Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill

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Wow. this production blew the white socks right off my feet. Desiree Montes stars as the venerable lady day at Theater West End (115 West 1st. Street Sanford Florida.

From the moment I entered the lobby I felt like I was in an intimate smoke filled night club.

I had seen this production once before but Desiree’s performance was the most visceral and vulnerable depictions of the singer I have witnessed. She was hesitant to start the performance but when she sang, she melted into the music. The piano player tried to keep he on the play list but she could not be boxed in. Her life was too large to follow a single line of thought.

Since this was a dress rehearsal, the audience was small but Lady Day often left the stage to mingle with the audience. Some joking interactions drew out audience members who shouted back and laughed with gusto. This was pure theater magic. During one song, a small dog could be heard howling off stage like he wanted to also sing. Later Lady Day brought he pup out to cuddle and share with the audience.

She talked of loss and the challenge of performing as a star in a racist country. When she began singing Strange Fruit, it clearly resonated with the horrors of her own life. What she most wanted from life was a home and a family she could call her own, but the life of a singer never allowed that dream to come to life.

Desiree is Lady Day. Performances are September 13 – 29, 2024. You do not want to miss this show.

Defiant Requiem

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Rafael Schächter was a talented composer but the Nazi party would not let him perform. He struggled to survive but teaching piano lessons to young pupils.

Then he got new that he was being imprisoned at a work camp called Terezin. One of the few worldly possessions he took was the score to Verdi’s Requiem.

Conditions at the camp were horrible with prisoners having to work more that 10 hours a day for the Nazi party. There was never enough food. Hope was lost. Rafael realized that music is food for the soul and he began to recruit singers to join a chorus that sang each evening in a cold damp basement. Singers entered a new reality. One survivor remembered that her stomach didn’t seem to grumble when she sang. Music was a form of rebellion against imprisonment. Human dignity was regained if only for a moment.

The Verdi Reqium is a complex choral piece to perform. Rafael  molded the amateur chorus teaching them the Latin lyrics by rote. Three times Rafael had to reconstitute the choir as members were transported to Auschwitz. Then came the moment he had hoped for. The Red Cross was being shown the prison camp by the Nazi’s. The camp was scrubbed and made to look like new. Signs were made to a library, and post office, which did not exist. Swing sets and a soccer field were added.The sick and dying were shuttered behind closed doors. The sickest were sent to Auchwitz and murdered. Had the red cross veered from the tour and opened just one door they would have witnessed unimaginable horrors.

Rafael was going to  have his choir sing directly to the Nazi officers what they could never say. The requiem is a treat against the unjust. The words are in Latin but they could be interpreted to condemn the Nazis to one day face their punishment for their crimes.” that day will dissolve the world in ashes, as David and the Sibyl prophesied. How great will be the terror, when the Judge comes who will smash everything completely!”

Half or the chorus was carted off in cattle cars to Auschwitz right before the performance. The hope was that the red cross would see the performance as defiance against the Nazi captors. The red cross only saw what the Nazis wanted them to see.

After the red cross left, the swing sets vanished as did all the children. 15,000 children lived in the work camp, of whom about 90% perished after deportation. In the following weeks the entire chorus was shipped off the Auschwitz in cattle cars. Rafael survived Auschwitz and several other concentration camps but died on a death march just months before the Nazi’s surrendered at the end of the war.

If Terazin wasn’t pure hell then it was the waiting room for hell. The prisoners were surrounded by man’s worst but they were determined to demonstrate mans best through music.

Defiant Requiem is being performed at the Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. In Steinmetz Hall 445 South Magnolia Avenue, Orlando FL.

Saturday, September 14, 2024
Show time: 7:30 p.m.
Tickets from: $49
Age advisory: Recommended age 13+

The run time for the concert is 2 hours with no intermission.

Meredith Wilson House Iowa

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The Iowa Independent Film Festival is held in two cities, Clear Lake where my film was shown and Mason City which is known as the River City in the Music Man Musical. I had spent a solid day watching films in Clear Lake on day one. My favorite film on that day was Never Not Yours which was brilliantly written. It was about three grown siblings who visited their parents at a secluded cabin. When the parents announced that they were getting divorced all hell breaks loose. It won the award as the Best Feature film and that award was well earned.

The next morning there was a complimentary breakfast at 7 Stars Family Restaurant. I had ordered breakfast here before and ate it at the lakeside hotel overlooking the lake. It was my go to place for a solid western omelet breakfast. At the breakfast, I met Casey Schaffer who directed a short student film called Brothers: A Civil War Story. One of the organizers was beaming and said it was his favorite film. I decided I need to see it so on day two I watched films in Mason City where Brothers was being shown. It was indeed an amazing film especially since it was a student film that had to be produced on a tight budget. I hope one day this is expanded to a feature film.

After the first film block, I decided I needed some air, so I wandered the neighborhood looking for the Meredith Wilson House. The house is the childhood home of the author of the Music Man. It was a beautiful day so I stood leaning against a sign pose and sketched the home. Gnats were the one distraction swarming in front of my failing eyes. My fountain pen was also choosing to not always put down lines. Periodically people would pose for selfies in front of the Music Man sculpture next door.

I also found a rally nice foot bridge that went over the river that flows through town. All the homes on this street were gorgeous Victorian homes that were meticulously renovated. After the sketch was done I returned to the theater to spend the afternoon watching more films. The theater was pitch black when I tried to slip in to watch a documentary about local legend Hob Mason who was a famous jazz pianist. My eyes didn’t adjust to the dark , so I slipped into a front row seat to watch.

Iowa Independent Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia screened of the first day of the Iowa Independent Film Festival. That evening there was a party for filmmakers at The Boulevard (1311 Bayou Road Clear Lake Iowa).

