sand. Together their colors unite becoming green. The romance sours when the male dancer cheats on his partner. Jessie wakes up in her loft bed alone. She finds evidence that Marcus is cheating when blue jeans shower down red sand. With strobe lights freezing her frenzied anger, she rips apart her closet sending clothes down into the audience. At the same time Marcus and another sexy dancer perform a flaming, evocative and passionate dance. In a daze Jessie wanders through the crowd with a video camera and spot light following her. She stopped below me and suddenly a milky water balloon exploded next to my head soaking the sketch.

DRIP is an in-your-face explosion of color and movement backed by a live
rock band, all in an industrial dive bar. You may get wet … you may get
messy … you WILL have an awesome time. Grab a colored beer (orange,
yellow, red or blue!) or glass of wine from our bar and let us assault
your senses. There are special Valentines performances February 13-16. If you are looking for a way to impress your date on Valentine’s day, get to Drip for an interactive evening that includes a four-course dinner-by-color, where
each course is served in a special hue (orange, blue, yellow and red),
make-your-own Valentine station, full DRIP performance with live band and dancers who perform in paint, water, and colored sand, a white DRIP T-shirt for you to wear and take home as a splattered souvenir and a dessert party
with live acoustic music by Lance Herring and other musicians. Tickets
are $65-$90 per person and are limited to 100 people per night.

FAVO

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Faith Arts Village Orlando (FAVO) is an outreach ministry of Park Lake Presbyterian Church. Will Benton is in charge of helping renovate the motel which hosts artists who exhibit their work once a month. The mission of FAVO is to encourage art as an expression of faith. On January 4th, I visited to see which artists were exhibiting their work. The motel is located across the street from Park Lake Presbyterian church and is right off Colonial Drive. I discovered a parking lot quite by mistake.

Unfortunately it was raining continuously that evening. The January 4th Event focused on a New Year featuring local Orlando Art,
The FAVO Market and the soft opening of the new FAVO Gallery. This
Gallery will present all original works from local artists. All sales
from this Gallery will benefit the renovations of the property to meet City Requirements. Adequate sprinkler systems need to be installed and ramps built so the complex is accessible to anyone in a wheel chair. 19 Studios were open with Local Juried Artists showing their work.

There were several Food Trucks parked behind the motel with their generators buzzing loudly. The event was lightly attended, but the motel rooms glowed bright as the sky grew dark. Photographer Gail Peck introduced me to the work of a British Urban Sketcher whose work she felt I should see. He wrote a book called, London You’re Beautiful. Renee Wilson was showing pieces that were rendered with words. There was an image of a raven that was composed using the words from an Edgar Allen Poe poem. She does commissions where she interviews a person and then does a drawing using words from that person’s story to create the image. Bonnie Sprung was set up in the motel room closest to the food trucks.

A minister stood in an artists studio looking at the work. The artist asked him if he could bless her work since she believed in that sort of thing. I didn’t stay for the blessing. I searched for a spot out of the rain and I did a quick sketch. Mist from the rain kept moistening the page. Seth Kubersky and Donna Dowless said hello as I struggled with the sketch. The FAVO Gallery will be having it’s Grand Opening on February 1st at 5PM.

Cardboard Art Festival

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Mark Baratelli of TheDailyCity.com came up with the idea of having a Cardboard Art Festival. The opening night was Friday January 25th at the Orange Studio (1121 N Mills Ave, Orlando). I had to work till 9PM that evening, so I wasn’t even planning to go. Terry sent me a text photo of the new Dog Powered Robot techno beach buggy. She let me know that the event was open past midnight so there would be time to get there and do a sketch.  There was a line of people out the door to get in. I could see strips of Doug Rhodehamel corrugated cardboard bacon hanging from the ceiling. All of the Dog Powered Robots stood, deactivated in a corner.

The opening reception featured music and dancing with DJ Nigel and tons of cardboard sculptures filling up the space created by artists: Jessica Earley, Brendan O’Connor, Evan and Christie Miga, Adriaan Mol, Doug Rhodehamel, Nathan Selikoff. Cardboard dinosaur helmets lined the back wall created by Banjo Bob. They were just the right height where you could stand up and have your photo taken with the helmet on yet still mounted on the wall. Blue Moon beer was being served under the bacon strips and the carpeted dance floor was always full of dancers. After making the rounds with Terry, I settled in to sketch. Blue submarines and ferocious deep sea fish hovered over the dance floor. A rocket garden thrust vertically upward above a collection of mini robots. A tubular instrument resembling a pipe organ could be played by swatting the tube openings with cardboard fly swatters. A ten foot tall tube marionette stood with a tetrahedron head. People could pull chords to make him dance. I got plenty of abuse and by the end of the evening he was lying on the floor, a spent mess.

