Fiddler’s Green Rush Hour

Posted on by Thor

I decided To go to Fiddler’s Green on the Day after Saint Patrick’s Day. The outdoor beer garden was still set up in the parking lot but otherwise the scene was oddly serene. There was a steady stream of patrons walking in the front door from the parking lot. This pub is located on a very busy intersection so more often than not a bus or car was blocking my view but I chose to keep my eye moving around the scene sketching whatever could be seen at any given time. I was leaning up against a metal pole for some store signage and every time the wind blew, the pole would lurch causing me to be shoved from side to side. This might explain why the line work is a bit looser in this sketch. Shamrocks still were hanging everywhere, and green remained the color of the day. It turns out that there is a Sonny’s Barbecue right across the street and boy did it smell good. I suspect I will be back.

A Pint and Some Music?

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This group was playing when I walked in to Fiddler’s Green. The place wasn’t to crowded yet and happy hour had just begun. They had a warm sound and I quickly got to work, however they only played one song. As a matter of fact I had to draw the guy closest to the window as he was taking his guitar off to put it in the case. I stubbornly kept sketching, filling in details by peeking at the group as they sipped drinks over in a corner table. I never even caught the name of the group. I was surprised that the entire time I was working on this sketch, no one asked me if I wanted a beer. In this economy you would think they would be pushing beers a bit harder than that. I gave the waitress a decent tip anyway since I ordered a beer when I moved closer to the bar and I got decent sketches out of the evening.

Fiddler’s Green

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For Saint Patrick’s Day I went to the most Irish bar in town, Fiddler’s Green. I ordered a cup of Guinness and sat back and watched the patrons. The couple right in front of me were very much in love. He never stopped touching her. Most of the time he had his hand on her knee as they spoke and sometimes he ran his hand through her hair and they would often hug and kiss. Other patrons were more focused on the soccer game on the televisions. But as an artist I was happy to record the public display of affection being exhibited in the center of the bar.
I struggled to see into the darks of the dimly lit interior. Toward the end of the drawing I started taking longer sips of liquid courage as I pushed the watercolor closer to pure blacks. When the loving couple got up to leave, I was surprised to find out that the man was on crutches. I hadn’t noticed the crutches once while I was sketching, he had hidden them well under the bar. I was left wondering what had happened to his leg, was it a sports accident? Had be been involved in a fender bender on Interstate 4? Oh well, I may never know.
“Wrap me up in my oil skin and blanket,
No more ’round the docks, I’ll be seen,
Just tell me olde shipmates,
I’m takin a trip mates,
and I’ll see ya some day in Fiddler’s Green”

Recorders trio

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Terry invited over Melissa and Roger to play recorder music with. This time rather than sit right next to the performers, I sat back in the living room relaxing on the couch. Zorro our cockatoo seems to enjoy listening to the music as well since he remained quiet and attentive. Later Melissa pulled out her viola and then the sound of the trio became truly sublime.

After the rehearsal we all sat down to a dinner of shrimp and orzo. The conversation of course turned to the economy and every one’s hope that they could live life day to day without having to worry about tomorrow. We all recognize that we might have to cut back in order to get by, but simple pleasures like music and art do not really cost that much to create.

The Tiffany Chapel

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In 1893 Louis Comfort Tiffany designed and exhibited this Byzantine inspired chapel at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exhibition. Men would take off there top hats in respect. The chapel was hailed as a virtuoso performance of the arts of mosaic and glass. Hanging from the ceiling is a large cross shaped electrolier which made use of the latest technology of the time, the electric light bulb.
After the Chicago Exhibition the chapel was bought by Mrs Celia Whipple for The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York. It was installed in a dark crypt and used as an actual chapel for about 10 years but was then abandoned and left to deteriorate. Tiffany, upset about the condition of the chapel arranged to reacquire the remaining parts and bring them to his Long Island Estate, Laurelton Hall. Tiffany then lovingly restored the chapel and replaced the lost and stolen parts. When Tiffany died in 1933 his estate was scattered to the winds. In 1957 the Laurelton Hall estate burned to the ground. Luckily the chapel was in a separate building but it once again fell into disrepair.
After the fire Jeanette McKean the Morse Museum founder, and her husband Hugh McKean visited the hall and bought all they could to Winter Park Florida. Some callous moving men threw furniture and a used tire on top of the chapel parts assuming they were hauling junk. Once in the Museum the chapel was once again lovingly restored over a three year period. Tiffany viewed the chapel as “a temple of art, not of worship.”
While I sketched the chapel, a woman tried to take a picture with her cell phone. A guard quickly appeared and shouted that no pictures were allowed. As he walked past me he said “Sketches are fine buddy, you have the right idea”.

The Blogger gets Blogged

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Tom Burton from the Orlando Sentinel called and asked me if he could do a video interview for the online division of the local newspaper. It seems a British artist showed him my blog and he considers it news worthy. I thought I would be nervous in front of the camera but Tom had a friendly unassuming manner that lead me to open up and discuss the project in extensive detail. The fact that the he was a photojournalist also made it easy since I knew I was talking to a kindred spirit.
While setting up for the interview I had to wear a wireless mic. That mic for what ever reason kept failing. In the drawing Tom is once again looking at the wireless mic and resetting it’s channels. This technological glitch gave me just enough time to sketch the situation as it unfolded. It is sort of like sketching the dentist just before he pulls a tooth. Tom would ask a question and then had a way of sort of receding into the background becoming the proverbial fly on the wallpaper. He would only interject another question once my thoughts had run there full course. I had a great time. I will post a link once I know the video is edited and online.
Post Script: Now for something completely different, Ambienthinker has offered important comparative breaking news about Picasso and a bicycle race.