After COVID Dystopia screened I was approached by a crew of 5 filmmakers who had a music video in the festival. Their music video Infinite Battleground was about two men struggling to balance work with their passion for music. The production is as dark and sinister as my own film, so we hit it off. Director Kristopher J. Gathercoal is in my sketch holding a beer. He wasn’t actually playing pool but I put him in as the second player to fill out the scene. The drummer hooked me up to the groups Through the Darkness youtube page. One of their music videos featured a sketch of a classroom and he wanted me to check it out.

Most of the filmmakers crowded into a back room consuming flat bread and drinks while chatting. The seating arrangement made it so that you would stay with on click the whole time. Since I had to plan to eat indoors, I decided instead to sketch the music video filmmakers as they played pool. The pool table I drew had a definite slant to is so that the balls always rolled to one corner. After two games at that table they switched to the table to my right. I had to get up a couple of times to allow for clean shots. One played became unbeatable once he had a few drinks. He explained that the buzz made him focus extra hard. It was a fascinating use of beer to promote zen.

The bar owner came up to me while I was sketching to talk. He was also a graphic designer and had designed the blue and gold mural on the wall. He was quite pleased that I was sketching it. He took a few pictures as I sketched.

At the awards ceremony, the filmmakers from Infinite Battleground sat next to me in the back row. Their film was nominated for best music video and my film COVID Dystopia was nominated for best animated film. I had no expectations, but they had been at this festival multiple times before and were looking forward to their first win. I was pleased that a good chunk of the intro to my film was played. That was the most eyeballs to view my film in Iowa. I think there were about 22 people in the theater when the film first screened, but this theater was packed for the awards ceremony, so there were hundreds of eyeballs. I paused my sketching when the winner for best animated film award was about to be announced. My fountain pen snapped in half and a big blob of ink splashed on to the sketch. I got distracted and tried to clean up the mess.

Crealde Urban Sketching Class

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This is a quick sketch done of my students working on the patio behind the Crealde Urban Sketching classroom. This was a demo to show how to do a thumbnail sketch to plan out the composition of a scene.

I do these sketches with no intention of pushing them to a finish to show the early stages of planning a scene. When I work on location on my own, I tent to just jump in and do a sketch that fills the page. The early stages of one of those large sketches would also look a bit like this, with detail pushed aside to block in the big shapes. This sketch really only has one major shape and that is the students on several benches. The general shape is a backwards letter L.

This thumbnail could be pushed further if I went back in and refined shapes using my fountain pen. Instead, I spent my time working with each student to show each how to analyze and sketch their own thumbnails, based on their chosen view.

COVID Dystopia: Semi Finalist at Serbest International Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia was a Semi – Finalist at the Serbest International Film Festival. That means the jury liked the film but would not dare to show it to an audience.

The festival was to be held in Moldova which borders on Ukraine. The festival provides accommodations for film makers who make the trip to the country.

However at the last minute they sent out an e-mail informing everyone that the festival would have to be virtual this year because to the war in Ukraine. They did not want to put filmmakers lives at risk. I was excited for the virtual option since it also reduces the risks of infection in a crowded theater.

I am not adding laurels for runner up festivals. I need to focus on the festivals who will screen the film. Tonight I will be packing up to get ready to go to Iowa where I will be taking a rather insane  six hour road trip to the Iowa Independent Film festival.

Pulse: First Responder

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Yesterday I saw an article in Watermark that Barbara Poma and her husband Rosario were cleared of any wrong doing in relation to the Pulse Nightclub shooting that resulted in 49 deaths.

The shooting happened June 12, 2016 and the wounds are still raw.

This sketch was done in the office of Pam Schwartz, then the director of the Orange County History Museum. She conducted an interview with Mathew Hairs who was a first responder at Pulse after the shooting. I loved that Mathew’s pup was so attentive. Maybe an hour into the oral history the pup curled up on the floor.

Disney Feature Animation Building Demolition

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I got an unexpected shock to her that Disney is planning to demolish the Disney Feature Animation Building on the back lot of Disney;s Hollywood Studios.

I stated work in this building and the trailers in the parking lot with Lion King, Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Lilo and Stitch and Brother Bear, to name a few. It was an amazing decade and this studio produced some real gems.

Disney is planning to replace the Feature Animation building with a Monsters Inc ride. Apparently, the folks in the building were told on Friday August 16, 2024 that they will be relocated to new offices. Unfortunately Disney Executive never fully grasped the creativity that went on inside these walls. The  legacy of all the artists will probably be destroyed to make way for a roller coaster. It is kind of ironic that Roller Coaster Rabbit was also created in this building.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Final Thumbnails

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This was one set of thumbnails I did to plan out the final project animation for the internship. The assignment was to have Baloo from The Jungle Book pull something.

I had him scratch his back against a tree so  much that he caused a fire. He then ran, and pulled an elephant into the scene by the trunk to put the fire out.

This was an insanely over ambitious project involving animating two characters along with the effects animation of fire and water. I attempted it simply because I didn’t know any better. I still have the animation on a huge VHS tape that I haven’t looked at for over 30 years. I tried to convert the tape to digital a while back and they didn’t have any way to play the tape in order to convert it. The scene was pretty much a train wreck of mistakes and yet surprisingly Disney still hired me to work on animated films for the next 10 years.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Epcot Center

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Roy Disney was visiting the Florida Feature Animation Studio. I spotted him near the animation camera.

I was feeling a bit like the walking dead since I had just spent a day reworking my final project animation idea. I had Baloo scratching his back against a tree and he spontaneously burst into flames. He was extinguished by an elephant squirting water on him. After all that work however I realized I had overlooked the basic premise of the scene which was to have Baloo pull on something. I had to go back to the drawing board and start over.