The opening night was an undeniable blow out success. The place was surreal, the music loud and the dancing furious and care free. It’s not too late to experience the madness in person.


Sunday January 27

  • 10am-11:30am for kids 7 and under
  • 12pm-1:00pm for kids 8 and above
  • Kids Matinee Sponsored and hosted by Kids Fringe and Mennello Museum of American Art $1
    admission. Kids only! Attendees will get to (1) use cardboard to build
    and decorate their very own mask, hat, or wings, (2) meet the famed Dog
    Powered Robot and (3) get a chance to tour the entire exhibit.
  • 7:30pm – 12am
  • Dog Powered Robot + Andy Matchett and the Minks, $5 admission (pay at the door, cash only), wine and beer by donation. Dog Powered Robot is a fantastic group of cardboard robots defending the world against evil via a robot powered by a Pomeranian. Andy Matchett and the Minks is a very popular and fun musical group.

Chang and Tchaikovsky

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I went to a rehearsal of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre. All the doors of the Art Centre were locked except the stage door which was the last one I tried. Guest conductor, Alasdair Neale, already had the orchestra hard at work. All the instrument cases were lying out on folding tables in the wings. I sat at the end of a table next to a huge cello case. Fearing I might knock the case over while sketching, I moved my chair away a bit. Sarah Chang, the solo violinist, never performed while I worked on the sketch. The security guard stopped and looked over my shoulder when I was first blocking in the sketch. I stiffened thinking he would insist I move out into the public seating. He lost interest and moved away.

The brooding emotional drama of the Fifth Symphony is classic Tchaikovsky. Rossini’s genius for melody and comedy permeates his popular Semiramide Overture. For pure American lyricism, no work outshines Barber’s Violin Concerto, performed by the incomparable Sarah Chang. I was impressed by several really gorgeous horn section solos. Periodically the conductor stopped the orchestra to go over subtle diction and tone he wanted emphasized.

The orchestra took a break just as I started adding color to the sketch. I was amazed at how many times I was asked to add more hair to player’s manes. By the time everyone was back in place, I had all the large washes defining the stage in place. I added washes to the players as they started to perform again.

There is a performance tonight, Saturday January 26 at 8 pm and another performance Sunday January 27th at 3 pm at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre.

Collide-Scope

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Individuals from various backgrounds collide to confront a community challenge in this signature bi-monthly event at Urban Rethink (625 E Central Blvd • Orlando, FL). Anna McCambridge Thomas started these creative, think outside the box community awareness sessions. I attended the December 10th session. The ten or so individuals sat in a circle to share ideas. In the past, small teams were set up to consider creative solutions to our community’s problems. Unfortunately, there were some clashes of will among participants in one team, so adjustments to the format had to be made moving forward. This session was an open discussion for all that showed up.

 Each challenge will address an issue that is mainly social in nature,
and will focus on our community, but can be adjusted to a broader (even
global) scope in its presentation. The challenge will be announced at
the beginning of each corresponding event. These events are not meant to
solve issues within one week’s time, but to open an interesting,
informed, creative and honest dialogue. It is also meant to promote a
more healthy, vibrant and livable community, and to bring together
people who might not have otherwise met or collaborated. (This includes
both the selected participants and the individuals who join in as
audience members.) Perhaps a spark will ignite in the mind of a visitor
who will help to continue the project, or create something new based on
an idea within it.

One group was assigned the task of considering the homeless problem. They noted that many homeless in Orlando still have cell phones. They came up with the notion of assigning a homeless person a QR code. The homeless person could ask a passer by to scan the QR code and an information page would inform the person on how to donate to a food pantry. Terry Olson talked about an Urban Artist who did a mural under a highway overpass. I didn’t see the art, but it apparently livened up an otherwise dreary area. The city deemed the art to be graffiti and they did a sloppy white wash over it. Now the overpass is more dismal than ever. Terry is looking into ways to make it easier for artists to get permits for public art. Utility boxes are being painted by artists. The artists are only given $100 for supplies and that is their sole commission for the job. It is no wonder that many of those decorated boxes look like they were painted by amateurs. One box on Mills Avenue near the Orange Studio does make me laugh, it reads… “The end was here!”