Legally Blonde Cast

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I like totally got to meet the cast of Legally Blonde The Musical along with 80 other 13 year old aspiring actresses and stage moms wearing hot pink and sequins. The event was hosted by Barnes and Noble and it was a smash hit.
Becky Gulvig plays Elle Woods in the play. She went to a casting call right out of high school with thousands of other girls and was picked to be the understudy for Laura Bell Bundy in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde. She admits her life was tuned upside down. The other cast members wanted to stress the landing such a dream job on the first try isn’t par for the course as an actor. Most actors must go to hundreds of auditions and live in quiet desperation until they land a part. Several other members of the cast are runners up from an MTV Reality show “The Search for Elle Woods”. I was particularly impressed with the story of the bulldog Nellie who plays Rufus in the play. Nellie was discovered in a dog shelter in Hoboken and was found to be a true ham. From rags to riches, she now finds herself touring the country with a talented band of actors. Nellie was on hand and let out a loud bark once in a while to express her opinion.
I must admit Legally Blonde is a guilty pleasure. Gulsvig says every one can learn from the character of Elle. “If you stay true to yourself and work very hard you can get what you want. You just can’t let other people’s judgements about you – get you down.”

Jack Kerouac’s Birthday

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Jack Kerouac was born March 12th, 1922. Were he alive today he would be 89 years old. He died at the age of 47 which is how old I am today. In his memory I went to the house where his sister Nin lived through the late 1950’s at 1219 Yates Street in College Park. Jack often came to stay starting in 1954 for varying lengths of time. When he was here in 1956 “On the Road” was about to be accepted by Viking Press for publication. Jack then rented rooms in a house for himself and his mother around the corner on Clouser Avenue. He soon shipped out to Tangier.
Ed White suggested to Kerouac that he sketch the streets like a painter but with words. Kerouac filled 15 pocket sized notebooks with “sketch poems”. After completing “On the Road” Jack sat down at his typewriter and wrote the manuscript that came to be known as “Book of Sketches”. As an artist who has also taken to the streets I identify with that endeavor.
This house sits in an old quiet neighborhood. Weeds sprout up between the sidewalks and curbs are broken and worn with age. Children are at play everywhere. Three girls next door ride there bikes and scream to each other until mom calls them in for dinner. A train whistle can be heard in the distance.

Do you know what this homestead,
this ranch is? — what
my statue and responsibility, in it
is? It’s a footing from which I can
be my childlike self forever.
–Kerouac

Darlyn Finch writing

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Darlyn is a former Kerouac house resident author and today lives in East Orlando. On Tuesday nights she and her fiance Brad Kuhn have a writer’s date night. They both sit at the dining room table facing each other and tap away on there respective laptops. They both have full cups of coffee as they work into the night. Darlyn who is petite in size uses two large pillows from the living room to prop herself up in the chair. When she writes alone, she works at the small antique desk seen behind her in the corner of the room. This writing duo met at the Kerouac house on September 17th which will be the date of there wedding sometime in the future. When asked how long they work on these date night sessions, Darlyn said “we generally stop when we start playing footsie under the table and begin to feel frisky.”
I bought Darlyn’s book “Red Wax Rose” prior to doing the sketch since I felt it important to know something about her work since it might influence the sketch. This book of short stories and poetry is filled with gut wrenching emotion. At times I felt a surge of joy and sorrow at the same time. She is also the hand behind an online writer’s resource called sunscribbles which offers news about Florida writers.

Words

First memory –
hearing them on
mama’s knee –
a big black book and
parroting back
sounds that turned into
meaning on the page.
Loving to learn –
learning to love words
craving the Seussian sibilant sounds
eating alliteration like fudge,
drinking poetry like cool water.

Latest memory –
words on my skin,
Shakespeare and Croce,
Kuhnsian kissing cadences,
wearing my lover like a blanket,
eating poetry for breakfast with good strong coffee.

–Darlyn Finch



							


			
			
		

		

		
		

						
										
						

	
			
				
		

			
			

				
Skycraft Surplus

								

					Posted on  by Thor				

							


			

				


The full moon rises over Skycraft as the sun sets on the opposite horizon. Skycraft is a store for the inventor, tinkerer and do it yourselfer. Inside can be found a treasure trove of parts and wiring for anything from robotics to solar panels. There is such a wide variety of wires and connectors inside that it boggles the mind. They even have telephone booths in case you happen to need one of those. I have been inside only once. I bought some tiny solar panels which I haven’t quite figured out a use for yet. That is why I stay away, I would just buy stuff because it looks cool, I can not help it, gadgets intrigue me. Gadget innards intrigue me more.


While sketching I was enveloped in a cloud that looked like snow. I caught one in my hand and I believe they were seed pods from something like a cat-o-nine tails. The wind spiraled them around and they rose into the sky.